1 The Nicest Places

"The TARDIS seems a bit tetchy this morning," Donna observes as she enters the Console room, somehow managing to maintain a level grip on her coffee cup despite the pitching of the floor.

"She's been acting a bit strange this past month, ever since I got the helmic regulator fixed," the Doctor replies, focused on making adjustments to the instruments.

"Landing us underwater on that ice moon, while amazing, was a bit odd. And that spaceship falling into a sentient sun that could possess anyone who looked at it—not fun," Rose points out with a pained expression "Do you think we should stop by the Rift? Maybe She needs to balance some doodad, or a power boost would help align the inclusions or…something," she rattles off from where she's strapped to the jump seat, still looking slightly put out by being restrained.

Dougie and Jack are helping the Doctor pilot, but mostly everyone is hanging on-traveling through the Vortex today feels a bit like the pitching waves of a stormy ocean.

"Rose! You're brilliant! That's exactly where we'll go as soon as we do whatever it is that the TARDIS wants us to do…wherever it is…we're going to do…it…yup, doing something," the Doctor says, sounding just as unsure as everyone feels about the mystery tour.

"If we don't land soon, my toast might not stay where I put it," Rose gasps, looking a bit green around the edges.

Glancing over his shoulder with a sympathetic look to his wife, the Doctor attempts to sooth her telepathically. Instead, he gets an annoyed flash of reddish aggravation from her.

-I'd feel better if I was doing something and not strapped down like a delicate teacup!- she fumes.

-Rooooose, it's for you and the baby's protection. It would do neither one of you any good to get tossed around and hurt.-

"Wherever we're going, we'll be there soon," the Doctor tells them, looking at the monitor. He'd left the choice of destination up to the TARDIS today. It hadn't occurred to him, that She would have a hard time getting them wherever She wanted to go. The space time symbols were almost aligned, though, so wherever "there" was about to be, they'd find out momentarily.

Considering how much tossing the TARDIS had done in flight, Her landing is surprisingly gentle. Rose thanks Her for that, as she finally slaps the release for her harness and shakily gets to her feet.

"Oi, I am glad that's over," she says, straightening her dress and smoothing her hair.

"Right, I nearly spilt my coffee twice," Donna says as she swallows the last of it. It never stopped amazing Rose that no matter how bumpy things got, Donna was always solid, like she was born on the sea or something.

"How do you do that, Donna? I'd have been wearing the entire cup with the first jolt."

"Many years of practise moving through busy offices havin' to avoid all sorts of idiots. Bein' the best temp ever is more than just typin' a million words a minute. It's also being able to navigate any and all situations while never dropping a cup of coffee," she answers Rose's query with a self-satisfied grin.

"Well, you must have been a sailing ship captain in your last life with sea legs like that. I think I'm jealous," Rose teases her, grinning.

"Maybe. I like that—Captain Donna, scourge of the high seas!" she replies, laughing.

They step from the TARDIS, finding themselves in a tunnel of some sort, littered with piles of semi-organised debris. The walls and ceiling curve away on all sides and appear to be made from some sort of brick with cabling running along the edges—definitely a higher level of technology by the looks of the stacks of materials and equipment laying around.

"You take us to the nicest places, Doc," Jack quips, looking around at the mess.

The Doctor snorts in amusement at Jack as he and Rose move hand in hand further into the area. Rose moves a little ahead of the Doctor looking at a pallet of what appears to be food replicator parts when he gets distracted by something interesting as well. All five of them are filtered in amongst the crates, pallets, and piles when they hear steps running their way.

"Stop! Hands up!" a young soldier shouts as he moves determinedly towards them, gun raised, followed by two of his mates. Moving quickly to Rose's side with his hands up, the Doctor steps in front of them all.

"Look, hands up. No weapons. Never any weapons, us," he tells them earnestly. Everyone has their hands raised turning them back and forth, showing the three young men that there are definitely no weapons in them.

"Look at their hands," one young man says, astonishment plan on his face. "They're clean."

"How can they be clean? Where'd they come from then?" another asks.

"I don't know, and I don't care. Take them!" The first young man who must be their leader orders as he steps forward grabbing the Doctor with his gun still raised. The other two move past to round up Rose, Jack, and the others. Once they're all covered under the soldiers weapons, the one in charge drags the Doctor down the tunnel toward a large ugly device squatting on the floor. He unceremoniously shoves his arm into it up to the armpit, despite the Doctor's many protestations of coming in peace and meaning no harm.

Rose steps forward protectively as the Doctor cries out in obvious discomfort, but she's tossed back toward her friends by one of the soldiers.

"Let him go! What are you doing to him?" she cries out, once Dougie sets her back on her feet.

"It just took a tissue sample. Must be some sort of extrapolator. Ow! And another one…what's it extrapolating?" the Doctor ponders aloud in the midst of the process. The machine finally belches him out, and as he stumbles back from it, Rose rushes forward grabbing his injured hand. It now has two scrapes across the top of it that still ooze a bit of blood.

Donna moves up to Rose's side as Dougie and Jack spread out a bit, trying to watch the soldiers and their friends all at the same time.

"What could be the point of the device, Doctor?" Dougie asks, glancing at the back of his hand, but the Doctor's potential answer is cut off as a nearby machine winds up and begins fuming smoke; emitting a blue light. Suddenly a pair of doors open and as the smoke clears a fit young woman steps forward. She's a little taller than Rose with blond hair and bright dark eyes. She looks around herself without a shred of awkwardness, like she owns the place. The leader of the three soldiers walks directly to her and hands her one of the giant guns telling her to familiarise herself with it.

"Who the hell is that? Donna asks sharply, looking at the young lady sceptically.

The Doctor and Rose on the other hand are staring at her. Awestruck for Rose's part, and with a healthy layer of distaste on the Doctors'.

"Progenation," the Doctor says quietly in explanation. Looking back down at the wounds on his hand, he flashes back to a scene between he and Rose just that morning in the kitchen.

"Come on, you blasted thing," the Doctor says bitterly to the recalcitrant jam jar in his hand.

He'd finished the marmalade yesterday and had spent most of the night excited at the prospect of a fresh jar of razzleberry preserves they'd picked up on the recent shopping trip, but he can't get it open. Superior Time Lord strength, and the jar is mocking him.

"What's wrong, luv?" Rose asks as she walks in, still fluffing her freshly washed hair.

"The jar is mocking me, Rose," the Doctor replies petulantly.

"Do you want me to try?" she asks, grinning at him.

"No, I don't want you to try. I can get this." With a herculean effort, the Doctor lets out a satisfied HA! followed immediately by a yowl of pain as the back of his hand holding the lid slams into the cabinet edge from the force he'd been exerting. He drops the lid to the counter indignantly, stuffing both fingers into the jam in retaliation. As if the jar cares how he eats it.

"Doctor! Spoon!" Rose laughs at him, trying to recover from the hilarity of the situation. She grabs his hand as he's pulling it from the jar, two fingers laden with deep purple jam. Stilling at her touch, he watches wide-eyed as Rose slips his jam covered fingers slowly into her open mouth, watching his face the entire time.

"Guh" Is all the Doctor can say as she slowly removes his fingers from her mouth, making certain her quick little tongue catches all the jam, and humming her appreciation at the tastiness as she does so. With a satisfied smacking of lips, she swallows the jam, grinning at him again with her tongue caught in her teeth.

"You're right, jam is better that way," she teases him. Rose watches as he blushes from the roots of his perfectly askew hair, to the soles of his feet, which was entirely her intention. "Now let's have a look at that hand," she says turning it over, and seeing the dent the cabinet had made and a slight purpling. He'd actually hit it hard enough to get a bruise; that was impressive.

"Oh, I bet that hurt," she says with sincere concern. Bringing the back of his hand to her mouth she breathes over it lightly before gingerly pressing her lips to the bruise. "There, all better!" she proclaims, beaming at him and dropping his hand unceremoniously.

He reaches for her attempting to reestablish the connection, hoping to pull her to him, but laughingly she dances away.

"Oh, no! That's for the shower this morning, you frustrating git!" Shrieking in delight, she runs around the other side of the table as he lunges for her.

"Come 'ere; you must need a Doctor, Rose Tyler," he teases her back, trying to catch her against the table and snog her senseless. They're interrupted by Jack, Donna, and Dougie entering the galley to make breakfast before they start their day.

He's gazing steadily at his hand—"the hand"—when Donna swats him, asking what the hell progenation is.

"Reproduction from a single organism. It takes the diploids and turns them into haploids, then recombines them in a different range to grow…quite rapidly, too…a new organism," he explains, staring at the young woman. Meeting Rose's eyes, he sees her understanding of what he isn't saying.

"Spaceman, are you trying to tell me they made her…from you?"

"Yes. She's my…our daughter," he says quietly, feeling Rose stiffen beside him.

"Hi Dad, Mum!" she says brightly, blinking happily at them while holding a truly enormous gun.

Rose is just about to say something when they hear more movement. Another group of soldiers is heading their way from the direction of the TARDIS.

"It's the Hath," the young man yells. "Take positions." The young soldiers and the newly formed woman step up to a makeshift barricade as they begin firing toward the oncoming assailants. As the bullets begin to fly, the Doctor tells the rest of them to get down.

Why do they always have to shoot first? he thinks in frustration. Crouching down and attempting to hide from the ricocheting bullets, the group gets somewhat separated. Looking around for Rose and the others, he see's her behind some crates to his left, Donna and Jack under a partially fallen beam, and Dougie crouching beside him looking around for a place to run. Neither Dougie nor the Doctor notice the Hath that have come up silently from the rear.

Being grabbed from behind, the Doctor and Dougie are pulled toward the direction they had originally come from. With a distracting shout from the Doctor, the soldiers turn and are nearly overrun by the remaining invaders, two of the young men falling to the hail of bullets.

Grabbing Rose and herding Donna and Jack with them, the leader of the soldiers begins dragging them further down the hallway—away from the Doctor and Dougie. Yelling at the girl to grab the detonator, he continues trying to push Rose and the others away.

Rose can hear the Doctor yelling to be "let go" and "no" to the detonating as he's being dragged away by the Hath. Reaching for him telepathically, she feels how worried he is for her. She tries to tell him she's alright when an explosion roars out, nearly deafening them all. When they're able to look around, Rose sees the tunnel has been sealed off, and peering through the settling dust, she notices Dougie is missing, too. So Dougie and the Doctor are on the other side of an impenetrable wall surrounded by hostile aliens. At least the cave-in buried the machine that had used the Doctor's genetic material. Hopefully that would keep them from being able to use it again. Rose can only imagine that the Doctor will NOT be okay with these people making more…of whatever she is, from him.

"What have you done?" Rose asks the soldiers dangerously, her eyes glinting gold.

"I'd thought you'd be happy, Mum; Cline lost both his men," the young woman says with a shrug.

"Come on. I'm taking you all to General Cobb. He'll know what to do, and you need to be processed. With so many of you clean, we can progenate an entire platoon from ya, come morning cycle," he says with a smile. The young man, Cline, seriously thinks they should be happy about this.

"But we can't leave our friends," Jack says earnestly. "We have to rescue them from the Hath."

"That's impossible. Now go on, that way," Cline tells them, gesturing with his chin down the tunnel and raising his gun to remind them he still has it. "And welcome to Messaline." Following the young woman, the three unwilling prisoners head out. Cline follows behind keeping an eye out for more Hath.

A/N: Hello! Here's the first chapter in my new story, Something to Live For. Obviously, we've started right off on Messaline. We know how that one ends up, but I wanted to reinterpret it if Genny was left with Rose instead of the Doctor, and I like my ending better. -grin-

I have borrowed dialog where it was too good to not use, though of course I own nothing from Dr. Who or the BBC. I just tinker with it. :-)

I have decided to call our girl, Genny from Genetic Anomaly. I just think it looks more interesting.

Please enjoy. This will be another long fic. I'm working on double digit chapters as I write this. :-) Many thanks to the most patient and brilliant Beta, Ashlanielle.

I have a very clear vision for this overall story with lots of ups and downs, but I do have one major event of both varieties planned. I am a happy ending kind of girl, so when we get there trust me, I promise it gets better. :-)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks so much! Cheers!