A Life Unexpected (1/15)

[amberfocus]

A/N:  I am going to start transferring some of my longer Ten/Rose fics over here now.  This one was the first one I ever wrote back in Sept of 2007.  It's a reunion!fic, with Rose finding her way back to Ten.

Story Summary:  Rose Tyler has been working for Torchwood for the last five years since she was seperated from the Doctor. She has gotten on with her life as best she can, meaning she works until she drops and then gets up the next morning and does it all again, often without going home. But everything she's gotten used to is about to change...

Chapter One:  I Work Alone

“And this is Rose Tyler. She’s our jack of all trades.” Rose looked up from the piece of alien technology she was currently analyzing to see who was being introduced to her this time. And who was doing the introducing for that matter. So many of them didn’t last long enough for her to learn their names. The turnover at Torchwood 1 was high. Turnover? When had she started using that euphemism?

It was Saree Goodwin doing the introductions, which meant it must be someone important. Saree didn’t often visit the bowels of the building. She might have gotten a smudge on her impeccable little gray suit or found her perfect black twist becoming wildly tangled working amongst the machinery. And it simply wouldn’t do for Saree ever to look less than perfect.

Saree’s dark eyes narrowed as if she could sense what Rose was thinking. One could never exactly tell with Saree. Rose’s gaze moved over to the man standing beside her boss. “Rose, this is Dr. Ian McCullen,” Saree said smoothly. “He’s a transfer from Torchwood 4.”

“Torchwood 4? I thought they’d gone missing again,” she said absently, her eyes studying the man in front of her. He seemed rather an ordinary man, not overly tall but still quite a bit taller than she was, with ruffled brown hair and warm brown eyes that stirred a bit of a memory in her brain that she savagely shoved back down where it belonged.

“It moves around a lot,” he said. She had been expecting a different accent. This man sounded Australian. “We spent the last two years in New Zealand. That’s the problem with building near a spacial distortion, sometimes the place you walk in from is not the place you walk back out at.”

Rose took that in stride. After five years at Torchwood not much fazed her anymore. Although in point of fact, not much had fazed her before joining Torchwood either. Her past had seen to that. “A lot of alien activity in New Zealand, is there Dr. McCullen?” Rose asked.

“You’d be surprised. And please, call me Ian,” he said shaking the hand Rose offered. “I’m not one for titles. It makes me feel pretentious.”

“Rose, you and Ian are going to be working together--.”

“I work alone,” Rose said sharply. “You know that, Saree.” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked almost angry. This was an argument they’d had before. Rose had always won. Apparently that was about to change.

“Ian is a specialist in temporal theory, spacial displacement, dimensional shifts, and alien transliteration,” Saree said in a clipped, disapproving tone. “He may be the only person on this planet better at your job than you are. And you will be working together. As partners.”

It took Rose a full minute but finally she gave a curt nod. Saree was her boss after all and she had always been a good one, despite her self-contained, highly controlled personality. Saree had put up with a lot from Rose when Rose had first started at Torchwood. There were few people in the universe that could out-stubborn Rose Tyler but Saree Goodwin was one of them.

“I’ll leave you to it then to give her the details.”

Rose sighed as the clicks and clacks of Saree’s shoes echoed in the distance as she walked away. She turned to Ian and then gestured to the nearby desk. “You can have that station there,” she told him. “Did Saree set you up with all your pass codes and clearances?”

“Yes. Let me get settled in and then we’ll discuss the latest project,” he glanced at his watch, “after lunch.” He went over to the desk and started unpacking a box that had been delivered earlier that morning. Rose had barely noticed it at the time. She had figured it was another project they wanted her to get around to doing. It had not occurred to her that it might be someone else’s work. He put up a picture and arranged a few little mementos on the far edge of his desk. Very domestic of him. Rose swallowed hard and looked away.

It was a half an hour later when she heard him clear his throat, “Look, Rose,” he began, “I’m not here to horn in on your work.”

“I didn’t suppose that you were,” she said.

“Then why the cold shoulder? I don’t think that I’m that difficult a bloke to get on with.”

“I don’t know if you are or not. I’m just better on my own.”

“My motto is ‘Life’s always better with two.’”

Rose felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. She’d been that naïve once. “Well, it’s not mine,” she said softly.

“You’ve never worked with a partner before, then?”

Rose didn’t reply and he gave up thinking she would by the time she finally did. “I have. It didn’t end well. Since then, I work alone.”

He sighed. “Well, you don’t work alone anymore. I’ve been assigned a new project and I’m going to need your help. Saree said you’re brilliant. She said you could translate alien languages to English. I’ve done a transcript and I’d like you to double check my work. If it flies, then we have a field assignment.”

“Hand it over,” she said. He handed her two sets of stapled papers. She read through the five pages of one and then the other. “Your translation is correct,” she said.

“Don’t you have to consult your books or your files or anything?” he asked in surprise.

“I don’t need to. My brain automatically translates it. It’s a…leftover of my previous partnership. I’m surprised to see it is as accurate as it is, though. Other people’s work seldom is. I’ve often had to fix it.” She was not being arrogant, simply stating a fact. “Did they fix you up with one of their gadgets?”

“No. My grandmother was good with languages. I guess I inherited the talent.” His fingers unconsciously moved towards a flat, silver object on his desk, grasping it and rubbing it between his fingers like a worry stone. “I inherited a lot from her.”

As Rose focused on the object in his hand she suddenly felt cold, like a chill wind was blowing at her back. She felt her dark blond hair lifting in the breeze. Ian slipped the item into his pocket and turned to look at her. Then his eyes moved above her and to the left, widening in alarm. Rose turned to look at what had caught his attention.

A revolving blue funnel of light and plasma the size of her fist was hovering behind her. Rose’s heart began to beat in double time. “I thought it was Torchwood 4,” Ian said cryptically. “But what if it’s me?”

Ch. 2:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/30377.html