Title: Introduction
Author: scgirl_317
Summary: Third story in the Ransom 'verse. While exploring the TARDIS, Jenny finds an interesting room. When she asks the Doctor about it, he's not sure if it's a story he can tell.
Author's Note: This is a story I've had in mind since I wrote Ransom. My intention with this 'verse has been to give the Doctor closure, and I really felt this needed to be done.
Jenny enjoyed exploring the TARDIS, especially on off days. Since she had joined him, the Doctor had started spending one day a week just drifting in the Vortex. It gave the TARDIS a chance to rest, he could make any needed repairs, and Jenny would wander through the endless corridors.
The path Jenny took this morning was one that she could tell wasn't used often, if at all. She came to a door that seemed out of place among the ornate Gallifreyan carvings. It was a plain wood door with a single rose carved at about eye-level, and that piqued her interest. Her interest escalated as she pushed the door open and saw what lay behind.
The room was pink. From the walls to the carpet to the bedspread, everything was pink. There was a worn teddy bear propped up on the pillows on the bed and a purple jacket draped over the back of an overstuffed armchair. The surface of the dresser was covered in cosmetics and photos were taped up, almost completely obscuring the mirror. A closer look at one of the pictures revealed her father with an attractive blonde. Another picture was of Jack and the blonde, another of the blonde with Mickey. She recognized the Doctor's previous self in one of the pictures. This must have been the mystery blonde's room, and she must have left recently, judging by when the Doctor said he had regenerated.
"Who is she?" Jenny asked the TARDIS.
All she got in response was a sad hum from the time ship. She had definitely found something if the TARDIS was reluctant to offer more than her equivalent of a shrug. Jenny spent a little longer in the room, taking in details before leaving, gently closing the door behind her.
She wandered around for a little longer before heading back up to the console room. There she found the Doctor lying halfway under the console muttering as he tinkered with the timeship. She went and sat on the jump seat as she pondered how to bring up the mystery room.
"Dad, can I ask you something?" she began hesitantly.
"Sure, what's up?" he replied, tilting his head to look at her from under the console.
"Who was the blonde with the pink room?"
At first, she wasn't sure that he had heard her, as the silence stretched on for several minutes. Eventually, the Doctor slid out from under the console to sit on the grating in front of her.
"Her name was Rose," he said finally, standing and walking out of the room.
Jenny sat there wondering what it was about this Rose hat upset him so much.
"What is it, girl?" she asked the TARDIS. "Why did Dad react like that? Who was Rose?"
The TARDIS hummed sadly; as much as she liked Jenny, she still missed the pink and yellow human. Softly, she encouraged the young girl to go after her father. The TARDIS knew that the Doctor needed to tell Jenny about Rose, but it would take some prodding.
Jenny followed after the Doctor, finding him in the kitchen making a cup of tea. The expression on his face was guarded, at best, and tension radiated from his body.
"What happened to her?" she asked softly.
"She's trapped in another reality," he replied, but she sensed it wasn't as simple as that.
The TARDIS hummed encouragingly, prompting Jenny to press further, "How did she end up there?"
Almost against his will, the Doctor launched into a story that began by meeting ghosts in the Powell Estate, but it really started with a werewolf in Victorian Scotland. In truth, the story began much father back, in the basement of Henrick's, surrounded by shop window dummies, reaching for a hand, and simply saying, "Run!"
"I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?"
"Rose."
"Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!"
"She took it all in stride, never blinked once. She did lay in to me for forgetting about Mickey, but he wasn't the same man you met, then. I daresay, he was a coward, but he did come through for us several times."
The Doctor continued his story, moving on to Platform 1, Cardiff in 1869, Slitheen in Downing Street. That one made him pause.
"There's always been a way out."
"Do it."
"You don't even know what it is, you'd just let me?"
It had been when they were sealed inside the Cabinet room that he had realized that what he felt for Rose went way beyond simple friendship.
"I could save the world, but lose you."
That thought had been far more terrifying than any threat posed by the Slitheen. And the fact that even a dalek could see it was even more unnerving. Bringing Adam along had been a disaster, but she had asked, and he found that he couldn't say no to her. That included taking her back to see her father.
And then came Jack. It had taken time, but the con-man had eventually grown on him, despite his constant flirting. With both of them. Things had been interesting with Jack around, that was for sure. He was a good man, and the Doctor had honestly come to regret the way he had treated him after the dalek attack on Satellite 5.
All through this, Jenny was quiet, save for laughing at some of the stories—especially Jack's antics. She knew this was something that the Doctor needed to talk about, and she couldn't bring herself to interrupt.
The Doctor told her about his regeneration. He had always believed that when he had taken the Vortex from Rose, a little bit of her had transferred, as well, and that his current self had been "designed"—for lack of a better word—for her. He considered that thought further as he looked at his daughter, and realized that, if it were the case, it effectively made Rose Jenny's mother, in a way. The two women were the same height, their hair was the same shade of blonde, and they both had the same expressive eyes. The weight of that realization almost choked him, and he tried to swallow past the boulder that had suddenly formed in his throat.
Jenny began putting the pieces together. The Doctor had told her about what had happened to Donna, and Jack and Martha had briefly mentioned the Year that Never Was. That left Rose as the source of her father's pain. She now felt like an intruder snooping around Rose's room. The TARDIS hummed softly, assuring her that such was not the case, that the ship had planned for her to find it.
"Thank you for telling me about her," Jenny said softly, before standing and leaving the Doctor to his reminiscence.
Jenny went to the control room and sat on the jump seat, thinking about what she had heard from her father. There was so much more she wanted to know about Rose, but she knew now was not the time to ask, the grief was still too near. However, she knew someone else who could answer some of her questions.
Quickly, she grabbed the mobile that resided on the console and retreated to her room. Once the door was closed behind her, she scrolled through the phonebook until she found the number she wanted and hit dial.
"Hello?" came the cautious answer.
"Hi, Jack, it's Jenny."
"Hey, kiddo!" Jack replied, instantly perking up. "What's up?"
"You knew Rose Tyler, right?"
"Yeah," he said, sobering. "Doc tell you about her?"
"Yeah, some. The TARDIS showed me her room. He told me some, but I can tell it still hurts him to talk about her. I was wondering if you could fill in some of the gaps."
"I only traveled with them for a short time, but I'll tell you what I can. I know one thing, your father loved her like crazy, even before he regenerated. As for me, well, what can I say? She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship, I never stood a chance!"
Jenny could hear the laughter in his voice, and she smiled. She settled back onto her bed as Jack began recounting some of the stories the Doctor had told her, only embellishing some of the details. Jack told her a different side of Rose Tyler, the young woman he knew and loved like a sister.
Jenny began to wish she could have met Rose. The TARDIS gave her a comforting hum, assuring her that they would keep Rose's memory alive, in this universe. When she ended the call, Jenny had a greater appreciation fro what her father felt for the pink and yellow human. She thanked Jack, and he promised her he and Ianto would give her a tour of Cardiff the next time she and the Doctor stopped by.
Jenny returned the mobile to the console and made her way back through the corridors until she reached the pink room. Respectfully, she sat on the bed and looked around, taking everything in with new eyes.
"Hi, Rose," she said softly. "I'm Jenny."
Fin