TITLE: chapter one: Rose Tyler.
AUTHOR: Mexx
DISCLAIMER: Mickey and co. are all property of the BBC.
RATING: PG.
SUMMARY: She disappears again. Saves the world, you suppose, because the world doesn't end when Rose Tyler leaves and doesn't return.
AN: Minor Characters Ficathon assignment for Doyle. Er, this might not be quite as Mickey!empowering as you wanted. Sorry.
AN#2: Thanks to Laura and Alexa for the help.
--
You live an ordinary life. Try to, anyway. It's hard to when you know aliens exist and they have a tendency to explode in your flat.
But you are a good man, and you try hard. You try to help your girlfriend chase a ghost, but the ghost turns out to be something more tangible than you expected, and you end up on you knees, watching from a dark corner, while she follows an alien to chase rainbows and electricity. A year later, she's back. You're the one pressing the buttons, but she's the one saving the world. The next time aliens invade, you watch from across the city as your girlfriend runs to stand by the side of two other men.
If, in some distant decade, Rose were famous and on 'This Is Your Life', you imagine you'd be one of the guests at the back, not introduced like the husband or partner of life-changing friends. The Doctor and Captain America, of course, would be welcomed on right at the start to sit by her throughout.
If someone were to write a book about Rose Tyler, you'd just be a footnote, while the Doctor and Jack would have entire chapters devoted to them.
When your ex-girlfriend returns, by herself, in tears, it's all you can do not to be glad she's home. But. You're not home anymore, and she let's you know as much. She disappears again. Saves the world, you suppose, because the world doesn't end when Rose Tyler leaves and doesn't return.
You're over her. It's time to start a book about Mickey Smith.
--
Rose leaves, and you are left standing on an empty corner on the outskirts of the estate. New book, you remind yourself. Title character. Remember the word 'protagonist' from GCSE English and want to be MacBeth. Willy Loman. Someone important. Let me be the hero, you pray to a god you don't believe in. You blink back tears, and will not let yourself cry in front of Jackie. She hugs you anyway, and invites you round for tea. She smells like Rose and home.
You are rubbish at keeping promises, even to yourself, and for two weeks you find yourself racing around corners after petite blondes, crossing roads to catch up with men in leather jackets, and startling at the sound of American accents. Eventually, you realise the futility of your actions. You lose your job from running out on it one-too-many times, and sitting in the job centre you tell yourself that things need to change. Really.
Walking home from the job centre with the details for three interviews in your pocket, you spot Jackie across the road. You don't speak, but you nod and smile and walk on.
You stop off at the off-license on the way home. You don't have much cash on you so you just buy two bottles of White Lightening and a packet of crisps. You run home and fill a bin-bag with half the contents of your bedroom; CD-ROMs and books theorising time-travel, floppy disks filled with reports on the Doctor, and notebooks filled with sketches and doodles and notes on the Doctor and the TARDIS and Rose. You're over them. You don't need this anymore. You upload the CD the Doctor gave you onto the net, then grab the bin-bag, your carrier bag from the off-licence, some lighter fuel and matches, and make your way down to the near-by allotments.
You drink your cheap cider as you watch the tangible evidence of your obsession burn and melt.
It's over.
--
Walking around to the shops the next day, scuffing your vans on the pavement as you do so, you bump into Shareen. Time was you couldn't go a day without seeing the gobby blonde, but you move in different circles now, spiralling away from each other and the girl who glued you all together.
"Alright," you greet each other. You try to walk on, but Shareen slows and so you feel obligated to at least exchange pleasantries.
"You 'eard from that ungrateful cow Rose Tyler lately?" Shareen asks, straight to the point. Some things don't change. Other things obviously have though, otherwise Shareen wouldn't be slagging off her best mate.
Rose handed you a pile of postcards the last time she was home. "Give 'em to Sh'reen for me," she asked. "Tell her I've been travelling and forgot her address or something." You still haven't passed the postcards on though, and Shareen continues to assume she's been dumped by her best friend for a better life. Welcome to my world, you think.
"Nah, I ain't," you reply, and shove your hands into the large pockets of your parker. "I saw her mum the other day. Says Rose is doin' alright for herself now. I dunno. Don't really care." You shrug. Anyway. "I got myself a new job, down in the centre of town."
"Yeah?" Shareen smiles, vaguely interested. "Good for you."
"What you been doing with yourself then?" you ask, and bounce on the balls of your feet a little.
"Oh, I registered down at the college to do this hair and beauty course... oi, d'you wanna go get a drink? Catch up properly?"
You nod. "Yeah."
--
The afternoon you spend with Shareen drives you near to the point of insanity, but oddly enough, it is enjoyable. You exchange mobile numbers, but you doubt you'll see her again.
When you get home, you phone Trisha Delaney. Rob answers the phone and tells you that you're a twat and if you mess Trisha around again he'll break your nose. You don't make any promises, but ask to speak to Trisha anyway. She coos down the phone to you and takes you back with an ease that unnerves and annoys you.
Within a week, she's practically moved into your flat. Her stuff is scattered everywhere; kitchen, bathroom, bedroom. She hasn't bothered to claim herself a draw like Rose did, just shoved her knickers and bras in with your socks and underwear. It's annoying, you think. Rose never did that. But you're not thinking about Rose so you don't complain about it.
After three weeks of not being force-fed by her overweight mum, Trisha has lost more weight, and feels like Rose in your arms. She's had her roots done and is blonde like Rose was. You don't fancy her the way you did when she had breasts and proper curves and pretty brown hair. You feel terrible, but dump her anyway.
"You know what your problem is, Mickey?" she asks when you tell her to move out.
"What?" you ask, confused. You're a bit stunned by her outburst, but then again, you have just dumped her.
"I'll tell you: Rose Tyler. God, I even try and look a bit like 'er but it's not enough for you!" she rages, and storms out.
"This ain't about Rose!" you go to shout after her, but it comes out quiet, like a whisper, like you're talking to yourself. "'S not about Rose."
And it's really not.
--
Weeks pass, and you distance yourself from your old life – Rose's life. You do not try and ignore Rose's lingering presence in your life, but make a new one for yourself.
You're lucky – the job you land sets you on your way to the top, and you're on a good wage. You can afford to move to a nicer flat, closer to work and the centre of London. There, you meet a girl - a woman, really - with cropped dark hair, and feet that she complains are too big but you think are perfect. You fall in love with surprising ease, and one day, when she asks about your old girlfriends, you're pleasantly surprised to think you haven't thought of Rose in weeks.
You don't even think to yourself that it's over, but this time it is.
-- finis