Gwen angrily pulled out weed after weed, muttering to herself as she went. Something Rhys had said earlier that morning had put her in a foul mood. Looking back on it, she can't remember what he said. What mattered was that Jack had been gone for eight months, and the truth of that had been gnawing at her relentlessly.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say, but Gwen heartily disagreed. Rather than being fond of Jack, Gwen resented him for leaving her when she was not only six months pregnant, but still mourning the death of Ianto and getting over the shock of the 456 situation.

She wiped a few beads of sweat from her forehead, leaving a smear of dirt that went unnoticed. Gwen realized only a bit too late that her jeans were probably ruined from her being on her hands and knees in the dirt. "Bollocks," she muttered.

"What a view." The voice Gwen heard came from about 10 feet behind her, and there was no mistaking who it was. She whipped her head around to confirm that, yes, Jack was there, in front of her, speaking to her as if they hadn't been apart for so long. She got up on her feet and spinned around to look at him better.

Jack's coat was swaying lightly in the breeze, and his eyes were sparkling, eyebrows raised expectantly. I don't know whether to hug him or slap him,Gwen thought to herself. She decided on the former, choosing not to ignore the butterflies fluttering away in her stomach. Her feet carried her over to him faster than she intended, and she snapped her arms around his neck. He lifted her feet off the ground, staggering back a bit from the force with which Gwen ran into his arms.

Jack's nose nudged against Gwen's ear as she breathed in his curious, tantalizing scent. God, she missed this. Her feet touched ground again, but Jack didn't dare let go of her. They held each other, both trying to make absolutely certain that this wasn't a dream or a mirage or a hallucination. Gwen closed her eyes as everything - almost everything, she remembered - clicked back into place.

She quickly inhaled one more breath of Jack's skin before stepping back and smacking him square across the face.

"Ow!" he shouted indignantly. "What was that for?"

"Do you have any idea how much I worried about you? How many nights I sat right there, wondering if I'd ever see you again?" she gestured to the kitchen window.

"Hey," Jack whispered soothingly, trying to make eye contact with her. She looked away defiantly. "I'm sorry," he said, ghosting his fingers down the backs of her arms before grasping her hands in his.

"You know I can't stay mad at you when you do that," Gwen admitted, totally defeated. She peered up at Jack through her eyelashes. "What did you come back here for, anyway?"

"For you."