Wow, I am, like, in shock after the response this story has received. I never expected it to be this popular. Thank you so much. The following takes place a few days after the first chapter.
All in all, it took the family unit four days to return to London. When Pete arrived at Norway to pick them up (after much PDA between Pete and Jackie, much to the Doctor's disgust), he took the news of the new addition to the family and how he came to be surprisingly well. In her two year stay on the parallel Earth, Rose had come to find that Pete was the more level-headed of the couple.
Although, he shared his wife's beliefs regarding Rose and the Doctor's sleeping arrangements. "That's why me and Mickey moved to the other side of the mansion," Rose quipped before taking the Doctor's hand and leading him up the winding staircase. The few stationary days in Norway had seen the Doctor and Rose growing closer. Their relationship had returned to what it had been so long ago.
"So, were you and Mickey getting it on, then?" The Doctor asked, hoping he didn't sound as anxious as he felt.
Rose snorted. "Hardly." She glanced behind her, and when she saw that no one was close, Rose whispered, "It's Mum and Dad. The noise," Rose shuddered, wrinkling her nose in the adorable way that the Doctor had always loved.
Rose pushed open the first door on her left. "Here we are. Your new room; Mickey's old room," she announced before grimacing at the mess that Mickey had left behind. It reminded her of when Mickey had first left Rose for a parallel world. Rose and the Doctor had stayed at Jackie's flat for a few days, and the Doctor had helped his best friend clear out the home of her childhood friend. He had left the place a mess. The Doctor had commented on it, delighted when he had prompted a wet, yet genuine, laugh from Rose.
"He really can't leave any universe cleanly, can he?" The Doctor asked, voicing Rose's thoughts.
Rose laughed. "I'll help you clean up," she said, bending to examine a box that, unless he was mistaken, was full of alien artefacts.
"Did he get that from work?" The Doctor asked, plopping down on the mostly empty bed and pulling Rose down to sit beside him.
"Yeah," Rose said, handing the box to the Doctor. "Completely against the rules, of course."
"Since when are you one for rules?" The Doctor asked, looking at Rose in surprise.
"Since never. Torchwood has a rule that says that we're not allowed to take the alien 'toys' from work; nobody listens."
"Ah," the Doctor stated, his familiar grin returning to his face. He began rifling through the box in his hands, looking through the bits and bobs that Mickey had obtained over the years. They continued like this in silence for several minutes: him rifling through Mickey's alien objects, her rifling through everything else. A thought occurred to the Doctor. "Rose?"
"Hm?" Rose replied distractedly as she emptied Mickey's drawers, contemplating on whether or not she should be wearing gloves for this dangerous task.
"Where are all the staff?" Last time I was here, the Tylers had a whole ensemble working for them."
Rose pulled a drawer out of the wardrobe and dumped all the contents on the floor. "I think they were all killed when the Cybermen invaded. I guess Dad didn't see the point of a staff when he was the only one here, and Mum refused point blank to get any help."
"And what about you?"
Rose shuddered. "I'd go spare if we had a staff."
"No, I meant, what have you been doing with yourself?" The Doctor clarified.
"Torchwood. I thought that would have been obvious from the 'Dalek Destroyer' that I had with me. I never did get that back," she mused.
"'Dalek Destroyer?'" the Doctor laughed.
"Mickey christened it after Toshiko presented us with the 'Laser Cannon Triple-' something or other," Rose replied seriously, although the corners of her mouth turned up a bit.
"Ah, so a bit of clever alliteration on Mickey's part, then?"
"A bit, yeah."
Rose continued cleaning up Mickey's old room, and the Doctor continued being less than helpful. The Doctor was wondering if Rose was happy to be with him, and Rose was wondering what the Doctor was truly thinking. Their thoughts were interrupted by an unexpected knock on the open door.
"Jake!" Rose's cry was very joyful, and she leaped over dirty clothes and other belongings of Mickey's to give the man in question a hug. Despite having an originally neutral attitude towards each other, the two had gotten to be close friends over the past two years. Jake had never pretended to know what Rose was going through, and he was always willing to listen when Rose had needed an unbiased ear.
"So, I must say I'm surprised to see you again," Jake greeted, although his tone didn't indicate any regret.
"Change of plans," Rose said, with the merest glance in the Doctor's direction.
"You're still…him?" Jake addressed the Doctor.
"Still me," the Doctor replied cheerfully. "Pete fill you in on the gory details, did he?"
"He gave me a general overview," Jake conceded.
"Why are you here, Jake?" Rose asked.
"Babysitting duties."
"Of course."
Jake glanced around the room. "He's really gone, then?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah."
"Need help cleaning it up?"
They worked in silence for a while until Jackie called them down for dinner via the intercom. "Oi! You lot! Dinner! Don't make us wait!"
"Step up from the Estate," the Doctor gasped after making sure that his single heart hadn't failed him.
"You'll have to get used to that, I'm afraid," Rose informed him as they descended the stairs. "Mum loves the intercom; she thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread."
After dinner, the Doctor had a manly (and very human) conversation with Pete in his office while Rose and Jake entertained little Tony and Jackie cleared up. The Doctor left the office looking cheery, and Pete looked harried. Rose got the Doctor settled, and, after a lingering hug and a brief, slightly awkward kiss, she made to leave for her room.
"Where's your room?" The Doctor called after her.
Rose grinned cheekily. "Why don't you have a look around your room, Doctor?" With that, she left.
She had just gotten herself settled and was reading a magazine when her wardrobe door opened, and the Doctor stumbled out.
"Bit like Narnia, isn't it?" she asked, automatically making room for the Doctor on her bed.
The Doctor gaped at her incredulously before plopping himself beside Rose. "You knew I'd find that secret passageway, didn't you?"
"You took about two minutes longer than I'd expected," Rose confirmed.
"So, is there any particular reason why there's a super, secret corridor connecting our rooms?"
"Not really," Rose shrugged. "Dad said that those kinds of passages were built after the Cybermen invaded. I found the most…random… one from the library to the loo last month."
"What were you, of all people, doing in the library?" The Doctor grinned.
"Oi!" Rose whacked him playfully on the head with her magazine.
The Doctor flopped onto his side and put his head on his hand, regarding Rose seriously. "I never asked you: are you okay with Pete being your father?"
Rose mirrored the Doctor's position. "I am now."
"But you weren't at first?"
"I was angry and upset for a long time. All I'd wanted for so long was for my family to be together. Then, I met you, and my perspective changed a little. I still wanted my family, but I wanted to be with you, too. Apparently, I wasn't allowed both."
The Doctor didn't say anything. He tucked a strand of hair behind Rose's ear, and she took his hand.
"And now?" he asked finally.
"Things have changed, haven't they?" Rose asked rhetorically.
They fell into a comfortable silence. The Doctor silently surveyed the room. It was less pink than her old room on the Estate (or even the TARDIS) had been, but it was still essentially Rose. A vanity table stood in one corner, cluttered with various beauty products. The floor was littered with magazines. In front of Rose's open wardrobe, the floor was covered with shirts, skirts, and shoes that had fallen out when the Doctor had tumbled through the passageway.
Rose was distractedly playing with the Doctor's fingers. "Do you play the piano?" she asked randomly.
The Doctor tore his eyes from a picture on her nightstand to stare at one of the objects of said photo. "What?" he laughed.
"You have piano hands," Rose shrugged. "It would be a shame not to put them to good use."
"I've been known to play in my time."
"I knew it!" Rose grinned. "Mum tried to get me to take lessons when I was small. Didn't take." She sighed. "I guess Tony'll be forced through them, too."
"He seems like a good kid," the Doctor pointed out.
"He's adorable," Rose agreed.
"I got the impression that Pete wanted to raise you like he's raising his son."
"It's always nice to know that my father is talking about me behind my back," Rose said mildly. "What else did you big, important men discuss?"
There was a pause. "He wants me to work at Torchwood."
Rose froze. "Oh? What did you say?"
"Well, I said yes, didn't I? He's gonna give me a new identity and everything." The Doctor didn't sound particularly pleased.
"You'll always be 'the Doctor' in my eyes," Rose assured him.
"Yeah?"
"Yes."
Two things. One, I just had to do the 'Doctor 2 works at Torchwood' cliché, and two, that rhyme towards the end was, in fact, intentional.