Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. If I did, Rose would still be in the Prime Universe with the Doctor (as it should be, damn it!) Making no money off of this.
AN: I had this crazy idea, and thought I'd give it a go. I was thinking about Stargate SG-1 (by the way, don't own that either!), and had this wicked idea. I've seen a lot of stories where the Rose that gets dropped back in Pete's World during "Journey's End" was a psychic flesh, and was thinking about what would happen, due to the whole Bad Wolf thing, if an alien race tried to clone Rose for study. When my mind flashed to the episode with Jack getting cloned by Loki, only to have the clone turn out to be a teenaged version of him with all his adult memories, I knew I had to give it a go.
So, here we go!
P.S. I have no idea if I'll include the Metacrisis Doctor or not yet, so if you're hoping to see him, you might just have to wait.
Pete Tyler, Director of Torchwood, had had an interesting few days. Two pieces of alien technology had been unearthed and stolen before they could be traced back to their planet of origin. The idiots that used them, thankfully, hadn't managed to destroy the Earth as one of them turned out to be a bomb, while the other had been affecting the weather over the Sahara (snow was rare there, and usually only lasted a day or two, but a three week blizzard was more than a little unusual). Then, to make a stressful week even better, an inexperienced agent had gotten it into his head to flirt with the Rastroloff Ambassador's daughter. Two days of negotiation later, and everything was smoothed over, and the agent was now firmly locked in Archives where he would hopefully cause no more trouble.
With a sigh, he looked over the mountain of paperwork that seemed to follow him wherever he went and appeared to have grown while he was away. Not even Vitex caused this much paperwork, but then again, Vitex didn't deal with alien threats or refugees looking for a new planet to call home. He was reaching for the first of many field reports when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Yes?" he called, not looking up right away as his assistant, a lovely and very efficient woman named Clara, opened the door.
"Sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but there's a situation downstairs," she told him, an apologetic smile on her face as she gestured behind her to the door. "Security is asking for you personally."
"And why can't they handle it on their own?"
"It seems that someone was trying to use your daughter's badge to get into the building," she answered calmly, knowing he would be annoyed not only by the need to go down and handle what security should be able to handle on their own, but by the fact that it seemed someone was trying to pass themselves off as his daughter.
"Let them know I'll be right down," he said as he got to his feet. Running a hand through his rapidly graying hair, he made his way to the lift and pressed the button for the bottom floor. He arrived without much notice and was able to take in the scene before one of the security guards spotted him. A young girl, no more than 16, stood in the center of a group of guards, one hand holding up her jeans that were far too big for her, her shirt and jacket bagging almost as badly, shouting that she be allowed to speak to him, that he could straighten all this out. Hazel eyes snapped with temper as she glared at the guards, giving him a rather forceful reminder of Jackie. Something seemed off, but he couldn't put a finger on it.
"And just who might you be, young lady?" he asked, causing everyone to turn to face him. The relief that crossed the girl's face was only slightly marred by the annoyance she still had for being surrounded.
"It's me, Dad," she replied, a small, nervous smile tugging her lips. "It's Rose."
"Really?" One eyebrow lifted as he crossed his arms and looked her over from head to toe. There was a slight resemblance, to be sure, but there had been others before. None had ever attempted to pretend to be Rose, though.
"Really," she shot back, the annoyance quickly changing to anger as he continued to stare at her. One of the guards tried to catch her arm and show her the door, but with a quick, practiced move, she had him over her shoulder and flat on his back. Unfortunately, letting go of her jeans had caused them to sag, but she managed to catch them before offering everyone a glimpse of her knickers. "I told you to keep your hands to yourself, you git!" she scolded the guard currently on the floor. "One more grab like that and I'll give you a slap you'll feel for weeks!"
"That's enough!" Pete shouted as the guards, getting over their shock, jumped to keep the girl from doing any further damage. "Let's move this away from the front door, shall we? Someone call up Medical, and we'll sort this out." The move she'd used was a Torchwood staple, one taught to everyone on staff, no matter what department they worked in as a safety precaution. Either she was related to someone on staff who had shown it to her, or, and he almost slapped himself for thinking it, she was who she claimed to be.
Pete watched as, with a look of resigned acceptance, the girl allowed herself to be fingerprinted, scanned and have blood drawn. She tried to banter with the personnel, but they ignored her beyond giving instructions. He called for Clara to hold any appointments he had, and if anything other than a life or world ending emergency came up, to consider him unavailable until further notice.
"Understood, Sir," she replied, having already done so, just in case. "I certainly hope this situation is cleared up soon."
"We all do." Scrubbing a hand down his face with a sigh, he turned back to the girl to find her watching him, concern and wariness dancing in her eyes. Before he could ask, a technician stepped into the room, followed by Mickey Smith a step later, doing a quick double take as he caught sight of their visitor.
"Rose?"
"Mickey!" she laughed, hopping to her feet only to catch her pants before they fell again. "How was Russia?"
"Cold, wet and miserable." She grinned, a hint of tongue poking between her teeth as she took a step toward him.
"You had fun, admit it," she teased, before being shoved back into her chair by one of the guards that remained in the room with them. "Knock it off, William, or I'll smack you into next week!"
"Then stay put," he said simply, calmly back, making Pete bite back a chuckle at the look she shot him.
"You sure this is Rose, Mickey?" Pete asked quickly, keeping the girl from going into a tirade sure to keep his ears ringing for a month.
"We grew up together, Pete," Mickey answered with a short nod, "and though I don't know how it happened, she looks exactly as she did when she was sixteen."
"Anything?" The tech turned to him with a shake of his head.
"Every test we've run says that this," he said with a quick gesture to the girl sitting in the chair in the middle of the room, "is Rose Tyler. Her DNA, fingerprints and scans all match without the slighted deviation."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" she almost shouted. "I went to bed last night, perfectly normal, then woke up like this!" Burying her face in her hands with a groan, she asked a question that had all of them freezing in terror for a minute. "How are we going to explain this to Mum?"
"I've never liked you working for Torchwood, Rose," Jackie fumed as she paced the sitting room where her daughter was seated by her father, young Tony held on her hip like a weapon, Mickey seated on a chair by the window, "what with aliens coming almost every week to take over the world, all those bits and bobs that could explode any minute and all that. I've had to go to hospital to see you hurt from something that went wrong, only to have you jump right back in with both feet the second you were healed up enough." Stopping to stand directly in front of her, eyes practically sparking with temper, she went on, "Now you come here, looking bloody sixteen again, and have no idea how it happened?"
"Not a clue, Mum," Rose answered, keeping her eyes on her knees.
"And no clue how to reverse it either, I'm guessing?" she demanded, groaning in disgust when Rose, Pete and Mickey shook their heads. "Fat lot of good Torchwood is, then."
"Nothing like this has ever happened before, Jacks," Pete started, only to be cut off by a raised finger from his wife.
"Better get to work on fixing this," she warned, her tone and expression almost scarier than the Doctor's Oncoming Storm face, "or I'll be knowing the reason why my little girl has to go through puberty again." With that, she stormed off, taking Tony with her to get his lunch and then set him down for his nap. They could all hear her muttering to herself as she left, mostly dire imprecations against certain portions of her husband's anatomy and his permanent banishment to the sofa if he didn't fix it.
"I'm sorry, Dad." Pete sighed and pushed a hand through his hair, making it look even messier than it did before all this began.
"It's not your fault, Rose," he replied, getting to his feet. "We'd better head back and see what we can do to fix this. Maybe there's something we missed in those tests we did, or perhaps there's a piece of tech that caused this." He put his hands on her shoulders and dipped down to meet her gaze. "We'll fix this, Rose."
"What if we can't, though?"
"Rose Marion Tyler, I don't ever want to hear you say that again! We will fix this."
"Stupid teenaged hormones," Rose grumbled to herself, making Pete and Mickey smile a bit. She was about to open her mouth to tell them that they should head back to Torchwood, when Pete's phone rang. He quickly answered it and Rose and Mickey watched his face drain of color and he staggered before catching himself.
"We'll be there in 20 minutes," he told whoever was on the other end, then practically dragged Rose and Mickey behind him and into his Jeep. The two spent the entire trip trying to get information out of him, but he refused to speak of it until they got to Torchwood. The two followed him, sunk deep in thought, to the Medical center until they stood before Doctor Ian Stephens. "Now, repeat that one more time."
"I took a better look at the DNA scans we took earlier," he said quietly, wringing his hands as he searched for a better way to explain. "The samples were exactly what we expected this morning, but now, something's happened."
"What?"
"They seem to be breaking down." He shoved a hand through his light brown hair and sighed. "The DNA itself seems to be becoming unstable, and nothing we've tried so far has managed to even slow it down. We estimate that unless we find out what happened and reverse it-" He cut himself, sending an anguished look at both Pete and Rose.
"Just say it," Rose demanded, already knowing where he was going, but wanting to hear it straight out.
"You'll die in three maybe four days."