Torchwood: Fanfic: Boyfriend troubles

[m_findlow]

Title: Boyfriend troubles
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Gwen, Rhys, Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,544 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for juliet316's prompt "Any, any, under pressure" at fic_promptly
Summary: Gwen and Rhys' day shopping is interrupted by a local emergency.

'I'm telling you, Gwen. Neutral colours. Cream, grey, beige.'

'Oh, Rhys, can we please stop talking about the bloody sofa!' she complained. They were never going to agree on the colour, that much was clear. Rhys thought a bright colour was too much like a bachelor pad, and not the colour of a sofa that resided in the flat of a mature couple. A whole morning had been wasted trawling around the various department stores, agonising over the choice.

After spending all day long trapped in a dreary underground base, Gwen looked forward to coming home to a bit of colour. The debate wasn't exactly over as far as she was concerned - just postponed until she had more energy to tackle it.

'We can't keep sitting on that tatty thing we've got now,' Rhys insisted, but Gwen's attention was already drawn elsewhere, spotting a crowd of people gathered around something.

She frowned. 'What's going on over there?'

'Probably one of those nutters on drugs come to have a nap in the middle of the mall,' Rhys muttered. 'What is it they're calling it these days? Black Mamba? It was on one of those "24 Hours in Emergency" programs. Paramedics were utterly helpless.'

Unable to leave it alone, Gwen changed direction, heading for the gathering. Once she saw who was at the middle of it, she dropped her shopping bags. Rhys saw her reaction and rushed over as well.

'Bloody hell,' he said, getting his first look as the crowd parted, allowing him through. There was a young woman, or at least he thought she was a young woman, curled up on the ground. Her hands and legs were covered in some horrible scaly rash that was a dark green colour, slowly working its way from her boots up towards the edge of her short leather skirt.

'Hey there,' Gwen said, kneeling down next to her. 'It's okay. Shhh.'

'What is that?' Rhys asked. 'It's like she's growing scales.'

'Rhys!' Gwen hissed, trying not to scare the girl. 'Call Jack and tell him to get here right now.'

'And say what? Lizard people are invading?'

She gave him a look that brooked no argument. 'I've dealt with this before, okay? Just get Jack here.'

'Yeah, yeah, alright,' he said, fumbling for his phone, knowing better than to argue with his wife on all matters Torchwood.

'It's okay, pet,' Gwen said, stroking her hair, trying her best to be reassuring. It couldn't be easy, watching your skin turn into scales, right before your eyes.

'Jack's on his way,' Rhys reported. 'Oi, you two,' Rhys barked, snapping his fingers at two uni students. 'Coats off and hold them up.' He seemed to gauge their confused expressions. 'A bit of privacy for the poor woman, eh? How'd you like a bunch of strangers sticky-beaking if it was you lying there on the ground?' He sighed heavily. 'Oi, kids these days,' he added. 'The rest of you can move on, thanks. It's being dealt with.'

'I'm a doctor,' someone piped up.

'Good for you, sunshine,' Rhys said, feeling that rush of power that he'd often seen taken over Gwen in these sorts of emergency situations. 'It's not a medical problem, mate. Torchwood are dealing with it.'

'Rhys!' Gwen hissed, scolding him for making such a public declaration of who they were.

'Oh, but it's okay when you say it,' Rhys grumbled.

'What's your name, pet?' Gwen asked, taking a scale covered hand in hers, giving it warmth.

The girl trembled, but took solace in the small gesture. 'Leigh Ann.'

'That's a lovely name,' Gwen replied, giving her a kind smile. 'My name's Gwen, and this is my husband Rhys.You're going to be fine. Just keep talking to me and don't worry about anything else that's going on, okay?'

She nodded, trying to keep her gaze fixed on Gwen and not what was happening to her.

'Do you have a boyfriend, Leigh Ann. Someone special?'

She blushed despite the scales creeping up her neck and across her face. 'Lee. We only met a few days ago, but I think he's the one. Lee and Leigh Ann.' She gave an unsteady chuckle. 'Easy for people to remember at least.'

'Oh, that's wonderful,' Gwen replied, giving her hand another squeeze. 'Falling in love is the best, isn't it? Welsh boy?'

She shook her head. 'No. He's a McKinty,' she said. 'No red hair, though.'

'Well, can't have it all, eh?' Gwen joked.

'I'm not going to die, am I?'

Gwen touched her face gently, already feeling the scales hardening on her cheek. 'Of course not, sweetheart. We won't let that happen.'

The enormous black SUV came pounding up plaza, ignoring people and protective bollards alike as it swerved amongst them, horn honking as people dived out of its way, aiming to get as close as possible. It came to a sliding halt, diverting attention away from Gwen and Rhys.

Jack said nothing as he hopped out and saw the girl huddled next to Gwen. His frown was evidence enough of his displeasure.

'I hate these things,' was all Ianto added to the conversation, joining him in coming over to assess the situation.

Gwen grabbed Leigh Ann forcefully by the shoulders. 'These are my friends, Leigh Ann. They're going to take care of you, alright? You just have to get up and get in the car okay? I promise everything will be just fine.' Gwen pulled the pair of them to their feet and began walking them to the SUV where Ianto was waiting to open the back door, helping Leigh Ann inside, before shutting the door, ensconcing her safely inside.

'Rhys, you go with Ianto and Leigh Ann in the SUV,' Gwen ordered.

Rhys did a double take. 'Eh? You're not coming?'

'Jack and I have got to find this boyfriend of hers. I've got his name, or at least the name he's going by. Now we've got to find him and stop him.'

'Stop him? Stop him from what?'

'He's an alien.' Gwen pointed at the tinted window of the SUV. 'He's the reason she's ended up like this.'

'How's that work, then?'

Gwen gave him a withering look. 'Intimate relations, Rhys?' she explained, giving him the eye.

Rhys face fell with realisation. 'Oh.'

'Yeah. If he's done it to one girl, he's not going to stop there. These creatures are serial offenders. They'll keep going until they find a viable mate to play host to his, er, well, you know what. The fact that she's transforming is a bad sign. He could have had several girls on the go at once. There could be more yet.' Gwen paused. 'Look, just get her to the hub and keep her calm. Her pulse rate will speed up the transformation process if we don't keep her calm. Once you're there, Ianto can sedate her to further slow it down. We can cure her, but developing a live vaccine to counteract the RNA receptors is going to take a few days. She just needs a friendly face to help her get through the next few hours. You can do that, can't you?'

'Alright,' he agreed. 'So much for our day off.' Funny how chaos and grace under pressure had become the new normal. Ten minutes ago they'd been arguing over the colour of their new sofa. Now they were on the hunt for an alien sex predator. Well, Gwen was at least. Her and Jack. He'd just have to make do with babysitting duties.

'Alright people!' Jack yelled out to the plaza full of spectators. 'Show's over. The authorities are handling it. Go back to your lives. Nothing to see here anymore. Gwen, where did you park the car?'

'Just over there,' she replied, pointing to the public car park. 'Rhys. Keys,' she demanded, forcing him to hand over the keys of his prized silver Vauxhall.

Jack grinned. 'Good. Let's roll. Ianto, start working on intel the minute you get back to the hub.'

'Yes, sir.'

And with that, he and Gwen took off at a run towards the carpark.

'Don't you dare scratch my new car!' Rhys yelled after them. He glanced back at Ianto, who was already nodding at the SUV, a silent request to get in.

Rhys walked over, pulling the door shut behind him, sliding into the passenger seat, clipping the seat belt and giving Leigh Ann a little thumbs up in the back seat.

'You're Torchwood,' she said. 'Does that mean my boyfriend is an alien?' she asked.

'It's the in thing at the moment,' Ianto replied, navigating back out of the bustling mall as if this was all perfectly normal.

Once they were back on the main roads, headed down toward the bay, Rhys couldn't help but ask the question that had been bugging him. 'Doesn't it annoy you that those two get to do all the interesting, alien chasing stuff?' Rhys asked.

'You'd rather it was us going after an alien that's happy to shag anything in the name of survival and procreation, regardless of the side effects?' he asked.

'Well, when you put it like that.' Rhys let the idea sink in before speaking. 'So, when you say it'll shag anything...'

A little smile played across Ianto's face. 'Don't worry. Gwen will be fine. Jack's more than happy to do the heavy lifting on this one, assuming it comes to that.' He sighed. 'God help us.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Poor Leigh Ann, I hope they can find this rotten boyfriend of hers and fix her, get her back to normal.

Rhys is such a good guy.