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butterflyStory Title: A Most Noble Undertaking (2/6)
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
butterfly
Summary: Some reunions are just meant to be.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords".
Part One
A Most Noble Undertaking
Rose watched as the TARDIS slowly faded from sight. She hadn't seen it do that very often – she was usually on the inside, disappearing right along with it. And that noise... she'd heard that sound in her sleep so often over the last few years, startling awake in the middle of the night with her heart pounding and her hopes saying maybe... maybe...
Just as she'd seen his face so often in her dreams, his dark eyes fixed on hers and his lips parted in the middle of that sentence he'd run out of time to tell her. The memory of him had never left her, even when she had, ever so briefly, wanted nothing more than to forget everything about him.
“I'm so sorry,” Sarah Jane said. Rose wrinkled her nose up in confusion and turned to look at the woman, who was staring at the same bit of grass. “But it looks like you had several good years with him, at least. You can hold onto that.”
“What are you on about?” Rose asked.
“The Doctor,” Sarah Jane said, waving at where the TARDIS had been. She looked about as perplexed as Rose felt. “He just left you here.”
“He's coming back,” Rose said. They'd both been fairly clear on that point, she'd thought.
“Well, he said that, yes,” Sarah Jane said, with a tiny laugh. “That doesn't make it true.”
“The Doctor wouldn't lie to me,” Rose said. This had not been the conversation that she'd been expecting to have with Sarah Jane.
“Oh, I'm sure that he means to come back,” she said. Rose blinked. “But once he's out there, he'll get distracted. He's like that.”
“All right, look. I appreciate your concern,” Rose said, trying not to sound annoyed. “But the Doctor's not going to get distracted from me.”
“He called me his best friend once,” she said, still in that irritatingly kind tone of voice. “And he said that he'd come back to get me, after he was done on Gallifrey, but he never did. I don't... I don't blame him for it, not anymore, but you can't think that you're immune to the consequences of his rather short attention span.”
“He's not some little kid,” Rose said. “Believe me, I just spent the last several years with one and the Doctor isn't like that. He's coming back.”
“I thought that way for years,” Sarah Jane said. “Eventually, I even concluded that he must have died to have forgotten about me. But he hadn't. He'd just... moved on.”
“Right. I don't want to imply anything about your relationship with the Doctor, but he hasn't left me behind. I got hurt and I'm recovering. He's coming back.” Rose stressed the last sentence.
“Well, if that's what you need to believe, I won't argue with you further,” Sarah Jane said. Rose resisted the very childish urge to stick out her tongue. “Come inside and have a cup of tea. I'll introduce you to my son.”
“You've got a kid?” Rose asked, momentarily distracted. “I didn't know that.”
“I only just adopted him this year,” Sarah Jane said, her mouth curving up in a glowing smile. “It's such a shame... I was actually rather hoping that he could meet the Doctor – he's such a bright lad and I know that they'd get on.”
“Well, he'll be able to,” Rose said. “In a couple of days, when the Doctor gets back.”
“If you say so.” Sarah Jane gave her a sympathetic look that Rose found a bit frustrating. Apparently, the only way that Sarah Jane would believe that the Doctor would be coming back was when he actually showed up on her doorstep. Still, it was hard to be all that angry at her for the assumption – that was what he'd done to her, after all. If she believed that he would come back for Rose when he hadn't done the same for Sarah Jane... it would probably hurt. And Rose didn't want that, either. So, she would just have to live with Sarah Jane's pity for a while.
“I'll go in and make something for us to eat, shall I? Join me when you're ready.” Sarah Jane didn't pause to wait for an answer, but swept back toward her house. Rose glanced again at where the TARDIS had stood, one last time, and then turned and started exploring a bit. It was a nice place, this. Big yard, long driveway, lots of very well-cared for shrubbery – cute little car. Rose hadn't had many chances to drive before she'd ended up in Pete's world, but she'd done a fair amount in her job with Torchwood, so she'd come to appreciate cars a bit. They couldn't hold a candle to the TARDIS but, when it came to long distances, they beat running.
She wandered out to the end of the driveway and looked around. It was a good neighborhood – Sarah Jane had mentioned having a son. This seemed like it would be a great place to raise a kid. Lots of space to run around, lots of other houses. Probably not too many people looking to rob someone or... well, any of the other things that could happen.
It looked like such a safe place.
It was sort of making Rose's skin itch. She stood at the end of the driveway, holding onto the edge of Sarah Jane's brick wall, just staring out at all of the respectable and clean-looking houses. Too clean, really. Now, the TARDIS was clean, but still fairly ramshackle and thrown-together. All of this was just a bit too much for her tastes. It reminded her of when she'd moved out of Pete's and her mum had been after her to get a nice place a little ways out of town and how disappointed she'd been when Rose had gotten a small flat in the heart of the city instead.
“You're rich now, sweetheart,” she'd said. “You can afford to live anywhere. Why here?”
She'd had a dozen reasons on the tip of her tongue, all of them masking the real one – because there wasn't any point in bothering to spend all that money on a big place if she wasn't planning on staying. She'd lived her entire life in Pete's world constantly prepared to leave, dressed for travel and always with a packed bag in the trunk of her car.
Because she'd never given up on going home. She'd never given up on the Doctor.
What would it be like to be one of the families living in that row of houses? With a yard and a sidewalk and two stories all to herself. And, she supposed, her family. If she'd said, “yes” to Mark and they'd ended up with a kid or two, what would her life have been like? Would she... could she have ever truly been happy in a life like that or would she have forever dreamed of alien skies and a cool, familiar hand in hers?
Rose shivered and turned away – and there, standing on the sidewalk down the road, was her mystery blonde.
Right. Rose's day was not going well so far and she wasn't going to stand around and wait for the future to happen. It was time to get some answers.
“Hello, Rose,” the woman said when Rose reached her. She looked sharper in the light of day, her features very finely drawn. “I wanted to-”
“No,” Rose said, putting her hands on her hips.
“What do you mean... no?”
“I mean 'no',” Rose said. “It's a simple enough word. Whatever you're planning on saying, I don't want to hear it.”
“But you wanted me to tell you,” she said, that delicate nose of hers wrinkling up. Actually, now that Rose could see her properly, she rather reminded Rose of Reinette. Features like a doll's and big blue eyes. It wasn't the most reassuring comparison in the world.
“You know what I want you to tell me? Your name,” Rose said. “I want to know exactly who it is that I'm dealing with here.”
“You didn't say anything about that when I spoke to the future you earlier,” she said, with that same certain – almost haughty, really – bearing that she'd had during their first meeting.
“I don't care,” Rose said. The woman angled her head slightly, looking a bit puzzled. Well... good. “Your last warning – if I can call it that – was useless. Over a thousand people died on that ship. If you can't tell me who you are and exactly why I should believe anything you say, then you can just turn around and leave.”
The woman pressed her lips together and studied Rose for a moment. Rose didn't shift at all under her regard, her anger overcoming any possible uncertainty.
She took the time to study the woman a bit – she was wearing cream again, just dark enough not to make her pale skin look horribly washed-out. Her make-up was light, almost nonexistent, and she wore tiny gold studs in her ears. And there was something in her eyes, something that Rose couldn't put her finger on, but it reminded her of someone that she'd met before.
Finally, the woman sighed, her shoulders slumping down a bit. Rose felt the slightest hint of a smile touch her lips.
“My name is Holly Cole,” the woman said, sounding frustrated. Well, it was about time that someone other than Rose felt that way.
“And why should I trust you?” Rose asked. “Why should I believe you when you tell me that you've met me before?”
“I already told you something that no one else knows. What more do you want?” Holly took in a sharp breath, then let it out in a rush. “What else am I supposed to say?”
“Give me a reason to trust you,” Rose said. “A reason to believe in you.”
“Would you like a character reference?” she asked, one eyebrow arching up, her tone tinted with sarcasm. Rose just stared back at her, not giving an inch. Holly's eyes narrowed and then she nodded, as if making a decision. “I... I believe that I also know a friend of yours. A certain captain who has quite a way with the ladies... and the gentlemen.”
“How do you know him?” Rose asked. There was another long, assessing pause from Holly.
“I used to... work with him,” Holly said. “In his former occupation, let's say.”
“You know that I'm going to ask him about you,” Rose said. If she hadn't been watching so closely, she wouldn't noticed the tiny hitch in Holly's breathing at her words before the woman's mask slid firmly back into place.
“Please do,” Holly said, calmly. “You can tell me what he says about me.”
“All right, so maybe you know a friend of mine and maybe you know me in the future,” Rose said. “Why the big spy routine? Why not just come out and say who you are and what I need to know?”
“We're all feeling our way around in the dark, Rose,” Holly said. “You weren't entirely clear about when I should tell you certain things. Maybe because only you know exactly how... determined you can be when you want to know something.”
“Why couldn't I have gotten some useful bit of information about the Titanic?” Rose asked, fighting to keep her emotions out of her voice. “All those people and I couldn't save them.”
“I'm sorry,” Holly said. “I wish that I had more of the answers for you.”
“Where's the Doctor?” Rose asked. Holly's lips parted in surprise. “When you meet me, in the future, where's the Doctor?”
“He... he wasn't with you,” Holly said.
“But I told you about him,” Rose said. “I told you about the Time Vortex. Why would I pick that moment? There's any number of things that I could have had you say to prove yourself to me. Why that?”
“Only you would know the answer to that,” Holly said.
“Except that I don't,” Rose said. “I don't know what's going to happen in the future and... the Doctor would say that I shouldn't. Because it... it might change things or trap me into something that I don't really want to do. So, thank you, Holly Cole, for trying to help me, but I don't want it. I'll fumble through my own, thanks.”
“But you can't,” Holly said, her big blue eyes appealing to Rose for a second chance. “Rose, you have to listen to me.”
“That's just it,” Rose said. “I don't.”
“I'm only trying to help you,” Holly said. “That's all that I want to do.”
“Well, the next time you see 'me', ask her what you did wrong,” Rose said, then she turned around and walked back up Sarah Jane's driveway, not looking back. She didn't hear any footsteps behind her. She went in through Sarah Jane's front door and glanced around – it was so much warmer and more domestic than she'd have expected before learning that Sarah Jane had adopted a kid. Though... that jacket slung over the couch didn't look like it would fit Sarah Jane but it certainly wasn't a boy's coat, either.
“Who are you, then?”
Rose looked up and saw a young girl coming down the stairway attached to the main hall – she had thick and dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing jeans and a beige shirt.
“Oh! I'm Rose. I'm a friend of Sarah Jane's,” Rose said, holding out her hand. The girl stopped on the last step and gave Rose a cautious look, and then she gave Rose's hand a good, solid shake. “And you?”
“I'm a friend of hers, too,” the girl said, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jeans. Then she blushed a bit and looked down. “Sorry... I'm Maria. Maria Jackson. I'm a neighbor.”
“That's nice,” Rose said, glancing up the stairway. “She didn't mention that I'd arrived? She said that she was going to cook tea.”
“I've just been upstairs with Luke,” Maria said, with a bit of an awkward-looking smile. “Haven't seen Sarah Jane yet today.”
“Are you... do you babysit her son, then?” Rose asked. Maria's eyebrows pulled together and then she burst out laughing. Rose smiled a bit in return. “I'm guessing not.”
“Luke's my age,” Maria said. “I go to school with him. Didn't you know that?”
“I haven't seen her for a few years,” Rose said. “She said that she'd adopted, but I'd assumed that he would be younger than... well, younger than he is, I suppose.”
“So... you know her from years past, then,” Maria said. Rose bit back on a wider smile – she could recognize someone fishing for information from a mile away.
“It depends on how you look at it,” Rose said, realizing that she didn't actually know how long it had been for Sarah Jane since they'd last met. For Rose, it had been over nine years, but for Sarah Jane, it might have only been one or two years. “You probably know her a lot better than I do.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I just-”
“Have you decided to come in, then?” Sarah Jane said cheerily, coming down the hall from what Rose could only assume was the kitchen area. Her welcoming smile only widened when she spotted Maria. “Ah, Maria, you've met Rose. Is Luke still upstairs?”
“He said that he was going to be there for a while. He had to consult- consult some textbooks,” Maria said, stumbling a bit over the middle of the sentence. There appeared to be something going on in this house that was a bit of a secret. “For that... maths project that he's been working on.”
“Oh, you can tell Rose,” Sarah Jane said, reaching out and touching Maria's arm. “She's also a friend of the Doctor's and she knows quite a bit about aliens already.”
“Huh. Good,” Maria said, though Rose reckoned that she looked a bit disappointed. “Luke's still busy with Mr. Smith. They're working on some sort of orbital guiding system. I didn't really understand it.”
“Who's Mr. Smith?” Rose asked Sarah Jane. “Did you get married?”
“He's an alien computer,” Sarah Jane said, with a laugh. “It's just a name.”
“He's very powerful,” Maria added. “He can figure out just about anything.”
“Really?” Rose asked. That sounded... that sounded like it could be exactly what she needed. “I know that I haven't been here for very long, but... Sarah Jane, can I use your computer?”
Meeting Sarah Jane's Mr. Smith was an interesting experience – she'd never met a computer that was quite that... well, that full of itself. It reminded her of the Doctor, in some ways. Brisk and certain of its knowledge and ever-so-slightly superior to those people who didn't know how to calculate the speed of a fractal mile or... whatever.
But it didn't have any of the Doctor's warmth or his charm. Instead, there was a brittle coldness to the voice that came out of its speakers. Sarah Jane's adopted son, Luke, was a much more welcome presence, though he stayed shy and quiet even after Sarah Jane introduced Rose to him.
Her attic was quite a large space, but with the four of them in there, it managed to feel a bit crowded.
“How can I be of service?” Mr Smith asked and Rose leaned up against the wall, studying it. Sarah Jane just tilted her head and smiled, perfectly at ease. She'd had that little robot dog that the Doctor had given her, Rose recalled. And now she had an advanced alien computer. She seemed to like robotic things... or at least collect them.
“Rose would like you ask you a favor,” Sarah Jane said.
“I want to find someone,” Rose said. “I want to see if she told me the truth about herself. Her name is Holly Cole.”
“I've located a Canadian singer by that name,” Mr. Smith said, after a moment. “She specializes in jazz.”
“No... she was definitely British,” Rose said.
“I've found no... notable persons,” Mr. Smith said.
“How about everyone else? The ones that aren't notable,” Rose requested.
“As you wish,” Mr. Smith said and the main screen lit up, images starting to slowly cascade down. Rose glanced around, looking for her Holly.
And... right there.
“The blonde woman, second down in the third row,” Rose said. “Can you bring up her information?”
“Processing,” Mr. Smith said. There was a long pause.
“That's odd,” Luke said, softly. Rose glanced at him curiously. “It's just a basic search... he shouldn't need any processing time.”
“She looks familiar,” Maria said. “I've seen that face somewhere before.”
“I have... indications of deliberate misinformation,” Mr. Smith announced. “This particular Holly Cole only has truly verifiable records going back two years.”
“That would fit with what she told me,” Rose said. “If she's... who she says she is, she shouldn't have a real record. What can you tell me about her recent activities?”
“She co-owns several small businesses with her husband. He has the same peculiarities in his report that she does. I suspect that his name, which is given as 'Lucky', is no more real than hers,” Mr. Smith said. “And his image isn't processing at all. It's been corrupted.”
“A husband,” Rose muttered. “Or a partner. Jack expected me to have a partner.”
“I'm sorry, but what exactly is going on?” Sarah Jane asked.
“Holly Cole told me that she has future knowledge of... me,” Rose said. “She said that she'd met me in the future and that I wanted to pass on a message to myself. When I questioned her about it, she implied that she was a Time Agent, which would probably mean that she's really from the fifty-first century.”
“Time Agent?” Sarah Jane asked. “Can we trust them?”
“I doubt it,” Rose said. “I have a friend – Jack. Captain Jack, and he used to be a Time Agent and it all went horribly wrong for him.”
“Would that be...” Sarah Jane paused and Rose looked over at her, lifting an eyebrow in question. “Jack Harkness?”
“You've met him?” Rose asked.
“Oh, no,” Sarah Jane said. “But his... reputation proceeds him. He's the head of Torchwood, these days. I've never really gotten involved, but I do know a bit about them. Too many guns, though.”
“The Doctor would definitely agree with you there,” Rose said, looking at the small bits of information about Holly Cole that Mr. Smith had up on the screen.
“You wouldn't?” Sarah Jane asked, sounding surprised.
Rose glanced over at Maria and Luke, who were listening in with interest.
“Let's just say that I've learned it's harder to do without guns if you don't have an alien on your side,” Rose said, wishing that she just hadn't brought it up. “I prefer not to use them, but sometimes there's no choice.”
“I can't believe that,” Sarah Jane said, softly but with conviction. “There's always a choice, Rose.”
Rose looked up and met Sarah Jane's gaze, wishing that she could still believe that, too. There was usually a choice, of course.
But not always.
“You said... if you don't have an alien,” Sarah Jane said, slowly. “But you've been with the Doctor, haven't you?”
“That's a long and boring story. Nothing we'd want to get into now,” Rose said. She turned back to Mr. Smith. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“Most of the data that I'm finding has been falsified,” Mr. Smith said. “It's very convincing work – I don't think that any computer designed by a human would spot the flaws – but there isn't any solid information that I would recommend you trust.”
“Well, thanks anyway,” Rose said. She'd need to go back to Plan A, then -- asking Jack.
“Do you think you're up for that tea now?” Sarah Jane asked.
“You've made tea?” Luke sounded so dreadfully excited that Rose laughed. “That's wonderful. I haven't had anything since breakfast.”
“Why didn't you eat at school?” Sarah Jane asked, reaching forward and brushing her hand over Luke's hair – it looked so natural. Rose still didn't know how long Sarah Jane had had Luke in her life, but they clearly fit together in their lives. If she'd just run into the two of them on the street, she wouldn't have had a problem guessing that Sarah Jane was his mum.
“Clyde was hungry,” Luke said, and he and Sarah Jane and Maria headed down the stairs. “I couldn't let him suffer.”
“Clyde is always hungry,” Maria said, practically stumbling over Luke, she was so close behind him. “No matter how much he eats. That's a terrible reason, Luke.”
Rose paused at the top of the stairs, then she turned back to take one last, long look at Sarah Jane's computer. As she watched, it pulled back into the wall, leaving just an ordinary-looking attic in its wake. It looked like Sarah Jane's life was a bit more interesting that Rose had been thinking, if she had need of a great big alien computer.
She pulled out her phone and dialed the number that Jack had given her before he'd left, biting her lip in frustration when it went to voicemail. She left a brief message asking him to call her back, then headed down the stairs to have tea with Sarah Jane.
Hopefully, the Doctor was having a more successful day.
Continue on to part three.
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author:
butterflySummary: Some reunions are just meant to be.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords".
Part One
Rose watched as the TARDIS slowly faded from sight. She hadn't seen it do that very often – she was usually on the inside, disappearing right along with it. And that noise... she'd heard that sound in her sleep so often over the last few years, startling awake in the middle of the night with her heart pounding and her hopes saying maybe... maybe...
Just as she'd seen his face so often in her dreams, his dark eyes fixed on hers and his lips parted in the middle of that sentence he'd run out of time to tell her. The memory of him had never left her, even when she had, ever so briefly, wanted nothing more than to forget everything about him.
“I'm so sorry,” Sarah Jane said. Rose wrinkled her nose up in confusion and turned to look at the woman, who was staring at the same bit of grass. “But it looks like you had several good years with him, at least. You can hold onto that.”
“What are you on about?” Rose asked.
“The Doctor,” Sarah Jane said, waving at where the TARDIS had been. She looked about as perplexed as Rose felt. “He just left you here.”
“He's coming back,” Rose said. They'd both been fairly clear on that point, she'd thought.
“Well, he said that, yes,” Sarah Jane said, with a tiny laugh. “That doesn't make it true.”
“The Doctor wouldn't lie to me,” Rose said. This had not been the conversation that she'd been expecting to have with Sarah Jane.
“Oh, I'm sure that he means to come back,” she said. Rose blinked. “But once he's out there, he'll get distracted. He's like that.”
“All right, look. I appreciate your concern,” Rose said, trying not to sound annoyed. “But the Doctor's not going to get distracted from me.”
“He called me his best friend once,” she said, still in that irritatingly kind tone of voice. “And he said that he'd come back to get me, after he was done on Gallifrey, but he never did. I don't... I don't blame him for it, not anymore, but you can't think that you're immune to the consequences of his rather short attention span.”
“He's not some little kid,” Rose said. “Believe me, I just spent the last several years with one and the Doctor isn't like that. He's coming back.”
“I thought that way for years,” Sarah Jane said. “Eventually, I even concluded that he must have died to have forgotten about me. But he hadn't. He'd just... moved on.”
“Right. I don't want to imply anything about your relationship with the Doctor, but he hasn't left me behind. I got hurt and I'm recovering. He's coming back.” Rose stressed the last sentence.
“Well, if that's what you need to believe, I won't argue with you further,” Sarah Jane said. Rose resisted the very childish urge to stick out her tongue. “Come inside and have a cup of tea. I'll introduce you to my son.”
“You've got a kid?” Rose asked, momentarily distracted. “I didn't know that.”
“I only just adopted him this year,” Sarah Jane said, her mouth curving up in a glowing smile. “It's such a shame... I was actually rather hoping that he could meet the Doctor – he's such a bright lad and I know that they'd get on.”
“Well, he'll be able to,” Rose said. “In a couple of days, when the Doctor gets back.”
“If you say so.” Sarah Jane gave her a sympathetic look that Rose found a bit frustrating. Apparently, the only way that Sarah Jane would believe that the Doctor would be coming back was when he actually showed up on her doorstep. Still, it was hard to be all that angry at her for the assumption – that was what he'd done to her, after all. If she believed that he would come back for Rose when he hadn't done the same for Sarah Jane... it would probably hurt. And Rose didn't want that, either. So, she would just have to live with Sarah Jane's pity for a while.
“I'll go in and make something for us to eat, shall I? Join me when you're ready.” Sarah Jane didn't pause to wait for an answer, but swept back toward her house. Rose glanced again at where the TARDIS had stood, one last time, and then turned and started exploring a bit. It was a nice place, this. Big yard, long driveway, lots of very well-cared for shrubbery – cute little car. Rose hadn't had many chances to drive before she'd ended up in Pete's world, but she'd done a fair amount in her job with Torchwood, so she'd come to appreciate cars a bit. They couldn't hold a candle to the TARDIS but, when it came to long distances, they beat running.
She wandered out to the end of the driveway and looked around. It was a good neighborhood – Sarah Jane had mentioned having a son. This seemed like it would be a great place to raise a kid. Lots of space to run around, lots of other houses. Probably not too many people looking to rob someone or... well, any of the other things that could happen.
It looked like such a safe place.
It was sort of making Rose's skin itch. She stood at the end of the driveway, holding onto the edge of Sarah Jane's brick wall, just staring out at all of the respectable and clean-looking houses. Too clean, really. Now, the TARDIS was clean, but still fairly ramshackle and thrown-together. All of this was just a bit too much for her tastes. It reminded her of when she'd moved out of Pete's and her mum had been after her to get a nice place a little ways out of town and how disappointed she'd been when Rose had gotten a small flat in the heart of the city instead.
“You're rich now, sweetheart,” she'd said. “You can afford to live anywhere. Why here?”
She'd had a dozen reasons on the tip of her tongue, all of them masking the real one – because there wasn't any point in bothering to spend all that money on a big place if she wasn't planning on staying. She'd lived her entire life in Pete's world constantly prepared to leave, dressed for travel and always with a packed bag in the trunk of her car.
Because she'd never given up on going home. She'd never given up on the Doctor.
What would it be like to be one of the families living in that row of houses? With a yard and a sidewalk and two stories all to herself. And, she supposed, her family. If she'd said, “yes” to Mark and they'd ended up with a kid or two, what would her life have been like? Would she... could she have ever truly been happy in a life like that or would she have forever dreamed of alien skies and a cool, familiar hand in hers?
Rose shivered and turned away – and there, standing on the sidewalk down the road, was her mystery blonde.
Right. Rose's day was not going well so far and she wasn't going to stand around and wait for the future to happen. It was time to get some answers.
“Hello, Rose,” the woman said when Rose reached her. She looked sharper in the light of day, her features very finely drawn. “I wanted to-”
“No,” Rose said, putting her hands on her hips.
“What do you mean... no?”
“I mean 'no',” Rose said. “It's a simple enough word. Whatever you're planning on saying, I don't want to hear it.”
“But you wanted me to tell you,” she said, that delicate nose of hers wrinkling up. Actually, now that Rose could see her properly, she rather reminded Rose of Reinette. Features like a doll's and big blue eyes. It wasn't the most reassuring comparison in the world.
“You know what I want you to tell me? Your name,” Rose said. “I want to know exactly who it is that I'm dealing with here.”
“You didn't say anything about that when I spoke to the future you earlier,” she said, with that same certain – almost haughty, really – bearing that she'd had during their first meeting.
“I don't care,” Rose said. The woman angled her head slightly, looking a bit puzzled. Well... good. “Your last warning – if I can call it that – was useless. Over a thousand people died on that ship. If you can't tell me who you are and exactly why I should believe anything you say, then you can just turn around and leave.”
The woman pressed her lips together and studied Rose for a moment. Rose didn't shift at all under her regard, her anger overcoming any possible uncertainty.
She took the time to study the woman a bit – she was wearing cream again, just dark enough not to make her pale skin look horribly washed-out. Her make-up was light, almost nonexistent, and she wore tiny gold studs in her ears. And there was something in her eyes, something that Rose couldn't put her finger on, but it reminded her of someone that she'd met before.
Finally, the woman sighed, her shoulders slumping down a bit. Rose felt the slightest hint of a smile touch her lips.
“My name is Holly Cole,” the woman said, sounding frustrated. Well, it was about time that someone other than Rose felt that way.
“And why should I trust you?” Rose asked. “Why should I believe you when you tell me that you've met me before?”
“I already told you something that no one else knows. What more do you want?” Holly took in a sharp breath, then let it out in a rush. “What else am I supposed to say?”
“Give me a reason to trust you,” Rose said. “A reason to believe in you.”
“Would you like a character reference?” she asked, one eyebrow arching up, her tone tinted with sarcasm. Rose just stared back at her, not giving an inch. Holly's eyes narrowed and then she nodded, as if making a decision. “I... I believe that I also know a friend of yours. A certain captain who has quite a way with the ladies... and the gentlemen.”
“How do you know him?” Rose asked. There was another long, assessing pause from Holly.
“I used to... work with him,” Holly said. “In his former occupation, let's say.”
“You know that I'm going to ask him about you,” Rose said. If she hadn't been watching so closely, she wouldn't noticed the tiny hitch in Holly's breathing at her words before the woman's mask slid firmly back into place.
“Please do,” Holly said, calmly. “You can tell me what he says about me.”
“All right, so maybe you know a friend of mine and maybe you know me in the future,” Rose said. “Why the big spy routine? Why not just come out and say who you are and what I need to know?”
“We're all feeling our way around in the dark, Rose,” Holly said. “You weren't entirely clear about when I should tell you certain things. Maybe because only you know exactly how... determined you can be when you want to know something.”
“Why couldn't I have gotten some useful bit of information about the Titanic?” Rose asked, fighting to keep her emotions out of her voice. “All those people and I couldn't save them.”
“I'm sorry,” Holly said. “I wish that I had more of the answers for you.”
“Where's the Doctor?” Rose asked. Holly's lips parted in surprise. “When you meet me, in the future, where's the Doctor?”
“He... he wasn't with you,” Holly said.
“But I told you about him,” Rose said. “I told you about the Time Vortex. Why would I pick that moment? There's any number of things that I could have had you say to prove yourself to me. Why that?”
“Only you would know the answer to that,” Holly said.
“Except that I don't,” Rose said. “I don't know what's going to happen in the future and... the Doctor would say that I shouldn't. Because it... it might change things or trap me into something that I don't really want to do. So, thank you, Holly Cole, for trying to help me, but I don't want it. I'll fumble through my own, thanks.”
“But you can't,” Holly said, her big blue eyes appealing to Rose for a second chance. “Rose, you have to listen to me.”
“That's just it,” Rose said. “I don't.”
“I'm only trying to help you,” Holly said. “That's all that I want to do.”
“Well, the next time you see 'me', ask her what you did wrong,” Rose said, then she turned around and walked back up Sarah Jane's driveway, not looking back. She didn't hear any footsteps behind her. She went in through Sarah Jane's front door and glanced around – it was so much warmer and more domestic than she'd have expected before learning that Sarah Jane had adopted a kid. Though... that jacket slung over the couch didn't look like it would fit Sarah Jane but it certainly wasn't a boy's coat, either.
“Who are you, then?”
Rose looked up and saw a young girl coming down the stairway attached to the main hall – she had thick and dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing jeans and a beige shirt.
“Oh! I'm Rose. I'm a friend of Sarah Jane's,” Rose said, holding out her hand. The girl stopped on the last step and gave Rose a cautious look, and then she gave Rose's hand a good, solid shake. “And you?”
“I'm a friend of hers, too,” the girl said, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jeans. Then she blushed a bit and looked down. “Sorry... I'm Maria. Maria Jackson. I'm a neighbor.”
“That's nice,” Rose said, glancing up the stairway. “She didn't mention that I'd arrived? She said that she was going to cook tea.”
“I've just been upstairs with Luke,” Maria said, with a bit of an awkward-looking smile. “Haven't seen Sarah Jane yet today.”
“Are you... do you babysit her son, then?” Rose asked. Maria's eyebrows pulled together and then she burst out laughing. Rose smiled a bit in return. “I'm guessing not.”
“Luke's my age,” Maria said. “I go to school with him. Didn't you know that?”
“I haven't seen her for a few years,” Rose said. “She said that she'd adopted, but I'd assumed that he would be younger than... well, younger than he is, I suppose.”
“So... you know her from years past, then,” Maria said. Rose bit back on a wider smile – she could recognize someone fishing for information from a mile away.
“It depends on how you look at it,” Rose said, realizing that she didn't actually know how long it had been for Sarah Jane since they'd last met. For Rose, it had been over nine years, but for Sarah Jane, it might have only been one or two years. “You probably know her a lot better than I do.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I just-”
“Have you decided to come in, then?” Sarah Jane said cheerily, coming down the hall from what Rose could only assume was the kitchen area. Her welcoming smile only widened when she spotted Maria. “Ah, Maria, you've met Rose. Is Luke still upstairs?”
“He said that he was going to be there for a while. He had to consult- consult some textbooks,” Maria said, stumbling a bit over the middle of the sentence. There appeared to be something going on in this house that was a bit of a secret. “For that... maths project that he's been working on.”
“Oh, you can tell Rose,” Sarah Jane said, reaching out and touching Maria's arm. “She's also a friend of the Doctor's and she knows quite a bit about aliens already.”
“Huh. Good,” Maria said, though Rose reckoned that she looked a bit disappointed. “Luke's still busy with Mr. Smith. They're working on some sort of orbital guiding system. I didn't really understand it.”
“Who's Mr. Smith?” Rose asked Sarah Jane. “Did you get married?”
“He's an alien computer,” Sarah Jane said, with a laugh. “It's just a name.”
“He's very powerful,” Maria added. “He can figure out just about anything.”
“Really?” Rose asked. That sounded... that sounded like it could be exactly what she needed. “I know that I haven't been here for very long, but... Sarah Jane, can I use your computer?”
Meeting Sarah Jane's Mr. Smith was an interesting experience – she'd never met a computer that was quite that... well, that full of itself. It reminded her of the Doctor, in some ways. Brisk and certain of its knowledge and ever-so-slightly superior to those people who didn't know how to calculate the speed of a fractal mile or... whatever.
But it didn't have any of the Doctor's warmth or his charm. Instead, there was a brittle coldness to the voice that came out of its speakers. Sarah Jane's adopted son, Luke, was a much more welcome presence, though he stayed shy and quiet even after Sarah Jane introduced Rose to him.
Her attic was quite a large space, but with the four of them in there, it managed to feel a bit crowded.
“How can I be of service?” Mr Smith asked and Rose leaned up against the wall, studying it. Sarah Jane just tilted her head and smiled, perfectly at ease. She'd had that little robot dog that the Doctor had given her, Rose recalled. And now she had an advanced alien computer. She seemed to like robotic things... or at least collect them.
“Rose would like you ask you a favor,” Sarah Jane said.
“I want to find someone,” Rose said. “I want to see if she told me the truth about herself. Her name is Holly Cole.”
“I've located a Canadian singer by that name,” Mr. Smith said, after a moment. “She specializes in jazz.”
“No... she was definitely British,” Rose said.
“I've found no... notable persons,” Mr. Smith said.
“How about everyone else? The ones that aren't notable,” Rose requested.
“As you wish,” Mr. Smith said and the main screen lit up, images starting to slowly cascade down. Rose glanced around, looking for her Holly.
And... right there.
“The blonde woman, second down in the third row,” Rose said. “Can you bring up her information?”
“Processing,” Mr. Smith said. There was a long pause.
“That's odd,” Luke said, softly. Rose glanced at him curiously. “It's just a basic search... he shouldn't need any processing time.”
“She looks familiar,” Maria said. “I've seen that face somewhere before.”
“I have... indications of deliberate misinformation,” Mr. Smith announced. “This particular Holly Cole only has truly verifiable records going back two years.”
“That would fit with what she told me,” Rose said. “If she's... who she says she is, she shouldn't have a real record. What can you tell me about her recent activities?”
“She co-owns several small businesses with her husband. He has the same peculiarities in his report that she does. I suspect that his name, which is given as 'Lucky', is no more real than hers,” Mr. Smith said. “And his image isn't processing at all. It's been corrupted.”
“A husband,” Rose muttered. “Or a partner. Jack expected me to have a partner.”
“I'm sorry, but what exactly is going on?” Sarah Jane asked.
“Holly Cole told me that she has future knowledge of... me,” Rose said. “She said that she'd met me in the future and that I wanted to pass on a message to myself. When I questioned her about it, she implied that she was a Time Agent, which would probably mean that she's really from the fifty-first century.”
“Time Agent?” Sarah Jane asked. “Can we trust them?”
“I doubt it,” Rose said. “I have a friend – Jack. Captain Jack, and he used to be a Time Agent and it all went horribly wrong for him.”
“Would that be...” Sarah Jane paused and Rose looked over at her, lifting an eyebrow in question. “Jack Harkness?”
“You've met him?” Rose asked.
“Oh, no,” Sarah Jane said. “But his... reputation proceeds him. He's the head of Torchwood, these days. I've never really gotten involved, but I do know a bit about them. Too many guns, though.”
“The Doctor would definitely agree with you there,” Rose said, looking at the small bits of information about Holly Cole that Mr. Smith had up on the screen.
“You wouldn't?” Sarah Jane asked, sounding surprised.
Rose glanced over at Maria and Luke, who were listening in with interest.
“Let's just say that I've learned it's harder to do without guns if you don't have an alien on your side,” Rose said, wishing that she just hadn't brought it up. “I prefer not to use them, but sometimes there's no choice.”
“I can't believe that,” Sarah Jane said, softly but with conviction. “There's always a choice, Rose.”
Rose looked up and met Sarah Jane's gaze, wishing that she could still believe that, too. There was usually a choice, of course.
But not always.
“You said... if you don't have an alien,” Sarah Jane said, slowly. “But you've been with the Doctor, haven't you?”
“That's a long and boring story. Nothing we'd want to get into now,” Rose said. She turned back to Mr. Smith. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“Most of the data that I'm finding has been falsified,” Mr. Smith said. “It's very convincing work – I don't think that any computer designed by a human would spot the flaws – but there isn't any solid information that I would recommend you trust.”
“Well, thanks anyway,” Rose said. She'd need to go back to Plan A, then -- asking Jack.
“Do you think you're up for that tea now?” Sarah Jane asked.
“You've made tea?” Luke sounded so dreadfully excited that Rose laughed. “That's wonderful. I haven't had anything since breakfast.”
“Why didn't you eat at school?” Sarah Jane asked, reaching forward and brushing her hand over Luke's hair – it looked so natural. Rose still didn't know how long Sarah Jane had had Luke in her life, but they clearly fit together in their lives. If she'd just run into the two of them on the street, she wouldn't have had a problem guessing that Sarah Jane was his mum.
“Clyde was hungry,” Luke said, and he and Sarah Jane and Maria headed down the stairs. “I couldn't let him suffer.”
“Clyde is always hungry,” Maria said, practically stumbling over Luke, she was so close behind him. “No matter how much he eats. That's a terrible reason, Luke.”
Rose paused at the top of the stairs, then she turned back to take one last, long look at Sarah Jane's computer. As she watched, it pulled back into the wall, leaving just an ordinary-looking attic in its wake. It looked like Sarah Jane's life was a bit more interesting that Rose had been thinking, if she had need of a great big alien computer.
She pulled out her phone and dialed the number that Jack had given her before he'd left, biting her lip in frustration when it went to voicemail. She left a brief message asking him to call her back, then headed down the stairs to have tea with Sarah Jane.
Hopefully, the Doctor was having a more successful day.
Continue on to part three.