Chapter One – Beginnings: Ianto was making the coffee as he always did, a job he actually enjoyed. In a life filled with aliens, a chore so mundane as making coffee was actually a comfort. The problem was, he was so used to the routine, he barely thought about it, and almost added too much coffee in. Industrial strength coffee... no point in making that now. Jack bloody Harkness was gone, after all. And his mental voice was starting to sound too much like Owen. Scary, that.

The metal door turning open was a welcome distraction, he thought, and turned to see who was coming in. Tosh or Gwen, most likely. Tosh was always an early bird, and Gwen had been coming in earlier since she'd taken charge. It was Gwen, and she looked upset. Usually pale, she was nearly dead white, and she looked shocked. "Gwen, are you all right?" Dumb question, but it was as good a starting point as any.

"What? Oh, yeah," she said distantly. Ianto rolled his eyes.

"Gwen, you're not the best liar."

She laughed, a laugh that sounded more like a sob. "No, I guess not." He hesitated, and then put a hand on her shoulder.

"So, what is it?" he asked uncomfortably. He wasn't good at this. But he considered Gwen a friend, and he didn't like to see friends upset. She shifted uncomfortably and looked away.

"Oh, Rhys and I had a fight, no big deal."

"You two have been fighting a lot."

"Yeah, we – wait. You've noticed?"

"I have, Tosh has, even our usually oblivious Owen has. If Myfanwy were more sentient, she'd know too. You've been edgy lately, and your phone's been ringing more. And you've been less happy when you answer it."

"You really are observant."

"Comes with the territory of being a secretary."

"You're not a secretary!"

"No, not anymore. You must have run mad temporarily to make me a field agent." He grinned at her.

"I did not. You're as good in the field as any of us." Gwen's voice was firm. "Personally, I don't know why Jack – " She stopped midsentence and looked away again. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine. Just... when he left, did he say anything?"

"No, he just disappeared. I couldn't understand it."

"Neither do I. I mean, he dies for us, then comes back and just goes off!" Ianto shook his head. "Here I was trying to make you feel better and distract myself, and we've both turned out more depressed than when we started!"

"Well, at least it's about something different. For me anyway. For you..."

"No, unfortunately." The door opened again to admit Tosh.

"Morning, Gwen, Ianto," she said absently as she turned on her computers. Despite their rather low moods, Gwen and Ianto couldn't help but exchange a smile. Tosh would always be their computer geek.

"'Lo, everyone," came Owen's voice as he wandered in, looking as usual as though he'd just woken up. And Owen was still Owen. It was nice to know some things were still the same. Even if everything was changed.

"Why did you get stuck with the 'secretary' job anyway?" It was a few days later, at the end of the day, and only Ianto and Gwen were there. Gwen had been thinking about their little chat. She was beginning to find she enjoyed talking with Ianto.

"What? Oh, my job title. Well, when I came from Canary Wharf – " He stopped.

"Was it bad, there?" Lisa had been horrible; she couldn't imagine an army of Cybermen – or Cyberpeople, if one was being politically correct.

"Yeah," Ianto said quietly, staring into space. He could still see it, everything destroyed. And Lisa...

"Ianto, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... well..."

"It's fine. It's been a while." He smiled sadly as a thought struck him. "You know, it's a pity you never met Lisa before... well. I think the two of you would have gotten on. But to answer your question, it was the only job available. And it was somewhat closer to home – my parents love it, thought I don't actually see them any more than I used to. It's enough for them to know I'm closer, even if they don't see me."

Gwen laughed a little. "My parents live near Ludlow. My father's into history, and he used to tell me about how the castle there used to be the home of the Prince of Wales."

"Ah, Ludlow. Some of those princes died there, like Arthur, Henry VIII's older brother."

"You like history?"

"My best class in school."

"Mine too, thanks to Dad. I always liked the Tudors – well, Elizabeth, anyway."

"She was one tough woman, I'll say that."

"I think she had to be. She was my hero when I was about ten."

"Oh, what, did you want to be Queen?"

"Well, most girls dream of being a princess, I only went one step further," she said primly. They both laughed. "In all honesty though, I did look up to her. And I still read about her; Rhys doesn't get it. He wasn't a big fan of school."

"Oh, no?"

"No. He went to uni, did all right – we met there, actually – but he hated it. Me, I enjoyed it."

"Yeah, so did I." Ianto smiled. "That's where I met Lisa. We were in the same psychology class, and we both got tapped for Torchwood right out of school."

"God."

"Well, we weren't the only ones. Ask Tosh sometime when UNIT hired her."

"I seem to be the odd one out."

"No, Owen was hired later."

"Well, that's something." Her phone rang. "Rhys?" Ianto felt himself tense. He didn't like the way she'd answered that. Just a slight change in tone, but not a good one.

"No, sorry, I'll be home in a bit, we just ran a little over." She paused, then frowned. "Are you drunk?" She closed her eyes as she realized that he was.

"I just went out with Daf, and yeah, I'm drunk. What do you care, you're never 'ere anyway."

"Rhys..."

"Y'know, I don't give a damn if you come 'ome or not." His voice was so slurred it almost seemed to carry the stench of the booze, even though she knew smell didn't come through phones. Well, not Earth phones at any rate. She couldn't speak for alien ones.

"Rhys, just calm down, we'll talk when I get home, alright? Bye." And she hung up before he could say anything. She saw Ianto was watching her. "What?"

"Should you go home? I couldn't hear the words, but his tone sounded nasty. And you said he was drunk. It just seems to be a bad idea."

"Oh, I'll be fine. He's... well, he's been drinking more, it's nothing. Good night, Ianto." And she grabbed her coat and walked out. Ianto watched her, shaking his head. If Jack had been here, he'd have stopped her, and Ianto felt he should, but he knew she wouldn't listen to him. He just hoped he was wrong, or that whatever went wrong at Gwen's flat didn't go too wrong.

A/N: So, what do you think? The thing about this fic is that a good bit of it is going to be Gwen/Ianto. Depending on how I play with the basic format I've got set for this, there may be more Jack/Gwen/Ianto spread through the story. I don't know yet. If not, it'll all be at the end.