"Sweetheart, I just don't want you to waste your life-" Rose's mum started in but Rose cut her off, because she had heard this far too often, from everyone in her life and she was getting a bit sick of it all.
"I'm not wastin' my life mum, I 'ave a baby with-" It was Rose's mums turn to cut in.
"With a man twice your age who refuses to commit!" Rose's mum, Jackie, yelled angrily. Rose closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose, glad she was on the phone and not face to face so her mum couldn't see the faces Rose was pulling.
"I don't need a ring or a bloody piece of paper to know how 'e feels mum, he's 'ere with me and Jamie and that's all that matters." Rose said but even to her own ears the words sounded old and uncertain. "I have to go, I've got work soon. I love you, ta." Rose hung up before her mum could say anything more. Say what you will about Jackie Tyler but she knew her daughter, and she knew just the right words to pull apart Rose. She just wanted what was best for Rose, and she didn't believe stuck in London, with a baby, and a man twice her age who refuses to marry her was what was best for Rose. Rose was slightly ashamed to think that maybe her mum was right.
Rose climbed in off the balcony and shut the window behind her before tossing her mobile onto the unmade bed. She had woken up alone, as she did most mornings. She tried not to let that bother her, but it did. She knew he had his reasons, knew they were damn good ones too but Rose lived for the days where she woke up, wrapped up in his arms, but those days were few and far in between.
Rose took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She stretched her arms above her head, stretching out her sore back as she twisted one way then another. Really she was just putting off going to find him but it had been a while since she heard Jamie make any noise and that worried her a bit. So Rose slowly made her way out of their shared bed room that looked more like hers than his, and down the hall.
The flat was sparsely furnished and the majority of the things inside it were Rose's or Jamie's. Rose guessed it would take all of ten minutes for him to pack up and no one would ever know that another person, an adult male, had lived there. Just a woman and her baby.
Rose was angry with her mum for making her think this way. More and more Rose avoided seeing or speaking to Jackie, which brought on more hurt on both sides and only fueled Jackie's hatred for the man who took her daughter away from her. Jackie compared him to Jimmy Stone constantly and Rose hated that.
Jimmy bloody Stone. He had been a giant twat that was for certain and Rose felt like an enormous git for every staying with him for as long as she did. But she had been 15, young and stupid and reckless. She and her mum were always struggling for cash and she had grown up way too quickly, despite the fact that Jackie did everything in her power to give her daughter a good childhood there was still a lot lacking from it. So when Rose was forced to get a job so they wouldn't lose their flat she had taken the first guy that came along and promised her a better life.
Jimmy Stone was all talk though. He promised her a lot but all he did was take the money she earned and spend it on alcohol and pot. Rose spent two years with that git before Mickey Smith came along, showed her the truth of who Jimmy Stone really was, and brought her back home.
Rose then spent two years with Mickey Smith. At first it was because she hero worshipped him a bit, he had rode in like a knight in shining armor and pulled her out of a really bad situation. He had taken her away to safety right before things could get any worse with Jimmy. But the more she dated him, the older she got it felt more like an obligation than anything. She loved Mickey Smith but she was never in love with him. She didn't really care if he called her back or if he ditched her to go watch footie with his mates. Rose felt stuck, suffocated, but there was nowhere to go.
Until she was attacked in the basement of the shop she worked at, they were just dumb students who took a joke too far but Rose had ended up with bruises on her arms and three cracked ribs. Then the shop had been blown up and she had been buried under rubble, it took them nearly twelve hours to find her. The compensation that she got allowed Rose and Jackie to get out of the council estate.
Rose had wanted to use the rest of the money to travel, but she had been badly hurt and that's how she met him, Doctor John Smith. He was Head of Diagnostic Medicine at the hospital where she had her physical therapy to gain more movement in the leg that had been crushed under debris. He had been a right prick when she met him, but coming off the estate Rose was use to that brash behavior, actually favored it over all the cooing and overly nice attitudes of everyone else at the hospital. So she had followed him around, being as much as a bother as any 20 year old could, but despite his harsh attitude he never told her to leave him be, so she never really did.
The Doctor, as Rose always referred to him, thinking the name 'John Smith' was far too boring and ordinary for him, and it had irked him, her refusal to call him by his name. He tutored her, helped her pass her A-levels, even helped her get accepted to a pretty decent university.
Rose didn't fall in love right away, like she had believed she had with both Jimmy and Mickey. They teased and they flirted, but it was never anything serious. Rose liked that the Doctor didn't see her just as some dumb chav off the estate, he thought she was brilliant and fantastic, even if he didn't admit it, and she felt brilliant and fantastic when she was with him.
Before she realized it, Rose Tyler had fallen so completely and utterly in love with the Doctor. She had kept that information to herself, though everyone always told her how very obvious they both were in their feelings for each other. Jackie hated it most, followed closely by Mickey. The Doctor was over 40, all his family had died in a fire while he was off getting his head full of nightmares, working as a medic in the army. Those two events had made the Doctor hard, made him not let anyone get close. Except for a small blonde girl who was too stubborn to be pushed away.
Then the Doctor had asked to talk at a conference in Spain. Rose had gushed about always wanting to travel but never having the money. She had wanted him to bring back pictures and maybe a key chain for her but the Doctor instead invited her along. Oh, Rose's mum really hated that but Rose agreed without thinking twice. Okay she did think twice but after assuring her the hospital was fronting the bill she agreed to go.
It was the last night in Spain and they had gotten horribly pissed drunk and that one night had made little Jamie Tyler-Smith. Rose had attempted to hide the pregnancy, even went as far as full out avoiding the Doctor but he had found her and given her an ear full until she revealed the truth.
The Doctor had been stunned, silent for the first time since Rose had met him. Here was a silly little girl who had given him the one thing he thought he'd never have again, the one thing that had been ripped away from him. A family.
That's why Rose didn't believe Jimmy and the Doctor were anything alike, no matter what her mum said. The Doctor wanted Jamie and he wanted Rose, though he was still so tight-lipped about his feelings Rose knew it. She didn't need it said out loud to know how he felt about them. He showed it every day by being there, by holding her hand whenever she was near, by always getting up first whenever Jamie started crying in the night, always telling Rose not to worry and go back to sleep.
Rose stopped at the open bathroom door, her heart catching in her throat at the sight there. Doctor John Smith sat in the tub, holding up his small son while keeping up a constant chatter as he bathed Jamie. Rose wrapped her arms around herself, smiling at the picture they made. The Doctor basically oozed love for the small baby, his face showing the clear wonder and amazement that he had helped make that baby.
"For someone who hates domestics you are lookin' quite-"
"Your mummy thinks she's funny, but we know better." The Doctor interrupted, not even glancing at Rose as she stepped into the bathroom. She kneeled next to the bathtub and soaped up Jamie as the Doctor held him out of the water. Jamie slapped his chubby little hands against his father's much larger hands, giving his father a big, baby grin after the Doctor leaned forward to chew playfully at his small hands.
"You're off your rocker, Jamie thinks 'm amazin' and loves me." Rose said with confidence, shooting a grin at the Doctor as she cupped her hand and scooped up some water, gently rinsing off the soap from her sons back.
"That makes two of us," Rose went still and looked up at the Doctor before giving another wide grin, leaning forward to press a kiss to the corner of his smirking mouth and then giving a loud, wet kiss to Jamie, who giggled and waved his arms happily.
"You don't think you could show a bit more of this side to my mum, yeah?" Rose asked, grabbing a big fluffy yellow towel and spreading it out in her arms. The Doctor leaned over to gently place Jamie within the confines of the towel, looking a bit forlorn at having to give his son up. Rose wrapped the towel around Jamie as he made small happy sounds.
"Don't much care what your mum thinks about me, or anyone else for that matter." The Doctor leaned back in the bath and Rose tried to keep her eyes on his blue ones but she couldn't help but glance at his broad shoulders and bare torso. "'Cept you, of course. You happy Rose?" His eyes were staring at her intensely and she looked down at Jamie to avoid the piercing stare. She hugged him close.
"I love Jamie," Rose stated.
"Nobody can doubt you don't love that boy, but that's not what I asked, and you know it." The Doctor said before leaning forward. He reached out and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear before running his hand lightly over the top of Jamie's head. "You're only 22 Rose, I have enough money so that you could travel, do whatever you wanted. I could watch Jamie." Rose tried to ignore the twist of pain in her chest, felt like the Doctor was trying to get rid of her. She saw him lick his lips out of the corner of her eye. "Or we could travel."
"All three of us?" Rose asked, latching onto the idea already as she finally looked up at the Doctor. He grinned at her, cupping her cheek and she leaned into the touch.
"Yeah, not a bad way to grow up either." The Doctor said, referring to Jamie. Rose turned the baby to her, undoing the towel to lean down and blow a raspberry on his stomach. He squealed with delight and Rose grinned up at the Doctor.
"My mum will hate it," Rose admitted, though she had already decided. The Doctor grinned at her, his ice blue eyes lighting up.
"Well it's decided then. Off we go!" The Doctor stood up from the tub, dripping water before leaning down and plucking Jamie from Rose's arms. Rose tilted her head, watching him as he walked out of the bathroom. "Mind out of the gutter Tyler, you've got packing to get done." Rose grinned at that. It was really his fault for walking around naked and wet, he was quite aware of how she felt about his bum.