A hodge podge human crew of two adult females and several half alien kids on a jury rigged spaceship is doing their best to recreate something as close to their homeworld after Sol goes nova as possible. First the captain located several young yellow stars of about the same size and close to the same signature as Sol had been. Then their used automatic function sciences to terraform the surface of a barren planet they named simply, House. The environmental accident that left all but two youngsters being babysat by the ship's AI dead on the surface far below couldn't have been foreseen.
The House of the Doctor
This 'ship' was easily the most jury-rigged, barely put together thing he'd ever been on. Toolkits, diagrams, instruction manuals and parts were strewn all over the place, as if to say, 'We'll fix what we have to when we have to, but there's other jobs waiting.' The Doctor judged it needful to use the parts and tools rapidly repair no fewer than fourteen different necessary systems that were vital if simple fixes on the way to trying to find whoever or whatever was in charge ship's failing systems had been detected by the TARDIS, along with readings that suggested humans.
He found one of the 'crew' in the kitchen where she dropped a pan of flatbread on the floor when she saw him...and truthfully he wasn't in any better shape. No wonder the place was a wreck, this human was a child, a girl who was no more than ten, if she was that old. She certainly wasn't old enough to have been taught to perform proper ship's maintenence.
"But...you're not real. You're just a character on the DVDs...so...right. Sleep, I need to go to bed now. Damn it, why can't the best guys be real?"
She steadily refused to look at him again, cleaned up most of the mess and then left the kitchen. She was so rattled by him she skipped picking up the pan of bread.
"People who don't exist shouldn't show up outta nowhere, even if I am a bit tired." She muttered as she moved past him, only to freeze as he put his hand out to stop her.
"DVDs? I assure you, I'm very much real, child."
"Can't be. Been drifting around for years ever since my parents got killed in a terraforming accident when I was six and Tommy was two months old, and if you were real, you'd been here before now cuz you wouldn't leave kids to hang like this. So you're not." She insisted with the logic of any young child. She looked up at him. "I have to believe that, see? So you're just...an imaginary friend. I'm still young enough to have one, right?"
The Eighth Doctor sighed at the waves of emotion coming from the youngster. "I just crossed into this universe, young one. First thing the TARDIS detected was this...ship. We came right away." He brushed a bit of hair from her eyes.
She shivered under his hand and he crouched down to pull the child into his arms. To this highly empathic version of the Doctor, what this child needed, more than any one single thing, was an adult in charge. It was very clear she knew who he was and suddenly he was very glad that of the two distress signals he'd received, he'd followed this one. He knew the woman on the other ship would die from the decision, but when the TARDIS sensors had detected children alone on a derilict vessel he felt he had to go to the children. He could not save both ships, but this one at least, while it badly needed repairs, wasn't in any danger of crashing.
Where's your little brother?"
"The AI is watching him nap. He's four, he needs naps. I had to nap when I was four."
"I think...it best if I see to the repairs this ship needs first."
"So...can the TARDIS take over the computer systems? There's lots wrong but I haven't bothered with cuz I dunno how, Mister Doctor."
"It's just Doctor."
"You're a grown up, right?"
"Yes."
"So it's mister Doctor cuz it ain't right for kids to call grown up people by firsties."
When put that way... He sighed and nodded. At least the child was polite.
"Alright." The first thing he did was to let the TARDIS know that the 'owner' wanted an adult in charge of them and the timeship in charge of the derilict's computers. "Let's get your little brother and put both of you on the TARDIS. She and I can gather what is useful but I don't expect much. And then she and I will take you elsewhere."
"Will there be running?"
"Not this time, I don't think. You are both far too young for it."
"Awwww...please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"I think not. Now, let's get that pan of bread off the floor...good thing it landed rightside up, very odd to watch you clean the kitchen, but leave the pan on the floor, by the way...and get you two resettled in my ship...who has all her parts and functions correctly." He tried not to smile as she huffed her disappointment and felt his immediate future split. One way was still being recalled. The other, with these children, was not. He made his choice, gathered the girl into his arms and felt the line that led to war fall away. "You've domesticated me, you know. Your brother is terribly young...and yet I find myself raising the pair of you." She'd known too much about that other future, he supposed, so he'd been given a choice that included a future she knew nothing of. Even with a time war on, Time Lines must be preserved where possible. When it was not possible, it was needful to allow a new direction to form.
He felt the impact of the other self on the other timeline as the TARDIS went to rescue the other ship and crashed soon after, but beyond that he could sense nothing. He supposed he'd regenerated on that timeline. He shifted the TARDIS back across the void until that one's war could be completed, then, with the last crack, he went back. There was no real need to be alone in his head.
No matter. In this timeline, the war was long over and except for a pair of children with very busy heads which constantly came up with new things to get into and more trouble to cause...and that was just on the TARDIS, he could only hear himself, in various places. Only, it was elders on the other timeline he heard...not this him on this one. The Eighth knew himself well and the implications of that made him shiver, even as he reached out to contact the self he wasn't...not anymore. He was and he wasn't, that other Doctor and there were differences enough for them to be able to keep both selves from being so utterly alone with an isolated mind.
The other answered...of course he did...how could he not? He reminded himself of the self that had split away to rescue the children...
"That is the self that I am, and I am different enough from you that we can both live in the same universe."
"How different?"
"I've been domesticated...by two humans under ten years old and only one is female. The other is a four year old boy...and she's whining because I told her that almost ten is too young to take as a companion, let alone four...so I adopted them instead."
"Domesticated?"
"Willingly."
"Are you sure you're not just ill and feverish?"
"Positive."
"Well, it's better than being alone, but still...ICK."
"Nonsense. We've always loved teaching and the very young minds of these kids are very receptive. Join me?"
"My version of your TARDIS said you're skirting some very sticky science...but she sees nothing untoward. My companion's name is Rose Tyler. Beware her mum...Jackie slaps. Hard. Which one are you?"
"Eight."
"Yes, then, I'll join you...you've got a ship with all her parts."
"In that case, yes, bring her here so we can repair her. We'll meet you in bay four." He was already ushering the girl into said bay, with the toddler draped over his shoulder, sucking his thumb in his sleep.
A moment later the girl's head came up at the squall of the other self's arriving TARDIS. One look at that Self had her squealing in excitement. "THAT'S the you on the DVDS!"
The girl's shouts scared her sleeping brother who woke in the arms of a stranger, then started crying.
"Um. Sorry." She told him as he re-arranged the lad and exerted his strong gift of empathy to soothe him...and his other self as well...broadcasting to the boy ensured that the other listening mind received it too. The elder relaxed a bit though the lad was more stubborn. Finally the girl, Rose, shook her head and simply took the little boy away from him. She jiggled the boy a bit and started singing softly to him. It took her less than two minutes, total, to get him calmed and wipe his face.
"See, that's your new daddy. And this is your new Uncle. And I'm your Rose, a new big sister for both of you, okay? Between us, you have a new family, alright?"
"Rose."
"Yes, Doctor?"
"You get to explain to your mum how she suddenly got two more kids...that I'm raising...in two forms at the same time."
"Well, when you put it that way..." She grinned at her big-earred version, then turned to the girl and said, "I'll be your new mum if you want one. Then you'll have two daddies instead of just one. Best part of that, is that the Doctor can explain how I'm with two of him and made her a granny at her age."
"OI! That's not what I meant!" He cussed in Gallifreyan when he found her ignoring him...himself ignoring Eight's raised eyebrow at his particular uses of certain concepts.
"I can do that. It's better to be adopted so that we go do neat stuff together, than you wanting to do something stupid, like going to see your dad die or something else equally dumb...and risky. Bet she slaps him silly, though."
"OI"! The grumpy, northern version protested. "Wasn't once enough?"
"I'm not gonna take that bet, not no way, not no how." Rose replied, grinning. "Best if we introduce your's first. She's a sucker for men with hair like that." That simple she told the other Doctor her mum's address. "Let's see if this you can manage to land where you intend to...or not."
"Oi! Rose, I'm not that bad." Ten complained. "Haven't missed the last three in a row."
"You would have though. I just asked the TARDIS if it was okay if you showed me some of those places you were talking about or if I should put on work clothes instead...cuz you told me she was the person who was really in charge, yeah? So, I asked your boss."
"OI!" Both Doctors exclaimed, insulted. The little girl was laughing in glee, knowing exactly what Rose was talking about.
The Tenth felt his timeline shift with the girl's quite accurate statement about dumb things to go see. Something dangerous had been prevented. He arched an eyebrow as he recalled the squalled words that had woken her brother.
"DVDs?" He had a bad feeling about this, particularly when the little girl cast her own big blue eyes...prettier than his by far...up and batted her eyes at him. Oh yeah, this wasn't going to end well.
She ended up insisting that Eight watch the DVDs. All of them, since they were the other Doctor's Timeline, not his...and one of them should know. The expression on his face when he was done was something else. "You had the entire series." He glanced at Tenth. "She was right, one of us needed to know, so we can scramble the order of things without touching the fixed points...so she, who has the entire series memorized, doesn't have a Time Lord's...never mind two, exact personal future in her little head."
"Yup."
"From First...whom we share, by the way, all the way through mine, but his me, not me-me..."
"Yup."
"Through the next self and that him and Rose."
"Yup."
"And then next him and Rose."
"Yup"
"And on to the next him and next him..."
"Yup and yup."
"All the adventures, all the companions, fixed points, general universal disasters and all the little moments between."
"Yup."
Both Doctors sighed, then Ten commented. "She's got a good working knowledge of this me and the next four mes...and also of Rose...and from what I can tell, several other people."
"Yes, she does. And of this me as well."
"She's been teaching her brother."
"Most likely, he's usually with her."
"She's gonna teach Rose all about us."
"Um, she already has. She left off your bits and those after, but I spent days watching it when you two were sorting out Verat 4 since the atmosphere precluded human involvement...and I needed something to do. You were so cute when you were Second. Small and adorable, really." Both Doctors rolled their eyes and sighed.
"This is Chara being helpful?"
"Yes, but don't worry...she doesn't stay helpful long at a time. She and her little brother like to explore the ship and regularly gets into things they must needs be got out of."
"Why?"
"She calls it 'training'...for when it's her turn to go wandering off."
"Yeah, that's not good." Groused Rose's version.
~*~TBC~*~
