"Rose, Mr. Tyler to see you."
Rose winced but tried to hide her displeasure from Pete Tyler's secretary. She gave her a smile but his secretary shot a warning look. Norma had been less than pleased with her recently, especially more so when Rose conveniently disappeared whenever Pete was looking for her.
It was not that she could help it. Ever since Dad started to dabble a bit in politics, her inbox has started to overflow and her phone had not stopped ringing. All those interviews, the loving daughter of Pete Tyler, ready to take on her father's work as her father began his journey in politics, all that shoulder rubbing… it was doing her head in.
That was why she had accidentally knocked her phone off the hook today and well, not bothered to check her inbox. And was playing Solitaire with her headphones on. In the pantry.
But unfortunately, the game was up. Norma's demeanour was icy but no less victorious having found the elusive Rose Tyler. With a sigh, Rose Tyler rose like a petulant child from her workstation and dragged her feet to the elevator following Norma.
"What does Dad want this time?" Rose finally ventured to ask on the way up.
"Did you not read your email?" Norma retorted.
Rose gave Norma a withering smile. "I've been busy today, aliens, cataloguing aliens, saving the world. That sort of thing."
"Saving the world with Solitaire." Norma shot back testily. "You were just avoiding your father."
Rose couldn't help herself. She rolled her eyes. "Dad's been wanting me to do something for him for the past month now, all this socializing for politics and funding! I wish he'd get over this fetish soon enough."
Norma shot Rose a look of disapproval. Although, Rose wondered when did Norma ever give her a look other than disapproval? Rose imagined her entire family album was pretty much made up of Norma casting disapproval glances to the camera. She was about to voice her thoughts to Norma when the elevator dinged and the doors opened, directly into Pete's office.
Norma walked out, no, she marched out. Rose wondered if she could convince her dad that this prim and proper lady was what she needed out in the field. One hint of a disapproval from this woman and most hostile aliens would be begging to go back home.
"Mr. Tyler, Rose Tyler to see you."
Rose could see Pete Tyler working hard at his PC terminal, his tie loosened and his jacket thrown on the chair. The desk was a mess with papers stacked everywhere. Pete looked up and his face brightened considerably.
"Norma! You found Rose! We tried to find you the whole day. Were you busy?"
Rose and Norma exchanged a look. Pete Tyler was probably one of the smartest human beings Rose knew but there were occasions where Rose had to remind herself that this was the head of Torchwood and the creator of Vitex.
"I was a little." Rose lied smoothly.
Pete got up from his desk, knocking over the papers onto the floor. Norma's eyebrow twitched a little, Rose knew she was dying to head over and clean up her boss' desk but remained standing next to Rose out of decorum.
"Norma, get Rose a cuppa, will you?" Pete asked barely noticing the mess he was making. He walked to Rose and grabbed Rose's hands and half-pulled her to the white board next to his desk.
"Isn't this amazing?" Pete had his hands on his hips, a bit too girly a pose for her dad, Rose thought. Pete had a self-satisfied grin on his face. "Remember the XX Project I was telling you about?"
Rose stared at whiteboard in front of her trying desperately to remember the Project Pete Tyler was talking about. There were reasons why she did leave school in her other life (aside from Jimmy Stones of course), the smooth white plane of the board made her eyes glaze over and the desire to make paper airplanes and write 'Rose Tyler Smith' on the margins of her notebook seized her again. Pinching herself, Rose focused to look at the writings.
It was a complicated mess of writings, numbers and formulas that Rose could not decipher. She looked at her dad with a little look of confusion.
"Is these normal maths?"
Pete gave her an exasperated look, the same look he gave her when she announced she had decided to read English Literature in uni as opposed to Physics. If it were not for the endless arguments that ensued later on why the Sciences would suit Torchwood better, Rose would have been proud and touched on how quickly Pete Tyler assumed fatherhood.
"Yes," Pete Tyler nodded. "Incredibly advanced they are. This was done all under an hour."
An hour? "Blimey!" Rose breathed out. Rose looked at the complex equations. The last time she had seen such complex equations done almost as quickly was when she was traveling with the Doctor. The thought brought a smile to her face. Why, even the funny circular scribbles next to reminded her of-
The door opened and a baritone spoke out suddenly. "I think I've got it, Pete."
Rose jumped at the voice and turned to see a handsome man walk into the room holding a mug in his hand. A little scruffy without his tie and his top button left unbuttoned. Blonde, she noticed. Tall. Despite the smile on his face, Rose knew that this was a man unused to smiling despite the grin on his face. The grin disappeared when he saw Rose in the room, his face registering surprise.
"Oh! I'm sorry," he said looking at Rose Tyler. "I was not aware you had company."
The man had a gaze that was hypnotic. Rose felt herself going under but the moment was broken when Pete cheerfully interrupted them.
"Ah! Harold, meet my daughter, Rose Tyler. Head of R&D at Vitex. Rose, this is Harold Saxon, one of the world's most renowned physicists."
Pete had on his face, a smile, a knowing smile that she had seen only once or twice on the old man's face. More often than not, she had seen that look on her mum's face – especially when she was matchmaking her daughter with some socialite's son she had met who her mum was sure was a 'lovely young lad, would suit you well Rose if you were not mooning over the Doctor'.
'Harold, I'm sure you've heard of my daughter. She's currently the Senior Vice President, smart girl she is. Introduced Vitex Lite, I mean I wouldn't have dreamed that people wanted zero calories in their energy drinks, it pushed up profits by 20 percent the year it was introduced. And Harold, I'm sure you've seen the latest adverts right? Rose's ideas, that was.'
"Dad!" Rose hissed. But Pete did not seem to notice. It sounded like he was selling her.
But Harold Saxon heard her and he visibly stiffened. Rose instantly felt bad and smiled at him, to reassure that it was not Harold Saxon she was annoyed with, but it was her dad, who brought her up here to..to. God, what was he up to? It can't be about work, he would not have introduced her as Vitex if that was the case. It must be for-
"I just wanted to introduce the two of you." Pete's voice trailed away, in his vain attempts to fade away and let the two of them, be. "Harold here is into the arts you know."
She was right. It was to set her up. So Dad was listening when Mum nattered on and on about how Rose was no longer seeing anyone. The last time she was over at dinner, it was a complete disaster. Jackie was giving her the third degree for not dating or moving on from the Doctor and was harder on Pete for giving Rose too much work. The atmosphere at the dinner table became frosty and unbearable and only improved when Tony, Rose's little brother became irritable. Pete and Rose took to giving John their complete attention, ignoring Jackie and the subject was forgotten.
Harold looked embarrassed at the statement. "I just dabble in a bit of drawing," he said softly, almost shyly.
"You should look at some of his drawings. I've seen some of your design schematics, it was no less than genius, it was!" Pete raved. Blimey, her father was turning as bad as Jackie. It must have been Jackie's influence that Pete was turning soft in his old age. The old Pete would never have been this, this open and embarrassing.
Or maybe parents in general were. Rose had thought only mums were but perhaps even dads were too.
"It's nothing really." Harold was turning beetroot red by this time. It was time for Rose to rescue him. She knew what her father was getting at), she might as well play along. She'll get her revenge later on.
"You must show me some of your drawings," Rose said kindly. Harold smiled at her remark, the flush on his face lessening somewhat.
"I will," he mumbled.
Pete put his hand on Rose's shoulder. Rose felt like she was thirteen. "As you know, Vitex feels that art and education is important and we here at Vitex have taken upon ourselves to support the arts scene."
Pete spoke as a Chairman at an investor's briefing. But Rose could not help but feel like a cattle led to slaughter. Nevertheless, she continued to smile.
"It was Rose who pushed ahead for Vitex's involvement in the arts scene. Scouting new artists, supporting local art galleries," he continued. "I'm sure you have heard about the newest opening at the Tate this Friday."
It was not fair. She had only just found her father. Now she had to kill him. Again.
There was a quirk of movement in Harold's eyebrow, he knew that Pete Tyler was setting the two of them up. Smart man.
"Yes, please come," Rose said, unable to keep the embarrassment from her voice. "It would be very nice if you could make it. It'd be wonderful if you could make it."
"Um, certainly!" Harold's response was a little too quick and his smile was a little too wide.
It was unexpected that Harold would have been so taken in by the invitation but Rose felt strangely delighted that he was pleased with the invitation. The moment would have been better had it not been for Pete Tyler, trying to look inconspicuous with a self-satisfied grin all over his face.
Whatever it was, this Harold did not seem like too bad a bloke. She had been dreading the opening party at the Tate, she did not actually have a date for the evening. The gossip mags were going to have a field day, Vitex Heiress, alone again. Will she never find a man?
'I could just contact my PA, and we can set up a time that is appropriate?' Rose said.
Harold who seemed deathly shy, could not hide how pleased he was at the invitation. She sighed inwardly, he did seem like a nice guy – how wrong could the evening go?