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Youronlyastory xx
Rose was suddenly regretting her decision to trust Shareen's new friends. Four or five girls were surrounding her, pulling her messy hair, pointing at her shabby knees and dirt streaked face.
"What's wrong with your mouth?" The lead asked and she moved closer and pushed Rose. She had pretty blue eyes, and golden and bright white hair compared to Rose's lank dark blonde knots.
Rose's hand went flying to cover her mouth; Shareen was standing a few paces away.
"Nuthin'." She said defensively as the girl shimmered her hips closer. Towards her.
"Ewww, is that food?"
Feeling self conscious, she wiped the corners of her mouth roughly, hissing when her arm caught the cut. It wasn't food...it was the 'Cherryade' Shareen's mum had given them before the other girls had arrived. Before they'd decided to play outside in the open, before Rose regretted her decision to agree to stay the night at Shareen's.
"What happened to your lips?" The leader said, sneering at Rose's face in disgust and pointing, her pack of people laughed. Her hair was longer than Rose's. She had nicer hair, a nicer smile, she smelt nicer. But she wasn't nice.
"Jus' a cut. Mickey hit it accidently wiv' a bat when we were playin' rounders"
"What's wrong with the way you talk?"
Beside her sides, her fists curled into tight balls. "Nuthin'. Why?"
Shareen had moved further away, regretting her mum even inviting them round. If it wasn't for her and her stupid birthday party than maybe her and Rose could've enjoyed each other's presence. She didn't see why her mum felt that she had to invite all these supposed 'friends' anyway. They were the popular group of their school and so now they had to make an effort to seem cool.
"You don't talk properly..."
"Do too!" She yelled stepping closer.
Shareen had her head bowed in shame and mumbled to the floor about going inside before it gets dark. She couldn't help but feel guilty for not sticking up for Rose, but in her defence, surely it was up to Rose to not make such a big spectacle of herself? She already acted like a boy, maybe this would help make her more girly?
"Why are we even out here anyways?"
Rose picked up her baseball hat which had fallen to the floor, readjusted it on her head and bounced the ball against the ground, keeping in control of it carefully.
"We were gunna play football?" Rose said, standing alone. Shareen stood closer to the other girls.
There was Rachel, the leader and Jennifer, her second in command. She had pretty hair too but buck teeth which Rose felt she had a right to take the mick out of. Followed by her was Marie, dark haired, coloured in pink then there was Smelly Kelly whose mum made perfumes and always smelled strongly of the wee-wee flowers that you could smell when you drove along on the motorway and lastly there was Irianna, who had a really strange name so suggested everyone call her 'Iri'. She used to flick her hair back behind her shoulders like she was all cool and would chew gum in glass because she was unthreatened by authority.
In conclusion they were people who hated Rose and who Rose hated.
"That's boring!"
Frowning, she placed the ball to the ground.
"Okay, why don' we play "mummies and daddies"?"
Jennifer shrieked with laughter as she pointed into her face. Again!
"Oh my God! Did you just say 'mummies'?" Rachel said, squealing with laughter.
She blushed...she hadn't meant to, it just slipped out...Shareen called it 'mummies' too. Still. Had she really said 'mummies'? Oh dear...
"I don't know what's worse!" Rachel giggled circling Rose with a mean glint in her eye. "The fact you call it 'mummies' or the fact you PLAY IT!"
Blushing furiously, she mumbled how it was just a 'joke' which it clearly wasn't.
"Shareen an' me don' jus play that, we play other stuff too."
"So Shareen plays it with you?"
Sensing she'd just got her friend into an awful situation, she sighed.
"No...I lied; Shareen doesn' play it wiv me,"
"So you're a liar as well, now?"
"No! I jus'...err . I didn'...I"
But Shareen was already being tugged away.
"C'mon, Shareen. We don't need to play with liars"
The surrounding girls murmured in agreement and began walking with Shareen back to her flat.
"Sorry,Rose." Shareen whispered. "But I don't think you should stay tonight..."
Angry tears began to run down her cheeks and her whole face grew in tempreture.
"Wha'? Why?!..." Rose asked, turning her back away from the other group of girls.
"I jus' think you should go and play with Mickey..."
"Bu' it's yor birthday? I'm mean' t'be stayin'round?"
Shareen grimaced.
"Maybe some other time...I'll still secretly be your friend though."
Rose sniffed away tears. "So, I'm suppos'd to go?"
Shareen said nothing, just nodded her head slightly and joined the back of the girls. For the first time in a while, Rose realised that she really was just an outcast.
"What are you doing?"
Jack shuffled his new coat on his shoulders and sprayed some white non-permanent hair dye through his hair, all the while looking in the mirror and contemplating whether he should use the fake tan or not.
"I'm doing a 'Doctor'..." He grinned as he realised his own pun
"What?!" The Doctor squawked as he left his usual window seat and took a step closer to Jack, judging his awful disguise and feeling embarrassed to have even caused this madness of Jack's attire.
"I'm going down there..."
The Doctor's face fell. "B-but you can't. That's my job" It was his job to look after Rose, not Jack's. It was The Doctor's responsibility, something he had promised to a very important mother.
"Yeah-and like you said; the more regularly you turn up in her moment in needs, the more she's going to recognise you and therefore expect you to turn up. You've got to let her grow at being alone. Because for now, that's the point of Rose Tyler, to be alone."
The Doctor crossed the space in only a short amount of time; his steps large and irregular. His breathing suddenly erratic and for once Jack truly feared the time lord.
"DON'T," He began, spiting the words fiercely from his mouth but he was lowering his voice to a quieter tone. He could feel his whole body temperature rise. His hands were closed, his lungs closed as the oxygen flew around helplessly in his windpipe. His mind was closed, forbidding the memories access.
He felt a little guilty as The Doctor squared up to him, his eyes on the brink of moisture.
"I can't help it. It's just the truth, that's what she is; a lonely little girl who waits hopefully for a prince who will never come." He looked off, knowing that the Doctor could sense a difference in him, but he was too furious to take it into real consideration.
He moved Jack so that he thumped against the wall harshly using only his authority.
"SHE IS NEVER ALONE!" He seethed, his voice mimicking the same tone from when her face was taken from her the day before the Queen's coronation. That was a good memory.
He knew he should stop, he wanted to stop, but he HAD to continue.
"She's one of a kind. She's the only Rose Tyler. Face it Doctor, she has no one! Especially not now..."
He slammed his palm into the plasterboard to the side of Jack's head.
"SHE HAS ME!"
"No she doesn't. She's gone and she's never coming back and you can never be with her again..." He waited a second or two to mutter, "None of us can have her..."
The Doctor stepped back and took a breath through his nose and then he nodded.
"Jack," He stepped back and smiled softly to the ground, his voice too caring and too kind so that Jack really felt himself shake in fear. "I fight for her. I will always fight for her, in her honour. She'll never be alone, never. Because she knows that I will always be there for her and vice versa. She promised me forever and I promised her toge-"
He cut off short and grinned at Jack.
"I can still hear her teasing voice the moment I say something clever. I can still feel her adrenaline when I run down the street." He waggled his fingers. "I can still feel her hand in mine"
Jack looked down ashamed but the Doctor continued, smiling.
"And that's means that wherever she is, no matter the distance, she's not alone. Because I'm always going to be there to hold her hand..."
Jack didn't say anything. He'd got it out though. Which was what he needed and so did the Doctor. He'd said hardly anything about her, pretending that Rose was just on holiday rather than 'lost' but Jack needed to hear it. Jack needed to hear the Doctor still had his faith; he still battled on despite his demons.
He needed to know that this new Doctor was still THE Doctor.
The Doctor rolled his shoulders and sniffed, wiping his hands down his face to get rid of all remnants of emotion.
"I should go-" he said quietly, looking behind him to the TARDIS; feeling nothing but a sense of grief for the missing presence which would usually be by his side, chiding him.
"Doctor-I'm sorry-I didn't."
But the Doctor just smiled solemnly and stepped back into the TARDIS. Jack felt guilty, extremely guilty but he knew it was the right thing. It would keep both of them good...for now.
He didn't even get to hear the TARDIS dematerialize. He was already out the door, disguise intact.
Rose was hiding in the crevice of a small, dark, smelly alcove from one of the pillars of the Powell Estate. She was sobbing into her hands, really crying as her body accumulated to fit the violent shakes.
Jack pretended to be an innocent bystander who just happened to walk past Rose.
"Are you okay?" He asked shakily. He wasn't used to this. Talking to kids. Talking to a younger Rose.
"Leave me alone!" She howled. She'd hidden her face into the crook of her arm which was resting against her drawn up knees. She was hiding
"Why don't you run off home? I'm sure you're mum will be worried about you..."
"She thinks I'm at Shareen's," she mumbled through her tears. He'd sat on the floor closer to her, afraid that someone she knew would jump out of nowhere and point at him, screaming 'stranger danger'.
"Why aren't you?"
"Don' wanna talk 'bout it,"
She'd lifted her head now so that she could look, or try to look at Jack square in the face. He was wearing sunglasses which covered most of his face and had a beard. She knew she shouldn't be talking to him, but she couldn't help it. She just instantly trusted him. He was nice, bit strange but still nice.
He smiled at her a little.
"Want to hear a secret?" Jack whispered, feeling more and more insecure about how dangerous his actions could be taken...
"No!"
There was a pause while she dropped her legs and wiped her face with the sleeves of her shirt.
"Go on, then..." She sighed, changing her mind.
"I don't really have many friends."
"So?"
Jack chuckled. She was so like herself and then again so different.
"They think I'm weird," she confessed as a few tears streaked her face again."Coz I don' wears make-up and stuff. That and I haven't got pretty hair..."
"I'm sure it could be fixed with a few bottles of peroxide? And a drop of mascara on the eyes and you'll be the height of fashion."
He laughed at his own joke but Rose was nodding, taking it all in. Dammit. He hadn't meant to do that!
"Joking...of course."
" My friends don' like me," She sighed. "They think I'm weird. Mum does, too."
"Aww, Rose. Your mum loves you! You should know that." Rose hadn't even realised that he somehow knew her name without her even telling it to him.
"She loves me. But she just...doesn't understand me, I guess?" She breathed deeply."No one does."
Jack grinned, she was going to be yelling that and screaming that at ridiculous hours in the night in about six years.
"Are you smilin'?!"
"No," He said dropping his smile. "The point is, why should you change for them?"
"So I can get'a boyfriend? Rachel McHudy 'as one. Shareen likes someone as well..."
"I thought boys are 'icky' at your age?"
"They are...but...well, I don' know. They jus' seem impor'ant." She sighed again and shrugged her shoulders.
"You know what I think?"
"A 'hole loadda shit, probably."
"Rose!"
He'd done it again, but she still hadn't noticed.
"Wha'? The others do it..." She said blushing. What should she care? Why should she be afraid of an adult? Why should she be so scared? Easy-she shouldn't.
"Anyway, I think you've just got to keep positive. Because somewhere out there," He couldn't help but point at the sky a little, "there's going to be someone who loves you for being you!"
"Yeah?"
"Yes," He sighed. He hadn't been talking about himself for once. That makes a change. "Saying that, makeup's not a bad thing, though. You might like it, it highlights features, dilutes freckles. You know stuff like that." He'd put his foot in it again. He'd have to amend it again.
"Why don't you go back up there? Prove to them that you're not just going to let them trample all over you. Because if there is one thing boys find sexy, it's confidence!" He grinned as he thought of her cheeky remarks about her cell phone the day he met her.
"'Sexy?'"She questioned, he winced again.
"How old are you?" He said, pulling his face into a grimace. He wasn't very good with kids...
"Eight..."
H mentally kicked himself again.
"Then don't worry about it...Anyway, I should be heading home. Maybe you should, too."
Rose stood up and smiled. She had to wipe the dust and dirt from the back of her shorts and scrubbed at her face by licking her hand.
That was disgusting.
"Nahh, I'm gunna go see Shareen. Might try make it up t'her, ya'know."
Jack nodded as she went running off but came running back only a seconds later.
"Hey Mister?"
He turned and smiled.
"What's up?"
She blushed. "Thanks and all,"
And with that Rose Tyler bounded off towards her block of flats.
"You are worth fighting for," He told there air before beginning the walk home.
He was already scratching the beard, and his hair was a total mess so he'd have to fix that soon. But other than that, it'd been a success. He'd given Rose Tyler hope, maybe not much of it, but some, and also a bit of her own confidence. That felt good.
He'd didn't think he'd noticed him, so watching Jack walk home, the man took a deep breath, returned to the depths of the Shadows and walked back into his blue Police Box.