==Chapter One==

Mrs. Christmas

Santa, must I tease in vain, Dear? Let me go and hold the reindeer,
While you clamber down the chimneys. Don't look savage as a Turk!
Why should you have all the glory of the joyous Christmas story,
And poor little Goody Santa Claus have nothing but the work?

– Katherine Lee Bates, Goody Santa Claus

In the midst of the others chatting—well, specifically, Beth and the older Doctor getting to know each other, Eleven had let slip once that he and Beth were close—the younger Doctor slipped away downstairs. He had a landlady to visit.

He knocked softly on Sarah Hudson's door, and was rewarded with faint groaning, sleepy but baleful muttering, and creaking bed springs. "Who is it?" Sarah called blearily.

The Doctor grinned. "Father Christmas?"

Mrs. Hudson gasped, scrambling out of bed to open the door. "Doctor!" He hadn't changed a bit... well, maybe the eyes were a little older and sadder, but otherwise he looked just the same as when he'd kissed her goodbye.

He beamed. "In the flesh! Wanna see something neat?"

"...what, now? Doctor, it's the middle of the night, I-I'm not even dressed!"

"Well, get dressed if you want, but now's the best time— most everybody'll be asleep!"

Mrs. Hudson hesitated a moment longer, then ducked back into her room and hastily threw on a dressing gown and slippers over her nightdress. She tried in vain to suppress a giggle as she emerged, irresistibly reminded of when they'd broken into Madame Tussaud's. "Where are we going?"

He waggled his eyebrows. "To see some trees," he said mysteriously, resisting the urge to grin. "Come on, allons-y!" He took her hand and led her out the back door and to the TARDIS, then paused, remembering. "Ooo, you've haven't been inside yet, have you?" She would have been later, which was also earlier for him, unintentionally another case of his relationships being slightly out of order.

She shook her head, heart pounding – she was still having trouble wrapping her mind around the idea of a ship the size of a wardrobe being far bigger on the inside!

Feeling her pulse throb, he bent down a little and squeezed her hand. "Hey." He smiled reassuringly. "C'mon, you'll love this." He unlocked the door and pushed it open, drawing her inside. "Welcome, milady, to the Good Ship TARDIS."

Her mouth fell open, staring around in wonder. "Oh my..."

A new voice spoke up out of nowhere. "Isn't she absolutely amazing?"

The Doctor and Mrs. Hudson jumped, though the Doctor recognised the voice right away.

The Eleventh Doctor poked his head out from around the time rotor, grinning widely when he saw Sarah Hudson. "Mrs. H., hi!" He straightened and moved around the console.

"What're you doing here?!" Ten demanded.

"Well," Eleven drawled, unruffled, "being older has its privileges—of course, I remembered what I was going to do tonight."

Mrs. Hudson gaped at the two men – the younger-looking one was older still?! And yet, knowing everything that she did about the Doctor, it actually made a vague sort of sense...

Eleven halted in front of Sarah and took her hand, bowing over it and kissing it. He would have made more of a production out of it, but she needed to get to know this version of him first, and she didn't yet. "Sarah, you're looking well, lovely as always." Younger, he didn't say, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that he wanted to kiss her, properly, and he didn't dare.

"...thank you..." Mrs. Hudson blushed, sorely tempted to ask how it had happened, but the timing probably couldn't be worse, with the Doctor's younger self in the room!

Ten cleared his throat, stepping forward. "So, what happened to, 'What you get up to in the privacy of your regeneration is your business'?"

"It is. My business, too, though." Eleven gave his younger self a Cheshire grin.

"Hey, no takesies-backsies!"

Eleven raised his eyebrows. "Really, Mr. I-Don't-Know-Where-He-Gets-It-From?"

Mrs. Hudson looked at the ceiling speakingly. To think she'd hoped the days when she had to break up an argument between two grown men were over... and these were two versions of the same man!

While Ten was still searching for words, Eleven returned his attention to Sarah, unfazed by her exasperation. "Anyway, I'll leave you to your adventure." Unable to resist, he bent down and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "See you soon, Sarah."

Her blush deepened at the kiss, uncertain how to respond – the younger Doctor's face was a study just now. "...I suppose so..." she murmured, equally uncertain how she felt about that...

Too fast. You took this too fast. Eleven faltered for a moment, pulled himself back together, and nodded. "All right, then." He nodded to his younger self and strode over to the door. He didn't turn around as he said, "Have fun, you two!" He had an idea now how Kathy had felt, all those years ago, knowing her father and godfather without them knowing her. He closed the door behind him and walked away from his past.

Back in the TARDIS, Ten turned to Sarah with a sigh. "Sorry about that!"

She shook her head, still bemused, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Does... that happen often, meeting yourself?"

He shrugged. "Wayeeell, not often, no." Certainly not as often as what he heard Kathy would deliberately get up to. "Happens once or twice every few centuries. Too often for me—I never get along with myself."

"I noticed." Mrs. Hudson sighed, wondering anew just what she'd gotten herself into, then shook her head, returning to more practical matters. "Well, then... you said something about trees?"

"Yup!" He went for the console, then remembered, glancing back at her, that this was her first trip. He drew her forward to place her hands on the console's handholds. "Just hold on to these, okay? I'll try to make this as smooth as possible, but it'll still be a little... rough." At the back of his mind, he heard the TARDIS chittering her laughter.

She nodded, bracing herself. "All right!"

Smiling nervously, he threw down the lever and hurried around the console, making a concentrated effort to give her a smooth trip… Not half as smooth as I'd like! Fortunately, the ride was quickly over, and he offered her a sheepish smile after they'd landed. "Sorry about that. You okay?"

She gave a shaky but exhilarated laugh, putting a hand to her pounding heart. "Fine, Doctor! Never better!" So that was what it was like!

He beamed, relieved, and took her hand. "Come on, then!" He stopped short, however, at the doors, and nodded for her to open them herself.

Mrs. Hudson held her breath, pushed the door open slowly, then blinked at the snow-covered scene before them: a group of hothouses? The Doctor had said 'trees', but she'd assumed he'd meant in a forest or something! "Where are we?" she whispered.

Grinning, he whispered back, "The Granville family estate in Hertfordshire…" He sniffed at the air, something not quite right… "Aaaand I'd say we've gone just a little bit back in time – twenty-four hours or so, nothing to worry about!" Everybody knew Christmas Eve was the better night of the two, anyway. He offered her his arm. "Wanna see what your kids have been up to?"

They stepped out into the snow, and halted when they heard a gasp from around the corner of the nearest hothouse. The sound was immediately followed by a hissed "Shhh!" The Doctor shared a raised eyebrow with Sarah—those were definitely children's voices!

"Hello?" Mrs. Hudson called softly. "Is someone there?" The top half of a child's face appeared from behind the hothouse, wide eyes gleaming in the light from the TARDIS door. "Children? It's all right, don't be afraid. Please come here."

"Matthew?" the Doctor said gently. "Lavinia?"

A second face appeared, Lavinia's, eyes just as wide. "...Hello?

"Hello, Lavinia," Mrs. Hudson smiled, taking her cue from the Doctor. "I'm so sorry if we startled you. We only came to..."

Matthew gasped, coming out of hiding completely, mouth open. "Mrs. Christmas?!"

"Matthew!" Lavinia hissed, but after a closer look at both strangers, she was beginning to think that maybe they wouldn't be any trouble. The old woman made her think of Mama, a little, and the man... the man, strangely, reminded her of Mrs. Holmes, for some reason... She joined her brother in the open but with her hands on her hips—there had better be no funny business!

Meanwhile, Mrs. Hudson's mind was racing, realising what all of this must have looked like to a wide-eyed child on Christmas Eve: her white hair and dressing gown, a tall companion as slender as an elf, and a magical vessel whose sound on landing must have drawn children listening for sleigh bells like a magnet... Well... why not? She laughed delightedly, coming forward to shake hands. "How clever of you to guess, Matthew! It's a pleasure to meet you both."

Lavinia arched an eyebrow as she shook hands with great dignity, then turned to the Doctor. "So who are you, then?"

The Doctor stepped forward, grinning, hands in his pockets, making an effort to be as non-threatening as possible. "Ohhh, I'm one of the senior elves, me—get to drive the other sleigh over there. Nice to meet you!" He shook the children's hands as well.

"My husband Nicholas has told me so much about you, my dears, and how very kind you've been to the trees," Mrs. Hudson went on warmly, heartily wishing that the Doctor had just told her what was so special about them! "I simply had to come in person to thank you on his behalf. May we see them?"

Lavinia still hesitated, eyes on the Doctor. "I'm not sure..."

Matthew, who had been looking increasingly starry-eyed at 'Mrs. Christmas's kind words, came out of his reverie and elbowed his sister. "Yes, but you've got to be very quiet –" he answered sternly, Lavinia endorsing the instruction with an emphatic nod; "the babies are sleeping."

Babies? Concealing any bewilderment, Mrs. Hudson nodded solemnly. "Of course."

Lavinia sighed and motioned for the adults to follow. "Come along, then."

Ria: Something we didn't think of while writing the Christmas episode: 'Ent' is a very humanoid sounding word, a plant race would definitely have a name more suited to their own language. Luckily for us, Tolkien put a lot of thought into that question! From the wikipedia page:

'Huorn is the name in the "short-language" of the Ents, given because the Huorns "still have voices". It includes the Sindarin noun orn which means "tree". The meaning of the hu element is unknown, Tolkien himself seemed unsure. In the Huorn entry in a wordlist published in Parma Eldalamberon Tolkien gives the possible Sindarin roots hô, hyoba and hû. The description of hô could be interpreted "speak, show" which would correspond with the earlier names for Huorns in The War of the Ring which all meant "talking trees".'

Tolkien suggested that Huorns were trees that became Entish, able to speak intelligibly to Ents but not other races. Old Man Willow in 'The Fellowship of the Ring' was probably a Huorn, so we decided our tree mother should also be the same species. Gotta wonder if, in this verse, Tolkien might have actually met one!