Wishverse 1.07 - Part 2 of 6
Aug. 8th, 2009 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartTitle: The Many Departures of Gwen Cooper
Author: Soledad
Fandom: Torchwood
Category: Heavy-duty Gwen bashing.
Rating: 14+, just to be on the safe side.
Genre: Romance/Angst, for this part. Plus some dark humour.
Series: Wishverse.
Warning: repeated character death(s) in each chapter.
Timeframe: "Greeks Bearing Gifts". Major spoilers. This is an AU, though.
Summary: Many different ways to get rid of Gwen Cooper, while keeping the episodes as canonical as possible.
Disclaimer: the usual: don’t own, don’t sue! Everything belongs to RTD and BBC. I used a great deal of rewritten original dialogue, though.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
EPISODE 07 – GIFT HORSES, Part 2
Author’s notes:
Continued from Part 1. Obviously.
This story will be posted in several short parts rather than in one big chunk, as it serves better the development of the relationship(s).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Their chance encounter in the pub inspired Andy to do a personal search on Toshiko Sato, and he was impressed by what he found out about her. Born in 1975, okay, so she was a few years older, but did that matter? Lived in Osaka for seven years with her parents, who’d both been in the Royal Air Force; her grandfather had worked for Bletchley Park. Snapped up to government science think tank at the age of… twenty?! Goodness, she had to be real sharp, more than mere scientific doctorates would indicate.
And what was she doing between that and joining Torchwood three years ago? There was a short gap in her biography – questions, questions questions… and very few, very incomplete answers. But that was Torchwood for you. At least according to Uncle Merion; and Andy tended to trust his late (and supposedly more than a little loony) uncle more nowadays than he’d ever done before.
To his surprise, he ran into Toshiko again, only a day later. In the same pub. Sitting on the same bar stool. Wearing the same long-sleeved red top. Nursing a drink that looked similar to the one she’d had a day earlier. Having the same distant look about her.
The only difference was a pendant of green crystal that she was wearing on a gold chain around her neck. It seemed a bit… out of place on her, as if she hadn’t had it for long yet. Perhaps it was a gift from someone. If yes, then she didn’t seem all too happy to have it.
“Evening,” Andy said conversationally. “I didn’t think I’d see you here so soon.”
“Well, you are here, too,” she pointed out reasonably, but he could see that her eyes were red-rimmed behind her glasses, as if she’d been crying, just a short time ago.
“I usually come here to think,” he explained. “The background noise, I dunno, seems to help with that for some reason,” he shrugged. “Weird, I know, but there you are. So, what is your excuse?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’ve never seen you here before last night,” he clarified. “Now you’ve been here two nights in a row… and you look unhappy. So, what happened? Another bad day at work?”
She nodded, swishing her half-finished drink around in the tall glass listlessly. “Sort of. I accidentally heard some of my colleagues talk about me behind my back. It… it wasn’t pleasant. You think you know someone, then suddenly you see them for real, and they're... bastard little kids.”
She yanked the pendant off her neck and stuffed it into her handbag, blinking back her tears angrily.
Okay, this was getting officially weird. But Andy Davidson wasn’t a man to back off in the face of a little weirdness.
“Are we talking about everyone on your team or just about Gwen Cooper, the queen of denial and utterly unfamiliar with the very concept of tact and discretion?” he asked.
She gave him a tremulous smile. “Tell me something,” she said. “And please be honest; I can take it. In your eyes as a man, do I clothe myself really so outdated?”
Several things clicked into place in Andy’s head simultaneously.
“I see we’re talking about Gwen,” he said. “So, whom is she shagging now?”
Toshiko looked at him in complete shock, and he shrugged.
“Criticizing other women’s clothes is the surest sign that she has a new affair,” he explained. “We used to run polls about that when she still was with the police. Until she happened to say something about Detective Swanson’s jeans within her earshot, that is.”
“Why?” she asked, her mood visibly lifting a tad. “What happened?”
Andy grinned, because that was a glorious moment, often recalled at the police station, in spite of it having happened more than a year earlier.
“Detective Swanson told her that before criticizing other people’s clothing habits she should actually consider wearing a bra – and one that worked – because the times when her tits might have been perky were obviously long gone,” he laughed quietly. “I have never seen Gwen Cooper looking more like a blowfish than that day… and red, too. She was puce! Even her freckles became invisible! We still talk about it on boring days – it was the most beautiful catfight in the history of Cardiff Police.”
He paused and became serious again, seeing that her eyes were still clouded a little. “So, what did she say about your clothes?”
“It’s stupid, really,” she hesitated, clearly embarrassed about her own overreaction to such an insignificant thing, but Andy covered her trembling hand with his.
“Tell me,” he insisted gently.
“Nothing truly insulting,” she admitted. “Just that the jeans in the boots thing has kind of had its day.”
“Perhaps,” Andy said with a shrug. “But the cute female superhero look kinda suits you. Few women could pull it, that’s true, though. It needs a certain class.”
She frowned at him. “Are you flirting with me or laughing at me?” she asked angrily.
“Neither of those,” he replied. “Well, perhaps a bit flirting, yeah… but mostly, I’m trying to make you understand that Gwen Cooper’s self-centered rudeness shouldn’t bother you. You’re a lady with class. She’s as common as dirt. Don’t let her get to you; she’s not worth it.”
“It’s not just what she… what they said about me,” she murmured. “I’ve just realized that she… that they…”
“… are shagging like bunnies in every available corner?” Andy supplied. “And that she likes to monologize about it afterwards, without realizing that other people can hear it? Well, that’s nothing new, either. I think that poor bloke he lives with is the only one who doesn’t know whom she’s shagging at any given time.”
Her eyes widened a little in surprise. “She’s done it before?”
“Oh, yeah,” Andy laughed quietly. “That’s her favourite method of stress management. The blokes she picks for… erm… therapeutic reasons don’t even know what’s hit them before it’s too late.
Her eyes became a little cold for some reason he couldn’t interpret. “You speak as if from personal experience.”
Andy nodded. “Broom closet, two years ago, right after we’d become partners. Worst fucking mistake of my life. I still can’t exactly figure out how it happened. One moment she’s sobbing on my shoulder about a dead kid we’ve found in some garbage tin – the next moment we’re in the broom closet and she’s riding me like I’d be some prize stallion. And then behaves like she’d own me.”
“Well, she could hardly have dragged you in there by force,” she said pointedly. “Or did she hold a gun to your head?”
“I wish she did,” he answered ruefully. “That way at least I’d have an excuse. I couldn’t look Rhys in the eyes for months afterwards… and I broke up with my girlfriend. I… I was afraid it might happen again, and I wouldn’t do that to Sioned.”
“Did it?” Toshiko asked. “Happen again, I mean.”
Andy shook his head. “Nah; her interests change quickly once she’s had someone. The only one she always returns to is Rhys.”
“Does he know she’s cheating on him?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Andy said thoughtfully. “He’s not a fool, no matter what Gwen might think of him. But he’s completely, hopelessly besotted with her. I believe he consciously chooses not to see things. Makes easier for him to cope with her escapades.”
She seemed to contemplate that aspect, but it apparently didn’t make her any happier.
“Why must devotion always be given to the unworthy?” she murmured bitterly.
“Perhaps because we men are all bloody morons?” Andy guessed. “But some of us learn from our mistakes, eventually. Don’t give up so easily. Your chance will come.”
“Assuming that I’m interested in Gwen Cooper’s leftovers,” she returned sharply. “Can we just drop the topic as long as I still manage to stay moderately civil?”
Andy nodded. “Sure. Sorry if I was too nosy; I didn’t want to. But since we’ve run into each other, can I ask you if you guys found out anything about that skeleton – or the strange metal thing – found on that building site lately?”
She looked at him with a frown. “Are you supposed to know about that at all?”
“It would have been kinda hard to avoid,” he replied. “I was the constable assigned to watch the site, after all. I just… might have watched it – watched you people work there – a little more closely. I’m interested in that outer space sort of stuff, you know.”
“Is that a common constable trait?” she asked, sharper than she’d possibly intended. “To stick your noses into stuff that isn’t your business?”
“Well if it weren’t, Gwen wouldn’t have deigned to call us, trying to get more info about the building site,” Andy replied with a shrug. “The Sergeant couldn’t stop gloating all day; made her beg for it on the phone and enjoyed every moment of it, he did.”
“I know,” she said with a small half-smile. “Gwen was most indignant about it. She was considering putting a Wee... a nasty, murderous alien into his bathroom, should she come across one any time, soon.”
“Assuming said nasty, murderous alien wouldn’t run off in panic as soon as she did the eye-bulging routine on her,” Andy countered, grinning. “I know I would if I were an alien.”
“Which only shows that aliens are considerably more intelligent and have a much better honed sense of self-preservation than human males,” she returned. “But no, I can’t tell you nothing of either of the founds. Our boss is still examining the… artefact, whatever it might be, and our doctor is too busy shagging Gwen to finish the post mortem on the corpse.”
“I thought you did all the technological stuff at Torchwood,” Andy said in surprise.
She shook her head. “Nah, it’s a little more complicated. What I do is usually related to computers, while our boss is dealing with the more concrete technology: weapons, tools, that sort of thing. Actually, Suzie used to be our weapons expert.”
“Suzie?” He never heard that name from Gwen.
“She died just before Gwen was hired,” Toshiko explained.
“And Gwen has taken over her job?” Andy asked doubtfully.
It sounded a little unlikely, considering that Gwen barely managed to use a computer and run a proper search on the Internet. Plus, like many of the uniformed cops, she’d never held a gun in her hands before joining Torchwood. Constables didn’t carry weapons when on duty; Andy himself had only learned how to shoot because he wanted to become a detective one day.
Toshiko laughed. “Oh, no. Jack, that’s our boss, and I usually share Suzie’s old job, and Ianto often helps us. He’s really good with tech, and since he practically lives in his office, he’s always around.”
“Neither of you really has much of a life outside the office, have you?” Andy asked, thinking that for someone as bright and cute as her, it was a crying shame.
She shook her head ruefully. “Afraid not. Gwen’s the only one, and even she only because she already came with a boyfriend… not that she’d realize how damn lucky she is.”
“She never did,” Andy agreed. “She always took everything for granted. As if it would belong her by birthright,” he looked at her closely. “You don’t seem to take it well; that thing between her and that doctor of yours. Were the two of you…?"
“No, never,” she replied hurriedly. Too hurriedly, in fact, for this being a safe topic for her.
“So it’s only you who’s interested, then,” Andy shook his head in amazement. “What do you see in that bloke anyway? He’s rude, has the face of a weasel, and a low enough standard to shag Gwen!”
“Which you also have done, by your own admission,” she pointed out mercilessly.
“Point taken,” he admitted.
She sighed. “I always seem to fall for the wrong guy. Perhaps I ought to try my luck with girls.”
“The blonde from last evening?” he asked knowingly. “I saw her approach you, just when I want out the door. So, did you take her home with you?”
“It wasn’t like that; not that it would be your business in any way,” she replied. “Mary… she was just bothered by some guy and didn’t want to get in a fight with him, that’s all. We… talked quite a bit afterwards. It felt so good to talk to a woman again. I’ve missed that since Suzie’s death; I didn’t even realize how much I’ve missed it.”
“You and this Suzie... were you really close?” Andy asked. This was the second time that she’d mentioned this Suzie person in such a nostalgic manner.
She shrugged. “Turns out we weren’t close enough. But we were the only women on the team, and sometimes that matters a lot.”
“You hung out together, haven’t you?”
“Not very much,” she admitted. “Suzie was married to her job; she used to stay longer than anyone else except Ianto – she had a real passion for it. Sometimes, though, we went to a bar after work, had a chat, have a drink… she liked Martinis. I only realized how little I truly knew about her when she was already dead. But yeah, I miss the camaraderie… and the knowledge that I had nothing to fear when she was watching my back.”
“You must have liked her very much,” Andy said thoughtfully.
She shrugged again. “Suzie wasn’t easy to like. Brilliant, sarcastic, intuitive, hard-working, yes… but never showing a chink in her armour. I never knew how bitter she had become in the inside, how much the work we do had eaten her up. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll be the next. Hollowed out and finally killed by Torchwood.”
“Why don’t you quit then?” Andy asked.
She shook her head. “I can’t. I’ve got a five-year-contract with Torchwood, and I’m not through yet. This isn’t the kind of job you can just quit. Besides, I do like my work… most of the time. It’s challenging, it’s exciting, and it makes me feel as if I’m making a difference, you know?”
“We always make a difference, whether we know or not,” a sultry voice said from behind their backs.
They both turned around and saw a thin, blonde woman, wearing a purple top and a skirt other women would consider a broad belt, approaching them. Andy recognized her at once: it was the one from last night.
“So, you’ve come back,” she said to Toshiko with a faint smile and lit a cigarette. “Somehow I thought you might.”
Toshiko shrugged and blushed, just a little bit. There was a softness in her face that hadn’t been there before. All of a sudden Andy felt like the fifth wheel.
“Right; that’s my clue to leave, then,” he said. “Was nice to chat with you, Miss Sato. See you later.”
He cut and ran, displaying as much dignity as a bloke could possibly manage to come up with when dumped by two chicks who clearly preferred each other’s company to his. But the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach didn’t come from the awkward situation alone. Something was decidedly odd with this Mary – if that was indeed her name – and it worried him that Toshiko wouldn’t see it… or that she’d ignore it.
~TBC~
Author: Soledad
Fandom: Torchwood
Category: Heavy-duty Gwen bashing.
Rating: 14+, just to be on the safe side.
Genre: Romance/Angst, for this part. Plus some dark humour.
Series: Wishverse.
Warning: repeated character death(s) in each chapter.
Timeframe: "Greeks Bearing Gifts". Major spoilers. This is an AU, though.
Summary: Many different ways to get rid of Gwen Cooper, while keeping the episodes as canonical as possible.
Disclaimer: the usual: don’t own, don’t sue! Everything belongs to RTD and BBC. I used a great deal of rewritten original dialogue, though.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
EPISODE 07 – GIFT HORSES, Part 2
Author’s notes:
Continued from Part 1. Obviously.
This story will be posted in several short parts rather than in one big chunk, as it serves better the development of the relationship(s).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Their chance encounter in the pub inspired Andy to do a personal search on Toshiko Sato, and he was impressed by what he found out about her. Born in 1975, okay, so she was a few years older, but did that matter? Lived in Osaka for seven years with her parents, who’d both been in the Royal Air Force; her grandfather had worked for Bletchley Park. Snapped up to government science think tank at the age of… twenty?! Goodness, she had to be real sharp, more than mere scientific doctorates would indicate.
And what was she doing between that and joining Torchwood three years ago? There was a short gap in her biography – questions, questions questions… and very few, very incomplete answers. But that was Torchwood for you. At least according to Uncle Merion; and Andy tended to trust his late (and supposedly more than a little loony) uncle more nowadays than he’d ever done before.
To his surprise, he ran into Toshiko again, only a day later. In the same pub. Sitting on the same bar stool. Wearing the same long-sleeved red top. Nursing a drink that looked similar to the one she’d had a day earlier. Having the same distant look about her.
The only difference was a pendant of green crystal that she was wearing on a gold chain around her neck. It seemed a bit… out of place on her, as if she hadn’t had it for long yet. Perhaps it was a gift from someone. If yes, then she didn’t seem all too happy to have it.
“Evening,” Andy said conversationally. “I didn’t think I’d see you here so soon.”
“Well, you are here, too,” she pointed out reasonably, but he could see that her eyes were red-rimmed behind her glasses, as if she’d been crying, just a short time ago.
“I usually come here to think,” he explained. “The background noise, I dunno, seems to help with that for some reason,” he shrugged. “Weird, I know, but there you are. So, what is your excuse?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’ve never seen you here before last night,” he clarified. “Now you’ve been here two nights in a row… and you look unhappy. So, what happened? Another bad day at work?”
She nodded, swishing her half-finished drink around in the tall glass listlessly. “Sort of. I accidentally heard some of my colleagues talk about me behind my back. It… it wasn’t pleasant. You think you know someone, then suddenly you see them for real, and they're... bastard little kids.”
She yanked the pendant off her neck and stuffed it into her handbag, blinking back her tears angrily.
Okay, this was getting officially weird. But Andy Davidson wasn’t a man to back off in the face of a little weirdness.
“Are we talking about everyone on your team or just about Gwen Cooper, the queen of denial and utterly unfamiliar with the very concept of tact and discretion?” he asked.
She gave him a tremulous smile. “Tell me something,” she said. “And please be honest; I can take it. In your eyes as a man, do I clothe myself really so outdated?”
Several things clicked into place in Andy’s head simultaneously.
“I see we’re talking about Gwen,” he said. “So, whom is she shagging now?”
Toshiko looked at him in complete shock, and he shrugged.
“Criticizing other women’s clothes is the surest sign that she has a new affair,” he explained. “We used to run polls about that when she still was with the police. Until she happened to say something about Detective Swanson’s jeans within her earshot, that is.”
“Why?” she asked, her mood visibly lifting a tad. “What happened?”
Andy grinned, because that was a glorious moment, often recalled at the police station, in spite of it having happened more than a year earlier.
“Detective Swanson told her that before criticizing other people’s clothing habits she should actually consider wearing a bra – and one that worked – because the times when her tits might have been perky were obviously long gone,” he laughed quietly. “I have never seen Gwen Cooper looking more like a blowfish than that day… and red, too. She was puce! Even her freckles became invisible! We still talk about it on boring days – it was the most beautiful catfight in the history of Cardiff Police.”
He paused and became serious again, seeing that her eyes were still clouded a little. “So, what did she say about your clothes?”
“It’s stupid, really,” she hesitated, clearly embarrassed about her own overreaction to such an insignificant thing, but Andy covered her trembling hand with his.
“Tell me,” he insisted gently.
“Nothing truly insulting,” she admitted. “Just that the jeans in the boots thing has kind of had its day.”
“Perhaps,” Andy said with a shrug. “But the cute female superhero look kinda suits you. Few women could pull it, that’s true, though. It needs a certain class.”
She frowned at him. “Are you flirting with me or laughing at me?” she asked angrily.
“Neither of those,” he replied. “Well, perhaps a bit flirting, yeah… but mostly, I’m trying to make you understand that Gwen Cooper’s self-centered rudeness shouldn’t bother you. You’re a lady with class. She’s as common as dirt. Don’t let her get to you; she’s not worth it.”
“It’s not just what she… what they said about me,” she murmured. “I’ve just realized that she… that they…”
“… are shagging like bunnies in every available corner?” Andy supplied. “And that she likes to monologize about it afterwards, without realizing that other people can hear it? Well, that’s nothing new, either. I think that poor bloke he lives with is the only one who doesn’t know whom she’s shagging at any given time.”
Her eyes widened a little in surprise. “She’s done it before?”
“Oh, yeah,” Andy laughed quietly. “That’s her favourite method of stress management. The blokes she picks for… erm… therapeutic reasons don’t even know what’s hit them before it’s too late.
Her eyes became a little cold for some reason he couldn’t interpret. “You speak as if from personal experience.”
Andy nodded. “Broom closet, two years ago, right after we’d become partners. Worst fucking mistake of my life. I still can’t exactly figure out how it happened. One moment she’s sobbing on my shoulder about a dead kid we’ve found in some garbage tin – the next moment we’re in the broom closet and she’s riding me like I’d be some prize stallion. And then behaves like she’d own me.”
“Well, she could hardly have dragged you in there by force,” she said pointedly. “Or did she hold a gun to your head?”
“I wish she did,” he answered ruefully. “That way at least I’d have an excuse. I couldn’t look Rhys in the eyes for months afterwards… and I broke up with my girlfriend. I… I was afraid it might happen again, and I wouldn’t do that to Sioned.”
“Did it?” Toshiko asked. “Happen again, I mean.”
Andy shook his head. “Nah; her interests change quickly once she’s had someone. The only one she always returns to is Rhys.”
“Does he know she’s cheating on him?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Andy said thoughtfully. “He’s not a fool, no matter what Gwen might think of him. But he’s completely, hopelessly besotted with her. I believe he consciously chooses not to see things. Makes easier for him to cope with her escapades.”
She seemed to contemplate that aspect, but it apparently didn’t make her any happier.
“Why must devotion always be given to the unworthy?” she murmured bitterly.
“Perhaps because we men are all bloody morons?” Andy guessed. “But some of us learn from our mistakes, eventually. Don’t give up so easily. Your chance will come.”
“Assuming that I’m interested in Gwen Cooper’s leftovers,” she returned sharply. “Can we just drop the topic as long as I still manage to stay moderately civil?”
Andy nodded. “Sure. Sorry if I was too nosy; I didn’t want to. But since we’ve run into each other, can I ask you if you guys found out anything about that skeleton – or the strange metal thing – found on that building site lately?”
She looked at him with a frown. “Are you supposed to know about that at all?”
“It would have been kinda hard to avoid,” he replied. “I was the constable assigned to watch the site, after all. I just… might have watched it – watched you people work there – a little more closely. I’m interested in that outer space sort of stuff, you know.”
“Is that a common constable trait?” she asked, sharper than she’d possibly intended. “To stick your noses into stuff that isn’t your business?”
“Well if it weren’t, Gwen wouldn’t have deigned to call us, trying to get more info about the building site,” Andy replied with a shrug. “The Sergeant couldn’t stop gloating all day; made her beg for it on the phone and enjoyed every moment of it, he did.”
“I know,” she said with a small half-smile. “Gwen was most indignant about it. She was considering putting a Wee... a nasty, murderous alien into his bathroom, should she come across one any time, soon.”
“Assuming said nasty, murderous alien wouldn’t run off in panic as soon as she did the eye-bulging routine on her,” Andy countered, grinning. “I know I would if I were an alien.”
“Which only shows that aliens are considerably more intelligent and have a much better honed sense of self-preservation than human males,” she returned. “But no, I can’t tell you nothing of either of the founds. Our boss is still examining the… artefact, whatever it might be, and our doctor is too busy shagging Gwen to finish the post mortem on the corpse.”
“I thought you did all the technological stuff at Torchwood,” Andy said in surprise.
She shook her head. “Nah, it’s a little more complicated. What I do is usually related to computers, while our boss is dealing with the more concrete technology: weapons, tools, that sort of thing. Actually, Suzie used to be our weapons expert.”
“Suzie?” He never heard that name from Gwen.
“She died just before Gwen was hired,” Toshiko explained.
“And Gwen has taken over her job?” Andy asked doubtfully.
It sounded a little unlikely, considering that Gwen barely managed to use a computer and run a proper search on the Internet. Plus, like many of the uniformed cops, she’d never held a gun in her hands before joining Torchwood. Constables didn’t carry weapons when on duty; Andy himself had only learned how to shoot because he wanted to become a detective one day.
Toshiko laughed. “Oh, no. Jack, that’s our boss, and I usually share Suzie’s old job, and Ianto often helps us. He’s really good with tech, and since he practically lives in his office, he’s always around.”
“Neither of you really has much of a life outside the office, have you?” Andy asked, thinking that for someone as bright and cute as her, it was a crying shame.
She shook her head ruefully. “Afraid not. Gwen’s the only one, and even she only because she already came with a boyfriend… not that she’d realize how damn lucky she is.”
“She never did,” Andy agreed. “She always took everything for granted. As if it would belong her by birthright,” he looked at her closely. “You don’t seem to take it well; that thing between her and that doctor of yours. Were the two of you…?"
“No, never,” she replied hurriedly. Too hurriedly, in fact, for this being a safe topic for her.
“So it’s only you who’s interested, then,” Andy shook his head in amazement. “What do you see in that bloke anyway? He’s rude, has the face of a weasel, and a low enough standard to shag Gwen!”
“Which you also have done, by your own admission,” she pointed out mercilessly.
“Point taken,” he admitted.
She sighed. “I always seem to fall for the wrong guy. Perhaps I ought to try my luck with girls.”
“The blonde from last evening?” he asked knowingly. “I saw her approach you, just when I want out the door. So, did you take her home with you?”
“It wasn’t like that; not that it would be your business in any way,” she replied. “Mary… she was just bothered by some guy and didn’t want to get in a fight with him, that’s all. We… talked quite a bit afterwards. It felt so good to talk to a woman again. I’ve missed that since Suzie’s death; I didn’t even realize how much I’ve missed it.”
“You and this Suzie... were you really close?” Andy asked. This was the second time that she’d mentioned this Suzie person in such a nostalgic manner.
She shrugged. “Turns out we weren’t close enough. But we were the only women on the team, and sometimes that matters a lot.”
“You hung out together, haven’t you?”
“Not very much,” she admitted. “Suzie was married to her job; she used to stay longer than anyone else except Ianto – she had a real passion for it. Sometimes, though, we went to a bar after work, had a chat, have a drink… she liked Martinis. I only realized how little I truly knew about her when she was already dead. But yeah, I miss the camaraderie… and the knowledge that I had nothing to fear when she was watching my back.”
“You must have liked her very much,” Andy said thoughtfully.
She shrugged again. “Suzie wasn’t easy to like. Brilliant, sarcastic, intuitive, hard-working, yes… but never showing a chink in her armour. I never knew how bitter she had become in the inside, how much the work we do had eaten her up. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll be the next. Hollowed out and finally killed by Torchwood.”
“Why don’t you quit then?” Andy asked.
She shook her head. “I can’t. I’ve got a five-year-contract with Torchwood, and I’m not through yet. This isn’t the kind of job you can just quit. Besides, I do like my work… most of the time. It’s challenging, it’s exciting, and it makes me feel as if I’m making a difference, you know?”
“We always make a difference, whether we know or not,” a sultry voice said from behind their backs.
They both turned around and saw a thin, blonde woman, wearing a purple top and a skirt other women would consider a broad belt, approaching them. Andy recognized her at once: it was the one from last night.
“So, you’ve come back,” she said to Toshiko with a faint smile and lit a cigarette. “Somehow I thought you might.”
Toshiko shrugged and blushed, just a little bit. There was a softness in her face that hadn’t been there before. All of a sudden Andy felt like the fifth wheel.
“Right; that’s my clue to leave, then,” he said. “Was nice to chat with you, Miss Sato. See you later.”
He cut and ran, displaying as much dignity as a bloke could possibly manage to come up with when dumped by two chicks who clearly preferred each other’s company to his. But the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach didn’t come from the awkward situation alone. Something was decidedly odd with this Mary – if that was indeed her name – and it worried him that Toshiko wouldn’t see it… or that she’d ignore it.
~TBC~
