Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (10/27)
Title - Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (10/27)
Author --
earlgreytea68
Rating - Teen
Characters -- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OCs
Spoilers: Through the end of S2.
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)
Summary - And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby. Hijinks ensue from there.
Author’s Notes - The icon was created by
punkinart , commissioned by
aibhinn , who graciously offered it to me for my use.
jlrpuck continues to be the awesomest beta on the planet. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and
bouncy_castle79 , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.
Ch.1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9
Chapter Ten
“Do you think the kids are lonely?” Rose curled up on the Doctor’s bare chest, listening to his heartbeats as they fell back to normal. The TARDIS hummed around them, twirling peacefully through the Vortex. In the room next door, Rose knew the children were safely locked in, watched by the TARDIS, who would raise an alert if anything out of the ordinary happened. Brem would tinker with one of the many tinker-y toys his father had bought him. Athena would watch him raptly, maybe practice a few toddling steps. Athena was developing more quickly than Brem had, by leaps and bounds.
“Lonely? With each other? Why would they be lonely?”
“I don’t know. Don’t you think Brem needs a playmate or something? Brem’s almost four years old, and he’s never really played with any other little children. Don’t you think he should?”
“Why should he do that? What other little children?”
“That’s what I mean: Do you think they’re lonely?”
“They aren’t lonely. Rose, there’s more-” He cut himself off abruptly. “We’re like a little family.”
Rose smiled and planted a kiss on his chest. “We are a little family.”
“Don’t worry about the kids. They aren’t lonely.” He stretched. “Where do you fancy going next? Brem’s been begging for a trip to Huxxapoffx.”
“Brem’s always begging to go somewhere, isn’t he?” asked Rose, as the Doctor slid out from underneath her.
“Wellllll.” He grinned at her as he began reassembling his suit. “He’s a bit like me, you may have noticed.”
“Is he? I’d missed that bulletin.”
He kissed the tip of her nose as he shrugged on his shirt.
But the idea that Brem might be lonely nibbled away at her. If he was just like his father, he’d never admit it, just cover it all up until he almost had a nervous breakdown about it. So, when they started going to planets, Rose would think up reasons to separate. When the Doctor went off to buy parts, Rose would insist on keeping Brem with her, and find a playground where the children of that planet played. After the first couple of times, Brem went with her automatically, and Rose thought she’d been right that he was lonely, because he loved getting to play with other little kids. Sure, he was a bit bossy on the playground, and it took a bit of coaching to get him to share, but he loved having playmates.
The Doctor didn’t ask where they were. He was usually preoccupied with whatever adventure he had managed to find for himself, and didn’t really ask what Rose and the children had gotten up to.
Then they were on a planet where it began to rain. Rose had been talking to the mother of a little boy Brem had been playing with. The mother was very nice, had begun by admiring Athena and they had then settled into a conversation. When it began to rain, Rose invited her to the TARDIS for tea.
So when the Doctor walked in, a little while later, rivulets of water running off his coat and his dripping hair, he called, “Rose? Did you come back here?” He didn’t get an answer, as he took the coat off and draped it over the railing, but he couldn’t imagine Rose would have stayed out in that downpour. He ruffled his hand through his wet hair, pushing it up and off his forehead, and, as he walked toward the captain’s chair, a blue creature with tentacles and three eyes leaped out at him. The Doctor staggered backward so quickly that he fell completely to the floor, spilling the parts he’d bought for the
TARDIS in an enormous heap.
Brem suddenly emerged from behind the captain’s chair. He and the blue creature fell into gales of laughter on the floor, rolling about in glee.
The Doctor, grumbling “bloody hell,” gathered himself to his feet and shouted, “Rose! Rose!”
Rose emerged into the control room, clearly having hurried from somewhere. “What?” she asked, alarmed. “What’s the matter?”
“There is a…” The Doctor pointed. “Person who is not my child here.”
“Yes,” said Rose, calmly, looking at the blue creature and Brem with indulgent fondness. “That’s Muj. She’s visiting.”
“Visiting? Visiting? Rose, you can’t have people visiting the TARDIS! What do you think this is, a theme park? Visiting? I mean-” A larger blue creature, with tentacles and three eyes, appeared next to Rose. “Oh,” said the Doctor.
“This is Kaj,” said Rose, calmly. “She’s Muj’s mother. We’re having tea, so do you think you could keep yourself occupied for a little while?”
“I-” stammered the Doctor.
Rose turned from him, addressing Kaj. “Sorry. He can be rude.”
The Doctor looked at Muj and Brem, who were both looking up at him solemnly now.
“Dad,” said Brem. “Can you show Muj the swimming pool? Mum wouldn’t let us go, she was scared we’d fall in, so the TARDIS hid it.”
“Swimming pool,” the Doctor repeated. “Sure.”
But later, after they’d said good-bye to Muj and Kaj, and after Rose had promised to visit them again, he turned to her, as they shut the door, and said, “Visit them again? Rose-”
“Guests,” she bit out. “They were our guests. And you were not very welcoming!”
“Rose, we don’t have ‘guests’ on the TARDIS. Have you lost your mind?”
“Why can’t we have guests?”
“It’s bigger on the inside!” he exclaimed.
“Oh. I forgot the low profile we’re supposed to be keeping,” she drawled, turning away from him. “Come on, Brem. Theenie.” She swept the baby up from where she’d been sitting in the swing. “Time for dinner.”
“But, Mum, we just finished tea-” Brem protested.
“Dinner,” said Rose, and Brem was smart enough not to argue any further.
The Doctor sighed and spun them off into the Vortex and then went into the kitchen, where Rose was cooking with such fierceness that both Brem and Athena were staring at her open-mouthed.
“I think Brem should go to school,” she announced, without preamble.
“School?” said the Doctor.
“God knows he’s smart enough for it.”
“Smart enough for it?” echoed the Doctor. “You went to send him to school to learn how to tell colours and time and the letters in the word ‘the’?”
“I know that stuff, Mum,” contributed Brem, gravely.
“He can read bloody Greek. Homeric Greek. From the time of Homer.”
“He needs,” said Rose, banging pots and pans around, “social skills. So he doesn’t turn out like you.”
The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. “I have social skills.”
Rose glared at him. “Dinner,” she announced to Brem, putting a plate of something that had been charred beyond recognition in front of him.
“It’s-” began Brem, then caught sight of his mother’s face and began hurriedly eating whatever it was she’d prepared for him.
“My food?” asked Athena.
“Er,” said the Doctor, deciding he didn’t want the kids eating the concoction. “Maybe we ought to go for ice cream.”
“We are out of milk,” announced Rose, head in the refrigerator.
“Are we?”
“We need-” she slammed the refrigerator door-”to get milk.” She exited the kitchen. “And we may as well visit my mum while we’re at it,” she called back.
The Doctor muttered an eloquent Gallifreyan curse, then waggled his finger between Brem and Athena. “Don’t you dare repeat that.”
**********************
“So you’re fightin’, then,” said Jackie, watching as Rose mixed Athena’s iced tea. Only six sugars for Athena. “It’s like she’s on a diet,” the Doctor had said in astonishment when the baby had settled on six.
“What? Who said that?”
“Normally the two of you are inseparable. You’ve been here two days, and I don’t think I’ve seen you in the same room together.”
Rose handed the bottle to Athena, who took it and than waddled out to the living room, where her brother was sonic screwdrivering the radio in an attempt to get it to play an alien station. The Doctor had allowed Brem’s screwdriver certain limited settings, all of which made Rose incredibly nervous. “We aren’t fighting.”
“I see.” Jackie sipped from the mug of tea she cupped in her hands. “What are you not fighting about?”
Rose shook her head. And then said, abruptly, “I’m raising alien children. On a spaceship, Mum.”
“You just figured that out?”
“No, I…” Rose rubbed at her temples. She didn’t want an I-told-you-so. She rather wanted to be told that she was doing a good job, making the most out of difficult circumstances. She was raising the most powerful beings in creation; she wasn’t sure she could afford to make a mistake, and she wasn’t sure the Doctor would notice if she did. “I think Brem should go to school.”
“He’s barely four years old.”
“Mum, Brem could probably sit for a quadruple degree at Oxford if he wanted, and I’d let him. The fact that he’s young isn’t the issue. It’s just that he doesn’t have any friends. What happens to little boys who grow up without any friends? They go mental.”
“That’s totally different. Brem’s fine.”
“Mum,” said Brem, breathlessly, running to the kitchen doorway, “I think I set the radio on fire.”
Rose sighed, not even alarmed, and stood and calmly extinguished the small fire. Athena had been delighted by the fire, as she was delighted by everything Brem did. “Give me the screwdriver,” she told Brem, holding out her hand for it.
“But, Mum-” he whined.
“Give it. When your father stops hiding in the TARDIS, you can get it back.”
“But he’ll never stop hiding in the TARDIS,” Brem complained, handing the screwdriver over.
“I know. That’s why my plan is brilliant. More than one of your parents is a genius, you know.” She pocketed the screwdriver and walked back into the kitchen.
“Maybe not school,” said her mother. “I mean, not a formal school. But maybe just, kind of, a daycare. To get him around other kids. Molly down the hall runs one, I’m sure she’d watch Brem for you.”
“Oh, that’s brilliant,” said Rose. “Brilliant idea.” Rose stood up and called, “Brem?”
“I didn’t mean now,” protested Jackie.
“Now’s as good a time as any.” Brem had appeared in the doorway. “We’re going to see if Molly down the hall will let you play with the other kids she watches.”
Brem regarded her warily. “Daddy doesn’t want me going to school.”
“This isn’t school,” said Rose, impatiently. “It’s just playing.”
“I don’t think Daddy wants that, either.”
“Daddy doesn’t care,” Rose gritted out between her teeth. “We’re going.” She tried to comb his hair, although it had no effect. “Watch Athena for me, will you?” she asked her mother, taking Brem’s hand.
“Brem?” asked Athena, as they walked past her.
“He’ll be back soon,” Rose told her, and then ducked outside with Brem.
Brem was no longer protesting. In fact, he was skipping. “How many kids will there be?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can we have them over to the TARDIS?”
“Absolutely not. And don’t tell anyone that you live on a spaceship. Or that your father’s an alien. Or that you are.”
Brem crinkled his nose. “We’re not aliens, Mum, we’re Time Lords.”
She experienced one of those moments when she loved Brem so much she feared her heart would burst. “That’s right, sorry.” They had reached Molly’s door, and Rose knocked.
In a moment, Molly answered, holding a toddler to her hip. Beyond her, Rose could hear the loud voices of children at play, a television blaring. Rose smiled. “Hello, Molly.”
Molly looked at her for a moment, before recognizing her. “Rose, isn’t it? Rose Tyler?”
“Yes,” Rose affirmed. “You remember my son, Brem?” Almost all of Jackie Tyler’s acquaintances had met Brem and Athena, through birthday parties and such.
“Of course.” Molly smiled at him. “Hello, Brem. Aren’t you getting big?”
“Actually,” said Brem, “I’m growing at a rate of-”
“He’s precocious,” Rose cut him off, smile plastered on her face. “Listen, I was wondering if you’d mind watching Brem for a few hours. I’d pay, of course.”
“Pay?” Brem sounded affronted, as if watching him were such an honour he expected people to be bidding for the privilege.
Molly shrugged. “No problem. Would you like that, Brem? To stay for a few hours?”
She was talking down to him, and Rose watched Brem stiffen. “It’s fine,” she said, hastily, before crouching down to straighten Brem’s jumper. “Behave yourself, please,” she begged.
Brem frowned at her but didn’t protest as he was led into the strange living room.
And really, it wasn’t so bad. It was one huge adventure. These kids knew nothing, really. He had to tell them everything. Even Molly was kind of stupid, when you came right down to it. He had to tell them that the atmospheric anomaly that was causing heavy fog was actually the Yusde, and then he had to tell them that the Yusde were a barely sentient race of alien beings that hovered harmlessly for a few days soaking up nutrients in the air before moving on. He had to tell them that his name was not unusual but actually a word in their language, and then he had to tell them all about Bremsstrahlung. He had to tell them the differences between Earth cheese and Hyboniam cheese, and then he had to tell them that Hyboniam cheese was produced on Hybonia, and then he had to tell them that Hybonia was a planet in the next solar system over where they stopped frequently after leaving Grandma’s. Molly told him he had quite an imagination, at which point he told her that she must not have any at all if she couldn’t tell the difference between reality, which he was most definitely sharing, and make-believe, which he needed no part of. And then he’d noticed that Molly had this creepy statue of a faerie perched enthusiastically on a lily pad, grinning madly at all of them, and he just had to explain that his dad had said that you couldn’t really turn your back on statues, you couldn’t even blink, and then, after they’d spent a little while staring at the statue, his mother suddenly appeared.
“But what is it?” she asked. “What’s the matter?”
Nothing, thought Brem, surprised by the question.
“He’s…He’s…” Molly shook her head helplessly, practically shoving Brem out the door. “He’s weird,” she said, finally, closing the door. She then opened it again. “And I’m going to have to get rid of my bloody statue, because he’s terrified me.” She shut the door again.
“Weird?” said Brem. “She’s weird.”
“Oh, Brem,” Rose sighed. “Did you tell her about the Weeping Angels?”
“I had to, Mum. She has a statue in there.” Brem walked next to her, hand caught contentedly in hers.
“Not a Weeping Angel statue.”
“How do you know? Have you ever seen one?”
So it was a good point. “I don’t think they even exist. I think your dad made them up just to scare you.” In all her travels, she’d never seen one of the creatures.
“I’ll ask him.”
“We don’t need to tell your dad about-” Rose stopped in the middle of the sentence as she pushed into her mother’s flat, because the Doctor was leaning against the wall immediately inside the door.
And he looked none too pleased. “Where’ve you two been?”
“I just stepped out,” Rose said, because she had. “You decided to leave the TARDIS.”
“At exactly the right time, imagine that,” drawled the Doctor, turning his attention to Brem. “So? Going to tell me about your day?”
“Dad, are the Weeping Angels real?”
“Of course they’re real. Did you and Mum just go for a quick stroll around the block?”
“No, I went to Molly’s. Mum paid her to watch me.” Brem’s voice dripped his disgust.
“Did she?” The Doctor kept his eyes on Brem. “And tell me how Molly’s was.”
“It was fun! Except that were all kind of stupid. I had to explain everything six or seven times. I felt like you,” he finished, brightly.
“Welcome to your next 900 years, my boy,” muttered the Doctor.
“She called me weird, though. Are we weird?”
The Doctor looked at Rose.
Rose dropped Brem’s hand and walked into the TARDIS.
“Stay with Grandma and be good,” the Doctor said to Brem, heading back into the living room.
“Brem!” exclaimed Athena, as if he were a conquering hero.
The Doctor stuck his head in the kitchen doorway. “Can you watch the kids for a tick?” he asked, pleasantly.
Jackie rolled her eyes. “God, yes. Go and have a bloody row. It’d do us all a favour.”
The Doctor nodded once, shortly, then followed Rose onto the TARDIS. He found her in their bedroom, curled up on their bed, back facing him.
“Don’t pretend to be asleep,” he snapped. “I can feel that you’re not. And whatever this is, we’re having it out now.” Rose surprised him by punctuating his remark with a sniffle. The Doctor blinked. “Are you crying?”
“No,” she denied, unconvincingly.
He hesitated. Rose seldom cried; he had little idea what to do with that. “Rose-”
“I said I’m fine.”
He took a deep breath then clambered onto the bed with her.
“You’ve got trainers on still,” she said, trying to seem stern and upset with him. And then suddenly, without warning, she was sobbing, and she curled into him instinctively as she cried. “Why would she call him weird? He’s Brem. He’s brilliant. The nerve of her.”
“Is that what you’re upset about?”
“No. Of course not. I wanted him to have a good time-”
“I think he had the time of his life, actually, from what I could feel of the escapade.”
“I wanted him to…fit in.”
“We are never going to fit in, Rose.”
“I know,” she sobbed into his chest. “But he’s only a little boy. And he needs friends-”
“He needs friends?” he interrupted, softly. “Or you need friends?”
Rose hiccupped then cried harder.
“Oh, Rose,” he sighed, pressing her tightly against him. “It isn’t Brem, or Athena, or even me, for a change. It’s you. You’re lonely.”
“I’m not lonely,” she denied, trying to catch her breath. “I’m not lonely. I just want one person to tell me I’m doing this right.”
The Doctor smoothed his hand soothingly over her hair. “You want a friend. But you came with me. And I can’t give you one.”
“I’d rather have you than a friend, I just-I’m sorry. I feel silly and human.”
“Trust me, humans do not have the market cornered on loneliness.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again, lifting her head up so she could look down at him. Her face was red and splotchy and wet with her tears. “I have you. I cannot believe that I am being so difficult about this.”
“Do you want to stay here for a while?”
“Where?” She hiccupped again.
“Earth. Here. With your mother. Just for a little while.”
Rose sniffled, getting herself under control. “Could we? I’m sorry. But could we?”
“Stop apologizing.” He lifted his head, began kissing the tears off her cheeks. “Have I told you lately that I’d be lost without you? Silly human though you are?”
“I’m okay,” she promised him.
“You’re not. You persist in not leaving me, in this ridiculous life I make you and the kids lead, and you’re not okay.”
“I am much better than I would be without you.”
“I’m not so sure that’s true, either.”
“It’s true. It’s true,” she insisted.
“We’ll stay here for a bit. Stay put. One place.”
She leaned her head back against his chest and breathed him in. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Next Chapter
Author --
earlgreytea68
Rating - Teen
Characters -- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OCs
Spoilers: Through the end of S2.
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)
Summary - And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby. Hijinks ensue from there.
Author’s Notes - The icon was created by
punkinart , commissioned by
aibhinn , who graciously offered it to me for my use.
jlrpuck continues to be the awesomest beta on the planet. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and
bouncy_castle79 , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.
Ch.1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9
Chapter Ten
“Do you think the kids are lonely?” Rose curled up on the Doctor’s bare chest, listening to his heartbeats as they fell back to normal. The TARDIS hummed around them, twirling peacefully through the Vortex. In the room next door, Rose knew the children were safely locked in, watched by the TARDIS, who would raise an alert if anything out of the ordinary happened. Brem would tinker with one of the many tinker-y toys his father had bought him. Athena would watch him raptly, maybe practice a few toddling steps. Athena was developing more quickly than Brem had, by leaps and bounds.
“Lonely? With each other? Why would they be lonely?”
“I don’t know. Don’t you think Brem needs a playmate or something? Brem’s almost four years old, and he’s never really played with any other little children. Don’t you think he should?”
“Why should he do that? What other little children?”
“That’s what I mean: Do you think they’re lonely?”
“They aren’t lonely. Rose, there’s more-” He cut himself off abruptly. “We’re like a little family.”
Rose smiled and planted a kiss on his chest. “We are a little family.”
“Don’t worry about the kids. They aren’t lonely.” He stretched. “Where do you fancy going next? Brem’s been begging for a trip to Huxxapoffx.”
“Brem’s always begging to go somewhere, isn’t he?” asked Rose, as the Doctor slid out from underneath her.
“Wellllll.” He grinned at her as he began reassembling his suit. “He’s a bit like me, you may have noticed.”
“Is he? I’d missed that bulletin.”
He kissed the tip of her nose as he shrugged on his shirt.
But the idea that Brem might be lonely nibbled away at her. If he was just like his father, he’d never admit it, just cover it all up until he almost had a nervous breakdown about it. So, when they started going to planets, Rose would think up reasons to separate. When the Doctor went off to buy parts, Rose would insist on keeping Brem with her, and find a playground where the children of that planet played. After the first couple of times, Brem went with her automatically, and Rose thought she’d been right that he was lonely, because he loved getting to play with other little kids. Sure, he was a bit bossy on the playground, and it took a bit of coaching to get him to share, but he loved having playmates.
The Doctor didn’t ask where they were. He was usually preoccupied with whatever adventure he had managed to find for himself, and didn’t really ask what Rose and the children had gotten up to.
Then they were on a planet where it began to rain. Rose had been talking to the mother of a little boy Brem had been playing with. The mother was very nice, had begun by admiring Athena and they had then settled into a conversation. When it began to rain, Rose invited her to the TARDIS for tea.
So when the Doctor walked in, a little while later, rivulets of water running off his coat and his dripping hair, he called, “Rose? Did you come back here?” He didn’t get an answer, as he took the coat off and draped it over the railing, but he couldn’t imagine Rose would have stayed out in that downpour. He ruffled his hand through his wet hair, pushing it up and off his forehead, and, as he walked toward the captain’s chair, a blue creature with tentacles and three eyes leaped out at him. The Doctor staggered backward so quickly that he fell completely to the floor, spilling the parts he’d bought for the
TARDIS in an enormous heap.
Brem suddenly emerged from behind the captain’s chair. He and the blue creature fell into gales of laughter on the floor, rolling about in glee.
The Doctor, grumbling “bloody hell,” gathered himself to his feet and shouted, “Rose! Rose!”
Rose emerged into the control room, clearly having hurried from somewhere. “What?” she asked, alarmed. “What’s the matter?”
“There is a…” The Doctor pointed. “Person who is not my child here.”
“Yes,” said Rose, calmly, looking at the blue creature and Brem with indulgent fondness. “That’s Muj. She’s visiting.”
“Visiting? Visiting? Rose, you can’t have people visiting the TARDIS! What do you think this is, a theme park? Visiting? I mean-” A larger blue creature, with tentacles and three eyes, appeared next to Rose. “Oh,” said the Doctor.
“This is Kaj,” said Rose, calmly. “She’s Muj’s mother. We’re having tea, so do you think you could keep yourself occupied for a little while?”
“I-” stammered the Doctor.
Rose turned from him, addressing Kaj. “Sorry. He can be rude.”
The Doctor looked at Muj and Brem, who were both looking up at him solemnly now.
“Dad,” said Brem. “Can you show Muj the swimming pool? Mum wouldn’t let us go, she was scared we’d fall in, so the TARDIS hid it.”
“Swimming pool,” the Doctor repeated. “Sure.”
But later, after they’d said good-bye to Muj and Kaj, and after Rose had promised to visit them again, he turned to her, as they shut the door, and said, “Visit them again? Rose-”
“Guests,” she bit out. “They were our guests. And you were not very welcoming!”
“Rose, we don’t have ‘guests’ on the TARDIS. Have you lost your mind?”
“Why can’t we have guests?”
“It’s bigger on the inside!” he exclaimed.
“Oh. I forgot the low profile we’re supposed to be keeping,” she drawled, turning away from him. “Come on, Brem. Theenie.” She swept the baby up from where she’d been sitting in the swing. “Time for dinner.”
“But, Mum, we just finished tea-” Brem protested.
“Dinner,” said Rose, and Brem was smart enough not to argue any further.
The Doctor sighed and spun them off into the Vortex and then went into the kitchen, where Rose was cooking with such fierceness that both Brem and Athena were staring at her open-mouthed.
“I think Brem should go to school,” she announced, without preamble.
“School?” said the Doctor.
“God knows he’s smart enough for it.”
“Smart enough for it?” echoed the Doctor. “You went to send him to school to learn how to tell colours and time and the letters in the word ‘the’?”
“I know that stuff, Mum,” contributed Brem, gravely.
“He can read bloody Greek. Homeric Greek. From the time of Homer.”
“He needs,” said Rose, banging pots and pans around, “social skills. So he doesn’t turn out like you.”
The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. “I have social skills.”
Rose glared at him. “Dinner,” she announced to Brem, putting a plate of something that had been charred beyond recognition in front of him.
“It’s-” began Brem, then caught sight of his mother’s face and began hurriedly eating whatever it was she’d prepared for him.
“My food?” asked Athena.
“Er,” said the Doctor, deciding he didn’t want the kids eating the concoction. “Maybe we ought to go for ice cream.”
“We are out of milk,” announced Rose, head in the refrigerator.
“Are we?”
“We need-” she slammed the refrigerator door-”to get milk.” She exited the kitchen. “And we may as well visit my mum while we’re at it,” she called back.
The Doctor muttered an eloquent Gallifreyan curse, then waggled his finger between Brem and Athena. “Don’t you dare repeat that.”
**********************
“So you’re fightin’, then,” said Jackie, watching as Rose mixed Athena’s iced tea. Only six sugars for Athena. “It’s like she’s on a diet,” the Doctor had said in astonishment when the baby had settled on six.
“What? Who said that?”
“Normally the two of you are inseparable. You’ve been here two days, and I don’t think I’ve seen you in the same room together.”
Rose handed the bottle to Athena, who took it and than waddled out to the living room, where her brother was sonic screwdrivering the radio in an attempt to get it to play an alien station. The Doctor had allowed Brem’s screwdriver certain limited settings, all of which made Rose incredibly nervous. “We aren’t fighting.”
“I see.” Jackie sipped from the mug of tea she cupped in her hands. “What are you not fighting about?”
Rose shook her head. And then said, abruptly, “I’m raising alien children. On a spaceship, Mum.”
“You just figured that out?”
“No, I…” Rose rubbed at her temples. She didn’t want an I-told-you-so. She rather wanted to be told that she was doing a good job, making the most out of difficult circumstances. She was raising the most powerful beings in creation; she wasn’t sure she could afford to make a mistake, and she wasn’t sure the Doctor would notice if she did. “I think Brem should go to school.”
“He’s barely four years old.”
“Mum, Brem could probably sit for a quadruple degree at Oxford if he wanted, and I’d let him. The fact that he’s young isn’t the issue. It’s just that he doesn’t have any friends. What happens to little boys who grow up without any friends? They go mental.”
“That’s totally different. Brem’s fine.”
“Mum,” said Brem, breathlessly, running to the kitchen doorway, “I think I set the radio on fire.”
Rose sighed, not even alarmed, and stood and calmly extinguished the small fire. Athena had been delighted by the fire, as she was delighted by everything Brem did. “Give me the screwdriver,” she told Brem, holding out her hand for it.
“But, Mum-” he whined.
“Give it. When your father stops hiding in the TARDIS, you can get it back.”
“But he’ll never stop hiding in the TARDIS,” Brem complained, handing the screwdriver over.
“I know. That’s why my plan is brilliant. More than one of your parents is a genius, you know.” She pocketed the screwdriver and walked back into the kitchen.
“Maybe not school,” said her mother. “I mean, not a formal school. But maybe just, kind of, a daycare. To get him around other kids. Molly down the hall runs one, I’m sure she’d watch Brem for you.”
“Oh, that’s brilliant,” said Rose. “Brilliant idea.” Rose stood up and called, “Brem?”
“I didn’t mean now,” protested Jackie.
“Now’s as good a time as any.” Brem had appeared in the doorway. “We’re going to see if Molly down the hall will let you play with the other kids she watches.”
Brem regarded her warily. “Daddy doesn’t want me going to school.”
“This isn’t school,” said Rose, impatiently. “It’s just playing.”
“I don’t think Daddy wants that, either.”
“Daddy doesn’t care,” Rose gritted out between her teeth. “We’re going.” She tried to comb his hair, although it had no effect. “Watch Athena for me, will you?” she asked her mother, taking Brem’s hand.
“Brem?” asked Athena, as they walked past her.
“He’ll be back soon,” Rose told her, and then ducked outside with Brem.
Brem was no longer protesting. In fact, he was skipping. “How many kids will there be?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can we have them over to the TARDIS?”
“Absolutely not. And don’t tell anyone that you live on a spaceship. Or that your father’s an alien. Or that you are.”
Brem crinkled his nose. “We’re not aliens, Mum, we’re Time Lords.”
She experienced one of those moments when she loved Brem so much she feared her heart would burst. “That’s right, sorry.” They had reached Molly’s door, and Rose knocked.
In a moment, Molly answered, holding a toddler to her hip. Beyond her, Rose could hear the loud voices of children at play, a television blaring. Rose smiled. “Hello, Molly.”
Molly looked at her for a moment, before recognizing her. “Rose, isn’t it? Rose Tyler?”
“Yes,” Rose affirmed. “You remember my son, Brem?” Almost all of Jackie Tyler’s acquaintances had met Brem and Athena, through birthday parties and such.
“Of course.” Molly smiled at him. “Hello, Brem. Aren’t you getting big?”
“Actually,” said Brem, “I’m growing at a rate of-”
“He’s precocious,” Rose cut him off, smile plastered on her face. “Listen, I was wondering if you’d mind watching Brem for a few hours. I’d pay, of course.”
“Pay?” Brem sounded affronted, as if watching him were such an honour he expected people to be bidding for the privilege.
Molly shrugged. “No problem. Would you like that, Brem? To stay for a few hours?”
She was talking down to him, and Rose watched Brem stiffen. “It’s fine,” she said, hastily, before crouching down to straighten Brem’s jumper. “Behave yourself, please,” she begged.
Brem frowned at her but didn’t protest as he was led into the strange living room.
And really, it wasn’t so bad. It was one huge adventure. These kids knew nothing, really. He had to tell them everything. Even Molly was kind of stupid, when you came right down to it. He had to tell them that the atmospheric anomaly that was causing heavy fog was actually the Yusde, and then he had to tell them that the Yusde were a barely sentient race of alien beings that hovered harmlessly for a few days soaking up nutrients in the air before moving on. He had to tell them that his name was not unusual but actually a word in their language, and then he had to tell them all about Bremsstrahlung. He had to tell them the differences between Earth cheese and Hyboniam cheese, and then he had to tell them that Hyboniam cheese was produced on Hybonia, and then he had to tell them that Hybonia was a planet in the next solar system over where they stopped frequently after leaving Grandma’s. Molly told him he had quite an imagination, at which point he told her that she must not have any at all if she couldn’t tell the difference between reality, which he was most definitely sharing, and make-believe, which he needed no part of. And then he’d noticed that Molly had this creepy statue of a faerie perched enthusiastically on a lily pad, grinning madly at all of them, and he just had to explain that his dad had said that you couldn’t really turn your back on statues, you couldn’t even blink, and then, after they’d spent a little while staring at the statue, his mother suddenly appeared.
“But what is it?” she asked. “What’s the matter?”
Nothing, thought Brem, surprised by the question.
“He’s…He’s…” Molly shook her head helplessly, practically shoving Brem out the door. “He’s weird,” she said, finally, closing the door. She then opened it again. “And I’m going to have to get rid of my bloody statue, because he’s terrified me.” She shut the door again.
“Weird?” said Brem. “She’s weird.”
“Oh, Brem,” Rose sighed. “Did you tell her about the Weeping Angels?”
“I had to, Mum. She has a statue in there.” Brem walked next to her, hand caught contentedly in hers.
“Not a Weeping Angel statue.”
“How do you know? Have you ever seen one?”
So it was a good point. “I don’t think they even exist. I think your dad made them up just to scare you.” In all her travels, she’d never seen one of the creatures.
“I’ll ask him.”
“We don’t need to tell your dad about-” Rose stopped in the middle of the sentence as she pushed into her mother’s flat, because the Doctor was leaning against the wall immediately inside the door.
And he looked none too pleased. “Where’ve you two been?”
“I just stepped out,” Rose said, because she had. “You decided to leave the TARDIS.”
“At exactly the right time, imagine that,” drawled the Doctor, turning his attention to Brem. “So? Going to tell me about your day?”
“Dad, are the Weeping Angels real?”
“Of course they’re real. Did you and Mum just go for a quick stroll around the block?”
“No, I went to Molly’s. Mum paid her to watch me.” Brem’s voice dripped his disgust.
“Did she?” The Doctor kept his eyes on Brem. “And tell me how Molly’s was.”
“It was fun! Except that were all kind of stupid. I had to explain everything six or seven times. I felt like you,” he finished, brightly.
“Welcome to your next 900 years, my boy,” muttered the Doctor.
“She called me weird, though. Are we weird?”
The Doctor looked at Rose.
Rose dropped Brem’s hand and walked into the TARDIS.
“Stay with Grandma and be good,” the Doctor said to Brem, heading back into the living room.
“Brem!” exclaimed Athena, as if he were a conquering hero.
The Doctor stuck his head in the kitchen doorway. “Can you watch the kids for a tick?” he asked, pleasantly.
Jackie rolled her eyes. “God, yes. Go and have a bloody row. It’d do us all a favour.”
The Doctor nodded once, shortly, then followed Rose onto the TARDIS. He found her in their bedroom, curled up on their bed, back facing him.
“Don’t pretend to be asleep,” he snapped. “I can feel that you’re not. And whatever this is, we’re having it out now.” Rose surprised him by punctuating his remark with a sniffle. The Doctor blinked. “Are you crying?”
“No,” she denied, unconvincingly.
He hesitated. Rose seldom cried; he had little idea what to do with that. “Rose-”
“I said I’m fine.”
He took a deep breath then clambered onto the bed with her.
“You’ve got trainers on still,” she said, trying to seem stern and upset with him. And then suddenly, without warning, she was sobbing, and she curled into him instinctively as she cried. “Why would she call him weird? He’s Brem. He’s brilliant. The nerve of her.”
“Is that what you’re upset about?”
“No. Of course not. I wanted him to have a good time-”
“I think he had the time of his life, actually, from what I could feel of the escapade.”
“I wanted him to…fit in.”
“We are never going to fit in, Rose.”
“I know,” she sobbed into his chest. “But he’s only a little boy. And he needs friends-”
“He needs friends?” he interrupted, softly. “Or you need friends?”
Rose hiccupped then cried harder.
“Oh, Rose,” he sighed, pressing her tightly against him. “It isn’t Brem, or Athena, or even me, for a change. It’s you. You’re lonely.”
“I’m not lonely,” she denied, trying to catch her breath. “I’m not lonely. I just want one person to tell me I’m doing this right.”
The Doctor smoothed his hand soothingly over her hair. “You want a friend. But you came with me. And I can’t give you one.”
“I’d rather have you than a friend, I just-I’m sorry. I feel silly and human.”
“Trust me, humans do not have the market cornered on loneliness.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again, lifting her head up so she could look down at him. Her face was red and splotchy and wet with her tears. “I have you. I cannot believe that I am being so difficult about this.”
“Do you want to stay here for a while?”
“Where?” She hiccupped again.
“Earth. Here. With your mother. Just for a little while.”
Rose sniffled, getting herself under control. “Could we? I’m sorry. But could we?”
“Stop apologizing.” He lifted his head, began kissing the tears off her cheeks. “Have I told you lately that I’d be lost without you? Silly human though you are?”
“I’m okay,” she promised him.
“You’re not. You persist in not leaving me, in this ridiculous life I make you and the kids lead, and you’re not okay.”
“I am much better than I would be without you.”
“I’m not so sure that’s true, either.”
“It’s true. It’s true,” she insisted.
“We’ll stay here for a bit. Stay put. One place.”
She leaned her head back against his chest and breathed him in. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Next Chapter