Leap of Faith: Chapter Thirty-Two

[amberfocus]

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Title: Leap of Faith
Author: amberfocus
Characters/Pairings: John Smith (alt!Nine)/Rose Tyler, Toshiko Sato, Jake Simmonds, Mickey Smith, Ianto Jones, Jackie Tyler/Pete Tyler, Tony Tyler, various original characters.
Genre: Romance, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Fluff
Rating: Adult
Betas: amyo67, jeprdyfrndly
Summary: Hiding from the Family of Blood, the alt!Ninth Doctor turns himself into John Smith via the chameleon arch and with his companion Toshiko Sato, takes a job at Torchwood. He clashes with everyone he meets and Rose Tyler, the beautiful young director of Torchwood Field Operative Training and the daughter of his boss, is no exception. AU after season 2.

Previous Chapters: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/327895.html

Chapter Thirty-Two: Discoveries


Tosh wasn’t one for hiding in cupboards. At least in the past year she hadn’t been, with the exception of Downing Street where hiding in a cupboard had been the only way to survive. Six months of traveling with the Doctor and six months of working with “John Smith,” had seen to it that hiding wasn’t the best way to deal with the monsters and/or buildings that were out to get you, especially the ones that were meticulous in searching every hidey-hole in their kingdoms. Yet right at this moment a broom cupboard was exactly where she and Owen were huddled. It worried her, she wanted to be able to see what was going on, preferably from an overhead position where she herself couldn’t be seen.

Logic had warred with reality and the two of them had decided without even saying a word that this was the best place to be. She had always known that the safest place in the event of an earthquake was a small, contained space, but whatever this was, it wasn’t an earthquake. The building had been shaking for far too long and the loud roaring sound implied engines. She and the Doctor had landed on a space ship once during its launch and when they’d walked out of the TARDIS the catwalk they had been on had been vibrating so hard it had rattled her teeth. This felt very much the same. She was getting impatient to leave the confines of the little room and find out what was going on, but every time she’d attempted to stand she’d been rocked back down onto her backside.

“What do you think is happening?” Owen asked her.

“No idea, but it can’t be good,” Tosh said. She fingered the TARDIS key in her jacket pocket. She always kept it with her. The Doctor had said once that he could track her down with it, or his ship could, anyway. Of course right now there was no Doctor to pilot the ship after her. She was on her own. Or on her own with Owen. She winced feeling far too responsible for the fact that he was stuck here because of her. “You really shouldn’t have come back inside for me.”

“Like I’d just leave you here on your own.” Owen sounded offended.

Tosh gave him a half smile. “I appreciate the sentiment, Owen, but you’ve got a child at home that depends on you. Walking into dangerous situations on purpose isn’t a good idea for a single father.”

“My job is dangerous, whether I’m in the field or in the lab. I’ve had alien corpses blow up on the autopsy table. If something happens to me, it happens. That doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon someone I—.” He broke off and looked away.

“Someone you what?” she asked curiously, her stomach doing a curious dance as she waited far too impatiently for his answer.

“Have come to care for,” he said softly. His cheeks turned pink.

Tosh smiled at him softly. “Owen, you’re a great guy.”

“But?”

“And I like you, I do, but I don’t live in Cardiff. I live in London and in six months my contract with Torchwood is going to be up and Dr. Smith and I will move on again,” she said. “This was just a one year thing to, um, scrape some money together so we can go back to traveling.”

“Was this plan made before or after Smith fell in love with Tyler?” Owen asked her, his tone blunt. “Because from what I’ve seen, there is no way that man is going to leave that woman.”

Tosh thought about that for a moment. “He’d probably invite her traveling with him.”

“Which doesn’t leave much room for you, does it?” Owen asked. “I’ve seen the size of his convertible.”

Tosh smiled. “He has a slightly larger vehicle than that for traveling,” she said. “Plenty of room inside. Who knows what will happen six months from now? The situation could be entirely different. He could be entirely different,” she said knowing full well that he would be. He’d be an alien again and whether or not that alien would feel the same about Rose Tyler was unknown. She closed her eyes, not even wanting to think about what the fallout to that would be.

“And you think he’ll just fall out of love with Rose and go scurrying off with you? Is there something more between you and John that you’re not letting on about?” He sounded jealous.

“No,” said Tosh mildly. “We’ve always just been friends. Neither one of us ever wanted more than that. As for Rose, I don’t know. All I know is what we’ve planned. She might change everything or she might not.”

“I’d be counting on it that she will. I’ve never seen a man so smitten.”

“Rose is my friend. I’d be happy for the three of us to travel together,” Tosh said.

“Wouldn’t you feel like a third wheel?” he asked.

Tosh shrugged. “Maybe sometimes, but I’m sure that wouldn’t be all the time. Rose is careful to be inclusive. We’ll be fine traveling together.”

“So you have no intention of settling down at all?” Owen asked.

“Have you ever left Cardiff?” Tosh asked instead of answering his question.

“Sure. I’ve been to London and Glasgow on Torchwood business. I’ve visited several villages where weird alien things have happened.”

“Have you ever left the Republic?” she pressed.

“Well, no.”

“Why not?”

“Well, Kathlyn has school and Torchwood keeps me pretty busy,” Owen said. “I guess I don’t have time.”

“See, that’s the thing. If I don’t make time now, while I’m young, I might never get to see all that I want to see,” Tosh said. “There’s so much out there. If you’d seen it, you’d never want to stay home.” Owen looked unhappy at her answer.

“It’s just that I…well, I like you.”

Tosh smiled. “I like you, too. I’ve had a great time when we’ve gone out to dinner together. You’re funny and smart and I enjoy being around you, but I’m not going to…well, two dates, Owen. Sort of dates. That’s not enough to measure anything by, or change my plans for the future.”

Owen wiped a hand over his face. “I’m rushing things, aren’t I?”

“You really are.”

“It’s just…I’ve been dead inside in so many ways since Katie died. Kathlyn has been the only thing that has kept my heart going. Then I met you and I…it felt like coming to life again. There you were, so concerned about your grandmother and so intelligent and beautiful and you just…you gave me this smile…”

Tosh blushed at Owen’s compliments and looked away from his steady gaze. He reached out and took her hand, bringing her attention back to him. This time she met his eyes. “You can’t be in love with me,” she told him. “We haven’t even known each other for a whole month.”

“No,” he said truthfully, “not yet. But I’m more smitten than I care to be. I look at you and I want…things. Things I haven’t wanted in a long time.”

“I’m not a one night stand kind of girl,” she told him.

“Not that sort of thing,” he said, “though I wouldn’t say no to you if you were. It’s more than that. You’re more than that. Give me the next six months, Tosh. Give me that chance, because I think we could be something special. We have the potential to be—.”

“Yeah, and what if I do give you that time and we…fall in love?” Tosh interrupted. “What then? Throw away all my plans, all my dreams, and settle down? I’m not sure I could live like that.”

“No one says you have to give up your dreams,” he said. “I don’t want you to give them up if you don’t want to, but I do want a chance to find out what this is between us.”

“Owen, I…I don’t know what to say. I mean, you haven’t even kissed me yet. How do I even know if—?”

“That’s easy enough to remedy.” He leaned toward her, moving slowly in case she wanted to prevent him from carrying out his intentions. Her heartbeat picked up speed and she could feel her pulse thrumming in her neck.

Owen’s mouth met hers. She marveled at how soft his lips were. They were so thin and yet you’d never know it from the way that he kissed her. It had, quite frankly, been a long time since Tosh had been kissed, and an even longer time since she had been kissed well. Owen did more than kiss well.

She had always thought it a myth that a kiss could literally curl one’s toes, but she felt them turning under in her shoes while at the same time her stomach did a strange, fluttery rumba. The wave of desire that flushed upwards from her center of gravity startled her more than anything. Its intensity shook her hard and her jaw went slack in response. Owen took that as an invitation, pushing lightly and without aggression into her mouth.

Her mind was racing as she let him in. She felt his hand on her arm, felt the tingle spreading under his fingertips causing warmth to spread across her skin. She wanted the moment to never end, but the building took that moment to stop shaking, the roar of engines dying away and with it the impulsive kiss came to an end.

“We should—we should see where we are,” she said. She struggled to her feet. Owen looked up at her curiously for a long moment, trying to gauge her reaction to the kiss, before climbing to his own feet.

“What do you mean, where we are?” he asked.

“I mean, we should see what’s going on out there,” she said. “And whether or not this building has moved.”

“Moved?”

“Because I rather think it has.”

She opened the door to the broom cupboard and looked out into the hallway. “It’s clear.” She took a step forward and then turned back holding out her hand to him. A slow smile spread across his face as he took it and followed her out into the corridor. Tosh didn’t know what the hell she and Owen were, but she took solace in knowing that whatever they were about to find, they’d face it together.




Rose’s sudden shriek of agony so startled John that he rolled off the bed and onto the floor, his head smacking the chair on the way down. For a moment he literally saw stars, or what might have been stars, as glisters of light seemed to encompass Rose. He blinked hard to clear his vision and with it, the sparkles disappeared. He was back on his feet in an instant and Martha was nearly as fast, almost beating him to Rose’s side. “What happened?” Dr. Jones asked.

“I don’t know. One minute she was fine and the next she was screaming.” He rubbed at his head. He was unsure if he’d actually seen anything on Rose or if the glittering had been caused by the painful thumping. If it had been real, it had disappeared now.

Rose’s violent cries had died down to whimpers of agony and they were able to get her onto her back. Her bandages were soaked with blood. She didn’t seem to be quite conscious, but was still very aware of pain.

“I’m going to take off her dressing,” Martha said. “Something’s gone wrong with the wound.”

John stepped out of the way so that the woman could work, but remained close enough that he could see what was going on. As the bloody bandages were removed John could see that the flesh no longer looked the same. The dark black cauterization wound was flowing freely, now a shocking red, and the skin under it appeared to be flowing with shimmering golden specks. Martha reached her finger toward the flecks and they swarmed out of her way.

“What’s going on?” asked Gabe from the next bed.

“I’m not sure,” said Martha. “There’s something on her wound, shimmering bits of…something.”

“Metallic?” Gabe pushed his way out of bed, his voice sounding concerned.

“Yes.” Martha held up one hand to prevent him coming closer. “You shouldn’t be up yet. And she’s not decent.”

“I’m fine. I need to see what’s happening. You said metallic. That’s what my picos look like. If some of them got out when Rose and I were lying side by side on the concrete they might have migrated to her if they sensed a large enough wound. They aren’t supposed to, but sometimes they…swarm, like bees seeking out a new hive. It wasn’t supposed to happen for another two years, but I’ve been damaged a lot lately and they’ve reproduced like mad to deal with it. If they sensed another body to go into that needed help, they might have jumped.”

“You mean those things are in her?” John asked.

“Maybe.”

“Well, get them out!”

“I can’t.”

“But—.”

“It’s not like I could have stopped them,” Gabriel defended. He walked closer to the bed to confirm his theory, before turning his head to give Rose back her privacy. Not that he could see anything with the blanket of gold currently covering that part of her body. “Yeah, those are picogenes. Sorry, John, but she’s got them now, too. On the bright side, she’ll heal in the next twenty-four hours. And then the Taltins can take them out.”

“They can come out?”

“Yeah. Mine only stay in because they are programmed to make me age faster towards my actual years and that programming won’t be complete for about a decade.”

“They won’t affect her aging, will they?” John asked. He was pretty sure Rose wouldn’t fancy suddenly growing old.

“No. They’ll realize she’s a woman and a different person and adapt their programming accordingly to fix what is wrong with her. If anything, they’d slow down her aging if they were to stay in her for the rest of her life. They’ll repair her shoulder, any leftover effects from the battle before that with the alien queen, old scars. I grew back my appendix and a pinky toe I lost in an accident as a child.”

“If they’re healing her, why are they hurting her?” Martha asked.

“The first time they fix you, it hurts like hell because they are testing all your nerves, all your pain receptors at once, so they know what to dampen. That’s probably why she yelled. You’ll notice she’s barely whimpering.”

“Do I need to redress the wound? There’s an awful lot of blood,” Martha wanted to know.

“It’s actually better if you don’t. Just cover her with a sheet. The picos will make sure her blood levels are stable. She should stop bleeding in a few minutes on her own as they reabsorb it.”

“What about painkillers? Can I make her more comfortable?” Martha asked.

“They’ll be manufacturing them out of her body’s own chemicals in just a moment.” Almost on cue Rose’s body stilled and her face went slack as the last of her pain was relieved.

Martha covered Rose back up.

“I heard Rose scream.” The worried voice of Mickey Smith came from the doorway.

“She’s okay,” John said.

His eyes sought out the new doctor. “Is she?” he asked her.

“I think so. I’m sorry, we haven’t met,” she said. She came over to Mickey. “I’m Dr. Martha Jones,” she said holding out her hand.

He shook it and gave her a half smile, his attention focused over her shoulder and on Rose. “Mickey Smith,” he said.

“You should let me see to that cut on your forehead,” she said.

“In a minute.”

“Has there been any news about Tosh and Dr. Harper?” John asked.

“No,” Mickey said grimly. “Roscosmos, NASA, and BSA have all reported nothing unusual since the ship launched. I even checked with JAXA. They’ve got cameras positioned out by Jupiter, but it’s been quiet.”

“Any luck with the files Tosh uploaded?”

“I’m working on decrypting them now. I could use some help if you think you can leave Rose for a while,” he said.

“I can help,” said Gabe when he saw the look on John’s face; a look that clearly said he did not intend to leave Rose’s side. “I’m good with that sort of thing.” Mickey looked at him skeptically. “I am. You youngsters seem to think you’re the only ones with skills. I was hacking when you were still in nursery school.”

“All right.” He turned to Martha who motioned him into a chair. She cleaned the dried blood from the cut on his forehead. “It’s going to need stitches,” she said. “It’s still oozing when it should have started to heal if it was going to.”

“You sure?” Mickey asked as she opened a sterile packet of pre-threaded sutures. “Can’t you just steri-strip it? I don’t like needles.”

“I’m sure. It’ll only be five or six stiches. Hold still.”

Mickey winced, but didn’t whinge as she sewed him up. She opened a tube of ointment and gently rubbed it onto the cut before taping some gauze over it to further protect it.

“Will it scar?” he asked, his vanity kicking in.

“Here.” She handed him the tube. “Once the stitches come out, use this once in the morning and once at bedtime for a couple of weeks and you won’t have to worry about losing your good looks,” she told him.

For the first time he focused his attention fully on her. “You think I’m good-looking?”

Martha laughed. “Have you looked in a mirror lately, Mickey Smith?” she asked him. “What’s not to like?”

Mickey blushed.

“All right, if you two are done flirting,” John said rubbing the scar on his eyebrow self-consciously and trying not to scowl, “I think Rose needs some undisturbed rest.”

“I agree,” said Martha. “And I really need to get started on what I came here for. Seeing if I can find a way to permanently stop the rejuvenations. The picos are only a stopgap. If someone can show me to a work station, I’ll get started reading my way through what you’ve discovered so far.”

“Yeah, come on. You can work at Owen’s desk,” Mickey said.

“His password is KAT504,” John said settling back into the chair beside Rose’s bed as the others left the infirmary to get back to work.




“We’ve landed, I think,” Tosh said. “Let’s get to a window and see what we can find.”

They moved quietly through the corridors, checking each doorknob they passed until one opened. It was a small office and on one wall was a long bank of windows. Tosh hurried over to the nearest and pulled the blinds up. “Oh, no,” she said.

“What is it?” Owen who had lingered by the door hurried to Tosh’s side and looked out the window. “We’re in space?”

“We’re in space,” Tosh confirmed as the bright globe of a planet hung in the sky just above them. Rings circled the planet. Owen glanced down and saw nothing but empty, open darkness.

“Is that Saturn?” he asked.

“No, not enough rings. I think it’s Neptune. Or Uranus.” She watched as violent winds swept the planet and watched the rotation. “Neptune,” she said firmly.

“How can you be sure?”

“Uranus spins on its side and Neptune is really windy. And given it’s coloring, I’m sure it’s Neptune. And I think we’re in orbit.”

“So no hope of a rescue squad?” Owen asked.

“No. It would take months to get here. We’re on our own.”

“Isn’t the returnable scheduled to come back from Pluto soon?” Owen asked. “Maybe we could hitch a lift.”

“Sometime this week,” Tosh said. The returnables were a new model of space craft, usually unmanned, that ferried goods to the small colony of scientists living on Pluto’s moon Charon and brought back the fruits of their research to be studied further on Earth. Despite it generally being unmanned it kept an air supply on board for when lab animals were transferred back and forth.

“If we could get a message to Earth, maybe they could help us.”

Tosh fingered her mobile. The Doctor had long ago fixed it so she could phone anywhere in the universe, but if she used it she’d have to explain more to Owen than she was ready to tell him about her life with the man. And anyway, the Doctor, John, didn’t know anything about it. It was useless to her. She sighed.

“We’d need to be able to interrupt its programming to get it to come to us and we’d need space suits. This…facility may not have an airlock,” Tosh said.

“You don’t think it’s a ship then?” Owen asked.

“I don’t know what it is. It sure feels like one though,” Tosh said without thinking.

“You’ve been on a space ship before? I didn’t know you were part of the astronaut program,” he said in surprise.

She ignored his question. “Something is keeping the air in, and with a building this large, it’s got to be a life support system.” As her words finished they heard the hiss of massive fans beginning to turn and felt the flow of cool air as it suddenly emerged from the vent in the ceiling.

“We need to figure out how we’re going to get out of here,” Owen said. “And if using the returnable is feasible. I’d much rather we bring the entire…ship back down to Earth.”

“It’s not like we’re going to have free run of the building. There are people here running the show and they are obviously willing to injure, if not kill.” Owen had told her briefly of how he’d left an injured Rose with John and come back into the building.

“How many people did you see when you and Mickey came in under cover?” Owen asked.

Tosh thought for a moment. “There was a lady in reception, what looked like a male security guard, the doctor we talked to and her nurse, both of which were female.”

“I saw at least two security guards when I came in.”

“Did they see you?” Tosh asked.

“I don’t think so, but I wasn’t exactly being quiet.”

“Well, they do have to know I’m still onboard, because I didn’t pass back out the front doors. That means they might come looking for us once things are settled, and things seem to be settling,” she said.

“If there was a larger staff we might have been able to blend in,” Owen said.

“Doubtful. From what I read while I was uploading their database to the Torchwood computers, they are a clone society,” she said.

“Clones?”

“Yeah.”

“Come to think of it, the security guards did look like twins.”

“And the doctor and nurse were very similar. The only real difference was in their ages. I just thought they were related, but you know the receptionist looked like them, too,” Tosh added. “We need to get to a computer. The whole building is networked so maybe we can find one that isn’t being protected.”

“How’d you get to one in the first place?” he asked her.

“Mickey and I posed as a couple needing fertility treatments. They left us alone in an exam room with a computer. I was able to hijack the system from there,” she explained. “I left in a back door so we should be able to access it from any machine in the building.”

“So all we need to do is find a computer somewhere out of the way.” Her stomach growled loudly. “And find you something to eat. Did you pass any vending machines?”

“No, but there was a fridge in a room we had to pass to get to the exam room. It might have food, or it might have specimen samples. If I can find where I left my purse, it’s got a couple of energy bars in it. I think I left it in the exam room,” she said.

“Has it got anything else in it?”

“Maybe some chocolate.”

“No, I meant a mobile.”

“You don’t think we can call Torchwood from up here, do you?” Tosh asked. She felt guilty about dissembling in front of Owen, knowing full well she could make the call, but didn’t dare. “That’d be one hell of a signal.”

“Yeah, but we’re in orbit around Neptune. Maybe we’re near one of the satellites the miners put up.”

She hadn’t thought of that. “I do have my personal phone in it. I lost my work phone in the rush to get the files uploaded,” she said. She was good enough at slight of hand to make him think the phone had been in her purse all along.

“Then that should be our priority, finding the phone and seeing if it’ll work from here. If it does, maybe we can contact the rest of our team and let them at least know we are alive and if there is any way of altering the returnable so we can get out of here.”

"It’s probably our best bet.” She looked first left, then right down the corridor. “I’m completely turned around,” said Tosh. “Which way is the front of the building?”

“That way,” said Owen, pointing after a moment’s thought.

“Then that’s where we need to go.” Tosh started forward, but Owen stopped her.

“Not out in the open like this. We need to get up into the ventilation system so we’re not seen. They’ve already shot two of us.” He opened the nearest door and after making sure it was empty, gestured Tosh inside.

It was a small office, like any business would have, but there was no computer to be seen. Owen climbed onto the desk and removed a panel from the ceiling. “Better yet, there’s a crawl space next to the ducting for repairs. We shouldn’t have to worry about any big fans sucking us in if we use it instead.”

“I’m not tall enough to reach it.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get you here.”

He pulled himself up through the opening and then reached down for Tosh. Grasping her wrists he pulled her up through the hole and then he replaced the ceiling panel while she rubbed circulation back into her hands and fingers. “You’re strong.”

“I’m wiry,” he admitted. “Okay, this way,” he said pointing ahead of them. He started crawling and Tosh followed him a few seconds later.




The next time Rose made a noise she was fully conscious. John was not in bed with her—had that been a dream?—but she could swear she still felt the warmth of his body on the bed sheets. She sat up, surprised at the lack of pain in her shoulder. She glanced over at the other bed. Gabe was sleeping. She pulled the sheet down to check her wound. All she saw was angry red skin when before it had been charred. It looked like a steam burn and not the ugly black mess that it had been when she’d first been shot.

“Hello?” she called out. She desperately needed to use the loo, but was afraid to stand up under her own power.

A very beautiful, vaguely familiar dark-skinned woman stepped into the room. “Oh, good, you’re awake.”

“Am I in the hospital?”

“You’re in the Torchwood Cardiff autopsy room. It’s the makeshift infirmary since the real one was made over for Mayumi and Marcie,” the woman answered.

“And you are?”

“Dr. Martha Jones. We met when you came in, but you’ve been on some powerful drugs and John says you were hallucinating at one point,” the doctor said.

“John. Where is he?” she asked.

“I finally got him to step away. He’s been by your side since it happened. He had blood all over his clothes and was starting to smell bad. He needed to shower and to eat, but I doubt he’ll be gone long.”

“What did you do to my shoulder?”

Martha pulled a curtain between her bed and Gabe’s. “Can I see it?”

Rose flipped down the sheet and then gasped in surprise. Even though she’d just looked a few moments ago, already the angry red marks had turned to the shiny pinkish white of scar tissue. “That’s an amazing rate of healing,” Martha said. “I’d have to talk to Gabe, but I think it’ll have completely faded to normal by morning.”

“Why would you have to talk to Gabe?” Rose asked. “You’re the doctor.”

“But he’s the picogene expert. At least the expert on his picogenes and they are what’s inside you, healing you,” she said.

“You put picos in my body without asking?” Rose felt her tempter flare.

“No, I didn’t. They jumped from Gabe somehow. He said they must have swarmed when you were laid out on the ground next to each other. They sensed the injury in you and they are programmed to repair damage on a cellular level.”

“But they aren’t supposed to do that, jump from one person to the next.”

“Gabe says it was a slight glitch in the programming.”

“I can get them out, though?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, the Taltins can take them out, but I’d wait until they finished doing their job. You’re healing so quickly that I should be able to clear you for duty in 48 hours. We thought you were going to be down for weeks, maybe even months. This way you’ll be back up on your feet sooner.”

Rose’s stomach growled. “I feel like I haven’t had anything to eat in ages.”

“You haven’t. It’s been twelve hours. Let me get you some broth and if you keep that down we’ll start on light solids.”

“Twelve hours. No wonder I have to pee so badly.”

“Oh, here, let me help you to the loo,” Martha said. She helped Rose to stand, she was still a bit wobbly, and walked with her to the bathroom. “Can you manage from here?”

“Yeah, there’s grab bars. I should be okay.”

“I’ll wait outside the door just in case. Don’t hesitate to call me if you need help.”

Rose took care of her business and stared at herself in the mirror. Her dark blonde hair was a tousled mess and her makeup had smeared badly around the eyes. She washed up as best she could, using the harsh soap to remove as much of the mascara as she could without blinding herself permanently. She’d ask Tosh to bring her some eye make-up remover.

She clutched at the sink, her body suddenly feeling very weak. She must have cried out as Martha asked in a worried tone, “Rose, you okay in there?”

She dried her hands on a paper towel and then opened the door. “I feel a little dizzy,” she said. Martha took her arm and helped her back to bed. Once settled in again she asked, “Is Tosh around? I’d like to talk to her.”

“Just a minute. I’ll go get Mickey.” Martha stepped out of the room and a few moments later Mickey arrived and sat down in the chair next to her bed.

“Where’s Tosh?” Rose asked. “Did she get injured, too?”

Mickey took her hand. “We don’t know where Tosh is,” he said. “Owen, either. He went in after her once we’d got you and Gabe out. But then…well, the building was really a space ship because it launched itself into space before they could return.”

“Into space? Are you sure?” Rose asked.

“It had a massive teleport system. And there’s been no reports of it reappearing on Earth anywhere else, so space is pretty much the only place it could go, isn’t it?” said Mickey.

“Have they seen it? Is it orbiting the planet or on the moon?”

“Not that we’re aware of. I’ve got every one of the big space agencies scanning the skies for us.”

“Was there any temporal residue?” she asked him. Mickey raised an eyebrow at her. “Look, I’m not crazy. You know that’s how UNIT used to track the Doctor on our Earth. What if this thing slipped backwards in time or forwards? How would we even know?”

“There’s been no evidence of temporal travel in any of Torchwood’s files.”

“Well, what about UNIT’s then?” Rose asked.

“Rose, you have to remember that there is no Doctor in this universe. They temporally tracked the TARDIS when it was on Earth. There is no Doctor here for them to track, no time machine, so why would they even have tracking software for it?” he asked.

Rose frowned. “What about stealth technology? Maybe they are masking it with some kind of cloak or a perception filter on some kind of massive scale.”

“We’re pinging any open areas of our atmosphere. The thing was pretty large. If it’s up there we’ll find it.”

“If it can shield, can’t it just as easily be hiding on the ground somewhere?”

“Someone would have heard it, Rose. Someone would have felt it land,” Mickey said.

She sighed. “Tosh and Owen are both smart. Maybe they’ll be able to figure out a way to get back down here.”

“If the ship hasn’t left for wherever it calls home,” said Mickey.

“You are a born pessimist, Mickey Smith,” said Rose. “We’ll find the ship. We’re going to get Tosh back. I’m not going to lose one more person from my life.”

Mickey smiled. “When you say it like that, I believe you.”

Ch. 33: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/490340.html