Chapter 14

"Guess who", the whispering voice asked again.

The Tardis doors suddenly opened and Mickey popped his head out, obviously searching for the whereabouts of the Doctor. When Mickey had come back from changing into a fresh set of clothes he had noticed that the Tardis doors were open a crack and guessed that the Doctor must have stepped outside. So leaving Jake to wander with open-mouthed fascination around the many rooms of the Tardis he decided to investigate.

Mickey shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight and peering through his fingers made out the Doctor. He was more than surprised however to see that the Doctor wasn't alone and that he was standing with a young girl, a girl who looked very familiar to Mickey even though she and the Doctor were standing quite a distance away.

"Rose!" He called loudly. "Is that you?"

"Yeah nice one Mickey", Rose yelled back. "You spoiled the surprise."

"What surprise?"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter now." Rose shot him a glare.

Mickey was hurt, now that the Doctor was back on the scene he knew that he had truly lost Rose. Every hope of a reconciliation that he had clung on to was dashed aside by the harsh reality that was in front of him. Rose plainly only had eyes for the Doctor, he could tell from the way she was touching his face in a playful, flirtatious manner.

The burning in his eyes was a warning sign that he was close to tears but he angrily forced them back. Dignity was all he had left and he wasn't about to sacrifice that for a few moments sobbing over a girl even if she was the love of his life, even if she had cruelly dumped him for another man and just abandoned him without a second thought for how he felt.

"Rose…what are you doing here?" The Doctor removed her hands from his face and spun around to confront her in one quick movement.

"Nice to see you too", she laughed lightly. She felt somewhat annoyed with Mickey and with the Doctor for his less than satisfactory greeting. It had been months since they last saw each other and now he was treating her as though she were some naughty teenager caught sneaking out on a school night. She cowered a little under his stern expression, wondering whether she had been wrong to go looking for him after all. Perhaps he had moved on and didn't need her anymore she thought with a sinking feeling.

"…I thought that you'd be pleased to see me", Rose stammered.

The Doctor's expression softened and a big grin widened his mouth. The kindness returned to his eyes and he became the Doctor she loved again. Rose grinned too as she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, feeling his two hearts beating as wildly as her one heart was.

"…Yeah if anyone wants me I'll be inside", Mickey shifted uncomfortably. If watching her caressing another man's face was almost too much to bear, then watching Rose being held so closely in the arms of another man was heartbreaking for him to look upon. He had accepted Rose and the Doctor's relationship long ago and now it looked as though he would have to again. The one thing that Mickey wanted more than anything was for Rose to be happy, that meant the world to him, but didn't he deserve some happiness too? He was selflessly letting go of everything he and Rose had ever had and demanding nothing in return so surely he was due some kind of good fortune.

Stupidly though, up until this point he had thought things would eventually return to normal and he and Rose would get back together and they would settle down and get married and have a family someday. He could see now that, that was all just some stupid fantasy. Mickey shook his head sadly and disappeared back into the Tardis. There he was met by Jake who noticed how forlorn his friend was and offered him a sympathetic ear and patiently listened to Mickey's troubles.

Rose wrapped her arms loosely around the Doctor's neck and rested her head on his shoulder as he gently brushed her cheek with his lips. She felt a warmth of pleasure rush over her and a sensation of happiness that she hadn't felt for what seemed like an eternity. At the same time the Doctor felt feelings stirring within him that had long since lain dormant, but now Rose had awoken them and a new kind of fear with them.

All of a sudden he felt scared and pushed Rose away from him. She stumbled backwards, shocked by this sudden rough treatment. The Doctor turned away from her and offered no apology but stood with his back to her. No explanation, nothing. He was warm and loving one moment and the next cold and distant, shutting Rose out.

"You can't just keep doing this. Every time we get close you freak out, it was like this before and being apart hasn't changed anything has it. All that rubbish about absence making the heart grow fonder, it's just nonsense isn't it? I thought just then that maybe you finally felt the same way as I do, but I must have got it wrong if you're just shoving me away like this.

The Doctor stayed silent but raised his head to look up at the sky. He listened to Rose's words, feeling the sting of them and wishing he could be everything that she wanted him to be. Wishing he could be reckless and indulge himself in dreams and fantasies but he couldn't allow himself to do that. He had to protect Rose from getting hurt, he had to stop her falling in love with him even though it was probably too late for that. It was painfully clear to him that Rose was absolutely besotted with him and for this he was partly to blame but he had also learnt something of the mysterious workings of the human heart from past experiences and knew he wasn't entirely at fault.

"Look if you just tell me what's wrong then I'll understand but right now I feel worthless, like I'm nothing to you but a toy that you pick up and play with and then drop when I become an inconvenience to you."

"You've got it all wrong", the Doctor didn't turn around but at least he was speaking. "Rose…the reason…the reason why I pushed you away is because…"

Rose didn't hear his reason because at that moment Mickey and Jake burst out of the Tardis and skidded to a stop next to them. They were clearly panicked about something and breathlessly tried to explain the situation.

"Doctor, you've got to come quick. Something's flared up on the screen." Jake spluttered.

"Yeah Jake and I were just chatting when we noticed all these red dots appearing on one of the screens. We couldn't understand what it meant." Mickey continued. "We figured it was something bad though." Urgency rose in his voice.

"Right", the Doctor sprinted back to the Tardis and rushed to pore over the Tardis console taking in the information that lay before his eyes. Rose had followed behind at a slower pace with Mickey and Jake and now they all came to stand at the Doctor's side.

"This is worse than I thought, much worse. "Someone has been busy freeing Cybermen. The factories have all been opened."

"What all of them?" Mickey asked quickly.

"Nope not all, just the ones in Europe though I daresay if we leave it too long before acting then the factories all over the world will be reopened and then there will be almost nothing we can do. If we can stop the problem before it spreads further abroad however then we're put at an advantage, otherwise…" The Doctor made a motion of slicing his hand across his throat.

"So how do we solve the problem?" Rose asked the question that was on everyone's lips. She felt a surge of excitement despite the severity of the task that they were now faced with. The old team was back together again, back to battle it out with whatever was thrown at them. Stronger united than they were divided.

"We're going to need Torchwood", the Doctor announced with certainty. "This is too big for us to deal with on our own but with Torchwood behind us we stand every chance of victory. With their combined forces they should be more than a match for any number of Cybermen."

"Are you sure?" Rose wasn't convinced.

"Fairly sure, of course there is always room for error. I'm confident that they'll be able to give us what we need though, don't worry."

"Well that's good enough for me", Rose said decisively to nods from Mickey and Jake.

"That's settled then", the Doctor flipped some levers and set a course for the Tardis. "Destination…Torchwood, Canary Wharf, London."