Disclaimer: Insert standard 'I don't own anything' disclaimer here.

A/N: I am absolutely thrilled at the response that this story is getting. I want to thank everyone that is reading, reviewing, following, or favoriting! It means so much to me, and it's really been great motivation to continue working my hardest on this story!

Chapter 4 – The Calm Before the Storm

Immersed in controlled chaos, the ground floor of the Torchwood tower prepared for the oncoming Dalek onslaught. Gigantic guns, designed to pierce the polycarbide skin of a Dalek, were being passed out to Torchwood soldiers. Some soldiers were filing in to the lifts to defend higher floors, while a large number of them took up positions on the ground floor, centered around the doors that the Daleks were expected to enter through. People with higher rankings shouted orders, while those that were not trained to fight bustled into the basements for shelter. Enormous weapons of alien origins were being wheeled in and out of the lifts on moving dollies.

The Doctor and Rose stepped out of one of the lifts, hand-in-hand, to be greeted with this madness. They looked on in horror at the sheer number of people who were willing to sacrifice themselves just to give them more time to find a better plan. It wasn't often the two of them that they were given a chance to see the preparations before a battle. They usually just found themselves thrown right into the middle of it. Seeing the calm that exists just before all hell breaks loose and destruction reigns supreme was almost worse than the battle itself. The preparing and waiting bit was excruciating, knowing that many of the people running about now wouldn't live to see another day.

Pete Tyler walked up behind the pair, having just broken out of a conversation with some of his employees. When he began to speak, both the Doctor and Rose were startled out of their dark thoughts.

"We've got Torchwood Three monitoring the progress of the Daleks," Pete informed them. "The first wave has breached the Earth's atmosphere already. We've only got minutes before they descend on the building."

"If this Torchwood falls, Torchwood Three will take over the battle, right?" Rose asked her father.

"Yes. And they'll let us know if the Daleks stop targeting this building. We'll need a different plan then."

"Okay. Good. Yeah." Rose nervously squeezed the Doctor's hand and he squeezed back reassuringly.

"You two should probably get ready," Pete said. "As soon as the Daleks see you, you'll need to make a run for the top floor. Sorry, but you'll have to take the stairs. We're shutting down the lifts to try to slow their progress upwards."

"And where will you be?" Rose asked quietly.

"I'll be here, on the front lines. Someone has to order this lot about."

"But it's not safe here. You'll die," Rose said desperately, the sound of pain evident in her tone of voice.

"Maybe not," Pete smiled reassuringly at his daughter. "You forget, I'm a much more resilient Pete Tyler than the one from your old universe. Nothing's killed me yet, and plenty of things sure have tried."

Rose simply stared up at her father with big, sad eyes.

"Oh come here," Pete held his arms out to his daughter, and she let go of the Doctor to be buried within her father's arms. "I'll be fine, sweetheart. You just make sure to take care of yourself. You're the one that they want, after all."

As Pete hugged Rose, he looked up at the Doctor behind her and mouthed, "Take care of her."

The Doctor nodded grimly. The look on Pete's face said everything that the Doctor needed to know: he didn't think he was going to make it out of this alive.

"I love you, Daddy," Rose said quietly with her face buried in her father's shoulder.

"I love you, too, sweetie. Now," he pulled out of the embrace, leaving his hands on her shoulders for a moment, "it's time we save the world again."

"Right," Rose nodded as she stepped back from her father, trying to regain the strength of her soldier stance once more. "Let's get this show on the road."

"Oh!" The Doctor shouted suddenly and began to run off.

"Doctor?" Rose shouted after him, confused. "Doctor, wait! Where are you going?"

He skid to a stop and ran back to Rose. "I've got an idea. I need to get some parts from the artifacts vault. It should only take a minute, I'll meet you up at the top."

"Wait, you're going to leave me to be Dalek bait all on my own?"

"Oh," the Doctor hadn't realized that bit. "Er, yeah, I guess I am. Is that okay? I really need these parts."

Rose gave a small laugh that could have been mistaken for a sigh. "Yeah, go on then. I'll see you after the fun begins."

"You better be in one piece when you get there." The Doctor kissed her quickly, then ran off towards the lift.

"Same goes for you, Doctor!" Rose shouted after her husband's quickly retreating backside.

As the commotion in the Torchwood building began to slow to a stop, shouts could be heard coming from outside. Humans screamed in terror and Daleks shouted orders in their emotionless voices. The distinct sound of the Dalek weapons firing reverberated through the uproar. Pete put a hand on Rose's shoulder for reassurance, and the two of them turned towards the doors, mentally preparing themselves for what was about to come through them.

"You know which floors have been equipped with the strongest defenses, right?" Pete asked Rose quietly.

"Yeah," Rose responded as she continued to stare, terrified, at the doors.

Pete nodded silently, removing his hand from her shoulder as he stepped forward to address the soldiers there. "All right, positions everyone! We have incoming Daleks. Fire on my command." He picked up a gun that was handed to him by a nearby worker. Rose looked at it wistfully, wishing she could have one for protection, too. But they were limited in number, and she needed to be unencumbered to run up multiple flights of stairs faster than the Daleks could hover up them behind her.

Cries of "Exterminate" could be heard from just outside the doors now. Rose reluctantly stepped forward to take her place in the formation of soldiers. In the center of the formation, she was surrounded by soldiers, but with a clear path left towards the nearest staircase and a clear view of the entrance to the building. The formation was designed to showcase her, such that the Daleks could easily see what it was that they were after. She just hoped that their desire to have the Bad Wolf would outweigh their brilliance such that they wouldn't see right through the trap.

As Rose held her breath with anticipation, the first Dalek came into view on the other side of the glass doors. Then another, and another appeared. They paused for a moment in a formation of sorts. Then, at a single command, each of the Daleks on the front line fired their weapons. The glass doors of the building shattered, causing sparkling shards of glass to spray across the Torchwood lobby. As the glass settled to the ground, the Daleks entered the building one by one. The well-trained Torchwood soldiers refrained from firing as they continued to wait, terrified, for their commander's orders.

The first Daleks slowed to a stop in front of the wall of kneeling soldiers that were just in front of Rose. The one in front looked her directly in the eyes with its one eyestalk, sizing her up.

"Target acquired!" the Dalek shouted. Shouts of those same two words could be heard rippling backwards through the long chain of Daleks that waited their turn to storm the building. They all knew that she was here now. They would come after Rose.

"Fire now!" Pete shouted.

The soldiers began firing their weapons relentlessly at the Daleks. The shots that hit their mark caused the encased creatures to be blown to pieces, effectively killing them. Rose bolted towards the stairs, running faster than she had ever run before. Numerous cries of "Exterminate" filled the room as she ran, sending chills down her spine. Rose burst into the stairwell with a crash as she threw the door open and barreled up the stairs two-at-a-time, never allowing herself to look back at the devastation left in her wake.