Disclaimer: All rights to the BBC. Not mine, desafortunadamente.
Martha Jones was home safe with her family again. Tom Milligan was alive again, so was the entire nation of Japan, and the rest of the world. As much as she rejoiced in that, she worried about her family. Though the experience had bound her parents back together, Martha wished that they had been left on Earth, ignorant of it all. She debated looking up Marion Wolfe. Because she'd left her friend behind on Earth, the other girl would remember nothing of that year, nothing of Martha Jones, and Martha wasn't yet sure that she could approach her as just a friend of the Doctor's. But, she knew that if anyone would understand what happened, Marion would. And, there were the things Marion said that didn't add up, as if she knew the future. Martha would find her.
The next morning Rose staggered to the en suite and showered. It was a blissful luxury. Showers had been few and far between for a while as electricity ran scarce to power wells and water heaters. The rivers she'd bathed in were suspect in cleanliness. She frowned at her reflection as she dried it with the miniature hair dryer Jack had given her from the 51st century. Brown hair just wasn't her look. She screwed up her face in concentration and watched as her hair slowly lightened to a golden blond. It wasn't the same sort of bottle blond she'd worn when she first met the Doctor, that was six years ago, but it was close enough to look like her again. She left it loose around her shoulders and headed down the stairs.
Sarah Jane started when she saw Rose enter the room, but said nothing until they'd both finished breakfast and Luke left for school with Clyde and Maria.
"Rose," She began, "I feel like you may have more to tell me. Your hair is blond this morning, and I still don't know how you appeared in my house. And, if you weren't on the Valiant, how do you remember what happened?"
Rose stared out the window and nodded. This was the moment she dreaded and she knew it would happen many more times as she once again saw the people she knew and loved. How was she to tell them that she wasn't human anymore?
"Did the Doctor tell you that the Tardis wasn't a machine? That she's alive?" Rose asked. Sarah Jane nodded. "My first Doctor, the one I ran away with, told me on my first trip out that the Tardis was telepathic, that she got inside your head and translated things. She always seems to know where and when to go, too, even when it isn't where the Doctor wants."
"Yes, that happened quite often." Sarah Jane said with a fond smile.
Rose smiled back. "Well, after a while, the Doctor and I got into a spot of trouble with Daleks. They'd escaped the Time War and were hiding in the year 200,100 kidnapping humans and altering the Earth. We were trapped there and the Doctor tricked me back into the Tardis and sent me home.
"I didn't want to be home though. I managed to pry open part of the Tardis and look into her heart. Inside the Heart of the Tardis is time, the most powerful thing in the universe. I looked into her, and she looked into me and for a time we were one. We returned and saved the Doctor. The Doctor took the Heart out of me again to save my life. From that, he regenerated. But part of the Heart stayed in me, locked away but quietly making changes. Then I was lost to the other universe."
Then Rose explained how she met River and how she came back to their universe.
"So you are part Tardis?" Sarah Jane asked in disbelief.
Rose nodded.
Sarah Jane swallowed thickly. "Alright. Would you like to come with me today? I'm looking into some rumors about an old house."
Rose grinned. "Love to."
Martha Jones could find nothing on Marion Wolfe. No address, phone number, school records, health records, nothing. She couldn't even find records of a Wolfe family living on or near the Powell Estates. The only things she could think of were that; one, she'd imagined the girl, or two, Torchwood had hidden her records. Considering she still had a photo of the other girl on her camera, Martha found the second much more likely, especially since Marion was a friend of Jack's.
It wasn't long before Jack invited Martha to his Torchwood. Martha printed two copies of the photo she had of Marion. She'd taken it in a happier period of their journey and the expression on the other girl's face was as close to a real smile as Martha had ever seen. From the softening of Marion's face every time Jack was mentioned, she imagined they were close and he might like the photo.
Martha descended into Torchwood Three on the lift oh so close to where Doctor parked the Tardis more than a year before. Jack broke into a wide smile and gave her a tight hug. Martha could sense the change in Jack immediately. Around the Doctor, Jack was the rebel, the mischievous child, but with his team, he was the captain, the mysterious leader. It seemed to Martha that it was an attitude he'd adopted to save himself from the pain of non-time traveling friends. If they didn't know him and he didn't know them, then he couldn't be hurt. At least, not so badly. After introductions to the stunned team, Jack and Martha went to dinner where they could talk.
"They're good people, you know. My team." Jack said, "As much as I miss traveling with the Doctor, I would have missed this more. And you know, someday I might meet up with him again."
Martha nodded, she was still unsure about the Face of Boe. It made sense, but still... She stared off across the water as she thought of the final death of the man who sat before her. Time travel was wonderful and terrible.
"Martha," Jack began softly, "You have someone to help you, too, right? I know you're helping your family but that was one hell of a year and you went through it alone." His voice was calm and soothing.
"UNIT has been helping with that. But, I wasn't alone. Not for most of it." Martha told him.
"That's how you met Tom, right?" Jack said smugly.
Martha stuck her tongue out at him. "Yes, but that wasn't what I meant."
"Then who? The Master said it was just you and that's what you told the Doctor."
"It was a friend of the Doctor's, and yours, she said." Martha said.
Jack blinked owlishly at her cryptic answer. "Who?"
"Guess." Martha teased as she dug the photo out of her purse.
"Harriet Jones?" Jack said.
"Nope! Wait- the former Prime Minister? You know the former Prime Minister?"
"We'd met." Jack answered evasively. He'd liked Harriet Jones and wasn't terribly happy that the Doctor had caused her absence. "Now tell me." He demanded.
"Does Torchwood hide their employees? 'Cause I couldn't find her anywhere." Martha stalled.
Jack's face went curiously blank. "Not usually. I got the impression that the Doctor wasn't too fond of people who worked for Torchwood."
"Well, she definitely knew him." Martha said dryly.
Jack eyed her carefully. There was almost a trace of the old jealousy in her voice but her face was calm. "Who was it?"
Martha studied his face as she answered. "Marion Wolfe." She said and slid the photo over to him.
His expression didn't change at the name, except to harden nearly imperceptibly. He took the photo though and after a moment his whole body softened. He traced over the curve of Marion's face with a trembling finger.
"So, you do know her." Martha said.
"Yes. You could say that. We lost touch after the Doctor left me." His eyes didn't leave the photo.
"You didn't react to her name, just her face." Martha said, her eyebrows up.
"When I knew her, that wasn't her name."
"Bad Wolf? She said that was her code name."
Jack laughed. "No, but that makes sense." He'd never heard who was behind the Bad Wolf message, but if it was her code name...
"She thought you were in a different century."
"She should know that wouldn't stop me." Jack said firmly.
"Just how close were you?" Martha teased.
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Want to find out?" He answered back. "No, she had someone. I wasn't going to interfere with that."
"That's a first..." Martha muttered.
He finally looked up and his disarmingly blue eyes met her brown ones. "Let's head back to the hub."
Installed on the comfortable couch in Jack's office, Martha was prodded to start her tale. When she finished, she headed to bed, leaving Jack to process.
He sat at his desk, head in his hands. So, Rose had done the impossible again. Strangely, Jack found he wasn't so surprised. His memory went back nearly a hundred years to an unusual visit. Enigmatic was definitely one way to describe River Song. There were other ways too. She'd known Jack though, future Jack, and left an impression on the past him. She'd also told him that he'd see the Doctor and Rose again, separately at first and then together. When he'd last seen the Doctor, he'd assumed that the times he'd gone to the Powell Estate in the nineties was when he'd see Rose, and that when he saw them together again, it would be in their past. Though he was a little doubtful, the dread in the Doctor's voice had killed his optimism. But this Rose that Martha spent half a year with, she'd been separated from the Doctor and for some reason she wasn't running straight back to him. Jack simply needed more information.
Well, he hadn't spent more than a century waiting for the Doctor in vain, Jack had become a patient man. He had no way to contact Rose or the Doctor. He'd simply have to wait until they came to him.
Rose was content at Sarah Jane's. She was helping with cases, both alien and not. Luke's friends were very nice, if a bit in awe of her, as was Luke himself. Rose and Luke found themselves on common ground though, both were a bit defensive of their humanity.
Maria's mother was skeptical of the new inhabitant of number 13 but Rose charmed her quickly. Though her ready smile was buried deep, Rose still had a way with people. Rose did get a bit flustered as the woman pestered her for her secret on anti-aging. Though Rose knew herself to be twenty-six, she didn't look any older than twenty.
It took about two months living on Bannerman Road before Rose laughed. Luke was faking ignorance about a popular band and Clyde bought it. The outrage on his teenage face was astounding and incredibly comical. Rose, laughing, looked at Sarah Jane and was met by a warm, delighted smile. Her laughter faded away but she smiled back as she, too, realized that she was laughing.
Rose was healing well. She'd regained the weight she'd lost and couldn't afford to, she could go days at a time without crying, and she could smile easily again. It was time, she decided, to move forward. She was packing her big red bag when Sarah Jane entered the room. The brown haired woman stood in the doorway, leaning against it, as she watched the careful packing. Rose remembered a time when she just shoved all of her things into the pack with abandon. The years spent at Torchwood made care a habit though and she organized the pack extensively.
"Leaving already?" Sarah Jane asked.
Rose answered without turning. She'd felt the floorboards flex as Sarah Jane approached but knew the other woman was waiting for the right moment to speak. "Yeah, it's time."
"Where are you going?"
Rose paused, "I'm not sure. I have to check the journal."
"Rose, do you really trust this River Song? She's sending you into a lot of danger."
"And she also sent me back." Rose answered levelly. "I know you're concerned, but it is my choice, everything that I've done."
Sarah Jane bit her lip. "Just, be careful, Rose. I care about you."
"I know." Rose stood and hugged the woman tightly. "Thank you, for everything."
Sarah Jane tucked her chin over Rose's shoulder and held her tightly. As hard as it would be for her to see Rose leave, it was necessary. Rose needed the Doctor and, she was fairly certain, the Doctor needed Rose.
Rose checked her journal. She put it away with a smile. The first line was easy for her to do.
Go see Jack
After borrowing some equipment from Sarah Jane, she made her goodbyes to Luke, Clyde, and Maria. With a last hug for Sarah Jane and a whispered promise that she'd come back someday soon, Rose hopped to Torchwood Three. She activated the personal forcefield she borrowed from Sarah Jane as soon as she landed and hoped that Jack would be there soon.