Part Four
Captain Jack Harkness smiled as he made his way through the crowds to the final buyer's market for telepathic slaves. He had systematically gone through each and every market since the Doctor had dropped him off on Poosh to shut them down. And it was good to be able to triumph over each and every person buying – or selling – the beings.
He smiled as he watched the last slave being released to freedom. He also knew that the Doctor would find Jenny and get her freed. But when Jack had asked about what was to be done about Rose, the Doctor was being evasive.
Jack wondered how much the Doctor actually knew about Rose's fate. It seemed that since he had first shown up with the package at the beginning of their quest to find her, the Doctor knew something that he didn't. And the Doctor hadn't been forthcoming about what had happened to his wife until he had offhandedly said Rose had been tortured to Missy.
How had the Doctor known that? Unless the warnings the Doctor spoke of when talking about the Bad Wolf had not actually been warnings but memories from the Doctor's own past. If Jack thought of it, he knew the Bad Wolf legends had been around the telepathic community for months, if not years or centuries. Even he had heard not to mess with the Bad Wolf when he'd been a Time Agent chasing down telepathic criminals. He'd shrugged it off as something unrelated back when he first met Rose and the Doctor, but now it made sense.
Legend had it the Bad Wolf was a powerful goddess of golden light that was only seen when she, or one of her own, was threatened. And if Jack knew his history (which he was certain he did), there had been an incident aboard a telepathic slave ship he'd heard about back when he was a Time Agent. The incident involved a blond woman they'd captured and tortured for months but had yielded no results until, one day, she felt threatened enough that she had little choice but to leave the ship in tatters and the crew dead. No one knew exactly what had happened aboard the ship when it was found months later adrift in space. So no one could ever confirm or deny the rumors.
Jack smiled and shook his head. Except, perhaps, the Doctor.
NTLNTL
The Doctor handed Clara a hand mirror he'd found and asked, "Is that any good?"
Clara took the mirror off the Doctor and took a good look at herself. She nodded. "Oh, that's good."
Backing away from Clara and her bed, the Time Lord looked his friend over once again. He wasn't sure if his next suggestion would go down overly well, since they'd both worked out the other had lied in their dream state. "The TARDIS is parked outside."
The young woman put the mirror down and really looked at the Doctor. "Yeah, so?"
"So… all of time and all of space is sitting out there," the Doctor continued. "In that big blue box. Please, just don't even argue." He approached her bead again and held out his hand to her.
Clara smiled and took a hold of the Doctor's outstretched hand. "Merry Christmas, Doctor."
"Merry Christmas, Clara Osward." The Doctor smiled and indicated to the door of her bedroom. Clara's grin widened and she raced to the door and down the stairs. The Time Lord was close behind her and it didn't take them long to get to the TARDIS.
Once Clara had gotten to the blue box and was about to enter, she asked, "What's got you all excited then?"
"Second chances. I don't get many of those, and I don't really know who to thank," he returned, entering the TARDIS behind his friend. "Because I really need your help."
Clara had stopped just inside the door and she frowned as the Doctor passed her on his way to the controls. She fully expected to find Rose sitting in the jump seat or on the balcony overlooking the main control room. "Where's Rose?"
"She's safe, for the moment."
"But where is she?"
The Doctor sighed and leaned against the control panel. He thought over all the possibilities of what he could really say to answer that question – should he lie, again, or tell Clara the truth? It had been so long since he had actually seen his impossible girl and she hadn't quite forgiven him for lying to her about finding Gallifrey. "Rose was kidnapped from a planet we visited four months ago: four months ago for me. When I say that she's safe, it means that she's currently on my TARDIS." Clara opened her mouth to ask what that meant, and exactly where Rose was hiding, when the Doctor clarified: "With a younger me." He looked down at his hands and then looked over to where Clara was standing. "Eventually we will find Rose again. Very soon in fact. But that is not what I need your help with."
The young woman moved to the console and stood beside the Doctor. "Then what would you like my help with?"
"We are going to find my daughter and I need you to act like a buyer." He spun away from her and sent the TARDIS through the vortex to Pluto.
Clara turned and looked at the Doctor as if he had grown another head. "Wait, what?"
He stopped and looked at her in the eye. "My daughter is being sold as a telepathic slave. We – and when I say 'we', I mean you – are going to intervene and buy her before someone else has the chance."
"Why can't you do it?"
"Because this is going to be very dangerous for me and I'm not supposed to cross my own timeline."
She frowned. "You did it before."
"And you saw what I was like with other versions of myself. I will be there already with this face. That's why I need you. I can't be seen."
Clara pursed her lips and thought over the Doctor's request. "What about all the other slaves? Why are we just rescuing your daughter?"
"Because I've already freed all the other slaves. Or I will. By the time I got there the first time, Jenny had already been sold. And you were the buyer," the Doctor pointed out. "Missy thought she'd got one over me, but she hadn't."
"Hang on. Your daughter's name is Jenny? Do you mean the Jenny we met in Victorian London?"
The Doctor frowned slightly as he thought about the woman servant of Madam Vastra. "No." He pulled out a credit stick and handed it to Clara. "This will hold enough money for you to purchase Jenny. Once you've got her and exchanged the money, take Jenny back to the TARDIS. I'll handle the rest."
Clara nodded and asked, "Just one thing. What does Jenny look like?"
"Blond, blue eyed. Like my fifth self."
Clara spotted a picture coming out from the TARDIS console. Taking hold of it, she held it up for the Doctor to see. "Like this?" she asked.
The Doctor took the photo off Clara before he handed it back to her. "Yes."
"So I just go out there, purchase Jenny and then come back to the TARDIS?"
"Yes."
NTLNTL
No one seemed to notice the TARDIS materialize in the storage closet with them. Sarah Jane, Harry and Susan were solely focused on the unearthly woman in the Doctor's arms. Even the two men who had stumbled on their hiding place were pale at the sight of Rose and her glowing eyes. The Doctor was the only one whose attention was not on Rose.
He was more focused on the situation at hand – and the imminent capture of not only his granddaughter and his wife but also him and his two current companions. That was until Rose shifted and partially sat up in his lap. He couldn't see her face or what she was doing. Yet by the looks of shock on their companions and the horror on the two guards' faces, he knew that he wouldn't really want to see what Rose was doing.
"Bad Wolf!" exclaimed the guard on the left.
Rose raised her hand and waved it over the direction where the two guards were. The Doctor felt a ripple of power coming off the woman he held as the two guards disappeared. And then, there was a second wave of power that the Doctor could not explain. Rose collapsed back onto the Doctor's chest.
"They're gone!" Sarah Jane exclaimed. "Somehow, Melody made them go."
Susan ran a hand over her face as she mulled over the words the female guard had exclaimed. "Oh my goodness." Susan's eyes focused on the woman tucked safely away in her grandfather's arms. Pointing at Rose, she repeated what the guards had said. "She's the Bad Wolf."
"What's the Bad Wolf?" Harry asked.
"Surely you've heard of the Bad Wolf on Earth?" Susan asked. "Not much is spoken of her, yet she's always associated with the protection of family."
The Doctor looked over his friends and granddaughter before shooting them all a warning look.
"We can discuss this in the TARDIS. I would feel much better once I look over Melody. Susan, do you still have your key?"
"Yes, Grandfather." She stood up and smiled slightly as the Doctor pointed toward the TARDIS. Sarah Jane and Harry both looked in the direction that the Doctor had pointed and their jaws dropped. Neither of them could explain why the TARDIS had shown up in the room with them. The Doctor couldn't really explain it either except perhaps all the explanation he needed was with the woman in his arms.
It didn't take him long to head into the TARDIS after his companions. Without really acknowledging them, he made his way to the medical bay and lay Rose down on the closest bed. Once he got her comfortable and left the medical bay, the Doctor found his arms oddly empty. He made it back to the console room and set a course for UNIT headquarters.
"So, how can Susan be your granddaughter, Doctor?" Sarah Jane asked.
"Excuse me?" Susan returned. "We don't go around asking how things like how children are created on Earth, or Gallifrey."
"Susan, be nice," the Doctor warned. He then turned to Sarah Jane. "Sarah, I don't talk about my family because they cast me out. They don't even acknowledge me. Except for my Susan." He looked down at controls of the TARDIS. Susan drew in a deep breath, and left the console room to go deeper into the TARDIS. The Doctor watched her go, and knew somehow he had something to do with her gloomy mood. "Now, you were asking about the Bad Wolf earlier; it's a minor legend throughout history. Not much is known about it. Other than what Susan has said."
"But why would the two guards think that Melody is this 'Bad Wolf?'" Harry asked.
"Because that is what she is. Or, at least, an embodiment of 'Bad Wolf'. A wolf only attacks when threatened, cornered or if their cubs are in danger. If you remember, Melody was all three of those things when she acted. She was threatened, cornered and her child was in danger."
"But, if she has this power to do whatever she did on the ship, then how come she didn't use it before?"
The Doctor looked up at both Sarah Jane and Harry. "I don't know. Before today, I didn't even know that Melody existed, or that the legends were true. All I know is that she is from my future. I don't even know how far. But the legend of the Bad Wolf only acts out of love for her family." He stopped and sighed, trying to think of all the things he had heard over the years about the Bad Wolf. "We have a saying on Gallifrey. 'Never get on the bad side of Bad Wolf or threaten those she protects: consequences will be swift and sure.'"
Sarah Jane frowned slightly before she brightened. "So it's like saying 'Don't mess with family'?"
"Exactly that."
NTLNTL
Clara was stoic as the final parts of her business transaction were being processed. She was very fortunate that Jenny was the first person to be led onto the stage for sale. Why on earth did she agree to help the Doctor with buying Jenny's freedom? She hated every aspect of the slave trade and it felt to her that she was condoning what was going on.
But she couldn't back down. She'd agreed to do it, even before the Doctor had pointed her in the direction of the slavers sale spot. And it was the last opportunity that he would have to get Jenny released before anything worse could happen to her.
That still didn't mean Clara liked it. She handed over the credit chip the Doctor handed to her earlier and the payment went through. Clara couldn't help the little sigh of relief when it went through. The transaction manager handed her the credit chip back and all the documents making Jenny 'legally' hers and told her where she could pick up her new 'slave'. Of course, Clara really wanted to get Jenny out of there because the Way Station on Pluto gave her the creeps.
Jenny wasn't at all what Clara expected. Clara had expected the young woman to be either chatting her ear off like the previous Doctor did or someone who tried to run. But Jenny was meekly following behind her new 'master'. Clara knew that until the two of them were safely aboard the TARDIS, she couldn't ask Jenny any of the questions she really wanted to ask.
Snapping her fingers, Clara opened the doors to the time ship and led Jenny inside. "Welcome to the TARDIS."
"The TARDIS?" Jenny asked.
"I'm a friend of the Doctor's. He sent me to 'buy' you."
"You know the Doctor?" the blond asked with a lot of trepidation.
"She does, Jenny." The Doctor had entered the TARDIS behind them. Snapping his fingers, the doors closed behind him. He looked her over and gave her a small smile.
Jenny bit her lower lip as she took in her father's new appearance. "Dad?" The Doctor swallowed and nodded. "Regeneration?"
"You've heard of that?"
"It's how I survived on Messaline. Ten hours after you, Donna and Martha left, I woke up. You left without me!" Jenny seemed to be offended, but the Doctor knew she wasn't. She was unsure of their relationship and what was going to happen next.
"I'm sorry. I thought you had died." The Doctor looked his daughter over again and wondered how he was going to reassure her. If he was in either his tenth or eleventh body, he wouldn't hesitate to hug her. But he wasn't overly fond of physical affection in his current body. As he thought of a solution, he set the TARDIS in motion. A smile spread across his face as he thought about the various times he had run into his past selves. They had always established a telepathic link to share information. Maybe he could offer that to Jenny to reassure her.
Looking over at the two women, the Doctor frowned at them. Clara looked as if she was encouraging Jenny to come over and give him a hug. Jenny was biting her lip, trying to decide if it was a good idea or not.
"Jenny, our race is telepathic." The Doctor noticed the shudder that went down his daughter at the mention of their skills. He knew that was the main reason she was taken in the first place. "I'm not a hugger, but there is something I'd like to do: I'd like to share with you what has happened to me since I last saw you – and how proud I am of you. One way to do that is for me to create a telepathic link to you and share my memories with you. I'd also like to help you with what you've been through and encourage you to talk to me, but it is up to you."
"You… you mean I can control it?" Jenny asked.
The Doctor nodded. "At any point, you can tell me to stop. I will only do this if you want me to."
"Will it help?"
"It helped me," the Doctor confessed. Jenny nodded and stepped closer to the Doctor. He raised his hands and placed them either side of her forehead. "Anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door. I won't look. I promise." Jenny gave her father a smile and closed her eyes. She placed her hands on his forearms. Clara watched them for a while before she retired to her room.
Eventually, Jenny pulled away from her father, feeling more confident in herself and her telepathic abilities. Her father had shown her how much he'd missed her and had truly wanted her aboard the TARDIS with him. He'd never forgotten her, even though it had been over 1000 years for him since she was created on Messaline. And she'd shown him all that she'd gone through since she'd woken up on the planet to find him gone. Granted, it hadn't been as long for her as it had been for him. She'd explored the galaxy for nearly 120 years on her own before she was captured. Then she'd spend nearly 3 years as a slave before Clara had bought her freedom.
Looking at her father once again, Jenny asked, "Who is Bad Wolf?"
"Bad Wolf is my wife," the Doctor admitted. "Why?"
"I met her once. On one of the slave ships. If it wasn't for her, I would have lost hope within the first year I was captured. But she protected me while I was aboard the same ship as her. I felt like I knew her somehow. Is she my mother?"
The Doctor smiled. "In every way that counts."
"She was pregnant."
He felt that his hearts were in his throat. His Rose was pregnant? He remembered helping rescue Rose and Susan from the slavery ring back in his fourth body, but he couldn't remember much about Rose herself. It was as if she'd been edited out of his memories, and he was just left with a vague recollection of meeting her and Susan. "What?" he asked.
AN: Please, please review! Any writer really likes to get feedback. What did you like, dislike, excreta? What do you want to see in the story in the future?