Bad Wolf stepped out of her TARDIS into a dark hall that smelled faintly of dust and stale air. She wrinkled her nose. "Jack, what the hell were you thinking?" She muttered, taking in the orphanage with an air of disdain.
"Eeny meeny miny that one," she muttered, pointing at the different halls branching out from her location before choosing one at random. She wandered down the deserted hall, checking the equally empty rooms, and started wondering if she'd gotten the year right. She was supposed to be checking up on baby Melody, but this place looked like it hadn't seen any children, or any other living creature, for years. There were a few abandoned toys, and the walls were covered in phrases such as "Get out" or "Leave me." Bad Wolf was starting to feel like she was in a horror movie.
The hall came out near a staircase, and Bad Wolf paused, hearing voices. She surreptitiously looked down onto the staircase, and let out a muffled curse in Galifreyan when she saw a familiar head of red hair. She'd only seen Amy once, but she would recognize that hair and that accent anywhere.
Bad Wolf pulled back, and turned to go back down the hall she'd come from; she had to find Melody before Amy did. She couldn't handle another paradox. She ran past her red door, and started checking rooms again. She was about to push open another door when something on her arm caught her eye.
Tallies. There were fifteen of them.
She let out another curse, in Silurian this time. So, not only was Amy here, but the Silence were here as well. How long had they been here? Had they found Melody yet? They must have…but why were they keeping her here?
Bad Wolf doubled her speed, barely glancing in each room before moving on to the next. She was going so fast, she had to back track when she finally found a room with a child in it. Bad Wolf came in quietly; the girl was sleeping, and looked feverish. Bad Wolf frowned as she looked the blonde girl over; she looked to be about seven, older than Melody at any rate. She glanced around the room, stopping when her eyes caught sight of a familiar face in one of the pictures. Bad Wolf lifted the picture, eyes widening as she took in the sight of Amy Pond holding Melody.
"Woops," she muttered, putting the picture back and hurrying over to the sleeping Melody. Turns out she had gotten the year wrong in one sense, but very right in another. She'd shown up in just enough time to save Melody from both the Silence and her mother.
"Come here, little one," Bad Wolf murmured, lifting the small girl. Melody groaned in her sleep, but didn't wake up. Bad Wolf frowned, but hurried down the hallway. She was almost to the TARDIS when she heard the sound of someone else coming. She quickly slipped into one of the rooms, holding her breath and waiting for the footsteps to pass; that must have been Amy.
Bad Wolf waited a moment longer, then slipped out of the room, and ran the last few meters to her TARDIS.
"Who're you?" The little girl in her arms asked weakly.
Bad Wolf smiled down at the girl. "Call me your fairy godmother. No, wait, don't. Too Cinderella. Call me…Aunt Lupine," she responded gently.
Melody frowned, but didn't question her further, distracted by a particularly nasty sounding coughing fit.
Bad Wolf frowned, and hurried down to the med bay. "I'll be right back, okay? I just need to get us somewhere safe, and then I'll be right back. Stay here," she said as she hooked Melody up to a few machines. Melody nodded, and Bad Wolf got the distinct impression that she couldn't leave if she tried.
Hurrying back to the control room, Bad Wolf sent the TARDIS into space, where she knew they would be safe for a while. She practically ran back to the med bay, and began reading over Melody's vitals. 'She's dying' Bad Wolf realized with a sinking feeling.
"Where are we?" the little girl asked in a hoarse whisper.
"We're in my…" Bad Wolf floundered for a moment, "castle. Sure, let's go with that. It's a magic castle that can go anywhere. How long have you been ill?"
"A few weeks…Dr. Renfrew says it's pne—pneomn—pneumonia," the girl frowned as she struggled with the difficult word.
"Why didn't he take you to a hospital?" Bad Wolf tried to keep the anger out of her voice as she rummaged around for something that would heal the sick child.
"He said they wouldn't let him. But he didn't remember who they were…I don't, either…" Melody trailed off, and started hacking again, her small body convulsing with the force of her coughs.
Bad Wolf gave up her search to help the girl sit up, in hopes that it would clear her airways a bit and allow her to breathe. She rubbed Melody's back soothingly, and tried to figure out why the Silence wouldn't want Melody cured…did they want her to die?!
"Aunt Lupine…I feel weird…" Melody whispered, fear in her voice. Bad Wolf looked down at the girl, and couldn't stop her gasp. Melody's skin was starting glow gold, just like the Doctor's before he regenerated.
"But…how…?" Bad Wolf yelped. She carefully lay the girl down, and moved around in front of her. "Okay, Melody, I need you to be brave for me now. You're going to change, and it's probably not going to feel all that great, but you'll be all better when it's over, okay?" She said urgently.
"What's happening to me?" Melody cried as the golden glow intensified.
"It's all going to be alright, I promise. I'll be here the whole time," Bad Wolf promised. She could see how little that did to ease Melody's worries, but it was too late for her to come up with anything else. Light poured from Melody's limbs, and Bad Wolf covered her eyes as she waited for it to finish.
The crying of a baby let Bad Wolf know it was done, and she lowered her hand to see a small, dark skinned baby crying in the spot where Melody had just been. "Oh, that's unfortunate," Bad Wolf murmured, hurrying forward and scooping up baby Melody into her arms. She shushed her and bounced her, trying to get her to calm down. "You know, this is closer to the size I remember you being," she said conversationally, then realized she was talking to a baby. "Right."
She eventually got Melody to go to sleep, and put her in a crib that the TARDIS provided. "How on Earth did you manage that, kid?" She murmured to herself as she studied the sleeping child. So far as she was aware, both Amy and Rory were human, and she somehow doubted Amy had had an affair with the Doctor.
If she had, Bad Wolf would kill her.
So how was Melody able to regenerate?
And what in the hell was she going to do with a maybe half Time Lord baby?
Bad Wolf went back out into the control room, and paced, chewing on her lip as she thought it over. Melody deserved as normal a childhood as possible and she definitely wasn't going to get it with Bad Wolf. But where could she take Melody where she would be safe and impossible to find?
Oh…of course… "Hide her in plain sight!" She trumpeted in triumph. "What year was he born, what year was he born…" she muttered, before letting out an "Ah hah!" and entering the date. "Town. What was the town called. L something. Loot. Lead. Ledworth!" She muttered, typing furiously before throwing the lever that would make the TARDIS materialize in Rory's hometown. "Well Rory, consider this my Christmas, birthday, and wedding present to you. Forever!" She exclaimed to the empty TARDIS before going to collect Melody.
She wrapped her up carefully, and pinned a small white card to the blanket that bore Melody's name (her first name only) as well as her date of birth (with a year that was closer to the current one, rather than the extremely far into the future one that was more accurate). She dropped her off outside of the hospital, and waited until she saw someone take her inside. Then she walked into the hospital, and listened as the nurses cooed over Melody, and spoke of adoption options. Bad Wolf smiled to herself, before slipping out of the hospital again.
Back into the TARDIS, she jumped forward about four years, and went to the local park. She sat there every day for three days until she heard a parent calling "Melody!" Bad Wolf turned towards the voice, and smiled as she saw a young, healthy girl running around the playground. She was playing with a small red-haired girl, and Bad Wolf chuckled. Melody would make friends with her mother.
She left the park and returned to her TARDIS. Her hands hesitated over the controls, before she jumped forward another ten years. She needed to explain to Melody some things, before the girl accidentally regenerated.
Bad Wolf sat on a bench across from the only school in the small town, which taught both primary and secondary school. She was too late to catch Melody going to school, and too early for her to be out yet, but she didn't mind waiting.
It wasn't as if she didn't have time to spare.
She'd only been there about an hour, when she saw someone climb over the fence, and start off down the sidewalk. Bad Wolf frowned. She was about the right age…and she sort of looked like the four-year-old…maybe?
"Melody!" She called, and watched as the girl spun around, her eyes wide. Bad Wolf smiled; she knew that look. It was the look of someone afraid they'd been caught cutting school. Bad Wolf jogged over to the girl, who narrowed her eyes at her approach.
"Listen lady, I don't know how you know me, but I'm…" Melody trailed off, looking at Bad Wolf in confusion. "I know you. How do I know you?" She muttered.
"Don't suppose Aunt Lupine rings any bells?" Bad Wolf asked, raising an eyebrow.
Melody's eyes widened. "You're real!" She yelped.
"'Course!" Bad Wolf said with a grin.
"I thought I was crazy…or that it was all a dream…but you're real…" Melody murmured, then glared at Bad Wolf. "What did you do to me?" She demanded angrily.
Bad Wolf raised an eyebrow. "'Scuse me?"
"One minute I'm seven, an' sick, an' an' dying, then there's all this gold light, an' then everything gets all foggy, but I'm different. What did you do to me?!" Melody sounds a bit hysterical now.
Bad Wolf holds her hands up in surrender. "It wasn't me, I promise. That was…Oh, this is going to be hard to explain," she rubs a hand over her face, "um. Okay. You're different, Melody—"
"Mels," Melody inttrupted.
"Sorry?" Bad Wolf asks, confused.
"Mels, I go by Mels," Mels glared at her.
"Um. Right. Okay. Mels. Right. As I was saying, you're different. The golden light you remember? That's natural. For you, anyway. If you come with me for a moment, I can explain better," Bad Wolf said, exasperated with her own inability to explain alien heritage to a teenager.
"An' why the bloody hell would I go with some strange woman I've never met?" Mels snapped.
Bad Wolf frowned. "Language!" She scolded. Mels scoffed and Bad Wolf sighed. "Right, right, okay. Time Lords, what's different about Time Lords?" She muttered to herself, causing Mels to raise an eyebrow. "Two hearts! No, no, she was univascular before…respiratory bypass?" Bad Wolf paused to look Mels over. "Probably not; if she didn't get the extra heart…" she trailed off, and realized Mels was looking at her like she was a nutter. "I'm talking out loud, aren't I?" She asked. Mels nodded. "Right. Look, I can prove everything I'm saying if you come with me. It's only down the road," she said loudly, interrupting Mels protests, "and all you'd have to do is look through a door. C'mon…don't you want to know what happened all those years ago?" She grinned, hoping to entice the girl's curiosity.
Mels glared at her for a moment before sighing. "Fine. But I'm telling you, try anything weird, and I'm outta there. Got it?" She snapped.
Bad Wolf smiled crookedly; she got the feeling Mels had more of her mother in her than her father. "Got it. C'mon then!" She said cheerfully, and led the way to where she'd parked the TARDIS. She unlocked the door, and pushed it inside. "Have a look, then," she said, watching Mels carefully.
Mels glared at her, but Bad Wolf could tell she felt uneasy. Mels looked inside, and frowned. She backed away to look through the window the door was attached to; it was a butcher's shop. She went back to the door. "How-?"
"She's called a TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. She's my ship, and this is where you regenerated fourteen years ago," Bad Wolf explained gently.
Mels hesitantly stepped inside, looking around in awe. "Are you an alien?" She asked, turning to face Bad Wolf abruptly.
Bad Wolf shrugged. "Kinda. But then, so are you," she explained, shutting the door and sitting on the jump seat.
"Whatdaya mean I'm an alien?" Mels demanded, the glare that Bad Wolf was starting to realize was her everyday look firmly in place.
"So far as I can tell, you're half Time Lord. Don't quite know how you managed that, since I know your parents, and neither one is a Time Lord," Bad Wolf frowned, still confused.
"You know my parents?" Mels asked eagerly, stepping closer. Bad Wolf noted idly that her glare had disappeared for the first time.
"Yeah, I do. I'll tell you about them when you're a bit more…caught up on everything," she said with a smile. Mels glare came back; Bad Wolf chuckled, then sobered. "Your history is unusually long for someone so young, little one. And so full of pain…" the last part was whispered, and Bad Wolf's eyes unfocused for a moment before she shook herself and returned her gaze to Mels. "I can tell you everything now, or, if you don't think you're ready, I can wait," she said seriously.
Mels opened her mouth to answer, but Bad Wolf cut her off. "Just remember: some things can't be unlearned."
Mels paused. "Tell me what I am, and then I'll decide if I want to know more," she said eventually, moving to sit on the ground across from Bad Wolf.
Bad Wolf smiled. "Wise choice. Like I said, you're half Time Lord, which means…" Bad Wolf proceeded to tell her about regeneration and everything that that entailed. After a series of questions, she realized that Mels could also sense timelines, though only faintly. It was a new ability, though, so Bad Wolf was pretty sure it would get stronger. They talked for hours, Mels asking questions and Bad Wolf answering as best she could. In the end, Mels decided she wasn't ready to know who her parents were, or the conditions surrounding her birth.
"It's a lot to take in as it is, y'know?" She asked, standing near the door.
Bad Wolf nodded. "I know. I'll pop back in and check on you every so often; make sure you're staying out of trouble and going to school," she fixed her best stern parent look on her face there, "and I'll answer your questions along the way. Just let me know when you're ready for everything."
Mels nodded. "'Kay," she hesitated, then "Do I really have to call you Aunt Lupine? It's a weird name. And you're not my aunt," her eyes widened, "are you?"
Bad Wolf laughed. "No, kid, I'm not your aunt. Though, I suppose it is time for a new name…how about…Accalia?" She suggested.
Mels stared at her blankly. "Because that's more normal. I'll call you Cali," she said, sounding resigned.
Accalia snorted. "Whatever works for you, kid," she said, shaking her head as she followed Mels out. "I'll be around, kay?" She waited until Mels nodded, then went back into her TARDIS.
Fluff! And Filler! Just a nice light chapter after all the hooplah. The next chapter will probably be another of these, and then back to the main plot, I promise.
Accalia can now be added to the list of the many names of Rose Tyler. I picked it because (according to my maybe-reliable internet source) it's the name of the wolf that replaced Larentia as the care-taker of Remus and Romulus, founders of Rome. So I thought it kinda worked on a couple of levels. That, and I don't like calling her Bad Wolf unless she's pissed and crazy. Well, crazier than she is currently.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or followed! You guys are fantastic, and those emails are the highlight of my day!
Until next time!