"You let me think you were him Alec," Rose finally managed to say when he'd made some tea.
"You wanted to believe it Rose, or I would not have gone along with it as long as I did. I said I was sorry," he tried to apologise again.
"I suppose I was just as much to blame?" Rose wondered out loud. "I wanted you to be him. Guess I used you just as much then?"
"We both needed someone Rose but I should never have let it go so far. When you began talking about another world, I should have stopped you but I wanted to know more," he admitted.
"That's the detective in you I guess?" Rose asked, hiding a smile behind her mug of tea.
"No, the boy in me who used to write stories that no-one would believe. Are you leaving?" he wanted to know.
"I don't know Alec, I don't know how I feel now. I don't want to spoil my family's holiday."
"Go have a night out with them," he suggested. "See how you feel in the morning."
"I'll wait for Pete but my mother will be all over me when I go over there, I don't think I can cope with that. I'll stay here tonight."
"Fine, I will move some of my things into the spare room while you are out," he offered.
"It's your caravan Alec, you don't have to move just for me. This is all my fault, I should be apologising to you."
"You are taking this very well Rose," he smiled, offering to take her empty mug.
"Yeah, guess I'm used to being let down?" she sighed, waiting for Pete knocking on the door.
"I am so sorry you feel let down again Rose, that was never my intention. It seemed to make you happy and since you believed I had lost my memory, it made it easy to keep you that way."
"Would you have told me Alec?"
"Yes, I would not have been able to keep up, should my daughter or my ex wife turn up and once I find Danny's killer, trust me, one of them will. I did not know how to tell you Rose."
"Yeah, I get that Alec. That's it, you were my last hope of finding him again," Rose had to admit.
"I know, I am truly sorry for that but think Rose, would he not want you to help someone?" he asked. "It was just my good fortune I looked like him and you claimed to know me. Maybe when he left, he knew about me?"
"I think he was a bit busy trying not to get trapped here, well both of them. I wanted some answers Alec."
"You deserve some but I meant what I said, I would never have run off like that and maybe he knew that Rose? What if this twin you thought I was left him when they got back and the Doctor still had time to come back and make sure you would be okay?"
"It wasn't possible Alec, he left at the last second before the walls were sealed again, there was no time."
Alec got up to pace the floor, something he tended to do when he was thinking and had annoyed the hell out of Tess.
"For someone with a time machine?" he wanted to know. "He could have gone back to the time he brought you here and used that time to locate me."
"Nothing came through after we got back, Torchwood would have picked it up," Rose answered, wishing he'd stop since she still didn't know how she felt about him now.
"Would they? If he landed minutes after he left you? How did you think his twin, I mean if I had been him get here then?"
"You ask a lot of questions Alec," Rose half smiled. "No wonder Ellie gets mad with you. Yeah, I thought maybe you'd been brought back here after we left the beach, that you'd changed your mind or something but when I thought you'd lost your memory? Then I thought he'd made you come back, took away your memory for running away from me."
"As punishment?" he asked, knowing her stepfather could arrive any minute now.
"I suppose so? So you think his twin went off and the Doctor felt that guilty for leaving me again, he found you and arranged for you to come here?"
"It's the only thing that makes sense Rose. Wait and see what your stepfather thinks? You should start packing then you will have time to take your brother to the club."
"I said I'd decide tomorrow Alec. You should come with us, since Tony seems to think you two are twins?" Rose smiled.
"Well maybe, if I have time to change?" he relented.
"Yeah, mum will make him get changed anyway, you should be safe enough. I don't know how I feel about this Alec."
"I understand Rose, I did not mean to upset you," he replied, somewhat at a loss what to say, moving over to take her hand.
There was a knock on the door and Rose sprang up to see if it was Pete, hoping her mother hadn't come instead.
"Hi, come in," Rose greeted him.
On his way over, Pete hadn't known what to expect, whether she'd be crying or be angry and it had been all he could do to stop her mother coming over.
"I thought you'd be upset Rose?" Pete asked her, seeing Alec looking at her.
"I don't know how I feel Dad, Alec's told me and he reckons I was meant to find him," Rose tried to explain.
"I think he could be right love, if you think about it? Who knows? Tony's looking forward to going out, we'll meet you there, don't disappoint him, will you?" Pete asked, looking at both of them. "Are you both okay?"
Rose nodded and sat down while Alec got up, looking at the flowers he'd bought her the other day on the shelving unit.
"We have a few things to work out, we will be there, you can tell your son," Alec assured Pete.
"Are you staying with us tonight Rose?" Pete asked her. "I can move Tony into the other room."
"I'll stay here tonight, we have some talking to do," Rose replied.
Alec thought she'd taken it better than either he or her stepfather had expected. Pete had surely expected the worse, having to take a tearful Rose back to her mother but instead, she seemed to have agreed to at least stay the night and talk about it. Being assured she would be okay, Pete set off back to find Jackie anxiously waiting.
"So, where is she?" Jackie asked him as she tried to get Tony to part with his new t-shirt.
"She took the news fairly well, they'll meet us at the club. Come on Tony, get changed eh?" he asked the boy.
"But Alec and I are twins now," Tony reminded them.
"Well he won't be wearing his t-shirt tonight Tony, so get changed," Pete replied, thinking the detective had looked uncomfortable enough during their outing let alone wearing it to go out in.
"So are they working it out then?" Jackie asked Pete.
"I think so, you know Rose better than I do love?" he asked. "Maybe she'll accept that Alec needs help, that's what they used to do together, so you told me."
"Well I suppose at least she's grounded now?" Jackie replied.
After Pete had left, Rose went to get changed, Alec thinking he'd best leave her on her own. Rose sat on the bed, taking stock of what Alec had told her. Was it her fault entirely for believing Alec was the Doctor or his twin? She'd given poor Alec no warning, just sprung it on him and talked non-stop about their life together and never really given him a chance to deny it.
He'd kept suggesting he may not be for real but had she taken any notice? No, she had kept insisting he'd get his memory back. He deserved a chance to explain the reason he'd gone along with it, he'd seen a chance and taken it, she could hardly blame him for doing so.
Alec was pacing the living area, wondering what she was going to do. She seemed calm enough, she'd not slapped him or threatened to leave, well not so far anyway. Could she really blame him for taking a chance of spending a few nights with her then taking advantage of getting well again without the risks he'd been told about?
As Rose went back into the living area, he was relieved she was ready to go out and not with an overnight bag to go stay with her family.
"Want to talk now Rose?" he asked, not daring to still call her 'love' as he still wasn't sure she wouldn't leave in the morning.
"When we come back. So, how long would you have waited to tell me?"
"I would have done so, maybe after I got well again," he admitted. "Rose, you accepted that you thought this Doctor of yours had become me, had you not?"
"Well yeah, it made sense that when he brought you, I mean him back that he'd had his memory of me taken but just enough sense to let me in," Rose replied, now she'd thought about it.
"Yes, I would have thought that," Alec had to agree, now he was getting used to talking about parallel worlds and Timelords. "We should go join your family though I had better get changed in case your brother still has the same t-shirt on," he smiled.
"Aw, I thought you two looked kinda cute," Rose giggled.
He thought she was enjoying this. The only reason he had agreed was so it would lessen the effects of him having to tell her the truth. He went to put a shirt on and looked around the small bedroom to see if she had started to pack. That was a good sign that her cases were not on the bed.
Rose still insisted on holding his arm on the way to the club, asking if he had any questions.
"A few, they can wait. So, are you leaving tomorrow?" he asked.
"Do you want me to?" she replied as they reached the building.
"Well no, of course I do not want you to leave Rose, I thought you would want to?"
They stopped as they came to the doorway.
"I don't want to leave Alec, you still need my help," she replied.
"There is still something you have not told me, about him?" Alec wanted to know.
Tony had seen them and came rushing to the doorway as Alec got their passes out to show the doorman. As Alec watched Rose dancing around at the front with Tony, he couldn't help but admire her, despite the disappointment she must be feeling right now. Pete suggested they took Tony out again while Rose and her mother played bingo, Alec knowing Pete wanted to talk to him again.
When they'd crossed the road and Tony was amusing himself, Pete asked how he felt about it.
"You should be asking Rose that," Alec replied. "I owe you and her mother an apology, for deceiving you."
"We suspected, almost immediately," Pete assured him. "We didn't know how to tell Rose or how she'd take it if we proved she was wrong. Jake and I agreed that we would let you tell her."
"Thanks for that at least Pete, it was better I told her than you," Alec told him.
"Well you made the right decision Alec, though I'm surprised her mother didn't say something," Pete smiled, watching Tony.
"I am sure she will let her feelings about it be known to Rose?" Alec replied.
Pete smiled. "You can be sure of that Alec."
While they were waiting for bingo to start, Jackie asked Rose how she was coping.
"I'm fine Mum, don't worry about me," Rose told her.
"I told Pete he should tell you," Jackie continued.
"I wouldn't have believed him Mum, I wanted Alec to be him."
"We know Rose, goodness knows how we wanted Alec to be him but you have to face it, he's not. Neither of them are coming back. Are you gonna stay with Alec?" her mother asked her.
"I don't know Mum, I'm still thinking about it. He can still use my help."
They all met up again, Tony wanting Alec to carry him on his shoulders again on the way back. As he was put down by their caravan, he turned to Alec.
"Will I see you again Alec? Are you still going to be Rose's boyfriend?" he asked.
"I don't know yet but we will still be friends, won't we Rose?" Alec asked her.
"Will you come on holiday with us Alec?" Tony wanted to know.
"I have a very important job to do here Tony," Alec tried to explain.
"But you'll make Rose happy if you come with us, won't he Rose?" Tony turned to ask her.
"Alec has to stay here and catch someone who's been very bad Tony," Rose told him.
"Bedtime Tony," his dad told him as he opened the caravan door. "We have a long drive tomorrow and your mother and I have to pack."
"I'll come over and get him so you can get on with things in the morning," Alec offered.
"Can I stay with them?" Tony asked.
"We go away in a few weeks, Rose and Alec are busy," Pete replied, thinking it wasn't such a good idea if the two of them weren't going to stay together.
They all said goodnight and Rose and Alec went off, Alec wondering if she'd change her mind and leave anyway.
"Want me to take the spare room?" Alec asked as they went inside.
"No, just give me some time to think about this Alec. I said I had something else to tell you, you might not want me to stay."
"Then tell me now Rose, you may as well," he insisted.
"About when I used to travel with the Doctor. Alec, you know he was a Timelord, who could change?" she asked him. Alec nodded. "Well he changed, in front of me to look like you, well without the beard and I left Mickey to go with him."
"That's bad?" Alec managed to smile.
"He was the last of his kind Alec, there are no more and if he's made his twin hide away somewhere, he still is. When his twin was created, I thought finally he was no longer on his own and he was willing to let me have part of him. He'd be on his own in our world but would always know his twin was here. That's why I was convinced you were him, that he'd become fully human to stay with me."
"Would he have been asked if he'd wanted to become fully human?" Alec wanted to know.
"Maybe, I don't know Alec. I never stopped to think about it and I'm sorry, I should have thought how you'd feel, trying to get your memory back though now I mean how he would feel."
"So you never loved me Rose?" he asked seriously, pacing the floor again.
"I've got to know you Alec, I was thinking less of you as the Doctor," Rose replied.
"Yes but when you told me you loved me, you thought I was him?"
"Don't be like that Alec," she told him.
Alec stood with one hand on his hip and one arm folded, his finger on his chin. Rose wondered why he did all the same things the Doctor used to do and he shouldn't know about them.
"You were the one that came to me Rose, like I said, you never bothered with me when I was involved in the Sandbrook case."
"I told you Alec, I didn't know about you, Pete must have thought I'd get upset if I saw you," Rose tried to explain. "Maybe you're right, the Doctor did intend for me to find you, to help you because it's what we used to do."
"Maybe so Rose but now, I think maybe you were wanting him and not his twin."
"That's not fair Alec, I'm sorry I insisted you were him but you could have told me sooner. You were right to take advantage."
"Was I Rose?" he asked. "Maybe it's best if you went home for a while and went on holiday with your family?"
Rose surprised him by getting up.
"Fine, I'll start packing then but you're wrong Alec, we were both to blame."
As soon as she was through the door, he cursed himself for driving her away. He sat down, his head in his hands and wondered what he'd done. Yes, they'd both used each other but did she love him less than last night, when she still thought he was this Doctor's clone? An hour later when she still didn't come back but he'd heard the bathroom door, he assumed she had gone to bed.
He went to the bathroom then opened the bedroom door, the small lamp on the wall still on, like she'd been waiting for him.
"I'm sorry Alec," she told him as she watched him take his shirt off.
"So am I Rose. Did you pack?" he asked, hoping she hadn't but how was he supposed to feel?
He was a substitute for the man she really wanted and always would be. Rose turned away.
"I'll leave after breakfast, since you said you'd go get Tony, we can't let him notice there's something wrong."
Alec finished getting undressed silently, turning out the lamp.
"Can we not fight Rose?" he asked, turning towards her and touching her shoulder.
"What do ya want me to say Alec?" she replied.
"That when you said you love me, it was me you meant, not him," he replied as she turned towards him.
She leaned forward and kissed him gently.
"I'm sorry Alec, I really don't know now, I was so sure. We both need to think about this."
"I know, I am sorry as well Rose, for letting you think you had found him. We need to think about where we go from here and you can't do it when we see each other all the time."
They reached to kiss goodnight and Alec turned onto his back but Rose remained where she was, putting her arm in his.
"What will you tell Ellie?" she asked him.
"That you have gone to see your family since you are no longer on the case," he replied, missing her closeness already.
"We're not breaking up are we Alec? We just need to think about it," Rose told him.
"I agree, it would be a mistake to let people think we had separated after only one week."
"Yeah, we don't want to be in the papers, do we?" Rose tried to joke.
Alec thought that was the last thing he needed right now, especially since Karen White was in town.
Somehow when he woke up, Rose had managed to pin his arm under her and he smiled as he tried to move her. He got dressed and went to collect Tony, who was already driving his mother crazy as she tried to pack his things.
"I want to stay with Rose and Alec," Tony was demanding, his arms folded.
"Rose is going to be busy," his mother insisted, not sure about even leaving Rose behind considering what had been going on.
When Pete had said they were trying to work things out, Jackie wasn't convinced they could, knowing Rose. Alec knocked on their caravan door just after seven and Tony jumped off the bed, Jackie frowning at him.
"Hi Pete, I came for Tony," Alec told Rose's stepfather as Tony came bounding up to the door.
"Yeah, we'll come over for him in an hour or so. We'll drop the caravan keys then pick him up. He wants to stay with you so you might have trouble with him," Pete warned him.
"Sorry Tony, I will be at work and Rose, well she might be going back with you after all," Alec replied, not wanting to think about her leaving but how could she stay now?
He had cast shadows on their short relationship by saying she loved this Doctor's clone, not him and it had hurt her, she had every right to leave now.
"I see," Pete sighed. "Sorry Alec but we all half expected she would."
"Yes, we still have a few doubts and it's best she goes home to sort them out, she can't do it here. Ready Tony?" he asked the boy.
"I'll talk to Rose when we get home," Pete assured him. "Don't give up on her and keep in touch with Owen, about your treatment."
"I will, I feel much better already, I'll still carry on with it but as for the other part? Maybe I'll stay on the medication and see what happens?" Alec replied.
"You'll need to talk to him about it, that's his department. I'm quite happy to let you go ahead, don't give in Alec, Rose won't want you to," Pete told him.
Jackie came to the door when she'd heard them talking.
"Here you, I hope you've not upset Rose?" Jackie asked Alec.
"Leave him Jackie, they have things to work out but until they have, Rose is coming back with us," Pete told her.
"I knew it was too good to be true," Jackie scoffed. "What did ya think was gonna happen when she found out?"
"Found what out Mum?" Tony yawned. "I want my breakfast. Alec, will you get it for me again and carry me on your shoulder?"
"Come on Tony, before Rose wakes up eh?" Alec told the boy.
"It's still not right," Jackie carried on. "Why did you have to go along with it?" she asked Alec as Tony stepped outside.
"Leave him Jackie, Alec's as upset as we all are over it and I'm sure he's apologised to Rose already?" he asked Alec.
"It made no difference Pete, it was something Rose said to me and she did not mean it, well not about me so we are both to blame. I am sorry but it will take some time and her remaining here will not help," Alec had to admit.
"So she told you she loved you but you think she meant him, not you?" Pete asked him as Tony went around in circles again, something he was going to have to stop the boy doing.
"She does not know Pete, she has to sort this out herself, how she feels about me," Alec replied.
"Then how do you feel about it?" Pete wanted to know.
Alec looked at Tony, who had come to a stop and looking slightly dazed.
"I fell in love with her Pete, now, I don't know if she fell in love with me or she loved both versions of him."