The TARDIS landed smoothly for once as it set down in its usual spot on the Powell Estate. Rose stepped out followed by the Doctor, who shut the door behind him and leaned against the blue box.
"How long?" Rose asked, turning to him.
"Two weeks, give or take," the Doctor answered without looking at his watch.
"Give or take what? A few months…? A few years?"
"Nah, maybe a day," the Doctor assured her.
Rose smiled. "You coming up?"
"What? So your mum can slap me again? No, thank you," the Doctor said.
"You haven't done anything yet."
"I'm sure she can come up with a reason."
"All right. I won't be long. Give me a ring if you smell trouble, yeah?" Rose said as she started to walk away.
The Doctor nodded briefly and Rose took that for at least a tentative agreement. He would probably forget his promise as soon as he caught a whiff of something brewing. But she hoped he'd come back for her as soon as there was time.
"Mum! Mum, are you there?" Rose called as she entered her mother's flat.
"Rose! Rose, you're back!" Jackie Tyler embraced her tightly. "Are you alright? Is he 'round somewhere?"
Rose smiled. "I'm fine, Mum. I've missed you."
"I've missed you, too, sweetheart," her mother said. Jackie pulled back to look at her. "Are you staying?" she asked as she always did.
Rose shook her head sadly. She hated disappointing her mother, but she wouldn't give up what she had with the Doctor for the world. "No, Mum. You know this is what I want."
"Come in and have a cuppa," Jackie said resignedly. "Where's the Doctor, then?"
Rose came further into the house as Jackie went into the kitchen. "Waiting by the TARDIS. How've you been, Mum?"
"Pretty good, I guess. Been seeing a new bloke, Howard. Bev's engaged again. Third time this year. At least it's the same fellow this time…" Jackie's chatter continued as she rattled around in the kitchen. Rose let it wash over her, enjoying the feeling of familiarity it brought.
It was strange. The other times the Doctor had taken her home, she had always felt like it was just that: a homecoming. Despite the fact that she had enjoyed traveling through space and time with the Doctor, home was still the flat on the Powell Estate. But this time, she listened to her mother with a sense of nostalgia, like this place was the visit instead of the return. Like when she visited her gran, the house, the smells, the people were familiar and welcome, but not home. Is that what she was feeling? When had the TARDIS become home instead of her mother's flat?
"Where have you been, then? Some alien planet?" Jackie asked, standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
"Nah, we've been to the Alps for hot chocolate!" Rose told her happily, still enjoying the ridiculousness of her life.
"The Swiss Alps? Blimey!" Jackie exclaimed. "For hot chocolate?"
"Yeah, best in the galaxy apparently!" Rose laughed.
"You're bonkers! The two of you!" Jackie declared, half-serious.
Rose grinned. Her mother was cracking, she could tell. She was beginning to accept the life Rose had chosen. "A friend of the Doctor's has a skiing lodge up there. He knows someone just about everywhere…even if they don't know him."
"Don't you have a kitchen in that blue box?" Jackie asked as she went back into her own to pour the tea.
"Yeah, but the Doctor's not one for domestic. If we can eat somewhere exotic, we do. The kitchen's more practical than anything."
"S'pose you've had supper with the Queen of Mars, have you? Bet the Doctor's friends are all high and to-do. How else would he have got into Downing Street?" Jackie said.
"Nah, not really. The Doctor's just sort of got an air about him, you know? Ten minutes and he's your best friend or at least acting like it. Everybody either thinks he must be somebody or nobody. 's kind of got a switch or something, turns it on and off. His air of authority…" Rose said thoughtfully. "Doesn't work on you though."
Jackie shot her an un-amused look as she brought in the tea. "Real charmer that bloke of yours."
"He's not mine," Rose protested.
Jackie just gave her another look and changed the subject.
The Doctor drifted aimlessly, wandering farther from the TARDIS by the minute. His mind drifted as usual to Rose. He supposed it was better than always dwelling on the destruction of his planet. Rose. He should have realized what was happening the moment he considered taking her home to see her mother. He had never brought a companion home before, except when he was leaving them there. She was different. He had known instinctively the moment he'd snatched up her hand; but not how different. This had never happened to him before.
He looked up and found himself in a busy commercial district. He watched the crowd flow around him distantly. It was hard to think of himself as a part of the crowd without Rose to ground him and even then they were separated from it. He could feel the turn of the Earth as he walked, his hearts beating in time with the pound of the footsteps around him.
For a moment, he let himself get swept up in the flow of time and the rotation of the Earth as it hurtled around the sun, catching fleeting glimpses of the futures and pasts of those around him. These people were grounded firmly to a linear existence without the ability to feel the subtle shifting of timelines as each new decision sparked the creation of a new path. He wondered what it was like to live one lifetime, to be unaware of senses beyond sight, taste, sound, smell, and physical sensation, to be without the lingering mental echo of the outcry of his people as they were burned from time and existence.
A tingling at the tip of his spine was the only warning. The screech of tires, the sharp bang of gunfire, the screams of frightened humans, and then the Doctor was outside of time. Sounds were unable to reach him and everything froze. He saw a bullet as if in slow motion, was close enough to stop it from ending a life not at its time. He ran and dove. There was an explosion of pain and everything sped up. The screams returned, somebody called for help, he opened his mouth to speak and darkness took him.
Rose flicked through channels as she listened distantly to her mother talk. She wondered what the Doctor was doing right now. What did he have planned next?
"Rose! Are you even listening to me?" Jackie said indignantly. "Did you come all this way just to watch the telly?"
"I was just trying to see what was going on while I was gone," Rose said.
Jackie opened her mouth to protest, but was interrupted by the doorbell. "Who's that, then?" She said, not getting up.
Rose rolled her eyes and went to answer it. Mickey Smith was standing on the other side of the door. "Mickey!" Rose said in surprise.
"I saw the TARDIS and knew you were here," Mickey said. Rose smiled and pulled him into a hug.
"How've you been?" Rose asked.
"Good. How 'bout you? You look fantastic," Mickey said.
Rose was about to reply when her mother called from the other room, "Rose! Come quick! Oh, my gosh, it's the Doctor!"
Rose bolted into the living room. "What is it, Mum?" she asked, terrified of what had her mother so frantic.
"Look!" was all she said, pointing at the TV screen.
Rose looked and immediately collapsed into a chair, one hand clasped over her mouth. Across the top of the screen were the words, "Drive by Shooting," the scene unfolding was of an ambulance parked in front of the Queen's Arcade shopping center. There were police everywhere. But what caught her attention was the person they were loading into the ambulance. Their face was blurred out by the news crew, but there was no mistaking the battered leather jacket.
"There is no indication that the shooting was directed at any one person. Preliminary reports point to an act of senseless violence," the reporter said in a voiceover.
"Two other people were injured," Jackie said. "But the Doctor…they said he jumped in front of a woman with a pram. Saved her life."
"So far there has been no word on the identity of the local hero," the reporter continued. "Police officials are asking anyone with information on who he is to get in contact immediately. He is described as tall, at least six feet, lean build, short-cropped dark hair, prominent nose and ears, last wearing a worn, leather jacket, navy blue jumper, and dark trousers."
"It's the Doctor. Oh, Doctor…" Rose murmured, shocked.
"They won't say how badly he was hurt or which hospital," Jackie said.
"We have to call the police. We have to find out where they're taking him," Rose said desperately, fumbling for her mobile phone. Mickey took it out of her hands and dialed. She didn't thank him. She simply continued to stare at the screen.
"The police are refusing to release anymore information to the public," the reporter said. On screen, they replayed the footage Rose's mother had watched moments before. The Doctor, faceless thanks to video editing, was lifted onto a stretcher. There was blood on the concrete and dripping down his leather jacket.
"Oh, my gosh," Rose whispered helplessly, tears welling in her eyes. "He's not dead, is he? He can't be dead. They would have said if he was dead, yeah?" she asked desperately.
"'course they would, sweetheart. I'm sure he's going to be alright," Jackie said, putting her arm around her distraught daughter.
"I've got the police," Mickey announced. "Yeah, we got some information on the man from the shooting," he told the person on the other line. "They put me on hold," Mickey groused.
Rose wiped at the tears that were trying to escape down her cheeks. "He's always wandering off! Why can't he just stay put?" she cried.
"There, there, sweetheart," her mum soothed.
"What if they find out he has two hearts? They'll dissect him!"
"Two what's?" Jackie exclaimed. "You're joking!" Rose didn't answer as the news anchor appeared on screen.
"We have a new development. The police have released a sketch of the mysterious man who threw himself in front of a bullet during today's horrific drive by shooting to save a young woman and her six month old baby,"the anchorman reported solemnly.
"Why does he always have to be the hero?" Rose raged tearfully.
A sketch of the Doctor appeared in the upper right hand corner of the screen beside the news anchor's head. There was no mistaking his severe features, especially with his big nose and ears. "It does not appear that he has regained consciousness yet. However, one man, who remembers seeing him at his chip shop before, says that he spoke with a northern accent, probably from some part of Manchester, and was always accompanied by a young, blonde woman who seemed to be a Londoner."
"How 'bout that, love?" Jackie said gently. "You're on the telly."
"I've got someone!" Mickey waved them quiet. "'ello? Yeah, we've got some information. Yeah, he's called the Doctor."
"Ask them where they're keeping him," Rose said anxiously.
"No, just the Doctor. I don't know!" Mickey said into the phone. He turned to Rose. "They want to know his name."
"He doesn't have a name!" Jackie said.
"Mum! Mickey, give me the phone," Rose ordered. He handed it over. "'ello?"
"Who is this?"
"My name is Rose Tyler. I'm…I'm the Doctor's…" she began. The Doctor's what? He usually called her his companion, but they wouldn't understand what that meant exactly. She needed to say something that would get her as much information as possible. "Fiancée, I'm the Doctor's fiancée," Rose said. Mickey looked hurt and Jackie blanched, but the policeman on the other line immediately became helpful.
"I'm so sorry, Ma'am," the policeman said sympathetically, causing Rose's heart to skip a painful beat. "Can you tell me your fiancé's name?"
"You're his what?" demanded her mother.
"Please, tell me he's not dead," Rose begged, needing assurance of that before she could talk about anything else.
"He's in intensive care. I'm afraid his condition is critical," he said.
Rose choked down a sob.
"He's dead! He's gone and died, hasn't he?" Jackie cried, seeing Rose's reaction.
"What happened?" Rose asked, past the lump in her throat.
"I'm afraid I can't release those details, Miss. But I can tell you what hospital he's been taken to," the policeman said.
"Where?"
"Albion Hospital."
Rose had a brief flash of memory. Gas mask zombies, bananas, Jack Harkness, the Doctor ecstatic because "Just this once! Everybody lives!" "Thank you," Rose said gratefully.
"Can you give me his name?" the policeman asked again.
Thinking hard and coming up empty, Rose fell back on the Doctor's favorite alias. "John Smith."
"John Smith," the policeman said slowly, doubtfully.
"Yeah. I know, no one ever believes it," Rose said with a nervous laugh. "Doctor John Smith. He likes to be called 'the Doctor.'"
Her mum stared at her in disbelief. "He's alive, then?" Jackie asked. Rose hoped that wasn't disappointment in her voice.
"Doctor Smith…He was found with no identification. Are you sure this is your fiancé?"
"Absolutely. I recognized his picture on the telly. I can tell you what he had in his pockets if you need proof," Rose said anxiously. "There'll be a tube thing, 'bout the size of a fat pen, blue light at one end. Whatever you do, don't flip the switch. And he'll have a wallet with a blank piece of paper in it"—she hoped it was blank—" and a key."
"I believe you, Ma'am. I'll inform the hospital and let them know you're coming."
"Thank you! Thank you so much," Rose said, breathless with relief.
"Albion Hospital," she told Mickey and her mum after she'd hung up.
Author's Note: I'll try to update every week. Hope you're enjoying it.