Breaking Point

Estates

It was a blast from the distant past, being in this flat again after so long. Everything was surreal, especially with Tony and Pete wandering about. Rose had everything she wanted from the flat packed in a small bag on the floor nearby the front door. There wasn't much, seeing as how most everything Rose really wanted had migrated to her room in the little blue box she'd lived in for so long.

She stood in the doorway of the kitchen, half listening to her mother's babble and remembering the last time she had stood in this spot. Her mother had been going on about being visited by grandpa Prentice, who had died a decade previously. Rose had thought her mother had went insane for real. Little did she know....

A question from her mother broke through her musing. "And now there's two! So which one's real then?" she questioned Rose. Rose didn't know what her mother was talking about at first, then she remembered that her mother had turned her talk towards the two doctors situation.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Well, they both are obviously real, Mum."

Jackie turned away from the counter, pointed at Rose and berated her. "You know what I mean, Missy. None of your cheek."

Rose did indeed know what her mother meant. "The original one is the one that's wearing the brown suit, Mum."

"And the other one is...human?" Jackie asked.

"Part human," Rose corrected automatically.

"Part human? How can you be part human?"

"It's actually quite common. Apparently humans are very compatible with a large amount of other sentient species," Rose told her.

Jackie had a look of disgust on her face. "What do you mean, are we surrounded by....part aliens?"

"Well, I'm sure that there are a few in this time," Rose reasoned, while she stirred her tea, oblivious to her mother's disgust. "But it won't be until humans start spreading out in the galaxy before it becomes more common for part human inter-species relationships." She took a sip, turned around, and noticed the look on her mother's face. "Mum. I'm shocked at ya! With all you've seen! And not that long ago, me an' Mickey would have been considered scandalous, and you had no problems with that."

"No, no, it's not that," said Jackie. "It's the thought that maybe someone I knew had a tail or somethin!"

Both women tried to keep a straight face, but both failed miserably. They both knew that the other one was thinking about this one homeless man on the Powell Estate, Carl. Poor old man. He was nice, but very odd. Rose was one of the few who had talked to him enough to get to know who he was and would sometimes bring him out leftovers or a sandwich. The man was smart enough to do anything he wanted to do, but was an old soldier, and decided that his penance was a life with as few possessions and little comfort as possible. But there were plenty of other people who were odd that both could think of.

Every time one would calm down, they'd think about another person, either here or in Pete's World, and tell the other one who they were thinking about, as well as what sort of weirdness they might have from being part alien, then the laughter would begin again.

When Pete was finished packing up the photos in a duffel bag, he found the mother and daughter bent over in half hysterical laughter.
--
After they had calmed down from their laughter, Rose and Jackie sat on their old couch, sipping on their tea. Pete and Tony were playing on the other side of the room. They were making small talk, and Rose could tell that her mother had something on her mind she wanted to ask Rose.

"Out with it, Mum."

"There's two of him now, Rose," Jackie informed Rose, like she didn't know that already.