okayAuthor: zorell
Chapter: 37/?
Rating: PG
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Martha, Gwen, the Doctor, Donna.
Pairings: Jack/Ianto.
Summary: Donna has words with Gwen.
Disclaimer: Torchwood belongs to BBC and RTD.
Story starts here:
http://jackxianto.livejournal.com/5294840.html#cutid1
previous chapter:
http://jackxianto.livejournal.com/5810675.html
Chapter 37.
For all Ianto’s calmness regarding Gwen, Donna couldn’t help but feel angry and annoyed at the way the woman was around the Captain and the Welshman. It wasn’t just the way the former PC came on to Jack at every opportunity that angered Donna; it was also Gwen’s treatment of her fellow countryman. Donna had noticed the snide looks Gwen had sent Ianto’s way, and the comments that she had made aimed in his direction. Even if the redhead hadn’t of taken a shine to the Welshman she would still have been fuming at the woman’s actions, as it was, Donna had taken a shine to Ianto and wasn’t about to carry on putting up with the kind of displays Gwen was putting on, and so when Gwen finally left Jack’s office and returned to her workstation she came face to face with the force of nature known as Donna Noble.
“ What the hell do you think you’re playing at ?” Donna asked, as she approached Gwen, who, looking rather smug, had just sat down at her workstation.
“ You talking to me ?” Gwen questioned, looking towards the Doctors companion.
“ Damn right I’m talking to you.” Donnas’ tone of voice was angry but controlled.
“ I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
“ Up there with the Captain in his office, what exactly was all that about ?” Donna clarified for the former PC.
“ Not that it’s anything to do with you, but we were discussing Torchwood business.” Gwen responded firmly, wondering where this visitor to the Hub got off talking to her like that.
“ Is that what you’re calling it. Personally I’d call it trying to get into the boss’s trousers. Actually let me correct that, trying to get into the already very taken, engaged boss’s trousers.” Donna had finally seen and heard enough and wasn’t about to ignore Gwen’s latest ‘show’.
“ I don’t know what you’re implying.” Gwen tried to sound innocent.
“ Oh, I’m not implying anything, I’m saying it straight out – you are all over the Captain like a bad rash and he’s not interested ! So stop flirting with him, stop acting as if there’s a ‘you and him’ ‘cos there isn’t. For goodness sake give the poor man a break and leave him alone !” Donna was annoyed and a little exasperated with the Welshwoman.
“ You know nothing, and have no right to talk to me like that, it’s none of your business what is or isn’t going on here, and what makes you think he’s not interested ? Seeing as you were so obviously watching, you must have seen how close we were, if Jack didn’t want it he could have moved or said something.” Gwen shot back at Donna.
“ Moved ? Where exactly ? You had him all but ‘pinned down’, and as for saying something, like you would have listened ! As for it not being any of my business, well I’m making it my business ‘cos when I see someone so obviously trying to come between a couple who are clearly in love, and who is attempting to destroy that relationship for their own ends I am not going to stand around and watch it happen.” Donna replied.
“ Relationship...hah ! Convenient shag more like it !” Gwen retorted, repeating the previous description of how she saw Jack and Ianto’s relationship.
“They’re together, they’re a couple, they’re in love and they’re engaged in case you’ve forgotten. Bit more than just a ‘convenient shag’ don’t you think ?!”
“ Being a couple and having a ring on a finger has never been a stumbling block for our Gwen,” snarked Owen who had come down from Jack’s office and joined the group, who’s number now also included Martha.
“ Really ?” Donna’s intrigued look went from Gwen to Owen and back again as the medic admitted,
“ Not one of my finer moments.”
“ You loved it Owen, don’t deny it !” Gwen responded to the medics’ remark.
“ It helped pass a few lonely evenings I guess, that’s about it though. What was it you just said ? – oh yeah, a ‘convenient shag’, - just about sums you and me up Gwen, and in all honesty, you weren’t even a good shag.”
“ Owen !!”
“ Sorry Tosh, but, well, she wasn’t!” Owen shrugged his shoulders, unrepentant about his comment.
“ Ok. Straying alittle from the point here, although it does confirm what’s been pretty obvious since our arrival, that Gwen is a sl...” Donna found herself cut off mid word by a slightly agitated Doctor.
“ Donna, that’s enough!” The Time Lord told his companion.
“ No Doctor it’s not, not nearly enough. What she’s been doing is alot more than abit of harmless flirting. She’s been trying to get between the Captain and Ianto. Not only that, haven’t you noticed her ‘dislike’ of Ianto, all the little comments and looks. Her barely contained anger that he’s alive, immortal and going to be with Jack for a very long time didn’t go unnoticed, - at least not by me.” Donna moved closer to Gwen wanting to make sure that the woman couldn’t doubt her intentions or the truth in what she was saying. “ You may not be able to permanently physically hurt Ianto now, but believe me if you do inflict any sort of pain on him I promise that you’ll wish you had never meet me, ‘cos you see I don’t take kindly to my friends being hurt.”
“ Friends ? You hardly know them ! And how dare you threaten me... You can’t threaten me !” Gwen said scornfully and a little disbelieving at the ‘front’ of Donna saying what she had.
“ Just because I’ve not known them long doesn’t mean I can’t consider Jack and Ianto friends, and as for threatening you...that wasn’t a threat, it was a promise.” The tone of Donnas’ voice left none of the group in any doubt that the redhead meant every word she said.
“ Donna, thank you for the vigorous and vocal defence of Jack and I, but I’d rather not have to clear up any blood, the stains can be a nightmare to remove.” Ianto said as he and Jack made their presence known. Both men had left Jack’s office when the raised voices had become evident and they had come down to see what the commotion was all about.
“ Are you going to let her talk to me like that ?!” Gwen looked straight at Jack expectantly. “Aren’t you going to say something, do something ?”
“ Like what ?” Jack asked casually, “ You were arguing...”
“ I’d say a frank exchange of views.” Owen remarked.
“ More like trying to set Gwen straight on a few things.” Donna said.
“ Again.” Added Tosh, gaining a look from Donna as the redhead realised she wasn’t the first to confront Gwen about her actions towards the immortals.
“ Ah, the impossible task.” Ianto said quietly at the same time as Tosh spoke, though from the look of ‘not helping’ he received from Jack it was obviously alittle louder than intended.
“ As I was saying...” Jack continued, “ It was an argument. Deal with it. Either apologise to each other...”
“ There is no way I’m apologising....” Donna and Gwen both stated in unison.
“...or ignore it and/or each other for the duration of Donnas’ stay. Either way I don’t want a repeat performance.”
“ Then tell her to stop blatantly trying to get into your trousers !” Donna nodded towards Gwen.
“ I was not !” Gwen tried to sound indignant at such an accusation, but it fell on deaf ears.
“ Yeah, right, and the Pope ain’t Catholic !” Donna shot back.
“ Donna, Gwen knows how things are regarding Ianto and I, and she has been spoken to previously about the reality of the situation, her attitude and her actions. Like Ianto said thanks for your defence of us, but...”
“ ...tone it down, and keep a lid on it.” Donna finished for the Captain, then added “ For you, I’ll do my best...but if she keeps on the way she has been...”
“ Just try please Donna, thank you.” Jack gave their visitor an appreciative smile.
“ And that’s it ?” Gwen looked dumbstruck. “ She threatened me ! Aren’t you going to say anything about that ?”
“ Ah, yes, about that. Donna, in future please don’t threaten any of my team...that’s my job !”
There was a cough desperately trying to cover a giggle from Martha, a stifled laugh from Owen, a barely contained smile from Tosh and a wide one from Donna, the Doctor looked somewhat bewildered by the whole thing, while Gwen looked about ready to let fly again. Ianto, who had managed to keep a restrained ‘mask’ in place was the first to notice the look on Gwen’s face, and wanting to head off another confrontation suggested that Donna might want to accompany him on some errands.
“ ‘Errands’ as in outside the Hub ?” Ok, so perhaps avoiding another confrontation wasn’t going to happen Ianto thought, as Gwen picked up on what he had said.
“ Yes,” replied Jack.
“ But he’s restricted to the Hub.” Gwen stated smugly.
“ That would be was restricted to the Hub. Jonesy passed a medical check and is back as a fully operational member of Torchwood Three.” Owen informed his colleague, barely able to keep the amusement out of his voice as he watched Gwen’s facial reaction, ‘boy, she so couldn’t act’ the medic thought watching her trying to look unbothered by the news, then wondered how she had managed to pull the wool over Rhys’ eyes regarding Torchwood, her flirting and her affair. Surely the man couldn’t be that blind to the reality that was Gwen Cooper.
“ Oh. Well, at least that means no more lunch runs for us.”
“ That’s all you can think of ? The fact that there’s less work for you to do, not ‘oh that’s great news, so glad you’re ok now and it’s great to have you back on the team properly.’”
“ Donna.” Jack’s voice was firm and held a warning tone.
“ Just saying.” The Doctor’s companion responded, nonchalantly shrugging her shoulders slightly, before turning her attention to Ianto and asking, “ So, what errands ?”
next chapter: http://jackxianto.livejournal.com/5851841.html#cutid1