Then he wondered if that was what was wrong with her for the time being fiancé.
"Are ya okay Alec?" she asked as she picked up a shopping basket and Alec relieved she'd not unchained a large shopping trolley.
He thought it would probably be a miracle though if she didn't actually fill it to the brim or ask him to go get another one or ask if he had any change for a trolley after all.
"I think I may wait across at the coffee shop?" he suggested as she'd already been in half a dozen shops.
"Yeah, okay then? I'm just gonna get a few things, I won't be long," Rose promised, Alec doubting she knew the definition of taking long.
Thinking she should probably not buy too much, Rose went to join him about twenty minutes later, leaving her recent purchases and going inside to get a drink.
"We have to discuss if we are staying at your caravan or my chalet," he reminded her before they set off again.
"Maybe it's more practical in the caravan?" Rose wondered. "Alec, I've made up my mind that I'm putting the wedding off, see how John takes it?"
"That's for the best really," Alec had to agree. "He may be more relieved than you are? Rose, you need to go back and talk it out. Until then, all we can do is be friends."
"If that's what ya think's best?" Rose tried to remain calm.
Why had he been so keen the last few nights and now changed his mind? Should she try and argue with him? That though may drive him away completely. Why hadn't she been truthful with who had become John Smith and told him it made no difference to her who he was?
She had been convinced he thought she'd wanted the real Doctor. Maybe that was why he'd been backing off? Alec was expecting her to complain and was surprised at her agreement. He could go for more with her if she called her wedding off and had thought it through.
When they got back, Rose decided to try extending her stay in the caravan until Sunday morning. Since it wasn't that busy they readily agreed but were eyeing Alec as he waited outside the reception area. Rose was debating causing mischief by claiming John was with her but thought better of it. She supposed Alec wouldn't thank her if rumours spread after she'd gone home. He had to live there for the time being.
"So what are ya gonna do after the trial's over?" Rose asked him over their evening meal.
"Try to make peace with Daisy, if she's willing," Alec replied, having explained what had happened when he'd got transferred here.
Rose suspected there was something he wasn't telling her but let it go. Alec didn't even want to mention he'd hidden someone away from his last big case, not so far away. It wasn't very likely Claire and Rose were ever going to meet.
Before either of them knew it, it was Saturday and Rose was packing a few things. Alec had been secretive as to what the trial was going to be like that was now looming and she asked again if he wanted her to stay.
"Rose, I am going to be in the spotlight," he had to remind her.
"Yeah, sorry. It's just maybe you'd do better, having someone there who's on your side?" Rose wondered.
"Thank you for your concern Rose but I will be fine," he then insisted. "You would be in the news more than the trial."
"I don't wanna take the media's attention away from the trial," Rose defended herself.
"I know you would not do it intentionally," Alec assured her. "You would not have any choice in the matter."
He knew the moment Rose broke the news about putting her wedding off, the gossip columns would be writing all kinds of things and he didn't want any of them to be about him associating with her this last week. He just hoped the local paper wouldn't have been spying on him and be the first to make the report.
Rose stopped what she was doing and sat next to him. Alec put his arm around her, seeing she looked disappointed.
"Why can't I just stay here Alec?" she then asked him.
"Rose, it's not a good idea," he replied. "I thought we had agreed that you should go back and discuss cancelling your wedding? It's not the sort of thing you do by phone."
"I know John deserves for me to tell him in person," Rose admitted. "I could go and tell him then come back?"
"That would not be fair Rose," Alec disagreed. "Calling your wedding off and running away again."
"So ya don't want me to come back then?" Rose wanted to make sure.
"I'm not saying that Rose. You need to get things sorted before you even think about coming back. Think about it eh? Coming back here, to someone who resembles your fiancé?"
Rose didn't need reminding Alec looked like John and The Doctor.
"Yeah, I get it Alec," Rose agreed, trying not to look disappointed yet again.
Why was she doing this to herself? Yes, she had met Alec on her first day and immediately used him as a substitute for John, who these days didn't do much in the romance department. She got up and started looking around for any stray items she didn't need and could be put in the spare canvas bag.
Alec could see how she felt about it but what could he do, he asked himself. How could he possibly take her fiancé's place and have his name splashed all over the papers with Rose? The upcoming trial would be bad enough and if Claire decided to break her silence, it would be even worse.
He went up to her and took her arm.
"Rose, don't leave like this tomorrow eh?" he asked her. "We had a few enjoyable days together and I will treasure that. You made me feel wanted again."
He turned her around and pulled her close.
"I won't forget you Alec," she promised as she leaned her head on his shoulder, looking up at him. "I'm gonna tell John when I get back that the wedding is off for now. I don't know how I feel about him any more. I lost him once and then he came back. Maybe neither of us are still the same as we were before?"
Alec sympathised with her, it can't have been easy being under the scrutiny of the press everywhere they went. He knew he couldn't manage such a thing at present, he had enough going on. The press would be hounding him again and Karen White would probably come crawling out of the woodwork to put him on the front page of her tacky newspaper.
Rose wanted an early night, she needed to set off early the next morning, Tony would be driving their parents mad waiting for her getting back. She'd got him a set of boats for his bath time and a toy police car she hadn't seen before.
"Are you going to admit you met me when you get home?" Alec wanted to know as Rose held onto him in bed.
"I don't see any reason not to," she admitted. "I was bound to see ya at some point."
"At least we seem to have dodged the local press," Alec was relieved to say. "It could have been we were followed everywhere."
"Yeah, I'm glad we weren't spotted," Rose agreed. "I enjoyed spending time with you."
"As did I Rose. Get some sleep, you have a long journey back tomorrow."
"Don't remind me," Rose laughed. "It's worse crossing London, trust me."
"I can imagine?" Alec agreed. "Going back, all the traffic will hopefully be going in the opposite direction."
"Yeah, I hope so. Alec, if I ever come back, what then?" she wanted to know.
"Then we will see what happens? Rose, I may go back to Sandbrook, I may not come back here," he warned her. "You have my phone number, call me, if you want?"
"Let me know you're okay after your surgery? If ya don't call me, I'll probably think the worst has happened."
"Fine, I will send you a message then?" he hoped would appease her, since she had showed some concern over it.
He had still to tell Tess and he had no idea how. Maybe he could get her down here on some false pretence? Daisy should know what may happen, she deserved that much. The next morning, Rose got ready to leave and Alec was going back to his blue riverside chalet, which he'd not been in much the last week or so.
"Take care Alec," Rose told him.
"You too Rose and be honest with your fiancé," Alec replied as she held onto him.
Up in London, Tony was driving his parents crazy by asking what time Rose would be back and John was hanging around, like a spare part, Jackie had told him.
"I don't know why ya didn't go with her," Jackie asked him again.
"I was busy," John tried to get out of it.
He had gone off to find Pete, who might be a bit more sympathetic than Jackie. Pete held his hand up as he laughed.
"No good asking me about women," Pete was telling him. "It was different with Jackie, I never had to work at it."
"No, I don't expect you had to," John had to agree. "I didn't expect to have to work on it with Rose either. I mean I'm literally the same man with a few differences. I sometimes think she wanted the other me, to talk to about what we used to do."
"John, she accepted you," Pete reminded him.
"Did she Pete?" John wondered. "She wanted to know where I'd been and who with."
"Well that's only natural," Pete told him.
"Well maybe I suppose?" John wondered. "It's like she didn't trust me, for some reason. I mean come on Pete, I never wanted to send her here, it's like she still blames me, for some reason."
"I'm sure it's not that," Pete disagreed with his future son-in-law.
He'd had no idea how much of an impact Rose was going to have on him all those years ago when he found out he was her father in a different reality.
John laughed nervously. "I should maybe have gone with her?"
"Yes, well. That's between the two of you," Pete smiled. "I've had no experience bringing up a daughter."
So John had gone off to find Tony, whom he knew the boy would be driving Jackie crazy.
"Thank goodness you're here," Jackie greeted him as Tony was running around with a model plane in one hand and a zeppelin in the other and pretending they were crashing. "I don't know who he takes after. Has Rose called yet?"
"Where's Rose?" Tony suddenly wanted to know.
John thought he and Rose had never even mentioned about having kids of their own. If they did, they'd have to move out of that two bedroom town house Rose had fallen in love with, in Chiswick of all places. He didn't need reminding that Donna had sort of brought him into being but he was glad most of her mannerisms were starting to wear off.
Rose had found it amusing the first few weeks they'd been together. Maybe that's where things had started going wrong? Well that and Jackie forever going on about weddings. Tony thrust another toy zeppelin into his hands and indicated he wanted to chase him, Jackie shaking her head and giving up.
Rose finally got back, having called to say she was on her way and John saying he was at her mother's.
"Your brother thinks I'm a zeppelin," John laughed as he greeted her as she got back inside, leaving her things in the car.
"Makes a change from him thinking I'm one," Rose laughed back. "I think he still misses Mickey."
"Rose!" Tony almost knocked both of them over when Jackie let go of him.
They stayed until Tony went to bed, then John drove them home.
"So, how's work?" Rose wanted to know as they drove back.
"We're getting promising results back for the cannon," he admitted. "Don't know why they call it a cannon though?"
"No good asking me," Rose laughed.
"So how was Broadchurch?" John wanted to know.
He wondered if she had met that detective while she'd been there but he didn't want to ask her.
"Nice and quiet. I went around a bit, to Weymouth and across into Devon a couple of times," Rose told him.
"Well Tony liked his boats anyway," John told her. "Rose, we have to talk when we get home."
"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you as well," Rose admitted.
John then wondered if it was about the same thing? Was Rose wanting to back out of getting married? At first it was all they ever talked about but since getting engaged, it had been hi-jacked by Rose's mother. He really shouldn't have expected any less from Jackie Tyler.
"Well?" John asked as he stood in the bedroom doorway.
Rose sat on the bed and he joined her.
"So did you meet that detective then?" he wanted to know.
"What do ya mean by meet?" Rose wanted to know. John then did that thing with his eyebrows. "I saw him a couple of times, yeah. He was sat outside a blue chalet at the side of the river and when I went for a walk on the pier, he walked up to me to see if I was okay, it was starting to get dark."
"Really?" John grinned, getting up to pace the floor.
"That was it, sorry to disappoint ya," Rose replied. "Anyway, what do ya really want to talk about? Me asking you what ya did while I was away? Ya could have taken some time off ya know? Torchwood's not gonna disappear if ya have time off."
"Torchwood might but the cannon? Rose, I could be on the edge of a breakthrough with it," he suddenly got enthusiastic about it.
"Then what?" Rose wanted to know.
"We could make it possible for both of us to go back, at least for a visit. Don't you want to see your old world?" he asked her.
"Yeah but not until that thing gets tested first, thanks very much," Rose huffed.
"We could be the first Rose, think about it? We can catch up with my other self and start travelling again. I mean he can get us back in time for the gap closing that we make."
"Doctor, have you heard yourself?" Rose questioned him. "We can't go back on our personal timelines. Ya used to drill that into me." Then she saw the look on his face. "You planned to do that? You are joking?"
"Rose, it's well away from that point," he insisted as he swept his hair back, which would normally get a smile for his troubles.
Rose was just staring at him instead.
"Why did ya stay here then?" she wanted to know. "Was it just to please me? That ya didn't really wanna stay?"
"Rose, don't think that," he replied. "I wanted to stay with you more than anything but if we can get back? Rose, I could be putting this world in danger just by remaining here."
Rose sat down and wanted to question his decision. She had always known he was a bit of an alien magnet.
"But you're half Human, how would anyone who doesn't belong here know about ya?" she wanted to know.
"Do I need to explain?" he replied, stubbing the toe of his Converse shoe on the floor. "I'm risking everything to stay here with you."
Rose got up and went to him.
"I know, sorry," she apologised as she saw that had got to him.
"Do you know what would happen if any of the aliens you sometimes process knew I was here and had heard of me?" he asked her.
"I get what ya mean," Rose sympathised. "Why do ya think Pete wanted you working in alien artefacts and not processing? I know ya can watch remotely and warn us if any of them might be dangerous."
"Rose, you can bet most of them are a danger in one way or another," John laughed. "They just pretend they're no threat to get sent on their way. Most of them haven't heard this Earth is defended."
"I suppose we've been lucky so far?" Rose wondered, leaning her chin on his shoulder and John starting to kiss her neck as they held on to each other.
"Well that luck might run out if any of them get any idea I'm here," he reminded her. "I may look different to some of them but they're bound to have crossed universes before it was all stopped. I expect some of them blame me for getting trapped here?"
"I've not heard anything from any of them," Rose assured him. "If they've been cut off from their version of a universe, we won't be able to help them."
"Yes, well if the cannon works successfully, we can maybe start sending some of them back?" John wondered. "Mind you, it will take some testing and who better to do that?"
"Don't go putting yourself in danger," Rose warned him.
"Well who else knows as much about travelling between universes than me?" he wanted to know.
Rose knew she was never going to win this argument. They all knew he was the real expert around here but he could never face any of the aliens who somehow got stranded here but no-one was going to tell any of them The Doctor, well the part Doctor was here.
Pete had pointed out it could start an interstellar war, start a blockade of the Earth and have fleets of war ships surrounding the planet before anyone could stop it or worst of all, demand they handed John over to whoever found out he was here first.
They could never allow anything to happen to him, which was why Pete had got Jake to carefully produce documentation for him that would pass any examination and why he had been integrated into the family but Jackie had insisted they made it official.
Now, Rose was going to have to find a way to tell him she wanted to call the wedding off without him storming off somewhere to find any passing alien ship to get himself as far away as possible.