A/N: it switches between Tosh and Owen
Spoiler alert: Out of Time
Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian
Tosh wasn't interested in the people that came through the Rift. It was sad and all but they were just people, not aliens or some unknown piece of tech. She helped with the search but it was such a rudimental job that she could let the computer do it by itself. She had more important things to do like run translation software, constructing other layers of protection for the Hub because she was uneasy with recent events and Jack's hints that some sticky little creatures could penetrate their defenses without an effort. That just wasn't acceptable, not on her watch.
Of course she noticed that Holmes women, Diane. Owen had that humble look in front of her that amused smirk. She knew how that was going to go down; like she knew that Gwen wouldn't even put a real effort into Owen. It was so predictable with Owen, really, she knew him so well. He didn't know that she knew, he thought that he was complicated and unreachable, but he was so easy. Women didn't see that because of his hard exterior. For example Diane could make him crawl in a second, and she would. Owen was irresistible in that way, you just had to embrace him. Of course he would fall hard for Diane; she had that pure vibe of a mature queen. Owen loved strong women, someone he could look up to. He despised weakness, like he started to despise Gwen's childlike attempt to keep everything the same, like things hadn't happened; like she was still pure.
Tosh didn't have illusions that she was still pure, but she couldn't just act like her body was a simple toy for numberless attempts with all the wrong people. She made mistakes often enough thank you. And she still was struggling with consequences. Sometimes she still thought about Mary but she tried to do that as little as possible.
She couldn't really blame women for trying out Owen; she would do the same if she could believe that she could keep him. She couldn't just let go and survive when he turned his hard loathing against her and he would. Gwen just turned her back on him and didn't even see the way he looked at Diane, she didn't care anymore. But Tosh knew that she couldn't do that. She couldn't really even get mad at him for it, because she understood too well from where his desperation came from. She was there when Jack found him, she saw that different and broken Owen, that lovable man that had lost. It wasn't his fault really, that he mended like he did, crooked. Women were there, and none of them were worthy of love, of a sacrifice that he was willing to make.
Tosh wasn't sure that she was that kind of woman, strong and sweet. She was too weak, too unsure, and too small, she couldn't give him assurance that she would be there, and that she would weather.
Owen was swept away by Diane, by her manners, by her posture, by her solitude. The fact that she was superb in bed didn't help in his attempt to keep himself together. Her melancholy was so familiar yet so seductive. He forgot how it was for him, how lost he could get in someone complex enough. And she was complex, surprising, her loss was real. He had that need to heal that kind of gap, that kind of space, to fill it full. And he did try with all that he had. But it wasn't enough, of course it wasn't, he lost the thing that made him whole, made him capable of really helping someone. That's why he wasn't able to keep her there. That's why he wasn't any good to anyone alive anyway; corpses had become his everyday life. For them he could be what he had become, bitter and angry. What else could he give to this world than anger; it didn't deserve anything else, not with its meaningless dragging. It showed you something beautiful from time to time just to say 'you can't have it, of course you can't, and you're not good enough'. Messing around with Gwen just rubbed that acknowledgement a little deeper under his skin.