Bad Wolf (Book One of the Doctor's Daughter)

Rose & Jessica Part 3

Mickey opens his flat door. "Hey, hey, there's my woman!" He grins as Rose walks past him into his flat. "Kit off!"

"Shut up!" She kisses him.

He pulls back and walks into the kitchen. "Coffee?"

"Yeah, only if you wash the mug. And I don't mean rinse, I mean wash." Rose walks near his bedroom door. "Can I use your computer?"

"Yeah." He nods. "Any excuse to get in the bedroom." Mickey laughs. "Don't read my emails!"

Rose rolls her eyes and logs onto his computer, opening a browser and starts searching up about the Doctor.

After a few tries, she types in 'Doctor blue box' and 493 results come up.

She scrolls through them and clicks onto 'Doctor Who? Do you know this man? Contact Clive here.'

Rose's eyes widen as it is the exact Doctor on the photo that she has met.

*****

Mickey parks the car to where Clive lives. "You're not coming in. He's safe." Rose reassures him. "He's got a wife and kids."

"Yeah, who told you that? He did." Mickey scoffs, rolling his eyes. "That's exactly what an internet lunatic murderer would say."

Rose ignores him and gets out the car, walking over to the door and knocks on it.

A young boy opens the door. "Hello." Rose smiles at him. "I've come to see Clive? We've been emailing."

"Dad!" The boy calls out. "It's one of your nutters!"

"Oh, sorry." A bit of a heavy man comes to the door. "Hello. You must be Rose. I'm Clive, obviously."

"I'd better tell you now." Rose gestures to Mickey in the car. "My boyfriend's waiting in the car, just in case you're going to kill me."

"No, good point." Clive waves at Mickey. "No murders."

"Who is it?" A woman calls out.

"Oh, it's something to do with the Doctor." Clive explains. "She's been reading the website. Please, come through. I'm in the shed."

"She?" The woman stops on the stairs. "She's read a website about the Doctor? She's a she?"

*****

"A lot of this stuff's quite sensitive" Clive explains as they walk inside the shed. "I couldn't just send it to you. People might intercept it, if you know what I mean. If you dig deep enough and keep a lively mind, this Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place. Political diaries, conspiracy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just the Doctor. Always The Doctor. And the title seems to have been passed down from father to son. It appears to be an inheritance. That's your Doctor there, isn't it?"

Rose looks at the image of the Doctor and nods her head. "Yeah."

"I tracked it down to the Washington public archive just last year. The online photo's enhanced, but if we look at the original." Rose gasps quietly as she looks at the photo taken at President Kennedy's cortege going through Dallas. The Doctor's face showing in the crowd. "November the 22nd, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy. You see?"

"It must be his father." Rose mutters in denial.

"Going further back. April 1912." Clive shows her another photo. "This is a photo of the Daniels family of Southampton, and friend. This was taken the day before they were due to sail off for the New World on the Titanic, and for some unknown reason, they cancelled the trip and survived. And here we are. 1883. Another Doctor." He passes her another photo. "And look, the same lineage. It's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatoa exploded. The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings the storm in his wake and he has one constant companion."