Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The BBC owns all, I am merely borrowing.
Spoilers: Through Season Three.

It was a glorious day in tabloid history when Jackie Tyler returned from the grave accompanied by a daughter no one had ever seen before. The headlines practically wrote themselves. The rumors of love trysts, secret adoptions and partial cyber implants abounded. Sales tripled and careers were made on every new tidbit of information.

The staff were well aware that Jackie Tyler had resurfaced a changed woman. In fact, her first order of business had been to learn all their names. Suddenly she liked making her own tea, had a fondness for television in the afternoon and couldn't fathom why there was a man dedicated to taking her coat. She had even made an attempt at gossiping with one of the laundry maids. The poor girl promptly fainted.

Since then Mrs. Tyler appeared to have readjusted. She insisted on making her own tea, but handed over her coat with a smile. Still, elaborate floral arrangements made her head spin.

"I just don't understand why it has to be so tall," she commented while appraising a towering display of orchids. Sighing, Jackie turned to find her daughter slowly walking down the main staircase. "Rose! There you are."

Rose continued down the stairs, her gaze focused on something only she could see.

"Rose?" Jackie raised her voice. "You all right, sweetheart?"

Rose looked up with a start and shook her head to clear it. "Fine. I'm fine. How's the party coming?"

"Oh, lovely." Jackie gestured at the floral display. "Still not used to all the preparations though. Who'd of thought a little get together could be so bleedin' complicated."

"It looks great, Mum." Rose tried to smile.

Jackie narrowed her eyes and scrutinized her daughter. "You sure you're all right?"

"Yeah. Course I am. Just excited about the party. Can I help with anythin'?"

"It's all taken care of. You can find Pete, though. Guest'll be here any minute and I haven't seen him for hours."

Rose nodded and started off in the direction of Pete's workshop. Initially she had found navigating the lengthy corridors of the mansion a daunting task, despite her previous experience with a ship that was bigger on the inside. Of course, she had been significantly distracted in the beginning. Before that day on the beach. Before she said goodbye and learned that some things really were impossible.

But now she had seen him. She had been close enough to touch him. Her Doctor. She suspected it was the result of too many late nights at work and the fact that she had skipped tea. Yet, it had seemed so real. She could have counted every freckle. No dream had ever been like that. Everything was always blurred at the edges, half constructed from fading memories. She had been able to see every strand of his unruly hair.

As her thoughts wandered so did her feet and she found herself lost for the first time in years. She couldn't remember ever being in this hallway, if that was even possible. There was an alcove carved into the wall and Rose stepped forward to take a closer look. For a moment she forgot how to breathe. Sequestered in the alcove was an exquisitely detailed bronze statue of a wolf. She stumbled backwards and ran out of the hallway, only stopping when she was sure she could no longer see it.

First the Doctor and now a wolf she must have overlooked a thousand times. Party or not, she should probably change her heels for something more suited to running. As soon as she was capable of thinking clearly, Pete stepped out of his workshop and into the hallway. It turned out she hadn't been as lost as she had thought.

"Mum's looking for you. Party's about to start."

"Right." Pete offered her his arm. "Better hurry, then, eh?"

By now Rose was used to the glances and halted conversations that plagued her at gatherings of this sort. Despite her origins, she was now the Vitex heiress and a high ranking official in a top secret organization. Most people were terrified of her and just a few were merely timid. If it hadn't been her mother's birthday she would have engineered a plausible excuse and spent the evening elsewhere. Wandering among the guests, she couldn't help but remember her first party in this house. Pretending to be staff and trying to piece together the relationship of a Jackie and a Pete that were never hers. So much had changed since then. So many things were different. So many things the Doctor didn't know and she had thought it would stay that way. She had long stopped considering what she would say to him, how she would explain things.

She was in the midst of sipping her third glass of champagne and beginning to feel better about her impending situation, when she bumped into a man. She turned to apologize, but stopped short when she discovered it wasn't a bloke at all. At least not a human one. It was definitely alien and sort of blue with rather more eyes than seemed strictly necessary. She stepped back and the shocked cries from the partygoers alerted her that there were more of them. A lot more. The guests immediately started to panic, but the blue aliens weren't paying them any attention. Instead, they were opening drawers, rifling through papers and examining every object in the room. She saw a few break away and head off into other areas of the mansion. Rose pushed her way through the rapidly dispersing crowd, heading toward the windows and the closest phone. She lifted the receiver and pressed the speed dial button she knew went straight to Torchwood headquarters.

"Protocol 28. This is Rose Tyler." She lowered her voice as two of the aliens passed nearby. "They're looking for something. You'd better hurry."

She put down the phone and tried to think of what they could possibly be looking for in the mansion. Pete had long since left Torchwood for his first love of inventing and she never brought anything from work home. Just in case something like this happened. She bit her lip to stifle a laugh as she noticed Pete trying to stop her mum from pummeling one of the aliens.

That's when she heard it. For the second time that night the TARDIS was materializing in the universe to which it did not belong. Rose held her breath as the familiar blue box stabilized with a bang on the other side of the room. The door opened slowly and the Doctor stepped out.

Somehow he looked older than when he had visited her earlier that evening. There were deep circles under eyes and his skin was frighteningly pale. His hair was carelessly ruffled and he was wearing a blue suit she had never seen before. Everything about his stance radiated tension and he appeared more than a little bewildered by his arrival.

As soon as he stepped forward, Jackie slapped him. The Doctor stumbled, his back colliding with the TARDIS door. Jackie followed him, prodding his chest with an accusatory finger. "I don't know what's goin' on, but I bet it's your fault."

"But-but I just got here. It couldn't possibly be my--" The Doctor halted mid-sentence as his gaze drifted across the chaos and then stopped. "Rose."

It was only a whisper, but she heard it. She was on the opposite side of the room, a hysteric crowd and hostile aliens between them, and still she heard him. She had always been amazed at the myriad of implications he could coax out of the simple pronunciation of her name. This time she could hear the depth of his loss and his quiet hope that this might be real. The Doctor walked straight through the havoc, his eyes never leaving her face. As soon as he was close enough, he reached out and took her hand.

"Oh, this is definitely not what I planned on saying first. But I suppose it will have to do." He smiled then, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Rose Tyler...run."