Chapter 3: Her Flat

Rose had the cab drop them off at the guard house. Instead of choosing an expensive flat in the city, she had chosen to live in Torchwood housing - which was set up to embrace the "unique" lifestyles of the people that lived there. Employees often brought their "work" home with them and they sometimes had "visitors," as well. Therefore, security had to be tight. Most of the residents liked this, because they were living in probably the safest flats in all of London, but it could take some getting used to. Rose sincerely hoped that Sherlock would be a regular visitor. Therefore, she had Nick, the guard on duty, whom she had greeted by name and with a big smile, to provide him with a pass and to put his name on the Frequent Visitor's list (which meant that they wouldn't have to call her to get her approval every time he visited). This also required his photo to be taken and placed in a computer file. Whenever he came to visit her on his own, his pass would be scanned, his photo and ID would be checked, and his name would be entered into the visitor's log. She asked Sherlock if he would be okay with all of that, and he just shrugged. She shook her head in amusement, and told him it would probably be easier than trying to climb over the gate to bypass security, just to come and see her. Plus, he wouldn't get shot! He knew that she was only half-joking because he remembered that he was on Torchwood property. He studied the guard closely and realized that beneath the casual exterior, he was definitely military trained and that he was discretely armed.

Once they left the guard house, Nick had to buzz them in through the gate. They walked down the path to her building and she entered the necessary code to let them in. They took the lift (which also required a code, as did the doors to the stairs) up to the fifth (and top) floor where she lived. Each apartment also required a passcode to enter. She lived down the hall at 501 (in a slightly larger and slightly quieter corner unit). Rose knew that Sherlock's natural detecting skills would kick in and that he would want to have a look around anyways, so she left him to it while she excused herself to the loo.

She was right, of course. Sherlock did look around – and came to a few conclusions in the process. The flat itself was simple, but well furnished in dark wood and rich colors. However, it still had the look of a place whose tenant spent just as much time away from home as she did in it. Everything was kept clean, simple, and neutral – almost as if she expected to leave one day and just never return. Sherlock frowned at that idea, but kept looking. The front half of the flat was the open concept lounge, kitchen, and dining area. There was a kettle on the stove, but other than that, the kitchen didn't look like it was used much. He made a deduction and opened the drawer nearest the fridge, and yes, it was full of takeout menus. That made sense, though. With Rose's schedule, she wouldn't have time to cook much and since she could be called away at a moment's notice, then she probably didn't keep the kitchen stocked with anything but the nonperishable basics. Her life was very similar to his in that way. The bedroom was behind the lounge and it was exactly that – a room with a bed in it that was sometimes slept in. It looked comfortable enough, though. There was a smaller second bedroom that obviously functioned as an office most of the time, but also had what looked like a Murphy bed in the wall. However, strangely enough, the bookcase in that room also contained several children's books, as well as some dinosaur and truck toys that looked like they had been played with frequently. He wondered about the story behind that, since he had seen no evidence of children in Rose's life. Whoever they belonged to obviously did not live here, just visited, so Sherlock deduced that it must be a young family member or the child of a friend. He kept going. The bathroom was located between the two bedrooms. He didn't look in there yet, though, because it was still occupied by Rose. That was it for the flat, though. It seemed to be basically a place to stay in between adventures, but not much more than that.

He noticed that there were very few personal items scattered around the flat. The mantel in the lounge was the only exception. There were lots of pictures there. Sherlock, suddenly interested, looked closer. There was a large recent family portrait in the center with Rose (looking lovely, as usual) surrounded by an older man and woman (obviously her parents) and a young boy (Rose's much younger brother judging by the resemblance). That explained the children's items in the guest room, he thought. Sherlock moved on with interest to the other photographs. They seemed to be placed with some significance since there were only three on the left hand side, but several more than that on the right. The three on the left were all of a younger looking Rose, looking extremely happy, with a different man in each picture. In the first one, she had long hair and was holding onto the arm of a man wearing a leather jacket. He had dark close cropped hair and rather large ears. She was looking up at him with her head on his shoulder. He was gazing down at her, and they both had huge grins on their faces. Sherlock felt a tug at his heart as he realized that this was someone Rose had obviously loved, but apparently lost, since the picture had apparently been taken a long time ago, and there was no further evidence of him in the room. The next photograph showed Rose again at about the same age, with the same hairstyle, but this time she was with an extremely handsome man wearing, for some reason, what appeared to be long vintage RAF coat from WWII. He had his arm around her and they were laughing together in what seemed to be a market place. They were obviously fond of each other, but Sherlock didn't get that complete sense of love and devotion that he had from the first picture. That feeling was back in the third picture, though. A slightly older Rose with shorter hair was holding hands with a slim good-looking man with wildly styled hair who was wearing a pinstriped suit and a long jacket. They were standing in front of what appeared to be a vintage Police Box from the 60's. They were looking at each other with the same look that he had seen in the first picture. Another lost love, then. He guessed that this explained Rose's cryptic comment in the chippie that day when she said that she had to grow up a lot since she was nineteen – if she had loved and lost multiple times from such a young age. He looked at the Rose in the first photograph again. Yes, she looked like she was about nineteen or twenty there. Interesting…He wondered what had happened to the men since he couldn't imagine anyone ever voluntarily wanting to leave Rose. Strangely, enough there was also a key on a neck chain draped over the edge of the third picture. It wasn't a car key and it didn't seem to be the key to a flat or house. However, judging from the state of the chain, it had obviously been worn constantly for what seemed to be years. It was significant then, but why, he wondered? He then looked over to the set of photographs on the other side of the portrait, but didn't find them nearly as fascinating. There were mainly group photos of Rose and her work friends, Sherlock deduced, based on the fact that in some of the pictures they were all dressed in the standard black field clothes that he had seen both her and her colleagues wear. Also, he saw several recurring faces, like a handsome dark-skinned man and a boisterous looking ginger woman, in several of the photos. He recognized Jamie and Jake in a couple of them, as well. There was also one that looked like it was taken in the local pub, and he saw that Molly was in that one. He noticed that there were no "couple" pictures of Rose on this side, though. What did that mean? He shrugged and went back to look at the photos on the other side again.