Title: Tears of the Weevil

Summary: Gwen feels more out of place than ever.

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Don't own Torchwood, the characters or anything related to the show.

Gwen looked up at the lift that was descending in to the hub where Owen was waiting for it. She watched curiously as a figure rolled in to Owen's arms. It was Lacey. He carried her to the sofa and lay her down gently. Gwen gasped as she took in the younger girl's appearance.

Her face and hands were covered in blood; her eyes were wild and feral like. She lay half unconscious as Owen used his shirt to wipe away the blood from her face. He grinned as he stroked her hair, a loving look on his face. "You took care of Pilkington then?" She laughed, wiping the blood away from her lips.

"There isn't a bit big enough to identify him."

"Good work." Jack appeared behind Gwen, a smile on his face. She shook her head in disbelief. Toshiko wasn't the only one that had lost her sanity.

"You're laughing about killing a man!" She shouted in disgust. "Someone who helped you-"

"He deserved it." Lacey growled, malice in her voice that had no place in a young woman's voice. "The bastard told the B.A.D.S where to find Tosh. They held her prisoner for three days…by the time I saved her she was already gone. They took her from me…so I made him pay, just like I'll make the rest of them pay." She brushed Owen aside and got to her feet. Pulling off her bloodstained T-shirt she left them to go shower before she checked on Toshiko.

Gwen opened her mouth to say something but was stopped by Owen. "Don't you dare judge us. You have no idea what these last three years have been like."

"Hi." Lacey smiled as Toshiko sat up when she walked in to the makeshift apartment that they'd bee sharing for the last few months. "Long day?" She collapsed on the sofa beside her, tucking her lugs up and cuddling in to the older woman.

"Mhm. Took care of a few things. How about you?"

"I talked to Ianto." Toshiko beamed. The younger woman sighed. Sometimes it was like she was fine, like she was the same old Tosh, others she barely recognised her blonde best friend.

"I'm beat. I'm gonna have an early night." She kissed her forehead and made her way to her room to crawl in to bed; A few minutes later the older woman was curled up beside her.

"Is she a weevil?" Owen looked up from the movie they were watching to face Gwen.

"Lacey? No, she's not a weevil." Gwen's questioning look spurred him on. "She's not human, but she's not a weevil…I don't know what she is. Speaking of weevils, the blood analysis should be back tomorrow. We'll see if you're worth your keep."

"You know I am." She flirted. Once again Owen frowned and shut down. "What the hell's going on Owen? You're treating me like a leper." Putting down his drink he sighed.

"Every time I'm around you, hear your voice, see you smile…it kills me. You're not my Gwen. You're not the Gwen Cooper who left me for Rhys, not the girl I gave my spare flat key too…and what hurts the most is when I forget just for a second, that you're not her." His expression was pained as though each word were forced.

"I'm sorry." Was all Gwen could think to say, but it didn't make a difference. The damage was done and a thick heavy tension fell over them. Gwen excused herself and went to bed. Curled up under the sheets she stared blankly out at the view of the bay through Owen's bedroom window. It was the same city below but the people were so different. She didn't belong there any more than the weevils did.

"The bodies of two non-humans were discovered in the early hours of this morning. Although the police and the Alien Defence Squad have insisted they were simply weevils eye witnesses reported that they had appeared to be human." Gwen muted the television and put down her bowl of cornflakes. She could hear the eerie wailing again, but not just from Owen. The entire city seemed to be engrossed by the sound.

"They're all grieving." Owen's voice seemed unnaturally quiet. "We're all connected; generally the psychic connection is weak, does little more than tell us when one of us dies." He walked over to the window, staring at the city below. "The two who died, Peter and Helen Sacryn, they were twins. Higher levels too." Gwen wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"The ones who do keep their humanity, they're higher levels, as far as the public are concerned we don't exist. But we do. They're people who were turned, they're DNA was so close to mine that they're like me, a higher level. Peter and Helen were more than my friends…every last weevil comes from me, my DNA.

"They're like family?" Owen nodded solemnly. He'd felt the pain of losing every weevil that had been killed, even across the rift in the past. Few higher levels had ever been killed. It was like losing dozens of lower levels at the same time. He'd woken in the night, his head pounding and his tight chest. Despair gripped his mind as he felt the life draining from his friends. It was times like that he was glad Gwen had never been turned. Her death had enough to deal with.

A loud, insistent knocking at the front door ended the silence that had settle over them. Rushing to the door he opened it to find Lacey in front of him, ready in plain black clothes and a gun tucked under her T-shirt, she threw him a rucksack full of identical plain black clothes, including a ski mask. "Jack wants us to take care of the situation." She stated, no trace of emotion on her youthful face. He nodded and with a quick glance at Gwen he followed Lacey out the door, slamming it behind him. Their mission was simple. Break in to the heavily guarded morgue and contaminate the bodies of the dead weevils so that the government couldn't use their blood against those weevils that were still alive.

"Morning." Jack smiled as Owen took a seat on the couch in the hub. She mumbled a reply with her eyes staring at the coffee machine. She sure could use one of Ianto's special brews.

"How did Ianto die?" Jack fell silent, a pained expression on his face.

"Saving the rest of us." He finally answered. "We were in a government facility, their version of Torchwood. They'd been experimenting on weevils…turned them more violent, more dangerous. The only way out was to blow up the complex. Ianto volunteered."

"Why didn't you do it?" Gwen quizzed. "You can't die." Sighing Jack shrugged.

"I'd have been trapped in there, a mile underground. The explosion would have sealed the only way out. Ianto stepped forward. He saved us all. He's a hero." Gwen smiled. The quiet Torchwood handyman had never taken much of an active role in the field, but in the end he'd more than made up for it. "He was a good man." Jack nodded, silently agreeing.

They looked up as the door began to open. Owen and Lacey walked through the door laughing. "The look on that bloke's face!" Owen roared. "And when you just yawned and asked if they had room service." Jack's mood instantly changed once he saw them. "Hey there trouble, how'd it go?" Lacey grinned as she flopped on to the couch beside Gwen. "Bodies were taken care of. We had to hide in one of the body lockers…the coroner found me." She and Owen burst in to a fresh fit of laughter. Jack grinned, ruffling her hair with his hand. "Good work."

"All in a day's work for team Harper." He teased, earning a playful shove from the younger girl.

"Team Lacey accompanied by fang boy." Watching them together, seeing Owen genuinely happy, she understood exactly how Suzie had felt. Replaced. This new girl was suddenly laughing and joking with her friends, fitting in more than her. She was younger and she was the one Jack called in an emergency. Not for the first time since arriving Gwen was reminded that she didn't belong to there. Owen excused himself to get changed out of his combat gear, leaving the two girls alone. "There's nothing going on between us."

Lacey broke the uneasy silence between them. She laughed at Gwen's shocked expression. "When I first came here, you were so nice and friendly…but you hated my guts. You were convinced I wanted to steal Owen from you." The Welshwoman blushed, embarrassed at being caught out.

"I'm still with Rhys in my time, me and Owen it's…"

"Complicated?" The younger woman offered. "If it's any consolation in my time you loved each other a lot." She squeezed her shoulder before getting up to leave. "Oh and by the way I'm really not interested in Owen."

"Got your eye on Jack?" Gwen teased the younger woman. Lacey grinned, she'd forgotten how much Gwen actually knew about her and shook her head.

"Actually I have a soft spot for Tosh." She left Gwen with her mouth hanging open.

When Lacey entered her apartment she found Toshiko sitting on the couch with her laptop. "How's my little dork?" Tosh rolled her eyes.

"Must you call me that?" Lacey grinned.

"You know you love it." As she watched Toshiko tap away the keys she smiled. The days when she was lucid and seemed almost normal again were growing rare. It was nice to see her alert.

"Lacey?"

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you tell me Gwen was alive?" Looking at the screen of Toshiko's laptop she found security footage of Gwen from yesterday.

"Um…about that…"