Recall
By Lumendea
Chapter Five: Recalled by the Seventh I
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material, and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.
….
The Doctor was one to enjoy quiet days in this incarnation, at least. Less wild and more thoughtful, he appreciated the peace and quiet that gave him time to analyze the latest adventure and consider how it might change the greater scheme of the universe. It was a habit that would have served him well in other incarnations had they ever been willing to slow down. And now that Ace had finally accepted that not all books were boring and occasionally disappeared into the TARDIS library, he had the time to do so.
His favorite sitting chair was now in the console room of the TARDIS. The Old Girl had redecorated recently, and he was rapidly warming up the different styles she was embracing. Gone were the white walls so common in the Time Travel Capsules of other Time Lords. Instead, she had shifted to darker colors and wooden panels that gave the large room a rather gothic feel. Ace had cast a look his way but said nothing on the matter when he reminded her that the TARDIS was a living thing. Of all of his companions, save Romana, Ace understood that best. It was an understanding that would serve her well if his plans for her to join the Time Lord Academy were fruitful.
A chime from the TARDIS made the Doctor look up just in time to see a bright flash of light. He immediately straightened up in his chair and reached for his umbrella, a firm scowl taking over his face. But it faded away immediately. It was Gaia, his daughter Gaia. And young by the looks of it. Older than when he'd met her at UNIT, but still younger than she'd been when he met her in his first life. The Doctor chuckled and stood from his chair. He crossed the large console room while Gaia looked around the gothic shape of the room that the TARDIS had shifted into a few years ago.
"Hello, my dear little one," the Doctor greeted warmly.
Gaia spun around to face him. She was wearing overalls of all things with a jumper and trainers. By the looks of them, they lit up, which the Doctor dearly wished narrowed down the point of purchase. Very human and something that came around again and again in human fashion. Her light ginger hair, which was remained quietly envious of, was a bit longer and braided into pigtails. Even he, the Oncoming Storm, had to admit that they were rather adorable. Bending down, he smiled at the girl as she took him in with a glance. Then she grinned at him.
"Hi, Daddy."
Gaia threw herself at him, pushing all of her weight against him and successfully knocking him over. The little girl snuggled into his chest, and he noted with relief that there was far less fear coming across their bond than he would have expected. The recall had been activated, but she wasn't too worried about the situation. Good, that always made this easier. He laughed and wrapped one arm around his child while using the other to keep himself from completely toppling over. Oh, if Davros, the Master, the Rani, or the Sontarans could see him now. Well, definitely not the Rani. He'd seen Gaia's belly button, which marked her as womb born. While not impossible for Gallifreyans, the Doctor didn't want to risk the Rani poking at Gaia's genetics.
That thought made him frown before he caught himself. He knew better than to wonder about such things. But ever since that scan of Gaia's body to make sure she was alright during a visit to his fifth body, he'd been too aware that there was something unusual about the girl's genetics. A strange mutation to her TNA. Perhaps it meant nothing, but it gave him a clue as to why he didn't seem to be raising the girl on Gallifrey.
"Daddy?" Gaia called. She crawled off of him and frowned at his thoughtful expression. "Are you okay?"
"Just woolgathering, dear," he replied easily as he righted himself. "How old are you now, my dear one?" the Doctor asked, letting his Scottish accent roll a bit more than usual. It served its purpose, and Gaia grinned.
"I'm four years, two months, and three days," Gaia answered. "Do you want the minutes as well, Daddy?"
"Cheeky," the Doctor chuckled. He reached out and bopped her nose, enjoying the giggle from his daughter. "No, I do not require the minutes."
It was good to see the girl. The Doctor could admit that to himself. The last few years had been difficult on this body. Then again, the Doctor was hard-pressed not to have a rough year. They all seemed to turn out that way no matter what he did. And Gaia looked well. At four years old, she still had a great deal of growing to do, but she was a healthy weight, and her mental presence was bright. Not that he'd learned the various stages of humanoid development across the universe in an effort to understand how Gaia was growing.
"How are you feeling?" the Doctor asked gently. "I hope the situation wasn't too frightening."
"No, Daddy," she replied calmly. She shrugged. "You activated the recall this time. You got in a bit of trouble with some locals." Gaia tilted her head and looked at him fondly as if already understanding that such events were common in his life. The Doctor felt oddly guilty at that look. But he was the parent.
"Well, prisons can be fun," the Doctor said. "You meet all sorts of fascinating people but no place for a little girl."
Gaia giggled in response, and the Doctor stood up. He extended a hand to his future daughter and was pleased when she took it without question. While Gaia might be small right now, she hadn't yet started to inch her way towards her teenage years. There were some visits where she'd been much more of a handful than others. He adored her always, enjoying the warm mental connection that hummed with affection, but there were certain ages where she was easier. And a teenage Gaia with a teenage Ace… the very notion worried the Doctor a bit. He'd hope that such a thing never happened.
"Well, I'm glad you're here," the Doctor said. He gave in to his desire to hold Gaia and swept her up into her arms, drawing a giggle from the girl. But she wouldn't always be so small. "Are you hungry?"
"A bit," Gaia answered. "We were going to find lunch."
"Ah, lunch it is then."
"Can we go somewhere?"
"Perhaps for dinner," the Doctor replied. Given that Gaia had just teleported in via the recall device, he was a bit loathe to immediately take her from the TARDIS. "For now, I'd like you to meet my companion."
Gaia's eyes lit up with excitement. She always did like this part of her little adventures in his past. Sometimes, he got the impression that Gaia knew many of them already, maybe from bedtimes stories, but she never said. His clever girl never opened the door to the potentially dangerous questions about the fates of his companions.
He carried Gaia into the current TARDIS kitchen, a simple white room with metal counters and a blend of appliances from many cultures. The TARDIS tended to try out new things from time to time only to settle into whatever the current residents liked. For Victoria and Jamie, she'd kept things simpler. Ace, on the other hand, embraced alien technology that got her tea and food faster.
His current companion was sitting on one of the counters, sipping tea from her favourite mug and reading on a tablet. She looked up as he walked in and nearly did a double-take as she caught sight of Gaia. Slipping off the counter, Ace put down her mug and the tablet. Her body tensed slightly, braced for whatever was about to be coming.
"Uh, Professor, who's the kid?" Ace asked. Her expression wasn't suspicious or worried, but there was open curiosity in her eyes. Then again, the Doctor did suppose that Ace was well aware that there hadn't been a child on the TARDIS earlier. "Did something happen?"
"In a way," the Doctor answered. He adjusted his grasp on Gaia, smiling when she gripped his lapels and inspected them. "In her timeline at least, but everything is safe on the TARDIS." He paused and tried to consider the best way to explain this to Ace, but he was preparing the girl for the Time Lord Academy. It was best to be blunt. He'd followed that with companions thus far whenever Gaia appeared. "Ace, this young one is Gaia."
"Hello, Ace," Gaia said happily. She waved to Ace, her blue eyes lighting up in a way that made the Doctor worry she'd heard about Ace. That could be a dangerous combination. Gaia was and would be far too clever. "Nice to meet you." But something in Gaia's voice was too amused, and he was inclined to assume that she knew Ace personally.
"Nice to meet you," Ace answered, a bit bemused. Her eyes moved back to the Doctor. "Her name doesn't tell me who she is, Professor."
"Ah, yes, no, it does not. Well, Gaia is my daughter. My daughter from my personal future at least."
"Your daughter," Ace said slowly.
She seemed to be struggling with that idea. Why the Doctor did not understand, at this point, he'd all but raised plenty of companions before Ace. And with Ace's age, he was almost her father, even if they didn't openly acknowledge that. It was likely that he'd have to do some sort of adoption to finish securing her place at the Academy before everything was done. Perhaps that was part of Gaia's reaction.
"Yes, Ace, my daughter. She wears a recall device that brings her to the TARDIS at a safe point. But it doesn't work exactly as intended-"
"Or does it?" Gaia chimed in. She was grinning, and the Doctor chuckled.
"Yes, I suppose this is all a long temporal loop," he agreed.
"Okay…" Ace's eyes were still wide, and she was looking at him with no small hint of confusion. The Doctor decided that he wasn't going to take offense at that. "Isn't this crossing your own timeline?"
"Yep," Gaia answered with a nod. "But it is also a self-fulfilling paradox. Daddy already knew me when I was born. And you can't change your own history, even if maintaining it crosses your own timeline." Ace stared at the little girl, and the Doctor smiled
"Your grasp of the Laws of Time is very impressive for your age, my dear," the Doctor remarked. And it was true; he had clearly seen carefully to Gaia's education.
It was difficult for him not to ask. It was well that Gaia knew the Laws of Time as well as she did. This body didn't handle mysteries well. Those odd results from Gaia's blood still taunted him. She was a born Time Lady, something that he hadn't believed possible but now had some theories about. It would be just like Rassilon to hide the fact that the TNA mutations given upon becoming Time Lord could be passed on naturally.
He rather suspected that the looms edited those traits out of children as a method of ensuring only some Gallifreyans gained them. Those who failed to live up to the standards of the Academy would never gain the full abilities of a Time Lord that they might have otherwise been born with. He remembered the pressure too well, the need to become a Time Lord if one's parents had been. And on top of that, children were made at roughly the age of six and then shipped to the Academy only two years later; Gallifrey certainly did its best to control the population. While he supposed there were arguments for ensuring that Time Lords understood the responsibilities of that role, he'd come to dislike the manipulation. The irony of that based on his own history did not escape him.
Still, she wasn't pure Gallifreyan. That had almost been a relief, but it created more mysteries. How was her mother? When would he meet her? He was already in his seventh body. In his first body when he'd first met Gaia, he'd assumed that she would come along sooner rather than later. A poor assumption on his part.
"But we came for lunch," the Doctor said.
He set Gaia down in a chair at the table and turned his attention to the feeding of his offspring. Ace stared at him, and he could feel her questions burning her. It wasn't like Ace to hold back, but then again, there was a child present. Ace was rather fond of children, and Gaia was adorable. Though, he did admit that he was bias on that front.
The Doctor was a good cook in this body if he did say so himself. He currently possessed the patience that he so commonly lacked and got to work on a simple pasta dish that Ace was fond of. Meanwhile, his companion sat down at the table with Gaia.
"Who old are you, Gaia?" Ace asked.
"I'm four years, two months, and three days," Gaia answered, repeating her earlier answer. "How old are you?"
"I'm not sure," Ace laughed. "Hard to keep track of linear time on the TARDIS. Any ideas, Professor?"
"You're a few months older than nineteen," the Doctor answered dutifully.
"Glad one of us knows," Ace replied. "Though I guess it doesn't really matter." The Doctor glanced back to find Ace leaning forward and smiling at Gaia. "So, do you travel on the TARDIS with your dad all the time, or do you have another home?"
"The TARDIS is home," Gaia said firmly. "But we visit Gran and lots of Dad's friends."
"Gran?" Ace seemed very curious now. "Is she the Doctor's mother-"
"No," the Doctor answered. The very notion was ridiculous. No, the sort of close family units that Ace was familiar with were not common on Gallifrey.
"She's mummy's mum," Gaia explained. "We have fun when Mummy and Daddy leave me with her."
"Oh, that's… nice."
Confusion radiated off of Ace. The Doctor wasn't sure if he should be offended by her being so disbelieving at the notion that he could have a family. Over the years, he'd learned a great deal about his future family. He and Gaia's mother did seem to be a love match, something that he still wasn't sure how to feel about. Part of him was happy at the notion of having a proper partner, but it was an aspect of life that he felt poorly prepared for.
He listened as Ace asked Gaia many of the same questions that Jo had. What was it about small children that made humans stick to such boring questions? Gaia was capable of highly complex thought and calculations. But he supposed that Ace was being cautious. Glancing back, he smiled slightly when he found Ace watching the little girl in amusement.
Their conversation took a distressing turn when Gaia asked about the formula for Ace's Nitro Nine. The Doctor briefly abandoned lunch to put a stop to that line of conversation. Given the way both of them pouted at him, he had very much made the correct, if unpopular, call. And if Ace winked at Gaia when he started to turn back to the pasta in a way that promised the girl would get the recipe before she left, well, that was a problem for his future self to deal with. His immediate concern was keeping Gaia safe and cared for. Still, perhaps a trip to a nice empty planet with some top-tier fireworks wouldn't be a bad idea for the afternoon.