Chapter Three

The brothers escorted Jenny back through the city towards their TARDIS. Both of them were on red alert, their senses attuned to any danger, any kind of threat towards the woman they cared about. There were a few people who looked her way but they quickly turned their heads when the Doctor glared at them. As they walked, he glanced down at his daughter. She was a lot thinner than he remembered and the clothes she had worn on Messaline were dirty and worn out but other than that and the tired expression on her face, she seemed fine. He noticed with a bit of amusement that she kept looking back at Alan with a bewildered expression on his face. He gave her a warm smile and winked at her when he finally caught her eye.

"I know this looks odd but trust me, there's a logical explanation for it," he said after he caught her looking at him for the third time.

She nodded.

"I'm just so tired," she said.

They chuckled.

"I bet," the Doctor said fondly. "But don't worry, my daughter, we'll get you back to the TARDIS and get you sorted out before we explain everything."

As they walked, Alan sent a telepathic message to the others telling them that Jenny had been found. Both brothers smiled when they felt everyone rejoice in their minds.

They made it back to the TARDIS without any incident and the Doctor unlocked the door. Everyone was waiting for them in the console room and they hurried towards them while the Doctor led his weary daughter up the ramp. Alan shut the doors behind them and came up the ramp behind them while everyone stopped a few feet ahead of them. Jenny smiled at Donna who smiled back and waved. But she stared at the others in confusion.

"Jenny, this is your family," the Doctor said to her.

He took Rain's hand and brought her forward.

"This is my wife, Rain," he said.

"Hi, Jenny," Rain said, smiling.

"Hi," Jenny replied.

He pointed to Rose.

"This is Alan's wife, Rose."

"Hi, Jenny."

Jenny waved back. The Doctor pointed to the others.

"And this is my sister, Awinita and also Donna is my sister, but you already know her and this is our friend, Mingxia. Everyone, this is my daughter, Jenny."

They murmured their hellos but still kept their distance since they knew she was still trying to process all this.

"Well, let's get you a hot shower and a change of clothes, first thing," the Doctor said. "These clothes don't suit you."

Jenny nodded and everyone stepped back while he led her away towards the back door. They smiled when Jenny looked around at the interior in shock but she didn't say anything. Once she was gone, the others walked over to the console so they could take the TARDIS into the vortex.

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While Jenny showered, the Doctor fixed her a couple of ham sandwiches, some crisps and a glass of milk. Meanwhile, the TARDIS had taken away her worn and soiled clothes and replaced them with blue jeans, a pink t-shirt, white knickers and socks and white plimsols. She made up a room next door to Donna's and filled her closet with feminine clothes and decorated the room in a basic feminine manner until Jenny could tell her what she wanted done with it. Jenny finished with the shower, dried herself off and used the hairbrush the TARDIS had provided. After she was done, she walked out into the bedroom, saw the clothes and examined them before putting them on. Then the TARDIS made a direct path to the kitchen where the Doctor was waiting at the kitchen table with the food. He smiled when he saw what she was wearing.

"Much better," he said, nodding, "that's more suited to you than the soldier outfit."

He indicated the food.

"Come and eat. I figured you're hungry."

"I am."

He nodded.

"You need to gain back some weight. You're even thinner than I am and that's not good," he teased.

Jenny sat down and ate. She listened while the Doctor filled her in on what had happened since he first met her. She sat and listened to him even after she had finished eating. It took almost three hours to get through everything but at the end the Doctor smiled and took her hand.

"Jenny, you got in trouble because you were mucking things up without knowing what is safe to interfere with and what isn't. That's why The Shadow Proclamation was after you. But we can teach you how to do this properly. All of us want you here, Jenny. I know it's a lot to take in right now especially since you suddenly got a family but we do love you. I love you and I want you here with us. Will you stay here with us?"

"I want to. I thought it'd be fun going off on my own but it's tiring when you're doing everything by yourself."

"Tell me about it," the Doctor said. "But now you don't have to do that. You have people here who'll love and support you and a bunch of other friends besides this. And I know it'll take some time getting adjusted to Alan but I think you'll be able to tell us apart soon enough since he doesn't act exactly like me. But if you aren't sure, I'm the one who's always in the suits and he wears the t-shirts and trousers, alright?"

Jenny nodded.

"Now if you want my wife to be your stepmother, that's fine. Rain would be thrilled for you to call her mum or step mum but if you're not comfortable doing that, she understands. Same with calling Alan uncle or the other women your aunts. If you wanna use our first names instead, we'll understand. Like I said, this is a lot for you to take in at once and it'll take time for you to adjust but please know that we are here for you and you don't have to be alone anymore. There's no more need to hide out in abandoned buildings and be terrified that someone's gonna hurt ya. I and everyone else on this ship will protect you with our lives, I promise you that."

He tightened his hold on her hand.

"And…I'm so sorry for the way I treated you before. Calling you an echo and denying that you're my daughter. I was being a complete idiot when I said those things and I don't think that way now. You are my daughter and you always will be. But please, please forgive me, Jenny for mistreating you like that."

Jenny got up from her seat and embraced him.

"I forgive you, Dad," she said.

His hearts swelled with love and he gave her an affectionate kiss on the cheek.

"I meant what I said, Jenny. We're gonna have a blast going through time and space," he murmured to her. "I'm gonna show you the wonders of the universe and teach you how to fight monsters properly."

He looked at how thin she was.

"But I think you better lay off the running for awhile, eh?" he said, winking.

He hugged her again.

"I'm so proud of you, my Angel, so very proud," he said.

"I love you, dad."

He grinned from ear to ear.

"I love you too."

They pulled away and he rubbed her arm.

"There is one more thing I need to you to do though," he said.

"Yes?"

He smiled.

"I need you to come with me to the med bay and let me run a few tests, alright?" he said gently.

"Why? What's wrong?"

He stared at her sadly.

"There's something wrong with your genetic makeup, my beloved daughter. Whatever they did to you they altered your DNA so you're not a full Time Lady. I want to rectify that so you can become what you were meant to be."

"Then…I really am just an echo?"

"No, no, you're not. It's not your fault, it's theirs. That bloody machine apparently took enough DNA to make you but they didn't complete the process. You're not an echo of me; please forget I ever said that."

She nodded.

"Will the tests hurt?"

He smiled fondly.

"No, Angel, they won't, I promise."

She nodded and stood up with him while he escorted her to the med bay.

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Jenny lay on a bed in the med bay. Her shoes were off and at the end of the bed while she lay underneath a white blanket with her head on a pillow. Above her was a long scanner that ran the length of her body. The Doctor had activated it earlier and a laser light swept horizontally over her from head to toe before the machine gave him a paper readout of the results. He was currently studying them with a furrowed brow while Jenny rested. He telepathically summoned his brother to him and Jenny watched while they quietly discussed the results on the other side of the room.

"It's almost the same situation you were in," the Doctor said to him quietly. "Except she does have two hearts. But she doesn't have her respiratory bypass system and the rest of her body is human-like so I don't know how in the hell she regenerated and not only that, managed to keep her same appearance. I need to do a more detailed brain scan but I have a feeling it's gonna tell me it's an incomplete Time Lord mind. Whatever those bastards did when they created her on Messaline they made a complete dog's dinner of her genetic makeup. It's like she's a mishmash of human and Time Lord elements but everything is random like the two hearts mixed with the human-like body. No wonder we can't sense her, brother. I don't think her own body knows what she is."

"So, they basically dampened most of the Time Lord characteristics in her body when they made her," he said.

The Doctor nodded.

"Yes, I think they were going for a more humanoid body and my two hearts got mixed in with it. This cursory brain scan indicates she has above average intelligence but not as much intelligence as the rest of us and my theory on that is they wanted her to be clever but not clever enough to actually question orders and do her own thing. Luckily, that happened anyway but still, I'm hesitant to put her under the chameleon arch at the moment, not without doing some more tests. Anyway, she's not strong enough to withstand it at the moment. She's severely underweight and there's evidence of extreme fatigue and malnourishment and dehydration. We have to fix that before we can fix the rest of her body. Perhaps when Imiko comes back, she can fix her body and make her a full Time Lady but for now I just want to concentrate on getting her well again and getting her strength back."

Alan nodded and they turned to see Jenny watching them quietly. They smiled and walked over to her.

"Am I alright?" she asked them.

"Well," the Doctor said, crouching down next to her. "You're a little thin but that's nothing a basket of beef burgers won't cure. You're very tired and worn out and you're a little malnourished and dehydrated but that's easily fixed. As for your body, it's been put together wrong for a Time Lady but it functions which is the most important thing right now. We need to get you healthy and then we'll worry about that problem. Other than that, you're perfectly fine. A young, intelligent woman who is the apple of our eyes."

Jenny glanced at Alan who smiled broadly as he gazed at her lovingly.

"In the meantime, why don't we escort you to your room so you can get some sleep, eh?" the Doctor said.

"No wait, I wanna stay up a bit," Jenny said. "I wanna get to know everyone better."

The Doctor nodded.

"Okay, we can do that. Um…how about we watch a DVD in the living room? Would you like that?"

"A movie, you mean?"

He nodded.

"Okay, I can do that."

He smiled and kissed her forehead. Both of them helped her to sit up and they rubbed her back while she put on her shoes. Once she was finished they helped her to stand and held her hands while they led her to the living room.

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All of them sat together on the sofa watching the remake of King Kong. The TARDIS made them a couple bowls of popcorn and teleported in some sodas, hot tea and milk. Jenny ate a little bit of the popcorn and drank a bit of milk with it but mainly she was fascinated with the movie since she had never seen one before. She sat beside her father with Rain sitting on the other side of him. Rose was next to her and the others were clustered around their feet. Everyone tried to make her feel as welcome as they could and they smiled when they saw how much fun she was having. She was utterly fascinated by King Kong and couldn't believe that he was a computer program and not a living gorilla. During the movie, she snuggled up against the Doctor who was utterly thrilled and he put his arm around her shoulder and rested it there while her eyes stayed riveted to the screen.

After the movie, they took what was left of the snacks and went to the game room. Jenny sat beside her father while they sat at a table and played poker and euchre. The Doctor tried to teach her how to play so she could join in but mostly she wanted to just sit and observe everyone. She sat there listening to everyone laughing and joking and she relaxed completely for the first time since she had been born. She glanced over and smiled when she saw Rain giggling with the Doctor when he tried to look at her cards and gave her little pokes in the ribs. They shared a kiss and Jenny smiled noticing how much in love they were. She also saw it with Alan and Rose who were play fighting and teasing one another. She had never seen anything like it. There was certainly no loving and bonding among the soldiers on Messaline, it had all been business and fighting and war and then her life afterwards was a lonely one constantly going from one place to another, only occasionally making a friend and then dropping them when she had to leave. She had never had a stable home life like this so it was intriguing watching this new family of hers interacting with each other. For the first time ever she felt content and happy and safe.

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At length, Jenny got tired and the Doctor excused himself from the latest poker hand to escort her to bed. They walked down the hallway towards her bedroom.

"Are you going to sleep?" Jenny asked him.

"I don't sleep all that much, Angel. No one does except for Mingxia since she's human. But we'll all be up and around if you need anything so don't hesitate to call any of us, alright?"

She nodded.

They reached her bedroom and the Doctor kissed her cheek.

"I love you, Angel, remember that," he said.

"I love you too, Dad."

The Doctor beamed at that and rubbed her arm.

"Good night, Jenny," he said to her.

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"The others. Do they love me too?"

"Yes."

"Even Rain?"

He smiled.

"Yes, Rain loves you."

"Will she mind if I do call her Mum?"

"Not at all. I think she'd love it."

"Then that's what I want to do. I watched all of you tonight and I want to be a part of your family. I want what you have."

He held her close.

"Our hearts are all open to you, my beloved daughter. There is no need to ask for love here. It is given freely, I promise you that. Everyone adores you just as much as I do and we'd love it if you became a member of our family."

She smiled and nodded.

"Can…can I see Mum then for a moment?"

He nodded and sent a telepathic message to his wife. She joined them a moment later.

"Yes?" she said to the Doctor.

"I believe Jenny has something she wants to say to you," the Doctor said.

"Yes, Jenny?"

"I…I was just telling Dad that I want to call you Mum, is that okay?"

The Doctor grinned when he felt the rush of joy in her mind and saw the ecstatic look on her face.

"Yes, Jenny, you can call me Mum if you want," she said trying not to cry.

"Thank you."

They embraced each other while the Doctor watched with quiet joy.

"Good night, Mum," Jenny said.

"Good night, sweetheart. We'll all be awake if you need us."

Jenny nodded. She walked into her bedroom and with one last smile shut the door. The Doctor put his arm around his wife and gave her a kiss on the cheek while they walked back to the game room.