A/N: - YIPEE, I've finally got together ideas and pieced this chapter together – after about two looooong weeks! I just thought adding this chapter would be a nice sort-of-but-isn't filler chapter before something I've been planning for ages now to bring the oomph back into this story. What is it? You'll have to wait and see!!! Mwahahahahahahaha!
Thanks to my latest reviewers: Kitty Bridgeta and Taylor Harkness for their reviews to Chapter 10, but THANK YOU ALL reviewers anyways.
A herd, a herd o' piggies,
A pocket full of Swine Flu,
Atishoo! Atishoo! The virus dooms us all!
^^^ Just a little random song I'm going to introduce to my friends, so that we can annoy all the teachers! Just as a side note, I'm not in the least bit bothered about Swine Flu, even though it's only 4 miles away in the city! Ah well, it'll all blow over soon!
Disclaimer: Don't own THIS show – unfortunately.
Read on, fellow chums and chumettes!
=D =D =D =D =D
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Rubbing my eyes, I reluctantly peeled them open and wondered what 'miracle' had caused this visit.
"Who burned the garage down?"
"Aunt Kath."
I jerked up in bed, eyes snapping open. "You what?"
"Aunt Kath," she repeated calmly. "My so-called 'sister' in this Universe. Don't ask me who she is, I don't even know I had a sister called 'Kath', back in the other Universe – let alone this one. Pete says I'll have to pretend to remember her- apparently, they didn't see this Kath person very often anyways. She wanted to meet this 'secret' niece we've been hiding for twenny odd years. Come on, get dressed – we've been invited to dinner 'round her place. The kitchen's in ruins anyway. The car's coming in twenty minutes."
Fiddling with an earring that looked suspiciously like real diamonds, mum stood up and casually strolled out the door. I observed her choice of style for tonight… She had her eyes curled up into a elaborate tight bun on the top of her head and was wearing this pretty waist-tight sparkling black dress that came to a stop at her knees accompanied black fishnet tights, a matching set of shiny earrings and a necklace and was finished off by a pair of impossibly high-heeled shoes and some make-up.
Wow… She was just so different. Believe it or not, I'd never actually seen her so… dressed up before, well the only time being when it was my parallel mum, and even in the three to four odd years she'd been here, mum had promptly stuck to her lovely – in my opinion, dress style of jeans, a top and an odd pair of trainers or something. This just told me how much I'd not noticed and took to care about how much this Earth and her new lifestyle had changed my mum. I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not, 'cos the idea of a Jackie Tyler walked around talking posh and acting all classy really didn't--
"Damn these blooming 'eels," mum spouted irritably and I heard a clatter of leather against wood, followed by another fractious murmur. "Gimme me trainers any day."
Nah, she was still my good old mum.
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Smoothing my hair back into place, I consequently rid all the creases of my jeans and dug out a suitable denim jacket – pulling it over my bare skin, careful to obscure the watch that was irritatingly blinking yellow. I honestly didn't understand the device; there it was happily blinking away when I was perfectly fine, hence the word. Yeah maybe the watch-thing happened to say that I had a slightly abnormal blood pressure of 159 and a heart rate of 101 beats per minute, but all in all, there wasn't a headache or symptom or Slitheen that was in my way – and that's me with my hand over heart. Honest.
Finishing with a thin layer of primrose lipstick, a small sweep of mascara and a small dab of rouge on my cheeks – deciding that my face was pale enough without a layer of foundation, I gave myself a final once over in the mirror and headed out the room. I wasn't really in the mood for properly 'tarting' myself up, but I was extremely sure that a pair of (slightly ripped) jeans and a fairly clean jacket was appropriate enough for this 'Aunt Kath' of mine – screw her, if she didn't like my appearance. However, a certain mother of mine thought different…
"Where'd you think you're goin' dressed like that?" mum exclaimed, looking me up and down, as she struggled with brush and gel to comb Tony's wildfire of hair.
That was the type of phrase used when mothers scolded their children for dressing up like a prostitute or Barbie – which was the exact opposite of me.
"Dressed like what?" I tried innocently.
"Oh, you know very well what I mean, dressed like a right ol' scruff bag – I'm havin' enough trouble as it is with your little brother here, so don't you start. I never had this trouble, brushing your hair, Rose!" mum cried out in frustration, wrestling to control of a squirming Tony.
I laughed, "That's 'cos I'm a girl mum."
"Yeah, she's a girl, mum!" Tony copied innocuously, sticking out his tongue. "I'm a boy and boys don't need hair brushed!"
With a slyly clever twirl, Tony wriggled out of mum's feeble grasp and swiftly sprinted away – escaping into the safety of the kitchen.
"Get back 'ere, Tony Tyler! TONY!" she yelled helplessly after him, before sighing and rolling her eyes. "Rose, you don't know what chaos you've just unleashed inside of that 'ead of his!" She flopped against the wall, and turned her attention back to me, just when I had my back turned and was half way up to--. "Now, don't you dare think of running off!"
Damn it!
"I was just…"
"Don't even start."
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Muttering dismally, I clip-clopped over the gravel and successfully nudged myself into the large, warm depths of dad's car, semiconsciously pulling down the hem of the black and white tartan dress I'd been forced in to. Mum had forced me into a knee length dress, chucked a pair of expensive shoes at me, strung a necklace of borrowed pearls around my neck and lent me a pair of large, gold hoop-earrings to put on – reluctantly reawakening memories of my old pair of hoops that I'd worn back when I'd been… travelling the Universe in a blue box.
"Where is 'e then?" I bellowed nonchalantly over the noise of Tony's err… exotic version of 'Baa, Baa Black Sheep'.
"Who?" mum called back.
"The Do…" I stopped, mid sentence. "John."
Mum gibbered something about him doing extra work at Torchwood or something, so I left it at that, passing the journey in silence – well, when I say silence, I mean apart from the high-pitched attempts of various Nursery Rhymes (familiar and parallel) from Tony, mum's nattering over the phone to dad, and Kingsley's radio, then everything was completely silent. Yeah right.
Hang on, I thought to myself, as the car elegantly swerved around a sharp bend and sped up the road, sending us all crashing into each other. I know where this is…
"This is the way to Torchwood."
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So it turned out that we certainly were not heading to Aunt Kath's house, who did actually exist but was in Brazil at that very moment, but to Torchwood tower instead. It was all a lie to coax me into following them. Why? I don't know, because they wouldn't tell me. Maybe they sent me there for some more check-ups or something, or maybe they wanted me to start work right away!
That still didn't explain why mum was all dressed up, mouth firmly zipped shut to answer any of my questions and that definitely didn't explain why Tony was tagging along to. All of the above reasons would give him a chance to destroy things and I was almost 110% positive that mum wasn't too keen on that idea.
Mum wandered off, as soon as we got to the top floor, where my office was and suddenly claimed that she was taking Tony to the loo – which I was suspected was yet another lie. There I was, just stood there in the dark. I waited. And waited. And waited. They never came back. I started to get worried then, that something bad had happened to them. I retraced their footsteps and found myself diverted away from the toilets, silently skulking towards the source of dim candle light sourcing from the central office.
I heard a few scuffles and squeaks, triggering my heart to start beating faster. We had some uninvited guests.
"Is there anybody in 'ere?" I called out, suppressing the fear in my voice and trying to sound authorities. "Mum, Tony – is that you?" No reply, if it were them – they would've replied by now. "Hello? Whoever you are, I'm armed!" A lie. "Come out – I won't 'urt you, I just wanna know who's here."
Wishing I honestly had some something hard to use as a weapon, or a weapon itself, to defend myself, I crept to the edge of the room and reached for the switch, flicking the light on.
"SURPRISE!"
Dozens of familiar grinning faces emerged in front of me, as I readjusted myself to the sudden blast of light. My eyes caught the huge banner that hung high above me: WELCOME BACK ROSE!. Everything clicked into place, as I stared around at the elaborately decorated room, and people for that matter, in front of me. This was why mum'd acted so secretive and strange ever since I'd came back – I'd totally missed all the clues and subtle hints, that'd been going on all day. They'd been arranging a welcome-back party for me. Oh heck – I'd told them countless times that I didn't need this fuss! I couldn't squirm out of this one.
Everyone was there: mum, dad, Tony, Jake, Rheann, Aryl, Fayosi, Greg, Gareth, Imelda, Matt, Tosh, the irritatingly annoying and flirty Owen Harper and many more recognisable faces including John.
He leapt out at me, a large green bottle of champagne and a wine glass clamped in his hands.
"Champagne for the lady?" he tried cheekily.
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I spent the first hour or two, cornering the family and having a good old moan about how much I didn't want a welcome-back party that would attract so much attention, because attention was the last thing I wanted right now. I just wanted to make a discrete as possible entrance and slip into the scenes, blending in with work again and acting as if nothing had happened. That was the exact opposite of what I got. After endless conversations and moans, I eventually realised it wouldn't do any good and succumbed to the unwanted attention, presents, music, dancing, fancy food and the strictly adult-only beverages available.
During my time in hospital, I reflect on how it wasn't fair to think of him as just a spare part and he deserved the respect, so I'd given up the other Doctor, it was far too long anyway and settled for John instead. It suited him. I suppose. I think.
"Care to dance, Miss Tyler?" Johnasked, dressed in a black and white tux that gave a striking resemblance to the one the Doctor had wore, when we'd battled against the cybermen. He gestured the slow playing music in the background and offered his arm.
I paused.
Oh, what the heck, a party was still a party! (Even if it was uncalled for.)
"I'd love to." I replied with a small smile.
W e made our way to the dance floor, where couples like: Owen and Tosh, mum and dad, and just close friends like: Imelda and Fayosi (laughing their heads off, why I do not know but shall have to find out), Rheann and Chris (hmm, I could see a relationship coming along there.), (John and me…) had already been lured by the lulling slow sound of music and were dreamily dancing away.
"You're really bad at this!" I laughed jovially, as John struggled to find the correct places to place his hands and feet.
He shook his head sheepishly and I swore I could see a blush forming, under his mop of unkempt brown hair. Sighing, I rested one of his arms on my waist and another on my shoulder, guiding his feet to the music until we had a steady rhythm to it.
"Not that hard is it." I muttered with a grin, looking up at him seeing that he'd finally got the hang of it.
"I could get used to this!"
The music slowed even further and I casually rested my head on his shoulder. He started twitching a little and seemed a bit uneasy, so I loosened my grip on him. The Doctor smelt of… time and the TARDIS and adrenaline, but this human Doctor smelt like mortality, sweat, and cologne. Two wonderful people that looked the same and shared the exact same memories, but were entirely different altogether…
I s'pose it was kinda strange though, dancing with the one woman he'd probably once thought he could have the human happily ever after with. He only had one life, one chance to live his life and I'd messed up half of it by rejected him. Least he had that Joan to accompany him now and she was a good woman, minus the fact that she irritated me a lot. I suddenly remembered something.
I snapped my head back and looked up at him, "I only just remembered – Joan. Nurse Redfern. She wanted to speak you, ' said that you were meant to call 'er or somethin', I'm not sure." I nudged him and added a cheeky grin – tongue poking out slightly. "Somethin' special going on between you two that I should know?"
He blinked rapidly and stared at me.
"About that… I… Um… It's not what you think… We just…" he stammered, trying to let go of me.
I stopped him and pulled him back, "The way you're acting, you would've thought I've just accused you of murdering the Queen… No, the President of England! Listen to me, it's fine. I don't care what's goin' on between you and Joan, 'cos it's none of my business anymore and it's your life not mine."
He stared at me, bemused.
"Really?"
"Look... John, you gave me a chance to start afresh with me, along time ago and what did I do? I turned you away, that's what… You've only got one life and I'm not stoppin' you from living it – being stuck with me instead. I mean it," I stated clearly, staring straight into his glossy brown orbs and continuing to sway along with the music. "How long did ya think you could keep it a secret, eh? I shoulda confronted you long ago…"
"You've known!?"
"You have got to be joking! I felt like puking with all the lovey-dovey business being put into practice when the pair of you were around."
I caught his serious, shocked and blushing, yes you heard me right, expression.
"We didn't—!"
I grinned. "I've known it for ages – what with you two sneakin' off every now and again, for lil private chats in the corridors and all those looks you gave each other!"
"You really don't mind?"
"I'm honest," I added quietly. "Just 'cos I can't get over my life and won't move on from Bad Wolf Bay, doesn't mean that your life's," I poked him square in the chest. "over too."
"Not to forget, I'm going to die anyway." I didn't say.
He yanked me into an unexpected but greatly appreciated hug that sent a feeling of warmth tingling all the way down on my body.
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The night flew by before I knew it and it was 1am, when everyone finally said their goodbyes and departed back to their homes to catch a couple of winks till the next morning.
I offered to stay and help clean up, but dad shook me away and he, John, Jake, Imelda and some of the others that decided to hang around stayed to clear up the mess we'd made. I thanked them all and gave them huge warm hugs to show my appreciation, before following mum and Tony back home in the car.
As I pulled the covers over my flannel pyjamas, I reflected on all the actions I'd performed that day and all the things I'd said, extremely sure and satisfied I'd made the right choices. However, no matter what everyone else claimed, and as cheesy and soppy as this sounds: I honestly couldn't push the dreadful feeling away that my time was growing short and I needed to make the most of my last days. I needed to do something before I wasted them and spent my entire last days of my life in Parallel Universe mourning over a wonderful, brilliant Time Lord I could never see again.
As the Doctor had said himself, so many years ago – something's coming and it was coming for me.
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A/N:-
Something I MUST try out on our flirty, hip-jutting-out English teacher:
Student: Miss, would you tell me off and give me a detention for something I didn't do?
Teacher: No, of course not.
Student: Good, 'cos I haven't done my homework!
HEEHAW! Tres tres amusante... - Ahhh, ma professor Français would be proud!
Thanks for reading! =D
I really wouldn't mind a couple of reviews, you know… ;)