![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: The Broken Link
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
country_who
Characters/Pairings: 10.5/Rose, The Doctor (11), OC's, The TARDIS
Genre: H/C, Romance
Rating: PG
Word Count (this chapter): ~3300
Summary: How long was the Doctor really gone when he returned for Amy? Because, Rule one is "the Doctor lies?" The Human Doctor has been living a happy life in the parallel world with Rose for nine years and their two kids. But, something the the Time Lord Doctor does back in his universe is threatening to end all that. How are Rose and the human Doctor going to cope?
Author's Note: Sorry for it being over two week since I updated this; honestly, last week was the most hectic I've ever faced before from trying to catch up from the days and sleep I missed for MUN.
Author's Note 2: I made a graphic at two in the morning last night, though. It's under the cut do to spoilers.
Catch Up Here:
Chapter 1| Chapter 2| Chapter 3| Chapter 4| Chapter 5| Chapter 6| Chapter 7
Ships can mourn. They creak louder, hum more frequently and try desperately to fill the silence; even when there were four other passengers on board. He was one of her Doctors. With her own will, she had helped create him to save the universe. He was as much the Doctor as all of her others, only he was finite. An endless pit cannot fill with love, there has to be a bottom—an end—to fill.
Even she couldn’t have predicted this. She would have liked to, but she couldn’t. She wove herself in time, but she was not time. She needed hands to tie the lines, and eyes to see where to go. She could guide, but she could not lead.
~//~
Rose curled up next to Jack and Ava while they curled into her in the TARDIS’s sitting room. She realized that Rose wouldn’t have wanted to stay in the same bed that the Doctor had died in—at least not yet. The wound was still too fresh to heal it with acceptance. She still felt like the Doctor’s hand was twisted into hers and their last kiss.
A small groan escaped Jack’s mouth while he burrowed deeper into his mother’s side and slid deeper under the thick blanket Rose had thrown over the three of them. He was constantly squirming, and trying to sleep, but Rose knew in a few hours or so he’d give up and begin walking around the depths of the TARDIS trying to get his mind off his father.
A hand smoothed back his hair when Rose reached over and soothed his thoughts. She wanted to tell them that everything would be alright, that nothing was going to change even if the Doctor wasn’t around, but she couldn’t. John had promised to take care of the three (going on four) of them, and to help the kids when they were old enough to be linked, but young enough to be malleable. It wasn’t the same though; John hadn’t been the one to hold her when things went wrong. He didn’t feel the pain from the loss of their first two children, and hence didn’t have the protective streak that the Doctor had developed. He was a Time Lord, but he wasn’t her Doctor.
Her husband had told her the first day they were married that he was worried that he wasn’t good enough for her. That he couldn’t give her the stars.
“I don’t care,” Rose had said, as she pulled him closely to her.
“You don’t?” The Doctor had never fully gotten rid of the self doubt that had come along with being abandoned by the Time Lord.
“No,” Rose promised him, and laid his hand palm side down on hers. She gently fingered his wedding band, which still had a foreign feeling to it. “I wear a ring to match that one for one reason and one reason only…”
The Doctor pulled her closer to him so that there was not a hair’s width of space between them. Rose leaned her chin into his shoulder and positioned her mouth just above his ear.
“…I love you, Doctor, my Doctor, for as long as our forever lasts…”
She could still feel that forever. It was still close enough to see and feel, yet no longer to touch.
Rose snuck up behind the Doctor, covering his eyes with one of her hands and letting her other reach into his hand. She felt his hands close around the small thin object, while his heart pounded in his chest.
“Guess what?”
“What?” the Doctor asked, there was a grin in his voice as he tried to wriggled out to take a look at what his wife had pressed into his hands.
“Guess,” Rose teased him, letting his hand tighten further around the object. “I’ll give you three.”
“Is it a banana?” the Doctor asked, suppressing a laugh and turning around to face her, while she slid the object behind her back.
“Nope.” Rose’s smile widened while her teeth bit down on the tip of her tongue.
“A… pencil,” the Doctor teased, he bent down and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
“You’re not even trying,” Rose joked.
“A miracle?” He gently lowered his hand to cover his wife’s stomach, and kissed Rose’s lips.
“You could say that,” Rose whispered, kissing him deeply and running her fingers through his hair.
He was so excited, Rose remembered thinking all that time that he was going to make the best father their child could hope for.
Dreams never went right the first time, or the second, for them at least. The Doctor held her hand through their hopes being shattered.
“Twice…” Rose muttered spitefully; she let her tears flow in hot rivers down her cheeks while the Doctor held onto her tightly. He rubbed her back and didn’t speak while she sobbed into him. She didn’t scream; that was the worst part. She didn’t cry out in agony, just silently cried into her husband.
“What’s wrong with me?” Rose asked, begging to know.
“Nothing,” the Doctor insisted. His eyes stared into hers, full of love and faith. “You’re Rose Tyler, my perfect pink and yellow girl.”
Rose couldn’t nod in agreement, while she wiped away her tears and the Doctor took her hand and led her up to their bedroom.
Later that night, Rose felt the bed shaking slightly while the Doctor let himself grieve. Rose knew he needed to cry more than anything, so she gently looped her arm over his waist and covered his hand with hers but didn’t speak.
She’d almost never seen the Doctor cry, but those few moments that he did; it made her feel just how human he was. He never cried in front of her or later the kids, but she would still catch him sometimes. The pain in his eyes and the agony hidden in the silence was like a torture for Rose.
Rose ran her hand over the Doctor’s while he kissed the top of her head. He didn’t even seem to notice her touch as he stared over at the nurse approaching them with a crying baby girl swaddled in a pink blanket.
Rose held her hands out and softly cradled the infant in her arms while the Doctor traced a finger over her feather-light hair. She calmed under their gentle touch and cooing.
“She’s perfect,” the Doctor said wistfully. “Looks just like you.”
Rose laughed. “She’s a tiny, female copy of you, Doctor.”
“Yeah, but it felt like the right thing to say,” the Doctor joked. “A baby girl that looks just like her mum.”
“She’s wonderful either way,” Rose told him. “Beautiful.”
The Doctor smiled and took the new baby out of his wife’s arms. She closed her eyes and tried for some much needed rest. The last moment locked in Rose’s memory from that day was the murmured promise the Doctor gave to his daughter.
“I promise I’ll never stray from you as long as I can help it,” the Doctor murmured. Rose imagined that the Doctor was nuzzling the child softly. “This family was founded on forever.”
Ava had been her father’s daughter ever since that moment. He was always the one she ran to. She had been taking the Doctor’s downward spiral worse than anyone else. Rose dared to even think that her five-year-old daughter had been hurting even worse than she was.
“Daddy!”
Ava sprinted out with her pigtails flying behind her. Her smile was wider than Rose or the Doctor had ever seen as he walked into their home from two weeks of a mission on the Isle of Man.
The Doctor opened his arms as the three year old flew into his arms. He spun her around and kissed the top of her head fondly.
“Hey there, long time no see, eh?”
“Too long,” Ava said pointedly, pushing her face into his leg. “Don’t go away again.”
The Doctor frowned sympathetically. “I have to. It’s my job.”
“I don’t want you to,” Ava whispered.
“I always come back, though,” the Doctor pointed out, as Rose showed up with baby Jack resting in her arms. He snuggled into his mother’s chest and cooed to her.
The Doctor smiled at them and caught them both in a one armed hug, while his other fondly ruffled Ava’s hair. She hung on his leg and leaned onto his knee heavily.
Rose grinned at her husband, her smile infectious as he beamed at her.
He had reverently refused to travel when Rose was pregnant, but Pete always seemed to come up with an excuse. Most of the time they were ridiculous, but when Rose was four months along; Pete was very insistent.
The Doctor was under his desk when Rose and Jack decided to surprise him at work. She had to bite back her laughter at the skinny legs poking out from under the desk, as he fidgeted with something.
“Hello, Doctor,” Rose greeted him, as she got down to the floor and rubbed his knee. She was quickly rewarded with a high pitched squeak that couldn’t have come from the almighty Oncoming Storm and a bang on the inside of the desk.
“Rose,” he whined, “don’t sneak up on me while I’m working.”
He peaked up from his desk and saw Rose grinning at him with Jack.
“Is your work under the desk?” Jack asked, walking around to peak at the mountains of papers that were located under his desk.
“Half the rainforest is under his desk,” Rose told Jack, while she picked up a piece of paper and began to skim it. “Doctor, this is from three years ago. I thought Pete told you to throw it out.”
“I might need it, Rose,” the Doctor argued. “D’you remember when I first started this job and I couldn’t do paper work? Well never again, Rose. I’m too brilliant to be defeated by flat, dried pieces of wood pulp.”
Rose shook her head and was about to say something to the Doctor about even this universe had invented a filing cabinet, when Pete stepped into the Doctor’s office.
Jack perked up and went up to his grandfather, tugging at his pants leg. “Grandpa, Daddy has a rain forest under his desk.”
Pete raised an eyebrow at Rose and she reached down to her husband still resting on his knees with his chin sitting on the top of his desk. She fondled his hair with her fingers; while, he tried to understand why his new system was in question.
After a few moments of awkward silence, the Doctor stood and took the file that Pete had brought in with him. He skimmed the folder’s exterior before opening it and rapidly reading the contents. The Doctor looked up at Pete with shock and awe.
“You can’t be serious,” the Doctor put the folder down on the desk while shaking his head. “You’re suggesting one troop of five people going to bring peace between two groups that have been warring for over one-hundred and fifty years?”
Pete shook his head. “No, I’m suggesting a troop of five people going to bring peace between two groups that have been warring for over one-hundred and fifty years, led by you.”
Rose knew he could never turn down a challenge like that. His ego was as big as his hair especially since the meta-crisis.
The phone rang almost constantly when the Doctor was away, most of the time it was him, checking up on her and the kids, but when she saw he father’s name on the caller ID she got worried.
“Rose…”
He had been caught in the middle of two groups, trying to mediate, but the two leaders got infuriated and he got caught in the middle. Rose remembered the rage that ran through her that quickly dissipated to worry. She gathered up the kids from school and drove all the way to Torchwood with two very tired children dozing in the backseat.
He gave her a smile the minute she walked in the room, and she knew he was going to be fine—they were always going to be just fine.
~//~
Warmth surrounded Ava as she slept with her mother’s embrace surrounding her. Something told Ava that she was just as desperate for comfort and companionship that she was. It wasn’t long before she drifted off after her brother.
~//~
Green fields stretched forever in all directions, as Ava walked out from seemingly nowhere. She’s searching for someone, she knows it. There’s a drive that repeats ‘find,’ over and over again until whatever you’re looking for finally shows up in front of your view.
Ava only wished that she knew what that something was. It would make her search so much easier. She carried on across the stretch of green grass, a path of stone within easy reach, but she chose to stay with her feet planted firmly on the vegetation beneath her bare feet.
She was wearing a white dress that reminded her of a nightgown, but it was far too elegant to sleep in. She slid her hands down the sides of the silky material and tired to remember where it came from. It lacked pockets for her to dig her hands into, but she pressed on anyway. She continued to stare around her waiting for anything to jump out at her.
“Find him, Child,” a feminine voice called from across the field. It was so soft that Ava thought it was the wind at first, but then it came again, stronger this time. “Find him, Child.” And then again, “Find him, Child.” Over and over again the voice grew louder as Ava circled around trying to locate its source, but she saw no one.
“Please,” Ava begged. “You’re scaring me.”
“Do not be frightened.”
Ava stopped cold. “Can…Can you hear me?”
The breezy voice chuckled. “Of, course I can. You are inside me aren’t you?”
Ava rubbed her eyes and shook her head. Her knees suddenly felt weak and she squatted on the ground trying to make sense of anything that was going on around her.
“I just want my, Daddy,” Ava whispered.
“I do to.” The voice was the same as before, but this time it was real. It didn’t echo across from all angles; it was right there with her, holding her attention.
Ava risked looking up to see an elderly woman standing above her. Her short, reddish hair was curled neatly and tucked behind her ears. Her clothes were all white while she kneeled in front of her. She looked angelic.
“He’s dead.”It was a statement no matter how much she wanted it to be a question.
“He is,” the woman said.
“He burned,” Ava said sniffing.
“And, how do you know that?” The woman examined Ava silently, making the five-year old squirm under her scrutiny.
“I just do,” Ava replied with a shrug. “What does it matter now?”
“It matters more than you can know, Child.” The woman replied, winking at the girl as she began to walk off.
Ava got to her feet to chase the woman, but she had already vanished. All that remained of her was a soft chuckle, which filled the breeze.
“No,” Ava yelled after her. “No! Come back! Tell me!”
~//~
Ava woke with a start in the middle of the night, her heart pounded painfully in her chest while she looked over to see her mother and Jack still sleeping. Her mother had turned on her other side in the middle of the night and was facing Jack now. It gave her an easier chance at wriggling away.
Her bare feet touched the glass floor of the TARDIS sitting room causing a chill to run up her legs. Pulling a robe on from the door knob, she stepped out of the room while she made a knot around her waist. She listened to the sound of machinery coming from the console room. She briefly considered going in the other direction, away from John, but the noise called upon her. There was something familiar about the way the hammer connected with metal, or a ratchet being used to tighten something.
“John?” she whispered, as she stepped into the console room, but she was immediately taken aback. The room was constructed out of coral struts, warm and glowing golden. The console was blue-green and far less organized than the one that had first greeted her the morning before. It was the one that her father and mother had filled her dreams with. It was perfect.
The sight of the console almost distracted her from who was standing in the corner, facing her with the widest grin on his face—almost.
He stood there, leaning against the console like he had been expecting her this whole time. Dark glasses perched themselves precariously on the tip of a long nose. Freckles dotted angular cheek bones and yielded to a boyish expression. Spiky hair stood on end and defied gravity as if it had a life of its own. His ankles were crossed as he leaned back in a textbook posture of nonchalance. From his converse sneakers to his blue pinstripe suit he was real and standing right in front of her.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Ava launched herself at her father. She didn’t care if it was him or not. He was close enough for her. He would hold her and everything would be fine. He would hold her and tell her it was all a dream.
His arms were strong, just as she remembered them. They held her while she repeated his name over and over again, like she was afraid that at any moment he would disappear.
“Never leave me, Daddy,” Ava begged. “Never let go.”
She looked up at the man desperately for reassurance, but he only offered her a sympathetic smile. “You’re father has not left you, but you must ensure that he comes back.”
Ava stared at the man with confusion, while she tried to wriggle from his grip. His voice was wrong, too refined for her father. There was no lilt that made her mother’s heart melt or her confidence to grow.
“Who are you?” Ava whispered the question, but it rang loudly in her ears.
“Right now, I am the tenth reincarnation of the Time Lord, the Doctor,” the man answered, but even then he was beginning to change. His form was shrinking in height, but gaining in girth, while his features become more feminine. “But, I can be many more beings.”
The being, now a woman, stood in front of Ava. Her red curly hair and her white clothes feeling very real. Could there really be angels?
“But, you’re… You were in my dream,” Ava stuttered. “That’s not possible.”
“When is a five-year-old worried about what was possible?” the woman asked with grin. “Being five means whizzing about in rockets that are made from boxes, or conquering castles made from ocean sand.”
“You left me,” Ava said pointedly, ignoring the claims made by the woman and getting straight to the point.
“Is it really leaving when you come back?” the woman asked, a sage grin played out on her face.
“Yes,” Ava answered immediately, but then she thought back to her father. He always came back; he never abandoned them. She hung her head lowly. “No.”
The woman reached down and lifted her head back up. “That is right.”
“Are you going to bring my daddy back?” Ava asked.
“I will help, but you must bring him back.” The woman answered.
“When?” Ava asked, not bothering to know how, just wanting to know how long she would have to wait to be held in the arms of her father again.
“After the birth of your brother,” the woman replied.
“That’s eight days away!” Ava shouted, but the woman caught her shoulder.
“Only about eight hours actually,” the woman corrected.
“The TARDIS said that it was eleven days three days ago,” Ava said. “And, John said she’s never wrong about babies.”
A mirthful glint caught in the woman’s eyes. “But, she can… embellish.”
Ava scrunched her face up at the woman, but she merely winked and disappeared.
Author:
country_whoCharacters/Pairings: 10.5/Rose, The Doctor (11), OC's, The TARDIS
Genre: H/C, Romance
Rating: PG
Word Count (this chapter): ~3300
Summary: How long was the Doctor really gone when he returned for Amy? Because, Rule one is "the Doctor lies?" The Human Doctor has been living a happy life in the parallel world with Rose for nine years and their two kids. But, something the the Time Lord Doctor does back in his universe is threatening to end all that. How are Rose and the human Doctor going to cope?
Author's Note: Sorry for it being over two week since I updated this; honestly, last week was the most hectic I've ever faced before from trying to catch up from the days and sleep I missed for MUN.
Author's Note 2: I made a graphic at two in the morning last night, though. It's under the cut do to spoilers.
Catch Up Here:
Chapter 1| Chapter 2| Chapter 3| Chapter 4| Chapter 5| Chapter 6| Chapter 7
Ships can mourn. They creak louder, hum more frequently and try desperately to fill the silence; even when there were four other passengers on board. He was one of her Doctors. With her own will, she had helped create him to save the universe. He was as much the Doctor as all of her others, only he was finite. An endless pit cannot fill with love, there has to be a bottom—an end—to fill.
Even she couldn’t have predicted this. She would have liked to, but she couldn’t. She wove herself in time, but she was not time. She needed hands to tie the lines, and eyes to see where to go. She could guide, but she could not lead.
~//~
Rose curled up next to Jack and Ava while they curled into her in the TARDIS’s sitting room. She realized that Rose wouldn’t have wanted to stay in the same bed that the Doctor had died in—at least not yet. The wound was still too fresh to heal it with acceptance. She still felt like the Doctor’s hand was twisted into hers and their last kiss.
A small groan escaped Jack’s mouth while he burrowed deeper into his mother’s side and slid deeper under the thick blanket Rose had thrown over the three of them. He was constantly squirming, and trying to sleep, but Rose knew in a few hours or so he’d give up and begin walking around the depths of the TARDIS trying to get his mind off his father.
A hand smoothed back his hair when Rose reached over and soothed his thoughts. She wanted to tell them that everything would be alright, that nothing was going to change even if the Doctor wasn’t around, but she couldn’t. John had promised to take care of the three (going on four) of them, and to help the kids when they were old enough to be linked, but young enough to be malleable. It wasn’t the same though; John hadn’t been the one to hold her when things went wrong. He didn’t feel the pain from the loss of their first two children, and hence didn’t have the protective streak that the Doctor had developed. He was a Time Lord, but he wasn’t her Doctor.
Her husband had told her the first day they were married that he was worried that he wasn’t good enough for her. That he couldn’t give her the stars.
“I don’t care,” Rose had said, as she pulled him closely to her.
“You don’t?” The Doctor had never fully gotten rid of the self doubt that had come along with being abandoned by the Time Lord.
“No,” Rose promised him, and laid his hand palm side down on hers. She gently fingered his wedding band, which still had a foreign feeling to it. “I wear a ring to match that one for one reason and one reason only…”
The Doctor pulled her closer to him so that there was not a hair’s width of space between them. Rose leaned her chin into his shoulder and positioned her mouth just above his ear.
“…I love you, Doctor, my Doctor, for as long as our forever lasts…”
She could still feel that forever. It was still close enough to see and feel, yet no longer to touch.
Rose snuck up behind the Doctor, covering his eyes with one of her hands and letting her other reach into his hand. She felt his hands close around the small thin object, while his heart pounded in his chest.
“Guess what?”
“What?” the Doctor asked, there was a grin in his voice as he tried to wriggled out to take a look at what his wife had pressed into his hands.
“Guess,” Rose teased him, letting his hand tighten further around the object. “I’ll give you three.”
“Is it a banana?” the Doctor asked, suppressing a laugh and turning around to face her, while she slid the object behind her back.
“Nope.” Rose’s smile widened while her teeth bit down on the tip of her tongue.
“A… pencil,” the Doctor teased, he bent down and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
“You’re not even trying,” Rose joked.
“A miracle?” He gently lowered his hand to cover his wife’s stomach, and kissed Rose’s lips.
“You could say that,” Rose whispered, kissing him deeply and running her fingers through his hair.
He was so excited, Rose remembered thinking all that time that he was going to make the best father their child could hope for.
Dreams never went right the first time, or the second, for them at least. The Doctor held her hand through their hopes being shattered.
“Twice…” Rose muttered spitefully; she let her tears flow in hot rivers down her cheeks while the Doctor held onto her tightly. He rubbed her back and didn’t speak while she sobbed into him. She didn’t scream; that was the worst part. She didn’t cry out in agony, just silently cried into her husband.
“What’s wrong with me?” Rose asked, begging to know.
“Nothing,” the Doctor insisted. His eyes stared into hers, full of love and faith. “You’re Rose Tyler, my perfect pink and yellow girl.”
Rose couldn’t nod in agreement, while she wiped away her tears and the Doctor took her hand and led her up to their bedroom.
Later that night, Rose felt the bed shaking slightly while the Doctor let himself grieve. Rose knew he needed to cry more than anything, so she gently looped her arm over his waist and covered his hand with hers but didn’t speak.
She’d almost never seen the Doctor cry, but those few moments that he did; it made her feel just how human he was. He never cried in front of her or later the kids, but she would still catch him sometimes. The pain in his eyes and the agony hidden in the silence was like a torture for Rose.
Rose ran her hand over the Doctor’s while he kissed the top of her head. He didn’t even seem to notice her touch as he stared over at the nurse approaching them with a crying baby girl swaddled in a pink blanket.
Rose held her hands out and softly cradled the infant in her arms while the Doctor traced a finger over her feather-light hair. She calmed under their gentle touch and cooing.
“She’s perfect,” the Doctor said wistfully. “Looks just like you.”
Rose laughed. “She’s a tiny, female copy of you, Doctor.”
“Yeah, but it felt like the right thing to say,” the Doctor joked. “A baby girl that looks just like her mum.”
“She’s wonderful either way,” Rose told him. “Beautiful.”
The Doctor smiled and took the new baby out of his wife’s arms. She closed her eyes and tried for some much needed rest. The last moment locked in Rose’s memory from that day was the murmured promise the Doctor gave to his daughter.
“I promise I’ll never stray from you as long as I can help it,” the Doctor murmured. Rose imagined that the Doctor was nuzzling the child softly. “This family was founded on forever.”
Ava had been her father’s daughter ever since that moment. He was always the one she ran to. She had been taking the Doctor’s downward spiral worse than anyone else. Rose dared to even think that her five-year-old daughter had been hurting even worse than she was.
“Daddy!”
Ava sprinted out with her pigtails flying behind her. Her smile was wider than Rose or the Doctor had ever seen as he walked into their home from two weeks of a mission on the Isle of Man.
The Doctor opened his arms as the three year old flew into his arms. He spun her around and kissed the top of her head fondly.
“Hey there, long time no see, eh?”
“Too long,” Ava said pointedly, pushing her face into his leg. “Don’t go away again.”
The Doctor frowned sympathetically. “I have to. It’s my job.”
“I don’t want you to,” Ava whispered.
“I always come back, though,” the Doctor pointed out, as Rose showed up with baby Jack resting in her arms. He snuggled into his mother’s chest and cooed to her.
The Doctor smiled at them and caught them both in a one armed hug, while his other fondly ruffled Ava’s hair. She hung on his leg and leaned onto his knee heavily.
Rose grinned at her husband, her smile infectious as he beamed at her.
He had reverently refused to travel when Rose was pregnant, but Pete always seemed to come up with an excuse. Most of the time they were ridiculous, but when Rose was four months along; Pete was very insistent.
The Doctor was under his desk when Rose and Jack decided to surprise him at work. She had to bite back her laughter at the skinny legs poking out from under the desk, as he fidgeted with something.
“Hello, Doctor,” Rose greeted him, as she got down to the floor and rubbed his knee. She was quickly rewarded with a high pitched squeak that couldn’t have come from the almighty Oncoming Storm and a bang on the inside of the desk.
“Rose,” he whined, “don’t sneak up on me while I’m working.”
He peaked up from his desk and saw Rose grinning at him with Jack.
“Is your work under the desk?” Jack asked, walking around to peak at the mountains of papers that were located under his desk.
“Half the rainforest is under his desk,” Rose told Jack, while she picked up a piece of paper and began to skim it. “Doctor, this is from three years ago. I thought Pete told you to throw it out.”
“I might need it, Rose,” the Doctor argued. “D’you remember when I first started this job and I couldn’t do paper work? Well never again, Rose. I’m too brilliant to be defeated by flat, dried pieces of wood pulp.”
Rose shook her head and was about to say something to the Doctor about even this universe had invented a filing cabinet, when Pete stepped into the Doctor’s office.
Jack perked up and went up to his grandfather, tugging at his pants leg. “Grandpa, Daddy has a rain forest under his desk.”
Pete raised an eyebrow at Rose and she reached down to her husband still resting on his knees with his chin sitting on the top of his desk. She fondled his hair with her fingers; while, he tried to understand why his new system was in question.
After a few moments of awkward silence, the Doctor stood and took the file that Pete had brought in with him. He skimmed the folder’s exterior before opening it and rapidly reading the contents. The Doctor looked up at Pete with shock and awe.
“You can’t be serious,” the Doctor put the folder down on the desk while shaking his head. “You’re suggesting one troop of five people going to bring peace between two groups that have been warring for over one-hundred and fifty years?”
Pete shook his head. “No, I’m suggesting a troop of five people going to bring peace between two groups that have been warring for over one-hundred and fifty years, led by you.”
Rose knew he could never turn down a challenge like that. His ego was as big as his hair especially since the meta-crisis.
The phone rang almost constantly when the Doctor was away, most of the time it was him, checking up on her and the kids, but when she saw he father’s name on the caller ID she got worried.
“Rose…”
He had been caught in the middle of two groups, trying to mediate, but the two leaders got infuriated and he got caught in the middle. Rose remembered the rage that ran through her that quickly dissipated to worry. She gathered up the kids from school and drove all the way to Torchwood with two very tired children dozing in the backseat.
He gave her a smile the minute she walked in the room, and she knew he was going to be fine—they were always going to be just fine.
~//~
Warmth surrounded Ava as she slept with her mother’s embrace surrounding her. Something told Ava that she was just as desperate for comfort and companionship that she was. It wasn’t long before she drifted off after her brother.
~//~
Green fields stretched forever in all directions, as Ava walked out from seemingly nowhere. She’s searching for someone, she knows it. There’s a drive that repeats ‘find,’ over and over again until whatever you’re looking for finally shows up in front of your view.
Ava only wished that she knew what that something was. It would make her search so much easier. She carried on across the stretch of green grass, a path of stone within easy reach, but she chose to stay with her feet planted firmly on the vegetation beneath her bare feet.
She was wearing a white dress that reminded her of a nightgown, but it was far too elegant to sleep in. She slid her hands down the sides of the silky material and tired to remember where it came from. It lacked pockets for her to dig her hands into, but she pressed on anyway. She continued to stare around her waiting for anything to jump out at her.
“Find him, Child,” a feminine voice called from across the field. It was so soft that Ava thought it was the wind at first, but then it came again, stronger this time. “Find him, Child.” And then again, “Find him, Child.” Over and over again the voice grew louder as Ava circled around trying to locate its source, but she saw no one.
“Please,” Ava begged. “You’re scaring me.”
“Do not be frightened.”
Ava stopped cold. “Can…Can you hear me?”
The breezy voice chuckled. “Of, course I can. You are inside me aren’t you?”
Ava rubbed her eyes and shook her head. Her knees suddenly felt weak and she squatted on the ground trying to make sense of anything that was going on around her.
“I just want my, Daddy,” Ava whispered.
“I do to.” The voice was the same as before, but this time it was real. It didn’t echo across from all angles; it was right there with her, holding her attention.
Ava risked looking up to see an elderly woman standing above her. Her short, reddish hair was curled neatly and tucked behind her ears. Her clothes were all white while she kneeled in front of her. She looked angelic.
“He’s dead.”It was a statement no matter how much she wanted it to be a question.
“He is,” the woman said.
“He burned,” Ava said sniffing.
“And, how do you know that?” The woman examined Ava silently, making the five-year old squirm under her scrutiny.
“I just do,” Ava replied with a shrug. “What does it matter now?”
“It matters more than you can know, Child.” The woman replied, winking at the girl as she began to walk off.
Ava got to her feet to chase the woman, but she had already vanished. All that remained of her was a soft chuckle, which filled the breeze.
“No,” Ava yelled after her. “No! Come back! Tell me!”
~//~
Ava woke with a start in the middle of the night, her heart pounded painfully in her chest while she looked over to see her mother and Jack still sleeping. Her mother had turned on her other side in the middle of the night and was facing Jack now. It gave her an easier chance at wriggling away.
Her bare feet touched the glass floor of the TARDIS sitting room causing a chill to run up her legs. Pulling a robe on from the door knob, she stepped out of the room while she made a knot around her waist. She listened to the sound of machinery coming from the console room. She briefly considered going in the other direction, away from John, but the noise called upon her. There was something familiar about the way the hammer connected with metal, or a ratchet being used to tighten something.
“John?” she whispered, as she stepped into the console room, but she was immediately taken aback. The room was constructed out of coral struts, warm and glowing golden. The console was blue-green and far less organized than the one that had first greeted her the morning before. It was the one that her father and mother had filled her dreams with. It was perfect.
The sight of the console almost distracted her from who was standing in the corner, facing her with the widest grin on his face—almost.
He stood there, leaning against the console like he had been expecting her this whole time. Dark glasses perched themselves precariously on the tip of a long nose. Freckles dotted angular cheek bones and yielded to a boyish expression. Spiky hair stood on end and defied gravity as if it had a life of its own. His ankles were crossed as he leaned back in a textbook posture of nonchalance. From his converse sneakers to his blue pinstripe suit he was real and standing right in front of her.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Ava launched herself at her father. She didn’t care if it was him or not. He was close enough for her. He would hold her and everything would be fine. He would hold her and tell her it was all a dream.
His arms were strong, just as she remembered them. They held her while she repeated his name over and over again, like she was afraid that at any moment he would disappear.
“Never leave me, Daddy,” Ava begged. “Never let go.”
She looked up at the man desperately for reassurance, but he only offered her a sympathetic smile. “You’re father has not left you, but you must ensure that he comes back.”
Ava stared at the man with confusion, while she tried to wriggle from his grip. His voice was wrong, too refined for her father. There was no lilt that made her mother’s heart melt or her confidence to grow.
“Who are you?” Ava whispered the question, but it rang loudly in her ears.
“Right now, I am the tenth reincarnation of the Time Lord, the Doctor,” the man answered, but even then he was beginning to change. His form was shrinking in height, but gaining in girth, while his features become more feminine. “But, I can be many more beings.”
The being, now a woman, stood in front of Ava. Her red curly hair and her white clothes feeling very real. Could there really be angels?
“But, you’re… You were in my dream,” Ava stuttered. “That’s not possible.”
“When is a five-year-old worried about what was possible?” the woman asked with grin. “Being five means whizzing about in rockets that are made from boxes, or conquering castles made from ocean sand.”
“You left me,” Ava said pointedly, ignoring the claims made by the woman and getting straight to the point.
“Is it really leaving when you come back?” the woman asked, a sage grin played out on her face.
“Yes,” Ava answered immediately, but then she thought back to her father. He always came back; he never abandoned them. She hung her head lowly. “No.”
The woman reached down and lifted her head back up. “That is right.”
“Are you going to bring my daddy back?” Ava asked.
“I will help, but you must bring him back.” The woman answered.
“When?” Ava asked, not bothering to know how, just wanting to know how long she would have to wait to be held in the arms of her father again.
“After the birth of your brother,” the woman replied.
“That’s eight days away!” Ava shouted, but the woman caught her shoulder.
“Only about eight hours actually,” the woman corrected.
“The TARDIS said that it was eleven days three days ago,” Ava said. “And, John said she’s never wrong about babies.”
A mirthful glint caught in the woman’s eyes. “But, she can… embellish.”
Ava scrunched her face up at the woman, but she merely winked and disappeared.
