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III: Everything Changes

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I sat curled up on my sofa in some comfy pyjamas, a fluffy dressing gown with a pizza box opened on the coffee table before me, a large glass of red wine in hand as I watched a rubbish film. When my mobile phone suddenly rang from beside me, putting down my wine glass on the coffee table and quickly picked it up to see it was my baby brother Rory calling.

"Alright, little bro," I grabbed a slice of pizza, took a bite and began chewing on it, "How're things?"

"Okay, I guess," he responded with a sigh of defeat, "It's just that I don't know how if I'm cut out for this nursing malarkey."

"I've told you this so many times, Rory, and I'll hammer it into that thick skull of yours until it sinks in, alright," I go to take a sip of wine, "Just know that I'm proud of you. And remember to be strong and believe you can make it through."

"Thanks for giving me that kick up the ass. I needed to hear from my big sister today," I heard him return gratefully, sensing he might be smiling bashfully and awkwardly cleared his throat to ask, "So how's your day been anyway?"

"Oh, you know, filing this, researching that, booking appointments, the glamorous life of being a PA, " I returned with a small laugh, knowing what I've told is half a truth. Because my family weren't any wiser about what I did for a job, I worked for a top business firm I had once worked at in London and then relocated to an office in Cardiff.

"Anyway, how's mum and dad?" I am going to change the subject to that of our parents.

"Oh, they've gone away for the weekend to Devon."

Before I get a chance to respond, there's a buzzing of the intercom alerting me someone is here for a visit, "Sorry, Rory, but I have to go. I'll call you next week, yeah."

"Okay, not a boyfriend I shouldn't be telling Mum and Dad about, should I?" He teased, rolling my eyes as I wandered down the hallway of my flat.

"No, alright, love you, bro, talk to you soon and give mum and dad my love, alright, " I pressed the buzzer on the intercom system to allow the person entry, knowing well enough who might be.

It was a couple of minutes later, and there was a knock at the door. Going to open it, I find one Owen Harper standing in my flats doorway, looking slightly down on his luck, "Struck out at the bars, did we?"

"Could say that, yeah," he returned meekly, following me as I strolled back down the hall towards my open-plan living kitchen and dining room, heading toward the fridge.

"So you came moaning to me about it?" I opened the fridge, pulling out the bottle of red wine I'd already opened, "Fancy a glass of vino?"

"I don't moan," Owen whined, slumping himself onto my sofa, "And yes, I'd love one," hands coming up to run over his face, letting out a sound of defeat, "I don't know what it is, but I've just been striking out so much lately."

I grabbed a wine glass from the kitchen cupboard, poured some wine into the mirror, and brought it over, placing it next to mine already on the coffee table and sat on the sofa with him but kept my distance, "So I might or might not have taken something from the archives to give me a little help."

"Owen!" I seethed, turning to face him, glaring daggers just as he pulled a glowing phial from his jacket pocket, placing it on the coffee table, "Jack's going to lose his shit when he finds out about this!" I folded my arms and scoffed, "Stealing from the archives, you must have been fucking desperate! Was your shag with me not enough for you this week?!"

Getting up, I headed towards the windows, not wanting Owen to see the hurt in my eyes, "Paige, I..."

"Who else, Owen?" I sternly interrupted before he could apologise, figuring out he couldn't be the only one taking stuff out of the archives without Jack's permission."

"Tosh and Suzie," he sighed with guilt from behind me.

"Tosh, I thought she had some standards, but I was wrong," I scoffed with disbelief, turning to face him, Owen with his head in his hands, my arms folded in front of me as I began pacing back and forth, "And Suzie she's our bloody second in command she should know better," I now shake my head and scoff once again, "Jack's going to be fuming when I tell him about this."

"Look, Paige, please. Everybody has got a lot on their plates tomorrow. I don't want to talk about this anymore," Owen tries to plead with me as I now went to pick up my mobile phone from the coffee table, rolling my eyes and shaking my head just as I began composing a text message to Jack as when I heard something being spritzed from behind me. When I suddenly lost all thought, the most intoxicating smell drew me to turn in Owen's direction as he asked, "So what do you say?"

My phone slips out from my grasp with a loud clatter onto the floor, and I am carrying myself towards Owen. Before I even knew it, I had grabbed him and passionately smashed our lips together, quickly pulling away with a wet pop. I gazed at him with nothing but burning desire, "I want you in my bed right now."

-Torchwood-

Owen POV

I had woken up beside Paige the following morning with the worst headache imaginable, trying to recall the events of the last night. I glanced over briefly at her peacefully sleeping form, a sheet of dirty blonde almost covering her face as I pulled my jeans over my boxers. My stomach was gurgling with either guilt or hunger over what I had done, and I knew there was no excuse for me to have used the perfume on her to get to sleep with me and not have her call me and the others out for taking things we weren't supposed to.

I had only gone out last night hoping to rid myself of the image of Paige flirting with Jack the other day after it had brought up a lot of mixed feelings that I didn't want. Yet, since our arrangement, things have drifted into dangerous territory, and I've started caring more about her than a friend and colleague should. I hadn't felt like this for anyone since I lost my wife a few years ago.

But it was just something about us that felt domestic the other morning when I had playfully smacked her bottom, and I pecked her on the cheek without even thinking about it. As she had stood there in that green silk dressing gown, looking stunning as always, even when she wasn't wearing makeup, Paige had this natural beauty about her. It was also the lost look in her eyes that worried me after telling me she had a bad migraine that morning, and all I wanted was to take it away. 

Yet, I knew that when I saw Paige later, she was defiantly going to be pissed at me from the dirty looks she'd be throwing at me, Tosh and Suzie way later. Of course, we occasionally argued at work when I said something wrong or had a little playful banter.

Finally pulling my t-shirt over my head, I glanced over at her again and went to crouch before her for a moment, going to press a feather-light kiss on her forehead and whispered, "See ya later, gorgeous."

Paige POV

It was amazing how time flew by when work got done, and before I knew it was nearly the end of another day. Sure, it hadn't started great when I was out on a mission to tell Jack about Tosh, Suzie and Owen on their stealing from the archives. Mainly when Owen had used that perfume to distract me? But of course, other things had gotten in the way, such as Weevils. With a heavy sigh, I now shut down my computer.

Getting up, I grabbed my coat and bag before calling out, heading towards the cog door, "Night, Jack!" I saw him in his office at his desk, face deep in concentration.

"Goodnight, Paige!" he waves back at me.

I headed out the door and walked down the corridor, feeling a sudden headache coming on. It made me shiver slightly, so I tightened my coat around me. I'm only a few short steps from the tourist centre when a sudden movement catches my eye.

The pain in my head becomes sharper as I see two figures before the water fountain. Only to see it was Suzie and the police officer Gwen Cooper dressed in the same clothes as her vision and what was happening before her eyes.

Gwen must have something triggered off in her brain for her to have remembered about Torchwood. I now see Suzie dropping her bag and gasping as she pulls a gun out at Gwen. Quickly, I dropped my bag and went running towards them.

"Suzie!" I shout, "What the fuck are you doing?!" I come to a complete stop beside Gwen, holding my hands out in surrender.

"But she's the only one who can link!" Suzie exclaims, yet she didn't know I had figured that out a long time ago, "Well, the only one in public. Torchwood will find out by morning, but I'll be gone. I don't know where. Far away. What am I going to do? I loved this job. I loved it. And now I've got to run. Oh, Christ. How can you do any other job after this one?"

"Please, put down the gun!" Gwen begs.

Gently taking hold of Gwen's wrist and pulling her behind me, "Suzie, don't do this, please. Just put the gun down, and let's go inside. We can talk about this."

Yet she only ignored my words, "It gets inside you. You do this job for long enough, and you end up thinking, how come we get all the Weevils and bollocks and shit? Is that what alien life is? Filth? But maybe there's better stuff out there, brilliant stuff, beautiful stuff. Just they don't come here! This planet's so dirty. That's all we get. The shit!"

"Suzie, no," I try reasoning with her, "This planet of ours, we can make it beautiful. We can fill it with hope again! It's just other planets haven't seen it yet."

"That's utter bullshit, Paige, and you know it!" she snapped at me.

"Suzie, please calm down. You don't have to do this!" I tried again to reason with her.

"What you're talking about?" Gwen cried from behind me.

Suzie went to glance at her, "I wish I could forget."

"What about killing those people?" I asked bitterly, taking the words right out of Gwen's mouth. I could see the shock on Suzie's face, wondering how I knew that.

"For the glove," she took another step closer towards us, and I moved us back a little.

"Just stay where you are," Gwen reasoned.

"I needed the bodies. That's how it works: violent death. And it was so easy. To bring them back, I'd position myself behind the head so they'd never see me twice."

"You killed three people," I voiced with disgust as Gwen nodded in agreement.

"It was the only way! The more I use the glove, the more I control it..."

"What glove?" Gwen demanded of Suzie and me, "I don't understand what glove?" before I gestured at us both, "Where have I seen you before?"

But Suzie is too focused on me, "If I can get enough practice, then think what the glove could do. If I could get it to work all the time, on anything beyond the two minutes... if it could work permanently, it could resurrect! Resurrection on demand for the whole world, isn't that good?"

"No, Suzie, it isn't," I shook my head in disagreement, "Because eventually everything withers and dies. We shouldn't have control over power like Suzie to decide who lives or dies."

"Well, that's what I've been working for," she explains, "All day and all night. The rest of them go swanning about, but I'm working. You've got to get inside this stuff. Surrender yourself to it. I did, with the knife and the glove, and that's why the perception filter isn't working on me."

She swiftly turned and fired the gun, Jack now visible to Gwen and me as he fell to the ground with a bullet hole through his head, both gasping in horror, "What? Who is he? Where did he come from? What have you done?"

Turning back at us with the gun again, if she had fired, it would have hit me as I stood protectively in front of Gwen. But remains with it aimed at us.

"Please don't," Gwen whimpers.

"I can't let you both go," Suzie steps over Jack's corpse, his eyes empty and lifeless, just as I remembered in my vision.

"Please!"

"I've got to."

Gwen was sobbing beside me, hands grabbing at her hair. I took a tentative step back and froze in horror as I saw Jack rising to his feet with the bullet hole still in his head. He pressed his finger to his lips for Gwen and me not to utter a word about his sudden resurrection.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I've got to. I've got to. I've got to."

"Put down the gun," Jack orders from behind Suzie, who turns to face him and gasps just as we all watch the bullet hole miraculously heal before our eyes. He holds out his hand, "Suzie, it's over. Now come with me."

She glanced between Jack, me and then Gwen, shaking her head. Without warning, Suzie placed the gun under her chin and pulled the trigger, a sudden spurt of blood shooting out from the back of her head before dropping dead onto the ground.

I heard Gwen gasp from beside me as she gazed back in shock whilst I stood frozen at what my eyes had just witnessed, the part of the vision of this moment I hadn't even seen. Suzie only killed those people for personal gain, to take Jack's life, but somehow he returned to life and survived. The only choice way out was to kill herself.

Mine and Jack's eyes returned to Gwen as she uttered, "I remember. I remember."

-Torchwood-

Later that evening, just as I stood in Jack's office, I had to note the stolen items being put into a safe. The first thing is the Resurrection Gauntlet sealed inside a secure box labelled 'do not use.' Next was Tosh and Owen placing the stolen alien tech on Jack's desk. They both left in a hurry, with Owen giving me a brief look of concern mixed with that of guilt on the way out because I knew how pissed off Jack was with them taking home things of alien origin.

The whole weight of everything that happened just folded in on me as I collapsed into Jack's chair.

"Hey, you okay?" my best friend silently asked with a frown.

"No, no, I'm not alright," I shook my head and began to cry, "To think Suzie was our friend, yet we didn't know her at all that she'd do anything like that. Only for her to hold Gwen and me at gunpoint..."

Ianto comes to crouch before me, resting a gentle hand upon my knee, "Paige she had become obsessed with the glove. So much that Suzie wasn't herself anymore, from what I can gather."

"That thing is dangerous, Yan," I sniffed, wiping the tears away from my face, thankful that I was wearing waterproof mascara, "It should have been locked away a long time ago before we even knew what it was capable of."

"Well," Ianto tells me, "At least Jack knows that now."

With another wipe away, more of my tears on my coat sleeve, "Right, well, I'm off home to have a long hot soak in the tub and a glass of wine. I think I've deserved it after today."

"Of course," Ianto nodded before he stood and offered his hand to help me stand up.

"Can you put that on hold for the moment," I heard Jack from behind us and turned to find him standing in the doorway, "I need you to come with me first, and Ianto, don't worry, I'll get her home. Safe."

"Certainly, sir," Ianto squeezed my hand and left the office.

"So, where are we going?" I asked.

Jack offers his arm for me to take, which I do as he leads me out of the Hub, "You, me and Gwen need to talk."

-Torchwood-

The sight before me was breathtaking as Jack and Gwen stood upon the shining copper roof of the Millennium Centre just as dawn was about to break, signalling the start of a new day as we gazed out at the city of Cardiff.

"Owen and Toshiko," Gwen was the first to speak up, "You didn't tell them that you were shot in the head and survived."

"But you and Paige never told them either," he implied, feeling him glancing in my direction briefly, "Follow my lead. Keep doing that, and you both might get through this."

"But Jack, she killed you right in front of us," I said with a frown as Gwen nodded in agreement from beside me, "You should be dead right now."

"The thing is that I can't die," he told us honestly, but I didn't know whether to believe him.

"Okay," Gwen uttered with a nod.

"But I can't," he tells us firmly, "Something happened to me a while back-long story and far away. But I was killed, and then I was brought back to life. And ever since then, I can't die."

"But how?" I asked, probably already knowing the answer that it would be about the Doctor, a man I had once caught a glimpse of during the Battle of Canary Wharf.

"I don't know. One day, I'll find a doctor, the right sort of doctor, and maybe he can explain it, but until then..."

"So let me get this straight: nothing can kill you?" Gwen asked.

"Well, it kind of freaks people out, so it best if either of you doesn't say anything," great, more secrets to keep, I thought internally, rolling my eyes.

"Why would it matter anyway?" Gwen scoffed, "You'll probably wipe my memory again anyway."

"Why would I do that?" I see her glance at Jack as he continues to speak, "Torchwood's got a vacancy. Job going spare. Do you want it?"

"But, what do you need me for?"

Jack let out a sigh, "Cos, maybe you were right. We could do more to help. What do you think? Do you want to join up?"

"Yeah," Gwen responded with a small smile before turning to look out across the city just as the pterodactyl flew over us, "I do, yes."

We all stood silently for a moment longer when Gwen asked, "So what happens now?"

"Now," Jack answers, "We go home and relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Come back Monday with fresh minds.

I feel him sling an arm around my shoulders as he leads me away from Gwen. Neither of us uttered a word as we walked along the length of the bay.

"Are you okay ?" Jack now asked with some concern.

"I don't know yet," I tell him, "But I will be eventually."

"Good."

"Look, Jack, I promise not to tell a soul to the others about you. Also, if you ever want to talk about it, I've been told I'm an excellent listener."

"Thanks, Paige, you're my number one PA, you know that," I blushed slightly at his compliment before he changed the subject, "So, was I interrupting you and Ianto earlier?"

"Huh?" I frowned at him.

"Well, you both looked pretty comfortable with each other," he teased with a grin.

"Oh, fuck off, Jack!" I playfully shoved him away before looping my arm through his as we strolled back towards the Hub and took me home.

Gif by belovass

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