Disclaimer: For the sake of this story, I "own" the characters and the storyline of Human Nature / Family of Blood. But I'll give them back after, I promise.

Here, have an update.
I know some of you didn't think I wrote the last chapter especially well (and to be frank, I agree), so I hope you find this one better. It clears up a lot, like why Rose was acting weird in the last chapter. Enjoy!

NTMR:
-Thanks for all the reviews. I agree partly with what you said about Rose, and I don't think I wrote it very well. I have gone back and re-written the last section of the confrontation scene - it doesn't change anything, but I'm much happier with it now.


Chapter 12: Not Quite A Peaceful Dinner (Part 1)

Rose brushed her fingers through her hair again and turned back to face the mirror nervously, studying her appearance. The faint trill of the doorbell sounded out through the house, and Rose turned sharply to look at the ajar door. She looked up at the clock on her wall and grinned. It was 6 o'clock exactly.

Checking her appearance in the mirror one last time, she threw open the door and dashed down the stairs.

"We have maids for a reason, you know!" her mothers voice echoed down the stairs, but she didn't laugh or reply as she usually would. She was too nervous for that.

Once at the door, she leant back against it, hands shaking and palms sweating. A maid, emerging from the kitchen to open the door, bowed her head and turned back away, but Rose didn't notice.

She had to be ready. She needed to focus on her task. If she gave in now, she could never confront him - she could never look at John Smith again.

Her parents voices could be heard distantly from their room.

"D'you think Jamie's okay?" Jackie was asking Pete, for the umpteenth time. Pete chuckled back.

"Darlin', this ain't the first time we've left him with the nanny. He's not gonna run off again, don't worry."

The voices faded out as Rose made her decision. After all John had done for her, after all that had happened, she owed him this. She had to find out what was going on. She couldn't go on pretending - it wasn't fair to either of them.

Words from the afternoon's events flew around her mind, echoing and increasing in volume, like a never-ending nightmare. She closed her eyes tightly as the ring of the doorbell trilled out in her ears, willing the secretary's voices away as her eyes prickled with forbidden tears.

"Where's the watch?"

"Doctor, we're hiding."

"This - is not you."

"Fine, it's 2011."

"You're coming back to the TARDIS with me!"

She forced her eyes open and let out a deep breath of relief, as the last echo of reality burst around her. The kitchen maid was standing nervously in front of her, hand outstretched to the door. As she saw Rose's eyes snap open, she backed away, frightened.

"Sorry Miss." she murmured, and rushed back into the kitchen. Rose turned to face the door, breathing calmly. She had known what to do since this afternoon; since she had excused herself from work and rushed out of the office, leaving a poor, confused John to explain what he didn't know was happening to the bemused Ianto.

She just had to wait until the moment was right. She'd been planning it all afternoon. Wait until John was comfortable, wait until he didn't know what to believe, then find out what was going on.

In her moments of - what Rose hated to call them - love, she had overlooked the truth. For one month, she had left the Doctor on Bad Wolf Bay, and crossed the ocean to a new life. A life where she had love, and normality, and where the Doctor was just a story of the past. But when Martha had brought her back to reality in the office, the truth had been revealed to her, and she had realised just how blind love was.

The third loud trill of the doorbell brought her back to the hallway, where she was stood with an outstretched arm to the door. Forcing a smile onto her face, she opened the door and came face to face with her date for the evening.

"Hi!" she said cheerily, though dreading the evening ahead, and he smiled back.

"I was beginning to think you'd gone to dinner without me." he grinned at her, then glanced down at her long silk dress, outlining her body intimately and showing off her figure.

"Wow. You look - brilliant. Absolutely gorgeous." he said adoringly, and her smile dropped for a second at John's choice of words. But then he leant forward and kissed her gently on the lips, and all her fears and worries floated away for a second. When she pulled away, she looked down at John's outfit, and had to suppress a nervous laugh as she saw his formal black tuxedo, fitted loosely but still showing his thin shape as he stood up straight and held out his arm for Rose to take. Forcing the smile back on her face, she turned back to the stairs and called up to her parents.

"Mum? We're goin' now, all right?"

"Who are?" Jackie called back down, staying inside her room as she studied her appearance in her mirror.

"Me an' John!" Rose shouted back incredulously.

"You're goin' with John?" Jackie asked, coming to the banister of the stairs. "Are you -"

"Bye mum!" Rose interrupted, wincing at her mother's half sentence. Walking out to John, she closed the door behind her hurriedly and breathed out steadily in the cool evening air.

- - - - - - -

As John and Rose approached the restaurant, the uneven silence between the couple seemed to die away, and they exchanged happy glances between John's stories, Rose attempting to mask the confusion and worry in her eyes.

They reached the restaurant door, and Rose pulled her security pass out of her bag. John fished around in his pocket while she flashed it to the security guard standing in front of the mahogany door.

"Evening, Miss." he said statically, and moved to let her past. John attempted to follow, but the guard stopped him.

"Sorry Sir, staff only." he told John, who was still rooting around in his pocket.

"Goodness," he smiled to Rose, who was waiting behind the security guard for John to be let in, whilst replacing her card I her purse. "It's like these things are bigger on the inside!"

Rose's stomach lurched as the words were spoken, and she barely realised what was happening as John was allowed in. As he led her over to her parents' table, she looked straight ahead and avoided his gaze. She only looked up when she noticed her parents.

"Mum, dad?" she frowned, ignoring John by her side. "How'd you get here before us?"

"We we're driven!" Jackie laughed. "After six years, how can you keep forgettin' we've got limos?"

John frowned now. "I thought you'd been here five years?" he asked, and Rose winced.

"No, we - I mean, I - got here about six years ago. It's been five years since I… knew I was staying." Rose replied shortly, trying not to think about the day she stood on the beach in Norway with a man identical to John. "We only live a few blocks away!" she directed at Jackie, who laughed airily as she drank from her wine glass casually.

"You're never gonna get used to this whole 'being rich' thing, are you?"

"Hello darlin'." Pete smiled at her, and she smiled weakly back. "Listen, you two can either eat here with me and your mother, or you can sit with Kate and Jake -"

"Jake's here?" Rose asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Yeah, he's just back from the Himalayas yesterday, and I asked if he wanted to come along." Pete told her.

"We'll sit with them then." Rose told them, and turned away, searching the room for Jake. She heard her mother mutter "Oh, charming," as she led John over to where she had spotted Jake, and threw herself into her friend's arms as he stood up.

"Jake!" she cried, laughing as they parted. "It's so great to see you!"

John sat down at the table as Rose and Jake seated themselves next to each other. "How are you? What've you been up to? And how'd the mission go?" Rose asked him, overcome with happiness at seeing her friend again. Then her face fell. "Oh, did you hear, about…?"

She didn't need to finish the question. "Yeah." Jake replied quietly. "How're you doing?" Rose shrugged. "Come on, he was your best mate."

"He was yours too!" Rose smiled nervously, faint memories of Jake, Mickey and herself drifting through her mind. "But I'm okay." she insisted. "Actually, I'm… really okay. I mean, I miss him, so much, but… I'm doin' better than I thought I would."

Jake smiled. "Anyway, I'm fine, and the mission went great. All sorted." he told her, shaking the thought of Mickey from his mind. He looked past her to John, who was straightening out the cutlery by either side of his plate.

"Is that -" he began, alarmed.

"John Smith." Rose interrupted firmly. "Yeah. He's new to our department." she told him pointedly, and John looked up. Now wasn't the right time to come clean, she told herself.

"Hello!" John said cheerily, and reached his hand across the table for Jake to shake, while Rose turned her head away from him, avoiding his eyes at all costs.

"Uh, hi." Jake replied nervously, taking his hand and shaking it. "Jake Simmonds." He released John's hand and looked to Rose. "But, is he -?"

"Yeah." Rose cut him off, deciding that it couldn't hurt for one more person to know what she assumed was the truth. "Uh, he is… a field agent, yeah." she covered up, and turned around to John with a smile, looking just inches away from his right ear.

- - - - - - -

Kate smoothed down the fabric of her skirt distractedly as she stroked the symbols on the watch with her other hand. The cool evening breeze wafted around her as she waited for her taxi, and all she could think about was the watch. Why couldn't she forget it? Why did she bring it? What even was it?

She shivered as a harsh wind blew around her, pulling her jacket tighter around her shoulders, and stared awestruck and enchanted at the watch as the familiar golden glow flooded out of the gap, begging to be opened and found. A car slowed to a stop beside her, and she slipped the warm watch into her pocket as she stepped hurriedly into the taxi.

- - - - - - -

Rose took another sip of her wine as Jake finished off the last of his beer and sighed, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes. John took the seconds of silence as an opportune moment to leave, and pressed a hand gently on Rose's shoulder as he stood.

"I'm just gonna get another drink." he told her. "D'you want one?"

"No thanks." Rose answered, risking a look around. She felt tears well up inside her as she looked into his eyes and thought about what she would have to do later.

"Jake?" John asked, oblivious to her pain.

"Yeah, I'll have another beer, thanks." he replied, grinning, but his grin faded as John turned his back and walked away, and Jake turned his head to look at Rose, scrutinising her for any sign of emotion.

"What?" Rose asked, setting her drink down on the table. "When's this supposed to start anyway, I'm starving." Jake continued to stare at her. "And d'you know where Kate is? Did you hear, she's getting pro- What?!" she cried when he didn't move his gaze, and he raised his eyebrows disbelievingly.

"'John Smith'?"

She faltered. "Oh, right. That." she took a deep breath, casting a glance to where John was queuing in the line for drinks. "Look - it's not - I mean, I don't - if he's…" she looked down, frowning. "Oh, I dunno what's going on." she said truthfully, with tears prickling in her eyes. "He - he's not the Doctor. He don't think like him, or talk like him, or laugh like him, or dress like him. But… he must be the Doctor. I mean, look at him!"

Jake smiled sadly. "When you first came here… Mickey had a copy. A parallel version. Maybe the Doctor has one too?" he suggested, but Rose shook her head.

"That's what I thought." she told him. "But he's only got one heart. An' he doesn't think he's a Time Lord. An' he's just…" she trailed off again. "I think I love him." she said, a single tear wetting her soft cheek. She noted a few people turning to look, but couldn't hold her thoughts in any longer. "I mean, I always loved the Doctor, but he never loved me back. This one can. This one does."

Jake placed his hand over Rose's and squeezed it gently. "It's gonna be okay, Rose." he said quietly, sparing a glance to the Doctor look-a-like edging closer to the drinks bar by the minute. "Everything's gonna be okay."

- - - - - - -

The jagged movements of Jeffrey Wilson were silhouettes against the dim lighting of the building at night. His form, along with that of Suzie Costello's, moved hastily up the dark stairwells towards the office on the top floor.

"John Smith works up here, alongside Rose Tyler." Suzie was informing Jeffrey, barely scratching the surface of her memories to access the details. "Perhaps there are clues to his identity here."

The two pushed open the doors to the office with more strength than required, and began throwing the objects inside the room with little interest. Desks were overturned and emptied, their contents strewn across the floor as useless paperwork was found.

Minutes later, their patience had worn thin. Suzie stood abruptly, her hand to her head as she scraped through the woman's mind.

"Wait." she called to Jeffrey's form. "Upstairs. Suzie wonders about it often. It is… forbidden." Her lips curled into a sinister smile at the last word, and Jeffrey too straightened up and headed for the doors.

- - - - - - -

"Locked." Suzie snapped when the door refused to open.

"Step aside. Jeffrey said coldly, and Suzie did so unwillingly. Jeffrey drew his hands back and pulled a large gun from his jacket. Aiming it lazily at the lock, he blasted it off, leaving nothing but a hole as he kicked the door open. He staggered in, and Suzie followed, but the two stopped dead as they saw the wall opposite them. Tacked to the white paint, with scribbles around the side, was a scruffy image of John Smith, wearing a brown pinstripe suit and a long brown coat. A long strip of paper was stuck underneath it, and in thick black marker pens were scrawled two simple words. 'The Doctor'.

Jeffrey's lips formed a cruel, twisted smile. He turned to Suzie, his eyebrows raised in amusement. "It turned out our John Smith has a few secrets of his own." he told Suzie, and she let out a cold laugh as she studied the image with a creepy delight.


Hope you enjoyed it! Was it better than the last chapter? Worse? The same? Incomparable?

Part 2 will be along shortly, just because I'm having such a great time writing it!