Parting's End

Chapter One: Like Father Like Daughter

Three years passed with Rose tirelessly acting as both mother and father to her precious daughter while working for Torchwood and doing her best in the attempts to find a way that sent she and her daughter back to their home universe. Hard act of juggling, but Rose somehow made all of it work with a happy, precocious, and curious daughter who was a perfect blend of both parents. A daughter who had to test every new introduction with all of her senses, especially taste to her mother’s annoyance and heartbreak. The child would say just the right words to make Rose smile as memories of the Doctor flooded her mind to make the pain tolerable.

When the stars began to vanish, suspicion grew in the young mothers mind this was not just bad, but this also made an opening she had to take if she wanted to get she and her child back with the Doctor. Jump followed jump using the Dimensional Cannon with no success in sight. Rose dare not tell her daughter of the alteration in the walls of the universes or what Mummy did after hours at Torchwood, yet the girl often stood outside looking at the sky smiling at the dwindling stars. Not knowing how much the child knew about seeing the universe as a Time Lady, Rose could not be certain her daughter was clueless of the truth at all.

After a truly bad jump, Rose went home for a rest to find her child again outside in nightgown and robe looking up at the sky. This night was different from the brilliant smile on her small face. The girl took on the facial features of both parents perfectly, but at the angle and light the girl reminded Rose of the Doctor hard enough to birth a lump in her throat. With the expression on the child’s face Rose saw a Doctor with a plan or wild idea for a trip in mind. Rose missed that expression too deep for any type of measurement.

“Why is my little Time Lady out of bed so late at night?”

“Its opening, Mummy! Please, let’s go to Daddy’s world. I want my Daddy.”

“How you know about the tests Mummy has done, I will not pretend to guess at. But, I keep ending up in the wrong world or universe, baby. The Dimensional Cannon is not ready for us to use yet.”

Her daughter looked up with a fire of determination that sent Rose’s heart soaring with renewed strength. “Mummy, every jump was like a button on a keypad. You have the right combination and Daddy will need us unless I’m wrong. Please, Mummy! If I don’t come with you, we’ll be trapped her with a half-clone of Daddy and not my Daddy! Please, let me help!”

Knowing her daughter was as near a Time Lady a half-breed might become, that her child knew when to intercede or hold back with such ease really made the decision for Rose. “Let’s get you dressed. The last thing you are going to wear to meet your Daddy face-to-face is your jammies. Off to it now. Good as I know my girl, you have your outfit chosen and ready.”

“Spent all day talking about going home to be with her daddy. Trying every outfit combination you can imagine to look ‘herself’ to meet her father!” Jackie Tyler complained as she joined her girls on the back terrace only to have her granddaughter run back inside wearing a smile none could dampen. “Rose, try to talk sense into her! It’s too late at night to be out here at her age!”

“Mum, remember she has the Doctor and what I still hold of the Bad Wolf in her being. She is less and more than a ordinary Time Lady. It’s time to get gone. You know the plan?” Rose said as she followed the wake of her excited daughter back into the house with a confused Jackie following the pair.

“Of course I do! But … you’re going now? As in right now? In the middle of the night? But Rose! The two of you need some sleep and you need something to eat!”

“Please, Mum! Most of the time we are asleep, she’s not.”

“I play in my room because Mummy won’t let me build a sonic screwdriver like Daddy’s!” the child screamed out from the first floor above the elder women.