What's To Come Is Still Unsure (12/17)
Title: What's to Come is still Unsure (11/17)
Author: lorelaisquared
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: TenII/Rose
Word Count: 2311
Beta: The incredible cookie2697
Summary: Part One in an epic love story spanning time and space: When the Doctor abandons Rose in Pete's world with his counterpart, they must learn to live without him. Slowly they build a life together that is filled with love, adventure, danger, and more surprises than either had ever thought possible.
Author's Note: The final chapter count has been confirmed. There will be a total of 17 chapters in this particular branch of the story.
As always, thank you to the people who helped me bring this story to life: cookie2697, tardismate, gioiamia, rumpelsnorcack, meremoon and earlgreytea68 *massive hugs to you all*
The title of this story comes from a line of a song in Shakespeares "Twelfth Night" commonly called "O Mistress Mine".
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11
Chapter 12
The Doctor stood in the doorway to the TARDIS library with a lump in his throat as he watched his wife reading to their daughter from The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.
When Rose finished the chapter, he went to them, picking up Viola and hugging her tightly. "I love you," he murmured.
Viola giggled and tried to push away, her whole body squirming. "I know Daddy." She paused, her eyes boring into his, and for a moment he felt as though she were in his mind. A second later however, she laughed again and patted his cheek playfully. "You're silly."
He chuckled. "I suppose I am."
"Can I get down now?" She began to wriggle again. "I need to check on Sorace."
"Sorace?" The Doctor knelt and set her on the floor.
"My pet elephant. Weeelll, she's not really an elephant. She's really an Invisible Posterpangrian. And she's purple."
"How can she be invisible and purple at the same time?" Rose interjected.
Viola sighed dramatically. "She's only invisible when she wants to be, Mummy. The rest of the time she's purple." Without waiting for a response, Viola skipped away, happily whistling the melody to the Gallifreyan lullaby her father sang to her every night.
"What was that all about?" Rose asked, as she returned The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland to its home on the shelf.
"Oh, nothing. I just worry that I don't tell her often enough." He glanced down the hallway in the direction she'd disappeared from.
"She knows," Rose said simply, coming to stand before him. "Are you all right, you seem sad about something."
"I'm fine," he insisted.
With a steady and sceptical gaze she studied him. "Okay."
She could tell that something wasn't right, but she didn't push. Instead she put her arms around him and covered his mouth with hers. This kiss was soft and tender and infused with love. The Doctor responded immediately, pressing his hands into her back until her body was flush with his. He kissed her almost feverishly, devouring her as though he was drinking her in to save her for later.
The heat between them intensified and the Doctor quickly closed the library door, sonicing it shut as they sank to the floor. Before he lost himself completely in his wife, the Doctor quickly sent a telepathic message to the TARDIS. Keep Viola safe. The responding hum assured him his daughter would be fine, so he focused his attention on the golden body stretched below him.
******
Though the Doctor still was not quite himself over the coming months, he didn't seem to want to talk about it, so Rose decided to let it be. He threw himself into their adventures with an almost manic energy that delighted Viola as much as it concerned Rose.
They flitted across the galaxy from planet to planet, future to future, past to past, encountering beings from all walks of life. Viola approached each new trip with excitement and glee, merrily skipping around the console and babbling at her parents as her father flew them to each new destination.
For Viola's fourth birthday, the Doctor let her pick their destination for the first time. Viola spent days studying the constellations on the mobile in her room, trying to figure out which planet, or which point in history she wanted to visit. She spent hours talking to her father, debating the merits of the Yurba Nebular cluster versus the Cofrukian Nanoblasts.
Finally, on the morning of her birthday, she padded out of her room to the console room, her brow furrowed in a way so similar to that of her father that Rose nearly burst out laughing.
"I know where I want to go," she announced proudly.
The Doctor grinned and began to prep the console. "Where to?"
"Pipqwinkski!"
"Pipqwinkski?" The Doctor stared at her. "Why would you want to go there?"
Viola looked disgusted. "Faeries, Daddy."
"Faeries? Faeries? Those aren't Faeries, they're Yurekjek's."
"Well, they look like faeries," Viola said earnestly, holding up a book that she had found in the planetary section of the library. "They have wings and sparkles and everything."
"Give me that." The Doctor took the book from her and turned the page. "This is what your 'faeries' actually are." He held up a picture of a grotesque grey creature with sharp jagged teeth."
Viola's eyes widened and she backed away until she was standing in front of her mother. Rose placed her hand on Viola's shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly. "Those aren't pretty at all," she said, clearly disappointed.
The Doctor closed the book with a sharp snap and knelt in front of his daughter. "I'm sorry, love. But the Yurekjek's are all sorts of trouble. They like to cause mischief, especially around small children."
"I'm not small," Viola retorted, her lip puckered as she crossed her arms and glowered at her father.
The Doctor looked at Rose helplessly. She sighed and crouched so that she was at her daughter's level. "Viola, sweetheart?"
Viola turned and looked at her mother. "What, Mummy?"
"Isn't there anywhere else you want to go?"
Viola tilted her head as she thought about it. "Weeeelllll, figure skaters are almost like faeries. Only better cause they twirl through the air without wings." She looked at her father. "There's figure skating in the Olympics isn't there?"
The Doctor grinned. "Oh, yes. How does 2010, Vancouver, BC, Canada sound?"
Viola smiled and it lit her entire face. "Brilliant Daddy!"
"Off we go, then!" The Doctor reached out to her. "Come on, you're four now, you can help me navigate."
"I can drive?" Viola lunged at him, her eyes sparkling with excitement. She gave him a quick hug before tugging enthusiastically on his arm. "What are we waiting for?" She jumped up and down impatiently while she waited for him to stand. "Let's go, let's go!"
The Doctor chuckled and followed her to the console. "Slow down there, Vi. Let me show you what to do."
Rose watched in amusement as he lifted their rambunctious daughter into the air, and showed her which buttons to press, and levers to pull. She eagerly followed every instruction, and as the TARDIS began to move, she giggled with glee, the infectious sound bubbling through the control room until all three of them were laughing with delight.
******
Viola was a quick learner and within three trips she was helping the Doctor fly the TARDIS like a pro. The Doctor had rigged up a retractable step stool around the entire console for Viola so that she could reach all the necessary parts without help. Rose loved watching them together - father and daughter racing around the console, babbling at each other at top speed as they flicked, pressed, and pulled on the controls.
They had settled into a relaxed family routine on board the TARDIS, visiting Jackie, Pete, and Tony on a regular basis in between their adventures to far off worlds and distant times. Occasionally, they would try to leave Viola with Jackie, particularly when their trips could be dangerous, but Viola always kicked up a fuss and most of the time the Doctor would give in and let her come along, rationalizing his decision by telling Rose (and himself) that it was good for her to learn how to protect herself now, while she was still young.
One day, after a rather eventful trip in which the family had been arrested for trespassing and had been forced to make their escape in the dead of night by passing through a swamp filled with horrifying Gallywigs, Viola cornered her father in the library.
"Daddy, I think it's time you taught me how to use the sonic."
He gaped at her. "What?"
"The sonic. I should know how to use it. Actually, you should really show me how to make my own."
"No, I don't think that's a good idea." He shook his head, imagining all the different ways a sonic screwdriver could wreak havoc in his young daughter’s hands.
"But Daddy, don't you see? The Bwankahs never would have caught me if I had a sonic. You and Mum were tied up but I was hiding close enough that I could have freed you and got us out through the window before General Kawlaka was even in the room."
The Doctor considered this. "Hmmmm, you might have a point."
Viola rolled her eyes. "Of course I do Daddy. You know I'm right. I'm always right!"
He stared at her for a moment. "Wellll, you are my daughter after all, so I suppose I can't argue with that."
With an excited clap, Viola began to jump up and down. "So I can have my own sonic?"
"I suppose." He eyed her carefully, then added, "But only under these parameters..."
*****
Very soon, Viola mastered the sonic, even managing to self-tweak a few of her father's 'parameters', though of course she didn't tell him that. She tinkered with it at night, when her parents thought she was sleeping. Why they thought she needed such an exorbitant amount of sleep was beyond her. She hadn't needed more than four hours a night since she was three years old, but she liked the alone time, so she hadn't bothered to tell her parents.
When she wasn't fiddling with her sonic, she'd spend hours gazing up at the night sky on her ceiling, studying the planets and constellations, listing to herself all the things she knew about them. Her favourite was Kasterborous. She had memorized the position of every interstellar object within the constellation and she liked to imagine what Gallifrey would have been like. She'd close her eyes and imagine the silver leaves, and the orange sky; the dome of the Citadel and the majesty of the mountains. Her heart ached at the knowledge that she'd never get to see her father's home, never get to meet the rest of his race. She yearned for Gallifrey in a way that she knew was unnatural. It wasn't her home, it was her father's and yet still she felt as though a part of her was missing.
One night, Viola noticed a dot within the Kasterborous constellation that she hadn't seen before. She got out of bed, and used the light from her sonic to study it more closely. It looked like a planet and yet how could it be? She knew that planets didn't just form from thin air. They took years to become more than a bunch of scattered particles, but something was definitely there. Something solid and true. Viola's heart beat excitedly; she loved a mystery.
She quickly changed out of her pink plaid pyjamas, throwing on a purple turtleneck and a jean jumper before picking up her shoes and padding down the corridor in her rainbow-stocking clad feet. The console room was empty and a quick inquiry to the TARDIS told her that her mother and father were both sleeping.
She bit her lip and deliberated what she should do. She'd been hoping her father would be up so she could tell him about the strange blip and they could go see what it was about. But she knew that he rarely slept for long unless he really needed it so she didn't want to wake him. Absently, she twirled one of her blond locks with her finger as she warred with herself for several moments before reaching a decision. She was five now and that was certainly old enough to navigate solo. She knew exactly what to do, and she was confident that she could land the TARDIS on her own.
In fact, if she was clever, she could find the strange planet, investigate and pull them back into the vortex without either of her parents ever knowing what had happened. Resolved and determined, Viola quietly pulled out her special step stool, entered the coordinates she'd worked out in her room and got to work. Before long her small, slender fingers were flitting gracefully over the console and the TARDIS drifted out of the vortex. The TARDIS tried to fight her as she eased it toward the foreign object, but Viola's will was strong and she won the battle, urging the TARDIS to its destination. The landing was rough and she would have fallen off the stool if she hadn't grabbed ahold of the break and applied it liberally. She was thrust forward as the TARDIS ground to a halt and the resulting blow to her chest winded her for a moment.
When she could finally get oxygen into her lungs again without wheezing, Viola climbed away from the console and strode to the door. She froze with her hand on the handle, hesitating for the slightest of moments before shoving it open and peering out into the darkness. She blinked furiously as a sudden bright light flooded through the thick, black air. She was having trouble breathing and could barely make sense of what was happening around her. She heard voices speaking to each other, it was something about time science and a final piece of the puzzle, but Viola was barely paying attention, all she could concentrate on was the tightness in her chest, the burning of her lungs. The distant sound of a weapon registered in her jumbled mind even as a stab of pain shot through her body, bringing her to her knees. Her cheeks were damp and she was crying uncontrollably, her choking sobs echoing through the bleak, heavy atmosphere.
She was dully aware of a sudden flare of golden light emitting from the TARDIS. Her attackers fled, yet still Viola cried, the pain she felt causing her to writhe and tremble on the ground before her eyes rolled back into her head and everything went completely still.
Next Chapter
Author: lorelaisquared
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: TenII/Rose
Word Count: 2311
Beta: The incredible cookie2697
Summary: Part One in an epic love story spanning time and space: When the Doctor abandons Rose in Pete's world with his counterpart, they must learn to live without him. Slowly they build a life together that is filled with love, adventure, danger, and more surprises than either had ever thought possible.
Author's Note: The final chapter count has been confirmed. There will be a total of 17 chapters in this particular branch of the story.
As always, thank you to the people who helped me bring this story to life: cookie2697, tardismate, gioiamia, rumpelsnorcack, meremoon and earlgreytea68 *massive hugs to you all*
The title of this story comes from a line of a song in Shakespeares "Twelfth Night" commonly called "O Mistress Mine".
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11
Chapter 12
The Doctor stood in the doorway to the TARDIS library with a lump in his throat as he watched his wife reading to their daughter from The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.
When Rose finished the chapter, he went to them, picking up Viola and hugging her tightly. "I love you," he murmured.
Viola giggled and tried to push away, her whole body squirming. "I know Daddy." She paused, her eyes boring into his, and for a moment he felt as though she were in his mind. A second later however, she laughed again and patted his cheek playfully. "You're silly."
He chuckled. "I suppose I am."
"Can I get down now?" She began to wriggle again. "I need to check on Sorace."
"Sorace?" The Doctor knelt and set her on the floor.
"My pet elephant. Weeelll, she's not really an elephant. She's really an Invisible Posterpangrian. And she's purple."
"How can she be invisible and purple at the same time?" Rose interjected.
Viola sighed dramatically. "She's only invisible when she wants to be, Mummy. The rest of the time she's purple." Without waiting for a response, Viola skipped away, happily whistling the melody to the Gallifreyan lullaby her father sang to her every night.
"What was that all about?" Rose asked, as she returned The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland to its home on the shelf.
"Oh, nothing. I just worry that I don't tell her often enough." He glanced down the hallway in the direction she'd disappeared from.
"She knows," Rose said simply, coming to stand before him. "Are you all right, you seem sad about something."
"I'm fine," he insisted.
With a steady and sceptical gaze she studied him. "Okay."
She could tell that something wasn't right, but she didn't push. Instead she put her arms around him and covered his mouth with hers. This kiss was soft and tender and infused with love. The Doctor responded immediately, pressing his hands into her back until her body was flush with his. He kissed her almost feverishly, devouring her as though he was drinking her in to save her for later.
The heat between them intensified and the Doctor quickly closed the library door, sonicing it shut as they sank to the floor. Before he lost himself completely in his wife, the Doctor quickly sent a telepathic message to the TARDIS. Keep Viola safe. The responding hum assured him his daughter would be fine, so he focused his attention on the golden body stretched below him.
******
Though the Doctor still was not quite himself over the coming months, he didn't seem to want to talk about it, so Rose decided to let it be. He threw himself into their adventures with an almost manic energy that delighted Viola as much as it concerned Rose.
They flitted across the galaxy from planet to planet, future to future, past to past, encountering beings from all walks of life. Viola approached each new trip with excitement and glee, merrily skipping around the console and babbling at her parents as her father flew them to each new destination.
For Viola's fourth birthday, the Doctor let her pick their destination for the first time. Viola spent days studying the constellations on the mobile in her room, trying to figure out which planet, or which point in history she wanted to visit. She spent hours talking to her father, debating the merits of the Yurba Nebular cluster versus the Cofrukian Nanoblasts.
Finally, on the morning of her birthday, she padded out of her room to the console room, her brow furrowed in a way so similar to that of her father that Rose nearly burst out laughing.
"I know where I want to go," she announced proudly.
The Doctor grinned and began to prep the console. "Where to?"
"Pipqwinkski!"
"Pipqwinkski?" The Doctor stared at her. "Why would you want to go there?"
Viola looked disgusted. "Faeries, Daddy."
"Faeries? Faeries? Those aren't Faeries, they're Yurekjek's."
"Well, they look like faeries," Viola said earnestly, holding up a book that she had found in the planetary section of the library. "They have wings and sparkles and everything."
"Give me that." The Doctor took the book from her and turned the page. "This is what your 'faeries' actually are." He held up a picture of a grotesque grey creature with sharp jagged teeth."
Viola's eyes widened and she backed away until she was standing in front of her mother. Rose placed her hand on Viola's shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly. "Those aren't pretty at all," she said, clearly disappointed.
The Doctor closed the book with a sharp snap and knelt in front of his daughter. "I'm sorry, love. But the Yurekjek's are all sorts of trouble. They like to cause mischief, especially around small children."
"I'm not small," Viola retorted, her lip puckered as she crossed her arms and glowered at her father.
The Doctor looked at Rose helplessly. She sighed and crouched so that she was at her daughter's level. "Viola, sweetheart?"
Viola turned and looked at her mother. "What, Mummy?"
"Isn't there anywhere else you want to go?"
Viola tilted her head as she thought about it. "Weeeelllll, figure skaters are almost like faeries. Only better cause they twirl through the air without wings." She looked at her father. "There's figure skating in the Olympics isn't there?"
The Doctor grinned. "Oh, yes. How does 2010, Vancouver, BC, Canada sound?"
Viola smiled and it lit her entire face. "Brilliant Daddy!"
"Off we go, then!" The Doctor reached out to her. "Come on, you're four now, you can help me navigate."
"I can drive?" Viola lunged at him, her eyes sparkling with excitement. She gave him a quick hug before tugging enthusiastically on his arm. "What are we waiting for?" She jumped up and down impatiently while she waited for him to stand. "Let's go, let's go!"
The Doctor chuckled and followed her to the console. "Slow down there, Vi. Let me show you what to do."
Rose watched in amusement as he lifted their rambunctious daughter into the air, and showed her which buttons to press, and levers to pull. She eagerly followed every instruction, and as the TARDIS began to move, she giggled with glee, the infectious sound bubbling through the control room until all three of them were laughing with delight.
******
Viola was a quick learner and within three trips she was helping the Doctor fly the TARDIS like a pro. The Doctor had rigged up a retractable step stool around the entire console for Viola so that she could reach all the necessary parts without help. Rose loved watching them together - father and daughter racing around the console, babbling at each other at top speed as they flicked, pressed, and pulled on the controls.
They had settled into a relaxed family routine on board the TARDIS, visiting Jackie, Pete, and Tony on a regular basis in between their adventures to far off worlds and distant times. Occasionally, they would try to leave Viola with Jackie, particularly when their trips could be dangerous, but Viola always kicked up a fuss and most of the time the Doctor would give in and let her come along, rationalizing his decision by telling Rose (and himself) that it was good for her to learn how to protect herself now, while she was still young.
One day, after a rather eventful trip in which the family had been arrested for trespassing and had been forced to make their escape in the dead of night by passing through a swamp filled with horrifying Gallywigs, Viola cornered her father in the library.
"Daddy, I think it's time you taught me how to use the sonic."
He gaped at her. "What?"
"The sonic. I should know how to use it. Actually, you should really show me how to make my own."
"No, I don't think that's a good idea." He shook his head, imagining all the different ways a sonic screwdriver could wreak havoc in his young daughter’s hands.
"But Daddy, don't you see? The Bwankahs never would have caught me if I had a sonic. You and Mum were tied up but I was hiding close enough that I could have freed you and got us out through the window before General Kawlaka was even in the room."
The Doctor considered this. "Hmmmm, you might have a point."
Viola rolled her eyes. "Of course I do Daddy. You know I'm right. I'm always right!"
He stared at her for a moment. "Wellll, you are my daughter after all, so I suppose I can't argue with that."
With an excited clap, Viola began to jump up and down. "So I can have my own sonic?"
"I suppose." He eyed her carefully, then added, "But only under these parameters..."
*****
Very soon, Viola mastered the sonic, even managing to self-tweak a few of her father's 'parameters', though of course she didn't tell him that. She tinkered with it at night, when her parents thought she was sleeping. Why they thought she needed such an exorbitant amount of sleep was beyond her. She hadn't needed more than four hours a night since she was three years old, but she liked the alone time, so she hadn't bothered to tell her parents.
When she wasn't fiddling with her sonic, she'd spend hours gazing up at the night sky on her ceiling, studying the planets and constellations, listing to herself all the things she knew about them. Her favourite was Kasterborous. She had memorized the position of every interstellar object within the constellation and she liked to imagine what Gallifrey would have been like. She'd close her eyes and imagine the silver leaves, and the orange sky; the dome of the Citadel and the majesty of the mountains. Her heart ached at the knowledge that she'd never get to see her father's home, never get to meet the rest of his race. She yearned for Gallifrey in a way that she knew was unnatural. It wasn't her home, it was her father's and yet still she felt as though a part of her was missing.
One night, Viola noticed a dot within the Kasterborous constellation that she hadn't seen before. She got out of bed, and used the light from her sonic to study it more closely. It looked like a planet and yet how could it be? She knew that planets didn't just form from thin air. They took years to become more than a bunch of scattered particles, but something was definitely there. Something solid and true. Viola's heart beat excitedly; she loved a mystery.
She quickly changed out of her pink plaid pyjamas, throwing on a purple turtleneck and a jean jumper before picking up her shoes and padding down the corridor in her rainbow-stocking clad feet. The console room was empty and a quick inquiry to the TARDIS told her that her mother and father were both sleeping.
She bit her lip and deliberated what she should do. She'd been hoping her father would be up so she could tell him about the strange blip and they could go see what it was about. But she knew that he rarely slept for long unless he really needed it so she didn't want to wake him. Absently, she twirled one of her blond locks with her finger as she warred with herself for several moments before reaching a decision. She was five now and that was certainly old enough to navigate solo. She knew exactly what to do, and she was confident that she could land the TARDIS on her own.
In fact, if she was clever, she could find the strange planet, investigate and pull them back into the vortex without either of her parents ever knowing what had happened. Resolved and determined, Viola quietly pulled out her special step stool, entered the coordinates she'd worked out in her room and got to work. Before long her small, slender fingers were flitting gracefully over the console and the TARDIS drifted out of the vortex. The TARDIS tried to fight her as she eased it toward the foreign object, but Viola's will was strong and she won the battle, urging the TARDIS to its destination. The landing was rough and she would have fallen off the stool if she hadn't grabbed ahold of the break and applied it liberally. She was thrust forward as the TARDIS ground to a halt and the resulting blow to her chest winded her for a moment.
When she could finally get oxygen into her lungs again without wheezing, Viola climbed away from the console and strode to the door. She froze with her hand on the handle, hesitating for the slightest of moments before shoving it open and peering out into the darkness. She blinked furiously as a sudden bright light flooded through the thick, black air. She was having trouble breathing and could barely make sense of what was happening around her. She heard voices speaking to each other, it was something about time science and a final piece of the puzzle, but Viola was barely paying attention, all she could concentrate on was the tightness in her chest, the burning of her lungs. The distant sound of a weapon registered in her jumbled mind even as a stab of pain shot through her body, bringing her to her knees. Her cheeks were damp and she was crying uncontrollably, her choking sobs echoing through the bleak, heavy atmosphere.
She was dully aware of a sudden flare of golden light emitting from the TARDIS. Her attackers fled, yet still Viola cried, the pain she felt causing her to writhe and tremble on the ground before her eyes rolled back into her head and everything went completely still.
Next Chapter