Families

Featuring: The Tenth Hatter and Doctor

Ever since the Hatter had been a child and she, with the help from the Doctor, who was the one who actually lent her his copy of book, she had always found a sense of comfort in reading Alice in Wonderland. She supposed that she really shouldn't have been surprised by the realisation, after all, she had got the idea of her name from the book series when she had been only in the Academy with no idea of just how much this one book would have on her life.

She could still remember just how upset her parents had been after she officially took her title of 'the Hatter' during her graduation. They thought that it was highly inappropriate that a daughter of theirs would choose to be known by such a name, they had lectured her over it for a solid three hours. Now that she thought about it, it was probably one of the longest times that her Father had been in her company for. Goodness, that was just plain…sad.

The Hatter took a deep breath and exhaled heavily, knowing that thinking about her less than happy and easy relationship with her family wasn't something that she should allow herself to do, not when there was an entire Universe full of far brighter and wonderful things to think about.

"What's wrong?" a voice suddenly startled her, causing her to jump in the comfortable armchair that she had settled in hours ago, almost losing her grip on the old, frayed book in her hands.

"Doctor, don't do that!" she gasped, looking up to meet his brown eyes that twinkled in amusement, clearly trying hard not to laugh at her reaction, "You know that I hate surprises," she grumbled, throwing him an annoyed look.

The Doctor scoffed as he stepped over to her chair and settled on the armrest, throwing his arm over her shoulders, "Lier".

The Time Lady tried her very hardest not to smile, but the battle was long lost, "Okay, so maybe I do like surprises…" she trailed off before she smacked his shoulder, making him wince slightly, "But that doesn't mean that I enjoy being surprised like that, sweetheart".

"Will you ever find it in your hearts to forgive me?"

She paused, pretending to think it over carefully, "Hmm, I don't know, sweetheart," she replied, casting him a sideways look, "I might have to think about it a bit longer…"

He grinned broadly at her and for a moment he almost looked like the little boy that she first meet and befriend, before all the pain and guilt almost destroyed him after the loss of their home and there people. He lent forward and kissed her tenderly, a large part of him still amazed that they were actually together and that she knew just how much he loved her and her in return.

"That's cheating," the Hatter murmured as they pulled away, resting their foreheads against each other's, pouting at him.

"No, that's me being madly and completely in love with you," the Doctor replied, still grinning at her as he tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear, being careful not to nudge her hat, considering the last time he had done that he had ended up being lectured to about just how much care it took just to get her hat to sit exactly how she wanted it to so that it wouldn't get blown off while running.

He was never ever making that mistake again. Besides, he didn't think he could handle the smug and far to amused look on Donna's face again.

"And you call that not cheating?" the Time Lady raised her eyebrows at him, not ready to let him get away just quite yet.

He paused, glancing at her, "Well…" he dragged out the word, "I suppose that could be called cheating. Just…just a little bit".

"And, finally, he admits," the Hatter smiled, ruffling his hair affectionately before sighing, "Now, when are you going to admit that you cheat whenever we play checkers?"

"I don't cheat at checkers," he gasped in mock outrage.

"Sweetheart, this is me you're talking to".

"I admit to nothing".

She laughed, shaking her head at him, "Twenty years you spent studying Gallifreyan Law and that's all you can come up with to defend yourself?"

The Doctor gave her a bright smile and a wink, "Just because I took the class doesn't mean that I passed it," he replied, sounding just a little too pleased about it.

"Oh, believe me, I remember," the Hatter sighed, but still gave him a fond look, "I'm no stranger to witnessing you purposely fail tests".

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he sniffed, looking away from her.

The Time Lady laughed, shaking her head at him again, "Sweetheart, you have always been the smartest man that I've ever known," she told him, smiling at him softly, "And I know that I'll probably regret that later with your ego," she sighed before continuing, "If you had wanted to, you could have past every one of your subjects, but you didn't. When I was younger I couldn't understand why you would wish to do something like that and it wasn't until I realised that you were doing it because you feared that the High Council would want you to join them".

"That was always my Father's plan," the Doctor said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders again and pulling her closer to his side, "You know that he had all those plans of me becoming Lord President…"

"Which you did," the Hatter cut in, giving him an amused look as she recalled just how that all come about.

He shot her a grin, "Yes, but not quite how he would have wanted it to have gone," he shook his head, "He always expected that I would join the High Council after school and rise up through the ranks within five to six hundred years and become Lord President".

"Five to six hundred years?" the Hatter stared at him, her eyes widening, "Goodness me, he truly expected you to rise that quickly?" she paused, titling her head, "Well, I suppose that Romana did manage to become Madame President after only a few years of taking up a seat on the High Council…" she said slowly, "But…if I recall, I did give her a little helping hand," she smiled faintly, glancing at him, "After all, I never officially gave up my seat on the Council, and my Mother demanded on the grounds that it was the seat that only the Gifted One could hold, it should therefore remain in my name, regardless if I had become a renegade".

"I never knew that," the Doctor blinked at her in mild surprise, "I just thought that with the Time War and your position in the War, you had your previous seat re-established, along with a seat on the War Council".

"Oh, yes, I read the court transcripts," the Time Lady nodded, rolling her eyes slightly, "It was probably the first time I had ever known her to actually fight for me, and it wasn't even for me personally, all she cared about was making sure that there was a seat in the High Council chamber room with my name on it," she shook her head, looking annoyed by the memory, "I'm positive that one of the reasons she fought so hard was because she thought it would lure me back to Gallifrey, not to mention she and Father wouldn't have been able to stand the shame of me running away, so they could simply pretend that I was coming back one day. That's probably why they never fully disowned me, too".

"When I left Gallifrey, my family not only disowned me, but they tried replacing me by looming another cousin," the Doctor told her, scoffing slightly, "Illegally, I might add. And I meet him, too, when I was in my Seventh regeneration".

"Dear me, I do believe that I remember all of that business," the blonde commented, patting his arm comfortingly, "Owis, wasn't it? Yes, I remember that I had been sent a message by Romana, informing me that you were on Gallifrey, so I decided to come and see what you were doing, since whenever you were on Gallifrey something interesting was always going on…"

He grinned at her, "Didn't want to miss out on the fun?" he asked her, his tone teasing.

She glanced at him, giving him a teasing smile of her own, "Actually, sweetheart, I was more concerned that you were going to get yourself arrested again," she replied, still smiling at him, "What I didn't quite expect was to find out that The House of Lungbarrow had been buried underground, imprisoning pretty much all of your family inside, and had been for centuries," she shook her head before pausing, frowning slightly as she cast him a sideways look, "Owis…didn't he have that crush on me?"

The Doctor grumbled something too low for her to hear, but clearly from the look on his face it wasn't pleasant, "He did," he eventually said.

"Hmm, must be something in the blood," the Hatter smiled brightly at him, nudging his side as she tried hard not to laugh.

"Perhaps, but I can hardly argue with his eye for brilliant, beautiful woman," Doctor kissed her cheek, giving her a wink.

The Time Lady rolled her eyes, still smiling at him, "Oh, honestly, sweetheart," she shook her head fondly.

"I would never lie to you about such a thing," he replied, pretending to look offended by the very suggestion before he cast a look at her, suddenly remembering his earlier question, "You know, you never answered my question".

"What question?" she blinked, looking mildly confused.

"The one that I surprised you with when I first came in," the Doctor said, "Whenever your upset about something to do with your parents, you always read 'Alice in Wonderland,'" he leant over and tapped the front cover of the old book sitting in her lap, watching her reaction closely, "You've always done it, even as a kid".

The Hatter sighed, glancing down at the book and back up to meet his eyes, "I was just thinking about what they might have said about us getting married," she finally admitted after a long moment, "My Father…he wouldn't have been pleased, but I suppose that he would be relieved that I wasn't getting married to a human or something," she smiled slightly, but it was somewhat strained, "He never did like you and especially not after that accident when we were children that almost killed me…"

The Doctor closed his eyes, paling slightly, "I was so afraid that you had…"

"Oh, no you don't," the Time Lady cut him off sternly, making him open his eyes, "It was because of you that we got off that mountain and lived. Besides…" she smiled at him brightly, "It was our very first adventure together".

He smiled at her, struggling to match her bright smile, "Good thing it wasn't a sign for what was to come," he remarked quietly, taking a deep breath, "What about your mother? What would she have thought off us?"

For several minutes that Hatter didn't answer, looking thoughtful as she titled her head to the side, seeming to be thinking very deeply, "Well, she's a little harder to try and imagine her thoughts," she said slowly, still thinking deeply, "I think that…she would have been quite unhappy and disappointed in me. I don't think she would have been surprised, but that certainly wouldn't have made things any better for her. She would have been even more angry with you and probably would have pleaded with me to break it off, and when I wouldn't she would start making threats to not come to the wedding, that sort of thing".

"She…er, wasn't very fond of me, was she?" the Doctor asked, wincing slightly at the memory of just how many times he had found himself on the receiving end of the Hatter's mother's temper.

"Indeed," the Time Lady nodded, casting him a sideways look, "She always blamed you for me running away and pretty much anything that she considered to be bad about me on you," she rolled her eyes, "I would turn up for our weakly tea season with my hair a mess and wearing my grease stained overalls because I was in the middle of making something and she would blame it on you. I would try to argue against getting titled 'Dame' and it was all because of you. Pretty much everything got blamed on you, I'm afraid".

"Lovely".

"What a lovely holiday dinner around the table that would make, wouldn't it?"

"Delightful," the Doctor said sarcastically.

The Hatter laughed, kissing his cheek, "Oh, never mind that," she told him, sounding very cheerful all of a sudden, "I'm hungry," she grabbed the book from her lap and put it on a table beside the chair, standing up and grabbing the Doctor hand, pulling him along towards the door, "Come on, sweetheart, I do believe it's ice cream time…which reminds me that we should probably check on Donna. We don't want to have to start searching for her because she's got lost…again".

"Yes, dear".

Well, I'm not really sure what this was originally supposed to be. I started writing it a few months ago and I came back and this just sort of happened. I would say that it's set after Pompeii but before The Sontaran Stratagem, and it also contains lots of references to the novel, Lungbarrow. I've taken some aspects, such as the Doctor's cousins and other aspects of that novel into the Universe that I'm writing, but in the novel it implies that the Doctor is actually a re-loomed Time Lord known as the Other, in my stories, unless it is later proven to be true in the TV show, the Doctor is not the Other, nor is Susan actually the Other's granddaughter.

There is a distant relation between them, which would explain the reference in Classic Who and why he was able to use the Hand of Omega, but I see that relation as being more like the Other was the one who created or was among the very first members of The House of Lungbarrow, just as I see Rassilon as being the one to have either founded or actually belonged to the Hatter's house, Blyedge. I don't know, that's just how I've chosen to depict Gallifreyan history.

Tell me what you thought, please review :)