Chapter Two

If I could fall into the sky do you think time would pass me by?


Things at Torchwood have changed a bit. Pete Tyler is still in charge, but he's also been working over at Vitex more and more lately. He's handling the combination very well, but Rose wonders how long before he is forced to choose between the two. Vitex is his creation, but he takes Torchwood very seriously. Having been threatened by the Cybermen, Pete is not going to let anything else come through to this world on his watch.

Having watched that happen, Rose will do whatever she has to keep it from happening again. That means not only hunting down aliens and using their technology to help the Earth, but dealing with the politics within Torchwood as well. The Doctor handles that part better - he doesn't care what people think. Rose doesn't have that luxury.

The Doctor pauses as they near the building.

"What is it?" Rose asks.

He shrugs. "I was just thinking that I like this."

"Like what?" she asks, puzzled.

"I like being human. Well, except for the one heart. I still can't get used to that. But I like living with you and going to a job every day and being normal."

Rose squints her eyes. "I'm not sure that you'd be considered normal," she tells him. "I mean, you're only half-human, and we chase down aliens for a living. And we came from a parallel universe. So...not a lot of normal going on there."

"Rose Tyler, you are missing my point." As people move past them he steps closer to her so that strangers won't overhear him. "I am having fun."

"Me too."

They walk to Torchwood Tower and he opens the lobby door for her. "I mean, this is fun. This particular job. It's challenging, it's fun-"

"You get to make everyone else look like idiots at least once a week."

"It's so easy to do. You humans just don't know anything about aliens."

Flashing their passes at the security desk, they part ways at the elevator banks. Rose is going in to see her father. The Doctor is planning to work in his lab. Since they're on call, he's dressed in trousers and a plain shirt. Rose is wearing dark trousers and a pink blouse under a dark jacket. Ready for the office or chasing down aliens.

Someone in human resources had the bright idea to institute a dress code. Employees not on active field duty must wear professional dress when in the building. This hasn't caused massive discontent so far, but it's only a matter of time before scientists used to wearing jeans in their own labs start to rebel.

Rose wears a suit on days she has meetings or debriefings and considers it an even trade. The Doctor, who likes shopping but never really notices what he's wearing, agreed to wear a tie and proper trousers when required. Once in a while Rose will suggest a nice suit. He always vetoes it, maintaining that he's done with suits. She doesn't always know whether to be glad or sorry for that. He is his own person, and she knows that and loves him for it. She just wishes she understood her need to see him wearing a brown pinstriped suit, when he so clearly is not the same man who used to wear one.

"Come find me when you're done?" he asks her.

She smiles up at him. "Of course. See you later." She walks into a lift. The Doctor watches until the doors close and then runs up the stairs to his lab. He's very concerned about health and exercise now that he's human and limited to one life.

The lab is empty, as he expected to find it. Turning on the lights, he pulls out his latest project. Nothing Torchwood-sanctioned, but he considers growing a TARDIS more important than anything else he could be doing.

His other current project, building a properly-functioning sonic screwdriver, is nearly as important, but he hasn't had much success with that yet.

As he studies the diagrams he's painstakingly drawn out over the past few weeks, he tries to picture a fully-grown TARDIS. He's been without his for a while now, trapped on this world in a human body. He's gotten used to the loss, but the prospect of a new one fills him with excitement.

A knock on his door breaks his concentration. He has to blink a few times to focus on the figure in the doorway.

"Hi," Anna says cheerfully.

"Good morning." He slides the papers away and out of sight. He and Rose have not told anyone what they're planning, in case it doesn't work.

Also, he is afraid to tell Jackie that he is growing another time machine. She will rightly see it as an attempt to take her daughter away, and he does not want to face her under those circumstances. No sane man would.

"I'm doing an analysis of some material found at an accident site," Anna tells him. "There are a few organic elements I can't place. Are you busy?"

"No, I can help."

Across the hall in Anna's small lab, the Doctor examines a chunk of hard rock. "This is what was found?"

"A part of it. Most of it is still under observation. They let me have this bit when it passed quarantine."

He looks up at her. "Quarantine?"

"I know! How can we tell what it is, let alone if it needs to be quarantined?" Anna likes her job, but not the paperwork and red tape she has to maneuver through in order to do it. "It wasn't giving off nuclear readings, so it's probably safe enough."

The Doctor nods solemnly. "Probably." Normally he would add something about how clueless human beings were, but it would be wasted on Anna. She doesn't entirely believe that he's not entirely human.

Anna waits patiently while he looks at the rock. She reaches out and stops him as he lifts the rock to his mouth.

"Rose said I was not to let you taste anything unfamiliar," she says firmly. "Especially if it gives off radiation."

He rolls his eyes. "Really, Anna." But he sets the rock down. "No idea," he says briskly. "I haven't seen it before, and I've traveled a bit."

"I know, I know. You're nearly a thousand years old and you've been to the end of the world and back." Anna tries not to yawn.

"It doesn't look like anything from Earth," the Doctor continues, ignoring this blatant disregard for his long and illustrious career. "Where did they find it?"

Anna packs the rock away in a special box designed to hold in any radiation or other lethal emissions. "There was a crash a few miles outside Bristol. This was found at the bottom of a crater. It looked a bit suspicious. We're still not sure if it's organic or manmade."

"Who investigated it?"

"Jake, Simon and Riley."

"Where is their report?"

Anna slaps it into his hand. "Let me know what you find out."

He's halfway back to his lab before it dawns on him. He's heading back when Rose comes down the hallway.

"There you are." She grabs his arm and squeezes it.

"Hi," he tells her.

"Where are you heading?"

"I think Anna just talked me into doing her work for her," he says indignantly.

"If it's something she can't figure out, you're the one she would ask," Rose says reasonably.

"Yes, but it wasn't even me who found it."

"All things alien lead to you," Rose intones. "Do you fancy a break?"

That's enough for him. He slides the report under his locked door and heads to the cafeteria with Rose.

"So why is Anna pawning her work off to you?" Rose asks when they're sitting down.

He's buttering a scone and doesn't answer right away. "Don't know." He bites half of the scone off, chewing away and shrugging. "Sounds like she's not sure what to make of it," he continues once he's able to talk again.

"Doesn't sound like Anna."

The Doctor considers Anna a friend, but is less concerned with whether she's herself or not.

Unless - "You don't suppose she's been possessed by something?"

"What? No. What?"

"It would explain why she's acting so oddly," he explains.

"She's not acting oddly. I was only wondering why she asked for your help. That's not so odd. Now sit down and finish your scone."

The Doctor had gotten halfway up out of chair, prepared to go track Anna down and discover what alien life force was inhabiting her body. Now he sits back down and picks up his scone.

He's a grown man, but Rose would wager that not even her small brother could outdo him in the pouting department.

"Here, have my chocolate biscuit." She pushes it over to appease him. "Honestly, I think you've been watching too many movies. I thought you were more reasonable than this."

"Rose, with everything we've seen, an alien possession would not be outside the realm of possibility. Do you recall the Slitheen? Or the Gelth? The Monantodes of Taurus Moon Six?"

"Tell you what," she says with a grin, "if Anna turns out to be possessed, I will buy you dinner tonight."

"All right," he says. He picks up her biscuit pops it into his mouth. Jensen from accounting stops by to say hello. The Doctor knows nearly everyone at Torchwood, whether he has regular contact with them or not. Rose smiles a greeting and lifts her mug of tea.

She doesn't really believe that Anna is possessed by anything. She's almost as certain that the Doctor doesn't believe so either. It pains her to think that he might be inventing things because he's bored. A part of Rose has never stopped waiting for him to tell her goodbye, to announce that he's done playing house and is taking off to see the world before he withers and dies.

Not the healthiest outlook for a relationship, she'll admit.

"Are you coming?"

Startled, Rose looks up to find the Doctor standing beside the table, looking down at her with raised brows.

"Sorry, what?"

"Are you coming?" he repeats. "We have a call out in the field."

Rose blinks. She was so lost in thought that she'd not noticed Jensen leave, or the Doctor speaking to her.

"Yup." She stands up, still holding her mug. "Coming."

He glances at her sideways as they walk out of the cafeteria. "Are you sure," he asks, holding the door open for her, "that you weren't possessed by aliens recently?"