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SEVEN

New Year's Eve couldn't come fast enough if the Doctor was honest with himself. Not only had he really not wanted to get involved with Jackie and Pete's party in any way, he also didn't really fancy the idea of Jackie 'showing him off' to all her friends that she had only just met himself.

"And this is my daughter's man," she had told numerous middle aged women who looked at him by way of judgement. One woman even said "ooh, he's a bit thin, isn't he?" The cheek of the woman! There was nothing wrong with his weight whatsoever.

"Jackie, can you please leave me alone for five minutes?" He had pleaded nearly every ten minutes he was there. He kept looking over at Rose who was with Mickey and his new girlfriend and the Doctor had to swallow down the rush of jealousy he felt every time he looked in their direction. He told himself to stop it; to get a grip; Rose wasn't Mickey's anymore, he knew that – had known for a long time – and Mickey looked happy with his new girlfriend anyway. So why did the feeling keep arising?

Because she's not with you. The little voice in the back of his head told him with a rather familiar accent that he hadn't heard for quite a while. He often heard his previous regenerations talking to him in his head, telling him what they would do in a particular situation. He hadn't been oblivious to the fact that it was always this particular voice that talked to him whenever Rose was involved somehow.

He sighed, knowing he was right and once again tried to steer clear of Jackie who was still showing him off to her friends.

If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that Jackie was actually glad he was here.

But this was the same woman who had slapped him the second time they had met.

He had thought he had removed the memory of their first meeting the moment it was over, but it still plagued him from time to time.

"Rose, help me, your mother is dragging me around like I'm her puppy." The Doctor told her, fear in his voice, as he finally managed to make his way over to where she stood.

"Um, OK? Why?" Rose asked, not sure what to say to the Doctor's sudden revelation.

"I have no idea. She keeps showing me off to her new friends."

Rose couldn't help it, she just laughed.

"Oi! It's not funny, I'm not at this party to been shown off. In fact, I don't particularly want to be here in the first place."

Rose continued to giggle before turning to look at him. "Don't worry, I don't want to be here much either, but we promised mum and dad so we're stuck here."

The Doctor just made a noise that told Rose he wasn't happy with their agreement.

"Anyway, sorry," Rose said looking back towards Mickey and Marcia who were watching the Doctor and Rose, one with amusement on his face, the other with confusion written on hers. "Marcia, this is the Doctor. Believe me when I say that you get to ignore the majority of what he says half the time."

"Oi!"

At that, Marcia gave a little giggle and took the Doctor's hand in her own as a way of greeting. "Nice to meet you, Doctor. I have to say, it's a funny name you've got there."

"Yeah, well, my parents clearly decided they didn't like me very early on apparently." The Doctor joked, not wanting to get into an explanation of his name just now. He figured that was likely to come later. He had already accepted the fact that there were some people they were just going to have to tell about who he really was and where he had come from. The people at Torchwood (those unlike Rose, Mickey, Pete and Jake who already knew of course) would have to be told eventually if the Doctor was going to work their full time and, by the looks of how happy both Mickey and Marcia seemed to be, it was inevitable that Marcia would have to be told eventually too. For now though, that information was being kept at a close. For no more reason that the Doctor couldn't actually be bothered to tell anyone and that he had other, more pressing things, on his mind. Like, for example, New Year with Rose.