"Do you want to talk?"
Violet hugged the fence at the edge of the property, watching the front door of a house she hadn't been to in years. "No."
"It's ok. I'll talk then," her mother said soothingly, coming up beside her. "I'm worried about you. So's Jack."
Violet almost laughed. "Jack's worried about the timeline."
Sighing, Rose dared to slide her hand around her daughter's and stared at the light above the porch, wondering what her daughter was looking at. "The Doctor's worried about the timeline. Jack's worried about you."
Sighing, Violet began loosening her grip on the wet wooden planks. "The Doctor's right."
"He's worried about you too."
"Don't be presumptuous."
There was a large stretch of silence and eventually the front porch light of the small suburban home went out, followed by the lamp in the front room. The house went into darkness and still Violet stared at it, as if it held answers. Rose wasn't so sure. It seemed to her to be like the replaying of a memory, looking for some new detail that wouldn't emerge. "The Doctor's worried about you too. In his own way."
Eventually, Violet dared look at her mother. "Do you really believe that?"
Rose smile, still watching the house. Sniffing, she took in the late-evening dew on the lawn and hte smell of wet dog. The family that lived here was mundane in every sense of the word. She knew why her daughter would be jealous. "In his own way. And he may find some way to express that, in some manner that doesn't end with me killing him. But this isn't about him. Vi… why didn't you talk to me?"
The young woman licked her lips, extremely uncomfortable, but not brae enough to pull away. "That used to be our room." She gestured to a large attic window, which sat dark. "I was sleep when…" She blinked, her attempt to ignore her mother crumbling. "I didn't want to worry you."
Laughing incredulously, the mother looked to her daughter, as if to explain something very important. "Funny…that's what the Doctor said to me. You may not realise it, but you're cut from the same cloth. None of you want to worry me… but I'm not made out of eggshells. And I'm smarter than you think."
Opening and closing her mouth once, Violet searched for the words. " I didn't mean… mum… he's gone." It was like she was saying it for the first time. "Oh god. He's gone and it's my fault. I wanted to come back here. I thought it'd keep him safe. It's my fault…"
Sprinklers in the front lawn popped up and began spraying down on the grass and flower beds lining the perfectly normal stone walk. "It's not your fault. If it was his time, it was his time." Careful not to move too quickly, Rose put both of her arms around her child. "There isn't anything you could have done."
Sinking into her mother's embrace, she let herself be guided a step back from the fence. "I keep remembering… it's like I was there. What I wish had happened. I yank the wheel away, but the car still crashes. Maybe… maybe I wish I'd have died too."
Her mother didn't have a response to that. She simply stroked Violet's short, newly conditioned hair, leaning into the embrace.
Closing her eyes, Violet imagined that everything was as it should be. "I can feel the car falling off the road, into a ditch, past the guard rail…there's a creek…" she stiffened, then pulled away from her mother. "I feel ill."
There wasn't anything Rose could do. She just watched her oldest child clutched the fence with one hand, her forehead with the other and wretch into the small patch of grass between the wood and the pavement. She recognised certain signs though, like when Violet's eyes rolled in the back of her head and her daughter paled suddenly, she grabbed her daughter's shoulders. "What is it?"
"That might not have been wishful thinking. It might be something they don't want me to remember." She slumped against her mother for support. "But I remember being in bed. I remember being so tired and sleeping. I remember the doorbell waking me up, the man at the front door…" Fighting off unconsciousness, she looked her mother square in the eye. "Can both things be true at once?"
It was a crazy universe. Rose was at least willing to entertain such a possibility.
XYZ
And the Doctor had skipped straight to that whole ignoring him thing that Jack loved so much. For god sakes. They had some serious shit to deal with and the Doctor was acting… twelve. And that was a generous assessment.
Arms folded, Jack stood on the ramp, watching the Doctor check readings on three separate monitors. "I had this whole speech prepared about how you and Violet need to work this thing out."
The Doctor's jaw was locked. "She's decided that she doesn't need me."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Everybody who's a Time Lord, and an idiot, please raise your hand. She's just lost the love of her life, and you're--"
"Not interested, Jack."
Oh he was being dismissed, was he? Tough shit. He wasn't going anywhere. "Doc, she's your--"
The Doctor's head snapped up from the monitor, looking across the console to where Jack stood. The alien's face was bathed in a sickly green glow from the controls. "She's my what, Jack? You know my people don't have a concept for what you're talking about."
Jack took a few pointed steps down the ramp, further into the lion's den as it were. "Oh come on. You had to have family."
They both stood there for a moment, staring uncomfortably at each other. "We had families, but not in the way you're thinking. Look—Jack, she's an adult. She also knew better. She knew better because I taught her better, and she knew better because I told her not to do it. I new exactly what she was about, and I asked her to not make me have to intervene. But she did it anyway. And she did it in the flashiest most magnificently… STUPID manner possible." With the last the Doctor readjusted one of the monitors, probably unnecessarily, and went back to work.
The other man slid his hands into his pocket. "Wonder where she picked that one up from." Jack let that one settle for a moment. This was going so brilliantly. "What would you have done, if you were her?"
Pausing, the Doctor considered it, but still answered too quickly. "NOT that."
"I might have. Temptation being what it is."
The Doctor was quiet as he contemplated it. "No. You wouldn't have. You know better." As if Jack were a small child who knew it was wrong to take toys that didn't belong to him. Is that what the Doctor thought of them all? Deep down?
Jack closed the remaining distance between himself and the Doctor. "The temptation would have still been there. I'm only human."
It seemed they were both able to talk civilly for now. That was something. "She's not human, Jack."
Ahh. That was was what was eating his friend. It had been right there, when he'd patiently explained that Violet, despite all appearances, wasn't a mere mortal. She was a Time Lord. It was why he was edgy around the word 'human' and the idea of families. "She's had a lot of human influence in her life. And there aren't many humans, if given the opportunity, wouldn't at least contemplate trying to save someone they loved. She's a Time Lord. Yeah, I get that. Your people would not have put up with that shit, and you're the only thing resembling an authority figure left, which means you get the crap job of telling her she's out of line. But…everybody she considers to be family is human. She's spent more time on Earth than any other planet. Her knowledge of your people is… erudite at best. From that perspective… ok, you haveta slap her down. But you also haveta… just… have some sympathy. Yeah?" Cos what was done was done. They couldn't change it. Changing it had gotten them in this mess to begin with.
Instead of responding, the Doctor began setting coordinates, and then set them on their way, all without indicating that he'd found something in the time stream that would indicate a change. "I don't have to do anything, Jack. Other than figure out what she's done and fix it."
The ship shuddered as it dropped out of the vortex a few moments later. "And this would be?"
"Fifteenth century France. It's the first alteration I could find. I actually had to backtrack it from the landmark that wasn't there any more, and… well the detective work portion of this exercise isn't important. This is the first alteration."
Jack looked at the monitors—there was nothing on the visual. It was too dark. He hoped it was a moonless night and they weren't in a cupboard or something. The Doctor didn't seem too concerned with it, however, and marched right out the front doors of the ship.
They got about two steps out. They hadn't landed near a town of any sort. There may have been a moon, but it was blotted out by the leaves of the tall late-summer trees. It was humid but cool, and the smell of old rotting leaves drifted toward them on the breeze. For a moment, Jack didn't know what they were doing three, until the mediaeval night filled with a foreign popping and the clearing in front of them lit up with yellow-white flash of fifty-second century arms fire.
And being who they were, they only spent a moment looking at each other before they began running toward it.
Before they made it into the open area, something came flying toward them, all legs, long, dark hair and momentum. The moment it hit the ground, it took off again, waving arms toward them. "Move! Move!"
They didn't need much more motivation than that as two more blasts of energy went flying past their heads. In the distance he could hear a familiar dialect grumbling obscenities as two men approached with speed. As soon as she was within reach, Jack grabbed Violet's wrist and dragged her back toward the TARDIS, time lines be damned.
As soon as the door closed behind them, the Doctor glared at Jack as if he'd just doomed them all, but the look on his face fell when he saw the burns along her cheek and blood running down her face and grabbed her jaw, looking her over. Jack couldn't tell if it a look of curiosity, mystification or annoyance that twisted at the Doctor's lips as he inspected her—her long dark hair was dirty and tangled with bits of leaves. The tunic Jack recognised from the things they'd taken out of the efficiency, the cuffs soaked in blood that had run down her arms, beneath the spacious sleeves. There was something sticking out of her leg, possibly an ornamental knife, possibly a rather straight piece of shrapnel.
She gasped when he prodded the charred flesh next to her eyebrow. "Talk about… timing…" she gasped for breath as her body began trembling with the shock of her injuries.
Jack grabbed her shoulders to steady her up but loosened his grip when she twitched from the pain of his touch. "What're we going to do?"
"Now?" The Doctor asked, as if Jack could mean something else. "Treat her. Make sure she doesn't regenerate. Then deal with the time line."
Yeah. They'd really just dug themselves a deeper hole, hadn't they?
XYZ
Both boys looked up innocently from the remains of the refrigerator. They smiled, but they knew they were in trouble. "Hi!" Rom managed eventually.
"Just what in the hell do you two think you're doing?" Jackie's hands came to rest on her hips and she stared down at them, and what they'd done to the back of the refrigerator. "I don't know if that's how the Doctor lets you behave, but you're not going to do that here!"
Rom put the sonic screwdriver in his mouth, chewing on the business end. The Doctor didn't know he had it, so he'd be in trouble as soon as it's loss was discovered. Like… when the Doctor needed it, and reached into his pocket for it, and it wasn't there. Till then… game on. "Well, ya see… we're trying ta save the universe, and we need coolant for the thingy we're buildin' in the cellar…"
Jackie pointed at the corner near the stove. "You. In that one." Then she pointed to the corner next to the doorway leading into the rest of the house. "Branden, the other one." As Rom got up she tried to snatch the sonic screwdriver, but he slid it into his pocket before she could get to it. Jackie just sighed and let him keep it. "If there's something wrong the universe… let the grownups sort it. Honestly, you're just as bad as your sister… makin' a mess and getting into trouble."
They were spared any more lecture when Arten started crying. Ok so maybe Rom had helped a little with that, when he projected thoughts of just how horrible a poopy nappy really was to his little brother. But it was for a good cause. They were in serious, SERIOUS trouble, after all. Violet had broken the universe, for Rassilon's sake!
Oh yeah, and they were bored. And the television was weird here. Oh yeah and the universe was broken. Had they mentioned that the universe was broken? Well, it was. And it was really broken…
Rom tugged on his brother's sleeve. "Cellar," he whispered and they tiptoed off, before anything could go too terribly wrong. Well, wronger than it was. Their totally irresponsible mother had left them in a strange universe with a strange lady and no functional time machine. Really. Rom should call child services. Gwen Cooper always threatened to.
They avoided the house staff and those crazy security cameras (that's why Rom had taken the screwdriver, duh) they made it to the cellar. Closing the basement door quietly, he searched for the light switch, then began to see the flaw in his little plan. Order of operations… the Doctor kept trying to explain to Rom about that. Pillage THEN burn, that sort of thing.
Fortunately Branden was atuned to his brother's deficiencies and snatched the sonic screwdriver from his pocket, then set it to the one that was just a light.
When the torch setting flicked to life, they both gasped as the reflection fell upon a curtain of heavy, folded material, instead of the Spartan staircase they'd traversed earlier in the afternoon. Before he could even look up to see who the unexpected party was, a hand slapped over his mouth. When it pulled away, there was duct tape across Rom's lips. Before he could rip it off or fight back, a sack-like thing covered over him, and another over his brother and they were crushed together then lifted off the top basement step.
The lone figure that had managed to hoist the two boys turned and headed further down into the basement. Rom and Branden both squirmed for their lives. "Shh. Everything's going to be alright."
Well, THAT was certainly a matter of perspective.
They were put down, then taped to something, possibly one of the support beams in the middle of the basement floor. "Stay here and stay quiet while I get your brother."
At the mention of his baby brother, Rom's leg kicked out, catching his assailant in the shin, causing the man to gasp.
But the man didn't stop. It only caused him to limp away, making a dragging sound with every other step. "Just trust me."
Oh like that was going to happen, Rom thought peevishly as he tried to free his hands. What kind of dummy did this bloke take him for?
TBC…
