Hi, so here is the third and final chapter for Small Worlds. I also just wanted to say a quick thank you to those who have stuck around and are still following the story, those who have reviewed and favourited it really means a lot. I've been a reader for years and despite trying my hand at writing my own a long time ago I only recently got the itch to try again and I'm grateful to those giving my stories a chance. It's Christmas in 9 days so if I don't get anything up before then Merry Christmas to you all. As always I welcome your feedback, so feel free to drop me a review or a message letting me know your thoughts.

Thanks!

Chapter 18

Small Worlds Part 3

Jack headed straight for his office as soon as they arrived back, stopping only briefly so he could tell his team to head home for the evening. Rose bid the others good night and after assuring them she would make sure Jack was ok she made her way to his office.

She walked inside to find him sat behind his desk with a glass of scotch in his hand, there was another glass waiting for her and she gave him a small smile as she took a seat in front of his desk.

"How did you and Estelle meet?" She asked, picking up her glass and taking a sip.

"In London at the Astoria ballroom, it was a few weeks before Christmas, seventeen years old and she was beautiful." Jack recalled their first meeting with a smile.

"It was love at first sight, but nothing lasted back then, promises were always being broken." He continued, his smile faltering as the memory of his loves final moments replayed in his mind.

"Estelle, to have to die like that." He emptied the remainder of his glass and set it down with a shaky hand.

Rose knew there was nothing she could say or do to change how Jack was currently feeling, so instead tried to shift his focus back onto their current case.

"The petals we found in Goodson's mouth, you said you'd seen them before, was that back in the war?" She asked.

Jack shook his head.

"It was nineteen o'nine, I was on a troop train with fifteen men, with me in charge. Everyone was happy, too happy, too noisy." He started before pausing for a moment.

"Then we hit a tunnel, we thought some birds had flown in through an open window, then came the silence." He continued.

"And when we came out of the tunnel all fifteen men were dead, they'd been suffocated, men I was responsible for." He finished, shaking his head as he tried to shake away the images filling his mind.

"But why were they killed?" She asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"About a week earlier, some of them got drunk and drove a truck through a village, ran over a child and killed her, the child was a chosen one." He explained.

She let out a long breath as he finished the story, downing the rest of her drink she leaned back in her seat and tried to process what it was they were dealing with.

They had sat in relative silence for a while, Jack trying to come to terms with what had happened and Rose unsure of what she should say if anything. It had been a hell of a day and she was starting to think about turning in for the night when Jack received a phone call from a frantic Gwen, she hadn't given him a lot of details but told him he needed to get to her place as soon as he could. Sleep would have to wait, she thought with a sigh and grabbed her jacket before they set off for Gwen's place.

Gwen let them both in when they arrived, they followed her inside and were shocked to find her place looked as though it had been ransacked. She had already started clearing some of the mess away but there were still objects scattered around the place as well as leaves and twigs littering the floor.

"They know where I live, these creatures can invade my life whenever they feel like it and I am scared Jack!" She exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief as she tried to keep her emotions in check.

"You said these creatures protect their own, the chosen ones, what are they?" Rose asked him.

She couldn't imagine how Gwen must be feeling, these creatures had killed Estelle for simply getting too close and now they were targeting members of their team. They needed to find a way to stop these things before anyone else got killed.

"All these so called fairies were children once from different moments in time, going back millennia, part of the lost lands." He explained, picking up the pieces of stone left behind and examining them.

"What lost lands?" Gwen chimed in, she was scared and confused and his cryptic answers were beginning to frustrate her.

"The lands that belong to them." He continued, turning to face her.

"Well, what do they want?" She asked.

"What's theirs, the next chosen one." He stated simply.

Jack and Rose stuck around for a short while, helping Gwen clean up the mess and putting things that weren't broken back in their respective places. They decided to take their leave before Rhys arrived home and bid Gwen goodnight, telling her they'd see her in the morning.

"Rose?" Gwen called out and Rose stopped in the doorway, turning back with a questioning glance.

"Can I have a quick word? Before you go." She asked.

Rose nodded and looked to Jack who offered them both a smile.

"Take your time, I'll be outside." He told her before heading out.

"What's up?" Rose asked, stepping back into the room.

"About earlier." Gwen began and Rose sighed, it had been a long day and she really wasn't in the mood for another argument.

Gwen had openly dismissed the existence of these creatures and she knew that was why they had targeted her, she was also feeling bad about the argument it had caused between herself and Rose.

"I wanted to apologise." She continued much to Rose's surprise.

Rose had always hated confrontation, especially with people she cared about. She would be lying to herself if she said she didn't feel like most of what she had said was justified given how Gwen had been acting but despite that she also felt guilty that it had turned into an argument in the first place and was glad that it seemed she felt the same way.

"I'm sorry too." Rose replied and was relieved when Gwen offered her a smile.

She ventured further into the room and the two women shared a hug, they may not always see eye to eye but as well as being colleagues they were friends and Rose was glad to have someone like Gwen in her life.

"Call us if anything else happens ok?" She told her as they parted and Gwen nodded.

"Night Gwen." She said with a smile before heading out to find Jack.

He was waiting in the suv for her when she got outside, she got into the passenger side and he gave her a curious glance as she buckled her seatbelt.

"Everything ok?" He asked.

"Everything's fine." She told him with a smile and he nodded, starting up the vehicle before setting off back to the hub.

Everyone was in bright and early the next morning and it was all a go, Tosh was monitoring the weather patterns as Jack and Rose walked into the conference room.

"I want a check on all unexplained deaths in the area." He told her and she nodded.

"Whats the weather forecast for today?" Tosh asked, not looking up from her laptop.

"Long sunny spells." Ianto chimed in.

"It's happening again." She said, pinpointing the location of a sudden weather surge and projecting it onto the monitor for them all to see.

"Lets go!" Jack told them.

"I don't understand, it's just going crazy." She said trying to find out more information behind the sudden surge.

"Just leave it." He called over his shoulder as he left the conference room.

Tosh made a note of the address before heading out after him. Everyone bar Ianto filed out and headed for the suv, the location was a primary school which luckily wasn't that far away.

They arrived at the school as parents were leaving with their children. Jack, Owen and Tosh all headed inside whilst Gwen and Rose wondered over to the playground where the staff were clearing up the mess left behind by the sudden wind storm. Large branches littered the ground and they could only hope no one had been seriously injured. The teachers disappeared from view with their rubbish bags and the two women looked around in case the creatures had decided to stick around in order to see the destruction they had caused.

Rose heard what sounded like giggling coming from a tree that loomed over the playground, looking up to see if it was just her mind playing tricks on her she was shocked to find several pairs of eyes staring back at her. She took a step back and reached out to try and catch Gwen's attention, these creatures were like nothing she had seen before and she wasn't about to stick around to find out what else they were capable of.

"Run." Rose told her, turning away from the creatures and grabbing her arm.

Gwen looked up in time to see the creatures dispersing from the tree, stumbling back in shock she turned and they both took off in search of the others, not daring to look back to see if they had given chase.

They ran inside and were relieved to see the others at the end of the corridor, making their way over they didn't stop until they reached Jack who looked at them in concern.

"What is it?" He asked them.

"We saw them Jack." Rose told him quietly.

They fell into step with the others as they continued to ask the teacher questions, it appeared that the creatures had been targeting two young girls this time. She explained to them how as all of this was going on there was another girl supposedly standing in the thick of it, though unlike the other two it appeared as though she was being protected from the effects of the sudden weather change. The woman told them her name was Jasmine.

"Who is Jasmine?" Jack asked her.

"Jasmine Pierce, she's one of my pupils." She explained.

"Where's Jasmine now?" Rose asked.

"We're sending all the children home, we have to." She told them.

"Thanks for you time." Jack said and she nodded before walking away.

"The chosen one." Gwen voiced her thought aloud and he nodded.

"Lets go." Jack told his team.

The suv came to an abrupt stop outside Jasmine's home, screams could be heard coming from the backyard of the property as they quickly got out and rushed round. They pushed their way through the frantic crowd and were met with what looked to be half a dozen or so of the so called fairies. One of the creatures pounced on a man standing in the middle of the garden and knocked him to the ground as they tried to usher the remaining people out.

Another creature advanced on Jack as he tried to look for an opening to help the man, thinking quickly Rose pushed him and they both fell, knocking the 'fairy' off of him too. As quick as it had all began, it stopped. The creatures disappeared back in the direction they had come from, leaving another body in their wake.

Jack got up and took off after the creatures, Rose followed and Gwen wasn't far behind. They ducked through a hole in the fence at the bottom of the garden and followed the path which led them to a wooded area where they found the little girl from before, the chosen one.

"Do you know you're walking in the forest?" Jasmine called out to them as they approached.

"Well you are, it's a very old forest and it's magical, and I want to stay in it." She continued.

"The forest doesn't exist Jasmine, your friends are playing tricks on you, the real forest can never come back." Jack explained, taking a step towards the young girl.

"Oh it can, when they take me to it." She told him, as if it was the most simple thing.

"What about your mother, don't you want to stay with her?" Rose asked her and she shook her head.

The creatures appeared suddenly in the trees above and Rose took a step back. Jack grabbed the girl and pulled her away from the creatures looming above.

"Leave her alone, find another chosen one." Jack ordered them.

"Too late, the child belongs with us." Came a wispy voice from above.

"She belongs here." He argued.

"No, she lives forever." They continued.

"Suppose we make her stay?" Rose asked them.

"Then lots more people will die." Jasmine explained.

"Did they tell you that?" Gwen chimed in.

"They promised, next time they'll kill everyone at my school, like they killed Roy, and that man, and your friend." She told them.

"How do you know these things?" Gwen asked her.

"If they want to they can make great storms, wild seas, turn the world to ice, kill every living thing, now let me go!" She shouted, fighting against the grip Jack had on her.

After seeing the aftermath of what these creatures were capable of, the bodies they left in their wake without a care, Rose didn't for a second doubt the threats Jasmine was warning them of if they decided to make her stay with them. She looked at Jack and met his eye, she could see the pain and fear that she was sure was mirrored on her own face as they both came to the same conclusion on what they had to do.

"She won't be harmed?" Rose called out to the creatures and Gwen instantly turned to her in shock.

"You can't." She started but Jack cut her off.

"Answer the question, she won't be harmed?" Jack asked next, ignoring the look Gwen was giving them both.

"We told you, she lives forever." The creatures told them.

Jack and Rose shared another look, it was by no means an easy decision to make but at the cost of the planet sometimes sacrifices had to be made. He looked to her as though wanting vindication for the choice he was about to make, a choice he had to make. She gave him a nod and he released the child, taking a step back.

"Take her." He told them.

Gwen rushed forward to stop the girl and Jack grabbed her arm, holding her close as she struggled against him.

"You asked me what chance we have against them for the sake of the world, this is our only chance." He told her, his voice full of emotion as he let her go and she stepped away.

Rose came to stand beside Jack as they watched Jasmine wonder further into the wooded area, she turned to them with a smile.

"Thank you." She told them before skipping away with the others and disappearing in a burst of white light.

The others arrived with Jasmine's mum in tow, she arrived in time to see her daughter disappear and ran over to the area where she once was. They could only watch as she screamed frantically for her daughter, she had just watched her husband die and now her daughter was gone too.

She turned on Jack suddenly, attempting to hurt the man who had allowed her daughter to leave but quickly breaking down once more. Jack held the woman as she cried for both her husband and her daughter.

Rose had tears streaming down her own cheeks, it hadn't been an easy decision to make and if there had been an other way she would never have allowed the fairies to take Jasmine. The others didn't understand but they would, the reasons behind their decision would never matter to Jasmine's mum, they had taken her daughter away from her and she now had no one left.

They had managed to get Jasmine's mum back to her house where thankfully some of the party goers were still around so she would not be alone, there was nothing they could say or do to make them truly understand not only what had happened but why it happened so they could only leave the woman to grieve for the two losses she had suffered that day. Since they had left the woods, none of the others had said a word to Jack or Rose. As they headed back out to the suv, he stopped to address them and they all simply walked by.

"What else were we supposed to do?" He questioned which earned him nothing but silence.

Rose sighed as she heard the doors slam behind them, they knew them well enough to know they wouldn't have made such a decision if the consequences weren't so dire. They just had to make them understand.

"Lets go." She told him, grasping his hand for only a moment and giving it a squeeze in a gesture to show him that no matter what happened she would always have his back.