Author's Note: This one is from Jackie's POV and is completely Jackie seeing what she wants to. I just had to do it!

Enjoy! Cheers, JD

/-/-

A Mother Knows

Okay, so I'm not an idiot. An older male and a nineteen year old blonde female living together in a little box (okay, so it's bigger on the inside, but it's still a tiny blue box!). I can connect the dots.

Oh, Rose claims that "it's not like that", and maybe that was true at first, but I'm not so sure about that anymore. I mean, just look at the Doctor now!

For example, three months ago, I heard the TARDIS while I was finishing up my morning tea and so I rushed down to see Rose. The Doctor was the first to walk out. And for only managing to land his ship in the right century, he seemed just a little too smug. Those eyes and that cheeky smile pull off smug very well. And I know his hair can't possibly be tamed, but it was just a little too untamed that morning, if you catch my drift. He wasn't wearing his inseparable suit jacket and his tie was pulled at and his shirt seemed a bit ruffled.

And then Rose came out and- would you believe?- her cheeks were red and she was smiling just a bit too much. Didn't even have her bag of laundry ready. Wonder what distracted her, eh?

Oh, they tried to cover it up. Fixed the bloody heating system, he did! It had been on the fritz all week, it has. He finally triumphed in fixing it when he landed that bloody ship here. Somehow that excuse seems just a little too convenient, don't you think?

Oh! But the real scare was five weeks ago when they stopped by. Rose was in her room, freshening up, I think, and the Doctor was just standing in the arch connecting the living room and dinning room. He does those kinds of weird things, just stands random places and stares. Daft little alien, he is! But he had something in his hand- that's what he was staring at. And do you know what it was! A ring, that's what! He was holding onto a box with a bloody ring in it! A nice one, from what I could tell, just looking at it. Nice silver band (or whatever the hell metal it is) and some kind of stone on top. Looked like an alien engagement ring! An engagement ring! He's just carrying it around with him, didn't even looked too concerned about having it out in the open when he knew that I could see him with it. It was almost like he was just asking for me to find out. Wouldn't that just be the end of him if he proposed to her without even having the decency to warn me that they'd been… you know! Not that I don't know what's happening in that little box, because I do! I know exactly what those two have been up to, but they could at least pretend to be decent about it and tell me. The nerve!

Anyhow, so I see him standing there with that ring and I must have made some kind of noise, because that's how surprised I was and you know what he did! He just smiled over at me and said, "Oh, hey there, Jackie!" like it was absolutely no big deal that he was standing there with a ring. And of course I asked him about it and he just looked down at it and he seemed to snap out of something but then he said, "Oh, sorry, this is yours." And I of course told him that it's not and then he said, "Oh, well Rose wanted me to give it to you."

And I was so confused by that and my thoughts were swimming around so much that I accidentally said, "She wants you to give me an engagement ring? Are you trying to propose to me?"

Poor git couldn't quite figure out what to say to that.

"What? Um… wait, no, I- propose? I- this… Rose bought it. I just… it… she had me hold it and… I forgot that I had it. She just wanted me to give it to you. Propose?"

"How should I know? I don't know what kind of weird alien rituals you follow."

Well that was embarrassing, I'll admit. And it really is a lovely ring- from some unpronounceable planet, like most of the stuff she brings back for me, but it's nice all the same. Anyway, he might not be proposing to her on some distant world as we speak, but the way he was looking at that ring, I know what was going on through his mind.

Oh, you should have seen her Saturday when we went out shopping. She was wearing her favourite pair of jeans that hang low on her hips and a shorter top, leaving quite the eye full of her mid-drift exposed. But, anyway, the point is that, wearing that, it was pretty obvious to a knowing eye that her hips are getting wider and she's definitely putting on weight. And, recently, I've noticed that she's got more of a glow about her. She's healthier and happier looking.

Oh, she claims that they've been hitting too many chip shops and haven't been chased out of them. Yeah, whatever.

And she evades every attempt I make at talking about her private life. She's still adamant that she and the Doctor "aren't like that" and that there isn't someone hiding on the TARDIS and that they don't frequent a time period to encourage an affair with some local (which strikes me that I never considered that they might do something like that, befriend people of other times periods and visit just like they do with me).

And, come to think of it, she hasn't had her period while she's at home the last few times she's visited. Okay, so I know that with the whole time and space thing, they're not on the same calendar as I am, but what are the odds that the past four trips home haven't been during her time of the month? I don't think so.

Anyway, a mother knows these kinds of things. I don't know much about the Doctor and all his alien-ways, but some things have just got to be universal.

Well that's it, no more travelling. They're going to have to settle down, at least for a couple of years until that child of theirs is grown up. And a wedding, he better be keeping an eye out for a good ring, because he's not going to be like all the other deadbeat dads around the estate. He's going to make her an honest woman and support his child.

Oh, bloody hell, I need to stop thinking and just get up. Knowing these two, they'll be ravenous beasts once they wake up. Always are. I wonder why? Where could they possibly be expending all that energy?

What's that?

"Rose, honey?" Of course she's not up yet. Never is up first. Probably just the Doctor. Rose says he never really sleeps. Oh, disgusting images…

Wait, that's not just the Doctor pottering about in the kitchen kind of noises. Oh god! Must they? In my house? Oh, I can't listen to this. They are going to get an ear full when they come in for breakfast. The nerve!

The two stroll leisurely through once breakfast is nearly ready. Neither of them is looking at me- serves them right, they should feel guilty and embarrassed.

"Morning, Jackie!" Oh, I didn't need to know that that ruffled hair, cheeky grin, and ruffled shirt appearance was his 'I just got lucky' look.

God, I could just smack him. Who does he think he is? Taking my daughter off into danger every day like he does and then shags her without even considering getting her pregnant and, now that he has, he doesn't bother proposing and, instead, just shags her in my flat!

"How long have the two of you been going at it, then?"

Serves the Doctor right, choking like that on his orange juice.

"Sorry?"

"Mum!"

"Well, I think I have the right to know, if you're going to be doing that in my flat?"

"Giving Rose massages?"

"Oh, is that what you were doing just now?"

"Em… yes?"

'Em, yes?' Who does he think I am?