Part 17 (2/2)

'You could tell him that then,' she said. 'It's high praise, coming from you.'

But he looked quite alarmed.

'And then there's my mum,' she said. 'I need to call the hospital, find out how she is.'

She glanced at Bucknall House, up high at her flat.

There was a light on in the window.

'Mum said that Darren Pye nicked her keys!' she said. 'We've got burglars!' And she raced off.

Rose let herself into the flat as quietly as she could. The Doctor was following on behind. Burglars didn't stand a chance against them.

Light was coming from under the door to her right. Her mum's room. She pushed the door open, ready to shout or fight or scream.

But inside there was just her mum, asleep. The bruises on her face shone brightly coloured in the illumination from the lamp, and Rose's heart twisted.

She put up a hand to stop the Doctor coming any further, and padded softly over to the bed. But she must have made some noise, because Jackie's eyes flickered open. There was alarm in them for a moment, then relief and happiness as she recognised Rose.

'h.e.l.lo, darling,' she whispered.

'h.e.l.lo, Mum,' said Rose. 'They let you out then?' She hadn't thought they would, not yet. Her mum had looked so awful. But the sense of relief, knowing it hadn't been as bad as all that it was overwhelming.

Jackie smiled sleepily. 'Mm. Said I'll be fine. Just take it easy.' She yawned.

'Go back to sleep,' Rose said.

'Will you still be here in the morning?'

Rose leaned over and kissed her mum gently on the forehead. 'Dunno,' she said. 'But I'll see you soon, whatever.'

Then, as Jackie's eyes closed again, Rose crept out of the room.

The Doctor was making a cup of tea in the kitchen.

'Mum's asleep,' Rose said, yawning herself. 'Not a bad idea, I reckon. I've got my room and you can have the sofa.'

The Doctor helped himself to a biscuit. 'Yeah, then maybe tomorrow we could go and feed the ducks in the park, or p'raps there'll be a good film on telly.'

She gave him a hard stare. 'So, you're telling me you don't want to hang around.'

''S boring,' he said. 'Who wants to do ordinary things like sleep, when there's a universe to explore? What would you rather do, catch forty winks, or nip off to have a look at the moons of Jupiter?'

'I don't know,' she said, teasing. 'Isn't it quite cold up there?'

'Somewhere warm, then!' he said. 'We could watch the building of the Great Pyramid, or investigate this rumour I heard about this mad scientist who tried to build asbestos robots to colonise the sun.'

And all of Rose's tiredness fell away as he spoke. She looked out of the window as the sun rose upon another grey London day, and thought about the alternatives the Doctor was offering. And she realised that while she might truly be the mistress of her own destiny, sometimes there really wasn't much of a choice.

'Yeah, all right,' she said.

So, arm in arm, they left the flat, and walked towards the future.

Acknowledgements

Huge amounts of thanks go to the lovely Russell T Davies and Helen Raynor for being so helpful, generous, insightful, and just plain fantastic. Oh, and for bringing back Doctor Who Doctor Who so gloriously! so gloriously!

Justin Richards and Steve Cole, fellow authors and much*loved friends, have been brilliant, as always.

Nothing would have been possible without the support of my family, especially Nick, Mum, Dad and Helen.

Thanks also to David Bailey for invaluable technical a.s.sistance and boundless enthusiasm.

About the author.

Jacqueline Rayner is an author and editor who spent nearly seven years working on the BBC's range of Eighth Doctor novels, but although sad to see him go was fickle enough to come to utterly adore his successor almost immediately.

She lives in Ess.e.x with two cats, and a husband who is currently nearing the final level of Ratchet and Clank 3 Ratchet and Clank 3. If either Ratchet or Clank is real and is reading this, please get in touch.

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