"You sure you're gonna be alright, Rose?"
"I can handle this, Jake. He's not the Doctor. Besides, I handled Jack and now we're great friends."
"Yeah, but that's only 'cos this Jack's like that Jack-"
"And this isn't the Doctor. He's got his own life, his own records and everything. And not 'records' like me and you, emRickey. He's not the Doctor and I can accept that, move past it, and work with Alec Hardy."
"He's a real grump," Drew tried to warn her.
"Even better. Further proof that he's not the Doctor. Should make it easier to just see him as the DI and not the Doctor."
"Even with the pacemaker making it seem like he has two hearts?"
"Seriously, Micks? If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to push me off the case," it was a good thing that Mickey was driving, otherwise he was sure Rose would be slapping him soon.
"Rose, all I'm sayin' is that I don't want you takin' any left over feelings for the Doctor and takin' it out on the guy for not being him or somethin'," Mickey replied slowly.
Closing her eyes , Rose shifted in her seat to lay back slightly and let her head loll back as she pressed a hand on her stomach. She needed to calm herself, she knew that. But goddamn it, Mickey might be right.
"Then I trust each of you to know when and if I need to be pulled out and to do so. Keep a sedative on hand if it makes you feel better, but I'm not gonna just run away. I've already accepted and held closure with most everything. For all I know, this could be good for me. And if not, I'll try not to hold the rest of you back from pulling me out. But I'm no coward and I'm not backing out now. This is my job, my life. Understand?"
"Yes, ma'am," the boys agreed uneasily but acceptingly.
"Good," Rose opened her eyes and turned to look out the window. "How much longer?"
"About ten to fifteen minutes or so until we get to the hotel," Jake read from the GPS. "Sleep well?"
"Until I was awaken with intrusive questions, yeah. Cup of coffee and maybe a bloody pill or two and I should be fine."
"What size cup are you thinking?" Drew asks.
"Mmm.. Medium, I think?"
"One pill."
"Right, thanks," Rose responds, shuffling through her purse to find her anxiety meds. When Jake offers her a bottle of water, she takes it with a quiet 'thanks' and swallows the small, round pill.
"'Sides, you might want to take one later if he's as much of a git as Drew says," Mickey says.
"Trust me, he is. But the DS is very friendly, I'm sure if anything, the two of you will get along best."
"Yeah, except you're forgetting that as team leader, I usually have to work with the DI when sharing a case."
"As long as the two of you have everything to keep your health statures in check at all times, you should be fine," Drew keeps his tone serious but Rose can practically feel his concern, and it's not just for her.
The ride from London to Dorset took over two and a half hours, leading the Torchwood team to arrive at the Traders hotel in Broadchurch some time after six. Pulling into the parking lot, the team decided on a plan. They were to get their room keys, bring their luggage to their designated rooms, do any freshening up and use of the loo needed, then meet back in the lobby, where Drew would (preferably) call the DS (she and the DI had returned to their respective homes after the call had been made to Torchwood and she should be arriving to the station within the hour, and she didn't know when the DI would arrive but she said she hoped she'd have the chance to meet them first before the DI scares them off).
Within less than half an hour, the group were stood in the lobby with the hotel owner/manager, Becca Fisher, asking for an autograph and picture with the famous Vitex Heiress, Rose Tyler. Rose was used to the publicity, even on missions, and with the boys saying that they had time, she quickly agreed. After asking, Becca informed them of a coffeeshop down the road. Thanking her, the team left for the coffeeshop where they ordered coffees and bagels. They ate quickly and downed their coffees before driving down to the police station, where they were lead to an empty conference room with a large wood table and multiple chairs, being told that the room was to be used for the investigation and to get comfy. Hesitating for a few moments, they looked to each other wordlessly before each taking a seat and together, they sat in silence for what felt like hours, but they knew were only minutes.
"You sure, Rose?" Jake quietly but determinedly breaks the silence eventually.
"Yeah," she nods. "But like I said, I'm trusting all of you," she looks around the room, making eye contact with each of her team members, "to pull me out if, and only if, need be."
"Yes, girl," the boys reply in unison and Rose smiles.
A moment later, the door to the room opens and in walks a curly haired woman. The Torchwood team stands.
"Drew," she nods and smiles to the man.
"Ellie," he repeats her notion. "This is the rest of the team.. Mickey Smith, our techy, Jake Simmonds, our weaponry specialist and tech assistant, and our team leader and foreign communications expert, Rose Tyler." Each team member smiles and nods in introduction and Rose also offers a small wave.
"Oh my god," Ellie gasps, pointing to Rose. "You're Rose Tyler! Vitex heiress, Rose Tyler!"
"Yes, that's right," Rose continues to smile. "And I'd assume you're DS Ellie Benson, yes?"
"Yeah," Ellie shakes her head to snap herself out of her momentary shock and moves forward to shake hands with the Torchwood team. "It's nice to meet you."
"You too, ma'am," Jake says.
"Please, you can call me Ellie."
"With pleasure, emEllie," Mickey smiles and Ellie laughs.
"Well, the DI should be along soon. I'm sure Drew's told you about him by now."
"Guessin' he prefers Hardy to Alec," Mickey asks with the raise of an eyebrow.
"Mmm, that's him. But I call him Alec, anyways. And he's not too happy-"
"I've only met the man once and I get the feeling he's never happy," Drew interrupts, but Ellie laughs.
"Not really, no. But the whole working together with a team.."
"I'm guessing he doesn't play well with others?" Rose jokes.
"No. I don't," comes a rough voice from behind Ellie.
"Stop it, Alec. They're here to help-" Ellie starts to defend the Torchwood team, moving over to let Alec into the room.
The moment Rose sets her eyes on him, she clenches her jaw shut tightly and stuffs her fists into her pockets. From behind her, Mickey squeezes her elbow in question and reassurance. Rose turns her head slightly to the side and nods. He lets go and Rose directs her attention back to the gruff man. He looks like the picture in his file, scruffy hair and face, angry expression, and she's sure those lines around his eyes aren't from laughter but instead from him squinting when he's really angry. He's standing with his feet shoulder length apart and his hands on his hips, under his jacket but over his button-up. His suit isn't like the Doctor's, he doesn't show any color. Instead, he's all grey suit, grey tie, white button-up, and black business shoes. He is not the Doctor but if Rose ever grows to hate this man, it won't be because of that. She doesn't care about that. What she really cares about is the fact that this man looks like he's about to not only disrespect her and her team, but maybe even his own DS. This isn't the Doctor and Rose doesn't care because already, she dislikes this man. She'll make him earn her respect, if he's capable of respecting anyone at all, that is.
"No, they're here to take over my investigation."
"We're above government. Technically, if we wanted, we could make this investigation ours," Rose says calmly. She has her practiced emotionless mask in place but she keeps her fists shoved deep into the pockets of her trousers. "So I suggestion you give us a chance and listen to what we have to say or you're done here. Am I understood?"
Alec's angry expression holds firm but his eyebrows raise above his flat hair, nearly disappearing, "Listen, lady-"
"I said.. Alec," the way his name rolled off her tongue sounded venomous and led Alec to lower his eyebrows, match her emotionless mask, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Am. I. Understood?"
She ignores the slight snickers and gasps of her team members at Hardy's referring to her as 'lady' and raises one eyebrow in challenge to the man. He clenches his jaw before giving a loud sniff and growling quietly. Rose finally takes her fists out of her pockets and crossed her arms, mimicking Alec's pose, eyebrow still raised. Alec stares her down for a few seconds before sniffing once more and tersely nodding once.
"Good," Rose extends one of her arms and evens out her eyebrows. "Rose Tyler, Torchwood team leader and foreign communications expert."
Alec looks down at Rose's hand, considering it for a moment before taking it in one of his own and giving it a firm shake before letting his arms cross again, "Alec Hardy, DI."
Rose nods.
"Now. We're not trying to overtake your investigation. It's your case, you got to it first and it's in your district. However, there are aspects of your case that you are neither trained nor qualified to handle, but Torchwood is. If you're willing to emcooperate," she expands the word, trying to drag her point across, causing Hardy to raise an eyebrow for a moment. "We would be working hand-in-hand as emequals but mostly me handling my team, you and Ellie doing your normal routine, but you and I will have to have mutual communication on updates and the status of the case. It's your investigation, we're here to help and handle foreign threat."
"And what foreign threat would that be?" Alec asks and for the first time, Rose hears the gruff nature of his strong Scottish accent. Memories of Scotland and Queen Victoria pass through her mind and she takes a deep breath to clear her head.
"You may want to sit down. You as well, Ellie," she says, turning to Ellie then she turns to her team. "Boys."
"Yes, girl," her team replies and Rose fights the urge to roll her eyes at them trying to hide their smiles and laughs.
Once everyone is seated, Rose turns to Drew.
"Right- actually, no. We didn't finish introductions. You've already met me, that's Mickey Smith, our technology expert, and Jake Simmonds, our weaponry expert and tech assistant." Alec leans back in his seat, crosses his arms, and nods.
'I must have really pissed him off,' Rose thinks to herself. She doesn't know if she feels proud and guilty but she's sure unless she and her team don't approach the rest of the day carefully, he's going to try to beat Rose's arse and end up with his face in the tile floor within seconds. 'Maybe I'm just letting my imagination run. But is it too late for me to run? No, stop.' She argues with herself, and shakes herself to stop.
Drew rests two closed up yellow packets in front of the DI and DS and begins to explain before they open them.
"Do you remember the Cybermen?" He asks.
They do.
"Rose, Mickey, and Jake were there. They stopped most of them."
The three are used to the shocked, scared, or attempted closed off expressions they always get. This is no different. Still, Rose refuses to look at either of them and keeps her eyes on Drew.
"And we've dealt with worst. Rose especially."
"What does this have to do with these folders?" Alec asks, impatiently.
Drew stares at the man for a second before responding, "Do you believe in aliens?"
Alec's eyebrows shoot up as he considers the man in front of him, then he lowers his brows and squints at the man, probably trying to decipher whether or not he's trying to have him on. Drew's calm expression and demeanor stay in place and Alec leans back, softening out his futures, and pulls out a pair of glasses from the breast pocket of his jacket. Rose can't help but to notice. They aren't like the Doctor's. Yes, the lenses are square like his, but there's metal framing and arms rather than plastic. It makes Alec look his age. This man is definitely not the Doctor.
Drew nods to the folders and after a moment's hesitation, Alec opens his. Ellie follows his lead.
The room is silent, the minutes dragging on, as Alec and Ellie read over their clearance files.
Rose and her team have experienced many different reactions to clearance files. Some people just accept the information given, some panic (that's when sedatives come in very handy), some are skeptical and ask questions. There's a variety of different reactions, all of which, they are used to now. Sometimes, they have to sedate people to calm them and get them to accept the information, and sometimes they have to retcon them, making them forget, in which Torchwood takes the entire case into their own hands. Torchwood teams usually have to work on their own and rarely have to team with law enforcement, but it still happens. However they react, Rose is prepared for anything.
Once finished, they put the papers back in the folders. Ellie blinks multiple times while Alec takes in a deep breath before making eye contact with Rose.
"And you've especially dealt with worse?" He sounds partially curious, partially in disbelief.
"Much," she answers simply.
"Like what?" Ellie seems almost too afraid to ask.
Every time she's asked this, her mind always goes first to that impossible planet with the beast in the pit. She never tells that story.
"I've seen the end of the Earth. I've had my face removed and placed inside a telly. I've been to a planet with air that's poisonous to off worlders and ran low on my oxygen tank. I've-"
"You've been to other planets?" Ellie asks. "You're not trying to have us on, are you?" She's practically pleading.
"Different planets, different times."
"Different times?" Alec's arms are crossed again and he looks even less believing than Ellie.
She's told people with clearance files about the Doctor. She often has. Somehow, sometimes, it helps them to believe.
"I spent three years traveling in time and space with an alien who looked human. First time we met, he saved my life, next day I saved his, and as a thank you, he offered me all of space. And I said no."
"You just said you spent three years with this emalien," Rose can't tell if Alec said the word distastefully or possibly angrily, but she has his attention and she thinks she may be close to convincing him.
"He left," slowly she smiled as she stares off to the side of Alec's head, remembering that one night all those years ago. "Literally left. His spaceship disappeared and came back a couple seconds later. That's when he told me it could travel in time. He offered me all of time and space and I ran away away with him.. We ran for so long.."
"What happened?" Ellie asked, snapping Rose out of her musings.
Her smile dropped, as did her eyes. She stared at the table in front of her, her lips twitching and she cleared her throat, "I lost him."
"What does that mean?" Alec doesn't sound angry, but his voice is still rough. Rose thinks that might be his attempt at trying a soft tone and that's the best he can do for her. She accepts it and yet brushes the thought aside at the same time.
"It means," she draws in a shaky breath as she looks up from the table, not making eye contact with anyone. She's done this speech before, and her own reactions are always the same. Even though she tells herself she's accepted it all, that doesn't mean it still doesn't eat at her every goddamn day. "It means that we were fighting the Cybermen and these other robot looking creatures, called the Daleks, and even though we stopped them, we won the battle, we still lost. We got separated. We found each other again, one day. But we didn't even have five minutes before he was gone.. Last thing he ever said to me was my name."
There was silence in the room for several seconds as the DI and DS let the information sink in. Rose still refused to make eye contact, but Mickey squeezed her elbow once in reassurance.
"You were in love with an alien?" Ellie eventually breaks the silence.
Rose knits her brows together, "I tell you that aliens exist and that I've travelled in time and space and you want to know if I was in love with an alien?"
"Well, were you?"
"Yes."
Out of every reaction she's ever gotten, and out of every question, she has never faced this. As much as she doesn't want to admit it, Rose is slightly impressed.
"An alien, really? Wouldn't he look all.."
Mickey bursts out laughing and even Jake and Drew try to hide their smirks. Rose only blinks.
"He looked human, completely human-"
"All of him?"
Mickey can't help it and he starts tearing up a little. It's too much for Jake and even he laughs.
"Yes," Rose even laughs a little, truly seeing how ridiculous the situation, conversation, and Ellie and Alec's faces are.
"I don't understand what's so funny," Alec scoffs out at the same time as Ellie asks, "What did he look like?"
Rose immediately sobers up and she waits until the boys settle down before she says anything.
"He was gorgeous. Truly gorgeous. And for the longest time, I believed I didn't deserve that kind of beauty. He said the same about me," Rose's voice was quiet but even and it caused even the DI's rough demeanor to soften.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Alec quietly offers after a moment. Rose stares at him and has to force herself to nod because she's not sure if she can do anything else, staring at this man that looks like her Doctor but isn't. This isn't her Doctor. This is some gruff, angry man. But maybe she doesn't dislike him as much as she thought only minutes ago. Still, she knows she needs to proceed with caution.
When Drew finally speaks up, she is eternally grateful.
"So do you accept what you've read as true?"
They do.
"Do you accept to work as equal partners on this case?"
They do.
"Good," he takes the two yellow clearance folders from them and hand them a single manilla folder. "This is what we're up against."