CHAPTER TWO
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Rose blew on her fingers in her car at Torchwood headquarters. She had tried to use the heater, but it was on the blink again, and Daniel hadn't had the time to tinker with it. The young woman was quite distressed at having to leave him, but she knew how particular human or alien contacts could sometimes be about coming alone to a meeting. She didn't get outside of the car, preferring to wait instead for Mr. Sullivan, particularly since her watch now revealed that it was eleven-thirty at night. Rose was glad at times like this that her boyfriend was more human than Time Lord; at least he couldn't sense her leaving, and she could sneak out of her house without him knowing it.
She immediately chastised herself for thinking that way. Daniel was her life, and her soul mate. He always looked after her, just as she protected him, and she'd never gone anywhere important without him, even if a potential informant told her to "come alone". Rose didn't even know why she was doing what she was doing exactly, but the man's voice on her phone sounded so compelling, so….She couldn't even find the right words. The young woman glanced around all of a sudden to see if the owner of the voice had a blue box with bigger insides parked somewhere.
Stop thinking that way, she thought. The Doctor and Donna said that this Universe would be closed off forever, so stop thinking that this stranger is the Doctor, or that he's even remotely connected to him!
Rose's cell phone rang at that moment. She opened it, saying, "Hello?"
"Hello, Miss Tyler," Sullivan's Irish brogue came over the line. "So glad you made it."
Rose told him, "I need to get back before I'm missed."
"Sure thing," the man said. "I'll be at the back entrance. Just don't let any of the night crew see you."
"Why?" Rose wanted to know, her curiosity rising.
"The less that know of my presence here, the better," Sullivan said. Rose hung up the cell phone, and got out of her car proceeding to the back entrance. So intent was she on meeting the mysterious caller that she didn't see Daniel's Alpine pull up. He got out of the car and followed her at a discrete distance. As he rounded a corner she had turned, Daniel felt his palms sweat as though something significant were going to happen, something that was not good.
Rose can take care of herself, he thought. After all, I taught her Venusian defense techniques, or rather, the Doctor did, so she'll be all right. I'm just worrying for nothing.
He saw Rose meeting with a man whose face was somewhat in shadow. Daniel could only make out ginger colored hair. He pulled out his cell phone and turned a button on the phone, grateful that he had installed the picture enhancement features that he had developed in Torchwood's science lab only the week before. He turned up the sound, boosting it as the man spoke to Rose.
"Now, Mr. Sullivan," Daniel muttered, "let's see and hear what your game is."
Not aware that she was being watched, Rose asked, "I want some answers. Why did you want to meet me at this late hour? Why did you ask me to come alone, without Daniel? Does your not wanting him to come have to do with some dire prediction about his future, is that it?"
"As a matter of fact, it does, Miss Tyler," Sullivan replied calmly. "I'm here to give you a warning. You will be presented with a choice in the near future."
"What choice is that?" Rose pressed, but Sullivan shook his head.
"I can't go into more details about it, but you will know which choice I am speaking of when the time comes," Sullivan said cryptically.
Rose's eyebrows twitched with frustration. "'S this one of those 'catastrophic futuristic events' things that will hinge on my decision?"
"Something like that," Sullivan responded. Just then, Daniel lost the audio. He cursed in Old High Gallifreyan as the the pair continued talking. Daniel took out a pair of tools and started working on the cell phone's audio system.
Meanwhile, Rose stared at Sullivan, asking him point blank, "Are you the Doctor? If you are, how did you make it back here without collapsing both Universes?"
"I am not the Doctor," Sullivan replied, "but I know him well."
"He gave you this message?" Rose queried. Sullivan didn't flinch. He merely stared at her with his sad, green eyes, becoming more obscured by the darkness as he withdrew.
"Whatever happens, just say 'no' when the time comes," he said. He continued walking away. Rose tried to follow.
"Wait!" She cried, holding up a hand as she took off after him. "I must know more! How do you know the Doctor? Did he give you this message?"
When she could not find him after ten minutes of running and scanning the night, she went back to her car. Daniel, who had run after her, went back to his car and took off after she did, taking a different path to her house to beat her home.
After she had driven off, Sullivan's eyes followed her every movement. Had the young woman peered into them more closely, she would have seen that the sadness that was there before was replaced by a smoldering rage.
XXXXXX
Rose went into her townhouse quietly, musing over all that the mysterious Mr. Sullivan had said. She wondered what he meant by a choice and just how exactly did it affect the future? The defender of the Earth opened the door to see if Daniel had gone to bed. She found him awake just then, absent mindedly flipping through channels.
"You would think something would be on about now!" he commented as he surfed through endless parades of infomercials on the telly. "Now Kryminapupulana Seven: there was a world! 10, 963 channels, and none of them the same!"
He fixed Rose with a boyish grin as he continued: "Broadcast transmissions from many other planets, they did! Had a soap opera I never missed, called 'Test of Truth'! Crimey, it was amazing, an' they always solved their drama situations in half the time!" Daniel continued flipping through channels, not looking at Rose, his face containing a non chalant expression.
"What are you doing up?" Rose asked.
Daniel finally settled on a woman who was demonstrating the latest fitness contraption. It was shaped like a pretzel, and she was bending and doing aerobics in it.
"Couldn't sleep," Daniel told her. Rose sat on the bed beside him.
"Bad dreams?" she asked. Daniel shook his head 'no'. He let her stroke his back and neck. Her touch made him relax, just as it always did.
"What did Sullivan want?" Daniel queried, turning off the telly and letting his deep, brown eyes bore into hers. When she didn't answer, Daniel said, "I mean, it was awfully late for you two to meet. Was what he had to say the garden variety type of emergency where there are terrorists out to blow up something, or was it the type of emergency where aliens could destroy all of time?"
"I can't tell you," Rose replied.
"Why?" the human Doctor wanted to know.
"I just…can't…" Rose murmured, biting her lower lip. She wanted to repeat Sullivan's full message to her, but if what the man had said had anything to do with her and Daniel, to say nothing of the future of Earth, she had to do what the man had told her to the letter.
"Because it might affect my future, or yours, or someone equally important?" Daniel finished. When Rose nodded, he pulled her close in a comforting hug.
"I won't press you," Daniel whispered as they pulled apart. She nestled her head into his chest, breathing in perfect rhythm to his single heartbeat. He kissed the top of her head, saying, "Come what may, we will face it together. Whatever happens I will never leave you." Rose took comfort in that, and after Daniel turned on the telly, they watched a sitcom.