NOTE- Thanks so so sooooooooo much to Flamin' June, for being my beta and making this story sound so much more British.
Gamoreans are a KOTOR joke for the most part. They belong to George. Jo own the House elves eluded to and the most excellent Mr J.R.R. Tolkien (bless him) gave us the Elves.
and the 'captain' thing at the end...what can I say, I love Jack Sparrow.
Chapter 2: Time Lord
Susan woke up two days later; her head feeling like it had been stuffed with cotton balls, but otherwise unharmed. Rose came in not a minute afterwards, balancing a tray in one hand and a small child in the other. She set the tray on Susan's lap, as the little one begged for attention. Susan thanked her... Rose?.. and had the soup-filled spoon up to her mouth when a faint buzzing sounded in her head. Coming from the child. Susan's head shot up sharply, joy and shock breezing through her eyes.
"She—"
"…Is a Time Lord? Half, I think. Not too sure 'bout your lot's abilities in that department. I heard something about Looms at some point. Yes, I know what you are. Rose Tyler, pleased to meet you, again. And this is Frey."
Susan sat there, totally forgetting the soup as she tried to process the new information.
"Where is her father? How come I can't hear him?" She gestured to her head, but Rose again beat her to it.
"You wouldn't. He's in your dimension. Time Lords, Gallifrey, they don't exist here."
"Oh… then WHO is he?" Rose fell silent, sitting down and letting her daughter crawl on the bed sheets. To neither woman's surprise, she clung to Susan's side, staring wide-eyed at the woman she could feel and not just see. Susan petted her head, staring at Rose patiently. Although, to be honest, a nagging suspicion was rising in her mind.
"The Doctor. The Oncoming Storm." Rose said, putting her hands over her mouth to forestall the sob the words brought to her.
Susan, however, made a cry that startled all of them, particularly Susan herself. She took a deep breath, staring from mother to child with something akin to joy flashing in her eyes.
"Fate has been kind to me then, Companion," she said softly. A smile, that smile that registered on Rose as the same one, no matter what face, that made her smile or (in the case of the male bearer she loved) her knees go weak.
"Oh god…you're related to him?"
"Granddaughter. Which makes this little madam my...gee…Aunt?" The two women stared at each other, Rose trying hard to imagine that working in the human world.
"Let's not think about it and call her your cousin, 'kay? I swear…" Rose laughed airily. "Two years' worth of time traveling… I've been made a Dame by Queen Victoria… kidnapped by Daleks… got my face zapped off… and I still can't get a hold of Altered Genetics.."
Susan's own laughter died on her lips. "You know about that?"
Rose quirked a dark eyebrow. "Yes. Daleks, Cybermen, a gaggle of physics theories, that the Doctor had a son. But that story will take a while."
"I've... got time." And both of them burst out laughing.
Susan had hung on every word Rose said, laughing with her through her first journey to the end of the Earth, gasping at the right moments all the way to the scattered memories of Bad Wolf and the kiss.
"'I think you need a Doctor?' Oh my… grandpa… that's so lame… but romantic at the same time. Rather typical of him."
Rose blushed. "He was good at it too."
Her companion pulled a face. "Did NOT need to hear that."
Rose laughed again, sending Frey into giggles herself. Susan absently took a bit more of her soup.
"This brings us to you, Susan."
"On Earth... there was this guy, and that's all I'm telling, but I stayed there. Then something happened. I assume that was the Void pulling the Daleks and Cybermen in… the whole of Time shook, Rose. And I… I was too close, so here I am. Time holes popped up everywhere. I managed with some friends to shut most, but the last one was way up in the sky…"
"Torchwood. That was in Canary Wharf. That's where we were, Susan."
"There's Fate for you. But yes, I was pulled in and tossed here. Trapped, but at least with family of a sort." The Time Lady offered a weak smile.
"And that nanogene container?" Susan looked surprised again, blinking.
"London. 1941. Blitz. Chulu warship. Long story." Rose said immediately, watching Susan pull the container out of the dresser drawer. It was still glowing.
"I took this from home. From Gallifrey. It's programmed to our bodies." She set it in Rose's hands.
Rose's mind, though it registered the contact, was utterly blank, had been since the word 'programmed' had spilled from Susan's lips. She knew damn well what 'programmed' meant when spoken close to the word 'nanogene.'
A dizzying series of thoughts chased around in Rose's head before she thought she could get an adequate word out. But all that came out of her mouth was a wheezy noise that sounded like gas leaking from a zeppelin. A container of nanogenes that thinks all beings of a similar outward appearance should have two hearts and the ability to change their shape.
"Wow…" she finally said, staring at the container. She smirked. "Congrats, it's not every day I'm speechless. Is this why your pod was so badly damaged? I'd wager half a dozen species or more would kill for this. Time Lord in a bottle…" Susan drew her knees up to her chest, nodding.
"They're called Calasians. They look like elves… well, Lord of the Ring-ish elves. Not those little things from Jo's stuff—Yeah, Jo Rowling. Nice lady---anyway, they were once called, in their language, The Blessed. But something happened to them. Something infected them. Their kingdoms fell to ruin, glorious buildings and parks and all that. I was on Earth in…1970s? 80s? Or was it 50s…" She trailed off in thought.
"But anyway," she continued, shaking her head, " I was on Earth with my boyfriend when a Gallifreyan distress signal finally got to the Milky Way. It was distorted by space and time….that's when I found this." She gestured to the container, eyes flickering to her au—cousin Frey, who was by now curled up between them fast asleep, lulled by their low chatting.
"I left then. Sent a distress signal from Palomar Observatory, in California, and got picked up by a man named Zack and his friends. He knew you and gramps." Rose's eyes lit up. Of course she remembered them! Electricity seemed to run through her.
If Susan met Zack, she was from the real universe, Rose's dimension. And if she was from Rose's dimension…
"That's not the end, Rose. Remember? I got sucked in. I didn't come here on purpose. I'm sorry." Rose tore her eyes from the Time Lady's face, crushing down the spark of hope she'd felt just for a moment.
"But I'm here." Susan grabbed Rose's hand, smiling that smile of hers, "The Calasians won't ever get the power they wanted, and Frey---I assume you named her Gallifrey?---will have someone with her all her life." Rose looked at her baby girl, relief and joy on her face.
For the first time in years, Rose Tyler grinned a mad grin, a Doctor-finally-got-us-to-Barcelona grin. And she loved it.
He was running. Always with the running. Not that he minded the running, but it was running, and running gave you a lot of time to think. Not that thinking was necessarily bad, quite the opposite in fact--
He really did talk too much.
"DOCTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR." He heard a groan next to him and looked over to see Jack Harkness throwing a death glare at him. He huffed.
"Oh, so now it's my fault the Face of Boe beamed away without explaining that we didn't kidnap Princess Onyagarluficanalia?!"
Jack didn't answer, but the look on his face clearly said 'yes, it is.'
It was funny how it happened. Just nip down to Earth for a sampling of chips—he loved chips—and who should get in line with him but Jack-bleeding-Harkness and a rather brisk girl named Gwen. Shocked the life out of him, and he had to admit having a few memories of four time travelers running pell-mell around Cardiff with no clear idea of why. It had hurt to think about, but he had been shocked out of it by the sudden grin on Jack's face as he, somehow, recognized him.
That had been after Martha's wedding to Ricky. And somehow he and Jack had ended up here, running for their lives, like old times, from some very angry Gamoreans. He sniffed. Like they'd want to kidnap a girl who looked like something out of a Star Wars (Return of the Jedi, he thought) movie. Well, he could imagine Jack getting it on with a Twi'lek, but that was entirely beside the point.
The point was, they were running fast enough. Just as they spun the corner to see the welcome sight of the Tardis already humming for them, a scream ripped through the air. The Doctor screeched to a halt and sighed, rolling his eyes in a look more befitting his 9th self.
"Why is it always women… always… scientists, shop girls, Time Ladies. Doesn't matter. Danger-prone, the lot of them."
Jack flashed him a grin. "Let's go save her, then."
Around the last bend they'd come, a young girl no more than thirteen was standing in the center of the horde of angry Gamoreans. The Doctor 'hmm'd' a bit as he took a closer look at her. Brown, slightly curly, hair framed her face, which was made of too many hard lines for her to fit the human ideal of beauty. But it was the way that face was set that intrigued him. Her face was stony, body tensed as if to fight, not run, and her hard blue eyes promised pain. Jack made a noise of assessment in the back of his throat and the Doctor sighed. He knew that noise. That was the noise he made when he saw Rose swing a bottle of antiplastic into a vat of very angry alien.
Well damn. He just hoped she could cook. Jack couldn't cook for bananas and the Doctor….well it was only one of the few times he'd seen Rose or Jack truly disgusted.
"Hey there!" he said brightly, coming into the light. The Gamoreans looked too stunned for words…grunts…whatever. The girl just stared at them, pale face offsetting the shock in her eyes.
Like lightning, and without a word, Jack leaped at the first guard in time to see the Doctor slam his elbow into the soft spot of the Gamorean's armor. He grabbed the girl by the wrist and tore off into another alleyway, which he belatedly (and with a pang of guilt) realized was Henrick's loading dock door.
"In here." the girl said, opening the red doors he'd once shoved a shop girl out. At the Doctor and Jack's confused looks, she spoke again in an odd mix of Cockney and something the Doctor couldn't quite place, " I work here. C'mon!" Sparing an amused glance at Jack, the Doctor sped away down the empty hall.
They ran until all three were breathing heavily and the Gamoreans' tiny attention span had found them something else to do. Jack was the first to burst into hysterical laughter, the girl joining in as the Doctor looked at them like they were both mad.
"Well, I'm glad someone is enjoying themselves. Jack, this was all your fault anyway."
"So… what was that?" the girl said, eyes promising she wasn't, for all the odd things that happened in London, going to drop it if he refused to explain The Doctor sighed and slid down the wall.
"Gamoreans. Pig-things. Not very nice but thankfully just as smart. Name?" he asked, as Jack and the girl also sank to the ground in exhaustion.
"Roma." She said, grinning.
"I'm the Doctor, if you will, and this here is Jack Harkness.."
"Captain Jack Harkness."
Roma burst into giggles. The Doctor just shot Jack an exasperated look.
"I knew I shouldn't have taken you to see Pirates of the Caribbean."