A Place in Time (7/30)

[amberfocus]

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Chapter Seven:  We'll Find Our Place in Time

Rose Tyler had been working at Torchwood for a week as an assistant to a man named Dr. Owen Harper, who was in charge of the Void Breach Project. He had hit on her on her first day, made the mistake of doing it while she was holding coffee in her hand, and she had had to establish some boundaries.

Owen had grown an immediate respect for Rose from that moment on. She had feared he’d be mad enough to fire her for pouring coffee in his lap.  It had made it past the point of still being hot and just being not too hot to drink, and she was really quite fortunate it hadn’t burnt him. He hadn't gotten mad at her at all, Instead he’d started treating her more like a kid sister, something she much preferred. If it wasn't quite like how he treated the other employees, it was not disrepectful and she could live with that.  And when he discovered how much she knew about the Void and parallel universes, he began taking her opinions quite seriously.

She liked all of the members of the Torchwood staff, more or less. Toshiko Sato kept pretty much to herself, Ianto Jones was usually off somewhere in the field running the show, and Gwen Cooper she had taken quite a shine to. The woman reminded her of someone although she couldn’t place who.

It was on the Monday of her second week there that the breach visibly widened and much to her surprise a black metal cylinder with an electronic keypad on one side shoved through and fell to the floor at a stunned Owen’s feet. He bent hastily to retrieve the tube, but she stopped him before he could.

"That's void ice.  You'll burn your hand.  Wait."

He did and the thing flared red, began to hiss and the ice melted off.  A little light on it's side panel went from red to green and Rose nodded. "Now," she said. He picked it up, cracked it open and looked inside.  His eyes widened as he read the paper it contained. “What is it?” Rose asked him curiously. “What does it say?”

“It’s a message from Torchwood,” he said. “From a man named Jack Harkness.”

“Captain Jack?” Rose gasped. “Can I see it?” she asked.

Owen handed her the note and she read it hungrily.

To Whom It May Concern:

A breach in the Void between your universe and ours has opened up. It is currently stable but is likely to become unstable within 12 days. Please use great care when around the breach. When it collapses it will pull anything within its reach into the Void before sealing itself shut. The cylinder you are holding is the only known substance on Earth that can travel through the Void. Please use it to return a message to us stating that you understand and will exercise all due caution forthwith. Directions to program the tube are next to the code panel.

Captain Jack Harkness
Torchwood 3 Cardiff

Rose sighed and handed the paper back to Owen. “I know him. I knew him before I came here.”

“They told me about you, you know,” said Owen. “Said you came here from a parallel universe with a time travelling alien and you got left behind. Is that true?”

Rose nodded. “Yes, it is. Unfortunately. This message from Jack is the first piece of news from home I’ve had in nearly three years.”

“There’s no guarantee, you know, that this is your original universe. There could be another Jack Harkness.”

“The passage will exist in the place of least resistance,” said Rose. “It makes the most sense that it would be between here and my original universe.”

“Then write a message. I’ll send it through with the official document.”

“Oh, Owen, thank you,” she said. She hugged him briefly, but he was too stunned to try to take advantage of it.  Owen dictated a short letter to her, one that basically said the message had been received and they would comply. Then Rose sat down to write her own note to Jack.

“Dear Captain Jack–

My name is Rose Tyler and I am living in the wrong universe. I don’t know if you know me or not, I’m not even sure you’re in the right universe. But if you ever rescued a girl named Rose from a barrage balloon in the middle of the London Blitz, danced with her on an invisible space ship in front of Big Ben, travelled with her in a time machine with a man called the Doctor, and fought Daleks with her, then you are my Captain Jack Harkness.

And if you are, if you can find him anywhere, if you can find the Doctor, please bring him to the breach. I know there isn’t much time, but if I could just send him a letter it would mean so much to me.

Love,
Rose

Rose tried hard not to let the hope that was bubbling up from deep under the surface overwhelm her. This was the closest she would ever get to the Doctor again. To be able to tell him everything she felt in the letter that she’d kept in her purse from the day Mickey had told her of the breach, it would be worth everything else she had gone through. More than two minutes on a windswept beach to say good-bye.

She placed her missive and the official message into the tube and handed it to Owen, who carefully read the directions and carried them out. The tube shot out of his hands and into the Void. Now all Rose could do was wait.

It was only three hours before the tube returned. Owen handed her the tube and with shaking fingers she opened it and pulled out the papers inside. One was a document that she handed to Owen and the other was written in a very familiar looping handwriting. Her heart sped up as she opened the envelope with one word on it: Rose.

She took a deep breath and let her eyes fall onto the paper.

Hiya, Rosie!
You can’t even begin to imagine how good it was to hear from you. Yes, I am that Captain Jack who rescued you and danced with you and travelled with you!

Sweetie, I saw the Doctor a few months ago and he told me what happened, how you were trapped there and how he was never going to see you again. He was so sad, Rose. He misses you so much. As do I, but then I’m not a lovesick Time Lord!

I've got your message for him and I’ll make sure he gets it the next time I see him. I’ll try to get in touch with him while the breach is still open, but I can’t promise it. Right now the breach is a place in time, it’s solid. We’re moving at the same rate for now. But it won’t last and I’m not sure we’ll find it again. I’ll do everything in my power to see to it he can answer you, though. Anything for you, you know that.

I love you, kid.  I hope you know that.

Jack

Rose smiled through her tears. It had felt so good to read those words from Jack. It made her feel closer to the Doctor. “He’s my friend, Owen,” Rose said, her voice shaky. “It’s my universe.”

“I’m happy for you, Rose,” he said. “I just wish it was big enough to send you home.”

“Me, too.”

Owen nodded and smiled gently. “Why don’t you go take a bit of a break, Rose? I can handle things alone for awhile.”

“Thanks,” Rose said smiling gratefully at him. “I’ll just go and get a bit of air.”

“And Rose?”

“Yes?”

“Take as long as you need.” She nodded and made her way up to the surface and walked over to stand in front of the Millennium Center. So many memories. She watched the water fall, the simple act a catharsis, washing away her own tears in its powerful roar.

Ch. 8:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/49038.html