Jenny Smith-Holmes

Chapter 26: Doctor's Visit

After the coffee shop, dad and I went with Sarah Jane to her house to catch up while Rose and Mickey went off somewhere.
Dad sat with her living room working on K9 while I helped Sarah Jane make some tea.
"So what have you been up to? Last time I saw you, you were just a child."
"Well, I finished school at the academy, I got a job there as a professor and I got married." I smiled softly.
"Oh my gosh! Really? Who was the lucky guy?"
"You remember Rullana, he went with us to a couple places."
"Of course I remember him, oh I bet you guys made the cutest couple."
"I liked to think so. We were married for about 70 years and we had two children together. That's Vani and that's Zen. When they were old enough, we let them pick out human names for when we went traveling. Rullana was Stanley, Vani chose Lily because every time Dad would bring her lilies, and Zen chose John because he loved traveling with Dad every chance he got. Then we just used Pond as our last name." I smiled as I pulled my wallet out to show her one of our family pictures.
"Did you pick your name too when you were little?"
"Uh, no actually. I was named after my grandmum on my mother's side because I had red hair just like her. Then I got her last name too. So, technically my full-ish name is Jessica Senlor Sigma Pond Gloven."
"I never knew that. Wait, is that you?" She pointed to me in the picture.
"Yeah, that was before I regenerated."
"You regenerated? What happened?"
"The Time War was what happened. The Time Lords got pulled in and we lost. Dad and I are the only survivors. Gallifrey is completely gone now." I my voice got soft as I stared at the picture. "This was our last picnic before the war started."
"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry." She said gently as she wrapped her arm around me. I took a deep breath before I stood up straight.
"It doesn't matter now, it was a long long time ago, it's in the past." I smiled at her and took mine and dad's tea and walked into the living room.
"How's it going?" I asked as I set his tea in front of him.
"Pretty well, actually. I think I might be able to get him working brilliantly in no time."
"Fantastic." I said in a fake northern accent. He rolled his eyes and kept working on K9. "Oh come on, you know you love me."
"Only cause I have too." He smiled.
"Oh ouch, that hit me right in the hearts." I sniffles as I wiped a fake tear away. "I need to go call in to work, so excuse me."
******

"Rose and Sarah, you go to the Maths room. Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside. Here, you might need this." Dad gave his screwdriver to Sarah even though Rose had her hand open. "Mickey, surveillance. I want you outside."
"Just stand outside?" He asked in disbelief.
"Here, take these you can keep K9 company." She threw her keys to him.
"Don't forget to leave the window open a crack." dad told him.
"But he's metal!"
"I didn't mean for him."
"What're you going to do?" Rose asked.
"It's time Jess and I had a word with Mister Finch."
"Actually, I think I'm going to go with the girls." I smiled over to him.
"Oh alright, suit yourself."

We made it to one of the maths room and now Sarah Jane was working on getting the screwdriver to work.
"It's not working." She said in frustration.
"Here." I took it from her at the same time Rose said, "Give it to me."
"Used to work first time in my day."
"Well, things were a lot simpler back then."
"Rose, can I give you a bit of advice?"
"I've got a feeling you're about to."
"Rose, just listen to Sarah Jane. She knows what she's talking about about." I said as I continued working on the computers.
"I know how intense a relationship with the Doctor can be, and I don't want you to feel I'm intruding."
"Can I intrude? I'm very good at intruding on his business."
"Jess." Sarah Jane warned.
"Sorry, sorry." I muttered.
"I don't feel threatened by you two, if that's what you mean."
"Right. Good. Because I'm not interested in picking up where we left off."
"No? With the big sad eyes and the robot dog? What else were you doing last night?"
"I was just saying how hard it was adjusting to life back on Earth and catching up."
"The thing is, when you two met they'd only just got rid of rationing. No wonder all that space stuff was a bit too much for you. How old are you anyway, Jessica?"
"337."
"What?"
"I had no problem with space stuff. I saw things you wouldn't believe." Sarah Jane interjected.
"Try me."
"Mummies."
"I've met ghosts."
"Robots. Lots of robots."
"Slitheen, in Downing Street."
"Daleks!"
"Met the Emperor."
"Anti-matter monsters."
"Gas masked zombies."
"Real living dinosaurs."
"Real living werewolf."
"The Loch Ness Monster!"
"Gallifrey." I said when they paused and stood up. Rose looked astonished and Sarah Jane looked a bit sad.
"Seriously? Listen to us. It's like me and my mate Shireen. The only time we fell out was over a man, and we're arguing over the Doctor. With you, did he do that thing where he'd explain something at like, ninety miles per hour, and you'd go, what? and he'd look at you like you'd just dribbled on your shirt?"
"All the time. Does he still stroke bits of the Tardis?"
"Yeah! Yeah, he does. I'm like, do you two want to be alone?" We laughed.
"Did you know he never passed his Tardis Flying test?" I laughed.
"That explains so much!" Rose laughed. We were all laughing we dad decided to walk in.
"How's it going?" We couldn't stop laughing to talk.
"What? Listen, I need to find out what's programmed inside these."
"What? Stop it!"