A/N: That's it ... I'm done with this chapter. I am not at all impressed with it, but I'm not fighting it anymore. It's long, too long, but every time I go in and tweak and omit parts of it, it somehow grows even longer.
I won't be hurt if you tell me this is awful .. because quite honestly, I think it is. But I need to get to Farrington and Ten/Smith ... and I couldn't get there without a little explanation, yeah?
I hopehopehope you can still hang on and stick with me when it's done...
~~oooOOOooo~~
The Doctor had tried the very best that he could to ignore her look. He really did. He spent a very good part of the past twenty-five minutes reciting the triumphs of Rassilon over and over again as though still a pupil at the Lungbarrow home learning by rote with his faithful tutor in an attempt to ignore her look.
"Hear now of Rassilon and his mighty works. He, who single-handedly vanquished the darkness and…"
"I can honestly stand here all day while you pretend not to notice me," Romana purred with amused annoyance as she leaned back against the galley walls.
He continued to potter around at the sink as though he was busy preparing tea. "Would you like me to tell you that I'm impressed with your stamina, Romana?"
She shook her head. "I'd like you to answer my question."
"You'd have to ask me one, first."
"I've asked you several," she intoned blandly.
"Oh did you now," he questioned jovially. "Well. My apologies. I didn't hear you. I must be losing my hearing as I pass through each regeneration."
Romana rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're certainly losing something, Doctor," she muttered under her breath.
"What was that?"
"Never mind," Romana shot back quickly. "It wasn't complimentary," She peeled her back off the wall and strode to where the Doctor had set up a plate of Jammie Dodger cookies laid out in a circle surrounding a rather large pile of Jelly babies.
"The day I receive a compliment from you, my dear Romana, is the day I stop running and return to Gallifrey." He opened his mouth and widened his eyes as he watched her trying to retort and huffed out a pair of breaths that came out like "nuh-uh."
"I wouldn't fake one even for that, Doctor," she finally managed with a smile as she picked up an orange jelly baby and inspected it closely. "I have to question a civilization of people who create sweets in the shape of infant children." Her focus shifted from the lolly up to the Doctor. "You have to admit it's rather odd."
He snatched the sweet from her fingertips and quickly popped it into his mouth. He grinned a toothy grin as he chewed it. "I'm rather partial to the orange ones."
"I like the black ones," Gallifrey cheered from the doorway before he bounded across the floor and leapt up onto a stool. He immediately used a finger to rifle though the pile of sweets in search of a black one. He found one and grinned in an identical manner to the Doctor when he popped it in his mouth. "Yummy."
Romana shook her head. "Distinguished Lords of Time, indeed," she muttered sarcastically. "Didn't either of your mother's teach you to eat with your mouth closed?"
"Actually," Gallifrey mumbled wetly over his masticated sweet. "My mum taught me to multi-task. I can chew and talk at the same time."
Romana had several retorts that came immediately to mind, but not one that was in any way child appropriate. Instead, she opted for a moan of disdain. "A skill no doubt revered by your species?"
"Yep," he answered with his toothy smile as he continued to chew. He giggled to receive a wink from the Doctor. "So. Are we going on an adventure, then?"
"Ahh my boy," the Doctor half cheered as he snatched a pair of Jelly Babies in one hand and popped another in his mouth. "We're already on an adventure. Life is the biggest and most wondrous adventure you'll ever take."
Gallifrey flicked up a brow. "But it's more exciting if you take a TARDIS on that adventure, yeah?"
Romana shook her head and pushed back off the table. "If there was ever any doubt at all, Doctor, that comment erased it." She drummed her fingers on the tabletop for a brief moment and stepped away. "That child is definitely yours."
"Oh yes indeed," he answered as he threw another jelly baby into his mouth. "A fine young man if I do say so."
"Womb born, too."
"Very special."
"Without the permission of council."
The Doctor's smile faltered just slightly. The faltering smile quickly became an expression of disgust. "They don't ever have to know, do they?" He saw his son's curious look and quickly shook himself. "But of course, this child was born several centuries from now. It's very likely that council gave approval for he and many other children."
Gallifrey was intrigued as he searched out another black jelly baby. "You need permission to have babies," he queried innocently. "Is that kind of like needing a license? Mum says that they should force people to have licenses to have babies because most of them out there are – and I quote – Bloody idiots who shouldn't ever procreate."
Rose's voice thundered in from the doorway. "Language, Gal. How many times do I have to tell you that you should mind your language in the presence of others?"
He groaned and slouched a little. "Sorry, mum." He turned to look at her, and gasped when he caught sight of his mother standing in the doorway wearing an empire-waisted lemon yellow and white lace and satin dress. He let out an appreciative whistle. "Wow mum. You look beautiful."
Rose gave her son a smile and took handfuls of her skirt to hold it out and spin just a little so that he could see it fully. "I've never worn anything as pretty as this before."
"Pretty it is, Mum, but it pales in comparison to you," Gallifrey cooed with a wink. He then looked to the Doctor. "Am I right, Dad?"
The Doctor picked up his jaw and nodded shortly. "Yes. Yes indeed. It's charming. Very charming."
"The king of compliments you are," Rose muttered with a shake of her head as she walked into the room and climbed up on the stool beside her son. She immediately licked at her thumb to wet and settle a cow-lick that popped up in his fringe. "Is there something wrong with TARDIS, Doctor?"
He looked up from dropping a pair of sugar cubes in his cup of tea and gave her a curious look. "Not that I'm aware of, Rose. Why do you ask?"
"Well," she began as she took a look down at her outfit. "While I think this is one of the more beautiful dresses that she's ever given me – and there have been a couple of really nice ones – I'm concerned that there really doesn't seem to be anything beyond the 1920's on offer."
"Yes," he droned quietly. "Circa 1913 more accurately."
Rose nodded with a frown. "Yeah, okay. 1913. She's not giving me anything that might be a little more my style." She dropped a brow to look at him suspiciously. "Is this…" She dropped a brow to look at him suspiciously. "Is this your preference, maybe?"
"There is a reason for TARDIS' choices of clothing, my dear," he managed with a smile. "And it has nothing to do with the preference that I, or any of my companions may have."
"Although," Romana offered with a smirk. "She has been known to attempt to persuade your fashion choices if she doesn't particularly like your style." She held out her hand in a manner she knew was an acceptable custom of the people of Earth. "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Romanadvoratrelunda."
Rose's eyes widened as she took Romana's hand and gave a respectful shake of greeting. She flapped her mouth in an attempt to quietly try to repeat that name, and then frowned as her son repeated the name flawlessly before popping a sweet into his mouth.
"Romana is acceptable," the Doctor said with a smile. "Believe me, I had trouble with it the first few times I tried to say it, too."
Romana smiled in recollection. "I told the Doctor to either call me Romana .. or Fred … He ultimately went with Romana."
Rose smiled and shook her head. "I'm actually surprised he didn't go with Fred."
"I'm personally thrilled that he didn't."
Rose took a green Jelly baby and bit off its head. "So. Are you a Timelord like him, or are you from Earth?"
"I'm a Time Lady," Romana answered casually. "I grew up on Gallifrey and attended the Academy."
"Okay."
"And I'm really nothing like him at all."
Rose looked to the Doctor. There was a small spark of something best unnamed in her eyes when she looked back to Romana. "Are you his wife?"
The Doctor seemed to choke on his mouthful of biscuit. "What?"
"You told me that you had a wife on Gallifrey," Rose offered with a shrug. "I was wondering if she was her."
"By Rassilon no," he shot out urgently. "Why, the council would have me hung and drawn if I even considered courtship. There is at least a six-century age gap between us." He drew his hand up and down in the air in front of the Time Lady. "And let's not forget that she's still a child."
"Hardly a child, Doctor."
Rose turned to Romana, who looked amused. "If you don't mind me asking…"
"Close to a century and a half."
Rose's eyes widened a moment, but then fell into a friendly expression. "And you look incredible for a centurian with fifty years experience."
Romana curtseyed. "Thank you. I do try my best."
"As I said," the Doctor repeated gruffly. "She is a child, and I – at over seven and a half centuries – would be considered a monster for looking at courting, let alone wedding, her." He circled his finger in front of her. "And don't take credit for your appearance, Romana. You stole that body."
"I regenerated into this form, Doctor." She threw her hair over her shoulder and raised her head high. "At least I took the time to choose a form appropriate for a Time Lady instead of just…" She used her hand to indicate his form. "Instead of just letting the regenerative equivalent of a TARDIS randomizer pick something like that for me."
"Ahh, but that would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?" He looked to Rose and gave her a wink and a smile. "Teenaged girls can be so vain. And you ask me if she is my wife."
Rose gave him a tongue-touched smile. "I find it funny that you're complaining about age gaps and teenager Time Ladies. There is almost a nine century age gap between us, and I was twenty when your Tenth self propositioned me and took me to his bed." She looked to her child. "Gallifrey was conceived on the night of my twenty-first birthday, actually."
Romana burst out laughing and slipped off her stool to put her empty cup in the sink. "Let's see how you talk your way out of this one, Doctor."
"Well," Gallifrey offered in his slightly distracted-but-I-really-want-you-to-know tone of voice. "If you take a moment to compare the average lifespan and aging between both the Gallifreyan and Homo Sapien Sapien species, the gaps really do lose their significance."
Rose slumped. "Gal…"
"Oh no," the Doctor encouraged with a smile. "Do let the lad continue. It would be remiss of us to stifle his intelligence by not listening to what he has to say."
Gallifrey grinned widely, thrilled to see the look of pride from his father. "Well, an initiated and regenerating Time Lord of Gallifrey has an average lifespan of anywhere up to five millennia…"
"Give or take," the Doctor offered with a chuckle. "Some have known to get right up there in the teens. Barring accidents, a Timelord could quite easily live for thousands upon thousands of years."
"Go with me on this, Dad," Gallifrey urged, much to the delight of the Doctor.
"Five thousand years. Yes. Let's work with that, shall we?"
"Now the lifespan of the average human, based on our timeline, of course, is about eighty to ninety years of age, depending on race, gender, yadda yadda. Now, working the math, if we find the common denominator that can bring us a much more linear…"
Rose moaned her son's name.
"A five thousand year lifespan compared to a ninety year span – I'm being generous there, Mum, what with you being all jeopardy-friendly and all that." He looked up and squinted his eyes as he worked the problem in his head. "Five Thou divided by ninety gives a result of 55.56 Gallifreyan years to each earth year of life to a human. Given that mum was twenty when Dad decided they should get their phreak on…"
"Gallifrey!"
"Twenty times fifty five and a half is one thousand one hundred and eleven years and a bit." He looked back toward his mother with a wink. "So technically, you were older than Dad by a century."
"Not quite a century," she deadpanned darkly.
The Doctor chuckled. "Less than a century is quite an acceptable gap for a coupling between Lords and Ladies."
Rose's eyes were wide as she considered what her son had said. "So my age comparable to a Gallifreyan is over one-thousand years? My God. Now I feel so old."
"Timelord," Gallifrey corrected. "A non-regenerating Gallifreyan can live for only a handful of centuries if they're careful."
She let out a huff of surprise. "And how do you know that?"
Gallifrey shrugged as he popped another sweet into his mouth. "Ever since we arrived here, my head's been filling with all sorts of information." He grinned. "Like a download!"
Rose frowned and looked toward the Doctor. "I don't know that I like that. How's he getting all this new information? From the TARDIS? Is she gettin' into his head?"
The Doctor put his elbows onto the table and leaned forward to look closely at the young lad seated across from him. He took a moment to analyse him, only stopping when Gallifrey grinned and widened his eyes in a cheeky manner. He shook his head and leaned back. "I really don't know."
Romana let up a laugh. "Oh. That's a first."
"And isn't it wonderful," the Doctor remarked with a smile. "A puzzle for me to solve. A delightful conundrum to figure out. How delightful."
"I don't see anything particularly wonderful about my son's head bein' messed with," Rose countered sharply. "I don't want him to burn up, Doctor."
"Oh he won't," he assured her gently. "He's a child of a Timelord – of one of the cleverest Timelords…"
"The least humble of all the Timelords," Romana offered with a roll of her eyes. "Which is really saying something when you take into account that the entire Timelord Society is filled with self important men who…"
"Are you forgetting that it's the same society in which you were loomed and raised, Romana?"
"Which makes me an expert on the subject."
"Indeed," he huffed with a shake of his head. He then passed a look toward his son. "You're at the age now where you should be inducted into the academy and time travel." He widened his eyes a moment and swallowed. "And you have already begun your adventure into passing through the vortex…"
"And dimensional walls," Rose added with a low growl. "And is something that you and I are going to discuss at great length, young man."
"That's not so difficult," the Doctor offered. "Timelords have been doing it for many millennia."
Rose frowned. "But you told me it was impossible, that it could destroy universes to fracture the walls between dimensions."
"Oh yes," the Doctor answered quickly. "Fracturing the walls can be quite disastrous, and is something that should never be done under any circumstances." He shuddered. "The potential ramifications of breeches between walls is quite terrifying."
"But," Rose said with a frown of confusion. "But you just said that it's easy to get through."
"By creating stable portals between travel machines either side of the wall, yes."
"Oh," she muttered with her frown quite firmly in place. She didn't understand, but chose not to continue admitting such and risk a rather lengthy discussion on Temporal Physics that would very likely leave her with so much more confusion than she was already experiencing. Instead she pressed her hands into her temples. "I've got a headache."
"Oh well that won't do," the Doctor stated with a smile as he rose from his seat and walked around the table to stand behind her. "Take a seat, Rose, and let me take a look."
"Oh no," she replied quickly. "You're not goin' inside my head."
"Well no," he said cautiously. "That wasn't my intention. I was going to offer you a head massage. I took a course in phrenology once, you know. I found the idea of it quite fascinating. The science however wasn't exactly sound, and it ended up as nothing more than unproven hypotheses presented as verified facts, but it did teach me the art of a really good head massage."
"I'll be right, ta," she said with a shake of her head as she walked around to the seat he had vacated to plop herself down at the table. She flicked her hand at him. "You just stay over on that side of the table and keep your massaging fingers away from me." Her eyes widened. "Did I really just say that?"
He grinned. "You did. And I dare say it's an extreme loss for you, as my fingers have quite the gifted touch."
"I know," she admitted on a longing sigh. Her eyes then widened. "I mean. Yes. Yes, I'm sure they are." She shuddered a moment to shake herself free of the sudden rush of impure thoughts that just raced through her mind. "So," she said with a squeak. She then cleared her throat. "So. Uhm. To change the subject a little. When and where are we?"
Gallifrey bounced in his seat and raised his hand in the air. "Ooh! Let me! Let me answer that!"
The Doctor let up a laugh. "Go right ahead, my boy. Show us what you've got."
He grinned and then let one brow drop and his teeth grit together as though concentrating really hard. "England. Early twentieth century. Oh, n. I have to narrow that down. Gimme a Mo." He clenched his eyes shut and bobbed a little in his chair. He made a light straining noise and then opened his eyes and looked hopefully toward the Doctor. "Very early November – I want to say the 2nd – 1913. Right now it's 2:30 in the afternoon. The TARDIS is currently parked at the very edge of a grove of trees beside a farmer's field. There is a very small village only a short walk from here. No name. Built around an all-boys school. Farrington!"
Gallifrey looked with a wide and anticipative expression. "So? How'd I do?"
The Doctor's jaw was gaped and his eyes wide with surprise. Romana's expression was very similar, but she managed to break the look very quickly. She leaned down cheekily toward the Doctor's ear. "Can I keep him?"
The Doctor's expression didn't change. "I must say, young Gallifrey, that your time sense is remarkably well refined. Tell me. Where have you trained? I didn't realize that there were any Time Academies on Earth."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh don't be so daft, Doctor. He hasn't been to any academies. Just public school for this little Timelord wannabe. He's only eight and barely into his 3rd grade education."
"He's in a public school," the Doctor shot incredulously. "My son, the descendent of a Timelord of a Prydonian chapterhouse, in a public school on Earth?" He shook his head. "No. This won't do. Won't do at all."
"Well where'd ya think he was gonna go, Doctor," Rose snapped back indignantly. "Not like I have a spaceship or a TARDIS to ferry him between the great Timelord Academy and my little flat on Earth."
The Doctor put on a stern expression as he leaned forward across the table to bring himself closer to Rose. He adopted a serious look and lowered his voice. "I'm stepping in. My son is leaving the public system and will be enrolled in a private all-boys school."
A brow slowly rose high over Rose's eye. "Ya think? You got the money for that, because I don't." She patted her hips as though patting a pair of pockets. "Fresh out of funds right now."
"Got it covered," he said with a one-sided smirk.
"Really?"
"Oh yes."
"And just which school did you have in mind?"
A smile broke out across his face and he sat back in his chair. "Why Farrington, of course." He folded his arms across his chest and winked at her. "Already enrolled. He starts tomorrow morning at eight."
Her face fell quickly. She looked toward Romana, and then back to the Doctor. "Does this have anything to do with why the two of you are here?" She swallowed and gave the Doctor a worried look. "And anything to do with my Doctor not being, well, himself right now?"
He patted her hand. "Our reasons for being here are somewhat related, Rose."
"And we won't say much more beyond that, I'm afraid," Romana added. She then looked at the Doctor. "Well that is to say that we really can't say much more."
"Why not?"
Romana looked to the Doctor and shrugged. "Because we don't really know ourselves. We received a summons to assist by the Doctor's rather shattered Tenth self…"
Rose gasped. "Is he okay?"
"Well not so much so at the time…"
The Doctor cleared his throat sharply before she could expand on that. "He is – and will be – perfectly fine, Romana. Please don't upset her by saying otherwise." He looked to Rose with a gentle smile. "He called because he noticed that we are part of the events that take place here and at Farrington. In order to prevent a paradoxical event, had to reach out to us to complete the circle…"
Rose swallowed a lump. "And we includes me and Gal?"
He nodded.
She felt her heart hammer against her chest in worry. "And he's not here with us, why?"
He rubbed at his chin and pursed his lips in throught. "Well. That would be because he is otherwise indisposed."
Rose bit at her lips and nodded a moment. The look that fell over her features was one of indescribable hurt. "Somethin' more important than reuniting with me and Gal?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Nonsense. There is nothing more important to the Timelord Doctor than the two of you."
"I can't help but notice you were specific on the Timelord designation there, Doctor."
He waggled his brows and gave her a lazy grin. "Clever girl."
"You mentioned something about my Doctor and how he isn't him anymore?"
"Yes," he barked with a smile. "That's right."
"Then tell me," she breathed. "Tell me what's happened to my Doctor." She took his hand. "Tell me how we help him."
He looked to Romana, who gave him a nod of encouragement, and then looked back to Rose and her son. "You're familiar with the concept of regeneration, yes?" he began slowly.
"It's the Timelord way of cheating death," she answered with a nod. "Every part of you is changed, right down to the cellular level. It's a complete rebirth."
"To put it in simple terms, yes it is," the Doctor answered with a wink toward his grinning son. "But it's not the only trick we have in our arsenal." He looked back to Rose. "There is another kind of regeneration."
"Oh I wouldn't call it that," Romana interrupted quickly. "It has nowhere near the class of a complete regeneration."
"You don't think so?"
She shook her head. "Regeneration is a magnificent combination of swirling Artron energies drawn from the Vortex of time. It rebirths the body and spirit, while keeping the mind and the memories of millennia of travel and triumph completely intact."
The Doctor looked toward Rose with a smile and a roll of his eyes. "She makes it sound rather romantic, doesn't she?"
"A Chameleon Arch," Romana continued with a louder voice that showed her disapproval of him interrupting her. "Is a crude form of mental and physical torture that destroys a Timelord's mind and turns him into a lesser species." She folded her arms across her chest. "Regeneration is bravery, the Chameleon arch is cowardice."
"Oh come now, Romana. It isn't that bad."
"Why else would a Timelord willingly turn himself into a human if it wasn't because he was being a coward?"
Rose gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. "The Doctor is…" She inhaled and tipped her head in question. "He's a human?"
Gallifrey reacted in much the same manner as his mother. "Human?"
"A rather clumsy and simple one at that," Romana remarked with a smile.
Gallifrey huffed. "Well that's a little mean, don't you think?"
The Doctor shook his head. "It's very true I'm afraid, Gal. Your father – the incarnation of me who was responsible for your existence that is – has changed himself into a human." He smiled a smirk that quivered in a silent and suppressed laugh. "And he's not too bright, I can tell you that."
"You do know that you're talking about yourself, yeah," Rose snapped indignantly on behalf of her Doctor.
"As Romana stated, the Chameleon Arch is a very crude device that doesn't allow for very much refinement on the character you are given." He scratched at his hair. "It is designed to hide a Timelord in plain sight. Designed so that noone – not even another Timelord – would be able to recognize him."
"I see," Rose murmured more to herself than to the Doctor.
"He loses everything about himself," Romana continued. "He has no thoughts, no memories, no knowledge of who he was, who his friends and family are. All he knows is what the Arch has given him…"
"…Which is a head full of fake memories and information," the Doctor finished for her.
Rose blew out a breath. "Kind of like rerecording over a tape. You wipe out the old and save the new."
The Doctor grinned widely and fist pumped the air over his head. "Exactly, my dear. That is it exactly."
"So all he knows is who he is under this Arch thing. He believes he's this guy – whoever he is…"
"John Smith," the Doctor clarified. "He's a teacher at the Farrington Boy's school."
"Oh," Rose huffed facetiously. "At the school. The same one you want me to send Gal to?"
"Well. Yes…"
"So. He's not going to remember anything at all," Rose began in a rather disgusted tone of voice. "He won't remember anything that he and I did together. He's not going to know who I am. He's not even going to know his own son." She raised her eyes to look through her brows. "And you expect me to put my son in that position? To finally have his father within arm's reach, only to have him yanked away from him like that?" She slammed her hands into the table and shoved herself up to a stand. "Your species might be so cruel, but the human race is not."
"I do beg to differ," The Doctor remarked with an insulted tone. "Some of the worst acts of cruelty I have witnessed throughout my travels across the universe have been committed by Humans." He screwed up his nose. "Distasteful, really."
"If you're sayin' that my species is more cruel and cowardly than a Dalek, then so help me I'm gonna thump you into your next regeneration." She curled a lip and raked her eyes up and down his chest. "And here's hoping that your next body is younger, leaner, and better looking." She indicated his head. "And with better hair!"
"And just what is it, exactly, that you find wrong with my current form? I am very distinguished and classic, I'll have you know." He shoved himself to a stand and practically growled as he stood tall and checked himself left to right with a twist and a turn of his body. "I think I look perfectly fine for an eminent Lord of Time." He picked up a spoon and used it as a mirror to check out his curls. "And what's wrong with my hair?"
Rose hiccupped into her cupped hands. Her shoulders slumped and her head dropped forward. "Why?"
Gallifrey knew the position well. "Oh, Mum." He slid off his seat immediately and wrapped himself around her. "Don't cry. Please don't cry. We'll fix this."
Rose clutched her child against her chest and gave the Doctor a terrifically pained expression. "How can you expect him to not want to connect with his father," she accused. "All Gal's ever wanted since the moment he was born was to reach out and find his dad. And now you're just taking it away from him. You're just gonna dump us off here, swan off with your TARDIS and leave me to pick up the pieces of a shattered little boy's heart."
"I'm not going anywhere," the Doctor replied on a soft voice.
Rose's voice was barely a whisper. "What?"
He approached them cautiously and lifted his hand to tenderly stroke the backs of his fingers down her cheek. "It honestly hurts me to know that you'd believe I'd do something like that to you."
She took his hand in hers to pull it from her face and let it drop in front of her. "You don't even know me," she accused him. "How could my thoughts on who you are even matter to you."
"You're the mother of my child, and the intended bondmate of my Tenth self," he countered. "Trust me. It matters."
"To him, perhaps," she snapped. "You're a few hundred years away from having to worry about it." She turned to head to the doorway of the TARDIS. "Come on, Gal. I really think it's time that we…"
"He asked me," he interrupted with slight desperation in his tone. "Begged me, to protect you – the both of you."
Rose released her hold on Gallifrey to spin and look toward the Doctor. "Excuse me?"
"On his knees," he clarified. "At my feet. Begged me."
Rose shot a look to Romana, who lightly shook her head. "He's not exaggerating."
The Doctor snatched his hand up to cup the back of her head. He steeled an icy blue stare into her eyes and spoke through gritted teeth. "I want nothing more in this entire universe than to take the two of you back to Gallifrey, put you in a safe house, and make sure that I never ever have reason to be so destroyed that I have to beg my past self to look after my wife and child…"
"I'm not his wife," she managed meekly.
"…But I can't," he continued. "We're part of events. Events that have to happen in order to prevent a paradox." He broke away from her and turned to stalk toward the counter. "I have no idea what's coming, what I'm supposed to protect you from, or even how to protect you."
"All we have," Romana continued, concerned that the Doctor was unable to do so. "All we know is what his Tenth incarnation could tell us – which is admittedly very little."
"But if he was there," Rose asked with a frown. "How wouldn't he know?"
"He did," The Doctor answered over his shoulder. "But he couldn't say anything. He couldn't say anything that could influence the decisions we make moving on from here." He huffed. "He has to keep the timelines as intact as possible."
"Are we in a fixed point," Rose asked gently. "Is that what the problem is?"
Romana nodded.
"Do you know what it is," she asked worriedly.
"No," Romana replied with a frown. "We can't see what it is. Not yet." She sighed. "All we know is what's coming isn't entirely pleasant."
"When we know what that point is," the Doctor said quietly. "And we can ensure that it doesn't involve you then we're getting you and Gallifrey clear of here." He spun on his heel and swiftly approached Rose and her son again. He touched one hand to her cheek, and the other to his son's. With a smile he looked between them both. "I'm not leaving you; either of you. Like it or not, you're stuck with me for the time being."
Rose leaned into his touch and lifted her hand to clutch at his. Her eyes fluttered closed as she stepped forward to be able to press her forehead into his chest. "Just keep my son safe, Doctor. That's all I ask. Keep him safe and promise me … promise me … That you and him don't break his hearts."
"I promise."
The Doctor cleared his throat suddenly and pulled back from her. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms a moment, and then pulled back completely and clapped his hands together. "Right. So. Now that we have that all cleared up." He held his hand down in invitation to his child. "Follow me. Did your mother ever tell you about my dog, young Gallifrey?"
His eyes shot wide. "You have a dog?"
"Indeed I do. K-9's his name. Want to meet him?"
Rose shook her head as she watched the Doctor and Gallifrey walk hand-in-hand out of the galley. "Tell me, Romana," she said softly in question. Slowly she turned her head to look toward her. "My Doctor. How bad was he when you spoke with him – and why?"
Romana considered the question for a short moment and then directed Rose to sit at the table with her. "All of the Doctors are your Doctors," she advised slowly. "Don't ever distinguish between them – it's actually upsetting to a Time Lord to hear the object of his affections speak more highly of another incarnation."
Rose let out a laugh. "I'm not the object of his affections," she corrected with a smile. " He's the Fourth, yeah?"
"He is."
"Well, I met and fell in love with him in his ninth – that's five regenerations from who he is now – and then fell in love with him again in his Tenth." She looked down at the tabletop. "My human lifespan probably won't take me into his next regeneration, so… "
"If you're loved by one," Romana interrupted. "Then you're loved by them all."
Rose merely offered Romana a curious look.
"He's a Timelord," she answered in manner to suggest that it was all the answer required. "And please don't be so concerned about the one you call yours."
"I can't help it," she admitted. "If he's a bumbling human and he comes across something that he can't handle…" She winced. "Romana, he won't regenerate, will he?"
"No."
"But…"
"And that's why you and I are going to take care of the bumbling human fool," she stated with a smile.
"How? By hiding in the bushes?"
Romana let up a laugh. "By Rassilon no. When Gallifrey starts tomorrow as a pupil in the halls of Farrington, you and I will act as nurses assisting the matron in her duties." She offered an indignant look to Rose when she gave her a look of surprise. "What? Do you think I'd let him lock me here in the TARDIS twiddling my thumbs and just waiting for something to happen? He can sit idly by, I won't."
Rose pursed her lips and thumbed toward the door. "Does he know that?"
Romana smiled widely. "It was decreed necessary by his Tenth self. He had no choice in the matter."
"Brilliant," Rose laughed. "Just brilliant." Her laughter subsided and she snatched a jelly baby off the table. "So we have to report in tomorrow after I enroll Gal?"
"Gallifrey's already enrolled. The Doctor and I took care of all of that a few days ago."
"Like a boy scout, isn't he?"
"Not sure I understand the reference."
"Never mind," she said with a roll of her eyes. "So. We have a new boss. What's her name?"
"Redfern, I think her name is. Joan Redfern."
