Hi everyone! Just wanted to say a quick thank you for reading, this is a short chapter, but there are a couple of big ones on their way! I hope you enjoy!

Lolo

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By god could Jackie Tyler talk. She could rabbit, whine, moan, groan, grumble, reiterate, gab and gossip. Right now she was making a fair old effort of all of these, simultaneously, through the omnipresent phone system. Rose was pottering about, picking up small piles of stuff, and making it into larger piles of stuff, seemingly in some attempt to tidy. At the same time she was heroically pacifying her mother, responding diplomatically in the right places, dropping the odd "hmmm", or "did she!" here and there. Watching Rose do something so normal, tidying and talking to her mother, pottering around in her own home, being human, was eliciting within him a strange response. Akin to bereavement, a want that was making his chest ache slightly, almost like jealousy. He wanted to be able to have chatty conversations and tidy piles, he wanted to wander around being comfortable. He wanted these things, and he wanted them with Rose.

He brought himself up short at that thought. How could he demand a life from her, especially a shared version of her life. She barely knew him, he was a stranger to all intents and purposes. A stranger she had taken in her arms and wept with, a stranger she had readily offered her home to. There is only one reason she would do that. She isn't treating him like a stranger, because she's treating him like himself, or rather the version of himself currently enjoying the company of the TARDIS. She hasnt accepted that he is a different person yet, at least not fully. Feeling his mood darken at the realisation that he was a surrogate for that unthinking, useless alien he shared a face with, he re focussed on her conversation.

"oh yeah, the Doctor is settling in. I think I'm going to take him into work later today. Got some stuff to organise...you know"

She was stirring a teaspoon in a steaming cup, looking thoughtful. He couldn't handle this, it felt wrong, a lie.

"I'm not the Doctor" it was out before he had chance to consider volume, multi-directional microphones, and Rose. The conversation stopped, "Eh? What's he banging on about now...."

"I've got to go mum." Rose said and ended the call with her mother still wittering about nutty aliens. Turing to face him slowly, she felt apprehension lace up her spine at the sight of him. He looked dark, like he should have his own storm cloud looming over head. "what do you mean?"

"I'm not the Doctor. Never have been, just a very similar person, a cross breed, a Halfling, not him." He leaned forward while he spoke, elbows resting on spread knees, resting his head in his hands.

"Then...who are you? What do you want me to do? I can't decide for you what you want to be!" she felt herself losing control of her voice, volume covering for the tremble she felt creeping in. She suddenly felt angry, livid that he could be angry with her for calling him by the only name she had for him. She had asked, even begged on occasion, for him to tell her his real name, his other nicknames...anything other than "The Doctor" but he had stoically refused. "I don't know what to say, one minute you're like fire, you're kissing me and the worlds melting around me, and the next you're angry." He had raised his head now, and was opening his mouth to speak. Rose hadn't finished yet though, she had cried her hurt out last night, and all it had left her with was anger. " I cannot read your mind, I only know what you tell me. To me you are the Doctor, I fought too long and too fucking hard to have you tell me otherwise. So what if you're a bit more human than you used to be, so bloody what if you're stuck here. Me too!" she had gotten steadily louder as her speech accelerated. The last few words almost a roar.

"The last four years have been hell, I haven't eaten, haven't slept...all to chase you across galaxies. I don't care that you're not the original you, if you care to remember I was more than accommodating when you changed your entire body, why should one less heart change anything?" he was staring at her now, but she was too angry to read his eyes, all she could think about was the hot tight sickening sensation in her chest. She was still shouting, tears were streaming down her cheeks, tickling at the underside of her jaw where they clung. "I love you, I always have and I always will. I told you once I would never leave you. But that does not mean you can drag me into that dark place you seem to hide in. Nor does it mean you have some claim over me. You always believed deep down that you knew best and i was just some silly little ape girl, well that may have been true while you whisked me through the universe, but right now you're the one who's behaving like a clueless moron." Her head was aching and bright edged grey patches were obscuring her vision, the ache was beginning to spread down her neck, but she shook the sensation away. The violent motion tipped the world on its axis; suddenly she was on a rollercoaster with no safety belt.

He sat there dumbfounded, his melancholy forgotten, as Rose proceeded to yell at him, every sentence cutting him. She was right, they were both stuck, and he was being pathetic. He had what he had lusted after for so long. A normal life, a chance to settle down with the one person he's ever truly wanted that with. The reason he had so loathed domesticity was that even a taste of it had made him crave its normality. As she yelled her face got redder and redder, and then suddenly began to pale. He forgot about what she was shouting about, already chastising himself for being such a colossal ass. Tears were running down her face, but she didn't seem to notice, she didn't make any move to wipe them away. She told him she loved him, and his attention snapped back to her words, he knew what she meant when she mentioned that dark place, even though he wanted to tell her she was the most intelligent ape he had ever met, that he loved her too, that he was sorry. She shook her head, violently, like there was somthing in her hair, and her knees sagged, she dropped, eyes rolling in her head. He was there, catching her before her head hit the ground.

"Rose." His voice sounded scared, but it didn't come close to the terror he felt. He couldnt wake her. Her forehead was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. She looked pallid, waxy almost. He forced himself not to cry, to check her breathing, her heart rate. Rational thought began to escape him, but he clawed it back. He couldn't panic, couldn't hyperventilate, however much he felt the urge to rising in him. He needed help, where do you get help from, who would know...Jackie. How do you get Jackie...phone. he had to call her.

Taking a stab in the dark, he said to nothing but air, "Call Jackie" then thought again "Call mum" this time an intermittent ringing filtered into the room. Closely followed by Jackie's voice, for once a welcome relief.

Jackie Tyler was sat in her kitchen, eating sandwiches and drinking tea with her husband and son. They rarely got a chance to do this together, Pete was on call but working from home, Torchwood was taking a slight breather, recovering from the events of the past few days. When the phone rang, she ID'd the call before her husband could take it, they could at least finish their lunch before he ran off to save the world.

"Rose, darlin'...didn't think you were going to call till later" the sound of the Doctor's voice cut her off.

"Jackie it's me, there's something wrong with Rose, I need help" she had never heard him sound truly scared before. Pete was already out of his chair and on the way to the door, pulling his mobile out of his pocket, contacting the team presumably. He headed out of the kitchen door. It was a two minute run across the landscaped grounds if you did it fast, quicker than getting in a car. She knew without asking or even looking at him that she would organise Tonys care and take his car, they would rendezvous at Rose's place. When her daughter had moved out of the main house she had sat down with Pete and discussed the emergency plan for getting to her. Nothing seemed impossible to her anymore. "Pete's on his way. What's happened, what's wrong with my Rose, what have you done." Tony started to cry, picking up on the tension, "Where's Rosie mummy?" "She's at her house, not to worry come on let's find Annie" Annie was the live in help, more of a close family friend than staff, but she had doubled as day care, and Jackie trusted her.

"I'm on my way" with that she hung up, angry that this man had been back in their lives such a small space of time and was already causing problems. She would kill him herself if he'd hurt her daughter.

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Oooh, Rose has actually blown a gasket! I do so love to get angry, even if it's by proxy...not to worry more chapters coming soon!

Remember to review..I would be very appreciative!

Lolo x