#jenny!

Peck’s firm hands on her back propelled Martha to the bank, and she groaned in relief as she pulled herself to safety. She turned around immediately to help him out after her, but his greater mass pulled him under even faster than she’d been sinking.

“Oh, no!”

Peck groaned one more time before he sank beneath the bog, leaving Martha alone on the surface.

“No!” she sobbed as his helmet disappeared. It wasn’t fair—he’d been so kind to her, and his reward had been this grisly death that she had dragged him to.

My fault, she lamented as she started the climb out of the pit. All my fault.

In the back of her head, she could hear Rose insisting she wasn’t to blame, that Peck had made his choices and she hadn’t forced him to come, but she snarled at the mental visage of her friend as she trudged over the barren landscape. Maybe Peck would have died in this war regardless, but he wouldn’t have drowned in a bog. That was her fault.

oOoOoOoOo

The Doctor didn’t say a word when he rejoined them, instead pulling out the map and moving forward to walk alone. Rose’s eyes narrowed as she studied him, wondering where the sudden change in demeanour had come from.

“So…”

Rose tore her gaze from the tense line of the Doctor’s back to Jenny, who was walking beside her. The young woman was chewing on her bottom lip, and Rose smiled at her in encouragement. “Yes, Jenny?”

“Did you and Dad decide? Are you my mum?” Jenny asked as they turned a corner into a long corridor filled with fuse boxes.

“We’re all waiting for the answer to that one,” Donna muttered, loudly enough for everyone to hear. The Doctor shot her a look over his shoulder, and Rose nudged her with her elbow and shook her head. Donna rolled her eyes, but clamped her mouth shut.

Satisfied that the other woman would let them work out their family issues without interrupting again, Rose turned back to Jenny. She started to tell the young woman she didn’t really need a mum, but something in her blue eyes stopped her—a longing to belong, to find her place in the world by finding her place in their family.

The Doctor had stopped, ostensibly to stare at the map, but Rose knew he was too interested in their conversation to keep walking.

Rose took a deep breath, then smiled at Jenny. “If you want,” she agreed. “Or step-mum. That’s what you call your dad’s wife, usually,” she explained, when Jenny’s forehead wrinkled in a frown. “And we’ll probably get fewer confused looks if you call me Rose, since we look like we’re about the same age.”

Jenny and Donna both laughed, and even the Doctor cracked a smile at that. Truthfully, this was an aspect of not ageing that Rose had never considered. He winked at her before he started walking again.

“All right, Rose,” Jenny agreed. “I was wondering, what’s it like? The travelling?”

Rose couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face. “There’s nothing else like it. Not every day is like today—stopping a war, running from danger. Trouble is just the bits in between, Jenny,” she added, casting a sly look at the Doctor. His shoulders relaxed, and she knew she was pulling him out of his brooding mood.

Donna snorted. “Is that what you tell people?”

“It’s true,” Rose insisted. “Most days we aren’t insurrectionists or freedom fighters. We’re explorers, looking at whole new worlds.”

Jenny sighed. “I’d love to see new worlds.”

The new presence in Rose’s mind was both wistful and restless, and Rose smiled at her. “Oh, you will.” She tugged on the bond as she uttered the promise, and the Doctor turned around. “Don’t you think Jenny’s going to love seeing new worlds?”

Rose knew she was the only one who noticed his minuscule flinch and hesitation. “Oh, I think so,” he agreed, offering Jenny a smile that was a little weak, but genuine.

Jenny looked back and forth at them. “You mean… you mean you’ll take me with you?” she said when the meaning of their words sank in.

The Doctor couldn’t remain stoic in the face of her excitement, and he finally smiled. “Well, we can’t leave you here, can we?”

Jenny squealed in delight and threw herself at him. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.” The Doctor chuckled and hugged her back, then just as quickly, Jenny stepped back and darted down the corridor ahead of them. “Come on, let’s get a move on.”

“Careful, there might be traps,” the Doctor called out after her, shaking his head when she just kept going.

Rose and Donna exchanged a glance; the Doctor’s smile was completely gone. Rose silently asked Donna to give her a few minutes alone with the Doctor, and Donna nodded.

“I’ll run ahead with her, make sure she doesn’t stumble into any lasers or anything.”

Rose slipped her arm through the crook of the Doctor’s elbow as Donna hurried to catch up with Jenny. Somehow, in the two minutes it had taken the Doctor to catch up with them after talking to Cobb, he’d let his grief take control again.

I thought you’d changed your mind about Jenny.

He sighed, and she could feel him slump. I have, mostly. I really do want her to come with us. But…

Rose offered comfort over the bond, and was relieved when he took it gratefully. Don’t get too lost in your own head, love, she cautioned. You’ve imagined a dozen ways Jenny could die, and there’s just no purpose in that.

He nodded. I know. But when I look at her now, I can see them. The hole they left, all the pain that filled it. I just don’t know if I can face that every day.

They were running short on time, but Rose pulled him to a stop and gave him a quick hug anyway. I know you’re afraid to lose her, when you’ve already lost a family. But remember, you once thought that you couldn’t risk the pain of being with me, either. And didn’t that turn out to be worth it?

He smiled and kissed her quickly. Oh, yes.

Rose reached up and rubbed at the furrow in his brow, and it finally softened. And so will Jenny. You just have to open up and let her in. I’ll be with you, every step of the way.

The Doctor took a shaky breath, but his eyes were brighter. Thank you, Rose.

The sharp report of gunfire behind them interrupted Rose’s reply. Jenny came running back towards them. “They’ve blasted through the beams,” she said. “Time to run again.” She beamed at them and shook her head in excitement. “Love the running. Yeah?”

The Doctor looked down at his daughter and a slow smile spread across his face. “Love the running.”

Rose took his hand as they took off running, and the Doctor returned her affectionate squeeze. It was in these moments when she gave him the strength to face difficult choices that he loved her most.

The sound of gunfire chased them down the corridor, but suddenly, he heard it ahead of them, too. All four of them skidded to a halt in front of a red wall and looked around for another way out.

“We’re trapped,” Donna said.

“Can’t be.” The Doctor did some quick mental figuring and shook his head. As far as they’d run, they should be there by now. “This must be the temple.” He let go of Rose’s hand and spun around to put his hands on the wall. “This is a door,” he realised. He knelt in front of the control panel and tried to open it with the sonic.

“And again,” Donna said. “We’re down to one two.”

“I’ve got it!” the Doctor crowed when the panel opened, revealing the wiring underneath.

The gunfire was louder now, and voices were interspersed with the sounds of war. “I can hear them,” Jenny announced.

The Doctor pulled out a wire and sonicked it. “Nearly done.”

I think Donna’s really onto something with these numbers, Rose told him as their friend kept muttering about the stamped plates.

He spared Donna a quick glance before getting back to work. I’ll ask her about it once we’re safe in the temple, he promised.

“They’re getting closer.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes at Jenny. “Then get back here,” he ordered, while Donna kept rambling about the numbers.

“Not yet,” Jenny argued.

He scowled at her back—how long was she planning to wait? Until she could see the whites of their eyes? “Now!” he insisted. Thankfully, the door slid open before Jenny could protest again. “Got it.”

Rose ran into the room first, followed by the Doctor and Donna. Jenny wheeled towards them, a look of controlled panic on her face.

“They’re coming,” she said as she joined them. “Close the door.”

As soon as they were all safe, the Doctor tapped at the control box, closing and locking the door behind them. Jenny rocked back and forth on her heels, looking at him and Rose.

“Oh, that was close.”

The excitement in her eyes was contagious, and he grinned back at her. “No fun otherwise.”

Donna raised her eyebrows and looked at Rose. “Just the bits in between, you said?”

Rose nodded, a smirk turning the corners of her mouth up. “Yep, that’s right!” she agreed.

The Doctor wandered away from them and found a central shaft running from the basement level to the top of the building, high above. “Is it just me, or does this not really look like a temple?”

Rose joined him by the engine coils and caught on immediately. “It looks more like—”

“Fusion drive transport,” he agreed. “It’s a spaceship,” he elaborated for Jenny and Donna’s sakes.

“What, the original one?” Donna asked as she and Jenny joined them. “The one the first colonists arrived in?”

The Doctor frowned and wrinkled his nose. “Well, it could be, but the power cells would have run down after all that time. This one’s still powered up and functioning. Come on.”

We’re missing something, Rose told him as they raced up a flight of metal stairs to the upper level of the “temple.” And I think it has something to do with those numbers Donna’s been fixated on.

The Doctor glanced at her. I said I would ask about those, didn’t I? I will, I promise.

But when they reached the upper level, they had a more immediate, pressing concern than mysterious numbers left on plates all around the planet. Someone was using a blowtorch to get through the door.

“It’s the Hath,” Jenny said. “That door’s not going to last much longer. And if General Cobb gets through down there, war’s going to break out.”

The Doctor turned away from the door, not even certain what he was looking for. But when he spotted the computer terminal, he sighed in relief. Information—that was what they needed.

He found what he was looking for right away. “Look, look, look, look, look,” he said as he put his specs on. “Ship’s log.”

Messaline Leader One mission log designation XG2482942-372.

“First wave of Human/Hath co-colonisation of planet Messaline,” he read off the screen.

“So it is the original ship,” Jenny said as details of the details of the colonisation plan scrolled across the screen.

“Co-colonisation?” Rose asked. “Does it explain what happened to that idea?”

The information moved quickly across the screen, but the Doctor was more than fast enough to keep up with it. “Phase one, construction. They used robot drones to build the city.”

“But does it mention the war?” Donna asked.

When the log mentioned Byzantine Fever, the Doctor had an inkling of what had happened. That was nearly always fatal to humans. “Final entry…” he mumbled as he read along with the scrolling text. “‘Mission commander dead. Still no agreement on who should assume leadership. Hath and humans have divided into factions.’” He pointed victoriously at the screen. Finally they had an answer. “That must be it. A power vacuum. The crew divided into two factions and turned on each other. Start using the progenation machines, suddenly you’ve got two armies fighting a never-ending war.”

“Two armies who are now both outside,” Jenny added.

In the middle of the Doctor’s explanation of what had happened, a flashing red number caught Donna’s attention. It was a very familiar number, or at least the pattern was familiar. Eight digits, starting with 6012. She slowly circled the Doctor, her mind whirling as she approached what looked like a giant digital clock.

“Look at that,” she said, raising her voice a little to get everyone’s attention.

The Doctor sighed loudly. “Yeah, I meant to ask you about the numbers and I kept getting sidetracked. Sorry.”

Donna blinked; when the Doctor had sigh, she’d expected him to be annoyed at her for talking about the numbers again. She hadn’t expected an apology. “Thanks,” she said uncertainly, then shook her head. She’d finally figured it out, and that mattered more than unexpected courtesy. “But listen, I spent six months working as a temp in Hounslow Library, and I mastered the Dewey Decimal System in two days flat. I’m good with numbers.” She looked from her notebook to the numbers on the wall, double-checking her work before saying it out loud. “It’s staring us in the face.”

“What is?” asked Jenny.

Donna turned around, ready to answer Jenny, but she wasn’t prepared to see all three of them looking at her like she had something important to say. The Doctor raised an eyebrow, and she realised she still hadn’t said anything. “It’s the date,” she explained.

The Doctor darted around Jenny and Rose to join her, and Donna pointed at the screen, narrating as she went. “Assuming the first two numbers are some big old space date, then you’ve got year, month, day. It’s the other way round, like it is in America.”

The Doctor smacked his forehead. “Oh! It’s the New Byzantine Calendar.”

Having that validation of her theory gave Donna the courage to tell him the rest of what she’d worked out. “The codes are completion dates for each section. They finish it, they stamp the date on. So the numbers aren’t counting down, they’re going out from here, day by day, as the city got built.”

“Yes. Oh, good work, Donna.”

“Wait a minute,” Rose said. “Wasn’t the first number back in the theatre sixty twelve oh seven seventeen?”

Donna nodded. “Exactly. You’re getting it, Rose.”

The Doctor looked at the two of them, his face blank, and Rose pointed at the clock. “Look at today’s date, Doctor.”

He looked obediently at the display. “Oh seven twenty-four.” He looked back at Donna with wide eyes. “No.”

“What does it mean?” Jenny asked.

“Seven days,” the Doctor said, still sounding like he couldn’t believe it.

For once, Donna allowed herself to be proud of her accomplishment, without thinking about the way her mother would put it down. “That’s it. Seven days.”

Rose shook her head. “Just seven days.”

“What do you mean, seven days?” Jenny demanded, her voice sharp.

The Doctor’s eyes were still wide with excitement when he looked at his daughter. “Seven days since war broke out.”

“This war started seven days ago,” Donna explained to her, since the Doctor was still leaving words out of the explanation. “Just a week. A week!”

Jenny shook her head. “They said years.”

Rose wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “No, Jenny, they said generations,” she reminded gently. “Generations from those machines, like you, born in an instant.” She gnawed on her lower lip for a moment while she thought. “Didn’t they say you were generation five thousand?” she added.

The Doctor nodded slowly as he followed along with what Donna and Rose had figured out. “Yes, they did, Rose—I’d forgotten about that. So, hundreds of generations a day. Each generation gets killed in the war, passes on the legend.” He looked at Donna and Rose, shaking his head in amazement. “Oh, the two of you are absolutely brilliant.”

It was harder for Jenny to accept that the entirety of her history was a misunderstanding. “But all the buildings, the encampments,” she protested. “They’re in ruins.”

“No, they’re not ruined.” The Doctor shook his head. Now that they knew what had happened, so many things made more sense—like why the buildings were buried. “They’re just empty. Waiting to be populated. Oh, they’ve mythologised their entire history. The Source must be part of that too. Come on.”

oOoOoOoOo

The strong winds on the planet’s surface blew sulphurous fumes into Martha’s eyes, and she kept her head tucked down as she climbed over the rocky surface. She had no idea how long she’d been trekking across the alien terrain, or even if she was still going in the right direction.

Then she reached the top of the next hill, and she stared in awe when she caught her first glimpse of the mysterious temple. The building rose from the desolate landscape, its spire pointing to the stars. She cocked her head. Actually, it looks a lot like a rocket silo.

More importantly though, it was close by. She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled across the last fifty metres until she could touch the building. Running her hands along the sides of the entrance, she found a control panel, which thankfully worked to open the door.

Inside, she took a deep breath of clean, warm air. The door slid shut behind her, and she relished the quiet that the absence of wind brought.

After taking a moment to catch her breath, she started exploring. She frowned when she realised the room looked exactly like an engine room, which only supported her earlier thought that the building was a rocket silo.

What is going on here?

But before she could really set her mind to work on the problem, she heard footsteps coming from the other side of the room. Martha ducked behind an engine coil for a moment, but then she spotted a familiar figure and darted out to greet him.

“Doctor!”

“Martha!” He swept her up in a hug. “Oh, I should have known you wouldn’t stay away from the excitement.”

Martha spotted Rose over his shoulder and hugged her as soon as the Doctor let her go, followed by a quick hug from Donna.

“Oh, you’re filthy,” Donna moaned. “What happened?”

“I um”—Martha pointed up—“took the surface route.”

“Positions,” a man’s voice echoed through the room.

The Doctor looked in the direction of the voice. “That’s the General. We haven’t got much time.”

“Right, what are we looking for?” Rose asked. “This Source, what would it be like?”

Martha sniffed when a fragrance hit her nose. “Is it me, or can you smell flowers?”

“Yes,” the Doctor mused. “Bougainvillea. I say we follow our nose.”

The Doctor’s mind raced as he led the way up another flight of stairs. Pieces of the puzzle were finally falling into place. A colonist mission, and a mysterious life-giving Source? And now the fragrance of bougainvillea wafting throughout the entire spaceship? It had to be a terraforming device.

Like the one Luke was going to use? Rose asked, picking up on his train of thought.

Probably. Same idea, at least—take a barren world and make it habitable.

The scent was almost overpowering when they reached the top deck of the ship, and it was no wonder—the entire space was filled with leafy plants.

“Oh, yes,” the Doctor crowed as he turned in a slow circle, taking in the veritable jungle. “Yes. Isn’t this brilliant?”

A globe was perched on a pedestal, the gasses swirling inside it making it glow. The warm air it was putting out created a balmy atmosphere on the hydroponics deck, perfect for growing things but too warm for a wool coat. The Doctor shrugged his coat off and tossed it to the side, then beamed down at the engineering marvel.

Rose stopped in front of it, then reached out her hand and touched it with her finger. “And that’s the Source.”

“It’s beautiful,” Jenny breathed.

Martha tilted her head and looked at the device through narrowed eyes. “What is it?”

“Terraforming,” the Doctor announced. “It’s a”—He glanced down at the controls—“third generation terraforming device.”

“So why are we suddenly in Kew Gardens?” Donna asked.

“Because that’s what it does,” he told her. “All this, only bigger. Much bigger.” He pointed at the globe. “It’s in a transit state. Producing all this must help keep it stable before they finally…”

The simultaneous arrival of Hath and humans interrupted his ramble. The two sides formed ranks on either side of the room, weapons drawn on each other.

Standing by the terraforming device put the Doctor, Rose, and their friends directly in the crossfire. He threw up his hands, hoping he could stop the war before it truly started. “Stop! Hold your fire!”

“What is this?” Cobb growled. “Some kind of trap?”

The Doctor pressed his lips into a thin line; every ridiculous accusation and assertion made it harder to stay patient with Cobb. “You said you wanted this war over,” he reminded the older man.

Anger glinted in Cobb’s blue eyes. “I want this war won.”

The Doctor shook his head. “You can’t win. No one can. You don’t even know why you’re here.” He spun around to look at the people standing behind him. “Your whole history, it’s just Chinese whispers, getting more distorted the more it’s passed on.” He pointed to the terraforming device. “This is the Source. This is what you’re fighting over. A device to rejuvenate a planet’s ecosystem. It’s nothing mystical. It’s from a laboratory, not some creator. It’s a bubble of gasses. A cocktail of stuff for accelerated evolution. Methane, hydrogen, ammonia, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids. It’s used to make barren planets habitable,” he said, repeating what he’d told Rose.

Both Humans and Hath shifted nervously as he unravelled the entire mythology of their existence, rocking from one foot to the other and adjusting their hold on their weapons. Keeping a wary eye on the guns, the Doctor softened his voice and demeanour, trying to reach them.

“Look around you,” he pleaded, gesturing to the room filled with green plants. “It’s not for killing—it’s bringing life. If you allow it, it can lift you out of these dark tunnels and into the bright, bright sunlight. No more fighting, no more killing.”

The Doctor pulled the globe off the pedestal. “I’m the Doctor, and I declare this war is over.” With those words, he threw it on the ground, breaking the glass and releasing the chemical agents that would begin the terraforming process. The gas escaped and spread through the room in green and gold tendrils, slowly rising to the glass ceiling.

One by one, the soldiers—Hath and human alike—laid down their weapons as the significance of the moment struck them. This wasn’t a time for killing; it was a time for life.

Jenny walked over to him. “What’s happening?” she asked, her voice hushed to match the solemnity of the moment.

He looked up at the high ceiling and imagined what was already starting on the planet’s surface. “The gasses will escape and trigger the terraforming process.”

“What does that mean?”

He grinned down at her, enjoying the excitement and awe in her eyes. “It means a new world.”

Rose’s anger and panic were the Doctor’s first clues that something was wrong. Then she and Jenny yelled, “No!” in unison, and Jenny flung herself in front of him as a single gunshot echoed in the cavernous room.

Rose had only taken a single step before Cobb fired, and now she froze in shock as the Doctor cradled Jenny in his arms and gently lowered her to the ground. Martha and Donna both ran over, Martha immediately going into doctor mode, but Rose could hardly see straight with the way Time was swimming around her.

Two major temporal tipping points were converging on Messaline. The first centred on the Doctor’s reaction to losing Jenny and how that shaped the new colony. The second… Rose pressed a hand to her forehead. The second centred on how Jenny’s presence in their life would change them.

“Jenny? Jenny. Talk to me, Jenny,” the Doctor begged.

The desperation in his voice broke through Rose’s daze, and she moved forward to kneel beside him, resting her hand on his back.

“Is she going to be all right?” Donna asked.

Martha shook her head. Rose wanted to argue, but she held her tongue. It wasn’t time yet. She had to wait.

Martha and Donna got up, and Rose moved around to Jenny’s other side so she could take her hand. Her fingers were limp in Rose’s and she barely looked over at her before staring at the ceiling. Rose followed her gaze and saw the colourful gasses seep out of the ship to the planet outside.

“A new world,” Jenny whispered, her voice raspy with pain. “It’s beautiful.”

The Doctor’s agony cut through Rose. This was exactly what he’d been afraid of when he’d resisted welcoming Jenny as part of their family.

He grabbed her tighter and rocked back and forth. “Jenny, be strong now. You need to hold on, do you hear me? We’ve got things to do, the three of us, yeah? We can go anywhere. Everywhere. You choose.”

Jenny gasped, and for a moment, she managed to squeeze Rose’s hand. “That sounds good.”

The Doctor placed his palm against Jenny’s cheek and rubbed his thumb over her temple. “You’re my daughter, and we’ve only just got started. You’re going to be great. You’re going to be more than great. You’re going to be amazing. You hear me? Jenny?”

Even knowing what she did, Rose still felt her throat close when she watched Jenny die in the Doctor’s arms. Oh, she wanted to reach out and tell him that this was only temporary, but she couldn’t… he couldn’t know yet. Thankfully, he was too distraught to pick up on her thoughts.

The Doctor’s stomach churned when Jenny’s body went limp. His sobs caught in his throat, choking him as he pulled Jenny close and pressed a kiss to her forehead. A desperate hope welled up inside him, and he looked at Rose, still kneeling on the floor with them.

“Two hearts.” He barely managed to push the words through his tight throat, and he swallowed before trying again. “Two hearts. She’s like me. If we wait. If we just wait.” His eyes burned with tears as he stared at Rose, begging her to agree.

She hesitated, started to say something, then pressed her lips together and shook her head. “Wouldn’t it have started already?” she asked gently. “She’s not going to regenerate, love. I’m sorry. Maybe…” She licked her lips. “Maybe she just wasn’t enough like you.”

“No.” Anger slowly joined the Doctor’s grief as he realised exactly what had killed his youngest child—a deadly combination of an earnest belief in the goodness of humanity, and a willingness to sacrifice herself for others. “Too much. That’s the truth of it. She was too much like me.”

He carefully shifted his hold on Jenny and laid her down. He kissed her forehead again, then turned his head to look at Cobb, now a prisoner in the custody of the men he’d led.

The Doctor stood and crossed the room in an instant, scooping Cobb’s gun off the floor as he went. Some distant part of his mind was aware that Rose wasn’t trying to stop him, but he was too angry to spend much effort wondering why. The cold metal of the gun in his hand felt right as he pointed it at Cobb’s temple. It would be so easy—so easy to just pull the trigger. The humans holding Cobb obviously expected it, and even accepted that it was his right.

That thought—that he had the right to take another life—was what finally broke through his rage. The Doctor pressed his lips into a thin line, then put the safety back on the gun. Cobb blinked up at him in confusion, and the Doctor crouched down to look him in the eye.

“I never would,” he spat out. He grabbed the gun by the barrel and held it up between them. “Have you got that? I never would.” He punctuated each word by shaking the pistol in the general’s face.

Cobb still didn’t understand, and the Doctor shook his head and stood up, looking around the room at the rest of the colonists. “When you start this new world, this world of Human and Hath, remember that.” He raised his voice until he was yelling. “Make the foundation of this society a man who never would.”

Finally, he tossed the gun aside and went to Rose, choosing the comfort of her arms over the momentary relief vengeance would give him.

My Doctor, she told him as he bent down to rest his head on her shoulder. I am so proud of you, love. That speech… those words you just gave these people, they’ll never forget.

The Doctor furrowed his brows together; when Rose talked about the future like that, it meant she’d seen something in the timelines. He’d been too upset over Jenny’s death to pay attention to time at all, but now he could feel that they’d just passed a key moment in the history of Messaline. His words would form the basis of their entire society.

Cline shuffled forward, his perpetually sheepish expression still on his face. “We’re going back to the camp now.” He glanced down at Jenny’s body. “If you’d like to bring her…”

The Doctor swallowed hard when he looked down at his daughter’s peaceful body, but he managed to nod. He pulled away from Rose and carefully scooped Jenny up into his arms, pressing another kiss to her forehead as he stood up.

Hath and human alike were already filing out of the spaceship, going in one direction rather than to their separate camps. Martha had picked up his coat, and she and Donna were walking with Cline and his men, both of them looking back over their shoulders at the Doctor and Rose.

It was a short, silent walk, and when they reached the theatre that had been the human camp, the soldiers respectfully left the Doctor and Rose alone with their daughter’s body for a few minutes.

The Doctor set her down on a table, then brushed the hair out of her face. “I really thought we’d be able to travel with her,” he whispered.

He felt Rose’s consideration, then the warmth of her hand in his as she laced their fingers together. He looked up at her and was surprised to see a smile on her face. “Rose?”

“Oh, Doctor. We will. We are going to do so much travelling, and teach her all about the joys and privileges of life in the TARDIS.”

“What do you mean?” The Doctor tried not to let his hopes get up. The one time he had taken longer than this to regenerate had been a very special circumstance. He’d been left in a cold morgue overnight after having unnecessary heart surgery that left a wire in his hearts.

“Oh, she’s not going to regenerate, love,” Rose agreed. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“Then…”

“Look around you,” she urged.

The Doctor looked away from his bond mate and daughter and tried to see what Rose saw. It was just a theatre… nothing special.

Then light shone in through the windows, and his eyes widened. “Terraforming,” he murmured. “The source of life.”

“We just need to wait for it to work.”

oOoOoOoOo

Martha looked at them pityingly when they explained the need to wait a little bit longer on Messaline, and Rose knew she thought they were in denial. But Martha didn’t argue, even though she was obviously anxious to get back to London. Instead, she took Donna around to meet the Hath.

Rose leaned back against the Doctor’s chest. “Does it make you nervous, watching them together? Like, what kind of stories are they swapping?”

The Doctor snorted. “How do you think I feel when you get together with Sarah and Barbara?”

Rose shifted to look up at him. “Oh, they have the best stories,” she agreed.

The Doctor groaned dramatically, but also ran a grateful touch over the bond. They both knew she was teasing him to keep him distracted, and he appreciated it.

Just when Rose was about to ask if he’d really accidentally gotten engaged to an Aztec princess by making a cup of cocoa, they heard a slow exhalation. Rose’s heart raced when she looked at Jenny and saw the small cloud of green and gold gas hovering over her face.

She and the Doctor jumped to their feet and had just reached Jenny’s side when her blue eyes flew open. “Hello, Mum and Dad,” she said cheerfully.

The Doctor shouted joyfully and scooped her up off the table to swing her around. “Oh, you are brilliant,” he told her, squeezing her tight. “You are definitely my daughter.”

“How…” He looked up at Martha, whose mouth hung open. “But that’s impossible.” The colonists standing around her seemed to agree, judging by their wide eyes.

“Not impossible,” he corrected. “Just a little bit unlikely.”

Rose pulled Jenny away from him to give her a hug herself. “Are you ready to see new worlds?” she asked.

Jenny nodded eagerly, and the Doctor laughed. “Come on then. It’s time for us to go.”

Cline and the Hath leader inched towards them. Cline ran his hand through his shaggy hair. “How… what just happened here?”

The Doctor nodded at the window that now let sunlight stream into the room. “Cobb was right about one thing,” he said. “The Source was the breath of life.”

The other man’s brow furrowed, but it only took him a second to catch on. “The terraforming device,” he realised. “It brings life.”

“Exactly.”

He nodded once, then held out his hand to shake the Doctor’s. “We’ve cleared the path to your ship,” Cline told them.

“Thank you.” The Doctor shook his hand. “And remember what I told you. Vengeance and violence are not what you should be building your new civilisation on.”

“We know,” Cline assured him. “We’ll do what you said, and build it in memory of the man who never would.”

It was a short walk to the TARDIS. Rose ran ahead as soon as she was in sight, pulling her key out as she ran. “Are you ready for this?” she asked Jenny as she fitted it into the lock.

Jenny looked at the blue box, then at the four other people who were waiting to step inside. “I feel like there’s a joke I’m not getting.”

Rose winked at her. “Oh, there is, but the punchline is all yours.” She pushed the door open, then moved to stand with the Doctor while Jenny took her first steps into the TARDIS.

“But… that’s…” Jenny stood on the ramp and turned in a slow circle. “She’s bigger on the inside!”

She blinked when everyone laughed at those familiar words, and Rose was the first to step forward and hug her. “Trust me, we all felt like you do the first time we stepped inside. Except maybe the Doctor, and he grew up around TARDISes, so it wasn’t a surprise to him.”

The Doctor tossed his coat over a strut and started the flight sequence. “No, but I still thought she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.” He looked up at Martha. “Home, Dr. Jones?”

“Yes please, Doctor.”

“All right then. Is everyone ready?” He looked at Jenny, a broad grin on his face. “You might want to hold on tight. It can be a bumpy ride.”

“Unless Rose is driving,” Martha countered.

“Oh, I’m not the only one who’s noticed that!” Donna exclaimed.

“Anyway!” the Doctor said. “If you’re all done making fun of my driving?” They laughed at him, and he rolled his eyes. “Allons-y!”

He watched Jenny as he threw the dematerialisation lever. Her eyes widened when the time rotor started moving up and down, and she stretched across the console to press her hand to it.

“This is incredible!” she exclaimed over the grinding of the engines, and the TARDIS lights flashed in pleasure at the compliment.

The ship spun and gyrated through the Vortex, putting on a show for her newest passenger. Then they soared out of the Vortex and landed in London with a hard thud.

Jenny fell back on the grating, laughing breathlessly. “Is it like that every time?” she asked as she jumped up and brushed herself off.

“Almost,” Rose answered, chuckling at her excitement.

“Right.” Martha pointed to the door. “Well, I’ll be off… as long as you’re certain you got the date right?”

Rose pressed her lips together to hide her smile at the Doctor’s insulted expression. “We’re exactly where we should be,” she reassured Martha.

Martha looked over her shoulder at the door, and Rose thought she detected a hint of reluctance on her face. “Tell you what,” she said, “I’ll walk you home.”

“But you can’t leave without saying goodbye.” The Doctor held his arms out, and Martha accepted his hug. “Thanks for coming yesterday,” she mumbled into his shoulder.

He smiled at her as she stepped back. “We’re never more than a phone call away,” he reminded her. “Any time you run into trouble with petulant teenagers trying to surrender the planet to an alien force, you call us.”

Martha rolled her eyes. “Yeah, will do.” She turned to Donna. “I’m glad these two have you looking out for them, Donna.”

Donna laughed and hugged her quickly. “It’s a tough job sometimes, but I don’t mind.”

Jenny was lingering in the background, sitting on the jump seat watching everyone else say goodbye. Martha waved awkwardly at her, then turned to Rose. “Ready.”  

Once the TARDIS door was closed behind them, she linked her arm through Martha’s. “Is something wrong?”

“Not wrong,” Martha hedged.

“But not right either,” Rose deduced. She remembered Martha’s hesitation when they’d talked about her boyfriend and took a shot in the dark. “Is there something wrong with Tom?”

Martha groaned, and Rose knew she’d hit the nail on the head. “Do you ever wonder… what it would be like, if you’d fallen in love with someone else while travelling with the Doctor?”

Rose couldn’t help her recoil. “Never.”

“Oh no, I just mean…” Martha took a deep breath. “Right. So, let me start at the beginning. Tom doesn’t know anything about UNIT or working with Jack, or any of the rest of it.”

“Why haven’t you said something to him?” Rose rubbed at her forehead. Even though the choice had been hers, Martha had never really been happy with keeping her life on the TARDIS a secret from her family. Keeping the truth of her life from her boyfriend didn’t seem at all like something she would do.

Martha sighed and held her arms out for a moment before dropping them. “What am I supposed to say? ‘We didn’t actually meet at a medical convention—we met on the 365th day of hell, when the Master had taken over the planet.’”

“But you’re keeping a huge part of who you are from him.” Rose shook her head; no wonder Martha wasn’t content with her relationship. It didn’t seem very fair to Tom either, really. “How can he support you in the life you lead if he doesn’t even know what it’s like?”

“I know,” Martha groaned. “And that’s why I’m asking. Because you and the Doctor… you’re partners, even before you’re romantic partners. You work together.”

“Ah.” Rose finally understood where her question was coming from. She considered for a moment, then said, “Well… I forget sometimes that this is what it’s like for most people who have a job like yours. The Doctor and I are lucky enough to work together, but most people who work in clandestine services or high-ranking military jobs can’t share their work with their partners.”

Martha sighed and shoved her hands into her coat pockets. “I know, but I want a relationship like yours and the Doctor’s.”

Rose smiled at that comparison. “Then you have to decide what’s more important to you, having a real partner, or accepting the differences and loving him regardless,” she said simply.

Martha nodded slowly. “Yeah. I’ve been trying not to think of it like that, but you’re right. Thanks, Rose.” She smiled and tipped her head towards the TARDIS. “You should get back in there. You’ve got a whole new life to figure out.”

Rose looked at the TARDIS, where her growing family awaited her. When the ship had insisted on taking them to Messaline that morning, she hadn’t had a clue what waited for them there. But now…