FIC: Torchwood: To Be Fair

[fajrdrako_fic]

Title: To Be Fair
Author: fajrdrako
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Gwen
Genre: post-ep scene
Rating: G
Dislaimer: I own neither Jack nor Gwen nor mysterious underground alien research stations in Wales. BBC and Russell T. Davies have the rights and the credit.
Note: Spoilers for Day One and Cyberwoman. Crossposted to torch_wood and torchwood_fic.

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To Be Fair

Gwen perched on the side of Jack's desk, looking at the severed hand in its jar. She knew better than to try to touch it, but her obvious attention to it would annoy Jack as much as it needed to. She heard him approach behind her, and braced herself.

He must have been in a good mood, because he only said, "Interesting?"

"Very. Tosh and Owen say you won't let them examine it. It may be the best bit of alien we have, and you won't let us use it or even look at it."

He sat at his desk, leaning back. You might have thought he was relaxed. "Forget it, Gwen. This thing is meaningless."

"Except to you?"

"Exactly."

"I've seen the fingers move."

"Trick of the light. Refraction."

"I saw it when you were holding it upstairs, when the jar broke. It was in the open air."

"And you think that means something?"

"I think it's not just any old severed hand. I was trying to see if it would move again."

"You thought it might wave at you? Did it?"

"No."

"How exciting for you. I hope you didn't waste many hours on the project."

She ignored the sarcasm. "It's the only thing you really value. Who did it belong to? It isn't an alien, is it? Male – human, though Tosh says there are cellular abnormalities – then you stopped her scanning it. Was it someone you loved? Did an alien disintegrate him, leaving just his hand? Is that why you decided to become an alien-hunter? Who was he, Jack? Your father? No, it's too young. Brother? Friend?"

Jack's smile was unfriendly this time, and his eyes were cold, though his voice did not sound angry. "Gwen? You are wrong on every fucking count. Stop fishing. Drop the subject."

She was triumphant. "Ah-hah! So he was your lover, then."

The answer this time was one of those patented Captain Jack silences. She waited a bit - a primary rule of interrogation, let the subject speak first - but Jack said nothing. In fact, he seemed to have forgotten she was there. To get his attention back, she said, "You loved him and they killed him, and you couldn't bear it. How does that make you any different from Ianto?"

This time, he looked at her. "Pardon?"

"You tore a strip off Ianto, you almost killed him, for keeping what was left of his lover in our storage room. How is that different from this?"

"The hand has nothing to do with Cybermen."

"For the sake of the woman he loved, Ianto took terrible risks. Two people died - the doctor and the delivery girl. For the sake of that hand, you let the sex alien go free. How many people died then? Carys' boyfriend, the men in the clinic - five people, six? I'd say your head count is higher than Ianto's by a factor of three. He thought he could restore Lisa to life. What's your excuse?"

He simply looked at her, silent. In those unreadable eyes she thought she could see something beyond the darkness. She couldn't tell what.

Jack said, "This hand poses no danger to the world. Lisa might have unleashed a holocaust without survivors."

"We stopped her. The same way we stopped the sex alien. It's what we do. All I'm saying is: go easy on Ianto."

His expression warmed to amusement. "I'll think about it."

"He acted human," said Gwen. "Like you do, when you forget to be otherwise. Jack - he was a victim of the Cybermen too, just like Lisa was. You're angry because he lied to you, but this is about him, not about you. He's our friend. He's in pain. Help him."

He actually smiled at that. "Gwen the peacemaker. Gwen the diplomat."

"So?"

He waved at the door. "Go do some work. And leave my severed hand alone."

- end -