Chapter Text
For the next three days, Mia anxiously lingered around her mother’s bedside. “She’ll wake up in the next few hours,” her father had said confidently in the library.
More than once since then, Mia sent him an apprehensive glance, chewing on her thumbnail – a silent prodding. "Are you sure?"
By midnight on that first night (at least, it felt like midnight; everyone else had gone to bed and Mia was miserably tired), he admitted he might have miscalculated. She helped him push Rose’s now somehow rolling bed into the infirmary, and watched as he hooked her up to various monitoring machines. Mia blanched as he stuck some large needles into her limp arms, and tested her blood, her glucose, her heart function, and God knows what else.
The Doctor was terribly quiet while he did this, apart from a few swift explanations of what he seemed to be looking for. It was all lost on Mia. She just nodded and reached down to take her mother’s hand, pitifully trying to warm it between her palms.
She’d never seen her mother so pale, so still. Somehow, she seemed in worse shape than when they’d first arrived back on the ship. It looked as if there was hardly any life left in her at all.
“Ah,” he said finally, eyes glued onto one of the seven computer monitors throughout the room. “That would be it.”
“What is it?” Mia asked immediately, running up behind him.
“This is an imaging machine – X-ray, sort of,” he explained, pointing. “See this?”
Mia nodded. “That’s her abdomen, yeah?” She could see the dark outline of her lungs, the long stretch of her esophagus, her heart, and… a small, dark mass. She pointed at it. “What is that?”
“That, Mia, is new growth.” The Doctor leaned back, an odd, manic smile passing over his face. “Wow. Oh, wow! That’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!”
“What’s it mean?” Mia asked insistently.
He just laughed, looking over at Rose, shaking his head in amazement. “Honestly, your mother! She’s always been incredible, but this? This is jus–”
“Dad!” Mia swiveled around, arms crossed, eyes piercing. “Tell me what it is, for God’s sake!”
The Doctor jumped a bit, looking at her oddly for a moment. Then, if possible, he smiled even wider. “You called me Dad!”
“Awww,” Mia drawled out, rolling her eyes. “It might be because that’s who you are!”
“Oi, don’t be sassy!”
“Oh my God, I am going to freak out,” she muttered.
He laughed a bit, then said, “Oh, alright, fine. Okay. She’s growing a second heart.”
Mia’s jaw dropped. She took a couple of steps forward. “Seriously?”
“Seriously, yeah!” Her dad bounced back on his heels. “She’s becoming a Time Lord. No, Time Lady. She’s becoming like us, Mia.”
“How does that even happen?” Mia murmured, her gaze lingering on her mum’s face, her shallow breathing.
“Dunno,” he replied, scratching his head. “But if I had to guess, it was triggered by the regeneration process. That’s why she’s still asleep. She’s… mutating, of sorts. Growing a whole new organ. And if I’m right –” He hummed and skirted around the bed. Placing his hand along Rose’s face, his thumb stroked her colourless cheek softly, and his fingertips touched her temple. He seemed to go still for a moment, then pulled away, nodding. “Her brain, too. It’s all changing. How incredible is that?”
Mia fell asleep on a surprisingly comfortable chair pulled up to her mother’s bedside. Words rung in her ears, threading through her dreams. Vivid images of her mum bathing in that golden fire – regeneration energy – replayed in her mind. She’s changing. She’s mutating. She’s not human anymore.
She didn’t sleep very well.
*
“Do you think she will be upset?”
If Dad was perturbed by her question, he didn’t let on. He set her tea cup in front of her, and turned back to the stove. He was making her breakfast again. This time it was blueberry pancakes.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Do you think she will be upset?”
Mia shrugged glumly, even though he wasn’t facing her. “How would I know? She kept all of this a secret from me, so… I don’t really feel like I know her as well as I thought.”
He looked at her, a sort of sad expression on his face. Then he turned back, quickly grabbed the spatula and flipped the pancake he’d been waiting on, and abandoned it. “Mia,” he said gently as he walked towards her, “of course you know her.” He leaned on the counter, now eye-level with her. “Last night, when I put my hand on her head… I was checking her brain. Sort of. Time Lords, we’re telepathic. I can look into someone’s mind with a simple touch. I usually don’t, because it’s a huge invasion of privacy, and… I wouldn’t want to, anyway, with just anyone. Imagine going about life, knowing raw, unfiltered information about everyone you touch.”
Mia shook her head. “That sounds… horrific.”
He nodded. “Yeah, so… I don’t do that. The only reason I did last night was for the sake of figuring out exactly what was going on in there. Anyway, my point is, I didn’t go very far. Her mind was so jumbled and stressed because of the change going on, I probably couldn’t have actually entered without it being very painful for both of us. But we all have thoughts and memories on the surface of our consciousness, floating above the real expanse of our brains. Rose’s were almost all about you. Even now, in her coma, she’s thinking about you. Worried about you. Her mind is trapped in the moments before her regeneration.”
Realisation hit Mia like a ton of bricks. “Oh, my God. The last thing she saw was the Master bringing back Gallifrey. She’s stuck reliving that.”
“Yeah,” he affirmed. “But it’s more than that. She thought she was truly dying. All of her surface memories are a sort of… amalgamation of her life flashing before her eyes. The overall impression was that she had been trying to protect you. Through all of it, since you were born, she has been trying to protect you.” He paused, then said, “I’m so sorry she kept this from you, Mia. I am. I wish she hadn’t. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel upset when I realised that she’d never told you about me. But when I looked into her mind, even for that brief moment – I understood, and I forgave her.”
Mia remembered how she felt when she watched her mum pass out on that floor, dying, with the Master screaming in the background. She had felt that same forgiveness.
“I just miss her,” Mia choked out. She suddenly felt like she was a toddler being left at nursery school for the first time, confused and missing her mummy. When was she coming back?
Her dad moved towards her, wrapping his arms around her, and cradling her head in his hand. He dropped a kiss to her hair. “I know, sweetheart. I miss her too. These years without her have been some of the hardest of my life. But she’s here, and she’ll wake up. Just remind yourself of that. Okay?”
She nodded against him. A strange smell hit her nose. “I think your pancakes are burning, Dad.”
*
The next day, the Doctor was being driven mad by Jackie Tyler. Thankfully, she had stopped asking questions about Rose – he had given her plenty of lengthy explanations, plenty of promises, and plenty of sideways glares that clearly said “Don’t ask me that again.”
No, she now turned her incessant complaining towards his ship, of all things.
All of them were gathered in the console room due to some ill-timed tinkering on the Doctor’s part. He’d been trying to catch a bit of peace and quiet, to take his mind off of things (particularly Rose, and what would happen once she woke up). Then Mia had appeared with a handheld puzzle she had found in Rose’s room, asking him how to complete it. After a few minutes of that, he finally went back to tinkering, and Mia sat on the jump seat, fiddling with the puzzle. His precious quiet had been restored, apart from the occasional clicking of the contraption, and Mia’s frustrated humphs.
Then Mickey and Pete waltzed in, asking him if he wanted help, which he certainly did not, and stayed even after he’d voiced that, commenting on one thing or another as he worked.
Just as his annoyance was peaking, Jackie burst in. “My God, how do you live on this thing?” she groaned, gesturing around her. “It tricks you into thinking it's one time or another, it moves your things around, and the kitchen is never in the same place twice! It’s unnatural!”
“My God, Jacks, it’s the most sophisticated ship in recorded history,” Pete shot out, rubbing his forehead. “Give it a rest!”
“I most certainly will not! ‘Most sophisticated’, my arse. I was more comfortable in that old zeppelin you got from Jericho on the cheap!”
Mickey barked out a laugh. “That was a piece of shit zeppelin.”
“I liked it,” Mia piped in, eyes still focused on her puzzle.
Pete blinked. “You were two, Mia. And you never actually flew it. Your mum threatened the hell out of me for even mentioning it.”
Mia shrugged. “Oh.”
“Valid,” the Doctor grumbled from his spot on the grating where he was rewiring a few circuits. Then, a little louder, “Jackie, I’m sure you can deal with the Tardis a bit longer, yeah? Without completely insulting her?”
“It took me an hour to find this bloody room!” Jackie exclaimed in frustration.
“No wonder! She’s upset with you!”
“I’m going stir crazy, Doctor!”
“How?” He abandoned his wires, sitting up. “There’s hundreds of rooms! There’s a pool, a golf course, a garden, a basketball course, a gym, a cinema –”
Jackie’s eyes flashed with anger. “Oh, right, Doctor. I’ll just go bloody jogging. I’m fifty seven years old, you absolute wanker, I'll never jog again if I don’t have to!”
“Watch a film then!”
“I’ve watched seven!”
“Seven?” Pete yelped in surprise. “Christ, Jacks. Read a book.”
Jackie scoffed. “Don’t be patronising, Pete. No one reads.”
“I read,” Mia said, clicking the puzzle into place. She gasped when it fit perfectly, and a little jingle sounded from it. “Holy shit. I think I got it. Look, Dad!”
“Watch your language,” Jackie said sternly, sending a sideways glance to Mickey. “Rose is gonna think we let her out galavanting on the streets.”
The Doctor took the puzzle from her, smiling. “Look at that! You finished it! Your mum used to try to do it every night before she went to bed. She could never get it. I almost lost my mind watching her do it wrong day after day.”
Mia laughed. Jackie rolled her eyes.
“Doctor,” Mickey started, his tone exasperated, “maybe we could land for a bit. Let Jacks stretch her legs.”
“Yes, please,” Jackie said.
The Doctor sighed, standing and setting Mia’s finished puzzle on the console. “Rose should be up soon. Very soon, even. I checked on her a few hours ago, and she’s nearly healed.”
Ultimately, he and Mia had both decided that telling Mickey and Rose’s parents about her mutation might not be the best idea. They agreed to tell them she was just recovering, for now. He wanted to talk to Rose before it became common knowledge.
“You said yourself that she’ll be fine,” Jackie said tersely. “If you really think that, you should let her wake up on Earth. Somewhere she’ll recognise, you know. Home.”
“This was her home, Jackie,” the Doctor retaliated.
Pete shifted. “I think Jacks might be right, Doctor. Even after she wakes up, she’ll want to relax. She needs to ease into all of this. I think we all do.”
The Doctor sighed, his gaze falling on his daughter, who nodded. “Okay. If you all think we should land… we can. Where and when?” He paused. “Actually, I… I have an idea.”
*
A few minutes and one incredibly smooth landing later, they filed out of the ship. They were standing outside of a house – a large, proper house, that looked almost abandoned. The paint on the outside looked like it had once been yellow, but it was chipping. The windows were dirty, and there was a front porch that hadn’t been swept in ages. A lone wooden chair sat there, covered in dust, looking as if it would collapse if anyone sat in it. A stack of mail rotted at the front door, so badly that some of it had disintegrated.
Mia turned around. The Tardis had parked itself in the spacious front yard, which, surprisingly, seemed to have been mowed semi-recently. They were in an old neighbourhood – all of the houses around them were spaced out, giving everyone plenty of room, some lined with gardens and fences. A single gravel road connected all of them, and they were on the top of a hill, so they could see the quiet houses down the road. In the distance there was a body of water glistening against the horizon, nestled in between the hills around them, looking like a puddle.
The Doctor stepped forward, huffing out a breath. “Well, good to know they haven’t bulldozed it yet.”
“What is this place?” Mia asked in a murmur. For whatever reason, she was overcome with a sense of warmth. She liked it here.
“We’re outside of London by about an hour. East end, by the sea. This is a bit of a hidden island, there’s not too many people here.”
“I’ll say,” Pete said, taking in the view as well. “Why, though?”
The Doctor blinked, then gestured to the house. “It’s mine.”
“What, the house?” Jackie asked incredulously.
“Yes!” He paused. “Well, technically, it’s UNIT's, but they put me up in it in the seventies. I paid for it.”
“With what money?” Jackie scoffed, eyes narrowed.
The Doctor turned to her. “I worked, Jackie. For UNIT. I still do, technically.”
“What’s UNIT?” Mia asked.
“Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Sort of like Torchwood, but much better.”
Mickey shook his head. “Good job Rose is knocked out, mate. She put a lot of work into that place.”
“I don’t doubt it,” the Doctor said. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, yes, this is my house. I haven’t been here in a long time, so it needs to be updated. But we can sleep on the Tardis, and we can come out and enjoy the town. I don’t have a car anymore, but it’s just down the hill, about a twenty minute walk. I’m sure I could find some bikes in the Tardis storage, too.” He turned to Mia. “There’s a creek that runs behind the house – wait ‘til you see it. Depending on the time of the year, it’s high enough to swim in. And it’s –” He paused again, sniffing the air, then nodded. “It’s May now, perfect!”
“Can we go in?” Mia blurted out, already jumping up the steps to the front porch. The Doctor began to protest, but she pushed the unlocked door open, murmuring, “Wow.”
It certainly was a seventies time capsule. Despite it being dingy and dusty, it was surprisingly bright inside, due to the back wall of the house in the lounge being almost entirely windows facing the back yard. The foyer where Mia stood opened right up to it, and had halls on either side of her. To the left, there was a closed door. To the right, she spotted a dining area.
She stepped forward, vaguely hearing the others come in after her. Entering the lounge, she examined the oddly-shaped furniture and giggled. Even though it was outdated, her dad had obviously cared about the look of his home at the time. All the furniture was a matching mustard yellow, and the colour tied in with the (quite frankly, horribly ugly) carpet that covered the whole room, which was a patterned yellow and blue. A few random pieces of art hung on the walls, and an old television sat unplugged in the corner.
There was a staircase to the left, and to her right, an open archway led to a kitchen.
“This is so cool,” Mia said finally, truly believing it. “Besides the dust.”
“And that carpet,” Jackie said, laughing. “God love you, Doctor. I bet this was a hit back in the day, wasn’t it?”
“It was modern,” he replied, smirking.
Suddenly, Mia stiffened. “What about Mum? What if she wakes up now while we’re out here? I should go –”
“Don’t worry,” her dad said reassuringly, sending her a smile. “The Tardis will warn me if she’s about to wake up. Telepathy, remember?”
Mia considered that for a minute, then said “Okay” before bolting up the staircase.
She counted two bedrooms upstairs, both with a connecting Jack-and-Jill bathroom, both oddly unfurnished. There was a connecting terrace overlooking the backyard. Racing back downstairs, she checked out the kitchen and dining room. She was delighted to see the big, beautiful archway-shaped windows in both, and hardwood accents. She found a hidden doorway between those two rooms, leading to a utility and laundry room, and another bathroom.
Lastly, she crossed over the foyer again, pushing open the door to what she assumed had been her dad’s room.
This room had a bed, at least – one she wouldn’t dare lay on, unless she wanted to be sneezing for the rest of her life. The grey sheets were a Tardis-blue colour underneath all that dust, judging by the few edges that had been blissfully spared. A door in the corner led to another loo.
“What do you think?” her dad asked her when she came back out into the lounge. Mickey and Pete had disappeared, likely checking out another part of the house. “We can fix it up, get rid of this old thing.” He scuffed his shoe against the carpet.
“I love it!” Mia said.
Jackie’s eyes narrowed. “Doctor, can I talk to you for a mo?”
“I’m going outside,” Mia told them excitedly, running off towards the back door, which was just on the side of the kitchen.
“Careful!” her dad called after her. “Don’t slip on those rocks by the water!”
“Okay!” The door slammed shut and they watched her explore the yard through the big windows. She briefly turned back and waved at them before disappearing from view, presumably towards the creek.
“What’s wrong?” the Doctor asked, turning his attention back to Jackie.
“What’re you playing at?” she asked, crossing her arms. “Doing all of this before Rose wakes up.”
The Doctor scoffed. “Jackie, you wanted to land.”
“Yeah, I did, but it didn’t have to be here! Don’t you realise you’re getting her hopes up?”
“About what?”
“About all of this workin’ out!” Jackie gritted out. “You’re just assumin’ Rose will be okay with this! What if she doesn’t want to live here? What if she doesn’t want to live with you? Have you even considered that?” At the Doctor’s stunned silence, she went on. “You can’t promise anything to Mia. Not until you talk to Rose. And I don’t buy it.”
“Jackie –”
“No, Doctor! I won’t believe it ‘til I see it. Even if Rose agrees to all this, I don’t believe that you’d stay. You don’t do domestics, remember?”
Sudden anger sparked through the Doctor’s veins. Coldly, he said, “You don’t know a thing about me, Jackie.”
“Maybe I don’t,” she shot back. “But those are Rose’s words, not mine.”
The anger he had felt was immediately squashed. A tense sadness replaced it, settling in his hearts. “What?”
Jackie sighed, lowering her gaze. “Rose has been through a lot. Changed a lot, too. You shouldn’t be getting Mia’s hopes up. That’s all.”
“Jackie,” he said sadly, “I’ve changed too. I’ll talk to Rose. I won’t pressure her either way. But I… I would never leave them. No matter how Rose feels about me, I can’t leave Mia. I wouldn’t. I love her too much.”
Something broke in Jackie’s expression. “D’you mean it?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“And… what about Rose? Cause she… she wasn’t too sure. If you loved her, I mean.”
“I do,” he said, feeling as if there was no air in the room. “I do, Jackie. Desperately. I always have.”
After a moment, Jackie nodded curtly, letting her arms uncross and go to her sides. “Alright, then.”