Chapter 16
A/N not a lot of action, but the scene needs to be set for what's to follow. I know it's been a while, but I have been ridiculously busy. Many apologies. However, I have been enjoying reading fics here by such wonderful writers as Riftintime, Gmariam and Tamaar , as well as new fic by ThePeachyMonkey - so much so that I felt guilty about not posting any of my own fic.
The Torchwood boardroom had played witness to many an awkward discussion or blaring row, and Gwen Cooper had been at the centre of many of those encounters. However, the current situation was one that she could barely get her head around. Ianto had made coffee and Gwen had ordered in food after calling Rhys to let him know that something had cropped up and she was likely to be at work for the rest of the night. They were now waiting in silence for Owen and Tosh to join them.
Ianto had picked up one of the small sculptures that Jack had claimed were alien and was running his fingers over the curves of its surface, studiously avoiding Gwen's gaze, even though he could feel her staring at him.
Eventually it was too much for Gwen and she let loose a derisory snort.
"What?" demanded Ianto, wishing she would just get it out of her system.
"I can't believe you kept this from me."
"From you?" Ianto could barely hold his eyebrow in check. The uncharitable part of his soul couldn't help but think it was inevitable that she'd make the whole damn situation all about her.
"I thought we were friends."
The accusatory note in Gwen's voice was the icing on the cake for Ianto. He pinched the bridge of his nose and wondered when he'd last heard that tone outside of a playground. Looking up from the sculpture he had in his hands he caught sight of those large green eyes, sparkling from Gwen's freckled face and saw her once more as the naive policewoman bearing pizzas as she entered the world of Torchwood. No matter what she saw, she never seemed to take any of it for granted, it always seemed to be a surprise to her.
"If it makes you feel any better, Jack didn't bother letting me know until he was four months gone."
"Four months?" Gwen gaped. She was genuinely shocked that Ianto hadn't been keeping this secret for longer than he had. "Didn't you notice he was putting on weight, getting a bit of a gut?"
"Oh yes, because that would have been the first thing that came to mind: 'hmmm, Jack's losing his six pack, perhaps he's up the duff?'"
"There's no need for sarcasm, Ianto. What about cravings? Last time I saw him he was stuffing his face with doughnuts-"
"Haven't you watched the way he eats? What that man can't stuff in his mouth -"
"Stop there!" Gwen held up a hand making it clear that she could imagine that only too well. "Didn't you, you know, use … precautions?"
"Condoms? Yes, we did – I insisted if you must know," Ianto could feel his face turning pink and looked over his shoulder, willing Tosh and Owen to return to put a stop to this mortifying conversation.
"Oh … yes, well, I suppose that would make sense." Gwen cursed herself – Jack didn't make any secret of his sexual proclivities.
Ianto didn't think that it was any of Gwen's business that they'd stopped using condoms after Jack returned from his time away. He'd sworn there was nothing Ianto could catch from him and he'd promised he wasn't seeing anyone else. Whilst ruminating on the more intimate details of his relationship with Jack, what had started as irritation with Gwen's persistent questioning started to grow into anger. He could see the way she was appraising him, no doubt contemplating the fact that if it had been her instead of him, there was no chance that Jack would have ended up pregnant.
"Look, Gwen, just spit it out. What's really annoying you here? The fact that I said nothing? The fact you never bloody noticed? Or that Jack didn't take you into his confidence?" Ianto pushed his chair back and leaned forward, his hands gripping the edge of the table, "Or maybe you're thinking that if Jack had been screwing you instead of me we wouldn't be in this fucking mess!"
"No!" Gwen stood up and yelled back. "Stop being so bloody paranoid!" However, despite her denial, she couldn't stop from considering the indisputable truth of the statement.
"What the hell's going on in here?" Owen demanded as he stormed into the conference room, having been alarmed by the raised voices.
"I'm just trying to get up to speed on this – I need to know how this happened," Gwen replied, whilst pointing at Ianto.
"Well, if that's what your issue is, I'm sure Tosh can locate some CCTV footage that will show you exactly-"
"Piss off, Ianto, that's not what I meant. But, surely if you knew that Jack could-"
"I didn't fucking know!" Ianto interrupted furiously.
"Oh come on – he tells you 'everything'," Gwen drew quotation marks in the air as she sneered at Ianto's claim to be ignorant of anything concerning Jack.
"Not that he didn't. If you want someone to point a finger at, try Owen, he knew!"
"What?" Gwen swung around to fix Owen with her gimlet eye.
"Professional confidentiality," Owen shrugged. "It wasn't my secret to share."
As accusatory glares were shared between the three, Tosh took the opportunity to clear her throat as she audaciously took the top seat at the table.
"Alright children, let's all sit down and pay attention. Owen – I understand why you kept Jack's anatomical irregularities to yourself, but in hindsight, perhaps you should've made him tell Ianto about the possible consequences."
"Told you so," muttered Ianto, sulkily nudging Owen with his elbow.
"And Ianto, I know you're exhausted, your home was broken into and you've taken a beating. But you have no right to take it out on us, we're your friends."
"That's what I was trying to tell him," Gwen added smugly.
"No, Gwen, that's not what you were doing," Tosh sighed wearily. "You were doing what you always do, demanding answers as if anything kept from you is a personal affront. Owen and Ianto have been acting in Jack's best interests and according to his orders – would you have them do otherwise?"
"Well, no, but-"
"No. We work together – we look out for each other and we cover each other's backs." Tosh glared at her three colleagues one by one, meeting their eyes and challenging them to disagree with her.
"Yeah, you're right, Tosh. Sorry." Owen shrugged, wishing they'd made the decision to work as a team earlier, it would have made his life a hell of a lot easier and probably spared Ianto a kicking.
"Me too, I didn't mean what I said-" Ianto started to apologise to Gwen, feeling bad for snapping.
"Yes, you did, but I deserved it." Gwen smiled at Ianto. She couldn't imagine what he'd been going through over the past few months.
"Are you going to lead this discussion, Tosh?"
"No, Owen – I want you to explain as simply as possible what's happened to date and then we plan together for what happens next."
Two and half hours later, the table was littered with half empty takeaway cartons, empty coffee cups and various spillages and crumbs.
"So, that brings us to your cunning plan that I interrupted earlier this evening," Tosh turned to Ianto and Owen. "Anglesey was it?"
"Yeah, I figured that if anyone had traced Ianto to Bangor railway station, we should exploit that and then lead them away from that area. I reckoned an excursion over the Menai Straits and into Anglesey could be in order."
"What for?" Gwen demanded.
"What do you mean 'what for?' I just said-"
"But it won't work unless you're actually investigating something," Gwen persisted.
"But there isn't-"
"Not yet there isn't, but I'm sure Ianto could manufacture reports of sightings of strange lights in the sky."
"Yes, I suppose I could." Ianto frowned, wondering what Gwen was thinking.
"And I could engineer some odd radio signals for Jodrell Bank to pick up," Tosh added, figuring out what Gwen had in mind.
"OK, that would give us a valid reason for travelling to North Wales, but-"
"Ianto, can you make those reports retroactive?" Tosh asked.
"You mean, have them start at around the time of Jack's secondment?" Ianto nodded his head, seeing where this was going.
"That's it –exactly!"
"Great, so when do we go on our road trip?"
"Not you, Ianto," Tosh placed one of her hands on Ianto's arm, stilling him and keeping him in his seat. "Gwen and Owen."
"Why?"
"Because Owen has been there the most – it keeps that consistent if they've been monitoring him. And Gwen, because you both need some time apart. What's more, you need some rest, Ianto."
"What if there are any real alerts while we're away?" asked Gwen, looking from Ianto to Tosh and wondering how they'd manage on their own.
"We'll call in UNIT if it's serious," Tosh explained. "Give us an excuse to make sure they get to hear about the problem in Anglesey."
"Ianto, are there any scraps of debris from the rift that we can 'plant'?" Owen asked. "At least make it look as if a ship landed or broke up?"
"I'm sure I can lay my hands on something suitable – I'll get that sorted out before you set off."
By common agreement, they all decided it was time to take a break. Gwen went home to Rhys for what was left of the night. After all she'd have to explain to him that she was going to be heading north for a few days on Torchwood business.
At Owen's insistence, Ianto went down into Jack's quarters to get some much needed sleep. Having checked that Ianto had actually followed his instructions, Owen made his way to Tosh's work station where she was already busy setting up the false trails that would support their cover story.
"How are you doing, Tosh?"
"You're lucky I am directing my anger into finding solutions to the problems you stupid men allowed to develop."
"Got it. There was one more problem we didn't discuss-"
"Frobisher."
Owen smiled indulgently at Tosh. Of course, she was already on it.
"Why don't you get Ianto to work on that with you? He's the one who knows who's who at the ministry. Give him something to focus on."
"You mean keep him busy and out of trouble?"
"Yeah. Jack will kill me if he ever finds out what happened tonight."
Slipping an arm around Tosh's shoulders, Owen was relieved when she leant back, accepting the support instead of pushing him away.
"How about taking a break from that," Owen gestured at the multiple windows that were open across three monitors. "I can give you a lift home-"
"What about Ianto?" Tosh frowned, worried about leaving Ianto alone.
"I slipped something in his water bottle to knock him out for a few hours. The safest place for him is here. We can be back before he wakes up."
"Well, I suppose I could take the remote rift alarm home with us…"
"Us?" Owen repeated, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips.
"Isn't that what Ianto asked several hours ago?" Tosh smiled, recalling how their evening had begun.
"Yeah, before suggesting a threesome – don't ask! However, seeing as he's out of commission, it's just the two of us. Let's go."