Amy leaned against the wall in the hallway, arms folded across her chest. She heard the Doctor and Rebecca's voices, but not their words, and then heard a chair pushed back across the wooden floor. The Doctor walked out and saw her leaning there.

"Oh! There you are. I was just going to find you. Rebecca's offered to let us stay the night, she says she has some extra rooms, so if you're interested?" he asked as Rebecca walked up behind him.

Amy glanced at Rebecca before shrugging and saying, "Fine. But we'll need to get some stuff out of the TARDIS, won't we?"

"Oh." He nodded. "Of course." He turned to Rebecca. "We'll be back in a flash, yeah?"

She smiled and lifted her hands, gesturing slightly in a shooing motion. "Go on, then."

The Doctor nodded and made his way to the door. "Let's go then, Amy."

Amy followed the Doctor out and they walked down the street. The Doctor said, "Nice night, isn't it?" Amy made a small, non-committal noise in the back of her throat. "Rebecca and Lily are nice, aren't they?" he tried again. All he got this time was a shrug. "Alright, what have I done now," he said exasperatedly.

"Lily…"

"What about her?" he asked, surprised.

"Why haven't you told her that you're her father?"

The Doctor's expression went blank and slightly hard. They walked on silently for a few moments, Amy studying his face. Then he whispered, "What are you talking about?"

"She said her father died, but there are no pictures of him, and her mother avoids the subject of him, almost as if she's avoiding something. And not as if she's sad. And then your display with Rebecca back there helped me connect the dots."

"What display?" he asked indignantly.

"You kissed her," she said simply.

He looked away, avoiding her gaze. "You weren't meant to see that."

"I didn't mean to!" she exclaimed. "I was coming to find you. Besides, you weren't exactly in a secretive spot," she pointed out. "Good thing Lily wasn't around, then you'd have some explaining to do."

They had made it to the TARDIS. The Doctor unlocked the door and stepped inside. "So? Why?"

"It was easier."

"How is it easier to lie to your child about who her father is?" She looked at him. "I don't get it, Doctor. Why? Explain it to me."

"She's safer not knowing." He still wouldn't meet her eyes.

"And she wouldn't be safe if she knew?"

"It would increase the risk." He finally met her gaze. "I've been a lot of places, and naturally not everyone I meet agrees with me. I've made quite a few enemies, people who want me dead. And I think they'd be willing to take or hurt anyone close to me to get at me." He gazed up at the ceiling, looking as if he was going to cry. "And my daughter… if they hurt my daughter… The bond between a parent and a child is a strong thing in any culture, and a child would be the best ransom, the best tool of manipulation. I can't tell her I'm her father."

"But, but you're a Timelord!" she said excitedly. "What if you passed on something that could help her defend herself?"

"I don't even know how close to a Timelord she is," he replied quietly. "And my main defense mechanism is my regeneration. That plus my brain gets me out of a lot of scrapes." He shook he head. "Being part Timelord just makes her that much more valuable to anyone without honest intent. We're a dying breed."

Amy stayed silent for a moment. She finally whispered, "What was it about Rebecca? What made you fall in love with her?"

The Doctor half laughed before looking miserable again. "It was never supposed to happen. But she was so clever, so beautiful. Such a special person. A lot like Rose, in so many ways, but completely different at the same time." He leaned against the wall of the TARDIS. "One night, that's all it took. A bit too much champagne, a few bad decisions." He shrugged. "That's all it took for her to leave."

"But why-?" Amy's expression changed as the obvious dawned on her. "She left because she was pregnant."

"It was pretty obvious to both of us whose the baby was." His eyes were dark. "She panicked. She decided she needed to get away from it all, and that she needed to sort things out in her head. So she left. She never came back. I still heard from her now and again, though." He stared up at the ceiling. "But I didn't see her again until she told me that she thought I should get to know Lily, and that I should take her traveling with me."

"She wanted you to spend time with her?"

"Sure, why wouldn't she?" He shrugged. "She didn't leave because she didn't want me to have anything to do with our child, really, she left because she was confused about a lot of things, and needed to sort it out. And we decided together that it was better for me to stay away and to not tell Lily the truth about her father."

Amy was still sorting out everything in her mind. "So… you agreed to bring her with you?"

"I wanted to see her. There actually was one time when I'd seen her before, I'd popped by the house and looked in the window. I didn't say anything to Rebecca about it, I was worried she might have a fit," he smiled, "but I wanted to see her. I was more than happy to have the chance to actually meet my daughter."

"You didn't officially meet your daughter until she was fourteen," Amy said incredulously.

"It could have been less than fourteen years for me, time machine and all that, but even if it was the full fourteen years, that's hardly anything for me."

"And Lily? She obviously doesn't travel with you anymore, what happened there?"

He smiled with a hint of sadness. "She was only fourteen. She has her entire life ahead of her. She still has school, exams, going to pointless parties with friends, school crushes, all of that to go through yet." He looked away eyes roaming around the TARDIS. "Traveling the stars is wonderful, and I know she loved it, but she knew she should finish school. She knew she should go back home. And so she asked me to bring her back home, and said, 'Maybe someday we'll travel together again.' And I hope we do."

"Do you ever regret the decision to not tell her you're her father?" Amy asked gently.

The Doctor didn't answer for a moment, staring down at his feet. Finally, he looked up, and his eyes were shiny with moisture. "Of course I do. She grew up without a father because I made that decision. I didn't get to see her grow up because I made that decision. But I still think it was the right choice to make. Especially when I think about all the things kids her age go through," he chuckled, although he still had tears in his eyes. "What boy advice could an alien give a human girl? That's not really my area of expertise."

"You miss her, don't you." It wasn't a question.

He looked up again, hopelessly. "Every day. But I can't let her have my life. I couldn't forgive myself if anything happened to her. She deserves to experience everything here on earth before she has to make a decision of what she'll do." He shook his head slightly. "I don't want to maker her travel with me when she could find something she liked more here."

Amy reached out and grabbed the Doctor's hand, squeezing it gently. "She'll come back. I'm sure she will." They stood there a moment, just holding hands, until Amy took her hand back and said, "But we'd better get our stuff together and get back up to the house before Rebecca wonders what's become of us."

A little while later, the Doctor and Amy were back inside the house, being shown to their rooms by a cheerful Rebecca and acting like nothing had happened.

A/N: So. I know the whole Doctor's daughter thing isn't exactly original, but there is a bit of a twist in that this was a human he fell in love with and had his daughter with, whereas Jenny was sort of… created rather than born. Also, the character of Lily was created first, and the plot came later, so yeah. Also, I have no idea where this story is going, really; I haven't thought it through that far. There might just be some filler chapters before anything really interesting happens, because while I have a vague idea of some eventual happenings, they still need to be developed and I still need to get there. But hopefully I will be able to carry on and people will continue to like it. YAY.