Merry Christmas/totally non-denominational seasons greetings.
Rose awoke the next morning with the sensation of a breeze block settled on her chest, inhibiting her ability to breathe. A breeze block with a heartbeat, apparently. Opening one eye, she smirked a little at the sight of the Doctor sprawled out on her chest, his cheek pressed to her collarbone and his hand settled just over her right breast. It seemed they'd fallen asleep in mostly the same position they'd finished their lovemaking in – him so sated he'd collapsed half on top of her and her too tired to move him. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, to wake up like this. Nor was it unpleasant to feel him, hard and insistent, pressed against her thigh.
She half wanted to wake him, knowing how typically male he was: he'd jump at the chance of yet another lazy morning shag… He did every time she offered. The temptation was almost too much to bear as she stroked his upturned cheek with the hand not trapped underneath him, but then he nuzzled in closer to her and looked so peaceful she couldn't stand to shatter the moment.
So often was he babbling, Rose took the rare silence as a chance to reflect on the events of the previous day. Engaged. To the Doctor. The reality of that statement would take a while to fully sink in, she realised. Although she couldn't see it, she could feel the metal of her new ring around her finger, and the tingle of happiness it sent up her spine was foreign. She'd never envisioned this: marriage and babies (not that they'd even touched on that subject) was something she'd long resigned herself to never having.
How had she slipped into loving the idea so quickly and thoroughly, she wondered? They belonged together – to each other – no matter what, and had both always assumed they didn't need a flimsy piece of paper to cement the issue… and yet here they were. It was especially perplexing when you considered that this kind of ceremony wasn't even native to the Doctor. But, once again, here they were. Astonishing, really.
If her nineteen year old self could have anticipated her future… Her future in a parallel universe with her real mum and parallel dad and little brother, engaged to the future mostly human version of the grumpy Northern alien she was currently kicking up her heels with. Rose giggled softly to herself – she would probably have had herself committed.
She wondered idly what everyone in the other universe was getting up to. Of course, through second hand telepathy she knew vaguely what their old friends were up to, but she suddenly yearned to know the details of their lives. Had Mickey and Martha become parents? Was Donna living the high life with her new husband and jackpot lottery win? Had lovely old Jack found someone to spend at least part of his endless life with? And the other Doctor, what was he doing? Not in a jealous way, but she had to wonder… Who was travelling with him now, and more to the point, did he remember her?
The moment the thought crossed her mind, the Doctor who is here now and has no hope of ever forgetting her awoke, his eyes fluttering open slowly. He grunted, not bothering to move.
"Time is it?" he asked groggily, momentarily forgetting he was still part Time Lord and knew fine well that it was eight thirty two and six seconds on the morning on the nineteenth of April. Rose quirked an eyebrow, glancing at the frankly useless (and only there for the novelty) clock on her bedside table.
"'Bout half eight."
"Five more minutes."
"Up."
"Ten more minutes?"
"We need to get up! Mum will be battering down the door soon for us to take her to Emeraude."
She leaned her head down and kissed his messier than usual hair, fighting back a chuckle at his pantomime-esque groan.
"I forgot. What did I agree to that for? Jackie Tyler in the TARDIS. Again! Just make sure she doesn't touch anything, okay?"
Rose made to slide out from underneath him, but the Doctor leaned up on his forearms and kept her trapped, his grin salacious. She quirked an eyebrow at him, amused.
"Can I get up, please?"
"Not yet. We've got time before she gets here… I don't think I showed you enough last night just how thrilled I am that you're now my fiancée…" he murmured, his voice dropping dangerously low as he dipped his head and nipped the flesh of her earlobe with his teeth – the reaction it garnered was a fairly new discovery for both of them. Rose twisted a little, biting back a moan. Her revenge came in the form of a feather light stroke of her fingernail down his spine, grazing temptingly over the mole between his shoulder blades. The Doctor shuddered and grinned down at her, capturing her lips in a deep and languid kiss. His long, clever fingers had just slipped deliciously between her legs when a loud repeated banging sound began to reverberate down the long corridors of the TARDIS, closely followed by the bellowing voice of Jackie, yelling to be let inside.
The Doctor groaned, teasing her playfully for a moment and making her squirm before pulling away, his expression mutinous.
"It'll be less disturbing for her if you go and let her in. I'll go and get dressed," he muttered, rolling off her onto his side in a way that suggested he had no intention of doing anything of the sort. She rose huffily and struggled into the worn flannel pyjamas they had so hurriedly discarded the previous night before shooting him a playful glance and exiting the room.
"Bloody hell!" Jackie panted as she stumbled into the console room. "Why can't you two just sleep in the house like normal people?"
Rose quirked an eyebrow and didn't reply as her mother deposited several plastic bags and two flasks of tea just inside the door.
"Morning mum," she muttered, realising in that moment how much of an eventful day this would likely be. Jackie looked her up and down, wrinkling her nose as she strolled to the jumpseat and plonked down heavily, her legs swinging.
"Still in your jimjams, then? Didn't realise I was early," she smirked knowingly. "Where's himself?"
"Still in bed, probably. Said he was going to get dressed but we'll be lucky if he appears before ten – still can't believe how much he sleeps now!"
"Just a typical bloke, then."
"You have no idea. Come on and we'll go to the galley and have a cuppa. All those tannins and free radicals, yeah?" Rose laughed, momentarily lost in fond memories of the first time she'd seen that dazzling grin she'd come to adore. Jackie, nonplussed, grabbed her bags and followed Rose down the winding corridors.
The moment they stepped into the galley, Jackie's face coloured and she bit her lip, looking at Rose in surprise.
"I didn't realise you had a kitchen. That's why I brought the food." She indicated the bags and the flasks as she deposited them on the table, flushing to the roots of her hair in embarrassment at her stupidity.
Rose smiled fondly. "Where did you think we ate?"
"I thought you stopped off for chips or whatever you fancied whenever you were hungry. God, you've even got a bleedin' George Foreman grill!" she cried, inspecting the admittedly futuristic gadget with a critical eye. Rose snorted.
"Yeah, we do. We've also got a kettle that boils in ten seconds and a fully functioning cooker, so sit down while I get your tea. Sorry Pete and Tony couldn't come," she added as an afterthought, spooning four sugars into her mother's cup.
"It's alright, Tony's probably too young anyway. I'm glad I got you on your own, actually. I want to know how you're really feeling with this whole engagement thing."
Rose cast a confused glance over her shoulder as she stirred in the milk.
"What d'you mean? I'm over the moon. Aren't you pleased?"
"Of course I'm pleased, you plum! I never thought I'd see the day. But that's why I'm worried, sweetheart. Is this really what you want? Marriage and babies an' all that?"
"For a start, we've never talked about kids. Don't know if it'd be practical, us living how we do. But yeah, really – I'm happy." She set one steaming mug in front of her mother then settled into the chair opposite, curling her toes into the cool tiles of the floor. "It was a shock for both of us. We hadn't really talked about it, and then suddenly out pops the question and even he hadn't expected it! But when I thought about it I was like, well, why the Hell not?! I love him, and he loves me, and this is a step we're gonna take together."
Jackie felt the prickle of worry in her chest ease monumentally at the sight of her nigh on glowing daughter, and allowed a relaxed smile to creep onto her face.
"Well, that's settled, then. Congratulations again, sweetheart. But you're gonna have to talk about kids at some point, yeah?"
"Yeah, mum. Whatever you say."
As predicted, the Doctor strolled blithely into the kitchen at precisely ten o'clock, showered, dressed in his blue suit and with his usual painstakingly styled hair. Rose and Jackie ignored him, absorbed in their conversation about what Jackie could expect on Emeraude. He didn't like not being the centre of attention, and deliberately created a racket whilst brewing himself a cup of tea and slathering butter and an unhealthy amount of strawberry jam on his toast.
"Good morning, ladies of the Tyler family!" he all but bellowed, throwing himself into an empty chair and kicking his feet up on the table; Jackie groaned in annoyance.
"Get those shoes off the table!" she scolded, swatting at his red converse. They remained stubbornly where they were, his long legs crossed at the ankles.
"My ship, my rules," he smirked, poking out his tongue and licking a stray smear of jam from the side of his thumb. Rose visibly twitched, which prompted yet another smirk from the Doctor and a disapproving glare from her mother.
"That's as may be, mister, but I'm your mother in law now so you'll have to listen to me more. Hurry up and finish your toast, I want to go into space! Rose, go and get dressed."
They both meekly obeyed, not even daring to glance at one another as they exited the kitchen.
Jackie wandered around the console, her fingers itching to press some of the buttons or pull one of the strange looking levers. It looked different to the one she'd been in before – these controls looked newer and less like the ship had been built out of spare parts. She reasoned silently that after nearly a thousand years the old one probably was built out of spare parts. Not this new TARDIS, though: she was a beauty. Completely identical in every way except for her shiny new controls and slightly less dusty grating. The Doctor stood across from her, glancing up every now and then between programming coordinates. After a few silent minutes where only the gentle hum of the TARDIS could be heard, he spoke.
"How do you fancy flipping the lever that'll make us take off?"
She did indeed fancy it. When Rose had joined them, they stood crowded around the console, watching with bated breath as Jackie's hand shook over the lever. The Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Okay, so just pull it down and we'll be catapulted to the year 6127. Think you can handle it?" he smiled, and his gentle tone belied his stern words. Rose took her mother's free hand and the woman tugged the lever downwards, sending the time ship into the vortex.
As was custom they were thrown to the floor, managing to clamber upright long enough to grab onto the console, howling with laughter the entire time. Jackie, through a mouthful of hair, yelled, "Is it always like this or did I do something wrong?"
The Doctor grinned at her, his eyes sparkling and alive. "Never, Jackie Tyler, you were brilliant! There is a button to stabilise the flight, but… Well, this is more fun, isn't it?!"
"It'll get smoother when we're out of the vortex," Rose added, laughing harder again at her poor mother's utterly bemused expression.
"I hope there's somewhere I can throw up on this planet," Jackie scowled, her skin turning pale as they were tossed around like ragdolls.
Suddenly, the ship almost stilled. Now out of the time vortex, their journey to Emeraude would be much more pleasant. They all stood and dusted themselves off, and Jackie tottered to the jumpseat and collapsed down whilst the Doctor wrapped his arms around Rose from behind as she studied the monitor carefully. Her full lips pursed, she pointed at an unfamiliar shape looming over the glittering planet. A granite coloured mass faintly reminiscent of the Sycorax vessel took form before them, miles in the distance and yet huge and menacing.
"What's that?" Rose queried. The Doctor reached into his pocket and slid his glasses onto his nose, peering over her shoulder at apparently stationary object.
"It looks like an asteroid, but…"
In that moment, the TARDIS lights flickered ominously before oozing into a dangerous scarlet hue. The Doctor stiffened, the muscle in his jaw tightening as it always did when things became tense. Rose's heart began to pound and she held out her hand for her mother to hold.
It was then that the cloister bell began to toll.