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Time is a fragile thing.
It’s a construct, her father would say. Time is relative, and time is pliable. It’s not linear, and the smallest action can recoil the already-set rings of time like a pebble being pulled out of the water.
She thought about this now as she opened her eyes, fear gripping her stomach. She wasn’t supposed to be here. The room she stood in was bleak, uninviting and cold. Her heart was beating rapidly against her chest and she couldn’t formulate words in her mind.
She had tried to help.
Her throat constricted as she suppressed the sob that threatened to escape her lips. Across the room from her, his hands pressed against a bare white wall, was her father. Well, he didn’t know he was her father. He didn’t know she was here at all.
She had tried to help.
She was hiding behind fallen debris, watching a younger version of her favorite person stand there coldly, his face like stone, as he listened desperately for any sign of a blonde woman she had seen falling to the Void at the time of her arrival.
She had tried to help. But the woman saw her appear and it startled her, and her grip loosened on the lever. She fell. A man appeared and grabbed her, his eyes meeting her father’s just for a moment as he watched them both disappear. She watched too.
The sob escaped, and she immediately threw her hand to her mouth in fear he would hear her. She wasn’t supposed to be here.
That woman was one she knew well; very well in fact. It was the woman she lived inside of for nine months; whose chest provided her her very first meal; whose warm embrace took away all pain and in whose eyes she found her strength.
It was her mother.
And the man that saved her was a man she did not know. But she assumed, based on the few features she saw, that it was Pete Tyler. Her grandfather, who she knew was trapped in a parallel universe her entire life.
She had tried to help. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This hadn’t happened before.
Time is a fragile thing.
She was sobbing uncontrollably now, her hands still covering her mouth as she desperately tried to stay quiet. But he heard her, and as his own hearts broke he ran toward the sound. It sounded like Rose crying, and he felt a flutter in his chest as he looked around, spotting a blonde head ducked behind metal barrels.
“Rose?” he asked. His voice was meek and timid. Desperate. She had never heard him so broken.
She always knew her parents were soul-mates. His voice now confirmed it.
She froze, her eyes red and cheeks stained with tears, as her heart thumped in her chest. Her brain swirled with all the lectures this man had given her about timelines and paradoxes and disturbances of both, but as she looked up and saw his chocolate swirls, relief flooded her more than she anticipated. He calmed her, like he always did.
He froze now, his mouth hanging open as he took in the figure that knelt on the ground before him. She was the spitting image of Rose, but there was something about her that felt…different. Familiar. Personal, even.
He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he knelt down next to her carefully as he took her in.
She knew she couldn’t tell him who she was. That would disturb the timeline of when her mother told him she was pregnant. She knew the story like the back of her hand. The story that was supposed to happen; where her mother nearly fell into the void but held on just long enough. Where they celebrated and her mother told him the news that changed his lonely life forever and started their journey in the stars as a family.
“You’re not Rose,” he finally said, whispering. She shook her head and bit her lip, and she saw him stiffen. She looked exactly like Rose. Especially then, “How old are you?”
“Sixteen,” she said, her voice sounded steadier than she felt, “I’m… um… Evelyn.”
Crap. She shouldn’t have told him her real name.
She winced just a little but recovered quickly - the Time Lord bit of her trying desperately to suppress her emotions. It was enough for him to notice.
“Are you in pain, Evelyn?” he asked slowly. He was confused, very confused, and his hearts were still shattering over the loss of Rose, but he knew whatever happened to this girl traumatized her and he had to help her first. To be honest, he welcomed it. A distraction.
“No,” she said.
Liar, she thought to herself. She just watched her mother disappear. She was NOT okay. And she was in pain.
Her brain started to overwork itself as he stood up and held out his hand to help her up. She paused, taking a deep breath and remembering to activate her defense shields on her mind as she gripped it, pulling herself up.
She felt a pang of sadness as she did this. She never put up those shields around her parents, but her father had taught her how in case they were ever in a situation where someone would try and access her mind. Not that he would try - he thought she was human after all, but they shared Time Lord DNA, and they were both in an emotional state. She knew their memories would fly between them like lightning. To her relief, her eleven years of memory defense training seemed to work as she grabbed his hand, both of their minds safe and untouched in their heads.
She detached her hand immediately and wiped her eyes. Her father was stiff. Everything she did reminded him of Rose.
Rose.
For the first time, he felt tears begin to tug at his eyes but he pushed them down. He could cry later. With a curt nod he began to walk forward. Evelyn stood still as he turned around.
“You coming? I’ll help you call your parents,” he called. She took a deep breath.
“Yeah,” she answered. If you only knew, she thought. This was the only way to mend the timeline she had so terribly unraveled. To follow her father, who didn’t know he was her father, to the TARDIS.
~~~~~
He wasn’t walking next to her. She reminded him too much of Rose. But she was close, and he made sure she could see where he was going.
Her hand darted up to her neck, where the Time Jumper necklace she used to get her here calmly rested underneath her sweater. It was something she had found at an antique trade on the planet Barcelona, and Rose bought it for her as a birthday gift this year. It was out of power and would be for another 24 hours, otherwise she would jump back to the father who knew her for his help.
At least she told herself that is what she would do, but she also knew she desperately wanted to heal the pain she caused this younger version of her goofy Time Lord father. That, and she was terrified to return and find out her mother was lost forever. She had to fix this.
Her jaw clenched in the way that reminded her mother of her father. She may only be sixteen, but she also knew the timelines and what was at stake. The woman who just fell into an alternate universe was carrying her in her stomach, and they had to get her back into this universe before she was born. Otherwise, she would cease to exist in this world and be pulled into the Void herself.
Leaving her father with no one.
That was not going to happen.
She was pleased at how rational her thoughts were as she walked behind him. He would be proud of her, if he knew how clearly she was thinking about the timeline of their family and how desperate she was to fix it.
Her mother would be proud of her, too. She smiled to herself. Knowing Rose Tyler, she was probably in that alternate universe thinking the exact same thing. She could practically hear her mother’s protest - yelling to the skies that she was carrying the Doctor’s baby and she had to get back to see the ecstatic look on his face when she told him the news.
Take me back! She would be screaming.
If her mother was working on it, she needed to as well.
The Tyler women were very, very stubborn. And that would be good for both of them.
They approached the TARDIS and Evelyn bit her lip again. Was it different seventeen years ago? Would it know her? Would her father figure out who she was once she was on board?
They hadn’t discussed this particular scenario before in all her Time and Dimension courses he insisted on teaching her since she was four, and she rolled her lip in her mouth weighing her options.
Screw it. She thought. Her mother wasn’t an option to give up on.
He opened the door and walked in, leaving it open for Evelyn to follow.
“You can come in, if you’d like. Or stay out there. I’ll grab a phone for you to call your folks. Leave the door open,” he said.
Act surprised, she told herself when she crossed the threshold. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open, and she saw her father smirk.
They always did this, he mused to himself.
“It’s… er… big,” Evelyn said. Without thinking, she smiled at her father, her tongue creeping up to the corner of her mouth like her mother’s did. His face darkened.
“Where did you learn to do that?” he asked her quietly. Evelyn stiffened. She forgot. Her father called that the “Rose Smile”.
“Do what?” she asked innocently, choosing to ignore him as best she could and walk along the railing, her hand brushing against the TARDIS. The ship began to hum and Evelyn quickly pulled her hand back.
The Doctor was alert now. The TARDIS responded to her touch as if she knew her, and it all felt wrong. Like a sick joke the universe was playing - throwing this copycat Rose to him right after he lost her.
“Who are you?” he snapped. He was standing by the console now, his arm branded with his sonic screwdriver.
Crap.
Evelyn knew this look. The Oncoming Storm was waking up. She had seen her father’s most protective state erupt a few times; when she or her mother were in danger, or when he had to make a gut-wrenching, universe saving, murderous decision. Rose tried to shield her from it as best she could, but she was part Time Lord and she could sense when her father was in this kind of agony no matter what her mother tried to do.
“Doctor -” she said, the word sounding foreign in her mouth. He was dad to her.
“I never told you my name,” he hissed, his arm inching closer as he adjusted his sonic screwdriver.
“Er….” Evelyn began, racking her brain for a way to fix this. “I - I, um…”
“Who. Are. You?” he said again, each word stabbing. She sighed.
“I’m Evelyn Tyler,” she said, her breath leaving her body as she looked down at her feet. “I’m your daughter.”
The Doctor dropped his sonic screwdriver.
Evelyn refused to make eye contact. She was kicking herself mentally for telling him this. Timelines were surely unraveling even more now, but he had cornered her and she had to tell him the truth.
“What?” he finally whispered after what felt like an eternity. “What did you say?”
Evelyn looked at him, her chocolate swirls a mirror of his as their eyes met. He saw it then, the piece of her that felt so familiar before; it was her eyes.
“Hi, Dad,” she whispered. The Doctor stood completely still, “Will you say something?”
“You….” he managed to croak out, still refusing to move. “You’re….”
“Yeah,” Evelyn said, biting her lip. “That’s all I can say. Timelines and whatnot.”
She grinned at him, hoping to make him laugh, but he just stiffened even more.
“How...are you here?” he whispered.
“Can’t say..” Evelyn replied. The less he knew, the better. “We just need to make sure we get Mu-… Rose, back,” she added.
The Doctor’s breath caught in his throat. He heard it, the word Evelyn tried to swallow. He could have guessed by her last name, and truly… he knew just from one glance who this girl’s mother was.
“Rose is -”
He stopped. His eyes were watering. He stepped closer to her now, terrified to touch her, as if she was a piece of glass he would surely break at the first chance he got. Evelyn didn’t say anything, but her silence told him all he needed to know.
“That’s not possible,” he said. “She’s human -”
Evelyn bit her lip. He knew so little. She knew, though, the fantastic story of Rose Tyler. How her DNA shifted when she absorbed the Time Vortex. It was a story this man had told her proudly.
Her mother. His wife.
The trace amounts of Time Lord DNA had allowed her to get pregnant after she and the Doctor declared their love for each other after Krop Tor. When she was carrying Evelyn, she absorbed a bit of her DNA as well, and Rose was the universe’s first and only impossible human. 100% human DNA with a Time Lord lifespan.
He would find all that out eventually, she knew. And she couldn’t tell him any of it now. The discovery of this knowledge were some of her parent’s happiest memories. So instead, she just continued to bite her lip and watched him.
“Dad?” she asked. His eyes snapped back to her, “Listen, um…”
“I don’t believe you,” he interrupted, his eyes dark. He had lost Rose today. His head and his hearts were at war and he felt tears threaten again, “This is cruel. This is so, so cruel.”
“Okay,” Evelyn said. It was a very Rose-like response, and she felt her mother’s ability to navigate her father’s mood swings taking over. They were both masters at it. Now, however, he was a bit moodier than she was used to, but she had to remember he was seventeen years younger and didn’t know the joys his life would be.
But she also knew him. And she knew what he would do. He would deflect. He would choose giddiness. Time Lord thing. She needed his help, and in order to get it, he had to believe.
“I guess a blood test in the Infirmary is needed. No problem,” she said, bouncing off to the hallway of the TARDIS. He stared at her, confused as she disappeared behind the wall. Grumbling, he closed the front door and followed her.
“You don’t even know where -”
“Second door on the left?” she asked, her blonde head poking out of the infirmary door. He sighed. She looked so much like Rose it physically hurt.
He knew, deep down, that she was right. But everything in his body protested and told him it was a trick. The universe did not work for him; it did not give him a happy ending. Today made that abundantly clear. One moment Rose was telling him she was never going to leave him, and the next she was sucked into a parallel world.
However, as he watched this girl prop herself up on the exam bed and swipe her skin atop her median cubital vein to prep for the needle she would have him use to draw a blood sample, he felt his hearts quicken. She looked like Rose but acted like him as she flashed him a smile, holding the sterile needle out in front of her.
“Ready!” she exclaimed. He took the needle from her, his hands shaking slightly. He moved to the sink and washed his hands, put gloves on, and returned to her side.
“You act like you’ve done this before,” he mused, watching her carefully.
“I was bitten by a radioactive snake droid when I was eleven. You took like… twenty samples to make sure I was okay,” she said laughing, but her smile quickly fell. Stop talking. Don’t tell him more. Timelines.
“Hm,” the Doctor said. If he had a daughter, that sounded like the kind of thing he would do. After a moment, the vial on the needle was full and he pulled it out of Evelyn’s arm, watching as she wrapped the site that was bleeding with gauze all on her own. She had done this before.
With bated breath he pulled his own DNA sample. He sighed.
“I… Rose,” he said, broken. Evelyn understood. He didn’t have anything with her DNA to compare.
“Just see what that says, first,” she offered, trying to nudge her father toward the machinery that would detect their bloodline. He sighed.
This was ludicrous. It was insane. He felt like an absolute idiot dropping this teenage girl’s blood down the tube, followed by his own. His brain just kept denying what his hearts already knew, until the results appeared on the screen.
She was his daughter.
He turned to her instantly, his mind reeling. She smiled at him, shrugging.
“Told ya,” she said.
He hugged her.
His daughter.
His and Rose Tyler’s.
His brain finally shut off and he acted from his hearts. He pulled back and looked at her with wide eyes, shaking his head.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, suddenly panicked. Evelyn looked at the ground.
“I know. You’re probably cursing the stars back home right now,” she whispered.
“So we’re… together? You and I? Which means…. Rose… she comes back?” he asked her. His voice was so hopeful and Evelyn groaned.
STOP. TALKING. EVELYN. She scolded herself.
“Don’t answer that,” the Doctor suddenly said, his face draining of all color. “Don’t. Don’t answer that. I…”
Evelyn saw the turmoil he was going through. She felt it through their blood bond. It brought tears to her eyes to see her father pine for her mother so openly; so desperately.
Soulmates. The Doctor and Rose were.
The Doctor’s brain was spinning.
“Dad?” Evelyn began, her eyes meeting his.
“Y-yeah?” he responded, choked up by the word and the events of the last two hours. He wanted Rose. He wanted her to meet their daughter, too.
In that moment, Evelyn felt herself begin to shake. This was spiraling out of control quickly and she needed her Dad to tell her what to do. But she was terrified; she felt her entire body crumble as she started to cry, the reality of how badly she screwed this up hitting her.
Her own existence was hanging in the balance. So were her parent’s entire lives together.
All because she wanted a picture of Jackie so her mum had something to remember her by.
All because she miscalculated her jump. And landed in the most pinnacle moment of her parent’s relationship.
“I… I know what I have to do. I have to fix this, but I… I… don’t know how to do that. I’m sixteen, this is well beyond what you’ve been able to teach me so far and... “ she trailed off, her face buried in her hands by the end.
“Evelyn,” he said seriously. “Timelines change all the time. Did… Rose, your mum, did… did she not-”
Evelyn shook her head. He understood. Before, she never fell into the void. Pete never came back. They were never separated.
He never felt this agonizing pain.
His breath quickened and he began to pace back and forth.
“Have we discussed fixed points in time?” he asked quickly. Evelyn nodded.
“Yeah. You said there are moments that cement timelines; a new piece of information or a shift in events. Changing those things disrupts the timeline they are in.” She responded. The Doctor grinned at her.
“Exactly. Clearly, something disrupted a fixed point today. Rose fell in, but all we need to do is create a new fixed point. If we do that, we can get her back,” he felt his hearts throbbing in his chest as he spoke, daring himself to see hope in the eyes of his sixteen year old daughter. She was here; she was real; which meant Rose once again defied the odds.
“I don’t know what in this situation is a fixed point and what isn’t,” Evelyn admitted, tears streaming down her face again. “I mean… I know some of them. But I’m so terrified I’m going to lose both of you because I mess one up again.”
The Doctor stopped and watched as Evelyn sobbed. He hugged her, his arms holding her and trying to convince her she would be safe, when suddenly their minds connected. Evelyn forgot to put up her defenses in the middle of all the tears, and the Doctor pulled away.
He didn’t stay long enough to see memories, but he could feel her sadness and fear. And it echoed his. Time Lord thing.
“Not possible,” he whispered.
“See?!” Evelyn cried. “How do I know that because that just happened I don’t mess up the first time we think the same thought later! It’s too much, it’s too hard!”
The Doctor saw the weight of the universe land on his daughter’s shoulders, and he stiffened. They had a Time Lord bond… He felt a new wave of composure wash over him. He would stop this. He would fix this. There was a future where he got to be with Rose and this perfect blend of the two of them, and he was not about to lose that.
“Evelyn, stop. Please,” He said, placing his hands on her shoulders. His eyes met hers and he smiled, and Evelyn noticed the lack of wrinkles around his eyes like she was used to. “Don’t worry about that.”
She bit her lip.
“No, seriously. Don’t. As long as you don’t tell me specifics about your childhood, I will still experience them as if they are the very first time. So will Rose. So will you. The only thing we need to worry about is undoing what happened today. Getting her back,” he said. His eyes were kind for the first time since they met, and she felt her stomach settle. These were the eyes of her father. The eyes that knew what to do.
“Okay,” she said. “Okay. That makes sense.”
“Good,” he said, smiling at her. “Come on, do you like chips? Your mum-”
“Loves chips, yeah,” Evelyn said, smiling. “I do. Love ‘em, too.”
The Doctor rambled on about how excited he was to meet her and how it’s going to make the moment he finds out she’s on the way even more exciting, now that he knew how wonderful she was. He placed some heated chips from the TARDIS kitchen in front of her and Evelyn smiled as she took a bite. He felt his breath hitch. SO much like Rose, she was.
“So… meeting me, it won’t change when Mum tells you about me for the first time?” she asked. The Doctor grinned so wide it looked like his mouth would fly away.
“Not at all. Not even a little bit. I’ll be even more excited,” he said seriously, stealing a chip from her plate.
Evelyn almost said something about how happy that made her, because her mum was probably so worried about not being able to tell him she was expecting at this exact moment, but she caught herself. That would disrupt the fixed point her parents adore so much. The moment her mother told him and her father kissed her belly and began to speak to her in Gallfriean. She rolled her eyes to herself as she ate her chips, wondering if other children know these kinds of details about their parents. Time Lord Thing.
They finished their chips and Evelyn yawned. The Doctor smiled.
“Past your bedtime?” he asked. Evelyn suppressed a snort very much like the ones her mother would give him.
“I’m sixteen, Dad. No more bedtimes. Plus, time is relative. What even is a bedtime?” she asked; a twinkle in her eye. He didn’t ask her this, but he suspected that was something he taught her. He also knew it probably drove Rose mad when their daughter was younger. “But… um… well, there’s a fixed point I know is supposed to happen soon, and…” she trailed off, looking at her father. He nodded.
He didn’t ask what it was. She didn’t tell him. But she knew one thing about time - it was relative. Which means they needed to get Rose back before she gave birth as soon as possible.
“We don’t have much time,” he said. Evelyn nodded.
“Does time move faster in parallel universes?” she asked carefully, afraid to reveal something she shouldn’t. Her father shrugged.
“Not sure. Depends on the universe. Where Rose is… it should be about the same, but we don’t want to risk that, it seems,” he said, “Alright. Drink something. Water, tea, whatever. Then we get to work. Allons-y Evelyn Tyler!”
Evelyn smiled. There was her father.
They exited the TARDIS and examined the floor at Canary Wharf that Rose disappeared from. The Doctor was desperately looking for a rift; something they might be able to cross into, pull Rose from, and bring her back. He was rambling to Evelyn about how the seal might not be completely closed now that she was here, too, but the longer they searched the more resigned they both came to the result that there was nothing they could do here.
“Do we… go back? Warn her?” Evelyn asked. “Tell her not to look up, to hold on, to ignore me?”
The Doctor frowned. “Is that what happened?” he asked, softly. Evelyn’s eyes widened. This was most definitely not a fixed point, she could feel that, since they were trying to undo this current state of events. She sighed, swallowing her tears.
“Yes. I… I used this,” she said, pulling the necklace out from around her neck. “I was trying to visit during Christmas, and was going to sneak a picture of Jackie for Mum. That part is the same in the future; Jackie and Pete living far away… I dunno, Mum has nothing’ to remember her Mum by and I just… she’s been really sad about it lately...” she broke off. She almost said too much again.
Because she knew a little secret. That Rose Tyler was pregnant again in her current timeline with her future baby brother. She was just three months, not even showing, but her hormones had been causing her lots of crying.
And her brother’s life depended on this undoing itself as well.
Don’t tell him that! Evelyn scolded herself.
The Doctor was still frowning, and he gently took the necklace from Evelyn’s hand; examining it. It was poorly made, complete rubbish in fact, but he could see that his daughter just wanted to do something nice for her mother. And he couldn’t be mad at her for that. Even though there was a gaping, visceral pain in his chest from being separated from Rose. Even though Evelyn could have been torn apart molecularly from this crapshoot of a time device.
Instead, he sighed and wrapped her in a hug as she began to cry into his lapel.
“Shhhh,” he said. He was surprised at how quickly his paternal instincts kicked in, and hoped that this confidence would last when she was baby again. He clenched his jaw; that would only happen if they succeeded. “That was… very Rose of you,” he whispered. She smiled. She wouldn’t tell him this, but those words were said to her often, especially as she got older.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” she whispered. “I know we’re doing what we can to change it back, but I just… I’m sorry.”
“I know. And to answer your question… no. We can’t go back and warn her. She’ll be too worried about it the entire battle and there are certain things… certain timelines that we need in tact,” he said, his mind drifting to the soar of his heart when he realized she truly meant forever with him. The look on Rose’s face when he let her stay. He needed those.
“So… what do we do?”
“There may not be a rift here, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one somewhere,” the Doctor answered. “Specifically one place, I just… need to know where....”
They walked back to the TARDIS, the Doctor asking Evelyn all about her favorite things. She was quite hesitant to answer him, but did after his assurance it wouldn’t affect anything.
Chips.
Mint Ice Cream.
Action Packed Sci-Fi Movies
Her parents.
His smile was wide as can be when she said the last one. She looked at him very seriously, “I would literally do anything for both of you.”
“I have a very strong suspicion that feeling is mutual, Evelyn Tyler,” he said.
She nodded, taking a deep breath.
Her phone rang. She forgot she had that. Soniced with a signal ready to cross universes. And Timelines.
It was him. Future him.
She looked up and he raised his eyebrows - this ball was completely in her court. He was not about to get in the way of himself. He knew better.
Evelyn groaned and picked up the phone.
“Hi, Dad!” she said, a little over-excitedly. She glanced at her younger father who was rocking on the balls and toes of his feet, looking up and trying to focus on the ceiling tiles above the TARDIS.
“Evelyn!” she heard him say. “Where are you?! We went to wake you up and -”
“I’m okay, Dad. I’m so sorry… I…” She glanced over at the version of her father with her now, and he nodded. It would be okay.
“I’m actually with you. A younger you. Seventeen years ago younger,” she said.
The line was silent for a moment.
“Evelyn?” her father’s voice eventually asked, dark and heavy, “How did you get there?”
She bit her lip but told him everything, hoping the father she grew up with would be as forgiving as the one she just met. She heard him sigh.
“Can I talk to him?” her father asked. Evelyn bit her lip.
“Is that…. safe?” she began.
“I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t, just let me talk to him,” her father snapped, a little harsher than he meant it to, “I’m sorry. Your mother is still here. So, clearly we haven’t messed things up too badly yet.”
“She’s there?” Evelyn asked, her breath escaping her. Tears fell from her eyes and she saw her younger father’s eyes snap to her. His hearts were pounding. He took the phone from Evelyn as she tried to compose herself, his mind thinking the same thing his older self was.
“Hi,” he said seriously, wrapping an arm around Evelyn.
“She’s okay?” the older version asked himself, referring to Evelyn.
“Yes. She’s okay?” the younger version asked, referring to Rose.
“Yes,” he replied.
The younger Doctor let out a sigh. So did the older one. Then they started laughing like old chums. These women were going to be the death of them. Their impossible humans.
“There is a rift open now. I can feel it, I figured since Evelyn is here that -”
“Yes, yes. You need to find it. We’ll go back and try to grab Rose’s younger self before Pete does -”
“Right! Yes! Brilliant, then we can meet at the rift-”
“Yes exactly, and close it. Rose and Evelyn will switch -”
“Can never stay put, it seems -”
“Right!”
They were laughing, currently finding this entire situation hilarious. They had a plan, and they knew the plan would work. They just couldn’t fudge the timelines anymore than they already were. If they did, future Rose would disappear along with Evelyn. Suddenly, the younger Doctor’s face fell as a voice he didn’t expect to hear came ringing in his ears.
“Doctor.”
It was Rose. She had taken the phone from her husband and sounded very, very serious, clearly miffed that they were laughing about this situation.
“Hi,” he managed to squeak out. He missed her, he yearned for her. Hearing her voice made him want to run into the TARDIS and go find her. Now.
“Don’t let her out of your sight?” she asked. The Doctor’s eyes darted to Evelyn, who had managed to calm herself down a little.
“Not for a moment. Not till she’s with both of you,” he said very seriously. He would have his future with them, he could practically taste it.
“Thank you,” she said, “can you hand her the phone?”
The Doctor wanted to say so much more, but he could tell even through the phone that Rose was holding back. Most likely trying to keep some sort of timeline intact for them. But Rassalion, how we wanted to say three words to her he should have said ages back.
“Y-Yes. Rose?” he said, a little more desperate than he meant it to.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“See you soon,” he said, smiling. He could hear her grin through the phone, too.
“Not if I see you first,” she said, and his hearts soared, remembering the first time she’d said those words.
He suspected then, remembering the events that transpired after Krop Tor, that his current Rose may already be pregnant with this very lovely teenage girl sitting behind him as he handed her the phone. And he was giddy. And he suspected Evelyn knew this, and that the fixed point she was referring to was her birth. But he would never ask. He didn’t want to know now. He wanted that future memory intact.
Rose told Evelyn she loved her and to stay safe. And then they hung up.
What happened next happened quickly. The Doctor and Evelyn entered the Vortex, scanning and trying desperately to find the remaining rift.
The Doctor and Rose went back in time and waited. The TARDIS had a few upgrades in seventeen years, and luckily wouldn’t be able to be pulled into the Void. So, when Rose let go, the Doctor watched himself open the door to the TARDIS that suddenly appeared, wink at him, and pull Rose to safety. Then, they too entered the Vortex.
Normally, crossing his own timeline was a major risk, but the Doctor with Evelyn suddenly felt his brain swish, and a new memory was there. Rose was safe. It worked. There was suddenly a beautiful blend of the timeline in the Doctor’s head as his time stream now became the events of the last few hours. Meeting his daughter and working with her to get her mother back.
Not bad for a day in the life of a Time Lord.
He began to cry from happiness. For once the universe seemed to be on his side. Just then, the TARDIS located the final rift. A beach in Norway. Normally, he would have to use telepathy to tell Rose and the Doctor where to meet them, but Evelyn was a teenager from the future and he was able to borrow her cell phone. Human thing.
Evelyn got an idea. Her father told her what to do.
They all arrived at the rift at the same time. Both sets of the Doctor and Rose smiled when they realized where they were. Bad Wolf Bay. Of course.
Two perfect blue TARDIS’s, one slightly more dinged up than the other, materialized across from each other. The doors swung open, and Evelyn and a younger Rose both ran out. When they saw each other, it took both of their breath away.
Her daughter was four years younger than this current version of herself, and she looked back at her older self in shock. Rose nodded, smiling, and blew her younger self a kiss. She couldn’t touch her (she remembered the last time she touched her younger self), and the last thing they needed was a paradox, but Rose received the message. It’s going to be amazing.
It really was boggling all of their minds. They were practically twins, 20 year old Rose and her daughter. Except her eyes, which were very clearly the eyes of her favorite Time Lord.
They didn’t speak to each other, and also couldn’t touch, seeing as baby Evelyn was technically here, too. Rose absent-mindedly touched her belly. The Doctor, her Doctor, appeared in the doorway and saw, and his face broke out into a brilliant, brilliant smile. She was home.
She ran, as Evelyn watched in tears, at the perfect reunion of her parents. Her younger, more carefree, head over heels with a baby on the way in love parents. They kissed, he spun her around, and told her those three words he desperately needed to say. She said them back. He spoke to her belly. Evelyn felt her heart soar.
Suddenly, she felt two sets of arms crash into her.
Her parents.
Her older, still mostly carefree, head over heels with a baby on the way in love parents.
She sobbed. They sobbed. It felt like a blur in her mind.
“What were you thinking?!” Rose sighed, cupping her daughter’s face in her hands. “We got so lucky, Ev. But you don’t ever, ever, do that again, do you understand?”
Evelyn nodded. She wrapped her parents in a hug. The Doctor kissed her cheek, and looked over at his younger self with pride. This is what they created. This family.
There was an understanding between them as the younger Doctor held Rose to him; Evelyn no larger than a pea in her belly, and his older self, hugging his nearly full grown version of that same pea sized girl. Time was relative. It was pliable. It was fragile. And this - this incredible and unlikely turn of events, was nothing short of a miracle. And it was something they would all fight tooth and claw for for centuries to come.
Not that the younger Doctor or Rose knew that. But they would soon find out.
The Doctor kissed Rose, smiling into her lips, and walked over to his future family, his eyes asking silent permission from his future self and Rose to do one final thing before he left. They smiled, stepping back, as the Doctor hugged Evelyn.
“See you soon,” he whispered. She hugged him tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks as he pulled away.
“The one adventure I can never have, isn’t that what we said?” he asked himself, who grinned.
“Just you wait,” he replied.
The Doctor turned around and closed the door to the TARDIS, his life with Rose beginning.
The other Doctor sighed, wrapping his two favorite beings in the entire universe in his arms and holding them a little closer than he normally did.
I have a surprise for Mum. Evelyn thought. Only the Doctor heard the message and he nodded.
I remember. He said.
Five minutes. Evelyn promised.
Sure enough, five minutes later, they walked into the TARDIS and began to burn up a nearby sun to close the rift. Evelyn bit her lip as she pressed a button on the TARDIS and told her Mum to stand on a very specific spot on the grating. She did.
And when she looked up, she saw her mum. Jackie Tyler.
She was frozen; completely shocked. She looked over at Evelyn who made a gesture with her hands telling her to talk.
“Mum,” Rose said, her tears escaping their homes like wild waters.
“Sweetheart!” she said, “I love you! Where are you?”
“On the TARDIS. I love you, too, Mum. I - I’ve been wanting to tell you that for so long,” she said through her tears. Jackie smiled.
“How long has it been, love?” she asked.
Rose brought the Doctor and Evelyn onto the grating with her, showing them off. Silently showing her it had been quite a while in her timeline.
“Hello Jackie,” the Doctor said, smiling.
“You’re still around, then?” Jackie asked, half joking. He rolled his eyes and smiled, “Who is this?”
“I’m Evelyn. I’m your granddaughter.” She said, gripping her mother’s hand and she supported herself against her husband’s chest. The Doctor kissed Rose’s forehead, and he could feel her relief in her mind. This was better than a picture.
“Well. How bout that,” Jackie said, smiling. It was sad, but it’s also exactly what they both needed. Closure. They had about a minute left, and Rose told her Mum she was expecting another little one soon, and Jackie told her they were doing well in the parallel world. They had Tony, but she missed Rose more than words could describe. Rose said she felt the same, but she was glad they were happy. They said they loved each other again, and then it was over.
The sun was gone.
Rose collapsed on the grate as the Doctor held her, kissing her forehead again and whispering his love to her. Evelyn stood terrified. This backfired, this was not what was supposed to happen. It was supposed to make her happy. She was crying, blaming herself for this, when Rose looked up at her.
“Ev,” she said, smiling, “thank you.”
“W-what?” she asked, kneeling next to mother as she leaned against her father, “You aren’t…. mad?”
“Mad?” Rose asked, smiling brilliantly at her, “That was…the greatest gift. Getting to talk to her. To tell her a proper goodbye. I can’t tell you how much that’s weighed on me,” she whispered, pulling her daughter in for a hug. The Doctor smiled to himself.
“I love you, Mum,” Evelyn whispered, wrapping her arms tightly around her. “Dad. I love you,” She added as he put his arms on top of theirs. They stayed like this for a moment.
Turns out, she had helped after all.
The Doctor stepped back and smiled at them. Then held his hand out and helped Rose up, kissing her. He helped Evelyn up next, and she gave him a puzzled look when he kept his hand out after she was standing.
“Necklace, young lady,” he said. Evelyn smirked.
“Good idea,” she said, handing it to him. They approached the control panel as the Doctor tucked the Time Jumper in his pocket, and grinned wildly at each other.
“Allons-y!” they all shouted as the Doctor hit the lever to their next surprise destination. Time Lord Thing.