Disclaimer: I do not now nor have I ever owned the Characters of Torchwood, they belong to their respective owners RTD and BBC. I do however own the girls.

A/N: Ok so this chapter started out as me basically trying to fill out pages with as much detail with out really making sense. Than somewhere along the way the shell around Tegan grew. I didn't mean to paint the parents in a bad light, I tried to get them from Tegan's POV and seriously she's only Nine.

Once again no Beta so all mistakes are mine and the grammar check.

Feedback is my lifes blood peoples!


"I just don't think she should be stuck at home all day."

"Well what'd yah expect she'd be staying being suspended and all?!"

"Rhys it's only for a few hours you know that I can't…"

"I understand how important it is but you can't just expect to skip out…"

"I am not skipping out!"

Tegan sat quietly at her father's desk in his office. In front of her in a neat row was an assortment of books, and papers that belonged to her Tad. An open jewelry box with tiny trinkets spilled about, tiny jumpers and dolly's sitting in the correct order. Important to not important.

In her hand she was making her Dolly Nyla walk across the books (bridge). Nyla was her favorite Dolly because she had long shiny yellow hair. She always wanted her own black hair to be like that. Nyla had pretty blue eyes that sparkled like Riley's marbles that her Tad has given to her on her birthday. Sometimes she wished she had eyes like that. She was tall too even without the sparkly purple like shoes. Nyla was the bestest dolly ever.

Stopping Nyla halfway across the bridge of note books and turning her around, she stopped. Turning Nyla to face her she frowned.

"We're not having much fun are we Nyla?"

She slowly turns Nyla to the left, and than to the right. She and Nyla would not be sitting here bored waiting for Mam and Tad to stop yelling. This was very silly, she could be in school listening to Miss Anna teach them something interesting. She could be sitting with her friends, Nina, Carys, Seren, and Adara talking about what new Dolly they had or what they did night before. What pretty shoes that snooty Lilly-Anne's dumb Tad bought for her. Lilly-Anne always wore pretty shoes; it's too bad she was snooty. If she wasn't so snooty maybe she would let Lilly-Anne talk with her friends, and maybe share their dollies.

"Oh for god sake Rhys, I do not…"

"Don't tell me yah don't, when yah dam well do. Any time something things go a wee bit stray…"

She really wasn't paying that much attention to her parents, they were just yelling…

Always yelling.

Sometimes if she paid little attention she could tell when the yelling was over or just starting.

If she came home and they were yelling real low. That meant that things were just starting so she could walk right into the room. If it was real high that meant it was just in the middle and she could tip toe in but they would not notice her. It's when the yelling got to the 'bFine/b' word that she knew it was over. She could walk into the room and they would look at her. Really look at her like she had done something that she wasn't suppose to.

If she was really honest she liked it better when they weren't in the room at the same time.

Tad would sometimes get tetchy in the evenings, especially around dinner time. He would sit at the table and try and talk about what happened during the day times. It was nice to sit, eat and talk with Tad… when he wasn't looking at the clock, like he was waiting for something.

He really did try his hardest, and she tried to be good for him. Helping with the cleaning the plates, and drying. Drying was the funnest part. Tad would make silly faces and tell her bits of something from when he was a kid. Sometimes it was hard to picture her Tad as a little kid, like her size. Other times she would laugh real loud at the things he had done when he was littler. She loved her Tad when he was like that. That was the bestest part.

She sighed when she thought of her Mam….

Being Special Opps meant that Mam left real early for work, like before she woke up. Sometimes she didn't see her for days, and days, and days. It felt like forever when Mam was gone that long. Sometimes when she did see her, Mam would be sleeping on the sofa or the soft fuzzy rug in her room. That was silly of her because she knew that Mam and Tad had a perfectly good bed. It must not have been so good if her Mam did not like sleeping there…

Sometimes she thought Mam being Special Opps was not a good thing.

She twisted around in her Tad's chair for a bit twirling Nyla round and round and round…. This made her think of her Uncle Jack, and Ewythr Ianto they were special Opps too. She wondered if they weren't at home as much too. Pushing the bottom of her feet against her Tad's chair made the chair move backwards. That got her thinking of Sian and school… that made her scowl.

It was all that animal's fault to begin with. Honestly if she had just stopped with her stupid stories none of this would be happening.

"What a git. As if aliens and space ships are real." She sneered. Only babies and weirdo's believe in that garbage. Moving Nyla down onto the arms of the chair she made her twirl again. "She is such a freak Nyla."

"Don't you dare pin this on me!"

The sound of something being thrown against the wall and breaking makes her jump in her chair. That is a new and scary sound in their yelling thing. No one is supposed to throw things, people could get hurt. The one time she did throw something she got into big trouble because she had broken Mam's bestest earring box.

"Are you daft woman?!"

"What in the world would make you think that?"

Being as careful as she can be, she slides off of the chair and onto the not so hard floor. Her fingers curled around Nyla's middle very tight like. She tip toes across the room to the door that her Mam didn't close all the way when they first came here. Peeking around the slightly open door way she saw her Mam and Tad they were standing not so close and they looked very angry at each other.

"Rhys… we had an agreement…"

"Which I think you will agree I've kept up my end…"

"I've got work and it's not fair for you to pull this now of all times."

"Than when will be a good time for you? When Tegan's suspended from school for fighting with Sian? Oh wait no, that already happened didn't it?"

"They're kids they will be bound to do that…"

"They always fight Gwen; apart they're fine and well. Together they're practically at each other's throats. Like they're starving dogs with the last bone. It's not right."

"I know that, I did see the black eye."

"Did you really? Cause apart from last nights little talk it seems like you were in an awful rush to just…"

"Oh and we're back to that again."

There was something different about this yelling, it was almost scary. Looking down at her Tad's feet she saw there were bits of broken glass. Her eyes went big and round. Mam had thrown a cup at her Tad? Why did she do that for, didn't she remember how dangerous that was? Why would she want to hurt Tad for?

"You know what that's just fine with me!"

"Oh there you go running off again instead of sticking it out!"

"I am leaving Rhys."

"Fine!"

There was that fine word. This time when they said it she didn't like it very much. She wasn't even sure that she could walk into the room right now. She squeezed Nyla's middle real tight like.

"Does this mean that I don't have to see Sian this weekend?"

Huh… Tad's never had that look on his face before. Wonder what it is that made him look that way.

"Grab your things love bug, we're leaving."

Its almost like her Tad lost something really badly. Like its really over.

~*~