Chapter 7

Donna and Jackie helped him get Rose into the house after he'd given the Tyler women his first name. Now that they were in a place that Jimmy Stone didn't know about, the exhaustion of the long, stressful morning was weighing down his limbs. Rose looked as if she could also use some more rest. "Rose? Are you tired? Would you like to rest in a proper bed?"

"Yeah, I still feel… Well, really messed up, but I feel like I could sleep for a week. My head's all fuzzy."

"Sorry about that. I know you hate painkillers, but they had to give you something… Donna, could you help Jackie get Rose settled in the middle bedroom?" His house had three bedrooms on a single hallway. He wanted Rose in the one closer to his own room in case she needed sudden medical attention.

"Of course. Come on, loves, there's a comfortable bed in here, and I put fresh sheets on this morning."

He watched the three women leave his living room and sat wearily on the couch. His energy was flagging, but he needed to focus long enough to ask Jackie to wake him if anything about Rose's condition changed. Then he would try for a few hours of oblivion. He hoped that having her under his own roof, just down the hall from his room, would prevent the dreams. Seeing her condition while awake was horrifying enough without having to face it in his sleep as well. After a few quiet minutes his sister and Rose's mother returned to the living room. "I'm going to make tea and sandwiches and you are going to sleep," Donna announced with a sharp look. "You aren't going to do her any good if you're falling over, Spaceman. Even you need to sleep some time."

Jackie was shaking her head at him disapprovingly, too. He wondered for a moment if it had been a mistake introducing the two of them. "You've been up all night, working, then all morning helping us, haven't you?" Her face softened. "We are grateful for your help, James, but your sister is right. You need to sleep as much as Rose does." She squinted at him before she continued. "You really care about my daughter, don't you?"

He swallowed. Jackie had been on his side so far and he did not want to lose her trust. He was acutely aware of his sister's attention to his answer. But he would not lie to Rose's mother. "I do. More than I can say. I have thought about her every day since the first time I saw her." Jackie looked startled by his response, and he knew from Donna's sharp inhalation that she understood what he wasn't saying. He met his sister's eyes briefly before turning back to Jackie. "I do need a few hours of sleep, but will you check on Rose about once an hour and make sure she doesn't need anything, and that she hasn't started bleeding again? Wake me if there's anything, and I mean anything." She nodded at him silently and he stood and shuffled to his bedroom. He thought briefly about showering, but sleep was too tempting. He stripped to his shorts and then pulled on a clean t-shirt, in case Jackie had to wake him. Then he climbed into bed and was asleep as soon as he settled in place.

Jack was frantically throwing clothes on in his rush to get down to the club. He wasn't technically supposed to be there at this time of day, but River had called him at noon, said that things were starting to fall apart. Stone had done something and Saxon was getting ready to distance himself. If they wanted to grab him before he slipped away and five years of work went down the drain, it had to be today. He strapped on his assortment of weapons and made his way to the club, mulling over the information he had about the situation. Something about it was nagging at him.

There had been a meeting this morning between Saxon and Stone, in the office at the club. Stone had been in a state, hadn't slept hardly, and he and Saxon had fought. It seemed Stone had caught his wife listening to a phone conversation a few days ago about the troubles River had been surreptitiously causing the operation working out of the club. Stone had punished his wife. The way River had said 'punished' made Jack's skin crawl. Then last night she'd told him she was pregnant and he'd beaten her, badly. He thought she was trying to manipulate him. He'd dumped her in an elevator. When he'd come to his senses a few hours later and realized that leaving his possibly beaten to death spouse in an elevator in his own building might have been a mistake, she'd been gone. River said Saxon had flown into a rage on learning that Stone hadn't been able to locate her. River, Saxon and Jimmy Stone all thought that Mrs. Stone might have heard something important. The poor woman probably wasn't even aware of it.

Jack stopped mid-stride as a few things came together in his mind. A married, pregnant victim of domestic abuse. It's extreme. Very attractive. Snatches of his conversation with James echoed in his ears. What if it was the same girl? He really wished he had asked James for his girl's name. If she was the same girl, if she wound up in A&E again, if she'd survived the beating Stone had given her… James had already offered to hide her once. He had no doubt his friend would make the offer again. He increased his pace as he resumed walking. He and River needed to secure Stone and Saxon and then, Jack needed to speak to James. If he was lucky his good friend had taken possession of their missing asset. If he was very lucky, Rose Stone held the key to nailing the Master.

James woke sluggishly to the ringing of his phone on the bedside table. He felt a momentary disorientation in his own bed as the memories of the morning's ordeal returned to his awareness. His phone continued to ring as he got his emotions under control. When he did, he looked down at the number, expecting to see the hospital, or possibly the message service. Instead, it was Jack Harkness calling. He groaned before he answered. "What do you want, Jack? I had a long night, and a really shitty morning, so unless this is important-"

"James. It is. It is very, very important. I am going to ask you a question, and no matter how much you may want to hide the truth, I need to have it. I swear you can trust me."

"Fine. What is it?"

"It's about your girl… The one you told me about… Is her name Rose Stone?"

James was suddenly very alert. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep, certainly not long enough, but he felt completely awake. He hadn't told Jack her name. "How do you know her name, Harkness?" He was only moderately surprised to hear the steel in his voice.

"Look, James. My case went to hell this morning, and she's at the heart of it. I don't know how to tell you this, but her husband tried to beat her to death, or maybe he did beat her to death, then lost her. My partner has her husband, and the man we think is at the top of the food chain at a secure location, but we think she might have overheard something. Something that has these two scared of her, and I need to find her. I know you want to help her, too. Help me out."

This was what he'd been afraid of when Jack had said her name. Whoever Jack was after was dangerous. More dangerous than just a man who has to beat his wife to feel good about himself. And no matter how important Jack thought his case was, Rose had been through enough and he didn't want her anywhere near Jack's 'case'. "She's alive, Jack. But she has been through an unbelievable ordeal, both emotionally and physically. She is in no condition to be answering your questions, and I won't subject her to them until she has had some time to recover. When she is ready, if she is willing to talk to you, then you can ask her your questions. Until then, you can fuck off with your case, because I won't put her through it. I mean it, Jack. Do not show up here thinking you can interrogate her. I will use everything I have to protect her, even from you if I have to."

"Whoa, whoa! I don't want to hurt her, James. I just want to talk to her. I don't even know what it is they think she knows. And certainly I can wait. You… Are you in love with her? You are, aren't you?"

He sighed. There was probably no sense in denying it to Jack. He knew the man wouldn't let up until he'd admitted something, and he didn't think he could come up with a believable alternate explanation that he could sell. "Yeah, Jack, I… I think I am. But that doesn't really matter, does it? For one, as you are aware, she is married. To someone that is not me."

"James, it's not like that marriage is anything-"

"I'm not finished. Second, and more importantly, her husband has abused her, and controlled her, and treated her like a thing, a possession. He's forced a violent miscarriage on her. She is in no condition for any relationship other than friendship at the moment. So I am going to be the best friend that I can be to her Jack, and I won't let her be hurt again."

"She lost the baby? Oh, god, James, I'm so sorry. She must be-"

"Yeah, Jack. She is. Devastated. I am, too. And she blames herself. You're going to have to give her some time, and she may not ever want to talk about it." Jack's response was drowned out by the sudden sound of screaming. "Shit! I gotta go Jack!" He hung up without waiting to hear what Jack was saying to him and tore out of his room into the next bedroom, where the shrieks were coming from. Jackie was a step in front of him when he entered the room that now belonged to Rose. She was tangled in the bedding and clearly dreaming. It took all of his willpower to stop inside the doorway and let Jackie go to her. It wasn't his place to soothe her nightmares, and his comfort would not necessarily be welcome. He doubted it would be comforting for her to wake to a man she barely knew. He should leave the mother and daughter to it. Jackie would come and get him if she had opened her stitches, or begun bleeding again. But he was awake now, and he couldn't walk away from her in this state. Instead of leaving them alone, he watched Jackie wake the woman who had become the center of his life.

"Rose? Sweetheart, wake up. It's just a dream, wake up." Jackie reached out and shook Rose gently, and she sat up with a gasp, eyes wide.

"Mum?" Her eyes filled and her body began shuddering with sobs.

Jackie sat on the bed and gathered Rose into her arms, and James moved to return to his own room. He wasn't needed here. It was a painful thought, when all he wanted was to be there for her, but it was the truth. He was sitting on the side of his bed, debating between going back to sleep and fixing an evening meal, when Jackie stuck her head in the doorway. "James? Would you mind, Rose said she wanted to talk to you. I know you're probably still exhausted, but…"

He stood up quickly. "No, no. It's no problem." It wasn't. He wanted to talk to her. He was beginning to think that he wanted to do anything she wanted him to do. He looked at Jackie in confusion when she moved towards the living room instead of leading him to Rose's bedroom. "Isn't she still in bed?"

"Yes, dear, she is. But she asked me to give you a few minutes, and I trust you. Go on."

She wanted to talk to him alone? "Okay." He felt that shy, nervous feeling again as he approached her room and he realized that they had never actually been alone together. There were lots of other people around at the hospital, and then there had been her mother, and Donna. He took a deep breath and entered the room to find her sitting up in the bed watching him. Once again her face had been wiped clean of any sign of the emotional upheaval of just a few minutes prior. "Hi, um, your mum said you wanted to talk to me?" He remembered then that he was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Hi, yeah. You don't have to stay in the doorway, ya know." She gave him a small smile. It didn't quite reach her eyes, but it was the closest thing to a real smile he had seen on her face. His nerves began to dissipate at the sight of that smile and he walked over and stood next to the bed.

"How are you feeling? Do you want something for the pain?" He closed his mouth before he could ask her another stupid question. Of course she felt terrible, and she never wanted anything for the pain.

She looked up at him, and she was still smiling. He wanted to know what she would look like with a genuine smile on her face. "No. Thank you, but I don't want to muddy my head again when I'm just starting to see straight." She shifted on the bed and patted a spot near her knees. "There don't seem to be any chairs in here aside from the wheelchair, so…" Oh. He sat gingerly near the spot she had indicated.

She was looking at him searchingly, so he spoke softly. "What can I help with?"

She looked down at her lap before she answered. "I wanted to thank you, really thank you for helping us. We'll find a way to pay you back when it's all over. And I'm so, so sorry that I didn't listen to you when you tried to warn me."

No. Absolutely not. "Rose. You don't have to thank me and you don't owe me anything. Everything I've done has been my choice and I won't have you thinking otherwise. And you have nothing, nothing to apologize for. I'm sorry I didn't find a way to help you sooner." She reached over and grabbed his hand and he couldn't stop his breath from hitching at the sudden contact.

Her eyes were shining when she looked back at him. "Thank you, James." He wanted to hear her say his name as often as possible. She dropped her eyes from his again. He watched her swallow. "I, um, I have one other question, and I didn't want mum to be here when I asked." She was still trying to protect her mother, even after everything that had happened to her. "Can I… Will I be able to have children?"