Ficathon Fic: The Storm and the Fury 1/2
Story: The Storm and the Fury
Author: wmr wendymr
Characters: Ninth Doctor, Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: BBC's universe, my imagination
Summary: "Stop looking like you'd rather be facing an army of Zygons than here!" Sequel to Technically Hitched
Written for shengirl as a pinch-hit in the 2009 OT3 Ficathon - sorry it's so late, but I got whumped pretty badly by a nasty bug and am still on antibiotics. With thanks to kae_nine for help with this! Prompt will be shared at the end.
The Storm and the Fury
a sequel to Technically Hitched
Chapter 1: Into the Lion’s Den
Rose pulls the TARDIS door open and sticks her head out, then withdraws almost immediately with a grimace.
“Yuck! It’s tipping it down!”
The Doctor grins. “Fine. We’ll just come back another time.”
“No way you’re getting away with that. Mum’ll have heard the TARDIS. We’re here now an’ we’re staying.”
She pats her hoodie pocket, just making sure that she’s remembered the brooch she bought her mum on that trading planet. Shame the Doctor wouldn’t let her buy that beautiful red silk robe she saw in Kyoto yesterday, but he insisted that she couldn’t bring fourteenth-century stuff to the twenty-first century.
“You heard her, Doctor.” Jack looks across at her and winks. He’s been enjoying the Doctor’s loudly-voiced reluctance to take her to see her mum - enjoying it too much, she’s decided.
“Yeah. You both did.” Hands on hips, she informs them, “An’ you’re both comin’ up to say hello, as well. No excuses about repairs or needin’ to go and get parts or anything like that, cause I won’t believe it.”
Jack’s grin fades, while the Doctor looks appalled. “Rose-”
“Not listening,” she retorts. “Mum keeps complaining that you avoid her. Thinks he’s too good to come up for a cuppa with the likes of us. This time you’re coming.”
The Doctor rolls his eyes. “Asked you to travel with me, didn’t I? She’s talkin’ rubbish.”
“You’re still coming.” Jack’s looking amused again, until she switches her attention to him. “Don’t think you’re getting out of it either, smartarse.”
Jack glances over his shoulder and down. “You like my arse. I’m sure I remember you paying it several compliments last night.”
“It looks better naked, yeah.”
Jack’s hand instantly goes to his fly. “Always happy to oblige.”
“Not now!” she and the Doctor exclaim in unison.
“Come on.” With a deep, resigned sigh, the Doctor steps out from behind the console. “If we’re goin’, let’s get on with it.”
“Do you have to sound as if you’re heading off to your execution?” Rose shakes her head, arms akimbo.
The Doctor and Jack exchange a look of common sympathy and understanding. Rose rolls her eyes.
***
He’s mad. Certifiable. Visiting Jackie Tyler - willingly visiting her, at that. Under pressure, true, but he’s not being dragged there in chains or with a Sontaran gun at his back. He’s being punished, there’s no doubt about that.
Good thing Jack’s with them. Jackie’ll happily flirt with the Captain, which should let him slip by under the radar-
“Jack.” They’re almost out of the TARDIS when Rose stops them.
“Yeah?”
“No flirtin’ with my mum.”
Jack laughs. “Spoilsport.” The Doctor silently echoes the sentiment.
Rose gives Jack a playful thump, but he catches her hand as it connects. “Oops.”
“Oops?”
“Rings,” Jack explains. “Think Rose’s mum might just notice, huh?”
“Oops is right!” Rose pulls hers off and shoves it deep into the pocket of her tight jeans. The Doctor can’t help but notice Jack staring as the fabric’s pulled taut over Rose’s stomach.
He takes off his own ring and catches Jack’s eye. “Catch.” Jack captures the flinty-coloured metal in his palm and gives him an enquiring look. “Keep it safe for me.”
The admiring look in Jack’s eye fades, replaced by affection. “You bet.” The Doctor stifles a smile as he ushers the two of them out of the ship. Jack might have been the one least willing initially to consider their relationship as representing any kind of commitment, yet now he’s practically acting like they really are married.
“Forgot to tell you,” Jack says as they hurry across the courtyard, rain pelting down on them. “Went to the bathroom last night-”
“Really don’t want to know, thanks,” the Doctor quips, standing back to let the other two enter the stairwell.
“Shut it.” Jack’s even copying his speech traits now. It’s really sort of sweet. “I heard sounds from the console. The monitor was picking up some kind of alien signal, so I took a look.”
What? “Why didn’t you call me?”
“Was going to. Then I saw what it was. We’d come out of the Vortex and were drifting close to a broadcast satellite surrounded by alien ships. I couldn’t see them - they were shielded - but the TARDIS could see their location. She could see their weapons as well. There was enough firepower on those ships to blow up the universe. They weren’t doing anything with it, though. Seemed like they were just waiting for something.”
He stops dead halfway up the stairs. “And you didn’t call me? Jack-”
“Dealt with it, didn’t I?” Jack shrugs. “Easy-peasy. The TARDIS helped me neutralise their weapons, then we sent out a signal to attract their attention away from the satellite.”
“You were tryin’ to get alien spaceships to attack the TARDIS?” Rose, eyes wide, stares at Jack.
“Told you, we neutralised their weapons. Well, I thought that’s what we did. But maybe not, because the ships just disappeared off the screen one by one.”
“Teleport? Transmat? Time-travel?” he suggests, leaning back against the wall and studying Jack through hooded eyes. Obviously, everything’s okay since the TARDIS is still in one piece, but he still doesn’t like the sound of it.
“Imploded.” Jack’s mouth creases into a grin. “The shielding broke down just as it happened, so I saw it happen. One by one, poof! they were gone. Nothing left but clouds of dust. I stayed there for an hour or so, checking, but they were definitely gone. Was like they’d never been there at all. And before you say anything, yes, I did check the energy and matter dispersal. No damage to anything else in the area. Even the satellite was fine.”
He shakes his head, vowing to check the TARDIS logs later. There’s more to it than Jack’s saying, and he really doesn’t like the fact that somehow the TARDIS left the Vortex. Once he’s put them there, then nothing should be able to get them out. Nothing.
It’ll keep, though. Everything’s fine right now, that’s one thing he’s sure of, because if there had been any real danger he’d have seen it for himself once he got to the console today. And there was nothing. Everything was perfectly normal - including the fact that they were safely in the Vortex. But, yeah, later he’s getting to the bottom of this, including whatever Jack’s not telling him.
“Come on,” he says after a pause. “Jackie’ll have heard the TARDIS - you don’t want her to come lookin’ for us.”
***
Jack falls into step behind the Doctor and Rose, satisfied - and relieved - with the way that went. There’s a good reason why he waited until now to tell the Doctor, and it’s not that he forgot. Keeping the explanations until now meant less time, and far less chance of the Doctor finding out the one thing he doesn’t want to reveal.
Because, in the seconds before the ships imploded, he saw them clearly. Dalek ships.
He knows about the Time War. Not much, but there’ve been nights when he’s woken knowing the Doctor’s wandering the TARDIS again, brooding and grieving. On those nights, with the time-ship’s help, he’s found the Doctor and they’ve walked together, or sometimes just sat in the darkened console room, and he’s listened while the Doctor’s talked. Bone-chilling stories of whole fleets of ships on fire, planets burning, empty holes in space where entire worlds once existed - and an entire race taken out of Time itself.
There’s no chance in hell he’s going to tell the Doctor there were Dalek ships out there. Even if they’re now gone, and he’s convinced they are. He and the TARDIS checked pretty damn thoroughly last night, and again this morning when the Doctor’s back was turned. Whatever those ships were doing, they didn’t succeed. He gets the feeling that the TARDIS is as happy about that as he is himself.
It’s not over, of course; he’s not naïve enough to imagine that the Doctor’s not going to be running checks himself later, perhaps even going back to that satellite to be positive. But he’s confident enough to be sure that his friend won’t find anything.
Rose is unlocking a door now, and just as she pushes it open a woman appears. Jack has just enough time to take in an older, more tired version of Rose before the two women fly into each other’s arms.
The Doctor’s shoulder brushes his then, making him turn to look at the older man. He grins; for all the Doctor’s protests about disliking Rose’s mum, there’s a fondness in the Time Lord’s eyes as he watches the two women hug.
He knows about Rose’s upbringing, mostly from Rose herself but some from the Doctor. Knows that she lost her dad when she was just a baby, and that thanks to a bit of time-travel she held her dad’s hand as he died. He knows, too, that she left school earlier than she should have, and that part of her still regrets it - and he and the Doctor have a silent pact to help Rose learn as much as she can, and to encourage her if she ever decides she wants to go home and back to college, even if they’d miss her like crazy.
So he’s thought he had a pretty good idea what Rose’s life was like before she met the Doctor. It’s never occurred to him until now, though, to wonder about her mother’s life. Now, though, as he watches Jackie Tyler pull back from Rose to study her daughter, he muses. Widowed young, barely older than Rose is now, with a baby daughter and no money, it must have been tough for her just to survive. There were grandparents for babysitting, Rose told him, but most of the time it was just her and her mum. Jackie Tyler’s a survivor, all right, that’s for sure.
“So you’re here, then, are you?” Jackie says, turning to the Doctor, and the glint in her eyes shows instantly why this woman’s one of the few beings in the universe who’s able to make the last Time Lord quake.
“Looks like it, doesn’t it?” The Doctor shrugs and Jack can almost see an eye-roll coming on, but Rose shoots him a glare and he hastily summons a smile. “Nice to see you, Jackie.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” She folds her arms and continues to stare at the Doctor for a few seconds, and then her gaze shifts. “Well. And who’re you, then?” She bats her lashes a little, but then frowns. “Not alien too, are you?”
He shakes his head with a smile, stretching out a hand towards her. “Human as they come. Captain Jack Harkness - pleased to meet you, Mrs Tyler.”
“Oh, call me Jackie!” She dips her lashes and, yes, she’s definitely giving him a come-hither look. And Rose is glaring at him, which is so not fair because he certainly didn’t start this.
“Gonna keep us out on the doorstep all day, then, Jackie?”
Saved by the Doctor. Yeah, he’s beginning to understand why Jackie Tyler’s near the top of the Doctor’s list of dangerous predators, all right.
***
So far, so good. She sends the blokes to the sitting-room and goes to help her mum with the tea. The kitchen feels oddly smaller than before, and she has to remind herself that it was always like this; she’s just got used to the TARDIS now, with its abundance of space.
This place was always good enough for you before, Rose Tyler. No need to be givin’ yourself airs.
For a second, she has to check that her mum’s not actually speaking. But, yes, it’s true. She was always happy in this flat. If she ever left the Doctor, for any reason, she’d learn to be happy here again.
“You’re all right then, Rose, love?” Her mum glances around, in the act of taking mugs down from the wall-cupboard.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m great!” She smiles widely. No pretence here; she’s happier than she’s ever been. “Oh, Mum, you wouldn’t believe the places we’ve been. There’s so much out there, it’s like nothing you could ever imagine. Nobody here has a clue. All that time I was workin’ in the shop, I didn’t even know aliens existed, an’ now...”
“Yeah.” There’s a flash of impatience in her mum’s eyes. Oh, right. Maybe she has gone on a bit about how brilliant it all is.
The kettle clicks off.
“I don’t mean... ‘s not that there’s anything wrong with Earth, or London. I’m not runnin’ down anyone who’s not been anywhere else. It’s just everything feels so different now, that’s all.”
Her mum nods, face averted as she pours boiling water into the teapot. “I’m glad you’re happy, sweetheart. ‘S just... I’d like to think you’ll come home to stay some time, that’s all.”
That’s just it. She’s not at all sure she will.
Oh, of course some day it’ll all be over. Much as it feels right now as if nothing could be better than travelling with the Doctor and Jack for the rest of her life, it’s not realistic, is it? What about when she’s forty? Fifty? Sixty and getting arthritis in her hands and knees, like Granny Prentice before she died two years ago?
And anyway, Jack’s not going to stay for the rest of his life, even if he’s happy with the two of them now. The Doctor took her for a walk one evening a few days ago and told her that - not that Jack’d said anything to him, he insisted, but he didn’t want her getting hurt. Wasn’t any surprise to her, she told him. She’s met Jack’s type before. He’ll stick around for a while, sure, because he really does care about the two of them, but sooner or later he’ll get itchy feet and want to move on.
Not just Jack, too. She might be head over heels in love with the Doctor, but she’s not blind. He’s over nine hundred years old, and he told her, didn’t he, that he travelled with lots of people before she came along. They’re not around any more, and there’s no sign that they were ever there. Some day, whether she likes it or not, maybe even before she’s too old for this kind of life, he might be looking for someone else to travel with.
No, this isn’t going to last forever, but she just can’t see herself settling back to life on the Powell Estates and working in a shop. Whatever she does when she finally leaves the Doctor - and Jack, unless he’s already gone - it’s not gonna be that. Travelling on Earth, maybe. Going to college. Maybe a job abroad, or that involves lots of travel.
But she’s not going to tell her mum any of that right now. “Some day, yeah,” she murmurs, and ignores the stab of guilt that tells her she’s being unfair to her mum.
Everybody leaves home some time, don’t they? And it’s not as if she’ll ever stop coming to visit.
“I love you, Mum,” she says, just as they’re picking up the cups and she’s tucked the packet of yellow-label chocolate digestives under her arm. “That’s not gonna change, no matter where I am.”
Her mum nods, and her smile’s resigned. “Yeah. I know. Love you too, sweetheart.”
***
He’s clinically insane. Always suspected it, but now he knows.
He’s sitting on Jackie Tyler’s sofa, in Jackie Tyler’s flat, and he’s here willingly. Of his own accord.
Jack, in the armchair to his right, grins. “Stop looking like you’d rather be facing an army of Zygons than here.”
“Why should I? ‘S true.”
“Ah, but you never let the enemy know that.” Jack winks.
Damn. The lad’s right. Why does Jackie Tyler always do this to him? Or, more accurately, why does he let her do this to him?
He leans forward and picks up the remote. “What’s on telly?” He flicks past channels with barely a second’s pause. “Soap. Game show. Game show. Reality show. Gardenin’. Reality show. Reality show. Soap. Jerry Springer. Reality show. Trisha. What Not To Wear. Cartoons. Game show. Soap. Isn’t there anything worth watching on any more?”
“Depends.” Jack grins wickedly. “Can that get Razavastine porn?”
He sighs, rolling his eyes. “Not unless I give it a bit of jiggery-pokery. Could, but I’d blame you an’ Jackie’d kill you.”
“You never know, she might enjoy it. Lots of cute naked guys, and-”
“Jack! Time and a place!”
“Aww, come on, don’t-” He gives Jack a warning glare. Jackie Tyler’s volatile enough without having her think that her daughter’s being corrupted. Not that Rose needed any corruption in the first place, now that he thinks about it, but that’s not the point.
“Later, then,” Jack says, settling back into his armchair with a shrug. “Y’know, Rose’d love it. She’s always asking me how I did it with aliens. Got this thing about spines and tentacles and how they’d get in the way. If we could find the one-”
“You are not watching Razavastine porn with Rose.”
Jack pouts. “What, cause that’s kinkier than what we do in bed how?”
Indignant again, he glares at Jack. “Nothin’ remotely kinky about that, an’ you know it. Polyamory’s found across most of the universe. Includin’ the human race by your time, an’ completely legally too. What you, me an’ Rose do in bed together’s entirely normal.”
He’s about to ask Jack why his eyes are suddenly the size of dinner-plates, but he doesn’t get the chance.
There’s a sudden crash, and in a voice loud enough to deafen a Great Earless Nandrobe, Jackie demands, “You two are doing what with my daughter?”
***
tbc --> chapter 2
Author: wmr wendymr
Characters: Ninth Doctor, Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: BBC's universe, my imagination
Summary: "Stop looking like you'd rather be facing an army of Zygons than here!" Sequel to Technically Hitched
Written for shengirl as a pinch-hit in the 2009 OT3 Ficathon - sorry it's so late, but I got whumped pretty badly by a nasty bug and am still on antibiotics. With thanks to kae_nine for help with this! Prompt will be shared at the end.
The Storm and the Fury
a sequel to Technically Hitched
Chapter 1: Into the Lion’s Den
Rose pulls the TARDIS door open and sticks her head out, then withdraws almost immediately with a grimace.
“Yuck! It’s tipping it down!”
The Doctor grins. “Fine. We’ll just come back another time.”
“No way you’re getting away with that. Mum’ll have heard the TARDIS. We’re here now an’ we’re staying.”
She pats her hoodie pocket, just making sure that she’s remembered the brooch she bought her mum on that trading planet. Shame the Doctor wouldn’t let her buy that beautiful red silk robe she saw in Kyoto yesterday, but he insisted that she couldn’t bring fourteenth-century stuff to the twenty-first century.
“You heard her, Doctor.” Jack looks across at her and winks. He’s been enjoying the Doctor’s loudly-voiced reluctance to take her to see her mum - enjoying it too much, she’s decided.
“Yeah. You both did.” Hands on hips, she informs them, “An’ you’re both comin’ up to say hello, as well. No excuses about repairs or needin’ to go and get parts or anything like that, cause I won’t believe it.”
Jack’s grin fades, while the Doctor looks appalled. “Rose-”
“Not listening,” she retorts. “Mum keeps complaining that you avoid her. Thinks he’s too good to come up for a cuppa with the likes of us. This time you’re coming.”
The Doctor rolls his eyes. “Asked you to travel with me, didn’t I? She’s talkin’ rubbish.”
“You’re still coming.” Jack’s looking amused again, until she switches her attention to him. “Don’t think you’re getting out of it either, smartarse.”
Jack glances over his shoulder and down. “You like my arse. I’m sure I remember you paying it several compliments last night.”
“It looks better naked, yeah.”
Jack’s hand instantly goes to his fly. “Always happy to oblige.”
“Not now!” she and the Doctor exclaim in unison.
“Come on.” With a deep, resigned sigh, the Doctor steps out from behind the console. “If we’re goin’, let’s get on with it.”
“Do you have to sound as if you’re heading off to your execution?” Rose shakes her head, arms akimbo.
The Doctor and Jack exchange a look of common sympathy and understanding. Rose rolls her eyes.
***
He’s mad. Certifiable. Visiting Jackie Tyler - willingly visiting her, at that. Under pressure, true, but he’s not being dragged there in chains or with a Sontaran gun at his back. He’s being punished, there’s no doubt about that.
Good thing Jack’s with them. Jackie’ll happily flirt with the Captain, which should let him slip by under the radar-
“Jack.” They’re almost out of the TARDIS when Rose stops them.
“Yeah?”
“No flirtin’ with my mum.”
Jack laughs. “Spoilsport.” The Doctor silently echoes the sentiment.
Rose gives Jack a playful thump, but he catches her hand as it connects. “Oops.”
“Oops?”
“Rings,” Jack explains. “Think Rose’s mum might just notice, huh?”
“Oops is right!” Rose pulls hers off and shoves it deep into the pocket of her tight jeans. The Doctor can’t help but notice Jack staring as the fabric’s pulled taut over Rose’s stomach.
He takes off his own ring and catches Jack’s eye. “Catch.” Jack captures the flinty-coloured metal in his palm and gives him an enquiring look. “Keep it safe for me.”
The admiring look in Jack’s eye fades, replaced by affection. “You bet.” The Doctor stifles a smile as he ushers the two of them out of the ship. Jack might have been the one least willing initially to consider their relationship as representing any kind of commitment, yet now he’s practically acting like they really are married.
“Forgot to tell you,” Jack says as they hurry across the courtyard, rain pelting down on them. “Went to the bathroom last night-”
“Really don’t want to know, thanks,” the Doctor quips, standing back to let the other two enter the stairwell.
“Shut it.” Jack’s even copying his speech traits now. It’s really sort of sweet. “I heard sounds from the console. The monitor was picking up some kind of alien signal, so I took a look.”
What? “Why didn’t you call me?”
“Was going to. Then I saw what it was. We’d come out of the Vortex and were drifting close to a broadcast satellite surrounded by alien ships. I couldn’t see them - they were shielded - but the TARDIS could see their location. She could see their weapons as well. There was enough firepower on those ships to blow up the universe. They weren’t doing anything with it, though. Seemed like they were just waiting for something.”
He stops dead halfway up the stairs. “And you didn’t call me? Jack-”
“Dealt with it, didn’t I?” Jack shrugs. “Easy-peasy. The TARDIS helped me neutralise their weapons, then we sent out a signal to attract their attention away from the satellite.”
“You were tryin’ to get alien spaceships to attack the TARDIS?” Rose, eyes wide, stares at Jack.
“Told you, we neutralised their weapons. Well, I thought that’s what we did. But maybe not, because the ships just disappeared off the screen one by one.”
“Teleport? Transmat? Time-travel?” he suggests, leaning back against the wall and studying Jack through hooded eyes. Obviously, everything’s okay since the TARDIS is still in one piece, but he still doesn’t like the sound of it.
“Imploded.” Jack’s mouth creases into a grin. “The shielding broke down just as it happened, so I saw it happen. One by one, poof! they were gone. Nothing left but clouds of dust. I stayed there for an hour or so, checking, but they were definitely gone. Was like they’d never been there at all. And before you say anything, yes, I did check the energy and matter dispersal. No damage to anything else in the area. Even the satellite was fine.”
He shakes his head, vowing to check the TARDIS logs later. There’s more to it than Jack’s saying, and he really doesn’t like the fact that somehow the TARDIS left the Vortex. Once he’s put them there, then nothing should be able to get them out. Nothing.
It’ll keep, though. Everything’s fine right now, that’s one thing he’s sure of, because if there had been any real danger he’d have seen it for himself once he got to the console today. And there was nothing. Everything was perfectly normal - including the fact that they were safely in the Vortex. But, yeah, later he’s getting to the bottom of this, including whatever Jack’s not telling him.
“Come on,” he says after a pause. “Jackie’ll have heard the TARDIS - you don’t want her to come lookin’ for us.”
***
Jack falls into step behind the Doctor and Rose, satisfied - and relieved - with the way that went. There’s a good reason why he waited until now to tell the Doctor, and it’s not that he forgot. Keeping the explanations until now meant less time, and far less chance of the Doctor finding out the one thing he doesn’t want to reveal.
Because, in the seconds before the ships imploded, he saw them clearly. Dalek ships.
He knows about the Time War. Not much, but there’ve been nights when he’s woken knowing the Doctor’s wandering the TARDIS again, brooding and grieving. On those nights, with the time-ship’s help, he’s found the Doctor and they’ve walked together, or sometimes just sat in the darkened console room, and he’s listened while the Doctor’s talked. Bone-chilling stories of whole fleets of ships on fire, planets burning, empty holes in space where entire worlds once existed - and an entire race taken out of Time itself.
There’s no chance in hell he’s going to tell the Doctor there were Dalek ships out there. Even if they’re now gone, and he’s convinced they are. He and the TARDIS checked pretty damn thoroughly last night, and again this morning when the Doctor’s back was turned. Whatever those ships were doing, they didn’t succeed. He gets the feeling that the TARDIS is as happy about that as he is himself.
It’s not over, of course; he’s not naïve enough to imagine that the Doctor’s not going to be running checks himself later, perhaps even going back to that satellite to be positive. But he’s confident enough to be sure that his friend won’t find anything.
Rose is unlocking a door now, and just as she pushes it open a woman appears. Jack has just enough time to take in an older, more tired version of Rose before the two women fly into each other’s arms.
The Doctor’s shoulder brushes his then, making him turn to look at the older man. He grins; for all the Doctor’s protests about disliking Rose’s mum, there’s a fondness in the Time Lord’s eyes as he watches the two women hug.
He knows about Rose’s upbringing, mostly from Rose herself but some from the Doctor. Knows that she lost her dad when she was just a baby, and that thanks to a bit of time-travel she held her dad’s hand as he died. He knows, too, that she left school earlier than she should have, and that part of her still regrets it - and he and the Doctor have a silent pact to help Rose learn as much as she can, and to encourage her if she ever decides she wants to go home and back to college, even if they’d miss her like crazy.
So he’s thought he had a pretty good idea what Rose’s life was like before she met the Doctor. It’s never occurred to him until now, though, to wonder about her mother’s life. Now, though, as he watches Jackie Tyler pull back from Rose to study her daughter, he muses. Widowed young, barely older than Rose is now, with a baby daughter and no money, it must have been tough for her just to survive. There were grandparents for babysitting, Rose told him, but most of the time it was just her and her mum. Jackie Tyler’s a survivor, all right, that’s for sure.
“So you’re here, then, are you?” Jackie says, turning to the Doctor, and the glint in her eyes shows instantly why this woman’s one of the few beings in the universe who’s able to make the last Time Lord quake.
“Looks like it, doesn’t it?” The Doctor shrugs and Jack can almost see an eye-roll coming on, but Rose shoots him a glare and he hastily summons a smile. “Nice to see you, Jackie.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” She folds her arms and continues to stare at the Doctor for a few seconds, and then her gaze shifts. “Well. And who’re you, then?” She bats her lashes a little, but then frowns. “Not alien too, are you?”
He shakes his head with a smile, stretching out a hand towards her. “Human as they come. Captain Jack Harkness - pleased to meet you, Mrs Tyler.”
“Oh, call me Jackie!” She dips her lashes and, yes, she’s definitely giving him a come-hither look. And Rose is glaring at him, which is so not fair because he certainly didn’t start this.
“Gonna keep us out on the doorstep all day, then, Jackie?”
Saved by the Doctor. Yeah, he’s beginning to understand why Jackie Tyler’s near the top of the Doctor’s list of dangerous predators, all right.
***
So far, so good. She sends the blokes to the sitting-room and goes to help her mum with the tea. The kitchen feels oddly smaller than before, and she has to remind herself that it was always like this; she’s just got used to the TARDIS now, with its abundance of space.
This place was always good enough for you before, Rose Tyler. No need to be givin’ yourself airs.
For a second, she has to check that her mum’s not actually speaking. But, yes, it’s true. She was always happy in this flat. If she ever left the Doctor, for any reason, she’d learn to be happy here again.
“You’re all right then, Rose, love?” Her mum glances around, in the act of taking mugs down from the wall-cupboard.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m great!” She smiles widely. No pretence here; she’s happier than she’s ever been. “Oh, Mum, you wouldn’t believe the places we’ve been. There’s so much out there, it’s like nothing you could ever imagine. Nobody here has a clue. All that time I was workin’ in the shop, I didn’t even know aliens existed, an’ now...”
“Yeah.” There’s a flash of impatience in her mum’s eyes. Oh, right. Maybe she has gone on a bit about how brilliant it all is.
The kettle clicks off.
“I don’t mean... ‘s not that there’s anything wrong with Earth, or London. I’m not runnin’ down anyone who’s not been anywhere else. It’s just everything feels so different now, that’s all.”
Her mum nods, face averted as she pours boiling water into the teapot. “I’m glad you’re happy, sweetheart. ‘S just... I’d like to think you’ll come home to stay some time, that’s all.”
That’s just it. She’s not at all sure she will.
Oh, of course some day it’ll all be over. Much as it feels right now as if nothing could be better than travelling with the Doctor and Jack for the rest of her life, it’s not realistic, is it? What about when she’s forty? Fifty? Sixty and getting arthritis in her hands and knees, like Granny Prentice before she died two years ago?
And anyway, Jack’s not going to stay for the rest of his life, even if he’s happy with the two of them now. The Doctor took her for a walk one evening a few days ago and told her that - not that Jack’d said anything to him, he insisted, but he didn’t want her getting hurt. Wasn’t any surprise to her, she told him. She’s met Jack’s type before. He’ll stick around for a while, sure, because he really does care about the two of them, but sooner or later he’ll get itchy feet and want to move on.
Not just Jack, too. She might be head over heels in love with the Doctor, but she’s not blind. He’s over nine hundred years old, and he told her, didn’t he, that he travelled with lots of people before she came along. They’re not around any more, and there’s no sign that they were ever there. Some day, whether she likes it or not, maybe even before she’s too old for this kind of life, he might be looking for someone else to travel with.
No, this isn’t going to last forever, but she just can’t see herself settling back to life on the Powell Estates and working in a shop. Whatever she does when she finally leaves the Doctor - and Jack, unless he’s already gone - it’s not gonna be that. Travelling on Earth, maybe. Going to college. Maybe a job abroad, or that involves lots of travel.
But she’s not going to tell her mum any of that right now. “Some day, yeah,” she murmurs, and ignores the stab of guilt that tells her she’s being unfair to her mum.
Everybody leaves home some time, don’t they? And it’s not as if she’ll ever stop coming to visit.
“I love you, Mum,” she says, just as they’re picking up the cups and she’s tucked the packet of yellow-label chocolate digestives under her arm. “That’s not gonna change, no matter where I am.”
Her mum nods, and her smile’s resigned. “Yeah. I know. Love you too, sweetheart.”
***
He’s clinically insane. Always suspected it, but now he knows.
He’s sitting on Jackie Tyler’s sofa, in Jackie Tyler’s flat, and he’s here willingly. Of his own accord.
Jack, in the armchair to his right, grins. “Stop looking like you’d rather be facing an army of Zygons than here.”
“Why should I? ‘S true.”
“Ah, but you never let the enemy know that.” Jack winks.
Damn. The lad’s right. Why does Jackie Tyler always do this to him? Or, more accurately, why does he let her do this to him?
He leans forward and picks up the remote. “What’s on telly?” He flicks past channels with barely a second’s pause. “Soap. Game show. Game show. Reality show. Gardenin’. Reality show. Reality show. Soap. Jerry Springer. Reality show. Trisha. What Not To Wear. Cartoons. Game show. Soap. Isn’t there anything worth watching on any more?”
“Depends.” Jack grins wickedly. “Can that get Razavastine porn?”
He sighs, rolling his eyes. “Not unless I give it a bit of jiggery-pokery. Could, but I’d blame you an’ Jackie’d kill you.”
“You never know, she might enjoy it. Lots of cute naked guys, and-”
“Jack! Time and a place!”
“Aww, come on, don’t-” He gives Jack a warning glare. Jackie Tyler’s volatile enough without having her think that her daughter’s being corrupted. Not that Rose needed any corruption in the first place, now that he thinks about it, but that’s not the point.
“Later, then,” Jack says, settling back into his armchair with a shrug. “Y’know, Rose’d love it. She’s always asking me how I did it with aliens. Got this thing about spines and tentacles and how they’d get in the way. If we could find the one-”
“You are not watching Razavastine porn with Rose.”
Jack pouts. “What, cause that’s kinkier than what we do in bed how?”
Indignant again, he glares at Jack. “Nothin’ remotely kinky about that, an’ you know it. Polyamory’s found across most of the universe. Includin’ the human race by your time, an’ completely legally too. What you, me an’ Rose do in bed together’s entirely normal.”
He’s about to ask Jack why his eyes are suddenly the size of dinner-plates, but he doesn’t get the chance.
There’s a sudden crash, and in a voice loud enough to deafen a Great Earless Nandrobe, Jackie demands, “You two are doing what with my daughter?”
***
tbc --> chapter 2