Wow. I've agonized and agonized and screamed and fought with this chapter, and I think we're at a stalemate, for the update won't be so long. I've been planning these next six chapters in detail for, oh a year and a half? :)
Thanks for sticking with me. We're getting into the real story now. o many little threads I've laid out are getting woven in now.
XxXxXxXx
Melissa Saroyan leaned her head against the back of the lift, sighed, and closed her eyes for a moment. It was in the middle of the night and she was exhausted, but still had a long way to go before she could sleep.
She didn't want to do this, she really didn't. She'd have much rather gone home and hugged her kids and husband. Sitting in on an interrogation was draining, but they needed to know why they had targeted Rose and who they were working for. She would have normally not been involved in this sort of investigation. Her duties included finding and training telepathic individuals, negotiation, and contact. Of the only other two telepaths with the clearance for this particular case, one was still in a coma, and the other one was too volatile at the moment to be allowed on so much as the same floor as the people who had put Rose in the coma.
The doors of the lift opened and she stepped out into the nondescript hall on the third floor. She looked at the signs that showed the way to the Identity Center and Alien Immigration and Processing. What the signs didn't show was the fact that the floor had several holding cells and an interrogation room for said aliens.
Melissa walked to a door without a handle and placed her palm to a screen next to it. It turned green and the door slid back into the wall. As soon as she was through, it closed behind her. She hated coming into this space. Being at the center of the tower, there were no windows. The harsh, white, fluorescent light shone from the ceiling, giving the spaces inside an antiseptic feel.
There were four doors in this hallway. Two led to the six cells the level held and the other two led to interrogation. One door led to where the people being questioned were, and the last led to a separate, but connected room, where the sessions were watched and taped. The security guard sat off to the side of the door, leaned back in his chair and watching the monitors intently. Glaring at them was more like it.
"'Ello, Mrs. Saroyan. I'd ask ya what you were doin' in this part of the buildin' at the ass crack o' night, but it's obvious, ain't it?" he asked in a thick, Welsh accent.
"Yes, it is, Tim," she replied tiredly as she went through the checking in process. Having known that she was going to have to relinquish everything she had beyond her I.D., she had left it all behind, so the process was fairly smooth.
"Melissa," Tim called softly as she was walking away from him. "The man they brought in was goin' on about Miss Tyler, sayin' she weren't human."
"Rose was born on Earth, to human parents," she assured the man. "And even if she wasn't, you know Rose, she's not a threat to us."
"Good to know, ma'am," Tim replied, looking better. He didn't have to know that Rose was from a different Earth, and wasn't quite human anymore. Melissa Saroyan nodded at the security guard, turned around, and walked to the door leading to the observation room.
She saw Michael Shapiro, who was one of the handful of agents that were assigned to find Rose when she was kidnapped. He was one of the few people outside of the dimensional projects and medical who knew about Rose's abilities, having been there when she was stabbed. He was sitting in a chair, leaning it back on its back two legs and watching the woman sitting in the interrogation room by herself. His mousy brown hair, as always, lay flat on his head. The hair was so dead, there was a bet around that it was a toupee, despite Michael only being in his late thirties.
"I'm gettin' too old for this shit, Melissa," he complained as soon as she was through the door.
"Too old for what? You're still young-ish," she asked. Really, they were about the same age. She was only a year younger than him.
"These all nighters. Can't do em like I used to," he replied before he got up. He walked two steps to a table and picked up a folder. "Celine Thompson. Thirty-nine years old. Fell under the radar a few years ago."
"Have you gotten anything out of her yet?" Melissa wondered. "Mainly why?"
"No. I haven't talked to her yet. Been trying to find information on her and waiting on you, 'cause Pete said you were coming. Have you seen the video yet?"
"Yeah," Melissa answered, shuddering. "Wish I hadn't." Watching it had been horrible.
"Yeah, me either, and I don't even know her all that well," he agreed.
"Well, as Tim put it just a few minutes ago, it's the ass crack of night. Better get this over with," she said and walked to the door.
"Someone's on the ball," Michael commented, following her.
"Someone wants to get at least a couple hours of sleep tonight," she retorted.
They went down to the next door and entered the small room where the woman who oversaw Rose's torture sat, waiting for them. She had a black eye and a massive bruise on the side of her head. Melissa closed the door and sat down in the empty chair next to Michael as he began the interrogation.
"Miss Thompson, That's one helluva shiner you've got there," Michael spoke as soon as Melissa was seated. He flipped open the slim file theatrically and asked, "Where have you been these last few years?"
"Around," she answered shortly.
"Doing what?" he continued.
"Your fuckin' job," she shot back at him.
"There is no way in hell you're doing my job," Michael told her. "My job doesn't consist of kidnapping women and torturing them. Nor does it include murder."
"This is Torchwood, right?" Celine asked. "You lot are supposed to be fighting against the aliens, not employing them, working with them, and giving them homes. That's what I was doing."
"And, how, exactly is kidnapping one of our agents and killing one of our scientists supposed to help with that?" Melissa snapped at her.
"That bitch isn't human. I don't care what she says. And if she ever was, she's not now." She pulled on her restraints a little bit, just two tugs before she stopped and said, "She isn't dead. You just said kidnapping and torture, not murdering her. The boys were supposed to kill 'er if she got free."
"That would be Kevin Trent and Harold Smith," Michael commented, looking for all the world as if he were calm when he wasn't. "How do you figure she's not human?"
"She's telepathic-"
"That doesn't mean she's alien," Melissa snapped. "So are a lot of people. It's estimated that one out of every three hundred and fifty people are telepathic in a measurable way." She was very defensive about that ability. After her attack fourteen years before, she'd nearly lost her mind when the ability completely developed overnight. Her sister hadn't made it any easier for her. It'd taken her going off planet to Jalikapo and studying with Rixalarians before she was able to properly function in society and a few more years to get her sister to talk to her properly again.
"Telepathic humans don't heal from a stab through their abdomen in a few days," she shot back.
"Right, and what about Alec Sullivan? Was he an alien too? Why did we find you set up in his flat with him dead in his room?" Michael interjected before she could say anything else. She was supposed to be sitting in on the interrogation, not arguing.
"Collateral damage. He had what we needed and sympathized with the invaders," she explained succinctly.
Melissa was tired, angry, and hungry. She wanted to go home and had no patience for this hateful woman at the moment, though she was usually accused of having infinite patience. She was there for one reason: to find out who else was part of it.
She leaned forward and looked into the eyes of the woman who'd hurt her best friend and asked one simple question.
"Who was the tape going to, Celine?" The woman didn't answer her, but Melissa was able to pluck the information from her mind all the same.
She immediately ran from the room.
XxXxXxXx
To the Doctor's surprise, Rose immediately addressed their problem.
"I know you read my records. The real ones," she told him. "I shoulda' told you all about everything, but-" She paused, as if the words hurt her. "I'm so sorry," Rose apologized. "I know this isn't what you expected." She tried to sit up a bit and cried out at the pain.
"Rose!" the Doctor tried to stop her. "You just-" What did she think she was doing?!
"Yeah, I know, I know," Rose retorted painfully. "How long has it been since...you found me?" she wondered.
"Seven hours, twenty-three minutes ago," the Doctor answered. "You came out of surgery about five hours and forty-eight minutes ago."
"Yeah, 's gonna be a bit before 'm up and moving 'round," she conceded and leaned back against the pillow with a hiss. "What's the damage?" she asked, focused on the ceiling and breathing heavily through the pain.
Seeing her in pain was bad enough on a good day, but seeing her hurting this much after everything he knew she went through was unbearable. He leaned forward and looked down at his trainer clad feet, which was the one part of his clothing that somehow hadn't been bloodied. He couldn't look at her as he said what had happened. He'd only be able to get through it if he could remain at least somewhat clinical.
"There was bullet wound in your chest that left a hole in your ascending aorta-the big artery coming from your heart. I plugged it, and..." he trailed off, trying not to remember, but unable to do anything but. He decided to skip to the next injury. "There was a second bullet wound to your arm that missed all major blood vessels. You also had three cracked ribs and bruising from...where they-"
He had to stop there. No amount of not looking at her and pretending that there was someone else lying in that bed that he didn't know could keep him detached from the situation. He felt nauseous again, like he had that one morning and wondered if he was going to lose it again. Oh, he hoped not.
"Doctor," Rose's voice spoke softly. When he didn't answer immediately, she said his chosen name louder and he looked up at her. "Hey, 's okay. 'M gonna be fine." Suddenly, she narrowed her eyes. "I am gonna be fine, righ'?"
"Of course you are," he assured her and she relaxed immediately. "You almost weren't, though. Rose, with those wounds, a normal human would've died tonight. If you weren't-" She was supposed to have been safe, not fighting for her life and tortured because she was a bit different.
As usual, Rose saw right through him and stopped him before he could go on. "'S not your fault, Doctor. You didn't know. 'S mine. I was the target for a reason. But 'nough 'bout that. What's done is done." She yawned, and he remembered what she said about Trinolphine making her sleepy. The pain medicine must have started working.
"You should get some sleep," he told her.
"Can't sleep yet. Ya got questions," she denied with a shake of her head. "You need to know. I-"
"Of course I do, but not right now. That can wait until you've had some rest." What he was saying went against everything in him, but he couldn't have this conversation with her in a hospital bed.
"No, no. You need to know somethin'. You'll go crazy. I need to-" she replied, almost frantic. "I dunno know where to start or 'ow to start. Ask somethin'."
"Okay, one question," he told her. "Just one, then you'll get some sleep?" Really, he had hundreds of questions, most of which he suspected Rose didn't know how to answer.
"Yeah."
"You're telepathic and you heal fast. Is there anything else I need to know about you?" he asked.
"Not that I know of, physic'ly. But, but I've killed, Doctor. 'M not who you used to know anymore." She looked scared and he wasn't used to her looking scared.
"I already knew that much," he told her. That much was obvious from her mannerisms and nightmares, even if Pete hadn't explicitly told him she'd killed one of her kidnappers. "It's okay, I'm sure you had no other choice in the matter."
"Maybe," she said, barely able to keep her eyes open at that point. "You're tired too. Should sleep."
"I don't think I can sleep right now," he told her. That was mostly the truth. Physically, he could easily fall asleep, but mentally, he wouldn't be able to. Practically, unless one of the other handful of people he trusted with Rose came to watch over her, there was no way in hell he was gonna leave her unprotected.
"Don' forget to take care of yourself," Rose ordered.
"I will. Sleep now. You'll feel better when you wake."
"Doctor. We've got the bastards, yeah?" she asked with her eyes closed.
"Yeah. Yeah we did," he lied as she fell asleep.
XxXxXxXx
Rose opened her eyes and groaned at the light right above her bed. Damn, that thing was bright. She went to roll out of bed and immediately felt the pain of her wound, which woke her up the rest of the way.
"Fuck!" she exclaimed, hissing at the feeling.
"Language," a familiar voice admonished. She turned her head and saw the face of her mother.
Fuck.
"'Course, I don' blame ya one bit. Was lucky that wound missed everything." Her mother babbled on, giving her all the information she needed to know about what Pete, Jake, and the Doctor had told her. "Gave us all a big scare, you did, but the Doctor and the, you know, doctors tell me you'll be alrigh' an' up 'n' about in a few days, but you ain't goin' into the field for a bit."
That was why she was cussing in her head. Her mother knew about this, and, of course, she had to pretend to heal slower. She would be out of the field for weeks now.
"Mind you, I'd rather you not go into the field at all, especially after this-"
"I wasn' in the field," Rose interrupted her mother finally. "Where's the Doctor?"
"Oh, I know that Sweet'eart. You were out on a date." He mother looked entirely too smug about that. "So, how was-"
"Don't!" Rose ordered harshly. "Jus'...don't. God, can't you let up while I'm in 'ospital?"
"Just tryin' to make conversation. Get your mind off other things."
"You can make conversation without that," she complained.
"You're so tetchy," her mother complained.
"Mum, I've 'ad a very, very bad night. Last thing I wanna do is talk abou' my sex life with you. In fac', I could have an amazin' day, and still, the last thing I'd wanna do is talk to you abou' whether or no 'm shaggin' the Doctor. So give it a rest, yeah?"
"I think I'll come back later," the Doctor's voice came from the doorway. She looked over at him and almost bust out laughing. His eyes were darting back and forth between Rose and her mother.
"Hi." Rose turned her palm up and held it out to him as much as she could with the wound in her arm.
"Hello. Feeling better?" the Doctor wondered as he came over and took the hand held out.
"Yeah. Come to free me?" she asked.
"How about we let the doctors tell you when you can get out," her mother ordered. She glanced over at the Doctor and said, "The impatience of youth, right?"
Rose barked out a laugh that she instantly regretted for the pain it caused, which she tried not to show. It'd only have her mother fussing over her more. The sentiment was funny, though, because the Doctor was the most impatient and oldest person she knew.
"Actually, Jackie, she should be able to go home fairly soon. Sometime today, at least, so long as everything looks good," the Doctor explained.
"Really? So soon?" Jackie questioned. "But after-"
"If she's stable and everything looks good, there's not anything they can do for her here that I can't do for her at the house where she's more comfortable." He looked down at Rose. "What do you say, ready to get out of this place?"
"Yeah. I bloody hate hospitals," she answered.
"Agreed. Horrible places."
"Hold on, you're 'the Doctor' and you hate hospitals?" her mother asked, looking at the Doctor as if he'd grown a second head.
"Doesn't mean I'm in hospital all the time, does it?" the Doctor defended himself. "Doctor means something completely different where I come from."
XxXx
It took nearly eight hours before Rose was allowed to leave Torchwood Tower. She'd had to walk a little bit and answer some questions about her ordeal first before she could go. The drive back to the house was quiet. When they pulled up to the converted house, the Doctor hopped out quickly so he could help Rose get out before she tried it on her own.
"I've never been so glad to have a wheelchair ramp leading up to the front porch before," she commented as they went up the gentle incline. Trying to go up stairs would have been even more painful than walking.
When they got in the house, the Doctor helped her to the couch. "Do you need anything?" he asked. "Tea? A blanket? I'll go get you a blanket." He went to go to the bedroom and grab one, but Rose stopped him before he could get far.
"Doctor, stop. I don't need a blanket. I'll take a cuppa, though."
"Right! One of the great things about the warming from the breaches is you don't need to be so bundled up. That's something, at least. Granted, you lose the cuddling aspect, and there's that pesky electric bill from the air conditioner, and, you know, the odd weather patterns and animal d- Tea! Getting tea right now." The Doctor went into the kitchen and she could hear him in there, running water in the pot.
"Tea's on. You alright out there for a few minutes?" he asked.
"Yeah," Rose replied.
She heard a door close and, for the first time since she'd been shot, she was properly alone for a minute. Rose was trying not to think about everything that had happened, but she couldn't help it. She'd been through some awful things, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with.
Everything had changed, and she didn't know how yet. Someone else who shouldn't know anything about her abilities knew way too much. She wondered when the metaphorical pitchforks would come. How long would it be before everyone knew? How long would it be before she'd have to implement one of her escape plans?
The Doctor also knew about her healing and she was worried about how calm he seemed about it. He hadn't spoken about it at all since she woke up from her Trinolphine induced sleep. She hoped he wasn't running from it as usual.
XxXxXxXx
While the water was left to heat, the Doctor took a moment to check on the TARDIS coral. Things were still delicate and it was a bit overdue for tending, but not too overdue, just a couple hours. He sprayed the mineral solution on the branch his old ship had given him, which sat in a bed of sand in a glass tank. He then turned to the instruments he'd cobbled together and took readings. After what he saw and learned the night before, he knew that they needed the new TARDIS more than ever.
Satisfied with what he saw, he patted the coral, feeling the light warmth in his mind for a moment before the steam made the kettle whistle.
"Later, beautiful," he told the coral in a low voice before he left the room, went across the house, and fixed up the tea just the way Rose liked it.
As he walked into the living room, carrying two cups of steaming liquid, he noticed that Rose was just sitting there, eyes unfocused, looking at nothing. That was not good, not good at all. She looked like she'd gone catatonic. Cursing in his mind, he quickly sat down the cups on the coffee table and sat down next to her.
"Rose?" he asked, hoping she wasn't as she appeared.
To his relief, she smiled at the cup of tea. "Brilliant, ta," she said, trying to hide what was going on. They sat there in silence for a full minute, almost exactly before Rose spoke.
"I think I'm going to live a long time," she stated almost like she was in shock and had just realized it.
"I know," the Doctor replied. "Information from your records all but proves it."
Rose nodded, still not looking at him. "I'm sorry," she repeated at a near whisper.
"How long have you known?" he asked.
"Since the sword incident," Rose answered.
"What happened?" he wondered. "I only know about your injuries."
"It was about four months after I got here and I was barely trained in telepathy. Just the basics. You know, basic blocking, basic contact. Some Vilanatocca had crashed in Richmond Park." As she spoke, she became more animated and he was glad that the conversation had gotten started.
"And they only speak telepathically," the Doctor realized, causing Rose to nod.
"Now normally, Melissa woulda taken care of it at the time, but she'd just found out she was pregnant with 'er son. I was the only one who could talk to 'em and 'ad done that sort of thing before," she explained.
"But Vilanatocca are peaceful," he argued.
"That's what I thought, but I was working with information from fifteen 'undred years later in another universe. They were jus' tryin' to escape a war on their planet. They were scared, and I messed up the translation." She looked ashamed.
"No," he whispered, knowing what would have come next. She'd been hurt, and because she wasn't the only person from Torchwood there, the people who hurt her would have likely died.
"Yes. That was the sword incident," Rose told him. "A week after that, I was led to a beach in Norway."
The Doctor's jaw dropped open in shock. "You knew back then?" he asked after a moment.
"I had so many questions. Convinced myself that you'd know something, but got there, and, well."
"Why didn't you say something?"
"What good would it've done?" Rose asked incredulously.
"You wouldn't be here now!" he exclaimed. "You wouldn't be sitting here hurt after having almost died last night. You wouldn't have to lie to your mother, and be lying to almost everyone about who you are. And you definitely wouldn't be in this universe where you're gonna outlive everyone, including me! Why didn't you say something before we were put in this forsaken universe, Rose?"
During his outburst, he'd stood up and started pacing. When he said her name, he turned around to face Rose and froze. He'd gone too far. Her face might as well have been a mask for all the emotion she was showing at the moment.
"Sorry I was so worried that all you'd see was that we'd age at closer rates," she said in a cold voice. "Excuse me for not having a chance to tell you so before both of you decided to drop me off in this forsaken universe and wiped out at the very least seven years of work in minutes while at the same time confusing the hell out of me."
"Rose, just so you know, I didn't mean it like-" he started as she stood up to argue with him more level. By the grimace on her face and the little whimper that escaped her, she must have pulled on her wounds a bit as she stood. "You really should stay sitting down."
"Don't wanna sit. What would you've done had I told you before, huh?" she asked once she was standing.
"I don't know, but it wouldn't have been this. You should have told me, or him something. Any little bit of what I've learned since last night and you would've never come back."
"I know what you woulda' done. You woulda' pushed me away, jus' like he did. We likely still don't have matchin' lifespans, Doctor, and I know how important that is to ya. I'm sorry."
She turned to walk away and even took two steps before she stopped and looked over her shoulder at his general direction. "Look, whatever happens, I don't hold you to any promises or anything from before you found out. If you want, I'll help you go back over there where you have people. Or wherever you want to go."
She then took off slowly, leaving the Doctor standing there in shock. Great going, you moron. Run off the one thing keeping you sane.
"No," he said softly and Rose stopped her progress toward the kitchen or maybe the bedroom. "No," he repeated stronger and with more anger. He walked up to her and around her, blocking off her route.
"Leave me alone, Doctor," she said tiredly. He could see where one tear had started making its way down her cheek. She made to go around him.
"I don't want you to help me leave. I don't want to leave," he protested and she stopped trying to get away. "I'm just trying to figure out why I had to find this out the way I did." He looked down at the bandage sticking out of her shirt and pleaded with her. "Come sit down. You've just had a major surgery and yes, you heal fast, but not that fast."
Rose allowed herself to be led right back to the couch and closed her eyes for a second before she answered him. "I would've thought that the why was obvious, Doctor." He shook his head and she sighed. "After what happened on the beach, I was afraid. Then it just got harder to tell you."
"Is that why Jackie doesn't know?" he asked and Rose shook her head.
"Mum doesn't know because she wouldn't understand. She'd freak out and I couldn't do that to 'er. She doesn't know I spent years moving from one world to another, or how much of my time was spent on the dimension cannon project before the jumps started." She looked at him sadly. "I meant what I said, you know. You can do whatever you want, go wherever I'll make sure you can get started if you need." her voice was nearly a whisper, and he realized she was trying not to let it break.
"Rose, Love, stop it," he said softly and her eyes widened at the term of endearment. He saw hope for a moment before she blinked and pushed it back. "I'm right where I want to be."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Welllll, still not too fond of this universe, and we've got to get the whole xenophobic thing worked out, but-" The corner of Rose's mouth twitched up and he couldn't help but smile at her. "Overall, I'm good here. Here being right next to you, that is."
Rose leaned into him. It was a little bit awkward with her injuries, but they managed a cuddle. As soon as they were both relaxed, he tentatively tried to make contact with her telepathically, and, to his surprise, she let him right in. Seconds later, he fell into a long overdue sleep.
