| Date: 14 January 2008
Characters: Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper Location: hotel room Link to IJ: thread #36034 |
 Gwen had told Koschei that she'd think on his offer. Considering she had spent her first night in her hotel room, awake with her gun resting in her lap, she was pretty sure that it was time to accept the offer. She sighed softly as she laid out on her bed. She was pretty sure that it was a move that was frowned on but she was just so tired. Resting her hands under her cheek, she tucked her legs in close, mindful of her gun and that she had at least one escape route.The soldiers were coming. She could hear the sounds of their boots on the pavement. "Tosh, we have to go," she urged as she lifted the little girl up on her hip "They're coming." Tosh nodded as she finished up closing down the computer system. It was common practice for them to wipe out any CCTV records of what they were doing. "Coming. Go on, I'm right behind you" Gwen had urged the people they were moving to run before turning back to see the Soldiers. Tosh was just exiting the building. "TOSH! RUN!" yelled Gwen. It would be a moment that she'd feel guilt over for weeks after. She and Tosh had exchanged fire with the soldiers. Gunshots always brought the Toclafane. "Gwen! Run!" yelled Tosh as they closed in. She ran. Turning only to watch the attack. "TOSH!" Gwen woke with a start, biting her lip to stifle the screams that rose to her lips. The sobs came next. The tears she had been keeping from Ianto and Owen. They weren't there to see it, she was alone. What did it matter now? |
 "Oy! Keep it...! Gwen?"Owen had been awakened by the muffled sounds of the person in the room next to his, and he'd pulled himself out of bed in order to go and lay down a rather stark complaint, but seeing the sobbing, huddled figure of a friend and former lover who, in his mind, was long sense dead killed the protest on his lips. Instead, he just lingered in the doorway for a long moment, stunned silent before slipping into the room, closing the door behind him before crossing over and settling down on the bed next to her, gathering her up into his arms. "It's all right, Gwen," Owen whispered, raising a hand to run lightly over her back. "We're safe here." |
| Gwen had, on instinct tensed when she felt the person embrace her. However when Owen had spoken, she had relaxed, turning her face into his chest. "I couldn't save her, Owen," she whispered tearfully "I shouldn't have shouted to her. I couldn't stop them." She wrapped her arms around him. "I couldn't save her." |
| The words 'It was just a dream' had almost passed his lips until he realized that it might not have been just a dream. There were so many intersections here, so many possibilities that it could have been a memory for her while it hadn't even happened for him. So instead, Owen just cradled her, his temple resting lightly against hers, "You can't save everyone, freckles. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try." |
| "It's not everyone, Owen," she whispered "It's Tosh." There had been so much blood. Just like with Rhys. "Another person I cared about gone. First Jack leaves us, then Rhys and then Tosh. It won't be long before everyone else dies too." Being alone had always been her biggest fear. She didn't think she was strong enough alone. |
| "I'm still here," Owen said, his heart aching at those words. He was still here, and Gwen was gone. His Gwen was gone forever, and he couldn't do anything to get her back. But right now, this Gwen needed him. And that was something. "I'm still here, and not even one of those goddamn Toclafane could take me away," Owen said, murmuring into her hair. |
| She pulled away, only enough to look at him. "I'm not sure how much more of this I can take," she admitted tearfully "I'm not nearly as strong as I wish I was and I can't sleep and even here where it seems safe...I keep waiting, waiting for more death." She turned her head back into his chest. "I'm so tired, Owen. So tired. Sometimes I wish it was over." |
| Gwen went next. After Tosh, it was Gwen. He'd given them both such grief, but there was no denying that he'd cared about them. Even when him and Gwen had just been fooling around... God, that seemed like forever ago. "Just sleep, Gwen," Owen said, shifting slowly as he laid down, cradling her against his chest as he did, running a hand lightly through her hair. "I'm here, and I'm not going to go anywhere." |
| She wrapped her arm around his waist. "The nightmares will come back," she said sounding as defeated as she felt. "They always come back and they are never pretty to see." Logically, she knew he wasn't her Owen but she couldn't seem to make herself pull away from him. She tried to warn him away though. |
| "Doesn't matter. I'm not going to just leave you to cry in the dark all alone," Owen said, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow. "I'm a bastard, but I'm not that much of a bastard." |
| "Thank you," she whispered looking up at him. "I've just gotten so used to crying alone in the dark." She touched his cheek before laying her head back down. "I think I've forgotten how to be who I used to be." |
| "Then just be who you are now," Owen said, turning his gaze down at Gwen as he rubbed her back gently, reaching down with his free hand and tugging the covers up around the two of them. "It's been working for me so far." |
| "I'm not sure I like who I am, anymore," she said softly helping him pull the blanket up "Never sleeping, not trusting anyone, doing things to survive and keep others safe that I would never dream of doing before...it all happened." |
| "Tough times put us into places and situations that we never thought we'd have to deal with before, Gwen. And those things change us, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse," Owen said softly, leaning back and staring at the ceiling as he hugged her close. |
| "Jack put us into this situation," she said pressing her forehead to his shoulder. "If he had stayed...I was such a bloody fool to beileve in him. I waited for him to come back...I thought he cared about us but he was just waiting for his chance to get his precious answers. You all must have thought I was so thick." |
| "I thought he cared, too, Gwen," Owen said, his voice barely a whisper. "Do you think I would have cried on the bastard's shoulder if I thought he didn't? Our relationship was complicated. We didn't exactly get along. And I didn't exactly trust him. But I didn't think he'd just leave us like that." |
| "I wished he could die," she said looking up at him. "So many times. Wiping Rhys's blood from my face, when I had to tell you and Ianto that Tosh was gone. I wanted Jack dead. I wanted him to hurt like we were hurting." She looked away and sighed shakily. "He never will though." |
| "He's here," Owen said softly. "Jack. But from before he left. He seemed honestly surprised that he left us." |
| "I don't think I could handle seeing that one just now," she said softly "At least the one from after he left...I know I can't trust him." |
| "Tosh is here, too," Owen said softly. "I saw her the other day." |