Author's Note: This is a sequel to my story "Home in Time for Tea". I felt bad that Donna had missed the Doctor at Adipose Industries, so I wanted to make sure she caught up to him eventually. And then I started wondering how Rose's presence would affect other events and characters of series four, and this story was born. It presumes that the reader has at least a basic familiarity with the plots of the episodes covered, and hence skips many of the plot details to focus on the character interactions.

The story will not include every episode, only the ones where I felt Rose's presence would have a significant effect: "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky", "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead", "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End", "The Waters of Mars", and "The End of Time".

Chapter Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Doctor Who and make no profit from it. Some plot points and bits of dialogue respectfully borrowed from the episodes "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky" by Helen Raynor.

Rose entered the console room to find the Doctor finishing up a mobile call. "Right, then, I'll be there with bells on." He flipped the phone closed and dropped it into a slot that she had never noticed before.

"Is that my mobile?"

He looked over at her in surprise. "Heavens, no. Who would I be talking to on your mobile?"

"That's just what I was wondering. Shareen is about the only person in this universe who knows that I didn't actually die in the Battle of Canary Wharf, and I couldn't picture you settling in for a chat with her."

The Doctor looked horrified at that thought. "No, no, it's Martha's phone. She left it for me in case she ever needed to get in touch. And apparently she does. She's working for UNIT now, and they've run into a strange situation they'd like my input on. It means we'll have to postpone the trip to Carrigan III, but still, it's nice to be needed, I suppose." He ran a circle around the console, twirling dials and pulling levers.

"Martha Jones? The companion with a crush?" Rose asked, grabbing at the jump seat with practiced ease as the TARDIS lurched.

He winked at her. "Can you blame her?"

"Oh, not in the least. But…you did tell her about me, didn't you?"

"Oh sure, as soon as she set foot in the TARDIS."

"No, I mean just now. On the phone. When you said, 'I'll be there.' You did mention that your wife was coming too?"

"Uh…" He frowned in concentration. "No, I don't think it came up, actually."

"So you didn't prepare her?"

He looked puzzled. "Prepare her for what?"

Rose shook her head in frustration. "Oh, you can be such an alien! Or a man. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes."

"Look, I don't know what you're on about. You're thinking she'll be upset to see me with another companion? Can't imagine she would care. It's been months."

"A – I'm not just another companion. And B – it had been years for Sarah Jane."

"Oh." She could tell by the way he paled that he was starting to see her point, but he fixed on a bright smile. "Well, still, that all turned out well in the end. I'm sure Martha will absolutely love you. Come along." He held out his hand as the TARDIS wheezed its rematerialization.

"We're here already?" She was seized with a sudden panic.

He rolled his eyes, smiling. "Welcome to the TARDIS, Rose Tyler. Disappears there, reappears here – sound familiar? Come on, Martha is waiting."

"You go on ahead, have your little reunion. I need a minute to make myself presentable."

He shook his head and winked. "You can be such a human. Or a woman. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes."

She couldn't help laughing, and stuck her tongue out at him as he pulled open the door. Once he was gone, she took a deep steadying breath. She felt as nervous as the first day of school. Martha was important to the Doctor, and that made Martha important to her. She wanted so much for the other woman to like her. But she was afraid that her role as the Doctor's unattainable love during Martha's tenure in the TARDIS would work against her. Rose had learned her lesson from her experience with Sarah Jane: companions should celebrate their commonalities rather than vie for place in the Doctor's affections. Now she just had to hope that Martha could see that too. It's up to you to set the tone. She exhaled slowly and stepped outside.

She could see Martha stiffen as she caught sight of her, and Rose's heart sank. "Right, I should have known," Martha said. "Didn't take you too long to replace me, did it?"

"Now, don't start fighting." The Doctor shifted from foot to foot, looking decidedly anxious. Caught in the middle of a domestic – his worst nightmare, Rose thought. "Martha, this is Rose. Rose, Martha."

Rose swallowed down the nervousness, gave her sincerest smile and stuck out her hand. "Martha Jones! The Doctor has told me so many wonderful things about you."

Martha gaped as she shook her hand. "Rose? The Rose? He found you?"

Rose laughed. "More like I found him. Would you believe he actually tried to hide from me?" A glint of light caught her eye, and the knot in her stomach began to unravel. Maybe this wouldn't be such an impossible mission after all. "And you – who have you found?"

Martha grinned and waggled the finger with the engagement ring. "His name is Tom Milligan. I met him in the resistance during the Master's year. Of course, after time rewound, he didn't remember any of that, so I had to start all over again with him, but…"

"…But he's worth the effort." Despite her determination not to do anything to provoke Martha's jealousy, Rose couldn't help an affectionate glance at the Doctor.

"I guess you would know about that, yeah?" Martha's smile was a little wistful, but didn't seem to hold any animosity.

"Well, I do hope we get to meet him while we're here," Rose said. The Doctor ran his finger inside his collar and looked as if he were about to make some protest, so Rose shot him a stern look before turning back to Martha. "And I'm so happy to meet you and have the opportunity to thank you. Without you, I wouldn't have had an Earth to come back to. Martha Jones: the woman who saved the world."

Martha blushed. "I don't know about that. I played a part, but it was really the Doctor who saved the world."

Rose took her hands. "But that's what we companions do, isn't it? Save the Doctor, so that he can save everyone else."

Martha smiled and squeezed her hands. And in this acknowledgement of their shared membership in an exclusive club, a bond was sealed and rivalry forgotten.

Donna Noble's Health and Safety ID badge, the purloined souvenir of one of her shorter temp jobs, had gotten her in the door at Atmos Industries, but it didn't seem to be getting her too far with the dead-eyed pencil-pusher in Human Resources. With bland politeness, the woman had refused all of Donna's attempts to see the personnel files, and answered – or evaded – all inquiries in a rather robotic monotone. "We have no personnel issues." "Our workforce is healthy and content." "There have been no worker complaints."

And it wasn't like there was anyone else in the Personnel office for Donna to try her charms on. Which did seem rather strange, come to think of it. She had never seen such a large company with such a small HR department. There was something fishy going on here, she was sure of it.

All those months searching for a Martian in a blue box by wading through the heaps of online garbage generated by conspiracy freaks. Nutters, the lot of them. Well, there had been that one theory about Adipose Industries – that had turned out to have some truth to it. But by the time she had gotten herself to the scene, it had been all over except for the cleanup. She knew in her bones that the Doctor had something to do with whatever had happened there, but he had been long gone. But this time – this time, she was ahead of the game. Surely he would show up to investigate the same strangeness that had drawn her, and she would be ready when he did.

With this in mind, she was just drawing breath to launch into a tirade demanding access to the Atmos paperwork, when the door to the office burst open and three soldiers charged in. The men seemed somewhat surprised to find themselves outnumbering the staff, but the leader soon recovered, keeping his tone as stiff as his posture. "This is a raid by the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Surrender now. You will be taken to a holding area." He turned to leave, seeming to take for granted that the captives would fall in meekly between him and his two comrades. But he hadn't yet met Donna Noble.

"Hold up there, mister. I am an inspector with Health and Safety, and I will not be rounded up like a head of cattle." She waved her badge at him.

He walked back to her, snatched the badge out of her hand, and studied it for a moment. "This ID expired six months ago. I'm not sure who you are or what you are doing here, ma'am, but you will wait in the holding area until someone can ascertain this information." The guns held at the ready ensured Donna's obedience, but they didn't stop her from protesting vociferously the entire way.

Rose shivered as she stepped out of the mobile command station. Colonel Mace eyed her tank top. "Cold, ma'am?"

Rose grimaced and rubbed her arms. "Well, I had just dressed for high summer in the tropics of Carrigan III when we got detoured here."

The colonel nodded to one of the soldiers. "Jenkins, fetch Miss Tyler a jacket."

She felt much better as soon as she slipped the jacket on. And with the UNIT insignia on the sleeve, she didn't have to worry about being mistaken for an Atmos worker and rounded up by an overeager recruit. Which reminded her… "Listen, examining technological doohickeys is much more the Doctor's thing than mine. Would you mind if I go look in on the workers instead?"

When Mace hesitated, the Doctor jumped in. "Oh yes, Rose is very good with people. The domestic approach, you know. She could be quite useful there."

"Fine. Jenkins, accompany Miss Tyler to the holding area."

The holding area was full of workers in overalls, with a handful of business suits scattered throughout – far less office workers than Rose would have expected for such a large operation. But blue collar or white, all seemed unnaturally calm about their predicament, gazing straight ahead with a vacant expression. All except for one: a woman with hair like fire and an attitude to match.

Rose walked up to her. "I must say, you don't quite look like the rest of this lot."

The woman snorted. "And you don't quite look like the rest of that lot." She tossed her head at the guards.

Rose smiled. "Well, I'm sort of…a civilian consultant. What's your excuse?"

The woman glowered at one of the soldiers. "I told that Neanderthal that I am here on a government inspection, but he refuses to believe me." In an instant, she switched from defiant to imploring, tugging at Rose's sleeve. "Listen, I don't know exactly what you are looking for. But obviously you've already noted that the personnel here are a bit…off. I guarantee that Human Resources will hold some interesting answers. And I can find my way around an office blindfolded. I can help you."

Rose hesitated. She didn't have any real authority here, but since UNIT's goodwill toward the Doctor seemed to have extended to her as well… "Jenkins, will you please escort us to the offices?"

"Yes ma'am," he said at once, and Rose smiled, enjoying her new-found clout.

Donna glanced at the blond woman rifling through the file cabinet next to her. Her jacket marked her as UNIT personnel, but she wasn't in uniform and she seemed more willing to listen to reason than the rest of this by-the-book lot. Maybe Donna could convince her to let her go. She wanted to find the Doctor, true, but she sure didn't want to end up getting locked away in some secret government facility with the rest of these Atmos zombies. Of course, her best chance of getting free was probably to find some useful item that would impress Blondie. She pulled out a binder marked "Sick Leave" and realized that she had just found it. "Here we go! Just like I said – if there's weird stuff going on, you'll always find it in the paperwork."

Just then the guard's radio crackled with some message intelligible only to him. He looked at Blondie. "Miss Tyler, ma'am, you're wanted."

"Yeah, fine, tell the Doctor I'll be there in a mo." She turned to Donna. "What have you got?"

Donna's heart skipped a beat. The Doctor was here! She almost demanded to be taken to him right then and there, but Blondie seemed to be on her side so far, and maybe it was better to try catching flies with honey rather than vinegar for once in her life. So instead she kept her voice even as she explained the significance of a company this size having no sick days on record.

To her credit, Blondie – Miss Tyler, Donna corrected herself – caught on quickly. "Right, follow me. I know someone who will definitely want to see this."

Goal! Donna thought, suppressing a triumphant smile as she hurried after Miss Tyler. But when they arrived at their destination, she was met, not with a tall man in a blue suit, but a black woman in a uniform.

"Doctor Martha Jones, meet…oh, I'm sorry, I don't think I got your name."

This was the doctor? Dumbo, that's what you get for jumping to conclusions. It's not exactly an uncommon term. "Donna," she whispered, crestfallen. "Donna Noble."

"Nice to meet you, Donna, my name is Rose Tyler." She's even named Rose. Bitter coincidence. "Anyway, Martha, Donna here made an interesting discovery. I thought you should hear it."

"Happy to," the doctor said. "But you might want to head outside and rescue Colonel Mace. I think the poor man is being subjected to quite the harangue."

"Can't trust him to behave for more than five minutes on his own," Rose muttered, rolling her eyes and hurrying away, and then Donna was alone with the wrong doctor. It's not over. If I can stay on the inside, he still might show up. And so she pasted on a smile and began to explain her findings to Doctor Jones.