Chapter Twenty

Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna give it back to you

Donna strides into the Torchwood lobby swinging a briefcase. She's got on her poshest black suit and highest-heeled shoes. Her hair has been blown-dried to a smooth shine, and her girlfriend Veena has just finished giving her advice on makeup.

She is ready.

"Donna Noble," she says briskly to the receptionist, having walked by the security guard directly to the front desk.

"How can I help you?" the receptionist asks. Below the reception desk, four separate cameras are taking images of Donna Noble and running them through an internal data bank.

"I'm here to see Rose Tyler."

Only a faint lifting of the receptionist's eyebrows gives away the fact that this is an unusual occurrence.

"Have you an appointment?" she asks. Down in security, the camera feeds are being analyzed and Donna Noble is found to be one human female with no criminal activity on her record.

"No appointment, but she'll see me." Donna speaks with a bit more confidence than she actually feels, but she's chuffed that she's made it this far. Torchwood is rumored to be incredibly secretive and incredibly hard to leave if they don't want you to go.

"If you could just have a seat." The receptionist indicates a seating area of leather-covered chairs a short distance away. Donna nods regally and has a seat, resting her briefcase on her lap. The security guard eyes her from beneath his cap.

Down in the bowels of security, the Doctor and Jake sit and watch her sit and wait.

"What could she want?" Jake asks. "I thought you didn't tell her about the aliens."

"I didn't! As far as she knows, Sam and the others are humans who've just gone missing."

"She looks pretty determined."

"I don't trust her," Trevor, the chief of security says. "Shifty eyes."

"Her eyes aren't shifty!" the Doctor protests.

"Shifty," Trevor repeats. "Never trust a shifty-eyed woman."

"You don't trust any woman," Jake corrects him. "That's why you're 35 and still single."

"Open up, Trevor," the Doctor advises. "Let love into your heart."

Jake shakes his head. "That just turned me off as well."

"What do you care? The last thing you're likely to notice is a woman, shifty-eyed or otherwise." The Doctor dials Rose's number on the internal phone. "Rose! Come down to the lobby. I have a surprise for you."

Rose walks down to the lobby, expecting a pleasant sort of surprise. Flowers, perhaps. Or balloons. If there's a clown involved she will reach for the nearest weapon, but anything else will be welcome.

An image of the Doctor, down on one knee, is abruptly scrubbed as she steps in front of reception and sees Donna there.

Rose comes to a halt and sighs. "I should have known." Her idea of a delightful surprise was bound to be different from the Doctor's.

"She wanted to see you, Ms. Tyler," the receptionist says.

Seven cameras total are taking images of Rose and Donna right now. Five people, including the receptionist, are ready and willing to take on Donna with various weapons if necessary. Another two are training weapons on her right now, in case she attempts to harm Rose.

Rose smiles and waves a hand at Donna. The various personnel stand down, unseen and unnoticed and unknown by Donna.

"Hi, Donna," Rose says. "What are you doing here?"

Donna stands up. "Is this really Torchwood?" she asks. "I thought there'd be aliens and guns and stuff."

"There are," Rose says seriously. "Just not in the front lobby. Come on."

The Doctor is waiting for them when they reach Rose's office. He stands up as they walk in, and again Donna feels an odd shifting sensation as she looks at him. Like she knows him but she doesn't. She doesn't know him, not at all, but she keeps reacting as if he's a good friend. Shaking off the feeling, she looks around the room.

"This is your office?" Donna asks. "Shouldn't you have something bigger? With windows and natural light?"

Rose shrugs. "It works well enough."

"I thought your dad ran the show. Bit embarrassing, not having a nice office, isn't it? You being punished for something?"

"What are you doing here?" the Doctor asks, sitting back down. Rose stands beside his chair, leaning her hip against the back of it.

Donna looks from him to Rose and back again before placing her briefcase on the desk and opening it.

"I've done some looking around," she says.

"At what?" he asks politely.

"At records. Personnel records, birth records, that sort of thing." Donna pulls out some papers.

Rose's hand has been resting along the back of the chair. Her fingers were brushing the back of the Doctor's head. At Donna's words her fingers press down on his suddenly tense shoulder.

"Records?" The Doctor's voice is smooth and even. He knows that any paperwork belonging to Rose will pass scrutiny. Even his own documents, processed as they were by Torchwood, will be guaranteed authentic.

What concerns them both is the fact that his mother's name, according to his birth certificate, is Donna Noble. Pete's idea of a small joke at the time may be extremely difficult to explain.

Luckily, it turns out that it doesn't matter.

Donna sets the papers down and looks at them. "Sam. Sam Lively, my boss. These all look real, but I don't think they are."

Rose leaves the Doctor's side to pick up the papers Donna is pointing to. "Why don't you think they're real?"

"There is a Nocklyn in Cornwall," Donna begins, and is interrupted by the Doctor.

"There is?" he says in surprise.

Rose shoots him a look.

"Of course there is," he continues. "That's where Sam is from, isn't it?"

"There are no records of Sam there. Anywhere. His paperwork says one thing, but the records in Nocklyn say another."

"And you know this how?" Rose asks.

"I did some research on the subject," Donna says with some asperity. "Before I was a super-duper script editor I was a super-duper temp."

"Best temp in Chiswick," the Doctor says.

"Not now," Rose murmurs.

"Yeah, I was," Donna agrees. "And what I found was this: Sam Lively exists. I know he does, because I know him. But his records don't make sense. I think they're forgeries."

"Why would they be forgeries?" Rose is looking through the documents even though she knows they are probably forgeries.

"Well, I don't know. But I thought it'd be something you could figure out, with all your Torchwood resources here at your fingertips."

Rose sets the papers down. She turns and looks at the Doctor. Their time is up. They can't keep her in the dark forever. She's already seen too much.

The Doctor sighs and stands up, shoving his hands in his pockets as he does so.

"Donna. There's something we need to tell you."

oOoOo

"No," Donna says. "No. No way. That's impossible."

"No, it's not impossible," the Doctor corrects her. "It's all very possible."

"My boss is an alien," Donna says. "That is just not...actually," she says, diverted for a moment, "that wouldn't be a half-bad title. We could sell it to the Sci-Fi channel. Maybe a teen movie set in a fast-food place."

"Hello? Focus, Donna." The Doctor snaps his fingers at her.

She tables the idea for now. "You're telling me that Sam is an alien? And that everyone at the studio is an alien?"

"His friend came to us in confidence," Rose says. "She believes he's in trouble, and he did go away without warning, yeah? It explains why all the studio people are gone."

"They're in hiding," Donna murmurs, thinking back to the conversations she's had with Derek and with others.

"They're all friends of Sam, and when he disappeared they got scared."

"I don't want to believe this," Donna says. "It's crazy."

Rose and the Doctor wait. This is it. If this world's Donna is anything like their Donna, she will rise to the occasion and be magnificent. If not...well, there's always retcon to erase her memory.

"But it all makes sense," Donna continues.

"It does?" Rose and the Doctor chorus.

"He's so good at his job!" Donna leans forward across the table. "All his ideas about aliens and planets and things! Stuff no one else would ever have come up with! Of course!"

"Of course!" Rose and the Doctor chorus.

"So where did he go?" Donna asks. "Did he go home? Where is his home? What's he doing here?"

"He hasn't gone home," Rose says. "At least, if he did, he didn't go willingly."

"We have no clues or theories right now," the Doctor admits, "but Janet thinks that Sam was targeted. That by sharing his information about his home world he was endangering his people."

"But Sam doesn't make movies about one specific place," Donna protests. "It's always a new planet, a new species, a new time and place and new problems. How could you even hope to think of picking one to say it was real?"

The Doctor sits back. "I don't know," he finally admits. "It's a good theory, though."

"So what do we do now?" Donna demands. "What's our next step?"

"Our next step?" the Doctor says with a laugh. "You can leave this to the experts, Donna."

"I don't bloody well think so," she snaps, all steel suddenly. "My boss. My friends. I help."

"No," he says.

"Yes," she says.

"I said no."

"You're not the boss of me!"

Rose intercedes to head off what could be the longest, most juvenile conversation between them she's had to witness so far.

"We could use your help, Donna."

"Rose," the Doctor says warningly.

"Oh, come on!" she says. "What are we gonna do? Send her on home? She knows what's going on. Better she's here helping us than on her own."

The reasonableness of this strikes the Doctor immediately, images of the potential damage Donna might do on her own coming to mind.

"Fine," he says briskly. "Donna, we have nothing right now. But you will be our inside guy. Gal. Person."

Donna nods excitedly, eyes sparkling. "You gonna deputize me or anything?"

"No, I'm not gonna deputize you," he says, annoyed. "Honestly. Just get back to work and let us know what else you can find out on all these employees. I'm curious to know how many are aliens."

"Well, it's not like they'll have that listed in their file."

"You have ways, Donna," he says meaningfully. "I know you do."

She regards his for a moment. "You are daft," she says. "But yeah. I do have my resources."

"Excellent. Go use up those resources."

Rose walks Donna out of the building. When she returns the Doctor has disappeared. Jake is in his place, tapping away on her computer keyboard.

"What are you doing?" she asks him. "Where's the Doctor?"

"Oh, he went off somewhere," Jake says vaguely, still typing. "Something about a clue."

"A clue? To what? I was only gone five minutes!"

"Maybe he meant the game," Jake says.

"What?"

"The game. Clue. You know, with Professor Peach and Lady Red in the library with a wrench."

Rose stares at him for a long minute, all sorts of comments about parallel worlds and parallel games going through her mind. Finally she sits down. There are a lot of mission reports she needs to write.

"What was he doing?" Rose asks after a few minutes. "When he left?"

Jake looks up. "He was reading something on your screen."

"On my screen?" Jake is still at her computer. She's been sitting and writing out notes with a pencil.

"Yeah."

Rose gets up and edges him out of the way with her hip. "Move."

"What's gotten into you?"

Rose is calling up the history on the computer hard drive. "Something came across," she says absently. "What was he doing?"

She gets the answer almost immediately. "Ha!"

Jake looks over. "What is it?"

"A spike in radiation."

"That could be anything," Jake says, unimpressed with her deduction.

"Well, clearly the Doctor feels differently," she says loftily.

"You think so?"

"Oh, I know so," Rose says, and marches out.

oOoOo

Well. As exit lines go, that was a winner. Unfortunately, she can't find the Doctor anywhere. He's not in the building, and he's not answering his mobile. She could drive to where that radiation spike hit, but he'd be just as likely to have left by the time she gets there.

"Bloody man," Rose mutters to herself as she stands outside the building.

"Who is?" Anna asks, walking over. "Not that I really need to ask, do I?"

Rose smiles a greeting. "What are you up to?"

"Bringing back lunch. Are you looking for the Doctor?"

"Yeah," Rose says, suddenly alert. "Have you seen him?"

"No, not since yesterday. You two made things up?"

Rose finds herself at a loss for words. "Made things...up?"

"You were all distant and awkward for a while. Are things better?"

Rose nods. "They are. Thanks for asking."

"Are you coming tonight?"

"To what?"

"Knitting, of course."

Rose sighs. "Yeah. I'll see you after work."

Janet's words drift back to her. No matter how hard Rose tries, she cannot conceive of a reason to need to know how to knit.

oOoOo

After half an hour of knitting class, Rose is sure of it.

She's had an absolutely awful day. The Doctor never came back. She can't get hold of Donna, and she has to sit and pretend to enjoy herself in the Torchwood cafeteria as Anna demonstrates some exotic kind of knitting stitch that has the other women oohing and aahing in admiration.

It doesn't help that Riley is two feet into a scarf that looks almost professional. Rose is not by nature an envious person, but she can't help but wish that she could improve just a little bit.

"Okay," Anna says. "Before we do that stitch, let's review. Make a slip knot and cast on."

All around Rose, office drones and Riley make slipknots and cast onto their knitting needles. Rose makes a slipknot. So far, so good. The Doctor once took her to a planet where knots were the only means of fastening things together.

Okay. Casting on. Her knitting needles are a nice matte black. Her yarn is soft and pink. How hard could this be?

"Now knit a row and then purl!" Anna says from the front.

Rose turns to Riley. "Quick! What's purl? Have we learned that yet?"

"And then bind off your stitches," Anna says.

"Bloody hell," Rose mutters.

"You've got it," Riley says encouragingly.

"The only thing I've got is a mess," Rose says, and it's true. She can't seem to manipulate the needles and yarn at the same time. Her fingers are tangled up in the yarn.

"Rose, do you need help?" Anna asks.

"No, I'm fine!" Rose says cheerfully. "Just getting the hang of it!"

Riley stifles a laugh and keeps at it.

"Riley, so help me-" Rose breaks off as the doors to the cafeteria open. It's the Doctor, and she sighs in relief.

"Hello!" The Doctor gives a little wave to the women who are looking up at his entrance. "Just looking for Rose. Oh, there you are. Are you busy?"

"No! I'm coming!" Rose is already gathering up her yarn, trying to untangle the knots that have formed.

"If you're not finished I can wait for you. It's no-" The Doctor stops as Rose sprints up to the doors.

"See you later!" she calls to her coworkers. "Duty calls!" She closes the doors and leans against them. Then she straightens up and kisses him, long and deeply.

"Mmm!" He gathers her in close and returns the kiss enthusiastically. "Hello."

"You saved my life," she says seriously. "Thank you."

He's disconcerted. "I thought you liked knitting."

"Please." She rolls up her pink yarn and thrusts it at him. "Take this."

He's wearing his jacket with the Time Lord pockets. The yarn disappears. She holds up the black knitting needles.

"No way am I taking those instruments of death," he says firmly, nodding to the needles.

"Time Lord pockets," she protests.

"Uh uh."

Her long hair is up in a ponytail. She adjusts the elastic so that her hair is now twisted in a knot, and she sticks the needles into her hair.

"Why are you doing that?" he demands. "You and Anna are determined to blind me."

"Will you put them in your coat?"

"No way."

"Then too bad. I left my bag in my office." Rose buttons up her jacket. "Come on."

"We'll go get it."

"No. You need to tell me where've you been."

Keeping a wary eye on the needles - she does that all the time with pencils, but this seems more dangerous - he guides her to the exit with a hand at her back.

"I picked up some low-level radiation coming in from a few miles away."

"And no one went with you? You're not supposed to go off on your own."

"I had a feeling this was something...different. The readings weren't quite the same."

"Yeah? And?"

His shoulders slump. "And...nothing. There was nothing there. I've spent the afternoon trying to trace it, but there was nothing left."

"Well, then it was probably nothing."

His mouth twists. "Probably," he says ruefully. "You have a good day?"

They took the tube in that morning. Rose puts her arm through his as they walk to the station. "Nothing much happened after you and Donna left. Finished up some mission reports."

"Ah. A very productive day, then." While they wait for their stop he slips his arm around her, taking care to keep away from the pointy instruments of death that she's got stuck in her hair.

Once they're in their seats, Rose snuggles against him, heedless of the knitting needles. They come very close to scraping his chin. He backs away from them a bit, still determined to keep them out of his Time Lord pockets.

On the way home Rose's phone rings. It's Jackie.

"Hi, Mum," Rose says carefully. They haven't spoken since their last dinner together, when Jackie all but demanded a commitment from the Doctor on Rose's behalf.

"Hi, sweetheart. This a good time?"

Rose glances at the Doctor, who rolls his eyes.

"Yeah. We're just on our way home."

"Your dad wanted me to call and apologize." The words clearly do not come easily to Jackie.

"For what?" Rose asks.

"Oh, Rose. You know for what. I'm sorry to interfere in your lives. You two know what's best."

Well, that may be debatable, Rose thinks to herself with a silent laugh.

"Thanks, Mum. Don't worry. We're fine."

"I'm not worried. I just-" Jackie breaks off. "All right, then, love. Tell himself I said hello. Are you still coming to dinner this weekend?"

"Of course." Rose hangs up and pockets her phone. The Doctor is carefully avoiding looking at her.

"It's okay," she tells him. "Mum just wanted to say she was sorry."

He nods. It's still not a subject either of them is ready to revisit right then.

Rose's eyes are closed. "What would you say to some takeaway?" she asks.

"I would say...yes."

He closes his eyes as well and reviews the day's events. It's not until the next morning that he figures it out.