Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its preexisting characters. I'm just playing with them.^^
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Never Alone, Chapter 02: Mother and Daughter
"Mum, can we go home now?" a little Athena asked anxiously, tugging on Rose's jacket sleeve to get her attention.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Rose asked, setting aside her book in order to grant her daughter her full attention. It was her day off, and she'd decided to try taking the child to the park, to give her a chance to actually play with some other children her age; they hadn't even been there for an hour yet. "Aren't you having fun?"
The little girl shook her head, glossy brown hair flying about her face as if to accentuate the gesture. A stranger would have said she looked stubborn, obstinate... but her mother could see the sadness in her eyes; she'd often seen a similar sadness hidden in the Doctor's eyes, after all.
"What's wrong?" Rose asked her again, instinctively lifting her daughter up into her lap to provide comfort.
"They don't like me," Athena admitted sadly, referring (of course) to the other children. She'd managed to play with them for a total of fifteen minutes and 23 seconds, before they'd seemed to realize that she was different. Then they'd become mean.
Rose looked rather sad now, too; she'd been afraid of this. As much as she wanted her daughter to have some friends outside her own family – friends her own age – Athena had difficulty fitting in with other children. She'd hoped today might go better.
"Well, that's their loss then, isn't it," she assured her daughter, giving her a little poke on the nose and earning a small smile (though it didn't reach the little girl's chocolate brown eyes). "What would you say to some tea and cake down at Rosemary's, then?"
"Oh, yes please!" Athena agreed, already cheering up a little – she loved Rosemary's. They always gave her an extra big slice of cake when they went in.
Smiling at her daughter's improved mood, Rose gave her a quick hug before setting her back down onto her own two feet and abandoning the bench she'd claimed for herself earlier; then she quickly took the young girl's hand in her own, and the two began to make their way out of the park together. "Perhaps we'll even do a bit of shopping later," Rose suggested, determined to see a further improvement. "Would you like that?"
Athena's whole face seemed to light up with her smile this time; she loved shopping with her mother. "Yes please!"
"Where would you like to go shopping first, then?" Rose asked; they were out of the park now, and turning left down the street. Rosemary's was on the corner, just a block away.
"Could we go look at the dolls?" the little girl asked, wide-eyed with excitement.
"Absolutely," Rose agreed with an encouraging nod of her head, looking down at her darling daughter. Athena loved to look at the china dolls sold at the Doll Emporium; her own precious china doll, Marie, whom she never left the house without, had come from there. "Perhaps we'll even buy you one."
Athena's eyes lit up with excitement at the prospect of the unexpected present, and Rose knew that the incident at the park was already forgotten – for now, anyway. Her daughter rarely ever seemed to forget things for good, but today she wanted to keep her happy.
"And can we have chips for dinner, after shopping?" the little girl asked, still practically bursting with excitement; in some ways, she was very much her mother's daughter.
"I think that sounds like an excellent plan," Rose agreed, with a twinkle in her eye. "Let's just not mention that part to Grandmum when we get home later, alright?" As much as Jackie tended to spoil Athena, she definitely wouldn't approve of chips for dinner.
"Okay!" Athena agreed happily, now beginning to pull her mother along a bit in her haste to get to Rosemary's. She wanted her strawberry tea (five sugars and no milk, thanks), and some cake – she was thinking chocolate cake today, but with vanilla icing, and maybe those edible ball bearings.
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"You had another bad dream last night," Rose commented, only daring to broach the subject now that her daughter was about halfway through a plate of chips (with ketchup rather than vinegar, much to her mother's dismay).
But Athena merely nodded, not at all minding the topic as she polished off another of her chips. "I was somewhere strange – like ancient Rome or something," the little girl explained. "Only there was a volcano instead of the hills. Everyone had the most wonderful costumes, mum!"
"Well, maybe if you ask nicely, your Grandmum will make you one just like theirs," Rose suggested kindly, knowing how much Jackie loved to make the little girl new costumes for her games of dress-up. "But that sounds like a lovely dream so far – I'm a little jealous."
"There were monsters," Athena admitted. "Creatures of stone and flame, chasing me. And then it was like... like the whole world exploded."
"That does sound scary," her mother agreed – though she couldn't help thinking it also sounded an awful lot like one of the Doctor's adventures. And also possibly Pompeii, on volcano day. "Did you try imaging someone there to protect you, like I told you? You know I wouldn't let anything happen to you; and neither would your father, were he here. He fights all kinds of monsters, and he could certainly protect you from them in your dreams."
"I tried," the little girl told her. "But I couldn't... It was like I didn't have any control over it. I'll keep trying."
Athena didn't have to wait long for a chance to try again; curled up amidst her purple blankets, with Marie and her new doll, Anne, held tightly in her arms, and the unicorn Amalthea watching over them, she had another nightmare that very night.
She was on a planet of ice and snow, faced with the very darkest side of humanity; sometimes you didn't need monsters to make a dream frightening. But everything else seemed to just fade away after the singing started. It was the saddest thing she had ever heard – the sound of captivity, slavery, suffering – and it just about broke her heart; it was the sound of her own sobs that eventually woke her.
Rose held her and rocked her, murmuring words of comfort and singing softly to her for over two hours before Athena was finally able to stop crying – and even then, all the little girl could seem to say was how sad the song was, and how much pain a mysterious 'they' were in.