Not mine.
oO*Oo
"Please?" Rose widened her eyes pleadingly. "We don't even have to stop at Mum's this time."
Trying very hard to avoid his companion's gaze, the Doctor absolutely did not whine, "But Rose, we could go to Falane. Haven't I ever told you about Falane? There are seven moons – can you imagine seven moons? It makes charting the tides very complex, you know – and each one's a different colour, and once every three hundred years they're all in the sky at once and the locals have this huge festival. I can take you there in 156.# Delta-V. Inter-galatically acclaimed party, that was. Yes?"
"Doctor. I want to go see my great-aunt and uncle. Anyways, you have a time-machine – it's not like we can't go to your moon-festival any time you like."
"Fine," huffed the Doctor, resolving for the thousandth time to do something about his apparent inability to deny Rose Tyler anything. "London, boring early twenty-first century London, it is, then."
"Thank you!" With a small squeal, Rose flung herself into his arms and hugged him tightly.
Why was it so important to learn to resist Rose's wiles, again?
oO*Oo
"Aunt Barbara – my Gran Prentiss' sister – was always my favourite relative. She's always so dignified and elegant, but not in a stuffy way. I used to want to be her when I grew up, except for her job: history teacher." Rose grimaced and then gave a small laugh. "And look at me – drop-out shop-girl flitting through time and space."
"Hmmmm." The Doctor fiddled with his controls some more and peered at some flashing lights. "Right."
"And you're not even listening to me."
A violent shaking interrupted whatever response he might have made and, through force of long habit, they both reached out to grab supports.
When the shaking ceased, the Time Lord beamed at his companion. "Here we are then. Are you sure you want to miss the – "
"Yes." Just before stepping outside the doors, Rose turned back and held out a hand. "You coming?"
He was tempted; her hand, outstretched towards him, looked so inviting. But, after all she was going to visit her great-aunt. It didn't get much more domestic than that. And the aunt was on Jackie's side of the family.
"Nah. Got some repairs to do. You run along, and don't get into trouble, now."
"Yes, sir." She gave him a salute that would give any legitimate officer a heart attack, and that cheeky smile that always, always made him feel as though he were having a hearts attack, and then she was gone in a flash of gold hair and red hoodie.
He attempted to ignore his immediate feeling of loss, and busied himself with tinkering superfluously around the TARDIS circuits.
oO*Oo
Emerging from the TARDIS, Rose glanced around and grinned. "Score one for the Doctor," she muttered "Right neighbourhood."
With the ease of long practice she quickly spotted temporal clues – there was a 2006 model car, and, yes, a newspaper.
"March 20th, 2007." With a nod to the TARDIS and its occupant, she complimented the accuracy. "Well done."
Time and place established to her satisfaction, Rose made her way through her aunt's front garden and raised her hand to knock on door.
It swung open before her hand made contact, and her Aunt Barbara nearly crashed into her.
"Ian! I swear I heard – Rose!"
"Hi Aunt Barbara. Um. Is this a bad time? I was just in the area and uh..."
"No, not at all, Rose. I just thought, for a moment, that I heard an... old...friend..." The end of the older woman's sentence trailed away as her focus shifted to somewhere over Rose's shoulder. Turning to look, Rose saw nothing unusual except the TARDIS, and people just didn't notice the time ship.
"Aunt Barbara?" she asked, a little worried.
Ignoring her great-niece, Barbara pressed a hand to her chest and called again for her husband. "Ian! Come quickly! Ian!"
From somewhere inside the house, a man's voice, muffled, made its way to their ears. "Coming Barbara. What is it? You'd think, from the way you were yelling, that you'd been captured by a – oh, hello, Rose." He shot a reproachful look at his wife. "You needn't sound so panicked, darling. It's just Rose."
"No, Ian. Look." She gestured to the street, and following the movement with his eyes, Ian sucked in a breath.
"Is that -? But it can't be!"
Growing more and more confused by the second, Rose turned again to look and saw, again, only the TARDIS out of place. Throwing caution to the winds, she asked, "Are you looking at that police box?"
The older couple jumped, startled by the reminder of her presence. "Oh, yes. I don't remember seeing it there before. They were dead common when I was younger, but you don't see many of them nowadays." Barbara sounded almost normal, but there was a tremor of excitement underlying her words.
Suspicious now, Rose narrowed her eyes. "Oh, I know all about police boxes. They're quite a bit roomier on the inside, wouldn't you say?"
"Now wait a minute!" Ian broke in, "Are you trying to say that you've, well, traveled in a police box?"
"Yes, I am." Rose grinned. "I don't suppose you happened to know the owner of the police box?"
"As a matter of fact...A Doctor, wasn't he?"
"I don't believe it!" Rose howled. "He has no idea! And on my mum's side too!" She dissolved into giggles, leaving Barbara and Ian gaping.
"Ian, I think we should invite Rose in, don't you?"
"Right, yes. Come along Rose." They shepherded the still giggling girl into the living room where she sank onto a couch.
"I've got it!" Ian shouted suddenly. "That year you were missing! We should have known: it happened to us, too."
"So, you traveled with the Doctor?" Rose leaned forwards intently. "When?"
"Oh, well, it was 1963 when he kidnapped us and took us all over time and space."
"Kidnapped?"
"Oh yes. I admit that we forced our way into the TARDIS, but the crafty old man just took us off to the caveman days and couldn't get us home for ages."
"That sounds like the Doctor. You said he was an old man?"
"Yes, of course."
"He's not old now." It came out a little defensively – he was older, yes, but not that old, no matter what her mum said.
"But he was old! White hair and a cane!"
"He must've regenerated," Rose mused. "I wonder which one you knew."
"What the blazes do you mean?"
"It always amazes me," Barbara said archly to her husband, "that after all you've seen, and all you've done, you still get so adorably ruffled by anything that smacks of the unusual.
"But Rose, dear, I think we would both like to hear the story properly."
As Ian spluttered indignantly, Rose settled back to tell the story. Her great-aunt and uncle were an excellent audience and listened attentively (mostly because Barbara kept a stern eye on her husband's outbursts).
When she was done, both her relatives were left astonished.
"You mean to say," Ian began, "that he's a nine-hundred-year-old alien? That's fantastic!"
Rose made a small sound at the word. "He used to say that, all the time. Back before he changed. Everything was 'fantastic'." She looked wistful for a moment, but quickly regained her happy mood. "Now you tell me your story! I want to hear this."
"I suppose," Barbara mused quietly, "that it all began at Coal Hill School, with an extraordinary girl named Susan Foreman, who had an extraordinary grandfather –"
"He was traveling with his granddaughter?" Rose gaped. "And he complains about domesticity!" Realising she'd interrupted, Rose looked sheepish. "Oh, sorry. Go on."
Ian chuckled deeply. "Well, we were worried about Susan; she was just so odd! So we dug up her information and tracked her down. Found out her address was a scrap yard that contained the most interesting item – a police box. We eventually found ourselves standing in a junkyard, arguing with a grumpy old man. Susan came out to see what was happening and we pushed our way in. Got a good shock, too. But we were even more shocked when the doors closed and he wouldn't let us out. Yelled something about preserving timelines and took us off to visit the cavemen."
The couple continued their story, taking turns and often sending Rose into fits of laughter.
By the time they ran out of funny anecdotes, all three of them were gasping for breath. Rose leaned forwards with a wicked grin. "Wanna play a trick on the Doctor?" At Barbara's and Ian's answering grins, she continued, "I think it's time for a little reunion, don't you?"
oO*Oo
The Doctor winced as a circuit sparked and stuck a finger in his mouth. Then, he heard what could only be Rose's key in the lock and smiled happily. It seemed a long time since she'd left.
"And this is the TARDIS, our time-and-space ship." Rose's voice, with the tone of a tour guide, filtered through the open door.
The Doctor sat up so abruptly that he smacked his head on the console.
"Rose!" he yelped, "You can't go bringing people into the TARDIS! It's bad enough that your mother –" He broke off, gaping, as he got a good look at the couple he assumed to be Rose's relatives. "What!"
"Hello, Doctor." The woman smiled as Rose dissolved into hysterics.
"But...Barbara...Ian. Rose. What?"
"If you'd listened at all when I was telling you about my great-aunt and uncle, you'd have realised."
"I listened." The Doctor grumbled.
"Oh, then I suppose I just forgot to mention that I was related to some of your former companions?"
"I expect you must have."
Despite his haughty superiority, Rose grinned at him. "You're ridiculous." She said fondly. "And you have guests."
