*Yay! Finally got it finished! This one's the longest one yet since it was a double episode. BTW, anyone want to tell me how to actually spell "telley"? ~Inkweaver

She knew she'd be happy to see her mother. Of course, for Jackie it had only been one night. It was nice having a time machine in which you could be gone for days and come back to find only twelve hours had passed…Or not. When Rose saw her mother drop the coffee cup, she knew something was wrong. Jackie didn't even appear to notice that Rose had been as nonchalant as ever saying that she had spent the night at Shereen's.

As she was being smothered in her weeping mother's arms, of course the Doctor chose that moment to pop in and inform her that twelve months had passed. Go figure.

Rose understood Jackie's frustration and grief that her daughter wouldn't even tell her where she'd been for the past year. She was doing her best not to lie—hence just saying she was "traveling" .rather than saying she'd gone to Paris or something. She almost giggled when the Doctor said he "sort of employed Rose as his companion" because he seemed completely unaware of the possible innuendoes beneath a statement like that. Typically, the policeman there made that exact assumption. Neither the Doctor nor Rose took it too seriously. Of course, Jackie then assaulted the Doctor. Rose didn't think she'd ever seen him so shocked as when her mother slapped him.

Up on the roof, Rose watched as their conversation went from serious to…well…not so serious. They never needed to be truly serious because they'd faced life and death together and what could ever be more serious than that?

Finding out that he was over nine hundred years old wasn't shocking. She could see it in his eyes; the weight of years and guilt lay heavily upon his shoulders. It shone through his crystalline eyes. Actually, seeing a spaceship crash land in the middle of London—taking a part of Big Ben with it—was more of a shock.

Having the Doctor watch tellie was an adventure in itself. Used to living in the thick of the action, he was fidgety and threw glares at everyone who was talking—most of which went completely unnoticed. Rose held back a small laugh when her little cousin played with the remote and the Doctor seemed to have to fight the urge to toss the little boy out the window.

It was an honest worry that he would leave her alone when things got "too human" for him. His reassurances and the TARDIS key were his way of saying "I wouldn't leave you behind." With that anxiety off her chest, she was able to somewhat enjoy that too-human atmosphere in the flat.

Rose wasn't sure what she felt when Mickey showed up on her doorstep. She felt guilty for what he'd had to go through, but his antagonism toward the Doctor irritated her. She had made the choice to join him. Was it her fault Mickey couldn't stand the culture shock and was now jealous?

In a strange way, she was almost relieved when he went to tell Jackie the truth. She didn't have to make the decision to keep it away from her any longer. A flash of panic set in when Mickey said he'd seen the TARDIS disappearing.

He promised he wouldn't leave.

He promised he wouldn't leave.

He promised.

The TARDIS was gone—Mickey wouldn't have lied—but the key began to glow and the strange screeching the ship made put Rose's panic to rest. The Doctor promised he wouldn't leave her, so of course he wouldn't. Things were never allowed to be quite so simple though.

Jackie seeing the inside of the TARDIS was not a good idea. At all. The happenings with the alien ship, however, were far too interesting to overlook, so Rose didn't immediately chase after her mother when she ran back to the flat in a flat out shock. (Admittedly, she handled it better than Mickey had the first time, though.)

Helicopters and policemen weren't exactly what Rose was expecting when she stepped out of the TARDIS. She held in a flash of intense irritation as she watched Mickey run away. What did she owe someone who wouldn't stand by her when she needed him? She had the rather awful impression that it had been Jackie to tell the Feds where the Doctor was. Of course, the Doctor hardly looked like an alien, but all they had to do was look below the surface and see those two hearts pumping to know what he was.

They didn't treat them roughly, and the backseat of the car they were escorted into was certainly a surprise. They were being treated as guests, the Doctor's unique knowledge allowing them to overlook the fact that he wasn't human. All the pomp and circumstance suited him well; that huge grin that could light up a street was seemingly permanently glued to his face now, and the two of them waved excitedly at the crowds.

She was touched by his determination to keep her with him inside Downing Street. His stubbornness was causing problems, though, so Rose assured him that she'd be fine and walked off with Ms. Harriet Jones. There was certainly more to the woman than met the eye. Knowing there were murderous aliens among them, Rose wondered who to trust and worried about the Doctor. He didn't know that the aliens were in here with them.

Her heart beat fast with adrenaline as she and Harriet Jones were chased through the corridors and into hiding. Really, she knew the hiding places weren't the best idea, but she was expecting—was hoping—that the Doctor would show up to save her at just the right moment as he had a knack for. Of course he did. And then effectively trapped them in the conference room.

Being scolded on the comment about making herself smaller made her realize just how much her travels with the Doctor had changed her outlook on life. She wondered what it said about her. She chose to see it as lightening the mood of a seemingly hopeless crisis—disapproval from the lady politician notwithstanding.

The call from Mickey and Jackie made Rose feel guilty for getting them so deeply involved in this, but she hadn't wanted her mother to know about the Doctor in the first place. Jackie had managed to cause a problem all on her own. Maybe it was better that she and Mickey knew, though, and were doing something instead of sitting oblivious to the dangers around them.

She couldn't help but feel a surge of impatience when the Doctor revealed that there was a way out of all this, but had held back because she might be hurt. She also felt a surge of…something (love?) for him as she realized he was literally risking the world to protect her. He had basically said that he would rather let the Earth go down in flames than lose her.

Of course, it was then that the only elected official in the room took charge and made the decision for them.

As the missile came at them, Rose grasped the Doctor's hand tightly and prayed he didn't lose her—or she him. The three of them came out unscathed and Rose smiled as Harriet Jones took off to handle the publicity. She would make a fine Prim Minister.

Jackie wanted to celebrate the defeat of the Slitheen, and Rose couldn't help but agree. The Doctor must have still been sore over his wounded pride when Jackie had slapped him and refused. Leaving again, this time with Jackie knowing full well where she was going was harder than that first spur of the moment decision.

This time, she really did want Mickey to join them, though she had the feeling that he wouldn't want to go. She didn't miss the glance he sent the Doctor before the Time Lord gave his flat refusal. She decided not to mention it. She supposed it was a good sign that the Doctor was trying to save Mickey's pride.

She promised Jackie that she would be back, though she knew her mother would never stop worrying about her. Rose wasn't going to leave the Doctor, though. She couldn't see a future without him, not anymore.