"We've neared the completion of the data extraction from the other world." Despite nearly having been singed by someone's pet dragon earlier in the day, Miles was calm, cool, and collected as he gave Pete his report. "Alternate histories are stored away, all the information of alien species they gathered has been recorded, and we've even taken special note of a few inventions we may want to discreetly farm out to research and development."
"Inventions? Nothing like what we did with Lumic?" Instinct warred with practicality in Pete as he regarded Miles' report. Torchwood had played this game before, sharing technology with those that other directors thought they could trust, only to have the dog bite the very hand that fed him. He was unwilling to place the world in any danger like that again.
"Most of what I highlighted on that list likely would be minor consumer products, such as this MP3 they had, allows for the compression of data. Something that could be easily integrated on a tablet if we could have the right computer team working on it."
"And then market it through one of the old, dummy corporations leftover from Lumic." Pete nodded, liking this plan much more. "We get direct control, and proceeds can be used for recovery efforts, charities…"
"Funding Torchwood, which isn't cheap, you know," Miles replied mildly.
"That it isn't," Pete grimaced, knowing all too well Torchwood's financials, and was heartily glad that he wasn't responsible for maintaining the complex and labyrinthine methods used to fund the more secret aspects of what to the rest of society should be a research think tank. Many of the products highlighted on Miles' list were indeed things that were relatively small or mild, many of them beneficial, and some he was surprised hadn't been thought of in their world. One in particular caught his eye, and he glanced up at Miles, who smiled knowingly.
"I've earmarked the jet engine technology for you personally. I thought, given your charm, you may have your Vitex investors take a crack at it?"
"That smacks of a hint of the unethical."
"The chance of flying to America in a few hours rather than a day? Tell me that doesn't interest you?"
"There is truth in that," Pete muttered, nodding. "That one I'd like personally. But I want to have that controlled, no one running around with it to create weapons or portals to another world or anything."
"No guarantees once the product is out there, but we can see what happens."
"Right," Pete smiled, thinking of how nice it would be to have one of those planes he saw in Rose, Jackie, and Mickey's world. "Anything on sports cars in there?"
"Even got a new type of material for jerseys in here, make your footie matches more interesting."
"Amazing the differences between two worlds," Pete smiled, leaning back in his desk chair, recalling his singular trip to the other London of Jackie's world. So many things were different. And yet, there were many things that were the same. Jackie, for instance, and the way she laughed at his stupid jokes. And the way she took her tea. And how she snored when she slept, ever so slightly, curled into his side that morning.
"How are the flowers over there where you are grazing?"
Pete only realized he was staring moonily out of his office window when Miles' smirk caught his eye. "Been a long month. First day back in the office, lots on the mind."
"Of course," Miles replied in that way that was almost subversive, and yet, not. Pete thought he could see laughter behind his field director's glasses.
"How was Rose," Pete muttered by way of changing the subject, wondering, not for the first time, why he kept Miles around, until he remembered Gordon and the dragon.
"She handled herself well today." Miles looked so pleased one would have thought Rose was his field director's daughter.
"She did," Pete agreed, thinking of how the girl literally ran into the face of danger without even giving it a second thought. "Can't ever tell Jackie what she did, though."
"There are many things in this world I am, sir, but stupid isn't one of them." Miles pushed his his glasses up his nose as he leaned back into his seat. "She's rough, but trainable. Doesn't have the tactical mind of Simmonds, but savvy, and with heart."
That seemed to sum up Rose in a nutshell. The small well of fatherly pride and affection that had been born that horrible night so long ago had been growing since Rose literally landed in his lap and ended up in this world. And now it swelled as he considered the girl who just a month before had not existed in his life.
"Hard to believe she's mine, now." He shook his head at the absurdity of it all. "Sort of doesn't feel right. She's the child of another man, another Pete."
"You keep bringing that up as if it means something," Miles retorted.
"Look at you talking! You're the one who preached at me that Jackie wasn't my wife, I wasn't her husband, shouldn't be mixing timelines, and now you are acting as if none of that means anything now."
"Working with the moment at hand, sir. And the reality is that they are here, and they are yours." He arched a blonde eyebrow pointedly over his thick frames. "Aren't they?"
Pete felt himself flush. Damn Miles, his perception, and the fact Pete felt embarrassed enough to clear his throat and glare darkly at his subordinate. "Why did you suggest that Rose join Torchwood?"
"I knew she would be amazing at it. She's an asset. Cool in the face of fire, like you saw, and smart. Takes a bit after her father."
"A bit," Pete agreed, though not totally happy about it. He knew all too well how reckless he could be in his choices, only regretting things well after the fact. "You knew it would be problematic. It's why you had her come and talk to me first."
"Yeah," Miles didn't deny it.
"Why?"
"Because I knew Jackie would be angry the minute she heard about it." For all that Miles got along with this current Jackie much better than his first wife, there was some perverse part of him that seemed to delight in annoying the hell out of her. Pete wasn't particularly sure he approved.
"Jackie's protective of Rose, there's no hiding that, and you wanted to pick a fight with the mother bear?"
"Not particularly, but it got results. Rose needed this, Pete, and you know she did. You can't spend five minutes with the girl and not see that she's hurting."
"And lost," Pete added, remembering the pained frustration that flickered across Rose's face when she said she wasn't even supposed to be there. "God, I remember that place. Right after my Jacks died. Sitting in that room I was in at the time, just wondering what I was going to do. Fighting just to breath because it hurt like hell to bother doing that."
"Wondering if you'd have to go another day feeling this way because if you did, you knew you would go crazy?" Miles nodded slowly, his voice soft and distant.
They shared the silence of remembered pain for long moments, before Pete broke it, curious. "What got you out?"
"Torchwood, of course." Miles shrugged, running hands nervously down perfectly pleated pants. "I had taken time off from my last job. They made me at that point, my mental state...I was a liability. Can't have those in SIS."
"No, I imagine not."
Miles smiled so tightly it looked more like a grimace. "Omar's sister and I are close. She was working here in medical at the time. Thought I could use the change of pace."
"So you ended up a PA?" How that happened Pete would never know.
"No, I ended up in the field. I was assigned to your PA because you were a field operative, and I could come off as harmless enough to be a male personal assistant and bitchy enough to be effective at it."
"Amanda is good, but she's got nothing on you," Pete acknowledged, though he was not sad for moving Miles to his elevated role.
"It was all right. Besides, it allowed me to...do something good. Something useful. Before...I did things that others wouldn't, and rationalized it to myself. Omar always asked me what sort of man I was becoming, and I would brush it off. But here, I knew I was trying to do something good, something right. And I thought, if I couldn't be with him anymore, then at least I could be doing something to honor him."
Pete understood that sentiment completely. "Same here. That's how I felt about Jacks."
"And that's why I suggested Rose come work for us. It would give her something."
Wasn't that why they all ended up there? Pete, Miles, even Jake and Mickey. And now Rose as well, refugees of loss, all hoping to make up for it at Torchwood. "Is this then where we end up to mend a broken heart?"
"Better than developing a drinking habit, I suppose."
"And far more dangerous," he intoned, but sighed in acceptance. "If she works out, fine. And heaven help you with her mother should she get hurt."
"I do not wish to incur the wrath of Jackie Tyler, that much I know." Miles replied, though he hardly looked frightened of the possibility. "And besides, perhaps this will help her move on. She can maybe learn to care for someone else, or something else."
"Is that psychology or something," Pete snorted, realizing they were one bottle of scotch away from this being some sort of strange, male bonding moment.
"Worked for you, didn't it?"
Damn it. Just as Pete suspected earlier, Miles did know. The cheeky smile lurking at the corner's of his mouth couldn't be hidden behind his sarcasm. "Rose gossiping?"
"More like the glow and the strut of a man who just got laid that you've been wearing all day."
Pete didn't think he could turn more read if he tried. "Well...we are just seeing how things go for now. No pressure." In truth, neither he or Jackie had discussed it.
"Good, that's good." Miles' simple smile made Pete want to smash him in the face.
"What?"
"It's just...it's about time. It's good for you, Pete. And it's okay to move on. Even if it is with someone who is a version of your dead wife. Even if it is strange and somewhat creepy."
"Shut up," Pete growled as Miles made to stand. "You ever going to move on yourself one day?"
"Who says I haven't," Miles replied, rising cockily at Pete's surprised stare.
"I haven't...I mean...I guess I never asked. Who is it?"
"No one you know," Miles assured him.
Pete tried to consider. Miles lived and breathed work, he didn't know he even had a social life. The most lively interaction he ever saw the man have was with Mickey and Jake. "It's not Jake, is it?"
Miles reaction was equal parts effronted and horrified. "Simmonds? That's like shagging myself! Besides he's a subordinate and the person I'm grooming to be my second one day."
"Just curious is all."
Miles was clearly not going to budge. "He's in administration at Vitex, he makes an amazing cup of coffee, and that is all I am going to share at this time."
"Fine," Pete finally let him off the hook with a thoughtful smile. "Good for you."
"Likewise, sir," Miles inclined his head. "If you are done with me."
"Yeah, thanks." Pete waved him off, shuffling the papers of the report together before a sudden thought struck him. "Miles!"
The other man paused at the office door.
"In the information you received from the other Torchwood, did you find anything on the Doctor?"
A grim line formed for the briefest of moments. "I've sent you an encoded file on that, sir. I didn't even let Rose see it."
"Did you read it?"
"Parts of it," he admitted. "They tracked him for years. Some of it was real, some of it legend, bits and pieces of half-truths."
"Like?"
"Stories that go back for centuries of his exploits. Usually he had someone with him."
"Rose?"
Miles shook his head. "Not always."
"Anything else? Like who these Time Lords were? What this war Rose and Mickey keep talking about was?"
"Nothing of note. But I do know this, judging from what Torchwood on that side had on him, the Doctor is one of the most powerful beings in any universe...and perhaps the most dangerous."
"How so?"
Miles took long moments to consider before answering. "I've never met the man, mind you. But let's just say that I am heartily glad that we happen to have been on the same side as he was, because those who aren't will wish they weren't fairly quickly."
"And what side is he on," Pete wondered.
"Whatever seems to keep the Earth safest, so far as I can tell."
Pete had a feeling that Miles was likely right in that observation. "I'll keep the file for now, but delete it from the rest of our records. I don't want anyone stumbling across it or connecting it to Rose and Jackie."
"Of course. Is that all?"
"Yeah, goodnight." Pete watched the other man slip out of the door, considering the strange alien who had stumbled across his path that fateful night. Outside of Rose's sake, Pete vaguely wished that the Doctor wasn't a whole universe away. To have someone like that, there, with his knowledge, and experience, and ability, and even compassion. It made the idea of what he was trying to do in Torchwood a lot less overwhelming knowing that someone like the Doctor existed.
No wonder Rose loved him.