Chapter 3:

Doctor POV:

"Nova," she says out loud, I can feel her emotions she feels slightly happy from her new naming.
"My name is Doctor, and this is Rose," I say gesturing to Rose who does a little wave to the girl who seems to be edging closer to us both.

"Doctor" and then she points at Rose "Rose" and then to herself "Nova"
"That's right" I encourage warmly to her.
As she steps closer I notice her face has very faint freckles like little constellations on her face.
"Do you know how you ended up there?" I ask her, already knowing some basic answers from the Lab.

They say they just found her, she was living as a regular human for a while before she needed to go to the hospital, and that's when they noticed the two hearts. At first, they thought it was just a human birth defect, an anomaly. She was even in the local news once but, malicious scientists decided to do some research on her.

"I remember, a car accident… I think." She starts, I can feel her emotions like waves sending to me subconsciously through the bond, panic, and fear.
I send her some reassurance back, although yet I don't think she quite knows the extent of our bond.
"It's okay" Rose encourages her, bending down to her level, one hand on Nova's shoulder reassuring her.

The girl looks startled as if remembering something "Can you read my mind?" She asks looking at me.

I bend down to her level now, looking into her icy emerald eyes.
"You're a Timetot, do you know that," I ask her, then I see in her mind, something shatters.
Memories, not a lot of them but a few coursing into her mind as if I had triggered a word.
"Why am I here, why did they send me here, where is my mum, my dad?" She says panicking word unable to come out of her mouth all at once.

I gathered she must have somehow survived or had been sent here during the time war, so how long has she been on earth or sleeping in an escape pod.

"I forgot, I thought I was human it's like having two people, two me's inside myself," she says starting to cry. I pull her into a hug.

"You're a time tot, it must have been a while since you have been connected to any time lord parents, you've searched me out subconsciously and you seem to have unknowingly formed a bond with me," I say to her trying to get her to remember how this works.

"You're not human, you never was" I pull her to my chest "See two hearts, just like you"
I feel her listening in and then pulling out of the hug.
"Two hearts just like you" She parrots back.

"I feel like all my head is fuzzy and incomplete," She says looking down.
"That's okay it is bound to happen and you'll feel overwhelmed due to the new bond," I say smiling at her. Rose seems to have stepped back and allowed me to talk to the girl a bit more privately.

"This is a TARDIS," I say pointing around, "you said before you felt too young to be on a Tardis so you remember them don't you" She sorta nods and then shakes her head at me. 'yes and no' I hear her think, I chuckle at her and ruffle her hair. "That's okay we can take this one step at a time, but from here on out, I will look after you."

"Can't you just please take me home?" She asks hopefully looking up to me, I feel a small part of my hearts shatters, I don't even know where to begin or how to word that to a child.

"I… Can't, I'm sorry… I'm so sorry Nova" I say feeling her projecting sorrow. "Our planet… It was destroyed, we… it's only me and you left now" I say not going into details she doesn't need to know those yet.

She lets out an exhale as something had just knocked the wind out of her, and she wails. The noise is painful, heart-wrenching. I feel her projecting images of her… our planet. The beautiful firey red grass swaying in the wind, and the burnt orange sky. I feel tears start to form and I quickly shoo them away.

"It's okay now though, it is okay. I promise you nothing will ever happen to you" I say embracing her and she accepts it.

TIME SKIP/ DOCTOR POV:

After a few hours of talking and trying to explain to both Nova and Rose a few things, she tired herself out from the strain of the new bond and the day. She fell asleep tucked in her new bedroom. I feel the Tardis moving not from the outside but the inside, and I notice she is changing the girl's room around adding a faux window and some colour to the room, I smile. I have the Tardis's approval at least. I thought it might be too dangerous to keep her on board and to take her with us, but there's not much choice for us both I will just have to keep her safe.

I go back to the control console and Rose is sat there still perplexed, mulling things over. But now Nova is asleep I can probably explain a few more things to Rose.

"We can still go on adventures I don't plan to settle down and be a stay at home dad" I throw a light-hearted joke at her and she chuckles.
"I didn't think you would, it's not in you," She says elbowing me.

We found out that Nova, had been found at the age of 9, so a toddler still really in Gallifreyan eyes. Just a year into starting the academy she would have been if not for-

She was put into the foster system; they say she was caught wandering the streets of London after Christmas one year. She has said she had a few parents from the foster houses but never really went into much detail. Hopefully, she will be a bit more trusting soon.

She is still stuck between acting human and acting as a time tot, she was brought up to believe she is a 19-year-old human… Not a child like I say she is like she knows deep down she is.

"They usually stay with their parents going back and forth the academy" I start to tell Rose a bit more about Gallifreyan customs and parenting. "So, though she is technically 19 years old, we class mature Timelords/ladies at 200 years old, so to me, she's basically a child. An infant. Just her thought processes are much different obviously to those of human infants."

"What do you mean?"

"Well you see, a 'child of Gallifrey at 8 they begin to go to what you would class as a school. But they stay with their parents their minds are still evolving, growing, at such a fast rate, actually by her age she should have finished a few Earth University degrees that how brilliant time tots are"

"THREE DEGREES, Jesus," Rose said laughing "I had no idea we are so thick to you" She laughed.
"Oh yeah right little geniuses time tots." I laugh
"But because they have such vast minds, they retain much more information and the bond helps keep them stable and helps their mind grow, without a bond time tots can go insane or die."

"So she's lucky you found her then," Rose said
"Yeah especially at such a pivotal age, she'll have so much to learn and catch up on"

Nova pov:

I wake up and realise I am starving, I feel hunger pains in my belly.
I open my eyes with a stretch and a yawn and notice my room has changed, there is a window, with curtains navy blue with glow in the dark stars on. There is more furniture, a bookshelf, a desk and a wardrobe. The walls no longer plain but a slight metallic pale pink. I hop off the bed towards the window and open the curtains. I know the window is not real but… It shows home. Red grass and the mountains. 'Hungry' I think.

The Doctor knocks on my door and lets himself in.
"I'm so sorry, there's been so much, and I forgot you aren't grown so you need to eat and sleep properly, it's been such a long time since I had any time tots." He said and I laugh at him a little. He widens his eyes at my laugh but chuckles back and ruffles my hair.

"Alright beastie, time to go visit Auntie Jackie because I don't have any food on the Tardis yet" He smiles.