Chapter 2
Rose, Jake, and the Doctor sat around the small conference table in Rose's office, waiting for the phone to buzz to tell them Annie was waiting downstairs. None of them spoke, and the silence was deeply awkward. Or at least Rose thought so—she couldn't actually get either man to look at her long enough to gauge their thoughts. Jake was engaged in methodically shredding the label on his bottle of water, while the Doctor drew intricate designs on his notepad. Rose shifted in her seat and glared at them both in turn, but neither of them registered her displeasure.
It had been a mere ten hours since they had parted from Annie, but what a ten hours. Rose and the Doctor, once they had roused themselves from the stupor caused by seeing the face of the Doctor's ninth form looking back at them from Annie's photograph, had called Jake and summoned him to Torchwood immediately. Jake had protested to the Doctor that it was Sunday morning and he was not on duty that weekend, but the Doctor had cut him off, saying brusquely, "It's trouble, Jake, and it's about Annie." All his objections overridden by that statement, Jake arrived at Torchwood within a half hour, unshaven and a bit bleary-eyed. "I was out last night," he said brusquely, as if daring them to tease him for looking uncharacteristically scruffy. Once he heard their story, however, all thoughts of teasing were gone and he focused on the task of uncovering the truth behind the reappearance of Annie's husband.
Rose had spent much of the walk from the café to her office trying to reconstruct in her mind a conversation she had had with Mickey soon after she began working at Torchwood. It was years ago now, at a time when she was still fragile and recovering from her breakdown after being left in this universe. She had still been scrabbling desperately for ways to get back to her Doctor. One evening, as she and Mickey lay sprawled on either end of the couch in his office drinking beers, an idea had occurred to her. "Micks…what if there're Time Lords in this universe? Maybe they could help us."
"You know what the Doctor said…no Time Lords here."
"But maybe he was wrong…"
"Nah. We actually looked for the TARDIS frequency when I first got here. There's nothing."
Rose scrubbed her hand over her eyes. "Ah, well. It couldn't be that easy, could it?"
"Never is," Mickey agreed.
Rose recounted this exchange to Jake and the Doctor as they discussed ideas for how to proceed. Jake sipped thoughtfully from a cup of coffee and the Doctor sat silent with his hands folded as they listened. When Rose finished, Jake said, "Well, a lot of things are a bit different in this universe, Mickey always said. Did you look at a range of frequencies on either side of the one from your universe?"
Rose opened her mouth and shut it again. They hadn't. Why hadn't they thought of that? She hadn't, nor Mickey, nor Pete…why? It was hardly a revolutionary idea. And yet…
She raised her gaze to Jake's questioning one. "No," she confessed, "we never did."
Jake waited for her to say more, and when the silence stretched out he raised his eyebrows and said, "Well…?"
Rose shook herself and looked at the Doctor. He remained quiet, his eyes resolutely on his hands. In the absence of any response from him, Rose finally said, "Yeah. Let's do it. Now."
And that had been that. It had been so ridiculously, almost depressingly simple. When the Doctor had widened the search parameters for TARDIS frequencies, there it was. In London. At this very moment, in fact, it appeared to be parked about three blocks from Annie's apartment. No wonder she had been seeing that familiar face everywhere.
As they looked at the blinking screen, Rose felt a wave of dislocation and disbelief, but also a dawning sense of wonder. A Time Lord. In this universe. The possibilities were incredibly exciting, both for her and the Doctor, and for Torchwood and the planet as a whole. She looked down at the Doctor, but all she could see from her vantage point was the back of his head and the long fingers of his left hand, massaging his temple as if his head ached. She needed to know what he was thinking. He must be excited, to see another of his kind—or half his kind. She circled around the edge of the desk, a small smile on her lips, waiting to catch his expression. What she saw, however, was not what she expected. His face looked impossibly pale, his freckles standing out in the soft light from the screen. His glasses reflected some of that light, making his eyes invisible to her. But she could tell enough from what she could see—the tightness of his jaw, the way his lips were pressed together, the line between his brows. Whatever excitement or happiness she was feeling at the turn of events, he did not share it.
Rose's phone gave the distinctive buzz of the front desk letting her know a visitor had arrived. As Rose reached over to lift the receiver and speak to the receptionist, Jake looked at the Doctor. The men's eyes met and, Rose noticed with a small flare of annoyance, some unspoken understanding passed between them. Jake said, "I'll get her." He rose from his chair, swept the remains of his water bottle label into his hand, and left, depositing the confetti he had made in Rose's dustbin on his way out of her office.
When they were left alone, Rose expected the Doctor to talk to her, but instead, he resumed his quest to perfect the Byzantine swirls and whorls in his notebook. Rose stared at him with increasing frustration, waiting for him to respond in some way to the momentous revelations of the day. Finally, she gave up and spoke first. "Can you believe it, Doctor? A Time Lord."
"It would appear so." His eyes remained on the paper.
She tried again. "If he died when he was hit while cycling, and then he regenerated, he wouldn't have the same face."
"Presumably."
"So, what then? Did he use the chameleon arch?"
"It's a possibility."
"Doctor!" Rose almost shouted her frustration, bringing her palm down on the table. Jake's abandoned water bottle tipped over and rolled slowly to the edge, teetering there for a moment before it hit the floor with a hollow sound. The Doctor's gaze followed the bottle's progress and then lifted to meet hers. Rose drew a breath at the look in his eyes. How could eyes such a warm brown look so cold? But then he blinked and scrubbed his brow tiredly with his palm, and the impression passed. He smiled at her, a bit wanly.
"Rose, I don't know what to say. If we assume that the Time Lords of this universe have the same technology and follow the same rules as ours, then yes, a Time Lord who had used the chameleon arch is the best guess for who Mark was. But that's a big 'if,' isn't it?"
She nodded, but she still felt disconcerted by her inability to read his emotions. Her beloved Doctor was usually such an open book…he was, in that way, the opposite of the Time Lords she had known. Ever since they had gazed together on Mark's photo that morning, however, he had been shuttered to her. So she tried yet again. "What do you think, Doctor? Another Time Lord."
He flinched. "I'm not a Time Lord, Rose. Not any more."
Rose opened her mouth to reply when the chime of the elevator stopped her. They both turned toward the sound in time to see Jake emerge with Annie. He had her arm drawn through his and it was obvious why he had offered this physical support; their friend looked a bit of a mess, like she needed it. She had clearly not slept or even relaxed since they last saw her. Jake escorted her to the fourth chair and settled her into it, squeezing her shoulder as he moved to sit again in his own. There were no pleasantries exchanged.
Despite her obvious exhaustion, Annie's gaze was sharp. She surveyed the three of them, each in turn, before addressing herself to Rose. "You recognized him, didn't you? This morning."
Rose did not avoid her friend's eyes. "We did."
"Well?"
Now the Doctor spoke. "Annie, you remember we told you that I was a Time Lord in the other universe? An alien with technology and knowledge far beyond humans?"
"Of course."
"Well, one thing that Time Lords can do is…it's very hard to kill us. When we are critically wounded, we regenerate."
"What does that mean?"
"It means we change our bodies. Exchange all the damaged cells for fresh ones. Start new. New face, new body, new person."
Annie nodded slowly, clearly a bit puzzled about where this was going. "So, this face was not always your face?"
"No, it's my tenth." Annie raised her eyebrows but made no comment, so the Doctor continued. "When I first met Rose, I was in my ninth body."
Annie turned to Rose. "So you saw him…change? Regenerate?"
"I did. Once a full regeneration and once a partial—it's hard to explain, but that's when this Doctor got started."
"Okay...but I'm confused. How does Mark fit into all of this?"
The Doctor said, "My ninth self? I looked like Mark. Identical."
Annie's mouth dropped open. "What?"
No one responded, instead giving her time to process this information. Finally she said, "Oh, but you said people have twins in each universe. Jake…your Mickey and the other Mickey. You told me."
"That's true," Jake said. "But if that were it—if Mark were a human who just happened to look like the Doctor from the other universe—it wouldn't explain his reappearance. He'd still be dead, from the cycling accident."
Annie looked back and forth between them warily. "So…"
Rose sighed. "We always assumed that there were no Time Lords in this universe. We looked for the TARDIS frequency, for the usual signs, and they weren't there. But we didn't look very hard, because the Doctor—my second Doctor—said there weren't any here. But…it seems he was wrong."
Annie stared mutely at her, so Rose continued, "Once we broadened the frequencies we were searching for, we found it. TARDIS signatures. They're a bit different than our universe, but unmistakable. There's at least one Time Lord here."
"And you think…" Annie swallowed. "You think Mark was a Time Lord?"
"Yes."
Annie blinked twice, and then she startled them all by bursting into laughter. Jake said, "Annie…" under his breath, as she leaned her head on her hand, shaking with slightly hysterical laughter. It took a long minute for her to stop, and she wiped her eyes as she looked at all of them staring at her.
"Oh come on, you lot! Mark? An alien? No way." She giggled again, then sobered. "Besides. If he died and then…regenerated? Wouldn't he look different, according to you?"
"We don't think he regenerated," Rose began. As she drew breath to continue, the Doctor spoke instead.
"Annie, in our universe, the Time Lords had a contraption called the chameleon arch." He gave the briefest possible sketch of the technology, but did not mention his own first-hand experience with it, not wanting to distract from the issue at hand.
He didn't know what reaction he expected at the end of his recital, but all he got was Annie's stare. She still looked disbelieving, but he thought he also saw a hint of fear.
Rose leaned forward. "Annie, you've mentioned Mark's parents. Was there anything unusual about them?"
Annie crinkled her brow. "What do you mean? They were American."
Rose chuckled despite herself. "Anything else? Did he resemble them, physically?"
"Well, no. He was adopted." She saw the significant glances between the other three and protested, "Now, that's hardly unusual…" Suddenly she broke off, clearly thinking.
"What? What is it?" Rose asked, perhaps a bit sharply.
"Well. It's… It's strange." She smiled slightly. "I used to tease them. Janet and David. They had no photos of him as a child. He'd been theirs since he was a baby, you see. But there were no photos on display. Janet always said they were stored in their safe deposit box, but…why would that be? I use to tell them they were the least sentimental people I knew. I asked Mark about it—I mean really, I wanted to see his baby pictures, you know, to tease him! But he always brushed me off. I assumed… I assumed he wasn't happy with his parents about it. I always left it alone, though—I'm not adopted, I didn't know the dynamics…" She paused, and then shook her head. "But no, this is too ridiculous. There must be a simple explanation."
Jake said, "Did he have a close friend? Someone who seemed always to be around?"
Annie's mouth curved. "What, Gus? The original third wheel?"
"Who was Gus?"
"His friend. Since childhood. I always said there were three of us in the relationship, right from the beginning."
"Gus was American?"
"Yes."
"But…you said 'right from the beginning.' Gus was at Oxford with Mark? When Mark was doing his research?"
"Well, yes."
"Why? What was he doing?"
Annie stared at Jake. She did not speak for a long time. "I'm not sure, really. He was always just around. I…I did ask. He said something about… some sort of degree. History of Art, maybe?"
"Hmm. And did he stay in Oxford when you and Mark moved back to the States?"
"No. He came too."
"To do what?"
"I don't know!" Annie snapped, looking harassed. "He always had some job or other." She shook her head impatiently. "He was the best friend of the man I loved. What was I supposed to do, check up on him? He was in Mark's life. Why? What is so suspicious about an aimless friend?"
"Nothing, in and of itself," Rose said. "But, in our universe, Time Lords often traveled with a companion. And if he was using the chameleon arch, he'd particularly need someone to look after him, to make him change back when it was necessary."
Annie gave a short laugh, all disbelief and no humor. "So you want me to believe that my husband…that my marriage was a farce? Some sort of sideshow to an alien's plot? And that Gus—silly, disorganized Gus—was his…keeper?" She shook her head. "I don't… I don't even know what to say to that."
The Doctor said, gently, "We're trying to explain what might have happened, Annie. And it sounds like there are things…that at least fit with the idea we're presenting."
"No." She shook her head, but she was trembling. "No." Suddenly it seemed that a thought occurred to her. "Anyway. He died. In the crash. Would a Time Lord who was…" she searched for the proper words but gave up, resorting to air quotations, "'chameleon-arched', would he have died if he had been in an accident like that?"
"Yes. His Time Lord spirit was probably kept elsewhere, in a container of some sort, and might have been able to be preserved, but the body would have been gone."
"Well, there you are. He died, but now he's back in the same body? It doesn't fit your theory!"
The three of them looked at each other. They knew what they had to ask, but no one seemed willing to do so. Finally, Rose spoke, trying to make her voice as gentle as possible. "Did you ever see his body?"
The Doctor would not have thought Annie could get paler, but she did. Her skin took on an almost greenish tinge as she met Rose's eyes with a horrified gaze. "What?" she whispered.
Rose swallowed but pushed on. "His body. Did you see it?"
"No…no. The doctor told me I wouldn't want to, that there…that there wasn't much that was recognizable." Annie swiped at tears that leaked from the corners of her eyes. "He was hit by a truck on a busy street."
Jake grimaced and reached out, almost reflexively, for Annie's hand, but she was curled up in her chair now as if to protect herself from their questions, her arms wrapped around her middle.
Rose said, "Then how did they identify his body?"
"He was in the military for two years, before university. There were dental records, DNA samples on file. They…they ran tests, they told me." Annie looked from one to the other of them. "They gave me his cycling helmet and his clothes, covered in blood. They were stiff with blood, Rose! There was so much… His book bag, or what was left of it…all the pages of the books were ruined, bloody. I mean, my God…his parents were there! They were devastated. Why would I have thought that anyone was trying to deceive me?"
At this Jake could take no more and sprang from his seat, coming around the table and kneeling by her chair. "We're not saying that you did anything wrong, or that you should have done more."
"Then what are you saying?"
Jake pried her fingers loose from her own elbow and held them. "We're suggesting…" He paused, and shook his head. Rose saw his throat work and knew he was choked up. She looked into Annie's wide eyes and took over. "We're suggesting that Mark didn't die in a crash. That it was staged. That for whatever reason, he had to become a Time Lord again, and so Gus—or whoever—let his Time Lord consciousness out of the watch and…" she stopped when Annie drew in a harsh breath.
"Annie? What is it?"
"What did you say?"
"What…which part?"
"A watch? Let him out of a watch?"
The Doctor spoke up. "It wouldn't have to be a watch…some sort of small object that could be opened and closed, that he could keep with him. That's what they'd use to hold the Time Lord consciousness."
Annie unfolded herself from the chair with such suddenness that Jake rocked backward onto his heels and then sat on the ground, looking up at her, eyes wide. She stood, gripping the edge of the table, trembling from head to toe. "Mark had a watch. A pocket watch. He always had it, although he never told me where it came from. After he…" She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. Two tears made their way down her cheeks. "I looked for it. I asked the people at the morgue about it. No one knew where it was. I was frantic. I wanted it back, I wanted something he'd carried next to his skin all those years…" Her face crumpled and she began to cry in earnest.
The Doctor rounded the table and reached for her. She allowed herself to be drawn into his arms and laid her forehead on his shoulder until her sobs quieted. Then she stepped back and smiled a watery smile, accepting the handkerchief he offered her and rubbing her eyes. "So this is the explanation? I suppose I should be glad I'm not certifiable, seeing him again like that."
Rose said, "Well, it's our working hypothesis for the moment."
Annie nodded. "It's just hard to fathom. Mark—or not-Mark, I suppose—walking around, not remembering me, crossing paths with me, having no idea..."
She paused as she saw Jake, who was still seated on the floor next to her chair, begin to shake his head. He said, "No, the Time Lords remember what happens during the time they were…" Suddenly he bit off his words mid-sentence. Rose stared at him, not understanding for a moment the dawning horror on his face. Then its significance struck her and she clapped her hand over her mouth, turning to Annie, who seemed to have frozen into stone, her eyes on Jake.
"He knows?" Annie's voice was almost inaudible.
Jake slowly nodded. Annie transferred her gaze to Rose, who also nodded, her hand still pressed hard to her lips. "But how do you know that he remembers?" Annie said, whispering still. She shook her head, somewhere between decisive and pleading. "He can't remember everything. If he did, he would have come back to me, at least to explain. You can't be sure. How can you be sure?"
"Because I remember everything." This from the Doctor. Rose looked at him and saw instantly that while she and Jake had not thought through the emotional impact of their explanation for Mark's reappearance, the Doctor had. He looked so very tired, and so very sad. Despite his earlier denial, he looked more like a Time Lord at that moment than he ever had.
"What do you mean?" Annie looked confused. "What do you remember?"
The Doctor wished, more than anything, that he did not have to respond. But he knew that she deserved the truth. "When I was a Time Lord, I used the chameleon arch, Annie. I became human. I fell in love. And I remember all of it. I always did, from the moment I changed back."
The expression on Annie's face as she registered his words was difficult to describe—not exactly grief, nor sadness, nor anger, but some mix thereof. Then it occurred to Rose—this is what it looks like when faith is shattered.
Annie said, her voice chill and emotionless, "He remembers me. He knows what his death must have done to me. And yet he never came back. He left me behind." Each sentence should have been a question, but was instead a clipped declarative. She looked at each of them for confirmation. To their credit, none of them avoided her eyes, but none of them could give her the comfort of denying what she said. Annie gripped her hands together and stared down at them for a long moment. Finally, Rose said quietly, "Annie, love…" At the sound of her name, Annie started as if stung. Rose took a step toward her but Annie flung up a hand to stop her. Then, without a word, she turned and ran for the staircase door. It slammed shut behind her and they heard her footsteps echoing against the concrete walls of the stairwell.
The three of them were silent for a full minute, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Then the Doctor sighed and said, "I know where she'll be. I'll go."
