Disclaimer - Not mine. I think you all know that. Another part of my doctorwho100 table.

Alien

There was nothing better in Jackie's life since the Doctor had barged his way in her flat, than hearing her daughter say that she was going to be home for a few days.

There were a few reasons for this, she had found out. Either Rose started complaining that she was complaining and would give him another slap if he didn't take her home right then, family emergencies (of which there hadn't been any, but he had promised, and that isn't something he does lightly) and if the TARDIS needed a rest.

This time, the Doctor had said three days. Something had been damaged or was falling apart and he needed to fix it and it would take a few days.

Thank god for rust buckets that are too old to not fall apart. Well, as long as it doesn't do it with Rose inside, ending with the Doctor making a quick call to tell her Rose had been injured or killed by his own ship.

Then she'd have to hunt him down and kill him.

She had decided to be nice, and had actually managed to get him to promise to come to dinner in the flat, and she had cooked the Shepherd's Pie she had wanted to before. He wasn't too happy with the domestics, but he'd better damn well show up from that ship of his, or she would go in there and drag him out.

He must have known she was serious, because just as she was dishing out plates of food, there was a knock on the door, and Rose rushed to open it, and dragged an uncomfortable looking Doctor into the flat.

"Cutting it a bit close there, you are," she stated, pointing a spoon at him before putting it on the table.

He was quiet through the entire meal and half the time he just played with it, though he did eat all of his share. It made her that little bit more comfortable around him knowing that he wasn't drinking blood, or eating something completely inedible to humans.

It made him seem that little bit more...normal.

After the meal was over, she had caught up a bit with Rose, and the eating things were washed up and put away, she found him in the lounge room watching television, with the same bored look on his face as he had on the last time he was perched in that chair watching the news.

There wasn't much on, just some movie, the late news, and a few programmes that she had no interest in.

There were ads on the movie channel, but they decided that it was better than the other junk on, and she switched it from the news to that.

She wrinkled her brow when the first thing she saw was that the movie was based on a spaceship. The crew were sitting around a table laughing and joking about. One of them had been sick or something. One thing she knew was that she had never seen this movie before.

The sick one began to choke, before collapsing and writhing about. It got ugly, fast, and before she knew it, there was a tiny alien having ripped through the man's chest, and took off to hide in the ship.

"Bloody hell! You humans really have wild imaginations!"

She peeked out from between her fingers, where she had only just spotted what was going on in the movie, and looked at the Doctor. He was leaning forward and had his eyes wide open, staring at the screen. She didn't think he'd seen that before either.

"So, there are no aliens like that then?" she asked, looking to Rose as well, thinking of her daughter being an incubator for some alien spawn.

"Thankfully not. Well, not that I know of any way. That's one nasty way to die. No thanks, I'd be running in the opposite direction of that thing as fast as I possibly can."

"Good! I would definitely be following you there," Rose stated, comfortably watching the movie. Of course, she had seen it before with Mickey. "And the things that put the alien spawn into the human are much smaller and latch onto your face, shoving this...tongue thing down your throat and the two become dependent on each other to live."

"Symbiotic parasite. These things are...scary."

Hearing the Doctor say the word scary really frightened Jackie. Because the man himself was an alien. And he went around to other planets all the time and explored and saw and communicated and ran from millions of different species. And a movie alien was scaring him.

When they saw that the alien's blood was made of acid, and how fast it grew, she decided that it was all the more to run and hide behind the couch, but she stayed in the seat, watching through the gaps in her fingers.

Rose thought that was funny. Because the Doctor was equally as uncomfortable with the scenes that would generally make someone jump. Oddly, it made her feel a little closer to him. He had feelings and emotions and didn't like scary movies.

It made him seem so normal, so human!

Somehow it was hard to imagine that he wasn't. Jackie wondered what differences there were between them, since it was a misconception that only humans had feelings and emotions obviously. If it wasn't a misconception, then why would he be scared of something? Or feel uncomfortable around her.

Well the slap she had given him when he had brought Rose home after their year away, which had been a few days for them, might have something to do with how he felt towards her.

She sometimes wished she hadn't done that, because maybe he would bring Rose home more often.

Either way, he spent as little time in the flat as possible. After the movie had finished, he got up headed to the door and said he was going to work on the TARDIS, and that Rose should stay here with her for the night.

Jackie stayed up with Rose late, until she noticed that the both of them were yawning, and went off to bed. She had gotten to catch up now, and still had a full two days to have Rose to herself before the Doctor took her away to god knew where again.

She woke up with the sun shining into her eyes, blinked, before getting gup to make breakfast for her and Rose, and was surprised to find the Doctor huddled on the couch, almost hiding in that leather jacket of his that he never took off.

"What are you doing in here? Want breakfast? Eggs and bacon? Toast?"

He frowned at her and it showed every line on his face, and made him seem incredibly old. "Couldn't sleep. And just toast, thanks."

For a male he ate like a bird. A picky bird at that. Shaking her head, she put in two slices of bread in the toaster and let him fend for himself after that. God knew what he wanted on it.

"Doctor, what are you doing here? Thought you'd be working on the TARDIS by now."

Now that Rose was up, she started on a proper breakfast for her. She watched the interaction between those two carefully though, wondering if their statements of not being sexually involved with each other was a lie or truth. How she hoped it was truth.

"Couldn't sleep," he said again, and Rose's eyes seemed to light up at that with some form of understanding.

"Nightmares?"

He cringed and dug himself deeper into his jacket, before nodding and looking away.

"Wanna talk about it?"

He scowled at her then, as if he was angry with her, though he hadn't been two seconds ago. "It was just a stupid nightmare Rose, not...not what you are thinking."

The look of understanding disappeared into a look of confusion, before something clicked in her mind, and she began giggling. "Aw, Doctor, no watching late night movies for you anymore."

The Doctor looked away, got his toast which had just popped up, and carried it outside. Once he was gone, Rose laughed harder than she had heard in a while.

And Jackie was soon joining in, as she realised what it was that the Doctor had been dreaming of. And now, if she wasn't on the knowhow of the fact he was an alien, she would definitely think he was human.

The reaction was very much like the one Mickey had after watching a scary movie for the first time.

Jackie never dreamed of any scary aliens clawing their way out of her chest last night.