Another chapter for you. This story may look like it's not going places and not relevant to the summary but trust me, you'll need the background info. So enjoy it, absorb it, review it!
AN- Remember Italics= Flashback/memory :)

FlowerPetalsToTheWind

"What?" Lois managed.

"Jack! I saw him! And Bee even said he's been here. Here! He saw the SUV I bet. Finished gallivanting around the galaxy and bloody came back!" Gwen collapsed into her chair. "I mean, he wasn't supposed to come back. I wasn't supposed to see him again! I was sure I'd be dead before Jack bloody Harkness landed back on Earth!" Gwen continued to rant and rave for a few minutes. Lois sat patiently watching, allowing her boss to blow off all her steam before she said anything. "How can this be possible? I know he can't die but couldn't have just pretended to? Let me live in bloody peace? All he brings is trouble and grief and I've finished with that! I don't need that anymore! I have a nice house, a nice family, I'm head of Torchwood. I was fine. Why now?" Gwen seemed to have finished. She was breathing heavily. Lois cleared her throat quietly to get Gwen's attention, her head snapped round to face Lois, her hair a little messy and eyes bulging a little panicked.

"Why don't you let me handle Jack? He'll come sniffing around again and he will find us because he doesn't back down, does he? Now you have a parent meets teacher meeting with Jay. So just go to the meeting, cool down then come back with a clear head and we'll sort this mess out. In the mean time, I have a rogue weevil downstairs that needs attending to, a pteranodon to feed and some paperwork that really needs doing. So Jack Harkness can wait, can't he?" Lois ended cheerily.

"Yes. You're right. I have a meeting. Jack can wait. Thank you." Gwen said breathlessly. She stood up, straightened her jacket and set to go out the door. As she opened it to step out she knocked straight into Jack. She gasped in surprise, Jack grinned.

"I knew you missed me." He said sarcastically. Gwen looked up into his face, scowling.

"If you heard any of our conversation, then you already know I have more pressing matters to attend to. You will have to wait." She said simply and stormed past him.

Jack looked a little shocked. He looked up to Lois smiling professionally at him.

"Would you like to take a seat? The boss will be back in an hour or so." Jack looked surprised.

"Boss? And actually, I didn't hear any of your conversation." He said.

"Yes: boss. Gwen has been head of Torchwood Three for five years now. She also re-established Torchwood One and is one of the three heads of Torchwood London. She rebuilt the liaison with Torchwood Two and is an executive there too." Lois filled in quickly.

"Still no sign of Torchwood Four then?" Jack said half jokingly.

"No actually. But that's next on her agenda; she's been quite busy recently. For some reason, there has been a lot of Rift activity here." Lois added helpfully. "Come to think of it, doesn't have anything to do with you does it?" She asked.

"Me?"

"Yes, you came through, now we are busy with activity. Did you aggravate something in the Rift? Or leave a hole?"

"Or maybe it's just coincidence?"

"Has anything involving you ever been a coincidence?" Lois looked a little accusingly at him.

"When did you become so cheeky?" He dodged

"Since I joined Torchwood." Lois retorted quickly. Jack pondered this for a moment.

"So anyway, where's she gone?"

"She's got a meeting, like I said; she'll be back in about an hour. Would you like to take a seat?"

"And you?"

"I have this and that to be doing." she answered vaguely.

"This being..." Jack waved as if to continue her sentence. Lois sighed at his persistence,

"A weevil and pteranodon to attend to." Jack smiled,

"Oh did Janet survive the blast?"

"Janet?"

"The weevil."

"I have never come across a weevil named Janet. I brought this one in this afternoon, out and about instead of being in the sewers. Gone a little rogue I think."

"Oh." Jack said a little disappointedly, even though she was seriously anti social, Jack had taken a liking to Janet. "So, what's happened to my car?"

"Your car?"

"Yes, the SUV."

"Oh, the Torchwood SUV? That's Gwen's car. It was salvaged from a village a few miles away after being joy ridden into a ditch. Not much damage to the interior. Bodywork needed tending to but it's all still there, the same, if not a little updated." Lois explained. Jack nodded his head. Then another thought occurred to him,

"Gwen seems very, err," Jack searched the right word, "'high up' in Torchwood" He finished.

"Yes well, Gwen has been head of Torchwood for five years." Lois answered simply. "I have already explained this to you, were you paying attention?" Lois frowned.

"Yes I was paying attention, but it's a lot to take in, don't you think? Last time I was here, Torchwood had been blown to bits, there was only one remaining survivor of my team and the government was trying to assassinate me. A little has changed so excuse me for not absorbing it all in the last five minutes!" Jack's voice began to rise. Lois was taken back. She hadn't really thought about it that way. She looked back down at her screen to avoid eye contact, thinking about his earlier question, "When did you become so cheeky?" She hadn't really noticed. Yes Torchwood had brought her out of her shell a bit. But had she let it get carried away? Was she becoming like those operatives she had watched stalk around, arrogance swirling around them like a poison, looking like they thought they owned everything. She thought back to earlier in the week when Torchwood had been called onto a scene.

It was afternoon, cloudy; looking like it was soon to rain. But she had stepped out of the SUV with Gwen, wearing shades, a long black coat billowing behind her. She flicked her ID out and didn't even bother looking at the police guarding the tape. She went up to it announced, "Torchwood." Flashed the ID in the officers' face and stepped under the tape. Walking intently to the crime scene, which, to an observer, would simply have radiated arrogance. The crime scene was a Cardiff flat, extremely normal, ground floor flat, the newly painted council walls still smelling of fresh paint, masking the smell that was hiding in the regular looking apartment. However when she entered, the stench of old, shed blood hit her nostrils, the stale, sweet smell of it congealing off the walls and around her, surrounding her, filling her head with the thoughts of what lay in front. She finally reached the body of what appeared to be a human corpse. But unlike the flat, there was nothing normal about the corpse. The blood was tinged yellow, like an infection, the skin, was white but covered with strange black markings and the terrified eyes still staring from beneath a mop of dirty yellow, not blonde hair, were also a florescent yellow, and slit like cat's eyes. Lois looked at Gwen who was still staring hard at the body. Gwen sighed, pulled a latex glove from her pocket and as she slipped it on, bent down to the head of the body. Lois stepped back, a little repulsed that Gwen had gone near it. But she continued to watch as Gwen slowly used her glove hand to shut the corpse's vivid yellow eyes closed. The smells and sights of spattered old blood, rotting flesh, massacred splatters of body parts, alien parts, weapons from the Rift, damage from the Rift, artefacts from the Rift, no longer fazed Lois. It was part of her job. But seeing Gwen bend down towards one of these sights had brought a sudden wave of nausea that had told her mind, she definitely would never do that. Never have even thought of doing it. But Gwen... Gwen wasn't looking at the blood, wasn't thinking of the smell, she merely saw a creature, that deserved respect, like any creature, from any where. She had shown it that respect and had closed its eyes, as most do to a person out of respect. "This will need a clean up crew and a relatively high level of Retconning. No more officers are to be allowed in here, is that understood?" Gwen had turned to Lois who nodded and set to work on her instructions. She turned back to see Gwen taking off the glove and placing it in the kitchen bin before turning to exit as well. She saw Lois staring and raised her eyebrows as to question Lois' sudden freeze frame. Lois faltered, "Uh, doesn't that tamper with evidence?" She asked.

"Lois, you've been working with Torchwood for five years, you of all should know, there is no evidence." Gwen told her sadly before stepping out of the flat, pulling out her mobile to contact the clean up team, still barking at officers to stay back, Torchwood were taking care of it.

"No matter what, she still cares." Lois said out loud.

"What?" Jack asked a little puzzled at this sudden announcement after she had been so quiet for a few minutes. Lois looked up a little startled.

"Gwen. She always cares. Even when she looks and acts like the boss, her heart is always in it." Lois said slowly as if realising something she had missed for a long while. "That's why she never looks arrogant or, or, cold. Even as the head, she doesn't stop caring for any of it." Jack looked carefully at Lois. She looked back at him, "You asked me earlier, why was I so cheeky, remember?" She asked. Jack nodded recalling the small argument/conversation. "I thought about it. Because I wasn't before, was I? But Gwen, even after everything and how long she has been here, she's never looked or acted like the rest. She always stood out, never looking arrogant, just in control, it's because she cares!" Lois exclaimed, laughing slightly. "People have always said, haven't they? "Torchwood, think they own it all." But no one ever says anything against Gwen personally, have you ever got that?" Lois looked back at Jack. Jack stood there and smiled.

"Now you see why I chose her, can't you? See why she stood out to me. After Suzie, there was no other candidate. She brought something to Torchwood no one else ever could. She brought heart to it. She certainly taught me to care more, but it was always her strength, not mine, but she kept me grounded and in reality, with feelings" Jack thought back to when he worked with Gwen. "But how? How did she make Torchwood practically like an empire? I know she's smart and has a heart, but she's definitely something special to produce this." Jack asked, looking around at the office, which conveyed tell tale signs of extra terrestrial spark.

"Well she came back here, worked her way up the police force very quickly, secured herself an office, talked to the right people, restarted Torchwood Three. With that running successfully, she disappeared for a few weeks. Calls me from London, Torchwood One is back online, with Gwen at the head. Torchwood Two ring, Gwen's also been up there, having meetings, talking, suddenly she is an executive." Lois explained briefly. Jack looked at her in awe.

"All on her own?" He asked incredulously,

"All on her own." Lois confirmed. Jack chuckled a little in disbelief. He sat down on a chair provided just as the door opened. Gwen entered the room looking a lot less frazzled than she had previously looked. She took in a large breath, exhaled slowly and walked past Jack without looking at him. She went a door to the side of Lois' desk and shut it with a snap. Jack looked at Lois with a little confusion on his face but only found it reflected in hers. Jack shrugged his shoulders and asked, "So, do I go in?"

"Uh, no, best not, just, just wait." Lois said a little nervously.

"Damn, I've never had to ask before." Jack said. Lois looked back at him and he winked. Lois had never been a fan of innuendo and had just realised she probably wouldn't get on with Jack Harkness very well. A couple of minutes past. Lois was sure she heard Gwen pacing in her office. Suddenly her office phone buzzed, line one, Gwen. She picked up the receiver and all she heard was a sigh and,

"Send him in." She put the receiver down carefully. Jack kept watching her expectantly. She nodded her head slightly. He smiled, flashing white teeth, bounded up and entered Gwen's office.