The Travels of Rose Harkness.... Age 2 months
This is part of the adventures of Rosie Harkness, index is at http://jovialien.livejournal.com/20976.html
Rose was 2 months old before Jack got a good nights sleep again.
It had taken Jack some time to adjust to having the Doctor back in his life, and more importantly in Rose's. Whilst he knew he could trust the Doctor he had still been reluctant to leave Rose with him. For all his jokes to Martha it was still a shock to the system to see the Doctor struggling with nappies and baby bottles and it all still seemed so unreal. He had spent so much time thinking about this life, the three of them, that now it was here he was afraid it was too good to be true, that it might vanish one day and they would be alone again. It was exhaustion that finally convinced him. Jack at last relented and allowed the Doctor to look after Rose, alone, for one night whilst he slept.
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The Doctor padded softly into Rose's room as she started to cry and picked her up gently. "Hello there! Shall we get you fed then?" The Doctor carried Rose gently through the TARDIS, the lights dimmed and a bottle of milk stashed in his suit pocket. He decided to take her to the garden, that way they would have something to look at whilst she fed.
It was dark in the garden, a night sky overhead and the garden was filled with strange plants and trees, native to a hundred different worlds the Doctor had visited. He paced slowly through the garden as she drank, telling strange stories and facts about the plants as he went and generally babbling as usual, but with more pouty faces and baby talk than he usually used. Finally she was fed and winded but she didn't seem to want to sleep, seemed to be waiting for something but the Doctor had no idea what. Then he remembered. Jack always sang to her or put her mobile on to get her to sleep. But he couldn't play music here and she was getting fractious. If he tried to carry her back through the TARDIS she was bound to wake Jack. The Doctor hefted her in his arms so her head was in his left elbow, gazing up at him expectantly.
"I'm sorry little one but I don't know which songs your daddy sings." She started to screw up her face angrily and he panicked. "Oh no, no, no, no, no don't cry! Shhh, it's ok. Um what can I sing? Do you like Elvis? No of course not, you're too young. Nursery rhymes, that's it, oh what's that one about wool and bags of sheep... no that's not right. Um..." He paused and suddenly realised he did know a song, but one he had never expected to hear or have a reason to sing again. He hesitated then softly began to sing to her. It was a Gallifreyan lullaby, a song so old and so soft that spoke of a world no longer there, a people who would never sing it again and in a language the universe had already forgotten. As he sang images of Gallifrey passed through his mind, places, friends long gone, family that had been lost. He had last sung this song to his granddaughter, so long ago. It had been her favourite but she was gone too now, it was all gone. He sang even though he could feel his hearts breaking, then suddenly he felt something. Rose was staring up at him so intently and for the first time since he touched her mind in that bathroom he reached out to the little girl. It was the mental equivalent of her grabbing his little finger, just an instinctive reaction but with surprising strength behind it making him gasp. Then he felt it again, still so faint it almost wasn't there. The knowledge that he wasn't alone.
He was so afraid of her, so afraid of letting anyone into his hearts again. He knew this would take time, knew he may never be able to say the words to her but he would one day feel it. He knew as he held that little girl in his arms that he would learn to love again.
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Jack crept slowly away from the garden and back to bed, knowing he would sleep soundly now. His love was in good hands.