Listen to: "Beth's Theme" by Ólafur Arnalds or "Pretty Face" by Soley


Chapter 1: Face


"You know, this is gonna be nothing like London. No traffic, no smelly rubbish, no rude blokes who take cabs from right under your nose," Jackie rambled from the front seat of their car.

"What's that gonna do for me? There's fucking beaches everywhere," Rose grumbled, looking at side of the motorway as they climbed through the tall cliffs of Broadchurch. Below laid yellow sand and blue surfs, crashing harshly against one another. She locked her jaw and looked away.

"Oi! Language, Rose! Mind Tony, will ya?" her mum turned her upper torso around to glare at Rose and gesture to Rose's brother.

Rose looked over at Tony beside her, who flashed her a mischievous grin. "You know what 'fuck' means don't you Tony? It's something you say when you've lost everything and all you have are words."

"Rose Marion Tyler!" Jackie squawked.

"It's okay, mum, all the boys at school use 'fuck' and stuff," Tony shrugged, nonchalantly.

Jackie gasped and looked at her husband. "Pete! What sort of school do you have our son going to?"

"State-funded, dear, just like you requested," he reminded her, not taking his eyes off of the road.

Rose's mum narrowed her eyes at Pete, but nevertheless gave up in defeat.

"I still don't get why you won't let me stay in London with my mates," Tony wondered, unhappily sighing with his chin resting on the windowsill.

"Because you're not old enough yet," Pete said.

"Well, in Home Alone he stayed home alone," Tony bit back.

Jackie scoffed. "Yeah, and look how well that turned out!"

"I have an even better idea: why couldn't all of us have just stayed home?" Rose said, folding her arms.

"We've just got you back, and you're gonna go wherever we go, and that's final," Jackie replied firmly, looking at Pete for a nod of affirmation (which he did not give, as he was preoccupied tuning out his family and looking at how wonderfully blue the sky was in Broadchurch).

#

"When are you gonna go swim with me, Rosie?" Tony asked in a quiet voice from Rose's doorway.

Rose looked up from her laptop and took her earbuds out of her ears. "What?" she asked, having not heard what he had said.

"Do you wanna go play or something?" he reiterated, worrying about what Rose's answer might be.

"Tony, I've just been feeling kinda…blah, you know?" she shook her head, drawing a hardened line with her mouth.

"But…you've never played with me."

"What? Of course I have. I'm your sister."

"Yeah, but just because you're my sister doesn't mean you've done anything like that. Before you didn't wake up, all you did was work with dad, and never paid any attention to me."

"Tony," she gritted her teeth. "I'm not in the mood. Get out of my room."

"So what?" he cried. "You can go back to making yourself get hurt and having mum and dad worry about you?! I'm sick and tired of you! You've been sad so long, we don't even know why you're sad! You don't even know why you're sad! All I want is for my sister to smile at me! Just once!"

Rose scrambled up from her bed and marched over to where Tony stood, harshly pointing a finger in his face. "You know good and well that mum and I don't belong here! How would you like it if you were in a place where you didn't belong?!"

"Yeah, I do know, because you make sure I know I don't belong! Mum and dad were never supposed to have me! And you were never supposed to be here, and I get it! You're cross because you don't belong and you miss that alien bloke of yours! But you take it out on me and that's not fair! Just like you," tears began to roll down Tony's face as he fumbled with the pail and spade in his two hands, "I didn't ask to be here."

Rose covered her face with her hands as she attempted to control herself from screaming in frustration. Then she spoke, muffled: "Tony, I'm so sorry. I didn't—"

Suddenly, she heard a crash! as the pail and spade fell onto the hardwood and felt a pair of soft arms enwrap her waist.

"I can't even see him anymore, and I can't hear him. It's like it never happened. It's like I was never there." Her breathing became quick and shallow as her heart raced out of her chest. Her palms bared down into her eyes.

"Remember what mum said," Tony softly advised, quickly recognizing one of Rose's panic attacks. "Think of the clouds."

And she thought of what they looked like from the Tardis, and she remembered, and everything was normal.

#

"Mum, Pete," Rose announced as she walked into the kitchen holding hands with Tony.

Pete and Jackie sat next to each other at the countertop, reading the local newspaper: The Echo. At the sound of Rose's voice they both immediately looked up from their readings in bafflement.

"Rosie? Hi!" her mum smiled widely, unable to curb her enthusiasm at seeing her eldest child out of her room since they had arrived two days ago.

"Me and Tony were gonna go to the beach, if that's alright," she said.

Tony grinned at his mother and father, nodding his head at the progress he had made, all by himself.

Jackie and Pete look at one another with dazed faces. "Yeah…yeah of course," Pete nodded.

"Alright," Rose smiled, "Then we'll be off. Come on, Tony." She began to drag Tony off when Pete suddenly burst up from his seat, digging around in his pocket.

"Hey, hold on you two, let me give you some money for some 99's," Pete said, holding out some of the notes he had grabbed out of his wallet.

Warily, Rose dropped Tony's hand to walk over to Pete and grab the money out of hand. Leafing through it, her head snapped up in shock. "Pete, there's over fifty quid here."

"Yeah, I know. Look through the shops and see if there's anything you or Tony likes while you're out. Have a good time."

She stuck the money in her backpack's side pocket before leaning forward and giving Pete a chaste kiss on the cheek. "Thank you."

"Catch some waves for me, Rosie," he grinned, patting her on the shoulder.

"We'll be back for dinner, then," she bid, giving her mum a brief wave.

Jackie softly waved her hand back. "Bye! Be careful! Don't let your brother out of your sight!"

Rose rolled her eyes as she grabbed Tony's hand once again. "Love you, mum."

"Have fun!" her mum said, Rose and Tony walking out of the room.

Pete turned and looked back at Jackie with a somber look on his face. "Did you see that? It's like she never left."

Jackie swept stray tears out from underneath her eyes. "I'm just afraid she'll leave us again."

#

The cliffs above them cast a shadow over the beach, making the sand cool to the touch. The part of the beach they situated themselves in was a good ways from all of the other goers, making it a close affair for the brother and sister.

"I can never seem to get it," Tony complained with his tongue hanging out of his mouth in concentration. Once again, another mound of sand from his pail collapsed as soon as he let it sit.

Rose looked at him with a mixture of sympathy and amusement. "Here let me try," she offered, abandoning the Tardis she was drawing with her finger along in the sand. She wiped her hands off on her denim pants before kneeling down in front of Tony. "Now, take that pail and go put just a wee bit of ocean water in it."

"Water?" he scrunched up his nose. "What the hell is that gonna do?"

"It's gonna help the sand to stick together, and while you're down there, wash out your mouth too," she chuckled, shaking her head at him.

He hung his head as he picked up the pail. "Sorry, Rose."

"Go on, then," she smiled, gesturing to the water in front of her.

He ran off, racing down to the gentle waves and splashing through the shallow water.

She noticed how he rapidly plunged through the water. "Oi! Be careful, Tony! This isn't a race, you know!" she fretted.

While he dipped his pail in the water that lapped around his waist, Rose fiddled with her bikini straps and craned her neck to admire the towering face of the bluffs. Nice gusts of placid air travelled down from them, rustling the hairs that didn't quite reach inside of the bun on top of her head.

It was so much prettier than Norway, yet still so still.

#

DI Alec Hardy sat at the desk in his office when DS Ellie Miller rapped on his open door.

"Oi, Hardy, can I have a minute with ya? We've got a new pending case." She tapped the thin case file absentmindedly on her thigh.

"Just a tick, Miller, I've almost through with this," he sighed, typing at an excruciatingly slow rate on his computer.

"Stevens," she said.

"What?" he asked, not lifting his eyes off of his screen.

"Stevens. I changed it this morning before coming here."

That seemed to get his attention, as he flipped his head to look at her. "Did you really?"

"As according to Wessex Crown Court, my name is now legally Ellie Stevens again."

Hardy scrunched up his nose. "Does that mean I've got to start calling you 'Stevens' now?"

She shrugged. "I dunno, what do you want to call me?"

"I dunno, I don't really think about it that much, you know," he said.

"Then, I guess just call me whatever pops into that small noggin of yours," she teased.

"Alright, then," he stood up from his desk. "What's the case go on about then?"

The two detectives met in the middle of the room, Ellie holding the file out to him. Hardy began to look through it, reading the paperwork and studying the pictures. "We've had three reports of shoplifting in the span of the last two weeks at that newsagent shop that was previously owned by Jack Marshall."

He flipped back and forth between forms. "So, Angela Bradbury owns it now, then?"

"Yeah, and she's not entirely happy. I've tried to convince her to get CCTV or something of the sort, and she's adamant that she trusts her neighbours, and that it's our job to catch the theft."

"So, what's he nicking? Cigarettes? Pregnancy tests?" he asked, naming off some of the most commonly thieved items.

"No, sweets."

Hardy's head snapped up. "Sweets?"

"Well," she shrugged. "Really it's only Jelly Babies."

Slapping the file shut, he began to flop it around the air for emphasis. "Oh, you've got to be shitting me! Jelly Babies, for Christ's sake! What does she want us to do? Release the hounds for the red-handed tike?!"

"Look, I know it's silly, but all we really need to do is take a trip down to the shop, tell her that we're taking it seriously and then throw the case away."

Hardy took his fingers and pressed them down on his forehead, letting the folder flop to his side. "I cannot believe I stayed for this."

She crossed her arms. "It's better than the shite we've put up with before."

"And yet, I'm half-tempted to barge into the shop, give her the three quid, and call it a day."

"Hardy, you're a prat."

"Sod off already so we can go."

#

Rose and Tony walked along the town's shops, each holding a dripping 99. Tony's pail and spade hung at Rose's side from the straps on her backpack. Their clothes were already dry from their time on the beach from the sun, but sand still clung to their shoes.

"This tastes way better than the stuff back home," Tony grinned, with monkey's blood smeared across his cheek.

"It's only 'cause of the salt water," she said.

He thought about it for a moment before saying: "Yeah, you're probably right."

Rose looked over at her brother and smiled, feeling exultant at how well the day had gone. She had spent, for the first time she could remember, the entirety of a whole day without once feeling completely miserable about herself. Sure, she'd thought about how the Doctor would have thrown her into the water and she would have dunked his head under and she would have snogged the life out of him without worrying about the consequences like she always had before. But, all of those thoughts were happy and put a smile on her face, instead of driving her to the space between her mattress and her blanket.

"I don't know why my friends always complain about their siblings. 'Cause, I love mine, and I know what it's like not to have 'em," he rambled in all seriousness, glancing up at Rose for a reaction.

Their eyes met and she halted her walking, making Tony eventually stop also. "I'll try to never leave you again, you know that Tony, right?"

"You'll try?" he frowned before taking a huge gobble of his cone.

"Tony, I of all people should know you never make promises. Not even if you think you can keep them."

"But, can't you make a promise to me? I'm your brother!"

She sighed, "I-, I don't know." Rose turned to look at the shop they currently stood in front of. It had closed early, but in the darkened display window sat clothed mannequins wearing what looked like boutique clothing. "Hey, you think mum would like to stop by here one day?"

Tony shrugged and looked away, his good mood having been spoiled. "Maybe, I guess."

"She's always in the mood for shopping, isn't she?"

He didn't answer, staring blankly at the pavement beside him.

"I remember one Christmas," she giggled, "All of these plastic mannequins came to life, and scared the daylights outta mum. She swore never to shop in a store full of mannequins again."

"Is that another story about him, then?" he murmured, looking up.

Rose turned around and gave him a muted stare. "Those are the only stories worth telling."

"None of your stories ever mention me, then?"

"Well, the Doctor never got to know you," she quickly snapped without ration.

Tony shook his head and glared at her. "Mum and dad were right. You are dead on the inside. Even on the beach today. That wasn't really you, was it? Your smiles aren't real because nothing about you is real. You're a zombie, Rose. And you wish you could have died that day, don't you?"

Numb, Rose cannot even feel the impact his words have on her, or should have on her. "Tony," her voice cracked, "Don't say something like that. Especially around mum and Pete."

"And you still call him Pete! He's both of our dads! Mum told me if a doctor looked, they'd see we were all a family, even though you and her are from super far away! I see that, and I'm only eight, but you can't see that!"

"When I grew up," she flared, "I didn't have a dad like you! Pete didn't raise me, because in my world he didn't!"

"Daddy raised you! He helped you after you got out of the hospital! He helped you when all you ever did was sleep in your bathroom! He helped you when you ran away and couldn't find your way back home! He loves you just like other daddy did! Because he is other daddy! He's both of them! We're his second chance family and you treat him so bad it makes mummy cry!"

She cruelly pointed a finger down into his face. "Oi! That's not fair! I've had a lot of shite going on in my life!"

"Yeah, it's never fair for you! You're too caught up in yourself to see that daddy and mum are trying. And you're making them tired, and that makes them ignore me 'cause you take up all of their attention!"

"It's not my fault they don't pay attention to you!"

"Yeah, but you don't pay attention to me, and you never have!"

A car beeped its horn and Rose's eyes glanced away long enough from Tony's to see a man walking on the opposite pavement, growing closer into her view. He looked at the car as it passed, and she saw him. The eyes, the brown eyes that she saw all across the way, they were there. They were there for her.

And then she saw all of the sand and the sky that washed everything out into grays and nudes, casting the dull colour into the water. And she was suddenly so cold, and so heartbroken. And how was he there? How was he on the beach with her? Where was he? Where was the Doctor?

#

"I'm telling you, Ellie, if I have to take on one more of the petty cases I'm going to lose it," he grumbled under his breath as she and he trudged back to the station.

"Ellie? It's Ellie now then, yeah?"

He shrugged. "You change your name too much."

She tutted at him. "Bollocks Hardy, I've changed it once!"

"You should have never changed it in the first place. You'll always end up changing it back, the way I see it, one way or the other."

"Well, not all of us are grumpy old men like you." Ellie said, then changed her mind as she sighed. "But, you're probably right. No one is who they claim to be anymore."

He stayed silent at that, choosing not to reply. Hardy looked out at the road when a car's horn beeped stridently. He began to turn his head back towards Ellie when a loud shout startled him.

"Rose! Stop! What are you doing?! Rose! Please!" a little boy's voice cried from the other side of the road.

He immediately slowed his walking and examined the scene further to notice a woman with a dazed look gradually making her way across the street, without any head to the traffic stopping in order to prevent from hitting her. The boy stood on the pavement behind her, waving wildly, attempting to get the woman's attention.

Without hesitation, or any notice to Ellie of what was occurring, he darted off of the path and into the road, pulling out his shield in order to flash it to drivers. Hardy made his way over to the woman, who was already almost across the street by then.

Off to the side, Ellie noticed Hardy wasn't following her anymore, and turned back to see him in the road, approaching a blonde woman with his hands cautiously outstretched.

"Where are you?" she asked him, stopping once he was in front of her.

"Miss, you've got to get out of the road," he calmly put, still holding his shield up to the flow of traffic.

"You look like a ghost."

"Miss, can you tell me your name?"

"Rose! Come back!" the boy hollered.

Hardy turned his attention to the boy as Ellie steadily made her way across the road to the boy on the other side. "Do you know her?" he called back to the boy.

His shoulders caved in and he clutched his cheeks with his hands, beginning to sob. "Rose is my sister! And she's really sick!"

"Can I t-" the woman started, holding her hand out towards Hardy, her fingertips nearly touching him.

"Rose, can you move your feet for me?" Hardy questioned.

Her hand fell to her side. "Can't you come through properly?"

"What do you mean?" he said.

On the other side of the road, Ellie reached the boy; she kneeled down in front of him. Beside him were two ice cream cones laying broken on the pavement. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Tony Tyler," he sniffed. "She needs the Doctor."

"I know, love," she tugged on his shirt in order to soothe him. "We'll get her to the hospital as soon as we get her out of the road."

"No," Tony shook his head adamantly. "She needs the Doctor."

Over with Rose and the Detective, she asked, "So?", while Hardy stared at her with a worried face.

"So, what do I mean?"

She laughed and he took his free hand to pull his radio from his belt. "Dispatch, I need a bus and traffic control to Main Street, over." While waiting for a response, he attempted to make contact with Rose again. "Do you know where you are?"

"We're in Norway," she replied.

A crackling noise came from the radio as dispatch responded, saying: "Copy that, five minutes out for traffic, 15 for bus, over."

Returning the radio to his belt carefully, Hardy snorted: "Norway, right."

She responded: "About 50 miles out of Bergen. It's called 'Dålig Ulv Stranden'."

"We're gonna get you help, alright?"

"'Dålig'. It's Norwegian for bad. This translates as 'Bad Wolf Bay'…How long have we got?"

Assuming she had eventually snapped out of whatever she was mentally trapped in, he tried to usher her the couple of metres to the curb. "The ambulance'll be here shortly, now please follow me just a few steps so we can get traffic flowing again." A brief glance from Hardy proved that the drivers of the vehicles had begun to stream out of the cars: watching the scene unfold.

"…I can't think of what to say." She shook her head, clutching her face.

"I'm not judging what happened," he said, still under the impression she was now aware of her surroundings. "Just follow me then." He began to back up, but stopped when she refused to follow him.

"Oh there's five of us now. Mum, Dad, Mickey…and the baby," Rose said, her eyes trained on Hardy's, every which way they looked.

"Is your brother's name Mickey?" Hardy assumed.

"No. It's Mum. She's three months gone. More Tylers on the way," she smiled and shrugged.

He gave her half-curious, half-astonished look. "What?"

"Yeah, I'm…I'm back working in the shop."

With her answers not quite lining up with his questions, he realised she was still deep in whatever world she had made up for herself. "Okay, okay. You're back working in the shop, then."

"Shut up. No, I'm not. Torchwood on this earth's open for business. Think I know a thing or two about aliens," she teased in a flirting manner.

Hardy's eyes widened and he cocked his head at her. "Can you hear what I'm saying?" he murmured.

From behind Rose, Ellie had the boy in her hand, walking the two over to Rose and Hardy.

"Am I ever going to see you again?" she asked, tears threatening to fall from her face.

He was still undecided if she could actually hear what he was saying or not. So, he chose to continue talking to her like she could. "We're gonna get you help, don't worry about that."

"His name is Tony and Rose is her sister," Ellie referred to Tony once she was close enough to Hardy.

"Can she hear us?" Hardy asked, not sure if he was talking to Ellie, Tony, or Rose.

Rose began to sob, clutching her face once again. "What are you going to do?"

Tony shook his head. "No, she's stuck."

"Love, stuck where?" Ellie asked the boy.

"On your own?" Rose choked up.

"She's stuck in her brain," Tony explained, gesturing to Rose's head.

"Her brain?" Hardy reiterated, finally dropping his arms to his side, confident that the traffic would not continue.

"She's sick, like I told you!" he defended his sister.

Taking away her hands from her face, Rose's eyes continued to cry as she gazed pointedly at Hardy: "I…I love you."

The three bystanders were silent, unable to comprehend what was going through Rose's mind in that moment. Then, suddenly, she let out a broken sob, turning on her heel and launching herself into Ellie's arms, burying her head in her shoulder.

Ellie stumbled back a few steps and was ripped out of Tony's hand in the process. "I…uh…Hardy?"

Hardy only shook his head at Ellie as she awkwardly patted the blonde's head. He took a step forward, having decided to attempt and pry Rose off of his partner, but Tony quickly held up his hands in a stopping motion.

"No! Don't! You'll make it worse! You look just like him!" Tony shouted at the Detective.

"I look like who?!"

Like it was the most obvious thing in the world, he explained: "The Doctor!"

"But, I'm not her doctor," Hardy shook his head.

Ellie piped up as two uniformed police officers walked onto the scene, saying: "No, not her doctor, the Doctor."

At first, Hardy opened his mouth to object but he saw the officers and chose to respond to the instead. "Make sure the flow of traffic stays halted while we wait for medical, please."

The two officers nodded and went to take their positions as controlling the flow northbound and southbound.

"Tony," Hardy said, "Why don't you go and stand on the pavement behind me, out of the way?"

Tony looked over at his sister beside him, still in Ellie's arms. "But what about Rose?"

Hardy stuck out his hand towards the boy. "Don't worry, my partner's got her. We're gonna make sure she's okay."

He glared at the Detective until eventually, he warily took Hardy's hand and let him lead him to the pavement.

#

She had been so humiliated, so jaded. She had come all the way to Norway to hear him clarify that she was, in fact, stuck in a world she wanted no part of. So, she stood in the sand and sobbed into her mother's shoulder until she couldn't any longer. Until the ringing of the Tardis left her ears.

"Rose," her mum said.

"Mum, he didn't even say it. I thought he'd say it back. I never got to hear him say it," she whimpered repeatedly.

"Rose, it's okay. You're gonna be okay. Your brother's fine, my partner has him. You just stay right here with me until we can help you," a woman's voice tried to soothe her. A woman who didn't sound much like her mother anymore. Where did her mother go? Why did her voice sound so choppy?

Rose lifted her head up from her shoulder, expecting to see the grays and nudes, and instead got a blinding eyeful of sun and people surrounding her. Vehicles everywhere and a woman with short curly hair stepping back with her hands steadying Rose's arms.

"Rose, you're beginning to worry me. Try to stay still."

She was so confused. How did she end up here? Was she back in her world? Was the Doctor there? Where was the Doctor?

"Doctor?!" she screamed. "I'm here! I'm here! You've found me! I'm— " Her voice cut off as she turned around, the world spinning crazily in her vision, to see the Doctor (!) standing next to a little boy she swore she had seen before. "Doctor!"

She sprinted towards him, his face different than before, but it was him. Sure, he had a beard and scraggly hair, but he was the same, he hadn't changed.

And then the Doctor was floating away, up, up, up, until all she saw was prickly asphalt and didn't understand why he didn't catch her on her way down.

#

Hardy, Ellie, and Tony watched in horror as Rose whirled around quickly, took one glance at Hardy and Tony, stumbled over her feet, and plummeted down to the ground—landing in a collapse.

"Rose!" Tony shrieked, wrenching himself from Hardy's grasp and dashing over to her side. He began to furiously shake Rose's arm.

Hardy cursed under his breath and took a shaky step backwards. Taking the radio from his belt he barked into it: "Dispatch, where's my bus? We have code 112 in progress. We need assistance ASAP."

Ellie jogged over to Tony and Rose. She bent down beside the little boy. "Tony, come on, don't rustle her too much. Wait until the doctors come."

"If the Doctor was here none of this would be happening!" his tears ran down into his mouth.

"Check her pulse, Ellie," Hardy said thickly.

"Hardy, you don't think—?" she shook her head, glancing at little Tony.

He sighed and hesitated before continuing, saying in a gruff voice: "Just do it. That way the ambulance'll know when they get here."

Wincing, Ellie put two fingers on Rose's neck as Tony watched in horror. "What are you doing?! Is she asleep?!" he screeched.

Ellie closed her eyes and sighed in relief, retracting her hand. "She's gonna be fine, Tony. She's still with us."

Just then, in the near background, the sirens of the ambulance were heard vaguely.

"I need to ring my mummy and daddy!" Tony cried.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure they know," Ellie nodded, patting him on the back. "Do you know their number?"

Tony shook his head, sniffling. "No, I only know my home number. We're on holiday."

"Are you staying at the hotel, then?" she asked.

He shook his head again. "We're staying in a white house on the beach by that huge hill."

Ellie turned to look at Hardy. "You know which one he's talking about, right?"

"Yeah, that rich lot?" he immediately could envision just what beach house Tony was referring to. "I'll go with Tony and see if anyone's home, and you stay here until the ambulance arrives, which should be any tick now." The sirens grew steadily louder.

"No! I don't wanna leave Rose!" Tony complained, looking between Ellie and Hardy desperately.

"Alright, I don't have time for this," Hardy said in a rush. "Ellie, watch the lad. I'll meet you at the hospital."

"Hurry back, then!" she called after him as he sped away.

Hardy pushed through the crowd of people that kept slowly growing. Olly Stevens from The Echo noticed him departing the scene and began to follow him.

"Detective! What's happening?" he asked with his iPhone out, ready to jot down any notes.

"No comment, Olly, just like always," Hardy snipped, using his arm to block the journalist from following him too closely.

"Right," Olly nodded, shoving his mobile into his pocket. "Are you still coming for dinner, then? My mum needs to know."

"Only if you don't pester me about what's going on right now."

Olly grinned. "I guess I'll take that as a no, then."

"Teach yourself some self-control," Hardy frowned at him.

"Only when you teach yourself how to smile, Detective," he bid before turning around and heading back to the crowd.