"All those years of tryin' to motivate myself to go to the gym, who knew all I needed was to start fightin' aliens to get myself in shape?" Rose panted to herself as she came barreling around the corner in a deserted London subway tunnel. A loud bellow from the large, humanoid alien that looked rather like the hybrid of an iguana and a gorilla chasing after her was her only response. Rose whipped her head around in surprise as she registered how close to her the sound originated, startled to find the reptilian ape almost within its muscular, clawed arms' length. And steadily gaining.

"Oi!" she yelled out, ignoring the protests of her burning lungs and increasing her speed. "Any time now, guys!"

Several whooshing sounds met her statement, followed by a resounding thud as the alien collapsed face-first on the concrete floor. Rose halted her frantic run instantly, turning and leaning against the wall to catch her breath as she watched two black-clad men, one dark-skinned and the other pale with spiky blond hair, come out of their hiding places and cautiously approach the fallen creature. Jake hovered over the alien and prodded it experimentally with his foot before Mickey knelt down and removed the three tranquilizer darts from its neck.

"Cuttin' it a bit close, there, weren't you?" Rose accused, glaring at her two best mates.

Mickey merely replied with a cocky grin. "Nah, we were just keepin' it interesting for ya."

"Well, we'll just see how interestin' I can make things for you next time when you get bait duty!"

"That's assuming he'll get bait duty next time, love," Jake interjected. "Seein' as he's the reigning Rock, Paper, Scissors champ right now, that may not be the case."

"Whose idea was it to make all our important decisions that way, anyway?" Rose asked, suppressing a grin.

"Yours, I believe, Agent Tyler," Jake answered with a smirk.

"Was not!" Rose defended, raising her head haughtily. "I wanted Nose Goes."

Mickey snorted at this. "Some professionals we are…"

Rose laughed and gestured to the prostrate alien lying at their feet. "Speaking of professionals, we should probably start acting like some and return His Highness to his awaiting parents. S'rude to keep royalty waiting."

"So much destruction, and all 'cause of a rebellious teenager," Mickey observed, leaning down with Jake to help lift the creature. "And we thought we were right terrors in grade school, huh, Rose?"

Rose grinned her tongue-in-teeth grin. "Yeah, well, at least Kongzilla's parents are loaded and have agreed to pay for all the damages he's caused. That's more than my mum or your gran could've done back then."

"Well a fat lot of good that'll do us, though, without some intergalactic bank for currency exchange," Jake remarked dryly, grunting slightly with effort as they began to carry the alien through the tunnels. "What's the exchange rate for a Chriathk credit to a pound, anyway?"

"They're payin' us in gemstones, you idiot," Rose responded with a giggle. "Well, either that or asparagus… That translation program we're working on is still a bit sketchy…"

"Maybe you two should get on that, then, Wonder Team," Jake remarked.

Rose had discovered fairly quickly after starting work at Torchwood that, though the TARDIS circuit was no longer inside of her head helping her translate, she seemed to have a residual awareness of alien languages. Or perhaps her penchant for linguistics was the result of some lasting, unexpected effect of her time as the Bad Wolf. Either way, although she no longer possessed the instant, effortless fluency that she had grown accustomed to while traveling on the TARDIS, she still had a rudimentary understanding of most aliens they came in contact with, and with a bit of prolonged communication with the creatures, she could generally pick up the language fairly quickly. This talent had made her a vital asset to their branch of Torchwood. It had also been quite a big help in her foreign language classes when she decided to go back and get her A Levels two years prior. For the past year, though, she and Mickey, the resident computer genius, had been working on developing a translation software for Torchwood to use, so that they would no longer be so dependent on Rose for communication, on the very unlikely off-chance that their other, secret project was ever a success.

"Right, you lads can handle it from here, yeah?" Rose asked as they ascended from the abandoned subway station onto an equally abandoned London back alley and quickly deposited their charge into the back of a large, black van.

"And just where are you runnin' off to?" Mickey demanded. "Not tryin' to skip out on the paperwork again, are you?"

"Yeah, and what about going down to the pub after a mission like we always do?"

"I can't, mates. I have to get home and get ready for Mum's birthday party!"

"That's not for hours, yet!"

"Yeah, but it takes us proper society ladies a long time to look presentable," Rose declared, flipping her hair and placing her hands on her hips snootily. "B'sides, I've gotta wash this lizard monkey musk off. That's gonna take ages."

Mickey and Jake both snickered at that.

"Yeah, a right lady she is," Mickey remarked sidelong to his friend.

"A proper socialite," Jake agreed.

"Oi! Don't get cheeky, or I'll tell all the catering staff not to let you touch the food tonight."

Both men instantly had their hands clasped in front of their faces in supplication.

"We didn't mean it, Rose!"

"We're sure you'll look lovely as ever, tonight!"

Rose grinned and nodded her head approvingly. "That's more like it. Good luck with the runaway prince, there, and I'll see you boys tonight."

She held her grin until she'd turned the corner away from her friends where it suddenly dropped from her face, being replaced by a look of sadness and longing as she couldn't help but think of a similar party she'd attended so many years ago, the first time she'd come to this universe. Back when she was still with him