Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Rose and Ten The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Ten ( Chapter 10 )

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48 Bucknall House.

Powell Estate, Peckham.

Jackie had just finished doing a wash and cut for one of her neighbours, and had seen her out the door. The money she made from hairdressing wasn't much, but it helped to supplement the benefits she relied on to pay the bills. Now Rose wasn't here, bringing in a wage, she had to tighten her belt and watch her spending.

She went into the kitchen and picked up the kettle to fill it with water, when she felt that wheezing, grinding sensation in her chest. It felt as though the whole flat were vibrating to the sound of that mad box that her daughter travelled about in. Hang on; it was in the flat, in the living room to be precise.

Jackie put down the kettle and quickly went through to the living room, where a blue, wooden box took up most of the room. The door opened, and Rose stepped out, looking at her as though she were a ghost or something.

`You're alive,' Rose said, almost in disbelief, before running forward and hugging her mother. `Oh mum, you're alive.'

`Well, I was the last time I looked,' she said with mild amusement, and then she saw the Doctor's face. `What is it? What's happened, Sweetheart? What's wrong? Where did you go?'

Rose couldn't speak; she was so overcome with emotion.

`Far away,' the Doctor told her quietly. `That was . . . far away.' He gazed off into the distance.

Jackie noticed that the Doctor had closed the door of the TARDIS; no one else was coming out. A knot of dread formed in her stomach. `Where's Mickey?' she asked, dreading the answer. Was this why Rose was so upset, was Mickey . . . dead?

`He's gone home,' the Doctor said, not sad, but not happy either. So not dead then, just somewhere else, what did he mean, he's gone home? After a long hug, Jackie guided Rose to the sofa and sat her down.

`I was just puttin' the kettle on, dry yer eyes Sweetheart and I'll make the tea.'

With a mug of tea in her hand, Jackie sat down and looked at them expectantly. `Well . . . ? Come on then, I'm listenin',' she said.

The Doctor and Rose, told her about Mickey's first adventure on a derelict spaceship, with repair droids and eighteenth century France. Then, how they had crashed into another universe and dealt with robots trying to steal peoples brains. They didn't mention that it was a parallel universe, with a Pete Tyler and a Jackie who had been killed.

`Oh God, you two have been lookin' for trouble again, ain't ya? No wonder you were all upset. An' what happened to Mickey then?'

`Er . . . he met his . . .' Rose started.

`He met someone in that universe, someone he really cared about, and decided to stay,' the Doctor said. Rose looked at him and smiled, that was brilliant.

`Blimey, she must be somethin' special to make him give up everythin' here.'

Rose gave a little laugh. `Oh, you have no idea Mum, she's amazin',' Rose said, knowing how impressed her Mum had been with Rita Anne.

`That's better Sweetheart, seein' ya laugh again, you had me worried when you first got here. An' what was all that about me bein' alive?' Jackie said.

`Oh, just ignore me, I was all upset about Mickey leavin', that's all.'

Jackie gave her a questioning look, as though she didn't believe her, but decided not to push it. `I'll go and start the dinner then,' she said, standing up and moving towards the kitchen.

`Ah, right, well . . . I'll get the TARDIS ready then,' the Doctor said, standing and reaching for the door of the TARDIS.

`I said I'm makin' dinner,' Jackie said, in a forceful tone.

He swallowed hard, and Rose tried to stifle a laugh. This alien had just defeated an army of Cybermen, and yet her mum had him trembling in his trainers.

`Right . . . shall I lay the table or something?'

Rose couldn't stifle the laugh anymore, and collapsed in a fit of giggles, as Jackie gave him a lopsided smile. `Hang on Mum; I'll give you a hand.'

In the kitchen, Rose helped her mum prepare the vegetables and put them in pans on the stove, which looked as though it had seen better days.

`Mum, this cooker is lookin' a bit knackered.'

`I know Sweetheart, the ring at the back stopped workin' a month ago, I'm havin' to save up to replace it.'

Rose thought about this, and felt guilty again about gallivanting around the universe, wanting for nothing, while her mother struggled to make ends meet, and then she had an idea.

`Why don't you have Mickey's cooker? I mean, he's not comin' back, and it's hardly used, as he used to eat a lot of takeaways.'

`Oh I couldn't . . . could I?'

`Why not? In fact we need to empty the flat an' tell the council that he's moved out,' Rose realised, a sad expression on her face.

`Well, it would be a shame to see his stuff thrown down the tip.'

`There ya go then; we can take the TARDIS over there after dinner an' clear it out.'

Rose explained to the Doctor that because Mickey wasn't coming back, they had to empty his flat so that someone else could live there.

`It's all right Rose, I might not do domestic, but I do understand the basic concept of domiciles.'

`Okay, so after dinner, can you fly us over there so we can get all his stuff?'

Oh great, more domestic!

The TARDIS materialised in the untidy living room of Mickey's flat, and Rose hesitantly stepped out, followed by her mum, and then the Doctor.

Jackie put a reassuring hand on Rose's shoulder. `Are you all right Sweetheart?'

Rose put her knuckle up to her lips in that way that she had always done when she was uncertain about something. `Yeah . . . it just feels weird, knowin' he's never comin' back.' She started to cry again.

`Look Rose, I can do this with Jackie if you'd prefer, you could stay in the TARDIS,' the Doctor said.

Rose shook her head and looked at him with moist eyes. He could be so thoughtful and sensitive at times. `No, I'll be all right . . . I need to do this, y'know, draw a line under it, move on.'

The Doctor nodded his understanding, and Jackie squeezed her shoulder in support. `I'll . . . I'll just go through to the kitchen and disconnect the cooker,' he said, holding up his sonic screw driver.

That left Rose and Jackie to start clearing up the living room, which was a marathon job on its own. Rose picked up a motoring magazine off the coffee table and leafed through it before putting it back down. She looked over at the tatty sofa, where they'd spent many a night watching TV.

`Well, yer can leave the sofa,' Jackie said with a look of disgust. `Ya don't know what's livin' in the back of that.'

Rose snorted a laugh. That did it, the melancholy mood was gone. `C'mon, let's see what's worth keepin', and what the council can clear out.'

They started moving small items into the TARDIS, the television, coffee tables, stools, a phone. Every so often, Rose would find a seemingly insignificant item, and remember the history of it or the circumstances when it was acquired.

`Oh-my-God,' Jackie said as she leaned over the armchair.

`What?' Rose said, concerned. `What have you found?'

Jackie straightened up and turned to Rose, holding up a dirty sock as though it was a biohazard (which it probably was).

`Has he not heard of a dirty linen basket?'

Rose started to laugh, a proper laugh that remembered all the good times that she'd shared with Mickey in this flat. Jackie joined her and laughed herself, dropping the sock back on the chair.

The Doctor came through with the cooker, and the fridge, the microwave and the toaster. Slowly, they emptied his flat of the most useful possessions. Rose gathered up his box files that he'd filled with UFO sightings, conspiracy theories and all the things he'd investigated since Rose had taken to travelling with the Doctor.

`A computer?' Jackie said. `What do I need with a computer? I don't know how to use one.'

`The Doctor can set it up in the spare room for ya, an' I can show you how to use it. All yer really need to use is the web browser.'

Rose had one, last, sad look around the flat, the posters on the walls, the red `stop' sign, the green `go' sign, the bed . . . That was hard, to look at what had been 'their' bed, and not feel the loss of her old boyfriend.

`Bye Mickey,' she whispered, and closed the bedroom door.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor was preparing for take off at the console, and looked with concern as Rose came through the door, closing it behind her, and leaning on it. She saw his concern and smiled at him, nodding in response to an unspoken question, she was going to be okay.

`Next stop, Jackie's flat,' he said as the time rotor started grinding up and down. He checked the view screen, and gave a slight frown. `Mmmm, that's interesting . . . we'll have to sort that out later,' he said, with a big smile on his face.

`What is it?' Rose asked.

`Oh, just a stray that needs catching and putting back where it belongs.'

Back in the flat, the Doctor connected up the `new' cooker and fridge, and then fixed up the computer in the spare room.

`Don't cha need an internet connection or sommat?' Jackie asked, as she popped her head around the door.

She heard a whistling, warbling noise, and saw the Doctor putting something in his jacket pocket. `Normally, yes, but I've given this one a bit of a super connection, it routes the signal through the TARDIS, you'll be able to surf the galactic, interworld web, and you'll be able to email and Skype each other.'

Jackie hadn't got a clue what he was on about, but Rose was over the moon. `Oh Mum, it's brilliant, it'll be easier to keep in touch.'

`Well, I'll believe that when I see it?' she said with a smirk. Rose rolled her eyes, and gave her a big smile.

Rose and Jackie hugged a goodbye, and Rose laughed at how uncomfortable the Doctor looked when Jackie gave him a hug.

`Right, yes, thank you Jackie, got to go, aliens to catch,' he said, disentangling himself from her arms.

`It's not going to be dangerous is it?' Jackie asked, looking at Rose as a way of indicating that she wanted her kept safe.

`Nah, it's only in Woolwich, a single, hungry animal that needs taking home.'

`That's all right then,' Jackie said, as the Doctor held Rose's hand and led her into the TARDIS.

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`Doctor! Doctor, the trap!' Rose called out along the corridor. They were in an old, disused warehouse, and a Hoix was on the loose.

`Where's he gone? Can you see him?' he called from another corridor.

Rose was standing at a crossroads with two, steaming plastic buckets, looking down each corridor in turn. `There he is! Stop,' she called, as it ran across the end of the corridor. `No! Watch out! There!' she shouted as the Doctor appeared from another corridor, nearer to her.

He looked at her, and then down the corridors to his left and his right. `Where? Where?' He spotted it running across a corridor and set off in pursuit. Brilliant, it was heading for the rift portal manipulator that he'd set up in one of the empty rooms. If they were really lucky, they wouldn't need the buckets of sedative and stimulant if it ran directly into the portal.

The room was filled with bright light from an area inside three cones on the floor, all linked together with cables to a control box on the floor. The three cones were creating a dimensional doorway into the rift in Cardiff, which would send the Hoix back where it came from.

But of course, he wasn't lucky, of course not, he's the Doctor. The Hoix was contemplating the bright light in front of him, and the Doctor would only need to sneak behind it and push, when the door behind it opened, and a startled young man stood there in open mouthed amazement and terror.

The Doctor groaned as the Hoix started towards the young man, why are these things never straight forward? He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a piece of raw meat. `Here boy, eat the food. Come on, look at the lovely food. Isn't that nice? Isn't it? Yes, it is,' he said in a baby talk voice.

`Get out of here, quickly,' he called to the stranger, before turning his attention to the Hoix `That's a boy. Wouldn't you like a porky-choppy then?' If he could just entice it back towards the portal . . . He saw the stranger still standing there, frozen to the spot in terror. `I said run!'

The young man came to his senses, turned and ran towards the stairwell.

`Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.' Rose came running past the stranger, carrying the steaming blue bucket, which she threw over the Hoix. The Hoix wiped the adrenalin pheromone from its face, feeling the feeding frenzy start to rise in its chest.

`Wrong one. You made it worse,' the Doctor said in disbelief.

`You said blue!' Rose shouted in accusation.

`I said not blue,' he said in his `dribbled down your blouse' tone of voice.

The Hoix turned to look at Rose; she would make a nice meal. Rose stopped, looked at the Hoix, and realised she was on the menu. “SHIT!” she thought to herself, turned and ran away as fast as she could (and with something with that many teeth, that was very fast indeed).

The Doctor watched Rose run away with the Hoix in hot pursuit. `Hold on!' he shouted after her. If he could go around the other way, he could head them off. He closed the door and started to run across the room and out the door he'd come in.

Unfortunately, he was right, and skidded to a halt as Rose ran past the junction, screaming as she went. The Hoix was bearing down on him now, and he gulped. He turned tail and ran down another corridor, seeing Rose run the opposite way in another corridor.

He heard Rose coming before he saw her. `Aaaaaaaaagh . . . oof!' They collided with each other.

`Where'd it go?' he asked her.

`Dunno; I was concentratin' on not gettin' eaten.'

`ROAR!'

`Ah, there it is . . . run!' They started running again down another corridor together. `At the end, split up, we'll try and confuse it.'

Rose ran right, and the Doctor went left, the Hoix, not being very bright, decided to stick with the original menu item, and followed Rose. As she turned a corner, she saw the red bucket where she had left it originally.

`Yes!' she exclaimed and grabbed the bucket, turning to face the Hoix, which skidded to a halt. It sniffed the air and detected the myotonic pheromone that would immobilize it like a rabbit in headlights, or a Tennessee goat.

It may not have been very bright, but it knew if it got that pheromone over it, it would be powerless, even to this puny, human female, so it turned around, and ran away. It ran straight towards the Doctor, who was about to turn and run when he saw Rose, close behind with the red bucket.

`Oh good girl,' he said with pride, as he ducked into a doorway to let the Hoix and Rose run past. It ran into a room where it had to stop, and Rose emptied the bucket over the alien, who then just stood there, motionless, waiting for someone to do something with it. The Doctor went back into the corridor and looked along it, he realised the young stranger was still standing there, watching them.

`Hold on. Don't I know you?' he asked him, he was sure he'd seen him before, only younger, much younger. Before he could find out though, the stranger ran down the stairs and was gone. The Doctor shrugged his shoulders and went back to help Rose guide the Hoix into the dimensional doorway.

They held one arm each, as they walked the subdued Hoix down the corridor and into the bright light. The Doctor stooped down and flicked a switch on the box, shutting down the rift manipulator. The light faded, and so did the Hoix.

`Well, all-in-all, I think that went all right,' he said with a smile, as he disconnected the cones and started wrapping up the cables.

`Could'a gone better,' Rose said, wrapping up cables with him and putting the cones in the buckets. `What was it with the buckets anyway?'

`The red one caused him to 'freeze' and become docile, the blue one was for when he was standing in the dimensional doorway, so that he'd recover quickly and not be helpless when he arrived on his home world.'

`So how come the red bucket still worked then?'

`The blue bucket reduced and shortened the effect, you probably noticed that he was able to walk on his own, we'd have had to drag him if you hadn't used the blue bucket first.'

`Oh, not too bad then,' she said with a smile, as they headed back to the TARDIS.

`Like I said, all-in-all, I think that went all right.'