Nobody Likes Family Reunions (Nine, Susan, Kenzi)

[The First Doctor]

“Credit to the family?” she repeated, rolling her eyes. “Just get me down.”

"'Course she is," the Doctor answered, sawing at the ropes, "And I'm working on it."

Several seconds passed, and the girl (should he call her Kenzi? Great-granddaughter?) joined in working on the knots.

“Why are you jumping up and down?” Arkytior asked wearily.

"It may have escaped your notice, since we are more resistant to environmental extremes than humans, but it is remarkably cold in here. As my boots are still hanging from the ceiling, I'm trying to avoid letting the soles of my feet freeze to the deck."

And then he laughed. "Listen to me. I'm talking like I did, five hundred years ago."

But his laughter died as he botched his attempt to tell his granddaughter that he loved her, and as he saw the bitterness flare in her eyes.

With a final, bitter, and somewhat violent, kick of her legs, the ropes broke. She sat up and rubbed her ankles. “I wonder if bad parenting is genetic,” Susan muttered, standing up."

"I don't think so," the Doctor answered, even though he knew it was a rhetorical question. "My father was far better than I ever gave him credit for, and your parents... well, they didn't get their parenting skills from me."

“We can deal with this later. Right now I just want to get the hell out of here,” she said blandly.

"That's probably for the best," the Doctor agreed, taking an experimental leap for his boots. His hand fell far short.

“I don’t think this is a coincidence. I mean… what were the chances of all three of us being at my apartment at the exact time that they decided to take us?” she asked. “That is why I have two possibilities!” she said, smacking a fist against her open palm.

A second leap. He got a little closer, but slipped on a patch of ice as he landed and crashed to the ground in an undignified heap. "Two, you say?"

“Well. Three, actually, if you want to count my Omniscient Being hypothesis. But I doubt you will.”

He sat up, brushed frost from his jacket, and smiled. "I've met a few, and I'm willing to entertain the idea, but let's see if we can't get by without a MOOOB."

She shrugged off the last comment. “My first possibility is that maybe they wanted the Doctor. I mean… ‘Susan Foreman’ isn’t even on the lease of my apartment. People know me as Pelafina Himmel there. And I haven’t used Arkytior since… well, you know. There’s nothing special about me. But you’re like… the Moby Dick to all the Ahabs of the world.” She glanced in Kenzi’s direction. “And it doesn’t even know what it is.”

"Really?" Kenzi asked in a mocked half hurt manner. "It...really I'm It now?" she asked cocking her head to the side a little in curiosity at Susan's statement regarding her.

"Nothing special?" He sounded indignant as he clambered back to his feet. "Nothing special? Young lady, you are one of three surviving Time Lords in the entire universe!" He shook his finger at her, clearly (if unconsciously) falling back into ancient patterns. "And you are my granddaughter! Of course you're special! Oh, and she is your daughter! Not an it!"

The two Time Lords glared at each other, and then he turned away. "So don't... don't be like me. Don't alienate your family, and everyone you've ever loved."

“And for my last guess…? Bounty hunters. Always bounty hunters.”

"Bounty hunters are a strong possiblility, yes."

"Ok well from what I got of your conversations....I'm something called a Time Lord....Time Lady or whatever I'don'tknow nor do I right now!" she stated matter of factly before continuing. "All I wanna do is blast their faces off and kick them.....really really hard for grabbing us."

He gave Kenzi an appraising look. "No, you're a Gallifreyan. There's nearly a century of education ahead of you, before you could really call yourself a Time Lord." He grinned. "But we can worry about that later. Right now, let's see about putting the boot in on someone."

He paused, and looked down at his stockinged feet. One of his big toes was slightly visible through a small hole in the white athletic socks. "Well, put the toe in, anyway."

[Susan Foreman]

She watched the Doctor as he leaped for his shoes. “Nothing special?” he berated, glaring at her. “Young lady, you are one of three surviving Time Lords in the entire universe! And you are my granddaughter! Of course you’re special!”

Susan rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “I hardly constitute as a ‘Time Lord’, especially when I can’t control it. Face it, gramps. The only thing special about me is that the granddaughter of the great and mighty Doctor could be such a failure,” she said irritably.

“Really? I’m It now?”

Susan blinked, slightly confused. “Oh, and she is your daughter! Now an it!”

“It?” she repeated dumbly, watching as the Doctor wagged his finger angrily at her. It reminded her faintly of something that he used to do when she mildly annoyed him. She returned the glare, feeling the warm flush of anger. “I just don’t believe it.”

She looked at him, feeling more irritated than she had been previously. “It’s not my family, and I’ve never loved it-her-the kid,” she snapped, waving a hand dismissively in Kenzi’s general direction.

Will you just concentrate on getting out?[/color] she harassed herself.

Arkytior rubbed her arms and looked around. “Why are you chased by bounty hunters?” she asked, looking over at Kenzi with a raised eyebrow. “You know what? Nevermind. I don’t think I want to know.”

“But we can worry about that later.”

“We’re keeping it?” Susan demanded, not quite enjoying the implication of ‘we’.

She stared at the Doctor as he joked about his sock. Unsure of how to respond, she walked away. “Maybe if we kill each other and begin to cannibalize one another they’ll come in and separate us. Assuming we’re being recorded, anyway.”

She pushed against the door. [/size][/font]

[Archetype2]

"No, you're a Gallifreyan. There's nearly a century of education ahead of you, before you could really call yourself a Time Lord." He grinned. "But we can worry about that later." The Doctor had explained upon Kenzi's short half explination of what she'd gotten from the conversation.

A century of school? Nuh-uh no freaken way! Kenzi thought with a frown: she hated school, heck she'd barely passed most of her claasses except the history stuff and a bit of the math....and Machanics, she'd always loved machanics. A small smile slipped onto Kenzi's face as she thought of one of her best classes throughout highschool....good times.

Watching the Doctor attempt to regain his boots she laughed as he apparently failed at doing so. Smiling, The somewhat shorter girl walked over and jumped up a few times till she managed to grab the boots and dangled from them for a few seconds. With her remaining free hand, she began to fiddle with knot, taking several minutes to undo it and fell to the ground, Doctor's boots falling beside her as she released them upon floor-to-body impact.

""We're keeping it?" Susan had asked. This caught Kenzi's attention and she frowned kind of sadly. If she thought correctly Susan was talking about her...wasn't she? That was rather hurtful if that was what she meant.

Standing up somewhat, Kenzi began to fiddle with her boot clip till parto f hte metal came out. Everyone knew that with all doors, there was a sacurity hole, one small enough to poke a little metal thing into.

Carefully, Kenzi poked the little metal piece from her boot into the hole, almost so tiney it would otherwise be missed unless you were looking for it. After a few seconds of fiddling, the doors began to slowely slide open, slower then normal because it was a forced opening but nontheless.

"Well, whadayaknow, looks like we don't have to do the eat eachother thing." she announced with a large grin on her face. "You learn so many things the teachers don't know you're learning in Machanics....specially with my friends." she said still grinning as she stepped out into the hallway. Chances were the alarms would go off eventually.

[The First Doctor]

Susan rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “I hardly constitute as a ‘Time Lord’, especially when I can’t control it. Face it, gramps. The only thing special about me is that the granddaughter of the great and mighty Doctor could be such a failure,” she said irritably.

"You've had the training," he said patiently, "and you've had your Initiation. And I have yet to see any proof that you're a failure. The simple fact that you survived Gallifrey proves that."

The two of them fell to bickering about the appropriate pronoun to use to address Kenzi as his great-granddaughter recovered his boots for him. "Thank you," he said, gratefully shoving his feet back in.

With his feet warm, he was feeling a lot better. Better enough to laugh at Kenzi's expression when he mentioned school. "Really, my dear," he told her, "It's only a century. Hardly worth mentioning, really."

“We’re keeping it?” Susan demanded, not quite enjoying the implication of ‘we’.

He didn't miss the look on her face at being called an "it" though, and he gave Arkytior his best disappointed look.

It really wasn't very good. He was all too aware of how little ground he had to stand on, when it came to disapproving of how someone treated family.

And then there was an audible click and a low rumbling sound,a nd the door ground open.

"Well, whadayaknow, looks like we don't have to do the eat eachother thing." Kenzi announced with a large grin on her face. "You learn so many things the teachers don't know you're learning in Machanics....specially with my friends." she said still grinning as she stepped out into the hallway.

"Of course we're keeping her," he said, grinning back. "Like I said before: credit to the family."

[Susan Foreman]

“You’ve had the training, and you’ve had your Initiation. And I have yet to see any proof that you’re a failure.”

Susan scoffed. Apparently the Doctor hadn’t noted how Susan had hit the proverbial bottom. She had been involved in a plot to kill him, and he was still insisting that she wasn’t a failure? The plot had ended up with a gun being held to her head – by him, no less, although admittedly a different incarnation of him – and she had encouraged being shot? She had wanted to die and she should be dead and both of them knew it, so why was he insisting that she wasn’t a failure?

“The simple fact that you survived Gallifrey proves that.”

“But I shouldn’t have, should I? You told me the Daleks destroyed my timeline. So how do I exist? Why do I still have some memories of a time that shouldn’t’ve happened?” Susan demanded, frustrated. “How does Kenzi exist if I never should have met David? And why do I remember her brother but not her?”

The sad look that Kenzi passed her way hardly fazed Susan. She was determined to get rid of this girl, even if she did turn out to be Susan’s daughter in the long run. If the Doctor took her in, it wouldn’t make much of a difference to her. Let Kenzi fill in for Susan’s spot as the lonely Doctor’s family member. “Shut up,” she muttered, crossing her arms defensively.

She looked up and saw the Doctor looking at her, showing his disappoint. She gave him her best ‘don’t-stare-at-me-or-I’ll-rip-out-your-eyeballs’ look for a few seconds before turning around grumpily. Stupid old man. Stupid brilliant old man.

“Well whadayaknow,”

“That I obviously didn’t raise you or you wouldn’t have used ‘whadayaknow’.”

“Looks like we don’t have to do the eat each other thing,” the girl announced. Susan looked over her shoulder grouchily to see Kenzi slipping out into the hallway.

Susan’s expression went blank. A tiny flicker of a memory came back to her.

Alex, maybe fifteen in this memory although he had always been tall, twirled a paperclip in his hand having just opened a locked door with it. And Susan – already a widow at a little over one hundred years, barely more than a child herself – affectionately muttered something about having to buy a new keypad lock.

She put a hand to her forehead, breath catching in her throat.

“Of course we’re keeping her,” the Doctor’s voice broke through. Susan blinked and looked up. “Like I said before: credit to the family.”

She nodded quietly, trying to cling to the memory of her son. She was already beginning to forget it. “Right,” she said unenthusiastically, following Kenzi’s lead and stepping out into the hall.

[Archetype2]

Kenzi eyed Susan for a second, a flicker of sadness passing her eyes ever so briefly as she realized that Susan didn't seem to care about her that much....thats just not fair! What did she do wrong? Seriously!

"Yeah, you're stuck with me now, thank you very much." she said sarcastically.

Slipping into the hallway, the girl scanned the area as fast as she could to make sure no one was around, much to her annoyance there was someone there, one of the Aswang with it's back turned away from them. He wouldn't be turned around for long though Kenzi knew that much and so, she acted. Running at top speed, the young women grabbed the Aswang around the neck and pulled him down to the ground.

The creature struggled but made no attempts to set off any alarms. The creature's teeth showed quickly as it cocked its head toward her arm and chomped down on her wrist, leaving teeth marks and blood where it bit. "OW!" shrieked pulling back and releasing the canabalistic alien as she did. "You bit me! Not cool!" she exclaimed kicking him as she flew to her feet. "Please don't let him have rabies or something!" she whispered begging to whichever merciful being was out there if there was one.

“That I obviously didn’t raise you or you wouldn’t have used ‘whadayaknow’.” Susan had said in response to her earlier exclimation when she'd opened the door.

Looking over at Susan, "Yeah you can blame Eva for that one." she replied simply. Eyes snapping back to her wrist in all its now injured glory. The Doctor knew lots of people, or so Kenzi'd gathered from the conversation so maybe he knew Eva...when she was still alive that is!

"Stupid people-eating-freaktart." she complained analysing her wrist and surrounding parts of her arm for any more damage and rekicking the unconcious Aswang in the head.