The Watchmaker's Daughter: Chapter Seven

[amberfocus]

Title: The Watchmaker's Daughter (7/12ish)
Author: amberfocus
Characters/Pairings: The Tenth Doctor(John Smith)/Rose Tyler, Pete Tyler, Martha Jones, Joan Redfern, Timothy Lattimer, various original characters
Genre: Action/Adventure, Romance, HN/FOB rewrite
Rating: Teen (for now, may go up later)
Betas: amyo67, thetesh
Summary: At the Doomsday wall an unexpected twist of fate sends Rose and Pete Tyler back to 1913 instead of to the parallel universe. While the Doctor and Martha are hiding from the Family of Blood at Farringham School for Boys the Tylers try to make a life for themselves in the nearby village.
Author's Notes: Recognizable dialogue is from the episode Human Nature. And yes, I'm aware that Joan's husband's name is actually Oliver. Let's just chalk that up to it being totally AU.

Previous Chapters: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/565160.html

Chapter Seven: Discovery

Pete opened his eyes and sent a beaming smile towards Joan and the Doctor. “You found us.”

“Us?” Joan said looking around and noting that he was quite alone. She gave him a puzzled look. “At any rate, you aren’t hard to find. I wanted to introduce you to Mr. John Smith. He works at the school with me. Mr. Smith, this is Mr. Peter Tyler.”

The man’s eyes roamed the shop before suddenly jerking back to Pete’s face. “Oh, yes, hello,” he said proffering his hand.

Pete stared at him blankly for a moment before shaking the grip that was not nearly as strong as the man he remembered. “I thought I might have you look at my father’s watch,” John said. He reached into his pocket. “It hasn’t worked in years.”

“Your father’s?” Pete echoed, taking the watch John handed him.

“Sidney Smith, a watchmaker like yourself,” John said proudly.

“Are you a doctor?” he asked.

“A doctor? Oh, you mean because I work with Nurse Redfern?” He laughed. “The school certainly isn’t as posh as that, to have an on staff doctor. No, I’m afraid I’m just a simple history teacher with a penchant for writing fiction.”

Pete tamped down on his disappointment. He’d been so sure. The man was a doppleganger. Before all this business with parallel words things like that might not have occurred to him, but they did now. Even on his world they had a saying that every person had a double. This man was clearly the Doctor's. He would have to make sure he broke that particular bit of news to Rose before she ever had a chance to see him. Seeing him without knowing the truth would devastate his—Rose. Hell, seeing him with knowing was probably going to wreak havoc on her heart.

Rose had been holding it together pretty well, but this sort of thing would be enough to put anyone off. He knew how hard it had been seeing Jackie again and at least she had been Jackie, albeit a different version of her. This man was human.

“I thought you two might get on,” Joan said over the awkward silence. “Mr. Smith’s only lived here a couple of months and since you’re new here, and you have watches in common, I thought that was as good a starting place as any.”

“Yes, of course.”

Pete glanced down at the watch and then placed it under the counter. “I’ll take a look at the watch in the morning,” he said. “See what I can do.”

“I’d appreciate it,” John said. He glanced into one of the glass cases and moved to peruse the objects there, seeming to forget all about Pete.

Joan seemed slightly embarrassed at his wandering away. Pete gave her a smile and she seemed to bloom under it. Her eyes alit on the paper on the back of the cash register. “The village dance next week,” she said indicating the page with a nod. “Will you be going?”

“Hadn’t thought about it,” Pete replied.

“It’s been ages since I’ve been to a dance,” Joan said wistfully.

“Well that, Nurse Redfern, is a situation that clearly begs to be remedied.” He gave her a slightly flourished bow and she blushed, softly giggling. “Would you do me the honor of allowing me to escort you to the dance?”

“I’d be delighted,” she said with a smile that surprised Pete in how much it made his heart jump. For a moment he felt like he was being unfair to Jackie, but he pushed the thought away. He was stuck here and he wouldn’t be getting back to her. He might as well start living his life in a way that made it clear it was permanent. And once he sent Rose back with the teleport, he’d need companionship. Even with Rose here, he’d need companionship eventually.

They made quiet arrangements to meet the next Saturday and then Joan said, “Since I’m here, I thought I might check on Rose’s arm.”

At Rose’s name, John’s head snapped up.

“She isn’t here. She went out with a friend.”

“Oh. I had thought to introduce her to Mr. Smith. He’s quite eligible, you know.”

“I say, Nurse Redfern, that isn’t—I mean to say that’s not—not what I had in mind in coming here.” He blushed deeply.

“Nonsense,” Joan said, ignoring his protests. “You need to meet someone, Mr. Smith, and not have your head so much in the clouds. Rose would be the perfect person to ground you in reality.”

Pete almost snorted. Perhaps Joan had not taken Rose’s proper measure at all.

Joan smiled at Pete again. “Do you think Rose would like to accompany Mr. Smith to the dance? With the two of us acting as chaperones, it would give them a chance to become acquainted.”

“I would have to ask my daughter,” Pete said.

“But surely as her father you arrange for her appointments,” John said with a slight frown.

“I can, but my daughter has a well-developed mind of her own, and I prefer to indulge it. I will put the question to her when she comes in from her outing. That is if you don’t mind spending the evening with a spirited woman.”

John blushed but managed to stumble out the words, “I-I’d quite like that.”

“Then when Rose goes to visit Nurse Redfern next week, she can pass her answer along.”

“Very well,” John agreed. “Please tell your daughter I look forward to meeting her.” He turned to Joan. “If you’re going to pick up your order from the bookstore before it closes, we should move along.”

“Yes, quite.” She smiled again at Pete and he smiled back. “Good evening, Nurse Redfern.”

“Good evening, Mr. Tyler.”

If John said good-bye, Pete didn’t notice, his eyes on Joan alone as she exited the shop.




“I hope you don’t mind that I made our tea into a picnic,” Rose said to Martha as they headed through the woods towards Cooper’s Field. “Or invited the children along. It’s just such a lovely day. It almost feels as if spring is here. We should be outside enjoying it.”

“Not at all, Miss Tyler. It’s been a long winter and I, too, yearn for spring.”

Rose frowned and glanced at Martha. “You don’t need to be so formal with me, Martha. You can call me by my name.”

“It’s just that I never learned your name,” Martha pointed out. “Matron Redfern simply referred to you as Miss Tyler.”

“Oh, I hadn’t even thought. It’s Rose. My name is Rose.” Martha stumbled but caught herself. “Are you all right, Martha?”

“Yes, I just tripped. Your name is Rose?” she asked warily.

“Yep,” Rose said popping the P the way the Doctor often did. Martha gave her another strange look. “If you don’t want to call me Rose, that’s okay, but I don’t stand on formalities.”

“No, no,” said Martha. She gave Rose a sideways glance and admitted shyly. “I fancied a man who was in love with a girl named Rose. Didn’t even look my way.” She sighed then gave herself a stern shake. “If you don’t mind, though, I’ll still call you Miss Tyler in public. Society frowns on the servants being too familiar with those of a higher station.”

“My station’s not as high as all that,” Rose said under her breath.

“What?”

“Where are you from?” Rose asked her. “You don’t exactly sound like you’re from the area.”

“London, originally,” Martha said.

“How’d you come to be way out here?”

“Mr. Smith got a teaching position with Farringham School. My family has worked for his for a long time so when he came here I came with him. His parents are gone now. He got me my job in the school,” Martha explained. “Where are you from? You don’t sound like a local either.”

“Oh, I’m from London, as well.”

“And how did you come to be here? I believe Matron Redfern said you’ve just moved here with your father.”

“We lost my mother,” Rose said. “We lost our whole world really.” Well, Pete certainly had. And the Doctor had rather been her world. “There were too many reminders.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” There was a long pause as Martha seemed to flounder about for a topic of conversation. “How did you hurt your arm, if you don’t mind my asking?” Martha inquired.

“I dislocated my shoulder in a fall,” Rose answered.

“From a horse?” Martha asked.

“No.” Rose thought fast. She hadn’t actually given it any thought. What could she have been doing that she’d have fallen? She should have agreed to the horse. Well, too late now. “I fell out of a hayloft.”

“What were you doing in a hayloft?” Martha asked incredulously. “You don’t look like the sort of woman who messes about in barns.”

“Kittens,” she burst out, remembering suddenly what one of the writers of a show she watched said when he was asked about plot holes that didn’t make any sense. “There were kittens.”

Martha stared at her with the oddest expression. “Kittens?” she repeated.

“I like kittens,” she elaborated on her lie. “The mother cat had gone up in the hayloft to have them and I wanted to see. The ladder was rotting out and it held my weight on the way up, but not on the way back down.”

“I see.”

Onna and Lucy had run ahead and spread out the blankets on the edge of Cooper’s Field, before skipping back to them and relieving Martha of the basket.

“Do you know anything about Lucy Cartwright?” Rose asked deciding to direct the conversation away from her arm or kittens. So far the other child had struck her as very abrupt and somewhat stoic, a personality much at odds with Onna’s.

“She’s a lonely child, older, twelve. The maids at the school gossip a lot and what Jenny told me was that when Onna had to drop out of school it was very difficult for Lucy. She’s got what my mother would refer to as a very forthright personality and the other girls don’t like that. She’s not got a lot of friends, but Onna seems to love her a great deal. They have very different characters though.”

They reached the blankets a moment later and sat down. Onna had spread everything out and unpacked the plates. “Just tell me what you want and I’ll serve you,” she said.

“Nonsense,” Rose said. “Just hand the plates around and we can all serve ourselves.”

“But Miss Tyler!” Onna gasped looking scandalized.

“We are among friends, Onna,” Rose said. “Perhaps we can put aside conventions and dine as equals.”

Lucy laughed and there was a slight twinkle that came into her eyes. “I like you.” Rose abruptly changed her mind on the issue of Lucy being stoic. There was mischief under her surface, same as Onna’s. “You have some very unconventional notions, Miss Tyler. Mama would never allow it, but I think,” she looked almost conspiratorial for a moment, “that sometimes it might be nice to scandalize Mama.”

Rose and Onna both giggled and Martha gave an unrepentant grin. “It can be fun,” said Rose, remembering her mother’s reaction the one time she had given in to an impulse and told her mother that she and the Doctor were indeed “like that” and took every opportunity they had to shag inside the Doctor’s time machine. It hadn’t been even close to true when she’d said it, but it had been a priceless moment, and had stopped Jackie’s nagging on the issue.

The topics of conversation changed to lighter ones, Lucy telling Onna what had happened in school that week and about how Kenneth Calloway still asked her every few days whether or not Onna was going to come back to school. Onna looked slightly embarrassed and yet rather pleased. “He doesn’t care that I’m a maid now,” she informed Rose and Martha with large eyes.

“Yes, he still wants to marry you,” affirmed Lucy. “Says he’ll take you to London and no one will ever have to know.”

“I’m not ashamed of it. It’s honest work. Anyway, I don’t want to marry Kenneth Calloway,” said Onna. “I want to go to Paris and study art.”

“Well, he has the means to take you,” Lucy pointed out. “How else are you going to get there then?”

“Tim said—.”

“Oh, that one,” Lucy said waving the thought away. “You know he’ll go into the army. What else is he going to do?”

“But he’ll take me to Paris after the war,” said Onna and then stopped as both Rose and Martha swiveled their heads abruptly to look at her.

“What war?” demanded Lucy, shaking her head.

“There’s always a war somewhere,” Onna said quickly. “Don’t you pay attention during history?”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Kenneth Calloway will wait, you know. He’d follow you to Paris if you let him. Mama says he’ll let his wife do as she pleases! Mama says he has modern ideas, but then his mother’s a suffragette. A girl could do far, far worse than Kenneth Calloway.”

“You marry him then!” Onna said with a laugh.

“Maybe I will,” Lucy said in annoyance.

Rose wondered if she was going to have to interfere in what looked to be the start of a quarrel, but then Lucy turned her eyes on Rose. “Why aren’t you married, Miss Tyler, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Rose didn’t want to answer that question. She had no way of explaining her relationship with the Doctor and the most recent changes in it before they had been torn from each other. “My father indulges me,” she finally said.

“What about you, Martha?” Onna asked curiously, turning her eyes on the pretty maid.

“Things are different for me than for other people,” Martha said. “Anyway, you girls are far too young to be thinking about marriage.”

“Why are they different?” Lucy asked.

“Because I go travelling a lot. Mr. Smith takes me all over with him. I’ve no time to settle down. I’d much rather see the world,” Martha said. “You girls better finish up. It’s getting late and I’m sure Mrs. Cartwright will be looking for you soon.”

The girls began to eat quickly, wanting to get some play time in before they had to head back to the village. In her haste to gobble down the last of her food, Onna began to choke. She tried in vain to clear the blockage from her throat and her face began to turn very red. She waved her arms frantically.

Rose didn’t even stop to think. “Martha, get her on her feet. She’s choking! We have to give her the Heimlich maneuver.” Martha jumped to her feet and hauled Onna up. Rose was about to explain what to do, but Martha placed her arms under Onna’s in the correct place and gave a sharp, inward pull once and then again. The food went flying out of Onna’s mouth and the little girl began to breathe again. She threw her arms around Martha, holding tightly onto the woman.

Lucy stared at them in shock, tears sliding down her cheeks. “What…what did you do?”

“It’s a medical thing,” Martha said quickly. “A series of abdominal thrusts. Matron Redfern did it to a boy at the school once when he got food caught in his throat. I’m just glad I remembered how to do it.” Her eyes met Rose’s and Rose felt a strange, panicked feeling start in her stomach.

Rose began to pack up the remains of their picnic and when Onna finally let go of her, Martha knelt to help. They made short work of it while the girls, fear forgotten, began to chase each other across the field.

“Who are you?” Martha asked quietly, her voice less friendly than Rose had ever heard it.

“What do you mean? You know who I am,” she said.

“Maybe I should ask what are you?”

Rose stared at her in confusion. “I’m just a girl.”

Martha was silent for a moment as she folded one of the blankets before looking Rose firmly in the eyes. “Only Henry Heimlich won’t be born for 7 more years,” she said. “So who the hell are you?”

Rose stared at her, not sure whether to be more shocked at Martha’s use of the word hell as a swear word or at the way she was suddenly holding herself with so much self-assurance. Martha was from the future. She had to be.

“I’m Rose Tyler. I’m human,” she said pulling herself up to her full height, which was quite a few inches taller than Martha. “Clearly you know something about time travel. I should be in the year 2006. There was an accident and my father and I fell through time. It’s how I hurt my arm. I’m stuck here.” It was Rose’s turn to harden her voice. “But I think you already knew that.”

“About time travel, yes. Not about you. I’m…” Martha’s voice shook and she took a breath and steadied it. “I’m from 2007.”

“How did you get here?” she asked, wondering what kind of bizarre ripple in time had sent Martha back to 1913. What she said next stunned Rose.

“In a ship called the TARDIS.”

Rose’s heart leapt into her throat. “The Doctor? The Doctor’s here?” she cried out, unable to stop the words from flying out of her mouth. “Where is he? Martha, you must tell me! You must!” Rose insisted, her hand clutching frantically at Martha’s.

“You’re her, aren’t you? The one who came before me. The one who left him. Only you didn’t, did you? Here I’ve spent all this time thinking you left him, that he couldn’t get over a girl who walked out on him, but you didn’t.”

“Never,” Rose said. “I promised him forever. We made vows.”

For a moment Martha looked stricken. “You’re his wife?” she asked.

“It’s…it’s different for Time Lords. The human concept of marriage is…limited. We were…together. And now we’re not. We were ripped apart.”

Tears came to Martha’s eyes. “For the last year I couldn’t understand why he didn’t just get over you. But he was a widower grieving. I can’t believe it. The way I acted about you!”

“What do you mean year?” Rose asked suddenly panicking.

“Maybe longer,” Martha said. “He picked me up a year ago and I don’t think the separation was fresh.”

“It’s been a year?” Rose’s voice went very high.

“Why? How long’s it been for you?”

“Days,” said Rose. “Just days.” Her heart broke all over again. “Oh, he must be—I’ve got to see him, Martha. Please. Please take me to him,” she begged.

“I can’t,” said Martha.

“What? Why can’t you?”

“Because right now he’s not the Doctor. He’s not even close.”

“I don’t understand.”

Martha looked over at the children. “Let’s take the children back to the village and then I’ll take you to the TARDIS and explain everything.”

“But—.”

“Please. His life may depend on it. I’m taking a big chance even trusting you.”

Rose stopped protesting, her mouth snapping shut. The Doctor’s life was not something she was prepared to risk.

Ch. 8: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/571163.html