A/N Set before the Doctor and Rose came back in The Army of Ghosts. I always wanted to write something from Jackie's P.O.V.
Disclaimer: Jacqueline Adrea Suzette Tyler does not belong to me. Which is a good job.
Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler looked out at the Powell Estate. Once upon a time it had just been the Powell Estate, London to her. Now she thought of it as the Powell Estate, London, England, Earth, the Solar System, the Milky Way. She didn't know what was beyond the Milky Way and was too scared to ask. Asking would make the Doctor launch into one of his long rants that only he could understand. And that meant Jackie would have to slap him round the face and that meant Rose would get upset. No upsetting Rose. That might make her leave quicker, and Jackie preferred having her around than not.
If she were around now, she could meet the ghost of her granddad. Jackie had always wanted her dad and Rose to meet, and now they could.
The truth was, Jackie was lonely. It was O.K for Rose; she was half way across the bleeding universe with that Doctor. Seeing new planets, talking to aliens, all of that. And Jackie had been left behind. Stuck on Earth, forever listening, forever waiting to hear the whistling, the whirring of that blue box. The sound of the universe. That's what Rose said.
Rose didn't understand.
She didn't understand that Jackie had to lie to all her friends about her whereabouts. She didn't understand how Jackie would look at the black sky and wonder if Rose were dying at that very moment. She didn't understand that Jackie looked and listened for a blue box everywhere she went. She didn't understand that Jackie was sick of buying microwave meals for one on the nights when all her friends were busy. Rose just didn't understand.
There had been Mickey, of course, but he was gone now. The Doctor had said he'd "gone home". Jackie wondered why he'd never called to say goodbye. She hoped he was happy.
So when the ghost of her old dad turned up, Jackie was ecstatic. She loved her dad. Even though she could barely see him, she told him everything she could. She got no reply, but at least he was there. At least he was listening. Or Jackie thought he was, anyway.
Of course, the world was in chaos at first. Human shapes that were there but not there blurring into existence. There were crisis reports on the news, headlines splashed all over the papers. And Jackie was sure Rose and the Doctor would be back soon. She got up each day, sure this would be the day the box came back.
But they didn't come. Maybe they'd forgotten all about her and the Earth. Maybe Rose didn't care anymore because she had so many other planets to choose from. Maybe they wouldn't come.
And there lay Jackie's greatest fear. That Rose would just walk away from home, from everything that was her life.
Please come home, Jackie thought, looking at the street lamp lit, star free London sky.