Chapter Two

Catching Up, Caught Out - by Hobbit

Rose followed her Mum and Mickey up to the flat, chatting non-stop. Looked like they'd been busy while she was away.

"Have you been eating properly? Getting enough sleep?" Jackie said fussing as they sat down n the living room. "Mum," Rose said, stopping her mum's torrent of questions. "I'm fine ok. Yes, I eat properly; yes I get plenty of sleep. Don't fuss."

Jackie smiled.

"Well how am I supposed to know? He is alien after all. For all I know he might not eat at all." She replied sitting next to her daughter.

"Mum, he's humanoid ok? He does most things that we do." Rose shook her head at her mum. "Except domestic." Mickey quipped. "Well yeah," Rose laughed.

Back in the TARIDS the Doctor was tinkering away with the console. Fixing bits here, changing things there. It was his release when something was nagging away at him. He still couldn't shake off the feeling that one day, Rose would leave him and he'd be alone once more. He didn't want that to happen. Too many companions had left him.

He sighed and continued to fiddle with the Time Warp Detector. The TARDIS hummed comfortingly. The one companion who had never left his side.

"You're a good old girl," he murmured patting the ship gently.

Rose took another sip of tea as her mum handed round the biscuits. "So what've you two done since I've been gone?" She asked, her mum finally sitting down. "Not much, same old boring life really," Jackie said not quite meeting Rose's eye. "What's happened?" Rose asked frowning. "Something's wrong, normally you'd be gasping to tell me what's gone on." Jackie glanced at Mickey, who shot her 'you-tell-her' look. "Well, Rose…" she paused as there was a knock at the door. "Hang on."

Jackie went to open it and Rose and Mickey could hear her whispering urgently to someone. "Who's that?" Rose stood up heading for the door. "Rose don't," Mickey said but Rose ignored him. She froze as she watched her mum kiss a strange man. "Who's he?" She asked, making Jackie jump and turn round. "Maybe you'd better come in," Jackie motioned for the man to step inside. "I'll leave you to it," Mickey said, leaving quickly.

"Mum?" Rose stared at her mum, searching for an explanation. "C'mon, lets sit down," Jackie said to the man as she steered her daughter back into the living room.

It turned out that Jackie Tyler had been seeing this man (David), for some months. Rose had been gone longer than she'd thought. "So let me get this straight, he's your boyfriend?" Asked Rose. Jackie nodded. "Ok."

Rose found that she had mixed feelings about David. On one hand she was glad her mum had someone, but on the other, she felt a little weird about him taking the place of her dad. "Are you ok Rose?" Jackie interrupted her thoughts. "Yeah," Rose smiled a little too brightly. "I'm fine."

Outside Mickey wandered across the courtyard and paused outside the TARDIS. He didn't know why but he felt he should say hello to the Doctor. Before he could even lift his hand up to knock however, the door opened.

"Rickie, me old mucker," the Doctor smiled. "Alright?"

"Its Mickey," Mickey said a little peeved the Doctor was still calling him by the wrong name. "I just came to warn you, Jackie's got a new boyfriend and I don't know how well Rose is going to take it." The Doctor pulled a face. "Domestic eh?" He grinned at Mickey. "Thanks for the heads up."

Something blipped behind him in the TARDIS. The Doctor frowned. "Odd," He wandered over to the monitor and Mickey followed. Something written in ancient Gallifreyan was scrawling across the screen. "What's it mean?" Asked Mickey. "You wouldn't understand even if I had the time to tell you." The Doctor muttered still frowning. He looked up at the still open door. He walked back outside and looked around. "Something's wrong," he whispered into the breeze.

Mickey followed him out again and opened his mouth to ask the Doctor something. But he never got the words out. A transmat beam seemed to come out of nowhere and swallowed the Doctor and Mickey, leaving no trace of their existence, except for another small blip in the TARDIS as the doors swung shut.