Thursday

Jenny learned a new word.

It was funny how it worked, with words. She understood that she was complicated, compared to Donna and the Torchwood team, maybe compared to her father, although he surely won the complicated competition. But he had tried to explain to her how her language worked

"Your grasp of language was inbuilt. Your vocabulary comes from me but at the same time, the machine filtered out most words that weren't necessary to your development as a soldier. So, you'll find many, many words that you'll sort of learn all over again."

Jenny could understand what he meant. More and more, she heard words that were familiar, that she knew she should know. She supposed it was like learning a new language. No matter how good you were, there were always words you might struggle with.

She had first heard the word, coincidence, in something Donna said and asked her for the meaning. Donna was good at meanings. She took it seriously that the word had to be properly explained and even tried to give examples.

"It's like if you were thinking of something and I happened to mention it out loud. Or if you really, really wanted a cup of coffee," Donna had said, "and you didn't say it to anyone and suddenly I brought you one. That would be a coincidence."

"That would be great," the Doctor said fervently.

"Only two a week, remember?" Donna said sternly.

"It could also mean that Donna was psychic though, don't forget," the Doctor continued.

He tended to like to complicate these discussions.

"I know psychic," Jenny said, thinking about it, "psychic links. Psychic paper."

But a better example of coincidence happened a few days after the visit to Tero.

They had visited the beach. Well, it was also fair to say that they had escaped to the beach and sat for ages, admiring the purple stones. The stones from Tero were fascinating. Left to themselves, they were simply stones, albeit brightly coloured ones. Pick them up and they turned into a jelly-like substance. She liked the feel of them between her fingers.

"That enough running for you?" the Doctor asked, still sounding slightly breathless. They had been chased for what seemed like miles across the desert.

"Their attitude toward the women is completely prehistoric," she said simply.

"Well, so is yours."

"What?"

He sat down beside her.

"Jenny, I know what you were trying to do and the end result you wanted...but getting it by force isn't the way. The women looked terrified, didn't you notice? They were facing yet another tyrant when they looked at you. If you really want to empower someone, you do just that. You give them back their power. You put them in control."

"Where would you even start?"

"It's not easy. Forcing your hand with weapons, that's instant results, sure. But integrating yourself into their community, finding the women most open to listening to you, engaging them, listening to them, understanding them and convincing them could take years and years. But that would last."

"Is that what you want me to do?"

"No." He smiled gently at her. "Someone already did. You should see them in 100 years time!"

That's the only reason?

As if he'd read her mind, he took her hand. "Having only just found you, it'll be a long time yet before you're allowed to disappear for years on end!" He turned towards the TARDIS murmuring something about needing to be gone before the second sun appeared.

"I never seem to know the right thing to do," Jenny said, but she kept her voice low, unsure of whether she wanted him to hear her or not.

When no reply came, she trailed after him into the TARDIS. She knew she should appreciate this time alone with her father but somehow she found herself longing for Donna to come back from her visit home. With Donna around, the atmosphere was light and cheery. She didn't allow either of them to take themselves too seriously. Left alone, just the two of them, the awkwardness crept back. Maybe it was just that they'd not had enough time to know how to be easy with each other and it was too handy to use Donna as a mask.

He was her father so by rights there shouldn't be any awkwardness. There shouldn't be this endless politeness. But equally well, they barely knew each other so close familiarity was inappropriate. Finding a middle ground was definitely going to take some time.

"What was your favourite bit this time?" he asked, startling her from her thoughts.

Jenny considered. He often asked that question. What did you think of this? Which did you prefer? Sometimes he loved her answers and other times, he would just nod calmly without a comment as if filing the information away for another time.

"I'm sorry," she said, "it's not that I haven't loved been threatened with disembowelment and chased through the wilderness but I really liked going shopping with Donna."

She was puzzled to see her father smiling warmly at her.

"I knew you'd enjoy the shopping! Nothing like a Saturday afternoon around the shops with a friend!" He looked delighted for some reason, as if she had just mastered one of the impossibly complex theories he was trying to teach her, on and off.

"It wasn't a Saturday," she said, trying to smile back but the memory of that evening still troubled her. There had been no bad consequences, and surely something would have happened by now if she had done anything really bad but still...

Then Jack's voice had come through over the console and the Doctor had lectured him for a few moments on how the communication system was for emergencies only.

"If you gave me a chance to speak, it might be an emergency," Jack said, "is Donna back?"

"No. She wants to visit her friend tomorrow so we're giving her a few days."

"Doctor, I'd pick her up now if I were you," Jack said, "the weather's crazy and there's no predicting what's going to happen or where. According to the weather reports, we should be having calm, settled weather. Instead there's freak hurricanes dotted here and there! No warning. No nothing. And plenty of damage."

Jenny felt like her stomach was turning inside-out.

The Doctor pressed a few buttons on the console and stared at a screen in front of him.

"Nothing visible from up here anyway," he commented.

"Doctor," Jack's voice sounded suddenly hesitant, "what do you know about fairies?"

And that was the coincidence.

The only puzzling thing was that the Doctor's reply had nothing to do with small, friendly spirits with wings.