"We can't take her in, though. You know what they do," A voice over Rose said.

She could feel something cold pressed to her forehead, and a hand holding hers. If someone was holding her hand, that could only be one person. "Doctor?..." She groaned, trying to open her eyes but failing. A hand pushed her back down gently when she tried to sit up. "Doctor 'm okay..."

"Yes, I'm a doctor. What happened, Rose? Are you okay?" Finn asked her kindly. He had stopped the car in a small parking lot of a shop.

"Doctor? You're back?" Absent-mindedly she squeezed Cameron's hand and turned her head to see him.

"I don't know what happened to her," Finn mumbled, "Thought it was heat-stroke at first but it couldn't have been. Seemed like a triggered panic attack, I suppose, though I don't know what we said."

Rose eventually opened her eyes and was surprised to see Cameron and Finn there instead of her Doctor. She frowned a little, "Doctor?"

"I'm here, you alright?"

"Oh..." She looked around and noticed her surroundings, her thoughts and memories flooding back. "Yeah, I'm okay, let's keep going."

To her disappointment neither of the boys started the car again. "Did we say something?" Cameron asked, eyes full of concern.

"No, sorry to scare you both. Just... It's nothing."

Finn stared at her with an eyebrow raised, "We would've taken you to Torchwood but uh... They're a bit weird with any mental or physical complication. Especially something like that," He said, not sugar-coating it. "Wouldn't want you to get kicked out so soon, huh?"

Rose's hand went to her face and she felt the dried tears. She narrowed her eyebrows at nothing in particular as she tried to remember exactly what had triggered that random panic attack. Even when the Doctor had left her, she hadn't panicked that bad. Looking down at the car, the memory hit her like a slap to the face. Finn called his car sexy. The Doctor called his TARDIS sexy.

Now that just wasn't fair.

Her eyes flickered back up to see the boys were still staring at her blankly, probably waiting for her to pass out again. "I'm fine, seriously. Let's go."

Finn shrugged and hopped over a seat to get back to the steering wheel, casually plopping himself down. "Allons-y."

Now that really wasn't fair.


Jackie Tyler walked in circles around her kitchen, debating whether or not to check the camera now or wait until Rose got home. It was getting rather late, she considered, perhaps it wouldn't work if they checked the camera too late? Perhaps if she walked into Rose's room right now she would see the Doctor standing there, setting a rose on her bed? Jackie sat down at her kitchen table and buried her head in her hands. Oh, what was a mother to do? She could text Rose, possibly, but that would be a bit silly. Plus she already knew what Rose's answer would be. Her eyes glanced up at the clock and groaned.

5:52p.m.

Yesterday Rose had been home at about five, a bit early; Perhaps Torchwood jobs usually ran until seven. After getting up and pacing the room a few more times, Jackie sighed and walked up the stairs to Rose's room to check the camera. Just for a second, she reasoned with herself, if there's no package there then I'll leave right away.


"Please don't say that," Rose managed to gasp out in between heavy breaths. They weren't as heavy as before, but still not normal.

"Okay, don't worry, I won't say that," Finn's eyes widened and he jumped back over the seat to tend to Rose. "I'm really sorry. Let's talk about something else, alright?"

Cameron didn't say anything in risk of triggering something else or messing up Finn's practices. Sure, the guy was a complete idiot at most things, but when it came to being a doctor he knew what he was doing. Suddenly, his Egg buzzed and he flipped it open, quickly reading the message.

Why did you guys stop? -V

He quickly replied, vaguely explaining the situation in case the higher-ups of Torchwood read the message.

Take your time. -V

While Finn was still mumbling gentle words to Rose, Cameron silently showed him the messages. Finn nodded and spoke to Rose again, "Want to go get some chips real fast? Don't worry, it's cool with Violet and all them."

Rose nodded a little, wiping her tears away quickly with her sleeve. The car swerved back onto the road at lightning speed, going to the nearest restaurant. They walked inside and sat down, all three of them ordering chips. Rose silently prodded her chips with a fork and stared at them like they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"Listen, Rose," Finn began, rubbing his hands together like he did when he was nervous. She had learned that from day one. "I know this is difficult for you, but what was the first trigger we said? I just want to know so I don't say it again. Okay?"

She nodded quickly, understanding what he meant. He was trying to say it as kindly as possible, but it still made her want to explode. "It was... Cam." Looking up at him, she was disgusted with herself to see his look of shame. "He said... Back in the car," Rose's voice cracked and she cleared her throat as non-chalantly as possible. "Um... He said 'in private you call it sexy.'"

Cameron shot a confused look to Finn who nodded understandingly. "Alright, we won't say it again, I promise. Do you want to talk about it?"

Rose considered for a moment then shook her head quickly, desperately trying to stop the tears falling from her eyes. "I'm really sorry for delaying our mission. Let's get going as soon as possible, okay? I'm ready to shoot some scaleys," She said with a sniffle.

"Go in the car and lay down while me and Cammy wait for the bill," Finn suggested, only it wasn't really a suggestion so much as an order.

Rose obeyed and walked out the door of the shop, still frantically wiping away tears.

As soon as she was gone, Cameron moved to sit across from Finn, staring at him. "What was that about?"

"Definitely a triggered panic-attack. She must have had an ex or something if the sexy thing set her off. And she got it again when I said allons-y. Maybe the boyfriend thing again?"

"She's a strange one. Remember that University of Universio bit? What was that all about?"

"I think she's hiding something," Finn mumbled, stabbing seven chips at once and stuffing them all into his mouth.

"If she is hiding something, she's honestly working at the right place."

"Amen."

"We could confront her," Cam suggested in between bites, "Tell her we looked up Universio and there's no such thing."

"Might set something else off. No matter what she's hiding Rose seems like a nice girl," The other boy replied, nodding to the waiter who handed him the bill. On the line where he was supposed to sign he simply wrote 'Torchwood' and set the bill back down. The waiter stopped by again and took the bill, reading the line and nodding.


Jackie peered into Rose's room and looked at the bed, prepared to slam the door shut quickly if nothing was there. However, on the bed lay a perfectly placed package with more Gallifreyan writing on it. "Bloody TARDIS translation whats-its." She picked up the package and shook it, opening it to reveal a white rose. Humility.

Her attention shifted to the camera that was still perfectly placed in the corner of the room. She took it off of its stand and cautiously carried it back to her own bedroom, terrified at what she would find. Plugging it into her computer, she considered what she would do if the Doctor was hiding somewhere in the house with a bunch of roses. Hiding in Rose's closet. She giggled a little at that thought before pulling up the recording. Fast-forwarding through the first bit since there was nothing happening, she slowed it down a little at 4:45p.m.

Nothing happened for a little while, and Jackie yawned, placing her head on her hand and fast-forwarding again. Suddenly, she saw a big blip on the screen and brought the film backwards. She paused at 5:00 and watched at 1.5x pace. Nothing happened for three minutes, but at 5:03 exactly, Jackie gasped. A bright blue light appeared on the bed and flashed, consuming the entire room in its illumination. Then, at 5:03 and six seconds, it was gone and the box was there.

The box had appeared with a flash and was gone in six seconds.

Only the bloody Doctor would work in such a mysterious way, Jackie decided.


A/N: I've been dying to write this so it was done by Monday! Please review and tell me what you think. I'm not sure how long this story will be at this point. Honestly, knowing me, it'll either be ten chapters or a hundred. Thanks for reading!