The Girl of Colours (Book TWO)

Factory Reset

When I came to, I was lying on a bed in the TARDIS, my parents and husband stood around me with worried faces, and I realised that I wasn't wearing a shirt, and my birthmark was on show. "W, w, what-"

"Sweetie, oh, Callie..." Mom breathed, stroking my hair softly, looking terrified. "OK, you're OK..."

"Y, yeah... W, what happened?" I asked, trying to sit up but Luke held me down. "B, baby, what are you doing?"

He gave me a weak smile. "You have to stay down, Love. Please, just trust me with that. You... You have something wrong with your left heart, well, under, your left heart. It's hard, so hard right now..." He looked so scared... "Callie... You have something able to control you, able to kill you remotely at moment."

I stared at him, then looked at dad and mom, my eyes wide. "The kids, where, where are my children, Lyric, Sky-"

"They're fine, Cal." Dad whispered, keeping a hand on my shoulder. "Sky's come back from Japan to look after her sister while we deal with this. It's... It's something to do with what happened when you were still a baby, how you ended up with Luce."

"O, Ok..." I said uneasily, feeling my long red curls behind me, all tied back. "S, so what happened? Why did you do that, why did you send me to Earth?"

Mom sniffed a little, upset, still biting back tears. "Because Kovarian took you, Sweetie. Jacie... She took you from us, and, and..." Tears trickled down her face, and dad wrapped an arm around her, kissing her curly hair. "She hurt you, Cal. She, she did something to your heart, she exposed you as just a baby to an Infinite Schism..."

No... No, dad told me about that, how it destroyed people. "B, but I was told that m, my ability-"

"It's still yours, it's just a gift, dear." Dad smiled a little. "But that thing on your heart, it, it's been there since your were a baby, and you need to have it taken off." Why did I feel like there was another but coming soon? "But it's hard, because of where it is, and because not even regeneration got rid of it. I know how to though."

"So do it!" I told him, getting bored quickly of being stuck on my back. "Why haven't you done it yet?!"

Luke was the next one to speak, and I felt like there was a because coming. Which happened near enough right away. "Because you're pregnant, Callie. And... It could harm the baby, or it can make them potentially stronger than you."

Oh, shit... I was sick all the time, I was bloated, all over the place emotionally. Pregnant... Another little baby, a part Time Lord. "Risk factor. Risk of the baby being hurt?"

"34%."

"And being impossible strong with something? An ability like mine, or Lyrica's?"

My father sighed. "Not likely. About 23%. But together, that's 57% likely that the baby will have something wrong with him."

I blinked at him, replaying what he said. "D, dad? D, did you just tell me I was going to have a little boy, or is that a guess?"

He shrugged. "Back when you two and I had a conversation on the Skype." The Skype... "You told me you wanted a girl and a boy. You've already got two beautiful girls, I'm fairly sure you'd want a boy. But you need to be ready to risk this baby, that you have informed consent about this, Callie. And that you know you have to regenerate again."

"W, what?! Dad, daddy, no, please, no. I can't do that again, my whole life is here, I can't just leave it behind!" I told him, ignoring them all as they tried to stop me sitting up. "I can't change everyone's memories again..."

"I know, but it's going to kill you, Callie. When some of your memories broke through your conditioning, that's what made you collapse, and it will keep happening until one day it can kill you." He told me, hugging me like I was made of glass, instantly breakable. "Please, it's a controlled regeneration, it'll make you change, but you know the drill by this point. It'll be your third, baby girl."