A/N: Hello, lovely readers! This story is wrapping up now – only this chapter and an epilogue left! As always, thank you so much to all of you. Your support means so much to me, and I have really enjoyed sharing this story with you. Enjoy the chapter!

The Doctor had never stayed around for the clean up. He and Rose would always swoop in to save the day and then head off to find their next adventure, never staying around long enough to do more than briefly survey the damage. They had already interfered enough. It was enough that they had saved innocent lives or stopped a threat from advancing; the people they saved were out of danger and could take care of themselves from there.

Rose was reminded by the harsh sound of a phone ringing jarred her from her sleep that the cleaning up part was not as exhilarating as the saving the world part.

She was positive that she had been asleep for only a few minutes and didn't feel much better when a glance at the clock on her bedside table told her that it had been just over two hours. Alec groaned beside her, mumbling something that sounded a bit like, "Turn off that bloody phone." After a bit of fumbling, Rose managed answer the call. Alec could hear someone talking on the other end, but he didn't bother to try to distinguish any of the words. Rose's end of the conversation consisted mostly of "mmhmm."

Alec managed to open his eyes as Rose hung up the phone. "They need us," he stated, and Rose nodded, stifling a yawn.

"That was my dad," she said. "Said it shouldn't take more'n a couple of hours. Just need some statements and things."

"Can't they do that without us?" Alec complained, slowly sitting up.

"You're the D.I." Rose sank back into bed. "They can probably do without me, though." Rose opened her eyes to see Alec watching her with a tender expression on his tired features. "What? I'm getting up, just give me a second."

"You could stay here, you know," he told her. "You've hardly slept in two days."

Rose shook her head and immediately regretting it as her temples throbbed. "Everyone's tired. I need to help. I can make it another couple of hours. And then we're coming back here and sleeping for a week," she added, propping herself up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed before Alec could argue.

They dressed with slow movements, though it didn't take them long, as they had only partially shed their clothing before falling into bed. And then Jake was there to pick them up, waiting for them just outside the flat. The early morning sunlight seemed especially glaring, forcing Rose to squint which she found difficult to do without fully closing her eyes. Both she and Alec slid into the backseat as Jake greeted them, looking entirely too awake and peppy.

"Just leftover adrenaline," he smirked when Rose commented on this. "Believe me, I'll crash by this afternoon. Happens every time."

"Every time?" Alec asked with a quirked eyebrow. "Does this kind of thing happen often?"

"More than you'd believe," Jake said. "Haven't dealt with Cybermen in a while, but for a long time that was our daily life – tracking them from city to city, stopping attacks before they happened or as soon as we could once they had started. That's back when it was just me, Mickey, and Pete."

As they drove, Jake updated Rose and Alec on the situation: some damage to the town, a number of injuries but no known casualties. Things were definitely not as bad as they could have been. Torchwood was more pointing local officials in the right direction than actually working with them. Rose and Alec both needed to make their statements about the night before, and then Alec would speak at a brief press conference.

"Really? That's all you need us for?" Rose asked, incredulous.

"It might end up being a bit more than that, but this is a pretty minor cleanup," Jake replied. "Things have been going smoothly so far. Torchwood is almost ready to completely turn things over to the local authorities."

They arrived at the station just moments later, Jake carefully weaving the car through a few small crowds of people and reporters to park. When Rose stepped back out into the sunlight, she couldn't say she was feeling more energetic, but at least her mind had cleared somewhat.

Ellie was waiting for them as they approached the station. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you both are alright," she said with a sigh of relief. "You had me worried last night. I can't believe this is what you were out stopping."

"I'm glad you and your boys are alright," Rose told her. "And I'm glad we were able to stop it when we did – things could have easily been a lot worse."

Ellie nodded. "Did either of you get any sleep last night? You're really living up to your old nickname, there, Alec."

"What, Worst Cop in Britain?"

"No, the other one," Ellie said with a small laugh. "You look terrible."

"We did get a little bit of rest, but definitely not enough," Rose said, stifling a yawn as if on queue. "Only about two hours."

Ellie gave her a sympathetic look. "Let's hope we can get through this quickly, then."

All things considered, the morning wasn't as bad as Rose had expected. Pete, Mickey, and Jake had taken care of the bulk of Torchwood's work the previous night and earlier this morning. They were just finishing prepping the local authorities for dealing with the situation. Rose and Alec each gave their statements, Rose running through the night in as much detail as her tired mind could dredge up. There were a few questions for them to answer for Torchwood, and then they were briefed on everything that was currently known about the situation and what they could and couldn't make public knowledge.

Alec was led off to make a statement for the media; Rose managed to stall her work for a few minutes to listen, enjoying Alec's simple words of perseverance and community, but she had to go when it was time for the reporters to begin asking questions.

It was approaching noon by the time Alec and Rose met up again. "Dad says that Mum is on her way to pick us up," she told him. "They'll let us know if they need us for anything else, but it looks like everything's pretty much covered for now."

"Sounds good. Looks like I'll have a busy few days, though."

"Guess you'd better get some rest while you can," Rose said gently, slipping her hand into his. "And I know you'll be able to handle everything."

"We still need to have that talk, you know," he told her. "I still want to know everything."

"And I still want to tell you everything. But I think sleep would be good first, though."

"Yes," Alec yawned. "Sleep would be good."

Jackie drove up a minute later, rushing out of the car to envelope Rose in a hug. "I'm so happy you're ok, sweetheart!"

"Of course I'm fine, Mum," Rose said in a halfhearted protest, though she didn't seem unhappy in Jackie's embrace.

Jackie looked over Rose's shoulder at Alec. "It's good to see you're alright, too, Inspector," she added quietly. "You two did good work last night."

"Thank you, Mrs. Tyler," Alec said. "Rose deserves the credit, though – I only did what she told me to do."

"Mum, are you sticking around for at least another day?" Rose asked. "I'd love to visit with you, but I could fall asleep standing up right now."

"Yeah, we won't be leaving until tomorrow. Let's get you back to your flat to get some rest."

Rose knew that her mum had not dropped any qualms she had about Alec – there would never be a day when Jackie Tyler quietly dropped an argument – but Rose was thankful that she at least wasn't bringing it up now. Instead, she drove them back to Rose's flat without pointedly asking where she could take Alec. The short ride was quiet; Rose slumped against Alec, resting her head on his shoulder, and she was just beginning to drift off when the car came to a stop.

"Go get some sleep, Rose," Jackie said gently. "I'll give you a ring tomorrow."

"Thanks, Mum," Rose mumbled, managing a tired smile as she and Alec climbed back out into the bright midday light.

"Don't think that we're not still going to have a talk, though," Jackie added. "You're not off the hook."

"I know."

"I'll see you tomorrow, then. Inspector," she nodded at Alec.

Alec gave her a nod back. "It was good to see you again, Mrs. Tyler."

"Don't lie," Jackie said with mock severity.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Bye, Mum."

Alec and Rose didn't talk as they entered her flat; it was all Rose could manage to do to grab some pajamas and stumble into the bathroom to change and wash her face. Alec was waiting for her when she returned, already under the covers. The bright daylight was blocked out of the room, only seeping in in thin lines around the edges of the curtains. Rose happily crawled into her bed and curled up next to Alec, one hand resting on his chest and one leg nudged between his.

"Don't wake me unless the world is ending or my mum has called me at least three times," she instructed, her words muffled as her face was half-buried between her pillow and Alec's shoulder.

Alec yawned and pulled her closer. "Noted."

Rose wanted to talk to him. She wanted to hear how he was doing, and she wanted to tell him everything about her. She wanted to tell him how well he had done last night and this morning, and how lucky Broadchurch was to have him looking out for them. But she knew that it all could wait until they woke up.

The dim light filtering through the now uncovered window mingled with the scent of breakfast to pull Rose into a hazy, disoriented consciousness. Blinking hard to clear her vision, she spread out to cover as much of the bed as she could, stretching her legs and reaching her arms over her head, feeling the stretch all the way from the tips of her fingers to the tips of her toes. Her limbs felt sore and heavy as though she had not moved in a long time, and she groaned a little as she arched her back and deepened her full-body stretch. It took another moment for her brain to wake up enough to realize that Alec was missing from the bed.

Dragging herself from bed required a bit of effort and revealed her limbs to be stiffer than she had expected, necessitating another moment of swaying and stretching before her movements were not completely rigid. Figuring that Alec had made himself at home, Rose opted to take a quick shower instead of immediately joining him. Turning off the stream of hot water was almost as difficult as getting out of bed, though, and she allowed herself to linger for a few minutes, letting the last couple of days wash off her skin. Feeling clean and much revitalized, she quickly threw on some clean clothes and emerged from the bedroom to find Alec sitting at the kitchen table, steaming mug of tea in hand and a plate of hot food in front of him.

"You changed," Rose commented and Alec looked up, giving her a warm smile.

"Went back to my place while you were asleep," he said. "Needed a shower and some fresh clothes. You were dead to the world and I figured you wouldn't miss me."

Rose ran a hand through her hair, brushing the damp strands away from her face. "What year is it? I feel like I've been asleep for about a decade."

"Close. It's almost six in the morning, so you slept for a good fifteen hours."

Rose let out a breathy laugh as she sat down across from him. "Blimey."

Alec shrugged. "You needed it."

"Apparently. Did you make enough for two?" she said, eyeing his breakfast and suddenly feeling famished.

"Sure did. The rest is on the stove, and the water in the kettle should still be hot." Rose started to get up, but Alec stood before she did. "Just sit. I'll get it for you."

Rose grinned. "What's the special treatment for?"

"Pouring you a cup of tea is special treatment now?"

"No, I mean…" Rose gestured vaguely around them, "…all this. Breakfast. The whole thing."

"Well, it's kind of a special occasion," Alec said. "It's not every day we get to save the town." He hesitated for a second, his brow furrowing as he glanced back at Rose. "It's not every day, is it? This kind of thing doesn't happen that often, right?"

"Not in one place, no," she laughed.

"I'll stick with what I said, then," he decided, bringing Rose her breakfast and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Special occasion."

They sat and ate in silence for a moment, Rose trying her hardest not to shovel food into her mouth. "So are you going in to the station today?"

Alec nodded. "There's work that needs to be done. What about you? What are your plans?"

"Torchwood will probably have some follow-up that I'll need to take care of, and I want to meet up with everyone again before they go back to London. Didn't exactly get a lot of time to visit yesterday."

Alec was quiet for a minute, seemingly lost in thought. "This is why you're still in Broadchurch, isn't it?" Rose looked at him questioningly. "You were monitoring something for Torchwood, and now it's sorted, right?"

"Yeah, I think it is."

"So what now? Will you go back to London to keep saving the world?"

Rose fell silent. She hadn't thought about what she would do after any of this. She supposed she should stay at least a while longer to make sure that Bad Wolf didn't reappear, though she was certain that its purpose had been keeping her here – because of it, there happened to be an expert group of Torchwood agents in town to stop an unforeseen threat. But, assuming the words didn't reappear, what would she do from here? She couldn't leave Torchwood. Sure, they could get along without her, but that was what she was meant for. It was what she loved, what gave her purpose. She could argue that she was returning to the vacation that she gave up to take on this assignment, but it couldn't last forever. And she couldn't just give up her life to stay here in Broadchurch.

"I don't know," she said quietly. "I… I don't know."

Another moment passed in silence as Alec stared down into his tea before he gave her a small smile. "Think about it. We can talk about it later. Let's not talk about it now."

"Alright." Rose reached across the table to squeeze his hand. "What about you, Inspector? Now that you're discovering new threats to Broadchurch, will you be heading up new, secret task forces to keep us all safe?"

Alec chuckled and shook his head. "No task forces. That's your job."

"I bet everyone thinks you're quite the hero," she smirked. "Savin' people and all that."

"Nah. I'll be lucky if people think I'm less of an arse," he replied.

"Maybe if you weren't so grumpy people would like you more."

"You think I'm grumpy?" Alec asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not all the time," Rose giggled. "Just, like, 70 percent of the time. You've gotten better since I've known you."

"Ellie'd say I've gotten better because I've known you," he said, looking at her tenderly. "She'd probably be right."

Rose looked down, smiling into her mug. "You're not the only one who's gotten better."