Title: Tears of the Weevil
Rating: PG-13 (mature theme)
Disclaimer: Don't own Torchwood, the characters or anything related to the show.
A/N: I finally found the plan I'd made for the next few chapters, should be more careful with it --; So now that I've found it and finished celebrating my exam results/getting in to uni, I can finally get round to writing again. I plan to have this finished before the end of the month, hopefully. I'm also changing the rating to PG-13, as it will be necessary in the next few chapters.
"Ok people we need a plan and we need it fast!" Jack stood at the front of the boardroom, his very presence demanding attention. "We've got two options. We run or we stay and fight. I need to know you're all willing to ride this things out." Owen and Lacey looked outraged at the suggestion that they would flee, but Gwen looked deep in thought.
"Gwen?" Jack was never one to miss anything. She looked up, realising she'd been caught out.
"You've all been part of Torchwood for years. I've only been here a few weeks and back in the past I'd only been there six months. I never signed up to die for people who couldn't give a damn about me. The public hate us, so why bother?" She could see Jack's jaw tightening and felt Owen let go of her hand.
"We-" She put a finger to Owen's lip to silence him and smiled that reassuring, everything's alright smile that she reserved for the gravest of situations.
"There's only one thing we can do." She informed them all matter-of-factly. "We need someone one the inside."
The others sat in a stunned silence. They had all honestly expected her to tell them all to give up. She smiled, quite pleased with herself. "You all thought I was giving in didn't you?" She beamed. "If I can convince the people who know me best then convincing Emmerich won't be a problem. She offered me a job, it's about time I accepted."
"We take them down from the inside." Owen nodded with understanding, liking the idea of getting one up on Emmerich and her organisation.
"If they suspect you they'll kill you." Jack interrupted Gwen's gloating with a sentence that sent the others crashing back down to reality. They looked from Jack's steely gaze to Gwen's determined glare.
"They've killed too many of us already." She reminded him. "If we don't take this chance they could kill us all."
"Not me." Jack shrugged, earning a small grin from Gwen. He'd always confided in her from starting Torchwood, and for the first time since she'd arrived the past really did feel like years ago. It was true she had only been with Torchwood a matter of months but she felt as though she really were her future incarnation; the woman who loved Owen Harper, was mother to a beautiful nine month old baby and had devoted the last three and a half years of her life to Torchwood.
"Be careful." He added by way of giving his permission. "I don't want to bury you a second time."
After Jack and Lacey left the room to talk to their contacts within the British Alien Defence squad, Gwen finally demanded the truth from Owen concerning her death.
"How did it happen? I mean was I killed fighting for Torchwood or was it natural causes? If I died from an illness then I could be dead again in three years!"
Owen looked up sheepishly from his hands and sighed. He knew that one day she would need to know, he couldn't hide it from her forever. He still hoped to delay it. "It wasn't natural causes." Once he'd been silent for a few moments Gwen realised he wasn't going to tell her.
"Tell me!" She shouted, ignoring the wince from her lover. "I deserve to know how I died!"
"It'll destroy you." Owen mumbled grumpily, still finding his hands fascinating.
"Why?" She knelt down beside him to look him in the eye, pulling his hands in to hers. It was only then as she saw his swollen red eyes and felt droplets of water hitting her hands that she realised he was crying. "Owen-" He pulled his hands free and wrapped his arms tightly around her in a crushing hug.
"You were so sick by the end." He began, his breath tickling against her skin as his head was buried in her chest. "Ianto was dead, Toshiko was mental and Lacey was on her way to losing it…you were just tired. Fed up with being treat like a guinea pig…"
"Go on." She urged when he stopped to look up at her, she could guess where he was going but didn't want to admit it.
"We found you in the lab, me and Lacey, you were just lying there with your eyes closed, like you were sleeping…" He trailed off again and broke down sobbing. "You'd taken all of Toshiko's sedatives…"
Lacey put down the phone as she saw Gwen storming out of the boardroom towards her, tears running down her cheeks. Without explanation her mother hugged her as though she were about to disappear forever. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She mumbled, clinging to her daughter.
"It's ok." Lacey closed her eyes, the image of finding her dead mother still burnt in her mind. "She hadn't cried, as usual she'd buried all her feelings down deep, concentrating on keeping her father from ending his own life and trying to remind Toshiko of who she was. Jack had offered her a shoulder to cry on at the funeral but she'd refused it and stood tall, holding a sobbing Toshiko as Owen stared blankly at the metal catacomb that his fiancée had been placed in for her final resting place. "I forgive you, mom."