"This is a desiderio fulgens stone, or Shining Desire, as known in English. It brings the owner their one greatest wish, gives them the one thing they love and cherish the most." Jack explained in a voice they had once cherished back at Torchwood. A wondrous, magical tone within his American accent that caused them all to listen closely, holding their breath.
"Well that's all lovely and Harry Potter isn't it? Can we get to somewhere with shelter? I'm freezing my arse off here." Owen groaned, wrapping his arms around his body. This outburst received a slap on the arm from Tosh and Owen growled at her. Gwen grinned, surprised at their normalcy.
"So it brought you all back to life?" Gwen asked, ignoring Owen's groans as he knew he'd have to stand and listen to all of her questioning.
"Yes." Tosh nodded. "We're back, in the flesh. Thanks to you."
"So, I can touch you?" Gwen asked, her eyes filled with tears and need and she stared at Ianto in front of her. The others allowed him to answer her, knowing that his death had pained her most, it being so unexpected. She hadn't had enough time to get to know Ianto. They were close, but not as close as she had wanted them to be. The fact that she hadn't even known the truth about his father's occupation had pained her after he had died, and she had not forgiven herself for it.
"Yes." Ianto replied. Gwen didn't allow another second to pass and leaped for him, grasping his body in her arms and holding him tight against her, relishing his body warmth and the beating of his heart that she could feel through his chest. Ianto's hands gripped her waist and he snuggled his head down against hers, kissing into her hair and smiling down at her. They pulled apart and Gwen held his hand, squeezing it before letting go and stepping back.
"Are you here to stay?" She whispered, scared to find the answer. As Tosh, Owen and Ianto bowed their heads in unison, she knew the answer and cursed inwardly. "Why not? Why can't you stay forever?" She almost sounded like a whiney child, begging for another bag of sweets in the middle of Asda as her mother looked on in embarrassment.
"The stone can't keep them here for too long, Gwen." Jack replied solemnly.
"But you? You're real, right? You're back for good, aren't you?"
"We'll see." Jack muttered. Silence followed and they stood still, listening to the wind howling around them, bashing at the sea and whispering amongst the distant trees. Owen cleared his throat and they all turned to him, his body was shivering and he was frowning openly.
"Can we go inside now? Please?"
Gwen beckoned them down the cliff, pointing at her house. They didn't utter a word for a long while, each deep in their own thought. As they got closer to the house, Owen began to mumble and moan once more about how cold he was. Oh, and how he hadn't had a decent meal in years. Tosh hissed at him, explaining sarcastically how the dead didn't usually get a roast dinner delivered to their grave and Owen had shot a glare back at her.
"Damn, I didn't think of that. I don't have much food in." Gwen replied, surprised at how casual her voice was, as if this was a normal situation. "Oh God, I've just realised, how the hell am I going to explain this to Rhys?"
"Oh, so you haven't chucked him?" Owen chuckled and Tosh gave him another slap on the arm, this time a lot harder.
"No, I haven't." Gwen replied through gritted teeth and Jack couldn't help but laugh at how comfortable and normal it was to be back with the old team again. They reached the porch of the house to be greeted with a high pitched cry and Gwen ran in quickly, swearing loudly. The four of her friends stood in the doorway awkwardly as they watched her scoop up a pretty, yet runny-nosed, baby from its high chair and rock it gently, singing quietly.
"Shh, darling. It's okay, mummy's here." She whispered, kissing her forehead before yelling up the stairs. "I told you to look after her!"
"I told you, I'm busy with this bloody bookshelf! Is someone there Gwen? I could hear voices?" Rhys' recognisably welsh voice bellowed downstairs and they could hear a loud clatter, then some cursing. Jack held back a muffled chuckle and Owen smirked openly. Ianto and Tosh watched on in slight embarrassment.
"Yeah, look, don't be scared, okay? Just…come downstairs calmly. I have an explanation." Gwen shouted, turning from her friends, back to the staircase, worry etched firmly on her face.
"What the bloody hell is going on, you can't just say something like that and expect-" Rhys plodded down the stairs to face the doorway, his mouth dropping and his heart leaping from his chest in surprise. He didn't say a word, just stared. Gwen turned slowly and shoved her baby into Owen's arms who grimaced openly, then held her arms out in defence.
"I know, it looks crazy. Just let…let me explain, okay?" She walked towards him calmly and carefully, putting her hands up beside her face. Rhys began to mumbled incoherently and behind her, Anwen started to sob as Owen had evidently never held a baby before.
Rhys opened the door to the living room, clearing his throat and whispering, in a terrified and creaky voice, that perhaps they should go in there and she could explain what was going on. He started to shake openly and Gwen pushed him into the room, muttering an apology to her friends before slamming the door behind them.
"Well, er, what now?" Tosh asked. Owen held out Anwen at arms-length and Ianto rolled his eyes, carefully taking the baby from him and rocking her in his arms. She stopped crying instantly and smiled up at him. Jack closed the door behind them, blocking out the freezing wind, and ushered them into the kitchen. They each took a seat around the wooden table, apart from Jack who stood tall and proud beside the window, staring out onto the sea.
"How are you so good with babies?" Owen asked, frowning at the child in Ianto's arms who was burbling happily, reaching out her hand to grasp at Ianto's waistcoat. Ianto looked up, smiling.
"I don't know, I just seem to have a knack with them. I wonder what her name is. Bless her, she looks just like her mother." He whispered.
"Thank god." Owen laughed harshly, thinking of Rhys and how awful the child would have looked as a female version of him. Tosh glared at him and rolled her eyes.
"You never change do you?" She moaned, ignoring the fact that Jack was now chuckling rather loudly at the three of them. Owen grinned back at her and cocked his head, as if to answer the question with a cheeky 'no'. The room fell silent apart from the occasional burble from Anwen and sighs from Owen. They could hear raised voices in the other room and could tell Rhys had started a heated debate on whether they could stay within his house or not.
"Why did you leave her?" Ianto asked, filling the silence and causing a large and awkward pause to ring in the air. He was staring straight at Jack, Anwen cooing in his arms. Tosh and Owen stared at him also, their eyes questioning and rather surprised at the fact that he had left her. They knew how much Gwen meant to Jack, and couldn't ever imagine him leaving her on her own.
"Because I'd lost so much and so many. Because I couldn't bear to walk upon this earth, this graveyard, any longer. How could you look into the eyes of one of your most caring and loving friends, seeing the loss and sadness within them, and know that it was all your fault? All your fault that they were dead."
"No." Tosh said firmly. "We all signed up for Torchwood. We put our own lives on the line. None of this was ever, ever, your fault."
Jack didn't have the time to reply because just as Tosh finished her sentence, Gwen entered the room, slightly out of breath. She smiled at them, and almost squealed with joy when she saw Anwen cradled in Ianto's arms. She nodded, sighing happily. "It's okay, you can stay."
Rhys edged into the room beside her, his face still showing just how scared he was. He raised his hand in a feeble wave and smiled weakly. He turned to nod at each person in turn, stopping on Ianto, and Anwen in his arms, and giving a slight glare which Ianto winced at. "Erm, hello. Nice to see you, you know, back. Stay for as long as you want…yeah." He shook his head, wiping the sweat from his forehead, then left the room slowly.
"Sorry, it's scary enough for me, let alone him." She mumbled. "He's gone to fix that bookshelf of his, he's been obsessed with DIY recently, pretty rubbish with it though."
Owen huffed slightly and rose from the chair shaking his head. "I'll go help the poor guy, talk to him a bit. Perhaps reassure him." The others stared at him, at how incredulous the suggestion was, but Gwen nodded in defeat anyway, warning Owen to be careful around Rhys and a hammer. The others chuckled as he exited the room, then Tosh cleared her throat.
"I was wondering, if you still have the kit, could I log onto the Torchwood archives? I have a few things I want to change before I go?" She asked, fiddling with her thumbs slightly. Gwen nodded and rushed to the cupboard under the stairs, pulling out a large laptop case and thrusting it into her arms.
"Go wild." She smiled, patting Tosh on the arm with affection. Oh Tosh, never away from her technology, even after death she finds a way of getting herself back onto a computer.
Gwen headed back to the kitchen, taking a seat next to Ianto and sighing exhaustedly. She looked between Jack and Ianto, then down to her darling little baby. She held out her little finger, allowing Anwen to grip it with all of her fingers and squeeze it hard. Ianto chuckled at her and made a small humming sound, rocking her and smiling at her delighted face. Jack acknowledged how adorable Ianto looked with a child, and a pang of pain rattled through his stomach at the thought of how Ianto would never be a father. How in a few days' time, Ianto, Tosh and Owen would be gone for good. How he'd somehow have to inch his way out of Gwen's life again and escape this Earth and the deaths that weighed down on his brain.