A Change In Time

A Change In Time Chapter Two

When he woke up three hours and sixteen minutes later, it was dark out. Rose was still asleep beside him, her eyes closed and her mouth curved into a content, sleepy smile. Slowly and carefully as not to wake her, the Doctor extracted himself from Rose's body. She shifted, rolling into the place in bed where he had slept, humming in contentment at the imprint it left. He picked his trainers up off the floor, sliding them onto his feet and doing the laces. He picked up his jacket and slid it on, taking his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and running it over his suit, taking out all the crinkles. He walked towards the door, opened it, looked back.

She was so beautiful when she slept. In fact, she was the most beautiful person he's ever seen. He stepped out the door, shutting it quietly behind him. Once outside Rose's bedroom, the Doctor could really take a look around the Tyler residence; It was much cleaner than it was before, and the walls had definitely been painted over. Over the fireplace- Which actually was filled with wood rather than magazines like it was during his last visit- were pictures of the Tyler family. He slowly advanced, looking at each picture with interest.

There was a picture of Rose when she was a baby, taken by a professional photographer. Next to it was a picture of Pete Tyler holding Rose. She was sleeping, and Pete was smiling broadly at the tiny infant in his hands. Beside that picture was a photograph of Rose just a few years younger than she is now. She was laughing, Mickey beside her smiling down at her, and beside them a woman he could only guess as Shereen, Rose's best mate. She'd talked about her on several occasions, each story always ending with a perverted joke Shereen had made. From what Rose has told him, the Doctor got the impression Shereen was a bit of a slag; Mouth wise, not so much as a slag in general. He smiled to himself, moving on down the line of pictures. The one to the far right surprised him; It was a picture of him and Rose at Christmas last year. He picked the picture up wit his right hand, putting his left in his pocket. He took his glasses from his pocket and put them on, looking at the picture more closely; He was sitting in his borrowed pajamas, Rose wearing a revealing tank top and long pants. She was looking at the Doctor, who was staring intently at his, the biggest grin on his face that he'd ever had. He was holding a bunch of bananas, insisting Rose have one. She was laughing, her hands out in front of her. There were tears of happiness in her eyes. The Doctor could feels his own getting moist.

"That's a great picture," Jackie Tyler said, her voice sounding distant. The Doctor spun around to face her. She was smiling, her hands crossed over her chest.

"It is," He agreed. And it was. Even though he really thought he looked like a pillock, it brought back a great memory. Not to mention Rose looked absolutely beautiful.

"How is she?" Jackie asked, a hint of worry in her voice. The Doctor put the photo back on the stand above the fireplace, took his glasses off, and looked back at Jackie, "Is she okay?"

"I hope so. Before we got here, she was crying so much, I didn't know what to do.." His voice trailed off. He didn't want to think about it, or let Jackie hear his voice falter. She smiled weakly,

"Well I'm glad you brought her home. Just in time too. Didn't think you'd come this Christmas." He nodded,

"Yeah well, Rose needed to see you. I wasn't planning on coming this soon; I was gonna wait a couple of months to come for Christmas actually. Rose would want to and the TARDIS makes you forget the days."

He heard the slap before he felt it, and when he did it shocked and hurt his now reddening cheek,

"Oi! What did you do that for?" The Doctor seethed, rubbing his cheek. She slapped the other one,

"Oi! If ya keep hitting me I'm gonna get real angry Jackie!" She hit him again. The Doctor's cheeks burned, and his eyes were full of tears, "Will you stop hitting me!?" The Doctor exclaimed through gritted teeth. She did, but he was surprised when he pulled away from her to find that she had tears in her eyes.