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Entry tags:
Fic: Childhood Lost, Childhood Gained
Title: Childhood Lost, Childhood Gained
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tarnera
Appearing in this work: 9th Doctor, Rose, Jackie
Spoilers/Timeline: Anytime Season 1 NuWho
Word Count: 1,940
Rating: None
Summary: When something goes wrong, Rose goes home, because Jackie always makes a situation better. *rolls eyes*
Disclaimer: I own nothing, save my crazy theories.
Prompt: You're Only Young Twice: Age Regression
Author's Note: This was written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
cliche_bingo's challenge.
Jackie was sitting in her flat in front of the telly. She wasn't really watching; she just had it on. It made the apartment sound less…empty. She cradled a warm cup of tea in her hands and stared at the moving colors without seeing them. It was times like this that she felt so very lonely without her Rose…
Someone knocked on the door. Jackie blinked and looked over at the door. "Who would be calling at this time of night?" she asked her tea. The tea had nothing to say, so Jackie put it on the table and went to answer the door.
When she opened the door, the first thing she saw was a rather adorable child being thrust in her face. "Here, take him," Rose's voice said. It sounded tired.
Jackie took the child automatically. "Rose…what is this? You haven't been back in weeks and weeks, and here you show up, no Doctor, a child in tow…" she stopped with a gasp as the pieces added up. "He got you pregnant and you had a child on some alien world, and now he's dumped you back home! Oh darling, you never even said…!"
"Mum!" Rose exclaimed. "That's not…the Doctor didn't get me pregnant. We've never even…that's none of your…whatever gave you the idea that…?" She stopped talking, clearly at a loss for words. Taking a deep breath she started over. "That's not my kid. Or the Doctor's kid. That is the Doctor," Rose sighed, and collapsed onto a convenient chair.
Jackie stared at her. "What do you mean, this is the Doctor?"
"Just… look at him, Mum. That's the Doctor."
Jackie held the kid out in front of her. "Really? Well, his ears are a bit on the large side…and his hair is short like the Doctor's, but really. Him, the Doctor? Sweetheart, it's too hard to believe!"
"Jackie Tyler, put me down this second!" the kid said. His voice, while much higher pitched than the Doctor's, had the exact same accent and a lot of the same intonations.
Jackie nearly dropped him. "You can talk!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, course I can," the kid said. "Just 'cause I'm a kid now doesn't mean I've lost my power of speech!"
"I'll say," Rose muttered from her chair.
Jackie set the…the Doctor on the ground. He tugged his little shirt straight and ran over to Rose. "Rose, what happened?" Jackie asked.
Rose picked up the Doctor and set him on her lap. He grabbed her hand and beamed happily up at her, seemingly oblivious to the conversation. "I dunno, I just woke up and he was like this. I guess he musta been tinkering with the TARDIS and something happened," she said.
"Rose Tyler, I do not tinker," the kid piped. "I always know 'zackly what I'm doing."
"Which is why you're three feet high?" Jackie asked, grinning.
The Doctor scowled, looked down at Rose's hand, and didn't answer. Jackie smirked. Round one to Jackie.
Rose gave her mother an exasperated look. "Don't," she said.
Jackie rolled her eyes. "Do you want some tea?" she asked. "I can do that at least, can't I?"
"Oh, don’t be like that," Rose muttered. "Tea would be lovely."
"Rose, can I have tea?" the Doctor asked.
Jackie blinked at him. "Never thought I'd see the day when you'd ask for permission," she commented, and vanished into the kitchen.
Behind her, she heard Rose saying, "Of course you can have some tea, Doctor. And don't listen to Mum, she's clearly overwrought."
Jackie snorted quietly. "I'll show her overwrought. She's not too old to get a slap from me, I did it to him when he was big an' all." She continued puttering around the kitchen, muttering under her breath as she got the tea things together.
By the time she got back out there the Doctor was asleep in Rose's lap and looking unbearably cute and defenseless. Thankfully for his dignity he was not sucking his thumb. Jackie still seriously considered going to find a camera to take pictures just so she could embarrass him once they figured this whole thing out.
Deciding against it after a fierce internal struggle, she set down the tray and whispered to Rose, "Typical, I go to all the trouble, and he doesn't even say thank you!" She poured a cup of tea and handed it to her daughter who took it with a grateful smile. Jackie poured a fresh cup for herself and they sat there for a while, enjoying the silence. It was different than the sort of silences that had been in the flat lately. A warm silence; a companionable silence. A good silence. Jackie smiled as she sipped her tea.
***
The next day, Rose went back to the TARDIS after breakfast. She and the Doctor had stayed the night—supposedly to make Jackie happy, but Jackie thought Rose wanted to be in a place where she could more easily keep an eye on the Doctor. From what little Jackie had seen of the TARDIS, it was a very large ship with lots of places a small person could hide. Either way, she hadn't said anything; she just let the two of them stay in Rose's old room, since the Doctor refused to be parted from her.
Now this morning, Rose was leaving the Doctor with Jackie while she went to try and see what the Doctor had been doing before this happened. "Oh, darling, be careful! What if you get turned into a kid, too?" Jackie asked from just inside the door. She had the Doctor in her arms. He looked less than pleased about this state of affairs.
"Don't worry, Mum, I'm not gonna touch anything," Rose said. She hefted a silver tube in one hand. "I'm gonna use the sonic screwdriver to scout around, see if it tells me anything. I know how to work it, more or less. I'll be back this evening."
"Oh. Well, all right, sweetheart. Just try not to send yourself to Mars or Jupiter or something," Jackie said.
Rose nodded, waved farewell, and walked off. Jackie watched until Rose disappeared down the stairs and then she closed the door and set the Doctor down. They stood in the hall at a loss for what to do for a moment. Then Jackie started back toward the kitchen. Behind her she heard small footsteps against the floor. She stopped and turned around.
The Doctor was looking up at her. "Jackie, can I come with you?" he asked.
Jackie frowned. "What sort of a question is that?"
He looked down at his feet. "I know you don't like me much, but Rose said to stay here," he mumbled. "But, uhm…if you don't want me to be here, I could just wait in the hall…"
Jackie thought her heart might just break. "Don't be ridiculous," she said, scooping him up. "Come on, we'll, I dunno, bake biscuits. D'you like biscuits?"
His face broke into a miniaturized trademark Doctor-grin. "Yeah! Peanut butter and banana ones. I can help you make 'em?"
"Er…I'm not sure how bananas would do in the biscuit mix. We can put some on top when the biscuits are done, how's that?" Jackie compromised. "And of course you can help, I'll be counting on you!" She grinned at him. He nodded happily, and they disappeared into the kitchen for a day of baking.
***
Five hours later, Jackie eyed her kitchen ruefully. A day of baking? More like a day of making an unholy mess, and just happening to have accidentally made some biscuits in the process. Said biscuits were now being "guarded" by her very own miniature whirlwind, aka the Doctor. She had no idea how one child could have made this much of a mess. Granted, this was an alien child that had once been a full-grown alien man.
He had somehow managed to "improve" the mixer, despite him not having any tools. The results of that little experiment were not only all over Jackie and the Doctor, but the ceiling and one of the walls as well.
"Thank goodness that was the second batch," Jackie said aloud. "I still haven't figured out what he did to it, but we managed to make some biscuits in the end anyway."
With a sigh, she picked up some paper towels. Better get what she could now while it was still wet and easy to clean; she'd deal with the rest of it later. Somehow.
There was a very odd noise from the sitting room part of the flat, a sort of stretching, ripping sound. Jackie frowned, finished wiping the section she was on, and went out to see what it was.
There was no one in the sitting room; the Doctor appeared to have vanished. Jackie said, "Doctor? Where've you got to?" She peered around the room. "There was a funny noise, d'you know what it was?"
"Yeah," said a very familiar voice. "It was me, gettin' big again." It sounded like his voice was coming from Rose's bedroom.
Jackie walked over to it. The door was shut. She pushed against it but it felt like the Doctor was leaning against it from the other side. "Doctor, what are you doing in there? I've seen you before, you don't have to hide," she said, puzzled.
"You've never seen these parts of me, and you never will," he said.
"Huh?" Jackie said. Then, "Oh!" as she understood what he meant. "Hang on, I'll get you something." She bustled off to her bedroom to fetch him some temporary clothing.
***
When Rose came home, tired and discouraged, she was very surprised to find the Doctor, dressed in Jackie's pink fuzzy dressing gown and standing on a stool, cleaning what looked like biscuit dough off of the kitchen ceiling. The gown was a bit short on him, and Rose tried not to stare at his legs. Jackie was standing behind him, her arms folded, apparently watching to see he did a good job.
"Doctor, nice to see you the proper size again," Rose said. "Erm…dare I ask?"
He looked down at her. "Hello, Rose. This was an, um…experiment in improving kitchenware. Didn't really work."
"So, what happened? How did you get big again?" she asked.
He hopped off the stool. "No idea. I don't suppose you could go back to the TARDIS and get me some clothes? Pink's really not my color."
"Yeah, all right then," she said, making a mental note to ask him more about it later. "And nice legs!" she called cheerfully on her way out the door.
The Doctor's face turned bright pink, a shade that almost matched his borrowed dressing gown.
Jackie pointed a finger at the mixer. "You have to fix that, too," she said.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," he said, leaning over it to take a look.
***
Later that evening, Jackie stood alone in the apartment. The two of them had taken off earlier, the Doctor claiming that he had spent quite enough time in the Tyler's flat and didn't need to have another dinner there tonight, thanks.
She sighed and sat down in front of the telly, switching it on and turning the volume down to a low mumble. She picked up one of the biscuits that had been forgotten in all the hubbub. Taking a bite, she decided that peanut butter and banana biscuits were quite tasty; the Doctor had been right.
"I really liked him as a kid. Too bad it wasn't permanent," she muttered as she reached for another biscuit.
Author:
tarneraAppearing in this work: 9th Doctor, Rose, Jackie
Spoilers/Timeline: Anytime Season 1 NuWho
Word Count: 1,940
Rating: None
Summary: When something goes wrong, Rose goes home, because Jackie always makes a situation better. *rolls eyes*
Disclaimer: I own nothing, save my crazy theories.
Prompt: You're Only Young Twice: Age Regression
Author's Note: This was written for
cliche_bingo's challenge.Jackie was sitting in her flat in front of the telly. She wasn't really watching; she just had it on. It made the apartment sound less…empty. She cradled a warm cup of tea in her hands and stared at the moving colors without seeing them. It was times like this that she felt so very lonely without her Rose…
Someone knocked on the door. Jackie blinked and looked over at the door. "Who would be calling at this time of night?" she asked her tea. The tea had nothing to say, so Jackie put it on the table and went to answer the door.
When she opened the door, the first thing she saw was a rather adorable child being thrust in her face. "Here, take him," Rose's voice said. It sounded tired.
Jackie took the child automatically. "Rose…what is this? You haven't been back in weeks and weeks, and here you show up, no Doctor, a child in tow…" she stopped with a gasp as the pieces added up. "He got you pregnant and you had a child on some alien world, and now he's dumped you back home! Oh darling, you never even said…!"
"Mum!" Rose exclaimed. "That's not…the Doctor didn't get me pregnant. We've never even…that's none of your…whatever gave you the idea that…?" She stopped talking, clearly at a loss for words. Taking a deep breath she started over. "That's not my kid. Or the Doctor's kid. That is the Doctor," Rose sighed, and collapsed onto a convenient chair.
Jackie stared at her. "What do you mean, this is the Doctor?"
"Just… look at him, Mum. That's the Doctor."
Jackie held the kid out in front of her. "Really? Well, his ears are a bit on the large side…and his hair is short like the Doctor's, but really. Him, the Doctor? Sweetheart, it's too hard to believe!"
"Jackie Tyler, put me down this second!" the kid said. His voice, while much higher pitched than the Doctor's, had the exact same accent and a lot of the same intonations.
Jackie nearly dropped him. "You can talk!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, course I can," the kid said. "Just 'cause I'm a kid now doesn't mean I've lost my power of speech!"
"I'll say," Rose muttered from her chair.
Jackie set the…the Doctor on the ground. He tugged his little shirt straight and ran over to Rose. "Rose, what happened?" Jackie asked.
Rose picked up the Doctor and set him on her lap. He grabbed her hand and beamed happily up at her, seemingly oblivious to the conversation. "I dunno, I just woke up and he was like this. I guess he musta been tinkering with the TARDIS and something happened," she said.
"Rose Tyler, I do not tinker," the kid piped. "I always know 'zackly what I'm doing."
"Which is why you're three feet high?" Jackie asked, grinning.
The Doctor scowled, looked down at Rose's hand, and didn't answer. Jackie smirked. Round one to Jackie.
Rose gave her mother an exasperated look. "Don't," she said.
Jackie rolled her eyes. "Do you want some tea?" she asked. "I can do that at least, can't I?"
"Oh, don’t be like that," Rose muttered. "Tea would be lovely."
"Rose, can I have tea?" the Doctor asked.
Jackie blinked at him. "Never thought I'd see the day when you'd ask for permission," she commented, and vanished into the kitchen.
Behind her, she heard Rose saying, "Of course you can have some tea, Doctor. And don't listen to Mum, she's clearly overwrought."
Jackie snorted quietly. "I'll show her overwrought. She's not too old to get a slap from me, I did it to him when he was big an' all." She continued puttering around the kitchen, muttering under her breath as she got the tea things together.
By the time she got back out there the Doctor was asleep in Rose's lap and looking unbearably cute and defenseless. Thankfully for his dignity he was not sucking his thumb. Jackie still seriously considered going to find a camera to take pictures just so she could embarrass him once they figured this whole thing out.
Deciding against it after a fierce internal struggle, she set down the tray and whispered to Rose, "Typical, I go to all the trouble, and he doesn't even say thank you!" She poured a cup of tea and handed it to her daughter who took it with a grateful smile. Jackie poured a fresh cup for herself and they sat there for a while, enjoying the silence. It was different than the sort of silences that had been in the flat lately. A warm silence; a companionable silence. A good silence. Jackie smiled as she sipped her tea.
***
The next day, Rose went back to the TARDIS after breakfast. She and the Doctor had stayed the night—supposedly to make Jackie happy, but Jackie thought Rose wanted to be in a place where she could more easily keep an eye on the Doctor. From what little Jackie had seen of the TARDIS, it was a very large ship with lots of places a small person could hide. Either way, she hadn't said anything; she just let the two of them stay in Rose's old room, since the Doctor refused to be parted from her.
Now this morning, Rose was leaving the Doctor with Jackie while she went to try and see what the Doctor had been doing before this happened. "Oh, darling, be careful! What if you get turned into a kid, too?" Jackie asked from just inside the door. She had the Doctor in her arms. He looked less than pleased about this state of affairs.
"Don't worry, Mum, I'm not gonna touch anything," Rose said. She hefted a silver tube in one hand. "I'm gonna use the sonic screwdriver to scout around, see if it tells me anything. I know how to work it, more or less. I'll be back this evening."
"Oh. Well, all right, sweetheart. Just try not to send yourself to Mars or Jupiter or something," Jackie said.
Rose nodded, waved farewell, and walked off. Jackie watched until Rose disappeared down the stairs and then she closed the door and set the Doctor down. They stood in the hall at a loss for what to do for a moment. Then Jackie started back toward the kitchen. Behind her she heard small footsteps against the floor. She stopped and turned around.
The Doctor was looking up at her. "Jackie, can I come with you?" he asked.
Jackie frowned. "What sort of a question is that?"
He looked down at his feet. "I know you don't like me much, but Rose said to stay here," he mumbled. "But, uhm…if you don't want me to be here, I could just wait in the hall…"
Jackie thought her heart might just break. "Don't be ridiculous," she said, scooping him up. "Come on, we'll, I dunno, bake biscuits. D'you like biscuits?"
His face broke into a miniaturized trademark Doctor-grin. "Yeah! Peanut butter and banana ones. I can help you make 'em?"
"Er…I'm not sure how bananas would do in the biscuit mix. We can put some on top when the biscuits are done, how's that?" Jackie compromised. "And of course you can help, I'll be counting on you!" She grinned at him. He nodded happily, and they disappeared into the kitchen for a day of baking.
***
Five hours later, Jackie eyed her kitchen ruefully. A day of baking? More like a day of making an unholy mess, and just happening to have accidentally made some biscuits in the process. Said biscuits were now being "guarded" by her very own miniature whirlwind, aka the Doctor. She had no idea how one child could have made this much of a mess. Granted, this was an alien child that had once been a full-grown alien man.
He had somehow managed to "improve" the mixer, despite him not having any tools. The results of that little experiment were not only all over Jackie and the Doctor, but the ceiling and one of the walls as well.
"Thank goodness that was the second batch," Jackie said aloud. "I still haven't figured out what he did to it, but we managed to make some biscuits in the end anyway."
With a sigh, she picked up some paper towels. Better get what she could now while it was still wet and easy to clean; she'd deal with the rest of it later. Somehow.
There was a very odd noise from the sitting room part of the flat, a sort of stretching, ripping sound. Jackie frowned, finished wiping the section she was on, and went out to see what it was.
There was no one in the sitting room; the Doctor appeared to have vanished. Jackie said, "Doctor? Where've you got to?" She peered around the room. "There was a funny noise, d'you know what it was?"
"Yeah," said a very familiar voice. "It was me, gettin' big again." It sounded like his voice was coming from Rose's bedroom.
Jackie walked over to it. The door was shut. She pushed against it but it felt like the Doctor was leaning against it from the other side. "Doctor, what are you doing in there? I've seen you before, you don't have to hide," she said, puzzled.
"You've never seen these parts of me, and you never will," he said.
"Huh?" Jackie said. Then, "Oh!" as she understood what he meant. "Hang on, I'll get you something." She bustled off to her bedroom to fetch him some temporary clothing.
***
When Rose came home, tired and discouraged, she was very surprised to find the Doctor, dressed in Jackie's pink fuzzy dressing gown and standing on a stool, cleaning what looked like biscuit dough off of the kitchen ceiling. The gown was a bit short on him, and Rose tried not to stare at his legs. Jackie was standing behind him, her arms folded, apparently watching to see he did a good job.
"Doctor, nice to see you the proper size again," Rose said. "Erm…dare I ask?"
He looked down at her. "Hello, Rose. This was an, um…experiment in improving kitchenware. Didn't really work."
"So, what happened? How did you get big again?" she asked.
He hopped off the stool. "No idea. I don't suppose you could go back to the TARDIS and get me some clothes? Pink's really not my color."
"Yeah, all right then," she said, making a mental note to ask him more about it later. "And nice legs!" she called cheerfully on her way out the door.
The Doctor's face turned bright pink, a shade that almost matched his borrowed dressing gown.
Jackie pointed a finger at the mixer. "You have to fix that, too," she said.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," he said, leaning over it to take a look.
***
Later that evening, Jackie stood alone in the apartment. The two of them had taken off earlier, the Doctor claiming that he had spent quite enough time in the Tyler's flat and didn't need to have another dinner there tonight, thanks.
She sighed and sat down in front of the telly, switching it on and turning the volume down to a low mumble. She picked up one of the biscuits that had been forgotten in all the hubbub. Taking a bite, she decided that peanut butter and banana biscuits were quite tasty; the Doctor had been right.
"I really liked him as a kid. Too bad it wasn't permanent," she muttered as she reached for another biscuit.
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