Leap of Faith: Chapter Twenty-Eight

[amberfocus]

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Title:  Leap of Faith (28/?)
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:  Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow to everyone in America.  Happy Thursday to everyone else.  Sorry it took so long for this chapter.  I seem to have my mojo back now with this fic though, so hopefully no more long delays.

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


Chapter Twenty-Eight: Change of Plans

“Ready to go, Tosh?” Rose asked as she strapped on the last of her Torchwood gear.

“Actually, Rose, Tosh is going out with me today. You’ll be working with Gabriel,” Mickey said.

“I’ll what?”

“You’re working with Gabe. You know? Red-head? Rejuvenated? More experience in his little finger than the rest of Torchwood combined?”

“Why?” Rose demanded ignoring Mickey’s sarcasm.

“I have my reasons,” Mickey said. “And I’ve cleared it with Delilah who agrees.”

“You went over my head to reassign me?” Rose asked with a frown.

“Not at all. Now don’t be difficult with Gabe. He’s one of our best. I know you don’t know him well, but he doesn’t deserve all the regular crap you dish out on a daily basis to your partners,” Mickey said.

“If they’re competent you well know that doesn’t happen,” Rose said mutinously.

“Whatever,” said Mickey. “He’s damn well competent and you know it, so don’t reduce a fifty-year-old man to tears. He’s waiting in the car park. Let him drive.”

“Mickey.”

“Let him drive. Tosh, are you ready?”

Tosh, who’d been watching the exchange with a small degree of concern nodded and followed Mickey out the door.

“What was that all about?” Tosh asked as she climbed into the jeep next to Mickey.

“What was what all about?”

“You and Rose,” Tosh said.

“Difference of opinion,” he said tightly.

“Looked like it was about a lot more than work,” she said shrewdly, buckling her seat belt. Mickey backed out of the parking slot and started towards the first hospice on their list. He shrugged but didn’t answer.

“I know Rose has a reputation for being difficult,” began Tosh.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Mickey interrupted before she could continue.

“But she is a professional,” Tosh continued as if Mickey had said nothing. “So I’m inclined to think this is definitely about more than work.”

Mickey pulled to a stop at a red light and glanced over at Toshiko. “Maybe it is,” he said tightly.

“Is this about Rose’s relationship with John?” Tosh asked.

“No, it’s not!” Mickey snapped forcefully.

“Right,” said Tosh in a voice that clearly called him a liar.

“Look, Tosh, you don’t know me well enough to even presume to know what’s going through my head when it comes to Rose Tyler. Or John Smith for that matter.”

Tosh put a staying hand on Mickey’s arm. “I know that you’re her ex. I know it didn’t end well. I know that John can be an arse and be arrogant and smug and the sort to rub things in your face,” Tosh said.

“John wasn’t the one rubbing anything in my face,” Mickey muttered.

“Rose?” Tosh asked in surprise.

The light turned green and Mickey pulled forward. His jaw was twitching and he had to concentrate to unclench his teeth. “I’m over Rose,” he said. “Have been for a long time. Her relationship with John is of no concern to me except in how it affects her work.”

“And how does that translate to you splitting the two of us up?” Tosh asked.

“I didn’t reassign you to split you up from Rose,” he said. “You never completed your field training before coming down here. I just need to observe you in the field, make sure you’re competent.”

“Of course I’m competent. That seems to be your favorite word today.” Tosh put her hand back in her lap.

Mickey raised one hand off the steering wheel. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. He took a deep breath, let it out, and modulated his tone. “I need to see where you’re at, how you handle yourself in a real world situation, and figure out if there is any more training that will actually be necessary when we get back to London. The last field assignment was a nightmare.”

“That wasn’t my—.”

“I know, I know.” Mickey raised his hand in the air again to stop her. “It was through no fault of your own. I get that. But you are inexperienced.”

“You know I’ve worked at UNIT. I’m not exactly a newbie.” Tosh tried not to sound indignant.

“You worked in a lab at UNIT,” he said. “And—.” Mickey stopped himself before mentioning the discrepancies in her work history.

“And what?”

“And it’s not the same thing as field work.” Mickey turned on his blinker and made a left turn. “How long have you known John Smith?” he asked.

“So this is about Dr. Smith.”

“This is about you.”

“I don’t think it is. I think you’ve got something stuck in your head and you’re trying to work it out of your system, meanwhile I’m bearing the brunt of whatever it is you’re worrying to death,” Tosh said shrewdly.

“Just answer the question,” Mickey said irritably. “How long have you known Dr. Smith?”

“I don’t know,” she said carefully. “A while.”

“You met him at UNIT?” Mickey pressed.

“I-I met him at school.” Her stutter was so slight he almost wouldn’t have noticed it if he hadn’t been listening for it. “He was a professor at Oxford. I was a student there.”

“And you took his classes.”

“I was enrolled in several,” she answered carefully. “You’ve seen my CV.”

He asked her a few more questions, poking at the carefully covered holes in her back story. He listened for every slight hesitation, every tiny stumble she made so he would know where exactly to investigate further once he had a laptop in front of him again. She didn’t stumble again and either she was very, very good at covering her tracks, or he truly was barking up the wrong tree.

When Tosh turned the conversation back around to his own past, he let her steer him away from his questioning and talked a little bit about himself, though nothing before coming to Torchwood and this universe. By the time he pulled into the hospice parking lot, he didn’t think Tosh was suspicious of his motives, but with a woman as intelligent as her, he simply couldn’t be sure.



Rose was out of sorts as she settled into the passenger side of the SUV she’d been assigned to use while working for Torchwood Cardiff. She didn’t know why Mickey had pulled a last minute switch, insisting that he be partnered with Toshiko for the day, and pairing her with Gabe. It wasn’t that she disliked Gabe. What little she knew of him all pointed in the direction of him being the very best sort of operative, but she’d wanted to talk with Tosh, tell her some of what she’d told John over breakfast. Now that she’d told John the truth, she didn’t want to hide if from her friend anymore, either. She sighed heavily as Gabe started the vehicle and headed them into traffic.

“What’s wrong, Rose?” he asked.

“Aside from the fact that I didn’t want to be partnered with you in the first place?” she snapped.

“Rose.” He wasn’t exactly admonishing, but she still sat up straight and apologized at the hidden chastisement in his voice. It was hard to remember sometimes how old her temporary partner was when she looked at his youthful face. He sounded just like her mother when she was particularly disappointed in Rose.

“I’m sorry. I just like working with Tosh,” Rose said.

“And not me?”

“No, Gabe, you know that’s not true. I just…things were set and then Mickey pulled this last minute change and I—.”

“Don’t like it when you can’t be one hundred percent in control of your world?” he asked knowingly.

“Pretty much.”

“Look, it’s been proven in the past that we get a better reception from the employees at hospices, hospitals, and care facilities when we have a woman on the team. It’s as simple as that. They view females as more compassionate and trust them better with the patients. It’s a stereotype, but we work with what we’ve got,” Gabe explained. “Mickey and I going out there together will not get the same results as Mickey and Tosh, and you and me.”

Rose sighed again. “I get it. I do. But Tosh and I work well together and I don’t have the best track record with—.”

Gabe interrupted her again. “I’m not Martin or any of the other boys you’ve managed to scare off with your tactics, Rose,” he said gruffly. “I might look like a kid, but you know that I’m more than double your age, and have three times your experience in the field.”

“Oh, and you think you can handle me?”

Gabe snorted. “As if you could be handled.” Rose actually smiled briefly at that. “But I’m as capable as Mickey or Jake of putting up with you, Rose.”

“Then how come you’ve never partnered with me before?” Rose demanded.

“Honestly? Because you’re a pain in the arse, Rose. You’re a difficult person to work with, and that’s in a full team situation. And I’ve seen how you behave with your partners. Why put myself through the abuse if I didn’t have to?”

“And now you have to? Mickey and I could have partnered and you could have taken Tosh if all you needed was a woman on your team,” Rose said.

“I think Mickey wanted to observe her in the field. She hadn’t quite finished her training when she came here. I think he just wants to make sure she’s capable,” Gabe said.

“I could have told him she was.”

“You know Mickey likes to judge things for himself. Besides, I think he wanted some in depth information from her about how the investigation has been going so far.”

“Hasn’t he read the reports?” Rose asked.

“It’s not the same as firsthand accounts and you know it,” Gabe replied. “Look, shake it off. I really don’t want to deal with irritated Rose all day. I’d like calm, cool and professional Rose. Think you can find her?”

“I’ll let you know,” Rose muttered under her breath. They drove on in silence while Rose pulled herself together. It wasn’t like this was a permanent change and she could always talk to Tosh about it the next day. She briefly considered meeting her for dinner that night, but dismissed it, deciding that she didn’t want to take that time away from John. Things were coming to a head in their relationship and though she didn’t think tonight would be the night, she knew that neither one of them was going to be able to put it off much longer now that all of the secrets were out in the open. Well, almost all of the secrets.

She still had one big doozy, but what was she supposed to do about it? He had said he didn’t want to know and she had agreed to keep it to herself. Besides, he wasn’t the Doctor. He was completely human and telling him his doppelganger had been an alien who travelled through time and space…well….yeah, that part it was probably better she keep to herself. Maybe someday, a long way into the future, he’d be receptive to knowing what she was holding back.

It was probably better she didn’t tell him, she thought as she bit her lower lip. For such a confident man, he still had insecurities. Being compared to someone, or at least thinking he was being compared to someone, who had the universe literally at his feet, someone who had given Rose almost everything she could ever want…well to an ego like John’s it could be a blow. His ego might need deflating on occasion, but that was not the way Rose would ever choose to do it.

Rose looked up in surprise as Gabe pulled into the parking lot. “Gresham’s? This is a UNIT facility.”

“A UNIT medical facility, yes,” Gabe said. “Didn’t you read your briefing?” He gestured to the open file on her lap that she’d ignored during the entire trip.

“No,” she said simply.

Gabe sighed. “Honestly, Rose, I don’t understand how you can be such a good operative with such a scattered brain.”

“Me, either some days, but apparently my mind works in mysterious and ultimately helpful ways,” she said. “What’s the run down?”

“It’s a bit different from the other places this guy has been to. It provides physical therapy and long term care for patients that have been injured in the line of duty or their family members. There’s some coma patients, but the majority of the people here were in their right minds. We’ve got burn patients and quad and paraplegics that have been healed but are regressing. Most of them are still here, because their families don’t have the means to take them home and couldn’t cope with the memory loss or the rejuvenation. It takes…a strong family to cope with rejuvenation on its own.”

“Yours has,” Rose said.

Gabe gave her a long, indecipherable look. “To a certain extent,” he said finally. “It’s made my wife insecure and my daughters have a hard time taking me seriously. Most people do.”

“But you’re still the same man,” Rose said. “All the same memories. You have a younger looking body, a younger face, but you’re still you.”

Gabe laughed darkly. “Well, you’re about the only one who seems to think so,” he said.

Rose sighed thoughtfully. “Bit of experience in that department,” she said.

“I suppose you have, what with everyone treating you like a different person once it was discovered you were a Tyler,” Gabe said.

“Erm…yeah,” agreed Rose. “So who are we interviewing here?”

“A retired military officer by the name of Yates. Mike Yates. His wife Emma couldn’t walk right after a car accident and now she can. She doesn’t remember what happened of course, but he seems to think he can help us with this,” Gabe said.

Rose frowned, trying to remember why the name Yates seemed so familiar to her. She had worked with UNIT personnel on a few occasions, of course, but she didn’t recall ever working with a Yates. She searched her memory as they got out of the car and headed for the security entrance of the facility.

“How’d this guy get through security?” Rose asked as they showed their ID’s, handed over their weapons, and walked through the scanner.

“They don’t know. There is no record of him coming through. No CCTV footage from here, no signature in the log…no one in security remembers him being here. But they do have footage of him being inside the actual building,” Gabe said.

“Do you think maybe he’s using a teleport?” Rose asked.

“Either that or some kind of stealth technology. A cloaking device of some sort,” Gabe theorized.

“Could be.”

Once through security they were directed to the wing that took care of injuries that dealt with the spine and from there to room 204, which belonged to Emma Yates. They could hear a couple arguing through the door.

“I think it’s far too soon for you to even be thinking about going home,” said a masculine voice.

“Mike, I’m fine,” insisted the female. “I’m walking like there never was any injury and—.”

“And you’re starting to get younger. We don’t know what’s going to happen to your mind, Emma,” Mike insisted.

“I haven’t forgotten anything yet,” Emma insisted.

“You have though. Not much because you haven’t regressed that far yet, but how long ago do you think the accident was?” he asked.

“I…four years?” she guessed.

“No,” he said. “Six. Now the team from Torchwood should be here any minute and then maybe we’ll have a better clue on what’s going to happen.”

Gabe knocked then and an elderly gentleman opened the door. “Torchwood,” he said abruptly. “Come in.” He waved Gabe and Rose into the room. “I’m Mike Yates and this is my wife Emma.”

“Gabriel Bell,” Gabe said reaching forward and shaking Mike’s hand.

“Rose Tyler,” Rose added shaking hands in turn with both Mike and his wife. She took careful note of the way the man blanched when he heard her name. He covered very quickly, but Rose had definitely noticed. She wondered why. She had a good reputation with UNIT. Unless he’d seen all the tabloid photos of her and John recently and thought she was just another society princess. Gabe had said he was a retired UNIT employee. Maybe he didn’t know of her work reputation.

“First things first,” Gabe said withdrawing a vial from his pocket. “Our medical team said that your wife would be able to take this. It’s experimental, but so far it’s stopped the regression in the one person we’ve tested it on. She’s a universal receiver, correct?” he double checked.

“Yes, she is.”

“Mrs. Yates, I have a treatment for you. This is a blood serum derived from me, spiked with Taltin picogenes. I’ve got them all through my bloodstream. It’s perfectly safe and it should stop you from regressing any further and prevent the memory damage that is so prevalent amongst the victims of your condition,” he said.

The older woman frowned. “I don’t want to take anything that could reverse this. I want to walk,” she said.

“It’s not going to reverse what was done,” Rose said. “It’ll just stop you from getting younger. You’ll stay just as you are right now.”

“Will she get back the memories she lost?” Mike asked.

“No, we don’t think so,” Gabe said.

“But she shouldn’t lose any more,” Rose added.

“All right,” said Emma. She rolled up a sleeve and Rose broke open an alcohol wipe. Gabe washed his hands and donned a pair of sterile gloves and drew the shot while she cleaned an area on the woman’s neck. The injection was quick and relatively painless.

“Now, what can you tell us about the man who did this?” Rose asked getting down to business.

“Not very much I’m afraid,” said Emma. “They got him on the CCTV, but I don’t remember him coming in. I do, however, keep a diary. Apparently I wrote in it right after he came.” Emma reached into the bedside table drawer. “It’s the entry marked with the red ribbon.”

Rose took the book from the woman’s hands and opened it. “A man came to see me today. He said that his name was Adam and that he could heal me. I don’t know what to believe, but after so many years in pain I thought…well, his offer seemed too good to be true, but I’m not about to turn back any chance for a miracle. He said that it was my choice. I only had to agree to his terms. No more pain and the ability to walk again and all I had to do was give up part of my life. If this works, I only hope Mike can forgive me. The pain is just so great.”

Rose looked up from the page and over at Mike. “That’s all there is.”

“He came back the next day according to the footage. He did something, but we don’t know what, because his back was to the camera. After that Emma began to heal.”

Gabe nodded. “And you’ve absolutely no idea what he meant by giving up part of your life?”

“Well, I think it’s obvious. Somehow he took my aging and my memories. That’s the part I have to give up,” she said. “I don’t think I would have agreed to anything more nefarious, like his taking away part of the remainder of my life. Although the pain was…well, it was almost manageable with morphine.”

“If it’s okay, I’d like to try something with you,” Gabe said to Emma. “A form of hypnosis. See if you’re not too far gone yet to remember something.”

“I have no objections to that,” said Emma. “Mike?”

“If it’ll get results, I’m for it,” her husband said.

“I’ll need the room quiet, dark.”

Rose turned to Mike. “Why don’t you take me to view the footage while they do that?” she asked.

“Very well. Come along.”

Rose followed him out the door and down the corridor to a small room behind one of the nurse’s stations. Closing the door for privacy, he flipped through a stack of media sticks and picked one out, plugging it into the computer before them. He queued up the right date and time and played the recording slowly.

Rose saw a good image of the man’s face before he turned his back on the camera. Mike reversed the feed until he froze it on the stranger. “This is the best image we’ve got.” The man wasn’t too old. He was in his thirties and was tall and fair. His eyes were blue and he was handsome. He had a medium build, no fat on his body, muscles, but not like a body builder. In fact he looked a little too perfect, almost like an idealized version of a Nordic man.

“People should have flaws,” she said out loud.

“You noticed that, too?” Mike replied. “He’s flawless.”

“Yes.” Rose sat down in one of the chairs and printed out a copy of the photograph. “I don’t understand this,” she said shaking her head. “I can get a person stealing youth, but age? Memories? What good does that do him?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t lose my wife to this. I’ve already lost…too much.” Mike sat down heavily in the other chair. Rose glanced at him and blanched at the pain on his face. At her look of interest he elaborated, “My daughter.” He took a deep breath and then added, “Josie Yates.”

Rose froze as the universe seemed to stop for a moment. She swallowed hard. “She was your daughter,” Rose breathed.

“Did he tell you about her then, your lover? Did he tell you how he took her away from us? How he killed her?” Mike asked bitterly.

“He said she died in the Cyberwar,” Rose said slowly. “He loved her and she was cyberized and she died.”

“He killed her. He shot her dead.” Rose closed her eyes as the shock of it washed over her. This was why John wouldn’t use a weapon. He had said he’d had to kill someone once. He’d never said it was Josie. “She was there only because of him—.”

“The Cybermen were everywhere on the planet,” Rose said, remembering clearly the events of that week. “There was nowhere that was safe.”

“Oh, yes, there was.”

“What? Somewhere in the heart of UNIT? He’s told me about her. She was headstrong. Even if he’d told her to go somewhere safe, she wouldn’t have gone.”

“But he could have taken her, could have forced her to leave. He had ways, but instead he stayed and went into the Welsh factory and she—she—he found her afterwards and he shot her. He took a gun and he executed her,” Mike said angrily.

“They begged to die,” Rose said softly. “After…the inhibitor chips were shut off, they begged for the mercy of death. That was no life. That was—.”

“He shot her in cold blood.”

“No. Never. John would never do that! He loved her. He was doing what she wanted. And he had to have told you, had to have come to you and told you this instead of leaving you to wonder. He didn’t have to do that. He could have run and never looked back, but instead he came to you. He faced you and told you the truth,” Rose defended, her heart beating a mile a minute. “He gave you that.”

“He never should have taken her away from us. She was just a girl and he was too old for her and there was no way he should have even let her go with him.”

“People do what they want to do when they see a way out of their lives,” Rose said from experience.

“Josie didn’t need a way out. She was happy! She was living an ordinary life until he came and put ideas into her head.”

“Sometimes people want an extraordinary life,” Rose said quietly.

“Do you know how hard I worked to keep her away from UNIT? To keep aliens and crazy, supernatural events from touching her life? And then he waltzed in and he…”

“Opened her eyes?” Rose asked. Mike nodded. “And you really thought she’d close them again afterwards?”

“I…hoped.”

“I’m sorry you lost your daughter, Mr. Yates. I’m sorry that she went through being cyberized. It was a horrible, horrible thing. But I can promise you this…John did what he did out of love. He loved her and he didn’t want to see her suffer. And you know the death squads would have done it if he hadn’t. It was better, kinder, more decent for her to die this way.”

“Love has blinded you, made you foolish,” he said.

Rose bit her tongue as she studied the wounded man. “I know John Smith has flaws,” she said finally. “Perhaps I, better than anyone. But I know his heart. And it is not in him to kill in cold blood. To this day he will not wield a weapon. That is not a man who finds killing easy, it is a man whose memories of what he has done stay fresh in his mind.”

Rose stood up. “Now, I thank you for your help here, but I should get back to Gabe and see if he’s discovered anything.” Rose walked away from him, her heart aching at the muffled sob she heard as the door shut behind her.

Ch. 29:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/440637.html