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And now he had conclusive proof that there were. Even if he was the only Time Lord left in existence in this universe other than the unborn Charlie, there were other copies of himself and maybe they had wives and children, too. Maybe there was hope for his own people to exist again one day. Maybe there was even a universe where the Time War had never happened.
A sudden heavy pounding on the TARDIS doors made him nearly bang his head. He slithered out from his position and got hastily to his feet as the knocking came again. He hurried to the door hoping the pounding didn’t wake his wife.
He opened the door and stared into the scowling face of Jackie Tyler. “Where is she?” Jackie demanded pushing him out of the way and striding past him into the ship.
“Where’s who?” he asked.
“Don’t be stupid. Where’s my daughter?” she wanted to know. “You’ve been here for hours. I heard the TARDIS land last night and I’ve been waiting for her to come up. And she hasn’t so where is she?”
“She’s sleeping,” he said warily.
“Sleeping? It’s past noon.”
“Well, it was a late night and she needs her rest these days,” the Doctor said.
“These days? Why? Is something wrong with my Rose?” she asked. Worry suffused her face. “Is she sick? Hurt? Recovering from an injury? I knew letting her swan around the universe with you was a mistake. What’d you do to her?”
He shrugged. “She’s fine, Jackie. Just…needs more sleep, that’s all.”
“Well, go and wake her up. I haven’t seen her in months,” Jackie ordered.
“I’m not going to wake her up. Rose and I will be up when she’s awake. We’ll…we’ll come for dinner if you like,” he said hesitantly.
“Now I know something’s wrong. You, stay for dinner? What’s the catch?” she demanded.
“No catch. Rose just really wants to talk to you.”
Jackie didn’t look like she quite believed him but then that was hardly surprising. “I’ll hold you to it then. Dinner.”
“And we’ve got a new companion travelling with us since you last saw us. So there’ll be three of us coming if that’s all right,” the Doctor said.
“Certainly.”
“We’ll see you then.” He ushered Jackie out of the ship and leaned hard against the door behind her. He groaned at the idea of eating dinner with the woman but he was married to her daughter and the father of her unborn grandson. He was going to have to make concessions for that now. His hand went to rub his cheek. He only hoped she would, too, when they told her the truth otherwise he was in for a smack and the sharp side of Jackie’s tongue. Though come to think of it, he didn’t think it had a soft side, not when it came to him.
“Did I hear Mum?” He jumped at the sleepy voice of Rose behind him.
“Yeah. She’s invited us up for dinner. I told her we’d come.”
Rose sighed and placed her hands flat against the small of her back, shifting to support the small baby bump a bit better. “You hurting?” the Doctor asked her.
“Just a bit. Body’s not used to the extra weight pulling at it all the time. I know it’s not much. I’ve only gained eight pounds, but I feel every bit of it.”
“Come on, I’ll do some acupressure on you.” He wrapped his arm about her shoulders and herded her back to their bedroom where she lay down in the middle of the bed on her stomach. He sat beside her and eased her tank top up and her pajama bottoms down and positioned his thumbs appropriately. She gave a little hiss as he settled on the pressure points, but then let out a deep breath and relaxed into it.
After several minutes he released his hold, his hands drifting up and down her back before he straightened her clothes. She sighed. “Better?” he said.
“Much.” She rolled onto her back and looked up at him. “Thank you.” She patted the bed next to her. He shed his leather jacket and his boots and stretched out beside her, pulling her body into his side. She snuggled into him.
“I love you, Rose,” he said. “You know that, right?”
“I won’t let her eat you alive,” Rose said with thinly veiled amusement.
“What?”
“My Mum. She’s not taking me away from you. I won’t let her,” Rose said fiercely.
“That’s good, because I won’t let her either, but that’s not why I said it. I said it because I love you. I need you to be very secure in that Rose, after…everything,” he said.
“I thought we were past this,” she said softly.
“I messed up so badly,” he said.
“Yeah,” Rose agreed. “You really did, but you said you were sorry and you meant it and I forgave you.”
“But how can you? How can you just forgive me? I was awful.”
Rose sighed. “It’s like how you forgave me for what happened with my dad and the Reapers. I mean, I’m responsible for you dying and you forgave me.”
“Yeah, but I’m responsible for our baby dying,” he said.
“Not anymore,” she replied. “It didn’t happen. You’ve got to stop thinking like that. You stepped up, Doctor. You took responsibility for getting me pregnant and you’ve done everything you could to make things better. I know you’re trying. I know you want this, that you want me, that you hurt me because you were scared and that you’re not going to do it again. Maybe it’s not forgotten completely, but I trust that you are really sorry and that you won’t do it again, just like you trusted me then. I think you need to forgive yourself,” she said softly.
“Not so easy,” he sighed. His arms tightened a bit about her and he held her closer to him. “But I’ll try.”
“I love you, too,” she told him glancing at her bedside clock, a concession the Doctor had made for her when she’d had to start taking medication on a schedule to control the hyperemesis. “And we’re not due at Mum’s for another three hours. Let me show you how much.”
Clothing seemed to fade away and they made slow, sweet love to each other and lay together afterwards exhausted and happy until Rose’s stomach growled so loudly that the Doctor laughed and got up to make her a snack while Rose slipped into the shower. When she was done she wandered into the kitchen where he’d prepared a couple of turkey wraps with spinach and Dijon mustard, from the planet Dijon, not the city.
He sat watching her eat and trying not to brood. He was glad they’d made love, because despite Rose’s reassurances that everything would be okay with Jackie, he wasn’t so sure she wouldn’t throw him out on his ear and try to keep them apart once she found out Rose was pregnant. He’d move heaven and Earth to get Rose back if she did, but if Jackie got really mad, called the authorities, or worse yet told people he was an alien there was a good chance he’d never see her again. How he ever had thought he could live without Rose he didn’t know, because right now the idea of it was killing him.
Jack had gone out earlier to fetch flowers for Rose to bring to her mother and the three of them stood outside the front door of Jackie’s flat, the flowers clutched tightly in Rose’s arms. “Ease up or you’ll crush them, Rose,” Jack said as the Doctor reached out and knocked.
A moment later the door was flung open and Jackie said, “What you knocking for, Rose? This is still your home.”
“TARDIS is my home now, Mum,” Rose said. “You know that.”
“Well, you’ve always got a bed here and you don’t have to knock. What are those for then?” she said eyeing the flowers. “And who’s this?” Jackie queried.
“The flowers are for you, Mum. And this is Captain Jack Harkness. He travels with us now.” Rose gave him a fond smile and thrust the flowers at her mother. “The Doctor told you there’d be three of us for dinner.”
“Guess I didn’t expect him to be so…handsome.” She held out her hand and said, “Hi, I’m Jackie Tyler.”
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” Jack said and flashed her his dimpled smile.
“Well, aren’t you the charmer? Well, come in, all of you. Don’t need to stand out there all day, do you?” She stepped back and Rose handed her the flowers on the way in. “Dinner’s ready. I was about to come down and fetch you.”
“What’d you make, Mum?” Rose asked. “Shepherd’s pie?”
“Nope, didn’t have the ingredients. But Howard brought me a nice roast yesterday, so you get that with carrots and potatoes and gorgeous thick gravy,” Jackie said.
“Sounds lovely,” Rose said trying to keep the relief out of her voice. Jackie may have considered Shepherd’s pie to be her specialty dish but it was always awful and Rose didn’t know if her nausea was under enough control to deal with that tragedy. But her mum’s pot roast was always amazing.
She reached back for the Doctor’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze before they all trooped into the kitchen and sat down at the table, Jackie placing the flowers in a vase and using it as a centerpiece before she sat, too. As food was passed about and dished up Jackie studied Rose carefully. “What is it, Mum?” Rose said.
“You look tired.”
“I am a bit.”
“But you’ve slept all day.”
“We had a lot of stuff going on lately and I’m playing catch up on sleep, is all.”
“He said,” and she jerked a thumb at the Doctor, “that you needed more sleep these days. Have you been ill? He says not.”
“He has a name, you know,” Rose said in annoyance.
“He has a title,” Jackie countered.
“This is delicious, Mrs. Tyler,” Jack interrupted.
“Jackie, please,” Jackie said glancing briefly at him before looking back at Rose. “Thank you. I’m concerned about you sweetheart. You don’t look well. Is he running you too hard?”
Rose sighed. “Honestly, I spend way more time in bed lately than I do running for my life.”
Jack choked on his milk and Rose reached over and thumped him a little harder than necessary on the back a few times as his sputters came under control.
“I’m fine.”
“Well, you don’t look fine. You look awful,” Jackie told her.
“Thanks, ever so,” Rose said dryly.
“Don’t you pay her any mind, Rose. You look lovely,” Jack said.
“I think you need to take a break from all this travelling, sweetheart. Come home for a few weeks, get some real rest. You can go back out again when you’re healthy.”
“I’m perfectly healthy now.” She glanced over at the Doctor. “I’m just…well, I’m just pregnant.”
“You’re what?” screeched Jackie so loud Rose was sure the entirety of the estate heard her.
“I’m pregnant. I’m gonna have a baby.”
Jackie Tyler rose from the table and stormed out of the flat, the door banging shut behind her in an echoing slam that had mirrored the fury on her face. Rose turned to the Doctor and he reached out and took her hand. “It’ll be okay, Rose. I promise you. It’ll be okay.” But Rose had a very hard time believing that it would.
Ch. 29: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/119980.html
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