AN: This is set immediately after the previous story, "The Infinite"; originally, "The Infinite" was supposed to lead directly into the next storyline in Retrograde ("Fluorescent Adolescent"), and this would be the reason Jenny is at their house, but it wasn't making sense logistically. But this is still important context, so I'm writing it.

PARENTAL GUIDANCE

Brighton, England, January 2065

Soviet agricultural policies had absorbed the Doctor's attention; she was nose-deep in a nuanced book on the subject with Clara sleeping soundly at her side. It was getting close to two in the morning, and she was trying to work out what she would do when she inevitably finished her book with still hours to go before dawn.

That decision was taken out of her hands when the phone downstairs started to ring. She set her book down flat on the bed, ignoring Clara's sage and frequent advice that the spines would be irreparably bent, and went to deal with it before everybody else in the house was woken up. Initially, she had assumed it was the intertemporal landline wired up to the TARDIS, because that was the only non-mobile phone they were ever called on. But it wasn't. It was the normal, boring, Earth-bound landline that Clara insisted on having even though they hadn't been standard for decades. The Doctor wasn't even sure who had the number or if she should answer it at all, pausing for a second to debate just pulling the plug out and going back upstairs. But she was too curious.

"Hello?" she picked up the phone.

"Hey, it's, um, it's only me."

Jenny.

"You called me on the landline?"

"Yeah – I'm outside. I didn't want to knock and wake anybody up. I thought the phone would be quieter."

"Outside where? The front door?"

"Yeah." It was a wireless phone – unlike the temporal one which she had stolen from a 1950's diner and retrofitted to span galaxies – so the Doctor carried it with her to open the door. Jenny was stood there looking extremely upset.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" she hung up the phone and set it down on a shelf by the door where keys and other pieces of flotsam that usually belonged in pockets were kept. Jenny put her mobile away.

"I'm fine."

"Jenny," she said a little sternly, stepping outside and closing the door, "What's the matter? Has something happened?"

"The stupid… we ran into them," said Jenny, staring at the floor. The Doctor could tell already that she was trying not to cry. "Parallel universe people. That new Doctor again."

"Oh, Blue… do you want to come in? I'll make you a hot chocolate and something to eat."

"I don't want to wake up Clara or Mattie. Or Rose."

"Rose isn't here tonight," said the Doctor, "And don't worry about that. We'll be quiet. Come inside, tell me what happened."

"I was out with Oswin, on Akwana, treasure hunting," said Jenny, "The other Doctor was looking for the same thing."

"Did she have her whole gang with her?" The Doctor made sure to lock the front door.

"No, only the girl, Yaz. She strong-armed her way into tagging along with us, spent the whole day getting in the way, and then I had to save her from a four-armed monkey-thing that tried to crush her. And now she's still on there!" Jenny complained, getting a little loud. The Doctor gave her a stern look, filling a glass jug with milk. "Sorry."

"She's on my TARDIS? Now? With your wife?"

Jenny shook her head, "Clara went to London, she just texted me. I might have… run away."

"Why was she on the ship, exactly?"

"Radiation," said Jenny, "The treasure we were looking for – it's an isotope. Neon-99. They're both radioactive and they have a cancer survivor on their ship, so they're staying the night. Plus, the monkey did quite a lot of damage."

"Then they're being supervised by who? Oswin?" She put the jug in the microwave and set it on a low heat.

"And Adam. I couldn't stay there, mum, it was – she's – she acts like she's desperate to talk to me, but she won't listen to a word I say. It's like I'm speaking a different language. Am I speaking a different language?"

"No. Although, you do sometimes start speaking German without meaning to. But what does she want to talk to you about?" asked the Doctor carefully, ladling chocolate powder into two mugs as the microwave hummed.

"Clara, what else? After she showed up here months ago, in the middle of the night. I mean, where does she get off on not even having the courage to knock on the front door? To sneak around in the dark with someone else's wife? Would you do that?"

"Not in that exact situation. What happened?"

"She landed in Sally Sparrow's loft and told Clara she killed herself. It's been driving me mad for months. What are either of us supposed to do with that information? And then she has the nerve to say she wants to 'talk' to me – and I tell her I already have a mother and I don't need two."

"What do you mean, she killed herself?" asked the Doctor very seriously.

"She let a quantum shade kill her to save somebody else's life. Ashildr was there, it was her pet shade. That's why she never told us for all this time, it was her fault."

"That… doesn't sound like suicide to me. Not in the way you implied. And I know you would have done the same thing."

"But she didn't talk to me. We were… something she never said anything. She didn't even try to tell me anything had happened; I had no idea until… how am I supposed to…" She couldn't come up with any more words so she just made a frustrated noise, still on the brink of tears.

"What did Clara say about all this?"

"That she was depressed before she died but she doesn't remember what happened."

"Do you want to know what I think?" said the Doctor seriously, pulling out the chair next to Jenny, "I think she didn't tell you because you'd try to stop her. And you'd have been able to. Do you really believe she would have been able to go through with it if she called you to say goodbye?" Jenny didn't answer. The Doctor touched her back comfortingly. "Who was it she saved?"

"Just a boy she knew. He'd just had a baby and got wrongfully accused of a crime."

"Well, there you are. What would you have done?"

"It just hurts me that she was gone, and I didn't even know. She was dead and I was just carrying on."

"Don't be mad at her. If anything, you should be mad at me. I was there, remember? In the days before we went to Whitby. And when we did go to Whitby."

"How did you do that, keep it from me?" Jenny, who had actually forgotten this, asked.

"With great difficulty. But you weren't supposed to know, Clara – my Clara – and Oswin needed to find out, for events to proceed in the right way. And you know what? It was a good thing."

"Why?" she was angry, "In what world would it possibly-"

"You never had to grieve for her," the Doctor cut her off, "It was her afterlife, right away – she was already on the TARDIS before you knew what had happened. There was never any danger of her being gone forever because I was there, and I knew, and I chose to keep you in the dark, not Clara when she took her life in her hands. It's not like she told Dave goodbye, either. And in her defence, you'd barely ended things with Jack – that was extremely messy and intense." The microwave dinged and the Doctor stood back up, making the hot chocolate while Jenny stewed in her own upset at the dining table. "Do you want something to eat? I don't know why I'm asking when you always do."

"What do you have?"

"How about a toastie? Or we could order pizza if I sneak upstairs and take Clara's phone."

"Toastie's fine, thanks."

"Anything for you." She stirred the mugs, set them down, and pulled out the sandwich toaster. "Did you say she got crushed by a monkey?"

"Yes."

"And now she has to put up with Oswin?"

"Mm. And Oswin's been in a very good mood today."

"Then maybe that's punishment enough and she's learnt her lesson. Or do you want me to talk to her? I'm sure I can find her if I put my mind to it."

"No!" Jenny exclaimed, annoyed. The Doctor gave her a look. "Sorry. It's just that's what Clara said. And people shouldn't have to talk to her on my behalf, she should just listen to me when I talk to her – there's no respect. She wants to talk to me and act like she has any right to be a 'parent', but only on her own terms."

"Really?" said the Doctor, then she scoffed, "The nerve. I should talk to her, remind her that you're my daughter, and I love you dearly. Doesn't she have one of her own?"

"That's what I said."

"I doubt she has any respect for me, either. God knows, I don't respect her."

"I just don't want anything to do with her. I feel terrible about leaving, though; Clara didn't want me to."

"They're not staying on the TARDIS for long, are they?"

"Until the morning. I don't see any reason they'd loiter since Clara isn't there. It's ridiculous, we spend all this time trying to deal with the… weirdness, and then she comes along and it's like I'm in my own head fifty years ago."

"How's Yaz?" asked the Doctor after Jenny had sunk into silence again for a long, few moments, nursing her hot chocolate. The Doctor was about to place two toasties on the grill.

"Alright. But she doesn't like me."

"Doesn't like you? Everybody likes you."

Jenny shook her head, "She thinks we're all… cynical. Clara got her phone number, though. Just in case. Oswin's convinced herself they have a thing going on."

"Really? Hmph."

"What do you think? You met them both."

"I'm not sure it's my place to comment on the 'thing' they may or may not have," said the Doctor, "Yaz seems like a nice girl. Sensible enough to make the best decisions for herself."

"If she hasn't been brainwashed by your…" Jenny paused, thinking, then shrugged, "Whatever it is people like about you so much."

"It's my winning personality," said the Doctor.

"I still don't trust her. I don't know what she wants from Clara. I'd understand it if she really was trying to seduce her back onto the TARDIS, but it's not even that. Or maybe it is, and she can't admit it to herself."

"I'm surprised you don't have a little more empathy. You know full-well that Clara is a difficult girl to get out of your head."

"Don't talk to me about Clara," she grumbled.

"This whole conversation has been about Clara, and you brought her up," the Doctor reminded her, "You can't have it both ways. Are you sure you don't want to go to London and see her?"

"I should leave it until after they've gone. She's only with Sally, talking about vampire business. Something's going on; they've been sending a lot of faxes recently."

"Faxes? That's how the vampire elite communicates?"

"Hardly; it'll be another silly crisis."

"The vampires have a lot of crises?" asked the Doctor.

"You know she doesn't tell me," said Jenny. "But the last time something kicked off it was because an Italian restaurant opened down the road from one of them and they thought it was a nest of vampire slayers. They're all paranoid."

"So much for the 'Great Vampires'." The toasties were just about done. The Doctor got out a fish slice and scraped them from the grill and onto two plates, setting one down in front of Jenny, who couldn't wait to eat. "How's your hand? You didn't hurt it today, did you?"

"It's fine," said Jenny defensively, clenching and unclenching her fist to give the thumb a chance to stretch. It twinged a little. She took a large bite out of her toastie, still thinking. "Why does she feel entitled to know things about my life?"

"She's worried about you. It's difficult not to worry about you, Blue."

"I don't know why you've started calling me that."

"Because you're always hurting so much."

"How can I not be?" The Doctor didn't say anything, only looked at her sadly. "I'm just not as good at hiding my feelings as you."

"I'm glad you're not. It means I can tell when something's wrong. If I ever see her again, I'll tell her off for you."

"I just said-"

"I know what you said, but you let me do this for you, please. Let me enact some of my parental responsibilities for a change."

"…Fine. But only if you see her. Don't go looking, you'll just get dragged into their latest chaos."

"I promise not to. If you go call your wife right now and talk things through before all this drives a wedge between you." It was a stalemate. The Doctor was serious and held Jenny's gaze for a long time. Then Jenny looked back down at her plate.

"Can I finish eating this first?"

"Absolutely. And then you'll call her."

"Yes. Alright. I'll call her."