Challenge #2: Understand (Torchwood)
Author: Bitterfig Title: Protect and Betray Fandom: Torchwood Pairing: Gwen/Owen, Gwen/Rhys Word Count: 200 Rating: PG-13 Warning: Mentions of sex. Challenge #2: Understand
Protect and Betray
Gwen had always known there were frightening things out there. She’d been a policewoman, for God’s sake. She thought she’d seen the worst.
That was before she went to work for Torchwood.
Torchwood showed her there was so much more than she’d ever imagined—fairies, monsters and aliens. Horror and evil she’d never dreamed of. Humanity, and her sanity, had never felt so fragile.
She couldn’t tell Rhys about it. It wasn’t just that job was top secret. She honestly didn’t want him to know what was out there. She wanted him safe and comfortable in his ignorance, living in a bright bauble of light, untouched by the engulfing darkness.
She wanted to protect him yet at the same time she needed someone to talk to, someone who understood both the terror and exhilaration of being part of Torchwood.
Owen.
Who else could understand what she had been through?
Their first time was in an anonymous hotel room, a frenzied coupling born of shared horror and survival. A desperate effort to both forget and contain the darkness they had touched.
The life she had with Rhys had never been more precious to Gwen than that moment when she betrayed him.