[As promised here's another chapter for you all.]

Pain make your way to me, to me.
And I'll always be just so inviting.
If I ever start to think straight,
This heart will start a riot in me,

Paramore - That's What You Get

The Beast Below

'Go on then.' Winter prompted as she and Pip marched through the door. 'Where are we?'

The Doctor grinned and pointed out of the window. 'This is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky.' He twiddled his fingers and stared down at Amy intensely.

Winter snorted and lay a hand on the side of the TARDIS, murmuring. 'Oh! I see how it is, he doesn't need us any more old girl, he's got someone new and exciting.'

A series of lights flashed on the console and the Doctor spun around to remedy it. He glared at Winter. 'What have you been saying to my ship?'

She giggled and made her way to the doors, ignoring the repeated glare.

'Anyway, as I was saying.' He turned back to Amy. 'Star ship UK, it's Britain but metal.'

'Heavy metal.' Winter joked to Pip. He squeaked happily and leapt to her shoulder.

The Doctor continued his prelude with gusto. 'That's not just a ship, that's an idea, that's a whole country, living and laughing and, shopping.'

Winter grinned she re-joined them and leant on the railings. That was the future out there and hopefully it wasn't as bleak as the last time she saw it.

'Searching the stars for a new home.'

'Can we go out and see?' Amy asked.

'Of course we can, but first there's a thing.' He left them and headed back to the console and they turned in unison to watch him.

'A thing?' Amy questioned as she followed right on his tail.

'An important thing in fact, thing one.' He picked up and enormous magnifying glass and peered at Amy. 'We are observers only, that's the one thing that I've always stuck to in all my travels, I never get mixed up in the affairs of other people's or planets.'

While he rabbited on Winter felt the TARDIS land gently. She looked at Pip, who looked at the door, which clicked open silently. With footsteps as quiet as a wolf in snow she grabbed Pip and slipped out into the bustling room without the other two. If they wanted to play the happy tourists that was fine with her but she needed a distraction. Anything would do and getting completely and utterly lost on a spaceship containing the whole of the UK seemed a brilliant idea.

Of course, what she'd forgotten was that Pip hadn't eaten in a long while and what she hadn't noticed was the fresh fruit store across the way. By the time she caught up with the naughty Capuchin it was too late.

'That'll be five credits,' the shop keeper told her.

She patted her pockets down and glared at Pip who was grasping a mango in his hands. 'I hate you,' she grumbled. 'Run!'

He took off faster than her and she raced to catch up, following his weave through the people as the shop keeper yelled for them to be stopped. The little monkey had a good sense of direction. She knew that, but still this was new territory for them both. They finally collapsed at the side of an empty corridor, panting deeply and muscles strained. Winter giggled at the sticky paws of her friend and looked up at the ceiling.

This corridor seemed more ornate than the others. It reminded her slightly of the Ritz dance hall when she'd first entered it with Jack and Tosh. You could tell it was beautiful but it wasn't very well kept. She pushed herself off the floor and listened to the quiet squeak of the rubber of her converses against the wooden floor.

'Who are you?' A woman had appeared in the shadows. London girl, by the accent. A bit cockney to say the least.

Winter turned slowly and raised her hands at the sight of the gun held by the masked and hooded figure. 'Ah! Um, I'm Winter… this is Peregrine and we're a bit lost.'

'I didn't ask what you were doing here I asked who you are. There are no animals on board this ship that aren't under lock and key. So, you don't belong here.'

Winter looked at Pip wide eyed. 'We're sort of… hitchhikers.'

'Stow-aways then.'

'Well not really, that implies we were on the ship when it took off but we only just arrived.'

Pip placed his sticky hands over Winter's mouth but it was too late. Her annoying compulsion to be a smart arse had finally done them in. But to both their surprise the woman laughed and lowered her gun.

'You know what? I like you.'

They both relaxed slightly and the woman beckoned for them to follow her. Though it may not be the cleverest idea to follow someone they barely knew, Winter deemed it the only option, so obligingly trailed behind the secretive figure. She led them to a large room with a grand looking bed. The chandelier lay on the floor and surrounding it, glasses of water.

'You must get thirsty a lot.' Winter joked tentatively.

Luckily the woman seemed to take it well and laughed.

'Not really, I just keep them for emergencies.'

Pip headed straight for the bed and padded around like a cat before settling in the middle.

'I want to know what you and your friends are doing here.'

Winter looked up shocked. 'What friends?'

'The girl in the white dress and the man with the bow tie…especially the man with the bow tie.'

Winter gulped and glanced around the room. No way out. 'Nothing really, just… travelling, looking around.'

'Who is he?' the masked woman asked.

'No one, he's just…no one, like me.'

She sighed and reached up, pulling her mask off. 'Look, if you don't tell me I'll have you put down for treason, is that good enough a reason to tell me?'

'Treason?'

'Yeah. I'm the bloody queen and I want to know what's going on under my nose!'

Winter raised her eyebrows and looked the woman up and down. 'Right, well. How about a compromise. You tell me what the problem is and I'll tell you who the man in the bow tie is. Deal?'

TTT

After a quick discussion and a switch of details Liz handed Winter a small technological device and put her under orders to stay put. For the first time in a long while Winter decided that she may as well listen to the orders because not only was Pip fast asleep, but the Doctor and Amy had apparently split up and she'd probably never find either of them on her own.

A short while later Liz returned and once again pulled the mask from her face. 'The Doctor is looking for your friend Amy.'

Winter nodded and motioned to the device in her hands.

'Great, erm. What exactly is this?'

Liz gave her a surprised look as she approached the bed. Flipping a switch on the side and turning a small dial. The screen fluctuated and then camera images of the Doctor appeared. 'You really are from the back of beyond aren't you?' Liz joked.

Winter frowned. 'Oi! Just because I can't work some fancy piece of gear on your bloody space ship doesn't make me a flipping cave man.'

Liz sat down on the floor and Winter watched the screen as the Doctor raced down a corridor and hammered at a door. A young girl joined him and pulled him away from the door. She wished the damn thing had speakers but Liz already thought she was incompetent so she didn't want to ask. The Doctor began to pace outside the door and then suddenly it opened and he bounced inside. She could see the girl standing in the doorway, and the Doctor bounding up onto the chair and back down again to talk to her, as Amy stood, visibly uncomfortable, by a table. Suddenly the door slammed shut again. And when it reopened they weren't inside.

Winter leaped from the bed and over to Liz, shoving the video link in her face. 'They've gone! They just disappeared.'

Liz grabbed the mask and threw the device back to Winter when she reached the door. 'I've programmed in a search, the device will find them as long as it's hooked up to that machine.' She pointed to a box in the corner and Winter found a wire at the side, she plugged it into the corresponding hole and turned back to the door but Liz was gone.

'Great, what am I supposed to do now?'

'Guide me to your friends.' Liz sounded patronising even through the machine.

Winter picked it up grumbling and spoke into it. 'So you can hear me, well I could have done with that info a tad earlier maybe.' She heard Liz laugh and looked down at the screen. 'I can see flashing lights, two blue and one red.'

'The red one is me. Blue means I have to go down a few levels to meet up with them. Tell me when we're the same colour.'

Winter waited silently, not absolutely certain what on earth she was doing but finally the red dot became a light baby blue and she cried out. 'Yes! You've got it. Now what?'

'Nothing, I've found my guide?' Liz replied, and the line went dead.

'Guide?' Winter questioned. No reply. She shook the machine. 'Hello? Liz? What guide, what are you talking about?' Nothing. 'Right, that's it, I'm leaving.' She stomped across the room and flung the door open, stepping out into the corridor. From around the corner she saw a darkly hooded figure appear and she stepped back into the room and closed the door quietly. 'Maybe not.'

TTT

Twenty minutes later Liz strolled back in followed by a rather wet Doctor and Amy and the young girl from the video link. She hopped off the bed where she'd been passing the time thinking and danced over to the Doctor. Two seconds away from giving him a hug she backed up. 'Bloody hell you stink.'

He looked at her blankly. 'Yes, ah… that would be the sick. You're right maybe a hug's not a good idea.'

She raised her eyebrows and looked over at Amy. 'You alright?'

The Doctor headed straight for the glasses on the floor as Amy nodded unsurely. 'Is it always like this?'

Winter smiled. 'Does trouble follow him wherever he goes?' she replied. 'Yes, it's always like this.'

Liz collapsed onto the bed and Pip woke up, wrinkling his nose at the new smell he bounded onto Winter's arm and she swung him absentmindedly.

'Why all the glasses?' The Doctor asked.

'To remind me every single day that my government is up to something. And it's my duty to find out wha,' Liz replied.

'The government doing underhanded things without the knowledge of their own queen and country. Now there's a first. Next thing they'll be hunting us down and trying to kill me.' Winter remarked coldly. 'Again,' she added.

The Doctor looked up a hint of sadness in his eyes but Amy just looked confused and Liz wasn't paying attention. Winter took Pip over to the corner again and picked up the device. Several blips were heading closer and closer to the room.

'Ah! Doctor? I think we may have company.'

The door opened and the hooded figures she'd seen earlier trooped into the room.

'What are you doing?' Liz asked, affronted. 'How dare you come in here?'

'Ma'am you have expressed interest in the interior workings of star ship UK,' the leading hooded figure stated.

The Doctor stood head to head with him.

'You will come with us now.' She got up.

'Why would I do that?'

Winter got off the floor and followed Amy and the young girl up to the action. The man's whole head spun around to look like that of the strange men she'd spotted in booths around the star ship. She only just managed to hold her stance instead of jumping back in shock. The Doctor seemed to be the only one not shocked and he lead them all as they followed the 'smilers' as Amy had aptly named them down into the bowels of the ship.

The tower was deep within the Ship. It felt colder down here than anywhere else she'd been today. Winter watched intently as the Doctor worked out what was going on. As he explained how a star-whale was being used to fly the space ship. She could feel his anger radiating from his heart but on the outside he seemed calmer, more tame.

She listened to the screams of the poor defenceless creature and she hugged Pip closely to her chest. Looking around hurriedly she tried to think. What should she do? Of course this only got her wondering, what would Jack do? She missed him in that moment. She had never realised quite how much she'd relied on his knowledge and resolve. Time to get some of her own then, she supposed.

Wait. She gasped as she realised, she already had knowledge of star-whales. Back when Rhys first found out about Torchwood. The whale, the giant space whale that had come to rest on earth. The poor creature the men had tortured by slicing into fragments to sell on the black market. They had tried to save it.

She looked up as the Doctor busied himself with the machinery and realised very quickly that he was going to kill it. She talked over to his side and gripped his arm. 'Please don't. He wouldn't do this.'

The Doctor looked up at her. 'Who?'

'The Doctor.'

He frowned. 'I am the Doctor.'

'No, the old Doctor. The man you were. Would not look at that creature and say it was better off dead. I was dying. Your TARDIS was slowly torturing me to death. Might still do if the mental shield breaks. What are you going to do then? Doctor? Please'

He looked back at her wide eyed and paused with his hand on the keys.

His concentration on her was broken by Amy who had come to her own conclusions and grabbed Liz. The Doctor yelled for her to stop but she was too fast. The ship rocked and shook as Liz's hand came down on the Abdicate button.

'Amy what have you done?' The Doctor asked as the world stopped rocking.

'Nothing at all. Am I right?' Amy asked the man cowering at the side.

He got up and checked the screens a look of pure confusion on his face. 'We've increased speed.'

'Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot. Gotta help.' She smiled and watched as the others confusion became clear.

'The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it - that was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry.' Amy told them, 'What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead, no future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind.'

Winter couldn't help but admire this flash of genius on Amy's part as she explained her thinking. She looked over at The Doctor and then at the pulsating brain of the star-whale.

'You couldn't just stand there and watch children cry.'

TTT

The TARDIS library was warm. Pip was lying on his back in their bedroom with a banana but she didn't fancy his company right now. She just wanted to curl up with a cup of tea and stare at the impressive log fire. Oh, the thoughts running through her mind. Jack, her old life, her old friends, this new Doctor, Amy, her link with the TARDIS…

'Penny for your thoughts.'

She looked up surprised at The Doctor who stood twiddling his fingers nervously. 'Nothing interesting,' she replied and slid her legs down from the sofa so he could sit down.

'Oh, I don't believe that. I think your thoughts must be very interesting. The TARDIS obviously thought so when she merged with you.'

She nodded blankly and stared at the fire. He sighed and pulled the still steaming cup of tea from her hands. She looked up at him as he gazed down intently.

'I'm sorry.'

'For what?'

He sighed and shut his eyes. 'I pulled you on board without really thinking, then I brought Amy along and suddenly we're all off travelling and, well… I haven't exactly given you much time to relax and get used to being back here.'

She pulled a strand of blue hair away from her face and looked back at the fire.

'There's something different about you,' he concluded. 'Something's changed. I can see it in your eyes, why won't you tell me?'

She pulled her hands away from his and turned back toward the fire.

'I wouldn't think any less of you.'

She got up to leave.

'I wouldn't! Besides it can't be that bad.'

'You were about to kick Amy out for choosing to forget something she couldn't even remember!' Winter exclaimed.

He got up and stood right up in her personal space.

'I know you would think less of me! I think less of me! I look in the mirror and it sickens me!'

'Has this got something to do with your sword?'

Her hand went instinctively to her side but there was no sword.

'I noticed you weren't wearing it when I came in after the TARDIS rebuilt itself. You've had plenty of time but you never thought to put it on. That tells me that you don't want to wear it but, last time I checked, you were very attached to that sword so there must be something wrong with it. For some reason, you don't want to wear it and I think…'

'I killed someone!' she yelled.

He stopped in his tracks and looked at her.

She took a deep breath. 'And not just one someone. Five someone's. Five young men who had families and friends that now probably go to bed at night wondering if their bodies will ever turn up but they won't because I threw them to the weevils. I murdered five people and disposed of their bodies.'

She turned and headed for the door. When she finally barged into her room and grabbed the captain's hat from the night stand where she'd left it she was shaking with emotion. She pulled a suitcase out of the cupboard and began piling clothes inside.

'What are you doing?' asked a voice from the door.

She knew he would follow her, why couldn't he just leave her be? 'Packing?'

'Yes I can see that. Why?'

'You're going to send me home.'

'Am I?'

She frowned and turned around. He sighed and motioned for Pip to leave. The monkey looked like he was thinking about it but decided to exit the room quickly. The Doctor closed the door gently and moved toward Winter. 'Why did you kill them?'

She swallowed and shook her head. 'It doesn't make any difference.'

He was suddenly right beside her and he put his hands either side of her face. 'Yes. Yes it does. It makes all the difference in the world.'

She sighed and looked at the floor. 'I was angry, Ianto was dead, they were coming to take my friends away I just. I just lost it.'

He nodded, forcing her to look up at him. 'Exactly! Exactly! You were in a terrible, terrible position and you fought back the only way you could. As for disposing of the bodies. I went through the lists of people that disappeared that day. There were more than you may think. Their families were probably told the same lies everyone else heard.'

She could hear the disdain in his voice so she chose not to push for information as to what those lies actually were.

'Is this Jack's room,' he asked suddenly, pulling back from her.

She looked around the blue room with the dark wood furniture.

'It is, it's Jacks room… Oh no!' he jumped back over to her and knocked on her head. 'No, no, no!'

'What?' she asked, suddenly worried.

He stepped back and stared at her from side on. 'You're in love with Jack!'

She gaped at him and watched as he smacked his own head and began pacing the room. 'What? No! I mean how? I mean… what the hell?'

'I could say the same to you, what am I going to do with you? Eh?' The Doctor rushed over and wrapped his arms around her. 'Mr Jones and Captain Harkness. You sure know how to pick them.'

She smacked his back playfully and he laughed before pulling back.

'I'll take you back. Just two more trips and I'll take you too him.'

'It's fine, he's busy and well, you know…'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged pathetically.

'I'm sure we can find a little space for him.' He smiled at her as she finally seemed to cheer up.

She glanced down at the packing and then back to him. 'Two more trips then.'

He clapped his hands together and turned to leave. In the doorway he stopped. 'Oh, and I'm going to take this. You can have it back when you leave.' He took her sword out from above the door and smiled.

…

'Ah and wear something patriotic, we're going to meet Churchill.'

…

This episode has stayed mostly the same, mainly because it's short and I had the same issue as I did the first time. Trying to involve Winter without interfering with the original episodes. It was probably around now that I really started looking into writing my own storylines rather than playing around with transcripts. It was also the time that Winter started spending a lot of time alone whereas before she'd always had Jack or Ianto to fall back on. I do think I raced between Jack and Ianto a lot with her affection in the early version. Mainly because of sadness at Ianto's loss but also because I just wanted to get back to writing about love at a time when I was still getting to grips with myself. Anyway, I think old readers might remember what happens in the next chapter. I'm kind of looking forward to it.

'The Small But Powerful One': Not younger. To be honest you need to read 'Wonderland' to understand. But it has Winter in it and it's really good so you may enjoy it.

Rachy Babes: Taller Winter with blue highlights and a liking for order I'm kind of fond of it. I chose blue to match the Tardis and the hat like I said; I'm not revealing a thing.