Same Face, Different Person
The following morning, Jared and Rose knocked softly on the other bedroom door, then opened it to find Jackie huddled on one of the two beds, tear tracks adding punctuation to her lost, frightened expression. Her face crumpled as Rose dashed across to gather her up, the tears coming faster. "It's all right, Mum, I swear. I'm going to get you home safe. I promise, Mum, I promise," Rose murmured over and over, rocking Jackie back and forth in the reversal of their birth roles. Watching, Jared was struck by how strong and mature Rose had become in the few short years he'd known her – and even more so since their separation. That she hadn't also become hard and heartless was quite possibly miraculous.
Her tears finally slowing, Jackie pulled back a bit to look her daughter in the face. "For the record," she snuffled, "You were right. I shouldn't have come after you. I'm not cut out for this. I just want to go home..."
"You will, Mum. I swear it. I'll – we'll have you back home to Pete and Tony just as fast as we can."
Jared had taken the last steps, too, and perched on the edge of the mattress. He put a hand on Jackie's shoulder, silently nodding his promise, too. She looked at him seriously for a beat, then told them with quiet steel, "Please don't take this personally, Jared, you know I don't mean you. But I think I hate the Doctor more now than I did when he disappeared with my girl for a whole year and then just waltzed back in like nothing had happened." She turned back to Rose. "And you wouldn't explain, neither of you – and then you just went off again with him. And kept doing it. And even kept chasing him from Pete's World. And look what happened. He just waltzed off again, and didn't even check to make sure he had the right world."
This was coming much too close to the wound in Rose's heart. She looked beyond her Mum, staring at the wall and biting her lip – but she didn't argue, and didn't turn away.
It was Jared who turned, moving abruptly across to stand by the window, staring motionless out through the lace curtains at his own tortured thoughts. The conversation didn't really resume behind him; there was nothing more to say.
A short time later he felt her presence beside him, her warm hand creeping into his own. He glanced down at them, and changed the clasp to intertwine their fingers again, wanting to set his own stamp on things. Same, but different. When he finally looked into her eyes, she gave him a tiny nod to acknowledge it.
Wanting a bit of a diversion, she reached into her curiosity. "Teach me to say your real name. Please? I want to learn it."
She'd somehow put her finger right on the pulse of his thoughts. Taking a sudden deep breath, he shook his head, the decision crystallizing at that moment. At the idea which appeared on its heels, he dug into his pockets, coming up with a scrap of paper (the shop receipt for the lotion two days before) and a pencil. He turned and pulled her back over to the beds, pushing her gently onto the one across from Jackie and kneeling down beside tiny table between them. With both of them watching in puzzlement over his shoulder, he silently scribbled out a very long word – his real name, they realized from the first few letters. A beat, and then he also wrote "Doctor" underneath it, impulsively underscoring each name twice. Then, looking at each of them to check their comprehension, he pulled a book of matches out of his pocket, lit one, and then picked up the scrap and set it alight, watching it burn to ashes.
"From this moment on, those aren't my names. I'm Jared Wolfe." He looked directly at Rose. "Don't ever call me Doctor again. That's him, not me."
She nodded solemnly, gently touching his shoulder.
He looked the other way and collected Jackie's nod, too. Then she focused in on Rose's left hand on his shoulder for a moment, then dropped her eyes to her own hands. Carefully slipping her wedding rings off her finger, she separated out the plain gold band and held it across the gap to Rose. "This is a loan, mind – I want it back when we get home."
Rose blushed, then reached for the proffered piece of her disguise – but Jackie pulled her hand back at the last second, then handed the ring to Jared, instead. He took it, his expression misty, then turned to look his love at Rose, taking her hand and slipping it on her finger. Neither spoke a word. A long, double heartbeat – and then she leaned over and kissed him tenderly.
Jackie sighed. "I wish we had some champagne!" That broke the couple up, laughing, and Jared lurched to his feet – leaning over and smooching Jackie's cheek on his way up.
Before another word was said, the boy was knocking on the door to stow them away in the truck that was to carry them on the next leg of their journey.
^..^
So they worked their way south, skirting the west coast, by truck and van, sailboat and fishing smack. And on foot, hiking between the northern shore of Morecambe Bay and the southern reach of the Lake District Park when no other means of transportation was found. Were it not for the dark edge of time looming over their shoulders, and the necessity of dodging Nazi patrols, it might have been the happiest weeks of their lives.
The closer they got to the city, though, the edgier they all became – and so did their continuing guides on their underground railroad. They holed up for two days in a tiny, dingy flat over an old warehouse on the outskirts of Manchester, waiting for a higher-ranking member of the Resistance to come inspect them and decide what to do with them.
Finally, on the third afternoon, a clatter from the ancient lift announced the chief's arrival. "Ho," their unwilling host-cum-jailer exclaimed. "Now I'll get you lot off my hands. Red Wolf's here." He nipped out the door to greet the newcomers – just missing seeing all the blood drain from Rose's face.
"Oh, shit!" she hissed, and whirled around. "Mum... I'm sorry.. shit! Please, Mum, just... stay back there out of sight until I talk to him. Don't come out until I call you! And remember, Mum... remember where we are."
Jackie backed away behind the door into the bedroom, utterly mystified – but she'd been impressed enough by her daughter's new-found authority not to stop and question her. Still muttering curse words, Rose turned back to face the front door, avoiding Jared's eyes, just in time for it to open again and let in several large, obviously dangerous men.
And in the lead, with the unmistakable air of the alpha male wolf, was Pete Tyler.
He stopped dead at the sight of Rose, his face blanching as white as hers had been a moment before. Then, to Jared's and Jackie's (peeking through the doorway) horror, he pulled out a large pistol from behind his back, and pointed it directly between her eyes.
Her hands flew up into the air in surrender, but her mouth was moving, too. "Pete! It's me! The other Rose, from the parallel world! Look, see?" She tilted her head far to one side, baring the other side of her neck. "No scar! It's me!"
Pete took a deep, shuddering breath, his hand wavering... but it didn't fall, still not convinced.
She went on, "Last time we spoke, I told you about going back in time to see MY dad, MY Pete, and saving his life. But it tore holes in time, and let in those monsters, until he sacrificed himself to put things back on track."
That finally did it. The pistol sank, shaking, till it pointed to the floor, and he took another huge, shaky breath. "OK," he finally said. "But I sure wish you'd warned me."
"Sorry," she replied, equally shaken. "I didn't think you'd be up this far north, and they didn't tell me who was coming. Pete..." She took a step closer, pleading, warning him. "I'm not alone, this time. There's someone else with me." He was confused, his eyes flicking to Jared and back without recognition. Rose licked her lips and said, as gently as she could, "She's not your Jackie..."
Understanding stole slowly over his face, a tidal wave of wild grief hovering just behind his eyes. Those eyes lifted again, doing a slow pan of the flat...
… until they met Jackie's, as she stepped slowly out the bedroom door. For a long, aching minute they simply stood staring, then she walked carefully across the floor. "She told me your Jackie was..." She stopped, unable to say the word. "Oh, Pete..."
He reached a trembling hand towards her cheek, asking permission, and then they were in each other's arms, each sobbing for their own lost or missing love, who wore the other's face.