My Aberdeen
The Doctor and Rose stood together under the ancient façade of the station belying the newer interior looking out at the city surrounding them, the Doctor silently cursing his time sense for its blatant inaccuracy. His previously thought extra twenty minutes to home from the station darkening his mood as he glanced at a sign across the way noting the mileage to their destination. Ah well, better make the most of it.
"Rose Tyler," He threw his arms wide, "Welcome to the Silver City with the Golden Sands-"
"Aberdeen," She nodded with a sniff wrapping her arms around herself, the irony not lost on her. "So where to now?"
"Sixty miles that way," He nodded to the west, "Via Ballater, which I'm assuming in this universe, is still the location of Balmoral Castle?"
"Far as I know it is," She shrugged, "Torchwood Archives have it down as the last known residence of Queen Victoria before she went-, well you know 'missing'."
"Ahah," He cringed as he took her hand and pulled her along past the taxi rank and onto a waiting coach, flashing the psychic paper at the driver as they passed.
"Never been on a bus really," He sniffed looking about over the tops of the seats, "It's um- well it's-"
"Cramped, smelly, cold, bumpy and infuriatingly slow compared to TARDIS travel?" She offered.
"-Different," He nodded tilting his head to the left, "But that works too yea."
"Sorry," She chuckled, "Spent a lot of my life before you ridin' the bus everyday remember."
"We could always get off if you'd prefer," He rambled making to stand up as the bus began pulling out, "Um hire a car or something-"
"Don't be daft," She laughed pulling him back into his seat, "I really don't mind Doctor, besides as long as I'm with you, bein' on a bus is fine, perfect even."
"Better with two?" He nudged her, a playful smile pulling at the sides of his mouth.
"Better with you." She corrected nudging him back with a smile, resting her head on his shoulder as she watched Aberdeen pass them by.
"It's funny you know," Rose spoke softly sometime later. The buildings of Aberdeen having filled out into houses and properties and small lanes, the sun now high in the heavens, "Sometimes I think us visitin' Scotland was where everythin' went wrong."
"What do you mean?" He cracked an eyelid at her curiously.
"Good ol' Vic still started Torchwood here," She turned away from the window to face him, "There are all sorts of stories why, but back home, sometimes I think maybe if she d- if we didn't- then there'd be no Torchwood Institute."
"Rose-"
"We caused the creation of the very thing that tore us apart." She murmured hugging herself tighter dropping her gaze away from him and back to the window.
"You know as well as I do she wouldn't have just died Rose," He angled his head towards her speaking softly, "She saved this world from the Empire of the Wolf at a great cost to herself and her family."
"I know-"
"And you are not the kind of person to just abandon someone if there were a chance they could be saved."
"Time can never be completely rewritten can it." She sighed in statement more so than question.
"Time is….complicated," He mused lifting his gaze to the passing scenery his brow creased in thought "In this universe it compensated around the same event we influenced back home, and so we see the results in our current timeline, accelerated technology, no monarchy etcetera, time itself is different in this stream-"
"Because of you." She interjected softly. "You've always been there haven't you? I've done the research Doctor, almost everythin' that we did over there, that you were a part of, it went so very differently here because you weren't, just look at what happened with Donna's parallel-"
"And that is why there will always be a Torchwood," He narrowed his gaze pointedly, "No matter what universe, and just so we're clear this is a tangent universe not a parallel because it streams off the original, Torchwood will always exist because I do, Time has an ironic sense of humour-"
"But why-"
"Because I'm only one man Rose, two now if you wanna get real technical, and if my people had still existed then perhaps it might have been different but-" He breathed closing his eyes briefly as he pulled a pen and psychic paper from his pocket and scribbled something down before handing it to her.
"Sometimes the universe is kind enough to grant me a little help, no matter what form it may take, but maybe more importantly, it knows that I need someone to stop me sometimes."
"Time gave me you Rose," He murmured, "It may have taken you away with help from Torchwood, but how did you get back again hmmm?"
She glanced down at the paper, her eyes widening as the word rearranged itself on its surface.
T o r c h w o o d
d o c T o r w h o
"It's more than just a secret isn't it?" She murmured handing him back the paper as she looked up into his ancient eyes. "Who you are-"
"It's not just that," He stressed slightly, "It's who I might become, who we might become."
"But you're the same-" She frowned.
"We are," He hastened to agree, "But our timestreams are divergent now, they'll always follow a similar pattern but it's our experiences that define who we are Rose."
They remained in silence, the Doctor watching her carefully as she absorbed this new information.
"Good thing Jack has the only Torchwood left back home then?" She nudged him with a smirk. "Although I think he's much too in love with you to try and stop ya doin' anything you wanted."
"What?" His eyebrows disappeared into his hair.
"Oh please," She scoffed, "You seen im' back on the TARDIS when there was two of ya's. He looked like a kid whose Christmases had all come at once."
"I don't even want to imagine what might've been defacing itself through his head-" He shuddered, his mouth scrunching and licking as if he were attempting to remove a foul taste.
"I dunno," She muttered, "I could think of a-" Her mouth slammed shut at his incredulous expression.
"Rose Tyler," He exclaimed scandalized, toning the volume down at the angry hiss from the woman in front of them.
He continued, ignoring the woman but teasing in a softer tone, "What manner of things are fluttering about in your head-"
"Got one on a bus too if you'd like I could give ya a quick demo yea?" She threw back effectively shutting him up before she turned back to the window, attempting to hide her blush in the fall of her hair.
"Do you fancy me, Rose Tyler?" She shook her head at the smirk in his voice.
"Well done Doctor," She raised an eyebrow turning back to him, "Only just figure that out did ya?"
"No, well," He sniffed indignantly, "The snogging might have- knew for a while anyways-"
"Yea?" She raised her other eyebrow to join its partner, "Nice of you to let me know."
"You always knew Rose," He sighed resting his head back against the chair, "It really doesn't need saying, he was right about that-"
"You said it." She looked up at him, a hint of sadness flickering through her eyes.
"I finished a sentence I started a long time ago," He replied softly, "Did you really think that it would end any other way?"
"No I, I knew-" She looked down at her fingers as they toyed with the zip of her jacket. "But you actually said it and I-I thought that if you'd admitted it, you wouldn't try to push me away like you used to- that there'd be the possibility of an us, and then you said it and I couldn't help it-"
"Quite right too." He murmured with a hint of a smile.
"Oh don't you dare!" She smacked him across the arm and he recoiled to protect his face, giggling as it was, from the now more than likely 'oncoming' slap. "Who says that anyways you prat!"
"Do you two mind?" The furious face of an older woman popped up over the chair in front of them.
"No we don't," The Doctor replied gleefully, pulling his companion flailing from her chair as the bus came to a stop. "Enjoy your trip." He waved over his head as they stepped off the bus laughing hysterically.
"What a right old bat," Rose clutched at her stomach as the woman's face and the bus disappeared around the bend in the road.
"I know," He laughed.
"Oh," She breathed deeply, "Doctor can you smell that?"
"Oh yes," He grinned, his stomach rumbling in agreement. "Chips to go?"
"Thought you'd never ask." She beamed back.
He pulled her laughing across the street to the chippie and once their order was done he hailed them a cab.
"Where to Laddie?" The Cabbie inquired looking to the Doctor in his mirror, his companion's face currently locked on the familiar face in the mirror as her mouth halted its assault on the fried potato within.
"Doctor it's-"
"I know," He giggled, "Like the Gwens' in Cardiff, Spatial genetic multiplicity."
"What was that Lad?" The driver piped up once again.
"Right, sorry, um, just a ways from the Glen of St Catherine?" He replied snatching a chip from the wrap of newspaper in her lap. "Big ominous looking place?"
"The Torchwood Estate?" The Cabbie replied curiously, "You sure about that Lad?"
"I am indeed," The Doctor grinned, "Been outta the country for a good long while, come to take a look at our inheritance."
"Oh of course," The Cabbie nodded pulling out, "Been news of the new owner comin' by now for months. Welcome home to the both of you, the name's Dougal."
"Nice to meet you Dougal, I'm the Doctor," He reached forward to shake the driver's hand, "And this is Rose."
"Doctor," She tugged at his suit jacket and he leant closer, "How could he have known we were comin'?" She turned a suspicious eye at the driver.
"I don't know." He muttered in reply turning to the front at the sound of the drivers voice.
"Is the missus alright back there?" Dougal frowned.
"She's fine," The Doctor interjected as Rose opened her mouth, "We've been travelling for what seems like forever, nothing a decent meal and a good night's sleep can't cure I assure you."
"Aye," Dougal nodded, "And that's what ye'll get, know the caretaker personally as a matter of fact, good bloke, is' family's been takin' care of the place for generations they ave'."
"Who?" The Doctor asked curiously.
"Wilfred's is' name," Dougal replied pulling into the long drive to the Estate, the branches of dead or dying ancient trees swooping low enough to almost touch the top of the cab, the entirety of the grounds shrouded in a thick mist, the spires and scope of the observatory only barely visible.
"Bit of a fixer upper," Rose remarked pulling her jacket tighter to keep away the cold as they stopped in front of the caretaker's cottage, the Doctor holding the door as she stepped out.
"Thanks Dougal," The Doctor handed the driver a much larger note than required, "Keep the change."
"Aye," Dougal nodded handing the Doctor a card, "Thank you, and if you need anything just give me a call, anytime, day or night."
"Drive safely," The Doctor replied with a nod, closing the door and waving him off down the drive.
"Right then," He turned back to Rose, "I suppose we should-"
Both their attention snapped to the right as a door creaked open and a stream of light cut through the mist, an older gentleman in a flannel shirt and suspenders stepping out, the Doctor's jaw dropping almost hysterically.
"Wilf?" Both the Doctor and Rose questioned as one, their eyes as wide in surprise as his were.
"Oh my lord it's you." Came his response as he promptly fainted in the doorway.
"Ya know, one day Doctor someone's gonna seriously injure themselves swoonin' over you." Rose quipped lifting the old man's feet as they carried him back into the house.
"Shut up Tyler." He groaned kicking the door closed behind them, the sounds of her teasing laughter echoing gently through the estate.
Unknown to the occupants in the small cottage, a set of ancient eyes glittered as they observed the new comers from the darkness of the undergrowth, a warm exhalation belying its hidden sanctuary trailing up to mingle within the cool mist. With a low growl and a final sniff the creature retreated back into the darkness with a swirl of its tail, vanishing into nothing as a distant howling echoing through the valley.