This Alien of London--Part Three

[amberfocus]

Title:  This Alien of London (pt. 3)
Author:  Amberfocus
Characters/Pairings:  Nine/Rose, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith
Genre:  Romance
Betas:  amyo67
Rating:  Adult, this part vaguely R towards the end
Summary:  Rose and Nine return to London after their first few adventures and get caught up in the Slitheen invasion.
A/N:  This fic was written for the Time in Flux ficathon over at doctor_rose_fic.  The goal was to take your assigned episode and rewrite it, or part of it, having the Doctor and Rose get together in it without totally skewing canon so much that the next episode couldn't happen.  I got Aliens of London.  Recognizable dialogue is from that episode.

Previous chapters:
1.  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/283238.html  2.  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/284081.html

Chapter Three

 

 

Rose looked all around the back alley behind the estate where the TARDIS had been parked. Confusion warred with truth and in the deepest part of her heart she was still unable to believe it. He’d kissed her, she’d kiss him, he’d given her a key! It couldn’t have just been a ruse to be free of her. He might have a ruthless streak but he wasn’t a cruel man. Yet how could she doubt the evidence of her own eyes? He’d said he wouldn’t go but he had. He’d taken his ship and he’d left her behind.

 

“I don’t understand,” she said. “The Doctor wouldn’t just leave. He wouldn’t just go. He promised me.”

 

Mickey was far too pleased at this turn of events as he said, “Oh, he’s dumped you, Rose. Soared up into space. How’s it feel? Huh?” His tone was so self-righteous Rose wanted to smack him. “You are left behind with the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it.” He shook his finger at her.

 

Jackie appeared behind them, hands jammed into the pockets of her striped blue hoody. “He would have said!” Rose insisted.

 

“What are you two going on about?” Jackie asked. “What’s going on? What’s this Doctor done now?”

 

“Oh, ho, ho,” laughed Mickey. “He’s vamoosed!” Rose was beginning to wonder what she’d ever seen in Mickey. Gone was the boy who had made her feel safe and secure and loved. Gone was the boy she’d spent a childhood confiding in. In his place was a man who seemed determined to hurt her as much as he possibly could. This bitterness was not a side of him she liked. It firmly cemented in her mind that leaving him had been the right decision.

 

“He’s not!” Rose said firmly, holding out her hand, the key and chain proudly on display. “Because he gave me this!” She hoped it hurt Mickey as much as he was trying to hurt her right now.  Mickey had wanted her to move in with him shortly before she'd left.  He'd tried giving her a key, but she'd refused.  She hadn't understood why at the time, but now she knew she hadn't wanted to tie herself so firmly to a man her heart was not quite sure about.

 

Mickey huffed, "Guess I've been well and truly replaced," and she finally got really angry

“He’s not my boyfriend, Mickey. He’s better than that. He’s much more important and you…” She broke off and looked down at the key. He was. He was so much more than just a ‘boyfriend.’ He…she and he…it was more. Far more than the simple relationship she had with Mickey and she couldn’t even begin to explain it him. She twisted the knife. “You’re not. You just don’t get it. And you never will. But there’s a reason I left you for him. And I’d do it again!”

 

“Rose!”

 

“No, Mum, he needs to hear this. I’d have left you, anyway, Mickey. Maybe not so soon, but…there’s so much more out there for me than being stuck here on the estate with--.”

 

“Me?” he interrupted.

 

Rose knew it was cruel but she said it anyway. He’d taken no prisoners tonight. She wasn't about to, either. “Yeah.” She nodded firmly.

 

“Well, maybe that’s what he thought, too. Maybe that’s why he left you, so he didn’t have to be stuck in a marvelous universe with you, Rose!” he said furiously.

 

“Mickey, Rose, you’re saying things you don’t mean! Calm down. Let’s go back to the flat and you can work this out. The Doctor’s left you, sweetheart, and there’s no getting around that fact. Let’s try and salvage what you have left of your life. I know you two still love each other--.”

 

“No,” said Rose. “No. He’s coming back.” The key began to warm in her hand and suddenly it took on a golden glow, flashing brightly in the dim evening light. The sound of the TARDIS, that most beautiful, wonderful sound, filled the night and the ship began to materialize. And the heart that had started breaking under Mickey’s words was suddenly whole again.

 

“I said so,” she told him whirling around to locate the ship. She ran to her mother. “Mum, Mum, go inside. Now, Mum, go inside.” Jackie pulled away from her daughter, determined to see what was going on, her eyes widening in horrified fascination as the TARDIS appeared over Rose’s shoulder. “Just in there, just go inside. Mum!” But it was far too late. “Oh, blimey.”

 

“How do you do that then?” Jackie asked Rose.

 

Rose bit her thumb and took a deep breath to try to explain something, anything that her mother would buy. She had nothing. Instead she rushed into the TARDIS.

 

The Doctor glanced at her as she came in. “All right, so I lied. I went and had a look. The whole crash landing’s a fake. I thought so. It’s just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben, come on. So I thought, let’s go and have a look—.”

 

“My mum’s here,” she interrupted looking up at him with eyes that begged for forgiveness.

 

He whirled and saw Jackie and Mickey on the ramp behind him, then turned back to Rose. “Oh, that’s just what I need. Don’t you dare make this place domestic!” Rose had had enough with fingers being waved in her face today and she batted his down when he did it. He looked shocked.

 

“You ruined my life, Doctor!’ Mickey growled. “They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you.”

 

“See what I mean? Domestic!” It was the Doctor’s turn to sound outraged. Rose had just about had it with the men in her life and their self-righteous attitudes.

 

“I bet you don’t even remember my name.”

 

“Rickey,” the Doctor said deliberately misremembering.

 

“It’s Mickey,” Mickey said irritated.

 

“No, it’s Rickey,” said the Doctor deadpan.

 

“I think I know my own name,” protested Mickey.

 

“You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?” goaded the Doctor.

 

Jackie, who had been staring around the interior of the TARDIS, suddenly turned tail and made a dash for the door. “Mum, don’t. Don’t,” said Rose. She started to follow her mother then turned back. “Don’t go anywhere,” she said to the Doctor then turned to Mickey. “Don’t start a fight.” She wasn’t sure if that admonishment was meant for Mickey or the Doctor even if she was looking at her ex. She just knew it was one thing she didn’t have the time to deal with if she was going to do damage control with her mother.

 

“Mum, he’s not like that. He’s not—.” But she might as well have been talking to the wind at the rate of speed her mother took off for the flat. “I’ll be up in a minute. Hold on.” She darted back inside the TARDIS and up to the Doctor’s side.

 

“That was a real space ship,” she said.

 

“Yep.”

 

“So it’s all a pack of lies. What is it? Are they invading?”

 

“Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert,” Mickey commented, looking over their shoulders. He was interested despite himself, though he was trying very hard to look nonchalant.

 

The Doctor turned to look at him. “Good point.” He looked back at the monitor again. “So, what are you up to?” he asked the image of the crashed ship displayed there.

 

 

 

It had been several minutes and disgusted that Rose hadn’t yet thrown Mickey off the ship, he’d crawled under the console to reconfigure the tracking system and see if he couldn't find out what was really going on. Rose had said she needed to talk to Mickey some more, explain how things were now. He hadn’t liked it, but the boy needed to know his place in Rose’s life wasn’t what it once was. Everything had changed when Rose left Earth. Everything had changed again this morning on the roof of the estate. But for all that, he didn’t hear any talking going on.

 

“What are you doing down there?” Mickey asked the Doctor.

 

“Rickey,” began the Doctor.

 

“Mickey,” corrected Mickey automatically.

 

“Rickey,” the Doctor repeated firmly. “If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand it?”

 

“I suppose not.”

 

“Well, shut it then.”

 

Mickey glared at him and headed over to Rose. “Some friend you got.”

 

“He’s winding you up,” Rose said shaking her head. It was true. He was. Something about the boy just made him a little bit crazy. Mickey looked down at his feet. “I am sorry,” Rose said.

 

“Okay.”

 

“I am, though.”

 

“Every day, I looked,” Mickey said finally meeting her eyes. All of his anger seemed to be gone now. In its place was a hurt and lonely man. The Doctor felt a slight twinge. He knew what it was to be lonely, to have no one, to be all alone in the universe until Rose had come in to light his darkness. “On every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a blue box for a whole year.”

 

“It’s only been a few days for me,” Rose said. “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell inside this thing, but I swear, it’s only been a few days since I left you. I wouldn’t have let you go through that, Mickey, not that.”

 

“But you left me. I mean, when you left, to go with him…you left me. Right? I’m not that thick, despite what your Doctor thinks. That was you leaving me?” he asked.

 

“Yeah,” Rose said softly. “I…I’m sorry, Mickey. I did it all wrong, but yeah. That was me leaving you.”

 

“For him.”

 

“No,” she said. “It wasn’t like that. It was for time and space and adventure. He’s just—.”

 

“Don’t say that. Don’t say he’s not, because I have two eyes, Rose and they both work perfectly well. You two are like that. I’m not a fool, even if he treats me like one,” he said kicking the grating the Doctor was laying beneath.

 

“It’s been twelve months. Aren’t you seeing anyone else?” she asked.

 

“No.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“Mainly because everyone thinks I murdered you,” he added petulantly.

 

“Right,” Rose said.

 

“So…now that you’ve come back… Are you gonna stay?” The emotion in Mickey’s voice scared him. The Doctor knew Rose would react to that kind of emotion and he hoped she wouldn’t say yes, wouldn’t even think about giving up this new life she was leading at his side. He held his breath, waiting for her answer.

 

“No, Mickey. I’m sorry, but I’m gonna leave again when the Doctor’s ready to go. This is my life now. It’s what I want. I want to be with him.”

 

“Then I guess all that’s left is to say good-bye.”

 

“Yeah.” The Doctor crawled out just in time to see Mickey leaning in to kiss Rose on the cheek. Rose jerked away from him when she saw the Doctor.

 

“Well, good-bye then,” said Mickey.

 

“Good-bye.” The man turned and walked dejectedly from the TARDIS.

 

“You weren’t very nice to him,” Rose said.

 

“Domestics,” warned the Doctor.

 

“Oh, you know what? I’m sick of that. You want to start a relationship with me, you get to deal with all of my baggage, okay? I left him for you. To come with you, to be with you. And he got accused of murder and he thought I was dead for a year. And so did my mum! And you don’t want to deal with the domestics? This is your bloody fault, Doctor!” she yelled.

 

“You’re right,” he said gently.

 

“I’m right?” she asked, her tirade derailed as quickly as it had started.

 

“I didn’t mean for any of it to happen. I thought it was twelve hours. It was supposed to be twelve hours!” he said angrily. “Do you think I wanted to worry your mum like that? She’s your mum, Rose. Of all people, she’s the one you love most, the one you miss most, the one who didn’t deserve any of this. And I made her lose you for a year. A year, Rose. I’ve only had you in my life for a few weeks and already I can’t imagine losing you for a year. It would...it would...be bad. And she had to, because of me.” He scrubbed his hand over his face and his eyes were hollow when he looked at her.

 

“And Mickey?”

 

The Doctor glanced away and hunched in on himself. “What about him?”

 

Rose sighed. “He had it worse than my mum.”

 

“He’ll get over it.”

 

“Doctor! He was accused of killing me. He loves me.”

 

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

 

“He’s hurting!” Rose snapped. “He’s saying things he doesn’t mean.”

 

“Why do you care so much about his emotions then? I thought you two were over. You said, you told him you left him when you chose to come with me. Is that the truth? Or are you just saying that now to cover your tracks?” he demanded.

 

“How can you say that? Don’t you know how I feel about you? After everything? And here I was being all afraid that you were going to leave me. But it’s the other way around, isn’t it? You’re afraid I’m gonna leave you. That I’ll want to go back to this life and Mickey and my mum and…I don’t. I want you. I want to be with you.  I want all of it, everything a man and woman can have, with you.”

 

He barely dared to hope at her words. “I’ve lost everything I ever wanted. Everything I touch…turns to dust.”

 

“Not everything,” she said closing the distance between them. “Not me. You’re not gonna lose me. I’m staying right here. With you. I want you, Doctor.”

 

He pulled her roughly into his arms and his mouth took sudden and full possession of her own. The hunger in his kiss was laced with longing, need, suppressed desire. All of it burst from him and his hands clamped tightly on her arms, bringing her even closer to him. Rose loosened his grip and then her arms went around his waist and he felt her hands moving up underneath his jumper to find smooth, bare skin. He shuddered underneath her touch, his skin suddenly extraordinarily sensitive.

 

His fingers found their way to her waistband and he stroked his hands up her sides under her top to her bra. There was only a second’s hesitation before he reached around her and flicked the little clasp open and then his big, calloused hands were moving to touch her breasts. Rose moaned into his mouth and he sighed, breaking their kiss.

 

“The console room’s not the place for this,” he said taking a few steps away from her and then holding out his hand. “Come on,” he said. She took his hand and he led her into the corridor and down to his bedroom.

 

He paused at the door. “Is this what you want?” he asked her. She nodded mutely and he led her over the threshold and laid her down upon his bed.

Ch. 4:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/285683.html