Chapter 3:
It's been one year since I have seen him. Sixteen months, including that year, since Bad Wolf Bay. Since I was stuck back in this world.
'John Smith', as he is now called, didn't approve of my life. He told me that it was too dangerous for me to live like this. Especially when there wasn't a TARDIS to guarantee that I would be safe. He wouldn't understand it. I had to keep up a fast pace life, that was all I knew.
For the first three months, John lived with me and worked for Torchwood. Instead of working in the field division with me, he decided that Tech would be a better fit for him. So that's the way it went for the first couple of weeks. We would leave our apartment and go to work. We'd both leave the office together to have dinner and go home. For me, it worked out quite nicely. For him, not so much.
Maybe I was blind to the signs. Or maybe I just didn't want to believe that they were there. Until one day, he started to pack his bags. Apparently me being in so much danger was too much for him to handle. He moved in with Mum and Pete. It was only temporary, he would tell me, that we would work this out.
We remained friends for a while. We would go out to dinner, share some chips. It wasn't the same though. This arrangement wasn't how he had meant for it to be. Slowly, we began to drift apart until we didn't talk at all.
John began to work for Oxford as a Physics professor. It suited him quite well, to be honest. He loved to drone on and on about things, so this job was the perfect fit for him. This job also opened up another opportunity for him.
Since he wouldn't talk to me, Mum kept me up to tabs on him. At first she wouldn't really tell me what he was doing, only just how he was. Then he went on a date with one of his coworkers. Mum then began to tell me everything that had happened since we lost touch.
Her name was Amelia Crosely. She was an English professor. I couldn't resist. I abused my Torchwood position to do a background check on her. He might not care anymore, but I do. To my dismay, she passed all background checks I did on her. I seriously couldn't find one thing wrong with this woman. Hypothetically that it. I knew exactly what was wrong with this woman. She had what I desperately wanted. She had John.
"Rose, you are needed out in the field." Jake said, not bothering to knock on my door before entering.
"What is it this time?" I asked.
He rolled his eyes. "Mrs. Cunnings called again claiming that there were Bladgs in her pond."
"Ugh, just because she had them once doesn't mean that they are going to return again. Honestly, how many times do we have to tell this woman?" I groaned.
Jake offered me a small grin. "Come on then, better hurry up and get this over with."
I nod. After doing our usual routine- gathering up weapons and such- we head out to the Torchwood van.
Jake is my usual partner when it came to going out on missions. Sure we had a full team, but most of our missions only required the two of us. Why bother bringing out extras when they could be used somewhere else?
"Are you excited for the Torchwood fundraiser event tonight?" Jake asks me as he drives towards Mrs. Cunnings' house.
I sighed. "Not at all."
Usually I was able to get out of going to events held at the Tyler residence. Anything to get out of seeing him. My usual excuse was work. I was a known workaholic, so that was believable. This time was different though. This event was for my work, meaning my excuse had just flown out the window. There was no doubt in my mind that tonight I was going to be seeing him with that woman.
"It'll be all right, Rose." Jake promised. "I'll be there to ease the awkwardness."
I raise an eyebrow. "Yeah, right. What good are you? The first time they bring out crab puffs you'll have disappeared for the rest of the night."
"Hey that only happened once!" he tried to defend himself.
"That one time has warned me off depending on you in social situations." I said.
He just laughed as he parked the van in front of the familiar house.
Mrs. Cunnings has been widowed for fifteen years. A couple of years ago we found some Bladgs- a fish like alien- in her pond. Since then she has constantly called Torchwood saying that there was some sort of alien around her house. Personally, I just think that she's lonely and wants some company. She didn't have any children to come and visit her, so she calls us.
I knock on the door. "Mrs. Cunnings, it's Rose from Torchwood."
She opens up the door and flings her arms around me. "Oh Rose, thank goodness you're here. The damn things have come back again."
"Show us where they are and we'll take care of them, ma'am." Jake said, raising up his gun.
After pinching his cheeks, she lead us to the back door. She pointed at her pond where a tall slim man stood, gazing into it.
"Rose, stay inside. I'll take care of it." Jake told me, knowing just as well as I did who that man was.
I nodded before turning to Mrs. Cunnings. "How about I prepare us both some tea?"
She grinned at me. "Oh that's sweet, child, but I already prepared us some."
I gave her a soft smile. With one last glance outside the window, I followed her into the living room. Her fat cat, Sammy, sat on the couch. He was sprawled about acting as if he owned the place. By the way she treated him, he would feel that way though.
"Two sugars?" she asks me after pouring me a cup.
"Thank you." I said. "How have you been?"
"Same old same old. I can barely get about with this leg giving me all these damn problems." She tapped her cane against her troubled leg.
"Perhaps you should go to a doctor about it." Even after all this time that one word still gave me problems.
"Oh, you know how I feel about doctors. Especially after that whole robot incident."
I remember what she was talking about. The first time that I had ever stepped foot into this world was with the Doctor and Mickey. We were faced against Cybermen who had tried to take this world over. Of course, we stopped them because that's what our job was. Then as soon as that was over with, we left.
We heard the backdoor close. Jake came in with a large sack full of something. There were small movements in the sack telling me that whatever it was was still alive.
"It's done." he said.
"Well, thank you for the tea, Mrs. Cunnings. We really must be off now." I told her.
"All right, thank you again. Come and see me soon." she said, giving us a small wave as we headed for the door.
"What did you put in there this time?" I muttered to him. Jake usually put something in a sack just to humor her.
"Actually there was a small Bladgs in there this time." he told me.
My eyes widened. "Really? I thought we had gotten rid of them all."
"Apparently not." he shrugged.
Once we were in the van, I had gathered up enough courage to ask him. "Was it him?"
"Yeah, it was. He was on break from one of his classes and heard a noise." Jake informed me.
He was still the same old curious man. Just as I had remembered him.