The first time he met Rose Tyler he was hopelessly lost to her.
"Jackie, she's a dear." His Gran, tall and elegant, never cooed. Yelled at him, maybe, but never cooed. "Mickey, get over here, come take a look."
"S'jus' a baby," he mumbled, six-years-old and hardly impressed with things swaddled in blankets and crying. His mate Bobby had a baby brother once. All he did was scream and get sick on people.
"Come here, boy, do as I say." Gran gave him that look that said he'd best do as he was told if he wanted to live to see tea. With as much drama and effort he could manage, he shuffled over to Mrs. Tyler and the white bundle on her lap.
"We named her Rose for Pete's mum, y'know," Mrs. Tyler seemed so very proud of the little thing snuggled in the pile of blankets. "She died when Pete was just finishing school, and I thought it was a nice name. She got the Marion from my side of the family though."
Gran made one of those odd, humming noises as Mrs. Tyler kept prattling on about the baby this, and the baby that, and how good she was and how sweet she was. Frankly what was so sweet about a big old pile of rags with a squirming thing inside? Mickey wrinkled his nose as he inched closer to what might be the head, almost fearing what he might see inside.
A fist worked its way out of the blankets first, punching the air with a squall, an impossibly small, fat, pink thing with the tiniest fingers that Mickey had seen. It pushed back a corner of the soft cotton, revealing a nearly baldhead, covered in a fine down of hair. The small face was round and fat, and was screwed up so tight that Mickey expected her to scream any minute.
Instead she opened her eyes. And she smiled.
Mickey stared down at the creature in front of him. It was just a baby, nothing special about that. But this baby was smiling at him, a big smile with no teeth, cause she didn't have any yet, and it was drooly and milky. But it was as bright at the sunlight they sat in, and her little baby eyes stayed fixed as she waved a fist at his face.
"I think she likes you," Mrs. Tyler grinned. "She only ever smiles that way for Pete."
Mickey didn't understand why he liked it that baby Rose smiled at him. All he knew was that it was the best feeling in the world.