Out of Time

By TeggieLady

Chapter one: A long way from Home

Downtown Cardiff in the middle of the night had never really been that safe. Hell, Rose remembered it with horses, carriages and ghosts sitting on top of an overly reactive rift through time and space. But back then, she had been with the Doctor. She had been safe. Or, at least, she'd felt it.

Now, she felt anything but.

Miss Tyler's sensible clean trainers, brushing against her sensible drain pipe jeans were soaked in a substance Rose really hoped was mud. Because if it wasn't, then it could be anything, from sewage to alien slime that would burn your skin off (really wouldn't be the fist time). Her dark oversized green jacket, zipped to the top, helped her save the extra bit of warmth her body produced. Of course, it was also an almost unconscious defensive manner, but really, she had better thing to worry about right now than, if a passing mugger thought she looked like an easy target. It wasn't like she had anything they'd want any way.

Dressed in dark blue and green, Rose would have stood a chance of walking in the shadows and the alleys unnoticed. If she hadn't stumbled into a main road, that is.

The black van's horn blared as the car swerved past her, an obvious mockery of the speed limit. Rose swayed violently from side to side. This way and that way, dizzily. She wished she was drunk. Back in the day, it would have been the only reason for felling as bad as this constant swaying.

Now, there were other reasons.

Rose felt as though every atom in her body had been ripped apart then shoved back together in a miss-matched, careless way. Bright blues and defining green-smudged circles clouded her vision.

Somewhere ahead, something was screaming.

Rose looked up from her position, knees touching the cold ground. She recognised the alien almost immediately, even in her deteriorating state. It was a Meeton. No more then five or six decades old. Still a child by their standards. The people coming out of the van almost charged at the helpless creature as it roared in fear, arms swinging from side to side. Rose tried to get up, but fell back onto her knees, exhausted and unable to move. The creature was bigger than any human. Both taller and wider, a dark orange - almost red - skin colour with one large, blue eye.

Full of tears.

A humanoid shape, sure, but so alien, it would have been impossible to miss it. Even if the sound it made resembled that of a crying child.

It was in agony, people all around were screaming and panicking and running in all different directions. The terrified sixty year old alien child screamed in fear. People only saw the big alien and the loud painful noises.

So far away from home.

It was crying when Torchwood shot it.

"HEY!" yelled Rose, using the last bit of her meagre energy, suddenly remembering how to speak. Even from across the busy road the team heard her. They immediately looked her way.

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!" she was losing conciseness. "You didn't have to…" she fainted before her voice got too weak for even her to hear.

She fell hard on the cold pavement. From her kneed down stance, it was only a short way to fall, but just laying down was bliss for the girl; the cold floor against her burning head a deep comfort.

Torchwood brought her in.