Disclaimer: I am not doing this for any monetary gain. I do not own Doctor Who nor the wonderful music of the wonderful Sara Bareilles.
So, so sorry about making you all wait so long for this chapter. The writer's block was terrible and the chapter just would not come to me. Here's Chapter 8 though finally and I hope it is to your liking.
Chapter 8: Love on the Rocks
Babe, baby believe me
If I stay it ain't gonna be easy
She was, again, walking in a meadow of wildflowers and in the distance there stood a lone man. Whomever it was stood straight and tall, arms behind their back, looking up at the sky. Rose took a step forward and so did the man. She took another step. So did he, wearing a familiar blue suit with a red shirt beneath it. Rose ran forward. They met in the center and Andrew took Rose into his arms as Rose wrapped her own around his neck and hugged him tight to her, afraid he'd disappear.
"Are you really here?" she asked, her head buried in his shoulder fighting against breaking down completely. From the hitch in her voice, Rose knew she was failing.
"If I said I was just an image - would that make you angry?" Andrew asked, letting her go.
Rose stood back and wiped her eyes. Andrew looked back at her sadly and wiped his own tears away too.
"Never saw you so emotional?" Rose tried to laugh out.
"Yeah, well," Andrew said, looking away to the horizon and back again, this time smiling, "times change. I've changed. More human means more emotions. Stronger emotions. Blimey."
Rose sniffled as she walked forwards again and placed her hand on Andrew's shoulder. "I'm sorry. Really and truly sorry for leaving. It was so stupid. I hurt you -"
"No, Rose."
"I hurt you," she continued, "I hurt you and that was something I never, ever meant to do. I - I -"
"You ran. Like he would've."
"I - I suppose..." Rose almost broke down again if not for the strong arms that wrapped themselves around her waist and held onto her tight as though fearful she'd disappear in a puff of smoke.
Rose looked up and began to say, "Andrew, I -" when the ground began to move and shake below their feet. A chasm formed in the ground separating them. The ground rumbled in fury.
"What's happening?" Rose shouted over the noise.
"I don't know!" Andrew shouted back. "Hold on!"
From the tear, a strong black smoke shot up from the ground and Rose felt herself falling, falling forward and down, down into a bottomless hole...
Andrew jumped, jostled awake from the wonderful dream he had been having. Sighing, he tried to read the bedside alarm clock but unfortunately it was still too dark for him to see without having to turn on a light. Andrew laid back on his pillow and tried to remember what he was dreaming of.
There were wildflowers...purple ones? No, yellow. And he was in a meadow...talking? Who was he talking to…?
Dreams; no one would ever be able to fully comprehend the magnitude of images held within the mind while the body was shut down. Andrew's eyes drifted shut and he thought about his dream no more. This would just be another new human experience for him. Didn't make a lick of sense though.
The sun had barely risen when Rose's alarm clock rang shrilly, waking her. She blearily reached out a hand to shut it, angrily breathing out afterwards. Slowly, Rose removed the warm sheets and comforter and sat up with her feet dangling a few inches from the floor. Rose ran her hand over her face, trying to force herself to get up. When her feet touched the cold floor, Rose flinched before standing. Shaking her head to wake herself more, Rose decided to get dressed before going downstairs and searching for breakfast with the other employees. As she began pulling the uniform on, Rose slowly felt her energy returning to her and once she was finished, Rose was ready for the new day. She made a mental note to get in touch with either Tristan or Torchwood Proper as soon as possible to give them the full scoop of the case thus far.
Rose walked down the hall trying to remember the way back to the stairs when she heard voices coming from a short distance away. Using her training in stealth she managed to stick to the shadows as she continued to walk forward.
"Think the weather's going to improve before Sunday; I really need to visit my cousin in the hospital?"
"Doubt it. Besides, they'd never allow it."
"I know; I was just hoping though..."
Rose walked forward and the girls stopped talking when they noticed her. The three of them stared at each other for a few seconds before Rose walked past. She arrived in the kitchen and found Andrew sitting at the table with his head down, looking like he had fallen asleep. Rose grabbed a mug full of coffee from off the counter and took the empty seat across from him.
"Wakey, wakey," she said while giving him a hard shake on the shoulder.
"No," he muttered into his shirtsleeve making his voice sound as though he was breathing into his shirt rather than speaking.
"Didn't fall back to sleep after I left?" Rose asking before drinking.
"Slept fine," Andrew said as he sat up and looked at Rose through heavily lidded eyes, "dreamt about some meadow."
That seemed familiar to Rose but she had no idea why. Andrew heard footsteps. Someone with high-heeled shoes was coming towards the kitchen and he turned to see Mrs. Peterman walking with two small boxes, one in each hand.
"Breakfast is finished. Everyone please return to your duties - except for you, Mr. Turner and Ms. Quinnlan."
The sea of staffers began to dissipate and Rose and Andrew both got to their feet.
"For finishing your first day, well, we like to give these to our employees. Congratulations," she said handing them both a box.
They opened them to find two black watches, both a little different to fit their genders. Rose rather thought they would cost the family no more than a few cents in a local grocery store.
"Um, thank you ma'am," Rose said, giving the lady a curtsey. Andrew said nothing at all and stared at the object suspiciously.
The lady watched as they put the watches on their wrists before leaving to return from wherever it was she came from.
"What's your lot got planned for the day?" Rose asked while fixing her skirt.
"Lunch? Dinner? Not really sure, it's up to the others," Andrew said with a shrug.
"See you later then."
As he watched her go, the watch on Andrew's wrist beeped once and he looked down to see its face glow slightly for a few seconds and then fade. Definitely intrigued but having no free time to examine it now, Andrew simply ignored it and went into the main family kitchen to help prepare the food for the day.
The day passed with much work and no time to stop and rest. At their last meal of the day, Rose asked Andrew whether or not Mrs. Peterman had said they would be allowed to visit their homes that day or the next.
"I thought she'd said today but, well, I suppose I could be wrong..." Andrew's trailing off at the end and then his staring off into space worried Rose and she shoved him on the shoulder to wake him up.
"What's wrong?" Rose couldn't help but ask.
"I don't know...sort of weird like I can't keep track of my thoughts."
The end of dinner bell rang Rose got to her feet seconds before Andrew.
"I'll stop by to talk later," she said. She lowered him slightly so he wasn't towering over her and kissed him on the cheek before walking off.
Feeling unusually shaky on her legs, Rose went back for the last two hours of working. At the end of her shift, Rose sighed while walking back to her room to wash up and change clothes before going to visit Andrew. Rose only had the clothes with her that she arrived in and, since she didn't want to go wearing a nightgown or her uniform, she dressed and left. His door was closed and before knocking she placed her ear against the wood to listen. Nothing.
"Andrew?"
She turned the knob and walked in to find Andrew lying on his bed, his head back on the pillow, tilted up to face the ceiling with his arms behind his head and his eyes closed.
"Andrew?" Rose tried again, this time giving him a shake on the shoulder. Snorting loudly through his nose, Andrew practically jumped as he sat up, almost knocking Rose to the floor in the process.
"Hey, watch it," she said.
"You startled me Blondie."
"Blondie?"
Realizing what he said and not liking it, Andrew sat up straighter and shook his head wildly to hopefully get some sense back into it. "Bit of Donna. Sorry. Still sneaks up on me sometimes."
Rose laughed and got a bit more comfortable by sliding off her shoes and sitting cross legged on the bed by his side. She looked down and suddenly remembered the small, black watch she'd received just this morning.
"What about these?" Rose asked.
Lazily, Andrew turned and looked. "What about what?"
"These watches. Everyone has one, I noticed earlier. Think they're something special?"
Suddenly remembering the strange light he saw earlier, Andrew slid up his sleeve and placed the time piece to his ear and listened. Being a digital watch there shouldn't be any noise but..."I hear something."
He sat up and Rose moved closer putting her own watch to her ear as well. Andrew then reached into his pocket and removed a small, familiar cylindrical device.
"Is that...?" Rose asked, smirking.
"A low grade, far distantly removed cousin of the original - but yes, it's a sonic. Still in some stages developmentally but can easily pick up on signals like the one this watch is giving off."
"So it is giving up a signal then?"
"Yup, very low frequency – oh they are clever ones." Andrew fiddled with his sonic for a few more seconds before starting to laugh.
"What is it?" Rose asked.
"Just like old times. Ha!"
Andrew jumped from his bed and ran out the door giving Rose no other option but to follow. Just like old times indeed.