A not so ending journey
The doctor stood in the vault at the Crucible, in a dalek den, feeling completely useless and hopeless. He looked around at his companions. After everything they'd been through, everything he had done to save the universe, this is how it was going to end: all of them dead without anyone to rescue them.
His TARDIS was dead (luckily, there wasn't anyone in there) and to top it all, he hadn't seen Rose anywhere. He couldn't get it. All the others were there, even her mother, but no sign of her anywhere. He had hoped that after saving Donna from her parallel world she would be there somewhere to grit him, but no, none of them had seen her.
He had thought that she was lost to him in the Time War. It wasn't something he had discussed with her or any of his companions, past or present, but he had known her longer than anyone imagined. One day, when he was younger, both in appearance and in age, he witnessed the most beautiful woman he had ever seen appear in front of him, bathed in a golden light. At first, he thought that he was hallucinating but then, the light disappeared and she collapsed on the ground. He took her to get medical assistance immediately. It was dangerous considering she looked human (although it was impossible for a human to simply appear on Gallifrey) but it was a risk he had to take when he realised he didn't know what was wrong with her.
Luckily, she was simply suffering from exhaustion. An even greater shock was that she was with child, Time Lord ones. It was the reason why he fought with all his might against the High Council of Gallifrey to give him permission to take her in. They were about to just drop her anywhere and anywhen without even knowing where or when she was from (although he could guess by her clothing that she was from the twenty first century of Earth).
So, the Doctor had taken the young woman in, cared for her. It was a relief when she awoke a few weeks later. He explained to her where she was and tried to get to know how she had gotten there but it was a mystery to her too.
When the two of them realised she was from the future, his future, she tried to explain her situation without giving any future event away. The Doctor almost had a hearts attack when he learned that he was the father of her unborn children. One thing he was grateful for was that she didn't come into his life when he was still at the Academy. Rasillon, imagine him having to take care of a child, let alone two, while he was still an immature young man!
Although he hadn't been the one to impregnate her he took his responsibility to the heart. And he loved every bit of it. He had lived with mother and children, taught them everything he could. In turn, Rose had taught him that there was a bright future waiting for him; a future full of loss and hurt but still bright. It was the way of life.
Eventually, they fell in love, married, travelled and had many, many more children. They chose to buy a house in the early twenty first century, one that could house enough of them. Although that was impossible when you take into account all their children grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on; when they weren't camping in the forest surrounding the property, they had their TARDISes in use.
It had all begun when one of their son's daughters asked to live with his grandparents. Susan was the one to, with her grandmother's help, encourage him to steal the TARDIS and go to travel to Earth. Thus began his life as a time traveller.
One thing that never changed, he always went back to his family. That's something his companions never knew about him: the Doctor was a family man first. They all thought that he spent the nights in the TARDIS doing repairs while they slept but they were wrong. He spent them with his family. He would have the TARDIS drop him off and return weeks later and his companions were not the wiser. Maybe it was wrong of him but it was a way to keep his family safe, not to mention keeping the timelines intact.
After the Time War, the doctor had tried several times to get back to his home but without success. He needed to see, to reassure himself that some of his family still alive, safe from the devastation of the war. He couldn't believe that Rose would have let any of them anywhere near the Time War but he knew if it was a question of preventing a paradox, she would do what he taught her and avoid it. It didn't mean that he hurt less. In the years after the War, he hadn't seen any of his children.
He supposed that he had to heal first and only the younger version of his wife, innocent, naïve and compassionate as ever, was able to do that. He remembered her telling him that one day, when he would feel at his lowest and forget who he really was, she would be there to help him remember. He had never understood what she had meant then but did get it when he first met her for the second time.
He still dreaded the day he would lose her again though. He didn't know when or how but he knew it would happen sometime in their travels. While he knew it would be to his younger self, he still doubted that it would hurt any less.
The Doctor thought he'd never get to see her again, that she had died with the rest of their family in the Time War. But when he'd heard from Donna and saw the words Bad Wolf across the market place they'd been in, he'd felt hope fill his hearts at the idea of seeing her again. But until now, there was nothing.
He looked around him again, hoping against hope that she'd be hiding somewhere, waiting for the right moment to strike but he couldn't see anything. The Doctor sighed in resignation. It was wishful thinking.
He concentrated back on Davros' gloating speech. This time, the daleks had truly lost their minds, not that it wasn't already the case before. But they had never tried to destroy all of creation just to be the only living species in the universe.
The speech halted however when they all heard an impossible sound: the sound of a TARDIS was making its way to their ears. Everyone present turned in circles, trying and failing to pinpoint the exact origin of the sound and where the ship would appear. They were even more surprised when they realised that it wasn't coming from one location but from all around the room. In fact, not one TARDIS but several of them were fading into existence, all around the room. Seconds later, the room's occupants found themselves gaping at, at least a dozen of Police Public Call Boxes, of all kind of colors.
Some of them like Captain Jack Harkness rubbed at their eyes, just to make sure that they weren't deceiving them. They couldn't understand what was going on here. How was it possible that there were so much TARDISes in existence, let alone in there with them? The Doctor was supposed to be the last of his kind so, what was this?
The silence was broken by the man himself when he exploded in joyous laugher. They all turned to him in surprise, wondering if he had gone mad. But then they really looked at him and saw something they had never seen in him before: it was relief but there was also happiness in there. The Doctor inspection was cut short when they heard doors creaking open around them.
A man looking like a younger version of the Doctor himself came out of a green TARDIS. He looked straight at the Doctor and called out a cheery "Hey dad!" and waved at him.
Seconds later, some more greetings of the same type came out, all directed at the same man. That had the room gaping at the Doctor again. Who were they and why were they calling him dad?
With all that was going on, it was a surprise that the daleks hadn't reacted at all. It seemed that they were as shocked into silence as the others.
The first man to have come out first called out to the Doctor. "Dad?" When he had his full attention, he continued talking. "We have a surprise for you." His other siblings nodded happily in support of the declaration.
Not long after he delivered his declaration, the sound of another TARDIS came in. This time, it appeared in the middle of the others. The dalek prisoners sighed in relief: finally something they could identify! Indeed, they could all recognise the Doctor's TARDIS when they saw the ship; which called for the question, how could it be there when it was supposed to have been destroyed? Even the Doctor too was puzzled this time.
They fixed the door to see who would come out this time. The shock got higher when a blonde woman got out of the TARDIS. Only a few of the prisoners recognised her while the others looked on confused.
"Hi honey, did you miss me?" The Doctor gave out a laugh, trying to get past the lump in his throat. She then turned to Jackie and gave her a soft smile. "Hi mom." She looked beside her then. "And Mickey! Jack, Sarah Jane! Long time not see!" They all exploded with questions that she couldn't quite get. She could hear her name somewhere in there but that was all.
Then, as if a switch had been pushed, Davros and the daleks in the room came back to life. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?! EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN!"
Rose turned to Davros. "I will gladly explain things to you." She dropped her cheerful voice to adopt a much harder one. She waved to the room in its entirety. "This is the end of you! You stop this madness right now or I'll make you!"
"You have no way of stopping us Miss Tyler. The Doctor is powerless and his children of time too."
"Oh, I don't think I'll need the Doctor or his children of time as you call them for that. All I'll need is his kids! Look at them Davros, they all have their father's blood and brains. Imagine what the Doctor can do and you get it many times more. And it's not just them: you have generations and generations of Time Lords orbiting around this ship in their TARDISes and all of them are the Doctor's descendants, our descendants. Imagine that, the Doctor and the Bad Wolf combined; you get one hell of a mix."
Davros regarded her for a moment. "It doesn't matter, we have the ultimate power. Activate the reality bomb!"
The prisoners had looks of awe on their faces but it quickly transformed to concern, all but for the Doctor, when they saw the countdown begin.
Rose looked at the dalek creator with a frown. "What, really? Are you suicidal or something?"
Davros' sinister smile became hesitant when he realised that she wasn't intimidated in the least. He got why though when the countdown stopped suddenly and an alarm was heard. Wide eyed, he looked toward the controls to see a black haired woman standing over them.
She gave him a bright smile. "Sorry, that wasn't the big bang you were expecting, right?"
"SYSTEM IN SHUT DOWN." A dalek cried. A second one accompanying it took over. "DETONATION NEGATIVE." A third one finished next with a demand. "EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"
The Doctor looked smug at the moment. "I thought Rose explained it to you? If you can't leave me without supervision, then you certainly don't want to do it with the kids. They cause trouble wherever they go, more than I could ever do."
His statement received a chorus of "Oy, we do not!" from around the room. The Doctor simply looked at them with a smile and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, if you say so.
With a cry of fury, Davros lifted his hand to zap her. "You will pay for this!" However, he was surprised and cried out when the process reversed and shocked him instead.
"Oops, that must have hurt." She gave him a cheeky grin.
"Exterminate her!" Davros' order was followed by cries of "EXTERMINATE" from the other daleks.
The prisoners started to panic but once again, the woman by the controls surprised them. Although they had no idea what she was doing, they could only observe the consequences around them.
The cries of "EXTERMINATE" were soon over and the reason for that was explained by a random dalek. "WEAPONS NON-FUNCTIONAL!" The statement seemed true to all daleks in the room as none of them had been able to fire at anyone let alone their target.
While the young Time Lady worked at the controls, her brothers and sisters looked on, relaxed, as if it was a normal day to them and they weren't surrounded by daleks.
"Can't have you guys killing people now, can we? It'll cause much trouble!"
"Sarah!"
The young woman turned to Rose then with the most innocent look she could muster. "Yes mom?"
"Stop being a cheek and turn off the holding cells!"
The women, Sarah, exhaled in defeat. "Alright. You're really not fun at all mom." With that, she proceeded to do as instructed and the Doctor and his companions were set free. "Holding cells deactivated. And seal the volt."
The Doctor went straight to Rose and proceeded to kiss the life out of her. The display of affection received, yet again a chorus of "ugh!', "yuk!" and "get a room" from their children but they were just ignored. It had been three years that he hadn't been able to hold his wife in his arms (not sure how long it was for her), and he had a right to kiss her as much as he liked.
Once the kiss was over, the Doctor looked at her once more before releasing her. "Hello."
Rose gave him a bright smile to match his. "Hello." They returned to the present when they heard Sarah's voice.
"Come on guys, time to get to work; we have planets to return home!" She was then joined at the console by some of her siblings.
Davros couldn't let this go on though. "Stop them! Get them away from the controls."
"And, spin."
"HELP ME, HELP ME!"
While the daleks spun on the spot, the parents simply looked on proudly as the kids worked.
In the meantime, the former prisoners took care of the remaining daleks.
"SYSTEM MALFUNCTION!"
"MOTOR CASING INTERFACE!"
"WHAT IS HAPPENING? EXPLAIN!"
Taking advantage of the enemy's confusion, Jack ran straight to the TARDIS. He came out seconds later with two big guns.
Davros started to panic. "Stop this at once!"
Jack threw one of the guns to Mickey who caught it and held Davros at gunpoint. "Just stay where you are mister."
The others helped by shoving the daleks this way and that with the assistance of some of the young Time Lords.
The humans wandered over to the parents and watched the Time Lords with awe, wondering how this was possible.
It was Jackie who actually voiced their mutual question. "What the hell is going on here then?"
Rose and the Doctor turned to her in surprise. "Mom!" Rose shrieked and went to take in a fierce hug.
Jackie hugged her daughter and patted her back gently. "What is it sweetheart? You're acting like you haven't seen me in years!"
With tears in her eyes, Rose laughed weakly. "Mom, I haven't seen you in centuries!"
"What? What are you on about?"
One of the kids came to them from the other side of the room. "Mom and dad have an unconventional relationship."
"They've met for the first time twice in their lives." The others looked to see a double of the young man had joined them and took over the story.
The first one continued then. "The first time, well if you think in linear time, mom knew dad and was already pregnant with us but he had never met her before."
"They met in Gallifrey in his first incarnation and married there."
"The second time was just after the Time War."
"Dad knew mom but she didn't know him."
"They then fell in love and married again."
"You could say this is their third meeting."
"And last."
"And last, right. Now they know who the other is."
The humans had followed the story as much as they could. It wasn't easy not only because the explanation was unbelievable (although with the doctor, anything was possible) but because the two storytellers were making it difficult for them. They weren't sure if they were doing it intentionally or not but it was like staring at a tennis contest. They had to look from one to the other, back and forth until they were finished. Now they believed they were really the Doctor's sons. They talked a thousand words a minute and looked quite proud of themselves.
Rose laughed and looked at her mother's disbelieving face. "Mom, meet your eldest grandchildren: Jack and Jake."
"Hey Grandma!" They saluted and gave her their biggest smiles. They were the carbon copies of the Doctor.
Jackie looked about ready to faint. "I think I need to sit down for a moment." She went over the console and leaned on it.
Rose gave her a sympathetic smile. She could understand how her mother could have a hard time accepting it. She would be the same in her situation.
"Captain Jack Harkness, I believe I'm your name sake?"
Rose rolled her eyes. Jack would always be Jack. Thank goodness her son was far from resembling him.
"By me a drink first pretty boy!"
No, he was like his father in every way; both of them were.
"Ready guys?" Sarah asked and looked at her siblings assisting her for their answer. "And, reverse!"
"Of you go Clom!"
"Back home Adipose three!"
"Shallacatop!"
"Pyrovilla!"
"The Lost Moon of Poosh!"
The list went on as the planets were returned to their rightful place in the universe.
Davros was outraged at seeing his plans falling before his eyes. "But you promised me Dalek Caan! Why did you not foresee this?!"
"Oh, I think he did. Something has been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Rose to Gallifrey when she started testing her Dimension Cannon; getting Donna to the right place at the right time."
Dalek Caan's voice echoed in the room, chuckling in madness. "This would always have happened. I only helped, Doctor!"
Davros looked horrified. "You betrayed the daleks!"
"I saw the daleks, what we have done. Throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator and I decreed no more!"
"Heads up!"
At Jack's warning, they all looked up to see a red dalek fly into the room, looking for answers. "DAVROS, YOU HAVE BETRAYED US!"
"It was Dalek Caan!"
But the creator of the dalek's defensive words were ignored. "THE VAULT WILL BE PURGED. YOU WILL ALL BE EXTERMINATED!" The dalek sent a beam of energy towards the people by the console but only managed to destroy the controls, leaving them unharmed and on the floor.
"Like I was saying, feel it!" With one shot from his gun, Jack destroyed the dalek which exploded in pieces.
Sarah got up from the floor with the others. She went to get a good look at the controls before moaning in exasperation. "Oh, we've lost the magnetron! And there's only one planet left! Oh, guess which one? We're gonna need a TARDIS!"
Her father intervened then. "Don't worry sweetheart, I'm on it!" With that said, he ran and disappeared into his TARDIS.
Sarah turned her attention to one of her brothers when she heard him talk. "Holding Earth stability; maintaining atmospheric shell."
"THE PROPHECY MUST COMPLETE."
"Don't listen to him!"
"I HAVE SEEN THE END OF EVERYTHING DALEK! YOU MUST MAKE IT HAPPEN!"
All eyes and ears turned their attention to Caan and Davros' confrontation.
When she saw her kids looking at each other in consideration, Rose interrupted, getting between Caan and her children. "Now, you think you'll make one of my kids commit genocide?! I think not. You may want to destroy all the daleks but you're still one and none of us is listening to you." She then turned to address her children. "You lot, get back to your TARDISes and stay in orbit! Your father and I will take care of this."
Her voice left no room for argument so, one by one, the young Time Lords nodded at her and left to their ships. Once they dematerialised out, Rose took their place at the controls.
"Sweetheart, what are you doing?"
She only took a few seconds to glance at her mother before answering her. "Caan flew to the Time War and pulled all those daleks out of the Time Lock to get them here. I'm only sending them back where they belong."
The Doctor came out then to join her. When he asked what she was doing, she explained her plan. He didn't really look satisfied.
"These are still daleks. With or without a reality bomb, their empire is big enough to slaughter the cosmos. We've got to stop them."
He looked at her tenderly. "I know what you mean. I simply thought that destroying them would be anyone's choice of stopping them."
"I know, but both of us have already done that at least once. I wasn't about to let the kids witness that, let alone let one of them do it. This way, we're just righting a wrong."
He simply nodded at her logic. "Sometimes it's better to do what is right thing rather than what is easy."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Don't go quoting the Harry Potter books to me now!"
Her husband laughed at that. "Done?"
She pushed a last control with finality. "Yeah."
"Come on guys, to the TARDIS!" The Doctor led the way to the TARDIS, stopping at the door to greet them all in. Once everyone was inside, he shot a last glance at Davros.
"Never forget Doctor, you did this. I name you, forever you are the Destroyer of the Worlds!
Caan's voice, giggling in madness was heard over Davros. "One of them will still die!"
The Doctor simply looked at them before he ran to the console to join the others. "Off we go!"
None of them was able to witness it but one by one, the daleks disappeared from the Earth and the surrounding space, back to where they had come from, the Time war.
Back in the Doctor's TARDIS, Sarah-Jane had one last concern. "But what about the Earth, it's still stuck in the wrong part of space?"
"I'm on it."
The Doctor glanced at his wife: she had taken the very words from his mouth. He didn't know how he had been able to go on as long as he had without her at his side. And here she was, taking charge of everything to save her birth planet.
"Mother TARDIS calling baby TARDISes, are you receiving me?"
Her words caused surprised faces to turn to her. Was that some sort of code words for the family?
In return, she received a chorus of "Loud and clear, mother TARDIS!"
The Doctor took over. "Good! Now, kids, I want you all to synchronise your TARDISes with mother TARDIS."
"On it!"
"What are you going to do?" Donna asked the obvious question.
"We're linking all TARDISes to sort of make a big one."
The Doctor took over for his wife. "Oh, it's simple, really. We're going to dematerialise the Earth and re-materialise it home! As if it was one big TARDIS, ha!"
The others, except for his wife, looked at him as if he was mad; well, madder than usual.
"You're sure that's gonna work?" Jack knew how clever the Doctor was but he had his doubts on this plan of his.
"Oh, I'm sure it's gonna work. I've never tried it before but there's a first time for anything right?"
"But, if the planet is gonna travel through the vortex, won't the people be dead?" Martha remembered very well what had happened to the captain when he had clung to the ship while it flew.
"One, we're not going to travel through the vortex, that's only useful when travelling in time and here, we're going to travel in space. Two, the planet and the people on it will be protected by the atmospheric shell."
The Doctor beamed at her proudly. "She's absolutely right. Isn't she brilliant?!"
Martha wasn't really sharing the Doctor's sentiment on that one. She still felt some kind of jealousy towards the woman. At least before she could tell herself that she was only human and couldn't be better than her, even with the way the Doctor had talked about her during their travels. But here she was, being intimidated all over again, not just by a ghost, but by the woman herself who was revealed to be the Doctor's wife and mother of his children; and a Time Lady to boot. She couldn't rival with that.
Everyone was pulled out of their musings when they heard voices talking over the monitor.
"Baby TARDISes ready, mother TARDIS!"
"Right." He took a deep breath before exclaiming, "Allons-y!" and, with his hand covering his wife's, they pulled the lever down."
The passengers took hold of something as the TARDIS shook around them.
It only took a few minutes but they could feel by the lack of shaking that they had stopped moving, so the Earth must have arrived home, where it belonged. Sheers exploded then and everyone hugged the person besides them.
The only exception was the Doctor and Rose who were once again locked in a fiery kiss. After some seconds, they finally registered the cat calls around them. They came out of the kiss and told the kids that everything was fine and to go home.
In the meantime, they had to drop everyone off amidst the celebrations to their own home before they'd have to go to theirs to reunite with their family.
In the plan to drop off everyone, Sarah-Jane was the first one on the list. She found herself with the Doctor at a park, in front of the TARDIS.
She turned to scrutinise him. "You know, all these years, you've acted like the loneliest man on Earth but in fact, you've got the biggest family in the entire universe. And I'm not using that term lightly."
He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, laughing nervously. "I know, but it was essential that my companions not know about my personal life, to maintain the time lines stable."
"Really, is that the only reason?"
"No, you're right. I liked to know that I had a life to myself; a life that no one else could interfere in. I love travelling around the universe but I love my family more. If keeping them secret could keep them safe then so be it. It had to be that way, at least until Rose and I completed the circular paradox and we could be on the same time line safely."
Sarah-Jane nodded in understanding before she remembered something. "Oh, got to go, he's only fourteen! It's a long story. And, thank you."
The Doctor looked after her with a soft smile.
The next ones to leave were Jack and Martha. They stood in front of the Doctor while he disabled Jack's vortex manipulator.
"I told you, no teleport! And, Martha, get rid of that Osterhagen thing eh? Save the world one more time."
She nodded. "Consider it done."
With that after saluting him, they both left, hand in hand while they discussed Martha's plan for a job in the future.
The Doctor looked after them too. He liked to know that they would always be alright after they left him.
He heard the TARDIS door opening and closing behind him but didn't let it bother him long. But he had to say something when he realised who it was that came out of it.
"See ya, boss."
"Oy, where are you going?"
Mickey stopped in his tracks to answer him. "Well, I'm not stupid. I can work out what happens next and hey, I had a good time in that parallel world but my Gran passed away. Nice and peaceful. She spent her last years living in a mansion. There's nothing there for me now, certainly not Rose."
The Doctor could understand that. "What will you do?"
"Anything. Brand new life, just you watch. See you, boss." He ran to catch up to Jack and Martha who weren't too far ahead of him. "Hey, you two!"
Jack stopped to grit him. "Oh, thought I'd gotten rid of you!"
The last one to leave was Donna. The Doctor had to admit, she was the one that surprised him the most. He had thought that she'd want to continue travelling with him for some time to come. But apparently, he was wrong.
"You sure you want to leave? Because you can still come if you want. You know that, right?"
She gave him a soft smile. "Yes! I'm absolutely sure. You know, part of me wanted to travel with you to prove, mainly to myself that I wasn't as useless as my mother thought. But you did more than that. You showed me that I could be myself and be just brilliant with my life. Now I know there's more to life; there are worlds, universes out there and I'll never forget that you were the one to show them to me."
"If you're sure then."
"Yeah, I'm sure. And from now on, I'll never miss any alien activity in the world!" The two of them laughed at that.
"Donna Noble, we had the best of times!"
"Yes we had. And I'll never forget them."
They hugged one last time before she had to leave. But not before getting one from someone else.
Donna found herself the victim of a massive hug from a certain blonde. After the surprise had passed, she hugged her back. "Thank very much, Donna Noble, for taking care of him when I couldn't be there."
"You're welcome. And I'm glad you're back with him. He was completely rubbish without you."
"Oy, I was not!" His cry of indignation went completely ignored.
Rose and Donna laughed at the face he made. "We'll come and visit some time, ok?"
"You better. Or else I'll come and get you, wherever you are."
Rose laughed again. "Goodbye, Donna!"
The Doctor returned to the TARDIS console. "Just time for one last trip: Pete's world!"
When they materialised, Jackie was the first one out, followed by her daughter who had a backpack with her. She didn't know why but, with everything Rose had told her about the Doctor's driving, she feared that they would land somewhere else, like on that beach in Norway for example. She was glad to be proven wrong this time, for she found herself in her garden.
She turned to Rose who was smiling at her. "You're not staying, are you?"
"No, sorry mom, but I'm not a little girl little anymore. It's been a long time since the last time we saw each other. I've made my own family and the Doctor needs me for the moment, me and the kids. He hasn't seen us in years, he thought we'd died in the Time war so, it's been hard on him."
Jackie's expression softened. "I completely understand sweetheart, I really do. It's just, I thought now that I found you, you'd spend some time with us, meet your little brother."
"Mom, you don't understand." When she only got confused eyes, Rose laughed. "Mom, you got a little idea of our family on that ship and that's only some of them. The Doctor is over nine hundred years and I've spent almost eight hundred of them with him. In those years, we've had many, many children, grandchildren, and so on. Now, there are thousands of Time Lords out there!"
"What are you getting at, what does that mean?"
"I've already met my little brother, Tony."
Her mother's eyebrows went to her hairline. "You have?" She gave a nod. "When?"
"I lied when I said that I haven't seen you in centuries. I met him years ago; and for me he's not so little anymore." Jackie had some trouble believing that. "Mom, don't you see? Now that there are so many Time Lords, we can travel between universes with no problem. We can come and see you anytime we want! And we can even keep in touch with a phone."
That was enough for Jackie. She shrieked and hugged her daughter in delight. It was at that time that the Doctor came out of the TARDIS and he wasn't spared. Jackie took him in her arms for one of her fiercest hugs. "Thank you, Doctor."
"You're welcome." Although, he had no idea what he was being thanked for. But it didn't matter. Rose would tell him everything later. He patted her on the back before she let him go.
Rose took the backpack she had brought with her and handed it to her mother. "Here, I've put some photo albums in there for you and a special phone you can call us with."
She took them and hugged the bag to her chest, as if it was her most prized possession. "I'll see you soon?"
Rose nodded in confirmation. "Sooner than you realise."
With that, husband and wife made their way back to their home and left Pete's world for some time.
Jackie and her family received a massive shock when, only hours later, a big police box appeared in their living room. What shocked them the most was the fact that it was pink and not the standard blue for the Doctor's TARDIS. Jackie finally understood when only her daughter came out of the ship, sans the Doctor.
The Doctor and Rose made it back to the TARDIS and left Pete's world.
"Finally alone!"
He glanced up at his wife then. "Really? Why?"
"Yes! Don't act like you haven't thought of being alone all that time we were in the Crucible!"
He finally cracked at the joke. "You're right. I couldn't drop everyone off fast enough to have you all for me."
"Me too." She slid her arms around his shoulders. It had been a long time since she'd been able to do that with this version of him. "How are you feeling?"
"Better than I've been in a long time."
"I can guess why. I'm just sorry I couldn't be there for you. We've looked over you, the kids and me but we knew we couldn't interfere yet; and that wasn't easy either."
"Don't be sorry. Those are the rules of time travel and I'm the one to teach them to you all, remember?"
"I know, but still."
"Still nothing. We, I had to go through that so we could be together, as a family. And we did it." He kissed her tenderly then. "Now, I think it's time to celebrate. I say we take a few weeks to ourselves before going to meet the kids."
"You know what Doctor? I think that's actually a great idea."
"Oh, I always have great ideas Rose Tyler."
"Hmm, I'm sure you do. Now, how about you put some into action then?"
"That'll be my pleasure!"
True to the Doctor's words, they didn't leave the TARDIS for weeks, just getting reacquainted with each other again. When it was finally time to leave the vortex, they made work of the controls in perfect tandem before meeting in front of the monitor. Once again, they pulled the lever together and made a perfect landing.
The monitor activated to show that they had landed in yet another garden. This time though, they could witness a garden decorated for a party ready to take place. They could see people mingling about, children running everywhere. They were sure that their arrival had been heard but the family outside understood that they would get some time before coming out of their hiding place.
The Doctor looked at Rose, understanding she had made all of this possible for him. She had reunited their entire family to greet him home and he couldn't be happier than he was now. He didn't know any words that could express all the love he felt for her so he did the next best thing. He kissed her but this time, he bared his entire mind to her to show her the love he felt for her, for their family.
After that, he looked at her dazed expression, satisfied with himself. "Thank you, for everything you've given me."
He decided then that it was time to get out and greet the family. It seemed that only the guest of honour was missing.
The patriarch would take the next two hundred years, just taking care of his many-times-grandchildren, expanding the family by making some more of his own and being a family man before the universe would catch up with him and he would have to go back to travelling again.
Another idea I had, this time for Doctor who.
I'll do the same for some episodes I'll choose from seasons 5, 6 and 7.
Not sure how I'll do that yet seeing as I'd stopped watching the series after David Tennant left but I think I'll manage.
Anyway, review, please! It's always a pleasure to see that your work is appreciated (or not)