"It's not doing any good Jack!" Gwen yelled as her bullets seemed to go straight through the – blobby looking – alien they were trying to apprehend.
"Get down!" Jack yelled to her.
She looked back at him. "Where the hell did you get that from?" she asked, referring to the grenade he was now holding.
He stopped as he was about to release the pin to show her a dazzling grin. "You really wanna know?"
"Just throw the bloody thing!" she yelled as she ran back past him to take shelter in a doorway.
Jack threw the grenade with deadly accuracy and Gwen heard him let out an almighty whoop as it hit its target.
She came out to stand next to him – but soon regretted it as she followed his eyes heavenward. "Oh SHIT!"
******************
"How was I supposed to know it was going to do that?" Jack complained as Gwen stomped past him up the steps to her desk.
"Look at me Jack!" she cried. "Do you know how much this jacket cost?"
"What about my coat?" he replied. "You can't get these anymore you know."
"Torchwood needs to start paying us a clothes allowance," she complained.
"Well to be fair...it's not every day that it starts raining Yakbar," he reasoned.
"I need a shower," she said looking down at herself.
"Ahh...well...yeah...we both do I guess...you go first," he stammered.
She gave him a bemused look. "There's like a dozen showers down there Jack."
"Yeah," he agreed. "I just thought maybe you might be a bit uncomfortable if we..."
"Oh grow up! We're not in high school," she teased. 'What the hell am I doing?' she thought.
The walls of the old Torchwood shower stalls went from floor to ceiling, the doors ending a few inches from the ground; the tops of the doors however came to about the height of Gwen's shoulders.
Jack was exceedingly aware of having a naked Gwen Cooper in the shower stall next to his; he tried not to imagine every move she made under the pounding hot water as he listened to the variations in the sounds of the running water.
Gwen only thought of her still black and blue arse cheek at times like these – when she accidentally ran her hands over it with either the soap or the towel – it still hurt like hell.
Jack heard the sharp intake of breath from the other stall. "Are you okay?" he asked her.
Gwen's breath caught in her throat at the sound of his voice so close while she was so completely naked. 'No more naked than he is right now,' her mind chipped in. 'You're not helping here,' she shot back at herself as she felt her stomach tighten at the thought.
"Gwen?" he tried again.
"Yeah," she replied simply.
"Are you sure you're not hurt?" he asked, worried she'd been hit by shrapnel from the grenade.
"Only if you count where my sadistic boss shot me in the arse!"
"That was days ago," he returned.
"Ah yeah," she replied acerbically. "It's now a lovely shade of purple! You should've seen Rhys' face when he saw it!"
"Well show me then," he challenged.
"What!?" she asked, not sure she'd heard him correctly.
"I said show me," he repeated.
"I'm not showing you my arse Jack," she said with a trace of humour – and maybe something else – in her voice.
"We're both adults here Gwen," he reasoned.
"I'm not showing you my arse Jack!"
Jack moved to the door of his stall, his height allowing him to easily rest his arms over the top of it. "Would it help if I showed you mine?"
Gwen came to the door of her stall looking over to him. 'Oh God!' she thought as she saw him standing there, droplets hanging from his long lashes as water streamed down his biceps and down over his smooth chest.
Jack smiled at her as she stood there staring at him her mouth open; he knew what he looked like – he also knew what he looked like wet.
"Gwen?" he prompted.
Her mouth opened but nothing came out; she turned and dived back under the water, reaching out to turn the cold tap way up.
Jack had a bit of a chuckle to himself as he turned the water off; loosely wrapping a towel around his waist he left his shower to knock on the door of Gwen's.
She closed her eyes when she heard the knock on her door; taking a deep breath she turned back to look over the top. 'You have GOT to be kidding me!' her mind screamed out at the sight of him standing there, still wet, a towel wrapped – just – around his waist.
"I'll see you upstairs," he said folding his arms across his chest.
Of course this only made his arms and shoulders look more muscular, and shifted his hips in a rather amazing way. 'He'd only have to shake those hips a little, and that towel would be on the floor,' she thought as she felt the blush creep up her face. 'Get a grip Gwen!' she yelled at herself.
"Going casual tonight then I see," she finally said of his state of undress.
Smiling he looked down at himself. "Tried that once before a few years ago," he said canting his head to one side. "Couldn't get it past OH&S...too distracting to the other workers apparently."
She laughed. "Well you better go away then before I lose my head and slip on the soap or something."
He raised one eyebrow. "You dropped the soap?"
"Goodbye Jack..."
Jack turned and walked towards the door of the shower room to go back up to his own room to dress. She'd turned away from him before he had left, but he knew that she'd turned back to watch him as he made his exit; just as he reached the door he grabbed the front of his towel and yanked, pulling it free of his body, giving anyone that happened to be watching a rather spectacular view of his retreating behind.
"So..." Jack said as they finished dinner. "Are we training tonight?"
Gwen looked as if she were considering the idea; in truth she'd been looking forward to it all day and had no intention of leaving for the night until they'd had what was turning out to be their daily training session. "I dunno," she replied trying to sound casual. "We did go out hunting today."
Jack nodded his agreement.
"But no sense wasting the extra time I'm able to spend here while Rhys is stuck at work," she added quickly in case he was about to veto the training for tonight.
He didn't even have to say it this time as he looked at her. "If I win," she said to him. "You tell me your most embarrassing moment."
"Okay," he agreed. "And if I win," a smile spread across his face. "You show me your ass."
"Feeling a little short changed on that one," she complained.
He grinned at her as he reached for his belt buckle. "You know you don't have to win anything for me to show you mine."
"Yeah okay," she said placing a hand over his to stop his progress – after all she'd already seen it. 'And like you wouldn't jump at the chance to see it again,' her traitorous mind chided.
Gwen was having a ball tonight running around the tunnels, she could hear him behind her but she didn't care – truthfully she didn't care if she lost tonight – she liked her body and she was damn proud of her arse. She smiled as she thought of the look that would be on Jack's face as she dropped her pants to show him first-hand what he wasn't getting.
Jack's heart beat faster, blood coursing through his taut body as he closed in on her. 'She wants me to catch her,' he thought, as he followed her less than stealthful progress through the tunnels. He could feel the stirring in his pants at the thought. "Jesus!" he muttered. "What the hell am I gonna be like if she does show me her ass!" He shook his head at the image of himself acting like a horny school boy peeping at the girls in the locker room.
"Yeah I know," she said as they walked into Jack's office. "Time to pay up."
He swung around to look at her his eyes widening as he realised she was already unbuttoning her jeans.