Pete stood in the shadows of his living room, watching the scene in silence. Jackie and Rose lay curled together on the couch, watching a movie in the bathrobes he'd sent out for while their clothing washed. Their two bright heads rested close on the sofa as they murmured together watching some old movie that Rose said was just like one they had in their world. It must have been close enough, he'd heard them recite lines and giggle to each other. It was the sort of domestic scene that tugged at Pete's heart in ways he didn't know he could feel anymore.
"Looks cozy," Miles intoned beside him, eyeing the mother and daughter half in wonder, half in humor. "Never knew Jackie could cook."
Pete snorted, ignoring the slight burn of indegestion that the shepherd's pie from dinner was causing him. "She can't, never could, but this one at least tries."
Pete nearly had laughed at the look on Miles' face when he walked into the door to find a Jackie bustling around the kitchen, eagerly greeting him with a smile. It was so unlike the Jackie Miles had known that the normally witty man was at a loss for words. The fact that this Jackie was polite, even charming, left him nearly silent through the meal, with nary a caustic observation out of his ascerbic friend.
As if reading his thoughts, Miles continued. "She's actually quite...pleasant. Don't tell her I said that."
"I won't. Wouldn't want to ruin your image." Pete grinned sideways at him as he moved out of the shadows and back towards his study, Miles following. "She's more like the Jackie I used to remember. The one I fell in love with."
If Miles had a witty comeback then, he chose to withhold it. "She's night and day different from your wife." It was more than just a random observation, there was worry there. "This is going to be a hard sell, you know."
"I know," Pete sighed, settling into his desk chair, scrubbing a hand across his scalp. "Have PR work on it. They can whip it together. They've taken care of madder things. Make it all lovely and feel good, and any complaints will blow over no sooner than it takes some minor, telly celeb to take off her knickers in public, three sheets to the wind, and slingshot them off the top of a bar."
"And just for that I'd pay off the bar tab of whatever minor celebrity it was, just to have it blow over." Miles grimaced as he fell into a chair across from Pete. "The Rose angle alone will be difficult enough."
"Fake birth certificate, fake school records, who will question it? Want me to run a DNA test?"
"Probably should, just to have it." Miles didn't want to cut corners with this, and it was why Pete entrusted him with this. "We'll need to schedule and interview, of course, just to get Jackie's voice out there. I was thinking Sherrie Wexler."
"What color is her hair now?"
"Black with platinum highlights."
Pete grimaced at the visual image. "Is that a thing now?"
"I suppose she couldn't decide what she wanted."
Pete snorted, leaning back. "She's perfect, otherwise. She loves me."
"And she can cry on command, practically. A story this good, she'll melt the heart of the most hardened Tory into a pile of goo. The tragic night, the missing memory, reuniting with a child long believed lost. They'll make telly movies out of this for sure."
"I don't want that. Enough of my life has been an open book." Pete shuddered at the thought. "Tomorrow, I want to recruit Amanda to take Jackie and Rose out, discretely, just to get a few things. Two of them are here with just the clothes on their back, and that's it."
"I'm sure Jackie will enjoy that." Rose was still an enigma to them both. She had been quiet all through dinner, despite Miles' best efforts, and even Mickey hadn't been able to cheer her out of it. "You know, Pete, this changes things. Everything."
"I know," he muttered airily, but Miles became insistant.
"Do you? It's been three years since you've had a wife. And for all that she looks the same, she's not the same woman."
Pete bit back the growl at Miles' now familiar refrain. "I've caught on to that."
"I just wanted to remind you of this as we jump into this ocean of madness. Because the minute we release this out there, the moment she becomes your Jackie Tyler, she becomes your wife and Rose becomes your daughter. Are you ready for that?"
His wife...and daughter. He shrugged, despite the horrible knot the idea formed in his gut. "Ready or not, what else am I to do?"
Miles only stared at him evenly.
"If you have better suggestions, I'd love to hear them."
"I don't, and you know it." Miles picked at an imaginary spot of lint off his neatly pressed slacks. "I'm just curious about how far you are going to take this, Pete. I mean, really, think about this."
"You don't think I haven't?" He glared at the other man in annoyance, more irritated by the fact that Miles was reiterating the same thoughts that had been spinning around his own brain for the last twenty-four hours. "For right now, we are taking things as we can. She's going to present herself as my long-lost wife, and Rose is our long missing daughter, and we will leave it at that."
He didn't want to think much farther than that. The idea of it made Pete's brain spin to dangerous places, ones he didn't think he was ready for. Right at this moment, he really just wanted to get her and her daughter situated and settled, to get them a home and security. The thought of what it would mean to be husband and wife again was the last thing he wanted to consider.
"All sham and mirrors? Just like it was with your wife?" Miles' blue eyes gazed hard over the rims of his glasses.
Pete made a face, already irrtated with this conversation. "She's been here twenty-four hours, Miles, doesn't even have a stitch of clothing or a thing to call her own, and what are you doing? Playing matchmaker?"
"I'm just throwing the possibility out there."
"You are the one who keeps reminding me she isn't my wife."
"Yeah. And maybe that's not such a bad thing."
Pete merely stared at him for long moments before snorting. This was all madness. He was too tired to even consider anything beyond simply ensuring that the Tyler women were safe and cared for. "What does Singh have to say about the cracks between realities?"
"So far our readings say they are closing for the most part. Anything that's left would be too miniscule to see."
"Let's hope those seal themselves over with time." Pete thought of the Doctor, just as he had several times over the last day or so, wondering what he was doing and how he was coping. "And Harriet Jones? You informed her of what happened?"
"Her office was informed, and she sends her commendations."
"Wonderful," he smirked, glad that at least someone out there was pleased that they had managed to save the world again. "What about all the servers you were all able to snag?"
"I've got IT on it, and Mickey and Jake to act as advisors, since they've been to that world. Mickey in particular is useful, though his appalling lack of knowledge of anything beyond what he sees on the telly is has proven annoying.
Pete smirked. Mickey was a great kid, smart and brave in his fashion, but not exactly well-rounded. Perhaps that's why he always depended on Rose, her natural curiosity balanced it all out. A slow smile crept across Pete's face, a thought spinning to life as he considered the situation.
"How about asking Rose?"
Miles' blonde eyebrows knitted as he considered. "I hadn't thought of it. You'd think she'd do it?"
"She likely would. Only so many old movies she could watch with Jackie. Give her something to...keep her preoccupied."
A knowing, pained expression flickered between Pete and Miles, and his assistant field director nodded. "She seems smart, capable. I'll see if she'd like to help."
"Keep me posted on how she does," Pete murmured, carefully. "Let me know if she works out."
Miles smiled knowingly as he rose. "And I will keep you posted on Sherrie Wexler. We need to get this done fast, before the tabs get wind of it and it gets out of our control."
"I trust you with it," Pete waved him off as he rose to follow him out. "When have you let me down?"
"Never that you know of."
After seeing Miles out, he returned to the living room to find the movie nearly over and Rose and Jackie curled together comfortably, both fast asleep. He sighed, smiling softly. A wife again and now a daughter. His ready made family. The responsibility of it suddenly hung heavily on his shoulders as he reached for the remote and flicked off the television. Neither woman stirred. He turned, leaving them to slumber as removed himself to his own bedroom, sleep not finding him as easily did Jackie and Rose.