He returned back to his flat, suddenly realizing just how alone he was. And how quiet it would be without Rose.

He sighed, then grabbed a backpack, throwing together a few things he'd need in Cardiff. After one last glance around the flat, he took off to the TARDIS and headed to Cardiff a few hours earlier that same day.

He'd barely opened the door when Jack tackled him in a bear hug. "Ha! Ha! You're here!"

"Yes, sir. Mickey Smith reporting for duty, sir."

Jack grinned. "Come on in! You can meet the team."

"Where's 'in'?"

"The invisible lift," Jack jerked his head across the street. "It's where you typically park the TARDIS. I'm glad she didn't park there now. It'd lead to a lot of awkward questions from the team."

"Such as..?"

"I'm assuming you'd like to pose as a human whilst working here?"

Oh. Right, yeah. Probably better that way," he nodded.

"Good," Jack smiled. "Come on."

They walked across the street and stepped onto the invisible lift.

"Going down," Jack said, and the lift jolted downwards.

"Back already, Jack?" a female voice asked as they stepped off.

"For now. Suzie Costello, Mickey Smith."

The Doctor shook her hand enthusiastically. "Dr. Mickey Smith."

"Oh?" Suzie smiled. "We've been meaning to get a doctor around here."

"Yeah," Jack nodded, patting Suzie's shoulder. "But it's not of medicine."

"Of everything," the Doctor countered.

"A doctor of everything?" an Asian woman came in from around the corner. "How is that even possible?"

He blinked. He'd met her before. A very long time ago, when she'd been posing as a UNIT doctor during World War III... "You must be Toshiko Sato! It's an honor, Tosh."

"Oh, thank you," Tosh blushed and turned to Jack, "What lies have you been telling him about me?"

Jack shrugged innocently.

"So we still need a medic," Suzie narrowed her eyes at the Doctor.

"Yeah," Jack nodded. "But Mickey here is good with just about everything. Aren't you, Mickey?"

"Yeah. Especially aliens. I've been dealing with them for quite a while now on my own. That's how Jack and I met." The truth could occasionally be more misleading than lies.

"Ah," Tosh said. "Well... I need to get back to work."

"Same here," Suzie said.

"Weapons expert?" the Doctor asked.

Suzie nodded. "How could you tell?"

"Lucky guess," he shrugged. "And I feel the need to establish here and now that I'm not here forever. I have a year, and then there's some things I need to take care of. After that, I might stop in from time to time, but it won't be permanent."

"Well, Jack, Tosh, and I have been doing just fine on our own."

"Except we do need a medic," Tosh said, returning to her computer.

"Suzie, why don't you show Mickey around the Hub?" Jack suggested.

"Why me?"

"Because I have a pile of UNIT paperwork to sort through."

Suzie glared. "Alright, Mr. Smith, come on."

As Suzie led him throughout the Hub, she offered clipped explanations for everything, refusing to go into detail unless interrogated.

"I'll have to admit, I have no idea why he hired you, if you're not a real doctor. No matter how good you are with aliens, we don't need you."

"What's that supposed to mean? 'Real doctor'? I'm a doctor. I know a bit of this and a bit of that. Plus, it's sort of a favor. I saved his life... several times. And the next year is going to be very boring considering my girlfriend's ran off with some idiot."

Suzie blinked. "What?"

"Eh," he shrugged. "Anyways, I figure I could 'use my powers for good.' Plus, I think I'm needed here. Torchwood has never been known for their competence in the past and I'm-"

Suzie's jaw dropped a bit, "What do you mean competence?"

"I just mean, Torchwood's spent all its time working to fight aliens, and yet-" he stopped and laughed.

"What?"

He shook his head, grinning at her.

After several hours of sitting around chatting with the Torchwood team and waiting for a potential apocalypse, he returned home to find Jackie had left him a dozen phone calls asking about Rose.

"No, I haven't seen her," he said. "Not since Friday."

"It's strange. It's not like her to be gone this long."

"I'm sure she'll turn up," he lied.

A/N: I'm so sorry about the long wait to get this up. I've been busy during the holidays.