Fluff ahoy! Again, this chapter kind of just wrote itself, although I did cut a strange part in the middle that really made no kind of sense.
The Doctor just sat there stunned. There he was, sitting in the middle of a coffee shop, Rose in his lap and she was pretty much snogging his brains out. An apt metaphor, really, as in that very moment his mind had gone completely blank. Although, he was vaguely aware of someone cheering nearby.
Sure, his mind was only blank for exactly 5.42 seconds – his time sense calculated that figure automatically – but to a Time Lord, that was an eternity. His human biology, however, was busy responding to having Rose in his lap, and he had begun to automatically kiss her back. During the following, two seconds his Time Lord brain began re-tracing the events to led to having Rose in his lap with her mouth fused to his and the realisation of what caused this (rather lovely, if he were to be honest) turn of events made his eyebrows shoot even higher towards his hairline.
He pretty much just asked Rose Tyler to marry him.
Her response was quite obviously YES!
He gentled her out of the kiss and just gazed into her eyes for a good long moment. They were just in their own bubble, and for that span of time nothing existed beyond it. It was just them, smiling at each other and giggling madly.
"This isn't exactly how I planned to ask you." The Doctor sighed.
"You actually had a plan?" Rose snorted.
"Well…" He sniffed. "It was sort of a… thing in progress?"
"A thing?"
"Oi! Respect the thing!" He tickled her ribs causing her to shriek and wriggle in his grasp.
"Uh… 'scuse me." They both looked up, laughing unapologetically to the barista standing over them with a stern look on her face. "D'ya mind? This is kinda a public place."
"I think you mean 'this is a public place'," the Doctor corrected inciting an even sterner look from the barista. Then suddenly he realised what being in a public place meant, "so, yeah… sorry 'bout that. But we, just sorta, well, we just got y'know… engaged and… erm… ooh that's a scary thought." Rose's face fell. He seemed so earnest in his impromptu proposal, but if he was trying to back out…
"Yeah, we were reunited just two days ago and now we're taking this – this absolutely massive step forward!" She bit her lip as the reality of their situation just sank in, and the thought of him backing out didn't really upset her anymore. "Yeah… this is scary."
"No… well… I mean… yes. I suppose you're right. What I meant was: if I thought Jackie was gonna murder me this morning, just wait till she hears about this!" The Doctor shuddered while Rose just laughed nervously as she thought about what her mum would say about it.
The Doctor and Rose, having decided to take the long route home instead of hiring a cab, walked in unusual silence. Their joined hands swung loosely between them as they walked, and they found they couldn't hold each other's gaze.
They eventually found themselves in the field they ran through earlier. Since it was a part of the Tyler Estate, there weren't any other people milling about. A zeppelin passed overhead and the Doctor watched it absently still finding them slightly unnerving. He didn't even know he had stopped walking until he felt a pull on his hand.
Rose, his fiancée – something he had dreamed to call her, but now the reality of it was starting to terrify him – called to him softly. He looked over at her and found she looked as conflicted as he felt. Part of his mind, the part that was screaming at him earlier that morning and he almost obeyed it, told him to just turn the other way and run. But the other part, the human part told him to stay. Told him that he needed to stand by this woman he loved so much. He listened to the latter.
"C'mere." He said softly, pulling gently at her hand. There was one simple thing he needed right now, and she looked like she desperately needed it too. He dropped her hand and opened his arms, and Rose stepped willingly into them. Something felt like it loosened in his chest when she wrapped her arms around his middle and buried her head into the crook of his neck. It was amazing how just a simple hug could help one feel better. He folded his arms around her and they just held each other.
"What're we going to do?" She murmured listening to just how fast his heart was beating. He slowly let out a long breath.
"I dunno."
She pulled away so she could look him properly in the eyes.
"I mean… I want this," she pointed between the two of them. "I want you an' me… together. I promised you forever… an' I truly mean it… but…"
"You're not ready."
"Are you?" She watched his Adam's apple bob in his throat as he swallowed hard.
"Yes." He said softly as he reached for her hand and leaned down to kiss her knuckles softly. "Rose, would you like to go out with me for dinner tonight? I think that's a good place to properly start." Rose smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, I'd love to."
She hugged his arm as they resumed walking towards the mansion.
"We're always doin' this, aren't we?" She asked through a small laugh.
"Doin' what?"
"Things backwards. I mean, first you ask me to marry you, and now you're asking me out on our first date."
"Nature of our lives I suppose. First things first, but not necessarily in that order. Never imagined I could do that without time travel."
"You're just that good."
"Yeah, I am."
"Still a giant ego, though." She muttered under her breath.
"Oi!" They both just laughed.
When they finally made it back to the mansion, the Doctor and Rose both were successful in avoiding Jackie on their way up to their rooms to get themselves properly ready for the day. Neither one of them were prepared to face her just yet. They had yet to come up with a plan on how they were going to announce their engagement.
The Doctor was so lost in thought after he stepped out of the shower. He was absently going through his shirts deciding on what he should wear when his door opened.
"Doctor?" He whirled around at the sound of Jackie's voice, eternally grateful he had the presence of mind to at least have wrapped a towel around himself.
"Sweet baby Rassilon, Jackie! Seriously, I thought there was a human custom known as KNOCKING!" He had to resist the urge to shove his hand through his hair as he feared losing his towel and stood as tall and proud as he could.
"I did." She replied evenly. "I just wanted to ask you about this." She handed him a small electronic tablet that was years ahead of it's time, at least in his original universe (technological development seemed to be faster here). He reached out and took it, careful to keep one hand on the one piece of fabric dividing him from his dignity. His mouth suddenly went dry as he saw a photo of him and Rose in Starbucks in a somewhat compromising pose with a headline that read 'New Boy Toy for Vitex Heiress?' underneath. He should have known the paparazzi were hanging about, and boy did they work fast.
"Jackie… look… don't get mad at Rose for this one. And please don't kill me, but…" He closed his mouth with a click.
"But?" Jackie's hands were on her hips and her foot was tapping incessantly.
"We were waiting for the right time to tell you…"
"You're not both disappearing on me again, are you?" Jackie sounded more panicked than angry as she suddenly noticed his suitcase still sitting on the bed. He shook his head.
"No, erm… I…"
"Oh, just spit it out, will you? You didn't get her pregnant, did you?"
"JACKIE!"
"Well, I dunno. You're an alien. Could work differently for you!"
"No it doesn't!" He shouted before cringing. This really wasn't something he wanted to talk about in his current state of dress – or at all with her.
"So she is!"
"Jackie, I tried tellin' you earlier: that's not what was happening this morning! What happened this morning in her room and in the coffee shop… two different things!"
"Go on then."
The Doctor took a steadying breath.
"Last night, she had a nightmare and asked me to stay. She was too afraid to sleep alone. That's all we did. Sleep. The door was open cause I ran in here in a panic and never thought about closing it. So, sorry."
"And the coffee shop?"
"It wasn't completely intentional… but… I might've…"
"Might have what? Doctor?"
"Proposed."
The word just hung in the air for a moment. The Doctor's heart beat uncomfortably fast in his chest as he awaited Jackie's reaction, and the fear of what Rose would say knowing he just blurted it out to her mother. Jackie's face was unreadable for a long moment. Then the next thing he knew, he had the number one most awkward encounter with her to date.
Jackie had flung her arms around his neck and held him tight and it was all the Doctor could do to keep his towel from slipping.
"Jackie… do you mind if I get dressed first?"
The Doctor felt stiflingly hot walking around the house in his leather jacket, but he felt like he needed the extra layers around Jackie now. It wasn't as heavy as the one his previous self wore and a completely different style – a black motorcycle jacket that was more fitted and closed up with a zipper instead of his bulky World War II style one – but he now had a human biology and with it came its rubbish ability to regulate temperature.
He sat in the lounge with Jackie sipping absently at the tea she brought him. She had already asked Rose to look after Tony a while so she could have a chat with the Doctor. Rose was reluctant to leave them alone seeing as she had no idea of what they needed to talk about without her, until the Doctor just leaned in and whispered "she knows" in her ear. She had gaped at him, thinking they had agreed they would've spoken to Jackie together about this. "She kinda made me." He clarified and Rose nodded and went to look for her little brother.
"Are you absolutely sure about this, sweetheart?" Jackie asked him for what had to be the millionth time. "Don'tcha think you two need to take some time to work this out? I mean, you spent all these years apart, and you both have changed."
"My feelings for her haven't." He said simply, and she nodded.
"Was the same with me an' Pete."
"So you can understand where I'm comin' from!" He almost shouted.
"Yeah, I suppose. But Pete… he was already stable. You don't even have a job."
"I know. I've been thinking about what to do about that. Pete did offer me a job at Torchwood, but seeing how Rose feels about that place I can't accept. I was thinking of perhaps teaching somewhere."
"That's a start, I guess. You've told Rose?" He shook his head.
"No, I wanna surprise her once I get a position."
"Well, it's a start. And there's something else I want ya to have." Jackie sighed as she drained the rest of her tea and walked over to a desk at the side of the room. The Doctor watched as she took a pen and something else out of the drawer and she started to write. Her back was towards him so he couldn't see what she was writing. "It's Noble-Smith… right? Your name?"
"Yeah…" The Doctor replied, now completely confused as to what she was on about now.
"Weird callin' you that, but I have to put it 'ere…" Then she stopped writing, placed the pen back on the table and he heard the distinct sound of paper being torn. She turned towards him and handed him the paper.
He took his glasses out of his pocket and placed them on his face as he studied the paper. It was a cheque. He was never good with money, but he was quite certain the amount she had written down was incredibly large.
"Jackie, I…"
"Oh button it, you plum. Consider it a gift, an investment to your future as my son-in-law."
In an rare move, the Doctor stood and hugged Jackie Tyler.
"Thank you." He sighed, kissing the top of her head.
"Just don't muck it up or I will kill ya!"
"Yes ma'am."
