Gwen made her way home after a throughly exhausting day at work, today they had brought in two different aliens at Torchwood and were working on two separate cases at once, luckily, Owen had worked the case opposite of her, so they didn't have to have that awkward talk after they had kissed when the CyberWoman had been trying to kill the lot of them and they had ended up in the mourg body storage tables. Needless to say she was so tired and looking forward to seeing Rhyss, he'd help her unwind from a hectic day at work. She opened the door and thought she heard stumbling in the back room. No. She thought. It must just be the Alien Hunting getting to me, hearing bizarre things around every corner. But to her surprise Rhyss came crashing out of the bedroom, vodka bottle in hand.

"So you finally come home!" He yells in drunken stupor.

"Yes, been drinking have you?"

"What else is there to do? You work all hours of the day and night, stay more with your boss than you do me!"

"You mean Jack?"

"Of Course I Mean Jack!" he yells waving the bottle about dangerously.

"He's just me boss, although me and him did have to do quite a bit of footwork today, so we do work closely, but..." Gwen begins but is stopped.

"Exactly! You work 'closely' with him, me thinks that your and him are shagging!"

"Rhyss, that would never happen, like I said, he's just me boss, I love you!" Gwen protests, she had no clue where this was coming from.

"Whore!" Rhyss yells as he swings the bottle and hits her upside the face, some glass lodging in and the whole mess bleeding.

"Ahh!" Gwen screams in pain, not only from the bottle but from the two punches Rhyss had delivered to her ribs. They would surly be black and blue in a few moments. Gwen pulls out her gun and aims it at his head saying in a shaking voice. "STOP IT RHYSS! Just...stop. I'm leaving." She says as she rushes out of the apartment and back towards Torchwood, hopefully Jack would still be there, he said he didn't have a home, but she just hoped he didn't decide to go out for the evening.

Jack sat in his office tossing a ball up and down, he was so incredibly bored, there was never anything to do at night. He was just thinking on going out and getting a drink, maybe shagging some woman he barely knew, that was...until he saw Gwen on the feed on the monitor, she was right outside the door, pounding on it.

"What the hell..." Jack whispered to himself.

"Jack...are you there, somebody, please let me in." Gwen said, there was a harsh edge to her voice, and it appeared to breaking.

Jack quickly pressed the button, unlocking the door and noting how Gwen spared no time in quickly coming inside and shutting the door behind her, leaning against it breathing harshly for a moment. She then proceeded into the secret hallway that led into the very heart of Torchwood, the door that looked oddly enough like a gear whirred open slowly and she limped in. Jack was standing on the landing when she arrived and her appearance almost made his heart stop.

"Hey Jack." She says as she smiles, trying not to look at him, he saw she really didn't want attention broughten to her face but since when did he do what others wanted him to do?

"Gwen..." He says walking closer to her. "...what happened?" He wasn't that far from her now, and he gestured to both her face and the obvious limp and the position in which she carried herself.

"Oh..me and Rhyss had a spat." She says laughing, or trying to until the pain is too great and begins to fall.

"Whoa!" Jack exclaims as he catches her carefully. "Let's get you up here and sit down why don't we." He says smiling at her disheveled form.

As they sat up in the observatory deck Jack precariously took the shards of glass out of Gwen's face, seeing her wince in pain he murmurs:

"Sorry."

"No...it's fine." Gwen replies, she was oddly quiet, and that unsettled Jack.

"So..." Jack says as he removes another shard of glass. "...what happened, what really happened, this isn't just some little spat. This is serious." Jack says as he watches her eyes water a bit. "Gwen what is it?"

"Its just...Rhyss has been so persnickety lately, I think it's because of all these hours I'm working. Anyway, he must've started drinking more than the drink with the guys at night and I didn't know. Well, we've been fighting more and more of late. Then when I came home tonight, he was plastered off his gourd, and held a bottle of vodka in his hand. He started ranting and raving about an affair between you and I and he smashed the bottle across my face and punched me twice in the ribs." Gwen explains, voice breaking the entire time, and winces as Jack pulls the final large shard out of her face.

"What else happened? There's gotta be something else." Jack says staring intently into her eyes.

"I had to pull my gun on him, he wouldn't have let me go otherwise." Gwen says as tears slip down her cheeks, she feels them touch the cuts and the salt in it burns, she raises her hand to touch it and Jack quickly grabs her hand.

"You didn't have a choice, let me clean that, don't want it to get infected." Jack says as he dissapears into the other room.

He's right you know, you really didn't have a choice. Gwen's self tells her. Yet I can't help but feel responsible for it. But before she has a chance to continue that train of thought Jack comes back and begins gentle cleaning the various cuts on her face. Her eyes flutter shut as he does, which doesn't go unnoticed by him. He actually liked the fact that she feels she can trust him that much.

"There ya go, your all done. I suggest sleep, but if not, you can always work on one of the cases, although I have no clue why you would want to do such a thing." Jack laughs as he watches Gwen rush to work on her case, hunched over her computer.

The next morning Tosh, Ianto, and Owen came in, they were talking very loudly as they were approaching Gwen's chair, Jack jumped the landing and landed in front of the group.

"Shh." He says simply.

"What's up?" Owen asks.

Jack simply directs his glance to the chair where Gwen was laying asleep on the keyboard.

"Why's she here?" Tosh asks curiously.

"Her and Rhyss had a major tiff. He smashed a bottle of vodka against her face and punched her twice in the ribs where there is extensive bruising, she got here about three this morning, she's been working on the case since we finished bandaging her up and talking." Jack explains, catching Owens worried glance. It was clear that Owen felt something for her, and everyone knew of the fact they snogged heavily during the 'LISA' incident. Jack was just worried that Gwen didn't realize Owen actually did care for her.

"Well why don't we get to work eh?" Tosh says as she goes over to her computer, throwing Gwen a sympathetic glance.

"Right." Owen says as he takes a seat at his computer, right over by Gwen, meanwhile Ianto sets to brewing a strong pot of coffee, he'd been trying to overcompensate since Lisa.

Okay, Owen could deal with Gwen coming here, he could deal with her sleeping while he was working, he could even deal with the fact that she went to Jack instead of him, but what he couldn't deal with was the whimpering in her sleep. She seemed to be crying without the actual tear bit, and it was tearing Owen apart. He couldn't barely work because he was so worried about her that he couldn't focus. As his glance shifted over to her he saw her tossing back and forth, side to side, on the key board.

I wonder what she's thinking... Owen begins to think but his train of thought is interrupted as Gwen flies up from her sleep, eyes very wide, and tears slightly falling down her cheeks.

"Gwen what is it?" Owen asks carefully, Jack had came out of his office and was now standing by the railing above the pit they worked in.

"Gwen?"

"Something's going on, dunno what, just that something is." Gwen says as she begins to type furiously on her keyboard. Searching for whatever only she knew, finally as the computer binged she backed away and her face turned ghostly white.

"Gwen what is it?" Jack and Owen asked simultaneously.

"There..." Gwen replies as she runs out of the room to the outside of Torchwood.

"Gwen wait!" Jack yells as he begins to go after her but Owen's shakey voice stops him.

"Jack listen to this: 'Police have a lead on killing from last night, two little girls were killed, it appears that before they were murdered the murderer bashed in their faces with a...Vodka Bottle.'" Owen reads as Jack is stopped in his tracks.

"You don't think."

"Dunno, but she does." Owen replies.

"Maybe someone should see if she's, oh I don't know, OKAY?" Tosh yells.

"I'll do it." Owen volunteers as he jumps the lift to beat her there.

As the lift stopped and he was outside on the street he looked around for Gwen, unfortunately he didn't see her anywhere so he decided to run over and check the main entrance. As he arrived he saw Gwen on the ground against the wall, she was shaking badly and it was quite evident that she was crying. He slowly walked over to her and sat down beside her.

"Gwen, do you honestly think that Rhyss would have it in him to do that?" Owen asks watching her start suddenly.

"Owen, I honestly dunno what to think anymore. He's been acting so very weird, granted I've been a downright cow to him, but...I just don't know anymore." Gwen says stiffening slightly at first as Owen places an arm around her shoulders.

"It doesn't matter how much of a cow your being, doesn't give him any right to hit you. And I don't know about you, but I don't think Rhyss could really kill those girls, it could just be a coincidence, you never know. But your in no condition to be here working, you should go home." Owen says looking at Gwen as her eyes widen minutely.

"Owen...you know as well as I that there's no such thing as coincidence where we're concerned, everything's a link. You learn that when you become a cop, and its only been reinforced here at Torchwood. Compared to how he's been acting around me and the habits he's been developing, I honestly can't say anything certain for him. But...I can't go home, he's sure to be there, he doesn't work, and I really don't wanna go back to that. I'm fine. I can work." She says giving a pathetic smile.

"Come on Gwen, I'll take you back to my flat. We can talk more there, and this concrete is starting to hurt my arse." Owen says as he laughs slightly at the incredulous look on Gwen's face.

He stands and helps her to stand also, he slings an arm around her shoulder and walks with her back to his flat. She leaned her head against his shoulder and let go of all her cares, she was too tired; too exhausted to concern herself right now.

Owen watched Gwen sleep in his bed, he was very concerned, with what she had told him of Rhyss of late and the incredible details of her dream; they mirrored the crime with bone-chilling similarity. He knew one thing for certain, that she certainly couldn't go back there, it was liable that if she did Rhyss would kill her. It suddenly dawned on him that he had not told Jack or anybody else he was taking her back here and that Jack would likely be freaking. He pulled out his cell and reluctantly stopped watching Gwen to go in the other room and call Jack.

Jack was officially freaking, Owen hadn't called and he couldn't find either Gwen nor Owen. Jack wasn't sure what exactly was going on but he knew it wasn't good. The more they looked into the case the more he didn't like it. The parallels between what happened to Gwen with Rhyss and the case of the murdered girls were eerily similar. Little Cassie and Correy Townsien had their faces bashed in with a Vodka bottle before they were raped and then decapitated. This was no alien case, aliens were never this crude. Jack just hoped Gwen had went with Owen and not back home with Rhyss, because he had a bad feeling she would end up dead if she did so. But he was roused out of his musing as the phone began to ring.

"Captain Jack Harkness." He replied with his usual military voice.

"Jack it's Owen."

"Owen...WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!!??" Jack yells, he wanted to rip Owen's head off, but if Gwen was with him, he could maybe, probably, most likely forgive him.

"I'm at my flat, Gwen's here with me. Sorry 'bout not calling earlier, it's been drama and crying central here, she's only just fallen asleep. I'm worried Jack, what's with the case, find anythin?"

"The more we look into it the less I like it. It seems to be eerily similar to Gwen's case. I'm afraid that we may have to take action and hand Rhyss over to the authorities."

"But it'd virtually destroy Gwen."

"I know. But we may not have a choice." Jack replies hollowly.

"Well, I'll keep an eye on her here, I have a feeling the worst is yet to come, if she's right about that the case, I have a feeling she'll have another revelation soon. Call me if you find out anything." Owen replies, as he walks into the room looking at a tossing Gwen.

"Will do, and same to you, if she sees anything else, call me straight away, I'll be right over if so."

"Don't worry, will do. And Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"You seriously need a release, take a break from the case for few hours and blow off some steam, Tosh and Ianto can handle it, besides, you might get an epiphany about the case." Owen says half-joking half-serious.

"I'll look into it Owen." Jack laughs as the line disconnects.

Owen laughs to himself as he returns to the chair in his bedroom and watches Gwen toss furiously back and forth.

Okay, so that was my first chapter, please don't kill me, I know there's a lot of OOCness, please remember I'm an American author trying to write British. So give me a bit of leeway. Anyway, let me know what you think. In the upcoming chapter there will be an original character in which Owen's crack will make more sense. Sorry if this wasn't up to par, I've been writing this over like a month since I've been bogged down. I also won't be able to update regularly since school is being a bitch. But when I do i'll make sure its longer for you guys. Anyway R&R, give me any ideas too, it would majorly help.

♥Brittany♥

A.K.A.

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