Peter Alan Tyler - my dad. One of the most wonderful men in the world. Born 15th of September 1954.
FLASHBACK
"Come here, Rose, Ashlee. Come here..." she pat the bed beside her and we climbed onto her bed and looked at the photo in her hand. "Who's that? It's your Daddy. You weren't old enough to remember when he died. 1987. 7th of November. Do you remember what I told you? The day that Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clarke got married?" she asked us turning the page in her album to one of both of them together. "He was always having adventures. Oh, he would have loved to have seen you two now."
After visiting Mum and sitting in the vortex for a while talking, laughing and spending time together Rose came to us one day with a request.
"That's what mum always says. So, I was thinking... could we? Could we go and see my dad when he was still alive?" Rose asked him.
"Where's this come from, all of a sudden?" I asked her sitting next to the Doctor on one of the chairs as Rose stood across from us leaning on the console.
"All right then, if we can't, if it goes against the laws of times or something, then never mind, we'll just leave it." Rose said looking down.
"No, I can do anything. I'm just more worried about you two." he said looking at the two of us.
"I wanna see him." she told him. The Doctor looked at me and I simply looked to my lap.
"Your wish is my command. But be careful what you wish for." he told us standing up and starting the TARDIS engines up.
The Doctor, Rose and I were sitting at the back of a small crowd of people in a registrar office witnessing the marriage of Mum and Dad.
"I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline, Angela, Suzette Prentiss..." the Registrar said so Dad could repeat it.
"I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Suzanne... Suzette... Anita..." Mum narrowed her eyes at him and Dad looked to the Registrar for help.
"Oh, just carry on. It's good enough for Lady Di." The Doctor grinned at Rose and I at Mum's words and I smiled back at him.
"I thought he'd be taller." Rose told us.
"... to be my lawful wedded wife, to love and behold 'til death us do part."
FLASHBACK
"He died so close to home. I wasn't there. Nobody was. It was a hit and run driver. Never found out who. He was dead when the ambulance got there." I looked at her as she continued to talk about Dad. "I only wish there'd been SOMEONE there for him." I looked at Rose then down to the picture.
"I wanna be that someone. So he doesn't die alone." Rose told the Doctor and I in the TARDIS.
"November the 7th?" The Doctor asked us.
"1987." I told him. He started the engines as Rose and I watched him. When we stopped she grabbed my hand and we walked out of the TARDIS. The day was still and quiet and someone was playing music close by.
"That's so weird. The day my father died... I thought it'd be all sort of grim and stormy, it's just an ordinary day." Rose said looking around.
"The past is another country. 1987's just the Isle of Wight." The Doctor told her looking down at us. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yeah." she said walking towards the estate.
"You're going to have to hold me back when he dies, Doctor. I'll try to save him and I don't know what that could do to my future and I don't want to change a bit of it." I told him. He looked down at me with sadness and understanding in his eyes.
"Okay."
We all stood on the curb of the pavement in front of the Powell Estate, side by side. The Doctor had his arm around me to stop me from running when the time came.
"This is it. Jordan Road. He was late. He'd been to get a wedding present - a vase. Mum always said, that stupid vase." Rose said sounding like she was about to cry as a car rounded the corner.
"He got out of his car..." I said as the car pulled over. "... and crossed the road." the car then stopped. "Oh, God. This is it." Dad, oblivious to what was going to happen to him, picked up the vase from the passenger's seat. Dad got out of his car, unaware that a car had just rounded the corner and is headed straight towards him. The driver threw a hand over his eyes and the Doctor tightened his grip on me as Rose hid her eyes. I watched as the driver hit my dad and watched the vase fall to the floor and smashed. Rose lifted her head to look at our father, who was lying on the road, twitching."
"Go to him. Quick." The Doctor told her but the two of us couldn't move. Rose ran off and we followed her around another corner. We found her leaning against the wall and leaned with her until she was ready. I hugged her close to me as she cried and we heard the ambulance sirens sound.
"It's too late now." Rose said hugging me and the Doctor looked at us. "By the time the ambulance got there, he was dead." she said, her voice faltering choking on tears. the Doctor looked away from us and Rose turned to him. "He can't die on his own. Can I try again?" The Doctor looked at us, knowing it would be a bad idea. But I knew he'd do it.
The three of us stood just out of sight around the corner, watching the first set of ourselves standing on the curb.
"Right. That's the first trio of us. It's a very bad idea, two sets of us being here at the same time. Just be careful they don't see us. Wait 'til she runs off and they follow, then go to your dad." the Doctor told us. We watched as Dad's car drove up again.
For the second time, Rose's father's car draws up.
"Oh, God. This is it." I heard myself say as we watched as Dad picked up the vase from the passenger seat again.
"I can't do this." Our Rose said.
"You don't have to do anything you don't want to, but this is the last time we can be here." The Doctor told us. Rose and I stared at Dad as he got out of the car. Rose then ran from our hiding place towards Dad.
"Rose! No!" The Doctor and I called after her as the car that was to kill my father rounded the corner. Rose ran past the first set of us and knocked our father out of the way of the oncoming car and they tumbled onto the floor. The first set of us looked at each other bewildered for a few seconds, then disappeared. The Doctor looked at me in horror then we looked back at Rose and Dad as they got to their feet.
"I did it! I saved your life!" I heard her say.
"Blimey, did you see the speed of it? Did you get his number?" Dad asked her.
"I really did it. Oh, my God, look at you! You're alive! That car was gonna kill ya!" She told him.
"Well, give me some credit, I did see it coming. I wasn't gonna walk under it, was I?" Dad asked her.
"I'm Rose." She blurted to him, looking at him expectantly.
"That's a coincidence. That's my daughter's name." I looked at him a little shocked. Shouldn't he have said youngest daughter?
"That's a great name. Good choice, well done." Rose told him smiling, not paying attention to his wording. There was a few seconds of silence as Rose smiled at him, unable to take her eyes off him. He looked as though he was stumped on words.
"Right, I'd better shift. I've got a wedding to go to." He told her.
"Is that Sarah Clarke's wedding?" She asked him.
"Yeah, are you going?" He asked her.
"Yeah."
"You and your friends need a lift?" He asked gestures to us. I looked at the Doctor was was watching them darkly.
We followed Dad into the flat Mum still lived in so he could get ready to go to the wedding.
"There we go. Sorry about the mess. If you want a cup of tea, the kitchen's just down there, milk's in the fridge... well, it would be, wouldn't it? Where else would you put the milk? Mind you, there's always the window sill outside. I always thought if someone invented a window sill with special compartments, you know, one for milk, one for yogurt... make a lot of money out of that." Dad told us. Rose couldn't tear her eyes away from him as she smiled at him in delight. The Doctor nodded to him behind her. "Sell it to students and things..." he said pondering that thought for a moment. "I should write that down. Anyway, never mind that, excuse me..." he pushed past us and disappeared through a door that lead into Mum's bedroom in our time. I moved further into the house and looked around the place with Rose.
"All the stuff mum kept. His stuff. She kept it all packed away in boxes in the cupboard, she used to show us when she'd had a bit to drink." Rose told him as the Doctor leaned against the door frame, saying nothing to us. "Here it is. On display. Where it SHOULD be." The Doctor watched her angrily as she picked up a trophy and showed it to him smiling. "Third prize at the bowling... first two got to go to Didcot." she handed it to me and I examined it for a few more seconds before putting it back onto the table. Rose turned to a corner of the living room and walked to it and bending down to look at it. "Health drinks. Tonics, mum used to call them. He made his money selling this Vitex stuff. He had all sorts of jobs. He's so clever." she said looking around the room. I looked around some more and saw some plans on a table.
"Solar power. Mum said he was gonna do this. I guess he can now." I said looking at the Doctor. Rose looked at him smiling while his face still shows anger.
"When we met, you wanted nothing to do with me and when Ashlee came back after traveling with me and told you about our travels you jumped aboard." The Doctor said looking at her with suspicion.
"It wasn't some big plan. I just saw it happening and I thought... I can stop it." She confessed to us.
"I did it again. I picked another STUPID ape." I looked at him in shock from his words. Was that all we were to him? "I should've known. It's not about showing you the universe - it never is. It's about the universe doing something for you." I looked down at the ground finding the most interesting thing in the world.
"So it's okay when YOU go to other times, and YOU save people's lives - but not when it's me saving my dad." Rose asked him.
"I know what I'm doing, you don't. Two sets of us being there made that a vulnerable point." the Doctor explained to her.
"But he's alive!" she told him.
"My entire planet died. My whole family. Do you think it never occurred to me to go back and save them?" The Doctor asked her trying to make a point.
"But it's not like I've changed HISTORY. Not much, I mean... he's never gonna be a world leader, he's not gonna start World War Three or anything." she said trying to convince him she did the right thing.
"Rose - there's a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before. An ordinary man, that's the most important thing in creation. The whole world's different because he's alive. The future is different, we could be different, because of this." I told her.
"What, would you rather him dead?" She asked me.
"I'm not SAYING that-" I told her.
"No, I get it! For once, YOU'RE not the most important person in my life so now you want him gone." she told me and I stared at her in shock. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately, but that was the worst thing she'd ever said to me.
"Let's see how you get on without us, then." The Doctor told her, glaring at her. "Maybe you should remember why you saved him." he told her grabbing my hand. "You've got what you wanted so that's goodbye then." he turned on her pulling me with him down the hallway to the door with Rose behind us.
"You don't scare me." She told us standing in front of us and the door. "I know how sad you are. You'll be back in a minute. Or you'll hang around outside the TARDIS waiting for me." She said looking at me and I looked away from her. The Doctor pushed past her and opened the door not releasing my hand for a moment growing angrier by her words. "And I'll make you wait a long time!" she yelled and shut the door behind us and I followed the Doctor's storm.
"We will have to go back for her." I told him quietly as we rounded a corner to the road where the TARDIS was parked.
"With what she said to you?" he asked me looking back at me still angry.
"The world might be different with my Dad alive but with Rose here it could be worse. Plus Mum will kill ya." I told him.
"That's all I need. Another slap from your mother." he told me lightening it up a bit. A bird cawed as we approached the TARDIS. The Doctor took out his key and then looked up as though he heard something.
"Doctor? What is it?" I asked looking in the same direction he had but saw nothing. He opened the doors only for us to see the inside of the ship has disappeared. It was just an ordinary police-box. My mouth fell open as he stepped inside and felt the walls frantically then stopping.
"Rose!" he said looking at me. We quickly ran back in the direction that we had came in.
"Rose!" I called to her as we reached the church she was at. She turned to us with a satisfied smile in place.
"Get in the church!" The Doctor shouted at her. Her smile faded at his urgency. He looked to her left and I followed his gaze to see a bat like creature appeared, bearing down on her as she screamed. I knocked her out of the way just in time for that thing to fly over us as we fell to the ground. We quickly scrambled to our feet with the Doctor's help. "Get in the church!" The Doctor called to a crowd just outside the gate. The crowd tried to run for the door but they stopped when another creature appeared in front of them.
"Oh, my God. What are they?" One of the women asked as the guests in the church came out to see what was happening. They all screamed.
"Inside!" The Doctor called to them as the creature bore down on them. The people who just came out of the church tried to run out to the road. "Stay in there!" A man didn't listened and tried to run for it and the creature swooped down on him, covering his body with his wings. The bride tried to run into the church but another creature positioned itself before her and she screamed. The creature changed from attacking her to attack the priest instead. The Doctor ushered us all in to the church. "In!" the creature charged toward the doors as we ran in but the Doctor managed to shut them just in time and the creature screamed. Once inside, everyone began babble in panic. The Doctor looked around at the shadows of the creatures outside the windows. "They can't get in. Old windows and doors, okay. The older something is, the stronger it is. What else?" he asked as the creature screeched. "Go and check the other doors! Move!" He ordered and the guest quickly ran to check on the other doors. The Doctor pushed on some wooden doors with Mum and I following him.
"What's happening? What are they?" She asked grabbing his arm. "What ARE they?"
"There's been an accident in time, a wound in time. They're like bacteria, taking advantage."The Doctor said not really talking to me while answering her question.
"What do you mean, time? What're you jabbering on about, time?" Mum asked him before I could get a word in.
"Oh, I might've known you'd argue. Jackie, I'm sick of you complaining." The Doctor told her thinking of her arguing with him since I'd met him.
"How d'you know my name?" She asked him.
"I haven't got time for this-" he said talking over her.
"I've never met you in my life!" she said talking over him both of them getting louder.
"No, and you never will unless I sort this out. Now, if you don't mind - I've waited a long time to say this - Jackie Tyler, do as I say. Go - and - check - the - doors." he said pointing in the direction of the door, his voice loud and commanding.
"Yes, sir." she left immediately and the Doctor grinned at me, pleased with himself as a man approached us.
"I should've done that ages ago." he told me.
"She would have slapped you senseless." I told him, matching his grin.
"My dad was out there." the man told us.
"You can mourn him later, right now we've got to concentrate on keeping ourselves alive." I told him following the Doctor to check all doors and windows.
"My dad had-" The man started again holding up an old mobile, the large chunky kind.
"There's NOTHING we can do for him." The Doctor told him trying to make him understand.
"No. But he had this phone thing. I can't get it to work. I keep getting this voice..." he told us. I took the phone from him and dialed a number then held the phone up so the Doctor and I could listen.
"Watson - come here - we need you. Watson - come here - we need you." I looked at the Doctor as he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"What is it?" I asked him.
"That's the very first phone-call, Alexander Graham Bell." He told me as I gave the phone back. "I don't think the telephone's gonna be much use." he said turning to go check another door.
"But someone must call the police!" The man said calling after us.
"Police can't help you now. No-one can." everyone in the church watched him intently, then again he was the only one who knew what was happening. "Nothing in this Universe can harm those things. Time's been damaged and they've come to sterilize the wound. By consuming everything in sight." he told us and I followed his gaze to Rose.
"Is this because... Is this my fault?" Rose asked him but he gave no reply. We all knew the answer, yes. He walked past her and I followed him before separating.
I continued to check the doors and windows when I noticed a child sitting by herself in the front row holding on to something tightly in her small hands.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked her. She just looked at me, not saying anything. "It's okay, you can talk to me. The Doctor's going to get us all out of here, you'll see." I told her smiling.
"How do you know?" she asked me.
"Cause I travel with him. He does this all the time. Well, not exactly this but something like it. Sort of." I told her thinking of our adventures.
"Who are you?" She asked me finally. I looked into her familiar light gray eyes framed by long curly black hair.
"My name's Ashlee. See that blonde over there." She turned to see Rose and Dad talking. "That's my sister, Rose. Then their's, of course, the Doctor." I said looking at him talking to the man from earlier and the bride.
"What about your mum and dad?" she asked me. I looked back at her and thought of an answer. I couldn't exactly say that my parents are in the church but they don't know it.
"Mu mum is at home and my dad died a long time ago." I told her. "So I've told you my name, what's yours?" I asked her.
"I don't have one." she told me.
"How do you not have one?" I asked her. "Everyone has a name."
"But not everyone remembers it. I don't remember anything past this morning. I woke up on the sidewalk in clothes that were too big and a watch then walked here." she told me.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. Maybe your mum and dad are in another church, yea? And they can't wait to find you. I told her smiling.
"That would be nice." she told me, finally smiling.
"Now that's better. Always look on the positive side of things. The creature's can't get in and the Doctor will come up with a plan. Then we will get out of here and your parents will find you and you'll live a long happy life. Filled with love, happiness, everything." I told her smiling even more. She grinned at me and her hand loosened up to show her watch. It was silver with designs I'd only seen once before. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my watch and compared it with hers. It matched. I looked at her in shock with the realization... she was me.
"So where are you? I can't wait to see what you looked like when you were little." The Doctor told me smiling lightly. I would have bet anything that he was trying to think of a way out of here.
"I'm sitting in front pew. She has no memory though, Doctor. She doesn't know who her parents are and Mum and Dad aren't rushing to 's just sitting there holding onto that stupid watch." I told them looking at the little girl.
"What watch?" he asked me giving me a strange look. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my watch and showed it to him.
"This one. I've had it for as long as I can remember, obviously. I always thought it'd been passed to me from Dad or Grandad. But I was wrong cause she has one also." I said looking back at her. I felt the Doctor take my watch and I watched him inspect it, turning it over and over in his hands. "What is it?"
"This is a Time Lord's Watch." he said looking at me weirdly.
"But you said if their were Time Lords left you'd know." I reminded him of his words at Van Statten's museum.
"Not if they used this. The Time Lords hid from their enemy's by putting their essence into a pocket watch and becoming human or any other species that they could pass off as." he told me.
"So how did I get one?" I asked looking back at mt younger self.
"These don't just fall into human hands, not easily and not without reason. The only one who knows how you got that is to ask the Time Lord who gave it to her." he told me, but he and I both knew that their were no Time Lords here or anywhere else on the Earth.
"So what does that make me?" I asked him. He looked at me with so many emotions in his eyes: hope, fear, confusion and love were the main ones.
"I promise, I'll find out for you." he told me wrapping his arm around my shoulders.
"We'll find out together." I told him leaning on his chest and staring at the little black haired girl who was staring at us with familiar light gray eyes.
The creatures slammed themselves against the walls and windows as I sat next to the Doctor as he played with baby Rose.
"Now, Rose... you're not gonna bring about the end of the world, are you?" The Doctor asked the baby as Rose walked up to us. "Are you?" the baby stared at him innocently. The Doctor glanced up to see Rose as she watched him. "Jackie gave her to me to look after. How times change." he said playing with the baby.
"I'd better be careful. I think I just imprinted myself on Mickey like a mother chicken." she told us laughing lightly, trying to lighten the mood a bit. She reached out for the baby but the Doctor quickly grabbed her hand and pushed it back.
"No. Don't touch the baby." he said as the creatures outside screeched loudly again. "You're both the same person and that's a paradox, and we don't want a paradox happening. Not with these things outside. Anything new - any disturbance in time makes them stronger. The paradox might let them in." he explained to her.
"Can't do anything right, can I?" she asked him.
"Since you ask, no. So, don't - touch - the - baby." he told her sternly.
"Doctor." I put my hand on his arm and he glanced at me, his eyes softening.
"I'm - not - stupid." Rose told him slowly, glaring.
"You could've fooled me." he told her. Rose looked at me as though begging for help. I hugged the Doctor from behind him tightly trying to calm him slightly.
"This isn't all her fault you know. Either you or I should have held her back for her own good knowing something like this would happen." I reminded him.
"You're right. I'm sorry." he told us. Rose looked back at him in confusion.
"We weren't really gonna leave you on your own." I told her.
"I know." Rose told me.
"But between the three of us, I haven't got a plan. No idea." the Doctor told us honestly. "No way out."
"You'll think of something." I told him quietly so only the three of us could hear.
"The entire Earth is being sterilized. This, and other place like it, are all that's left of the human race. We might hold out for a while, but nothing can stop those creatures. "They'll get through in the end. The walls aren't that old. And there's nothing I can do to stop them. There used to be laws stopping this kind of thing from happening - my people would have stopped this. But they're all gone. And now I'm going the same way."
"If I'd realized..." Rose started saying but never finished. She knew we didn't blame her for what was happening.
"Just... tell us you're sorry." he told her and I smiled. Soon things would be back to normal.
"I am. I'm sorry." Rose said, holding our gaze. I reached out and held her hand. I then stood and hugged her tightly which she returned. After a few moments, Rose pulled away feeling inside my pockets for a moment. "Have you got something hot?" There was a sizzling sound as she pulled out my TARDIS key from my pocket. She gasped and dropped it quickly from the heat. The Doctor stood beside me and we all stared at the key glowing brightly on the floor.
"It's the TARDIS key!" I said as the Doctor took off his jacket and used it to pick up the key.
"It's telling me it's still connected to the TARDIS!" He told us excitedly.
"The inside of my ship was thrown out of a wound but we can use THIS to bring it back. And once I've got my ship back, then I can mend everything. Now, I just need a bit of power. Has anybody got a battery?" The Doctor asked the crowd of people. Everyone was silent for a moment until the groom held up a phone.
"This one big enough?" he asked him. The Doctor hurried to him and inspected it.
"Fantastic." he said grinning.
"Good old dad." Stuart gave the phone to the Doctor. "There you go."
"Just need to do a bit of charging up..." he said as he pressed his sonic screwdriver to the battery, "And then we can bring everyone back." He glanced around the church as the battery charged up, grinning.
"You, um... you never said why you came here in the first place. If I had a time machine, I wouldn't have thought 1987 was anything special. Not round here, anyway." Dad said to us as we sat in the back of the church. Rose had already told the Doctor and I about Dad finding out about us being from the future.
"We just ended up here." I told him.
"Lucky for me, eh? If you hadn't been there to save me..." Dad said dropping off.
"That was just a co-incidence. That was just... REALLY good luck. It's amazing..." Rose told him quickly. Dad looked at us as though he didn't believe her and their was a slight pause on the conversation.
"So, in the future, are me and her indoors still together?" Dad asked us. We didn't know that for sure anymore so I didn't know what to tell him.
"Yeah." Rose told him.
"Are you still living with us?" he asked her not looking at me.
"Yep! We both are." Rose told him nodding her head at me. Dad nodded and smiled at her intensely for a few moments.
"Am I a good dad?" he asked us and I couldn't find it in my heart to tell him the truth.
"You... you told us a bedtime story every night when I was small. You were always there... you never missed one." she said smiling at him. "And um... you took us for picnics in the country every Saturday. You never let us down. You were there for us all the time. Someone we could really rely on." we were all silent for a few moments.
"That's not me." he told us and Rose stopped smiling. We both looked to the front of the church as the TARDIS started to materialize with the key in her lock. The Doctor put his jacket back on and grinned as he ran back up the steps to the pulpit to address the guests.
"Right, no-one touches that key. Have you got that? Don't touch it. Anyone touches that key, it'll be - well - ZAP. Just leave it be and everything will be fine. We'll get out of here. All of us. Stuart - Sarah - you're gonna get married, just like I said." he told us grinning.
The TARDIS was materializing slowly but surely in the front of the church as we all sat in the back. Everyone was sitting waiting for it to appear fully. The Doctor, Rose and I sat side by side as dad sat on a seat behind us.
"When time gets sorted out..." Rose started asking the Doctor but she didn't dare ask with dad behind us.
"Everybody here forgets what happened. And don't worry - the thing that you changed will stay changed." The Doctor told her.
"You mean I'll still be alive?" Dad asked him. Rose and I turned to him. "Though I'm meant to be 's why I haven't done anything with my life. Why I didn't MEAN anything." Dad continued saying to us.
"It doesn't work like that." The Doctor told him.
"Rubbish. I'm so useless I couldn't even die properly. Now it's my fault all of this has happened." Dad said looking at the windows as the creatures circled us. Rose reached over the back of the pew and put her hand on his arm.
"This is MY fault." she told him sternly.
"No, love. I'm your dad. It's my job for it to be my fault." Dad told her.
"Her dad? How are you her dad? How old were you, twelve?" We looked up in shock to see Mum standing over us with baby Rose in her arms. The Doctor walked away from us a little, just far enough to keep an ear out for Rose and I. "Oh, that's DISGUSTING."
"Jacks - listen. This is Rose." Dad said trying to make her understand this was her daughter.
"Rose? How sick is that? You give my daughter a second hand name? How many are there? Do you call them ALL Rose?" Mum asked him quietly so no one else could hear her.
"Oh, for God's sake, look! It's the SAME Rose!" Dad told her as he took the baby from Mum's arms and placed her into Rose's.
"Rose! No!" I quickly grabbed the baby Rose from my Rose's arms but it was too late. A creature appeared in the middle of the church and everyone screamed and leaped to their feet.
"Everyone! Behind me!" The Doctor called out pushing Rose and I behind him. The creature chirped at us then spread its wings, screaming. "I'm the oldest thing in here." The Doctor said walking forward and the creature attacked him.
"DOCTOR!" I watched, horrified, as the creature consumed the Doctor in front of us. The only thing holding me back from going to him was the baby in my arms and Rose holding me back. Everyone else screamed and ran away from the group we'd made behind the Doctor. The creature swooped around the church and then collided with the TARDIS and they both disappeared. The key fell to the floor, no longer glowing. There was silence in the church for a few seconds before I ran down the isle and picked up the key. "Cold. It's cold." I told them. "Oh, my God, he's dead." I felt arms wrap around my waist and I turned and cried in the persons arms.
"It's all my fault... all of you... both of you... the whole world..." Rose said as I cried on her shoulder.
"This is it. There's nothing we can do. It's the end." one of the people said I cried for the man I'd just lost.
I was laying on Rose's lap in the dark church as she stroked my hair. The younger me had come closer to us and sat next to Rose but she never touched me. Dad then walked to us, carrying his jacket.
"The Doctor really cared about you..." I rolled my head in Rose's lap so I could look at him. "He didn't want you to go through it again if there was another way. Now there isn't."
"What're you talking about?" I asked him standing up with Rose.
"The car that should've killed me, love. It's here. The Doctor worked it out way back, but he, er - he tried to protect me." Dad told us. I felt my eyes fill with tears and what he was saying. "Still - he's not in charge anymore. I am."
"But you can't..." Rose told him, her voice shaking. Dad reached out to her and stroked her face.
"Who am I, love?" Dad asked her.
"Our Daddy." she said crying. He looked at me and hugged us both to him. Mum approached us with wide eyes.
"Jackie... look at her. They're ours." he told her motioning to both of us. Mum looked at us then to the little girl next to us. I could see the truth dawning on her as Rose and I looked at her tearfully.
"Oh, God..." Mum threw her arms around us and we held her tightly to us. When she let us go she looked at Dad.
"I'm meant to be dead, Jackie. You're gonna get rid of me at last." Dad joked with her.
"Don't say that." Mum told him holding back her tears.
"For once in your life, trust me. It's got be done. You've got to survive, because you've got to bring up our daughters." he said gesturing to us. He pulled her in for one last kiss before turning to us. "I never read you those bedtime stories. I never took you on those picnics. I was never there for you."
"You would've been." I told him.
"But I can do this for you. I can be a proper dad to you now." Dad said ignoring me.
"But it's not fair." Rose told him, crying.
"I've had all these extra hours. No-one else in the world has ever had that. And on top of that... I get to see the two of you." he said taking our faces in his hands. "And you're beautiful." he said smiling at both of us. "How lucky am I, eh? So, come on... do as your dad says." Without looking at him Rose handed him the vase he was to die with and he took it from her. "Are you going to be there for me, love?" he asked and we nodded to him. "Thanks for saving me." He pulled up into a tight embrace then ran out the door. He stopped just outside the gate and looked up at one of the creatures as it began to bear down on him. He turned to see the car appear from thin air around the corner and runs straight out in front of it, screwing up his eyes before the impact. "Goodbye." The driver threw a hand over his eyes as the car knocked him over, throwing the vase to the ground, breaking it. The creatures disappeared one by one. Rose and I stood outside the church doors, holding hands and taking deep breathes in the slight breeze. Someone came up behind me, and grabbed me hand. I looked up to see the Doctor and we stared at each other for a few moments.
"Go to him. Quick." he told us and we ran our of the gates and down the road and sat beside dad as he died. We held his hands and Rose lifted his head off the ground. Finally his eyes closed and his head fell back and Rose lowered his head gently to the ground.
FLASHBACK
"The driver was just a kid." Mum told us as we sat on her bed. "He stopped. He waited for the police. It wasn't his fault. For some reason, Pete just ran out. People say there were these girls... and they sat with Pete while he was dying. And they held his hand. Then they were gone. Never found out who they were."
I stood as Rose kissed dad's forehead and joined the Doctor. We waited for Rose to join us then we left not talking about what happened or ever bringing it up again.
Peter Alan Tyler, my Dad. The most wonderful man in the world. Died the 7th of November, 1987.
Next time on The Doctor's Girl:
"Why are we chasing it?" I asked him.
"It's mauve and dangerous. And about 30 seconds from the center of London." He explained to me as part of the console exploded. I turned and watched the planes dropping bombs on London.
"Hello." I said breathless.
"Hello." he said looking me up and down. "Shall we have a drink on the balcony?" he asked me. I smiled and looked at my lap as he pressed a button and stepped to the roof lower themselves into the spaceship. I whooped and he laughed while he filled our glasses. He told me pulling me closer. "I like to think of myself as a criminal."
"I bet you do!" I told him laughing. I saw an explosion below me and my grip loosened on the rope. I tried holding on even more but my hands were sweating so bad that I lost my grip and fell screaming.