Disclaimer: Don't make me any more unhappy than I already am.

-hides- Please don't kill me.
I meant to write it sooner, I really did. But then I went away, and I've been too busy to sit down and write properly. Sorry.
But hey, this chapter's really long (well, in comparison to the chapters in my new story), so yay!

NTMR:
-Review more, people! They make me smile! And I could use that right now.

Previous chapter...
Martha struggled in Jeffrey's grip, aching to get away from the man and the gun, but Rose remained calm and still, waiting for the right moment. "Then let's see you answer this." Suzie continued. "Which one of them do you want us to kill? Assistant or agent? Your friend - or your lover?" Rose's calm breathing hitched in her breath, and Martha's heartbeat rose. John looked to the two women in turn. First to Rose's calm, loving face, then to Martha's desperate, scared eyes.
"Your choice."

Chapter 15: Not Quite The Escape

John looked from Rose to Martha and back again, nervously shifting his feet and breathing unevenly.

"Make your decision, Mr Smith." Suzie smiled coldly, titling her head to one side as she studied Rose's perfectly still form, and Martha's struggling one.

"Perhaps if that human heart breaks, the Time Lord will emerge." Jamie said sincerely, and Rose's body turned for the first time, to look down with horror and confusion at her little brother. Then, her eyes flicked up to something just behind John, but neither he, Martha or the four villains noticed.

Rose nodded her head shortly and blinked twice, and John frowned. Suddenly, all around him, guns were pulled out of jackets and Pete walked forwards strongly, holding a gun directly to Helena's face. John spluttered, horror-stricken, but Rose calmly broke away from the teenager as she was distracted and turned the alien gun on the girl.

Martha also used the distraction to twist her captor's arm round and escape his grasp. She stumbled over to John, who absently caught her before she fell, and pushed her up roughly before hurrying over to Rose.

"Rose, you don't need to do this." John whispered to Rose as Pete talked to the four people in front of them.

"…Farram, get everyone out." he was ordering. "Go back to base and wait for further instructions."

"Sir." a man nodded, and lowered his gun. He rushed over to the door and threw it open, ushering everyone out. Agents from Torchwood started to signal to each other, and they formed a circle around the four strange people as the hall filed out hurriedly. John was handed a gun and mirrored Rose's action by holding it up at Jeffrey's head, while Martha was ushered out among the rest of the diners. Talking over the shrieks, Pete continued his instructions.

"Now, I'm guessing these seven shop dummies aren't gonna be much help to you, and we'll have your guns too." he said, and a man stepped forwards to take the guns.

"They've got us surrounded!" someone called from outside, and a number of agents looked over to the door, where shots were being fired loudly. Pete nodded shortly, and several of them exited the building to help the single agent outside.

Helena turned to face Rose, who was holding the alien gun to her face.

"Don't move or I'll shoot." Rose said shakily.

Helena laughed. "Oh, the girl is full of fire!"

"And you can shut up as well." spat Rose, firing the gun once into the ceiling and then returning her aim to Helena.

"Careful, Daughter of Mine." Jeffrey said sharply. "This is all for you, so that you can live forever."

Jeffrey held on to his gun with it pointing threateningly at Rose, and Pete transferred his aim from Helena to the man. "Shoot you down!" Jeffrey exclaimed, laughing.

"Try it." Rose said, indicating Pete's gun. "We'll die together."

There was a pause, and Rose looked over to her little brother. "What's 'appened to Jamie?" she asked nervously. "Is he… gone?"

"He is consumed." Jamie spoke harshly. "His body's mine."

"You mean he's dead." She bit back the tears, but knew they'd come eventually.

"Yes." the boy said, smirking. "And he went with all that - aah! - screaming."

Rose didn't reply, she just stared into her brother's eyes, then returned her focus to Helena, not letting her emotions show. But Suzie saw through her.

"Would you really pull the trigger?" she tested, smiling cruelly.

"Looks too scared." Jamie added.

"Scared and holdin' a gun: it's a good combination!" Rose said shrilly, the tears threatening to flood. "You wanna risk it?" She paused. "Guns. Hand 'em over." she said forcefully.

Jeffrey looked to Suzie and Helena, his eyes showing his rage but his actions soft and innocent, and then he looked to Pete and the dozens of guns pointed at him, and handed over his gun to the agent wordlessly.

"What?!" Jamie cried from beside him, and instantly the closest agents turned their guns on him.

"No!" Pete ordered the agents sharply. "Jamie remains unharmed."

"But sir -"

"He remains unharmed." Pete repeated firmly, and the agents focused their weapons on the other three forms.

Suzie smirked, and Pete turned back to her, frowning. "Like I said: hand over your guns." he ordered again, but instead of giving her gun over to the man beside her, Suzie pointed it across at Jamie.

Helena let out a gasp, but Jeffrey smiled evilly, catching on to her plan. Pete flinched visibly, his instinct telling him to protect his son, and John saw Rose tense up in front of him.

"You wouldn't murder your own. There's only four of you." a woman pointed out from amongst the crowd. "Whatever you are." she added unevenly. Suzie's snide grin only grew.

"We live in the conscience. Son of Mine is young; he can survive in this air for a matter of time. Not for long, but long enough. Enough time to find and inhabit a new being. You will leave us, or I will shoot your son's body."

Pete swallowed, his pulse racing, then dropped his gun on the table in front of him.

"Withdraw." he said quietly, and a few of the agents turned to look at him, bewildered. "Withdraw." he said again, louder, and the men and women slowly started towards the door, not taking their eyes or guns off the people at the front of the room. Pete kept eye contact with Suzie, who was still grinning, while Rose and John stood static, awaiting instructions. They could hear the shrieks and gunshots outside, but didn't flinch.

"Withdraw." Pete repeated for the third time.

"But, Jamie -" Rose started, but she couldn't finish her sentence.

"The male stays." Jeffrey told Pete. "Mr John Smith."

John's eyes grew wide with terror as Rose backed up to him protectively.

"No." Pete said unsurely. "We withdraw. If you attempt to harm any human being on this planet, we as Torchwood are authorized -"

"Silence!" Jeffrey shouted over Pete as he recited the Torchwood Code of Arrest. "We will not harm the man."

"No." Rose protested, still holding her gun to Helena's head, but was reminded by Suzie's gun to Jamie's head who was in control.

"Go." John whispered. "I'll be fine."

Rose turned to him indignantly. "No!" she cried, looking at him as if he were crazy.

- - - - - - -

Kate's heart was pulsing, her breathing sharp an ragged, though she tried her best to control it. Edging out from behind the wall, she looked carefully through the doorway at the backs of four people, along with Pete, who was stood in front of them, John, and Rose. She looked down at the silent fob watch still clutched tightly in her hand, and kept her crawling position, waiting for the right moment to do… whatever she could think of doing. Then she glanced back up to the scene unfolding in front of her.

"I'm not gonna leave you." she heard Rose hiss into John's ear.

"Rose, please." John replied quietly. "Just go. I won't - I can't let them hurt you."

Rose visibly froze, but Kate wasn't interested in her feelings. She concentrated instead on the numerous guns in the room, Pete's on the table, Rose's concentrated on Helena, John's pointed at Suzie and Suzie's pointed at Jamie, while Jeffry remained silent, his focus on Pete, and Helena's alien gun was headed back to Torchwood with the agents. She tried in vain to come up with a plan, any way in which she could help, but could come up with only one solution. The watch.

What would happen, she didn't know, but she saw Pete and Rose reluctantly back away, tears quickly forming in the daughter's eyes, and could take it no more.

She wrenched open the watch, and the golden glow once more flew into the darkness around her. It flooded from the watch like water, sifting through the air in spirals of light, and Kate became enraptured in the sight, oblivious to the happenings beyond her hideaway.

"Time Lord…" the watch spoke, an echo of a voice long gone.

As the light surrounded her, the four figures seemed to blank out. Helena looked suddenly around at where Kate was hiding, and Jamie followed suit. Jeffrey's gun dropped to the ground, and only Suzie seemed to be unaffected by the watch. John stood perfectly still, until Rose dashed back without a second's hesitation, grabbed his arm and pulled him across towards the door of the building after Pete. Suzie shot at John, narrowly missing, and the ray of green light flew past the running two and into the wall behind them. And then they were gone.

Suzie leapt up, suddenly brought back to reality, and snapped the watch shut. Glancing briefly at Jaffrey, Helena, Jamie and Suzie, she dodged a beam of light from Suzie's gun and sprinted out of the building through the side door, then followed Rose, John and Pete towards a large black car.

- - - - - - -

Rose and John ran, hand in hand, out of the building and into the back of one of the agents' abandoned cars outside. They were followed wordlessly by Kate, and then Pete, who jumped in the middle section of the car, and Jackie, who ran out from behind a rock just before Pete ordered the driver to go.

"Jacks!" he exclaimed, after giving the driver instructions. "Why aren't you at home?"

"Where's Jamie?" Jackie asked, ignoring Pete's question.

Anticipating an argument, Rose stepped in, ignoring the tears falling from her eyes. "Mum, it's for the best. Trust me. We'll explain later." she said tearfully, before turning back to John and Kate. "Kate, you opened the watch."

"I'm sorry." she whispered hoarsely, panic taking over. "I don't even know what it is! I thought it was Mickey's! And I picked it up, and it gets inside your head, and I don't know what it is, but I swear I didn't mean to -"

She cut off by Rose, who's hand had flown across Kate's face like an unexpected bolt of lightning. She gaped, and Rose blurted out an apology before turning to John.

"Doctor, she opened the watch. What does that mean?" she asked him urgently. "It's yours, the watch is yours, but what is it?" John's face hardened at the mention of the Doctor. "You never use watches, you always say 'Time's relative' or whatever. You say they're pointless, so what is it; what's it for?"

"I'm not the Doctor." John said firmly, grabbing hold of Rose's wrists and looking deeply into her eyes.

Jackie turned around to face them. "Wait, you mean he is the Doctor?" she asked Rose unhelpfully. "I knew it!"

"I am not this 'Doctor' man!" John yelled out to the car. "You are all… insane! I am John Smith, I'm thirty-eight, and I work at Torchwood! Is that not enough?" He turned back to Rose. "Am I not enough for you?"

Rose was saved from having to answer the question as the car pulled to an abrupt halt. Pete pulled Jackie out of the door, telling her something about keeping safe and where to go, then he turned to face John, Rose and Kate, who were emerging from the back of the car.

Pete gave instructions to a number of the agents around the four of them, and John took Rose and Kate's arms, leading them towards the building.

"Don't touch me!" Kate cried suddenly, wrenching her arm away with a look of horror. "You're as bad as them!" She ran off into the building, and John and Rose followed, confused. Pete ran after them, still directing the workers around them of what to do and where to go.

"What's the plan?" Rose asked him, attempting to forget about the fact that she was intimately involved in this case. She knew she had to act like it was just another alien, just another invasion, and nothing personal - just as she'd had to for the past five and a half years whilst working at Torchwood.

Rose and John followed Pete through the building, some agents following after them, some holding heir stations. Kate became lost in the crowd, but she was no longer Rose's main concern.

"Dad?" Rose asked Pete with confusion, when they hurried silently through reception and only Martha ran along after them. "Why - Why aren't they following us? Do they know the plan? What are we doing?" She dodged out of the way as men ran along the halls towards the reception, with armour and weapons for an army.

Pete didn't reply, but Rose worked it out. She ran after him, straining to keep up, and leaving John backed fearfully against the wall as more men ran through.

"Don't just stand there, move!" Martha yelled at him urgently, pushing past him to reach Rose. "God, you're rubbish as a human! Come on!" she called back, and he sprinted after them once more.

"But we can't." Rose told Pete, but he didn't reply once again. "Dad!" He came to a brief stop when more agents filed down with weapons and gadgets, and Rose seized him by the arm."You're gonna fight them, aren't you?" she asked. He didn't answer, but Rose already knew. Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke, but she pretended not to notice. "What about Jamie?" she asked. "Would you kill him? Could you kill your own son?"

Now Pete's eyes began to water, and he turned away and continued to move through the building. "I've got no choice." he said bitterly, his voice cracking. "Jamie's gone."

"And what about John?" she asked. "What about the Doctor?" She ignored John's protests of "I'm not the Doctor!" and kept running after Pete. "What about - Where the hell are we goin'?!" She stopped suddenly, recognising her surroundings as the far back of the Torchwood building, and Pete pulled her forwards towards the back door.

John and Martha ran up to them and stopped, and Martha leant against the wall breathlessly.

"You're going to run." Pete told them, seemingly not at all out of breath. He held up his hand when Rose made to interrupt. "Rose, please. These aliens are looking for the Doc- for John." he amended, much to Rose's annoyance. "You need to run. You, Martha, an' John. Just run. Anywhere safe. We'll hold down the fort here; it might buy you some more time."

"But dad -" Rose started, but Pete stopped her, and cupped her chin in his hands caringly.

"Rose." he said, softly but firmly. "My Rosie… Go. Please, just go. Keep yourself safe. Keep John safe, an' keep Martha safe. I'll look after your mother, an' I'll do my best for Jamie. We're Torchwood, right?" She nodded weakly. "This is what we do. We can handle it, sweetheart. Just do what you have to do."

He released her face, and she nodded again, unable to speak for fear of the tears showing through.

Pete breathed in and out deeply, then turned to Martha and John. "Right then, you two," he held out his hand to John, who took it feverishly. "Good luck. And, well, keep Rose safe, yeah?"

John mumbled an answer, and Martha nodded to her boss. He took one last glance at Rose, then turned on his heels and ran back down the corridor, shouting commands down the hall to the awaiting officers.

Rose looked straight at John for the first time since escaping the restaurant, but he looked away, avoiding her eyes. Martha, sensing the tension, walked through them to the door, and John hurried on after them. Rose paused, breathing slowly, then turned quickly and sprinted out of the door after them.

She slammed the door carelessly, and swivelled around to stare after Martha and John, running through the forest that thrived eerily behind the building. The sound of a gun-shot echoed through the place, and the three travellers disappeared into the night.

Review please!
And the chapters to come will be good; there is lots of Rose/Martha interaction (not shipping) and a bit of angst. Sorry about the wait (and Jamie... again...).