Timeline: This scene was supposed to be part of a chapter just before the chapter One Week. I pretty much just said that they visited the hub to take people back to their time in the story.

Why it wasn't finished: I had just written 14 chapters detailing a couple of days and felt like I needed to jump forward in time some. This chapter could have been done a bit later, but I was stuck on it.

You also get to see a bit of my writing process here. I usually put the plot points from my outline into the word document, then fill them in as I go. Any speech patterns I use are usually added during the first full edit.

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Rose, Jack, Martha, and Gwen were sitting in the Torchwood hub, talking while the part human Doctor was roaming around the hub, looking at things and pocketing other things. Ianto was in on the conversation, but was keeping watch on the Doctor while trying to not be noticed watching the Doctor.

The Time Lord was in the TARDIS, seeing to some experiment of his that dealt with a localized time field.

"So, let me get this straight," Gwen was looking a bit confused, "Torchwood is at least partially here because you angered a queen with a phrase that no one is sure she ever actually said, years before she was supposed to have said it?"

Rose sat back, nursing her drink while Jack was trying not to laugh at his friends. "Well, It was a number of things, I was 'naked,' according to her. The Doctor and I were 'consorting with stars and magic, and thought it fun,' according to her." She thought for a moment, "well, maybe that part was a bit true. She was also terrified the whole time and lashed out, and it probably didn't help that the Doctor and I were flirting up a storm and I was trying to win my bet that I could get her to state that she wasn't amused."

Jack couldn't contain his mirth anymore, and let out a loud belly laugh. Rose joined him a second later, and Gwen and Ianto let out a little chuckle as well. Martha snorted.

"The stories you tell are about as outrageous as the stories Jack tells," Ianto said.

"It's so much better when you have someone else there. I got into a bit of trouble when I was trapped, and a lot while jumping dimensions, but it was never the same, that mad rush of adrenaline and exhilaration added to an insane glee. "

"It was wild," Martha mused.

"I missed that," Jack reminisced fondly.

"Well, you've always got an invitation to come along," Rose told them. She liked Martha, once she got over her bit of jealousy. She knew she acted a bit childish when she saw her on the screen, but she was frustrated that she couldn't get through into the Subwave Network chat.

"Nope, never again," Martha said to her, "I like days off that stay days off and a bit less running for my life."

Gwen's voice interjected before Jack could make a remark. "So, how does this time travel thing work? I know Jack used to be a Time Agent, but he hasn't told us much about it. What about paradoxes?"

"I asked the Doctor about that on my first trip," Martha put in, "he told me not to step on any butterflies or kill my grandfather. Never did get an answer about how we're able to go in the past."

"The butterfly effect," Ianto added.

Rose leaned forward, looking back and forth between the two women. "That's a good question," she approved, "I never asked, just went with whatever the Doctor said I could do, but I did actually create a proper paradox once, and that was a really, really bad day." She shivered at the memory and went on, "after that, I started taking more of an interest in temporal physics when I had some time, though I didn't really start to understand it until...after a while."

The lights and alarm that indicated that the big gear door was opening went off. "That'll be Mickey," Jack informed everyone. Rose wasn't really looking forward to this conversation with Mickey, so she resumed her explanation.

"Martha, Gwen, Ianto," Rose addressed all three, because even though Martha had traveled in time, she just stated that she didn't understand certain things. "Let me tell you a bit about Time. Most people think that Time is a straight line of cause and event, but it's not, not really, it twists and turns upon itself, constantly being rewritten. A great big Gordian knot of everything that ever was, ever could be, ever should be, and what must not be."

"Time isn't as fragile as you'd think. The paradoxes actually work themselves out for the most part. There are certain events that must happen, fixed points in Time must always happen, to maintain the stability of the universe, and a time traveler's past is generally fixed from themselves meddling in it. But another person could meddle in the events and change things, so's long as they didn't know about the events being changed beforehand."

She could see that she was about to lose a couple of them soon, so she finished quickly. "It's complicated, I read several books this thick," she held up her index finger and thumb almost 2 inches apart, "and the Doctor learned all of this over almost a century." She thought for a moment. "Basically, don't meddle with an event you already know about, or change anything from your own past, and you're usually good, unless you come across a fixed point."

"And how do you know if you've come across a fixed point?" Gwen asked.

"Good question," The Doctor said from behind Rose, causing her to jump. She never noticed the full Time Lord come in just after Mickey did. "And you," he said, smiling down on Rose from above, "I'm impressed. I used 'big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff' to get my point across, I like your Gordian knot."

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Mickey was walking across the Plaza, about to go into the visitor's center when he saw the blue box sitting on the lift into the hub. That alien always had to park on one of the exits. Of course, the reason that spot was an exit was partially because the Doctor had parked there.

He stepped up to the box, and was about to put his hand to the door when it opened to reveal one of the Doctors, though which one it was, he couldn't tell. How did Rose tell them apart?

The Doctor's hair was sticking up at all angles and he wasn't wearing his jacket or a tie. His blue sleeves were rolled up. He had obviously been tinkering with something.

"Mick, Mickety Mickey!" the Doctor exclaimed, grinning. Okay, maybe he hadn't been tinkering, he was far too happy. No, he was not going there. "What brings you to my humble abode? Oh, you're probably here for Rose, aren't you? She did call you and say she was going to be here. She's in the hub, catching up. Just give me a tick, and I'll come in with ya."

He disappeared down the corridor before Mickey could get a word out, and true to his word, it was just over a minute later when the Doctor came out, brown suit in place, and hair combed and sticking up, but not quite as much as it usually was. He walked past Mickey and grabbed his tan trench coat off of the coral strut that it was laid over. Mickey noticed that an almost identical black trench coat laid over the other coral strut, and assumed that it was the new Doctor's coat, which led to the realization that this had to be the original Doctor.

He followed the Doctor into the hub.

When he stepped in, he took in the organized chaos of the room, and noticed that everyone was gathered in one place, talking. It must be a slow day then. He took a quick look at all of the monitoring equipment to make sure, and then went over to the area where everyone was sitting and talking. He noted that there was no liquor, so everyone must actually be on duty.

Of course, with two Doctors and Rose here, who knew what would happen, trouble magnets, they were.

He could see that Rose looked like she was in lecture mode. It was still a odd thing to see, but part of her work with Torchwood consisted of training new recruits in alien contact situations. He couldn't really hear what she was talking about yet.

"And how do you know if you've come across a fixed point?" Gwen asked. Okay, so she was trying to explain time travel.

"Good question," the Doctor interrupted. He then started to praise Rose, and Mickey tuned him out while he grabbed a cup of coffee. Ianto made some good coffee, but Mickey preferred getting it himself.

The part human Doctor then came over and flopped down on the seat next to Rose, his arm was draped behind her casually. "I love it when you speak fourth dimensionally," he grinned.

Mickey made a gagging noise. "Oh my god. Did being part human make you even worse?"

The Doctor next to Rose then pretended that he had just noticed Mickey was in the room. "Rickey the Idiot!" he exclaimed, "what brings you to these parts?"

"I work here for now," Mickey glared at him. Before taking the empty seat on the other side of Martha from Jack.

Rose smacked the offending Doctor in the leg, "be nice," she warned. He just gave her a big toothy smile.

Mickey couldn't help but notice their demeanor, just like her and the other Doctor when they were going on about the little lady who breathed fire, and he looked over at the other Doctor to gauge his reaction. The full Time Lord Doctor had climbed over the couch in a quick step and sat on the other side of Rose, not paying them any mind. He leaned forward, and started to answer Gwen's question about fixed points.

"That's the thing about time travel, Gwen, it's not to be taken lightly. Because of the fixed events, I don't recommend a person without any time sense to travel in time without being with a time sensitive being. A fixed point could be a big event, or something minor that has to happen for other events to happen." He sat back. "It's hard to explain in English and concisely. Rose was right," he declared, nodding his head at her, "I spent nearly a century in the Academy learning about these things."

"Rose used to travel in time on her own, and I know Captain Cheesecake over here did too," Mickey commented. He wondered about that, because he knew that three thousand years in the future, humans had time travel.

"Well, to be fair, Jack has extensive training in time travel, but he did almost destroy the human race in the 40's," the part human Doctor replied.

"That was an accident," Jack protested.

"Exactly," both Doctors said in unison.

"What about Rose?" Gwen asked.

Mickey was curious how much they knew about what Rose had gotten up to in the parallel universe.

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rose pov

Mickey takes rose aside

Rose stops Mickey from talking to the time lord about her fast healing. They argue.

Rose and Jack together talk Mickey into asking Martha out.

Jack threatens Mickey if he hurts Martha.

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People they need to take back to their proper time show up.