The Way of Things, Chapter 1
Title - The Way of Things (1/45)
Author - jlrpuck
Rating - K+
Pairing - Peter Carlisle/Rose Tyler
Spoilers - For both Blackpool and S2 of Doctor Who.
Disclaimer - None of the characters from Blackpool or Doctor Who belong to me, and no profit is intended from their use.
Summary - A post-Doomsday story, set in the Alt!Verse. It's been over three years since Rose and the Doctor said goodbye. What happens when she not only meets his doppelganger, but has to work with him?
Author’s Notes - Are long, and are behind the cut.
Many months ago, on a snowy February day, I decided to try my hand at writing. Just a short thing, more to see if I could really get my imagination to fire than anything else; I wasn't horrified by what I wrote, and the fic was quietly posted and quietly went away. At roughly the same time, I finally saw Blackpool. I instantly fell in love with DI Peter Carlisle who, to this day, remains my favorite Tennant character. My subconscious took the combination of these two things as an imperative to begin crafting a story where Rose and Peter meet. malaleen , of course, was the first to do it (well, the first I'd seen)--and she did it very well indeed--and the idea really did intrigue me.
Suddenly, I found myself thinking about the possibilities; driving to work, sitting in meetings, reading the papers, at hockey games--any time my mind had a little space, it would go crazy with ideas. And so this story was born. When I started it, I was hoping I'd be able to flesh out more than a few pages. Oh, irony, you funny little thing; I've been working on it for months now, have 19 chapters written, and still have several more to go. Still, I felt it was probably time to set the monster free--heaven knows, the people listed below have been telling me to just go ahead and do it already--and so I've set up a little fic journal for the express purpose of getting this out in the open.
Muchas, Muchas gracias to my betas,earlgreytea68 and arctacuda ; their suggestions and corrections were invaluable. Additional thanks to rosa_acicularis, who provided fabulous comments. I'd also be remiss if I didn't thank misssara11 for encouraging me to start writing in the first place, and for reading over my early efforts at this story.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32 | Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 | Chapter 35 | Chapter 36 | Chapter 37 | Chapter 38 | Chapter 39 | Chapter 40 | Chapter 41 | Chapter 42 | Chapter 43 | Chapter 44 | Epilogue
It was the noise of her Blackberry that finally dragged Rose from her dreamless sleep. Grumbling, she shivered as she reached out from under her duvet to grab the vibrating device off the bedside table. The news the gadget contained, however, was enough to make Rose Tyler, Vitex heiress (to the world at-large) and Torchwood field agent (to a select few), sit bolt upright in bed.
“Bugger!” was her only comment as she read the message again. Rose swung her legs over the side of her bed and began to move around her room as she dialled the number for her second-in-command, Mickey Smith. Rose had known Mickey since they were children on the Powell Estate, back in her ‘old’ life; like her, he had come over to an alternate universe courtesy of the combination of multiversal anomaly and human hubris. The two of them had even dated for several years--up until the eventful two days that had led to her life-altering decision to travel in a blue police box with a charismatic man who called himself ‘the Doctor.’ It was Mickey who Rose abandoned in a back alley when the Doctor uttered the magical phrase “Did I mention, it also travels in time”; Mickey, who had been accused of murdering Rose when she went missing for a year; Mickey, who had saved the earth with the click of a single red button marked ‘fire’; Mickey, who had earned the respect of the Doctor and earned an invitation to travel with them in the TARDIS; and Mickey, who had been strong enough to stay behind, by choice, in this alternate world after they first came through and helped defeat John Lumic and his plan for the creation of a ‘perfect’ human through Cybus Industries. The impacts of her--and his brief--travels with the Doctor, as well as their time apart in separate universes, had served to temper their relationship into the strongest kind of friendship.
“Mickey? Yes, I know what time it is! Didn’t you get the alert?” Rose paused as Mickey uttered something that may or may not have been a ‘no.’ “One of ours has gone missing….Yes, it’s worth mobilizing the duty crew! It’s one of our lab rats!” Rose used the semi-affectionate epithet that the field teams used to describe the scientists working for Torchwood.
More incomprehensible mumbling came from the other end of the line.
“Mick-go make some coffee, and hand the phone over to Jake.” Mickey murmured a farewell, and soon Rose was speaking to Mickey’s slightly more awake partner. Jake Simmonds, second member of her team and one of the first people she had met in this Universe, mumbled a greeting.
“Jake, good…er”--Rose looked over at her clock-“morning. HQ’s just been notified that one of our scientists has gone missing up in the north--we need to get up there and take a look before the police get in and muck about. Think you and Mickey could be at the office and ready to go in an hour?”
Muffled confirmation came from Jake.
“Good. I’ll ring James to let him know.” Rose rang off, and finished getting dressed before dialling another number. James Ennis, the third member of Rose’s team, was a technological whiz. He had come from the armed forces, where he had specialized in what James vaguely referred to as ‘electronics.’ Rose still wasn’t sure what that had meant, militarily, but in Rose’s experience James was whip smart and second only to her late travelling companion, Jack Harkness, when it came to human ability with tech and machinery. Unfortunately, James had been injured on their last assignment; until he recovered from the rather nasty Flegenarian bite, he was restricted to the dreaded Torchwood desk duty. Although he’d have to stay behind in London, Rose wanted to ensure he was fully briefed in on what the team was doing so he could do his best to help from the office.
After quickly briefing James, Rose finished getting ready. After taking one last look around the small flat, she ran down the stairs to her car and drove the few miles to Torchwood HQ.
Torchwood. Even after just over three years spent in her ‘new’ universe, Rose still had mixed feelings about working for the semi-secret organization. It certainly helped that this Universe’s Torchwood Institute bore absolutely no resemblance to the one in her home Universe. That Torchwood had been founded by Queen Victoria to fight the Doctor, and had been run with zeal-a bit too much zeal--by Yvonne Hartmann; this Torchwood had been brought under the care of Peter Tyler, and the strict scrutiny of President Harriet Jones, after the Cybermen threat had once and for all been eradicated. The focus of this Torchwood was twofold: identify and research any alien artefacts found world-wide and serve as Earth emissaries in the event of alien contact. While Torchwood was by no means an ultra-secret agency, their remit often meant they had a need to keep a low profile. To ease things along when a field investigation was necessary, President Jones had created a niche for them within the Home Office to give the Institute a legitimacy of sorts within the government; however, only those who worked at Torchwood or had encountered them on an investigation knew their real focus was on things extraterrestrial.
After the chain of events at the Canary Wharf offices of Torchwood, when Rose, Mickey, and her mother were forever sealed into this universe--a day that Mickey and Rose half-jokingly referred to as “Doomsday”--headquarters had been moved across the river to Greenwich. It was a small thing that made Rose a little more comfortable working there, but was generally murder on driving in. At two in the morning, however, traffic was light and Rose made it to the office just as the hour she’d given Mickey, Jake, and James was up.
The three of them were all waiting for her, each in various stages of wakefulness and all wearing a variation of combat pants, jumper, and hiking boots. Mickey was clutching a mug of coffee in his hand and looked like he had rolled right out of bed and into the office. Jake, who was more of a morning person, smiled brightly at Rose as she walked in. Thanks to his military experience, James was used to middle-of-the night wake-up calls; in spite of his arm being heavily bandaged and in a sling, damp hair showed he had managed to shower, and his clothes were actually un-wrinkled.
Rose shed her coat and settled behind the desk in her very, very small office, as the others found various bits of wall or furniture to lean against in anticipation of her brief.
“Right, here’s what we’ve got. One of our consulting technical scientists-Michael McGreevy-has gone missing up in the Lakes. His fiancée reported him missing late last evening, shortly before midnight. Seems they were supposed to go out for dinner and he just didn’t show. No answer on his phone, no one at his house-but when the fiancée’d gone to see if he’d lost track of time at his lab, she found that it had been ransacked.” Rose paused to see if there were any questions.
Jake asked the obvious one: “Don’t suppose he did a runner?”
“It’s a possibility, but the lab being torn apart seems to indicate something else at work.” Rose looked around to see if there were any other questions before continuing. “McGreevy’s been working on identifying what one of our recent finds does, exactly. Just a small bit of something, mind, but it was definitely alien tech.”
James spoke up. “Why was he working out of the back of beyond, if he was doing that?”
“Good question--someone trusted him enough to let him work remotely, but I’m not sure why. I’ll need you to run that down while we head up north.”
James nodded. Rose looked around to see if there were any other questions before continuing on. “Right then. It’s a long drive, and we really ought to get up there and keep the locals from playing with something they shouldn’t. Who’s driving?” Nobody particularly wanted to drive the lumbering van that was the field team response vehicle, so the team routinely played scissor, paper, stone to determine who would be saddled with the responsibility. Jake’s grimace showed he had lost.
Rose stood and turned to the tall ginger man to her right. “James, our mobiles and the computer will be on; give us a shout if anything comes up.” Grinning, she turned to Mickey and Jake. “Let’s go.”
~ - ~
Detective Inspector Peter Carlisle wearily ran his hands through his hair before rubbing his eyes. It had been a long night, made longer by the lack of any leads for the current missing-person-turned-possible-burglary scene he was working. His dark hair was a mess from running his hands through it all night, his brown eyes had dark circles under them, and his skin-already fair--was made to look even paler by exhaustion and Peter’s personal uniform of white shirt under dark jumper, dark trousers, dark jacket, and dark blue coat.
As he leaned against the door to the ransacked lab, the lack of sleep, coffee, and sugary pastries combined to make Peter’s mind wander. It had been four years since the denouement of the case in Blackpool, when he had made the mistake of giving in to his sudden rush of feelings for the wife of the primary suspect in a murder investigation. Instead of keeping his wits about him and focusing on what really should have been a straightforward case, he’d become infatuated with Natalie Holden and lost track of what his job and priorities were, resulting in a torrid affair and Natalie ultimately being left by her husband Ripley and free to continue on with Peter. That meant it had been just three and a half years since the heady rush of feelings had worn off and he and Natalie had realised what they had done. Which made it just over three years now since Natalie’s murder at the hands of a rogue group of Cybermen. She had left him to go back to her husband, but that hadn’t made it any easier to deal with what had happened to her. Throwing himself into his work back in Kendal, Peter had spent the past three years reconstructing his life, piece by piece. Through hard work, skill, and a bit of luck, he had managed to revive his flagging career. People still whispered stories about his secondment to Blackpool and thought he was a prick, but his case closure rate showed that he was also a very good detective.
Peter shook himself out of his reverie, and through force of habit tucked his hands in his trouser pockets. “Ian, have you got anything on that blood we found?”
The lead forensic tech gave a long-suffering sigh. “As I told you five minutes ago-no, Carlisle” The frustration was evident in Ian’s voice.
Peter sniffed. There really was nothing for him to do at the moment, and irritating the forensic team would only slow things down. Maybe it was time for a quick trip home-the sun was just rising, and if he drove fast enough he’d be able to sneak in a quick nap before heading in to the station. “Alright, I’ll be back to the station in an hour or two and will bother you there. Don’t suppose you’d be able to get me more info on the bloke who worked here?”
Ian shot him a speaking look and in a clipped voice answered, “I’ll do what I can.”
Peter took his hands out of his pockets, turned on his heel, and walked out into the early morning.
~ - ~
Chapter Two
Author - jlrpuck
Rating - K+
Pairing - Peter Carlisle/Rose Tyler
Spoilers - For both Blackpool and S2 of Doctor Who.
Disclaimer - None of the characters from Blackpool or Doctor Who belong to me, and no profit is intended from their use.
Summary - A post-Doomsday story, set in the Alt!Verse. It's been over three years since Rose and the Doctor said goodbye. What happens when she not only meets his doppelganger, but has to work with him?
Author’s Notes - Are long, and are behind the cut.
Many months ago, on a snowy February day, I decided to try my hand at writing. Just a short thing, more to see if I could really get my imagination to fire than anything else; I wasn't horrified by what I wrote, and the fic was quietly posted and quietly went away. At roughly the same time, I finally saw Blackpool. I instantly fell in love with DI Peter Carlisle who, to this day, remains my favorite Tennant character. My subconscious took the combination of these two things as an imperative to begin crafting a story where Rose and Peter meet. malaleen , of course, was the first to do it (well, the first I'd seen)--and she did it very well indeed--and the idea really did intrigue me.
Suddenly, I found myself thinking about the possibilities; driving to work, sitting in meetings, reading the papers, at hockey games--any time my mind had a little space, it would go crazy with ideas. And so this story was born. When I started it, I was hoping I'd be able to flesh out more than a few pages. Oh, irony, you funny little thing; I've been working on it for months now, have 19 chapters written, and still have several more to go. Still, I felt it was probably time to set the monster free--heaven knows, the people listed below have been telling me to just go ahead and do it already--and so I've set up a little fic journal for the express purpose of getting this out in the open.
Muchas, Muchas gracias to my betas,earlgreytea68 and arctacuda ; their suggestions and corrections were invaluable. Additional thanks to rosa_acicularis, who provided fabulous comments. I'd also be remiss if I didn't thank misssara11 for encouraging me to start writing in the first place, and for reading over my early efforts at this story.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32 | Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 | Chapter 35 | Chapter 36 | Chapter 37 | Chapter 38 | Chapter 39 | Chapter 40 | Chapter 41 | Chapter 42 | Chapter 43 | Chapter 44 | Epilogue
It was the noise of her Blackberry that finally dragged Rose from her dreamless sleep. Grumbling, she shivered as she reached out from under her duvet to grab the vibrating device off the bedside table. The news the gadget contained, however, was enough to make Rose Tyler, Vitex heiress (to the world at-large) and Torchwood field agent (to a select few), sit bolt upright in bed.
“Bugger!” was her only comment as she read the message again. Rose swung her legs over the side of her bed and began to move around her room as she dialled the number for her second-in-command, Mickey Smith. Rose had known Mickey since they were children on the Powell Estate, back in her ‘old’ life; like her, he had come over to an alternate universe courtesy of the combination of multiversal anomaly and human hubris. The two of them had even dated for several years--up until the eventful two days that had led to her life-altering decision to travel in a blue police box with a charismatic man who called himself ‘the Doctor.’ It was Mickey who Rose abandoned in a back alley when the Doctor uttered the magical phrase “Did I mention, it also travels in time”; Mickey, who had been accused of murdering Rose when she went missing for a year; Mickey, who had saved the earth with the click of a single red button marked ‘fire’; Mickey, who had earned the respect of the Doctor and earned an invitation to travel with them in the TARDIS; and Mickey, who had been strong enough to stay behind, by choice, in this alternate world after they first came through and helped defeat John Lumic and his plan for the creation of a ‘perfect’ human through Cybus Industries. The impacts of her--and his brief--travels with the Doctor, as well as their time apart in separate universes, had served to temper their relationship into the strongest kind of friendship.
“Mickey? Yes, I know what time it is! Didn’t you get the alert?” Rose paused as Mickey uttered something that may or may not have been a ‘no.’ “One of ours has gone missing….Yes, it’s worth mobilizing the duty crew! It’s one of our lab rats!” Rose used the semi-affectionate epithet that the field teams used to describe the scientists working for Torchwood.
More incomprehensible mumbling came from the other end of the line.
“Mick-go make some coffee, and hand the phone over to Jake.” Mickey murmured a farewell, and soon Rose was speaking to Mickey’s slightly more awake partner. Jake Simmonds, second member of her team and one of the first people she had met in this Universe, mumbled a greeting.
“Jake, good…er”--Rose looked over at her clock-“morning. HQ’s just been notified that one of our scientists has gone missing up in the north--we need to get up there and take a look before the police get in and muck about. Think you and Mickey could be at the office and ready to go in an hour?”
Muffled confirmation came from Jake.
“Good. I’ll ring James to let him know.” Rose rang off, and finished getting dressed before dialling another number. James Ennis, the third member of Rose’s team, was a technological whiz. He had come from the armed forces, where he had specialized in what James vaguely referred to as ‘electronics.’ Rose still wasn’t sure what that had meant, militarily, but in Rose’s experience James was whip smart and second only to her late travelling companion, Jack Harkness, when it came to human ability with tech and machinery. Unfortunately, James had been injured on their last assignment; until he recovered from the rather nasty Flegenarian bite, he was restricted to the dreaded Torchwood desk duty. Although he’d have to stay behind in London, Rose wanted to ensure he was fully briefed in on what the team was doing so he could do his best to help from the office.
After quickly briefing James, Rose finished getting ready. After taking one last look around the small flat, she ran down the stairs to her car and drove the few miles to Torchwood HQ.
Torchwood. Even after just over three years spent in her ‘new’ universe, Rose still had mixed feelings about working for the semi-secret organization. It certainly helped that this Universe’s Torchwood Institute bore absolutely no resemblance to the one in her home Universe. That Torchwood had been founded by Queen Victoria to fight the Doctor, and had been run with zeal-a bit too much zeal--by Yvonne Hartmann; this Torchwood had been brought under the care of Peter Tyler, and the strict scrutiny of President Harriet Jones, after the Cybermen threat had once and for all been eradicated. The focus of this Torchwood was twofold: identify and research any alien artefacts found world-wide and serve as Earth emissaries in the event of alien contact. While Torchwood was by no means an ultra-secret agency, their remit often meant they had a need to keep a low profile. To ease things along when a field investigation was necessary, President Jones had created a niche for them within the Home Office to give the Institute a legitimacy of sorts within the government; however, only those who worked at Torchwood or had encountered them on an investigation knew their real focus was on things extraterrestrial.
After the chain of events at the Canary Wharf offices of Torchwood, when Rose, Mickey, and her mother were forever sealed into this universe--a day that Mickey and Rose half-jokingly referred to as “Doomsday”--headquarters had been moved across the river to Greenwich. It was a small thing that made Rose a little more comfortable working there, but was generally murder on driving in. At two in the morning, however, traffic was light and Rose made it to the office just as the hour she’d given Mickey, Jake, and James was up.
The three of them were all waiting for her, each in various stages of wakefulness and all wearing a variation of combat pants, jumper, and hiking boots. Mickey was clutching a mug of coffee in his hand and looked like he had rolled right out of bed and into the office. Jake, who was more of a morning person, smiled brightly at Rose as she walked in. Thanks to his military experience, James was used to middle-of-the night wake-up calls; in spite of his arm being heavily bandaged and in a sling, damp hair showed he had managed to shower, and his clothes were actually un-wrinkled.
Rose shed her coat and settled behind the desk in her very, very small office, as the others found various bits of wall or furniture to lean against in anticipation of her brief.
“Right, here’s what we’ve got. One of our consulting technical scientists-Michael McGreevy-has gone missing up in the Lakes. His fiancée reported him missing late last evening, shortly before midnight. Seems they were supposed to go out for dinner and he just didn’t show. No answer on his phone, no one at his house-but when the fiancée’d gone to see if he’d lost track of time at his lab, she found that it had been ransacked.” Rose paused to see if there were any questions.
Jake asked the obvious one: “Don’t suppose he did a runner?”
“It’s a possibility, but the lab being torn apart seems to indicate something else at work.” Rose looked around to see if there were any other questions before continuing. “McGreevy’s been working on identifying what one of our recent finds does, exactly. Just a small bit of something, mind, but it was definitely alien tech.”
James spoke up. “Why was he working out of the back of beyond, if he was doing that?”
“Good question--someone trusted him enough to let him work remotely, but I’m not sure why. I’ll need you to run that down while we head up north.”
James nodded. Rose looked around to see if there were any other questions before continuing on. “Right then. It’s a long drive, and we really ought to get up there and keep the locals from playing with something they shouldn’t. Who’s driving?” Nobody particularly wanted to drive the lumbering van that was the field team response vehicle, so the team routinely played scissor, paper, stone to determine who would be saddled with the responsibility. Jake’s grimace showed he had lost.
Rose stood and turned to the tall ginger man to her right. “James, our mobiles and the computer will be on; give us a shout if anything comes up.” Grinning, she turned to Mickey and Jake. “Let’s go.”
~ - ~
Detective Inspector Peter Carlisle wearily ran his hands through his hair before rubbing his eyes. It had been a long night, made longer by the lack of any leads for the current missing-person-turned-possible-burglary scene he was working. His dark hair was a mess from running his hands through it all night, his brown eyes had dark circles under them, and his skin-already fair--was made to look even paler by exhaustion and Peter’s personal uniform of white shirt under dark jumper, dark trousers, dark jacket, and dark blue coat.
As he leaned against the door to the ransacked lab, the lack of sleep, coffee, and sugary pastries combined to make Peter’s mind wander. It had been four years since the denouement of the case in Blackpool, when he had made the mistake of giving in to his sudden rush of feelings for the wife of the primary suspect in a murder investigation. Instead of keeping his wits about him and focusing on what really should have been a straightforward case, he’d become infatuated with Natalie Holden and lost track of what his job and priorities were, resulting in a torrid affair and Natalie ultimately being left by her husband Ripley and free to continue on with Peter. That meant it had been just three and a half years since the heady rush of feelings had worn off and he and Natalie had realised what they had done. Which made it just over three years now since Natalie’s murder at the hands of a rogue group of Cybermen. She had left him to go back to her husband, but that hadn’t made it any easier to deal with what had happened to her. Throwing himself into his work back in Kendal, Peter had spent the past three years reconstructing his life, piece by piece. Through hard work, skill, and a bit of luck, he had managed to revive his flagging career. People still whispered stories about his secondment to Blackpool and thought he was a prick, but his case closure rate showed that he was also a very good detective.
Peter shook himself out of his reverie, and through force of habit tucked his hands in his trouser pockets. “Ian, have you got anything on that blood we found?”
The lead forensic tech gave a long-suffering sigh. “As I told you five minutes ago-no, Carlisle” The frustration was evident in Ian’s voice.
Peter sniffed. There really was nothing for him to do at the moment, and irritating the forensic team would only slow things down. Maybe it was time for a quick trip home-the sun was just rising, and if he drove fast enough he’d be able to sneak in a quick nap before heading in to the station. “Alright, I’ll be back to the station in an hour or two and will bother you there. Don’t suppose you’d be able to get me more info on the bloke who worked here?”
Ian shot him a speaking look and in a clipped voice answered, “I’ll do what I can.”
Peter took his hands out of his pockets, turned on his heel, and walked out into the early morning.
~ - ~
Chapter Two