Time Lords of Osaka

Timeframe: Directly after previous chapter.

Summary: Minimizing the damage is on Heiji's mind. It's not going well.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or Detective Conan.

Notes: Okay, this one's a little short, but that's because Part 3 is getting away from me. I'm at five pages and it's only slowly coming to a close. Basically I thought up Part 1 first but then wrote Part 2 first so it may seem like there's a slight disconnect between them. Anyway, allons-y!


Shizuka heard the front door open from the kitchen. Curious as to who it might be, she set down the platter she had been drying and poked her head into the hallway. She frowned, not recognizing the person slipping out of their shoes. But then he looked up. "I'm home, Mom," he said quietly.

Shizuka was hugging her son in an instant. "Oh my god Heiji, it's you! I can't believe it! I thought... maybe..." She pulled back to get a good look at him. She flicked at a stray bit of hair. "Well, it could be worse. Two arms, two legs, twenty fingers and toes in all I assume." She pulled him close again. "We were so worried! Your father's been absolutely beside himself, though of course he won't admit it."

Heiji tried to wriggle out of her grasp. "You can stop crying now Mom, I'm fine."

"Of course I can't Heiji, we thought you were dead! We thought you'd been turned into one of those things, those monsters. I was waiting at the train station for you and Kazuha-chan and then she showed up without you..." Shizuka smiled sadly. "She knows, doesn't she?"

Heiji nodded. "Yeah. She knows."

"No wonder she's been avoiding me. I hope you can set things right with her Heiji."

Heiji nodded. "I met one of them though," he said, changing the subject. "He helped me."

"Really?" Shizuka seemed overjoyed. "Is it...?"

Heiji shook his head. "No, it's not him. But it is one of them. And he said," here Heiji gulped, "He said that if things don't work out, I or both of us are welcome to go with him. But they're going to work out, right?" When Shizuka didn't answer, Heiji glared. "You told him, right? Tell me you told him."

"Sorry, Heiji."

Heiji's hand met his forehead. "Oh, so when this mess started you didn't think to say, 'Oh, Heiji might be all right, he might just be hiding somewhere discovering his heritage' or something like that?"

"Well..."

"Shizuka, I'm home." Both spun around. Hattori Heizo, fresh from work, stood in the doorway. He pointed at Heiji. "Shizuka, who is this boy?"

Heiji folded his arms, trying not to let that get at him. "I am not helping you clean up this mess that is entirely your fault. I am not."

"You could have told him too you know."

"We both know that you were the only one who could have ever told him. That is, if we wanted to minimize damage and shouting which I must say, we are doing a rather excellent job of not doing at the moment."

"Shizuka, who is this boy?" Heizo almost growled.

"Dear," Shizuka said, wavering slightly, "this is Heiji."

Heizo, to his credit, didn't even blink. "Not even mentioning the more obvious things, I have heard my son speak in a Tokyo accent. It is not a pleasant sound, if he can manage it at all."

"Dear, this is Heiji," Shizuka repeated. "There's... there's something I haven't told you. I'll tell you everything now, but this is Heiji."

Heiji started to wander towards the door. "I'll just leave you two to it, shall I?"

Shizuka grabbed the back of his shirt. "Oh no you don't young man. You're staying right here."

"Your mess!" Heiji justified.

"Which involves you!" Shizuka shot back. She then looked back at Heizo. "Dear, do you remember a girl from a long time ago? It was very early on in your police career. She pushed you out of the way, taking a bullet for you, and then staggered off. You never saw her again. You looked and looked but you never found her."

Heizo gaped, stunned. "I never told you about that. Never."

"But she found you. She wanted to know what kind of person the man she'd saved was. It turned out that the man had a good heart, and she decided that she wanted to make sure it stayed that way. So she stayed with you, and she's still here."

Heizo stared at Shizuka for a few tense moments. "You're unbalanced," he finally said slowly, as if he was trying to justify everything within the confines of what his mind could comprehend. "You've been acting strange ever since Heiji died. You've lost it Shizuka, clearly-"

"No!" Shizuka shouted. "Hattori Heizo, listen to me!" She took a deep breath. "I lied to you. I'm sorry, but now I admit it. I lied to you. I was scared of what would happen if you knew the truth. And I know that there were so many times I could have told you, that I should have told you, but I didn't because I was scared. And as time wore on it seemed less and less important until finally I thought that maybe I could get away with never telling you at all. But now it's being waved in my face that I can't get away with that, and that I need to tell you the truth now."

She paused, taking another deep breath. "There's these aliens. These aliens, they're called Time Lords. They look like humans, I think. Or at least some of them do. I don't actually know all that much about them, he left when I was only three. Called away to some war his people were involved in, that's what he said. He said he'd come back, but he never did."

"Shizuka, what are you talking about?"

"The thing about these aliens though is when they die they don't actually die!" Shizuka finished quickly. "They change instead," she added quietly.

"So you're saying," Heizo said evenly, slowly, finger rising, "That you're one of those... things, those aliens." The finger slowly moved. "And that he's one of them too. And that you are her, and he is Heiji. You're both those aliens that keep coming, that keep doing things to Earth."

"Not Time Lords, never Time Lords," Shizuka protested. "They're good people! My father was a good person!"

"They're not people!" Heizo roared, finally showing his rage. "Humans are people! Those aliens, those things, they're not people!"

"Dad, I-"

"You are not my son! My son is Heiji, my son is human, my son would never dream of going along with this nonsense! My utterly human son wins kendo matches, thinks he's a detective, and speaks Osaka-ben! You are not my son!"

"Dear, listen to me-"

"I did listen to you! And you spouted nonsense! Utterly ridiculous nonsense! Where is your proof? Where is your proof that my whole life has been a lie?"

Heiji gulped. "Actually there's one of them outside. He's uh, waiting in his ship. His spaceship. He's waiting to know if I want to come with him or not."

"Go join him then!" Heizo shouted. "Go join him and run around doing alien things! Just get out! Both of you!"

Shizuka put her hands on her hips. "I am not going anywhere until I can make you see sense! Heiji, why don't you go find Kazuha-chan? This is going to get ugly!"

"Oh, so she's in on this too is she?"

"No she's not!" Heiji shouted, furious. "No one knew! No one! And now Kazuha's too busy hating me to be in on it!"

"Well then at least that makes two of us still sane," Heizo growled.

"You know what?" Heiji asked, striding towards the door. "I'm out of here. Mom," he paused his steps, "If this doesn't end well, you're coming with me. There's plenty of room." He slammed the front door behind him.


She saw him in the distance, waiting for her. He undoubtedly was, standing in the middle of the sidewalk and staring at her as he was. She sped up, hoping to pass and ignore him.

It wasn't to be. "Wait," he ordered calmly, his tone far from the insane ramblings that she'd last heard out of his mouth. Even though she could have easily kept going, she found herself stopping. "Thank you."

"What do you want?" she asked, trying not to let the tears show.

"Just to talk," he replied.

She turned to look at him. "What on earth do we have to talk about?"

He chuckled wryly. "Nothing. Nothing we have to say has anything to do with Earth. But we do each have things to say."

"Ahou," she said slowly, swiping at him with her book bag. He didn't duck, instead letting it hit him full force. She winced at that, knowing that he now knew that she had pulled her punch.

They stared at each other in silence. Finally he spoke. "How are things going?"

"Everyone thinks you're dead," she replied bluntly. "You never showed up again, and so many bodies were impossible to identify. They all think you're one of them. And they all expect me to be sad that you're dead, even though you're really not, but it's too easy because in a way you really are dead, and I'm so confused." She finally started crying. He pulled her into a hug, and both were surprised when she didn't object. "Oh Heiji. What're we going to do?"

He was surprised at the plural 'we', but didn't show it. "This is actually my second stop. I popped by home first. Mom was overjoyed of course. That and panicking a little, she wasn't exactly expecting it to happen so soon. She alternated between talking about how proud she was of me and worrying over what we were going to do next. Then..." he trailed off, getting lost in recent bitter memories.

Kazuha knew him well enough though. She thought. "Your dad," she stated.

Heiji nodded. "Yeah. Then he came home from work. He, ah, didn't take the news so well."

"He'd rather you were dead?" Kazuha prodded with a small bit of incredulity.

"Oh he hadn't even gotten to that part yet by the time I left." Heiji winced. "He was still stuck on the part where his wife and son aren't entirely human."

Kazuha glared, somehow falling back into not so old habits. "You mean he didn't even know? What. Were. You. Thinking?"

"Hey, Mom was the one that decided not to tell him in the first place," Heiji argued back. He ran a hand through his hair in stress, still frowning at the slight curls. "Anyway, if things don't blow over nicely at home, I may have to leave for a while."

"You've been gone," Kazuha pointed out. "For a week."

"I'm talking about longer than that," Heiji explained as if Kazuha was an idiot. "I'm talking about another month at best, as long as it takes the old man to cool down. Maybe a couple months. Maybe several. Maybe a year. Who knows."

"Heiji messed up big time," Kazuha taunted.

"It's not my fault!" Heiji nearly shouted back. He calmed quickly though. "I'll call. I'll definitely try to remember to call. Anyway, I've got to go now. See if Dad's kicked Mom out yet."

"You seem awfully sure that that's what's going to happen."

"You didn't hear him earlier. Anyway, see you later!" He started to walk off, hands in his pockets.

"Wait." He stopped, turning. "Where do we stand?" Kazuha asked, slightly scared.

Heiji smiled softly. "You know exactly how I feel about you. Dad's not the only person I'm waiting for to come around."

And then he was gone. Kazuha smiled. Yes, a little break would be nice. Time to think things over, and then a phone call to discuss them. Yes, that sounded nice.


So! Part 3 should be coming soon, tying up the vast majority of the Time Lord!Heiji arc. There may be a few more loose ends after that ("Oi, Kudo!" About face "WHUT?"), but that'll be mostly it. The thing about Part 3 though is that it may not be the next chapter because I post these in the order I finish them and I just made a breakthrough on my Ekoda chapter. But anyway, reviews are love, be back soon!