Aspirin

On the Other Side

I am so sorry about how late this is. It was actually going to be longer, but I wanted to update. I decided I would put the other stuff in another chapter. I'm actually trying to start a fandom club at my school, so that has been taking up a lot of my time.

2 Days, 5 Hours, 29 Minutes, and 38 Seconds Ago in a Parallel Universe . . .

Jackie awoke to the sound of crying. Pete was fast asleep next to her, and it didn't seem like he even heard the noise from the baby monitor. Tony wasn't a baby anymore, but it was nights like these that Jackie was aware of how much he still needed it. Of course, while Pete was a heavy sleeper, Jackie wasn't. She would always have to be the one to calm him down, so she pulled off the covers and slid her legs off of the bed. The wooden floorboards were cold under her feet, so she took her slippers out from under her bed and slipped them on.

Jackie marveled at how the bed didn't creak at all when she stood up. She wondered if she would ever get used to being married to a rich man (who just so happened to look exactly like her dead husband). It seemed like a day could not pass without her finding something else that amazed her about this new life, in this new world, in this new universe.

By the time Jackie made it to Tony's room, the crying had stopped. Instead of the tantrum-throwing child that Jackie had expected, she found Rose cradling the four-year-old boy in her arms as she rocked in a chair. Tony was looking up at his older sister like he expected her to disappear at any moment, and Rose was staring off into space and humming a song that Jackie had only ever heard from Rose.

Jackie was glad that someone had taken care of Tony and had made him stop crying, but she also knew that Rose had already been awake before Tony's outburst. Jackie wasn't sure if Rose had slept at all in the past few weeks, maybe even months. She was still moping over her Doctor, but he wasn't really the Doctor, was he? He was a duplicate, a copy.

The real Doctor wouldn't have died do easily, so quickly. The real Doctor would have fought to stay by Rose's side. He would have fought to make her happy. The real Doctor would have done something, so Rose wouldn't have to be alone without him.

Of course, Rose wasn't truly alone. Pete and Jackie were always there for her, and Tony occasionally brightened her day when she came out of the study long enough for Tony to see her. Tony loved his big sister, and she loved and cared him. However, it wasn't the same as when she was with the Doctor, the real Doctor. Pete and Jackie could never fully understand what Rose was going through. They might try to soothe her pains with comforting words and gestures, but they weren't always there.

They all had jobs. Pete worked for Torchwood. Well, that was an understatement. He was the head of Torchwood, so Torchwood basically worked for him. Jackie styled hair professionally, and celebrities often went to her to give them the “new look.”

Rose used to work under her dad at Torchwood, but she couldn't look at it anymore without remembering what the other Torchwood had done to her and the Doctor. She worked for UNIT now. Torchwood and UNIT always kept Pete and Rose busy, and the two companies' ability to always find a reason to quarrel often made the same fights come home between father and daughter. However, Jackie had to admit that she would prefer that Rose work at Torchwood rather than UNIT. UNIT made its employees work much longer than Torchwood employees had to work, and that was probably part of the reason that Rose never got any sleep.

Rose was asleep now though. She must have drifted off to the sound of her own lullaby. Tony, on the other hand, had not fallen asleep, and he looked at Jackie with big pleading brown eyes. He wanted to get up, but he also knew how Rose hadn't slept in awhile. He was a smart boy, and he didn't want to disturb her. Jackie gently plucked him from Rose's grasp and set him down on his race-car bed. He flopped down, and Jackie pulled his blankets over him and tucked him in. She planted a kiss on the forehead and said, “Goodnight, Love. Sweet dreams.”