Disclaimer: As per usual, I am borrowing the intellectual property of the BBC and I gain no material benefit from it.
AN: Rose has a few loose ends to take care of.
Martha Jones decided that she was, after all, happy to see the Doctor. She'd been apprehensive when she called him, not sure if the sight would bring back old feelings or bad memories. But it was the Doctor, filled with manic energy and genius, and always ready to move forward. The Atmos incident was beyond what she could handle, and she'd been right to call him in.
Donna, the woman now traveling with the Doctor, seemed to live off sass and spunk. Her stubbornness was a counterpoint to the Doctor's and Martha could see how she balanced him out, better than she had, for sure. So maybe she'd cautioned the older woman, reminded her that other things in the world were important too, but she knew that it was good for both of them for Donna to travel with the Doctor.
It wasn't until she, Donna, and the Doctor ended up at Rattigan's academy that she saw the darkness in the Doctor appear again.
"Can't you send it up on a timer?" Donna asked desperately as the Doctor prepared to board the Sontaran ship.
He shook his head sadly. "I've got to give them a chance." He looked back at them with shadowed, empty eyes. Martha suddenly remembered that his joy was an act for himself, so his sorrow wouldn't destroy him. He pressed the button and was gone.
Martha, Donna, and Luke Rattigan stood in stunned silence, watching the place where the magnificent, time-traveling alien had stood only moments before.
The quiet was broken by sudden, angry footsteps and a familiar voice.
"That stupid, arrogant, maddening, brilliant alien GIT." Said the blond as she stomped past the trio on her way to the teleport device.
"Well, someone knows the Doctor." Donna said drily.
"Marion?" Choked out Martha, staring at a blond version of the friend she thought she'd lost.
She was rewarded by a warm smile. "Martha Jones. You look well. Now, I love you dearly, but you must stop letting him walk all over you like this. He needs to be stopped. Same for you, Donna Noble, but you're new at this."
Donna leaned over to hiss in Martha's ear, "How does she know me?"
Martha had no answer. The blond studied the screen on the teleport for a minute before turning back to them.
"Right then, when he asks, tell him you did something clever. Martha, you know the drill, I was never here."
"But he's doing better!" Martha blurted out, "I think seeing you would be good for him now."
She got a crooked half-smile from the other woman. "Not after this." Marion said seriously. "Donna?" She said, "When you see River in the library, could you pass on a message for me? Tell her to have fun and that anything that can be remembered is never truly gone." Donna only had time to open her mouth before the mysterious visitor vanished in a flash of golden light. A few moments later, the Doctor appeared in the same light and crumpled to the ground. As Martha and Donna raced to him, there was a boom from outside that rattled the windows of the mansion. Luke ran to the windows and stared up at the sky.
"It's gone." He pronounced, "Exploded." He glanced back at the two women who were fighting off levels of shock and grief.
Martha checked over the Doctor, his breathing was fine if slow and deep, and his hearts were both beating. She smelled something odd though as she checked his breathing.
"Chloroform." She pronounced, settling back onto her heels. "He'll wake in five minutes or so."
"Martha, who was that?" Donna asked.
"Marion Wolfe. She's... a friend. She knew the Doctor. And Rose." Martha replied hollowly.
"I'm sorry." Donna said, wrapping an arm around the younger woman's shoulders. "She knew though, what would happen? That's why she told us not to tell the Doctor?"
"Yeah, I guess she did." Martha said as a tear traced its way down her cheek. "I wasn't allowed to tell him when I met her either. She said it would make him sad. But she shouldn't remember. She shouldn't know me."
"What do you mean? Was it in the future?"
"No, it was in a timeline that reversed. The only people that remember it are the ones who were on the Valiant when Saxon... went mad. I left her behind on Earth. Something else is going on here, but of course there is if the Doctor's involved."
"Saxon? That nutter prime minister?
"That one. Except he was actually a Time Lord and a childhood companion of the Doctor's."
"What's a reversed timeline?" Donna asked.
"There was a global paradox and it was broken, so time reversed and everything that happened after the paradox didn't happen anymore. Except for those of us on the Valiant, no one remembered it." Seeing Donna's confused expression, Martha opened her mouth to explain further, but she was cut off.
"Don't bother, I won't understand anyway. Whatever it was, it sounds complicated."
"A bit." Martha agreed.
"Maybe she wasn't from his past, maybe she was from his future?" Donna suggested.
Martha shook her head. "No, Jack knew her. I think I'm not going to understand it." She ended despondently.
"Nothing about the circumstances changes that she was your friend." Donna said, squeezing Martha into a tight hug.
Martha leaned into the other woman, resting gratefully on her shoulder. She pulled away though as the Doctor coughed behind them.
"What," He said sitting up, "Was all that, then?" He glanced around at the other three people in the room.
Luke, who, aside from some confusion and internal doubts, was least affected, answered. "Something clever." He said with a shrug.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes at the evasive teen, but Martha was faster. As he opened his mouth to question the kid further, she interrupted.
"Doctor, I've got to go check on my mum and dad, and Tish too."
He turned between Martha and Luke, torn, but finally released a deep breath and stalked out of the room with Donna and Martha following.
Back in central London, outside her favorite chippy, Rose sat studying her journal.
You have a choice to make here, Rose.
It wasn't a decision to be made lightly, she knew that. In all honesty, the scale and repercussions of the choice scared her immensely. Was she ready to be a mother at twenty-six? Of course, River assured her that the child, born as an adult, wouldn't find her and the Doctor again until she'd had plenty of time to grow up. Jenny, River called her, would be born whether or not Rose interfered. But Rose had the choice of being a biological part of her. Rose clasped her hands together under her chin as she thought. It wasn't a definitive thought that pushed her to the decision, but more of a feeling. In her mind's eye, she could see herself with children, with a daughter. Brushing hair, shopping for clothes, worrying over a first date, it was a warm, fuzzy sort of idea. She checked the time and date one final time and hopped to the planet Messaline.
The first thing, Rose thought, she'd do when she saw the Doctor was force him to make her a sonic screwdriver. Well, maybe the second. Or third. Well, it was on the list. It certainly would be helpful to have for adjusting the coding on the progeneration machine.
"Ow." She yelped, pulling her hand away from the device as a wire shocked her. Sucking on the injured finger, Rose faced the small screen she'd rewired to the central programming system. She sighed as she read over the coding and got to work. Half an hour later, she was reasonably certain she'd reprogrammed it to collect genetic information from two sources. She finished by setting it to cease operation after the next full run. With dexterous use of a short range electromagnet, Rose resealed the panel. She took one, shuddering breath and stuck her arm into the collector. She bit her lip against the sting of the tissue sample and stepped away as the machine released her.
A strange feeling crept into the back of Rose's head, a feeling that felt very much like 'oops.' Behind Rose, a small gust picked up followed by the echoing and unmistakable sound of the Tardis. She spent one long moment glaring at the Tardis. The Doctor would be able to feel it if she hopped from there, his timey senses combining with a strong sense of smell. Which meant that Rose was stuck there until the Doctor got distracted or left to go somewhere else. With a final mental grumble at the Tardis, Rose rechecked her mental shields and stalked off behind a pile of rubble and scrap metal.
Soon, the Doctor rushed out of the Tardis, a manic grin spread across his face. Rose couldn't have gone more still, she held herself frozen to prevent herself from running to him. Just outside her consciousness, she could feel the vast presence of his mind. Martha and Donna stepped out of the Tardis too. Rose arched an eyebrow. River hadn't mentioned that Martha would be there. Then again, River didn't mention a lot of things.
They were only alone for a moment before a couple of young, human soldiers rushed in, pointing guns at the indignant time travelers. At gunpoint, the Doctor was led to the progeneration machine and had his tissue sample removed. Rose smirked as the process was accompanied by a variety of squawks and ows. Her first Doctor never would have admitted to a little pain like that one. Then she caught her first look at her daughter.
She wasn't much younger than Rose. She certainly didn't look any younger than Rose herself did, but appearances can be deceiving. Rose watched as the Doctor explained Jenny's birth. Of course, she didn't have a name yet. Though the way the girl handled the large gun she was tossed was disconcerting, it was the Doctor's behavior that brought Rose's dark eyebrows together in a frown. That was her daughter he was writing off. And she was beautiful. Rose's heart soared as she looked at her.
Noises from down the corridor startled everyone present and a firefight broke out. Rose flinched back and shielded her head as large rocks tumbled down around her. She found herself nearly trapped by the rubble but was able to see around to both sides of the rock division. The Doctor, Donna, and Jenny stood on one side of the wall; the Doctor yelling at the armed humans. Martha Jones lay on the other side. The instinct to protect Martha was strong, but Rose forced herself not to move. That was one situation she definitely couldn't explain. She exhaled softly in relief as Martha stirred and sat up, looking no worse for the wear. The newly minted doctor turned immediately to the injured Hath next to her and began treatment. Rose smiled.
The Doctor and his group were being questioned and finally, led away.
"We will meet, someday in the future, and it will be lovely." Rose whispered to her daughter as the group walked away.
Carefully, she extricated herself from the pile of rocks and walked to the Tardis. She rested one hand gently on the warm, wooden side of the ship she called home before stepping away and spinning, hopping away to safety.