DISCLAIMER: Okay, so I think these are redundant and they repeat themselves too. Who really thinks that I may own any part of this? Really? Okay then, I got a used TARDIS I can sell you – cheap…
The Doctor and Rose returned from their tour just after the sun went down. They were getting off the bus when Rose looked at her watch and yelped a little. "Bloody hell! Mum is going to skin me!" And with that, she began to run in the direction of her flat.
"Wait up!" The Doctor called after her. But it was no use. She already had a lead on him. His long legs bridged the gap quickly and he tapped her on the shoulder as she was putting her key in the lock. "What is going on?"
"Nothing. Are you coming in?" She tugged a bit on his tie.
"Would love nothing more." He let her tug him inside.
The room was dark, but they could hear breathing. Rose stopped suddenly and flipped on the lamp near the door. There was Jackie, her arms folded across her chest, a scowl set there. "Well, you coulda called!" She reprimanded, but then changed her pitch when she saw who was trailing behind her daughter. "It's you!" She was off the couch and launching herself at the Doctor before he had time to react. Soon, he had an armful of Jackie Tyler, something he had hoped would never happen again.
"And hello to you to, Jackie Tyler!" He hugged her back without thinking; grateful that she really existed here, only more proof that Rose herself was real.
"So, did you tell him?" She asked her daughter over his shoulder.
"About how you got here?" He released her so he could talk to her properly. "Sad to hear about you and Pete, but good news for me, yeah?"
"Yeah, thanks for that. But I meant the family," Jackie chewed on her bottom lip and put her hand on her hip, looking at Rose.
"Oh yeah! She told me all about Lowell. Fantastic!" He sat in a recliner near the door and put his feet on the coffee table.
"Lowell – right." Jackie was now shooting daggers at her daughter. "We'll be going now, I guess, Rose…" She gathered her things and went into what the Doctor presumed was Rose's room to get Lowell. Then, the two of them - the boy in Jackie's arms - padded down to her own apartment. Rose watched her go, and then closed the door, finally falling against it and smiling at the Doctor.
"So, uh, your mum…" He ran his hair thru his hair at that and Rose could resist the urge no more. She went to him and sat in his lap.
"Yeah – still the same old Jackie Tyler. Should 'of warned you that she was here, I guess…" She ruffled his hair this time.
He put his arms around her, just like old times. "And why is it that she was here anyway?" He arched an eyebrow as he watched her start to chew on her lip – a sure sign that she was about to tell him something not strictly true.
"She's been staying here with Lowell while I am at work." She batted her eyelashes at him, making him laugh and pull her in for a kiss.
He could not get enough of her; this was just like old times, but better. This Rose was a little wiser, not that she wasn't before, but this Rose, there was something more mature about her. Something very…he lacked the word for it. "Rose Tyler, I have missed you so very much."
"I know the feeling." She snuggled closer to him, putting her feet under his coat, which he was still wearing.
They sat like that for a bit, in the mostly dark, the light that she had turned on earlier their only source to see by. He was studying her face, slowly running his fingers up and down her arm. He wondered if she had gone to sleep when she looked up at him.
"This is my place, not mum's," she said by way of invitation. "You can make yourself comfortable."
"Perfectly comfortable," he assured her, leaning his head back.
She got up from her place in his lap and tried to pull him to his feet. For such a skinny man, he sure was hard to move. "Come on, Doctor. Up on your feet!"
He chuckled and hauled himself up. "Now what?" He looked at the woman standing below him, a woman he thought he would never see again.
She looked up at him. "Let's go and crash – I have a long day tomorrow."
"Tired already?" He clicked his tongue at her. "Rose, working does not suit you well. Why don't we go to the TARDIS for the night – I'm sure she misses you just as much…"
She stalled, trying to think of an excuse. "Uh…no…I need to have my alarm clock to get up in the morning. I have to go to work – unlike some people – or aliens – I know…"
"Rose, you can come with me right now. We can leave all this. You don't have to work." He held her chin as he talked to her.
"Nice thought, but I can't just up and leave. What would I do with myself when you were done with me?" She was suddenly serious.
"Rose, haven't you learned that I'll never be done with you?" He leaned to kiss her again, noting that there were pools of unshed tears in her eyes, but not sure if they were joy or sadness.
Okay, so I need to know what you guys think of this - like I said before, this thing has been rattlin' 'round my brightly colored head so long that my roommate said if I didn't stop talking about it and write it, she was going to put a pillow over my face and count to 100 to put me out of her misery. I think she meant it! LOL