Chapter two:
Gwen Cooper stares up at the mountain of a man currently filling her doorway. The man is dressed in military uniform "Miss. Cooper" the man repeats.
"Yes" Gwen speaks cautiously closing the door slightly behind her "and its Mrs. Williams" her caution is twofold firstly she is worried about Rhys worrying and secondly she is worried because the man is undoubtedly from UNIT.
The man's expression has yet to change since she opened the door remaining a blank mask in fact she had yet to see him blink.
"Colonel Matthews" the man announces extending his hand out to Gwen which she accepts. The colonel steps forward "May I come in Mrs. Williams?"
He must be about six foot five with whispery child-like ginger hair sneaking from under his cap matched with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp.
"Why?" Gwen feels irritation now. Every time she thinks that her old life is behind her it comes back. The colonel finally blinks "To discuss Torchwood"
Gwen grits her teeth "Torchwood is disbanded has been since the miracle" Colonel Matthews shakes his head "Well that is not entirely true Mrs. Williams" he pulls a file from inside his jacket "Both you and Harkness have been on missions since then" his tone is mocking but Gwen recognises when she is beat and opens the door for the colonel to enter the house.
"Rhys" Gwen calls out "We gave a visitor, put the kettle on will you?"
"Bit late isn't it" Rhys calls back
"I do not want a beverage, thank you" the colonel states blankly as they reach the kitchen Gwen sighs "No, but I do" she slumps into a kitchen chair.
Rhys frowns at the man in his kitchen also recognising the UNIT uniform "And what can we help you with then?" he grumbles heaping sugar into his and Gwen's mugs displaying 'World's best mum' and 'World's best dad'.
Colonel Matthews waves his hand towards the chair opposite Gwen's "May I?"
Gwen extends a welcoming hand "Make yourself at home" Rhys shakes his head at Gwen who smiles apologetically at her husband who is now pouring water over tea-bags.
The colonel sits carefully straightening his back and resting his cap onto the table in front of him. The removal of the cap reveals the mess of ginger hair sprouting unevenly across his skull.
"Mrs. Williams I need you to look at some photographs and tell me if you recognise any of the individuals" Colonel Matthews pulls out some A4 glossy pictures from the same file as earlier. The photos displayed in front of Gwen are of two men and two women focusing only briefly on the pictures she knew already that the faces meant nothing to her.
The image closest to her is of a slightly larger lady not fat just a big built woman with long brown hair falling down to her shoulders in waves and curling at the ends. On top of the woman's head sit a pair of cat-eyed glasses.
The two men in the pictures look like little and large. The one on the left has an almost rat-like appearance despite this his face is weirdly symmetrical with a moustache and slight goatee. This man is tall, lanky with long black hair pushed away from his face.
The second man is short and stocky with a cropped military style haircut; quite an average face, handsome but average. The man's ears look just a little too low on his head and stick out a little too far.
The most distinctive thing is a mole almost star-shaped under his right eye. The final picture is only a headshot which shows a smiling woman with a blonde pixie hair-cut and kind hazel eyes. Her smile uncovers gapped teeth and although her picture is just of her face she seems small to Gwen.
"Mrs. Williams, do you know any of them?" he points from left to right "Felicity Jenkins, Kennedy Kirk, Jorden Fellows and Jessica Miles" he states raising his eyebrows.
Gwen shakes her head "No, I don't recognise any of them" Rhys joins them at the table placing the two mugs in front of him and Gwen.
His attention is caught by the rat-faced man now revealed to be Kennedy Kirk "I know 'im" he exclaims "Odd bugger obsessed with scrap metal and old bits of lorry engine"
Colonel Matthews who had mostly been ignoring Rhys Williams turns his gaze to the Welshman "Where did you meet Mr. Kirk?" he sounds interested almost but not quite animated. Rhys frowns so many different lives to keep track of since Torchwood invaded his life.
"He came into Harwood's Haulage every few months" Rhys pauses "He would ask about how business was going and then ask if I had any broken parts from lorries. He just wanted junk"
The colonel nods "That certainly fits with our profile for him" he nods again looking at Rhys "Do you recall ever giving him any scrap?"
Rhys shakes his head "No, never mainly because I never had anything for him" the colonel nods a third time looking now at the file in front of him.
Gwen and Rhys exchange a knowing look they were being pulled back in again or rather Gwen was. "Why are these people of interest to UNIT?" she clenches her hand slightly "And why are you asking me…us about them?"
Gwen meets the pale grey eyes of the ginger haired man who is frowning opposite her "Because Mrs. Williams they" he points to the photos "Are the new Torchwood"
"WHAT?!" splutters Gwen so incredulous that she spills tea onto her lap swearing loudly. The colonel almost smiles at this and points to the photo of the brunette woman with the glasses "Felicity Jenkins, worked for the Cardiff City police from the age of eighteen but was kicked out two years ago for tampering with evidence" he pauses "She claimed to only interfere with crimes that she believed were alien, her superiors declared mental health issues and she wasn't prosecuted for her actions"
He withdraws his hand from the picture "A year ago Miss. Jenkins father died and she inherited a vast fortune from her grandfather's estate" the colonel puts another picture on the table of a website screen-grab displaying the letter 'T' on a black background with text stating 'view post' with a password request below.
"Found on the dark web we traced this website back to a Claire Ardrey later discovered to be one of Felicity Jenkins alias" the colonel taps the hidden posts "We hacked into the security placed on the posts and discovered it to be some sort of recruitment site disguised as a fan page for alien enthusiasts but focusing on the work of Torchwood in particular" he points to all the photos "And she formed this group using the site" he pauses rubbing his head "Now we've only ever been vaguely concerned about the group that was until earlier tonight when we got this picture"
This next image is dark only lit by streetlights but is clear enough to show the four individuals in question around a corpse on the ground.
"They have started getting more involved in things way out of their league, before this they were harmless scavengers" anger is evident in the colonel's voice "Now they are interfering with things best left to experts"
Gwen looks closely at the crumpled body in the picture "Who's the victim" she murmurs.
"Private Mark Evans, a UNIT solider. UNIT has been investigating rift activity in Cardiff Bay for a while now" Gwen flinches at the mention of the bay remembering the hub's destruction the beginning of the end.
"There has always been rift activity in Cardiff nothing new there" she replies "Why is UNIT investigating it now?"
Colonel Matthews stands up "Classified" he smiles at Gwen but it isn't a kind smile "and as you said Torchwood is disbanded so this wouldn't interest you" he raises an eyebrow "That's right?" the colonel gathers up his file but leaves the photos on the table.
"I'll see myself out" he shakes the hand of a reluctant Rhys "Nice to meet you both".
The moment the front door closes Rhys looks into his wife's eyes pointing at the photos "You're going to Cardiff to find them" not a question anymore Rhys knew better, he knew Gwen couldn't just leave it alone.
