A/N: My floppy discs are getting dodgier :-/ I've asked for a pen drive for my b'day...I kinda broke my last one. I have no idea how though...
Right, well I finally got my book - and there's been no drops for what I really new for Lonely Angel. But listening to this song with my parents having a loud discussion in the other room, I'm tempted just to give up researching, and post what I have. Even though it's gonna be like, totally wrong. But whatever. Not my problem. Well, it is...but hell.
Anyway, I've cut down on my hyphens! Yes, I have, and I'm feeling all glowy from reading all my reviews. So basically, I'm v. happy right now. (Eyes pile of homework) At least, sociably happy, not academically :-/
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Chapter 4 – Ginger Irishman
Rose heard the phone drop to the floor as her grip laxed from mild shock, panic vibes rushing through her like nothing she'd ever felt before. She slowly started backing away from where the phone lay like it was an omen, pulling away from The Doctor no the sofa and onto her feet.
"Rose?" came The Doctor's distant voice, and she felt a reassuring hand clamp down on each shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she tried to say to reassure him, but the words wouldn't come. She felt numb. The Doctor and she were in danger – but that was only phase one of the problem. Baby? What baby? She felt strong arms, The Doctor's, lift her up and put her down onto the sofa as Jackie picked up the abandoned phone from the floor.
"Hello?" she asked. There was a slight pause, but then she continued, "oh, hi Howard…"
"Rose! Come back to planet Earth! We're on it now!" The Doctor said loudly, waving his hand infront of her blank face, his expression concerned.
She unexpectedly opened her arms out and put them around his neck, pulling him into a friendly, much needed hug. Despite his confusion, The Doctor returned the hug with a few whispered comforts, sitting on the sofa next to her.
"Okay…okay…yeah…sure…yeah…" Jackie was saying down the line to Howard. Rose lowered her head onto The Doctor's shoulder, looking into his neck. He held her and swayed from side to side, the both of them staying quiet as Jackie finished the phone call. "See you in a minute!" She dropped the phone onto it's holder again and turned towards the pair, her eyes opening wide as she saw The Doctor holding Rose in his arms.
"What was all tha' about, ay?" she asked, trying to ignore the way in which Rose's head rested against his shoulder, the way his cheek layed on her hair, the way he held her in a protective hug, the way which he appeared gravely concerned for her well being…
"Don't," The Doctor said seriously to Jackie, but she just frowned at him.
"Now listen 'ere you, that's my daughter you're holdin' there, I 'ave a right to know what's goin' on!" Jackie barked back, but it appeared to be the very wrong thing to say at that moment in time to The Doctor.
He let go of Rose gently, making sure she was perfectly fine before bolting onto his feet, all pains ignored, face barely inches from Jackie's.
"It's obvious, Jackie," he hissed, his voice dangerously low. "That you don't know when to stop asking questions. So I'd just button it right now. If she doesn't want to tell you, she doesn't have to."
"But that ain't your decision is it?" Jackie continued, obviously not daunted from his tone of voice.
"It's not yours either." He stopped, waiting for her reply, but her vocabulary was as empty as her expression. "Good," he continued, "I'm glad we have a mutual understanding."
Slap.
Rose winced as her mother's hand whipped straight across his face, making a huge cracking sound – almost like breaking a bone. She watched The Doctor cautiously, but he appeared not to be phased by it.
"Don't get any ideas, because if you hurt her in any way, you'll have me to answer to." and with this rather terrify spectacle of a sentence, he turned quietly away from Jackie and started walking towards the front door, hands in pockets. Rose watched him as he pushed open the door, slipped through, closing it quietly behind him.
A few seconds past silently, where only the sound of the shattered remains of the broken clock from the mantelpiece continued ticking in it's steady beat.
Then it came, inches from outside the door.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
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It seemed he couldn't go three seconds in Jackie Tyler's flat without hurting himself in some way. Evidently taking the hit to the more delicate part of his anatomy and smashing in his ankle under a heavy oak board had been the easy part.
He had only dreamt of the Jackie Tyler slap in nightmares. Now this had brought his total number of Jackie Tyler slaps up to a horrifying two – and he did NOT like that figure one bit.
He now was lying on the sofa in Jackie's flat, staring face up towards the ceiling. He observed noticeably that there were picked holes above his head, stabbed into the ceiling. Millions. He'd have to count them later.
Rose was lying to the left of him, both of them lazily watching the television as The Doctor had his arm around Rose's shoulders. She had seemed to mellow from the phone call, and was now starting to laugh at the Saturday evening sitcom, despite how hopelessly rubbish it was.
There was a small knock at the front door, but neither Rose nor The Doctor made any attempt to get up and answer it. But there was no point anyway, because Jackie went speeding over to the door faster than The Doctor had ever seen her run before, wrenching it open wide.
"Hello!" her very joyful voice said, "here…let me take that for ya…"
The Doctor sat up to vertical position, straining to see who it was out of interest. There a largely built man with short ginger hair and green eyes stood principally infront of him, absently munching on an apple. His bicep muscles were like rocks on his arms – hell, if this guy told you to do something, you'd do it straight away, no questions asked. He was almost Popeye-like in bodily appearance…after eating some spinach of course. The Doctor politely nodded to the man, extending his free hand out from where he lay holding Rose.
"Howard I presume?" he asked, and the man held his hand in a vice like grip, shaking it firmly. The Doctor felt something dislodge in his shoulder from the hard shake, but promptly decided to ignore it.
"'Ello there me laddy!" A sudden unexpected Irish accent came toppling from the man's mouth, and The Doctor grinned his widest grin of the day. "I must say, that's a hell of a firm grip you got there me boy!" Howard let go of his crushed hand and The Doctor looked beside himself with joy at the Irishman stood infront of him.
The Doctor had been expecting a dreary London accented Jack the Lad, who would try to sell him a disco toaster or something, but this was just brilliant. An Irishman? Good enough, but a ginger Irishman? Great!
"Hi Howard," Rose started, looking up to him from her position next to The Doctor. "This is The Doctor."
"That's a bit of a strange name me laddy, but I used to know a Boris Borist, they don't come much more far-fetched than that! Howard O'Hanon, atcha service." He gave a cheery wave, and The Doctor's grin just got even wider.
"I bruised the Satsuma in your dressing gown at Christmas…" The Doctor suddenly recalled, stroking an imaginary beard. "Sorry."
"Ah, don't worry 'bout it me boy, you know Sainsbury's, t'was probably bruised anyway!" Howard joked, slapping a heavy hand on The Doctor's left shoulder, nearly making him cripple and fall off the sofa with the force.
It was then Howard spotted his slightly inflated left cheek, and looked amused.
"The mark of a Jackie Tyler slap, lad. What did you do?" Howard asked, touching his own cheek, recalling an old memory.
"I answered back." The Doctor didn't seem to have a hint of regret about it in his voice though. "And I'd do it again."
"You're an idiot, you know that?" Rose asked, nudging him slightly with a giggle. "I was perfectly capable of dealing with it myself."
"Not when you're paralysed by shock, you're not." The Doctor gave her a small nudge back. "Then off she goes, demanding answers for it. I had to step in. The slap meant nothing."
Rose started to trace her finger down his hurt cheek, smiling casually to herself. He caught her look, and sighed outwardly in a defeated manner.
"Okay, so it was something," he paused momentarily, cupping his hand over Rose's hand that was still caressing his cheek, before he admitted in a laden voice, "it was also not intended."
"Dinner's ready if any of you want it!" Jackie's voice suddenly sounded distantly from the kitchen. There was a brief pause between Rose and The Doctor, Rose too comfortable to move and The Doctor, to be frank, simply not caring for any kind of food. Rose then pulled herself up, climbing clumsily over The Doctor's stomach, before sliding her arms underneath him and dragging his unwilling body upright.
Rose then proceeded to motherly smooth down his ruffled clothes, and in return he began to brush her down, a little harder. Rose returned the favour by brushing down even harder than him, and soon Rose was slapping him playfully on the chest, a broad grin on her face. The Doctor quickly grabbed her slap prone hands, holding them rigid between them as a small smile crept onto his face.
"Y'coming for dinner Doctor?" Rose asked, looking at him pleadingly. The Doctor looked slightly hesitant for a moment, but a forceful hand pushed into his back firmly, making him involuntary stagger forward a couple of paces.
"Young lad like you needs to eat!" Came Howard's cheery voice, and The Doctor found himself nodding meekly in reply.
"You bet I do."
Rose led him across the kitchen to the worktop, where four clean bowls and a ton of spoons were sat, ready and waiting for usage. Rose took the top bowl and began to fill it up from the hotpot with a ladle, as The Doctor casually peered in the pot of food with a silent grimace.
"What's that then?" he asked Jackie precariously, trying to be as polite as he could to make a good impression.
"Beef stew," she replied, uninterested. Rose shoved a full bowl into his hands and he looked down at it, trying to mentally analyse it to find out whether it was actually edible.
Howard saw his slight hesitation and immediately miscalculated it as a signal for the lack of food in the bowl. Taking the bowl off of him, he spooned a few more ladles of the strange looking beef stew into his bowl, before handing it back to him, the substance now almost spilling out the sides of the bowl.
"Rose, a man needs man sized portions." Howard grinned at her and she returned it, looking up at The Doctor, who to the trained eye, was starting to turn a sickly green.