+2+
In the morning, his mum is back to herself like every day, when the sun rises and shines a tint orange in the living room.
She's talking, more like rambling. She always does that when he's quiet. Maybe because he asks the hard questions after a long silence, and her mother fears them. It must be weird, if your one year old son ask about gravity, or when a three year old asks about sex, especially how inter-species make it.
"What is it, sweetie?" she ask finally giving in.
But he can't bring himself to discuss it. Maybe it's been years, and years of ignoring this topic (Yeah, five years is a lot of time for him). He's suddenly shy about it.
"Nothing"
"It's fine, fire it, it can't get any worse."
"It's nothing mummy" he says, trying to smile for her.
"Well, how about toast and tea for breakfast?"
"That would be great; you know, I have a test today in the university, it's about geopolitical problems of the 21th century."
"That sounds exciting, if you get a high mark again, well put it in the fridge and get you something besides the Ice cream, maybe another Toy Truck."
That does cheer him up. Yes, he may be in college already with grownups, but he's still a five year old and he loves toys more than anything besides his mum.
"Hurry up John, I have to drop you and go to work before Uncle Mickey, we are very busy at work"
"Yes" he says hurrying up his breakfast.
Her mother takes him straight to the class room, she feels better with this college if they let her do this like any other normal school even if it's not.
"Be a good boy" she says kissing him goodbye.
A slight tremor rocks him inside. His biggest fear is never seeing her again. And that fear is there every morning when she drops him in school. He can't understand why, he just feels it every day.
"Always" he says with a smile.
As always, the day goes as normal as it can be. Well…..something like that, he doesn't have a playground in the school yard or any other kid to play with. He has some girl friends that try to cuddle him all the time.
"As some of you will know. The Russian Space Center is researching the new technology that Torchwood and UNIT have released to the public. It seems this new tech would make space travel a little bit easier to accomplish. It seems we are taking a big step to create a space colony on the moon very soon, in about twenty years. They are creating a new center to bring in the best scientists to jump in this project. And not only that, they will be training new cosmonauts to send them as fast as possible to the space station. If you don't fail any of your classes, one of you could be working very soon in space itself."
His hearts stops. Both of them for a small second and he feels light headed. His father is in space. All those stupid apes need ages to figure out the simple things, he could solve any problem. He could be in space faster than them. He needs to go to Russia right now. The faster he works with them, the better.
Stupid monkeys needed papers and credentials and school education. Well, there are some rather intelligent monkeys too, some of them kids like himself. Well, kids, not like himself, because he's not even fully human. Maybe he could finally make friends. Talented kids from around the world, and work with adults that would respect him instead of fear him.
Naah, that's not possible. Adults hate smart kids. They were the ones that make him study college in the first place even if he doesn't need it. He didn't need to demonstrate his intelligence to anyone. But they forced his mum to make him go to college instead of staying in Kindergarten.
When his mum picks him up in the afternoon, he's almost jumping with the solutions playing in his head. He can make this work.
"How was your day?" she asks cheerfully.
"We need to go to Russia"
"What?" she smiles.
"¡We need to go to Russia!" he screams with a big smile.
"Yes I hear you, why do we need to go to Russia?" His mother enquires with curiosity.
"¡The Space Academy needs me!"
"Don't be silly John" she says curling his hands harder in the steering wheel.
"They need me to figure out, how to make space travel better and faster"
"They don't need you for that" she scoffs.
"Yes they do, don't you see mum?. I could be working in the Space station"
"What about me?, will you leave me here?"
"What?"
"Look John, I know….we both know. I have to let you go, especially to space. You belong in the stars. But I was hoping you'll be older when the time came, not five years old, there really is no need to go so fast"
"That's not…" he tries to say.
But he did mean it a bit like that. He was thinking about leaving, he was thinking about going away and finding his Dad for her. He wanted to leave her. But that was what his Dad did. Exactly what his Dad did.
"I…I'm…not…"
"It's ok, son. I promise you, you'll be traveling the stars someday. I will be probably be dead then"
"You don't understand…" he tries to say, tears spilling from his eyes, and he's angry at himself, and angry at his mum, but specially very angry at his Dad. "I need to go now, I need to go"
"John…" she says slowly. "I haven't really….talked about this with you. But I know you know. I suppose it's something in your biology. The need to be out there" she says pointing at the sky. "But it is too soon for me to let you go. You are still a baby to me"
"Mum, I am not leaving you because I need to go. It's always been the two of us, and I'm happy with that. I could stay here with you forever."
"Then there's no need for you to go to Russia. They could try to make you work till you're dead if they found out that you aren't really human, it's hard enough now that they think you are a prodigy, and you are, really" she smiles. "My brilliant child"
"You don't understand mum!, If I go to space, I could find Dad!"
Her mother almost crashed the car right there. She had to pull over on the side of the road and take a breath. Then, she was crying again. This time, with the sun up and shinning, that wasn't supposed to happen. They silently cry together for a while. Then his mother is ruffling his hair softly. She smiles with fondness and love, but it's a condescending smile.
The type of smiles parents give their children when they say something adorable but completely stupid. Did he say something stupid?.
"John. You aren't going to Russia, forget about that."
Then they are back in the road in completely silence. He's so angry he can't stop crying. When they arrive, he goes straight to his room and doesn't look at her.
+3+
He's looking at the roof of his room sulking when his mum comes; she brings dinner to him because he ignored her calls to come down.
"I know you are angry and I'm sorry son. You are indeed, the most intelligent being in the whole earth. But the truth is that Torchwood released technology already investigated and classified as space junk. Nothing would come out of that research. We lied to them because of political reasons. The government of many countries had been pressuring us to obtain alien technologies. We can't just give them the real thingy. Could be very dangerous for the entire universe, it's too soon for humans."
"So its….just junk?, but Torchwood has the real thing?"
"Yes…"
"Then…why didn't you tell me?"
"It's classified, I can't tell this stuff to my five year old son"
"But I'm not a normal little kid, I could work with you!, I could find my Dad!"
She looks very sad when she replies. "Sometimes I do forget you are just a baby. But those things remind me how innocent and precious you really are."
"Don't patronize me!, I could find Dad, if you let me tinker with alien technologies!"
"John…, do you really believe we haven't tried that?"
"What?"
"Ever since I came here for the first time, I 'been trying to found a way to your Daddy. But the deal is that….he's not really in space as you believe. At first when I noticed that you believed that, I never took the trouble to explain. It seemed to me that it wasn't really a lie. And it was better than actually talking about it. It hurts me a lot to talk about him."
"What do you mean?!"
"I let you believe it because I thought it was the best. Is not, so forgive me. The truth is that he is in other dimension. Other earth, other space, other time. And he can't cross over to this universe. The doors are closed."
"That's not even possible!, they haven't proved that those dimension exist." He says irritated.
She looks at him sharply.
"Torchwood…" he says. "They know this…, and you lie to the world." He says with deception in his voice, it's too soon for a kid to be sad about the lies of the government she thinks.
"It's what we do, yes, for the safety of everyone"
"So, you knew where and why Dad is never coming home. But you never thought of telling me this, because it hurts you."
"More than anything"
"You love him"
"I do, like the very first time I meet him."
"You called him Doctor. Is that his name, his real name?"
"I can't tell you his real name, It's written and spooked in a language he only knows. No one can say it, so he went by the name of Doctor."
"I'm sorry mum.."
"Don't be, he gave me something that makes me very happy"
"But I'm not enough to stop your suffering"
"No, you can't, no one can fill this hole, but time might, besides a friend once told me that some things are worth getting your heart broken for. As long as I have my baby with me, every pain is worth it"
He nods in silence. He forgives his mum, but not his Dad.
+4+
After that day, his mother decides to take him out of school, she says they are getting crazy ideas in his head, if he's going to have them then better be at Torchwood where he could work with the crazy scientists and have the correct information. He wasn't meant to be educated like a normal boy cuz he wasn't one. He's going to be home schooled at the most secretive organization of the world.
He's glad. Torchwood vaults have more knowledge than any school could teach him. He soon learns every possibility there is in the universe; things he used to think couldn't be done. Is not however like being an agent like his mum or Uncle Mickey. His gramps made them all promise, specially him, he would be outta danger or else; he won't be allowed inside anymore he said.
Mum starts suddenly talking about the Doctor with him. Any barrier in the topic is torn down. He learns everything there is to know about him or what little she knew from his father about his heritage.
Is not really much, except they could travel between universes, time and space and that they were all bloody dead.
Soon another idea implants in his head. Surely, if the Time Lords used to travel around all possible universes then they have to been here at some point. And if they did, they probably leaved behind their footprints. It's just a matter of finding them in history. After a while reading heavy history books related to aliens in the Torchwood institute. He discovers tales about men and women that appeared outta nowhere and soon disappeared again, never interfering with history itself, but certainly talking with people.
They all have funny titles, like The Dentist, The Clown, The Nurse, The Nanny. Or weird names like Omega. Always watching big historical events like shadows behind the curtains in the theater. Wars, executions, crowning's, elections, assassinations and the like. They would often mutter and write down information and say things like 'In this place, this happened this way, different from that other'.
Then one unexpected day, the day of his birthday, he discovers the tale of The Monk. Written down by the account of some real monks in a monastery. He told them lots of crazy things, that he was helping this world by stopping the Normans of invading England, he promised a future with big balloons in the sky floating in freedom. It was weird because when he asked his mum about it, in her earth the Normans did invaded. So the monk succeeded here in his attempt to meddle with history, and that was very weird, because he sounded like a Time Lord, but one that did whatever he wanted.
As a side note, his mother's home earth did not have the advanced technologies that this earth did. And no big ballons. Now known as Zeppelins. And was considerably less advanced; for a moment he couldn't picture a world different from his. And he couldn't believe a part of his family came from such barbaric place.
His mother and him have been looking at the wrong places he decides, is not about finding the Doctor!. Its about finding his people!.
"Granddaddy?" he asks with his sweetest voice.
It's a weapon he knows. Grandfather once told him, he thought he'd never- ever would experience being a father, much less a Granddad. He suddenly became both six years ago. He never got any chance when his mum or Tony, or he whined for something.
"Yes my boy?"
"Can you release this box from the storage unit seven, File no. 3456 for me?"
"What's in there?, does your mum know?, did Fordert said it was safe?"
"Well its stuff about an old case, mostly things found in an arquological digging, Fordert said it was safe"
"What do you want with it?" Peter asked leaving all his papers over the desk.
"I think it's interesting what's in there, mostly junk. Please Granddaddy, it can be my birthday present"
"Well, if it's safe, then you can have it, but it's not my only present for you today" he smiled. "Come here, give granddaddy a hug"
He truly loved his grandfather, so he even gives him a kiss. After that, the head of the whole institute ordered to one of his assistants to deliver said box to his mansion, where his mum and him would be spending his birthday.
Today promised to be the best birthday ever.
+4+
He forgot everything about the Monk's file, waaay to distracted by the magician. He knew how the man was doing all his tricks, but for some reason he was enjoying himself so much, he couldn't stop laughing with all the rest of the guests.
Then he and Uncle Tony went out to play in the garden where all the bouncing castles were installed. This year Granddaddy hired the biggest and most amazing ones from around the world. He and his uncle approved very much how the fortune of the family was expended.
Peter did spoiled them rotten, but it wasn't all about the money, he was truly a family man, he just waited a long time to become one. It helped that his mum and Granny were very grounded about it, they never had this much before, so their most important lesson was to be modest and grateful with everyone. No one ever complained about them, they weren't rude or behaved like brats.
It was a great party, they ate cake and sweets and danced and opened presents. His mother tuck him in with a big smile, and she didn't cry that night. One day that no one thought about the Doctor or his absence in their lives.
+5+
The next morning, still quite happy about the day before, John woke up in his room at the mansion to find the boxes of the Monks file. It was like having Christmas morning the next day of his birthday.
He opened the box and marveled at his contents. Carefully he took the strange devices with lines, circles and dots. And he realizes that he understands this ancient language. It's the same he sometimes can see inside his mind. He couldn't imagine right there what was about to come.
Not in a million years.
After all, John Tyler was just a five year old at the time. Time lord or not. He was just a kid opening a Pandora box.
+Will continue…+