Sky Blue

A couple of hours later, Pete's jet came sliding down the runway at Bergen. The travelers had landed at the helicopter pad an hour before, walked over to the main terminal for a bite to eat at one of the food stands (Chips! Glorious, wonderful, delicious fried chips!), then made their way to the non-commercial terminal to wait. As the executive jet touched down and began taxiing, Jackie was out the door, Corin and Rose following hand-in-hand.

Corin admired the lines of the jet. He'd never traveled on much of anything other than the TARDIS, but even he could see this was one sweet ride. "Sleek!"

Rose agreed. "One of the perks of running the world's largest telecom company."

"I thought he was running Torchwood?"

She shot him an undecipherable look. "No, he was just sort of helping out that time. After Lumic died, the first time we were here, Pete was the highest remaining officer in Cybus Industries, even though his company had only just been merged in. The government asked him to take over and 'put things to rights', even gave him all the rest of Lumic's personal fortune to do it. And he did. He asked the military to publicly shoot down the satellites at his expense, and then put up new ones – all completely open, anybody could come inspect them before they were put into orbit. And then he nearly bankrupted the company offering free replacement handsets – nobody wanted ear buds anymore – for all customers. He asked them to trust him. And they did! A lot of them did go to other companies, ones that started up to take advantage, but a lot of them stayed. The company recovered, renamed PTI – Pete Tyler Industries – and he's been running it ever since."

While she was talking, the jet had taxied up to the building and stopped. The door opened and Pete jumped down the steps, sweeping Jackie up in his arms and twirling her around. "Put me down, you daft plum!" she laughed.

He did, kissing her soundly, then waved the other two over. "Let's get going, I want to get home!"

They climbed into the small cabin, finding two pairs of seats facing each other fore and aft, a small passageway running between up to the cockpit. The forward-facing seat on the right looked like Pete's – the briefcase in front of it on the small side table was a dead giveaway - so Corin and Rose moved up to the rear-facing seats beyond, each taking one. Jackie took the seat to Pete's left, while Pete locked up the door again and waved to the pilot through the cockpit door. The pilot saluted, closed the door, and the jet soon began moving back towards the runway. No one spoke while the plane sped through the airport and climbed into the skies.

The plane's cabin was a study in blue and silver, with plush leather seats that threatened to let you sink right through to the floor. Rose thought she might fall asleep in about five seconds – if she could relax enough and let go. After the jet had gained altitude and leveled off, the engine roar dropping back down to conversational level, Corin said to Pete, "This is very nice – much more comfortable than the TARDIS."

"Thank you, Doctor. Uh, forgive me a rude question, but you are still 'Doctor', aren't you?"

Grateful for the lead-in, Corin said, "Actually, no. I think I'm going to drop the 'Doctor' and take another name – a more human-style name." He smiled at Rose. "New name for a new life."

Eyebrows raised, she queried, "John Smith?"

"Nope. Corin."

She gasped, then gave him a delighted smile.

Jackie: " 'Corin'? What's that from?"

Corin turned to her and Pete, explaining. "It's my family name – the one my parents gave me when I was born. Family names are usually dropped when we enter school, though still used by those close to us."

Jackie was fascinated by this brief, unprecedented glimpse into his past life. "Does it mean something, though?"

"Yeah. It's the name of a tree on Gallifrey – my home planet, now destroyed – like your... what was it again, Rose?"

She remembered: "The willow."

"Right. It looked like a willow, only much larger."

Jackie said, "You need a last name, too. How about 'Willows', then?"

Corin stared at her, intrigued and then delighted. He was just about to agree when Rose said softly, "No. I know." He turned to look his question, and she gazed at him a moment, then said quietly, "Gallifrey. In honor of what was lost."

Unexpected tears stinging, he simply nodded, then reached out to hold her hand across the aisle.

Jackie murmured, "Gallifrey. That's lovely."

Finding his voice again, Corin said, "Hold on. Don't you have three names, Miss Rose Marion Tyler? Then how about this: Corin Willows Gallifrey?" He turned to grin at Jackie. "I like that name, too."

Incredibly pleased that he liked her suggestion that much, Jackie joined the others in enthusiastically endorsing the suggested name. OK, you big lunk. You can hang around a while.

Pete, who had quietly gotten everyone a drink during the conversation, raised his glass to toast the 'christening', the other three joining in. A bit later, Pete said, "I would like to find out about this 'freak accident', though. Care to fill that in?"

Corin laughed. "It's a long story."

Pete replied, "It's a long flight. Think you can tell it in three hours?"

"All right, then. Where to begin?" He started with the human-Time Lord metacrisis, then backed up to explain how he'd lost his hand, then how he'd gotten it back from Jack Harkness, then how Jack had gotten it, then had to go back and explain Jack himself, how Rose as the Bad Wolf – oh, and how that had happened – had given him immortality, and he'd overshot his one last time jump and had to relive the twentieth century waiting for the two of them to come back. Rose listened, as fascinated as her parents. She hadn't heard most of that, either.

At the end, as thoroughly muddled herself as the others, Rose turned the story around and recapped it forward again, checking with Corin to make sure she had it right.

Corin, turning back to Pete, ended with "and then the Doctor took everyone back home – Mickey decided to jump worlds again – and brought us back here," glossing over that it hadn't exactly been Rose's choice, and hoping nobody would rub salt in her wounds by bringing it up just then. "And I'm staying here, too. I only have this one life left, now, and I'm hoping to spend it with Rose. Though I notice that she hasn't given me an answer yet..."

He looked sidelong at Rose, teasing, but she was gazing at the ceiling above Jackie. He couldn't read her expression, but she wasn't smiling. This wasn't good. His smile faded. "Rose?" Silence.

Rose had noticed the gloss. I wish you guys would stop making decisions for me. All of you. Thoughtfully, she said to the ceiling, "You know, it's funny you should put it that way, because I don't actually recall hearing any questions. In fact, all day long, with everything that's happened, neither one of you Doctors ever actually asked me anything."

Quietly, he said "You're right." A beat. He tried again: "Rose?"

She still didn't answer, didn't turn. Shit. Time for the big guns.

He undid his seat belt, and slipped out of the seat, managing to fold his legs up and kneel in the passageway (Pete quickly shifting his feet to make room), and tried the third time charm. "Rose?"

This time she did turn to face him, face solemn. He reached for her hand, but she pulled it back.

Eyes full of all the emotion he'd never dared express before, he forgot the two onlookers behind him, and began to open his heart. "I love you. I want to be with you, always. I want to take care of you, walk with you, to meet everything this life has to offer." He stopped, startled at the echo from deep in his memory. Taking a deep breath, he ran a hand through his hair, then tentatively reached again for hers. This time she let him take it. "I know I'm not your first choice, that I'm only second best." Her eyes flashed, but she still said nothing. "But I swear, that only means I'm going to try that much harder, to make sure that every day you know how much I love you, that every day you have everything you want, all the adventure you desire, and every beautiful thing I can find. You'd make me the happiest man in every universe if you'd consent to be my wife." Belatedly, remembering to make it a question, he asked, simply, "Will you marry me?"

Rose continued to gaze solemnly at him for several seconds, considering, until Jackie half-groaned, "Oh, come ON!", and they both jumped, remembering their audience.

Rose silenced her mum with a glance, then looked back to Corin. Still solemn, she replied, "I will."

His heart leapt, but before he could even smile, she added: "On one condition."

"And that is?"

Starting levelly, but quickly gathering intensity, she opened her heart in return. "That you drop this 'second best' bullshit right here and now. I may not have had any choice in coming here – either time," she grimaced, "but I do have a choice in how I live my life now I'm here. That was the first thing you taught me, remember?" Yes, you! she thought. "That I can't sit around waiting for life to begin, because it never will. And forgive me, Mum," she turned to Jackie, "but watching you for twenty years taught me that I can't waste my life crying for what I've lost, either, no matter how that turned out in the end." She turned back to Corin. "So I won't. I'm choosing how I live my life, and I'm choosing you. He didn't – wouldn't – finish the sentence. You did. He left. You stayed. In my book, that makes you the better man. And I'm choosing to be with you." She fixed him with a final glare. "So don't ever let me hear you calling yourself 'second best' at anything, ever again, you hear me?"

Managing to keep his face straight over his jubilant celebrating inside, he said, meekly, "Yes, ma'am."

Another second of glaring, and then she released her supernova smile and grabbed his lapels with a 'remember this?' glint. "Then come here and kiss me."

And so he did, while two cheers broke out behind him.

A long, long moment later, the cheers turned into "OK, you two, break it up." They pulled back, smiling knowingly at each other for a moment, then Rose impishly pushed him back to his seat, taking his hand again as he sat.

Pete refilled the drinks to make another toast, when Jackie cried, "We should call ahead to Paulette – that's our cook, Corin – and have her whip up something special to celebrate."

Rose winced. "Oh, please don't, Mum. No. No." She flashed an apologetic look at Corin - "Sorry, no time to ask" - then turned back to Jackie. "I just thought... I mean... I thought maybe Corin and I might spend a few days at the flat first. Kind of... sort things out. Get to know each other again, you know what I mean? It's been three years." She blushed.

Jackie started to protest, "But there's plenty of room at the house!" when Pete overrode her.

"That's a great idea, sweetheart. A little privacy." He turned to Jackie, who looked wounded. "Don't turn into your Mum, Jacks. Remember how... ubiquitous she was when we first got together? In this world, anyway," remembering that this Jackie might have different memories.

Apparently she didn't, though. Taken aback, arrow struck, she gulped and said, "Right. OK." Turning back to Rose, she recovered as gracefully as she could. "You'll come round for dinner some evening soon, though? Be sure to give me enough warning to let Paulette know."

Rose and Corin were both gaping. Rose recovered first and stammered out. "Yeah. Of course." Shaking herself a bit, she asked, "What day is it, anyway?"

"Tuesday," offered Pete.

"Perfect! How about Sunday dinner, then, the formal family bit at 12 noon, like always?"

Jackie beamed, albeit a tad forced. "Lovely."

Having had enough, Rose laughed and said, "OK, who are you and what have you done with my Mum?" Then, a bit softer, "Grandma must have been fierce?"

Pete answered, "You have no idea. I don't think we had more than five minutes alone together from the day we got engaged to the day we got married. Literally."

Jackie nodded. "It was awful. I don't want to be like that. Please let me know if I get to be too much. I may not take it well, but please – I really don't want to be like that."

Taking pity on her, Rose got up and gave her a hug. "You couldn't be that bad, Mum. Besides, I couldn't possibly cut off all contact. I'm desperately going to need your help."

"With what?"

"What do you think? Planning the wedding!"

Jackie laughed. "Darling, I've been planning that since you were two years old!"

"I know!" And both of them collapsed in peals of laughter, and in no time swung off into talk of dresses and flowers and music.

Pete shot a sympathetic grin at Corin, who was turning several shades of what-have-I-gotten-myself-into?, and asked, "So, Corin, ever played golf?"

Corin grinned back, grateful. "Nope. But something tells me this would be the perfect time to learn." He leaned back and closed his eyes, listening idly to the chatter.

A few minutes later, Rose said "I have a special request. I want my hair done up like yours was, Mum, with that upsweep and the flowers."

Jackie smiled and was about to reply, when Corin broke in, eyes still closed, a bit dreamily. "A crown of flowers." He straightened up and looked at Rose, who had turned to him quizzically. "A crown of flowers for you, and a crown of leaves for me. What? Can't I bring in some Gallifreyan traditions?"

She smiled delightedly, and told him, "Of course you can! As many as you want!"

Jackie nodded agreement, then the obvious follow-up, "What are Gallifreyan weddings like, then, Corin? Or were, I guess I should say."

He struggled for a moment, then gave up, laughing. "It's been a very very very long time. I'm going to have to take a few days to dredge it out of my memory, then I'll tell you all about it."

A short time later, the jet began its descent into London. The foursome said their goodbyes and climbed into separate cars, Corin and Rose taking a taxi to the flat. It proved to be on the sixth floor of a stylish, newish complex not far from Canary Wharf. Rose replied to the doorman's "Good evening, Miss Tyler", introducing Corin as her fiancé (giving him an incredibly goofy thrill), and asking the doorman to spread the word that Corin was to have complete access. Then they got into the elevator for the ride up.

Rose had been increasingly silent since the jet had landed, and she turned the key in the lock without a word, leading the way inside. While Corin closed and locked the door, then stood for a moment drinking in the atmosphere – stylish, inviting, and comfortable – she walked over to the dining table, put down her keys, shrugged off her jacket and hung it over a chair back – and then suddenly leaned over the table on both fists, head down, swamped by a wave of desolation and déjà vu.

She felt Corin move softly up behind her, and tentatively touch her shoulder. She raised her head, sniffed, and said shakily, "I love this flat. I really really do. And every time I walked out of it the last six months, I prayed to high heaven I would never ever see it again. And here I am." Back to square one.

He stood there helplessly, at a complete loss for any words of comfort. Then, finally, he choked out, "Rose. I know I'm doing this all wrong. God help me, I've never once in my long life done it right. But all I can think of right now is two things. I can't stand seeing you like this. And I want you so much it's killing me. Please." His voice fell to a whisper. "Please let me make love to you."

She turned then and looked at him, and he saw the tears on her face and reached to wipe them off with a finger. She caught his hand with her own, and held his palm to her cheek, unable to speak. She searched his eyes for the hundredth time, looking for and finding the reassurance of familiarity. Suddenly she moved into his arms and kissed him, passion rising to meet passion. A few breathless minutes later, she broke off, panting, stepped back, looked levelly at him, then took his hand again and led him through the bedroom door.