Just Our Luck: Chapter 1

[my_meta_twin]

Title: Just Our Luck
Author: my_meta_twin
Pairing: 10/Rose
Rating: Teen
Summary: A brush with death too close even for the Doctor's liking leads him to make the most important decision of his life.
Authors' Notes: This story is dedicated with all the love in the world to two of the most awesome people ever to like Doctor Who: kelkat9 and who_in_whoville, who are two sisters of a secret Dalek cult, but we're not telling anyone.

The doors to the TARDIS burst open and the Doctor gave Rose a hard shove inside, slamming the doors closed behind him as they both collapsed to the metal grating. He scrambled across the floor to where she was laying, trying to catch her breath.

"Talk to me!" he cried, giving her a harder shake than he'd intended. "Say something!"

His hands trembled and he could feel his hearts beating inside his mouth. He'd never been so frightened. She cupped his cheek and smiled at him. "I am so sorry my hair color was so offensive to their gods. Who knew deities had such an aversion to peroxide?"

He glared at her and pushed the sleeve of her T-shirt out of the way so he could get a better look at her shoulder. The laser blast had torn through the flesh but missed the bone, and cauterized the wound on its way through her. If it had gone a few inches to the left it would have passed through her chest cavity, severing the aorta.

The room started spinning.  There was no way he could have stopped that shot from killing her.  It was pure, dumb luck that the guillotine had jammed, and it was pure luck that the shot had hit her shoulder.  He should have lost her, but miraculously, he hadn't

Mindful of her injury, he pulled her to him and buried his face against her neck, nearly sobbing with relief when her arms rose up and around his body.  He could feel the steady beat of her pulse against his lips

"No more," he whispered, tears slipping down his face and onto her neck. He closed his eyes and squeezed her as tightly as he could without hurting her. He had taken the last gamble with Rose Tyler's life that he was ever going to take.

*****

Jackie Tyler's morning workout had been interrupted three times already; first, the telephone man called to see if her telephone was working again ("Well, obviously, if you're talkin' to me!"); secondly, Mrs. Simms from down the hall wanted to know if she'd seen her missing cat; and the third interruption was a phone call that began with the sound of a ship's horn and a recorded voice congratulating her for something she'd won that she didn't stay on the phone long enough to find out what it was. When she heard the soft knock at her door, she shut the television off with an emphatic click of the remote.

"How'm I supposed to sweat to the oldies when I can't dance long enough to break a sweat?" she muttered as she slid off the chain and opened the door. She was so surprised at the sight of the Doctor standing at her door, rubbing the back of his neck and looking for all the world like he'd just broken something valuable of hers that she screamed.

The Doctor yelped at the same time and turned his head away, squinting. "Oh, Jackie. Bad choice. Please, please go put on your dressing gown...or several more layers of clothes. I can't talk to you with that much leopard print glaring back at me."

"Lovely to see you too, Doctor," Jackie snapped as she hurried off to her bedroom. She slipped into her dressing gown and tied it shut, pushing away the fleeting memory of the first time she'd met the Doctor. In her dressing gown. When she'd thought anything could happen and he'd said no.

"Where's Rose?" she asked, looking past him into the hallway. Immediately her heart began to hammer in her chest. "Has something happened? Is she all right? Where is she?"

"Easy, now," the Doctor said, clearing his throat. "She's fine. She's having a coffee with Shareen. I wanted to talk to you."

Jackie eyed him with suspicion. "Why?"

"I," the Doctor began, then stopped to look at something on the ceiling. He sighed and opened his mouth several times, as if he'd forgotten how to speak.

"How about I make some tea?" Jackie asked. She went into the kitchen and started the kettle before he could answer her. He opened the refrigerator door, retrieved the jar of marmalade, and jabbed two fingers in. He stuck the helping into his mouth as he continued to pace around the kitchen. She watched him move the dirty dishes around in the sink as if he'd never seen anything like them before, check the date on her bread only to toss it back onto the countertop. Finally he came to the rack of mugs and took one down that was from when Rose was a little girl. He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head again like he was trying to increase the circulation to his brain.

"Look'a this!" he said, his voice about an octave higher than usual. "It's a little elephant nose for the handle. Isn't that clever? What won't they think of next?" He sighed, set the mug down and missed the counter. It broke into three pieces.

And that's when Jackie knew.

He was crouched on the ground, scooping up the pieces of broken mug and calling himself all manner of names. Jackie crouched beside him and rested her hands on top of his to stop him. She looked into his eyes; really looked, for possibly the first time since she'd met him, and was surprised by the depth and the gentleness she found there.

“Tell me what's on your mind, swee'heart," she urged, patting his hand. The mighty Time Lord sat down on the floor and sighed. Those couldn't be tears starting to form in his eyes.

"I think," he began, then stopped. "You see, Jackie..." He sighed and pulled out the sonic screwdriver to fix the mug, giving himself a few minutes to gather his thoughts. He handed the mug back to her, good as new. "There."

Jackie took the mug and sat down on the floor beside him. "Is it about Rose, Doctor?" she asked.

He chuckled, both hands flying to the back of his head. Jackie tried to smother the knowing smile spreading across her face.

“Something you want to tell me. Or ask me?" she prodded. The kettle began to whistle. She reached up and shut the stove off, but did not get up off the floor.

"There is," he said at last. He leaned his head back against her lower cabinets and blew out his excess air. "Never thought I'd be doing this."

"Certainly not sitting on my linoleum," she added. She put her hand on his leg. "Just start talking, like I'm not even here."

"I love her," he blurted. The raw honesty and the strength with which he said it took Jackie's breath away. He looked at her, waiting, gauging the response in her eyes.

She smiled at him. "I know that, you twit," she said. "But there's more?"

"A lot more," he said. "I've made a decision. We're going to stop traveling and settle down. I...want...to settle down."

"On Earth?" Jackie asked. She wrestled down the hopeful tone in her voice as much as she could.

"Oh, closer than that," the Doctor said, reaching out to take Jackie's hands. "How does London sound? Why do I suddenly feel like I'm proposing to you instead of your daughter?"

"Proposin'!" Jackie squealed, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a kiss on the mouth. "I can't believe it! But, you're...you know...not human. How's that gonna work?"

The Doctor's mouth set in a hard line. "I'm not human now. But in one hour, I will be. If you tell me that you would accept me as a son-in-law, that you would maybe even help me understand how to take care of your daughter in the proper human fashion, I am going to go down to the TARDIS and commence a procedure that will rewrite my biology and make me completely human."

Jackie gasped. "How can you do that?"

He smiled a little. "Quite painfully. But, for Rose, I would endure it ten times over. I've lived over nine hundred years, and I have never felt anything close to what I feel for her. And a thousand lifetimes following this one couldn't compare to one mayfly flicker of existence with her."

"Are you gonna..." Jackie paused, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "Is it gonna make you look as old as you are?"

He laughed, looking at the floor. "No, I'm not going to get all withered and creepy looking, don't worry. I'll be me, just as I am. But human."

Jackie got up and made two mugs of tea, making the Doctor's sickly sweet, the way he liked it. She sat back down on the floor and handed a mug to him. "Rose doesn't know, does she?" Jackie asked.

"Not yet," he said, rolling his eyes. "I don't think I'm going to tell her until after I've done it."

Jackie took a long drink of her tea and studied the Doctor. "You're really something else, you know. When you first came into our lives, I hated you. You stole my daughter away from me. Took her all over the galaxy, and I was sure that one day I would just stop gettin' calls. No explanation, no nothing. But I'd know. I was ready for it. You know what's funny? I'm completely unprepared for how to deal with this."

“How to deal with what?" the Doctor asked.

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "How to deal with you, settled down. I get the feeling you're going to drive me to drink."

"So you're saying yes?" he asked.

“Oh, come on now," Jackie said. "You're not even human yet, don't start getting thick on me now."

The Doctor finished his tea with almost comical slowness, sitting on the stained linoleum of Jackie Tyler's kitchen floor. His last cup of tea as a Time Lord. He wondered if food would taste differently with a human mouth and muted human taste buds. Hundreds of years; dozens of human lifetimes spent in adventures the likes of which he would never see again. He took the last drink of tea with more than a little sadness. It had not escaped him that he was effectively committing suicide by doing this. To age, wither and die, heroism lost in the banality of day to day human life.

He thought of Rose, and his hearts warmed; one of them for the last time. He stood up and set the mug in the sink. Jackie got to her feet as well and studied his face.

"I...would it be all right if I went with you?" she asked. "Doesn't seem like something you should have to do alone. Maybe I could hold your hand or somethin'."

He smiled. "I'd be glad of the company."

She went to her bedroom to change into something a little less strange, and when she was ready she found him standing by the door. He grinned at her and offered her his hand. She took it, and understood almost immediately why Rose was so keen on holding his hand. His skin was cool and his grip was firm and comforting as they walked down the stairs together in silence. When they got to the TARDIS, she felt him hesitate.

"You don't have to do it, you know," Jackie said. She couldn't believe she was hearing herself. "You sure you don't want to talk to Rose first?"

"If I wait, I'll lose my nerve," he said. "Better to just do it." He opened the doors to the TARDIS and led her inside, still holding her hand. He was shaking.

He started punching buttons and flipping levers on the console, and suddenly a metal thing that looked like a cross between a crown and an elaborate pair of headphones dropped from the ceiling, attached to a series of wires. He grabbed the device and changed some settings on it, popping a little metal disc out of the side. He brought it over to Jackie and showed it to her. It was a watch, its surface engraved with an elaborate, circular design.

"Is that a fob watch?" Jackie asked. "Course it is."

"It's a bit more than a watch," the Doctor said. "This device is called a Chameleon Arch. It's supposed to rewrite my biology from Time Lord to human, wipe my memories and replace them with a personality and memories created by the TARDIS to fit the current environment. Think of it as the most elaborate disguise you've ever seen. It takes all that Time Lord DNA and my memories and personality and stores them in the fob watch. If I were to open the watch, it would turn me back. Well, I've disabled the mental part of the device, so it's going to simply change me physically into a human. Presumably it will still store my Time Lord DNA in the fob watch. So, when this is over, I want you to get rid of this, and never tell me what you did with it."

Jackie nodded. "Whatever you want, swee'heart."

He popped the watch back into the headphone thing and took one last lap around the console. He looked around the TARDIS, passing his hand over one of the struts like it was the skin of an old friend, and then looked at Jackie with surprise. "I almost forgot!" he cried. "Would you like to see it now, or do you want to be surprised?"

Jackie smirked. "How can I know the answer to that before I know what you're talking about?"

"Of course!" he said. "Let me show you." He ran into the hallway and disappeared into one of the rooms. Jackie heard a clatter of things being thrown around before the Doctor reappeared, beaming. Sitting on his palm was a small, velvet-covered box.

“Oh!" Jackie cried, clapping her hand over her mouth. "Is it?"

"The setting is from the Earth, circa 1650. The diamond is from Rexatheracol, which is entirely too close to Raxacoracofallapatorious for its own good. Almost got my...manliness...removed getting the diamond. Would you like to see it?"

Jackie eyed the box for a moment. "As much as I want to, and I'm certain it's breathtaking, it'd feel like cheatin' if Rose didn't get to see it first. I'm sure it's beautiful." She paused and looked at him. "Not as beautiful as what you're about to do for her, though."

He sighed, raising his eyebrows. "Best to have it done, while I've still got the spine to do it. Now, it's going to be painful, and I'm probably going to scream, so don't be afraid. It won't last long."

"What can I do to make you more comfortable?" Jackie asked, coming to his side as he sat down in the jump seat and looked the device over once more. She gave his shoulders a little squeeze and rested her hands on his back. She didn’t know what else to do.

He clamped it down on his head and locked it into place, wincing, then smiled at her. "I'm just glad you're here so I'm not alone." Without another word, he took a breath, closed his eyes, and flipped a switch on the side of the device.

The screaming went on for nearly ten minutes.