Alicia

He saw me as a daughter. That was... nice? Did that mean I was some kind of adopted kid or something? He had been taking care of me for almost half my life now so that wouldn't be strange.. How am I supposed to introduce myself now? 'Hi I'm his daughter.' It doesn't feel right. Maybe it would be better if I stuck to saying I'm Ally. Only Ally. No one needs to know I'm the Doctors daughter. Human, psychically linked and adopted through unrealistic means daughter. Yeah, just Ally will be fine. Still it can't be the weirdest upbringing, I'm sure loads of kids have been brought up by aliens. Or is that just abduction? Anyway the point still stands and I haven't turned out that bad have I? At least, I hope not.

"What are you thinking about?" I took my steaming cup of tea away from my mouth.

"Just how I was brought up by an alien..." I smiled innocently at my new dad. Should I even call him dad? No, I'll stick to Doctor for now.

"It wasn't that bad was it?"

"No, I wasn't the best teenager though." I sighed into my tea.

"You were just being a normal teenager to me."

"How would you know?"

"I was a dad once..." I raised an eyebrow. I could never imagine him as normal dad material. Still, I don't know anything about time lord kids.

"Really, when?"

"Oh, such a long time ago now." He got that look he gets when he's thinking of his home planet. A mix of wistful, sad and guilty. "Anyway, that was then." I got the idea that I shouldn't pry any further.

"I bet you were a good dad." I say it quietly. He gives me a soft smile and I take another sip of my tea. "How many people do you know who were brought up by another species?"

"Oh, now then... There was Andromeda Talethia, brought up by the Endocycrimetians, she was Vangaldesian. Marco Landen, Synthcathion, Orian..." I watch as he nods with each persons, name counting on his fingers as he joyously spouts his knowledge. "Dimelshia, well she was kept in a cage so technically she doesn't count..."

"I'm guessing you left out all the ones that were pets?"

"Mm, Sandra Helingham was a pet I suppose."

"Okay, how many of them weren't pets, servants, slaves or food?"

"Two."

Ouch. "So not so much kids then?"

"No." I stood up after seeing my empty cup.

"I'm going to make another cup of tea, do you want one?"

"No thanks I should be getting back to repairing the TARDIS."

"You know that wire you re-routed yesterday, it's the main power line for the contra-magnetic eraser conduit. You should put it back."

"Where'd you find that out?"

"I read the manual, know it off by heart now."

"Then why do you sit around drinking tea all day? You should be helping me with the repairs."

"The only reason things stop working is because you go around breaking them."

"No I don't!"

"Your such a bad mechanic." I grin mischievously at him and he pushes my shoulder. I giggle at his annoyed face. "I wasn't joking about that wire though."

"But what's the point in even having that, it's useless!"

I have to admit it probably is. The basic idea of erasing contrasting magnetic fields should make everything fall apart. Or not stick together? I don't really understand it but it did sound important in the manual. I let the music echo round the control room. It was something from the late 20th century I like. Me and the Doctor are working underneath the grating by the main TARDIS controls. He popped his head up and scowled.

Being back on board a future TARDIS is nice but for some reason I don't think I'm going to be here long.

"Do you have to play that?"

I shouted from where I was working. "You said you wanted my help. This is what you get."

"I don't mind having music but really, does it have to be this?"

"Why, don't you like it?" I teased.

"You know I love the music from the twentieth century but this is not one of them."

"Fine I'll change it." I reached up to press a button. Something from the 23rd century started to play.

"You have no taste in music." He shrank back below deck.

"Well I'm not playing Mozart or Beethoven, it's got no mood for this kind of work."

"Course it does!"

"I'm sorry but Fur Elise just doesn't get me going the way it does you." I paused. "You're going to hum it now to annoy me aren't you." He did. Over and over and over again. I sighed and got back to work so I could finish as quickly as possible. "Pass me the sonic. I'm done!" Finally I could get away from his humming.

"Good, I need you over here." Damn. I walked over to him. "Can you hold that button there?" One arm shot up out of nowhere and pointed to the control panel above him.

"That's the air conditioning." He pointed to the button on its right. "The cancel processing button?"

"No, no, that one." He pointed further right.

"You want me to turn off the deflector shields?"

"Yes, what? No. Oh I give up. Just press the one that temporarily short circuits the force field around the central control circuits."

"Oh you mean this button." I crossed to the other side of the Doctor and pressed down a small red button, it was right beside the air conditioning. He popped his head back out of the grating.

"That's what I was pointing at." He said stubbornly, I smiled. "Maybe you should look before you point? Are you done yet because I have better things to do than hold down a button."

"You mean you're going to raid the library with another cup of tea. Which author are you reading at the moment, J. K. Rowling or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?"

"Bram Stoker."

"You can let go now. Don't spill your tea this time, I don't want to have to take another unnecessary trip because someone ruined a signed original manuscript." I got in a lot of trouble for that. I was banned from the library until further notice. This 'further notice' has recently been lifted under the condition that any more damage to the books would result in a permanent ban. I tried overriding the ban last time but the TARDIS just made it harder and harder to get in and I ended up doing the laundry. No clothes materialised in my room for weeks unless I'd washed them and I had no access to the main wardrobe. So much for perfect replicas.