Torchwood: Fanfic: An act of desperation

[m_findlow]

Title: An act of desperation
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Gwen
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 622 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Torchwood, Jack, vain" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack's been busted...

Gwen spied to box sitting on Jack's desk and came over to inspect it more closely. She didn't remember there being any rift alerts this morning but you never knew. Perhaps Jack had picked up something interesting.

'Hey,' he said, looking up before catching where her gaze had landed and quickly pulling to box off his desk and slipping it in his lap under the desk.

'What was that?'

'Nothing,' he said, looking slightly guilty.

'It's not nothing,' she said. 'Come on, what is it?'

'Like I said, it's nothing.'

'Is it something from the rift?'

'Uh... yeah,' he said, shifting uneasily in his seat.

Gwen saw the nervousness on his face so she knew it wasn't nothing, and she also knew that it was the kind of nothing she very much wanted to know what it was. She stepped over until she was right next to him.

'Hand it over Jack.'

'It's nothing, I swear.'

'Well then, if it's nothing, you won't mind showing me.'

He sat there, stoutly refusing to pull the item out from his lap.

Gwen looked across and through the window behind him, peering and frowning at something. She cocked her head. 'What is that?' she said.

'What's what?' he said, turning to see what she was looking at. At that moment she lunged for the box, tearing it from his hands.

'Ah ha!' she said, holding it up to read the front.

'Gimme that!' he said, as she swatted away his attempts to regain it.

'"Just for Men permanent root colour treatment"?' She looked up at him and her eyes lit up.

'No!'

'Gwen,'

'No!' she repeated, breaking out in a grin.

'Gwen, it's not what you think.'

'No!' She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet like a giddy teenager.

'I can explain.'

Oh, I bet you can, she though gleefully. 'Jack Harkness! Are you dyeing your hair?'

'No!'

'"Includes natural highlight technology to add depth and natural cloud variation",' she read out from the back of the box. The grin on her face was so wide it nearly split her face in two.

'And this just fell through the rift onto your desk, matching your hair colour exactly, huh?'

'Yes! No!' he wailed, frantically trying to recover some semblance of dignity. 'It's just for the odd grey hair, okay? Please don't tell Ianto!'

Gwen laughed out loud at the look of abject humiliation on his face at being caught out in an act of sheer vanity.

'Jack Harkness!' she gasped, 'Why, it's like I don't even know you anymore. I mean, first it's hair dye, then it's diet pills, botox, teeth whitening...'

'Hey, these teeth are the real deal, okay?' he said, feeling affronted and embarrassed.

She stopped and paused, looking hard at him.

'Have you have work done on your nose?'

He stood up and whipped the box from her hand, growling and giving her a displeased look.

'I like how I look okay? I don't want Ianto thinking he's dating an old crone. There's age gap enough without him thinking I'm getting old and grey.'

Gwen took the box back from Jack's hand and put it down on his desk, reaching up to peck him on the cheek.

'Jack, Ianto loves you no matter what you look like. He's more worried about turning old and grey on you.'

'I suppose,' he replied disconsolately.

'Besides,' she said, wrapping a consoling arm around him, 'these DIY boxes are rubbish. What you need is a proper hairdresser. I know this beauty centre where they do the works, hair, pedicures, massage, sauna. We could make a day of it.'

'Do they do those hot rock massages?'

'Yep.'

Jack grinned. 'Oh, book me in!'

Comments

[bk_forever]

That's the nosiness of Gwen that irritates me, there's no such thing as privacy around her, she has to know everything, no matter how personal, even when it's none of her business. Poor Jack has a hard enough time as it is. I hope Gwen intends to shell out for the spa treatments to make up to Jack for making fun of him. If he caught her using hair dye she'd probably feel mortified too.

[imarajones.livejournal.com]

Agree with that. And sure Ianto don´t like it either. Ianto has true respect for Jack´s personal & private business. And he´s his boyfriend!

[bk_forever]

Yes, but it's such an accurate depiction of how Gwen behaves. Scarily good!

Jack and Ianto both respect each other's privacy, but Gwen doesn't respect anyone's. She just wants to know.