[Translations are at the bottom. As usual I had to use Google translate sorry if it's wrong.]

And how can we win,
When fools can be kings,
Don't waste your time,
Or time will waste you,

Muse - Knights of Cydonia

Fragments: part 2

The silence was bliss, just an occasional rustle of papers as someone changed page or shuffled in their seat. The library was only half full, mainly of students and pensioners. She had curled up on the floor in her new favourite corner and pulled several big volumes around her feet. At the moment she was immersed in Caesar's invasion of Britain but she'd read the same line over and over in the past few minutes because she couldn't shake the feeling the she was being watched, creeping over her skin. She glanced up but no one was around. Turning her eyes back to the book she shook her head but jumped suddenly when a pair of shoes appeared in front of her. Pointy, but sensible shoes. She looked up over the spine at the tall woman standing over her.

'You should be sitting on one of the many chairs provided,' the woman told her, in a sharp but hushed voice.

Winter frowned. 'I can't read in those chairs, their too hard.'

'And the floor?'

'Is softer than the chairs,' Winter argued.

'I'll have you know that I picked these chairs for being the most suitable for a quiet read.' The woman sniffed in indignation and Winter glared back and stood up.

'Well that says a lot about you then doesn't it.'

'I have a good mind to ban you from the library.' The woman sneered.

'For what!' Winter cried, causing several people to look around at them.

'For making mischief…' Winter's hands balled into fists as she tried to keep her composure.

'Amelia.' A young woman with a slight Italian accent and a short blond bob approached the arguing pair. 'Let her be, I'll deal with this.'

The older woman wrinkled her nose and turned on her heel leaving Winter with this new lady.

'Don't mind her, she hates everyone. 'I'm Sophia.' She smiled and her warm brown eyes sparkled.

'Winter.'

Sophia held out her hand and Winter shook it, the smile returning to her face.

'So you're interested in Italian history?'

Winter shrugged.

'I'm interested in everything really.'

Sophia picked up the books and grinned. 'Come with me.'

Winter followed her, twisting her hands together nervously. Sophia led her into a large room with long metal bookcases in the middle. She turned the wheel on one book case and they all moved apart letting them both slip through. At the other side of the cases was a single table and a small kitchen.

'Some of the staff were fed up with the kitchen we were given, it was constantly a mess, so we made our own.'

'Your own little secret hideaway.' Winter smiled, thinking back to the hub. She had thought she knew all the secrets of Cardiff, growing up on its streets but truthfully she was only just realising that there was so much more to discover. Sophia grinned back at her.

That was how it had started. Winter and Sophia spent hours in the library. Jack would watch her walk around the hub with nothing to do and then suddenly she would pull her Torchwood issued phone from her pocket, make a quick call and then disappear for the rest of the day. It had taken three weeks for Sophia to notice Winter's aptitude for language and they worked on as many as they could. Jack couldn't count the number of times he had happened upon the pair of them at a coffee shop in the town centre, babbling away in Italian, Spanish and sometimes even Latin. Sometimes he watched from afar but he gave up trying to keep up with the words as they seemed to fly between the women.

After a couple of months Winter dragged him out to meet her friend and after that he would occasionally join them. On those occasions they would be kinder and use English or speak a lot slower. He watched his new recruit come alive as she spoke about the recent books they had been reading or gossip from the library staff rooms.

TTT

But it had to come to an end some time and not long before Gwen arrived Sophia joined Winter in the small library kitchen and wrung her hands.

'Qual e il problema?' Winter asked.

Sophia sighed and replied quietly. 'Me ne vado.'

Winter stopped and looked up at her in shock. 'Che cosa?'

Sophia sighed and replied a little faster. 'Io torno in Italia, per sposarsi.' Sophia stuck her left hand out, the ring glinting on her finger.

Winter's heart fell. 'So you're going back then,' she whispered.

'Yes.'

'Ok.'

Sophia bit her lip and then opened her arms. Winter thought of storming off and leaving the gesture for a moment, before flinging herself into her friend's arms. Her eyes stung but she refused to cry. She wasn't dying, she was just going back to Italy. They would see each other again.

They parted and Winter made her excuses, returning to the hub with such a feeling of loss that she headed straight for the bedroom. Jack came back from a pick up to find her curled up, a book in her arms and tear tracks down her face. A little research led him straight to the cause and that was the night he realised. She needed more of a job.

TTT

'You want me to climb up the ventilation system?' Winter said, her faced screwed up in confusion and shock. The building in front of her was, well she doubted it would count as a building. Every room was visible and occasionally a piece of flooring fell through. Jack nodded at her a slight smile on his face. She sighed and shrugged. 'Ok.' Then ran forward and pushed up the side of the walls, using the force to propel herself towards the vent shaft. Once inside she started to scale the building pausing every now and then to check the flooring.

Down on the ground Owen turned to Jack. 'Enlighten me, what do we do when she slips and crashes through twenty floors of wiring and asbestos.'

Jack shrugged and looked up at the structure. 'She won't,' he said, simply.

TTT

This was all very odd. First he was sitting on the shoulder of his friend. His friend had ordered him to carry a message to the other commanders and the plains had been filled with the noise of battle. He had scampered through the tangle of legs in the direction his friend had indicated and then stopped suddenly. There was a bright light before him, a light that called to him but he had to deliver the message. Unless this was where the message was supposed to go. He unrolled it and cocked his head to the side.

'All is lost, I leave the messenger to your good service.'

He stumbled back and looked to the battle with wide eyes and slack jaw. It couldn't be. He felt something inside him grow cold and pained as he watched the red wave of soldiers surge over the territory he had travelled from. All is lost.

A cry away to his side caught he attention and he saw a ship blasting everything in sight and heading straight for him. There was no cover that could survive those cannon. With a heaviness he turned to the light, and jumped.

It gave him an odd feeling, like he was being pulled in several directions. Suddenly the light faded and he found himself in a totally new place. He knew he was high up, he could see primitive buildings far below him. The immediate surroundings though, they were of devastation. The floor was littered with brick, dust, wood and glass. This couldn't be the commander's base. There was no one there to receive the message. The message! It was gone! No matter, he knew what it said. He was now the friend of this new person. Wherever they may be.

He leapt to the ceiling and hung onto the lampshade as a hole appeared in the wall to his side and a figure swung through. This must be them. His new friend. It was a girl. Short, dark haired, dressed for action. She didn't quite fit his expectation but his old friend must have known what he was talking about. The girl smiled at him and he immediately jumped to her shoulder taking up his new position. His duty was now to this human. She was his friend and he was hers.

TTT

When Winter finally slid out of the shaft, straight into Jack's arms, she was empty handed. Owen snorted and looked over at Tosh. 'Another false alarm?'

'Not quite.' Winter replied. She looked up to the chute and the friendly monkey that she had come across leapt onto her shoulder. Suzie let out a quick shriek before placing a hand over her heart and glaring at the creature. Winter laughed and scratched its belly. 'Say hello to our new monkey friend.'

Jack let out a bark like laugh and escorted both the monkey and Winter back to the hub. Once through the doors they took the monkey down to the med bar and Owen attempted to take some scans. The creature bared his teeth at Owen when the sedative needle came out and sped on to Winter's shoulder, chattering loudly and gripping her hair.

'He seems quite attached to you.' Jack noted from his watch post at the doorway.

She nodded thoughtfully as she picked him off her neck and sat up on the table with him so Owen could listen to his heart without sedating him.

'You know what I'm going to say don't you.'

She sighed and nodded before reciting. 'I promise I will attempt not to get too attached to him in case he is either a threat or needs to go home.'

The monkey seemed to cock his head at the words and hopped off her lap and off the table before Owen could catch him. He scaled the railings of the med bay and came to a stop sat right opposite Jack who eyed him warily. There he sat, an immovable force, his wide eyes boring into Jacks. The message was clear, he was staying and if Jack didn't like it he could stick it. Jack looked warily at the monkey but decided to say no more on the matter until the medical was over.

TTT

The air. It was thick. The only sound was the trickle of tiny specks of rubble falling from the ceiling. Winter groaned and tried to get up. Something pinned her to the floor and she squinted to see what it was. Her eyes were open, but there was nothing around her. Just blackness. She couldn't move, her body was trapped. Her legs wouldn't move, she couldn't feel them. She couldn't see. She was terrified.

She closed her eyes and tried to feel around her. A shower of debris fell in her face and she snorted to stop it falling down her nose. A sound up above startled her. Like a snuffle, then a piercing shot of light, finally. 'Pip?' she croaked.

He disappeared and she ran a hand over her face, rubbing her eyes trying to get them to stop stinging.

'Winter?' someone was calling her. 'Winter?'

She mumbled a reply but her voice felt broken.

'Winter? Where the hell is she?'

Gripping the rubble pinning her by her chest she clawed at it and tried to push it up.

She heard Pip squeak and Owen's face appeared at the little hole Pip had cleared. He swore in a gravelly voice and started to pull debris out of the way. He yelled behind him and Rhys appeared to help clear everything. Eventually they lifted the column that had fallen on her chest. Owen tried to pull her up and she slid her hands down to brush across her legs. She smiled and sagged forwards a bit as a bit of a laugh escaped.

Rhys frowned. 'What's so funny.'

She pushed her hair back and let Owen lift her into a standing position. 'I couldn't feel my toes.'

Owen's expression darkened. 'And now?'

'Fine, just lack of blood, I guess.'

He nodded and felt around her back shaking his head.

'No ribs broken. Bloody hell you're lucky.'

'Call me thumper.' She replied dryly.

He smirked and she nodded to Rhys in thanks letting Owen put an arm around her but as they walked she stumbled and her legs gave out. She swore but Owen seemed calm.

'S'alright, you've been under a bit. They might take a while. Rhys mate?'

Rhys slipped his arm around her waist from the other side and she tried to carry as much weight as she could herself as they steadily made it out of the warehouse.

Outside Jack and Ianto spotted her and both took several steps towards her but she shook her head and Owen nodded to Jack. Ianto didn't stop, he took over Rhys' spot, letting Gwen and Rhys reunite. If Ianto was surprised or worried by the lack of strength in Winter's legs then he didn't show it, just gripped her, tight.

'Jack who's done this?' Gwen demanded.

Pip held on to Ianto's shoulder and Winter rubbed his back in comforting circles but she faltered when a hologram appeared in front of them all from Jack's manipulator. Oh great, John, just what they needed, more dramatics.

'Oh! Déjà vu. Or did I say that already? Hey team, of course there might be a few less of you right now. Don't know if you liked my little gift? Of course you can't die. All that life, all that time, and you can't spare any for me. Oh say hi to the family.'

Jack's face was the picture of shock as a young well built man appeared in the hologram. 'No it can't be!'

'Been a while since you've seen your brother eh Jack?'

Winter's eyes widened. This was Gray? And now John had him.

'Ok, here's what's going to happen.' John told them, 'everything you love, everything you treasure will die. I'm going to tear your world apart Captain Jack Harkness, piece by piece. Starting now. Maybe now you'll want to spend some time with me.'

Winter looked around at the team. Her friends, he was trying to kill them. Jack seemed shocked, in a trance like state, glaring at the space John had been in. Then, as if flicking on a switch, he turned towards the car. 'Right everyone, let's go.'

Translations:

Qual e il problema?- What's wrong

Me ne vado – I'm leaving

Che cosa – Why?

Io torno in Italia, per sposarsi- I'm going back to Italy, I'm getting married

'The Small But Powerful One': Yes that was an error, you're not being naggy. It wasn't there on the original, I think Fanfic does something to the documents because there are a few of them that I've picked up and in the original it's fine. Hmmm. Thanks for pointing it out though.

'Rachy Babes': Like I promised, another chapter :D. I'm soooo excited for your story! I love seeing Winter in peril. It's so much fun :D. As for Ianto, it's the accent that got me first, that's why I'm hoping to go to University in Wales. I love the accent. (and the complaining, a bit like Jack.)