It was Christmas morning and surprisingly Gwen was the first to wake up. She was wondering all night what Owen had gotten her.. she didn't think he did presents. What really woke her up, though, was the sound of a bear growling in her ear. Or was it Rhys.. in her opinion, there was no difference.
'Rhys. Rhys!' There was a large snore and then he awoke abruptly.
'What? What is it?' he said, startled, looking round the room frantically.
'You were snoring..' Gwen said, staring into space, her head on the pillow. Rhys relaxed then, knowing that there was no trouble. And let his head fall back on the pillow.
'Starting Christmas day with a hangover.. great' he said as he smacked himself on the head a few times to wake himself up.
The thought of it being Christmas day created a huge grin on Gwen's face. She jumped out of bed and ran out to the lounge, feeling a lot like a child.
There was a small pile of presents under the tree, unfortunately she recognised most of them as being Rhys'. Gwen started ripping open the ones with her name on them - she knew they were from Rhys. She recognised his scruffy handwriting. 'This top is gorgeous! Thanks babe' she said, holding up against herself.
Rhys smiled as he walked into the kitchen to pour them both some tea.
Gwen was looking at the present from Owen sat under the tree. It stood out like a firework in a clear, empty sky. Although the sky is the exact opposite of empty, she said to herself. She went for it, grabbed the present, looking over her shoulder to check if Rhys was there, and ripped it open. It was a small box. She opened it and inside was a beautiful necklace with a purple pearl as the charm. Gwen's mouth fell open. At that moment Rhys walked in. Gwen hastily stuffed the gift inside her pyjama bottoms pocket. 'Get anything nice?' Rhys asked her as he sipped his tea loudly.
'No.. but I loved the perfume you got me' Gwen said.
'You're welcome', he smiled, joining Gwen on the floor beside the Christmas tree.
Much to Rhys' annoyance, Gwen decided to pop into the Hub to thank everyone for the presents they got her - and to thank Tosh on Rhys' behalf for the Christmas-themed socks she had got him -. 'But babe, it's Christmas day', Rhys moaned at her as she was putting her jacket on.
'I'm sorry, but I have to say thankyou, it's rude not to.'
'You can thank them tomorrow!'
'I won't be long.. they'll all be there.'
When Gwen arrived, everyone was sat around the boardroom table, chatting, some ribbon and glitter on the top of it. Owen turned round to look at Gwen.
'Hi everyone, how are the hangovers?' she asked as she pulled up a chair.
'Merry Christmas!' Tosh said. 'And I don't have one.. I drank two pints of water before I went to bed last night.'
'You only had two glasses of wine', Owen retorted. He was grumpy, he missed hangovers.
'You're just grumpy because you can't drink anymore', Ianto chimed in. Owen glared at him.
'That's what Christmas is for.. getting pissed. And bloody New Year is next and I can drink fuck all.'
'So, d'you like your presents?' Jack changed the subject to Gwen. 'What did you get?' It took a while for Gwen to answer because she noticed a tiny bit of.. was it lipstick? On the corner of Jack's mouth. Gwen's eyes turned to Ianto, who also had pink lippy on, too. 'Uh, Ianto..' Gwen started, but Ianto had already noticed Gwen's eyes trace his lips, and quickly retreated out of the room.
'Uhh, you know, just clothes and that..' Gwen and Owen's eyes met for a brief second, and then he looked away.
'What about you lot?' she asked everyone.
'Well I got a lovely bracelet, actually', Tosh smiled at Gwen, who returned it. 'Thank you.'
Gwen smiled back. 'No problem. Rhys says thanks for the socks, by the way.'
'He's very welcome. They had his name just written all over them.'
Gwen laughed. 'So, what else did you get?' she asked.
'Well, Ianto got me this beautiful classical music CD that I've been talking about for ages!' Tosh continued. 'And Owen..' she began, looking at him sternly.
'I told you, I don't do presents', Owen grumbled. He wasn't taking this no-drinking, no-eating thing very well. Or no shagging..
Tosh raised her eyebrows, then looked at Jack. 'Thankyou for the book' she said to him gratefully. He nodded in return, eyes closed, with a smile.
Ianto returned suddenly, his lips red - obviously from scrubbing the remainder of the lipstick off.
'Ianto, what did you get?' Gwen asked him, holding back a smile. He looked up, surprised.
'Oh, err, well Tosh got me some jazzy socks with penguins on them' he started.
'Aahh' Gwen smiled. 'Cute. And Jack?' Ianto and Jack looked startled.
'Errr..' Ianto began. Jack looked slightly amused.
'Anyway, that's enough of that. Let's talk work', Jack changed the subject. 'Tomorrow the rift activity should be back to normal again, so I want all of you in normal time, got it?' Everyone nodded.
Tosh, Jack and Ianto went off to do their own thing shortly after that. Owen was sat on the chair, still sulking. He looked up at Gwen, smiled for a second, then it dropped straight away. How fake.
'Owen, I need to talk to you?' Gwen began. She wasn't sure if that was a question or a statement.
'Oh yeah? About what?' he asked her.
'What was the present you got me all about?' she asked him.
'What do you mean? It was a present.'
'I thought you didn't do presents.' Gwen raised her eyebrow.
Owen looked sheepish, but hid it well. 'Okay, fine. I saw it and thought "that's so Gwen" bought it and voilà. Done. There you go.' He paused for a bit, and when no one said anything he walked off to get some un-needed work done.
As much as Gwen wanted to stay and question him on everything, she decided she'd better not. Besides, Rhys was waiting for her at home, and it was Christmas day after all. She said goodbye to everyone, gave one last suspicious look at Owen, who didn't look up, and left.