This is my first attempt at writing a story set in the who universe and I've stepped out of my comfort zone. So please be gentle with me!

I've loved Jenny's character from day one and it annoyed the hell out of me when she didn't even get to set foot on the TARDIS. This is an AU, its lazy writing but I didn't want to write the familiar Jenny meets the Doctor fic. I've read so many great stories based on that plot bunny, so I left well alone. I decided that Jenny woke up before the Doctor had a chance to leave. That means that she's previously been on many adventures with him and is starting to question her own behaviour and those around her. (I told you I was being slightly lazy LOL)

It's set a few weeks after Journey's end and the loss of Donna. Who in my opinion was the best companion the tenth Doctor ever had! (I do love a bit of controversy)

Please read and enjoy:)

Disclaimer: I evidently don't own Doctor Who; because if I did David Tennant would still be bound, gagged and locked in my downstairs loo. Only until he agreed with the terms and conditions of his release... To play the Doctor until the end of time. (I literally mean the end of time, as in when the world explodes! Not the episode)

Fathers and Daughters

"Home is where the hearts are remember?" The elder Time Lord chirped, whipping off his long brown coat and draping it over the TARDIS column, where it sat a little worse for wear.

Two planets visited, one devious plot involving genocide thwarted, he had saved a four eyed cat from a tree and it wasn't even lunch time yet.

Not too shabby if you asked him. Although, Jenny was still having problems getting to grips with the no violence rule. If he hadn't have stepped in when he did, who knows what could have happened.

Who was the Doctor kidding? He knew exactly what would have happened. So much so, he could have written a ten paged essay detailing the stupidity of the girl's actions and gotten a gold star... A pat on the back, a round of applause, a firm handshake, a book token for ten pounds and a certificate for outstanding work.

Still, he was lucky Jenny had escaped completely unscathed and he had only been left with a beaten up coat, singed hair and a grazed elbow for his troubles.

Plonking himself down onto the heavily grooved, dusty metal ground, he had already resigned himself to his fate. When had fatherhood become a more terrifying experience then a Cyberman conversion?

Jenny had stayed perfectly silent, not uttering a single word while he had lectured her. Okay, so his lecturing had ballooned into a full blown rant. But, in his defence, she had almost been responsible for the death of three billion lives.

Now he had calmed down. For the moment all was right with the universe and he had a tangled mass of wires with his name on it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched his daughter shuffle over and nudge the multi-coloured wires with the tip of her scuffed army issue leather boot.

"Home is where the heart attacks happen if you keep eating all that saturated fat."

The Doctor raised his eyebrow and shifted slightly on the grating. The TARDIS floor really wasn't the place to be holding a discussion about his choice of fine cuisine. Especially not when he had a list of repairs to do longer than Captain Jack's track record with the opposite sex.

Hmm, or anything with a pulse for that matter; The Doctor noted dryly to himself. Jack wasn't well known for his finicky nature when swapping bodily fluid was on the agenda.

"Jenny, I only had one." He sighed, almost squirming under his daughters steely blue gaze.

"Dad." She huffed, arms crossed and sounding like a resentful teenager with an embarrassing parent. "You ate six and that was before breakfast!"

This time the Doctor found himself shifting uncomfortably, and stretching both sets of his long limbs out of sheer mortification. He sincerely hoped that his enormously all knowing brain would carve out an explanation fit for a queen.

More importantly, how on earth had she seen him?

He had thought that the sparkling allure of the universes biggest weapon shop would have kept Jenny busy for a month or two. Not that it had pleased him when he had stepped out of the TARDIS with the girl in toe, only to have lost her in record time.

Anyway, what right did anyone have to build the universes biggest weapon shop on the exact same planet that they had landed on? A heads up wouldn't have gone a miss. What ever happened to a polite warning? If only someone had said to him 'Oh, by the way mate, you've just landed on the planet with the biggest weapon shop in the universe.' He would have been back in the TARDIS like a shot.

It was the last place that he wanted to bring an impressionable, young wannabe soldier.

The Doctor had told her, he really had. He had even been polite about it. After all, nobody wanted to know a grumpy Time Lord with the tendency to boss people around, while he bombarded them with his own unique style of rudeness.

Why in the name of Raxacoricofallapatorius would they?

It had fallen on deaf ears though, not that it had surprised him one bit. Sometimes he thought that he would have a better chance of talking Sylvia Noble into accompanying him to the annual Martians ball, then ever having anyone listening to him.

'Don't wander off.' Was it really that hard to understand? It was as if everyone the Doctor had ever travelled with had selected hearing. Did they all just decide to wander off to spite him? Were all females brainwashed into believing that it was safe to vanish into thin air by the time they turned twenty? The Doctor was beginning to think that every human he met had a thick side.

Humans, they never ever listened. It didn't matter what you had to say to them. He could spend ten minutes explaining why resonating twenty third century concrete was an enjoyable experience, but would his audience still be awake by the end of it? Nah.

Don't even get him started on why being human and a female was a deadly combination.

His daughter was in all intent purposes a Time Lord. She had the two hearts, the untapped brilliance and had certainly been bitten by the travelling bug. The stupidity, her love of nagging and the annoying habit of ignoring everything he told her not to do was pure human.

At least when Sarah Jane, Rose, Martha or Donna disappeared they were off admiring something rather pretty, like a scarf. That or they were in mortal danger and that was usually his fault.

But, Jenny didn't just wander off to the nearest stall and gaze lovingly at a piece of clothing or jewellery. Oh no, she had to venture into the biggest weapon shop in the universe. Not only did she venture inside with a pocket full of credits, and a spring in her step. When he had finally caught up with her she actually had a shopping trolley, a shopping trolley that hovered. A shopping trolley that hovered and expanded. A shopping trolley that hovered, expanded and was programmed to talk to the customer... He really had seen everything.

When was the Doctor going to learn? On the nine hundred and fourth year of his life, he had once again failed to grasp the concept that it was impossible to come between a woman and her shopping.

Even if 'The woman' in question was Jenny, and the shop she was browsing in would have put the Sontarans weapon storage unit to shame.

Still, it raised the question; How had she seen him eating those delicious local delicacies?

"Dad?"

Ah, and she's still waiting for an answer. Is it just me or is Jenny gradually turning into a younger version of Donna?

The Doctor observed the usually happy go lucky blonde adorn a familiar scowl. Said scowl looked rather out of place on the young girl's ashen face. It would certainly have been more at home on a loud mouthed red head, who had been born and raised in Chiswick and had been rather proud of her filing skills. That and her ability to scare off any man within five seconds of meeting him.

There was no doubt about it, this was all Donna's fault.

That one thought made his hearts ache, she would have slapped him by now. He would have been rubbing his cheek whilst spluttering an apology to appease her anger. Not that it would have helped matters, she probably would have slapped him again.

Oh, how he missed Donna Noble. She was brilliant, beyond brilliant. The most brilliant human that had ever lived. Better than the likes of Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, even though the latter made a beautiful Victoria sponge and had mastered the macarena before the Doctor had.

It was always a good idea to keep a few cheesy party songs on hand, and Donna had been on fire that day. She had even hit it off with Einstein. It hadn't even surprised the Doctor when they had drunk Albert's wine cellar dry and Donna began to voice her disapproval over the theory of relativity. He decided that their queue to leave came when his companion had announced 'Oi, Al! Why don't you shave that ugly moustache off and dye your hair. You'd be a real hit with the ladies then.'

The hint of a smile played upon his lips as he recalled the memory of half dragging, half carrying a legless Donna to the TARDIS... Where she had then preceded to pass out on the floor and snore louder then Jackie Tyler at a convention for 'Gallifreyian Fungi and its importance in the modern day world.'

Only Donna could walk away from a meeting with one of Earth's greatest minds, and accuse him of not only being an imposter but a randy old goat with smelly breath, and a bad dancer!

Imagine that? Meeting Albert Einstein and commenting on his dancing moves.

"DAD!"

The Doctor's eyes snapped in Jenny's direction and all thoughts of his previous companion fizzled away. "Hmm?" He enquired, one hand casually resting in his blue pinstriped jacket pocket. "Oh right, well firstly its impossible for a Time Lord of any age to suffer one heart attack. Let alone two."

Putting his glasses on and untangling the wires, he gestured to his coat. "Secondly, can you pass me my sonic screwdriver?"

Jenny looked less then impressed with the bare bones of his explanation, and it was blatantly obvious to the Doctor that she was waiting for more than just a scrap of information "Look, its biologically impossible Jenny. We might look human, but that's where the similarities end. Our cardiovascular and circulatory systems are ten times that of a normal human being. The same goes for any other system. Even if we didn't regenerate we would still out live every other species a hundred to one."

He watched as she digested his carefully crafted, short but sweet biology lesson. This was the first time that they had brushed upon the subject of a Time Lords life span. He couldn't understand why it had taken him so long to discuss this with his daughter.

Why had his death been playing on her mind? No, that was a ridiculous question. Even he was more often than not surprised when they both survived to live another day.

That still didn't explain what had prompted her line of questioning. They hadn't done anything that out of the ordinary today. "And thirdly, is there something you're not telling me?" The Doctor asked, losing his battle with the stubborn knots on a piece of copper wiring.

The sonic screwdriver appeared under his nose and he took it gratefully. "Thanks. So, is there anything you want to tell your old dad?"

Jenny circled her father, her lips parting to form what he had hoped was an answer. He really wasn't good at these guessing games, especially not when they involved the inner workings of her mind.

"I... Um." Without a clear motive, her mouth closed , and she scurried out of the control room. Leaving the Doctor to groan inwardly and stare coldly at the infuriating strands of wire. He was none the wiser, confused as ever and dangerously out of his depth.

Great.

Just great.

Where is a Dalek invasion when you need one?

Jenny missed Donna. She missed having another woman aboard the TARDIS. She missed their girlie little chats, even though she had trouble following the conversation, and even understanding it ninety eight percent of the time.

She had grown attached to Donna and the peculiar way that she had acted. No soldier would have ever dreamt of sleeping until midday, or wearing a dress and a pair of impractical shoes when there was a high probability of running for your life.

Strolling along the many corridors of the TARDIS had given Jenny time to think.

It was time to head back to her father. He was most likely still playing about with his sonic screwdriver and those wires. It had been rude of her to walk away like that without answering his question.

Before Jenny knew what was happening, the control room was directly in front of her. She patted the wall gently and silently thanked the TARDIS. The warm glow from the ship always had a calming effect on her and reminded her that she wasn't the only female in the Doctor's life.

She couldn't banish the smile that lit up her face, when she stepped into the room and heard a string of curses coming from the direction of the slim man, with the supposed knowledge that knew no bounds.

Yes, he's still at it and by the looks of it, he might just have been beaten by a collection of obsolete wiring. I did tell him not to buy anything from that shifty looking man.

"Ah, I was wondering where you had gotten to." Her dad muttered absent mindedly, brushing a hand through his singed hair and glancing up at her. "I've set the co-ordinates to the nearest black hole. Remind me to never buy copper wiring from a man with a beard again. Never trust a man with facial hair Jenny, especially not when they're selling cheap parts that have fallen off the back of a space craft."

Jenny blinked and slowly nodded her head. "I see. Are men with facial hair more likely to be involved in criminal activity then?" She asked innocently, perching herself on the TARDIS railing.

"Yep." The Doctor replied, popping the P and removing his glasses.

"So, we're going to return to that planet. Kidnap the bearded man, and then dispose of him in the black hole? I thought that you didn't agree with the use of violence?"

This plan of her fathers sounded rather primitive. If he wanted to neutralize the threat of a criminal re-offending, then there were better ways to handle the situation. They could shoot him for instance. Maybe, handing him into the authorities was a better idea, or she could always knock him unconscious and recover their credits.

"What?!" The Doctor climbed to his feet, and returned the sonic screwdriver to his suede overcoat. Turning abruptly he darted back to the controls and produced the rubber mallet. "No, no, no, no, no. I wasn't going to... Jenny, didn't you learn anything today?!" He demanded, albeit rather rudely.

"I only did what any other soldier..."

"You're not a soldier!"

Her face crumpled, and she began to chew her lower lip. He was right, she was no longer a soldier. She had deserted her people on Messaline, and they were now building a new world without her.

Being a well trained warrior, with combat skills and battle tactics programmed into her brain was the only identity she had ever had. If she had turned her back on those of her home planet, and was as far removed from a Time Lord as she could be; Then Jenny was struggling to find her place in the universe.

Where do I belong then?

Drawing in a deep breath, her dad looked almost apologetic. "You're not a soldier Jenny, you're so much better then that."

"I..." She met his searching eyes, willing her to agree with him. They were almost pleading with her not to go through with the hastily made decision that had been playing on her mind since Donna had left.

Maybe leaving the TARDIS and exploring the universe would show dad that I'm more then a mere soldier? I could buy my own ship, find a companion, visit new worlds, save lives and there would be running... Plenty of running.

It was for the best Jenny chastised herself, her stomach beginning to sink. Her father would be fine. He would most likely find another companion to travel with soon enough.

Watching her dad pummel the controls with the rubber mallet, and dive to the floor, she began to form the basis of her speech in her head. After all, she didn't want to sound ungrateful. He had given her the gift of life, a home and shown her that there was a universe at her feet just waiting to be explored.

"I'll be finished in a jiffy." The Doctor announced cheerfully, bustling under the control panel." I just need to reconfigure the TARDIS mainframe, she's really starting to show her age. Then it will be a short hop, skip and a jump to the Chandarian Galaxy, where I can get rid of those wires. That's if I can find that black hole this time. I had a little trouble locating it a few years back, nothing serious just a..."

"Dad, I've been thinking." Jenny started, realizing that it was now or never.

"problem with a radio active asteroid and a fleet of angry Judoon. They were masking the signal of the... Just think of it like Captain Picard attempting to talk to the Borg. It got a bit messy there for a while." He carried on rambling, seemingly in a world of his own and regardless of his daughters attempts at interrupting him mid flow. "I know! We could go to the seaside and eat fish and chips, build a sandcastle, take a stroll along the pier. I'll even treat you to a donkey ride and a stick of rock. I'll just cancel the trip to the Chandarian Galaxy and..."

Slamming his hand onto the control panel and peeking at one of the screens, he grinned manically. "away we go!"

"Dad!" She yelped, wondering how the idea for a trip to the seaside had grown from a recollection of an asteroid, a black hole and the Judoon. "I was trying to tell you that..."

This time though, it wasn't the Doctor's incessant chattering that interrupted her. She was thrown from her feet and landed with a thud against the railing. Groaning over the rumbling of the TARDIS, and hanging on for dear life, she began to wonder why nothing ever went to plan.

"What!? What!? What!? But that's impossible!" Jenny heard her father cry, as he tried to scramble on his hands and knees to the controls, fighting against the forces of gravity.

I guess it's time for another adventure. He always said that the TARDIS was never one for staying in the same place too long. I only wish that we actually had a say in the destination once in a while.

The last thing she heard was the slightly panicked sound of the Doctor's voice "Jenny hold on to something! I can't stop it. I think we're going to..." Then everything faded into darkness.

To Be Continued....