The Daughter of Gallifrey

12: The Jewelry Box

Caroline dropped down on to the couch, her head spinning. Her father, and therefore she, was immortal? They would never die? How was this possible? Never dying...living forever, well...that was an awful long time.

Her hands went up to her temples, a sudden headache pulsing painfully between her ears. She squeezed her eyes shut, trapping her swelling tears like a river behind a dam.

A hand settled on her shoulder. She opened her eyes only for a moment, registering whose shoes stood beside her. It was Rory.

"Caroline? Are you alright?" he inquired, his voice as gentle as ever. She nodded, though she wasn't sure it she really was or not. He kept his hand on her shoulder all the same. Suddenly Caroline was aware that the Doctor had stopped his blethering. She looked up, slowly opening her soft green eyes.

The Doctor was watching her, his gaze concerned, his forehead crinkled deeply, his head cocked to the side like a curious child. He lowered himself down on the couch next to her, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and fiddling with it, tossing it back and forth between his hands that dangled over his knees as he leaned forward. Caroline inspected her own knees.

"Doctor?" she said in a small, trembling voice.

"Yes, Thomas?" His response was soft, almost a whisper.

"Does my father, I mean, is he-where is he now?"

"I believe he still works with an agency called Torchwood."

"Torchwood? I've-I've heard of them."

The Doctor gave a little snort.

"I think everyone has."

"Um, actually, I haven't," Rory interjected, raising his index finger to get their attention, "Are they supposed to be a secret or something?"

"They aren't very good at the secret part, to be honest." The Doctor let a smile tug at the corner of his mouth.

"Isn't Torchwood-it's nearby isn't it? In England, I mean?" Caroline's eyes sparkled with hope. The Doctor wouldn't let those lights go out again. It was too painful to see her so upset, so downtrodden.

"The Torchwood Jack was affiliated with is in Cardiff, over a rift in time and space." He leaned in closer, his smile growing wider as he spoke. "Would you like to go?"

"Yes, Doctor, I very much would." Caroline grinned larger than she'd ever grinned before. Her face hurt from being stretched so wide. "Geronimo." The Doctor's eyebrows shot up and his mouth widened as he looked back from Caroline to Rory back to Caroline.

"Oh, that sounds more like the Thomas we all know and love! Geronimo indeed!" The Doctor leaped up and headed for the door, followed by Caroline and Rory. They reached the door, but before the Doctor could reach for the knob, Caroline stopped, making Rory stumble forward, trying not to collide with the little Time Lord.

"Oh! Wait!" She broke off from the group and headed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. "Just a mo! Don't leave!"

"Not going anywhere without you!" The Doctor called as she disappeared upstairs.

Caroline rushed to her room and dug out a satchel from under her bed. She grabbed the three books that sat on her bedside table, which were her very favorites: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Hobbit, and Goliath, the last installment of an American series she loved. Knowing the TARDIS would supply the necessities, Caroline took nothing else from her room, instead heading to her mother's bedroom.

She hesitated for a moment before pushing open the door and stepping inside the small space. Her mum had insisted Caroline take the bigger bedroom when they moved to this house and out of the city. She remembered how they had both slept in the little room for a week because neither wanted the larger room. Now the memory was bittersweet, constricting her hearts.

Caroline extracted a recent picture of her and her mum from its frame atop the dresser, sliding it between the pages of The Hobbit. Using all of her willpower not to run crying from the bedroom, Caroline twisted the knob on her mum's closet and pulled a frequently worn, brown knitted cardigan from the rack, folding it nicely on the bed and sliding it gently into her bag.

Moving on to the bedside table, she knelt in front of her mum's jewelry box, which had been passed down for generations. As much as Caroline wanted to bring along the beautifully decorated piece of history, she knew it was not practical.

Her fingers caught the lip of the lid and pulled it open, revealing all the prized possessions of the late Katie Thomas. She scooped them all up, the picture of her mum and Captain Jack outside the pub where they had met, Katie's mum's necklace, newborn Caroline's hospital bracelet, and a ring set with Katie's birthstone, an opal, dumping them into the satchel as gingerly as she could. She shut the box suddenly, ran a hand over the plain comforter, and swiftly exited the room, removing herself from the physical reminders of her mum like ripping off a sticky bandage. The quicker, the better.

Downstairs, Rory had seized the opportunity to talk while Caroline wasn't around, having turned to the Doctor as soon as she bolted upstairs.

"Does this Captain fellow even know Caroline exists? She said he left before she was born, maybe even before her mum told him about Caroline. It's possible he isn't even aware-I mean we can't just show up and say hey, this girl's your daughter and she's immortal, too! Who'd believe us?" Rory punctuated each sentence with vigorous hand motions. He was quite troubled.

"Captain Jack will believe anything I tell him. He's rather...open-minded." The Doctor gave Rory a look.

"But even if he did really believe you, if he doesn't want the responsibility of a child, he could just deny everything. We have no actual proof. That picture she has is just of him, she could've gotten that anywhere." The Doctor opened his mouth to counter argue, but Rory didn't give him a chance. "You know he could say that, Doctor. Then Caroline would be heartbroken again, knowing he really doesn't want her, not to mention being technically orphaned. This may not be such a good idea. Doctor, please see reason."

"Rory-"

"And you said he hasn't even seen you since this regeneration. How will he react to you? How will we even get in if he doesn't recognize you? I just don't know how this is going to work, Doctor. How can any of this go right?"

The Doctor didn't reply promptly, as Caroline was hastily descending the stairs, eyeing the two men she had come to admire. The twelve hundred year old alien man with a box that travelled through all time and space and the human man who had once travelled with the former man and was the father of a time traveling archaeologist.

Caroline almost giggled at the oddity of the whole thing. But the weight of the belongings in her bag stopped her.

The Doctor smiled at his young Time Lord companion, who, no doubt, was destined to bring about magnificent and unforgettable things and be the saviour of so many distant worlds. One day, at least.

He clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder, a hopeful twinkle in his unusually old eyes.

"Have faith, Rory. We've got two Time Lords now. Our plan will be very clever."