Another day, another chapter!

Trusting Torchwood

Rose just stood still as the strange woman kept on talking, oblivious of Rose's unease. "Come on, come on," the woman announced as she beckoned for Rose to follow her as she walked with a brisk pace down a long hallway. "Come in here where we can get to know each other," the woman said as she pulled Rose into a room that was empty except for a partly dismantled alien gun on a table.

"Were you expecting me?" Rose asked to break the silence that had developed since the woman had begun staring at her expectantly as if she was supposed to say something.

"Oh, I thought you knew what was happening," the woman said before she suddenly stopped moving and her bright blue eyes widened. "You have the baby with you! I was so distracted I didn't notice. Aww, she is simply adorable. Does she look like her father? Wow, she is looking at me like she can see straight through me, how disheartening. Still, utterly cute and perfect little girl. You better be careful with her, Rose. The paparazzi have been going crazy trying to get more pictures of you and your baby. Just the other day I saw an article saying that the pregnancy was fake since you hadn't been seen in so long. Obviously I knew the truth of the matter about the fact that this little girl's daddy is in another universe. Tragic, sweetheart, so sorry about that. But at least you still have your daughter with you. Can I hold her?"

"Not until you tell me what's going on," Rose whispered as she pulled Clara closer to her chest. She was so confused and a little bit frightened. After all that had happened, she was still suspicious about Torchwood even though everyone insisted that the institute in this universe was different.

"I'm sorry, I do that quite a bit. Getting ahead of myself, that's me!" the woman laughed as she extended her hand to Rose. "I am Zoey Webster, the head leader of the dimension cannon project."

"Dimension cannon?" Rose asked in a quiet voice. From the name, she was already suspecting what it was and why she herself would be so interested in it. "I'm sorry, I really don't know anything that's going on. So can you catch me up?"

Zoey smiled at her and Rose grinned back. Although she had only just met her, Rose was already beginning to like her. She obviously was intelligent and driven, but from her display earlier she was also outspoken and enthusiastic. Rose just knew if they spent much time together they would become great friends. "Your friend, Mickey Smith, is in on this project as well. In fact, ever since you arrived a few months back this is where almost all the funding and time at Torchwood is going."

"Why didn't he tell me?" Rose whispered halfway to herself.

"Classified information, sweetie," Zoey explained as she sat down on the edge of the table. "Though I expected him to tell you anyway. After all, you are basically family. Speaking of which, can I hold her? It's Clara, right?"

"Ummm…" Rose began to mumble, trying to think of a way to say it politely. Sure Zoey seemed nice now, but so many times she had met an alien on her travels who seemed like they wanted to help her only to discover they were trying to poison her.

Zoey let out a chuckle that eased Rose's worries. "Don't worry about it, Rose. I completely understand, I would have been the same way with my son," Zoey explained, continuing when she saw the interest grow in Rose's eyes. "His first birthday is in two weeks, actually."

"Oh!" Rose exclaimed as she relaxed around the tall woman. Just hearing those words calmed her down and caused her to trust her just a little bit more.

"I wanted to talk to you alone before I show you the area where we are working on the cannon," Zoey explained as she motioned for Rose to sit on the table next to her. "To make you understand how much time and effort is being put into this project. We were actually designing a bit of it even before you arrived in this universe. You see, even after the breach closed something was happening. There was a star that went out, and I know that doesn't sound significant, but that star in particular was supposed to shine for at least a million more years. And that isn't it, the star isn't dead. It's just gone."

"So you have to get to the Doctor so that he can help?" Rose said with a sharp nod. Of course that was it, the Doctor was the only man that could help at a time like this.

Zoey nodded at Rose with a sad glint in her eye. "Actually, there is something we have to ask you. You see, we thought that maybe if his daughter was there, a part of it all the connection would be stronger and we would be able to find him sooner. Before things become even more critical, I mean."

"Oh…no one told you?" Rose asked, continuing when Zoey looked at her with a blank look on her face. "Clara doesn't have the Doctor's DNA…well, not officially anyway."

"What?" Zoey muttered as her hopeful expression dropped. "I thought that…why didn't anyone think to tell me that he wasn't the father!"

"It isn't like that," Rose explained. This was always an awkward situation to explain to anyone and she didn't like saying it. After all, they wouldn't completely understand how it had all gone down. There were still times when she couldn't wrap her head around how much everything had changed either. "The Doctor had to rewrite his DNA to be human for a few months while we were on the run from these aliens…and that is when I got pregnant with Clara. Plus, Time Lords and humans are not compatible to produce offspring."

Zoey let out a huff of air and shifted a long piece of black hair out of her eyes. "And I thought my love life was complicated! Well still, come and follow me to where the dimension cannon is being built."

Rose hesitantly followed Zoey down the countless corridors, regretting her decision to take Clara. After all, she knew that Clara would need a bottle soon and she was sure that Torchwood wouldn't like her wasting its employee's time as she fed the baby.

Thankfully, it didn't take long before they reached a room. It looked harmless enough, the walls were white of course and a few people in white lab coats sat around a table surrounded by paper as the rest of them were working on computers or in front of the odd control panel that took up most of the room.

"Mickey!" Rose exclaimed when she saw his familiar head peak out from behind a computer. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Sorry, you were busy with Clara and…stuff," Mickey said as he stood up from his computer and easily took Clara out of Rose's arms and waved at the baby. "Anyway, now that you know what is going on here at Torchwood, I won't have to be so secretive. Now you won't get annoyed at me because I am always busy!"

Rose had been surprised by how easily Mickey had taken her return to this universe. She had expected him to be at least a little upset when she turned up pregnant and crushed at the loss of the Doctor. Although they hadn't been officially together when he chose to stay in the parallel universe, she always knew that he had been jealous of the Doctor. Even before he regenerated Mickey had assumed that Rose was more in love with the Doctor than him. And the truth was that he was right, she was just too much of a coward to let him believe it.

"Sooo…can I know everything that is going on?" Rose hesitantly asked. After all, this wasn't what she was expecting when she had come to Torchwood. But now that she knew, she was sure she would have to be involved. She had to help get the Doctor back.

"Well," Mickey muttered as he glanced around the room. Practically everyone in the room was staring at him and Rose. After all, they all knew how Rose was connected with the Doctor, yet none of them had met her before now.

Before Mickey was able to respond, Pete Tyler walked into the room. "I heard you were here, Rose," Pete said as he sent her a reassuring smile. "Oh, let me see my grandbaby," Pete exclaimed as he reached out and picked up Clara. Despite his initial reluctance to accept Rose as his daughter, he and Rose were quite close now and he considered Clara to be his granddaughter almost immediately.

"Pete, why didn't anyone tell me about this?" Rose hesitantly asked. She felt like she deserved to know this before she had to come figure it out on her own.

"It wasn't the right time, Rose," Pete answered confidently. "But I will explain everything to you. Actually, I think you should come work here. I mean, I don't think anyone knows more about aliens than you."

"I want to be there for Clara," Rose said. She wanted nothing more than help find a way to the Doctor, but she didn't want to give up any time she had with her daughter.

"You won't be doing the field work, Rose," Pete explained. "You would mostly be there to help with questions and such and assist in building the cannon of course. Obviously we wouldn't let you go on any of the trial runs with the cannon until we were confident that it was safe for you to do so and that you would arrive at the correct universe."

"Seriously?" Rose asked. She had mentioned working at Torchwood to the Doctor, but she didn't think it would actually happen.

Pete laughed a bit before he responded to Rose's exclamation. "Yeah, being my daughter does have its perks now and then," Pete joked as Rose's smile grew. "Actually, I am pretty sure you would even be able to work at home a lot of the time. You wouldn't even have to work at the facility all that often and you would never be in danger while here."

"Thank you," Rose said, reaching out and giving Pete a more enthusiastic hug than she had for quite some time.

Once Pete left Zoey began to explain the dimension cannon. "So, basically the walls of the universe are changing," Zoey explained, cutting Rose off as she began to ask what happened. "This occurred because the walls are weakening, it began when we noticed the first star going out."

"I understand, but why did you notice it in the first place?" Rose asked. She didn't use to understand what someone was talking about, but from her time traveling with the Doctor it made a bit more sense. She was no genius by any one's standards, but she knew that if the walls of the universe were crumbling something terrible was going to happen.

"Mickey," Zoey said, motioning for him to begin explaining what had happened.

"Right after you got here," Mickey explained. He waited for Rose to cut him off, it wasn't what she really liked talking about. "Well, you said something that made me think about the Cybermen getting through to the other universe. You were so broken, Rose. I had to see if I could do something to help. So I brought it up at Torchwood and I was pretty sure they just looked into it just to be nice. But they found it and they saw what was happening to the walls of reality."

"How long will it take?" Rose asked as she glanced around the room at the faces she hoped would soon become familiar to her. "Better question, how long do we have?"

"We don't have more than a year," Zoey explained in a cautious voice. "We are just looking for a breakthrough and then we will start getting stronger. In fact, I think that break is going to come through soon, and then we can begin the testing."

With that news in the forefront of her mind, Rose was relieved when Zoey finally introduced her to the others on the team. There was Jake, who Rose hadn't noticed before, working with Mickey. Of course Zoey was the brains of the team, but a physicist who was a blonde man with glasses whose name she now knew as Gage did most of the calculations. There was also Sophie, a short, dark-skinned girl that worked as an engineer. And now there was Rose, the one who would be in charge of any alien messages and hopefully be able to identify anything Torchwood was unsure of.

Thankful that was done, Rose headed home with Clara. It seemed a bit too good to be true and her hope was rising. Maybe she could see the Doctor again, and she could help with that now. The progress they had already made so far was so impressive and Rose knew they were much ahead of schedule. Still, the threat of the stars going out chilled her to the bone.

"Rose," Jackie exclaimed as Rose walked back into the mansion and sat down in the kitchen. "Pete just called me. He said that you have decided to take the job at Torchwood. I can't believe you didn't talk to me about this."

"What would you have said?" Rose asked haughtily. She knew exactly what her mother would say about her choice. After all, her mother had been upset enough when she found out that Pete and Mickey were working at Torchwood.

"I would tell you to think this through," Jackie said in a careful voice. Although Rose sure was acting strong right now, her mother knew how fragile she was right now. "Rose, the dimension cannon might not work…and I don't want you to go working on it and expect that it'll work in a week. At best it'll take months, Rose. And you won't be able to even think about using it until they are confident it is safe and will get you in the correct universe, because I assume you would want to take Clara with you?" Jackie asked, continuing when Rose just sent her a rude glance. "Rose, you may never be able to get back to the Doctor. It is a very real possibility and I think you should take some time to digest that. After all, Clara is only a month old, Rose. No one will judge you if you don't want to do this, Rose."

Rose sent Jackie what she hoped to be a withering glance, throwing her head back as she did so. "I know, but it is my only shot, Mum. I have to do it. Honestly, you can't change my mind."

"You always were stubborn," Jackie huffed in annoyance. Ever since she had been a teenager, Rose had been very adamant about making every decision her own. "Rose, you are only twenty two years old, you still need your mother.''

"Mum," Rose said as she began to feed Clara her bottle. "I am in control of my own life, you know. First of all, I am going to get an apartment of my own, I can't just keep mooching off of you and Pete for the rest of my life. Second, I am saying yes to the job offer at Torchwood. It is the only way I could possibly get back to him and I need to do everything possible to help with that. I am a grown woman with a daughter of my own, don't you dare treat me like a child!" Rose stated. With those final words, Rose stormed out of the room away from Jackie. That conversation was more than finished for Rose.

…

It only took Pete a week to find Rose a suitable apartment only a few blocks away from where he and Jackie lived. Her mother had been in quite a mood when Rose had actually moved out, proclaiming that Rose still needed her help. Thankfully, Rose had managed to convince her mother she would be perfectly fine and had just finished unpacking what little she owned well after midnight.

Right on cue, Clara woke up and began to cry. Rose let out a sigh and went into Clara's new nursery that was basically a carbon copy of the one at Pete's mansion. She could tell that Clara was perfectly fine, she just wanted attention in the middle of the night.

With Clara in her arms and finally calmed down, Rose decided to go sit on the balcony now that she was still wide awake. She was still unsure of how she felt about her new apartment. It was much bigger than she needed it to be, but Jackie and Pete had insisted it was perfect. There were three bedrooms, and that was what annoyed Rose the most. Who the heck did they think would be sleeping there besides her and Clara? Thankfully though, the apartment was not that fancy and Rose felt comfortable there so far.

"You okay with being out here?" Rose asked Clara as she settled down onto the chair on the balcony. It wasn't like she was expecting a response, but she felt like she couldn't just sit in silence. "You can see all the stars tonight…"

It seemed as if Clara heard her then because she let out a squeak and yawned. Rose just smiled down at her daughter, sure she had never loved anything more than her and never could adore anyone more than Clara.

"Mummy is working on a dimension cannon, you know?" Rose explained to the baby. Although she had only been working there a week, she loved her job. She didn't have to work every day and basically got to choose her own hours. At first her coworkers had found it odd that she brought Clara with her, but she couldn't bear the thought of leaving her with Jackie to watch. She couldn't abandon her daughter, but she felt like she had to help find a way back to the Doctor. "If it works right, I'll take you with me and we will be able to find daddy again. And he will be so happy to meet you, Clara. And then we won't have to look at the stars from the ground because he will take us to see them up close."

As Rose continued to tell her daughter about the stars, she watched as Clara's eyes slowly slid shut. Because of that, she didn't notice what else was happening. If she had been looking, she would have seen what had just happened. A star in the sky had just blinked twice and then gone out, nothing there hinting at the fact that just moments ago there had been a star shining there. The stars were going out, but Rose didn't notice.

The next chapter is a killer. I'm sorry.