amberfocus | Leap of Faith: Chapter Seventeen

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Title: Leap of Faith (17/?)
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 Seventeen: Pushing Buttons

Rose made her way to her office with a smile on her face. She felt happy for the first time in such a long while. She got quite a few odd looks from people that she worked with. Her colleagues weren’t used to seeing her without a frown on her face and she sort of hated that. One of the interns that was horribly frightened of her had frozen in his tracks when she’d given him a hearty, “Good morning.” Well, they’d all have to get used to the change in her she supposed.

She opened her office door and debated turning right around and running when she saw who was waiting for her in the chair opposite her desk. There was a stack of newspapers on her desk. She wondered if Jackie had actually heard the door open and she could do a runner before she was noticed, but then her mother turned her head and said, “There’s no use trying to make a hasty exit. I heard the door open and you’re not getting away that easily.”

Rose took a deep breath. She closed the door behind her and walked over to her desk taking a seat behind it. Jackie shoved the papers across to her. “You just couldn’t stay out of the tabloids, could you?”

“We weren’t doing anything indecent. Just spending the day together. So what?”

“So you said that he’s just your friend,” Jackie said. “If that’s the truth then do you want to explain these to me?”

Rose glanced down at the paper on top. It was not, as she’d assumed it would be, the Daily Mirror or The Sun. Instead it was the more disreputable Daily Mail and it virtually screamed at her with its headline in 18 point type.

Heiress and Anthropologist in Secret Tryst!

Looking as if they’d just rolled out of bed, Rose Tyler, 24, heiress to the Vitex fortune, and anthropologist John Smith, 43, catch a very early breakfast together at Gina’s Restaurant, she read. Onlookers declared the couple appeared to be very much in love. The photos looked as if they had been caught on a mobile or one of those children’s gaming systems, but were still remarkably clear. They were of her eating the topping off of John’s fork, of her catching his hand and licking the last of the syrup away as she stared into his eyes, of him touching her knee under the table. The last one she didn’t even remember happening and wondered if it had been photo-shopped in.

Further down the page was a photo of her and John by his car. Underneath it read, Miss Tyler’s penchant for men with flashy vehicles is well known and it seems Mr. Smith is no exception to this particular rule with his late model Frisson convertible. It's difficult to tell which is more revealing of the older man’s apparent mid-life crisis. His vehicle or his young lover.

It showed two smaller photographs from at least two years ago, one of her and Jake on his Japanese racing bike, and one of her with Mickey and the Jaguar that he’d bought at a scrap yard and lovingly restored as a basis for comparison. She rolled her eyes and set the paper aside, looking down at the next one. This one was the Daily Mirror. They’d not made the front page, but were on the society page. There were several photos of their picnic, with a rather close up image of them lying on the blanket holding hands. It was closer than should have been possible with a telephoto lens. Had someone approached them when they’d had their eyes closed and she hadn’t noticed? Had she been that absorbed in their not-date?

She compared the bylines of the two papers. They both listed the photographer as Jeremy Baines. She must have been. She smiled softly. It really had been a wonderful day. “I don’t see what there is to be smiling about,” Jackie said shortly.

Rose rolled her eyes and picked up The Sun. There she was on the front page with John and Jamie and a redirect to the lifestyle pages where there was a write up on the toy sailboat derby and more pictures, including the ones she and John had posed for. She looked so happy in the ones where she was hugging him. The captions were less sensational. The one of her pulling back from John and looking up into his eyes she quite liked. She might have to ask Tim Latimer for a copy.

Rose Tyler and boyfriend John Smith enjoy the day and each other’s company. “That one’s quite nice,” she said tapping it.

“It says he’s your boyfriend,” Jackie grumbled.

“Well, he’s not,” Rose said. “Honestly, we were just playing with the tabloids. You’re overreacting.”

“Baiting the paparazzi is not a proper pastime for a Tyler,” Jackie said.

“Ooo, for a Tyler. You make us sound all special. You raised me on an estate, Mum. Or have you forgotten?”

“Of course not! But being in them like this isn’t appropriate for our family now,” she said.

“But reading them is just fine, is it?” Rose asked pointedly. Jackie ignored her.

“We went through this two years ago when you and Mickey thought it would be fun to lead them on a merry chase. I thought you’d gotten over such childishness.”

“Oh, please,” she said at her mum’s snooty tone. “It’s fun. Makes me feel like I actually have some power in this stupid alternate world where we’re suddenly rich and important and my love life makes the front page even when I don’t have one.”

“If you made the effort to fit in—.”

“I’m not ever going to be the perfect Vitex woman,” Rose said. “I don’t want to be. I’m not going to change who I am just because Pete’s got money. You used to complain about me having airs and graces because I worked at Henriks, but what’s happened to you, Mum? It’s like you’ve become a different person and I’m sorry, but I just can’t fake it like you do.”

“Well, these pictures certainly look like you can fake being in love with someone,” Jackie retorted.

“John and I are good friends,” Rose said. “He makes me happy.”

“Oh, now it’s good friends,” Jackie said. “Last time it was that you barely knew him. And I don’t think you’re being truthful with me. Paparazzi or no paparazzi, you don’t just walk around with someone holding hands if it doesn’t mean anything. He’s not the Doctor, you know. He’s going to take hand-holding more seriously than that.”

“I know he’s not the Doctor,” Rose said sharply. “And maybe he’s supposed to take it more seriously than that because maybe it does mean something.”

“I knew it!” Jackie said.

“You don’t know anything about it,” Rose returned. “I don’t know why you even care about my love life,” Rose said. “All you’ve wanted this past year is for me to start dating again. Now when I’m taking baby steps in that direction you’re all freaked out about it.”

“Because of who he is.”

“You don’t even know who he is! You see me with him and all you can see is the Doctor.”

“I just think it’s a bad idea for you to get involved with this man.”

“I’m already involved!” Rose snapped. Jackie blanched. “And I’m gonna stay involved.”

“He’s not some surrogate lover, Rose. He won’t appreciate it when he finds out he’s just a Doctor substitute,” Jackie said. “Someone to keep your bed warm who looks like—.”

“He’s not!” Rose roared. She forced herself to calm down again and said in a quieter voice, “After you married Pete, how can you even accuse me of this? I’ve never once said Pete was a substitute for Dad. I’ve never once said that what you feel for him isn’t as real as what you felt for Dad. How can you even think…? Ooooh, just…just go before I say something I regret.” She pointed at the door. Her anger was starting to get the better of her.

“I’m not leaving until we’ve discussed—.”

“I’m not discussing anything more with you.” Rose got to her feet and walked to her door. “This is where I work and you can’t just barge in whenever you please and dress me down. I’m tired of it. I’m a grown woman and I can make my own choices even if you don’t agree with them.”

“Rose, be sensible. You can’t be with this man. It won’t be good for you. He’s too much like the Doctor!”

“He’s nothing like the Doctor. I’m not the one who’s having trouble telling the difference, Mum. It’s you. Did you hate him so much for taking me away that you can’t give anyone who looks like him a chance?” she demanded.

“I never hated him, not really, but he tore our family apart. I can’t go through that again, Rose. Stop this now, before it’s too late. You’ll only regret sleeping with him when it turns out he’s not the man you think he is.”

“He’s exactly the man I think he is. He’s John Smith. And I don’t regret anything I’ve done with him. And I never will.” Rose flung the door open. “You can leave now.”

“Rose, just listen to me,” Jackie begged coming over to her daughter and trying to hug her. She only half succeeded because Rose kept her posture rigid.

“No. It offends me that you’d even think this.”

“I love you. I know what’s best. Just promise me this won’t go any further. You’ll get your heart broken and the papers will have a field day and—.”

Rose finally exploded, her patience gone. “I’ll promise no such thing. If I want to shag John Smith against Big Ben in front of a thousand photographers, I will! And it won’t be because of who he looks like!” She pushed her mother through the door. “It’ll be because he’s a fascinating man who is the best thing that’s happened to me since—.” She stopped herself abruptly from blurting out the words, ‘since we came to this universe.’ “Since my whole world turned upside down three years ago!” she finished. “Now go home. And maybe you won’t have to worry about me ruining the bloody Tyler name for much longer. I can always just marry the man and change it to Smith!”

Whirling away from the stunned expressions of the people in the hallway and the one of horror on her mother’s face, she slammed the door to her office shut and locked it. She stomped back over to her desk and collapsed in her chair ignoring the rattle of the doorknob. She put her head in her hands and slumped across the desk. “Damn it,” she swore. She’d only meant to push her mother’s buttons a bit with the photos for all her meddling. She’d never meant to get into a serious fight. But if Jackie really thought Rose was so shallow as to start dating John because of his looks then her mother didn’t know her at all. Maybe that was the worst thing to come out of all of this.

It took fifteen minutes to get her mind calmed back down. With a sigh she straightened herself back up. Well, what was done was done. She’d better tell John what had just happened. The gossip would spread like wildfire through the building and it was best he hear it from her. She picked up the phone and dialed A&R to admit to him that she’d done something monumentally stupid. “Smith,” came the answer over the line.

“John, it’s Rose.

“Your mum’s down here.”

“I’ll be right there.” Rose slammed down the phone and made a beeline for A&R, stopping only to collect Ianto Jones on the way.

When Jackie Tyler first poked her head into A&R, John knew immediately who she was. The family resemblance was strong and the way she held her body, arms crossed and posture defensive, as well as the way her eyes flashed with fire reminded him vividly of Rose on the day he’d met her. “What are your intentions towards my daughter?” the woman demanded.

“You can’t be in here,” he said.

“Don’t tell me where I can be. My husband runs this place!” Jackie said indignantly.

“Nevertheless you can’t be down here. A&R is strictly off limits to civilians. So is almost everything on this floor for very good reasons and I know you don’t have a pass. You’re not Torchwood personnel,” he said calmly.

“No, I’m Jackie bloody Tyler,” she growled.

“I’d figured that out. Your daughter stands just like that when she’s in a snit and she’s the spitting image of you. How’d you get down the lift without a pass?” he asked.

“I have a pass,” she said. “It’s just not…mine.”

“You realize you’re violating at least seven Torchwood regulations, don’t you?” he asked.

“Quit trying to change the subject. I want to know what you think you’re doing with my Rose,” Jackie said. “Because I’ve fought damn hard to get her better after the last man who left her shattered, and she doesn’t need some man who could be his twin reminding her of what she’s lost and making her all confused about her emotions and what she doesn’t really feel.”

“Whatever Rose does or doesn’t feel for me is none of your business,” he said firmly.

“Of course it’s my business! I’m her mother. And I don’t want you taking advantage of my daughter and her fortune. So you can get any ideas you may have about marrying money right out of your head and quit taking advantage of the fact that you look like her lost love,” Jackie said.

“Is that what happened before?” he asked. “Because I may look like the man, but I am not him. Rose has been very clear and upfront with me about that. Whatever we have between us is between us. And it’s real. You don’t need to be interfering in something you have no way of understanding,” he argued.

“I’m not stupid. I know where this is heading. You may have wormed your way into her bed, but there is no way you’re making this permanent.”

“I’ve done no such thing,” he said. “Not that it’s any of your business, Jackie Tyler, but I haven’t so much as kissed Rose. And what the hell are you going on about permanent for? We’re just starting.”

“Don’t think I don’t know where this is headed. You want to get my Rose to the altar and trap her into marriage with an old man—.”

“You’re older than me, lady,” he snapped. “And not everyone on this planet gives a hoot about the Tyler fortune. I have me own money and I can certainly support myself, and your daughter if it came to that, well enough without gold digging.”

“Oh, really? So if I took out my checkbook right now and wrote you a check for a million pounds I suppose you’d turn your nose up at it?”

“Are you trying to buy me off?” he asked shocked that Rose’s mother would go that far.

Jackie sighed. “Didn’t think you would really be the sort I could. You’re the stubborn type,” she said. “Besides, Rose would kill me if I even attempted to buy you off.”

“Look,” he said hating himself for giving in and trying to reassure the woman. This was why he didn’t do mothers. “I like your daughter for herself, not her family name and certainly not her money. I’m not going to let anyone chase me away. And if I ever was to decide I wanted to marry her, and it sure as hell is too soon for that, it’ll be because I’ve fallen in love with her and for no other reason. And you wouldn’t be able to stop us. Now, you really need to get off this floor. Do I have to call security to escort you out or will you leave on your own terms?”

“I’m not leaving until—.”

The phone’s shrill ringing cut her off. He strode to the desk and answered it in his usual abrupt manner, relieved beyond measure that Rose was on the other end of the line. Their conversation was brief, Rose telling him she was on the way down. He didn’t need her to protect him from her mother, but the huge breach in protocol of having an unauthorized person in the lab was a headache he didn’t want to deal with on his own. Especially with it being the big boss’s wife.

“Getting my daughter to come fight your battles, are you?” Jackie accused. “What kind of man are you?” She shook her finger in his face.

“You are not my battle, lady. I don’t know what your problem is and I don’t want to know. But I do know that you are going to have a problem if you try to get between me and Rose,” he said quietly. There was no malice in his voice and yet it still managed to convey a threat. “You’ll know exactly what sort of man I am then and if you think you don’t like me now,” he smiled darkly and Jackie shivered and took a step back, “Just wait.”

Ianto and Rose arrived on the scene then and Jackie quickly turned to Rose as if she thought her daughter was going to take her side in the matter. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Mum?” Rose asked angrily. “This floor is off limits to non-Torchwood personnel. Are you trying to get yourself killed? How did you get down here, anyway?” she asked.

“Borrowed your dad’s pass,” Jackie said.

“Borrowed or lifted?” she asked.

“Doesn’t matter. He wouldn’t care,” her mother said with a shrug.

“Mr. Tyler is the one who set these protocols into place, Mrs. Tyler,” Ianto said in his smooth, quiet voice. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to come with me.”

“I’ll do no such thing!” Jackie said indignantly.

“I’m afraid you have no choice. I will call security, ma’am, if I have to. You haven’t had any of the inoculations necessary to safely be exposed to alien tech and bacteria. You’ve entered a protected area, you’ll have to go through a full decontamination series to make sure you haven’t contracted anything dangerous, followed by a deposition to make sure you didn’t see anything you shouldn’t have seen,” Ianto said taking Jackie by the arm and steering her towards the door.

“Rose,” Jackie said, “This is nonsense and you know it. All I did was come straight here.”

“You broke the regulations. They’re there for a reason. If you weren’t Mrs. Peter Tyler, you’d have been arrested for what you did,” Rose said. “Ianto, take her to decon.”

Jackie continued to protest all the way to the lift, her complaints cut off only by the lift door shutting on them. “A full decontamination? Is that necessary? No one’s running anything remotely dangerous down here right now,” John said.

“It’ll teach her not to think she’s entitled to do whatever the hell she wants to do,” Rose said. “Coming down here is bloody dangerous when you’re not authorized. If she’d wandered onto the firing range, she could have been shot. If she’d gone into R&D she might have caused any number of experiments to be rerun. Ianto said he’d be gentle, which is more than she deserves.”

“You want to tell me what is going on?” he asked.

“Got more than I bargained for with the photos,” Rose admitted. “And Mum got all condescending about them. It set me off. She wants me to stop seeing you,” Rose said.

“And?” he asked trying not sound worried about what her answer would be.

“And I refused. Told her I could see who I wanted and do what I wanted and to butt out of my love life,” Rose said.

“Love life?” His heart leapt at her choice of words.

“Real or imaginary.” Rose shrugged. “I might have said something about…” She looked down at the floor, suddenly nervous and shy.

“About?” he coaxed. He lifted a water bottle off his desk and took a long drink trying to appear nonchalant so that Rose would relax.

“About shagging you up against Big Ben in front of a thousand photographers if I felt like it,” she said on a rush.

John choked on the water and Rose hurried to his side to pat him on the back in concern. “You said what?” he managed when he’d gotten the coughing back under control.

“Well, that and if she was so concerned about my ruining the Tyler name I could always just marry you and change it to Smith instead. She just assumed I was serious. Or maybe I meant her to assume it. I’m sorry, John. I shouldn’t have done that. Mum knows how to push all of my buttons and I just…I let her get the better of me every time.”

Rose shook her head. “Why can’t she just get it through her head that you’re nothing like the man that took me away from her? Why can’t she understand that I care about you because of who you are and not who you look like? Why can’t she just let us find our way into whatever it is that is growing between us without trying to squash it out before it even has a chance to start? Why can’t she—?”

He silenced her abruptly by reaching out and pulling her into his arms. She tensed for a fraction of a second, but then immediately relaxed against him, her arms rising to go about his waist. “I’m not losing you because your mum’s crazy,” he said. “She’s not driving me off, okay?”

“Wouldn’t it be easier for you to just give up and walk away?” Rose asked.

“I never do the easy thing when the hard thing is so much more interesting,” he said. “Not that being with you is difficult.” He pushed back from her just a little bit and stroked a strand of hair out of her face, his fingers lingering against her cheek. She pressed into them like she couldn’t help herself. “She’s not going to scare me off.” His voice dropped into a lower register. “No one is going to scare me off. Not from you.”

He wanted to kiss her then. The urge was almost overwhelming, but he was afraid with her emotional upset she might not react well to it and he wanted their first kiss to be as special as he could make it, not a bit of odd comfort during an unexpected moment at work. She bit her lip as she looked up at him and he could feel the frustration slowly dissolving from her. Her arms loosened more and she took a step back from him. “I…I should really get to work,” she said. “And let you get back to it. Are we still on for lunch?” she asked hesitantly.

“Of course,” he said. He reached for her hand and gave it a light squeeze. “I meant what I said, Rose. Nothing your mum can do is going to make me want to stop spending time with you.”

Rose nodded. “Good,” she said. “See you then.” He let go of her hand and watched her walk away. She turned back at the doorway and gave him a soft smile and then she was gone.

“Oh, Jacks, what have you gotten yourself into?” Pete Tyler asked his wife from the other side of the decontamination chamber.

“I wanted to meet Rose’s new boyfriend,” she said defensively. “And she wasn’t about to bring him round.”

“So you thought you’d go insult your daughter and then steal my pass and break seven different regulations and go into a place you are most definitely not allowed to be in, just so you could insult him, too?” Pete asked.

“I wasn’t—.”

“Save it, Jacks. I reviewed the CCTV feeds and I talked to Rose before I came up here. I know what you said to Rose and I know what you said to John. What’s the big deal? I know he’s a little older than her, but I’ve seen bigger age gaps than that work before,” he said.

“He looks like the Doctor.”

“No, he doesn’t,” said Pete in surprise. He looked nothing like the man he’d met.

“Yes, he does. Rose told you about regeneration. I know she has. John Smith looks like the Doctor before he regenerated,” Jackie said.

“And what? You’re afraid he is the same man? Or this universe’s version?” Pete asked. Jackie nodded. “He’s human, Jackie. Everyone has to have a complete physical working here. We draw blood for DNA records so that if we have to identify a body later we can. We do a full genetic workup and a body scan. And Rose has said that the Doctor said Time Lords only existed once. He’s not the Doctor.”

“But he could take her away!” Jackie said.

“Is that what this is about? Because if you’re afraid of losing her to him, from what I can see all you’re doing is pushing her closer, not tearing her away. What happened to the woman that was grateful to John Smith for saving Rose’s life?”

“She’s going to ruin her life.”

“No, she’s not. She’s falling in love. She’s happy, Jackie. Let her be happy. Did you want her to just mourn for the rest of her life and never get on with it? I thought you wanted her to start dating,” he said.

“Not him! He’s just a substitute love for the man he looks like!” Jackie exclaimed.

“Do you think that’s what you are?” he asked.

“What?”

“Do you think that’s what you are to me? A substitute love?” he said.

“No. Pete, how can you even ask me that?” she demanded.

“Am I that to you?” he asked.

“No!”

“Then can’t you allow that John Smith is not a substitute for the Doctor? You and I are the same people living parallel lives. He’s not. He’s just a human that looks like an alien that Rose was in love with once upon a time. And if he can help her to heal, then more power to him,” Pete said.

Jackie frowned, but didn’t refute his statement. “Give Rose time and space and let her find her own way. She’s a smart young woman. You keep this up and you’re going to push her away forever.” Jackie’s shoulders sagged. “Now is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?” he asked.

“Get me out of here?” she asked.

“Sorry.” He looked at his watch. “You’ve still got six more hours to go.”

“Come on. Is all this really necessary?” she asked rubbing her upper arm and wincing. "I already got all the shots."

“Yes, it is.” It was necessary to teach Jackie to stay out of the dangerous areas of Torchwood, even if there was, at the moment, no risk of her being contaminated by anything. “But I can have whatever you want sent to the telly in there,” he said.

“Pete!”

“No use complaining, Jackie. You did the crime, you can do the time,” he said. “I’ll see you at five. We can go somewhere nice for dinner.”

“Pete!” Jackie called again. “Pete, if she gets her heart broken one more time, I’m not sure she’ll have the strength to pick up the pieces again.”

“That’s not your call. It’s Rose’s. All we can do is be there for her if it happens,” he said and continued on out of the room.

“We could let her out, sir,” said Ianto as he entered the next room.

“No. She can sit through the whole thing,” Pete said. “She had no business going down there. This is a safety issue and sometimes the only way my wife learns is to force her through something uncomfortable so there’ll be no chance she’ll do it again. But while I have you here, I’d like for you to tell me everything you know about John Smith. There’s no chance he’s an alien, is there?”

“No chance at all, sir,” Ianto reassured. “Why don’t we go up to my office and I can pull his file for you?”

“Yeah. Yeah, all right.” With a glance back at his sulking wife he sighed and followed Ianto up to his office.

Ch. 18: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/343122.html

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

honorh.livejournal.com

I'm trying to think of a way that could've gone worse--for all of them--and pretty much coming up blank. An alien invasion would've been a welcome interruption. Rose should know better than to wind up her mum, and Jackie should know better than to try and order Rose around. Lucky Pete's got a good head on his shoulders, though he'll probably be dealing with a sulking wife for the indeterminate future.

I wonder if Jackie might be sublimating her own insecurities here, too, about being Jackie 2.0 to this Pete?

From:

Not Rose-Colored Glasses

Leap of Faith: Chapter Seventeen

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