The light had been shining at the end of the tunnel bringing hope that there was still half a chance he could win her back but no, she had been adamant she wasn't interested, spending all her time pining for her Doctor. He should have given up, anyone else would but he was Mickey Smith and he didn't give up that easily, no sir. He'd had a rough couple of years trying to forget Rose when he'd chosen to stay and watch her fly off yet again with another man, knowing she only had eyes for the Timelord.
He'd looked after his old Gran, making her comfortable in her last years, something he'd not been able to do before and he'd told Jake in no uncertain terms he was definitely not Ricky so after that they had become best mates. Until Rose was in trouble in the other universe and he'd gone back like the idiot he was to save her, only to be shunned again when it was over. Well, not this time sunshine, no way, he was not giving up after seeing her with Hardy, that had been the final straw and he'd all but snapped right there and then in Rose's house. He had fought to keep his cool, making his excuses to leave after nearly feeling sick just watching them together practically having sex in front of him. This was far more serious than it had been with the Doctor, Rose was in it too deep. He saw what they were like, she had never demonstrated any affection in front of him with another man before. He hoped he was not too late to be able to change her mind but just how could he do it that wouldn't leave her hating him for it. To make her come running back to him even after all this time.
It would have to wait until Monday, he'd find an Internet Caf or the local library and access Alec Hardy's Police files and do a search on him and if that didn't work, he'd use his Torchwood access to do it. He planned on ringing his London office on Monday to say he was taking a few days leave, they owed him months actually. He slept as best he could, going over it in his mind, sleep was often the time he had his best ideas. He had planned to go meet them for lunch on Sunday but thought he might bring it all back up and choke on it if he did. He'd wait until a decent hour and tell Rose he wasn't going to be able to make it. He'd put the time to better use and seek out places to get internet access for Monday.
He wandered around his room on Sunday morning, wondering where he could get breakfast, it was still early in the season and the hotel didn't seem to be offering food. He walked out of the hotel at around 0800 and spied a caf across the street that was open. He sat and ordered breakfast. He'd just finished when his phone rang to the sound of the Tardis, his ringtone for Rose which now seemed a bit cheesy.
"Hi, Rose," he answered, trying to sound like nothing was wrong.
Something was very wrong, it was not her voice. It was Hardy's. He listened in silence, letting the man speak. He was being told in no uncertain terms to get out of town before Hardy ran him out, permanently. He sat listening, not even able to utter a word and the man hung up saying something about protecting Rose. He just sat there staring at his empty plate, got up and walked out. He walked further down the street and crossed over to sit on a bench by the sea wall.
He got his phone out, to ring back and changed his mind. He knew Hardy wouldn't let him speak to Rose, not even read a text message. He'd not come up against this before with her. Somehow, the Doctor always allowed him to have some sort of friendship with her, even if it wasn't a close one but at least he still got to see her, the Doctor not appearing to be jealous or possessive. Unlike this Hardy bloke was turning out to be. If he was trying to scare him off, he had another thing coming. He didn't care if he was the Police or not, Hardy was not running him out of town and it was only going to make him more determined than ever to get Rose away from this borderline possessive Police Inspector. He got up and wandered further up into the town itself, seeking out somewhere he could find a computer. He had all day now, lunch being cancelled which he was glad about. At least he didn't have to watch them practically having sex in front of him again, it made him sick thinking about it. Had they thought he'd not seen them the previous day? He might be an idiot but he wasn't blind. Having no luck of finding anywhere to put his plan into action, he trod back to his hotel, stopping at his car to get out a map. He'd have to go to a neighbouring town the next day.
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When Alec and Rose got back to his house after lunch at Ellie's, she said she was ok and didn't want to talk about what had happened that morning and the previous afternoon. She was perfectly ok with Alec taking the phone from her to avoid her getting upset any more than she already was. She had become more dependant on Alec to look after her and she liked it. Having been on her own for so long, depending on her parents and friends, she had finally found someone who would really take care of her. How dare Mickey come down here with no warning and start her off all over again? Her heart had sunk when she had seen him standing there in the shop. At first she had tried to be civil but found she couldn't. Hadn't she made it plain to him so many times she was not interested in getting back together? Was the Doctor right calling him 'Mickey The Idiot?' Because that's what he'd been, he couldn't get the message no matter how plain she'd made it. Didn't he understand the concept of 'sometimes boyfriend?'
She had grown up, fast and moved on. That's what people did normal people. They had boyfriends and girlfriends by the dozen by the time they were ready to settle down, they didn't necessarily take off with the first boy or girl they met, did they? She had some room to talk, she thought, "I've just got my first boyfriend in goodness knows how long and we have practically moved in together." They only had to decide who was moving where. "Bit rich coming from you, Rose Tyler!" She was thankful Alec had dropped the subject for now with him deciding to cheer her by having their now regular 'sofa romp.' They spent the afternoon, wrapped up on the sofa, catching up on a bit of news on the TV. Rose was doing her best to keep from getting upset again, Alec reassuring her he wouldn't let Mickey upset her again but promising he wouldn't get involved officially just yet.
Alec got up for work on Monday morning before Rose did, leaving her in bed for another hour or so, she didn't open the shop until 10am "Part-timer," he'd tease her. "Workaholic," she'd tease him back. He had decided he would look up a certain Mickey Smith when he got to work, just in case. He knew however this would be unlikely because he came from the other universe. It was still worth a try though and had mentally retained the password for the Torchwood database so he got to his office early and logged in before Ellie arrived. He got the basics, spotless record, fairly high up in the organization just ranking below Rose. That wasn't enough information though because his records didn't go back that far. He tried a broader search using the inbuilt Torchwood search engine but still nothing worthwhile came up. He didn't want to alert Rose to his search just yet even to get her access code. He closed the program and got back to work figuring he might have to take this higher. Perhaps it was time he introduced himself to Mr Peter Tyler.
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Mickey Smith was on a mission. He got up early, went to find some breakfast and studied the map. There were a few nearby towns to choose from, he'd surely find somewhere with public internet access. He'd try the library but didn't have a membership card. He drove to the nearest town and parked up. Looking around for a bit he spied what he wanted. "Ha! Now I've got him," he thought triumphantly. "Eat dust, Mr Hardy." He paid for access and tried a general search, getting results from the Police website. Usual stuff, nothing personal, pity. He was unsure as to the security of using a public computer to use access the Torchwood database and only wanted to use it as a last resort. He would usually clear his internet history and any other traces on his own but didn't have the clearance on a public one. He would either have to wait until he got back to London or buy a new laptop.
All the time he was wishing something would come up on a search but he knew nothing about the man other than his name, rank and he was from Scotland, somewhere. He tried a few more searches and not gaining anything useful, left the shop. He could ring Jake, he surely knew about him but he was Rose's best friend and would alert her. He could ring the office, get them to search but they would probably report to Jake as soon as he mentioned her name unless he didn't mention Rose's name. There again, Jake probably already knew about Hardy and was under strict instructions from her not to tell him anything. Think, think, think. When had he become so jealous to resort to such a thing?
Thinking back, he was only slightly jealous of the first Doctor, he wasn't exactly going to win any beauty contests but then 'Pretty Boy' had materialised and he'd started to get worried, worming his way into the Tardis to keep an eye on things. Only when he saw them together the first time they landed here had he realised he had lost Rose for good so he decided to stay. No, he decided, Rose is definitely not going to be any better off having a double as a substitute Doctor and he was determined to do something about it, whether she would come back to him or not. If he couldn't have her, neither could Alec Hardy. He hardly noticed he was being consumed by this, not normally being his nature but he'd been trod on once too many times and was about to take no more. He was also not aware that Alec's name was being monitored by Torchwood at Rose's request.
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Rose let herself out of Alec's house and went home to get changed. Ellie had already taken the kids off to school and private nursery. She was going to suggest she could maybe help her by dropping one of them off so she wouldn't have to rush around. It would give her a reason not to linger in bed thinking about how she was missing Alec when he'd only just left after she had 'Detained' him longer than she should have by saying they should try it wearing handcuffs. She went off to work as usual, hoping she wouldn't encounter a certain someone on the way or in the shop.
As she sat in the shop going through any new items from her London office on her laptop, she found a note from Jake saying he wasn't sure but he thought that Mickey was on his way to see her and telling her he'd not said anything about Alec. "Bit late, Jake," she thought, "why didn't you just text me?" There was also a note from a team member saying that there had been some unusual search patterns coming in from two spots near her current location, one seeking information on a team member but had logged in using a recognised user name and password given for limited access and one seeking information on a certain Police Detective who had been flagged before trying to seek information on her that had not been directed from a secure Torchwood connection but on a general search engine.
She knew all information pertaining to team members was monitored, regardless of where they came from and she had asked Pete to clear Alec for limited access and as a matter of course, anyone seeking information on a newly added user was also monitored as well as her own request for it to be done. She knew only one person could have done this. She didn't want to worry Alec at this stage because he would have launched a full scale Police investigation so she rang Jake. He was glad to hear from her.
Rose greeted him with a "Bit late for that piece of info you sent me Jake."
"Well, Rose I wasn't sure but he was asking about you on Friday but I didn't want to worry you in case it was nothing. I didn't tell him about you and Alec and so he didn't know he is the Doctor's double."
"Well Jake, it's too late, he's already here and he's met him so I need your help but don't tell Pete just yet."
"Just name it Rose, what can I do?"
She told him about the note she'd had about Mickey trying to access any information on Alec. "Jake, I'm worried that Mickey is going to do something really stupid. He's got this jealous streak all of a sudden and I think he might be going to try to discredit Alec in some bizarre misguided attempt to try to split us up. I don't know what he'll do or what lengths he'll go to. Jake, can you block every single piece of information about Alec and flag it if Mickey uses his secure access code? He's only done a general search so far but if he gets a secure connection he'll log in and find out everything he needs to know and can you make it so only I can log in and get it?"
She knew Jake was clever with things like that but she also knew so was Mickey, he could find his way around passwords and codes as he'd hacked into the Lumic database when they first landed here.
"Rose, I can make it so that you can be alerted and block it with your own password, just use the link I send you to set it up. Something he'll never guess, something personal to you. Then when he comes across the prompt to log in, you'll get to know. If by some miracle he cracks the code, I'll make it so his access is withdrawn instantly without you having to do it. All Alec's files from Torchwood and any search engine will then be blocked but it will be to everyone, not just him. It can be lifted at any time though."
"That would be really great, can you do that, please?"
Jake could tell she must be desperate to go to this much trouble to protect Alec. He thought that since he left just a few weeks ago, Rose must have really fallen heavily for this bloke. "Good on her," he thought.
So Jake set everything up at his end, sent Rose the link and she came up with a very cryptic password that was very personal. That done, everything was soon in place. Jake said he should let Pete know roughly what was going on but Rose insisted for him to leave it for now. Just to tell him that Mickey was in Broadchurch and that she didn't want to see him and not to worry, Alec was taking care of it. She said goodbye to Jake telling him she owed him one. She felt a whole lot better when she got off the phone with Jake. She sent Alec a text, asking him if he wanted dinner at home, it was his turn to make it or go out somewhere. He replied by saying home and it was her turn but he'd split the difference if she made it at his house and help her if she promised not to wear a bra under her dress. She just replied, you're on, Inspector but you drive a hard bargain.