A/N: This started as a stand-alone with the possibility of making a series out of it. Chapter 2 came to me and then a plot of an entire series. I've got the outline written down, and it seems like it'll be a trilogy of stories, maybe more if I tweak anything along the way.

Hope you enjoy this chapter. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 2: Listen

The room was buzzing, both the buzzing of machinery and the voices of the personnel as they were hard at work. Double, triple checking the codes and scans, making sure everything was perfect for the next jump. Or as perfect as it could be. Their understanding of realities and timelines were advanced by Earth standard, but still, nowhere near enough to be perfect. There was a lot of guesswork involved, a lot of variables, but they knew the risks when they signed up. The fact that she hadn't been vaporised on their first attempt was a relief to everyone, after all, no one had ever attempted what they were doing before. Even he had said it was impossible. But with the alternative, what choice did they really have?

Rose shook herself from her thoughts and looked towards the man in front of her. Malcolm, their lead scientist on this project, was fastening her watch to her wrist. Of course, it wasn't really a watch, well, it was and it wasn't. It told the time of her universe, specifically the time at Torchwood HQ. And it was supposed to tell her local time of wherever she landed. But they hadn't quite managed to get that bit working yet. It was also a scanner that took a reading of each place she landed, readings that would, hopefully, help them in their search for Point Zero. Point Zero being the correct universe, the correct planet, the correct time period and a version of the Doctor that correlated with her. Obviously, it wasn't as simple as that, but that was it in a nutshell.

Final preparations were being made for the next jump and Rose stood beside the platform awaiting her cue. She always felt a sense of anxiety before every jump, she was never sure where or when exactly she would land, but this time she was feeling something else. Something she couldn't quite name. Apprehension? Trepidation? Plain old dread? Maybe all of the above, but with a streak of thrill added to the mix. It was odd. That strange man in London. The one who screamed danger and death. The one with the icy stare. Dread she could understand, she expected it. He had made her blood run cold when their eyes met, she knew he was capable of unbridled mayhem, that he craved violence and death. She wasn't sure how, but she knew all this to be true. And yet, there was something about him that made her feel more alive than she had in so very long. She told herself it was being back in the right universe and the right century, so close to her Doctor that was setting her insides on fire, that the man was merely a coincidence.

She almost believed herself.

She'd been so lost in her own thoughts that she barely noticed her name being called. Mickey approached her and handed her the gold disk.

"Good luck." He smiled.

"Thanks, I'll see you soon."

"Stay safe!" Mickey called out to her as she began to disappear.

Once again Rose found herself in London. A Zeppelin free sky above and familiar cars and architecture around her. It looked like her time. A check of her watch confirmed it. The local time setting was showing a reading for the first time 11.02 am and a quick check of the scanner told her she was a month on from her last visit to 21st century London.

Rose smiled, despite the daunting task ahead of her, they had managed to navigate back to this place and time. That was a feat in and of itself. She could only hope that the Doctor and the TARDIS would be found soon enough.

She took in her surroundings. Of course she would land in an alleyway again. It always seemed to be the way. Maybe it was deliberate from the Cannon Team, she supposed it might look a bit frightening if she just appeared out of nowhere in say, somewhere like Trafalgar Square. She crept out of the alley and onto the main road. Shops and restaurants and bars and coffee shops filled each side of the street. Glass windows, outside tables, signs, menus and awnings everywhere. Throngs of people in business attire with briefcases, in thick coats with shopping bags, parents holding the hands of their children, all making their way up and down the street, in and out of all the businesses.

It was then that Rose noticed the window decor of the shops. She frowned and pulled out her scanner again.

December 20th 2006.

Oh no, she thought. That explains the Christmas decorations.

This wasn't right. She had thought it was late winter during her last jump, but if that was around a month ago then it would have only been November. Maybe living in the other Universe for so long with its severe climate change exasperated by the Cybermen had thrown her senses off.

This was dangerous.

She was going back on her own timeline. If she ran into another version of herself, well she didn't want to even think about the consequences. Experiencing the Reapers once was enough for her. She tried to think back to where she was at this time.

When the Doctor had sent her back from the Gamestation it had been early November. She and Mickey had pulled open the console of the TARDIS and she had gone back to him. He had died and regenerated, but they didn't land back on Earth til Christmas Eve. So she should be safe from her past self, but she would still need to be cautious. Luckily this street looked a bit too fancy for anyone she knew to be shopping here. So with any luck, she wouldn't run into anyone who knew her.

Rose pulled out her phone as she moved back into the alley and called the most used number in it.

"It's me. We got the timing wrong again. It's December 2006."

"Is it? Ok, we'll pull you back and try again. Aim for further down the timeline. I don't know what happened, we must have locked onto the TARDIS too early."

"No, that's not it. I know for a fact the TARDIS isn't here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Reid, I know because I'm on the TARDIS with The Doctor right now, " she snapped, "or rather, 2006 me is."

"That is strange. The cannon is designed to find the TARDIS. It shouldn't be bringing you anywhere it's not. We will have to find out what went wrong. " He paused.

Rose heard muffled voices and the tapping of computer keys.

"24 minutes until you're ready to jump. You know what to do."

"Yeah, keep out of sight. See you soon."

Rose hung up and slid the phone into her pocket, sighing as she did so. She hadn't meant to snap at Reid, she was just so frustrated. The hope of being so close to The Doctor, to completing this mission, to ending the nightmare. Only to have it all ripped away, again. It was disheartening and downright cruel. But it wasn't Reid, nor the Cannon Team's fault, they didn't do it intentionally. She wasn't angry at them, more so the universe for always having her just within arms reach of everything she wanted, but never actually in touching distance.

Rose was leaning on the wall in the alleyway she had arrived in, biding her time until her jump disk had recharged for her return journey when she felt a prickle at the back of her neck. A tiny warmth that felt both familiar and unnerving. She crept towards the opening onto the street, making sure to remain hidden from the world.

Something was calling to her, something in that busy street.

She scoured up and down the street, looking for anything out of place that could explain this odd sensation. Perhaps the Doctor had been here after all, he did have a time machine, he could have gone back for something. Or it could be a previous Doctor. She hadn't thought of that before.

Her eyes widened as her gaze landed on him.

He was shaking the hands of two men. They had just exited a restaurant across the street and slightly to the right from her. She could only see the right side of his face but she knew it was him. Same suit, same hair and the same smile. He stood with his hands in his pockets as he watched the two men in suits get into a car and drive away. She saw his shoulders stiffen for a moment before his body began to turn. She threw herself back deeper into the alley, hoping he hadn't seen her. She chanced ducking her head out again and couldn't see him. Breathing a sigh of relief Rose went back down the narrow alleyway and pulled out the disk.

19 minutes.

Stuffing the jumper into her pocket she leaned on the wall behind her and tried to relax. She would be back at Torchwood soon and they could get started on fixing whatever was up with the cannon, hopefully, it would be simple enough and her next jump would be even more successful. She just had to wait. 19 minutes, she could do that.

The thought had barely finished before she felt that warm prickle again. Her head snapped to the side and her breathing momentarily stopped.

"We meet again."

Those impossibly old, dark eyes were focused on her. That smirk, both smarmy and sinister, adorned his face. His black suit immaculately pressed and looking very expensive. She straightened up on instinct, turning to stand tall facing the dirty blond-haired man. Never show your back to the enemy. That piece of her training echoed in her mind. And she was sure he was the enemy, even though they had only met twice and barely spoke 5 sentences between them, she was certain he was a threat.

"You don't call, you don't write. You just disappeared, quite literally. A man might think he's being ghosted."

"You're not a man, " she replied not really knowing why she couldn't seem to stop herself around him.

His eyebrows rose at this.

"Of course I am." He grinned looking down at himself. "Last I checked I was all man. But do feel free to check for yourself."

She felt her cheeks heat up. She knew her face was probably reddening, normally she could control this sort of thing but she hadn't expected this suggestive talk from him. Most likely that's why he did it, a way to disarm someone with an unexpected angle. Obviously, it was working. She fought down the unease within her and threw a glare at him.

"Let me rephrase that, you're not human."

He smiled wider then and she had to admit he was very attractive. Especially when he smiled like that. She was sure that he had used that smile and his boyish good looks to charm his victims before he unleashed the monster within. And she was sure there was a monster underneath the dashing grin, she didn't know it till she said it but he was definitely not just an evil human man. Her mind screamed at her that he was not from Earth.

"The offer still stands, feel free to give this body a good old once over. Make sure I don't have any tentacles or I don't know… zips?"

Rose's eyes widened. Images of Downing Street, of Margaret Blaine and government ministers with zips on their foreheads. Of huge green aliens. Slitheen.

Her eyes darted to his forehead and he let out a breathy laugh.

No. The Slitheen had taken the bodies of people bigger than this man. The Doctor had explained it to her at the time. Something to do with compressing themselves to fit into the bodies, they needed bigger victims to wear their skin. This man was only a few inches taller than her and slim, no way was there a Slitheen underneath his skin. No, not Slitheen. That was the family name of the ones she had met, she corrected herself.

"I doubt you're Raxacoricofallapatorian, " she replied, surprised by how smoothly the word came out. A far cry from when she had first tried saying it.

"Didn't Mary Poppins sing about that?"

Rose narrowed her eyes at him. What game was he playing? Last time he had been so threatening without saying a word. He looked at her like he was debating swatting her like a fly. Now he was joking and making provocative comments. Like they were old friends. He was really getting her off-kilter.

"Who are you?" she practically growled.

"Harold Saxon." He smiled and stretched out his hand. "And you?"

"Who are you really?"

"I told you, my name is Harold Sax-"

"No, it's not."

"You seem awfully sure of that."

"I am. I see you. I see beneath your fake smiles and expensive suits. Beneath the charming exterior and handsome face, I see the darkness inside you. The cold void of nothingness. The burning and the bloodshed. I can feel the lust for destruction and domination and-"

He was on her before she could finish her sentence, slamming her against the cold, hard wall, hands gripping her shoulders and eyes boring into her. He was livid, his breath was coming hard and fast and his face was twisted into a sinister expression.

"You see nothing!" He spat.

"Oh but I do. I can see through your little façade. Every sense I have is screaming at me that you're not who you pretend to be. You even smell wrong."

"And what about sound? What can you hear?"

"Nothing." Rose spat pushing him away from her and failing, he was surprisingly strong for his appearance.

"Listen!" He demanded. "Can you hear it?"

Rose frowned wondering if this bloke was bonkers. He had done a complete 180 in about 5 seconds. His hate-filled eyes now looked at her with a look of almost hope. The silence between them seemed to stretch forever.

Then she noticed it.

Oh.

He was staring intently at her, watching her face go through surprise, confusion, disbelief before settling on fear. He smiled, a manic, gleeful sort of smile that sent shivers down her spine.

"It… you… it's not possible, " she struggled.

"You can hear them too?" he whispered.

"You're a Time Lord."

His smile fell then.

"What?"

She looked up at him and then back down at her hands that were still on his chest from her attempts to push him away. The oh so familiar beats beneath her palms.

"You have two hearts."

"Yes, but the drums?"

She ignored his questions, her mind too occupied by someone who was supposed to be dead. The Doctor had said he was the last of his kind. He said the rest had burnt. He was most certainly not the Doctor, so he had to be another Time Lord. Which was impossible. And yet it explained so much about him and what she was feeling.

"Don't you hear them? The neverending drums?"

He pressed his forehead to hers and her mind exploded. She jerked away with a cry but her head smashed into the wall behind her. She tried to push him off, tried to move away but he was too strong.

"STOP! MAKE THEM STOP!"

He pulled his head away to study her face but kept his grip on her.

"You heard them?" he asked again, desperation in his voice.

"Yes." Her voice never sounded so weak.

"I knew they were real. They said I was mad. But you can hear them, Miss Tyler, and that makes them real." He laughed.

She didn't respond. Her head was aching, and not just from hitting it off the wall. The drums, that incessant pounding. That four-beat pattern repeating over and over, so loud and so hard it reverberated around her body. She only felt it for a few seconds and she wanted to stab herself in the head to make it stop. Even now it was gone she could still feel the echoes of it vibrating in the deafening silence of her mind.

They stood silently for what seemed like far too long. Neither moving away or saying a thing. His fingers on her shoulders had taken on a less deathly grip and his thumbs had begun stroking circular motions on her collarbone. Neither quite realised this as he stared at the wall behind her lost in his own madness and she tried to shake that haunting noise from her mind.

His left hand moved from her shoulder to her throat and her attention was brought back to the Time Lord in front of her. She gulped involuntarily, fear beginning to swell within her. His hands kept moving upward, over her throat, up over her chin, across to her cheek where he cupped her face and moved her head to look up at him.

"I knew I would enjoy meeting you, Rose Tyler. I didn't quite expect it to be this… exhilarating."

"How do you know my name?"

"I'm an old friend of the Doctor's."

She snorted. He grinned.

"I said old friend, that's not a lie."

"Yeah, but you're not a friend any more, are you?"

"You are a clever little ape, aren't you?"

"You're an arrogant prick, aren't you?"

He laughed a proper chuckle.

"It's not arrogance if you're right, sweetheart."

Her watch beeped and they both looked down to her wrist.

"Leaving so soon?" he asked with a mock pout letting his hands fall away from her.

"Yeah, this date is a bit shit. Didn't even get wined and dined, you just went straight to handsy."

"Dinner, I normally keep for third dates."

Rose rolled her eyes as she felt the familiar tug.

"Til next time, Miss Tyler."

The familiar faces of her team came into view as Rose appeared on the platform at Torchwood HQ.

Reid came up to her straight away.

"I've checked the data, the scans and the codes. And rechecked them. And had several people go over them. There isn't a fault in the coding. The cannon is still locking onto the TARDIS. Are you sure there's no way it could be there?"

"Could it lock on to any TARDIS or just The Doctor's?"

"I thought you said his was the only one left."

"I know, but is it possible?"

"I suppose it could be. We only have the data from yours but it could be possible. We don't really know much about the TARDIS or TARDISes at all."

"Right."

"What happened?" Mickey chimed in from behind her.

"Nothing."

"Rose…"

"I need a shower and a cuppa."

And with that Rose swanned out of the room, leaving her ex-boyfriend turned best friend to stare after her.