tindogs_fic: Doctor Who Minor Characters Ficathon
Title: Stuck in the Nest
Characters: Jackie Tyler, Rose,
Word Count: 1,336
Rating: PG-13
Requester:
lookatmoiye7
Request: Jackie. Any time, any season, any universe. What about the rest of her life without Rose? What does she do, and how does she get by?
Summary: A day in the life of the one and only Jackie Tyler. What can I say? Life without Rose is extremely distressing for her.
A/N: I wanted to write a happy piece about Jackie but, unfortunately, I must have been a sad mood when I wrote it as there is very little happiness for Jackie in this. If any at all...I'm sorry!
“Now, it’s over to Carla for the national weather…”
With a forlorn sigh, Jackie headed towards the kitchen to make herself a quick cup of tea before she had to leave for the hairdresser’s. She always watched the early morning news bulletin, no matter how late it made her for work, but there had been nothing extraordinary mentioned; a post workers’ strike, an oil spill near Portsmouth and an upturned lorry on the M25. Nothing interesting. Nothing worth returning for. All unfortunate, of course, but nothing to bring Rose and the Doctor back to Earth. Just another ordinary day and ordinary, Jackie knew, was what had driven Rose away from her to begin with.
Jackie did not mind ordinary. It was the extraordinary that she minded. She could not understand why anyone would want to leave their home, family and friends just to see a few stars. Or a few billion. What did it matter how many were up there? Surely everything that mattered was on Earth, with her? It was on these mornings, when the house was deathly silent, that Jackie sometimes found herself wishing another alien invasion would take place just so she could see her daughter for a short while, which was entirely selfish, she reflected guiltily, but she still thought about it. Too much, but she could never admit that to herself. Finishing her tea, Jackie poured the dregs down the sink and left for work before she became too downhearted.
“Jacks, babes!” Angela, Jackie’s boss and friend, greeted her as she stepped through the back door. “So glad you’re in now. We’ve got a bloody double booking!” Angela sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes as she did so.
“Good job I’m here, right?”! Jackie smiled warmly. “Was it that new receptionist? I told you she was an air-head, didn’t I?” Jackie said smiling, nodding knowledgably at Angela.
“God, don’t I know it now!” Angela agreed, putting on the loud whisper she always used when gossiping. “She sits there all day just polishing her damn nails. And I’m like: why aren’t you working? Those customers that you’re ignoring pay your wage packet, love, not me.” Angela gesticulated angrily to an imaginary receptionist.
“Yeah, you tell her, Ange,” Jackie said laughing, moving behind the desk and looking in the bookings diary. “Okay, Mrs Jeffery, darling, do you wanna come round? Usual is it?” Jackie asked as Angela got the chairs ready.
Jackie found work, when she eventually got there, incredibly soothing for her. Nothing else could help her forget better than some banal chatter about holidays, pets and the television with her customers. It did not matter that the conversations were unimportant; they were ordinary and that was what Jackie needed. Besides, it was enjoyable just to talk, especially as Jackie had no one to talk to at home. Howard had been there once but he had left after one drunken night. Jackie had blurted out, after drinking a whole bottle of Rosé which had reminded her of her daughter, that Rose was not in France at all but travelling across the universe in a magical blue box manned by an alien with two hearts and a changing face. Howard had decided then that Jackie was not the woman of his dreams as he had previously thought and, after making a hurried apology, left never to ring again.
“I need a bloke, Ange,” Jackie suddenly blurted out as she painted dye on Mrs Jeffrey’s hair. Angela looked up from wrapping curlers around her customer’s hair to stare into the mirror directly ahead of them both, her eyes finding Jackie’s reflection and studying her.
“What about that bloke you met last week, y’know the one at the Spinning Wheel?” Angela asked. “He were right nice, Jacks.”
“What bloke?” Jackie asked automatically, her mind concentrating on folding and pegging the foil she had wrapped on Mrs Jeffrey’s hair. “I haven’t had a nice bloke since, well, Pete,” she added ruefully, but quietly so Angela never heard.
“What bloke!” Angela scoffed, speaking to the customer in front of her merely because Angela was the sort of woman who enjoyed an audience. The customer did not even look up from the magazine pictures she was intently studying. “’What bloke’ she says! The one who bought you that gin and tonic at your birthday do,” Angela finished, turning to direct it at Jackie.
“Oh, him. I dunno, Ange,” Jackie said truthfully, keeping her tone indifferent. “He never rung me back. Shame really, he were handsome, wasn’t he? And well dressed. Took pride in his appearance; that’s what I like to see,” Jackie said, her thoughts wandering to the man she had met at the pub. He had had a brilliant smile that had been infectious; the sort of smile that, if directed at you, could lighten even the darkest clouds that hovered over your mood. That was how Jackie had seen it; being the romantic she was, but she had very little chances to share that side of herself with anyone. “Nice arse,” she commented further, reflectively.
Angela grinned impishly. “Unlike Howard, ey?”
“Well, he was cuddly, was Howard,” said Jackie, defending her choice of man. “But he wasn’t right for me, in the end,” Jackie added sadly.
“Me and the girls’ll find you someone,” Angela replied confidently. “Tomorrow, right, we’ll have a girly night out. Go to a club or somethin’?” Angela suggested. Jackie nodded; fake smile upon her face, knowing a visit to a club was not the answer she had been hoping for. But what exactly she had been hoping for; she was not sure.
Jackie was exhausted when she got back to her flat. There had been further double bookings; the receptionist had been two hours late and Beth had phoned in sick so Jackie had to take on double shifts. At least, Jackie thought, it had kept her occupied. She had just switched on the television, to drown out the silence she had come home to, and had poured herself a large glass of white wine when the phone began to ring. Jackie got up off the sofa to answer, bringing the phone back with her.
“Hello?” Jackie answered, sitting back down lifting her legs up so she could rub her aching feet.
“Hey, mum!”
“Rose love, how’re you doing sweetheart? Oh, it’s so good to hear from you, darlin’,” Jackie practically cooed down the phone at the sound of her daughter’s voice so clear in her ear. She could just discern the noise of Rose’s breathing from the faint mechanical whirring in the background and the occasional whoop from the Doctor. It sounded so very close and Jackie had to take a few sips of her wine before she could trust herself to speak again. “He better be lookin’ after you, Rose; you tell him that from me. Is he?” Jackie added sternly, though she knew the answer already, she thought it was best to keep reminding the Doctor that he was not the only one to care for Rose.
“Course he is, mum, anyway, happy birthday!” Rose shouted happily down the phone. Jackie fell silent. “Oh god, I haven’t missed it have I?” Rose’s voice became anxious and Jackie noted the slight higher pitch. “Time’s a bit harder to keep track of when you’re travelling with -”
“No, Rose. Thank you, sweetheart,” Jackie injected as much enthusiasm as she could muster into reassuring her daughter. “Course you haven’t missed it.”
And as Rose excitedly told her of all her and the Doctor’s recent adventures, Jackie listened to the cheerful voice, gasped at the dramatic parts and laughed at the jokes. After saying goodbye; telling her mum she loved her and promising to visit soon, Rose hung up and ran over to join the Doctor at his side, never to know that a billion light years away and in another time her mother was holding back the tears, alone in a flat and wondering if she would ever see her only child again.