Being jealous of Mickey

"Mickey! Mickey the idiot!"

"Would you stop calling me that?" says Mickey, but it's more of a command than a suggestion. "Don't even know what got you started."

"Oh, Mickey, bless. Your thick brain just won't comprehend what mine will. And I don't think you'd want to. Believe me, if you saw what I saw, every day-"

"Oi!" Mickey exclaims, and the Doctor can't tell if he's truly offended or just kidding.

"So," says Rose, entering into the control room after finally throwing some proper clothes on. "Where to today?"

Both Mickey and the Doctor are dumbfounded. They're always like this in the mornings, or really anytime after too long without looking at Rose. It's kind of pathetic. Rose walks over and ruffles Mickey's hair (or what little hair he has, anyway. At least that was one thing the Doctor was certainly not jealous of). Mickey smirks a little bit, almost toward the Doctor himself, as if to say "Ha, she likes me better." (She doesn't, of course.)

The Doctor does what he always does and attempts to joke. "Not gonna ruffle my hair, then?"

"Nah. I'd probably mess it up, and you'd go on about how humans don't know how time lord hair works," says Rose, obviously teasing. The Doctor frowns just a bit, barely visibly. Is he that contemptuous?

"Anyway," he begins, after gathering himself, "I thought we could visit your mum, Rose. We haven't been in a while. Yeah?"

"Sounds great!" says Rose, and she looks at Mickey as if for approval. The Doctor notices this but tries to ignore it.

Mickey nods and begins to recount an old story about Jackie. Of course, it's from when-Mickey-and-Rose-were-dating (a time the Doctor tries not to think about. He does get jealous more easily than he'd like to admit). But the Doctor laughs along, as if he remembers too, and that's just another thing Rose loves him for. He just fits in so easily. She has never told him this, of course.

It never takes long to get to Powell Estate, if they're going to the correct year, that is. Rose is the first one out of the TARDIS and up the many flights of stairs to her old home. Mickey follows, and the Doctor closes the door on the way out. Rose has her own key, so she opens the door immediately, without stopping to think if Jackie is even home or doesn't want visitors right now (it is rather dark outside, after all). Instead, she just calls "Mum, I'm home!" and of course Jackie comes running to the door squealing.

"Oh, Rose!" She captures Rose in a tight bear hug, kissing both cheeks in the process. Rose does that funny smile of hers, where it's like she's saying "whoa, settle down" and "I love this" at the same time. (The Doctor has, of course, memorized all of her smiles.) When Jackie finally lets go of her daughter, she turns to Mickey and kisses him on the cheek as well, and hugs him and says "how are you?" over and over again. Mickey loves the attention, and tries to tell her how he is even though she's not really listening.

Finally she turns toward the Doctor and gives him a hug and says "Oh, I missed you, all of you! How have you been?" and then, more quietly, "How are you and Rose?" in a way that makes it seem like she's talking about more than just their regular world-saving lives.

He nods slightly and whispers "later" through his teeth, because he's smiling. He notices that he's the only one who didn't receive kisses from Jackie, but he doesn't mind. (Put that on the list of things he's not jealous of Mickey about. There's another Tyler he's more concerned about.)

When Jackie lets go of him, she asks, "Do you even know what time it is?" She gestures to the window, out of which nothing can be seen. It's totally pitch-black.

"Um… no?" answers the Doctor, cocking his head.

"It's one in the morning," says Jackie.

"But it was eight in the morning when we left!" says Mickey.

"Well, don't whine at me about it, talk to that time lord of yours! He's the one flying the thing!" says Jackie.

"He's not my time lord," says Mickey.

"Fine, Rose's time lord," says Jackie, and everyone is completely silent.

Mickey feels awkward, of course, because he's the one who was head-over-heels in love with Rose (or so he thought). He always feels uncomfortable in the TARDIS because he feels left out, but the thought that the two might not be a real couple always comforted him. Does Jackie know something that he doesn't? Were they a couple? Mickey looks at his feet to try to hide his face.

Rose feels awkward, because that's not who the Doctor is to her. She wouldn't mind it, of course, putting that kind of label on him. But she and the Doctor are not in the position to consider themselves belonging to each other. However, if he had to be anyone's time lord, he definitely would be hers.

The Doctor feels awkward, because how did Jackie know? Did someone tell her that he and Rose are completely meant to be? That they are fully belonging to each other? They may not tell each other this, but the Doctor knows it to be true. Nothing can ever ever split them up- they're the stuff of legend. (He may even be blushing, ever so slightly.) So who told Jackie? Was it Mickey? That Mickey.

"Kidding," says Jackie, as if this makes it better. Analyzing everyone's faces, she can tell exactly what's going on here. Mickey still loves Rose, but so does the Doctor, and Rose doesn't quite know what's going on. "Anyway! I'm off to bed, I'll see you all in the morning!"

"Technically, it-" starts the Doctor, but Mickey steps on his toes and gives him a look. Jackie doesn't need a reason to slap the Doctor right now. Rose giggles. The Doctor smiles at her, even though she's looking at Mickey, and immediately he feels more awkward than before. Oops. She's not laughing at him. She's laughing at Mickey. Or, in better words: he's not the one making her laugh.

He doesn't think about all the times that he does make her laugh (which is actually most of the time). For a time lord, he really does think about only the present a lot. Right now he's not remembering how she'll laugh when he rambles about time lord things or when he's flustered or when he makes a funny pun. He won't admit it aloud, but he never could stop being very, very jealous of Mickey Smith.