Disclaimer as usual.
A/N: In this fic, Mickey has travelled with Rose and the Doctor and came home again. So I'm going to post this before anything happens to the contrary. This chapter is for AmyAmidala, MontyPythonFan and loralee1. Thanks for reviewing.
xxx
This visit was always a possibility. Ever since Rose ran into the Tardis. The Doctor waits for Jackie to answer the door.
"No, really?" The doorbell sounds. "Look, Bev, someone's at the door. I'll call you back, ok?"
She opens the door.
"Doctor! Where's Rose?"
He doesn't answer, just stares at her glassily.
"Doctor?" She takes in his appearance, the way the crumpled suit hangs loosely, the way he's swaying where he stands, the way she can see every bone in his hands. Hands which clutch…
"Oh!" she breathes, her face alight.
"Jackie, I'd like you to meet Romanadvoratrelundar Rose Delta Jacqueline Tyler. Romana for short." She carefully takes the child into her arms. And discovers how hard it is to catch someone when your arms are full as the Doctor falls to the floor.
xxx
The telly's on but she's not watching it. She's watching the Doctor, sprawled across the sofa. How his chest rises and falls then rises again. How the tips of his fingers are just brushing the carpet. And she's thinking. She told him she'd kill him and she meant it. But now…she doesn't understand. He's obviously got Rose killed, but instead of wanting to kill him, she feels…protective. Why don't I want to hurt him? Why aren't I angry at him? He's so thin. It's like he's wasting away, being eaten from the inside out. By what? He begins to stir convulsively. She hurries to his side but he's still deeply asleep, his murmurs slurred so she can only make out a few words: "No…please…sorry…Rose…" She brushes his hair off his forehead as he quiets down and answers her own question; regrets, guilt, memories and is surprised at herself. And that's why you aren't angry with him. Because you know that he'll have done everything and then some to save her. He would have sacrificed the world for her. Because you know he loved her as much as you did. Then she is really shocked at herself.
xxx
She's just finishing lunch when the doorbell rings. For a moment, she panics. If it's anyone she knows, she'll have a job explaining who he is. Yes, my son-in-law is draped across the sofa unconscious. No, my daughter isn't around. No, I don't know what's wrong. No, honestly, it's fine, he doesn't need a doctor. Her mind races ahead to the part where the Doctor and Romana are carted off to be experimented on before the doorbell rings again. Maybe she should have put him in the bedroom, but he's heavy even when skeletally thin. Besides, Romana's in the bed, minus pillows and duvet so she doesn't suffocate. She's just wondering whether to pretend she's not in or make a break for the fire escape when Mickey's voice shouts through the door.
She yanks open the door and throws herself at him.
xxx
Mickey is, to say the least, slightly surprised. He'd seen the Tardis, ran up to Jackie's, and now she's sobbing on his shoulder.
So Rose is dead. That's not surprising. He's seen an average day with the Doctor, (even though, as Rose said, there are no average days with the Doctor) and the danger they faced. What is surprising is that the Doctor is completely at Jackie's mercy, and doesn't seem to have a mark on him. And that…what? Mickey can't believe what he's hearing. Obviously he's misunderstanding what Jackie is hiccupping between her sobs. No, I'm not. Mickey is stunned, bewildered. Have I accidentally stepped into another parallel world?
"He just won't wake up, and he's so thin, and he keeps having nightmares. I tried giving him tea, but it didn't work and I don't know what's wrong. What if it's some alien disease and I can't help him? What if he never wakes up? What…"
Mickey tries to interrupt but finds he's speechless.
xxx
The telly's on but he's not watching it. He's watching Jackie play with her grandchild, Romanasomething. He's trying not to like her-She's alien-but failing miserably. She's cute. Got her mother's big brown eyes. It would be much easier to hate her if she had tentacles or dripped green slime. As he watches, Jackie removes her hands from their position of support on Romana's back and Romana promptly topples backwards and lays there laughing. He sees the sparkle in her eyes and, crouching next to Jackie, gives up the fight.
xxx
Mickey's gone out, sent down the town by Jackie to get some formula milk when the Doctor stirs again. This time his words are audible: "No, you can't. Don't. Let me do it. No! I'm sorry, Romana, I tried. You refused, I'm sorry, don't look at me like that!"
Alarmed, Jackie scoops Romana up and places her on her father's chest.
"Ssh, ssh, it's alright, she's here." His eyes fly open. Slowly they focus on her face.
"Jackie?"
"Hello. Are you better?"
"I'm dead. You've killed me for losing Rose. And there is an afterlife and it looks like your flat." The confusion is clear on his face.
"What happened?"
"They-oh God, it was all my fault. I found a disturbance in the space-time continuum and decided to investigate and they were swallowed by the time storm. A perfectly ordinary time storm, but I had to investigate." The Doctor closes his eyes again but tears still seep out under the lashes.
It's hurting him but she has to know. "Is she dead, Doctor?"
"I don't know. They could be, but they could be anywhere in time and space. I could track Rose's Tardis key, but not if I don't know where to start."
"Could…" They? They were swallowed, they could be anywhere. "Doctor…who's they?
His eyes widen in horror. "Do you want me to slap myself and save you the bother?"
"Who's they?" She decides to ignore his offer for now.
He takes a deep breath and says "Rose and Matthew. Theta Matthew Jack Tyler. Romana's twin." And winces as Jackie's jaw drops.
"She…you…I have a grandson? A grandson who I will never see?"
"Not definitely…" the Doctor trails off. "Why haven't I been slapped yet?"
"If it troubles you that much." It might be unfair to hit someone who's lying down but she does it anyway. He grins happily.
"Okay, I'm alive. You know, in nine hundred years I don't get slapped once by someone's mother then I meet Rose and, suddenly, being slapped is an occupational hazard."
"That's the first time you-or anyone-has been grinning after I slapped them. Not even the last you and he was always grinning! Why are you so happy about it?"
"Why aren't you smashing through my regenerations?" The tone's teasing but it's a real question. One that she doesn't want to answer right now.
"They're not dead. I know they're not. I might not have psychic powers like you, but if I believed Rose was dead, I would…" she breaks off, knowing she's becoming slightly repetitive. "Whether you like it or not, we're family. You and Romana are the only family I've really got left," she frowns, then smiles slightly. "Listen to me! I knew what I wanted to do with my life and it never involved time-travelling aliens."
"Romana? The last thing I remember is handing her to you."
"She's not that light! You had a nightmare and kept telling her you were sorry, so I gave her to you. Hoped it would calm you down. Woke you up as well."
He lifts his head and sees her sprawled across his chest. "Wrong Romana, Jackie. I hope…" He halts as he lifts her from his chest. She's asleep, breathing slowly and pale. Too pale.
"No. No, she can't have." Hurriedly he shoves her into Jackie's arms. "The stupid child! No, she's just a baby, she wouldn't know." He seems to be talking to himself and Jackie is hesitant to interrupt.
"Doc…Doctor. What is it? Do you want…"
"No! No, keep me away from her." He's trying to squash himself into the corner of the sofa, to have the furthest distance between himself and his daughter. "She's a Time Lady and, as you said, we have certain psychic powers. She can feel I'm weak, and she cares about me, so she was giving me her strength."
"But she's only a child!"
"I know, that's why she can only do it when we're touching."
"Is it normal?" Jackie asks, slightly nervously.
"If, by normal, you mean…" The sentence goes unfinished as the Doctor's eyes roll back and he slumps.
xxx
Two days later
Jackie has taken Romana to the park. The flat is deserted, apart from the unconscious Doctor, still slumped upon the sofa. All is silent, until the locked door opens and a woman steps through. She has long, wavy copper hair and bright blue eyes. With a glance at the sofa, she walks through to the kitchen and, taking objects out of the patchwork bag she carries, concocts a mixture she leaves bubbling on the hob. She moves to his side and removes a bottle from the bag. She then proceeds to pour the contents down his throat by the simple expedient of pinching his nose and upending the bottle above his open mouth. He shoots upright, spluttering incoherently.
"Hello," she smiles.
"Who…"
"Now is no time for a healing coma. Now, you, just stay there, I'm busy." She disappears back into the kitchen and returns with a bowl of her concoction. She pushes the bowl and a spoon into his hands. "Eat. You're killing yourself and the worry's killing her."
He eats. She doesn't seem the sort of the women to cross and if she wanted to kill him, there are far more effective ways than waking him up and making him eat poisoned food. She seems the sort of women who would know that.
When he's finished, she gives him another bowlful. And when he finishes that, another. When he's eaten eight bowlfuls of the surprisingly tasty concoction, she throws everything back into the bag and makes as if to sweep out of the door, but he calls after her.
"Tell me…who are you?"
She turns back and smiles. "Just a friend, passing through."
A/N: Sorry if this chapter's a bit disjointed. Had to write it in between bouts of revising. Reviews are good.( I still hope even though, so far, I have 592 hits and only 3 reviews.)