Title: Tears of the Weevil

Summary: Things don't always go to plan.

Rating: PG

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

"How could you let her find out?" Jack ran a hand through his ruffled hair as he paced around his office. Lacey scowled.

"I didn't let her. I thought I'd restricted her computer access, but she's still a brainiac."

Toshiko sat outside with Gwen, waiting for Jack and Lacey to stop arguing. They'd explained everything to Toshiko, but neither expected her to remember within a few hours. "It's good to see you." Gwen smiled. Toshiko returned her smile.

"You too. It's been weeks since we've talked…I mean." She faltered as she remembered Gwen had been dead for months. "I'm sorry. I get confused sometimes."

"Everybody does." She hugged her colleague; they had never really been close enough to be friends. She hoped that was something that had changed in the three years.

Owen looked confused as he found Gwen hugging Tosh. "Oi you, you've got your own girl!" He grinned as Lacey swatted his arm. Gwen hid her smile at the possessiveness in his voice, even if it was masked by humour.

Leaving them to their little reunion he headed down to the lab to check the blood analysis. After printing out the results he compared the older Gwen's blood to her younger counterpart's. "Oh god." He ran back to the others and grabbed Gwen to get her attention.

"Have you had a blood transfusion lately?"

"No."

"Fuck!" He cursed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Your blood's not the same as it was before you were infected-"

"Infected?" Owen looked to Jack, as though asking his permission to carry on. Jack nodded. There was no point in keeping her in the dark.

"How about a beer?" He offered her, wanting to get away from the others and the hub.

The bar was relatively busy so they easily managed to grab a table in a dark and quiet corner. Taking a large mouthful from his pint he began. "I accidentally infected you."

"How?" He looked around awkwardly.

"I lost control and I bit you." He answered truthfully. "You had a fever for three days, your body was fighting the reaction…and it won. You're the only person to ever have been directly exposed and not turn." He took another large gulp of beer. "We tried for years to find a cure using your blood. We found one but it only cured Helen and Peter for three weeks…then you died."

He'd carried on experimenting with the blood he had left but in the end Jack had agreed the only way to find a cure was to go back and get Gwen when it would cause the least damage to history. "So…do I have to go back now?" Gwen's question surprised him. She'd been dying to go back since she'd arrived.

"I guess so…we should probably go back, get you home as soon as."

The ride back to the hub was quiet and tense as neither of them spoke until they reached the fake tourist information centre that acted as a cover for their entrance in to the institute. Owen stopped before they reached the front door and silently looked out across the bay. Gwen stood waiting for him to move or to say something. Finally he inhaled deeply and said, "I'll miss you." She stood awkwardly beside him, unsure of how to respond. "When you go back…I'll never see you again. You'll be dead."

"I could stay, help you and the others to-"

"No." He scorned. "You have to go back. And you have to realise how much you can't live without me and fall madly in love with you." He smiled, trying to lighten the mood. Wrapping his arms around her held her tight, knowing it would be his last chance. He kissed her, his lips barely pressing against hers. It was nothing like the wild, passionate kisses they'd exchanged in life or death situations or while they were making their way to his bedroom, but somehow the small action was far more intimate and intense.

"I promise I'll fix this…stop this from ever happening." He shook his head, silencing her.

"Without a cure there's nothing we can do. I'll get infected and so will everyone else." He almost managed a smile at the look of resolute determination in her eyes. That was the Gwen he'd always know. Too stubborn to give up even when there was nothing she could do.

"Then infect me." She ordered, desperate to try and stop her grim future from ever happening. "Infect me like you did before and my blood will be right. We can find a cure."

"It won't work." Owen objected. He didn't want to risk exposing her again in case fate wasn't so kind and she actually turned.

"Why not?" Jack's voice carried from the doorway to the tourist shop, surprising them both. Owen looked at him with a deep scowl set on his face. He wasn't using Gwen as a guinea pig. "Seems to me it's our only option."

Owen eventually won the argument by point blank refusing to infect her. Without him they couldn't restage the infection and they'd risk turning her with any other weevil. "So we're sending her back." Owen hadn't meant it was a question but Jack replied.

"We can't."

"We've had this discussion Jack." The Captain held up his hands in mock surrender.

"I know. But we physically can't send her back." He pulled out the device that Owen had used to bring them both back from the past. "It's broken, the power cell won't work."

Owen glared at him. "You said it had enough power to get us back!"

"I said it probably did." Jack corrected the younger man.

"Well Tosh fixed the damn things in the first place-"

"Tosh is currently talking to thin air and calling it Mary." Lacey pointed out as she took a seat. She didn't look happy. "If she can even fix it again you'll need to wait till she has a good day." From the tone of her voice and the look on the two men's faces Gwen doubted they came often.

"Wait you said things? There's more than one?" Gwen quizzed.

"It's gone." Lacey answered, as the others remained silent. "It was in the government facility that was destroyed."

"So we have no cure and we can't send her back. Great plan Jack." Owen stormed off from the boardroom. Lacey gave her a sympathetic glance and ran after him. Jack ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"We'll sort out a cover story, say you weren't really dead. We'll get you an apartment and-"

"Can you get me back three years of my life?" She was close to tears and shaking with fear and anger. She was stuck there. In a world she didn't understand. A world in which she was dead and those around her didn't want her there. Jack got to his feet and wrapped his arms around her. "We'll get through this Gwen. I promise."

Lacey found Owen in his lab, clutching a bottle of vodka he'd stashed in there. "She's stuck here now." She chose her words carefully. "You two could start over-"

"She's not our Gwen. She doesn't belong here; she doesn't even know you anymore. We've got no chance of cure either. We're screwed."

"We've got one chance left." The young blonde objected. He looked up at her and shook his head.

"It wouldn't work." Owen dismissed the idea. Lacey sighed. They had to do something. He saw her expression and pulled her in for a hug. "We'll get through this. All of us." He hoped he sounded convincing because he sure as hell hadn't convinced himself.