Doctor Who Fic: Broken Promises- Chapter One- Matharthicketealiantotyler
Title: Broken Promises
Chapter 1 of 4?: Matharthicketealiantotyler
Author: silverlunarstar
Characters/Pairings: 10/Rose, Ianto, Family of Blood
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance/Angst/Drama/Fluff/Hurt/Comfort
Warnings/Spoilers: AU. Post-Doomsday.
Words: 2,548
Status: In-Progress
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership
Summary: In order to protect their baby boy, the Doctor and Rose drop him off at a 24-hour daycare in Cardiff circa 1984, thinking it only a temporary measure, that they'll be back before he knows it. Things go very wrong.
Author's Note: This story sprung forth thanks to a prompt for the doctor_rose_fix Spring Fling Fixathon made by mahmfic. It caught me hook, line, and sinker as Manni the Muse fished it in.
This is the first time in a while Manni has spat out a whole story in such a short amount of time. I was hoping to never again post an in-progress story that I hadn’t finished, but ideas are brimming and I don’t think it will be too long.
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"Rose, get down! Don't look back!" the Doctor shouted.
Rose Tyler had absolutely no intention of looking back. As soon as they crossed the TARDIS's threshold, she continued dashing forth within the corridors. Finding their room to be the first one, she mentally thanked the TARDIS and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that their precious cargo was still out like a light. Returning to the console room, she saw the Doctor dashing around frantically.
Catching sight of her and noting all was well (well, not everything, obviously), he ordered, "Come and hold this."
Knowing something was wrong; she let his tone go and did as he asked. "What's going on?" What was meant to be a quick pit stop at the banana grove quickly became a marathon of running for their lives. No difference there, but the Time Lord seemed especially anxious.
Pushing and pulling a few more buttons and levers, he removed one of the grills covering the storage section, yanking a few metal disks out. He looked at them and took a shuddering breath.
"Doctor, who was chasing after us?" Rose demanded.
"Who is chasing after us, Rose," he corrected grimly. "They're creatures that go by ‘The Family’. Normally a peaceful lot, but these seem to have gone rogue. If they catch us, they'll suck me dry of regenerations and you and the TARDIS the time vortex. We're going to have to hide. All three of us."
Rose gapped. "How can they be following us in the time vortex?"
"They seem to have gotten hold of some vortex manipulators." He set the disks down on the console.
"Okay." She breathed, trying to remain calm. "Where are we going then? To Jack? Maybe he'll have-"
He shook his head fervently. "If we lead them to Jack and they get hold of him, who knows what disasters could ensue. Anyway, it's more than that. We're going to have to become fully human." He flicked a lever and a metal helmet was lowered. Pressing several other buttons, two fob watches popped out; at least, Rose assumed they were fob watches, but she doubted as she saw their unique engravings. "Rose, do you trust me?"
"With my life."
"With Math-"
"Of course! You know that."
"We're going to have to leave him somewhere while we hide," he said calmly, feeling anything but.
"Are you crazy?! If you think I'm going to leave-"
"Rose." He put his hands on her shoulders. "If there was any other way, do you think I wouldn't take it? We can't make him human with us. If he undergoes the only method I have to change us… He wouldn't survive; he's too young to regenerate - we're still not sure whether he can. And we can't bring him with us or else they'll find us and we won't have any means to protect him with. The conversion- it alters our memories as well; we'll think we're fully human. Even if one of us were to stay with him…"
"There has to be another way!" Tears were flowing down her cheeks. "I can't-" She sobbed.
He didn't even try to stop his own silent tears from flowing down. His brain was rapidly going through other ways, but no alternative came forth. "I promise Rose, it's just for three months," her breath hitched, "we'll drop him off somewhere safe. Not with Jack, but maybe someplace in Cardiff… The Rift might be enough to throw them off. First though…" He grabbed the thin, metal disks he first took out.
Rose was trying to pull herself together. Not even when she was first separated from her mother had she broken down like this, but this was a completely different matter altogether. She wondered if this was how her mother felt when she was first trapped on the other side of the void. At least she knew she'd be safe, as safe as she could be with the Doctor, and she knew her mother would be just fine with the alternate version of her dad. Her baby on the other hand… "Why three months?"
"These creatures are like mayflies; in three months time they'll die naturally, as they were meant to. That's why they're so desperate to get to us. They could live forever if they took our energy."
She wiped her tears with her sleeves as she nodded and started paying attention to what he was doing. "What are those?"
"They're time bombs of sorts. Well, more like time stunners, if one could actually stun time, which of course, you can't, but… They're the only ones left in existence. During the Time War, our TARDIS's had these slots-" he pointed to an area of the console and she could swear she'd never seen that part before, even with her first Doctor, "to dispense them into the vortex. There were times Daleks had happened upon some craft with the ability to follow us into it. The stunners disrupt the flow; throw anyone who might be following us off, basically stunning them for a short while. I'm going to try and throw the Family off our trail while we take Matharthicketealianto someplace safe. You should go…go get him ready."
Feeling his mood darken further than before, she felt the need to stay, just a little longer, but she also knew time was of the essence. She just couldn't help herself, though. "What about those?" she asked, gesturing at the fob watches.
"These will keep our true selves, our memories, within them until three months have passed." Before she could ask any more questions, he pleaded, "Rose, just trust me. Please."
She bit her tongue and nodded. Placing a kiss on his lips, she headed back to their room.
Once she left, he drove through the vortex a bit more and, once he knew he had a good shot, he popped the first disk in. Bingo. Looked like he hadn't lost his touch, he thought cynically. Now inputting the coordinates for the time and place he was aiming for, he inserted another disk. Knowing they'd be disoriented, especially without the safety of a capsule thanks to the manipulators, he threw the last disk in before making sure they landed right when and where he wanted them to. Checking the monitor, he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw they hadn't been followed. They'd be safe for an hour, tops. Turning around as he heard soft cooing, his eyes softened and his hearts broke as he took in the sight of his Rose with a diaper bag in one hand and their baby boy in the other.
"I found us a daycare in Cardiff, circa 1984. They take care of babies while parents go on trips. Bit unfair if you ask me; they miss out on all that traveling! Mind you, it can be dangerous…" he added when he realized the reason why they were leaving him here in the first place. Leaving their baby in a childcare facility, talk about the height of domesticity! (He simply ignored the fact that his domestics scale had stretched further and further with his pink and yellow half-human.)
"Hello! Welcome to Thesa's Day and Night Center. Which services were you interested in today?" a woman at the desk greeted them cheerfully.
"Hi, um, my…wife and I were looking at your twenty-four hour services. You see, we're travelers and while our…employer usually allows us to bring our bundle of joy with us, we're headed to…Africa next and he's much too young to take all the necessary vaccinations, so we wanted to leave him with a family friend but…he's out of the country right now and I said to Rose, I said, ‘Rose, never you mind. I heard of this fantastic place that has just what we need’. Brilliant reviews you have, had, will have." He grinned.
Rose would have tried her best not to hide behind her baby under any other circumstances, embarrassed by the Doctor's blatant lies. As it was, she was already suffering from separation anxiety so she simply continued to clutch their child. Thankfully, the girl was trying too hard to catch any word from his fast speech and didn't notice his pauses.
"Of course, sir. Even though we just opened, I promise you, you and your wife have nothing to fear. Our whole staff has had thorough background checks and has been fully trained to handle all sorts of situations in order to care for the children."
"Oh, I've no doubt you'll eventually expand," he assured.
"Who knows, maybe we will!" She handed him a packet to fill out and he thanked her.
Noticing the Doctor's fake enthusiasm dim at the sight of paperwork, she handed Matharthicketealianto to him. Filling out the basic information with pseudonyms and phone numbers that wouldn't exist for quite some time, she paused at a particular question. "Doctor?"
"Yes, Rose?" He didn't rip his gaze from their son's blue eyes, warmer than his ninth self's ones, about the same hue as his eighth carnation, as they stared intensely at one another.
"How long are we leaving him here for?" she asked softly.
He broke eye contact, exhaling sharply, this time staring into Rose's worried honey eyes. They should never hold that look, yet, because of his carelessness, he put that look there.
"It's not your fault," she said softly, but fiercely.
He pressed his lips together, knowing he'd argue in vain. That was Rose; knew just what he was thinking, she did, without being properly telepathic herself and always knowing what to say. "What's a believable gap between here and Africa and back?" he asked rhetorically, already figuring it out in his head. "Two we-? No, make it sixteen days from now."
"Sixteen?" Rose inhaled sharply.
"That's just for show, I promise. Once our three months are up, we'll come back in twenty-four hours and simply say we couldn't bear to leave Matharthicketealianto alone and asked our employer to choose someone else."
"But we'll have to, won't we? Bear it, I mean."
"There's no guarantee we'll even remember one another, Rose," he told her sadly.
"Oh, and that just makes it all better! We're going to change our whole biology, forget ourselves, forget each other, and forget Ianto!" she hissed, tears springing from her eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said solemnly.
She shook her head a millisecond behind his apology. "No, I'm sorry. This isn’t your fault, you hear me? Now, let me just finish filling this out so we can head back to the TARDIS, hide, and in three months our time, we'll come back for him the," she checked today's date, "third of August and act like clingy parents."
"We are clingy parents," he teased lightly, wondering if she was trying to convince him he wasn't to blame or herself.
"Gotta enjoy it while we still can, yeah?" With that, she finished filling the paperwork.
Though the girl raised her brow at a few answers, 'Who's allergic to aspirin?' everything seemed to be in order. They even paid fully in advance! Most parents paid half the day of the drop off and half when they picked their child up. She smiled as she realized they'd be home in time for his birthday, sixteen days from today. Wishing them a safe trip, Silvia handed the baby to Denise Jones.
"Come and meet your friends Ianto Smith."
Baby Ianto took one look at her and, as if in pain, cried out.
--
The Doctor and Rose made their way to the TARDIS with heavy hearts, hands clasped together tightly. Upon entering, their ship tried her best to comfort her Thief and Wolf, but nothing could fill the wide gap.
Seeing Rose look at the door longingly, he condemned himself all the more for what they were about to endure. Unfortunately, they couldn't dawdle for long as the TARDIS shuddered in warning. Reluctantly, he let go of her hand so he could take them back into the vortex before the Family found them in this time and place, then he set random coordinates, letting the TARDIS take care of the rest. "Rose." Curled on the jump seat, he waited until she looked up at him to explain. "The procedure we're about to go through is anything but pleasant. It's going to hurt and, as much as I wish with all my hearts I could stop causing you so much pain, if they so much as smell a trace of what we are, we're as good as dead."
"Can't we just get rid of them?" Rose's usual empathic side gave way to her hurt, mother instincts that just wanted her child back at all costs.
"I… I could," he answered reluctantly, the ‘if you want me to’ rang silently. He could and would, if Rose asked him to. It was the first thing he had thought of, honestly, but he had enough blood on his hands. When he regenerated into his current self, while he still held the darkness and guilt inside, he'd also become a lighter, bouncier, prettier man for her. For Rose, and now for his son, he'd do anything and that made him the most dangerous man in existence. He watched Rose fight internally and saw her deflate.
"No." She shook her head. "I'd never ask you to do that. If you're sure this is the only way then let's do it." She held her head high.
That was his Rose, always thinking of others, especially him. He didn't deserve her, but he'd never be able to let her go. He briefly wondered whether he should've just gotten rid of them without Rose's knowledge, but there was little he could hide from her anymore. "This is the Chameleon Arch and these," he held up the fob watches as he reiterated his previous explanation, "are where our true selves, our memories, will be hidden. While we're hiding, we'll only be vaguely aware of them and in three months we're going to be overwhelmed by an explicable urge to open them. Once we do, we'll be back to our proper selves. I don't know where we'll end up; I'm letting the old girl take care of that. We'll land first, then you'll go first so I can make sure nothing goes wrong." He winced at her worried look.
"What do you mean?" She was more than a little wary and still emotional from basically abandoning their child with strangers, even if for him it'd be no more than a full Earth day.
"This equipment was meant for Time Lords. The TARDIS provided an extra watch, so I assume she thinks it's safe enough, but there's no real way to know beforehand."
She breathed out. "Well, only one way to find out, yeah?" she said with fake enthusiasm, trying not to express her worries and letting her adventurous side come forth. When this was all over, she was going to convince the Doctor to take the three of them on vacation, though she was certain he wouldn't need much convincing this time around.
"That's the spirit!" He plastered on a phony smile as he hooked everything in. He gave her a deep kiss and an encouraging smile before starting the process. It was wiped clean as she began to scream.
Chapter 2