There is no excuse for how long this chapter took for me to write. It just...didn't want to come out and I was too lazy for a long time to try and force it when I had other writing projects to do instead. BUT I AM BACK and this story is far from abandoned.
Thanks for all the feedback so far! This chapter is a bit of a feels trip (I kept getting emotional while editing it), but in a good way hopefully. Because this chapter in fact features...THE BRIG!
Enjoy!
The Rani had been having a perfectly adequate morning before the spectacled human cornered her in the UNIT break room.
"So, it's Kate's birthday in a couple of days," Osgood said, grinning at her with a glint in her eyes that made the Rani think that there was a lot more to her words than one might think.
"Good for her," the Rani replied disinterestedly.
The girl frowned. "You do have something planned for her, right?" When the Rani just shot her a sceptical look, the human sighed. "Who am I kidding, of course you don't, you're a useless snob of an alien who would never observe human celebrations of her own free will."
The Rani snorted, if only at the bravery she possessed to be able to address her in such a manner. "Well, that's one way to put it, but I shan't call it inaccurate."
"You're going to be a pretty shite girlfriend if you don't get her anything."
"I'm not her-"
"Yeah, yeah, get a different tune," Osgood said, flapping her hand. The amusement the Rani had been feeling a moment earlier due to the girl's lack of appropriate fear was replaced by annoyance. She grabbed the hand – or rather, the wrist attached to it - before it could retreat back to its owner's side.
"Just because I saved your life and am bedding your superior, doesn't mean you can be entirely flippant with me, bowtie," the Rani growled. She felt great satisfaction when she saw a slither of fear enter the other female's eyes. "I'm still near enough 50 times older than you are and more than willing to use you as a live subject for a new line of experiments."
"Kate would never let you," the girl said, somewhat lamely. Her effort to be brave was commendable, the Rani supposed, but ineffective.
"Kate would never need to know," the Time Lady said smoothly and without hesitating, "My TARDIS has infinite storage she has no access to and I have chemicals that would dissolve your entire body in less than a second."
Osgood gulped but kept her chin high as she wrenched her wrist out of the Rani's grip and headed for the door. "Just make an effort to do something for her, alright?"
The Rani pointedly ignored her and scowled at the opposite wall as she was left once more on her own. Was this something Kate would actually be expecting of her? Kate wasn't one to assume anything when it came to her, but that didn't necessarily mean the blonde wouldn't be disappointed to some degree if the Rani failed to observe what Osgood had called a 'human tradition'.
What sort of gift did a birthday warrant? Something bought, something made? She had no idea. There wasn't a manual for finer points of human culture such as this, or at least not one she had ever had the misfortune to be exposed to.
Muttering under her breath about how she ought to slip all the humans hallucinogenic drugs and watch them run around for a while before skipping planet all together, the Rani sighed and headed back to her lab, all the while cursing how she had ever gotten herself into this mess.
"Happy Birthday, Stewart." They were in the Rani's lab, and her words had no warning or build up because the Time Lady had no idea how one went about something as trivial as a birthday.
Kate's obvious shock, intensified by a frown, had the Rani ready to backtrack almost immediately. "What?"
The brunette frowned back at her. "Did I say it wrong? I was rather sure that what you apes say to each other-"
"No, no, you didn't say it wrong," Kate said, hastily, "I just – wasn't expecting any sentiment of the sort from you. How on earth did you know it was my birthday? It's not on the official records."
"Your science brat mentioned it. Wouldn't stop going on about how I needed to be getting you a present, of all the wretched things."
Kate chuckled, despite her still present surprise. "I'm trying to imagine you in Marks and Spencer's trying to pick out a mug for me, and it's so bizarre I just can't quite manage it."
"Who are Mark and Spencer?" The Rani asked, her frown deepening.
Kate laughed again but with a hint of awkwardness. "No one important. And don't worry, I certainly am not expecting a present or anything of the sort from you."
"Anything of the sort?" The Rani echoed. "And what if I had something planned?"
"What sort of a something?"
"A…gesture. Or, more accurately, a trip somewhere that only I could offer."
Kate tilted her head, plainly confused. "A trip where?"
"To see your father."
Kate's brain had shut down. Or rather, frozen due to an overload of too many thoughts and emotions and objections whizzing through it at once. Longing, rejection, grief, love, confusion...all thrown in there with the very prominent thoughts of why would she offer this and this must be against the rules.
Which is why not a single word had escaped her mouth and she was just staring at the Rani with unparalleled shock.
"Stewart?"
"Why?" Kate found herself asking. "That's got to be against the rules, you taking me back to see my father."
"As one of the only remaining members of my species, that's for me to decide," the Rani replied curtly, "We wouldn't be changing anything, and we'd be passing you off for the Kate of that time, there's no need for him to know when you're from."
Kate frowned. "But why? Why would you offer this to me?"
"Because it's the one thing I can offer that no one else can or will," the Time Lady said, shrugging, "Besides, if you don't object to the idea, I admit that I wouldn't be averse to meeting him if I were to take you back." Before Kate could say anything, she added, "Though you would be perfectly justified in requesting for me to remain in the TARDIS, even if I would prefer to be with you to be sure you don't say anything damning to the causal nexus."
"No, I'd want him to meet you," Kate said without really thinking, only to be surprised when she realised a part of her had been wishing hopelessly that she could have known what her father would have thought of her choice in companionship. She had never thought she would get a chance to find out.
"So is that a yes?"
"Of course it's a yes, you're offering me a chance that most people would kill for!" Kate told her, laughing a little as she considered what was about to happen. "Can we go now, or-"
The Rani just pushed the doors to her TARDIS open in invitation. Kate, however, first made a beeline for the time machine's pilot and pulled the Time Lady into a tight hug that had her stiffening completely.
"Thank you."
When the Rani just muttered a noncommittal response and didn't move a muscle to return the gesture, Kate let go and went into the TARDIS. If her mind hadn't been so singularly concerned with seeing her father again, she would have stopped and realised that she had never hugged the Rani before that moment.
What she was aware of was that this was the first time she would witness the Rani performing a proper jump through time and space, as opposed to the small number of instances she had witnessed only the latter, which was considerably less complex.
Watching the brunette now was like watching an artist at work, which was odd in itself due to the methodical nature of both of the operator herself and the work she was doing. But there was still something awe inspiring about it, watching the Rani stepping with practiced ease and grace around the hexagonal console and pressing buttons with light precision and twisting dials without an ounce of unneeded force.
It was one of the only times Kate could have described the Rani as being gentle (the others being any time she had witnessed her with a precarious experiment).
It didn't take as long as Kate expected.
"23rd February 2011," the Rani told her as she flicked the door switch. "I don't suppose you know where you were at this particular time?"
Kate gave it some thought. "Dealing with an incident in Paris, I believe."
"Good. This is dangerous enough without you running into yourself."
"If it's dangerous then why do it?"
The Rani rolled her eyes. "Don't read into this, Stewart, just get moving."
They exited the box and Kate found she knew the way to the rest home from where they were, and so led the way.
The building looked unassuming from the outside but Kate knew it was top of the line because she and the top members of UNIT had ensured that Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart received only the best care. The reception was small but immaculate, the entire place with dark wooden panelled walls and a single woman at the desk opposite the door.
"Lethbridge-Stewart," Kate told her as she and the Rani approached.
"Of course," the receptionist replied, and Kate recalled that the staff here knew her well because of how often she had visited her father.
No further exchange was needed because Kate knew the way. She indicated for the Rani to follow her and they headed down the corridor. A sense of déjà vu crept up on Kate. She could remember the way to her father's room without second thought, could remember how she had made the turns over and over and with increasing dread as her father had gotten sicker and sicker.
And then the door was right in front of her and her hand was hovering right above the handle. Not quite able to touch or turn.
"It's alright, Stewart," the Rani murmured from behind her, and the Time Lady's smooth voice brought a calm to Kate's unsteady heart, enabling her to open the door and walk inside the room.
Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was sitting up in bed reading the newspaper, and when he saw his visitor he blinked and lowered it.
"A surprise visit, Tiger?" He asked, his lips twitching.
"I'm not interrupting, am I?" Kate didn't think it was likely she was, but it seemed polite to ask. She was just impressed that her voice remembered how to work given how fast her heart was beating.
He was really there. Right in front of her. Breathing and smiling and staring at her with those eyes that weren't any different from how they had been so many years before in her childhood.
"And what on earth would you be interrupting?" The Brigadier inquired, lifting an eyebrow. "This place is frightfully dull." He for the first time noticed the Rani, who had come in after Kate and shut the door behind them. "And who is this?"
Kate opened her mouth to introduce the Time Lady when it occurred to her that she would likely not appreciate Kate speaking for her. But when she glanced over her shoulder, the Rani just gave a tiny nod of permission.
"This is Rani," Kate said, "She's, er, a friend. From work."
"In a manner of speaking."
The Brigadier held a hand out to her. "Well, good to meet you, Rani." He seemed uncomfortable with not having a last name to address her by, but Kate had not provided him with one. Luckily, the Rani looked similarly uncomfortable shaking his hand, though she hid it well and Kate figured she only noticed because she knew the Rani's body language as well as anyone could at this point.
"Good to meet you too, Brigadier," the Rani replied, making him chuckle.
"So my reputation still precedes me in certain circles."
"Of course."
Kate pulled up a chair so that she could sit by his bed. "It's good to see you," she said, her throat thick with emotion she struggled to keep masked.
"You saw me a week ago," he said, and she smiled slightly.
"Oh, I know, but...a week can be a lifetime." She fished for a better subject of conversation. "The Doctor dropped in yet?" It occurred to her that she needed to be careful, because she wasn't supposed to have met the Doctor personally yet and therefore had to act accordingly.
"No, but there's still time," the Brigadier replied, shrugging, "He's impossible to pin down, that one. Busy fellow. How's Gordon?"
"Busy being brilliant, you know how he is," Kate said, finding the topic of her sun easy enough, "Still finds time to drop in to make tea for his old mum, so not a lost cause yet."
"And Lillian?"
Kate had to hesitate there and recall exactly where her daughter was in 2011. "Adjusting to life in America. Says she likes the shopping there and that everyone likes her accent." The Kate of the time they were in had been glad of the trip to Paris because it took her mind off the sudden absence of her daughter, who had only moved to America with her father at the beginning of the year. Kate had come to terms with it since, but her father was likely expecting her to still be adjusting herself.
"And missing you?"
Kate smiled, realising just how long it had been since she had seen Lily and that she needed to rectify that once back in her own time. "I certainly hope so. I know I miss her."
"I'm sure something will pop up over the pond which will give you an excuse for a visit," her father said cheerfully, "Aliens don't always come to Britain, you know."
"I'm aware," Kate said dryly, "Don't you worry."
"Does America have their own Natural History Museum?" The Rani asked Kate, unfortunately sounding far too interested in the prospect of finding out what the United States had to offer.
"Possibly," Kate told her, shooting her a warning look over her shoulder, "We can look into it later."
"Oh, but America's the incredibly religious place, isn't it?" The Rani made a face. "Not entirely sure I want to subject myself to that. On second thought, let's not go there."
"Rani," Kate hissed, but it was a little late. The words were out, the words that implied paired travelling that in turn implied...well, a not entirely platonic relationship. Sure enough, the Brigadier was regarding them curiously.
"So which one are you?" He asked the Rani, surprising both women with his question.
"What?" They asked in unison.
"Come now, I've met my fair share of Time Lords and I know one when I see one," he said, giving the Rani a firm look, "So don't bother lying."
"I am the Rani," the Time Lady said, arching an eyebrow at him.
"And what sort are you?"
"The amoral, complicated, science-before-all-else sort," Kate muttered. The Brigadier just chuckled, and she had to join him. "Oh, Dad, I should have known you'd notice."
"Between the grandiose posture and visible superiority complex, you learn to pick them in seconds with my years of experience."
"I suppose that's true."
He narrowed his eyes at them both. "Of course, I didn't expect to find one sleeping with my daughter." When Kate just gave him a slightly sheepish look, he sighed. "I was rather hoping you were going to correct me on that."
"Would you like me to apologise?" The Rani asked, lifting an eyebrow from where she was leaning against the wall.
"Would you?"
She smirked. "No."
He let out a noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle. "Oh, you're one of them alright. Still, I imagine my Tiger is keeping you in line as best she can." He looked at his daughter. "You didn't just come back here for my approval, did you? How long has it been? A couple of years?"
Kate blinked. "What?"
The Brigadier held her gaze, his eyes still sharp as anything. "Now, Tiger, what was that about not assuming to be pulling one over your old man? I know perfectly well that you're in Paris right now."
"I could have come back early."
"Your watch is the wrong time," he pointed out, "And your watch is never wrong."
Kate glanced down and groaned at how she had missed such an inconsequential detail. "Aren't people meant to get less observant with age?"
"Watch it, Tiger." He then added, "You also more or less implied that you had met the Doctor, which I know you haven't done yet because you'd have come gushing in about it the moment it happened."
Kate just rubbed her temple and smiled at him. "He gives me a headache."
"Now you know how I felt for a good twenty years. I had the Master to deal with at the same time."
"So did I," Kate replied, smiling at the similar things they had done, "She threw me out of a plane."
The Brigadier frowned. "She?"
"These days," the Rani said, nodding, "Her new female form is probably more annoying than all her other ones combined."
"Good to know things are staying interesting for you," the Brigadier said mildly, glancing at his daughter who just chuckled.
"Always." One thing about following in her father's footsteps was that she knew that he would always have gone through a different version of any given dilemma a few decades before. When it came to work, they were always on the same page.
"I've found that it's an inevitable fact of my life that the Master will always find a way to turn up again and get in my way," the Rani said, sighing.
"Mine too," the Brigadier replied, and the two of them shared sympathetic looks.
"So I'm not disowned for sleeping with the enemy, then?" Kate asked her father wryly. He just chuckled.
"Hardly. I'd have most likely had to fire the Doctor decades ago if we got strict about that sort of thing," he admitted, "Besides, if she's not causing too much trouble then she's not automatically the enemy."
"I've never set out to be anyone's enemy," the Rani huffed, crossing her arms as she leaned against the wall, "It's not my fault that a certain dilly dandy kept getting offended by my scientific methods."
The Brigadier lifted an eyebrow. "I think this is one of those situations where the less I know the better, hm?"
"Yes, it is," Kate said, patting his arm, "Oh, I've missed you, Dad." When his expression softened, she got up from the chair so that she could hug him tightly. "It's been too long. You know I can't say how long, but...well. Too long."
He hugged her back with a strength that surprised her, but probably because she could remember how feeble his hugs had been in the end. "I'll never be completely gone, Tiger. You'd do well to remember that."
"I know that you'll always be looking out for me, long after I would have thought it possible," Kate said, thinking of how she had been falling through the sky and sure she was going to die until he had caught her and brought her safely to the ground.
"Of course," he said, with complete certainty. "I'm your father. It's what I do."
They talked for another ten minutes before the Rani expressed her intentions to leave them on their own for a while.
"Well, Rani, it was good to meet you," the Brigadier said, holding his hand out to her again. When she shook it, he gripped it tight and gave her a firm look, "And I'll have you know that if you double-cross or hurt my daughter in any way, somehow I will find a way to make you regret it, are we clear?"
Kate watched the exchange with worry, unsure of how the Rani would react but expecting something along the lines of an eye roll or a suggestion of him minding his own business. Instead the Rani just held his gaze.
"I'll keep it in mind," she said flatly, before taking her hand back, "It was good to meet you too." With that she left the room, leaving a pleasantly surprised Kate in her wake.
"You know, I keep thinking that one day soon she'll stop surprising me," the blonde said, staring after her, "But I might just be wrong about that."
Her father eyed her with his eyebrows lifted again. "I suppose a normal human fellow was never going to be on the agenda?"
Kate smiled. "That would have been so easy, and normal...and boring." She sighed and let her head rest on her hand. "Somewhere along the line, life without an insufferable alien genius with questionable morals got rather dull."
The Brigadier made a face. "Well, I suppose you don't entirely have to explain that one, not to me. Are you happy?"
Kate realised that she very much was, that somehow between work and Osgood and the Rani, she had become incredibly content but for missing her daughter. "I am," she said, smiling at him, "I really am, Dad. And if I ask nicely, the Rani might even take me to America to see Lily. I'd need to bribe her with something to do with dinosaurs, but that's easy enough. Failing that I could just take a plane like everyone else."
He frowned. "Dinosaurs?"
"She's obsessed with their untapped potential," Kate explained, shaking her head, "It occurs to me that I should get her to watch Jurassic Park." They chuckled together and ended up playing a game of chess like Kate could remember doing with him on most of her visits. She purposefully drew the game out as long as she could, which was easily done due to how easily matched they were. But eventually he checkmated her and she knew in her heart that it was probably time for her to go.
Apparently her distress was written on her face.
"You have to go some time," her father said, giving her hand a squeeze, "Your old man needs his sleep."
"But I'll never see you again," Kate protested, not caring about how much she sounded like a child. Right now she felt like one. She was a tiny child who wanted her dad and didn't want to let him go no matter what.
"Perhaps not," the Brigadier said, giving her a sad smile, "But that's just the way things work, Tiger. These things happen, Time Lords or no."
She did her best to smile back but was all too aware of the tears filling her eyes. "I know. It just doesn't seem fair." She hugged him again, and refused to let go for a rather long time. When she finally pulled away, he kissed her cheek affectionately.
"Keep looking after the Earth for me," he said, smiling, "I really did put a lot of work into it."
Kate laughed a little, though had to stop to sniff. "You know I always will." She got up and kissed his forehead, knowing that she had to leave before she lost the strength to walk away. "I love you, Dad."
"I love you too, Tiger."
She got up and went to the door. "Miss you," she whispered, and it was both a confession and a promise. Then she left her father's room and walked down the hallway with tears running down her cheeks. Once out of the building, she had to stand out on the street and compose herself as best she could. The idea of the Rani seeing her in such a state was not a pleasant one.
Finally she was mostly under control and able to walk back to where the Rani's TARDIS was parked on the street and disguised as a red telephone box. When she went inside, the Rani seemed to be making adjustments under the console, but she got back on her feet upon noticing Kate's arrival.
Her sharp grey irises examined Kate's face, no doubt taking in the reddened eyes that Kate knew she had.
"Are you alright, Stewart?" She asked cautiously.
Kate hesitated, before taking her face in her hands and kissing her fiercely instead of offering her an answer. The Rani made no protest, and gripped her hips with her strong hands.
"Thank you," Kate said against her lips when she briefly pulled away to catch her breath.
The Rani just nodded. "You're welcome. Happy Birthday, Kate." She spun them so that Kate was the one pressed against the console, and kissed her again. "Don't expect anything like this next year."
Kate chuckled against her lips. "I won't."
"Good. Now shut up and let me give you your other present."
"My other present?" Kate felt the other woman's hands go to the fastenings of her trousers, and watched her drop to her knees. "Oh."
The Rani just smirked.
Seriously, writing Kate and the Brig saying goodbye was actually really hard because of how sad I got. I'm not used to things hitting me that strongly. Ah well, it's hopefully for the best.
Also, I finally settled on an approximate FC I like for my Rani, which is Julianna Margulies, just for anyone that cares about that sort of thing.
Hope to hear what you thought! The next chapter will be Kate and the Rani going to the US so Kate can see Lily, but you can expect some jealous clashing between the Rani and Kate's ex-husband/Lily's father. Should be fun.
Love you all, and I am SO SORRY about the delay (starting uni really didn't help),
-MayFairy :)