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Gwen stopped by Toshiko’s desk on her way out that afternoon. “Er, Tosh, I had a question for you.”
Tosh looked up from her monitors. “Of course. How can I help?”
“Actually, I was wondering if you’re busy on Saturday night? Me and the girls are doing my hen night and I was hoping that you’d join us.”
“Oh. Well, that’s actually my night to watch the Rift,” Tosh swivelled back to her monitors, looking as if she was deep in thought.
“The Rift can take of itself for one night. It survived for years before Torchwood existed, one night won’t do much damage.”
They looked up to see Jack at the front of the room.
“You ladies enjoy yourselves. Toshiko, you deserve a night off. Have fun with Gwen and the girls,” Jack winked knowingly before going back towards his office.
“What would you say if I was thinking of asking Ianto along?”
“You want to ask Ianto to your hen night? I’d say it’s your hen, ask who you like.”
“I think he’d enjoy it,” Gwen looked from Jack back to Tosh. “Something a little classy, getting a bit pissed leading to the accidental sharing of ‘secrets’. All in good fun.” The truth was, Gwen didn’t have many people she’d asked to come out. Her mother and soon-to-be mother-in-law (and, oh, that was a nightmare waiting to happen), Rhys’ sister… that was it. With Ianto there, at least Tosh would have someone to talk with as Gwen acted as a buffer between her mother and Rhys’.
Four guests and the bride-to-be. Perhaps if she got them completely pissed there’d be no arguments.
“I’ll make sure he’s free,” Jack laughed. “Gwen, why don’t you come up in, oh, fifteen minutes and ask him?” He turned to leave for the archives, then paused. “On second thought, give me twenty.”
“No thanks, I’d just as soon rather ask him now.” Gwen made a face at Jack and darted past him, shrieking as he reached out to grab her. “Don’t you dare, Jack.”
She was back within the minute.
“Now that that’s sorted, I’m going home. Everything’s been pretty quiet all day, but Rhys’ mam has invited herself for dinner tonight and I can only assume that she’s going to want to go over every wedding detail and try to change anything she think my mother had something to do with.” Gwen rolled her eyes, packing up her workstation. “I’ll see you lot tomorrow, then.”
Saturday. Assuming nothing went horribly wrong, hen night.
The day passed quickly, though the Rift was surprisingly quiet. Before Gwen knew it, it was five o’clock and the day was over.
“We’re just grabbing a cab over and back. We’re getting proper sloshed tonight, so nobody’s driving. Nothing super uppity, your choice of shots and beer. But it should be a good night,” Gwen smiled hopefully.
“It’ll be whatever we make of it, I’m sure.” Tosh said gently.
“Okay. I’ll see you in a few hours. Um, it’s nothing fancy, so wear what you like.” Gwen waved as she left the Hub, beaming.
Knowing Gwen, Tosh figured she’d be wearing something practical. She seemed to be the kind of woman who never took her boots off, always prepared. In fact, Tosh was willing to bet that Gwen’s clothing choices for the night would be entirely based around practicality first. Still, she mused, there was no real reason not to dress up. Jack and Owen would be around to cover the Rift if anything happened. Perhaps this was her chance to live that life she’d forgotten about.
After a short, but relaxing, shower, Tosh found herself staring at the closet. It shouldn’t be this difficult to pick an outfit, she was simply going out with her friend. With unpredictable people and raw data she didn’t know how to compute. Hidden behind her computer screens, her laptop, it was easy to focus on the matter at hand, whatever the case may be. Tonight, however, was going to be screenless.
Keep it casual. Jeans, then. A grungy tee shirt instead of a blouse. And her leather jacket. Simple. Comfortable.
Dressed to the nines, indeed. At any rate, whatever she had on would have to do. She was due to meet Ianto in twenty minutes.
Hen night had clearly started early, Tosh thought as she observed Gwen’s party. Her parents were switching between the best of friends and worst enemies faster than she could track, though they seemed to be enjoying themselves. A fourth woman, presumably Gwen’s sister-in-law-to-be, was glued to a phone at the end of the table. And in the middle of it all, was Ianto Jones.
One would have never thought he was going to a hen party, looking at him, unless they thought he was the stripper. Dressed neatly in a three-piece pinstriped suit, Ianto stuck out like a sore thumb from the party next to him.
“Don’t tell me I missed the strip tease,” Tosh said lightly as she slipped into the empty seat next to him.
“Ha ha. Funny, but no, there’s not been a stripper out yet.”
“Might be a situation we’ll need to rectify before the end of the night. Doesn’t really look like the rest of them are up to it and after all, what else is a bachelorette party for?” Of course, never having been to one, she was guessing at what should happen.
“Well, I know that if you phoned Jack, he would be more than happy to spring naked from a giant cake,” Ianto said dryly.
Tosh laughed. “Too bad, I bet it’s too late to arrange for that. Doesn’t that sound like it would shock their mothers?”
“It would definitely surprise Brenda. As for Mary Cooper, well, I think she might enjoy that more than our guest of honour.” Ianto tilted his head towards Gwen’s mother.
“Yes well, you would probably enjoy that most out of all,” Tosh said lightly, hiding a faint smirk.
“That’s entirely coincidental and beside the point,” Ianto said primly. Tosh hummed in response, getting up and heading to the bar to order a drink.
“Oh come off it, he likes you,” Gwen rolled her eyes. “If he doesn’t see anything back, he’s a right prat.”
“He likes me just as much as he likes anyone, which isn’t to say very much,” Tosh shook her head, raising her shot glass. Gwen and Ianto followed suit, the three of them downing their drinks.
“Pfffft. Ianto knows what I’m talking about. At least, he should if he didn’t spend most of his time ogling Jack.”
“I don’t ogle Jack.” Ianto said dryly. “Strictly speaking, there’s nothing there.”
Gwen snorted. “Yeah, and ‘strictly speaking’, there’s no such thing as aliens.” Ianto scowled and looked away. Even as his scowl deepened, his eyes lit up.
“Oh no,” he muttered. Gwen and Tosh looked up and Gwen fought the urge to roll her eyes.
“Not on my bloody hen,” she said quietly. Ianto moved to get up, but Gwen grabbed his hand. “We’re having a ladies’ night. With you. Whatever it is, Jack and Owen can handle it. If he wants extra backup, he can call UNIT.”
“Yeah, that’s likely.” Ianto watched the older man as he made his way around the pub, clearly looking for something.
“Drinking game!” Gwen gathered the party together, blocking Ianto’s view of Jack. She looked at her group – Ianto and Tosh, her mothers, and Rhys’ sister – and tried to think of something that would be suitable. Already, Brenda’s lips were thinning. The woman hated drinking and Gwen could already tell that a drinking game would lead to a row between her and Mary. Still, it might be the only way to keep everyone occupied and away from whatever it was Jack was up to.
Weevils. Of course there were bloody Weevils surrounding the pub she’d picked for her hen.
“Regular formation,” Jack called as he and Owen came up to the hen party. Gwen glared at him, taking a place beside Ianto far away from Jack. It wasn’t his fault the Weevils were around, of course, but she couldn’t help blaming somebody for her ruined night.
“Okay, we’ve got a gas leak out front here. If everyone could please make their way through the back exit, quickly and quietly, we’ll get it sorted.” Already, Ianto was on top of crowd control, evacuating the pub. Gwen’s mother was staring at her as she was forced to leave, trying to ask what the hell sort of special ops dealt with gas leaks. Gwen turned away.
“What exactly is going on here?” Mary Cooper had slipped back into the building, glaring at her daughter.
“That’s exactly the question I was about to ask,” Brenda Williams said from Gwen’s other side, otherwise ignoring Mary.
“Ladies,” Jack smiled widely, holding his arms out. “I am not privy to divulge that information. But I’m afraid that you’re just going to have to trust Gwen – and the rest of us – to do our jobs and keep you safe.” Mary and Brenda – as graciously as they could under the circumstances – accepted the proffered gestures and allowed him to lead them away from the smoking rubble. Owen frowned.
“You lot are in no condition to help with this. Here, take one of these and go straight to bed when you get home.” He gave each of them a tiny pill, advising them not to take it until they were in bed. Gwen pocketed the pill and called a taxi.
The drive home was quiet, each lost in their own thoughts.
{Gwen} Balancing Torchwood with regular life was becoming more and more difficult. True, she had Rhys, but what about everybody else? What happened if they were caught in the middle of something again? She didn’t want to Retcon her family – not even Brenda Williams – if she didn’t have to, and… that was about as far as she could think, given her intoxicated state of mind.
{Tosh} She wondered if Jack would let her bring somebody into her life, the way he’d let Gwen keep Rhys in hers. He and Ianto had each other, after all, and Owen…well, like Gwen had said, Owen was a prat if he didn’t see what was literally right in front of him.
{Ianto} ‘Strictly speaking’, their unlabelled ‘relationship’ needed a label. His entire life was filled with keeping things organized and sorted and to have this major… whatever it was with Jack unlabelled was slowly driving the archivist in him mad. Everything else in his life was sorted, filed, stored away – be it in the Archives or the Tourist Office at the Hub or in his flat. As much as he enjoyed their not-relationship, he felt as though there was a chasm waiting to be crossed, a transition waiting to happen. And he didn’t know if he was ready for that or if he was tired of waiting for it to happen.