Notes: Yes, another delay, but could you blame me when I've been on cloud nine since Comic Con and meeting three of my favorite actors? I really hope you don't.
Now, here we are. The chapter that changes everything, or should I say, the ending that changes everything. So yes, we've reached episode 'Meat', though I feel the chapter title rather gives that away. Nonetheless, from here on out, we will be completely AU. Some events still may happen as they do in the related episodes, but most will not.
Chapter Spoilers: Episode 2.04 (Meat)
The perfect moment for Gwen to enact her plan of making Jack jealous with Rhys just happened to come along two days later.
It was a rainy day, though not as bad as the day prior, which was the residual effect due to the slips in time and the reversal thereof, thanks to Tommy. There was an accident involving a lorry carrying some type of suspicious meat.
Stepping inside the overturned lorry, the stench catches the team off guard. Jack notes, "No bones, just dense flesh."
"It's not like any flesh I've seen," Owen chips in.
Getting curious, and just wanting away from the horrible stench, Gwen asks, "What is it?"
"Well," Jack begins, "as there haven't been any giant cow sightings, I suggest we take a sample back to the hub."
Owen gets to work cutting out a sample and placing it into a kit. Back outside the lorry, with Rhys watching from afar, who arrived on the scene moments prior, Gwen joins the discussion between Jack and Ianto.
"Did you find out where it came from?" Jack asks, just as Gwen joins them.
Ianto shakes his head. "No, but it's a Harwood's lorry, so…" he trails off, turning towards Gwen. He already knows that Harwood's is Rhys' firm, but that bit of information was not his to share, and he wondered if Gwen would.
"Oh, um…" Gwen shyly comments, "that's Rhys' firm."
Jack and Ianto share a look before looking towards Gwen, none of them noticing Rhys, nor the fact that he's been calling out for them for the past five minutes. Owen finally emerges from the back of the lorry with his samples and the team loads up the SUV and heads back to the Hub.
Rhys, adamant about getting answers, proper answers, tries to follow, but due to the accident, is not allowed through.
On the way back to the Hub, Gwen realizes this is the perfect moment she's been waiting for. This is it. I can use this to my advantage. I know Rhys wouldn't be directly involved, so I can play the innocent act and play on the fact that he's so helplessly in love with me. He'll tell me what I need to know, he'll even offer to help, I bet. Either way, Jack's going to want to retcon Rhys. I'll refuse, Jack will put up a fuss, but it will be the proper leverage to know what his feelings are for me. If I can get that confrontation to happen in front of Ianto, or better yet, the entire team, I'll be set. This is going to be perfect!
Back at the Hub, Owen immediately got to work analyzing the "meat", pointing out that the genetic makeup did not correspond to any known animal species, and the 'fit for human consumption' sticker, though good, was actually a fake.
Gwen takes her first opportunity to enact her plan, quietly laying the foundation to Jack, "Why does it have to be Rhys' firm? It's a bit too close to home."
"You want to stand down?" Jack offers, even though he knows she won't.
"No!" Gwen immediately answers. "I want to find out what's going on."
Tosh was looking into the firm, and after they listened to the advert, she brings up a good point. "Do you think the haulage firm might be in on it, too?"
Oh, this is all too easy. I don't even need to lie right now, Gwen thought. "Rhys? No! He doesn't know what goes in the vans, he just hires them out."
"Driver must have seen it loaded," Ianto points out, making a mental note that Gwen is showing the telltale signs of plotting something, but keeping quiet for now.
"That doesn't implicate Rhys," Gwen offered in argument. "He's the most honest man I know," he added, looking to catch a reaction from Jack. To her bemusement, none is offered. This might be harder than I thought.
"Have you got his direct line?" Tosh asks, ready for immediate answers.
The back and forth between Tosh and Rhys only made Rhys and his firm look even more guilty. Gwen got a little concerned, wondering if Rhys was actually involved, but knew in her heart, despite not truly loving the guy, that he couldn't be involved.
What they did get out of the conversation, and CCTV footage they gathered based on the answers Rhys provided, were three potential areas where the meat was being picked up from.
"Only one warehouse is unoccupied. It's just outside Merthyr," Ianto states.
"We've got to shut the operation down, neutralize whoever is doing this, and identify the alien meat," Jack begins his orders. "Tosh, you can coordinate."
"I have to slip home and check on Rhys first," Gwen butts in, and gets up to leave.
Jack, completely oblivious to Gwen's ploy and solely focused on the mission, said, "Good idea. Find out how much he knows."
Gwen, getting tired of Jack not catching on, "That's not what I meant." She heads out and immediately home, where, to her surprise, Rhys is ready for confrontation.
After the back and forth about Leighton, Rhys' driver and the accident, Rhys tries for more information, thus trying to get Gwen to confess to her involvement.
"Well, then I hear that the, uh – oh, that the, the police have taken the meat out the back of the van. You have any idea why?"
Gwen finds this suspicious, but plays along. "How would I know?"
"You work for them?" Rhys counters.
"I don't deal in, um – traffic accidents. So…" Gwen tries to evasively explain.
"Well," Rhys was getting flustered with Gwen avoiding actually answering any questions. "they phoned the office and, uh, they asked a load of questions… uh… the thing is, all I do is hire out the lorries, so I…"
"Then there's nothing for you to worry about, is there?" Gwen cuts Rhys off.
"Must be something dodgy going on, though," Rhys tries a more forward approach, without being too blunt.
"Well, if there was, you weren't to know, were you?" Gwen countered again, still trying to determine what Rhys knows, because he knows something, while avoiding giving away anything about aliens and Torchwood just yet. Now is not the time.
"No of course not."
"No."
An awkward silence grew, and before Rhys could ask or say anymore, Gwen made excuses to leave and get back to work. Rhys wasn't having any more nonsense and decided to follow Gwen after she left.
Gwen meets Jack at the water tower with her results. "Like I thought, he has no idea what's going on." Well, he knows something's going on, but he doesn't know about the meat.
Jack, relieved that Rhys appeared to not be involved, offered her his arm without thinking how it could come across. "Would you care to accompany me to the slaughterhouse?"
Gwen is pleased to finally have Jack flirting with her again and takes advantage, grabbing his arm. As they head to the SUV to then leave and meet with Owen and Ianto at the warehouse, Gwen tries for answers about Jack. "Have you ever eaten alien meat?"
"Yeah."
"What was it like?" Gwen asked, genuinely interested in anything Jack had to tell her.
In typical Jack fashion, watching to see her reaction, "Well, he seemed to enjoy it."
It takes a while to sink in, but once it does, Gwen smiles and giggles, and Jack smiles in turn. "You're rough."
Jack and Gwen arrive at the warehouse, as does Rhys, who has managed to successfully tail them without being noticed. "Ianto, Owen, we're just on our way in. How are things looking at the slaughterhouse? Are you in position?"
"Yea, it's all quiet here," Ianto begins responding. "There's a deserted access road to the side, where you won't get noticed. I'll direct you in."
After being directed in and sorting out that they are essentially to go in blind, Jack begins his orders. "You two take the sides. Gwen and I will go in the front. We don't want any casualties. We stun-gun whoever's in there and put a stop to what they're doing."
As the team looks to be making their move on the warehouse, Rhys goes to follow, but gets caught by Dale, one of the men running the alien meat operation. Jack and Gwen notice the exchange. Jack is convinced Rhys is involved; his actions are just too suspicious. Gwen refuses to think Rhys is involved, and backs him up, showing her "loyalty" to the man.
"Ianto, Owen," Jack begins his new orders. "Stand down. Repeat: stand down."
Ianto and Owen share a look, but follow orders and head to where Jack and Gwen were to be.
Still watching the two men, and still keen on using this to her advantage, Gwen begins her protest. "He told me he didn't know what was going on. He wouldn't lie to me."
Jack, still doubtful, "He also said he didn't know where they were based, but he did."
"There's something wrong, there has to be," Gwen counters. She starts to run out, but Jack reaches for her. This is looking good so far.
"Gwen! No!"
They watch as Rhys follows Dale into the warehouse. "I just have to get him out!" Gwen protests.
Jack pins her to the warehouse wall. "What? By charging in there? What then? You going to knock him out?"
At this point, Jack is practically on top of Gwen attempting to keep her from doing anything rash. He is still oblivious to Gwen's plan. Gwen sees, out of the corner of her eye, that Ianto and Owen have reached them, and she smirks.
When Jack notices the smirk, his attention is drawn to Ianto and Owen, but more specifically Ianto. Fuck! He's going to think something is up, and after finally getting him to trust me!
The team returns to the Hub and Gwen immediately heads home, wanting all the facts straight before he takes her plan any further. "What were you doing in that warehouse?!"
Rhys isn't going to stand for any more of Gwen's bullshit. "You lied to me! You were at that crash!"
"I don't know what you're talking about. What…?"
"Stop pissing me around, Gwen! You're so used to lying and fobbing me off, like the idiot that I obviously am."
Well, yes… "Those blokes paying you? Why were you there?"
"No, I'm asking the questions, all right? I followed you, okay? Yea. So that bloke, the tall bloke in the coat, you fucking him, or what?"
No, but I want to. I will be. Shortly. "All I ever asked was you trust me."
"What, like you trust me? It's a two-way street, Gwen!"
The row continues and, just as Gwen hoped, she got to tell Rhys about Torchwood and therefore was able to bring him to the Hub. This is working out so much better than I hoped for!
Back at the Hub, Jack informs the rest of the team that Rhys now knows about Torchwood and that Gwen was bringing him in. Ianto, Tosh, and Owen gather in the lounge near the workstations to have a drink.
Jack watches Ianto from the catwalk a level above. Since the team's return to the Hub, Ianto had been avoiding him, only sharing glances from time to time. Fuck! Now I definitely know he thinks something is going on.
Ianto shares another glance from across the Hub before looking away. "Well, this is unprecedented, a fiancé finding out."
"Mainly because we're all sad and single," Tosh adds her two cents, sullenly.
Ianto smiles ruefully. He talked with Tosh upon returning to the Hub. He told her about spotting Jack and Gwen at the warehouse, and even pulled up the CCTV footage. The look in both their eyes and their posture, said enough for Ianto. He had come to finally trust and believe Jack about his non-existent feelings for Gwen. But that moment between them had proven otherwise.
"I think you're overreacting, Ianto. I mean, we heard the confrontation. It was to stop her from going after Rhys," Tosh tried to reason.
"I know, but you and I both saw the look in their eyes. You can't deny that something's there. I want to be with Jack, but I don't think I can," Ianto replied.
Tosh sighed. "Talk to him after this is over. Don't make a decision now. You two are perfect together."
Ianto smiles. "I'm glad you think so, Tosh. And we will be talking afterwards. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to end it." He walks away before Tosh can respond.
Jack overheard Tosh's comment about being sad and single from the catwalk. Please, Ianto. Tell her she's wrong, tell her you're not single.
"Speak for yourself," Owen chimed in before Ianto could even formulate a reply. "I am better off without that kind of hassle."
Jack, still desperately awaiting a response from Ianto, walks along the catwalk towards the hot house, attentively watching and listening to the discussion.
Tosh takes the opportunity to plant the idea of her and Owen in his head. "Maybe the answer is to go out with someone who knows what you do."
Owen, who has actually been upset upon the mention of fiancé, which triggered his memories of Katie, is oblivious to Tosh's advances. "Look around you, Tosh. Only we know what we do."
The group falls silent. Ianto turns and sees Jack in the hothouse watching him. Ianto looks away again, refusing to let his emotions get the better of him, and takes a drink.
Gwen and Rhys arrive shortly thereafter via the invisible lift, which Jack lowers for them. Introductions and explanations are made.
Once the tour comes to an end, they all gather in the conference room to discuss the alien being kept alive and cut up for its flesh.
"We're talking about dodgy pies and Merthyr, okay?" Jack cuts into a discussion, trying to stay on point. "And the fact that they're cutting it up alive." He turns his attention to Rhys, "Which we could've put a stop to already, if it wasn't for you."
"I thought my fiancé was in danger!" Rhys countered.
"Well, Mr. Caveman, she wasn't. She can handle herself. All you did was mess things up. Now we have to think of a way to get back in. And thanks to you, they'll have tightened security!"
Rhys was tired of Jack. "Well, if you stopped and asked me exactly what I saw in there, instead of showing off round the place…"
Jack questions Ianto, "Do I show off?"
"Just a bit."
Rhys was tired of Jack not listening. "You'd know that I got out by telling them I wanted a job as a delivery boy. So rather than cock things up, I found you a way to get in! But if you can't handle that, big boy, then you can stuff it!"
Jack hesitates. The last person to call Jack "big boy" was Ianto, while enjoying one of their role plays, and before Ianto, it was John Hart. "This is quite homoerotic," he quips.
Gwen protests. "No, no, no, no, Jack. He is not getting us in."
Jack ignores Gwen. "Team meeting," he calls out. "You, too," he directs towards Rhys. Together, the team plus Rhys come up with a plan.
While waiting for everything to be ready and for it to be morning, Gwen and Rhys sit on the couch. Gwen made sure they were in direct line of sight of Jack in his office.
"I thought you worked for anti-terrorism or something. That was bad enough. But knowing you're in this much danger…"
"Yea, you'd feel like I do now," Gwen interrupts. Owen makes to leave and she waits until he passes to continue, "worried sick." She continues her ruse of loving fiancé as she notices Jack now watching them from his office. "You don't have to do this to prove anything to me."
"And I'm not leaving you with all these sexy young men," Rhys half-jokes.
Still in her role, "There's only one from where I'm sitting." They kiss, and as they do, Gwen opens her eyes to meet Jack's, who then turns away in anger.
Fuck! Jack thought. The only reason Jack was watching Gwen and Rhys during their discussion was to make sure Rhys was holding up alright. It dawned on him, when Gwen looked at him while kissing Rhys, that Gwen was just playing a role in trying to make him jealous. But am I jealous? I have Ianto, and he's all that I want. But do I even have him anymore? He still won't talk to me. Jack sighs. I finally got him to trust me, and now I've broken it again. But I'm not jealous of Rhys for having Gwen. I'm jealous - envious - that they get to have a normal life. I won't get to keep Ianto forever, as much as I want to. I need to make sure I tell him that.
The plan was supposed to be simple. Rhys drove the lorry, with the team in the back, to the warehouse. The team sneaks in, stun gun the guys running the operation, and somehow get the alien out alive and well.
Instead, Ianto's arms are tied behind his back with a gun to his head and Rhys by his side. Gwen stepped out from her hiding spot in order to keep the men from shooting Rhys. Her lack of judgment led to Jack and Tosh being found.
Jack gasped at the sight of Ianto being held at gunpoint, but can tell his young lover was working on getting his arms free from the binds holding him. That's my Ianto, just like I taught you, he thought happily to himself.
Dale moves to shoot Gwen, but Rhys jumps in front and takes the bullet. It was just the distraction Ianto needed to finish getting out of the rope and begin attacking Dale. They struggle for the gun, and in the process, shots ring out, hitting the wire that held the alien in place.
Jack tries to get a shot off at Dale, but Ianto was in the way. The alien traps Tosh and Jack around the crates, and all they can do is watch the confrontation. Jack watches in terror as Dale gains the upper hand, who grabs the gun and gets up quickly, pointing the gun down at Ianto.
Jack gasps in horror as Dale calls out, "Die!" and pulls the trigger. Thankfully there were no more rounds and Jack breathes a sigh of relief.
"Ianto, go! After them!" Jack called out. He knew his lover was hurt, but he was the only one able to get after the men. Ianto understood and followed his orders.
Back at the Hub, Jack gave Gwen the orders to retcon Rhys. She plays along until the opportune moment to refuse. It's show time, she thought as she stormed back into the Hub. Everyone's here, perfect.
"I'm not doing it. I won't drug him," She declares.
Tosh, Owen, and Ianto responded with "You have to," "We can't allow him to remember," and "It's the rules," respectively.
"But none of you have partners outside of this," Gwen counters.
Oh, please. I have Ianto and I've had other lovers outside of Torchwood. "But we understand how you feel."
"No you don't. No you don't, Jack," She began her tirade. "You all think it's cold and lonely out there, but it isn't for me, because I have him. He matters, and I've lied to him for long enough. What he did today was so brave. Braver than any of us, because we signed up for this, but he didn't. He did it because he loves me! And I won't take that away from him! I won't!" And now comes the kicker, I know Jack will protest. "And if that means I have to quit, or you retcon me or whatever, then fine, fine.
"You really think you could go back to your old life before Torchwood?" Jack asks, knowing that she wouldn't be able to, no matter how hard she bluffs.
"I wouldn't know anything different," Gwen points out.
"I would," Jack ends the discussion.
Gwen's heart leaps. Ha! I knew it! He wants me! He needs me! She glanced quickly at Ianto, whose face was falling from the hurtful truth.
She's broken out of her thoughts when Jack adds, "Give Rhys my love, and I will see you tomorrow."
Gwen storms out of the Hub, but she's actually smiling with the latest bit of information.
As Gwen leaves, Jack retreats to his office, alone, angered at the day's events. Ianto's heart shatters, which Tosh and Owen notice. They share a knowing and concerned look as Ianto grabs his coat and also exits the Hub in a hurry.
As soon as she returns home with Rhys, Gwen grabs a beer from the fridge for him as a celebration, adding the retcon while her back is turned to him. A few minutes later, and Rhys is passed out on the couch, ne'er to remember aliens and Torchwood.