His expression deteriorated, lines smoothing out around his eyes and reforming between his brows and at the corners of his mouth when he made a small, puzzled circle with his lips. The existence of Rift activity in the parallel world was no more unusual than it was in this world's Cardiff, but too much concentrated temporal energy in one place over such a short period of time was dangerous. Catastrophic even, if left unattended and allowed to stretch and warp the very thin barrier between space, time and the universe its self.
The Doctor closed his mouth, pursed his lips and withdrew from Rose enough to straighten to full stature. His hands dropped from their tense grasp at her shoulders and found the safety of his suit pockets once more. The troubled concern etched across his face was to be expected with the bearing of such ill tidings, a fact that made the unexpected reunion with Rose bittersweet at best, no matter how gob smacked and delighted he was to see her again.
He looked away, toward the distance where the town sat, taking note of the peaceful interaction of residents on street corners and the commonplace hum of passing automobiles. It all seemed so normal, but he knew better. The abrupt puff of air that shoved from his mouth was indication enough that he was baffled, uncomfortably so. For as much as he loved the sport of a good mystery, he'd had quite enough death, destruction and heartache from the last two Rift disasters and now, when it was still so fresh in his mind, that he should hear of a similar, budding threat on the other side? Foreboding didn't even scratch the surface.
When his attention returned to the exuberant blond, he was torn between pride and fear. He hadn't so easily forgotten the lengths in which Rose had gone to return to her proper dimension and bring warning to him of the spreading darkness across the stars. It frightened him, as it had the first time he'd seen her in London, standing there with that ridiculous pulse rifle in the middle of the street like a seasoned warrior. She wasn't the carefree shop girl from the Powell Estates any longer, but something else entirely and it was hard not to hear the cold, accusing voice of Davros. 'This is the truth: you take ordinary people and fashion them into weapons.' – and as wrong and misguided as the man was, he couldn't have been more right.
Still, she was very much Rose Tyler, his—well, not his anymore, at least not in the respect of whatever entitlement there might have been, could have been, but she was his companion. That much hadn't changed. However, it did beg the question, where had his counterpart been through all of this? He, at least as he was now, brown suit with two hearts beating lively in his chest, never would have let her pull such a dangerous stunt, certainly not alone, no matter the cause.
“Doesn't Torchwood assemble teams for that sort of thing?” he tried not to balk. “Safety in numbers, No I in Team, You Jump I Jump, all that? What would have happened if you'd ended up somewhere else, someplace less pleasant, because that technology of yours isn't foolproof. Just because it worked once doesn't mean the second time's a charm. Especially when you're leap frogging through clearly unstable dimensions. Rose, you could have pushed that button and torn yourself a part and no one would have ever known.”
He pulled his hands from his pockets, advancing a pace when, not for the first time, his counterpart came to mind. “And where was he in all of this? The other Doctor? Sitting by, twiddling his thumbs while you decided to embark on a suicide mission?” he accused, churlish and disapproving . . . and maybe just a smidgen resentful.
The Doctor might have, between the incessant call of the melody at the edge of his mind and the scolding tirade he'd started in on the second Rose had mentioned 'Rift' and 'Jumped', completely missed the very important mention of a certain Jack Harkness.
“Well, of course he did!” he blurted all of a sudden, then quickly deflated after it sunk in, slipping from his verbal soap box and sobering abruptly. Bewildered, he asked,“. . Sorry, did you just say Jack Harkness?”