Rose was not abandoned

Chapter 11

Alec suddenly remembered how he'd joked with Rose about her being from Mars or from a different universe. No, was he right? That could be the only possible explanation. Rose had turned up when the Cybermen had attacked, so had this other man. There was no reference to her prior to that. He found references to a group calling themselves 'The Preachers' who were opposed to everyone in London wearing the earpods that John Lumic had tried to make mandatory to wear, fortunately they'd not been introduced in Scotland and other places in the north of England but had spread to other parts of the country and upon the demise of Lumic, they had been quickly abandoned. Maybe Rose and this man were from another universe, enlisted the help of 'The Preachers' to stop the Cyberman invasion or maybe the other was around and what if in the process, Rose did indeed somehow introduce her mother to Peter Tyler? Then what if Rose and her mother had stayed behind and this man had gone back to his own universe but how had her mother got there?

It was making a lot more sense to him than he originally thought that Rose was bad, he couldn't have believed that but what he was unravelling was almost beyond belief itself. He'd always been sort of interested in science fiction, he remembered writing stories of different planets when he was a boy and his teacher telling him he'd never amount to anything if he kept writing about aliens and monsters, yeah, right, he was a Detective Inspector so who was right in the end? Did he read in his comic books he used to save his pocket money to buy that popping between universes was like going to the next town, you could visit and be home for tea. Science fiction was sometimes based on facts. "Grow up Hardy" he told himself but here he was, presented with all these facts that had only one possible explanation for the sudden appearance of a Jackie Tyler and Alec Hardy look-a-likes and Rose.

His phone rang, it was Rose, she must have got home. What could he possibly say to her? It was all over, he never wanted to see her again? Or should he go to London as planned and talk to her? He answered, deciding to pretend he'd learned nothing about it. "Rose, my love, how was your journey? Do you miss me?" He could picture her, lying on the beach in her bikini, shuddering at the thought. How could he possibly doubt her, he was besotted with her, like a love sick puppy and he knew it, she turned him to jelly.

"Oh, it was boring, I was looking out of the window, imagining we were on the beach, in our tent, doing you know what. I so miss you Alec. Have you got video calling on your phone?" she asked.

"I think so, I've got the wifi enabled, I was looking up how to get to your house on the map," he lied, he couldn't tell her what he had really been doing. "Is that the same, do you mean a video call or something over the internet, I'm not very technically minded. It took me ages to enable the wifi," he laughed.

Rose told him what he needed to do to talk face to face and ten minutes later, they could see each other, which made them both feel better. Alec was now regretting his meeting with Oliver that had set him off in the first place. He reminded himself to beat the reporter senseless for making him go through all this, for making him doubt his Rose.

"Hi, that's better, I can see you now, you're still my beautiful Rose," he smiled.

Rose smiled back at him. "It's only been a few hours Alec, blimey, what are you going to be like by Saturday? I know how you feel though, I miss you already, especially when I think of what we could be doing right this minute, down on the beach, just the two of us. Close your eyes Alec and imagine we're on the beach and just come out of the sea."

He didn't want to imagine, he wanted to be there with her, just as much now as he'd done before. Nothing he had learned or now believed mattered, he wanted her so badly right now so whatever the truth was, whether she was from another universe or even actually from Mars, he wanted her more than ever because he loved her.