As promised, a FAR more lighthearted chapter. Teeniest bit of angst at the beginning, but not too much.

I also noticed that the mobile app wasn't displaying the last chapter correctly. If you're a mobile reader, please check the last chapter as you may have missed the second half of it as I merged two chapters into one.

As always: the BBC owns Doctor Who, not me.


Rose often wondered if the Doctor could stay in one place for five minutes. This particular version of him seemed practically incapable of staying still. Always running about, talking a mile-a-minute about everything and nothing. He was manic and fidgety even during the quiet moments.

And don't even get her started whenever things started to get 'too domestic' for his tastes. It could get just a tad annoying at times, but it just made her love him even more knowing he wasn't perfect.

Now he was mostly human and this domestic life would be his for the next year or two if the new TARDIS worked out. Even longer, a lifetime, if it didn't. It frightened her a little, to be honest.

She thought about their conversation way back on Krop-Tor when they thought they had lost the TARDIS for good. Rose teased him about getting a mortgage and he visibly paled, and they both completely avoided talking about sharing a place to live. He never explicitly said he was against the idea, but then when did the Time Lord ever sit down and talk about his feelings?

If only she knew how close he was to having a complete stranger deliver the words he so desperately wanted to tell his precious girl before he plunged into the pit.

Now, she had just seen his face pale again when she teased him about what sounded to her like a proper proposal. She didn't mean to sound like a clingy girlfriend. They were just starting over, and even with the fact the now Human Doctor was far more open with his feelings towards her, she didn't want to push him into anything he wasn't ready for.

If only she knew how ready he was. How much he wanted to take the next step and have a future that revolved solely around her and perhaps a family of their own.

For the moment, however, they both seemed content to continue some aspects of their relationship where they left off. They sat in comfortable silence on the Doctor's bedroom floor getting to work on growing the new baby TARDIS. For as fidgety as he was, he just loved to spend an inordinate amount of time and attention on projects that grabbed his full attention. And now he seemed to completely forget that his now human self needed to do things like eat breakfast. Even if he felt hungry, he was too excited to eat. He was well on his way to dismantling Mickey's old computer to salvage parts for a growth tank for the baby TARDIS, Rose sitting at his side holding and organising parts for him just like she did in the old days when there was a loud knock on his bedroom door.

He ignored it and soniced the motherboard again, loosened another chip and handed it carefully to Rose.

Four slow, loud, deliberate knocks.

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Answer that, will you, Love?" He asked distractedly, his new favourite way of referring to her rolling effortlessly off his tongue.

"It's your door, Sweetie." She shot back with a sly grin, returning his term of endearment with the first one that popped in her head. Since she was looking down at the components in her hand (wondering how they would be in any way useful) she missed the slightly pained expression on his face when he heard that one particular word. He let it slide though. At least he had someone to call him that.

"I'm busy…" He muttered.

More knocking, followed by: "Doctor? Rose? You in there?" in a voice that Rose immediately knew was her mother's.

More sonicing of seemingly random computer parts.

"Fiiiine…" Rose sighed in defeat. She stood up and walked to the door, careful not to step on any of the computer debris. She opened up and Jackie looked annoyed as ever. The Doctor quickly pocketed his sonic hoping to avoid having to explain to Jackie how he got it. At least for now.

"What the 'ell?" Jackie practically screamed when she saw the state of the room, momentarily forgetting the actual reason for her being there.

"Now, Mum, there's a perfectly good explanation…" Rose started, but she was having none of it.

"Can't leave you alone for five minutes without you dismantling something! Remind me never to let you near my kitchen appliances. Remember the state you left my toaster in? Practically had to scrape the toast off the ceilin'! Well, I'm not lettin' that 'appen anymore! Although I suppose this is better than what you two could be getting up to alone and locked up in this room."

"There a point to this?" The Doctor blinked, his voice clearly raising in pitch and tips of his ears turning red as his brain processed her implications, and why he was working on the growth tank and not… well… what Rose's mum was thinking (rubbish Human hormones!). Jackie just glared at him before turning to Rose.

"Don't know how you put up with 'im bein' so rude. I swear he got worse after he changed."

"Oi!" The Doctor managed to get all the squeak out of his voice for at least one syllable.

"And I swear this meta-thingy hasn't helped."

"Not my fault Donna couldn't keep her mouth shut…"

"You can help it now!"

Rose had to bite hard on her lip to stop from laughing out loud. She always found the arguments between the Doctor and her mum hilarious.

"Wha'cha want us for, Mum?" Rose asked trying to get back on track.

"Well, if Himself over there could stop tinkering for a few moments, he's got things to do!"

"Jackie, I'm working on something very delicate here… so if I could just have-" If it were possible, Jackie increased her glare another few notches.

"You already missed breakfast this mornin', an' I wasn't kiddin' when I said that I don't want you wearin' the same clothes day after day." The Doctor removed his glasses (that he forgot he was even wearing, bless) and rubbed at his eyes.

"I changed my jumper…" he muttered and Rose swore she heard a slightly Northern accent creep in to his voice and couldn't hide her grin. Jackie rolled her eyes.

"That you took from Mickey! You only own one pair of trousers and a T-shirt, and don't even think you're gonna be wearin' those trainers to the Vitex gala next week." The Doctor sputtered incoherently at the thought of shopping for clothes. Far to Human for his liking.

"Vitex gala?" Rose scrunched her nose.

"Oh, Sweetheart. Don't tell me you forgot!"

"Kinda had two universes to worry about and a Doctor to find, in case you forgot!"

The Doctor didn't know whether to be flattered or run and hide from the two angry Tyler women, one of which was intent on dragging him into more hideous domestics. To his relief Jackie visibly relaxed and the anger mostly left her eyes.

"Sorry, you're right. It's just really important to Pete that we attend. Shows that Vitex is a company that's devoted to families. Now…" Jackie turned and pointed to the Doctor. "You. Downstairs. Now. You already wasted half the day."

"But Jackie… shopping? Really?" The Doctor whinged. She grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet with surprising strength.

"Oh, you're worse than Tony…" Jackie sighed. "But just think, though: what do you really own now? Don't you think you'll feel better once you have some of your own things again?"

"Well…" He raised his hand that was still holding his glasses and rubbed at the back of his neck without even thinking, and Jackie blinked.

"Where'd you get those, then?" The Doctor noticed what was in his hand.

"Weeeell… ah… y'see spare pair! Oh yes! My spare pair that Rose was holding on to for me. Always losing things, I was. So she kindly volunteered to carry spares of things I needed. Even this!" He whipped out his sonic with a flourish. Jackie blinked. "Very handy, this! Apparently I'm kinda useless without it, but I mostly went hands free for a while. I could save the universe with a kettle and some string… but I also wore a decorative vegetable… which is really besides the point, I was a different man back then, but you understand, right? Still, the sonic is just brilliant! Got me out of more messes than I can count. Well, this and my psychic paper. Which reminds me, I seem to have lost that for good. Never was able to get a spare. I should've really looked into that, but they're insanely rare."

"Sorry, borrowed it to get around Torchwood. Torchwood from our original universe. Still have it tucked away somewhere." Rose grinned at him when he finally stopped for breath, relieved that she didn't have to lie to her mother, but still able to lend some credibility to the Doctor's insane story. The psychic paper really was tucked away in her desk drawer.

"So why didn't you bring the screwdriver with you yesterday? Woulda been handy against them Dalek things." Jackie pointed out.

"Didn't know he was comin' home to stay." Rose patted the Doctor's arm. He took her hand in his and smiled warmly at her and only just stopped himself from kissing her in front of her mother (who really wouldn't have been surprised at this point.)

"Alright then, I suppose you're right. Except, when did you get that necklace?" Jackie gestured to Rose's new jewelry.

"Uh… Bought it a while back… forgot I had it." Rose hated lying to her mother, but it was either that or have her worry incessantly about the new TARDIS. Jackie nodded slowly.

"Fine. But I'm serious, Doctor. Downstairs. Two minutes. Got lunch waitin' for ya and then I've arranged a car for you. Don't make me come back up to get'cha…" With that, Jackie left.

The Doctor and Rose let out the lungsful of breath they were both holding and couldn't help but dissolve into giddy laughter.


Despite all his earlier complaints, the Doctor actually took to clothes shopping with a little more enthusiasm than Rose expected. It may have been something to do with the fact they convinced Jackie they could accomplish this task without her help.

("Just as long as he doesn't come home looking like a complete wierdo! A stick of celery? You're just makin' that up! Right? Oh God, you're serious…")

He tried on a suit that was nearly a match to his old brown pinstripes, but there was something about it now. He shared over 900 years of memories with the Time Lord, but actually dressing the same as him now just felt off. Rose seemed to think so too, if the way she paled slightly when she saw him in that suit was any indication.

"Time to look forward, not back." He muttered mostly to himself as he retreated back into the change room.

After trying on several different suits (he still liked them a lot) he realised that he didn't even like wearing ties or oxford shirts anymore.

"Lemme guess: Donna wasn't too fussy on wearing things that buttoned right up, did she?" Rose joked.

"No, not really. She said she didn't like anything restrictive around her neck." He replied as he started walking towards a rack of colourful T-shirts to wear under his new jackets.

"And now you don't like them. Think there's a connection?"

"Well, if you think about it, I haven't even worn them myself. I was kinda in a hurry after I broke out of that jar. Couldn't exactly stop the Daleks whilst streaking now could I? Weeeelll… I could… but I couldn't be fussed with buttons and a tie at that moment." After briefly searching for a T-shirt in his size he picked one up and held it up against his chest. "I like blue. What do you think?"

For a second time that day… he received confusing laughter instead of the answer he expected. The ways Donna's personality now effected his were quite endearing, she thought. Oh, how Rose wished she could've gotten to know her better.

"It's nice." Rose agreed. "Blue suits you."

"Don't think I'm completely bonkers then?"

"Never said that…"

He grinned even wider and grabbed a few more shirts in the same hue.

"Mum'll kill you if you do that…"

"But Rooooose… it's easier this way!" He pouted adorably. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Fine…" He dropped all but two of them.

"See, I know you're tryin' a slightly more casual look, but Mum will kill you if you don't get a tux for the gala next week."

"A tuxedo, really?" He pouted some more. Rose leaned in close and whispered:

"C'mon, it'll make you look even more… foxy."

A smile threatened to break out onto his face, but he fought it.

"It's just… every time I wear a tux, a disaster always strikes. Professor Lazarus, the Titanic…" He shuddered, and made a mental note to expand on those stories later. "Besides, bow ties are not cool, and never will be. I'd love to meet whoever invented them and give them a piece of my mind…"

"When the new TARDIS is ready, we can do that. Now, stop being so daft. It's only for one night… a year. Unless Mum decides to throw more dinner parties. Yeah, you'll need a tux."

"Roooose…" He whinged again. She gave him her biggest saddest eyes, and yup… there were those fluttering eyelashes that always, ALWAYS undid him. "Fine!" He raised his arms in defeat.

"Ta." She gave him a swift kiss.

"Still wearin' Chucks with it…"


Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE writing the Doctor's little rants and dialogue for Jackie? I think they're my favourite to write for!

Reviews are love.