It took a while but Rose managed to convince both 'her mum' and Mickey the Doctor was really the Doctor and explained all about regeneration. She still hasn't told Jackie about her own changes. She really didn't know how to start. The Time Lady didn't know how to feel either, other than confused. She didn't lie when she told the Doctor she was still Rose Tyler, she got all her memories and emotions after all. Jackie Tyler may not have been her mother biologically, but yet she was still her mother. Her hearts and logic were still in conflict with each other.
The Doctor woke back up when she wafted a cup of tea under his nose, then made him drink it. She didn't bother with the admonishment she had planned about waking up from healing comas too soon. He was a grown Time Lord who had more experience with regeneration than she had. So by now if he didn't get what he did wrong there was no way to tell him otherwise. He slept for a bit after the tea at her insistence then went off to change his clothes when he woke up, and came back for them to have Christmas Dinner with Rose, her mum and Mickey.
Fred, George and Percy stayed only long enough to say hello to Rose's mother, while Harriet Jones left as soon as her car arrived for her. Percy delivered a present from his own mother, who despite their differences became fast friends with Jackie not long after meeting for the first time in Diagon Alley when she and Rose picked up her school things for first year. Molly had badgered Percy into promising to swing around to Jackie's flat to give it to her when he was called away to go to muggle London, even though because of different circumstances they hadn't talked since before the wizarding war broke out.
It was late when Rose decided to go for a walk since her mum was asleep. She was headed towards a small nearby park when she noticed a police officer who had been hanging around since they were transported off of the Sycorax ship. Her eyes narrowed, then she recognised him. She let out a low rumbling growl that only another Time Lord could have heard from that distance, which he obviously did because he let out a small yelp and ran for the park. It didn't help him any as Rose quickly shifted form and went after him on four legs instead of two.
Soon as the Wolf was about to catch him he transformed himself into a midnight black dahrama and booked it into the park to hide. The lighting gave the black wolf the advantage in the shadow of the trees but Rose was way too familiar with this game. She followed his scent, and listened out for the sounds he made while sneaking about in the trees. The Wolf pretended to lose the scent and went off in the wrong direction to lure her prey out in the open. She climbed a nearby tree when she was sure he couldn't see her and backtracked as she jumped from tree to tree. Sighting her prey she pounced out of the tree and hit the black wolf below. After a short scuffle with the light involvement of teeth and claws, meant for play rather than to hurt, Rose pinned him. 'Got to do better than that little brother.'
'Little? I'm only five minutes younger than you.'
'Which as your sister I get to lord it over you for the rest of time Narvin. Those are the rules, I don't make the rules.'
'I'm from a later point in your timeline so technically I am older than you Rose.'
'I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way, or so Brax keeps telling me' another mental voice nonchalantly added as another dahrama approached. This one's coat could have been made of flames if one didn't know better. It was all shades of ginger from the deep red of the grass on Gallifrey to the lightest orange at the tips of his guard hair.
'Doctor, when have you ever sided with Brax?' Narvin asked.
'Pretty much never, but that's one he's always very adamant about. What are you doing here Narvin?' He replied.
'Just playing with my litter mate here.' He managed to shove Rose off and sit between the Doctor and his sister protectively, head raised to try and look more dignified. An effect that was somewhat ruined by the fact he now had a lot of dead leaves stuck to his coat.
'Uh-huh. I heard the two of you fighting all the way from the TARDIS.'
'Men,' Rose huffed as she noticed the two of them posturing as a display of dominance. 'Doctor, it's only Narvin we always play like that. He's not a threat to me. Besides he may be better at stealth, but I'm a better fighter and not above fighting dirty. Narvin, the Doctor isn't some sort of threat to me. Or my perceived virtue.'
'Not yet he isn't,' Narvin griped. 'You know how those men from the houses are with people like us. He's also got a history of loving and leaving, and usually left with a cat or robot dog.'
'Hey, I didn't do anything with any of those people,' the Doctor growled. Both Rose and Narvin just stared back disbelievingly. 'Well ok there was that one time with Benny, but in my defence we were both drunk.' He added more placatingly. When they still wouldn't stop looking at him like that he went on, 'Okey fine there was also Charlie but she is the one who left me. I was also young and stupid when I did what I did to get my youngest son. Having his mother abandon him at the chapter house doorstep as a baby and having to raise him by myself, as much as I love him, was a lesson learned.'
'See, great catch you got yourself there Rose.' Narvin mocked.
Rose took a deep breath and counted to ten before letting it out. 'Look Narvin, I know probably a great deal more about him than he'd be comfortable knowing I know. You were the one who set me on 'renegade tracking duty' when I started at the CIA. After all, TARDISes are huge gossips. But what I choose to do with the Doctor either in the past, present, or future is between me and him and nothing to do with you. I swear you'd be happy if I'd never left the sisterhood since there's no men about. Not even thinking about the fact they still have sex with each other just as much. Not to mention the fertility rights we all split up and do once a year all over Gallifrey. Those are just one massive big orgy where so long as you're not related it doesn't matter who puts what where and into who.'
Narvin let out a whimper thanks to the mental image that was created. 'Need serious brain bleach!' He shook it off and stared down at the Doctor. 'Yes well if you EVER do anything to hurt my sister—"
'You're going to kill me, yea I get it and probably will let you.' The Doctor interrupted.
'Oh no I won't kill you, that would be too easy. I will show you exactly how I managed to get from a nobody engineer, all the way to the top of the fucking CIA. You don't get to where I did as a commoner without knowing how to be ruthless and be inventive. Also Romana will not be able to save you from the oncoming wrath no matter what you do. Got it?'
'Yep. Definitely absolutely got it.'
'Men.' Rose rolled her eyes. 'As sweet as it is, you are doing the protective brother thing, I'm a big girl now and am perfectly capable of dismembering the Doctor piece by piece until he regenerates. Then if he doesn't regenerate into someone with a clue start all over again. All by myself. So what are you really doing here out of your timeline Narvin? How many people are there, where do we start to look?'
'I really can't tell you that Rose, you didn't know where to look when you finally caught up with Brax, although you had found a handful by then. I can tell you Gallifreyans may be an endangered species now, but not a dying one. We still got enough genetic diversity to set up somewhere and rebuild. And that's all I'm telling you about numbers. I'm not even supposed to be here.'
'If you're not here to tell us where to start, why are you here?' Rose argued back.
'Well I heard you got into a sword fight, and well…' when he saw Rose's eyes start to narrow and lips pull back a bit in the start of a snarl, he quickly transformed back from being a dahrama, reached in his pocket and pulled out a time ring. "So sorry, really have to be going now," he said before activating the ring and disappearing in front of them.
'Brothers! Uhrrg.' Rose mentally screamed and hoped somehow her brother could hear it along the timeline no matter how impossible that is.
'Tell me about it. Got an annoying one of those as well,' the Doctor remarked a little grateful he didn't come along with Narvin.
'Narvin is up to something. Sure he can be a protective asshole at times, but he's far too much a stickler for rules to come here just because I had a sword fight.'
'Isn't he always up to something?'
'I think you're mistaking him for your own brother. He's that bad the CIA wouldn't even take him because they're afraid of what he might do. I guess that's the next step, try and guess where Braxiatel hid himself. Come on, best transform back and go to the TARDIS before someone sees two strange looking wolves in the park and calls the actual police.'
'I could make a few guesses where he'd be, but nothing concrete. He's as bad as I am when it comes to finding him when he doesn't want to be found.'
So they transformed back into what would be mistaken as just another two humans if seen and headed back to the TARDIS.
-x-x-x-
Luna University, 42nd century
Bernice Summerfield had just arrived at a bar just off of campus. She's now been alive for somewhere around three-hundred years and still looks in her thirties….. ok maybe forties but that's not the point. The point is she's not ageing after the Epoch incident. She had managed to return to Jason who was alive and well. They were married and had the twins just like how things were supposed to be without Brax's interference.
Of course that didn't mean she managed to get her happily ever after. While Jason who was supposed to be just as stuck without ageing as she was while not in their own timelines started ageing. Her twins, Kieth and Rebecca aged in front of her along with her husband and all three died of old age in their sleep. Peter though, he was alive and well and seemingly eternally the age he was during the whole Epoch incident as well. Both Ruth and Jack aged normally though, so whatever happened to her and Peter hadn't happened to them.
It made her worry a little about Irving who had just slipped away without a word, because Gallifrey was no longer there. This had also been the case on Legion but something else she couldn't quite put her finger on was different about it this time. Time Lords where now just whispers of legend, and rumours floated around about a war everyone forgot about.
Then her and Peter both also somehow, somewhere, some way, developed touch telepathy and had fun learning to shield and control, along with the children in preschool of a telepathic race with similar abilities. Her mental abilities had changed too and she could remember things more clearly and think and react quicker. Her magic was stronger. Even reading was something she could do a lot faster, being able to at a push read a novel in a few minutes.
Just when she thought she had a handle on things she ended up in another universe that was dying because of an alternate version of the Doctor. Typical Doctor trying to run away, used her Artron signature because it was 'rather unique' but by accident brought her there instead. She was kind of surprised to find one of the main differences about that universe was no Brax in it. After making an offhand joke to the Doctor one day about at least being able to trust the Master better than the Doctor's brother because the Master's motives are often a lot clearer. The alternate Doctor insisted memory loss or not he never had a brother. She'd asked the Master one time when he wasn't actually plotting to kill her right away and he claimed that the Doctor didn't have any siblings. She was one of the few people in this universe that happened to know her version actually had three of them, one older and two younger. Who knew, a universe where things actually turned out worse without Braxiatel and his scheming.
There was one mystery she may never solve though, how the heck did Toothless Bob get here. This bar was also named the White Rabbit, kind of why she came here for bit of nostalgic value, but this was Earth's Moon, Luna. Pretty much as far away from Legion as you could get. Bob was no good at explaining it either, he claims to have just woken up here one day. In his perspective the day after getting blind drunk the day she and Irving had left the While Rabbit with 'the Brimstone Kid'.
A man sat down on the only remaining barstool, between Benny and Bob, saving her from another rendition of the raspberry jelly story. He was a little scruffy looking yet had the appearance of deliberateness in it. It was like he was a perfectionist yet tryed to pull off a 'devil may care' look at the same time. He had long blond hair, an angular face, with square glasses on a sitting on a pointed nose, and blue eyes. He wore a tan coloured trench coat in a gothic type cut, a green waistcoat over a white shirt, with a red cravat at the top.
"I'm sorry. Were you two talking? One of us could swap seats if you like?" He said in a smooth English accent.
"No, it's okay!" Benny spoke up quickly before Toothless Bob could say anything.
"You know, I have the strangest feeling I've met you both before," He replied.
"I remember every face I've ever saw, and I recon I've never saw you before. The name is Toothless Bob, they call me that because my name is Bob and I ain't got no teeth."
" Very charming I'm sure. What about you madam?"
"Actually you do seem really familiar to me too. You wouldn't happen to be an alien with two hearts would you?" Benny replied.
He gave a laugh and said, "No, very much human I'm afraid, although you can check my pulse if you like." He held out his wrist and Benny took it to make sure, but sure enough there was only a single heartbeat. "The name is Miles Richardson, I teach theatre at the university and somehow got roped into coming here and dragging along some of my students with me who can play an instrument to make up tonight's band. May I have the pleasure of knowing the name of such a beautiful young lady?"
"Beautiful and young. You're too kind Miles," Benny scoffed. "I'm much older than I look, and what I look like is far from young. I'm Professor Bernice Summerfield, Benny to my friends. I'm a professor of archeology at the university. I've published a number of books over the years, perhaps you saw one and that's where you know me from. Got to admit though for a moment I thought you were a guy who happens to be one of my best friends. Or worst enemies depending on the day really."
"Well Benny, I can call you Benny can't I? This friend, come enemy of yours sounds interesting, but alas I am not he. Maybe I knew you in another life then."
"Interesting doesn't even cover the half of it," she replied. "So how did you manage to get roped into playing in the band?"
"I owed the owner and barkeep over there, Marvin, a favour. We're old friends. Came here together from somewhere in Ireland, although he's from Mars originally. So may I buy you a drink?"
"You may," Benny replied. She liked this guy, he was handsome and there was just something about him she couldn't put her finger on. They continued to talk and flirt with each other for a couple of hours until it was time for him to get up on stage.
He stood on stage with an old twenty first century electric guitar and a ragtag group of students behind him. "I already had this song planned out for tonight and our set list since we pretty much formed this band a week ago. We don't actually have a name for the band yet."
"How about 'The Shit Sandwich'," Marvin the bartender or 'Marvin the Martian' as people kept calling him, heckled from behind the bar and people laughed, including Miles.
"Not something I'm afraid the dean would appreciate on the extra credit notations in my students record. How about 'The Sandwich' instead." A few more people laughed this time. "Anyway I don't know why but I want to sing this, totally from my own perspective to and dedicated to the beautiful women I just met, Professor Bernice Summerfield."
"You're just trying to get laid," Benny called out from where she was sitting, joining in the fun.
"Oh, absolutely! Is it working?" He replied to more laughter.
"We'll see later," Benny replied.
"Ok, so here we go, the first debut song of 'the sandwich'."
They started playing and instead of being the shit show ever was expecting they were actually really good.
Loving me, loving myself
Working on my state of mental health
And I never thought it would go this far
You said we'd just be friends
But I'm standing here full of emptiness, I confess
I'm a beautiful mess
Holding on, I'd do anything
I was wrong, you mean everything to me
And you said too much and you hurt my pride
And what I said was mean
And I'm just as guilty as you are, I guess
What a beautiful mess, yeah yes
What a beautiful mess, yeah
Holding on to the end
Never say never
It's better than being alone
Forever is forever
Holding on to my friend
Never say never
It's better than being alone
Letting go of the things we said
I don't know what was running through our heads
All the time we spent away from us
Try to avoid the scene
But it took its toll, left our friends unimpressed
We're a beautiful mess, yeah yes
We're a beautiful mess, yeah
Holding on to the end
Never say never
It's better than being alone
Forever is forever
Holding on to my friend
Never say never
It's better than being alone
Never say never again
Forever is forever, my friend
Never say never again
Forever is forever
(Never say never again)
Song Beautiful Mess by Left on Laurel