Even though she was a bit tired, and more than a bit overwhelmed, Gwen entered the Hub on her second day of work with a certain amount of unexpected optimism.

Sure, she'd inadvertently unleashed a killer onto the streets of Cardiff but she'd sorted it, hadn't she? And the team had come out unscathed and that Captain Jack Harkness had seemed almost pleased with her. While she wouldn't exactly consider her first day a glowing success, it wasn't an absolute failure, either, she thought proudly.

At least, until she slid into her shiny, new work station and saw the note stuck to her computer screen. And her heart sunk a little, and she sighed.



Her mind reeled with all of the reasons Jack might want to see her so early on her first day. Perhaps he'd changed his mind, decided she wasn't a capable second in command. Worse, maybe he thought she wasn't a good fit for the team. Maybe he was just going to cut her loose, send her back to the police which was a horribly embarrassing thought, if not only for the conversation she'd had with Andy the day before.

Bollocks, she needed to call him. She'd do that later, if she remembered... Speaking of remembering, she'd need to avoid Ianto's coffee until after the meeting, in case the post-it was a scam and Jack intended to retcon her straight away.

Instead, Gwen spent her time coming up with justifications for anything Jack might say to her, and before long it was ten til ten, and she'd had quite enough of sitting around labouring over the meaning behind a sodding note. So with a resigned sigh, she plodded up to Jack's office and stood in the doorway, trying her best to not glower as she stared at him.

"You wanted to see me, Jack?"

“The Himalayas.”

“Well, to be entirely accurate, Kangchenjunga.”

“Great. You lot have fun.”

“What do you mean 'you lot'? You're going with us, Owen.”

“I don't hike.”

“I don't care.”

“I don't climb snowy mountain ranges.”

“I still don't care.”

“I get extremely moody when I get too cold.”

“So, just a typical day in the office then, yeah?”

“Gwen.”

Her eyes shot up from the screen of her console, and she stared at him with an even gaze. It wasn't a look she was used to giving him – all of this, it was all new. A few weeks ago, they'd been shagging, joking, playing. A few weeks ago, she hadn't been his boss, capable of telling him what to do. ( She'd been the new girl for so long, it hadn't occurred to her she'd ever be anything different. )

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Cut for length
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Muse: Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
Prompt: #320 - What do you command?
Verse: Open Verse
Word Count: 517

This is how the world ends.

It lay in dust, now, the singular reminder of what had been the end of her old world, and the beginning on her new. She picks up the shoe box, and the dust is coarse against her palm, scratching against the warped, peeling cardboard as she clears it away.

Inside are the memories of a life she once lived, before the world ended. An identification card, with a picture of a woman who had become a stranger. It was unsettling to think that had once been the face she saw, every day, when she looked in the mirror. Her old warrant card from the police; she’d never been told, exactly, to turn it in, so she never did. A few newspaper clippings, the ones that had not been kept in her desk and had not, thus, been lost when her old world had burned.

A single, faded photograph. The smiling face of a familiar stranger, surrounded by the figures of ghosts who have never ventured far from the safe confines of her memory.

( The video tape lay at the bottom. )

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Cut for length and minor spoilers for Children of Earth
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Muse: Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
Prompt: #300: This is...
Verse: Open Future
Word Count: 497

It never ceases to amaze her, really, how people so easily forget.

The time always comes, after every spectacular event, after every earth-shattering understanding of the greater universe, when Gwen picks up the paper and realises it’s been forgotten. It’s a never ending constant in her life, knowing that the spaceships hovering over London, the mass panic through the streets of Cardiff, the view of her city in flames and devastation, will soon fade into the background noise of petty politics and X-Factor scandals.

But they will never fade for her. The images that flash through her mind, the nightmares that still shake her awake in the dark. She knows it would be easy for her to forget too; to turn in her resignation, to take a single pill that would steal every painful memory and toss them into oblivion. To most, her nightmares are simply stories; black and white print against crinkled paper, accompanied with fuzzy photos impossible to verify. For Gwen, they are constant reminders of the continual danger that haunts her every step.

On the couch, her head tucked snugly against Rhys’ shoulder, her eyes skim the pages of the newspaper as she takes in the stories of the latest disgraced celebrity or politician. The newspaper is now her own escapism, because the world the journalists so freely write about is such a far cry from the world she sees everyday. And she can’t particularly blame them. After all, the world deals with its trauma in the best way it can; by moving on.

In those moments, Gwen knows the true weight of Torchwood. Even through the tears, the terror, and the nightmares, Torchwood continues to fight. And Gwen continues to remember, so the rest of the world can have the gentle luxury to forget.

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Muse: Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
Prompt: #293: Talk about a news item
Verse: Open/Canon
Word Count: 495

10 Books I Own (And Haven’t Read)

+ Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
+ Animal Farm by George Orwell
+ Wales, a History: 2000 Years of Welsh History by Gwynfor Evans
+ The Bible
+ The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
+ Blackstone's Police Operational Handbook 2009
+ I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
+ The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
+ Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France by Christine Pevitt Algrant
+ Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

List idea curtosy of ambitious_woman

Trust is one of those words that people use, to often, to generally. Like love and loyalty and honesty. Used so often it loses meaning, after a while, because it just rests on your tongue like something you would say to anyone, any day, without thinking about what it really means, without understand the power you have behind being able to say it.

You can’t know what it’s like to trust until you have something to actually entrust with someone. I have a secret like that. One I can’t share with anybody, because it doesn’t matter anymore who I trust.

I trust Jack… with my life. With my heart. With a million other things he probably doesn’t deserve. I trust Ianto, with my well being, to keep me strong. I know I can trust Martha, to be here when Jack rings. He can trust her, so I can too.

I trust the Doctor. Or Sarah Jane Smith. But they aren’t my friends, rather just names I’ve read and faces I know will be there when they are called upon to fight beside us.

I can trust Rhys. Finally. He deserves every little bit I can give him, because he’s part of it now.

Then there is everyone else. Mum, dad, my friends. The girls I knew at college, girls I’ve known most of my life. Andy. Old lovers, new lovers, the lovers in between. I can’t say I trust them. Because if I did, I would tell them, without the threat of worry or retcon or what Jack will say. I have one secret. One pressing, dark, festering bloody secret I can’t tell a single one of them. Who I trust doesn’t matter anymore. It’s about who Torchwood trusts. And I am Torchwood, and Torchwood is me.

I still trust. And I still have friends. But they can’t always be one in same.

It has such power, a word like trust. A power that is no longer mine to control.

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Muse: Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
Prompt: Do you trust your friends?
Verse: Open/Canon
Word Count: 329

A while back I did a meme where people requested certain Gwens to write about. I haven't forgotten about them, I've just been taking my time writing them! So here are two I wrote a while back and simply forgot to post, and there should be more over time.

for itsthecoat, Playful!Gwen

2 a.m. was the best time for the game.

Overwhelmed with work and rigid on continual cups of coffee, Gwen wandered up behind Jack’s desk where he sat, deep in concentration over a stack of paperwork that couldn’t possibly be getting smaller.

She prepared her fingers, pointing them towards him and took a deep, prepared breath for what was to come. She pounced.

And somehow, he always knew. He spun around, before her fingers could reach their target, and he began to tickle her. She squealed and jumped away, speeding out of the office, listening to his footsteps following her. He would catch her – he always did. That was her favourite part of the game.

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Muse: Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
Prompt: Drabble Meme
Verse: Open
Word Count: 116

for goodathart, Naked!Gwen

“What the bloody hell are you doing in here?”

Gwen leaped, naked, across the room and threw a towel over her body. The Torchwood bathroom was very cold, but an exhausted Gwen had no intention of going back to her flat covered in that day’s lot of alien goo, and put up with the cold for a quick wash. On the other hand, she wasn’t expecting to pop out and find a smirking Captain John Hart.

“Get out!”

John laughed, almost doubled over, and shook his head. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, it’s not like I’m interested, just went through the wrong door.”

“Not on your life!” she shouted. She grabbed her shoe and launched it at his head, missing by about half a metre.

“Definitely not on my life!” He was near hysterics, and paused long enough to wink at her before her headed for the door. She picked up her other shoe and threw it with all her might, watching it bounce against the door soundly as it shut quickly behind him.

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Muse: Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
Prompt: Drabble Meme
Verse: Open/Crack
Word Count: 172

Gwen carefully wrapped the presents and too care that they were sent out in time for Christmas. Some were easy to deliver (just plopping them on the desk Christmas Eve before heading back to the flat) and some a little harder (even though intergalactic parcel delivery was becoming much easier, considering her contacts.). Each were wrapped the same, with the same bow, and a tiny card with a personalized note.

( To Jack )

( To Ianto )

( To Owen )

( To Katie )

( To the Other Doctor )

( To Jenny )

( To The Doctor )

( To The Master )

( To Captain John Hart )

( To the UNIT People )

The last one she gave next to the lit Christmas tree, in the wee hours of the morning, accompanied with a kiss.

( To Rhys )

"One explanation of Guenever, for what it is worth, is that she was what they used to call a "real" person. She was not the kind of person who can be fitted away safely under some label or other, as "loyal" or "disloyal" or "self-sacrificing" or "jealous". Sometimes she was loyal and sometimes she was disloyal. She behaved like herself. And there must have been something in this self, some sincerity of heart, or she would not have held two people like Arthur and Lancelot. Like likes like, they say – and at the least they are certain that her men were generous. She must have been generous too. It is difficult to write about a real person." -From The Once and Future King, T.H. White

“A what?”

Jack frowned and crossed his arms. “Exactly what I said. A personal progress interview.”

Gwen stared at him, and crossed her arms in return. “Okay, fine. But you’ve only been back two days, Jack. Can’t we do this another time?”

Jack shook his head. “Requirement, after three months of service.”

She sighed. “It’s only been three months?”

“Yeah,” he laughed. “You’re not getting tired of us yet, are you?”

( She didn’t reply. Because she could only think of how she had been tired since Day One. )
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Cut for Length, Mature Subjects and Language
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Muse: Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
Prompt: Quote from "The Once and Future King"
Verse: Open/Canon
Word Count: 1470

TO: cooperg@south-wales.police.uk
FROM: davidsonandy@south-wales.police.uk
SUBJECT: Did you get the job?

Not that I’m being nosy… Ok, I’m being nosy. Did you get that job? They keep talking like you’re leaving. E-mail me back! You never answer you mobile and you know how Rhys is when I call the flat.

PC Andy Davidson

( TO: davidsonandy@south-wales.police.uk )

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Cut for Length
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Muse: Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
Prompt: Did you get the job?
Verse: Open/Canon
Word Count: 428