A/N: This is a plot bunny that found a home in my mind recently. It is hardly original, I know…but here is my take on what is probably a popular theme amongst fans, I'm pretty sure. This is not related to any of my other Alternate Universe stories. This features the human Doctor as seen in "Journey's End" and Rose Tyler. The usual disclaimers apply here.

THE RETURN

CHAPTER ONE

The Doctor watched the last of the flames die out on the funeral pyre as the Master's body was consumed. He turned away sadly, unable to deal with the overwhelming feeling of loss that overtook him. After nearly a millennium of chasing and defeating his best friend and greatest enemy, he cried as he realized it was all over. He also forced himself to come to grips with the fact that he was, again, the Last Time Lord. He turned and headed for the TARDIS, wishing that Koschei would return just once more. As he left, he thought of a human saying: "Be careful what you wish for." The Doctor shook his head, wondering why he'd come to think of that just now, but shook off his mental rambling.

XXXXXXXXX

(Rose's Tyler's current Universe, 2008)

Rose stared out a window at the rain soaked London streets in her Torchwood office. Today had been a quiet day; for once, there were no alien menaces to fight, no politicians to argue with, and no scientific curiosities to ponder over.

She hated days like this. They forced her mind to wander to thoughts of the first 10th Doctor who had left her. Rose wondered what he was up to. Was he in the same body as when they'd parted? Was he with another companion? If it was a female companion, would she make the Time Lord forget her entirely? Rose didn't think that was possible, given that he had done for her two of the most wonderful things he could have done: he had left her with the makings of a TARDIS, and he had left her himself, (well, she amended, a part of himself).

Life's good, Rose mentally reasoned, her happiness at an all time high. She thought about the man with whom she was falling more and more in love.

Her third Doctor was vastly different from the other two she had been with. Oh, he looked like the second Doctor she had been with, but his personality was like the Doctor as she'd first known him in his Ninth incarnation. He was also different in that he was more human, with only one heart and with signs of aging, as he'd demonstrated this morning by plucking out a single, grey hair. But he was also like the alien Doctors she had known, too: his memories showed no sign of abating as they often could in completely human people, and his intelligence knew no bounds. That was why she had decided early on to make a permanent life with him. Rose had wanted to live with him, but he had suggested they wait however; that they try and see if they liked each other. So, as it was, they decided to date but stay in separate homes for the time being.

Pete Tyler, Rose's adoptive father, had given them both carte blanches in terms of salary at Torchwood, where the human Doctor was one of the premier Scientific Advisors. "Some things never change," her third Doctor had told her when he had explained that he had been U.N.I.T.'s Scientific Advisor on her old Earth so many lives before. Pete had him working almost exclusively with Rose, a Defender of the Earth, and her adoptive father had even offered to pay outright for their homes, but Rose was adamant: she would purchase a place on her own, mortgage and all. The human Doctor felt the same.

During the almost year they had been together, the human Time Lord had taken on a new name, learned to perform and even appreciate domestic skills on some level, and do many of the ordinary things human males did. Although his thoughts could sometimes have an otherworldly bent, and although he could be more impatient than the Original Tenth Doctor that she had first loved, the fact that she could talk to him about the times they had shared in a TARDIS without his being judgmental was a salve to her.

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The stranger went to the main Torchwood building, hoping to still find her there. He walked to the elevators and went to room 3106B with anxiety in his short, red haired frame. Opening the door, the man saw a receptionist still there. She was typing information into a computer and talking to her friend at the same time. The man waited patiently for her to finish.

"Yeah, yeah…we'll meet a Lindey's straight away…" she was saying into her phone. The dirty blonde haired girl wasn't looking up at him as she typed the codes for shutting down into the database.

"Well, I've just gotta close up shop here, and I'll see you then. Love you, too….Bye." She made kissing sounds into the phone. The man's eyes looked at her with something like longing in them. He wished he could be carefree and in love like she was. The receptionist gasped as she beheld the man in front of her. He was a portly, with a dark green shirt and black trousers. His eyes were emerald, and looked as though they had seen too many sad things in life. His hairline was slightly receding, and was neatly trimmed back from a round face. Very defined brows, an aquiline nose, and laugh lines around a serious mouth completed the picture. He had gold, wire rimmed frames perched on his nose and reminded her somewhat of a melancholy Leprechaun.

"May I be of assistance?" she asked all business now.

The man spoke with the slight hint of an Irish accent as she told her, "Yes. I'm looking for Rose Tyler. I understand she works on this floor."

"Oh, yes, she does, but she's gone for the day, I'm afraid," the receptionist said. She took out a notepad and a pen from her desk, saying, "But I can take a message an' give it to her in the morning, if you'd like."

The man kept the urgent tone out of his voice, saying, "I realize I shouldn't be asking, but it is really important that I find her. Do you know, perchance, where she might be this evening?"

The receptionist replied smoothly, "I'm sorry. Can't give out that information." She looked back at the man, and into his green eyes. They looked so sad, so…she couldn't find the right word, but she felt sorry for him. She looked at a Blackberry, pulling up the schedules of Torchwood employees until she reached Rose's itinerary. The Blackberrys were given to the support staff just in case of an emergency, and they were also used when computers were off line. The receptionist hoped that the man wasn't going to hit Rose with some crisis or something. She decided she was over dramatizing and looked at the electronic notepad.

"Promise you won't give me away?" she said, winking at him. The man smiled, shaking his head.

"She's on her way home. 2011 Chapel Street," she told him. He processed the information, thanking her.

"Please don't mention it," she said, waving him away and thinking about meeting her beau.

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In Rose's townhouse, the human Doctor, now known as Daniel William Piper to everyone, puttered about in the kitchen while he waited for Rose. Daniel could hardly wait to surprise her with the question they'd both been waiting for for a long time. He bounced into the kitchen, his boyish grin growing by leaps and bounds. Everything was going according to plan: he had ordered the rings at the jewelry store and they were on their way, his Shepherd's Pie was cooking in the oven and Rose would come in, tired and hungry. They would dine, they would hug and kiss (oh, how he loved her kissing—how his other self lived without that on a daily basis when they had been traveling together he would never know), and in a week's time (or so the jeweler had promised,) he would ask his question to which she would agree wholeheartedly and all would be right with his world. Daniel was checking on his culinary masterpiece when the phone rang. He reached inside his pocket for the cell phone only to realize that it was the land line phone that had rang.

"Bollocks!" he swore as the distraction caused him to burn his finger. He yanked the receiver off the cradle, snapping, "Hewwooo…?" as he sucked on his injured forefinger.

"Hello," a soft voice with a hint of an Irish lilt came over the phone.

Daniel said, "Hello. Who is this?"

The man on the other end paused before saying, "I'm a friend of Rose Tyler's and of Torchwood's. I was hoping she would be here."

"No, afraid not," Daniel replied. "May I take a message?"

"No, I'll call back, thanks," the voice replied. He hung up the phone abruptly before Daniel could ask his name.

"Funny," Daniel muttered, but he returned to the task of making dinner. It was funny how, after a year, he had adapted so adroitly to human customs and traditions. He loved the Earthers because they were able to do that so easily. Of course, it was easier when you had someone to share your life with. Rose was his rock, his strength, his constant companion, and he prayed that would never change. Daniel still looked to the stars of course, hoping he'd spot his other alien self one day. He had been so angry at the First Tenth Doctor for abandoning him and Rose at first, but as the months passed, he realized that the Doctor had done them a tremendous favor. He knew from the memories he shared with his counterpart that as the days, hours and minutes passed, the alien Doctor was becoming more detached, more crazed, more…dark. If Rose had stayed with him, she might have become as he was turning out to be: a bitter, angry being with no mercy. He was more and more deserving of the title "the Oncoming Storm" than his human clone was and Rose didn't deserve to be with a being like that.

Still, there were times when he wondered if he measured up to her standards. In human terms, he was Vanilla ice cream to his alien counterpart's Chocolate. Rose had been very supportive as she showed him how to live as a human, and he knew he had delighted her by being a quick study, but in comparative terms, she was a young woman in her twenties, and he was outwardly a man in his late thirties, at least fourteen years her senior. He also knew that she missed traveling to other distant worlds at times and, although he'd tried to grow a TARDIS out of the part the First Tenth Doctor had left, it would take at least seven to ten years before the TARDIS would grow enough to be completely functional. The same questions raced in his mind whenever he slept: if his alien counterpart were to suddenly return, would she go off with him in search of a more exciting life, despite his personality flaws? Or would she find another human man who was more dynamic than he was and leave him to be with the other man? And, even if he somehow managed to duplicate a TARDIS, he knew that they could only observe happenings, not really participate in events in any great detail. He wondered: could she live with that, existing in a life where she might only watch things as they happened but never act on them?

He now had an intimate knowledge of how it was to be like the Time Lords had been: a watcher of life, as it went by, but never actually participating in it except in cases of extreme emergency. Although his circumstances forced him to blend in and he did it with a steely resolve to be the best human male the world had ever seen, he wondered, and he doubted. The smell of burnt dinner assailed his nostrils, ending his thoughts. Daniel cursed as Rose let herself in.

"Honey, I'm home!" she joked, then she ran into the kitchen as she smelled the burnt food.

Daniel put on the potholders, cut off the oven, and pulled out the pie. "Damn!" he swore, as Rose looked on.

"Doesn't look that bad," Rose said softly, smiling. "In fact, it reminds me of my mum's pies," she teased, trying to get Daniel to laugh.

Daniel turned hurt brown eyes on his girlfriend; Rose instantly knew she'd said the wrong thing. "I'm sorry," she apologized.

"C'mon," Daniel said, "don't beat around the bush! Tell me what you really think."

Rose took the pie from him and really studied it. "I really think you burnt dinner," she said, adding, "it's a mistake. It happens. 'S the trying that's important."

"But I wanted this night to be, well," Daniel said, running his fingers in his hair in the familiar Tenth Doctor gesture she'd loved so much, "fantastic!"

Rose put the pie onto the counter, hugging him and whispering in his ear, "It is fantastic! I've got you, and dinner, a fantastic job, and a mortgage that doesn't quit! I couldn't be happier!"

"Really?" Daniel asked, his eyes hopeful.

"Really," Rose confirmed, sealing the deal in a passionate kiss. Daniel let the kiss wash away his anxieties, at least for the moment. Rose took the pie from the counter and put it on the dining room table. Together, they set the table and prepared to have dinner.

XXXXXXXXX

The man who had been hoping to meet with Rose wondered if he should call her at home or confront her directly. He also wondered if U.N.I.T. or Torchwood should be alerted. No, he decided, best to not get too many into the mix. There would be too many complications as it was if he didn't succeed in what he had to do. His thoughts shifted to Rose. She looked even better than she had the last time they'd parted. His green eyes held a twinge of regret. They hadn't parted with the best of circumstances, and a part of him would always regret that. But things oftentimes happened for the best, and he trusted that old adage more now than he had when he was a younger man. He finally reached the conclusion that subtlety was what was called for here. Of course, he was very bad at subtlety, but he had to try. He reached into his pocket, taking out a disc like object. Punching in some digits, the man waited for Rose's house phone to ring.

XXXXXXXXXX

Rose gazed at the slumbering form of the human Doctor as he slept on the couch. She still couldn't get used to his sleeping longer than an hour a week, nor could she get used to his snoring. The young woman allowed a small smile to touch her lips as she saw his boyish face looking peaceful and content. A stray hair flopped over his face. Rose tucked it back. Daniel shifted but did not stir. She was preparing to leave when her phone rang loudly.

"Mmmm…Rhy'ana?" Daniel muttered, using the Gallifreyan equivalent of her name. He started to rise as the phone rang again, but Rose quietly pushed him down.

"It's okay, just my phone," she assured him. Daniel nodded, going back to sleep. As he turned on his side, Rose went into the bedroom.

"Hello?" she asked into the bedroom phone.

"Miss Tyler? Miss Rose Tyler?" an Irish sounding voice said into the phone.

"Yes, who is it?" Rose asked.

The man paused, still a little indecisive before responding. "This is Liam Sullivan," the man said, adding, "I'm a friend from another branch of Torchwood."

"I'm off duty," Rose replied, looking back toward where Daniel slept, "unless of course it's an emergency."

"It is rather important. Can you meet me sometime later tonight?" the man asked. Rose observed that he wasn't one for small talk.

"Maybe," she answered. "What's this all about?"

"Just meet me," the man responded, hanging up. After hanging up, Rose went back into the living room when she spied Daniel standing in front of the couch and facing her.

"Who was that?" he wanted to know.

"Jus' someone at work," Rose told him. They sat on the couch together.

"What did he want? Did he need both of us to see him?" Daniel asked.

"No, no he didn't," Rose answered. Daniel frowned. Usually, they handled things dealing with work and the safety of the world in general together. Why didn't this man want him to be with Rose? Daniel shook off his fear, telling himself that maybe this wasn't a crisis, and maybe, even if it was, it wasn't something that warranted a Scientific Advisor's know how.

"Did he say what his name was?" Daniel asked, his curiosity brimming.

"Liam Sullivan," Rose answered, repeating what the stranger had told her about being from another office.

"Doesn't sound like anyone from any of the science departments I know," Daniel commented. "Still, I suppose he could be from an overseas office."

Rose wrapped her arms around Daniel and hugged him, saying, "Well, maybe he works with Torchwood's Irish office. Said he needed to meet me tonight."

Daniel went to the closet, taking out a wool sweater and saying, "Where you go, I go."

Rose grabbed the sweater from her beloved, saying, "I can handle this by myself. You know how these informants are, if in fact he is one. He probably won't tell both of us anything, but if he sees me by my lonesome, he'll be more forthcoming."

When Daniel pouted, Rose stroked his arm, saying, "I'll meet him, and then tomorrow, I'll cook breakfast for us, okay? You can stay in the guest room if you want tonight or…" her eyes took on a seductive look, "we can spend the night together."

"I want our first time to be absolutely perfect," the human Time Lord said, feeling uneasy about this meeting Rose was about to go on, but not exactly knowing why. When Rose stared at him, Daniel said, "I'll see you in the morning, okay?" They shared a brief kiss and then he left the living room.