CHAPTER 3

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This chapter takes place before the storyline started in Jenny Tyler, Time's Angel Chapter 35.

Amy and her family had been traveling for a while through the Vortex while the Cyberman that had gone with them just stood to the side of the console room silent and motionless. Julia had been staring at the Cyberman for a long time as she debated on whether to go talk to him. She didn't think that it was very nice for everyone to be ignoring the poor thing after he had helped save all of their lives. She finally decided that she at least was going to say hello to him.

"Hello, my name's Julia. What's yours?" Julia said as she introduced herself to him.

"My former name is irrelevant. I am no longer that person anymore. I am a Cyberman. My old life is over. It ended long ago," Oisin said in the emotionless, mechanical voice of a Cyberman.

He was not about to tell this little girl, who he assumed was Cliodna's daughter, the truth about himself. It was much better that no one ever found out that he had once been Cliodna's first husband.

"Well, that may be so, but surely your family would want to know that you were still around even if it was only as a Cyberman. If you told us where they were, we could drop you off there. I don't know Amy that well yet, but she seems to be very nice. I'm sure that she'd do that for you," Julia said.

"You are not her daughter?" Oisin asked curiously.

"I guess I am now sort of. She adopted me when my parents died recently. I haven't been with her long, but she's been very good to me. She has a big heart it seems like to me to do something like that," Julia said.

"Yes, she is a very kind person," Oisin said in agreement.

He would have smiled if he had still had a face with which to do it with. That sounded very much like his Cliodna. He was glad that she hadn't changed over the centuries. He was convinced now more than ever that he was doing the right thing in not telling any of them who he was. This little girl would eventually accept Cliodna as her mother, and she deserved better than a thing like him as a father.

"So you're not going to tell us where your family live?" Julia persisted.

"My family are all gone now. None of them are left. I was made into a Cyberman long ago, and I have outlived all of them," Oisin said.

This was mostly true. He had outlived all of his family except for Cliodna.

"I'm sorry," Julia said with sadness in her eyes.

"I do not feel their loss. I no longer feel anything," Oisin said.

That was another lie, but a necessary one. He had started to feel again as soon as Cliodna had put his original mind back in control. He had to tell himself as well as Julia that he was still emotionless in order to make it through this tragic mockery of a life that he had now without going insane.

"Then I'm all the more sorry. I think that I feel enough pain and loss for the both of us now. I guess I can feel it for you," Julia said as she began to cry.

Oisin guessed that Julia was more upset about her own recent loss than his own, and that his was just reminding her of it all over again. He knew that he still had emotions because he felt so sorry for her now. He was only reassured by the fact that he knew that his Cliodna would soon make her pain go away if he knew her.

"You need to move on and let your new mother help you," Oisin advised her.

"I suppose she can help, but she's not my Mum. I can't call her that. Not yet anyway," Julia said.

"You will change your mind someday. I believe that she will make a wonderful mother," Oisin said.

Julia smiled at him as she said, "Yeah, you're probably right. I just don't know if I can ever bring myself to call her that. It would feel wrong somehow like I was insulting my real mum."

"I'm sure that she would understand," Oisin said.

"I don't know. What if she didn't? No, I think that I'll just stick with calling her Amy. She said that was okay," Julia said.

"You have to do what you think is best of course," Oisin said.

"So where do you want to go? Maybe you could go somewhere cool? Of course I haven't been anywhere so I don't know where all of the cool planets are. I suppose you know though. I'm sure that you've been to a lot of them," Julia said.

"Yes, but I wasn't really able to notice or even appreciate them at the time. I was in an emotionless state after all," Oisin said.

"You can't think of anywhere to go then? Amy's going to ask you soon. I overheard her telling her husband, Rory, that. You should be thinking about it now before she comes over here," Julia said.

"Is he good to her?" Oisin asked.

"I suppose so. Like I said, I haven't known them for long. From what I've seen of them though, I think that he is. She seems to be very happy with him, and he looks at her like she came down from Heaven. My dad used to look at my mum that way too, and I know that he loved her a lot," Julia said.

"I'm sure that he does too then," Oisin said satisfied.

"You know you're pretty frustrating, mister. I've tried and tried to get the name of a planet out of you, but you just won't say anything!" Julia said with her hands on her hips.

Oisin would have laughed if he were still able to. He was beginning to like Julia very much.

"He's a Cyberman, dear. They're not exactly known for being great conversationalists," a voice said from behind Oisin.

Oisin suddenly whirled to face the owner of the voice as he put himself in front of Julia protectively. He had already decided to die protecting the child if he had to.

"Who are you?" Julia asked as she poked her head around Oisin's massive metal body.

"I'm Amy's daughter, River, and you are?" River Song asked.

"My name's Julia Bates," Julia said in a timid voice.

"Oh, I know who you are now. You're Francine's sister, aren't you?" River said with a warm smile.

"Yeah, do you know her?" Julia asked as she began to feel a little more at ease now.

"I'll say she does. Hiya, Riv!" Selene said as she came walking into the console room.

"I told you not to call me that," River said with a groan.

"Why not? I love giving everyone cutesy little nicknames. I call Julia Jules for example. It's my way. It shows I care when I give someone a cute little name like that. I'm just trying to show my affection for my favorite niece," Selene said.

"I'm your only niece," River said.

"I know therefore you're my favorite by automatic default. She should feel lucky. It's not everyone that gets to have an aunt as awesome as me," Selene said with a big grin.

"How can you be her aunt? She looks older than you do. Not that you look old, River," Julia said with a slight look of fear on her face.

"Come out from behind there, Jules. River's not going to hurt you," Selene said as she pulled Julia out from behind Oisin and kissed her on the forehead to try to calm her down.

River smiled at Selene's reaction to Julia. Her mother had told her just how close the two of them were, and she could see it right here before her in action now. She could tell how deeply that Selene loved the little girl as she unconsciously played with her hair with one hand while she put her other arm protectively around her.

"Will you stop babying me? I'm twelve years old," Julia protested.

"I don't think that's ever going to happen, Julia. Selene has always been a very affectionate person. It's in her nature. She's very protective of the people that she loves. Sometimes a little bit overprotective," Amy said as she entered into the console room.

"I am not. I like to look after the people that I care about, but I don't go overboard about it," Selene defended herself.

"Yeah, sure! M – Amy's right. You get all jittery if I get out of your sight for more than two seconds. You act more like you're my mother instead of my sister," Julia protested.

"I'm your older sister. It's my job to be a second mother to you. I have to keep you from killing yourself until you're an adult which means I should be at this job for oh about twenty or thirty more years now at the very least," Selene said with a giggle.

"Shut up!" Julia said sulking.

Amy began to laugh at the two of them. It felt so good to have them both here now. They and Anthony had gone a long way towards filling in the hole that was still in her heart from missing out on the chance to raise Melody. Raising her without knowing it while she acted in the role of her best friend just didn't count to her.

River knew that look on her mother's face all too well. She was thinking about having missed out on raising her normally as if that was so great anyway. Normal was boring in her opinion. She wouldn't trade one moment of her life because it had made her into the person that she was now, and she loved who she was and had no regrets whatsoever about her life. How many other people could say the same?

River shot Amy a 'stop that' look, and Amy just smiled at her. River knew her so well that she could read her like a book, and she could always tell what she was thinking. Whenever she caught her feeling sad about what had happened in the past, she always quickly put a stop to it.

She had always told Amy that she didn't want her to dwell on the past but to proceed into the future. Amy knew that River was right. That had been the mistake that she had made as Cliodna after all. She had wasted centuries in a severe depression after Oisin had been killed by the Cybermen, and she deeply regretted that now.

Amy was determined that she wasn't going to make the same mistakes that Cliodna had made. Amy was a new person now, and she was going to start over just like River wanted her to do. Every time she tried to fall into a pit of despair over what she had lost, she was going to keep reminding herself of that.

"So what's with the Cyberman?" River said to Amy after the two of them went off by themselves into the corridor linking the console room with the rest of the TARDIS.

"That's what I'd like to know. Amy wants to just leave him somewhere by himself. Don't you think that's extremely irresponsible?" Rory asked as he came walking up to them.

"Normally I'd say yes, but this Cyberman seems to be a bit different. Julia actually seems to like him. Since when are children not frightened of something like a Cyberman? That seems to give him a big endorsement," River said.

"Julia's just a child. She's too young to understand just how dangerous they are," Rory said.

What about me? Am I too young to understand? I don't think that he's dangerous at all. Julia's always been a pretty good judge of character by the way. Selene said telepathically as she broke into all of their minds and made Rory jump.

Sorry, Ror. I forgot that you're not used to our Time Lord psychic hotline since you're not linked to Ames yet. I wanted to have my say though. Selene apologized.

Amy touched Rory's face and gave him a temporary connection to their telepathic conversation so that he wouldn't feel like the odd man out. She was going to go visit Leela soon and do something about that. Rory meant everything to her, and she wasn't about to shut him out of her life in any way.

I didn't mean to leave you out, Selene. I'm just used to discussing things with Rory and Melody alone. It's been that way for a long time now. I'll just have to get used to including you along with them now. Amy apologized.

It's okay, Ames. Part of me still wants to call you Cliodna while another part of me wants to call you Mrs. Pond. I think that we're all getting used to my return. Selene replied happily.

It's Mrs. Williams by the way not Mrs. Pond. Rory broke in as Amy giggled at him.

Whatever, Ror! We all know who really wears the pants in the family anyway despite what you call her. Selene replied.

"It seems that you've been outvoted, Rory. The three of us believe that I should leave the Cyberman somewhere and let him start over. I suppose that I need to go and ask him where he wants to go now," Amy said out loud.

"I still think it's a big mistake. I just hope that we don't all regret it," Rory said.

"I really don't think that we will. I just have a gut feeling about this that tells me that it's going to be alright. Do you trust me, Rory?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, I do," Rory said. He knew that he was losing this argument quickly now.

"Then if you trust me, you'll go along with me on this. Right?" Amy asked.

Rory sighed as he knew that Amy had him. He threw up his hands in surrender as he said, "Alright, I'm in. Let's go and ask him where he wants to go."

Julia just got it out of him. You may not like his answer though. Selene said as she broke into their thoughts again.

"What does that means?" Rory asked in alarm.

"I guess we'll find out," River said with a mad grin. Nothing ever seemed to worry her.

As soon as they entered the console room, Oisin turned toward them and said, "I wish to stay with you on your travels. I could help you to guard the children among other things."

"What? So you're saying that you want to be our Cybernanny?" Rory asked in disbelief.

"I just wish to assist you in every way that I possibly can in order to pay you back for your kindness in rescuing me," Oisin said to Amy directly.

Amy was surprised by this request and stood there in silence for a moment as she was uncertain as to what to do now. Rory meanwhile was definitely against it, and his opinion was written all over his face. River as always just kept on smiling. She was as enigmatic as the Sphinx.

"I want him to stay. I like him. He's fun to have around," Julia said as she loudly gave them her opinion.

Amy thought it over for several moments and could not come to a decision. She wanted to trust the Cyberman, but she wasn't sure if she should let him stay in her home or not. What if Rory was right, and he turned out to be a danger to her family after all?

Then she looked at the way that Julia clung to Oisin and how happy that he made her. In that moment, she made her first real decision as Julia's mother as she said, "Okay. He stays. Welcome aboard!"

Julia screamed with joy as Rory frowned and shook his head with worry. Amy looked at River to see if she approved or not and was surprised as River whispered in her ear, "You won't regret this. I promise."

Amy was shocked at first, but then just nodded at her without saying a word. If the Cyberman had River's seal of approval, then he was alright with her. Rory it seemed was going to be a harder sell because he just kept watching the Cyberman like a hawk, particularly whenever Julia got too close to him.

Oisin had wanted to just go at first, but the more that he stayed around them all the more that he wanted to be with them. He had felt alive here for the first time in a long time. He wanted to keep experiencing that feeling. He knew that he could never truly be a part of the world of the living again, but he just wanted to be there in the center of things. He missed Cliodna, and he needed to be near her even if it was just as a stranger to her.

He had decided that he would stay here and watch over her and her family. He would become their protector and perhaps even their friend. He would never tell them the truth about himself though. He would do nothing to jeopardize Cliodna's happiness. He had already caused her enough sorrow as it was. Now that he had the chance to do so, he would do what he could to make up for all of that. He was going to make sure that Cliodna had the perfect life now, the kind of life that he knew that he would never be able to give her.

Next: As Oisin joins Amy's crew, Rose's daughter Cassie decides that now is the time for her to come to visit. Could it be that Cassie has another reason to want to see Amy than just to chat? Maybe it has something to do with Davros suddenly wanting to kill her? Could be!