Would ya look at that? Just in time for Christmas! There was a slight delay due to illness, stupid bug just won't leave! I hope it's up to scratch!
Do tell me what you think!
Enjoy!
Allons-y!
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Part VII - In All Universes
Bad Wolf Bay was desolate and foreboding. The sky was steel grey and the waves crashed in a way that could be considered grumpy. They rolled and swirled almost as if something moved beneath them, stirring in slumber. Even the sand seemed dead, crunching and grating in a tired manner. The wind was sharp and it cut through their clothes straight to the skin. It was in a word miserable.
Yet there was something in the air here. Something different. There was almost a taste of iron and a sense of something greater. The hairs on their necks stood up in preparation.
John was in the lead of course, he was jogging along the beach ahead of them. He moved gracefully but quickly. His eyes searched every corner. Rose, Pete, Jackie, Jonathan and the children followed at a more sedate pace. There was a sense of urgency in the group, and one of expectation.
A new sound filled the barren beach and all heads turned in recognition. It was the sound of the universe. John grinned impossibly wide and came to a stop as a blue box lurched into existence beautifully, albeit slightly wobbly. The Tylers gazed warily, there was the TARDIS, exactly as they remembered it.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then the door creaked open and there was a figure silhouetted there. A word slipped from John's lips, a word they weren't expecting. Rose was reminded that, for all that intelligence and maturity, John was still a fourteen year old boy. A fourteen year old that had never truly been parted from his father in his life. A little boy that missed his dad. "Dad," John whispered and was suddenly running, dropping the duffle he'd brought with him.
Then the Doctor was running too. He was in a state of disarray, he wore the pinstripe suit but no blazer, he shirt was untucked and his hair wild. His long legs worked to carry him to John and there was relief on his face. Despite John's size the Doctor pulled him to him and swung him round. He threaded hands either sides of John's head and brought their foreheads together and closed his eyes. Neither moved.
"What are they doing?" Jackie asked, craning to see.
"Time Lords are telepathic, John's updating him on what happened," Jonathan told them, gazing enviously.
"I've never seen him do that before," Rose commented, taking her husband's hand.
"He's never had anyone to do it with before. They're father and son and, on Gallifrey, that means they're bonded on a very high level. Not to mention being the last of their kind," Jonathan mused, pulling her closer.
The Time Lord released John's head to pull him close again, crushing him to his chest, and kissed the top of his messy hair soundly. He didn't let go for a long moment. Finally the Doctor pulled away and patted his son's shoulder, still not taking his eyes off of him. He moved aside as a blur hit John full on from the TARDIS and pushed him to the floor. "What?" John yelled as he struggled up, glaring at the form of his sister. The Doctor walked past, making his way to the Tylers.
"You're so stupid!" she yelled back, punching him on the side of the head.
"I'm gone for days, trapped in a parallel universe and the first thing you do is hit me?" John bellowed, incredulous and rubbing his head.
"You deserve it because you're stupid," she screamed back. They stood glaring at each other for a long time, neither moving and both seething quietly. Then Jenny grinned and pulled John to her, hugging him close. "Missed you, baby brother," she murmured, ruffling his hair.
"Missed you too, Jen," he laughed. "Did you have to hit me so hard?"
"You know the proverb, boys have ears on their backs to you have to hit them and all that," she danced off down the beach, literally skipping.
"But you hit me on the head!" he protested, pushing her over. They could see it was all in jest, the age old relationship of brother and sister. Jenny gave a long look but John on grinned. Suddenly they exploded into action, John sprinting away from his sister who quickly gave chase. The Tyler children were also hot on their heels, laughing happily without a care in the world.
The Doctor watched them silently. He still hadn't said a word to the Tylers.
"So, what's he like?"
The Doctor swivelled to look at Jackie, a small amount of shock on his face. "Pardon?" he said in that voice they all remembered.
"Your son. What's he like?" Jackie sighed, rolling her eyes.
The Doctor's eyes widened and the smile was back, "Oh! John! Yes," he managed. "He's adventurous and curious. Always asking questions," he laughed wryly, another expression that had never changed. "Jenny, my daughter, is much the same."
"What does he enjoy doing?" Rose asked curiously.
The Doctor rubbed his chin in thought, "he likes working on the TARDIS. He's always had a thing for music ever since I taught him the basics of the piano, though he's far better than me now."
There was a shriek and they turned to see that John had pushed Jenny in the sea while Donna and Jack were incapacitated with laughter.
"What about Jenny?"
"Jen likes physical activity, running and martial arts. I didn't approve at first of course," he let out a fond smile at the memory of the argument, "didn't like the violence. But she's happy and pacifistic so I let it slide." There was a more worn edge to him, a kinder smile and crinkle in the eyes. Fatherhood had aged the unaging man, but in a good way.
They watched the children play happily. All of them were surprised when Donna allowed John to pick her up and swing her high above his head. They were all drenched now, pushing each other repeatedly into the sea would do that. Jack had latched onto John's back to join the ride too. Jenny was gleefully splashing them.
If you didn't know better you would assume they were siblings. The boys were both dark haired with their father's eyes, the girls were both blonde. They played together as if they'd done it a thousand times and had not only just met. A sopping Donna ran across the sand in her bare feet – at least they'd had the sense to try and keep their shoes dry – towards them but, instead of making for her dad, she ran to the Doctor. They weren't expecting him to pick up this drenched child and swing her, laughing. He lifted her high and tossed her up slightly before setting her on her feet.
He was dragged back with her to join the fray and, to their amazement, he did. He scooped up a handful of sea water and caught Jenny full in the face, causing her to squeal. He was then caught and grappled by John and Jack as they fought to drench him. They didn't succeed of course but it was a good effort. They'd never heard the Doctor laugh so, it was care free and genuine. He tossed Donna to John who promptly dunked her. Rose realised they were seeing a scene that had probably happened multiple times in the childish Time Lord family. After ten minutes he made his way back, slightly wet, to the others. "Sorry," he said, sweeping his hair out of his eyes.
"You've changed," Rose commented, eyebrows raised.
"Really?" the Doctor asked, feeling himself up and down. "Doesn't feel like it."
"Don't kid," Rose chuckled. "Fatherhood looks good on you," she grinned.
"No better than motherhood on you. They are beautiful children," he replied, nodding to Jack and Donna.
"It must've been hard raising them alone," Rose murmured, watching their collective children.
"I had good friends," the Doctor told her. "Wouldn't have been able to do it without them. Did you know Jack Harkness could babysit? I didn't. Well he can't really. John's visit is still classed as a hostile takeover and it's been eight years."
"Trouble like his dad no doubt," Jackie snorted, folding her arms.
"So it wasn't hard at all?" Rose insisted.
The Doctor laughed, "Rose Tyler, there are thousands of single parents in the Universe doing the same thing every single day. I mean look at your mother," he nodded to Jackie. "It wasn't so difficult," he shrugged. "Besides, I told you. I had help."
"Help?" Jackie asked.
"Well, when John was two there was sort of a crisis that needed to be taken care of – where I met Martha actually – and I needed someone to look after John, I couldn't just leave him in the TARDIS. I ended up calling Sarah Jane." He smiled softly, "it was then I realised that I didn't have to do it all on my own." He watched the children for a moment longer. "You've done well for yourself," he commented to both Jonathan and Rose. "How long?"
"We've been married seven years," Jonathan told him with a smile, "Jack is six and Donna is four."
"They certainly look a handful," the Doctor observed as Jack pushed John over playfully.
"Oh you can talk!" Rose laughed, "Your son ran in front of a car, was admitted to hospital and has been classed as this world's first alien contact."
The Doctor looked over sharply, "a car?"
"Yes, Donna chased him into the road and, well, John pushed her out the way," Pete said ruefully. "Don't worry, all evidence and medical tests and samples have been destroyed."
The Doctor nodded, "sounds like him. Reckless."
"Like his father," Jackie grumbled and the Doctor's smile was back.
"So, have you got anyone now?" Rose asked, trying and failing to be subtle.
"No," he said quietly. "Just me and the kids. I mean, who'd put up with us?" He laughed lightly and shoved his hands in his pockets.
There was a clunking from the TARDIS and the splashing paused as both John and Jenny turned to look at their ship and their dad. He nodded and both of them waded back to shore. "What's going on?" Pete asked, looking past the Doctor to the strange time machine.
"John's machine can't hold the walls of the world open forever, doesn't have the power. The walls of the world are closing again. Time we were moving on," the Doctor replied as his children joined him. When they were next to him you could tell they were his kids. They stood the same and had that look of mischievousness in their eyes. He paused for a second, "want to take one last look inside?" he asked.
"One last time?" Jonathan asked, looking at Rose pleadingly.
She sighed, nodded and moved to follow the Doctor, rest of the family in tow. The children were shocked by the size of course and a little miffed as John began to explain dimensional mechanics and dispersal to them only to be reminded, by his father, that humans weren't ready for such things. "But you explained it when I was four!" he protested.
The Doctor rolled his eyes.
Rose noticed that the place was different now. It was still made of coral and glowing a low blue but something was different. She supposed it was the fact that there were three coats instead of one tossed over a nearby branch. The fact that a baseball cap hung on a hook under the TARDIS console. The tiles of the floor were up and wires were spewing everywhere to a nearby machine. A machine that looked very similar to the one John had built.
Suddenly she knew what it was. This place looked more lived in. When the Doctor lived here alone it hadn't looked that way. Now he shared it with his children it looked lived in, cluttered and cosy. John was immediately at the Time Rotor, pressing his hand against it and humming.
"What's he doing?" Donna asked, pointing at John.
"He's saying hello, sweetheart," Jonathan replied, kneeling down next to her.
"Why?"
"Well this place is alive and she's been to him like Nurse Kay is to you. Would you miss Nurse Kay if you went away a long time?" Donna nodded in understanding and turned her head back to watch.
"This old thing still rattling about then?" Rose asked as she looked around fondly, she had missed the strange ship after all.
"She is not old," John, the Doctor, Jenny and Jonathan protested at the exact same time, all of them looking mildly hurt. They looked at each other and laughed.
"She's still flying," the Doctor said with a smile. "She's a lot smoother these days. A TARDIS needs six pilots and she used to get by with just the one. Now, though they still need a lot of training, I've got two co-pilots to help me straighten her out." He reached out and ruffled John's hair in an oddly familiar gesture. John shouted and tried to duck away laughing. Messy he looked even more like his father. Jenny managed to dodge the same treatment.
"Still full of surprises I take it?" Jon asked as he rubbed a control panel fondly.
"Are you kidding? She's still got attitude problems," John grumbled. He was thrown over when the TARDIS suddenly lurched in protest.
"So I see," Rose chuckled. She watched the Doctor and his children fiddling and was struck by a peculiar thought. "Can I have a picture of you three?"
"Pardon?" the Doctor responded, a bit shocked.
"Our time together is over but I don't want to forget you. You're like...part of the family," she tried to explain, waving a hand vaguely.
"Extended family," Jackie agreed.
"And I'd like to be able to remember that. Don't you have any family photos?" Rose looked at the three of them as they mused in thought.
"Not really," Jenny was the first to answer, "all our pictures are kept in Memory Rooms and made of composite psychic paper. Linked to us and stuff. They'd fade if we went too far." She tapped a couple of buttons on the console and turned a nearby glass knob.
"But there's gotta be a way, right, dad?" John asked as he pulled out his sonic pen and worked on some nearby wires.
"Of course," the Doctor grinned, looking exactly as they all remembered him. "Memories of the TARDIS are the strongest things you'll ever see, any created by her directly would survive our departure." He began rifling through a chest of draws that seemed to have spontaneously appeared. "Ah ha!" he exclaimed as he pulled out four blank sheets of paper. "How about it, old girl?" he asked her, holding them out.
A strange singing filled the room and wisps of golden light surrounded the papers, lifting it out of the Doctor's hands. It turned over and over and over, bathed in the odd ethereal light. It was so bright that all the humans present had to look away quickly. Spots of colour seemed to appear, washing over the whiteness and filling every corner. Gently the pages floated to the floor, the light fading.
Rose was the one who picked them. She smiled. She tucked two away in her pocket and handed two to the Doctor, he also smiled at them. "I guess it's time for us to go," she said as the TARDIS gave a second more urgent warning.
"I suppose," the Doctor nodded as John moved to his side.
"Thanks for looking after me," John said, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "It was nice to finally meet all of you. You're better than the stories. Real thing always is." Jenny nodded next to him enthusiastically. "Bye," was all she said.
The Doctor showed them to the door and joined them outside, shutting it behind him. "Well, I'll be seeing you," the Doctor said and turned to go, hair ruffling in the breeze.
"Wait," Rose called desperately.
He turned slowly.
"Thank you for everything, Doctor," Rose smiled. "Thanks to you I have beautiful children, a beautiful husband and a chance to live again. You take care now, don't' be a stranger!" It may have sounded harsh but it was like her and Mickey so long ago. They'd had something once but it was gone now, had become a warm friendship. At least for her.
Not for the Doctor but he hid his pain behind a smile and raised his hand to wave. "See you later, Rose Tyler – Defender of the Earth."
"Wait," she called again.
He turned once more and raised an eyebrow.
"What stories did you tell them of us?" Rose asked, call it vanity but she was curious.
"Oh," the Doctor said walking backwards until he pressed against the TARDIS door. He opened it and was half inside before he answered, looking over his shoulder "the stuff of legend," he grinned. Then he was gone. The walls closed. Hearts began, for the first time, to heal.
Many people would inquire as to the picture that took pride of place in the Tyler mansion. It was one of two identical, they'd be told. It showed the Tyler family of three generations standing next to another family – all of them smiling. When people remarked how the other man in the picture looked remarkably like her husband Rose would tell them they were related, that the children in the picture were her niece and nephew.
She smiled as she looked at that picture still. And the picture slight to the left of it. In that one the Time Rotor took central position, glowing majestically and flooding the image with light. The picture was a large landscape and to the left of the Time Rotor the Doctor leaned, clearly fiddling with something. The wild-haired and dark eyed mystery man in a pinstripe suit she remembered. But his head was turned as he grinned at the smaller figure next to him. John was grinning back in a similar informal suit and black glasses and had his arms raised as if in mid conversation. He was ducking slightly however as the ginger haired Donna swatted at his head with a smile of her own. Jenny stood next to her to the right of the Rotor also gesturing animatedly but in what looked like mid run, her hair flying out behind her as she moved to dart behind the Rotor to get to her father.
It had bothered Rose at first that Donna was in the picture but Jonathan had explained. Donna was the closest thing to a real mother John had had and he missed her so much. To the TARDIS she was as much a part of this family as Jenny and the Doctor were.
In the TARDIS a similar picture could be found fixed to the bottom of the moveable monitor, albeit a bit more dog-eared as it wasn't in a frame. The Doctor would tell people that they were his family, lost among the stars. But he'd say it with a smile. The wounds were healing. There were a couple of others in the Memory Room also, one born of John's memories and shared with them. Next to a picture of John at the piano playing for the Doctor and Jenny sat a similar picture. It was taken from behind John so only his back could be seen as he sat at the piano but either side of him sat little Donna and Jack laughing happily. He even wrote them their own song. Another picture of the children on the beach decorated the wall, water glistened in perfectly captured time. A moment preserved to be passed down by the Doctor to John and Jenny and from them to their children and to their grandchildren. Down and down the generations for eternity. A perfect section of time that would never age in all time.
For the first time in awhile the Doctor could look at pictures of Rose without a sadness in his heart, he was getting better. He smiled and all was well with the universe. Every universe.
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So that's it. Another series finished. I think that's all I'm gonna write for the Unexpected Series (I have two small one shots on the burner for Christmas)...I can't believe it's really finished as a series...a part of me is dying.
I can't wait until End of Time but I don't want Tennant to go! The new guy looks odd and unfamiliar...I'll comfort myself with cookies and reruns.
Look out for my one shots Under the Sun and The Doctor around christmas time!
See y'all and thanks for the contiuned support. Lend my ego a hand one last time and review! Please?
Love you all and merry Christmas!
- D