II: Gwen
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I quickly stood up once, hearing Owen's footsteps approaching from my flat hallway towards the open plan kitchen, living and dining room, and tightly wrapped my green silk dressing gown around my body, hiding the locket out of sight. The sketches of a dead Jack, the police officer from the CCTV and Suzie, not long been drawn, laid open upon the coffee table. Hurriedly, I gathered the sketchbook and journal into my arms, placing them inside a safe with many of my other sketchbooks and journals, hidden inside the exterior of my desk, punching in the code and locking it.
As Owen showed up, I closed the door and casually walked across the room towards my kitchen. Flicking on the kettle, I opened the cupboards above, took out two mugs and opened the coffee canister.
"Morning, gorgeous," Owen greeted, lightly smacking my bottom and pecking my cheek.
"Morning," I returned, rolling my eyes but enjoying the warmth his lips had left, "Could you please get the milk and a spoon."
Moving away, Owen went to the fridge, removing the milk and closing it before fetching a spoon from a drawer. He settled them beside me and the mugs, placing a spoonful of coffee into each. The kettle finished boiling with a click. I poured the hot water in, stirred them, added the milk and gave them another mix.
"You were up early this morning," Owen mentioned with concern, taking the offered mug from my hand and watching me as he casually leant against the counter beside me.
"Had a nasty migraine that was keeping me awake all night," I stated, knowing it was somewhat true, as I sipped coffee. As soon as I got a premonition, there were days I'd hardly sleep on end, often haunted by the images of those I could never help or save.
"Paige, are you alright?" I hear Owen ask, putting his mug down, breaking me from my thoughts. He stood before me, taking my cup away and placing it beside his.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I offered convincingly, his hands cupping my face, thumbs brushing my cheeks.
For some reason, I liked seeing this side of Owen when we were alone together, this caring yet conservative nature that I bring out of him. He brings my lips closer towards his... when suddenly the phone begins to ring.
I quickly break away from him. The moment is gone, and I dash across the room towards my desk, picking up the phone, "Yes, sir. I'll be on my way, sir?"
I glanced over at Owen, who had gone back to drinking his coffee but looked rather annoyed about being interrupted, as he now asked me once I've put the phone down, "What's happening?"
"There's been a Weevil sighting over at one of the hospitals. We better get going."
-Torchwood-
I tapped away with my red manicured nails on her keyboard, typing up a recent report for Jack to check over, the clacking of the keys echoing throughout the empty hub, seeing as I'm the only one currently here since having lost to Ianto at 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' on who would drive the others over to the hospital. When will I ever get proper action around here instead of sitting behind a desk looking pretty?
The team's announcement returning via the private lift above ground clicked loudly as it lowered. Ianto appears just from the garage steps on the other side of the hub.
"Oi, Paige, order us a pizza, would ya?" Owen hollered across the room to me, rolling my eyes in disbelief.
"Do it yourself, you lazy asshole. I've got work to do," I snapped moodily back at Owen, grabbing the paper and the report from the printer, "I'm not your fucking slave," I placed the document into a folder before getting up.
Wandering past Tosh, I halt as something catches my eye. I leaned over her shoulder to peer at the security screen, "I've got a feeling that female copper is going to be more trouble than she's worth, sir."
I heard Jack's heavy boots from behind as he came looking over the other side of Tosh to look at the screen as well, "Paige, do some research on our police officer. See what you can find out about her."
"I'll get right on it, sir," I complied with a nod before passing him over the folder in my hand, "Here's that report you wanted as well."
"What would I do without you and Ianto being here, huh?" Jack asked me with a flirtatious grin.
"You'd probably crash and burn without us around, sir," I returned with a knowing smirk, feeling his eyes on me as I sauntered away with a sway of my hips. Not having noticed, Owen had been watching our exchange from the med bay.
-Torchwood-
I had now since completed the research of the female police officer, going towards Jack's office and wrapping my knuckles against the open door. Of course, Jack has been the most handsome man I've ever had the opportunity to meet or work for. How could any man or woman not be attracted to him? Especially with those piercing sea-blue eyes that probably could look straight through you, the eyes that would likely soon be empty and lifeless, just like in my drawing. When all I can do is stand by and do nothing without uttering the truth or giving myself away.
"Paige?" he called, instantly breaking my trance and properly looking him in the eye, "You ok?"
I shook my head before approaching his desk, "I'm fine, sir. I just get lost in my head sometimes."
"Ok, so what have you got for me?"
"That information for the police officer you wanted," I held the file before him.
"Thanks, Paige," Jack accepted it graciously with a smile before I nodded and turned to leave. Not have seen the worrisome look on his face after I had left.
-Torchwood-
"Jack, our police officer, is back this time with pizza," Tosh announced from her workstation at around eight-thirty that evening, making all of us in the room stop what we were doing and look up.
"My God, that woman just won't quit, will she," Paige offered, shaking her head.
"Obviously not," Jack said, coming out of his office, "Paige, Ianto, one of you go and greet our curious policewoman."
Ianto and I shared similar looks of annoyance. Neither of us liked doing the Tourist Office bit when it came to people getting too nosey about Torchwood for their own good. But it had to be done.
"Rock, paper, scissors?" Ianto suggested with a shrug.
Suzie stopped what she was doing, looking over at us and disbelievingly scoffed, "Rather childish, don't you think?"
"Come on, Suzie, just let them get on with it," Jack said, leaning against the doorway of his office.
"Exactly, I don't see you going up there and doing it," I gestured towards the doorway that leads up to the Tourist Office before turning back to Ianto, "Ok, let's just get this over with."
Standing opposite Ianto, we held our hands flat before each other, "Rock, paper, scissors!"
"Ha! I win!" I cheered my hand in, now shaped into a rock over Ianto's scissors, who sighed in defeat before walking towards the doorway.
-Torchwood-
A couple of moments later, the police officer I had learned about from my research earlier, who went by the name of Gwen Cooper, entered the hub once the cog door had rolled shut behind her as we all tried to play it as cool as possible. I peered up to take a glance at her for a couple of seconds, only to have a brief look at the woman. Her hair was dark chocolate brown, along with a straight fringe. Yet I already knew what she looked like from the cameras, my vision of Jack's murder and a sketch of her. Yet, the very woman who would kill him was in this same room wearing a welder's mask as I quickly returned my eyes to the screen before me, acting like it was customary for Gwen to be here.
Owen suddenly caught my eye, and I began to giggle, only for it to become full-blown laughter, followed by Tosh and then myself as I turned to face Gwen fully
"I can't do this. I'm sorry," Owen continued laughing, raising his hands in mock surrender, "I'm rubbish. I give up."
I gestured to myself and Tosh before pointing to Owen, "He set us both off."
"Yes, he did," Tosh agreed with a slight giggling.
Suzie lifted her mask and inspected her watch, "Well, that lasted nought point two seconds."
"Hmm," Owen hummed with delight, "She's carrying a pizza."
"Come on," Jack offered with a smirk coming out of his office, voicing the most obvious scenario, "She was going to say, here's your pizza, and I was going to say, how much? And she says, oh, whatever, twenty quid, and I say, oh, I don't have any money. I was working on a punchline. I'd have got there. But it would've been good," he casually leant against the wall, noticing his eyes wandering over Gwen.
"There's your pizza. I think I'd better go," the woman offers to put it down and about to make her escape.
"I think we've gone past that stage," Jack implies with a severe tone.
"You must've been freezing out there," Suzie mentions, "How long were you walking around? Three hours?"
"You could see me?" Gwen asked, her eyes widening in surprise.
"And before we go any further," Jack turned to us, who were working at our stations, looking rather annoyed, "Who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?"
Sheepishly, Owen raised his hand ever so slightly, "Er yeah, that'd be me. I'm sorry. I'm a twat."
"Oh, that's something we can all agree on," I nodded.
Gwen now stared at Jack, "That man at the hospital, that porter, what happened to him? That was real. He was attacked..."
"He's dead," Jack offered.
"But there's no one gone missing," Gwen insisted.
"We took the body, retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a false witness who saw him leaving the hospital, giving him an alibi for the next forty-eight hours," I hear Tosh explain from behind me as Gwen turned in her direction, "So when his body's pulled out of the docks next Tuesday night, he's only been missing for three days."
"He was murdered," Gwen muttered.
"Yes," Tosh confirmed.
"And you covered it up," Gwen continued to enquire.
"That's my job," Tosh responded bluntly.
"And that other man," her gaze returned to Jack, "John Tucker? Last night in the alleyway, I saw you."
"And what did you see?" my boss asked in response.
"You revived him."
"No," he responded, watching her closely with his eyes, "What did you see?"
"You resuscitated him," Gwen hazards a guess. She looked uncertain about why she was there as she glanced at the ground.
"No," Jack states more firmly to her, "What did you see?"
Gwen was looking Jack in the eye again, gathering some courage for the words that'd come out of her mouth, "You brought him back to life."
Jack confirmed with a nod, "Yeah."
"Who-who are you?" she stuttered slightly, her eyes peering at everyone as if trying to figure us all out.
"Torchwood," Jack tells her. Being a little dramatic about it makes me roll my eyes in disbelief and smirk in amusement.
"What's Torchwood?" Gwen pushed, a tell that she was now interested in wanting to know more.
"This is Torchwood," Jack tells her, "All around you."
"And what happens to me?" Gwen now asked with caution, afraid we would do something to her, "I'm police. Constable Gwen Cooper. You can't do anything."
"Right then," Jack straightened up and stepped forward, "PC Cooper. Do you want to come to see?"
"See what?" Gwen asked as I noticed the internal battle to step back and walk away.
"You saw the murder," only for Jack to coax her with a calming demeanour, "Come and see the murderer."
I see her hesitation in her eyes just as Jack walks away towards where the Weevils are kept, only as Suzie offers some words of encouragement, "Go with him."
With that, she puts down the pizza and follows after hearing her asking Jack question after question, "What is Torchwood? Who are you? What is this place?"
There's screeching and the flapping of massive wings overhead as I see Gwen instinctively duck in fear, her mouth gaping slightly, "What was that?"
"Pterodactyl," I offered with a shrug, acting like it was nothing unusual for any of us working here.
"Are you coming?" Jack hollered after her from the side staircase he was currently going down. With that, she followed him down to the holding cells.
-*-
It was a while later before Jack returned with Gwen back to the main Hub area. She looked a little peaky. I couldn't blame her after looking at those Weevils. They gave me the creeps, but I could see she was taking things in her stride, one step at a time, only that I knew she'd soon be made to forget about this place and all of us. This only raised another question: how would she end up at Jack's death?
"Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper," I break away from my thoughts to hear Jack introducing her to Owen.
"Doctor Owen Harper, thank you," he corrected Jack rather smugly. I noticed him give her a glance of interest before returning to his paperwork, knowing it shouldn't bother me because of our arrangement. So, I pushed that thought to the recess of my mind and put some paperwork into a file.
"Toshiko Sato, computer genius," Tosh gives Gwen a nod before looking back at her many computer screens, "Suzie Costello, she's second in command," she glanced up for a moment before he turned to where I stood beside Ianto, "This is Ianto Jones. Ianto cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time."
"I try my best," my best friend offered with a modest smile.
"And he looks good in a suit," Jack added with a flirtatious grin in his direction.
"Careful," Ianto returned with a smirk as I rolled my eyes, "That's harassment, sir."
"And finally, this is Paige Williams," he said before wandering towards his office.
"Williams?" she asked, looking in my direction, "You're not..."
"No relation to your boyfriend whatsoever," I interrupted, hands up in surrender.
"Paige knows that because she's my superstar researcher and keeps everyone on their toes with the paperwork," Jack smirks over at me from where I stood, "Not bad to look at either."
"I don't know whether to be offended or take that as a compliment, sir," I responded a little flirtatiously, something I knew would rub Owen the wrong way.
"But why are you telling me their names?" Gwen questioned, following after Jack ever so slightly, "I'm not supposed to know, am I? This is classified, isn't it?"
"Way beyond classified," Jack confirmed with a nod, returning and going towards his office, only to stop when Gwen continued.
"Then you shouldn't be telling me. What are you going to do to me?"
"What do you imagine?" he replied.
"Well, I've seen too much," Gwen tried, stating the obvious, "Your names and everything, and the Weevil," she turned to narrow her eyes at Tosh, "And you can dump a man in the water and lie about his death."
"Okay," Jack briefly stepped inside his office, grabbing that greatcoat of his and slid it on, "Tosh, finish that calibration tomorrow morning. Owen, first thing, get a hold of Chandler and Bell, cos I think they're lying," he glanced in at the rest of us, "Ianto, if he needs back up, then you'd better be on stand by," he now looked to Suzie, "Suzie, I know it's a pain in the ass, but I need the costing on the glove research on Paige's desk first thing tomorrow morning," Jack moves through and approaches Gwen, "And as for you, you're coming with me. This way."
He headed towards the lift, expecting Gwen to follow in, which she did, complaining ever so slightly as some of us began packing away, "I'm getting tired of following you."
"No, you're not, and you never will," Jack turned to face her with a smirk as he stepped onto the granite platform by the Water Tower, "Stand on here. Come on, next to me," he held out his hand to her, as she took it he helped her get on.
"Goodnight!" Tosh calls.
"Later!"
"Now, you came in through the front door. Let's take the scenic route," I see Jack press buttons on his wrist strap as the ceiling opens from above. The platform moved, and Gwen quickly grabbed hold of Jack to keep steady. Suzie was giving a wave just as she left.
I wandered over towards where the pizza boxes were, "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm stealing Owen's pizza and going home to watch a shit film and glass of vino," I lifted the lid of one box to find a pepperoni pizza and close it picking it up, "Will you be alright keeping an eye on everything while I'm gone," I come to rest a hand upon Ianto's shoulder and squeeze it, knowing he needed to stay a bit longer to check on Lisa and to monitor Gwen's electronics. We both knew it'd be a while before Jack would send her off home with retcon in her system.
"Unless you want to join me," I asked, not liking the thought of him being alone.
"Nah, I'm fine. Thanks for offering, though," he kindly declined my offer, "I'll let you guys know if anything happens. Now go. I've got everything covered."
"Okay, well, if you're sure," I give him a friendly peck on the cheek, "Night Yan, I'll see you tomorrow," I'm going to grab my coat, bag and pizza in tow. I took one last glance at him before leaving the Hub.
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