The Girl of Colours (Book TWO)

Who Watches the Watchmen?

The Doctor:

The Ponds... Why the Ponds, why?!

It had been a month since it happened, and I was trying, god, I was trying so hard to be there for Callie, Luke and Lyric, sticking around as close as possible, but I was going insane, babysitting while they went shopping, doing their dishes, fixing their car. Anything to stay near her, in case any moment then she disappeared in a puff of smoke. 

I'd retreated into the TARDIS for a while, looking around the rooms that I rarely went into, Callie's first bedroom, as little Jace, Rose's room, Jacks, Mickey's and Martha's. So many, so many companions, and look what happened to them all. And then I heard a baby crying.

"Hello?" I called, leaving Donna's room to head into the corridor, trying to find the source of the noise. "Hello, Callie? Callie, is that you and Lyric?"

Walking back towards the console room, I paused, seeing a door open that shouldn't have been, the storage room. "Who's in there? Callie? Luke?"

"Shh, shh, it's OK, there we go." I heard a soft voice whisper, and the baby's cries lessened, and I saw who it was. River. "That's it, it's alright. There we go, Sweetie."

"River?" I asked, moving into the room properly, and she looked over at me, looking tired by happy. "What are you doing here?"

River's eyes were bright silver, filled with tears as she looked from me to my crib, the one she first lay in back at Demon's Run. Where a tiny baby lay, with tufty ashen hair and sky blue eyes. "I thought you'd like to meet this little one. Given that she's yours."

"Oh..." I breathed, suddenly forgetting everything that was happening around me, looking at this perfect little baby before me, chewing on her hand. "Hello. Hello little one, look at you... How old is she, River?"

The woman looked a little sheepish for a moment. "5 months. I've been trying to find you, but it's not been easy. I can't use the Vortex Manipulator with her, it's not safe. She's so perfect, she barely cries. Hell, her crying can sound more like singing at times, and oh, her laughter... It's infectious, Doctor."

I grinned at her, picking up my new daughter, a sister for Callie. "Hello. Hello my little one, look at you. You're so perfect, aren't you? Wait until you meet your big sister, she's going to love you, my Calliope."

"I've been trying to keep her hidden, what with my past, because people could use her to get at me, to get at you." River told me softly, putting a cloth over my shoulder, stopping her from dribbling right on my shirt, not that I'd care, because she was so perfect. I was a daddy again, with a little girl that wouldn't get hurt, wouldn't be at risk, who would have her parents the entire time she's growing up.

Or so I thought.

"I had to name her, I know you'd have wanted a say, but they would't let me leave the hospital without giving her a name."

Looking from my baby to her, I smiled a little. "Well, she's calling herself Elektra, but let's find out what your mummy called you, eh? What's her name?"

"Jacelyn Allison Song." River told me, stroking our daughters hair. "Jacie, or most likely Jace as she gets older." I was staring at her now, my hearts thudding in my chest as everything started to fall into place. "What? Don't you like it? We can change it, but she already answers to Jacie."

Oh, River, River... The Curly Haired Song my daughter had been looking for, her mother. I couldn't tell her, tell her that our daughter grew up on the streets, that she had a life full of pain and abuse until she was found by me in the past. But I couldn't let her try and show her to Callie either, meeting her past self. "I love it. Come on, let's show her the stars."