Gee:

"Gee, I'm home!" Clara called, coming into the flat with her bundle of marking and a bottle of wine. "Hey, are you burning that candle again? The flat smells amazing."

"Yeah, it's good for giving me ideas." I told her, pausing in what I was doing, painting on a large canvas, to look at her. "It's running low, I'll have to get some more."

She nodded, pouring two glasses of the merlot right away for us, before coming to look at my painting. "That, that is incredible. Is that your old face? The one from before you died, Gee?"

It was my turn to nod, sipping the smooth, fruity drink and enjoying the moment of warmth it gave me. I wasn't supposed to drink, not with my heart tablets, but I never drank more than half a glass a week, really. "I've titled it Kaster, one of my middle names. Galaxy Kaster Vivienne Minerva Pratchett. Galaxy Kaster is a mouthful enough, my two first names. I'm nearly done with it, I'm going to add it to my portfolio to get into that uni course."

"You know that you don't need to get the qualification like that, right? You could have just added that to your fake identity." She pointed out, sitting down next to me on the sofa, which I'd covered in a white sheet to stop getting the oil paints on it. "Why do you feel like you have to prove yourself?"

"Because I don't have the qualification. Or, at least I don't remember ever qualifying back on Gallifrey." I told her, using the back of a paint brush to scratch behind my ear. "I mean, I know that I'm good at art now, but what if I wasn't before? What if I won't always be?"

Clara just laughed at me and shook her head, looking at the detailed painting that I'd spent the better part of a week on, waiting for my sleep pattern to reset after a month of solid nightmares about her, Missy. She was in Lanzarote, and wanted me to go out to her. Not a chance, but I'd not slept since she started to try and influence me. "I think you've always been good. You can regenerate into anything, but some things stay with you. The Doctor, your dad, he's always been a kooky idiot, remember."

I sighed and rested my head on my best friend's shoulder. "You know him better than I, Clara. You go change, I'll get some food ready."

She agreed and I went into the kitchen, forgetting my wine for the time being. I made us some pasta and fish up, both of us on a bit of a health kick as if we did it now, it meant that we couldn't gain loads of weight over Christmas eating chocolate and mince pies. "So, have you picked a uni yet, Gee? You could get into any of them, like, all over the world."

"I'm not going anywhere, I'm going to London Arts. So I can stay here and just ride my bike everywhere." I smiled, passing her a plate as she came out in her pyjamas, ready for the two weeks of fun and Christmasy shenanigans we'd planned. Which was mostly just us getting the marking done, me getting my portfolio finished, and then watching fun films. "That, or the tube when it's too cold."

"I'll miss not having you here all the time, and miss you doing all the washing." She laughed, tucking into her dinner. "But, you were originally only here until we found your name and dad. Which, turned out to be far easier than expected, but, you're now officially normalled enough to merge into society and do as you will."

"Ah, but you're forgetting something. UNIT are still keeping a close eye on me, meaning that I'm supposed to stay with you until such a time that they decide that I am not a threat to society." I laughed with her, knowing that my mind control definitely worried them, even though I'd promised on my honour as the Doctor's only living child, never to use it. "I don't even like killing spiders in the bath!"

Clara was in hysterics now. "And you didn't even know how to use a washing machine when you first got here! The Doctor had to teach you!"

Oh, come on! "I still taught you how to fix your laptop, and when you covered for that maths lesson, you 'borrowed' an image changer from him and I had to cover for you!"

I got a shove for that, but it was definitely worth it before we just curled together on the sofa, two empty bowls of food on the table by my art supplies. "Do you ever think about what it would be like if we'd both gone with him again?" Clara asked softly after a while, falling asleep slowly. "If you'd have remembered?"

"All the time." I replied, yawning as I realised I was actually still covered in grey and silver paint. "I could remember at any time, but I know that the moment I do, poop will hit the fan and I'll put you at risk."

"I'm not as frail as you think, Gee." Clara smiled a bit, taking my hand. "You're my best friend, I stand by your every decision, if you want to remember, that's cool by me."

Giving her hand a warm squeeze, I nodded, before we both fell asleep.

The next day, while Clara enjoyed the first day of the Christmas break, I got up fairly early and grabbed the weeks grocery money, cycling over to the supermarket to have a wander around and get what we needed. I'd gotten there early enough that the croissants were freshly hot out of the ovens and I got them back home fast enough that Clara had just come out of the bathroom. "Hey, you're up. I got Saturday Croissants, and they even had some of your favourite jam."

She smiled at me, looking like she was still in that weak, sleepy stage of waking up as she sat down at the kitchen table with me. "Sounds great, Gee. Um, what time did you get up? Did you manage to sleep alright last night?"

"Yeah, it was a little less than I needed, by a large amount, actually, but I got some sleep." I nodded, making up a pot of English Breakfast for us, then made up the croissants. "How you feeling, you look a little, I dunno, bleh."

"It's the curse of being a teacher. You always get ill just as the school holidays start." She laughed a little, nursing a mug of tea as I just put away the shopping. "What are you going to do while I get through the marking, Gee?"

I shrugged, pausing to drain my second mug of tea for the day, when it was only half 9. "I need to get out and do some drawing of real things, on Earth, anyway. Something tells me that all my drawings of the Dragon, and the Skovox, and Missy, they're not things that they'd believe to be real"

Clara nodded a little, sniffing. "Wrap up warm though, it's freezing in here, let alone out there."

That made me pause, looking at her for a moment before checking the thermostat. It was a toasty 21 degrees in here. "Back to bed when you've finished that, Clara. You're definitely not well, and you're not wasting your two weeks off being ill."

My best friend held up her hands in surrender, her nose running before she turned to the side to cough. "Fine, fine, you are so your fathers daughter."

"And don't you know it, Miss Oswald. I'll be fine outside, I'm just going to ride my bike to the park and sketch the swings, stuff like that." I told her with a smile, tucking my white hair behind my ears. It had been a spur of the moment thing, dying it back to the white, but I'd done it because I preferred remembering when I hadn't known a thing about who I was, that I had a power that I could barely keep in check and I had a woman who was obsessed with using me to get at my father. It was simpler to pretend. "Eat, then get to bed. I'll be fine, I promise."

She did and headed back to bed, before I packed up my bag with the art supplies and paper, before peddling down towards the park. Not the nearest park, as that one still held horrific memories for me, but one at the other end of London, with a beautiful tree to sit under and a large pond frozen over. Perfect for drawing.

So I plugged myself into my phone, listening to an audiobook as I didn't have the concentration to read it myself, and started to draw the pond with the reeds sticking up out of the ice and the shadows across it with the wintery sun.

"You're getting good at that."

"Shut up, Missy." I told the voice in my head, muttering it aloud so I saw a puff of white smoke come from my breath, the cold not bothering me but I knew that it wasn't doing me any good in the long run. "I want nothing to do with you, you know that."

She laughed a little, making me close my eyes and she allowed me through, meaning I was in the same place that she was, sitting before her in Lanzarote. "Is that why you haven't told Clara that I'm still alive, little universe?"

I glared at her. "My name may have been Galaxy, but I am not your universe. Tell me what you want to say, then leave me be."

Her eyebrows rose, but she did just that. "Have you heard from him?"

"He posted a Christmas card, about 3 weeks early, but he gave me access to a bank account with near unlimited funds about a week ago." I shrugged. "He's my father, he's doing what fathers do and respecting my choices and keeping his distance for a while. Would be nice if you did the same."

"I'm not your father, dear, I'm more complicated than that." Missy replied stiffly. "I've not heard from him in a while, I was just wondering if you had. Will you let me know if he comes to see you?"

"Why would I do that, Missy?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "You tried to kill all of us."

Her brow furrowed, looking perplexed about that. "Not you. Never you."

That was something that was actually true. Far as I was aware, she tried to save me, and even before, she'd not hurt me, I'd done it to myself to get away from her. There was no concrete evidence that Missy had ever tried to hurt me. "Why not me, Missy? Dad is your best friend, was, your best friend, yet you let him fall from a burning plane, you tried to leave him to the Cybermen, you made, the Cybermen to blackmail both of us into waging war across the universe to become dictators. So why have you never tried to hurt me?"

Missy merely shrugged with that expression not budging. "You'll have to remember and find out for yourself. I've already broken a binding promise once, I'm not going to make that mistake again, it hurts. You want to know the truth, you have to remember, Galaxy."

I hadn't taken the name Galaxy Kaster. "The minute I remember, you're going to have stronger control over me. For all I know, you've set it up to control my mind, body and soul, why should I trust that device?"

"We both know that you've already run every check imaginable on it, dear, and so did the Doctor the moment he knew it existed. He doesn't want you to remember."

I frowned at her then, leaning forward in my chair. "What do you mean, he doesn't want me to remember?"

Another shrug, a sly smile playing on her lips. "He didn't exactly fight for you to remember how good a father he was to you. Do you not know why?"

"He's already admitted to me that there were times he wasn't a good man, or a good father, but he's trying his best now. Are you done? Did you just want to see if I knew where my dad was?" I asked her, getting up from my chair. "Because I'm trying to get my portfolio done for uni by Christmas."

"Go if you want. You know how to reach me if you have more questions."

Gritting my teeth, I let go of the cord holding me there and I snapped back to my body, jerking slightly against the tree. Just as a policeman came towards me. "You alright there, love? Bit cold to be napping out here."

To which I nodded, seeing that somehow I'd finished my drawing while talking to Missy. "Sorry, yeah, um. I was drawing, must have dozed."

"You uni students. Best head home now, it's getting dark and your parents will be missing you."

If only, the Doctor was probably pretty far out, not keeping an eye on me at all. Besides, he found Gallifrey, he'd gone to make it a good place again. "Thanks. I will." I smiled at the officer, before packing up my things and got on my bike, cycling back up towards the flat.

Only suddenly something hit into the side of me, hitting me so hard that everything blacked out.

When I came too again, I was on a stretcher, being wheeled through a hospital with something over my mouth, listening to the people around me talk. "Drunk driver hit her, went right into the side of her bike. ID at the scene says her name is Georgia Pratchett, blood type is impossibly rare, which isn't good as she's losing a lot from her right side where a paintbrush is impaled."

"W, w, wha-"

They realised I was awake then, looking at me as I was wheeled into an OR. "Just relax. You need to stay calm, Galaxy. If you can, tell me where hurts, OK? Where hurts?"

"C, c, c, cla, Clara..." I muttered, tears running down my face as suddenly I felt all of my body screaming at me, pain making me just want it to end. "C, c, Clara..."

"Clara? Is she your girlfriend, your sister? Check her records for a Clara, see if we can get some next of kin in while we try and stop the bleeding." The woman told her colleagues, before my necklace was taken off and my shirt cut up the middle for her to gain access. "Get an anaesthetic, we can't keep her in this much pain."

I just blacked out instead, briefly coming too when I heard a terrified Clara arguing with some doctors, before I was just lying in a bed, able to hear her next to me. "This is wrong. Oh, God, Gee, this is so, so wrong... Can you hear me? They said that you should be able to, you're only just out of waking up. Georgia, it's me, it's Clara. Please, please wake up, please..."

My body fought to open my eyes, but I was just so, so tired at that all I managed to do was squeeze her hand, making her gasp a little. "Gee? Gee, please, was that you? Do it again if that was you."

It hurt, but I squeezed her hand again, making her sob in relief. "Oh, thank God, Georgia... I was so scared I'd have to call him and say that I let you go out, that I wasn't watching you... Just sleep now, there's... You need to be strong for when you wake up. I'll be here, Gee."

So I slept for a while, not sure how long, but when I came to again, now able to open my eyes, Clara wasn't by my side. And as I was now able to move, I got up and unplugged myself from machines and started to wander around, leaning on my IV stand for support. "Clara?"

"Georgia!" She cried, running out of an office room when she heard her name. "No, you can't be up right now, you've just had an accident-"

"I'm fine, Clara, don't make a fucking fuss." Now we both paused as I realised my voice was completely different and my attitude towards swearing had completely changed. "What the fuck has happened? I couldn't even say shit earlier and now I'm swearing like a fucking sailor."

This seemed to make her laugh a little, though she still looked ill and she'd obviously been crying. And she also looked very small as the laugh just broke down into more sobs. "Gee... You were the victim of a drunk driver, he smacked into the side of your bike and you had everything in your bag get trashed. Your paintbrush punctured your right lung, but you've got part of a second heart there and it triggered a regeneration."

I stared at her as two nurses came and started to move me into a wheelchair and then back towards the room I had just come from. "Clara, what are you talking about? No, I just got up, don't make me go back to bed!"

"Miss Pratchett, just let them, please." Kate told me, coming out of the office Clara had been in. "You've had a massive shock and we're handling it, given your recent regeneration. It's going to take some time before you can leave the hospital again."

"This is going to end in tears. None of them mine." I snapped as I got moved forcibly back into the bed. "Kate, I am not a threat, nor have I ever been a threat! Please, please tell me that I didn't miss my first Christmas?"

My best friend shook her head, quickly holding me down as I tried to get up again. "No, no, it's still a few days away, Gee. It's nothing to do with you, it's more to do with the fact that you've just had an identity made and you've literally just changed your face. It's going to take time to change it all around to fit your face and get the nurses and doctors working with you to sign some waivers. Plus, your heart is struggling, Kate wants to monitor it."

"My heart is always like this, I hate hospitals!" I told her, finding it weird that I was now speaking in an English accent, and my white hair was definitely more blonde, but I liked it. Needed to be dip dyed blue though, that was a must. "Can I at least be handed a mirror, please?"

So I was handed one by Kate, who wasn't overly sympathetic looking about my predicament, letting me see my face. It was still fairly wide, but I had a lot more meat on me this time in a way I really liked because I was stronger. My eyes were darker, more a night sky blue, which went well because my skin was darker too and my hair was a nice platinum blonde that fell straight around my face.

Honestly? I looked far better than I had before, no matter what anyone said. "It's good, huh? I like my eyebrows, they're quite thin and delicate."

"You look amazing, Gee." Clara agreed, glancing at Kate who was hooking me back up to the heart rate monitors. "Look, you have to stay here at least until boxing day. I can't stay overnight, but I'll be here all day every day, even Christmas. Promise."

Well, this sucked balls. "Fine, but we are not calling my dad. That is just not worth the aggro when he turns up and goes all, all raar I'm a Scotsman on the guy who hit me." And I even added in the angry motion with my hands, before looking at them. "OK, well, that's going to take some getting used to."

I got a massive hug for my troubles then, Clara just holding me tight. "He's going to find out sooner or later, but fine. Oh, Gee..."

"Madam? Madam! Stop!" I told her, hearing her crying again. "No tears! Go home, mush! I'm going to go mad without my art book. Oh, shit! My portfolio! I had an amazing still life, it took me all day!"

Kate now showed me something, the drawing of the pond in charcoal, but it had blood splatters along it in a way that looked like red paint. It looked good, like a horror scene. "Something tells me that it's still goings to make the cut. Do you promise to stay still and good?"

In response, I just offered them both my pinkies. Some things would never change.