This little storyline now goes into next chapter too because it got long. I had a lot of fun with the super awkward family dinner (but the Rani does come in at the end of the chapter). Enjoy!
Oh, and this chapter is a VERY high T rating due to the very end (bordering on M but I don't want to change the story rating so). I feel like you can guess why.
The house was of a decent size, good design, and better decorated than Kate had expected. It was strange, being an outsider in the place her daughter now called home, but every time she got too close to being uncomfortable, Lily caught her eye and smile and Kate would feel her unease dissipate.
"Do you want to see my room?"
"Of course."
They went through the hall and up the stairs, coming into a spacious bedroom with a large window. Kate smiled at the Taylor Swift poster and fairy lights that decorated the walls, but didn't miss the squash and tennis racquets or the crammed bookshelf either.
There was one thing that did surprise her.
"You're playing guitar?"
Lily blinked. "Did I never say?" Kate shook her head. "Yeah, sorry, almost as soon as we moved over. Uncle Kyle bought me the guitar as a welcome present."
Kate remembered Kyle, vaguely, but had only met him a few times due to his living in the US. How had she forgotten that he was the whole reason Henry had picked Portland in the first place?
"Well, I think it's great," Kate said to her daughter honestly, smiling, "Maybe you can play me something later."
Lily grinned. "I've been working on this Ed Sheeran riff, I've almost got it, but my singing isn't great. We could ask Dad to sing, though." When Kate just lifted an eyebrow, Lily's grin only widened. "He's no Ed but you know he's pretty good, Mum. And he knows the songs even if he pretends not to."
"Yes, I remember," Kate murmured, though hadn't until that moment. Memories of drunk karaoke a few weeks before their wedding cropped up, and it was so strange that she could only shake her head to dismiss them. I was still so young, even if I didn't think I was.
A more pleasant memory was of Henry crooning songs to Lily when she had been a baby, and Kate smiled fractionally at the thought.
She chatted with Lily about school and her friends, and was relieved to hear that even though the American school system was harsh, Lily was doing okay and had a good group of people around her. Lily asked after Gordon, though more for Kate's perspective on how he was going than anything else because Lily skyped her half-brother every week.
Kate might have been crushed when Lily had been taken from her to another country, but knew it had been at least partially her own doing. Gordon had been devastated. Lily had been his whole world from the moment she had been born.
"He's WHAT?!"
"He's taking her with him to live in America. Says she'll be safer there. Away from me."
"He can't just take her, she's your daughter too, she's my sister, he can't take her to another country, she's got a say in this too-"
"Gordon...she wants to go."
"...what?"
"She was nearly killed in her own bedroom a month ago. She wakes up in hospital only to find out that the thing that attacked her was an alien pursuing her mother that had tracked the bio-signature to the house. Her mother that had been working for a secret government faction that protects Earth from aliens, and never told her or her father."
"You weren't allowed to tell! That attack wasn't your fault!"
"If it weren't for me, Lily would be unharmed. Which means that yes, it is. And it might kill me that she's leaving but Henry's right, she'll be safer away from me and UNIT."
"Is that what she said?"
"She's scared, Gordon. She's fourteen and she just found out aliens exist and that one nearly succeeded in killing her but was after me. And that I knew this huge thing that has changed the way she sees the whole world but never told her."
There was a photo on Lily's desk, framed and standing proud. It was a photo Kate recognised well. Lily was four, all wispy golden hair and round face, just like Gordon at ten who was giving her a piggyback while Kate and Henry - the latter's arm around the former's shoulders - laughed from behind them. It was a perfect family picture.
To think where they all were now. Gordon hated his stepfather for taking away his sister, while Henry was indifferent towards him and still furious with Kate. Lily was the only one still beloved by all.
"What do you say about me to your friends?" Kate asked her daughter, eyeing the picture.
"I say that my mum works for the British government and helps a lot of people, and that I miss her a lot," Lily replied, smiling, "What else would I say?"
Unexpected emotion choked Kate up and constricted her voice a little. "I don't know." She hugged Lily to her for what had to be at least the tenth time, but she still received no complaints. "I've missed you so much too. You wouldn't believe the things I've been doing."
Lily gave her a funny smile. "Do I want to know?"
Kate hesitated. "I don't know. Do you?"
"Maybe don't tell anything that's really going to shake up my world any more. Some things I'd prefer not to know. But if you've got any funny smaller stories, that would be cool."
"Do you remember the year those cubes came?"
She didn't tell her about the Zygons or the Cybermen or the Master. Even her story about the cubes was tentative, more about the Doctor than the alien threat. Lily was delighted to hear about her grandfather's old friend, as she had heard stories about the eccentric man from him, but never known the alien context before.
But there were other stories, smaller incidents, and Kate's mention of how she now had two versions of her personal assistant running around - "never mind how" - got some wide eyes from Lily. It briefly occurred to Kate that with one of the Osgoods having been helping the Zygons settle in outside of Europe, she hadn't been around the London HQ, meaning that there was a good chance the Rani had no idea there were two of them. That would make for an interesting surprise some day soon.
A shout from downstairs told them that dinner was ready, and Kate realised how much time they must have spent just sitting on Lily's bed talking. They made their way back down to the dining room where three plates of steaming curry lay waiting for them.
The smell made Kate's mouth water and she remembered how much she had missed Henry's cooking. Her own life consisted of take out (albeit the high quality kind) due to staying late at the office or whatever strange protein came out of the food machine in the Rani's TARDIS.
Lily sat at the head of the table, leaving Kate and Henry no choice but to sit opposite each other, though the latter first stopped to grab two wine glasses and a bottle of Merlot. He brought them to the table even though all three places were already set with full glasses of water.
Henry set a glass down in front of Kate and filled it without even asking her if she wanted any. It was impossible for her to tell if it was him being rude or just that he knew her so well that he didn't have to ask to know that she'd be glad of it.
"Thank you," she said all the same, giving him a small smile that he did not return.
"Don't mention it," he replied.
"Toast?" Lily asked, lifting her water glass until they lifted their wine ones. "To family."
Kate and Henry echoed her sentiment, pointedly avoiding each other's gaze and keeping their focus on their daughter instead. Both of them took overly large gulps of the wine when it came to drinking for the sake of completing the toast.
"It really is so good to see you," Lily told her as they all got stuck into the food.
"Well, thank you for having me," Kate said, smiling at her but using her eyes to make it clear that she was talking to Henry, "I'm so sorry it took me this long. My job-"
"We know," Henry said shortly.
Even if it was founded in good reason, Henry's bitterness towards her occupation still stung. Kate swallowed and took another, smaller, gulp of wine. "How has yours been, Henry? Are Americans better or worse to deal with than us when they're ill?"
To her surprise, Henry's lips actually twitched. "Worse, of course. Thankfully, most of the ones I deal with are knocked out."
"Sociable as ever, I see," she couldn't help saying, but thankfully he didn't seem to take offense at the comment, and when Lily laughed at it he even smiled.
"No being mean to the introvert, Mum," their daughter said, "It's not his fault."
"Never said it was."
Lily's phone, which was next to her plate, pinged. Henry, without so much as blinking, picked it up and slid it across the table until it stopped near the edge of the other side.
"Dad!"
"You're never allowed your phone at the table, I've no idea why you think it would be different with your mother here," he said mildly, "You should be talking to her, not that boy."
"I am talking to her!"
Kate, who had ended up accidentally staring at Henry after his vague endorsement of her, finally picked up on the rest of the sentence. "Hold on, boy?" She asked, turning to Lily who had gone an appropriate shade of pink.
"Yeah, so?" The younger blonde muttered, shoveling more curry in her mouth.
Kate glanced at Henry and lifted an eyebrow. "Boyfriend?"
"Getting to look that way," he replied, sounding very much like he'd rather think of anything else, "At least he doesn't wear his trousers so low you can see his pants like most of his generation."
"You've met him once," Lily said, glaring at him.
"But he's - he's nice?" Kate asked, as pleasantly as she could so as to keep the conversation light.
Lily gave her a smile. "Yeah. He is. But it's really nothing set in stone at the moment, so I'd rather we didn't...you know."
"I completely understand. You just have to remember that I last saw you when you were fifteen. Thinking about you and boys is just a bit to take in." Or whoever she happened to be interested in, Kate mentally corrected, after considering that given her current romantic life she really needed to discard a heteronormative viewpoint.
"Yeah, well as it is, I'm on the rarer side of my peer group for taking this long to go anywhere near them," Lily said, "I am eighteen."
"And you'll never know how glad I am that you've not rushed into such things," Henry told her with a tiny smile, "For your sake as much as mine."
Lily chuckled. "Thanks, Dad." Then her expression turned sly. "So, Mum, what about you? Boyfriend?"
Kate and Henry simultaneously choked on their wine and the former only just managed to not let any of it get on her pale blouse. "Lily!"
"What?"
"Do you really think this is the best time to ask me something like that?" Kate couldn't help looking at Henry, who thankfully looked as uncomfortable as she felt at the thought of her sharing details of her new personal life.
"It doesn't have to be a big deal, you're adults who have been separated for like three and a half years," Lily said, rolling her eyes, "Dad's been on some dates, I bet you have too, it's fine."
Kate was all too aware of Henry's eyes - as potent as ever in their intensity - on her. "My job makes it incredibly difficult to have the time to meet people outside of it, Lily," she said, shaking her head and trying to act as casual as possible, "So to answer your question, no. I don't have a boyfriend."
Lily shrugged. "Fair enough. If it helps, Dad's not had much luck either."
"Lily," Henry muttered, glaring at her. It wasn't anger so much as annoyance, which Kate could tell from the embarrassed flush in his cheeks.
"Sorry." Lily went back to her food, with the look of someone who knew that they were daddy's little girl and had no worries at all about being in trouble.
"So, those metal men that were around a few weeks ago," Henry began after a brief silence, "Was that one of your gigs?" His voice was tentative, with a sort of forced calm. But there was also a hint of genuine curiosity.
"Um, yes, we were doing our best to neutralise the threat," she answered, frowning and taking great care with her words, "In the end our top operative and a couple of his associates were able to do so."
"Then what were you doing while they were doing that?"
Kate hesitated. "Well, I was a bit...unconscious...towards the end of it all, actually." When they gave her questioning looks, she coughed awkwardly. "The person behind it all had sort of...thrown me out of a plane."
"What?!"
While they both stared at her with wide eyes and slightly gaping mouths and no small amount of concern, she just took another large gulp of wine. And then took the bottle to pour herself some more.
"But it's fine, I was rescued, and here I am, safe and sound," she said quickly. When Henry continued to look at her with sheer disbelief, she rolled her eyes. "Look, you asked."
"You're in danger a lot, aren't you?" Lily asked quietly.
"Yes," Kate answered truthfully, "But I have a lot of protection when I need it. And I'm perfectly capable of handling myself. I'm my father's daughter."
Lily smiled at the mention of her grandfather. "I miss him."
"Yeah, me too."
A flash of memory went through Kate's mind. Falling so quickly that she couldn't even scream, being sure she was about to die, before she hit something solid and was flying through the sky of a cyberman. She could still remember how her heart had stopped when the metallic voice had called her Tiger.
She bit her lip and decided to get back to eating her food for a while, but she could feel Lily and Henry's eyes on her before they started making conversation of their own. She was content to just listen for a while.
Henry inquired about Lily's homework, more specific questions that Kate could never have known to ask. But in the midst of answering them, Lily made sure to stop and describe each teacher and her opinions of them for Kate's benefit, making sure she was included.
Kate was hit with a very sudden wave of extra affection for her daughter, overwhelming enough that she nearly teared up. She had missed her so much, and had missed some of her most formative years, the transformation from girl to young woman…
"Mum?"
Kate snapped from her thoughts. "Yes, darling?"
"You were staring at me funny," Lily said, looking worried.
"Sorry, Lily," she said, giving her a small smile, "I was just thinking about how much I've missed you. I really am sorry, for everything."
"It's okay, Mum. Really." Lily grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. "I've really missed you too, and if school hadn't kept me so busy I'd have been in contact way more."
"Yes, isn't it something absurd like six hours a night?"
Lily had a face. "Something like that. It's ridiculous, but I don't know what I expected from this mental country."
They had a good time slagging America off for the next half an hour or so while they finished their food, and then came dessert in the form of apple pie. That sparked a conversation about America's lamentable lack of meat pies, which was a true tragedy in the eyes of both Lily and Henry who had shared the favourite dish of steak pie and chips before leaving England.
"Alright, Lily, off to bed, you've got tennis in the morning," Henry eventually said once the dishes were done.
"Oh, Mum, will you come? You can meet my best friend Chelsea, she's my partner for doubles!" Lily said excitedly.
"I'd love to," Kate told her, smiling, and Lily beamed before giving them both hugs goodnight (Henry got a kiss on the cheek as well, which Kate did her best not to be jealous of) and running off to her bedroom.
"Don't be up late texting that boy!" Henry called after her, but got no answer.
"Chelsea," Kate repeated once she was gone, frowning, "What a horrifically American name." For a person, obviously. It was a perfectly adequate place name.
"I know," Henry said, chuckling, "I thought exactly the same when I first heard about the girl. But she's a good kid, and her and Lily are thick as thieves."
"I'm glad to hear it."
There was a long pause.
"I'll call you a taxi."
Henry grabbed the landline and made the quick call. Then he fetched their wine glasses and refilled both of them. Kate took hers with a grateful nod, her other hand on the kitchen counter. He ended up mirroring her from where he stood a few feet away.
"It means a lot to her that you're here," he said, looking at her intently, "So you'd better be intending to keep this contact up. She'll be crushed otherwise."
"Of course I will," Kate said, surprised, "It's been killing me, not seeing her. My job might have been a distraction, but it doesn't replace my daughter."
"Good. That being said, if your coming back into her life in any way puts her in danger from any of your lot-"
"My lot?" Kate echoed, frowning at him. "They're not my lot, I work for the people that keep them at bay, Henry, you know that!"
"Aliens, then," he corrected, seeming reluctant to say the word, "If any monsters from other worlds get near her, because of you, then this is finished."
"Henry-"
"No, I mean it." It was obvious he did. His dark eyes were hard, almost all the warmth in them having left the room when Lily had. "So you be careful, Kate. I'll put her safety first, like I always have."
"You didn't have to move to a different country," Kate snapped, her hurt shifting to the anger she had never truly expressed to him, "If you wanted her out of the way of things, some quiet English town would've done the trick, you didn't have to take her away from me, away from Gordon-"
"Gordon's a grown man who had already gone off to university-"
"He was her best friend, Henry!" She said, horrified. "I know you might not have cared about him the way you cared about Lily, not even close, but I forgave you for that. And up until three years ago, so did he."
"I won't apologise for putting Lily first," Henry said, his expression like stone, "Everything I do is for her, since the moment she was born. And it always will be. And I will never apologise for that."
For a second Kate just stared at him, half of her wanting to be furious. But then her shoulders dropped. "No," she said quietly, holding his gaze, "And despite everything, I wouldn't want you to."
Something in him relaxed. "Good."
There was a silence. It was somehow, strangely, almost comfortable.
"It's good to see you as well, you know," Kate finally said.
He gave her a tight smile. "You too. You look good."
She smiled back and took him in properly for the first time. He'd already gone grey before their divorce, but his receding hairline hadn't crept back any further. He was still quite handsome, especially with a day's worth of light stubble around his chin.
"You too. So, no serious girlfriends around, then?"
It was his eyes, those dark and intense eyes, that had drawn her to him in the first place. They held hers effortlessly even after all this time.
"No. And you really don't have a new man?"
Kate was struck by a vivid memory flash of cool lips kissing her skin and leaving smears of crimson lipstick over her ribs and stomach.
She pushed it away as quickly as possible; partly so that her face gave nothing away and partly because she did actually want to keep her focus on Henry. Henry, who she had once stood with in a church and vowed to be with forever. Henry, whose love for her she had never doubted, not even when it had all fallen apart. (Unlike a certain other person she was refusing to think about.)
"No," she said, telling herself that technically she wasn't lying.
"I missed you." He put the wine glass down without looking away from her. "I've hated myself for it, but I've missed you."
"I missed you too," she breathed, stepping closer and knowing her eyes had to be wide with surprise because he had always been so furious with her that she had never expected this from him. "All the times I wished I could go back and tell her you earlier, to fix it...and then I met a man with a time machine and knew even then I couldn't…"
"A time machine?" He frowned at her.
"Long story," she said softly, "And not one that matters. What's done is done."
"Yes, it is," he murmured, and for the first time Kate realised how close they were standing and wondered if it had been entirely her doing. Her heart started pounding in her chest as old feelings popped up unbidden, memories of kisses and embraces and whispered affections that left her mouth dry.
It was obvious just by looking into his eyes that he was thinking along the same lines. His gaze dropped to her mouth and she subconsciously bit her lip while eyeing his.
They both started to lean in, but before the last couple of inches between them closed, the Rani's face sprung up in Kate's mind and the blonde jerked backwards.
Thankfully, it appeared that Henry had done the same. Though obviously for a reason of his own.
"We've both had too much wine," Kate said awkwardly. It didn't stop her from sculling the rest of the glass which was still in her hand.
"Agreed." Henry's mouth was in a tight line. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't still feel something for you, Kate. But you lied to me for years and that's the one thing I can never forgive."
"I know," she replied, a lump in her throat, "And speaking with honesty now, this isn't what I want anymore. My life is good how it is. Complicated, maybe, but good."
"...I'm glad."
A horn honked from outside.
"Be back here at 8:30 tomorrow and you can come to the tennis with us," Henry suggested cordially, grabbing her jacket off the back of a dining chair and handing it to her.
"Alright, I'll see you then," Kate said, and went to the front door before pausing. "Thank you. For letting me come."
He just nodded in reply, and she stepped out into the cold December air, wishing she'd been wearing a warmer coat. The taxi ride was tedious, but a check of her phone (after setting herself an alarm for the next morning while she remembered) revealed no major catastrophes back in London. Just a few minor incidents that Osgood was keeping her informed about.
Osgood 1: Guess what?
Kate: Do I want to know?
Osgood 1: My sister's back!
A picture came through of the two Osgoods, a selfie of them grinning at the camera, their faces squashed together in their excitement. It made Kate smile, especially after everything that had happened towards the end of her visit to Henry and Lily's home.
The Osgood who had been with her had been quietly pining for her sister's return ever since she had left to help cover the transitioning of the Zygon treaty. Kate had assumed that meant she was the Zygon, but before her departure the two of them had given her so many reasons why the human one might also want to go that it became obvious she was never going to get a straight answer out of them.
Kate still had no idea how she felt about that.
Kate: Happy to hear it. Tell her I'm looking forward to seeing her and having her back. And hearing her report on the Zygon/Human relations, as well as her reason for keeping only the most minimal contact for the last year.
Osgood 2: I told them I was a Zygon. Couldn't be seen contacting UNIT all the time, they might have thought my priorities were in the wrong place.
Kate: And are you?
Osgood 2: Now, that would be telling.
Kate let out a groan of frustration and decided to not bother answering given that the taxi had brought her back to the middle of the city, just around the corner from where the Rani's TARDIS was parked.
She paid the driver and stepped out onto the street, taking a moment to appreciate that she had caught a fortunate lull in the city's infamous near constant rain. When she reached the disguised stone pillar, she found the keyhole and let herself in with the key the Rani had given her a few days after the whole Missy and plane fiasco.
The Rani wasn't in the console room, so Kate continued on through to the corridors, figuring the lab was a good place to start. Now that she was vertical again, she could feel the mild effect of the wine she had consumed that evening and wished she'd eaten more of the curry than she had.
Of all the places she expected to find the Time Lady, the library wasn't one of them. But sure enough, the brunette was there, reclining on a lounge chair with a book in her lap covered in symbols and lettering Kate could never hope to read even in her dreams.
"Hey," Kate said, making the Rani look up from her selected text.
"How was it?"
"Could have been worse. The Lily parts were good."
Kate came to sit next to her, and all that played through her mind was how close she had gotten to Henry in the kitchen, how she had almost done something so obscenely wrong. And then, likely thanks to the wine, it came out.
"I nearly kissed him," she blurted.
The Rani's eyebrow went up, but it was impossible to know what she was thinking as her grey eyes regarded Kate. "I see."
"But it was just the wine, and because I hadn't seen him in so long," Kate continued, half knowing it was the wine making her ramble but not being aware enough to stop it. Her hand came to rest on the other woman's arm. "And I didn't because I honestly don't have any interest in kissing anyone who isn't you."
The Time Lady narrowed her eyes as she looked Kate dead in the eye. "You're vaguely intoxicated, aren't you?"
"As I say, wine," Kate murmured, "Now, are you cross with me or can I kiss you?"
The Rani set the book aside and turned her body to face Kate's more directly, an eyebrow cocked in silent invitation. That was all Kate needed. She slid a hand behind the alien's neck and the other on her face and pulled her in for a firm kiss. The Rani's hands found her waist and yanked her closer, her reciprocation of the kiss quickly becoming what Kate could only consider possessive.
The Rani. Jealous. Even if only a little. Now that was a new one.
Kate's jacket came off. The Rani's silvery shirt was next, with Kate's hands eagerly undoing the buttons while the owner of the shirt was busy grazing her earlobe with her teeth and sending shivers through her body.
"They asked if I had a boyfriend," Kate said as she threw the piece of clothing to the ground, "Part of me wanted to laugh."
"If only they knew," the Rani replied, smirking and leaning back so that Kate could discard her boots and slip off her own stilettos. Once that was done, she pulled the blonde on top of her and focused on getting rid of the rest of their clothing.
Kate's insistent kisses slowed her progress.
"You're certainly interesting with a bit of alcohol in your system," the brunette remarked, managing to get Kate's shirt off her despite her kissing along her jaw and blocking her view quite well.
"What can I say, it really gets the stick out of my arse that I tend to need up there for day to day UNIT bullshit."
The Rani actually laughed at that. "Your human cussing never fails to amuse me."
Kate grinned at her smugly while sliding the Rani's trousers down her legs. "Well then...how does this sound?" She kissed her way up the bare torso before her, eventually bringing her lips to rest at the Rani's ear. At the same time, her fingers slid down between the brunette's thighs, coaxing a moan from her. "I fuck you hard enough that your last regeneration feels it."
The Rani grinned, her eyes dark and amused. "Go on then." She knotted a hand in Kate's hair and brought her lips back to hers, kissing her with new urgency.
Kate didn't think about Henry or Lily for several hours after that.
Oddly enough, I think my two stories involving the Rani are the most explicit things I've published. (Not that that's saying much.)
Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought!
-MayFairy :)
p.s. also what you thought of the DW finale and stuff if you like because WOW!
Guest Review Replies:
Johanna - thanks so much! I'm so glad you think I've got everyone in character, that's definitely my biggest worry in a story like this where what is happening is so different to what we've typically seen of both Kate and the Rani in the show. I hope this chapter didn't disappoint!