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For five and a half hours she waited.  She ignored her mother’s cajoling and Pete’s questions.  She half listened to Mickey’s answers and when he came to join her, sitting on the floor and leaning against that damnable white wall, she let her head slide down onto his shoulder.“I’ve gotta wait Micks.  He said to always wait five and a half hours.”“I know babe.”After five hours, sadness was giving way to panic with every stuttering breath.  “Time runs faster here than there.  How will I know?”Jackie’s hand clasped hers and squeezed.  At some point she’d joined her daughter on the floor.“We’ll post someone 24/7 until we can hard wire in a monitoring camera.”  Pete’s voice came from the far side of her mum.  “We can keep this room under constant surveillance.  We’ll know the second the Doctor comes.”Rose closed her eyes, her conscience pricking her.  “Pete thank you for coming back and catching me.  I don’t know why you did that...but...thanks.”“I sent him back.  Just to check on you.  The Doctor had sent you here and I was afraid you were in danger,” Jackie explained.  “I didn’t mean to take you away from him, sweetheart.”Rose squeezed her mum’s hand.  “I know mum.  I was in danger.  It wasn’t his fault, I was the stupid one.”  She swallowed a sob.  If only she’d made sure that stupid lever was locked in place.  “Thank you Pete for... for saving me.”“Of course.”  He didn’t feel like a dad, but for just a moment he felt a swell of pride for being her rescuer.  If the hoppers were still active, he would gladly have given Rose the way back.Someone’s watched beeped and was quickly silenced.“Rose...” Jackie began after a few more minutes.“I know mum.” Pete helped Jackie to her feet as Rose stood before Mickey could offer her the same.  Her bum was numb and her legs stiff after so much time, but she hardly noticed.  Her whole body felt stiff and unnatural, her emotions buried under shock.It was well past regular office hours by the time they left the Hopper Room.  Only Torchwood One’s night shift was present to witness their Director, Agent Smith and two mysterious women trudge out into the dark of London.

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“So, what’s the plan?”  Mickey threw himself down on the sofa next to her.“What?”  The question was half-hearted, as if she didn’t really care to know what he was talking about.  And she didn’t.  She didn’t care about much these days.  Not caring made it easier not to feel and not feeling made it easier to hold onto the fraying bits of her tattered sanity.  Everything about this place felt wrong.  It felt alien, and she was certainly used to alien, but not when it looked so much like home...not when she was subtly expected to accept it was home...not when she didn’t have the Doctor to be her compass...“Your plan to get back of course,” he looked at her like she’d dribbled on something on her shirt.  Maybe she had.“You heard him, Micks.  The universes are closed off, sealed forever.”  He hadn’t come for her, smashing through the wall on his proverbial white horse.He snorted rudely, “Yeah right.  Like that ever stopped Rose Tyler from getting what she wants!  What happened to the girl who ripped open the heart of the TARDIS?  Or was that just for him when he was all big ears and leather?”“It’s not like that.  Not this time.”“No?  I don’t see it.” He was egging her on, trying to get a rise out of her and she knew it.  But she couldn’t even find the energy to tell him to sod off and stop being such a prick.  She sighed before looking away.   “I got no TARDIS for one thing.  Besides...”“Besides... what?”She gave him a bloodshot glare before returning to her study of the far wall.   Okay so he was starting to get to her.  Best just tell him the ugly truth: “He wants me to be here.  He told me to go, Mickey.”“He sent you away the other time too.”“But this was different.  He stood right there and heard me telling mum how I felt, how I’d made my choice and then he just put that thing around my neck anyway!”  She chewed on her thumb to keep from screaming out her anguish. Mickey grabbed her shoulders, turning her back to face him.  “You didn’t see his face, Rose.  I did.”  Once upon a time, not that long ago Mickey Smith had believed he was in love with Rose Tyler. He would never have said what he saying now but he’d changed, they’d changed and he couldn’t stand to see his best friend hurting so.  “If I didn’t think he loved you before, I absolutely knew he loved you then.  It was killing him to send you away to safety.”“But – ““No.  Listen to me.  It was plain as day that he didn’t want to it.  He was making the hard choice to save you.  It’s what a soldier does.”Something in his voice told her that he was speaking from experience, of things he’d seen and maybe done over here that had changed him from the boy she’d known to the man he seemed to be.  She stared into her friend’s face, wanting to believe him.  If the Doctor had actually wanted her to stay with him, well that was a tiny bit of salve for her battered heart.  Still it didn’t change anything about her predicament.  “It doesn’t matter though does it?  I still fell.”  She shuddered, hearing again the Doctor’s terrified screams.  “I’m still stuck here.”Mickey nodded slowly.  “And I’m sure the Doctor is doing everything he can to change that.  But since when do you wait around to let someone else give you what you want?  That’s not the Rose Tyler I grew up with.”She sighed again.  She couldn’t look at the determination in his face.  She was too tired.  She was scared that this was truly the end stop, that this was indeed her Aberdeen.She must have voiced her thoughts because he answered her.  “You’re not Sarah Jane.  You’re the one who read the graffiti and believed the impossible.  Otherwise you’d never have had me burn up the tires on my car or drive that big yellow lorry the first time, yeah?”A ghost of a smile passed over her wan face.  “Mum and her boyfriends.  Guess I shouldn’t say that too loud now.”  Jackie and Pete were drawing together slowly but surely; two lovers given a second chance for the first time.  It was weird but wonderful and the very best part of life here in ‘Pete’s World’.“So, like I said:  what’s the plan?”Rose shook her head.  “I’ve got nothing.”  Nothing but empty days and sleepless nights and a gnawing void in her soul that was slowly consuming her from the inside out.  She drew her knees up to her chin and hugged them.“But if you had something, if you really did, would you go for it?  Would you leave your mum, me, for good?  Would you really pick the Doctor forever?”“Mickey, what are you going on about?  What do you know?”  For the first time Rose’s gaze sharpened.He placed a cautionary finger against his lips and looked at the open lounge door.  “Feel up to going for a walk?”She hadn’t been outside since the night they’d arrived. “Yeah, okay.”

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As they wandered the grounds Mickey told Rose about the information he thought helpful.  He tried to let Rose draw her own conclusions because he understood how critical it was for her to find hope for herself.   He knew better than to offer false hope – that would only send her deeper into depression, maybe worse – but if he could get her to see what he saw, then the fighter in her would awaken.  Even if nothing came of all of it, she would know she tried and the effort would set her back on the right path, help her find her place in this new reality.He chose his words carefully.Malcolm and his crew confirmed that the only reason the hoppers didn’t work anymore was the absence of the carrier signal – the Cybermen – now lost to the Void.  The technology was still viable if it had a new signal to use.Just like in the other universe, there was an active rift in Cardiff and Torchwood had supervisory control.  They had a leadership vacuum at the moment as their Commander Suzie Costello had been killed in an artifact retrieval that went terribly sideways.  With Mickey a senior agent and Pete the organization’s director they could get access without much fuss.  The rift was some kind of tear in time and space that occasionally let alien tech and life forms pass through to Earth.  Was there a way to let things exit was the big question?He’d also found mention of a man called Jack Harkness.  “He’s not our Captain Jack,” he explained.  “He doesn’t seem to work for anybody.  Just that his name has popped up on a couple of random reports.  If I didn’t already know the name, I wouldn’t think anything of it.”  Long ago Mickey had installed a secret search filter on the Torchwood mainframe to alert him of any previously known associates.  It had been very helpful to minimize the surprise of meeting strangers with familiar names and faces.Rose listened to everything he told her.  She couldn’t share Mickey’s enthusiasm but she also couldn’t help the prick of interest his words gave her.  Her mood wanted to see everything pessimistically, but her natural optimism was fighting to reassert itself.  Maybe the Doctor had got it wrong (it wouldn’t be the first time).  Or maybe the TARDIS really couldn’t come through to her, but maybe something (or someone) smaller could get out.  A glimmer of light flickered in the back of her darkened mind.Eventually they sat together on a bench overlooking Pete’s private golf course.  Begrudgingly Rose acknowledged to herself that if she had to be stranded, she’d landed in a pretty great place.  It was a far cry from the concrete landscape of the Estate.She filled Mickey in on what Jack had been like before travelling with the Doctor.  She realized with some chagrin that they’d never taken the time to share such things before.  She’d been too busy living in the moment, chasing the adventures with her guys to keep old friends in the loop.  “Is the Time Agency a thing here, do you think?”Mickey confessed he didn’t know, but it was absolutely worth investigating.  He wondered aloud how you sought out a secret organization from the future.  “Let me look again at the references to Jack that I have on file.  Maybe there’s a pattern or something.  Maybe we can try and just be where we think he’ll show up next.  But it’s hard to predict when something’s going to happen...”“Maybe we can make it happen.”“What do you mean?”  Mickey hid his gloating glee at getting Rose engaged at last.“Well, Time Agents are interested in unusual events.  Me and mum suddenly appearing in Pete’s life is pretty unusual.”  Reporters and paparazzi hounded Pete as soon as word had got out that Jackie Tyler had returned from the dead.  Pete had met with his legal team and then promotional managers from both Vitex and Torchwood to spin the perfect story.  Rose vaguely remembered posing for some photographs for a press package.  “There’s going to be a big Vitex party next week and mum and Pete have been pressuring me to go, to make it my public debut or some such ridiculousness.  What better chance for Jack to discreetly check us out?”“And we can check him out,” Mickey was nodding.  He liked the plan.  It would be a well controlled first contact.  If there was a Time Agency, then there probably were vortex manipulators and Jack would have one.  If they could access the vortex through the rift... That night Rose ate a little more than was strictly necessary to keep body and soul together.  Jackie and Pete shared a look across the table and Jackie hid a tremulous smile behind her napkin.  Her daughter was finally on the road back from depression.  God bless Mickey Smith for coming to visit Rose.

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He came to her in her dreams.  Rose was finally sleeping a few hours each night without the aid of sleeping pills.  Without the drugs in her system her mind was open to her heart’s cry.He would be slouched on the tattered jumpseat, his long legs reaching all the way to the console, his converse clad feet propped upon the edge.  A part of the TARDIS would be in his hand, and he would look up at her and smile that special smile, the smile that he reserved just for her: the gentle smile that said so much and never said anything at all.  Sometimes she’d sit next to him and rest her head on his shoulder and watch his lovely hands at work.  In her dream she could feel the slight scratch of the wool of his suit under her cheek and through the top of her head the press of his neck.  Sometimes he would tilt his head and press his cheek and ear to her hair and murmur that it tickled. Sometimes she’d stand away from him and lean her hip against the console and wait for him to set aside the part and rise and come towards her.  He’d reach around and press some button or flick some switch and she’d catch a whiff of his scent and admire his handsome jaw up close.  Sometimes his arm would brush hers and she’d wish he would wrap it around her and hold her tight.  She wished he would never let go.Sometimes he would turn his head and catch her gaze and she’d tumble headlong into the warmth of his chocolate eyes.  So old, so wise, so very lonely were the beautiful eyes of her time lord.  She’d remind him it was better with two and his eyes would crinkle at the corner in bemused agreement before again becoming distant and serious and sad.Always Rose would long to touch him, to offer the comfort of a hug but in her dreams her arms were unresponsive lead.  She would feel useless and then the panic would creep up behind her.Mostly her dreams would become nightmares as the TARDIS tilted and she would begin to slide away.  He would hold out his hand, his fighting hand, towards her and she would stretch with all her might to reach it.  Sometimes their finger tips would brush together but always they would slip through without purchase.His pale face would contort into terror and they would scream at each other as they were ripped apart once again.Rose would jolt awake, her throat seized in a silent scream, her body damp with panicked sweat.    Yet she always would try to fall back asleep to chase the dream.  She gladly risked the nightmares for those sweet moments with the Doctor. Right now they were all she had.

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He re-read the transmission and his notes.  If it wasn’t for Pete Tyler’s connection to Torchwood and the critical events that happen under his leadership, he probably wouldn’t care about the two mysterious Tyler women.The official story was wife Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler (nee Prentice) had narrowly escaped being cyberized in Lumec’s mad attack.  The trauma had resulted in temporary amnesia and then a nervous breakdown which modified her personality.  Unofficially the breakdown had done the woman a world of good in terms of her personality and her marital relationship.  Since her reappearance events connected with Pete Tyler, Vitex and Torchwood re-stabilized on the preferred time lines.The adult daughter was another matter.  The official position was Rose Marion Tyler was the love child of Jackie and Pete Tyler, conceived during a brief summer fling.  Jackie Prentice kept the pregnancy a secret from her then ex-boyfriend and the baby was put up for adoption immediately after birth.  Even after Jackie and Pete reunited and married, Jackie continued to keep the secret.It wasn’t until Jackie had her transformation and Rose had apparently reached out to find her birth parents that it all came to light.Miraculous as that story was, it was plausible and apparently supported with all the necessary documentation.  The strange part was from a time perspective:  Rose Marion Tyler did not seem to exist.  Granted many people did not exist in the Agency’s data base as their lives were largely insignificant in the unfolding of human history, but given her intimate link to the famous Director of Torchwood, Rose Tyler should have at least created a footnote.Jack scratched the back of his head as he stared at the press packet photo.  His “spidie-senses” were tingling.  Tonight was her first social appearance – a black-tie Vitex party. Good thing his favourite tux was back from the cleaners. “Mrs. Tyler, Jack Harkness.”  He shook her hand, holding it a fraction longer than needed and treated her to his dimpled, matinee idol smile.Jackie simpered and Rose bit her lip to keep from smirking.  It was the same killer charm, different Jack.  She’d never seen Jack in a tuxedo and she had to admit he made it look good.“How nice to meet you Mr. Harkness.  Welcome to our little party.  This is my daughter Rose.”  Jackie beamed.  If looks counted for anything, this hunk could surely give the Doctor a run for his money – plus he wasn’t an ancient alien stuck over on the other side of the Void.  Her daughter needed a nice distraction to help her transition into her new life...Rose mentally braced herself for the impact of those piercing blue eyes, so well loved and yet so devoid of any recognition.  She appreciated that Mickey had coached her on how to navigate all the doppelgangers, but this was Jack...dear, wonderful Jack...last member of team TARDIS...“Miss Tyler.”  He took her hand but instead of shaking it, boldly raised it to his lips.  “It’s a pleasure.”“Mr. Harkness,” she replied with studied coolness.  She hoped he didn’t notice the dampness of her palm.  “Are you a personal family friend, or are you connected to Vitex in some capacity?”Jack smiled smoothly.  “I would say I was a friend of the Tyler family, although personal might be a bit more intimate that I can claim at this time.”Rose returned his smile.  Trust Jack to slip the word “intimate” into the conversation in the first 60 seconds!  “I’m sure you’ve heard my story, so you must forgive me if I ask obvious questions.”Jack bowed slightly.  “It would be my pleasure to help you anyway I can.”Rose sucked in a breath.  Was he trying to tell her something or just flirting?  “In that case,” she placed a light hand on his arm, “perhaps mum will allow me to escape the receiving line for a few minutes?  I’m parched.”Jackie nodded and made a shooing motion with her hand even as she turned to the next person waiting for her attention.  Out of the corner of her eye she watched Rose disappear on the arm of the handsome Jack Harkness and felt quite pleased.  What she failed to notice was Mickey detach himself from the background and follow them.Pete Tyler looked up from the diminutive German Ambassador just in time to see Mickey trail Rose and some tall stranger toward the refreshments.  He thought Harkness was the name, but he couldn’t recall the connections.

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Jack and Rose made small talk as they secured glasses and she let him steer her to a quieter corner.  She spotted Mickey hovering just far enough away not to raise suspicion.“It must be quite an adjustment for you, suddenly finding yourself heiress to the Vitex fortunes.”Rose shrugged.  “I suppose so.  I had no idea who my birth parents were until the records were unsealed.  My adoptive family lived modestly.”“What do your adoptive parents think of all this?”“I thought you knew:  they’ve both passed; nothing tragic, just poor health and age.  That’s when I felt I wanted to know more of where I came from.  You know: medical history and what not.”“Of course and all this is just a pleasant surprise.  You never expected to find yourself here.”“You got that right,” Rose agreed with a bitter undertone she couldn’t quite hide.  Before Jack could respond, she changed the subject.  “So, now you know all about me – what’s your story Mr. Harkness?”“Call me Jack, please.”  Bam!  There was the dimple and Hollywood smile again.  Rose wondered idly if he whitened his teeth or if the god’s had just bestowed him pearly whites.  Either way, he certainly knew how to use them.“How long have you known my parents?”Jack prevaricated, “Quite a long time, but only from a distance.  I don’t think either of them would know me at all.  In fact,” he leaned in conspiratorially, “I pretty much crashed the party.”“For the free champagne?”“For a closer look at the mysterious and most lovely Rose Tyler.”Rose couldn’t help the blush that flushed her cheeks.  He would probably attribute it to attraction, but she knew it was nervous excitement.  Jack had sought her out!  That had to mean something.  She sipped her champagne to her mask her reaction.  “And now that you’ve had that closer look?”“The mystery deepens.”  He leaned in closer.Oh god, was he going to try and kiss her?  Rose was glad of the glass in her hand and raised it in a mock toast effectively blocking him.  “Well, chalk one up for feminine allure then.”Jack’s smile was wry, but he joined in with the toast, clinking her glass and shifting back slightly.  “So tell me, Miss Tyler, what did you do before becoming an heiress?”“I travelled, a lot.  I had no fixed address, just worked here and there as was needed, and met a lot of fascinating people.”“On your own?”“No, with a friend.”  Jack noted the shadow that clouded her face.“Where’s your friend now?”“We were separated.  He’s off travelling on his own now.”  The shadow had turned to clouds, dimming the light in her whiskey coloured eyes.“I’m sorry,” he said sympathetically.  This was the crux of her story he quesseed, but he couldn’t tell if it was of any import to the Agency.  The travelling might explain why she wasn’t notable even if it was humanitarian.  Perhaps she would disappear off travelling again reunited with this “friend”.    Still, as the daughter of Pete Tyler...Rose brightened abruptly with a soft giggle.  “How did that happen?  You managed to swing the conversation right back to me!  I want to know about you.  Tell me about Jack Harkness.”  She batted her lashes flirtatiously.Jack grinned.  Whoever she was, she was adept at casual interrogation tactics.  He conceded to her skill with grace.  “Jack Harkness is a charming n’er do well who appreciates life and beauty in all its forms.”“Oooo, that sounds interesting; tell me more.  What does Jack Harkness do for a living?”“Would you believe charms naive young heiresses out of their vast fortunes?”“Good thing I’m not naive then.”“Good thing,” he agreed.  She was young, barely in her twenties, yet there was an intelligent maturity about her that he found worthy of respect.  Perhaps it was all the travelling she mentioned.  Something made Rose Tyler wise beyond her years.  Jack found himself genuinely attracted to her and interested in her as more than just a Time Agency subject.  Warning bells were going off in the back of his mind but he ignored them.“Now that we’ve established that my fortunes are safe from you – ““We have?”  He feigned wounded disappointment.“Yes...” she couldn’t help but smile at his little boy pout.  “Now that’s established, what can I do for you, Mr. Harkness?”“I thought we’d moved on to Jack?”“We’ll see.”  Jack was intrigued further.  Rose might be a blonde but that was as far as the joke would ever go.  Maybe he could persuade her to stick around, to take a true interest in her father’s affairs.  Maybe her absence from history was a wrong he was here to make right.  And maybe he just wanted to get to know her a lot better for personal reasons.  The bells rang louder and he nearly winced at the headache they were forming.“Perhaps you’d save me a dance or two later?”Rose inclined her head.  “Of course; it would be rude to turn away a family friend, although I should warn you I’m a bit rusty.”“You’re a vision of grace I’m sure, and don’t worry, I can be a strong lead if needed.”“I’ll bet.”  Rose paused and then made a quick decision.  “Actually there might be something that you could do for me.”“I’m at your service.”“Do you have a business card?  A number where I could reach you?”“I’ll be right back.”  Jack approached a man nearby and asked him if he had a business card and also a pen.  Rose made eye contact with Mickey and nodded subtly.In a moment Jack was back with his name and number scrawled on the other man’s card.  “Here.  That number will reach me day or night.”Rose was impressed that he’d managed to give her the information while still keeping his own identity a secret.  She tucked the card into the cummerbund style sash of her gown. “Thank you.”“Care to elaborate on how I might be of service?”“Not here and not now.”“In that case, I have probably monopolized you long enough.  Your father seems to be looking this way quite a bit.  I’ll find you later for that promised dance.” Jack worked the crowd and cashed in on the promised dance before the evening was over.  He was pretty confident that Rose Tyler was human.  All her autonomic reactions were text book:  the way she flushed after too much champagne or too many compliments, how her eyes dilated, how her pulse fluttered, how her palms were slightly damp.  There were too many clues to be faked by an amateur at least.Jack tossed back the whiskey neat.  Still there was a lot to intrigue him.  Certainly she was beautiful but in an underdone way.  She didn’t have the polish that came with being an heiress debutant (aligns with her cover story) and yet she displayed wit and self awareness that contradicted her apparent age.He shrugged out of his jacket with a sigh.  With all the time he’d spent on her he should have stolen at least one kiss, if not her knickers.  Was he losing his touch?  Nah...she was just more than met the eye. And what was it with the bloke who was skulking about all night?  Bodyguard (What for?)?  Boyfriend (Hands off the blonde would have been more like it)?He hoped she’d call soon or he would have to manufacture another meeting.

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The next day Pete was disturbed to discover that the mysterious Mr. Harkness had indeed crashed his party and then had spent a large amount of time with Rose.  His inquiries revealed nothing but more questions.  Worried that he was some sort of conman looking to take advantage of Rose’s newfound life and wealth, Pete decided to speak with her. “Rose, do you have a minute?”“Sure what’s up?”Pete fidgeted.  It wasn’t like he was her dad; he didn’t feel he had the right to dictate who she wanted to see.   Wasn’t she a bit old for that anyway?  On the other hand, she was new to this lifestyle, new to this reality, new to pretty much everything.  Hopefully she’d take his counsel in the spirit he offered it.“I hope your first Vitex party was enjoyable?”Rose shrugged.  It had been an important night for her mum and for Pete but she hated being dragged out like a trick pony for everyone to gawk at and whisper about.  On the other hand, it had made it easy to make first contact with Jack.  She was now convinced that he was a Time Agent (or this world’s equivalent) and was investigating the sudden appearance of a person with no previous history.  “It was alright.  I’m not one for living in the limelight though, so don’t assume I’ll attend every function.”Pete nodded quickly.  “I understand.  I’m glad you, er, you had a good time.”Rose noticed his discomfort.  “What’s wrong?”“Well. I saw you spend quite a bit of time with a Mr. Jack Harkness and it was brought to my attention that he actually crashed the party.  My sources can’t find out anything about him and well, I have to question his motives.”“His motives?  You mean like he’s trying to seduce the new heiress and bilk her out of her fortunes?”  Rose scoffed.Pete flushed, “Well yes, actually.”Rose leaned forward.  “Pete, I know you don’t know me very well, but let me assure you that I am not that naive.  Besides I know Jack Harkness far better than he thinks I do.”“You know him from the other universe?”  Rose nodded.  “But he’s not the same man – not exactly.  You can’t be too sure about him.”“I realize that.  It’s like you being Pete Tyler but not my dad Pete Tyler.  The Doctor calls it ‘gingerbread houses’.    It’s okay Pete.  Mickey and I know what we’re doing.  It was important that Jack Harkness contact me.”“What’s going on?”  Pete was sliding into his Torchwood role at the mention of his operative.Since he’d brought it up, Rose decided it was time to bring Pete in on their nebulous plans. “So at this point, I’d rather mum not know.  I know she’s happy to have me here and I know she wants me to start a life, settle down, and all that.  I understand, I truly do, but I can’t let this go; not if there’s any chance that I can get back.”  She almost said ‘home’, but stopped herself.  Saying that home was somewhere other than where her mother was, felt too much like disrespect even betrayal.  She loved her mum and was grateful for all that she’d done for her over the years.  That gratitude had only grown greater since being stranded here.But she loved the Doctor too.  She believed in what he did and why he kept doing it and it had become her purpose for living as well.  She’d been spoiled forever for a ‘beans on toast life’.  If she was honest, she was never satisfied with that future even before meeting the Doctor.  One of the biggest things that grated on her now living in this alternate universe was the slow progression of days, the tedium of linear time and the claustrophobic confinement to one planet.  Two years of travelling with the Doctor had changed Rose dramatically and she couldn’t imagine changing back.Pete listened carefully and saw the woman behind the words.  She was smart and she was brave.  He recognized her passionate determination as his own character trait and couldn’t fault her trying everything to get back to the Doctor.  She wasn’t his daughter biologically, but listening to her he realized she was his daughter in spirit.   He felt privileged that she would include entrust him with her hopes and plans.  It was easy for him to imagine how he would feel if the situation was different, if it was he and his Jackie (now that he had her) who were separated by the void....“I will help you all I can,” he promised.   “Anything my money or Torchwood can supply.  But if she starts to ask what’s going on, I won’t keep this from Jacs.  I don’t damage our relationship with lies.”  Rose nodded in understanding and agreement.  “And as soon as we can, we will bring her in on this, if there turns out to be anything to bring her in on.”Pete and Rose’s relationship took a positive step forward.  Rose could accept him as the man who loved her mum and would always put her first.  He was the man who would help and provide for her because she was Jackie’s daughter.  Pete could accept Rose as the daughter he would have had if life had turned out differently.  They were kindred spirits on one level and united in seeking happiness for each other.

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Rose couldn’t disembark fast enough.  Granted it had cut the travel time from London to Cardiff in half, but Rose couldn’t shake her aversion of the giant air ships.  The Hindenburg disaster might never have happened here but that didn’t make her forget that it had happened in her universe.  Mickey teased her and encouraged her but he couldn’t get her to conquer her nerves. A short car ride later and they were at Roald Dahl Plass and descending underground to Torchwood Three:  Director Pete Tyler, Agent Mickey Smith and the hastily inducted Agent Rose Tyler, alien expert.  Agent Ianto Jones greeted them with urbane charm but it was obvious there was some nervous tension in the team.  Torchwood teams rarely interacted and this Director had never visited Torchwood Three before.Technology expert Dr. Toshiko Sato explained the present understanding of the temporal and spacial rift that ran through Cardiff Bay.  “It is something like a wormhole with one end of the phenomenon anchored here.  The other end seems to drift at random allowing for an extreme variety of alien tech and even alien life forms to fall to Earth.”“What steps have been taken to control the rift?” asked Pete.“We have created the Rift Manipulator that can marginally expand or contract our end of the rift, but it is extremely dangerous.  I’m sure that you have read the reports.”“Yes, of course.  What about directional control?”“You mean as in travel?  From our end to... out there?” Tosh’s eyes grew rounder at the question.“Yes.”“No.  We don’t understand enough about how the rift works.  For now we’ve been operating with the understanding of random movement, like a loose garden hose spraying about,” she gestured with her arm in illustration.  “Only the water is of course flowing in the opposite direction...”  Things came out of the rift here, but things didn’t enter the rift.“You’ve discovered no patterns?” asked Mickey.“Well...we do seem to have more activity during certain celestial alignments.”“Have you analyzed the data?  Have any predictive calculations?”Tosh nodded.  “Some.  I can send you my data back a couple of years.  How much do you want?”“All of it.”She blinked but nodded rapidly.  She was curious why Torchwood One was looking at their rift but it wasn’t her place to ask.  “Okay, I’ll upload it for you before you leave.”“Excellent thank you.”While Pete and Mickey talked with Toshiko, Rose stared at the rift portal.  Its construction reminded her of the TARDIS time rotor column and she felt a fizz of excitement.  The resemblance could not be a coincidence.  The Doctor had taught her not to ignore coincidences because they were the universe’s clues to deeper truths. Once before she’d returned to the Doctor by tearing open the heart of the TARDIS and looking into the time vortex.  Perhaps if she tore open the rift...Unconsciously she drifted closer but before she could touch the machine a hand grabbed her arm.  “I wouldn’t get too close.  There’s a lot of raw power in there.”  Rose turned to look at who had stopped her and gasped aloud.  Gwenyth, last victim of the Gelth and Earth’s unsung saviour, held her arm.“You okay?”“Sorry you look exactly like someone I once met.”  While Rose had been prepared to meet people who looked like people she knew, she’d assumed they would be confined to this time period.“Yeah?  Well they say we all have a lookalike out there.  I’m Gwen Cooper, police liaison.”Rose recovered quickly, “Nice to meet you Gwen Cooper.”  She turned back to the machine, “What do you know about the rift?”“Not much.  Not the science part at least, but sometimes...”  Gwen looked uncomfortable and lowered her voice, “when I’m down here alone I swear it calls to me.”“Calls to you?”  Rose was very interested; if the rift was actually somehow sentient .... “Can you describe it?”Gwen frowned thoughtfully at the column.  “It’s not like I hear voices...no words or anything...it’s just a feeling, like something is tugging at me...beckoning...”  She grinned and shrugged.  “I know that sounds daft, but my family – we go back generations here – and there’s  stories of my ancestors having the second sight and being able to commune with others from beyond.  I guess I just fancy I should be able to too.”Rose nodded solemnly, remembering Gwenyth‘s special abilities.  “Don’t discount your feelings too quickly Gwen.  If you feel something for the rift, I believe you.”Gwen tilted her head and studied the young blond visitor.  “Do you now?  And why would that be?” Pete, Mickey and Tosh joined them and Rose was happy not to have to answer.They were given a demonstration on how they accessed the energy of the rift from the portal.  They also learned that when things came through they didn’t usually manifest in the Hub.  “We’ve had some artifacts come in as far as twenty miles from here.  Life forms are harder to track because they are mobile but we estimate the same type of range.”After a quick peek at the med bay and an introduction to Dr. Owen Harper, they were given a cursory look at the vaults and containment cells before being ushered back to the central offices.“Thank you for your time,” Pete made a point of shaking everyone hands and flashing his salesman smile.  “I realize you are understaffed and that your work is vital to the safety of Earth.  My personal condolences on the loss of Commander Costello, and I will personally look into getting your team fully operational as soon as possible.  You are all doing excellent work and I understand the strain you are under right now.  To that end, I am loaning you Agent Smith, effective immediately.  He is a computer specialist with a lot of field experience as a key member of the Preachers, who you all know were instrumental in winning the Cyberman War.”“Mickey’s first assignment, along with helping out in general retrieval and containment activities, will be to analyze the rift data and see if there are predictive algorithms.  So far random things have come to Earth through the rift, but we would be foolish to think that the potential isn’t there for organized travel and even potential invasion.  Understanding the rift is a high priority for all of us.”Gwen and Tosh exchanged looks.  Their team was small and tight knit.  They weren’t too excited that Torchwood One was taking an interest.  Still, one didn’t argue with the Director.  If Agent Smith could pull his weight, he’d be welcomed...eventually.“Yes, sir.”“Thank you, sir.”“Welcome aboard, Agent Smith.”“Call me Mickey.”  He smiled winningly, accurately assessing the dynamics in the room.  It wasn’t his first time infiltrating a tight knit team.  “I have my kit bag in the car.  I’ll bunk here at the Hub for now.”“I’ll be happy to show you the temporary quarters,” offered Ianto.

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Just before they landed back in London, Rose received a text with an encrypted photo from Mickey: Everyone thinks I’m pranking them.Rose decrypted the photo and nearly dropped her phone.  The photo clearly showed chalk-like graffiti on the Rift’s column: BAD WOLF.She shoved the phone into Pete’s hands before rushing to the loo.  She lost her lunch in her nervous excitement.  Bad Wolf!  The words stirred the ashes of Rose’s hope and for the briefest of seconds she imagined hearing the TARDIS song...  The words ‘Bad Wolf’ had followed them around the universe from the very beginning.  They were the words that convinced Rose she could get back to the Doctor and she had.  Now it seemed like the words had followed her here for the same purpose!No matter how much she begged, Pete would not turn the air ship around.  “From what you’ve told me, yes, it’s an excellent sign we’re on the right track, but we don’t know enough yet.  You can’t just bust open the rift Rose!  I’ve read those reports and you can believe me on this: it’s far, far too dangerous.  As much as I want to help you, I won’t let you destroy this universe just to get you back to yours.” Rose understood him and reluctantly tempered her enthusiasm.  He was right: she couldn’t destroy this universe just to get back to her own, but fresh urgency flowed through her veins.  It had been an agonizing stretch of months for her; how long had it been for the Doctor?  Was he okay?  She needed to get home.“Besides you promised you would tell your mother – now is probably the time.” Jackie wasn’t at all surprised when Rose told her she was trying to get back to the Doctor.  She would have been much more surprised if her plucky daughter hadn’t tried something, somehow.  Selfishly she wished Rose could settle down and they could be a proper family but she’d known for a long time that she was completely committed to that mad alien in the blue box.  Love can do strange things to a person.The way Pete was hovering in the background, Jackie knew she was expected to put up a proper fuss, so she took some perverse comfort from the fact that she surprised them both. Rose was going to do what she wanted to anyway – always had.  No doubt their crazy plans were dangerous.  Everything connected to the Doctor was dangerous but when she looked at her daughter’s earnest face she couldn’t find it in her heart to complain.She also couldn’t find it in her heart to share her own bit of news.  If the little pee stick could be believed.  At least for now she wouldn’t burden Rose with yet another tie to this universe.  Saying goodbye would be bad enough as it was.Later Jackie let Pete hold her while she cried herself to sleep.  She was getting too old for this.  She didn’t explain and let him think it was Rose’s fault and how generous she’d been to put on such a brave face for her girl.  She decided to keep her secret until after she confirmed her condition with the G.P.   It could be nothing after all...no sense adding to drama around here just yet.  She wondered how this Pete would feel about becoming a father at this stage of their lives....That night both Tyler women dreamt.  The younger dreamt of her beloved Doctor while a lone wolf howled in the distance. The older dreamt of dancing baby booties in every colour of the rainbow.

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Rose chewed on her thumb nail and paced her room.  Finally she hit send and waited for him to pick up.“Harkness.”“Hi, it’s Rose Tyler.”“Well hello,” she could hear the smile in his voice.  “I was beginning to wonder if you’d call.”“Can we meet?”“Of course.  When and where?”“The National Museum, Wellington exhibit, 3 pm today?”“Got it.  I’ll be the one wearing the pink carnation in my lapel.”“Very funny.”  She rung off without saying goodbye and immediately second guessed her decision.  She wished Mickey was there to reassure her.   Yet the push to make things happen hadn’t abated; the mysterious appearance of those two little words kept niggling at her.  She knew now, deep in her heart that somehow a way had been prepared; she just had to find it. At 2:45 pm Rose arrived and took a bench just inside the Wellington exhibit.  She didn’t have to wait long.“Where’s the carnation?”“The vendor was fresh out of pink.”  He stood before her, feet planted slightly apart, great coat open and hands shoved deep into his pants pockets.  Rose recognized the stance with a pang. She rose and led them into the exhibit, keeping away from other viewers but never out of their sight.  She paused before a portrait of the Duke of Wellington and commented, “In my world, he not only defeated Napoleon but he survived the Battle of Waterloo.”Jack’s head swivelled around sharply.  “In your world?”“It’s mainly little things that are different.  Just enough to remind me that I don’t belong here,” Rose met his gaze bravely, “but I think you already knew that.”“Who are you, Rose Tyler?”“Who are you, Jack Harkness?”They stared at each other for a full minute before Rose finally shrugged and spread her hands in a peace keeping gesture.  “I’m here by accident and I don’t intend to cause any trouble.  All I want is to get back home.”“Where is home?”“A parallel universe.”“Is that where your friend is?  The one you travelled with that you said you were separated from?”Rose bit her lip and nodded.“Why are you telling me this?”  She noted that he seemed to accept her information with little surprise: another clue that this Jack was as knowledgeable as his counterpart.  “You could get into a lot of trouble talking like this to the wrong people.”“But you’re not the wrong people, are you Jack?  You didn’t even blink when I said I’m from another universe.”They waited as a couple of people strolled past.“There is a Jack Harkness in my universe too.  We are really good friends and I trust him with my life.  That’s why I decided to reach out to you.  After you approached me at the Vitex party I was pretty sure you could help me.”Jack blinked, momentarily distracted by the idea of a doppelganger in a parallel universe.  He’d been acquainted with the theory for years, but to have evidence that it was true was startling to say the least.  “How do you think I can help?  How do you know I won’t just hand you over to the authorities?”“What authorities?  Do you mean my dad?”  Rose rolled her eyes.   “Tell me Jack Harkness: are you a Time Agent?”For the briefest of seconds Rose saw a flash of genuine shock in his eyes. “How do you know about the Agency?”“My Jack told me.  He used to be a Time Agent but for some reason they retconned him and he quit with two years of his life wiped clean.  By the time we first met he was living life as a conman trying to sell a Chula ambulance off as a warship during the London Blitz.”Jack was clever and easily jumped to the right conclusion. “Time travel.  You said you’d been travelling...you meant time travel.”“Time and space travel.  My Jack became part of our team.”  Rose smiled wistfully.“Your friend: a human from the future or an alien?”“Does it matter?”Jack smiled.  This conversation was bizarre and he loved it. “I guess not.”“You didn’t answer my question though: are you still a Time Agent?”He nodded, “Last I checked.”Rose led them around to the far side of a glass display.“Do you have a vortex manipulator?”Jack swore softly.  “That’s highly classified!”Rose just arched a tawny eyebrow.  They were way, way beyond classified.“Yes,” he admitted.“I need it.” “No.  Absolutely not.  That kind of technology can’t fall into the hands of 21st century humans!  I’ll get kicked out of the Agency, or worse.”“Maybe they’ll just retcon you and kick you to the curb so you can begin a life as a conman,” she quipped.“Ha, Ha.  Very funny.”Rose put a hand on his arm.  “Jack, I need your help.  We’ve got the beginnings of a plan and it includes you and your technology.  I don’t believe in coincidences.  I was meant to find you, I know that.  I can’t stay here.  There was never supposed to be a Rose Tyler in this universe, and I just want to go home.”“You said ‘we’?”Rose nodded.  “A few people are helping – Pete for one.”Jack covered Rose’s hand with his.  “I can’t explain it.  Maybe I’m just a sucker for a pretty face and a crazy story...okay.  Okay let’s say I’m interested.  But before I hand over any 51st century tech, not to mention placing my own neck on the chopping block, I want to know more about your plans.  I want to meet with this team of yours.”Rose beamed and stretched up on tip toes to swiftly kiss his cheek.  They were both surprised by the gesture and Rose blushed.  “Sorry,” she murmured.  “This just means a lot to me and I keep forgetting that... well, you know...”Jack grinned, flashing his dimple and pearly whites.  “So the other Jack and you...just friends?”Rose rolled her eyes.  “Yes, just friends...but the best of friends, like the big brother I never had.”  She really missed him.Jack shrugged, linking her arm through his and walking.  “But you also said that some things are different here, didn’t you?”  He pressed her arm into his side meaningfully and gave her a slow wink.  Rose had a generously wide mouth and he had yet to kiss it.She lightly punched his shoulder with her free hand.  “And some things never seem to change!”They shared a laugh and completed the circuit of the room.“So what’s next, Rose Tyler?”“Fancy a trip to Cardiff?”“When?”“Now?”“You don’t waste any time, do you?”“No time like the present...”  Rose stumbled to a halt and stared.“What is it?”  Jack was quickly on alert, all flirtation vanished.“That wasn’t here when I arrived,” she whispered shakily pointing to a 12’ column of air brushed silk suspended from the mezzanine over the central lobby.  According to the sign a new exhibit would be opening next month:  Transportation through the Ages proudly sponsored by Bad Wolf Corporation. “It says ‘Bad Wolf’...those words are important to me.  I don’t know how but they’ve followed me for years.  Last time I saw them I understood they were a sign, a message that I could get back.  Now they’re starting to appear again.”  She turned to him with a face splitting grin.  “This is it Jack!  You’re going to help me get back home!”

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Rose sent texts to Mickey and Pete then headed straight to the airport with Jack in tow.  He made some snide comment about the privileged life, but didn’t complain as he settled into the plush seat and accepted the offered refreshments.Rose declined.  She was too nervous to eat while flying and too excited to be hungry in general.“I don’t suppose you have your vortex manipulator with you?”Jack lied, shaking his head and pushing back his sleeves as proof.  “It’s a bit cumbersome to hide or explain.”Rose nodded, trying to hide her disappointment and stared out the window.  It was overcast and rainy so the late afternoon looked darker than usual.  This was just the first visit, not that big of a delay surely.  “My Jack rarely was without it.”“What can I say?  I was just going to meet a pretty girl at a museum.”“So I’m not an assignment?”“Purely reconnaissance on my part,” Jack assured her.  “Currently I’m assigned to 21st century Earth.  Your life story – or rather lack thereof – was of interest to me.”“So I guess I’m just lucky.”  Doubt about the whole mad scheme was creeping back.  If meeting Jack was just dumb luck then maybe it was all a pipe dream.  Maybe she was jumping to the wrong conclusions. Maybe “Bad Wolf” meant something different here...gingerbread houses and all that...after all, she never did truly discover where (or from whom) those words had come from in the first place... “Or it was this Bad Wolf you mentioned.”  For some reason Jack found he hated to disappoint this woman, so tried to derail her darker thoughts. “Tell me more about that.”Rose recounted how those words had seemed to follow them from the very beginnings of their travels but it wasn’t until Satellite 5 and how her friend had sent her home for safety’s sake that the meaning behind the words seemed to become apparent.  Then she told him how the words had appeared at the Torchwood Three and then again at the museum.Jack would have liked to learn more about the whole Satellite 5 adventure.  What had the other Jack’s role been?  Why had he stopped travelling with them?  Who exactly was this friend Rose carefully skirted around in her story? Instead he let Rose drive the conversation, learning more about her personality and character as she talked.  Her enthusiasm was contagious and before they had touched down in Cardiff Time Agent Jack Harkness was feeling that excitement too.  He’d joined the Time Agency to get off the Boe Peninsula, but also because he believed in their cause – to guard mankind’s future and to right the wrongs which fate and foolishness could throw at it.  Rose’s dilemma tugged at that same part of his heart.  He wanted to right the wrongs for her too.  Chivalry wasn’t dead.  If he wasn’t careful he was going to fall in love with Rose Tyler and it wasn’t going to end well, at least not for him. By the time they reached Torchwood Three the original team had gone home for the night.  Mickey met them at the entrance and short introductions were made.  So, decided Jack, he was neither bodyguard nor boyfriend, but co-conspirator.Mickey let a Captain reference slip towards Jack but then covered it with a joke about his vintage military overcoat.  Jack shrugged off the slip but secretly liked the title.  Maybe in his next undercover assignment he’d use it.  Captain Jack had a nice ring to it.“I’ve made real progress with Tosh’s data.  I sent the bulk of the raw data to Malcolm at Torchwood One and then I worked with the refined numbers from his super computer.”  Mickey was taking them straight to his computer station.“Did you find anything?”  Rose was hopeful once more.“Yes!  It’s pretty complex – nothing that you’d notice just living day to day with it – but over the span of two years we can find patterns.  The next part will be creating predictive algorithms.  Plus I want to see if you being physically nearby affects anything.  You know, like how Bad Wolf suddenly appeared after your last visit.”Jack was looking around the Hub with undisguised interest.  It was a compact unit, a bit rough around the edges but that was the way he liked it.  He was interested in meeting the other people who worked here.  The 21st century was where everything changed for humankind and Earth in particular.  It was places just like this that made a real difference in the outcome.“And how’s life at the Hub in general?  Getting along with the team?”“For the most part.  They’re a pretty tight group and their still grieving their team leader so I’d say I’m tolerated more than embraced.”  Mickey shrugged.  It had been a bit lonely.  It was great to see her.Rose bumped his shoulder.  “Give them time, you’re a great guy.”“Hey, should I be jealous?” Jack teased. “Mickey and I go way back.  We’ve been friends since grade school.”  The comment slipped out before Rose could censor it.“Oh!  So you’re not from around here either?”  Jack was more interested in Mickey and Rose now than their location.“Under statement of the century, mate!”“But unlike me, Mickey had a counterpart – Rickey – who was born over here.  He was killed by the Cybermen.”Jack tilted his head considering.  “So you and Rose had the same accident?”“No, I chose to stay here.  Rose fell through later.”  Mickey went on to explain that they’d been here in this universe before – just before the Cybermen attack began.  They’d helped the local resistance to defeat Lumic and when the time came to return home he’d decided to stay and continue on Rickey’s legacy.  Mickey didn’t tell him that he was tired of playing the tin dog and had seized the opportunity to become his own man.“How did you get here the first time?”“Don’t really know, our ship kinda fell through.”  Mickey hadn’t really been paying attention back then to any of the Doctor’s mad explanations. “Torchwood – our Torchwood – must have been working on the phase-shifter even then...weakening the walls between the two universes...” Rose mused frowning.  The story was always so much bigger than you expected.“Or, the walls aren’t as strong as the Doctor says they are.  It’s not like he hasn’t been wrong before.”“Who’s the Doctor?”“Rose hasn’t told you about him?”  Mickey shot her a questioning look, trying to determine if he’d crossed some invisible line.  The Doctor was such a dominant figure in Rose’s life story that he wondered how she’d managed to keep him a secret from Jack.  When she shrugged and looked away, he took it as permission to answer.“The Doctor is the bloke with the ship.  Rose has been travelling with him for a couple of years.”Jack was listening to Mickey but watching Rose.  “And he’s who you want to get back to.”Rose nodded tightly.“Anyone else here that you know came from your other universe?”  Was it a fluke or actually a bloody invasion?“Just Rose’s mum.”  Mickey explained how the cybermen had found a way across the Void and were invading the parallel world and how he, Pete and some other agents had followed.  It had turned into a rescue mission and they’d brought Jackie back through with them when the Doctor implemented his plan to destroy the enemy.Jack swore softly as the pieces of information shifted and clicked into place.  The amnesia and nervous breakdown were just a cover story after all.  “Okay, so let me get this straight:  you and Jackie had counterparts here, and I have a counterpart over there, but Rose doesn’t have anyone?”“Well, not unless you count the dog,” Mickey smirked.  “The other Jackie had a little dog she called Rose – ““No, I don’t have a counterpart,” Rose spoke over Mickey. The dog story still stung. “Neither does the Doctor.  That’s why I need to get back; I don’t fit.  Everything feels wrong, like it’s just a bit off key or out of sync.”“And does it feel that way to you Mickey?  Or to Jackie?” “No not really.  Sure there were a few glitches: like Britain has a president here and a prime minister there, but that’s just information.  We seem to be able to adapt really well, but not Rose.”  Mickey had thought it was because Rose wanted to be with the Doctor so badly, but now he wondered if there was something more.  Her description of things being slightly out of sync had him thinking...It had Jack thinking too.  Maybe his tingling “spidie- senses” had been more than just professional curiosity and suspicion.  Maybe he was sensing the vibrations of a time-wave.  The Time Agency used them to track disturbances in history, potential threats to the timeline, and sent in agents to investigate and correct before a tsunami knocked humanity off course.  If he was right, then the Agency would be aware of the situation very soon.  They’d be after him to report and failing that would be sending others.  If they were to find Rose....Jack leaned over Mickey shoulder, “Okay, let’s look at what you’ve learned.”

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It was very late before Mickey had shown them everything.  Rose and Jack made use of bunks in the Hub to catch a few hours sleep before the rest of the team returned and work began again.Rose found it hard to fall asleep.  This close to the rift she felt as if she was charged with static electricity.  Goose bumps raised the hair on her arms and prickled her scalp and she tossed and turned on the narrow mattress for some time.  When sleep claimed her at last, her mind remained active replaying the last hours.  Images of graphs and charts danced before her until they slowly poured into each other and began to spin and swirl.  She could feel Mickey take her hand and slowly draw her finger toward the vortex of numbers as if her touching them was the key to understanding. “Rose.”  It was a whisper on the wind, soft and low.His voice was coming from over her shoulder!  When she tried to turn her head and look at the Doctor, Mickey tugged on her arm, pulling her forward.“Rose!” She sat up straight in bed, looking wildly around the strange room until she remembered where she was.“Doctor?” she whispered shakily.  The dream was quickly fading but the echo of his voice remained.  It was as if he’d been right in the room with her!She kicked off the covers and quickly redressed.  Mickey!  Which room was Mickey’s?She burst into every room, the commotion waking Jack before she found Mickey’s quarters.“Mickey, wake up!”  She shook him roughly in her excitement.  “Mickey, he’s calling me!”“Whaaa?  Who’s calling?  Cell phones don’t work down here.”“Not on the phone, ya plum!  In my dreams!  The Doctor called to me.”Mickey flopped back onto his pillow.  “You dreamt of the Doctor,” he said flatly.“No it wasn’t like that.  Yes, I was dreaming but it was like he broke into my dream and was calling for me.  Calling to me.  He’s trying to reach me!”He squinted at her blearily and then patted her hand.  “Why don’t you go back to sleep and see if he calls for you again?”“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Jack spoke from the doorway.  “Check this out.”  He looked meaningfully at something in the hall.Rose came immediately and Mickey stumbled out of bed to follow.All down the hall, walls, floor and ceiling from Rose’s room to Mickey’s and beyond now proclaimed BAD WOLF.“Blimey...”  Mickey whispered behind her before placing his hands on Rose’s shoulders.  “Sorry I doubted you, babe.” The men dressed quickly and met Rose in the meeting room for strong cups of coffee.  BAD WOLF was scrawled on every flat surface.  Mickey remarked that Ianto was going to have a heart attack.  It had taken him hours to persuade the fastidious man not to wash off the first phenomenal appearance of those words.  Now it seemed the BAD WOLF had permeated all of Torchwood Three.Over coffee Rose described her dream and then they checked on the readings on the rift.  As suspected there was a huge spike that correlated with Rose dreaming.  While Jack went to check if there had been any reports of sightings or other phenomena that usually accompanied a rift surge, Mickey continued to analyse the data.“Look Rose: this is when you guys arrived at the Hub.”  There was a fluctuation in the readings that corresponded to her first visit there with Pete.  “There’s more proof that you’re presence effects the Rift.”“Now see how the energy builds here,” he pointed to the time stamp, “and then of course jumps here.  And see how it doesn’t quite reset back to the original numbers?  I want to check with Tosh but my guess is that the Rift is now open more than usual.”Rose frowned.  “You mean my being here is opening the Rift?  Isn’t that dangerous?”“Could be.  Could also be your ticket home?  If you’re right that the Doctor did send some kind of message here,” he referred to the spike, “then there is a connection out there.  If I can figure out how to piggyback that signal, like Malcolm did with the hoppers and the Cybermen, then we’ve got this!”Rose tried to temper her excitement with caution.  “How long will that take, do you think?  The longer the Rift is open the more danger we’re in, yeah?”Mickey frowned and ignored her question.  “Go get me another coffee, babe.”

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The Doctor stood beside the TARDIS console alone.  He scrubbed at the tears on his face, still not able to understand what had just happened.  No, that wasn’t accurate, what had not happened was what actually had his time lord brain spinning.  He’d burned up a sun – hastened the death of an entire solar system – just to say goodbye to her and it hadn’t worked.After months of exhaustive searching, experimenting, ranting and lamenting he’d found no way to get the TARDIS to Pete’s World.  The fact that his ship had metaphorically fallen into it before seemed like the cruelest joke now.  If they’d never fallen through then Lumic could have destroyed that Earth and they never would have made a connection, never known they even existed.  Pete’s World would have been blithely invisible to them, there’d have been no phase shifting room, no hoppers, no need for magna clamps and sticky levers, no falling and losing and failing....  Rose would still be here, with him, where she belonged.  Well, belonging might be presumptuous – they’d never got past the “best companion ever” and “stuff of legend” labels, but he wasn’t above admitting (to his secret keeping TARDIS) that he most assuredly needed her.Exactly why he needed her...well, that was something else and he couldn’t/wouldn’t/shouldn’t ponder such monumental concepts now.  Not when the walls were healing themselves and sealing her away...He had found one last collapsing hole, just big enough to send a signal for a short duration.  And he did that; he used an incredible amount of power to reach out one last time and give her the proper goodbye he’d denied Sarah Jane so long ago.   He couldn’t let his last image of her be the soul-questioning look thrown over her shoulder.  The auditory memory of her last sounds couldn’t be screams. He was fighting one sort of closure to win them another.He’d run the calculations a thousand times before execution.  There was no margin for error and there had been no error.  Still he had failed to reach her and the reason why had frozen his hearts.  Rose didn’t answer because Rose couldn’t answer and the only reason why she couldn’t answer was because...because...
NO!

No, no, no, no, no. 
He could not accept that.  He wrestled with the ice-cold rage that threatened to consume the higher-thinking portions of his brain.  He pushed it back with his most exercised weapon: denial.  He had felt something when he stood there...it had faded but it had been there.  If she had...if the void had...there would have been nothing, right?There was another explanation and he would find it.  If he had to rip apart the whole multi-verse strand by strand so be it!  They owed him that much for giving her to him and then taking her away. He hadn’t been ready. He doubted he ever would be. The TARDIS was singing to him, no shouting at him...but he couldn’t/wouldn’t listen.  Not now, can’t you see I’m busy?  But before he could succumb to the black spots that danced upon his retina, the room was filled with a blinding light that coalesced into a vision only the very deepest parts of his rebellious, romantic hearts had ever dared entertain.A woman in a wedding gown!“What?”  His voice sounded strange in his ears.She turned round and his hearts shattered. Ginger.“What?!?”

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The next few hours flew by.  The other members of Torchwood Three had met their visitors with varying degrees of distrust, impatience and upset, but all those emotions were set aside when they were read into the situation and reports came in.  Two sightings of space debris split the team’s assignments.  In order to let Tosh stay and work with Mickey, Jack volunteered to go with Ianto to one site and Owen and Gwen left for the other.Rose got on the phone and called Pete’s private cell to catch him up on what had happened.“You’re close, aren’t you?” Pete asked hearing the excitement in her voice.  “I’m bringing your mother.  We’ll be there by 11.”“Thanks.”  Rose didn’t think she’d ever get back to London.  If Mickey was right and the Doctor had found a hole big enough to send a signal, who knew how long it would stay open.  As soon as they had something she’d have to try and go.  If they succeeded she’d never be back.  If she failed, well her remains would never leave Torchwood.  Either way, it was time to say goodbye to mum. As much as Jackie knew many things, she didn’t have clearance to be at the Hub.  Pete had booked a suite at the Mercure and Rose met them in the lobby as they checked in.Once they were in the room, Pete offered to give the women some alone time.  “I’ll just be making a few calls,” he explained and retreated to the bedroom with his cell phone.Mother and daughter sat on the sofa looking at each other, both trying to be brave.Jackie sniffled, “Oh come here,” she held her arms out and Rose fell into them.“I’m going to miss you, sweetheart.  I love you, you’re my daughter, but at least I’ve had practice missing you.  You’ve been swanning off on adventures with the Doctor for almost two years now, just popping in for a visit now and then...”“Mum...” Rose started to protest.“Hush now, let me say this.”  Jackie patted her back.  “I’m going to miss you terribly, I can’t lie, but I’m going to be happy too.  I’m going to be happy because I know you’ll be with him and you love him and he loves you.”“Mum...”“I said hush! Let me finish.  Even though I’ll miss you I want you to know I’m going to be happy here.  I’ve got a second chance with the love of my life.  Pete and I, we’re different now but we’re better for it.  We’ll make a good go of it.  We’ve got the baby coming and a great life ahead of us.  I’ll think of you all the time, but it will be happy thoughts, alright?”  Jackie fought to keep the smile in her voice even as the tears spilled over and ruined her makeup.“Oh, mum!”  Rose hugged her fiercely before speaking her own declaration.  “I’m going to miss you too!  And I wish I could be here for your pregnancy and get to meet my baby sister or brother, but it will be better knowing that you have Pete, that you’ve got a second chance at that kind of love.  Not to mention you get to be rich and famous at the same time.”  They both chuckled.  “And Mickey, he’d got his gran back too, that’s good.  You’ve all got family.  That makes it easier.” Rose pushed away slightly from her mother so she could look at her properly.  She wanted to make amends.  “I’m sorry for before.  I’ve always wanted more out of life than what we had on the Estate, so in a way I ran away with the Doctor in the same way I ran away with Jimmy Stone.  But I was wrong to push you away like I did.  I could have called more.  I could have made the Doctor visit more.  The TARDIS is a time machine, for goodness sake!  We could have been home for every Sunday dinner and still done all the travelling and adventuring and saving worlds...  I see that now, but back then I just wanted to be independent I guess.  I’m sorry.”Jackie nodded, wiping tracks of mascara off her daughter’s cheeks.  “You were just being a normal teenager, spreading her wings and leaving the nest.  I knew that – even if I didn’t much like it.  Mind you, the whole alien in a blue box thing that was far from normal!  Oh and don’t think I didn’t compare him to that wanker Jimmy in my head after you were gone a whole year without a pip!!  Just waltzing in like you’d been gone for a day and everything was fine and dandy!  Sure I slapped him, but I wanted to do a lot more than that let me tell you!”“It was an accident, you know that!  And he was properly gutted when he realized what he’d done.  He was really, really sorry.”“He could have said.”“I think he did.”“I don’t think so.”Rose sighed, remembering the turbulent beginnings.  It seemed so very long ago now.Jackie huffed. “Let’s not argue about it.  What’s done is done and I’m big enough to admit that he’s been good for you.  You’ve grown up Rose in ways you couldn’t have if you’d stayed.  A mum can only do so much.  I’m so proud of you, sweetheart.”There was more hugging and kissing.“When do you think you’ll be going?  Can I be there?”“I don’t really know mum, I just feel like it’s soon.  And no I don’t think you can actually be there.”“It’s going to be dangerous.” “Yeah,” now was not the time to lie to her mum.  “But I’ve got to try, you understand that yeah?”“Of course I do!  You love him; of course you want to be with him.  Now that I have Pete back, I can’t imagine being separated.  I’d fight like hell, I would.”Rose grinned at the vehemence in her words.  “I believe you mum and it makes me glad to know you understand.   I do love the Doctor,” she realized with a shock that was the first time she’d confessed that aloud and it made her stomach flip, “but it’s more than that.  I don’t belong here in this universe.  Everything about it feels wrong and not just because he’s not here.  It feels like I’m being pushed out of here and pulled back to there, if that makes sense.”Jackie shook her head.  “Not really, but that doesn’t matter.  You have to go.  I know it and I accept it and I’m sending with you all my love and best wishes.  And wherever you go, always remember you’ll be right here forever too.”  Jackie tapped her heart and then kissed her daughter’s cheek.Rose hugged her again.  “You too mum, you too!” Pete ordered in a lovely lunch and they all dined together, trying hard not to make it seem like a “last meal”.   Jackie raved over the signature house dressing and urged Pete to get her the recipe.  The three of them debated possible names for the baby. “Call us old fashioned,” Jackie had declared, “But we don’t want to know the sex ahead of time.  We don’t care which it is as long as it’s healthy.  It will be a wonderful surprise.”If it was a boy they had pretty much settled on Peter Anthony.“We can call him Junior,” beamed Pete.“Or we can call him Tony,” Jackie corrected with a warning look.If it was a girl Rose was campaigning for Andrea Grace.  “Andrea’s your second name, mum and I like Grace because I feel that’s what you’ve been given.”They were lingering over their third cups of tea when Rose’s phone vibrated.  It was Mickey telling her to come back to the Hub.Pete and Jackie assured her that they would be staying at the hotel until everything “was settled”.  Rose promised to call or text as soon as possible and would come back and see them if she could.Rose kissed and hugged her mum and was surprised when Pete took her offered hand and pulled her in for a tight hug as well.  She thought she felt his lips brush her temple, but she wasn’t sure.  All of them were a bit teary as they parted ways.

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Everyone was back at the Hub when Rose returned.  The retrievals had been nothing more than routine space junk and all interest was now focussed Rose and the “Rift Project”.“We think we have something,” Tosh announced as soon as she came near.  She was excited, her Asian complexion an unusual rosy pink.  “Mickey and I were able to isolate the energy spike and with Malcolm’s equations we think we’ve discovered the point of origin!”Rose shot Mickey a mute appeal.  “Definitely outside of this universe!” he crowed and high-fived his computer partner who twittered at his exuberance.Rose covered her mouth with shaking hands, “The Doctor?”  I wasn’t just dreaming!  It’s real, it’s happening!Mickey winked, “Who else, babe?  Although it would have been nice to have a sample TARDIS transmission to compare the wavelength signature, but yeah; of course it’s him.”“It’s definitely alien and nothing like we’ve ever seen before,” Tosh continued with a nervous smile. “Can we use it?  Can I use a hopper?”“Hopper’s not strong enough.  The signal is fading Rose.”  Mickey didn’t like to be the bearer of bad news but he wasn’t going to fill her with false hope either.  He had hoped that the energy of the rift would make up for the hopper’s limited capacity but so far he didn’t have a solution and time was against them.  He hadn’t given up but he hadn’t saved the day either.“No!”  She reached out as if to grab the computer monitor and shake it into giving them the right answer.  “We’re so close!  Mickey, I can’t lose him now!”“You won’t,” Jack assured. Over the last few hours Jack Harkness had suffered a crisis of conscience.  On the one hand was all his Time Agency training, his indoctrination and their comprehensive protocols; he knew exactly what they would have him do:  confiscate the anomaly known as Rose Marion Tyler and retcon the rest.  On the other hand was his growing affection for all these 21st century people, with their limited tech, their determination, and their dedication to do the right thing.  And there was wonderful Rose Tyler herself, this vibrant charismatic woman who simply loved life and loved her Doctor and had woven her magnetic spell over his jaded heart.  He knew what they would have him do: surrender his vortex manipulator and sign his own death warrant. But the Agency didn’t exactly kill you.  They just wiped you and sent you out to live another life.  He liked the 21st century; he liked these people, so that wasn’t so bad.  Beside, this was the century when everything changed.  Maybe he was the agent of that change.  Maybe this was even his destiny. “You won’t lose the signal if you use this.”  He tossed Mickey his vortex manipulator.  “I’ve been doing my own signal analysis.  This is definitely not coming from around here.  Not now and not in the future.” “But I thought you said you didn’t have it with you...”Jack smiled ruefully, “I wasn’t wearing it.  I had it in my pocket.  No Agent worth his salt would ever let this out of his possession.”“What do we do?”  Mickey asked turning the advanced technology over in his hands.  It was beautiful in its rugged simplicity and he wished he could have it longer to study of all its features.Jack took it back and using a USB cable linked it to Tosh’s computer.  “This data share will fine tune the jump.”  A few seconds later he disconnected it, punched in some commands and then buckled it to Rose’s wrist.  “It’s too big, let’s shove it up your arm a bit.  There.”  Next, Jack turned to Gwen and Ianto, “Clear everything away from the Rift column.  Rose is going to have to tap into that power and we don’t know what will happen.  Owen, give them a hand and then stand by just in case.  Sorry, Tosh we’re probably going to fry your computer, but don’t worry Rose’s daddy will get you a bigger and better one if this works.”  He winked at Rose.  Nobody seemed to notice or care that Jack had suddenly taken charge of operations.“It’s going to cost you your vortex manipulator,” Mickey commented sadly.“And probably your job,” Rose added.Jack shrugged, slightly embarrassed at the attention given his sacrifice.  It just felt like the right thing to do.  When one is surrounded by heroes it was easy to rise to the occasion. “Rose, I’ve never met this Doctor of yours, but do I know that you’re worth fighting for.  I’m privileged to be of service.”“Hurry, I don’t like the looks of the degradation ratio,” Tosh warned.  Suddenly everything was happening fast.Rose grabbed Jack and hugged him hard.  “Thank you!”She spun to Mickey and gave him her cell phone.  “Call Pete and Mum and tell them what happened.  I love you Micks!”  She kissed him hard and then ran to the cleared space they had made near the Rift column.  “It all because of you that I get to do this, I’ll never forget that.  You’re my hero, Mickey Smith.”Mickey grinned broadly at the praise before nodding solemnly at his best friend.  “It’s what we heroes do, Rose.  Good luck.”  He refused to say good bye.“There is an access port there on your left,” Gwen called out.  “When you’re ready, touch it.  Be careful.”“Everyone  clear out!” Jack shouted shepherding everyone else into the relative safety of another room.  In truth nobody knew what would happen next.  Rose might destroy the entire Hub in the next few seconds.  “Rose, when you’re ready, press the flashing green button.  You’ll have two seconds before you jump.  I’m sorry but it’s going to feel like hell.”Rose nodded nervously, “Got it.”  She locked eyes with Jack one last time.  One way or the other this was the end.  “Good bye.”Jack sketched a salute and exited. “...Rose.”  The Doctor’s voice was heavy with sorrow and unshed tears. Rose felt a near physical tug in her chest. “I’m coming,” she whispered, pushed the green button and reached into the portal.She felt her body compress with the surge of raw energy as the rift and the vortex manipulator connected through her.  The air rushed out of her lungs in an eerie howl and her hair stood on end.  Light, brighter than the sun blinded her and she was gone.

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Cold air rushed into her lungs once they remembered their function.  Rose exhaled a moan.  Consciousness came slowly in part because her mind recoiled at the pain that was waiting just behind the curtain of numbness.  Every joint in her body felt as if it had been pulled apart and snapped back into place like giant rubber bands.  Her muscles felt as if they had been shoved through a meat grinder and then slapped back onto her battered skeleton.  Her internal organs felt like they’d been tossed around in a bingo tumbler and left to fall as they may.  Every breath (now that she remembered to breathe) burned under her tender ribs. Jack hadn’t been joking.She lay prone until the combined awareness of her tortured body subsided and coalesced into a background hum of aching pain.  Once the blood pounding in her ears had quieted, she could listen for sounds of her environment.  Outside of her ragged breaths, she heard nothing.  She was lying flat on her back on a hard surface.  Her fingertips, once they stopped tingling, told her it felt like concrete more than tile or wood.  Her nose gave her more clues:  oil, old wood, cigarettes.Slowly she forced open her eyes.  The space was dim, full of grey and navy shadows.  Eventually her eyes adjusted and she thought she could see exposed rafters above her.  Carefully she turned her head and there appeared to be stacked squares (crates? boxes?) illuminated by a high recessed window with some sort of grill covering.  It was night and this was some kind of storage place.  Definitely not Torchwood Three.  She had travelled somewhere.Marshalling her reserves she attempted to sit up.  Eventually she managed to roll onto her side and then push up into a sitting position.  Her head swam for a moment but righted itself before she became nauseous or faint.  The remains of the destroyed vortex manipulator fell off her arm in useless pieces.  A metal gear pinged softly a few inches away.   Where ever she was, returning was off the table.Rose sat for a few minutes on the cold floor waiting for her body to catch up with her.  Except for the burning sensation in her chest she soon discovered there were no lasting side effects to her rash experiment.  It was good to be young.  Eventually she got to her feet and began to explore. It seemed to be a small garage or storage shed, largely empty save for the half dozen packing crates and boxes.  It was too dim to make out any writing on them, but when Rose tried to shift one it was certainly full of something.  Behind the stack, as if they had been barely shoved inside, Rose found the door.  She squeezed in the space between the stack and doorway and prayed that it wasn’t locked or bolted.   The door slid easily until it stopped abruptly with the jingle of chain; definitely not a high security facility. “Come on, you can do it,” she muttered to herself and wriggled her way through the narrow opening.  She had a bit of a panic moment when it looked like her head wouldn’t follow after her shoulder but after a painful scrape on her cheek and the loss of some hair caught on the latch, she was out.She stood outdoors in a small storage complex.  All was dead-of-the-night quiet.  A familiar moon hung in the sky.  Rose looked back at the building she’d arrived in.  “No bloody way!” she exclaimed softly before chuckling.   B. D. Wolfe Lock ‘n Store read the moonlit sign.  The logo of a howling wolf was superimposed over a large red letter B.  Well that explained how she’d even survived, she supposed.  Was it also her first clue the Doctor was here? Rose paused and looked skyward again.  She breathed deeply.  She stretched out her senses.  No dark flying shapes in the sky, no tang in the air, no disquieting feeling...  Mickey, Jack, Tosh, they’d done it!  They’d got her back to the right universe!  This was her Earth!Rose clasped her hands to her chest and sent them all a grateful prayer.  They’d never know of course, but she prayed nevertheless giving thanks for the miracle they had made happen for her.  She wished them all fantastic lives.  Her clasped hands felt heat emanating from her chest.  The throbbing, burning sensation wasn’t a residual injury from the vortex jump at all!  Rose’s fingers fumbled under her jumper until she could latch onto the chain and pull it free.  Her precious TARDIS key glowed softly in the darkness, pulsing with light and hope.“You’re here!” she cried, nearly falling to her knees.  “Okay, where?  Where are you?”  She swung the key around trying to see if would lead her somehow.   She stumbled into a run, turning the corner on the building and then grabbed at the wall for support.  The TARDIS, the beautiful blue TARDIS, stood in the shadows just a few feet ahead of her.Slowly she approached the ship.  Was the Doctor in?  Had they got the right timeline, the right regeneration?  Her hand shook badly as she tried to insert the key into the lock, so much so that she couldn’t manage it – even with two hands.  She pressed her forehead against the wood.  “Please...” she entreated herself.  Get a grip and get inside before he dematerializes!The latch clicked quietly open of its own accord.

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Rose stepped just inside the door.  Her feet would take her no further but her eyes travelled up the ramp, seeking.  With his back to her, stood a tall thin man in a brown striped suit, hunched over the console.  It was him!  It was him!  It was him!“Change your mind then, Donna?” he asked without looking back.  “I don’t know why the TARDIS keeps letting you in without a key.  She’s never done that before.”  He sounded so weary. “Hold on, how’d you even find me?”“Blame Bad Wolf,” she croaked around the galaxy-sixed lump in her throat.  Who the hell is Donna, demanded the last bit of her brain that wasn’t overcome with the simple, stunning truth that she’d made it.The Doctor’s head shot up and whatever he was holding dropped with a clang onto the console forgotten.  Very, very carefully he turned on his heel.   Slowly his eyes traveled down the gangway toward the door and from the soles of her shoes up to her face.They stared at each other, forgetting to breathe, forgetting to move until finally the Doctor challenged his hallucination with his own hoarse voice, “Rose?”   It sounded just like the prayer it was.With a cry she flew up the gangway and straight into his arms.  He caught her up, lifting her off the floor and held on tight.   Solid, warm and alive; not a hallucination!  A miracle! Rose grunted as he squeezed the air out of her.“I can’t...I can’t properly breathe...” she gasped. Slowly he let her slide down until her feet just touched the grating.  He couldn’t let her out of his embrace; his arms refused to unlock their prize.  Rose was back!“How can you be real?” he marvelled accepting the solidity of the person in his arms.  His eyes flew over her features, drinking in the beloved face he never dared hope to see again.  A worried frown creased his forehead as he saw the scrape on her cheek.  She was hurt!  Shouldn’t the TARDIS be ringing the cloister bell or something?  What other injuries did she have?  She’d been able to run to me and she hadn’t screamed when I squeezed her, but then adrenaline can cause a body to ignore injuries for a short duration... “Oh no, this can’t be good.  Are the universes collapsing?  What’s happened to the Void, to Pete’s World?  I tried to send you a signal but you weren’t there!” “Oh, but I was there! I heard you call my name!  That’s how I got back.”  His miracle was talking, lovely pink lips were moving and soft brown eyes were sparkling.  “Mickey – ““Mickey!”“Yes, and Jack – ““Jack!”“Yes!  Now are you going to let me explain or are you just going to keep interrupting me ever other word?”  She grinned cheekily up at him.  She felt giddy with happiness and if he hadn’t been holding her she probably would have spun around the room and kissed a coral strut.“Right, sorry.  You were saying?”  He longed to scan her with his sonic but that would require taking one hand off her lovely body to reach into his pocket and that just was not happening anytime soon.  Rose is here!  Maybe he should just scoop her up and carry her off to med bay...“As I was saying...you sent a signal, you called for me, and with some help Mickey was able to isolate it and piggy back on it to send me home.”“But... but ...how? “ He was momentarily distracted from Rose’s questionable physical condition by the preposterous nature of what she seemed to be telling him.“We used the rift in Cardiff and Jack’s vortex manipulator.  It was a hell of a ride.”  Right now adrenaline was keeping her going but she knew sooner or later her body was going to demand to lie down and sleep for at least twelve hours.The Doctor blanched and stumbled back against the console, his knees uncharacteristically weak. He pulled Rose along with him.  The enormity of risk flabbergasted him.  “Rose!  Have you any idea how dangerous – “He tugged her tight to his chest unable to speak, overwhelmed with gratitude.Rose let him crush her.  She thrilled at the feel of his strong arms around her, the double heartbeat beneath her good cheek.  She was home!  Home! Home! Home! This silly time lord might have other ideas but she was never ever leaving again.  Twice was quite enough, thank you very much.  Her arms snaked in under his jacket to fist his shirt.  His lean body felt leaner than she remembered.  Then again she’d never actually breached the top layers of his clothing before.  Well, not since the Sycorax invasion and that was a long time ago and she’d been really distracted and distraught....

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Eventually the Doctor’s tight grip relaxed fractionally and he began to rub her back in lazy circles, writing things with his fingers on the soft fabric or her jumper.  He shifted his hips slightly because he’d landed on an uncomfortable bolt when he fell back against the console.  Otherwise his manically energetic body seemed quite content to stay still and hold onto Rose. In a detached tone, as if he were reading a story, he told her how as soon as she’d fallen he’d combed the separating wall looking for any remaining cracks.  He glibly skipped over the part in the story that told how long and hard he’d searched, and what state he’d been in while searching.  From this position she couldn’t see his face and that was a good thing.  ‘It was a hell of a ride’ would have been an appropriate descriptor, but she’d already used it. He told her how finally he’d found one fissure barely big enough to send a transmission through and how he’d tried to make what he called a Super Skype Holographic Trans-universal Communication.  When she didn’t answer before the sun he’d been using burned out and the hole completely closed, he’d despaired that she and Pete had even made it safely across the Void. “Oh Doctor!”  Rose looked up at him, distressed at what he’d had to endure on her account.  Not only thinner, but paler too she thought.  His freckles stood out plainly and the creases around his eyes were deeper set.  “I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed.  “I didn’t know!  It was Mickey’s idea to try and use the Rift so we were over in Cardiff when you called to me.  I was asleep dreaming when you said my name, clear as we’re talking now.   It woke me up and then Bad Wolf was written all over everything and we just decided that that was our cue.  It never occurred to any of us that while we were trying to get me to you, you were trying to contact to me somewhere else.”He shook his head, his smile indulgent.  “You lot, always trying to do the impossible.  Still, it’s a good thing you didn’t follow my signal to wherever it came out in Pete’s World.  I couldn’t come through properly; the hole was too small for the TARDIS.  I was only trying to say good bye, to speak with you one last time.” He tucked her hair behind her ear to better see her face. “You’d still be trapped there if we’d actually met up.  Instead,” he lightly tapped her on the nose before linking his hands behind her back once more, “you and Mickey the-not-so-idiot took it upon yourself to retrace my call and follow it back to the source.”“Good thing, huh?”“Yes, a very, very good thing, impossibly good, off the charts brilliant, magnificently molte bene...” the Doctor’s voice faded away as a new thought crossed his mind.  “But your mum Rose; you’re never going to see your mum again.”  The Doctor knew the aching loneliness of losing family and friends. Never would he ever have wished that pain on anyone.“Shhhh.  We had a long talk and sorted it.  Sure I’ll miss her and she’ll miss me, but we’re both where we want to be and with whom we want to be.”  Rose could feel her face getting hot and hoped he didn’t notice.  Rose had acknowledged her feelings to herself and to her mum but that was a far as it went.“So Pete and Jackie...?” He arched a hopeful eyebrow.“Oh yes.  Mum says it’s better than the first time around too.  They’ve both learned from their losses.”“That’s good,” he replied sincerely.  For all the jokes he’d made about Jackie over the years, he did truly love her (in an I’ll-keep-my-distance-thank-you-very-much sort of way).  She deserved some happiness – especially as he was taking way her only daughter.“...and now there’s going to be a baby.”“A baby?” his voice was soft and wistful.“Yeah, I’m going to have a brother or sister and they are going to have another chance at a proper family.”  Rose smiled showing him how content and happy that made her.  “In a way it’s made it easier to say goodbye knowing they’ll all have a good life.”The Doctor smiled again at his generous hearted Rose.“Doctor,” one hand had come out of his jack and was smoothing his tie.  “Who is Donna?”“Donna?” he blinked, scrambling to recall what he’d been thinking of before Rose came back and started hugging him and talking about babies.  “Oh!  Donna!  Donna Noble lives just over in Chiswick with her mum and granddad.  She helped me defeat the Racnoss the other day.  We ended up draining the Thames!   Can you imagine?  Great gal.  You’d like her.”“So...”  Rose now seemed fascinated with the woven stripe design in his lapel.  “She’s travelling with you then?  You’re new companion?”   I am not jealous, no I’m not.“What?  No, no she’s not.  I did ask her.  Her life was pretty much ruined during our adventure and I thought she might like a bit of a change, but she said no.”  He was remembering the last few days, what they had done, what he had nearly done and how Donna had saved him in the end.“And you didn’t go back and ask her a second time?”  Rose snuck a glance upward and found him smiling knowingly and her face heated more.  Gotcha.“I only ever did that once, Rose Tyler.”“Really?”  For all he still held her in his arms for no apparent reason except that he wanted to, she felt insecure.“Really,” he stressed.  His hands drifted up her arms and over her shoulders until he was cradling her face.  “I know I sent you away and I shouted at you when you came back.  I was scared.  No, that word doesn’t quite describe it:  I was terrified.  Yes, sick to my stomach terrified to expose you to the suction of the Void but I was also over the moon because you’d chosen me in spite of everything.”  His thumbs traced and retraced her cheekbones.  Rose didn’t flinch as he lightly touched her wound.  Superficial dermal abrasion then; still it should probably have a disinfectant...  “When you started to slip on that lever...” he shut his eyes tightly and marshalled his emotions.  He didn’t know why he was telling her this.  “When you started to slip on that lever my entire reason for existing collapsed down into your hands.” He shuddered. “When you fell...” His glib gob was failing him and part of his brain was yelling at him to stop and change the subject before it was too late. Those precious hands were now holding his face, offering comfort and a tantalizing distraction but the confession in his hearts was being sucked out of him, demanding to be spoken.  “When you fell I knew the best part of me was dying with you.  If Pete hadn’t caught you, I was coming after you.”  There it was out:  he was a needy, greedy, cowardly sod incapable of facing an existence without this slip of a human being.  Rassilon be merciful because when she finally withers and wastes away like so much golden sand between my gasping fingers...Rose’s comforting hands grabbed his shoulders and shook him so hard his teeth clicked, nearly biting his tongue.  “No!” she denied him fiercely. “You’d have been lost in the Void!”  She was in his face shouting at him like he was deaf.  “You mustn’t ever do that!  The universe needs you!  I need to know that you will go on, that you’ll keep making a difference.” She sucked in a harsh breath, “If my coming back and stupidly falling had led to your death...” Rose was horrified beyond words until a new thought slammed her.  “You did think we’d fallen into the Void, didn’t you?  When I didn’t answer your call, you thought Pete and I never made it!”  She pulled away from him, backing up warily.  She studied him with fresh eyes: extra thin body, extra pale face, extra tired voice. It was her Doctor, but it was like he was stretched too far, ready to snap.  “Doctor, what’s going on with you?”He ran a weary hand over his face.  His arms ached to hold her more, but she wasn’t interested in being romanced just then.  He could tell by her stance and tone of voice.  He might even get a slap out of this.“Rose, nothing happened.  Everything‘s fine, better than fine, I promise you.  You’re back:  the Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS, as it should be.”  That was the point, wasn’t it?  The rest was irrelevant now that they were together again.  He really didn’t want to look at his cowardice that closely.She crossed her arms and tilted her head.  This time she wasn’t buying it.  She now had an intimate knowledge of depression and its seductive and destructive ways.  If he’d been suicidal she wanted to know because she was going to tear a page out of her mother’s handbook and slap that idea right out of his time lordy head once and for all.

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He glanced up at her from under his fringe and sighed heavily.  He knew he wasn’t going to get her to med bay without first offering some sort of story. Might as well be the truth because by the look on Rose’s face, she would detect a lie from a light year away. “Right after my attempt to reach you failed, Donna materialized onboard the TARDIS.  She was soaked in huon particles that pulled her right through the TARDIS’s shields with us still in the vortex!  Imagine!  Nothing like that had ever happened before!  I had just failed the most important attempt of my life and here I was with a strange woman in a wedding dress yelling at me on board my own ship!”“Much as I wanted to I didn’t have time to really react to your fate yet I was grieving you in a way and I know I wasn’t the best example of a time lord.  In fact, she was right shouty and rude to me at first,” the Doctor felt a bit offended but then realized Donna had been pretty upset and downright scared at the time and he’d been no help to her whatsoever.  He rubbed the back of his neck.  He remembered Roses’ jacket and supposed he’d have to give it back to her now.“Anyway, you know how it is sometimes: you just hit the ground running with a new adventure and the fate of the planet in the balance.  Still there was a time...”  He shoved his hands in his pockets since Rose wouldn’t come close enough to touch.  “I was drowning the Empress of Racnoss and all her millions of flesh eating babies with the water from the Thames and I just stood there in the deluge, letting it rise higher and higher.” He ignored Rose’s gasp.  “But then Donna shouted at me, reminding me that she didn’t deserve to die.  She saved me I think.”  He sniffed loudly, the rush of oxygen clearing his brain of those dark moments.  “So I asked her if she wanted to come with me.  She said no, but she also said she believed I needed someone to travel with, that I shouldn’t be alone.  For all her brashness, she can be pretty wise too.”Rose wiped away a tear.  “She’s right: you shouldn’t ever be on your own.”  It was clear he wasn’t telling her everything, but it was probably the biggest debriefing he’d ever given her.  “I’m sorry Doctor.  If I had just made sure that lever was locked in place...”He pushed away from the console and closed the space between them in two long strides, reaching for her despite her negative body language.  “Hush now.  What’s done is done.  The important fact is you’re here.  You fixed it.  I’ve been given a miracle,” his hands resumed their place on her waist,” and I’m going to spend the rest of your days letting you know how grateful I am.” “You are?” she asked hopefully.“I am,” he vowed, pulling her closer.“And just how do you plan to show this gratitude?”“Hmmm, oh big time lord brain here; I have many impressive plans.”  He was going to start with a full medical, but something about the gleam in her dark honey eyes was making him reconsider his plans.Rose giggled and his hearts soared at the sound.  “You never have a plan.  You like to make it up as you go.”“Just so long as I can make it with you, Rose Tyler,” he murmured, his voice dropping in register at the deliberate double entendre.  Med bay could wait.  He leaned down slowly, his gaze flickering between her lips and her eyes.  Her eyes seem to be telling him this was a good idea.  Then she licked her lips and he knew it was an excellent idea.They’d kissed before but the first time she didn’t remember and the second time she was the victim of a psychograph.  But now here they were, both fully aware and in their right minds and he wanted to make absolutely certain that they were in complete agreement that they should kiss.  No peck on the cheek, no press of the forehead, but a proper snog.  They were about to change everything but he didn’t care about the cosmic consequences.  Not if Rose wanted this too.Rose held her breath watching him bend over her.  She’d fanaticized this moment for years and now that is was finally going to happen her knees were threatening to give way.  She slid her hands up to grip his shoulders just to keep her balance and was rewarded with his hands clenching on her waist.  There was a faint smile on his lips but his dark eyes were very, very serious.  This was it.  This was big.At last, at last his cooler lips pressed against her warm ones.  She was warm and delightfully soft, twin plump pillows on which he could find his soul’s rest but he wasn’t much of a sleeper so he pressed on, tilting his head to increase the surface contact.As the Doctor began to deepen their kiss, Rose let her hands reach for his messy hair, ruffling it and scraping her nails on his scalp.  He growled his approval and shifted his embrace, one arm sweeping low to press her against his thighs while his other arm moved up so that he could bury his hand into her hair and cradle her head. She sucked on his pouty lower lip, nipping and teasing it with the tip of her tongue until his tongue came out to play with hers, tasting and exploring, begging for deeper access.  With a sigh she let him in and thought the heady experience just might wash away her consciousness.  He plundered the recesses of her mouth, brushing over her teeth, her tongue, her palate, practically to her tonsils. Finally Rose had to break away to breathe.  They pressed their foreheads together and Rose noticed that for all his widely boasted of superior respiratory bypass, the Doctor was breathing heavily too. It made her slightly proud of herself to think she had rendered him so.  When he finally lifted his head she opened her eyes to see him looking tenderly down at her.“Hello,” he said softly.“Hello.”“This...this changes everything you know.”   Greatest massive understatement of the ages.“I should hope so.”  She tugged on his neck reaching for his lips.  He met her more than half way.

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Later they sat companionably on the jump seat, thoroughly rumpled and completely happy watching the TARDIS rotor rise and fall, carrying them off into the vortex.  Rose asked more about Donna and why hadn’t he gone directly into the vortex once he dropped her off.The Doctor nodded towards the TARDIS console.  “I let her choose our next destination and she just plunked herself down right there.  I thought maybe she needed a bit of repair work, so that’s what I was doing when you interrupted us.” “Seriously though, did you not look outside?” He shrugged.  He truly hadn’t cared.  Once Donna had got him to say the name of the person he was missing so desperately, he’d been battling too many internal demons to pay any attention to the outside universe. Rose poked him in the ribs, dragging him back to the present.  “I woke up in a storage locker just around the corner from you.” “And never has such a locker ever held a more precious cargo!”  He captured the poking digit and kissed it.  The whole kissing thing was still very new and the fact that he had permission was positively thrilling.“No listen: you were parked in the yard of B. D. Wolfe Lock ‘n Store!”They shared a knowing grin.“Oh, you’re good old girl,” the Doctor praised his ship.“Good?  She’s brilliant!” Rose countered. Eventually Rose yawned widely.  The stress and strain of getting back was quickly cancelling out her adrenaline euphoria. “You’re tired,” he stated the obvious.  He was feeling less pressured to get Rose into med bay for a full work up.  He’d detected no hormonal imbalances or pain induced chemicals in her saliva.  Not that that was why he’d kissed her, or kissed her again or again, but it certainly was a bonus utilizing his time lord abilities to do a rudimentary analysis.“I’m knackered,” she agreed as her head flopped onto his shoulder.  “I need my bed.”  It never occurred to her that said bed might be gone; after all, she wasn’t supposed to ever return....He squeezed her shoulders with the arm slung around them.  “You know, after the trauma of our prolonged separation, I don’t think I’m going to be able to let you out of my sight for a long, long time.”She snuggled into him.  “Not even in the safety of the TARDIS?”“Not even.”Rose smiled to herself dreamily.  Just what a girl likes to hear.“Rose?”  He tugged on his ear with his free hand.  He was nervous, knowing what he was asking.  Kisses were one thing; sleeping arrangements were something else entirely.“Doctor,” Rose realized he was waiting on her.  She would have to make the next move...or fall asleep on the jump seat...  “Stay with me?”Swiftly he was on his feet, bowing and holding out his hand to her.  “I thought you’d never ask,” his mocking tone barely masked the relief in his voice and did nothing to hide his delighted expression.Rose giggled and let him pull her to her feet where she wobbled unsteadily.“Can you walk or shall I carry you?”“Well if you’re offering me a choice...” Rose swayed towards him and he scooped her easily into his arms.  With a contented sigh she looped her arms about his neck and leaned her head against his chest.  Best mode of travel ever (sorry TARDIS).The door to her old room as already ajar and the Doctor easily shouldered it open and nudged it closed before crossing to her bed.  He knelt and carefully set his cargo down in the middle of the mattress.  With a happy sigh, Rose rolled over.  Nothing ever felt as good as one’s own bed and pillow...she hadn’t even realized how much she’d missed them until she had them back.The Doctor moved to the end of the bed, untied and removed her shoes before pulling the duvet up and over her.  She already seemed asleep.  He hesitated, staring down at his precious girl before shrugging out of his jacket and loosening his tie.  He toed off his Converse and was preparing to keep vigil, using her headboard as a backrest, when she reached out with her hand.  Not quite asleep then.He gave her his hand and she tugged on it, bringing his arm around to press against her abdomen.  He quickly scooted down to spoon with her, sliding his other arm in between her pillow and shoulder, hugging her close.Rose smiled and sighed again.  “Home...” she murmured before drifting off.The Doctor let his eyes close but not before a single joyful tear slid free, “Quite right too.” The black SUV rolled silently to a stop and four figures dressed all in black exited.  A small flash of light and the chain fell off the door on storage unit 42.  Three entered and one kept watch.“Sir,” one of them pointed out the remnants of the destroyed vortex manipulator with his light.“Bag it.” He touched his ear com.  “Interception failed.  Dispatch cleanup.”“A rogue agent?” speculated the third figure.“Definitely one of ours, but we won’t know much more until they can analyze this.  Do a thorough sweep before cleanup gets here.” The commissioned artist of the Canary Wharf Memorial recounted the listed names then tiredly rubbed the bridge of her nose.  That was so odd; she was certain there had been one more.  The total number had dictated the spacing and placement and now she had to completely recalculate.  It was a good thing she’d caught her mistake before releasing it to the engraver for manufacturing.