Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Rose and Nine The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

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`Harriet Jones. Who does she think she is? Look at her, taking all the credit. Should be you on there. My daughter saved the world!' Jackie told the Member of Parliament on the TV news after the Slitheen had tried to destroy the Earth.

`I think the Doctor helped a bit,' Rose said, smiling at her mother's pride in her.

`All right, then, him too. You should be given knighthoods.'

Blimey, what a difference a day makes. It was only yesterday that she was ready to kill him for being a year late. Mind you, Rose was ready to kill him as well. She had been really upset that her Mum had thought she was dead, and that Mickey was the prime suspect.

`That's not the way he does things. No fuss. He just moves on. He's not that bad if you gave him a chance,' Rose told her, trying to build bridges. When the Slitheen crisis started, the Doctor realised that the TARDIS had overridden his temporal coordinates to bring them to this point, making them 12 months late.

`He's good in a crisis, I'll give him that,' Jackie conceded. On the phone she had asked him `Just answer me this, is my daughter safe?' and he didn't answer, he couldn't.

But then he'd told them that he had a way out, a way to save the Earth. `There's always been a way out' he told them.

`Then why don't we use it?' Rose asked him, and that was when Jackie realised that this strange, unearthly man really cared for her daughter.

`Because I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe' he had said over the phone, and Jackie was terrified that having lost her daughter for a year, and thinking she was dead, would get to do it all over again, only for real this time.

She had pleaded with the Doctor not to do whatever it was he was planning, even though Rose trusted him without question. It was only that Harriet Jones, pulling rank and telling him to do it that made him finally decide to launch that missile. Jackie was convinced that he wouldn't have done it on his own, not knowing if Rose would be safe.

Rose brought her out of her musings. `Oh, now the world has changed. You're saying nice things about him.'

`Well, I reckon I've got no choice. There's no getting rid of him since you're infatuated.'

`I'm not infatuated,' Rose protested in the manner of a petulant teenager.

For her daughter's sake, Jackie was willing to hold out an `olive branch' and try to accept this alien. `What does he eat?'

That question took Rose by surprise. `How do you mean?'

`I was going to do shepherds pie. All of us. A proper sit down, 'cos I'm ready to listen,' she told her. `I wanna learn about you and him and that life you lead. Only, I don't know, he's an alien. For all I know, he eats grass and safety pins and things.'

“Who are you and what have you done with my mother?” Rose thought to herself. Had that Slitheen actually gotten her and was now wearing her like a Jackie suit? Actually, that wasn't funny; it could so easily have ended like that.

`He'll have shepherd pie. You're going to cook for him?'

`What's wrong with that?' Jackie asked indignantly.

`He's finally met his match,' Rose said jokingly.

`You're not too old for a slap, you know,' Jackie joked back as Rose's phone started ringing. `You can go and visit your Gran tomorrow. You'd better learn some French. I told her you were in France. I said you were au-pairing.'

The caller ID said TARDIS calling when she looked at the display. `Hello?'

`Right, I'll be a couple of hours, then we can go,' the Doctor said.

`You've got a phone?' She asked him in disbelief. She'd seen something like a phone on the console, but presumed it would be something to do with time travelling, not actually a working phone for talking to people.

`You think I can travel through space and time and I haven't got a phone? Like I said couple of hours. I've just got to send out this dispersal. There you go. That's cancelling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up.'

He heard the hesitation before she spoke. `Er, my mother's cooking.'

Oh no, he groaned inwardly. `Good. Put her on a slow heat and let her simmer.'

Ah, Rose thought he might be like this. `She's cooking tea . . . for us.'

Damn it, why do families have to get involved? He'd done that once, had a family, a home, and look where that got him. He could feel the storm rising in him, bringing back the memories of the end of days and his part in it.

`I don't do that,' he said sharply.

Rose could hear the emotion in his voice, and wondered why he was so upset about a simple invite to dinner. `She wants to get to know you.'

`Tough. I've got better things to do.'

Talk about holding a grudge, I mean, it wasn't like he didn't deserve that slap. `It's just tea,' she pleaded.

`Not to me it isn't.' “To me, it's families, relationships, being tied down to one place, losing the freedom to choose your own destiny” he thought to himself.

`She's my mother.'

Oh that hurt him. Of course Jackie was her mother, and she was a brilliant mother. She was the kind of mother who would do anything to keep her daughter safe, and he knew as well as Jackie, that he wasn't safe. `Well, she's not mine.'

`That's not fair,' she told him, sounding hurt by his rejection of her mother's offer of friendship.

`Well, you can stay there if you want, but right now there's this plasma storm brewing in the Horse Head Nebula. Fires are burning ten million miles wide. I could fly the TARDIS right into the heart of it then ride the shock wave all the way out, hurtle right across the sky and end up anywhere . . . your choice.'

He hung up the phone and realised what he had done. After all the effort he had gone to, to get Rose to go with him in the first place, he had given her an ultimatum. She had to choose between him and her mother, and he wasn't sure which one she would choose.

He hoped it would be him, but after keeping her from her home for twelve months, and the guilt she felt for putting Jackie and Mickey through that torment . . . Well, she knew where he was, it was her choice.

Jackie came out of the kitchen with two mugs of tea. `Rose, I was thinking. I've got that bottle of Amaretto from New Year's Eve. Does he drink?' The living room was empty, so Jackie went looking for her.

She found Rose in her bedroom. `I was wondering whether he drinks or not.' Her face fell when she saw her packing her things into a rucksack.

`Yeah, he does,' Rose said distractedly. She didn't want to confront her mother with the news that she was going again, not after what she had put her through the last time she went with the Doctor.

`Don't go, sweetheart. Please don't go.'

`Mum, don't, please. Out there I can make a difference, we can make a difference. What can I do here? I've got no job, no qualifications.'

`You've got me, an' Mickey.'

She put the rucksack over her shoulders and started to leave. `I know Mum, an' I love you so much, an' I'm so sorry for what you went through last year. But I've seen what's out there Mum, and I've met all these wonderful people, an' not all of them were human.'

Jackie started to feel that because Rose had turned twenty, she was a young woman and didn't want to be seen living with her mother. Rose was all she had got, and she was losing her.

`I'll get a proper job. I'll work weekends. I'll pass my test, and if Jim comes round again, I'll say no. I really will,' Jackie told her as they came out of the door of the flats.

“Oh yes!” the Doctor thought as he saw Rose coming towards him wearing a rucksack.

She could see him and Mickey talking near the TARDIS. `I'm not leaving because of you. I'm travelling, that's all, and then I'll come back.'

`But it's not safe.'

“What and the Powell Estate is?” she thought. `Mum, if you saw it out there you'd never stay home.'

`Got enough stuff?' The Doctor asked her as she took her rucksack off.

`Last time I stepped in there, it was spur of the moment. Now I'm signing up. You're stuck with me,' she replied, stuffing the rucksack into his arms and wiggling her finger at him.

Spur of the moment? If only she knew the lengths he'd gone to, to make her change her mind after he asked her the first time and she'd said no.

She went over to Mickey. `Come with us, there's plenty of room,' she said. She felt really bad about him being accused with her disappearance, and the reaction of his so called friends and neighbours.

`No chance,' the Doctor said. `He's a liability; I'm not having him on board.'

`We'd be dead without him,' Rose reminded him.

Now it was his turn to feel guilty. Mickey had asked him to reject him, so that Rose wouldn't know that he wasn't ready for that lifestyle. `My decision is final.'

`Sorry,' she said, kissing him on the lips. Mickey pretended to be disappointed.

`Good luck, yeah,' he said with a little wave.

Jackie confronted the Doctor. `You still can't promise me. What if she gets lost? What if something happens to you, Doctor, and she's left all alone standing on some moon a million light years away. How long do I wait then?' It would be more than twelve months, that's for sure, and she wasn't sure she could take that.

`Mum, you're forgetting. It's a time machine,' Rose cut in. `I could go travelling around suns and planets and all the way out to the edge of the universe, and by the time I get back, yeah, ten seconds would have passed. Just ten seconds. So stop worrying. See you in ten seconds' time, yeah?'

So why did they have to wait twelve months to come home, if they could have made it ten seconds? There was so much she didn't understand about this life of theirs. She hugged Rose, not really wanting to let her go, but eventually, reluctantly, she released her from the hug.

There was a rumble from within the TARDIS before it started to wheeze and fade away.

`Ten seconds,' Jackie said in resignation as she looked at her watch. She knew it was too good to be true.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor adjusted a few controls and checked the readouts as the Time Rotor pumped up and down.

`So, if I'm stayin', do I get a room or somethin'?' Rose asked, giving him a cheeky grin. `I mean, a girl's gotta have somewhere to put all her stuff.'

Oh God, she's bringing domestic into the TARDIS. Was that the TARDIS chuckling in his head? He looked up from the console and smiled at her. `Yeah, come on, let's get you settled in.'

He picked up her rucksack and held out his hand for her. She gave a little squeal of delight and grabbed his hand, hugging his arm in anticipation. He led her out of the console room and along a corridor, when they heard a click to their left.

`Oh, here we are then,' the Doctor said as a door swung open. `The TARDIS has prepared a room for you.'

`What?' Rose said in amazement as she stepped through the door. She started giggling. `This is brilliant.'

`It's all right then?' He asked her as he put the rucksack on the bed.

`Of course it is; it's my room back home.' Her face then became worried as the realisation set in. `Hang on, how'd ya know what my room looks like? Have you been stalking me or somethin'?'

The Doctor looked horrified, because in a way, he had been stalking her . . . through time. After she said no the first time, he'd watched over her, trying to find a way that would make her say yes when he went back to ask her a second time.

`No, this is all the TARDIS's doing; she wants you to feel at home. She must really like you,' he said with a smile.

The TARDIS had dipped into her memories of her bedroom on the Powell Estate, and given her room the same colour scheme and furniture. There was an added feature to this room though, this one was tidy.

`I'll leave you to it then, and I'll see you in the kitchen when you're done.' He left the room and gently closed the door.

Rose walked over to the bed and tested the mattress; it felt better than her bed at home. `Mmmm, I think I'm going to like it here.'

She started taking her clothes out of the rucksack and putting them in the draws and on hangers in the wardrobe. She was left with her bag of toiletries, and suddenly wondered about the bathroom arrangements on the TARDIS.

She didn't have to wonder for long, as she spotted a door in the corner of the room that wasn't present in her room on the Powell Estate. She walked around the bed and opened the door, to look into an en suite, luxury bathroom.

`Oh wow, now this is more like it,' she said out loud. The TARDIS was making her feel really welcome. She took her toiletries out of the small bag and put them on the shelf in front of the mirror over the hand basin. As she looked in the mirror, she noticed that she had an enormous smile on her face.

`Come on girl, let's go, and find the Doctor,' she said to her reflection.

Once again, she was surprised at how easily she found her way around the TARDIS; it seemed that it wasn't just her nose that led her to the kitchen. When she got there, she snorted a laugh at the vision that confronted her.

The Doctor was wearing a chef's hat and a novelty apron that made him look as though he was wearing ladies underwear.

`What?' he said with a smile. `It's been ages since I had the chance to cook for someone.' His expression went blank as he thought about his previous companions and their food preferences.

`Whatcha cookin'?' she asked him, bringing him out of his reverie.

`Well, I know you like chips, but I thought that was a bit simple. Shepherd's pie might be a touchy subject, what with your mum offering to cook it, so the only other thing I know you like is pizza, from when Auton Mickey took you to the restaurant.'

`Oh yeah, you're a regular Sherlock Holmes, aren't ya,' she said with a smile. That was so thoughtful of him.

He grinned and waggled his eyebrows. `You are going to love this pizza; it's an original Pizza Margherita, the recipe for which was given to me by Raffaele Esposito.'

Rose looked puzzled. `Is he one of those celebrity chef's off the telly? I don't remember him.'

The Doctor had a real belly laugh at that. `Raffaele was a Neapolitan pizza maker who made the first Pizza Margherita on the eleventh of June 1889, to honour the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy.'

`You're kiddin', and you're makin' it for me?' She was really touched by how he was trying to make her feel at home.

He took the pizza out of the oven and cut it into triangular sections on the counter before placing it on the table in front of her. She reached a slice off the plate and took a bite.

`Oh my God, this is gorgeous,' she said through a mouthful of pizza. He put a glass of red wine in front of her and sat down opposite, taking his own slice and having a bite. They sat there eating and grinning at each other as they enjoyed their first meal together in the TARDIS.

`When you've finished, we've got a date with a plasma storm,' he reminded her.

`Ooh, that's a chat up line I've not heard before, I bet you say that to all the girls,' she teased.

It was a memorable and life changing meal for both of them. For Rose, it was the start of the rest of her life, a very different one to the previous nineteen years. And for the Doctor, it was an end to his self imposed solitary confinement. Not since Lucie, had he had a companion travel, eat and sleep in the TARDIS.

After the meal, they headed for the console room, and the Doctor set the coordinates for the Horse Head Nebula.

Rose looked around the room and thought about the spectacle that would be going on outside the TARDIS. `Doctor, how are we gonna see this storm when there aren't any windows?'

`Y'know Rose, that's a very good question,' he said with a cheeky grin, `Do you remember me telling you that the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through those doors?'

She nodded. `Yeah, you said they'd tried.'

`They did, and not only can they not get in, but air can't get out. If you open those doors in thirty seconds, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.' He adjusted a few more controls and stopped the Time Rotor.

He walked over to Rose and took her hand before walking down the ramp to the doors.

`Go on then,' he prompted, and she hesitantly opened the door. She gasped at the sight that confronted her. They were riding a pressure wave of super heated gases that reminded her of that star gate sequence in the film `2001 a space odyssey', and it was breathtakingly hypnotic.

The Doctor looked down at her and smiled, enjoying her reaction to the experience, as well as the plasma storm itself.

They spent an hour zooming through the nebula, before emerging from the storm into clear space. Rose felt as though she'd been on the best fairground ride ever.

`There you are, now wasn't that better than shepherd's pie in a flat on the Powell Estate,' he said with a satisfied grin.

She bumped shoulders with him and returned the grin. `Yeah, all right, I'll give you that one, but we promised Mum ten seconds, can we do that, just to show her that I'm all right, so she won't worry.'

`Yeah, all right. I suppose you did promise, but let's give her time to eat the shepherd's pie eh?'