The Christmas Reunion

Chapter Three: Return to the TARDIS

By Lumendea

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any spinoff material, and I gain no income from this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.

….

The TARDIS hummed warmly as Susan stepped inside the ship. Console lights flashed brightly, and Rose could see the TARDIS's prior human form smiling in her mind's eyes. Susan gasped softly and slowly walked up the ramp towards the console. She stopped once or twice to lovingly touch one of the coral struts before reaching the controls. In a move, so like her grandfather, Susan stroked the centre console.

"Hello, TARDIS," Susan greeted softly. "She's changed again."

"A couple of times," the Doctor replied. He frowned a little. "Not sure which desktop you saw last."

"I suppose it doesn't matter," Susan replied. Then she shook her head and pulled her hand back. "She's more vocal."

"Old Girl is getting more direct as she ages," the Doctor agreed with a smile of his own. "There was an incident recently where she ended up in a human body. We were able to talk to her." His smile was fond and widened as Susan looked at him in disbelief. "It's true." The Doctor nodded at Rose. "She realized who the madwoman trying to grab us was first."

Rose laughed and stroked the console herself. "That was quite the adventure." A soft sigh escaped Rose. "But it seems we have another one upon us."

"Yes," the Doctor agreed. He grabbed the scanner screen and adjusted the controls. "Let's see if we can get a better look at this one."

"I really hate these things," Rose said. She shivered again and peered over the Doctor's shoulder as the TARDIS scanners brought up an image of the rip. "They feel so wrong. Nothing god ever comes from them."

"Agreed," the Doctor murmured. "And we don't need neverweres in London."

"I served on the Earth Council for years," Susan said quickly. "Do I need to ask for an evacuation? I still have contacts I can reach out to."

"Quarantining the area would be helpful if they can swing it," the Doctor said. He tapped the screen a few times. "I've got the base energy signature so I can start building a containment unit to disrupt the neverweres. Rose, we'll need your sword at some point."

"Should I go and stand guard?" Rose asked, ignoring the confusion on Susan's face. "In case anything comes through early."

"That's too danger-"

Rose raised an eyebrow at him, and the Doctor sighed. He looked back at the screen and swallowed. "That might be safest. I'm sorry, but I need to work on the containment devices and figure out a way to close it."

"I'll be fine," Rose said. She kissed his cheek quickly, mindful that Susan was watching. "You do your part, and I'll do mine."

"Just… we don't know if your rank will protect you from them," the Doctor cautioned her.

Rose nodded seriously, letting the Doctor see that she understood. In truth, the idea of a neverwere grabbing her still seemed too dangerous for Rose to ever be anything but careful. It was one of many questions that she needed to ask Black or White. Probably White; he was better with answering questions.

"What?" Susan asked. "You can't be serious, Grandfather. She can't go out there alone."

"Rose will be fine," the Doctor replied. "I need to get to work on stopping this thing."

Giving Susan what she hoped was a reassuring smile, Rose headed for the TARDIS door and stepped back outside. Her eyes found the tear which floated up above the buildings and studied the various buildings. Most of them were brick and seemed to be flats over shops. She headed for the building that looked to be closest, ignoring the people who were pointing up at the strange dark and bright spot rippling in the sky.

Thanks to growing up in the London of the past, Rose had a pretty good sense of how such buildings were laid out. The construction of the building looked old, but Rose could see signs that it was newer than some of the others. Thankfully, the building had an electronic lock which was quickly opened with the help of Rose's sonic pen. She stepped into the building, located the stairs and headed for the roof.

….

The Doctor was aware of Susan watching him as he changed the settings on the scan, urging the TARDIS to find something useful. He was trying not to worry about Rose being out there alone, but it was difficult. She was highly capable, but he had seen her overwhelmed by neverweres in the past. That was how Jack had lost his memories in the past. But they also couldn't risk leaving the rift unguarded. Neverweres out in a city like London was a disaster.

"Will she be alright?" Susan asked.

"She'll be fine," the Doctor said. The screen changed, and he quickly shifted back from the controls. "You can help me. I have an idea. We need to get that rift closed before anything comes through."

"I'll be right with you," Susan said. She reached for the phone on the console. "I need to warn some people. As you said, if I can get the Council to seal off part of London, then maybe we can keep the damage low."

The Doctor almost smiled. Watching Susan slip into crisis management was amazing. She had been born on another planet but had been part of the Earth Council in the era of reconstruction thanks to all the work she'd done. When he'd left her with David Campbell, he'd known that she'd be amazing and happy, but even he'd underestimated how much Susan would roll up her sleeves and work on their adoptive planet. Earth was her home completely now, even if she worried about what was happening on Gallifrey, and it was the only home he had left beside the TARDIS.

The TARDIS hummed softly to him, reassuringly, but he couldn't help but worry about the tear, Susan, and the Time War. This reunion was both a gift and a curse. There were so many things that he wanted to tell her. So many things he wanted to warn her about. Mostly, he wanted to beg her to stay on Earth with her remaining children. Alex was gone, but Ian, Barbara and David Jr. remained. He knew that if she left for the Time War, they would never see her again. Susan would never return.

Her voice as she spoke to the person on the other end of the line and requested barricades was oddly soothing, but it led his thoughts to the war. Had there been moments like this? When she took charge of soldiers or civilians? He didn't even know what Susan had been doing in the war. Romana had alerted him that she'd returned, but Susan had avoided him. At the time, he'd been so sure that she was angry with him still, but now it seemed she was avoiding tangling their timelines.

She would have made a great Time Lady. If not for that genetic quirk that they'd missed while looming her. But then, that had been what started it all. On Gallifrey, despite the odd memories rattling around in his head, the Doctor had been ordinary. He'd been another cog in the machine and content to keep his head down. It had been Susan and the worry she caused the Council that had spurred him to leave. She had been the start of it all for him.

He was both proud and frustrated by that. Susan, from what he'd heard, had reverted to their old travelling days and had been helping on worlds affected by the Time War. Before using the Moment, he'd tried to contact her with no luck. Everything had been in chaos then. He'd thought of her when he ended the war. He'd told himself that Susan would understand.

The Doctor swallowed and closed his hands into fists. He pushed off the TARDIS console and headed down the corridor to one of his storerooms. Rose was out there, holding the line, so he needed to get to work and out of his own head. The Doctor heard Susan's footfalls behind him and pushed open the door.

The room was filled with random objects that he'd collected from markets over the years. Shelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling, and a worktable with a selection of tools stood in the centre of the room. His eyes took it all in as he catalogued the items he might need from his workroom off his and Rose's bedroom. He didn't want to go there just yet, not until Susan was working on something at least. Leading his grandchild through the room he shared with his partner seemed very wrong.

"What can I do to help?" Susan asked seriously.

"I need to build a disrupter for the neverweres and ideally the rift," the Doctor said. "We need to channel temporal energy into it to close the tear."

"Where do you plan to get the energy from?" Susan asked.

"Not sure yet," the Doctor admitted. He thought back to the rifts he'd encountered before. They were always a bit different. Maybe they'd get lucky and be able to patch this one easily. He began taking items off of the TARDIS shelves. "Need to get more data first and keep neverweres from coming out."

Then his fingers touched an unfamiliar object on the corner of a shelf. Frowning, the Doctor grabbed it and pulled it into the light. He expected to remember it immediately, but he couldn't. There was a thin layer of dust on it, which for the TARDIS meant that it had been in the room for a couple of centuries. Before the Time War, at least. Maybe from one of those periods in his Eighth body when he was having memory issues.

It was exactly what he needed. From the look of it, the device had been assembled quickly, and he could see the signs of a sonic screwdriver being used.

"What's wrong?" Susan asked.

"This device…" the Doctor turned the tube-like machine over his hands. It showed signs of use, and some of the circuits were burned out. "This is my handiwork."

"And?" Susan pressed. "This is your workroom; surely that isn't strange."

"It's perfect for closing a rip in time," the Doctor said. "But I don't remember making it." His frown deepened. "It… it's built to channel the energy of Rose's sword against the neverweres."

"What sword?"

"Rose has a Star Knight sword," the Doctor explained in a rush as he searched his memories. He and Rose had faced Neverweres out of rifts in the past, but he hadn't used anything like this. Normally, they had the bad luck of being too far from the TARDIS. "It's effective against neverweres. It's why she went to stand guard. If they start coming through, she can stop them." The Doctor held back the words 'as long she isn't swarmed' and tried to put that worry out of his mind. "I don't remember any event that we used this."

"Grandfather, perhaps it will be in the future," Susan said gently. "Or it was a case of crossing the timelines, so you erased the memory."

"Maybe," the Doctor said. "Rose has mentioned…." He shook his head. "It isn't important right now. I need to fix this; it'll be the perfect tool for keeping any neverweres at bay."

But the Doctor couldn't help but wonder about when he'd met Rose in the past and made this machine. He supposed that he might have built it when encountering another Star Knight, but he doubted that he would have needed to erase or bury the memories. But why hadn't the memories been unlocked? What could Rose have revealed that would have made it necessary for the memories to still be locked away?

And they were locked away, not erased. The Doctor could feel a hint of them, now that he was looking for it. They were still there. He hadn't erased them as would be normally suggested amongst Time Lords. Instead, he had locked them away to regain at a later date. There was a trigger; something would happen in the future, though the Doctor couldn't see what the trigger was. What had Rose known back whenever this had happened?

Shaking his head, the Doctor grumbled to himself and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. This shouldn't upset him. He knew that the timelines were tangled with Rose's. He'd go and see her when she was younger in future bodies. Worrying about it now was a mistake.

"Susan," he said. "Grab those circuits behind you. There's a charging unit over there," he nodded towards one side of the room. "I need you to get those charged up. If they don't work, don't use them."

"Yes, Grandfather," Susan said. In the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw Susan rush to the shelves and begin to gather the small circuit boards.

Using the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor stripped down the current circuits. If he'd been smart, he would have done this when he first used it and had it be ready. Then again, depending on the timing, it might have been the TARDIS that tucked the device back here.

"Stop thinking about it," Susan said suddenly. She was inserting the small chips that were only a few centimetres wide into the charger and giving him a stern look. "If you put away the memories, then there was a good reason."

"I hate the idea that I'm missing time with Rose," he grumbled.

Susan's expression softened. "I can understand that, but judging from how thoughtful you looked, the memories are sealed, not erased. You'll get them back. Now is not the time to worry about it."

"Have you ever sealed memories?" the Doctor asked.

"No, never had any reason to," Susan laughed. "My life has been wonderful, but infinity less complicated than yours."

That made the Doctor wonder. "Your children, do they know that you aren't from Earth?"

Susan paused and then nodded. "Yes, they are aware that I'm not human and that once travelled in time, but they don't know anything about Gallifrey. I didn't want to risk drawing Time Lord attention to them. Honestly, I'm not sure that they believe half of my stories."

The Doctor chuckled despite the weight of their situation. That was how it went, wasn't it? So many of his human companions struggled with that and had formed a 'club' to have people to talk to. Imagining Susan trying to convince her children was amusing. Shaking his head, he focused on the task at hand, trying to put his worries about Rose's past and Susan's future out of his mind.

….

The chill of December in London was as sharp as ever to Rose. She wasn't sure what that meant for climate change, but it gave her hope. Despite the strange thing that had appeared in the sky, Rose could still hear people out and about. Laughter rang from a slightly ajar window across the street, and Rose glanced that way nervously. She hated the idea of people being told to leave their homes on Christmas but felt it might be safest.

Then she heard a noise. It sounded pained. Looking around, Rose searched the rooftop and the nearby building for any sign of someone in distress. But the sound wasn't coming from any of the buildings. It was coming from the tear. Her sword at the ready, Rose stepped closer to the rip in space and time and listened. Someone on the other side of the rip was screaming.