Disclaimer – I don't own the characters involved in this story. They belong to the BBC.

Notes: The title of this story doesn't have much to do with the story itself, it is just what it is. I felt that somewhere between Fear Her and Army of Ghosts, something must have happened to make Jackie even the littlest bit friendlier towards the Doctor. It just seemed bizarre with the sudden change. And just so you know, the timing might be anywhere between a little and a LOT off, as I have not got much of a sense of time at all.

This is one of those odd and completely silly, stupid sap stories that could possibly bridge the gap between them. In its own way, has nothing to do with canon at all, only in that characters, settings and all other named things inside are all present at some point, even if only just in the new series and not in the classic.

Well, hopefully someone out there enjoys it anyway. It is made for the purpose of entertainment after all.

Bridging the Gap

The inside of the TARDIS was oddly quiet. Rose had been in the kitchen having a snack, the comforting sound of the Doctor tinkering with the inner workings of his ship in the background, before she had lapsed off into her own thoughts. She had been worried lately about when exactly it was that she had last called her mum, and how stressed this must be for the older Tyler woman.

She had no idea what had brought her out of her inner musings, but when her mind was fully back in the TARDIS, it had been quiet. It took her a few silent minutes to figure out why. The noise of the sonic screwdriver, the music that sometimes played while the Doctor tinkered about, the muffled curses when something goes wrong or he hits his head as he moved under the grill that separates the main body of the console with the wiring and essential bits itself, was absent.

Getting up, she wandered into the console room and stopped in her tracks. A hundred thoughts had been running through her head at what it could possibly be that had made the Doctor go silent. Visions of him dead, regenerating, reading...all were rather silly compared to what she did find.

Lying under the grill, his head resting on some part that made the TARDIS go, sonic screwdriver held loosely in hand, the Doctor was sleeping. She had never once seen him sleep before. She couldn't count the time he had spent Christmas with them as sleep. He had been unconscious then. She hadn't thought he needed to, he was always full of energy and life, to see him stop at all seemed oddly wrong.

But it was good. Just another thing she can cross off her list of things she didn't know about the Doctor. He did need rest, just apparently not as much of it as a human would need.

The TARDIS was being quiet too, Rose noted to herself, running a hand over the console before sitting on the captain's seat. Probably didn't want to wake the Doctor up.

Now thinking on it, he had been acting a little differently lately. Maybe he was just tired.

Within seconds of thinking this, the Doctor sat up fast, banged his head hard and swore. It wasn't translated. The ship never translated the really bad things the Doctor says. One thing her mum would be very glad to know.

"Ow!" The Doctor stated after he had calmed down a bit, before he climbed out and started upon seeing her.

"Caught you napping, Doctor. First time for everything, yeah?"

"Rose! What are you doing here?"

She blinked at him. "Well I was thinking of going for a stroll outside but lack of air and no ground to stand on kind of takes the fun out of that idea. I was wondering why it was suddenly so quiet."

"Ah."

For someone who could talk the ear off of...anything with ears, he was certainly being very quiet. "Everything alright?"

The Doctor stared down at her for a few seconds before shrugging and smiling that brilliant smile of his which showed every single one of his teeth. "Sure! Just maybe a bit tired that's all."

He was hiding something, she could tell.

"Well, you can get some sleep at Mum's then, I need to go home, make sure everything's alright."

The smile slipped and a grimace took its place. "You sure?"

"Yeah. It's been a while. She worries."

The Doctor knew that, but he was slightly afraid of her mother, and Rose knew this. Being slapped one too many times by a person had that effect, especially if said person also happened to be one of the Tyler women. He also knew not to really argue with her when she said she needed to go home, though every time the words came up, she knew he wanted to start an argument over it.

Rose hoped that one day something would happen to just make those two like each other a bit better. Well her mother already did like the Doctor, Jackie just didn't like the thought of her daughter in constant danger, and in completely foreign, unknown places, planets, star systems, etc, etc.

The Doctor sure did get around the universe pretty fast with the TARDIS, even if the ship did get temperamental and decided that if she wanted to go somewhere instead of where the coordinates said they were going, she would change paths.

Remembering a time when she thought that it might have been the Doctor himself putting in the wrong coordinates, she was surprised to learn differently...or at least, thought she knew differently.

Either that or the Doctor really didn't know what he was doing and for doing something like this for over 900 years, one must have learnt something.

The one set of coordinates that the TARDIS never got wrong were the ones for the Powell Estate that sent her to her mum. She made sure to give the sentient ship a gentle pat every time she was on her way home. It had never yet failed her, and unless something bad happened to the ship on the way, she doubted it ever would.

One of the conversations she had had with Sarah Jane came into her mind then, the one which had ended with her and the other companion from the past laughing uproariously at the Doctor. Something about stroking parts of the TARDIS. It had only occurred to her a short time after that, when Mickey had joined the crew, that she did pretty much the same thing whenever going home.

Shaking her head, Rose got back to her feet and walked over to the Doctor, placing her hands on either side of his face and staring into his eyes. Usually there was sadness in them, cleverly covered for the most part under humour, wit and the good memories Rose was trying to give him. While that was definitely present still, the sadness seemed to be closer to the surface than before and there was something else...something too distinctly...

Laying a hand on his forehead to check his temperature, noting that it felt as cool as his hands did, she let herself relax a bit. He didn't have a temperature, so maybe he wasn't sick. As her hand rested on his forehead, the Doctor turned his head away from her and that was when she spotted what it was.

While under his eyes weren't black or brown or blue or any other interesting shade of colour other than his normal pale, he was definitely showing signs of needing some serious sleep.

"When's the last time you actually did sleep Doctor? You look knackered."

He gave her a look like as if she was stupid and just dragged off of the streets. "Around, oh, five minutes ago if I remember correctly. We've been having this conversation ever since. Should it stop now, you think?"

Folding her arms under her chest, she glared at him. "I meant not a small nap that lasted all but five minutes itself under the console. Proper sleep."

"Ah," the Doctor replied, before beginning to move away from her. She reached out and stopped him from walking any further and gave him the Look. He fidgeted. "Um, around the time Mickey decided to stay on the parallel Earth."

Her jaw dropped. "Doctor, that was over a month ago."

He immediately went on the defensive, folding his arms and giving her his own glare. "I've been taking the odd nap. I don't need as much sleep as you humans do. I'm fine."

Rose snorted at that. "Well, then you won't mind taking me home for a few days. And yes, you will be staying with me and my mum in the flat, and not in here. I don't want any cheating from you mister." She gently poked the Doctor in the chest, before walking back over to the captain's chair and sinking into it with what she hoped was a haughty air of finality.

"Cheating? What?"

"Well, it's obvious you need some proper sleep, so a few days break will do you good. I'm sure mum will let you camp on the couch for a few days."

The look of utter horror on the Doctor's face at even the mention of staying with Jackie for even a few hours was priceless, and yet the first thing the Doctor did after he got his expressions back under some relative control was place in the coordinates to the Powell Estate.

Rose went over to the console and gently rubbed it in a soothing manner. She could swear that the machine hummed approvingly at her for the action. She smirked. If she could learn to understand the TARDIS, even if it couldn't truly speak to her, it would make her life easier, and the Doctor's harder.

Yet again, the ship was loyal to the Doctor, even though she did muck him about occasionally. Well, there was no real harm in trying.

The TARDIS materialised in its usual spot outside the Powell Estate, and grinning, Rose gave the console another pat in thanks, before going to the door and opening it. Her mum was now walking towards her, shouting out her name and holding out her hands like as if this was an everyday activity for someone to do outside a police box which shouldn't by rights exist.

For them it was. Life for the Tyler's was never normal any more.

Rose met her mother at the half way point and gave her a hug. Behind her, the Doctor stepped slowly out of the TARDIS and closed the door behind him. Soon he was also being hugged. Her mother was in a good mood with the Doctor for once. That was always a good thing to see.

"Guess what mum, we're staying for a few days. No TARDIS, no adventures, and plenty of rest for this one," she hit the Doctor playfully in the arm, and he protested slightly and rubbed at the spot, even though she didn't hurt him. "He's run himself ragged."

"I have not! You're the one who..." the Doctor sighed and shook his head. "Never mind, I know neither of you will bother to listen to me."

The three of them made their way over to the flat which Jackie called home. The place where Rose had grown up and had thought she would always think of as a home too. But she didn't any more. She was more at home on a sentient space ship than she had ever felt living under the same roof with her mother. A nudge of guilt inside her made her sigh.

She wondered if her mum knew how she felt.

While Jackie busied herself in the kitchen, making tea, Rose went to her room to see what there was she could pack that was clean for next time she left. Forgetting her dirty laundry in the rush, she would have to go back and get it soon, before her mum threw a fit.

It was one of the few things she did come home for, getting her clothes cleaned. One thing on the TARDIS that Rose would never trust was the laundry room.

When she exited her room with her bag packed, all ready to go down to the TARDIS to stow it in her other room, she stopped and decided to do it later. There was tea to drink and biscuits to eat, and her mother to catch up with, all which seemed much more important to her right then. And the Doctor was sitting on the couch, eyes blearily looking at the television, as a programme she had never seen before came on. She frowned at that last one.

"Oi, Doctor, is it my imagination, or are you trying your hardest to stay awake?" she asked, sitting down next to him, and grabbing the remote from out of his hands, using it to switch the telly off.

"Your 'mag'nation" he muttered, trying to grab the remote back from her.

It was then that she decided it better to go get the laundry after all. Seemed the Doctor refused to sleep with her around and in his sight. "Alright, well, I'm going to get my dirty things and give mum something to do other than complain about you."

She knew there was definitely something wrong when all the answer she got was a slight shrug of one shoulder. He was being way too quiet.

Rose almost asked, really she did, but she knew before she even did what the answer would be. He would say he was perfectly alright, even though it was plain to everyone around (even her mum was beginning to give him looks of concern) that he wasn't.

A cup of tea was put in front of him, and he quickly jumped on the excuse to not have to talk and begun blowing over the hot liquid, before taking a sip. Rose sighed, picked up her bag and left the building, making her way to the TARDIS, knowing that for once her mum will probably not be beating information out of the Doctor.

Jackie didn't want to ever admit it, but she was beginning to worry that the Doctor was sick with some strange alien illness, and that it may just be susceptible to humans as well. It was a rather frightening thought, so, before she could even begin to question what in the world she was doing, she stood in front of him and glared down. "You're not sick or anything, are you?"

He looked up at her and seemed to shrink into the seat. "No, not sick."

"Then what's wrong? You're worrying Rose, and I won't stand for that."

He looked away slowly and mumbled something that she didn't quite catch. She raised her hand, wanting to slap the man in front of her. He looked back at her and his eyes widened. "It's nothing, really! I just...I haven't been sleeping well, that's all."

He begun to drink his tea, and Jackie decided to let him finish, lowering her hand and sitting next to him instead. Grabbing a biscuit, she glared at him while she ate it. He closed his eyes and let out his breath. "I've been having...dreams. Memories really, but I like to pretend that they didn't really happen. It makes it harder to pretend if I am likely to relive it every time I try to sleep. Lucky me. I'd be a psychologist's prize if one ever got their hands on me."

She couldn't help it really, she leaned towards him a bit and put the unfinished biscuit down. "Rose knows?"

"She knows I fought in a war that ended with me being the only survivor of my planet. All I have left in the universe, and I mean this literally, is my TARDIS and Rose. I felt it in my mind, heard the screams of the Time Lords as they died. I was supposed to die with them, an honoured death, a good death, but somehow I survived. Your daughter was the first person I talked to after that. I didn't want to meet anyone. The building was supposed to have been empty..."

Jackie looked at the Doctor with a horrified expression on her face. "You got Rose out before it exploded..."

"Yes, but I also went in there with a bomb, ready to blow myself up too. I was...beyond the point of caring at that time. But I just...couldn't do it."

Without thinking, or even caring, she soon had the Doctor wrapped in a hug, one of those hugs she used to give Rose when she was little and sad over a pet's death, or sad about a boyfriend dumping her.

"I keep seeing it again. Over and over. It's been over two years, and I can still barely think on it."

The Doctor practically melted in her arms, and her heart gave an involuntary lurch of remorse. It was like as if he had never truly had anyone to hold him like this. "An older friend of mine had a father who went to war. He came back alive but most of the others he went with didn't. Shell shock they called it then, goes by some other more complicated thing now. He committed suicide quite a few years later. Sometimes she'd say that she wished he would have been killed during the war itself, because then he wouldn't have had to put up with what he went through. I never understood. I couldn't."

With a firm hand, Jackie began to pet the mop of brown hair that was so different to the look of the coarse short hair she had gotten used to before the regeneration. "They say it is harder for the survivors of things like that. Being the only one or close to it. They had a name for that too, survivor's guilt. Hmm, in some ways Doctor, you really aren't that different from us humans."

A pair of thin arms wrapped around her waist and she could hear him sniffling. It was a mother's instinct more than anything else that made her hold him even closer, keeping up with the hair petting, and began the gentle rocking of coaxing someone into doing something they really didn't want to do but couldn't help it. "Come on sweetheart, you won't get into trouble for crying. No one will think any less of you. "

"R-Rose..."

"Will be back soon, and she won't care. You'll see."

The Doctor was one of the most stubborn men that Jackie had ever met, and she probably will never find one to beat him for it either, so when his breath got ragged, before the first angry sob passed his lips, she was slightly surprised. Either he was taking good advice (what other advice could she ever give after all) or he had been so close to breaking that it had only taken a few words and a gentle touch to encourage him to let slip his normal control.

Within seconds she could feel his tears dampening her clothing, within minutes she was sure he would never shut up.

When Rose arrived back, carrying two black plastic bags filled with dirty laundry, she soon was in the most odd and somewhat compromising position she had ever been in. The Doctor's head was now in Rose's lap, the gentle patting now continued by her daughter, while he was sitting, or more like leaning, on her own. While his head was now occupied, she did start rubbing his back in as calming a way as possible.

He cried himself to sleep, and while she is still not certain how they had done it without waking him up, she and Rose somehow managed to pull him off their laps and got him comfortable on the couch they had been sitting on.

Taking an arm chair each, they had another cup of tea to help them calm down and relax, Jackie not concerned at all for once over the dried tear tracks on her daughters face. She couldn't tell her what he had said. Somehow that felt like his business.

After the tea was gone, and they waited a few more minutes, the only sound coming to their ears the soft, even breathing of the sleeping Doctor, Rose sighed, smiled brightly and looked directly at her.

Jackie Tyler had been wondering since she had decided to get the alien in the room to speak whether or not it had been a good idea, but the only word said for the rest of that day, the one word that Rose said with such conviction and love proved to her that even though this day hadn't gone according to plan something good had come of it.

With that one word Rose had managed to change her way of thinking of the Doctor more than the man in question himself had. Because Jackie Tyler knew that her daughter wasn't talking about sleeping at all.

Because Rose had looked at her, her cheeks glistening with the tracks of her dried tears and had smiled that smile which made her know she had done at least one thing right for her daughter. And then she had said it.

"Finally."