You're What?: Chapter Twenty-Nine

[amberfocus]

Rising Fury

 

The last thing Mickey Smith had expected was to find Jackie Tyler banging on the door to his flat and demanding she let him in right this minute. Well, no, the last thing he had been expecting was for her to reach into his flat and yank him out onto the balcony while he was in his t-shirt and boxer shorts and demand he get his no good, useless bum up to her flat right now barely giving him time to pull his door to.

 

“Oi, Jackie, knock it off,” he hollered as she poked him in the kidneys for the fifth time on the march back to her home. “Are you going to tell me what this is all about?”

 

“Rose is home, that’s what,” she said. “And you, Mr. Smith, have some serious explaining to do.”

 

“About what?” he asked confused. She slammed back into her own flat, pushing Mickey in front of her all the way to the kitchen.

 

“About the fact that my daughter is pregnant!” she shouted at him.

 

Mickey turned and looked at Jackie in dumbfounded amazement. “What?”

 

Now Jackie whirled on her daughter. “You mean you haven’t told him? Rose, of all the irresponsible things, you mean to tell me you’ve told all of us and you haven’t even told the baby’s father yet?”

 

Mickey’s heart sank. How could Jackie Tyler be so blind? “Is it true, Rose? Are you pregnant?” he asked quietly.

 

“I am, Mickey. I’m sorry,” she said softly.

 

“What are you apologizing to him for?” Jackie demanded. “He’s the git that got you pregnant.”

 

“No, Jackie, I’m not,” said Mickey. “I’m afraid the title of king git of the day belongs to another man.” He glared angrily at the Doctor. “Because Rose and I haven’t slept together since she swanned off with him.” He poked a vicious finger in the Time Lord’s direction. “Been over a year and a half. For me, anyway. No telling how long it’s been for Rose in that time machine, but I’d reckon a good eight months at the least.”

 

Rose nodded. “About that.  I’m sorry, Mickey,” Jackie said only sounding halfway apologetic. “I jumped to conclusions.”

 

“Same thing you did when you thought I’d killed Rose,” he said grudgingly.

 

“I never really thought you killed her, Mickey. The police were just so sure. And that’s so not the point right now!” She turned back to Rose. “So this is why you brought Jack to dinner then? You wanted me to meet your baby’s daddy. Don’t have a very high opinion of a man as old as you are impregnating a teenager,” she said.

 

Jack’s mouth fell open. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he said. “Back up a minute. I’ve never had sex with Rose. Don’t look at me.”

 

Jackie groaned. “If it’s not Mickey and it’s not this pretty charmer than how the hell did you get pregnant? Did he take you to some pleasure planet and leave you alone to be pulled by some future human?” she demanded. Her wrath turned towards the Doctor. “You were supposed to keep her safe. That means from randy men, too. Instead you just let her go have some one night stand and now she’s pregnant and I suppose you’re just going to dump her on me to deal with, aren’t you? Useless alien sod!  Can’t even get you to keep your word and keep my daughter safe!” Jackie ranted.

 

“Mum!” Rose snapped. “Knock it off. That’s not how it happened. I didn’t have sex with a stranger, or Jack, or Mickey. It wasn’t like that.”

 

“Oh, so I’m supposed to believe that this is some immaculate conception then, am I? Or, oh, I know!  Captain Kirk beamed the baby in there!” she said sarcastically.  "Sorry, Rose, but I wasn’t born yesterday! I know damn well how babies are made and it takes a man and a woman and sex.”

 

“On most planets,” Jack smirked.

 

“Well, you’re not wrong on that score,” the Doctor muttered at the same time.

 

“What’s that meant to mean?”

 

“It means there was a man and there was a woman and there was a lot of sex,” he said bluntly. “And now we're pregnant.”

 

“We're pregnant?” she repeated in shocked disbelief. “We're? Rose and…and you?”

 

“Yeah. It’s mine. Mine, Jackie Tyler,” the Doctor said indignantly. “Not Mickey’s, not Jack’s, not some random human’s.  Mine. Rose and I are going to have a son. Because your daughter and I are lovers, have been lovers for a very long time and I am responsible for all of this. Me. And you know what? She’s fantastic.”

 

Jackie stood there for a long moment, her face suffused in growing horror and anger and then she took one step forward and then another and another and she pulled her arm back then drove her fist forward into his jaw with a resounding crack. The Doctor dropped like a rock.

 

 

Jackie hadn’t exactly knocked him out but she had certainly knocked him down and she’d followed that with a kick to his groin that had left him cursing and moaning and Jack and Mickey physically restraining her from raining anymore blows down on the damn alien. She’d never been so furious in her life.

 

Rose had insisted to her over and over again that they weren’t like that, had never been like that and now she'd just found out her daughter was lying to her all along. Well, maybe not all along, but long enough. From the way Rose’s clothes were against her belly, she’d judge the girl was starting her second trimester at the very least.  

 

The men helped the Doctor over to the sofa while Rose retrieved an ice pack and a bag of frozen green peas from the freezer. She laid the ice pack on the Doctor’s face and gently cradled the peas around his crotch before turning to glare at her mother.

 

She smirked. He’d think twice about using that thing anywhere around her daughter again, that was for sure. “How could you, Mum?” Rose asked and her voice was full of such hurt that Jackie had to close her eyes. She had suspected Rose was in love with the Doctor, had even suspected that he had less than pure thoughts about her daughter, but she’d never once thought he’d act on them. Despite everything she’d gone through with that worthless alien, she’d trusted him to take care of Rose in the end. And he’d violated that trust in the worst possible way.

 

Rose put her hands on her hips and said, “You will not lay a hand on him again.”

 

“I bloody will, too,” said Jackie. “And I’ll tell you another thing, you are not getting back in that infernal machine. Your days of roaming time and space are over, young lady.”

 

“I’m an adult, Mum. Think I’m a bit past you telling me what I can and cannot do,” Rose said calmly.

 

“Well, someone needs to because you’re making some pretty poor choices left on your own. And obviously he’s no help or you wouldn’t be like this. No, you’re staying home.”

 

“Told you already, the TARDIS is my home now. My life is with the Doctor. I love him,” Rose said determinedly. “Don’t make me choose between you. You won’t win.”

 

Jackie ignored her words. “Are you sure it’s his baby? I mean, he’s an alien. How’s it even possible?”

 

“We’re alike enough. It’s not impossible, just very highly unlikely is all,” Rose said. “And yes, I’m sure. I don’t sleep around. He’s my only lover and I’m faithful to him same as he is to me. Besides, it’s a Time Lord child. The baby has Gallifreyan DNA.”

 

Jackie sat down hard in one of the arm chairs. “You are coming home,” she said firmly.

 

“No, I’m not,” Rose replied just as stubbornly.

 

“Rose will stay with me. Gallifreyan pregnancies were hard enough on a woman of my own species. With a human mother, the complications can be quite serious,” the Doctor said. His voice wasn’t quite back down into its proper register. “I have to monitor her every day for the health of both her and Charlie. A human doctor couldn’t begin to cope.”

 

“Charlie?” Jackie said faintly.

 

“We’ve named the baby Charlie. After Charles Dickens,” Rose said.

 

“You can’t keep this baby, Rose. It’s…it’s alien.”

 

“He’s mine,” Rose says. “Mine and the Doctor’s and we are keeping him. We’re keeping him and we’re raising him together and we’re a family, Mum.   You can’t stop it from happening.”

 

“A family? What? You and him? You think you can have a proper life as mummy and daddy and baby? He’s an alien who lives in a space ship. What kind of life is that for a child?” Jackie asked.

 

“The very best kind,” Rose said softly.

 

“He won’t marry you, you know,” said Jackie. “He won’t stick around and see this through. He won’t.”

 

“Oh, bloody hell, woman!” roared the Doctor. “Stop your grousing. Rose and I are already married.”

 

Jackie turned to Rose in shock, and at her daughter’s nod of confirmation she slid from her chair and sank to the floor. It was too much. It was all just too much. Rose was pregnant. By the Doctor. With an alien child. And she’d gone and got married without her mother there.

 

“You got married without me?” she whispered.

 

“I’m sorry, Mum. It just…sort of happened.” Jackie Tyler burst into tears. Rose knelt down and wrapped an arm around her mother’s shoulders.

 

“It just sort of happened?” asked Mickey incredulously. “Weddings don’t just sort of happen, Rose. And thanks for the heads up, by the way. You couldn’t have warned me? I’m going to have bruises on my kidneys for a week thanks to your mum’s overreaction. And by the way, were you actually planning on ever officially breaking up with me?”

 

“Mickey…”

 

“I mean, I knew. How could I not know? You and him, holding hands every chance you get, the looks, the smiles. Oh, I knew, but Rose…you should have said. After Cardiff, despite what you offered me that day, I knew it was ending.”

 

“What’d you offer him?” the Doctor asked jealously.

 

“Hush, Doctor,” Rose said. “We weren’t lovers then.” Rose climbed to her feet, her mum temporarily forgotten.

 

“But--.”

 

“Do you mind? I’m ranting here,” Mickey interrupted. He looked back at Rose. “I can get why you didn’t tell your mum, but me? I thought we were better than that,” Mickey said with a hard edge to his voice. “You don’t treat people like that. Not the Rose Tyler I knew and loved.”

 

Rose’s hands went straight to her hips. “Oh, please! Like you’re so innocent? You’ve been sneaking around with Tricia Delaney for a year! Don’t you even start with me about not breaking up with someone before seeing someone else!” she snapped at him. “And the Doctor and me, we didn’t, we weren’t…not before that!”

 

“Oh, yeah? Then why’d you stop sleeping with me?”

 

Rose fell silent. She glanced at the Doctor. “Yeah, it’s what I thought. Couldn’t compete with a man in a time ship.”

 

“That’s not why I love him!” Rose said.

 

“Oh, so you’re just into oversized ears and a nose the size of a house and old men, then?” shouted Mickey.

 

“Don’t you dare!” she shouted back. “That man is gorgeous! And he’s far better than you at damn near everything, especially in--.” Rose stopped, clamped her mouth shut and looked sick to her stomach.

 

“Nice to know what you think of me, Rose.”

 

“Well, what did you expect? You cheated. Why would I stay loyal after that?” she asked.

 

“Maybe you shouldn’t have stayed loyal to me. But that’s not the only thing that’s changed. You were never inconsiderate before him. You were never careless, either.”

 

“I wasn’t careless this time!” Rose said in her own defense.

 

Jackie had gotten herself together, stood up and turned to look her daughter in the eyes. “You mean this baby was planned?”

 

Rose stared down at her feet. She couldn’t flat out lie to her mother about something so important. She couldn’t.  But she didn’t want to admit that the baby had been an accident, that they hadn’t even taken precautions because the Doctor had said having a baby together was impossible and she’d taken his word for it. She didn’t have to lie. The Doctor did it for her. “Yeah,” he told Jackie in a bold-faced lie. “We planned this baby.”

 

This time when Jackie lunged for the Doctor Mickey didn’t even try to stop her attack.

Ch. 30:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/121684.html