Summary: There's another load, waiting beside the kitchen table, this time...
T.A.W.L.C.
He sighed as he puzzled out the various ways the TAWLC would open. He got the WLC part, what he didn't get was the TA, bit. Why this thing would be TARDIS approved, he had no idea. The Weird Looking Container part was easy. It had long fat jutting bits in various directions. The top was a huge ball-shaped construction and it was covered in odd folds and bits of hardened material on hinges. Apparently, whatever he'd been sent was quite valuable. It also had little pumps all over it with hoses going inside to keep the right atmosphere in there...so whatever it was, was alive.
Someone had sent him a pet. Probably several pets, going by the sheer size of the thing. TARDIS approved pets, which meant she wouldn't allow him to get rid of them. He swore softly in Gallifreyan as he worked the next bit off, leaving the pumps and hoses in place. Whatever was in there didn't need to suffocate.
As the last 'door' fell away, he caught his breath in wonder...eyes flicking over the system controls next to the stasis field where she slept. He looked over the instruments and feeds and realized that this thing had been constructed to survive the void safely, while keeping her in suspended animation...just in case something vital failed and she was killed. She would have gone from stasis to dead instantly, but more importantly, unaware of it and painlessly. There was a note in his own hand writing taped to the back of that last door, first it listed the code he needed to enter to start bringing her out of stasis. He did that first, then read the rest of the clone's note.
Hello ME!
I'm 89 and nearly gone on...and Rose isn't aging. So...I built this thing, dropped her into stasis without warning and bagged her up. This body has enough Time Lord in it that I didn't think watching turn to powder over the course of a week or more, with bits dusting off and finally just collapse was a good idea for our Rose.
"Agreed."
I did marry her, you know...which of course means she knows the Name. So...you're married to Rose, like it or not.
The Thirteenth nodded, shuddering a bit at the thought of putting her through that. "True."
So...I sent her off back to care of her, Me. She's regenerated twice since we've been here. Weird ones, though. No changing...and she kept shooting most of it at me despite my protests that she really shouldn't do it. Understand though...would've gone on thirty years ago if she hadn't. She's got some noisy baggage along, though. You'll like it.
"Interesting." He murmured.
"What's interesting, Doctor? And who's she?" Clara's voice came from behind him. He smiled a bit as he half turned toward her, fingers still dancing over the instruments as his Rose began to move and twitch a bit.
"Remember when I told you I wasn't your boyfriend?"
"You mean when I looked at you like you were crazy and informed you I never thought you were? Big brother, maybe, but that was last you. Now it's more like gramps."
"Oi!" He protested.
"Well, it is."
"ANYway, this is Rose Tyler. I told you about her."
"Yeah."
"She knows my name...the one the loom houses put on my birth records...the embarrassing one I never use or tell anyone if I can avoid it. Telling my mate my name is part of getting married, for my people. Once a woman knows my name, she will remain my wife, any body at all...all of them, actually...are married to her. So, even though the clone told her my name, she's still my wife."
"Okay. So...does that make Rose 'Gram' since you're 'Gramps'?"
"I certainly hope not." Came the coarse sounding voice from the woman in the pod. "I'm no where near as old as he is. Barely getting started. Got a helluva age gap, me and this old goat."
"Oi!" He complained, already helping her to sit up. "Human me knocked you out, put you in stasis and sent you home. All I did was open the pod, so as much as I'm overjoyed to see you and have you back, I had nothing to do with it." He still backed out of her way a bit when she scowled at him.
He glanced down behind her at the sound of a whimper.
"It's just one of the boys. I was going to stay with that you and send this you our children. There's twin daughters too, but only the boys will fuss in their sleep. There's six of them. Oldest is seven."
"Six Ch, ch, ch, children?" The Doctor answered, paling in shock before collapsing in a dead faint.
Rose looked at Clara.
"Get a camera." She requested urgently.
"Right..." And Clara trotted of to go find her's.
"So...we're not going to let him live his faint down, are we? " Rose asked Clara as they settled all six kids into a TARDIS provided nursery.
Clara studied her and slowly started to shake her head in the negative, grinning back at her before studying man face down the hover-stretcher a few feet away. He looked like a passed out drunk, arms and legs flung here and there as they were.. "No way."
~*~TBC~*~