Somedays I know are going to be boring, when the sun takes forever to rise, not that I ever see it by the time I leave for work it's still dark, and people always seem to get in your way. The train ride to London drags and smokers smoke seems to be a constant annoyance in my face.
The 23rd of March 1996 was one of those days, I was 15 minutes late for a work and the rain was pelting down at a never ending speed -typical British weather I suppose- and out the corner of my eye I kept on seeing him. Him, with the brown floppy hair and ridiculous outfit, never seemed to approach but I was sure that he'd followed me. After one last look and some more dodging of cars to get across the busy London street I reached the tall skyscraper that was Canary Wharf.
"Morning Miss Zucker." Gary, - highly attractive and looked very good in a suit but had a husband- the security guard greeted me as I scanned in, My job wasn't anything important, mainly admin and keeping track of 'missions' so when I reached my desk, which was full of paper as per usual, I wasn't expecting a certain Captain Jack Harkness from the Cardiff unit to be sat in my chair.
"Captain Jack Harkness, what brings you to my desk?" I asked, placing down my wet bag.
"I have something for you." He told me as he stood, a seductive smirk -or perhaps that was his normal look- on his face.
"Well, you can leave it on top of Paper work mountain." I guested to the pile of paper.
"Not that sort of work." He informed me, I raised my eyebrow, I didn't do anything other than paperwork that was all I was good at, but nevertheless I was curious,
"And what is it?"
He handed me a file, "Melody Pond?" I read outloud and frowned. "Never heard of her."
"No one has, besides a few people."
"And what's this got to do with me?"
"I need you to be her temporary Mother."
"Excuse me." I said, with some loudness, well It didn't seem loud to me, but I was getting funny stares from the people around me.
"Benedicta Zucker, this girl will grow up to do amazing things and you will help her." Jack looked at me, and with that look I knew I had no other choice. "Plus you're perfectly qualified."
"Qualified? I've never looked after a child in my life." I expatriated.
"You have no other family nor friends, leaving London wouldn't harm you and the pay is quite fine." Jack told me as he sneakily led me to a car on the outside, I blame the gorgeous face he had, it was rather distracting.
"Now, you'll meet her at Heathrow airport and there's a little house up in a village called Leadworth, it's important that she grows up there." Jack said through the window I had lowered.
"Right, airport, Leadworth,I can do that." I fake saluted and then Jack left and I was all alone.
About 20 minutes -and a very silent car ride- later I arrived at a very busy airport.
"Miss Zucker? Miss Pond's flight doesn't get in for another hour. I've been asked to ask you to fill these in." The driver - who didn't look as good as Gary did in a suit but came a close second- passed me a wedge of paper and a pen.
"Great, thanks." I thanked him and looked at the paper pile in front of me, looked like I was doing paperwork after all. I took the first page of 100 and sighed,this was going to a long hour.
About half an hour into the hours wait, I came across the piece of paper that would change my life. It read;
I legally take control of Melody Pond, whose name will be changed to Melody (Mels) Zucker for protection, I will care for her and provide her with adequate education, I will write weekly reports to Captain Jack Harkness, and during the day when not looking after Melody can pursue any career.
I will look after her till she's eighteen years of age and then will no longer have any contact with Melody.
Sign here...
I looked down at the paper and slowly signed it, I was signing my life away for a little girl didn't know. It was just crazy, then again I did work for torchwood and after some of the thing's I'd heard this was the least craziest, but the most real.
"Miss Zucker." The driver's voice pulled me from the never ending paperwork,
"Yeah?"
"Time to meet Melody."
I took a few deep breaths before stepping out of the car, I grabbed the picture of the girl, she was what seemed African American Descent and her hair was all little fluffy.
I knew it was her before the driver pointed her out, she was the most adorable child I'd ever seen, then again it wasn't hard as I'd only seen a few children before. The flight attendant walked over with Melody, rings around the flight attendants eyes and stress marks on her, god I had thought, how hard could looking after a child be.
"Melody, this is Bendetica, be nice she's your new mother." The flight attendant quickly passed her over and rushed off.
"Hello Mels." I smiled down at the girl who gave me a grumpy look in return. "Great well then, off to uhm Leadworth I suppose."
Melody sat next to me in silence for 3 out of the 4 hours that it would take to arrive , I looked out of the window countryside was surrounding and all trace of the city had disappeared.
"I like that." I nearly jumped out of my seat, Melody had spoken.
"Liked what?"
"Mels."
"Well then that's what I'll call you then." I told her and then she half smiled at me.
"You're not all that bad." I took this as a complement.
"You say that now, just wait till you live with me." I joked and she smiled. Maybe she wouldn't be all that bad, well to me anyways
When I arrived at Leadworth Village, I learned the first lesson of many. Never trust a man, or indeed Torchwood in general, to get a house for you. We'd stopped in front of what seemed to be the house we were meant to be staying at, it was an old looking building -actually I genuinely thought It was going to fall at one point- there was a little garden, the grass was a little overgrown but nothing a lawnmower couldn't fix.
"Needs more than a bit of paint." I muttered and Mels nodded in agreement. "Well then, I suppose we'd best look around." And with that Mels ran off into the house but before I could even take a step a 'gang' (well it was about 5 people but they looked slightly angry) approached me.
"Hello there!" One of the mothers -well she had a mother-y look about her, you know the concerned eyes and slight bags under them- stepped forward and offered out her hand
"Uhm Hi." I nervously put down one of the bags I was holding and shook her hand.
"You must be new, I'm Tabetha Pond." The women smiled at me, but before I could introduce myself Mels came running out of the house and they all turned to look at her.
They gasped and I took a firm grasp of Mels hand, "Pleased to meet you, but me and my daughter have to get some unpacking done." And with that I half dragged Mels into the house.
"Ha did you see there faces." Mels laughed as soon as we reached the house, it wasn't that bad from the inside, the walls were mainly white -more towards magnolia Mels informed me- , It had 3 bedrooms, a decent size living room and a beautiful kitchen.
"Well then Mels." I dropped the bags I had, "I think we need to find a shop for some food. And then bed."
Mels rolled her eyes at me, my she was a feisty 7 year old, but stormed outside all the same. I grabbed the keys -or what I assumed or hoped was the keys- and some money and left.
The little village was, well little. It contained ; a small supermarket, a cafe, a Parish Church, a post office, pub and a hospital, along with a Secondary and Primary School.
"Well it's not London." I muttered as Mels ran ahead, for 4 o'clock in the afternoon the street where the supermarket, pub, post office and cafe were located was quite busy, a few couples and about 6/7 old people and 3 families.
"What do you think you're doing!" I heard a shriek, it sounded like it came from a women. Mels was not in sight. I walked, with a brisk pace, to where a crowd had gathered. Mels was sat on the floor, like she'd been pushed down there.
"Mels?" I pushed my way to where she was. I offered up my hand but she refused it and she glared at the boy who was standing opposite.
"Is this your daughter?" The mother of the boy asked, wrapping an arm around her son.
"Yeah." I raised my eyebrow.
"Well you should keep her on a tighter leash." The women huffed and walked away. I held in the urge to laugh.
"Come on Mels." I called her and with that we walked to the supermarket. I was silent and didn't push her to tell me what happened. "Did you see her face." I laughed and she joined me.
"It was quite funny." Mels grinned and I high fived her.
"So food then, what do you eat?" I asked picking up a basket.
"I don't really know, new mouth." Mels shrugged, and I picked up some Pizza,
"Pizza? Everyone likes pizza." She shrugged and then saw the drinks isle and ran off.
"I'd suggest getting some Lasagne." A new voice from behind me speaks. I turned to find the man from this morning , the one stalking me in London.
"Really?" I raised an eyebrow and picked a premade pack up.
"Really, I can't stay but you'll be seeing more of me Miss Zucker." And the man disappeared.
"Mum?" Mels came up to me with a bottle of Lemonade.
I stuttered, that was the first time that she'd ever called me that. "Uh Yeah."
"Can we get this?"
"Sure." I told her as the Tannoy went off asking for a member of staff to the drinks aisle to clear up a spillage. I laughed, "You didn't."
She just beamed up at me. It was going to be a long 11 years.
A/N- So hi. I know I should finish other things before starting this but meh. Anyway the timeline is that Melody grew up in late 1900's up till about '97' and then she regenerated and Jack found her.
Disclaimer- I can't own them, Moffat/BBC/RTD own most of my characters.
All mistakes are mine, sorry.
Oh, and this is posted under my AO3 account FutureCompanion on AO3.