Disclaimer: I am not doing this for any monetary gain. I do not own Doctor Who nor the music of the wonderful Sara Bareilles.

Thank you all very much for reading. I really hope you are enjoying the story as it unfolds. Please enjoy this new chapter.

Chapter 6: Morningside

Keep my distance I tried
No use
But no matter the miles
I'm back to you

He didn't immediately walk to the table because, of course, that would've been too easy. He stopped for a moment to speak quietly to the nearest waitress before finally making it to the empty seat and sitting. She expected him to not look at her but, instead of shying away from Rose's face he looked her square in the eye as he extended his hand. "Andrew Bennet," he said as if that was the first time they were meeting.

"Rose Tyler," she said taking his hand (was that a spark she felt?) and quickly letting go a second later, murmuring, "pleasure."

Andrew looked the other way as the waitress returned with an empty glass and bottled water which she put in front of him. Tristan quickly ordered a club soda before the waitress disappeared again and all three of them were alone and silent for a few minutes.

Rose was the first of them to crack. "Um, I'm just going to go and visit the ladies room for…," she said while simultaneously grabbing her purse, "for a tick."

She dropped the bag on the floor and quickly retrieved it, bumping into Andrew's chair as she went. She hoped no one saw how red her face had gotten. Once in the small, closet-like room, Rose looked herself in the mirror and fixed her hair. She could do this. This was just like any other Torchwood case. Tristan was just another bloke. Andrew wasn't... Wasn't what? A part of her wanted to be selfish and say 'He wasn't the Doctor', but she wasn't sure that was the answer anymore.

"Stay focused Rose, don't let this get to you," she told her reflection. Rose took an extra minute to fix her smudged makeup and left to return to the table. She was almost there when she caught the tail end of Tristan's and Andrew's hushed conversation.

"But I thought you said you knew her?" Tristan asked unsurely.

Andrew leaned back in his chair and looked up to the ceiling. "I was thinking of different Rose Tyler I suppose."

A different Rose Tyler? He did not just say that, did he? On her way back to her chair, Rose purposefully smacked her purse into Andrew's elbow when she passed and smiled politely at Tristan.

"Sorry about that; wine tends to go right through my y'know? So, before we get into the meat of this case, I think I'd like to know a bit more about you two."

She tried to make Andrew look at her but his head was still looking up, refusing to meet her eye. So, Tristan began to talk. While he babbled something about living in North Hampshire or something, Rose couldn't take it anymore and kicked Andrew's shin, hard under the table.

"Ouch," he yelped causing Tristan to jump in his seat and Rose to smirk.

"What's wrong?" Tristan asked.

"Sorry," Rose said, turning to look at Andrew who stared back at her in shock, "my foot slipped. You were saying, Tristan?"

Tristan just shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing, that's about it really."

"Oh, well all right then," she said turning her head from Tristan to the other. "And you Andrew?"

"Gladly, Miss Tyler." He brought his hands together and sat up straighter than he was already, acting as though this were an interview rather than a "friendly conversation." "Brought up in good ol' London town. Had a Mum and Dad..."

"What were their names?" Rose interrupted.

"John and Donna Bennet. Good folks. Abandoned me just after birth. Was brought up in the foster care system. Once old enough lived by myself on a council estate and eventually found work at Torchwood. That's it."

"That's it?" Rose asked.

"That's it," Andrew answered.

"A-levels?" she asked.

"In all courses. You?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from his final word.

Rose all but slapped him there and then. Tristan meanwhile watched both of them like a spectator at a tennis match.

"And what about you Miss Tyler, hmm?" Andrew asked in a low voice, leaning forward over his hands, and raising his right eyebrow. "Y'know, apart from being the Director's daughter."

Rose stood and Andrew followed suit. Tristan followed slowly after another minute.

"You don't think I'm properly qualified?" Rose asked.

Andrew started to laugh at her and the sound got her really angry in all the wrong ways. "All I'm saying is that I would like to see your credentials before we start working on this case, or, actually, any case together as a team."

"Andrew," Tristan said reasonably, "Director Tyler says she's more than qualified and I believe him. Why don't you?"

"Because, from what I've seen in the past, the only thing she is qualified to do is tear dangerous holes in reality," he said looking her up and down with disdain, "Or work in a shop."

Rose didn't allow her voice to say anything and instead let her hand speak for her as it made contact with his cheek. She stormed out of the restaurant leaving a confused Tristan and mellowed out Doctor behind. She stalked to the lift and pushed the up button but heard someone running towards her, calling out her name. "Rose! Rose, come back!"

The door opened and she walked inside but not before Andrew walked in behind her before the door closed.

"Get out," Rose said, wiping a tear and swiping her card.

"Kind of hard to do that while we're moving," he said, trying to lighten the mood.

Rose refused to turn back and look at him and waited for the machine to stop before pushing past him, towards her door. Andrew peeked out after her before sighing, pushing the button to return to the bottom floor and going back to explain things to the best of his ability to Tristan.

Rose slammed her door shut and ran to her mobile to dial Pete's personal number. She took a seat on her bed, removed her shoes and threw them as hard as she could causing them to hit the ground softly since the carpeting muffled the noise. The phone rang twice before he finally answered.

"Pete Tyler speaking."

"You knew this all along didn't you?" Rose asked in disbelief to the man she trusted most in this world.

"If you mean working with the Doctor, otherwise known as Andrew, then yes I did. Why? What happened?"

Rose took several relaxing breaths and explained the situation rationally as it had unfolded, fighting her anger and tears that still threatened to come.

Pete was silent for several minutes before saying, "I've got another call" and placing Rose on hold. Groaning, Rose fell back on the surprisingly soft pillow on the bed and waited. Upon returning, Pete said, "That was a call from him apologizing and asking for another chance. I suggest you take him up on this offer, Rose because we haven't got much time if we need you lot to infiltrate this society."

Sighing and clutching the bridge of her nose, Rose agreed and told Pete to tell Andrew that "we are just two agents working on a case and once it's finished then they won't have any need to contact each other ever again."

"Isn't that a bit much?" Pete asked.

"You didn't hear what he was saying," Rose said, "he was being...well, frankly very rude."

Pete was silent for a beat. "Wasn't he always a bit rude?"

"Yes, but…well, that's not the point..."

Pete took a minute before speaking to her in a clear and concise tone of voice. "Rose, did it ever occur to you what it felt like for him to be abandoned by you?"

"...What?"

"Rose, I seriously suggest that you talk to him and soon. Maybe even before talking about the case with him and Tristan."

"All right," she said sounding the smallest bit resigned to it, "I'll ring him up."

"Ah, you don't need to go through the trouble." There was a faint knocking on the suite door. "Speak to you in the morning Peaches."

Rose ended the call and walked to the door, hesitated for a moment to calm down and opened it. There he stood, just over the threshold, no longer wearing the jacket but still wearing the red shirt and trousers. Instead of saying anything, Rose stepped aside and allowed him to come in on his own. He took a seat in a squishy, leather chair and Rose walked to the kitchen space and began to prepare a cup of tea for both of them. He sat and apparently unconsciously ran his hands through his still ridiculously gorgeous hair. When the water finished boiling, Rose poured them into two mugs she found and added a tea bag each. She carefully walked over to him and handed him a cup. He took one sip and sighed.

"I don't know how to apologize to you Rose. Not like this. Not like before," Andrew said, not quite meeting her eye this time. They both knew the truth though; he wasn't the one who needed to say anything at all.

"Doctor, I mean Andrew-"

"No, no, no," he said, holding up his hand, "please, you can say it."

"What?" she asked slowly.

"Doctor; you can still call me that. If you want."

"If I want?" she asked.

He nodded and waited for her to continue. Rose didn't quite know what to say which was, to her, a very strange concept when it came to speaking with the Doctor. Any Doctor.

"I felt like I could tell you my life story before y'know and now," she said laughingly as she continued to battle her tears, "now I can't even get out a proper apology. What sort of person does that make me?"

"Rose, I told you before: I look like him and I think like him-"

"Yeah. Yeah, you do. But you see that's the point! You look like him and you think like him but you're not him. You're not!"

Both of them didn't say anything but Andrew took a deep breath and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. "I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do to change your situation let alone my own," he said, shaking his head. "He's gone. He's gone and he isn't coming back. Not for you, not for me. That life – it's all over and we have to do this on our own and move on. That's what, that's what he wanted for us all along."

That was all Rose could take as the tears finally flowed again because of that alien, that man of the universe who showed her everything. Showed her time and space but told her absolutely nothing.

Strong arms wrapped around her middle and his hands rubbed small circles on her back just like he always had before. "Shh, Rose," he whispered. "It'll all come together in the end."

His voice broke and Rose realized he was crying as well. She wasn't as alone in this abandonment as she thought. She had forgotten for several weeks that while she had always called Earth her home and always a family to call her own, that other life, the TARDIS and the traveling was the only life he'd ever known and it was gone. He was left behind, cut off, just like her. She reached out her hands and placed them on either side of his face and gave him a kiss on his forehead.

He moved away from her and sat down on the floor before her instead of returning to his own seat. "Tristan's going to be up soon. I told him where I was and how long he should wait. We have to start working on this case soon otherwise we'll never find what happened."

"What sort of agent is Tristan Stone?" she asked thickly.

"Oh, brilliant tech man. Of course, I could probably give him a run for his money but always was good at thinking on my feet, me."

Rose laughed and wiped the tears off her face with the palm of her hand as there was suddenly another knock on the door. Rose welcomed Tristan into her suite and together the three of them worked for hours on what they needed to do for this case, who would be in charge of what and what to do in case of an extreme emergency. Several hours later, Rose let them go and finally climbed into her warm bed, dreaming of two men with two separate sounding heartbeats, the sound of which sang in the air.

In an unsuspecting neighborhood, several miles outside of New York City, a yellow taxi cab stopped at an iron gate wide enough to fit a fully grown elephant and dropped off two people who quietly thanked their driver as he continued on his way.

"You ready for this?" Rose asked.

"Born ready," Andrew said while adjusting his tie and ringing the intercom.

"Who is it?" a woman's voice asked from the metal box.

"Hello," Andrew said, "Read your ad in the Times. Sorry we're here a bit early. We're here about the two open vacancies in your home. Spoke to you yesterday on the phone. The caretaker and assistant chef positions?"

A buzz filled the air and, much too slowly, the gate began to open allowing the two of them entrance.

"Tristan," Rose said, pushing the small button on her earpiece, "we're going in."

"Good luck you two," he said back as they passed over the threshold and both pieces were automatically switched off.

The entire area seemed a bit too quiet for both their tastes. There weren't even birds in the trees singing. Andrew looked up at the giant mansion and nodded as he and Rose unconsciously took the other's hand when they reached the front door. It opened and a woman stood waiting.

The first thing Rose noticed right away was her long, red fingernails. The woman had a stern look on her oval shaped face as she looked down at them as if they were something floating around in her toilet. She wore a prim, black skirt suit combo and black pumps on her feet. Her blonde hair was done up in a perfect bun and when she smiled (more of a smirk really) she showed off perfect white teeth.

"Welcome to our home," she said in a booming voice, "You must be Rose Quinnlan and Andrew Turner. Won't you please come inside?"

"Bit weird," Rose whispered out of the side of her mouth.

"Well if it wasn't weird, we wouldn't be here," Andrew whispered back.

The two crossed through the doorway and into the mansion as the door closed behind them.