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After dinner is finally finished – once Jackie’s dishes are washed, dried, and put away, and Jackie excuses herself for a few minutes to take a phone call – the Doctor is just about to congratulate himself on a job very well done indeed when Rose smacks him, hard, on the shoulder.
“Ow!” he cries out. He rubs at the spot where she hit him. “What was that for?”
“Stop it,” she hisses through clenched teeth.
He raises an eyebrow at her, utterly confused.
“And what exactly is it I'm supposed to stop doing?”
Rose puts her hand on his knee and squeezes gently. (The Doctor loves it when Rose puts her hand on his knee and squeezes gently. In truth, the Doctor loves it when she puts her hand anywhere, so long it's on him.)
“The way you’re acting tonight, Doctor,” she explains as though speaking to a small child. “I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice. And if you don’t stop it right now, Mum’s gonna figure out that me and you are… well. You know.”
The Doctor blinks at her, legitimately confused.
“But it’s true, Rose. We are… well. You know.” He clears his throat meaningfully and covers the small, warm hand on his knee with one of his own. “And I thought we were planning on telling her tonight anyway. About how we’re properly together now and… stuff.”
Rose sighs and leans back in her chair. Regretfully, she takes the hand resting on his leg away and rubs her eyes.
“We are telling her tonight, Doctor,” she assures him. “I promise we are. It’s just… I mean, I want to actually tell her, y’know? Not have her jump to conclusions on her own because you're staring at me and drooling.”
"Wait a minute," the Doctor says, more than a little affronted. He's a 903-year-old Time Lord. He does not drool. “I thought you said Jackie’s been assuming we were… you know… for almost two years now anyway.”
“She has," she says. "But I want to actually tell her." She sighs and runs her hands through her hair in agitation. “Just give me some time to work up to it, all right? Just stop.... I dunno, just stop looking at me so much.”
The Doctor pouts. “But I like looking at you.”
The right side of Rose’s mouth quirks up into a half smile. The kind of smile she gives him when she finds something he’s said or done amusing but doesn’t want him to know it. They drive him mad, her half smiles. Though in fairness everything about her mouth and lips drives him mad.
“Tell you what," she says, her smile growing. "If you behave yourself until after we’ve told Mum about us I promise I’ll put on that thing you like when we get back to the TARDIS.”
The Doctor nearly chokes on his tongue.
“You mean you’ll wear the… thing?” he croaks. Swallows audibly. “You'll put on the thing with the… with the things?”
Rose raises an eyebrow at him and nods.
“Mmm-hmmm,” she acknowledges. Her smile grows coy, as the tip of her tongue peeks out so invitingly from the corner of her mouth. She winks at him, then, and it takes all the Doctor’s restraint not to close the short distance between them and snog her senseless right here at her mum's dining room table.
The Doctor closes his eyes, takes several deep breaths, and tries hard to conjure up an image of a Slitheen in an evening gown to calm himself down.
“Very well,” he says, eyes still closed. He doesn’t risk opening them now. “I promise to behave myself until we’ve told your mother we’re together, Rose Tyler. Eyes in front. No staring. No... err, drooling. No sneaking sly peeks down your blouse.”
Rose puts her hand back on his knee. Gives him another squeeze.
“Thank you,” she says quietly.
“But once we’ve told her,” he continues, his voice a little huskier now. “And once we’re back on the TARDIS, I don’t intend to stop looking at you for the next several lifetimes at least.”
She presses a gentle kiss to his cheek.
"Good," she says, before kissing him again. "Now let's go tell mum."
The truth of the matter is that the Doctor can't think of anything he'd rather do less than tell Jackie Tyler that he's... you know... with her daughter. But if it will make Rose happy, he'll go along with it. Because if there's one thing he knows (other than the fact that he cannot wait to see Rose finally put on that outrageously sexy thing he bought her back on Sectarium 4), it's that he'll never be able to deny Rose Tyler anything she wants.