Breaking Point

Jackie's Choice

This story was born of a need to see another ten/rose/tentoo story out there, but mine has a twist I haven't found in any others :)
Standard disclaimer: (These are so boring, aren't they?) I don't own, or have affiliation with Doctor Who, the BBC, or anything really, I'm freelance thank you much. No money made off of this. This is just a labor of love.

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Jackie Tyler was sad. Sad wasn't really the word to describe what she was feeling. She had just said a very permanent goodbye to Mickey, who had decided to stay in their original universe and start over. She had known Mickey his whole life, had even helped raise him. It was like losing a child.

Speaking of losing a child... her eyes drifted to her daughter, who was stroking the console absentmindedly. She was deep in thought and didn't even seem to notice that she was caressing that rough coral like a lover. Rose watched the Doctor in the brown, pinstriped suit walk out the doors with a worried look on her face. She then pulled her old phone from when she fell at Canary Wharf out, looked at it, and relaxed. Jackie thought that was an odd gesture, but then again, when had Rose ever been normal? Come to think of it, Rose was probably checking to be sure it still worked.

Her mind then turned to the fact that she had to think about what suit the Doctor was wearing, which made her look at the other Doctor. This was a whole new kind of weird, but then again, the man could change his face, who knows what else he could do? And Rose wasn't going to give details. Ever since that alien came into her daughter's life, she expected weirdness.

This other Doctor was wearing a blue suit, and-according to the explanation she heard earlier, this Doctor was part human. Her thoughts were broken when the door to the ship opened, and the fully Time Lord Doctor walked in the doors and up to the console saying, "Just time for one last trip."

This was it. This was the moment she'd lose her daughter forever. But then a look passed between both Doctors, one full of anguish, the other full of fear and anger. It clicked in her head, and at once, she both wanted to smack the Doctor and hug him in joy.

The Doctor settled himself between Rose and Donna, took a look at the monitor, and said, "Dar- wait, what? No, no, no!"

"What is it?" Rose asked with a tinge of fear in her voice.

The new Doctor was over there in an instant, hand on Rose's shoulder, peering at the odd swirling lines, dots, and circles making up the written version of their language. "No, that's not good, that's very, very not good," he said.

"What's 'not good'?" Rose pressed.

Both Doctors were looking at each other with worried looks. Jackie remembered that Rose had said he could know what another person was thinking under the right circumstances, and she wondered if that's what was happening. She called it tallie-pathee or something like that. The two Doctors hadn't actually said a word to one another yet, with the exception of right before they all had to run back into the TARDIS- and that was yelling. Maybe they didn't need to say anything to each other.

Both Doctors and Donna then turned to Jackie with almost identical expressions of grief on their faces.

"The cracks and holes in the skin of the universes have gotten too small to be able to pilot the TARDIS through them," Donna explained in simple terms that Jackie would understand, "we can't get you home Jackie."

She pulled out her hopper button, a silver and copper disc with a yellow button on it. "You weren't supposed to, you daft alien, I was gonna get back using my hopper here, now wasn't ...."

"Mum, don't, it won't work, and you're not gonna want to do...," Rose interrupted.

Jackie started to panic. "Yes I do! Yes, it will, it has to!" before Rose could stop her, she pushed the button, but nothing happened. She pushed it again, harder this time, and again, nothing happened. "It just- Rose, give me yours, yours works with even the tiniest-!"