A/N: a bit from Gwen to clear her point of view
Spoilers: Sleeper
Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian
Gwen was upset. Beth was dead and there was nothing she could do about it. There was no one to be blamed. It was just outright unfair. She couldn't imagine being built like that, to have all the emotions and memories and to be a fake, an image, something someone constructed; but not only that, but to be constructed to destroy the things you love. It was sickening to clean up the mess when everything was done. After Beth there was nothing to cover up, nothing was left after her husband died, he was all she really had, and everything else was just made up memories. But after others there were abandoned babies, dead wives, and empty lives.
Problem was she really liked Beth; they were alike: ordinary, with their ordinary expectations. Not like Jack who was bigger than life. She watched how he held that alien down by stabbing himself on his arm, but she hadn't had a time to even notice that, to register his pain. It was ordinary for her, it was simply Jack. After he got back she wondered why she had missed him so much. When he was gone she was so mad at him because he looked like an absent hero, someone she couldn't live without. Not like a maddening sadness like when her Rhys was gone, but an irritating absence of something she'd gotten used to. It was funny really, that her ordinary Rhys could invoke such strong feelings, because she had cheated on him, and he probably did on her because she was always on the verge of leaving him. They fought more than they made up, and he was loud and dull most of the time. But still she went on towards marrying him.
She was doubtful all the time; did she get it right, was it just a habit, should she get more? It was amplified by Jack's return and his behaviour. There was a moment when she told him about the wedding and she paused waiting; would he make a move, would he show that he wanted her, that there was something between them. But as always he backed down returning to his ordinary self. She wondered from time to time what would she say; would she accept him? What would that look like? She couldn't really picture it, but then again she couldn't picture herself turning him down. He had such greatness; she doubted anything would be ordinary with him, but then again... After a mad day like this, where ordinary was predatory and alien she would like to go home to Rhys who was real, not made up. She knew his parents, and knew where he'd gotten some of his annoying habits, she knew his friends whom she could easily despise and gossip. And he knew hers and despised them in return; she could always rely on him to be his ordinary self without hidden knowledge or depths.
She was glad Jack had returned and with the alien invasion postponed, she stopped to be mad at him for leaving. He returned in time and they were able to divert creatures that came while he was away. Maybe he planned it that way, who knew what he could predict or tell about the future. She had no great desire to really know, she only wanted to know what was he up to while he was away, what was so important; but maybe it wasn't for her to know, maybe was just for her to trust him.
It was good really that she got the chance to peek into his secret life, that sneak peek gave her the perspective that she should mind her own business. When she called him, twice that night, she got to hear background noise of sighs and moans, and his whispers, his messed up clothes, and she knew he wasn't sleeping alone, or in that fact sleeping at all. She could imagine him being interrupted in some small orgy, or something twisted and she had no desire to participate in that, or stand in line, for that matter. No, she wanted someone to fall down too when something crappy like today happened. Rhys was there, not asking questions, just talking himself away, and she even managed to smile at him.