The Silurian prepared a soporific. It was time for a conference call. The only other person they knew who had a Vortex Manipulator was Professor River Song. Perhaps she would be able to tell them how to fix it. "We should invite my father as well," stated Jenny.
"The Doctor?" Vastra asked, "He will not be fond of our plan to go to Gallifrey, I fear".
"'E will be even more upset if 'e finds out we went without lettin' him know," Jenny reasoned, "Don' wanna be in trouble with daddy."
Vastra chuckled. It was strange to hear anyone use such familiarity regarding the Doctor.
Moments later Vastra and Jenny sat at a circular table that was used as an alter as they completed the ritual to enter the structured dream state that would allow for communication beyond the confines of time and space.
In the dream they appeared to be in a similar room, but the walls were altered. Vastra moved to pour some tea that had appeared on the table. Jenny stopped her, "Allow me this time."
The lizard sat patiently and allowed her wife to pour tea as River appeared. "Professor Song, I'm glad you could join us." Vastra welcomed politely.
Jenny offered tea, but as she did so a goblet of wine appeared in front of River instead. "You really must teach me that trick sometime," Jenny insisted.
The professor grinned in return. "Madam Vastra and Miss Jenny, always a pleasure," she greeted. "There are four chairs," she noticed, "who is joining us?"
"Why, your husband of course," answered the Silurian.
"Oh," Jenny remembered, "'E may have changed a bit."
"He has regenerated?" River asked. Jenny nodded to confirm.
Suddenly he was there. The 12th Doctor, in all his glory. "A conference call, Madam Vastra? I thought you had more elaborate ways of getting my attention,"
"I do," affirmed Vastra, "but we also needed to speak with you wife, and that can get rather tricky from what I understand."
The 12th Doctor stared across the table and shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"Hello, Sweetie," River waved with her fingers.
The Doctor gruffly nodded in return.
It was Jenny's turn now. "Hello Dad," she stated as she poured the man some tea. At this the man nearly flinched. All eyes were on her now. Both the Doctor's and the Professor's brows raised in surprise. If it wasn't awkward before, it was now.
When the Doctor could finally look away from his anomalous daughter he turned to his wife and stated, "It's not what you think." River nodded slowly yet suspiciously as she listened.
After they sorted out that Jenny had been created in unconventional circumstances, which certainly did not involve infidelity, the group was able to move on to discuss the matter at hand. Jenny told how she had recently remembered her origins. "Doctor- Dad" Jenny said. She was struggling with choosing between the two titles. "I must get to Gallifrey", she told him.
"No!" the Doctor responded fervently, "Are you mad?"
"Runs in the family, don' it?" Jenny retorted.
The Doctor glared, but couldn't disagree. River nodded and chuckled, "It most definitely does," she said with a wink.
"Jenny, Jenny," the Time Lord said grimly. He left his chair and walked to the other side on the table and cupped her face in both hands and looked intensly into her eyes, to the point where the woman was afraid he might kiss her again as he had done in Sweetville. Thankfully he did not. "You are so young, not even a quarter century old," he said. "Still a Time Tot compared to the rest of us here".
"But she is not naïve," River argued. "Look at those eyes, they have seen so much, been through so much in less than 25 years."
"This is already her third incarnation," Vastra informed the Professor.
"Hmm, a rough life," River thought out loud, empathizing. She too had gone through regenerations quickly in her early life due to circumstances that were beyond her control.
The Doctor sat back down, and scowled at the ladies. "Don't you see what's happening here?" He inquired. Vastra looked at him curiously. "She is being manipulated."
"By whom?" Vastra would need clarification.
"The Dream Lord, an oracle on Gallifrey".
"Were you too being manipulated when you were writing in that room? That is what started this all," reminded Vastra. "How certain are you that this Dream Lord is on Gallifrey?" she challenged.
The man ignored her, "Jenny, you must learn to protect your mind," the Doctor told her.
"I'm not being manipulated, I'm being called into action. It doesn't matter how or by whom," Jenny interrupted. "I am not a child," Jenny stated defiantly as she directly addressed her father, "but I am not a Time Lord either, and I need to be".
"Let's say, for a moment, that she is being manipulated by a Dream Lord," said River gently, "How would she learn to protect her mind".
"It is part of the Time Lord training," he responded. "Oh," he looked at the table. River nodded.
"How are you to become a Time Lord?" the Professor asked
"To start, at least, I will go to Gallifrey and look into the Untempered Schizm".
"What? No! That's daft!" the Doctor disputed, "That is no more than a cruel rite of passage."
"Perhaps for you, who grew up on Gallifrey, but there is more to it for someone who is less exposed to the Vortex of Time, like me," Jenny countered. As the Doctor thought about it, he was rather curious what could be revealed to Jenny, the child that time herself created, if she were to look into the Schizm.
"Doctor," Vastra interjected, "Jenny is informing you of our plans as a courtesy. We intend to go to Gallifrey with or without your assistance". Jenny smiled at her wife. The Doctor scoffed with annoyance, but was secretly impressed.
"How do you plan to get there?" River asked, knowing that the stubbornness that also ran in the family could prevent the conversation from moving forward.
"Indeed, the TARDIS will not be taking you," the Doctor declared. River glared at him. He explained, "Not because I'm unwilling, but because she would be".
"I have a Vortex Manipulator," Jenny informed, "But it needs to be repaired." The Doctor stared at her. "What? How did you think I had gotten to Victorian London in the first place?"
"Let me see it." River said.
Jenny looked at her arm. It wasn't there. She looked at Vastra.
"This is a dream, dear, simply imagine that is there," the green woman instructed.
"Ah, right". Jenny looked at her wrist again and it was there. She took it off to show the Professor.
River took a thorough look at the device. "Yes, this is reparable," she said. "To fix it you will need a tool with a potent power source".
"Like a sonic screwdriver?" Jenny asked.
"Yes, like a sonic screwdriver" River confirmed, "I believe, Vastra, that you still own one".
"I do," Vastra confirmed. She had disguised the tool to look like a weapon, much to the chagrin of the doctor, but it was more discrete in the shape of a rifle in Victorian Times.
River told the pair how to fix the Vortex Manipulator using the sonic screwdriver. Jenny expressed her gratitude in a hug. "What are families for?" responded the Professor. Jenny grinned in return. She supposed, in a strange way that River was something of a step mother to her. Weird to think about that. Even more bizarre to consider how she was a step-granddaughter to the Ponds.
"Please let me know if there is anything more that you need from me," the Professor stated.
"We most certainly will," Vastra affirmed.
River winked at the Doctor, "Until next time, sweetie".
The Doctor grumbled as they said their farewells.
Jenny and Vastra awoke at the table, lifting their heads. "Well, that was most enlightening," Vastra stated.
Jenny bowed her head in agreement. "I think, perhaps, that we should have family reunions very rarely," she quipped.
~.~.~.~.~
A/N: Reviews are always appreciated. As they said in the days of Xena fanfic "Feed the Bard!" :)