A/N: FINALLY HERE IT IS. I'm sorry. My personal life is dumb and my parents are dumb and my job is really dumb right now. And my tendonitis in my wrist is back which makes it hard to type but I DID IT ANYWAY. Enjoy, and review please! You can follow me on tumblr for updates and sneak peeks and also stuff for my other fics. My URL is stolenbyasexytardis. Thanks for reading!

Pairing: Rose/Ten

Rose Tyler is an artist. At nineteen years old, she is living with her parents, Pete and Jackie, and has a normal life. But in her dreams, in her imagination, she creates incredible things: new worlds, new creatures, new people. She draws these odd characters and places, recreating her fantasies through art. She dreams up a man who she calls her guardian angel, and keeps him alive in her sketches. Little does she know that all of these things she draws, the things she thought were just figments of her wild imagination, are very, very real, and very, very dangerous.

The Paper Angel

Chapter Five

Rose looked around the small gathering crammed inside her tiny living room. She was standing, pacing back and forth in a small line of space between the television and the wall. Gathered around the coffee table sat her parents, Mickey, Jake, and the Torchwood crew consisting of Captain Jack and his two assistants. Rose had discovered the woman's name was Gwen, and the handsome man in the suit was called Ianto. Everyone was talking at once. Phone calls were being made, plans being formed and put into action. It was a whirlwind.

"Rose and I need to find the Doctor," Jack was saying. "I don't know how the hell we're supposed to do that, but I have a hunch that he's already here. Which means everyone needs to be looking for a big blue box that says "Police" on it. It could be anywhere in London so we'll all need to keep in touch. Everyone needs everyone's cell number. My crew back at Torchwood is getting to work on the actual aliens. Right now we've got the Angels confirmed; still working on the others. Rose, I assume you had the drawings organized and you know which ones are missing, yeah?" Rose nodded. "Okay, great. Yeah. That's good. That'll make it way easier for my team to know what we're up against."

"Captain," Gwen interrupted. "We've got hold of Nightingale; he and his partner are on their way."

"Here?" Jack asked. The woman nodded in response.

He sighed heavily. "Well. Looks like this is our temporary home base. Is that okay? he asked, turning to Jackie and Pete, who were both too scared to say anything but yes. "Okay. Angels are covered, then. Rose, go get those drawings, please."

Rose retreated to her bedroom, unpinning a drawing from each section where one had disappeared. On second thought, she grabbed the ones that had people in them, too. Maybe they'd come in handy if they could find them. Carrying the stack, Rose walked back to the sitting room, catching the tail end of Jack's speech.

"Rose said they came from the drawings, so our job is to figure out how to get them back," he was saying.

Rose interjected, stepping forward into the room. "Which also means finding out how they got here in the first place." Jack nodded solemnly. She handed him the stack of papers, which he set on the table and began to rifle through, sorting the humans from the aliens.

When the two piles were separated, he handed the stack of drawings of the aliens to Ianto. "Get back to Torchwood as quickly as you can. I talked to the police in Cardiff, the roads are cleared for tonight. Start chronicling these, compile a list and get back here with Owen and Tosh so we can start hunting these sons of bitches. Take one of the blank ones back too, see if Tosh can analyze it and figure out how they got here." Jack held onto the few papers that had human faces on them, but Ianto tucked his gun back into his belt and promptly left the apartment, already rifling through the papers.

Rose met Jack's eyes. He raised his eyebrows at her, hands on his hips. "We are in so deep, Rose." Without another word, they went to work pinning the faces to the wall.

About five minutes later, there was a knock at the door. "That's Nightengale," Jack said. "Gwen, come help Rose finish this." The dark-haired woman replaced Jack, taking a picture of the curly-haired time child and pinning it up next to the fiery redhead. Each face had its own section of wall, even Jack and Gwen and Ianto's.

"We're going to figure it out, you know," Gwen spoke quietly, leaning against the wall and looking at Rose. Rose didn't respond, refusing to even make eye contact with her, still going through her artwork. The woman sighed. "Jack's clever. And from what I've seen, so are you. And so is he," she said as Rose put up the final drawing on the wall, her angel. "The Doctor. He's here, I know it, and we're going to find him. I promise." Finally, Rose turned to look at her.

Gwen's green eyes were kind, and she gave Rose a half-smile, which Rose tried to return. "Thank you," Rose whispered. Gwen nodded, and suddenly Rose was engulfed in a hug. She was on the verge of tears but for the sake of the people she was working with she kept her composure.

Rose could hear voices from the front hallway. "Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood Institute. You must be Larry."

"Yes, and this is my partner and my wife, Sally."

A women's voice spoke. "Hello, nice to meet you."

"Come this way and I'll introduce your to my frien- I mean, my client. We're so glad you're here."

Rose let go of Gwen and they both turned to watch the three walk into the room. Her eyes went wide at the sight of the woman. "Sally, Larry, this is R— Rose, what's wrong?"

Rose shook her head in disbelief. "The sparrow," she whispered.

"What?" Jack asked.

"I've seen you before," Rose said, pointing at the woman called Sally. "The sparrow.

Sally looked confused. "Yes, that's my maiden name, Sparrow. But… I don't think we've ever met before—"

"We haven't," Rose cut her off. She reached back from behind her and pulled a drawing off the wall—a pencil sketch of a woman with the words "the sparrow" scrawled in underneath. She held it up to Sally's face.

Jack's hand came up to cover his mouth. The drawing was a perfect portrait of Sally Sparrow, down to the smallest details of the way her hair curled and the shape of her eyes and the dimples in her cheeks. Everyone was stunned into silence.

"But… but… Rose, you've never seen her before!" Jack finally stuttered.

Rose looked over at him, for the first time seeing Jack truly scared. It was clear he did not understand the situation, and neither did Rose, although that was nothing new. "Yeah? Well, until today I thought I had never seen you before either, but apparently I have," Rose bit back, an edge in her voice.

Jack shook his head. "No, Rose. You've never seen her before."

Rose blew it off. "But I've drawn her." She turned to speak directly to Sally. "You're the sparrow who fought the angel statues."

Sally took a cautious step backwards. "How do you know that? People aren't supposed to know about that."

"Long story," Jack interjected, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder and lowering his voice. "She travelled with the Doctor." Sally's eyes lit up with recognition, turning to look at Rose again with an open mouth at the mention of his name. "But… there were complications. We're still trying to figure some things out, I'll explain later." Rose's shoulders hunched slightly, and she wrapped her arms around herself. She felt like such an anomaly, a specimen of sorts. She was missing years of her memory, and no one would tell her what it was and where it had gone. Soon enough, with all the secrets and mysteries surrounding her, she was going to snap. Why couldn't Jack just tell her what was wrong with her?

All of them were still watching Rose carefully. She looked around at the eight pairs of eyes resting on her, becoming more and more restless by the second. "Alright then!" she finally shouted. "There's people disappearing, we should get going on these bloody angels, don't you think?"

Jack looked at her suspiciously, but agreed and had everyone convene around the coffee table. "We've got your car, yeah, Larry?" The sandy-haired man nodded. "Good. Gwen will go with you and Sally." He looked to his partner for confirmation, which she gave. "And these two will follow in the car they brought." He tilted his head in the direction of Mickey and Jake. "I doubt either of them are too bright, but they'll be quick and it gives you a couple extra people to work with." Rose winced. The two young men both looked terribly offended at Jack's comment. "Gwen, get in contact with the police. Find out where the last reported disappearance was and go there, they can't have gone far during daylight. Quickly, now, be extremely careful, I don't want to lose any of you right now. And remember: whatever you do, don't blink!" The five of them stood and left the apartment, Gwen already holding her cell phone up to her ear and talking in a hushed voice to a police officer. Jack turned back to the remaining family. Jackie and Pete were sitting close together on the couch, holding hands and looking incredibly nervous. Rose still stood in her corner between the television and the wall, arms crossed. "Alright, you three. We've got to find the Doctor. He's the only one who can help us at this point. We're going to drive all around London, that's the only way we can look for him. And we need to hurry, or all of London will be dead by tomorrow morning. Let's go."

He led the way out of the door and down to where the Tyler's car was parked. Turning to Pete, he held out a hand. "You don't mind if I drive, do you? Promise I'll keep to the speed limit… mostly." Tentatively, he placed the key on Jack's palm. Rose clambered into the passenger seat, buckling her seat belt and watching as Jack started the car and pulled into the street. "Keep your eyes peeled for the blue police box. Wherever the TARDIS is, he's got to be close. He's tall, lots of hair, wears a suit that's either brown or blue and a long trench coat. Or at least, that's what he looked like last time I saw him. He could be… different."

"He's not," Rose said quietly.

Jack glanced over at her, eyebrows furrowed. "What did you say?"

"He looks the same."

Jack's face fell into a look of thinly veiled annoyance, like a parent when their child says that there's a monster under the bed one too many times. "Rose, sorry, but you haven't seen him. You haven't met him in this… life. You couldn't possibly know—"

"Jack," Rose said forcefully. "He looks the same. Trust me. He used to look different but I knew it when he changed. He used to be bald. Big nose and ears, leather jacket, bald, right? But a couple years back, he changed. I knew it was the same person though."

This time he didn't even bother to look at her, but merely shook his head, eyes on the road as he sped up to ten miles above the speed limit. 'Christ," he whispered. "It just keeps on coming."

Rose looked out the window. It was only one in the afternoon, but the streets were practically empty, the shops barren. Everyone was staying inside, afraid of disappearing if they went outside their homes. She sighed. This was all her fault. She had released all these damn aliens on London, she was responsible. All these people were disappearing because of her; people were going to die because of her. She rubbed her face, trying to keep it together.

"You shouldn't blame yourself," Jack spoke in a quiet voice so Rose's parents, chatting nervously in the back, wouldn't hear. It was as if he had read her mind. He glanced over at her, giving her the tiniest smile. "Really, don't. You couldn't have known that this would happen." His eyes drifted back to the road ahead as he took a left turn at the stoplight, but his hand reached over and found hers, squeezing it tightly for a second before he placed it back on the gear shift.

Another couple of minutes passed in silence between the two of them, until Rose finally spoke. "How long has it been?"

"How long since what?"

"Since you've seen me last." Rose was scared to know what was happening, but at the same time she was just too curious not to ask.

Jack paused. "Nineteen years."

"But I'm nineteen years old now… Jack, what happened to me?"

He shot her a look that was full of pity. "I'm sorry. I know you want to know what you can't remember, I know how it feels and I'm so sorry. But I don't even know exactly how it worked. Only the Doctor does. When we find him, he will tell you. I promise. Okay?" Rose didn't respond, but turned to stare back out the window to try to piece together what she knew of her past.

Jack exhaled deeply. "Remember, everyone," he said, raising his voice and looking in the rearview to catch Pete and Jackie's eyes, "look for the blue box. And any other weird things you might happen to see."

Half an hour later, they were still driving, having made no progress and having seen nothing. Jack had just gotten off the phone with Ianto, who had apparently given him a brief summary of the aliens they were thought to be up against, and whatever they were, it was clearly not reassuring to Jack. He was looking more and more worried by the second. His fingers tapped an unsteady rhythm on the steering wheel, filling the uncomfortable silence and making Rose even more restless than she had been previously.

"Okay, that's enough. We've been around half this city and we haven't seen anything. Let's head back to the house." Jack sounded exhausted. He took a sharp right onto another deserted street and started back in the direction of the Powell Estate.

A minute later, Jackie spoke tentatively from the backseat. "Um, Captain? I don't know what you meant by weird things, but do those count? Over there by the restaurant?" Everyone glanced over to the side of the street, where there was a little outdoor café extending from the shops onto the sidewalk. Standing around the tables were half a dozen creatures dressed in blue work suits, bald, with tentacles protruding from where their mouths should have been. All of them were holding small white orbs in their hands. Rose instantly recognized them from her drawings. They didn't seem to be causing any harm to anything, or doing anything at all, for that matter.

"Yes!" Jack pulled a u-turn and swung around to park the car next to the curb. Rose noticed a renewed sense of excitement on his face, as if he got some sort of thrill from this. He pushed a button on his earpiece and it light up blue. "Ianto, you there? We've got an Ood sighting, six of them in an outdoor restaurant about seven miles southwest of the apartment. They don't seem to be doing anything at the moment, just standing…" He paused. "Anyway, I'm going to need you to hurry even more if possible. As soon as you get to Torchwood, get Tosh and as much equipment as you can fit into the SUV, start analyzing that paper, and start driving back here. And see if there's any way you could try to locate the Doctor." Another pause, and Rose could faintly hear the man's voice on the other end. "Thanks. I'm going to take care of these Ood. See you soon. Hurry." He pushed the button again to end the call. Now he spoke to the other three in the car. "Alright, these aliens are called Ood, and they are usually harmless."

"Usually?" Rose asked. That didn't sound convincing.

Jack shot her a dirty look. "They're technically a slave race, born to serve," he continued as if Rose had not spoken. "So yes, they're harmless. We should be able to get them to come with us pretty easily. If we can get them back to the apartment, then it shouldn't be hard to contain them inside while we work on the others."

"I don't want no bloody tentacle-faces messing up my flat!" Jackie interjected, but she fell silent at the pleading look Rose gave her.

"Are we good, then?" Jack asked, looking at each one of them in turn. They all nodded. "Alright, let's go get them… oh, damn it, I'm the only one with a gun! Shit. That's going to need to change soon. For the Ood, though, we should be fine. Come on, all of you." He threw open the door of Pete's car, reaching for his gun as he walked quickly up to the short black fence of the café, and Rose followed close behind, her parents staying a little bit closer to the car. All six of the aliens turned to look in their direction. Jack raised his gun to aim at the one closest to him.

The closest Ood stepped forward a few steps. He held out his hands, and the little white orb lit up as he spoke. "Hello. How may we be of service?"

"Why are you here?" Jack asked, his gun pointing right at the creature's forehead.

The Ood did not delay in his answer. "The Ood are here to serve," it replied in its monotone voice.

"How did you get here?" Jack demanded, a little harsher this time.

"The Ood are here to serve," it repeated.

"The Ood are here to serve." The fellow five aliens echoed the first.

"Damn it," Jack said, pocketing his gun underneath his long blue military coat. "The only problem with them being servants is that it's all they ever want to talk about." Just as he was about to approach them, he stopped, reaching up to his earpiece, which had lit up with a bright blue light. Rose stepped closer so she could faintly hear the voice coming through.

"Jack?" It was Gwen, and her voice sounded urgent.

"What is it?" Jack turned back towards the car.

"It's the angels. They've got control of the lights. We're going to need some backup."