Remember Me?

Sooner Than You Think

The Doctor looked up at Jenny and finally registered that she had introduced herself.
"Jenny.." the Doctor let out a breath and smiled a little, taking Jenny's hand. "It's good to see you- meet you!" The Doctor shook herself out of it. "Meet you."
Jenny smiled. "And what's your name?"
"Hmm? Oh Joh- Jane, Jane Smith." The Doctor mentally kicked her self. Why was it so hard to remember John is no longer an acceptable alias?
"Jane and Jenny." Jen grinned "Oh I like that!" She turned and looked back out to the street, I think it's safe now." She stood and offered a helping hand to the Doctor.
"Why were those men chasing you?" The Doctor asked. She put together a clueless persona. It was a rare opportunity for her to play the clueless companion, and because it was Jenny, she wasn't going to waste this shot.
"Oh well. I sort of stole their most sacred relic that also happens to be a key for their pulsar generator." She pulled a pronged medal crest from her pocket. "Without it they can't activate their energy weapons that they want to use on the core of this planet."
A grin grew on the Doctor's face as she watched Jenny explain. Oh she took after her in so many ways. "So much like me."  She thought. The Doctor could feel a piece of her heart healing.
For once, the universe was giving her an inch.

Here before her stood her own flesh and blood. Right in front of her she saw was her kin, her daughter, her fam.
The Doctor shook her head. "Why do they want to use weapons on the core of the planet? Wouldn't that blow everything to kingdom come?" Gosh. Doc loved playing dumb. "I should do this more often!"
"I don't know yet, haven't got that far." Jenny looked over the key and then reached into her pocket. She pulled out a small, slim rectangular devise. It was made of a steel type medal with brass and copper wire wrapped about it that met at a little red light at the end.

Oh this was just too good. She had a sonic!!

"What is that?" The Doctor asked. Jenny was occupied scanning the key.
"It's my sonic screwdriver, well. Scanner slash multipurpose tool. I just call it a sonic."
"Clever, it looks like you made it yourself, what gave you the idea?" The Doctor was probing now, she wondered if Jenny still thought about her.
Well, from Jenny's point of reference, him.
"An old friend." She hardly looked up at all. "Looks like it's ancient Sobengi technology. "But they aren't from around here, so why do these local priests have it? And why is it so sacred to them? What do they want to reach the core of the planet for?" Jenny huffed and shoved her things in her pocket. "I need to get back to my ship and do some research." She turned on her heel but stopped and looked at the Doctor. "Say...you are a traveler like me aren't you?"
The Doctor hesitated. Did she know?
Her eye brows raised and she shoved her hands in her coat pockets. "What's that then?"
"Well you aren't blue so you aren't local." Jenny said rolling her eyes. "So why are you here?"
"Oh just a tourist. I'm not one to shy away from a bit of adventure though." She smiled and shuffled her foot awkwardly as she looked at the ground. She wanted Jenny to invite her along so badly.
"Well...if it's adventure you came for, Jane Smith.." Jenny smiled mischievously and tilted her head motioning towards the street. "You might fancy coming along!"
The Doctor beamed and nodded eagerly. "I think I'd like that very much."
The two headed for Jenny's ship.
Once they got there, Jenny opened the door.
"It's a little small..." she called as she went into the cockpit to put the key into a monitoring chamber. She shut the little drawer like containment and pushed some buttons.
The doctor stepped inside and looked around. She kept the modestly sized ship quite clean. There was a set of bunk bed quarters in each wall that lined the short hallway, at the one end was the cock-pit, and the other held the little kitchenette and a small living space. There was a trap door in the floor for storage.
"I like it!" The Doctor said with a smile. "This is yours?"
"Yeah. I bought it ten years ago on Gewpen. She's a good ship.." Jenny patted the wall and then went into the living space. "Tea?" She asked.
"Tea sounds lovely." The Doctor beamed. She sat down at the little table.
"So do you go on adventures like this all the time?" Doc inquired. The idea of Jenny was getting easier now and the shock of it was fading.
"Most of the time yeah. I like to hop around the galaxy helping people where I can." She said as she brought two cups of tea. She set one in front of the Doctor and sat down across from her.
"Do you ever travel with people?" The Doctor asked. She wondered if Jenny had spent all this time alone. Just the thought of it made her heart ache, she knew how badly that always hurt.
"Sometimes. I've had a few friends come and go. I haven't traveled with anyone recently. Seems safer that way." Jenny said. She had that positive chirp in her voice that the Doctor so fondly recalled, but her eyes told a different story...she was missing people.
"...I've lost friends too." The Doctor said softly after a moment. She looked at Jenny and offered a compassionate smile.
Jenny looked up at the Doctor, she wondered how she knew. As she looked on at the face of her new acquaintance she couldn't help but feel like she knew her somehow. But for some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Yeah? What happened?" Jenny asked. Sipping her tea.
"Some of them got left behind, some got lost...some stopped traveling with me...some forgot...and others died." The Doctor wrapped her hands around her cup. "I remember all of them though. And I love them all so very much. Sometimes I miss them dearly." She looked at Jenny. "Sometimes I'll make a joke but no one laughs, because the one that would understand isn't there to hear."
Jenny soaked in every word. This story of pain and loss felt so familiar and it moved her soul.
She looked into her glass. A solemn silence fell between them, and for a moment they just rested in each other's presence, understanding each other's scars.

"My Dad."

"What?"

"You asked where I got the idea for the sonic...I got it from my Dad." Jenny looked up at the Doctor. "He was the first one I lost...or, I suppose rather, he lost me. We were supposed to travel the universe together, he wanted to show me the stars..." Jenny's gaze was far off as she let her thoughts drift to those dusty old memories. "He liked adventure too, in fact I was born by one of his adventures. He didn't like me at first, I think I reminded him too much of himself. But after a while he grew very fond of me. And I loved him dearly too..."
She stopped a moment as a sad rain seemed to cloud her mind.
"At the end of that adventure a man pulled a gun...he wanted revenge on my father." Jenny looked straight at the Doctor. "I couldn't let him die. He's so wonderful and to me he-" she stopped and looked down.
The Doctor waited patiently, she offered an encouraging smile.
Jenny sucked in a breath as tears welled in her eyes. All that pain and loneliness that she had been hiding was too much to bear now. "He thinks I'm dead you see...he doesn't know to come back for me. He doesn't know I'm waiting for him. And that I miss him..so very much." A lump swelled in her throat and it caused a pain that finally forced the tears to roll down her face.
The Doctor swallowed. To see her daughter like this, missing her, was so hard. She put a hand over Jenny's and caressed it with her thumb. "I'm sure he'll find you someday...maybe sooner than you think!"

If only Jenny knew.