Phela: The Beginning: CH 10

brose1001

A/N: This will probably be the only chapter that has a bit of Gwen's POV in it, since I go in phases of liking her and hating her. It is only in the first part, the rest is back to the overall POV.

Gwen remained seated in the board room for quite awhile; the words that Jeannie had said were trotting along through her mind while she considered the bits of Jeannie's past that had been revealed. Jeannie was an alien…wow! Having read the Torchwood charter, she seemed to remember something in there about 'If it's alien, it's ours' or some such thing, but she didn't think that Jack ran his branch of Torchwood that way. Hmmmm. Jack. She sighs dreamily, memories of Jack's kiss flowing through her mind's eye. Shaking her head, she realizes that the kiss had been given, not out of desire, but out of a need to help her live. To help her be strong enough to survive the alien gas that had possessed her. Gwen sighs again, looking out the plate glass wall at the team. She sees Tosh tapping away at her keyboard, working on one of her many projects, while Ianto is smirking at Suzie. Suzie laughs at him before turning back to her workbench, and the tech waiting there for her. Jeannie is smiling gently at Jack while he leans back in his chair and leers at her. Suddenly, the scene she had wandered into the night before runs through Gwen's mind. She sees that Ianto had not been jealous at all of what was happening in the board room; he did, in fact, seem to be possessive. Gwen decides, after deep thought, to believe what Jeannie told her. For now, anyway. Taking a bracing breath, Gwen rises from her seat and stretches, and then heads back down to her station to complete some of her paperwork.

Jeannie's sharp eyes make note of Gwen's appearance at her desk; she also sees that Gwen seems to be reconciled to what was said. Time will tell; teaching new tricks to old dogs is hard sometimes, but she knows that Gwen is capable. What she 'saw' tells her as much. Jeannie will make sure that team supports her in this, as they are all her friends…or will be, anyway.

That evening…

The rift remaining quiet, and the rest of team banished barring an apocalypse, the three are in the gym while Jeannie attempts her first shift. Feeling her mates' encouragement and support along their bond, she concentrates on what she thinks she should look like. After a little while, Jeannie is getting frustrated, growling quietly, and her mates gather her into their arms. Jack says, "Maybe you're going about it the wrong way." Jeannie turns her gaze to Jack, glaring at him. Jack, realizing that she is misunderstanding him, hastens to add, "Maybe you have to shift the first time by accident; then you'll know how it actually feels, and can work on it that way." Her glare softening, Jeannie sighs. "But I wanna do it now!" She whines. She closes her eyes, and buries her nose in Jack's throat, sniffing appreciatively, his pheromones calming her somewhat. Ianto nuzzles her neck, sending out waves of warmth and love along their bond to her while he contemplates the latest issue to befall them. Jeannie is soon purring quietly, feeling cocooned by the love emanating from her mates.

Jack's wrist strap beeps, alerting them to rift activity, and they all jump a bit. Playtime is obviously over for now, so they run up to the main level to see what came through. Upon arrival at Tosh's station, Jack settles down into her seat while he scrolls through the data on the screen, with his mates standing behind him. As they look on, Jack analyzes the spike, which turns out to be a large one, indicating that it is most likely a ship. Jack signals the rest of the team to stand by for pick-up, and has Tosh come to the Hub to coordinate their movements; once she arrives, the three take off in the SUV to pick up Owen, Gwen, and Suzie.

Tosh leads them to the outskirts of Cardiff; an abandoned factory appears to be the crash-site of a small ship. Tosh warns them that the programme also indicated the presence of at least one biological life form, and to be careful. The ship is in one piece, but is smoking heavily; after scans show the area in the vicinity of the ship to be clear of danger, Jack goes to the ship's airlock with Jeannie and Ianto flanking him. Owen and Gwen fan out to either side of the ship, while Suzie stays back, continuing to scan the area. When the trio is about 50 feet from the entrance, the airlock door blows outward and hits him hard, knocking him down. Ianto and Jeannie immediately drop into a crouch; they keep their weapons aimed at the airlock and wait for him to recover. When he doesn't move right away, Ianto and Jeannie look at each other; they can still feel him through their bond, so he's just unconscious. The appearance of a large scaly alien stumbling out of the now-open airlock garners their attention; it is waving some type of energy weapon about. An indiscriminate shot hits Ianto; killing him instantly and leaving him with a large hole in his chest. Jeannie sees red, yowls in anger and grief, and shifts into a large cat with golden-red brindled fur, sharp claws, and long fangs. The alien sees this, and starts to aim at her before he is killed by a timely head-shot from Owen. Gwen, who had rushed over to Jack's still form, was trying desperately to move the heavy door when Jeannie shifted. Gwen chokes in shock, but is suddenly distracted by Jack starting to struggle under the door. He felt Ianto die, and that gives him a huge adrenaline rush which allows him to throw the door with a scream of rage at the alien. Struggling to his feet, he sees a large cat crouched protectively over Ianto's body, snarling at everyone, luminous green eyes flashing. Making note of the now-dead alien, Jack calms down a bit; he can already feel Ianto starting to come back, so he slowly moves towards what can only be his beautiful Jeannie. Sending out waves of love, calm, and admiration, he approaches her snarling form and runs his fingers through the silky fur behind her ears. She nuzzles his hand, "He's coming back; he died, but he's coming back. Isn't he?" Jeannie's mental voice is fearful, and Jack wraps his arms around her neck in joy. "Yeah, he's coming back, I can feel it. Gods, but you are so beautiful like this. Ianto is going to love it!" He sends a mental picture to her of all three of them in their bed, with Cat-Jeannie in the middle. Jeannie rewards him with by butting her head up against his side, and then licks a long stripe up his neck, and the side of his face.

Gwen is sitting by the destroyed door, staring at the Captain; she agrees that Jeannie is quite a sight to see; standing tall, her shoulders probably came up to Jack's hips, and she had a long striped tail. Her eyes go impossibly wide when she sees Ianto revive; intellectually she had known that he would, but seeing it was still a shock.

Ianto jerks awake, sucking in a loud lung-full of air while he thrashes in pain. Jeannie lies down next to him, allowing him to bury his face and fingers in her fur while he recovers; Jack is also right there, pulling Ianto into his arms for comfort. The three huddle together for several minutes.

Meanwhile, Owen and Suzie clear the ship; the single deceased alien appeared to be the only one who actually survived the crash, with two more of the same species dead inside. They exit the ship and head over to the SUV to report their findings to Jack, while looking in awe at Jeannie.

Jack helps Ianto to stand; with Jack on one side, an arm wrapped around his waist for support, and Jeannie on the other using her weight to help keep him upright, the trio move back to the SUV where they get Ianto settled into the backseat with Jeannie half in his lap. Jack chuckles at this, and scratches her ears, causing her to purr quietly; when Ianto's fingers join Jack's, the purring amps up in contentment. Jack sighs, and waves to Suzie, gesturing that she should begin her report. Once the report is finished, Jack tells her to take Gwen into the ship to gather the bodies for transport back to the Hub. While they are clearing the ship, Ianto makes arrangements to hire a lorry (sans driver) to get the ship back later on, while Jack places a portable perception filter on it for now.

Ianto is feeling much better by the time they return to the Hub; by this time, it is gone 3AM, and Jack tells the team to go back home, they can do their reports on the incident tomorrow. Owen gives Ianto a quick once-over, clearing him, and then looks dubiously at Jeannie. Jack, noticing the look, says, "Not now Owen; go home!"

With the Hub to themselves again, the triad go to their apartment and curl up on the bed together once Jack and Ianto strip. Jeannie's furry form is lying in between them; Jack snickers a bit when he realizes that the image he had sent to Jeannie was now a reality.