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Once she wouldn't have questioned sitting with him at the table, but now perching on the counter is as close as she can get.
"She loved Blackadder as a child. I always thought it was funny, because then she didn't know—the truth about me."
He gestures, one twirl of his hand, she guesses, supposed to encompass the enigma that he is.
"She's smart. She put it together eventually. Our resemblance, maybe. Or the way her mother cursed me. She was terrified that one day Melissa would get wrapped up in Torchwood. I understood, but I couldn't--." His voice breaks, and with it the wall around him. She slides too the floor, and rests a hand on his shoulder.
"I couldn't stay away."
"Of course you couldn't," she soothes. Her teeth clamp down on her lip when his steely eyes meet her gaze. He stands so quickly that she is left with her hand hovering in the air.
"I have to now, Gwen. I have to stay away."
The slam of the door brings Rhys to her side.
"I've been waiting for this," he grumbles.
"He'll be back. He'll be back." If she says it enough, it might be true.