Quite a short one, this one. Thankyou so much to all people who reviewed, please keep doing so :)

The door swung open, and Rose pocketed her key.

"C'mon." she said to the Doctor, who was dithering on the doorstep. He hesitated, then followed her. As the door swung shut behind him, he had the horrible feeling he was trapped. No matter how many monsters he battled, there was no one quite as formidable as Jackie Tyler. Rose called out to her, and the Doctor had a sudden urge to clap a hand over her mouth. He resisted the temptation, and snogged her instead. Possibly not his best idea, as Jackie emerged from the lounge and came down the hallway at that moment. What was it with parents, and turning up when he was kissing Rose? Couldn't they give them a break? She didn't take him in at first. Then, suddenly, the scene hit her. There was Rose, standing in the hallway, kissing someone. For a nano second she was taken aback, until she recognised him. She exploded.

"DOCTOR!!!" she yelled. Rose, probably feeling he could do with a bit of support at the moment, took his hand again.

"Mum, it's ok!" she said

"It is bloody well not ok!" Jackie shouted, quite beside herself with rage. She turned to the Doctor. "You leave my daughter crying her heart out on some beach in Norway, then come waltzing back, and expect me to think it's OK?!! She's been broken hearted for the past year; I've only see her smile once! IT IS NOT OK!!!"

Slap! The Doctor felt Rose wince as she slapped him hard across the face, with the sound of a whip crack.

"Ow!" he yelled. He turned to Rose: "They've gotten harder since she last hit me." He got another slap for that.

"Mum!" Rose said "There was nothing he could do about it, okay?"

Jackie opened her mouth like she was going to say something else, but then decided against it.

"Well…alright then. You two had better come in." She disappeared again. Rose ran straight over to the Doctor, and cupped his burning cheek in her hands.

"You okay?"

"Been better." he admitted, sighing. "Your mother hasn't half got a good slap on her!" Rose grinned, pleased he was okay. He had just leaned forward to kiss her; their mouths were centimetres apart; when Jackie reappeared.

"Come on" she insisted. As she turned her back, the Doctor and Rose shared one last lingering kiss, before following her through the house.

Dinner was, to say the least, an interesting affair. The whole holding- hands- under- the- table thing certainly contributed to this. Although the Doctor swore blind, that as a timelord, he could do everything equally well with either hand, he wasn't showing it particularly well at the moment. Rose found this quite funny, but it irritated everyone else. Jackie kept throwing him nasty looks across the table, and Pete had to work hard to conceal his annoyance.

"Do you want your hand back?" Rose asked after a while, after a particularly vicious look from her mother aimed in his direction. He looked at her.

"Not really." He admitted, smiling widely "But if you really want…"

She smiled at him, and he melted.

"Oh alright." he said and let go. After that, Jackie seemed reasonably happy, and the tense silence slackened. Even the Doctor had to admit it was better.

"How did you get through?" asked Pete, looking at the Doctor, intrigued "The void – it's not open again is it?"

"Nope" the Doctor said, and Pete breathed a sigh of relief. Then the Doctor turned to Rose. "You were the one who gave me the idea." he told her "Remember when we were on that planet – Krop Tor – the one that orbited the black hole? And you said…"

"Black holes are a gateway to another universe!" She said, beaming

"Precisely!" he said, nearly kissing her again, but then remembered Jackie was there. Oh well. Time for that later.