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fannishlisstitle: Susan Tyler, Teenage Time Lord
author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fannishliss
pairing: Rose/Ten
rating: G
length: 1200 words
A/N: Written for the![[info]](../../img/community.gif?v=3)
then_theres_us ficathon where jessalrynn prompted with amazing photos of Susan Foreman and Rose Tyler, saying, Include both ladies somehow, and see if you can explain the resemblance.
===
“Susan, must you? Really?” Rose cried, but there was really no point in asking. The fire so familiar from her husband’s eyes was blooming in her daughter’s. Like father, like daughter, Susan had always been impulsive and headstrong. Once she had come up with a plan, no matter how far fetched, there was no changing it.
“I have to. There’s no getting around it -- it’s already in place! If I don’t, everything could change-- or worse-- you know that!”
Rose just stared. After nearly wrecking everything by getting herself and the Doctor embroiled in her own father’s death, Rose had avoided anything like time paradoxes. Sometimes, just out of curiosity, she’d ask the Tardis to show her his old faces, and she’d stare into their eyes, seeing the traces of who he’d been when he was younger, but she’d never dared try to meet any of them in person.
If there had been one thing out of everything that she could have changed, she would have wanted to let the Doctor who'd left her behind know that the metacrisis was eventually resolved at the end of his twelfth incarnation. The risk of becoming the Valeyard had haunted that life, and he’d said goodbye to all his companions and spent hundreds of years in seclusion, trying to avoid regeneration, till he finally realized that the key was to restore his own copy into a full Time Lord, Rose along with him. Before dying and refusing to regenerate, he had transferred all his memories to the once-human Doctor, so that Rose’s husband was fully Time Lord again, sole and complete at last.
Susan had been born not long after that. While she was still in the womb, the Doctor would stroke Rose’s belly like any expectant father, leaning down to speak to the baby inside. But as her identity formed, she seemed more and more familiar to him, until just before she was born, he recognized her.
Rose remembered the shock on his face as he told her that their daughter was also his granddaughter. She’d burst into laughter, accused him of going round the bend, till he explained to her what he remembered.
“My memories of the Backtime have always been sketchy. I shouldn’t even have been there. There was a timelock of course, put in place by Rassilon, and I never figured out how the Tardis got through it, clever as she is. But when I finally fled the Intuitive Revolution and we landed on Earth in 1963, somehow I had a granddaughter, and I could only assume she’d come with me from Gallifrey.” He stroked his jaw. “It was a bit confusing how she suddenly appeared in the console room... why the door was ajar... and why she wanted to enroll in school....”
“How can you just assume a girl is your granddaughter?” Rose had stared at him. “You didn't remember whether you had a family or not?”
He’d pouted at her, embarrassed. “Well, I remembered the House of Lungbarrow all right. Horrid people, most of them. Urgh. And I remembered, vaguely, a very nice lady in the Backtime. Although, maybe she was just my landlady.”
Rose had fallen back in peels of helpless laughter. He’d mistaken his landlady for a wife! Only the Doctor could be so brilliant and so hopeless all at once. She grabbed him around the middle and pulled her to him. He’d stroked her big belly and played pattycakes with the restless Susan inside.
“It’s all like a dream,” he moaned, smiling at Rose ruefully. “Once I met Susan I knew, of course, right away, that she belonged to me. She was Time Lord, and you know yourself how the bond calls out. It deviled me no end that I couldn’t remember her from before I came to Earth -- but I just chalked it up to the eccentricities of that body nearing the end of its life, and all the weird inconsistencies that I’d stirred up by going into the Backtime. I mean, besides my name, I’ve still never figured out who I was before I was born! I still think I might have been that baby of Leela’s!”
“Do tell,” Rose muttered. His theories were endlessly convoluted about whether he had been or would be Omega, the Other, or some other legendary figure from the Gallifreyan Backtime. She supposed they’d either discover the truth someday, or they never would. It was a relief, of sorts; she’d always been jealous of his shadowy Gallifreyan wife -- now it turned out she was only an old man’s dream, or perhaps his landlady, cooked up by his powerful brain to explain a conundrum he’d never cracked.
Now their oldest child had discovered her own paradoxical secret.
Rose's children had loved to amuse themselves by sorting through the Tardis's records, gazing at the Doctor’s old faces and the travellers who had known him before their mother stole his hearts. It had been something as silly as a hat, found in a London flea market in the nineteen-forties, that had broken the secret to Susan. Trying it on in the mirror in her bedroom back on the Tardis, she’d seen who she was. She wasn’t Susan Tyler, teenage Time Lord -- she was Susan Foreman.
She’d run to her father first, but he’d clammed up. He had a bad record with paradoxes, and he’d locked himself in the Zero room till Rose and Susan sorted out what to do.
“Look at me, mum!” she insisted. “She’s me! Oh, my god, when I meet David Campbell, whatever will I say to him!” Her hummingbird mood swings, as her brilliant Time Lord brain tracked all the possibilities, reminded Rose so much of her father. Stern and certain one minute, blushing and stammering the next, but always, so very precious -- the first of the new Time Lords.
Rose looked at her daughter and knew. There was no denying it any longer. The Doctor had always known that his daughter was the same Susan, but Rose had tried to tell herself that this moment would never come to pass.
“Well, it won’t be forever. You only travel with him for a while -- and he’ll never know he’s your father as long as you don’t tell him,” Rose said.
“Yes, he will,” the Doctor said from the doorway, his mouth turned down in a frown.
“Oh, Dad,” Susan said with a matching frown, compassion welling up in her.
“I knew you, Susan. Don’t ever doubt it. I knew you were my daughter, deep deep down in my very soul. I just didn’t know how it could be true.”
The girl ran to her dad, and he folded her into his arms. Rose could feel the love radiating through their bond. His first incarnation wouldn’t miss that, he couldn’t. And that love would tie him to the odd little planet, the Earth, where so much happened —not least, it was where he’d eventually find his one and only wife.
“You’ll be all right, won’t you,” he said. “I’ll take care of you. Or, you’ll take care of me, more likely. And after you get to the twenty-second century, we’ll see you again, okay?”
“Of course you will!” she beamed at her parents. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"
author:
fannishlisspairing: Rose/Ten
rating: G
length: 1200 words
A/N: Written for the
then_theres_us ficathon where jessalrynn prompted with amazing photos of Susan Foreman and Rose Tyler, saying, Include both ladies somehow, and see if you can explain the resemblance.===
“Susan, must you? Really?” Rose cried, but there was really no point in asking. The fire so familiar from her husband’s eyes was blooming in her daughter’s. Like father, like daughter, Susan had always been impulsive and headstrong. Once she had come up with a plan, no matter how far fetched, there was no changing it.
“I have to. There’s no getting around it -- it’s already in place! If I don’t, everything could change-- or worse-- you know that!”
Rose just stared. After nearly wrecking everything by getting herself and the Doctor embroiled in her own father’s death, Rose had avoided anything like time paradoxes. Sometimes, just out of curiosity, she’d ask the Tardis to show her his old faces, and she’d stare into their eyes, seeing the traces of who he’d been when he was younger, but she’d never dared try to meet any of them in person.
If there had been one thing out of everything that she could have changed, she would have wanted to let the Doctor who'd left her behind know that the metacrisis was eventually resolved at the end of his twelfth incarnation. The risk of becoming the Valeyard had haunted that life, and he’d said goodbye to all his companions and spent hundreds of years in seclusion, trying to avoid regeneration, till he finally realized that the key was to restore his own copy into a full Time Lord, Rose along with him. Before dying and refusing to regenerate, he had transferred all his memories to the once-human Doctor, so that Rose’s husband was fully Time Lord again, sole and complete at last.
Susan had been born not long after that. While she was still in the womb, the Doctor would stroke Rose’s belly like any expectant father, leaning down to speak to the baby inside. But as her identity formed, she seemed more and more familiar to him, until just before she was born, he recognized her.
Rose remembered the shock on his face as he told her that their daughter was also his granddaughter. She’d burst into laughter, accused him of going round the bend, till he explained to her what he remembered.
“My memories of the Backtime have always been sketchy. I shouldn’t even have been there. There was a timelock of course, put in place by Rassilon, and I never figured out how the Tardis got through it, clever as she is. But when I finally fled the Intuitive Revolution and we landed on Earth in 1963, somehow I had a granddaughter, and I could only assume she’d come with me from Gallifrey.” He stroked his jaw. “It was a bit confusing how she suddenly appeared in the console room... why the door was ajar... and why she wanted to enroll in school....”
“How can you just assume a girl is your granddaughter?” Rose had stared at him. “You didn't remember whether you had a family or not?”
He’d pouted at her, embarrassed. “Well, I remembered the House of Lungbarrow all right. Horrid people, most of them. Urgh. And I remembered, vaguely, a very nice lady in the Backtime. Although, maybe she was just my landlady.”
Rose had fallen back in peels of helpless laughter. He’d mistaken his landlady for a wife! Only the Doctor could be so brilliant and so hopeless all at once. She grabbed him around the middle and pulled her to him. He’d stroked her big belly and played pattycakes with the restless Susan inside.
“It’s all like a dream,” he moaned, smiling at Rose ruefully. “Once I met Susan I knew, of course, right away, that she belonged to me. She was Time Lord, and you know yourself how the bond calls out. It deviled me no end that I couldn’t remember her from before I came to Earth -- but I just chalked it up to the eccentricities of that body nearing the end of its life, and all the weird inconsistencies that I’d stirred up by going into the Backtime. I mean, besides my name, I’ve still never figured out who I was before I was born! I still think I might have been that baby of Leela’s!”
“Do tell,” Rose muttered. His theories were endlessly convoluted about whether he had been or would be Omega, the Other, or some other legendary figure from the Gallifreyan Backtime. She supposed they’d either discover the truth someday, or they never would. It was a relief, of sorts; she’d always been jealous of his shadowy Gallifreyan wife -- now it turned out she was only an old man’s dream, or perhaps his landlady, cooked up by his powerful brain to explain a conundrum he’d never cracked.
Now their oldest child had discovered her own paradoxical secret.
Rose's children had loved to amuse themselves by sorting through the Tardis's records, gazing at the Doctor’s old faces and the travellers who had known him before their mother stole his hearts. It had been something as silly as a hat, found in a London flea market in the nineteen-forties, that had broken the secret to Susan. Trying it on in the mirror in her bedroom back on the Tardis, she’d seen who she was. She wasn’t Susan Tyler, teenage Time Lord -- she was Susan Foreman.
She’d run to her father first, but he’d clammed up. He had a bad record with paradoxes, and he’d locked himself in the Zero room till Rose and Susan sorted out what to do.
“Look at me, mum!” she insisted. “She’s me! Oh, my god, when I meet David Campbell, whatever will I say to him!” Her hummingbird mood swings, as her brilliant Time Lord brain tracked all the possibilities, reminded Rose so much of her father. Stern and certain one minute, blushing and stammering the next, but always, so very precious -- the first of the new Time Lords.
Rose looked at her daughter and knew. There was no denying it any longer. The Doctor had always known that his daughter was the same Susan, but Rose had tried to tell herself that this moment would never come to pass.
“Well, it won’t be forever. You only travel with him for a while -- and he’ll never know he’s your father as long as you don’t tell him,” Rose said.
“Yes, he will,” the Doctor said from the doorway, his mouth turned down in a frown.
“Oh, Dad,” Susan said with a matching frown, compassion welling up in her.
“I knew you, Susan. Don’t ever doubt it. I knew you were my daughter, deep deep down in my very soul. I just didn’t know how it could be true.”
The girl ran to her dad, and he folded her into his arms. Rose could feel the love radiating through their bond. His first incarnation wouldn’t miss that, he couldn’t. And that love would tie him to the odd little planet, the Earth, where so much happened —not least, it was where he’d eventually find his one and only wife.
“You’ll be all right, won’t you,” he said. “I’ll take care of you. Or, you’ll take care of me, more likely. And after you get to the twenty-second century, we’ll see you again, okay?”
“Of course you will!” she beamed at her parents. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 10:48 am (UTC)It was an interesting challenge trying to figure out how they could be related. I even used a chart! I kind of love timey wimey but I have to be very strict with myself to keep it linear. But then I loved the idea that she snuck into the Tardis the moment he landed in 1963 -- she has a key after all, and the Tardis would totally recognize her as the Doctor's offspring. Imagine how confused he was when she was like "shall I enroll in school here Grandfather" and he's thinking to himself "where did she come from!!!"
Gallifrey is super fascinating to me. There's not enough canon about it. Marc Platt's two crazy books are full of ideas though!
It's intriguing that even though my lj cut broke, the Edit did take (I was just adding the comm marker for then there's us). o_0
no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 02:05 pm (UTC)I can imagine the confusion on the Doctor's part, I think I would just be as confused.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 02:34 pm (UTC)I like River a lot, I have no problem at all with her as a "mary sue" and I love her faith in the Doctor. However I'm afraid she's going to have her heart broken at some point.
In my headcanon as a Rose shipper it's like this: the Doctor was head over heels in love with Rose but never committed to her and then tragically lost her, which basically tore him apart. So then he regenerated into Eleven, who has a much more closely guarded heart, and seems to have fashioned himself deliberately as much more asexual than Nine and Ten were. But then, there's River, whose life is so closely interwoven with his that she was conceived on his Tardis while her parents were his companions! To me, it makes their relationship uncomfortably incestuous -- but at the same time, he was introduced to her and got to know her before he knew any of that, which certainly complicates things. Like, how can he now let the little girl grow up to fall in love with him, knowing all that he knows about who she is? At the same time, how can he not? What tips the scales so that they become lovers? And, do we know for sure that they really do become lovers, or is that just an assumption that River has, based on the fact that she knows his name? TRAGEDY LOOMS, i'm telling you, my Snapedar is pinging. o_0
no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 01:32 pm (UTC)Her face just hurt my heart. As far as incestuous I don't think so because the Doctor (as far as we know) never had sex with Amy and Rory. I think because she was concieved on the TARDIS the Doctor might be connected to her like he is connected to the TARDIS but it is a connection of the mind and spirit.
When do River and the Doctor become lovers I am not sure that would be interesting to see but her knowing his name is one of the timey whimy things. The Doctor knows that he tells her his name so in fact tells her his name because he already knows that is the only way to get his early self to trust her.
*ow my head hurts after that last atatement*
Even so we already know that River and the Doctor story is tradgic but her is something intersting to ponder. When River talks with the Doctor at the end of AGMGW she runs to his cot and says "oh your cot I haven't seen this in a long time"
Why would the Doctor let that little girl grow up to love him. Well possiblity because they procreate and have children of their own. The Doctor would never be alone again and the desire to be a part of a family would be to strong.
When he meets her as a child he will know everything about her timeline where she will know none and I have a feeling he will keep the timeline intact.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 01:41 pm (UTC)I like your reasoning about the name telling -- that makes perfect timeywimey sense! :P
I also think he will keep the timeline intact -- I just wonder what assumptions she is making.
Also I'd love to see the point of equilibrium where the two of them each know half the story!
no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 10:20 pm (UTC)Thanks so much for your comment!