Thank you all for the reviews! So glad you're enjoying it so far.

Huge thanks to the fabulous Amethystbutterflys for the beta! x

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Two Weeks To A Wedding

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"I've got six 'no's, three 'I'm busy that day's, two 'my boyfriend would kill me's, one 'how much will he pay me?' and one 'when hell freezes over'." Gwen tapped her nails idly on her desk as she contemplated her list.

A chuckle drifted down the line. "That last is Suzie, I'm guessing?"

Gwen grinned. "However did you guess?"

"I'm psychic," Tosh said, then sighed. "So not a lot of success then?"

"Not really, no," Gwen agreed with a sigh of her own, glancing up as the lift door pinged open. Her phone slipped from between fingers suddenly gone numb and she blinked. Reaching into her desk drawer for a mirror with her left hand, she picked up the fallen device with her right.

"Sorry sweetie, I've got to go," she interrupted Tosh's anxious questions and hung up, dropping her phone so she could smooth a hand through her hair.

"Why is Gwen always late when it's her round?" Owen moaned. They were back in the Blue Bull pub for their usual weekly round.

Tosh nudged him sharply in the ribs, and he glared at her. "I'm just saying!"

The technician shook her head, the glare lost on her as her eyes never left the door. "No, I mean- look."

Ianto and Owen looked, and their jaws dropped. Gwen was sashaying across the pub towards them- and she wasn't alone. In spite of her secret love for Owen, Tosh was visibly drooling as her dark eyes took in the tall dark handsome stranger walking beside her friend.

Owen smirked as the couple reached the table. "Well, well, Cooper, you finally saw sense and decided to upgrade Rhys."

Without batting an eyelid Gwen whacked him round the ear and pulled up an extra chair. "Guys, this is Jack. He just started work in my office and he doesn't know anyone in Cardiff, so I invited him along."

The stranger smiled, impossibly blue eyes twinkling as he sat down and extended a hand to them each in turn.

"Jack Harkness," he introduced himself, and the American twang made Tosh's stomach flip. She flushed, leaping up from her seat.

"I'll get the drinks in," she said hastily, and Gwen dropped her bag on the table.

"I'll help you carry," she said. "What're you having, Jack?"

"Do they do cocktails here?" the American asked.

Owen made no attempt to hide his snort. "Of course not! For one thing, this is a pub; and for another, this is Wales."

He winced as he found his ears attacked from two sides.

"For that, you can pay," Ianto decided, nimble fingers lifting Owen's wallet from his jacket pocket and tossing it to Gwen.

The doctor scowled. "Oi! I paid last week!"

Tosh grinned. "Sorry Owen, house rules. Insult Wales in front of the Welsh and you'll pay."

"Cow," Owen muttered darkly.

"Moo," Tosh retorted, much to the amusement of the newcomer, who laughed loudly.

"I'll have a Bacardi and coke thanks honey," he winked, and the technician blushed and fled for the bar.

Gwen raised an eyebrow and followed her.

"Sorry sweetie, he swings the other way," she murmured as she joined her friend, and Tosh glanced back at the table with a sigh.

"All the handsome men are gay," she quoted resignedly, and Gwen grinned.

"What about Owen?"

They caught one another's eye and burst out laughing, startling the bartender who had just placed three pints of Brains, a Bacardi and coke and a glass of white wine in front of them. Intelligent he might have been, but handsome the scrawny Londoner was not.

Hearing the laughter, Owen glanced over from the table and scowled. "Bet you they're talking about me."

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Oh, spare us the pity trip or I'll be borrowing your girlfriend for Rhi's wedding."

Owen smirked. "Can't- she's working a double shift in A&E," he retorted.

Jack blinked. "What, a gorgeous young thing like yourself doesn't have a girlfriend of your own?" he asked, winking his thanks at Tosh as she placed his Bacardi and coke in front of him.

Ianto and Gwen simultaneously winced.

"It's a long story," the Welshwoman said, wrapping a protective arm around Ianto's shoulders as she dropped into her seat.

"Summarise it," the American suggested, staring at Ianto.

The Welshman sighed. "It happened last Thursday," he started. "It was our anniversary; I took her out to dinner. I said, 'will you marry me?' and she said 'Ianto, I've been sleeping with someone else and I don't think we should see each other any more.'"

"She didn't?"

"Actually, no. She said 'I've been sleeping with someone better and I don't think we should see each other any more."

Jack winced. "Ouch."

Ianto nodded. "Yeah." He turned to Gwen hopefully. "How's the search for a date going?"

It was her turn to wince, and Ianto dropped his gaze.

"Ah," he said.

Jack looked confused. "Hang on, you asked this girl to marry you last week and you're looking for a new girlfriend already?"

Ianto looked pained. "My sister's getting married in a fortnight and Lisa's dumping me has messed up the symmetry of her wedding party. Rhiannon'll have my balls for earrings if I ruin the photos by not bringing a woman."

Jack and Owen winced. Tosh doodled the word on a beer mat and added the date, confident that it would end up in Owen's collection.

"That sounds like some bizarre and painful form of incest," Jack declared, taking a fortifying gulp of Bacardi.

Ianto raised an eyebrow and turned back to Gwen. "How many women have you tried so far?"

Yet another wince. "Seventeen," the Welshwoman confessed.

Sighing, the Welshman looked at the others in turn.

"I don't know any women in the UK," Jack apologised. "Well, apart from Gwen, but I guess you've already asked her. And my grandmother, but she's eighty-two and your sister might kill you."

Ianto grinned. "Can I add her to my shortlist anyway, just in case?"

Jack laughed. "As long as you promise not to actually date her. I'd genuinely have to kill myself if Gramma had a hotter boyfriend than me."

The others burst out laughing.

"You have a boyfriend?" Tosh asked, and Jack shook his head.

"I crossed the pond to get away from one," he said.

Ianto shot him a sympathetic glance which somehow managed to flawlessly include an eyebrow raised in question.

"His name's John, and the less said about him the better," Jack answered succinctly before turning a dazzling grin on Tosh. "How about you, honey? Surely someone as gorgeous as you has a stunning friend to set Ianto up with?"

Tosh blushed and shook her head. "I don't know that many women," she confessed. "I work with three guys- which reminds me; I do have someone to set you up with, if you're interested."

Jack smiled and shook his head. "I might flirt a lot, honey, but I'm not looking right now." He turned to Owen, his eyebrow raised in question.

The doctor smirked. "I only have to open my mouth near a woman and before I can even utter a word she says 'Whatever it is, the answer is no'."

"That must cause some problems in A&E," Ianto muttered.

Jack looked confused. "A&E?"

Ianto smirked. "Owen's a doctor. If sarcasm were medicine he could cure the world, but unfortunately it isn't, so he has to stick to conventional methods. Oh, and he's also a beer mat kleptomaniac, but we won't go into that now."

Jack grinned broadly. "You guys are weird!" he declared. "I like you."

Ianto laughed. "Just wait until you get to know us- you won't be able to run fast enough."

The American laughed. "I doubt it. You should have met this guy I travelled with once- he reckoned his Volkswagen Fox was bigger on the inside and swore blind that time travel was possible. I tell you, he was off this planet. I fancied him rotten," he finished wistfully, "but unfortunately he was straight."

"Hey, there's an idea!" Owen grinned. "We could find Ianto an alien for a date."

"Very funny, Owen. Now why don't you go back to your origami whilst the girls and I have a grown-up conversation about what the fuck I'm going to do?" Ianto glanced at Gwen. "Did you at least get a maybe?"

The Welshwoman shook her head sadly. "Sorry sweetie."

Tosh grinned, determined to get a smile out of her friend. "Hey, Suzie said she'd go when hell freezes over- I think that counts as a conditional maybe."

Ianto raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Excellent!" he commented. "Now all we need to do is find a way to make that happen. Ah, if only hell actually existed…"

"It does," Jack interjected. "It's a town in Norway."

"Really?" Ianto enquired. "Damn Rhi and her insistence on a summer wedding! Otherwise that cunning plan of Tosh's might just have worked…"

Gwen laughed. "I still say we should send Owen in drag."

The doctor glared. "I swear to god, Cooper, you have a death wish."

Jack's ears pricked up. "Drag? I'll do it."

Ianto tried hard not to laugh. "Thank you for the offer," he said seriously, patting Jack's arm. "But I'm just not that desperate."

The American shrugged. "Good luck with your search then," he said, draining his glass and glancing at the others. "Another round?"