A/N: Ugh, I decided to watch the End of Time part II (for the hundredth time), and good grief, I forgot how much I cry! I mean, I thought nothing could get worse than Five unraveling Four's scarf, but geez, I forgot how emotional Russell T Davies made Ten's regeneration! I think I cried more watching Tennant regenerate than I do at the end of Doomsday! Anyway, I'm just going to sit here crying while you read this next chapter...

Chapter Nine:

The Missing Rose

The Doctor stared at the poster in his hands for a moment before pushing past Bev and entering the Tyler's flat. The Doctor stormed into the living room and found Jackie on the couch. She was sobbing and had three boxes of tissues surrounding her.

Filled with anxiety the Doctor didn't even bother to take into account how much Jackie was hurting. He simply screamed, "Where's Rose?! What happened?!"

Jackie ceased her crying and stared up at him, "Oh my god. I forgot to cancel the tudor session. I'm sorry, I just... It's... I can't even think right now!" Jackie gave a little sob before blowing her nose quite loudly on one of the tissues.

"What do you think you're doing?" Bev yelled at the Doctor storming in. "Give Jackie some space, don't barge in here and yell at her!"

The Doctor looked flabbergast between the uncomposed Jackie and the angry Bev before saying, "I-I-I'm sorry, I just want to know what happened to Rose."

"Listen, I think you should leave," Bev began saying before Jackie interrupted.

"No... Bev, he's fine. A little company would be good..." Jackie trailed off before regaining her train of thoughts and telling Bev, "Why don't you make us some tea? John can join us. If you want," she added turning to look at the Doctor.

"Yes, yes tea would be great," the Doctor said.

Bev nodded and went into the kitchen quickly to prepare tea.

"What happened?" the Doctor demanded again as soon as Bev was out of earshot.

Jackie sniffled and said, "She just disappeared. Last week, she went on her six month anniversary with that boy... Jimmy Stone. He... He always seemed like a nice kid. He and Rose always were in the same classes growing up... What she didn't tell me was that he had been held back in first form four times! He's, he's twenty now! And... I would never let Rose date someone that's that much older than her! She's sixteen! And they went on the six month anniversary date and didn't come back. Neither of them. I found out the truth about Jimmy at the police station." Jackie sniffled again and the Doctor mentally slapped himself.

What was he thinking? How could he forget something like this? Of course Rose went missing. She was always going to go missing. All because of that Jimmy Stone.

Rose had told him about Jimmy back when he was all big ears and leather jacket. Rose told him about how Jimmy was an aspiring musician. He promised they'd make it big together. And she ran away with him. No warning to Jackie, no note, not even telling her friends. She lived with him for five months until he dumped her back home, 800 pounds in debt.

To pay off the debt, Rose never got her A-levels, instead went to work in a shop.

How could he have forgotten?

Jackie took a shuttering breath before continuing, "It's been a week. She still hasn't come home. And neither's Jimmy Stone. The whole of London's looking for them."

Jackie gave another sob and buried her face into her hands. "But what if he's kidnaped her? Or... Murdered her? What's that awful man done to my daughter?"

"I'm sure she'll be fine," the Doctor assured Jackie awkwardly sitting down next to her on the couch and patting her on the shoulder.

Jackie gave him a watery smile and said, "I hope you're right."

"I know I'm right," the Doctor said with a grin.

"Here we go, three cups of tea," Bev said entering the room. "Jackie, I think we're all out of sugar cubes. Should I run to the store or should we just drink unsweetened tea?"

"Oh, I think I've got some of those artificial sweeteners in the kitchen. They should work," Jackie said.

"I'll go grab them," Bev said immediately scurrying into the kitchen.

Jackie smiled and turned to the Doctor, "Mind you, I'm gonna be sad when she leaves. Bev's staying with me for now... Just to help out, y'know? It's not a big deal, she lives next door, but still."

The Doctor smiled, "Bev seems like a good person."

"Oh, for sure," Jackie agreed. "Most people have just been dropping off lasagna. I have enough food to feed an army! Bev's been driving some of it over to the local soup kitchen."

"Here we are!" Bev exclaimed bursting into the room with a box of sweeteners in her arms. She set it down and Jackie took out two and poured them into her tea. The Doctor and Bev followed suit.

The Doctor poured ten of the packets into his tea.

"Be careful, you'll get cavities," Bev warned giving the Doctor a 'you're out of your mind' look.

As soon as Bev said that Jackie burst into tears again. Bev looked on bewildered for a moment before wrapping her arms around the distressed mother and muttering things like 'there there' and 'it's alright' while the Doctor looked on bewildered.

"I'm sorry," Jackie hiccuped, "It's just that that's what Rose said about his sugary tea." Jackie accepted a tissue from Bev and wiped her tears away trying to compose herself. "I'm sorry. She apologized. "I'm such a mess."

"You have a right to be a mess right now," Bev assured her. "In fact, if you weren't a emotional mess right now, I'd be concerned. Now, drink your tea, it'll make you feel better."

Jackie nodded and lifted the tea to her lips and took a sip before immediately spitting it out. And laughing hysterically. "Bev, you grabbed the wrong thing from the kitchen," Jackie choked out.

"What, what is it?" Bev asked.

Jackie was laughing so much now that all she could do was point to the box of 'sugar' packets. The actually label said 'SALT PACKETS'.

"Oh," Bev said before giggling too. "Salty tea, not too good then."

"No, no it's not!" Jackie laughed setting her tea down before glancing at the Doctor. "What the bloody hell are you doing, John?"

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked.

"You're drinking your tea!" Jackie exclaimed. "You put ten packets of salt in that thing!"

"Yummy," the Doctor said taking an exaggerated gulp from the mug.

Jackie laughed and Bev looked on with an air of disgust. Jackie, noticing Bev's obvious confusion as to why this strange bowtie wearing man was drinking disgusting tea answered her unasked question. "You'll find that John is quite a strange sometimes."

"Quite?" Bev asked in amusement picking up her own and Jackie's mug and saying, "I'll make some new tea, and this time I'll bring in the actual sweeteners. Er, John, just continue drinking that."

"Cheers," the Doctor said gulping down the last bit of his tea and placing it on the coffee table before turning to look at Jackie. Immediately he knew he was in trouble at the wistful look on Jackie's face.

"Remember when you and Rose made me that cup of tea filled with salt?" she asked suddenly.

"Yeah, yeah I do," the Doctor said. "It was supposed to represent the Trojan Horse."

"Rose thought it was so funny," Jackie continued staring at a blank spot on the wall. "She told everyone about it, even strangers when we were waiting in line at the shops. Then she would surprise everyone by explaining why it was a representation of the Trojan Horse." Jackie chuckled before saying, "You should've seen this one lady's face when she told her a history of the Trojan War... Kept asking how old she was."

"That sounds like Rose," the Doctor said with a small laugh.

"Yeah. Yeah it does," Jackie said before adding, "I wonder if she ever comes home, if she'll be the same."

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked. "Of course when she comes back she'll be the same. She's Rose, isn't she."

"No, that's not what I meant," Jackie said. "I don't want this experience to change her. If she's... If she's even still alive." Jackie sniffed but refrained from crying.

"Of course she's still alive," the Doctor assured her.

"Jimmy could've murdered her," Jackie whispered. "She could be dead."

"She's not, Jackie. I promise," the Doctor said.

"Like you'd know," Jackie said.

"Maybe I do," the Doctor said before Bev returned with tea and proper sweeteners and the conversation returned to a more cheerful one and not one about the possibility of a murder.

...

The Doctor stayed for another hour at the Tyler's flat before heading out. Bev right on his heels with the excuse of 'picking up some actual sugar cubes'. The Doctor knew she just wanted to talk to him, and as soon as they were out of the flat, his suspicions were proved true.

"John, listen, could you do me a favor?" Bev asked him. "Jackie's not in a good place right now, and she shouldn't be. Her daughter's missing. But, you made her smile. I haven't seen her smile all week. Could you just swing around here once a week? Not for very long, just for tea. I'm sure it would put Jackie in a much better place."

"I would love to," the Doctor said without a moment's hesitation. As much as he hated to admit it, he enjoyed Jackie's company. Plus, this meant lake Silencio. Not for a little bit, at least.

"Great," Bev said with a smile. "I'll see you next week then?"

"I'll be there," the Doctor confirmed before turning and walking down the staircase and away from the Powell Estate to where he parked the TARDIS a big happy grin on his face. He was so preoccupied with happy thoughts about not visiting Lake Silencio that he didn't notice Captian Jack Harkness until he all but ran into him.

A/N: Like I promised, salty tea and Captain Jack!

Thanks to my reviewers James Birdsong (thanks!), argwyn2365 (The puns were fun to do. The problem with doing puns is suddenly you know a lot of puns and have to put them into your everyday speech. My friends and family are very done with my punning at this point), and SilverDolphin218 (No aliens, unfortunately. Though, that would've been fun to do... For right now, I'm sticking with pretty cannon events, just adding the Doctor to the mix. Well, at least for another few chapters, but SPOILERS!)

Reviews are like bowties, fezzes, stetsons, glasses, and bunkbeds, they're cool.