Chapter Twenty-Eight
As Rose pulled up to the farmhouse in the beat up old Monteo, she was surprised to find her staff waiting for her outside with somber expressions on their faces. The Doctor stood a distance away, looking a bit nervous. She assumed by the look on his face he was uncertain about the reception he would get from her.
Tony was the first out of the car and he immediately raced to the Doctor, who grinned and picked him up. Rose started to walk towards him but was stopped by Toshiko.
"Rose, I need to talk to you," she said.
"… and then we walked through a graveyard," Tony said to the Doctor, "and then we saw Mrs. McDonald and Jeremy and then we went on a loooong car ride, and then we hid in a barn…."
"Did you, now?" the Doctor asked him. He looked away from the little boy long enough to see Toshiko lead Rose a distance away from the rest of the group. He couldn't hear what the women were talking about, but from the expression on Rose's face he assumed Tosh had told her about Jake. He plastered a false smile on his face and tried to return his attention to the boy in his arms.
"Yeah, and Rose says I'm gonna stay with you for a few days. Mum, too. And she said you are gonna go get Dad so he can come and visit, too."
"Yes, Tony," the Doctor replied. "We're going to go get your dad in just a little bit. And while we do, you and your mum are going to stay here."
He put the boy down, only to be grabbed into a tight hug by Jackie. He tried to disentangle himself, until he heard her sniff loudly and realized she was crying. He got a lump in his throat. Jackie Tyler usually lashed out when upset. She wasn't normally one to cry. He wrapped his arms around her and patted her on the back.
"Don't worry, Jackie," the Doctor said. "Pete's going to be okay. I'm going to bring him back to you. I promise."
She took a deep breath to compose herself and stepped back to look him in the face. "I believe you. You've always kept your promises to me, every single one. You've always kept Rose safe and brought her back, and I know you can do it for Pete, too."
~oOo~
Tourists and residents alike stopped and stared as UNIT troops converged on the tall, steel and glass building that housed the flat that was owned by Vitex. Military vehicles blocked off the entrance to the indoor garage in the basement of the building, and a truck filled with soldiers pulled up behind them. Onlookers watched as they piled out of the vehicle. After they blocked all the exits, the troops entered and began to methodically search the structure floor by floor.
Once on the top floor, two UNIT soldiers burst through the door of the flat, guns at the ready. They immediately fanned out and searched the rooms as others stood in the hall or guarded the door. The first, a gangly young man with bright ginger hair and a bad complexion, searched the master suite. The other, a tiny woman who could nonetheless take down a man twice her size in hand to hand combat, searched the office.
"Clear," she called to him.
"Clear," he replied.
They walked out of the rooms, guns holstered, into the main living area.
"Nothing is here," he said. "No clothes in the wardrobe, nothing in the bathroom…."
"Nothing in the refrigerator either," she told him. She had crossed the room to search the kitchen for evidence of habitation. "I don't think anyone's been living here for a while." She paused thoughtfully. "They have to be somewhere. We'll search the rest of the place, see if they left any indication where they went, and then notify Captain Magambo."
~oOo~
The mood in the kitchen was somber when Rose and Toshiko walked in from outside. Rose saw that Gwen, Owen and Ianto were sitting at the table, a teapot and used mugs in front of them. As Tosh continued into the room, Rose stopped in the doorway when she saw the Doctor.
The Doctor was leaning against the cabinet near the sink, arms and ankles crossed, until he noticed Rose had walked in. He immediately stood up straight and opened his mouth as if to say something, but then abruptly closed it, as if he had thought better of it. She wasn't sure what to say to him, and whatever it was, she didn't want to say it in front of everyone else. Instead, she turned to her mother.
"Where's Tony?" Rose asked.
"The Doctor set him up in the other room with a Disney movie," Jackie said.
She nodded. "Good. That's good." She took a deep breath and turned to Gwen. "Tosh told me about them finding a body in the wreckage of Torchwood Two. Why do they think it's Jake?"
"Torchwood Two is sort of an open secret up in Glasgow, at least among the police. When they found the body, they questioned Audrey and she said that Jake was still in the building when she left for the day."
"Who's Audrey?" Rose asked.
"Audrey Griffith," Ianto answered. "She works for Torchwood Two. She's kind of like a gal Friday up there, does cleaning, filing, makes tea…"
"So kind of a female you," Owen interjected. Ianto shot him a look.
"Not now, Owen," Rose said sharply. She turned back to Gwen. "So this Audrey, did she say when she left for the day?"
"She wasn't sure; Jake had given her the evening off and she thought she might have left as early as 5:00."
"And when was the explosion?"
"Around midnight."
Rose shook her head. "That's seven hours, too much time to be certain he was there." She looked around the room at everyone. "Whether it was him or not, we need to focus on what we need to do, which is to get to the bottom of this mess and sort it, yeah? For right now we operate on the assumption that Jake's okay, that that wasn't him in there. And later, if it turns out to be him…" Her voice broke off, and out of the corner of her eye she saw the Doctor move, as if he was going to comfort her, but then he stopped himself. She closed her eyes for a second and then continued. "And if it turns out it was Jake, well, we'll deal with that later. Got it?"
Everyone else murmured their assent and then fell silent.
After a moment, Jackie crossed over to the refrigerator and opened it. She stared at the contents inside with a look of incredulity on her face.
"What is it, Mum?" Rose asked.
"'S gettin' late enough, I thought I'd make tea, but I don't see anythin' in here for it. Don't you two eat?"
"We eat," Rose said, slightly defensively. "But we haven't been to the store in a few days and we mostly get takeaway."
"All I've found so far in this kitchen is bananas, four kinds of biscuits and a few jam jars," she scolded. "You can't make a proper tea from that. Makes me think I didn't raise you right. We brought more food with us than you have in this entire kitchen." She turned and looked at her daughter pointedly. "Well, we'll have to get out to the store and get somethin', or we're gonna have to order in."
"Mrs. Tyler, we can't order in," Owen said. "People are looking for you, and we can't risk anyone finding you here."
"But we do need some stuff if we're gonna be here any length of time." Gwen had crossed the room to look into the refrigerator herself. Jackie was right; there was hardly anything in there besides three kinds of jam. "There's like nothing in here. And Tony's gotta eat, if nothing else."
"We also need to think about IDs if we're headed to London," Tosh said. "The registration cards that we've got won't work, not if they are looking for us. We'll have to come up with something else."
"What do you suggest, Tosh?" Rose asked.
"We've all got false passports that I've made in the past," she answered, gesturing at Gwen, Owen and Ianto. "I could make you and the Doctor passports, from Australia or Canada or something, so that the authorities won't be looking at our IDs. The only problem is, I don't have the paper with me to make yours, and ours are in the Hub. Someone will have to go back to the Hub and get them and the paper and covers I need to make yours. Not only that, but the two of you really need to change the way you look. Your pictures are plastered all over the television, all over the internet…."
"And you need to change the way you look anyway," Jackie said to the Doctor.
"What's wrong with how I look?" the Doctor said in outrage.
Jackie raised her eyebrows at him.
"No, seriously," Toshiko said to him. "You need to consider wearing something else. That blue suit is a little… noticeable."
"It's ugly," Jackie said flatly.
"This from the woman who singlehandedly kept the track suit industry in business in two separate universes," the Doctor retorted. "And I have saved entire planets wearing this suit, I'll have you know."
"I wouldn't say it's ugly, necessarily," Gwen said, "but it is… memorable. And you'll need to be able to get in and out of places unnoticed. Luckily you didn't shave today, because that does change your looks quite a bit."
His brow furrowed as his hand automatically flew to his face. She was right. He had forgotten to shave. After his argument with Rose that morning, he had been too distracted to remember to do it.
"You're right about needing to go unnoticed," he admitted, yanking on one ear thoughtfully. "But not just me. We all need to be able to go about unnoticed…."
After he glanced in Rose's direction, an unreadable expression on his face, the Doctor wandered out of the room and Rose heard the front door quietly open and close. She shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the conversation, which had continued without him.
"Seriously, Rose," Toshiko said, "you both need to look as different as possible."
"Well, I can handle that," Jackie said, "but I'm gonna need some supplies, and we still need food."
"And I need my stuff from the Hub," Toshiko added. "But I can't go because I need to monitor UNIT's satellite uplinks and communiques."
"Well, I can't sneak into the Hub," Gwen said pointedly. She glanced down at her stomach. "I can't really sneak anywhere these days." She raised her eyebrows at Owen and Ianto and then tossed Ianto the keys to her car. "Plus the Doctor said my car needs to be moved."
"We'll also need another car. The Monteo was spotted; they'll be looking for it now, so it should be moved as well. And we can't take any of our cars or the SUV. They'll be looking for those too."
"I think I can get us a car," Ianto said. He jerked his head towards Owen. "We'll go."
Owen turned and stared at him. "We'll go?"
"Yes, you will," Rose answered.
"I'll make you a list," Jackie said.
~oOo~
Twenty minutes later, after visiting Tesco and loading everything on Jackie's list into their vehicle, Ianto Jones and Owen Harper parked a white minivan in a car park behind the Millennium Center. Before they had left the farmhouse, they had managed to get Rose's Mini Cooper hidden in the relatively empty end of the barn and the big, black Torchwood SUV hidden in a thick part of the forest, invisible from the house, the road and by air. With the vehicles hidden, the place looked as unoccupied as before the Doctor and Rose had moved in.
As soon as Ianto and Owen had arrived back in Cardiff, Ianto had gone to trade the Monteo for his sister's car. Meanwhile, Owen had abandoned Gwen's car in the parking garage of a hotel across from Millennium Stadium. There was a match on and the entire area was filled with cars and people, so they were able to easily get in and out unnoticed in the chaos surrounding the Stadium. When Ianto had picked the other man up, Owen had begun criticizing the vehicle Ianto had been driving.
And he was still complaining.
"It's a minivan," he said with distaste.
"It's a white minivan," Ianto said. "Do you know how many of those there are on the roads? It'll be easier to hide in that than any other vehicle."
"But it's still a minivan. And an old minivan at that."
"My sister has kids, and she needs this. Plus it's the only car I could get on short notice, so shut it."
As they walked across Roald Dahl Plass, Owen opened his mouth to retort, but then stopped short and fell uncharacteristically silent. Ianto looked at him, puzzled, and Owen pointed his finger in front of them. UNIT soldiers were heading down the stairs that led to the Hub entrance.
"What now?" Ianto whispered, not expecting an answer, but Owen gave him one anyway.
"Back door," he said quietly. Ianto nodded.
Less than a quarter of a mile to the south of the Tourist Office entrance, there was a hidden entrance to the disused sewers that Torchwood Three occupied. Neither of them had ever used it; in fact, neither one of them was quite sure where it was. But if they were going to get in without passing UNIT, they'd have to find it.
They walked along the pavement that curved around the bay, trying to look casual and hoping to go unnoticed. The skies had become a steely grey and had thick, dark clouds on the horizon, threatening later rain. It wasn't raining yet, although a mist was beginning to form in the air. Since that wasn't unusual for Cardiff, the walkway near the Plass was still crowded with people: cyclists, young couples walking hand in hand, parents pushing prams, teens on roller blades skating back and forth. They'd all be gone as soon as the storm hit, Ianto thought, but they hadn't left yet, and he worried that he and Owen would be spotted while they looked for the back entrance to the Hub. Thankfully, the crowd began to thin the further away they walked from the shopping district. Eventually the two men stopped and looked around in frustration.
"Where is it?" Owen hissed.
"Not sure," Ianto answered. "I just know it's here somewhere. Maybe we went too far."
"No, we couldn't have. Jake found it once and I remember distinctly him telling me it was under one of the piers. I just don't remember which one. Damn it," he growled, exasperated. "We'll just have to check all of them."
Since they were in a rush, they didn't want to go to the end of the pavement to the entrance to the pier area. Instead they checked to see if anyone was watching, which no one was, and then they climbed over the guardrail and slid down the gravel embankment to the water's edge.
"I'll check these, you check those." Ianto gritted his teeth as Owen's comment came out as an order, but he made his way to the first of the piers, while the other man walked the other direction. He found the entrance under the third one and gestured to Owen to join him.
The entrance was hidden from view by a fast growing vine that both men recognized as being of alien origin. The only reason it had not taken over the entire area was that it required iron to grow, and its location next to the bay, surrounded by rock and salt water and a wooden pier, kept its growth in check. In fact it shouldn't have been able to live there at all, unless it was growing on top of something made of iron.
"Jake must have planted it here to mask the entrance from view," Ianto said. He yanked on the vines. Underneath was a heavy iron door. And it was chained shut. And locked with a padlock that almost seemed to glow. They recognized that both were made from an unbreakable alien metal that had defied analysis.
"Shit," Owen said, staring at the lock. "How bad does Tosh need this stuff?"
"She wouldn't have asked us to get it for her if she didn't need it."
"She should have come and gotten it herself." He didn't bother to hide his irritation. "Next time I need something I'm sending her. I don't suppose you have a lock pick with you?"
"No," Ianto answered. "But we might be able to get in anyway."
"How?"
"Jake must have put this here. And he might have hidden a spare key as well." At the skeptical look on Owen's face, Ianto continued. "We need to at least look."
"It's worth a shot," he said grudgingly.
The two men searched the area, quickly finding a key hidden in a fake rock right next to the entrance. Owen rolled his eyes.
"Really?" Owen scoffed. "That's the best he could do? A fake rock?"
"Don't criticize. At least we can get in," Ianto said pointedly, unlocking the padlock. "Would you rather have risked dealing with UNIT?"
The door swung open easily, obviously having been oiled by Jake at the same time as he had put on the lock. The two men entered and made their way silently through the tunnel. Finally, after several minutes they found their way blocked by another heavy door.
"I doubt he hid the key to this one around here," Owen whispered. "There aren't any fake rocks lying around."
Ianto shot him a look. "Shut up, Owen," he whispered back. "The man's dead. Show some respect." He reached forward and grabbed the doorknob. To both of their surprise, it turned easily in his hand. Owen glanced at him and Ianto shrugged. "Works for me."
After going through the door, they found themselves behind the furnace in the utility cupboard in the basement. They could hear the voices of the UNIT soldiers above them. Owen looked at Ianto and jerked his head toward the door, and the other man nodded. They left the cupboard as quietly as possible and tiptoed to the bottom of the stairwell to listen.
A woman's voice echoed down from above.
"It doesn't appear anyone is here. Let's finish up the search and get out of here. You two. Get down to the basement and check it out. Then meet us outside."
"Yes, Captain," a man's voice answered.
As the sound of footsteps died away, Ianto and Owen backed away, further into the shadows. And then the man's voice echoed down the stairs, much louder than before; undoubtedly he was standing near the top of the stairwell.
"People actually work here? In the sewer?"
A different woman answered, just as loudly.
"Torchwood must be hard up for funds."
Owen snorted. "They don't know the half of it," he said under his breath.
"I don't want to go down there." That was the man again. "But at least it doesn't smell. Much."
"Smells better than you do," she told him.
"Oi!" he replied indignantly. His protest was punctuated by a loud fart.
"You were saying?" the woman responded with a laugh. "No one's even here. I wonder where everyone is."
"Beats me. Who are these people we're looking for anyway?"
"Dunno. Don't care either. I just want to get this over with, get home to my boyfriend and have my tea."
"You hungry? I've got a bar of chocolate. I'll split it with you."
Owen smirked as he and Ianto looked at each other. "I wouldn't do that if I were them."
"God, yes. All I've had today was a coffee."
"It's a bit melted," the man said apologetically.
"Don't care. Just hand it over."
After a short silence, they heard the loud beating of wings followed by an unearthly screech.
"Bloody hell!" the man yelled. "What the fuck was that?"
"I don't know and I don't care! Just keep it away from me!"
"Shit! Here it comes again!"
"Time for a little fun," Owen whispered.
He walked back to the utility cupboard which held, among other things, the circuit breakers for the Hub. He flipped some switches and plunged the entire facility into darkness. Owen and Ianto heard another screech. Shots rang out and the screeching became louder and more frequent.
"I don't care who is down there! I'm getting the hell out of here!"
The sounds of two people running echoed from above. In the darkness of the stairwell, Ianto grinned. "Good girl."
~oOo~
Rose wandered the house, a bundle of nervous energy. She wanted to get moving, get going, do something, but realistically there was nothing for her to do. Toshiko needed to work on passports for them, Gwen wanted to make their tea, and her mum wanted to help her change the way she looked, but no one could do anything until Owen and Ianto got back.
But the truth was that the main reason she was anxious was the Doctor. She didn't know what to do about him. She had told him they'd sort their problems after they had sorted everything else, but she wasn't sure she wanted to wait for that. The two of them being at odds was just too distracting from what they needed to do. They really needed to clear the air before they went to London. Besides, she wasn't angry anymore; well, she was, but not nearly as angry as she had been. And she really didn't like it when they were at odds. Not that they were at odds all that often. Other than the occasional squabble about the position of the toilet seat and his unsanitary habit of sticking his fingers in all the jam jars, they really hadn't argued since they had been reunited.
When she had gotten home, he had looked like he wanted to talk, she reminded herself. Maybe he was feeling the same way she was, wanting to sort this but not exactly knowing how to start.
This is nuts, she told herself. What am I waiting for?
She knew he wasn't in the house. The last she had seen him, he was wandering off to do something, who knows what, and she guessed he was in his workshop.
Sure enough, he was there. He was sitting at the workbench, glasses on and sonic in hand, peering through a magnifying glass similar to the one that her stepfather owned. He was making tiny adjustments to something she couldn't identify.
She sat down across from him and waited for him to acknowledge her.
"Perception filters," he eventually said, not looking up at her. "One for each of us. I usually make them out of TARDIS keys, but as I don't have any of those at the moment, I had to use pieces of the TARDIS itself."
"Is that going to cause any problems for it?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Shouldn't. I used small pieces of the bark on the outside of the TARDIS rather than the coral itself. I tried using leaves, but it wasn't working." He paused, and then took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm sorry, Rose, for not telling you about my contact with him."
She paused for a moment before answering. "I understand why you didn't tell me. I really, really don't agree with it, but I understand."
"And I understand why you were upset."
"Are you still in telepathic contact with him?" she asked quietly.
"No. It was just that first week I was here. The last time was that time in Cardiff when I…." His voice trailed off.
"When you what?" she prompted when he didn't continue. And then all at once she knew. "When I found you on the balcony."
"Yeah."
"What did he say to you?" she said, angry on his behalf, thinking about how cruel the Time Lord had been to him on the beach.
"Nothing." He peeked up at her and saw disbelief written all over her face. "Honestly. He didn't say anything in particular. I was just a bit… volatile that night."
Shamefaced, she remembered her own role in the volatility of the evening; how when she had been drunk, she had told him she had regretted kissing him on the beach.
"I'm sorry about what I said to you that night," she said quietly. "I wanted to apologize straight away, but I was drunk and then things got crazy…."
"Rose, it's alright." He smiled at her before looking down again at what he was doing. "This has been a difficult situation for all of us. And I think we've more than made up for it in the snogging department."
She smiled back briefly before becoming more somber. She didn't know how to ask this, or even if she should, but she had to know.
"Doctor, was he…?" Her voice broke, and she couldn't continue the thought.
He stilled. "Was he alright?" he finished for her after a moment.
"Yeah."
He didn't answer right away, clearly debating what to tell her. He finally decided on honesty.
"Let's put it this way," he said. "He was traveling alone and had been alone for a while. And we never do well alone."
She closed her eyes tightly and bit her lip, fighting tears for the Doctor who was a universe away.
The Doctor glanced up and saw her expression but didn't comment on it despite a tiny twinge of jealousy. He was worried about his other self as well.
Finally Rose composed herself. On the drive to London she had thought long and hard about not only what she wanted to say to him but what he needed to hear. She took a deep breath.
"Doctor, I don't know how to fix this," she said. "I don't know how to shut off my feelings towards him. You are the same person. Shutting them off towards him would kinda be like shutting them off towards you as well. But you need to know I love you, this you, and you have nothing to be jealous over. Not towards anyone. Not even him. I am never gonna leave you."
He opened his mouth to respond but before he could answer, they heard Jackie yell her name. The Doctor winced.
"Well, if they didn't know where we were before, they do now."
Rose smiled ruefully. "Yeah, she always could yell for England. When I was growing up, I could hear her yell for me no matter where I was on the Estate." When she got up and turned towards the door, he also stood up.
"Rose." She turned back to face him and he walked around the workbench to stand next to her. "Are we… are we okay?"
"Yes," she said. She smiled up at him. "No, we're better than okay. We're great. We're fantastic." He grinned in relief. When he began to pull her into a tight hug, she pulled his head down to give him a thorough snog.
They broke apart at the sound of the door opening.
"Oh, sorry," Toshiko said, pausing at the door. "Didn't mean to interrupt anything."
Through the open door, they heard Jackie holler for Rose again. "Don't worry about it, Tosh," she said. "I was just going." She stood on tiptoe to give the Doctor one last kiss and then quickly walked out of the barn. After she left, Toshiko crossed over to him.
"Ianto and Owen just got back from the Hub," she said. "I need to use your computer again to make your passports. Any particular names you'd like me to use?"
And he said the first two names that popped into mind.