Chapter Five: Changes a'coming

It was well after midnight when the Doctor unlocked the TARDIS and ushered Donna, Lee, Jenny, and Rose inside.

"So, you're going back to Lee's place, I hear?" he asked Donna.

She nodded. "Yeah. I figure that after 100 years, he probably has a few little loose ends to take care of."

The Doctor pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth. "Yes…" he said, drawing out the sound. "Now there's a thought. I wonder what all the rest of the people from the Library did." He gestured at Lee. "At least you have a way to get back to your own time."

"Oh my god," Donna muttered. "Everyone else will be like the people in Sleeping Beauty, gone for 100 years and suddenly coming back."

"Still better than being dead, or stuck in a computer for the rest of their lives," Rose countered.

She raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, and he tugged guiltily on his ear. He had been about to berate himself for not thinking of that very obvious problem, but she was right. What else could he have done?

"Anyway!" he said, darting to the navigation panel. "Where exactly are we going, Lee?"

Lee rattled off the space time coordinates, and Jenny stepped in to help the Doctor set them. Then Rose released the handbrake and nodded at Donna.

Donna grinned and grabbed the dematerialisation lever. "Fifty-first century, coming up," she said as she pushed it.

The TARDIS rocked hard as they left Cardiff, sending all of them to the grating. The Doctor caught Rose and helped her back upright.

Thought you could always tell what she was going to do, he teased.

Yeah, but sometimes it's fun to just go flying.

He laughed and twirled her out and back in. Lee grabbed Donna, and the two couples did a quick dance around the console as the ship took them where they needed to be.

The landing was quite a bit smoother than the takeoff, only the dull wheezing of the engines and a soft thud telling them they had arrived.

"Welcome home, Lee McAvoy," the Doctor said, pointing at the door.

Lee jogged up the ramp and opened the door. The Doctor waited while he double checked, and a moment later he stuck his head back in, a wide grin on his face.

"Exactly where I said to go."

The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "You sound surprised. Who have you been talking to? Jackie?"

Donna snorted. "Don't start, Spaceman. As if it's some big secret that your landings are… well, not exactly precise."

"You told Amelia and Rory last night that the ship isn't always accurate," Lee pointed out.

The Doctor adjusted his tie. He'd forgotten about that. "Ah. Yes, I did, didn't I?" He shrugged. "Well, she got you here this time."

Donna hugged Rose and Jenny, then nudged the Doctor in the ribs with her elbow. He laughed and gave her a one-armed hug.

"We'll be back to pick you up for Christmas," he told them.

"We'll be ready," Lee promised. He held out his hand for Donna, and together they stepped out of the ship.

The Doctor sighed, then spun around the console to look at Jenny and Rose. "All right, where are we off to?" he asked.

Jenny covered her mouth and yawned. "I think I'm ready to get some sleep before we go travelling anywhere," she said. "It's been a long day."

She hopped off the jump seat and kissed both the Doctor and Rose on the cheek before taking off down the corridor to her room.

"And then there were two," Rose quoted.

The console pinged, and Rose glanced at the monitor. "We need to pick up a new temporal regulator," she said absently. "Maybe we could find a good market planet to visit."

The Doctor looked at the circular Gallifreyan on the monitor, then at Rose. "You can read that?" It was one thing to glimpse his thoughts in his mind and be able to translate them—the bond did that for her. She'd just read that message all on her own.

He wasn't even certain Rose had realised what she'd done, and when she looked at the monitor again and then did a double take, he was certain she hadn't.

"I could read Gallifreyan when I was Bad Wolf," she explained. "Didn't think it would stick, but apparently it did."

Her eyes twinkled, and she projected the pleasant, fizzy feeling of amusement. "Guess you can't code all your private messages in Gallifreyan anymore."

The Doctor shook his head, but he knew Rose could see the smile he tried to hide.

"Do you know," he said, "five years ago I would have been horrified to find out you could read Gallifreyan."

Rose sidled closer to him and slid her arm through his. "Why's that, Doctor?" she asked, her voice light and teasing. "Were you writing love letters to me and leaving them out where anyone could find them?"

The Doctor felt his neck get warm and was pretty sure he was blushing. "Maybe something like that," he admitted.

The teasing light in Rose's eyes deepened into a warm affection. She tugged gently, and he half turned so he could rest his hands on her hips.

Rose slid her hands up over his shoulders and played with the hair at the nape of his neck. "Well, twenty-year-old Rose would have been mortified if you'd found her journal," she confessed. "The TARDIS mighta kept it hidden for me."

The Doctor chuckled, then slowly bent down to brush his lips against hers. We were idiots in love back then.

Yep, but all that pining was worth it in the end. Rose nipped his lip, then swiped her tongue over the spot.

The Doctor ran his hands over her back, sinking into the kiss while secretly plotting his next move. As soon as he could tell Rose was thoroughly caught up in the embrace, he stepped back and swept her up into his arms.

Rose laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I love you," she whispered in his ear as he carried her down the corridor.

The Doctor set her down in front of their door, then stepped forward until she was sandwiched between him and the door.

"Oh, Rose Tyler… I love you, too."

oOoOo

As Jenny walked away from the console room, the sound of her parents' voices faded away. But she could still feel them—feel their contentment, their peace… the steady presence that they were to each other. The Doctor and Rose Tyler.

She ran her fingers along the wall as she turned the last corner before her room. She'd been looking forward to coming home, but it didn't feel quite… the same.

The wooden door swung open at the barest touch, but instead of going inside, she stood in the doorway for a moment. This was the one place in the entire universe that was wholly her own. Maybe…

She took a deep breath and entered the room. A book had fallen over on the bookcase, and she straightened it. She had a metal figurine from Syrenia on the next shelf, and she picked it up absently before putting it down and moving on.

The pillows on the window seat were scattered around, and she piled them all up on one end so she could lean back into them and watch the pretend sea through her pretend window.

This was home. So why didn't she feel like she belonged?

Sitting in the console room earlier, watching her parents and Donna and Lee dance around the console… She had never felt more alone. Like she'd told Pete, she didn't fit here anymore.

Jenny bit her lip. Pete had offered a solution, and the more she thought about it, the more appealing it became.

Maybe I can find my own place, somewhere I fit—just me, Jenny Tyler. She hugged a pillow to her chest and imagined that life as she watched the sea roll by.

Jenny blinked a few times when she woke up, trying to work through the disorienting feeling of waking up in the wrong place. She sat up gingerly and stretched her body, but thankfully, the TARDIS had made the seat comfortable enough to sleep on.

She patted the door frame as she entered her ensuite. It was definitely nice living in a home that could arrange herself perfectly to take care of your every need.

You'll lose that if you go work for Pete.

Jenny sighed and got dressed, trying not to think about the two options fighting for her attention.

She could hear her parents teasing as she neared the galley. The warm happiness tugged at her, but it didn't ease the feeling of being out of place.

"I'm just saying I don't think Jenny will want kaju in her pancakes," Mum said.

"Kaju is good, Rose."

Jenny rolled her eyes. She'd never heard of kaju before, but with that firm declaration, she knew exactly what it was.

"Dad, I don't want space bananas in my breakfast, all right?"

"They're sea bananas, Jenny!" Dad waved his spatula at her. "We got to tour a farm and see how they're grown."

"That's great," Jenny said. "I'd like blueberries in mine, please."

The Doctor frowned and waved the spatula between Jenny and Rose. "Neither of you fully appreciate the fantastic fruit that bananas—and kaju—are."

"Think of it this way, Doctor," Rose said. "This leaves more for you." He brightened and spun back around to the stove, and Rose winked at Jenny behind his back.

"Excellent point, Rose. Always thinking."

Rose shook her head, then pointed at the counter. "We made you coffee," she told Jenny. "Breakfast will be ready in a minute—if your dad can stop pontificating on how amazing certain fruits are."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," the Doctor said, ruining his claim before he could even start. "Instead, I have a proposition for the day."

He looked at Jenny over his shoulder. "The TARDIS needs a new part. I can get what I need on Razda, and we can all enjoy the shopping and culture. And then tomorrow, after I've taken care of our ship, I thought we could visit Alethia."

Jenny bit her lip. It would be so easy to let them catch her back up into the whirlwind, and suddenly she knew that if she didn't make her choice now, she never would.

"Actually, after Razda maybe you could take me back to Cardiff."

The words sat heavily in the room, like she'd set off a bomb.

"To… where?" Dad said, running his hand through his hair.

She nodded, feeling more confident in her choice with each second. "Granddad offered me an internship with Torchwood," she explained. "I'll work with him and Jack, going out with their teams to keep track of what's going on with the Rift."

"Oh, you'll be working with Jack," the Doctor muttered.

"Doctor."

Jenny shot her mum a grateful look. "Yeah, because Jack is one of the team leaders," Jenny said slowly, pretending she hadn't understood exactly what her father was saying.

"Is this what you and Dad were talking about last night, when Tony and I interrupted you?" Rose asked.

Jenny set her cup down and ran her thumb along the rim. "Yeah… but it wasn't the first time he's suggested it. The few times Donna and I came through Cardiff over the summer, he would ask if I wanted to come work with him for a while."

She shrugged. "I just… I know about the travelling part of this life, but I want to understand all of it—including the Earthbound part. I want to know how Torchwood and UNIT and other organisations work when they encounter aliens on Earth."

"Yes, but… why?" the Doctor asked, feeling lost.

Rose put a hand on his arm and he looked at her, hoping she could help him understand. She smiled and slid her hand down to take his, then turned to Jenny.

"I know you really liked travelling Earth with Donna."

Jenny ran her hand over her ponytail, and the Doctor knew they hadn't quite hit on her reason yet.

"You liked the travelling," Rose repeated, "but you liked the freedom, didn't you? Stretching your own wings a little."

Jenny sighed, and the Doctor could feel her relief. "Yeah, exactly."

The Doctor opened his mouth, but Rose's narrowed eyes warned him not to say what was on his mind. What exactly was it about now that made it the perfect time for Jenny to leave? When she hadn't travelled with them really in months?

I'll explain later, Rose told him.

The Doctor sighed and ran his hand through his hair again. "Well then, that makes Razda the perfect stop for multiple reasons," he said. "Excellent shopping, and there's never any disaster there. Perfectly safe."

"Oh my god," Jenny muttered.

His forehead furrowed in a frown as she turned around and grabbed something off the counter.

"Oi!" he said when she tossed salt over her shoulder. "What are you doing that for?"

Rose laughed along with Jenny. "You have to admit, for someone who likes to go on and on about how people say things that tempt fate, you have a habit of doing so yourself."

He huffed, then laughed along with them when Jenny stuck her tongue out at them.

"All right, let's finish our breakfast and go to the most likely perfectly safe asteroid."

oOoOo

The Doctor meticulously set the coordinates for Razda, and he was rewarded when Rose recognised their location as soon as she left the TARDIS.

"You managed to land exactly where you did the first time we came here."

He stuck his hands in his pockets and smiled. "Yep. My landings can be precise after all."

Rose rolled her eyes, then gestured towards the shopping district. "All right then, Jenny I will go explore." Mischief suddenly swept over the bond, and she smirked up at him. "We'll be sure not to buy any poisonous lippie, or bracelets that are really some kind of alien sex toy."

She and the Doctor both laughed, but Jenny looked at them, baffled.

"What?" she exclaimed, only making them laugh harder.

Finally, Rose shook her head. "Come on, Jenny. I'll tell you the story while we shop." She waved at the Doctor, and the two of them disappeared into the throng of people shopping the Razda market.

The Doctor turned and went in the opposite direction. Just like the last time we were here, he mused. It was hard to believe that was only five years ago.

The streets and alleys of the market hadn't changed. The parts shop was still tucked away at the end of a dead end, with a junkyard behind the shop proper.

"Hello!" the proprietor called out as the Doctor stepped inside. "Is there anything I can help you find?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm in a scavenge mode," he said. "I'll know what I'm looking for when I see it."

No shop would have a temporal regulator. The Doctor would need to build the replacement part himself. And he had almost everything he needed, except for a few connectors.

He wandered over to the wall of drawers, picking up interesting gadgets along the way. Unless the organisation of the shop had changed in the last five years, all of the connectors and fasteners and other bits and bobs would be in those drawers.

It took him less than fifteen minutes to find what he needed. "Got it!" he crowed, spinning around with his finds.

The salesperson smiled. "You certainly know your way around our shop," they observed as the Doctor brought his purchases to the counter.

The Doctor handed over his credit stick. "I'm a bit of a regular."

They raised an eyebrow as they scanned the stick and handed it back. "I've never seen you before."

The Doctor stuck all of his purchases and the credit stick into his pockets. The shopkeeper's eyes got bigger and bigger as he dropped the two larger gadgets he'd found into his pockets.

"Well… It's been a while," he said. "But I always come back."

"And I hope you always do. Have a good afternoon, sir."

The Doctor whistled as he left the parts shop. The TARDIS would be much happier after he replaced the temporal regulator.

He shook his head, remembering the sudden revelation that Rose could read Gallifreyan. She'd told him three months ago that the surprises from Bad Wolf would continue, and apparently, she was correct.

A sharp beam of reflected light hit his eyes, and he squinted in the direction it had come from. A moment later, his face split in a wide grin. It was the same jeweller who had sold him Rose's ring five years ago.

He moved quickly through the crowd until he stood in front of the table. "Hello!" he said brightly.

The woman looked at him, then narrowed her eyes for a moment. "You are a past customer," she said. "I never forget the face of someone who has purchased one of my pieces."

The Doctor nodded quickly. "Yep! You sold me my wife's engagement ring. Sapphire in a laurium band," he added helpfully.

The woman smiled. "Of course, sir. Are you shopping for her again today?"

He nodded, then he paused and added, "And for our daughter."

"Let's find the right gift for your Rose first," the woman suggested.

The Doctor's eyebrows raised. She was an expert saleswoman. "Sapphire, like before," he requested.

She nodded and shifted the top trays out of the way so he could see the sapphire pieces. The Doctor chuckled when he noticed that the cat pin was still there. His hand hovered over it for a moment, but something told him to leave it.

He pushed the top pieces away and kept digging. A solid laurium bracelet caught the sun, and he pulled it out, gaping when he realised what he'd found.

"This is a remembrance band," he murmured, staring at the infinity symbol at the centre.

The woman nodded. "Because nothing should be lost," she said gravely.

The Doctor's hands shook as he turned the piece of Gallifreyan jewellery over in his hand. "How?" he whispered.

"A dealer came through, many years ago. He claimed to have pieces from lost worlds. I admit, I didn't give his words much credit, and truly many of his pieces were fake. But then he showed me this."

The Doctor looked up at her. "How did you know what it was?"

She smiled serenely. "Jewellery is my life. I have dug through books and museums, so I could be the very best saleswoman. Until that trader came through, I had only seen a Gallifreyan remembrance band in books."

She tilted her head and stared at him. "But you have seen them before," she realised. "This is not the first time you've held one."

The Doctor swallowed hard and nodded. "It's the telepathic equivalent of a locket," he said hoarsely. "The giver imprints the stones with the images of their family, and whenever the wearer rubs their thumb over the stones, they will see those images in their mind."

"Incredible," she breathed. "I knew what it was called, but the books did not explain how it worked."

The Doctor rubbed his thumb over the sapphires set in the infinity symbol. There was a faint echo of the previous user, and he felt slightly bittersweet, knowing that whoever had worn this originally was now long gone.

"I'll take it," he said.

She shook her head when he handed her his credit stick. "I couldn't possibly take money for something that is clearly so valuable to you," she said quietly. "Please, take it."

The Doctor frowned. "Well then, I'll need to get something else as well," he said decisively.

He left fifteen minutes later with three packages: the remembrance band, plus a Christmas present for Jenny and a birthday present for Rose.

He hadn't gone far when he felt a sudden burst of anger over the bond. A moment later, he heard the loud pounding of footsteps running against the hard, packed dirt.

"Oi!"

The shout was familiar, and the Doctor wasn't even surprised when a moment later, he saw a man race through the market with Rose and Jenny hot on his heels.

"That doesn't belong to you!" Jenny yelled.

The thief made it to the opposite side of the small plaza, but he never had a chance of outrunning Rose and Jenny. The Doctor put his hands in his pockets and watched as they caught up with the man and Jenny tackled him to the ground.

A loud round of cheers surprised him, and when he looked at the shopkeepers and customers at the surrounding booths, he realised he wasn't the only one who had been completely invested in the little scene.

Another woman jogged into the square, looking anxious and winded. Rose scooped up the handbag and handed it to her, while Jenny tied the thief's hands behind his back with a scarf.

Police entered the scene from the opposite side and quickly took custody of the man. As they led him away, the Doctor walked over to Rose and Jenny.

"So… perfectly safe, I said…"

Rose shook her head and Jenny laughed. "Come on," she said, taking him and Rose both by the hand. "I'm starving. What do they have to eat on this asteroid?"

oOoOo

They stretched the day out as much as they could, but as the shadows got longer, the Doctor sensed the impatience rolling off of Jenny. Without saying a word, he led them back to the TARDIS. She hugged him before going inside, and he had to bite back a sigh.

He stood at the top of the ramp for a moment, looking down at Rose and Jenny. Rose's soft smile was full of understanding, while Jenny… Jenny was dancing around the console, too excited to sit still.

"So, Cardiff?" the Doctor said as he joined them at the console.

"Yes!"

The Doctor moved slowly around the console, making sure to set all the coordinates correctly. He felt Jenny's gaze on him and he gave her a smile. "Well, I wouldn't want you to be late for your first day of work," he said.

He scratched his sideburn, then reached into his pocket. "And speaking of your first day of work, I have a gift for you. Meant for it to be your Christmas present, but…"

He slowly pulled his hand out of his pocket, and Jenny's eyes grew round when she realised what he had. "My own sonic screwdriver?" she breathed. "Really, Dad?"

He smiled and handed it to her. "Really," he promised. Then he tugged on his ear. "I was planning to teach you how to use it, all the most important settings and whatnot. Since I won't be there, I took the liberty of downloading a complete list to your tablet. You can research as you have time."

Jenny squealed and leapt into his arms. The Doctor laughed and swung her slightly as they hugged.

"Well, I couldn't send you off to encounter aliens without some decent tech, could I?" he asked. He sniffed. "Tell Harkness this is times better than that Time Agent wrist comp he's got."

Jenny dropped back to the floor and rolled her eyes. "Daaaad…"

"Jeeeeeenny," he teased.

She giggled, then darted over to the dematerialisation lever. "Are we ready?" He nodded, and she threw it with a gleeful shout.

Her giddy excitement stung a little, but the Doctor tried to hide his reaction. Jenny wanted this; he wouldn't tarnish it by pouting.

But later, when he and Rose were relaxing in the study, he brought it up. "I still don't understand. Why on Earth would she want to stay in Cardiff when she could have all of time and space?"

Rose smiled and tugged him close. "Because she has to travel all of time and space with her parents," she said patiently. She reached up and rubbed the confused furrow out of the Doctor's forehead. "Most people Jenny's age are eager to get out on their own. I took the first offer I got, after all."

The Doctor smirked suddenly. "Actually, you took the second offer," he reminded her.

Rose rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

He nodded, and she saw that some of his frustration had eased. "I think I understood earlier, it was just hard," he admitted. "We spent the whole summer waiting to travel with her and Donna again, and now we're on our own."

Rose snuggled closer to him. "Yeah, but it can be fun to be on our own," she pointed out.

The Doctor laughed, then stood up and offered her his hand. "Come on. Let's get to bed."

oOoOo

Rose woke up before the Doctor the next morning. She'd gotten an idea the night before when they'd been talking about being on their own. There was one thing they'd been planning to do, something they only had two tickets for.

But when she opened the first edition of Philosopher's Stone and took out the tickets to the charity gala, she felt timelines shift slightly.

Well, that's odd, she thought. She tapped the tickets against her fingers, waiting for the feeling to subside, but the longer she held them, the more certain she was that these tickets should not exist.

Rose sighed and picked up her tablet to do a little research. It only took a few quick searches to discover exactly why JK Rowling would not be hosting a twenty-fifth anniversary charity gala.

Rose read the bigoted tweets and tried to reconcile the woman who could say things like that with the woman who had written such a wonderful story about friendship, unity, and love.

"What are you up to?"

Rose jumped when the Doctor spoke from the doorway. She'd been so caught up in her research that she hadn't even noticed he'd woken up.

She put the tablet down on the coffee table and motioned for him to sit down with her. "So… I know today is going to be hard, or just feel weird, so I thought it would be a good day to use your Christmas gift. Your birthday is only a few weeks away anyway. But…"

She gestured at the tablet, and he picked it up and read it quickly, then tossed it down on the table with a huff of disgust.

"Never meet your heroes, that's what I said isn't it?"

"I think she's taken care of that for us," Rose said sardonically.

She leaned back and looked at him. "So, what would you like to do? It's your Christmas present that got ruined, and the activity we'd planned for your birthday. You pick."

The Doctor tugged her close and thanked her silently. It was true that JK Rowling's transphobic comments had ruined his Christmas present, but they both knew that Rose was leaving the plans for the day up to him because he was struggling with Jenny's departure.

"Let me think about it while we eat breakfast," he requested.

They were doing the cleaning up when the perfect idea came to him. "Comic-con!"

Rose blinked at him. "Like, London Comic-con?" she asked.

The Doctor shook his head, then quickly nodded. "No. Well, yes. But different." He bounced on his toes, already feeling the excitement building. "There are comic cons across the galaxy. There's one I've always wanted to go to do—the granddaddy of them all, the Comic-con on Xvalia."

"And what makes the Xvalian con so special?" Rose asked.

The Doctor held out his hand, and once she'd taken it, they walked through the corridors to the console room.

"The Xvalia con is the only one to showcase artists from all eight of the major comic book lines," he explained. "All of the rest are run by one publisher or another, so you can only see work from their lines."

Rose let go of his hand so he could circle the console and set the coordinates. "So this con is sort of like a free house," she mused. "Able to sell all beers, not just the ones from one brewery."

The Doctor laughed and slid a lever into place. "Exactly." He looked up at Rose, and she raised an eyebrow at the mischievous look on his face. "And I think you'll like the year I've chosen," he added.

"Why's that?" Rose asked.

"Because this is the year the entire cast of By the Light of the Asteroid made appearances."

Excitement slowed Rose's brain for a moment, then sped it up to double speed. "You mean I could get their signatures? And ask them questions?"

The Doctor nodded. Then he rested his hand on the dematerialisation lever, teasing her by holding still.

"Well come on!" Rose said finally. "Comic-con awaits!"