Thanks for the reviews so far! Glad that you're enjoying it at the moment!
"Spread the word around, guess who's back in town."
Rose had gone to bed after a particularly tiring day. The lifts were broken on the flats again and so she'd had to bump the pushchair down all six flights of stairs. Several people had pushed past her on the landings without even offering to help. She'd shot them filthy looks before continuing her struggle. Then she'd had to take Tala to the doctors' for her check-up and pick up some bits and bobs from the shops for her mum. The rain had started coming down again and it had been a slow journey back up the flights of stairs and into the flat. Along with all the usual mundane Tala related tasks, the day had been packed and Rose had been glad when her daughter had seemed as exhausted as her come seven o'clock and had fallen asleep readily. Rose had sat awake, watching her baby for an hour or so, before admitting that she was tired and had rolled into bed herself, falling almost immediately into the familiar dream. Though it disturbed her, it was like an old friend by now, comforting and reliable. At least she could rely on her imaginary Doctor to be there when she closed her eyes.
She awoke with a start and hit her head yet again. The room was still dark. She could just see the moon through a gap in her curtains. She rubbed her eyes and stood up, reaching for the alarm clock. The luminous numbers showed her it was three-forty-five in the morning. She never woke up this early unless Tala was crying. She looked into the cot. Tala was awake, but not crying. Rose was momentarily baffled. Then she heard the noise. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she froze. No. Impossible. She bit her lip hard and winced as she drew blood. The noise continued. She must be dreaming, she must be dreaming. It still carried on. She made her way slowly to the door. She turned the handle slowly. The noise didn't stop. Stepping out into the hallway she looked towards the living room. Lights were coming from under the door. She stepped towards it.
"Rose?" Jackie appeared from out of her bedroom, pulling a cheap polyester dressing gown around herself. Her hair was all over the place, her face strange to Rose without make-up on. Even as a child, she'd rarely seen her mum sans eyeliner. She was blinking in the dim light. "What is it?"
Rose turned to look at her mum. "You know what it is," she said shakily, not entirely trusting her own ears. "It's… Oh, Mum, it's…" She broke off as the noise stopped and they heard footsteps in the living room. And then a voice.
"Here we are! The Royal Wedding, nineteen-eighty…Oh. Not quite." There was a pause and then. "Hold on… that sofa… no. Surely not!"
Rose could bear it no longer. She wrenched the door open. And there he was, just like she'd remembered. He didn't look any different. Same messy brown hair, sticking up in all directions. Same arms and legs, too long for his body or so it seemed. Same mothbally smell coming from his impossibly outdated suit. Even the same scuffed up trainers. He had his back to her. Rose could hardly speak but she managed to squeeze out one word.
"Doctor."
He whipped round and then she was facing into those deep deliciously brown pools of eyes that she wanted to vanish into forever. The big toothy grin that had been on his face fell as his eyes locked onto hers.
"Rose," he said. He seemed to look her up and down, no doubt taking in her slight weight gain and unbleached hair and grubby pyjamas. Rose felt cheated; she'd imagined meeting him again in so many different ways. Almost all of them had involved her looking drop-dead gorgeous. This wasn't fair.
"What are you doing in my house?" Jackie suddenly erupted into the room. Rose was easily pushed aside by her furious mother. "You can just get straight back into that heap of junk and get the hell out of here!"
"Jackie!" The Doctor at least had the sense to look scared as Jackie advanced towards him. "How nice to see you! How are you? How have you been?"
"Don't you dare come in here all polite and how-do-you-doing!" Jackie continued, now firmly into her stride. "After what you've done, I should strangle you with my bare hands, but I'll be nice for your d…"
"Mum!" Rose cut in suddenly, her eyes never leaving his face. "Shut up!"
Jackie turned round to face her daughter. "What? Rose, I was only…"
Rose turned her eyes on her mum, willing her not to say anymore. Please, don't tell him about Tala! She begged silently. Let me tell him if and when I'm ready. She didn't hold out much hope of her mum taking the hint. She wished there was some way of distracting her. Her eyes wandered back over to the Doctor, desperate for another glance of him. She felt like an addict, suddenly faced with her drug after months of staying off it. She was failing; she could barely take her eyes off of him. But a small movement behind him caught her attention. A girl, about her age was standing just behind him. In the half-light it had been easy to miss her, but suddenly she was all Rose could see and think about. She reached out for the light switch.
"Who's she?" Jackie screeched, as the girl felt all eyes focussed on her.
"Who? This?" The Doctor glanced at her. "Um, this is Holly. Holly Johnson. Holly, this is Rose and Jackie Tyler, Rose used to… um…."
"I used to be you," Rose said flatly, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. Holly was possibly a little younger than she was, but probably no younger than she was when she first met him. She had dark brown long straight hair, falling to mid-way down her back. She had on a pretty dress and what looked like new shoes. And she had a light tan, suggesting that they'd been somewhere hot for quite a while. Rose had to admit grudgingly that she was a very pretty girl.
The Doctor had frowned when Rose spoke. "Well, I wouldn't say that exactly, what I'd say would be…"
"And what I'm saying is, get out of my flat, now!" Jackie attacked again. "I mean it!"
Holly looked suitably scared and the Doctor backed away too, though he tried one last time. "Rose?"
"Go." Rose nodded. "Please. For now. You can't stay in the middle of our living room anyway."
The Doctor nodded. "Okay. Holly, go inside. Rose, I'll… I'll come back in the morning."
Rose wanted to tell him not to bother, but she couldn't form the words. This was what she'd wanted for so long, him back in her life. How could she turn him away now? As she listened to the TARDIS fire up again, she felt the same old fear rise up and wanted to shout no. But Tala began crying and she was momentarily able to forget him and concentrate on something important.
She reached for the phone as Tala fell back asleep. It was nearly four-fifteen. Far too early to be calling anyone really. Far too early to even be awake. She could hear her mum in the kitchen, making a cup of coffee, obviously too wound up to even think about going back to sleep tonight. Rose hesitated before dialling the number. It rang for a long time before the other end was finally picked up.
"Hello, Sarah-Jane Smith speaking." She sounded sleepy and more than a little annoyed at being woken up so early. Rose felt awful but she needed her friend now more than ever.
"It's Rose," she said and then hesitated. Sarah-Jane didn't cut in, waiting for Rose to speak. It took a while for her to find the words. Finally she said, "He's back."
Sarah-Jane admired Tala as was expected.
"She's lovely." She smiled. "Gets more beautiful every time I see her. Getting big isn't she?"
Rose nodded, but she wasn't really listening. She'd gone around all morning in a daze, waiting for Sarah-Jane to come around. Jackie had relentlessly ranted on about what a cheek it was for him to just waltz back into their lives now, in the middle of the night, waking them all up. Rose had barely heard her as she fed and changed Tala and pulled on a few clothes herself. Her mind had been working over everything continually, trying to come to terms with the new state of affairs. Finally, Jackie had gone out to work, though very reluctantly. Leaving Rose alone with her thoughts. She wished she knew what to do.
"So what are you going to do?" Sarah-Jane, as usual, identified the dominant question. She wasn't a journalist for nothing.
Rose shrugged. "I don't know."
Sarah-Jane hesitated, but then her curiosity got the better of her. "Has he…?"
Rose shook her head. "No. Still the same."
Sarah-Jane nodded. "Well, that's something."
"Is it?"
"It's a much bigger shock to meet him again when he's changed," Sarah-Jane insisted.
"I suppose."
Sarah-Jane looked across at her. "You look awful, Rose. Why don't you go back to bed for a few hours? K-9 and I will watch Tala." She looked over at her beloved dog, who was snoring in a corner. "Well, at least, I will."
Rose forced a smile. "I couldn't sleep. I… I just don't understand. Why now? Why has he come back?"
"Does he know about Tala?"
Rose shook her head vehemently. "No. I've made Mum promise not to say a word. I don't want him knowing."
"Rose," Sarah-Jane began. "You've got to tell him. She's his daughter, he'd want to know."
"No, not yet." Rose shook her head. "I'm not ready for that."
"It's not about you though."
"She's my daughter!" Rose snapped. "It is about me. I'm not going to just let him take one look at her and abandon her too." The thought that someone could even consider rejecting her beautiful daughter made Rose so angry she thought she might cry. She felt such a mess again. Why? Why had he come back to destroy her again?
"You said he had someone with him," Sarah-Jane tried another avenue. "What's she like?"
"Pretty." Rose shrugged. "Young. She didn't say much. Her name's Holly." She thought about that girl. She hadn't given much thought to her so far. She wondered who she was, where she'd come from. How she'd met him. Where they had been. What he'd shown Holly that he hadn't shown Rose. Or worse, if he'd taken Holly somewhere Rose had been. The End of the World. New Earth. And the last question that she wanted to ask, but wouldn't stop bouncing around her head, knocking other thoughts out of the way. Do you love her?
"So they are getting younger then?" Sarah-Jane attempted a joke. Rose didn't even attempt a flicker of a smile. "Aren't you even a bit happy to see him?"
Rose turned to look at her friend incredulously. "Happy? Why would I be happy to see him after all this time?" She wondered if Sarah-Jane had listened to her at all over the last few months since she'd got in touch with her. Did she not know how much he'd hurt her?
"Well, you've said you miss him often enough. And now he's back." Sarah-Jane shrugged. "Wouldn't you at least like to know why he left you?"
Rose got up and stared out of the window. The rain was falling again. Nothing seemed to have changed on the outside. It was still the wettest May on record. But he'd come back. That changed everything. She traced the path of a raindrop down the window.
"Rose, all I'm saying is, that you've been given a chance to see him again. Lots of people never get that chance." Sarah-Jane bit her lip before continuing. "Don't you at least owe it to Tala to meet with him and see what he has to say for himself?"
Rose had to hand to it to the other woman; she knew how to get around her. She'd do anything for Tala. How often had she apologized to her for the mess she'd made? Could she really forgive herself if she sent him away so soon? In the future, when Tala asked where her daddy was, what could she say? He came back, but I was too proud and angry and hurt to let him back in. So I sent him away. She had to do this for Tala's sake.
"If he comes back around," she said now carefully, still staring out across the rooftops of the estate. "Then I'll talk to him."
The doorbell rang. Instinctively Rose knew it was him. And she braced herself for the ride.
Lyrics from "The Boys are back in town" by Thin Lizzy... not exactly a sad song but I do love it!