Title: So That's the Doctor!
Author: Shen
Rating: PG
Characters: Ten/Rose, Jackie, Shireen
Word Count: 944
Notes: Written for the first round of the current Doctor/Rose Last Author Standing contest (LiveJournal community doctorroselas). Set after the Christmas Invasion. The prompt was, Write an account of the Doctor/Rose relationship from another character's point of view.

It was a lovely Boxing Day in London when Shireen walked up to the door of the Tyler flat. She was fresh from the early sales; it wasn't yet noon. Smiling, she knocked.

Jackie cracked the door, saw who it was, and opened the door with a smile.

"Hi, Shireen! Well, don't you look posh today? Ransacking the shops this early, I expect?"

"You know it! Is Rose in? Mindi told me she'd seen her about."

Jackie nodded and spoke, "Yes, she's i-"

"Give it back!" came a shriek from the depths of the flat. The hell?

"Nope! That's what you get for stealing my glasses," argued a masculine voice. Just then, a blur of brown tore out of Rose's room, followed by a creature of purple and yellow. It was Rose, still clad in pajamas, seemingly intent on taking down a skinny man Shireen had never seen. The pair did two laps around the couch, stopping when one person stood on each side of it. Rose was facing the door.

She argued with a grin, "But I'm cuter than you in them!" The man cocked his head in a way that bespoke a cheeky grin, even from behind. Then, he took off in the direction of the bathroom, Rose hot on his heels. It seemed she had found herself a lively one! Though if this was their way of flirting, Shireen expected the man's next move would be putting gum in her hair, or possibly punching her and running away.

"For heaven's sake, would you give it a rest! This flat's too small for that!" Jackie turned back to Shireen, clearly exasperated. "Honestly, it's like I've adopted a pair of five-year-olds." Obediently, the man began to slow down, and Rose attached herself to his arm.

"Ha!" She began to haul him back to the living room area, face awash in gleeful triumph. "And hey there, Shireen! How've you been?"

"Um, good. You?"

Jackie ordered, "Give her back whatever it is before the downstairs neighbors call us in for raising buffalo on the Estate. What did you steal, anyway?" Suddenly, both Rose and the man widened their eyes, turned to face Jackie, and put their hands behind their backs.

"Nothing!" Rose answered smoothly, giving an easy smile.

"Nope! Not a thing. Well, obviously there's a thing of some kind, because she was chasing me. But not an item of importance. Certainly nothing I shouldn't be touching for fear of matriarchal violence. Innocent game, this." Rose and Shireen both stared at the man, astonished at his poor judgment. Did he know Jackie Tyler?

Rose breathed, "God, you babble." She sounded both impressed and despairing at the fact.

Appearing rather surprised himself, the man replied, "Apparently!" At which point Jackie began bearing down on him menacingly, and he started to scramble backwards.

Days later, Shireen found herself at Keisha's New Year's Eve party – the very reason she had stopped in to see Rose on Boxing Day. To Shireen's delight, not only had Rose come, but that foxy Doctor bloke she'd been traveling with followed. He'd never been seen by Rose's friends before. Shireen thought she had caught a glimpse of him once, waving to Rose as she left to join the girls for lunch one day, but it must've been a mistake. That had been an older man with hawkish features and startling blue eyes that caught Shireen's attention from a hundred feet away. In contrast, the Doctor was brown-eyed, with a slim figure and hopelessly ruffled hair.

It turned out the man didn't drink, but Rose was brighter for his presence regardless. And she certainly partook. In the end, the blonde wound up curled into an armchair, asleep and wrapped in the Doctor's long coat. Keisha laughed at her for passing out first, but Rose only snuggled deeper into the material to avoid the noise. Shireen had to giggle at the child-like gesture, as did the Doctor. And when he thought no one was looking, he seemed rather chuffed at Rose's choice of blanket. "We're not dating," indeed! Perhaps Rose had just been modest all those times she'd been asked about her mysterious traveling man...

After that, the party spent a half-hour winding down. The Doctor awkwardly listened to the conversation and generally stuck to Mickey's side, to the mechanic's chagrin. Actually, judging by the Doctor's occasional smirk, he might've been annoying him on purpose. In any case, Keisha went to bed, Mickey and a few others lay on the floor, and Shireen snuggled into the couch.

At some point in the night, she woke with an uncomfortable crick in her neck. Upon rolling over, she cracked an eye open and saw Rose, still fast asleep, with the Doctor standing over her. Curiosity dictated she watch for a few more seconds, so she saw when the Doctor placed a hand on Rose's head and smiled. His gaze was wistfully affectionate, amused, and strangely... old. The depth of experience in his eyes stood at odds with the goofy man he'd been hours earlier. Shireen had just enough time to wonder over that before realizing the whole thing was a dream after all. He spoke in a language she didn't understand – certainly no tongue found on Earth – made up of gossamer words that slipped through her mind as quickly as they hit her ears. It was a shame, though. She would have loved to been able to tease Rose over the way the man had leaned over, dropped the gentlest of kisses on her hairline, and sat on the floor beside the chair for the night, head propped on her curled legs.