Leap of Faith: Chapter Twenty-Nine

[amberfocus]

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Title:  Leap of Faith (29/?)
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:  Sorry for the long delay between chapters.  I am finally well and writing again.

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

Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Face Familiar

Rose opened the door to Emma Yates’ room very carefully so as not to disturb the proceedings inside. She seated herself in a chair by the wall. She could hear Gabe’s murmured questions but could not quite make out the words themselves. She found herself being lulled into a quiet stupor at the man’s relaxing tones and only realized she’d fallen asleep in the chair when the lights came back on and Gabe touched her shoulder. She snapped back to attention.

“Any luck?” she asked softly.

“Yeah, a bit,” said Gabe. He glanced back at Emma. “I put her into a sleeping state from which she should awaken relaxed and calm. There’s nothing more we can do and I’d like to not discuss it in here where we might bother her. Or in front of that husband of hers, either.”

Rose got a sour look on her face when he mentioned Mike Yates. “Right,” she said. “We can talk in the car.”

It took them several minutes to move through the medical facility and return to the car park. They both got into the big SUV and Gabe put the key into the ignition but didn’t turn it. He put his hands on the steering wheel and Rose watched as he clenched his hands and released them over and over. His skin turned white and his freckles stood out in sharp relief. She waited impatiently while he gathered his thoughts, but kept herself quiet. He looked as if he were coming to some sort of big decision.

“You’re a good operative, Rose,” he said finally.

“Thank you,” she replied in startled surprise.

“I’m just…trying to figure out how much I can trust you.”

“Oh.”

Silence fell thick and heavy between them before he turned to look at her. She met his gaze evenly until he spoke again. “You know that…I do more than hypnosis, don’t you, Rose?” he asked.

Rose nodded. She knew that contact with the Balsheni four years ago had altered the mind of every person involved. Before Pete had taken over and cleaned up Torchwood there had been some involuntary testing on both human and alien telepaths. It had not gone well for either side. Gabe had worked for Torchwood for nearly thirty years, but it had still taken him several months to come forward with his new abilities. He’d already felt like a freak with his rejuvenation and the sudden onset of telepathy had made it worse.

When the rest of the operatives that had dealt with the Balsheni had developed mental abilities of one sort or another, it had become too hard for him to hide his own any longer. Fortunately Pete had kept it quiet and away from the sort of government officials who’d been in charge before and had refused to test any operatives against their will. Gabe had agreed to be tested but on his own terms and used his abilities only when he wanted to and only when he felt the situation might warrant it.

“It’s part of my job to read the medical and psychiatric profiles of all field operatives. I know that you tested as a low-level telepath after the incident with the Balsheni,” she said slowly, “if that’s what you mean.”

“I don’t exactly want that getting around,” he said.

“It’s classified,” Rose said. “And it’s personal. Private. None of my business unless you want it to be. Even Mickey doesn’t know.”

“The thing is…I’m not just low-level, Rose. More like mid-level.”

“You threw the tests.”

He nodded. “I’m better than I’m prepared to let Torchwood in general know. But I’m still not…there are others who are much better at it, much more capable than I am.”

“And Torchwood doesn’t know how good they are.”

Gabe shook his head. “No.” He sighed. “Most of Emma’s newest memories are inaccessible, but they aren’t fully erased. Not yet, though I think that was the intention. There’s an echo. I think a more advanced telepath could read them, but most of them don’t trust Torchwood and for very good reason. I’d like to bring someone in on this, a civilian who survived the incident with Torchwood none the wiser, but if I have to do it through proper channels, she won’t come. She won’t expose herself like that. And anyway, if we don’t bring her in today, that echo will vanish. It’s barely there.”

“You’re asking me if I’ll keep it a secret,” Rose said.

“It’s not my life that would be turned upside down and your father—.”

“I won’t tell him if that’s what you’re worried about. If there is something you can do, someone you can bring in who can help us stop what is happening to these people then we have to do it,” she said.

“You’re a Tyler,” he said.

“I’m a defender of the Earth first,” she said sharply. “And my primary goal is to defend human beings, whether that means against Torchwood or with it.”

“You’d turn on Torchwood?” he asked in surprise.

“Sometimes Torchwood overreaches,” Rose said darkly. “So, yes, if it’s necessary to prevent that, I would withhold the truth.”

“Good, because I think we need her.”

“Who is she?”

“She’s just an ordinary citizen who got caught up in the incident,” Gabe replied.

“That doesn’t tell me who she is.”

“I think it would be better if I didn’t tell you who she is,” Gabe said.

“You don’t trust me,” Rose said.

“It gives you plausible deniability if I don’t tell you her name, Rose, and she’s much more likely to work with us if we promise to keep it off the books.”

Rose was silent for a long moment. “All right, but I don’t like the idea of you taking all the blame on yourself for this. I’m agreeing with you. I’m perfectly willing to be culpable.”

“Hopefully no one will have to be culpable and Torchwood never finds out. Besides, I might need you some day, your contacts and power within the organization. If we get found out, I’d prefer all blame to be laid at my feet.”

Rose nodded. “So where is this woman?”

“As it happens, she’s here in Cardiff working for The Western Mail. She left London shortly after the incident. She’s a reporter. She used to work for a newspaper headquartered in London. The main offices were destroyed a little over three and a half years ago. I don’t think you’d come to work for Torchwood yet, but you might have heard about it. It was a small paper called the London Intelligencer, last of the really respectable newspapers.” Rose shook her head no. “There was a massive explosion that took out the entire building.”

“Was it alien related?” Rose asked.

“No one could ever prove it, but yes, I’m pretty sure it was being as it was Christmas and all.”

“How Earth ever survives Christmas without the—.” Rose broke off, biting her lip hard.

“Without the what?” Gabe asked curiously.

“Nothing. Never mind. So do you think this woman will help us?”

“That I don’t know, but what else have we got?”

“A whole lot of nothing.”

It took a half an hour to drive to the offices of The Western Mail. It was smaller than Rose had expected, but she supposed the fact that it wasn’t a celebrity tattletale rag meant it didn’t have quite as much money to pay the bills. “I’ll go in and get her,” Gabe said. “You wait in the car.”

“Why?”

“Because I can hardly keep her identity a secret from you if you read her name off her office door,” he said impatiently.

Rose rolled her eyes but agreed to wait in the car. Apparently Gabe hadn’t stopped to think that Rose could put two and two together. She knew the woman was a reporter, knew what paper she worked for, and she’d have a photo with her byline. It would be easy enough to find out who she was. But Rose had no intention of violating the agreement she’d just made with Gabe. The truth was that despite her early morning objections, she found she liked working with the man almost as much as she liked working with Tosh, Jake, or Mickey.

Gabe trotted off and went inside the building. It took a surprisingly short amount of time for him to reappear with an older woman in tow. Rose had to bite back a gasp as the image of the woman became clear to her. She’d met this woman before, in another life, in another world. Sarah Jane Smith. Or at least this world’s version of her. Her stomach twisted into knots of nervousness.

Despite the fact that almost everyone who had existed in her home universe existed here, Rose had met surprisingly few duplicates outside of extended family and local politicians and she had deliberately not looked up any of the people who had been her friends, knowing she wouldn’t be able to keep from comparing them. She should have known that eventually she’d run into someone from her past, someone from the Doctor’s past.

The woman got into the back of the SUV while Gabe slid into the driver’s seat. “Rose, this is the woman I told you about.”

Rose turned in her seat and met calm and confident blue eyes and a smile that was tight around the edges. “Pleased to meet you. Thank you for helping us,” Rose said simply.

“Of course,” the woman said. “Gabe explained the situation. It’s horrible. Anything I can do to help.” She pushed a wisp of dark brown hair behind her ear and Rose noticed the large wedding band and engagement ring on her left hand as she did so. This Sarah Jane had never spent her life pining after being abandoned by the Doctor, but then how could she have been? The Doctor didn’t exist in this universe.

Rose sat back in her seat as Gabe headed back to Greshem’s. She listened to Gabe and Sarah Jane chattering on, something about the woman’s grandson who was living in London and trying to make it as a photojournalist. When they pulled up to the medical facility Sarah Jane said in a sharp voice, “I thought you said Torchwood. You didn’t tell me UNIT was involved in this.”

“One of the victim’s is a resident here,” Gabe said. “That’s the extent of their involvement.”

Sarah Jane looked unhappy as she got out of the car, but quietly followed Rose and Gabe through security and into the hospital. Rose arranged for them to visit with Emma again, noting thankfully that Mike Yates had signed out and that they wouldn’t have to deal with him.

When they got to the patient’s door Sarah Jane balked. “Emma Yates? You didn’t tell me this was related to someone I knew, either, Gabriel.” Her voice had gotten quite cold, much like the Sarah Jane of her own universe when Rose had first met her.

“Mike’s not here,” Gabe said and Sarah Jane relaxed marginally. So it wasn’t that she was adverse to UNIT so much as some of the people there, Rose mused. Mike Yates was certainly a problem Rose didn’t want to have to deal with again. This Sarah Jane had obviously had dealings with UNIT just like her double.

“How do your abilities work?” Rose asked.

Sarah Jane turned to her and gave another tight smile, though her eyes were softer this time as she gave Rose an appraising look. “I don’t know how they work. They just…do.”

The older woman turned and abruptly pushed the door open. Rose and Gabe followed her through. Sarah Jane seated herself at the chair beside the woman’s bed. “Emma?” she asked softly. The sleeping woman did not respond.

“Did you induce this?” she asked turning to question Gabe.

“Yes.”

“Well, that will make things easier. Less resistance.” She turned back towards Emma and took her hand.

“Wait a minute,” Rose said. “Aren’t you going to ask for permission before you invade her mind?”

“It’s okay, Rose,” Gabe said. “I asked her about this when I had her under. She consented.”

Rose nodded and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms as Sarah Jane turned her focus to Mrs. Yates. Gabe joined her and they waited in silence while Sarah Jane sat perfectly still, her breathing even. The only movement she made was her hand twitching from time to time.

“Rose.” The word was whispered subvocally and Rose stiffened. “It’s okay, Rose. I’m inviting you and Gabriel in, so that you will see what I see. If you want. If not, you can close the connection.”

Rose relaxed and felt Gabe do the same beside her. Instinctively she closed her eyes and suddenly she was standing in a white room. It was shrouded in mist, but at its heart stood Emma Yates. She was dressed in a calf length white dress, her hair no longer silver white, but the pale blonde of her youth.

Although Rose sensed the presence of Sarah Jane and Gabe she saw no one but Emma. “Hello, Emma.” Sarah Jane’s voice echoed in her skull.

Emma laughed, the sound girlish and sweet. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I came to help you.”

“I don’t need help. I’m fine.” She whirled around, her skirt flaring out as she spun. “I can walk again.” She skipped like a child in a circle around Rose.

“Then maybe you can help me?”

Emma stopped in her tracks and turned to look back. “Help you? How?”

“How did you get the ability to walk again?”

“A man came,” Emma said with a shrug. “He healed me.”

“Why?” asked Sarah Jane.

Emma frowned. “He needed me, silly.”

“What for?”

Emma looked unhappy as she stared down at her feet. Suddenly a swing set appeared, one of the large ones found in parks and not the smaller ones confined to back gardens. She ran to the swings and got into one, quickly starting the pumping motion that led her to vigorous flight.

She moved closer to the swing set and then had to duck quickly to the ground as Emma let go at the height of her upward swing and sailed through the air to land laughing on her feet. “Look what I can do!” She suddenly did a forward flip.

“Emma!” Sarah Jane said sharply. “What did he need you for?”

Emma frowned and her eyes clouded as she seemed to search the tattered remnants of her fading memory. Then she smiled again and it was like the sun coming out. “For the future!” she said triumphantly.

“The future?”

“He needs people. People…people like me, people who won’t be missed.”

“Of course you’ll be missed. You have your husband,” Sarah Jane protested.

“I would be dead,” Emma said solemnly. “Dead in 2 months, 1 week and 3 days. So they can take me. They can take me out of time.”

“Time?” Rose couldn’t help but ask. Everything quivered and the mist swirled violently.

“Be still!” Sarah Jane ordered firmly and Rose snapped her mouth shut.

“I could stay here and die,” Emma said softly, “or I could choose to live. To never be sick again. To be young for a hundred years.”

“Why?” Sarah Jane asked again.

“I don’t like it here,” Emma said suddenly. The mist had turned black and was starting to whirl violently around them.

“Emma, why do they need you?” Sarah Jane demanded.

But there was no answer. Rose came back to herself violently and opened her eyes. Emma Yates was seizing on the bed. Sarah Jane quickly let go of her and pushed back from the bed. Rose watched as Emma cried out and her body became visibly younger. Emma was crying when it stopped and two of the UNIT doctors rushed into the room, shooing the three of them out into the hallway.

“We need more,” Gabe said punching his thigh futilely with his fist.

“I’m afraid the last remnant of her memory disappeared with the seizure,” Sarah Jane said. “It’ll have to be enough. There’s nothing left for me to read.”

“It’s far more than we had,” Rose said gratefully.

“Come on, we’ll take you back to work.”

Sarah Jane nodded and the three of them retreated to their vehicle. They rode in silence back to the newspaper headquarters. They said muted good-byes and watched as the older woman disappeared from view.

“Now what?” asked Gabe.

“Now we figure out why a man from the future needs people from the past who won’t be missed from the timeline,” Rose said.



“He’s here,” said Tosh.

“What?” Mickey glanced up at the sudden tenseness in Tosh’s tone. They’d visited four facilities already that morning, interviewing victims from the first week of known attacks, and were now walking through the very first hospice that had reported incidents of memory loss and rejuvenation, the one that both Marcie O’Brien and Tosh’s grandmother had been living in, or rather dying in, trying to refresh the memories of the staff to little avail.

Tosh grabbed Mickey’s hand and jerked him back away from the turn in the corridor. “Just to the left.”

“Who’s here?” he said dumbly, his mind more focused on the slender fingers clutched tightly around his than what the woman was saying. His sheer surprise at the sensation of heat slipping up his arm was sending all sense fleeing from his mind. He knew he’d had a little crush on Tosh; he’d spent enough time watching her train with Jake when it wasn’t truly essential, but he hadn’t considered the attraction to be anything more than ‘cute girl with big gun’ before this moment. The sudden flood of attraction he’d felt at her touch was dumb-founding and completely unexpected. He swallowed hard.

“The man we’re looking for,” Tosh said impatiently. She shook her hand free from his and glanced over at him. “The one caught in all those images on CCTV footage everywhere.”

“Are you sure?” Mickey asked as his brain suddenly came back to him. He stared at his hand like it was a foreign object.

“Look for yourself. Rose texted me a very clear picture from Gresham’s.” She dug out her phone and found the photograph of the man she’d stored there and shoved it at her partner. “Now slowly look around the corner. Try not to let him see you.”

Mickey edged around the corner and compared the picture to the appearance of the man at the end of the hallway. “I think you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” she said self-assuredly. “We should make an arrest before he does any more harm.”

Mickey edged back. “We don’t know that what he’s doing right now is causing anybody any harm. He’s just talking to a nurse. What would we arrest him for? Making people better?” Mickey asked.

“You wouldn’t say that if your family was the one affected.”

“I don’t have any family,” he said trying to keep the bitterness out of his tone. He hadn’t since Rickey’s gran had died two years ago. “And unless we catch him in the act—.”

“We’re Torchwood. We don’t have to have the usual reasons. Just suspicions. And I wouldn’t call Marcie O’Brien better,” Tosh said.

“She’s free of cancer,” Mickey pointed out.

“Yeah, but she’s an infant and we don’t know if this stabilization is permanent. He stole years from her life, years from her memories. Just like with Grandmother.”

“But your grandmother is in perfect health now,” he pointed out.

“But she can’t remember the last 30 years, Mickey. That’s nearly my whole life!”

“You’re in your thirties? I thought you were younger, like Rose.”

“That’s so not the point right now! She loses another year of her life and she won’t even remember me being born. The only Toshiko she’ll remember is her best friend growing up, the woman I was named after,” Tosh said.

“You don’t look old enough to be 30.” Damn it, why was he fixating? There was a reason he was so good at his job. It was called focus, not fixation. He shook his head violently to clear it.

Tosh was looking at him like he’d grown a second head. “We hold our age well in my family. Good genetics. Now can we get back to the point? That man is here and we need to take him in for questioning. And we need to do it now,” Tosh insisted. She started forward but Mickey grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

“No. We need to tail him, find out where he’s holed up, if he’s working alone or with others,” Mickey said. “Look, he’s getting ready to leave. We need to follow him.”

“Like it won’t be obvious we’re Torchwood,” she said. “Well, you’re obvious.” She looked down at her clothes. Her skirt, blazer, blouse, and flats could be that of any career woman. Mickey practically looked like a commando. “You take the back way out to the car park and get in the car. I’ll follow him out the front. He’ll have to leave from there and we can follow him.”

“I don’t like leaving you alone,” he said. “You’re still not fully trained.”

“I’ve got my gun,” Tosh said, indicating the small, holstered weapon under her blazer. “And you know I know how to use it. You’ve observed me often enough.” Her voice was pointed. “Now go before he leaves while we’re arguing.”

Mickey nodded and slipped away. Every instinct he had was telling him he shouldn’t leave Tosh alone, but he also knew that if it had been Rose or any other operative suggesting this course of action under the same circumstances, he’d have no qualms about it.

It didn’t take him long to get back to the car. Unlike the big, black SUV’s that most of Torchwood drove, the vehicle Mickey used was a dark blue sedan. It was sleek and had a slight sportiness to it that was far more apparent in the smaller cars of the same line. It was one he’d checked out from London and he kept a stash of personal items in the trunk, not wanting to run back to the manor every time he needed something.

Quickly he shucked off his standard issue Torchwood outfit, or at least the form fitting black jacket and gadget gear that attached to it. He slid a white, pin-striped, long-sleeved, button down shirt on over his t-shirt and fastened a red tie about his neck. His black trousers were no longer so obviously part of a uniform. This would work far better for being inconspicuous under cover, at least if no one looked at his boots.

He tucked his gun into the back of his trousers, shrugged into his sports coat to hide it, then got into the driver’s seat and waited, watching the front entrance carefully until their target emerged. A moment later Tosh came out and strolled casually over to their car. She got in as the other man was backing up his vehicle. Mickey started the car and pulled out of the slot just as she got her seatbelt fastened. She looked at his change in attire approvingly.

“No longer the poster boy for secret ops,” she said. “You clean up…nice.” He laughed at the surprise in her voice.

They tailed the man from several cars back and one lane over. Tosh put on her headset and called in to Delilah to let her know what was going on. Their conversation took several minutes, but Mickey ignored it, focusing on not losing their prize. Finally Tosh ended the call and removed the ear piece.

“Our orders are to follow him to wherever he’s going, but to not interfere with what he’s doing. If he’s going to another facility we are to let him and monitor the situation from the car park. However, if he goes to wherever his base of operations is, we’re to call for back up. Under no circumstances are we to confront him alone,” Tosh relayed sounding very irritated. “Delilah says you need someone with more field experience than just me backing you up.”

“She’s right.”

“Mickey, that’s not fair.”

“You know what wouldn’t be fair? The way Rose and John would tear strips out of me if I let anything happen to you,” he said.

“I’m not a little girl and you are not my protector,” Tosh said hotly. “I am perfectly capable of holding my own in the field.”

“The last thing I think you are is a little girl,” Mickey said. “But I’m not going to let my partner get hurt because she’s not been fully trained yet and thinks she can handle any situation that comes along.”

“I’ll have you know that I’ve been up against—.” Tosh broke off, her mouth clamping tightly shut.

“Been up against what?” Mickey asked curiously.

“Never mind. It’s classified. UNIT stuff.” There was something in her voice that made him think she’d meant to say something else entirely.

“You didn’t just work in the lab at UNIT, did you?” he asked sensing an opening into the irregularities of her past.

“It’s classified,” she repeated. “I’m not allowed to tell you what I did for them.”

“But…you did do something. Something that your CV is covering up? Something that would flag you in our computers, but not something…shady,” Mickey asked.

“Is that what today is about? You found something in my background and it isn’t adding up?” Tosh asked.

“Yeah,” he admitted.

“And they asked you to investigate.” It wasn’t a question.

“Rose’s safety comes first. Always. You two became very close, very quickly.”

“I’d never hurt Rose!” Tosh said indignantly. “And John and Rose became close quickly, too.”

“Yeah, well, not that I trust him either, but at least his paperwork is in order. Yours is—.”

“Mine is covering up undercover assignments that I’d seriously advise you not to look any further into,” she said in a hard voice.

“Tosh, I’m just doing my job,” he said.

“I will never hurt Rose Tyler,” she said tightly.

“Good,” he said.

“I wouldn’t,” she insisted fervently.

“That’s all I needed to know,” he said, but his fingers were still tight on the steering wheel.

Tosh slowly relaxed beside him. A heavy silence fell between them. When she spoke again it was to say rather shortly, “He’s turning off.”

“I see him.” Mickey turned on his blinker and switched lanes and then followed the other car around the corner. They were just in time to see him pulling into the parking area of a small industrial complex. It bordered a large stand of trees that sank down a long bank to the river that ran behind it, one of the larger tributaries of the River Taff. Mickey turned in and drove to the opposite end of the lot while Tosh kept her eyes on their quarry. She was back on the headset sending information to Delilah.

When she’d hung up again she said, “We’re to keep an eye on his car. There are no hospices or hospitals in this area, so whatever he’s up to here, it’s probably something other than taking memories and rejuvenating people. Delilah’s sending back up. Rose and Gabe aren’t too far away.”

They settled in to wait, Tosh with her eyes on the door to the building the man had gone into and Mickey keeping careful watch on the car in case the man approached it from a different direction. They both almost leapt out of their skins when a tap on Mickey’s window broke the silence.

Ch. 30:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/452876.html

Comments

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Oh, you'll find out what he's up to in the next chapter. Or some of it, anyway.