[Well… I guess you could call this an end of an era. Therefore, like the last chapter I'll let you dive straight in and leave the responses until the end. Now kids I'm watching you all so don't skip down to see how it ends, patience!]

Forgetting me,

You took things in your hands and left me out
After we'd been through so much,

How could you let me down?

Judas – Kelly Clarkson

End of Days: part 2

Back at the hub Winter nibbled on a large sandwich. Ianto stood over her, arms crossed and his face stern as he watched her eat. Under normal circumstances it would be laughable but with the world going crazy and no easy fix, no one was in laughing mood.

When she was done Ianto disappeared down to the vaults and the cog door opened revealing Tosh and Owen, both visibly concerned.

'Owen, how was the hospital?' Winter asked.

'Laugh a bloody minute,' he replied, 'they've got an outbreak of the black death.'

She got out of the chair and caught Pip as he jumped into her arms.

'Have they got it under control?' Jack asked from his office door.

Tosh was staring into space and needed another shout from Jack to wake her, 'Owen got the place quarantined and organised treatments for those who were infected.'

'Only consolation is that it's treatable these days,' Owen told them, 'but you know, what happened when the next carrier comes through Jack? Someone carrying ebola or something from the future we don't even know about yet? What are we going to do then?'

'Yeah well it's not doing us any good standing around speculating,' he replied.

'We need to be prepared.' Owen argued, 'we're helpless, all we're doing is putting sticking plasters over gaping wounds.'

Winter stepped up to break up the fight but Gwen appeared at her side and took hold of her arm, shaking her head.

'What do you suggest?' Jack asked, in the dangerous tone that most people seemed to grasp meant, don't argue, I'm in a bad mood but as normal Owen chose to ignore the obvious and argue on.

'I suggest you lead us and you tell us what the instructions are!'

Ianto came up behind Winter and freed her arm from Gwen, taking her free hand in his.

'Owen,' Gwen warned him, but he was on a roll.

'No, come on,' he turned to them, 'you're all thinking it too. You're the big man here, you keep all the secrets. Well, now's the time to tell us a few and tell us how the hell we're gonna get out of this.'

Winter stepped back into Ianto as Jack span around in frustration and turned to them all.

'You want to know a secret?'

She stood her ground taking comfort from Ianto behind her.

'There is no solution to this! Because it was never supposed to happen. The first thing you learned when you joined Torchwood was don't mess with the rift, but you disobeyed those orders and now everything that's happening is down to you,' Jack shouted at Owen.

'I only disobeyed instructions to get you back.'

Jack pointed at him angrily, 'And now people are dying.'

'What so I shouldn't of bothered?' Owen yelled at him. The argument was quickly turning bad. 'Who the fuck are you anyway? Jack Harkness? You don't even exist. We've looked, so if you're not even a real person why the hell should I follow your orders!'

'Get out,' Jack growled.

Pip raced into the small space between Winter and Ianto's bodies and Winter pressed her, now free, hand to her mouth. Ianto squeezed the other but it did little to stop her fear. She'd never seen Jack like this before, especially not to a friend and it was more than a bit frightening.

'What?' Owen looked bemused as though he had no clue what else to say.

'Get out,' Jack repeated, 'I'm relieving you of your duty.'

The hub was in up-roar and Winter was still shaking her head as Jack made his final decision.

'If I can't rely on you, If I don't have your complete trust, then you don't belong here. That goes for the rest of you, anyone who agrees with Owen, leave now.'

Winter stared at Owen, begging him silently to stay. This wasn't a time to be breaking apart. It was useless though. Owen was incensed. He turned to Gwen and growled a parting speech that had a ring of truth to it.

Jack had told her when she had first joined that if you leave you get retconned, simple as that, but she also knew he broke that rule when he could. When she'd left to live with her mother, no one had tried to retcon her. But someone as insubordinate as Owen. It would have to happen at some point. She would have cried if she wasn't so scared. As much of a twit as Owen had been over the past month or so, they had been friends. Really good friends.

Everyone watched solemnly as Gwen tried to get Jack to reconsider but it was to no avail and Owen walked out of the hub, for good.

'Now. Back to your work!' Jack shouted. Winter flinched as he stormed past them all, 'Gwen with me.'

TTT

She couldn't sit in Owen's chair. Not now that it wasn't his. She could barely look at it, and Jack's desk was out of the question with the mood he was in. She watched as Ianto spoke to Jack over the comm system and slipped away with Pip. When no one was looking she slipped into the office and over to the corner. With a quick heave she pulled the cover of the man hole and hopped inside, pulling the lid back over. This was the one place she could think calmly now. A room where she'd never seen Jack angry. A room that reminded her of him when he was calm and peaceful and comforting. She curled up on the bed with Pip, and thought.

Time was splintering and somehow they had to fix the cracks but how? How would she fix a large crack in her skin? Moisturiser. So, all she needed was a giant tube of moisturiser, great. She gripped the pillow and lay there thinking while Pip fell asleep at her side.

'Scrap!' she shot up some time later and stared across the room at her brother's likeness.

'What is it? Why are you here?'

'Scrap you have to open the rift. You need to save them!

'Who.'

'Your friends.' He disappeared and she leaped off the bed. Pip awoke and lazily scurried up to her shoulder as they re-entered Jack's office.

'What are you doing?' he asked.

'Never mind, I need to talk to you.'

He pursed his lips and approached his desk, 'Is it pertinent?'

He'd never asked her that before.

'If you mean, is it about Owen? Then no.'

His eyes flashed a little but he nodded, 'Go on.'

'I'm hallucinating.'

He looked up sharply, 'What are you talking about?'

'Before I fainted at the station I saw an image of scorched bones, they turned into my brother,' she choked out, 'then they, they begged me to open the rift, and then just now, I was thinking downstairs and it happened again but this time he told me my friends would die if I didn't do it.'

'And do you believe him.'

'I don't think it's really him, if that's what you're getting at. He's dead. I know that but I can't help wondering about the message.'

He nodded and threw down a paper on his desk before approaching her. Out of instinct she took a step back and then looked away. He gave her a hurt look.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you earlier, I was just…'

'Angry, I know.'

Jack put his hands in his pockets and looked out at the hub. 'Rhys is downstairs, in a cell,' he told her.

'What? Why?'

'Billis Manger, the guy from the Ritz dance hall, he told Gwen that Rhys was going to die so she stunned the poor guy and brought him here.'

'Nothing says I love you like a stun gun and a cell with en-suit weevil,' Winter quipped. He smiled slightly and she approached him giving him a quick hug before pulling him out to the team. Gwen came up and Winter watched the Jack she knew and loved comfort her. Suddenly the lights dimmed and an alarm sounded.

'We've got a security breech.' Tosh told them.

Jack was about to take charge when Gwen went mad and took off for the cells. She followed in hot pursuit with Jack close behind her.

They hurtled into the cell block but they were too late. Gwen screamed in agony as she wrapped her arms around her dead boyfriend. Winter rounded them and tried desperately to stem the flow of blood but it was too little too late.

Jack took Gwen in his arms and Winter stood up and backed off. Tears on her face and blood on her hands, it was all too familiar. She left Jack with Gwen and headed up to the main hub. Tosh gasped at the blood on her hands while Ianto eye's widened and he rushed over. She shrugged him off and headed for the kitchen to clean up.

'It's not mine,' she whispered.

Ianto merely nodded and as the water mixed with the blood and swirled around at the bottom of the sink Winter thought back to the premonition of her brother. Perhaps he wasn't lying.

TTT

Jack and Ianto carried the body into the autopsy bay on a plastic sheet. Gwen walking by his side all the way, like Greyfriars bobby. She barely looked at Jack as he began to wash the blood from her hands. 'I'll have to tell his family,' she said simply.

No one spoke just nodded slowly, not sure what to say.

'We can deal with it,' Ianto told her.

'Like you dealt with that porter the first time I met you?' she replied scornfully. 'No, no you won't 'deal' with him Ianto.'

Was this what was going to happen. Would Winter have to sit here and watch as her friends suffered and the team fell apart. If the vision of her brother was right about that then what else was it right about.

'This is what happens here,' Gwen continued. 'We all end up alone,' she paused and looked up at Jack. 'Not me. You bring him back.'

They stood uselessly as she screamed at Jack and pounded on his chest. If there was one thing Winter wouldn't wish on anyone, it was to end up alone. She had known what that felt like, empty, hollow, like your heart was buried deep in your chest and constantly shrinking away from the sun.

Owen burst into the room and looked down on Gwen's dead boyfriend. 'Oh Shit.'

Toshiko's face lit up but her smile sank when he went straight for Gwen. She screamed at him, pushing him away from her. The last thing she wanted right now was the man she had cheated on Rhys with. He looked at Jack blankly. 'How many other people have got to suffer?' He asked.

Jack looked to Gwen and Winter knew he had no answer for them.

'I'm going to fix this. I'm opening the rift.'

Winter watched Ianto walk past her as she contemplated her options. 'Make sure you stop him,' Jack warned but he was surprised by Ianto, who turned around and stood up for both himself and Gwen, who ran out to join Owen. 'No.'

Tosh left too, all watched by Jack.

He looked up at her imploring. She took a step back and he shook his head. 'You said, you didn't know what to do,' she whispered. 'Maybe…just maybe…' she turned and fled up the stairs and could almost feel him following her. At the top Gwen was punching in codes as fast as she could as Jack emerged from the med bay.

'Get away from the computer Gwen.'

Owen turned to face him off, letting Gwen continue. Something began to tug at Winter's jeans and she looked down to see Pip. She shook her head at him before turning back to the computer.

'This is a trap, all these cracks around the world, they're diversions, this is what Billis wants.'

'What are you afraid of Jack?' Owen asked.

Jack pulled out his gun and pointed it at Owen who took a step back but didn't stand down. 'I said move.'

Gwen finally turned from what she was doing but she didn't look shaken by the weapon pointed at her. The tugging upon Winter's trousers grew more insistent. Winter looked down at Pip to tell him to stop it but he looked terrified. He was pulling her towards Jack with all his might but he couldn't take his eyes off the computer. Winter knelt down to him and noticed his whole body was shaking with fear. She looked at Jack. Had he ever let her down before? Had he ever done something to hurt them just for kicks? She had trusted him with every molecule in her body this morning so what was different now?

What about Pip, the monkey had known when the cyberwoman was going to attack, he had fought for her on numerous occasions and they had only ever fallen out once before. He was a wise little creature and there was no way she was going to let him down now. She took a deep breath, 'Sure?' Pip nodded and pulled again so she carefully picked Pip up and left the computer, moving to stand behind Jack.

'I'm sorry,' she whispered, but she wasn't sure who too.

Gwen looked up at Jack tiredly, 'Come on, Jack.'

He didn't even blink, 'You're a united front now,' he replied, 'Toshiko, the poor girl who'll screw any passing alien that gives her a pendant. Owen, so strong he gets in a cage with a weevil desperate to be mauled. Ianto, hiding a cyber girl in the basement. Your three comrades here pumped bullets into her remember.'

'Jack.' Winter whispered. 'This isn't helping.'

Gwen held her hand up to her chest desperately as she begged him, 'I've got to get Rhys back.'

'Yeah, because you're so in love with Rhys that you spend half you time in Owen's bed.'

The scene quickly changed as Gwen lashed out at Jack and left him lying on the floor. Winter reeled back in shock and stood up against the wall. Pip leapt from her arms and made his way to the cog door, gesturing for her to follow but she just couldn't leave Jack here. Owen pointed Jack's own gun at the Captain.

'We're relieving you of your command Captain. We're opening the rift and getting back what we lost,' he yelled.

Winter heard Gwen curse and then the same woman grabbed her arm and forced her over to the computer. She had just enough time to glance worriedly at Jack before a machine was shoved in her eye and with a flash of green light she pulled herself away. In all the confusion, a shot rang out.

The world seemed to turn a billionth slower as Winter watched Jack fall to the ground. She yelped and dived to his side kneeling above him. 'Get your fucking hands off him!' she yelled, pushing Gwen back again and pulling her sword from her side. She span around and stood in one smooth movement, defensively holding her post over Jack's body.

Owen raised the gun again and she laughed, a sudden sense of comedy arising from her fear. 'What? Are you going to shoot me too? I dare you.'

Owen was visibly uncomfortable but there was a glint in his eye, anger.

'After everything we've been through. Right between the eyes.' She raised the sword to his throat and he held the gun in line with her temple. 'I dare you!' she repeated.

They stared at each other, caught in a Hobson's choice. Owen faltered and his aim waved, Winter twisted the sword slightly then winced as a sudden pain in her abdomen brought her attention away from Owen and she looked down to see one of the letter openers from Tosh's desk, impaled in her skin.

Owen pulled the sword from her hand and threw it into the water on the other side of the hub. Then grabbed her arms trying to push her over to the sofa. She pushed back and ended up with her back against the cool tile wall. Owen looked down at the knife in her side and then up to her eyes. They both looked back at Tosh, standing by her desk with blood on her hands.

'I…I…I…' Tosh just stuttered and quickly turned away as she took her own retinal scan.

The alarm rang throughout the hub and a gasp told her Jack was awake again, she took the moment of confusion to slam her hand into Owen's nose and he staggered back allowing her to stumble into the med bay and grab a few pads and bandages from the draw. With a hiss of pain and gritted teeth she pulled the knife from her side and piled the pad and gauze against it. It might be deep but there was nothing in the area to damage really, just flesh and muscle. Winding the gauze tightly around her, she dragged herself back up to the main hub and avoided the large sparks that were emanating from all directions.

Everyone appeared to be gone and the door was shut. Well there was no way she was waiting around in here. She grabbed the keys from Owen's desk and headed for the garage, sitting painfully in the front seat of the SUV and pulling it out of the Hub and onto the street. The GPS tracked Jack's manipulator signal and she pulled up behind the whole team. Gwen helped Jack get into the front seat and then hopped into the back, ordering her to drive them to open ground.

'I do not take orders from you Gwen Cooper,' Winter hissed.

Jack put a hand over her own and nodded. 'Just do it,' he murmured.

She sped off across town heading for the most open part of the city. Her side was painful and she could feel the blood still seeping through the many layers of bandage. As she passed the Town centre she looked up to see a great looming monster, Jack turned the wheel and the SUV swerved around. 'Stay out if it's shadow,' he ordered.

She nodded firmly and put her foot down, careering through the streets and taking a new route, coming to stop in an abandoned field. She tried to jump out but it pulled at her side and she watched in horror as Jack headed over to face the creature.

Though it seemed like hours it was merely minutes until the beast lay dead. She managed to slip out of the car and push Gwen away from Jack's body for the second time that day, before collapsing by his side. Not caring about the quiet sobs she could hear from behind her. She pulled Jack's head onto her lap and stroked the side of his face gently. His skin was cold. There were dark rings under his eyes and he showed no signs of coming back to her. Still she waited. Knowing that when he woke it would be her he wanted to seen. The charming Captain from the invisible spaceship may have gone, but in his place was a generous, sacrificing and dashing man who had helped so many people with no thanks from anyone, not even his own team, his own friends.

She hardly noticed when Gwen left, or when she returned with Ianto, Toshiko and Owen. She let them carry him into the SUV, because she knew she wasn't strong enough, but she refused to let them touch him once he was on the slab in the morgue. Ianto tried to speak to her but she would only nod or shake her head and that was more of a response than anyone else got. She knew Gwen was sitting behind her, waiting also but she didn't care, she wasn't moving from this slab until he woke up. And if he didn't, then she wouldn't.

It had been at least two days, maybe more. Winter leant over on her stool and lay her head and arm over Jack's chest. She had no more strength in her. She hadn't eaten since that sandwich and her head was spinning with future prospects and to make matters worse her side was aching and other than the rough bandaging she had done herself, had yet to be treated. The others had almost forgotten the fight they had had. A tear or two slipped down across her face and she closed her eyes tightly.

A sound startled her and she growled as she witnessed Gwen pulling back from kissing Jack before steadily walking away.

'Thank you.'

Her head shot up from his chest and through bleary eyes she saw Jack's eyes flicker open and smile at them both. At that moment Winter couldn't care less if Gwen had betrayed them, she hugged her tightly and laughed over the coughs and quiet panting of the previously dead Jack. Gwen disappeared to fetch some clothes leaving Winter to throw herself over Jack, mindless of the pain in her side. Jack laughed and groaned as he sat himself up, circling his head to massage the muscles and eventually took the clothes from Gwen when she returned.

Theywaited, uncomfortably, outside while he changed and he emerged looking the same as ever. He wrapped an arm around Winter and took Gwen's hand in his as he led them back upstairs to the Hub floor.

They pulled back as the other members of the team rushed over to greet Jack. All the tension left the room but no one really had much to be said. So Jack retired to his office, settling down behind his desk. Winter followed and glanced around to see Pip asleep on the filing cabinet, she smiled and turned to Jack.

'You'll be off soon then?' he asked.

'What? Oh, yeah, I guess.' Her planned trip to London had totally disappeared from her mind after the commotion earlier.

'What's up with your side?' he asked and she glanced down at her top, pulling gingerly at it. 'Is that blood.' He sprung up from the desk.

She shrugged and Jack looked at her cautiously. He knelt in front of her and tugged it up so he could inspect the damage, revealing the bloody bandages. His eye hardened and he began unwinding the material gently, unsticking the gauze held to her skin with crusty blood. He sucked in a deep breath when he came across the wound and jumped straight over to his desk to retrieve a first aid kit from the side. 'What the hell happened?'

'Nothing exceptional, just a misunderstanding.'

He frowned and looked up at her, 'I'll watch the CCTV,' he threatened.

She sighed and let him clean and wrap new gauze around it, 'After you went down I was a bit mad and I pulled my sword on Owen. He wasn't too happy about that and pulled the gun on me.'

Jacks expression was stony. 'Tosh wasn't thrilled about that and we ended up in a bit of a situation, but it doesn't matter it's not that bad really, it looks way worse than it is.'

He looked up incredulously, 'Tosh? Seriously?'

'Yes, but just leave her be, we were all a bit crazy. It was a lot of pressure. I'm actually kind of impressed. Never saw her as the stabbing kind.'

He sighed and finished with a knot before kissing her cheek.

'I'm going to change then I'll head off. I'd rather not say goodbye. I'll just leave, I think that might be best,' she told him.

He nodded and she rushed downstairs changing into a new outfit and grabbing the pre-packed rucksack from the floor. As she passed Jack's office on the way out she noticed Gwen chatting away with him so she quietly crept away to the plaza. With one last look at mermaid quay she set off for the coach station.

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A noise interrupted the peace and the wind blew her hair into her face. When she had it sorted she looked up to see a large blue box in the centre of the plaza. A police, public, call box. With wide eyes she raced towards the box and before even thinking about it she knocked.

A pretty black woman opened the door and she pushed inside. 'I'm looking for the Doctor,' she told her. A man with spiky brown hair and a blue suit popped out from behind the central console.

'That's me,' he replied.

She didn't answer, just looked around in awe. 'Wow,' she gasped. 'He wasn't kidding.'

'Who?' the girl asked.

Before Winter could reply there was a thunderous noise and the whole of her surroundings began to shake. She stumbled towards the doctor and held onto the bars near him.

'What the hell's happening?'

'Seems like The TARDIS is keen on kidnapping you,' he replied. 'Welcome on board miss…' she thought for a moment, of the team who she had left and the Captain she wished she hadn't.

'Nemo,' she replied, 'Just, Nemo.'

He held out a hand for her to shake just as they came to a stop. The Doctor looked at the screen in front of him and then up at his two companions.

…

'Oh, that's not good.'

…

[Well I'd like to think I may have possibly had some of you there. I just couldn't let her go.]

[ScribbleDibbleDabble: Yey! Welcome to this loving (but slightly dysfunctional) family. And don't worry about ranting, 'Sonotalady', 'Zaziness'and myself do enough of that to keep up with you :D, Kidding I love them really, (especially myself :P)

DWgeek2010: Thank you, I hope you enjoy what's to come, welcome on board! It's always nice to see a new reviewer :)

Sonotalady: Thank you :) WOW! Can I just say a massive good luck to you! I want to study English and creative writing so I haven't a clue what I'll be in 10 years time or so, hopefully I'll still be here to be doing anything, *touches wood*. I'm glad my stories give you at least a little break and I hope they continue to do so. Yes my Bio teacher is completely awesome, she's getting married soon so the bio group (4 girls) are all throwing hints that we want invitations. Honestly we spent half of one lesson on the Calvin cycle and the other half on designing her wedding dress!

Rachy Babes: I think after the whole 'ghost machine' thing she came to realise that you can't just bring people back and she got over the fact her brother died, especially when Jack was so supportive. I think that's why the apparition changes it's tune, it realises it's pressing the wrong buttons. Hope you liked the ending. Writing the next ones going to be quite a challenge, I haven't written something with the doctor in it for ages!

TV-a-holic: I had some really clear ideas about how this would go but as soon as I started writing it they all changed. Originally the roman soldier didn't listen to her and Jack had to swoop in and stun him anyway, but with the colour of her eyes and her language switching from modern English to Roman Latin I realised he'd probably think she was some kind of god, I mean they were a superstitious bunch. Of course I'll put more up soon :) my schools off until Friday so I may even put another up tomorrow if I get enough reviews…*wiggles eyebrows*

Zaziness: Ah! You my friend are sneaky! (and that's a compliment although I'm sure you know that) somehow you've wheedled your way through the crowd and managed to take the prestigious position of my favourite reviewer. How on earth did you manage it! Any way on with the review reply… I hope you liked my surprise :D Hmm I think you've bigged Pip up too much, he's weighed down to the floor by the size of his ego…or maybe that's just the melon he had for lunch *shrug* sorry about teasing Winter, unfortunately it's going to get worse before it gets better. (not in the next episode though) URRGHHH I had that virus, now I've got some bloody cough that won't let up *sulks* anyway hope my magic neurofen chapter made you feel better. (if it helps I'm stuck in the outhouse –it's been snowing all week and everything's very pretty- BUT I'M FREEZING!]