A/N: Something for my readers to consider: I am 50/50 on Gwen, and go in phases of liking her and hating her. I have in mind sending her down the path to unhappiness versus happiness. For her, anyway. In one of the first chapters, Jeannie 'read' her possibilities, and laid out 2 paths that she could follow. I have been writing her to follow the happy path, what are your thoughts?
After cuddling and comforting Jack throughout the night, Jeannie rose at dawn to go for a walk and think a bit. As he talked, the memories of the events he spoke about rose to the surface of his thoughts, and were available to his mates. Seeing what happened broke her heart, and made her wish that Lucia was not already dead; she would have loved to have a word or two with the woman! Jeannie's phone chirped, indicating a text message. Checking it, she sees that Alice wants to meet her on the Barrage to talk, and perhaps to have a coffee at a nearby coffee shop. Letting the boys know where she will be, and who she will be with for the morning, Jeannie makes her way to the requested location after agreeing to Alice's request.
Jeannie arrives before Alice, and leans comfortably against the Barrage railing, watching out over the stream while she waits. A few minutes pass before Jeannie's acute hearing picks up a set of footsteps approaching; a small whiff of watered-down 51st century pheromones floats on the breeze towards her, announcing Alice's presence. Jeannie turns to face her, gauging her mood by her expression and body language: apprehensive and curious.
"You said that if I wanted to know what really happened when I was a child, to call you. Here I am." Alice says when she gets close enough. Jeannie nods, and the two women start walking slowly along the barrage. "You're not gonna like some of what I'm gonna say. Your Daddy loved you when you were a child, and he loves you now." Alice makes a motion to interrupt, but is forestalled by Jeannie. "Let me finish, and then you'll get your turn, I promise." Alice nods. "He didn't expect you to happen; Lucia was on contraceptives provided by Torchwood. But she wanted his child, and stopped taking them long enough to get pregnant. Jack was livid! You see, he knew what any child of his would be put through, what he would be put through just to keep the child safe. Lucia didn't believe him, she was starry-eyed, and for her, at that time, Torchwood could do no wrong. Jack married her, which was another thing she had wanted; he decided that he could do a better job of keeping you safe if he was living with you. And he was right, up to a point." Jeannie turns from her perusal of the water to pin Alice with a sharp look. "And then Lucia found a grey hair two weeks before your 6th birthday party and went off the deep end. Your Daddy couldn't do or say anything to get through to her, all she saw was her getting old and grey and wrinkly while he stayed forever young. She went to their Torchwood bosses, and asked for their help in getting away from him. Agreeing, they sent him out on a simple-enough mission that happened to be in Scotland, and would take a couple of days to complete. They planned this to cover your birthday party; Lucia wanted to twist the knife she was stabbing Jack with, and decided that would be perfect. The mission in Scotland went tits-up unexpectedly, and the other agent Jack went up there with died. So did he, but he came back. Jack wrapped up the assignment, and limped back home; he wanted to hug his little girl, to smell her clean scent, and be reassured that not everyone in the world hated him. He arrived back at the house the morning after the party was supposed to happen, and he knew as soon as he opened the door that it had all been a ruse to get you away. And he went off the rails completely. He trashed the house, and when he walked out of it again a few hours later, he locked it up and disappeared into the depths of the Hub. Back then, they didn't have the sensitive scanners we have now at Torchwood, and they couldn't find him. No one knows the depths of the Hub better than Jack, and he used that knowledge to hide away and lick his wounds, and close his heart. He never ever wanted to hurt like this again, you see. You were his little angel, and you had been taken away just surely as if you had died; he couldn't find you, no matter what he offered his contacts." Jeannie takes a shuddering breath, and Alice notices the tears slowly winding down her cheeks. "The new millennium came, and with it Jack was made the leader of Torchwood, Cardiff. The safe that held the files on where you were taken was now open to him, and he used that knowledge to remove all traces of himself from your past. He was quite thorough, first deleting all electronic files, and then scouting out any hardcopies, and removing them as well. You see, he had come to the conclusion that you were better off without a freak such as him in your life. And that, if he erased himself from your life, then his enemies would be unable to hurt you. When Lucia died, he immediately erased the final records, those of his marriage to her, and altered your birth certificate to indicate that no father was listed. But he couldn't stop himself from attending her funeral, just to see you one last time. His little angel, all grown up, it was the first time he had seen you since that day so long ago when he promised he would come home." Jeannie's gaze turns sharply back to the water flowing under the Barrage. "Your response to him was nothing less than what he expected, what he felt he deserved, and then a small blonde-haired boy comes up, and asks who this man is. You couldn't think, and so you told him it was his Uncle Jack, and he was thrilled to have an uncle, and Jack was so happy to have some sort of acknowledgment, even if it was through the eyes of a child. Since then, he's acquiesced to every demand that you have made of him, staying away until young Stephen badgers her enough to let him come around. He makes sure that you have all that you need for the both of you, especially since your husband ran off. He calls it his 'penance for being a freak that procreated'." Jeannie's tears have dried on her cheeks now, and as she looks at Alice's horrified expression, she continues. "I know that you should have some fragment of memory from before your mother took you away; before she poisoned your mind and heart against the man that is your father. The man who called you his 'little angel', and comforted himself with your love when everything else seemed to be against him. Find those memories, and remember his unconditional love, because he has a huge heart, and it was shattered into so many pieces when Lucia took you away from him."
Alice's eyes meet Jeannie's, and she has a hard time speaking. "I have a lot to think about; I never knew about most of that." Looking at Jeannie, Alice asks, "you're not as young as you look, are you? And your hair, it looks more like fur." Jeannie bows her head before meeting Alice's eyes again and replying, "Technically, based on my birthday, I'm younger than you; courtesy of the Rift, I'm also a mother who has lost her children. Jack and Ianto saved me, and have kept me sane while the DNA changes initiated by aliens were completed. So, no, I'm not human anymore, but I used to be." Jeannie's eyes have a haunted look to them, and Alice feels compelled to draw the younger woman into a tight hug. "I think that you're beautiful, and that my father is a lucky man. D'you think he'd be willing to meet me alone? Just to talk?" Jeannie pulls back from Alice's embrace, looking deeply into her eyes before she nods her head. "I think he would like that very much. But, a warning: I will not allow you to hurt him again. He has enough hurt just from the last 140 years to last him the thousands of years he will be forced to live. He doesn't need any more!" Jeannie's glare softens as she takes her leave from her mate's daughter. They agree that she will arrange the meeting, and will contact Alice once it is all arranged.