Let the {Games} Begin (Open)

[Gwen Cooper]

Gwen arrived at the Hub early. She half expected Jack or Ianto to be there but everything seemed to be very quiet. She was balancing a tray of coffees and some pastries.

“Oi, you lot about?” she called and her only response was from a screech high above. Smiling, she put the tray down and pulled out a pastry, tossing it into the air. Myfanwy swooped down and caught it in mid-air. “Shhh, don’t tell Ianto I’m spoiling you,” she said, smiling up at the pterosaur.

She went over to her monitor and switched it on. She then placed a coffee at Ianto’s desk along with a pastry. She left a coffee and pastry on her own and then began to climb the stairs up to Jack’s office. The door was open so she went in. It was empty as well, the boys must have crashed at Ianto’s…or they were down in Jack’s room. Either way, she would just sneak in and sneak out, leaving a gift.

Ianto always took care of them, beverage wise, but every once in a while Gwen wanted to give back. She didn’t dare make her own coffee. She liked her job and didn’t think poisoning the boss was a smart move. Even if Jack would just return from the dead, she was pretty sure he’d frown on it.

Walking softly, she left the office and returned to her desk. She began to run the usual morning police reports seeing if there was anything of interest that might have happened in the night. Usually it was rather quiet, just the occasional Weevil or a small blip of Rift flotsam and jetsam.

She leaned back, putting her feet up onto the desk to enjoy her breakfast when a rather interesting report came up on the screen. Reports of a man in a Napoleonic jacket was seen roaming around Cardiff. He was also wearing a long katana sword and guns. Police were called but since the suspect did nothing out of the ordinary, they didn’t do anything. Police dismissed the man as a historical re-enactor.

Gwen rolled her large green eyes and sat up, putting her coffee down. “Cachu!” she swore in Welsh. This wasn’t how she had planned on spending her day and idly wondered if that was where the boys had gotten to.

She tapped her comm to see if maybe they were needing help. “Jack? Ianto? If you’re on comms, I assume you know we have a guest in town.”

[Elizabeth Wright]

{mind if I join?}

Elizabeth Wright was down in the autopsy room. It was down below the main hub, and for all intents and purposes its own room. It was only early, as she was fully aware of that as she stretched her free arm up and across the back of her neck, arching her back and brushing her blonde hair from her face, where it had fallen from the messy ponytail, but it seemed later. She'd been sleeping badly - shock horror with the new job and all , there was a tiny bit going through her mind - but where most people would go to the gym or the loungeroom with a cup of coffee, Liz decided to throw on her leather jacket, boots and jeans, and head into work.

She wasn't actually doing anything autopsy related, not really. Nothing gory, anyway, although she couldn't wait to get her hands into something. She was actually just reading. There were years of reports to go through, and something new to learn in every one of them. Liz was in heaven. Learning had always been a passion, as nerdy as it was, and this stuff was like nothing she'd come across before. Well, she'd not come across it as factual.

She was so engrossed that she didn't hear when someone entered the hub. She finished the reprt she was reading, placing it down on the pile she had going on the autopsy table, and finally realised she could hear someone moving around up near the desks. Liz frowned, though wasn't too worried. Chances were it was just Jack or Ianto.

She bounded up the stairs two at a time, just in time to hear a distinctly female, and welsh she registered, voice calling out to the two absent team members. Liz ducked around, so she could see the face of the girl, and relaxed when she recognised the third - well, now fourth - torchwood member, Gwen Cooper. They'd not met yet, but Ianto had pulled up a photo on the database.

"I wouldn't bet on it" she replied to the woman, walking up to her. "We've not met yet. I'm Elizabeth, but please, just Liz, or whatever you want to shorten it to. You must be Gwen"

[Gwen Cooper]

Gwen startled. There was movement coming from the autopsy bay and she took a moment to remember…Jack had recruited a new doctor. That made her feel a mixture of relief and anger.

They needed a medic, that was a given. Just last week Gwen had to lie to the doctor in the A&E and said her dog had gotten a bit rough with her when in fact she had a huge scratch from a routine Weevil capture that ended up not being so routine. She hated to lie, but it was lie or retcon and she didn’t want to do that too often either. Normally she would have had Jack or Ianto bandage her up before she went home but the scratch was deep and needed a couple stitches.

Conversely, she hated the idea of someone taking Owen’s place. Granted, Owen was a twat on a good day and had spent the last few weeks of his life as a dead man walking, she still missed him. They had shared something, no matter how wrong it had been at the time. Gwen allowed people into her heart and hated to let them go. What they shared was betrayal to Rhys, to their team, to each other, but at that moment, it was what they had needed to survive.

Damn it! She missed his miserable self.

She took a deep breath and continued to pull information for Jack on the appearance of his ‘favourite’ ex, when the new medic came up to the work stations. The young woman came around and Gwen looked up. She was pretty and blonde. Hart would approve.

"I wouldn't bet on it" she replied to the Gwen, walking up to her. "We've not met yet. I'm Elizabeth, but please, just Liz, or whatever you want to shorten it to. You must be Gwen"

Gwen gave a strangled smile. Why hadn’t Jack consulted with me about this? she thought in frustration. She had thought that she was that important to the team but perhaps she was just delusional. Bloody Jack and his myopic stance on, well…everything!

Gwen made sure this young woman couldn’t read the frustration she was feeling. It wasn’t her fault. She held out a hand. “That’s right, Gwen Cooper. Welcome to our little corner of the insane ward that is life. You wouldn’t happen to know where our fearless leader has nipped off to?” she asked, while mentally thinking, or is he just having it off with Ianto?

[Elizabeth Wright]

"Insane" mused Liz with a grin. " I might only be new, but I'm getting that feeling from the place. "

She took the dark haired woman in as she took her hand and shook it. She seemed friendly enough, but Liz was fast learning out in the actual world, rather than the hidden one of books and classrooms, and staying in of a friday to study, that appearances by far weren't everything. But you could generally see it in their eyes, and Gwen's eyes seemed friendly enough. They were nice eyes too - Liz would love to have those eyes.

She couldn't help but sense a little bit of...well, there wasn't really a word for it, but unwantedness would come close, as she talked to Gwen. Inwardly she frowned to herself. That seemed to be a general feeling around this place. She'd thought about it, and could only put it down to two things. Either the distaste for the T1 that had sent her was very deeprooted, as she'd not even been to the place, only sent a resume there, or something had happened with the previous holder of the medic job. And especially if it was the latter, Liz wasn't going to push the issue.

As Gwen asked if she had seen Jack, Liz shook her head.
" Not a clue. The place was empty when I got here. But Ianto's not around either, so you might not want to know" she added with a grin.

[Gwen Cooper]

" Not a clue. The place was empty when I got here. But Ianto's not around either, so you might not want to know" Liz said with a grin.

Gwen couldn’t help but grin back. “I know, aren’t those two just too much?” she asked, even though it wasn’t really a question. She adored both Jack and Ianto and loved that they had each other, even if at times it made her a bit jealous that she wasn’t the object of Jack’s attentions.

Her love for Jack was odd. She knew it was odd, she just couldn’t shake it. She loved her Rhys, loved him so much it hurt, but…she loved Jack. Honestly, how could you not love him? He is handsome, charismatic and sometimes…just, sometimes Jack would look at her and she had to wonder if he didn’t feel the same.

It didn’t matter, even if he did love her, she wouldn’t do anything about that. Those days are past her. Though, sometimes she would watch Ianto and Jack, whispering in a corner and she would have a dirty thought in her head and she knew that if they asked her to join in their fun she wouldn’t even hesitate.

She shook herself from her thoughts, that path was not a good one to travel this early in the morning when she had hours to go before she could get her hands on Rhys.

Taking a deep breath, she smiled. “Good. With that lot not around then we can get to breaking you in on the Torchwood systems and their convoluted way of keeping archives. We’ll start with this little blip right here,” she pointed to the screen. She motioned for Liz to pull up Owen’s old chair. All for the healing, Gwen, she thought to herself.

“That is a residual trace left behind when someone uses a Vortex Manipulator. We do not have much information in the archives about what exactly a VM is, it was Jack’s file and he’s being rather vague. What we do know is that they are standard issue Time Agent equipment and they can teleport through time and space. Jack has one but his doesn’t work properly.” She picked up her coffee and drank back a bit, lamenting that she only had half a cup left. It was definitely going to be a pot and a half kind of day, she wished Ianto would get here. If the boys didn’t arrive soon she was going to claim the coffees she had left them.

Gwen put the cup down and hit a few keys, pulling up a CCTV image from the previous night. “Captain John Hart, alias, real name unknown. His VM gives off a specific residual trace and he is now in Cardiff. He isn’t supposed to be here, since the last time he did he destroyed half the town and let lose a monster inside the Hub that…” she broke off, her eyes going to the picture Tosh and Owen that was taped to the monitor. No, Liz could read the files. That is how Gwen learned a lot. Besides, she couldn’t say their names out-loud, not at the moment.

She took a deep breath. “Anyway, he is always armed, extremely dangerous and inevitably he will find his way to Jack. They had a thing once.” She gave a smile that quickly faded as she remembered something else. “Oh, and don’t let him kiss you.”

[Elizabeth Wright]

“I know, aren’t those two just too much?”
"I think they've been fairly well behaved while I'm around, so far anyway. " Liz said with a grin.

Liz thought it was cute. She'd never been one of those homophobic people. Her father was, fairly badly too, but her mother had always been accepting of it, if not approving. Liz had a feeling they were both terrified that Liz would, well, not be 'normal' in that aspect. It was right up there with failure and being poor in their eyes. Not looked upon well, to say the least. Liz grinned inwardly at how her parents would react if she did switch to the other team, so to speak. Maybe she'd just tell them she had, just to see how they reacted.

Good. With that lot not around then we can get to breaking you in on the Torchwood systems and their convoluted way of keeping archives

Liz bit her lip as she sat down on the offered chair, listening intently to Gwens words. She'd never been a computer whiz, but she wasn't bad, and she learnt fast. This new stuff though, it was tricky. not impossible, definitley not, but tricky. Like trying to get your head around a new maths equation, one that pretty much disregarded what you'd just spent the last unit looking at.

She forwned again as Gwen talked about the Captain John Hart man. "He doesn't sound very pleasant." she said, and raised her eyebrow at the last sentence. "And I'm letting tha armed dangerous criminal kiis me why?" she asked with a grin.

[Gwen Cooper]

"I think they've been fairly well behaved while I'm around, so far anyway. " Liz said with a grin.

Gwen smiled, knowingly. “You’ve been lucky. I’ve walked in on them. Caught them on CCTV. Even, this one time…” she shook her head, “You probably don’t really want to know.”

She innocently looked to her right, her eyes travelling along the ceiling as her smile grew bigger as she thought about that ‘one time’.

Gwen had come in, it was early in the morning. Rhys had to be in Hay on Wye by 7am, so he had left the house at 3am. She knew he would still be late, but she got up with him and instead of hanging around the flat she had come into the Hub. What she was greeted with would forever be a treasure. Both men, naked, lying on the sofa in the most impossible of ways, sleeping. She had obviously just missed the fun and cursed her poor timing. She walked up to Jack’s office and went down into his room. She pulled the blanket off the bed and carried it back down to the work stations. Gwen covered the pair, refraining for smacking Jack’s bare arse in the process.

She left them a note, stating she was going out for coffee and would be back in a few hours.

When she had arrived, Ianto had gone home and Jack was fully dressed, standing in his office door, smiling. She smiled back and went on with her work. None of them spoke of the incident.

Even if they didn’t know what they were, Gwen knew they were a couple. Ianto possibly being the best thing to ever happen to Jack, but she couldn’t tell them that. Jack would go all, ‘you people and your labels’ and Ianto would find something to dust.

She refocused on her lesson to Liz.

"He doesn't sound very pleasant." she said, and raised her eyebrow at the last sentence. "And I'm letting tha armed dangerous criminal kiss me why?" she asked with a grin.

“Just a word to the wise. I had no intention of being kissed but he had slammed me against a wall and kissed me. He wears a paralyzing lipgloss. Rather girlie, I admit, but it was effective. If-” she broke off thinking of Tosh, Owen and Ianto finding her. She shook her thoughts from her mind. “If the team hadn’t found me, I would have died. Don’t trust John Hart, ever.”

[Elizabeth Wright]

You’ve been lucky. I’ve walked in on them. Caught them on CCTV. Even, this one time…” she shook her head, “You probably don’t really want to know.”

Elizabeth grinned. “I think you’re right. I’ll let you keep that memory to yourself.’

As Gwen continued, telling her about John Hart, Liz frowned. There it was again. That hesitation. There was something Liz was missing here, and she worried that it was something she should know. Almost as soon as the thought had come into her head she pushed it out with a scolding finger. She was being stupid, and paranoid, and she knew it.

Bad habits died hard. Born of years in classrooms, convinced the laughter from the group behind was about her, when the rational part of her mind screamed that it wasn’t, it was perfectly normal and totally unrelated to her. But the rational and the irrational rarely listened to her.

Besides, she would just log into the computer when she got the chance, and find out herself. When all else fails, or indeed, before it all does, resort to the facts. They could always be relied on.

She nodded at Gwen. ”Ok. Be super careful that the armed and dangerous criminal doesn’t get close enough to kiss me. But why is he here? Did you stop him from what he wanted last time. After you were saved, obviously.”

[wrenfelidae]

There was a loud uproar from the stairwell leading into the main Hub, the sound of crashing bodies against the concrete wall echoing all around them. Harkness was doubling down the stairs, pulling Jones in his wake, stopping almost every other step to push Ianto into the wall and kiss him furiously, more than tempted enough to take him int the stairwell. He was still hot from the few moments earlier, when...

Well, he wasn't one to kiss and tell.

But he was one to leave his shirt untucked and unbottoned, one brace hanging at his side, coat long gone and lost somewhere in his office, probably torn in places. Jack didn't even mind that he would have to break in a new one if Ianto couldn't fix it; it was for a good cause. He could be completely naked running through the Hub, and he wouldn't have cared at this point.

Okay, he wouldn't have cared anyway, but that wasn't the point.

Jack had that mischievous glint in his eye he got when he was about to do something new. Something... avant-garde, something rash but yet pre-planned. And as he led Ianto down the stairs, hoping to get to the vaults, their breathing staggered and clothes hastily put together, one didn’t have to guess what the glint was for.

He knew he had been gone a while, finding himself. But to him, this was the best way to bring things back around for Ianto...and himself. All over each other, anxious to make things right. And this was right. Right where Jack needed to be. With Ianto; his time away had revealed that, if not anything else.

Funny, how you can take a vacation to clear your head, and you come back even more muddled than before.

Jack stopped on a step and turned around, pulling Ianto into another passionate kiss. He wasn’t counting, but that was around the nineteenth they’d shared on the way down the stairs alone, and Jack could promise Ianto that they would share at least nineteen more in the vaults.

Of course, the main reason they were heading down there was so Jack could videotape them in one of the cells, but hopefully Ianto didn’t really catch that Easter egg.

He continued pulling the other man down the stairs before stopping at the landing, where he stole another kiss; Jack pulled them into the main area of the vaults, not even noticing the soft chatter of voices from within the room…

[/font][/size]

[pande]

Ianto had a skip in his heart as he felt Jack tug him down the stairwell. They kissed every few steps, which was great; Ianto was positive that if he went without a kiss from Jack for more than two minutes; he'd jump the Captain and they'd be at it again. Ianto's mind fuzzled to just minutes ago when they'd finished their... if his cheeks hadn't already been red they would be now... business.

And it looked like they were going to be at it again. Ianto was glad no one was around to see them.

It wasn't that he minded Jack showing off, or asking people to join them... it was that they might say yes. Ianto was absolutely sure that he couldn't allow that to happen. Jack was HIS. No one elses. Feeling possessive, he grasped Jack's shirt, pinned him against the rail and passionately kissed him. Currently ianto was wearing just his shirt, partly buttoned down. He had no shoes on his feet and his pants were rumpled. But it wasn't like Ianto cared, he'd run naked through the Hub more than once.

Just, providing that people were NOT there. And Ianto was clearly enjoying the situation at hand, it really had been too long since he and Jack... well. Eyebrow lift insert here of course. Everything about Jack was wonderful, and the tea boy was about to tell him that when jack tugged him down another few steps and then had another kiss stolen from him. Ianto laughed delightedly and then kissed Jack back just as strongly.

As they neared the main area, a jagged bolt of ice cold liquid split down Ianto's stomach. He could hear voices. Instantly his heels dug in and he looked panicked. Ianto glanced at Jack ( who was still intent on kissing him, and apparently hadn't heard the people conversing below them) and then back at the floor. Finally, so regretfully!, he put his hands on Jack's chest and pushed him away.

“Jack.” He said in a deadly quiet tone of voice. “Liz and Gwen are in the Hub.”