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lizbeeAn Unearthly Moppet
Chapter 1: The Two Moppets
In which a family reunion takes place, and laws of time are bent.
Prologue
Chapter One: The Two Moppets
Livia hit the console room floor with a loud smack, rolled over onto her back and groaned.
"This," she said, "is not the way I'd planned the evening to go."
Footsteps were approaching. Livia sat up and looked around. That was the problem with temporal distortion fields, you never knew quite when you were going to end up. This was the console room, yes, there was the faint smell of fused circuitry and tea in the air, but it was plain and white, and the console -- she saw as she stood up -- was not as she remembered.
"Bobby," she called softly, "Bobby? It's me, Livia. You can come out now, it's all right." The footsteps were getting closer. "Bobby? I was only joking about killing you..." She sighed. "Bobby! Get out here right now!"
"Goodness." Livia swung about, and found herself face to face with a girl a bit younger than her, with dark hair and delicate, elfin features. "Where ever did you come from?" the girl asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" An old man appeared behind the girl, white haired and angry and familiar. "She came from outside. Probably followed you from that school."
"But how would she get into the TARDIS?" The girl -- Susan, Livia realised, the niece some centuries her senior, whom she'd never met -- stared at her curiously. "She's not human, grandfather, look." Her fingers closed around Livia's wrist. "Why, she's from Gallifrey!"
Then, obviously realising what she'd said, and what it must mean, Susan slowly released Livia's hand and stepped back.
"I'm not," Livia said quickly, "I mean, I am in a sense, but not really, I'm a Time Lord, but I've never been to Gallifrey because I was born in another universe, and when we got back it was--" She ground to a painful halt and changed track. "Roundels! I really love what you're doing with the roundels. They really create an impression of ... space. Round space."
Two pairs of eyes, alike for more than the confusion both contained, stared at her.
"I'm just looking for my brother," Livia said.
"Your brother." He -- the Doctor -- her future father -- circled her thoughtfully. "You shouldn't be here. You'll put us all in danger."
"I didn't plan it," Livia snapped. "It's not as though I woke up this morning and thought, 'Oooh, what will make everyone's lives difficult? I know! I'll lose my little brother in a temporal distortion field, jump through it myself and end up messing about in the family timeline. That will be fun!'" She realised she was yelling, and lowered her voice. "This is turning into a difficult evening," she said, "and if you have Bobby stashed away somewhere, I'd be very grateful if you could just hand him over and let us be on our way." She paused, a nasty thought entering her mind. "If, that is, I can find a way back..."
"Young woman," said the Doctor, raising his eyebrows, "have you any idea of the damage you could be causing at this very minute?"
"There's a little voice in my head that's listing it all right this moment," Livia said. "It sounds a lot like my mother."
Susan was examining her, head tilted, eyebrows slightly raised.
"Your name is Livvy," she said. "I heard you calling him. And last week, I thought I heard something ... a little child, calling your name."
"Last week?" Livia groaned. "This is awful. My little brother's lost in the vastness of time and space, and I'm standing around chatting. How do I get out of here?"
"I have no idea," the Doctor said. His smile was impish, and a bit awful.
"Grandfather--"
Livia stamped her foot. "But you have to know! You're the Doctor, it's what you do!"
The Doctor stiffened. "I don't have to do anything, young lady, and I will not be dictated to by a child barely into her first decade at the Academy--"
"Grandfather, I remember reading--"
"'Child'? I'm eighteen years old -- nearly -- and you're not even five hundred, and this isn't fair." Livia raked a hand through her curls. "Think of the damage my presence must be doing to the fabric of time," she said. "Isn't that just the sort of thing that would attract attention on Gallifrey?"
In the silence that followed, Susan said, "Grandfather, I remember reading about temporal distortion fields at school."
"That ridiculous--"
"Not here," she added quickly, "at home. Livvy's one focal point of the distortion, and her brother's another. So if we bombard her with charged chronoton particles, we might be able to create a rift she can travel through."
The Doctor snorted and left, muttering, "Chronotons, chronotons, yes, yes, it could be done.""You learned that at school? On Gallifrey?" Livia asked Susan.
Susan looked innocent. "I did some extra reading," she said.
"You hacked into the Matrix, didn't you?"
"It was quite easy, really." Susan dropped her voice. "And Grandfather doesn't know it, but I have a third of the Panopticon Library's stock in my room."
"Wait 'til you see the overdue fees. Not that he can talk, he's got the Hand of Omega--" Livia broke off as the Doctor returned. Susan mouthed, Hand of Omega in silent horror, and sank into a chair, burying her face in her hands.
The Doctor was bustling about, building a chronoton generator out of what looked to Livia like the contents of the spare room. In fact, she was pretty sure her mother had tried to throw that particle amplifier away a few months earlier. Her father had sulked loudly for a day, before disappearing into the depths of the TARDIS. Livia hadn't said a word when the amplifier reappeared in a different cupboard.
"Would you like a hand?" she asked, and managed not to add a single pun about Omega. The Doctor looked up, startled.
"I work best alone," he said, but he was smiling when he returned to his work.
After a few minutes, he began to hum.
"Grandfather's rather set in his ways," Susan explained.
"I guess he'll mellow with age," said Livia.
Silence fell, and she cast about for a conversation topic that wouldn't destroy the timeline. Daleks? Never a good conversation-starter, also, she didn't think her father had met them yet. So, stolen any good artefacts of Rassilon lately?
"What's Gallifrey like?" she asked Susan suddenly.
"Have you really never seen it?"
"Never." Livia gave her the brightest smile she could muster. "We never seem to get around to it."
"It's terribly dull," Susan said. "But I used to watch the suns rise over the Citadel before my classes began, and it was ... lovely."
"Do you miss it?"
"No," said Susan, a bit too quickly. "No, it's better out here."
"Finished," said the Doctor, straightening up. "Unless you wish to continue reminiscing...?"
"No," said Livia, recognising the unspoken hint. She liked her father better when he was older, she decided. This Doctor didn't talk enough. It was disconcerting.
"Well," said Susan, "it was lovely meeting you. I suppose I'll see you again in the future."
"One day," said Livia, looking away.
"And good luck, finding your brother." She threw her arms around Livia's neck and whispered, "Grandfather really has the Hand of Omega?"
"Isn't it amazing what you throw in when you're packing in a hurry?"
"...I suppose so," said Susan, but she sounded skeptical. Behind them, the Doctor cleared his throat.
"Right," said Livia. "This is me, leaving." She squeezed Susan's arm and turned to leave. "Wait," she said, and stopped.
"I beg your pardon!" The Doctor's words were lost in a gasp of outrage as Livia hugged him. He gingerly disentangled himself and took a step back, looking both irritated and amused. "No time for that," he snapped, turning back to his particle generator.
Livia caught Susan's eye as she prepared to enter the distortion field. Susan was laughing. She said something as Livia took the final step, but the waters of eternity had closed over her head, and she didn't hear it. Instead, she was falling, falling forever, and for a moment she thought the Doctor had gotten it all wrong -- but then the distortion cleared, and she landed with a thump.
"Och," said a voice next to her ear. "Doctor, a wee lass just landed on me..."
Livia climbed to her feet, face flaming.
"Sorry," she said, and held out her hand to help him up, but at the same time she was registering that she had landed on a particularly handsome specimen of human. In a kilt. "Um," she said. In an ideal world, the distortion field would have opened up right there and swallowed her, but evidently she wasn't going to be that lucky.
"Oops," she said.
to be continued
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2007-12-04 11:34 pm (UTC)I'm so glad you're continuing this.
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Date: 2007-12-05 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 11:40 pm (UTC)Squashing Jamie = extra points!
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Date: 2007-12-05 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 12:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 04:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 04:14 am (UTC)And yes. Yes it is.
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Date: 2007-12-05 12:26 am (UTC)I liked that Livia hugged the Doctor.
I suspect this is going to be an Oddessy. 8-P
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Date: 2007-12-05 04:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 04:58 am (UTC)Yep.
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Date: 2007-12-05 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 02:16 am (UTC)Love this muchly!
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Date: 2007-12-05 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 04:21 am (UTC)Oh. I think I love Livia.
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Date: 2007-12-05 05:30 am (UTC)The way you have just *so much* canon/history/detail from crisscrossing timelines all in one space is squeeful.
Pure awesome!
ps, lovely Susan characterization!!
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Date: 2007-12-05 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 07:52 am (UTC)WelshGallifreyan, chosen by Romana on the grounds the Doctor could give her a nickname? Like Liviantrixingrel? Is her middle name Fred? ;) Are we going to get to see Bobby's side of the adventure? I'm only asking all these questions because I'm lovin' the crack preunions and want to know more!ETA: Del'td and reposted due to HTML phail. Sorry!
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Date: 2007-12-05 10:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 05:23 pm (UTC)I love how Livia recognizes the Doctor immediately. And the deft way she changed the subject to the roundness of roundels. And her inner critic sounding like Romana (*cries!*). And stubborn!FirstDoctor. And his and Susans' incorrigible magpie tendencies (the Hand of Omega, bwah). And the hug. Livia clearly has good priorities. And her destination... hee! I'm so glad you're continuing the Moppetfic, because it's brilliant in all the right ways.
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Date: 2007-12-06 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 09:56 pm (UTC)what isn't there not to like?
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Date: 2007-12-08 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-11 09:22 pm (UTC)please let Susan be Livia's daughter? PLEASE?
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Date: 2007-12-11 09:50 pm (UTC)