Just Imagine...

I Think You Broke My Heart (Again)

"Hey Jacksie!" Sam called as the cog wheel door rolled aside for her, "I got the chocolates you wanted! Whaddya need these for anyway, ya tryina woo Ianto or somethin'?"
There was no response. Sam looked around the dark hub, confused.
"Jacksie?" She called again. Still no answer. Sam sighed. "You better not have run off to have sex somewhere." She muttered to herself, tossing the red heart-shaped box of chocolates on her desk. Maybe she'd take them home for her and Jay's kids - they deserved a treat. But while she was here, she might as well get some work done, drawing autonomical sketches of aliens for the files in the archives. That wasn't really her job, though. Besides providing occasional doodles, Sam didn't have much desk work at all. She was the brawn. The fighter.
Just as Sam was pulling out her chair to sit down, she heard a wet sniff from across the hub. She turned towards the direction of the noise.
"Hello?" She asked, "who's there?"
The only reply she got was a few muffled sobs.
Now concerned, Sam carefully made her way across the hub - the sound was coming from the ratty old couch Jack insisted on keeping despite it smelling of mildew and dust and probably being at least fifty years old.
Sam almost didn't recognize who she was looking at when she saw the person on the couch - firstly because they were covering their face, but secondly because she'd never seen them crying before. Not like this at least.
"Owen?" Sam said quietly.
"Just go away Sam," Owen sniffled, shaking so hard from sobs he could hardly get the words out, "leave me alone."
Sam stared at him for a moment, then noticed the white scarf around Owen's neck.
"Isn't that Diane's scarf?" She asked, not realizing what mentioning Diane would do.
"I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!" Owen snapped, finally looking up at her. Sam took a step back in surprise when she saw how red Owen's eyes were and the amount of tears that were leaking from them.
"Hey, whoa," Sam murmured, putting her hands up, "what's going on with you?"
"Nothing," Owen muttered, covering his face again - this time with Diane's scarf, "like you care."
Sam winced, stung, but realizing he wasn't exactly stepping out of line by saying that.
"Listen..." she began, gripping her arm awkwardly as she shuffled closer to Owen, "I... I do care, Owen. I know I don't usually make it seem like I do, but I'm working on that..."
She looked down at Owen, and she could see he was trying as hard as he could to hold his tears back.
"And... I'm sorry," she added, "for everything-"
Sam barely got the words out of her mouth before Owen collided with her, clinging to her like a terrified baby koala and crying, loudly.
"SHE LEFT ME, SAM!" Owen wailed into her shoulder, "SHE LEFT ME!!"
"Oh, she...?" Sam began, frantically trying to piece everything together, "left... oh, she left- OH!" She pulled a face, "not like, broke up with you, like physically left? Or... both, I guess?"
Owen sniffed and made a humming sound that Sam took to mean "yes".
"Where did she go?" Sam pressed.
"She took her plane and flew back into the Rift." Owen croaked.
Sam refrained from saying aloud how stupid that sounded and instead gently put her arms around Owen, lightly patting his back.
"Aww," she cooed, "there there buddy, it'll be okay."
"I loved her, Sam." Owen whimpered.
"I know, it sucks to get your heart broken. I get it, man. But hey, if you want me to, I can... lend my knowledge on the subject? Cuz I was a pathetic loser in high school, people dumped me all the time."
"This isn't the first time I've been dumped."
"Yeah?"
"I just don't know why... it hurts so much."
"Because you thought it was real this time? Not just a game?"
Sam put her hands on Owen's shoulders and leaned back as she said it, one eyebrow raised sympathetically. Owen nodded, wiping his nose on his sleeve with a long sniff.
"Y'know, you and I might actually be a lot alike." Sam chuckled.
"Now I'm even more miserable!" Owen exclaimed, burying his face in Sam's shirt again.
"Hey, c'mon now," Sam said, leaning him back again, "I'm not that bad, am I?"
Owen sighed.
"No." He mumbled, staring at the floor. Sam was grinning when he looked up, and her green eyes were sparkling. "What's that face for?" He asked.
"I KNEW YOU LIKED ME!" Sam declared triumphantly.
"Of course I like you, you twat." Owen muttered. He bit his lip, feeling his eyes welling with tears again. "Hey, can I tell you something else?"
"Sure." Sam murmured slowly.
"I've had a girlfriend die before."
"You don't know that Diane is- wait, hold up-"
"I was a few years into medical school," Owen began shakily, suddenly losing the ability to stop his story from gushing out of him like a waterfall, "I had a flat with a girl named Katie. We were planning to get married when we were older, but we didn't have the money then. We were also saving up for Katie's surgery as well. But then... something changed in her. I thought it was the estrogen she was taking but it just kept getting worse and worse so we went to the hospital and she... she had a brain tumour - or something, the doctors said it was a tumour. Whatever it was, it was was getting bigger at an alarming rate. Katie started to forget things, at one point she couldn't even remember my name. We'd been together at least three years by then, and... I decided to use the money we'd saved for Katie's transition for an operation on her brain. It would take longer for her to get gender affirming surgeries, but at least she'd be alive. But then... during the operation... something happened. Everything went quiet inside the operating room until there was this sound and I went inside and... everyone was dead. The doctors, the nurses... Katie. And she had this thing coming out of her head, like a tentacle, and there was this horrible smell, and then he was there."
"Um... w-who?" Sam asked.
"Jack," Owen sniffed, leaning into Sam again as if he couldn't bear his own weight any longer, "Jack Bloody Harkness. He showed up right at the worst moment, and I guess I was a Torchwood agent from that moment on."
"Oh, Owen..." Sam murmured, and Owen could hear how heartbroken she was just by her voice, "I had no idea... and I wish I could say I understand or just do something to make it better or- mmfff!" She was cut off by Owen roughly covering her mouth with one hand, his other arm wrapping tightly around her.
"Don't." He said. "This is fine."
Sam smiled, gently prying Owen's hand off her face and giving him a squeeze that lifted him off the ground.
"Okay." She said softly.
Owen sighed, then slowly put his legs around her waist as well. He hated being this vulnerable but he didn't want her to put him down just yet, her embrace was so strong and warm and... comforting. Maybe this was why Jack liked spending so much time with her.
If Owen had been able to see Sam's face in that moment he probably would've rolled his eyes at the way she beamed from ear to ear and started to choke up, absolutely elated by the fact that Owen trusted her to be around him when he was like this.
Could they be friends now? Was Sam finally starting to make up for how awful she'd been in the beginning? She really hoped so.
Across the hub, the cog wheel door rolled open and Jack and Ianto came in, laughing quietly to each other. They stopped when they noticed Sam and Owen.
"Uhh... is everything okay?" Jack asked worriedly.
Owen quickly let go of Sam, dropping roughly to the floor and frantically wiping his tears away before Jack and Ianto saw. He didn't notice the disappointed look on Sam's face, or more tried to ignore it.
"Fine." He muttered, avoiding eye contact.
"You sure?" Jack pressed.
Owen was about to snap at him but Sam's hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"It's okay, Jacksie," she murmured, "I've got this one. Trust me."
Jack smiled.
"Always do." He replied, and the look that came over Sam's face could've brightened even the darkest night.
"Uhh... should we get to that meeting, then?" Ianto asked awkwardly.
"Oh knock it off," Sam scoffed before Jack could answer, "we know you two are going on a date, don't try to hide it."
Jack and Ianto both blushed as Owen laughed - quite loudly, actually. Sam realized she'd never heard a genuine laugh from Owen before, but hearing it for the first time was wonderful, she couldn't help but grin a little wider.
"Uh, right..." Jack murmured, "I was coming to pick up the-"
"Chocolates?" Sam cut him off, then shrugged innocently, "sorry kiddo, didn't have time to get those."
"That's okay," Ianto said quickly, "we can buy some while we're out."
"Yeah, okay..." Jack grumbled.
"Have fun, you two!" Sam called, waving as he and Ianto left, "and remember to use condoms!"
Owen burst out laughing at that, and laughed harder when the angry Welsh cursing from Ianto was cut off by the cog wheel door rolling shut. Sam was chuckling too, wiping her eyes.
"Why'd you lie to them?" Owen asked when he had his breath back, flopping on the couch again, "you said you had the chocolates when you came in here."
"Yeah, but I figured you needed them more than they did," Sam murmured, darting over to her desk and returning with the box she'd left there earlier, "for comfort, I guess?"
Owen rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.
"Thank you." He said softly, taking the box from her hands.
Sam sat down next to him on the couch, ignoring the way it creaked alarmingly under her weight.
"No problem, pal." She murmured.