Evie's TARDIS Diary: What's a Birthday?
A/N: An Author's Note at the beginning? What is going on? Basically I'm putting it here, because this is going to be a multi-chapter part, so I thought I'd do this bit first before we get into the story! :)
Anyway, this chapter was written in response to a prompt from Misery Loves Sarah, who said that she, 'would really enjoy some more Evie/Jenny shenanigans.'
Hope you like it!
Age: 22
Location: Chiswick, England, Earth
Date: 10th May 2011
When Sylvia arrived home from work all she really wanted was a cup of tea, a nice sit down and a bit of evening telly. Opening her front door, however, she was greeted by the sound of her daughter laughing loudly, as well as her father's chuckling and another female voice she recognised. There was also another female voice that she didn't know.
Hanging her coat up, the woman pushed opened the living room door ready to start complaining. Donna, however, didn't give her the opportunity.
"Mum!" She said with a broad smile. "This is Jenny, my daughter… sort of."
Sylvia had to lean against the doorframe before she fainted.
After leaving the TARDIS after the events on the Dalek Crucible, Jenny and I had gone straight to Donna's house in Chiswick. Neither of us really fancied going straight home to face Mum and the Doctor, so we'd taken a detour.
It hadn't taken very long before Donna answered her door. I expected her to be more surprised at the sight of us standing on her doorstep but I supposed that she'd been in enough weird situations and was used to lots of different versions of me turning up on her doorstep without warning.
"Mum!" Jenny squealed, throwing herself at Donna who laughed and hugged her tightly, before hugging me as well. I grinned happily.
"I know where you've just been. You've just been to the Dalek Crucible, haven't you?" Donna said raising an eyebrow. Jenny and I both blushed, realising that there was no way we could get ourselves out of this one. Donna sighed and shook her head wearily. "You realise how much trouble you're in, don't you?"
"I know… Dad is going to murder us." I agreed, sighing as well and pulling a face.
"Not from him…" Donna raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You called me ginger!"
I laughed and stuck out my tongue. Then I squeezed past her through the front door and headed down the hall. "Is Gramps here?"
The living room door opened and Wilf appeared, looking slightly bemused by all the voices. When he realised that it was me walking towards him he beamed and held open his arms. I hugged him tightly, laughing.
"Well! Have you grown?" He asked jokily. I shook my head and swatted at him gently before standing aside and letting him get a glimpse of Jenny.
"Gramps… this is Jenny, my sister. She's sort of Donna's daughter." I told him.
"Sort of? How can she sort of be Donna's daughter?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. I smiled, amused by the fact that this was the only part of the information that he had trouble with. The idea that his granddaughter had a grown-up daughter, who was my sister, obviously didn't faze him.
"It's a long story." Donna said moving into the kitchen and putting the kettle on. "Evie, explain."
I rolled my eyes, grinned and went into the living room, sitting on the sofa before I started to explain. "Well… I wasn't actually there, but Donna and Dad were on this planet called Messaline. There was a machine –"
"It took a sample of Dad's skin and then used his diploid cells, splitting them into haploids and rearranging the DNA to create me." Jenny cut in, perching on the edge of the sofa beside me. I frowned slightly, a little annoyed that she'd interrupted.
"So biologically she isn't Donna's daughter." I explained. "But because Donna was there when Jenny was created and looked after her, Jenny feels like she is. And Donna was pretty happy about it when Jen called her Mum."
Wilf beamed at them both. "Then that's good enough for me! Come here and give your old gramps a hug, my girl!" He said, holding out his arms and squeezing Jenny in a bear hug. She beamed.
"So? Are we all sorted with the explanations?" Donna asked, returning with a tray of mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits.
"Sure are!" I agreed through a mouthful of cookie crumbs.
"That is disgusting." Jenny and Donna told me at exactly the same moment, their faces screwed up in disgust.
I grinned. "See… you wouldn't know they weren't biologically related!"
Half an hour later we were all giggling at Donna's latest mishap at work and almost missed the sound of a key in the front door.
"Mum's home!" Donna said, looking slightly concerned. "How d'you reckon she's going to take the news about Jenny?"
"She's used to me calling her Nan; she'll probably take it in her stride." I suggested hopefully. Since staying with the Nobles when I was fourteen I'd never got out of the habit; not that I particularly wanted to. Wilf and Donna looked at me as though I was being overly optimistic and Jenny looked a little alarmed.
The living room door opened and Donna's mother appeared in the room. I smiled at her as reassuringly as I could and she returned it briefly, if a little distractedly, before her eyes settled at Jenny in clear confusion. She was apparently about to open her mouth to say something, but Donna beat her to it.
"Mum! This is Jenny, my daughter… sort of."
We all held our breath waiting for Sylvia's reaction. She leant against the doorframe, slightly unsteadily, staring at Jenny in total bewilderment. Jenny clearly didn't know how to handle the situation and smiled uncertainly at her.
"Hi." She said, giving an awkward little wave. I raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly and she frowned at me.
"Nan… come and sit down." I suggested, standing up quickly and manoeuvring her into my recently vacated seat on the sofa. Her eyes were fixed on Jenny who looked uncomfortable. "I'll go and make you a cup of tea."
Escaping from the room, I left the doors open so that I could listen to the conversation. Donna was explaining about Jenny and Messaline and the machine. Then Wilf joined in, informing Sylvia that Jenny might as well be Donna's biological daughter judging from her behaviour.
When I returned, Sylvia seemed much more relaxed, although she was still quite pale. I suppose she'd focused on the word 'daughter' and had imagined all sorts of scenarios.
"So… I was thinking." Donna said with the air of someone who was about to make an important announcement.
"Dangerous." Jenny, Wilf and I all said at exactly the same moment. We grinned at each other and ignored the roll of Donna's eyes that accompanied the comment.
"You're all hilarious." She told us sarcastically. "No, seriously right. I was thinking its May, which was when Jenny was born. So it must be nearly her birthday!"
"What's a birthday?" Jenny asked, glancing between us.
The Nobles looked shocked but I just smiled. "It's a day where you celebrate your birth. My birthday is in December… Yours is today."
Jenny looked shocked. "Is it?"
"It is now!" Donna told her grinning.
Wilf stood up, clapping his hands excitedly. "This calls for a party!"
