tardis_stowaway (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tardis_stowaway) wrote2007-12-25 01:31 pm
tardis_stowaway) wrote2007-12-25 01:31 pm
Entry tags:
Fic: Vent Thy Folly Somewhere Else (3/3)
A very merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and a totally awesome day anyway to those who don't! For your present, I have stolen away from my family for a few minutes in order to post the final chapter in "Vent Thy Folly." Enjoy!
Story: Vent Thy Folly Somewhere Else
Author: Me,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tardis_stowaway
Characters: Alt Ninth Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Pete, Jackie
Rating: PG for a little bit of cussing
Disclaimer: Santa was extremely kind to me, but did not deliver Rose or any version of the Doctor.
Story Summary: Rose takes the parallel Doctor home to meet the family. Mistaken identity complicates everything as Mickey expresses his anger, Pete gets something off his chest, and Jackie talks about tree-sitting. Third in the Illyria series.
Follow the links if you need to read the first two stories in this series, What country, friends, is this? and Danger shall seem sport.
* * * * *
Chapter 1: Mistaken Identity
Chapter 2: Mistaken Actions
New:
The blond woman glared at the Doctor as if he were a particularly stubborn child too dumb to come in out of the rain. One of her hands was wrapped around the hand of a toddler and the other was on her hip, adding force to her scolding.
“Look, ma’am, I appreciate your concern, but I’ll be fine. Very hardy constitution.” He flashed her a quick reassuring smile and looked away, doing his best to discourage further conversation. Well-intentioned passers-by were such a nuisance.
“That’s all well and good for you, but what about Rose? You get the alien sniffles, she could catch it and, oh, I don’t know, swell up and turn purple like a giant berry! And don’t you ma’am me. It’s Jackie to you. Rose says you’re like our Doctor, and that makes you family.”
Great. Just fantastic. He was trying to make his escape and along comes the infamous Jackie Tyler. At least Rose had made sure she wasn’t going to have any mistaken identity, so perhaps he could keep from receiving any slaps he hadn’t earned. He didn’t count on it, though.
“Rose won’t catch anything from me. Why don’t you take your son inside and I’ll be along soon?” he suggested, trying to buy himself a minute to decide whether or not to say goodbye.
The toddler, evidently Rose’s brother Daniel, pointed at the Doctor with a gleeful expression.
“Batman!” he exclaimed.
“No, sweetheart, this is the Doctor,” Jackie corrected, then looked up to address the Doctor. “Lately everything’s about superheroes for him. You’re in black, so you’re Batman, but with all that coming and going from that box of yours, you might get upgraded to Superman.” Jackie, of course, completely ignored the Doctor’s suggestion that she leave.
“Just so long as I don’t have to wear tights and a cape,” he responded, then pointedly turned away from her.
Jackie didn’t reply, but she didn’t go away either. She just stood there glaring at the Doctor. Obviously he was supposed to say something, but he didn’t know what and certainly didn’t care. Eventually Jackie got tired of waiting.
“Well? You goin’ to invite us in or not?”
“Invite you in? To the TARDIS?” said the Doctor, incredulous.
“No, to Buckingham Palace. ‘Course the TARDIS! It’s raining out here.” She tapped her foot impatiently.
The Doctor got to his feet so he could stare down his nose at Jackie. Was a sense of entitlement to his ship a genetic trait of Tyler women? Or was it genetic stubbornness combined with a learned TARDIS fixation?
“You’ve got a lovely house right over there with a functional rain-proof roof. Don’t let me keep you from it.”
“Don’t kid around with me, Doctor. I need to talk with you, and you’re obviously running away from something inside the house.” Jackie said, her tone implying that he must be exceptionally slow.
“I’m not…I can’t allow small children in the TARDIS! There’s irreplaceable machinery in there. Dangerous irreplaceable machinery.” The Doctor stopped his automatic denial. Technically, he was running away, although he considered himself in strategic retreat,.
“Oh, come on now! I’ll keep an eye on Daniel. I’m not asking you to take us anywhere. We just need to talk.”
The Doctor knew he could be thoroughly intimidating when he put his mind to it, and he did so now. It wasn’t quite his maximum intimidation look, because no lives were at stake and Jackie was just a human, but it was quite intense. He let the force of centuries shine from his eyes and the devastating power of a world-destroyer radiate from his posture.
He’d stopped armies with that stare. If Jackie was the slightest bit cowed, she didn’t show it.
Astonished, he finally gave up.
“Don’t touch anything,” he warned as he unlocked the TARDIS, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that Jackie was only looking for a more private location to slap him. Jackie smiled graciously. Inside, she pulled out paper and crayons from her cavernous handbag and passed them to Daniel, who sat on the jumpseat and began to draw, chattering happily to himself. The Doctor placed himself between the toddler and the console and folded his arms.
Jackie Tyler looked around the control room, making a face like she had a bad taste in her mouth. Her arms echoed his own aggressive body language. After a minute she spoke.
“You look about ready to run off alone. Never thought I’d be saying this, but Doctor, you should take Rose with you.”
“What?” the Doctor blurted, startled. Jackie rolled her eyes at him and explained.
“Before, I always wanted the other Doctor to send her home safe to me, but these past few years I’ve figured out that’s not something I can ever have from Rose, with or without you. Having her home just means knowing more about how often she risks her life to help people. My Daniel loves superheroes because they’re all around him…Rose, Pete, Ricky, most of their friends. Blimey, I’m the ordinary one and I once killed an ugly green monster in a kitchen with a pitcher of vinegar.
“No mother should have her child grow up to be a hero. Since she left with the other you, I’ve been nothing but nerves. Still, I could have forgiven her for running off to become a street musician or a topless dancer or a teen mother, so I can forgive her for hanging around with aliens and working for Torchwood.”
At this the Doctor could hold his tongue no longer. “I’m glad to see you have such a high opinion of Rose’s career path,” he said sarcastically. Jackie shot him a withering stare.
“Shut up, you git. I’m not done yet. Anyway, lately I’ve been thinking it’s like she’s one of those people you hear about who go and live in one a giant tree for months to keep it from being cut down. It’s not a very sane thing to do, living in a tree. Still, the people seem to enjoy it, and maybe the world is a little bit better because somebody had the craziness it took to save these trees. And if it’s your daughter up a tree, there’s not much to do except send her up some clean clothes and do your part to save the trees so maybe she can come down if she gets tired of it. Rose always did love climbing. She’s going to be up some tree or another no matter what I do. She might as well be up there with someone else so she’s not so lonely, and someone might as well be you.”
“Thanks for that ringing endorsement,” he shot, “but did you ever stop to think that I have other considerations than whether you approve or even whether she would enjoy it?”
“You just got handed a lot of baggage that belonged to the other Doctor, didn’t you?” Jackie asked with a sigh. Surprised, the Doctor nodded. That was not the whole of it, but Ricky and Pete’s revelations of how much the other Doctor meant to Rose were disconcerting.
“Thought so. Look, this family knows something about dealing with doubles. Rose’ll figure you out the same as me and Pete figured each other out, and the rest of us will manage to drop the baggage soon enough.”
“I work better alone,” the Doctor grumbled, desperately wishing Jackie would go away so he could brood in peace.
“I used to tell myself I could raise a child better alone than with any man. Alone was better than with most of the blokes I knew, but when I got my second Pete I found out what I’d been missing. Let’s just say if Daniel comes out well it won’t be a fluke like it was with Rose. Any kind of life’s much better with two. People need company, even people who’re superheroes or aliens.”
Jackie’s normal strident tone was gone, replaced by a wide-eyed earnestness that made the Doctor’s mind flit back to Rose. Stubborn, compassionate, courageous Rose—her mother’s daughter. The young woman’s presence made him feel more alive than he had in decades, maybe centuries. Yes, of course people need company, but did he count as a person or just a second-rate legend who couldn’t even finish off his nemeses?
“You want to send away your own daughter?” he demanded.
“’Course I don’t want to!” snapped Jackie. “How thick are you? I want her to go on being my little girl until she marries some decent bloke and makes me lots of grandchildren. But Rose always goes her own way, never mind what I want or ask of her.”
The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it.” He and Jackie shared a moment of silent bonding over Rose’s willfulness.
“Sending Rose with you is the right thing you and for her. ‘Sides, as far as this universe is concerned she’s not even my real daughter. When we got here, I could claim to be the other Jackie. Just told them I’d left the country when the Cybermen attacked, not died like everyone thought. Rose didn’t have an identity, and too many people knew the other Jackie had never been pregnant for anyone to believe she was mine. So she’s supposed to be Pete’s daughter with another woman, a coatroom attendant we pay to pretend to be Rose’s mum. I’ve adopted Rose, but it’s strange.” Jackie spoke with a heavy dose of wistfulness.
“I’m sorry,” offered the Doctor solemnly. Jackie just shrugged: it was an old wound, long scarred over. So much stronger than they looked, these peculiar apes.
“Enough of that,” said Jackie, collecting herself. “So, are you gonna come in and have some shepherd’s pie, or are you gonna go back to sitting in the rain looking like your cat just died?”
“I don’t have a cat, alive, dead, or Schrödinger’s,” the Doctor responded, earning a Jackie glare. “Are those my only choices?”
Jackie frowned. “Well, if you don’t like shepherd’s pie I could throw together a curry, but yeah. What’ll it be, Doctor? Warm food and a bit of companionship, or moping like some sorry teenager, probably about something you can’t even control?”
Jackie had a remarkable talent for distilling complex issues down to a bare-bones explanation that made him look ridiculous. Time Lords didn’t mope. Then again, he had never been a conventional Time Lord. Maybe he had been moping. Maybe he should stop.
Despair was a weapon. The Daleks and the Ruacmord were still wielding it, even unseen, crippled if not destroyed by the Time War. If he let fear control him, even fear for others and not himself, they won. Maybe what he needed to fight back was someone who believed in him but could still check him when he needed it. Someone to inspire him to do more than just keep on keeping on. Someone like Rose.
Young Daniel had stopped drawing and was now staring in rapt fascination at the swirls of Gallifreyan writing on the console display. Too curious by far, thought the Doctor, just like his sister. Daniel abruptly hopped to his feet and sped towards the many exciting yankable levers, forcing the Doctor to lunge out and grab him before the TARDIS was sent hurtling willy-nilly into the vortex. He lifted the giggling toddler onto his shoulders.
“Shepherd’s pie it is, then,” he surrendered.
“Great! It’ll be just the thing for a rainy day. Oh, and Doctor,” she paused, leaning in close to whisper, “On the phone, Rose had me swear not to make you promise anything about her safety. I know she’s an adult now and it’s a dangerous world out there. Still, if a single hair on her head comes to harm and I have the slightest hint that you could have prevented it, I will kick you where it counts so hard your next body will sing soprano. Got it?”
The Doctor nodded, looking somewhat pale. Jackie smiled back at him sweetly.
“Good. We understand each other. Now, what can I get you to drink?” she said cheerily as she exited the TARDIS.
* * * * * * *
Back in the house, Rose Tyler hammered away at her keyboard. The Doctor and her dad hadn’t come to look for her, so she figured they must be getting along fine. Probably her dad was showing the Doctor his latest suitcase full of mysterious alien tech and the Doctor was declaring it all to be kettles and elaborate hats. She might as well do some damage control on the mess Dr. Flint had told her about and then deal with the bureaucratic wrap-up for her last mission at Torchwood. Make that her last mission as a full-time Torchwood agent—she fully intended to consult whenever she came back to this bit of space-time. She smiled as she worked, feeling so happy she wouldn’t have been surprised if little singing birds started following her around while flowers burst into bloom at her every step.
Rose had her own flat, but once again she was glad to have kept a room in her parents’ house. She had enough clothes and necessities here to avoid a trip to back to her flat to pack, but maybe she should go anyway, pick up her favorite winter coat and a bigger supply of knickers. She’d waited three years, so another few hours or even a day shouldn’t hurt.
They shouldn’t, but she could hear the TARDIS singing at the edge of her mind, calling her out to the black. She wondered if she could type faster. Instead, her eyes kept darting to the window like a child eager for the end of school while her mind wandered.
This was it, then. The moment she had almost given up hoping for had arrived. Tomorrow she would be gone from Earth for who knows how long. Strange how her body could simultaneously contain the giddy butterfly-wings fluttering of excitement that always came before she set out on a journey and the warm, anchored sensation that meant coming home, and both were for the Doctor.
Her reverie was interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the stairs. One person, moving slowly, as if tired or reluctant. That was odd. The footsteps paused right outside her door.
“What is it, Dad? Doctor?” she called out uncertainly. Pete Tyler opened the door. His stricken expression turned the butterflies of excitement in Rose’s stomach into large flopping fish of dread.
“Dad? What’s going on?” she asked, voice higher than usual. “Where’s the Doctor?”
“Oh, Rose,” said her father, coming into the room to wrap her in an embrace. Rose returned the hug, confused and frightened. After a moment Pete drew back and opened his mouth to speak.
At that precise moment the front door slammed.
“Rose, I don’t know why you always complained about Ricky paying more attention to his computer than you. Guess who I found trying to skip out of a family supper to do a little tinkering on the TARDIS,” Jackie hollered.
Rose dashed out of her room and looked down the stairs. Her mother had just come in the door with the Doctor, who was carrying Daniel on his shoulders.
“I’ll thank you not to compare me to that idiot. My so-called tinkering keeps my amazing timeship from accidentally ending up on years and light-years off course,” the Doctor protested, all light-hearted mock offense. Too light-hearted…he rarely used that tone of voice when he was being completely honest.
“If you can do that then I’ll be sure you’re not Rose’s Doctor.” Jackie quipped. “Besides, it’s not like it’ll get any more broken during one meal.”
“That’s true,” said Pete, coming up behind Rose. “You certainly left in a hurry for someone wanting to tinker around.” He leveled an inscrutable gaze at the Doctor. Rose noticed that the Doctor was soaking wet as if he’d been outside for a long while, far wetter than he should be from walking between the house and the TARDIS.
“Realized I’d left the coolant system on a self-repair cycle without opening the runoff vents, a mistake that can make the pipes burst. As you can see.” The Doctor gestured at his dripping clothing.
Rose bit her lip. Something was strange here. The Doctor was concealing something, and oddly enough Jackie seemed to be covering for him. She had half a mind to call them on it right away, but just then she met the Doctor’s gaze. Let it go, his eyes seemed to plead.
She could challenge him. Trying to prove that her job at Torchwood wasn’t just nepotism, she’d constantly been forced to assert that she wasn’t a mere sidekick to be kept out of the loop. Then again, relationships as important as family ties or the budding bond she shared with this Doctor required a completely different attitude than office politics. If the Doctor had a reason for running off on her father and being outside in the rain for a while, he’d explain eventually if it were important. Hopefully.
They weren’t on a two-minute time limit. They had all the time in the universe to say what needed to be said—except she knew that wasn’t so. No such thing as ever after, but that was all the more reason to let it go. Like the saying went, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow…
“Lord of Time but not of plumbing, I see,” Rose said with a cheeky wink. “By the way, Mr. Doesn’t Do Domestic, are you aware that you’ve got a toddler on your shoulders?”
“My goodness, how did that get there?” said the Doctor, swinging a giggling Daniel down to the ground. The tension that been underneath the conversation dispersed. Pete took Daniel off for a change of clothes. Jackie hustled off towards the kitchen, and Rose grabbed the Doctor’s hand to drag him along to help with chopping vegetables.
* * * * * * *
The dish of shepherd’s pie was nearly empty, as was the bottle of wine. Jackie was relating some story about her friend Beth’s daughter’s wedding, a tale that rivaled a Wagnerian opera in complexity. The Doctor had his arms folded and a slightly glazed look in his eyes, but he was making a valiant effort to keep up a steady stream of “mmm-hmm,” “is that so?” and other appropriate remarks. Rose kept glancing back and forth between the Doctor, her family, and the window, where a rainbow spanned a clearing sky that now beckoned her instead of mocking. Her heart felt so swollen with joy she was amazed it didn’t split like a dividing cell and give her a Time Lord’s circulation.
It was at that point that a monster crashed through the front door in shower of splinters and spittle.
The creature was built like a very large gorilla, but with a hyena-like head and pebbly bruise-colored skin. It roared and smashed a lamp to pieces with one massive arm.
“Get bleach. Now!” shouted the Doctor and Pete in unison, but Rose was already sprinting towards the cleaning supplies closet. The Doctor picked up a chair and held it like a lion tamer. The beast lunged and snapped, trying to get around the chair to the family.
“Oh, come on! I just redecorated the front room last month. Why don’t they ever come in through the sitting room so I can replace that awful green sofa?” Jackie complained.
“I like that sofa!” Rose protested from the next room. “Get Daniel out of here, why don’t you?”
“Who’s his mother, you or me? I’m on that already. Doctor, pass me that phone. I’ll call Torchwood,” Jackie said, gathering up her son and heading for the basement with the mobile.
In moments Rose was back with two bottles of bleach, tossing one to her father. The two Tylers poured the contents of the bottles onto the floor right in front of the beast. It immediately stopped its roaring and began sniffing intently at the bleach. It began to roll around in the puddle of bleach, making little grunting sounds. Soon the rolling around slowed and it lay still except for the steady rise and fall of breathing.
Pete immediately began binding the sleeping beast’s arms together with duct tape while Rose used rags to tie the jaws shut.
The Doctor put his chair down and leaned against the wall, watching them work appreciatively. Just minutes ago the family had been a picture of blissful, stifling domesticity, but they were handling the intrusion as smoothly as if it were no more than a burning pie in the oven. Was this a typical family meal in the Tyler house? If Rose absolutely insisted on visiting often, well, maybe he could stand it after all. Really, it was the most reassuring alien home invasion he’d seen in a long while.
“We should have a team here within ten minutes. That’s the third one of these attacking our agents in London this week and only dumb luck we figured out that bleach is extra-strength catnip to them. Do you know what that is, Doctor?” said Pete.
“Vomom. They’re a hive species—this is a subsentient soldier caste sent as an advance guard, probably targeted on anyone with alien experience. The rest of the soldiers, the workers and the queen can’t be far behind. Your whole planet will be under attack any day now, Mr. Tyler,” the Doctor warned.
“Will you help us, Doctor?” Pete asked.
“What would you do if I said no?” the Doctor said, his smile letting them know that he joked.
“Torchwood could defeat it on our own,” Rose replied proudly, “but probably more messily.”
“I’d ground my daughter,” Pete deadpanned.
“Hey!” protested Rose with a swat at her father. “You can’t do that. I’m 24 and I’ve got my own flat!” The men ignored her.
“Can’t have that, so I guess I’ll just have to save the Earth. Does she have a curfew?” the Doctor told Pete. Rose stuck her tongue out at him.
“You’ve got a time machine. A curfew is kind of meaningless.” Pete shrugged. Then he turned to Rose, adding, “Besides, Rose is an adult who is fully capable of taking responsibility for herself and when necessary the entire human race.”
Rose beamed and wrapped her father in a quick hug.
“Right, then. We’ve got a planet to defend!” she proclaimed.
“Hold on a minute and I’ll make you sandwiches!” Jackie called, emerging from the cellar. Knowing that “sandwiches” could turn into huge, heavy picnic spread that would take ages to pack, Rose, the Doctor, and Pete all shouted excuses and sprinted for the door.
As they slipped out into the twilight, Rose leaned in close to the Doctor. “After we clear up this mess, let’s blow this popsicle stand!” she whispered. She couldn’t exactly swan off while her planet was in immediate peril, but the Doctor’s presence awoke in her a wanderlust so strong her feet itched.
“What’ll it be, then?” the Doctor asked, surprising himself with the thrill of excitement that Rose’s eagerness provoked. “Riding the waves of a plasma storm? Debating philosophers in ancient Greece? Zero-gravity gala in the thirty-fourth century?”
“Zero-gravity gala sounds wonderful! But what do I wear? A ball gown would be a bit revealing in freefall.” Rose frowned.
“How should I know? I wear what I always wear and that seems to work out.”
“Well, lend me your jacket and I’ll be appropriately dressed,” she suggested, offering her arm to him. He took it with a smile.
“If you’re trying to make me take you shopping, it won’t work,” he said firmly. With Rose fitting so neatly at his side, the Doctor found it hard to remember just why he had been so intent on leaving a few hours ago. She grinned at him, that fantastic smile with sparkling eyes and peeking tongue. He found himself beaming unrestrainedly back.
Over Rose’s shoulder, the Doctor saw Pete, and the sight brought a sobering reminder of the day’s worst revelation. Rose’s smile faded as she watched his own happiness flee his face. He looked into those long-lashed eyes, full of concern and questions. Inhaling deeply, he let one more layer of his armor drop away.
“Sometime you’ll have to tell me about how you met Daleks,” he said.
Rose’s eyes widened. How had he found out? Her dad. That must be why the Doctor had left in such a hurry. She remembered all too well how desperate and tormented the Doctor had been upon first meeting that Dalek in Van Statten’s bunker. He’d pointed a gun at her, for crying out loud.
“I’m sorry,” she said gently. “I didn’t mention them because I wasn’t sure how you’d take it.”
“You know me too well already,” he said darkly.
“Don’t be like that!” Rose scolded before softening her voice again. “Anyway, since the cat’s out of the bag, I met Daleks three times. Shall I tell you about the time you—the other you, I mean—sent millions of Cybermen and Daleks literally to hell, the time we convinced an emo Dalek to kill itself, or the time I looked into the heart of the TARDIS and used the power of the Time Vortex to wipe an invasion fleet out of the sky?”
Rose arched her eyebrows at him, daring him to challenge her triumphant narrative. If this Doctor was going to have a crisis of insecurity about the existence of Daleks, then she needed to remind him that they were not invincible.
“You looked into the heart of the TARDIS?” the Doctor asked, looking her up and down wonderingly as if he could spot bits of Time Vortex clinging to her.
“That’s what Bad Wolf was: me with the Time Vortex inside, scattering messages to myself across time so I’d figure out what to do. It’s all a bit fuzzy, but I know I saved the other Doctor’s life, and then he saved mine. Over there, we practically ate Daleks for breakfast.”
The Doctor could tell Rose was hiding memories of fear and pain under that bravado, but she seemed to be speaking the truth. She held the Time Vortex? And survived? No wonder the TARDIS was so taken with her.
“You certainly are something, Rose Tyler. Possibly insane, that’s definitely something,” he said, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face.
“Insane in a good way?” she asked hopefully.
The Doctor chuckled. “Yeah, of course. Insane in a fantastic way.”
Peter Tyler, who had been standing impatiently with the car door open just out of hearing range of the conversation, cleared his throat loudly. “Alien invasion, anyone?”
* * * * *
The Illyria series continues in Such Disguise
Story: Vent Thy Folly Somewhere Else
Author: Me,
tardis_stowawayCharacters: Alt Ninth Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Pete, Jackie
Rating: PG for a little bit of cussing
Disclaimer: Santa was extremely kind to me, but did not deliver Rose or any version of the Doctor.
Story Summary: Rose takes the parallel Doctor home to meet the family. Mistaken identity complicates everything as Mickey expresses his anger, Pete gets something off his chest, and Jackie talks about tree-sitting. Third in the Illyria series.
Follow the links if you need to read the first two stories in this series, What country, friends, is this? and Danger shall seem sport.
* * * * *
Chapter 1: Mistaken Identity
Chapter 2: Mistaken Actions
New:
The blond woman glared at the Doctor as if he were a particularly stubborn child too dumb to come in out of the rain. One of her hands was wrapped around the hand of a toddler and the other was on her hip, adding force to her scolding.
“Look, ma’am, I appreciate your concern, but I’ll be fine. Very hardy constitution.” He flashed her a quick reassuring smile and looked away, doing his best to discourage further conversation. Well-intentioned passers-by were such a nuisance.
“That’s all well and good for you, but what about Rose? You get the alien sniffles, she could catch it and, oh, I don’t know, swell up and turn purple like a giant berry! And don’t you ma’am me. It’s Jackie to you. Rose says you’re like our Doctor, and that makes you family.”
Great. Just fantastic. He was trying to make his escape and along comes the infamous Jackie Tyler. At least Rose had made sure she wasn’t going to have any mistaken identity, so perhaps he could keep from receiving any slaps he hadn’t earned. He didn’t count on it, though.
“Rose won’t catch anything from me. Why don’t you take your son inside and I’ll be along soon?” he suggested, trying to buy himself a minute to decide whether or not to say goodbye.
The toddler, evidently Rose’s brother Daniel, pointed at the Doctor with a gleeful expression.
“Batman!” he exclaimed.
“No, sweetheart, this is the Doctor,” Jackie corrected, then looked up to address the Doctor. “Lately everything’s about superheroes for him. You’re in black, so you’re Batman, but with all that coming and going from that box of yours, you might get upgraded to Superman.” Jackie, of course, completely ignored the Doctor’s suggestion that she leave.
“Just so long as I don’t have to wear tights and a cape,” he responded, then pointedly turned away from her.
Jackie didn’t reply, but she didn’t go away either. She just stood there glaring at the Doctor. Obviously he was supposed to say something, but he didn’t know what and certainly didn’t care. Eventually Jackie got tired of waiting.
“Well? You goin’ to invite us in or not?”
“Invite you in? To the TARDIS?” said the Doctor, incredulous.
“No, to Buckingham Palace. ‘Course the TARDIS! It’s raining out here.” She tapped her foot impatiently.
The Doctor got to his feet so he could stare down his nose at Jackie. Was a sense of entitlement to his ship a genetic trait of Tyler women? Or was it genetic stubbornness combined with a learned TARDIS fixation?
“You’ve got a lovely house right over there with a functional rain-proof roof. Don’t let me keep you from it.”
“Don’t kid around with me, Doctor. I need to talk with you, and you’re obviously running away from something inside the house.” Jackie said, her tone implying that he must be exceptionally slow.
“I’m not…I can’t allow small children in the TARDIS! There’s irreplaceable machinery in there. Dangerous irreplaceable machinery.” The Doctor stopped his automatic denial. Technically, he was running away, although he considered himself in strategic retreat,.
“Oh, come on now! I’ll keep an eye on Daniel. I’m not asking you to take us anywhere. We just need to talk.”
The Doctor knew he could be thoroughly intimidating when he put his mind to it, and he did so now. It wasn’t quite his maximum intimidation look, because no lives were at stake and Jackie was just a human, but it was quite intense. He let the force of centuries shine from his eyes and the devastating power of a world-destroyer radiate from his posture.
He’d stopped armies with that stare. If Jackie was the slightest bit cowed, she didn’t show it.
Astonished, he finally gave up.
“Don’t touch anything,” he warned as he unlocked the TARDIS, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that Jackie was only looking for a more private location to slap him. Jackie smiled graciously. Inside, she pulled out paper and crayons from her cavernous handbag and passed them to Daniel, who sat on the jumpseat and began to draw, chattering happily to himself. The Doctor placed himself between the toddler and the console and folded his arms.
Jackie Tyler looked around the control room, making a face like she had a bad taste in her mouth. Her arms echoed his own aggressive body language. After a minute she spoke.
“You look about ready to run off alone. Never thought I’d be saying this, but Doctor, you should take Rose with you.”
“What?” the Doctor blurted, startled. Jackie rolled her eyes at him and explained.
“Before, I always wanted the other Doctor to send her home safe to me, but these past few years I’ve figured out that’s not something I can ever have from Rose, with or without you. Having her home just means knowing more about how often she risks her life to help people. My Daniel loves superheroes because they’re all around him…Rose, Pete, Ricky, most of their friends. Blimey, I’m the ordinary one and I once killed an ugly green monster in a kitchen with a pitcher of vinegar.
“No mother should have her child grow up to be a hero. Since she left with the other you, I’ve been nothing but nerves. Still, I could have forgiven her for running off to become a street musician or a topless dancer or a teen mother, so I can forgive her for hanging around with aliens and working for Torchwood.”
At this the Doctor could hold his tongue no longer. “I’m glad to see you have such a high opinion of Rose’s career path,” he said sarcastically. Jackie shot him a withering stare.
“Shut up, you git. I’m not done yet. Anyway, lately I’ve been thinking it’s like she’s one of those people you hear about who go and live in one a giant tree for months to keep it from being cut down. It’s not a very sane thing to do, living in a tree. Still, the people seem to enjoy it, and maybe the world is a little bit better because somebody had the craziness it took to save these trees. And if it’s your daughter up a tree, there’s not much to do except send her up some clean clothes and do your part to save the trees so maybe she can come down if she gets tired of it. Rose always did love climbing. She’s going to be up some tree or another no matter what I do. She might as well be up there with someone else so she’s not so lonely, and someone might as well be you.”
“Thanks for that ringing endorsement,” he shot, “but did you ever stop to think that I have other considerations than whether you approve or even whether she would enjoy it?”
“You just got handed a lot of baggage that belonged to the other Doctor, didn’t you?” Jackie asked with a sigh. Surprised, the Doctor nodded. That was not the whole of it, but Ricky and Pete’s revelations of how much the other Doctor meant to Rose were disconcerting.
“Thought so. Look, this family knows something about dealing with doubles. Rose’ll figure you out the same as me and Pete figured each other out, and the rest of us will manage to drop the baggage soon enough.”
“I work better alone,” the Doctor grumbled, desperately wishing Jackie would go away so he could brood in peace.
“I used to tell myself I could raise a child better alone than with any man. Alone was better than with most of the blokes I knew, but when I got my second Pete I found out what I’d been missing. Let’s just say if Daniel comes out well it won’t be a fluke like it was with Rose. Any kind of life’s much better with two. People need company, even people who’re superheroes or aliens.”
Jackie’s normal strident tone was gone, replaced by a wide-eyed earnestness that made the Doctor’s mind flit back to Rose. Stubborn, compassionate, courageous Rose—her mother’s daughter. The young woman’s presence made him feel more alive than he had in decades, maybe centuries. Yes, of course people need company, but did he count as a person or just a second-rate legend who couldn’t even finish off his nemeses?
“You want to send away your own daughter?” he demanded.
“’Course I don’t want to!” snapped Jackie. “How thick are you? I want her to go on being my little girl until she marries some decent bloke and makes me lots of grandchildren. But Rose always goes her own way, never mind what I want or ask of her.”
The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it.” He and Jackie shared a moment of silent bonding over Rose’s willfulness.
“Sending Rose with you is the right thing you and for her. ‘Sides, as far as this universe is concerned she’s not even my real daughter. When we got here, I could claim to be the other Jackie. Just told them I’d left the country when the Cybermen attacked, not died like everyone thought. Rose didn’t have an identity, and too many people knew the other Jackie had never been pregnant for anyone to believe she was mine. So she’s supposed to be Pete’s daughter with another woman, a coatroom attendant we pay to pretend to be Rose’s mum. I’ve adopted Rose, but it’s strange.” Jackie spoke with a heavy dose of wistfulness.
“I’m sorry,” offered the Doctor solemnly. Jackie just shrugged: it was an old wound, long scarred over. So much stronger than they looked, these peculiar apes.
“Enough of that,” said Jackie, collecting herself. “So, are you gonna come in and have some shepherd’s pie, or are you gonna go back to sitting in the rain looking like your cat just died?”
“I don’t have a cat, alive, dead, or Schrödinger’s,” the Doctor responded, earning a Jackie glare. “Are those my only choices?”
Jackie frowned. “Well, if you don’t like shepherd’s pie I could throw together a curry, but yeah. What’ll it be, Doctor? Warm food and a bit of companionship, or moping like some sorry teenager, probably about something you can’t even control?”
Jackie had a remarkable talent for distilling complex issues down to a bare-bones explanation that made him look ridiculous. Time Lords didn’t mope. Then again, he had never been a conventional Time Lord. Maybe he had been moping. Maybe he should stop.
Despair was a weapon. The Daleks and the Ruacmord were still wielding it, even unseen, crippled if not destroyed by the Time War. If he let fear control him, even fear for others and not himself, they won. Maybe what he needed to fight back was someone who believed in him but could still check him when he needed it. Someone to inspire him to do more than just keep on keeping on. Someone like Rose.
Young Daniel had stopped drawing and was now staring in rapt fascination at the swirls of Gallifreyan writing on the console display. Too curious by far, thought the Doctor, just like his sister. Daniel abruptly hopped to his feet and sped towards the many exciting yankable levers, forcing the Doctor to lunge out and grab him before the TARDIS was sent hurtling willy-nilly into the vortex. He lifted the giggling toddler onto his shoulders.
“Shepherd’s pie it is, then,” he surrendered.
“Great! It’ll be just the thing for a rainy day. Oh, and Doctor,” she paused, leaning in close to whisper, “On the phone, Rose had me swear not to make you promise anything about her safety. I know she’s an adult now and it’s a dangerous world out there. Still, if a single hair on her head comes to harm and I have the slightest hint that you could have prevented it, I will kick you where it counts so hard your next body will sing soprano. Got it?”
The Doctor nodded, looking somewhat pale. Jackie smiled back at him sweetly.
“Good. We understand each other. Now, what can I get you to drink?” she said cheerily as she exited the TARDIS.
* * * * * * *
Back in the house, Rose Tyler hammered away at her keyboard. The Doctor and her dad hadn’t come to look for her, so she figured they must be getting along fine. Probably her dad was showing the Doctor his latest suitcase full of mysterious alien tech and the Doctor was declaring it all to be kettles and elaborate hats. She might as well do some damage control on the mess Dr. Flint had told her about and then deal with the bureaucratic wrap-up for her last mission at Torchwood. Make that her last mission as a full-time Torchwood agent—she fully intended to consult whenever she came back to this bit of space-time. She smiled as she worked, feeling so happy she wouldn’t have been surprised if little singing birds started following her around while flowers burst into bloom at her every step.
Rose had her own flat, but once again she was glad to have kept a room in her parents’ house. She had enough clothes and necessities here to avoid a trip to back to her flat to pack, but maybe she should go anyway, pick up her favorite winter coat and a bigger supply of knickers. She’d waited three years, so another few hours or even a day shouldn’t hurt.
They shouldn’t, but she could hear the TARDIS singing at the edge of her mind, calling her out to the black. She wondered if she could type faster. Instead, her eyes kept darting to the window like a child eager for the end of school while her mind wandered.
This was it, then. The moment she had almost given up hoping for had arrived. Tomorrow she would be gone from Earth for who knows how long. Strange how her body could simultaneously contain the giddy butterfly-wings fluttering of excitement that always came before she set out on a journey and the warm, anchored sensation that meant coming home, and both were for the Doctor.
Her reverie was interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the stairs. One person, moving slowly, as if tired or reluctant. That was odd. The footsteps paused right outside her door.
“What is it, Dad? Doctor?” she called out uncertainly. Pete Tyler opened the door. His stricken expression turned the butterflies of excitement in Rose’s stomach into large flopping fish of dread.
“Dad? What’s going on?” she asked, voice higher than usual. “Where’s the Doctor?”
“Oh, Rose,” said her father, coming into the room to wrap her in an embrace. Rose returned the hug, confused and frightened. After a moment Pete drew back and opened his mouth to speak.
At that precise moment the front door slammed.
“Rose, I don’t know why you always complained about Ricky paying more attention to his computer than you. Guess who I found trying to skip out of a family supper to do a little tinkering on the TARDIS,” Jackie hollered.
Rose dashed out of her room and looked down the stairs. Her mother had just come in the door with the Doctor, who was carrying Daniel on his shoulders.
“I’ll thank you not to compare me to that idiot. My so-called tinkering keeps my amazing timeship from accidentally ending up on years and light-years off course,” the Doctor protested, all light-hearted mock offense. Too light-hearted…he rarely used that tone of voice when he was being completely honest.
“If you can do that then I’ll be sure you’re not Rose’s Doctor.” Jackie quipped. “Besides, it’s not like it’ll get any more broken during one meal.”
“That’s true,” said Pete, coming up behind Rose. “You certainly left in a hurry for someone wanting to tinker around.” He leveled an inscrutable gaze at the Doctor. Rose noticed that the Doctor was soaking wet as if he’d been outside for a long while, far wetter than he should be from walking between the house and the TARDIS.
“Realized I’d left the coolant system on a self-repair cycle without opening the runoff vents, a mistake that can make the pipes burst. As you can see.” The Doctor gestured at his dripping clothing.
Rose bit her lip. Something was strange here. The Doctor was concealing something, and oddly enough Jackie seemed to be covering for him. She had half a mind to call them on it right away, but just then she met the Doctor’s gaze. Let it go, his eyes seemed to plead.
She could challenge him. Trying to prove that her job at Torchwood wasn’t just nepotism, she’d constantly been forced to assert that she wasn’t a mere sidekick to be kept out of the loop. Then again, relationships as important as family ties or the budding bond she shared with this Doctor required a completely different attitude than office politics. If the Doctor had a reason for running off on her father and being outside in the rain for a while, he’d explain eventually if it were important. Hopefully.
They weren’t on a two-minute time limit. They had all the time in the universe to say what needed to be said—except she knew that wasn’t so. No such thing as ever after, but that was all the more reason to let it go. Like the saying went, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow…
“Lord of Time but not of plumbing, I see,” Rose said with a cheeky wink. “By the way, Mr. Doesn’t Do Domestic, are you aware that you’ve got a toddler on your shoulders?”
“My goodness, how did that get there?” said the Doctor, swinging a giggling Daniel down to the ground. The tension that been underneath the conversation dispersed. Pete took Daniel off for a change of clothes. Jackie hustled off towards the kitchen, and Rose grabbed the Doctor’s hand to drag him along to help with chopping vegetables.
* * * * * * *
The dish of shepherd’s pie was nearly empty, as was the bottle of wine. Jackie was relating some story about her friend Beth’s daughter’s wedding, a tale that rivaled a Wagnerian opera in complexity. The Doctor had his arms folded and a slightly glazed look in his eyes, but he was making a valiant effort to keep up a steady stream of “mmm-hmm,” “is that so?” and other appropriate remarks. Rose kept glancing back and forth between the Doctor, her family, and the window, where a rainbow spanned a clearing sky that now beckoned her instead of mocking. Her heart felt so swollen with joy she was amazed it didn’t split like a dividing cell and give her a Time Lord’s circulation.
It was at that point that a monster crashed through the front door in shower of splinters and spittle.
The creature was built like a very large gorilla, but with a hyena-like head and pebbly bruise-colored skin. It roared and smashed a lamp to pieces with one massive arm.
“Get bleach. Now!” shouted the Doctor and Pete in unison, but Rose was already sprinting towards the cleaning supplies closet. The Doctor picked up a chair and held it like a lion tamer. The beast lunged and snapped, trying to get around the chair to the family.
“Oh, come on! I just redecorated the front room last month. Why don’t they ever come in through the sitting room so I can replace that awful green sofa?” Jackie complained.
“I like that sofa!” Rose protested from the next room. “Get Daniel out of here, why don’t you?”
“Who’s his mother, you or me? I’m on that already. Doctor, pass me that phone. I’ll call Torchwood,” Jackie said, gathering up her son and heading for the basement with the mobile.
In moments Rose was back with two bottles of bleach, tossing one to her father. The two Tylers poured the contents of the bottles onto the floor right in front of the beast. It immediately stopped its roaring and began sniffing intently at the bleach. It began to roll around in the puddle of bleach, making little grunting sounds. Soon the rolling around slowed and it lay still except for the steady rise and fall of breathing.
Pete immediately began binding the sleeping beast’s arms together with duct tape while Rose used rags to tie the jaws shut.
The Doctor put his chair down and leaned against the wall, watching them work appreciatively. Just minutes ago the family had been a picture of blissful, stifling domesticity, but they were handling the intrusion as smoothly as if it were no more than a burning pie in the oven. Was this a typical family meal in the Tyler house? If Rose absolutely insisted on visiting often, well, maybe he could stand it after all. Really, it was the most reassuring alien home invasion he’d seen in a long while.
“We should have a team here within ten minutes. That’s the third one of these attacking our agents in London this week and only dumb luck we figured out that bleach is extra-strength catnip to them. Do you know what that is, Doctor?” said Pete.
“Vomom. They’re a hive species—this is a subsentient soldier caste sent as an advance guard, probably targeted on anyone with alien experience. The rest of the soldiers, the workers and the queen can’t be far behind. Your whole planet will be under attack any day now, Mr. Tyler,” the Doctor warned.
“Will you help us, Doctor?” Pete asked.
“What would you do if I said no?” the Doctor said, his smile letting them know that he joked.
“Torchwood could defeat it on our own,” Rose replied proudly, “but probably more messily.”
“I’d ground my daughter,” Pete deadpanned.
“Hey!” protested Rose with a swat at her father. “You can’t do that. I’m 24 and I’ve got my own flat!” The men ignored her.
“Can’t have that, so I guess I’ll just have to save the Earth. Does she have a curfew?” the Doctor told Pete. Rose stuck her tongue out at him.
“You’ve got a time machine. A curfew is kind of meaningless.” Pete shrugged. Then he turned to Rose, adding, “Besides, Rose is an adult who is fully capable of taking responsibility for herself and when necessary the entire human race.”
Rose beamed and wrapped her father in a quick hug.
“Right, then. We’ve got a planet to defend!” she proclaimed.
“Hold on a minute and I’ll make you sandwiches!” Jackie called, emerging from the cellar. Knowing that “sandwiches” could turn into huge, heavy picnic spread that would take ages to pack, Rose, the Doctor, and Pete all shouted excuses and sprinted for the door.
As they slipped out into the twilight, Rose leaned in close to the Doctor. “After we clear up this mess, let’s blow this popsicle stand!” she whispered. She couldn’t exactly swan off while her planet was in immediate peril, but the Doctor’s presence awoke in her a wanderlust so strong her feet itched.
“What’ll it be, then?” the Doctor asked, surprising himself with the thrill of excitement that Rose’s eagerness provoked. “Riding the waves of a plasma storm? Debating philosophers in ancient Greece? Zero-gravity gala in the thirty-fourth century?”
“Zero-gravity gala sounds wonderful! But what do I wear? A ball gown would be a bit revealing in freefall.” Rose frowned.
“How should I know? I wear what I always wear and that seems to work out.”
“Well, lend me your jacket and I’ll be appropriately dressed,” she suggested, offering her arm to him. He took it with a smile.
“If you’re trying to make me take you shopping, it won’t work,” he said firmly. With Rose fitting so neatly at his side, the Doctor found it hard to remember just why he had been so intent on leaving a few hours ago. She grinned at him, that fantastic smile with sparkling eyes and peeking tongue. He found himself beaming unrestrainedly back.
Over Rose’s shoulder, the Doctor saw Pete, and the sight brought a sobering reminder of the day’s worst revelation. Rose’s smile faded as she watched his own happiness flee his face. He looked into those long-lashed eyes, full of concern and questions. Inhaling deeply, he let one more layer of his armor drop away.
“Sometime you’ll have to tell me about how you met Daleks,” he said.
Rose’s eyes widened. How had he found out? Her dad. That must be why the Doctor had left in such a hurry. She remembered all too well how desperate and tormented the Doctor had been upon first meeting that Dalek in Van Statten’s bunker. He’d pointed a gun at her, for crying out loud.
“I’m sorry,” she said gently. “I didn’t mention them because I wasn’t sure how you’d take it.”
“You know me too well already,” he said darkly.
“Don’t be like that!” Rose scolded before softening her voice again. “Anyway, since the cat’s out of the bag, I met Daleks three times. Shall I tell you about the time you—the other you, I mean—sent millions of Cybermen and Daleks literally to hell, the time we convinced an emo Dalek to kill itself, or the time I looked into the heart of the TARDIS and used the power of the Time Vortex to wipe an invasion fleet out of the sky?”
Rose arched her eyebrows at him, daring him to challenge her triumphant narrative. If this Doctor was going to have a crisis of insecurity about the existence of Daleks, then she needed to remind him that they were not invincible.
“You looked into the heart of the TARDIS?” the Doctor asked, looking her up and down wonderingly as if he could spot bits of Time Vortex clinging to her.
“That’s what Bad Wolf was: me with the Time Vortex inside, scattering messages to myself across time so I’d figure out what to do. It’s all a bit fuzzy, but I know I saved the other Doctor’s life, and then he saved mine. Over there, we practically ate Daleks for breakfast.”
The Doctor could tell Rose was hiding memories of fear and pain under that bravado, but she seemed to be speaking the truth. She held the Time Vortex? And survived? No wonder the TARDIS was so taken with her.
“You certainly are something, Rose Tyler. Possibly insane, that’s definitely something,” he said, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face.
“Insane in a good way?” she asked hopefully.
The Doctor chuckled. “Yeah, of course. Insane in a fantastic way.”
Peter Tyler, who had been standing impatiently with the car door open just out of hearing range of the conversation, cleared his throat loudly. “Alien invasion, anyone?”
* * * * *
The Illyria series continues in Such Disguise
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I look forward to seeing more in this universe and I hope you had/have a very Merry Christmas!
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I love it when the Doctor and Rose distract each other like two little kids. I just enjoy picturing Pete's look of frustration at realizing that he has to play dad/boss to a 900 year-old Time Lord in addition to Rose.
A fantastically merry Christmas to you as well!
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Hope you had a very Merry Xmas! Cheers!
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Happy (upcoming) New Year!
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Hee! My first evar edited comment! XD