"My love has concrete feet"
"Fill me in," Rose said, sitting down in a chair in Pete's office, nursing the coffee in her hand.
"We've finally got word from our ears inside Fringe Division, and it seems that they've been keeping more from the world than anyone has suspected," Pete said, showing a map on screen. "These are the plots of all the amber protocols, all the quarantines, all the 'Fringe Events'. Now," he changed the viewing on the screen. "These are the same, but in time order. If we rewind the clock…"
The screen, which was covered with dots and markers, began to slowly clear.
"We can see which event was first!" Rose exclaimed. "We can see the trigger!"
"Exactly," Pete said, as all the dots disappeared except one: Reiden Lake. "The Zero event. We suspected it for a while, since the Secretary of Defense mentions it in his book ZFT, but we didn't take it as fact for a while, since we know some things in that book aren't true at all. I'm willing to bet that his claim that the destruction of the planet is due to natural decay is false, too."
"But why print a falsehood?" Rose asked.
"Everyone has secrets," Pete said. "And I'm betting that Fringe Division has more than their share."
"Can our mole get us more information?" Rose asked.
"The clearance level isn't high enough," Pete said, rubbing his neck.
"But this could be the key!" Rose said. "The key to why the Universe is still breaking down, in spite of what the Doctor did! This could be it!"
"It's nothing more than a hunch, Rose," Pete told her.
"We've gone out on hunches more than once," Rose told him, standing up. You need to follow it wherever it goes. The world needs saving, and you're the one to do it. "Send me."
"What?" Pete asked incredulously.
"Send me. Hasn't the President been asking you for inter-office relations more and more? Sharing of information and all that?"
"Yes, but that's with our departments in England!" Pete told her.
Rose tucked some of her blond hair behind her ears. "But you could make it work. You're good at that –talking people 'round."
"Torchwood is still a high clearance organization," Pete pointed out. "I can't just request a cooperation with Fringe Division and let the cat out of the bag."
"Course not," Rose said, surprising him. "Tell 'em I'm from UNIT or somethin'. We've got that psychic paper left over from that Tula raid last year, yeah? Don't even need to make fake IDs then." She paused. "Dad. I can't just sit here. Somethin's wrong, and I've got to fix it. Let me do my job."
Pete rubbed his forehead as he thought. Then he said, "You're mum's gonna kill me."
Rose broke into a brilliant smile and hugged him ecstatically. "Nah, she's gonna kill me, but that's okay," she mumbled into his shoulder.
"You get to break it to her," Pete told her as he held the door open for her to exit his office.
"I can handle mum," Rose assured him.
Blimey, she's gotten fiercer than ever since she had Tony, Rose thought.
"Absolutely not!" Jackie said loudly. "You just got back, and we all nearly died from it! And your eyes, Rose! Think of your eyes! How will this affect them? We don't even know what's wrong with you!"
"Mum!" Rose said, stopping her before she could really get going. "I'm a grown woman. I can take care of myself; you know that. I've got to do this."
"Oh, Rose," her mother said softly. "I know. I just worry, sweetheart."
"But you don't have to, mum." Rose gave her mother a hug, and then asked, "So where's the Doctor, then? I think I need to talk to him."
"Oh, he's been all over the house, in the library, on the internet, reading up on everything!" Jackie exclaimed. "I think he's in the garden now."
"Thanks," Rose said, zipping up her jacket and taking the back door. She took in the grounds as she walked towards the ornamental gardens in the back; no one could tell there had been Cybermen here three years earlier. Clouds had begun to roll in from the west. It might rain later that night. "Doctor?" Rose called, not able to see him. "Are you in there?" A rather high shrub hid her view.
"Rose!" the metacrisis exclaimed, making her jump. He poked his head up above the shrub. "There you are. Come and see!"
She smiled as River's words echoed in her head, "the Doctor over here is my Doctor." She went through the archway and came around to see what he was up to. He was crouched down in front of a flowerbed with dirt stains on his knees and a smudge of dirt across his forehead. "Is that –" Rose began, but stopped in shock.
"Yep. It's a piece of his TARDIS," the Doctor said, standing and dusting off his hands. "He gave it to me before we started sending people home."
Rose stared at the small hunk of orange coral sitting happily in the dirt of the flowerbed. "Wow," she said.
"Usually TARDISes take ages to grow, but Donna told me how to accelerate the growth pattern…" he trailed off, and Rose knew he was thinking of her.
"So how long d'you think it'll take now?" Rose asked.
"All the necessary parts, size, plus time rotor and installing some bits of machinery? A year or so."
"Wow," Rose said again, and smiled.
"Yeah," he agreed. "Rose… I have to talk to you." His expression grew very sober. "I know he left us both over here so you could… 'make me better'. His words. I think I'm fine. But…he told me to look after you, and I will do, but I think he thought we might, or you would –um, but it's not really possible because of messing up time tracks and things, so I'm just saying this so you'll –"
Rose smiled. He made just as much sense as her doctor did. "Doctor, are you trying to say River came and visited you, too?"
He stared at her with a completely stunned look on his face. "Um…yes?" he finally said.
"She told me that the world still isn't safe, and that I've got to get back to my Doctor," Rose said. "And that she doesn't like sharing, so I can't have you," she said cheekily.
"Well… isn't that wizard?" the Doctor said in a pleased sort of tone.
"You like her," Rose said, laughing. "How did you meet her, anyway?"
"Long story. Really long, actually," the Doctor said, as the smile dropped off his face. "I'll tell you sometime. But I'm glad we've got that settled," he said, brightening up.
"Me too," Rose said. "Um, River told me that she and I would be friends someday. I'd… like to be your friend, too."
"Aren't you? I thought you already were," the Doctor said, surprised.
"Not this you," Rose said. "And I'd like to be your friend. Very much."
"All right, Rose Tyler," the Doctor said, sticking out his hand. "Friends?"
"Friends," Rose said, shaking it heartily.
Two weeks later, Pete woke Rose up in the middle of the night, knocking loudly on her door. She sat up, disoriented by the noise and the sudden bright light. "Wake up," Pete said. "We've got a way into Fringe Division; an old case of theirs just came up again."
"What?" Rose mumbled sleepily.
"We've now got an excuse to send over someone to work collaboratively with them," her father explained, a tad impatiently. "I've got the files you'll need; you can read them later. Pack a bag. The zeppelin leaves in an hour." He handed her a pair of sunglasses and said, "For your eyes."
Rose forced her eyes open wide and shook her head sleepily, taking the glasses and tossing them into a duffel bag. She threw the covers back and went to splash water on her face in an effort to wake up.
She could smell tea brewing downstairs. Just what she needed before heading off to America.
AN: AWWW YEAH! Reminder -next chapter I'll be moving this to the crossover section between DW and Fringe, so make sure you have this alerted!
And if for some reason it decides to mess up everything when I do that, you can look there for the story!
I appreciate all your reviews. You guys rock!
