Chapter 14
Doctor's diary.
Entry Date: Friday, 12th October 2018.
'It's our last night shift tonight, and then we can have the weekend away in the Tree House on Paradise. Also, it's Rose's last night before she has the baby. It's strictly day shift from now on. Talking of the baby, Rose has got some ideas for a nursery, but, there again, so have I….'
Rose's diary.
Entry Date: Friday, 12th October 2018.
'Thank goodness it's my last night shift tonight, its days now until I go onto maternity leave. It's our week off next week, so we can start clearing my home office to turn it into a nursery. John doesn't seem that keen (a bit too domestic)...'
TARDIS Master Bedroom
No where and everywhere. No when and everywhen.
John stirred from his slumber, his hand instinctively rubbing the bump as he spooned Rose. She yawned and stretched as she too roused from a refreshing sleep.
"Morning," John said as he kissed her ear.
"Mornin'. Y'know, I swear I sleep better in here than I do anywhere else. I always feel so refreshed and, I don't know…. Revitalised."
John smiled at her realisation. "That's the TARDIS giving you good dreams, and the artron energy recharging your batteries."
Rose reached up above the headboard and stroked the wall. "Thanks Sweetheart," she said to the TARDIS.
["You're welcome,"] she felt in her head as the lights momentarily dimmed.
"Let's grab a shower, and then we can breakfast at the Mansion," John suggested.
They had gotten into a routine on night shift, of when finishing at 08:00 going into the vortex and getting their sleep. They would then reappear at 08:05 in the Tyler Mansion, where they would have breakfast with Jackie and Eyulf before going home and getting him ready to go to pre school nursery for the morning.
They had their shower and got dressed before heading for the console room and materialising in the Mansion.
"Mummy. Daddy," EJ called as they stepped into the living room.
"Eyulf," John said as he lifted him up into a hug. His son leaned over and had a hug with his mother as well.
"Gra'ma's in the Kitchen making breakfast."
"Oooh, lovely," Rose said as they headed out of the door.
In the kitchen, Pete was sitting at the breakfast bar with Tony, tucking into a fried breakfast. Tony was enjoying a bowl of Cheerio's, and was joined by EJ.
"Mornin' you two," Jackie said. "D'ya want a fry up or cereals?"
"I'll have some Muesli please Mum," Rose said taking the healthy option for the baby.
"Fry up sounds brilliant please Jackie," John said, taking a seat next to Rose at the breakfast bar.
"How was it last night?" Pete asked.
"It wasn't too bad really. Enough to do to pass the time, but not too hectic," Rose said, who'd been the shift supervisor.
"We got chatting with the agents in New York, via the video link in the Standby Room. That was quite interesting, exchanging information and stories like that," John said.
Pete had finished his breakfast and was putting on his jacket. "That's an interesting development. If you find it useful, we'll look at a continuous video link between the two Standby Rooms."
He kissed Jackie on the cheek, and Tony on the top of his head. "See you later." He looked at Rose, John, and EJ. "And I'll see you in the morning."
After breakfast, they took the TARDIS home and then drove to the local nursery, where EJ had a few hours playing with friends and getting him used to a school environment. Rose chatted with some of the parents she knew, and John waved from the car.
On the way home, they called into Sainsbury's and did the weekly shop without their son trying to fill the trolley with sweets, biscuits, and toys. The ladies on the checkouts were disappointed, as they always looked forward to cooing over him.
In the kitchen of their Notting Hill home, they started putting the groceries away. Rose had been thinking about something when she turned to John while rubbing her bump. "Y'know, I've been thinkin'. I'm goin' to have to clear out my office upstairs and redecorate it as a nursery for the baby."
John's face dropped. "Oh yeah. I suppose we will," he said in an unenthusiastic tone of voice. To say he didn't like decorating was understating it some what. He remembered a conversation he'd had with Rose on Krop Tor when they thought they had lost the TARDIS. 'I'd have to settle down. Get a house or something. A proper house with, with doors and things. Carpets. Me, living in a house. Now that, that is terrifying', he'd said.
'Doors! She'd never mentioned that they needed painting', he thought. There were things called walls that needed papering, and carpets that needed changing. 'Damn domestic!' his inner Donna thought. On Gallifrey, he had lived in a sentient house that decorated itself. He had a TARDIS that decorated itself depending on how he and the TARDIS were feeling at the time.
I mean, come on. It was like having a child that waited for you to dress them and brush their hair. This house was over 100 years old, and even by Gallifreyan standards was considered an adult. It should be well able to decorate itself without having to be told.
"We could make a start next week when we're off shift," Rose continued, bringing him out of his musing.
"Well, let's enjoy the weekend in the Tree House, and then we can think about it, yeah?"
Rose kissed him on the cheek. "Fair enough."
John made two mugs of tea and they went through to the lounge where Rose could put her feet up and watch the TV. They enjoyed the rest of the morning cuddled up together, with Rose grabbing John's hand occasionally and putting it on her bump to feel the baby moving.
It would soon be time to collect EJ from the nursery and have lunch. John made a suggestion. "Why don't you go and fetch EJ, and I'll make some sandwiches for when you get back."
"Yeah, okay. I'll see you soon." She pushed herself up off the sofa, gave John a kiss, and headed out of the door.
John waited for the DeLorian to pull away and drive off down the street, before heading down the stairs to his laboratory rather than the kitchen. Half an hour later, he was screwing the electrical socket on the landing back into the wall with his sonic screwdriver. (Well, there was a first time for everything.) He had already completed the task on an electrical socket in the hall.
He looked up at the ceiling. "Not a word to Rose," he said to Donna, the house computer.
"My audio outputs are fused, so to speak."
"Good girl." He then went to the kitchen to start preparing lunch.
When Rose returned with EJ, there was a large platter of sandwiches on the dining room table, with bowls of salad, tomatoes, celery, and a cheese board with crackers. There was a 'vase' with breadsticks and a jug of mixed fruit juices that John had blended to get delicious nectar that everyone loved.
They sat down and started to eat, while EJ told them all about the fun learning he'd been doing that morning. John took a breadstick out of the vase and grinned at EJ.
"Ready?" he asked.
EJ giggled with excitement. "Yeah."
John put one end of the breadstick between his teeth, and EJ held the other. "'Eady, 'teady, 'o," John said through his teeth. They started chomping the breadstick, heading towards the centre until they touched noses.
"I win, I win," EJ declared as they all burst into fits of laughter.
Rose rolled her eyes as she laughed. Sometimes it was easy to see that her husband was only a year older than her son. They finished their lunch with a banana smoothie sorbet and went through to the Lounge, where John listened to his son read.
He was only three, but learning things telepathically, he had the reading age of an eight year old. He could hold his own in the letters round of the Countdown game on TV, and could easily complete the numbers round. It was fair to say that like his father, he was a genius.
When John did the numbers round, he would come up with half a dozen different ways of reaching the target number, using squares, cubed roots and complex calculus. Rose would smile politely because she didn't have a clue if he was right or wrong. He could have been making it up, but she really knew that he wouldn't do that.
They enjoyed an afternoon together has a family before Rose went into the kitchen to start preparing the evening meal of a tuna pasta bake. They would then enjoy an evening in front of the TV before EJ would put on his pyjamas and be ready to travel to the Mansion.
It was around 9:00 p.m when they drove up to Tyler Mansion. EJ ran out, had a brief hug with his grandmother, and then eagerly went in search of Tony to play for half an hour before he had to go to bed. John and Rose went through to the Sitting Room with Jackie, where they found Pete cradling a glass of Scotch whilst watching a documentary.
Rose sat next to him and kissed his cheek. "How'd it go today then Dad, busy?"
"I think it was routine for Green Watch, nothing spectacular that I was made aware of anyway," he told her. He presumed that Special Operations was what she was enquiring about. "We have made a small change in the Standby Room, but I'll let you find out about that for yourselves," he said mysteriously.
"Ooh, what's that then?" Rose asked, her curiosity piqued.
Pete couldn't help, but smile at the child like smile of expectation on her face. "You'll see when you get there. It'll be a nice surprise."
At half past nine, they took him up to his bedroom at the Mansion and tucked him in for the night. When they got back to the Sitting Room, they all sat and chatted; Jackie was particularly interested in the progress of Rose's pregnancy.
Pete had a wealth of amusing stories about his Vitex days when he used to travel a lot, promoting his product around Britain and Europe. Some of the stories involved 'his' Jackie, and he would have a wistful smile on his face as he mentioned her. 'Rose's Mum' Jackie would hold his hand and give it a supportive squeeze.
It was around twenty past eleven when John and Rose left the Mansion and headed for Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. This would give them time to change into their uniforms, grab a cuppa, and then have the handover briefing from Green Watch.
Torchwood Special Operations Unit.
"Good morning people," Captain Andy McNab said, looking at his watch to check that it was actually after midnight. They settled into the Special Operations room with their coffees and teas, ready for the briefing. "Well, not a bad start to the shift. We have nothing to hand over from the evening Watch, and the last two agents are on their way back from a call as we speak. Take the opportunity to check out the new addition in the Standby Room and build some bridges. That's all, have a good shift."
They wandered into the Standby Room and immediately noticed a large screen on the wall opposite the kitchen area. It was showing a view of another Standby Room as though looking through a window.
"Hey guys. The new shift has arrived," a voice called out with a New York accent. "How y'all doin' over there?"
They could see a young man in the black Torchwood uniform being joined by several more agents. "Hey, it's Rose…. Remember us?"
Rose walked up to the 'window' with the rest of Blue Watch and looked at the faces. "Oh Yeah, from the interviews in April. I'm sorry, but you'll have to remind me of your names."
The New York agents introduced themselves, and Blue Watch did the same. They all recognised John and Jack from the April visit as well. A woman, who said her name was Hayley, engaged Rose in conversation. "How's the pregnancy goin' honey? Have you got long to go?"
Rose beamed a smile at her and turned sideways on, flattening her uniform to show her the bump. "About ten weeks to go now, but I've had a feelin' all along that this little one will be comin' out early."
"And you're still workin' nights?" Hayley asked with a disbelieving tone of voice.
"My last one tonight, and then it's our week off. After that I'm on days until I go on maternity leave." The rest of the Watch started to chat with their counterparts in New York as though they were in the same room. John had sat himself at a computer and started to type away.
"Oh look," Julia said. "I can see your names above your heads."
"Hah, and we can see yours as well Julia," the man whose label said Tyrone.
John got up and walked over to the 'window'. "I've linked the ID badge recognition software into the data stream. Anyone who walks into shot will automatically be recognised and labelled."
"Jeesz Doc. The stories about you are true then," the agent labelled 'Patrick' said. "Y'know, being a wizard with technology."
Before John could respond, Craig Rimmer called over from Dispatch. "Rose, we've got a call from the Custody Sergeant at Paddington Green."
As Rose was the shift supervisor, it fell to her to speak to the police sergeant on the phone. She went through to the Dispatch Desk and picked up the handset.
"Hello. Rose Smith, shift supervisor," she said.
"Oh hello, Sergeant Andrew Rhys-Jones, here. We have a bit of an odd problem with one of our suspects in custody, and our protocols say that we should call you if it's something out of the ordinary."
"Of course, Sergeant. What have you got for us?"
"Well, around 22:15, one of the crews brought in a male suspect for drunk and disorderly. He wouldn't give us his name or address, in fact he wouldn't cooperate at all, I suspect he may be foreign. So, we put him in the cells to calm down and sober up a bit before we tried to interview him."
"And has something unusual happened to him?" Rose asked.
"Well, we don't really know. When we checked on him at midnight, he was covered in some kind of fibrous cobwebs, like a cocoon."
"Really? I think we'd better come and have a look at this. Thank you for calling us, someone will be along shortly." Rose went back to the Standby Room and told John what the Custody Sergeant had told her.
"A cocoon? Really? Ooh I've got to go and have a look at that," he said with his enthusiastic smile. He put together a holdall with various bits of high tech equipment in it and came back to the Standby Room.
"Come on then Wife," He said, grabbing her hand.
"John! I'm shift supervisor, I can't just up and leave," she told him.
"Why not? Jack's here, he's Deputy Director. He's more than qualified to hold the fort for a while, aren't you Jack?"
Jack grinned, shaking his head at John's disregard for protocol. 900 years of doing things his way and on his own, meant that it would take a long, long time for him to change his views, particularly about authority.
"Go on you two. I'll 'hold the fort' until you get back," he said in resignation.
"See Rose? I told you. Thanks Jack, we won't be long."
At Paddington Green station, Sergeant Rhys-Jones led John and Rose to the cells where the unusual detainee was being held. He unlocked the cell door and held it open. On the bed was a man shaped object that appeared to be made of strands of fibreglass weaved into a solid shell.
John took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned from the door, checking for any dangerous chemicals, gases, or emissions.
"Nothing dangerous so far. Let's have a closer look." He moved into the cell, with Rose close behind him, using him as a shield as she looked over his shoulder.
He scanned some more and then stood up, running his fingers through his hair and tugging his ear lobe. "Hmmm," he said, deep in thought.
"What?" Rose asked. "Is that a good 'hmmm', or a bad 'hmmm'?"
"To be honest, it's an 'I haven't come across this before hmmm'," he said with a frown. "I mean, it's definitely alien, so we'll have to take it in anyway. But has it got parasites, or an infection, or is it part of its natural life cycle?"
He activated his headset and called dispatch for an ambulance crew to take the cocoon back to Torchwood. "Come on then Rose, let's go back to the Custody Desk and get Sergeant Rhys-Jones to raise the transfer paperwork."
Lungbarrow Tree House.
TardisBay.
The Isle of Gallifrey.
Beta Pegasi II. (Also, known as Paradise)
196 light years from Earth.
John and Rose were enjoying the Sunday afternoon sunshine on the beach by the Lungbarrow Tree House. EJ was building sand castles and playing in the surf, like children all over the galaxy would do.
They had finished their uneventful shift and driven home to grab some sleep in the TARDIS, before picking up their son and heading for Paradise. This was their 'family time', where they could just relax and spend some quality time together.
Rose watched her son with his red plastic bucket and spade as he shovelled in sand, before patting it down and turning the bucket upside down. He lifted the bucket and had a self satisfied smile, as a round, bucket shaped pile of sand remained.
"Just look at 'im playin' in the sand," Rose said with a smile. "It reminds me of when Mum would take me to Tenby in Wales when I was little." She unexpectedly became teary as she thought about it. "She would hire a caravan for the week. We were on our own, a mother and her daughter, while all around us there were mums and dads, and brothers and sisters."
She hesitated as she looked at John with sad, brown eyes. John saw that look. "Hey, hey, what's all this?" He reached over and held her hand.
"Dad missed all of that, showin' me how to build a good sand castle. Holdin' my hand while we paddled in the sea…. Oh just ignore me, it's me hormones," she sniffed, wiping her eyes. "It's just when I think about us, where I've come from, where you've taken me. Seeing EJ so innocent and happy, and another on the way." She rubbed her bump. "It gets a bit too much to take in at times."
John squeezed her hand and smiled. "You enjoyed your childhood though, didn't you?"
She nodded and smiled.
"And you have fond memories of your Mum taking you to Tenby. Don't forget, Pete has now had the enjoyment of doing all that with his son, and is doing it with his grandson and will be doing it with his granddaughter. And best of all, you get to see him enjoying it. That's something you thought you would never get the chance to do."
Rose gave a single laugh as she thought about her Dad with his trousers rolled up, holding Tony's hand while they paddled in the sea. Okay it was the Maldives, not Tenby, but the sentiment was the same. "Yeah, you're right. C'mon, let's have a paddle ourselves. I want to savour every moment, every experience."
She pulled John up off the sun lounger and they ran hand in hand towards the surf. EJ stood up and looked at them. Rose held out her hand for him to take and they all ran giggling into the surf.