Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who, the Duplicate Doctor, Donna, etcetera. Thank you for the reads and reviews and favorites and follows. So, this chapter probably requires some knowledge of Series Four to follow easily, but I think if you got here, you must already have that. Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think of this chapter, I would love to know.
Pete Tyler had been sitting in front of the committee for three days. Discussing things with Harriet Jones apparently met initiating an all out investigation of Pete's time at Torchwood and his behavior, dating all the way back to the Cybus Incident. Apparently, an area of special interest, for understandable reasons, was Rose. So, there Pete sat, next to his attorney, facing off the same group of senators he had seen for days as he tried to explain what his thinking had been, something that he was beginning to wonder at. They had discussed the incidents with the Master's body and the telepathic communication with Harriet Jones and now they were on to...
"Mister Tyler," said the Senator from Blackpool, "I would like to discuss the Reality Bomb incident."
"Yes, ma'am?," said Pete bracing himself.
"How is it Miss Tyler was selected to head the project?"
Pete paused. "Well, she asked."
"And you approved it?"
"Yes." Pete didn't like where this was going.
"On what basis did you find her qualified?"
"I beg your pardon?"
The senator sat back in her chair. "On what basis, did you find Miss Tyler qualified to head up the Dimension Cannon Project?"
"She..."
"Was it her education? I see no records or transcripts of it."
Pete swallowed. "Her experiences travelling with the Doctor gave her unique insight."
"Oh, yes the Doctor..." This was another area where any politician worth his or her salt could smell blood.
"If I might beg the indulgence of my colleague from Blackpool, I'd like to ask specifically about the same incident in regards to the Doctor," said another senator.
"I yield the floor to my colleague from Nottingham."
"Thank you." The senator, a grey haired man swiveled his chair and took off his reading glasses to better face Pete. "When did Miss Tyler approach you with the idea of contacting the Doctor?"
"I believe that was in January-"
"No, I meant the very first time. Was it not shortly after she first arrived in this dimension?"
"She was upset. She missed him," Pete rationalized.
"She first intended to use the Dimension Cannon to contact the Doctor, did she not?"
"It was necessary to prevent the Darkness, the collapse of universes-"
"Yes, I have some questions about its so-called necessity, but did she not intend to use it to contact the Doctor before the Darkness?"
"Who told you that?"
The senator pulled out a sheet of paper. "It's in the memo in Appendix 4A, from a Mickey Smith, where he outlined Miss Tyler's fixation on the Doctor in some detail, this was a full year before the Dimension Cannon."
Pete's attorney spoke. "I believe Mr. Tyler has a right to face his accuser and Mr. Smith is quite unavailable for questioning."
The senator smiled wryly. "All sources say that is due to Miss Tyler, so let's just leave that alone, shall we? Were you or were you not warned about the nature of Miss Tyler's fixation on returning to the Doctor?"
"Yes," answered Pete.
"Did you remove her from the project?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I... I don't have an answer."
"That's honest, I suppose. Now, as for the necessity of contacting the Doctor, who suggested it was necessary?"
"Rose did." That was such a bad answer...
"The Dimension Cannon functioned by ripping holes in the universe, did that seem like a positive thing to you?"
"It seemed necessary, in order to contact the Doctor, which was necessary."
"Because he's a genius?"
"Yes."
"Didn't you think a genius would have noticed reality collapsing?"
Pete paused. "Maybe."
"Now, about this other person, Donna Noble, not to be confused with Donna Noble of the Noble Corporation, your research showed that all the time lines converged on her? Didn't that suggest she would be the one to solve the crisis as she did?"
"I didn't know what it suggested."
"I do have some questions about Miss Tyler's behavior in what is referred to in Appendix Five as the Time Beetle universe towards the same person," said another senator.
"I'll yield the floor to my colleague in a moment, after I ask one more question. Did it occur to you that Miss Tyler's interest in using the Dimension Cannon was perhaps not purely to use it to contact the Doctor solely towards the end of saving reality, but perhaps for personal reasons?"
"Not at the time, no."
"I yield the floor to my colleague from Dover."
"You had questions about the Time Beetle universe?," asked Pete.
"I do, but before I get to that, I did have one question that's been bothering me since I read the report about the Reality Bomb incident."
"Yes?"
"Whose idea was it for your wife, Jackie Tyler, to travel to the alternate universe, though she has no professional affiliation with Torchwood and also, to arm her?"
This was not going well.
"I would have to look in my records," said Pete with no conviction.
Madame Kovarian awaited the call at her console. A shadowy figure appeared on the screen.
"Is it done?"
"No, there have been some problems with the Tyler girl. She was caught placing the object."
He paused. "Has it been discovered?"
"No. Not that we can tell." She paused. "There is another matter, though."
"All you bring me is problems..."
"The Noble woman's daughter. She must take after her mother, she can remember seeing the Silents."
There was a long pause.
"So?"
"It slows our progress. I'd like to eliminate her," said Kovarian.
There was a long pause. "No. We can't upset the Noble woman, not at this stage. We'll have to give them some space until the child is ready. The effectiveness of their deployment was nil anyway."
"What shall we do about Miss Tyler?," asked Kovarian.
"Let her stay where she is until we need her." concluded the figure.
"My God, daytime television is scandalous," said Donna. She looked over at John under the covers next to her on the bed. "I never realized how many deadbeat teen fathers there were. Then again, my children have a deadbeat middle-aged father. At least these boys have the excuse that they're young and stupid."
The honeymoon had been called off or rather it had taken a different form. The Rose incident had been the final straw for Ella's peace of mind, given what had happened with Ethan just a few weeks before. From what they could tell, Josh wasn't too crazy about it either, but wouldn't admit to it. Donna didn't feel right about leaving them when they were so upset since the next option was to have Sylvia stay with them and that wasn't about to happen. Mayantha had offered but she would have to leave for Gallifrey soon and the kids had school so they couldn't go to Morocco. So, they had settled for staying home, which to Donna was quite a holiday. She had been working so hard for ages and couldn't name the last time she hadn't gone into the office that wasn't a Sunday or a national holiday. Laying around, watching bad television and other things done after the children were safely at school made a very good holiday. That surprised John, he had so many memories of being drawn to travel, it amazed him he could have so much fun at home.
The one who seemed to be suffering most was Madge who liked having the house to herself for cleaning.
"Aren't we watching one of your channels?," asked John.
"Yeah, but I own a lot of channels. I don't know what's on them. I have people for that." She looked at the clock on the night table. "The coach will bring the kids round in an hour."
"Want to ring the driver on his mobile and have him circle around?"
Donna smiled. "No, that's alright. Chinese for dinner?"
"That sounds brilliant," said John.
"Yeah," said Donna, reaching for the drawer of the night table and pulling out a selection of menus. "I can really pull off this wife stuff if you're going to be this easy to please."
"Mister Smith!," they heard Madge yell in a tone that made them think she had missed her calling as a drill sergeant. "Visitor for you!"
John walked downstairs quite surprised to find Bernard in the sitting room.
"Bernard, what are you doing here?"
"I'm not disturbing you, am I?," he said looking worried.
"No, no, you're fine. What's happened? Has there been an invasion?"
Bernard smiled. "No, nothing of that sort, but I'm afraid the results of the senate hearings are out and so is Pete Tyler."
John's jaw may have dropped. "Gone from Torchwood? Why?" He motioned for Bernard to take a seat and took the chair across from him.
"They were dissatisfied with his decision making, dating back to the Dimension Cannon and thought his appointment of Miss Tyler to head of the project was nepotistic given her..." Bernard tried to find a nice way to say what he was thinking.
"Given that she was woefully under-qualified?," supplied John.
"Yes, that would be it. Now that she's been arrested and is being held for psychiatric evaluation, that hasn't helped. I've been appointed Acting Head of Torchwood."
"Congratulations."
"It's just temporary, I'm sure. Point is, I need someone to head up the Extraterrestrial Department."
"You want me?"
"You're the most qualified candidate I know. There is Commander Harkness, but he doesn't have quite your level of expertise and frankly, I would rather not spend all my time in a sexual harassment tribunal."
John paused. "I would want to do things my way."
"Understandable."
"And I would like the freedom to pursue matters I deem important."
"Are you thinking of something specific?"
"The ones responsible for kidnapping the Master. I think there's more to them than just one kidnapping. The Master is too much trouble to hold hostage on a lark, they must have needed him for something."
"Do you know who they are?"
"Not yet, but I intend to find out."
"After your honeymoon, naturally."
"Naturally."
They shook hands on it and Bernard left as Donna came downstairs.
"So, Head of the Extraterrestrial Desk? Quite a title."
"Were you listening the entire time?," asked John.
"Only since Bernard said Pete Tyler was ruined."
"Donna..."
"I don't take any pleasure in it, well, maybe a little. He did ignore you, which he shouldn't have, but we should celebrate your new job!"
"There's no need to make a fuss," said John.
"Oh, yes there is! It's not every day someone is made head of the Extraterrestrial Desk at Torchwood! I'll order cupcakes and you are going to have to let me get you a car! You can't not have a car now!," Donna said, grinning. "You deserve it."