Domestics and Divisions

I know. I get the lousy author award. Sorry; real life took over these past two weeks what with visits home and deadlines and writer's block. But it's here now and hopefully, I'll get the next chapter up next weekend! Thanks for the reviews for last chapter and hope you enjoy this one.

Disclaimer: Nothing that you might recognise belongs to me.

Part 9: Gwen

Rose hurried as fast as she could down the long corridors of Torchwood. The words 'alternate Earth' ringing in her ears. It couldn't be. There was no way. It was entirely impossible. She shouldn't get her hopes up. But all the same, a tiny flame of hope had ignited in her heart. What if it was true?

She skidded around the corner and arrived outside of the room that the aide had told her to come to. Her father, Pete, was waiting just outside of the door, a grim look on his face.

"Dad?" she asked hopefully.

Pete shrugged and put his arm around her shoulders, steering her away into a side office. He knew what this could mean to his daughter.

"Don't get your hopes up, Rose," he gently cautioned her, "But she is saying she's not from this Earth. She took one look outside of the window and seemed confused about the airships,"

"What if she is from my Earth, Dad?" Rose asked quietly, "It would mean there's a way back home for me. A way back to the Doctor."

Pete embraced her. "I'll keep everything crossed for you, sweetheart," he told her, "I think it would be best if you went and spoke to her. She's in the next room. I'll come in and oversee of course."

Rose nodded. "Thanks," she whispered before leading the way out of the room. She took a deep breath, before entering the next room to see a thin woman of medium height with short brown hair. She looked vaguely recognisable.

"Gwen Cooper?" Rose asked, moving over and shaking her hand, "I'm Rose Tyler. I work here,"

"Hello," Gwen said, somewhat nervously.

Rose noted the Welsh accent. She'd always had a special fondness for it since she started travelling with the Doctor.

"Where am I?" Gwen questioned, "I've asked but no-one seems to tell me anything,"

"You're in London, Earth." Rose said quietly,

"But what's with all the airships?" Gwen asked, gesturing out of the window, "And what am I doing in London? Last thing I remember I was in the base in Cardiff examining this artefact…" She held up a round metal contraption, "…and then suddenly I was here. I'd experienced some weird things with Torchwood but this tops them all,"

"Wait, you work for Torchwood?" Rose asked, startled,

"Yeah. Torchwood three in Cardiff," Gwen answered slowly, "Is this the London branch? I thought it was still shut down after the Battle of Canary Wharf."

Rose's mouth went very dry. Now, she knew where she'd seen Gwen before. "What was the Battle of Canary Wharf?" she enquired, just to make sure although she had an inkling.

Gwen looked at her like she was mad. "When the Cybermen invaded five years ago," she said, "The battle centred in Canary Wharf. Surely you remember?"

Rose nodded slowly. Oh, she remembered all too well. "Gwen," she said in a croaky voice, "You're on a parallel world but you're from my Earth; oh God, you're from my home!"

Gwen just looked at her oddly. "What do you mean I'm on a parallel world?"

"Just imagine that there are a whole set of universes, all containing similar aspects," Pete intervened, seeing that Rose wasn't able to speak right at that moment, "All of them have a planet Earth in them but there are differences between the Earths. Maybe their traffic lights are red, amber and green rather than black, white and blue or maybe they had airships in the skies…"

Gwen's mouth opened. "So, you're saying that somehow I've ended up on a different Earth to my own?"

"Yeah," Rose whispered, "And I'm pretty certain that you're from my Earth." She took a deep breath. "I'm trapped here. I fell through a hole in the universe three years ago, leaving my lover and my best friend behind." She blinked back her tears. "I've been unable to get back but now you've got through… there might be a chance,"

"I'm sorry," Gwen replied quietly, her heart aching at the pain on the other woman's face, "I don't know how I got here. Like I said, I was just messing with this, trying to work out what it was and somehow I ended up here."

Rose stood up and took the object she held out. It was dark in colour, small and round with ridges on each side.

"We don't know what it is," Gwen said, "It's been puzzling us for weeks. God knows Jack's been fiddling with it enough and if he doesn't know what it does, then nobody will."

Rose nodded, not really paying much attention as she stared at the contraption. Could this be the key back to her Doctor?

"Rose?"

Pete's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"We need to get going, Rose," he continued once he had her attention, "The party…"

Rose nodded. "You go on ahead, Dad. Tell them I'm coming,"

"Your mother won't like it," he warned,

"She'll understand," Rose shrugged, "I won't be long."

Her father sighed and nodded. "Be quick. It's already late,"

"OK," she agreed as he swept out of the room. She turned to look at Gwen. "Sorry. It's my friend's birthday tonight and we're having a meal at our house,"

"I don't mean to keep you…" Gwen said awkwardly,

"Its fine," Rose dismissed, placing the object on the desk in front of her, "So, you said you're from Torchwood Three in Cardiff?"

"Yeah," Gwen nodded uncertainly, "Apparently on a parallel world." She stopped suddenly. "Am I ever going to be able to get home?"

Rose smiled sadly. "For both of our sakes, Gwen, I hope so."

Gwen nodded slowly. "They'll be wondering where I've gone," she whispered, "I'll just have disappeared right in front of their eyes… Oh God, Rhys…"

"Who's Rhys?" Rose prompted gently, knowing first hand how difficult it was to talk about people you've lost,

"My boyfriend," Gwen smiled; deep sadness on her face, "He's gorgeous. What if I never see him again?"

"Gwen," Rose said, quickly getting up and hugging her, "You will see him again. I'll make sure of it. We're both gonna see our guys again."

Gwen smiled. "Who'd you lose?" she asked carefully,

"The Doctor," she sighed, "I met him after he saved my life and we travelled around for a couple of years. Then he thought it was too dangerous for me and left me back at home for a year. I was so furious with him." She smiled sadly in remembrance. "But then he came back for me and we admitted we were in love and we'd been together for five years before we got split up. That was three years ago now,"

"I'm sorry," Gwen said sympathetically, "I hope you can get back to him,"

"Me too," Rose smiled sadly, "My baby's never met his Daddy."

Shock was clear on Gwen's face. ""You had a child with this man?"

Rose nodded, not really understanding why she was telling all this to an almost complete stranger. "I was pregnant when I got trapped. I just didn't know it yet. In retrospect, I should have. I was crazy back then; my emotions were all over the place. One of my friends was pregnant at the same time and she told me I could be but I didn't think there was any chance." She shrugged. "Anyway, I better get back to him- that's Jonny, my little boy." She thought for a moment. "It's probably best if you come back with me. The holding cells here aren't the nicest of places and it's not like you've done anything wrong."

Gwen smiled gratefully. "Thanks. If your cells are anything like ours, I'll be glad not to have to stay there."

Rose grinned back. "You're gonna have to tell me more about your Torchwood but first let's go home."

"Rose, you shouldn't have brought her home!" Pete said sternly, "She should've stayed in the cells while we check her over. You could get into trouble for this."

Rose sighed. It was an hour later and after Rose had sorted Jonny and Gwen out, Pete had taken her aside to speak to her.

"I know, Dad. I'm sorry. I just didn't want to leave her there on her own." She shuffled around awkwardly. "Plus if she's my route back to the Doctor, then I want to keep her around. I can't lose this chance, Dad, I just can't!"

"I know, sweetheart," Pete sighed, wrapping his adoptive daughter in a hug, "Look, tomorrow I want you to stay off work and talk to Gwen here and try and work things out. See how she got here, alright?"

"Yeah, Dad," Rose promised with a smile, "Thanks,"

"You're welcome. Now, I think a certain birthday boy's waiting for his presents," Pete grinned.

Rose giggled. "Can't keep Mickey waiting any longer. Let's go."

Rose spent the rest of the evening celebrating Mickey's birthday with him, his girlfriend, her family and Gwen. The Welsh woman was very quiet and only joined in things if she was pushed but Rose understood. She knew how confusing it was to suddenly end up in a world that looked almost exactly the same as your own but it was completely different.

The next morning, after everyone had groaned their way through their hangovers and crawled their way to work or wherever they were going, Rose sat down in the deserted lounge with Gwen. They chattered idly for a while before Rose decided to get down to business.

"So, tell me exactly what happened before you got transported here," she requested.

Gwen frowned as she thought. "I'd finished my work up and Jack asked me to have a look at that object," she said, nodding towards the contraption that lay on the coffee table in front of them, "Oh, Jack's my boss, by the way. He's the head of Torchwood three and he's gorgeous. Bit of a mysterious guy to be honest but we all like him, even Owen,"

"Why's he mysterious?" Rose asked, sighing internally. She missed her Jack,

"Well, it's kind of odd really," Gwen replied, "He came to us five years ago when we were being attacked by this… thing… called Abaddon. He was apparently friends with one of the team- a guy named Ianto- and Ianto called him up for help and he came. But the odd thing is, Jack died but then he came back to life." She looked over at Rose and was alarmed to see her deathly pale, "Rose, what's the matter?"

Rose couldn't believe it. It couldn't be… "This Jack… is he Jack Harkness… is this him? Is this your boss?" she garbled, yanking out her phone and finding a photo of her and Jack, "Gwen, please tell me this is your Jack."

Gwen took the mobile curiously and paled herself. "Yes… that's Jack… how do you know him, Rose?"

"That's my Jack!" Rose said, "He's my best friend. He travelled around with me and the Doctor and I loved him to bits."

Gwen was staring at her. "I thought I recognised you," she said slowly, "The first time we ever met Jack; it was about seven years ago when someone opened the rift. You were there with Jack and some other guy…"

"The Doctor!" Rose smiled, "It was during the Mr. Saxon fiasco, right?"

"Yeah," Gwen agreed, "Oh God, this is such a coincidence!"

"You're telling me!" Rose laughed, "How is he?"

"Well, he seems fine to me," Gwen pondered, "I've always thought he's been searching for something or someone. I guess that's you. How did you get split up?"

"He went off to help you fight the Abaddon on the day I was trapped here," Rose replied before frowning, "Did the Doctor never go back and pick him up?"

Gwen suddenly looked awkward. "He did," she said, "But it was when Jack was dead."

Rose's frown deepened and Gwen hastened to carry on. "He was killed destroying the Abaddon like I mentioned before," she stated, "We all thought he was dead 'cause even in our line of work, you don't come across people who can rise from the dead. The Doctor came by the day after. God, Rose, I still get chills thinking about his face when we told him and showed him Jack. He looked like a man who had lost everything. I remember he seemed confused and he did some tests on Jack much to our confusion but eventually he gave up and left. Then, a day of two later, Jack was suddenly alive again." Her face sobered completely. "He was devastated when we told him the Doctor thought he was dead. He's been searching and waiting for him ever since but there's not had a peep."

Rose sighed, tears in her eyes. "Poor Jack," she whispered, "I need to get back to him."

Gwen nodded solemnly. "I honestly think he needs you too, Rose. He's spoken about you in his quiet moments sometimes and I know he misses you and the Doctor. I just didn't realise it was you at first- didn't believe it, more like." She broke off awkwardly. "I think he thinks you're dead."

Rose nodded determinedly. "Then let's find out how this rift crosser thing works and make him happy again. Make us all happy again." She picked it up and started fiddling with it. "Right, show me as far as you can remember what you did," she instructed.

"What… what were you thinking about?" Rose questioned after about five minutes of nothing happening.

To her surprise, Gwen blushed. "I was thinking of Jack," she admitted, "Wishing I could help him somehow. He'd been a bit quiet just before and it makes me sad."

Rose smiled inwardly. Did her new friend hold a candle for her best friend?

"Could that be it?" she asked, trying to exhaust all of the possibilities, "Try doing whatever you were doing and thinking the same thing." She watched Gwen, keeping one hand on her arm just in case.

Suddenly, there was a flash of bright light and Rose felt a violent pulling sensation all over her body. She tried to scream but couldn't move a muscle. The next thing she knew, she was staring at the Millennium centre.

"We're back!" Gwen cried happily, "It worked!"

Rose stared around her, her heart thudding. She was really back in her own universe again? In the Doctor's universe?

Back in the other universe, Jonny woke up from his nap at his day care centre and starting howling.

Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received.