Leap of Faith: Chapter Three

[amberfocus]

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Title:  Leap of Faith (3/?)
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, thetesh
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 and based mostly, but not completely, on my short story Third Time's the Charm:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/319447.html, but it is not necessary to have read that.

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

Chapter Three: Smith (Mickey) and Tyler

Mickey Smith liked his job at Torchwood. He was proud of the work he did and it showed. Along with Rose, Jake, Martin Johnson, Liam Winters, and Shelle Myers, who was currently out on maternity leave, he led one of the departments in charge of field operations. His official title was Director of Field Operations Weapons Technology Division. As such, he worked closely with both the tech heads and the operative training department staff. New technology came into Torchwood all the time, either from downed space craft, attacking aliens, space junk falling to Earth, or sometimes via the Rift over in Cardiff. The people down in A&R and R&D picked it apart, discovered how it worked, put it back together again and recommended human uses for it.

Some of it then went on to the commercial side of Torchwood, where it was merged, usually seamlessly, sometimes disastrously, into product designs already on the drawing boards of current industry, usually through Vitex Corporation or one of its subsidiaries. The majority of it went into weapons research right there at Torchwood. Very rarely was any weapon ever used directly as it was found. Instead it supplied parts or features of human designed weaponry and more often, protective gear. It was his responsibility to see that all operatives were kept up to date on the new products, as well as to take teams out in the field for basic, and not so basic, operations.

Mickey’s office was inarguably the most eclectically decorated room at Torchwood. He was a collector, though there was no discernable pattern in what was collected. Odds and ends littered the shelves, mostly whatever had caught and held his attention for any length of time. The desk was the only thing neat and tidy about the place. It felt lived in and comfortable and that was the way Mickey liked it.

His prize jewel, of course, was the framed Torchwood recruiting poster that hung on the wall directly behind his desk. It was the first thing anyone walking into the room would see and it was the one thing Rose wished desperately he’d take down. It had started as a joke when she’d first started working there. Jake had drawn up a comic book style poster of her, Mickey, and himself looking somewhat like superheroes. They even sported black capes.

They all wore outfits that were similar to Torchwood field gear, but in the poster they were skin tight and as in most comic book drawings, things were exaggerated in certain places. Her breasts and hips were way out of proportion to the tiny waist Jake had given her, and in no way looked realistic. Unfortunately the face was all hers and the come hither look on her pouting, too red lips offered promises she didn’t particularly think should be coming from a comic book version of herself.

Rose was front and center with a large plasma cannon in her arms and her foot propped on top of a Cyberman’s helmet. Her hair, a pale white blonde at the time and close to the length it was now, snaked down one arm in a long, curly ponytail; another liberty taken because her hair had just touched her shoulders then and Jake had never seen it long. Jake and Mickey stood to either side of her, guns held against their opposite shoulders, the smoking remains of Cybus Industries burning in the background. At the top of the poster, in orange flaming letters it read I WANT YOU and in smaller font, To Join Torchwood.

Rose always thought it looked more like Rosie Does Torchwood than anything else. When Advertising had somehow got a hold of it they’d loved it, but she’d put the kibosh on anyone using her image like that and had refused to participate in an ad campaign that had followed the redesign. Her father had come down on her side initially, agreeing that it looked like a bad porno ad or an even worse sci-fi book jacket, but he had okayed the final version.

Shelle Myers had stepped in when the outfits became more realistic and the wording had been changed to Torchwood Wants You instead of I Want You. The image of Shelle had looked much closer to the pretty woman’s actual appearance though Rose thought the chest was still too big for the body of the diminutive brunette. The campaign had been a smashing success, bringing in more tech geeks and new muscle than any other drive.

Jake had given the original drawing to Mickey for Christmas that year and he’d been thrilled, promptly hanging it up in his office. Rose had given up trying to get him to take it down. He was proud of it, proud of all they’d done to stop Cybus, and thought Rose was being silly about the whole thing. And if she hadn’t been Pete Tyler’s daughter, she didn’t think it would bother her so much. She knew this far after the fact that she ought to have a sense of humor about it. As a piece of art she could appreciate that it was amazing work, but if there was one thing she hated it was coming off like a sex kitten without a brain.

Part of her problem with the drawing had been that at the time it had come into existence she was pretty new to Torchwood and she’d been having a hard enough time getting people to take her seriously on her own merits. All most people had wanted to do was gossip about her origins or think she’d gotten the job because of her father. She’d proven herself soon enough, but back then it had made everything worse and she still resented it on principle.

“You don’t actually have laser eyes, Rose,” Mickey said. “You’re not gonna burn a hole in the poster just by glaring at it.”

Rose very maturely stuck her tongue out at Mickey. “I sent you the schedule for training this morning. Have you had a chance to look at it yet?”

“Yeah. Toshiko sent a message to me that Dr. Smith would be unable to attend the introductory session on Monday because he’s got a science symposium he’s supposed to go to. She’s accompanying him so they’ll both need to be rescheduled. Other than that, it’s all good.”

“Okay.” She fiddled with a toy space ship on the edge of Mickey’s desk. “Got any plans for the weekend?” Rose asked. She was stalling, trying to avoid going back to her own office to face the new mound of paperwork that had been delivered as she was leaving.

“I’m hosting a little get together for the U.K. premiere of season eight of Firefly tomorrow,” he said. “We’re going to spend the whole day watching the best episodes of the first seven seasons and then the new one when it comes on at night. You’re welcome to tag along if you want,” he said. “Liam’s bringing his latest.”

“No, that’s all right. I’ve got plans. Besides, everyone knows you can’t get through all the best episodes of Firefly in one day,” she teased.

“Yeah, it’ll probably run over through Sunday, too,” he agreed with a grin. “So what are you going to do then?”

“I’m spending Saturday with Toshiko,” she said. The clear surprise on her friend’s face made her frown. “What? I can make new friends.”

“I know you can, Rose, but when’s the last time you have?” Mickey asked.

She shrugged. “Time to live again,” Rose said softly.

Mickey reached out and covered the back of her hand with his. “I’m glad, Rose,” was all he said.

She nodded. “I’ll put Dr. Smith and Tosh on the schedule for the following Monday then, shall I?”

“Yeah.”

Rose stood up and pulled her hand out from under Mickey’s. “See you on Monday then.”

“Okay. And feel free to stop by Sunday if you want. Bring Tosh, too, if she’s a fan,” he said.

“All right. See you later.”

“Bye.” Rose left his office, glanced at her watch, and smiled. It was time to clock out. She’d deal with Monday and all of the paperwork waiting for her when it came.



When Saturday arrived Rose was as nervous as a school girl going out on her first date as she prepared for her day out with Toshiko. She used to be so good at this, the ease of female friendship something that had always just fallen into place for her, even upon meeting new people. Except for her aborted attempts to befriend the Keisha and Shireen that existed here, she’d held herself apart from that sort of thing since finding herself stuck in this parallel world, and her social skills, long since disused, seemed to have atrophied fiercely. At first it had been because she’d still believed the Doctor would come for her and there was no use in making attachments here. After a while, it had simply become habit. It was easier on her broken heart not to get close again.

She changed her clothes five times before finally settling on the first thing she had picked out; dark blue jeans, a sky blue jumper, and white trainers. She reluctantly eyed the gorgeous midnight blue colored suede boots that she’d picked up the week before, but knew they’d be vicious to her feet and highly impractical with their three inch spike heel. They’d be walking a lot today and she wanted to be comfortable. She glanced outside and saw that the wind was blowing pretty strongly so she retreated to the bathroom and put her long, brownish-blonde hair into a pony tail to keep it from blowing into her mouth. She was going to have to color it again soon or give up on the idea of being a blonde altogether.

Gathering her keys and purse, she shrugged into her three quarter length black leather jacket, tying it closed at the waist. She slipped her work mobile and gun into her purse and made sure she had her Torchwood I.D. and concealed weapons permit. Torchwood operatives were required to remain armed at all times and though it could sometimes be annoying, it had become second nature to her after three years. With one last glance in the mirror to check her makeup, she locked the flat and headed to the building next door and up three flights of stairs to 309.

She knocked sharply on the door and a few seconds later, Tosh answered it. “Hello, Rose. Come in.” She had a cordless phone and had covered the mouthpiece with one hand while she spoke to Rose. Rose followed Tosh inside and sat down on the couch trying not to eavesdrop on the conversation, but unable to shut out the words in the small room. “Because it’s Saturday, that’s why.”

Tosh paused for a moment and Rose could hear the grumble of a male voice over the line. “I’m pretty sure Torchwood, and you, can get by without me there for one day.” Tosh rolled her eyes and glanced up at the ceiling, her face very clearly saying she was asking for someone to give her strength. “It’s my day off and I have plans.” Another pause. “It’s not really your business what I do in my spare time.” Tosh held the phone away from her ear as the blast of annoyance shot through the phone line.

She yawned and pulled a nail file out of a nearby drawer. She cradled the phone against her ear again, holding it with her shoulder, and started filing gently against the right side of her left index finger. “I don’t care what they brought in last night. It’ll keep until Monday. I’m going out with my new friend. You know what those are, don’t you, Dr. Smith? Friends? Yeah? Then try making some of your own.” She switched to her second finger, her filing slow and steady. “Besides me.” She didn’t seem the least bit rattled by her boss ranting on the other end of the line. “If you must know I’m going out with Rose Tyler. Yes, that Rose Tyler.” She rolled her eyes again. “How should I know? We’ll be done when we’re done. What are you, my keeper?”

Rose couldn’t help the small smirk that was starting at the corners of her mouth. The woman certainly wasn’t about to let Dr. Smith push her around. She liked strong women. Keisha and Shireen, the ones from back home, had been strong girls that no one tried to push around. At least not more than once. She’d chosen wisely in befriending Toshiko. “Well, I’m not yours either. Unless it’s an emergency, I’m not coming in on the weekend.” Rose’s smile widened.

“Good-bye, Doctor. Yes, I am. I’m hanging up now. I am. This is me, hanging up.” Tosh hit the end button but continued to hold the phone.

“Ready?” Rose asked.

Tosh held up one finger. “Just a moment. Three, two, one.” The phone rang. She turned it back on and answered it. “The takeaway menus are in the drawer next to the phone.” She paused. “Iago’s delivers to Torchwood. The number nine combination. Yes, Doctor.” She grinned. “Yes, I will enjoy my day off, thanks. Bye now.” She hung up again.

“I swear that man wouldn’t be able to function in the day to day world without me there to hold his hand,” Tosh told Rose.

“Sometimes that’s what you need most,” Rose said softly. “A hand to hold.” The unbidden memory of her second Doctor’s words telling her that nearly four years ago washed over her. She bit her lip, then realized what she was doing and shook herself. “Ready to go?”

“Yep.” Tosh shrugged into a wool peacoat in a rich, toasted marshmallow color, pulled her long black hair out of the collar, grabbed her purse and her keys and motioned for Rose to lead the way.



The next couple of weeks were ridiculously busy, the aliens of the western spiral arm of the Milky Way deciding that Earth was the go to destination for the entire month of September, but Rose and Toshiko found ways to keep the burgeoning friendship going. Between tiny moments snatched over coffee in Ianto’s office or their daily lunch date in the cafeteria when field ops didn't take Rose from the building, both women had made it a priority to find the time to get together.

Tosh said Rose kept her sane. Rose felt like Tosh’s friendship was just the distraction she needed to stop feeling so sorry for herself all the time. Once a week they went out, sometimes to a dance club, other times to a movie, and once to a science symposium that Dr. Smith had sent Tosh to because he was too busy to attend, but wanted to be kept abreast of. She couldn’t get out of it so Rose had volunteered to go with her and had surprised herself by thoroughly enjoying it.

Rose knew that Dr. Smith didn’t like losing the company of his assistant so much. Toshiko said he complained constantly that she never ate lunch with him anymore, but since Rose still hadn’t even met the overbearing man, it didn’t really faze her if her friendship with Tosh bothered him. Her friend deserved a life of her own and Rose was beginning to realize that she needed one as well. Parts of her that had been numb for years were slowly coming back to life. She was still lonely, though. Sometimes out of nowhere the ache of it all, of what she had lost would hit her with overwhelming grief. More and more often though lately, it wasn’t as furious a grief as it used to be and sometimes Rose felt guilty about that, too.

There were other things to feel guilty about as well. She’d just come from her father’s office where he’d reamed her out for breaking another partner. It wasn’t that she had disliked Martin, he’d been more agreeable than most, but that was the problem, really. After eight weeks of him agreeing with everything she said, doing everything she told him to, and never thinking for himself or questioning her authority when they were supposed to be relatively equal partners, for crying out loud, she’d had enough.

She might be the Director of Field Operative Training, but when it came to the teams themselves she wasn’t in charge. That was Jake’s bailiwick. She wanted a partner who could challenge her and all Martin had done was try to keep the peace. She’d finally lost it and berated him rather unfairly. Unfortunately this hadn’t been the first time, but at least she’d kept her temper until they’d been in private. Martin had threatened to quit Torchwood altogether if Pete didn’t reassign him to another partner. Since his skills in surveillance were second to none he was not a man Pete felt like losing.

Rose rubbed her temples tiredly and clicked her way onto a website she was all too familiar with. She ordered Martin a fruit basket by way of apology. She wasn’t a complete bitch and she knew she’d gone too far yet again. She wished she could just go back to working with Mickey or Jake, but those days were long over. Torchwood needed to send out too many teams too often and those with the most experience needed to be partnered with those that had less, so that they could get the experience to lead their own teams if they ever got up to full strength again.

It was part of why Torchwood had every operative go through mandatory field training. They needed to find more field agents desperately, even if it meant stealing them from other departments. Teams had fallen down to four people from the six they used to go out with and that wasn’t really safe in a true alien emergency.

Sometimes two teams would have to combine into one for anything Jake deemed too dangerous to not have full back up on. If things didn’t pick up soon, she was afraid it would be dropping down to teams of two. They could always recruit more scientists, but field agents were much harder to find so promotion from within was paramount right now, which meant every new hire needed to complete training and be evaluated within their first two months of employment.

A knock on her office door startled her out of her thoughts. “Enter,” she called out.

Mickey ambled in. “Rose, have you seen Toshiko? She hasn’t shown up yet for the mandatory training session.”

“Have you called down to Artifacts and Reclamation?” she asked.

“Nope. Thought I’d check with you first, since she seems to spend any spare time she has up here,” Mickey said.

“Has Dr. Smith shown up?” she asked.

“No, but he’s rescheduled again. Something about an important experiment in progress.”

Roes sighed. That was the third time Dr. Smith had wormed his way out of training. Tosh had at least been to two sessions. Dr. Smith hadn’t even been to his first. She was starting to think he had no intention of ever going. “Well, I haven’t seen her.”

“Do me a favor, babes, and give her a call,” Mickey said.

“Scared to go down and fetch her yourself?” Rose teased lightly.

“The boys tell horror stories about walking into Dr. Smith’s territory. Haven’t met the man yet, so far I’ve only dealt with Tosh when I’ve taken in new tech, but from what I can tell I don’t want to meet him,” he said.

“He can’t be that difficult,” Rose said.

“Ha!” said Mickey. “Even Liam’s afraid of him.”

“Liam?” Liam was 6 foot 4 and a solid wall of muscle. “I didn’t think anything could scare him.”

“Makes you think, doesn’t it? So give her a ring and ask her to get herself over to the training center, please. I’ve got to round up one more stray. Rachel from accounting. I heard Jake say she was hiding up in Davis’ office. She doesn’t like guns and they start shooting today.”

“Shouldn’t have come to work for Torchwood then. Good luck finding her,” Rose said rolling her eyes. She made a shooing motion at him to send him out of the room, but he settled on her desk instead. “What?” she asked.

“I heard about Martin, Rose. You gotta stop doing this or you’re going to get stuck in the office full time. There’s not going to be anyone in management left that’s willing to do field work with you,” he said.

“I can always stick to just doing operative training full time instead of just arranging it,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, and scare them off before they have a chance to show what they’re made of,” he retorted.

“I’m not that bad, Mickey.”

“Yes, Rose, you are. I know that no partnership can ever measure up to the one you had with the Doctor—.”

“Don’t, Mickey, please don’t,” she said.

“I know you don’t want to hear it, but you need to, Rose. It’s been three years. He’s not coming back. You will never have that perfect, world saving relationship again. You have got to let it go,” Mickey told her.

“Don’t you think I’ve tried?” she demanded.

“If you don’t find a way to change, you’re going to get kicked out of Torchwood altogether. It doesn’t matter who your father is if no one can work with you. And I know UNIT won’t take you despite your experience. Lucas works there now and he’s never forgiven you for showing him up when you first started here. So what would you have left if you had to leave here, Rose? You’ve got no life outside of work.”

“I have my friends.”

“Who? Jake? Ianto? They’re work friends. How long are you going to hold onto those if you no longer have clearance for the sort of stuff we talk about in our down time at the pub? Come to think of it, you never go down the pub with us anymore.”

“I’ll always have you and there’s Tosh now,” she said. “I’m making an effort, Mickey, really I am, it’s just…damn it, Mick, it’s so hard!”

“I know it is. But you are strong, Rose. Stronger than any woman I’ve ever known. I have faith that you can pull yourself out of this. Promise me you’re going to try,” Mickey said. He reached for Rose’s hand, squeezing it tight.

“I promise,” she told him.

“I’ll do whatever I can for you, babes, but you gotta do as much for yourself.”

“I will.”

“Good.”

“Good.” He rose from her desk. “Don’t forget to call Tosh,” he said and with a wave over his shoulder, he left her feeling more emotionally drained than the brow beating from her father had.

With a loud sigh of frustration at life in general and Mickey in particular, she searched in her desk for her mobile, but she’d forgotten to charge it and the battery was dead. Well, so much for calling Tosh directly. She’d have to use the direct line to A&R. Rose plugged in the mobile to charge and then picked up the clunky desk phone handset and dialed the number. It rang several times and she was just about to give up when it was answered.

“Smith.” Rose felt the one word roar through her body as the line was picked up at the other end. That…no. Just no. “What?” came the impatient voice again. “I don’t have all day to wait around on you idiots.” The phone slammed down when she said nothing.

That voice. She would know it anywhere. Sure, it wasn’t Mancunian. It was, if she’d heard it properly, Scottish. But the timbre, the sounds themselves, had a familiarity that ached. With shaking hands Rose put down the phone. It had sounded like the Doctor. Her first Doctor. It couldn’t really be him. There was absolutely no way. She was hearing things. Her mind wanted it to be true so badly, that he could be here, perhaps before he’d known her. Time was funny that way when you could travel through it like it was nothing. Everything she’d read in his file hadn’t matched with the Doctor she’d been separated from, but it fit her first Doctor like a glove. Why hadn’t she considered that? Just because her Doctor had regenerated didn’t mean a duplicate would have or that it couldn’t have been an earlier version of him, travelling through from his side before the walls had closed.

She should go find out once and for all. At the very least she should look up his file again and check that photograph. She’d thought it couldn’t be him because his stats hadn’t matched with how he’d looked the last time she saw him. She had to know. She typed in his name on the keyboard and had just hit enter when her phone rang and she jumped. With a hand over her racing heart she answered it.

Ch. 4: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/328823.html