Winnie Is Not Okay

2.2

There was one large pizza left when Jack and Gwen returned. After eating, the rest of the team had gone back to work. Suzie took up work with her gauntlet, Tosh and Owen got back to their respective computers and Winnie cleaned up the lab after not having done so when she had finished with the weevil's victim.

"Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper", Jack began introducing the team when she finished and he and Gwen returned from the cells. She saw that Ianto was now cleaning up the lounge area and walked over to him, helping him a little, but also sneaking the leftovers.

"Doctor Owen Harper, thank you", he corrected him.

"Toshiko Sato, computer genius", he nodded to Tosh, "Suzie Costello, second in command", he pointed over with a grin, "Doctor Winnie Tyler, the wise one, she stops us from being stupid", he gestured to the woman who gave Gwen a wave now, "And this is Ianto Jones. Ianto cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time."

"I try my best", Ianto smiled shyly.

"And he looks good in a suit", Jack smirked.

"Careful", Ianto warned him, "That's harassment, sir."

Winnie grinned at the interaction and rolled her eyes, knowing the two men have been quite fond of each other from day one. Especially Jack. But you never knew with Jack. He was like this with everyone. Though, he didn't tell Winnie about everyone during their 'dates' so Ianto was special.

"But why are you telling me their names? I'm not supposed to know, am I?", Gwen smiled, unsure, "This is classified, isn't it?"

"Way beyond classified", Jack smirked, walking towards his office and leaning in the doorway.

"Then you shouldn't be telling me", she looked scared, "What are you going to do to me?"

Jack looked at Winnie with a small amused smiled, "What do you imagine?"

"Well, I've seen too much", she began to ramble, "Your names and everything. And the weevil. And you can dump a man in the water and lie about his death."

"Right, I see what's happening", Winnie mentioned when Jack put on his coat so she quickly got her own, "I'm heading out before more tasks can be distributed."

She grinned and walked towards the main entrance to leave the hub before he could stop her. Jack breathed out a laugh, "Winnie, do please check the police files on John Tucker, though, by morning, all right?"

"Gotcha", she rolled her eyes with a smile and grabbed her laptop on her way out to do so at home and then left.

The way home was cold, windy and there was a slight drizzle now, but fortunately the walk home wasn't long. However, she did immediately rid herself of all her damp clothes when she got home and started a load of laundry. She closed all the curtains so she could continue running around naked and poured her first glass of red wine.

One could say she was an alcoholic. Because she was. There was a time where her alcohol consumption had been much lower. Before she was immortal there was the occasional party night, but that would have been it on her alcohol consumption. That hadn't changed at first.

The first few decades as an immortal her alcohol consumption had even gone down, mostly because it wasn't appropriate for a lady and there rarely were any occasions. After her husband had died she had started drinking more. And even through not drinking for decades, her body had an immense tolerance for it.

She rarely got drunk. Hangovers existed but they treated her a lot more kindly than they used to and never stuck around. Her liver healed itself like the rest of her body did. She'd had a short abstinent phase in the seventies but now she worked for Torchwood. Seven days of the week around Jack Harkness, weevils and, get this, Owen Harper. So, yeah, she had a little more alcohol.