The Doctor's Daughter

Chapter 3- Do human Time Lords regenerate?

As a big part of my work, I asked myself the question whether I was able to regenerate like Time Lords or doomed to die like a boring human. It was literally a fifty/fifty question. Mostly, I wanted to find this out to calm mom down. Instead of "Yeah it's possible that I die" I could say "Mom, calm down! I can still regenerate". How awesome would that be! In my theoretic plan it was the key to get her so far that she allows me to do the cool things- like visiting the French revolution. But my only chance to find out was facing death. I hoped there was enough Time Lord in my DNA to trick death like that. If someone asked me what I believed happened after death I'd reply that I become a whole new person and continue to live. I have two hearts- that has to be good for something, right? (Oh just imagine being in hospital and trying to explain why the hell you have to hearts! The doctors always freak out. One day some secret organisation will kidnap me, I swear!)
In the first week of my summer break I was very bored, so I tried to invent an experiment which proves either that I die or regenerate. But that's really hard to prove unless you plan to kill yourself. Of course I had asked Dad about this many times and it was always a hot topic to discuss but he had no idea. When I was twelve I believed I could regenerate because my wounds healed a lot faster than normal human ones. But Dad said it is still possible that I die usually. I grew older and older and slowly realized it was very insensitive to talk about this so much- I had completely forgotten that Dad is possibly the only immortal person in our family (unless you count Jack Harkness as family). He never told me to stop- but every time I talked about this I saw pain in his eyes. So I decided to deal with this fundamental question of my existence on my own.

"What are you doing, Mary?"
Dad was standing on the floor and staring into my room. I wasn't expecting him, so I tried to put away my sketches inconspiciously. I was writing down my idea for an experiment. And Dad wasn't supposed to know. But he already got suspicious. So he walked in and stared at my desk. "What is this?"I sighed. Fuck.He opened my small folder and read through my first plan. "Mary, what are you trying to do?" he asked. He already knew the answer. But he wanted to hear it from me. ""I obviously try to prove my thesis that I have enough Time Lord DNA to perform a full regeneration." I explained like it was a test in science class and he was my teacher. 

He put on his glasses, sat down on my bed and read everything another time.
"You're clever! You're really, really clever. No, seriously... I mean it. But this experiment will never work!" he smiled brightly. Was he seriously proud that his daughter planned to almost kill herself and then come back to life?
"Okay. Fine..." I hit my table out of anger. "Then I'll have to wait till I die!"
His smile faded. Dad suddenly looked so sad. In this second I decided to forget this whole thing.
The next time I'll think about it is when I die.
I tried to change the subject.
"Um... Dad... Can we go somewhere? I am so bored."
Now he grinned again. "I thought you'd never ask! Allons-y!"
And he said it. Again.

Thankfully, Mom allowed us to visit Venice. I hoped to meet Casanova just once in my life but then Dad realized he made a mistake and we landed on the moon. At first we wanted to go back home but I liked being on the moon. We both put on spacesuits and decided to do a little walk on the surface. After playing a round of football and accidently shooting the ball out of the atmosphere we decided to make a little surprise for mom. It was just a photo of us and a heart that we had drawn into the moon dust. It was my idea and Dad loved it.
"Oh, so this is the reason... Never thought that we caused all of this! Ha!" Dad laughed excited and clapped his hands.
"What exactly?" I asked.
He hugged me.
"Oh, Mary... We solved and caused one of the greatest human mysteries!" he explained proudly. "A few decades from now humans will discover the dark side of the moon... And guess what they'll find?"
When I was just about to answer his question, he interrupted me.
"Mysterious footsteps and a heart drawn in the moon dust!"
I laughed. Mom would love to hear that story. And of course we were going to tell her. What a lovely story for dinner.
"So, let's go home, I guess."
He took my hand and ran back to the Tardis.

"Dad, I realized something..." I started. It was the worst sentence I ever said.
He looked up and smiled. "Yeah?"
I was confused and scared. This whole idea was a very bad one.
"Go on. Say it. You can always talk to me. You know that."
The way he looked at me broke my heart in less than a second. He cared. He loved me so much. I could see that in his glittering eyes. And with such a sensitive topic like this I was about to break his heart. My voice shivered and I tried not to cry. Stay strong, Mary. Don't cry.
"The whole can-I-regenerate- question is bothering me a lot now. And I wondered what will happen in the future... If I can't."
Now he knew where this was going. He swallowed and tried to find a good reply. But then I continued.
"I mean... what will happen after mom and I are-"
"Yeah! I know what you mean!" He almost sounded angry. The way he avoided to look at me made things only worse.
He put off his spacesuit and didn't look at me for a single time. Then he sighed.
"This is the curse of the last Time Lord, I guess."
I nodded.
"But I know that you can regenerate!" It was like a desperate scream. Dad walked over to me and grabbed me at my shoulders. "I know you can... Because you are a Time Lord. Because you are my daughter!"
Everything was fine until I spoke out the one thought I will regret all my life. Because nothing could hurt him more than that.
"And what about mom?"