The Doctor's in the House!

well, here it is, the eighth chapter! Special thanks go to my shiny new beta, HiddenInTheTardis =) thank you so much, you're awesome!

"I swear your mother is going to be the death of me someday."

Rose rolled her eyes. "I hardly doubt that. Mum wouldn't kill anyone. And if today was anything to go by, I'd say she's actually starting to like you."

The Doctor looked disgusted at the thought. Rose laughed.

"Shh! You're going to wake your mother up," The Doctor whispered, pressing a finger to Rose's lips.

"Oops," Rose breathed, and looked at the door to Jackie's bedroom – they both waited until they could hear Jackie's light snoring before they breathed a sigh of relief.

As Rose had predicated, Jackie had guilt-tripped the two into staying overnight. With day and night-times twisted in the TARDIS, the two had just finished breakfast when they had arrived at Jackie's at six in the evening. So, being wide awake, the pair had taken refuge on the sofa, and tried not to wake Jackie up.

"I think we're very lucky Jackie's a deep sleeper."

Rose nodded against his chest. "When I was around sixteen, seventeen, it was a godsend for sneaking into the house at three in the morning."

The Doctor laughed silently; Rose felt it rather than heard it. She glanced at the clock; the red neon numbers reading out 02:43am. The Doctor was lying across the sofa, taking up a full three-seater by himself. His coat was draped across a dining room chair, and his jacket, tie and Converse were dumped by the sofa somewhere. Rose was lying with her head resting on his chest, her shoes somewhere beside the Doctor's, and her demin jacket was intermingled with his.

The Doctor was toying with a strand of Rose's hair, his eyes barely registering her silhouette through the darkness. His eyes decided to take their own sweet time to adjust to the dark.

"So where are we gonna go after we leave here?" Rose asked.

"Urgh. I hate it when you ask me that. I don't know. We'll push a random button on the TARDIS and wee! Off we go into time and space."

Rose laughed, remembering the last time they had said that. The Doctor raised his hand and Rose silently high-fived it. Jack had been there, too. It had pissed Mickey off no end. Rose felt a wash of sadness for the loss of her former boyfriend and her other friend. The Doctor was obviously feeling similarly, as he wrapped his arms tighter around Rose, both giving and taking comfort.

"We could go find Jack, if you want," The Doctor said, looking down at Rose, his eyes now fully adjusted.

Rose gasped – a reaction the Doctor had not expected. "You told me he was dead!" she whispered, trying not to shout as she craned her head around to glare at him.

"Did I? Sorry ... maybe it was just a bad time to say what really happened!" The Doctor protested, looking down at Rose with a very innocent expression. "I told you what happened on the Gamestation, right?"

"All except that bit," Rose spat, and punched his shoulder. The Doctor let out a high-pitched yelp that caused them both to glance at Jackie's door, breathing stopped.

"Right, I think you should shut up now before you wake Mum up and World War Three breaks out."

"Your fault, you shouldn't have hit me!"

"You shouldn't have lied!"

"I never lied!" The Doctor argued indignantly. "I just kept certain facts to myself until it was the right time and forgot I had not told you these certain facts."

Rose scowled in the darkness, not sure if he could see or not.

"Now, turn that frown upside down, Rosie!" The Doctor chimed, albeit quietly. Apparently, he could see her frown.

"We'll go refuel and then we'll go find Jack then. I haven't seen him since I regenerated. I wonder what he'll think? Will he like skinny me, or go all 'Rose' on me and want me to change back to big ears?"

"Hey!" Rose whispered, poking him lightly in the chest. "Only a first, you know. Now I'd choose this non-emo version of you over emo dumbo," she added with a cheeky smile.

"Really?"

"Really." Rose's word was muffled by a yawn.

"Are you getting tired?" The Doctor asked, looking down at her affectionately.

"No." Rose yawned again. She looked at the clock – 04:12am. "OK. Maybe slightly."

"Slightly? I'd say you're halfway to sleepland," The Doctor said, tapping Rose's nose lightly. Her eyes were closed and he could tell that she was already half-asleep.

"Night, Rose. Or should I say 'morning'?"

"Night, Doctor."

About ten minutes later Rose was breathing lightly and evenly, clearly in a deep sleep. The Doctor realised he probably should have moved her before she fell asleep – but he didn't, so he was trapped under her. He didn't have the heart to wake her up to move her to her bed. After he stared at the ceiling for five minutes, played I-spy with himself and sang 'eight million green bottles sitting on a wall' (he got down to seven million, nine hundred and ninety three thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine) he realised that there was nothing he could do to pass the time.

So he did the only thing he could do – he switched off his mind and fell asleep, praying that either he or Rose would wake up before Jackie. If she caught them like this, it wouldn't be pretty.

Bright sunlight filtered through the thin white curtains, and showered the room with light. The occupant in the bed wiggled, not particularly liking this light which was intruding on her sleep. Jackie turned around, eye squinting against the light to read the time on the clock – 09:02am. She'd wanted to sleep in a little longer than that, and was preparing to snuggle down again for a few extra hours of sleep when she remembered she had guests. Rose and the Doctor had stayed overnight, so she was planning to make them breakfast. The Doctor – who would already be up – never seemed to sleep anyway, so there would at least be some company, no matter who it was, until Rose got up sometime later.

Jackie got dressed quickly, and made sure she was presentable before going out the door into the living room – and stopped dead. If she had been holding anything, it would have hit the floor.

On her sofa lay Rose and the Doctor, both deeply asleep. The Doctor was laying spread out over the three seater, his feet still dangling off the end. Rose was lying on top of him, her head resting on his chest. Their outdoor clothes and shoes were dumped at the edge of the sofa. Both looked totally content, and fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Jackie expected to be angry. She expected herself to be so consumed with rage that she would hold her daughter prisoner until the end of her days, so she could never see that man again. She expected the furiousness to overspill onto him, slapping every bit of him until he flew away in his blue box and never came back.

But she didn't. She felt fine, no anger, no consuming rage, and no rising furiousness. Her first thought was that they looked rather cute like that. Jackie was shocked at herself. She stared at them for a while, trying to figure out exactly what her feelings where. Then, also rather shockingly, she had an epiphany.

It didn't really matter what she thought. She knew her daughter, better than anyone, and knew that Rose was just as stubborn as she was. If this is what she wanted, then no-one, whether it was her mother, a Dalek, or a whole herd of googly-eyed monsters from the planet Zobbiba, was going to get in the way of it. So Jackie did something she'd never done before – she was going to let them get on with it. Whatever Rose wanted, Jackie wanted. If it made Rose happy, Jackie was happy too. It was obvious that they were made for each other. Soulmates.

She made her way into the kitchen, smiling broadly. She happily made the two some breakfast. She was pleased for her daughter – it wasn't every day you found your soulmate. She heard someone stirring in the front room, and walked through with a cup of tea for whomever it was that was awake.

The first coherent thought in the Doctor's head was that his feet were freezing.

The second was that there was something lovely and warm was on his chest. He pulled his arms closer around it, savouring the warmth.

Third was that he was on Jackie Tyler's sofa, and that she was probably awake or about to wake soon.

His eyes snapped open, and winced at the bright sunlight. Looking down, he saw the 'something lovely and warm' was Rose, still sound asleep. He moved slightly to see if he could get out from underneath her, but to no avail; she just clung to him and buried herself deeper into his chest. He sighed, but then heard movement from the kitchen. His eyes flew open wide as he heard Jackie pottering around the kitchen, obviously making breakfast; she was whistling as the kettle boiled. Whistling? A frown appeared in the Doctor's forehead. He checked again where Jackie's bedroom was; she would walk right past them to get to the kitchen.

The kitchen door opened, and the Doctor held his breath as Jackie walked through, two cups of tea in hand. "I guessed it'd be you up first," she whispered, handing him a cup of tea. He shook his head, pointing to the coffee table, then to Rose. Jackie nodded, set the cup down, and helped pry Rose off the Doctor. It was no easy feat as Rose seemed bound and determined to take him, or at least his shirt, with her; she grabbed it in fists and held on tightly. The Doctor got up off the sofa, picked Rose up gently, and laid her back on the sofa. He sat with his back against the sofa, legs stuck out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. He was waiting for Jackie to blow.

"You don't usually sleep, do you?" Jackie whispered again, as the Doctor reached for his cup of tea.

He shook his head. "Not usually. But it's becoming more of a common occurrence nowadays. With Rose sleeping half the time, fixing the TARDIS becomes a little boring. Plus the TARDIS doesn't exactly like being 'fixed'. So I've taken to sleeping more often than I'm used to. I'm actually beginning to find myself getting tired," he rambled, trying to prolong the imminent shouting match.

"Ooh, fancy that, posh Time Lordship whatsit gettin' tired," Jackie smirked.

"She's," The Doctor said, pointing a thumb behind him, indicating to Rose, "making me domestic."

"Never thought I'd see the day."

"Neither did I."

There was silence for a few moments, the only sounds being the occasional slurp and Rose's light snores.

"Is sausage, bacon and eggs all right for ya?" Jackie asked.

The Doctor looked a little thrown by the comment. "Yeah," he whispered, nodding.

Jackie laughed almost silently. "You look like I'm about to hit ya or somethin'."

The Doctor decided that honestly was probably going to be the best policy for this conversation. "I was expecting it," he said, "after you discovered Rose and I on the sofa."

Jackie smiled. "I was thinkin' about it," she said, and the Doctor saw she was looking more at Rose than him, "but then I realised that it's my daughter that I'm dealin' with, and that she's every bit as stubborn as me. If she wants this, then nothin' is gonna get in 'er way."

The Doctor laughed quietly. "Yeah. I can see that's where she gets her stubbornness from."

Jackie smiled, before she realised what he'd said. "Oi!" she huffed indignantly, as the Doctor chuckled again. "I always thought she was more like her dad than me."

"She's more like you than her father, I think. Even then, she is like him too. Perfect mixture maybe?"

"How do you know? You've never met Pete." Jackie's voice grew soft.

"I did," the Doctor replied, treading cautiously with his words. "Rose asked to go and meet him. So we went back to the day he died. There was a wedding. I like weddings. Especially yours. It was funny."

Jackie didn't find this comment funny at all. "You were not at my weddin'. And how was it funny if you weren't there?" Jackie smirked, thinking she'd caught him out.

"Pete got your name wrong," The Doctor said, also smirking. Jackie looked flabbergasted. "We were at the back. I say me – it was old me, Dumbo with ears and nose."

Jackie gasped. "Oh, my god ..." she said, looking down. "Rose told me that. I called 'er a liar."

"Don't worry about it. Rose doesn't care. She knows that it would have been hard for you to accept, because in life the things that please us the most are the things we seem to deny ourselves." He looked at Rose, who was still sleeping peacefully on the sofa.

"You really do love 'er, don't ya." It was a statement more than a question.

The Doctor didn't say anything, but Jackie took it as a 'yes'. The timer on the oven clicked, and Jackie rose to fetch the food, leaving the Doctor to wake up Rose.

"Rose ... Rosie. Rose. Wake up," The Doctor shook Rose's shoulder gently. "Rise and sh-hine!"

Rose waved her hands as if batting of a fly. She caught the Doctor in the face, and woke up as her hand came into contact with his cheek. She sat bolt upright, looking like she'd broken her favourite toy.

"Bloody hell, Rose, I was only trying to tell you breakfast is ready. I'm not trying to kill you or anything!" The Doctor said, clutching his hands to his face, playing up the injury.

"Sorry! You were just ... in the way! I'm so, so, sorry!" Rose said apologetically, repeating the phrase countless times. She slid off the sofa and came to rest on her knees beside him. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Fit as a fiddle. Its fine, you only whacked me a little," The Doctor laughed as Rose cringed, "And your mother woke up before I did, caught us in our ... state, and she didn't kill me."

"Seriously?" Rose's voice was disbelieving.

"Yeah. Truth and all," He said. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

"That wouldn't work, you've got two."

"Yes, okay, Miss Smart. Anyway, you're mother is putting breakfast on the table right now. I smell ... bacon, eggs and sausages. And that isn't because she told me what we're having. I have a highly adapted sense of smell. Better than most animals, actually."

Rose rolled her eyes and stood up, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. "Let's go, Timey," she said, referring to the nickname she had made up whilst drunk at her Cousin Mo's 40th the other week.

"That has got to be one of the worst nicknames I've ever known in all my nine hundred years," The Doctor remarked, as he and Rose walked to the dining table. Rose could see he was fidgeting to get away.

"We'll be gone in a couple of hours. First to refuel, then we'll go find Jack like you promised."

Boy, he was going to regret that one.