The Trouble With Doctors
Chapter Three

Rose hand ghosted above the panels around something that looked oddly familiar. Jack had called it something funny...a rift manipulator or something like that. But it wasn't active, at least not at the moment. And it made the room around her feel too quiet, like there was something missing.

Rose had the feeling that there should be the sound of mechanical humming, even if it wasn't active. She missed the humming.

Blinking large, doe like eyes, Rose stepped back from the machine. There was a buzz in her ears that she couldn't seem to get rid of as she lost her balance. Her hands sought support from the smooth machinery she had just moved away from.

She felt like she was going to be sick.

"Rose?" She didn't look up when she heard Jack call out for her. "Rose, are you around here?"

A chocked groan wiggled out of her throat as she held her head. The buzzing wouldn't stop. Like it was supposed to be a reminder. Like it was supposed to wake her up for something important. Louder and louder it got until her ear drums felt like they were going to burst.

Cool hands caught her shoulders to help her stand when she started to crumple. Wildly, Rose looked up to the man she could almost remember. The memory glowed dimly, like an ember after a fire.

Her hands moved away from the metal and to the warm flesh of his face. She traced lines of age that seemed out of place and lightly pushed at the parts she thought would have been more taunt when he was younger. But how could she have known him when he was younger? After all, he did look nearly 10 years her senior if not more. Handsome beyond a doubt, but still older.

"When d'ya get so old?" Rose asked without a moment to filter what she said.

Jack smiled with all the charm she could imagine in a human being. There was a backbone of cocky confidence behind that look too. She didn't know if she wanted to smack it off or kiss him to get him to knock it off.

"I just keep getting better with age," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "But you haven't aged a day. Women around the galaxy would kill for your secret Rose."

"Whatcha mean I haven't aged a day? 'M only 19."

There was a pause in all that Jack did as though it took him a minute to catch up with what he heard. Like a computer struggling to meet the commands of it's user. Then he looked at her, peering in a way that had Rose cross her arms over herself and take up a defensive stance.

"What do you mean? Only nineteen. Come on you've got to be older than that! I mean the Doctor picked you up when you were nineteen."

"'m not a whore mate, thanks," Rose said with a snip in her tone as she moved to turn away from Captain Jack Harkness.

"I didn't say you were," Jack said in a cautious tone when he grabbed her elbow.

She would have attempted to jerk away from him if she hadn't had the sudden sensation of being too high in the air. It was almost like she could feel something moving lightly underneath her. Like she was on a dock that was floating on top of a lake. Or like she was standing on an invisible spaceship that was docked high up in the air.

Rose snorted lightly to herself. Invisible spaceships...

"What are you laughing at?" He asked, his cautious attitude edged with curiosity in that cocked eyebrow expression he did so well.

"Sorry, wasn't laughin' at you. Jus'...For a minut' there I almos' thought I was on a spaceship in the air, an invisible one or sumthin'," and that dizzy, sick feeling was back and it brought a friend - her eyes felt like she had stood in a wind tunnel for an hour. "Silly, I know. Mum always says 'm in the clouds too much."

An enlightened look raced over Jack's features. He moved his hand from her elbow so he could brace her from her shoulders. The look in his eyes as he stared her straight on was imploring, begging her for something.

"That's not silly Rose. You're remembering, that's a good thing. Stick with it. You've got to remember."

Rose felt herself get caught up in the stare the strange American man was giving her. It was true that she couldn't remember much about him...but what she did remember was a bunch of jumbled up feelings and instincts that she hadn't sorted out yet. What she had sorted out was telling her just to go with the flow and have a fantastic adventure.

"Allons-y!"

"My head..."

"...it burns."

Rose collapsed into Jack's arms as she passed out. She would have never seen her eyes glow with the intensity of a sun, even if it was only for a split second, but Jack had. And it frightened him much more than anything in Torchwood ever had.