"Rose, wake up. Rose."
"Ten more minutes." she murmured, pulling the duvet closer to her.
"You know people don't need to sleep this long."
Rose's eyes fluttered open to see a middle-aged man leaning against the doorway with a big grin plastered on his face. She smiled back, tongue between her teeth as her eyes glanced over his worth leather jacket.
She lifted her head and realised that she was back in her old room in her mum's house. Pink walls, big bed, messy room. All the same. Why was she here though? Don't complain, Rose, she thought.
"I was…." Rose started.
"What?" he asked, curious.
"Never mind." she said, stepping out of bed.
John bit his lip, looking her up and down. She arched an eyebrow at him but he disappeared from sight, chuckling to himself. Rose walked towards the door, but caught her reflection in the mirror and groaned. She had the worst case of bed head she has ever seen. Hair sticking up in all angles like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards. It was going to make ages to sort out. No wonder he was laughing.
"Need a cup of tea." she muttered.
Rose walked into the living room, passing John and then came to an abrupt halt. She spun on the spot, her eyes widen and then she hit John's arm as hard as she could.
"Ow." he moaned. "What was that for?"
"What have you done?" she mumbled.
The living room table was littered with wires and cables, broken down bits of casing, but the sight that made Rose frown was the dismantled toaster that belonged to her mother.
Rose shook her head, trying not to be too amused. "She is going to kill you."
"Let her try." he retorted. "I can outrun anything."
She wrapped her arms around his waist, squeezing tightly. "I know. But unless you want to get slapped again, buy her another one."
He rolled his eyes and resumed his work. Rose watched him in his element, fascinated. "How long are we staying this time?" she asked.
"A couple of days and then we really need to be going. We have a plane to catch to Rome. Probably be there for a couple of weeks maybe longer." he explained, his eyes shining.
Rose nodded. "Haven't you been there before?"
"Yeah, ages ago." he told her, looking closer at the cables in his hands. "The last time I went to this dodgy restaurant and I was in bed for a week, all because of some bad seafood."
"Can't imagine you slowing down?" she giggled, resting her head against his shoulder.
"Are you going to go shopping before we go?" he asked her, entwining their fingers.
"Yeah, as long as the shop window dummies don't attack me again." Rose said, stroking his hand.
She lifted her head, and they exchanged warm smiles, staring at each other, completely content. Rose stood on her tip toes leaning in, her lips nearly touching his when a knock at the door interrupted them.
"We expecting someone?" he asked, not moving away.
"Nope." Rose replied.
They knocked again. Sighing, Rose walked towards the door as she heard John shout out "If it's Jackie, let me get a head start."
Rose grinned and answered the door. Her jaw dropped as she saw DI Alec Hardy standing there with a grim expression on his face.
"Can I come in, Rose Tyler?" he asked. Rose open her mouth but no sound came out. "Rose? You did say I could call you that, remember?"
Why does he say my name like that? she thought.
"Yeah, I… did, didn't I?" she stammered, scratching the back of her neck.
"Who is it?" John called to her.
"The police." Rose shouted back.
"So?" Alec prompted.
"Yeah, come on in."
Rose opened the door wider to allow Alec entrance into the Tyler flat, as his foot stepped inside, they heard a loud crash. Rose dashed into the living room to see what happened, but no one was there. No John. No mess. Nothing. As if he never there.
"John? Where did you go?" Her voice was shaking. She looked around the room, her heart was racing as the panic set in. "John?"
"Rose?" The blonde turned around to see Alec staring at her, eyes wide.
"He was here a minute ago." she mumbled. "He was- why are you here?"
This didn't make any sense. She had never met Alec before Broadchurch. What was going on? Alec continued to watch Rose, sliding his hands into his jacket pockets.
"I need to find him. He can't have gone far."
Alec stepped forward, putting his arm around her waist, reassuringly. Rose hissed at the contact, unsure of what to do next. His voice dropped to a gentle whisper, pulling her closer.
"Rose… I need to tell you-"
She jumped out of her bed, landing to the floor with a thud, gasping for air. It took her a moment to realise she had been dreaming. It felt so real. All those memories of her home, and him. But why did Alec suddenly show up? Why was he getting so close?
She heaved herself off the ground, glanced down seeing that she hadn't bothered changing her clothes from the night before. Then everything flooded back. Her meeting with Alec, her argument with Jack. She sighed, still feeling exhausted.
She hadn't dreamt of John in such a long time. She almost felt guilty, she missed him, she loved him but she didn't see him anymore in her dreams. It's what kept her going in those first couple of months. Remembering the way he used to hold her, ramble at her, all those little things that made her smile.
A couple of days and then we really need to be going. We have a plane to catch to Rome.
She rubbed her eyes, recalling the dream and what John had said about Rome. Rose remembered going with him, it was the last trip aboard they took together.
Dr John Smith was a great man who worked at the British History Museum. He often took Rose on his research trips and helped him track down new relics. He loved history. He just absorbed the knowledge, so much so that Rose made the joke that he was like a sponge.
He also had a gift for science but he chose History as his main focus but that didn't stop his from tampering with various household items. Once Rose came home to find him trying to build what he called a sonic screwdriver. He almost got it to work but he claimed that it blew up because she distracted him. John blamed her smile.
Their first meeting was a coincidence. Sheer luck. He was passing her shop and heard a scream. Being the hero that he was, he found her in a back alley just before she was attacked by an Auton. He instinctively grabbed her hand and told her to "Run."
Since then they had always been together, laughing, joking, seeing things that no one could imagine. Along their travels they had come into contact with alien technology that had crashed landed to Earth and they saved the day, thanks to his intelligence and Rose's determination.
While they were in America, they found an alien race experimenting on human soldiers, one of them being Captain Jack Harkness. They helped the officers to escape and defeated the enemy and quickly became friends with Jack. He travelled with them for a bit them until he took up the offer at Torchwood.
After being friends so many years, Jack pushed the couple to admit their true feelings and while in Paris, he proposed which she happily accepted. Jackie was not pleased to start with, since John was fourteen years older than her daughter but knew they belonged together. Over time they became civil towards each other and he gained her approval, but she made him work for it.
Things were happy for them, everything was going to plan but when they came home to visit Jackie, John got a message from Jack saying that he was visiting Torchwood One in Canary Wharf to see new alien tech that he would be transferring back to Cardiff.
However when inside, John overheard rumours that the team was performing secret experiments on a breach in time and space being led by Yvonne Hartman, so he confronted her. He discovered that not only had the team been studying the breach for some time but an army of Cybermen were coming through from a parallel world.
John, Rose and Jack fought against them, but realised that eventually a war would break out. John told Jack he could overload the machines and stop them from converting any humans and destroy them. But it was a great risk and he remembered his promise to Jackie. He would always bring her daughter home, safe. There was once to many times when he had nearly broken that promise.
John knew Rose would never leave his side, so while she had her back turned, he injected her with a sedative. Her pleas to him broke his heart as she fell asleep in his arms for the last time. He instructed Jack to take Rose away from building and back home. Hesitating, Jack agreed and said goodbye to his dear friend.
Jack was a couple of streets away when the building exploded, the noise caused Rose to stir. He didn't escape in time. But she never blamed Jack for taking her away. She was never angry at him. She wanted to hate John for what she did. But she just couldn't.
Rose sobbed as the memory pierced her heart. She clutched the duvet tighter, her tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Morning, Miller." Alec said, happily, passing her a cup of coffee.
She gawked at her boss but accepted the cup. "Have you been drinking?" she asked.
"No. Why?" he asked, closing his office door.
"Well in all the time we have worked together, you have never got me a cup of coffee." she told him, unnerved. "Ever."
"Oh." Alec sat down in his chair. "Sorry about that."
Ellie continued to stare at him like he was from another world. "Sir, are sure you're okay? Do you need anything?" Her face turned serious. "Oh, my God, is your pacemaker playing up?"
He arched an eyebrow. "No, I'm fine. The old ticker is fine. What's wrong with you?"
She eyed him carefully, suspicious of his behaviour. "You're all happy. It's weird."
He sipped his tea and shrugged. "Is that a bad thing?"
"Yes." Ellie muttered, sternly. "It's against the natural order of the things."
He smiled, which freaked his colleague even more. Since when did Alec Hardy smile? Ellie wondered if he kept it up, it his face would start to ache because he wasn't used to it.
She took a sip of her drink and chose to focus on the case. "Okay, well, we have a surveillance team in place ready to watch Torchwood members. We also have their location. They are staying in a rental cottage opposite a pub called The Beck. It's not too far from here."
Alec nodded, listening carefully. "Yeah, which reminds me I spoke to Rose -" Ellie raised an eyebrow and he quickly corrected himself. "Miss Tyler last night and asked her if she wanted to resume working together."
"What's changed?" she asked.
"We are struggling and it's not a bad thing to ask for help."
"What's gotten in you?" she demanded. "You never ask for help. You're Mr Loner."
"I thought it was Shit Face." he said.
"Ah." she breathed, embarrassed. "Didn't know you knew that. But the point is last night you were convinced they were the bad guys and now…."
"Well maybe I was a bit hasty." he lied.
Jack and Rose hadn't spoken all morning.
Where did you begin? They were both in the wrong. Both said things that were unforgivable. Unfortunately, both were also stubborn and wouldn't be the first to apologise.
Nevertheless, Jack was waiting in the car for her so they could drive to the station. He rolled down the windows to let some cool air in as the baking hot sun was trying its hardest to melt him. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a familiar blonde girl trudge to the car. She didn't look up but Jack could see she looked drained.
Quietly, Rose shut the door as she got into the seat next to her boss. She crossed her arms and waited for him to pull out of the drive. Jack didn't seem to acknowledge her presence, his focus was out the window.
Rose tapped the wheel and said "We should get going."
Jack turned on the engine, still ignoring her.
They got to a crossing and a couple of teenage waved thanks as they passed. Rose sighed, watching them, recalling the footage she had watched only hours ago.
"Do we tell the police about the clip?" she asked.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because it isn't relevant to them." he stated, coldly. Jack continued driving down the road seeing the happy tourists go by.
Rose glared at him, then sighed. She had lost too many people already, she wasn't prepared to lose another. "Why did you give me this job?"
"You know why." he muttered.
"Not really. You came to John's funeral, then left. I didn't hear a word from you for weeks and then suddenly I get a call inviting to Cardiff." No response. "Did you think it would make up for him being gone?"
"You needed something else to focus on."
"Something to take my anger out on." Rose countered.
"You were angry. Still are."
"I was angry at him!" Rose exclaimed. "Not the aliens, not the Cybermen. Him! He left me." she cried, gesturing to herself.
"He sent you away, there's a difference."
"We fought everything together." she mumbled. "Seen things I could never tell a soul. My own mother doesn't know what I've been through—and then you-"
Jack glanced at her, his eyes warming. "I offered you the job because you deserve better. Better than shops, Rose." he told her. "You've seen too much, that's your problem. After he died, I knew that if you saw anything remotely extra-terrestrial, you would go looking. If I had you at Torchwood, I could back you up. You would be safer."
Jack scoffed, thinking of how much of a good job he did looking after the person he loved most in the world. "The Tyler attitude, so head strong. I've known you for years and you haven't changed. You've gotten stronger."
He gently placed his hand over hers, hoping to mend the broken bridges between them. Rose smiled at him, shaking her head. "Sorry."
"Me too. It's okay, it get it." Jack said. "You're tired. We all are."
"Great, big alien menace and we are still no closer to finding it."
The car turned into a side road to avoid the build-up of traffic down the high street. One either side of the road were small detached houses, but no one was about. They both assumed that they would be on the beach, enjoying the heat. Rose scanned the road, when her eyes fell on a mark on the floor.
"Jack, stop the car!"
The 4x4 abruptly pulled over pulled over to the side of the road, narrowly missing a recycling bin.
"What?" he asked.
Rose stepped out and edged closer to the mark. It was large scratch mark on the pavement, fresh and covered with blood. Rose raised her hand to cover her eyes as the sun blurred her vision. She sniffed the air, turning to the car to see a confused Jack and beckoned him to come out.
"You need to see this." she shouted.
Rose glanced around her surroundings, her eyes darted up, the sun bouncing off something shiny and sharp. Her eyes focused on a hooded figure standing on the roof of garage. The creature was crouched, staring at her, licking its lips. Before Rose could scream for help, it lunged at her.