Random conversations on Bad Wolf Bay

Summary: There were lots of things left unsaid at the end of „Journey's End". But since I don't know them for sure, too, I've come up with several ideas. This is Pete/Jackie.

Disclaimer: All official Doctor Who stuff belongs to BBC etc. - I only borrow it for this story.

Notice: This is my first conversation without the Doctor. I'll try to put always one little chat like this between two that actually feature him.

Chapter 2 – A nice guy

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Jackie Tyler had been as surprised at the sudden disappearance of the Tardis as her daughter and the remaining Doctor. After all, she had been spellbound by the kissing couple, like any mother would have been. She barely understood half of the things that just had happend, but she knew the universes had been saved, they were back in the world where her little boy was waiting for her, and one of the Doctors wanted to stay with Rose who obviously was happy about that. Why should she care about anything else?

'Oh dear, I really hope he is worth all the trouble you have gone through.' Jackie couldn't help that she still had some doubts. She knew the Doctor was dear to Rose as her own life, but it was exactly this commitment that had left her little girl hurting so much when she had been parted from him.

The sound of the Tardis made her jump, and she hissed: "That bastard! Didn't even say goodbye. Do these aliens have no manners at all?"

But when Jackie saw Rose breaking free of the Doctor's embrace and hurrying towards the disappearing blue box, she gasped. 'No, don't run off again!' She was relieved, when her daughter had to stop.

"That's a good man", she decided with a sad smile, when the remaining Doctor walked up to Rose and wordlessly took her hand. She couldn't read the faces of him and her daughter from where she was standing, but she was sure he would do anything he could to make her happy. After all, he had stayed, hadn't he?

While she retreated a bit further to give the couple some more privacy, Mrs. Tyler switched her mobile-phone on and called her husband.

"Jackie?! Are you alright? Where are you?" Pete's voice was thick with relief and worry at the same time.

"I'm fine, darling. We are back in this universe - but in Norway. This idiot dumped us on this damn beach where he showed up the last time."

"Norway?! Never mind, I'm on my way." He had not thought about that place in a long time. "Is Rose okay? And what about Mickey?"

She appreciated that his tone did become somewhat hesitant. In the few years they had spent together in this universe, they had grown into a true family. Rose was as much his daughter as if he had watched her growing up. And Mickey had become a dear friend to this Tyler, too. However, Pete had been aware that those two might not return, even if everything ended well.

"Rose is with me. Mickey decided to stay in the old universe."

"And?" He knew his wife well. There was more to it, and it bothered her.

"And the Doctor is here with us, too. Sort of."

"What?!" He was happy that Rose was here again, but he only connected trouble and sorrow with the strange man she was so dedicated to.

"Somehow there suddenly were two of him. They really look like twins! And both can talk like crazy. I think he is some kind of clone ..." Jackie wondered once more what actually happened, and if she ever was going to learn it. "However, it seems that this Doctor - I mean the one who is here now - is in fact part human. I guess that means, he is still half alien, too. Nevertheless he obviously seems to have some sense in his stupid head."

"Wait, ..." Pete had to interrupt the flow of words. His head was spinning. "He made himself half-human?"

"Nah, I gather it was sort of an accident." Jackie checked with a glance over her shoulder how the 'accident' and her daughter were faring. She surely didn't want him to hear her calling him something like that. But they hadn't moved much and were either talking or just staring out at the sea.

"He cloned himself by accident?"

"Don't ask me. But I think he might be able to explain all this. You see, he still is all clever. The important thing is that he isn't some super-alien anymore who just changes his face when something bad happens. I guess you could say he's mortal now. At last he said that he only got one life now. And do you know what?"

Pete's head was buzzing. Of course, he had heard all about the Doctor and his strange abilities, but he hardly had witnessed any of it himself. "No, what?"

"He said he wants to spend it with Rose!"

For a moment he was too stunned to reply anything. "What ... does that mean?"

With a sigh, Jackie turned once more to the couple. She couldn't tell for sure, but the way they kept a certain distance between them told her that not everything was fine. "Well, I'm not exactly sure. He seems like a nice guy, I mean he seems nicer than the other Doctor. Perhaps because not so alien anymore. I think he really loves her, and I wasn't so sure about that with the other one. And she seemed to have been quite happy about having him, but ..."

"I know ..." Pete didn't hide the sadness in his voice, when it dawned on him what his wife was thinking of. Only because someone looks exactly like a loved one and might even act the same, it doesn't mean you just can forget the one you have known and loved before. "Just bring him along. It will need time, and we can provide everything for those two to give them that time."

Jackie smiled lovingly, and although Mr. Tyler couldn't see her, he could hear her relief and thanks for his understanding in her voice. "You are the best, darling."