amberfocus | Leap of Faith: Chapter Eighteen

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Title: Leap of Faith (18/?)
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.

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

Chapter Eighteen: Sato and Harper

It took Toshiko until Thursday to sort everything out with her family. Since then she had been busy trying to get through to Torchwood 3 and had gotten nowhere. Although the Cardiff offices were supposed to be under the leadership of London, they’d been granted a sort of autonomy since the Cyber War that allowed them to operate outside the government and above the law, one that its much larger big brother did not share. As such they tended to flout its authority at the best of times, which meant getting a call from her when she didn’t even have the authority of an operative wasn’t going to go very far in getting her past the main switchboard. If they had a main switchboard and not just a bulldog of a receptionist.

With a sigh she hung up the phone and debated on what to do. She could call Rose and see if the Tyler name didn’t offer up some sort of clout, but she’d hate to use their friendship that way in what amounted to figuring out an odd family situation. There was more than that going on though. It wasn’t just her grandmother who had been affected. She supposed she could call John Benton at UNIT, the man acting as the Doctor’s uncle and supposed namesake during his year in hiding. Having the backing of a Brigadier couldn’t hurt.

Flipping her phone open again she rang his mobile. “Brigadier John Benton,” he said.

“Hello, Brigadier, it’s Toshiko,” she said.

“Tosh? Is something wrong with the Doctor?” he asked, concern lacing his voice.

“No, no, nothing like that. As far as I can see, John Smith is cruising through the human experience just fine.”

“That’s good. Though I am concerned about this relationship of his with the Tyler girl that’s been splashed through the papers. I’m not so sure it’s a good idea. What’s going to happen when he changes back?” he said.

“I don’t know, but I’m not about to try to talk him out of it. He’s happier now than I’ve ever seen him. But I didn’t call about the Doctor. I called about my grandmother,” she said.

“Your grandmother? How is Mayumi these days?”

“Well, she was on the verge of death over the weekend.”

“Oh, Tosh, I’m so sorry,” he said gravely.

“But she’s better now. She should have died, Brigadier. She was in hospice and she shouldn’t have survived, but this man came. We caught him in the room with her. He had some sort of device that he was holding over her. We chased him out, but the next morning she was looking really well. We took her to hospital and they did a full body scan. There’s no trace of the cancer that was attacking all of her systems.”

“It sounds like a miracle,” he said.

“A miracle through alien technology, maybe. This is far too advanced to have been human tech. It turns out her room wasn’t the only one he visited. Everyone in the hospice has healed.”

“What’s the problem then? This doesn’t sound like a bad thing.”

“It’s not. I mean, that part isn’t. But there’s more. Something has reversed the aging process. She’s…rejuvenating. She doesn’t look like she’s eighty years old. She looks like she’s sixty-five. Every day she looks younger.”

“That sounds like a blessing, not a problem,” he said wryly. Tosh remembered that the Brig was somewhere in his sixties and perhaps wouldn’t mind a few of his own years being knocked off his appearance.

“I know, but…I want to make sure there isn’t more going on than meets the eye. Why would an alien sneak into a hospice and heal people? It’s not been my experience that any of them would do something out of pure intentions. They always want something in return. I’ve tried getting through to someone at Torchwood Cardiff, but the bulldog on the main line won’t let me speak to anyone in authority there.”

“Who you want is Dr. Owen Harper,” the Brigadier said. “Hold on a moment, I’ve got his personal mobile number around here somewhere. Are you staying with Yuki? Is your grandmother?”

“Yes.”

She heard him rummaging around. “Found it. Let me put you on hold a minute and I’ll call him and get this taken care of.”

“Okay.” The line went quiet and Tosh waited for quite a while before it became live again.

“Tosh?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” she said.

“Okay, Dr. Harper has agreed to come over. He’s intrigued, says it might coincide with a case he’s been working on. He should be there within the hour.”

“Thank you so much, Brigadier,” she said with relief.

“Never a problem. Anything for Mayumi’s granddaughter, you know that.”

She smiled. “Thanks, anyway. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Good-bye.”

“Good-bye.”

Tosh sighed and sat back on the couch and sat there for a long time. Eventually she looked towards the hallway when she heard a rustling noise and then a door clicked shut and her mother appeared and came and sat down on the chair opposite her daughter. Her mother had been so relieved when her grandmother had begun to heal. The stress of watching her own mother dying had not been good for Yuki Sato. She was still worried, but it was completely different now.

“How is she?” Tosh asked as her mother came back into the living room.

“I’m not sure. She’s healthy, but she’s very tired. She…isn’t remembering things. Her memory was never affected, Toshiko. In all these years as her health failed, her mind has remained strong. And…it still is, but it’s not. There’s something wrong with her. She asked me what happened to her ear pods because she wanted to download a program that hasn’t been on in ten years. When I told her no one has used ear pods in six years she looked at me like I was crazy. When I questioned her further…Toshiko, she doesn’t remember the Cyber War. She thinks Warrington is still president. She doesn’t even know who Harriet Jones is,” Yuki said.

“And what about the rejuvenation?” Tosh asked.

“It’s continuing. She looks like she did when she was about sixty. And she doesn’t want to stay in bed despite her exhaustion. She says she feels fine.”

“Well, she needs to stay there until the Torchwood doctor can get here and examine her,” Tosh said.

“When is he coming? Keeping mother down has never been easy,” Yuki said.

Tosh looked at her watch. “Should be any time now.” The doorbell rang and she smiled at the man’s timing. “That’ll be him. Thank goodness for John Benton stepping in. That man could move mountains.” She stood up carefully, one hand bracing her ribs. They’d improved a lot, but she could still feel pain whenever she tightened her abdominal muscles. She headed to the front door and opened it.

“You Dr. Sato?” the man standing there asked abruptly. He was a tall man, yet at the same time didn’t seem to take up very much space. His build was slender and his face was narrow, angular, the chin coming to somewhat of a point. The nose was similarly pointed. His hair was dark brown and cut short, but not cropped. His eyes were dark, almost black and she couldn’t quite make out whether they were blue or brown. They were set well back in his face and his forehead protruded a bit. He reminded her to a certain extent of an animal, but she couldn’t quite recall which one.

He wasn’t exactly handsome. There was something a little bit off with all of his features for that. Yet together every feature somehow worked to make him very attractive to her and she caught her breath in a sharp little gasp. She stifled it quickly. He hadn’t seemed to notice, busy as he was with scanning her appearance. He met her eyes a moment later, a look of approval and interest sparkling in the depths of his.

“Yes.”

“I’m Dr. Harper from Torchwood. We spoke on the phone,” he said.

“Ah, of course. My name’s Toshiko. Tosh,” she said.

“Owen,” he returned.

“Come in. My grandmother’s this way,” she said stepping back and allowing him into her mother’s home.

He reached out and grabbed her arm, halting her. “I’d like to talk to you first. I need a clearer understanding of exactly what is going on. Benton didn’t give enough details on the phone.”

“Enough to get you here,” she said and led him over to the couch instead. She introduced him to her mother and explained everything that she knew of what had been going on, her mother filling in any gaps as necessary. Tosh ended with, “It seems like a miracle, but I’m not sure it is.”

“Your grandmother isn’t the only one who has been affected by this. I’ve been tracing similar incidents for the last two weeks. In every case the sickly are cured of their ailments, but they are getting younger and younger.” His voice sounded worried.

“So it’s a problem,” Tosh said.

“It seems so, yes. I’m deeply concerned.”

“What if it doesn’t stop? What if she continues on getting younger and younger?” Yuki Sato burst in.

“It’s a worry,” said Owen. “I’ve just come from seeing a patient who ten days ago was in a hospice across town. The man was there as well; everyone there was cured. Most of them were elderly, but one of them was in her thirties. She looks like a young teenager now.”

“What if it doesn’t stop?” Yuki asked in horror. Like her daughter, she was a scientist and her mind was racing ahead to the possible outcome. “What if she reverts to a child, or a baby, or down to the basic building blocks of human life?”

“I’m not going to lie to you, Mrs. Sato. It’s a very real possibility from everything I’ve seen. She was one of the oldest people hit by this thing, so she’s got a better chance than most of them that we’ll find some way to stop it before it’s too late for her,” Owen said. “I’ll need to take blood and skin cells to work with and then…” He glanced at Tosh. “We’re horribly understaffed for something like this. I’m stretched thin as it is. Benton said you knew a bit of biochemistry as well as technology and anthropology.”

“I do. It was a minor, but I do.”

“I could use your help. The rest of my team is useless for this sort of work.”

“Yes, of course.”

“And if you could get London to send down a few more hands.” He paused and looked up at the ceiling. “Another scientist and maybe a field operative or two? Or…you’ve got ties to UNIT. One of their best doctors if they’ll deign to work with us.”

“I think I can swing that.”

“Good. Then get together everything you’ll need for at least a week. There’re beds at the facility where you can stay. I think this is going to be a round the clock sort of thing and I’ll need you there,” Owen said.

“But my grandmother. I need to be able to see her,” she began to protest, but stopped at his look.

“We’re doing all of this for her. The less time you spend running back and forth, the more time you can devote to finding out what’s going on,” he said.

She looked imploringly at her mother. “It’s okay, Toshiko. I am quite capable of keeping her out of trouble. This is more important.”

“Okay,” she acquiesced.

He turned to Yuki. “Mrs. Sato, if you could take me to your mother now?” He stood, picked up his bag and followed her mother into her grandmother’s room. Tosh waited until the door closed, then flipped open her cell phone and called Ianto.

“I’d really rather you wait until Monday before you go off on another field assignment,” Dr. Varley told Rose as she examined the back of her head. “You’ve healed nicely, but it hasn’t been the full two weeks I wanted you to stay on light duty for.”

“According to Tosh all I’ll really be doing is going around and knocking on doors,” she said in a wheedling tone. “How much danger can I be in just talking to people?”

“Knowing you, a lot,” Dr. Varley said seriously, her eyes catching and holding Rose’s gaze. “You’ve had a bit of a death wish about you since you first started working here.”

Rose glanced away. “No, I haven’t.”

“Rose, you throw yourself into the path of danger all the time.”

“It’s part of the job.”

“And you’re always the worst injured.”

“Not this time,” she said meeting Dr. Varley’s gaze again. “There’re people still in hospital. Not to mention—.”

“You’d be dead, too, if it wasn’t for Dr. Smith.”

“I know,” she said. “He saved my life.” She smiled softly. “And I’m glad of it.”

Dr. Varley turned to look at her scanner. It was printing out the results of her earlier scan of Rose’s brain. “Well, you do seem to be out of the danger zone. There’s no swelling, no fluid around your brain. If I give you clearance to go to Cardiff, I want your word that you’ll be careful. I don’t want you back in here being patched up again for a long time,” she said sternly.

“I don’t want to be back here anymore than you do. I’ll be careful.”

“All right.” Dr. Varley signed off on Rose’s clearance papers.

“Did John get cleared?” Rose asked. “I know he was in here earlier.”

“Yes, he’s been cleared to go to Cardiff as well. His injury wasn’t ever life threatening and it sounds like he’ll be in the lab most of the time. I don’t worry about him like I worry about you,” she said.

“I don’t have a death wish, Dr. Varley. I really don’t,” Rose said. Dr. Varley just fixed her with an intent stare until she squirmed uncomfortably and looked away.

“Regardless, you’ve been cleared. You can go and tell Ianto that you can accept this assignment.” Rose didn’t move. Instead she sat there on the exam table kicking it lightly with one heel. “Anything else I can do for you?” Dr. Varley asked.

“I was just…you remember the medical scans and the genetic work up you did on me when I first came to work here?” she asked.

Dr. Varley looked surprised. “Yes. What about them?”

“You told me then that it was very unlikely that I’d be able to have children,” Rose said.

“Yes, because of the corruption of your DNA.”

“How unlikely is unlikely?” Rose asked.

“Are you wanting to have children, Rose?” Dr. Varley asked, deep sympathy in her voice.

“No. I’m not wanting them. I was just wondering about contraception. Do I need it? If I can’t be impregnated is there a need for it?”

“I never said you couldn’t, Rose. It’s just that you only have about a one percent chance of conceiving. So the possibility is there, however miniscule. And there are a half dozen other reasons to use condoms. Protection from STD’s, namely.”

“I know,” Rose said. “I was just wondering if I needed a backup method. I don’t really like taking pills. My life is too random for me to be consistent on something like that.”

“Most of the female operatives use the implant,” Dr. Varley said. “Or we do have a monthly injection. It’s given via the new hypospray R&D came up with last year. You don’t even feel it. It’s what I use because it doesn’t have the side effects of the implant or the pill. You’d just have to report to the infirmary once every twenty-eight days. I’d send you out an email in advance to remind you. And it can be taken along on a long field op and self-injected if necessary.”

“That sounds like a good choice.”

“Well, if you want to start on it, you’ll need to wait until right after your period ends.”

“That’s actually right now,” Rose said. “It finished yesterday.”

“Okay. Do you want it now?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Dr. Varley nodded and walked over to a small cupboard. Opening the door, she picked up a small vial and placed it into the hypospray and came back. She pulled up Rose’s shirt sleeve and injected it into her arm. “This takes a month to be effective. In the meanwhile, condoms are necessary.”

“That’s fine. I’m just…planning ahead.”

“Nevertheless, better safe than sorry.” She rummaged around in a drawer and handed Rose a box of condoms. “You can keep these on hand.” She found a small paper bag for Rose to put the box into and then smiled.

“Your last physical showed you to be free of all diseases and if you’ve had no sexual partner since then—.”

“I haven’t.”

“Then you’re clear to go whenever you and John are ready,” she said.

Rose froze. “John?” she said. Her voice did not come out in a squeak, but it was much higher than normal. A blush colored her face a brilliant shade of red.

The doctor blinked at her for a moment. “I’m sorry. I just assumed. Your pictures have been everywhere and I’ve seen you in the cafeteria together all week. It’s not really a secret, Rose. You know how gossip spreads like wildfire around here.”

Rose nodded and jumped down off the exam table. “But I didn’t think you were the sort to believe it.”

“Rose, I had the two of you in my infirmary for three days. I believe it.”

“Thank you for the medication,” she said shortly. “I’ll be back for the next shot when it’s time,” she added, scooping up the paper with her clearance.

“Rose, I meant no offense.”

Rose sighed. “I know, I know. It’s my own fault for getting us plastered all over the tabloids and yelling at my mum about him in the corridor.”

“For what it’s worth, Rose, and no matter what anyone else thinks on the matter, he’s been good for you. If you love him, if he’s what you want, don’t let anything else interfere with your relationship. Not the papers, not your mother, not your colleagues. You deserve to be happy and if John makes you happy, it’s a good thing.”

Rose nodded and said a gruff good-bye to the doctor and returned to her office, dropping off the little bag and then heading to Ianto to accept her new assignment. The words ‘if you love him’ echoed around in her mind. She wasn’t sure how she felt. Not yet. She hadn’t even kissed the man, didn’t even know if they’d ever amount to anything more than good friends. She didn’t want to think about why she’d bothered with birth control if that was the case. Wishful thinking? Her body reacted to him like crazy and she was just being prepared in case their relationship advanced.

It wasn’t like her to sleep with a man she didn’t love. The three men she’d been with, Jimmy, Mickey, and the Doctor, she’d loved very much, but in very different ways. Jimmy she’d loved with a blindness that made her unaware of his character flaws and for a long time, his terrible temper. Mickey had picked her up and put her back together again and she’d adored him, loved him so much for that. He’d taken care of her when she’d needed it, and it went far beyond gratitude. The Doctor, well that was a deeper love, built on friendship that turned to passion. The passion had been almost fatalistic and had driven them both to do some crazy and life-threatening things for each other and the rest of the world. One of those things had caused his regeneration; another had trapped her here, forever away from him.

Her feelings for John were more mutable than that. They flickered between cautious optimism at their slowly deepening friendship and a slow-burning desire to ignite something more. She looked forward to their time together and she felt curiously bereft now when he didn’t take her hand or they didn’t hug good-bye. She wouldn’t lie to herself and say she hadn’t been thinking about kissing him lately, because she had. The last few days she’d been thinking about it a lot. His physical proximity made those thoughts intensify and the attraction she felt for him was definitely getting stronger.

She sighed. Maybe in Cardiff they’d have a chance to figure out where things were going. They’d be far away from the London paparazzi, and though she didn’t doubt they could find her if they wanted to, the fact that she’d be on Torchwood business meant that the seasoned photojournalists would stay away. They knew better than to interfere with field operations. And the unseasoned ones didn’t have the sort of money to follow her to Wales just to get a snapshot of her with John.

She’d really been stupid baiting the press like that, just to annoy her mother. It was just that Jackie seemed to be turning into a different woman, much more concerned with appearances than she’d ever been dressed in her ugly old track suits and pony tail, living on the Powell Estate. In the old days her mum would have laughed at the very idea of being famous enough to be splashed through the tabloids. Now she had very little sense of humor on the issue at all. Rose missed the old Jackie. This woman was starting to resemble the woman who had first been married to Pete, the one who had turned nasty and ended up being cyberized. She didn’t want her mother to turn into that woman just because she had money now.

As if her mother sensed Rose was thinking about her, her mobile rang. Rose took one look at the caller, saw that it was Jackie, and closed it back up again. She hadn’t talked to her mother since their fight about John. She wasn’t ready to deal with all of the crap that her mum would bring up. She didn’t want her relationship with John to be dissected when she still didn’t know what it was herself. She was a big girl. She didn’t need her mother’s opinion riding roughshod over her feelings. Maybe when they’d finished up in Cardiff she’d have sorted things out enough to talk it out. Until then Jackie would just have to wait.

Rose and John were given the choice of driving his vehicle and accepting Torchwood’s gas allowance, checking out one of the black SUV’s that Torchwood provided for field ops, or flying. John said he hated flying in Zeppelins, they were always so slow and he didn’t much care for the maneuverability of the giant Torchwood vehicles. Rose hated being in Zeppelins because they brought back too many memories and it always made her weepy to be inside one. When John said he always felt better in his own car, hands on the wheel and in charge of his own destiny, it made it easy for them to elect to drive it to Cardiff.

They’d left work an hour early to go home and pack. Rose had hemmed and hawed for a good fifteen minutes over whether or not to pack the box of condoms. She wasn’t intending to sleep with John while they were away, but the path to hell was paved with good intentions, and when she looked at him lately good intentions weren’t even close to what was springing to the forefront of her mind.

It was the open-endedness of their assignment in Cardiff that finally decided her. They could be there anywhere from a week or two to a couple of months. With that much time to grow closer in, it would pay for her to have something on hand in case it did happen. Not that she couldn’t go to a chemist and get some more in Wales, but she didn’t particularly want to be seen and possibly photographed buying condoms. She picked up the box Dr. Varley had given her, still in its plain white paper sack and hastily tucked them underneath her sleepwear. She didn’t even let herself think about why amidst the three pairs of functional pajamas she’d packed there was one decidedly lacy, sheer, frilly bit of fluff. Nothing romantic was going to happen. They’d be working hard. But…It always came back to what if it did?

She wasn’t exactly a spontaneous person anymore. She planned almost everything down to the letter these days. Why she couldn’t just plan this without blushing like a school girl, she didn’t know. Why she couldn’t admit to herself what her planning actually meant about her feelings for John was something she didn’t want to face either. Looking baldly at what was going on was nearly impossible, even when she tried.

She put the last few things she’d need in her suitcase and zipped it shut. As she was hauling it out to the front room the doorbell rang. She looked in the mirror beside the front door, neatened her hair and straightened her clothes and then answered it.

“You about ready?” John asked her.

“Yeah, all packed.” She put on her coat and shoes, hung her purse diagonally across her body and pulled up the handle on her suitcase so she could roll it behind her. She turned off the light and locked up her flat, then followed John out to his car. Once they’d loaded their bags into the boot of his convertible they got in.

John reached across her and pulled something out of the glove box. “Here,” he said handing her the little packet.

“What’s this?” she asked as he pushed a button on the dash and the top started folding itself back.

“It’s such a gorgeous afternoon I thought we could drive for a bit with the top down. Go on. Open it.”

Rose pulled the paper wrapping off and unfolded a bit of bright red fabric. “A scarf?”

“For your hair,” he said reaching out and picking up a lock of her hair, letting it slip through his fingers. He brushed against her jaw softly before pulling back. “So it won’t get too mussed up in the wind.”

“That’s very…sweet of you, John,” Rose said with a soft smile. “Thank you.”

“Welcome,” he said with a grin. She tied it around her quickly and then looked at him. “You look lovely in red.”

She blushed, murmured thank you again, and quickly looked away. He backed out and headed for the road. She didn’t know why his little gift was making her heart beat so fast. It was just a scarf, just a flimsy, gauzy piece of fabric, but the fact that he’d thought about her hair at all was just so endearing. A feeling washed over her. It was the same feeling she’d had laying on the blanket with John after their picnic in the park. Contenment. She was perfectly content on this warm, sunny afternoon to be riding along in a beautiful car with a man she liked very much indeed. The only thing that could make it better would be if they were holding hands.

Ch. 19: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/344179.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mkejenkins.livejournal.com

SQUEEEEE!!!!!!!

*runs off to read*

Edit:

I've been waiting for this all afternoon, since Amy told me she had recevied it from you for beta. Fantastic! Well worth the wait.

Lovely chapter, hon. I really like how you're showing how confused Rose is about her feelings. It's perfectly in character and the slow build between her and Doctor!John is wonderfully natural.

Interesting bit with Tosh and Owen. Can't wait to find out what's happening in Cardiff!

Edited Date: 2010-05-07 12:19 am (UTC)

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Not Rose-Colored Glasses

Leap of Faith: Chapter Eighteen

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