Author's Note: This is the fourth story in the Parallel Lines series. I do try to make each story so that it still makes sense if you haven't read the earlier stories in the series, but I don't go overboard with the recaps, so if you haven't read the first stories and I kinda gloss over something, it was probably explained better in an earlier story.
Adult edits of the story can be found on whofic under the same story title. If a chapter has more than a line or two that has been cut for this lower-rated version, I'll specify that at the beginning. This first chapter doesn't have anything missing.
I haven't got an official beta for this fic, but britgirlatheart has been awesome in letting me bounce ideas off her to make sure I don't go overboard ;)
Traveling the Parallel Lines
Chapter One
When Rose woke from her vivid dream, she turned to reach for her husband, but the Doctor wasn't in their bed. Since he didn't need quite as much sleep as the average human, this wasn't too unusual an occurrence. Rose got out of bed, her body still protesting the early hour despite her mind's alert state after the dream that woke her.
She left the bedroom and peeked into the next room over, stopping at the door frame to admire the view she found inside.
The Doctor was walking back and forth in the small room, talking quietly as he gently bounced their two-month-old daughter in his arms, smiling as the infant cooed in return. Lilliana Jane Tyler had her father wrapped around her little finger already and had from the moment she was born.
"And that, Miss Lily," he was saying now, "is why you should never wink at a Rhondisomian prince."
"I learned that the hard way," said Rose as she walked over to join her family. "It took ages to get the smell out."
The Doctor turned to his wife and beamed. He studied Rose a moment, then gave the sleepy baby a kiss on the forehead, gently placed her in her crib, and watched a moment to be sure she would go back to sleep without any further help. The Doctor took Rose's hand and led her out into the hallway and back to their room.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"I had a dream," replied Rose. "It was him."
"Are you sure?" said the Doctor. "It has been over a year since you saw what was happening to the other Doctor. I was nearly certain that you wouldn't have any more of the dreams after the remains of Bad Wolf finished synthesizing with your DNA. The only way there could possibly be enough of an impact to revitalize the connection enough to send the vision through the void would be… Oh. He regenerated, didn't he?"
For five years, Rose had gotten dreams from their original world's Doctor, seeing and feeling along with him when he was thinking of her, though the times didn't always sync up properly, a hazard of time travel. This had stopped just over a year before in Rose's timeline, and neither had really expected any more dreams to occur.
"Yeah," said Rose. "I think so. It was… it was odd. There was this surge, right, like when you regenerated? Only he didn't change right away. And he felt so tired. I think he was ready to go, expecting it, even. He spent all this time remembering, but not really fighting it, you know? It was so different from last time."
The Doctor hugged his wife, knowing she'd always feel any pain that she was aware of from any version of himself. After a moment, he felt her relax.
"I'm okay, Doctor. And he is, too, I think, the new new new new Doctor," she said, pulling back to smile at him.
He smiled back at her.
"Did you get to see any of the next regeneration?" he asked. "And did you see how it happened? Wasn't sure I'd have another."
Rose shook her head.
"Not really," she said. "He started remembering. He was regretting something, thinking about all of his regrets, about people stuck in parallel worlds. Not sure what triggered that, but I think that's what started the link with me. It wasn't very strong, and then there was like this flash of gold, right? And then he started regenerating. When he changed, it felt… I dunno, like he didn't know who he was yet, and then the dream ended."
The Doctor looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Regeneration can be pretty disorienting," he said. "I don't expect that you'll see him again like that. I can't think of anything other than regeneration that would reactivate the connection, and the more time that passes since the synthesising, the less likely even that is." He looked fondly down at Rose and then over to their bed, saying, "Come on. Let's get you back in bed. Big morning coming up, first time out in the new TARDIS!"
He beamed at her as they moved to get comfortable. Rose snuggled close to him in their bed.
"I'm glad you stayed the same for me, Doctor," she said, already more asleep than awake.
He held her tight, his single heart beating steadily. "So am I, Rose. So am I."
As Rose slept, the Doctor thought about how much had stayed the same and how much was different, and he wondered what the other Doctor would think of this perfect life that had seemed so impossible.
O~O~O~O~O~O
The next morning passed in a blur. From her various newborn-friendly perches, Lily happily watched her parents running about as they finished packing the TARDIS (who wasn't yet able to supply things are readily as she eventually would) for their first adventure. Lily was a very observant child, and her proud parents were already fairly certain she was a genius.
As they loaded the last few things they might need, the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it," yelled Rose in the vicinity of the back door as she retrieved Lilliana from her bouncer and moved to the front door, which was now being knocked on. "Mum!" she said in surprise as she opened the door. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"What, and miss saying goodbye to my only daughter and grandchild? Come here," said Jackie as she reached for Lily.
Letting her mother take her daughter, Rose led them inside the house.
"You told me when you were going and didn't expect me to say goodbye?" complained Jackie. "It's gonna be just like it was before, I know it, you swanning off without a word. Only told me because you needed me to look after the cat, didn't you? Where is she, anyway?"
Puff, the grey and white cat that the Doctor and Rose had adopted on their honeymoon, had been making herself scarce lately. The Doctor had tried to introduce the feline to the TARDIS; Puff had immediately gotten, well, puffy, and she had refused to go anywhere near the TARDIS or anywhere near Rose and the Doctor for at least a few hours after they'd been inside the ship.
When the couple realized they would be unable to take the cat along on trips, they arranged for a system, just in case. Rose and the Doctor would plan not to be gone more than a day in this timeline, but Rose accepted, even if the Doctor didn't care to, that there might be slight navigational errors on their part. As a result, they would let Jackie know each time they left, and she would call every few days. If Rose and the Doctor were still gone, Jackie would come refill the cat's bowls and such, ensuring the cat wouldn't be left alone for too long.
"Puff is probably hiding in the bedroom," said Rose now. "She's terrified of the TARDIS and she hides if we've been in and out too often."
"Don't blame her, do I?" said Jackie as she gently bounced her granddaughter. "The other TARDIS was bad enough, but this one has its own mind, it does. I'm not stepping foot in it. Cat's the only one with any sense in this house." She looked back at the baby she was holding. "Well, except for you, Miss Lily. But you can't leave your parents alone, now can you?" Addressing Rose again, Jackie continued, "Do you really think it's safe for her on that thing?"
"Mum," said Rose, trying to remain patient, "we've been through this. We're not willing to risk missing our child grow up. We won't take her anywhere we aren't sure is safe."
"Are you gonna be okay with that? Won't get bored?" asked Jackie. "And what happens if that thing decides it wants to go somewhere else? It was bad enough when it was just himself driving, but a ship that can travel without being told to?"
Rose took a deep breath, remembering her labor and wishing they hadn't told Jackie the real reason they left on that day.
O~O~O~O~O~O
Two months earlier, after the Doctor had excitedly announced that the TARDIS was officially capable of her first trip, Rose had waddled out to the garden to join him in the blue phone box, just as glad as he was that they'd no longer be earth-bound.
She took in the appearance of the console room (very similar to the one with which she was familiar, with something just a little different that she couldn't immediately put her finger on) and watched the Doctor as he fiddled near a screen, entranced.
"She's not very big yet," he told her as he worked, "but we've got a bedroom, a nursery, a kitchen, a loo, and an infirmary. Everything we need, right? I'll ask her to work on the library next. Or you could. She did bond with you before she did with me, after all, so she should accept your input just as well."
Rose looked around, happily soaking in the hum of the TARDIS and feeling the mental link whose presence she'd adjusted to over the year prior. As her eyes passed over the doors, a thought occurred to her.
"Wait, I thought you said the TARDIS looked like a police call box because of a broken chameleon circuit, yeah?" Rose said. "Ours isn't broken already, is it, that she looks like that?"
"Best I can tell," replied the Doctor, "her chameleon circuit is fully functional. It appears she recognises her current location as home and has chosen the shape with which she is most comfortable, and she seems to have chosen that based on what she sees in our minds. This is partly a guess, of course, but I am very good at guessing," he added with a wink.
"Is it safe to take her out before the baby is born?" she asked.
"Well," he scratched his neck. "Travel through space should be acceptable, I think. The vortex itself should be safe this late in the pregnancy, but I think materializing in a new time after leaving a different one would be potentially problematic. We'll have to take a couple of months off after the baby is born; she won't have your help with the shielding, so to speak. A trip or two in a theoretical emergency situation wouldn't likely affect anything, but there's no need to take any extra risks with her life."
Rose groaned.
"What?" said the Doctor, still physically working with the interface. "I never do risk anyone on purpose. I may have been careless a time or two or three, and maybe I get carried away in the heat of a new adventure, but there's no need…."
"Doctor," interrupted Rose. "That contraction was stronger, and it's only been a few minutes since the last one. I think she's finally coming."
"Right," said the Doctor, leaping up to help. "The infirmary was finished just in time! I wonder whether she knew when Lilliana was planning to join us. Oh! Perhaps they've bonded already. That will make the transition to pilot much easier for Lily when she's old enough. What do you think, maybe six years old? Eight?"
"Doctor," said Rose again. Though the Doctor was good at focusing when he wanted to, he did still have a tendency to ramble at occasionally inconvenient times.
"What?" he asked. "Oh! Right. Sorry."
He led her to the infirmary, which was currently decorated in soft, soothing colors and fully equipped as a labor and delivery room. He helped her onto the table and then left the room for a few minutes, returning looking quite proud of himself.
"I heard you tell Jackie that I'd call her as soon as we knew you were in labor," he said, "so I called her! You didn't even have to tell me to do it. And we should have a screen in here somewhere...Aha! This will let us monitor the TARDIS doors and see who's coming without leaving the infirmary. Isn't that brilliant? It's got speakers, too!"
"Yeah, brilliant, Doctor," said Rose in a strained voice as she made it through another contraction. "I really wanted my mother in this tiny space with us."
"Ah," said the Doctor, realizing he might not have assessed the situation correctly. "Well, she can't get into the TARDIS unless we let her."
"And, what, we're going to listen to her scream when we don't?" asked Rose, not at her most patient.
"I'm sorry, Rose," said the Doctor earnestly, taking her hand. "I'm so, so sorry."
Rose burst into laughter.
"You look like someone died, Doctor. Yeah, it woulda been nice to be just us, but you were trying to help, yeah? It's sweet."
The Doctor blinked.
"Mood changes aren't an uncommon symptom of early labor," he ventured, clearly unsure how to act.
"Doctor," said Rose, irritated again. "I'm not gonna bite you. You look terrified."
Jackie chose that moment to come running up to the TARDIS doors, having made the trip from the Tyler mansion to the Doctor and Rose's house in record time.
"Rose! Rose, sweetheart, I'm here!" called Jackie.
As she came into view of the monitor, Rose and the Doctor saw that she was laden with bags.
At that moment, each felt their link with the TARDIS surge briefly, and then the TARDIS started making the distinctive sound of her dematerialization. Jackie screeched at them from outside while the Doctor raced to the console.
"Doctor," sent Rose mentally after she communicated briefly with the TARDIS, made easier when they'd gone far enough to block out her mother's voice, "nothing's wrong. Come back."
Their short-range ability to communicate telepathically with each other was just one of the benefits Rose and the Doctor had acquired after creating a permanent mental bond. The Doctor ran back into the room, still looking concerned, eyes darting to the view of the time vortex now showing on the monitor.
"Doctor," said Rose calmly, "she felt that we didn't want to be around Mum right now. She reacted by keeping us safe, taking us to the vortex."
The Doctor grinned, a smile that started slowly and ended by covering much of his face.
"Oh, you are brilliant, you are," he said, stroking one of the infirmary walls.
Rose, feeling proud of the TARDIS herself, still had to resist rolling her eyes. That is, until her next contraction hit.
The rest of her labor was miraculously uneventful and relatively short, and the new family of three was able to return safely home, the biggest threat the new grandmother who might never let them forget they ran away from her in such a memorable fashion.
O~O~O~O~O~O
Bringing herself back to the present and to explaining to her mother why she wasn't scared of the TARDIS, Rose turned to Jackie.
"Mum, she's not just telepathic," she said. "She smart, too, you know? She's not going to risk the baby."
"I'm still afraid you're gonna get bored and she'll think she's helping by taking you to some crazy planet with aliens that want to eat your brains," grumbled Jackie before she stopped to make faces at Lilliana.
"Actually," said the Doctor, who'd slipped into the room unnoticed, "I had an idea about that. The TARDIS itself is safe. The circumstances that would be dangerous from within the TARDIS are too unlikely to worry about, so all we need is someone to come with us and keep an eye on Lilliana, right?"
"Yeah," said Jackie, "but don't think you're getting me on that ship. I won't do that, not even to keep you two from getting bored. Drop her off at the mansion any time you want some time alone, but I'm not setting foot in that thing."
The Doctor stood behind Rose, his hands on her shoulders, and she could feel him gathering his patience.
"I don't mean you, Jackie," he said. "No offence, but I was more thinking about someone who might have a chance of dealing with anything unexpected that could possibly arise on a time-and-space ship."
Rose ignored her mother's offended noises as she turned to face her husband.
"Do you mean Jack?" she asked him.
"Yes, I do," he said, searching her eyes for approval. "I hope that's okay since I already asked him. He said he'd gladly stay in with Lilliana a night a week in exchange for an equal number of trips to pleasure planets and the like. We would, of course, keep Lilliana on the TARDIS with us for his trips."
Rose thought a moment, then smiled.
"That sounds brilliant," she said.
He beamed at her, making a happy noise as he did so.
"Fantastic," he said. "This first trip is just for the three of us, and Jack had to take some time to get things in order at Torchwood, anyway, but he'll be joining us on our next time out."
Rose and the Doctor hugged each other tightly until Jackie cleared her throat.
"Oi, none of that with a baby in the room," Jackie scolded them. "She watches everything you do, you know."
Rose sighed.
"We were only hugging," she said as she reached to take her daughter back. "Come on, Miss Lily, it's time to go."
The little family said goodbye to Jackie and got onto the TARDIS, strapping Lilliana into her specially-designed safety seat. Rose and the Doctor took their places at the console, each doing their part to prepare the ship to leave.
"Ready?" asked the Doctor, looking at Rose with excitement in his eyes.
"Ready!" she replied, just as enthusiastic.
"Alright, then," the Doctor said with a grin as he flipped one last lever. "Allons-y!"