Gwen knocked on Jack's door. She was fairly certain she was safe making sure both Owen and Ianto were in sight, and not inside, so there was less risk of getting her head bitten off. It’s not like it was her fault that Ianto picked up on her emotions so easily, but if the man so much as winced around her she had two snarling Sentinels at her throat.

Tosh had decided the over protectiveness was just another side effect of the device and she had even given it a name. HSS. Hysterical Sentinel Syndrome. Ianto had been delighted, immediately penning the phrase “HSSy fits” to describe such episodes.

"Come in Gwen!" Jack called.

"How'd you know it was me?" She asked, tapping the closed blinds.

"Super hearing?"

"Oh right...well that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I've been doing some research, and I got into contact with that Dr Sandburg-"

"Gwen!” Jack sounded appalled. “What did you tell him?"

"Nothing! I just told him, I'd read his paper, and I'm writing a novel, and thought Sentinels would be interesting to write into my fictional universe. He just thinks I’m pumping him for a few details, for a book."

"Oh. That’s different.” Jack gave her a flirty grin. “Is it a romance?”

To her credit, Gwen only blushed slightly before bulldozing over Jack’s question.

"He had a few suggestions. Like mediation. It can help both Guides and Sentinels to deal with the stress, and better control their powers."

Jack made a face. "Meditation? As in candles, incense, crystals and chanting? Gwen I've seen a lot of weird things in my time, but come on..."

Gwen shrugged. "Hey he's the expert. That's just what he said. I took notes, and saved our emails to the hub mainframe so you can access them.” She frowned and continued, a little defensively. “I just was trying to help. I know all of this has been hard on you guys." Gwen handed over a folder.

"Gwen, look I'm sorry, this has all been pretty...weird. Who am I to judge mediation and crystals and stuff? Right? Thanks for getting this information for us. I'll show Owen and Ianto."

Gwen gave him a bright smile then left, closing the door behind her again.

Jack wrinkled his nose at the folder. Meditation? Okay yeah so he'd heard of it, it was still around even by his time. But sitting in a smoky room just...sitting there for hours, contemplating his navel? How could that help? The most it would do was piss Owen off. And crystals? Unless they were in a computer consul, he could care less. They certainly hadn't done Estelle any good. Jack sighed and flipped though the paperwork, seeing what else Gwen had found out.

---

"You're fucking kidding me." Owen groused from his spot beside Jack on the couch, though he was glaring at Ianto like it was somehow the younger man’s fault. Ianto just shrugged.

They were gathered in Jack’s office again, eating take out Chinese. Jack and Owen were still wearing the clothes they had worn during the day, but Ianto had shed his suit for a pair of pajama bottoms and an old shirt. Jack had ruled that after normal business hours his office became his house, and he had a very strict dress code that forbade suits.

"No, Gwen really talked to this Sandburg guy. And he told her meditation helps Sentinels." Jack said leaning back on the couch, stretching out and running a hand down Owen's back.

"That's crap!"

"Owen, come on. You're a doctor.” Ianto scolded lightly, twisting his chopstick through a pile of noodles.. “You know mediation is proven to help lower blood pressure, and help, or even cure, some stress related illnesses. And it's not like all this is exactly a stress free environment."

Owen made a face. "Okay fine, whatever. But what does that have to do with our stupid senses? How is sitting in a dark stinky room going to do anything but make us throw up, or zone out, or die?"

"Stop bring dramatic. You don't have to use incense. It's not mandatory. Some people just find that it helps them."

"How the bloody hell do you know anyway? You're certainly not meditating, or your blood pressure wouldn't be though the roof!"

"Tosh meditates. She's told me about it before. And...Uh, I took some classes with Lisa when I was trying to get her attention. It wasn't that horrible." Ianto gave them a small grin. "I didn't get much out of it... but at the time that wasn't really the point."

Owen smirked, and Jack looked as if was about to say something.

"So, I say we do it.” Ianto smoothly directed the conversation back to the original topic. "If nothing else it'll help with all our stress levels. Even get Gwen and Tosh in on it. Tosh might be willing to lead the meditations. We can do it first thing in the morning when everyone gets in. Don't give me those looks, we'll start small. 10 minutes sessions and see how it works."

Owen scoffed. “Then what? We progress to drum circles?”

Jack stepped in, though he privately thought Owen had a valid point. "Ok we'll try it. Talk to Tosh and set it up. We'll give it a couple days-"

"Weeks. Mediation can take time to fix problems."

Jack made a face. "Okay. We'll give it two weeks and see if it helps any."

Ianto nodded, smiling slightly, and Jack couldn’t help but grin. It was the smile the younger man gave when he had just gotten his way, which was more often than not lately.

"I'll speak to her in the morning then.” The Ianto said. “For now why don’t we concentrate on testing your senses? I’ve been working on some new tests.”

Jack laughed as Owen protested, letting the man fall against him with a theatrical groan. He didn’t know why Owen protested so much. Jack kind of liked the tests himself.