A/N: I wrote this chapter ages ago. Months! I always planned this but I did bridge a gap from the landing to the wedding so I've gotta cross it somehow. Oh, and I'd like to take this oppurnity (As I have in the other one) to THANKS YOU ALL for all your reviews, there's been a ton and I'd loved ever letter of 'em. I NEVER have enough time to reply because I'm severely inefficient so sorry :P

Chapter 8 – Beechams and a Lot of Herbal Tea

"My Rose."

No, needs an adjective…

"My little Rose."

She's not little, though…

"My perfect Rose."

Nope, sounds cheesy…

"My blooming Rose."

Sounds rude…like the flower reference though. Keep it.

"My bloody Rose."

Oh blimey no, erase! ERASE!

The Doctor frantically twisted his rubber tipped pencil around in his palm so the rubber was tip down, printed Gallifreyian words he had written down on the notepad disappearing for the hundredth time since he'd started.

Wedding vows.

He was never any good at pledging love. He could write poems, songs, plays, scripts, stories – long or short – test papers, test answers, essays, Shakespeare, biographies, articles, columns, agony aunt letters…absolutely anything, all in over five billion different languages – but he couldn't for the life of him write a stupid couple of lines about his own pledges of love.

He sighed to himself, running a hand through his hair and kicking his legs against the sofa seat again as he tried to get some inspiration from the impact.

"My blossoming Rose."

That's good. Very good. That's really very, very good. Excellent, infact. Trés bien!

"My blossoming Rose, a flower in spring…"

Everyone uses that one…

"My blossoming Rose, stained deep red with my own body's blood, bleeding for…"

He sighed, staring down at the words on the page as he realised it was starting to vaguely turn in a horror novel.

"My blossoming Rose, a glowing red ruby in the heart of a sun – rare and virtuous, beautiful and true."

"Well, aren't you the romantic one," Jackie Tyler's voice came loudly out of apparently nowhere, slightly startling him. "It's meant to be vows, y'know, not your last words."

He looked up at her with his pencil in his teeth, pushing up his glasses on his nose as he dropped the notepad on the sofa he was spread out on. Even Jackie had to admit, he did look past gorgeous in those thick-framed glasses.

"Is it meant to be this hard?" he asked, before sniffing back his cold he seemed to have acquired in the past day or so. Out of all the viruses Time Lords were immune to, they still hadn't got around the dreaded cold. There wasn't a cure in the Universe for a cold except for Beechams and a lot of herbal tea – it was actually one of the main reasons most lifeforms stayed away from Earth – for fear of the horror of the 'cold'.

"It's your weddin' vows sweetheart, no one cares but it matters the world…Universe…" she hastily corrected herself. "To Rose."

He bit his lip, frowning as he looked back down at his notepad. "I know."

Jackie took a seat on the part of the sofa he was lying on, handing him a plate of small party-sized cheese sandwiches. He shook his head in rejection to the food, chewing on the pencil thoughtfully as he read and re-read his vows so far.

"Let's 'ave a read," she put the plate on the coffee table and snatched away his notepad before he even noticed she had moved. She frowned, staring at the mixed weird markings on the page. "Oh, it's that bloody language of yours."

"Shut up," he said instantly, suddenly annoyed.

"Well sorry," Jackie replied with emphasise on the 'ry'. "Aren't you touchy today?"

"Well maybe if you weren't so irritating," he replied airily, grabbing the notepad back and moving to erase the alien markings for another time. Jackie immediately stole it out his hands again.

"It's good! Keep it!"

"You're just saying that!"

"Since when did I ever lie to protect ya feelin's, Doctor?"

He frowned, suddenly mulling it over. "Okay, fair enough. It stays." He looked up at her, suddenly puppy-eyed and sad. "Can I phone Rose yet?"

She glanced up at the clock, before shaking her head rapidly as 5:37pm registered in her vision.

"Only past 7:00pm, Doctor."

He sighed – loudly. Bloody humans and their reduced phone rates after 7:00pm.

"Please? Just this once?" he begged, sitting up and whipping off his glasses to fix her with that puppy dog look, lips pouted, eyes sad and begging. She obviously wasn't buying it. Time for the killer move. "I want to speak to Rory."

Her demeanour changed almost instantly, at the mention of her grandson it was like she'd just discovered the last chocolate in the box. He smiled gently at him, all sympathy.

"Oh okay, go on then!"

His pout immediately broke out into huge, cute, charming and frankly, amazing grin.

"Thank you!" He launched off of the sofa, grabbing the phone and dialling for home.

"Make it quick!" she said loudly as she left the room again, going to get some tea ready for the pair of them. The Doctor clicked his tongue impatiently as the ringing began on the other end – ten rings passed and the Doctor began to feel a little anxious, before there was a loud click and suddenly the sound of a child's hyper orientated screaming on the other end.

"Hello?" Rose's voice suddenly asked, and suddenly he was flowing with energy again – he'd been so moody the past couple of days with his mother-in-law. He hadn't seen Rose for two weeks now. It was agonising that he knew she was close, knew she was just down a flight of stairs – but he couldn't see her. He'd spent most of that time being forced to flick through wedding catalogues, in the end being forced to choose a long fitted tuxedo with a plain white shirt and black bow tie, and although Jackie had insisted he wore a pair of immaculate black polished shoes he had eventually won her over by saying he had his own 'posh shoes' in the TARDIS. Little did she know they were his converses.

"Rose!" he almost yelled in delight. "It's me!"

"Doctor!" she yelled back, even more delighted.

He readjusted the phone on his ear. "How are you?"

"I'm fine…Rory! Put that down!!!" she suddenly yelled to the child, whom he could still hear stampeding around the TARDIS in the background. "Rory, no, don't scratch them they'll scar. No…look, daddy's on the phone, you want to talk to daddy? Yes? C'mere then."

There was the sound of scuffling as he heard Rose hand the phone over to Rory.

"Hi daddy," came Rory's small voice. The Doctor was smiling, even though he couldn't see his son. "Sorry you had to go away."

"That's okay Rory," he replied, still smiling as he imagined the boy in his mind. "How are you feeling?"

"They itch."

"Well they're bound to. Bet you look like a pin cushion aswell."

The boy giggled. "When are you coming home daddy?"

He sighed. "Soon. Really soon."

"I miss you."

"I miss you too."

"Did you go because of me?"

Rose answered this one for him, "no Rory, it's not you, it's the Chickenpox."

"Turkeypox," Rory corrected loudly. "Why, does the Turkeypox hate daddy?"

"Because if he catches it he could get seriously ill. Even worse than you."

"Oh," Rory said, suddenly sounding worried. "Don't get ill daddy."

"I'll try not to."

"Okay Rory," Rose's voice came through again, "go pick up those toys whilst mummy talks to daddy, okay? Stay in here."

"Okay, buh-bye daddy. I love you."

"Bye-bye Rory, get better soon."

More scuffling, and suddenly Rose was back on the line.

"Hey," she said. "So you're okay then?"

"Fine," he answered as Jackie shuffled back into the room with two cups of tea clutched in her hands, setting them on the coffee table. "Well, as fine as could be with your mother pushing me around."

Jackie swotted him lightly over the head with the radiotimes, along with a yelp of surprise from him – and then launching into a sneezing fit.

"Doctor?!" Rose asked, anxiously.

"Just a cold. All your bloomin' human diseases, it's a wonder you can keep track!"

He heard her sigh in relief on the other end. "Good. Give it a couple more days until his spots have crusted over, and we're in the clear."

"'Ow long 'ave you been on that phone Doctor?" Jackie suddenly asked mildly, flicking through channels on the TV. "You're like a teenage girl!"

"Only five minutes!" he protested, hearing Rose's snigger on the other end.

"Five minutes too long!" she said, tearing her eyes away from the TV screen to point at the phone. "Hang up. Now."

"But…"

"Don't worry Doctor, I'll see you in a couple of days, yeah? Wait…Rory! Come back! Rory!!! Sorry Doctor, I've gotta go, love you, bye!" Dead tone.

He took the phone away from his ear, staring miserably at the receiver infront of him.

"Bye," he said weakly, before hanging up the phone, clasping his head in his hands and running them through his hair.

"Eastenders?" Jackie proposed lightly as the aforementioned program blipped onto the screen. He sighed.

"I don't care," he said curtly, staring at the floor. Jackie rolled her eyes.

He didn't speak for the rest of the night.

A/N: And we're back to no previews again. Me...inefficient. Told you so!