The Tyler Factor

By Lumendea

Chapter Seven: Boom Town: Unexpected Meeting

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.

…..

Rose Tyler smiled softly as she accepted the tiny ice cream cone from the vendor and quickly handed him the appropriate coinage. For October the weather in Cardiff was much nicer than she'd been expecting, there was a bright sun overhead in a cloudless sky. The breeze off the ocean meant that it was just cool enough that Rose was wearing a light jacket. Not content to sit down, Rose began to wander toward Roald Dahl Plass, thinking back to the books by him that she'd read as a young girl. Like most, she'd read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which she'd enjoyed and of course Mathilda. She'd only read the Witches once after it had given her a nightmare. Chuckling to herself, Rose made a mental note to reread it now. It couldn't be worse than some of the aliens that she'd seen after all.

Rose licked at the melting ice cream, enjoying the sugar rush and flavour. So far the visit to Cardiff had been a bust despite the lecturer being an old friend of Ian's. She pouted slightly, Ian had probably known that the lecture on time travel was actually about why time travel was impossible and silly. This was his way of getting back at her, Rose was sure of it. Then she heard the familiar grinding of the TARDIS and straightened up. Wind whipped her hair back from her face as the TARDIS materialised a few feet in front of her near Roald Dahl Plass.

She stared at the blue box for a moment, wondering just what was happening that he was here. Then the natural question of which Doctor was going to step out of the TARDIS hit her and Rose considered slipping away until she could confirm. The door opened and out stepped the tall leather clad Doctor who was grinning as he looked around. Then his blue eyes landed on Rose and widened comically.

"For the record," Rose said trying to fight back a manic smile. "I was here first."

The Doctor blinked at her and then a wide manic grin appeared on his face. A moment later he stepped forward and swept Rose up in a hug during which she barely kept her ice cream from dripping on his leather jacket. Grinning herself, Rose inhaled the scent of the Doctor, noting the subtle differences. The hug lasted a moment longer than it should have and then several moments longer as neither of them made any movement to release each other. Rose closed her eyes and relaxed against him, wondering what horror he'd been forced to confront most recently. Then without warning, he set Rose back on her feet and stepped back, slipping his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket.

For a moment Rose was at a loss of what to say, the last time she'd seen this Doctor was during that incident with Section 13 and the Silver Lord. He'd said that he'd block the memories that pertained to their future, but Rose wanted to be careful just in case. Grinning at him, she took a slurp of her ice cream and brushed some hair from her face buying time to figure out what to say.

"So Cardiff Doctor?"

"Don't judge too quickly Rose Tyler," the Doctor replied, leaning back against the TARDIS. "Turns out that there is a space-time rift running underneath this city, perfect for recharging the TARDIS."

"You're making a fuel stop?" Rose repeated, slightly confused at the idea. She'd never heard of such a thing from the other companions, but maybe it only had to be done every few centuries. Or she realised it had to do with the loss of Gallifrey.

"Yeah," the Doctor said, replying to Rose's question. "Twenty-four hours and then it's back off into time and space."

Rose smiled at his energy and nodded affectionately. She stepped forward and patted the side of the TARDIS, thanking the TARDIS for her help against the Silver Lord. Rose had no idea if the TARDIS could pick up the thought, understand it or have any idea to what Rose was referring, but she'd be been so overwhelmed last time that she hadn't thought to. For a moment a surprised and confused expression crossed the Doctor's face, but he shook his head and it was gone.

"So what brings Rose Tyler, Cambridge student and resident of London to Cardiff?" the Doctor asked.

"There was a seminar today that Ian suggested for me given my interests," Rose told him with a cheeky smile. "Time Travel and why it is impossible," she added only to get a raised eyebrow from the Doctor.

"Chesterton suggested it," the Doctor repeated, crossing his arms over his chest. Rose noted that he'd gotten Ian's surname right despite all of Ian's complaints in the past. "Really? What did you do to irritate him?"

Rose did her best to look insulted, but couldn't help herself as a giggle escaped her. "That would be telling Doctor," Rose remarked with a shake of her head. "But you'll be glad to know that everyone is doing really well. We had a little get together not long ago."

The Doctor looked like he wanted to ask, but didn't. Rose swallowed down the last of the tiny ice cream cone and reached out to snag one of the Doctor's hands. He didn't fight her and let Rose pull one of his arms loose from his crossed arm while she grinned.

"Come on then Doctor," Rose called, tugging him away from the TARDIS. "Let the old girl start charging and I'll buy you lunch to catch up." Rose glanced around, spotting a small tourist booth and a few restaurants. "Got to be a place with decent chips around here somewhere."

Her reward for her remark was a wide manic grin that helped Rose to relax. The Doctor despite being younger than the one she was most familiar with seemed honestly glad to see her. As he turned and started glancing around for a place he was willing to try, Rose snagged his right hand with her left and gave him a friendly smile. Tugging her forward, the Doctor led Rose to a small restaurant overlooking the water that was casual enough that she didn't feel awkward heading in her jeans and jacket. Although the thought made her smile as the Doctor didn't seem worried at all as they were shown to a small two person table and Rose was just left grateful that she hadn't worn her own leather jacket.

"So," the Doctor said once they'd placed a drink order. "How is the raggy old bunch?"

"Raggy old bunch," Rose repeated with a smile. "Oh, they are so going to hear about that nickname." When he just grinned, Rose shook her head and sighed dramatically. "Well Sarah Jane and Johnny are doing well, they travel a bit more than they did at first since Sarah Jane's comfortable having Luke stay over at Clyde's. That's a friend of his and someone who knows the big secret," Rose added unable to remember if this incarnation knew that. "Plus Ian and Barbara are happy to take him on weekends so he's in Cambridge from time to time which is nice."

Rose paused and took a sip of her cola when their waitress brought it back and placed her order for fish and chips, smiling when the Doctor ordered the same. "Ace is good," Rose said when their waitress left, "She's staying very busy, but has been putting some more funds towards the Jones' family efforts and Tegan's work for Aboriginals. Last time I talked to them Jo was planning a trip to Australia and was going to stay with Tegan to meet her kids for a few days. No real change with Jacksons, they are staying busy with their orphanage and keep inviting me to visit which I'll get around to at some point."

Rose took another sip and tried to think of who else she needed to give him an update on. "Victoria is doing well, I don't talk to her as much, but she sends postcards whenever she travels with her husband. She visited with Ace last time they were in New York. Mel is… well, Mel, you know her, nothing ever gets her down. She's been hired for some big programming development and won't tell us anything about it, but seems really happy with it, says it's a challenge."

Leaning back in her chair, Rose observed the calm and relaxed expression that was taking over the Doctor's face. His shoulders were easing slightly and he looked honestly content. "I had dinner with Kate Stewart, the General's daughter not too long ago. He's doing well and is enjoying his grandson's interest in simulation games, apparently, they've taken to playing a lot of a War of the Rose's simulations. Kate herself is doing well and says that she's really enjoying working with the science department. Except I don't expect her to stay in that position too long, she's a natural leader and better organised than Malcolm. I suspect in the next few years she'll get a higher position of authority at UNIT, which would be great to have some less militant minds in charge. Benton is good, he remains pretty calm and easy going, doesn't lecture the science department for our experiments too much. He checks up on me in Cambridge every week or so just to make sure I'm okay."

And so it continued for some time. Rose shared some of her recent adventures, edited when necessary, and she decided against mentioning her almost wedding. The Doctor may have mentioned that he'd heard of it before, but the memories were still a bit too raw to share even with him. The Doctor was especially impressed with her recounting of being called to help negotiate a peace treaty even if Rose gave him the impression that it had been Sharon and Shareen with her rather than her new out of temporal sync friends.

The Doctor had been busy as well, not that it surprised Rose in the slightest. As much as he promised that he was on his way to pick her up once she finished school the alien was certainly taking his own sweet time with it. There'd been two tyrants and a group of alien cultists two hundred years ago on Earth trying to unleash their god on the Earth, thankfully it had a dud. He smiled some as he recounted his adventures, but trailed off during one of his stories. His eyes became distant and cold as he lost himself in a memory.

Reaching over, Rose place her hand over his and didn't mention his lapse when he came back and kept talking. Food proved to be a welcome distraction and Rose wondered not for the first time how she was going to handle travelling with this version. The day would come when she'd be done at university and this Doctor who show up to take her off into time and space. But she couldn't kiss this Doctor, didn't officially know nearly as much about him as she did in reality and wasn't someone that he was in love with. It was a temporal mess. Still, the chips were pretty good.

The Doctor hadn't seemed very hungry at first, barely picking at his food, but as their conversation grew more energetic he started eating more and more. Rose felt another stab of guilt for delaying her travels in the TARDIS. With that leather jacket of his, it was nearly impossible for her to get a good sense if he was taking care of himself. Even after they finished their lunches the waitress was content to let them sit in their corner and talk. Rose did catch a few odd looks from the young woman and the other patrons from time to time. She smiled to herself as the Doctor started describing one of the planets that he'd gone to and played a proper tourist with red ground, gold coloured rocks and silvery water under a violet sky.

Then a large man by himself walked past and sat down next to them, unfolding a paper. A large picture on the front page caught the corner of Rose's eye and she turned slightly to get a better look. Rose froze, her eyes focusing in on the image. At first glance, there was nothing special about it other than the woman was trying to block her face in the photo. Except Rose knew that face, remembered it from Downing Street. It was a pudgy female face with short blonde hair and small calculating eyes. She remembered that smug expression as the woman looked at her and the others in the protected cabinet post. Rising from her seat, Rose stalked across the restaurant and grabbed the paper.

"Sorry mate, emergency," Rose muttered when the man protested. Thankfully he said nothing else to her, just grumbled something about kids and lack of respect.

"Rose?" the Doctor called with a hint of worry in his voice as Rose slowly walked back to their table. "What is it?"

"I was having a brilliant day," Rose sighed as she sank into her seat and slapped the paper on the table. She pointed to the photo of the woman. "This is an alien, a Slitheen, who tried to turn Earth into nuclear-molten sludge to sell off for fuel." Rose swallowed, thinking back to the Slitheen's family method of wiping out UNIT forces. "She and her family killed some of my friends. We stopped them but out of almost one hundred people that were gathered to help with the incident only myself and one other survived." Rose sank back against the back of her chair, frowning and shaking with angrily. "One of them had only just survived the Osirian Apep's final attack only to be killed by that… thing and her family." Rose swallowed thickly. "Thought they were all killed when we blew up Downing Street but looks like she survived."

"You sure it's her?" the Doctor asked gently as he studied the photo of the apparent mayor of Cardiff.

"See her prosthetic arm?" Rose asked, pointing the shadowed, but visible false arm on the woman. "I cut her arm off."

"You cut off her arm?" the Doctor repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"She was in her natural alien form," Rose defended, "and was attacking me."

"Slitheen," the Doctor said slowly. "I don't remember that species…"

"That is actually their family name," Rose informed him with a shake of her head. "They're Raxacoricofallapatorian criminals. It's just easier to say."

"Well then," the Doctor said with a nod. "I suppose we should check it out."