He could be patient for anyone, even Rose Tyler.
Jackie had nursed him back from being totally off his face and had tried to reassure Mickey this was all a phase. She had done something similar when she was Rose's age, or so she said. The idea of Jackie Tyler getting anywhere near a time-traveling alien willingly seemed more far-fetched then Rose taking off with one. Still, she seemed to believe that Rose would get it all out of her system eventually, that she would work it out, give up her adventures, and come home to be a wife and mother. Mickey humored her and agreed. He didn't want to be the one to tell Jackie that compared to the entire universe, settling down in the estates with some boring bloke and popping out babies is perhaps the last thing Rose would want to do…at least she didn't seem inclined to do that with Mickey.
She came again at Christmas with a new Doctor in tow, or at least a Doctor with a new face. At least it was a better looking face than the last one, not that Mickey cared one way or the other it was all just too weird to him. Who went around changing their face? It mattered to Rose though. For a brief, shining moment Mickey thought he could finally see cracks in Rose's stubborn confidence in this alien freak. Maybe she would leave him finally, maybe she would see how strange his life was, how dangerous. Maybe she would want to come home.
But the world blew up again, and as always Rose was in the middle, this time with Mickey at her side. An alien ship, a race threatening their extermination, and there was Rose Tyler daring to stand up to it, spouting things that made no sense, trying to do what she thought her precious Doctor would do. It was only then that Mickey realized how different Rose was now, the person she had become. She wasn't the tiny little girl from the estates with her fake blonde hair and her pink nail polish. She was a girl out to save the planet, the universe.
It was only in that moment that Mickey realized that the Doctor wasn't the only thing he found alien anymore.
There was joy on Christmas Day, however, as the Doctor came in to save the day, as usual, and they huddled together in Jackie's apartment, eating turkey and Brussel sprouts and pulling crackers. Mickey ignored how easily this new Doctor fell into it with his Rose. He wanted to tell himself that in the end she would declare it all too much for her. Perhaps that's why, when they stood outside in the ash of a dying spaceship he felt his heart break as she took her new Doctor's hand and looked up into the stars.
She was leaving again. And Mickey had a feeling she was never coming home.
