amberfocus | Leap of Faith: Chapter Seven

banner by

seduff

Title: Leap of Faith (7/?)
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
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 and based mostly, but not completely, on my short story Third Time's the Charm: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/319447.html, but it is not necessary to have read that.

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

Chapter Seven: Broken Thorn

“This is Mickey,” Mickey Smith said as he picked up his desk phone.

“Hey, Mick, it’s Ianto. Can you come up to my office?”

Mickey shoved the paperwork he was working on forward and leaned back in his desk chair. “Can it wait, Ianto? I’m in the middle of an analysis on the functionality of Kertian water weaponry for possible alien troop control during a systematic invasion.”

“No. Someone’s triggered a level 3 alarm on the Broken Thorn project,” Ianto said urgently. “And whoever it is, he’s good. I can’t trace the system he’s using.”

“I’ll be right there,” Mickey said. He took the minimum necessary time needed to lock down both his computer and the file he’d been working on and then bolted for the lift. Five minutes later he was in Ianto’s office huffing a little from the run down the corridor.

“Have you called Pete?” Mickey asked.

“Yes, but he’s in Geneva. He wants you to handle it,” Ianto stood up and gestured for Mickey to sit in his chair. “I’ve entered in his access codes. All you have to do is find out where it’s coming from and who’s doing it.”

Mickey took the proffered seat and without even being asked Ianto moved to fix him some coffee while he started trying to track down whoever it was that was looking into Rose’s past. Everybody knew that Mickey worked best highly caffeinated. It took him fifteen minutes to figure out that the hack into Rose’s files was coming from a computer somewhere inside of Torchwood.

“Inside Torchwood?” Ianto asked with a frown. “You mean it isn’t just the paparazzi searching for a new angle on her story?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” said Mickey grimly. “They’ve accessed the internal network as well as the web.” He typed rapidly for a moment then leaned back. “I can’t find where it’s coming from but it’s definitely inside the building. He’s covering his tracks very, very well. I can, however, mirror what he’s looking at.”

Mickey entered in a few more commands and then one of Rose’s old case files popped up, followed by another and another. “Whoever it is, he’s not reading these now, he’s transferring them to some type of external drive.”

“Probably to read it later at his leisure,” Ianto said with a frown. “Can you stop him?”

“No. He’s locked me out. The best we can hope for is to build a new firewall after he’s out and hope he didn’t notice us noticing him so that if he goes in again we can trap him,” Mickey said. He shoved back from Ianto’s desk. “I’ll have a word with Ian in R&D. He’s supposed to be the up and coming genius on staff and he’s got a tremendous background in computer software. He might have some insight on making the redesign more effective.”

They watched until the hacker exited the system and then Mickey opened up a new file and downloaded copies of all the information that had been taken. “It looks like every one of Rose’s case files since starting here have been copied as well as her personnel file, medical file, yearly psych evaluations, and performance and peer reviews. Someone wants to know everything there is to know about her.”

“And there’s no way of knowing who?” Ianto asked.

“No,” said Mickey. “Not right now, but setting a trap for next time, if there is one, will find him fast enough.”

“Meanwhile someone has all her information.”

“Not all of it,” said Mickey. “The most important information exists only up here,” he tapped his head, “in the minds of the most trusted people in Rose’s life. We’ve never committed that to paper or digital media.”

“What do we tell Rose?” Ianto asked. “She’ll want to know about this.”

“Nothing,” said Mickey.

Ianto frowned at him. “I don’t like keeping secrets from Rose, Mickey. She deserves to know what’s going on.”

“Why? So she can worry that her secret is going to be discovered?” Mickey asked. “There’s nothing she can do about it. We couldn’t stop it, but we can stop it from happening again.”

“Does that even matter? He took all there was to take,” said Ianto.

“So the damage is done regardless,” said Mickey. “Come on, Ianto, I need your word on this that you’re not going to tell Rose. She’s just starting to come back to life again. Something like this could set her back months.”

Ianto pursed his lips. “I’m not lying to her, Mickey. I’m sorry, but we don’t agree on this. You can’t protect her forever. She needs to be told in case something’s coming; something that specifically targets her or her family. If you don’t tell her, I will.”

Mickey gave a curt nod. “Fine.” He leaned forward and grabbed Ianto’s phone, pressing in the number for R&D. “Hello, Gene? Mickey Smith. Can you send Ian up to my office in a half an hour? Thanks.” He stood up. “I’ll tell her before the day is out.” He gulped down the rest of his coffee and left Ianto’s office without another word.

“Your boss is a complete and utter bastard,” said Rose as she met Tosh for lunch. She’d been called out to a sighting yesterday shortly after her confrontation with John Smith and had had to miss lunch with Tosh, grabbing a bite on the drive out to the incident. Tosh had been disappointed. It hadn’t been nearly as satisfying listening to the Doctor complain about everything at Torchwood as it was hanging out with Rose. Of course today she’d found out just where his bad mood had come from. And Rose seemed inclined to complain about him as well.

Tosh looked at her evenly over the tuna salad she was eating and said, “And?”

Rose laughed at Tosh’s simple acceptance of her words. “How do you put up with him? The man is rude, arrogant, self-righteous, and downright mean,” she complained.

“Yeah, he couldn’t stop talking about you, either,” Tosh said with a slight smirk.

“What?” Rose was clearly startled.

“Never seen a man so smitten in my life.”

Rose gaped at Tosh like a fish. “What?” she repeated.

“He likes you.” She stated it as the clear and simple truth that it was.

“He’s an arse.”

“Yes, but he’s an arse that likes you.” Tosh smiled and shook her head. “I was starting to think he didn’t like girls or boys, but now…he’s definitely on the hook if you want him.”

“I don’t. And I think you’re wrong. He was a beast to me.”

Tosh sighed and ran her hand through her straight black hair. “Dr. Smith has a tendency to push away the things he thinks he can’t have,” she said quietly. “Especially when he wants them.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. He thinks I’m a child; a spoiled child who got my job because of my connection to Pete. He thinks I’m too young to be doing the job I’m doing and certainly too young to be any good at it. He thinks my time isn’t important in comparison to his and furthermore he looked at me like he…” Rose trailed off and heat flamed her cheeks. “Well, it doesn’t matter. If he thinks for one minute that he has any kind of a chance with me—.”

“That’s just it,” said Tosh. “He doesn’t. He’s a childish man sometimes, Rose. He strikes out to protect himself from getting hurt.”

“By hurting others? That’s stupid,” Rose said. “If he’d just been kind…” Rose trailed off.

“If he’d just been kind what?” Tosh asked curiously.

Rose sighed. “Well, he’s a gorgeous man, isn’t he?” she asked.

“We are talking about Dr. Smith here? Big ears, big nose, desperately in need of a shave?” Tosh asked.

“He’s got lovely cheekbones and beautiful eyes,” Rose said, “and such nicely shaped lips, but with that personality,” she shuddered, “even his looks aren’t gonna save him. Not with me.”

“Seriously? Dr. John Smith, right? You think he’s attractive?” Tosh said.

“Only on the outside,” Rose said.

“I don’t see it,” Tosh replied shaking her head.

“He’s got the sort of looks that grow on you,” Rose said.

“I’ve been with him a long time. They’ve never grown on me,” Tosh argued.

“Well…” Rose bit her lip. “He—he reminds me, just in looks, mind, of a man I used to—that I used to know.” Rose said know, but Toshiko could tell from her tone that she meant love. “He’s gone now. Forever.” She looked down and swallowed hard. “It probably clouds my judgment where John Smith is concerned. Doesn’t matter though. He’s…he’s…well, at the moment I can’t think of anything sufficiently horrible enough, but when I do, he’s it.”

“He’s not that bad,” Tosh said mildly.

“He called me Torchwood Barbie!” Rose said indignantly. Heads all around them swiveled to look at Rose and slight snickers could be heard throughout the cafeteria.

Tosh tried desperately to hide a smile and thought it better not to comment on that or the fact that Rose did look sort of like the doll that had been issued after the Cyberwar. Her friend would not thank her for saying so. Come to think of it, Jake looked an awful lot like Torchwood Ken. The dolls had flown off the shelves back then, youngsters eager to act out the destruction of Cybus and the horrible war with the Cybermen and the heroes who had helped destroy them. “So did he get out of training?”

“No,” said Rose. “I’m not budging one inch. Mandatory training is there for a reason. Any Torchwood employee who is physically able is required to do this and for very good reasons.”

“I think he may be planning to skip out this afternoon. He’s certainly made no mention of being absent from the lab,” Tosh said.

“I was serious about dragging him up there by the ears,” Rose said.

“You said that? No wonder he kept fingering his ears defensively this morning,” Tosh laughed. “You just might have to. So, what was it you got called out for yesterday?” she asked changing the subject to one she thought would be safer.

“Reported alien activity in Waltham Forest,” Rose said with a frown. “Turned out just to be some kids shooting a little sci-fi movie for fun. Their makeup girl did a fantastic job, though, because two of the kids really did look like Sla’ahgarthals. Jake thinks she might have been abducted as a child. He had a look at her sketchbook and some of the details in it are too accurate for her to have just made them up herself.”

“You run across that often?” Tosh asked.

“More often than you might think,” Rose said. “We’re sending over a crisis counselor on Monday to meet with the family, see if there’s any validity to the theory.” Rose sighed and looked at her watch. “Best get back to it. Tell Dr. Smith that I expect to see him in the training center in an hour or I will be down to fetch him.”

Tosh nodded. “Are we still on for drinks tonight?”

“You know, I’d rather just stay in if you don’t mind,” Rose said. “I’m a little tired and I imagine after this afternoon I’m going to be exhausted.”

“I can rent a film or two and we can make margaritas and pop popcorn.”

“Sounds good,” said Rose.

“Say 7:30 at my place?” Tosh asked.

“Okay,” Rose agreed. “See you then.” They said their good-byes and Rose went to the training center to prepare for the activities that would follow later on that afternoon.

She watched as Master Uoon Choi ran an advanced class of tae kwon do. She’d earned her first dan black belt earlier in the year, and had taken two years of Judo as well, but she had a long way to go to be at the level of the man before her or even the students in the class who were working towards their third dan ranking. Liam stood heads above most of the others in the class. He had started tae kwon do as a young child and had competed in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, but he had years of study ahead of him to reach the Master’s level. Rose knew he had medaled, but wasn’t sure which type or which year. He was poetry to watch, regardless.

She sighed and turned back to one of the empty practice gyms and set about making sure the appropriate equipment was out. Jake joined her a few minutes later. “Sitting in today?” Jake asked her as he grabbed one end of the mat and she grabbed the other. They hauled it out into the center of the room and unfolded the padding.

“Well, making sure Smith shows up for his training,” she said. “Thought I’d help out.”

“You avoiding paperwork again?” he asked.

“Nope. As of lunch time I have an empty inbox. Of course as soon as the stuff from Waltham Forest shows up I’ll be buried under it again. I really wish they’d figure out a way to simplify all the forms,” she said.

“Yeah. Bet if they cut the paperwork down by just a tenth we’d have enough money to do a recruitment drive,” Jake said.

Rose stood up straight and turned to look at Jake. “How bad is it, Jake? Mickey mentioned something yesterday.”

“Ianto says we’re fine for general operations until the end of the year, if we retain all of our current employees. But you know how short-handed we’ve been. We need more field agents to keep up with the calls we get sent on as it is. If there were a full-fledged alien incursion, I’m not sure we’d have enough people employed to handle it,” he said. “Not even the emergency backup personnel.”

“It’s that bad?”

“It is.”

“Won’t UNIT step in?” she asked.

“If it’s worldwide you know their focus will be to protect the states and China first. That’s where all the money comes from. Britain will be left to its own resources. And that means us. And we’re just not prepared, Rose. Not anymore. With our budget cut to the bone, we can’t get prepared, either.”

“What about Pete?” she asked.

“Maybe if you talked to him,” Jake said. “A couple million pounds would go a long way towards fixing the problems here.”

“Two million pounds?” said Rose. “That’s all Torchwood needs?”

Jake knew immediately what she was considering. “No, Rose. No way. You’re not touching your trust.”

“But that’s just it, Jake. I don’t touch my trust. I haven’t touched it since Pete set it up. I live on my Torchwood salary. I’m never going to use it. Why shouldn’t I give some to Torchwood?” she asked.

“Because you shouldn’t have to, that’s why. That money is for your future, your security,” Jake said.

“Torchwood is my future. My job here is my security. Torchwood is the U.K.’s security and maybe the world’s,” Rose said.

“But 2 million pounds, Rose. That’s a fifth of your trust.”

“I know. But if Torchwood needs it, I’d rather they have it. I told Pete when I got here that I didn’t want his money. He insisted,” said Rose.

“Ianto’s exploring other options,” Jake said. “Let’s see what he can come up with to present to the board. And if nothing else works, then only as a last resort will I even let you consider this. Okay?”

“Okay,” Rose agreed.

Jake glanced up at the wall clock. “It’s 1:35. Looks like Dr. Smith is a no show yet again.”

Rose’s shoulders stiffened and her jaw jutted forward. “Oh, no,” she said. “He’s not getting out of it again.” She strode towards the door to the training center, then turned and looked over her shoulder. “I’ll be back.”

“You sound like the terminator,” he said.

“Smith’s gonna think I am one if I have to keep coming after him,” she said and with a wave over her shoulder she left the training center and went in search of her prey. A tiny part of her was looking forward to seeing him again and she couldn’t for the life of her imagine why. It was hard enough to look at him and be reminded of someone she’d once loved. She couldn’t even think of having a friendship with the man who wore his face if that man behaved like John Smith. So why was there a tiny frisson of excitement rising up within her at the prospect of seeing him again?

John Smith glanced up at the clock at 1:35 and realized it was time to head for his stupid and completely unnecessary mandatory training class. He sighed and started putting away the bits and pieces of his current project in a lead lined box. He didn’t dare leave them lying around with the amount of radiation they were putting out. He closed it up and locked it in the vault and then took off his protective gear, before heading over to the sink to wash up.

“Dr. Smith!” said a voice sharply behind him and he jumped. He didn’t turn around but continued washing his hands for the full thirty seconds before rinsing off the suds. He reached for the paper towel dispenser and wiped his hands dry before turning to look at Rose.

“Hello, Miss Tyler,” he said.

“You’re late for training.” Her hands were on her hips, he noted, and her expression was closed.

“Oh, umm…I lost track of time. I was in the middle of something and had to lock it down.” Rose stared at him in surprise. Clearly she hadn’t been expecting a quiet surrender. She’d been expecting a battle. “It’s just as well you’ve come down,” he continued. “I’m not exactly clear on where the training center is.”

“Didn’t they give you a tour on your first day?” Rose asked.

“They gave me a map,” he admitted, “mumbled something about budget cuts, and told me to learn my way around, but I didn’t bother with too much. I can about find the cafeteria.”

“Oh,” she said. She gave a slight frown and then seemed to shake it off. “Are you ready then? Jake’s waiting.”

“Yeah, all right.” He turned towards the back of the chamber. “Tosh, I’m heading over to training,” he yelled.

“You’re what?” came Tosh’s squawked reply, surprise evident in her tone.

“You heard me,” he hollered back.

“If Rose is there, don’t you be a prat,” Tosh said, her voice coming closer. “I meant what I—oh, Rose, hello.”

“Hello.”

Tosh looked only a little sheepish. “So we’ll just be off then,” John said and shooed Tosh back to her work.

Rose didn’t say anything else to him until they were in the lift. “That why you’re being civil to me today?” she asked. “Because Tosh threatened you?”

“She didn’t threaten me,” he said shortly. Rose turned towards him, her eyebrows raised in disbelief. “She didn’t, Rose.”

“Thought I was Torchwood Barbie to you,” she said sourly.

“I was…out of line,” he said grudgingly. “I’m…” He broke off, cleared his throat, and met her eyes again. “It was a bad day and I took it out on you.”

“Two almost apologies in one day,” she said. “I might start believing you actually mean it.”

He shrugged. “Believe what you will.” An uneasy silence fell between them. The lift stopped once but when the person waiting for it saw who was inside he rapidly backed away.

“I’ll just take another lift,” he squeaked.

When the doors closed John couldn’t help giving a sideways glance at Rose. “You think that was ‘cause of me or you?” he asked.

“Both of us,” Rose said. “I can’t think of anything Ian McFarland would find more horrifying than being stuck in a lift with the heartless, know it all bastard and the head bitch in charge.”

“I get why they call me that, but why you?” he asked curiously

“You’re not the only person I’ve had to drag to the training center,” she said.

“You’re not exactly dragging me,” he said self-consciously fingering his ears.

“Well, I did him, first time,” she said. “The techies are always resistant and I’m not always so nice about it. And you can let go of your ears. I’m not actually going to haul you around by ‘em, seeing as you came willingly.” She gave a slight smile. The lift opened again on the right floor and then they had to go down the corridor, make a left and make their way to a new bank of lifts that would take them to the appropriate place.

“Blimey, I never would have found it,” he said once they finally arrived.

“Think you can find it again, or will I have to continue to escort you?” she asked.

“Might be a good idea if you did,” he said. “Least for a while. I have no sense of direction in this building.”

“So Tosh says,” Rose said then closed her mouth abruptly.

“You two talk about me?” he asked, one corner of his mouth curving into a smile.

“Tosh does,” she said shortly looking anywhere but at him. The pinking of her cheeks as she blushed was beautiful. “Complains, mostly.”

The lift dinged saving them from further awkward conversation. “It’s just this first room over,” Rose said gesturing to the left as they stepped out. “Follow me.” He followed her into the gym and over to a small office. Rose eyed him critically for a moment and then turned and rummaged on a shelf. “Here, these should fit,” she said handing him some workout clothes. “The locker room is over there. Go get changed and meet me in gym C. You won’t need your shoes.” John nodded and they parted company.

Ch. 8: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/331456.html

Leap of Faith: Chapter Seven

no subject