"I should be heading off," Jack says after the man in the cravat made them take a few pictures with 'Captain Jack Harkness'.

"Hey," other-Jack calls out. "I didn't catch your names."

"Rose," Rose says, trying to keep the wariness out of her tone. "Rose Tyler."

"I'm Captain James Harper," Jack lies. "71st."

"71st, that's where I'm hoping to be posted," other-Jack says with a nod. "What's your poison?" He walks towards the bar, gesturing for Jack to come and take the conversation there, but Jack holds back, gesturing to Rose. "Maybe later," he says. "My friend and I were in the middle of something."

"Sure," other-Jack agrees, and heads for the bar while Jack and Rose leave the dance hall.

"Jack, that man's got you name," Rose calls as she follows him. "Why's that man got your name?"

He doesn't answer, and she stops and stomps her foot. "Jack, don't hold back on me!" she cries. "You can trust me, remember?"

Jack stops and turns around, and explains, "It's not my name. It's his. I took his. But I didn't realize he was… so hot!"

He chuckles, and Rose rolls her eyes. "God, Jack, you never change, do you?"

"I try my best not to," he agrees.

"Why did you take his name, then?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm listening."

"Rose, we haven't got time!" A beat. "We have to get back."

Rose nods, accepting the subject as closed; a second later, with just a hint of glee in her voice, she says, "You said your name was Harper. That's Owen and Tosh's last name. Jack, you used Owen and Tosh's name."

"Yeah," he replies after a moment. "Wait. Owen and Tosh?"

"Well, yeah." She pauses and frowns. "Oh. I take it they're not married here."

"Ah, that would be a no."

"Huh," she huffs. "Owen a doctor and not married to Tosh. This reality is weird."

-0-0-0-

They return to the dance and wait. Jack says that it's okay, Toshiko has formulas for opening and controlling the rift and she should be able to bring them back to the present. There's nothing they can do from here in the past.

So they wait.

They sit on a small couch together and wait.

They wait, and wait, and she doesn't really think of what they could do from here in the past until the alarm sounds

The wailing sirens warning of the air raid jog something in her memory, and she sits straight up, her eyes wide. "It's 1941."

"Yeah," Jack agrees slowly.

"Jack, it's 1941." She grabs his arm, an intense look on her face. "What happened in 1941?"

He seems to understand what she's saying as they stand up, forced to join the crowd being herded into the basement. "Rose –"

"Yeah," she interrupts happily, keeping a hold on his arm so they won't be separated. "I know how we can get back home."

"But we can't."

"Why not?" she demands. "He's practically right next door. We just head over to London, we find him, and we ask him to drop us off back in our time. Easy."

"Rose, timelines –"

"Jack, it's not like I'm going to stay with him," she snorts. "He's already got one me, doesn't need another one. He'll just drop us off at home and be on his merry way. No muss, no fuss."

"But we can't," he insists. "Rose, think about it. The first time you were here, when you met me, do you remember giving yourself and a second me a ride to 2007?"

Rose pauses. "No," she whispers.

"Exactly," he agrees. "We can't."

"But I've got to," she insists. "I want to see him again. The old him. Just once, that's enough, and then I'll go back to looking for my Doctor, but I want to see the old one just one more time."

She's clearly lost him. "The old him?"

"Yeah," she says, oblivious to his confusion. "You know he lost his Northern accent when he changed? I loved that accent. That was a brilliant accent. We used to make fun of him for it, you remember that? And he doesn't say fantastic anymore, prefers stuff like 'molto bene' and – ooh, 'allons-y', he really likes that one now. Great hair, and no more of that old big ears rubbish. He's skinny now, can you imagine that? Skinny. And he wears these suits and this long brown trench coat, never that leather jacket these days – I suppose that makes sense, he's skinnier and it doesn't fit him anymore. And, I mean, I love new him, I really do, but I still miss the old him sometimes. You know what I mean? 'Cause he was my Doctor, my first Doctor, and if I could see him again, just the once –"

"Rose!" Jack interrupts; they've reached the basement, and he drags her to a pair of stools, which they sit down on. "What are you talking about?"

"Huh?" Her eyes widen. "Oh, right! You don't – sorry. He's got this thing he does when he's dying, remember? Regeneration? Didn't I mention that yesterday? Pretty sure I mentioned that."

"You did," he confirms, "but you didn't actually explain it that well."

"Well, every cell in his body changes," she says. "He's got all the same memories, but he looks different. That's what I was saying, he doesn't look like he used to. He's tall and skinny now, and he's got great hair and he's gorgeous, and he wears suits. And Converse. White and red. He likes pushing buttons in the TARDIS with his feet, so you notice. His personality changes, too. He's not as angry anymore. He's a better man. More fun, so optimistic and bright about everything. Very clever, but he doesn't insult species anymore. Well, for the most part, anyway."

Jack frowns. "How does that work exactly, then?"

Rose shrugs. "Dunno. Just does. He sort of – goes like…" She did a weak, under-exaggerated imitation of regeneration, throwing her hands out to her sides and tipping her head back. "And he kind of goes all gold – there's this light, and it sort of explodes out of his head and his hands, and when it fades… he's different."

"Still the same man, though."

"Absolutely."

"But you still want to go and see the old him."

Rose sighs. "It's not that simple, Jack. It really isn't. I love the new him, I really do. I just… can't help but miss the old him sometimes. I'll catch myself wondering how things would have been different if he were still around. Maybe things would've turned out differently, you know? Maybe I never would've gotten separated with him. Maybe I'd be with him now." She sighs. "I don't want to try to change the timelines, Jack. I wouldn't give up the new Doctor for the world. I just want to see him again."

Jack slides his stool about a foot across the floor so he's right next to her and puts an arm around her. "I get it, Rosie," he says. "I – I can still call you Rosie, right? I mean, last time –"

"I was angry," Rose defends. "You said the Doctor wasn't important. But yeah, Jack. You can call me Rosie."

He nods. "Alright then, Rosie. Come here." He hugs her to him with one arm, and she rests a head on his shoulder. "We'll get through this, okay? Tosh will come through. We'll be back in our time before we know it. And then we'll find the Doctor."

"I know," she murmurs. "Just – I know."

They're silent for a few minutes until she whispers, "Do you think he still wants me? I mean, who knows how long it's been for him – maybe he's moved on –"

"Rose Tyler," Jack interrupts firmly. "I haven't even met the new Doctor, but I know for a fact he still wants you. Nothing can change that, you got that? Nothing. Come hell or high water or regenerations or parallel universes or even all of the above, the Doctor will still want you."

She sniffs. "I know," she says quietly. "Well, I mean – yeah, I know. Do you think he's got someone else, though? Not romantically, just someone to travel with him?"

"I don't know."

"I hope he does," she sighs. "He's such a lonely man. That doesn't change. But he's got the entire universe in his debt in one way or another. He should never be lonely. Not ever."

-0-0-0-

It's not until the air raid is over that the rift opens. Every second of waiting is agony for Rose, not because she's desperate to get back, but because she's desperate to stay. She knows Jack is right – she can't go find the Doctor in London, can't cross her own timeline and risk creating a paradox. Seeing the old him one more time isn't worth the destruction of the universe. Well, maybe it is to her. But he'd flay her alive.

She sits with Jack in the basement in silence until Cravat Man comes down and declares that the dancing may continue. So they head back upstairs and sit at the bar and wait until an earsplitting BOOM shakes the dance hall. Everyone looks frantically around for the source, the beginnings of panic showing on their faces – they probably think a bomb has dropped. An incredibly bright light shines from the hallway as the rift blasts open.

"Oh, my God!" Rose exclaims, tapping Jack's shoulder as she stands. "Jack, look!"

"I see it," he agrees, standing and taking her hand. "Come on."

But she hesitates. She glances around the dancehall, around the year 1941, because she knows if she leaves now there's a chance she'll never leave her own time again. There's a chance she'll never find her Doctor. It's a small chance, but it's there.

And there's a one hundred percent chance that she'll never see the old Doctor again.

She can't help it. She wants to fold herself against him, rest her head against his sturdy chest, feel the smoothness of the leather of his jacket and his warm arms around her. She wants to breathe in his smell – the new Doctor doesn't smell quite the same – and hear his familiar Northern-accented voice. She wants him to try to impress her again.

But she knows that's one thing she can never have.

"Rose, come on!" Jack urges, tugging her towards the light. "You can't go back and find him here. You'll never see him again unless we go now!"

She closes her eyes and inhales deeply, breathing in the stale air of 1941. "I'll never see him again anyway," she murmurs, and she pictures, in her mind's eye, what he used to look like. That confident, almost arrogant posture, black leather jacket over a dark red shirt. Big ears, big nose. Pale skin and thin dark hair. Ice blue eyes. Crooked smile. Hidden darkness.

She'll never see that version of him again. She let him go a long time ago – damn this year, this whole experience, for bringing him right back into the forefront of her mind. Damn this for reminding her of him. Now she has to let him go again.

So she pushes the old him away and remembers the new him. Tall and skinny, standing with invigorating confidence and easy grace. Brown pinstriped suit and a tie, hands shoved into the pockets. Long brown trench coat nearly brushing the floor. White Converse peeking out from underneath the hems of his trousers. Really, really great hair. Warm chocolate eyes and gorgeous features. The grin that he saved just for her.

"Alright," she whispers, and opens her eyes, but keeps the image of him in her head. "Alright, I'm coming." Hand in hand, with him pulling her forward, they approach the blinding whiteness in the hall. Just as they're about to step inside, Rose glanced back over her shoulder; slowly, one by one, the dancers are fading from view. The entire year of 1941 blurring out around them. She and Jack, they're somewhere in between, one foot in each world. They're in the middle.

And there's nothing for her here.

So, holding on to Jack like a lifeline, she steps into the rift.

Rift travel, she discovers, is absolutely nothing like dimension hopping.

They emerge into an old abandoned dancehall, with graffiti on the walls, rough wood with faded polish, and plastic covers on the furniture. They let go of each other's hands and stumble a few steps forward, trying to regain their balance; Rose catches herself on a wall, and Jack manages to steady himself. He sways where he stands, shaking his head to clear it, and says sarcastically, "Well. That was fun."

Rose leans against the wall, massaging her shoulders; she does feel rather sore and a little bit stiff. "You should try dimension jumping," she tells him. "That's a blast."

"Do you pass out or something?"

"No," she replies. "You just feel like you've been run over by an eighteen-wheeler. Repeatedly."

"How many times have you done it?"

"Oh, loads," she says offhandedly. "Unsuccessful jumps, partially successful jumps, temporarily successful jumps… I was sort of the guinea pig."

"Fun," Jack mutters. "Alright, come on. I need to tell Tosh she's a genius.

"Good idea."

"Oh, and Rose?"

"Yeah?"

Jack hesitates. "Maybe… don't mention the fact that she's married to Owen in your reality?"

Rose chuckles and salutes. "Your wish is my command, Captain."

"Thanks." He extends his arm and she links hers through it, and they walk down the stairs and out of the dance hall, onto the street, where someone is waiting for them.

She's sitting in her car, but as soon as she sees them, Gwen Cooper gets out, rushes over, and throws her arms around Jack. "You made it!" she says ecstatically as Jack hugs her back; he's laughing, but Rose notices tears in his eyes. "You made it, you made it."

After a few seconds, Gwen pulls away from Jack, rushes over to Rose, and envelops her in a hug, drawing a surprised laugh out of the younger girl. "Hi, Gwen."

Gwen pulls away and looks straight into her eyes, a reassured smile on her face. "I'm glad you're okay," she says, sounding very relieved, and turns back to Jack. "Come on, back to the Hub. Tosh is worried that she miscalculated something and you need to reassure her that everything's fine before she has a heart attack."

Jack laughs. "Alright, then. Lead the way."

-0-0-0-

Gwen drives them back to the base, and Jack quickly confirms that yes, everything's fine with Tosh's calculations, and no, the world is not going to end. Still, Tosh insists on running a few tests just to be sure, and no one tries to stop her. Rose isn't sure about this reality, but in Pete's World, Tosh isn't really someone you try to talk out of things. It doesn't work. Maybe a side effect of spending too much time with Owen – he's started to rub off on her. In the other world, that is. Who knows about this one.

God, her life is complicated.

Things were easier when she was just Rose Tyler, the college-dropout shop girl living with her mum. Then she met the Doctor, and she became Rose Tyler, the companion, Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf, Rose Tyler, the human girl traveling through all of time and space, Rose Tyler, who loves the Doctor. And then came the army of ghosts, and she became Rose Tyler, the girl trapped far away from home, Rose Tyler, Torchwood operative, Rose Tyler, expert on all things extraterrestrial – as he put it, Rose Tyler, defender of the Earth. She became Rose Tyler, the girl trying to get home.

And now…

Now she's not a college-dropout shop girl living with her mum. She's not his companion or the Bad Wolf, and she's certainly not travelling through all of time and space. She's not the girl trapped far away from home or the girl trying to get home. She's far from the Torchwood she works with and surrounded by a Torchwood team that knows far more about aliens that she does. They're the defenders of the Earth here, not her.

So until she finds the Doctor, she's really not sure who she is.

She supposes the only thing left is Rose Tyler, the girl who loves the Doctor.

And if that's who she is now…

…well, that wouldn't be so bad.

She settles into a routine in the next few days. She wakes up in the morning, takes a moment to remember where she is. She checks to make sure that her TARDIS key is still safely on its string around her neck (she sleeps wearing it). Then she lies in bed for twenty minutes just smiling, thinking about just how happy she is to be back, just how much closer she is to the Doctor. She gets the dimension cannon from where it lives overnight on the dresser and checks to make sure she's still got a stable connection, just to be sure it won't freak out and send her back to Pete's World at any moment. Once she's confirmed that, she picks up the clothes that Gwen lent to her the night before and gets dressed, puts her pink hoodie on over whatever shirt she's wearing, and tucks the dimension cannon into her pocket. She writes a note and leaves it on the table if she's awake first (if someone else is up, she'll just tell them she's going out) and walks to the little diner down the street to get breakfast. She uses her own money, not Gwen's – Jack's paying her for helping them out at Torchwood, even though she insists he doesn't have to. She gets a coffee and whatever breakfast food strikes her fancy, eats quickly, and then heads off to Torchwood.

She walks to work every morning. It's not that far, so she doesn't mind, and she likes just… being outside. Being there. In her universe, in her Cardiff. It helps her feel more… present. So she walks.

She normally gets to Torchwood early, because she gets up early. Jack is always there, but normally Ianto, but Gwen and Owen have never arrived by the time she gets there, and Tosh only shows up before her once. Then it's right to work – when they don't have a case, Jack is getting her to help them update their alien databases, filling in information she knows about species she encountered during her travels with the Doctor. When she's not doing that, she's with Tosh, either going through the alien artifacts they've retrieved and identifying any that she recognizes or helping her to understand the dimension cannon. It's harder than it sounds, because Rose herself doesn't understand it all that well, and there's only one there and Rose won't let her take it apart. Still, they do their best.

Once the workday is over, Rose heads out and walks the streets of Cardiff, simply looking. She looks for him, for any sign of him, but all she finds are people, shops, and VOTE SAXON posters. When it gets late, she heads out and buys dinner somewhere, and then goes back to Gwen's flat. The Welsh woman helps her choose an outfit for the next day, and then she heads into her room and goes to sleep. Ready for the next day. Just going through the motions, again and again, every day the same but never boring or repetitive. How can it be with Torchwood? And besides, there's more life in Rose Tyler than there has been in a year. Because she's home. Because she's going to find her Doctor. No matter how many of these days she has to go through step by step, no matter how long she has to wait, she's going to find him.

And she does.

Because late one day, not even a week after she arrives, she's standing in the base. Owen, Ianto, and Tosh have already headed home – only she, Jack, and Gwen are still there. They've just finished up with a particularly trying case that very nearly had both Tosh and Gwen in tears at one point or another, and Rose and Gwen have volunteered to stay behind a little late to wrap things up. They're filing reports, going through paperwork, just straightening up, when Jack freezes.

Rose frowns and walks over to him, opening her mouth to ask what's going on, but then she stops, too.

Because she's heard what he heard.

The papers that they've been stacking fly into the air and slide towards the ground, completely out of order, but Rose and Jack don't care. Because they've heard it. The sound of the universe. The beautiful, wonderful, oh-so-familiar sound of some very specific engines.

Jack looks down at her, and simultaneously, both grin widely and break into a run, rushing towards the door and up and out of the base, barely aware of a confused Gwen calling after them. Just then, they both have ears for only one thing.

The sound of the TARDIS.

-0-0-0-

Here we are, then! The next installment in this story. And you all know what's going to happen next.

On a different note, we're almost at 1,500 views! Seriously, you guys are incredible. I never expected a response like this. Thank you so much.

Fifteen more reviews gets you the next chapter!

-Caskett54