A/N: Hey guys, sorry about abandoning this fic, not very many people have read it and so I figured why keep trying when the audience isn't there lol. I have recently decided to continue it, and I hope you guys like it.

Also, there has been some confusion with this fic: this is not a sequel, any names that you don't recognize are my OCs and you're supposed to not know what's happening. It's a suspense book. Enjoy!

-Hannah

Rose

Time is a funny thing. It passes whether or not you want it to, heedless of whether or not you are ready for it.

This occurs to Rose as she exits the cafeteria with the other patients, the sticky pads on their sock-clad feet making an annoying sound on the tile floor.

It's been a week and two days since she first heard the voice singing in her head, and she's off of 24/7 supervision, but even the normal hospital routine is jarring and stressful now that she knows the Doctor might be close.

At every corner she hopes she might bump into a skinny man in a brown trench coat, but sadly, the only men in the hospital complex wore white scrubs and had plastic clipboards in their hands. Either that, or they were literally insane.

All Rose can do is wait, and remember.

Whatever the hell that means.

***

Doctor

Sparks fly from the TARDIS console as the Doctor frantically tries to stop the screeching alarms and flashing lights issuing from various speakers and light bulbs on the walls. Meanwhile, the dark man in the bucket seats strapped to the guardrail does nothing.

Cursing, the Doctor finally silences the wails of the alarms and a few lone sparks shoot from the console and die quickly.

"What. Was that." The Doctor demands, "I let you take over for five minutes-five minutes-on autopilot, and we nearly die. The hell, Richard?!"

Richard gives a sigh like that of a mother with waning patience. He waits a while before standing up and walking to one of the interior rooms of the TARDIS. The Doctor throws up his hands in frustration and runs his fingers through his hair, cursing Richard and his future generations.

Sighing, he busies his hands with the levers and buttons, and tries again.

***

Rose

"Rosemary? Rosemary Tyler?"

Rose opens her eyes to a pretty young nurse she hasn't seen before standing in her doorway. "Yes?"

"Um, the doctor, I don't know his name, I'm new, sorry, um..." She trails off and bites her lip. Noob.

Having resigned herself to the fact that it was, most likely, not the Doctor, she nods and gets up from her bed.

She walks with the nurse down the halls-not even bothering to count the ceiling tiles anymore-with Rose leading the nurse through the warren of the hospital more than the nurse leading her. The silence is awkward, mostly because the new nurse (Miss Shona, Rose gathers from her ID) tries to initiate small talk as they proceed deeper into the hospital, when the usual protocol is not to engage the patients.

"So, Rosemary-" she begins,

"It's Rose." Rose corrects her.

"Oh, okay, Rose, how long-how long have you been here?"

"Five months, three weeks, six days, and 7 hours," Rose recites. "Not that I've been counting, or anything."

Miss Shona looks taken aback, "My, my...you really count the hours?"

Rose deadpans, "Yep. Not much else to do."

Miss Shona looks disgruntled and says nothing.

Rose laughs to herself, amused at how easy it was to mess with the new nurses. She didn't do it to be difficult, or to be rebellious, she just did it because it's fun. What are they gonna do to her? Send her to her room? Make her go to bed without dinner? Rose chuckles again, the first real sound of happiness she's had in awhile.

"Something funny I've missed?" Miss Shona asks, slightly concerned at Rose's unexplained laughter.

"No, ma'am. Just have to get my laughs when I can. I don't actually count the hours, miss. I'm only saying that to mess with you," Rose laughs again,

surprised at how easily her stone face cracked into a grin again. Something about this nurse just made her happy.

Miss Shona laughs with her, shaking her head. "You know, Rose, the doctor told me you were something else, but you're a right laugh! What did you do to end up here?"

Rose's face morphs back to stone again. "Haven't you read my file, miss?" she asks cooly.

"Oh, well, yes, but, I find that what the doctor puts down isn't necessarily what happened," Miss Shona says easily, seemingly immune to Rose's icy tone.

Rose thinks on this a minute. She's seen glimpses of her diagnosis sheet (something about axises and schizophrenia) and it all seems very clinical, not personal at all.

Rose hesitates, then says
"I'm here because everything I remember is a lie."

Miss Shona nods, signaling her to go on. They've stopped outside Karwinzky's office and Miss Shona has turned to face Rose head on. Rose decides then that Miss Shona is very pretty.

"When I was 19, I met a man called the Doctor. He wasn't from Earth. He had a machine called the TARDIS and it could go anywhere in time or space. I ran away with him, and together we saved this world and so many others hundreds of times. Then something happened, and we were separated. It was okay though, because I joined an organization called Torchwood. They do the kind of thing the Doctor and I do: keep Earth safe."

"From what, exactly?" Miss Shona probes.

Rose sighed and closed her eyes, knowing full well how crazy she sounded, "Aliens. Monsters and aliens."

Miss Shona nods says nothing, promoting Rose to continue.

Rose takes a deep breath and starts again,

"But when I was at Torchwood, on a simple recon mission, I made a stupid mistake. Stupid. I got my entire unit killed. My best mate, Mickey Smith. Martha Jones. Everyone but me. Naturally, I was dishonorably discharged, and they were supposed to wipe my memories since Torchwood is not even supposed to exist, but it just didn't take. I started remembering bits and pieces a few months ago, which landed me in a psych ward, but I remember almost all of it now," Rose sighs again, tears filling her eyes once more. The memory is painful even half a year later. "My mum...she was no longer under Torchwood's protection. It wasn't long before something got her."

"What was it?" Miss Shona asks.

Rose laughs mirthlessly, "A Weeping Angel. One touch and they zap you back in time, and feed off your potential. They have kind of a sick sense of humor, though, they usually time it just so that they die of old age around the time they were taken, so whoever they were with has to watch them die. That's not something you get over quickly..." Rose adds softly.

"No, no it's not," Miss Shona agrees, equally as soft.

Rose looks up in disbelief, "You actually believe me? Everyone else wrote me off as 'crazy' as soon as I mentioned time travel."

Miss Shona nods, "I believe that you believe it. So it really doesn't matter if it happened or not, because it was real for you, and that means it's as valid as any other event."

For the second time in that conversation, Rose has to stop and think about what Miss Shona says. She supposed she was right. You can't discount what someone else feels, just because you don't feel it too, or at the same magnitude as them. Everyone is living in their own personal hell.

"Exactly," Miss Shona says, smiling a little.

Rose hadn't realized she had said it out loud, but she was glad she did. She smiles back.

"Come on now, let's get you to see Karwinzky before he loses his shit." Miss Shona says, laughing.

Rose nods and smiles. Finally, an ally.