Domestics and Divisions

Thanks for the reviews! Lectures start tomorrow but I've not got the most stressful timetable in the world this semester so hopefully I'll be able to keep on going with the weekly updates. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me

Part three: A Trip Out

Rose felt a lump in her throat as she stared at her lover. She hadn't seen the jacket since the Doctor had regenerated and she hasn't realised just how much she'd missed it.

"Rose?" the Doctor asked in concern.

She slid her arms around him, underneath the jacket like she used to, and clung onto him. The Doctor stroked her hair after working out what was wrong. "I'm sorry," he whispered, "I didn't realise you were still that attached,"

"Neither did I," she mumbled,

"Do you want me to take it off?" he asked her gently.

Rose shook her head. "No," she said quietly, "I like it. I was just a bit shocked to see it again,"

"OK," the Doctor nodded, pressing a kiss to her lips, "You know it's only a piece of clothing though. It's…"

"Still you inside. You're still the same man," Rose completed with a smile, "I know,"

"Good," the Doctor smiled back, "You ready to go then?"

"Yeah," Rose nodded, glancing at her friends who were looking a little puzzled as to why she'd gotten so upset over a simple leather jacket. She smiled weakly at them before returning her gaze to her lover. "Let's go. I've already said goodbye to Mum and told her who to give all my stuff to in case we die,"

"Cheeky!" the Doctor said, nudging her, "C'mon then."

She grinned before climbing up behind him, putting her pink helmet on and wrapping her arms around his waist. The Doctor kicked the engine into life before following Scott and Danyal out of the Estate. They cruised along the streets for a while until they hit the motorway.

"Let's go!" Scott yelled from up front. He stepped down on his accelerator and roared off down the motorway, closely followed by Danyal and the Doctor. Kirsty, Lauren and Rose clung on tightly and screamed with delight, laughing and waving at each other on this ultimate thrill ride.

"Faster!" Rose told the Doctor excitedly, pressing against his back, her long hair streaming out behind them,

"Your wish is my command," the Doctor shouted back, upping their speed.

As a result of their speed- which they hoped hasn't gotten them any speeding tickets- the six of them made it to the big shop within the hour. They parked and then went their separate ways, making arrangements to meet up at lunchtime. The girls went straight to the bridal wear area and spent ages oohing and ahhing over potential wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses for her bridesmaids, whom Rose had yet to meet.

"So, Rose," Kirsty asked from inside the changing room, "What was going on earlier with the Doctor's leather jacket?"

Rose let out a sigh and leant against the wall. "You know when I explained to you about regeneration and showed you what he looked like when I first met him? Well, that was his jacket."

Lauren put an arm around her shoulders, her face creased with sympathy. Rose had told them the whole story about what had happened and how she'd felt when he'd changed in front of her eyes. "Did he not realise?" she asked softly.

Rose shook her head. "I think he thought I'd be over pining over a stupid item of clothing. I thought I was too. Guess it shows what a big baby I am and why he doesn't want to marry me,"

"Rose! Don't be silly," Kirsty scolded, "You know he doesn't think you're a baby otherwise he wouldn't take you with him in your adventures!" She was silent for a moment before speaking again, "OK, I'm ready. What do you think?" She pulled back the curtain and smiled nervously at her best friends.

"Oh, Kirsty! You look wonderful!" Lauren squealed, leaping up and circling her friend.

Rose simply stared at her. Her heart ached. She wanted to be the vision in white. She held her breath to stop the tears coming and hoarsely said, "You look beautiful, Kirsty. Is this the one?"

"Maybe," Kirsty nodded, "I'm gonna try on the others as well just to make sure but its definitely going on the high possibility pile."

Rose nodded. Great; just what she wanted. More wedding dresses.

Lauren noticed her expression. "Hey, why don't you try on a wedding dress, Rose?" she suggested, "Just for fun?"

"Oh, I dunno," Rose said hesitating,

"Go on!" her friends encouraged her.

She gave a grin. "OK," she nodded, "Come and help me pick on, Lauren?"

Her friend nodded and together they re-entered the bridal wear department.

Fifteen minutes later, Rose slipped a satiny dress over her head, adjusted the fastenings and then looked at herself in the full length mirror. She felt tears come to her eyes.

"Bloody hell, Rose!" Kirsty swore, "Outshine me, why don't you?"

Rose gave a weak giggle.

"The Doctor is a fool," Lauren nodded, "You look incredible, Rose,"

"Thanks," she replied softly, "I…"

She was cut off suddenly by screaming coming from… well, everywhere.

"Look!" Kirsty gasped, pointing behind her, her face white,

"What are they?" Lauren wailed.

Rose glanced at her reflection in the mirror and felt her stomach drop unpleasantly. Behind her, outside the changing area, she could see… ghosts, for lack of a better word. They were humanoid in shape but didn't seem to have any features. Instead, they were a sort of silvery liquidly form and gave Rose a bad feeling.

"They're outside too!" Lauren yelled from the window,

"Do you know what they are, Rose?" Kirsty asked, a note of fright in her voice, "Are they aliens?"

She shook her head. "I've never seen them before. I think we should go and find the…"

She was cut off again by her friends exclamations as the 'ghosts' suddenly disappeared before their very eyes.

"Where've they gone?" asked Lauren in a whisper.

Rose and Kirsty shrugged, joining her at the window. In the car park below, a group of people were huddled together, talking tensely.

"You… you don't think it was ghosts, do you?" Kirsty whispered nervously,

"Nah," Rose said dismissively, "The Doctor says ghosts don't exist. Everything has a logical explanation,"

"An alien then?" Lauren suggested, her voice less shaky now,

"Maybe," Rose said, "I've never seen them before. Come on; it's probably best if we find the Doctor,"

"No need, I'm already here," announced a familiar voice.

Rose turned to grin at her lover but her smile slowly slipped off her face at his expression. He was standing stock still, staring at her. "What?" she asked nervously,

"I thought it was Kirsty getting married," he said, gesturing to her dress,

"Oh…" Rose muttered, blushing. She'd forgotten that she had it on,

"And who may I ask are you marrying 'cause I know it's not me," the Doctor continued.

Rose saw her friends wince on her behalf as she felt an unpleasant sensation in her stomach. So that confirmed that then. The Doctor didn't want to marry her. Trying not to cry, she answered the Doctor. "It was just a bit of fun," she mumbled, "Just thought I'd try one on while we were waiting,"

"OK," the Doctor said cheerfully, unaware of the pain he was putting her through, "Well, I need you to take it off and get dressed again as quickly as possible. We need to go back to London,"

"OK," Rose nodded, springing into the changing room, hoping to take her mind off her heart, "Do you have any idea what those things were?"

"Nope," the Doctor replied, following her and sticking his head through the curtain. "Rose," he said, "Just so you know, you look absolutely breathtaking in that dress. I've never seen you look so beautiful before; and that's saying something."

Rose beamed at him and he smiled back before leaving her to get dressed. Two minutes later she was ready and, after an apologetic goodbye to her friends, she hurried out of the building and climbed onto the back of the motorcycle. The Doctor kicked the bike into life and they roared off.

If they hadn't got any speeding tickets on the way there, they certainly would have on the way home. Although, as the Doctor said, the licence plate on the bike was entirely fake so any tickets they did incur would never reach them. They got back to the TARDIS in forty five minutes and soon were inside, clustered around the console, discussing the events with Jack. He had been out with Matt but had raced back to the TARDIS as soon as the ghosts had disappeared.

"So, they appeared roughly fifty five minutes ago," the Doctor concluded, pulling some equipment out, "Rose, can you go and stand by the door and tell me immediately if they appear again?" At her nod, he said, "Thanks, love. Jack, give me a hand with this, will you?"

The ex-time agent nodded. "What are you trying to do?" he questioned as he picked up four cones,

"This device will trap one of the ghosts if they reappear and it'll tell us where they're coming from," the Doctor briefly explained, "You checked out Torchwood the other day, didn't you? It couldn't be them messing, could it?"

"I didn't see anything suspicious," Jack said, "Everything seemed as normal as life inside Torchwood can be. They've started using a new floor way up in the building but Yvonne said that's because of overcrowding. Ianto's been promoted to Torchwood Three in Cardiff by the way. I'm going to go and see him soon,"

"Good for him," the Doctor muttered busily. He had liked the shy Welshman who had helped them out a lot in their run-in with Torchwood and the Master two years ago.

Jack grinned and followed the Doctor out of the TARDIS and helped him set up a strange contraption. As the Time Lord disappeared back inside, Jack noticed Rose looked a bit pensive.

"Hey, are you alright, honey?" he asked her, leaning against the side of their spaceship,

"Hmm? Oh, yeah," she nodded, forcing a smile. To be honest, she wasn't. She was still reeling from the Doctor's earlier comment. Did he really not want to marry her? She felt Jack studying her closely and soon his arm draped around her shoulders, pulling her in to him.

"You know where I am if you want to talk at any time," he whispered.

Rose nodded, turning around in his embrace. She remembered what her friends had suggested about discussing her worries with Jack. "I think I might take you up on that," she mumbled, "But the Doctor can't know,"

"OK," Jack nodded, keeping his voice low, "Tell you what. We'll go out for a walk as soon as we can and then you can tell me what's on your mind." He was glad that she seemed to finally be opening up. He'd been worried about her lately as she'd been as closed up as her namesake in early spring.

Rose smiled up at him before starting as the Doctor suddenly appeared again.

"Alright then!" he cried, "Next sighting is due any second now if they return after exactly one hour. Rose I need you to press some switches for me when I say so." He took her hand and led her inside over to the console, "Soon as the cones activate, if that line goes into the red, press that button there. If it doesn't stop…" He handed her the sonic screwdriver, "Setting fifteen B, hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop,"

"Fifteen B, eight seconds," Rose repeated, with a nod,

"If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left…"

"Hang on a minute, I know," Rose interrupted, eager to try and impress him. "It's that one?" she questioned, pointing at a turn dial,

"Close," the Doctor grinned,

"That one?" she guessed, pointing at another.

The Doctor grimaced. "No, you've just killed us…"

Rose giggled. "Er… that one?"

"Yeah!" the Doctor said happily, "Now, what have we got, eight seconds to go? Get ready, Rose." He raced outside again. "Jack, it's five seconds before n plus one hour,"

"Ready!" he called back, his eyes trained on his watch, "Four…three…two…one…"

He and the Doctor both looked up expectantly but there was nothing. The Doctor's face fell.

"Oh…" he muttered but suddenly screams erupted from all over as the ghost-like creatures appeared again. "Rose, now!" the Doctor bellowed.

He started running around the four cones, briefly attaching the plunger end of what Jack thought looked extraordinarily like a Dalek's sucker. "What's the line doing?" the Doctor yelled into Rose,

"It's alright, it's holding!" she shouted back.

The Doctor nodded to himself, carefully watching the cones. "Here we go," he called,

"Scanners working!" Rose said, "It says 'delta one six'!"

The Doctor straightened up. "Come on then, you beauty!" he grinned manically. Jack chuckled just to see him. His mouth suddenly dropped open as one of the creatures appeared in a sort of dome of light, swaying slightly from side to side. He then looked towards the Doctor who had put on a pair of 3D glasses on and was intently studying the creature before he suddenly dropped to the ground and twisted a dial on a small box attached to the ring of cones. It started beeping, tracking down the source of the creatures. The Doctor chuckled as the trapped creature began wriggling around. "Look at that! Don't like that much, do you? Who are you? Where are you coming from…?" he muttered, "…Whoa!" The Doctor leapt back as the creature suddenly seemed to swing out at him, "Now that's more like it! Not so friendly now, are you?"

Jack raised his eyebrows as he listened to the creature grunt as it writhed in its prison before it melted away.

"Jack, come on!" the Doctor bellowed, running around and collecting in the cones. Jack hastened to help before bundling into the TARDIS, grabbing onto a rail as the Doctor activated the ship.

"I said so! Those ghosts are being forced into existence from one specific point and I can track down the source. Allons y!" he cried out as he released the brake and fell backwards onto the captain's chair with Rose. He smiled at her, kissing her head as they landed before leaping up again energetically, "Right, let's see who's been messing with things they don't understand," he growled, his face suddenly grim.

Jack and Rose exchanged a glance before following him outside, hearing his gasp of recognition before seeing where they were or noticing the rows of armed guards surrounding them, headed by the familiar figure of Yvonne Hartman.

"Torchwood?" the Doctor said, "You're doing this?"

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