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It hadn't been his plan to just bugger about on Earth after the Autons.
He couldn't help his attachment to humans, so while he was on the planet, the Doctor figured why not check out a few big ticket historical events that no companions had ever ask him to visit. Maybe even help out a little, save a life or two.
It was even less his plan to come back onto his ship to find a young woman propped casually against his console, sipping at what both smelled like and appeared to be a strawberry-banana smoothie, judging by the pink and yellow swirls visible in the transparent side of the plastic cup.
The Doctor froze in his tracks against the TARDIS door.
It was no easy feat to gain access to his ship without his express permission. He looked her over with careful eyes.
Young, probably early-to-mid twenties. She was pretty, large blue eyes, dirty blonde hair in a half-up style. She wore a bomber jacket over a forest green blouse, paired with ripped jeans and hot pink low-top converses. She had a pair of aviator style sunglasses sitting on top of her head, the silver of the frames catching in the light of the central column of the TARDIS. She didn't flinch at all when he took a few steps closer, took his sonic screwdriver from his pocket, and gave her a scan.
He reached out mentally to the TARDIS, who maintained purposeful silence.
"Don't panic." She said casually, obviously knowing what it was about to reveal to him.
"W- Who are you?" The Doctor cocked his head to the side, utter confusion on his face. "How'd you get in here?"
"I walked." She replied, sitting the smoothie down in a cup holder on the console, not having to look to locate it. The Doctor was a bit stunned by how familiar with his ship this woman seemed to be.
"Who are you, exactly?" The Doctor repeated.
"My name is Mia." She replied, giving him a smile. The Doctor felt a bit of deja vu, which unnerved him more. Time Lords were not supposed to experience the oh too human feeling that was deja vu.
"Nice to meet you, I suppose, Mia." He replied, shrugging his leather coat off and hanging it on a railing to dry from the rain that had pelted him on his way back in from his last solo adventure. "I'm the Doctor."
"I'm aware." She grinned again.
The Doctor was getting a bit tired of not understanding the woman, this Time Lord, the sonic scan had informed him, who had appeared out of nowhere.
"I'm sorry to be a rough host," He started crossing his arms and propping in a mirror of her position on one of the railings near the door. "But seriously, how the hell did you get in here?"
"Einstein-Rosen Bridge, third door on the left before the galley." She replied, nodding toward the door to the main hull of the ship.
"That's impossible." He nearly whispered, feeling a bit dizzy. He'd just escaped the Moment, he'd just taken out all of his people.
She shouldn't exist.
"Improbable at best, my dad would say." She shrugged.
"No, because the other TARDISes are all gone." He remarked. "You can't have a wormhole into mine if you don't have a genetically related TARDIS. This one is the last of her lineage."
"I have a TARDIS of genetic relation to this one." She replied. "Grown from a coral strut piece over by the door. I was born on this ship- Or, at least I will be. She knows me, I'm no stranger"
"Excuse me?" He barked. "I don't know what you're playing at but-"
"Oh calm down." She laughed. "Oncoming Storm need not wined just now. I have found myself in a bit of flux, you see. Temporal cellular uncertainty, like my timeline was threatened. Then got to talking to my parents, turns out that I need to provide the push for my own existence, because they're too daft to know they need each other. Fun little bootstrap I've found myself in." She seemed bizarrely humored as she told him about the supposed paradox she was involved in.
"So there are others?" The Doctor ask. "Other Time Lords survived? I find them?"
"Oh." Her grin faltered slightly. "Spoilers."
"Listen my patience is about to run out, kid." He growled.
"You're not the last, no. But that has exactly zero amount to do with me." She smiled warmly again. "I'm just here to tell you to ask again."
"What?" The Doctor scoffed back, twisting his face in annoyance and confusion.
"Ask. Again." She repeated, firmer.
Mia gave a jerk of her head and she seated herself on the bench behind the console, so the Doctor came up and sat on the other end, facing the girl.
Up close he could see her features better.
Freckles.
Bright blue eyes.
Mouth a bit large but gave a beautiful smile.
"Ask who what?" He demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Rose Tyler. Ask her again." Mia explained finally.
That's when it clicked for the Doctor.
Those features. The familiar smile. Two hearts- anatomically Gallifreyan.
His confusion on his face melted into recognition- first a bit of shock, then a grin spread across his face.
"Mia." He addressed her, allowing a fondness to his voice. Something he never thought he'd have again, the fondness held when speaking to one of his children.
"Hey, dad." She smiled. "I knew you'd figure me out. Took ya a bit longer than I'd thought. You always like to think you're so clever."
"I am so clever." He defended.
"Clearly not if I had to go through all this trouble. I had other things to do this afternoon." She joked.
"Good thing you have a time machine, eh?" He grinned back.
"That's what you have to say." She replied excitedly. "Thirty seconds after you leave, phase back. Mention the TARDIS also travels in time."
"And that's that, then?" He ask, amused.
Rose Tyler was brilliant, she'd saved him at great personal risk.
She was also very beautiful, only a fool would deny that. Clearly Mia took more after Rose in that aspect, and now that he knew it, he could see it all over her.
He assumed this was Rose's natural hair color under the bottle blonde, and those were absolutely his eyes.
"That's that." She grinned. "Like a bad penny after that, afraid you're stuck with her."
The Doctor looked at his daughter for a long moment, then gave her another grin.
"Thanks." He said softly.
"You gotta let me lock this meeting up in your noggin, ya know?" She said, knocking at her own head. "Set it to release when I ask about it."
"Yeah, right." He nodded. "Fair enough. Let me walk you to the bridge door?"
"Sentimental old man." She teased. "Come on."
She lead him down the TARDIS hallway, pausing before what was absolutely a new door. She held her arms out, and he wrapped her in a somewhat awkward-from-his-side hug.
"See you soon, kid." He grinned, leaning forward so she could place her first two fingers on each hand to his temples. She carefully folded their encounter into a box in his mind, with a timed release to let her know to come back. When she released him she grinned as she stepped through the door.
"Go ask again."