The Doctor was engrossed in a book about a branch of mathematics only species with a time sense could comprehend when he felt the brush of consciousness that meant Jenny was awake. Though his daughter didn't sleep nearly as much as his human traveling companions, she did seem to need a few hours every night. She would usually wake in the early morning, and the two of them would meet in the library or console room for what she called "Time Lord Lessons." Or "Tedious Torture Time" if she found the subject matter to be less than engaging. The Doctor closed the book he had been reading, and snorted at his daughter's cheek. She may have come into being fully formed, but she was still a child in so many ways. Whinging about her lessons was just a piece of that. Underneath the solider tactics she was programed with, she had an innocence about her. She met each new world he showed her with wonder and curiosity, and he loved seeing the universe anew through her eyes.

That was also, of course, why she drove him mad with worry. That innocence and enthusiasm he admired so much seemed to have the downside of getting her into all kinds of trouble. Jeopardy friendly! He thought to himself. He took a moment to reflect on the similarities between his daughter and a certain pink and yellow human who'd also had a knack for trouble. He wished the two of them could have met, and not only because it would mean Rose Tyler wasn't trapped a universe away. Thick as thieves they'd be, he was sure. Probably get him regenerated in record time and it would be so, so worth it.

Anyway, best not dwell on the impossible. Especially when he had the interesting conundrum of why Jenny had been awake for ten minutes and hadn't joined him yet to figure out. She may complain about the lessons, but he suspected that she enjoyed the quiet time together, enjoyed getting to know each other, as much as he did. It didn't hurt that he maybe occasionally bribed her with new settings to her sonic screwdriver for good performance when he quizzed her…

He set the book down on the coffee table and stretched magnificently while running a hand through his already wild hair. It seemed he had a daughter to wrangle. Blimey, who would have ever thought. He smiled and headed toward the galley to see if she was waiting for him there. He hoped she wasn't trying to make tea again. He had tried to show her how last week but she appeared to have inherited his habit of setting things on fire when she tried to cook even the simplest things. Although even he could usually manage tea ever since Rose had picked up the electric kettle on one of her visits home. He wondered if he would ever stop missing her. Donna, and especially Jenny helped, but he thought the TARDIS could be filled with hundreds of people and it would still seem empty without Rose. Which brought him to another reason he enjoyed the early morning lessons with his daughter. They were an excellent deterrent to the brooding he usually took to at this time of the day.

Jenny wasn't in the galley, gym, or any of the three gardens she favored. He wondered if he should stop by her room and make sure everything was ok, but then he realized he was doing that smothering thing Jenny had warned him about. Having her here was still so new and he wasn't always sure how to act around her. He supposed he did sometimes give in to his protective instincts a little too much, but who could blame him? He'd lost nearly every person he'd ever cared about in one way or another. He'd even lost Jenny for a few months before the TARDIS had taken matters into her own hands and landed him back on Messaline where he found a very much still alive Jenny helping with the peaceful colonization of the new world.

Still, best to give her some space. He'd just stop by the console room and then head back to the library if she wasn't there. Back to advanced mathematics and maybe even a quick kip before Donna woke up.

He knew Jenny was in the console room when he was still a ways down the hall from the brush of her telepathic presence. The flickering light probably meant that she was fiddling with the projector again. And probably using that bloody tablet of hers instead of using the manual controls like a proper Time Lord. Kids and their toys, he mused. If it had been a month ago, he may have worried that she could have mucked something up by playing around in there, but she had quickly shown herself to be a skilled pilot and mechanic. Whatever she was doing, he figured it would be safe enough. He was curious to see what she was up to and eager to start today's lesson, which he decided would be focused on telepathic skills. He could tell she was trying to shield her presence from him, but wasn't quite able to. But first, he thought, a little fatherly teasing was in order.

"Jenny, you're not playing with that tablet again, are you? I told you, just because it looks cool doesn't mean…" the Doctor trailed off as he stepped into the room and saw something he hadn't let himself even wish for. His hearts stuttered out of their usual metronomic rhythm as he forgot for just a moment that what he was seeing was impossible.

Rose!

Then the image flickered and he realized is was merely a projection.

Jenny knew she was in trouble before her dad even opened his mouth. She'd had somewhat of an idea that he'd be cross with her nosing through the TARDIS' database. Which was exactly why she had worked hard on her mental barriers before coming here. It was bloody annoying that her dad always knew exactly where she was. What was he, some kind of telepathic bloodhound?! She'd already been interrupted twice when she'd tried to get a few minutes of alone time with the ship, but had thought this time she'd finally managed it. And, perhaps she would have if it had been just a quick information harvest like she had planned. But as soon as she saw the image projected in front of her, she had not been able to look away. In fact, she was so lost in thought that she'd only had a fraction of a second warning before her dad barged into the console room, jabbering on about the tablet he took offense to her using. It wasn't enough time to switch off the projection, but she did manage to school her features into an innocent smile to greet him with. Maybe she could play this off as being an accident? But even if he was a little cross at her, at least she had finally gotten some of the information she needed. She had already learned it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission when it came to her father. But as soon as he stepped into the room and saw what she was doing, she realized she had grossly underestimated the magnitude of her indiscretion.

She was still getting to know this mad man who she was created from, but she thought even a stranger could have read the intense emotions that showed on his face in a few moments of rare openness. First it had been hope, and she'd felt her own smile grow wider at the way the emotion lit up his face. She hadn't seen him look quite that alive since he found her again on Messaline. But then the projected image flickered and her dad's face had twisted in pain, and was that grief? Longing? Before she could pin the specific emotion down, he had moved on to anger. No, fury. Oh crap, she thought.

"Jenny!" he barked, his gaze finally tearing away from the projected image making her the focus of all that anger, "What in Rassilon's name are you doing?! I told you…I told you that fiddling in here was dangerous! Are you trying to blow us all up? Fly us into a black hole, hmmm? Files have passwords for a reason, you know! Some of that information is dangerous!"

Jenny gaped at him as he continued to ream her, taken aback by the intensity of his onslaught. By the time he had yelled himself into activating his respiratory bypass, she was well on her way towards fury herself. Who the hell did he think he was treating her like she was some rampaging Time Tot with a stollen sonic screwdriver. She knew what she was doing! Often times better than he did!

Taking advantage of him catching his breath she raised her own voice, "I have every right to be here, Dad! I'm not a child, not that you seem to be able to grasp that! For a genius, you can be pretty damn thick, you know." His eyes narrowed dangerously at the dig, but at least he let her continue, "I'm being careful and I know what I'm doing. It's not like going through databases is all that dangerous, anyway. And if the TARDIS really is my home like you said, I have every right to be here. Or have I overstayed my welcome?" she asked, hand on her hip and head cocked in a challenge.

It was a low blow, but she was so furious at him right now. First it was weeks of him treating her like a child and now he was blowing up at her when all she did was hack into just a few little files. Who exactly was that hurting?! Well…him, she thought, some of the anger fading as she remembered how upset he had looked before he'd started with all the yelling. And in light of what she'd learned from her snooping - no investigation - she supposed his pain made sense. Still, that didn't give him the right to treat her like this. Why couldn't he ever just talk to her about the important things?

The Doctor sighed and seemed to deflate in front of her eyes, "Jenny, of course this is your home. Of course I want you here. And you can never outstay your welcome. You're my daughter. That doesn't change even when I get cross."

"Even when you get really cross?" she chanced a smile and a bit of cheek.

"Even when you blow up the microwave and rearrange books in the library," he nodded at her, very nearly showing a hint of a smile himself. Oh she so had him.

"Even when I get nail polish on the console?"

Her dad puffed out a breath that was almost a laugh, "Well, I think you'll have to take that up with the TARDIS, but I'm sure she'll forgive you. She hasn't ejected you into a supernova yet, so I think it looks promising. In fact, I'm sure she'll give you back your nail polish supplies any day now."

"Oh, we're thick as thieves, us girls," Jenny patted a coral strut fondly, her hand adorned with freshly lacquered nails, "She did translate the database for me, after all."

"Was wondering about that. For a bit there I thought you were the universe's fastest learner of Gallifreyan," her dad smiled before continuing more seriously, " Listen, Jenny, I'm sorry. I guess I'm just not used to having someone around who is so much like me. Just…turn the projection off and we'll go start today's lesson, eh? I was able to sneak up on you, and that should never happen with your telepathic capacity. We'll need to work on that a bit. Now come on. Allons-y."

Jenny was almost taken in by his misdirection, but at the last second the projection caught her eye and she remembered why she was here in the first place. She had hoped to know more before confronting her dad, but that cat was sort of half out of the bag already. It was now or never.

"Dad," she called him back from where he had already started down the hall to the library. He poked his head back into the room and she continued before she lost her nerve "Who is she?" Jenny asked gesturing to the woman in the projection.

"Jenny…" there was a warning in his voice, but she pressed on.

"Look I'm sorry I'm snooping. I'm sorry I hacked through the passwords. I know some things are private, but Dad, there's things I need to know and you never talk to me. Not really."

Her dad walked slowly to stand beside her and they both stared at the flickering image. "So I've been told," he sighed finally. "Jenny, someday when you're old like me, you'll understand. Being long lived…it's not always a blessing. You loose so many people. Pretty soon the past becomes painful and the only way to keep on is to, well…compartmentalize I guess you could say."

"And by that you mean forget and lock the memories away in the TARDIS database." Jenny realized she was pushing her luck and bit her lip as she waited for his response. She was relieved when he snorted a laugh.

"Yeah, suppose that's another way to look at it," he was quiet for a long time. "Her name was Rose Tyler," he finally said, nodding towards the projection.

Jenny rolled her eyes, "I know that dad. I can read, you know. But who was she? To you? All I got a chance to read was that she traveled with you a few years ago."

She looked over at her dad and saw that he was tense, like he wanted to bolt out of the room. "Jenny I…" she thought he was going to continue, but then to her disappointment he only brushed her off. Like he always did when she asked about anything important. "Doesn't matter. Come on. Time for lessons."

He reached into his pocket and with a flick of his sonic, the image of the woman blinked out.

"Hey!" Jenny's irritation with him was quickly flaring back to life, "I wasn't done!"

"Leave it Jenny. Time. For. Lessons," he enunciated each word as his patience seemed to wane as well.

Instead of following him out of the room, Jenny just frowned and after a few swipes of her finger on the tablet, she had the image back up and was frantically reading through the rest of the data in the file. She was only a few paragraphs in when he came storming back into the room, sonic whizzing and eyes blazing.

"Are you trying to get your sonic taken away?! Because that's where you're headed!" he yelled as they proceeded into a furious battle of closing and opening the database, "I told you to leave it! Bloody hell! Why don't you ever listen!?"

"And I told you I want to know about her! If you won't talk to me, at least let me read her file!" Jenny was yelling again but she was too frustrated to reign herself back in at this point. Oh her dad could drive her mad sometimes!

"What is so important about Rose Tyler anyway?!" he barked at her, temporarily getting the image turned off before Jenny made it flicker back on.

"I have the right to know -"

"You have no right, Jenny! No right!" he roared, "You don't even understand what you're doing - what you're asking of me!"

"Let me finish!" oh great, and now she was crying and that made her voice go all squeaky. Like that helped anything. She abandoned the frantic tapping on the tablet to stare at him, "I have the right to know about my own mum!"

She was so busy staring daggers at her insufferable father that she didn't realize he had dropped his sonic until it clattered to the grating. He broke her gaze and collapsed onto the jump seat, head in his hands. "Is that what this is about? That you don't have a mum? I know I'm rubbish at this Jenny, but I'm it. We only have each other. And I'm trying. Really I am. I just don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be a proper father."

Jenny set her tablet on the console and sat down next to him fiddling with the rings on her finger, "It's not about you, dad. Not everything always is," she tried to joke, but he didn't laugh. Apparently now wasn't quite the right time to try to lighten to mood.

She kicked her legs back and forth as they sat in silence.

He wasn't the only one who thought they were a bit rubbish at this. No one else on Messaline had really had a sense of familial connection. This was all new to her. Hell, she was still getting used to just existing. She had no idea how to be a daughter.

Jenny tried again, completely serious this time, desperate for him to understand, "Look, Dad…She's my mum. I know it. She's my mum and she's gone and I don't even know why and I'll never get the chance to know her. I just wanted to at least know about her - what she was like, you know? I just want, no, I need to know where I come from. It's not because you're not enough. You're the best. I'm so happy that you came back for me and that we're traveling with Donna and you're teaching me how to be a proper Time Lady. I love this life. But there's this piece of me, a whole part of me, that I don't understand. And Dad, I really need to."

She stared at her fingers, not quite knowing what to expect from her father. She couldn't take him yelling at her again. She was still angry at him, but she was also guilty for making him so upset. And hurt at how he'd talked down to her and sad that she'd never get to meet her mum. It was just an awful lot to feel at once. She wondered if Time Lord Lessons would ever cover how to deal with things like this. Based on what she'd observed of her father, she was pretty sure the answer was no.

She finally raised her eyes to meet his and realized he looked nearly as emotionally exhausted as she was. "Jenny, I'm sorry. I don't know what brought this up, and I don't know why you think Rose is your mum, but I'm telling you it's impossible. Remember what I said about losing people? It…it hurts to look back. And that's what I had to do just now. That's why I got so angry."

"So you lost her?" Jenny asked. She knew her mum wasn't traveling with them now, and to be honest she was a little afraid to know why. But the question had come out before she could think better of asking.

"Yeah," her dad breathed out, the word laced with anguish.

"And you loved her?"

"Jenny…" he warned.

She just calmly repeated the question, "So you loved her?"

"Yeah," he answered in barely above a whisper.

"I'm…I'm so sorry, Dad." Jenny was sorry for herself too.

"Yeah," she was beginning to think her dad had become stuck in a time loop where he could only repeat that word, but then he continued, "She's not your mum, Jenny." He sounded so tired.

"No, but she is though. I know it. I…" Jenny got an idea and perked up slightly, "I can prove it!"

Her dad raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical.

"Ok, for starters, just look at me," she started, "I know you can see it, see her in me. For the longest time I didn't know why you got this funny look on your face when you looked at me sometimes, but I think that's it. I think sometimes I remind you of her."

"Just because there are a few…similarities, it doesn't mean anything, Jenny. I've traveled with loads of people. Sometimes they're similar. It's bound to happen. I had a feeling you weren't paying attention during our logic lesson. That's not proof, Jenny."

"You're right, and neither is the fact that I've been having dreams about my creation. Dreams where your hand glowed right as they were putting it in the cloning machine. Dreams where all the words on every sign, label, and paper say one thing. Just one thing, over and over. They say Bad Wolf."

Her dad gasped and she knew she almost had him, "Then last night, it was the same dream, but this time it faded into a sort of garden place and mum was there. She knew who I was and hugged me and we cried. She said she wished it was real. I woke up before I could tell her that I thought maybe it was. So what do you say, Dad? It's not proof but I reckon it's enough to warrant a genetic test, don't you?" Jenny finished. She could easily run the test herself, but she'd rather do it with her dad's consent. She was obviously rubbish at sneaking around.

The Doctor stared at the machine as it hummed through an analysis of two very important DNA samples, one from a hair he found on Rose's brush and one from a swab of his daughter's mouth. It would only take minutes, which he knew in theory was a short amount of time, but right now each second felt like a lifetime.

He'd been so angry, so hurt when he saw Jenny rifling through Rose's file. Not only was seeing her image painful, but the thought of his daughter stumbling on something so private had sent all his emotions haywire. Some things were too precious to share, even with his daughter. He had considered his memories of Rose to be in that category. But now, well, he wasn't sure of much of anything. The things Jenny said, of Rose being her mum…they were impossible. And yet, how many times had Rose and Jenny both challenged the definition of that word. It was impossible for Rose to have taken in the time vortex and end the Time War. It was impossible for Jenny to have come back to life without fully regenerating. It was impossible that his daughter was having dreams about Bad Wolf. And yet…all those things happened. The fact that he would know for certain any moment now didn't calm the wild speculation that was raging inside of his head.

And what if Jenny did have a mother and that mother was somehow Rose? It was an equally alluring and painful possibility. To have a part of Rose here, always with him…To have created such a remarkable person with the woman he loved, it would be fantastic. But at the same time, could he live with the constant reminder? Could he live with knowing that every time Jenny reminded him of his lost Rose, it was because Jenny was made from her too? And what about Jenny? He'd always wished her and Rose could have met, but if Rose was her mum, that idle wish would turn into a deep yearning. A girl would never know her mother and a mother would never even know she had a daughter.

Jenny's timid voice brought him out of his whirling thoughts, "Dad?"

He turned to face her and saw that she was fidgeting with her rings again. For all her conviction before, she now looked like a lost little girl. "Yes Jenny?"

"Um…I'm kinda scared," she whispered.

He crossed the small room and pulled her into a hug, "Me too," he admitted, "We don't have to do this. I can stop the test. Or I can save the results for later, for when you're ready."

Jenny shook her head, "No, I'm - I'm ready. Or close enough. It's just…before, when I started looking into this, I didn't realize you had loved her. Don't know why. That's kind of the norm, right? Mums and dads loving each other?" her eyes lit up in recognition, "Oh! You know, I think this is one of those things Donna is talking about when she calls us 'bloody aliens.'"

The Doctor chuckled recalling more than a few instances of that exact phrase coming from his companion in the couple of months Jenny had been back, not to mention the hundreds of times Donna's exasperation had been directed at him alone.

Jenny laughed a bit herself before continuing seriously, "What I mean is that I'm scared about how this is going to change what you think of me. You're my dad, and most of the time I feel like I still hardly know you, but I love you."

"Jenny…"

She talked over whatever he was going to say, "And I know you love me too. But you looked so sad just seeing a picture of mum. Am I going to make you sad all the time now?" Jenny sniffed and he realized she was trying hard not to cry.

He gave her a squeeze and kissed the top of the head, "Oh Jenny, you drive me mad with worry, make me happier than I've been in a long time, frustrate me to no end with your bloody cheek and inability to listen to anything I say, but sad? No Jenny, I'll never look at you and be sad." He realized it was true.

"Not even when you see mum in me?" she sniffed into his chest.

"Especially not then. I won't pretend to know what all this means, but I definitely know it's a good thing."

She shrugged out of the embrace, not one for long hugs, his daughter, "Promise?"

"Absolutely. No matter what the test says, you're still my daughter, Jenny. Nothing will change that."

The machine dinged signaling the results were processed. "Gods does everything with you have to ding?" Jenny joked nervously.

"Oi! What's wrong with a ding? Ding's a good thing! Ha! Ding's a good thing! Could say that all day."

"Oh you're mad, you know that?" his daughter rolled her eyes.

Then they both quieted and the very atmosphere in the room seemed to thicken with tension.

"You sure you're ready?" he asked.

"Yeah. Um…you? Now that I know this doesn't just affect me."

He smiled and held out his hand, "Allonz-y." They pushed off the counter they were leaning against and slowly approached the DNA analyzer. He flipped open the display screen and turned it towards Jenny, allowing her to be the first to know. He studied her face with his heart in his throat as she scrutinized the readings.

Finally, Jenny smiled widely, "I knew it!"

He thought that somewhere in the back of his mind, he'd known too. Maybe since the beginning.

"Alright then Jenny Tyler," He grinned wider, very much liking the sound of that, "Did I ever tell you about the time your mum and I were in London for the blitz?"

His daughter smiled, biting her lower lip and shook her head, "Well for starters, she wandered off before we had been there five minutes! Almost worse than you, she was! And oh, right out of a horror movie there was this empty child…" he continued the story as they made their way to the library, finding it easy, and even a relief for the words he had kept closely guarded for so long to come spilling out.

He thought about a picture album Rose had kept of their travels and decided it was about time to brave a trip into her room to fish it out. Maybe someday the remaining pages of the book would no longer be blank. Maybe they would be filled in with new adventures. Maybe, oh and he hoped with every fiber of his being, maybe other impossible things were in store.