There was nothing. Absolutely bloody nothing.
In broad daylight, it was easier for Gwen to see the crater shaped in the form of the pub's foundations. Blue and white police caution tape had been erected around it, but there was no sign of anyone guarding the area.
Everything from aboveground of the old pub was gone except for a few old wooden picnic tables on the grass to the side of the crater. The crater itself was filled with a scattering of broken brickwork, sharp shards of glass, splinters of wood, and a tangle of ivy in what must have been the basement.
She could see the heavy old broken table under which Ianto had miraculously been found within the pit and the large pieces of rubble which had almost sealed his fate. She could see the chunk of masonry where Jack and Ianto had sat upon waiting for her to come and the tire marks in the grass from Beth's car.
But on the scanner, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.
There was no sign that the Rift had ever been active here, let alone opened and closed a few days ago. Wherever the Rift was active, it left behind some trace energy, sort of like radiation but harmless. It was how they tracked and found items that had come through the Rift.
When they'd opened the Rift and inadvertently freed Abaddon, the bay had been saturated with Rift Energy for days, until it had all suddenly disappeared along with Jack when the Tardis had come. But here, there was nothing.
"Ugh, this is useless!" she cried, shaking the Rift Monitor she'd had to borrow from Martha. She didn't even have her own anymore, lost to the explosion at the Hub. "There's nothing here!"
Rhys glanced over at her in alarm from where he was sat on the cleanest of the picnic tables with Ianto. Jack rushed to her side from where he had been stood at the edge of the creator surveying the damage.
"Look!" she said, thrusting the monitor into his hands. "There's nothing! I can't find anything!"
"Yeah, that is strange, he mused, fiddling once again with the settings. "There should be something. These very hills should be soaked in energy. All of Wales is." He gave a frustrated groan. "But even if I put this thing on its lowest detection level, I'm still getting nothing."
Gwen chewed her lip for a moment, then made her decision. "Rhys!" she yelled, making Jack jump. She giggled at that. "Bring me my bag will you, love?"
"Right-oh," he called back, awkwardly swinging his legs over the picnic table's bench to stand up. Ianto, she noticed, managed to manoeuvre himself much more gracefully, far more gracefully than anyone should manage to stand from a picnic table. Jack seemed to be enjoying the view too.
Martha and Mickey, weren't with them, having stayed behind in Cardiff. Jack had thought it would look suspicious to anyone watching them if they suddenly upped and left, heading towards the last site of major rift activity. Instead of being out here in the middle of nowhere, they were enjoying themselves and pretending to be tourists on holiday whilst they discretely monitored the city for any unusual activity.
Rhys lumbered over and handed her the black rucksack that she took everywhere with her these days. In it, it held the last remains of Torchwood. Most importantly, she still had her Torchwood-customised Glock 17 and stash of bullets – manmade, of alien origin, and Torchwood customised. There were the fake documents and cards for both her and Rhys, along with a bundle of notes and a cashpoint card. She also still had the Eye-5 contact lenses (not that she could ever use them for fun again without the reminder of… that), and an emergency laptop and a portable battery. But sewn behind the lining, she had something that might just cheer Jack up a bit.
"Here," she said, presenting him with his Vortex Manipulator. Jack's face lit up. "UNIT found it in the wreckage. Indestructible. Just like its owner." Her voice wobbled as she spoke, and she gave a watery smile.
Jack closed his hands over hers. "Thank you," he whispered, his own voice filled with emotion and tears brimming in his eyes.
Gwen nodded, closing her eyes against the tears. Jack kissed her cheek, and she found the strength to let go of the wrist strap.
"I, uh, even put on a new strap for you," she said, trying to lighten the mood before she cried, but her voice still wavered.
Rhys handled the situation much better though. "Cost me fifty quid, that."
"Bill me," was Jack's quick reply.
She shared a glance with Ianto who rolled his eyes at their antics. She snorted and pulled another essential item from her rucksack: her tissues.
She hadn't planned on giving Jack his vortex manipulator back yet. She would have, if he had asked about it or even mentioned it at all, after all, it wasn't hers. But she knew that once he had it back, Jack would be able to run even further. Without it, he was confined to the planet, for the most part, or at least he had to put in some serious effort to escape. She knew she couldn't stop him if that was what he wanted – and without Ianto's return she was certain that it was only a matter of time until he did – but she didn't want him to go without at least saying goodbye to her first. She didn't want to be left waiting, wondering if she would ever see him again. And with his Vortex Manipulator back, at least there was a possibility that he would return. It may have been broken, but she was sure that Jack would be able to fix it whilst he was away.
But with Ianto here, she decided to trust him not to immediately run. If not for her, then she hoped he would stay for Ianto. But Jack still wanted to flee; she could see it.
And that's when she realised quite what Jack had done, or rather, what he'd intended to do.
"You bastard! You utter bastard!" she yelled, shoving Jack in the chest.
"Whoa!" Rhys tried to pull her back, but she easily shook him off as Jack stumbled backwards, looking confused.
"What?" he asked, utterly confused at Gwen's sudden anger. One moment she'd been close to tears, the next righteous fury was burning through her veins. He didn't know what he was supposed to have done.
"You knew that you could close the Rift?" she demanded as if she already knew the answer. It was more of a statement than a question.
He immediately realised what she was accusing him of. "I know I didn't do it before and maybe I should have at least asked," he replied quickly, stumbling over his words. "It was selfish of me. I should have done it to keep you all safe-"
"Not what I meant, and you know it," she hissed.
But he didn't. If Gwen wasn't demanding to know why he hadn't asked the Vortex Dwellers to seal the Rift forever when he'd had the chance, then he didn't know what she was getting at.
"I don't-"
"Stop avoiding the question, Jack Harkness! You knew you'd close the Rift that night."
"…Yes," he replied uncertainly. He glanced over at Ianto, but he just shook his head silently at him. He didn't dare to risk a look at Rhys.
"And you told UNIT, didn't you?" Gwen insisted.
Jack shook his head, confused. "No."
"So, who did you tell, because you sure as hell didn't tell me! I just get a phone call from UNIT three days ago saying that the Rift was closed, and Torchwood was no longer needed. It was finished."
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. And he was.
"You were never planning me, were you? Never planning on telling me what you were going to do last night. Not to my face at least. No, that's not the way of Captain Jack. Just put it in a letter and run away again."
"I thought it'd be safer that way," he said sadly.
Rhys had been right the other night; Jack caused problems wherever he went. He'd wanted to save her from that, done what he should have done in the first place and retconned her again. But he had offered her a place at Torchwood and irreversibly changed her and Rhys's lives forever. It had been fun for a bit, even Rhys had enjoyed himself as an unofficial member after the deaths of Tosh and Owen. But now they were expecting their first child together. It was too dangerous for them to continue. He didn't want their child to grow up hating or fearing their parents, just as Melissa had.
"Bullshit." Gwen interrupted his thoughts.
Jack had to look away to try and hide the well of tears that he refused the shed.
"Complete and utter bullshit. Off to go die because you can't stand the guilt and you'd never would've even said goodbye."
"I would," he said so quietly that Gwen almost missed over the sound of her own harsh breaths. "I would have said goodbye if it hadn't worked, before I left."
"Oh, and that makes it all better does it?" she mocked. "Before you ran away from Earth, you might try and ease your guilt by saying goodbye."
"I'm sorry," he said again.
"Cut the shit, would you Jack?" she sighed. "You've been gone six months. You might have been able to lie to yourself for all that time, but don't for one second think you can keep lying to me. You lost the right to grieve with me the moment you decided to run away rather than come back home."
Jack opened his mouth, unsure of what to say other than to apologise again but he knew another apology wouldn't be enough. Gwen shook her head sadly before he could find the right words and he looked away in shame.
"You left me with nothing, Jack," she said, exhausted. "Absolutely nothing."
"I am sorry, Gwen." He looked up at her this time, finally realising how much he must have hurt her. He'd abandoned her without a thought, scared of coming back to face what he had done. And she was right, he'd been lying to himself for so long that he'd started to believe those thoughts. "I truly am."
"And is that because you feel sorry for yourself, or you actually have decided to give a damn now rather than watching from afar since you want to pretend everything's back to normal now you have Ianto back?"
He couldn't bring himself to answer.
"I thought so." She shook her head, despairingly. "So, stop pretending you did it for me and Rhys and our child, because if you did, you'd have let me say goodbye to Ianto too. But you didn't. You just planned on disappearing forever. You'd have left me. You'd be just another friend who I never got to say goodbye to." She snorted, unamused. "Three out of four. 'Least it would've been consistent. The Torchwood way."
Jack looked up at her, eyes wide. He'd been wrong all along. It hadn't been about Gwen at all. Well, it had been, but only because she had no other way to express what she felt. He had abandoned her. He had left her alone when she needed him most. He had left her with nothing. He hadn't even offered her a chance of closure. Instead, if things had gone to plan, he'd have left her waiting for him to return, never knowing what had happened to him.
She turned back to Rhys who immediately wrapped his arm around her and walked away to the cluster of picnic tables. Ianto looked at him sadly, shook his head, and followed.