(Untitled)

[notthesinger]

Alan awkwardly wrestles the front door open, both arms full of shopping bags.

"Maria!" he calls, in case she's back from Sarah Jane's. "Could you come help me bring in the shopping?"

Then he looks up.

". . . Maria?"

[Tiny tag: Alan Jackson]

[OOC: Taggable till it falls off the front page, and doubly so if you are a canon-mate. *g*]

Comments

[not_on_her_own]

Maria finds it hard to keep track of time in this place, and even harder keeping track of it out of this place. That is, she can't recall whether it's been a week, or longer, since she's been here last. It feels longer, but maybe because she just loves it here so much.

What's more important is that she's here, now, and has been enjoying a chocolate milkshake in a corner booth while taking a break from studies. The voice she hears calling her name is unmistakable. Instantly, she lets the straw fall away from her mouth and looks up, seeing her dad. Her dad, in Milliways.

"Dad?" She calls loudly, wondering if he can hear her over the din of the bar crowd.

[not_on_her_own]

"It's true, I swear," she insists. "I thought it was totally a joke, too, 'til I actually met him."

Yeah, she met James Bond. A fact she takes a bit of pride in. "And they have a baby daughter now. It's weird, dad. I mean, she's kinda like our Sarah Jane, but completely different, too. It's strange for Luke more than anybody, I think."

[notthesinger]

Alan takes a moment to take this in. If it were anyone else telling him this . . .

"What, like an alternate timeline again?" he asks. Alternate timeline is a concept he can deal with.

Poor Luke. "Must be a bit jarring for him after everything that's happened," Alan says sympathetically. Bad enough to have fake parents who turn out to be Slitheen without having to deal with alternate versions of his mother.

[not_on_her_own]

"Yeah, lots of those here," Maria responds. In fact, considering all the strange things she's seen here as a result of differing timelines, she feels even more grateful that her dad didn't come in from a time before she was even born. Or from a separate universe where she didn't exist. And it's that thought that makes her feel even more sorry for Luke, even if he still has his mother to go home to.

Maria looks confused for a moment. "Everything that's happened? You mean when Sarah Jane disappeared and nobody knew she existed?"

Although Maria recalls that was more upsetting for Sarah Jane than for Luke, as Luke had no recollection of what had happened, or where he had been while Sarah Jane had temporarily stopped existing in their timeline.

[notthesinger]

Alan pauses for a long moment. Maria's hesitation is - odd. He may be new to all of this alien stuff, but he knows his daughter, and she ought to be understanding exactly what he means. He's been developing an alarm in the back of his head for things that aren't quite right, and it's going off now.

"Right," he says carefully. "So I don't suppose he has an explanation for this pub showing up in our home? Is it always there?" It's not the most deft subject change, and he doesn't like doing it to Maria, but he's found in general throughout life than, when his understanding of a situation is murky at best, it's wisest to tread carefully while he works it out.

[not_on_her_own]

She hesitates again, debating whether to question him further. But even though her dad has just learned about aliens, and all the stranger stuff that really can happen on Earth and in the universe, she thinks maybe it's possible that he's coming in from a time where he knows more than she thinks. And if that's the case, it's best not to talk about it too much. She knows all about that from Sarah Jane. So the subject change is taken with ease.

"Nothing yet. Trust me, he's been asking all sorts of questions, with all sorts of people. Most of them haven't got a clue, but he keeps asking," Maria laughs slightly, amused when she recalls some of the looks Luke has garnered. "And sometimes this place doesn't always show up in our home. It can show up in different places, it's weird. It's not always there, and sometimes when you're here, the door to get back home disappears. It hasn't happened to me, luckily, but it happened to my friend, James. He was stuck here for months."

[notthesinger]

Alan sees Maria hesitate and holds his breath, but she apparently decides that it's either not worth questioning him or that he's got a point, because she allows the subject change. He'll have to mention this to her when he gets home. See what she says.

At her last comment, though, he glances back in alarm. He hadn't been thinking about the door when he heard Maria's voice. It could have exploded and he wouldn't have noticed. It's still there, though, thank goodness.

She mentioned that time stops outside, though. Unsettling, to think his daughter could be stuck here for months and he would never notice. He reaches over and puts an arm round her shoulders.

"All right, so. Universe ending, alternate timelines, disappearing doors . . . you can't just go down the arcade like everyone else's kids?" He smiles as he says it, though, giving Maria a squeeze.

[not_on_her_own]

Maria rolls her eyes, but there's a wry grin on her face. Even before she met Sarah Jane, she'd never been quite like other kids. Sure, in many ways, she was the typical teenager, but in other ways, she definitely wasn't; she preferred tea over pop, and didn't bother with the music stations on the telly. And fighting aliens? Much better than going to the arcade, because it's real, after all.

"Yeah, but if I was like everyone else's kids, I'd be dodging homework and rebelling against your authority," she gives a small chuckle, her eyes twinkling with a tease.

[notthesinger]

"True," Alan smiles. "I suppose I can manage an alien or two in exchange for a daughter who speaks to me more than twice a week." He's heard all the horror stories from other parents of adolescents looking for people to share their pain, and he's fairly certain most of them want to smack him in the teeth when he talks about Maria.

He's still not terribly delighted about this pub at the end of the universe thing. It helps, though, to know that Sarah Jane is around, whatever version of her it might be. He can't imagine a Sarah Jane who wouldn't look after Maria whenever need be.

For that matter, James Bond isn't a half-bad option, either.

[not_on_her_own]

"'Cept when you're trying to skateboard," Maria wrinkles her nose. Her dad was surprisingly good, she'll admit, but it's still just weird to think of him doing that at all.

"I'll show you outside next, yeah?" She tugs him along some more, taking him through the door that will lead out of the pub. The landscape is a vast terrain, and like a lot of things in this place, it still surprises her to see it, because it's not the sight you'd expect to see when stepping out of a pub at the end of the universe. "Everyone says it looks like Scotland. And there are things you have to watch out for, dad. Like, you have to stay inside when the moon's full, because of the werewolves. And there are demon bunnies, but they usually stay away from people. Oh, yeah, and a giant squid in the lake."

She says it all rather nonchalantly, though really, with all she's seen on Earth recently, this sort of thing doesn't much faze her.

[notthesinger]

Alan is having a little more difficulty with this. A pub at the end of the universe is quite strange enough. How can it also have an outside?

Maria's explanation sort of washes over him. There's too much in it to even know where to begin. Aliens are one thing. Werewolves and demon bunnies? That sounds like a demented horror movie. Or a Monty Python sketch.

"I see," he says. "Mind you watch where you swim, then."

Some of these trees don't look quite right.

[not_on_her_own]

"Right, like I'd swim in that lake," Maria rolls her eyes. "Nice out here in the winter, though. And people come out here to do all sorts of things, like practice shooting off arrows, and sword-fighting, and climbing tree forts."

Maria crosses her arms over her chest, scanning the area and then looking back at her dad.

"Well, what do you think of the outside?"

[notthesinger]

". . . it sounds interesting." Alan runs a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, this is an awful lot all at once. It seems like quite a place, though." He smiles at Maria. He can see where her excitement is coming from. It's not as if he doesn't have his own sense of adventure. He would have gone mad for a place like this at her age. He's just learnt to temper it a bit, and to put other things first.

Like his daughter's safety.

[not_on_her_own]

Maria gives him a knowing smile, although there's a hint of self-assuredness in it, too; she's showing him around, taking the lead, telling him things. It's not something she gets to do nearly often enough, and it's rather fun.

"So you don't mind me coming here?" She finally asks, uncertainly, afraid the answer might be bad.

[notthesinger]

Alan considers. "I think we're going to need to make some rules," he says finally. "If I'm free to come with you, or if there's someone here you can trust to keep an eye on you - I'll have to meet them - then you can. If you're going to be entirely on your own, then you'll have to wait." It's reasonable, it's sensible, and it's going to be ignored more than once. He knows that. But he can't just take this place away from her. She looks happy. And, in that same indefinable sort of way he's noticed in Sarah Jane's attic, she looks like she belongs. Like she fits.

[not_on_her_own]

Maria looks up at him, her expression neutral, but accommodating, and not at all resistant. She knows her dad well enough to know that he'd want to be certain she was safe, and she supposes it's not something she can blame him for. At least he's not forbidding her. A small smile appears on her face. Besides, it doesn't mean she can't sneak away on occasion, too; she's done that before, too.

"S'pose I can agree to that," she replies. "You just have to come here a lot so you can get to know more people that you can trust to look after me."

Although she personally doesn't feel she needs to be looked after anymore, but arguing that point wouldn't get her anywhere.