Chapter Three: Brown Eyes

AN: This chapter takes place five years later, so Cassie is five now.


Everyone said that Cassie was just like her mum, but with brown eyes. And it was true. She had the same golden hair, the same bright smile, and the same personality as her mother.

Except those eyes. Those deep, soulful brown eyes, too old for such a young child. Rose would look in her daughter's eyes and see pain Cassie had never suffered, fire that had never burned in her heart (she only had one), wisdom beyond her few years. And she would always say in her mind, Oh, Cassie... you are your father's daughter.


It was so hard, those first few years. Being pregnant, working for Torchwood, having to deal with losing the Doctor, all at once. Even with her parents and Mickey around, and her new friends from the parallel world, it was lonely.

At least Cassie never would be lonely. Rose's little brother Tony was born a few months after Cassie, and the two little ones seemed to be friends from the start. Pete and Jackie were stellar with them, playing with them constantly while Rose worked.

"Mummy! Mummy!" Rose looked up to see Cassie running to her, pulling Tony behind her. "Mummy, tell us a story!"

"Ah-ah, how do we ask for something?"

"Mummy, will you tell us a story, please?" Cassie gave her sweetest smile - the one Rose used to give sometimes, with the tongue emerging from between the teeth.

"Okay," Rose smiled. "What do you-"

"Thank you!" laughed Tony.

"Okay. Let's see, a story. Hmmm... Once upon a time there was a blue box."

"The TARDIS!" Rose told the kids stories of the Doctor all the time. Not real ones, though; they hurt too much. So she came up with different stories about planets and aliens, all featuring the Doctor, and the TARDIS. But she never told them that the Doctor was real, that he was Cassie's father. To them, the Doctor was a product of her own imagination. How wrong they were!

"Right, the TARDIS. And inside the TARDIS was a man called-"

"The Doctor!" cheered the children.

"Yes, the Doctor. And so one day, the Doctor went to a planet called... Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Raxa-what?"

"Raxacoricofallapatorius." She didn't usually use real planets in her stories, but today she was at a loss for ideas for ridiculous planet names.

"Raxa-co-"

"Let's try it slowly. Raxa. Say it. Raxa."

"Raxa," the kids chorused.

"Raxa-cor."

"Raxa-cor."

"Raxa-cor-ico."

"Raxa-cor-ico."

"Raxacorico."

"Raxacorico.

"Falla."

"Falla."

"Fallapa."

"Fallapa."

"Fallapator."

"Fallapator."

"Fallapatorius."

"Fallapatorius."

"Raxacorico."

"Raxacorico."

"Fallapatorius."

"Fallapatorius."

"Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"That's it!" Rose hugged the kids, remembering when she first learned how to say it.

"Raxacoricofallapatorius!" chanted Cassie.

"Right. So, the Doctor went to this planet, and he found people with no hands."

"Why?"

"Raxacoricofallapatorius had been invaded by the Clockbots."

"The Clockbots?"

"Yep. They were sort of like robots, and they always made this sort of ticking sound. But they ate people's hands."

"Why?"

"Clocks need hands, don't they?"

"Oh!" Cassie giggled. "Funny, Mama."

"Yeah. So the Doctor went and said, 'I seek an audience with the leader of the Clockbots, under Convention Fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation.' And the leader of the Clockbots went up to the Doctor."

"What happened next?"

"The Doctor said, 'I demand that you leave this planet at once and stop eating people's hands.' And the leader of the Clockbots said, 'But I don't want to.' So the Doctor said, 'You know what? You guys are thick. You're Mr. Thick Thick Thickity Thickface, from Thicktown, Thickania, and so's your dad.' And he pulled out his..."

"Sonic screwdriver!"

"Right, and he pointed it at the Clockbots and they all started to malfunction."

"He killed them dead, right?"

"No, he took them back inside the TARDIS and repaired them. He turned them into those big old grandfather clocks and spread them around the galaxies. They couldn't hurt anyone anymore."

"Oh, that's cool."

"Yeah, so the Clockbots got to live forever as big clocks and the Doctor went off to go on another adventure. The end."

"That was a good story, Mama."

"Yeah, I liked that story." Tony grinned up at Rose.

Rose looked down at her daughter and brother. They were just so sweet and beautiful, so innocent.

But then she looked again into Cassie's eyes, those deep, old eyes.

How long will my little girl be innocent? Rose wondered. When will she first have to suffer like her father did?

She hugged her daughter close. "I love you, my Cassandra," she said.

"I love you too, Mummy."

Tony crawled into their group hug. "Do you love me too?"

"Of course I do, Tony. I love you very much."

"Good." He grinned. "Because I love you too."

Jackie and Pete walked in to see Rose and the two little ones cuddling. They couldn't help but join.

Jackie and Pete and Rose and Tony and Cassie, all together, but there was still someone missing from their family. Someone that Cassie's deep brown eyes could just make out in the faraway distance, hidden in the mists of her mind. Some piece missing from the puzzle.

I'll find him one day, the child decided. Whoever that missing person is, I will find him.