Doctor Who: Father of Time

(author's disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. I wish I owned David Tennant. The man is F-I-N-E and season three rawks! This disclaimer applies to all chapters. This was first posted at if you're wondering. All OC are my own creation. Any reference to anything else is not affiliated to me. Enjoy!).

Pairing: Ten/OC's. References to Rose, come back Billie!!!!

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Somewhere in the far reaches of space, in a lost corner of time, a blue london police box hurtled through the vacuum. On the inside, a myriad of computers blinked and chattered away. A tall, slim man stood, slightly hunched, at a control panel. A man known only as the Doctor. He looked fairly human, though appearances were deceiving. He wasn't human. He was a Time Lord, the last of his kind. All things considered, he was also miserable.

The Doctor allowed the Tardis (the ship he piloted that took the form of a policebox) to exit orbit around the supernova that he had used to say goodbye to her. Rose Tyler, now safe in another universe. Safe from the Cybermen and Daleks. Safe from everything.

Safe from him.

God how he missed her. He hadn't even been able to tell her that he loved her.

How long had he orbited the supernova? How long had he tried and tried to use the last vestiges of the temporal void to reach Rose? He couldn't remember. This from a being who had seen the rise and fall of Earth's greatest civilisations. All for a woman.

The Doctor buried his face in his hands. Behind him, a small screen that was previously switched off flickered back on. A blinking cursor appeared. The Doctor remained oblivious. Three words appeared on the screen:

IT IS TIME.

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Several millions of light-years away, Sandi Jenkinson stood in her kitchen washing dishes in her blue, polar-fleece, penguin pyjamas. Her MP3 was wired to the headphones in her ears as she whirled across the kitchen, busting a dance move here and there as she slid the last of the plates into the cupboard where they were kept. It was her favourite song and damn if she cared what her flatmate thought of her terrible singing. She was having fun.

Sandi, however, couldn't shake the sense that there was something... someone coming. She often felt that way, never being able to properly explain the sense that bordered on precognition. Her flatmate, Nicola, always thought she was just plain weird. It wasn't Sandi's fault, she was just born that way.

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Back inside the Tardis, the Doctor lost his balance slightly as the spacecraft did a massive one-eighty degree turn and headed in the opposite direction to the co-ordinates that the Time Lord had entered into the Tardis' navigational computers. Once the Doctor realised where they were headed, he flew into a rage. Pounding keyboards and trying for manual overrides didn't work. Eventually, the Doctor threw his head back and began screaming at the ship.

'What in the names of the seven suns of Plexibebel do you think you are doing? I'm the PILOT! You're the damn SHIP! Let's try this the conventional way, shall we? I am NOT ready to go back there! Not without Rose!'

Still oblivious to the tiny screen, the three words that had previous been displayed there disappeared. They were replaced by a new message:

SHE IS READY.

------

Sandi cleaned the last of the dishes away as the final bars of 32 Minutes by The Deppdown Docks died in her headphones. The night had been a good one; one of her favourite films had been on television, her job as a games designer was finally beginning to be rewarding the long slog at college and her flatmate wasn't hogging the DVD player. Yep, things were beginning to look up.

Right until her front windows and door exploded into the living room.

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The Doctor paced the floor of the Tardis, ruffling his short mop of straight, dark-brown hair with a slender hand. He glared at the central navigational computer, his unusually dark-brown eyes flashing angrily. Colour was fast draining from his already pale face.

'Okay, if you won't let me fly, then would you mind explaining why we're heading back to Earth? In case you didn't notice, I already saved Earth from the Cybermen and the Daleks. Rose... Rose is... safe, if you can call it that. Just tell me why we're going back to the place that stole Rose from me?'

An image flashed up on screen. The Doctor squinted, then stepped back in shock. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

'Of all the... impudency! After everything... oh, I have to increase speed. We need to get back to Earth immediately!'

------

Sandi coughed, dust swirling through the air and clogging her airways. She waved away the smoke and squinted through the haze. The door and windows were in fragments, strewn across the floor of the living room. It was chaotic; a massive, gaping hole opened onto the darkness of the night outside. She quickly did a mental sweep of the scene. There were no obvious signs of explosives, so it wasn't that. She lived on the second storey of the apartment block, so a car accident was definitely out. It didn't make sense whatsoever. Doors and windows did not simply decide to spontaneously combust in her living room. Something was definitely off.

Okay, my door is on the floor and I'm going to be forking out a few hundred quid tomorrow to get that sodding window fixed. Brilliant. Just wait until I find the sods who did this, I'll rip 'em limb from limb, I'll take 'em apart, I'll...

Sandi gasped. The rubble was shifting.

------

The Doctor raced from monitor to monitor, checking on the Tardis' progress. Upon reading a chart, he gasped.

'No! No... surely it isn't possible! But I'm... but I'm not... it can't be very probable that... oh who cares? Woohoo! We're going back to Earth!'

The Doctor did a quick dance around the main computer centre.

------

Sandi ran into her bedroom and slammed the door shut, locking it with the deadbolt. She grabbed a duffel bag and yanked open her desk drawer. Shoving her laptop, several computer disks, a thumbdrive, a screwdriver, a memory card and a fresh battery pack into the bag, she attempted to climb out of the window. Suddenly the door exploded open. Sandi sagged against the window, one leg half out.

'Oh... God, this is not good,' she moaned. The being in her doorway whizzed and clicked at her rather menacingly.

You are ready, Shandaiah, it said in a mechanical voice. Sandi struggled to climb out of the window.

'Shan... Shan... oh, whatever, I'm not her! You have the wrong girl!'

You are Shandaiah, the being replied, clicking toward her. Sandi yanked her other leg out of the window.

'Sorry, but not interested. Perhaps you should try next door!' Sandi yelled, dropping onto the balcony, sliding down the drainpipe and disappearing into the night.

The clicking being hissed angrily, then disappeared.

------

The Tardis materialised in a whoosh on a dark sidestreet in the middle of a park. The doors opened and the Doctor stepped out. He rubbed his arms.

'Bit chilly tonight, I shouldn't wonder. Should've brought an overcoat.'

Three seconds later, he was bowled over by a young, brown-haired woman with a duffle bag tearing across the lawn like mad.

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Sandi fell hard on her hip, dropping the bag. She had collided with a tall, thin man who was standing next to what looked like an old-fashioned police box. She scrambled ungainly to her feet. The tall man bent down and picked up her bag.

'I... uh, I, I'm terribly sorry, sir! It's just, there's something rather frightening in my apartment across the street and I... well, let's just say I'm not prepared to stay holed up in my study with some weird thing whirring and clicking like an angry clock at me!'

The man gave Sandi a lop-sided grin as he handed back the bag. Sandi took the bag slowly. The man put his hands into his coat pockets.

'No problem, I'm a bit of an expert in all things weird, whirring and clicking. What's your name?'

'Sandi Jenkinson,' she replied, shouldering the bag. The tall man took a step back. He laughed; a short, bark of a laugh and clapped his hands.

'So you're Sandi Jenkinson! My, my, here I was thinking that it would be hard to find you! Good lord, you ran straight to me! No time to explain now, you have to get inside the Tardis,' he said, ushering her into the police box. Sandi struggled against his firm grip.

'What? Wait! Let me go! Stop! I demand to be released! Damn it, let me go!' Sandi shouted, knocking his hand free. The man stopped. Sandi put her hands on her hips.

'Tell me exactly who you are! What the hell is going on here? Why were those things calling me Shan... Shan-dye...'

'Shandaiah?'

'Yes, that... wait, how do you know that? Who the hell are you?'

The tall man stepped back. He rubbed his mouth. He looked up at the stars, at the trees... everywhere, but at Sandi.

'Think hard. You already know, don't you? You don't know how you know what you know, but you know it all the same.'

Sandi gasped. The bag dropped back to the ground.

'You aren't... you can't be... I don't know you... so how can I possibly remember you? You... you're the Doctor, aren't you?'

The Doctor smiled and rubbed his hands with glee.

'See? That wasn't so hard now, was that? Oh, by the way, you can't be Shandaiah. Not unless you were some really high-ranking Time Lord, but quite obviously you've got something to do with it all, so I suppose that doesn't leave me much choice.'

'Say what?'

'No time. Into the Tardis, sweetheart.'

'And if I say no? What then?'

'Then, Sandi Jenkinson, you will be squashed like a bug and I'll have to go on being the last Time Lord in existance.'

Sandi looked at him blankly. She sighed tiredly.

'I'm not sure if I care or not. I am sure, however, that scary, whirring things blasted my front door and windows apart and I really, really don't want to go back there where things are calling me by a name that might have been mine had I been born a few trillion-billion lightyears out of this solar system. I'm also sure that I don't want to be squashed, bug-like or not. Is that alright with you?'

The Doctor smiled warmly, bowing her into the Tardis.

'Perfectly alright with me.'

------

The child escaped.

We know this. She is with another.

The Doctor? We thought he perished in the Time Wars along with the rest of his kind.

No. We received information on the Dalek wavelength before the race was obliterated.

We had heard that similar had happened to the race of Cybermen mark II. Can anything be done?

Pursue.

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'So... Doctor... what exactly is going on? Why were those things chasing me?' Sandi asked as the Doctor ran past, lighting up various panels of controls. He stopped, clapped once, then whirled to face her.

'Oh, well, you see it's all very simple,' he began explaining, speaking at ninety miles an hour.

'Those creatures obviously detected that you aren't all human, despite your previous misconceptions and therefore have a use for you other than... whatever it is you do here on earth...'

'What? Designing video games?'

'Yeah, that, so they've come for one of two reasons. Option A is that you are one of them and they've come to take you home...'

'... I doubt that...'

'... which leaves option B, which is that you are a threat or in fact will be one in the future, in which case they've come to kill you.'

'Not sure that I like that option either,' Sandi groaned, sinking to her knees on the floor of the Tardis. The Doctor smiled kindly and knelt in front of her.

'I'm not sure there are going to be many other options from here on in, Sandi. But I have to ask you a favour, since you're right here and quite comfortable.'

'What's that?'

'At all times, trust me, listen to me and don't EVER touch the controls of the Tardis unless otherwise instructed to. Okay?' The Doctor said cheerfully, leaping to his feet in an agile spring and returning to his quick pacing around the control panels. Sandi pouted.

Not sure I should have trusted this fella so easily, she thought, pulling out her laptop from the duffel bag. Her MP3 toppled out as well. The Doctor stopped and turned around. He spotted the laptop and began laughing hysterically. Sandi stared up at him incredulously.

'What on earth are you laughing at?' Sandi asked. The Doctor pointed at the laptop, slapping his knee, still hooting with laughter.

'Oh dear! One does forget how behind the times the human race is at times!'

'Are you making fun of my computer?'

'Yeah, yeah I do believe I am, actually!'

'Oh, fine then. Just because none of my technology comes from the fifty-first century!' Sandi grumbled. The Doctor stopped laughing. He stared at Sandi, a very serious look on his face.

'How did you know that? How on earth do you know about the fifty-first century?' The Doctor asked quietly. Sandi covered her mouth quickly.

'I... I don't know.'

'You know. You know how you know. Tell me how you know!' The Doctor roared. Sandi covered her head, whimpering. The Doctor's eyes widened. He began to shake. He knelt quickly and pulled Sandi's hands from her head. His intense brown eyes bored into her blue ones.

'I am so sorry, Sandi, so terribly sorry. That was totally uncalled for. It's just... there's something going on and I'm at a total loss to explain it.'

'Was that any reason to yell at me?'

'How did you know?'

'I honestly don't know. It was just a number that I picked out of my head.'

'You said those things called you Shandaiah. Do you have any idea why they might have called you that?'

'None whatsoever. Why, have you heard that name before?'

The Doctor stopped and Sandi saw something in his eyes that truly indicated how far away from home the Doctor really was. Something else inside her gave her a name.

'Gallifrey?' Sandi offered. The Doctor looked shocked. Then his eyes narrowed.

'That wasn't you. That wasn't Sandi Jenkinson who knew the name of my home planet. Something else told you the name Gallifrey. Do you know what it was?'

'N-no, but... Gallifrey? That name... it... it's like I remember it from before. That name, Shandaiah, it's a Gallifreian name. You've heard it before. Tell me.'

The Doctor stood up and walked away to the panels on the central core of the Tardis. He flicked a few switches and turned a knob on the core and stood in silence for a few moments. Sandi had the feeling that she had pushed her luck with the strange man.

'Shandaiah... Queen Shandaiah. It's an old Gallifreian legend. Impossibly old. I didn't think that anyone but the elder Time Lords knew it. I guess I was wrong. Those clicky things obviously salvaged a record of it from the remnants of Gallifrey. It is said that when the Time Lords are in their darkest hour, that a child will rise from the ashes of the civilisation. The child will rebuild the lost empire. Shandaiah. The name in old Gallifreian means Saviour, literally translating to Queen Saviour.'

'So those... things think I'm the saviour of the Time Lords? For heaven's sake, my father was a pilot and my mother was a truck driver!'

'Where's your father now?'

'W-he's...'

'Your mother?'

'She's...' Sandi stopped short. The Doctor raised his eyebrows, affording a half-grin.

'You don't know, do you?'

'Of course I do! I just... can't remember.'

'Sure. Totally understandable, not remembering the people who brought you up.'

'Stop making fun of me!'

The Doctor shook his head sadly and ran a hand through his hair with the air of a man who is very, very tired. Sandi thought for a moment.

'The memories... they're being suppressed, aren't they?'

'Want to explain how you know the things you do but have no idea who brought you up? You even knew the name of the home planet of an alien life form that you've never met before?'

Sandi closed her mouth. This... Doctor. He isn't human. Just humanoid. Oh God.

The Doctor turned back to the controls.

'We're going back to Gallifrey. I have to know more about this legend.'

------

The Doctor is proceeding as planned. We will retrieve the carrier from his custody.

It is vital that we find the child. Her memories are being released.

She will remember?

Uncertain. Chances can not be taken. Find her.

------

'Where the hell are my glasses?'

'What, these things? I found them on the floor. You've almost stepped on them twice!'

The Doctor whirled around to find Sandi sitting against the Tardis' far wall, tightening the screws on the arms. He marched over and held out a hand. Sandi smiled innocently and handed them back.

'I made a few... improvements to them,' she said brightly. The Doctor looked down and frowned, before turning away and putting them on. He gasped.

'What the... how did you... oh, now that's clever! What are they?' The Doctor laughed, looking around the Tardis with a massive smile on his face.

'The lenses are specially designed to react to the ocular-cranial requirements, increasing or decreasing light and magnification as required. Oh, by the way, hit the button underneath the left arm.'

The Doctor raised his hand slowly to the left side of his face and felt the tiny button. He pressed it gently and stumbled slightly backwards.

'This... this isn't possible. This is nanotechnology! The human race is still a good one hundred and fifty years off the first steps into this and you, my dear, you have just created the human race's first pair of x-ray specs! This is incredible! Fantastic!'

Sandi grinned. She stood up and watched the Doctor stumble around, peering at everything through his new glasses. He spun around and looked straight at Sandi. He grinned sheepishly. In a split second, Sandi realised what he was looking at and threw her arms over her body. The Doctor blushed.

'Sorry,' he said, switching the glasses off. Sandi frowned.

'You should not abuse your privileges, Doctor! I fixed your glasses!'

'It wasn't you. It was the things suppressing your memories.'

'Ah, but you see, if it was, then it only has control of persuading me. I have to make the final decision.'

'Who told you that?'

'I... I'm not sure. Every so often I get the feeling that I'm having a conversation with two sides of myself.'

'I'll bet you are,' the Doctor murmured. taking the glasses off. Sandi shrugged. The Doctor moved towards her slowly until he was standing directly in front of her. He lifted his hands and touched the sides of her head gently.

'I want to know what's going on in there, but I need your permission,' he said softly. Sandi began to tremble.

'I... I don't...'

'I promise I won't hurt you, Sandi, but in order for me to help you I need to know what's hiding your thoughts. If there's anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door closing.'

'But...'

'Please, Sandi. If this has to do with my home, then I need to know.'

Sandi gazed into his eyes. They were full of concern; genuine concern, kind, gentle but firm. Up close, he was more handsome than he had seemed at first. For the first time, Sandi totally relaxed in his presence.

'Okay,' she whispered. The Doctor closed his eyes and took a deep, slow breath.

Suddenly, every memory, every dream, every thought that had ever passed through Sandi's head came flooding back in a raging torrent. But some of the memories flashing through her head weren't hers; images of a large council room crumbling into pieces, of a tall man all in white bundling her up in a blanket, the inside of another Tardis, the Doctor...

Sandi quickly conjured up a door. If he managed to get into her memories and thoughts relating to him, she wasn't totally sure what he would find. The Doctor opened his eyes slowly. His eyes were soft.

'Why didn't you want me looking at me?'

'Uh... I'm not sure what was there.'

'Some of those thoughts you didn't know were there, either, I suspect.'

'That white room... the council room... was that Gallifrey?'

'Yes. Whatever is suppressing your memories is losing its hold inside the Tardis.'

'Doctor?'

'Yes?'

'Do you think... could it be possible that I am Shandaiah?'

'Well, you're certainly not all human. Those memories are from way before you were supposed to born. Anything's possible, I've learnt that much.'

'Then, maybe, Shandaiah is a part of me. Bit like a bug-host situation.'

The Doctor stared at Sandi. She stood before him, an expression of understanding and acceptance washing over her face. But the Doctor knew that on the inside, the tiny girl in her heart was terrified. He'd seen that. The way she had seen everything. On the surface, she gave the impression of a grown-up woman, able to cope with anything, but on the inside she was still a terrified little girl, left all alone. Her loneliness had been painfully apparent when he had searched through her mind. She had had friends, sure, but there was always something that made her feel alone. He knew that feeling. It was the same feeling that he had had as a child, knowing that he would never be able to grow old and die, but would keep regenerating. He had envied humans for that. The reason for so many goodbyes...

'That's certainly a possibility, but we won't know until we get back to Gallifrey,' he answered. Sandi tipped her head to one side.

'What's left of Gallifrey, Doctor?'

'I have no idea. After the Time Wars, I left for Earth and vowed never to return. Scavengers may have come through and picked out the better parts of the rubble, but the basic computer terminals might still be functional.'

'If the planet is still there, you mean.'

'Well, yeah, there's always the possibility that Gallifrey was wiped out of existance. When you play around with time, you never really know what's going to happen.'

'Oh gee, that makes me feel so much better, considering where we are.'

'Oh, nothing to be worried about, well, nothing to be too worried about. I've had loads of practice at this.'

'Thanks, that just alleviates every one of my concerns. Dear God, what am I doing here?'

The Doctor put a lanky arm around her shoulders and grinned at her.

'Come on, it's not that bad. We'll be there before you know it.'

------------

What about the informer? He is almost ready to speak.

The Doctor will be ready when he is summoned. We must be patient.

Indeed. Perhaps it would be prudent to wait a while before retrieving the carrier.

Is it imperative to the plan?

No. But we will wait.

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