Going Home
Chapter One
"I still say she likes me better." Came a voice from inside the office.
"She can't like you better." Another voice-a woman's this time-retorted. "I'm her sister. I see her every day."
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder." The man's voice said. "Emily sees you all the time, so she's used to you being around. But when I come over, she's always excited to see me."
The man who had previously been standing outside the slightly open office door gave a slight shake of his head, before pushing the door open all the way.
"Are you two still arguing about that?" Pete asked in an amused voice.
"Tell him, dad." Rose said, turning to face him, and not looking at all surprised to see him there. "Tell Mickey that Emily likes me better than him."
"She's lying." Mickey said. "Emily likes me better."
"I can't." Pete told them. "Because you're both wrong. Emily likes me better, I'm her father."
Rose rolled her eyes, then put on her business-like face. "Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Tyler?"
"No, that's alright, Ms. Tyler." Pete responded. "I just stopped by to tell my daughter that I'm going home now. I don't want her mother to kill me for being late to my own daughter's birthday party."
Rose and Mickey were both silent when he said this. Pete rolled his eyes when he saw that.
"You two were arguing about who Emily likes better, and you managed to forget that today was her first birthday?" Pete asked in amazement.
"…No." Mickey said slowly. "We didn't forget about that. How could we forget about the party Jackie has been talking about for months?"
"You go on, dad." Rose cut in. "I've just got to finish this one last report, then I'll come home as well. What about you Mickey?"
"I'll wait for you." Mickey said with a shrug.
Pete nodded. "I'll tell Jacks to expect you within the hour, then. See you soon."
"Bye." Rose called out after him as he left her office.
Mickey stood up from the chair he had been sitting in, across from Rose.
"I've just got to get my stuff from downstairs." He told her as he, too, walked towards the door. "D'you want me to come back up here to get you?"
Rose shook her head as her eyes drifted back to the computer screen before her. "That's alright. I'll meet you downstairs, I've just got to print this."
Mickey nodded as well, and exited the room, leaving Rose alone in her office.
Rose sighed as Mickey shut the door behind him. She had been living here, in 'Pete's Universe', for almost two years now. It had been a year and a half since that day on Bad Wolf Bay…the day she had said good-bye to the Doctor for the last time.
The Doctor…she missed him so much. It had been so hard for Rose to accept that she was never going to travel in the Tardis to unknown worlds ever again, never hear the familiar of the Tardis de-materializing, never see the Doctor again…
Rose shook her head slightly to clear her thoughts. All of that was gone now, she was stuck in this universe for the rest of time, there was no use dwelling on the matter when she had work to do.
Shortly before her sister, Emily, had been born, Rose had decided to put the knowledge she had gotten from her travels with the Doctor to good use. And where better to use that knowledge, then at Torchwood? With Pete in charge now, it hadn't been that hard for Rose to get a job. And here she was, a year later, a successful businesswoman, with a stable job and a loving family and friends. But she still missed the Doctor. She would always miss him…
Rose was jolted from her thoughts by a sound she thought she would never hear again. Her eyes went wide as the sound grew louder. It was real, and it was coming from the roof—right above Rose's office on the top floor.
Forgetting all about the report she was supposed to be finishing, Rose leapt up from her chair and raced from her office. She almost ran into Mickey, who had decided to come back upstairs to get her.
"What's wrong?" Mickey yelled as Rose ran towards the stairwell.
"Can't you hear it?" Rose yelled back, almost at the emergency stairs by now. "It's the Tardis!"
Rose threw the door open and ran as fast as she could up the flight of stairs. She arrived on the roof just in time to see the Tardis materializing. But, it wasn't the same. The Tardis looked different, very different.
Mickey caught up with Rose, as she stood frozen across from a red telephone booth. Through the plated glass she could see that there was no one inside of it.
"What's that doing there?" Mickey asked, looking confused. "I thought you said something about the Tardis?"
"I heard it." Rose said softly, not taking her eyes off the phone booth. "And I came up here, and that thing materialized out of nowhere, just like the Tardis."
Before Mickey could respond, however, the door to the phone booth opened, seemingly of it's own accord. Both Rose and Mickey's jaws dropped when they saw what came out of it.
"K-9." Rose said in amazement at the same time Mickey said, "Tin dog."
"Identify yourselves." K-9 said, his scanner pointed at Rose and Mickey.
"It's us." Rose said, gesturing to herself and Mickey. "Rose and Mickey. Don't you remember us, K-9?"
"Negative." K-9 responded. "I have never met you. Mistress?"
"What is it, K-9?" A woman's voice called from inside the phone booth. "Are we still stuck in the same spot?"
"Sarah Jane knows us." Rose insisted. "You'll see."
"Rose, you're arguing with the tin dog." Mickey said, just as a woman stepped out of the phone booth.
"Oh, hello there." The blonde woman said, looking at the two of them. "Can I help you?"
"You aren't Sarah Jane." Rose said in a slightly accusatory tone.
The woman smiled pleasantly. "No, I'm not. You can call me Romana."
a/n-this is my first Doctor Who fic, tell me what you think.
