Fic: Exchange Program (Part 5)

[rosetintedview.livejournal.com]

Title: Exchange Program: Parts 5

Rating: PG-13?

Notes: Gwen bashing yet not Gwen bashing. Figure that one out. Editted the previous chapter a bit, since a few things didn't sound right when I used them in this chapter. Not sure if this chapter is good... and there is one final chapter after this because I didn't think this was a good place to end it.
Warning: Possibly language.

Spoilers: At the moment, none.

Summary: With Torchwood anything is possible. In this case, Torchwood Three had the chance to meet a very interesting woman.

--

To part 4: http://community.livejournal.com/antigwenallies/166890.html

5. The Aftermath

 

Gwendolen Cooper, leader of Crossroads Travel Agency, appeared in the middle of her office and took in a deep breath and glanced around the room. Her antique oak desk was still situated in front of the large stained glass windows, the once orderly top was covered in scattered papers, and the wall to her right still had the wooden shelves, that went from floor to ceiling and from corner to corner. With a chuckle she made her way to the shelves and to a black lacquered jewelry box that had been a birthday gift from Dr. Toshiko Sato before she was killed in action. “I hope you take my advice, Tosh, because I fear how similar our worlds are.” She whispered to herself as she opened the lid and carefully placed the device in the red velvet lined case and shut the lid again. In her heart she knew the device would be used again, but she had no idea when.

 

She briefly caressed the top of the box before she began to browse the objects on her shelves, occasionally running her fingers over the spines of the books or over the embossed titles and smiling when she found a favorite. What did these books and trinkets tell the other Gwen about the person she was temporarily replacing? Would she ask the others in the agency, people she considered friends and extended family? Would she ask the beings that offered their aide on transportation methods for stranded beings? Considering what she knew of the other woman, the other Gwen probably didn’t care about figuring out who she was replacing in this world.

 

The door opened as she turned away from her books and thoughts to watch as her personal assistant, quick-witted straw blonde woman named Elena, cautiously entered. “Did you have a rough time, Elena?” Gwen asked as the woman froze for a moment, her usually perfect hair in disarray and stains standing out on her gray suit jacket and matching skirt.

 

“Your back!” she practically shrieked and was across the room, hugging a surprised Gwen. “Please, please never ever do that again. Never leave us with that alternate self, please I beg you!” she cried as the now worried Gwen carefully wrapped her arms around the sobbing woman.

 

“What the hell happen?” Gwen asked out loud as the woman didn’t let her go nor did she look up.

 

“It was a nightmare!” Elena cried and pulled away, tears in her eyes, and smiled at the now confused leader of their Agency. “That can wait, I have to spread the good news before the group with the pitchforks and torches return.” With that she ran from the office and caused a commotion in the outside office. “Xerxes, I need help putting together a welcome back party and tell the boys down in the recreation room to stop building the gallows we voted on! Put the sign in the front lobby that the crisis is over!” Cheering followed that declaration.

 

“Gallows?” Gwen asked herself and then shivered.

 

--

 

Ianto had emerged from the archives five minutes after alternate Gwen left, only because he heard Gwen’s whining and rather grating voice, and entered the main area. Gwen was flailing around and complaining about something while Tosh tried to focus on her work, which meant she was ignoring everything around her, and at that moment he wished that the device had been broken so the other could have stayed. “Ianto, great!” Tosh loudly stated as she stood up with a smile, causing Gwen to stop mid-rant. “Jack wanted to see you in his office.” She added and was by him in a few quick strides, seizing his arm and pulling him across the Hub and up the stairs.

 

“Tosh?” Gwen asked as she watched them. “Jack said only Ianto.” She pointed out as the Japanese young woman glared down at her.

 

“I have to ask him a question about the device, since I put the report on his desk last night.” She grit out and opened the door and pulled a nervous Ianto in before shutting the door behind her. Jack glanced at them, equal parts surprised that Tosh was there and a bit confused since he heard her excuse. “I’m confused, on that note also annoyed. What happened here to cause her to make such a brash decision?” she asked, letting go of Ianto’s arm in favor of crossing both arms over her chest with a glare that dared Jack to protest.

 

“We were discussing her impression of our Gwen.” He told them as Ianto’s eyebrows went up.

 

“Go on, I’m curious about that.” Ianto prompted as Jack winced, looking like he didn’t really want to repeat the entire discussion.

 

“In short she believes, base on what Rhys told her, that our Gwen is self-centered and she thinks that everyone should give in to her decisions because she is always right and she never thinks about the consequences of her actions.” He summarized with a wave of the hand. “Then I told her that Gwen is the heart of our team and that is when things went down hill.”

 

“How so?” Tosh asked, wanting the full story before adding her two cents. Jack cringed and mentally edited his answer, deciding that the talk of relationships outside of Torchwood would not be right here unless Rhys wanted to tell them about his night with alternate Gwen.

 

“I told her that Gwen become the voice of reason, she told me ‘to re-evaluate’ my answer and brought up Owen’s greeting statement.” He began as Ianto brought a hand up and let out a weird cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh while Tosh’s eyebrows went up. As he began to formulate a decent summary of alternate Gwen’s argument, he swore he could still hear the echo of her voice.

 

Look at your team, Captain Harkness, they trust you with their lives and they trust your decisions even if they may not like the outcome. In reality you, Captain Jack Harkness, are the real heart of this team.

 

“Jack, are you okay?” Ianto asked as Jack blinked and seen that the Welshman was worried.

 

“She told me that…” Jack trailed off with a frown. “She told me that my team does not take the risks they do for Gwen. That you do because I asked you to take that risk.”

 

“It is nice of someone to finally acknowledge that fact.” Ianto told him as Jack stiffened and stared at him. “There is a good chance she is basing that off of her time in Torchwood Three, since she did tell us yesterday she worked with our alternate selves for at least two years.”

 

“Did you then try to defend Gwen as the ‘heart’ of our team?” Tosh asked him as Jack covered his face with his hands. “No wonder she slapped you, I would have done the same thing.” She admitted as Ianto turned to stare at his friend this time in shock.

 

“We humored your decision to hire Gwen because we hoped to understand what you seen in her, unfortunately it has been lacking and rather nerve wracking dealing with her on a daily basis.” Ianto admitted as Jack’s head snapped up, jaw dropped in surprise. Again he could hear her voice echoing in his mind again, “You deny your true self and then you go and sell yourself short, because of this you are missing everything that is in front of your face and your denial is going to hurt you worse then anything in your immortal life.”

 

“What are we going to do now?” Tosh asked as Jack sighed.

 

“I am going to fix the mistake I made.” He told them as both smiled.

 

“Whatever you decide, we support you. Owen might as well, but you never know about him.” Ianto commented as both turned to leave the office. “I’ll bring some coffee up and find what the Torchwood protocols have for situations like this.” With that they left as Jack stared at the now open door of his office. He was beginning to wonder where alternate Gwen had gained her odd ability to read a situation like she did the one he had accidentally created, another part of his mind wanted to punch the woman for being right.

 

--

 

It took twelve hours for the ‘Welcome Back’ party to finally fizzle out, thankfully they had decided to have the party in the building with the main doors locked and side doors guarded by those that did not want to drink. Now Gwen was sitting at her orderly desk, her desk lamp the only source of light in the room, with a large piece of the pineapple-upside down cake, which she had made while stepping over passed out bodies in the last hour, at her elbow. It was her means of recovering after being told the horror stories about alternate Gwen’s time in the Agency, since they were scarier then any horror movie out in theaters. “I will thank my lucky stars that Captain Harkness tortured me with those assessment lessons.” She told her empty office as she carefully pulled her journal from a hidden panel beneath the top of her desk and was flipping through the already written pages as someone knocked on the door. “It is open.”

 

“I stole this piece of a delicious looking pineapple upside-down cake, only to remembered that the only person who makes said cake around here is you. This also meant you were still awake so I decided to pay a visit.” A deep, raspy voice stated as Gwen glanced up and watched as a shadowed man entered with a plate of her cake in hand. Gwen chuckled as forgot about her journal in favor of her guest.

 

“Jethro, I am going to hazard a guess that you want to know what happened in the other world.” She stated as he sat down in one of the three nice high-backed chairs in front of her desk. She took a rare moment to appreciate his looks— his white hair was still pulled neatly back at the nape of his neck, his hands still clad in worn leather gloves, the faint outline of thin scars that covered his face, and silver pupiless eyes.

 

“It would be nice, since your alternate self nearly destroyed our relations with Torchwood Three by out right insulting Captain Harkness and Ianto’s twin daughters and then practically throwing herself at Captain Harkness in front of his new team.” Jethro told her as Gwen groaned and sat her plate down, her appetite gone.

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me. I suppose relations were barely saved by the fact that the girls are only two, it wasn’t me, and I told Jack that I had no interest in him?” She asked while covering her face with her hands.

 

“The girls absolutely hated her and I think Mr. Davidson was about to pull some strings within he Cardiff PD to make sure she disappeared without a trace.” Jethro told her as Gwen frowned and glared at him for avoiding the question. “It was a bad day for us because that was the day of the bi-monthly liaison meeting.”

 

“Oh hell, you mean I have to now go shopping for ‘I apologize for the dumbass’ gifts again?” she whined and spun in her chair so she didn’t have to stare at the smirk that curled his lips as he took that moment to each a few bites of the cake he had. “Detective Swanson has a weak spot for the wine from the Croix vineyards in Italy, Captain Harkness and his team would be a few things from our storage, the girls…” she trailed off as Jethro laughed.

 

“All is fine, Gwen, they took one look at her and knew that she was not you and when she opened her mouth they immediately began to get a pot together for a sympathy gift to send to her world.” He assured her as she turned around to stare at him. “How was your visit to her world?”

 

“Roughly a day in length, everyone assumes I spent five days in the other world, and I might have caused a bit of a stir.” She answered as he frowned, since he expected details of what she encountered. “Elena and a few others made me promise now to put in a report, to put what happened in my journal since they are sealing the files for the typical three years.”

 

“That explains the memo Captain Harkness showed me before I left the Hub. It is amazing how quickly everyone moved to make sure this was buried.” He wistfully commented and quickly finished off his cake as she glared at him.

 

“Take mine as well, talk of my alternate self destroyed my appetite for the second time in as many days.” Gwen told him as she picked up her plate and offered to him, which he stood up and accepted with a chuckle before he turned to leave. “Who else did she insult?”

 

“I was at the top of the list, everyone else wanted to kill her because she thought we should follow her orders since her name was Gwen Cooper.” He admitted with a Cheshire Cat grin as Gwen sighed. “I expect you to wear a nice, black dress and high heels for our date on Friday night since we have reservations at a beautiful restaraunt before attending the opening night of The Phantom of the Opera in London.” With that he left as Gwen stared at the door of her office, jaw dropped a bit.

 

“If this is what happens when I am gone for one day, I hope I never have to take a week long vacation.” Gwen muttered as she dug a pen from the middle drawer of her desk and turned her attention back to her journal. She had to do this while everything was fresh in her mind.

Comments

[bk_forever]

Sounds like Gwen made quite an impression, heehee! Nice to see alternate Jack & Ianto are together with a family.
What will our Jack do about Gwen, I wonder? Now alternate Gwen has finally opened his eyes to truth, I hope he'll admit he was completely wrong about her. Right now, I'm feeling rather sorry for Rhys if Gwen gets sent home. I think he'd far prefer alternate Gwen, but it looks like she's taken. I like Jethro!

[brose1001.livejournal.com]

Quite surprised I have not found this fic before now, since I came late to the fandom in 2012, lol. Quite a good story, I enjoyed it.