The Doctor and Rose's next adventure took them to Earth, so they stopped by to visit her mum just as they always did whenever they were in the neighborhood of the Solar System. However, if given the choice of facing off against a hungry, abandoned Hoix and an idle Jackie Tyler, the Doctor would gladly choose the snarling alien every time.
However, they weren't two steps into Jackie's flat before he could recognize that something was wrong. Rose seemed to sense it too, and she flashed the Doctor a look of concern as she cast her gaze around the quiet living space - entirely too quiet, no phone or TV or chattering blonde woman anywhere to be found.
They ended up finding the elder Tyler in her room, curled up on herself with tear-stained cheeks and running mascara. "Mum? What's wrong?" Rose demanded, her tone a mix between gentle concern and firm determination.
Jackie explained haltingly between sobs the story of how she had run into a young Elton Pope and how things had quickly devolved from there. The Doctor felt his hands clenching into fists at his sides as Rose's fierce, defensive anger swept through his mind and suddenly he felt very, very sorry for poor Elton. He sent Rose a small breath of calm reassurance as he silently thanked his luck that he had never had to be on the receiving end of her ire.
Defeating the alien incursion was easy enough - but, as per usual, dealing with the humans surrounding the power-hungry Abzorbaloff was anything but. He knew that Elton and Ursula might never be able to have the life that they had always dreamed about, but the Doctor hoped that he was able to give them at least some small measure of consolation anyway.
Jackie insisted that the Doctor and Rose stay for tea, and for once, the Doctor was unable to resist her. He told himself that it was for Rose's sake - it seemed that they had been going up against darker and more dangerous enemies lately and he wanted to give her some small taste of normalcy, if only to prove to her (and himself) that he was capable of it. However, he suspected that the real reason that he gave in had more to do with the red tint that lingered in Jackie's eyes and the watery, hopeful smile that she turned on him at the last second.
So that's how the Doctor and Rose came to be sitting side-by-side at her mother's kitchen table, talking quietly over their tea while they waited for Jackie to bring home chips.
"Do you think we could do it, Doctor?" Rose mused quietly. "Do you think you'd still love me if I was just a cement face?"
The Doctor chuckled under his breath and grabbed her hand lying on the table next to him, carefully lacing their fingers together. "Of course," he whispered in reply, making sure to meet her eye so that she would be able to see that he was sincere. He still had never told her that he loved her - not out loud, at least, and not in so many words. This small confession, however, was easy - he knew beyond a doubt that no matter what form Rose Tyler was in, he would always, always want her.
"You sure?" she teased, her tongue just barely flashing between her teeth. "It wouldn't be easy, you know. You'd have to heft me around everywhere. That block of cement looked heavy ..."
"Rose, I'm a Time Lord," the Doctor sighed, but he couldn't stop his lips from turning slightly upwards as he met her flirtatious smirk. "Superior biology. I wouldn't be slowed down by something as simple as a block of cement."
He brought their joined hands to his lips so that he could gently kiss each of her knuckles, sending her a silent thought of affirmation to let her know that he was extremely glad that she was not, in fact, a sentient block of cement.
He was ripped away from her pleasant thoughts of warm lips and butterflies by a sudden, sharp gasp from the doorway behind them. The Doctor glanced back to see Jackie Tyler standing there, staring at them in open-mouthed shock.
"Mum?" Rose asked hesitantly.
"I knew it!" Jackie hissed. Without warning, she dropped all of the take-away sacks that she had been carrying and rushed forward, ripping Rose's hand from the Doctor's and shooting him a dangerous glare at his loud noise of protest.
"When did it happen?" Jackie demanded loudly. "I knew something was different, I just knew ..." But her words trailed off into silence as she twisted Rose's left hand in hers and peered curiously at it. "Wait ... You're not ..."
"Mum, what are you going on about?" Rose demanded irritatedly.
"I thought ... you had gotten married," Jackie replied haltingly. "It's just ... you two seemed so different - I could sense it from the minute you walked in here. And then I saw you sitting there, and I thought ... And, be honest, it's something that you two would do - going off and getting hitched on some alien planet without even telling me about my only daughter's wedding!"
"Mum, we're not married!" Rose shouted, her own voice rising in surprise as she cast the Doctor a wide-eyed glance. He could feel her absolute mortification over their bond - she was embarrassed by her mother's insinuation and hoping desperately that it wouldn't be enough to scare him off.
The Doctor bit the inside of his cheek as he quickly shuttered away his own embarrassment and shame from her. He realized belatedly that he had never explained - not properly, at least - that on his planet, they technically were married. It was just one more conversation that he had always put off for another day, not wanting to ruin what he and Rose had created for themselves. Because, if he were to be completely honest, no one back on Gallifrey had ever had anything like what he shared with Rose. Their bond ran far deeper and held much stronger than most telepathic connections, and the love that fueled it went beyond what most Time Lords would ever allow themselves to feel.
Rose immediately picked up on the Doctor's tense silence, and she narrowed her eyes on him suspiciously. He shot her a sheepish smile in response and quickly covered their bond in reassuring, loving warmth in an attempt to make up for the row that he knew was coming.
"See?" Jackie snapped, glaring between the two of them. "That thing you're doing right now - that's what I'm talking about. Anybody with eyes would have to assume ..."
"We're not married, Mum," Rose insisted, her tone going low and dangerous as she continued to stare down the Doctor.
Jackie (thankfully) allowed the subject to drop there, but that didn't stop the odd, sidelong glances that the Doctor continued to receive from the two Tyler women throughout the rest of the night.
He was silently hoping for a small reprieve as he wandered back into the TARDIS for the evening, but Rose followed him without pause, shutting the doors resolutely behind her. "So ... what aren't you telling me?" she demanded without preamble as soon as her mum was securely shut away outside his spaceship's doors.
The Doctor knew that there was no use lying to her - not with the bond between them revealing his every thought to her - so he stepped forward and took her hand with a heavy sigh.
"Rose, I never properly explained ..." he started awkwardly. "I'm sorry, but ... things are just different on Gallifrey, I never even thought ..."
Not trusting his fool mouth to do the explaining, the Doctor reached out and mentally pulled on the telepathic bond that tied them together. This bond is forever, he reminded her simply. For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness or in health ...
Rose gasped as his words sparked understanding in her, and she gazed at him in the same open-mouthed shock that Jackie had used just a few hours earlier. "You're not saying ..." she muttered breathlessly.
This bond is a telepath's version of marriage, the Doctor admitted silently. Out loud, he continued, "I'm sorry, Rose. I'm just not used to human customs, I didn't even think ... But it doesn't change anything - not what we have, and certainly not how I feel about you ..."
Her answering flare of anger and frustration cut him deep and as she moved towards him, the Doctor flinched away on instinct, expecting the sting of a Tyler-woman slap, but he was shocked when she leapt into his arms and smothered him with a deep, heated kiss instead.
"Bloody idiot," she growled against his lips as she clung tight to him. "I really hate you, sometimes."
But her warm lips and her softening thoughts told a different story, and the Doctor smiled against her mouth as he mentally chased down her more pleasant thoughts and echoed his own satisfaction back at her.
The two of them ended the night stumbling into a bed (his he found out the next morning when he cared to look at such trivial facts) together where they proceeded to finally have their first dance after years of repression and flirtatious banter. This, too, came so easily that the Doctor spent most of the night mentally kicking himself for waiting for so long. How much time had he wasted, trying to protect the two of them from himself? But each time he let his thoughts drift too close to self-loathing, Rose would immediately bring him back to the present with her warmth and love and promises for their shared future.
If Jackie noticed Rose's absence from her childhood bed that night, she made no mention of it, and she only gave them a passing, narrow-eyed look the next morning when the two of them stumbled into her kitchen looking both disheveled and completely sated.
"Morning," she greeted them wearily. "So? Where are you off to next, then?"
"Mum," Rose piped up, her beaming smile seeming to light up the entire kitchen as she took the Doctor's hand in hers. "We've got something to tell you ..."