This one is about Ace as she gets on with her life after leaving the TARDIS.
….
'Long were the nights
When my days once revolved around you
Counting my footsteps
Prayin' the floor won't fall through again
And my mother accused me of losin' my mind
But I swore I was fine
You paint me a blue sky
Then go back to turn it to rain
And I lived in your chess game
But you change the rules every day
Wonderin' which version of you
I might get on the phone tonight
Well, I stopped pickin' up
And this song is to let you know why'
Ace now going by her birth name, Dorothy stumbles into her old flat to find her mum laying passed out on the bed. She can smell the alcohol on her breath. With a sign she heads to the small kitchen and preps up a pot of coffee thinking about the past decade with the Doctor. "She's my daughter, she needs to be home. Not with some man traveling who knows what," she hears her mum mumble in her sleep.
"Does she know about the Doctor," Ace feels for her new bat gifted to her by the Doctor before she ran out of the TARDIS angry.
'Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress cried the whole way home
I shoulda known'
Audrey, smelling the coffee, wakes up. "Who the hell is in my house?"
"Mum, I'm home," Ace comes face to face with her mum seeing the eyes of her grandmother.
"Dorothy," she reaches to touch her face but Ace recoils. "I am not going to hit you." Once again her mum reaches to touch her. She falls into her daughter and starts crying. She is caught by her daughter.
"Mum, I am here now."
"You were gone for over 10 years. I missed you."
"I know, I just needed to be away to grow. You know how you named me after someone who was taken away from home?" Ace and the Doctor have both seen the movie together, he had taken her to the Hollywood premiere after she met the Master.
"I do."
"That was me in a freak thing. I did get saved by someone."
"I know, he came to visit me and read me the riot act."
"What? When?"
"Last year." Ace tries to remember a time she wasn't with the Time Lord.
'Well, maybe it's me and my blind optimism to blame
Or maybe it's you and your sick need
To give love and take it away
And you'll add my name to your long list of traitors
Who don't understand
And I'll look back and regret how I ignored when they said
"Run as fast as you can"
"Was he wearing a question mark jumper?"
"No, why?" She now ponders when he came even more and when he stopped wearing the jumper.
"He was the last time I saw him."
"Was he your boyfriend?"
Trying to keep the disgust out of her voice. "God no, he was more like a father than that. When someone would threaten me, he would get protective over me. At times we acted like father and daughter."
"But you didn't want to be my daughter."
"Mum, we were always fighting. The neighbors even called the cops on us at times. NCPCC almost thought of taking me away, but realized how I liked to blow things up and that I almost had a record and knew no one would want me."
'Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress cried the whole way home
Dear John, I see it all now, it was wrong
Don't you think nineteen's too young to be played by
Your dark, twisted games when I loved you so?
I shoulda known'
"Am I too late in saying that I want you here?"
"No, I asked the Doctor to drop me off here to be with you and see if we can repair anything."
"I guess if I ever see him again I will tell him thank you for bringing my daughter home in one piece."
"Physically in one piece. I have never been in one piece mentally."
"I wonder why that is, I was like that too, well still am."
"We come from trauma."
'You are an expert at "Sorry" and keepin' lines blurry
Never impressed by me acing your tests
All the girls that you run dry have tired, lifeless eyes
'Cause you burned them out
But I took your matches before fire could catch me
So don't look now
I'm shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town
Oh'
Over the next few weeks Dorothy stays with her mum and the two try and mend fences. There is a knock on the door. She goes to answer it to find her jacket with a note on it.
'My Dear Ace,
You will always be Ace to me. I know you are angry at me. One day I hope you can find it in that amazing heart of yours to forgive me. I am not traveling with anyone right now. I don't deserve it after what I did to you. I know you will go places. You are brighter than you realize. Since you spent many years of your young adulthood with me; I have set up a trust fund for you. I set it up when I knew I was going to have to betray you. Since it has been over 30 years and I put a heavy sum in it; you should be set.
Forever,
Your Professor.
'Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress cried the whole way home
I see it all now that you're gone
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress wrote you a song
You shoulda known'
After Ace checks the account she finds out she is more than set. With some of the money she takes a few Uni courses to get a degree. With the rest she opens up a foundation aptly named A Charitable Earth, those that know her best knows she still secretly loves her old nickname. She and her mum stay in contact for a few years until Ace tells her how much money the man that she traveled with for years left her.
'You shoulda known
Don't you think I was too young?
You shoulda known'
10 years after opening her charity she gets the old feeling and turns to find a tall man running alongside a woman. "Come on Doctor."
"Coming Bill." Ace stops in her tracks and turns as the tall man runs straight past her.
