Her life was ruined by the Doctor, and she wouldn't have it any other way. The linear story of Estella Harkness as she runs across the universe and doesn't look back...

Chapter One

Estella.

Estella Harkness.

An unusual name for an unusual girl. I can remember my parents saying that to me after I was born. Now, it may be unusual for someone to remember anything from when they were a baby but I'm not just anyone. I'm Estella Harkness and I have never been normal.

"She's perfect," Rose Tyler's face was shiny with sweat but her weak arms clinged onto the body of the small baby in her arms as tightly as she could. Jack Harkness was grinning as he stroked the baby's forehead softly with his finger, a look of awe in his eyes. The Doctor was stood across the room, his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall as he watched his companions with a small smile and a twinge in his heart. He could remember when he held his children, when they were still alive.

In case you couldn't tell, that's me. The baby that Jack and Rose are cooing over as if I was the most precious thing in the world. And to them I was. But to others, I was something to be molded and controlled into something that suited their purpose.

"You've said that at least five times Rose," The Doctor says with a fond smile as he looked at his blonde haired companion. Rose huffed and looked up at the Doctor with a frown.

"But she is! She takes after her father," She replies with a grin, her tongue poking through her teeth as she looks up at Jack who had a smug smirk on his face.

"Lucky girl," He says and he and Rose burst out laughing and the Doctor rolls his eyes. The relationship between Jack and Rose was purely one of attraction with just a small amount of something that scared Jack. A month after they met, Jack and Rose had been drunk as the Doctor tried to 'fix' the TARDIS and that was the first of many times they had sex which eventually led to the small baby in Rose's arms.

Whilst my parents never admitted it, I knew that they loved each other very much. But that's something that you'll find out about much later. The first few weeks of my life were normal... Well, as normal as they could get in a space and time machine and a Time Lord as a constant protector. Mum and Dad were new to the whole parent thing so the Doctor helped them out as much as possible and when they asked how he knew what to do he would snap and they could see a flash of the Oncoming Storm that he was so famous for.

It all had to end though, otherwise there wouldn't really be much of a story, would there? I'm sure people wouldn't want to read about how I grew up safe with my parents and eventually fell in love with the Doctor as he whisked me away on adventures to new planets with my parents happily in love. No matter how much I would have liked it, it didn't happen like that.

Estella didn't know what was happening. One minute she was holding onto her mummy - as the Doctor had finally convinced her to call the blonde woman who seemed to love Estella very much - as she watched the Doctor and Jack arguing playfully about something she couldn't understand when suddenly everything went bright and she felt herself slip from her mother's arms. She cried out as loud as she could and as long as she could but no one seemed to hear her. She felt claustrophobic in the white case she was in which seemed like a cot. Estella cried, not realizing that this would be the last time she did so in a very long time.

I didn't know what was happening at the time and only learned much later when the Doctor told me. That was also the first time I met one of the few people who would constantly show up in my life.

Estella shifted in her sleep but kept her eyes closed as someone carefully wrapped the blanket she was lying on around her and picked her up from whatever she was lying in. She fluttered her eyes open and was prepared to cry again when she realized that the arms she were in didn't belong to her mother but was stopped by the stranger when they shushed her and shifted one arm so she could type at what Estella recognized as a Vortex Manipulator, one that looked very similar to her father's. Estella shut her eyes in fright when she felt a weird feeling in her body and hoped that she would never have to feel it again. She only opened her eyes when the stranger holding her started speaking.

"Missing something guys?" Estella's hazel eyes flew open with a look that shouldn't be seen on a young baby, barely even a month old. She noticed that her mother had been crying and that her father was carrying a gun and was about to leave the room but turned around when he heard the voice of the stranger. The Doctor was glaring at the stranger and Estella wondered what she had done - because she was certain a man wouldn't have a soft voice like that - to the Doctor to earn a look like that.

"Where have you been Mirana? I've been trying to get in contact with you! What was so important that you couldn't help us?" Estella had never heard the Doctor speak like that and she hoped that she never had to again. She was glad when her mother took her out of the stranger's arms but was still confused when she gave the stranger a glare. Estella melted into her mother's embrace as Jack joined them, touching her head softly and pointedly ignoring the woman who had brought back his daughter. Estella looked around her mother and at the stranger and her eyes connected with a pair of blue ones which watched her with a small, knowing smile as Jack and Rose smothered their daughter and checking that she was unhurt.

"Don't ignore me Mirana!" Everyone in the room jumped at the Doctor's yell, even the stranger who Estella now knew was called Mirana. As the Doctor asked where she had been and what she had been doing that was more important than saving the child of her friends, Estella observed Mirana. The woman was tall and had blonde curls which Estella wanted to touch to see if they were as soft as they looked. Her skin was pale, the pretty kind unlike the aliens that had tried to take Estella on one of their previous adventures.

"Doctor you may want to stop yelling and say goodbye to Estella. I'm sure you wouldn't want her last memory of you to be shouting, would you?" Mirana asks with a soft smile. The Doctor, Rose and Jack turned to look at Mirana in unison with confused stares and Estella could feel her mother's arms tighten around her.

"What are you..." And Estella heard no more because suddenly she was back in the white case and something around her wrist was beeping. The top of the case moved and Estella reeled back unconsciously when she saw the most terrifying thing she had ever seen.

"The child has returned. Prepare the ship," Estella could hear other voices echoing the last sentence and tried not to cry as she stared into the eye stalk of the Dalek.