The next morning, or what could be considered as morning in the TARDIS as they were currently in the Vortex, The Doctor, Rose and Jenny were in the kitchen. Rose was helping the Doctor with the breakfast while Jenny was sat at the table nattering away about what she'd been able to read so far. And she'd gotten very little sleep. However, between all that reading, she had raided her wardrobe. She was wearing a dark yellow long sleeved shirt and on top of that she wore a dark blue polo neck jumper, a pair of grey chino's and blue-green coloured converse. Her blonde hair was up in a loose ponytail.
Knowing Rose was okay with the cooking, the Doctor left her to it and sat opposite his daughter. "How fluent are you in Gallifreyan?" The Time Lord asked. "Can you say a full and accurate sentence?"
Jenny frowned and appeared to think.
But before she could say anything, Rose interrupted. "Knock it off, Doctor! She's only just started learning." She admonished him.
"But Jenny's smart. She's a Time Lord like me." The Doctor replied while Rose looked over at them. "We learn fast."
Jenny nodded and said something in regular Gallifreyan. It wasn't what he was expecting but it was good enough for the Doctor.
Rose was clearly surprised about this. "Learn fast? That's months worth of Gallifreyan in under a few hours!" She exclaimed.
The Doctor grimaced a little. He'd been teaching Rose Gallifreyan when she expressed an interest in it. She was trying her best but it was slow and faltering and peppered with mistakes. Gallifreyan or Old High Gallifreyan wasn't the best language an advanced human could try to learn.
Jenny saw and felt Rose's annoyance and asked the Doctor in Gallifreyan why she was angry. The Time Lord replied in the same way, telling his daughter that Rose was struggling with the language.
"What are you two saying?" Rose asked, placing two plates of breakfast pancakes in front of them before getting her own.
"She was asking why you were so angry and I told her why." The Doctor replied.
During that time, J.D and Jaime walked in and they both looked extremely satisfied. Well, the Half-Time Lord looked quite ruffled and the Doctor sensed he was in a state of denied pleasure. He didn't even want to know what was going on there. Jaime sat down next to Jenny and with a wave of her hand a bacon and sausage stottie with ketchup and an English breakfast appeared in from of her and John.
The young Time Lady looked impressed at this. "How'd you do that?" Jenny asked her sister.
"With practice." Jaime replied as J.D sat down at the end of the table.
"It's a bit lazy." The Doctor commented between bites of his banana pancakes.
Jaime and John ignored him as they ate their breakfast hungrily.
"The way you do that," Rose spoke up. "They don't just come out of thin air do they? Somebody else just lost their breakfast."
The Half-Time Lord barely glanced up from his breakfast, yet Rose noticed Jaime's face turn red.
"I don't really think about it." Jaime replied, continuing to eat her stottie.
Rose snorted at this in amusement. She also liked Jaime's now softer sounding accent. It was easier to understand. Her thoughts soon turned onto more important things. "Isn't it about time we went back to Leadworth, picked up Amy and Rory once they're married?" She enquired to the Doctor, feeling a bout of curiousness from Jenny.
"Yep!" The Doctor replied, popping the 'p'. "We should do. Maybe in a couple of days time."
"Who are Amy and Rory?" Jenny asked her, though she was sent visual images of the couple by Jaime.
"They're our companions." John answered the young Time Lady around a mouthful of sausage. There was a brief wave of disgust around the table.
"Don't eat with your mouth full." Jaime admonished him.
"Yes, darling." John replied.
"Anyway, we should get them a wedding present." Jaime said to the Doctor and he nodded.
"Good idea." The Doctor replied, realising something as he looked around the table. "Uhh, Jaime, where's your mother?" He asked once he noticed she wasn't at the table.
"Och, she's lost." Jaime replied nonchalantly.
Hearing this, the Doctor stopped what he was doing and stared at his youngest daughter. "What do you mean she's lost?" He exclaimed in disbelief.
"I mean just that," Jaime replied. "She's lost somewhere in the TARDIS and I cannae find her."
Rose was next to speak. "Well why didn't you ask the TARDIS for help?"
"Because it's the TARDIS who is hiding her from me." Jaime told the blonde.
"She's probably doing it for a reason." J.D added and Jaime nodded.
The Doctor sighed and sat back. "Alright then. Do you know where she'll be?" He asked and Jaime unfortunately shook her head.
And then a fork dropping onto the plate caught their attention, Jenny's eyes wide as she stared ahead. "She is in the place of Harmony, where the Master of Disguises came to an end." Jenny cryptically uttered before shaking her head to clear it.
"Nice, sounds like she's in the Cloister Room of the Eighth Doctor." Jaime stated and looked at Jenny. "Did you ever get the chance to watch 'Doctor Who The Movie'?" She asked her sister.
"The one where dad was meant to take The Master's remains back to Gallifrey? Yes, I have." Jenny shuddered at the thought of The Master trying to steal her dad's remaining regenerations. He was real in this universe as well and she hoped he was still dead.
"Why do you always do that?" Rose suddenly asked and Jaime frowned at her.
"Do what?" She asked back.
"Predict what you see in such a cryptic way?"
Jenny furrowed her brows and Jaime smiled a little. "I don't know. It's just something we do." She replied to Rose's question.
"Right," the Doctor stood up, his breakfast half finished. "I'll go look for Alexia." He said and walked out of the kitchen.
Rose wanted to go with him but she had a feeling he was meant to go alone.
Alexia was still sat on the steps of the old Cloister Room. Only now she had her head down, eyes closed and arms resting on her upper legs. It felt like she'd been here for hours, perhaps it was considering her bum felt like it had gone numb. She wondered if the TARDIS had finished playing silly buggers yet, but didn't want to look up in case the doorway was still missing. Then she remembered Jaime saying that she was going to get lost in the Time Machine and sighed out in frustration. Of course she would have known, after all she was psychic. She probably saw a lot of future things in her mind. Faint footsteps were heard in the distance but Alexia still didn't look up. It might be the TARDIS trying to trick her.
"There you are!" It was The Doctor and she knew it was him because his accent was different to John's. Looking up, Alexia stared at the Time Lord who had obviously walked in through a doorway that hadn't previously been there. He was wearing his blue pinstripe suit with red converse. "Well? What are you waiting for?" He asked.
Alexia chuckled lightly and stood up, grimacing slightly at the aches and pains from lack of movement. Then she followed the Doctor into the Eighth Doctor's console room, but that was as far as they could go because the Doctor found his way in and out had disappeared as well.
He groaned out, annoyed. "Why are you doing this, Old Girl?" He asked the TARDIS.
"Looks like she's still playing funny buggers!" He heard Alexia say and she didn't sound at all impressed. "I didn't even wander into the TARDIS all lost and confused yet she's doing a Tegan on me!"
Surprised, The Doctor looked back at her and watched as she sat down on one of the seats in the room, folding her arms with a look of distain.
"Nonsense!" The Doctor replied with a grin. "You're nothing like Tegan. She was Australian."
The look she gave him didn't bode well and he turned his attention back to the TARDIS, silently begging her to return the door. He didn't have a very good track record with his companions mothers, especially when they kept slapping him. He didn't want to add Alexia to the list.
Once he got an answer from his TARDIS he let out a groan and shook his head.
"Well?" Alexia questioned the Doctor.
He looked at her with a grim smile. "I don't know why, but she wants us to talk." He told the woman.
Alexia raised her brows at this. "Oh? What about?" She asked but was disappointed when The Doctor shrugged his shoulders.
"I've no idea," he replied, sitting down in another chair next to Alexia and leaning forward, placing his elbows on his thighs. "If only she'd give me a clue."
After a couple of minutes of silence, Alexia sighed once again, annoyed. "Well, it must be something or she wouldn't be keeping us here!" She muttered. "However, I do have a few things on my mind."
The Doctor glanced at her, noticing she was still scowling. "And what would that be?" He asked, also sounding annoyed.
Alexia took a deep breath before shifting in her seat so that she was looking at The Doctor. "Jaime and Jenny both have this sibling bond thing that they share, making them sisters in a way. Jenny is your daughter, Jaime is mine but…and I'm still trying to get my head around this…she would also be your daughter too. Is that right?"
The Doctor sat back, blew out a breath and had the good grace to look nervous, sheepish even. "Well, in a way…" He mused at first before thinking deeply. "Jenny was taken from my skin cells and rapidly grown. Parts of Jenny's biology was taken and used in Jaime. So, yes, technically she is also my daughter but not biologically." He saw a scowl appear on Alexia's face and that worried him very much. "Is that a problem?" The Time Lord asked.
"No, it's not that. You say that Jenny's biology was used on my Jaime, then you say that she's your daughter but not in a biological way?"
"Well I didn't conceive her did I!" The Doctor replied with a chuckle, his face going red.
"Oh, right," Alexia muttered, her face also going red. "So it's more like fostering or adoption?" She then asked.
"Yes, it's exactly like that." The Doctor replied. And because he still wasn't sure what Alexia had really been asking, counter-asked with; "Do you have any problem with that?"
Alexia shook her head. "No, not at all," she replied. "You've obviously been a better father figure to her than the piece of shit that conceived her. You've looked after her and kept her out of trouble."
The Doctor grimaced at this and sighed sadly. "No, I haven't been a very good father." He admitted. "I ran away from Gallifrey, I left Jenny on Messaline because I thought she was dead. And I let Jaime down when she needed me the most."
Hearing this, Alexia narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "How exactly did you let Jaime down?" She asked.
But the Doctor just shook his head. "It's all a bit complicated."
"How complicated?" Alexia persisted, worried now.
Yet the Doctor still looked shifty about it. "It's best you ask Jaime about Planet Fiction." He said.
The woman glared at the Time Lord. "Alright, fine. But if I find out you put my daughter in danger I'll have your balls, you got me?" Alexia warned.
Eyes widening, The Doctor gulped, believing Alexia's words. A slap was one thing, but castration was a whole other level! "Okay, understood!" He replied, holding his hands up in defence.
A strange noise was heard and they looked over across the room to find the door had been replaced.
"So that's what you wanted us to talk about?" The Doctor exclaimed, standing up. "Why didn't you say so?" He sensed an odd sort of mischief from the Time Machine.
"Your TARDIS thinks she's funny apparently!" Alexia stated, stood up and walked out through the doorway.
Raising his brow, the Doctor wondered how she could know that before following her out.
"I wasn't aware you are psychic as well." The Doctor inquired as they both walked along the corridor, his hands in his pockets.
Alexia looked over at him with a confused frown. "I'm not," she replied. "What makes you think I am?" She counter-asked.
The Time Lord furrowed his brow, also confused. "Well for one thing, you knew the TARDIS was playing with us." He said.
But Alexia shook her head. "That still doesn't make me psychic." She replied.
Still frowning and feeling very puzzled, the Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "If you're not psychic or telepathic you shouldn't be able to communicate with the TARDIS. Or sense it's feelings. Are you sure you're not psychic?"
The woman groaned, annoyed about his persistence. "Yes, I am very sure!" She uttered. At this point she was feeling very cagey. "All my instinct came from being a mother alone. I'm sure you'd feel the same about your own children!" She snapped at him as she continued to walk along the corridor.
The Doctor winced at her reaction, though he wasn't quite convinced about her not being psychic. So he took out his Sonic Screwdriver and scanned Alexia.
Hearing the warble of the Sonic, Alexia stopped and turned to The Doctor. "What the hell are you doing?" She demanded, her hands going to her hips and a 'tell me now or else' expression appearing on her face. "Stop Sonicing me!"
Noticing the glare, the Doctor did as he was told but not before he got the results on her Sonic. "Oh, that makes sense!" He said after checking the results.
Sighing in annoyance at the Doctor's persistence, Alexia shook her head. "Alright, I'm a Zoolinguist," she admitted. "And I passed that on to my daughter. And what makes sense about it? The TARDIS may be sentient but she's not an animal." She sensed a sort of gratitude from the Time Machine.
"No, it does actually," The Doctor spoke. "Because some Zoolinguists are known to also have Zoopathy."
Alexia just stared at him blankly.
"It's a form of telepathy," the Doctor explained. "Animal telepathy."
At first Alexia continued to stare until she let out a humoured laugh. "Animal telepathy?" She asked. "Is that even a thing?"
"Yes, it is," the Doctor told her. "If you know you have Zoolinguism why didn't you know about the Zoopathy?" He asked.
A humoured smile appeared on Alexia's face. "Ha!" She laughed and leaned against the wall, a hand over her face as she shook her head. "Oh goodness me." Now she looked up at the frowning Time Lord. "Doctor, it's not as if we spoke about this weird ability all the time. Jaime and I lived in a world where superpowers were only ever seen on TV shows and movies. I was told to keep it quiet, just like my dad was told the same. All he told me was that we could talk to animals and that was that. If anyone else knew about it we'd likely be mocked and ridiculed."
Surprised with her reaction, The Doctor smiled slightly. "Of course, some people are likely to feel that way," he replied. "It's an unusual ability, being able to talk to animals. However, with Zoopathy it's an ability to control animals, make them do things for you. Have you had anything like that happen before?" He inquired.
Eyes wide, Alexia thought back to some of the close calls she and Jaime had with MI6. There was a few where her daughter unknowingly got them out of a tight spot with her superpowers. But there was that one time she herself had gotten them out of a bad situation. "Aye, there was something that happened." She muttered thoughtfully.
"And what was that?" The Doctor inquired.
"Sheep." Is all Alexia said.
The Doctor raised a questioning brow.
"Uhh…we were living in Osmotherly at the time, that's on the North Yorkshire Moors, and MI6 found us. They made some excuse about fugitives in order to capture us. I mean, they almost had the whole village convinced about it, like they'd been bewitched or something. They surprised us, especially Jaime. They weren't taking any chances with her as they knocked her out. And just as they were about to put us in their cars I saw a dozen or more sheep being herded along the street by their farmer owner. So I did the only thing I could think of and called to them, asking for help."
Alexia narrowed her eyes. "It was the most oddest and quite frankly terrifying sight I had ever seen involving animals." She looked at The Doctor. "Sheep are known to run away if you approach them, they're very skittish animals. But not these sheep. Dozens of them suddenly charged at the agents, biting them, head butting or just charging at them at a stampede. I was able to escape with Jaime and considering the bewitchment on the people ended, one of them gave us a lift out of Yorkshire once I explained MI6's lies. He was really quite understanding after that." Then Alexia scowled. "I later read that the sheep had been slaughtered with some excuse about an outbreak of rabies because they had killed the MI6 agents. Except they didn't even have rabies, it was me that made them attack the agents. And because those sheep were killed because of me I haven't used my abilities since."
Recognising the look of guilt on Alexia's face, the Doctor took several steps towards her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Look, you mustn't feel guilty about it. You did what you had to do to get out of a sticky situation and get yourself and Jaime to safety. And that includes gaining help of the four legged variety." He noticed she seemed to go a bit tense due to the proximity of him being close to her, then she roughly pushed his hands off her as she glared icily at him.
The Doctor gulped and took a quick step away from her. They stayed that way for over a minute until the faint sound of rumbling broke the tension.
Alexia looked down at her stomach, as did The Doctor, then they laughed.
"The kitchen is not far from here," the Doctor stated. "I'll take you to it." Without waiting he turned and walked up the corridor.
Alexia quickly followed him. "Why do you call it a kitchen?" She asked.
"What?" The Time Lord didn't look at her.
"We're on a ship, so technically it should be galley."
Surprised, the Doctor stopped and looked at her. It was an interesting conclusion. "No, it's still a kitchen," he told Alexia. "Because the TARDIS isn't any old ship. She's a Time Ship. Now come along." And he continued along the corridor with Alexia following.
