A/N: Yes, this is very overdue. I have had a crazy time with work and school so I am rather pleased with myself for getting this done! There might be a slight change in writing styles in here only because I had to figure out Jessica's voice again but I think I've got it!

So, very big thank you to all those who keep fave-ing and following and reviewing no matter how long the gap has been since the last update! Your loyalty and love for this book I don't deserve! :D Love you all!

Father's Day

Part Three

I'd never seen the Doctor so…livid. He wouldn't say a word on the drive to the Tyler's apartment. Just glowered with crossed arms in the back seat next to me.

That should've been Rose's first clue.

The entirety of London's emotions held nothing compared to the storm that surrounded the Doctor. Made it so hard to focus, to breathe. I had to constantly struggle to shore up weak spots in my barriers every time figurative lightning flashed through that storm. I couldn't bring myself to talk to Rose either because of the struggle to not let the Doctor overwhelm me and from my own disappointment.

Clue number two.

Yet all Rose seemed concerned with was the fact that her dad had survived and she could talk to him for the first time in her life.

When we stepped out of the car, I rushed over to the Doctor's side as much as I could without drawing Pete Tyler's attention. My fingers grazed the back of his hand. Such a touch would have jolted the Doctor out of any mood.

Now it seemed like he didn't even pay them attention. He sealed himself off from me as if that would keep me from getting him to calm down. To leave him be.

No way in hell would I let it go. I couldn't let the two of them tear their friendship apart for a very human, unpredictable mistake.

We had to squeeze up the stairs to the apartment and I found myself smashed between the Doctor and Rose. A literal position of the part I knew I'd have to play. Mediating what could be an argument that would destroy their friendship for good.

I reached out and grasped Rose's hand when Pete fiddled with the keys. When she turned my way—complete with a happy and dazed look in her eyes—I used my head to gesture to the Doctor. Her eyes flicked between us for a few seconds before that happiness dimmed. "Don't say something stupid," I mouthed before letting that hand go.

Hopefully she would keep her cool, because the Doctor sure wouldn't.

Pete only had to leave the room for everything to explode.

"When we met, I said travel with me in space." The Doctor's tone sounded far too calm for the fury that swirled around him in a storm I could almost see. "You said no. Then I said time machine."

Rose tensed, hastily erecting barriers around herself in a moment. "It wasn't some big plan. I just saw it happening and I thought…I can stop it." The panic that sharpened the edges of her words at least reassured me she knew she'd screwed up big time. Would she regret it though?

The Doctor shook his head, still maintaining that deceptive self-control, but the force of his seething internal temper sucked the breath out of the room. "I did it again. I picked another stupid ape." His bitterness soured my tongue and had me poised on the balls of my feet to step in between the two of them. "I should've known. It's not about showing you the universe. It never is. It's about the universe doing something for you for once."

Rose glared and I could almost see the cat raising its hackles in response. "So it's okay when you go to other times and you save people's lives, but not when it's me saving my dad?"

I felt that annoying empathy give me a push. I had to say something to snap them out of the self-destructive river I could feel them spiraling through. "Rose…."

"I know what I'm doing, you don't." The Doctor stood to his full height as a tense coil about ready to explode, hands jammed into his pockets. "And unlike you, Jessica actually noticed that there were two sets of us at the same time. Tried to warn you like I did but did you listen? Of course, not. All you cared about was yourself."

"Doctor…." While I should have been pleased that he approved of my actions, I felt crosshairs roaming in my direction, trying to force me into the insanity.

"What?" Rose glanced at me, but almost none of the anger left her original target. "Jessie, if you saw another us…."

"I didn't say anything because I trusted you like the Doctor did," I cut in with as calm a voice as I could manage. Mentally, I dug my heels in against the torrent of jagged, sour emotions and projected my wish for calm as well as I knew how. It felt as useless as a pile of stones trying to hold back a tsunami. "In truth, I should've stopped you when you ran; I was closer, I felt what was going through your head and I should've just pulled you back."

How in the hell was I supposed to remain neutral and calming when I realized she had hurt my trust as well?

"But…but he's alive!" She insisted, only barley keeping her voice down. "I get a chance to know him!"

Such searing, self-loathing hurt barreled into me I almost lost my mental footing. "My…entire…planet…died. My…whole…family." The Doctor jabbed a finger in Rose's face, a terrible shadow of a storm transforming his face into someone dangerous. "Do you think it never occurred to me to go back and save them?"

Crap. His family. The one subject I doubted he'd talked about even with her. If his reaction to loosing Magpie had been that strong…against my will almost, I found myself drawn towards his side even more.

Somehow, even with her defenses in full force, Rose managed to sense that she'd pressed one button too many. Tried to pull back. "But…it's not like I've changed history. Not much, anyway. I mean, he's never going to be a world leader. He's not going to start World War Three or anything…."

I saw the Doctor's mouth fly open and purposefully took a couple steps towards the eye of the storm. Whatever would come out of that mouth would be something he would regret and blame himself for. "Rose, I would love to see my birth parents like you're seeing your dad right now, but I've read enough cheap sci-fi books to know that if I did meet them and talk to them, they might not give me up to begin with and then what? I'd never have met you or the Doctor and a thousand other things might not happen because of that. Baby you might not grow up the same now that your dad's alive. Because of this, you in this future might not meet the Doctor and I don't know anything about time, but what would happen to this you?

"What? I…I…um…" Rose's face turned a shade of pink. "I haven't figured that out yet."

I ignored the Doctor's disdainful snort. "Yeah, you probably weren't thinking when you went for him. You were following your feelings, instinct, whatever, which is probably what I would have done if my parents were in that position." There, the end of my understanding of her case. Now to be the friend who tells the hard truths. "Be that as it may, we aren't Time Lords. There are probably way too many side effects to changing history like this that we aren't aware of."

"What she's saying is that there's a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before." The Doctor jumped in, impatience and his temper pushing him over the edge. His earnestness in proving his point not quite making up for the hurt. "An ordinary man. That's the most important thing in creation. The whole world's different because he's alive. Don't you understand that?"

In an instant, the potential wavering of her defensiveness evaporated. "What, would you rather him dead? Both of you?"

The Doctor's steady stream of emotion faltered. "I'm not saying that," he grumbled.

"No, I get it! For once, you're not the most important man in my life!"

Double crap. Everything began spiraling out of control and I had no words. No plan to stop it. What to do? What to do?

Too many seconds went by for my comfort. As if the Doctor had become a ticking time bomb and every second brought us closer to an explosion. "Fine," came that tightly controlled tone that I hated hearing him use. "Let's see how you get on without me, then. Give me the key."

I grimaced, unable to look at the Doctor's extended hand. Forget my own inability to keep my friends from fighting, how in the world would I ever fix this? What use was I anyway?

Rose gaped at him as if he'd slapped her across the face, though her stubborn streak lingered just beneath the surface.

"The TARDIS key, give it back. If I'm so insignificant, then give it back to me. See how long it takes until you screw something else up."

A challenge to draw that stubbornness out in all its screaming ferocity. Up went her head as she dug the key out of her pocket. "All right then, I will." She tossed it at him and I couldn't tell if she felt any sort of regret at all.

With the Doctor, though, I didn't even need to try and guess what he felt. That open space in his wall between us screamed so much hurt I just wanted to take his hand and hug him if I knew he wouldn't reject it immediately. Perhaps more than her words, Rose's gesture had cut more deeply than she probably realized or intended.

After a few breaths, the Doctor nodded very stiffly. "You've got what you wanted. So that's goodbye then." He turned and strode out without a pause to give her a chance.

More time passed in silence as I fought between the urge to stay or go. They both needed me. Another spike of hurt that sliced through my head helped me make up my mind.

"Jessie?"

I sighed and looked back at her with more than enough regret for all three of us. We could be such good friends, but…. "You're his friend, Rose," I finally managed. "So he'll come back for you. But that's twice you've hurt him even if it wasn't intentional. I…I think it'll take him some time to get over it."

Halfway down the stairs, though, I got sideswiped by a…an emptiness that sent my head reeling and guts spinning out of control like someone had punched me. I gripped the railing till I could get my balance again. The Doctor had only just turned around the corner out of sight but I knew with a certain dread that something horrible had started because of Rose's mistake.