"You seemed to have relaxed somewhat from this morning," he replied.
"I didn't think I'd be able to but you made it easy. I feel really good now."
"Then I am glad I made you feel that way. Come and lie on me, I want to tell you something."
Rose rolled over and put her arms under him.
"That was your first time, was it not?" he whispered.
"How did you know? Me and Mickey, well we just fooled around, it was nothing serious."
"I had gathered that. You were waiting, for the right man?"
"I guess I was. Alec, I know why I was so hesitant."
"Let me guess? You regretted not having anything with this Doctor of yours?"
"Yeah, I suppose I did. When I got here, I couldn't bring myself to go out with Mickey again, I mean he'd have taken me back but I left him, to go with the Doctor. Now I'm glad I waited."
"You are very special Rose, do you know that? As for not being able to show the Doctor you loved him, he must have known?"
"I expect he did but even if Pete's team gets that cannon working, it could be years before we find my world again and he'll have changed and maybe found someone else. I promised I'd stay with him forever and I broke that promise Alec."
"Well, now you have another chance, with me, if you want it? You don't have to promise forever, just as long as you've got. Tell me something though, did he tell you he could not stay forever with you?"
"Yeah, how did you know? I know what he meant now, he said he'd keep on changing and maybe he thought if he changed again, I would leave him."
"Maybe he got lucky, when he changed the last time?" Alec asked, hoping he was giving her some vital clues. "What if though, he could have promised he would never change again?"
"That's not possible Alec, if he didn't change when something happens to him, it's all over."
"You told me he changed only if he's dying and you said you made him change once but what if that were to be the last time?"
"What are you getting at Alec? What did Pete tell you? Come to think of it, why did he never tell me he knew you, when you were on the news last year? Why was he hiding you from me and don't say it was to protect me, I could have coped with who you look like, I'm coping now."
"Yes, you are love," he told her, kissing her forehead. "Rose, you know how I feel about you, can you trust me?"
"Yeah, I trust you Alec."
"Then do you love me?"
"Alec, I care about you, very much but I don't know right now, I'm still a little scared of telling a man that I love him. I told the Doctor and he faded away right in front of me."
"I know that Rose and I know it is difficult for you to say it again but I am going nowhere, I am not going to fade from view if you tell me. I will say it first then, so you know you can trust me. Rose Tyler I love you."
Rose tried to look at him in the light coming from outside. Why had he said it like that, shouldn't he have said 'I love you Rose' or 'I love you Rose Tyler?' What exactly had Pete told him of the time in Norway and wasn't it a coincidence Alec had been in Norway at the same time? She tried to move her head.
"Alec, I know you mean it but something's been bothering me. Something you said about being in Norway. You never told me how long you'd been there."
Alec thought she must have surely worked it out by now, that was what she did.
"You really want to know?"
"Well yeah, you never talk much about it and how you got to Scotland."
"I told you, I met Pete and he offered to help."
"That's no answer Alec, why would he offer help, when he'd just met you? Oh, he already knew you? What did you mean by what if the Doctor never had to change again?"
"Rose, have you not worked it out yet?" he asked, moving her hair.
Rose did move this time, to prop herself up on her elbow and fishing for her underwear. He thought she was going to get up and leave but with some difficulty, she put her underwear on and he managed to scramble back into his rather brief shorts.
Then she lay back on him again. "This isn't getting us anywhere Alec, why don't you just tell me your real story? Were you ever in Norway?"
"Yes, I was in Norway, at the same time you were."
"How did you get there? Did you really take a job there, to forget a French girlfriend?" Rose asked him as Reinette came to mind.
"Honestly? No," he replied, rubbing her arm. "I got there by accident Rose."
"Has it something to do with when the stars all disappeared that night?"
"You got me. Yes."
Rose dare hardly to think this was even possible and why Pete had kept it all so secret. As if someone might overhear her, she moved to whisper in his ear, thinking she was completely mad or he would think she was completely mad.
"Doctor?"
"Yes Rose, it's me, well partly me. What I said, about not changing again, I meant it. I have one life now, I'm part human."
"What? How did that happen and why become Scottish?"
"Well, that is a long story. How long have you got?"
After some explanation as to how he came into existence with some help from a temp from Chiswick, Rose finally believed him.
"So some of what you came up with was true?"
"Well yes, Pete had to make sure it was all above board, certain things were established," he told her, still in his Scottish accent.
"Why didn't Pete trust me, to tell me about you?"
"Think about it Rose. You were in charge of processing aliens, I would have had to declare myself and now, if Yvonne gets a hold of this, well I do not need to tell you what would happen? How many species have gone through Torchwood? There were never any Timelords here as far as I know or maybe they were wiped out long before I came here the first time but once Yvonne discovers what they were?"
"Oh Alec, you're still in danger if she decides to check you out and now you're with me, that makes it worse still. She'll know it was me at Pete's that night and she'll assume I was with you. You have to call Pete in the morning."
"I already alerted him you may be about to guess who I am. We still have to be very careful Rose, you know that and that's why I have to keep up the pretence."
"You couldn't do a Scottish accent," Rose reminded him.
"I have had years of practice."
"So when you found there was a gap, how did you know you had the right world?"
"He did a scan for you, you still have void stuff," he grinned.
"Well for once, he got his landing right," Rose smiled. "So, Pete couldn't tell me about you, what did he think I was gonna do, announce you or something?"
"You will have to ask him the reason but it was for the protection of both of us, he would not have kept us apart if it had not been necessary."
"Yeah, I don't suppose he would but when was he gonna tell me? Would you have come to tell me?"
"I was thinking about contacting him, after I solved my last case but then Daisy reminded me I was not completely fit and I wanted to be, before I saw you again."
"You were really ill then?"
"I did not take to having one heart very well. Pete sent someone to keep a eye on me, someone he could trust. There is so much I have to tell you but it can wait until tomorrow. So, now, how do you feel about me staying as Alec Hardy?"
"Well, you fooled me, the test will be when Yvonne really goes after you but that's the least of your problems."
"You mean you are mad at me?"
"No, I mean when my mum finds out, she'll slap you back to the other universe, cannon or no cannon."
"Ah, yes, your mother. Can I just plead I lost my memory?" he smiled.
"No, she has the patent on that. We can't tell her just yet anyway, not until this is over."
"I know, that gives me time to come up with something."
"Just tell her what really happened, then she'll blame Pete. Every year since we've been here, pink party hats have been banned in the house."
"I can understand why you did not want to be reminded of that first Christmas we spent at your mother's flat. The year after, I met Donna, when she was about to get married and a giant red spider was intent on spoiling things. I told Donna that I'd spent the previous Christmas with you."
"So I have her to thank for you being here then?"
"Well her and the Daleks I suppose. Then there was my other companion, Martha."
"Not Martha Jones?"
"How did you know that?"
"She works at Torchwood, Mickey fancies her but she was being used by Yvonne, to get to him."
"Ah, he still lives up to his name then?"
Rose nudged him. "You still have some explaining to do."
"Yes, you should get some sleep and we will go out tomorrow and I will tell you some of the things that happened after you came here. Rose, when I saw you letting go of that lever, I would have given all my remaining lives to stop you."
"I know, it's okay Alec, I don't blame you for it. Pete came back because my mum reckoned he owed me for trying to save his first wife."
"I know, I gathered that. Rose, I am so sorry for not telling you when we first met but I wanted you to find out for yourself."
"Yeah, I may not have believed you. I do love you Alec, as a Scottish detective and a Timelord, well part Timelord anyway."
"I know, I love you too Rose. The human part of me made me realise a long time ago there was never going to be anyone else but you I wanted to be with. There was no Sophia, I made her up."
"Based her on that French tart Reinette did you?"
"Now Rose, don't be so rude. How was she to know that you were in love with me?"
"You knew then?"
"I knew the moment I stepped into your mother's flat on that Christmas day, the way you looked at me."
"Then why did you let Reinette become so important?"
Alec was thinking it was a good thing she'd never seen the other women snogging him. There had been nothing on his part, not since as Cassandra Rose had kissed him on New Earth but if he'd refused Reinette's advances, she may have ordered his head to be chopped off and he'd grown attached to how he looked and didn't even know if he could have regenerated or talked himself out of it.
"She was in danger Rose, I could not have left her to those clockwork droids, could I?"
"I don't suppose so if you put it that way."
"I came back for you, when you thought you had lost me. That has to count for something? Can we please forget that now? Can I be with you as the Doctor as well as Alec Hardy or are you tired?"
He moved her onto her back and kissed her cleavage, Rose going to ruffle his hair.
"I always wondered what you'd look like if you didn't shave," she told him as he looked up and went for her underwear.
"I thought it would put you off."
"Never," she replied, pulling him for a kiss. "Is there really no difference between you and him?"
"No, apart from being half human. I remember everything up until he left me here."
"Did he say anything?"
"Yes, to find you and tell you I love you and I am sorry that took so long."
After they had made love again, Rose fell asleep in his arms and Alec thought back to the time he'd arrived on this world. The three of them had dropped off their passengers, Martha had gone off with Jack and he'd suspected the captain would talk her into joining Torchwood Cardiff. His twin seemed to notice however that he wasn't pleased at being accused of wiping out the Daleks again, they'd just spring up from some other time period so how could they all be gone and more importantly, they wouldn't be missed.
What had his twin been thinking? Would he rather have left them and Davros to come up with another way of wiping out the universe? That was the difference between them, he could do things the other him would hold back on and he thought he was going to get some sort of punishment for it.
As they had flown back into the time vortex, he'd had an idea.
"Is there still a gap?" he'd asked his twin.
"What do you think spaceman?" Donna had laughed.
"Donna, how do you know there's a gap?" his twin had asked.
"That transfer was both ways Doctor, can't you two dumbos see that? Get out of the way, let me check something."
Not used to being bossed around, the other Doctor had let Donna loose at the controls. Then she pointed something out.
"Donna, there's not much of a gap," he'd told her when she moved away and he'd joined his twin, staring at the monitor.
"There's just enough to get you through, if that's what you want?" his twin had told him.
"There can't be two of us here, well three really," he'd grinned. "Rose is still out there, one of us owes her a happy ending."
"Well you'd better hope she's found no-one else dumbo," Donna laughed. "Are you two slow or what?"
"Let's do it then, hold tight," his twin had told him, thinking it would be a miracle if they landed, let alone take off again but unknown to Alec, which he'd guessed later, somehow the disturbances in the universes had enabled them to land in sync with the alternate universe. They'd said their goodbyes and Donna remained in the Tardis, to warn if they were about to get cut off.
"Tell Rose, don't leave her to guess what I was going to say that day I left her," the other Doctor had told him.
"I won't, I have no reason to hold back, have I? Do you really think I'm dangerous, being left on my own in the other universe?"
"That's not relevant now, go find Rose, she needs you."
"You don't? You were a fool, you know that, leaving her to guess how you felt about her. Got anything to say to her?"
"Tell her I love her, now I really have to go," his twin had told him as Donna had shouted, "Get back in here now spaceman," at the top of her voice.
He'd watched his twin step back inside the Tardis after handing him his sonic screwdriver and psychic paper and patting his shoulder.
"Don't waste any time, you've not got forever to tell her now," his twin had called back.
"I know, I won't waste it."
As the Tardis had faded away, he'd known for the first time what it was like to be totally alone. He'd made his way off the beach and flagged down a passing car, saying his friends had played a joke on him and gone off without him then he'd used the sonic screwdriver to fool a payphone into letting him make a call and got the number for Pete, trusting the man would welcome him back.
When Pete had finally arrived in Bergen, he'd no idea how much time it was going to take to establish himself but going against Pete's wishes was a bad move. Pete had the power, no matter who he was to declare him an alien and maybe lock him up and this time, he'd no Tardis to escape in.
The other reason he'd waited was because he'd no idea how Rose would react to getting only half of him back but as he fell asleep, Rose wrapped in his arms, he knew now he couldn't have waited much longer to see her, despite risking being found out. She had welcomed him back, not even questioning how he'd come into being or that he was a clone or whatever. Now though, there was no way he was going to mess around with the human ritual of 'dating', he was sure Rose would totally agree with him.
The next day, after making breakfast together, they set off for Devon and stopped in a small town, walking along the beach.
"Are you happy now Rose?" he asked as they sat on the sands.
"Yeah. What did Pete say when you called him?"
"He was not surprised it had not taken you long to find out. Maybe Jake and Mickey had a bet eh?"
"Knowing those two, yeah. So Pete told them?"
"He had to but he can't tell your mother, not yet. Yvonne may still want to talk to her."
"Good luck to Yvonne, if she thinks she'll get anything out of her. Mum's an expert at playing the memory loss victim, trust me. Alec, there's so much I want to know."
"I will tell you, there is a lot. You should know that the Martha Jones I travelled with, well she was a little jealous of you at first. I told her she was not replacing you but in the end, she left because she knew I would never change my mind about it and let her."
"You let me go on, about Reinette."
"I know but Martha was different, she ended up saving me, more than once and she still stayed even though she knew she was getting nowhere with me."
"You don't have to explain it Alec. What about Donna?"
"She was just the opposite, you can thank her that I am even here."
"Do you think he'll ever come back, you know, to check?"
"Maybe, one day but only if he thinks you won't recognize him."
"You'll know him though?"
"Yes, I will be able to recognize him Rose but he has no reason to come back, has he?"
Rose leaned forward and touched his cheek. "I think I understand Alec, he never wanted me to leave, I know that. Now he doesn't have to worry about me wondering what he was going to say."
They wandered around the few shops that were open then had lunch in one of the pubs before making their way back and calling at the caravan since they were too early to go to Ellie's house. Olly had been out around the harbour area and had seen Alec's car turn into the caravan park and being nosy, decided to follow and took a chance as to which row of caravans he was staying in. As he found the car, he debated with himself, was it worth the risk to get a story of the mysterious blonde his mother had talked about?
Maybe she was right, maybe the paper wouldn't be saved by putting the detective's love life on the front page?
They arrived at Ellie's house just as Fred was throwing a tantrum, Ellie trying to calm him down.
"Come on Fred, Hardee's coming to see you."
The young boy looked at her.
"That got his attention Mum," Tom observed, trying to catch up on his homework.
"Yes, well just because he spent a lot of time around Hardy, doesn't mean he's stopped missing his dad. I know you do Tom but you can cope with it better than Fred can."
"I know he's not coming back here Mum but when I'm older, well I might want to see him, to get him to tell me why he wouldn't own up to what he did to Danny."
Before Ellie had the chance to answer him, the doorbell rang and she was no nearer making the sandwiches and putting out the cakes than she had been half an hour ago. Well Hardy and his new girlfriend would just have to take her as they found her.
"Hi, come in," she told them as Fred came up behind her.
"Hi there, what's your name?" Rose asked him as he tried to hide behind Ellie.
"It's Fred," Tom told her from the kitchen doorway. "I'm Tom, are you his girlfriend?" Tom pointed to Alec.
Rose turned back to him. "Yeah, I'm Rose, nice to meet you Tom."
"Tom, take them in the front room while I finish making tea," Ellie asked him.
"Oh, are we too early?" Rose asked, sure they'd been told five. "Can I help?"
Leaving Alec to pick up young Fred, since the boy was now holding onto his legs, Rose followed Ellie into the kitchen.
"So, he kept you quiet," Ellie told her as she got two cakes out of the cupboard.
"We didn't want to make a fuss I was coming back."
"No, I meant that he knew you in Sandbrook," Ellie replied, showing Rose where the knife was to cut the cakes.
"We broke up Ellie, why would he mention me?" Rose replied, hoping that Ellie wouldn't want too many details. "We met when I just happened to be back in the town the same time as he was and he asked me out."
"So, were you serious, back then?"
"Can we change the subject? I feel like I'm being interrogated," Rose smiled.
"Sorry, old habits. I'm glad he has someone though, he's been through a lot, I mean with his surgery. Did you ever meet his ex?"
"No, they'd separated when I first met him. I heard what happened, at the trial, sorry Ellie."
"I'm just getting used to it, I mean before the trial, I thought he'd get sent away and we could carry on but then he changed his mind, after all we went through."
"It must have been difficult, seeing him in court. Alec didn't say much about it but I know the defence gave you two a hard time."
"Yeah, like me and him would ever have got together, before or after Joe's arrest. Maybe if you'd still been together it would have made them seem ridiculous."
"Yeah, I followed the trial, it got me thinking about him, I suppose it helped me take up his offer of coming here."
Rose just hoped Alec would back her up.
"Are you staying then?" Ellie asked her as she made the drinks.
"Seems so, maybe we both just needed a little time apart and to get out of Sandbrook?"
Alec was having a hard time with young Fred, who had wanted to sit on his lap and read to him. Tom thought it was funny.
"He likes you reading to him," Tom observed.
Rose and Ellie were taking things into the dining room, Rose wondering how Ellie was coping raising two young boys on her own.
"Can you tell them tea's ready?" Ellie asked Rose as she was about to go back into the kitchen.
Rose went off and saw Fred pointing to something in a book Alec was holding. Alec looked up and smiled at her.
"Having fun, uncle Alec?"
Tom also looked up, grinning.
"Tea's ready. Hey Fred, want to come with me?" she asked him.
When they had finished, Rose volunteered to clean up.
"You've done enough, you're supposed to be a guest," Ellie reminded her.
"Ellie, it's what my mum taught me. It's something I never forgot."
"See Tom, remember that next time," Ellie laughed.
When they were about to leave, Ellie went to see them off.
"I hope we can be friends while you're here Rose?" Ellie asked her.
"Yeah, me too Ellie, it was nice to meet you. Fred's really cute. Thanks for inviting us."
"Maybe we can meet up, during the week? That's if you're going to be around?"
"Yeah, I won't be going far and he's only going back a few hours a day, aren't you Alec?"
Now though, Alec wished he wasn't going back at all and was considering delaying it. He was worried about Rose, now the truth had come out.