2 Do You Believe in Aliens?

The stunned look of surprise that flashes across Peter's face is all Rose needs to confirm her suspicions. Every moment she spends in this alternate Universe, her unique senses are telling her one thing—it's wrong. Interestingly, those same senses are telling her that Peter is another flavour of wrong. He vibrates at a slightly different frequency to herself and to the environment around them. She's starting to wonder if he might be from that parallel they're so fascinated with and that the gateway that connects to it. How that works out with Walter, who definitely harmonises with this Universe, makes no sense. Hopefully, Peter will enlighten her.

Nodding, but not replying to her assertion, he says, "I have time and Walter made tea. How about you fix yours and I'll go start a pot of coffee."

"I'll share the coffee with you if you don't mind. I'm a little knackered at the moment and tea from bags isn't going to cut it." The sentiment reminds him of his mother. She also despised tea bags and wasn't shy about letting people know it.

"Sure," he says with a little smile, moving to the coffee maker. How could she possibly know he's not from this Universe? Can she see the shimmer like Olivia could? Curiosity is both his and his father's weakness. He has to have her story now, and she's offered it up free of charge. She hasn't been at all threatening, and on instinct, he sort of wants to trust her. It might be just that reminder of Olivia, but Peter feels Rose is a good person. It's too bad that Olivia is in Chicago for the rest of the week visiting Rachel. She isn't going to be pleased that Rose was able to get passed the security, but he'll have more information before he tells her all about it.

Rose moves to lean against the counter that holds the coffee pot where Peter is working. The gorgeous smell of really great coffee already making her feel better. "So, where would you like me to start—the very beginning or just why I'm here?"

Laughing, he replies, "Well assuming that last part will happen toward the end of the entire story, how about you give it all to me. You're inclined to share, and I'm not inclined to only get pieces."

"Fair enough. Do you believe in aliens, Peter Bishop? And I mean the from another planet in another Galaxy variety," she asks him, watching him carefully.

"Ahhh, well, technically yes. I don't believe there is any way with a universe or universes as vast as ours that life could only exist on one planet."

"Good answer. The truth is there are billions and billions of inhabited planets and you'll need to believe that if you're going to believe the rest of my story. How do you feel about time travel since you seem well disposed to the idea of aliens?" Rose is impressed with the open-mindedness of his response; but he is a scientist, so it is more or less expected.

"Well, that one I currently have some experience with, so if those are the hardest to believe parts of your tale, we might be good. Billions, really? You know that for a fact?"

"Yep! A very living, strange, and perfectly wonderful fact. I've met and had dealings with loads of different species, but that gets ahead of the story. Let me start at the beginning. When I was 19…"

—∞—-

"Dimensionally transcendental…," Walter interrupts. "Peter, imagine what I could with that. Pockets that are bigger on the inside…boxes…drawers…closets! Oh…the possibilities! " Walter hunches up in his delight like he's hugging himself internally. He's so cute, Rose giggles at him.

Walter had joined them early on in the story, pulling a rolly-chair over, completing the little circle. He would gasp and coo in comment, but hadn't interrupted until now.

"That's not all, Dr. Bishop. The ship is sentient, too. She translates languages, makes the most amazing cuppa, and more or less safely navigates all of Time and Space," Rose explains with a soft smile of reminiscence.

"In the…Vortex, you called it?" Peter asks.

"Yep."

"Walternate's world had what they called vortexes, but I gather this is different." Peter says thoughtfully.

"I don't really know. The Doctor wouldn't talk about it much. He said the 'how' wasn't important, just that it was there. He mentioned once that the Time Lords opened it, but then he also said they invented Black Holes," Rose says with shrug. "I think it was a type of wormhole that lets you move forwards and back in time, throughout all of it. We've not been able to recreate anythin' like it in our lab. It may be a plane that we just can't access yet, as opposed to a manipulatable force. We'll…most of the time, but I'll get to that in a bit," she says with a smile.

"And the TARDIS accesses it easily?" Walter jumps in. Rose can see the wheels spinning in both Walter and Peter's minds. It's really rather adorable to watch other people thinking so hard for once. She'd spent years doing just that working on the Cannon.

"Yep."

"But she looks like a blue Police Call Box from 1950's England?" Peter asks incredulously.

"Yep! See, She has this thing called a chameleon circuit, but it's broken. The Doctor…," and Rose launches back into her narrative.

—∞—-

"Wait, wait! He regenerated? And you held the Vortex within yourself? Regenerated? What does that mean? I mean I know what I think it means, but this man is an alien—a 900 year old alien! Please, tell you can explain, Tulip?" Walter asks beseechingly.

"Well, I can explain a little. I mean he didn't go into too much detail later and I was freaking out at the time. Afterwards, we got so busy I never thought to ask about it again. I think he kept me busy on purpose."

"Why do you think that, Rose?" Peter asks.

"Don't interrupt her, Peter! I want to know about regeneration!" Walter says in a huff, shooting his son mutinous looks.

"It's okay Dr. Bishop. I promise I'll tell you what I know," she says, reaching out to squeeze Walter's arm where they're folded across his chest.

"Thank you, dear, but you can call me Walter. We're friends now, I think. Friends with a friendly alien…that's nice, but if there's any anal probing, I get a blood sample; fair's fair," he replies, patting her hand.

"I'll call you Walter, as soon as you get my name right, mate; and I'll put a hold on that anal probe, if that's alright with you?" Rose teases him.

Peter snorts in laughter and Rose tries her best to explain how the Doctor didn't like emotional messes and how he ran from them. Dragging her along was a brilliant distraction for both of them, until they ran out of time.

—∞—-

"We have some experience with the integration of man and machine, don't we, Peter? But, I think I'll count ourselves the luckier for not encountering these Cybermen or Daleks. So far all of our oddities have been disappointingly terrestrial in origin, my dear," Walter tells Rose.

"Trust me, Dr. Bishop, you aren't really disappointed," Rose says succinctly.

—∞—-

Walter needs a break eventually, announcing he must urinate before he wets himself again. Upon his return, he decides they all need a break and goes to make popcorn. Going about the familiar task, his mind is awhirl with what he has learned from their guest so far. Hydrangea is completely insane! Total cellular regeneration and cyborgs he can wrap his head around, but the Time Vortex, sentient space ships, looking into the heart of said sentient spaceship to have your wishes granted…ish—c-r-a-z-y crazy!

But this is better than Close Encounters of the Third Kind; and good stories deserve popcorn. Maybe he should do a little more acid; then there would be pictures, too! Deciding against the acid, Walter pulls out his air popper and makes an enormous bowl while Peter and Rose go to the loo. Walter even takes the opportunity to put his trousers back on since they keep whinging about it, but it's only because his legs are getting cold.

Rose returns first and perches back up on her stool. She hasn't told her entire story to anyone since…well, since she first got stranded and started working at Torchwood. Her team needed to know they could trust her, and the story concocted by her father about her origins may have satisfied the press, but members of a super-secret government agency knew better; they needed the truth.

Telling Peter and Walter lightens her emotional load a bit. It's nice to be honest with people, and so far they appear very accepting. She already knows they're FBI, and Walter mentioned a porcupine man, so maybe they've had some experiences that have prepared them for the likes her. As much as they are hanging on her every word, she's just as curious about them.

Peter comes back and immediately hops up on his stool as well. Walter returns with the popcorn and after all three enjoy a hot handful, Walter says, "So we were just to where the Doctor went into the pit and the Ood were being weird. This is so exciting. The Ood brood. The Good, the Ood, and the Ugly." Laughing to himself at his own hilarity, Walter continues munching on popcorn as Rose picks up where she left off.

"This is when the devil, which turned out to be some ancient trapped evil being, possessed a man and prophesied that I would die in battle. In a sense, he was right." Scrubbing her face with her hands, she looks up and smiles at the two men. "It's all downhill from here really. Are you sure you want all the details? I could skip around to the main points."

"That's up to you, Rose. It's obviously upsetting. If it's too much, abridge it for us," Peter offers, sensing Rose's growing tension.

"No, nooooo!" Walter whines. "I want to know everything…all the details. Would you like some of my Brown Betty? It would help relax you?" Walter offers with a mischievous little smile.

"Walter, I don't think Rose is interested in partaking of your weed," Peter replies, rolling his eyes.

"Weed?" Rose asks, unfamiliar with the term.

"His marijuana. He's been growing his own; part of his self medicating," Peter observes, shaking his head affectionately at Walter.

"Oh! No thank you, Walter, but I really appreciate the offer. I'm good," Rose hastens to assure Walter, but is completely uninterested. "This was almost 6 years ago for me; I'm good. Okay, so where was I. Oh, right the end of the adventure on Krop Tor…"

—∞—-

The windows are starting to lighten as Rose gets to telling them about the dimension cannon. She'd glossed over her years on Pete's World. Other than getting a baby brother, and her degrees, everything was very normal and domestic; that is until the stars began going out. Well, she did start the dimension cannon project, defend the Earth from alien invasions periodically and negotiate treaties or help those stranded by the Rift…but everything else…just domestics.

"So we locked onto a strong power source, hoping it was the TARDIS, and I landed here in the hallway," she says, pointing out the door. "I saw all your equipment and knew I was in a lab, but it was your whiteboard that gave me the idea that we might be able to help each other. Some of your equations are very similar to those that started our cannon project."

"A dimension cannon…what an intriguing name. Sounds like it should be exciting and painful. Do you wear brightly coloured spandex?" Walter asks, brightening.

"Ahh, no; no spandex. Sorry, Walter. It was painful to begin with, but I'm getting better at it. No one else can handle it, just me. And the TARDIS knows me, so I am banking on her noticing my return to the correct Universe and helping."

"A sentient space and time ship, now that is far out," Peter says. Raising his hands quickly at the furrow in Rose's brow, he says, "I didn't say I don't believe you. That's just one of the most fantastic points…well, along with a whole host of other ones. Anyway, how do you think we can help each other?"

"Well, I think that completely depends on your story, Peter Bishop. How about you dazzle me with your impossible tale over breakfast?" she asserts, grinning winningly at him.

At Rose's innocent invitation, Walter's head whips up, startled. Moving rapidly, he places himself between Peter and Rose, forcing Peter to back up a couple of steps.

"Walter? Walter! What are you doing?" Peter asks, trying not to trip over his stool.

"You will not ensnare my son with your alien vagenda, Begonia! He is going to marry Olivia and live happily ever after. Down, you harpy!" Raising his hands above his head, Walter threatens Rose with a whisk.

Rose was off of her stool and poised behind it as soon as Walter moved so quickly towards her. Eyes wide and mouth slightly agape at his tirade, she stares at him for a moment. Her eyes flitting back and forth between father and son as Peter tries to wrestle the whisk away from Walter before he hurts himself or anyone else, admonishing him the whole time for being ridiculous. Finally, she can't contain it any longer and bursts into gales of laughter, clutching her sides and hanging on to the counter.

Both men freeze in surprise at her outburst. Walter abruptly lets go of the whisk and turns away, embarrassed. Peter is uncertain what to do, worry about his father's violent moment or that Rose just came unhinged.

Gasping for breath, Rose reaches out a hand to Walter, and tries to explain between pants. "Oi, I needed that! Walter, 'm sorry. Really…please…"-giggle- "so sorry. Vagenda? Really? I can't believe you thought I was makin' a move on Peter. I'd assumed you'd come along…it's breakfast, you daft man. People do go out to breakfast in alternate Americas don't they?"

"Well, you…you were flirting," Walter says gruffly, uncomfortable with the scrutiny and the teasing when it's at his expense.

"Walter, why do you think she's leaping through dimensions looking so hard for the Doctor?" Peter asks his father, now that he realises what the problem was.

"Because the stars are going out and apparently he's the only one who can stop it. I was paying attention, Peter," Walter snaps indignantly. His brain may not be exactly as it once was, but he's the genius in the room thank you, and he doesn't like talking about people who may be smarter than him. People…aliens. Maybe it's okay if they're alien. He'll have to ponder that one.

"Yes, I know you were," Peter says with infinite patience and his little smile. "But it's more than that for her, she's in love with him and she's desperate to be reunited. Am I right?" he asks, glancing over to Rose. The stunned expression says enough, even before her slow nod.

"Sound familiar, Walter?" Peter asks, turning back to his dad. "I recognised what Rose wasn't saying between what she was telling us because it's exactly like what I went through for Olivia. I only just got her back. I wish the same for you, Rose. I really do. I couldn't stand the thought of her not being in my life, but it all worked out. We're good," he finishes, flashing a grin at Rose that chases the moment's melancholy from his face.

Looking sheepish for his outburst, Walter pats Peter on the shoulder. "Yes, yes, you are right." Turning to Rose, he nods his head at her and gives her a hesitant smile, "I'm sorry, Rosebud. You two go have breakfast. This old fool needs a little rest. I'll have a nap. Astro's off today, so don't hurry back." Hunching into himself a little, he shuffles off to his room. Both Rose and Peter watch him go, feeling equally bad for him.

Shaking himself, Peter pivots back toward Rose. "Sorry about that; it's been a really difficult couple of months and he isn't always strong," he says, apologising for his father.

"Understood. It's alright, really. You should hear my mum when she's on a tear! She can pin your ears back with a look, she can," Rose tells him, brightening the room with her tongue touched grin.

"Ha! I bet. So, feel like breakfast at Boston's best and not so famous diner down the street?" Peter asks as he picks up his jacket heading for the door.

"Boston? Is that where I am? Well, fancy that! Anywhere that we can talk, has good coffee, and preferably chips…um french fries, sounds great. Lead on." Grabbing her pack and placing her stunner in it, she follows Peter out of the lab, through the corridors, and past a couple of surprised federal agents into a gorgeous early Spring morning.

A/N: I finished writing this story and it is 6 chapters! I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. :-)

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