Fic: The Doctor and His Time Ladies (Chapter 5)
Title: The Doctor and His Time Ladies
Author: country_who
Rating: PG
Word Count (This chapter): 4075
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure
Characters/Pairings: Ten/Rose, Tenth Doctor, Human Doctor, Rose, Jenny
Summary: AU Journey's End. Rose gets trapped in the TARDIS instead of Donna and now holds the mind of a Time Lord protected by the Bad Wolf, but what happens when the human Doctor dies, and the Time Lord tries to take her to a planet to get her mind off of him, and fulfill a promise? Does the Doctor have more to lose than gain?
Author's Note: Thanks to othermewriter who solidified the main ideas swimming in the soup I call my brain.
Prologue| Chapter 1| Chapter 2| Chapter 3| Chapter 4
“What?”
“The pain from the Time War,” Rose clarified without thinking, her mind was suddenly racing with possibilities. His daughter. A daughter without her. “The Doctor never really says, but every now and then there’s something.”
Jenny didn’t seem to notice the look of shock on Rose’s face. Her excitement seemed to be growing by the second, as she all but leapt to her feet and placed her arms on Rose’s shoulders. Rose couldn’t fight a smile. Even with her deep blue eyes and blonde hair, Rose couldn’t help seeing the Doctor in her. His wild expression and boundless energy had clearly come into being with his girl, even if she was another woman’s daughter.
She forced the small pang of jealousy down in her stomach and focused on Jenny, while she got to her feet and waited for Jenny to gather enough composure to speak.
“You know him then? My father?” Jenny asked, taking the picture out of her pocket and sliding it in Rose’s direction.
Her eyes immediately grew wide with admiration. He was standing tall, looking noble and so handsome. He was wearing the blue suit that John had died in. She never noticed until now how well it suited him.
TARDIS blue, with red chucks. He must have tried to move on a bit since he lost her. Even his hair seemed longer and less tamed, and a five o’clock shadow was showing up around his chin-something he would consider unthinkable before. She understood why he would do it though. She had done the same thing. A whole new Rose Tyler and a whole new Doctor, but they still managed to be a perfect match. Moving like two beams of light, always right beside each other, but never deviating enough to touch.
“That’s him,” Rose said, and Jenny could tell by her reaction that she wasn’t lying. “He said all the Time Lords and Ladies had died. I assume your mother is…”
Rose approached the subject tentatively, wondering if all this would break Jenny’s hearts more than hers. It wasn’t really a question that would come up in your average conversation, but it was something that she needed to know. She needed to know if someone had broken the Doctor’s hearts and left him. If there was anything she could get him to talk about, to make him feel less afraid. If there was someone he loved more than he liked her.
“Him,” Jenny said, shifting into a serious voice. She didn’t seem hurt, just confused, as if remembering something she hadn’t really wanted to think of. “He’s biologically my mother and father. He called me a Generated Anomaly, that’s where Jenny comes from; a woman named Donna picked that. And, people seem to need surnames these days, so I picked Anderson using the same system she did. Do you know her as well? She’s amazing.”
The young girl’s eyes lit up brightly as she stared off. Rose couldn’t help grinning too. Donna. She had always imagined that the Doctor was in need of just a mate, but she was almost certain no one would be able to do that. He was too striking, too intelligent, too Doctor-ish to not have it that way. Better women than Rose were unable to turn away the Doctor’s charms that he seemed to hide under a suit with too many layers and fabrics.
Donna Noble, she was something special.
“She is that,” Rose agreed softly with a small grin.
When Jenny had said the phrase ‘generated anomaly,’ she acted as though the words tasted bad in her mouth, and who could blame her? Her father had called her something that should never have happened. Rose understood where she was coming from. It had taken a while for Pete to finally come to terms with accepting herself and her mother as his own. It came with trying to heal the pain that came with losing his Jackie, just like the Doctor with his family on Gallifrey.
It was even worse with the Doctor, though. All that put on his shoulders, a fully grown daughter thrown into life where he was constantly fighting to stay alive.
They sat in silence for a long time while the two girls gathered their thoughts. Jenny, tugging absently at her pony tail, and Rose picking at the torn fabric of her t-shirt still stained with the Doctor’s blood. Jenny reached out a hand with an almost fearful motion and touched the blood.
“His blood?” Jenny asked.
“Yes,” Rose said, not sure if she should explain further or not. She didn’t even know the Doctor’s true state and the last thing she wanted to do was to make this girl think that he was in worse shape than he was. Or worse, give her false hope.
“You’re his… girlfriend?” Jenny asked tentatively.
“Well,” Rose said, spinning the fake wedding ring around her finger. “Until he gets better, and we get back to the TARDIS, I’m his wife. But, in truth, I don’t know. I think he does. I told him I loved him, and I when I was taken away from him... he couldn’t finish his sentence. I think it hurt him, makes him not want to try. Or, maybe he just doesn’t like me like that. I really don’t know.”
“I don’t even know if the bloke I like exists.”
“I’m sure that he’s out there somewhere, you just have to keep looking,” Rose assured her, gently putting a hand on her shoulder.
Rose dropped her eyes lowly, and Jenny was about to push the matter more aggressively, but the woman she met earlier, Atali, walked up to them.
Her hair was tied back in a tight bun, with a tired look on her face. Rose tired to read what she was thinking, but found it nearly impossible. She had a doctor’s eyes. Ones that didn’t let you know what was going on until the person spoke.
“Mrs. Tyler,” the Atali started, while she reached up her hand and tucked a stray piece of hair away from her eyes. “Your husband is out of surgery. As far as I can tell, removing the flesh has worked. He’s already showing signs of overcoming the anesthesia, and mumbling your name. I assume you would like to be there when he wakes? I think it would help him.”
Rose nodded eagerly and looked to Jenny. With a jerk of her head and a smile, Rose gave her an unspoken permission to be there and see her father again. Not, that she would have listened if she hadn’t given her permission, but it was nice to have the consideration. Jenny beamed and wrapped her arms around Rose’s neck, muttering her thanks over and over again, as Rose held onto her with a gentle grip.
Atali raised an eyebrow, but Rose mouthed, ‘daughter,’ to her, and she swiftly understood.
“We don’t believe he’ll need to stay overnight in the hospital, but I’m heading over to confer with Nala, the head nurse, and see how he’s changed now that he’s coming through, so in an hour or so we should have an answer for you,” Atali stated, before realizing that Rose’s clothes were still soiled with her husband’s blood and Jenny’s were coated in grease and motor oil. “And, some clothes for the three of you are being searched for at the moment.” She smiled broadly through slightly crooked teeth. “I hope you like tan.”
Rose nodded and shook Atali’s hand once Jenny had finally released her grip from around her shoulders. She smiled at Jenny, and placed a gentle hand on the side of her arm.
“You ready?” Rose asked.
“Yep,” Jenny said happily, as they began to walk out of the mess tent.
Rose’s smile widened as she held open the door and listened as Jenny started rambling off one of the tales from her travels. She was really only half listening, as her words melded with the Doctor’s in her mind. She half expected the young girl to come up with a French catchphrase, but she didn’t. She did however, have the Doctor’s same magic way with words, like they were something she prided herself in. A word with the right shape and sound for every occasion might have been her life’s mission by how carefully she brought the images of her travels to life again for Rose. She’d go far in setting criminals off to her plans just like her father.
There was however, that slight bit of tenderness in her voice that Rose couldn’t place. It was foreign to her now, but she thought that she had heard it once before. It came from a time when the Doctor was still filled with that boyish charm he had acquired just after he regenerated. When he was brimmed to the top with wanderlust and Rose had to put up a fight just to keep him in one place. It was a time after he had healed, and traveled out of desire instead of duty or escape.
“That’s when I met him,” Jenny said, in a suddenly lost tone that was coated in pain. Rose looked over to see Anderson sadly curling into a ball into her hand. “We were pulled apart.”
“What happened?” Rose asked, slowing their pace just slightly, so Jenny would have an opportunity to relinquish any grievances that she didn’t think she could tell to her father. He was a great man, but sometimes the desire to impress him made him harder to talk to than one would imagine on first glance.
“The computer that was holding all the people in the Library together-I don’t really know. He said, just before everything went, white that we were being transported out of the computer’s memory, but I… I didn’t understand. I held onto him, but we… we were just torn apart. I told him I’d find him, and he said he’d wait, but I waited until I was the very last one and he wasn’t there. He used to tease me that there was always the possibility that he was there and I wasn’t, like he had made me out of his will.”
Rose’s eyes ghosted into memory. The void, the handle, the Doctor shouting her name and trying to reach out to her more than anything. The look that said he was a second from jumping in after her and dying with her. She knew he would have done it if Pete hadn’t of caught her in the end. He would have held her and she would have been wrapped in his arms forever.
“I know the feeling,” Rose told her softly.
“You lost someone,” Jenny whispered knowingly.
“I lost the Doctor,” Rose told her.
“What happened?” Jenny asked, her blue eyes widening with pained curiosity.
“S’a long story,” Rose said, trying not to talk on the subject, but seeing the desperation in Jenny’s eyes, Rose knew that she didn’t just want to know. She needed to know. Needed to know that there was hope beyond measure.
“Please, Rose?” Jenny begged.
“When me and the Doctor are together,” Rose stated, looking down at her feet. “We need to be together for this, okay?”
Jenny nodded, and looked up to see the hospital ward. It was almost looming, her father inside with some sort of ailment that she didn’t know about. She raised Mr. Anderson closer to her chest and slowly began stroking the top of his head while she muttered something softly to him. Her hearts began to beat out a hurried rhythm as she shifted slightly in the combat boots she kept from Messaline.
“I’m afraid he can’t go in with you,” Nala said, breaking her out of her thoughts, as she appeared outside the doors.
Jenny looked crestfallen, but Nala took Anderson into her hand and stroked his head gingerly, smiling at the creature. He seemed content in her hands as he gave Jenny a brave look and crossed his arms over his chest in a tough gesture.
“Anderson strong, Jenny,” he proclaimed, as he looked up at Nala with glee. “More pretty girls.”
“Shut up, you,” Jenny chided, before shooting an apologetic look at the head nurse, who was more than content with his ‘flattering.’
“It’s all right; I’ve had much worse,” Nala assured them with a small laugh, “much worse. I’ll just take him to your quarters, we’re using the VIP tent, but I’m afraid you’ll have to bunk with Dr. and Mrs. Tyler though, we’re in a bit of a space crunch.”
With that, Nala walked off, leaving Rose and Jenny standing outside the hospital, both not quite sure what awaited them through the doors.
“What exactly was wrong with him?” Jenny asked, as she shifted her feet from side to side. She had her hands shoved deep in her pockets. Rose could swear that the closer to the Doctor they got the more she acted like him.
“He got shot, in the leg. It seemed fine, superficial, but it wasn’t. I don’t know; they might have poisoned the bullet or something. It made him sick,” Rose explained as Jenny held the door opened for her and let her step through.
Jenny nodded and immediately found her father, lying back in a hospital-type bed. The other beds were almost all filled with several injuries and a few illnesses, but both Jenny and Rose’s eyes were blind to them.
His eyes were lowered, but she could tell he was restless. He mouth moved almost soundlessly. She thought the word might have been, ‘Rose,’ but Jenny couldn’t be sure. Rose silenced him when her hand laced through his. She beckoned Jenny closer and whispered in his ear. One of her hands covered the Doctor’s forehead in a gentle motion, as if she was checking his temperature again.
She pressed a kiss into his forehead, and the Doctor’s brow relaxed itself, making him look ages younger. His brown hair fell floppily over his face and Rose brushed it away carefully, before gently cupping his cheek.
Jenny found herself holding her breath in captivation. There was so much devotion clear on this woman’s face towards her father. She understood now what Rose had meant; when she said that she had lost the Doctor and felt the same pain of when she lost her love. It wasn’t just that her father changed people’s live, her father was Rose’s life.
The look on her face, when she was around him, the way her father reacted to her touch even when he was unconscious. She wondered how Rose could doubt if they were in a relationship, but then she remembered something her father had told to Donna. He had lost everything, in the Time War. His children, his family, a wife must have been in that mix. How could anyone love after that?
“Look who I found, Doctor,” Rose whispered, before throwing a wink in Jenny’s direction, and breaking the blonde girl out of her thoughts. “Being gawked at by a bunch of boys, none the less. You’re daughter, Jenny. You remember you told me to investigate? Well, she’s here, and desperate for you to talk to her.”
Rose grabbed Jenny’s arm lightly and had her kneel down next to the Doctor.
“Hey, Dad. Some role reversal, eh?” Jenny forced a laugh through her lips as she continued to stare at the Doctor.
The Doctor seemed to stir, his eyes falling on Rose first as she squeezed his hands reassuringly. She touched his chest gently, just above his left heart. The touch was meant to sooth him, but she could feel his heart beating quickly. There was pain in his eyes, like he didn’t want to look. A question formed on his lips, but his mouth fell shut as he shook his head gently back and forth, squeezing his eyes shut. Without hesitation, Rose gently hooked her fingers under his chin and moved his head so that Jenny’s face filled his vision when he was finally brave enough to open his eyes.
“Jenny,” he breathed.
“Hello, Dad,” Jenny said tentatively. She stared at him for a moment, letting everything sink in for him.
The Doctor was silent, as his eyes stayed locked on the daughter he thought he had lost. Her blond hair, kind blue eyes and grease stained t-shirt all shouted at him that this was his daughter, but he almost couldn’t believe it. He was running a fever. He was hallucinating she couldn’t be real. His mind was stronger than others, with clearer memories, that meant his hallucinations could take a better hold of his mind.
And, she was standing there with his Rose, someone who he had just gotten back after all this time, after all that pain. Two impossible people standing there in front of him.
Never impossible, just a bit unlikely.
“You died,” he said dumbly, not moving an inch in her direction, but not moving away either.
“Regenerated,” Jenny said, with a small grin.
“You look the same,” the Doctor said, taking a hand and gently stroking the front of her bangs before lowering his hand back down to the bed.
“Yeah,” Jenny agreed, staring at his hand and wanting more than anything to take it in hers. However, she found herself frozen in one place, not able to move.
Seeing her need for a more lasting touch, the Doctor slowly raised his hand to gently cup her face. He ran his thumb over her forehead and ran it down the left side of her face and then the right. His eyes studied her intently as he finally made his move and gathered her into his arms. He gently ran his hand up and down her back, while she clung to his shirt, like a small girl frightened by a nightmare in the middle of the night would cling to her father, and in a way she was. She had seen the terrors of the universe, had her heartbroken and been driven to the brink of life without having lived.
Tears stung the Doctor’s eyes and threatened to roll down his cheeks. He refused to let them fall as he felt Jenny’s long blonde hair tangling between his fingers in their embrace. She was less restrictive with her own tears. The salty rivulets fell down her face from where she rested her chin on the Doctor’s shoulder before moving down lowed. She buried her face in his chest, clad in a hospital gown and let her tears wet the thin fabric.
“Oh, God, I missed you,” Jenny sobbed quietly, the noise almost lost into his chest, but the Doctor caught it.
“I thought you died, Jenny,” the Doctor repeated, his voice soft and broken, as he looked over Jenny’s shoulder and to Rose. She was smiling softly at him as she touched his shoulder softly and walked out of the room, to let him be alone with his daughter. He almost wanted to follow her, to run into her protection, but he restrained herself. He was the one who needed to be strong, for Jenny.
“I know… I’m sorry,” Jenny apologized earnestly, still talking into his chest. “I should have searched harder and faster. I’m so sorry, Father.”
The Doctor pulled back, giving her a hard stare.
“No, don’t you dare apologize,” the Doctor said roughly. “This wasn’t your fault. It will never be your fault. I’m your father; I should have known that there was a chance.”
He smiled proudly at her with a look of enthrallment. “I should have known you were a proper Time Lady.”
Jenny almost blushed under his words. He called her a Time Lady, not just an echo, a fully fledged Time Lady.
“How about we agree to put that behind us, eh?” Jenny asked, a small smile spreading across her face.
The Doctor nodded, but stopped and gave her a quizzical look.
“How do you know about regeneration?” the Doctor asked.
“I was travelling found this library to look up Time Lords. It was amazing, a planet-wide library. They didn’t have much-on Time Lords that is, but there was this thing, these shadows that were moving in and everyone was trying to move out. It was like putting people into this big super computer, and I met this man. He was clever, and handsome. I think I might have even made him up, but he knew about Time Lords, said he knew you even.
“He called himself Jack Harkness,” Jenny continued. “He said he knew you. Is he… is he real?”
The Doctor nodded and smirked, trying to put on his best ‘father-figure’ voice. “He is real, and he’s also a massive flirt. If Rose has her way, then we’ll probably end up seeing him again. Be careful around him; deck him a couple times if you have to.”
Jenny laughed and gathered her rambling father into her arms again. He was going to take her to see Jack; she was going to see him again. Another reunion to accompany this one, it was perfect.
She breathed deeply and found him doing the same. At first it seemed like he was just content to be back with her again, but then she realized he wasn’t just breathing her in, he was smelling her intently. His fade scrunched up in concentration as he focused on the smell seeping into his nostrils.
“What are you doing?” Jenny asked drawing back, but the Doctor ignored her and took her hand.
He brought it up to his face and breathed deeply and licking it quickly before she could protest. The action drew a glare out of Jenny, as he moved his tongue around in his mouth.
“You’ve regenerated,” the Doctor said, taken aback. “Did I just get back from leaving you? No, you said you were in the library and met Jumping Jack Flash. No, it was within the last few hours. What happened?”
Jenny shrugged her shoulders and avoided his gaze. She had just gotten back to him and she could see that she was already causing him pain. In an attempt to shrug it off, she forced her voice and expression to be teamed with frivolity.
“I crashed my ship,” Jenny said. “The Thermo-buffer went completely mental and my engine over heated. I’m fine though.”
The Doctor shook his head seriously. “Jenny, this is serious. You can’t just blow through your regenerations. They’re limited, and you’re just as mortal as a human when it comes to being able to die.”
He sighed and dropped his head lowly. “You’re too much like me as it is, Jenny. I don’t want you blowing through your regenerations to be added to that list.”
Jenny frowned. “What do you mean, Dad?”
“I’m 904 years old, give or take,” the Doctor stated, “and, I’m on my tenth regeneration. I blew through them. Most Time Lords would just be on their second by now, but I’m too fool-hardy. I run into everything head-first without thinking twice. I don’t want you doing the same. How old are you now?”
“One year on Messaline,” Jenny stated.
“So, about a year and a half on Earth,” the Doctor muttered to himself. “Too young to throw it away.”
Jenny nodded, seeing how broken her father was looking from the idea of her dying a second time. It might have even been a bit worse for him this time, seeing as he wasn’t even there for her.
She found herself lost for words looking at him for guidance.
“So, another thing to put behind us then,” the Doctor said, replacing his forlorn look with a wide grin. “How have you been?”
“Fine,” Jenny stated. She wanted to tell him so much more, but there was so much. So much that they had both missed out on and would never get back. She forced levity into her voice as she moved from where she was kneeling and sat on the corner of his bed. “Did a lot of running.”
The Doctor nodded. “I wouldn’t have suspected much less.”
They sat in silence for a long time, just staring at each other, the Doctor, not sure of what to say, and Jenny not sure of what to do. He had spent so much time running away and she had spent so much time trying to run to him. Their legs had finally grown tired of it all and they rested.
Author: country_who
Rating: PG
Word Count (This chapter): 4075
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure
Characters/Pairings: Ten/Rose, Tenth Doctor, Human Doctor, Rose, Jenny
Summary: AU Journey's End. Rose gets trapped in the TARDIS instead of Donna and now holds the mind of a Time Lord protected by the Bad Wolf, but what happens when the human Doctor dies, and the Time Lord tries to take her to a planet to get her mind off of him, and fulfill a promise? Does the Doctor have more to lose than gain?
Author's Note: Thanks to othermewriter who solidified the main ideas swimming in the soup I call my brain.
Prologue| Chapter 1| Chapter 2| Chapter 3| Chapter 4
“What?”
“The pain from the Time War,” Rose clarified without thinking, her mind was suddenly racing with possibilities. His daughter. A daughter without her. “The Doctor never really says, but every now and then there’s something.”
Jenny didn’t seem to notice the look of shock on Rose’s face. Her excitement seemed to be growing by the second, as she all but leapt to her feet and placed her arms on Rose’s shoulders. Rose couldn’t fight a smile. Even with her deep blue eyes and blonde hair, Rose couldn’t help seeing the Doctor in her. His wild expression and boundless energy had clearly come into being with his girl, even if she was another woman’s daughter.
She forced the small pang of jealousy down in her stomach and focused on Jenny, while she got to her feet and waited for Jenny to gather enough composure to speak.
“You know him then? My father?” Jenny asked, taking the picture out of her pocket and sliding it in Rose’s direction.
Her eyes immediately grew wide with admiration. He was standing tall, looking noble and so handsome. He was wearing the blue suit that John had died in. She never noticed until now how well it suited him.
TARDIS blue, with red chucks. He must have tried to move on a bit since he lost her. Even his hair seemed longer and less tamed, and a five o’clock shadow was showing up around his chin-something he would consider unthinkable before. She understood why he would do it though. She had done the same thing. A whole new Rose Tyler and a whole new Doctor, but they still managed to be a perfect match. Moving like two beams of light, always right beside each other, but never deviating enough to touch.
“That’s him,” Rose said, and Jenny could tell by her reaction that she wasn’t lying. “He said all the Time Lords and Ladies had died. I assume your mother is…”
Rose approached the subject tentatively, wondering if all this would break Jenny’s hearts more than hers. It wasn’t really a question that would come up in your average conversation, but it was something that she needed to know. She needed to know if someone had broken the Doctor’s hearts and left him. If there was anything she could get him to talk about, to make him feel less afraid. If there was someone he loved more than he liked her.
“Him,” Jenny said, shifting into a serious voice. She didn’t seem hurt, just confused, as if remembering something she hadn’t really wanted to think of. “He’s biologically my mother and father. He called me a Generated Anomaly, that’s where Jenny comes from; a woman named Donna picked that. And, people seem to need surnames these days, so I picked Anderson using the same system she did. Do you know her as well? She’s amazing.”
The young girl’s eyes lit up brightly as she stared off. Rose couldn’t help grinning too. Donna. She had always imagined that the Doctor was in need of just a mate, but she was almost certain no one would be able to do that. He was too striking, too intelligent, too Doctor-ish to not have it that way. Better women than Rose were unable to turn away the Doctor’s charms that he seemed to hide under a suit with too many layers and fabrics.
Donna Noble, she was something special.
“She is that,” Rose agreed softly with a small grin.
When Jenny had said the phrase ‘generated anomaly,’ she acted as though the words tasted bad in her mouth, and who could blame her? Her father had called her something that should never have happened. Rose understood where she was coming from. It had taken a while for Pete to finally come to terms with accepting herself and her mother as his own. It came with trying to heal the pain that came with losing his Jackie, just like the Doctor with his family on Gallifrey.
It was even worse with the Doctor, though. All that put on his shoulders, a fully grown daughter thrown into life where he was constantly fighting to stay alive.
They sat in silence for a long time while the two girls gathered their thoughts. Jenny, tugging absently at her pony tail, and Rose picking at the torn fabric of her t-shirt still stained with the Doctor’s blood. Jenny reached out a hand with an almost fearful motion and touched the blood.
“His blood?” Jenny asked.
“Yes,” Rose said, not sure if she should explain further or not. She didn’t even know the Doctor’s true state and the last thing she wanted to do was to make this girl think that he was in worse shape than he was. Or worse, give her false hope.
“You’re his… girlfriend?” Jenny asked tentatively.
“Well,” Rose said, spinning the fake wedding ring around her finger. “Until he gets better, and we get back to the TARDIS, I’m his wife. But, in truth, I don’t know. I think he does. I told him I loved him, and I when I was taken away from him... he couldn’t finish his sentence. I think it hurt him, makes him not want to try. Or, maybe he just doesn’t like me like that. I really don’t know.”
“I don’t even know if the bloke I like exists.”
“I’m sure that he’s out there somewhere, you just have to keep looking,” Rose assured her, gently putting a hand on her shoulder.
Rose dropped her eyes lowly, and Jenny was about to push the matter more aggressively, but the woman she met earlier, Atali, walked up to them.
Her hair was tied back in a tight bun, with a tired look on her face. Rose tired to read what she was thinking, but found it nearly impossible. She had a doctor’s eyes. Ones that didn’t let you know what was going on until the person spoke.
“Mrs. Tyler,” the Atali started, while she reached up her hand and tucked a stray piece of hair away from her eyes. “Your husband is out of surgery. As far as I can tell, removing the flesh has worked. He’s already showing signs of overcoming the anesthesia, and mumbling your name. I assume you would like to be there when he wakes? I think it would help him.”
Rose nodded eagerly and looked to Jenny. With a jerk of her head and a smile, Rose gave her an unspoken permission to be there and see her father again. Not, that she would have listened if she hadn’t given her permission, but it was nice to have the consideration. Jenny beamed and wrapped her arms around Rose’s neck, muttering her thanks over and over again, as Rose held onto her with a gentle grip.
Atali raised an eyebrow, but Rose mouthed, ‘daughter,’ to her, and she swiftly understood.
“We don’t believe he’ll need to stay overnight in the hospital, but I’m heading over to confer with Nala, the head nurse, and see how he’s changed now that he’s coming through, so in an hour or so we should have an answer for you,” Atali stated, before realizing that Rose’s clothes were still soiled with her husband’s blood and Jenny’s were coated in grease and motor oil. “And, some clothes for the three of you are being searched for at the moment.” She smiled broadly through slightly crooked teeth. “I hope you like tan.”
Rose nodded and shook Atali’s hand once Jenny had finally released her grip from around her shoulders. She smiled at Jenny, and placed a gentle hand on the side of her arm.
“You ready?” Rose asked.
“Yep,” Jenny said happily, as they began to walk out of the mess tent.
Rose’s smile widened as she held open the door and listened as Jenny started rambling off one of the tales from her travels. She was really only half listening, as her words melded with the Doctor’s in her mind. She half expected the young girl to come up with a French catchphrase, but she didn’t. She did however, have the Doctor’s same magic way with words, like they were something she prided herself in. A word with the right shape and sound for every occasion might have been her life’s mission by how carefully she brought the images of her travels to life again for Rose. She’d go far in setting criminals off to her plans just like her father.
There was however, that slight bit of tenderness in her voice that Rose couldn’t place. It was foreign to her now, but she thought that she had heard it once before. It came from a time when the Doctor was still filled with that boyish charm he had acquired just after he regenerated. When he was brimmed to the top with wanderlust and Rose had to put up a fight just to keep him in one place. It was a time after he had healed, and traveled out of desire instead of duty or escape.
“That’s when I met him,” Jenny said, in a suddenly lost tone that was coated in pain. Rose looked over to see Anderson sadly curling into a ball into her hand. “We were pulled apart.”
“What happened?” Rose asked, slowing their pace just slightly, so Jenny would have an opportunity to relinquish any grievances that she didn’t think she could tell to her father. He was a great man, but sometimes the desire to impress him made him harder to talk to than one would imagine on first glance.
“The computer that was holding all the people in the Library together-I don’t really know. He said, just before everything went, white that we were being transported out of the computer’s memory, but I… I didn’t understand. I held onto him, but we… we were just torn apart. I told him I’d find him, and he said he’d wait, but I waited until I was the very last one and he wasn’t there. He used to tease me that there was always the possibility that he was there and I wasn’t, like he had made me out of his will.”
Rose’s eyes ghosted into memory. The void, the handle, the Doctor shouting her name and trying to reach out to her more than anything. The look that said he was a second from jumping in after her and dying with her. She knew he would have done it if Pete hadn’t of caught her in the end. He would have held her and she would have been wrapped in his arms forever.
“I know the feeling,” Rose told her softly.
“You lost someone,” Jenny whispered knowingly.
“I lost the Doctor,” Rose told her.
“What happened?” Jenny asked, her blue eyes widening with pained curiosity.
“S’a long story,” Rose said, trying not to talk on the subject, but seeing the desperation in Jenny’s eyes, Rose knew that she didn’t just want to know. She needed to know. Needed to know that there was hope beyond measure.
“Please, Rose?” Jenny begged.
“When me and the Doctor are together,” Rose stated, looking down at her feet. “We need to be together for this, okay?”
Jenny nodded, and looked up to see the hospital ward. It was almost looming, her father inside with some sort of ailment that she didn’t know about. She raised Mr. Anderson closer to her chest and slowly began stroking the top of his head while she muttered something softly to him. Her hearts began to beat out a hurried rhythm as she shifted slightly in the combat boots she kept from Messaline.
“I’m afraid he can’t go in with you,” Nala said, breaking her out of her thoughts, as she appeared outside the doors.
Jenny looked crestfallen, but Nala took Anderson into her hand and stroked his head gingerly, smiling at the creature. He seemed content in her hands as he gave Jenny a brave look and crossed his arms over his chest in a tough gesture.
“Anderson strong, Jenny,” he proclaimed, as he looked up at Nala with glee. “More pretty girls.”
“Shut up, you,” Jenny chided, before shooting an apologetic look at the head nurse, who was more than content with his ‘flattering.’
“It’s all right; I’ve had much worse,” Nala assured them with a small laugh, “much worse. I’ll just take him to your quarters, we’re using the VIP tent, but I’m afraid you’ll have to bunk with Dr. and Mrs. Tyler though, we’re in a bit of a space crunch.”
With that, Nala walked off, leaving Rose and Jenny standing outside the hospital, both not quite sure what awaited them through the doors.
“What exactly was wrong with him?” Jenny asked, as she shifted her feet from side to side. She had her hands shoved deep in her pockets. Rose could swear that the closer to the Doctor they got the more she acted like him.
“He got shot, in the leg. It seemed fine, superficial, but it wasn’t. I don’t know; they might have poisoned the bullet or something. It made him sick,” Rose explained as Jenny held the door opened for her and let her step through.
Jenny nodded and immediately found her father, lying back in a hospital-type bed. The other beds were almost all filled with several injuries and a few illnesses, but both Jenny and Rose’s eyes were blind to them.
His eyes were lowered, but she could tell he was restless. He mouth moved almost soundlessly. She thought the word might have been, ‘Rose,’ but Jenny couldn’t be sure. Rose silenced him when her hand laced through his. She beckoned Jenny closer and whispered in his ear. One of her hands covered the Doctor’s forehead in a gentle motion, as if she was checking his temperature again.
She pressed a kiss into his forehead, and the Doctor’s brow relaxed itself, making him look ages younger. His brown hair fell floppily over his face and Rose brushed it away carefully, before gently cupping his cheek.
Jenny found herself holding her breath in captivation. There was so much devotion clear on this woman’s face towards her father. She understood now what Rose had meant; when she said that she had lost the Doctor and felt the same pain of when she lost her love. It wasn’t just that her father changed people’s live, her father was Rose’s life.
The look on her face, when she was around him, the way her father reacted to her touch even when he was unconscious. She wondered how Rose could doubt if they were in a relationship, but then she remembered something her father had told to Donna. He had lost everything, in the Time War. His children, his family, a wife must have been in that mix. How could anyone love after that?
“Look who I found, Doctor,” Rose whispered, before throwing a wink in Jenny’s direction, and breaking the blonde girl out of her thoughts. “Being gawked at by a bunch of boys, none the less. You’re daughter, Jenny. You remember you told me to investigate? Well, she’s here, and desperate for you to talk to her.”
Rose grabbed Jenny’s arm lightly and had her kneel down next to the Doctor.
“Hey, Dad. Some role reversal, eh?” Jenny forced a laugh through her lips as she continued to stare at the Doctor.
The Doctor seemed to stir, his eyes falling on Rose first as she squeezed his hands reassuringly. She touched his chest gently, just above his left heart. The touch was meant to sooth him, but she could feel his heart beating quickly. There was pain in his eyes, like he didn’t want to look. A question formed on his lips, but his mouth fell shut as he shook his head gently back and forth, squeezing his eyes shut. Without hesitation, Rose gently hooked her fingers under his chin and moved his head so that Jenny’s face filled his vision when he was finally brave enough to open his eyes.
“Jenny,” he breathed.
“Hello, Dad,” Jenny said tentatively. She stared at him for a moment, letting everything sink in for him.
The Doctor was silent, as his eyes stayed locked on the daughter he thought he had lost. Her blond hair, kind blue eyes and grease stained t-shirt all shouted at him that this was his daughter, but he almost couldn’t believe it. He was running a fever. He was hallucinating she couldn’t be real. His mind was stronger than others, with clearer memories, that meant his hallucinations could take a better hold of his mind.
And, she was standing there with his Rose, someone who he had just gotten back after all this time, after all that pain. Two impossible people standing there in front of him.
Never impossible, just a bit unlikely.
“You died,” he said dumbly, not moving an inch in her direction, but not moving away either.
“Regenerated,” Jenny said, with a small grin.
“You look the same,” the Doctor said, taking a hand and gently stroking the front of her bangs before lowering his hand back down to the bed.
“Yeah,” Jenny agreed, staring at his hand and wanting more than anything to take it in hers. However, she found herself frozen in one place, not able to move.
Seeing her need for a more lasting touch, the Doctor slowly raised his hand to gently cup her face. He ran his thumb over her forehead and ran it down the left side of her face and then the right. His eyes studied her intently as he finally made his move and gathered her into his arms. He gently ran his hand up and down her back, while she clung to his shirt, like a small girl frightened by a nightmare in the middle of the night would cling to her father, and in a way she was. She had seen the terrors of the universe, had her heartbroken and been driven to the brink of life without having lived.
Tears stung the Doctor’s eyes and threatened to roll down his cheeks. He refused to let them fall as he felt Jenny’s long blonde hair tangling between his fingers in their embrace. She was less restrictive with her own tears. The salty rivulets fell down her face from where she rested her chin on the Doctor’s shoulder before moving down lowed. She buried her face in his chest, clad in a hospital gown and let her tears wet the thin fabric.
“Oh, God, I missed you,” Jenny sobbed quietly, the noise almost lost into his chest, but the Doctor caught it.
“I thought you died, Jenny,” the Doctor repeated, his voice soft and broken, as he looked over Jenny’s shoulder and to Rose. She was smiling softly at him as she touched his shoulder softly and walked out of the room, to let him be alone with his daughter. He almost wanted to follow her, to run into her protection, but he restrained herself. He was the one who needed to be strong, for Jenny.
“I know… I’m sorry,” Jenny apologized earnestly, still talking into his chest. “I should have searched harder and faster. I’m so sorry, Father.”
The Doctor pulled back, giving her a hard stare.
“No, don’t you dare apologize,” the Doctor said roughly. “This wasn’t your fault. It will never be your fault. I’m your father; I should have known that there was a chance.”
He smiled proudly at her with a look of enthrallment. “I should have known you were a proper Time Lady.”
Jenny almost blushed under his words. He called her a Time Lady, not just an echo, a fully fledged Time Lady.
“How about we agree to put that behind us, eh?” Jenny asked, a small smile spreading across her face.
The Doctor nodded, but stopped and gave her a quizzical look.
“How do you know about regeneration?” the Doctor asked.
“I was travelling found this library to look up Time Lords. It was amazing, a planet-wide library. They didn’t have much-on Time Lords that is, but there was this thing, these shadows that were moving in and everyone was trying to move out. It was like putting people into this big super computer, and I met this man. He was clever, and handsome. I think I might have even made him up, but he knew about Time Lords, said he knew you even.
“He called himself Jack Harkness,” Jenny continued. “He said he knew you. Is he… is he real?”
The Doctor nodded and smirked, trying to put on his best ‘father-figure’ voice. “He is real, and he’s also a massive flirt. If Rose has her way, then we’ll probably end up seeing him again. Be careful around him; deck him a couple times if you have to.”
Jenny laughed and gathered her rambling father into her arms again. He was going to take her to see Jack; she was going to see him again. Another reunion to accompany this one, it was perfect.
She breathed deeply and found him doing the same. At first it seemed like he was just content to be back with her again, but then she realized he wasn’t just breathing her in, he was smelling her intently. His fade scrunched up in concentration as he focused on the smell seeping into his nostrils.
“What are you doing?” Jenny asked drawing back, but the Doctor ignored her and took her hand.
He brought it up to his face and breathed deeply and licking it quickly before she could protest. The action drew a glare out of Jenny, as he moved his tongue around in his mouth.
“You’ve regenerated,” the Doctor said, taken aback. “Did I just get back from leaving you? No, you said you were in the library and met Jumping Jack Flash. No, it was within the last few hours. What happened?”
Jenny shrugged her shoulders and avoided his gaze. She had just gotten back to him and she could see that she was already causing him pain. In an attempt to shrug it off, she forced her voice and expression to be teamed with frivolity.
“I crashed my ship,” Jenny said. “The Thermo-buffer went completely mental and my engine over heated. I’m fine though.”
The Doctor shook his head seriously. “Jenny, this is serious. You can’t just blow through your regenerations. They’re limited, and you’re just as mortal as a human when it comes to being able to die.”
He sighed and dropped his head lowly. “You’re too much like me as it is, Jenny. I don’t want you blowing through your regenerations to be added to that list.”
Jenny frowned. “What do you mean, Dad?”
“I’m 904 years old, give or take,” the Doctor stated, “and, I’m on my tenth regeneration. I blew through them. Most Time Lords would just be on their second by now, but I’m too fool-hardy. I run into everything head-first without thinking twice. I don’t want you doing the same. How old are you now?”
“One year on Messaline,” Jenny stated.
“So, about a year and a half on Earth,” the Doctor muttered to himself. “Too young to throw it away.”
Jenny nodded, seeing how broken her father was looking from the idea of her dying a second time. It might have even been a bit worse for him this time, seeing as he wasn’t even there for her.
She found herself lost for words looking at him for guidance.
“So, another thing to put behind us then,” the Doctor said, replacing his forlorn look with a wide grin. “How have you been?”
“Fine,” Jenny stated. She wanted to tell him so much more, but there was so much. So much that they had both missed out on and would never get back. She forced levity into her voice as she moved from where she was kneeling and sat on the corner of his bed. “Did a lot of running.”
The Doctor nodded. “I wouldn’t have suspected much less.”
They sat in silence for a long time, just staring at each other, the Doctor, not sure of what to say, and Jenny not sure of what to do. He had spent so much time running away and she had spent so much time trying to run to him. Their legs had finally grown tired of it all and they rested.