“I think Paul would like chocolate-chip cookies,” Lucy said, tearing her hard gaze away from Rose. For a few heartbeats Rose was afraid Lucy was going to confront her, but she went purposefully to the fridge to get the perishable ingredients out.
“He and everyone else in this building,” Lottie said, frowning a bit. She’d caught on to the undercurrent of tension in the room. Her expression lit up all of a sudden and she nodded minutely. But, honestly, who had they tried to fool? It was impossible to keep a secret in such close quarters.
“I’ll download a recipe,” Rose suggested, walking over to the sofa where she had left her laptop. She quickly found one that sounded good, and to her surprise they had all the ingredients they needed. Mickey’s phone trilled, and when she looked at him, he mouthed at her that he’d be downstairs with Annie.
“I’ve been shopping,” Lottie said. “I thought making cookies would be a nice distraction. They love baking.”
“You are a treasure,” Rose said. “Thank you.”
They had enough milk, eggs and chocolate to make several dozen cookies, and soon the kitchen turned into a well-managed disaster area as the five of them started their project.
“What are you making?” The unfamiliar voice interrupted them and they all looked up in surprise.
“Anna!” Evie squealed, sliding off the counter-top on which Rose had sat her. She ran to Anna, who scooped her up in her arms. She was an attractive, dark-haired woman with a thick brogue and keen blue eyes. They reminded Rose of her first Doctor.
Anna let go of Evie quite quickly and straightened to speak to Rose. Rose felt like a naughty schoolgirl when Anna asked, “Who are you?”
Rose blinked, surprised at first by Anna’s nerve and lack of recognition. It would make dealing with Anna easier because she wasn’t biased by what she thought she knew about her. “I’m Rose Tyler. And you must be Anna Knowles, their aunt.”
“Yeah,” Ewan said, as if there’d been any doubt. A quick glance at the boy told Rose that the relationship between them was difficult. She couldn’t blame him; Anna seemed to be an interesting person, very self-confident, maybe borderline self-righteous. Very protective, she remembered her being described.
“Mr Smith told me I’d find you up here. Where’s Dave? And where’s Paul?”
Rose liked to imagine that the woman’s demanding tone hid her anxiety.
“Dave’s in the bathroom and Paul is being treated at the moment. Dr Henley, sent us away so he could work in peace,” Rose explained. “Would you like a cup of tea? Lottie’s just made some.”
Anna nodded, brushing her hair behind her ear, surprised to have the wind taken out of her sails by Rose’s professionalism. It was good to know that it worked so well.
“What are you making?” Anna asked, sitting at the breakfast bar with a mug between her hands.
“Chocolate cookies. They’re for Paul,” Evie informed her blithely as she placed a lump of dough onto the parchment-covered baking tray.
“How is he?” Anna asked.
“He’s in a coma,” Dave said. No one had seen him come in the room amidst the chaos. He looked a bit better, but it was still obvious that he was very shaken. The simple sentence was difficult for him to say but he managed to do so without falling apart. He drew a deep breath and stepped towards the kitchen table to try the dough. He watched Ewan in fascination as he opened an egg and added it to flour in the mixing bowl. Without adding pieces of the shell.
Anna gasped at the news and clamped her hand over her mouth. “Is he going to be all right?”
“Yes!” Evie cried. “We’re waiting for—”
Lucy interrupted her sister rudely lest she talk about aliens. Rose had a feeling it wouldn’t go down well with Anna, and she was glad that Lucy’s quick thinking confirmed it. “We’re waiting for the medicine to be delivered.”
“Well, why isn’t it here yet?” Anna asked, regaining her footing as she had something to focus on.
“It’s purpose-made for Paul,” Ewan said, enunciating the hard word carefully but still relaxed enough to be adding another egg to the mixture.
Anna looked from Dave to Rose.
“It’s true. We are in touch with experts who are working on the cure as we speak,” Rose said.
“We?”
“Torchwood Institute. I’m the director of the Glasgow branch,” Rose explained. “Dr Henley is very good, but Paul’s illness is so rare that we need the help from experts from abroad. They are on their way. We’re expecting them to arrive soon.”
“What kind of experts are they? Isn’t Torchwood supposed the be able to deal with this sort of thing?”
Rose smiled mildly, catching Dave rolling his eyes behind his sister-in-law’s back. Well, almost sister-in-law. “We are. This is just a small branch, Mrs Knowles, and our resources are limited. But we get anything we need when we need it. We know who to contact for help. ”
“Where’s Robin?” Dave asked, dipping his finger into the dough Ewan had prepared. Rose resisted the urge to bat his hand away. It was one thing that the children knew, but they didn’t want to advertise their relationship to Anna.
“He’s picking up some things at the house, but he’ll be here soon,” Anna said.
Dave sat Anna down in the lounge to explain to her what had happened. She already knew the short version, but she was a woman who had a lot of questions. Rose, Lottie and the children busied themselves with the cookies, and soon the room filled with their smell. They had just taken one tray of cookies out of the oven when Robin arrived.
“This is cosy,” he commented with a friendly smile as Annie showed him in.
“Robin! We’re making cookies for Paul,” Evie announced proudly, supervising Rose as she transferred the cookies to the wire rack to cool. At the same time Lottie was wiping Evie’s hands with a tea towel.
“Oh! Can I have one?” he asked, reaching out for one.
“They’re still very hot. You’ll burn your tongue,” Rose warned, smiling. Robin Knowles seemed to be the opposite of his wife. He was more like an overgrown boy than a stern man, but Rose knew that he was a lawyer, so she assumed — just to be on the safe side — that he was in his sheep’s clothing.
“Robin Knowles,” he said, delicately withdrawing his hand to offer it for her to shake.
“Rose Tyler.”
“The photos don’t do you justice.” The compliment was as hackneyed as it was heartfelt and sweet. Robin blushed and Evie giggled.
“You haven’t seen Dave’s,” Rose said, clamping her mouth shut as soon as the words were out. She turned hastily away, busying herself with stowing away the leftover ingredients.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Anna piped in.
“It means that Rose and I have worked on a project together,” Dave said casually, thus making it sound like the most natural thing in the world. Only that the Emptiness Folder was anything but natural or ordinary. To Rose’s relief, however, Dave’s answer mollified Anna and she let the matter drop.
-:-
Robin had brought Paul’s colourful duvet, and they spread it over him, replacing the white hospital one. If it weren’t for the tube down his throat, Paul might be an ordinary boy asleep in his bed. Evie climbed onto the foot of his bed to keep watch over him.
“When’s he going to wake up?” she asked.
“Hopefully soon,” Dominic said. “Rose, can I have a word?”
Rose followed him outside, watching Anna through the window as she carefully approached her nephew. Both her and her husband’s faces were masks of sorrow. She didn’t even dare look at Dave.
“Donna has asked about him,” Dominic said.
“Donna?”
“Dr Noble. She treated him when he was first admitted to hospital. She specialises in exotic diseases and she finds the case interesting,” he explained.
“She’s interested in working for Torchwood?” Rose asked, now turning her full attention to Dominic.
“Yes. Fra
nkie and I could need some reinforcement.”
Rose sighed. “I know. The question is, does she fit in? Would she be able to deal with, say, Uggsomegauts?”
“Yes. She was the one who alerted us to the case in the first place.”
Rose rubbed her forehead. “I wish you wouldn’t call Paul a case.”
“Sorry. It’s easier for me if I keep professional distance, but I can understand what you’re going through,” Dominic said. “The Sheeryan won’t be long now. What are we going to do about them?” he asked, flicking his head in the general direction of the Knowleses.
“They’ll leave before Aquiouk arrives.”
“About Donna.”
“Yes. Tell her to come, but I’d like to talk to her before we hire her, okay?”
“Perfect! Thank you, Rose,” Dominic said, giving her cheek a quick peck.
“What happened to your professional distance?”
“You’re different, Rose, as well you should know.”
-:-
Anna and Robin had taken the kids to pick up Boy to take him for a walk in the park, and Rose used the time to keep Dave company as he sat with Paul. She studied the pattern on the duvet as she listened to Dave read from Harry Potter. Tony had a similar one, and her heart constricted at the idea of her little brother lying like this, with a tube down his throat that breathed for him and made his chest rise and fall rhythmically, unnaturally. Paul was pale, and there was no movement beneath his closed eyelids to indicate he was just asleep and dreaming. There was no sign now of the blood, but there were two IVs, and his temperature, if high, at least seemed to have stabilised.
How Dave did it she had no idea. For some reason he only saw his son, the machinery keeping him alive fading into the background. He seemed to have needed his breakdown to summon strength.
“I love you, Dave,” Rose said, interrupting him.
He looked up and met her serious gaze with boyish surprise. Rose wanted to lean in and nibble his pouty bottom lip. “I love you,” she repeated.
“And I love you,” he said, his tone a little incredulous at first, but then he burst into one of the smiles he had only for her. “Thank you. For everything.”
This isn’t over yet, Rose wanted to say, but she didn’t have the heart. Instead, she leaned in to kiss him.
Which is how Anna found them. And along with her Robin and the children.
-:-
“She’s just playing with you!” Anna argued. “Don’t you realise that?”
Dave was frozen to the spot. Rose. Playing with him? “Don’t you think she’d pick someone with a little less baggage than me? I’ve lost my wife and I’m trying to look after our four children and a business.”
“Yes, exactly! You should be looking after the kids.”
“And I’m not?” Dave asked, completely thrown by Anna’s argument. “I do everything for them, Anna. Everything. That thing on Tuesday? It’s for them, nae for me. Or do ye seriously think I could put a price on Rita’s head?”
“She’s after the money.”
Dave snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. Do you have any idea how much money the Tylers have? Hmm? It’s a wee bit more than the Tiler you know. It should be me after her money.”
“How old is she?”
“23.”
Anna looked aghast. “You’re robbing the cradle, Dave! She’s only four years older than Tanya.”
“It’s a good thing I was young when we had her, eh? Otherwise you’d be telling me she could be my daughter.” She still could, but that was beside the point.
“Aye.”
“Anna, Rose is the cleverest, wisest woman I have ever met. She’s a lot older than it says on her birth certificate. She’s nothing at all like the woman we know from the media. You have seen her with the children, haven’t ye?” He gestured in the general upwards direction of the guest flat.
Anna crossed her arms. “Och aye? And what happens when the press find out about ye? They’ll hunt ye, Dave. They’ll hunt ye. And Rita would never have wanted that.”
Dave guffawed. “D’ye think I do?”
Anna raised her chin in defiance.
“The Tylers are doing everything they can to keep their private life private, and so does Rose. We’ll look after the bairns.”
“We?” Anna repeated.
“I love her, Anna.”
She deflated a bit, slumping into one of the armchairs in the family room.
“It’s too soon, Dave,” she said softly. “Have you thought of the children?”
“I have. Which is why we haven’t told them yet. And I think you should leave it up to me to decide if it’s too soon, aye?”
“Aye. It’s just… I miss her, Dave. And seeing you with Rose… it’s like you and Rita never existed,” Anna said softly.
Dave held his breath. “Is that what you’re thinking? That I’ve forgotten about her so quickly?”
Anna stared at him hard. “Have ye?”
“The fact that you’re asking me this is… sad, Anna.” He squared his jaw and looked away. Rita was with him all the time, and the hollow ache her death had left inside him was as deep as ever. There was rarely a moment when he didn’t feel it. The only drug that could alleviate his pain — but never make go away — was Rose. She gave him the strength to go on when he thought he was completely failing at life without Rita. At the same time he thought he might burst with love for Rose. The love he felt for Rose was the same, and yet different, from his love for Rita. Neither diminished the other. Rose was not a substitute, a rebound relationship. She’d never allow that.
Besides, Anna didn’t know Rose at all. She didn’t know that Rose had a baggage of her own, part of which was quite similar to his. She, too, had lost the love of her life, and what was more, she had to adjust to a universe that wasn’t her own. Rose had taken a leap of faith by telling him that, trusting him to come to terms with the fact that he looked like her lost love. But these were things he couldn’t explain to Anna. She would never understand. Robin adored her; she’d never had to fight for his love. Dave, on the other hand, had pursued Rita for two years and had entrusted Rose with himself and the children.
“Dave,” Anna began.
He turned to face her despite himself. He was so angry he was shaking. His boy was lying out there, in a coma, possibly close to death. And Anna had nothing better to do than question his love life? “You don’t understand anything, Anna.”
Anna sighed. “Then tell me.”
“No, Anna. You have to figure this one out by yourself.” He turned away again, wrapping his arms around himself to provide some kind of anchor and to stop the trembling. Rita had gone AWOL for six weeks, and when she’d come back to tell him she was pregnant with Paul, he had been overjoyed. Now this very child lay dying, and Rose was there. Not only for him, but also for Paul and the other children. She was there and gave them her unconditional support. If Anna was too blind to see that — and to understand that he still loved Rita and missed her terribly — she was beyond help and didn’t know him at all.
There was a discreet knock on the door and Frankie peeked inside, probably to check for survivors. “Dave? Dr Noble would like to meet you. When you’re ready.”
“Oh, I think we’re done here,” Dave said, nodding sharply at his sister-in-law. “Leave it to me, Anna. Please.”
She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself. He left with a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had won the argument, and he couldn’t really blame Anna for throwing a fit. This was new to her, and she was very protective. It was only natural for her to react like this. The only thing about this he regretted was that the children had witnessed her initial reaction, and for a while they had watched them and her arguing as if they were a tennis match. Eventually Rose had suggested taking it to a more private room.
Well, Rose would get a grilling from the bairns, he was sure of that; he felt bad for leaving her. Lucy in particular would be furious.
-:-
&
nbsp; That night, Dave sat in front of a bed full of children again, his chin propped on his folded hands as he watched them sleep. Ewan and Evie had curled up in the tiniest of spaces around their brother as if to protect him. Lucy had settled down on the sofa, where he’d spread a blanket over her and promised to wake her as soon as the Sheeryan arrived. They shouldn’t be long now, a couple of hours at the most.
The hell Anna had set loose hadn’t burned nearly as white-hot for Rose as it had for him. Robin had only muttered an embarrassed little “Oh”, and tried to drag the children away when Evie piped up, “I saw you, didn’t I? Cuddling on the sofa.”
Bigger on the inside: Space, Time Travel, Alien Criminals (A Space Time Travel Mystery Book 1) Page 42