In Sealed With a Kiss, the TARDIS kept Jackie from interrupting the Doctor and Rose as they celebrated their newly formed bond. But eventually, they had to face the music, and an angry mother-in-law who doesn't even know they've gotten married.

Post Script

The first thing Jackie did when she woke up on Boxing Day was check Rose's room. She didn't really expect that her daughter had returned home the night before—after all, she'd been outside pounding on the TARDIS doors at two in the morning—but her lips still pressed together in displeasure when she saw the untouched bed.

"Oh, we aren't like that, Mum," she mimicked as she made herself tea and toast. "Not like that, my arse. Why else would you stay out all night if you weren't up to lord knows what in that box of his?"

After finishing her light breakfast, she channeled her anger into cleaning the kitchen following Christmas dinner. She knew Rose would take one look at the spotless room and know exactly what state she was in, assuming her daughter didn't see the look on her face before she made it into the kitchen.

"Are they ever going to come up?" she groused when she finished wiping down the countertops. Fear seized her, and she darted back to the living room to peer out the window. A breath escaped her when that bloody blue box was still in its parking spot on the corner.

It was almost ten o'clock when Jackie finally heard the key turn in the lock. She dropped the dishcloth into the sink and sat down on the sofa, her arms crossed over her chest. Rose pushed through the door first and froze as soon as she saw the look on her face.

"Rose, what is it?" the Doctor asked. He peeked around the door, and Jackie noticed his sudden pallor with satisfaction. "Jackie!" he squeaked. "Um. We got breakfast?" he asked, holding up a white bakery bag.

"Oh, don't even try to pretend you just went out to get breakfast," she told them. "I know for a fact you never came home last night, Rose. Trying to tell me you and him weren't like that, but here you are, staying all night with him in that box of his doing god knows what!"

Rose sighed and moved all the way inside, letting the Doctor follow her and shut the door behind her. "First of all, Mum, this isn't my home anymore. The TARDIS is."

"But you've always slept in your own room when you were here," she protested. "And I called and texted you last night dozens of times, even tried pounding on the door."

"You what?" Rose pulled her phone out of her pocket and frowned. "I don't have any messages at all."

"Wellllll…" The Doctor cleared his throat. "The TARDIS might have had something to do with that."

Jackie leaned back and watched the silent conversation between her daughter and the alien. Rose frowned in a confusion, then a moment later, a light blush spread over her cheeks.

Rose looked at her phone, then back at the Doctor. "You mean, your ship blocked all incoming calls?"

He nodded. "And made sure we couldn't hear Jackie knocking. Oh, and she's your ship now too, Rose."

Something about the warmth behind those words broke through Jackie's outrage. "Hang on a moment, what do you mean she's Rose's ship too?"

To her astonishment, the normally cocky alien flushed, making his freckles stand out. "Well…" He rubbed at the back of his neck. "Isn't that how it usually works? Joint property?"

Jackie was getting a picture of what had happened, but she wasn't sure she liked it—or believed it. "Now wait a minute, are you trying to tell me—"

"We're soulmates, Mum," Rose interrupted.

She took the Doctor's hand, and the matching besotted expressions on their faces nearly erased all of Jackie's concerns. Nearly.

She jumped forward and smacked the Doctor on the shoulder. "Ow!" he whined, though she noticed he didn't let go of Rose's hand to rub at the spot. "What was that for?"

"You pervy alien! Do you go around kissing all the human girls you travel with? What, do you get a soulmate for every one of those bodies? How does that even work, with you not being human?"

The Doctor rubbed at his forehead. He wasn't looking forward to this conversation, but they couldn't leave Rose's mum in the dark forever. "Could we sit down, Jackie?" he requested.

She crossed her arms, but grudgingly stepped back and allowed them to sit down.

Rose sat down next to the Doctor, and he immediately put his arm around her shoulders. She shot him a look. You really want to cuddle in front of my mum?

The Doctor arched his eyebrow. We're here to tell her, aren't we? She'll have to get used to seeing us cosy with each other, because I'm not going to stop touching you just because she happens to be in the room. He grinned when Rose shrugged and leaned into him.

Situated comfortably, he looked over at Jackie. "Right, your questions, in order. No, I don't go around kissing all the human girls I travel with. It's a pretty rare event, actually."

He looked at Rose when addressing the next question. Even though they'd covered this the night before, he wanted her to truly understand the depth of being a Time Lord's soulmate. "I only have one soulmate, just like every other humanoid in the universe. Had to wait ten lives to find her, but she was worth the wait."

"You've done this body changing thing ten times then?"

"We called it regeneration," the Doctor said. "Nine times, this is my tenth body."

"Blimey, you really are an alien."

For once, the Doctor managed not to point out that humans were just as alien as anyone else. Rose patted his leg, and he thought that maybe, it could be worth it to hold his tongue.

Jackie rolled her eyes when neither of them spoke up. "All right then, tell me how it works, even though you're not human."

The Doctor sighed. That was the hardest one to explain. "Just like you'd expect, Jackie," he said, rapid-fire. "The soulmate mechanism is the same in all humanoid species. The first time you kiss your soulmate, you're both marked with the other's name."

Jackie's eyes narrowed. "An' what're you doing, going around kissing 19-year-old girls?" She wagged her finger at him. "Pervy alien!"

Rose opened her mouth to correct her age, but the Doctor squeezed her hand and felt her settle back against him. "I am not a pervy alien," he protested vehemently. His face was blazing hot, but he didn't back down. "Do you know what Rose did to come back to me?"

Jackie frowned. "Well I helped her, didn't I?"

That was news to the Doctor. He glanced at Rose, who shrugged sheepishly. "May have left a few bits out," she admitted. "The TARDIS wouldn't open, so Mum went and borrowed a truck. We hooked up a winch…"

The Doctor hurriedly threw up his hands. "All right, I don't want to know any more," he said, not wanting to hear what the two determined Tyler women had done to his beloved ship. "Blimey, the two of you could take over the world if you set your minds on it," he grumbled.

Rose smiled her cheeky tongue-in-teeth smile, and the Doctor nearly swooped down to capture it in a kiss when he caught the glare from his mother-in-law.

"Right." He cleared his throat. "Well, what she did was incredibly dangerous. The heart of the TARDIS is kept out of sight for a reason—no one is meant to look directly into the unfiltered Time Vortex. She… your daughter… Jackie, for one shining hour, Rose was a goddess of time."

The words sat heavily in the room. Rose eyed her mum, who was staring at the Doctor with her mouth agape. The Doctor was looking at Rose with the same awed expression she was quickly coming to associate with memories of Bad Wolf.

"She saved the universe," he said quietly. "But the power was killing her, burning her from the inside out, and she didn't know how to let go of it. I knew I needed to take it from her to save her life."

"So you kissed her," Jackie said, no condemnation remaining in her voice.

The Doctor waited for Jackie to ask why a kiss had been necessary to take the vortex out of Rose. It wasn't the only way, wasn't even the most effective way. But he'd seen her, surrounded by the light of time, and he hadn't been able to resist her any longer.

Rose picked up on the gist of his thoughts and laced her fingers through his. He squeezed back, letting her see how beautiful she had been to him in that moment.

Jackie cleared her throat, and he blinked and returned to the present conversation. "Is that when…" She gestured to him.

"Yeah, that's why I regenerated. No one is meant to have that much power, not even a Time Lord."

"You took the vortex thingy out of her even though you knew it would kill you?"

He nodded again.

"You gave your life for hers," Jackie said softly.

The Doctor took Rose's hand. "It was the easiest choice I've ever made," he promised them both. "I knew I'd regenerate, and I knew I needed Rose. Didn't know how much…" he added, alluding to the soulmarks.

The room was quiet for a long moment, and the Doctor allowed himself to hope they'd weathered the worst of Jackie's reaction. But when a glint entered her eye, he braced himself for the worst.

"There's just one thing I'm not sure sure about," she said, her voice purposely casual. "If that ship of yours locked me out and made sure my phone calls didn't come through—and don't think we won't be talking about that later—does that mean it knows what the two of you are getting up to?"

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Breakfast!" he squeaked. He waved the bakery bag in the air. "Come on, it's getting cold. Is anyone else hungry? I know I am."

Rose and her mum both started laughing. The Doctor watched them walk into the kitchen together, still chuckling over his reaction, and he had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time his bond-mate and his mother-in-law shared a laugh at his expense.