Part 1: Falling Behind the Future
...every morning when the light / comes creeping in around my eyes
another future falls behind / the one I had in mind
Concrete Blonde, "Days and Days"
The Doctor rose to his feet as the White Guardian appeared, literally out of nowhere, and beckoned imperiously. "I have to go out for a bit." Tegan and Sarah Jane looked up in confusion at his hastily uttered words; it was the middle of breakfast, after all, and it was quite clear they couldn't see the glowing vision waiting so impatiently for him. "I'll be back soon," he threw over his shoulder as he hurried out of the kitchen door and disappeared into his TARDIS.
Tegan frowned at Sarah Jane as she hauled a fussing Lanie out of her high chair and deposited the baby onto her lap. "I don't much like the sound of that." She kept her eyes on the time machine, but it didn't budge, and she managed to relax just a touch at its continued presence.
Sarah Jane shrugged. "Some things never change. Better eat up," she advised as she dug into her ham and eggs. "If things are about to go loony around here again, there's no telling when Harry will be able to whip up another gourmet meal like this."
Tegan forced her attention away from the door before it was once again caught by her daughter. "Pay no attention to your father, young lady," she instructed the baby, who was gleefully trying to pull her mother's plate off the table. "He's forever doing things like this."
As she removed the plate from her daughter's hands, she found herself wishing that whatever it was could have waited a little longer. Twenty years, for instance, would have been better than the two months they'd managed to steal for themselves. Twenty years would have let them know if they could really make a go of being some kind of a family, to see if the wary truce between the former stewardess and the time traveler could develop into something more.
Tegan gloomily contemplated her dish of suddenly unappetizing food, then glanced under her lashes at Sarah Jane Smith-Sullivan, still complacently chewing away at the meal her husband, Dr. Harry Sullivan, M.D., R.A.F., had cooked before duty called him away. Tegan envied her friends their relationship; it was relatively uncomplicated, at least compared to the one she shared with the Doctor.
Now there was a sore spot; she didn't even know the real name of her daughter's father. Made her feel like the heroine of one of those trashy romances she used to read behind her mother's back, when she was still a headstrong, willful teenager back in her native Brisbane, Australia. Not so long ago in actual years, but a lifetime ago in experience.
It was amazing, when she thought about it, the twists and turns her life had taken. Perhaps it would make a good trashy novel, she reflected, toying idly with her eggs. Girl meets Time Traveler, Girl loses Time Traveler, Girl gets Time Traveler back. Or did she? Tegan still wasn't sure about the "Happily Ever After" theory. She and the Doctor still argued about things, still had periods—long, drawn-out periods—of being uncomfortable around each other, and there were times when she swore they had nothing in common but sex and parenthood. Not much to build a relationship on.
She was honest enough to admit that it wasn't all his fault, even though she wished she could point the finger solely at him. But truth was truth, and the truth of the matter was that she was cranky and difficult to live with and flew off the handle way too easily. And he was secretive and impatient and annoyingly smug about far too many things. We make quite a pair, Tegan thought, torn between amusement and distress. Maybe I'm not that different from when I was in Australia, driving my parents crazy, or in London terrorizing my grandfather or Aunty Vanessa. She shook her head at herself, returning to the present in time to prevent Lanie from dumping her juice onto her lap. She gave her daughter a spoonful of lukewarm eggs, then took one herself. Guess I'll just have to see what the future brings.
For some reason, that thought gave her very little comfort.