A/N: So, basically this little plot line plopped in my head and I wasn't sure what to do with it. It's possible this could be considered a prequel for another story I have in the works, but, for now it's just a one-shot. I hope you all like it! I'm a bit nervous about this one for some reason.

Warning: Mild Swearing and mentions of abuse.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor who or anything related. That all belongs to the BBC.

He'd left them. He'd just up and them to save some apparently famous french strumpet. Honestly, the fact that the Doctor had left him wasn't that surprising. (I mean who was he? He was just Mickey Smith. The Tin Dog.) No, what really irked him, was the fact the Doctor, the wonderful and amazing all powerful Time Lord himself, left Rose. He came back, but what he'd do as soon as he returned? He went back through that bloody magic door to bring the strumpet back. Oh, she tried to hide it, but Mickey knew better. He's seen that look on her face far too many times before. She was heartbroken.

And what's she doing now? Makin' him tea, that's what! After he sent them off with his load of shite about being "always alright," even though he had, once again, returned alone and was clearly miserable. Mickey couldn't believe it. It was like she was sixteen all over again and doing whatever she could to make Jimmy fucking Stone stay with her. And who had to pick up the pieces when she failed? HE did. Mickey Smith, that's who.

"Come on, Rose. Just come watch a movie with me in that fancy media room you showed me. He clearly wants to be alone right now."

She shook her head in denial and continued preparing the Doctor's tea just how he liked it. "He doesn't, Mickey. You don't know 'im like I do. Alright?" She handed him a cup of his own tea. "I showed you the room with the video games or could go explore for a while. I'll come find you later."

He set his tea cup down. "Rose, why are you doing this."

"What do you mean?"

"He abandoned you. For another women."

"He didn't... He didn't abandon me."

"Rose-"

She slammed the bottle of milk she was holding down. "Why are you harping on this so much?!" Why can't you just leave it?"

"Because I know you, Rose. I know how you feel about it. You're trying so hard to make it seem like you and the Doctor have this perfect little life and you don't! Do you remember the first time I came to visit you at your's and Jimmy's flat? Do you remember how you were wearing that long sleeve jumper, even though it was mid-July, just so I wouldn't see the bruises covering your arms?"

"God, Mickey, even you know the Doctor would never hurt me!"

"Physically maybe, I'll give you that. But emotionally? Rose it seems to me that emotionally, you're covered with bruises."

SLAP!

Mickey clutched his cheek. "What the hell was that for?!"

"Don't you ever say something like that to me again." She poked her finger into his chest. "How dare you bring up my relationship with Jimmy, something you KNOW I don't like to talk about, but then, to even insinuate that I would let someone treat me the way he did... After everything I went through, do you honestly think I'd not learned my lesson?"

"Rose, I didn't-"

"Just stop. You don't know a thing about mine and the Doctor's relationship." With that she stormed out of the kitchen.

When Mickey made to follow after her, the TARDIS locked him in. "Just great," he muttered to himself as he pounded his head against the door.

Five and half hours later, Mickey only knew cause the TARDIS placed a giant clock on the wall for him to keep track, the Doctor appeared.

"Mickey Smith, why the hell are you slumped on the kitchen floor?"

"Cause you're bloody ship decided it would be funny to lock me in!"

A small chuckle escaped the Doctor's lips. "Really? How interesting. And you're not sitting in chair because..."

"Because you're bloody ship also thought it was hysterical to burn my bum every time I tried to sit!" Mickey shouted.

"Blimey, she is peeved with you. Whatever could you have done to make her that angry?"

He cleared his throat. "No idea."

"Huh. Is that so? See the thing about my "bloody ship," as you rudely call Her, is that She's remarkable. Truly extraordinary. And I know we've explained to you before about how She's sentient and what not, but, maybe what you haven't grasped is that She's a She. And SHE is extremely protective of me. Bit motherly," the Doctor whispered, "bless. Not only that, though, do you know who else She's protective of? Rose. In fact, I would dare to say that She's more protective of her than She is of me."

"Alright, so your telling me the TARDIS is a female and all about girl power?"

The Doctor smirked. "Never thought about it like that, but, I suppose you're right. In a sense."

"Fine," Mickey acquiesced. "Rose and I had a bit of a row. Nothing major. And if you're ship had given me a chance, I was going to go after her and apologise."

"Well, you're right there. You WILL be going to apologise to Rose, but I have a few things to say to you first." The Doctor stood to full height and looked down at the human boy sitting on the kitchen floor. "You are a guest on my TARDIS, Mickey Smith. Rose, however, lives here. And if you ever insult her again, I will immediately throw you out of my TARDIS. I can't even promise that I'll wait for her to finish materialising in whatever spot I choose to leave you in."

Mickey stood and faced the Doctor. "What did she tell you I said?"

"She didn't tell me anything. The TARDIS thought it was a conversation I needed to hear and fed the audio into the control room. Even if I hadn't heard, I would have been able to tell by the look on Rose's face how upset you'd made her. And she would have told me herself."

"You don't know a thing about Rose if you think she would have told you anything about our fight."

"She's not the same girl you knew on the Powell Estate!" the Time Lord snapped. "She's different now, Mickey, and you need to except the fact that I'm her best friend and I know her better than you do."

He barked out a laugh. "You think you know her better? Seriously? After everything Rose and I have been through together, you can honestly stand there and tell me that you know her better?"

"I can and I am."

"Riiighht. So what exactly as she told you about Jimmy Stone?"

"I know that she met him when she was fifteen and moved in with him shortly after. I know he was abusive, both physically and emotionally, and eventually he left her in debt and for someone else. I know more details, but, I also know that she hates talking about it. And I, unlike some people in this kitchen, respect that. I understand what it's like to have something horrible in your past that you don't like to discuss."

Mickey took and involuntary step back. Rose had told him about her past. Rose never discussed what happened during that time with anyone but him. She never even told Jackie the details. "Fine. I'll give you that. But then, you need to understand that, however much she might deny it, you hurt her when you left us on the spaceship."

The Doctor sighed and lowered his head. "I know I did."

"Wait... you... You what?!"

"You're right. I did hurt her. I wasn't thinking clearly when I made the decision I did. There was literally no time though, and trust me, I'm a Time Lord so that's hard to admit. All I knew was that I had to save Reinette. History was hanging in the balance. It was not her time to die. But, in the process of all that, Rose was the one who was hurt." The Doctor shook his head in disbelief. "After I had just promised to never abandon her too! Blimey, I am a piece of work. She's forgiven me though. We talked it out. And don't think she just sat back and let me be. Oh no, I got quite the ear full from her."

"She seriously told you off? Even the snogging bit? Did she tell you that? Here we are, trying to explore the spaceship and what do we hear echo through the halls? 'I'm the Doctor, and I just snogged Madame de Pompadour!'"

"Yes, she told me about that too," the Doctor admitted with a wince. "I think we can all agree, Mickey that this hasn't been my finest hour."

"So she's forgiven you?"

"She has."

Mickey looked in straight in the eyes. "She's forgiven you for falling on love with another woman?"

"I wasn't... I wasn't in love with Reinette. I'll admit, she fancied herself in love with me, but I never returned any romantic feelings. I cared about her. That's it."

"So all that moping about when you came back without her?"

"I promised to take her on a trip. I returned too late and she had already died. She had been my friend. It's called guilt, Mickey. It's something I suffer from greatly, according to Rose."

The two men stood in silence for a few minutes before Mickey spoke up, "It's not fair. There's no bloody way I can compete with you."

The Doctor took a seat at the kitchen table and gestured for Mickey to do the same. It was safe. The TARDIS was done with Her games. "There's no competition. Do you know what Rose told me one of her very first days here on the TARDIS? She told me all about how wonderful you were. About how you've always protected her. Always taken care of her. How when she was a little girl, you used to walk her to the cemetery once a week so she could talk to her dad. Jackie couldn't take her cause she found it too painful. But, there you were, a boy of twelve, escorting little nine year old Rose Tyler to the cemetery. And then after, you would use the allowance you had saved up and buy her an ice cream. She told me how the other boys would make fun of you for it, but you never listened to a word of it. She told me how you taught her to do the same and hold her head up high. Do you know what else she said eventually?" Mickey gave shook his head. "She told me that you were the only one who discouraged her from moving in with Jimmy. She told me how, even though you didn't approve, you still visited her. Made sure she was alright. She also mentioned that she always seemed to find money in random places after you left and she suspected it was you, still trying to take care of her."

Mickey sat up straighter. "She knew I did that?"

The Doctor nodded. "She figured it was, but, didn't want to say something. She knew if she tried to give it back to you, you would throw a big fit and Rose didn't want Jimmy finding out. She finally told me how after Jimmy abandoned her, how you were the only friend who showed up and helped her pack the flat. You bought her the nice makeup to cover the black eye he had left her with, so her mum wouldn't find out."

"She was terrified of Jackie's reaction," he admitted. "After everything that had happened to her, I just wanted Rose to have a little peace."

"There's no competition, Mickey, because she cares about both of us. Each for our own separate reasons."

"Yeah, but, I'm not the one she's in love with."

"What?! I mean... She doesn't. We're not! She doesn't feel that way. About me."

"Whatever you say, mate," he said with a laugh.

"Thank you, Mickey," the Doctor told him quietly. "Thank you for taking care of her before I could."

Mickey just nodded and took a deep calming breath. "I have to ask... Does she still have nightmares. About him, I mean?"

The Time Lord sighed. "She doesn't admit it often, but I know she does. The TARDIS usually alerts me when she they happen I can go wake her."

Mickey nodded. "I thought as much. He was arrested a few years back for dealing drugs, but he didn't stay in prison long. I always regretted that I never got to give him a good punch."

The Doctor jumped out of his seat. "Come on!" He ran out of the room.

"Where're we going?" he asked, running after the mad alien.

"The control room! You and I are going on a little adventure."

"What about Rose?"

"Sound asleep," the Doctor assured.

"So what're we doing then?"

"We are tracking down Jimmy Stone."

Mickey paused when the made it to the control room. "What- seriously? And how are we supposed to do that? I've no idea where he's living now. Heard something a while back about 'im being a door-to-door salesman."

The Doctor looked at the monitor. "HA! Found him. James Marco Stone."

"Seriously? How'd you find him so quick?"

"Like I told you before, the TARDIS is very protective of Rose Tyler."

He smiled. He had to admit, the blue box might be a bit temperamental, but She was pretty amazing. "So what's the plan then?"

"Well, I figure I'll go out there, show him a bit of the Oncoming Storm I'm so famous for and then let you swoop in and give a old one two!"

"I thought you did approve of violence?"

"Generally speaking, I don't. However this creature hurt Rose and she is the exception to the rule. She's the exception to every rule." The Doctor quickly landed the TARDIS.

"You really are in love with her," Mickey stated. The Doctor looked in shock, but wasn't denying it. He continued, "Even with you around, I will always do what I can to protect her. And just remember this... You may love her longer, cause of your life span and all that, but, I loved her first."

The Doctor looked at Mickey the Idiot with a new found respect. "Quite right."

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