s4_see | There, Wolf [12/13]

Title: There, Wolf
Rating: teen [language and sexual situations]
Characters: Gwen, Ianto, Jack, PC Andy, A Werewolf
Spoilers: post-Exit Wounds
Advisories: crossover with Being Human; also if you think about the werewolf thing a little too hard, um... yeah, but not on-screen
Disclaimer: I am apparently a very silly person at this hour

Summary: Torchwood has adopted a stray...

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She hadn't seen much of him since right after the birth, diplomatically making himself scarce to let the little family have its best chance of working out how they would be getting on with it all amongst themselves. (Rhys was the natural dad she'd always known he would be, maybe even enough so that someday he'd be able to explain to his child how it had come about that the forms had mysteriously got filled in with the middle name Remus...) The word from Ianto had been that Andy seemed to be managing the wolf well enough in her absence, pursuing some cryptic agenda of his own that usually saw him dragging in late the mornings after looking tired but contented. Gwen had her suspicions.

Here at the dark of the moon Andy could have passed for any other employee of any other firm in Cardiff, and no one had to know that the photos on Tosh's old workstation of a roly-poly infant and of a scruffy little pup with a ribbon round his neck weren't in the way of the usual idea of a boy and his dog. He wasn't exactly working though, spun round with his feet up on the low table talking to the vacant settee. Another Thursday morning at Torchwood. "Bloody 'experiment', her knickers were on my chair --"

He'd begun working on a beard since the last time he'd come to visit little Euan, or maybe more just gone feral the way ordinary men tended to without women about and got bored of shaving. Amusing to see that the werewolf couldn't exactly seem to manage it. And shocking that it revealed he was going grey around the muzzle already, stresses on the body that were literally un-natural showing their inescapable traces. What was a werewolf's lifespan, if it wasn't caught and burnt at the stake? "Is Jack about?" Gwen asked as Andy looked up at her curiously.

He nodded over his shoulder. "Shagging Ianto down the archives."

"Not been missing much then." Gwen hesitated. "I just came in to... We've decided, I'm not coming back to Torchwood. Not as a field agent, anyway. Wanted to talk over my... options, assuming I have any."

She'd been wrong, Andy's face could fall farther than it already had. "That'll be inconvenient, Jack was hoping you'd be back on in time to help train my replacements."

"Oh, Andy, you're not."

"Erm, yeah, I'm... I shouldn't have stayed in the city as long as I have, it's not fair to keep asking you to be my minders. Ianto's helped me to find a place with a bit of land around it, should be out of the way enough I won't have to worry so much about cars, or what the neighbours' dogs think of me. Gave notice last week."

Gwen did suppose that Torchwood's leaving package would be particularly generous for an agent who also counted as a specimen best kept bought off to stay out of trouble. "So, what, from Torchwood to... gentleman farmer?"

"Gentleman werewolf," he corrected with a raised finger. "Haven't decided whether keeping the sheep on would be practical or just cruel."

"Sounds a bit lonely."

Andy shrugged. "Village just down the lane a way."

He'd have everyone in town looking out for him against the dogcatchers within the year, Gwen didn't doubt. Andy had always been one to find himself a pack. "And you'll have plenty of space to have mates over to run about barking at the moon with. Or whatever it is you've been about lately," she added with a sly eyebrow.

Andy went a little pink. "We just get together to knock over bins, it's... It's complicated. As if your personal life makes any more sense," he added to the settee after a moment's pause. "You're only lucky Jack couldn't see any of that, none of us would ever be hearing the end of it."

Gwen had a sudden horrible thought. "Tell me Owen's not naked."

From Andy's put-upon look his decision to leave Torchwood had been more influenced by his situation than she might originally have guessed at. "Not now."

"...I'm going to go find Jack and Ianto now, it can hardly be worse. Don't you go biting all the pretty girls, you. Or the boys."

Andy managed a smile at this. "My best to Rhys and the cub. And remember I'll have space enough for him to run about once he's up on all fours --" He turned in his chair to look at the nearest monitors; "Oi, that was terrible! You and Owen deserve each other."

She was probably going to regret asking this as well, but Gwen couldn't help herself: "What... what did Tosh say?"

Now he was blushing in earnest. "'Cold nose, warm heart'."

Well, and wasn't that her Andy. He'd been too good for this place, really. Anyone could shout at the monsters. But what sort of quiet courage did it take to make peace with becoming one? "I'll come to see you. Every month. I'll come."