Chapter 5: The Truth about Jaime
A shot landed beside Doctor as he hid behind a boulder. It was a few days after the blow up with Jaime; now he was on Caladria helping the Hokiotes fight the Mischian tyranny to win their freedom. The Hokiotes looked like a Minotaur from Greek mythology but with a big dog head instead of a bullhead. They were a gentle race that had been forced into slave labor by the Mischians; a race that looked much like the human race but with suckered tentacles instead of arms and a love for eating insects. Both races would have been considered primitive to even human standards.
The plan was to fight back as best as they could until the Mischians see that they wouldn't be able to enslave them anymore, that they were a free species; during this, the Doctor planned on sneaking into the Mischian Palace and having a little talk with their Emperor. All he had to do was just get a little closer and he would be home free. He was going to go in; risking it all in this dangerous move with no cover. The last thing he remembered was running toward the secret entrance to the Throne Room behind the palace and a sharp pain in his shoulder before all turned to shadows then black.
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When the Doctor awoke, he found himself in Jaime's apartment on her bed where they first met with no clue how he got there. All he knew right now was Jaime was stalking somewhere about the apartment; his head felt a little groggy; and his shirt had disappeared and was replaced with a few bandages around the shoulder.
Trying to stand up from the bed, the Doctor felt the blood rushing to his head making him see little black dots as he sat back down dizzily. It was now that he noticed the searing pain in his shoulder.
Lying back in his bunk and closing his eyes, his face stretched with pain, the Doctor touched his bandaged shoulder timidly; pulling it back to see a deep wound and gave it a sniff.
"Glockian root." he mused to himself, crinkling his nose from the bitter smell, "Poisonous, I thought."
He looked about himself at the room, never having seen it in the daylight. It was a dreary room also crammed with book-filled shelves that looked like they were going to collapse at any moment if any more books were even placed within a foot of them.
"When does she get the time to read all these books?" he murmured to himself with furrowed eyebrows.
"She carries them around with her everywhere; even at work." A female voice replied as the door opened.
Standing there, carrying a tray of what smelled like beef stew, was an older woman no older than her late sixties. Even with her graying red curls she looked like a kind beauty with a love for her own cooking if her stout figure told the Doctor anything as she stood with her large starch apron and flowery button-up shirt and skirt.
"Hello dearie. Good to see you up at last." The woman murmured, her Brooklyn accent sounding like music to the Doctor's ears after spending so much time with the British (and Jaime), as she set the tray on the Doctor's lap so he could eat, "Eat up now. You'll need your strength after being asleep for three days."
"Three days?! Thank you Ms—?" the Doctor said with a cheery smile, letting the last part drop off when he realized he didn't know the woman's name; let alone her relationship to Jaime. For all he knew, she could be her father's new woman; as awkward as that would be.
"Mrs. Johansson, but you can call me Pattie. My husband Pete is the landlord and supervisor of the place. It's thanks to Jaime really that you got better; she did most of the work." She smiled for a moment as she thought about Jaime, "We've known little Jaime since she first moved to America; think of her as our own daughter." Pattie added meaningfully before bustling about the room; tidying it up nonchalantly even though the severe military-like bedroom didn't have a single item out of place.
A little sigh emitted from the foot of the bed as a little head popped up from the sheets of a pig-faced pug. It gave a great yawn and a little stretch before flopping back to sleep wearily.
"Hello there little one." he murmured with a smile as he reached out to scratch the dog behind the ears. As it licked his fingers, it gazed at him with its big watery eyes adoringly, "Never would have pictured her with a pug." he uttered to himself.
"What did you expect her to have: a poodle?" joked the older woman with a faint smile at her own humor. The Doctor shrugged thoughtfully.
"I much rather fancied her having a Doberman or a German Shepard; something that could rip your throat out without a second thought."
Jaime waltzed through the door at that moment like a king in their manor with a porcelain cup in hand stating: "I'm not in a bad mood: I just don't like you" on the side as steam from her tea wafted into the room.
"He lives." she murmured with her eyebrows shooting up in mock surprise as she took a sip with an amused twinkle in her eye, "Glad to see you hold me in such high regard after all we've been through." Even though she was acting like an apathetic creep, she was looking completely drained from lack of sleep; heavy sacks under her eyes with a slight yellow tinge to her skin.
Sitting beside him on the edge of the bed, balancing her tea on her knee, she stared down at the pug with a smirk
"Whadaya know Ko-ko?" she murmured in a funny voice with a grin; making a point to have her hands resting on her lap where the dog could see them in a slow, deliberate motion. The dog, Ko-ko, stared down at her hands expectantly; waiting for them to pet him. They didn't move an inch. Stretching out a paw, it hit Jaime's head with a snort-sneeze; yawning quite cutely as it tried to act nonchalant about it.
"Oh alright Pickles." sighed Jaime as she gave it a good firm scratch at the base of his tail; making his tongue flick out like a reptile searching for bugs, "Oh lizard-tongue!" she said in baby talk with a smile, "Mummy loves lizard-tongue!"
Suffice to say the Doctor was both horrified and oddly fascinated by the gushy talk emanating from his new companion to the small animal. With a big sloppy kiss for his mummy, Ko-ko wiggled back to the Doctor's hand; positioning himself for an ideal spot to get his bum scratched.
"I see Ko-ko's takin' a shine to you." she murmured conversationally with a mild look of surprise; taking another hearty swig from her morning tea that smelled sickeningly sweet from the honey she must have dolloped in there. Really, she must have dumped half a bottle in there the Doctor mused as he wrinkled his nose. "Normally he hates guys; especially around me. He hates to share his mummy."
The Doctor grinned at the word 'share' as if he honestly would be competing for her affections
"Well he is rather cute, I will give you that... in an ugly sort of way." the Doctor admitted with a playful smile as he laid back into the pillows, not taking a sip from the funny smelling stew yet.
"People could say the same for you." she retorted with an eye roll, back to her old cynical self. Ko-ko stared at the Doctor with these big miserable eyes that looked like it was going to cry, staring unsubtly at his hand as it gave a suggestive tap with a paw, "You're pathetic Ko-ko." she drawled, throwing the pug onto its back with an affectionate smile, "You act like no one ever pets you." murmuring as she gave him a tender kiss on the nose or whatever passed for a nose on a pug. It just stared back at her with the same big eyes, not saying a word. Jaime rolled her eyes in return. "Brat dog."
A faint smile played on the Doctor's lips as he watched her with Ko-ko; a gentle scowl on her face as she pretended to be annoyed with the tiny dog. It did him good to see that she wasn't completely disparaging and pessimistic in all aspects on her life; she had something to love and something to love her back. It was almost charming the way she treated that dog like her little child.
Pattie turned around at this moment to see her stew untouched. In moments the sweet gentle woman became a harpy—complete with talons and all. She put her hands on her hips with a stern frown; seeming to be having a little trouble keeping the frown—probably not one to frown at people in the first place.
"Now starvation will not be tolerated. I did not bring you back from the brink of death just to have you starve. Now shut up and eat your soup before it gets cold."
"Or Ko-ko gets to it; he's a terrible moocher." Jaime murmured softly so the woman wouldn't hear her. She seemed in high spirits now she was in her natural environment and she wasn't just roused by a strange man tugging at her necklace way past midnight. Or maybe it was just the tea...
"Believe me, Doc: it's better off if you eat it without a fuss. It's not that bad..." she said, waiting until he had a mouthful, "...if you don't mind the taste of rat." Well that was too much for the Doctor to handle, making him spit out the bit that he had in his mouth with a childish face.
That just made the girl snicker with glee until Pattie started beating her with the hat she was just brushing off when the girl made the comment.
"You watch it little girl or I won't be making you supper anymore!" the woman cried, enunciating each word with a hearty smack.
"I'm sorry Aunt Pattie!" she replied with a humorous laugh to her voice as she covered her head protectively from the blows; running to the door to escape, "I love your cooking really I do! If it makes you happy, I'll eat the whole batch of stew if you like." She beseeched with a charming smile. The woman's heart was easily melted by that smile.
The Doctor, who had been enjoying this display of paternal affection that he didn't often get the luck to experience on his travels (especially towards particularly bratty ones like Jaime), became the woman's new target of attack when she heard a chuckle escape his lips.
"Young man, you gave us quite a scare." she declared firmly as she crossed her arms, "You're lucky young Jaime here was with you. If I wasn't home from my shift at the hospital, you might not have made it." Now the severity was over, she softened with a gentle smile. "She explained all about you not being able to go to an American hospital because your green card was up" props for Jaime for coming up with that one the Doctor thought as the lady babbled, "and you didn't want to be shipped back to England, but you really should get that thing renewed Mr.—"
"—Smith. John Smith." the Doctor said quickly before too many questions could be asked.
"Well, Mr. Smith. You better take good care of Jaime on your travels. If I hear so much as one hint of something inappropriate going on or if she is in the least bit unhappy, I will hunt you down and castrate you with a rusty spoon."
The Doctor's mouth opened wide with shock that this grandma-type woman just said that to him. Guess it's another thing he could check off his list of 'never happening in all 900 years of his life'. He turned to Jaime to see if he could get any sympathy from her, hoping she might explain that no such thing would happen, but she was just leaning against the door frame snickering to herself. Ko-ko wasn't much help either, scratching at his hand to have him scratch him behind the ear.
"Now that's all said, I better be heading off to work. You did quite well last night Jaime; I'll make a medic out of you yet." The tottery older woman said brightly as she scurried out the door of the apartment. Jaime just rolled her eyes while mouthing the words "doubt it" to herself. "If you need anything, Pete's in his apartment down the hall. Goodbye loves! And I expect that soup eaten and in your stomach Mr. Smith. I have my ways of finding out."
At the pleasant clunk of the door, Jaime sighed gratefully: "Thank God that's over." She grinned as she watched the Doctor continue to stare miserably at the soup set before him, "I was just kidding about the rat bit, you know. Honestly. Would I lie to you?"
"If you wanted to see me suffer; yes." Jaime refused to say anything; just throwing him the most charmingly innocent smile as the Doctor timidly took a sip from the stew and found that it was fit for human consumption and actually quite good.
"How did I end up here, might I ask? Last thing I remember, I was fighting the Mischians when I went down." the Doctor murmured as she blew raspberries on the pug's stomach to its delight; snorts of glee emanating from it as it kicked out wildly with fierce snarls in play.
"I saw you being attacked on the monitoring system and sprang to action—don't worry, the Hokiotes won the battle no thanks to you—I dragged you back aboard and I drove us here in the TARDIS of course." she replied with a roll of her eyes at him as if he asked the stupidest question in the history of man, "Though I was off a bit on the time. You really should get that thing checked out. I came back about two weeks after you kidnapped me!" Giving a weary sigh as she covered her face in exasperation, "Aunt Pattie and Uncle Pete were not happy about that; I'll tell you that. I had to listen to them lecture me about 'responsibility' and 'consideration'. Ugh! It's not like I could tell them the truth and say that I met Mum's old traveling buddy who kidnapped me then whisked me off in his spaceship. Besides, I used that excuse last month."
Ignoring all her sarcasm at the end, the Doctor said: "That means you saved me." he grinned from ear-to-ear, "You were worried about me. Why else would you be monitoring me on the screen?" She just rolled her eyes at him with an exasperated sigh when it hit him; the Doctor's eyes widening in shock. "Where did you learn to drive a TARDIS?" She just smiled and refused to say anything so he tried a different tactic, "But what about the TARDIS? Don't you think they'll ask questions when they see it parked in the middle of the sitting room?"
"Unlike you, I actually have a very good parking record." replied Jaime with a smug smirk, "I parked it in the bathroom. All I have to say is 'I don't want them in there' and they don't go in; simple as that." Much to his shame, she was right.
"Oh…" the Doctor replied as he considered it, "Why didn't I think of that before?" he pondered aloud thoughtfully.
"Cause you're a doofus, Doc." Jaime gibed with another smirk before waltzing out of the apartment with the upper hand of this round of battle; little Ko-ko pattering after her devotedly.
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The Doctor healed fast in human terms, just a week or so. All the while, Jaime took care of the immediate medical problems of making sure his bandage was clean or anything. She admitted later that this was because Aunt Pattie would have noticed that he had a double heart beat and would have mistaken it for a murmur or something and 'dragged his sorry ass to the nearest clinic where he would've been cut open and revealed as a freak of nature' as she so kindly put it. This was one of those occasions when she was changing his bandage right after he ate his meal of soup, making exaggerated yum yum sounds for Pattie in the room to placate her before quaffing down his medicine for the fever.
"Don't you ever brush your hair?" Pattie declared as she cleared his tray; commenting on his spiky, tousled hair. The Doctor's fingers went instinctively to the said-item with a mildly surprised look.
"What? Is something wrong with it?" Jaime just rolled her eyes at him, shooing the woman out so she could change his bandages in peace without having to worry about her aunt moving things about without her consent.
"Leave him be; he's a lunatic and he's from Europe. That's the latest craze over there." She firmly shut the door with a sigh with a basin of clean water, bandages, and towels to take care of his wounds, "God that woman can get annoying."
"She just cares." replied the Doctor, sitting up so she could easily remove the existing bandages with her scissors.
"Yes, well...a person can only take so much caring in their lives before they start killing people."
"Well don't kill me. I'm just an innocent bystander."
With a lover's tenderness she changed his bandages; gently cleaning the wound with the small towels and sterilized water before applying the medication to make it heal. It was moments like this, when she treated him with a thoughtfulness that frightened him, he felt uneasy in such close proximity; especially bare-chested like now.
"You seemed to be well enough to finally get out of bed." she murmured, her fingers probing gently on his bare skin. Catching a whiff of her scent, the Doctor noticed that she smelt of lavender water. Something strange was affecting his breathing. It was probably just the medication that made him so tense.
"Why did you save me, might I ask? You hate me."
"I may hate you," she murmured, still closely inspecting the injury without looking once at him, "but I could not leave you to die like that."
"So you do like me and care about me." he teased with a smirk as she started putting his new bandage on just in case for now. Laughing dryly:
"Do not!" she said gruffly, "If you died there then I'd never get the chance to kill you myself." The Doctor didn't buy her rough talk of hating him and wanting to kill him. If she truly hated him, she wouldn't have bothered to spend the three nights he was unconscious beside him in vigil. He had hopes of making friends with her yet. "Now that you're better, you can help me pack stuff into the TARDIS. I told Aunt Pat and Uncle Pete that I was putting some stuff in storage so they wouldn't get suspicious."
All whilst the Doctor was healing, Jaime had been working on packing some of the essentials: books, clothes, books, toiletries, books, a camera, and books—actually a crud-load of books.
"Where do you keep all these books?" the Doctor finally asked when she ordered him to carry the fifth crate load that day into the TARDIS.
"In various rooms and such." she said with a shrug, "I need to bring my music with me, so be a good man and pack all those items neatly into those boxes." said Jaime as she pointed to the wall of music that consumed the spare bedroom. The collection included such things as records, 8-tracks, to CDs.
The Doctor stared at the daunting task with a sigh, "You're just doing this to spite me after saving my life aren't you; forever holding this over my head until you yourself die or I save you?" Jaime frowned a little, thoughtfully; simply pushed out her bottom lip and gave him a blank look.
"Yeah, that's basically the idea."
A half hour later and he was still at the task, sorting through them to make sure that all the different genres were in the right boxes like ordered, when he came across a dusty burned CD with the words "My Music" blazed across the front in marker hidden behind some ancient jazz records. With a shrug, he popped it into the CD player to figure out what box to put it in.
Out of the music machine blared heavy emo lyrics with deep and depressing meanings and words written straight into them. It was enough to make a sober man want to drink and a normal person to start cutting himself because of how tragic life is. The singer, a young woman by the sound, was like a siren with her haunting and hypnotic melodies. Finding himself pulled in by the beautiful and evocative singer, the Doctor listened to the music for a moment—taking in the lyrics before shutting the player off and packing the music in the alternative rock box to go along with the other metal sort of bands.
What is alternative rock anyway? It's not rock but it's not pop. If anything it's soft rock. But what is soft rock? Why can't they all just be called rock? Very confusing; humans pondered the Doctor as he moved a large cloth off of what he thought was another stack of records. Turned out, it was an old upright piano.
"Oi! You got a piano in here!" he called out to her with mild surprise. She didn't seem like the piano type; he always thought she was just a guitarist.
Jaime seemed surprised by the appearance of the instrument as well, "That's where it got to! I wondered where that went." Striding up to it, her fingers fiddled with the keys playfully; almost experimentally like a child first discovering the instrument, "Let's see if it's in tune shall we?"
Her playing changed from tinkering to outright playing as her agile unerring fingers moved across the keyboard. The melody was a familiar one to the Doctor, an old classic made famous by Frank Sinatra. The Doctor smiled, very pleased and impressed by her ability to play the song by heart.
When the song itself started, the Doctor sang; imitating the great singer's croon:
My Funny Valentine,
Sweet comic valentine,
You make me smile with my heart.
Your looks are laughable,
unphotographable,
Yet you're my favorite work of art.
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak, are you smart?
But don't change a hair for me,
Not if you care for me.
Stay little valentine, stay.
Each day is Valentine's Day.
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak, are you smart?
But don't change a hair for me,
Not if you care for me.
Stay little valentine, stay.
Each day is Valentine's Day.
Jaime finished off the song with a wonderful flourish that would have made Mozart proud and Beethoven weep. A smile hung about her lips as her fingers trailed the obviously familiar keyboard.
"Good ol' blue-eyes. Wonderful chap, though too much of a lady-killer for his own good. Where did you hear the song?" Jaime looked at him with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes; too much pain in the memory.
"Dad used to sing that to me when I was a kid—it was our special song that he'd sing whenever I was upset or couldn't fall asleep."
"Oh that's horrible! That's a song about an ugly girl—you're anything but ugly!" Jaime rolled her eyes with a disgusted look.
"It's about a guy saying he loves her no matter what she looks like. Besides...Dad knew how much I hated being called 'beautiful' and 'stunning'. Being beautiful doesn't get you far in life. People just expect you to be a supermodel and have no brains or anything at all. Grr." she growled, growing agitated.
"Why don't you sing me something? I bet you have a wonderful voice." the Doctor said, leaving out the part that he heard her sing in the past. He was just wondering what changes might have gone on since she was ten.
A shadow crossed her brow. "No." she replied tersely, flipping the cover back on the piano a little too brusquely as she went for the door.
"No? Why not? You're father who you idolize was a good singer—"
"You leave my father out of this!" she hissed, turning back to him sharply, "I don't sing, so leave it at that." A definite cloud was resting on her brow as her eyes were dark and shuttered. What little headway the Doctor made with her was completely gone now. He knew that when the door to the apartment shut with a slam as she muttered about going out for a walk with Ko-ko, leaving him standing there helplessly and unsure of what to do. Once again, he wondered to himself what happened to her that made her so closed-off to people.
The door hadn't been closed for a blink when it opened again to show a portly gentleman in a faded black leisure suit, his graying hair fluffed around his forehead. He cut an imposing figure, leisure suit aside, with his sharp eyes and serious set face.
"So you're J.C.'s new little friend she's been taking care of? I'm Uncle Pete. Why don't you come over to my apartment and have a little chat now that you're up, you and I, hmm?" It was not a request as the Doctor was shuffled out of the living room and led into the cramped hallway that smelled of feet and something else the Doctor didn't want to think about.
Guided by a hand placed firmly on his shoulder, the Doctor was then led down the hall past two doors until he came to the very end of the building. So this is how she plans to kill me...I thought she was joking but I guess she wasn't. Maybe she just put her uncle up to it... the Doctor mused darkly to himself as he tried to figure out how she planned to do it; what method would she like. From the looks of the guy taking him there, he guessed it would be something old-fashioned that involved his knees being broken with a baseball bat.
Uncle Pete simply unlocked the door and took him into the living room, shoving him into the overstuffed leather sofa before sitting across from him on an old worn red armchair that looked like it survived Hiroshima. For what felt like ages, the man simply scrutinized him in silence so intently he felt as if his thoughts were being read. If he could, he would have known that the Doctor thought that the suit he was wearing was rather ghastly and should have been left in the 70's where it belonged. Thank goodness he couldn't. Finally the man spoke again in his rough, grumbly voice.
"How do you know J.C.?" he stated, looking him square in the eye as if he could sense if he was lying.
"Old family friend," of her mother's he added mentally as he cheerfully smiled.
"I've never seen you around the building before. I think I would have remembered a young British man running about with our J.C."
"Well...I knew her family before they moved to America, you know. The whole 'she used to live just outside of London before she was six' thing." he replied quickly, thinking fast before the man asked too many questions that he couldn't answer without revealing himself.
"So what are you're intentions with J.C.?"
"I—err—want to travel with her...and stuff... take her to see new places and such..." The man's eagle eyes were starting to unnerve the Doctor quite a bit.
"What sort of new places might I ask?" the man murmured, leaning back casually; too casually to be taken serious by the panther-like stare he was giving him.
"Well... France in nice this time of year... maybe see London properly...oooh! Belgium's nice! She'd like Belgium! Though maybe she would prefer Ireland...she does have a lot of books on Gaelic. Maybe she would like to test her skills out on the locals..." the Doctor rambled at breakneck speed, leaving the man in the dust.
"That's quite enough thank you." Pete said sharply, resting one ankle on his knee while placing his fingers together to make a chapel, which he pointed at the Doctor, "I want you to know that you are one in a very long line of gentlemen who have paraded in and out of her life. I still take each and every new beau very seriously. As J.C.'s new—"
"Wait, you think I'm her boyfriend?" the Doctor stammered in disbelief, knowing for sure that this wasn't about revenge killing; just some good old-fashioned family intimidation to the new guy.
"Yes. Aren't you her new boyfriend?"
"Heavens no! What, do you think I'm daft? She hates me farther than she could throw me."
Pete's face softened, in fact his whole demeanor softened as he relaxed, "Oh thank God. I couldn't keep that up much longer." he said with a smile, "Sorry about the inconvenience it's just that when J.C. came rushing in here in a panic with a skinny guy in a tight suit thrown on her back—saying something about walking in the wrong neighborhood—and that he had to stay at her apartment, in her bed so she could keep an eye on him...we didn't know what to think. To tell you the truth, we were rather impressed that some man even got through the threshold. What makes you think that she hates you?" Pete asked, totally changing subjects while offering the Doctor a canister of Jelly Babies; liking the other man now that he knew he was no threat.
Taking one, the Doctor said: "Well for one she told me straight to my face that she hates my very existence and that she wanted to kill me for herself and she has this really dour sort of mood about me. I swear she's going to hate me for the rest of my life if she doesn't kill me in my sleep. Why is it, I just try to be nice to her and she just throws it back in my face?" Pete just smiled in return, nodding sagely.
"You alienate her the harder you try, kid. You must harass her with kindness but not the over-the-top kind; little stuff like asking her what she wants to watch on television or what station would she like to listen to in the car—thoughtful stuff." He smiled as he leaned forward with a conspiratorial wink, "But you must be careful not to make it obvious 'cause she's as smart as a fox. Any hint of your plot and she'll hightail it. Got to be easy about it...real nice and slow..."
"It sounds like you're giving me advice on how to tame a wild creature rather than how to get Jaime to at least tolerate me." joked the Doctor with a big grin, chuckling to himself.
"Women are nothing but wild creatures needing to be tamed." The man retorted with a hearty laugh. "Don't mind her tough act; she's been through a lot in her life. She finds it hard to get close to anyone anymore after all those tragedies that happened that would bring a normal, sane man to his knees." This intrigued the Doctor; this might just be the thing that answered his questions about her past.
"You want to see something?" Pete asked, leading the Doctor to his study just off the living room; a conglomeration of books and papers on the desk while the rest was almost clean to the point of O.C.D. The walls were covered with posters—musicals, concerts, bands; all of them with Jaime's name scrawled as one of the main contributors.
"Is that..." the Doctor asked, closely inspecting a poster of a dark female figure after slipping his thick black-rimmed glasses on, "...Jaime?" Pete smiled at him, beaming with pride as he too looked at the poster of a young female artist with the words "Young Rising Star" splashed in big bold letters under the band's name of "Mariska Rasmussen". He was lost in some memory as he said:
"Yes, she was but sixteen when she started hitting it big. Give me a moment...I know I've got it here..." he rummaged in his file cabinet for a moment before pulling out a thin laminated soft-cover book, "This is her lyric book that was sold at her concerts. She drew the illustrations to go along with the songs. She was very multifarious when it comes to talent: singing, playing instruments; she also was a wonderful artist. Go ahead—take a look."
Flipping though the book, the Doctor was flabbergasted by the intricate details put into each sketch that corresponded to the lyrics.
"These are good!" he murmured softly in mild surprise. Pausing for a moment to read the lyrics themselves, he recognized them as ones he heard before, "I know these! These are the ones on her CD!"
"Yes." sighed the older gentleman ruefully, shaking his head miserably, "She was going to sign herself to a major recording company when..." the other man turned away for a moment with downcast eyes, "...when The Incident happened." This surprised the Doctor; he hadn't heard of this incident, though honestly he hadn't heard anything about her past besides the information Tegan told him and his momentary meeting with her past self.
"What incident?" he asked, cocking his head with raised eyebrows.
"The Incident that lost her voice." the man said mysteriously, turning away from the Doctor after carefully taking the book from his hands to stow it away again.
"Wait a minute, I've heard her talk—so how could she lose her voice?" Pete just grimaced at him over his shoulder, busying himself as he tenderly replaced the book back in its place.
"She lost her voice to sing, Mr. Smith." He shook his head wearily; rubbing his eyes, "She had barely gotten over James' death when..." a sad sigh escaped his lips as he grabbed a large photo album off the nearest bookshelf, "She was just twelve years old when he died." He paused over a picture of a happy young girl in pigtail waving to the camera; not much older than the girl the Doctor had met, "Just. Twelve. Years. Old. She was the one who found him. Poor kid." the man added conversationally.
"He was still young, how did he die?" So, she not only lost her brother as a kid; she lost her dad too, and because of his lies she thought her mother dead all these years. No wonder she's so messed up. Leaning close, Pete whispered:
"Drug overdose. Thank God the idiot had enough sense to hide the evidence before she found him. He was an insatiable man, James; always boozing, doing drugs, having girls hanging around him. It's a wonder J.C. didn't inherit more than his talent." He paused for a moment, "No I lie, she does have an insatiable personality. It comes out with minor obsessions. Thankfully it has evolved itself into reading books instead of doing drugs or having unsafe sex with countless men. I thank God every day for that." Continuing, he said:
"It used to be music before The Incident. She was always such a happy and vivacious character before The Incident. She used to go around singing everywhere. She'd go to the mall and be singing, go down the hall and she'd be singing; always singing. I remember once she told me that music is an outburst of the soul; that it was like water and like water no one could live without it. Even as babies we're exposed to it; the first thing we hear is the sound of our mother's heartbeat."
Good God this man could prattle on! I just have to be vigilant until he gets to the part where he tells me more about how James died or what exactly is this 'incident'.
"After her father's death, she didn't have anyone to turn to. I let her stay in her apartment as long as she promised to stay in school and get her diploma; I, myself a child who grew up in foster care, didn't want that little kid to go through the horrors I went through. Her friend Adrian spent a lot of time around here. I truly believe that she would have gone off the deep end if he wasn't around to keep her standing. Lovely boy; very handsome with a gentle heart. Whenever she got into trouble, I filled in as Dad and Pat filled in as Mom even though we really weren't relations—she just calls us Uncle Pete and Aunt Pattie. Even with our and Adrian's support, I don't think she ever got over his death. If you listen to her work, you realize that he is an intimate part of the girl, his music constantly in her thoughts."
The Doctor softened a little, listening to this man rattle on about a girl who he loved very much and obviously adored with his every being. He probably didn't often get to boast about her to anyone who would listen but he found a willing customer in the information starved Doctor just wanting to understand his new companion and maybe connect the dots between Point A and Point B. With this new information, the trail was definitely becoming clearer.
With a hug, the Doctor was lead back to the apartment before he got lost along the way. Pausing outside the door, the Doctor turned to Pete.
"I can see how you might have misconstrued our relationship Pete, but Jaime and I are nothing more than travel companions. And to re-answer your question about what my intentions are with her: I want to make sure she's always smiling."
"And for that you have my respect. Take care of her will ya?"
"I will."
Entering the apartment, the first thing the Doctor saw was Jaime splayed out on the couch with yet another book—where does she keep getting these?—with Ko-ko laying across her stomach; snoring louder than a blow horn.
"How do you sleep with that thing?" the Doctor murmured as he gazed in wonder as he pondered how such a tiny thing can make such a big noise.
"I set it on vibrate of course." Jaime replied with a completely straight face without looking up from her book; this one a philosophy book by Socrates. The Doctor stood there blankly, not sure if she was joking or not. It was hard to tell with her; especially when she was doing her tongue-in-cheek-dry-humor-sarcasm. Then he didn't know what to think about anything she said.
"I think I'm gonna pop off for a kip I think." The Doctor said, acting nonchalant as he gestured toward the TARDIS' general direction with an uncaring finger.
"Whatever." Jaime replied with a shrug, "Be back before dinner time so Aunt Pattie doesn't ask any questions." The Doctor turned to go, thinking he hit home free. "And Doctor..." He froze, thinking he was caught, "Don't think of running off with my stuff."
"Wouldn't dream of it." he replied with a weak smile over his shoulder, moving again towards the bathroom door.
"Sayeth the Serpent." she sneered as he slunk into the small bathroom and closed the door firmly shut. Pivoting on his heels, he gazed up at his TARDIS lovingly.
"Hello old friend." he sighed, stroking his fingers tenderly on her surface before stepping inside. Manning the controls, he set the coordinates for a very specific time. "Come on girl, if ever there was a time for you to get this right; now is the time."
****
The song that Jaime wrote is based of Frank Sinatra's version of "My Funny Valentine". I do not own the song nor the lyrics. I don't even own Frank Sinatra. If I did, I would keep him in my pocket and make his croon sweet music to me. That's just me. Since I can't, I just keep him on my Ipod.
Thanks to anyone who actually takes the time to read this fic and my strange little comments. So far I have two people who have me on alert so I feel honored. Thank you again.