Chapter Text
Jackie Tyler sipped from a delicate china cup and sighed when the clock over the sink told her only three minutes had passed since the last time she’d checked. She wondered how she was going to fill the rest of the afternoon in this big empty mansion until Tony got home from school and footie practice. She’d been foolish to dismiss the staff early today with the gloomy mood she’d felt coming on. Now she didn’t even have the murmur of their bustling in the background to keep her company.
She briefly considered ringing a car and going to pick Tony up early, but quickly thought better of it. Her normally brash little boy had gotten skittish about certain things - late night phone calls, his parents picking him up from school instead of the nanny, any unexpected breaks in his routine. The five-year-old was tough, but losing his big sister, his hero, had left its mark. No, she’d just have to wait the extra time for Tony to get home. She’d figure out some way to keep busy in the meantime.
Keeping busy - that was the key to surviving this. She’d learned a thing to two about grief when she’d lost her first Pete. Though this new loss was so much worse, she knew the same old rules applied. She knew if she stayed busy, if she didn’t let her mind wander, the pain of her missing daughter could be contained to a dull ache in her chest. Sometimes she felt guilty for packaging it all up and trying not to think about Rose. But if she didn’t keep her heartbreak and worry in check, Jackie wouldn’t be able to function. She still had a husband and little boy who needed her. She had to stay strong for them.
And she could. She could find it in her to carry on, to push all the pain down until it was hidden in the deepest parts of her. She could do it…well, most of the time. But in moments like this, when her socialite friends had finished brunch and left for their own errands, and it was still hours until Tony got home, there was nothing to distract her. So, she dwelled. At least for a little while. She sipped at her tea and thought back on the horrible past year.
Jackie had missed her daughter when she’d gone back to America for her third year at uni, but the feeling had been mixed with hope as she saw Rose working so hard to build a better life for herself. Though she worried about Rose running herself into the ground with all her studies, Jackie had thought her daughter actually seemed happy on occasion at that big fancy school. Being just a regular girl around regular people her own age had done Rose some good. And Jackie had thought, quite falsely, that her daughter was safe in that American college town far away from the press and Torchwood and bloody aliens.
But then her Rose had been taken. There had been no sign of her little girl in months, and even when Jackie was fooling herself the most, she couldn’t imagine that Rose was safe. Dead, probably. And that wasn’t even the worst case scenario Jackie’s mind had come up with. She’d talked to Rose’s mate Kimberly plenty of times about the night Rose was kidnapped. Jackie knew about the bus footage of Rose fighting that goopy alien. She knew about the blood and the busted mobile. She’d seen the photos, though she wished she hadn’t. They’d been in a folder she’d accidentally knocked off Pete’s desk in the early days after Rose’s disappearance. Back then, when it had just happened and there was still hope, Jackie had spent a lot of time in her husband’s Torchwood office. She’d wanted to be there to get updates as they came in.
That terrible evening, Pete had found her kneeling on the floor a shaking mess, crying hysterically with grisly photographs scattered around her. He’d sat next to her on the generic office carpet and just held her as she sobbed. She reckons that was when she first realized she’d probably never see her daughter again. Somehow, her and Pete had gotten themselves stitched back together before it was time to head home to take over for the nanny and put Tony to bed. And that is what life had been ever since. Her and Pete were just holding themselves together for each other and Tony. What else could they do? Any lead in Rose’s case had gone cold months ago. Jackie knew she’d likely just have to live with never knowing what happened to her daughter. It was just like that horrid year when Rose went missing off the estate, except this time it would last the rest of her life.
Catching a tear rolling down her cheek, Jackie wiped at it angrily and stood up, determined to find something to do. The house was too quiet. She was too…alone. She needed to distract herself. She’d bake, she decided. She had all this obscenely expensive cookware now. She should make some use of it. She’d turn on the kitchen telly, get lost in someone else’s melodramatic story, and make Tony a snack that was far more elaborate than a five-year-old warranted.
And so, she was elbows deep in a batch of lemon-scented dough when she heard it.
For half a second, Jackie brushed it off as some wind through the trees. But as that wheezing, alien sound pulsed and grew louder, she froze, flushing with recognition.
After all these years…
“The heartbeat of the Universe” Rose had called it when they’d gotten tipsy off cheap box wine one evening. Jackie didn’t know about all that, but there was something about that sound. Rose had seemed to always be listening for it. And since she’d lost her daughter, Jackie realized she had taken up the mantle.
Taking time only to wipe the worst of the sticky dough off her hands, Jackie was off, running as fast as her stiff knees would allow towards the sound of the TARDIS. If she wasn’t mistaken, it was coming from her front garden. And wasn’t it just like the bloody alien to annihilate her carefully sculpted hedges when he landed.
The sun nearly blinded her as she ran down the front steps, but Jackie just shielded her eyes and searched for a special sort of blue out of the greens and pinks of her late summer garden. And there it was, smoking slightly and crushing her hedges, as she’d guessed.
Jackie wheeled to a stop in front of that damned and wonderful blue box, heart pounding. She dared to hope that maybe Rose was in there. The last time her daughter had gone missing she’d come back that way. It was all Jackie could do to stay still and wait for the doors to squeak open.
When they finally did, it wasn’t her Rose who greeted her, but a beaming Doctor - rudely looking not a day older than the last time she’d seen him.
“Jackie! Long time, no see!” he grinned before sweeping her up into an unexpected hug. She barely returned the embrace, glad as she was to see him. As soon as he set her down, she couldn’t seem to stop the desperate words from pouring out.
“Have you come to find her?” She asked, the edge of tears in her voice, “Because she’s gone Doctor! Rose is gone and it’s been months and we’ve done all we can and maybe she’s dead like everyone says, but now you’re here, and I’ve seen you do some ‘mazing things and -”
“Mum!” the sound of her daughter’s voice brought Jackie to an abrupt halt. Before she had time to fully realize what was happening, her daughter, her precious little girl was rushing into her arms.
“Oh sweetheart!” Jackie cried, wrapping her daughter in a tight embrace, “Oh Rose, you’re safe. I thought - ”
“Rose! No!” the Doctor cut in, sounding panicked of all things.
A moment later, Jackie found out why. Rose jerked with a little cry of pain and Jackie found herself struggling to support her daughter’s weight as she sank towards the ground. The Doctor leapt forward, taking Rose into his arms and easing her fall. He was so careful, so gentle as he cradled her in his lap. It was a stark contrast to the anger that replaced his alarm once she was settled in his arms.
“What in Rassilon’s name do you think you’re doing?!” he hissed, “What part about ‘stay here’ and ‘wait for me’ didn’t you understand? You can’t do this Rose! You can’t keep doing this to me. You can’t keep making me watch you - ooooff!” Jackie cuffed him soundly in the back of the head.
“Don’t you yell at my daughter!” she stormed, overcome with emotion and fully prepared to let it all loose on him. That bloody alien! Jackie was sure all this was somehow his fault. All those months of hearing nothing - probably his rubbish driving again.
“Mum! Stop, ’s ok!” Rose tried to break in.
“Oh no, I’ll not have him sauntering back here, ruining half my garden and -”
“Mum, please!” Rose said reaching out towards Jackie until the motion caused her to wince in pain.
Where Rose’s pleading had failed, her obvious discomfort caught Jackie’s attention and cooled her ire. She sank down next to the pair of them, taking Rose’s hand in both of hers. Now that she had a moment to really look at her daughter, Jackie noticed the battered state she was in. What she had thought were odd shadows was actually mottled bruising all over Rose’s skin. Her eyes were dull and sunken and blimey, was she pale. Jackie wondered how Rose had even made it out of the TARDIS with the large splint that went from one ankle all the way up above her hips.
“Oh Rose,” she gasped, “Oh sweetheart, what happened to you? What hurts? What can I do?”
After a few deep breaths, Rose squeezed Jackie’s hand and panted, “’M fine Mum.” At the Doctor’s snort she amended, “Well, not fine, not yet, but I will be. Got the Doctor lookin’ after me,” she offered a warm smile up at the still cross-looking Doctor before focusing back on Jackie, “S’ not his fault I’m a bad patient. None of this is his fault. He was taken too. I’m so - I’m so sorry I’ve been gone…” her voice cracked as her face crumpled on the last sentence.
“Oh Rose, none of that now,” Jackie wiped at her own tears with her free hand, “Look, you’ve got me goin’ too.”
The Doctor helped Rose sit up and then gently guided her into Jackie's arms. She wrapped her daughter in a careful hug and stroked her hair, “Oh sweetheart, it’s alright. I’m here,” she soothed even as she cried with relief and confusion and, oh, about a hundred other things. “I missed you so much, love. It’s all ok now though. You’re back. I got you back.”
Rose slowly settled as Jackie continued to rub her back like she’d done since she was a little girl. Didn’t matter if was a skinned knee on the playground or a bloke being a prat. Didn’t matter if Jackie was a mess herself. She always had her arms open for her daughter.
“Thanks Mum,” Rose sniffed finally, “I missed you too. I missed you so much.”
“What happened sweetheart?” Jackie asked again, “Where have you been? It’s been months!” She met the Doctor’s eyes over Rose’s shoulder, silently pleading for information.
“Jackie,” he said calmly, “We’ll explain everything, I promise, but we’ve had quite the bumpy trip here, and I think it would be best for Rose to go lay down. Now.”
And just like that, Jackie was in Mum Mode. She could fix this. Rose was alive and here, and finally, there was something Jackie could do.
“‘Course!” she said, leaning back on her heels once she was sure Rose could sit up on her own without support, “There’s the big sofa in the family room. Or your room’s still there, sweetheart. Haven’t changed a thing. Knew you’d come back to me.” Jackie hoped that neither of them could hear lie in that last bit.
“I think…my bedroom, yeah?” Rose sniffed, “I don’t - I can’t - with the staff hovering about, and…Tony’s not here is he? You should talk to him before he sees me...”
“Don’t you worry about any of that. I already sent the staff home for the day, and Tony’s still at school. Can you make it to your room ok?”
“The Doctor’ll help me,” her daughter looked over at him and Jackie didn’t miss the love and trust in her gaze. A look he returned, looking completely besotted.
“Look at you two,” Jackie smiled, “Finally figured things out then, did ya?”
“Later mom,” Rose rolled her eyes, but the blush on her cheeks and the smile she was trying to hide told the story.
“Oh alright,” Jackie conceded. For the moment, at least. “Let’s head to your room then.”
But before Jackie got up to head back towards the house, she cupped Rose’s face. “Oh sweetheart, I’m so happy you’re home.”
“Me too Mum,” Rose said, although Jackie didn’t miss how her eyes flicked towards the TARDIS when she said it. Before Jackie could ruminate on that too much, she pushed herself up off the grass.
“Well let’s go then,” she beckoned. The Doctor swept Rose up into his arms like she weighted nothing and Jackie led them both back towards the mansion.