And I know he's no stranger For I feel I've held him for all of time
Rose wakes up at 5:30. Turning over, not quite-all-the-way-awake yet, she reaches for the Doctor. He's not there, and that fact makes her wake up all the way and look around. He's definitely not there, even though it's morning and he's always, always been there in their bed when she wakes up.
She throws the covers back and gets up. He's not in the bathroom doing his hair or brushing his teeth. Not in the kitchen or living room. He is, in fact, not there.
This is so out of character that Rose doesn't know how to react. She's not worried about him, not really. Not worried that the thought of commitment has made him do a runner. Has it? Would he? He never would.
Moving on autopilot, Rose gets the morning paper and brings it inside. She tries to read it but stops when she hits the horoscopes. She checks her mobile for messages, but there aren't any.
"Where've you gone to?" she murmurs. "What are you up to?" He's up to something, she's certain of that. Otherwise he would have been there this morning.
She gives up the thought of breakfast and takes a shower. He'll be back.
oOoOo
He wakes up at 3:00 in the morning. Rose is still fast asleep, of course, sprawled across her side of the bed. Long blonde hair spreads across her pillow and onto her pajama top.
He leans across the bed and kisses her forehead. She's sound asleep and doesn't move, even when his breath fans her hair. He tries to wake her, in case she's in the mood for...well, for anything, really, he's not going to be choosy right now, but she doesn't stir.
Just as well, he supposes. They've been doing a good job of acting normal, but that thing that is between them is keeping them from the more intimate aspects of their relationship at the moment. It's by an unspoken consent, and he knows it can't continue much longer.
But they keep at it just the same.
He knows what's bothering Rose. He's just too much of a coward to address it right now.
Jackie's words hit him hard, and he knows that Rose hasn't forgotten them, either.
Prove his commitment to Rose. As if they're justan ordinary couple, living together, in love, planning to buy a house...
Okay, that is what they are. And hasn't he been maneuvering Rose to this end for weeks now? She hadn't mentioned commitments or houses, he was the one who brought it up in the first place! Only he can't tell Jackie that because then he'd have to explain about a certain baby TARDIS living in Tony's old cot in their spare room, and then Jackie would kill him.
He's painfully aware that he did not act properly at dinner. He let Rose take the brunt from Jackie and then went outside to play with Tony. He let it hang there while they went to a movie, while they made love in their bed that night, while they went out for a jog and then lunch the next day before working on the TARDIS and watching old Sam Lively movies for research.
But...he knows why he didn't bring it up. He knows what's holding him back, what he's afraid of. Why didn't Rose bring it up? Is it possible that she wants something different? Something...not a commitment?
Why is love so bloody complicated all of a sudden? You'd think that after risking their lives on countless planets against countless aliens and dangers, this ordinary life together would be smooth and easy and safe.
It's anything but, this adventure. It's one thing he never saw coming.
What is wrong with him?
What's wrong with her?
So Rose is mad at him. Maybe not mad, exactly, but she is upset. She hasn't said anything to him, hasn't acted in a way that would give the appearance that she is mad or upset or angry, but she is.
He still has his brilliant Time Lord mind. He doesn't need anything spelled out for him.
Weeell, it's possible that he does need things spelled out for him, sometimes, but that's only because he hasn't been human for very long and some things still escape him.
Like Valentine's Day. And Guy Fawkes Day. And this world's take on Halloween, which is just like the other world's take on Halloween except that there are small chipmunks involved somehow.
All right. So he's taken the coward's way out for the moment. They will find time to talk, very soon, and they can work out what's wrong and find a house and everything will be fine and then he can do what he's been planning to do.
He gets up and gets dressed. He hasn't spoken to Janet recently, but he has questions for her about her home planet. Slipping on his shoes, he quietly lets himself out of the flat and drives to London University. Evening hours are the best time to visit the planetarium.
It's empty tonight - no solar flares or celestial events are expected. He makes his way to the telescope, intent on trying to pinpoint the exact location of Nocklyn.
He sees something else instead. Something he's seen before.
It's only as he's heading down a street toward the office building that he realizes he's been followed. By the time he and Donna reach the roof of the office building, the Adipose offspring have left in the spaceship he saw from the planetarium. He's left alone with Donna, and in the moment of holding her hand he sees what he must do.
"Come with me."
oOoOo
On the way home he rings up Jake and tells him not to worry - the aliens have left and there's no sign of any bodies. If it was Matron Cofelia, she either escaped or made it onto the ship.
"So where are we heading?" Donna asks.
"Right here." He pulls up in front of his flat. "Come on."
"You've been saying that a lot," she says, but gets out of his car and follows him. "Here, is this your place?"
"Don't worry," he says absently, unlocking the door to their flat. "There's someone I want you to meet. Just be quiet, because it's still early."
It is, in fact, after six, and they've barely stepped into the hallway when he's met by Rose.
"Where were you?" she asks, obviously upset but trying not to show it.
He catches her in his arms. "Rose. I'm sorry. I just went out for a bit."
"I woke up and you weren't here," Rose says, calm almost immediately. She may have overreacted, and she's definitely embarrassed about that, but this was the first time ever that he wasn't there when she awoke. With what they've been going through, she couldn't help but jump to perhaps a few wrong conclusions. He's here, though, right in front of her, dressed haphazardly because it was dark and he didn't want to wake her.
"I'm sorry," he says apologetically. "Something happened. And then I ran into someone."
Rose looks beyond him, his arms still on her shoulders. Her eyes widen. "Donna?"
Donna's look changes from mild amusement at what appears to be a lover's spat to suspicion. "How do you know my name?"
Rose's mouth moves but nothing comes out. "He told me," she says finally.
"When? Just now? I know it wasn't just now."
His back still to Donna, the Doctor rolls his eyes.
"I'll just go and finish getting dressed," Rose says. She's showered but is still in her robe. "I'll be back in a minute."
"What is going on here?" Donna asks in a low voice. "Don't you try to lie to me."
"I wouldn't dream of it," he assures her. "Let me go to talk to her. Stay here."
Donna is left alone in the hallway. She'd leave, but her curiosity has been roused to such an extent that she couldn't possibly walk away now. Instead she walks into the kitchen. It's a nice room painted in light blues. The morning paper is on the table, and she sits down to take a quick look. It's the horoscopes, and someone has folded it to one precise horoscope. You'll meet an old friend today. Be ready.
Donna sets the paper aside. Still no sign of John Smith or his friend. Getting up, she wanders into the living room. Movie magazines are scattered across the coffee table. She recognizes Lights!Camera!Action! with a rueful grin. It's required reading for her job. There are also lots of People magazines about, which she can't help but approve of. John Smith's girlfriend is a lot like her, it looks like.
Although...honestly, she might want to cut back on the stuffed animals. They're a bit much for a grown woman.
Walking farther down the hallway, she comes to a closed door. Donna doesn't know what's come over her, but she reaches for the doorknob and starts to push the door open. She catches sight of what might be a baby's cot before someone stops her.
John Smith's hand closes over hers on the knob, that sparking sensation running up her arm at his touch.
"You don't want to go in there," he says gently. "Come here and meet Rose properly."
Donna smoothes her hair and follows him back to the kitchen, trying to act like what she was doing was a common thing and not an inexcusably rude breach of etiquette.
The woman standing in the kitchen is not the one Donna just met. This woman has long, smooth blonde hair and beautifully made clothes. The plain style of the shirt and trousers can't disguise the expensive price tags. In a glance Donna calculates her shoes to be worth more than her own paycheck editing scripts.
And her face...she's very pretty, this girl. He called her...
And it hits her. "You're Rose Tyler," Donna says, comprehension coming in a flash.
Rose nods. "Yeah. And you're Donna. Nice to meet you."
"You're Rose Tyler."
The Doctor sighs. "Have a seat, Donna."
Donna sits, still gaping at Rose, who is pouring cups of tea for them all.
She's still gaping as Rose sits next to the Doctor and sips her tea.
"Rose Tyler," she says yet again. "From the news and the magazines and...that's why you looked so familiar," she says to John Smith. "You've been in the papers with her."
How could she not have recognized him before? Pete Tyler's mysterious, long-lost daughter arrived in London a few years back to a riot of speculation. It hadn't all died down before she started being seen with a tall, mysterious man with an equally mysterious background.
John Smith coughs. "Yes. Well. That's not at all our doing, you know."
Donna shifts her attention back to Rose. "You're Rose Tyler. Your dad is Pete Tyler."
Rose nods. "Yeah. I know."
"You're filthy rich!"
Rose has never known how to deal with that statement. People will believe whatever they want to. It's usually more convenient than the truth, anyway.
"You're filthy rich. Your dad is the richest man in the world, and you could have any bloke you want."
Donna and Rose both look at the bloke in question, sitting there with untidy hair eating a biscuit right out of the packaging.
"Any bloke you wanted, and you're with him," Donna finishes.
The Doctor knows he's been insulted but lets it slide.
"I know," Rose says apologetically. "But he's the only man I've ever loved."
He turns his head to smile at her, a slow, intimate smile that lights up his face. She smiles back at him, for a moment once more the teenage girl who roamed the universe in giddy happiness.
"The only man you've ever loved, is he?" Donna asks, even as he reaches across to take hold of Rose's hand.
"The only one," Rose says simply. "In any time and place."
Who says the rich aren't daft barmy fools sometimes? Donna supposes he's good looking enough, if you go for the tall skinny types. Which she doesn't. She gets back to the real reason for her visit here.
"What do you want with me?" she asks John Smith.
"What do we want with her?" Rose asks, still holding his hand. "Where did you find her?"
The Doctor runs his free hand across the back of his neck, stalling for time. Finally he sighs and admits the truth.
"I saw a spaceship out in the sky this morning," he says. "Donna was...following me, as it turns out, and we tried to stop the Adipose ship."
"Adipose," Rose echoes. She remembers that, both from traveling via the dimension cannon and from what he's told her. "Did you stop them?"
"They left our space before I could do anything," he says. "They were harmless enough."
Rose turns to Donna. "So why were you following him?"
Donna has the grace to look a bit embarrassed. And then she remembers what she's gone through, and the embarrassment leaves her. She's going to get some answers here.
"My boss is missing. More than half of the studio where I work is missing. No one has any idea what's happening, and John comes by asking questions and doesn't help me in the slightest. So I decided to follow him. I need to know what's going on. I didn't think I'd be in the middle of aliens or anything!"
"No, of course not," he says absently.
"So?" Donna presses.
"So, what?"
"So, Dr. Smith, are you gonna tell me what's going on or do I go to the police?"
"You can't go to the police," Rose says. "I'm afraid they wouldn't believe you."
"Then tell me."
"It's as you said," Rose says. "Your boss is missing and so is his staff."
"We don't know what's happened," John Smith stresses. "We have a few leads to follow and we're going to talk to Sam's friend today. We should know more then."
Donna's head comes up. "Sam's friend? His friend from home?"
"Yes."
"His...female friend?"
"Her name's Janet," Rose says. "Has Sam ever mentioned her?"
"No. Why did she go to you? Who are you?"
Rose looks at the Doctor. He looks at her.
"We may as well tell her," he says.
Rose hesitates and looks uncertain.
"She's seen the Adipose, Rose. She's come this far."
Rose nods. "Okay. Donna, we're Torchwood."
Donna is motionless. "Torchwood."
"Yes."
"As in...aliens."
"Yes."
"Rose Tyler, the heiress to all that Vitex, works for Torchwood."
"My dad runs Torchwood, actually."
"Pete Tyler runs Vitex," Donna corrects her.
"That's what everyone is meant to think. It's still his company, but he's been running Torchwood since the Cybermen escaped."
"And you?" Donna demands, looking at John Smith. "You're Torchwood?"
He squirms. "Yes."
"You lot fight aliens."
"Yes," Rose says yet again.
"All right, then," Donna says briskly. "Fill me in."
"Fill you...fill you in?" Rose questions. The Doctor's Donna was brilliant. This Donna is unknown to her still, and she's not sure how much is the same.
"Fill me in," Donna says briskly. "Because I've got to find Sam."
"You believe us?" the Doctor asks, to be sure he understands. He didn't expect this to be quite so easy. Donna usually made him work for it.
Donna looks at him, into eyes that look far older than they should. For a moment things swirl beneath the surface, and she can almost see things that aren't really there. Then she blinks and it's just his face again. She tries to force back the feeling that she knows this man, tries to ignore the sensation that he's not a stranger.
"I believe you," she says, taking a bigger leap of faith than she's ever taken before.
He smiles. "All right, then."