Author Note: a sequel to Like The World Could Change because the original prompter wanted a happier ending and the plot bunnies obliged.
The World Turns
Dave leans on the railing looking out on Cardiff Bay. Behind him he can hear a gaggle of tourists making their way to Roald Dahl Plass, but he focuses on the waves and pretends there's nothing but the sound of gulls.
"You look lonely," says a quiet voice.
He chances a glance to the right and gets a flash of blond hair and the brief impression of a face, a woman who's come to lean on the railing next to him.
"Well, kids all grown up and gone, gets a bit quiet." He watches a plastic bottle in the water bump up against a boat. "Then your partner says you should take a holiday so you're out of her hair whilst she moves out, but then that's what people do. They leave. Or they die. At least she didn't die."
"I'm sorry."
"What for? It's nothing to do with you."
He stands up properly and shoves his hands in his coat pockets.
"You know what I like?" says the woman, still leaning on the railing and watching the world go by. "I like reunions. I like going home."
"Good for you," he mutters.
"There's no feeling like it in the whole universe," she continues and Dave wonders if she'd carry on talking if he just turned and walked away. "I used to love travelling when I was younger and I still do really. It's exciting, you know? New things. But then I loved coming home afterwards and seeing people again. Not just because I loved them, but because they'd have changed a bit and everything would be different a bit, and that's an adventure itself."
The wind whips her hair back from her face. She closes her eyes, tilts her head back, and smiles.
She looks beautiful, the echo of laughter in the soft lines around her eyes and bracketing her mouth and delight bright on her face. Shelooks like an adventure. Dave closes his own eyes for a moment against the sight, because he's known beautiful women and he rather thinks he's had enough of that kind of adventure, however much she seems to tug at his heart.
"Sometimes you have to go somewhere to come back," she says. "I heard someone say that once, or read it somewhere maybe."
She opens her eyes and turns her head to look at him.
"My name's Rose, by the way."
"Oh." He smiles, a little sheepishly. "I think I remember you. From the tourist office? It was a long time ago though."
"Not that long."
Dave grabs hold of the fob watch in his pocket and squeezes, feeling the swirling pattern on the front pressing into his skin hard enough to leave a mark. It'll fade, he knows, so much quicker than memories ever do.
"No, not that long," he says.
Rose turns around, her back against the railing, and reaches out to touch his arm with her fingers.
"Are you alright?"
She asks it like it's a really important question, like the world could change on his answer, but Dave knows better.
"What do you think?" he says in a tone that means not really all right at all.
Her fingers trail down his arm and further, into his pocket where she wraps her hand around his. Her hand around his around a fob watch, and he lets her.
"You know the first time, when you're a kid, that they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still?"
She laces her fingers through his and pulls his hand away from the watch, out of his pocket and out into the open air, where she gets a good grip.
"We're falling through space, you and me," says Rose, "but don't worry. I won't let go."
She tugs on his hand as much as heart, pulling him towards the tourist office, and he follows, her hand warm in his, faster and faster until they're almost running and it feels like maybe, almost but not quite yet, he could be alright after all.
A/N: And then Rose drags him through the tourist office into Torchwood and Dave gets his memories back out of the fob watch and eventually he really is alright x