The Blonde Girl
By Lumendea
Chapter Twenty-One: Eve: Friendships Formed
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, Torchwood or the Sarah Jane Adventures because if I did this would probably be canon.
….
Rose hadn't been exactly sure what to tell Sharon and Shareen when she saw them the next day at school. She briefly considered writing down a script for herself to deliver the news that she had made a new friend; a friend that just happened to be red, telepathic, from a different planet and capable of reading timelines. That idea was quickly thrown out the window. Instead, she settled on wrangling her two closest friends and taking them over to a quiet corner during their break. It wasn't elegant or anything, but her whispered explanation at lunch seemed to communicate what had happened since her friends went through the rest of the day in stunned silence.
Rose had nearly forgotten that her two friends had never actually met the Doctor and therefore never come into contact with a 'good' alien on Earth, at least as far as they were aware. They'd briefly encountered Spellman in the shape of a clown who had captured them and faced off against an alien manifestation of the Mona Lisa. But they'd never actually met an alien properly. Again, at least not as far as they were concerned. Given the Doctor's humanoid appearance and Eve's fairly humanoid appearance except for being red and her little horns, Rose was fairly certain that other aliens did probably live on Earth. Personally, the idea didn't bother her at all, and she found it a bit amusing to wonder just who in the news might be an alien. It was all a bit Star Trek, what with aliens apparently looking a lot of like humans. It made Rose wonder why evolution had favoured such a similar body structure or if there was some force behind it.
In the end, Rose had suggested that after school they could slip over to meet Eve for tea before they revised for exams. They both agreed, still slightly stunned and Shareen muttered something about Rose being some kind of alien magnet that Rose chose to ignore. After school, they gathered their things and marched to the proper bus stop for a quick trip to Victoria. Sharon and Shareen were finally regaining their nerves and use of their vocal cords by the time they reached the right area.
"So, Eve is red?" Sharon asked.
They were walking down Thirlby Road towards the front steps of the Wallace house. Sharon looked nervously over her shoulder back towards the busy area as the traffic got lighter and lighter.
"For the seventh time, Sharon, yes she's red," Rose replied. She shook her head and climbed the stairs, pushing open the unlocked door. "Come on."
"Really red, though," Sharon repeated. "Like stop signal red."
"Yes, and your skin colour is much darker than mine," Rose said. "Doesn't matter does it?"
"Well I'm of African descent, which is not the same as being from a different planet," Sharon argued with a huff. Still, she had the good grace to look thoughtful about the point.
"No," Rose agreed with a soft sigh. "It isn't the same, but I imagine it is about how the ethnic groups of Earth felt the first time they saw each other. She's nice; I'm sure you'll like her. Don't think of her so much as an alien; just think of her as a girl our age from a very far off land."
"Okay," Sharon and Shareen agreed at the same time. They glanced at each other and giggled nervously while Rose just smiled.
Rose led them into the corridor. Both girls were suitably impressed by the size of the place. A nervous itch was developing in the back of Rose's neck. She was nervous and excited all at once to see Eve again and reassure herself it hadn't all been a dream. After giving her friends a moment, Rose closed and locked the front door. Then she nodded towards the lift.
Following Rose into the lift, Shareen and Sharon kept glancing at each other, their nervous giggles dying down a bit. Rose smirked slightly at their behaviour; it was humorous to think about how at ease she already was with Eve and the idea of having an alien being one of her closest friends. As strange as it sounded Eve now probably knew her better than anyone in the world. When the lift opened onto Eve's bedroom floor, her two friends made small sounds of approval at the vivid walls. Their reactions weren't too different from Rose's as they took in the various scenes and fantastical images in brilliant colours.
"I bet you'd love to do this," Shareen said. She knelt to get a better look at a group of seemingly alien animals painted on a landscape area. "Love to have long stretches of walls that were all yours to paint."
"It would be fun," Rose conceded with a wistful smile. It would be nice, but the flat just didn't allow for that. It had been hard enough to get permission to paint her bedroom. "Come on Eve's waiting this way. She favours the corner room at the end of the hall because it has a good view of the cathedral tower."
"Is she talking to you in your mind?" Sharon asked in a whisper.
"At the moment no, a second ago yes," Rose informed her, speaking in her normal volume. She gave Sharon and Shareen a reassuring smile. "Don't worry I told her that you two probably wouldn't be comfortable with that," she assured them quickly.
"Oh.. thanks," Shareen replied awkwardly as they reached Eve's door.
Knocking politely, Rose smiled when the door opened a moment later. Eve was standing in the doorway with a huge, but nervous smile as she looked at Sharon and Shareen. At least they were alone in being worried about this meeting. Rose's smile widened.
"Hello, Sharon," Eve told Sharon with a polite nod before she turned and greeted Shareen, "Hello Shareen. Please come in. I have tea waiting for us." Eve stepped back and opened the door wider. "Thank you for coming."
"Pleased to meet you, Eve," Sharon said carefully, holding out her hand. Eve shook it gently with a smile. "Rose has told us quite a bit about you of course," Sharon added.
"Good things I'm sure," Eve teased with a glance at Rose.
Shaking her head, Rose bit back a laugh and led the way into the room. It seemed brighter today, and she turned back to her now three friends still lingering by the doorway.
"Of course, Eve," Rose replied as she sat down at the table. "So all you three going to stand there all afternoon or do I need to share the biscuits?"
All three jumped a little at the reminder they were still in the doorway. Eve gave Sharon and Shareen another smile and gestured them to the table. Rose watched her friends with amusement as they finally sat down at the table. This time Eve let them make their tea to their preferences instead of peeking into their minds.
Rose spent the afternoon guiding the conversations carefully as her two human friends adjusted to her nonhuman one. They talked about school, Sharon and Shareen's family and Rose gave Eve a warning look as the alien girl glimpsed at their timelines for information. Eve recognised the warning for what it was and backed off the subject quickly. Rose didn't blame Eve for her species nature of course, but seeing the future was against the human species nature. Glancing over at the door, Rose noticed Harry looking into the room. He smiled at her, and Rose carefully stood and excused herself.
"Hello, Mr. Wallace," Rose greeted him when she joined him in the hallway.
"Hello, Rose, you may call me Harry," he urged her. "In fact, I insist on it!"
"Alright then, Harry," Rose agreed with a smile. "How are you?"
"I am well, Rose," Harry glanced back at Eve with the other two girls. The topic had shifted to boys making Harry look a bit horrified. Rose chuckled. "She looks so happy," Harry said softly.
"Eve said you found her on a beach?" Rose asked him softly, so as not to disturb her friends.
"Yes," Harry responded. "I was just out for a walk near the end of the day; it was almost sunset. My village was nearby and the night before had been so stormy. At first, I thought it was a human child, the light from the setting sun meant I couldn't see her face. I didn't really think about it, just scooped her up in my arms and carried her away from the water. It wasn't until I was home that I saw that she wasn't human."
"But you kept her anyway?"
"She was crying," Harry whispered, lost in memory, "these soft little sobs that just broke my heart. She couldn't stop crying and couldn't understand anything I said. Her feet were cut up from the shells and rock of the beach, so I cleaned them up. I remember thinking about the fact her blood was red like mine, strange thing I suppose, but part of me was starting to understand that she was an alien. I never married and certainly never had children. My sister had two children, so I knew a little bit about how to take care of one."
"And you never hesitated to keep her?" Rose inquired, a smile tugging at her lips.
"Oh, I went down to the beach after she fell asleep. I was terrified to leave her, but I thought that maybe I'd find her parents or at least an adult of her species. But I never found any signs of a ship or any others of her kind even though I looked every day for the next two weeks. After that, I just accepted that I was all she had and focused on keeping her safe."
"Wow," Rose whispered as she looked back into the room where Eve was giggling with Shareen and Sharon.
"What?" Harry questioned in wide eyes.
"It's just," Rose started to say, turning back to Harry, "It's just that you find an alien child alone on the beach and your first instinct isn't to think of her as an alien. Instead, you think of her as a child first and foremost despite how she looks and how she acts. You teach her English, guide her, love her and protect her despite her being different. At the end of the day, she's your little girl above everything else." Rose just grinned at him, "That is amazing. You are amazing, Harry Wallace."
Blushing, Harry looked back at Eve who suddenly looked over at the two of them and smiled. Eve called Rose back in and suggested that her friends could start revising in the comfort of Eve's home and that her computer was open for use. As they all pulled out their things, Rose was pleased to see Eve pull out a few books of her own and join them with a shrug.
"I get bored," Eve informed them when Sharon asked. "Plus I've painted most of the house already."
Over the next week, a strange pattern was created that both surprised Rose and did not surprise her as much as she thought it probably should. On days that she didn't have to work after school was let out, she would take the bus to Victoria Station and then walk over to Eve's house. Her friends joined her on most days if they did not have other obligations. Rose got a strong sense that Eve resented Rose's part-time job, but the girl never addressed it directly.
Exams came upon the girls more quickly than felt decent and Eve had to insist on visits if only to get the three girls to relax for a few hours. Rose was relieved when exams ended and her schedule between home, visiting Eve, and her part-time job stabilised. In the years that followed she would look back and laugh at her youthful belief that it would last.