A Sky Without Zeppelins: Chapter Fifty-One

[amberfocus]

                                                                                                                          Banner by Mitashade

Title:  A Sky Without Zeppelins (51/55)
Author:  Amberfocus
Genre:  romance, action adventure, alternate reality, humor, fluff, smut
Characters/Pairings:  Ten2/alt!Rose, alt!Donna Noble/James Lumin, alt!Martha, Ten/Rose (briefly),
Beta:  amyo67 
Spoilers:  If you haven't seen Journey's End
Rating:  NC-17 for graphic sex, Please Note Rating Change!
Summary:  In a newly sealed off alternate reality, a chameleon arched human Ten meets a very different Rose Tyler after being left behind by his Time Lord self and the Rose he once loved.  This is their story.

Previous Chapters:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/263349.html

Chapter Fifty-One

 

Jonathon stumbles into work later that afternoon. No matter what Jack Harkness’ plans are in regards to Illuminate, he knows there are things he has to do, fail-safes that James Lumin put in place and told him about when the man first took him into his confidence. With Donna too grief-stricken to ask and Rose busy caring for her, it falls to him to put those fail-safes into action. He moves the centaurs to the invisible floor and explains the situation to the Nereidians so that they will stay hidden deep within their tank should anyone try to discover the reality of what’s inside it. He uses the adaptation of the biological masking device to hide evidence of what the creatures really are to eyes that might not understand them.

His next stop is Frank’s lab, where he fits the alien with a perception filter. Frank’s work is too important to be moved and hiding him is virtually impossible because of it. The translation program the grandmother centaur has been working on is finished and Frank installs it in his lab, into the big, bulky wall unit and promises to work on a small, portable one he can wear that can immediately translate his color image language to human words without the long, indeterminate pauses of the other machine developed primarily for use with Yumi.

Once Jonathon is assured that all that can be done to keep the aliens safe has been done he goes to find Dr. Milligan and explain to her what has happened. Although he’s pretty sure there is no evidence of the woman’s partial alien status, she needs to know to be on guard when the interim leadership from France arrives. He debates with himself over telling Martha the actual truth. If Lumin truly was sick, he would be under her care. She is already suspicious that more is going on than meets the eye and he knows that Lumin trusted her so he tells her the truth.

“I had suspected as much,” the doctor tells him. “I felt something odd happening on the psychic level last night. A disturbance in the telepathic band. I’ve been unsettled ever since.” She hesitates then asks, “Did…did Mr. Lumin destroy the last of the Caligo?”

“Yes. At least…we were told that by the organization that rescued us.”

“Organization?”

“I don’t know what it’s called, but they know a hell of a lot about alien life forms. They rescued us off the roof of Rose’s building in a helicopter and flew us out of there. They operate out of Canary Wharf,” he tells her.

Martha’s eyes narrow. “I know where you mean. I have a cousin working there. It’s got some stupid acronym of a name so around here we simply call it the Institute. Sometimes they bring us technology they can’t figure out.”

“There was a man there, a Captain—.”

“Harkness?” Martha interrupts and Jonathon nods. “You be careful of him. You make sure Rose is careful of him. And don’t trust him. Not even for a minute.”

“What? Why? Seems like Mr. Lumin did.”

“I told you. I’ve got a cousin who works there. There are things that the Captain has done in defense of this planet that would make your blood run cold,” she says.

“He seemed charming enough.”

“Oh, he is that. Makes him even more dangerous in my book.”

“He’s got…he’s got an alien there that Mr. Lumin was safeguarding. He was badly injured last night and Harkness said they could care for him there. Is he safe in their hands?” Jonathon wants to know.

“Probably. It’s generally their job to handle aliens on this planet. Mr. Lumin only deals with the ones who seek sanctuary and don’t want anyone to know they are on Earth,” she tells him.

“This one he’s kept in hiding. Down in the vault.” Martha’s eyes widen.

“No one knows what’s in that vault. Not even me. He told you?”

“I’ve seen the creature. He was what the Caligo were searching for, what Lumin gave his life to protect. The Caligo are gone, but this alien, Caelum, is in the Institute’s hands,” Jonathon says.

“I think he’ll be safe enough there, but if you are worried about it I can ask Addie if she knows anything, if she can find out how he’s doing.”

“I’d appreciate that, Martha.”

She nods, hesitates, then speaks. “How is Donna?”

“Broken. Rose is with her.”

“Can you give her my love?”

He nods. “Yeah.” He swallows hard as an image of Donna as she was when he left crosses his mind. “Yeah,” he repeats. “I’ll tell her.” He sighs and shakes himself. “I still have a lot to do before Illuminate France arrives. Hopefully Donna will be in tomorrow, to see you if nothing else.”

“To see me? Why would she need to see me?” Martha asks.

“I’ll leave it for her to tell you, but she’s going to need you for medical reasons.”

“Was she injured?”

“I really can’t say. But please make the time for her when she comes in.”

Martha nods and they say their good-byes and he gets back to work covering up the alien tracks that wind all over the inner workings of Illuminate London.

 

Two days later Renee Pascal, head of Illuminate France, arrives to take charge of Illuminate London and by the end of the week she has the company firmly in hand. She is a small dynamo of a woman, blue-eyed, blonde, beautiful and far smarter than anyone that gorgeous has a right to be. At least that’s the somewhat jealous impression that Rose has of her after spending the last few days watching Jonathon and Donna bring the woman up to speed while Rose is relegated to the fetch and carry tasks of the junior inventor that she is, and not the more active role she’s been taking under Lumin’s tutelage. Renee has run the French division for five years now and is only thirty-five herself, but somehow her experience of the world makes her seem far more knowledgeable than Rose. 

It takes a lot to make Rose Tyler feel stupid and young and this woman manages to do both within a very short frame of time. It does not help that Jonathon seems utterly oblivious to the woman’s casual digs or sharp interest in him, or that Donna, still deep in her grief but trying not to show it, seems content to let her completely take over. Not that there is much that Donna could do anyway. Fiancée or not, right hand or not, Donna’s rank within Illuminate is not one that could prevent Renee Pascal from doing whatever she wants to do. For now what she wants to do is keep the company afloat and the best way of doing that is spending time with all the major scientists, but it is obvious that Jonathon, with his brilliant mind, is her favorite.

When Rose finally manages to escape to Frank’s laboratory under the guise that he needs her help urgently for an experiment, she is marginally relieved. She’s taken to retreating there and Frank likes her company and her help. It is a safe place for her to go, especially when she feels threatened and there is something very threatening about the woman’s behavior. Maybe she’s overreacting, but she’s always trusted her instincts about people and they’ve never steered her wrong before.

Brilliant business woman or not, the pink silk drenched Renee Pascal is an outrageous flirt and she can’t stomach one more minute of Jonathon not calling the woman on her behavior. She’s seething by the time she shows up at Frank’s lab and he notices immediately, propelling himself off the lab table and floating lazily over to her in what for him is double time. A soft tendril reaches out and brushes her face and a series of colors flashes over his jellyfish-like body.

“Just a minute,” Rose says and she activates the translation circuit mounted in the wall behind her. The camera moves to focus on Frank. “What did you say?” she asks him.

“I asked if you were all right,” the computerized voice rasps out.

“I’ll be fine,” Rose says.

“Missing Mr. Lumin being in charge?” he asks. Rose nods. The cover story of James Lumin being sick has been accepted by the public and Illuminate’s employees. “That woman is going to be difficult to work with for many of the female humans.”

“At least you don’t have to deal with her. As far as she knows, aliens don’t exist.”

“I’d like to keep it that way," Frank says. "If Lumin had wanted her to know about us, he would have already trusted her with the information. She might be able to run a company well, but I will not put my life or the lives of my friends in her hands.”

“Hopefully this is a secret that can be kept.”

“I think it can. Most of us have moved to the invisible floor. It’s not anywhere on the plans and she doesn’t know anything about it.”

“True. I worry about you, though,” Rose tells him.  Because she is aware of the perception filter, when she looks at Frank she sees him both as he is and as he is supposed to appear. The image being projected is that of a competent looking man in his 40’s dressed in a neon green shirt, lab coat and jeans. His hair is long enough to touch his shoulders, is platinum blond, and very wavy. His eyes are a startling shade of sky blue. He is not a man that would fade into any crowd, and it seems counterintuitive as a disguise unless you knew what it was you were trying to hide. The second take nature of the human appearance is enough to startle humans from even attempting to look any deeper. Jonathon had been very clever indeed in designing Frank's disguise.

She feels a tendril brushing her face again. “I will be fine, Rose. I have survived for thousands of years. I can take care of myself.”

“Good, because I don’t think I could handle losing another friend right now.” She looks down at the ground and forces the image of Lumin’s death out of her mind.

“Has there been any word yet on your young friend?” Frank asks.

Rose swallows hard. “No. Rebecca is still missing. But they are still pulling people out of the rubble, some of them alive. I haven’t given up hope yet.” She knows she probably should. The city had brought in combat engineers to help stabilize the portion of the building that still stands. They’d managed to safely evacuate the survivors that had been found on that side before turning to the collapsed part.

The human body could only survive without water for three days but it had rained frequently that week and those few that had been pulled from the rubble alive had said they’d lived because the rainwater had dribbled down to them. Whether or not Rebecca will be that lucky remains to be seen. Timothy Marrow has been calling her every day with an update, his voice losing more and more hope each time he reports to her that Rebecca hasn’t been found.

“They’ll find her. One way or another.”

“Yeah.” Even though she hadn’t gotten the chance to know her new roommate well, they had spent a little time together. Enough for Rose to know that they would have been fast friends given a bit more time. She rubs her forehead above the bridge of her nose, forcing back the pinpricking of tears in her eyes and shakes herself. “The reason I came up here was to see if you needed help with your latest experiment,” she says as she pulls herself together.

“Sure. I’ve got a few things that human fingers will find easier to do.” Helping Frank proves to be just the distraction she needs to forget about the events of the previous weekend and her feelings about the new boss. By the time five o’clock rolls around Frank has to remind her it’s quitting time.

She bids him farewell and makes her way down to Jonathon’s lab. The smile he turns on her when she enters his office washes over her like a gentle rain and the knot in her stomach eases. “There you are,” he says. “I missed you today.”

“I was helping Frank.”

“Anything interesting?” he wants to know.

“A robotic probe for the deep sea explorer. It’s smaller than Kit-10 and should be able to get into crevices and cracks that are too tiny for her to enter. It might even be ready for testing sometime next week. We’ll be taking Yumi out to help deploy it. Want to come when we go?”

“Love to.”

“How’s Donna doing? I worked through lunch.”

“I noticed.” The look he directs her way is a slightly worried one. “She’s going home for the weekend.”

“To her flat? We shouldn’t let her be alone.”

“No, to visit with her mother and grandfather. But she does want to move back to her own flat on Monday. Her grandfather is coming to pick her up. She’s told him the truth. Not her mum though. Sylvia Noble couldn’t keep her mouth shut if her life depended on it, according to Donna.”

They head out to Donna’s desk and clock out for the day. She’s talking to a small old man who’s a bit hunched into himself. He looks very old, but his eyes are more youthful than any Rose has seen in a man of his age. They sparkle with the joy of life though there is a touch of sadness in them when he looks over at his granddaughter. Donna introduces him.

“Granddad, these are my friends, Dr. Jonathon Smith and Rose Tyler.” She turns to them. “Jonathon, Rose, this is my grandfather Wilfred Mott.”

“Call me Wilf,” the old man says. “Everybody does.” He shakes hands with them both. “Thank you for looking out for my granddaughter.”

“Any time,” Jonathon says.

“Donna’s family,” Rose adds. She reaches over and hugs Donna. “Take it easy this weekend,” Rose says softly, “and make sure you eat.”

“I will,” Donna replies hugging her back. When she pulls away she reaches into her pocket. “Here, I made you a key to my flat. Whenever you’re ready to move in, go right ahead. I’ll be back living there after the weekend.”

“Donna,” Jonathon begins to protest but she shushes him.

“I can’t stay with you forever. I’ve got to learn to cope on my own now. And…Rose will be with me soon enough,” she tells him. “I won’t be alone.”

“That’s important,” he says so softly that Rose barely hears him. His eyes flick briefly in her direction. “No one should ever be left with this kind of loss on their own.”

For a moment it looks like Donna is going to break, her eyes glittering with unshed tears but then she takes a deep breath, hugs Jonathon quickly and steps away. “See you both on Monday,” she says with false brightness. They say their good-byes quickly and then Donna and Wilf make a swift exit.

Rose looks around then reaches out quickly and squeezes Jonathon’s hand. “She’ll be all right. She’s with family.”

“I know,” he says, “but that doesn’t make it any easier. Come on. Let’s go home.”

Rose drops her hand away from his and puts it in her pocket. They try not to be too visibly affectionate at work, keeping most of their romantic moments behind locked doors. Few people know they are dating, just the aliens, Martha, Donna, and that tosser of a junior tech named Jeffrey Callahan who had showed Rose around her first day at Illuminate and aggressively hit on her. He’d figured it out pretty fast and despises Jonathon for it. He seems to think without the older man in his way, he’d have a clear path to Rose. She shudders. Jeffrey is everything she doesn’t want in a man.

“You okay?” Jonathon asks.

“Yeah, just thinking.”

“About what?” he asks with concern.

“Dr. Smith?”

Rose turns gratefully at the interruption. The soft voice belongs to Dr. Milligan.

“Yes, Martha?” he asks.

“I have that information you wanted on the Institute.”

“Oh. Let’s go into my office a minute then.” He ushers them back to his lab and they sit down in the forward office. Jonathon activates a small device on his desk that will jam any equipment that might be used to listen in. He’s probably just being paranoid but ever since Lumin’s death and the arrival of the Institute on the scene, he’s taking no chances with the secrets he now is the guardian of. “What did you learn?”

“That your friend Caelum is recovering nicely. Addie was there when he was first treated, helped in his treatment actually, and has had a continued role in monitoring his care. She thinks that in another two weeks he can come out of the tank of healing liquid he’s been submersed in,” she says. “After that…well, if you want to get him back she says she’s willing to steal a teleport device but you’re going to have to get in there and take his tank yourself. She’s not risking her job that far. I don’t think we can depend on him being able to teleport himself in his condition.”

“They have a tank big enough for Caelum at the Institute?” Rose asks.

“It’s not so surprising considering the size of the Nereidians tank here,” Jonathon points out. “Or Yumi’s.”

“But Caelum’s huge.”

“True, but he lost half his size the night of the attack,” Jonathon reminds her. “He’d easily fit in there now if necessary. But it would be better to move him after he’s completely healed and won’t need the medical bath anymore. Then we can just get him back into the vault.”

“How? Mademoiselle Pascal is using Mr. Lumin’s office during the interim.”

“We can do it after hours. She doesn’t stay much past closing time,” Dr. Milligan replies.

“That’s good to know. I’d rather not leave him in the Institute’s hands any longer than possible. If we can make a good plan to get him back here, it’ll go a long way towards making me feel better about leaving him there so long,” Jonathon says.

“I should be on hand the day you move him. I know a bit about alien physiology and he may still need medical attention. Did you ever find any files on him?” the doctor asks.

“I’ve looked through most of what I have access to. I may need to hack Lumin’s personal computer, see if he has anything on it,” Jonathon says.

“No need for that. I’ll ask Krattippe to go into the system and search for anything she can find,” Dr. Milligan says. “She has a full building link up in the back of the new centaur enclosure on the invisible floor.”

“Good, good. You take care of that and I’ll see what I can find out about getting into the Institute’s systems. I don’t suppose your cousin can provide some sort of a back door in through their firewall?” Jonathon asks.

“I’ll ask her if she’s willing. That’s all I can do.”

“Okay. We’ll check in with you again on Monday then. Hopefully we can get this ball rolling in the right direction.”

They make their good-byes and head out for the night, taking each other’s hands only when they are safely outside of the Illuminate Campus. They head for a nearby restaurant as Rose is starving from missing lunch. It’s a little Vietnamese place and Rose greedily scarfs down a bowl of beef pho before even considering further conversation with Jonathon. Once the soup is gone she moves on more slowly to her Bò kho and she is much more willing to talk.

“I really wish that Keisha and Mickey’s wedding weren’t tomorrow,” Rose says with a sigh. “I love my friends, and I need to see them get married, but it’s a really bad time. I don’t have anything to wear. Literally. All of my nice dresses were destroyed with the building collapse. I wish I’d kept at least one at your flat. Even my bridesmaid dress from mum’s wedding would have been something I could wear there.”

She sighs and rubs at the bridge of her nose. Jonathon looks up from his Ga nuong sa and reaches across the table, picks up her hand, and gives it a squeeze. “We’ll go buy you a dress after dinner. You’re an Illuminate girl now. You can afford to buy something nice for yourself once in a while.”

“I know, but I’ve got so much else I have to buy. Clothes for work, bed linens for Donna’s flat. A bureau.”

“So we’ll shop for things Sunday. It’ll be like when we first met, only the opposite.”

“It’s going to get expensive.”

“You haven’t touched the last two commission checks from Temmel’s that you got, Rose. You can afford this,” he says gently.

“I know. It’s just that I like having a fat savings account. It makes me feel safe. I was poor for so long, having an emergency fund is my security.”

“But isn’t an emergency fund just for this sort of thing? Your home disappearing on you with most of your things in it?” he asks logically.

“Yes. I know you’re right but…”

“You’ve got a great job now, Rose. You can build it back up again,” he points out.

“I don’t mean to be unreasonable. It’s just for the first time in my life I don’t have to worry about money, so long as I have a nice cushion in the bank. I like that feeling. I’ve only had it for a few weeks.”

“You know, we don’t have to buy everything new. We can shop at second hand shops if it’ll make you feel any better. Let’s just get you a nice dress and some shoes for the wedding right now and maybe a few necessities and then on Sunday we can hit all the good thrift shops you know about,” Jonathon suggests.

“Yeah, okay.”

Their desserts come then and Rose looks rather disapprovingly at Jonathon’s deep fried banana and ice cream. She herself has chosen Bánh rau câu and the pretty little gelatinous cake, carved with hearts and flowers, is tiny in comparison. “I like bananas,” he says at her look.

“That’s not a banana. That’s a heart attack waiting to happen,” she says dryly.

“Still very good though.” He waves a bite of it under her nose and she grudgingly eats it. “Hmm? Good?”

“Yes, but I don’t have the metabolism of a squirrel.”

“You don’t exactly have one of a sloth, either,” he points out.

“Still, you love my body the way it is.”

“I’d love you at any size, whether a few pounds more or swollen with our child someday. You’re beautiful to me because you’re Rose.” He strokes his hand down her arm. “This is just the package that you come in.”

She smiles at him, desire surging through her at his words, then says softly, “Before we go shopping can we go back to the flat for a little bit? What with Donna living with us and the upheaval at work with that woman coming in, things haven’t been the same and I could really use a good shag.”

Jonathon laughs. “You don’t even have to ask.”

Ch. 52:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/273810.html

Additional Author's Note:  Almost forgot, this is what Renee Pascal looks like: