Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (24/27)
Title - Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (24/27)
Author --
earlgreytea68
Rating - Teen
Characters -- Ten, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, Pete, OCs
Spoilers: Through the end of S2.
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)
Summary - And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby. Hijinks ensue from there.
Author’s Notes - In which many reunions take place, and a long-overdue first meeting.
The icon was created by
punkinart , commissioned by
aibhinn , who graciously offered it to me for my use.
Thanks to
jlrpuck for being a brilliant beta and for distracting me always with wonderful fic of her own. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and
bouncy_castle79 , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.
Ch.1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9 - Ch. 10 - Ch. 11 - Ch. 12 - Ch. 13 - Ch. 14 - Ch. 15 - Ch. 16 - Ch. 17 - Ch. 18 - Ch. 19 - Ch. 20 - Ch. 21 - Ch. 22 - Ch. 23
Chapter Twenty-Four
The TARDIS crash-landed, and the Doctor had been attempting to brace for it, but was terribly unsuccessful. He was thrown hard to the ground and hit his head soundly enough to daze him, leaving him squinting up at the ceiling for a moment of breathlessness before he sat up to take stock, rubbing absently at what he was sure would be a first-class bump in a bit. The main power was out, but emergency lighting was on, which meant the TARDIS had enough left in her to get them out of this universe, which was all he needed. The Doctor was so relieved he could have wept. He pulled himself to standing, opened the TARDIS door and walked out.
Bad Wolf Bay. It had to be. He’d recognize the place anywhere. He pulled his coat tighter around him. It was bloody freezing. But he’d be damned if he’d be anywhere but outside when Rose showed up. He hoped to avoid moving the TARDIS again. The power left was precious, and he wanted to preserve it. If Rose had been punching holes for him, she had to know he would come for her. She had to be looking for him.
He closed the TARDIS door behind him and sank to the sand. Five and a half hours, he thought. He’d give her five and a half hours, before constructing another plan.
It turned out that she showed up long before the five-and-a-half-hour deadline had expired. At first, when the car came over the horizon, he thought he was imagining the shape. When it stayed concrete, growing more and more distinct, he rose slowly. He tried to make himself move, when Rose-the unmistakable figure of Rose-stepped out of the car and looked in his direction. But he was scared that if he moved he’d find it was a dream, that he wasn’t here after all. So he stood and watched as Rose dashed across the beach to him, and he didn’t move until she got to him, and then only to lift up his arms to catch her as she tossed herself headlong into him.
She was laughing against his neck, and he could feel her breath, the brush of her lips, and he closed his eyes and kept himself standing and not collapsed into an overemotional heap through sheer force of will. “Oh, Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose,” he said, brushing kisses over her hair.
She pulled herself away from him finally, grinned at him, and he studied her face for the first time. She looked the way he’d remembered, only a hundred times more beautiful. She felt the same in his arms, only a hundred times better. He drank her in, and then grinned crookedly to match hers.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” she said back, and then leaned forward and kissed him. At first, it was almost tentative, as if worried he would disappear beneath her lips. And then it was suddenly desperate, a breathless war of tongues as they reacclimated to each other.
He pulled back finally, gasping. “I was so worried I’d forgotten what you taste like.”
“Had you?” she asked.
“Well. There’s the merest suggestion of vuyt in the background. It’s a spice kind of like your black pepper. I’d forgotten that. But other than that, I think I was pretty close. You realize that I’m going to have to kiss you once-or twice-a minute, though, just to make sure.” He punctuated the remark with kisses to demonstrate.
“That’s fine,” she agreed, kissing him back. She had no idea what he was talking about with vuyt, and she didn’t care. She wanted him to go on babbling forever. She rested her forehead against his. “Say my name again.”
“Rose,” he said, and she smiled, and lifted her head after a moment.
“Where are the kids? Are they inside? I want to see them.”
“They’re home,” he said. “It’s kind of a long story, but I had to leave them. And we kind of have to go. We don’t have much time, we need to get back as quickly as possible.”
Rose nodded in understanding. “Okay,” she said, slowly, and adjusted his tie needlessly. “There’s something I have to-”
He wasn’t really paying attention, was squinting past her to the little coterie of people she’d brought with her. “Is that your mum? With the baby?” He turned his gaze back to her, eyes crinkled with his smile. “So what do you have? Baby brother or sister?”
Rose tried to smile in return. “Yeah, about that…”
The Doctor’s smile faded. “There’s nothing wrong with the baby, is there? Oh, no. It looks like your mother, doesn’t it? Poor thing.” He tsk’d dramatically.
Rose laughed despite herself. God, had she missed him. “No,” she said. “She looks just like me, actually. Except she has your smile, I just realized today.” The Doctor stared at her, looking uncomprehending. “Because she’s ours,” she finished, gently.
The Doctor blinked. “You…We…” He moved away from her suddenly, walking toward The Baby. She didn’t get the impression he was angry, just that he was dazed. She followed after him, watched as he drew to a halt over the baby in Jackie’s arms and stared down at her, hands in his pockets. Rose heard The Baby mewl excitedly at the sight of him, beating her mittened hands in the air.
“I never thought I’d be so happy to see you,” Jackie said to the Doctor, but the Doctor didn’t hear her.
He was staring down at the tiny baby in Jackie’s arms. This baby who looked just like Rose. “She is mine, right?” he asked, after a moment.
Rose shoved at him lightly. “You git. I spent a whole year desperate for you to come back for me, and it took you less than five minutes to make me want to go and hit you.”
“It’s just that she looks just like you.”
“That’s allowed, you know. Children can take after either parent.”
The Doctor stared at the baby then and realized abruptly that she was what he was feeling. That tiny nibble of Time Lord presence at the back of his mind, that he’d automatically dismissed as Brem and Athena. How could Brem and Athena reach him, across the Void? They couldn’t. This tentative Time Lord presence in his mind belonged to the little baby staring up at him. He grinned at her.
“Would you like to hold her?” Jackie asked.
“Oh, I’d love it,” he said, reaching for her. He took the baby and nuzzled her and sent her soothing thoughts. Her consciousness was a flailing mess, and his heart ached for how terrifying it must have been to feel so cold and empty and alone, without knowing how to begin to fix it. “Oh, little girl,” he breathed against her cold cheek. “I’m sorry. It will all be fine now, I promise.” He drew back from her, looked at Rose, who smiled at him. He was wearing that same look of astonished reverence he so often wore when he looked at their children, and she was realizing that she had forgotten the impact of that expression on his face. “What did you name her?” he asked.
“I…I couldn’t name her. Nothing seemed right. We’ve been sort of…waiting for you.”
The Doctor smiled. “Oh, Rose, her name is obvious. Her name is Fortuna.”
It seemed obvious to Rose at that moment as well. Fortuna Tyler. It was perfect. Fortuna herself seemed to love it, squirming with delight in her father’s arms.
“I’m so sorry I took so long,” he said to both of them. “But I would never have gotten through at all if it weren’t for you.” He beamed at Rose.
“What do you mean?” she asked, smiling though bewildered.
“I couldn’t get through on my side. The walls were too thick. It had to come from your side. Your punching holes. It was brilliant.”
“Oh,” said Rose. “I can’t take credit for that. That was Mickey and my mum.”
The Doctor, amazed, turned to them.
“It was Jackie’s idea really,” said Mickey.
The Doctor looked at Jackie, who was blushing with pleasure. “I jus’ thought…Well, Rose would’ve figured it out sooner or later but she was so broken up with missing you that-”
“Well, that settles it, then. She will be called Fortune Jacqueline.” He announced it with a great flourish. Rose watched her mother go even pinker. “Now. I am sorry to call this short, but we really have to get back, Rose. We haven’t much time.”
“I am sorry to hear you say you’re leaving again so soon,” said Pete. “Will you be able to come back to visit ever?”
“Not easily, no. In fact, I don’t relish coming back here for a good, long while. It was…difficult to get here.”
“I’ll miss you,” Pete told Rose, kissing her cheek. “And I’ll miss little Fortuna here.” He kissed the baby’s chubby cheek, and then looked earnestly at Rose. “Just be happy.”
“I will be,” Rose promised him.
“Mick-Mick-Mickey,” said the Doctor, bumping fists with him. “Thanks for looking after her for me.”
“It’s your turn now,” Mickey told him, seriously.
“I know,” the Doctor acknowledged.
Rose flung her arms around Mickey’s neck. “Thank you so much. For everything. You can’t imagine how…We can never thank you enough.”
He returned the hug. “It was nothing, Rose. Have a safe trip home.”
Rose drew back, nodding, then turned to her mother. “Mum,” she said, her voice choked.
And then Jackie said, abruptly, “I’m coming with you.”
Rose blinked. “What?”
“I have to. Pete,” she said. “You’ve been…I mean, we’ve been…Oh. She’s my daughter. And she has these children that just…I can’t let them grow up in that other universe and never see them. I can’t make that choice. I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize, until right this moment, that I really can’t do this.”
Pete stared at her, looking shocked.
Jackie turned briefly to Rose and the Doctor. “It doesn’t mean I’m going to wander around travelling with you lot. I just want to go back to my old life, to the way it was before. Can I do that?”
The Doctor nodded. “If you want that, I can take you home with us.”
“I want that.” Jackie turned to Pete, and her eyes were filled with tears now. “I’m sorry. But I want that.”
Pete nodded wordlessly, then leaned forward and kissed her before hugging her tightly. “Have a wonderful life, Jacks,” he said, against her hair. “You be happy, too.”
“Same to you.” Jackie pulled back, smiling at him through her tears. “Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”
“It was my pleasure,” he assured her, cupping her cheek. “All of it.”
She kissed the palm of his hand, then turned firmly back to Rose and the Doctor and the baby. “Alright,” she said. “I’m ready.”
“Let’s go,” he said with one last look at Pete and Mickey before he led the way back to the TARDIS.
Rose walked into the ship silently but her eyes were swamped with emotion when she met his gaze, as he handed Fortuna over to her. He smiled, kissed her eyelids quickly.
“Sit,” he directed. “Hold her tight. The ride’s going to be a bit of a mess, but I can’t help it.”
Rose nodded, clutching the baby to her. Fortuna continued to be in a good mood, gurgling happily at her mother. “Mum. Dad. TARDIS,” she said. How did she know these things?
“She’s talking,” remarked the Doctor, as he raced around the console, flipping at things.
“Just started today. How’s she already know the word ‘TARDIS?’”
It was such a relief to have him here, to ask him these questions. “It’s…complicated,” he said. “Hang on now.”
Not that he actually answered these questions, she thought, as the TARDIS jerked into motion. The ride was indeed the worst she’d ever experienced. The TARDIS sounded awful, like she was groaning, and the Doctor seemed to be forcing her to move. He kept pleading under his breath, “Come on, come on, come on, come on,” as he raced around the console. Rose looked over at her mother, who looked a bit green around the gills.
The TARDIS tipped, tilted, sickeningly, onto its side, and Rose realized that some sort of gravity stabilizer must have let go. She scrabbled at the nearest railing to keep from plummeting to the wall with Fortuna in her arms. The baby let out a brief, panicked sob. The Doctor had clawed his way back to the monitor, was peering at it. “Come on, Brem!” he shouted, knocking at the monitor. “Fix it!”
And then, abruptly, the TARDIS straightened herself out, stopped making that awful grinding noise. The flight was suddenly almost smooth. The Doctor closed his eyes in relief. “Oh, good lad,” he said, and slid to the floor in exhaustion.
Rose watched him. “What, exactly, do you have Brem doing?”
“You’ve been back all of ten minutes. Can we hold off on fighting for at least the first hour?”
Rose didn’t have time to counter that, because the TARDIS crash-landed hard, and she lost her grip on the railing. Luckily, she slid directly into the Doctor, who grunted as she collided with him but at least was a soft surface to cushion the blow. Fortuna wailed again, and Rose tried to shush her, as the TARDIS seemed to settle, whining about them.
“What’s that noise?” asked Jackie.
“Distress signal.”
“Why are we in distress?”
“We’re not,” he answered. “We’ve landed. Right where we should have, I think. She’s just not happy with me.” The Doctor had staggered to his feet, forced the whining to shut off as he adjusted the monitor view.
“Where are the kids?” asked Rose, standing herself.
He grinned, pleased, at the view of the Hub, then turned back to Rose. “Right outside that door.”
Her face lit up, like those Christmas trees she so loved, and she thrust Fortuna at him before throwing open the TARDIS door and rushing out. It was Athena who met her first, shouting “Mum!” as she threw herself into her arms, and Rose cradled her, breathing her in, stroking her hand through those tumbled Time Lord curls.
“I missed you so much,” Athena said, pulling back to look at her.
Rose smiled, cupping her cheek. “Oh, I promise I missed you even more.”
“I have so much to tell you,” Athena said. “First off, Daddy does not know how to braid. He said he knows how to pilot a TARDIS single-handedly, and that that should make up for it, but it really doesn’t, Mummy.”
Rose laughed. “Oh, I know, but boys are just hopeless, Theenie. Yes, Madrid, I see you.” Rose patted the puppy, who was bouncing around her, barking as he clamoured for her attention.
“Oh, we taught Madrid to play dead. And we taught him how to play fetch. Except he doesn’t understand he’s supposed to bring the stick back. Brem says that’s the essential part of fetch, but Dad says that Madrid’s just playing by his own rules.”
“Where’s your brother?” Rose asked, looking beyond her. Brem was standing a short distance away, in that green jumper of his. The jumper was filthy. He really, desperately needed a new one. But she was so glad at that moment that he was not wearing a different jumper.
“Just a second, Theenie. Say hello to Grandma,” Rose said, setting her gently aside and kneeling. “Hi, Brem,” she said, smiling at him.
He walked over to her, looked at her for a long moment with solemn brown eyes. “Mummy,” he said, finally, and his voice broke on the word, and he was on her suddenly, crying huge, wracking sobs while he tried to burrow into her.
She had the impression that he was crying all the tears he had never cried over her, and the thought made her gather him to her, rocking him in a way he hadn’t let her in so very long, much longer than the year they’d been separated in her timeline, lowering her face into him and sobbing with him. “Oh, Brem. I’m here. I am. Here.”
“Why are they crying now?” Athena asked her grandmother, wrinkling her nose.
Rose looked up at her, smiling, pulling her into the embrace as well. “Just because we’re so happy.”
She felt the Doctor sit next to her. He took stock of the sobbing Brem, then said, “Look, kids. Come meet your little sister.”
Athena was immediately fascinated. “She’s like a doll!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands in delight.
“Except even more precious,” the Doctor told her.
Brem had gathered himself, sniffling and wiping at his eyes as he lifted his head. “Oh, no,” he groaned. “Not another one.”
The Doctor grinned at him. “Didn’t Athena turn out well? Admit it.”
“We lucked out,” said Brem.
“Her name’s Fortuna, and if you come over here I’ll let you hold her.”
Brem considered a second, before scrambling over to sit beside his father. The Doctor transferred the baby carefully. “This is your big brother Brem. Who single-handedly figured out how to save you from the other universe, and who convinced me that it ought to be done. This is all you, Bremsstrahlung Jack Tyler. This is your miracle. Look at what you did.” The Doctor kissed the top of his head, pulling him against him.
“It wasn’t me,” Brem denied. “It was all of us. You and me and Theenie and Mum. All of us. Because we’re us. Remember?” He twisted to meet his father’s eyes. “We don’t work alone.”
“You’re right,” the Doctor smiled down at him. “We don’t.”
“So,” said Brem, looking back down at his baby sister. “Fortuna, huh? Roman goddess of fortune.”
“There’s a statue of your mother as Fortuna, you know. Quite the story behind that one.”
“Fortuna,” said Brem, trying out the name. “Welcome to the family.” He paused. “It’s totally crazy.”
Next Chapter
Author --
earlgreytea68
Rating - Teen
Characters -- Ten, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, Pete, OCs
Spoilers: Through the end of S2.
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)
Summary - And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby. Hijinks ensue from there.
Author’s Notes - In which many reunions take place, and a long-overdue first meeting.
The icon was created by
punkinart , commissioned by
aibhinn , who graciously offered it to me for my use.
Thanks to
jlrpuck for being a brilliant beta and for distracting me always with wonderful fic of her own. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and
bouncy_castle79 , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.
Ch.1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9 - Ch. 10 - Ch. 11 - Ch. 12 - Ch. 13 - Ch. 14 - Ch. 15 - Ch. 16 - Ch. 17 - Ch. 18 - Ch. 19 - Ch. 20 - Ch. 21 - Ch. 22 - Ch. 23
Chapter Twenty-Four
The TARDIS crash-landed, and the Doctor had been attempting to brace for it, but was terribly unsuccessful. He was thrown hard to the ground and hit his head soundly enough to daze him, leaving him squinting up at the ceiling for a moment of breathlessness before he sat up to take stock, rubbing absently at what he was sure would be a first-class bump in a bit. The main power was out, but emergency lighting was on, which meant the TARDIS had enough left in her to get them out of this universe, which was all he needed. The Doctor was so relieved he could have wept. He pulled himself to standing, opened the TARDIS door and walked out.
Bad Wolf Bay. It had to be. He’d recognize the place anywhere. He pulled his coat tighter around him. It was bloody freezing. But he’d be damned if he’d be anywhere but outside when Rose showed up. He hoped to avoid moving the TARDIS again. The power left was precious, and he wanted to preserve it. If Rose had been punching holes for him, she had to know he would come for her. She had to be looking for him.
He closed the TARDIS door behind him and sank to the sand. Five and a half hours, he thought. He’d give her five and a half hours, before constructing another plan.
It turned out that she showed up long before the five-and-a-half-hour deadline had expired. At first, when the car came over the horizon, he thought he was imagining the shape. When it stayed concrete, growing more and more distinct, he rose slowly. He tried to make himself move, when Rose-the unmistakable figure of Rose-stepped out of the car and looked in his direction. But he was scared that if he moved he’d find it was a dream, that he wasn’t here after all. So he stood and watched as Rose dashed across the beach to him, and he didn’t move until she got to him, and then only to lift up his arms to catch her as she tossed herself headlong into him.
She was laughing against his neck, and he could feel her breath, the brush of her lips, and he closed his eyes and kept himself standing and not collapsed into an overemotional heap through sheer force of will. “Oh, Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose,” he said, brushing kisses over her hair.
She pulled herself away from him finally, grinned at him, and he studied her face for the first time. She looked the way he’d remembered, only a hundred times more beautiful. She felt the same in his arms, only a hundred times better. He drank her in, and then grinned crookedly to match hers.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” she said back, and then leaned forward and kissed him. At first, it was almost tentative, as if worried he would disappear beneath her lips. And then it was suddenly desperate, a breathless war of tongues as they reacclimated to each other.
He pulled back finally, gasping. “I was so worried I’d forgotten what you taste like.”
“Had you?” she asked.
“Well. There’s the merest suggestion of vuyt in the background. It’s a spice kind of like your black pepper. I’d forgotten that. But other than that, I think I was pretty close. You realize that I’m going to have to kiss you once-or twice-a minute, though, just to make sure.” He punctuated the remark with kisses to demonstrate.
“That’s fine,” she agreed, kissing him back. She had no idea what he was talking about with vuyt, and she didn’t care. She wanted him to go on babbling forever. She rested her forehead against his. “Say my name again.”
“Rose,” he said, and she smiled, and lifted her head after a moment.
“Where are the kids? Are they inside? I want to see them.”
“They’re home,” he said. “It’s kind of a long story, but I had to leave them. And we kind of have to go. We don’t have much time, we need to get back as quickly as possible.”
Rose nodded in understanding. “Okay,” she said, slowly, and adjusted his tie needlessly. “There’s something I have to-”
He wasn’t really paying attention, was squinting past her to the little coterie of people she’d brought with her. “Is that your mum? With the baby?” He turned his gaze back to her, eyes crinkled with his smile. “So what do you have? Baby brother or sister?”
Rose tried to smile in return. “Yeah, about that…”
The Doctor’s smile faded. “There’s nothing wrong with the baby, is there? Oh, no. It looks like your mother, doesn’t it? Poor thing.” He tsk’d dramatically.
Rose laughed despite herself. God, had she missed him. “No,” she said. “She looks just like me, actually. Except she has your smile, I just realized today.” The Doctor stared at her, looking uncomprehending. “Because she’s ours,” she finished, gently.
The Doctor blinked. “You…We…” He moved away from her suddenly, walking toward The Baby. She didn’t get the impression he was angry, just that he was dazed. She followed after him, watched as he drew to a halt over the baby in Jackie’s arms and stared down at her, hands in his pockets. Rose heard The Baby mewl excitedly at the sight of him, beating her mittened hands in the air.
“I never thought I’d be so happy to see you,” Jackie said to the Doctor, but the Doctor didn’t hear her.
He was staring down at the tiny baby in Jackie’s arms. This baby who looked just like Rose. “She is mine, right?” he asked, after a moment.
Rose shoved at him lightly. “You git. I spent a whole year desperate for you to come back for me, and it took you less than five minutes to make me want to go and hit you.”
“It’s just that she looks just like you.”
“That’s allowed, you know. Children can take after either parent.”
The Doctor stared at the baby then and realized abruptly that she was what he was feeling. That tiny nibble of Time Lord presence at the back of his mind, that he’d automatically dismissed as Brem and Athena. How could Brem and Athena reach him, across the Void? They couldn’t. This tentative Time Lord presence in his mind belonged to the little baby staring up at him. He grinned at her.
“Would you like to hold her?” Jackie asked.
“Oh, I’d love it,” he said, reaching for her. He took the baby and nuzzled her and sent her soothing thoughts. Her consciousness was a flailing mess, and his heart ached for how terrifying it must have been to feel so cold and empty and alone, without knowing how to begin to fix it. “Oh, little girl,” he breathed against her cold cheek. “I’m sorry. It will all be fine now, I promise.” He drew back from her, looked at Rose, who smiled at him. He was wearing that same look of astonished reverence he so often wore when he looked at their children, and she was realizing that she had forgotten the impact of that expression on his face. “What did you name her?” he asked.
“I…I couldn’t name her. Nothing seemed right. We’ve been sort of…waiting for you.”
The Doctor smiled. “Oh, Rose, her name is obvious. Her name is Fortuna.”
It seemed obvious to Rose at that moment as well. Fortuna Tyler. It was perfect. Fortuna herself seemed to love it, squirming with delight in her father’s arms.
“I’m so sorry I took so long,” he said to both of them. “But I would never have gotten through at all if it weren’t for you.” He beamed at Rose.
“What do you mean?” she asked, smiling though bewildered.
“I couldn’t get through on my side. The walls were too thick. It had to come from your side. Your punching holes. It was brilliant.”
“Oh,” said Rose. “I can’t take credit for that. That was Mickey and my mum.”
The Doctor, amazed, turned to them.
“It was Jackie’s idea really,” said Mickey.
The Doctor looked at Jackie, who was blushing with pleasure. “I jus’ thought…Well, Rose would’ve figured it out sooner or later but she was so broken up with missing you that-”
“Well, that settles it, then. She will be called Fortune Jacqueline.” He announced it with a great flourish. Rose watched her mother go even pinker. “Now. I am sorry to call this short, but we really have to get back, Rose. We haven’t much time.”
“I am sorry to hear you say you’re leaving again so soon,” said Pete. “Will you be able to come back to visit ever?”
“Not easily, no. In fact, I don’t relish coming back here for a good, long while. It was…difficult to get here.”
“I’ll miss you,” Pete told Rose, kissing her cheek. “And I’ll miss little Fortuna here.” He kissed the baby’s chubby cheek, and then looked earnestly at Rose. “Just be happy.”
“I will be,” Rose promised him.
“Mick-Mick-Mickey,” said the Doctor, bumping fists with him. “Thanks for looking after her for me.”
“It’s your turn now,” Mickey told him, seriously.
“I know,” the Doctor acknowledged.
Rose flung her arms around Mickey’s neck. “Thank you so much. For everything. You can’t imagine how…We can never thank you enough.”
He returned the hug. “It was nothing, Rose. Have a safe trip home.”
Rose drew back, nodding, then turned to her mother. “Mum,” she said, her voice choked.
And then Jackie said, abruptly, “I’m coming with you.”
Rose blinked. “What?”
“I have to. Pete,” she said. “You’ve been…I mean, we’ve been…Oh. She’s my daughter. And she has these children that just…I can’t let them grow up in that other universe and never see them. I can’t make that choice. I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize, until right this moment, that I really can’t do this.”
Pete stared at her, looking shocked.
Jackie turned briefly to Rose and the Doctor. “It doesn’t mean I’m going to wander around travelling with you lot. I just want to go back to my old life, to the way it was before. Can I do that?”
The Doctor nodded. “If you want that, I can take you home with us.”
“I want that.” Jackie turned to Pete, and her eyes were filled with tears now. “I’m sorry. But I want that.”
Pete nodded wordlessly, then leaned forward and kissed her before hugging her tightly. “Have a wonderful life, Jacks,” he said, against her hair. “You be happy, too.”
“Same to you.” Jackie pulled back, smiling at him through her tears. “Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”
“It was my pleasure,” he assured her, cupping her cheek. “All of it.”
She kissed the palm of his hand, then turned firmly back to Rose and the Doctor and the baby. “Alright,” she said. “I’m ready.”
“Let’s go,” he said with one last look at Pete and Mickey before he led the way back to the TARDIS.
Rose walked into the ship silently but her eyes were swamped with emotion when she met his gaze, as he handed Fortuna over to her. He smiled, kissed her eyelids quickly.
“Sit,” he directed. “Hold her tight. The ride’s going to be a bit of a mess, but I can’t help it.”
Rose nodded, clutching the baby to her. Fortuna continued to be in a good mood, gurgling happily at her mother. “Mum. Dad. TARDIS,” she said. How did she know these things?
“She’s talking,” remarked the Doctor, as he raced around the console, flipping at things.
“Just started today. How’s she already know the word ‘TARDIS?’”
It was such a relief to have him here, to ask him these questions. “It’s…complicated,” he said. “Hang on now.”
Not that he actually answered these questions, she thought, as the TARDIS jerked into motion. The ride was indeed the worst she’d ever experienced. The TARDIS sounded awful, like she was groaning, and the Doctor seemed to be forcing her to move. He kept pleading under his breath, “Come on, come on, come on, come on,” as he raced around the console. Rose looked over at her mother, who looked a bit green around the gills.
The TARDIS tipped, tilted, sickeningly, onto its side, and Rose realized that some sort of gravity stabilizer must have let go. She scrabbled at the nearest railing to keep from plummeting to the wall with Fortuna in her arms. The baby let out a brief, panicked sob. The Doctor had clawed his way back to the monitor, was peering at it. “Come on, Brem!” he shouted, knocking at the monitor. “Fix it!”
And then, abruptly, the TARDIS straightened herself out, stopped making that awful grinding noise. The flight was suddenly almost smooth. The Doctor closed his eyes in relief. “Oh, good lad,” he said, and slid to the floor in exhaustion.
Rose watched him. “What, exactly, do you have Brem doing?”
“You’ve been back all of ten minutes. Can we hold off on fighting for at least the first hour?”
Rose didn’t have time to counter that, because the TARDIS crash-landed hard, and she lost her grip on the railing. Luckily, she slid directly into the Doctor, who grunted as she collided with him but at least was a soft surface to cushion the blow. Fortuna wailed again, and Rose tried to shush her, as the TARDIS seemed to settle, whining about them.
“What’s that noise?” asked Jackie.
“Distress signal.”
“Why are we in distress?”
“We’re not,” he answered. “We’ve landed. Right where we should have, I think. She’s just not happy with me.” The Doctor had staggered to his feet, forced the whining to shut off as he adjusted the monitor view.
“Where are the kids?” asked Rose, standing herself.
He grinned, pleased, at the view of the Hub, then turned back to Rose. “Right outside that door.”
Her face lit up, like those Christmas trees she so loved, and she thrust Fortuna at him before throwing open the TARDIS door and rushing out. It was Athena who met her first, shouting “Mum!” as she threw herself into her arms, and Rose cradled her, breathing her in, stroking her hand through those tumbled Time Lord curls.
“I missed you so much,” Athena said, pulling back to look at her.
Rose smiled, cupping her cheek. “Oh, I promise I missed you even more.”
“I have so much to tell you,” Athena said. “First off, Daddy does not know how to braid. He said he knows how to pilot a TARDIS single-handedly, and that that should make up for it, but it really doesn’t, Mummy.”
Rose laughed. “Oh, I know, but boys are just hopeless, Theenie. Yes, Madrid, I see you.” Rose patted the puppy, who was bouncing around her, barking as he clamoured for her attention.
“Oh, we taught Madrid to play dead. And we taught him how to play fetch. Except he doesn’t understand he’s supposed to bring the stick back. Brem says that’s the essential part of fetch, but Dad says that Madrid’s just playing by his own rules.”
“Where’s your brother?” Rose asked, looking beyond her. Brem was standing a short distance away, in that green jumper of his. The jumper was filthy. He really, desperately needed a new one. But she was so glad at that moment that he was not wearing a different jumper.
“Just a second, Theenie. Say hello to Grandma,” Rose said, setting her gently aside and kneeling. “Hi, Brem,” she said, smiling at him.
He walked over to her, looked at her for a long moment with solemn brown eyes. “Mummy,” he said, finally, and his voice broke on the word, and he was on her suddenly, crying huge, wracking sobs while he tried to burrow into her.
She had the impression that he was crying all the tears he had never cried over her, and the thought made her gather him to her, rocking him in a way he hadn’t let her in so very long, much longer than the year they’d been separated in her timeline, lowering her face into him and sobbing with him. “Oh, Brem. I’m here. I am. Here.”
“Why are they crying now?” Athena asked her grandmother, wrinkling her nose.
Rose looked up at her, smiling, pulling her into the embrace as well. “Just because we’re so happy.”
She felt the Doctor sit next to her. He took stock of the sobbing Brem, then said, “Look, kids. Come meet your little sister.”
Athena was immediately fascinated. “She’s like a doll!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands in delight.
“Except even more precious,” the Doctor told her.
Brem had gathered himself, sniffling and wiping at his eyes as he lifted his head. “Oh, no,” he groaned. “Not another one.”
The Doctor grinned at him. “Didn’t Athena turn out well? Admit it.”
“We lucked out,” said Brem.
“Her name’s Fortuna, and if you come over here I’ll let you hold her.”
Brem considered a second, before scrambling over to sit beside his father. The Doctor transferred the baby carefully. “This is your big brother Brem. Who single-handedly figured out how to save you from the other universe, and who convinced me that it ought to be done. This is all you, Bremsstrahlung Jack Tyler. This is your miracle. Look at what you did.” The Doctor kissed the top of his head, pulling him against him.
“It wasn’t me,” Brem denied. “It was all of us. You and me and Theenie and Mum. All of us. Because we’re us. Remember?” He twisted to meet his father’s eyes. “We don’t work alone.”
“You’re right,” the Doctor smiled down at him. “We don’t.”
“So,” said Brem, looking back down at his baby sister. “Fortuna, huh? Roman goddess of fortune.”
“There’s a statue of your mother as Fortuna, you know. Quite the story behind that one.”
“Fortuna,” said Brem, trying out the name. “Welcome to the family.” He paused. “It’s totally crazy.”
Next Chapter