A.N: Thankyous to gaiafreedom21, Lady Timelord, Cute Gallifreyan, DoctorWhoRules, kiss-her-theta and Emela.
This one is for Cute Gallifreyan who wanted a dinner party. The next chapter will be the epilogue, so sorry to those who made suggestions that never happened, but I just need o wrap it up. It was never meant to be very long anyway.
Chapter 5. The Dinner Party.
After the fiasco with the crazy children, the Doctor had decided that he was not going to try anything like that ever again. He would not knowingly and willingly put himself in the line of fire of other people's children. At least not without Rose there for him to hide behind.
He had been truly terrified of those children they were evil and ruthless and…and…children. How was he going to manage with children of his own? A family, him and Rose married, with children. Dear Rasillon…Jackie would be his mother-in-law! Bad…bad…bad!!! Scary thought!
Jackie…technically part of the family! His family. Related, albeit through marriage, to him. What the hell was he getting himself into? Jackie Tyler, the mother-in-law from hell. He hadn't had in-laws in ages. Originally, that is to say before the war, he'd had mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-laws, brother-in-laws, daughter-in-laws, son-in-laws and any other in-law that could be thought of.
But this in-law, this scary Jackie mother-in-law…this was horrifying. End of the world kind of tragic. The most shockingly blood curdling terrifying thought that could ever come to pass.
He was sat in the library. Absently flicking through an old photo album. All of his family from Gallifrey where in this book. Even a few extremely old photos and daguerreotypes of his mother's human family.
He was suddenly feeling very nostalgic. All those smiling faces of his ancestors and descendants, friends of the family, everyone, all in this book of memories.
It was all he had left of most of them. A small book of aged and decaying images. Terrible to think that the only thing that proved the prior existence of all these people were the fading photos and the memories in his head.
He smiled sadly at the memories. So much pain in the past, but leading on to so much happiness. If he hadn't lost them all, he may never have met Rose. He wouldn't have been kicking it around Earth, grieving, trying to find danger, a quick way of ending the pain. She'd saved him then, in so many different ways. And she'd keep saving him. She'd flash him that smile, take his hand…and make it all miraculously better again. She was the sunshine, breaking through the dark clouds of his storm. And for all those he'd loved and lost, he couldn't be happier.
His glasses were perched on the end of his nose. Rose loved his glasses, and his suit. She'd said he looked like a schoolteacher at times. He thought she had a kink. He wasn't going to complain though. If he was the strict schoolteacher, then she was the naughty schoolgirl! No way was he going to complain at that! He'd become such a dirty old man!
His thoughts drifted back to the photo album. He didn't really care that he was a dirty old man. He had his Rose, they were going to get married, and have some children. He planned to fill up all of the empty pages towards the end of the album with the family he was yet to start. Scary mother-in-law and all. He couldn't wait. His family…his…as in a family that he belonged to. It was very exciting.
At that point, Rose popped her head through the doorway of the library. The Doctor straightened up in his seat, smiling lightly at his love, adoring her and the fact that she was his.
"Hey you, how you doing?"
She looked nervous, apprehensive even, like she knew something that would not be welcome. The Doctors smile faltered. What if she was ill, in trouble, seeing someone else? A million different conclusions zoomed around his head, each one more ghastly and unlikely as the next.
"Yeah…I'm…all right. Dandy. But I…uh…have something to…y'know…tell you."
"Rose?" he was becoming extremely alarmed now, "what is it? What's wrong?"
"I…um…well…maybe you should sit down first?"
"I am sat down Rose."
"Oh…yeah…right."
"Rose?"
"I just got off the phone with mum…she…uh…she invited herself round here for dinner. I tried to persuade her not to but you know what she's like and she said we should all spend more time with each other. She wants to get to know you better. I really tried Doctor and I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry."
His eyes were wide in terror.
"WHAT?"
A few hours later, the Doctor was trying to cook a meal for the mother-in-law from hell. She didn't even know they were engaged yet. That would be a fun conversation to have with her. He was just ecstatic. Couldn't wait!
Rose had divided the tasks and responsibilities between the two of them, almost everything was done, but he had the last dregs of the chores to do while Rose finished up getting ready for the imminent arrival of Jackie. Rose was getting all dressed up for this dinner party type thing.
They were becoming such an old married couple. He wasn't sure how he really felt about that now that it seemed to be happening. The universe was trying its damnedest to terrify him at the moments. He was going to have a massive double heart attack if things carried on like this.
He was just setting the table in the dining room. The dining room was a new acquisition that the Tardis had decided to grow for the occasion. She'd been rumbling smugly for hours now, sending telepathic laughter in the Doctors direction. He could tell she was just loving this.
"I don't know what you're finding so amusing, if I'm going to be a part of Jackie Tyler's family, then so are you old girl."
The Tardis did not seem happy with this prospect; she showed him telepathic images of Jackie screaming in pain in the console room. The Doctor chuckled at this image but chastised the Tardis anyway.
"Now now…I don't think Rose would be too happy with that. She might be a little mad at you, and then a little mad at me, then she'd leave, and you'd have to put up with me being all mopey and depressed. So…what we do is we get this over and done with as quickly and easily as possible, then we leave and never come back!"
He went back into the kitchen to take the pasta bake thing out of the oven. He had no idea what was in it or even what it was really. Rose hadn't let him do much of the actual cooking, saying something about trouble and walking accident waiting to happen, but he hadn't really been listening much. He had been too grateful for not having to cook. He hated cooking.
Rose came hurtling through into the kitchen at that point, trying to hop into her heels as she went.
"Shit…shit…shit…she's gonna be here any minute. Is it ready? Oh Gods why the hell did you agree to this?"
"Me…agree? I wasn't aware that I had. No this is all your fault."
"My fault?"
"Yes you're fault, you're the one who insisted on keeping in touch with your bloody mother!"
He put the pasta bake in an oven-like machine that didn't cook if any further, but kept it at a steady temperature, just waiting to be served up.
The atmosphere was extremely tense in the Tardis. Even the Tardis herself was experiencing much trepidation. He took a bottle of white wine out of the refrigeration unit, uncorked it and poured out a large glass for himself. He necked it back, trying to calm down and relax.
They went up to the console room together with the intention of waiting for Jackie. The Doctor took the bottle of wine with him, refilling his glass every now and then and drinking it quite quickly. They were in the console room not five minutes before the Tardis informed him that Jackie was on her way. As soon as he let Rose know, she was rushing around, smoothing her dress, his hair, straightening his tie.
"Rose…just stop…calm down."
At this point, Jackie opened the double doors, which they had left open especially for her. The Doctor and Rose jumped together immediately to present a united front. They both piped up at the same time, in unnaturally high and cheery voices, wide fake smiles spread over their faces.
"HI!"
"Welcome to the Tardis Jackie."
"Yeah mum…our home is your home."
The Doctor looked at Rose aghast at that statement.
"Your welcome here any time."
He looked outraged at that.
"Yeah Jackie any time. Hope you enjoyed yourself here…bye then!"
He made to move her towards the doors again but was stopped by Rose's hand in his chest and her death glare. He stuck out his lower lip and pouted, but allowed Rose to beckon Jackie through the Tardis corridors into the newly built dining room.
Rose served the pasta bake out and they managed to all eat dinner together without any major disasters occurring. He'd been okay eating at Jackie's a few times since Christmas, but that was different. This was his own territory and he didn't like it being invaded. Dinner was punctuated with uncomfortable and stilted conversation. Jackie telling Rose about all of the gossip of the estate, the Doctor, drinking more and more as time went by. By the time they were ready for dessert, he had gone through several bottles all by himself.
Pudding consisted of home made lumpy rice pudding, provided of course by Jackie. The Doctor looked at it cautiously as it was set in front of him. He picked up his spoon and poked it a couple of time, fully expecting it to suddenly come alive and try to attack him.
"I'm not trying to poison ya y'know."
"I'm sure your not Jackie, but knowing your culinary skills, I'm probably going to end up poisoned anyway."
"Why you cheeky little…"
"Doctor! That wasn't very nice. Apologise to mum."
"Sorry mum!" he put as much sarcasm into those two words as he could possibly muster. Jackie glared daggers at him before sticking her nose in the air sulking.
"Oh mum, ignore him, he's only tryin' to bait you. I know something that'll cheer you up…"
"The Doctor was swirling his spoon around the unpleasant concoction in his bowl again, but spoke up with something hat would cheer him up instead. Right then, he just wanted to annoy Jackie.
"Me and Rose are engaged."
Jackie, just having taken a bite of her rice pudding, spluttered it out and started choking.
"What did you say?" her eyes were wide in shock and disbelief.
He grinned at her, revelling in her reaction as Rose let her head rest in her hands, exasperated at the endless bickering of her lover and her mother.
"Me…Rose…engaged to be married. Great isn't it? So…you're going to have me as a son-in-law, bet you can't wait for that! We're going to be family! Very soon."
Jackie had gone very pale. When she had mentioned grandchildren and the need for normality to the Doctor, she'd expected him to run in fear, very far away. Turns out it had had the complete opposite affect to her intentions.
"You and Rose? Married?" she let out a nervous hysterically bout of high-pitched laughter. "You must be joking!"
"Mum!"
"I'm sorry dear, but it wouldn't work. You should know that. Marriage is something for normal people. That…alien…couldn't be normal if he tried."
"Well I have been recently, just like you said I should be when you called. I've been trying to be more normal and I succeeded…sort of."
"Wait…mum called and told you to be more normal? Is that why you've been acting so weird recently?"
Jackie looked smug at that.
"So…trying to be normal and only managed weird. My point exactly."
"Oh shut up you dried up old fruit bat!"
"DOCOR!"
"What did you call me?"
"You heard!"
Glaring daggers at the Doctor, Jackie leapt up and deposited her bowl of rice pudding roughly on the Doctors head. He sat there for a few seconds, cold rice pudding making its dripping way down his head, having difficulty processing what had just happened. All of a sudden he flared to life, roaring up to his full height, quite imposing to the much shorter Jackie.
"That's is…GET THE HELL OUT OF MY TARDIS!!!"
"FINE! Who wants to stay for this freak show anyway?"
Jackie stormed out of the dining room, up through the corridors and out of the Tardis.
The Doctor stormed out of the dining room, up through of the corridors, to the shower.
Rose sat silently at the table, steady tears pouring down her face. She made several attempts to compose herself but failed miserably. She moved to tidy away the mess of the disaster of the dinner party, sobs racking her body all the while.
Much later, after the Doctor had showered and after Rose had tidied, she let herself into their bedroom cautiously to find the Doctor sat at the end of the bed, head in hands.
He looked up as the door opened and felt a well of guilt settle in his chest as he saw the reddened eyes of an obviously very upset Rose. He hated it when she cried, especially when he was the part of the reason for it.
"Oh Rose…I'm so sorry love. I promise I will apologise to your mum first thing tomorrow. I shouldn't have aggravated her and I really am sorry."
"S'okay. Good to get it all out of the way now. Would have happened sooner or later anyways."
He gave her a small smile, marvelling at how understanding she was being. Most women would have given him the cold shoulder for days, possibly even weeks. She moved to sit next to him on the end of the bed. He gathered her in his arms and held her close, her head resting on her shoulder.
"Did mum really tell you that you weren't normal enough for me. It shouldn't have bothered you. I mean, she tells you that all the time."
"I know, but she said that one day you'd probably want to have kids, she pointed out that my lifestyle wasn't exactly safe enough for raising children. She had a point to be fair."
"And that's why you've been acting so strange recently?"
"Yeah. I wanted to see if I could do it. I tried Rose…I really did. It just…didn't seem to work. I wanted to get a little practice in. I mean…if we did ever…you know…have kids…I just…I…"
"What Doctor?"
He took a deep breath. He was about to admit just what had been playing on his mind sine he started this whole fiasco.
"I…I didn't want to disappoint you. I couldn't live with myself if I ever let you down."
She moved away slightly to be able to look into his eyes. She was crying again, but he was relieved to note that it wasn't sad tears. A look of pure love and pride shone out of her eyes.
"You could never disappoint me Doctor."
He smiled at her, adoring her so much in that moment simply for who she was and how she made him feel.
They kissed, slowly and sweetly.
They moved up the bed and lay down together.
That night they simply slept, wrapped tight in each other's arms, and they dreamed of their future together.
A.N: what do people think? Review? Please? Pretty please and all that jazz!
I have been saying for ages that they should show the Doctor holding a baby in the show. Well…who watched the preview for next episode and caught the few seconds of him holding the baby? That must be the cutest thing I have ever seen! Even cuter than the kittens in Gridlock! Who else thought it was the best thing they have ever seen and have since revaluated wanting to have his babies to really Really REALLY wanting to have his babies?!!!