“You sure about this?” Jack asked, quirking an eyebrow. The Doctor, using information from the other Torchwood, had just finished building a dimension hopper. It would find an already existing crack in the fabric between the two universes and route him through it then seal it behind the Time Lord. It would be a one-way trip…at least until they got the Dimension Cannon working.
“I need to be over there. This dimension cannon, it needs to be built properly. Otherwise, it’ll just rip a hole in reality. It could destroy two universes. They need me there. Maybe with me there, they’ll be able to get a lock on Rose. And I want to see this stuff about the stars going out for myself.”
“You know that her DNA isn’t close enough to what we have from the hospital,” Jack reminded him. “That was just a transitory stage of her development.”
“Yes, I know,” the Doctor growled. “What I’m hoping to do, if you must know, is lock onto her time line. Then her DNA won’t matter. I can transport directly to her point in the space time continuum.”
“Well, good luck, Doc. We’ll be in touch.”
The Doctor grinned and then hugged Jack. “If Rose returns, remember that rule one is still in effect,” the Time Lord warned. “Hands off the blonde.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget it,” the human laughed. “Godspeed, Doctor.”
The Doctor pressed a large yellow button and disappeared in a flash of light.
~*~*~*~
“It worked!” Mickey shouted triumphantly when the Doctor appeared in the Torchwood lab on Terra Beta – Pete’s World, Rose had once called it. “We weren’t sure it was gonna work right,” he finished lamely when the Doctor quirked an eyebrow at him.
“So this is the legendary Doctor,” Pete Tyler said as he walked into the Cannon Room. “Jacks had hoped we’d find Rose and get her over here as well.”
“We’re working on that, boss,” Mickey said. “But the Doctor is good, too. He’s a Time Lord. He’ll be able to help us – maybe even better than Rose could.”
“And that wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you and Jacks would be distracting her every second she was here, would it?” Pete asked dryly. “Doctor, welcome to Terra Beta. Don’t worry about accommodations – Jacks and I will take care of you while you’re here.”
“She’s not going to slap me, is she?” the Doctor winced.
“No,” Pete said with a small smile. “She got over being angry with you long ago. Otherwise, she would never have encouraged Rose to try to find you. Has she?”
“No, she hasn’t. I’ve almost come across her several times but every time I get close, something happens and I wind up further away. I’m beginning to think that she has other things she has to do before we can find each other again. The Chief of the Time Agency said as much when he gave me this thing,” the Time Lord sighed, pointing to the Vortex Manipulator.
“I wonder if our technicians could…” Pete started to say.
“They can’t,” the Doctor replied quickly. “Any attempt to alter it will send me back to the Time Agency and the Chief was quite clear that he wanted to be shot of me and never see my face again.”
“But you do know how to make them, don’t you?” Pete pressed.
“I do but I am not going to give that technology to you. Humans don’t discover how to make Vortex Manipulators until the end of the forty-ninth century. It’s a fixed point in your history. I will not interfere.”
“Very well, then,” Pete said glumly. “We could use your help with the Dimension Cannon and with identifying alien artifacts that come through the Rift. I understand it was much the same thing you were doing on Terra Alpha.”
“Why do you call it Terra Alpha?”
“Precision,” Mickey answered. “Our tests with the Cannon have put us in contact with a number of parallel Earths. At first, we called it Earth Prime and this world Earth point Two but once we got into the tens, we decided to swap over to calling all Earths “Terra” by their Latin name and designate them with Greek symbols.”
“I see,” the Doctor sighed. “Well, let’s see the information you have on the stars that have gone out. If we can find the pattern, then we can find the cause.”
Settling down, the men began to work on the problem at hand.
~*~*~*~
Jackie Tyler was nervous as she waited for Pete to return home. She knew that the Doctor would be with him. She’d never really liked the alien that Rose had run off with – especially not at first. In time, the two of them had come to an uneasy truce. They kept their bickering to a minimum and fairly light-hearted around Rose because when the two of them went at it in earnest, Rose felt torn in half. Whatever it was that had caused the Time Lord to abandon her daughter, though, Jackie wanted to know. She’d been convinced that the Doctor was in love with Rose and that sooner or later, he’d be stopping by to ask her blessings – or, more likely, announce his intentions. Not that she would have tried to stop him. Rose loved the man and he had made her daughter happier than Jackie had ever thought possible.
At least, until she saw Rose after he’d left her and Mickey on that space ship. Seeing Rose then, it was clear that the light had gone out of her daughter. That she was just existing. That she had a chip on her shoulder and was trying to prove something to herself, to the universe, to anyone who was paying attention. Seeing Rose like that had scared the daylights out of her mother. Rose had always been warm and loving and open – that’s how Jimmy was able to hurt her so badly. Seeing Rose growing cold, dark, and secretive had been terrifying. Jackie wanted to blame the Doctor for the change in her daughter but she realized that Rose had begun to change even before the Doctor vanished off to Madame de Pomposity. Rose had begun to pull away from humanity the minute that yellow truck pulled open the TARDIS.
Now, all Jackie wanted to know was if Rose was safe, if she was happy, and if she would ever settle down to a proper life. Short of having her daughter there before her, the Tyler matron figured that the Doctor would be the next best person to answer those questions what with him having so much experience traveling through time and space in that blue box of his.
She heard the door open and two masculine voices echo down the hallway. Tony, her three-year-old son, squealed in delight as he recognized his father’s voice. Scampering down the corridor on unsteady legs, he shrieked for his daddy. Jackie could hear Pete’s laughter and the Doctor’s whispers as Tony found the two men. Then, a few minutes later, the three males were walking into the living room where Jackie stood.
“Good evening, Jacks,” Pete said with a large smile as he walked over and kissed her on the lips. Tony wriggled to get down and began shouting about some new game he’d invented that his Dad and the Doc just had to play with him.
“Evening, Jackie,” the Doctor said politely, a tight smile on his lips.
“Oh, c’mere you!” Jackie said, pulling the Doctor into a hug. “How’ve you been, Doctor?”
“All right, I suppose,” the Time Lord said slowly.
“Have you seen her? Have you seen our Rose?”
“No, I haven’t,” the Doctor sighed. “You’ve seen her more recently than me.”
“She’s tired, love. So tired. I’d hoped she’d have found you by now.”
“Believe me, Jackie, I wish she had. Losing you – even if it was to a parallel world – would have been difficult for her. Jack’s seen her recently. He says…”
“Jack? He’s that American? The one that Mickey says tries to sleep with everyone?”
“Yeah…”
“You keep him away from Rose! Don’t you dare let him get close to her! She loves you, you…Time Lord! Why’d you leave her like that? She’d have gone with you anywhere!”
“I…I was afraid, Jackie,” the Doctor admitted. “Afraid of loving her. Afraid of losing her. She was human. I thought I’d have a few decades with her and then I’d have to watch her die in front of me. I didn’t want that. I wanted to remember her alive and vital and young…”
“But you love her, don’t you?”
“More than I’d ever thought possible,” he sighed. “If I ever see her again…if she can forgive me for being a fool…then I’m going to spend the rest of my existence and hers making certain she knows I love her. And that might be longer than either of us thought possible.”
“What do you mean?” Jackie demanded.
“Do you remember when I sent her back? When I sent her away? From the Game Station?”
“Yes.”
“She opened the Heart of the TARDIS to get back to me.”
“Yes. We helped her. She was so determined to save you…”
“I know. It wasn’t anything I’d planned. I’d thought to die there. But she would be safe. She would live on. She would marry and have babies…but she tore open my ship, she looked into the Heart of the TARDIS and came back to me, Jackie…”
“I remember.”
“I took it out of her. She was burning. She was dying and I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t lose Rose. She was everything to me. My love. My hearts. My life. My soul…I took the Time Vortex out of her…and regenerated because it killed me.”
“I remember that,” Jackie whispered. “Rose took care of you. She wouldn’t leave your side. Then she was afraid that you’d died on her. That she would never get you back.”
“I know. I longed to drag myself out of that coma, to let her know I was all right. That I was the Doctor. She had never heard of regeneration. She thought I had killed the Doctor. But, after the Sycorax, she accepted me. She still…loved me…as she had when I was old Daft Face. And I loved her. I still love her, Jackie. I just don’t know what to do!”
“Tell her. The next time you see her, tell her. She might not believe you. You might have to spend time convincing her of the truth. But tell her. She’ll come to you, in time. And then you do right by her, Time Lord. You marry her. You give her babies if she wants them. You grow old with her and hold her. Just like Pete will grow old with me and hold me in those last years. Promise me that you’ll do that.”
“I promise, Jackie. I swear it by the twin suns of Gallifrey.”
“I just wish I could see her again,” Jackie sighed as she and the Doctor made their way to the kitchen. In a few years, they would eat in the dining room but right now Tony’s table manners were more enthusiastic than skillful and Jackie didn’t want to have the maids cleaning the carpet after every meal. “She was changing and I think I said the worst thing I could have to her about it. I told her she was becoming dark and cold and one day she wouldn’t be human anymore.”
“Jackie…she’s not human anymore,” the Doctor said carefully. “I don’t know what she is – some kind of hybrid crossing between human and Gallifreyan based on the DNA samples I’ve seen – but you were right. She’s not human.”
“I know, but I didn’t mean it the way I said it,” Jackie grimaced. “She’s my Rose. She’ll always be the little girl I gave birth to. I’ll always remember her crying and needing me or Pete to rock her to sleep. I’ll remember the skinned knees and the loose teeth. I’ll remember the dolls she gave me those years when we didn’t have anything to exchange at Christmas. She’d drag out her favorite dolls and dress them up nice and give them to me. God, I wish I had been able to bring them here with me. I’ll remember every tear, every time she clenched her jaw and squared her shoulders and swore that she didn’t mind doing without because I was the best Mummy in the world to her. I’ll remember the hugs and kisses and the tears after Magnolia died and the questions about what happened when we died and was she going to lose me one day. Most of all, I’ll remember the way her eyes shone and her face lit up whenever she thought about you. I’ll remember that no matter what she’s grown into, she’s a woman who can reach out to the stars and touch them all because she was brave enough to run after a man in a blue box. So, I don’t care if my little girl has become a Time Lord or a Martian or whatever. No matter what, she’ll always be my Rose Marion Tyler.”
“Jackie,” the Doctor breathed. “If it is within my power, I will make certain you see her again. I’ll do whatever it takes. And, I will spend the rest of my existence looking after her. If she forgives me and one day we have children, I’ll make certain they know about their very remarkable grandmother who once slapped me for bringing their mum home late from our second date.”
~*~*~*~
Tony Tyler dragged his dad towards the kitchen. The sun had gone to bed and it was time to have supper and then a bath and then say night-night prayers and go to sleep. The boy grimaced – he didn’t like having to go to bed while the grown-ups got to stay up playing. Maybe with this new grown-up over, this Doctor-person, Tony would be allowed to stay up later playing with them. He wanted to know everything about this new grown-up who was spending the night at his house but his dad had told him that the Doctor and Mummy needed to talk. Tony hadn’t minded that too much – it meant he got his daddy all to himself for a bit. But now, his tummy was rumbling and he was hungry and he wanted his mummy and supper.
Tony pushed open the door all by himself – he was a big boy now, he could open doors without help – and stormed into the room. He looked and his mummy and saw that she’d been crying. Had she done something bad? Or had the Doctor hurt her feelings? He glared at the new grown up and tried not to let his chin quiver. Whenever his mummy cried, Tony cried too. “Did you hurt my mummy?” he demanded angrily, crossing his arms over his chest and trying to look angry like his daddy did whenever Tony did something that put him in Time Out.
“No, love,” his mummy said quickly, wiping her eyes. “The Doctor and I were just talking about things that happened before you were born. These are happy tears.”
“But crying is for when you’re sad or in Time Out,” Tony said, confused.
“And sometimes they’re for when you are so happy that you can’t stand it and you have to cry,” his mummy explained.
“You promise he didn’t hurt you?” Tony asked, confused and still near tears himself.
“He didn’t hurt me, love. The Doctor and I were just talking about your big sister Rose.”
“You know Rose?” Tony asked, in awe. He stared at the Doctor, his blue eyes open wide.
“I do,” the Doctor said with a grin. “You’re Tony Tyler?”
“Yes,” Tony nodded, still in awe of the man who knew his famous big sister. “Tell me about Rose?”
“What would you like to know?” the Doctor asked. Tony looked down, suddenly bashful. He stuck a finger in his mouth and toed the floor, thinking. “Will he come to me?” he heard the Doctor ask his mummy.
“Tony, why don’t you sit with the Doctor a bit and talk while your dad and I get supper ready?” his mummy asked. Tony nodded without looking up and walked over to the new grown-up and then looked up, holding his arms over his head in a silent request for the Doctor to pick him up. The Doctor did, settling the boy on his lap with the ease of experience. Tony studied the Doctor for a long moment. This new grown-up had brown hair that stuck up all over the place kind of like Mr. Jake’s did. He had big brown eyes and freckles, too. “Hello, Tony Tyler,” the Doctor said, holding out a hand for the boy to shake. “I’m the Doctor.”
“Hello, Doctor,” Tony said, grabbing the grown-up’s fingers and shaking his hand like he’d seen other grown-up men do. “How do you know my big sissy?”
“Well, now, that is a story,” the Doctor said with a laugh. “It all started one night when I found an alien called the Nestene trying to take over the Earth…”
~*~*~*~
“You do realize that you are now Tony’s best friend in the whole wide world?” Pete laughed a few hours later when the Doctor managed to disentangle himself from Rose’s little brother. Tony had been quite attentive, listening to the Doctor and Jackie as they told stories about his famous big sister Rose. He’d been stunned to learn that the Doctor and Rose were boyfriend and girlfriend – Jackie having decided to try to simplify the relationships a bit – and that one day, the Doctor would be his big brother-in-law. “He is never going to forget you.”
“I’ll never forget him,” the Doctor grinned. “Thank you for letting me put him to bed,” he continued. “It’s been a long time since I tucked a little one in for the night.”
“You’ve had children before?” Jackie asked.
“I was a father and a grandfather long before I met Rose,” the Doctor nodded, taking a cup of coffee from one of the maids with a nod of thanks. “And, Rassilon willing, if Rose will have me, I’ll be a father and grandfather again.”
“What happened to your family?” Pete asked curiously.
“They died in the Time War,” the Doctor said softly. “I thought I would die, too, from missing them. My marriage had been arranged before I was born. I didn’t love her but I loved our children. Susan, my granddaughter, was my first companion when I stole the TARDIS and left Gallifrey,” the Doctor smiled.
“Does Rose know?” Jackie asked.
“I never hid it from her,” he said carefully, “but then, I never told her right-out either. I imagine, though, that if she and the TARDIS have been together even half as long as Jack suspects, the TARDIS has told her everything about me,” he grimaced.
“How long does Jack think she’s been traveling with your ship?” Pete asked.
“Centuries,” the Doctor sighed. “And Martha – she traveled with Rose for a while – Martha said that the TARDIS and Vairë – that’s the name Rose goes by now – are sisters. Somehow, and I’m not certain at all how – Rose has bonded with the TARDIS. Maybe it was after the Game Station when she looked into the Heart of the TARDIS. Maybe it was later. I don’t know. But Rose and the TARDIS are bound to each other much as I am bound to the TARDIS. That’s the only way she could be piloting my erstwhile ship,” the Time Lord concluded.
“Centuries,” Jackie gasped. “My poor little girl. Alone for all those years…”
“Not exactly alone, Jacks,” Pete comforted his wife. “This TARDIS is alive. Sounds like she and Rose are friends.”
“She and Vairë are quite close,” the Doctor nodded.
“Vairë,” Jackie muttered. “Oh, that’s from Tolkien, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” the Doctor nodded. “Never could figure out why she picked that name.”
“Magnolia,” Jackie said firmly. “She was Rose’s best friend. The two of them were practically sisters,” she explained. “She and Rose met one year when we went on holiday to New Orleans. Magnolia was from the South. The two of them wrote letters to each other two or three times a week. Rose would save up money to fly over to visit Maggie and Maggie came to stay with us a few times. Maggie was a big reader and absolutely adored Tolkien. She got Rose to read those books as well. The two of them used to talk about which one of the Valar they’d be. Maggie wanted to be Estë and Rose said that meant she’d have to be Vairë because Vairë and Estë were sisters who married brothers. I never could make heads or tails of it but that’s where it came from. When Maggie died in that car crash, Rose was broken-hearted. I didn’t think she’d ever smile again,” Jackie sighed. “Then she met you,” she said, looking at the Doctor.
“She never once mentioned Maggie to me,” the Doctor bristled slightly.
“Losing Maggie was hard on her. I think she just wasn’t ready to talk about it,” Jackie explained. “And, Maggie was…different. She taught Rose to shoot. To hunt. To track. All those things that Southerners do,” Jackie waved her hand. “She taught Rose all kinds of songs. Like ‘Go Down, Moses,’ and ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.’ She took Rose to see plays – ‘Gold in the Hills,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘The Masque of the Red Death,’ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ ‘The Death of a Salesman,’ and all kinds of other things that they showed there at that little theater in her hometown,” Jackie laughed. “I’d always assumed that Southerners were ignorant but Maggie…Maggie knew more about our history than I did and she got Rose to read and learn. When Maggie died…Rose just…she couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t handle it. She cried for weeks. Maggie had shown her a world that Rose hadn’t dreamed of and when she was gone, it was like that world was gone, too. Then Rose met an alien in a blue box and…even if I hated him, at first, I loved him because he put that spark back in my little girl’s eyes – that spark that had gone out when Maggie died. God, if Maggie had lived, I think that Jimmy Stone would be dead and buried by now. Magnolia was determined to kill that little jerk as soon as she could figure out a way to smuggle a gun into London.”
“Jimmy Stone,” the Doctor muttered. “I remember Rose mentioning him once or twice. Who was he? And why would her friend want to kill him?”
“Jimmy Stone was Rose’s first real boyfriend. She met him when she was fifteen. He was nearly twenty and in a band,” Jackie explained. “He convinced Rose to drop out of school and run off with him. She thought she was in love and that she was finally going to get off the Estate. Well, he showed her the truth quick enough. He raped my little girl and beat her. He left her for dead in an alleyway,” Jackie growled. The Doctor’s fists clenched. How dare anyone hurt his Rose like that! If he got back to Terra Alpha, he would hunt this boy down and throw him into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy, making certain that Jimmy Stone lived through every agonizing moment as his body was ripped apart, bifurcated bit by bit. “I got her back and took care of her. Mickey and I got her that job at Henricks. She started to get better. Then she vanished for a year,” Jackie shuddered.
“No wonder you slapped me,” the Doctor growled. “Jackie, believe me, if I had known…”
“I know, I know,” she said, waving him off. “Just…take better care of her. After Jimmy, Rose dated Mickey for a bit. I never thought they’d wind up together,” she continued. “Mickey was safe. He wouldn’t hit Rose. But I knew she’d want better than what Mickey could give her – not that he’s a bad bloke at all, just…Rose would want better. She deserves better. And, if she can be with a man who can give her all of time and space, then that’s enough for me.”
“Jackie…”
“You know,” Jackie grinned, wiping her eyes again, “if she agrees to marry you, you’ll have to call me ‘Mum.’”
“You are my mother, in a way,” he chuckled. “You and Rose…you’re the first family I’ve had since the Time War.”
“Oh sweetheart,” Jackie sighed. “I’m sorry I slapped you.”
“Slap me all you want, I deserved it,” the Doctor laughed. “But, I promise you now…no matter what happens, I intend to see that Rose is safe and happy.”
“That’s all that matters to me, Doctor. That’s all that matters to me at all.”