Leap of Faith: Chapter Twenty-Seven

[amberfocus]

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Title:  Leap of Faith (27/?)
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.
A/N:  Rose and John talk everything out.

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

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Realities of the Situation
 

Rose flung open the door and frowned at Mickey Smith. Damn. In the heat of the moment her common sense wasn’t the only thing she’d forgotten.

“What the hell are you doing here, Smith?” John demanded.

“Well, hello to you, too,” Mickey told him sarcastically. He looked vastly uncomfortable even being there. His eyes went back to Rose.

“Hello, Mickey,” Rose said with a soft sigh.

“You all right, Rose?” he asked with gentle concern. He leaned against the doorframe, making no attempt to enter her room.

Rose ran her hand through her damp hair. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I was just…look I’m fine, you didn’t have to come.”

“Got a text message that begs to differ,” he said. He flipped open his phone and read the screen. “Mick, I’m drunk and John’s here. Afraid I’m going to do something stupid. Help. R.” He glanced over at the bed. “There’s something stupid and it sure as hell looks like you were about to do him.”

“Mickey!” Rose protested.

“If I were you I wouldn’t be taking aim at anyone else’s intelligence,” John said to Mickey. He turned his attention to Rose. “When the hell did you do that?” he asked glaring at the pair of them and gesturing to Mickey’s phone.

“In the bath,” Rose admitted.

“Great,” muttered John.

“I panicked,” Rose said.

“I don’t really want to get inside a lovers’ quarrel,” Mickey said.

“We’re not lovers,” John said.

“Not for lack of trying,” Rose amended and John shot her a dark glare.

“Look, I just came to make sure you were all right. Just say the word and I’ll go,” he said.

“Go,” said John.

“John,” Rose said warningly putting up one hand. “Go on, Mickey. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” She reached for her friend and gave him a hug.

“See you tomorrow then,” he said. Rose nodded against his shoulder and then let him go. She closed the door behind him. “I shouldn’t have done that. He’ll always come and I shouldn’t have done that.” She turned fretfully back to John.

“Don’t suppose I can just say, ‘Where were we?’ and we can forget all this happened?” she asked ruefully.

“No, we can’t. Come here, Rose. If you felt the need for rescue, then there’s something wrong and we shouldn’t do this yet.” With a sigh she headed across the room and sat down beside John on the bed. “Why’d you text Mickey?”

“I was upset.”

“And you thought what? That I’d take advantage of you?”

“Kind of hoped you would, actually,” she muttered.

“Really?”

“No, not really. Or sort of. I don’t know. It’s more like…” She thought for a minute, trying to clear her head. “It’s more like I thought…I thought I’d say something dumb and clingy or we’d break up over you leaving at the end of your contract when we’ve just started or…I wasn’t even thinking about sex when I sent that text. That came after, when you said you loved me and I told you I loved you.”

“Hence the jumping?”

“Hence the jumping. Though you weren’t exactly pushing me away at the end there,” she said.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “I know you’re tipsy, but…you took off your clothes, Rose. I’m just a man. I don’t have superhuman strength. I want you and you were offering everything and I…I shouldn’t have tried to take advantage of the situation.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “I’m worse than you,” she said picking at the blanket.

“I think the blame’s about equal.” He picked up her hand and squeezed it. “Much as I hate to say it, tonight is not the night for our first time. How much wine did you drink?”

“Half a bottle, but it’s so much stronger in this universe,” she admitted.

“What?” he asked in confusion.

“What?” she repeated horrified over what she’d just said and trying to think fast enough to cover her slip. She couldn’t.

“You sure you only had half a bottle?”

“Not really.” She gave a sudden, massive yawn.

“You’re exhausted. Maybe we should pick this up later and you should just go to bed.”

“Need to dry my hair first,” she said. “If it dries like this I’ll look like a hedgehog.”

“A cute hedgehog,” he told her. She yawned again. “Can you even stay awake long enough to dry it?”

“You offering to do that, too?” she asked. “Because the hair combing was dead sexy.”

He shrugged. “If you want. Go get it.”

Rose got up and went to the bathroom and came back with the blow dryer. He plugged it in next to the bed and turned it on. Rose relaxed under his ministrations, trying not to think of what a colossal mess the night had turned out to be. John didn’t seem particularly mad at her. He had been earlier, when they’d been arguing, but he seemed to have accepted her panicked text to Mickey with relative grace, other than the few snarky remarks the two men had exchanged. The Doctor would have retreated into his shell. She was glad at times like this that John was such a very different man.

It took John nearly twenty minutes to dry her hair enough that she could sleep on it without it being an utter disaster. When he finished he parted the hair at the nape of her neck and kissed her softly. “Mmm,” she murmured. Then she yawned again. He chuckled.

“John?” she asked as he combed through her hair again.

“Hmm?”

“I’m sorry I’m such a basket case. I’m sorry I’m not a normal girl,” she told him.

“I don’t want normal. I want you,” he told her firmly. He wrapped his arms around her from behind.

“Yeah, but—.”

“No buts,” he said cuddling her gently. “I’m in this for the long haul. Why don’t you go put that stuff away?” He let her go and she returned the dryer and the comb to the bathroom.

“John?”

“What?”

“Can we sleep together tonight?” she asked. “I mean just sleep, but together.”

“That’s probably not a good idea, Rose.”

“Why not?”

“Because in the morning you’ll be sober and I’ll be…” He trailed off.

“Randy?” she asked.

“Yeah. And we still won’t have really…dealt with everything.”

“I’ll behave myself if you will,” Rose offered.

“I think we saw just how well I was willing to behave myself,” he said disparagingly. “I swear, I get around you and my self-control goes right out the window.”

“I think my head is starting to clear,” she said.

“That’s good, but Rose—.” He broke off when Rose jumped to her feet and made a sudden dash for the toilet. The sounds of retching soon echoed out of the little room. John followed her and stood in the doorway helplessly. He might have been happy playing with her hair, but holding it back while she vomited…well, he wasn’t that good of a boyfriend.

“You all right?” he asked when she came up for air. She nodded weakly. “Feel better?” Another nod. He grabbed a wash cloth and got it wet with cool water and handed it to Rose. She ran it over her face and neck then hauled herself up to her feet and brushed her teeth. He took the glass on the counter and filled it with cold water. “Here, drink this. It’ll help keep you from getting dehydrated from the alcohol.” She took it and swallowed it down slowly.

“Will you get me some pajamas?” she asked when she set the glass down. “Second drawer on the right.”

He nodded and retreated. Opening the drawer that he’d been directed to, he sorted through the nightwear on offer. Two pairs of standard pajamas with camisole tops, one rather grandmotherly looking nightgown, and buried at the bottom a baby doll nightie so sheer and see-through he knew it hadn’t been invented for sleeping in. Guiltily he put it back before he could summon an image to his head of Rose wearing it. She’d brought it to Cardiff for a reason and maybe it wasn’t yet time for that reason despite tonight’s false start, but it sure sent his mind right back to it again.

He grabbed the light green camisole and striped light and dark green pajama bottoms and took them to Rose in the bathroom. “I’m going to go shower and change,” he said as she accepted them gratefully. He closed the door behind him and went back to his own room, stripping out of his dirty clothes and hopping into the shower. Quickly he resolved his sexual tension, almost embarrassed at how easily he could with a now accurate picture in his mind of what Rose looked like naked, then scrubbed himself down and rinsed off. Once out and dried he pulled on a pair of red pajama bottoms. When he emerged from his bathroom he found Rose curled up on top of his blankets, her head on his pillow, and fast asleep.

He dropped a kiss on her head, sighed and went to Rose’s room, grabbing her blanket and pillow and bringing them back. He covered her with the blanket, climbed under his own covers, tucked her pillow under his head and turned out the light. Turning on his side he curled around her back, spooning her. His arm settled snuggly around her middle. He knew this was a bad idea, that he should just go sleep in her bed and leave her to sleep it off in peace. But ever since meeting Rose Tyler, bad ideas always tended to turn out in his favor, and for the second time that night he couldn’t really resist. Closing his eyes, he soon fell asleep to the steady sound of her breathing.



Rose awoke to the sensation of falling, as she did on occasion. It happened far less these days, but not infrequently enough to be unexpected. In her dreams she always landed in her step-father’s arms, just like she did in real life the day she’d fallen so far and so fast and right out of her own universe. This time the arms tightening around her felt different. They felt real and so did the warm body snuggled around her. “You all right?” came the groggy voice of the man holding her. John. She’d lain down on his bed to wait for him and must have fallen asleep.

“Nightmare,” she murmured. “Falling.”

“I’ve got you,” he told her becoming slightly more awake.

She turned into him, frowning at the amount of blanket between her and him. She pawed at it. “Where are you?” she asked.

“You feel asleep on top. I just covered you up.” Rose kicked off the blanket then got up, crawling underneath the bedding with John. “Rose, I don’t think—.”

“Don’t think,” she told him softly as she fitted her body to his. “Just feel.” She tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder and kissed his side before sighing softly and putting her arm on his chest, fingers splayed over his thumping heart.

“Are you feeling any better?” he asked. She nodded. “Good,” he said. He kissed the top of her head.

She raised her face to his and said, “Kiss me?” He hesitated a moment. “I brushed my teeth after I barfed,” she said with a smirk.

“I know. I saw, but that’s not why I was hesitating.”

“I’m sober,” she said. “The alcohol is out of my system.”

“All right then.” He dipped his head to meet her lips, just gently brushing them with his. Rose didn’t push for more and he didn’t attempt it. When the kiss broke she snuggled back into him.

“Night,” she whispered closing her eyes again.

“Good-night, Rose,” he said, raising his hand to stroke her hair for a moment before letting his hand fall back down to rest on his stomach. She smiled and settled back into sleep.



John woke early, as he often did. He untangled himself from Rose and went to use the loo. He debated going out for an early morning run to burn off some of his testosterone, but the sight of a warm, cuddly bundle under his covers made him reluctant to leave. He crept back to the bed and quietly eased himself back in. Rose seemed to find him like she was a magnet drawn to iron, her body snuggling towards his until she was back in his arms.

Rose was an odd one. He was beginning to realize that more and more of late. Of course her attraction to him was probably the strangest thing about her. He knew it had initially been related to the man he resembled, but that also meant she’d been attracted to someone who looked like him in the first place. He didn’t like to think about that other man and he still was slightly insecure about the guy. Rose never mentioned his name, as if it were sacred or something. Yet she’d once called him a man who could be a right bastard when he’d wanted to be.

He was convinced, more or less, that Rose liked him for him now. Well, loved him for him, after what she’d said last night, but it still sometimes felt like he was competing with a ghost. The man was a ghost who would always live up on some sort of pedestal, more than some simple human in her eyes. The few things Rose had said about the man’s brilliance and ability to handle the most dangerous of situations had made him sound almost superhuman. He was massively curious about the man while at the same time wanted to know nothing about him and wishing he’d never existed to break Rose’s heart. And yet if he hadn’t existed, would Rose’s head ever have been turned by John Smith?

Rose grumbled in her sleep. He couldn’t quite make it out. Something about the doors between realities closing forever. She shifted away from him and her hand reached out, grabbing at the pillow. “Can’t you come through properly?” This time the words were clear and sounded heartbroken. Then, “I’ve lost him, Mum!”

“Rose, you’re dreaming,” he said softly, stroking her hair, and the little frown on her face smoothed away. “I’m here. It’s John. You haven’t lost me.” He knew she was probably referring to her dead lover, but if he could soothe her with his own presence, he had to try.

“John?”

“I’m here for you, Rose. Always.”

“John.”

Her arm came up to cover her eyes as if the sun was suddenly blinding her in her dream. He did his best to ignore his impulses, but her camisole had rucked up and a small patch of her belly skin was available to his hand and he couldn’t resist stroking it. Rose made a soft, content sound in her sleep and wiggled like she was granting him better access. Damn, but he wanted to just reach up under that little top and stroke her breasts. Instead he raised his hand to her face and ran the back of his fingers along her jaw. She rubbed her face into him like a cat seeking a caress.

She snuggled against him and sighed. “John,” she murmured but her eyes showed no sign of opening.

“Rose?” he asked softly. “You awake?”

“No,” she said refusing to open her eyes. “I’m dreaming.”

“What about?” he asked.

“That there’s a warm, sexy man in my bed.”

“Well, I’m afraid your dream’s wrong.”

Rose frowned. “How?” Her eyes snapped open and she was met with his teasing grin.

“We’re in my bed, not yours.”

Rose laughed. “Semantics.” She sighed and sat up, slipping out of the bed and wandering to the bathroom. When she returned, she slipped back under the covers.

“You feeling okay? You were talking in your sleep.”

“Dreams,” said Rose. “Sometimes I dream of my old life and—.” She broke off and shrugged. “That’s not my reality anymore. I’d much rather be happy, here with you, right now than remember those things.” She smiled at him. “Now, we’ve got three hours before we need to be at work. Wanna make out?” she asked, clearly changing the subject.

“I thought it was men that woke up horny.”

“Well, didn’t you?” she asked with an impish grin.

“Well, yeah.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t, too, you know,” she told him.

“You sure you’re not feeling the effects of the wine still?” he asked.

“Bit of a headache, but I drank some water and took some paracetamol a couple of hours ago,” she said.

“I don’t want to take advantage. I almost did last night and I—.”

“Oh, will you stop with the feeling guilty?” she asked. “I threw myself at you. What were you supposed to do?”

“Exercise restraint?” he asked.

“I couldn’t.”

“You had an excuse,” he said.

“Maybe I just wanted one, so I could stop feeling so scared about moving forward,” she said. “Or of losing you.”

“You’re not losing me.”

“Yeah, I know that now.” She sighed. “Honestly, I think you were a saint to resist as long as you did.”

“I’m no saint,” he said grinning at her. “Not with the filthy thoughts I was having last night listening to you take your bath and wishing I could join you.”

Rose gulped. “Well,” she said.

“Well,” he repeated.

“You’re not exactly convincing me that we shouldn’t have sex now,” she said.

“Right. Sorry,” he said.

“No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m not,” he said with a grin. “But a couple of hours? That’s not nearly the time I want to take with you when I first make love to you. So to answer your question, yes.”

“Yes?” she asked confused.

“Yes, I want to make out with you,” he said and she giggled. “Come here.”



“Can I ask you something?” John asked later while they were eating breakfast in a little diner near Torchwood.

“Sure.”

“The man you were in love with, the man you lost…what was his name?”

Rose closed her eyes tightly and felt John’s hand come to rest on top of hers. Maybe this wasn’t the best place for it, but she knew it was time. “There’s something that I have to tell you,” she said.

“Other than his name?” he pressed.

“Yes. Because…because you need to know it before we move any further forward in our relationship and if last night—and this morning—was any indication of where it’s going, it’s time you knew the truth. It’s time you knew my secret,” she said.

“This is what you mentioned the other night. The thing you weren’t ready to tell me?”

“Yes. This is the thing I wanted to tell you before we made love for the first time, because I need for you to go into this with both eyes open. I love you, John, and I know that you love me too now, but we’re so new and I’ll understand completely if you want to back away after I tell you this. I hope…” She looked up at him with earnest eyes. “I hope that you won’t.”

“I can’t imagine there’s anything you can tell me, Rose, that can make me not want to be with you,” he said encouragingly.

She bit her lip. “Can you promise me one thing? Even if you don’t believe me? Even if you decide you’re going to wash your hands of me after this, can you promise me you won’t tell my secret to anyone? Because it’s not just about my life. There are other people, too, who have built lives on the same house of cards and I can’t be the one to tumble it down.”

“Okay. I promise that I’ll keep your secret, whatever it is.” John sat back in his chair, his long legs stretching forward as he crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her to speak.

“I’m not from around here,” she said. “I don’t mean Cardiff, but—.”

“Yeah, you grew up in Oxford, I know.”

She glanced around to make sure no one was within hearing distance. The diner was deserted and the waitress was busy filling sugar containers and was too far away to eavesdrop. “No, I didn’t. Oxford…Oxford is my cover story. I grew up in London, with my mother. My real mother. Jackie Tyler is my mother, but Pete…at least this Pete, isn’t my father.”

“But Jackie Tyler never raised a child and what do you mean at least this Pete?” he asked.

“I mean a’Peter Tyler is my father, but not this Peter Tyler. This Peter Tyler never had children. My Peter Tyler died when I was a baby.” John frowned at her. “And the Pete you know, your boss? Although he is a perfect genetic match, he isn’t my biological father and the Jackie Tyler who never raised a child? That was his first wife, the Jackie that belonged here, and she died in the Cyberwar.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Do you believe in alternate realities, John?”

“What?”

“You know, parallel universes? That for every decision that’s made or for every important event that occurs, there are many possible outcomes and each of them follows its own path, splitting off into a separate reality and forming its own?” she asked.

“It’s…a theory,” he said slowly.

“What if I told you it was more than a theory?” Rose asked tracing her finger through some sugar he’d spilled on the table earlier. She made an infinity sign. “What if I told you me—and my mum—are from an alternate universe? One where the monarchy remained and the Republic of Great Britain was never created?”

John’s mind flashed back to when they’d both been in the Torchwood infirmary and he’d told her that her mother could talk for England and she’d said for the entire United Kingdom. Not the Republic of Great Britain. And last night when she’d been drunk she’d said the wine was a lot more potent in this universe. She’d mentioned the Indy 500 before quickly correcting herself to 800 and if he thought about it, there were dozens of other little slips she had made that made what she was saying right now make sense. Either what she was saying was true or she believed it was true.

His eyes focused back on her. She was still talking. “Where people don’t travel in Zeppelins? Where Peter Allen Tyler died when I was a baby and never founded Vitex and instead I grew up poor on a council estate with a mum who barely scraped by?”

“I would…find it hard to believe.”

“But not impossible?” she asked, her eyes begging.

“If anyone other than you was telling me this, Rose…”

“It’s the truth. Me and Mum and Mickey. We were all born in a parallel world,” she said.

“You honestly believe this.” It explained so much. It explained too much for it not to be true. “The discrepancies in your medical file. Your DNA is different. Just a little, just enough. Not quite fully human, but a parallel world…it could be just different enough, you could be just different enough…”

“There’s a little more to it than that, but I’m not lying, John. I have no reason to lie to you. Not about this. Not about anything.”

“I know.”

“Except…except I have. About something else.” She looked down, tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I did it because I didn’t know how else to explain, but my…ex…he’s back in my original universe, John. He’s…he’s there and I’m here and it’s…it’s like he’s dead because he’s lost to me forever and so that’s how I think of him, as dead, so I could grieve him, so I could stay sane…and—and—it isn’t just that he looks like you, John, it’s that—.”

“He is me,” John interrupted suddenly putting a million puzzle pieces together. “That’s why you don’t ever mention him by name, isn’t it? I’m him.”

“I think you are.  Sort of. The closest thing to this universe’s version of him.”

“That’s why you’ve never told me his name.”

“No, it’s not that, it’s—.”

John sighed. “You didn’t fall in love with me. You fell in love with him all over again,” he said sadly. “It’s like your mother said. I’m a substitute love.”

“No!” exclaimed Rose. The waitress glanced over at her and she immediately lowered her voice. “No. You’re not like him. Not in more than looks. I love you. Who you are, how you make me feel. It’s different. It’s not the same and I don’t ever want you to think it is. If you were exactly the same as him, I don’t think I could love you. It would hurt too much. Please believe me that I know you are not the same man. We’ve been over this so many times already. Please, John, I can’t have you thinking that! It’s not fair to either of us because it isn’t true.”

“How am I supposed to know what the truth is?” he asked. “You’re asking me to believe in parallel worlds and duplicate people and it just all sounds so insane.”

“I know.”

“If there are twins of people…you told me the Jackie who belonged here died in the Cyberwar. What happened to the real Mickey Smith?”

“He’s dead. Only he was Rickey Smith. The Cyberwar claimed a lot of victims.”

“Is that what happened to the real Rose Tyler?” he asked.

“I am the real Rose Tyler.”

“You know what I mean.”

“The Jackie Tyler from here, she was pregnant but there was a fall. She lost the baby that would have been me. A stillbirth nearly at term. There are records of her being hospitalized if you don’t believe me,” Rose said.

“I remember coming across that when I was…”

“Snooping?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you get here?” he asked.

“The first time? By accident. The D—we crashed. We were in a…ship, an amazing space ship, and it accidentally got pulled across the Void—.”

“Void?” he interupted.

“Space between realities. Nothing exists there. It’s sort of outside of time and space.”

“Time?”

“I mean it. Nothing exists there. Not even time,” Rose explained. “That was back when Lumic first created the Cybermen and we tried to put a stop to it. We thought we were stuck here and that we couldn’t get back, but he found a way to get the ship working again and Mickey stayed behind. He had found a purpose, a calling, and he took over Rickey’s identity and eventually legally changed his name. We went back without him. Three years later for Mickey, but only a few months later for me—.”

“What?”

“Time moves at different speeds in different worlds,” she said not even trying to broach the subject of time travel with him again given his disbelief in the subject. He sighed again. “Anyway, our Torchwood was breaching the wall between worlds to generate massive amounts of energy and it let the Cybermen through to our world and it was in trying to close that breach that Pete, who we’d met the last time we were here, and Mickey, came through. Pete met Mum and she went back with him and Mickey and while…while we were permanently closing the tear between realities I…fell.”

“Your dream.”

Rose nodded. “Pete managed to save me, but I was trapped on this side of the gap and…and…he had to—had to close it. I lost him forever. That was nearly three and a half years ago now.”

“And then you met me.”

“I tried to stay away from you, John. But you wouldn’t let me stay away and I…I never wanted this, any of it, but now I have it and John…I can’t bear to lose you, too. I’ve lost everything and I never thought I’d feel this way about anyone again and if you can’t forgive me or trust me or at least try to understand I don’t think my heart can survive it,” she admitted.

“Just…just give me a minute.” John stood up abruptly and strode to the loo. Rose watched him go with sad eyes. Had she just ended their relationship before it ever had a chance to really begin?



John leaned against the bathroom door for a long minute before striding over to the sink and washing his face with ice cold water. He dried it with a rough paper towel and looked himself in the eye in the mirror. His gut said she was telling the truth and he was so crazy in love with her he wasn’t sure he would care if she wasn’t. Yeah, it was a major hit to his ego that there was another version of him out there and that she’d loved the guy first, but when it came right down to it he’d get over it. She said she loved him and that he wasn’t a substitute and he needed to keep that straight in his mind.

The other man was gone. He wasn’t a threat. The only threat to his relationship with Rose would be his own foolishness if he turned her away. Her story rang true despite its outlandishness. And he believed her when she said she loved him. He needed to go back out there and accept her story and tell her that he still wanted her.

Squaring his shoulders he went back out into the diner and sat down across from Rose. “I believe you,” he said.

“You do?”

“I know it sounds crazy, but it explains everything,” he said. “And even if it didn’t…I love you, Rose, too much to let you go. I told you I was in this for the long haul and I am.”

“You still want to be with me?” she asked.

“Yeah. Just promise me one more thing?”

“What?”

“No more secrets,” he said.

“Then there’s one more thing I need to tell you about him,” she said.

“No,” said John. “No. I don’t need to know anything more about him. Or your relationship with him. But anything else…promise me you’ll tell me anything else.”

“There is nothing else.”

“Good.”

“Except time travel does exist.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’ll believe in parallel worlds, Rose, but you’ll never convince me about time travel.”

Rose laughed through her tears. “See? You never have to worry about me mistaking you for him.”

He reached across the table and took her hand. “Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me the truth. I know it couldn’t have been easy.”

“It was the hardest thing I’ve had to do since I lost him,” she said, “but I feel so much better now that it’s out in the open.” She smiled and he couldn’t help but smile back.

John stood up and leaned across the table. Gently he laid a kiss on her lips. “I love you, Rose Tyler, and nothing is ever going to change that.”

“I love you, too.”

It was exactly three minutes and 23 seconds later that the waitress kicked them out of the diner for a rather inappropriate display of public affection that left John with a smile on his face for the rest of the day.

Ch. 28: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/403558.html

Comments

[juliet316]

Awwwwwwwwww......This is going to make the coming revelation hurt all the more isn't it?

[londoca.livejournal.com]

“No more secrets,” he said.

“Then there’s one more thing I need to tell you about him,” she said.

“No,” said John. “No. I don’t need to know anything more about him. Or your relationship with him. But anything else…promise me you’ll tell me anything else.”

Well we know where the next blow up is. Dont we.

Great chapter. I was missing this fiction

[sunnytyler001.livejournal.com]

"BTW, in my world, you're an alien"
"WHAT????"
LOL.

"If you were exactly the same as him, I don’t think I could love you"... Uhuh... I wonder how she'll react when she'll learn the truth about him.
Brilliant chapter as always! Please, write more soon! :D

[geordie-chick.livejournal.com]

Oh I am so pleased to read this but that word Alt keeps making me worried. Like Londoca says we know where the next hiccup is!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...well, maybe a bit, but remember that this Doctor may be Nine, but he is an alt!Nine and he will still be his own person. He has been shaped by different events. He isn't the same exact man. And that's so far off by the time the revelation comes around Rose won't want to give up on them. They'll have shared too much.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's a long, long way off and there will be happy times before that and so much love between them that it probably won't be as bad as you are anticipating.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, fortunately he won't be EXACTLY the same as him. He is definitely his own person even when he is the same basic model. That will help. Plus by then they'll have shared so much that giving up won't really be an option.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

In this case alt is a good thing, because he will still be his own man, just with the initial Doctor building blocks. And it'll be a long ways off yet, so lots of happy times first.

[a-proclivity.livejournal.com]

Oh man. I am super excited to see this updated and on pins and needles for what happens when Rose finds out. Jeez.

[eskridge77.livejournal.com]

I love this story. Really, a lot...

So very well done!

[emraldeyedauter.livejournal.com]

OMG what a chapter. That took me through the whole spectrum of emotion. They were so gorgeous together, just sleeping in the same bed, sweet and still sexy.

Then Rose's confession and I had tears in my eyes the whole way through although I admit it was before that during Rose's dream of the beach.

And John SMith, I fall under his spell more and more every chapter.

Bravo Lisa!

[kk-animation.livejournal.com]

Oh is everyone going to be in for a surprise when John becomes the Doctor again.

[maniacalshen.livejournal.com]

“What?” she repeated horrified over what she’d just said and trying to think fast enough to cover her slip. She couldn’t.

Hehe. And Secret Diary of a Call Girl provided the perfect mental image for this, with the amount of flailing Billie did in that show.

Yikes. I tend to forget how crazy her experiences were, so I was cringing through her explanation to John. I'm glad he took to it, though!

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Poor Mickey, getting caught like that! He was a sweetie to come over, though. And it's good that Rose finally told John the real truth. I'm just wondering what Tosh will think when she learns . . .

[sigmastar79.livejournal.com]

absoulately fantasic! more please

[valiant-queene.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I am feeling much more charitable towards Mickey, now that I know the exact circumstances that led to him storming the hotel room. He doesn't need to be smacked. He and John need to come to some kind of understanding though. Rose won't stand for any levels of hostility.

I am so glad that Rose told John the truth. All of it. Well, as much as he would accept for now. Honesty is so important to both of them and I am super excited that he didn't turn her away, and that he believed her, AND that he made sure to let her know that even if he didn't believe her, he would have stayed with her.

Is this complete disbelief in the possibilities of time travel some sort of defense mechanism set into his personality? Making sure that he stays away from anything that might remind him of his time as the Doctor? Or people searching for a time-traveling Doctor?

[themusecalliope]

Ah, good. They've cleared the air. Good thing, too, as I expect there's a lot of work ahead of them and they need their heads to be clear. (Or clear enough. *ahem*)

Good thing that waitress didn't have a camera.

[feerocious.livejournal.com]

Brilliant chapter! I love the fact that John so adamantly doen't believe in time travel haha :D

[susanb03.livejournal.com]

Very nice update!

[got_swagger]

Absolutely lovely, as always. My heart was clenching throughout Rose's explanation and I squeed at John's acceptance.

And I loved Mickey, too. It's always great to see a well-written Mickey.

[housemaid79.livejournal.com]

Love this story so, so much! Very glad that Rose told him the truth...and that he took it so well. I can't wait to see what happens next!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I wish I was able to write it faster. Of course it will still be some time yet before Rose does find out.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I love writing it.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It was hard to write Rose's confession. I was like...this is really crazy, all this stuff she did to get here and how to explain it in such a way that it's even remotely believable to a normal person...

I'm glad you fall under his spell. I do, too, some days.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Fortunately there's a whole lot of love and plot that will happen before that point. Without the relationship that they will build up before then, I'd dread to think how Rose would react.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Weren't they just insane experiences? How do you explain all that in a way that even makes the slightest bit of sense to a normal person? I wanted him to totally believe her though. I don't really want to put anymore emotional obstacles in their path just now. Thanks.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's a good man, is Mickey Smith and he will always make sure Rose is okay. Yeah, Rose needed to tell John the truth before they make love. I didn't want her doing it without having revealed that to him. I haven't spent too much time thinking about how Tosh will take things. She's not going to learn for a little while yet, but I imagine she'll blink a bit.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Perfect Micky...I can

[burntogold.livejournal.com]

"He glanced over at the bed. “There’s something stupid and it sure as hell looks like you were about to do him.”"

Oh my. That's so accurate for capturing Micky's feelings about the Doctor... that's what makes it more funny than it would otherwise be- it's so true. I can see him saying that with absolutely no strain on my imagination whatsoever.

Looking forward to seeing where this fic goes!

[shadowchsr79.livejournal.com]

Well, John took that surprisingly well. Then again he's an intelligent and rational man and he needed to know the whole truth so he wouldn't think that he was a replacement. Though I almost expected the last thing that he needed to know was not just about the truth of Time travel but that her ex was also an alien. Then again, that isn't all that important and will become moot, when the Doctor becomes himself. Of course, the way this story is progressing you might make the Doctor dealing with his past with Rose in a sequel. Or just a really really wonderfully long story.

I'm relieved that that they at least found a stop-gap for the age regression so that they have prevented any fatalities. Part of me is torn with the idea of all those who were terminal being granted a new lease on life once their proper age is restored, just without the illness, and having everything returned to the way it was before this person started messing with the human genome. Though if it does act like a virus, then there should be a way to counter it, it's just a matter of finding the right key. And if it's totally biological, then maybe it hasn't been spawned by alien tech. Of course, I'm not ruling it out, just considering other possiblities with the new information.

Having Mickey interupt in the last chapter nearly had me rolling on the floor laughing. Talk about being a cockblocker. I know Rose called him because she was tipsy and upset with Tosh's news. If you ask me, Tosh's actions were a bit of "to little, to late" which was probably better than not. Rose and John have enough things that they are working out. My only concern is that they are both going to end up in something of an emotional ringer when seven months is up. I know it's jumping the gun but they are both so wounded emotionally from their past that a dread them facing that challenge up the road. I'm sure they'll work it out when it happens but it'll be like starting over all over again.

I must admit I'm torn between seeing the conclusion of a romantic interlude between Rose and John and seeing what else is going to happen next in the escalating plot. And of course there is the budding relations between Tosh and Owen. I look forward to the next chapter. Take care