The Other Tyler
My name is Daisy. I'm sixteen and a half and I live in London with my mum and dad, our dog Marcel and just occasionally my sister, Rose.
I'm the second child in the family, but since I was four I have more or less grown up as an only child. Granted, my sister is (technically) twenty years older than me, and expected to have her own life, but the reasons behind my solo upbringing are not so easily explained. At first, the two of us were very close, but after my fourth birthday, the 1st July in case you're interested. I started seeing less and less of my sister.
My mum Jackie put it down to a special project in Torchwood, the company which Rose was the head of. They told me it dealt in electronics, but even as a child I don't think I completely believed them. I accepted that, because at first it was only one or two days that she was gone for. But then the days turned in to weeks at a time, then months, then she was away more than she was at home, and I had no idea where she went.
I would often have strange dreams where I was with her in various parts of London and around the country; occasionally we also seemed to be on different planets. But that wasn't possible, as my mum and dad told me when I informed them about my strange night-time adventures. I did notice they were completely silent whenever I was telling them what was going on though.
I could tell my mum and dad were worried although they kept on being cheerful and upbeat in front of me, but children have that scary ability to see straight through people and more than once I pressed them about where my sister was and why she was never home for Christmas or my birthday.
"She's just busy with work, love." answered my mother.
When I hit twelve, my dreams got more intense and more obscure. I was always somewhere with my sister, who strangely enough never seemed to age, but there was this man there, tall, skinny, messy brown hair, glasses, and a pinstriped suit. She always just missed him, or just kept out of the way if they ended up in the same place. Heaven only knows why. It seemed so real though.
I hadn't seen my sister in four years. I've got used to it. I didn't really miss her anymore, or at least I told myself I didn't. If anything, I was angry with her. As cliché as it is, when you get to my age, you sometimes just wish you had an older sister to talk things through with, someone who had been there before and who would be on your side when you were up against the parents. I was left to my own devices.
It was about one o'clock in the morning, and I was half asleep doing my Geography GCSE Coursework. I found school incredibly easy, but also incredibly boring because of that. My parents were out at some kind of pre-wedding party with the people from Torchwood, my dad worked there too. I was just about dozing off at my desk, when Marcel starting barking furiously, it was raining too, very horror-movie esque.
"Daft dog, what the heck is it?" I muttered.
She was downstairs and I flicked on the lights as I made my way to the kitchen, where the noise was coming from. She came running out to me, being a Border collie she was pretty fast, and almost knocked me over, I grabbed her collar to quieten her down, and then froze. I could hear someone at the back door, fiddling with the lock. I froze. My parents would never come in the back door.
I was immensely glad to have a dog with me as I grabbed my hockey stick from by the piano, which mum had told me to take to my room five weeks ago, but never mind that, and tiptoed into the kitchen.
"Who's there? I'll call the police!" I called; I could hear my own voice shaking.
The lock stopped being played with, and I breathed a sigh of relief as things fell silent, I seemed to have scared whoever it was away. Then I saw a figure through the frosted glass, and a chill went down my spine. I couldn't believe what I heard just then.
"Daisy? Is that you?" came a very familiar voice after a moment.
I paused, "…Rose?"
I ran forward, Marcel at my heels and unlocked the door. She hadn't changed at all. Even her red jacket was the same as it had been four years ago. She was supposed to be two decades older than me, but she seemed only about eight years my senior. Her short blonde hair was soaking wet, she was shivering and though I had always known her to be taller, we were now exactly the same height.
"How old are you now?" she asked through chattering teeth. She always judged when she was by my age.
"Sixteen, seventeen in six months."
"You've grown."
"You haven't."
As I peered at her under the porch light, I saw that her hazel eyes, the same colour as mine, were red and puffy, she had been crying, a hell of a lot by the looks of it. I frowned and leaned forward.
"Rose? What's wrong?" I queried.
"It happened." Her voice broke.
"What happened?" I was worried now.
"Everything."
The next minute she had thrown herself at me and was clinging to me, sobbing her heart out and drenching me in the middle of the kitchen. She was so cold. Marcel was sniffing around us, but quiet, as if she picked up on the tension in the room. It took about ten minutes of me hugging Rose and desperately trying to warm her up before she managed to regain herself enough for me to lead her through to the living room and sit her down after I closed Marcel in the conservatory.
"Tea?" I asked, complete at a loss as to what else to say.
She was still crying, but she laughed quietly, "You sound just like mum."
"Oh, God." I pulled a face, and she laughed again. I pride myself on cheering people up.
Maybe fifteen minutes later and though I couldn't believe I was seeing my prodigal sister again after four years, we were sitting in the living room with cups of tea, and I'd given her my dressing gown to warm her up. She had more or less calmed down, although her face was still blotchy and she was virtually sitting on my lap, funny that, as she was the one with the habit of disappearing.
"Where are mum and dad?" she asked.
"Some Torchwood function." I shrugged, "They'll be over the moon to see you though."
Her face blanched, "You can't tell them I'm here!" she said urgently.
"What!?"
"I came back because I needed to see you."
"That doesn't make things any more sense. My whole life it's been you, mum and dad in your own little club without telling me what's going on. Why should you come back after four years just to see me?"
I was rather irritated at that, I had to admit. I knew something was going on, and by now I'd worked out that Torchwood was not an electronics company, but it didn't explain why my sister kept disappearing. She was considerate enough to look embarrassed, or maybe it was guilty, I wasn't sure.
"It's complicated." She wouldn't meet my eye.
"It's alien, isn't it?" I said, matter-of-fact. She looked surprised.
"How did…"
I rolled my eyes, "It's called the internet. I found out about Torchwood and everything the year after you vanished. Mum and dad don't know."
"What do you mean everything?" she asked, cautious.
"The year before I was born, big robot invasion thing, killed thousands of people. Torchwood helped stop it." I shrugged.
"That's all?" she seemed relieved.
"There's more."
It was then I got the shock of my life. She started talking about a big war, time and space being torn apart, parallel worlds, rifts and someone called The Doctor. She told me that she wasn't from this world, and when she had been just a few years older than me this man had blown up her job, then taken her to the end of the world and back. She told me about all the things she had seen and I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. When she finished I just stared at her.
"I think the cold's affected your brain." I scoffed.
"You think so?" she argued, "Then explain why I haven't changed at all since the last time you saw me, four years ago."
She had me there, much to my annoyance. As everything sunk in, I realised how much sense it made, however weird the whole circumstance was. She looked at me then, so intensely as she held my hands and stared into my eyes, that it made me uncomfortable. From reading between the lines, I could tell there was more to the story.
I sighed, resigned. "What happened?"
"I had to say goodbye." There was a strange expression on her face. "I never thought I would see him again. Nothing ever hurt me so much as that reality."
I stared at her. "You loved him."
She turned to me, smiling sadly, and nodded. "Still do. Always will."
"That still doesn't explain why you suddenly started disappearing when I was younger."
She nodded in agreement. "I didn't understand myself at first. I just started feeling dizzy, and then the next thing I knew, I'd be in a completely different place." She shrugged, "At first it was just for a split second or so, and I thought I was imagining things, working too hard and everything. Then it lasted two or three days, and the periods got longer and longer. I had no idea what was going on, until one time, just for a moment, I saw…him."
"The Doctor." I finished.
"I realised I was going back to my world." It sounded so strange to me. "Every place I went, I was just missing him, or if I didn't, I had to hide, because I didn't want things to get screwed up."
"You've been flicking between parallel dimensions for four years. I think things are already screwed up." I pointed out. Then I remembered something. "It's just like my dreams."
She stared at me, suddenly alarmed. "Dreams?"
I nodded, "Yea, since I was a kid. I always dreamed, I was with you, god knows where, it always seemed so real though."
She was suddenly quiet. There was something she was holding back. "I was afraid something like that might happen."
"You were?"
"I told you I wasn't from here originally, right?" No arguing there. "I think it's the instability in my DNA or something that made me slip between the worlds, because I'd done it all before. Things have become unstable. There's a big problem in space and time, and it has repercussions."
"Um, back to the point?"
"Well…mum isn't from here either."
"Say what?"
"She came through with me."
"And you didn't mention this before why?" now I was angry.
"It didn't seem to be necessary." She answered lamely.
"So, if mum isn't from this world, what about dad?"
"He is."
"Come again?"
"He is, from this world. That makes you…"
"Half from another bloody universe?!" I cried.
"Which means…your DNA must be unstable too."
"Well that's just marvellous!"
Of all the things I expected to hear from my sister when she finally returned, me being half from one universe and half from another was not on the top of my list. Then again, neither was her accidentally slipping through a rift in space and time. Or, in fact, a rift in space and time itself. What did this all mean then? Space and time was screwed up, but why? Just how and why exactly was Rose being called to another dimension?
As if reading my mind she suddenly teared up again, "The Doctor is in trouble. Big trouble."
"But how do you know? Why were you specifically being called? From what I've learned, mum and dad have corrupt DNA too."
"I think it's the TARDIS. She's calling me back."
"Who's Tardis?"
"Not who. She's his ship, The Doctor's ship. She's calling me to help." She looked at me, and my stomach dropped as she started crying again, "He's been erased from space and time."
Call me selfish, but even I was worried then. Not because of the heroic stories she had told me about him saving the world, him technically being the reason for my existence, or his taste for teaching the bad guys a lesson, but because Rose was my sister and Rose loved this Doctor, and him not being around made her cry. I stood up, and offered my hand to her.
"You better get going then. The love of your life needs saving and a spaceship is calling the cavalry." I decided. "Before mum and dad come back."
She stared at me, in shock or amazement I'm not sure, or is that the same thing? But she grabbed my hand and I pulled her up. I lead her to my room and grabbed a piece of paper from my notebook.
"What are you doing?" she asked, "I don't know how to get back…it just sort of happens."
So for once, I was way ahead of my sister. I turned off my computer and scribbled a letter on the piece of paper. She read it over my shoulder and her eyes widened.
"Daisy, you can't be serious." She protested.
"Never been more serious in my life."
I pinned it to my keyboard, and grabbed the small bag I had packed, I was meant to be staying over at a friend's tomorrow night. Lucky that. I smiled confidently at her, and she just gave me a strange look, like she was meeting me for the first time.
"Rose Tyler, defender of the Earth, let's go, shall we?"
Putting my bag on my back, I grabbed her hand. The second I did, I suddenly felt dizzy, and by the tightening of her grasp, she did too. My bedroom dissolved in front of my eyes, and I was suddenly outside in an alley.
Ten minutes after we'd left, my mum came into my room.
Dear Mum and Dad,
Rose needs me. I'll be back. Love you.
Daisy x
She yelled for my dad and clutched his hand as he read the letter. Sorry mum, sorry dad, but I'd been called for duty. Rose looked aghast at me as we stood in that alley, like she couldn't quite believe I was really there. Heck, I couldn't believe it.
"Why did you do that?" she demanded.
"It's obvious, isn't it? I had the dreams because I have the screwy DNA too and I might be able to help. Don't look at me like that."
"But…"
"Rose, listen to me. Friends come and go, lovers come and go, family comes and goes. Sisters are stuck with each other, period."
She smiled at me, and I was suddenly aware of a group of people walking towards us, a weird mixture of people. There was a middle-aged woman with brown hair, a journalist's note pad and a metal dog at her feet, a tall man in a long dark blue coat with some funky watch on his wrist, a woman around my sister's age in a doctor's coat, and a slightly older woman with red hair.
"Rose. You're back." It was the lone man. He looked like he was in the army or something. He looked at me, "Who's this?"
"This is my sister…" replied Rose, dazed.
I stepped forward and beamed at them, "Hi cavalry, my name is Daisy. Let's go save the world shall we?"