Many thanks to TenRose4ever, for your review.
1996
Date: January 3
Jenny felt so horribly, terribly guilty for working on her baby sister's very first birthday.
She'd had a small celebration planned a month in advanced. She had planned to buy Mara a cake with her name painted across the top in frosting. It was a luxury that, until recently, they hadn't been able to afford. As it had turned out, the account her mum set up for them was only set up in 2010, when they had been holed up in the safe house. The only reason they could afford it now was because of the promotion Jenny had recently received.
It was also, consequently, the reason she had to work on Mara's first birthday.
"Tyler!"
Jenny shook herself back to the staff meeting she was sitting in on. "Yes, sir, sorry."
Mr. Jones gave her a hard stare. "Don't make me regret promoting you, Ms. Tyler."
She straightened up. "Of course not, sir. I'm present."
She stayed focused for the remainder of the staff meeting before she headed over to the coffee station. She wasn't tired, really. Her Time Lord Physiology didn't require her to get very much sleep, but she hoped the coffee would at least keep her mind off of the fact that she would be working late tonight instead of celebrating Mara's birthday.
She almost didn't notice when one of the young men who worked in her department leaned against the counter next to her. "Don't worry about Mr. Jones; he gets after everyone when they first get promoted." He gave her an easy smile that lit up his blue eyes. "It's his way of making sure you don't slack off just because you made it here."
Jenny raised her eyebrows. "And you are?"
"Right, sorry, Shayne Gray. I'm the guy who draws up all the fancy statistics we get to hear about in meetings." He held his hand out to her.
She shook it politely before she grabbed her coffee. "Pleasure to meet you, Shayne. If you'll excuse me, I'll be getting back to work now."
"Right, should we start on the numbers from Chiswick or would you rather look at Westminster first?"
She blinked with surprise. "Wait, you're the one who was assigned to my consult project?"
Shayne let out a laugh. "Your project; that's funny."
She raised her eyebrows even higher. "Yes, my project. It was assigned to me."
"Actually, it was assigned to us. But you would've known that if you had been paying attention in the staff meeting," he said as he pulled up a chair next to her desk.
Jenny huffed. "Fine. Let's just get this over with. Do you have the Westminster numbers?" She snatched the manila file he'd carried over to her desk out of his hands and started to yank the papers out.
She heard Shayne snort. "I'm sorry; did you get up on the wrong side of bed this morning? Or are you just always this curt?"
She sucked in her cheeks and slapped the folder closed before she whipped her head up to glare at him. "If you must know, I'm currently my baby sister's guardian and today is her first birthday. But, instead of going home to give her the cake and gift that I scraped enough money together to buy for her, I'm here working for the money that will allow us to eat for the next month." She stood and shook the folder in her hand. "Now if you would be so kind to grab me the Westminster numbers instead of the Wembley statistics then maybe I'll be able to get out of here before she falls asleep for the night."
She marched past him to open the file cabinet on the far wall. She shoved the Wembley file in its slot and slammed the drawer closed before she spun back around to face her desk.
Shayne was still sitting on the edge of her desk, only now he wore a contrite expression.
"I'm sorry," he said.
Jenny's jaw ticked and she raised her chin defiantly. "Just get me the Westminster numbers."
Date: May 23
Jenny groaned when the landline let out its shrill ring. She had just gotten her sister to sleep, but as expected, Mara started crying the moment the phone rang.
She reached out with her mind to soothe Mara as she shuffled over to where the phone sat on the kitchen counter and yanked it out of its cradle. Despite her efforts, her baby sister was determined to let her disapproval of the situation be known. "Yes?"
"Hello. Am I speaking to Miss Jenny Tyler?" a woman's voice asked.
Jenny sighed heavily and tried in vain to block out Mara's cries. "That's me. What's the purpose of this call?"
"Hello, my name is Chelsea Smith from the Mayfair International Realty company. I'm just calling to inform you that the owners of the home you expressed an interest in last week have accepted your offer to buy. If you could come down to my office tomorrow, I can provide you with the necessary paperwork."
Jenny narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry there must be some kind of mistake. I haven't placed an offer on any property."
The sound of papers shuffling echoed through the speaker of the phone. "I'm sorry, Miss, but I have paperwork in front of me that would say otherwise. Including the check from a Mr. John Smith to give to the owners of the home should you choose to go through with the purchase."
Jenny's lips curled up into a tentative smile. "A Mr. John Smith?"
"That's correct," Chelsea said.
"I can come in after four tomorrow, is that alright?"
"Yes, miss, that would be fine." She could hear the scratching of Chelsea's pen.
"And if you could express my gratitude to Mr. Smith, I would appreciate it," Jenny said.
"Of course, Miss Tyler," the realtor answered.
"Thank you."
"Have a good rest of your evening."
"You too." Jenny hung up the phone quickly and ran to Mara's room.
Her little sister's face was red with tears as she continued to screech out her unhappiness. Jenny had quickly found out that Mara had inherited both of her parent's stubbornness and short temper.
"Shh, I know little one." Jenny reached out with her mind once again to try to soothe Mara as she picked her up. She bounced her gently and kissed the little girl's temple. "I know, but it's okay. You can go back to sleep now."
Mara's cries became more and more halfhearted until they stopped completely. Jenny could feel the turmoil going on in her mind begin to subside as she settled into her older sister's arms.
Jenny smiled softly and walked over to the rocker in the far corner of the room. She sank down into the cushions of the chair and started to hum out a lullaby her dad had used to sing first her mum, and then her to sleep. He'd once even taught her to sing it in the original Gallifreyan.
"You should know where you come from," he'd told her. "You may not have been born on Gallifrey, but it's still part of your lineage."
Tears had pooled in her eyes when he'd told her that. It had been the first time he'd acknowledged that they came from the same race, despite her being born on Messaline with only his DNA.
She sang the original Gallifreyan to Mara now, and tried to keep her sister from feeling the aching longing she felt for her parents.
Date: June 17
"Well, I think that's the last of it," Shayne proclaimed as he set down the last box from the mover's lorry.
Jenny let out a huff of breath as she set Mara down in the playpen they'd set up. She stood up and looked around with her hands on her hips. The house her dad had picked out for her and Mara was everything she could have hoped for. It was in a nicer area with good schools for her sister to attend eventually. It had a nice front and an even nicer back garden for Mara to run around in. There were large windows that flooded the house with light in every room. It had an open floor plan, with only an island to separate the kitchen from the living room; and it was a two bed, two bath home. It was far beyond what Jenny's price range would be, and she sent out yet another silent thank you to her dad for supplying the funds.
"I don't even know where I should start," Jenny said as she surveyed the stacks of boxes haphazardly placed all around the room.
"I would start with Mara's things first." Shayne grabbed a box labeled "Mara's room" and started walking towards the door that led into her little sister's bedroom. "Since she's going to need some of this stuff pretty soon."
"Mara's things!" Mara screeched out happily and clapped her hands.
"That's right, sweet girl," Jenny said with a wide smile. "We're going to get you all set up in your new room."
Mara had started talking after two and a half months, and was making full sentences by the time she was six months old. It had left Shayne gob smacked when he first met her just shy of her 16 month mark.
She and Shayne were on much friendlier terms than they had been on their initial meeting. They had started having lunch together at work during the time they'd worked on their project together, and had continued the habit after the project had been completed. Eventually they had even started seeing each other outside of work, and soon enough—after lots of sneaky sonic screwdriver scans and more than one background check performed with the library computer she was able to enhance using a little jiggery-pokery—Jenny allowed him to meet her baby sister.
It was much later that evening that she and Shayne sat down with a bottle of wine between them.
"I think we made significant progress tonight," Shayne said as he filled both her and his glass.
"I'll drink to that," Jenny said, and clinked their glasses together before they took a sip.
Shayne let out a slow sigh and settled further into the couch. "So did you hear? Lance Bennett just got promoted."
Jenny snorted. "Is this the same Lance Bennett that screwed up the presentation with the Italian partners last month?"
"The very same." Shayne shook his head. "I swear it's like the guy can do no wrong in Mr. Jones' eyes."
"Well he is Mr. Jones' nephew," Jenny pointed out.
Her friend abruptly sat up. "What?"
She cocked her head. "Oh, you didn't know?"
"No!" Shayne exclaimed. "How do you know?"
"Keep your voice down," Jenny said, and glanced over at the door to Mara's room. "My Aunt's friend, Sherry, told me. She's married to Barry from human resources."
He snorted. "Well it all makes sense now. No wonder Super-boy's mistakes get passed over."
Jenny chuckled. "Oh, did I tell you that Super-boy hit on me?"
Shayne raised his eyebrows and took a large gulp of his wine. "I bet this is good."
"He approached my desk last week and used the line—" She straightened up and contorted her face to do her best Lance impression. "Let's play Barbie. I'll be Ken and you'll be the box I come in."
"He didn't."
"Oh, he did," she said, "and then he asked me out for a drink."
"I assume you told human resources," Shayne said.
She nodded. "Where Barry very apologetically told me that there was nothing he could do."
Shayne clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Lance. What a guy."
Jenny shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, I dunno, I've met worse."
Her friend's eyebrows raised towards his hairline again. "Oh? Do tell."
Jenny bit her lip. She couldn't really tell Shayne about the blue squid, the great Tsar Tooedkisleau Piflim of the planet Hal and all other surrounding solar systems, who had sat next to her in Rally's bar and chased her and her parents off of the asteroid when she rejected him.
She took her sip of wine. "Oh, you know how guys in pubs can be."
Shayne's eyebrows went even higher. "You have been to a pub?"
She snorted. "I did used to have a social life before my parents disappeared, Shayne."
His expression fell ever so slightly. "Yeah," he said, "I s'pose you did."
They lapsed into an awkward silence for a moment before Jenny shot him her widest smile. "C'mon, let's see if we can unpack just one or two more boxes."
