A/N: Here we go, last chapter. Going over this fix again, I had debated over the dialect a bit. For a while I wondered if one of the kids would have a bit of Rose's accent, but then I remembered how much The Doctor likes to talk and figured they'd most likely take after him instead, seeing as they would probably hear him more often. So anyway, enjoy the last chapter and if you liked the story, leave me a review and check out the sequel "Here's to Forever".
Contains a reference from Jack to the BBC novel: Only Human
Shenan's name was taken from Shenandoah which loosely translates to "Daughter of the sky or Daughter of the Stars" Just thought it fit.
Chapter Four
When the redhead reappeared in the middle of the Torchwood hub she stumbled slightly and groaned. "Blimey, I will never get used to that." She took a breath as she steadied herself and attempted to clear her head, the awareness of her surroundings now beginning to kick in. The first thing she noticed was that the building was no longer shaking, but before she could even process what that could mean she glanced down at herself. "I'm… I'm still here." she breathed out in disbelief; hands mapping out her face and hair. "I'm still here." She held up a trembling hand, turning it back and forth and flexing her fingers as she waited for the flicker. It didn't come.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! There's my girl!" Jack cheered, breaking her out of her reverie as he swept her up into a hug and twirled her around. Setting her down, he pulled back to look her in the eyes and grinned. "I knew you could do it Shenan."
She smiled back up at him but before she could respond a young man with a mop of spiky chestnut hair and warm brown eyes came sprinting out of Jack's office. "Hey little Sis." he said holding out his arms.
"J.P.!" The redhead let go of Jack and immediately grabbed her brother in a tight embrace.
"You did it Shenan." J.P. said squeezing her tight. "You fixed the timeline."
"I was afraid I hadn't done enough." She confessed as she pulled back and shook her head. "When I left everything was still up in the air and dad still seemed to be fighting with himself so..."
"I told you," Jack interrupted. "If anyone could get through to him it's you. You're so much more like your mom than you realize."
The redhead chuckled softly and then gasped; clamping a hand over her mouth. "Oh my god, Mum!" When I left she was sick and…" she cast a worried glance past them towards the railing that overlooked the infirmary. "But J.P.'s back now that means she's okay too right?" Her eyes were now darting back and forth between The Captain and her brother. "So where is she?"
"M' right here sweetheart." Rose's voice called out from behind her.
Shenan whirled around to see her parents standing hand in hand with huge grins on their faces and the sight of them together was enough to make her break down once more. Tears of joy and relief fell in earnest as she rushed over and threw herself into their arms.
"I was so scared." She sobbed against their shoulders. "Mum got sick and collapsed, J.P. had disappeared and I was slowly being erased from existence and then when we were on that ship I wanted to tell you both the truth so badly but Dad always says knowing too much about your own future could lead to more problems and I…"
"Shh, S' alright." Rose soothed her as she stroked her hair. "You did more for us than you realize. You were brilliant sweetheart. We owe you so much."
The Doctor hummed in agreement; rubbing her back and then leaned in to place a kiss on her head. "We are so proud of you Shenan."
She pulled back and looked up into her parents' faces, each looking down at her with expressions of love and affection. She returned their smiles and sniffed softly. "I wasn't sure if I gotten through to you or not. I mean, I knew mum wouldn't give up but dad was just being so damn pigheaded and stubborn..."
"Oi!" The Doctor mock frowned.
"Well she's not wrong Doc." Jack piped up. "Trying to get through to you sometimes is like beating your head against a brick wall." He leaned against the edge of one of the workstation tables and crossed his arms. "In fact, I think Rose holds the universal record for being patient."
"He's got a point dad." J.P. cut in. "Sometimes you really…" He stopped short at the look on his father's face and rubbed the back of his neck. "Right." He said slowly. "I'm just gonna let you guys finish talking and go get changed." He gestured to the TARDIS with his thumb. "You coming Uncle Jack?"
"Yeah." Jack pushed off the table. "All I'm saying Doc is that sometimes you just need a good punch in the face to put you in your right mind." He winked cheekily and then turned to follow J.P. into the TARDIS.
"Don't think I've forgotten about that." The Doctor growled.
"Oh, I would hope not. I still owe you another one actually." Jack called back over his shoulder with a grin.
Shenan finished wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand and exchanged an eye roll with her mother at the blatant display of testosterone.
"I'd like to see him try now that I'm not focused on my wife and kids blinking out of existence while the building falls down." The Doctor grumbled.
Rose rubbed his shoulder affectionately. "He's jus' bein' protective of me that's all. S' not like you haven't done the same thing when you feel like someone's wronged me."
The Doctor sighed. "He was right though. I deserved it and probably much more for that matter." He lifted a hand to her face, caressing her cheek with his thumb. "I can never apologize enough for putting you through that emotional roller coaster."
"Hey," Rose squeezed the hand she was still holding. "I already forgave you a long time ago. No more regrets, yeah? And as for Jack, I think you two jus' need to kiss and make up." She grinned, tongue in teeth.
The Doctor arched a brow. "You know, I get enough innuendos from him as it is thank you very much. I don't need you giving him anymore ideas. It's bad enough he asks you for in depth details about our sex…"
"Okay then." Shenan broke in, clapping her hands together to draw their attention back to her so she wouldn't have to hear the end of that sentence. "So now that things seem to have settled down, I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me. Some of my memories are still a bit foggy but I had assumed they would automatically adjust as soon as I arrived back here. I mean, everything is back to normal right? Back to the way it was before all this happened?"
"Oh, yes, definitely." The Doctor nodded vigorously. "Weell, For the most part anyway. Almost completely. Exactly the same with a few minor changes here and there but nothing for you to worry about." He tried to sound reassuring, but couldn't meet her eye. "And as for your memories, they should adjust soon enough as your body and mind sync up with the stabilized timeline."
Shenan studied him for a moment and then glanced over at her mother, who was acting equally as strange. "Okay, so what aren't you telling me?"
"Nothin'." Rose said quickly, shaking her head. "Everythin's exactly as it was except um…" She trailed off and looked up at her husband expectantly.
The Doctor looked from Rose back to Shenan and shrugged, tugging his ear lightly. "There might have been a few minor changes."
He attempted to move past her, pulling Rose with him but Shenan anticipated his move and blocked their escape.
"Hold on, wait a minute." She put her hand up. "What kinds of changes?"
"Weeell," The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not really a big deal per say. I mean, I guess that is to say that it would have to depend on your own personal view of what you would consider to be a big deal. I mean from a technical point of view, you could look at the situation as really just a minor inconvenience. Not even really an inconvenience though since we don't really adhere to a strict sense of time in this particular matter, even though your grandmother insists we keep track of them. Although I suppose the two of you quite like the significance as well seeing as it's a part of your human heritage and…"
"Doctor?" Rose interjected, squeezing his hand again.
"Hmm?"
"You're ramblin' again."
"Oh, right." He nodded, looking back at his daughter who was still waiting for an explanation. "Um, well, like I said, just a few minor changes. Once the timeline reset, we still ended up in all the places we were supposed to and met the people we were supposed to meet. We saved a few planets, made some narrowing escapes and you and your brother have a different birthday now, that's pretty much it."
"Wait, what?" Shenan asked confusedly. "Go back to that last part."
"Well," Rose paused, looking slightly awkward. "Like he said, everythin' is still pretty much the same and your brother's still an hour older than you. S' jus'…well, you guys were jus' conceived a little bit earlier that's all."
Shenan shook her head, still very much confused. "What do you mean?"
Rose and the Doctor glanced up at one another, their faces turning the same deep shade of crimson as they shared a knowing smile before turning their attention on anything but their daughter.
"Oh." Shenan paused watching the two of them fidget and then the penny dropped as her brain finally processed the information. "Oh my god! Right After I left?" she said in disbelief. "How did…I mean, what?"
"Well you see, when a mommy and daddy love each other…" The Doctor began making Rose snort loudly and elbow him in the side.
Shenan's jaw dropped."Oh my god Dad! That's not what I meant." Granted it was well known that her father had one of the biggest gobs, but sometimes she wished he would think to filter some things in his brain before they popped out of his mouth.
"I just thought it would have taken you more time to sort your feelings and that you would have taken mum somewhere romantic. I mean for god's sake, Uncle Mickey was still on board."
"I soundproofed the room with my sonic." The Doctor replied defensively.
Shenan closed her eyes, pressing the heel of her palm to her forehead.
"We didn't plan it exactly. It just…sort' a happened." Rose said gently. "There was a lot of pent up…tension."
"Right." The Doctor nodded in agreement. "And at that time we didn't know about the physical changes in your mother that made us compatible for conception and would later tie her to my lifespan."
"So naturally when we found out I was pregnant with you two a few weeks later…" Rose smiled, shifting her attention back The Doctor as he pulled her into his arms. "I don't think I've ever seen you so happy."
"Oh, I don't know, What happened during and after the bonding ceremony made me pretty happy." He wiggled his eyebrows.
"Did it now?" Rose asked; smiling seductively as she pulled on his tie.
An exasperated groan had them suddenly remembering their daughter was still witnessing the exchange and the Doctor pulled back and cleared his throat. "So anyway, Bing, Bang, Boom, New Birthday!" he chirped and Rose put hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle.
Shenan gaped at the two of them. "Oh my god! I feel like I need to wash my brain out with bleach or at least sonic my mind clean. The two of you are like a couple of randy teenagers who can't keep their hormones in check."
"Ooooh, what are we discussing and can I be involved?" The Captain, who had emerged from the TARDIS dressed in a suit and tie, was rubbing his hands together vigorously and wagging his eyebrows.
"Oh, don't start." The Doctor moaned.
"I was just trying to offer my services…"
"Don't, just…don't" The Doctor shook his head.
"Did you know about this?" Shenan looked at Jack questioningly, who put his hands up in defense.
"Know about what?" J.P. asked, adjusting his tie as he approached. "What's going on now?"
"Oh, nothing really. Except that we apparently have a different birthday now." Shenan said. "But don't worry, you're still an hour older than me. Although, you probably won't be gloating about that as much now considering you were the first to go when all this started."
J.P. scratched the back of his head. "So, am I supposed to be upset about this?"
"No, I suppose not." she sighed. "I'm the one that got stuck with the unwanted imagery."
"Yeah, not sorry I missed that. Hey, so are we going or what? We promised Uncle Mickey and Aunt Martha that we'd pick them up in an hour for Aunt Donna's rehearsal dinner."
The Doctor tipped his head back, rolling his eyes. "Two words son, Time. Machine."
J.P. crossed his arms and gave his father a pointed look. "Two words dad, Bad. Driver."
"Oi!"
"Do I need to remind you about the family vacation we took to Florana, but instead ended up on Grundle being chased by Drashigs for two hours before we made it back to the TARDIS?"
"Or when we took Aunt Donna to Rome for her birthday and you ended up landing us there the eve before Volcano Day." Shenan added.
"Or how about the time we were headed to Kegron Pluva and ended up stranded in early 21st century Bromley for over a month." Jack chimed in.
The Doctor stood mouth agape as he looked down at his wife.
"There was that first trip after we met when we were only s'pose to be gone for twelve hours but ended up being twelve months in which you freaked out my mum and had her believin' Mickey killed me." she said looking up at him through her lashes and grinning.
"Oh, not you too." He groaned. "I'll have you know that your mother forgave me for that and it's really quite rude for all of you to just gang up on me for a few small miscalculations." He paused, a far off look in his eyes as he thought back to that first trip and something occurred to him. "Remind me that I owe Mickey an apology later." he whispered to Rose, who patted his arm again and smiled.
Shenan rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Well, I'm gonna go get ready. C'mon you two." She said motioning to Jack and her brother. "Let's give them a couple minutes alone. It's been a long day for all of us and we don't need to be taking jabs at one another."
The two men nodded in agreement and headed into the TARDIS. Before stepping in behind them, she gave one last quick glance over at her parents who were staring into each other's eyes again. She smiled softly and her eyes drifted up to the ceiling in a silent prayer of thanks to every deity she could think of for helping to make this moment possible and then slipped into the timeship, closing the door behind her.
~oOo~
The Doctor reached up and brushed a lock of hair behind Rose's ear before pulling her back into his arms. "So I guess I should thank you for putting up with me for so long." He said, locking his fingers together behind her waist.
Rose cocked her head and looked into his eyes. "You know M' jus' teasin' and that's not how I really see things right?" She ran her hands up his arms and over his chest, placing one over each heart.
"I know. I just…I know I can be stubborn and difficult at times but…" he sighed. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank you for never giving up on me."
"And I never will." She said confidently with a wide smile.
He chuckled softly, his grin mirroring her own. "Do you know how much I Love You?"
"Hmm," she tilted her head as if in thought. "Why don't you show me."
The Doctor leaned down, nuzzling her nose with his own and then captured her lips, melding her body into his as she ran her hands through his hair. She sighed happily and he took advantage of her parted lips to slide his tongue into her mouth and deepen the kiss. He didn't think he could ever get enough of her. For so long, the fear of losing everything kept him from seeing what he could gain and once he finally stopped holding back, he realized he could have everything he always wanted. Rose was in his arms, she had done the impossible by giving him a womb born son and daughter and she was bound to his lifespan so that they would both have their 'forevers'; which he would make sure of with every fiber of his being. He moved one hand to the small of her back to pull her tighter against him while the other wound through her hair cupping the back of her head and she moaned into his mouth. For a few minutes everything else fell away and it was just the two of them, lost in one another once again. The sound of a throat clearing had them breaking apart; taking notice of the well dressed audience they had acquired.
"You two are so adorable. But seriously, don't make me get the hose." Jack quipped.
"They're not botherin' us." Gwen stated. She, Ianto, Owen and Tosh were all leaning over the railing, observing them with matching grins.
"Beats those trashy romance novels you read." laughed Tosh, tossing a glance back at the brunette who stuck out her tongue.
"And definitely better than most of the romantic movies I've seen." added Ianto
"Aww, you're such a softy." Jack chuckled putting an arm around his shoulders and pulling him down to place a kiss at his temple.
Owen looked at the trio and rolled his eyes, muttering something about working with a bunch of hopeless romantics under his breath as he walked over and plopped down in the chair in front of the monitor.
"Okay, I'm ready." Shenan called out as she stepped back out into the room. She had changed into a silky green blouse and a black skirt that came down to her knees as well as a pair of black flats, because of course you never knew when you'd have to run. Plus she had never been fond of heels anyway. Her long red hair had been pulled up into a braided bun and she was putting on a pair of her mom's hoop earrings. "Is that what you're wearing?" she asked Owen who was now immersed in some game on his phone.
He was wearing black dress pants with white sneakers and a black dress jacket over a white t-shirt that said 'The Doctor is In'.
"What's wrong with it?" He asked, glancing down at his attire. "I already promised that woman I'd wear a bloody suit for the wedding, she didn't say anything about the rehearsal dinner."
"Okay, your funeral." she told him, shaking her head. "And you two need to get changed." She looked at her parents pointedly. "Remember what Aunt Donna was like when you were late to the engagement party?"
"Don't remind me." The Doctor groaned. He had been thoroughly chastised by Donna for a full fifteen minutes, who pointed out that a Lord of Time with a time machine had no excuse for being late to anything ever.
"She's right, we better go." Rose began to tug The Doctor towards the TARDIS. "We'll stop off and pick up Martha and Mickey first and then we'll change and head to Donna's." She looked back at her husband. "And you are changin' your suit."
"But Rose, I love this suit." he whined looking down at his brown pinstriped armor.
She reached up placing a finger to his lips. "No arguments Mister. Now Allons-y!" She smiled tongue in teeth, smacking him on the arse and he grinned back wolfishly.
Shenan put a hand over her eyes and groaned. "Let's just go, yeah?"
The couple managed to get ahold of themselves long enough to step inside with the rest of the group following behind them. Once they were all inside Shenan closed the door and made her way up the ramp to take a seat next to her brother, playfully slugging him in the arm and grinning before turning her attention to the group surrounding the console. She watched with a smile as her father began the dematerialization sequence one-handed while keeping his other arm firmly wrapped around her mother's waist as they laughed at one of Jack's old stories.
"Hey," J.P. said quietly. "I know it's been a long day and everything seems to be back to normal now but are you really okay sis?"
She glanced over, seeing the concern in her twin brother's eyes and smiled softly. "You know what, I really am." She said looking back at their parents who were joined at the lips again while Jack led the rest of the group in cheering them on. She shook her head and laughed. "Even though things seemed pretty bleak at the time, the universe got it right in the end. Because it's The Doctor and Rose in the TARDIS…"
"And their family." J.P. added.
"And their family." She agreed, laughing again and bumping his shoulder with her own. "Just as it should be."
The End
A/N Final Note. The reason I wrote this in the first place was because I really hated the episode. I'm not going to bash anyone who liked it, because to each their own, but it's one of those I wouldn't watch again if I didn't have to. Yes, I am a Doctor/Rose shipper but even if I wasn't, the episode still would have left me with that WTF feeling after watching it.
First of all, David, I adore you but The Doctor was a complete arse in this episode.
I won't go into how gross I thought it was that he's making out with Reinette about 10 minutes after he had just met her as a child. (Really Moffat?) Then he acts pissy towards Mickey(um, hello. You invited him even after you saw Rose didn't want you to so if he's annoying you that's on you.) Then he basically treated Rose like some sort of nagging wife that wouldn't let him have any fun, making it okay for him to run off with the mistress.
I'm sorry, but when you have the writers and actors say in continuity about how the Doctor and Rose are a love story and then have The Doctor's character; right after almost confirming it and telling Rose he would never leave her, turn around and fall for someone else and do just that, I call BS. (And don't get me started about Moffat's "type of girl The Doctor would pick" comment. Maybe Jack should have punched him instead)
Maybe if this episode had been in say Matt Smith's era after he had lost Rose for good and had to move on then fine, but come on, the idea of him being okay with living the slow path with Reinette after he got stuck. Really? The man who can't seem to sit still for 5 minutes and freaks out about being separated from his TARDIS for even a day is fine living a couple of centuries without his beloved timeship. He's fine with spending 5 years in France, sharing a mistress with the King while he watches her waste away from Tuberculosis after talking about how horrible it is to watch people die. But that's okay because then he can find another version of himself to hitch a ride, even though he didn't even know the name of the ship they had been on or where it was located, but then again he can just go back to earth and pick it up right? Oh, wait that's right, you didn't even bother activating Emergency Program One to take Rose and Mickey home before you left did'ya? Noooooo. He was able to get back through dumb luck. Pure and simple. And the fact that he comes back after she died looking all pitiful with the letter. Really, you knew her damn history and you're telling me you had no idea that was a possibility after jumping through time windows all day in which years had passed on the opposite side? *coughs* BS.
The only way I will look at this episode is based on the Doctor's actions before and after it. I will accept that he was infatuated because she was what he would consider a celebrity(like Dickens), who fancied him and that his reaction to her death was nothing more than his own constant self-condemnation and he was feeling guilty about her pining for him because he promised her a trip but didn't make it back in time. Because if the parallel world was Mickey's very next trip, then he sure moved past his heartbreak awfully quick for someone who had been so "in love" with Reinette. (So when I hear things like " he wasn't in love with Rose" Tell me again, how long did he pine for her after he lost her at Canary Wharf? I'm sure both Martha and Donna could answer that one.)
Whew, okay rant over. Sorry about that. I may have gotten a bit carried away. :) Thanks for reading and listening and reviewing.