herfathersdaughter | [justprompts] More fantastic than dreams made

justprompts: Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. -Ray Bradbury

When Jasmine Suzette Tyler was very small, her mum told her bedtime stories about a tall man who travelled through time and space in a blue police box, and sometimes changed his face. Jaz loved the stories, and always wanted to hear all about the places he went - what did they look like? Did they have kittens there?

And every night, when she was done tucking Jaz in and telling her stories about the man in the police box, her mum would kiss her cheek and tell her very solemnly that one day her dad would come back and take her on all sorts of adventures. Jaz never really understood why Mum only said it when she told the stories, or why Mum was always so sad when she said it, but she thought that was probably just because mum wanted to go on adventures, too.

By the time she was ten, Mum had finally admitted that the man in the police box was her dad, and Jaz took it in stride. It made sense to her, with how much Mum seemed to miss him. Mum was happy with Peter (Jaz's step-dad), but at ten, Jaz had Ideas about romance and how it worked, and most of them were oddly correct. That was about the time Jaz started spending most of her free time at Torchwood, mostly staying out of Mum and Peter's ways, watching mum's team work and learning from them, and helping Peter out in his lab, when Ianto (his assistant) didn't shoo her out. She learned about cryptography and anatomy and cracking into computer systems and how to interpret various readings that they brought in to see if there were any aliens nearing the planet. Once, Peter even taught her how to build a sonic screwdriver all her own, which she used to break into the supply cabinet at school so that her mates could get the answer books for their homework. She was fourteen at the time, and that was why Mum finally threw up her hands and got clearance from the board of education to homeschool her. Every weekday, Jaz went into Torchwood with Mum and taught herself the things she'd need to know to pass her exams. And when she was done with that (generally around lunch time), she'd go and learn things that she'd never get taught in school. By the time she took her A levels, she had a working grasp of the most important theories and principles of quantum physics, and could do an autopsy with almost as much precision and skill as Dr. Owen.

Jaz didn't go to university. What could she learn there that she couldn't learn somehow at Torchwood? she asked Mum when they fought about that. Jaz always secretly thought Peter was pleased when she decided against university, but she never had any proof of that. She got a job at Torchwood, becoming an actual paid employee rather than Ms. Tyler's kid who hangs about and likes to help. Six months into her employment, she came across a mission that had involved her mum and a dimension canon, from when she'd been about five, the same time she had her first memories of Peter. She cornered them both and wrangled the whole story out of them, including the part about how Peter was sort of the same person as her dad, but not really. Jaz thought that was for the best, because Peter was the best dad a girl could ask for, even if he was technically her step-dad.

"You can't make another TARDIS, can you?" she asked Peter after Mum had rushed off to deal with some crisis or another.

"No," he said with a sigh. "If I could, I would've made one a long time ago."

"Well," Jaz said briskly, "I guess we'll have to come up with something else, then."

Eight months later (two weeks to convince Peter, two weeks to decide whether or not to ask Mum, a month to convince Mum, two and a half months to gather all the materials, three months to build and calibrate, and two weeks to convince Mum AGAIN), Jaz had her very own Vortex Manipulator that would put a Time Agent's wristband to shame.

"We can send you out on field work," Mum offered half-heartedly, and Jaz shook her head. Mum understood it, Jaz knew that, but it was a mum's job to try to change her mind, so that was okay.

"Don't forget that violence doesn't solve anything," Peter told her. "And don't muck about in the past too much."

"But don't be afraid to use violence to save your own life if there's no other option," Mum said quickly.

"I won't," Jaz replied, to everything. She adjusted her pack on her back, checked the buckle on her wriststrap, and made sure her sonic screwdriver and mobile were in her pocket. "How do I look?" she asked with a grin, spreading her arms.

Mum smiled, a little sad and a little wistful. "Like your father's daughter," she said softly. "Bring me back some stories."

"I will," Jaz said, her grin widening, pushed a button on her vortex manipulator, and started on the first adventure of her life.