Hey there it's been awhile! This is more of a request from a friend, she thought it'd be funny so here it is. It's the 13th part of the unexpected series - you don't really have to read much of the series to get it though lol.
Hope you like it!
Allons-y
----
The Most Important Woman in the Universe
It took a long time to put the TARDIS into a vaguely clean and serviceable state. There had been a lot of damage after the fire and she'd been so very broken. The fire had burned away her coral and he'd been forced to set a new desktop theme, a new theme for a new man so to speak. But that still left all the broken ends that needed fixing, wires that needed resealing and circuits that had to be rebuilt. That took him and his children some time to fix.
It was when he was rebuilding the console dial-up integrator next to the Time Rotor modulator that he found it. A tattered piece of paper, slightly charred but intact. It was yellowing with age, he noted, and folded over four times. Clearly meant to have been placed in a pocket, his pocket if he remembered correctly. He must have left it out at some point back when he was his other self.
He opened it up and the image stole his breath for a moment. Then he smiled. It was a soft smile, one of those rare and true ones born of fondness, an emotion come to light after a long time asleep. The picture wasn't that old, relatively speaking of course, must only be around eleven years at most. But it was strange, he'd forgotten that day. Rather he'd forgotten what it meant to him until he glanced at this solitary reminder.
The picture was of a boy, his son - barely four, and a woman. His son was laughing, grinning a very familiar mischievous smile. The woman was also smiling, in her hand she had a plate of chips and she was sitting cross-legged beside John in order to share them with him. John was, of course, ecstatic about the treat.
He'd never forget that day, the day he met the most important woman in the universe for a second time. Or more accurately, when she met his son. And when his son met the person who would become his mother.
-----
"You've got a what?"
He winced, he knew this wasn't going to go well. He rubbed the back of his neck embarrassedly and looked at the floor of the TARDIS. "A son," he repeated, strictly not looking at Donna.
"Since when?" she asked, slightly stunned by the look of it.
"Not long after I met you actually," he responded lightly. "The TARDIS decided she was sick of me being alone, would do anything to make me happy, my old girl," he said fondly, patting the console. "Suddenly there I am. New father."
"The TARDIS 'decided'?" She folded her arms. Not a good sign.
"She's sort of alive," he replied, finally meeting her eyes.
"And she gave you a baby?" Her eyes flicked to the console.
"That's pretty much the size of it, yeah."
"How is that even possible? Wait, I don't want to know! Who's his other parent?" She held up her hands before rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"Well, it's mostly me. See Time Lords reproduce through Looms, genetic recombinator thingies – can also be found in TARDISes, in pairs - a mother and father. But my TARDIS didn't have a female Time Lord so she reordered my own DNA with a slight quirk in the haploids so he wouldn't be a clone," he told her. He probably spoke too fast, Martha and Rose always said that he should slow down.
She looked at him for a long time, unmoving with TARDIS-light glinting off her red hair. "I don't want to know," she said finally. "How old is he?"
"He's four," the Doctor replied as he moved to start up the TARDIS. "Not that you'd know," he continued, "smart for his age, even by my standards. Clever mouth on him too, blabs on if you just let him."
"Like his old man," Donna commented with a smile, peering over his shoulder to see what buttons his was pressing.
"Hey," he protested lightly with a smile of his own. "I'm not that bad. And I'm not old!"
"So where's this boy of yours anyway?" she carried on as if he'd said nothing.
"He's staying with a friend for the day," he said as he yanked down a lever, encouraging the TARDIS to pick up speed. "I didn't want to lock him in a cupboard all day, he'd have been bored beyond measure."
It wasn't long before they'd parked in Sarah Jane's garden and he was pulling open the TARDIS door with relish. He knew John would know they'd arrived and would be racing to meet them. Sure enough a blur shot towards then across the back lawn, jumping over the flowerbeds, and clamped onto his father's legs happily. "You took forever," the boy complained as the Doctor reached down to pick him up.
"Sorry, my liege, I shall try to be more hasty next time," he replied solemnly, nodding his head sagely. He glanced up to see Luke Smith crossing the lawn with long even strides, hand raised in welcome. "Lukey-boy," he greeted cheerfully. "No trouble I trust?"
"He was good as gold, Doctor," the boy told him with a smile.
"Sorry to trouble you and your mum but I had-"
"Mum says to tell you it was okay," Luke interrupted with a laugh, "she likes seeing John anyway. She also wants to know if you're coming for Christmas this year."
"What year is it again?" he asked thoughtfully.
"Can we come back?" John asked eagerly when Luke told them, looking up at him with pleading eyes.
"Course we can," he responded instantly.
Luke smiled and without much more ado they returned to the TARDIS, ready to hurtle through time once more. Donna and John looked at each other for a long time, he stayed huddled behind his father's legs, eyes peeking out. He was oddly shy.
Donna smiled down at him, "you must be John," she said gently, "it's nice to meet you." She held out her hand expectantly.
John leaned further out from behind his father to reveal that he was wearing small suit trousers and a white t-shirt, his hair a mussed mess like his father's. He reached out his small hand and took hers, shaking it gingerly.
"I'll just get some tea shall I?" the Doctor asked, feeling the tension in the room and what isn't solved by a cup of tea?
"That'd go down a treat," Donna confirmed and he hastily vacated the room.
It was the TARDIS who later told him what happened next.
Donna examined John a while longer before suddenly clucking a tongue, "come here," she ordered in exasperation reaching in her pocket to pull something out.
"What?" John asked in surprise.
"Come here," she repeated, pointing to a spot on the floor in front of her.
"Why?" The boy shuffled his feet nervously, not sure what to make of this new woman.
"Don't ask questions, mister. Come here," she told him imperiously.
He went at once and stayed very still as she kneeled down in front of him and pulled out a tissue. Carefully she wiped a smudge of oil off his face. "You're a mess," she chided softly. "Where'd all this come from?"
"I was helping Luke fix Mr Smith – that's the computer – and I cut the wrong feed-wire and it sprayed everywhere," he explained, scratching his hair guilty as the woman he barely knew proceeded to clean him up.
"And it didn't occur to you to try and clean up? What if you'd got some on a carpet or something?" Donna reprimanded.
"Well I didn't think about that..." he trailed off looking down at his grubby shirt.
"That is obvious," Donna smiled and moved to straighten his hair. "If you're not careful you'll end up like your father, a permanent mess, and we're not having that."
John let her fuss awhile longer, enjoying the attention. "So when did you meet my dad?" he asked.
"Just before you were born I think," she mused, brow scrunching as she brought up the memory. "He arrived on the best and worst day of my life." She laughed wryly; it seemed so long ago to her.
"Oh, you're the Runaway Bride," John exclaimed, trying to lean away as she scrubbed at his cheek.
"The what now?"
"You're in one of dad's stories, he says you were gonna marry a man that was really with a giant spider-Racnoss and that you helped save the planet. He said it happened the Christmas before I was born," he babbled quickly, still trying to get away.
"He told you that?" Donna asked, slightly stunned that the boy knew.
"As a story. Hard to keep secrets when you dream the same dream," he shrugged. "Get off!" He continued to try and get away.
"Hold still," she growled, "it doesn't take much to keep clean does it?"
"Old bag," he grumbled.
John was not expecting the clip round the ear that followed, "that's enough of that language," she chastised angrily, sweeping her hair back and out of her face.
The look of shock on John's face told her that he'd never been disciplined like that before in his life. Puppy eyes had probably allowed him to get away with blue murder.
She sighed and then smiled down at him, "Sorry, didn't mean to be harsh but you can't go saying that to people. It isn't polite or nice," she stood and straightened her jacket. "Any idea where we are?" she asked him, glancing at the console.
John peeked up at the monitor, standing on his tip-toes. He twisted a dial and squinted at the scrolling Gallifreyan symbols. "It says we're actually still in the same year, just outside London," he told her, pulling out a small pair of glasses and leaning closer. "Dad's parked her, probably didn't want her flying while he made tea. It'll take him ages to find the kitchen though."
"I didn't know the TARDIS had a kitchen," Donna said in surprise, eyebrow raised.
John turned to look at her, grin back in place, "she's got thirty-two rooms at the moment and can always create more."
"And the Doctor gets lost?"
"All the time! Especially if the TARDIS is feeling mean," he replied.
They looked at each other for a moment before breaking out into laughter.
"Oh that's wizard," Donna snorted. "Our great intrepid explorer foxed by his own ship." She couldn't help but smile.
Suddenly John stopped laughing and looked at the ground. "I like you," he said quietly, shuffling his feet again with his brows drawn together in concentration.
Donna smiled, "you're not bad yourself, space-midget" she told him.
His nose crinkled at the nickname, "when're you going to leave?" he suddenly asked.
Donna looked at him for a moment, stunned. He sat down on the floor, still starring at it like he could stare a hole through it. She slowly sat down beside him. "What do you mean?" she said at last.
He huffed and looked up at her over his knees, "well everyone says they'll stay forever but it gets complicated. They like dad too much and then they have to leave. Then it's just me and dad and he's sad again because he misses them," his small shoulders slumped. "I miss them too, it's not fair." He sniffed a little.
Donna reached over and drew him into a hug. "It's funny, I had this exact same conversation with your dad," she said softly. "He was worried about the same thing. But you know what? You're both worrying about absolutely nothing."
"Really?" John gazed up at her with his huge brown eyes and slightly askew glasses.
"Yeah," she laughed, ruffling his hair. "Me and your dad are looking for the exact same thing: a mate, a best friend." She rolled a shoulder and moved to stand. "Don't worry, kiddo, I'm not going anywhere." She held out a hand to help pull him to his feet.
He stood and grinned up at her toothily, "That's good," he told her happily, "because I like you."
"I like you too, scamp," she smiled back.
"Even if you are an old bag," he lithely dodged the swipe and darted round the other side of the console giggling as only children can.
"Come on, space-midgit," Donna said in a tone she'd only ever really reserved for the Doctor and his irritating antics, "what do you say we go get some chips while your dad endeavours to find the kitchen?"
John's head poked out from where he was hiding, "I'd like that," he replied.
"Come on then," she gestured and they both moved to the door of the TARDIS. Suddenly she grabbed his shoulder and began to tickle him. As he began to beg for mercy amidst his laughter she let him go, "that's for calling me an old bag," she said with a grin as she opened the door.
He'd found them ten minutes later sitting on the floor sharing a plate of chips, the portion she'd bought for him sitting next to them. That was the first family-like meal they shared. He'd noticed that when Donna chatted John looked at her like she was the sun itself, like she was the centre of the whole wide universe. Like she was his mother.
----
"Hey, dad." John's voice called him back to the present and he looked up at his son. It was odd that his son was growing taller than him, well his previous self had been taller he supposed. "What you looking at?" his son asked.
He handed his son the picture, "memories of the old days," he replied easily.
"This was a long time ago," John agreed, smiling as he looked at the picture. He ran a thumb over Donna's face and a flicker of sadness was in his eyes for a moment. "I still miss her," he told him.
"Me too," the Doctor added, a note of nostalgia in his voice.
"Even now, after your regeneration?" John asked, surprised. His dark eyes flitted up to meet his father's.
"Even now," he confirmed, looking away. "I couldn't forget her."
"Because she was the most important woman in the universe?"
"No," he laughed dryly, running hand through his new lighter blondish hair, "because she was your mother."
-----
So? What did you think? Love it? Hate it?
Please review and let me know your thoughts!
Lots of love!
- D