Author Note: Originally written for the prompt Dave Tyler (Ten II)/Rose Tyler, Months after losing his wife, Dave finds an old fob watch… And Rose. on comment_fic at livejournal.
What sprung into my head is that Ten II took the same surname as Rose and they were together, but she's part of Torchwood and he didn't really have any anchor point. He got somewhat overwhelmed and in the end, with sadly given permission from Rose, he put his remaining Time Lord consciousness in the fob watch and set out to be 'normal' for a while…
Like The World Could Change
"So that's five maps then?" says the woman behind the counter at the Cardiff tourist office, which'll be one each for the kids and one for him and Sarah, the adults, to share. Dave nods and the kids scramble for them the moment she holds them out, apart from Lucy, who hangs back trying to look dignified.
"Don't snatch, Evie," says Dave as he takes the last one with an apologetic smile. "So, where's good to visit then?"
"Well, the castle's always worth a trip, and how about St Fagans?" She plucks a leaflet out of a stand and passes it to him. "It's one of the world's best open-air museums and your lot might like to take a look at the Victorian school there."
"What about quad-biking?" says Ewan excitedly. "And there's windsurfing!"
Him and Evie are raiding the racks of leaflets and brochures on the wall by the door whilst Paul is carefully reading through just one and Lucy rolls her eyes at the lot of them. Dave has visions of how much of a mess they're going to leave this place in as a stack of take-out menus are knocked to the floor off a small table.
Sarah shoots him an I'll handle itlook and ushers them outside.
"Sorry," he says, crouching down to start picking up the menus. "I'm really sorry. Just, it's their first holiday for a while, you know? Well, our. Our first holiday for a while. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it." She sounds like she means it, so Dave decides not to, or to try not to at least.
Her blond hair falls forward over one shoulder as she bends down next to him to help and she smiles, although sadness lingers in the corners of her mouth.
"Are you enjoying yourselves?" she asks.
"Yeah, so far."
"Good. That's good."
She takes the menus off him and makes a neat pile of them on the table before reorganising the leaflet racks. Dave stands there and watches her. When she's done there's no evidence at all that him and his family have passed this way.
He thinks that it's like that sometimes, that there's no evidence of things, but when you look really hard sometimes there is and you missed it. He slips a hand into his coat pocket to press his fingers to the old fob watch that he found in the last of Rita's diary boxes. It was his, once upon a time, but he'd given it to her and forgotten about it. He likes to think that it means something that she kept it, evidence of something.
"You alright?" says the woman, peering at his face.
"Yeah."
"You sure?"
She asks it like it's a really important question, like the world could change on his answer.
He takes his hand out of his pocket and holds it out to her, for no reason that he can think of, perhaps just an instinct to be polite.
"Dave Tyler," he says as they shake and her hand in his feels more right than any answer to her questioning could be.
"Rose," is the reply. "Rose Tyler."
"Hey, we have the same surname," he says, beaming at her.
"Yeah, yeah we do."
She drops his hand and turns away, returning to her station behind the counter.
"See you around some time," she says and it sounds like a promise as much as a dismissal, trailing behind him as he walks out of the door.