A/N: I know this says bank robbers AU and we will actually get to the bank robbing at some point, I promise. But first we're going back to the beginning and finding out how Rose and the Doctor meet and become partners in crime. We'll see the Doctor in the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy this and please let me know what you think! Unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine.

Word Count: 1,859

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Doctor Who. I am just playing with the characters because they play with my emotions.


It's hard to say when John Smith and Rose Tyler became aware of each other's existence. The community of criminals in London wasn't a particularly tightknit group and they ran in different circles. John was mainly a hacker although he did engage in thievery if the occasion called for it. Rose was a thief and a grifter. She could work people like John could work computers. Whispers here and there carried a name and praise of a job well done, but nothing flashy that stuck in the memory; the mark of a good career criminal really. They could have continued on in this fashion indefinitely if a disaster hadn't caused their worlds to collide.

"Jack! Slow down, I just woke up." Rose stretched as she sat up in bed, mobile pressed to her ear and blonde hair sticking out at all angles around her face. "What's wrong?" She asked through a yawn. Dealing with any sort of conversation before tea was always a challenge and when it was a conversation after only three hours of sleep the only thing that kept Rose from threatening violence was the panic in her friend's voice.

"They stole my plans, Rose. They came in here and took all of my programs and diagrams and notes, wiped my computers, found the backup and wiped that too. Two years of work, gone! And when my employer figures out it's all gone, I'm going to be dead. And I mean that literally." The highly agitated American's voice was shaking, rage and fear mixing in equal parts as he relayed the news.

"Who took them? You just keep sayin' 'they,'" Rose asked, trying to keep the hint of frustration out of her voice.

"The Agency. The Agency took them."

"Oh shit." Rose raked a hand through her hair as she tried to process all the information Jack had just given her.

The Agency was serious business. No one knew exactly who ran it but they had shown up five years ago, set up shop, and now had their hands in every pie in London's criminal world. If a big job went down, the Agency knew about it and demanded a cut of the profit in return for not reporting to the authorities. No one crossed them, or rather, no one crossed them and lived to tell the tale. Rose had personally always made sure that the jobs she pulled were small enough to not be on the Agency's radar.

Captain Jack Harkness was an enigma for all that he was one of Rose's best friends. They'd met when she'd lifted his wallet two years ago and he had followed her back to her flat to ask for it back. Well...also to try and charm her into bed but that was Jack; tall, dark, handsome and just oozing charm and sex. Rose had been too flustered at getting caught to even consider shagging him, no matter how good-looking he was. To cover the embarrassment (and to distract him from talking about sex) Rose had demanded to know how he had followed her without her noticing. Jack laughed at her and made a deal that he would teach her how to spot a tail if she helped him settle into London. And so an unlikely friendship was born. Rose never found out much about his mysterious "employer," only that they were apparently very rich, very powerful, and very well connected. If Rose was being completely honest, she was never even sure what Jack was working on for his employer either. He was extremely tightlipped about it and had given no indication that it was important enough to garner the Agency's attention.

Regardless of his secrets, the American conman was always willing to lend a helping hand to Rose. He also never stopped trying to get her into bed with him but it had long since become playful banter between them instead of an actual attempt on Jack's part. It was rare for them to have a conversation that wasn't laced with innuendo and the last time Rose had heard him sound so serious, someone had been in danger of losing their life, and if the Agency was really behind this theft then the loss of life was definitely a possibility.

"Yeah, shit doesn't even begin to sum this up. I can't let them have those plans, Rose. I have to get them back."

"Jack," Rose began, her tone cautious, "You're not a thief. You're a conman. And you can't run a con on the Agency, especially not when they're going to be expecting you. Obviously you're already on their radar if they knew to nick your plans."

"I have to get them back some way. The Agency having those plans is bad news. Like disaster on a global scale, bad news." Jack's voice held an edge of desperation, something Rose had never heard from the suave captain. Usually he was the consummate conman and had his emotions in tight control, ready to deploy whatever expression or attitude was necessary to get the job done. Hearing him this close to the edge was unnerving.

"Alright, so you've got to get them back. Doesn't mean you have to do it yourself. They're going to expect you to try and charm your way in and will have planned for it. They know your tricks, so the security around the plans is going to be tailored to your particular set of skills." Rose tucked the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she filled the kettle. This problem required caffeine. "You're gonna need to hire someone with different talents and a willingness to take on the Agency." She hummed as she thought, this was exactly the kind of puzzle she enjoyed trying to figure out. It required knowing who would have the skills to steal the plans, a fairly populated list, and who had the right temperament to actually do it. The second requirement was much trickier, especially since Jack's problem involved the Agency.

"Christine de Souza," Rose said finally after mentally discarding most of the thieves she knew of and fixing her cup of tea. "Sorry, Lady Christine de Souza might be up for it. She wouldn't mind leaving London for a bit after pulling the job to wait for the heat from the Agency to back off. And they wouldn't be expecting her since it's well known that the two of ya had that big spat at whatever that social event was a few months back." Rose stopped, realizing that Jack hadn't said a word. "Jack? You still there?"

"Yeah, and I have an idea." Rose could practically hear the gears turning in Jack's head over the phone.

"No, I know that tone, Jack. That's the tone you use when you're trying to convince me that your crazy plan isn't as crazy as I think it is. That tone never turns out well for me."

"That's cause you're a sucker for crazy plans. But hear me out." Excitement had replaced the desperation in Jack's voice. He had a plan now, one he knew would work if he could get the players on board. And if there was one thing Captain Jack Harkness was good at, it was convincing people to do what he wanted.

"You're completely right that the Agency is going to be expecting me and that I'm no thief but I'm going to have to hire someone I trust and Christine de Souza does not fit the bill. She'd probably get in, steal the plans and then sell them back to the Agency instead of giving them to me."

Rose cocked her head to the side, considering. "Yeah, she probably would. Who do you have in mind then?"

"You."

Rose froze with her cup of tea halfway to her lips. "You're joking." Jack didn't answer. "You're havin' me on, yeah? Jack?"

"I'm completely serious, Rosie. You're the perfect person for the job. Not only are you one of the best active thieves in the city, if not all of Europe," he stopped when Rose made a noise of protest. "Don't argue with me, I've seen you work before and it's true."

Rose made a mental note to ask when he'd seen her work. She'd never worked a thievery job with him before. She'd run a couple of cons with him but that was it.

Jack was already continuing to lay out his reasons. "Not only that, the Agency has no idea who you are. You've managed to stay off their radar by not pulling any big heists so they don't have any idea that a thief of your caliber is unaccounted for in the city. And on top of all that, I know I can trust you."

"Jack, I'm flattered by your confidence in me, I am, but I don't think I can do a job that big. Not when there's so much on the line and definitely not on my own. You'll probably need a team of some sort to pull this off now that I think about it, and you know I always work alone." Rose rambled, trying not to panic at the mere thought of trying to do a job of this magnitude herself. If someone pulled it off, it would go down as one of the biggest accomplishments in the London crime world in decades. It was practically a suicide mission.

"You know I don't exaggerate anyone's talents. You have the necessary skills to pull this off. You're probably the only one who could do it." Jack sounded deadly serious and Rose's heart sank as she began to see the inevitable outcome.

She was going to rob the Agency.

God help her.

"I can't do it alone, Jack. I don't have the tech skills to get around the security systems they have in place there."

"You already know what security systems they have in place?" he questioned, surprised.

Rose mumbled something about wanting to be prepared if the Agency ever kidnapped her and Jack laughed, the sound doing wonders to lift both of their moods.

"I can get someone to work the tech. In fact, I know just the person. He's a hacker and does a bit of thievery as well. Should be perfect and he owes me a favor," he mused.

"Is a favor really enough to convince someone to take on the Agency?"

"Oh, he would take on the Agency without me calling in my favor. I'll have to do some convincing to bring him around to working with a partner though."

Rose groaned. "You're going to make two people who normally work alone try and find a dynamic to take down one of the most difficult targets in London?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do. The Agency won't know what hit them. I'll call you sometime tonight once I've talked to the hacker." Before giving her a chance to protest, Jack rang off leaving Rose staring at her mobile with a look of disbelief.

Shaking her head, she took a large gulp of tea and put the kettle back on. It had certainly been one hell of a morning.