A/N: This will be two chapters, so keep a look out!
Disclaimer: I (still) don't own Doctor Who, I don't own the Doctor, I don't own Rose, and I don't own Jackie.
For Greyson the greyhound, squirrel chasing was getting a bit old. They'd escape up the tree every time. He'd die of shock if he ever did succeed in catching one.
A reprieve from squirrel chasing was offered, one winter's day, when a blue police box materialized just a half block away from his home. He ran over, eagerly sniffing the new attraction. It took him less than a minute to begin sprinkling his scent over its base.
"Oi! Stop that!"
Greyson looked up, abruptly cutting off his stream. Well, fine. If this blonde human didn't want him here, he'd leave. He wasn't stupid enough to think he was this girl's alpha.
Another human, this one taller and with a much more peculiar way of dressing, emerged from the blue box and grasped the girl's hand. Their exchange carried back to Greyson as he trotted back home.
"You know I don't do domestics." The tall, strange man formed the last word disdainfully, as if it were a curse-word.
"It's one afternoon," the girl reminded him, her tone the same that Greyson's mistress used when reprimanding him. "You'll survive."
"Yes– but your mother," the man protested, running his free hand through his shaggy head-fur. Greyson wouldn't mind having fur like that. It was very nice looking.
"Will be pleased to see you," the girl promised and cast her smiling face upward, so she could catch the man's eye.
Greyson didn't hear the rest of the conversation, as the humans had apparently reached their destination. They entered one of the apartments in the same building that his mistress lived in. Greyson loitered a moment outside the door, sniffing at the crack between the floor and the bottom of the door, before realizing which human lived here.
The greyhound turned tail and fled, a small whimper escaping his lips.
The human that liked to slap lived there.
-l-l-l-l-l-
The turkey was burning and there was absolutely nothing that could be done about it. But Jackie Tyler tried anyway, because that was just the sort of stubborn woman she was.
It was during the aftermath of this episode that she heard knocking at her door. Jackie grumbled a bit as she marched toward her front room, but her muttered oaths came to an abrupt halt as she heard the faint mumblings of two very distinct voices.
"Rose!" Jackie cried, as she threw open the door. "Oh, thank the Lord you're okay!"
Rose allowed her mother her moment of hugging and greeting, then pulled back from her python-like grasp.
Jackie promptly turned to the one remaining party– the Doctor. "C'mere, you!"
"Oh, no, really–" the Doctor began, only to be cut off by Jackie's arms around his torso.
Rose couldn't help but smirk, as she watched the Doctor flail about, completely out of his depth. A battalion of Cybermen? Easy. A battle fleet of Daleks? He'll be home in time for tea. Boxing Day? Watch him squirm.
"Aren't we supposed to be boxing?" the Doctor asked, uncertainly holding his arms at ninety-degree angles to his torso and looking down at Jackie Tyler's blonde bun. "Or looking for baskets?"
Jackie let the poor Time Lord go and nonchalantly moved so that she was blocking the passage into the kitchen. "We're supposed to be spendin' time with family, ya big numbskull," she answered. "Seein' as you've taken my daughter away for the rest of the year! Didn't even get her back in time for Christmas, did ya?"
"Actually," Rose said, guiltily raising her hand, "I asked to skip Christmas–"
Jackie's face went slack with anger.
The Doctor prepared to duck.
"Why the hell would you ask for that?" Jackie cried, her face going a brilliant shade of red.
The Doctor flinched, but Jackie's palms stayed on the opposite side of the room.
"Because it seems like there's always somethin' that needs stoppin' on Christmas," Rose replied calmly. The duh was implied.
There was a moment of silence after Rose's statement, during which Jackie was reminded of just exactly what it was her daughter did during the rest of the year.
Three quick, long strides and a whistle of air later, the Doctor was holding his bright red cheek. "What was that for?" he demanded, more in surprise than actual pain.
"Riskin' my daughter's life," Jackie responded. Then, she grabbed the Doctor by the jacket and planted a kiss on his injured cheek. "And that's for bringin' her back."
The Doctor took an involuntary step away from the bottle-blonde menace. The woman terrified him.
"Right then!" Rose broke in, saving the Doctor from the extremely dangerous force of nature referred to as Jackie Tyler. "Turkey– you told me you were makin' turkey, yeah?"
"It's still cookin'," Jackie lied, not quite sure why she couldn't just admit she'd burnt it.
"Oh, perfect," the Doctor said. "Rose and I'll just bop out, save a few planets… We'll be back soon!" While he'd been speaking, he had taken Rose's hand in his own and made to pull her to the door.
"Doctor," she admonished him, her face set in that Tyler look.
The Doctor squirmed under her gaze. "We've got a time machine!" he protested. "We can be back five minutes ago!"
The look Rose gave him was enough to make a battalion of Cybermen cry for their mommy.
"Or– or, we could just… stay here," he amended, nervously tugging at his ear.
Rose grinned, letting him know she wasn't mad, and patted him on his still-red cheek. "Good boy."
"Actually," Jackie said softly, hesitantly, as an idea occurred to her, "A trip somewhere nice an' warm wouldn't be all that bad. It'd be sorta nice, actually."
Rose turned to her mother in astonishment. She hated the TARDIS and anything to do with it.
"What?" Jackie asked defensively. "It's been one hell of a winter– not that you'd know, a'course. You've been so busy galavanting off through the universe, too busy to even phone your own mum. I reckon he's a bad influence on ya." She wagged an accusing finger at the Doctor.
"Oi!" the Doctor objected.
"Oh, come off it," Rose said to the Doctor, her tone light and teasing, "You're a horrible influence and you know it."
"You love it," the Doctor replied, not missing a beat. His grin was wide and contagious. It barely took more than a single second before the two of them were simply standing there grinning at each other, acting like complete and utter dunces.
Jackie's eyes flicked between the two and doubted that there'd ever been a room more filled with will-they-won't-they tension than the one she was in now.
Jackie waited a moment, watching them, before she cleared her throat, effectively ruining the moment. "So how 'bout it, then?"
