Rose sighed slightly as she entered the familiar building. After getting rid of Lumic's Cyberemen, Torchwood thrived and had gotten a huge amount of money from the government, in order to defend London and England against alien threats. Pete Tyler was the Director of Torchwood, and one of the most powerful men in the country. He had the most authority at Torchwood, but was still a kind and gentle man. Even so, many people always spoke to him with respect. Mickey Smith and Jake Simmonds were his second in command, or at least indirectly. It was clear he held them in very high regard. And then of course there was Rose Tyler. Pete Tyler's long lost daughter and defender of the earth. She was a mystery, but she had respect from all of Torchwood, after nearly sacrificing herself to save the earth. Like her father she was kind and friendly, but she was also very firm and business-like and did not tolerate stupidity, silliness and unfairness. Some people said she snapped a lot, but often she had a reason to.
But now Rose Tyler had changed.
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Rose entered Torchwood with the Doctor, still hand in hand, though the Doctor immediately noticed that she stood straighter and that her usual smile was not on her face.
They went through the double doors and straight to reception. Although Rose had mentioned that she knew the receptionist, they did not smile at each other, at least not until Rose had flashed her identification. The second Jane saw that she grinned and reached over to shake Rose's hand. "It's good to see you again Commander" she voiced. Rose smiled.
"And you" she replied. "Listen, could you please summon my team to my office. I need to talk to them. Oh, and this here" she said proudly, tugging the Doctor closer to her, "this is the Doctor!"
The Doctor grinned. "Hello" he said, smiling his charming smile. Rose could see that Jane was already smitten.
Jane gaped. "The Doctor?" She took in Rose's happy face, her shining eyes, the way she stood, and the way her hand was entwined with his. She looked so happy, carefree and comfortable. The aura of pain and coldness that had been around her like a cloud in the recent years was suddenly gone, there was no shadow following her. She decided that from the way Rose stood and smiled, this really must be the Doctor. She smiled and extended a hand, already slightly smitten. This Doctor was extremely good looking.
She was about to engage him in conversation when a speaker on her ear sounded. She smiled over to Rose. "Commander Tyler, your team is awaiting you in your office."
Rose smiled. "Thank you Jane. Listen, could you please keep him occupied for a few minutes, perhaps see if there is an office near mine, next to mine preferably, also near the lab in sector E? I already approved this with the Director, he will be working with Torchwood as long as he sees fit. Thank you." With a smile at Jane and an ever bigger one at the Doctor, she went into one of the large lifts.
Jane smiled at Doctor. "Let's see about this office then" she said.
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Rose sighed as the lift brought her up to one of the building's higher floors. Two days ago she had been reunited with the Doctor and all her friends, saving her original universe and loving it, thinking she was going to stay there. Now she was back in her usual lift, heading towards her blank office, meeting her team. She stood still as the lift scanned her, identifying her as one of the Torchwood personnel. She heard the ding and exited the lift and turned the corner to sector E and pushed open the door to her office. She was immediately greeted by Max.
"Commander!" he said, his tone full of respect but also with happiness. Rose nodded. Lieutenant Max Rogers was a good soldier, the best on her team. However, he was also slightly proud and standoffish, but very determined. He had a rather negative attitude towards aliens; he didn't like them very much. But he was always there for Rose when she needed him.
She smiled at him and went over to shake his hand. They had hugged before, but that was when they were alone. At Torchwood Rose was known to be all business.
"I trust your mission went well?" he asked.
Rose nodded. "The mission was a complete success, the universes are saved and the darkness gone."
"Did you manage to determine what was causing it?"
"A species called the Daleks claimed responsibility, yes. But they have been taken care of. The darkness is no longer a threat."
"Then may I be the first to congratulate on a job well done" Max said, almost standoffishly, puffing out his chest proudly.
"Thank you Max".
Rose then turned to the other members of her team. She extended a hand to Eddie Jones, a calm, level headed and very clever soldier, who had nothing against aliens. He was good in the field, but was also very good in the lab, often scanning and explaining the various results to Rose. She liked him a lot. He was also a lieutenant (she had given him that promotion personally), but never flaunted it, unlike Max, who knew exactly how much power he had.
Next up was Olivia de Felicia. Olivia was also a good soldier, namely because she was very confident. She was extremely pretty, and knew it. She went through boys like clothes, and Rose had often thought about introducing her to Jack. She was flirty and could seduce someone quicker than one could blink. However, she knew how to make people listen to her, and she was extremely intelligent.
Olivia shook Rose's hand with a smile. The relationship between them was slightly complicated. Olivia was very much her own person and although she respected Rose as her Commander, she didn't like following orders very much. However, she had to, in order to keep her job. Besides her job payed well and gave her plenty of dates.
Last on the team was Heidi Jenson. Heidi was of Swiss decent on her father's side and English on her mother's. She was slightly shy and very bookish, but also very calm and sweet. She was caring and a very good listener, and extremely accepting. She had no issue with aliens and was Rose's best friend. She worked hard, and although she was good in the field, she specialised in lab and tech, sorting through alien artefacts and analysing alien samples. Heidi knew more about Rose than any other team member, and she was the only team member to ever see Rose drop her façade. She was also the only one that knew some details about Rose's travels with the Doctor, and knew that Rose loved him. She was always there for Rose to talk to and often offered Rose advice (like telling her the fact that Max had a crush on her). Rose couldn't show preferential treatment to Heidi on missions, but she was so happy seeing her that she hugged her briefly.
She then stepped back. "It's good to see all of you again. I won't be coming back to work for another few days, I'm on leave for now. I just wanted to check that you were all okay, and that no problems were encountered during missions."
She looked at the room and Max stepped forward, having seen himself as the head of the team in Rose's absence.
"No problems were encountered." He reported. "We had a successful mission with a crashed spaceship, which was taken care of".
Rose turned to Eddie, wondering what Max meant with taken care of. With his dislike to aliens, it was hard to tell.
"Taken care of how?" She ignored Max's slightly angry look at her having asked Eddie to explain the details.
"Our translation crew managed to be able to translate the language. We were not able to exactly determine where the aliens came from, but we understood that it was an accidental landing and that they were meant to land on Pluto. They apologised and no harm was done."
"We took photos of the aliens, and maybe you could identify them when you come in commander" Olivia said, a slight drawl in her voice. Rose nodded.
"Well done team. I will debrief you when I come in next week".
Her team nodded and Rose exited, motioning for Heidi to come with her.
Heidi nodded and followed her outside. The second the two of them were alone Heidi hugged her, again, but this hug was longer.
Rose smiled at her friend. "I have to dash now, but come over in the evening tomorrow please" Rose said. Heidi grinned and nodded.
"Rose" she called after her as Rose walked down the corridor. "Did you find him? Did you find the Doctor?"
Rose's gigantic grin was all the confirmation she needed. She couldn't wait to find out what had happened.
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