"No one gets in to see Mr. Weiss without an appointment." Alan Weiss's secretary was a small, slick man with a face like a rodent. He glared disdainfully at the Doctor and Rose for having the gull to interrupt his typing. "I can take down your information and then Mr. Weiss will determine if he has a block in his schedule to allow a visit sometime in the near future. That's the best that I can do for you."

"But we're from Torchwood," Rose told the secretary. "He was reported missing to us not too long ago. We just need to follow up."

"He's not missing anymore. Everything's fine. What's Torchwood doing mucking about with missing people anyway?" the secretary asked, going back to his computer screen clearly not concerned with an explanation.

Rose sighed and turned back to the Doctor. He was staring out the glass door at the office full of little cubicles. "Looks like we've hit a wall," she said.

"Torchwood clearance can't get us past one man with a computer?" the Doctor asked her as she rolled her eyes at him. "Psychic paper would."

"Yeah, well we haven't got any," Rose said as she followed the Doctor out into the office area of Baron Web Design Inc. "So how do you reckon we…" she trailed off as the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "What are you up to?"

"What makes you think I'm up to something?" he asked innocently as he walked over to an empty cubical.

"You've got that look that you get when you're about to do somethin' totally mad."

"Me? Mad? Whatever gave you that idea?" the Doctor asked as he winked at her. He started whistling and turned towards the computer in the cubical, covering the sonic screwdriver with his hand. With a faint buzz, the computer simply switched off. Rose watched as all the people working let out cries of dismay as every computer in the office went black. "Oh, look at that," the Doctor told her, affecting concern. "What an inconvenience! They'll need to get a man in."

Just then, an angry looking man in an expensive suit came barreling out of the door behind the weasel-y secretary. Rose nudged the Doctor and pointed to the two men in the middle of the heated exchange. "That's Alan Weiss," she informed him.

"I believe his schedule has just cleared," the Doctor said as he shoved his hands in his pockets and sauntered away from her.

"It's 10 in the morning!" the man in the suit was shouting at the terrified secretary. Alan Weiss looked quite a bit different than the man in the picture Torchwood had of him at an office Christmas party. Not only were the clothes more impressive, but so was everything about his appearance now. He had cut his shaggy, blond hair into a more professional style. His glasses were no longer round and thick, but small and rectangular with gold rims that suited his face and drew attention to his piercing blue eyes. He also held himself now with the comfortable, authoritative posture of a man in charge. "I'm not sending everyone home just because the systems went down! Get someone to fix it!"

"But, sir, you're a genius. You've built this system. Can't you fix it?" the secretary asked Alan Weiss, bracing himself for another berating.

"Yes, of course I can. But to fix it quickly I need about fifteen other geniuses. Now get on it!"

"Are my ears burning?" the Doctor asked, stepping forward with all his usual swagger. "Fifteen geniuses? That's quite a lot. Lucky for you, I'm here. And I'm at least worth ten."

"And you are?" Alan Weiss asked him impatiently.

"I'm the Doctor. This is Rose," the Doctor said, jerking a thumb in Rose's direction. "I think I can help with your little technical problem here, but I'm gonna need to see your computer."

"What are you waiting for then?" Alan opened his office door and ushered the Doctor and Rose inside.

The Doctor took off the new black trench coat that Rose had given him (it didn't compare to his old brown one, but it did the job) and tossed it at Alan who scowled at him and threw the coat on a white leather couch. Once he made a big show of hmm-ing and ohh-ing at the computer, the Doctor crawled under Alan's desk and got to work. "Oh, this is brilliant!" Rose and Alan heard the Doctor say. "You came up with these network systems all on your own?"

"Indeed," Alan said. "Reconfigured all the computers to run off of this just two weeks ago. But I doubt that you'll be able to fix it. It's very complex…"

But Alan was silenced by the whirl and hum of his computer switching back on. The Doctor popped his head up and grinned at him. "Alright, I lied; I probably am worth fifteen geniuses. Well, twelve at the very least."

"How did you do that?" Alan asked him, coming over to examine the computer.

"I'm very clever," the Doctor told him, sitting at Alan's desk and proceeding to type away. "Clever enough to know that with a mind like yours, you could be working for the government or military. But instead you're designing websites? Why is that?"

"It's what I like to do," Alan said, still puzzled at the Doctor's quick work of fixing the systems. "I've worked here for nine years. They gave me a promotion recently and I just took it. Haven't really thought about working anywhere else."

"Ah," was all the Doctor said.

Rose wanted to ask what finally got him a promotion after nine years, but was interrupted by a woman coming through the door. "Everything coming along alright, Alan?" the woman asked. After Rose had spun to face the newcomer, she was taken aback. The woman was gorgeous. She was a proper supermodel, in fact; long and lean with elfin features and shiny hair the color of honey.

"It's fine, love," Alan told the woman. "Working it out now." Then he looked up from whatever the Doctor was doing and smiled at her. "Why don't you use the down time to work on the seating chart for the wedding? Just don't sit my college buddies next to your mum."

The woman laughed and left the room. "Who was that?" Rose asked.

"Oh, that's my fiancé, Chloe."

"Fiance." Rose noted, shooting the Doctor a meaningful look. He returned an almost imperceptible nod in her direction.

"Congratulations," the Doctor said, distractedly. "Seating chart, huh? Don't let her near any vases."

Rose furrowed her brow in confusion at him. "I'm gonna go get a drink. Anyone want anything?" But both the Doctor and Alan were too busy with the computer to pay her any mind.

As luck would have it, Rose found Chloe easily enough in the break room. She was stirring her tea with a dreamy look on her face as she flipped through bridal magazines. Rose recognized the look easily enough. It was the look of a woman completely and madly in love. Oh God, is that what I look like to other people? Rose wondered.

"Find a dress yet?" Rose asked Chloe, looking for something to break the ice.

"Not yet," Chloe told her. "Haven't had much time, actually. We only just got engaged. But Alan doesn't want to wait long. He's so impatient like that."

"How long have you been datin'?" Rose pulled up a chair and poured herself a cup of tea.

"Couple of weeks."

"Blimey," Rose said before she caught herself. "Sorry… it's just… that's quick."

Chloe just laughed. "Oh, I know. It's mad. But I love him. Strange how that works."

"What's strange?" Rose asked. She had been hearing that word thrown around a lot lately.

"I've worked here for five years with him and never even noticed him before. Then, all of a sudden, he started talking to me. He's just so charming. I couldn't believe I'd never properly met him. He came up with this new network that we all use and got that promotion – he's so brilliant. How could I resist him?"

"Was this after his disappearance?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I think it was." Chloe smiled. "His dad was sick and Alan had to leave for a while. But he's better now."

"Is his dad coming to the wedding?" Rose asked. She knew from the Torchwood file that Alan's dad had died when Alan was little.

"No," Chloe said sadly. "He's still not feeling well enough to travel, poor thing. Hopefully he'll be better by Christmas so we can visit."

Rose just nodded.

The Doctor poked his head around the corner. "Ready to shift?" he asked. When they were in the lift, he smiled at her. "Look at that. A successful investigation all done without getting caught kissing. Find out anything?"

"Other than Alan Weiss's dad comin' back from the dead…" Rose mused. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "Chloe did tell me that they only started dating a couple weeks ago."

"Right after Alan's disappearance," the Doctor noted.

"Yeah, and she said that she didn't even notice him until then," Rose said. "How about you? Got any gossip?"

"We'll find that out when we're back at the TARDIS," he told her, flipping his sonic screwdriver around. "I downloaded the contents of Alan's computer on here. Hopefully I'll find more than just chirping."