Title: Looking Within
Author: Shen
Rating: PG-13
Setting/Spoilers: Post-Doomsday, in my Peril-verse (see my profile). Recap of said 'verse is at http://shengirl dot livejournal dot com/8390 dot html
Characters: Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jake, Jackie and Pete Tyler, OCs, Ten, Donna, Torchwood
Teaser: Rose has landed in the other universe. Should she hope for a way back or carve out a new life for herself? And what unexpected resources might she find on the way? Action/Adventure Reunion!fic.
Author's Note: Here we are at last! Truckloads of thanks for you guys who comment, seriously. Comments are love, as well as extremely helpful. Enjoy!

Chapter 7: Coming Home

At last, Rose was back in London. She stepped out of the airport and breathed deeply, embracing the familiar pollution like a long-lost friend. It was off, not quite the scent of her childhood, but she still found it comforting. She had, minutes before, received an enthusiastic welcome at the gate from Mickey, Pete, her mum, and her new (ish) baby brother, Mark. Holding him carefully, she had looked into her mother's face and seen something wistful about her.

"Hey, I told you I was up here training my power, right? And if all else fails, it'll make me a fantastic Torchwood agent," Rose had said to Jackie in a phone call months before.

"...If all else fails?" she asked suspiciously. Rose swallowed.

"Yeah. Mum, this power comes from Bad Wolf. Remember that? Words scattered in time and space? It... led me back to the Doctor. And with the bay in Norway, I thought maybe..."

Jackie hurriedly pounced on Rose's nervous pause, "Oh, sweetheart, don't hold out on a coincidence." The desperate edge to her mother's tone made Rose wince.

She gently continued, "But that wasn't it. The krey, the captain of the ship I was on was named Bad Wolf. And I think I've figured it out. How to get back." There was a loaded pause.

"Oh."

"I hate the thought that I'm abandoning you. Please don't think that; that I don't love you! But I told him I'd made my choice a long time ago, that my forever was his. And, Mum, he needs me more than you do. You've got Pete and a little boy on the way..."

The rest of that conversation had been stilted and awkward. However, any sense of betrayal had apparently been worked through over the months, because the ride back to the Tyler Manor was filled with stories and laughter.

After dropping off her bag and getting a shower, Rose said, "I'm awful hungry. Can we have some junk food? Pizza, burgers – anything that doesn't have rice. I didn't exactly have a lot of time to run off to the nearest mall and get fast food while training in the mountains. Ooh!" she interrupted herself excitedly, "Nevermind; can we have chips?" This universe's Britain didn't much appreciate chips, since they were so bad for you. Luckily, to cheer up Rose and Jackie after they initially arrived, Pete had bought a deep fryer from the United States.

The four called up Ingrid and Jake, and the lot of them tucked into homemade fish and chips. Rose's friends wanted to drag her out for a night on the town, but a huge yawn cut the thought short.

"Sorry!" she managed before another yawn overtook her. "I didn't sleep for the whole trip back here to avoid jet lag. I think I've been up for 30 hours." This led to her mother swatting her for not taking care of herself and a very quick series of goodbyes.

The next morning, Jackie insisted upon cutting her overgrown hair.

"Oh, Mum, you don't have to. As much as you did it before we came here, I thought you'd never want to touch a comb and scissors at the same time again."

Jackie scolded, "Don't be ridiculous. Does good work, Davan, but I can cut my own daughter's hair before she leaves home for good." Rose blushed profusely. Of course, this was an act of care. One of the last things she'd be able to do for her only daughter. There was a long pause, filled by only the sound of the faucet as Jackie washed her hair. Rose sat feeling guilty for even trying to refuse the gift.

Finally, Jackie broke the silence, "We'll get you some new mascara next. Poor man probably won't recognize you without it."

"Mum!"

Rose explained to Pete that she needed to get to Cardiff. The rift in time and space present in her own universe was also present here The city even had a whole other branch of Torchwood because of it.

"The Rift runs through the whole city, but the very center of it is in the Torchwood headquarters there. They have a Rift manipulator as well, which you might need. I can't get you in there as a civilian, though, nor even as a member of Torchwood London without a good excuse. I'll take you off of leave and put you in for a transfer."

So Rose filled her time with nights out on the town with her team, movies and soap operas with her mother and little brother, and work. As it happened, lots of work. With her newfound translating abilities, far superior to any translation technology possessed by Torchwood, she was ordered to resolve numerous diplomatic issues that had previously been slow-going due to communication problems. Then, she had to decode piles of alien writing. In between all that were rough field missions. Just the first two weeks had her team stopping a sect of body-snatchers, mediating an alien immigrant domestic dispute (that species' disputes were settled in a way involving slime, ceremonial drums, and combat) and hunting down a family of weevils that had somehow gotten to London from Cardiff.

"You're just trying to wring as much use out of me as you can before I leave, aren't you, Pete?" Rose accused half-seriously after receiving stitches on her arm. That weevil bite would definitely be a scar.

"You're uniquely qualified. Lucky I'm letting you go at all, you are," he teased back. So, for three weeks, Rose lived and worked to the fullest before finally getting a transfer to Cardiff.

"If I ever figure a safe way back, I'll be over here like a shot for a visit, alright?" Rose tried to assure her family through her tears. She was hugging her mother fiercely.

"I know. Just be careful, sweetheart!" Rose nodded against her shoulder before breaking away and turning to Mickey.

"Rose, you make him give you a good life, y'hear? You deserve the best." He clutched her just as tightly as her mother had; it was all Rose could do to keep from bawling.

"Thank you, Mickey," and it was for so much more than just his caring words of the moment. There was a long string of emotional goodbyes and I love yous, but eventually she got on the train and left the city. Upon arriving in Cardiff, she went straight to the headquarters, which for some reason were underground, and met the staff.

"I can feel it," she said suddenly, after completing the short tour.

"Feel what?" asked Ryan Page, the medic.

"The Rift! I mean, I felt it as soon as I got in the city, but here! I'm practically breathing it in."

"You can sense the Rift? It says in your file you're psychic, but normal psychics can't feel it that clearly, if at all," Ryan wondered. Rose turned and smiled at him mysteriously.

"I'm not a normal psychic. And if I just concentrate..." She closed her eyes. It seemed she was right; a rip in time and space was just that. The cold of the Void felt inches away. Rose eased herself into a trance-like state, diving into her consciousness and finding the wolf there. It was volatile, straining at its screen instead of resting quietly in its well like usual. A small pull, and the power surged forward, taking Rose's senses and plunging into the Void with them. Ah, there it was – ever-so-faint, the TARDIS. And inside, her mate. All she had to do was reach... a little farther...

When Rose had closed her eyes, everyone had been staring at her, bewildered. But now, something started to beep.

She just barely heard Toshiko Sato exclaim, "Rift activity!"

"What the- she's glowing!"

Jack Harkness was sitting in his office, poring over paperwork, when he heard a shout.

"Everyone!" Toshiko called. "Rift activity, and it's right in the Hub!" The team materialized from the nooks and crannies of the facility.

"Where exactly, Tosh?" Jack demanded as he drew his revolver. It was just a precaution – it could as easily be a lost alien child as a ravenous monster – but he was glad to see the rest of the team mimic him.

"Right... there," Tosh answered, pointing to the area near the Rift manipulator. Everyone arranged themselves around it with a wide berth, tense. Gradually, a spot in the air began to crackle and glow with murky orange Rift energy.

"I bet five pounds it's a weevil," said Owen.

Gwen snorted, "Ten says it's not even humanoid."

"Done." Staring intently as he was, Jack perceived a second light emerging from the first. This one was more golden, bright and clear. Slowly, a figure began to take form.

"Humanoid!" Owen crowed triumphantly.

"We don't know if it's weevil yet," defended Gwen.

"Will you two concen...trate..." Jack was struck dumb by the sight that confronted him.

"Jack?" Ianto asked with some concern.

Just then, Tosh went, "It looks like a woman!"

"Yeah, well, humans don't have creepy glowing eyes. Don't lower your gun yet," warned Owen.

"No!" Jack was finally galvanized into action by the physician's words, and he threw himself in front of his team's guns.

"Don't shoot! I know her! Rose?!"

"What's that noise?" asked Gwen, alarmed.

"If you're finally ready, Donna, it's time to land. We're headed- oof!" The Doctor had been cut off by a sudden pitch of the TARDIS.

Donna, who had been knocked off her feet, exclaimed, "What's going on?"

"Ow. We've been pulled off-course. But, nothing seems wrong. Where are you going, eh?" He stopped check a display. "Cardiff? What?"

"Doctor?" Donna sounded truly worried, but the Doctor had no comfort for her. They had begun to materialize into the unknown. And what was that! Blinding light filled the console room. After a moment, it dissipated, and a figure was at its center. Someone was banging on the door; Donna was asking a question a second; but all the Doctor could do was gape and stagger forward.

"Rose?" His voice was hushed and hopeful. The banging outside suddenly stopped.

"My Doctor," Rose replied, making eye contact with him and smiling at last. The light around her was fading slowly.

"You... how?" managed the Doctor. His lover, his amazing girl, grinned even wider. It was the look she got-

"Had to come back. No Jaffa Cakes in Pete's World."

-when she had been thinking of a joke for a while.

"Haha!" He embraced her. "You've been waiting for months for that, haven't you? Rose?" The amusement turned to alarm as she slumped against him.

"Rose?" he exclaimed again.

Jack came in the door and spoke, "Went and got my key – you guys wait out here – Rose?"

"Wait, the Rose?!" Donna asked.

END

Don't kill me! This scene to be continued in the upcoming tale, tentatively titled "Settling In!"