Just Imagine...

Put a Ring on it

Sam, Tosh, Owen, and Ianto were having lunch when Gwen burst into the hub with a wild excitement bordering on insanity on her face.
"GUYS!" She exclaimed, "sorry I'm late! But I found a RING in Rhys's sock drawer last night!"
Sam paused in chewing her apple and gave the others a concerned glance from her position sitting on the table.
"What in the name of Athra would leave a ring around his sock drawer??" She demanded, a few flecks of chewed fruit spattering from her mouth.
"Sam, don't talk with your mouth full." Ianto grumbled, attempting to wipe her face only for her to swat his hand away and take a sip from her water bottle.
"Not that kind of ring," Gwen said, "I mean an ENGAGEMENT RING!!"
Sam promptly spat out her water, spluttering, and Ianto rolled his eyes in disgust. Tosh gasped loudly, hands over her mouth.
"Does that mean Rhys is going to propose to you?!" She squealed.
"YES!" Gwen shouted, running to hug her.
"Gwen, that's fantastic!" Sam murmured through violent coughs, wiping her dripping chin with her sleeve, "I'm so happy for you!"
She kept coughing as Owen joined Tosh at Gwen's side. He gently kissed Gwen's cheek.
"I'm glad for you, Gwen," he said softly, "Rhys is a lucky bloke."
"You could be too." Gwen said, casting the slightest sideways glance at Tosh, who's eyes widened as she frantically shook her head. Owen didn't seem to notice.
"Sam, are you quite alright?" Ianto demanded crossly as Sam continued to splutter and choke.
"I'm okay!" Sam gasped, thumping her chest, "piece o' apple just went down the wrong pipe!"
"The only problem is, I don't know how to react now!" Gwen worried, "do I tell him I know about the ring? Do I just pretend I don't know and act surprised when he proposes?? Should I steal the ring and propose to him myself first???"
"Gwennie, Gwennie, Gwennie," Sam said soothingly, finally regaining herself - albeit with a slight rasp in her voice, "just relax, okay? Rhys probably isn't worried about whether or not you know, he's worried about whether or not you'll say yes."
"Oh, fuck," Owen sighed, rolling his eyes, "here comes a speech."
"Lemme tell ya, when I proposed to Jay, I was so nervous," Sam went on, ignoring him, "my stomach was just full of butterflies. And Hanna. I wasn't even thinking about the possibility that he might've known before hand. In fact if anyone knew about me planning to propose it was his mothers..."
"Sam," Gwen began.
"Or at least Angelina. Maybe not Cecilia."
"Sam."
"I always wondered how she figured it out. Was it my face or something??"
"SAM!"
"Yeah?"
Gwen scratched her head sheepishly.
"Would you have been... upset if Jay had known?" She asked.
"Oh no," Sam murmured, "I mean, maybe a little bit at first. But all that mattered to me was that Jay said yes. If he'd known about the proposal we'd probably just laugh about it now. I can't speak for Rhys, but as long as you don't say no or anything, there's nothing you could really do to upset him. Not that I'm saying you're not allowed to say no, you can if you want to, but I'm assuming based on how excited you seem that you're gonna say yes..." she raised an eyebrow inquisitively, "are you gonna say yes?"
"Of course," Gwen replied, "Rhys means everything to me."
"And you deserve to be with him." Tosh said, smiling and lightly rubbing Gwen's shoulder.
"I just wish Jack was here for this..." Ianto murmured sadly, putting a slight damper on the mood.
Gwen saw Sam place her fist over her chest, gazing off into space over her shoulder and looking like she was trying not to cry. Then she turned back with a sad grin on her face.
"Hey," she said quietly, walking to Ianto's side and taking his hands in hers, "cheer up, buddy. You still have us. We're in this together. And when Jack comes home, we'll have so much good news to tell him, right?"
Ianto nodded with a tearful smile.
"Right." He agreed.
But underneath it all, none of them were thinking Jack would ever return.

The Rift didn't stop just because Jack was gone. In fact, it seemed to be even more erratic in his absence. It had quieted down long enough for the team to eat - for once - but as soon as Gwen had finished making her announcement, yet another alert came up.
This time it was in a more secluded stretch of water on the edge of the city, a rocky shoreline that wasn't highly populated this time of year. The tide was in, so the pebbly beach was completely underwater and small waves were splashing against the cliffs.
When Sam, Ianto, and Gwen arrived, they found a massive serpentine creature tangled in some old netting, thrashing violently in the shallow water. The creature had dark bluish brown skin, pale blue catlike eyes all down the length of its slimy body, a dark green triangular fin on the tip of its tail, and four-split jaws housing three purple-blue tongues and seven rows of dangerously sharp white teeth.
"Okay," Sam said as the three of them stood on the cliffside overlooking the beast, "I got this one."
"What?" Ianto demanded, but Sam already had a hunter's knife in her hand, decorated with blue gemstones and lace-like carvings along the blade.
"Sam, please-" Gwen began patiently.
"I'll be done before you can catch a Weevil!" Sam said over her shoulder, then vaulted off the cliff and into the water with a loud splash.
Ianto clenched his teeth anxiously and ran his hands through his hair. Gwen just sighed, shutting her eyes pinching the bridge of her nose.
She knew by now not to take Sam's determination to disobey her orders personally. She had learned that on their journey to Tibet; it wasn't that Sam didn't think she was worthy of listening to, she just had her own completely bonkers way of thinking and there wasn't really any way of stopping her. Might as well let her deal with this if she thought she could without getting herself killed.
The creature was hissing and thrashing in the water now, creating huge waves. Ianto's mouth dropped open and his eyes were wide with shock and concern, fingers clenching his hair so tightly Gwen was worried he'd give himself a bald spot.
"Relax, love," Gwen murmured, trying to sound reassuring, "I'm sure Sam knows what she's doing."
At that moment, Sam's head broke the surface and she grinned, giving them both a thumbs up before being yanked back underwater, presumably by the creature. Ianto's hands jumped to his mouth.
"Are you sure about that?!" He demanded.
A few minutes passed with just silence and bubbling from the water. Then, the creature's tail shot out of the water and in doing so flung Sam out as well. She landed back on top of the cliff with a thud and skidded along the sparse grass.
"YOU COULD SAY 'THANK YOU'!" Sam shouted at the water as the creature swam away, its long body dipping in and out of the waves. It let out a bellowing roar and Sam scowled - apparently it hadn't said 'thank you'.
"Sam!" Ianto exclaimed as he and Gwen rushed to help her to her feet, "my God, are you okay??"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam murmured, clearly lying as she winced and rubbed her right elbow.
"You realize we still have to catch that thing," Gwen said dryly, "and where's your knife?"
Sam patted her wet pockets, then groaned, rolling her eyes.
"I'll be right back." She muttered, jumping back into the water.