Remember Time Brings... [attn: Jack]

The place was moderately crowded, dimly lit but clean. It was quieter than it was most evenings, probably accounted for by the fact that the television was showing repeats. Still, most of the attentions were drawn to the flickering screen, a few conversing with other patrons, or their glasses. From the furthest back corner of the room a rhythmic sound of someone playing the spoons can be heard softly.

Sitting alone at a table next to a window, was a girl with blonde hair. Her back was to the doorway, eyes lowered to stare in curiousity at the half-finished drink in front of her. She couldn't remember what exactly it was that she'd ordered. Her whole mind had gotten sort of fuzzy around the edges. The only distinguishing characteristic was that it was...pinkish. Which didn't help her much.

It had been around her... Twentieth trip or so back, she thought. Probably give or take a few. Long enough for the initial feeling of accomplishment to fade, and the realization that she hadn't come a step closer to finding him. That day had been a particularly futile trip.

Normally she would just go home, but she wasn't in the mood for the questions about it. Over here, where if she ran into anyone she knew there'd be more pressing questions then what she was doing in there. Like what she was doing alive.

Rose took another sip of her mystery drink, fairly zoned out to her present surroundings. The drink's taste didn't help her to put a name to it, mostly because she couldn't quite match the flavor to a word. Another sip of it didn't help much either, so she returned to her visual assessment of the liquid.

A particularly long and wearing day could occasionally drive him into public. Usually it drove him to the roof, literally, but every now and again it brought him to want a drink, minus the possibility of falling off the rooftop and plus the pleasant sound and feeling of being surrounded by people. It was one of those things that he never really got tired of, being around people. One hundred and fifty years (give or take) down the road, and he never got cynical about them (not for too long, anyway). So it was a nice respite.

This time he didn't even make it to the bar. That was his own fault, really. He entered and was distracted briefly by someone he'd met in passing, and then he got distracted by someone else entirely. Maybe it was just a stray memory, someone he'd seen sit like that once before, in similar clothes and with similar hair, but he couldn't resist moving to tap their shoulder lightly, asking, "Rose?"

It had happened before. Over the years - never in a pub before, but on the street, once or twice. He'd think he saw a girl who looked like her and wonder where the Doctor was, and if it mattered. He'd never felt secure enough in his own timeline to risk talking to them, though. But it was 2008, and she was by herself in a pub, no Doctor in sight. So he asked.

The sound of her name perked her attention more than the touch on her shoulder. Maybe she'd told her name to someone in there?

Before she turned up to face him though, Rose couldn't help thinking that there was something familiar about his voice. 'He sounds sorta like...' Semi-aware of the fuzziness in her brain, she smiled rather blankly. What a coincedence.

Once she'd looked up, slightly dazed look on her face, and actually made out his. 'Funny. Looks just like him too." A few thoughts shot through her brain, missing each other completely.

"That's me. Y'know..." Rose drew the thought out slightly, head tilted as she looked up at him.

Jack very nearly froze when she looked at him and he realized yes, it really was Rose, and no, he wasn't seeing things. Hallucinations were right out. It was Rose Tyler, in a pub, in Cardiff... which was more than a little strange, but he wasn't going to get picky. Today just seemed to be a day for weird reunions.

Her curious gaze made him wonder, though. "Don't tell me you don't recognize me," he said, with a grin. Too glad to see her to be upset if she didn't. She looked like she'd had a bit to drink, and he wasn't sure how much she knew about what happened on the Gamestation.

Rose frowned, slightly thoughtful as she looked at him. "Y'know..." She repeated, fairly adamant in her speech. "You look sort of... 'zactly like Jack."

Her voice was the smallest bit amused though when she continued. "Sound like'im too. But that's im.." A few attempts to continue the word were failures, and she turned her attention away for a moment, taking another sip of her drink.

"But you can't be." She finally told him, not supplying him with an explanation because she didn't expext him to argue. Her opinion on the matter was set. It'd be silly for him to be there. A brief collapse in her train of thought led to her informing him in almost a whisper. "'Sound like'im too..."

His grin fell a little at that, her disbelief almost hurting. He knew that it shouldn't - of course, there was no Earthly (or unearthly, for that matter) reason for him to be in Cardiff. That didn't help so much. But he recovered quickly enough, sitting down across from her as he told her, "Sure, I can be."

Jack's tone almost could have been called gentle. Almost. It was a sort of fine line, one he wasn't very used to crossing these days. At least not with people. "Captain Jack Harkness, at your service."

"He said you were..." Rose searched her memory. "Rebuilding the Earth. In the year.. the year..." It had a lot of numbers, she remembered. A lot more than 2008 did. What she couldn't remember was what they were exactly.

She took another drink of the pinkish concoction now that she could do so while still keeping an eye on him. "You..." Her expression changed almost indecipherably. She hadn't said the whole thing, had she? No.

Jack shook his head. So that's what he told her, he thought to himself. Nice. "Nope," he told her, shaking his head. Keeping his eyes on her as if he was afraid she'd vanish. "Vortex manipulator - wound up back here in Cardiff." Well, not in the right time in Cardiff, but she didn't need to know that, did she?

'Course not. That was asking for trouble he didn't want.

"How did you get here?" A pause, and he registered her drink and stammering speech, adding, "Nevermind, we can talk about that when you're sober. Got a place to stay tonight?" He really wasn't trying to make that sound like that kind of invitation. Much.

"Good.. 's hard to 'splain. I haven't been staying..." She told him, almost muttering. The simple correction, the Vortex Manipulator and tiny little meetings of thoughts were leading her to believe him.

At his question though, she somehow found herself infinitely more convinced. "Jack..." Her voice suggested that she'd just noticed him there, and hadn't been holding something resemblent of a conversation. Her fingers held the glass still in front of her lightly.

At the same time though, Rose pointed accusingly at him, or rather a few inches above his shoulder. "You-"

He raised an eyebrow at her pointing, doing his level best to look innocent (and failing pretty miserably - it just wasn't one of his many talents). "What?" he asked. He was curious - and anyway, she was pointing at him... or would have been, if she had been sober, anyway. Same difference.

"You're you." She informed him in her best attempt at exhasperation, though the lingering smile ruined it rather completely. In any case the accusation currently made sense to her, which said something about it.

"But... Yeah, I think. Or no- Yeah, no." Rose felt that needed clearing up, and attempted to answer his question. "Don' want to lose track of you if I go back.."

"Yeah, I am." Jack grinned. Her slightly bungled response to his question, however at length, amused him, and it was a sentiment he could definitely share. It had been a whole lot of years since he'd seen her at all, and even more than that since he'd seen her properly, spoken to her.

"So d'you mean, yes you've got a place to go or to stay, or no, you'd rather come home with me?" He asked. He didn't really pretend to be asking innocently, even though he was. It never sounded like it. Was there even a way to ask that question innocently?

"With you. Don't want you disapearing when I can think..not curvy." That had been a rather blunt way to put it, but she didn't really notice. Even though part of her understood that he'd be one unlikely hallucination.

Another time she might have given him a warning, however jokingly, but that wasn't happening just then. She took one last, planned anyway, sip from her glass.

"Okay, then. Good." He nodded, understanding. The likelihood of his disappearing was pretty low, but he knew going back to the Hub was about the same, since she'd never find him there.

Jack leaned his elbow on the table, giving her a smile as he suggested, "So, you want to finish your drink and get out of here?" he asked, one part teasing and one part serious.

Rose giggled, quite without any conscious decisions being made on her part. She turned downwards to give her drink a rather lingering look. "'M done." She moved to stand once she'd finally decided, realized that the table wouldn't be the best thing to lean onto, and sort-of smiling towards him.

Jack stood when she did, glancing at the drink and then her before asking, "You paid yet?" Not entirely waiting for a response, he got out his wallet to put a couple of quid on the table for her drink. That way they could leave without worrying about it. "Come on, let's go, then." He grinned, extending a hand to her.

Didn't want her wandering off in Cardiff, drunk, after all.

"Thanks. Was gonna just..." Rose realized that sharing that idea might not be the best thing ever and trailed off. Instead she reached for a took hold of his hand, giving him a smile.

Part of her was thrilled at the solidity of it, and held tight. Him, and there then. She brightened, even if the edges were still fuzzy.

"Just?" he asked, but let it drop when she took his hand, turning to lead her out of the pub. He was silently elated, this connection to the past he liked. She had been a fond memory, and now she was really there, when he had fully expected never to see her again. It didn't even occur to him not to take her directly to the Hub.

"We'll take the lift down," he said, once they were getting closer to the plass and thus, the invisible lift. Even this late, there was too great a chance of running into Ianto or one of the others going the way of the tourist information centre. He'd probably have to explain this to them sooner or later, but he was banking on later.

"The lift?" She couldn't help the curiousity in her voice. The lift was enough by itself but.. down? Her mind netted the image of an old show, something..turtles? Living in a sewer. "Where d'you live anyway?"

She'd find out soon enough, but the question had come the same. In the meantime she looked around idly, spreading her glances between the city she'd seen earlier, with its rather different viewpoint since then, and him.

"Just up here.. well, not up," he said, shrugging. It was a pleasant walk - a nice night, and it wasn't even raining - but rather short, as they were already coming up on the plass. "It's underground. You'll see." He wasn't totally sure how to describe it, without the slightly pathetic explanation that he slept in his office. Nevermind that he did.

Once they reached the spot where the lift was, he let go of Rose's hand and touched her shoulder lightly. "Stay very still," he instructed with a smile, pressing the control on his wristcomp that made the lift move down. "Invisible lift, very handy," he commented as it began moving. As if this were something utterly normal.

Rose listened to his instructions to stay still, but when the floor started to sink she gripped his coat almost instinctively. This let her stay pretty sure that she wasn't falling. The whole ground coming up to meet her thing argued the point, but when the ground gave way to the expanse beneath, she gaped.

"It's..." Adjectives failed her, but her tone showed that she was properly impressed. She stayed put, keeping hold as the descent decided it didn't approve of her mystery beverage. Before anything could be done about it though, it had stopped.

"It's a lift," Jack informed her with a grin, taking her hand again to lead her off of it. "Welcome home-- well, work and home, for me." He could just catch a glimpse of Myfanwy turning a corner above them, and was glad she wasn't coming down to play meet and greet just now. Explanations were going to be interesting enough without the pterodactyl.

At such a late hour, the Hub was empty, which made it easy to lead Rose directly to his office. "Here we are," he nodded, holding the door open for her.

She'd been trying to explain it as a whole, but let it go. Instead she let her gaze be drawn to the assorted things of interest as she was lead along. Especially the brighter things. There seemed to be something she was looking for particularly, but she didn't seem to see it.

After another glance at him and a small smile, Rose made her way cautiously past him into his office. She made her way more or less in a small circle of the room, investigating it to the degree of 'looking around blinking'. One particular step made her freeze though, and she took a step backwards. "You've got a hole."

He closed the door behind the two of them, staying by the doorway as she made her exploration of what he thought of as home these days. When she stopped, he stepped a little closer, nodding in answer to her observation. "The bed's down there. It's not too deep, don't worry."

He was a little amused, used to the strange reactions he tended to get when people found out he slept more or less in a hole in the floor of his office. Well, there was a bed there and everything - it wasn't like he was falling asleep at the desk (though it'd been known to happen once or twice).

She crouched down to peer into the hole, not with the best of balance, but she managed to not fall in. The lowered view however, afforded her a view of something that did look distinctly...bedish. Rose stood back up, rather easily excepting one case of leaning too far in a direction.

"Why d'you sleep in a hole in...your office?" She asked him, brows furrowed slightly. From what she could, at the moment, tell, the only plus side seemed to be convenience. But then, weren't there cots?