oOo
Ace sat up, disoriented, not comprehending how she came to be lying on Susan's sofa, with a wet cloth pressed to her forehead. Two sets of concerned eyes peered over at her as she swung her feet onto the floor, the cloth clutched in one hand; she didn't know where to put it, wouldn't want to ruin Susan's...The blackness threatened again, but she shook it off. Fainting was for ninnies, for Victorian heroines, and Ace was neither. "Dorrie," she said clearly. Testing. Making sure she'd heard right, that it wasn't her imagination.
Susan nodded, her smile tremulous. "Dorrie. She hates Dorothy, won't let anyone call her that except her father."
"Right. Her father," Ace said her voice flat. "Her father is David Campbell, your husband. Your father is Kyris, the Doctor's son. And you named your kids after your husband and parents. So that means..." She fell silent, unable to say it. Not yet.
The Doctor did it for her. "You are Susan's mother, or will be one day."
"Not for very long." Ace's words spilled out, bitter and resentful as she glared at the Doctor. "It's because of him, isn't it. The Master. Because of this vendetta of his, against you." She hunched her shoulders defensively, moving her glare from the Doctor to her clenched hands. The cloth had fallen, unnoticed, to the gleaming hardwood floor. "Don't tell me it could be anything that makes me give up my baby, that it could be years from now and maybe we can stop it coming out badly, because it didn't so it won't." She pinched her lips together tightly, to hold back to flood of panicked babbling that threatened to break free, the hysteria she felt welling up inside. "I want to go back to the TARDIS now." She stood up, not looking at Susan or the Doctor as she edged toward the front door.
Susan reached out a hand longingly as Ace skirted around them, then let it drop back to her side. The sound of a car in the drive caught their attention. With a sound very like a wail Ace threw open the door and ran up the path, slamming the gate aside with a bang as she disappeared up the street at a stumbling run. Heading for the TARDIS.
The Doctor followed slowly, pain etched into his face as he hugged Susan again. She was trembling, and he kissed her gently on the cheek. "I tried to make her stay on the TARDIS," he said softly. "I knew, because of the children's names, that you knew. So I told you her name was Dorothy, did I, that she preferred Ace?" Susan nodded miserably. The tears had finally spilled over in a silent trickle. "Hmm, how thoughtless of me. This all could have been avoided if I'd only stopped at Dorothy." His smile was sad. "Well, perhaps not. She'd still know, even if you didn't."
Susan took his arm as they headed for the door. Somewhere outside, childish voices rang with laughter. A deeper laugh mixed in, and a door slammed in the back of the house. "I'm sorry if this hurts her, but for me it's been a wonderful gift, to have seen her and met her and spoken to her...Tell her that, when she's ready, will you? And tell Kyris--tell him--" She stopped, unable to voice her feelings, but her grandfather nodded, squeezed her hand, and regretfully let her go. She stayed in the doorway, watching as he disappeared yet again from her life, but not from her memories. Never from there...