After dressing in a floral printed dress she found in the wardrobe, Rose approached the door to the rest of the ship she had access to. After pressing her palm to it, her list of options popped up. She figured she would have the most luck finding other prisoners in the group kitchen, so she selected the corresponding icon. The door opened on an immaculate kitchen. Rose had been expecting something akin to a cafeteria, but it was more like the large kitchen in her parents' home. Lots of counter space, two refrigerators, a fully stocked pantry with glass doors, and every gadget she'd ever heard of (and many she hadn't). There were also two large dining tables set on the side of the cavernous room. The only thing the room seemed to be lacking was people.

Still determined, Rose turned back to the door and placed her palm on the panel, and selected the library. If she'd thought the kitchen was cavernous, it was nothing compared to the library. It had to house thousands of books, from Earth alone, and many thousands more from other planets. There were six floors with winding staircases in each corner and an elevator in the middle. She set out, hoping to find someone, but once again it seemed to be empty.

She tried the gym, the media center, the pool. Every door available to her opened on an empty location. Rose returned to her suite feeling uneasy and restless. She made tea, then decided she'd like to go for a swim to work off some of the restless energy. Again, she encountered no one, except for Jack who passed by on the other side of the windows along the hall, leading to what must be the rest of the ship. But he just gave her a quick wave and kept going.

She swam for as long as she physically could before her body demanded a break, and she returned to her suite feeling less restless, but no less uneasy. She couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her. She changed back into her sweats and went back to the other rooms, noting that there was, in fact, a camera in each. She felt she wasn't just being watched from the cameras, but through the one-way glass mirrors that seemed to be in every room as well.

She walked over to the fake window-mirror of her own room. "I know you're there. Watchin' me. And I know it's not Jack, either. Whoever you are, maybe you should come talk to me instead of lurking about like a creeper, yeah?" There was no response. "All right then. Show's over for the night anyway. So unless you wanna come in and have a chat, you can go find something better to do with your time."

She reached out and closed the curtains, but just as they closed she thought she could see the faintest outline of a man behind the glass.

Jack's partner smirked at the indignant woman who'd just shut the curtains on him. True, she wasn't a threat, but she was fiery and he'd have to keep an eye on her. Part of him looked forward to the challenge, to break up the monotony of his daily routine. There were cameras in the suites, but they were only used for emergencies and he wasn't one to breach privacy over his own curiosity, so he let it go, chuckling as he walked down the hall to look in on Jack.

The next morning, Rose went straight to the shared kitchen, hoping to find someone else preparing breakfast or tea. This time, she was in luck. There was a young woman with dark brown hair waiting for the kettle to boil. She looked up when Rose entered, her expression changing from frustration to delight.

"Hi there! You must be new, I'm Clara. Do you want some quiche?" she asked, plating some of the dish that looked like it had just come out of the oven.

"Umm, sure. Hi Clara, I'm Rose. It's so good to finally see another face around here. I was starting to think Jack had lied to me about other people living here. I didn't see anyone yesterday."

"Oh, that's, um…that's my fault. I made breakfast for everyone yesterday morning, but I must have done something wrong. Everyone got a bit sick. Now they're all avoiding me."

Rose put down the forkful of quiche she was just about to eat. "Oh, that's unfortunate."

"I know! I cook all the time, and there've only been a few problems. You'd think I went around trying to make them sick or something. Besides, it's not like any of them bother with the cooking. They just let the ship make everything for them. How lazy can you get? I mean, look at this kitchen, it just begs to be cooked in, don't you think?"

"Oh, sure. Absolutely." Rose agreed, taking the opportunity to set her plate back down on the counter and look around. "So, how many of us are there?"

"Oh, not too many. At least not too many that venture out of their rooms very often. What are you in for?" she asked, reaching for the kettle that had finally boiled.

"I'm sorry?"

"What are you here for? Everyone here has something wrong with them, or had something done to them. I keep waiting for someone to top my story, but no one can yet." Clara finished with a smug little grin.

"And what's that?" Rose asked, taking the kettle from her when she'd finished.

"Oh, it's no fun telling, with me. You'll find out soon enough, though."

"That's hardly fair, then, if you expect me to tell you mine."

"True, but mine will become obvious soon enough, whereas most of the time it's not anything that shows, you know?"

Rose considered, then decided to tell her. She doubted the other woman would believe her. "I'm from another universe."

Clara let out a bark of laughter, "Hah, boring. I knew it would be boring. Almost everyone's from another universe around here. Except for me an' Jack. And Donna..kind of. Everyone else interesting always dies." she finished, shaking her head. "Not that I'm insensitive, but I've been here a long time. Seen a lot of people come and go. Some of 'em get to leave, once they've been sorted out. Some of 'em, like me, can't be sorted out and stay here forever. And the rest just don't make it, or go insane."

Rose gaped at her. "How long have you been here?"

"Hard to tell, really. Feels like months, though of course it would. Jack says it's more like three years."

"Right. So, have you ever been out there? You know, the rest of the ship?"

"Course not. Jack's the only one that's done that, and I reckon he was the first one of us here, so it's probably a seniority thing anyway."

"Does Jack live in here, though? Like us?"

"I think so. Hard to say, since he's the only one that can come and go as he pleases. But his room looks just like mine, well, you know, just like mine except for completely Jack-ified, if you know what I mean….which you probably don't since you only just got here. Sorry."

"Nah, it's okay. I knew another version of him in my universe, so I can probably guess, yeah?" she said, with a slight smile. "So, this boss of his, who is it?"

"Dunno. Some bloke with a mission, I reckon."

"You haven't met him?" Rose asked, confused.

"Yeah, but I don't think it was really him, 'cause when I met him again he looked completely different. I think they were having me on, don't want us to know who he is, or he doesn't want us to know what he looks like. I dunno. Only met him twice. Once when I got here, and once when I took up with Jack. Got quite the lecture from him about that, Jack too. But it's worth it."

"You and Jack are…?"

"Yeah, about a year now."

"Oh. Isn't that a bit odd, with him being the only one allowed to leave an' all?"

"Not really. I mean, he can't really leave, you know? He's just got access to more of the ship is all."

"Well, yeah, but isn't he in charge of looking after us?" Rose added, with a frown. "Seems like a conflict of interests."

"You sound just like his boss." Clara retorted, laughing. "No, it doesn't bother us. We're both settled in here, and it's not like we're going anywhere, so there's not really a lot of options in that respect, you know? But don't tell him I said that! Ego the size of a planet, that one."

Rose laughed, "Yeah, I can imagine."

"Right, well, lovely meeting you Rose, but I've got to run, busy day today. I'm usually in here in the mornings, though. Come see me tomorrow and you'll get what I was talking about earlier, about my…condition." she shot a wink at Rose before turning to leave.

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you then." Rose called after her. "Well she's certainly a strange one." she muttered, turning back to finish preparing her tea, and tossing the quiche into the trash for good measure.

"Wouldn't happen to be talking about my missus, would you?" Jack's voice rang out from the door, startling her and making her drop the entire plate in the trash.

"God, Jack! You scared me half to death. Lurk much?"

"I wasn't lurking." he replied with a defensive pout. Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay, I was lurking but I didn't want to interrupt you two. Promise I wasn't eavesdropping." he assured her, reaching past her to fish the dropped plate out of the otherwise empty trash bin and grabbing a fork.

"You're going to eat that?" she asked, incredulously.

"What? Nothing else in there. And she's not that bad of a cook. Mostly." he looked down at the quiche again. "On second thought.." he tossed it back in the trash, plate and all. "Maybe I'll stick to fruit today."

"How come you managed to avoid getting sick?" she asked, accepting the apple he handed her as he grabbed one for himself.

"Wasn't here, was I? I was dealing with a certain blonde energy source from another universe." he grinned, before taking a bite.

"Right. So when do I get to meet the Wizard?" she asked, pulling out a knife to slice the apple with.

"The wizard?" Jack asked, mouth full.

"The Wizard, the man behind the curtain? Your boss?" she finished, as he didn't seem to get the reference.

"Right. That depends."

"Depends on what?"

"On when he feels like coming to see you. Or when he gets bored. Whichever comes first."

"Right. And until then…?" she prompted.

"Until then, Rose Tyler, you can just suck it up and find things to do. Like everyone else. It's Thursday, so Clara will be teaching a spin class in the gym this afternoon at around 4. If you feel like learning, you can pick up a laptop from the media room. There are classes in anything you could want to learn. And there's wifi, though you can't access anything like email, or social networks, of course. But plenty on there to do, even a class on how to operate the internet here." he said with a wink. "You went around yesterday, but you didn't really explore. Plenty to do here, if you've got the right mindset to do so. Or, you can hole up in your room like some of the others and slowly lose your mind from boredom and monotony. Your choice, as always." he turned to leave, but Rose called him back.

"Wait! I wanted to ask you something. As you know, I worked for Torchwood so I've got a pretty good understanding of technology and energy and all that, right? I was wondering. I'd really like to see the records on me, on what's wrong with me that's got me locked up in here. It's not that I don't believe you, but…well, no. That's it exactly. I don't believe you. I want to see for myself."

Jack laughed. "Well, the labs aren't on your approved locations, just yet. But given your history with Torchwood, maybe we should re-think that. Could put you to work, inventing things that need inventing in your time. Or at least keep you busy trying."

"You didn't answer my question." she said, frowning.

"Yeah I did, you just didn't like the answer."

"So that's a no, then? And I'm just supposed to believe you on blind faith, is that right?"

"Not like you have a lot of options."

"Are you trying to make me hate you? Because I don't want to."

"I'll tell you what, you show up to Clara's spin class today and have tea with her tomorrow morning. Then let me take you for lunch afterwards. Trust me, that's going to be necessary once you've talked to her. Also, I want you to tell me about your relationship with your universe's Jack. If you do all that, I'll consider asking my boss to let you have access to the labs. It's not up to me, you should know that. I may be the one enforcing the rules, but I'm still living by them, too." he added, his tone softer now.

"If I do all that, you promise you'll talk to him, and tell him I want to meet him too."

"I'll do my best, I swear."

"All right, then. Yeah. I'll be there."

"Great! Clara will be happy to see you at her class, no one but Donna ever comes to those, and even that's rare."

"What? Who does she teach, then?"

"It's more of an open ended thing, really. In case anyone wants to show up. But mostly it's just me, when I can make it. She does some art classes, and a book club too. She used to be a teacher before…well, before things changed for her. And it makes her happy, so I always try to get people to go."

Rose felt sympathy for the other woman, understanding what it's like to lose so much of your life and want to get it back. "'Course I'll be there, then. And the other classes, too."

Jack's face lit up with the first genuine, non sarcastic smile she'd seen on him, and he looked so much like her Jack it hurt. "That's great, Rose. Really, thank you."

"Not doing it for you, am I? Doing it for her. She seems nice. Anyway, I'm gonna go find something to do before then. Maybe I'll check out the computers."

"Good idea. And before you ask, yes there's porn." he finished in a mock-whisper.

Rose couldn't help but laugh and swat at his arm as she passed. "I wasn't going to ask, but thanks for the information."

"You're welcome, and yes you were!" he called after her, as the door closed behind her.