DW fic: Lost and Found
Title: Lost and Found
Author: Rambling Rose / irishlullaby
Beta Babe: crimedoc1
Rated: All Ages
Characters: hints of Nine/Rose, Jackie
Summary: A response to the September Picture Prompt Table. #8. Rose and the Doctor bring home an unexpected tag-a-long
Lost and Found
The door to the flat squeaked open and Jackie heard her daughter’s voice. “Oh, honestly. A huge planet full of shops but they haven’t any nappies?”
Jackie Tyler blinked in surprise as Rose walked in toting a toddler of about three on her hip. The little girl had blonde pigtails and was dressed in all pink. She looked very much like Rose at that age except that she had big… blue… “Oi!” Jackie barked at the leather clad man who walked in behind her daughter. “What? Are you two going to be telling me I’m a grandmother?”
The two stopped, blinked, and returned Jackie’s perplexed look. Rose was the first to break the silence. “What?” she asked, obviously confused. Then it seemed to dawn on her how it must look to her mum… “Oh! No! No! It’s not what it looks like Mum. We were at a planetary shopping centre and… well… she was lost. She couldn’t find her mum and dad, we couldn’t find her mum and dad, the security people couldn’t find her mum and dad. They said it looked like she had just been left… by accident or maybe even on purpose, they didn’t know which.”
“And she just sort of clung to Rose, wouldn’t let go of her, so the security guards started to think maybe we were having them on and just trying to ditch our kid. So here we are,” the Doctor added. “Do you mind if I borrow a light bulb?”
Jackie huffed indignantly as he brushed past her and went into the kitchen to search for a light bulb before she had even opened her mouth, much less given him permission to rummage around. “Look at you in there, acting like you own the place,” Jackie griped. “I don’t even know if I have an extra light bulb. What d’you need one for, anyway?”
“He needs one to fix this tracking device thing he has but the TARDIS was fresh out since… well… she doesn’t really need light bulbs,” Rose explained. “He’s going to see if he can cross… cross… do an interplanetary DNA match or something to find her parents, since we were just a few galaxies over.”
“She’s alien?” Jackie’s jaw dropped with disbelief when Rose nodded. “But she looks human.”
“Yeah, well, so does the Doctor, but…” Rose attempted to put the little girl down but the child wrapped her arms around Rose’s neck and whimpered. Rose gave a semi-patient sigh and straightened back up to her full height; Jackie’s sharp eyes noted how Rose gave in to the little girl without any real show of reluctance. “But yeah, she’s an alien. Cute though, isn’t she?”
“But how can she be an alien?” Jackie asked. The Doctor breezed back into the room, light bulb in hand, she turned to confront him instead. “How can she be alien when she looks so human? I mean, I can understand it with you, but… just how many species out there look like us, anyway?”
“Quite a few,” the Doctor replied, sitting down on the floor by the little coffee table. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and a handheld device with several large buttons and a small display screen. Jackie watched, hands on her hips, as he disassembled the little device and then pointed the sonic screwdriver at the light bulb. The glass bulb cracked and suddenly all that was left on her table was a pile of glass fragments and the base of the bulb with the wire filament jutting out of it.
“Oi! You owe me one of those,” she said indignantly. She turned toward Rose. “Does he always go about breaking things he’s just ‘borrowing’ or is it just something he reserves for me?” She addressed the Doctor again. “Light bulbs don’t just grow on trees, you know! They’re expensive!”
Jackie glared at the Doctor, who gave a small snort of amusement, and at Rose, who gave an exasperated sigh. Then she realized the sigh was because the toddler’s weight was becoming difficult for her daughter to support. With a slight smile, Jackie walked over to Rose and held out her hands. “Here, let’s have her then,” she said softly.
Rose opened her mouth to say something but the words died on her lips when the child reached out towards Jackie. “How did you do that?” Rose asked, her voice rising a few decibels in surprise.
“It’s a trait of her species,” the Doctor offered, still fiddling with the tracking device and the filament from the light bulb. “The children are always held, all of the time. From the day they’re born, they’re put down only when necessary… for nappy changes, baths, that sort of thing.” He looked up from his task. “She’s probably being extra clingy at the moment because of the trauma. Not only is she nowhere near her mother, but she was actually put down and left alone. I’m thinking that the two of you probably look enough like her mother and grandmother that she’s comfortable going between the two of you.” He paused, squinting down at the device in his hand. “Rose, could you come here a minute?”
Jackie gave the little girl a smile and the child beamed back at her, patting Jackie’s cheeks happily.
“MayMay?” the little girl said curiously, tilting her head and poking Jackie in the nose.
“What’s that mean then, sweetheart?” Jackie asked softly. She looked over at Rose, who was kneeling next to the Doctor, her tongue pinched at the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on holding a bit of wire in place while the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to fuse it to the tracking device. “Doctor, what does she mean by ‘MayMay’?”
The Doctor chuckled lightly. “Sort of how you lot say ‘Nana’ when referring to grandmothers,” he supplied. “Funny thing about her species, though. If their parents cannot care for them, they try to locate a… well, a surrogate parent is located, The child generally will adapt almost immediately. So she’s basically accepting you as her Gran.”
“Oh,” Jackie said, cuddling the little girl close. “No, sweetheart, I’m not your MayMay. But Rose and the Doctor will try and find her, and your mum, so they won’t worry over you…” She paused, looking at the Doctor over the little girl’s head. “They are worrying over her, aren’t they Doctor? I mean, they’re alien and all, do they worry about their little ones?”
“Ordinarily I would say yes” he replied. “but as we found her in a place that is infamous for parents dumping their unwanted children, there’s no way of knowing until we find her family. And if her parents don’t want her…”
“Who wouldn’t want her?” Jackie asked in disbelief. “She’s a little sweetheart from what I can tell…”
“You’d be surprised,” the Doctor muttered, turning off the sonic screwdriver.
Rose looked at the Doctor. “We need to get her some nappies. She’s in need of a change.”
“I may have some left from when Ariana popped in last weekend for a visit,” Jackie said. She started to walk out of the living room but the little girl began to whimper and squirm, reaching out toward Rose. “You want to go back to Rose, little one?”
“Roe?” the little girl asked. “Roe-manna?”
“Go ahead,” the Doctor said softly, and it took Jackie a moment to realise that he was speaking to Rose. He gave her a soft smile and she grinned at him before getting to her feet and coming over to retrieve the little girl. The Doctor was piecing the device back together, but Jackie didn’t miss the fleeting glance he gave Rose or the faint smile that touched his lips at the sight of her holding the child.
“I’ll be right back,” Jackie said, slipping out to Rose’s old bedroom. There on the bedside table was a small stack of nappies that Jackie guessed would fit the little girl perfectly. She returned to the living room and paused in the doorway, unwilling to interrupt the scene that greeted her.
Rose was sitting on the sofa with the toddler in her lap, tucking her hair behind her ear as she smiled at the Doctor. The Doctor was on his knees in front of them. “May I have your hand, please?” he asked with a gentleness Jackie had never heard from him before. Perhaps he used that soft voice when he was speaking to Rose and that was why she was so wrapped up in him, even if she wouldn’t admit it.
The toddler stuck her tongue out at the Doctor and then looked over her shoulder at Rose. “Roe-manna?”
The Doctor grinned broadly, although Jackie noticed a wistful look cross his face, just for a moment, at the child’s words.
“Let the Doctor see your finger, sweetie so we can take you back to your MayMay… And what’s that look for, Doctor?” Rose asked, grinning back at him so that her nose crinkled and her tongue poked out.
“It’s just… well… what she’s calling you,” the Doctor replied. “I used to have a friend… a long time ago… named Romana.” Rose’s eyes widened at his admission and Jackie wondered if she was witnessing a big step in the “friendship” that was developing between the pair.
The toddler tilted her head slightly, her blue eyes impossibly wide and innocent. “DocDoc?” she asked.
“It’s alright,” Rose assured, patting the little girl’s head. “DocDoc and Roe-manna want to help you get to MayMay.” Rose bounced the girl gently on her knees, making the child giggle happily.
Jackie felt her heart skip a beat when both Rose and the Doctor gave small laughs. But then Rose’s expression turned serious. “What are we going to do if her parents don’t want her? We can’t just… give her back to them and they leave her again…”
“Of course we can’t,” the Doctor replied, his tone mildly amused. “Because Rose Tyler wants to rescue all the strays that come on board the TARDIS.” His tone turned serious. “Besides, the surrogate thing… it only works once. Typically with her species, the surrogate that picks her up only does it because they want her. And who picked her up?”
“Oh,” Rose said with a small voice, “I did.”
“Exactly. If we don’t find her mother, or if her mother abandons her again and you’re not there to get her…” His voice trailed off and Rose’s eyes widened.
“That’s horrible!” Rose hissed. Jackie didn’t miss the worried expression that crossed her daughter’s face. “But what about… well… travelling?”
The Doctor shrugged, not meeting Rose’s eyes. “I don’t know,” he said, trying and failing to sound nonchalant. “I think it would be nice to have a little one running about the TARDIS. And for reason she loves your mother so it wouldn’t be much trouble to bring her here for visits once she’s adjusted to having a new family.”
Jackie felt her heart skip a beat. She let herself imagine, for just a moment, that she really was going to be the little girl’s Gran. It would be nice to hear little feet scurrying through the flat again, even if only during rare weekend visits or when the Doctor and Rose thought an adventure might be just a bit too dangerous for a little one… or if they wanted her to baby-sit so they could have a romantic getaway together…
She shook her head sharply to get the mental image of her daughter and the Doctor doing anything remotely romantic out of her mind. Although, standing there, watching them tend to the child, she couldn’t stop thinking about how perfect the scene was. Sighing wistfully, Jackie wondered when… or if… she would ever get to hear the patter of her grandchildren’s feet on the floor. Part of her hoped the Doctor failed to find the parents, or that if he did find them she hoped that they didn’t want the little girl back. At the same time, though, she also hoped that he would be able to safely deliver the child back to her parents. Because, even though there might not be anything between her daughter and the alien in the leather jacket at the moment, she doubted it would remain that way for very long once they had to act as mum and dad to the little girl.
“MayMay?” the little girl said happily. “PaiPai play w’ MayMay?”
The Doctor carefully coaxed the tiny hand into his. “PaiPai? Is that your name, little one?”
The little girl used her free hand to point to her chest. “PaiPai,” she said. Then she pointed at the Doctor. “DocDoc.” She pointed at Rose. “Roe-manna.” Jackie was taken by surprise when the little girl pointed at her with her free hand. “MayMay.” Her tiny little face scrunched up when the Doctor pricked her finger during her momentary distraction. Her big blue eyes filled with tears and her little bottom lip quivered as the Doctor quickly used the little device to get a blood sample.
The Doctor made a soft “shh” sound as Rose stroked PaiPai’s arms soothingly. “You’re okay, I promise,” the Doctor said quietly, wiping her finger clean and then giving it a quick kiss. “All done, see?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little white bag, opening it and holding it out to the little girl.
PaiPai’s eyes widened as she peered inside the bag. She reached in and pulled out a jelly baby, popping it into her mouth happily. Apparently, jelly babies could cute a variety of ills and now all was well in the world again. The Doctor stood up and PaiPai held her little hand out, lips pursed as she sucked on the jellied treat she had procured from the Doctor.
The Doctor grinned and looked down at Rose as he placed another piece of candy in the little girl’s hand. Jackie watched as their eyes met. Something seemed to pass between the two that she couldn’t quite put a name to, before Rose blushed and looked down. Jackie cleared her throat and three sets of eyes went to her. “I think this should fit her if you want to get her nappy changed,” Jackie said, holding up the nappies she had retrieved from the other room.
“I’ll take this out to the TARDIS and see if we can find her mother,” the Doctor said, clutching the tracking device tightly and casting a nervous glance at Jackie and Rose as if afraid they would expect him to help change the child’s nappy.
The Doctor headed out of the flat quickly and Jackie and Rose set to work getting the little girl cleaned up and changed into a dry nappy. Jackie’s eyes widened in surprise when they discovered the little girl wore something vaguely cloth-like, although neither Jackie nor Rose had ever even seen a cloth nappy like it. Jackie looked confused but Rose just shrugged, explaining it with two succinct words: It’s alien.
As soon as the little girl’s bottom was clean and dry, she attached herself to Rose, clinging to her neck again and refusing to let go. The three returned to the living room just in time to hear the sound of the TARDIS and to watch it slowly materialize in the middle of the flat.
The blue box fell silent and the door made a creaking noise as it was flung open. Instead of the Doctor emerging, however, a tall blonde woman darted out and looked about wildly. Her eyes fell on PaiPai and she gave a soft cry before exclaiming, “My little Petals!!”
“Manna!” PaiPai squealed and wriggled frantically until Rose lowered her to the ground. She scampered across the living room floor, her little hands high in the air, reaching out eagerly for the woman. Behind the woman, the Doctor poked his head out and then stood, leaning in the doorway of the TARDIS and grinning happily.
The woman scooped the little girl into her arms and held her tightly, raining kisses all over her face. “I thought I would never ever see you again… I’m never putting you down again… I was so worried…” She clung to child desperately as she continued. “I told your Papa you were not ready to walk about alone.” As she spoke, the mother was carefully slipping the child into a sling that was looped about her shoulders. When she stood back up, PaiPai was held securely at her mother’s hip. PaiPai cuddled up against her mother’s body and closed her eyes, sighing contentedly as her cheek rested against the side of her mother’s breast.
The woman smiled down at PaiPai and then looked at the Doctor. “Thank you so very much,” she said. “Her Papa and I were so worried about her.” Her eyes fell on Jackie and she seemed startled for a moment. “Manna?” she exclaimed, her eyes widening before she shook her head to clear it. “No, of course not. But… you look just like my… How could you possibly…”
PaiPai pointed at Jackie. “MayMay?”
PaiPai’s mother stared at Jackie for a long moment before she spoke. “Thank you for taking care of my little Petals,” she said softly. “It was the first time her father and I let her walk in public. She must have seen something pretty and wandered off…And her MayMay just recently… passed. And she was so used to Manna getting her out of trouble at home when she would walk around…”
Jackie’s heart went out to the young woman who had just lost her mother. A mother who apparently had looked just like her. “I had to keep a lead on my Rose when she was that age. What without Pete around to help,” she said, and then glared at the Doctor sharply. “And no getting any ideas, you.”
The Doctor shook his head to clear it and pulled his gaze away from Rose. “Ideas about what?”
PaiPai’s mother looked confused. “What is a lead?”
Rose giggled softly. “We can pop over to Tesco’s and get you one before taking you two back home.”
“What’s… ‘Tesco’s’?” the woman asked, still confused, as Rose gently shooed her back into the TARDIS.
“Rose?” Jackie called. Her daughter turned in the doorway of the TARDIS and smiled back at her mother. “Is this what you two go about doing, then? Helping people find things they’ve lost?”
“Sort of, yeah,” Rose replied, beaming. “Sometimes it’s helping them get their freedom, sometimes we help little lost girls find their mum.”
“Rose, we have to get going,” the Doctor called from somewhere inside his ship.
Jackie walked over and hugged her daughter tightly. “Take of him then, will ya? I want you both back in one piece, yeah?” Rose just smiled and went into the TARDIS, shutting the blue doors. Jackie watched as the machine faded from sight, a breeze fluttering through the little flat and then dying away. Sighing heavily, she headed into the kitchen. She hoped they both looked out for each other, and then realised that was the one thing she really didn’t have to worry about.
However, she also hoped the next blonde-haired, blue-eyed, little girl that came out of the TARDIS on Rose’s hip would be her granddaughter. Even if that did mean she would have a blue-eyed, sarcastic, leather-jacketed alien for a son-in-law.
Author: Rambling Rose / irishlullaby
Beta Babe: crimedoc1
Rated: All Ages
Characters: hints of Nine/Rose, Jackie
Summary: A response to the September Picture Prompt Table. #8. Rose and the Doctor bring home an unexpected tag-a-long
Lost and Found
The door to the flat squeaked open and Jackie heard her daughter’s voice. “Oh, honestly. A huge planet full of shops but they haven’t any nappies?”
Jackie Tyler blinked in surprise as Rose walked in toting a toddler of about three on her hip. The little girl had blonde pigtails and was dressed in all pink. She looked very much like Rose at that age except that she had big… blue… “Oi!” Jackie barked at the leather clad man who walked in behind her daughter. “What? Are you two going to be telling me I’m a grandmother?”
The two stopped, blinked, and returned Jackie’s perplexed look. Rose was the first to break the silence. “What?” she asked, obviously confused. Then it seemed to dawn on her how it must look to her mum… “Oh! No! No! It’s not what it looks like Mum. We were at a planetary shopping centre and… well… she was lost. She couldn’t find her mum and dad, we couldn’t find her mum and dad, the security people couldn’t find her mum and dad. They said it looked like she had just been left… by accident or maybe even on purpose, they didn’t know which.”
“And she just sort of clung to Rose, wouldn’t let go of her, so the security guards started to think maybe we were having them on and just trying to ditch our kid. So here we are,” the Doctor added. “Do you mind if I borrow a light bulb?”
Jackie huffed indignantly as he brushed past her and went into the kitchen to search for a light bulb before she had even opened her mouth, much less given him permission to rummage around. “Look at you in there, acting like you own the place,” Jackie griped. “I don’t even know if I have an extra light bulb. What d’you need one for, anyway?”
“He needs one to fix this tracking device thing he has but the TARDIS was fresh out since… well… she doesn’t really need light bulbs,” Rose explained. “He’s going to see if he can cross… cross… do an interplanetary DNA match or something to find her parents, since we were just a few galaxies over.”
“She’s alien?” Jackie’s jaw dropped with disbelief when Rose nodded. “But she looks human.”
“Yeah, well, so does the Doctor, but…” Rose attempted to put the little girl down but the child wrapped her arms around Rose’s neck and whimpered. Rose gave a semi-patient sigh and straightened back up to her full height; Jackie’s sharp eyes noted how Rose gave in to the little girl without any real show of reluctance. “But yeah, she’s an alien. Cute though, isn’t she?”
“But how can she be an alien?” Jackie asked. The Doctor breezed back into the room, light bulb in hand, she turned to confront him instead. “How can she be alien when she looks so human? I mean, I can understand it with you, but… just how many species out there look like us, anyway?”
“Quite a few,” the Doctor replied, sitting down on the floor by the little coffee table. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and a handheld device with several large buttons and a small display screen. Jackie watched, hands on her hips, as he disassembled the little device and then pointed the sonic screwdriver at the light bulb. The glass bulb cracked and suddenly all that was left on her table was a pile of glass fragments and the base of the bulb with the wire filament jutting out of it.
“Oi! You owe me one of those,” she said indignantly. She turned toward Rose. “Does he always go about breaking things he’s just ‘borrowing’ or is it just something he reserves for me?” She addressed the Doctor again. “Light bulbs don’t just grow on trees, you know! They’re expensive!”
Jackie glared at the Doctor, who gave a small snort of amusement, and at Rose, who gave an exasperated sigh. Then she realized the sigh was because the toddler’s weight was becoming difficult for her daughter to support. With a slight smile, Jackie walked over to Rose and held out her hands. “Here, let’s have her then,” she said softly.
Rose opened her mouth to say something but the words died on her lips when the child reached out towards Jackie. “How did you do that?” Rose asked, her voice rising a few decibels in surprise.
“It’s a trait of her species,” the Doctor offered, still fiddling with the tracking device and the filament from the light bulb. “The children are always held, all of the time. From the day they’re born, they’re put down only when necessary… for nappy changes, baths, that sort of thing.” He looked up from his task. “She’s probably being extra clingy at the moment because of the trauma. Not only is she nowhere near her mother, but she was actually put down and left alone. I’m thinking that the two of you probably look enough like her mother and grandmother that she’s comfortable going between the two of you.” He paused, squinting down at the device in his hand. “Rose, could you come here a minute?”
Jackie gave the little girl a smile and the child beamed back at her, patting Jackie’s cheeks happily.
“MayMay?” the little girl said curiously, tilting her head and poking Jackie in the nose.
“What’s that mean then, sweetheart?” Jackie asked softly. She looked over at Rose, who was kneeling next to the Doctor, her tongue pinched at the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on holding a bit of wire in place while the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to fuse it to the tracking device. “Doctor, what does she mean by ‘MayMay’?”
The Doctor chuckled lightly. “Sort of how you lot say ‘Nana’ when referring to grandmothers,” he supplied. “Funny thing about her species, though. If their parents cannot care for them, they try to locate a… well, a surrogate parent is located, The child generally will adapt almost immediately. So she’s basically accepting you as her Gran.”
“Oh,” Jackie said, cuddling the little girl close. “No, sweetheart, I’m not your MayMay. But Rose and the Doctor will try and find her, and your mum, so they won’t worry over you…” She paused, looking at the Doctor over the little girl’s head. “They are worrying over her, aren’t they Doctor? I mean, they’re alien and all, do they worry about their little ones?”
“Ordinarily I would say yes” he replied. “but as we found her in a place that is infamous for parents dumping their unwanted children, there’s no way of knowing until we find her family. And if her parents don’t want her…”
“Who wouldn’t want her?” Jackie asked in disbelief. “She’s a little sweetheart from what I can tell…”
“You’d be surprised,” the Doctor muttered, turning off the sonic screwdriver.
Rose looked at the Doctor. “We need to get her some nappies. She’s in need of a change.”
“I may have some left from when Ariana popped in last weekend for a visit,” Jackie said. She started to walk out of the living room but the little girl began to whimper and squirm, reaching out toward Rose. “You want to go back to Rose, little one?”
“Roe?” the little girl asked. “Roe-manna?”
“Go ahead,” the Doctor said softly, and it took Jackie a moment to realise that he was speaking to Rose. He gave her a soft smile and she grinned at him before getting to her feet and coming over to retrieve the little girl. The Doctor was piecing the device back together, but Jackie didn’t miss the fleeting glance he gave Rose or the faint smile that touched his lips at the sight of her holding the child.
“I’ll be right back,” Jackie said, slipping out to Rose’s old bedroom. There on the bedside table was a small stack of nappies that Jackie guessed would fit the little girl perfectly. She returned to the living room and paused in the doorway, unwilling to interrupt the scene that greeted her.
Rose was sitting on the sofa with the toddler in her lap, tucking her hair behind her ear as she smiled at the Doctor. The Doctor was on his knees in front of them. “May I have your hand, please?” he asked with a gentleness Jackie had never heard from him before. Perhaps he used that soft voice when he was speaking to Rose and that was why she was so wrapped up in him, even if she wouldn’t admit it.
The toddler stuck her tongue out at the Doctor and then looked over her shoulder at Rose. “Roe-manna?”
The Doctor grinned broadly, although Jackie noticed a wistful look cross his face, just for a moment, at the child’s words.
“Let the Doctor see your finger, sweetie so we can take you back to your MayMay… And what’s that look for, Doctor?” Rose asked, grinning back at him so that her nose crinkled and her tongue poked out.
“It’s just… well… what she’s calling you,” the Doctor replied. “I used to have a friend… a long time ago… named Romana.” Rose’s eyes widened at his admission and Jackie wondered if she was witnessing a big step in the “friendship” that was developing between the pair.
The toddler tilted her head slightly, her blue eyes impossibly wide and innocent. “DocDoc?” she asked.
“It’s alright,” Rose assured, patting the little girl’s head. “DocDoc and Roe-manna want to help you get to MayMay.” Rose bounced the girl gently on her knees, making the child giggle happily.
Jackie felt her heart skip a beat when both Rose and the Doctor gave small laughs. But then Rose’s expression turned serious. “What are we going to do if her parents don’t want her? We can’t just… give her back to them and they leave her again…”
“Of course we can’t,” the Doctor replied, his tone mildly amused. “Because Rose Tyler wants to rescue all the strays that come on board the TARDIS.” His tone turned serious. “Besides, the surrogate thing… it only works once. Typically with her species, the surrogate that picks her up only does it because they want her. And who picked her up?”
“Oh,” Rose said with a small voice, “I did.”
“Exactly. If we don’t find her mother, or if her mother abandons her again and you’re not there to get her…” His voice trailed off and Rose’s eyes widened.
“That’s horrible!” Rose hissed. Jackie didn’t miss the worried expression that crossed her daughter’s face. “But what about… well… travelling?”
The Doctor shrugged, not meeting Rose’s eyes. “I don’t know,” he said, trying and failing to sound nonchalant. “I think it would be nice to have a little one running about the TARDIS. And for reason she loves your mother so it wouldn’t be much trouble to bring her here for visits once she’s adjusted to having a new family.”
Jackie felt her heart skip a beat. She let herself imagine, for just a moment, that she really was going to be the little girl’s Gran. It would be nice to hear little feet scurrying through the flat again, even if only during rare weekend visits or when the Doctor and Rose thought an adventure might be just a bit too dangerous for a little one… or if they wanted her to baby-sit so they could have a romantic getaway together…
She shook her head sharply to get the mental image of her daughter and the Doctor doing anything remotely romantic out of her mind. Although, standing there, watching them tend to the child, she couldn’t stop thinking about how perfect the scene was. Sighing wistfully, Jackie wondered when… or if… she would ever get to hear the patter of her grandchildren’s feet on the floor. Part of her hoped the Doctor failed to find the parents, or that if he did find them she hoped that they didn’t want the little girl back. At the same time, though, she also hoped that he would be able to safely deliver the child back to her parents. Because, even though there might not be anything between her daughter and the alien in the leather jacket at the moment, she doubted it would remain that way for very long once they had to act as mum and dad to the little girl.
“MayMay?” the little girl said happily. “PaiPai play w’ MayMay?”
The Doctor carefully coaxed the tiny hand into his. “PaiPai? Is that your name, little one?”
The little girl used her free hand to point to her chest. “PaiPai,” she said. Then she pointed at the Doctor. “DocDoc.” She pointed at Rose. “Roe-manna.” Jackie was taken by surprise when the little girl pointed at her with her free hand. “MayMay.” Her tiny little face scrunched up when the Doctor pricked her finger during her momentary distraction. Her big blue eyes filled with tears and her little bottom lip quivered as the Doctor quickly used the little device to get a blood sample.
The Doctor made a soft “shh” sound as Rose stroked PaiPai’s arms soothingly. “You’re okay, I promise,” the Doctor said quietly, wiping her finger clean and then giving it a quick kiss. “All done, see?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little white bag, opening it and holding it out to the little girl.
PaiPai’s eyes widened as she peered inside the bag. She reached in and pulled out a jelly baby, popping it into her mouth happily. Apparently, jelly babies could cute a variety of ills and now all was well in the world again. The Doctor stood up and PaiPai held her little hand out, lips pursed as she sucked on the jellied treat she had procured from the Doctor.
The Doctor grinned and looked down at Rose as he placed another piece of candy in the little girl’s hand. Jackie watched as their eyes met. Something seemed to pass between the two that she couldn’t quite put a name to, before Rose blushed and looked down. Jackie cleared her throat and three sets of eyes went to her. “I think this should fit her if you want to get her nappy changed,” Jackie said, holding up the nappies she had retrieved from the other room.
“I’ll take this out to the TARDIS and see if we can find her mother,” the Doctor said, clutching the tracking device tightly and casting a nervous glance at Jackie and Rose as if afraid they would expect him to help change the child’s nappy.
The Doctor headed out of the flat quickly and Jackie and Rose set to work getting the little girl cleaned up and changed into a dry nappy. Jackie’s eyes widened in surprise when they discovered the little girl wore something vaguely cloth-like, although neither Jackie nor Rose had ever even seen a cloth nappy like it. Jackie looked confused but Rose just shrugged, explaining it with two succinct words: It’s alien.
As soon as the little girl’s bottom was clean and dry, she attached herself to Rose, clinging to her neck again and refusing to let go. The three returned to the living room just in time to hear the sound of the TARDIS and to watch it slowly materialize in the middle of the flat.
The blue box fell silent and the door made a creaking noise as it was flung open. Instead of the Doctor emerging, however, a tall blonde woman darted out and looked about wildly. Her eyes fell on PaiPai and she gave a soft cry before exclaiming, “My little Petals!!”
“Manna!” PaiPai squealed and wriggled frantically until Rose lowered her to the ground. She scampered across the living room floor, her little hands high in the air, reaching out eagerly for the woman. Behind the woman, the Doctor poked his head out and then stood, leaning in the doorway of the TARDIS and grinning happily.
The woman scooped the little girl into her arms and held her tightly, raining kisses all over her face. “I thought I would never ever see you again… I’m never putting you down again… I was so worried…” She clung to child desperately as she continued. “I told your Papa you were not ready to walk about alone.” As she spoke, the mother was carefully slipping the child into a sling that was looped about her shoulders. When she stood back up, PaiPai was held securely at her mother’s hip. PaiPai cuddled up against her mother’s body and closed her eyes, sighing contentedly as her cheek rested against the side of her mother’s breast.
The woman smiled down at PaiPai and then looked at the Doctor. “Thank you so very much,” she said. “Her Papa and I were so worried about her.” Her eyes fell on Jackie and she seemed startled for a moment. “Manna?” she exclaimed, her eyes widening before she shook her head to clear it. “No, of course not. But… you look just like my… How could you possibly…”
PaiPai pointed at Jackie. “MayMay?”
PaiPai’s mother stared at Jackie for a long moment before she spoke. “Thank you for taking care of my little Petals,” she said softly. “It was the first time her father and I let her walk in public. She must have seen something pretty and wandered off…And her MayMay just recently… passed. And she was so used to Manna getting her out of trouble at home when she would walk around…”
Jackie’s heart went out to the young woman who had just lost her mother. A mother who apparently had looked just like her. “I had to keep a lead on my Rose when she was that age. What without Pete around to help,” she said, and then glared at the Doctor sharply. “And no getting any ideas, you.”
The Doctor shook his head to clear it and pulled his gaze away from Rose. “Ideas about what?”
PaiPai’s mother looked confused. “What is a lead?”
Rose giggled softly. “We can pop over to Tesco’s and get you one before taking you two back home.”
“What’s… ‘Tesco’s’?” the woman asked, still confused, as Rose gently shooed her back into the TARDIS.
“Rose?” Jackie called. Her daughter turned in the doorway of the TARDIS and smiled back at her mother. “Is this what you two go about doing, then? Helping people find things they’ve lost?”
“Sort of, yeah,” Rose replied, beaming. “Sometimes it’s helping them get their freedom, sometimes we help little lost girls find their mum.”
“Rose, we have to get going,” the Doctor called from somewhere inside his ship.
Jackie walked over and hugged her daughter tightly. “Take of him then, will ya? I want you both back in one piece, yeah?” Rose just smiled and went into the TARDIS, shutting the blue doors. Jackie watched as the machine faded from sight, a breeze fluttering through the little flat and then dying away. Sighing heavily, she headed into the kitchen. She hoped they both looked out for each other, and then realised that was the one thing she really didn’t have to worry about.
However, she also hoped the next blonde-haired, blue-eyed, little girl that came out of the TARDIS on Rose’s hip would be her granddaughter. Even if that did mean she would have a blue-eyed, sarcastic, leather-jacketed alien for a son-in-law.