Disclaimer: I don't own Dr. Who.
Author note: While writing my other stories this plot bunny started bugging me. Hope you like it. This takes place right after "Going Forward - Fraternal Order of herding cats".
"Jakie, I was so right you have such wonderful Grandchildren." Mrs Margie Gatehouse said to her as she watched the children go off and play in the garden.
"We like to think so." Jackie smiled and gave the Doctor a glare. "I had the cook specifically make those little cake balls you love. "
"Oh please excuse me those sound so wonderful." She hurried off.
"Are you enjoying your party?" The Doctor asked.
"Oh it's nice I just can't believe we are having this party." As side she said, "It isn't even our anniversary."
"Jackie Tyler from this world, married Pete Tyler from here 35 years ago granted you have been married to this world's Pete Tyler for 18 years. Regardless, enjoy it." He smiled. "You deserve it."
"Alright, but it feels weird." Jackie wandered off to talk to some of her guests.
A moment later, Rose walked up and slipped her hand into his. "I can't believe so much time has passed."
"It feels like just last year that James was born." He looked out to where James was playing tag with his siblings and the other children.
"I can't believe Tony is going to university next spring." Rose shook her head, "When did my baby brother grow up?"
"That is what people do." He laughed. "They live the life they are given, some better than other's." He grabbed some nibbles off a passing tray.
"I like to think we have had a good one so far." She smiled at him.
"We have had some adventures. Not QUITE the quiet life but it has been interesting." He smiled out at the people around them. He noticed a commotion by the garden. "Something is wrong." He jogged over to where a group was talking hurriedly. Rose followed after him worriedly.
"… There are no such things as vanishing people Joseph." A woman scolded a boy.
"But I saw it. The little ones were bothering us. We convinced them to play hide and seek. I was it. I SAW her run around the hedge, and she was gone."
"What is going on here?" The Doctor asked.
"It's nothing one of the children is hiding and won't come out." The woman said to the Doctor as if he was an idiot.
"Who's child is it? " Rose asked getting worried.
"It's Evee, Mum" James came running up. "I've looked everywhere for her."
An immediate search was started for Evee. They searched ever nook and cranny of the manor, and the garden. The local police questioned everyone, and had started a search for her around the area. They found nothing. Any tracks had been lost due to party goers. The security camera showed her playing in the garden then she was just …gone. It was late that night when the police finally left, and Torchwood could come in and do their own scans. So far they had found nothing.
Rose had put the children to bed in one of the spare bedrooms, and was currently curled up next to the Doctor in the library. Pete had taken Jackie up to bed a little while ago. Toni was out in the garden with Torchwood, trying to find SOMETHING that would explain what happened. Rose refused to leave the manor until Evee was found. She couldn't leave her daughter. As much as the Doctor wanted to be ripping the world apart finding his daughter he knew Rose needed him. "I'll find her Rose." The Doctor said into her hair. "I promise you. I WILL find her."
"I know," she started to cry again," you will." The Doctor just rocked her and let her cry. His own tears dripped into her hair. Their grief was so great that they didn't hear the Library door open, and someone enter the room.
"Dad…Mum…"
Rose and the Doctor looked up to see James, and Verity standing in the door way. They didn't say anything, just motioned for them to come over. The children ran into their parents arms. They held each other as they cried for a long while. They really should scold them for being out of bed, but it was nice to have them so close.
When their tears were subsiding James looked up at his father and asked something that surprised him "Dad, if I tell you something will you believe me?"
"What is it?" He moved so his son was sitting on his lap.
"The police, they just ruffled my hair and called me silly when I told it to them, but will you believe me." The boy asked, his eyes begging for his father to believe him.
"I'll believe you James." He laid a hand on his son's cheek. "What is it?"
"I know who took Evee." The boy said in complete honest seriousness.
"Who?" The Doctor looked him dead in the eye.
James bit his lip in fear. There were times when his father scared him. It wasn't his actions; it was more what he sometimes saw in his father's eyes. He knew he had to do this for his sister, he swallowed the fear. "The woman in the book."
"What book?
"You keep a book on your desk." James knew he would be in trouble for snooping but Evee needed him. "I'm sorry for looking but I saw her picture inside."
"We will discuss you looking at things you shouldn't later, but who was it." The Doctor reassured him, but made sure he knew he was serious.
"It was a book of sketches. There were pictures of me, mum, Verity, Evee, and other odd things."
"My journal." The Doctor explained to Rose, "If something is bothering me I'll write or draw in it." Then back to James, "Have you seen her before?"
"No." James shook his head, "but you had a name under it." James's nerves were starting to give out.
"Go on, who was it sweetheart." Rose encouraged him.
"It said 'Donna'." James looked to his father hopeful.
"That impossible." The Doctor looked at his son in disbelief. "She couldn't have been here."
James jumped out of his father's lap, near tear, "You promised you would believe me. You promised."
"James!" Before he got far the Doctor was on his knees in front of his son, hands on his shoulders. "It's not that I don't believe you it's just..." He looked to Rose who gave him a sympathetic look, "She SHOULDN'T have been able to be there."
"But I SAW her!" James was near tears, "You have got to believe me!"
"I do, but everything I know says she couldn't have been there but if she was…" The Doctor sighed, "If she was then something is seriously wrong; more so than just Evee going missing."
Rose turned a scared Verity to face her on her lap, "Was there anything or anyone that was acting odd that you remember?"
"We were just playing Mum." Verity begged.
James glared at his sister, "Tell them Ver. If it get's Evee back you have GOT to tell them."
Verity looked up at her Mum, "Evee was running into the bushes, by the yellow roses when I heard something."
"What was it?" The Doctor asked as gently as he could.
"It was like a quick intake of air." She looked to her father scared, "It was like someone quickly pulled something out of the air."
The Doctor looked to Rose, then back to Verity. "Anything else?"
"I was right behind her when she went into the bushes, but just as I was about to turn the corner when I tripped."
"Why didn't you tell us this before sweetheart?" Rose stroked Verity's hair. She wasn't sure if it was for Verity's benefit or her own.
"We tried Dad," James spoke up, "but no one would believe us."
"I believe you," The Doctor smiled at his son. "What happened when you tripped?" The Doctor stood, took James's hand, and brought him over to the couch.
"I didn't see anything but I heard someone say something that scared me." Verity supplied.
"What did you hear sweetheart?" Rose asked.
"It was a woman. She said 'Not to worry, they would save me too.' By the time I could look up Evee was out of sight."
"Had you heard the voice before?" The Doctor asked. Both children shook their heads. "Alright. If there anything else you can think of, anything at all come tell your mum and me."
"We will." "Yes Dad." Both children nodded.
"Good on you." The Doctor tried to reassure his children.
"Come on, I know where your Grandmum hides the chocolate. I'll make you a mug, and then I'll put you to back to bed." Rose moved so that Verity could slide off her lap and hold her hand. James made to follow them but stopped at the door and looked at his father.
The Doctor had moved to the fire place and was leaning on it, in thought. "What is it James?"
"You will find her, won't you?"
He went to his son again, and knelt before him. He had never lied to his children and didn't plan to start now, but this time it was tempting. "I will find her; just as I would find you, Verity, and your mother. I give you my word; I will not stop until I find her."
"Thank you." James wrapped his arms around his father's shoulder and hugs him tight. The Doctor held his son tight to him a bit longer than he normally did. He was NOT going to give up, not ever.
Finally the Doctor let him go. "Go on, you don't want Vee to drink it all do you?" The boy laughed a little as the Doctor ruffled his hair, "Go on. Your mother is waiting."
The room now empty, the Doctor stood and relaxed his hands in his pockets. He had a promise to keep, and he better get at it.
"Doctor! We found something!" A familiar voice said from near by.
Leaving the children with Rose, the Doctor had gone out into the garden to look for himself, glasses on his face, and sonic screwdriver in his hand. Oh he had upgraded it a bit since finding it. Still was temperamental at times, but when he needed it, it came through. He had been scanning the perimeter of the property hoping to find traces of something. At the sound of the call he came running over.
"What did you find Jake?"
"Tachyon particles," He said out of breath. "What is odd is that they are at a frequency that we haven't picked up in 15 years."
The Doctor checked the area that Jake indicated, and confirmed his readings. Taking his glasses off he looked at Jake confused, "That would have been during the Ghost shift incident back on earth, Rose's world I mean. Drat it; parallel worlds always give me head aches."
Use to the Doctor's tangents Jake continued to explain. "When we used our world jumper badges, they would leave behind traces of tachyon particles."
"You were poking holes in the universe; it is no surprise it was bleeding all over the place." The Doctor squatted down, slipped his glasses on and examined the ground.
"That's just it. Normally the Cherenkov radiation would be going through the roof if some one punches holes from one world to the next."
"But their not," the Doctor ran some soil through his fingers and sniffed it. "Their dissipating, as if someone is sealing the breach each time."
"Exactly," Jake ran his fingers through his short cropped hair, "Who ever were here jumped over grabbed Evee, and when they jumped out they sealed the door behind them."
"They didn't want us to know they had been here." The Doctor stood up. "Now the question is who are they."
"Doctor!" Toni waved from the house, "Some one to see you."
"Wonder who that would be?" The Doctor made his way up to the house.
"I found them in the village. One of them said he had to speak to you." Toni pointed to the man behind him. "He says he knows where Evee is."
As the Doctor neared he felt his blood run cold. Standing at the garden door was Brother Cristofer Federico of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet. The man who's brother had tried to kill him 10 years ago.
Author Note: Read and review. My reviewers comments sparked this idea. So keep them coming.