Slice of Life
Her life since the Doctor had come barging into it was never easy or simple. There was no one she could talk to about aliens and the crazy goings on of the one that seemed to be both away all the time, and yet somehow always there. Especially now that Mickey had up and left them for an alternate Earth.
The noise of the TARDIS always alerted her before he and Rose barged their way inside, but at least it was warning enough.
Sometimes she was doing things that needed to be kept an eye on and she knew not to rush, like cooking. Cooking roast for dinner because she was having friends over that night. Cooking which would now seem to be going for not only her and her friends but the Doctor and Rose too. Good thing she had made extras to last for the next few days.
Well, he better not turn his nose up at it like he had the first time she had invited him over for dinner. Well, yet again after his regeneration he had sat down and enjoyed Christmas dinner with her and her makeshift family.
"Mum! We're stopping for a few days, hope you don't mind!" Rose called from the door, as she and the Doctor came in.
A few days? Well, that settled it; no way was he going to say no now.
"Ooooh, something smells good!" the alien currently in her thoughts stated, coming into the kitchen to watch as she quickly got the meat out of the stove before it burnt, and lifted it fast, but gently onto the counter.
"Good! I've been slaving away in here for hours now. And you're not going to get out of it this time, Doctor. I've got friends coming and you're going to be good. And eat. And be all domestic like Rose says you hate so much."
Rose chose that time to come in and sneak off with a bit of carrot that was waiting to be served, nibbling at it. "What are you two going on about in here? Can you try not to fight each other for once, please?"
"We weren't fighting, sweetheart. Just letting this one know I'm having friends over and he's staying."
Rose grinned. "We'd be staying anyway mum. The Doctor promised me a few days here, with you. Think he's worried about more types like that Elton bloke. You...haven't been having problems have you?"
"Oi! I think Jackie is well enough equipped to make blokes like Elton disappear. She did as I remember. Hope you gave him a Tyler slap..." That last bit was in direction to her, and he rubbed a hand unconsciously over the cheek she had slapped when he had brought Rose home a year late.
"You deserved it! Elton didn't get a slap, but he won't be bothering me any longer, no. And no, Rose, no problems with a man."
The Doctor disappeared then, off into the lounge room if the sudden blaring of the television being switched on meant anything. Rose picked up another bit of carrot and began eating it. Jackie swatted her daughter away from the food. "Not now. Very soon though, just waiting for Bev to rock up. Then she and Sandra will be over."
Sandra was the person who owned the flat next to hers. Well, with her husband, Jason. Lovely couple really, unlike Mrs Archer on the other side, an old woman who spent most of her time scowling at anyone who so much as went near her front door.
As if to prove her right, there was a knock on the door, and Bev entered the flat with Sandra close on her heels. "Jackie! We're here. I've got the cards too. Bloody things were hiding at the bottom of Dennis's sock drawer. What they were doing there is anyone's guess."
Anyone's guess was easy enough to understand. Dennis was Bev's son. He was also gay. The cards were the kind with naked men on them. They had bought them once at a strip show and had spent the past few years playing poker every weekend.
"Ooh cards! Hello Bev, Sandra. Hope you don't mind two extras. Rose showed up."
The two women stepped completely through and entered the lounge room, where the Doctor currently was sitting in the armchair he had practically claimed as his own since the first time he had sat in it, looking thoroughly bored.
"Hello, love. John right? Was a bit tipsy last time we met," Bev stated, and Sandra laughed.
"Understatement. You were smashed."
Dishing up plates of food and handing them out took a few minutes. And while usually she'd set the table and they'd eat around that, there wasn't enough room with more than 4 people, so instead they lounged around in front of the telly, where the Doctor continued to look bored and scowled every now and then.
"Jackie...why didn't you tell me they cancelled my show?"
She rolled her eyes. "Right. I have friends over and we're going to play cards. You are either joining or shutting up about your bloody soap. And eat more. You're too skinny."
He rolled his eyes, stuffed a huge bit of meat in his mouth and mumbled around it a very disturbing "Yes, mum."
She smacked him over the top of the head and he choked a bit. "Stop talking with your mouth full! Where were you when they were teaching manners?"
He swallowed and took a few deep breaths afterwards. "I was crawling out the windows if you must know."
Jackie blinked. Had he meant that as a joke or literally? Either way, he'd better learn to curb that if he was to ever set foot in her flat again. Shaking her head she turned to Rose. "Is he always like this, or is he just showing off just how big his mouth is?"
Rose grinned. "Oh, he's never been very good with manners. Unless they're needed, and then he uses them. Yet again, sometimes not."
"Oi! I'm not that bad...I just don't see the point. We're sitting around a television set, having a non formal semi social meal."
"This coming from a guy who dipped his fingers right into an almost complete stranger's jar of marmalade?"
"I was hungry..."
Sandra scowled at him, and Jackie grinned. Yep, this was about as normal a day as any with the Doctor involved. "Just eat alright?"
He looked at her for a few long seconds, rolled his eyes and nodded, looking down at his plate, before going through it as fast as he could. The rest of them ate a bit slower, though Rose ate a lot faster than she normally would too. It was something she had noticed the last few times she had stayed over for a meal.
Rose had explained it once, that they had to eat fast, as they didn't know whether they'd be running soon afterwards or not, and there might not be enough time otherwise to eat in the first place. Jackie thought that the only thing it would give her was a bad case of indigestion or heartburn.
After the rest of them had finished and the dishes were all stacked in a haphazard way in the sink, forgotten about for the time being, the cards were bought out and the Doctor regardless of the card deck, decided he'd play. He flopped himself on the ground next to Rose, who was picking up her first hand, and frowning at them. He did nothing but raise an eyebrow when he saw the nature of the cards.
He must be bored if he was bothering at all to play. She almost rolled her eyes and told him to go to his ship to do something in there, but he seemed to perk up when he looked at his hand.
"What are we playing?" he asked, looking at Bev.
"Poker. It's always poker. Dunno what kind."
He kept looking at Bev as if waiting for more information. Jackie sighed and rolled her eyes. "5 cards dealt. Two chances at changing cards."
"Ah. So, from nothing to royal flush then?"
"Yeah."
"Right, got it. Believe me, there are a lot more ways than one to play poker."
They sat down in a circle so that no one else could see anyone else's cards. "You know...we could play it backwards." The Doctor stated after the first game, which Rose won.
"How'd you do that then?" Sandra asked, her forehead scrunching up at the thought.
The Doctor got a certain gleam in his eyes that usually stood for trouble approaching. "Well! First off, Jackie! You got a deck?"
"Sure. In my drawer. Wait a tick."
She had learnt a while ago that when the Doctor got into a mood like this, the only way to make it disappear was to indulge him, or he'd sulk all night. She went into her bedroom and found her own deck. It wasn't a fancy one like Bev's, but it had all the cards still in it.
She gave both decks to the Doctor. "Alright then, how'd you play poker backwards?"
"Oh, it's easy!" He then went about taking all the cards numbered 7 to the kings out. "The aces are ones in this," he stated, putting both decks together, holding only the aces to 6's and shuffled them. "Now! Just play the rules backwards. Flushes are the lowest thing you can get and the highest is nothing. Which, by the way, are very similar. 5 cards each!"
He dealt them out fast. He picked his cards up and went about putting them in order.
To Jackie's surprise, when she turned her cards around, she saw she had started with a flush. Cards numbered from 2-6 were neatly in her hands, but not exactly in order. Frowning, she looked at them and wandered what to throw out.
In the end, she decided to throw out the 4 card.
She picked up a 4. Not only that, but now her hand wasn't only just a flush but a royal flush. Frowning even harder, she threw the 6 out on her next go, and picked up a 2. Relaxing slightly, she smiled and decided it was about as good a hand as she was going to get.
Next time around, she laid her pair of 2's down and was declared winner of her first ever truly backwards game of Poker.
The Doctor was grinning like mad. "You know, this is the first time I've played this with other people! I don't know if I invented it or just remembered reading about it in a book once, but I needed something to take my mind away from...other things. I found a deck of cards with only the aces to 6's. I still haven't found the other half to the deck. Known my luck it was probably jettisoned. Think I might have been just a tiny bit mad then though. I kind of remember talking out loud to myself about my cards until I just...couldn't anymore. A lot of my memories from that time are...not very clear. Good thing there's other people here now though. I suppose. At least I remembered to keep my mouth shut this time round. And I'm not...well, I haven't...I mean...never mind."
Rose looked up startled. "You alright, Doctor?"
He nodded. It was all the answer he gave. Not even a verbal confirmation like he'd normally give. And while she didn't know much about the Doctor at all, him being quiet was a bad thing. And now the grin was off his face and in its place was a look of sadness instead.
The next round was played with the same backwards game they had just played. Sandra won that round, and without saying another word, clearly upset, the Doctor got up and wandered out of the flat.
"Don't go after him. He's impossible to find when he gets this upset. The TARDIS protects him by hiding him, changing rooms around. He'll come back when he's ready to," Rose stated, grabbing at the deck and giving it another shuffle and dealing the next hand.
"What's a TARDIS?" Sandra asked, grabbing up her 5 cards and frowning intently at them.
Jackie rolled her eyes, not wanting to really go after the Doctor anyway. "That bloody thing of his is what makes that racket when he brings Rose home from god knows where."
"Oh! I hate that sound. It's rather scary and loud and just makes me think too much of those bloody Sycorax things."
Rose grinned. "Yeah, the Sycorax. I remember that. Spent most of the day terrified because the Doctor was unconscious. Not his fault though. He had died not too long beforehand, yet he still managed to fight the leader and win. Interesting fight really. He lost a hand and grew another one..."
Bev stared at her. "What have you been teaching this one?" She then turned her gaze towards Rose. "Dunno if anyone told you this or not, love, but humans don't tend to grow back limbs. Or were you talking of the Sycorax?"
Rose grinned wickedly. "Oh, who said the Doctor was human?"
Silence fell, and Jackie closed her eyes. "Oh, now you've gone and done it..."
"What?" her daughter replied. "It's not like it's this big huge secret. It's not secret at all. You're just afraid people will think you're weird."
She glared. "Remember that whole conversation before dinner, you know, the one asking about other guys like Elton? Yeah, maybe that's the reason why I don't like people knowing. That bloody ship of his just plain stands out! How anyone doesn't just notice it whenever you're here is beyond me."
"She has a perception filter built in. People can see her all they want, they just don't want to, so they...look elsewhere."
"You're mad, the both of you," Sandra stated quite confidently. Rose sighed and shook her head. Jackie just rolled her eyes.
She actually agreed with her friend's viewpoint into the whole thing.
"He's the maddest of the lot of us though. Changing his face, not having a name, that bloody ship of his being bigger on the inside..."
And speaking of the TARDIS, the familiar notes of it sounded, a few seconds before it started up again, this time much closer. The Doctor, probably just to rub all this in her face because he was upset, materialised the TARDIS in the room they were in.
The Doctor came out a few seconds later, blinked at where he found himself, scowled, and kicked the wooden outside of the ship. "Oh, you bloody nuisance! This is not where I intended to go. And I know I put in the right coordinates."
He was talking to a box. Her theory that he was insane had been proven right.
"What have I told you about parking that thing in my living room?"
He scowled at her. "Not my fault she's being a bitch."
Her eyebrows rose at the language he was using. She looked to Rose and saw pretty much the same expression as her own on her face. "That not normal then?"
"Nope," Rose replied, quietly.
"Shut up!" the Doctor stated loudly, before trying the door. He frowned, tried again, and began thumping on the door. "Now you really are being a bitch. Let me in!"
Rose sighed, got up and grabbed hold of one of his arms. "Come on Doctor, maybe she'll let you back in once you've calmed down a bit."
"I am calm! I'm all calm. I couldn't be any calmer."
Jackie watched as, after a bit of a quiet discussion the two of them had, Rose led him outside. Rose waved through the window, staying in view, and though she couldn't see the Doctor, Jackie could imagine him sitting down on the dirty pathway leading in either direction, towards stairs. She sighed and turned to her friends. "He has...issues."
Bev and Sandra just stared for a bit. Either at her, or the TARDIS, or where Rose was standing over the Doctor.
"Bloody hell, what kind of issues does an alien have?" Sandra asked, looking at the window from her seat on the floor.
Jackie rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. "He's not that different to us. On the outside anyway. Don't ask me what goes on in that brain of his though, 'cause I couldn't tell you."
They had another round of cards, Bev winning, before Rose and the Doctor came back inside. The Doctor made straight to the left when he got in, which led to her room. Still, with him having spent his time in there over Christmas, she found that he usually went to her room if he was tired and wanted a nap. He was probably more comfortable in her bed, because that's where he had gotten better.
Also, her bed was a queen sized one, Rose's was only a double. He had plenty of space to move about. Rose was disappointed over it, she could always tell.
"He's going to sleep for a bit. Sorry. He said that he would have liked to have taught his kids the game. He must have been thinking of them when he made it."
Jackie froze at that. "Kids? He was a dad? Poor sweetheart. No wonder he's upset."
"He only told me, and he only did it to shut me up about teasing him about what kids are like, a few days ago. I thought he was joking..."
She couldn't help it, she glared at her daughter. "Yeah, joking. One thing no one should ever joke about is losing kids."
Bev's face dropped. "God, his kids died? Poor man. No wonder he's messed up."
This time it was Rose who was glaring, and it was turned towards Bev. "He's not messed up. He's usually not like this."
Jackie knew that wasn't true. Sure this was the first time she'd seen him in any way upset since he changed his face, or regenerated, or whatever he called it, but he was always like this. If she had known, she might have been a bit nicer towards him from the start...well, except for that time he had brought Rose back a year later. That slap and yelling he had received had been completely earned.
And he knew that. He had tried apologising several times, in both of his body's. She had refused to accept that it had been a blip on the TARDIS.
With now being able to keep contact with Rose no matter where she was, even if it was from great distances and not very often, she worried, but wasn't as worried as before. She was beginning to understand why he had given her the TARDIS phone number. She could call Rose on her mobile, but usually the phone only worked one way...Rose's way. Unless the Doctor did something to her phone, and he was refusing to right now, she couldn't reach her most of the time.
The sporadic phone calls at least once a month were enough to let her know her daughter was still alive, though she wished the calls came in faster. Once a day, or even once a week. Still, the Doctor had given them a way to keep in contact, though she didn't understand what it was that he had done, only that he had updated Rose's phone to what her daughter called a super phone.
He understood how much it meant to her as a parent to keep in touch with her own child.
As Rose sat back down and started shuffling the cards, joining back in, she got up and went over to her room. She knocked softly before entering, not waiting for a reply she knew she wouldn't get.
The Doctor was curled up on the side of the bed furthest from the door, doing his best impression of injured and hurt Time Lord. At first she thought he had fallen asleep, but after a while he sighed and turned in her direction slightly. "What do you want?"
She rolled her eyes. Honestly, what did he think she wanted? "To see how you were. I didn't know that you were a father before."
"Yeah, well, I'm not now am I? Got nothing. Rose, I can't talk to her about it. She's too young to understand that type of loss."
Sitting on the end of her bed, she nodded. "Yeah, she said that when you mentioned you had kids, she thought you were saying it just to get her to stop teasing you the other day."
His face fell at that. "I meant it... I didn't say it to shut her up, I said it because she was saying things about kids and I thought I'd like to tell her. It might have been the tone I used at the time. Thinking of them tends to hurt like hell.... She tends to forget things that don't matter to her sometimes."
"Like you said, she's young. She was too young when her dad died. Because of that, she hasn't really suffered much loss. Except for the odd pet or boyfriend."
He nodded. "I'm sorry. I ruined your card night. I shouldn't have shown you that game..."
She was about to reply, when Rose stepped in. "Mum, Bev and Sandra are going to be leaving shortly. They decided that it might not be fair to stick around, given the circumstances, whatever that means."
Closing her eyes, Jackie nodded. She patted the Doctor's back, got up and went to say goodbye to her friends. She watched from the corner of her eye as Rose went into her room to check up on the Doctor herself.
Sandra waved from her door, and she waved back, making sure that they could come over at any time for a cuppa or a bit of a talk or game if the urge hit.
Bev waited until Sandra was inside, before hugging her and saying a quick bye. "You look after that man in there, alright?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Rose is in there with him at the moment. One day, Rose'll understand."
"Yeah. Well, gotta go. Same time next week?"
"Yeah, you know it too. See you then."
Now all she had to do was convince the Doctor that it wasn't his fault that they left. Well, not entirely. Sandra had just found out she was pregnant, and Bev and her tended to end up talking about their kids while they played.
She knew that it would do nothing but upset the Doctor further, though by the sounds of it he wanted to talk about it to someone.
Hopefully Rose will now be a bit more understanding towards him.
She knew she was.