Chapter Text
“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet, what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”
- David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
********
Today was the day. The dimension cannon was finally ready. After years of hard work and sacrifice, launch day had arrived. Rose could hardly believe it.
She stood in the center of the platform, readying herself. Torchwood’s army of soldiers, scientists, and medical professionals surrounded her, eyes wide in anticipation. They were either about to witness a miracle in motion or a sobering disappointment. Rose breathed in deeply. Any moment now.
“Ready?” Pete said as he prepared to signal for launch.
“As I’ll ever be,” she admitted with a shrug.
“We can always send someone else,” said Pete, voice laced with worry. Rose couldn’t tell if the concern came straight from the heart, or in fear of what Jackie would do if something went south.
And maybe that wasn’t wrong to assume. The Doctor said travel between parallel worlds was impossible, now that the walls were resealed. Rose had spent years struggling to make peace with that, but she just could never manage it. How could she? She didn’t want to accept that she might not ever see him again. They hadn’t even had a proper goodbye.
She shook her head. “Nope. Nobody else knows the Doctor like I do. It has to be me.”
Pete acknowledged her with a simple nod. He knew the answer before she even gave it, and so did the rest of Torchwood. When she volunteered to be the first to go through, most assumed she was just being brave, wanting to save their universe from dying out. Stars were disappearing from the sky faster than anticipated. There wasn’t much time left to act. Rose was one of Torchwood’s best field agents and the adopted daughter of its leader. It just felt right, sending her through. However, those who knew her better understood the main reason.
She had to hear the end of that sentence.
********
Rose slowly woke up, eyes wincing as she did so. She was struggling to adjust to the sunlight. Light sensitivity was a common side-effect of using the cannon, probably due to overexposure to bright flashes.
As soon as she got her bearings, she sighed and leaned her head back against the tree her back rested on. She must have fallen asleep during her stakeout. Dimension-hopping was starting to take a major toll on her body.
Maybe Pete was right on launch day. Someone else might be better prepared for these missions. How many worlds ago was that memory? She was starting to lose count.
However, any minor doubts beginning to surface were quickly replaced by Rose’s real ambitions. She had to find him. She just had to. That had been at the forefront of her mind when she first volunteered, and it was looming in the background as she traversed through realities. Her Doctor was out there, somewhere.
But now wasn’t the time for wishful thinking. She had already determined this current world wasn’t the one she was searching for. After all, there was another one of her roaming around.
Rose was currently stationed at the top of a small hill, overlooking a plaza below.
When she first landed in this dimension, she did a routine internet check for members of the Tyler family. Usually, if she found anything online, it became obvious that she wasn’t in her original Earth.
She found evidence almost immediately.
Rose straightened her posture and boosted herself off the ground with a hand. Stretching out her arms, she did her best to try and wake up from her minor doze. She walked over to her bag a few feet away, grabbing a pair of binoculars from it. Turning them on, Rose put them against her eyes and zoomed in on the plaza below.
For the most part, it wasn’t a remarkable place, hosting only a typical assortment of buildings: a grocery store, dry cleaners, and tattoo parlor. In fact, the dainty flower shop that Rose set her eyes upon wasn’t anything too special. Well, except for the pact that a parallel version of her owned it.
Rose zoomed in on the small sign hanging on the side of the building.
A Rose By Any Other Name
A little cheeky, wasn't it? Shakespeare was never her favorite in school, but whatever sold the flowers, Rose supposed. Then again, this version of her was already so different.
In her research, Rose found a series of online advertisements, announcing the grand opening of a flower shop owned by someone named Rose Tyler. After some additional digging, she found a photo of herself plastered on the shop’s website.
Perhaps Rose should have signaled to Torchwood immediately that she wasn’t in the right world, but something about the information compelled her. She disabled her main communication device. That way they couldn’t scream at her for straying away from the designated protocol.
So far, in all her missions, Rose had only met one other alternate version of herself. His name was Rob Tyler, and he was both alike and dislike her in so many ways.
This was the first time she found someone who looked exactly like her, and Rose just couldn’t help but wonder.
And there she was.
Rose spotted the other her coming out of the store. This Rose was moving a pile of objects — ranging from decor to a cash register — inside the shop. She wasn’t alone though, being aided by another familiar face: Jack Harkness. The other Rose pointed her fingers to certain boxes, and Jack said something that made her laugh. Then, the two picked up more boxes and moved back inside.
From her spot on the hill, Rose could only see so much. Yet, she could tell the other Rose and Jack great friends, just as they were in her original reality.
Watching the other Rose fulfill her dreams, opening a flower shop that she likely had been working for years to achieve, was fascinating. Rose was a soldier, morphed into one ever since her heartbreak at Bad Wolf Bay. Much of the youthly gentleness she once held faded away, lost amongst a sea of tragedies. Yet, in this unfamiliar landscape, just one drop in the limitless realm of the multiverse, another her found a peaceful, simple existence. That fact alone gave Rose a slight wave of comfort.
Rose could hear electricity-generating around her. Torchwood was telling her it was time to go. They only had a brief window to bring her back to Pete’s World safely. And so, with a resigned sigh, she accepted her fate. Rose gathered up her things, reading herself for the trip back home. Even if there was a Doctor in this world, it wouldn’t be the one she needed.
And so, she gazed down the hill one last time, taking one last look at that dainty flower shop. The corners of Rose’s mouth upturned slightly. Good on me, she thought. One of them deserved to get the life they wanted, even if it wasn’t her.
The roar of the dimension cannon echoed in Rose’s ears, and just like that, she disappeared in a flash of light.
********
Meanwhile, the celebrations begin.
“This should be the last of them,” Rose said triumphantly. “Nearly done with moving day.”
Jack playfully clapped. “Look at you, Rosie. About to change the world, one fantastical flower arrangement at a time.”
“Damn right,” she said. Rose picked up another box from the ground. “I’m gonna put this one in the back closet, and then we should be good. Ok?”
“Hey, I’m here out of the goodness of my own heart. Take all the time you need,” said Jack. “I’ve already canceled all the appointments in my incredibly busy schedule to be here, helping you out on your special day.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rose responded, not taking his quips too seriously. “You’re truly a saint Jack.”
Jack laughed, accepting her sarcasm in stride. “Well, I’m expecting a dinner date in exchange, or at least your cute assistant's number.”
"I'm sure Ianto will gladly give it to you, Jack. He talks about you too much already." Rose gave him an exaggerated eye roll and then disappeared off into the back closet.
"Hey!" Jack shouted at her. "What does he say about me?"
He could hear her laughter from afar, and he just shook his head in response. Then, stationing himself at the front desk, he continued to unpack.
Suddenly, the door to the shop swung open, with the little bell at the top jingling along with it. This caught Jack’s attention, and he stopped unpacking boxes momentarily to see who came in. Though, he didn’t recognize who it was.
“Hello,” said the stranger with a light smile. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
It was a tall, mature-looking man wearing a leather jacket. He had short brown hair and some rather large-looking ears. Jack looked him up and down, seemingly in approval.
“Well hello, there,” said Jack with a cheeky grin. “Name’s Jack Harkness, and who might you be?”
The man raised his eyebrows but didn’t seem to take Jack’s blatant flirting too seriously. He chuckled slightly. “Just popped in to say hello. I, uh, I own the place next door. Figured I should get to meet the neighbors,” he said. “Are you the owner?”
“Ah, I wish,” Jack said with a coy shrug. “Might get to see you more often that way.”
“Mind not flirting with the customers while on duty?” Rose teased, slightly out of breath. She was still struggling with the boxes but could overhear the conversation just fine.
“Please, you’re not even open yet,” responded Jack.
“Uh, I can come back later if you like,” said the man, slightly off-put by the (playful) argument.
“Oh never mind him,” said Rose, “he’s just upset that someone threw off his groove.” She managed to lift up the final box on the shelf, congratulating herself in her head as she did so. She walked out of the side closet to greet the man.
“Hiya. I’m Rose,” she said, smiling brightly as she outstretched her hand over the counter in welcome.
The man smiled just as earnestly and shook her hand in return. The sleeves of his jacket fell back slightly, and Jack could spot what appeared to be a line of tattoos.
“It’s John. John Smith. Everyone around here just calls me Doc’, though.”