THE DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER – A DIFFERENT VERSION

Author's note This does take place in the Day On universe in which the Doctor and Rose have been reunited following Doomsday. However, since no canon Gamm characters appear, it belongs in Doctor Who. As much as possible, this Ginny will retain the personality of the version portrayed on the BBC, but she will naturally be a bit different. Jack is more conservatively depicted due to author's preference and inability to write that much of a libertine. All characters belong to the BBC.

Captain Jack Harkness wandered through the abandoned Game Station, staring, appalled at the piles of dust, all that remained of those exterminated by the Daleks. Yet, all he was truly aware of was the fact that he had been abandoned by the Doctor, and possibly Rose. Unless it had been an auditory hallucination, he had heard the TARDIS, which meant Rose had come back, but not for Jack. He was alone among the dead. Why he wasn't one of them when he remembered dying was a mystery.

A sound drew his attention. Whirling, prepared to be killed again, the conman saw NOT a demented robot, but a young woman, with eyes that held a trace of bravado alongside fear.

"How did you escape? Who are you?" Jack asked, too shell-shocked to be charming at the moment.

A frown crossed her face. "I'm not sure; I don't have a name, I don't think." She looked around. "Where are my parents?"

"Who are they? If they were here, I hate to tell you, sweetheart, but they're probably not among the living," Jack could think of no way to be gentle. She looked old enough to take the hard, cold facts.

"No, they have to be alive," she stated firmly.

"Maybe they're on Earth?" Jack offered. It was the best he could do, though he did recall that Lynda had mentioned the Daleks were slaughtering the population below. Where had all those metal menaces gone?

"No, they're on the – Time and Relative Dimension in Space, the TARDIS," she blinked as revelation dawned. "My Father is the Doctor. My Mother is Bad Wolf, no, she is Rose Tyler. She is both. She brought death," one hand indicated the dust piles that had once been Daleks, "but also – life."

That cut off any quips. "Oh – okay. Let's start at the beginning. What have those two been up to that no one told me about?" His interest piqued, all tiredness and feelings of betrayal retreated to a dull roar. "How old are you?"

The girl thought, then replied, "I think you would call it – ten."

"You're definitely more than ten years old," Jack winked. "Trust me on that." His gaze raked over her flirtatiously, though if her dad was the Doctor that was one father he did not want to piss off.

"Oh, not ten years; ten minutes, eleven now, Jack. You are Jack, but you are not a Captain."

"This is getting weird. You're way below the legal age, but let's find something alcoholic and talk about this," Jack shook his head. "And, I am a Captain!"

XXX

Finding something drinkable, much less with a buzz to it, proved to be a challenge. The Big Brother houses mostly had beer or cheap wine that Jack wouldn't use for motor oil. Finally, on the Bachelor set, he located an assortment of champagnes and finer reds as well as the stuff to make a dry martini.

"So, you're Doc's kid? How?" He opted not to beat around the bush.

The girl shrugged. "I just am. I was conceived when Father kissed Mother and made her simply Rose again, and then, I was alive."

"What do you mean, simply Rose again? What had she become?"

"The Bad Wolf," she replied. "She looked into the vortex and took it inside so she could save-" There was a pause, and then she concluded, "Dad," giving a satisfied nod that she had found a better word. "She made your heart work again, and the breath come back to you, but it almost killed her. So, Dad drew pulled the power back out of her and then freed it. That's when I was generated."

It also explained how she knew so much, Jack reasoned to himself. If she was born out of a mix of love, energy, and the well of time, she had access to incredible knowledge, for now at least. It'd probably fade out a bit. Or maybe it wouldn't.

He considered all this while downing his martini. "Well, kid, you need a name. I don't suppose you have any preferences?"

"You pick. I could hear many names in my head as I came to life, but don't know which one was mine. I don't feel like Mickey or Ace or Adric. I don't think I'm Charley or Leela, either. Romana? No, that's not me."

"Hmm. You sure aren't Mickey, much less Ricky. Let's see. You were generated you say, not born. How do you feel about – Ginny, spelled with a G, not a J?"

Brushing a strand of wayward blond hair from her eyes, Jack's companion nodded briskly. "I like that. Ginny with a G sounds better than with a J, for me. It has – kick."

Jack grinned. "I have a feeling you do, too, Ginny girl."

One brow lifted, "You'll have one if you try anything, Mister, right where it hurts."

Wincing, Jack thought to himself, "Yeah, she's definitely Rose's kid."

Aloud, he asked, "How do you feel about leaving this joint, then?"

Gaining confidence, Ginny grinned, "Love it, but how?"

"Your dad didn't know about ALL my gadgets." He pushed back his sleeve to reveal something that looked like a watch. "One personal time transporter, at your service. It'll transmit a being more massive than I am, so if you hold on, it should carry us both some when that is less forsaken than this one."

"Lead on, MacDuff," Ginny quipped, lacing her arm through his, "unless this is just an excuse to grab me?"

"Not completely," he winked. "I do have one question, though."

"Just one?" she shot back, and there went that eyebrow again.

"For now, well, okay, two. How do you know so much and how is it you weren't born naked?"

"I was. There were clothes in some of the rooms around here."

"And I missed it," Jack lamented. "Darn."

"And, I know whatever my parents knew."

"And that is quite a lot, yeah," Jack agreed. "Hang on, Princess, this ride could get bumpy." He'd never used a chrono-transporter with two people before, after all.

A moment later, they were hurtling through time and space, with no ship to protect them. To still the instinctive rush of fear that came along with the thrill of it, Ginny focused on the best memories she could glean from the fount of her parents' pasts. So transfixed was she by the images in her mind that she was not aware of slipping off Jack's arm until she landed hard and alone on a sandy beach.

For a moment, she lay on the shore, stunned, then picked through the available data to conclude aloud, "So, this is Schooner Bay. I hope Jack made it somewhere - and when - safely."

The End (For Now)

To be continued in an as yet untitled Ghost and Mrs. Muir story.