Prologue
Rose
Rose Tyler was having a terrible day. Her boyfriend, Adam, had already been gone for the day when she had woken. He had apparently consumed the last of their coffee, so she was forced to stop on her way to work, lest she face the day under-caffeinated. That was a dangerous state for any programmer to be in, much less a graduate assistant faced with the daunting task of assisting undergraduates master the difference between iteration and recursion. Then, when she was rushing into her tiny closet of an office, she accidentally collided with the head of her department. Fortunately, none of her precious coffee ended up damaging Dr. Long's suit. Unfortunately, most of it ended up on her blouse. She didn't have time to go home and change, so despite the warmth of the April morning, she grabbed a sweater that she had left in her office, probably months ago, and rushed back out. She was almost late for the first class of the day.
Her mentor, Jack Harkness, wouldn't care if she was late. She was only a teaching assistant for this class, it wasn't one she led on her own. And Jack had become more friend than mentor over the years. But Rose hated to be tardy, so she ignored the discomfort of the coffee-stained shirt and the overly warm sweater and went about her day. It didn't really get any better. The undergraduate research group she was assisting was having teamwork issues. Two of the four wanted to be team leader, which was resulting in major stalls on their project as the two butted heads. Her own personal research was a bit stalled as well. Her primary interests were artificial intelligence and digital cryptography, but the university was small and none of the faculty were specialists in either of those subjects. So, she was fairly well on her own with the topics.
By the end of the day, she was tired and frazzled. Jack must have noticed her harried appearance, since he had brought her a cup of coffee that afternoon. He had taken her under his wing back when she had first returned to school. He'd been kind to her and encouraged her. She'd needed that encouragement in the beginning. Adam certainly hadn't cared one way or the other, as long as she kept working and he could go to school. She had wanted to return to school so badly, but hadn't been sure she could do it. Jack had asked her to be his assistant as soon as she had expressed interest in joining the master's program. He was a notorious flirt, but he'd always treated her like a little sister.
She gathered her things and prepared to leave for the day. She was hoping that having left early that morning meant that Adam would have made some arrangements for dinner. Not that it was likely, it was rare for him to remember anything past the experiments he was running over in the chemistry department. But a girl could dream, right? She resigned herself to attempting to remember what might be in their pantry at home and what she might be able to come up with to eat that night.
Rose walked into her apartment surprised to find the front area still dim. She was sure she had seen Adam's car in the parking lot. He must be here. Why is it so dark? As she was setting her keys down, she heard a sound from the bedroom, at the back of the apartment. She headed towards the bedroom to check on what he could be doing in there, with all the lights out up here, when the noise came again and she stopped. Her heart stuttered and then blood began rushing in her ears as she strained to make out the sound. When she recognized it her heart dropped and her stomach clenched. It was a rhythmic thumping, punctuated with soft gasps and moans. She stood for a frozen moment with the unmistakable sound of sex coming from behind her bedroom door before she rushed forward and slammed the door open.
Adam and a petite brunette jumped at the sound and rushed to cover themselves with the comforter on the bed. Her comforter. Her bed. He had brought another woman to her home, her bed. It was happening. It was happening again. Oh God. How could she be so stupid? Adam was babbling something that might have been an apology or an explanation and the girl was looking at her with something like pity on her face, but Rose couldn't hear anything either of them were saying. Her brain was sorting through the last two years of her life with Adam Mitchell. Distance and late nights in the lab and leaving before she woke in the mornings.
Then she's shouting and she still hasn't heard a word that they've said but she's shouting at them to get out and shouting at Adam that he'd better not come back unless it's to collect his crap. The girl has thrown her clothes back on and oh, she's someone Rose has seen around the chemistry department and oh, late nights at the lab, of course. And then they're leaving and then the apartment is silent and she's alone again and maybe she's always been and maybe she'll always be. And now that she doesn't have anyone to shout at the tears come and she's sobbing and she's collapsing to her knees and she's not quite sure how much time has passed.
Eventually she pulls herself off of the floor in her bedroom. She looks at the bed before walking to the hall closet and digging out an old faded comforter. She drags it to the living room and thinks to set an alarm on her phone before swaddling herself in the blanket on the couch. It's a long time before sleep finally comes.
Jack
Jack was worried about Rose. His sweet graduate assistant seemed to be coming apart at the seams today. Unfortunately, that was becoming a common occurrence. He didn't think she was even aware of it. She'd thanked him for the coffee he had brought her, but she'd been too distracted to give him the smile he was looking for. He didn't think it was actually the work load that was the problem. Rose was a spectacularly hard worker. He had been watching out for her ever since she had joined the program, almost five years ago, now.
He had a soft spot for returning, non-traditional students. He himself had returned for his master's after he had gotten out of the army. Non-traditionals tended to need a lot of support, and from what he could tell, Rose didn't really have any. She never, never spoke about her family. He knew she had a boyfriend, a master's student in the chemistry department. He also knew the bastard was known as a flirt and he had a strong suspicion that the man was not faithful. He'd considered putting the moves on her himself, but had discarded that idea early in their association. He liked her. He liked her a lot. But he wasn't monogamous by nature, and he felt, no he knew, that Rose deserved better than he could offer in that department. Not skills-wise, of course. Just commitment-wise. He'd never actually stopped to consider that it might be inappropriate to get involved with a student.
But maybe he could offer her something else. She was one of the most talented students to pass through this tiny program in some time. She was fascinated by artificial intelligence and by encryption. They didn't have anyone here who was an expert in those things. But. Jack had a friend in London. A friend who it so happened was an expert in digital encryption. Jack also had a flat in London, kept for his own infrequent visits. What if he sent her to London? He knew the Doctor would never agree to a set-up, but he would probably be thrilled to talk shop. Who didn't want to talk shop with an adorable blonde who could hold her own? Of course there was the matter of the bastard. She might not want to go. She might not want to go without him. He might not want to let her go. Maybe Jack needed to be a bit trickier.
The more Jack thought about his two friends, the frazzled graduate student and the brilliant, lonely man in London, the better he felt about the idea of introducing them. He just needed a reason to send Rose to London. She couldn't afford the trip, for sure. He would have to find a way to gift it to her.