She knew she was having more of these thoughts, the same ones she'd had in the Tardis or on an adventure with the other Doctor, that of wishing she could have done something about it instead of leaving it until it was too late but she'd been given another chance so why was she throwing it all away again? All throughout eating their dessert, John's favourite banana sundae with whipped cream on top, John was trying his best not to imagine even more buttons undone on Rose's see-through blouse where he could distinctly see her black bra and her cleavage and more cleavage than bra.
What was she trying to do to him? This was something new, apart from catching a glimpse of her laid in bed before turning out the bedside lamp and her never offering to do any more than letting him pull the straps of her nightdress down and then lying on him after they had both kissed as much of each other as they dared, now, she was virtually showing herself off to him albeit there was a white blouse in the way and wearing the short black skirt with no tights was simply unfair of her, she either wore trousers or jeans and sometimes those sexy black tights like the ones she'd worn back when they'd encountered the werewolf and Queen Victoria, how his other self had kept his hands off her, he couldn't figure out.
He was thinking more and more the last few days that his twin had been a complete idiot in not making a play for her, she had practically been throwing herself at his feet and he'd not taken a blind bit of notice and almost getting caught up with Reinette and Martha, not to mention Astrid and that Lady Christina, well Donna had been a relief from it all. Just what did women ever see in him anyway? Now he'd made himself look scruffy, well at work, outside he didn't look that bad or Rose would have said something but both his DC and the DCI had looked at him more than once as a potential boyfriend and he was just not interested.
Maybe he did like to be in charge, he certainly didn't like the attention he was getting at work and Rose was playing hard to get. Yes, he definitely liked to take the lead where a woman was concerned, he'd not been wrong there. Rose cleared the dishes away and John went to the sofa after turning on the TV. He was glad he'd not have to give any more interviews or press conferences, he didn't want Rose to keep seeing him on the news all the time or she would be starting to compare him.
Maybe he should casually start talking about joining the investigation, offering his help and see what she said about it, judge her reaction. Rose came back in and smiled at him as he patted for her to sit on his lap instead of at his side. He put his arm around her back, getting his closest view yet of what was under the flimsy material of the blouse that had been spoiling his view of her chest all night. He angled himself to kiss her, one of her arms around his neck and he took the chance to shuffle her up against the cushion and tilted her back.
Rose got the idea and relaxed into his arm and reached for a button on his shirt and she undid it to his surprise so he took the risk of going for one of hers until finally, she had reached his last one without realising, kissing between twisting the buttons through the buttonholes then as John reached the one of Rose's in the middle that was holding the garment in place that he'd purposely left until the last, he looked at her as if asking if he could or if she'd slap his face.
He thought she was doing it to tease him, to see if he'd actually do it. He could see most of her exposed skin, the top of her lacy black bra and would she have let him go this far if she was going to run off if he attempted to undo the last button? She was taunting him, he knew she was and she'd made no attempt yet to part his shirt even though it was now fully undone and already overhanging his jeans he'd gone to change into and he'd not tucked the shirt into.
She hung onto the edge of his shirt, fingering the material as if debating whether to pull it apart or not, it wasn't like she'd not seen his bare chest before but he'd always been the one to take his t-shirt or sometimes his shirt off, not her, now he was looking at her as if to say he wanted her to do it but dare she actually do it, dare she run her finger down his torso and across his slightly hairy chest? John had one hand on the last of her buttons, being careful to only touch her skin with part of his hand and then only below the button, waiting for her to make the next move.
He knew he wanted to just do it, to part the blouse and see her in just her what now looked like a very skimpy bra and to lean over and kiss her exposed skin then take the bra off and take all of her beauty in at once. Rose knew she wanted to pull his shirt apart and kiss her way across his chest so what was stopping her? She wanted to cross the line she had never crossed with the other Doctor, why shouldn't she? What was actually stopping her now?
She'd never been given this much attention before, Mickey had always been about what he wanted, not what she wanted and here was John, looking down at her and waiting for her to do something before he did, giving her the choice. She took it and moved her hand, parting his shirt and placed her hand on his bare chest, giving a sigh as she touched and he let go of her blouse for a moment and placed his hand on top of hers and whispered her name.
"Rose, please allow me to finish unbuttoning your blouse?"
"I told you, you don't need to ask."
"Oh Rose but I do because I want to look at you and touch you and I wouldn't dare do that without asking for your permission so please, may I?"
She moved his hand and steered it back to the last button stopping him from touching her. It was only her top half, she could live with him seeing her topless, it was more than Mickey had ever seen, they were always in the dark, he never had really looked at her like John was looking at her now, his soft brown eyes almost pleading with her to let him see her.
"Yes John, you may undo the last button and I want you to touch me, please."
That was all he needed, his Rose had said she wanted him to touch her and he was now halfway to winning her over completely and he could live with that. As her last button came undone, Rose sighed again as he touched her bare skin just above her tummy then flinched as he touched her through her bra and then the top of her breasts and her cleavage. He smiled at her as her hand moved on his chest and leaned down to kiss her, moving his shirt back out of the way so his chest touched her as he sought her lips.
Rose's hand that had been on his arm went around his neck and she moved the other one to allow his chest to touch her as she caught the collar of his shirt and began trying to get it off.
"Oh Rose, allow me?" he grinned down at her.
He helped her get his shirt off, they'd almost done it earlier in her office so why it was such an issue now, neither of them knew except Rose was now under him, smiling up at him with her blouse undone and her skimpy bra hardly covering anything then as his shirt was shrugged off, he leaned down as Rose ruffled his hair and pulled him towards her, his hands going around her back then as he found the clasp of her bra, he smiled, pleased he at least knew how to do that considering his lack of practice and hoped he could let human nature take charge and that now he was pulling her bra away, she wouldn't get scared and run off.
She didn't as the bra came away and he pulled it down, revealing her beauty and he took in the sight of her.
"You are so perfect Rose," he just managed to say before he dove down, Rose grabbing his head and pulling him towards her as she told him he had better take advantage now he'd got her bra off.
He did and then some.
Somehow, they managed to shuffle around after John kissed every centimetre of Rose's top half several times over, just a bit annoyed her bra was preventing him leaning his chest onto her but as they swapped places, Rose smiled, knowing he wanted the thing off and allowed him to pull the sleeves of her blouse off one arm and the bra slid off one side, then they repeated the process as it fell off the other side and he lay back against the cushion, pulling her on top of him as they kissed, deeper than they'd ever done before, leaving a breathless Rose and a smirking John looking at each other.
Pleased they'd got this far, John traced his finger between her breasts and Rose leaned down, debating whether to return the favour and kiss her way across his chest and gave in, John's hands now on her back and pulling her close so they were touching.
"Rose, you've made me very happy and now, I can wait until you're ready for more my love. I know this has been difficult for you but it will get easier now, we're halfway there."
They decided to take this to the bedroom, John never attempting to do any more when Rose was waiting for him and began by kissing his chest then he let the straps of her nightdress down and lowered the material. The next morning, John decided it was time for Rose to meet his alter-ego Alec Hardy so he called her and said he'd been contacted and could she meet the detective at the makeshift command post at the edge of the woods?
Rose decided she was going to drag Ewan along for moral support and had asked John if he would care to join them.
"Nah, I think since I look a bit like him, I'd best stay away, well you say I look like him, can't say I've ever caught sight of him though. Have fun love."
"Yeah, I will, he needn't think he's gonna get all shirty with me and boss me around."
John chuckled to himself. Right, now to set off and get into the grumpiest of moods before she arrived. He got Amy to drive him out to the scene and was dismayed to find Maureen was already there. Great, just what he needed but maybe he could use it to his advantage since the woman had doubted the sincerity of the photo on his desk. He would openly flirt with Rose to the extent he'd annoy the hell out of one of them and hope Rose would see the funny side when they got home.
Rose drove out to the scene and showed her Torchwood ID to the officer who was posted at the start of the police cordon.
"I'm supposed to be meeting with DI Hardy, I got a call from our liaison officer."
She could see the command post and whom she supposed was Alec Hardy as opposed to her recently established lover, well almost lover, they'd got further the last six or getting on for seven weeks last night than they had before, Rose just managing to retain her underwear she'd hastily added before John had got into bed since he seemed a lot keener last night than he had before when she'd been lying on him. She'd noticed a few times he was stirring in the lower anatomy department and she was taking no chances last night just in case she was the one that got carried away.
Alec Hardy was pretending to be waiting for one Rose Tyler, head of Torchwood Scotland and would have to pretend he didn't know her. He was arguing with the SOCO leader about scaling back resources, an argument he had started on purpose to justify supposedly calling the Torchwood liaison at headquarters to have them join the search.
Rose had reached the large tent and was standing in what passed as the doorway, two open tent flaps.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for Alec Hardy."
Alec turned around, glad he'd remembered to change his shirt and tie and combed his hair right, he kept a spare shirt in his locker just in case the day ever came Rose would announce she wanted to meet his other persona and he'd changed his jacket, hoping he'd get away with the dark grey trousers.
"Who are you then? Who let you through? Someone get her out of here NOW!"
Maureen was sat at a table filled with maps and charts, looking amused.
"Really Alec, don't you recognise her?"
Now she was convinced Hardy's desk photo was not of Rose Tyler, if it was, they were playing the game of pretending not to know each other but maybe they had an agreement not to mix business with pleasure, since Hardy had made that mistake with his ex wife.
Rose decided to be the bigger person and held out her hand. "Rose Tyler, deputy director of Torchwood and director of Torchwood Scotland. I got a call to say you may need our help in finding the missing boy."
"I wasn't expecting you to turn up here, who told you to come out to the scene?"
"Our police liaison officer who you contacted, it seemed only logical you'd want us to get a look at where the boy disappeared from."
"Right, so, you've taken a look, now go do whatever it is you Torchwood people do, go look for spooks or whatever, maybe the odd alien and let me get on with conducting this investigation."
Maureen was taking it all in, he had no chance with Rose Tyler. "Alec, don't be so rude. Welcome Miss Tyler, thanks for coming out here. I'm DCI Chambers and anything you need, just ask DI Hardy here, you'll get our full co-operation."
Rose turned back to Alec, who was doing his best not to grab hold of his girlfriend, take her behind the tent and snog her senseless.
"Ok, right, just stay out of my way. Are there only two of you?"
"For now, I've got a full team on standby, they can be here first thing tomorrow morning, we've just come to assess the situation. Why don't you fill me in on what's been happening so far?"
"I've not got the time, Pond here will fill you in, just ask her for anything you might need, don't go bothering me with details."
Rose thought charming, if this was John pretending to be Hardy, he should take up acting and give the Scottish actor she used to fancy a good run for his money.
Amy filled her in, Alec kept glaring at Rose, Rose kept glaring at him. He'd hastily called Pete before he'd called Rose as John and told Pete he was going to have to reveal himself as the gruff Scottish detective because he and Rose were so close now, she was bound to guess and he wasn't prepared to let it spoil things by her catching him out. Pete had agreed that if Rose called him about an irritating Scottish detective, he'd try to act surprised but couldn't promise he'd get the same sympathy if Rose called her mother.
For the next hour or so, Alec and Rose kept eyeing each other until he cornered her outside the tent as she was getting some much needed coffee.
"What's your problem Director Tyler?"
"Me? I'm not the one with the problem and it's Agent Tyler when I'm on the job."
"Oh, you're 'on the job' are you? That of interrupting my investigation? Well you're making an excellent 'job' of that so far. Haven't you got any aliens to harass?"
Rose thought it was more fun harassing the irritable detective, he was clearly bothered by her presence. She wished now she'd bothered to look him up.
"Has anyone told you how annoying you are, detective inspector?"
"No, you're the first. Just exactly what can Torchwood offer in the way of helping find a six year old boy eh? Got some 'alien tech' tucked away on your person?"
He thought he'd given the game away almost, that's what Rose had said to his previous form but she seemed to let it slide.
"You'd be surprised, Alec."
"Don't call me that and don't keep staring at me either, it's annoying."
"Huh? You've been staring at my ass all morning, don't think I've not noticed, I'm a trained agent."
"Yes, I can tell that. What exactly are you 'trained' in then? How to dress for work?"
Rose was about to storm off. "How I dress is none of your concern, my boyfriend appreciates it, he's the one you spoke to earlier."
Alec raised his eyebrows, then realising he did that as John and stopped. "You mean he has to put up with you?"
"Well he's not as irritating as you are anyway, what's your problem? Girlfriend problem as in you can't get one?"
"None of your business but I've got a girlfriend."
"She blonde as well? Poor her."
"I've got better things to do than argue with you all morning, 'Agent' Tyler."
"Yeah? Like practising your manners?"
Rose huffed and walked back into the warmth of the tent, Scotland was cold at any time of the year in her book.
John watched his girlfriend walk off, he'd surely blown it now, maybe Alec Hardy should be the one to disappear. Just how had he managed to act so grumpily to start with? It was only supposed to be for his work colleagues benefit, to keep them away from him. It wasn't meant to carry over but Rose had to see what to expect if he were to become the detective full time.
By lunchtime, Rose had decided she'd had enough of the gruff detective glaring at her. Ewan had been talking to some officers and she called him over.
"Still think the hard-ass over there is John?"
Ewan grinned. "On the contrary, I think he's more your type than John is."
"Very funny Ewan. I'm going back to the office, are you staying here?"
"I thought you'd want to stay to kick his ass back into line?"
"No thanks, he may look like John but he's nothing like him, believe me, I've seen John's ass."
She had, for the first time that morning when she'd turned over and he thought she was still asleep, she meant to get a closer look next time and hopefully by tomorrow morning she would have stopped hesitating and they would finally break down the last barrier and become lovers. She was about to get into her car, Ewan had followed her in his but Rose spied Alec watching her and he noticed, crossing over to her as she stood by her car.
He was glad he'd got his DC to bring him out or Rose may have spotted his car.
"Leaving so soon? I thought you were enjoying my company?"
"There's no point in hanging around here, I have a team to organise if we're going to get involved. Besides, you keep insisting I'm getting in your way, thought you'd be glad to get rid of me. By the way, your DCI has been looking daggers at me all morning, any particular reason?"
"She sees you as a rival, she fancies me."
Rose sniggered. "Really? Sounds like you have a problem then though she must be mad."
"Thanks a lot, how does your boyfriend even put up with you?"
"I have my ways, detective inspector."
He thought she certainly had, keeping him dangling for the best part of two months. He decided he'd wind her up further.
"Well I have a photo of myself and my girlfriend on my desk and she's jealous, she thinks the photo is of you."
Rose burst out laughing. "Not in a million years. You can tell her from me she's got no competition in that department but maybe your girlfriend won't be so understanding if you're getting unwanted attention in the potential boyfriend category. Maybe you should let her down gently?"