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antigwenallies May. 4th, 2014 10:36 pm)
blucougar.livejournal.com posting in antigwenallies May. 4th, 2014 10:36 pm)Title: Adaption
Chapter Nine: Back to Flat Holm
Author: blucougar57
Summary: A new rift victim proves to be a revelation to the Torchwood team, and then some.
Rating: T
A/N: Gwen finally gets her way... or so she thinks.
Chapter Nine
Jack held out for a full week and a half before finally giving in to Gwen’s repeated demands to see Jason. Though it was quite obvious to the others that he would have preferred to leave it, her constant pressure and nagging left him visibly drained to the point where he was willing to capitulate, just to get her off his back about it. Gwen was jubilant when he finally did concede, but her jubilation was short lived. She would not be going alone, he informed her. The whole team would be going to Flat Holm together.
He’d taken note that it was a good two or three months since they’d all made the trip out to the facility together, and decided it was high time that another trip was undertaken. Gwen, understandably, was extremely unimpressed.
“When are you going to trust me to go out there on my own?” she demanded, seemingly uncaring that she was unleashing her anger at Jack in front of the rest of the team. Jack regarded her soberly.
“I’ll let that happen when I can feel confident that you won’t have a negative impact on anyone at Flat Holm. Gwen, you’ve yet to make a trip out there when you don’t upset someone.”
The indignant look on her face was priceless, and almost made up for the discomfort caused by her starting the argument in such a public space.
“I don’t...”
He leaned in, staring at her with a piercing gaze.
“Yeah. You do. Every single time, Gwen. The last time, you upset both Ianto and Helen by criticising the garden that Ianto set up.”
“Oh, come on!” she fumed. “That garden is far too small to be of any benefit to anyone. They get barely five square feet each. How is that going to achieve anything? We could set up a huge garden outside the facility. There’s plenty of room...”
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Jack cut her off. “You think on far too large a scale for the people at Flat Holm, Gwen. The garden is perfect. It’s not too much for any of them to handle. They can’t cope with anything bigger than that. With the way it is now, each of them has the chance to make something grow, without it becoming more than they can deal with. They’re not going to get any better, Gwen. With the possible exception of Jason, none of them are ever going to improve. They need the shelter that the facility provides, because they’ll never be able to assimilate to the wider world.”
“I just want to help, Jack,” Gwen whispered, looking torn between anger, indignation and plain, simple hurt.
“I know you do,” he assured her. “And that’s one of the reasons I love you, Gwen, but you need to learn that helping someone doesn’t necessarily mean putting them back in society and expecting them to be able to function like the everyday, average person. It just doesn’t work like that. Helping means looking past your own ideals of what normal is, seeing what the other person really needs, and recognising that what they need might not actually be what you’ve convinced yourself that they need. Do you understand me, Gwen? Or are we going to have keep have this pointless argument, going round and round in circles until one of us gets dizzy and falls on their butt?”
Gwen smiled briefly.
“That’s quite a vivid description.”
Jack glanced oh so briefly at Ianto with an equally brief smile before returning his attention to Gwen.
“Do you understand me, Gwen?” he asked in an exaggerated tone.
“All right,” she conceded with a huff. “I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand. I’ll try not to criticise.”
“Thank you,” Jack said with obvious relief. “Now, we have a trip to organise for tomorrow. Let’s get ready. We’ve got a lot to do, and not much time to do it in.”
Jack strode away, and Owen and Tosh headed back to their desks to carry on with their own work, leaving Ianto and Gwen standing together.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you, Ianto,” she told him. “You understand, right?”
Ianto smiled wearily.
“Yes, Gwen. I understand. Apparently more than you realise.”
He turned and walked away, leaving her standing there alone in her confusion.
* * * * *
Rather than meeting them at the dock the next day, Helen met them at the entrance to the facility and while she looked as weary as ever, there was a brightness in her eyes that warmed Jack’s heart.
“Perfect timing. Come in, all of you. There’s lunch for you all in the dining room, if you feel up to it.”
A murmur of approval went through the room. They were all hungry, and were pleased by the idea of having something to eat. As they filed away towards the dining room, though, Helen caught both Jack and Ianto by the sleeves of their coats.
“Can you gentlemen spare a minute? Jonah is due to come out of his scream in about five minutes, and there is something I’d like you both to see.”
Neither Jack nor Ianto needed extra convincing, and they willingly hurried after her. So focused were they that none of them noticed Gwen follow them in suspicious silence.
* * * * *
As they approached Jonah’s room, the sound of his insane scream threatened to break their ear drums with its strange, piercing quality.
“You need to come inside,” Helen urged them. “You have to see it. It’s not enough to just hear it. Quickly...”
They followed her into Jonah’s room just as the sound of the scream began to waver and fade away. There, sitting next to Jonah on the bed, holding his hand and talking to him as though there were no issues at all, was Jason.
As they watched, Jonah came slowly out of his trance and the first thing he became aware of was Jason. A sob escaped him, and he fell against the other boy, sobbing softly. Jason appeared utterly unperturbed by that, reaching around to hug Jonah right back, albeit not too tightly, being aware as he was of Jonah’s badly scarred and subsequently tender flesh. Then, he kept right on talking, as though he’d never been interrupted in the first place, and Jonah was listening to him avidly.
“Five minutes,” Helen said with a hint of triumph in her voice as she ushered them back out the door. Jack and Ianto exchanged confused looks.
“Five minutes what?” Ianto wondered.
“That’s five minutes less time spent in the scream,” Helen told them. “In the time that Jason has devoted to staying with Jonah, and being there for him when he goes into and comes out of the scream, the scream has lasted just a little less each day. Where it was gradually getting longer, Jason’s somehow managed to not only halt it, but reverse it as well. He’s shaved five minutes off the time that Jonah is lost in the scream.”
“That sounds fantastic,” Jack agreed, “but let’s not jump to conclusions just yet, okay?”
“I’m not drawing any conclusions,” Helen assured him. “I’m not qualified to do that. I’m just telling you what I’ve observed over the course of the last week and a half. You should know something else, though. Jason discovered something else. Jonah doesn’t get lost in the scream when he’s asleep, and he has the full four hours of sanity after waking up, before the scream will start again.”
Jack and Ianto looked at each other in wonder.
“So...” Ianto said slowly. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that Jason has worked out a routine. He makes sure he’s there when Jonah comes out of the scream. He’ll spend the next four hours with him just doing simple things. He’ll make sure Jonah has something to eat, maybe have a bit of a potter in the garden, or maybe they’ll just talk. Then, with about half an hour to go, Jason will help Jonah go to sleep. He’ll sleep for maybe five or six hours, and then have another four hours of sanity before slipping into the next scream. Jason has effectively found a way to double Jonah’s periods of sanity every other day.”
Jack looked at Ianto, eyebrows raised, and Ianto returned the look with an identical one of his own.
“Okay,” Jack murmured. “We won’t interrupt them. We’re going to be here until this evening, so we’ll have a chance to talk to Jason later. C’mon, I could do with something to eat. And I wouldn’t mind some food, either.”
Ianto glared at Jack while Helen chortled with amusement.
“You’ll want to be careful, Captain. You’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight if you keep that up.”
Jack laughed and planted a resounding kiss on Ianto’s flushed cheek.
“Lucky for me that he wouldn’t have me any other way.”
* * * * *
Gwen stepped out of the shadow of a nearby alcove only once Jack, Ianto and Helen had gone. Her heart was in her throat – she had not had any contact with Jonah since the disastrous reunion that she’d orchestrated between him and his mother, Nikki. It wasn’t that she wasn’t brave enough to face him, although she had to admit that she was feeling pretty unsettled with nerves right then. It was more than Jack had repeatedly interfered with her attempts to return to the island to see what she could do to help Jonah and the other residents.
Jack didn’t seem to comprehend that there had to be more that they could do for the poor souls that lived in the facility. The little things that Ianto did were sweet and thoughtful, but totally ineffective with regards to any sort of long term healing, and that was what she believed they needed to be aiming for. Little goals and achievements were all well and good, but surely it was important to look ahead to the future for the people here.
Jack’s intentions were good, but she honestly believed they weren’t enough.
She had taken all of three nervous steps towards Jonah’s room when he and the boy they’d retrieved from the warehouse nearly two weeks ago emerged from the room. Gwen froze, caught off-guard and momentarily taken aback once more by the sight of Jonah’s scarred face and body. The boys stopped just outside the door of Jonah’s room, both of them looking at her with a combination of confusion, curiosity and suspicion.
The last one also took her aback. The new boy, Jason, wouldn’t know her from a bar of soap, of course, because he’d been sedated the entire time he’d been in the Hub, and this was the first time Jack had allowed her to visit Flat Holm since finding him. Jonah, however, shouldn’t have had any reason to be suspicious of her, surely? After all, she’d reunited him with his mother. Granted, it hadn’t been the joyful reunion she’d envisaged when she’d convinced Jack to allow Nikki Bevin to come to the facility, and the woman had been less than grateful to her for finding her son, but she’d reunited them all the same and didn’t believe she deserved the less than welcoming look on Jonah’s face.
“Who are you?” Jonah asked in a soft voice that nonetheless echoed in the empty corridor. “You don’t work here. I haven’t seen you before.”
Gwen blinked in astonishment, stunned that he seemed to have forgotten her. Okay, so she hadn’t seen him for a good six months or more, but it was a bit of a slap in the face that she was apparently so forgettable.
“My name is Gwen, Jonah. We’ve met before, don’t you remember? I brought your mother out here to see you.”
Distress flickered in Jonah’s eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My mother has never been out here. She doesn’t know I’m here. She’s not allowed to know, because of what happened to me. I don’t know who you are, either. Jason...?”
“C’mon,” Jason murmured, directing a frown at Gwen that was somehow enough in itself to stop her from following them. “I promised you pancakes, remember? Helen arranged it with the kitchen, and the stuff is all there, ready to go. Even genuine maple syrup, like I promised. Then, we’re going to go up the tower lookout. I want to show you the tern’s nest I spotted yesterday. The babies have only just recently hatched.”
“How many are there?” Jonah asked as Jason guided him away up the corridor, leaving Gwen standing there, dumb-founded and her presence already forgotten. She didn’t hear Jason’s answer. Lost in her own thoughts, it occurred to her that there was only one way that Jonah could have forgotten not only her, but the visit from his mother.
Suddenly fuming, Gwen turned and went in search of Captain Jack Harkness.
* * * * *
The team had just sat down to a light meal of toasted sandwiches and fruit when Gwen stormed in. Without hesitating, she walked straight up to Jack and slapped him as hard as she could across the face.
“What the hell are you doing, Gwen?” Owen exploded as he hurried around to check on the Captain.
“You retconned Jonah Bevin!” Gwen exploded, glaring daggers at Jack. He glared right back at her, one hand pressed over his cheek. Blood was seeping through his fingers – she’d turned her wedding ring inwards and the diamonds had torn his cheek clean open. It would heal quickly enough, but it hurt like hell until it did.
“Yes, I did,” he snapped, getting to his feet and standing over her. “And not just Jonah. I retconned his mother, too. Neither one of them remembers anything.”
“Why?” she demanded. “Why did you do that? After everything I went through, why?”
“You really don’t get it,” Jack said incredulously. “After all the arguments, after everything, you still don’t understand. This isn’t about you, Gwen. It never was, and yet you seem to keep wanting to make it all about you.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, confused and angry. “I haven’t made this about me.”
“Gwen, didn’t you even hear what you said?” Tosh asked anxiously. “You said, ‘after everything I went through’. You’re making it about you, even if you don’t realise it.”
“I only meant that I worked hard to reunite Jonah with his mother. It was what they both wanted!”
“But it wasn’t what they both needed,” Jack countered, suddenly sounding very tired. “What you don’t know, because you probably never followed up after Nikki Bevin told you what she really thought of you, is that she decided that Jonah was dead in her eyes. She refused to come back here to see him, and she was doing her damndest to forget.”
“So you decided to help her along,” Gwen spat. “I offered her retcon, like you told me to, and she refused. What did you do, screw her sixty ways to Sunday to get her to take it?”
“I’ll ignore that insult,” Jack said coldly. “I’m not the one here who cheats on their partner.”
Gwen flushed red at the pointed comment, but Jack went on before she had a chance to even consider defending herself.
“As for how I got her to take it, I didn’t ask. I slipped it to her in her takeaway coffee. It was a very specific calculation, to remove all memories of you, your investigation and seeing Jonah. She’s back to where she was before you interfered. She doesn’t know if Jonah is dead or alive.”
“You really are a cruel bastard, Jack,” she snarled. Jack, however, was utterly unapologetic.
“She has hope again,” he said simply. “Wasn’t that what she accused you of stealing from her? Hope?”
“She was just upset,” Gwen muttered sourly. “And what about Jonah? You wiped everything from his memory, too. How could you steal the memory of his mother coming to visit him?”
“Because it shouldn’t have been just a memory,” Jack said. “What do you think would hurt him more, Gwen? Not remembering his mother’s visit at all, or remembering it and knowing that she couldn’t deal with him as he is now and effectively abandoning him. Tell me, Gwen, which do you think would hurt him worse?”
How Gwen managed to look defiant and defeated all at the same time was something that Jack supposed would forever elude him.
“Remembering and knowing she wasn’t coming back, I suppose...” she muttered. Jack nodded.
“Exactly. Now, if you’re done with your latest morality rant, I suggest you sit down and have something to eat before it’s too late. We have a busy afternoon ahead, and there’s not going to be time to stop and take a break.”
Nodding and looking thoroughly embarrassed by then, Gwen took her seat and focused on the food that was placed in front of her.
“All right,” Jack said, still frowning a little after the confrontation with Gwen. “Let’s finish planning out what we’ll be doing while we’re here.”
“I’ll see about updating the computer systems,” Tosh said.
“I’ll check the medical supplies,” Owen said, “do an inventory and make a note of anything that’s needed. I’ll check with Helen, too. See if there’s anything she thinks is needed.”
“Good,” Jack agreed. “And Ianto, Gwen and I will meet with Jason, and see how things are progressing with him.” He looked to their still belligerent colleague. “If you think you can avoid being confrontational, that is?”
Gwen just glared at him and kept eating, much to Jack’s private satisfaction and very great relief.
* * * * *
to be continued....
Chapter Nine: Back to Flat Holm
Author: blucougar57
Summary: A new rift victim proves to be a revelation to the Torchwood team, and then some.
Rating: T
A/N: Gwen finally gets her way... or so she thinks.
Jack held out for a full week and a half before finally giving in to Gwen’s repeated demands to see Jason. Though it was quite obvious to the others that he would have preferred to leave it, her constant pressure and nagging left him visibly drained to the point where he was willing to capitulate, just to get her off his back about it. Gwen was jubilant when he finally did concede, but her jubilation was short lived. She would not be going alone, he informed her. The whole team would be going to Flat Holm together.
He’d taken note that it was a good two or three months since they’d all made the trip out to the facility together, and decided it was high time that another trip was undertaken. Gwen, understandably, was extremely unimpressed.
“When are you going to trust me to go out there on my own?” she demanded, seemingly uncaring that she was unleashing her anger at Jack in front of the rest of the team. Jack regarded her soberly.
“I’ll let that happen when I can feel confident that you won’t have a negative impact on anyone at Flat Holm. Gwen, you’ve yet to make a trip out there when you don’t upset someone.”
The indignant look on her face was priceless, and almost made up for the discomfort caused by her starting the argument in such a public space.
“I don’t...”
He leaned in, staring at her with a piercing gaze.
“Yeah. You do. Every single time, Gwen. The last time, you upset both Ianto and Helen by criticising the garden that Ianto set up.”
“Oh, come on!” she fumed. “That garden is far too small to be of any benefit to anyone. They get barely five square feet each. How is that going to achieve anything? We could set up a huge garden outside the facility. There’s plenty of room...”
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Jack cut her off. “You think on far too large a scale for the people at Flat Holm, Gwen. The garden is perfect. It’s not too much for any of them to handle. They can’t cope with anything bigger than that. With the way it is now, each of them has the chance to make something grow, without it becoming more than they can deal with. They’re not going to get any better, Gwen. With the possible exception of Jason, none of them are ever going to improve. They need the shelter that the facility provides, because they’ll never be able to assimilate to the wider world.”
“I just want to help, Jack,” Gwen whispered, looking torn between anger, indignation and plain, simple hurt.
“I know you do,” he assured her. “And that’s one of the reasons I love you, Gwen, but you need to learn that helping someone doesn’t necessarily mean putting them back in society and expecting them to be able to function like the everyday, average person. It just doesn’t work like that. Helping means looking past your own ideals of what normal is, seeing what the other person really needs, and recognising that what they need might not actually be what you’ve convinced yourself that they need. Do you understand me, Gwen? Or are we going to have keep have this pointless argument, going round and round in circles until one of us gets dizzy and falls on their butt?”
Gwen smiled briefly.
“That’s quite a vivid description.”
Jack glanced oh so briefly at Ianto with an equally brief smile before returning his attention to Gwen.
“Do you understand me, Gwen?” he asked in an exaggerated tone.
“All right,” she conceded with a huff. “I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand. I’ll try not to criticise.”
“Thank you,” Jack said with obvious relief. “Now, we have a trip to organise for tomorrow. Let’s get ready. We’ve got a lot to do, and not much time to do it in.”
Jack strode away, and Owen and Tosh headed back to their desks to carry on with their own work, leaving Ianto and Gwen standing together.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you, Ianto,” she told him. “You understand, right?”
Ianto smiled wearily.
“Yes, Gwen. I understand. Apparently more than you realise.”
He turned and walked away, leaving her standing there alone in her confusion.
Rather than meeting them at the dock the next day, Helen met them at the entrance to the facility and while she looked as weary as ever, there was a brightness in her eyes that warmed Jack’s heart.
“Perfect timing. Come in, all of you. There’s lunch for you all in the dining room, if you feel up to it.”
A murmur of approval went through the room. They were all hungry, and were pleased by the idea of having something to eat. As they filed away towards the dining room, though, Helen caught both Jack and Ianto by the sleeves of their coats.
“Can you gentlemen spare a minute? Jonah is due to come out of his scream in about five minutes, and there is something I’d like you both to see.”
Neither Jack nor Ianto needed extra convincing, and they willingly hurried after her. So focused were they that none of them noticed Gwen follow them in suspicious silence.
As they approached Jonah’s room, the sound of his insane scream threatened to break their ear drums with its strange, piercing quality.
“You need to come inside,” Helen urged them. “You have to see it. It’s not enough to just hear it. Quickly...”
They followed her into Jonah’s room just as the sound of the scream began to waver and fade away. There, sitting next to Jonah on the bed, holding his hand and talking to him as though there were no issues at all, was Jason.
As they watched, Jonah came slowly out of his trance and the first thing he became aware of was Jason. A sob escaped him, and he fell against the other boy, sobbing softly. Jason appeared utterly unperturbed by that, reaching around to hug Jonah right back, albeit not too tightly, being aware as he was of Jonah’s badly scarred and subsequently tender flesh. Then, he kept right on talking, as though he’d never been interrupted in the first place, and Jonah was listening to him avidly.
“Five minutes,” Helen said with a hint of triumph in her voice as she ushered them back out the door. Jack and Ianto exchanged confused looks.
“Five minutes what?” Ianto wondered.
“That’s five minutes less time spent in the scream,” Helen told them. “In the time that Jason has devoted to staying with Jonah, and being there for him when he goes into and comes out of the scream, the scream has lasted just a little less each day. Where it was gradually getting longer, Jason’s somehow managed to not only halt it, but reverse it as well. He’s shaved five minutes off the time that Jonah is lost in the scream.”
“That sounds fantastic,” Jack agreed, “but let’s not jump to conclusions just yet, okay?”
“I’m not drawing any conclusions,” Helen assured him. “I’m not qualified to do that. I’m just telling you what I’ve observed over the course of the last week and a half. You should know something else, though. Jason discovered something else. Jonah doesn’t get lost in the scream when he’s asleep, and he has the full four hours of sanity after waking up, before the scream will start again.”
Jack and Ianto looked at each other in wonder.
“So...” Ianto said slowly. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that Jason has worked out a routine. He makes sure he’s there when Jonah comes out of the scream. He’ll spend the next four hours with him just doing simple things. He’ll make sure Jonah has something to eat, maybe have a bit of a potter in the garden, or maybe they’ll just talk. Then, with about half an hour to go, Jason will help Jonah go to sleep. He’ll sleep for maybe five or six hours, and then have another four hours of sanity before slipping into the next scream. Jason has effectively found a way to double Jonah’s periods of sanity every other day.”
Jack looked at Ianto, eyebrows raised, and Ianto returned the look with an identical one of his own.
“Okay,” Jack murmured. “We won’t interrupt them. We’re going to be here until this evening, so we’ll have a chance to talk to Jason later. C’mon, I could do with something to eat. And I wouldn’t mind some food, either.”
Ianto glared at Jack while Helen chortled with amusement.
“You’ll want to be careful, Captain. You’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight if you keep that up.”
Jack laughed and planted a resounding kiss on Ianto’s flushed cheek.
“Lucky for me that he wouldn’t have me any other way.”
Gwen stepped out of the shadow of a nearby alcove only once Jack, Ianto and Helen had gone. Her heart was in her throat – she had not had any contact with Jonah since the disastrous reunion that she’d orchestrated between him and his mother, Nikki. It wasn’t that she wasn’t brave enough to face him, although she had to admit that she was feeling pretty unsettled with nerves right then. It was more than Jack had repeatedly interfered with her attempts to return to the island to see what she could do to help Jonah and the other residents.
Jack didn’t seem to comprehend that there had to be more that they could do for the poor souls that lived in the facility. The little things that Ianto did were sweet and thoughtful, but totally ineffective with regards to any sort of long term healing, and that was what she believed they needed to be aiming for. Little goals and achievements were all well and good, but surely it was important to look ahead to the future for the people here.
Jack’s intentions were good, but she honestly believed they weren’t enough.
She had taken all of three nervous steps towards Jonah’s room when he and the boy they’d retrieved from the warehouse nearly two weeks ago emerged from the room. Gwen froze, caught off-guard and momentarily taken aback once more by the sight of Jonah’s scarred face and body. The boys stopped just outside the door of Jonah’s room, both of them looking at her with a combination of confusion, curiosity and suspicion.
The last one also took her aback. The new boy, Jason, wouldn’t know her from a bar of soap, of course, because he’d been sedated the entire time he’d been in the Hub, and this was the first time Jack had allowed her to visit Flat Holm since finding him. Jonah, however, shouldn’t have had any reason to be suspicious of her, surely? After all, she’d reunited him with his mother. Granted, it hadn’t been the joyful reunion she’d envisaged when she’d convinced Jack to allow Nikki Bevin to come to the facility, and the woman had been less than grateful to her for finding her son, but she’d reunited them all the same and didn’t believe she deserved the less than welcoming look on Jonah’s face.
“Who are you?” Jonah asked in a soft voice that nonetheless echoed in the empty corridor. “You don’t work here. I haven’t seen you before.”
Gwen blinked in astonishment, stunned that he seemed to have forgotten her. Okay, so she hadn’t seen him for a good six months or more, but it was a bit of a slap in the face that she was apparently so forgettable.
“My name is Gwen, Jonah. We’ve met before, don’t you remember? I brought your mother out here to see you.”
Distress flickered in Jonah’s eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My mother has never been out here. She doesn’t know I’m here. She’s not allowed to know, because of what happened to me. I don’t know who you are, either. Jason...?”
“C’mon,” Jason murmured, directing a frown at Gwen that was somehow enough in itself to stop her from following them. “I promised you pancakes, remember? Helen arranged it with the kitchen, and the stuff is all there, ready to go. Even genuine maple syrup, like I promised. Then, we’re going to go up the tower lookout. I want to show you the tern’s nest I spotted yesterday. The babies have only just recently hatched.”
“How many are there?” Jonah asked as Jason guided him away up the corridor, leaving Gwen standing there, dumb-founded and her presence already forgotten. She didn’t hear Jason’s answer. Lost in her own thoughts, it occurred to her that there was only one way that Jonah could have forgotten not only her, but the visit from his mother.
Suddenly fuming, Gwen turned and went in search of Captain Jack Harkness.
The team had just sat down to a light meal of toasted sandwiches and fruit when Gwen stormed in. Without hesitating, she walked straight up to Jack and slapped him as hard as she could across the face.
“What the hell are you doing, Gwen?” Owen exploded as he hurried around to check on the Captain.
“You retconned Jonah Bevin!” Gwen exploded, glaring daggers at Jack. He glared right back at her, one hand pressed over his cheek. Blood was seeping through his fingers – she’d turned her wedding ring inwards and the diamonds had torn his cheek clean open. It would heal quickly enough, but it hurt like hell until it did.
“Yes, I did,” he snapped, getting to his feet and standing over her. “And not just Jonah. I retconned his mother, too. Neither one of them remembers anything.”
“Why?” she demanded. “Why did you do that? After everything I went through, why?”
“You really don’t get it,” Jack said incredulously. “After all the arguments, after everything, you still don’t understand. This isn’t about you, Gwen. It never was, and yet you seem to keep wanting to make it all about you.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, confused and angry. “I haven’t made this about me.”
“Gwen, didn’t you even hear what you said?” Tosh asked anxiously. “You said, ‘after everything I went through’. You’re making it about you, even if you don’t realise it.”
“I only meant that I worked hard to reunite Jonah with his mother. It was what they both wanted!”
“But it wasn’t what they both needed,” Jack countered, suddenly sounding very tired. “What you don’t know, because you probably never followed up after Nikki Bevin told you what she really thought of you, is that she decided that Jonah was dead in her eyes. She refused to come back here to see him, and she was doing her damndest to forget.”
“So you decided to help her along,” Gwen spat. “I offered her retcon, like you told me to, and she refused. What did you do, screw her sixty ways to Sunday to get her to take it?”
“I’ll ignore that insult,” Jack said coldly. “I’m not the one here who cheats on their partner.”
Gwen flushed red at the pointed comment, but Jack went on before she had a chance to even consider defending herself.
“As for how I got her to take it, I didn’t ask. I slipped it to her in her takeaway coffee. It was a very specific calculation, to remove all memories of you, your investigation and seeing Jonah. She’s back to where she was before you interfered. She doesn’t know if Jonah is dead or alive.”
“You really are a cruel bastard, Jack,” she snarled. Jack, however, was utterly unapologetic.
“She has hope again,” he said simply. “Wasn’t that what she accused you of stealing from her? Hope?”
“She was just upset,” Gwen muttered sourly. “And what about Jonah? You wiped everything from his memory, too. How could you steal the memory of his mother coming to visit him?”
“Because it shouldn’t have been just a memory,” Jack said. “What do you think would hurt him more, Gwen? Not remembering his mother’s visit at all, or remembering it and knowing that she couldn’t deal with him as he is now and effectively abandoning him. Tell me, Gwen, which do you think would hurt him worse?”
How Gwen managed to look defiant and defeated all at the same time was something that Jack supposed would forever elude him.
“Remembering and knowing she wasn’t coming back, I suppose...” she muttered. Jack nodded.
“Exactly. Now, if you’re done with your latest morality rant, I suggest you sit down and have something to eat before it’s too late. We have a busy afternoon ahead, and there’s not going to be time to stop and take a break.”
Nodding and looking thoroughly embarrassed by then, Gwen took her seat and focused on the food that was placed in front of her.
“All right,” Jack said, still frowning a little after the confrontation with Gwen. “Let’s finish planning out what we’ll be doing while we’re here.”
“I’ll see about updating the computer systems,” Tosh said.
“I’ll check the medical supplies,” Owen said, “do an inventory and make a note of anything that’s needed. I’ll check with Helen, too. See if there’s anything she thinks is needed.”
“Good,” Jack agreed. “And Ianto, Gwen and I will meet with Jason, and see how things are progressing with him.” He looked to their still belligerent colleague. “If you think you can avoid being confrontational, that is?”
Gwen just glared at him and kept eating, much to Jack’s private satisfaction and very great relief.
to be continued....
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What an imbecile!
Great chapter.
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Love the fact Jason was able to reach Jonah and hope Gwen didn't set his recovery back.