Once back in the chalet after having lunch in the supermarket café, Alec put the groceries away while Rose sat with her feet up on the sofa.
"You didn't seem to want to tell Beth much, considering you weren't going to hide me Alec."
"We have to establish a few details, I'm out of practise with having a girlfriend," he called from the kitchen as he made some tea.
"Yeah, well let's not make it too complicated shall we? Like you said, we can just say after you finished the murder investigation, we met in Weymouth, at a bar or something, we hooked up and we spent two nights together but you never gave me many details. I'll say I went home and didn't know where to find you and decided to go ahead and have the baby anyway, then I saw you on the TV a few days ago when the trial was over and decided you should know but I didn't know how you were going to take the news."
"That could work I suppose. Just don't say anything without telling me. Like I was saying earlier, it will explain why we don't know much about each other. Tomorrow, just take it easy, I'm going to see if I can get to see the CMO early and make sure I'm allowed to drive then I'll get a car. Did they tell you which hospital you'd be booked into?"
"No, I'll get an appointment sent, I hope you got the address right Alec."
"Very amusing Rose, I've been here for six months, they found my address to keep reminding me to go get my pacemaker fitted."
"How long did it take, to make you change your mind?"
"Almost too long, I kept getting worse, I passed out on the decking while Miller was here."
"Crikey Alec, you let it get that bad?"
Alec put the mugs on the coffee table and moved her legs, taking her shoes off and making her smile as he began to rub her feet. She wondered if that was for her benefit or his.
"It's over Rose, that part of my life is gone and I was under the illusion I could get my ex wife back now I was no longer disagreeable but she threw it in my face. It was never about me being too engrossed in that case, it was always about her and what she wanted. They had an affair right under my nose, how did she make me think she'd come back to me?"
"I'm sorry Alec, at least you tried. I'll never get him back, unless Pete can ever get those devices working without endangering everyone again and he won't do that, not even if it means they can cross dimensions but what then Alec? I have other things to tell you but I'm not ready yet."
"It's fine Rose, tell me when you're ready eh? Am I being too forward, rubbing your feet?"
"No, it's nice, thanks."
He leaned forward to hand Rose her drink but she caught his arm and pulling him close, touched his cheek and kissed it.
"You're a good man Alec and I'm glad it was you who found me in that bus shelter."
"So am I Rose, I dread to think if it was Miller who'd found you."
Rose smiled. "Why don't you call her Ellie?"
"I've only called her that twice and she got mad at me both times, I learned my lesson. I took her job when I came here."
"Ouch, that must have annoyed her."
"Aye, she's never really forgiven me for that but we got through the trial together, she even helped me with that old case and if you were wondering who Claire is, she was the wife of the main suspect, I was protecting her from him but she messed me about and it turned out she was just as guilty as he was in the end and no, we weren't involved."
"Never said anything did I? What was that about an affair though?"
"The defence in Miller's husband's trial tried to insinuate we were colluding to put him away because we were having an affair. You saw us together Rose, would you have believed it was true?"
Rose smiled as Alec never attempted to move, leaning with one hand on the back of the sofa.
"No, I guess not but I didn't want to assume anything and I didn't want to get in the way."
"Rose, you are not in the way, in fact, you pretending to be my girlfriend could disprove that theory, it was a shame you never came along before now, the defence would have had to eat their words. They were just inventing it all, they were losing and were trying to discredit us. Now drink your tea."
"If I do, you'll just have to let me up."
"Don't worry, I've been through it all before, it's nothing new to me."
Rose touched his cheek again. "Ever think about getting rid of some of that Alec?"
"No, why?"
"Nothing. It makes you look older."
"I was hiding the fact I was ill."
"You've no excuse now."
"Yes I have, I still have no-one to impress," he smiled, touching her cheek. "Anyway, talking about looking older Rose, you gained seven years somehow so come on, tell me how old you really are."
"Old enough to have had a boyfriend and got pregnant."
Rose let go and tried to move back.
"That's no answer Rose, I saw your driving licence, it came out of your purse when I was moving it."
"You were checking on me? Should I be worried about you?"
"You've nothing to fear from me Rose, I'm the one who is trying to help you here. I could have let you go this morning instead of offering you my spare room you know."
"Yeah, I'm sorry Alec, you should have. You really don't want to know how old I was when I came here, my mum's so annoyed about being older."
"So she didn't take kindly to the fact she looked like Pete Tyler's first wife then?"
"Not exactly. Pass me my drink and I'll tell you."
Alec was about to pass the mug but he kissed her cheek. He knew she was far too young yet he was attracted to her. He'd more than likely have to arrest himself at this rate when she did eventually tell him. Before either of them knew it, Rose had reached her arms around him and was leaning on his shoulder as he was kissing her neck, which turned into him trying to avoid crushing her by moving one hand behind her on the sofa arm, causing him to start by kissing her cheek then suddenly, she moved and they looked at each other.
"Sorry, I got carried away," Alec apologised, trying not to look embarrassed and thankful he'd pulled the curtain over on the door in case Ellie was lurking around.
"No Alec, don't be sorry. It doesn't matter how old I was, officially I'm almost twenty seven in this world and the medical experts at Vitex, who used to work for Torchwood assured me when I crossed over I would age as if I was born here but how it didn't affect the baby is anyone's guess. Physically, I can pass for the age I'm supposed to be, that's why my mum's so annoyed."
"Yes, well that answers some of my questions I suppose but let's just take this slowly shall we? Being my pretend girlfriend to actually being it is a big step Rose. Are you still thinking about your old boyfriend?"
"Yeah, I think about him Alec, sometimes I wake up and I can hear him calling me but it's only because I miss him and want to hear his voice. While we were staying with Pete, I heard him clearly, it was like a dream but mum convinced me I was just upset. Then after we moved to live above the shop, I could still hear him. I was convinced there was still a gap somewhere and somehow, he was actually calling me, telling me to follow the sound of his voice but being three months pregnant at the time and neither me or mum having a car, well I began to question my sanity."
"It's understandable Rose, you were torn from him and your own world, maybe you should have followed his voice eh?"
Rose smiled, kissing his cheek. "Yeah and have my mum drive me hundreds of miles and for what? She wouldn't have thanked me, would she? Then if I'd finally got there, what then? Stand around and hope I wasn't crazy? Alec, you need to know something, what I told you last night, there's more but I'll only tell you if it becomes necessary, ok?"
"Then I'm intrigued Rose. Just as long as you don't tell me your boyfriend was actually from Mars?"
"Not from Mars exactly, maybe 50000 light years or so away."
"Be serious. I'll go make some fresh tea shall I?"
"Actually, can we go out? Can we go to one of the catering stalls, I could really fancy a waffle with loads of cream on top and strawberry sauce."
"Get many cravings do you?"
Rose smiled. "On and off, you'd better get used to it or disown me."
"Just as long as you don't eat pizza with pineapple, it made me sick just looking at it when Tess was having Daisy."
"Yuck, no but I did have a craving for cheese and beetroot sandwiches, I'm over it now though, it's waffles and warm doughnuts."
"I'll try and remember that. You'll have to keep telling me things Rose, we just got back together again, supposedly. I have an excuse if I don't know things about you."
He was just about to lean over and attempt to kiss her properly when his phone rang, the display saying 'Miller'.
"Miller, what do you want?"
"You two went shopping together, how sweet!"
"Yes, what of it? She is supposed to be my girlfriend."
Ellie was going to enjoy this.
"Beth called me, asked if I knew if you had a girlfriend and where you'd met her. I told her not to ask me, I only found out this morning. Seems you passed the first hurdle then, the whole town will know soon if she tells Mark."
"Thanks for the warning Miller but that was rather the point of me telling her who Rose was."
"Yeah, well make sure she knows what she's in for, the town likes to gossip especially now, they've stopped talking about me now Beth's speaking to me again. We were all going to have a barbecue on Sunday if the weather's fine, round at Beth's, she said to invite you and Rose."
"I'll ask her then, is that all?"
It wasn't but maybe Hardy was not the one to talk about her current problem to, especially when he was trying to pass Rose off as a woman he met in a bar in Weymouth and got her pregnant, she should have known better that night Claire found those two blokes and invited them back to her cottage. Claire probably took precautions but she did no such thing since Joe was locked up. She could be wrong, it had been almost three weeks and she could be just going through some changes.
"No, don't let me keep you, I'll pop round and see Rose later on in the week, I've got a meeting with the chief in the morning, maybe you can watch Fred for me?"
"I'm bringing my medical forward, I want to know if I can still drive."
"Well you did when you weren't supposed to, my car is still complaining, what the hell did you do to it? I could hear the gears grinding even when I was in the house."
"Stop complaining Miller, I brought it back didn't I? Bring wee Fred round before you go, Rose will watch him for you."
He could see Rose was dying to know what they were talking about. He finished the call and helped Rose put her shoes back on since he'd been the one to take them off and they went out, crossing the footbridge and Alec spotting a stall that sold waffles. Ordering what Rose wanted, they sat down by the low wall, Rose facing Alec's chalet.
"It looks nice from the outside," she commented.
"Not from the inside? You should have seen it when Miller had used it as an incident room."
Rose smiled. They had almost just kissed, not that she thought it would have been a bad thing but was she ready to move on yet? Alec was right, there was still the matter of the age gap but she'd looked in the mirror that morning and she swore she looked more like the age she was meant to be in this world than when she'd arrived but something Alec had said bothered her. She'd been here six months, he'd said maybe no time had passed back on her own world, that meant roughly it was one year here to one month back there, barely time for the Doctor to have missed her or find a way to get to her.
Maybe she really had heard him calling, it was feasible he would have got back in the Tardis to locate any remaining gaps and at least try to get a message through to her and she'd ignored them, the few times she'd heard what she'd thought was him calling her name, her mother had her believing she'd just wanted to hear him because she was upset when she found out she was carrying his baby. Had she missed several opportunities to talk to him? It could have just made her worse but now there was no chance any such gaps remained.
Alec had got up and put the waffle in front of her along with a carton of tea without her noticing.
"Are you still with me Rose?"
"What? Oh, yeah, sorry. I was thinking about something you said, about no time passing where I came from."
"That's ok. Maybe when you've eaten that, we could go for a walk?"
"I'd like that."
Alec watched silently as Rose enjoyed her treat then led her across the harbour road and along the jetty. He sat her down at the end and asked if she was ok.
"You said you had other things to tell me Rose."
"I do Alec but I'm not so sure you want to hear it though."
He turned to face her, brushing her hair back.
"I asked you earlier, am I rushing things for you?"
"No Alec, I need to move on, I know that and I was thinking back there, maybe I didn't imagine he tried to contact me."
"Then how would he have done that?"
"There would have maybe been a tiny gap still between the two universes, I never told you because you'd think I was crazy."
He touched her cheek gently with his thumb. "Then tell me, you said he wasn't quite from Mars. Where exactly did he come from?"
Rose looked around, there was no-one else who had ventured right to the end where they were now sitting.
"He was from another planet Alec, he was a time-traveller and he looked like any normal human male but he could change his appearance. He looked different when I first met him but he almost died, because he was stopping the creatures who finally fought the Cybermen in my world. I didn't tell you the truth Alec, we'd been here before, that's how I knew Pete Tyler and how he knew about my mum. She couldn't accept it all though."
"Right, so your baby, it is all human?"
"Yeah, I wasn't told otherwise when I went for the last scan but I was only three months then, I should have gone before but I put it off, I was scared Alec."
He took hold of her hand and put an arm around her shoulder, kissing her forehead.
"I'm glad you could tell me Rose, it's ok, I'll take care of you now. Tomorrow, we'll go to the rental agency and look for a bigger place, you can't bring a baby up in that tiny chalet and I'm not going to let you do this on your own. That's if you want my help? You can tell me to back off, if you really want to?"
"Alec, I don't know what to say, you don't have to do this."
"I want to Rose, let me take care of you, who else do you have?"
"No-one Alec but what about everyone talking about you?"
"I don't care what others think Rose but I have to tell Tess, before she hears about it from the newspaper. Miller's nephew is the nosy town's reporter and that woman we met yesterday in the newspaper office was his mother."
"I gathered that but I didn't know about Ellie. She won't say anything will she?"
"I hope not. So, no more arguments, I'll take full responsibility for you, if you'll let me?"
Rose managed a nod and leaned into his shoulder, Alec kissing her forehead.
"Right, that's settled and when you get your hospital appointment, I'm coming with you, let everyone talk if they want."
"Why are you doing this Alec?"
"Because I let someone down Rose, I almost let a killer get away because I was too busy chasing the main suspect, I thought he'd killed both those girls but he only killed one, with some help from his wife but Lisa, her uncle killed her out of jealousy and he buried her in a churchyard and left her there for two years. All that time he was hounding the other suspect for killing his daughter, he was guilty of killing his niece."
"I'm so sorry Alec, I knew nothing about it but you got them yeah? That's what counts."
Rose looked up and Alec moved slightly, looking into her hazel eyes.
"You are far too young for me, Rose Tyler, woman from another world, do you know that?"
"So what, my last boyfriend was nearly 900 years old than me."
"Be serious Rose."
"I am, he had a much greater lifespan than us, he looked around your age."
"Really? I suppose you are going to tell me he looked like me or I look like him?"
"I told you, he could change, when he needed to, he looked completely different when I first met him."
"That does not answer my question Rose."
"If I say yes, then you'll leave me."
"No I won't but I would rather you be honest with me here, do I remind you of him?"
"No, not really, he didn't have a thick beard like yours or a Scottish accent, well apart from when we went back in time and went to Scotland, met Queen Victoria and got chased by a werewolf."
"Now I know you are not being serious Rose."
"Suit yourself but I could tell you a few tales."
"I just bet you can, save them to tell the baby when he or she grows up."
"You don't believe me then?"
"I can go for the time travelling Rose but werewolves?"
"Ok, no more tales but yeah, to be honest with you Alec, you look a little like him but he wasn't a brilliant detective who solved a boy's murder when he was ill and then solved an old case and brought two more killers in and gave closure to three families. That's quite something Alec, you solved those cases against all the odds. What were the girl's names?"
"Pippa was the one I found in the river, Lisa was her older cousin who we thought was missing."
"Sorry Alec. You must tell me, about how you found Pippa."
"There's nothing to tell, she was left in the woods, it rained and the river broke it's banks and carried her downstream, we don't even know for certain where she was left originally, it could have been miles, the river ran right through the woods."
"Did you ask the man who killed her?"
"It was dark, he wasn't certain where he left her but Lisa's uncle drove her off to a churchyard he was working on, left her in one of the graves."
"That's awful, what happened to Lisa?"
"Her uncle came home from a wedding, drunk and found her with their next door neighbour, got in a temper and bashed her head on the wooden floor. The youngest, Pippa, woke up, the neighbour's wife gave her something to calm her down and then he went up and smothered her because they thought she would tell someone. When the other man came back, they told him she'd reacted badly to the drug. They all had to keep each other's secrets and I tried to get the woman to turn her husband in but she gave me the run-around, changing her story, it was Miller who figured most of it out."
"Was that Claire who Ellie was referring to? Would she try and get you into trouble by saying you were wanting to start an affair with her?"
"Yes and in view of what just happened over Miller's husband, the jury would more than likely believe her, having been accused before, Claire played the innocent all this time and she's rather good at it."
"It sounds like she had you fooled. Look Alec, it makes no difference to me and I believe you about Ellie and this Claire, well if you were trying to get her to turn on her husband, goodness knows what that looks like but if you tell me there was nothing there, then I believe you on that but I didn't know you then. If we say we only met that weekend then I've just come back, no-one can say anything."
"I won't get you involved with it Rose, when the trial starts, I want you well away from it."
"Yeah but think about it Alec, if you turn up with a pregnant girlfriend or one with a young baby, they'll know it's not true."
"Yes and Claire will want to know where I was hiding you all that time while I was hiding her."
"You were hiding her? From her husband?"
"She was my only hope of flushing him out when he left the court and disappeared to France, I knew he'd come back for her and I was right. I hardly had any contact with her until recently, she got an unknown call and thought he was trying to find her, the day the Miller trial started. Rose, I don't want you involved and that's the end of it, it's not your fight."
"Tough, I'll stick up for you, if she accuses you of anything."
"You can't Rose, she'll say if was from before I even came here, it won't help me."
"Never mind Alec, I do believe you but we can say I just went back home and you did know about the baby, you were keeping me from the trial and the Sandbrook case."
"It still won't work Rose, there are plenty of flaws in your idea."
"Yeah, I suppose there are, sorry. Let's just not say we had one wild weekend, that we kept in touch and you were trying to persuade me to come back?"
"Aye, if you want, it would explain a few things, like where I used to disappear to. We can say I finally wore you down eh?"
Rose looked up and touched his beard.
"We can say we made up but only if you get rid of some of that Alec."
"You don't like my beard then?"
"You'd look a lot cuter if you had a shave."
"I'm not getting rid of all of it."
"Just some then?"
"If it means you might actually kiss me? How about a before and after?"