"So, you'll think about it then?" Steve had asked her again, after Rose gave in and got something to eat and stayed longer than she'd intended.
"Yeah, I said I would but expect him to be suspicious, you having another sudden change of heart."
"Well I said I was sorry Rose and I really wanted to ask you out again, it was just Mickey putting me off. Maybe when you've forgiven me for deserting you and Pete?"
"Maybe, I'll have to think about it but you still have to get past Jake."
"I know, he's tougher than Pete. How's that little brother of yours?"
Rose thought it was a strange question, since neither she nor Pete talked about family at work.
"He's fine why?"
"Just wondered, that's all. I take it you don't discuss work once you get home?"
"No, not normally. Any reason you brought it up?"
Steve knew she was starting to get suspicious, Yvonne's plan to get her to confide in him was never going to work. In the email he'd had earlier, she had outlined she wanted him to get into the family home, see what her adopted mother was really like, since he'd raised a few questions, such as Jackie Tyler fussing like Rose's real mother, whom as far as Yvonne knew had perished in the Cyberman takeover.
Pete's idea of swapping roles seemed to have worked so far, Rose's real mother became the original Jackie Tyler and vice-versa, a complicated story but they had all agreed it was for Rose's protection more than anything. It had saddened Jackie that Pete's wife had been about to leave him when she'd been captured but she hadn't deserved the fate she'd received, being turned into one of them and Pete coming face to face with her and having to leave her.
Steve was looking at her. He knew she had many secrets and she would never let her guard down, well not with him anyway.
"I was trying to prove to you I was still interested in you, had all this not come along."
"You mean you never saw any of it coming?" Rose smiled.
"Did anyone?"
"Pete did, months ago but I can't talk about it, you have to prove we can trust you again. I have to go now."
Steve stood up, a few people watching as it was well known to those who were undecided and those who had already taken sides that the two of them were opponents.
"What you lot looking at?" Rose asked as she became aware she was the centre of attention.
They all suddenly became interested in what they were eating and not in what she was doing. It was one of the things she hated about still being there but her sudden absence would cause another stir and Yvonne would begin asking questions.
"Take no notice of them Rose, see you around maybe?"
"Maybe, I'm making no promises."
As he watched her leaving, he risked sending a message to Yvonne 'I think I may be getting somewhere with Rose'. That would keep Yvonne off his back for a while at least but he knew it wasn't going to be easy. It was up to Yvonne to deal with Mickey but Jake was going to be somewhat more difficult.
So as Rose tidied her desk, she got a message from Jake asking if it was safe to visit.
"So, what did he want? To ask you to feel sorry for him?" Jake asked as he helped himself to coffee.
"Something like that. I still don't trust him, he says Yvonne kicked him out."
"I'll make some enquires, see if he really has been, I still have my spies in her camp."
"Are you sure Jake? I think he's faking it. I mean how long was she planning it all? It must have been months before it all kicked off."
"No-one noticed at first, everyone thought she was just following orders, until Pete made it clear it was not his idea."
"I know Jake, I was there, she just took everyone by surprise."
"I should have seen it coming," Jake regretted admitting. "Pete should have fired me."
"Don't say that Jake, you and Mickey are the only ones left that he trusts. Anyway, I'm not letting Steve get to me so forget it. Has Pete spoken to you about sending me away?"
"Yeah, earlier. I've got to come up with a way of not alerting Yvonne, I also have to find out who's still on our side if push comes to shove."
"You mean those who've just gone onto her side?" Rose asked him.
"Exactly and Steve isn't one of them Rose, I think she got to him earlier and he was just too scared not to go along."
"He asked about Tony. I mean he hardly knows about him."
"That will have been Yvonne. So, he's playing both sides is he?"
"Seems like it, as if I'm gonna fall for it?" Rose laughed.
"Maybe you should see how far he's willing to go? Did he ask you out?" Jake wondered.
"Yeah but why has he waited until now if he's defecting again?"
"I'll talk to Pete, see what he wants me to do about Steve. If he asks, are you willing to go along, see if Steve really has come back to our side?"
"If I have to. You mean find out what he's up to?"
"Why not? We'll play him at his own game shall we?" Jake grinned.
"Then yeah, count me in, I'm going nuts here, I can't trust anyone apart from you and Mickey."
"He's been moaning about Martha Jones again, she completely ignored him earlier and at lunch."
"Do you think she's turning into an Yvonne supporter?"
"I hope not," Jake grinned. "He'll be insufferable if she does."
"Then why doesn't he actually ask her out, what's stopping him?"
"You and Steve?" Jake laughed.
"Come off it Jake, you know about me and Mickey and not what the official break-up story is either."
"Yeah, I saw him looking at you two that night, way back. He looked at you and Steve like that at the Christmas party."
"Yeah and don't I know it?" Rose grinned. "Steve said he thought Mickey was gonna deck him."
"I'd have loved to have seen that. Right, some of us have work to do."
"Yeah, going around pretending to be the head of security," Rose smiled.
"I am the head of security, which I only wanted to be to start off with. Did Pete mention anything he had in mind for sending you away?"
"No but he said it could be sudden, if things get worse."
"Things will get worse, trust me. You have to be ready Rose."
"I know Jake but it's not gonna be easy, leaving mum and Tony."
"Pete knows that, he'll send you somewhere where you'll be comfortable and at ease."
"Long as it's not Cornwall again with Mickey," Rose smiled.
"You had fun didn't you, all those quaint Cornish customs?"
"You mean Cornish icecream and cider?"
"Both together?" Jake joked.
"Get outta here Jake," Rose laughed.
Jake could always cheer her up, even when Mickey couldn't.
While they were talking, Martha was in Yvonne's office, wondering why it was so secretive.
"So, Martha, we meet at last? Don't look so nervous, I'm not going to ask you to choose sides, well not on the spot anyway. No, I wanted to talk to you about Mickey Smith."
"Oh. Well what about him?" Martha dared to ask.
"Don't you like him? I've seen him watching you at the last few meetings. I want you to approach him, tell him you fancy him or whatever."
"With all due respect Miss Hartman, I'm not looking for a boyfriend. Just before I came to work here, I broke off an engagement."
"I'm sorry to hear that Martha, really I am but I need Mickey to be occupied, as part of my plan."
Martha knew the woman wouldn't reveal what that was until she was ready to take over. In the few weeks she'd been there, she was regretting moving from UNIT but working there with her ex-fianc wasn't possible, even though he went away a lot. There were too many reminders of what she and Tom Milligan had shared and too many people had known about their break-up. She decided getting on Yvonne's bad side was not a good way of furthering her career.
"I'd be only too happy to help then Miss Hartman but you won't need my decision as to whose side I'm on right away, will you?"
"Of course not Martha, you have to consider all the facts, I appreciate that. None of the others who joined me made their minds up right away but they came around to my way of thinking."
"What do you want me to do?"
Pleased that Martha agreed she would pursue Mickey, Yvonne sat back in her chair and thought she was almost there. Just a few minor details like persuading other senior members that Pete Tyler's way of dealing with aliens was not the right one and all it needed was for a group of them, like the Cybermen to agree to join forces and the whole planet would be in danger.
She knew of course there was no actual danger of that but they weren't to know and Pete would not be in a position to stop her spreading rumours. Once she started on the undecided members, it would be the end of Torchwood as it was now. Pete would have his work cut out to retain the majority vote that was keeping him as the director and soon, that position would be hers.
She was pleased with her progress so far, being taken on in a minor role but ever since her cousin had been taken by the Cybermen all those years ago, she'd blamed the organisation that had allowed it to happen then helped them escape and now she was finally going to get her revenge.
Jake had gone back to Pete to fill him in on Rose's lunch date.
"So, he's up to something then?" Pete asked.
"Rose seems to think so. Pete, she doesn't need this, not now."
"You didn't tell her what we were planning?"
"No, of course not. If she finds out, it'll be from Mickey, not me. By the way, Martha ignored him again at lunchtime."
"Again? When's he going to realise he gives up too easily?" Pete laughed.
"Like he apparently did with Rose? Still, it's believable and I think he actually prefers that version to the one where she dumped him for you know who?"
Pete had to laugh at the thought. "Well, keep your eyes and ears on everyone except those we know are really on our side though we might have to have a rethink over some of them."
"Yeah, seems like it if Steve's pretending to want to come back. If it had been anyone else, I might have believed it but Yvonne kicking him out?"
"Yeah, it's very unlikely, I agree. I'll talk to Rose tonight, I take it she told him she'd talk to me?"
"Something like that, yeah. She asked me about you sending her somewhere, if it comes to it. I said you'd send her somewhere nice."
"I will, you know where I have in mind and he's agreeable. I think it's time those two were re-introduced, don't you?" Pete asked.
"I thought you weren't going to tell her?"
"I'm not, it will be better if she finds out for herself who he is, don't you think? She might be mad with me for not telling her but there again, she might be totally against it and not accept him if I do tell her."
"It's not an easy decision Pete, how do we know which is the better option? How did it all start anyway, how did he know you could still help him and that you would believe him?"
"I went up to Scotland, to Aberdeen. He'd managed to get a ride on a fishing boat and he called me from there. I told Jackie and Rose I had a conference to attend. You can imagine I was a bit sceptical?"
"I remember you saying something about a weekend conference but you should have told me what was going on."
"I didn't know if I was doing the right thing, when he contacted me but when he knew things, things only he himself could have known I had to start believing him."
"Such as his first visit here?" Jake mused to himself.
"Exactly, things only he could have known. When I got his call, he'd no money or anything, I told him to book into a comfortable hotel and make sure he got something to eat. Rose had told me the other Doctor didn't need much food or sleep but when he said briefly on the phone that he was the Doctor's twin brother, I somehow doubted he'd be exactly the same."
"So how close is he, apart from the obvious?"
"He only has one heart, which became a problem just after I left him. He wanted to stay up there, as far away as possible from Rose, until she'd accept him at least but I persuaded him to move to Glasgow. That was where he met Tess Henchard and her daughter Daisy."
"Yeah, he's supposed to be divorced with a teenage daughter? So they weren't really married?" Jake wondered.
"No, I got him the paperwork and the divorce papers after a reasonable time to establish a relationship of sorts."
"So how did she get involved?"
"Alec, or rather the duplicate Doctor, well I got him some ID and a job in the Glasgow police. He said he'd posed as a detective chief inspector a few times and could pass as one but I thought that was a bit ambitious in reality. We checked various names and came up with Alec Hardy and he agreed before I left him in Aberdeen. I'd got him a rental car before I left and taken some cash and a company credit card from Vitex, until he got his own bank account through."
"You should have come to me Pete," Jake told him.
"It was nothing personal Jake, sorry. I thought the less people who knew the better, not that you'd have told Rose. It was difficult persuading him not to drive down to see her so at first, I got him a transfer to Sandbrook though I messed that up somewhat," Pete smiled.
"Yeah, like a real murder to solve. He didn't do that bad but did that make his illness worse?" Jake asked.
"Somewhat but he was never really in any danger, he was the one that kept putting off doing something about it. I believe Daisy gave him the final push. When they got to Sandbrook, where Tess had come from originally, they pretended to be married but she met someone, since there was never anything between the two of them so Alec stepped out of the way and I arranged for it to look like a divorce."
"So you moved him to Broadchurch, to get out of the way?"
"Yeah and I messed that up as well. Either that or he was really unlucky, walking into another murder."
"Well I'm sure he thanked you for that?" Jake grinned.
"Yeah, he never spoke to me again except to tell me he wanted to go ahead with the surgery, then it was through his friend Alistair, who'd been keeping an eye on him for me."