This one takes place after World War Three.
The One Good Thing
There was something to say about living alone that Jackie actually liked. There were things she could do now she had the flat to herself that she had never been able to do when Rose was home too. It was the only good thing about it.
Everything else about it was bad, but there wasn't anything she could really do about that.
She had just been through a year of hell, and all she had gotten were crocodile tears, a hug and not even a day of time with her daughter. One of the first things Rose had done after coming home was leave the flat to get away from her. And afterwards, when she was covered in alien goo, she hadn't even asked how she was.
Rose hadn't even stayed for a full cup of tea after getting that bloody call from that unnatural ship of the Doctor's telling her to hurry up. She had just went off to her room and packed as much as she could fit into her travel bag and left again. She'd tried talking to Rose the entire way down to the TARDIS (and that name for the ship wasn't half weird either...) but had practically been ignored, and then her worries had been realised as she waited that 10 seconds. 10 seconds more of hell.
Rose hadn't come back like she said she would. Known her daughter, she was forgotten about the minute the police box had vanished from sight.
Still, she had her friends, and she had other people and family.
She also really, really was glad she had managed to forgive Mickey for committing a murder that obviously hadn't happened. Well, it was obvious now. At the time, there had been no other option available, since Mickey hadn't been speaking about it at all and he had been the last person to see her.
Now she understood why he hadn't wanted to talk about it. If he had opened up his mouth, no one would have believed the poor lad anyway. No wonder he kept on lying to the police.
Now he was the only one she'd be able to talk to about all the crazy things that had started happening in her life. And that, as she had told him herself, was extremely embarrassing.
That had to make up for the fact that her daughter hadn't only just abandoned her, but her boyfriend as well. Hell, Rose had only told the Doctor to send the missile their way before giving him a chance to come up with a better idea because she had told him not to. That had been quite clear in the tone of her voice.
She was right...that job had given her daughter airs and graces. Rose now thought she was bigger than everyone else. And the Doctor clearly wasn't helping that. If anything, he was encouraging it.
She hadn't brought up her daughter to be like this.
Where had she gone wrong?
When had she gone wrong?
Now she had the flat to herself for who knows how long. And the one good thing about that was she'd be able to do some things that she hadn't been able to do when Rose was living there too.
Too bad she couldn't think of any of those things right now.