The Christmas Wedding Crashers
Chapter 1:

"Change? What you mean, Rose is going to change?" Jackie Tyler asked, staring at the lifeless body of her daughter in the arms of the Doctor.

"Were you not listening? Never mind, I don't have time to go over it again. I think it'd be better for Rose to be in familiar surroundings because there's no telling how different she's going to be when she wakes up. So I need to park the TARDIS in your flat. NOW!"

The Doctor took satisfaction in seeing Jackie Tyler jump at the tone of his voice. But his hearts sped up as Rose's body twisted in his arms, the skin going translucent. Golden energy radiated off of her, and her unseeing eyes opened, revealing golden orbs inside.

Jackie and Mickey the Idiot gaped.

"Right," the Doctor passed his wife's body over to her ex-boyfriend. "Make yourself useful, Mickey-boy, and get her to bed. I'll move the TARDIS to her room and Jackie, I'd love to have a nice cuppa if you've got the kettle on." He paused. "Look who I'm talking to, Rose can't make one, why would I expect you to? Honestly, what do they teach you Londoners in this century? All mobiles and Internet and nothing practical." He disappeared into the TARDIS.

Pushing a few buttons and turning a few knobs, the Doctor heard the second-nature whirl of the engines. Placing both hands on the console, he drew in a deep, steadying breath. He was in completely new territory, and he wasn't ashamed to admit, at least to himself, that it scared him. Truth be told, everything about Rose scared him a little. He had been used to someone knocking about time and space with him, occupying the place at his side.

But not in his heart. At least, not like this. He was a Time Lord, his whole existence with the human race was leaving them behind – either they found a time or a planet where they felt compelled to stay, or they succumbed to the ravages of old age. After a while, he learned to leave them behind before that could happen, or before he became too attached to them to be pained by their absence. They were allies, students, and a select few became friends. Never anything else.

Until she came along.

Rose Marion Tyler, a London shop girl, young, but intelligent, brave and compassionate. He thought his heart was hardened by the Time War, by the sheer loss. If he had suspected that she was working her way past his defenses, he would have dropped her off in London without a look back. He hadn't realized until it was too late that his travels wouldn't be the same without her. That he wouldn't be the same man without her.

Then came that strange trip to the planet Paxil and an accidental marriage that became real all too quickly. He was bonded to a fragile human, one who didn't have the trick of regeneration, and though young now, would pass through this world and not get a second chance at life.

And when she had looked into the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex, which had changed everything, even her. Right now, the TARDIS and the Time Vortex were changing her, making her into something compatible with them, a sort-of human Time Lord hybrid. What he hadn't wanted to tell Jackie and Mickey, or even acknowledge to himself, was that there was no guarantee that the process would work or that she would survive it.

The thought of losing her scared him beyond belief.

He clicked a few dials, and with a nod of satisfaction, patted the console with one hand. "Do your best to fix her," he whispered to the machine, and strode over to the doors, ready to face the situation head on.

Golden light whizzed past him and into Rose as she lay on her bed. Leaving the doors open, normally not a good idea, but better to let the vortex and the TARDIS do their work, he moved to his wife's bedside. "Anything?"

Jackie, sitting on the chair next to her bed, shook her head. "Just more of that yellow stuff."

"Jacks, where you want this tree from the shop?" Mickey called out from the next room over.

"I don't care about the bloody tree, it can sodding rot for all I care!" she snapped and then turned back to her daughter. "What's happened to her Doctor? What's happened to my little girl?" She smoothed a strand of Rose's hair away from her face in a tender, maternal gesture.

The Doctor found himself softening toward his mother-in-law. "She saved the world, Jackie. You should be very proud of her. She risked everything to stop the worst evil the galaxies have ever known."

"She did it for you." Jackie looked up at him. "I hope you appreciate that. I hope you love her like that."

"I tried to send her back to you. I wanted her safe. But she's got a mind of her own, and it's stubborn. My machine is trying to fix the damage now, to alter her DNA into something that can handle all of the power that she took. It's changing her into something more like me."

"So you're taking all that's left of her," Jackie said softly. "She'll be all yours now, nothing left of me."

He reached over and patted Jackie's hand. "Trust me, there's a lot of you in Rose, Jackie Tyler. That stubbornness, for one. No matter what she becomes, she'll always be your daughter."

Jackie gave him half a smile.

"How is she?" Mickey popped his head in.

"Same." Jackie sighed. "What were you going on about the tree?"

"That new tree, the one you had sent over. I put it in the living room, but it's getting a bit cramped in there. I could give your old one to Rodrego if you want."

"Mickey, what you blabbin' on about? I didn't order a new tree!"

"Well, there was a knock at the door and there it was," Mickey said.

Three pairs of eyes met. The Doctor was immediately on his feet, sonic screwdriver in hand.

"Jackie, stay with Rose," he commanded and he and Mickey stepped into the hallway.

A seemingly innocent looking tree sat amid the Tyler's living quarters, all decked out in lights and garland.

"You decorate that or did it come like that?"

"It came like that."

"You didn't think that was a bit odd?" The Doctor cast a sideways glance at Mickey.

As if sensing their presence the tree began to spin and shake. Lurching forward, its innocent looking branches began cutting like blades. The Doctor pointed the screwdriver at it and it exploded.

Jackie burst out of Rose's room. "Here, what's going on?" She stared at the mess. "What'd you go and blow the tree up for?"

"It wasn't a tree." The Doctor put the screwdriver back in his pocket. "Remote control. But who's controlling it?"

"I'm going to lose the security deposit!" Jackie complained.

"Stay with Rose," he commanded, and hurried outside, Mickey dead on his heels.

Three rather odd looking Santa figures stood in the parking lot, staring up at them. The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at them and they backed up, and then teleported away.

"They've just gone!" Mickey said. "What kind of rubbish were they? No offense, but they're not much at all if the sonic screwdriver scared them off and blew up that tree thing."

"Pilot fish." The Doctor was working out the possibilities in his head, and none of it was adding up well. "They were just pilot fish. Rose is still regenerating, she's bursting with energy. The pilot fish can smell it, a million miles away. They try to take out the defense, that's us, and carry her off. They can live off of her for a couple of years. But they're not the worst bit. If we've got pilot fish, then something bigger is coming."

"Doctor!"

Mickey jumped. "That's Jackie!"

But the Doctor was already running back toward the flat, hearts pounding, mind racing. Maybe the regeneration had failed…

He burst into the room, holding onto either side of the doorframe, staring in shock. Mickey banged into him only moments later. Rose's body was writhing and bucking on the bed, yellow light exploding from her eyes and mouth.

Jackie looked up at him, terrified. "Help her!"

He knew, and it was no less terrifying. "It's happening."