[There are several things to be noted about this chapter. One is that the time scheme's been changed to fit in the trip to the clinic and another is that it's more of a separate story than that of Cyberwoman, however I wanted it to happen during this episode so there is some of the Cyberwoman story at the start.]

I can feel the night beginning.
Separate me from the living.
Lock the last open door,

my ghosts are gaining on me.

Evanescence – All That I'm Living For

Cyberwoman: Part 1

'Over 'ere, no not there! What are you doing? To me, no to me!'

Winter laughed as Owen danced around like the tooth fairy beneath her. She hung upside-down on a bar about three meters from the net, with the basket ball in her hand. Toshiko yelling at her to shoot, Jack yelling at her to drop it and Gwen trying to get in front of Owen.

She handed the ball to the monkey beside her and pulled herself into a standing position.

Jack yelled a quick, "be careful" as she balanced on the beam, took the ball from her friend and then sent it sailing through the hoop.

Owen sighed and retrieved the ball from below as Winter held her hands up. 'Alright guys, we're out. Have fun.'

She steadily made her way along the bar to the nearest pole, sliding down it only to be presented with a large coffee. Ianto Jones held it proudly out in front of him, a smile on his face. She reached out to take it but he pulled it back.

'One condition.'

She raised her eyebrows at this stipulation and crossed her arms. 'I'm listening.'

'You go out to the pub later. Have some fun. Every time they go out you stay with me. I think you should go with them today.'

She looked at him, suspicious. He fidgeted under her stare and she relented, taking the coffee before walking towards the others who were now getting ready to leave.

'If you needed some time alone Ianto, all you needed to do was say.'

She smiled sadly at him. 'You don't have to bribe me.'

He nodded and held his hand out. 'Shall I take it back then?'

She looked affronted and hugged the mug close to her chest. 'Oh! I don't think so Mr Jones! Mine now.'

She grinned and grabbed her black coat from Gwen's desk before heading over to the sofa. Ianto watched her go and then checked his watch. He had fifteen minutes, just enough time to order the Pizza.

TTT

Winter caught up with the rest of the team as the walked past the fountain, coming to stand on Gwen's side.

'He's never seen a live rugby match!'

'I have other things to do with my time.' Jack replied.

'What about Winter?' she turned to Winter with a smile, 'surely you want to get out of the hub a little more.'

Winter shrugged.

'You know, Rhys knows a bloke whose cousin works at the millennium stadium. We should all go to the next home international.' Gwen exclaimed.

Winter shook her head sullenly.

'Come on pass it here, pass it here!' Andy yelled to his friends as Winter watched in awe.

The rooftop rugby was something they had never missed since coming to Cardiff. The way all the older boys and girls leapt from surface to surface, whilst still passing the ball between them and watching out for the opposite team always amazed her.

Andy was doing really well as usual he was flying across the 'pitch' with the speed of a cheetah.

'Go Andy! GO!' she yelled.

He looked back over his shoulder to grin at her.

But then it all went wrong. He tripped over a ventilator, the ball went flying from his hands and there was a sickening crack as his body hit the floor. She stared in horror before springing up and racing over to him.

'Andy? Andy?' tears streamed from her eyes as he groaned and rolled onto his back.

His arm was at an odd angle and his face, screwed up in pain, was red from the effort of not crying out. The other players gathered around him, pushing her away from him and keeping her back.

'Fuck, that's broken,' someone said from inside the group, 'we should get him to a hospital.'

'No!' Andy's voice was shaky and strained. She fought against the group to try and get to him but what use was a petite kid against a bunch of burly teenage boys.

'Drew! Man! We have to get this checked out.' The same voice spoke, but Andy was adamant.

'No. no hospitals. Just strap it up. It'll heal.'

'You sure buddy it'll hurt like hell.'

'Yeah, just do it.' The other voice sounded a bit hesitant now and spoke quieter so she could barely hear.

'You er, you want something to take the edge off?'

She never heard the answer to this question but when the crowd finally parted and let her through he was being supported by a few of the guys and they walked them both home. Her to the warehouse down the ally and him to the house across the street.

'You lot can go if you want but I'm good.' Winter told them, urged on by the memory.

'But you can't live in Cardiff and not watch the rugby.'

'I do own a television Gwen.' Jack teased as they entered the pub.

Owen headed for the bar and sat down on one of the stools. 'You do? How come I've never seen it?'

Jack gave him an incredulous look. 'It's hard enough getting you to do work as it is.'

Everyone laughed as Jack called over the barman to order some drinks.

TTT

The drinks were all but finished as Jack rounded up the story of his ex-girlfriend and her tusk-ed lover. She couldn't help crack a smile at the look on Jack's face as he told the punch line.

Toshiko pulled her phone out as she laughed, 'UFO sighting over cardigan bay, seven calls to emergency services.'

Owen groaned. 'Can we at least finish our drinks please?' he asked as Jack grabbed his coat.

'Sure, take ten seconds,' Jack replied.

Winter pushed away her empty glass and hopped from her tall stool, only just missing Owen as he pushed past. Gwen and Toshiko met her outside and finally they were all ready to go.

They began walking back over to the hub entrance when Owen said, 'By the way, who was the last person to drive the SUV?'

Winter turned her head to look at him. 'Me. I gave Tosh a lift home yesterday.'

'Right well I move to ban Winter from driving the car.'

She glared over at him. 'Why the hell shouldn't I drive the car?'

'Cause when I got in this morning I had to re-arrange everything!'

'Oh so because you're a lazy git I can't drive?'

Toshiko moved to stand up for Winter, 'You are a bit tetchy about the SUV Owen.'

He looked at her like she had three heads. 'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Look, all I'm saying is once in a while I'd like to drive.'

'And all I'm saying is no,' then he added, 'To both of you.'

'Why not?' Tosh asked, her voice gaining a pitch.

'Look I've shared cars with Winter too long, I know what happens. There'll be an emergency, we're all raring to go, I jump in, what do I find? Seats in the wrong position, the rear view mirror's out of line and the steering wheels in my crotch. Time it takes to sort it all out, aliens will have taken Newport.'

Jack laughed loudly.

'What about a rota?' Gwen asked as they entered the room. 'Different people drive on different days?'

Winter was about to point out the flaw to that plan (It would still mean having to change the seat every day) when Jack butted in.

'We're a secret organisation hunting aliens from an underground base and you want a rota for who drives?' He pushed the button to let them all in and then exited the room leaving Gwen standing staring at nothing.

'Just trying to help,' she complained.

Winter patted her back and followed Jack down the corridor. As they got closer to the hub he began giving orders, 'Tosh call up the radar within a fifty mile radius of the bay for the last six hours. Gwen, check with that man, Neil I think his name was, voice like Sean Connery, at Jodrell Bank. See if they picked up any chatter around the time of the sightings. Owen, access the air space prevision over cardigan bay, also any RAF flight plans, see if it's just a case of mistaken identity. Nemo, my office please.'

She sighed and followed him through into the office, 'You alright?' she asked, letting him sit down in his chair before propping herself up on his table.

'I'm fine. You on the other hand, are not.'

She frowned, 'Me? I'm fine.'

He raised an eyebrow at her, daring her to continue and she shut her mouth. 'I don't like my team keeping secrets from me Nemo but you know what I hate even more?'

She shook her head worried that just maybe he'd caught on to her past. 'My friends, feeling they can't talk to me.'

She looked down at the ground between his feet. 'I'm asking this, not because I'm nosey. I know I've kept plenty of things a mystery to you but I think it's upsetting you, you barely said a word through drinks and, come on, not even a smile at my zombie rabbit story? I want to help. So, will you let me just ask...'

She couldn't look him in the eye, glancing at his well worn shoes she nodded. He took a breath and moved a little closer, trying to meet her eyes. 'Who is Andrew?'

Tears welling in her eyes she turned away, facing his desk. She fiddled with some papers and tried to come up with some answer but she knew she had blown it. She felt a hand on her arm but she pulled away and began walking to the door.

'Please, Nemo,' he begged. 'Give me a chance?'

She turned around and took a quick look at his eyes. This was it. He knew. She may as well get it over and done with. She headed over to the secure archives and span the lock to the small safe in the cupboard below it. Jack watched silently as she pulled out an envelope and a case file. He didn't even comment when she pushed everything to the very edges of his desk and sat in the centre.

She took the paper out of the envelope and looked at it for a few moments before holding it out to Jack. He made to take it but she had a sudden change of heart and snatched it back. He sighed her name exasperatedly. 'Nemo.'

'No, no wait. Follow me. I can't do this here and we need the transducer.'

He looked harshly at her. 'That was locked away for a reason, no looking into the future not even for you Nemo.'

'Not the future, the past. Please Jack just, see this out.'

He examined her and finally sighed, standing up and retrieving the transducer, splitting it into a half and putting one in his pocket. She grabbed the car keys and they made their way past the workstations.

'We'll be right back, need to check something out, call me if you find anything.' Jack shouted as he jogged out of the door after Winter.

TTT

Here she was again, standing outside the clinic thinking of the past. She'd been doing a lot of that lately. Why now? Why had she managed to go her whole two years at Torchwood without returning to this place and then suddenly found herself back her at least four times in the space of a few months. But this time was different, this time she had Jack with her.

He was obviously itching to know what on earth was going on but so far he had held his tongue. 'Do you think it will work with two?' she asked.

He took out the transducer and shrugged, 'I don't see why not.'

She nodded and they both grasped the bit of metal. As soon as her fingers touched it, it lit up and flashed at her. She took a deep breath and pressed. The familiar whooshing sound filled her ears and she opened her eyes to find herself standing next to Jack.

The street had, once again, changed. The old house was there, rather than the clinic. The buildings didn't look as lived in as they had. Surprisingly, however, it was totally empty. She looked around the road quickly, scanning it for her younger self or Andy but there was no one to be found. Great, trust the machine to cock up when she decided to show someone.

Suddenly there was a holler from the end of the road and the young girl of twelve with the flowing dark hair, came galloping down the street, her hand patting her mouth as she yelled, pigeon feathers in her hair and her t-shirt and trousers torn at the edges to make tassels.

Following her at a deliberately slower pace, feathers lashed together with shoelaces and bits of string and tied to his head to make a headdress and a bow and arrow made of broken sticks was Andy, now eighteen. He galloped over to where she had taken cover in the door way of the house behind Jack and Winter. They watched as he turned to the girl. 'You ok scrap?'

She glared at him and put her hands on her hips, still crouched.

'I mean, Susan?' he corrected.

She grinned and nodded, 'I'm fine Peter? Those goblins didn't even get close.'

'You think they've gone?' he asked.

'I donno what's the time?'

She tried to peek at his stolen watch but he pulled his arm back.

'No clocks in Narnia Susan, just the sun.'

She laughed and smacked his arm. 'That'd be great, but there is no sun.'

'Which tells us what time it is.'

She looked confused.

'It does?'

He nodded and reached out and tapping her nose. 'Bed time.'

She groaned in protest but he just laughed, 'Come on, get going Scrap, I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, yeah? Night.'

He began to walk to the house on the other side of the street but she followed.

'Can't I stay in the big house with you tonight?'

He whirled around and, for just a second, he looked almost dangerous. 'No! Absolutely not!'

'But…but…'

His face softened and he stood in front of her. 'It's dangerous in there scrap, I can't take you in, you know that.'

She nodded dejectedly and he kissed her forehead.

Winter and Jack watched as he gave the house a longing look and then seemed to shake his head viciously.

'Come on, I'll stay with you until you fall asleep.'

They walked right past Jack and Winter and faded into blackness.

The vision receded and Jack still didn't quite get it. Winter took the envelope and handed it to Jack who pulled out a photograph of the boy he had just seen. It was just a small photo in blurry fuzz like it had been taken on an old disposable camera but it clearly showed the young man, looking about seventeen and the girl maybe eleven, smiling at the camera, his arms around her neck.

Jack looked up at Winter then at the Photo. 'It's you,' he stated.

She nodded and took the photo back. Slipping it back into the protection of the envelope.

'Do you want me to guess' he asked.

She shook her head and then looked up at him. The weeks of sleepless nights catching up with her. 'He was my brother,' she said simply and sat on the ground at the curb and Jack joined her. 'When I was about four our mother left us. Our father just sat in his room and drank himself to death, you know that much. In the space of a month we lost both parents. Andrew was ten and he'd already spent his whole life looking after me. When dad died we were put into care for a while but they split us up. Andy hated it so he broke out and rescued me from the home I was in. From then on we were on our own.' She paused and slipped the picture into her inside jacket pocket.

'We lived sofa surfing and on the streets of London for five years. Just before my ninth birthday Andy got into a fight with a bunch of older kids. They were in a gang and they told him to get lost or they'd kill him. You have to understand, my brother was no coward but he had me. He was scared for me so we left. We put all the money we had into a coach all the way here. When we got here we had no clue what to do. We spent three days sleeping in doorways. Then we met a boy. He saw my brother and decided to take us back to the house behind us, the house were all the forgotten kids spent their time. I'm not saying it was nice, it was always cold or too hot, it was dirty and not exactly safe. It was frightening and dangerous but it was better than being outside and at least we had friends then, people to miss us if anything did happen. You know? Anyway, that's where we ended up and that's where I was still living when you found me.'

'But that's not the end of the story is it.' Jack spoke.

She could feel his eye boring into the side of her head. 'Living on the street is dangerous, like I said, but it's not just people you have to worry about.' She paused and shook her head. 'I was too young and naïve to realise what was going on when he started coming back to me shaky and strange. At first I thought he was sick, but after a while I just saw it as normal, weeks later he was living in the house across the street he wouldn't let me go in there, ever, so I was alone again.'

'He was an addict.'

'Yeah, I don't know where he got the money. Stole it, I guess. I don't know how he kept his habit so controlled but when I looked back on it, it's obvious. It didn't change him as a brother though. Sure, he wasn't always there in the mornings or at night when I went to sleep, but he tried. He loved me. Then…'

A breeze picked up the dust from the road and mixed with the petrol she suddenly flashed back to that night. She sprang to her feet and tried to walk away. Jack followed, taking her arm as gently as he could.

'And then…'

She looked up at him, at the transducer still in his hand. She pressed down on his thumb to push the button and watched as the world changed.

Two people were fighting outside the old house.

'What is it you're hiding from me!'

'You don't understand I'm trying to keep you safe.'

'I'm Seventeen! I can look after myself!'

'No you can't!' yelled an older Andrew, his hands flung out as he spoke and she bunched her fists up in fury.

'Why won't you let me in anymore? I'm your sister! You used to tell me everything! Don't you want me anymore?'

The broken question rang out across the street. He looked up at her and his anger disappeared.

'Oh scrap. I'll always want you. We're family. This is what real families do. They protect each other. Please. You have to understand that. I'm not shutting you out, I'm just…'

'Keeping me safe.' She finished.

He nodded and pulled her into his arms. 'I'll never leave you alone. Not like they did scrap. I'll always look after you.'

She nodded and he kissed her forehead.

As the vision receded Winter pressed down again without giving Jack a chance to speak. Jack and Winter could only watch as a flickering was seen in the house on the ground floor. The flickering grew larger and larger until they could hear the crackling from the fire even from where they stood.

Jack watched in horror as the younger Winter rushed out into the street panic all over her face, she looked up and down the street calling for help but no one came. He tried to reach out as she covered her face and ran full pelt into the house. His eyes scanned each window, trying to catch a glimpse of her and he looked pleadingly at Winter trying to remind himself that she was still here, by his side.

After what seemed an age several other kids appeared from the ally. 'Nemo! Nemo!' they began to yell.

Eventually two of them ran inside after her while the others either ran back inside or ran down the street for help. Finally the older kids appeared, dragging the young Winter out of the house. She was coated in ash and was racked with heavy coughs that kept her from speaking.

They held her back as she tried to fight them off and run back to the house, as she screamed through the agonising coughing at the thought of her brother trapped and burning in the inferno. The fire crew arrived finally and her fits of rage died down as the house was doused in water. Gazing up at the blackened husk of a building she dropped to the floor so heavily that Jack thought she'd passed out. The other kids began to dribble away at the sight of the authorities but she couldn't be moved. Eventually it was just her, staring up at the water soaked carcass. A member of the fire crew knelt in front of her but she just stared dejectedly around, like she was looking for someone.

Jack took a deep intake of air as she turned and seemed to stare right at him, with a haunted, empty look, so disarming, he dropped the transducer.

The vision faded completely and Jack looked from Winter to the clinic that was once the burning house. She handed him the file and picked up the transducer, slipping it into his pocket.

He flicked the file open to see that it was an incident report from the police system. 'Cause of fire: accidental… cigarette smoking after substance abuse'

'Someone dropped a cigarette onto some kind of alcohol. The whole house burnt down in about two hours.'

'I remember this,' he murmured, scanning the rest of the report. 'I saw it on the news.'

He looked over at Winter silently contemplating what to say next. He'd always known she'd had a hard life. It went without saying, considering where he'd found her, but he'd never thought that there would be something of this magnitude lurking in her past.

'Can we go back to the hub please?' she asked quietly. 'I want to be home.'

He nodded silently and took her hand leading her back to the SUV.

TTT

Back at the hub he pulled her back into his office.

'I need to say thank you,' he said. 'I know that wasn't easy to do, and I appreciate you opening up to me, and I want you to know that you have a family here that love you, and need you.'

Sudden warmth filled her heart and she nodded slowly swallowing. He could tell she was still worried about something. 'What?'

'Aren't you upset with me though?'

'Why would I be?'

'I didn't save anyone! There were other people I could have helped in that house but I was so intent on finding Andy. I never even thought about them. They had lives too and I just let them burn in that building. I killed them.'

He took her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. 'No, you didn't. If you were in a burning building and there were other people screaming around me, I'd be heading straight for you too. You don't think logically when you're in a situation like that, especially when you're a teenager.'

She sniffed and he pulled her as close as possible, into a tight hug, 'That's what you were worried about? You thought I'd be angry you didn't save anyone?'

'Not angry, just, disappointed,' she murmured into his shoulder.

He smiled and pulled back, cupping her face and gently wiping the tears away before leaning down and kissing her soft and quick. 'I'll never be disappointed with you,' he said. 'Angry, sure, but disappointed?' He shook his head and she smiled slightly in response.

A warm pressure on her arm told her that Pip had decided to join in the affection. However, instead of climbing onto her shoulder he tried to pull her to the door. Jack nodded to the monkey. 'Go on, see what he wants.'

TTT

Peregrine led her down to the practice room and grabbed her sword from the wall. She sighed and shook her head.

'No pip, I'm not in the mood for practice right now.'

She turned away but he let out an angry yelp. She turned back to see her favourite quiver of arrows and her lightweight bow had joined the sword on the floor and now he was pulling more weaponry down.

'Pip! Stop it, I'm going to have to clear all of this up.'

She walked over to him and bent down to start packing away but he landed softly in front of her and pushed things towards her. She sighed and scratched his head. 'What's going on Pip? Is something wrong?'

He bounced up and down chattering loudly. She raised an eyebrow and glanced around the room.

'Something dangerous?' she asked and he continued to bounce in response.

Winter had forged a great bond with Pip over the time they'd spent together and in all of that time she knew him mainly to laze about the Hub so she wasn't hesitant to believe he thought something very bad was going on.

Looking down at the assortment of weapons he'd thrown on the floor she took a small quiver and slipped it onto her back and slid the sword and scabbard onto her belt. 'If the others laugh at me for no good reason then you're on your own for tarantulas for the next month,' she warned.

Peregrine ignored her and took perch on her shoulder, hanging onto the leather strap of the quiver as they returned to the hub.

[Review please :)]