I apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but since I did post a chapter a few days ago (2? 3?) I figured I could be forgiven ;P

Another Rose chappie! I decided I needed to go further into what was going on in Pete's World and will continue to do so periodically.

So without further ado: Rose Tyler everybody!

Her Mum had done her best to comfort her, assure her that they would find a way to get him back, but her words meant nothing.

She spent her days with Pete, as he searched for a safe way into the other dimension.

"There must be a way. Morgan Gates found a way," Pete kept saying to his scientists, all of whom insisted that it was impossible. He urged them on despite their continual assertions that it couldn't be done.

Pete often sat in his office, rubbing his hands over his face tiredly, taking calls and looking over the most viable ways of transport between the universes, all of which were hypothetical and impossible to actually do.

When Rose wasn't at Torchwood, she was at home, cradling the small piece of coral from the TARDIS in her lap, talking to it, urging it to grow. Not that it really mattered if it did suddenly grow. She wouldn't be able to fly it anyway, much less get to the other universe, but it was the only link she had to James and the Doctor.

She had found herself thinking about the Doctor a lot since James had been taken. If they did somehow manage to get to the other universe, she could see him again. Would he look the same? Had he regenerated since he'd left her?

The more she thought about him, the more guilty she felt. She wanted to find James, she knew that, but the idea of seeing the Doctor continuously crept back into her conscious. Distracting her. Exciting her. And the more those thoughts filled her mind, the more guilt plagued her. The Doctor had assured her that they were the same man and he was right... and he was wrong.

It was something that had been troubling her ever since she and James had started their new life together. He was the same. Exactly the same. Yet he couldn't be any more different.

It had been little things at first; snappy comments that were very dislike the Doctor, name-calling (not necessarily harmful names, but more things like "Blondie" and "Earth Girl" and "Bruce Willis" in Pete's case), he could type and text much faster than she remembered him being able to, and a slight varying of interests. At first, she'd thought it was just his way of adapting to human life, but the little differences started to become more prominent.

He often looked sad and she had no idea why, nor would he tell her.

"I'm fine," he'd say and she knew he was lying.

And he was angry. The Doctor had warned her as much, but she hadn't really prepared herself for it. Much of his work at Torchwood involved him yelling at some poor, unsuspecting scientist about the way they were treating the aliens they'd bring in (which, ninety percent of the time was as civil as they could manage) or how they seemed intent on making better weapons to kill each other with.

She had thought he was missing their old life on the TARDIS, much like she had been missing it. She thought it would take both of their minds off of it if they worked to get the TARDIS growing more quickly. Their problems would go away if everything went back to the way it was.

That only pushed him further away. It was all he'd think about, all he could focus his incredibly distracted mind on.

All of this she'd tried to ignore, convincing herself that everything would be fine once they got back to their old life in the TARDIS... back when he was the Doctor.

Exactly the same. Exactly different.

She felt trapped by her own thoughts. Round and round they went, thinking of James, thinking of the Doctor, exactly the same, exactly different, round and round.

She needed to get away from her own mind. She put the piece of coral into a shoulder bag (where she always put it to keep it with her) then went downstairs from her room and into the living room, where her mother was, curled up on the couch with her knees hugging her chest. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a bowl of kettle corn popcorn in a bowl beside her, watching Britain's Got Talent.

Rose took a seat beside her, curling up in a similar position, though she hugged her knees closer and stared at the screen without actually watching it.

Jackie looked over at her and smiled softly. "Hey, there."

"Hi," Rose said with an unemphatic tone.

"How are you doing?"

Rose licked her lips and looked at her mom uncertainly. "I'm... I'm confused."

Jackie looked at her for a moment, then grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. "What about?"

"I'm confused... about James."

"What about him?"

"It's just that... Mum, I don't know how to explain it. It's just... I keep thinking about the Doctor and about James. They're so... alike. They're practically the same, but-"

"He's different," Jackie finished for her.

Rose blinked at her in surprise and nodded. "Yeah... I didn't think you noticed."

"I'm Mommy. I notice everything," Jackie said with a playful smile. She turned her body to the side a little bit in order to look at her daughter better. "I did notice. I noticed you both."

"What do you mean?"

Jackie put a leg beneath her and let the other fall off of the couch, turning and putting a hand on Rose's knee. "Rose... losing the Doctor was very hard on you and when you got James you thought everything would be the same. And that was the problem. You saw it and I saw it."

"I pressured him," Rose lamented. "I made him feel like he had to be the Doctor. The Doctor said they were the same person and I just assumed... Oh, mum, it's like he's regenerated all over again, except he's..."

"Not the Doctor," Jackie said.

Rose felt tears creeping into her eyes. "I'm a horrible person."

"No, you're not," Jackie said, leaning forward further to cup Rose's tear-stained face in her hands. "You're not a horrible person. We were all putting expectations on him. Your dad thought he was a bomb waiting to go off, for goodness sake."

"But something's different. Something changed and I don't know what to do!" she let out a little sob and wiped the tears from her cheeks with the sleeve of her sweater. "I don't know why I feel this way, because I know I love him, but... he's not my Doctor. It's not like when he regenerated. It's different somehow."

What made her feel worse, was that she knew that James had sensed those feelings from her, too.

He'd tried to fix it by trying to be the Doctor again for her, and he resented the Doctor for it; resented her for it, although she knew he would never tell her that.

"Sweetheart, I know this whole transition has been hard on you- its been hard on all of us- but no matter what's happening, you need to decide what's best for you. None of the other stuff matters. Just that. Listen to your heart- and I know that's cliche, but I mean it. You know what you want and need."

Rose nodded.

She did.

"But first things first," Jackie said, "First we're going to find James, whether we have to break a whole in the wall thing or not, because we love him- you love him, even if it's not in the way you thought you might. I know you love him. So we're going to find him. Pete's doing the best he can and you can bet the Doctor is, too."

Rose smiled at that.

The Doctor would find him. That's just what the Doctor does.

Has anyone else noticed that Torchwood is Doctor Who, with the letters all scrambled up? I hadn't until just yesterday. Aaah, the wonderful cleverness of the Who Universe. ^_^

I hope you enjoyed this little preview into Pete's World! And no worries! Next chapter will be up very soon! I'm on writing fire! XP Looking forward to hearing from you all! :D