Thank you so, so much to Ravenja70, NikkieSheepie, the darkness revealed, thedeejay, gernumblies, milady dragon, Marian Locksley, DoctorWhoXTorchwood, specialfrancine, L.A.H.H., Steph, gurugirl, Alibrandi, Jooles34 and Georgiexx for reviewing! As to whether your pleas were heard… well, wait and see.
Yeah, yeah, you're here to take delight/share in Gwen's suffering, not to read my author notes. So here goes…
Chapter 4
"Jack?"
"What, Ianto?"
"I really think we should go and find her."
"There's nothing wrong with her, Ianto."
"Is Teaboy getting scared?" Owen jibed, still annoyed at having to clean the fridge out. "You don't actually believe her, do you?"
"No, it's just… She's been gone for hours, Jack. What if there really is something wrong?"
Owen rolled his eyes.
Jack glanced round the Hub and finally gave an answer. "Alright, but only because there's nothing else going on. And when we get there you're taking responsibility for us giving in and turning up, seeing as it's you she's managed to persuade." Jack paused. "Tosh? Are you coming? I need you to testify that we did this for Ianto's sake."
Tosh looked up from her final, triumphant reboot of the computer. "Ok. If I must."
"Great. Ianto, go and get the SUV ready. And bring some money – maybe we can pick up some food on the way there. And Gwen can eat her dead cat for lunch."
***
The torch flickered again. Gwen was so tired of holding it - pointing it all round her – and yet still watching those creatures inch closer and closer. She wonders why she's even bothering – after all, all she's doing is holding off the inevitable.
***
"Where is this place, anyway?" Jack asked as he turned out of the Hub's garage.
"Splott, sir. Not far." Ianto sounded less worried now they were doing something – probably helped by Tosh, Owen and Jack's nonchalant attitude to their mission.
"I am so going to punch her when we get there." Owen muttered. "I hate bloody Splott."
***
There's another option, and Gwen is almost tempted to take it. If she presses down on her broken leg hard enough she can probably be unconscious when they reach her. But that's not the Torchwood way – she'll go down fighting, and nothing else.
***
"Bleak looking place." Tosh murmured. "Look – her car's still here."
"Is she in it?" Owen asked hopefully. He had seen the size of the building.
"Nope."
"Brilliant. So she could be hiding anywhere in all that lot." Owen kicked Gwen's car as they passed.
***
They're so close now that she could smell their breath. Trying not to throw up she tried to curl her right leg further back into the corner. The torch flickered again. And again.
***
"Hello?" Ianto called up the stairs. The building seemed to swallow up his voice.
"Look," Tosh whispered. "There's her footprints." She shone her torch along the floor, illuminating a set of footprints in the dust, leading away down the corridor.
"I bet she didn't think of that." Jack laughed quietly. "There's no way she'll be able to sneak up on us."
***
Gwen dug frantically in her pockets with her spare hand, searching for anything she could throw at them. She had already tried pelting them with the bones that littered the floor near her, but they just seemed to melt away from whatever she threw in their direction. She lobbed her phone at the nearest set of orange eyes, but was rewarded only by the sound of it smashing on the cellar floor. The light of the torch started flickering again, and this time it didn't stop.
***
Ianto pointed mutely at the last doorway, with its single set of footprints. They all crowded round and peered through the open doorway.
"Shit." Owen breathed.
There was a hole halfway across the room's floor, with Gwen's gun lying abandoned beside it.
***
The light went out.
***
Yes, that was indeed another cliff-hanger. This is why:
The general consensus seems to be that you don't want Gwen to die, but you don't mind her getting beaten up a bit. Or eaten, I suppose, in this case. Actually, the votes seem to be leaning towards 'severely mauled'. But this morning I realised something. I have failed to count a few of the votes. Firstly there is Gwen's vote (she's been pleading with me for the past few days to let her be rescued, almost to the extent that I would quite happily kill her to get her to give me some peace) and the team's vote etc etc… but there are also the opinions of the countless hungry shadow things in the cellar to be taken into account. So I'm afraid Gwen's fate is still hanging in the balance whilst I try to make the majority happy.
Further advice, pleas (not you, Gwen!) and general comments will be much appreciated, and all are taken into account.