If I, Should stay
I would only be in your way
So I'll go, But I know
I'll think of you every step of the way.

Whitney Huston – I Will Always Love You

Small Worlds: Part 2

When Winter returned upstairs after sleeping, Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her to the garage. She got in the car and buckled up.

'Where are we going?' she asked, still slightly groggy.

'Gwen's place. It seems she's had a small break in.'

Winter suppressed a groan and just nodded, settling back for the rest of the journey.

Gwen's flat was a mess. There were leaves everywhere that she was attempting to get into bags. Her tables and chairs were pushed around the room and glass shards made a dangerous path along the carpet.

Gwen herself was a bit of a mess too. 'In all my working life I have never had to bring the bad times home with me. I have never had to feel threatened in my own home.' She stood up her hands on her hips. 'But not anymore, cause this means these creatures can invade my life whenever they feel like it and I am scared Jack. What chance did Estelle have, what chance do any of us have?'

She was too flustered for Winter to deem it safe to make a comment on the likeable colour scheme of the kitchen/living room, so she kept her mouth shut and just straightened a few pictures on the wall. 'You said these creatures protect their own.'

'Yeah.'

'You mentioned the chosen ones. What are they? How many are there? Tell me Jack!'

Winter leant against the wall examining a picture of Gwen and her boyfriend. Rhys, wasn't it? She found herself wondering what it must be like, to live this. To have a normal life.

'All these so called fairies were children once,' Jack told them, 'from different moments in time, going back millennia. Part of the lost lands.'

'Lost lands? What?'

The description wasn't enough for Gwen apparently and, to be honest, Winter didn't have a clue what he was saying either. She fidgeted with a set of car keys on the sideboard.

'The lands that belong to them.'

Seeing she wasn't going to get a straight answer, Winter asked a narrower question.

'What exactly do they want? Why are they here?'

'They want what's theirs. The next chosen one.'

Winter offered to stay and help Gwen clear up but she sighed and told her she was almost done.

Jack seemed in a dream as they re-entered the Hub so she headed straight for the sofa next to Owen who had his feet up on the coffee table.

'How's the room?' he asked.

Jack's door shut and Winter relaxed back against the soft material.

'Yeah it's good,' she replied. 'Thanks for the help.'

He grunted in reply and went back to the magazine which Winter realised was the one she had thrown at him weeks ago. She smirked and lent back, closing her eyes until she was needed.

TTT

'Conference room, everyone!' Jack called as Gwen entered the hub.

Owen had fallen asleep so Winter left him on the sofa and trooped upstairs to meet with Tosh and Ianto. She hung back in the shadows, trying desperately to stay away from Ianto. It was too hard to be around him and yet at the same time she yearned to see him smile at her again. 'I want a check on all unexplained deaths in the area,' Jack told Gwen as they entered the room.

'What's the weather forecast for today?' asked Toshiko from her seat at the table.

'Long sunny spells.'

Winter looked up at Ianto, he looked upset. Oh god! What had she done? And his shirt was creased. It was the same one from yesterday! He never wore the same shirt twice.

'It's happening again!' Tosh exclaimed as they watched the wind patterns change, 'I can't understand it's going crazy.'

'Just leave it let's go.'

Jack rushed from the room followed by Toshiko and Gwen. Winter tried to follow but she had to say something to Ianto. Anything.

'Thank you,' she said quietly, 'for what you did in my room. It's beautiful.'

He looked up and there was a hint of a smile on his face.

'Go on,' he said, 'Jack's waiting.'

She smiled and ran outside, sliding down a pole and heading into the garage to join the rest of the team. Owen, awake and doing up his seatbelt, budged over so she could slip inside.

The SUV pulled up at the school and Winter tailed Jack inside. Gwen split off from the group looking around at the children. They met up with the teacher inside.

'Can you tell us what happened?' Toshiko asked as kindly as she could.

She led them down the corridors and Winter glanced around. She had no memories of a place like this. Having the little time she had spent in school had been generally confined to a single classroom by herself as the adult tried to catch her up with things other children her age already knew. The only academic thing Winter was ever good at was reading. Now, it was fascinating to watch all the children running around together and interacting, the pictures up on the walls, the classrooms with lessons still written on the boards.

'I've never seen anything like it, it was so sudden, and then it, then it just ended,' The teacher explained.

'Was anyone hurt?' Owen asked, bored already.

'No, two children were almost scared to death but they're OK.'

Suddenly Gwen came rushing through a side door, out of breath.

'What is it?' Jack asked.

'I saw them,' She replied quietly as the teacher continued her account.

'And there was little Jasmine in amongst it all, she hadn't been touched. The sun was shining down on her. It was, it was like an aura, like something was protecting her.'

'Who's Jasmine?' Jack asked.

Winter looked up at him. Was this her. The girl who had caused all of these deaths just by being special. He certainly seemed to think so.

'Jasmine Pierce, she's a pupil of mine.'

'Where is she now?'

'We're sending all the children home, we have to.'

'Alright, thanks.'

She left quickly leaving Jack, Gwen and Winter alone in the corridor.

'The chosen one,' Gwen said.

'Yeah.'

They met up with Owen and Toshiko outside the SUV and as they set off out of the school Tosh searched the school database for an address. With an address in tow Jack spun the car around and they set off to find the chosen one.

TTT

It wasn't hard to tell which house was Jasmine's. People were running screaming from the back garden and the wind was billowing through the trees at an alarming rate. Jack led the surge inside, getting everyone out of the garden. Winter saw Jasmine across the lawn and decided to head for her. She got half way around the garden when she heard Gwen yelling. She turned to see Jack fall to the floor. With a reminder to herself that he would be alright she continued over to Jasmine and knelt down next to her. It was calmer next to the girl.

'Jasmine?'

The girl turned to her.

'Are you alright?'

She nodded smiling. 'It's alright, they're my friends, they only hurt people that hurt me.'

Jack yelled out behind her and she turned to see a creature hopping towards her, its teeth bared. She turned back to Jasmine and hurriedly explained.

'Sweetheart none of us are here to hurt you or make you do anything you don't want to. We just want to keep you safe, but they don't think that.'

Jasmine looked at Winter curiously and turned to the fairy who had stopped and was hovering in the air.

'Please Jasmine, we only want to make sure you're okay.'

The fairies took to the skies and disappeared. Winter turned to look over at Jack and Gwen on the floor but when she turned back Jasmine was gone. She took off through the hole in the fence that Jasmine had disappeared through and pushed herself up the hill, spotting Jasmine's white dress through the trees. She didn't see any fairies around so she approached and sat next to her on the ground.

'Do you know you walk in the forest?' The girl asked.

'I didn't, no. I've actually never been to a forest before.'

Jasmine looked horrified. 'Never?'

'Well you are now. It looks like a very old forest and it's magical.'

'Well, I'm glad it's the first forest I'm in then.'

Jasmine smiled and nodded, looking around at, what Winter saw as an open development space with a few trees.

'I want to stay in it.'

Winter turned slightly when she heard Jack's voice. 'You can see this forest?'

Jasmine nodded, 'Yes.'

'But it's not here. It's just an illusion Jasmine. It is.'

She shook her head but Jack kept trying to break down the illusion.

'Your friends are just playing a game with you. The real forest can never come back.' He looked up into the sky but Winter couldn't tear her eyes from Jasmine.

'Oh it can, when they take me too it.'

'Why do you want to stay here?' Winter asked.

Jasmine looked down and smiled. 'My friends are here and it's pretty, can't you see it? Don't you want to stay here too?'

Winter shook her head. 'Oh I know where I belong. I just want to know if you really believe this is where you should be.'

Jasmine laughed. 'Of course it is. This is my home.'

'But what about your mother?'

Jasmine seemed genuinely stuck on this but she eventually shook her head. 'She doesn't need me.'

A fluttering from the skies took Jack's attention, he pulled Winter to her feet and Jasmine back from the creatures. 'The child isn't sure,' he shouted.

'I am sure,' she replied.

His arm wrapped around her waist and he pulled her back, 'No!'

'Leave her alone,' Jack ordered.

Gwen arrived at the glade and stood back as the fairies rustled their wings in frustration.

'Can you not find another chosen one?' Winter asked.

'Too late, she belongs with us.'

'The child belongs here,' Jack argued.

'No, she lives forever,' the fairies were adamant and Jack was reaching now.

'Suppose we make her stay with us?'

Jasmine looked up at Winter. 'Then lot's more people will die,' she said.

'They told you that?' Gwen asked.

'They promised.'

Winter knelt down next to her again and Jasmine looked between them and the fairies.

'Next time they'll kill everyone at my school, like they killed Roy and that man and your friend.'

'Do you really want to be with them if they killed all of those people?' Winter asked.

Jasmine nodded. 'They're my friends. They're magical.'

'How do you know these things?' Jasmine ignored Gwen and kept talking to Winter.

'If they want to they can make great storms and wild seas, turn the world to ice, kill every living thing.'

'And you really want to go?'

Jasmine looked right at Winter and spoke, 'Yes. Now let me go!'

Winter stood up and looked at Jack, he looked at her for her thoughts and she frowned and sighed knowing that they agreed. 'Then let her go,' she told him moving out of the way to stand under a tree.

Jack deliberated then looked up to the creatures, 'The child won't be harmed?'

'Jack! You can't!' Gwen gasped.

'Answer me!' he yelled. 'She won't be harmed!'

'We told you, she lives forever,' they replied.

'A dead world is that what you want?' Jasmine asked.

'What good is that to you, there will be no more chosen ones?'

'They'll find us. Back in time.'

Jack stroked her cheek and then looked away from everyone. 'Take her,' he said simply.

Gwen rushed forwards, 'Jack no!'

He grabbed her and Winter moved forwards to take her other arm, holding her back from Jasmine.

'You asked me what choice we had, for the sake of the world, this is our only chance.'

Gwen freed herself and hung back. Winter just watched as Jasmine turned and thanked them before skipping off with her friends.

At that very moment the mother came running up the hill followed by Owen and Tosh. She screamed and yelled and hit Jack over and over but eventually she was calm enough to be slipped a little retcon and left to mourn.

Winter left for the car first. She knew the others were angry. If she hadn't seen the certainty in the little girls eyes herself she would have been angry too. She watched as Gwen, Owen and Toshiko all passed by Jack without a word and got into the SUV silently. He didn't even bother trying to talk to them on the way back, and when they got into work they sat at their desks in silence

TTT

Jack and Winter sat in his office, Pip lay sprawled on a cabinet watching closely from his perch. Jack had talked through his anger and frustration with the team and she had listened letting him vent, but now his report was finished and he was looking tired again.

'Come on Nemo, let's get to bed.'

Pip leapt of the side and strolled over to the manhole cover, waiting for someone to let him inside. She smiled and got up but then stopped, her smile fading.

'What?'

She looked down at her feet and tried to gather some courage.

'What?'

'I didn't want to tell you like this. I mean, with the team not talking to you and all of that because that's not why I did it it's just I…'

'You what?'

'I'm moving out, of your room I mean.'

'What? Why?' He frowned and a sad look appeared in his eyes.

'I just, I figured that sometime soon you'll need a bedroom that you don't have to share with me and Owen and Ianto helped me move in yesterday morning. I'm sorry. I just thought you'd need your own space soon.'

She bounced on the balls of her feet for a moment but when he didn't respond she thought it better to get going. Jack followed her outside.

'But…what about you?'

She looked down at the floor and glanced over at Owen who was trying to listen in.

'I'll make do.'

She smiled and looked over to the monkey that had followed them both outside, 'Come on Pip.'

He looked at her and then sped up Jack's trouser leg and shirt, coming to rest on his shoulder.

'Come on pip stop mucking around.'

The capuchin turned its head from her and took Jack's collar in his hands. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realised that now everyone at Torchwood was upset with her.

She turned on her heel and left for her room, only making it half the way before she burst into uncontrollable tears.

Jack stood, watching her walk away from him. He realised she wasn't leaving because of what he had done, but it still felt like she was deserting him. He sighed and took the monkey from his shoulder, holding it in his arms as he turned to enter his office.

As the door closed everyone looked up from their desks and glanced at each other before going back to work. Slowly they were beginning to come around to what had happened that afternoon and it wasn't making them feel any better.

Owen leant back at his desk, glanced at his report and then at Jacks office.

…

'Tosser'

…

['Sonotalady'; Thank you :) I know what you mean she's pretty bad with emotions but I think after being connected to her brother for her whole life and then losing him, she decided to stop bothering. Then joining Torchwood brought them back but suddenly she was feeling all these things that she wasn't used to and she didn't know what to do about it. I know what you mean about their 'three way relationship' I considered it for a while but I realised that I knew it wouldn't work and it would be pretty hard to write. I have a feeling they won't accept they need each other until it's too late. Thanks for your review it made me smile.]