As hard as she was trying, Rose just wasn't having any fun. Yes, she laughed when Mickey fell off a plastic motorbike game, and kissed him on the cheek when he won a little stuffed duck for her. She listened politely to her mum's stories about her "girlfriends," but her mind kept wandering.
"Rose? Darling, are you alright?" Jackie pulled her chair closer to Rose's as they waited for Mickey. He was standing in line to buy pizza while the other two went to find a table.
"I'm fine, Mum. Really I am," Rose tried to sound confident, but her voice was weaker than she meant it to sound.
"I don't believe that for a second. How thick do you think I am?" Behind the joke, Jackie was concerned for her daughter. She was usually a bubbly, energetic girl, but today Rose was entirely lackluster. An idea occurred to Jackie, and she gripped her daughter's wrist tightly.
"It's the Doctor, isn't it? He's not been treating you wrong, has he? What's he done to you? If he's gone and— If he— I'll kill him!" Jackie was working herself into a fury. This caught Rose's attention, and she rushed to soothe her mother.
"No! No, Mum, it's nothing like that. Really! I'm fine! Just, it's odd havin' him completely leave me out of somethin' like this," Rose's explanation turned into a stream of words, completely bypassing the mind-to-mouth filter, "I thought we'd worked this out. He and I, we were a team, an' now he thinks he's got to protect me or something. They're just kids! I've faced Slitheen, a Dalek, gas-masked zombies, all kinds of stuff! But normal teenagers? Oh, no. They're far too dangerous for little ol' me!"
"Well, ya never know!" Mickey slid a steaming pizza onto the table and dropped into a chair on Rose's other side. "They might be another kind of outer space beastie, just waitin' to gobble you up."
"But they're not," Rose insisted, "They're just kids. Completely human," She turned to gaze out a window across the room, looking in the direction the Doctor had gone. A sigh escaped her lips, and she began to drum her fingers on the table absently. Dum-da-da-dum… Dum-da-da-dum…
"Look, if it's really bugging you that much, sweetheart, we can go and find him. He can't've gone far. An' even if he has, he wouldn't leave without you," Jackie hugged Rose gently with one arm, and started to stand up, but Mickey pulled her back down.
"We should at least eat this first," he gestured towards the pizza, lying untouched in the center of their table.
"Mickey's right, mum. Let's eat. I'm absolutely starving," Rose smiled halfheartedly and pulled a slice onto her plate. Jackie sighed, but reached to nab a slice of her own. The self-satisfied smile that materialized on Mickey's face as he munched his own piece of pizza made Rose giggle quietly to herself.
Twenty silent minutes later, Rose and her companions began to trek back towards the center of town. When the TARDlS finally entered their line of sight, Rose broke out into a trot. She beckoned to her mother and Mickey to follow, and she did, but Mickey stopped walking altogether. None of them had, as of yet, glimpsed the cluster of people on the opposite side of the blue box.
"No. I'm not goin' no further," he announced, crossing his arms across his chest. "I'm sick of waitin' around for you, an' when I've finally got you for a bit, you just can't wait to go runnin' back to him! I'm not gonna do it! That's it!"
Rose knew better than to take him too seriously, but for his sake she put on a slightly confused and very concerned expression as she walked back to where he stood. It was so hard to take him seriously sometimes.
"It's not gonna work this time," Mickey uncrossed his arms and began to step backwards slowly as Rose approached him. "Nuh-uh. I'm done wastin' my time," His voice waivered as she reached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry, babe," Rose's visage became solemn, and she looked at her faintly glowing neon shoes. "I don't mean to, really I don't. It's just so excitin', all we get to see. I get kind of caught up sometimes," She met his eyes, and smiled.
"Well, that's great for you, but what about me? I'm tired of…" the rest of his sentence died before he could finish as Rose kissed him on the cheek, then on the lips. They were just quick little kisses, but they were enough to make him smile and blush a bit. He promptly began staring at the sidewalk, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"Let's go, a'ight?" Rose pulled one of Mickey's hands out of his pocket, and as she expected, he began to trudge alongside her.
"Yeah… I guess…" Reluctantly, he trailed after Rose, still holding her hand. They drew level with Jackie, and, together they resumed tromping towards the TARDIS. All three stopped in their tracks when they heard voices. Rose recognized the Doctor's voice, but the others were unfamiliar to her.
"Jack? What would he want with the Doctor?" one of the unfamiliar voices asked. The voice was female, and slightly deeper than Rose's. Probably belonging to someone close to her own age, or maybe a little older. "How will you get in touch with 'im anyway? It's not like you can just ring 'im up and tell him to meet you at the pub in ten or somethin'."
"Wait, who's Jack?" another strange voice asked, this one female as well, but more childlike.
"Hush, Katie," a young male voice silenced the girl.
"Why don't we all just wave goodbye and go along our merry ways?" The three recognized the Doctors voice. It took her a moment, but Rose realized the Doctor's wasn't the only voice she knew.
An enormous, silly grin spread across Oliver's face as Rose stepped around the side of the TARDlS. Katie elbowed him in the ribs playfully. To his disappointment, Rose just threw him a glance as she strode up to her large-eared friend.
"So what's goin' on here, ay?" She addressed Daniel, leaning against the navy-colored wooden doors behind her.
Daniel tried his best to be cool, but with little success. "Just talking to your friend here. I'm Daniel. Daniel Bethe." After wiping his slightly sweaty palm on his jeans, he extended a hand, which Rose shook.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Bethe. I'm-" she started to introduce herself.
"Rose Tyler," Daniel finished for her, "and it's Daniel, none of this 'Mr. Bethe' business. Or Dan, or Danny, or anything, really. I'd even respond to 'Hey you!' if you forgot my name or something, or—"
"Shut up, love. You're babbling again," Hannah nudged Daniel lightly with an elbow. It was clear he was incredibly nervous. At her touch, however, a bit of Daniel's tension seemed to evaporate and he smiled slightly.
It seemed odd to Rose that this Daniel person knew who she was, but she was more distracted by the sight of her mother stepping quietly around the TARDIS.
"Rose? What's goin' on here? Who is this… dashing young man?" Her need for silence gone, Jackie strode up to stand next to Rose, and she winked at Daniel as she spoke. Mickey followed Jackie, but stood a few feet back, his hands happily in the depths of his pockets.
"Doesn't matter," the Doctor interrupted, "We're just going to pop into the TARDlS for a bit. Take you home, eh?"
"Can we come with you?" Katie ran up to Rose and took hold of her sleeve.
"Nope! Sorry!" came the Doctor's reply, though the question was really addressed to Rose. He turned and unlocked the navy front doors and gestured for Jackie to go inside. With one last flirtatious smile towards Daniel, she complied and slipped through the doors. Mickey shuffled forward and followed Jackie, hands still in his pockets.
"You'll be alright here, won't you?" One foot already through the door, the Doctor turned to face Rose. "I'm just going to run off to your time, drop Ricky and your mum off, and I'll be back."
"It's Mickey, Big Ears!" Mickey yelled from inside the TARDIS.
"Whatever," The Doctor hollered back. He then turned back to Rose, and looked at her expectantly.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Rose mumbled. She didn't like that he was leaving her behind again, but what could she do?
"Bye darling!" Jackie's voice came from inside the TARDIS. "Lovely to see you! Come home soon!"
The navy front doors slammed, and Rose waved feebly at the disappearing blue box. She was slightly startled when an intensely pale arm wrapped across her shoulders in a small hug.
"He'll be back," Hannah assured her. "He really loves you, you know." Rose gave her a weak smile in thanks.
"Wow, Hannah, I'm impressed," Oliver scoffed. He was blatantly jealous of Hannah's being near Rose. "That's the first remotely insightful thing I've ever heard you say."
Hannah's simple reply was to turn on her heel and give Oliver a well-placed slap across the face.