My Father's Companion
Disclaimer: I don't own Dr. Who. I'm just someone who got struck by a series of plot bunnies who won't leave me alone. Hope you enjoy.
I couldn't look my mother in the eye when I told her what I said to my father.
"Evelyn Tyler Smith," She scolded, but I could see the twinkle in her eyes.
"Yes, well, I said was a little bit of a brat then," I sipped my tea a little embarrassed at my past behavior.
"Your father was right; you did need to begin prep for your levels." Mum picked her tea back up and took another sip.
"At the time I wasn't sure I wanted to take my levels." I cringed when I said that. It was one of my secrets from child hood.
"Evee!"
"Well, at the time I didn't like the idea of school." I tried to explain myself, "To be honest, I thought school was a big bore." Mum just continued to glare at me, "What good would I get out of doing what James was doing. I didn't want to be a teacher or lecture like him or Dad."
"I made that mistake Evee and I'm very glad you didn't." Mum went back to her tea.
"I am glad I took them as well, but at the time, I wasn't that interested.
"What changed your mind?"
"Dad," I smiled at her.
"Hey Dad?" Evee poked her head into the office.
"Yes?" The Doctor looked up from the book he was reading, his glasses on his nose, feet up on the desk.
"I need your help on something." She came in hands in her pockets.
For a moment the Doctor could see the uncomfortable teen ager Rose had been in the girl before him, "Sure what is it?"
"I have a project for the maori class and I'm running into problems."
"Such as?" He leaned forward to listen to her.
"My whakapapa. I am having trouble getting all the information." She leaned on the desk in front of him.
The Doctor paled, "I'll help you all I can." He gave her a smile, as he put his feet down.
"Well, I can obviously get some information, but it doesn't feel …right." Evee handed him a sheet. " The whakapapa our tutor wants us to recite calls for what is our family ocean or river , family mountain, what is our family waka or ship, who is our founding father, and who's child we are. Basically it is a genealogy project."
"Oh well I am sure that your grandfather Pete can get you all that information." The Doctor tried to brush it off, but knew in his heart, it wouldn't work.
Evee shook her head, "It has to be through the male line, which means you." When the Doctor didn't speak up Evee continued, "I can fill most of this out since your parents were from Galfree. The family ocean would be the Atlantic. The family hill would be Rumney hill, since that is near where your father's watch shop use to be. But I need to know who was our founding father would be." She looked at him hopeful.
"What kind of founding father would you need?"
"How far back can we trace our linage? Who is that? Or do we have someone who is well known for doing something heroic?"
"Possibly." The Doctor tipped his head back and forth. "Might take a while to get the information."
"I need to have it by the time of the pohiri next week." Evee started to brighten up.
"Sure." The Doctor nodded as he turned to his computer.
Evee started to leave but stopped and leaned on the door frame, "Dad?" The Doctor looked up at her again, "Why does it feel I would be lying if I handed this paper in?"
The Doctor could only give her a weak smile, "Have a good night Evee."
"Night dad." She waved to him as she left to go back to her room.
Soon as she was gone the Doctor's smile melted. Leaning back in the chair he picked up the details on the assignment Evee had left on his desk. At the top it asked two questions. "Who are you? And where are you from?" Both questions were two of the hardest the Doctor had ever had to answer.
It was past two in the morning as the Doctor continued to look at the paper. On a separate sheet were two whakapapas. One was the truth the other half truths.
What was their family's river? It was a river that ran through the valley where the Doctor's family resided on Galaifry. Their mountain was the one where he would journey up when he was a child. Their ship…he smiled at that thought, their ship was the Tardis, no question about that. Who was their founding father? A man whose name no one knew, but many knew as The Doctor. Yet, the other was perfectly true for this world. Sydney Smith had a watch shop on Rumey Hill. They were from a small down off the Wales coast, so the Atlantic was their ocean. There was a famous 'Doctor' from the mid 1700's that had the name of Smith that could easily be considered their 'founding' father and it couldn't be proven one way or the other. Their ship could be named for … for….a lie.
Wadding up the false lineage, the Doctor turned to his computer and opened a video link back to London. It would be 2 in the afternoon back there, and hopefully they would be in their office.
There was a buzz from Rose's computer alerting her that she had a request for a video chat on her secure line. Sighing she brought up the details. She really did NOT want to deal with anyone at the moment. She had two teams bollucks up their recent missions, and she was now having to field a lot of questions she really didn't want to answer.
Soon as the details came up she smilled, and opened the link.
"Hello Doctor, didn't expect to hear from you at this time of day." She teased, "Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"You know I don't sleep well with out you here." He teased back, but Rose could see something was wrong.
"Doctor, everything alright? Is Evee alright?"
"Yes she is fine, hating taking classes over here, but I think she is having fun with some of them."
"Good," Rose smiled, "So… what is so urgent that you needed to talk to me at 2 AM?"
The Doctor was never one to beat around the bush, so he jumped right in. "One of her school projects is requiring her to trace her linage, specifically her FATHER'S linage."
"That could be a problem." Rose's face went white as she sat up straight quickly. "What have you told her?"
"Nothing yet, but she has done some digging into my 'parents' lives. I told her I would give her what I knew, but…"
"That is not who her father actually is." Rose finished for him and sighed as she leaned back in her chair, "I'm not sure what you can tell her. You haven't told me half of what your life was before I met you, and I'm fine with that, but her…." Rose shook her head.
"James, and Ver she is not," He sighed and wiped his face, messing up his already wildly disheveled hair even more.
"The children have known what we do since they were little." Rose added, "James took it in stride that you had a life before you came here, and were building a new one. Granted he was twenty and already had been at university for a few years."
"He told he later, he already expect something was not quite right, but he over looked it because, well he wouldn't want it any other way."
"Ver, on the other hand shouted at you for keeping things from her for a full twenty minutes."
The Doctor rubbed his ear remembering, "I once thought that she might have a trace of Donna in her, but after that." He cringed, "She has more that a bit of Donna in her. My ears rang for three days after that."
"She still forgave you."
"Well, yes, she did, but she didn't like that we kept it from her. Granted, the reason she found out is because she got bored and started looking in old files at Torchwood, and found more that she bargained for. I have no idea where she picked up that trait." He smirked at Rose.
"Oh shut up," She rolled her eyes.
"That still leaves me with the big question, how much do I tell her? James just came out and asked me questions, Ver found old records that she challenged me on, but Evee has no clue other than, that she feels like she is lying when she recites her linage for class."
"I always knew getting mixed up in the domestic stuff would make things complicated." The Doctor sighed, and swived his chair.
Rose raised an eyebrow at his 'domestic' comment, but refrained for saying anything about it, "Alright, I'll admit our pasts are a little…complicated, but she does deserve the truth. Like you said before, all the children grew up with stories of our adventures."
"Yes, but to them, they were just that, stories. Stories of adventures that were to them just so wonderful they couldn't be true." He sighed, and continued to swivel his chair back and forth.
"Yet, that is our past." Rose tried to give him a smile. "Doctor I can tell you this. To her they may seem stories, but once she realizes those stories are true she will be both terrified, and amazed at it all."
"How do you know that?" He stopped his swivalling, and leaning forward toward her on the screen.
Rose smiled, "Because that is the way I felt when you first gave me a glimps into your world."
Author's Note: So far people like this story, so I'll keep going. I know there has not been a lot of action, but as a friend of mine use to say. "It takes a while to get your pieces set on the board before the real game can begin." As for what comes next, all I can say is 'some one has some explaining to do.' And trust me, it won't be a pretty sight.