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Chapter Ten – Searching for Answers

As Rose was scanning through months worth of videos for anything that looked suspicious, the Doctor's mind was working overtime. He was methodically searching who had accessed each and every medical file in the system that had to do with Rose and the Dimension Cannon. Then he was going to go through all the files and logs for every single employee in the medical department, starting with those involved in the project. While he was doing all of that though, he was also considering all of the possibilities of what could be going on with Rose's transformation. What started it? How far had it gone? How far was it going and what was it even doing? He knew that she was either healing very quickly or not taking damage at all. He knew that her mental capabilities were increased exponentially. He knew that all of this was happening before the Dimension Cannon project began. Could it have started before she was lost to him? What could have caused something like this?

The answer hit him like a ton of bricks. Bad Wolf. She had destroyed a whole fleet of Daleks, brought Jack back from the dead to the point of immortality, and somehow changed herself. In what way though had she changed herself? Thinking about how healthy she was despite everything that had happened to her made a sudden wave of fear race through him. They had linked their lifespans together because they should have been fairly matched, what if she had changed herself enough to live for centuries and now he only had another fifty or sixty years? She would die with him when she could keep going. He tried to keep a handle on his emotions knowing that Rose would feel every bit of it. They could worry about that part later. For today, they needed to survive possible attacks from whoever was behind all this. Could they just run? Where would they go?

"Doctor! Come and look at this!" Rose could feel how terrified he was. She had called his name three times before his attention finally returned to the room. "This video is from the medical lab right after they had checked me out and we decided that I was the only one that would be going on the jumps. Those two right there, watch... They have a whispered conversation, then one of them pockets one of the vials from my blood tests!"

"I was just looking at the technicians involved. That's Dr. Harper. I knew you would find it, love! You are so brilliant, you see everything! Ok, we need to talk to Jake. Then, we need to make a trip down to the archives... We catalogued all of that equipment and there is something in there that I want us to have on hand just in case." Plans and back up plans were all racing though his head on how to get them out of here and to safety.

"What is it that you want to get? Some kind of force field or something?"

"A vortex manipulator."

"Run? You think we should run from this?" It was what they did best and what did they have left to tie them here? Her family were all dead and some group of nutters from their own workplace wanted to dissect her. They didn't usually back down from a fight, but then again, they were usually helping other people fight against cruelty, danger or injustice. This was someone who wanted her, just her. If she left, there would be nothing they could do. "But where will we go? Would they just keep chasing us around the world? We won't have proper coordinates to know where to go off world. This is a different universe, Doctor. What if the planets here aren't where you would expect them to be in the other universe?"

"I think, Rose... I think, we need to consider trying to get back to our original universe." The silence hung in the air between them for a few moments before Rose could get her mouth to function again.

"How?" She almost choked the word out. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. As easy as that? Oh, we'll just hop back over there. The only times there was a way through were during the biggest universal catastrophes in existence!

"Let's think this through. The first time we came here, during the mess with Lumic, the TARDIS fell through accidentally. I don't think that opening would be enough for the Dimension Hoppers to make it through, so if we went to that point, we would have to get into the TARDIS while the younger versions of ourselves were away and hide in the TARDIS somewhere. The problem with that is that he might sense my link with you. I don't know if the TARDIS would be able to hide it from him. Option number two... During the events at Canary Wharf. We could sneak into Torchwood here and use the hoppers to get back over just like Mickey and your dad did. The problem there is that we would have to get away from that time immediately because as soon as the Daleks and Cybermen start getting pulled into the void, we would get pulled in too without any magnaclamps to hold onto. We would also have to make sure that we hopped into an area where we wouldn't meet ourselves or a group of Cybermen looking to upgrade us. Option three is probably the most dangerous. We could go to the time when the stars were going out and use the Dimension Cannon then. I can aim it properly to get us there. BUT... the people we are currently running from were already making plans for you then AND we would be transporting ourselves into a world full of Daleks." None of these were a good idea, they all involved crossing into established events and dealing with Cybermen or Daleks or both.

"Ok, why wasn't crossing during one of those times an option to come and get me before? You said it was impossible, now it sounds like... like..." Like he didn't really want her back? She couldn't believe that. They were happy together now.

"Oh, Rose!" He hugged her tightly and ran his fingers through her hair. "Of course I wanted to get you back! This is all extremely dangerous and normally, I would never cross into our own past like this. But also, it doesn't really matter when we land on the other side, just when we leave from here AND it's much easier to aim for our home universe by analyzing our cellular structure than when I was blindly aiming for this universe without any real point of reference to find it." She relaxed a bit in his embrace and wrapped her arms tighter around his waist.

"So, let me get these risks straight... The least risk of enemies is when we first came across, but since we'd have to hide in the TARDIS, it has the highest risk of bumping into ourselves?" He nodded at her, glad that she was understanding all the timey wimey-ness of it all. "The other two have us less likely to bump into ourselves, but far more likely to have to deal with Daleks and Cybermen, yeah? Given the risk of getting pulled into the void, I think I'd rather cross Canary Wharf off the list."

"I agree with you there. I think our safest bet would be trying to hitch a ride on the TARDIS. Maybe if we get into the zero room, she can hide our telepathic signatures from past me."

"Ok... ok... Let's get those escape plans ready just in case, but maybe we can find a way to stop them, yeah? I mean, we know about Suzie and Dr. Harper and whoever that was he was whispering to in the lab. If we stop them all, then we'll be safe here." She was pacing now and the Doctor could feel her starting to panic. He knew she had started having panic attacks when they were separated and he needed to slow her down before it got too far. He stopped her pacing with a tight hug and firmly started rubbing her back.

"Breathe with me, love. It'll be alright. I'll find a way to get us out of this. But you need to realize, that it isn't safe for us here. What if we miss finding one of them? What if someone else down the road starts snooping into your medical history and this all starts over again? Our safest bet is to get away from here." He could feel her pulse slow as she got her emotions back under control. She took a few deep breaths and hugged him back tightly.

"Alright... I trust you, my love. What's the plan?"

"First question, do we need to go home for anything? My TARDIS key is in the pocket of my blue suit, where is yours? We might need it."

"It's locked in the safe in my office. We had tried to use it to aim the Cannon for a while."

"Well, let's get that first. Then we need to get down to the archives and find that vortex manipulator that I saw a few months ago. Then, if we're planning on going back to when we first came here, the TARDIS was powered down and we're going to need torches to find our way to the zero room. Can you think of anything else that we might need or can't leave behind?" This was definitely dangerous. They were planning to cross their own timelines and purposefully put themselves into the same TARDIS where their past selves would be. He thought back to that trip carefully. Did he remember sensing anything odd when they got back from fighting the cybermen? He didn't think so and he couldn't find any fuzzy spots that might indicate having suppressed any memories of future knowledge. The TARDIS wouldn't be able to shield them much while she was powered down, but once the recharged power cell was replaced, the zero room would be fully operational again and they should be safe there until they could sneak out again.

"I can't think of anything I couldn't live without. Except you of course." She gave him a teasing smirk. They needed to lighten the mood a bit. They've faced worse than this before and laughed their way through it. They had a plan now, they just needed to get moving.

"Well, that goes without saying. I am rather marvellous after all." With a quick kiss on the tip of her nose, he grabbed her hand and started pulling her along to go collect what they needed. "Allons-y, my beautiful wife! We are going home."

They walked quickly through the hallways, but tried not to look like they knew they were the targets. Someone was likely watching them and they didn't want to accelerate their plans to close the trap. The first stop was Rose's office to pick up her old TARDIS key and she had a spare torch in there as well. Then, they made their way down to where all the found alien technology was stored. They had helped sort and label most of this during their first week together here, so they had a good idea where to find what they were looking for. Their next task was to find Jake to let him know what they had discovered about Dr. Harper and tell him their plan so they wouldn't be looking for them as missing people. They could leave the cleanup of the corruption in Torchwood in his capable hands.

The Doctor found a computer terminal and started looking for the last place that Jake had scanned his ID card. The medical department? Well, he had told Jake about the theory, but he was supposed to leave that investigation to them so they wouldn't arouse suspicion. He had a feeling that things were about to come to a head. Holding tight to his wife's hand, they made their way to the medical department. While they were walking, he strapped the vortex manipulator to his wrist and programmed it with coordinates to their flat. It would at least give them a quick way out and a few minutes to plan their next move if needed. As they approached the lab where he thought Jake would be, they could hear raised voices and slowed their pace. Keeping out of sight of the occupants of the room, they got close enough to listen. Was that Jake's voice?

"I'm telling you, Owen. They know it's Rose we're after!"

"Alright, calm down. Where are they now? We'll get a team together and contain them."

"I left them both in Pete's office. They were searching computer files for information on medical staff that might be involved."

"Right, well, as long as we capture them now, it won't matter what they found out."

Rose and the Doctor looked each other in the eye and without a word (even mentally) the decision was made. This was deeper and bigger than they could handle. It was time to leave. Just as they turned to head back down the hallway and out of the building, they ran straight into Suzie Costello.

"Well, look what I've found. Fancy meeting you here, freak." She had a pistol in her hand and was aiming it straight at Rose.

"Why are you doing this? What do you want with me?" Rose could feel the Doctor's mood shift. The Oncoming Storm was building beside her. Could they get out of here before the storm broke?

"Oh, I'm sure that's fairly obvious, Rose. There's something special about you. Your father may have tried to change things around here, but we're only human. And it's plainly obvious that YOU are NOT. If it's alien, it's ours." The evil smirk on her face told them that Jake and Owen had come out of the room behind them and their escape routes on foot had been cut off. "The first step, of course, is to get your protector out of the way." The gun moved towards the Doctor, but before she could pull the trigger, Rose threw herself in front of him and the bullet hit her square in the chest.

"NO!" The Doctor wrapped his arm tightly around Rose's waist and smashed the button on the vortex manipulator to get them out of there immediately.