The Orphan and Her Family

Chapter Fifteen

Once the cops come, Jack drives them back to Cardiff, no one saying much. He drops them off at the Roald Dahl Plass, then continues on to Sophie's flat. "Do you want me to...?" he trails off.

She smiles at him, "Please, Jack. Today has been difficult, to say the least, and more than anything I would like my brother at my side."

"I can't get the Doctor here, no matter how hard I try."

"You're my brother too, Jack."

He nods, helping her up to her apartment. She collapses on the sofa as soon as she's inside. He sighs, "I'm really sorry for that, Soph. I shouldn't have let you go first, you wouldn't have been shot."

"I got myself shot, Jack. Don't blame yourself, alright."

"And yet," he sighs, flopping down on the couch beside her.

*8 Weeks Later*

Jack comes over every evening for the next 8 weeks, making sure Sophie is okay, taking good care of her, and watching lots of Star Trek. She spends her days at Uni, mostly ignoring everyone. She notices slowly, just as Jack said, that thinking about Morgan isn't as painful as it once was. It still hurts, but she doesn't feel like crying all the time anymore.

Eventually, she feels well enough to venture back to the Doctor's office, finding it in complete and utter disarray. "What the bl**dy h*ll happened in here?" she calls.

The Time Lord pokes his head out of the adjacent room, smiling at his friend. "Lynny! How are you?"

"What the h*ll happened in here?" she asks, ignoring him.

"It's not that bad. I've been a bit distracted, alright."

Sophie rolls her eyes, and starts toward the Time Lord's desk. There are books and papers over every surface, and mugs sitting on top of the books, plus various other paraphernalia everywhere. "Is Nardole on a holiday?" The Doctor looks around the room himself and nods, a bit chagrined.

She grabs a stack of papers off the floor, and drops it on the desk. Flopping down in his wheelie chair, Sophie starts to flip through the documents. Most of them are pieces of paper where the Time Lord clearly got bored and started doodling. A couple are essays written by students, and one of two are exams. She dumps the majority of the stack in the trash bin, and moves on. She works on cleaning his office for a while, the Doctor helping her sort through papers. He leaves to go and get them both a tea, and of course someone has to drop by the office.

"Hello?" a thick, Irish accent calls, knocking on the open door.

Sophie, who was under the desk grabbing a ball of paper pops up, hitting her head on the underside of the desk in the process. "Uh, hi," she greets, waving at the person.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize Dr. Smith had another meeting. I can wait out here."

"Wait!" Sophie calls, as the man turns around, "I'm not here for a meeting with him. He's an old family friend, and I come and visit his office sometimes. He should be back soon."

"Oh, alright." He walks into the office, looking around the room, his eyes staying longer on the blue box in the corner, "Nice to meet you, I'm Rafferty."

He holds out his hand, and she reaches across the desk, "Sophie. Pleasure to meet you."

Rafferty takes a seat in one of the chairs opposite the desk, "So, you and Dr. Smith go back. What's that like, having a family friend as a professor?"

"It's kinda weird," she says, setting a stack of books on the nearest shelf, "I always worry he'll try to embarrass me, but so far, I've been okay. It actually somewhat easier though, because I know a lot of what he expects from his students."

"I can imagine. My mother was my high school teacher. That was interesting, to say the least."

She chuckles, "Oh, you had it worse."

The Time Lord enters his office at that moment, nearly dropping one of the cups as he enters, "Ah, Rafferty, I see you made it."

Sophie turns to leave, "I'll drop by again tomorrow, okay, Doc."

He waves her off, and she smiles at him.

***

She gets back to her flat and tosses her keys and phone down on the sofa. Slipping into her room she kicks her shoes off, leaving them in front of her wardrobe. She heads for the kitchen, but stops, seeing movement out of the corner of her eye. She spins on her heel, seeing strange energy waves in front of the television. She moves over toward her umbrella stand, grabbing a broad sword out of it.