Gwen was hanging onto consciousness, and so was Jack. The same couldn't be said for Rhys and Ianto, who both had passed out. Ianto was lying on his side of the sofa. Rhys was on the arm chair. They both looked so peaceful. They'd tried to hold on until midnight but after the stressful day they'd had, even Ianto's coffee couldn't overcome the base human need to rest.

Jack hadn't been overcome with sleep, surprising no one and definitely not Gwen.

Two minutes until midnight. This was a game they played sometimes. Getting drunk and ingesting too much caffeine and seeing who could stay up the longest. Jack nearly always won, the bastard.

"You okay?" Jack said, looking her in the eye. He may have spent a lot of time silently brooding but now he was concerned about her.

"Yeah," Gwen said. She yawned. The tiredness was catching up with her but she was stubborn and wouldn't let Jack be the only one to stay awake.

He wrapped an arm around her. "You're not giving up, are you?"

"And let you win? Ha, no chance," she said.

They were quiet then, watching the news on the telly. They were showing footage of people attending a celebration at one of the pubs in Cardiff. That might be fun but Gwen much preferred the warmth of her sofa and the company of the men she loved the most.

Gwen leaned into Jack's touch, resisting the urge to lie her head on Jack's shoulder. She knew if she did, she might end up falling asleep in his arms. It was very tempting…

Instead she started thinking about how Jack was here. He left them, Gwen and Ianto had been crushed and then he came back for them, the whole team, and now they'd lost Tosh and Owen. And Gwen was tired. She was tired of people being ripped away from her.

Jack had been all too excited to run off and find the Doctor when the Earth was stolen. He needed to find the Doctor, needed to be there on the ship, to help rescue Earth, but Gwen couldn't help but wonder - and she knew that Ianto felt the same - if he was going to really come back when all was said and done.

"Jack…" Gwen said, looking up at him. He was absentmindedly running his fingers through Ianto's hair with his other hand.

"Mmhm," he said. Then she waited until he turned and his blue eyes met her gaze. "What?"

"Promise me something."

He sighed.

"Please," she said. "Just… promise me you won't leave us. Not permanently."

"I won't," Jack said.

"Promise me," she insisted. She needed to hear him say it. To say the word.

Jack paused for a long moment, then he planted a kiss on Gwen's forehead. "I do. I promise."

She nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder. She was going to lose, but right then, she didn't care.

Gwen ran her hands over Ianto's tie. She recalled all the times she would absentmindedly adjust his tie whenever she was sitting with him or when he was talking to her.

Now he would never talk to her, never again.

She started to cry, and she knew that she wouldn't stop until she ran out of tears. She registered Jack's arm around her and she was grateful for the comfort but it was nothing compared to the loss she felt. Jack's arms couldn't bring back Ianto.

Gwen cried the night before she met up with Jack. Six months. Six months since it all happened and he was finally back. He'd come back. Rhys wrapped his arms around her. They didn't say anything. There was nothing to say right then.

They walked up the hill, and she all but ran into him, as much as she could, considering that she was pregnant. Despite everything, she and Rhys were grinning, because it was Jack, and they'd missed him.

He looked broken. As broken as a huge part of her felt.

"Come back with us," she said softly. "Back home." She grabbed his hand and held it tightly.

But he was still going to leave, and Gwen couldn't stop him. If he needed more time then she'd give it to him. She gave him the wrist strap.

"Are you ever coming back, Jack?" she said then. He was leaving again but he'd surely come back?

He looked confused. "What for?"

What for? "For me," she pleaded. "For us." She looked back at Rhys. "For our family."

But that wasn't enough apparently.

"You can't just run away, Jack," she said.

"Oh yes I can," he said.

"No, Jack! You can't, because you promised. You promised that you'd come back."

"I didn't know what was going to happen."

"Neither did I. No one does, Jack but that doesn't mean you get to break your promise! I lost someone too. I lost my best friend and then you just left us to deal with it all on our own. You don't get to come back, take the wrist strap and then leave for good. I won't lose you too!" She was sobbing now, clinging to his jacket.

He gently took her hands off of his coat and stepped away. "Goodbye, Rhys Williams. Goodbye, Gwen Cooper." He looked her in the eyes and gave her one last sad smile before he teleported away.