Chapter Text
At times like this, he HATED Rose. He HATED Torchwood. He HATED this life. Most of all, he HATED being without the TARDIS.
Yeah, he definitely hated that one most out of everything.
As he tried to calm his mind, he slid down the wall onto his bed and let the Donna side of him take over. That always helped. As he did so, the futility of his anger struck him. He turned his head and caught sight of his piece of coral growing nicely into a little TARDIS, and his name badge sitting on the side of the bed. “John Marvin Noble” it read. Donna had named him that. He chuckled thinking how she’d thought it funny to add the ‘Marvin’ part so that he wouldn’t forget he was part Martian. Trust Donna.
She’d helped him make up his family history too. Originally, he had wanted to call the Doctor and Donna his parents, but Donna wasn’t having any of that. They shared life histories so that made them siblings, she had said. It led to her threatening him with death by “Eastenders” (“Spooks” would be way too vicious in comparison: Ian Beale would never cook your head in batter) unless he said she was his sister and the Doctor was his brother. To add to his story, he even had a photograph to show people his brother and sister.
He was glad he had the photo of the three of them together. It had him in the middle, so it was easy to describe. Jackie had thought to take it with her camera phone on that special day.
Later, he had had the photo enlarged, placed in a silver frame and put on show in pride of place in his room.
Donna had pointed out that that made Sylvia his mother and Wilf his grandfather. He was perfectly happy to accept Wilf as his grandfather; but Sylvia as his mother? It didn’t bear thinking about. So Donna had suggested calling Sylvia his stepmother. Haha! Yeah, he liked that better. It suited Sylvia being a wicked stepmother. That had earned him a slap, and a hug, from Donna. She said that’s what sisters do; and who was he to argue with her.
Yes, he was very grateful to have that photo so that he could refer to it and boast about. It was nice to tell people he had family again, that he was the ‘baby’ out of the three of them. Trying to sound nonchalant, he often spoke of his brother who was a doctor, the Doctor; but not many people asked his name, if they did, he said “Jamie”. In reality, he spoke more about his sister, Donna, who had always looked after him so well.
She’d be really annoyed with him now for sulking in here rather than going out there and saying ‘sorry’ to Rose.
What he liked best was being able to tell people how he would go and look at the stars with his grandfather, Wilf. Well, he wished he could have done that in person, but that, along with many other things, was an impossible dream.
Still, when his son or daughter was eventually born he’d be able to tell them about his family far away. It’s important to have roots and know where you came from. He had the past sorted out. All he had to do now was get a grip on the present. He wished he had his brother and sister to help with that too.