A/N: Thank you all so much for your kind comments on this, I'm totally loving writing it and exploring the new approaches of the Doctor because I like putting him in new situations. I'm the youngest in my family at seventeen so I have little experience with children, I would've had a little sister but let's just say biology didn't work out. I get my characterisation of the little Doctor from TV shows, mainly Outnumbered :D So as you can see, he changes slightly over the chapters as a result of this as I get more into his character but it can be justified that he's gaining more confidence being around Rose, Jack and Jackie. So constructive criticism is welcome. Let me put that in italics for one super special person. There :D
Chapter 4 – A Grand Day Out
"You're don't need to be scared," Rose said, trying to reassure the boy Doctor as he stared up at the TARDIS medical scanner like he wanted to be anywhere else in the Universe but there. His grip on her hand was tighter than ever as she walked him over to the scanner, lifting him up to sit on the bed. He looked around at the machine, his lips pouted, eyes wide. She smiled reassuringly as Jack started calibrating the machine, Jackie hovering just over her shoulder.
"It's not gonna hurt one bit," she said, stroking his face.
He was staying unusually quiet as Rose shifted his legs to put him down in lying position.
"We're just gonna find out what's been makin' you so sick, okay?" Jackie said, holding his hand as he stared up at her and Rose, plainly terrified.
"Okay, starting scan now," Jack said, tapping a few buttons. Jackie gave the boy Doctor a quick kiss on the forehead before the glass shield of the scanner clicked shut over him. Jackie, Rose and Jack watched as thin red lines moved up and down the child, scanning his internal and external body. His skeleton appeared on the screen, layered gradually with his organs, blood circulation, respiratory system, muscles, skin and hair. After a moment the scanning was complete and the glass shield clicked open. The boy Doctor instantly sat up and jumped off of the scanner, running to Jackie and throwing his arms around her.
"Aww," Jackie said smiling, ruffling the boy's hair. "You were so brave!"
He looked up at her, grinning. "Yeah! Can I have cookies?"
She smiled. "Of course you can! And you know what? You were so brave that we're gonna go and buy you some toys!"
His eyes glowed. "Really? Yay!" He hugged Jackie tightly. "I love you!" He ran over to Rose, hugging her tight. "I love you!" He ran over to Jack, hugging him too. "I love you!"
Jack laughed, hugging him back and lifting him up, holding the child in his arms as he turned to Rose and Jackie. "It'll be a while before the TARDIS can give us the results."
"Can we go now?" the boy asked, looking eagerly at them all as he clung on to Jack's neck. "Can we? Can we go now?"
"Sure!" Rose said. The child Doctor jumped out of Jack's arms and ran over to Jackie, taking her hand and trying to pull her out of the room.
"Now! Now! Now!" he demanded as he dragged Jackie stumbling out of the door.
"I'll stay and wait for the results," Jack said, giving a mock salute. "You guys have fun."
"We will," Rose said, giving a grin and running out the door after the Doctor and her mother.
"Rose, why is everyone staring at us?" the boy Doctor asked as she, him and Jackie got onto the bus to town. Rose looked around at the people on the packed bus, giving a huge sigh as she found that they were all indeed staring at them with distaste.
"Because they think I'm your Mum," she said, avoiding eye contact as she led him by the hand up the bus aisle.
"She's fat," he said, pointing at a large woman sitting on the right.
"John!" Rose exclaimed, resisting the urge to burst out laughing. "Don't say that!"
"But she is!" he protested.
"John, it's not nice to say that," she said sternly, kneeling down to his height. He shut his mouth, looking guilty. Rose looked up at the woman, smiling apologetically. The woman scowled and turned her head to look out of the window.
"And she's rude," the boy Doctor added, staring at her.
Rose had to bury her face into John's shoulder in a desperate attempt to stop herself laughing. Thankfully Jackie saved the day by taking her arm and pulling them both to the back of the bus. The bus began to move and finally Rose managed to subdue herself enough looked up at the boy, who was staring at her.
"He's old," he said, pointing at a man sitting infront of them.
"And you're young," Jackie said gently. "There's nothing wrong with that."
"But he'll be dead soon," the boy Doctor said, his face a picture of innocence.
Jackie had to take control of the situation again since Rose looked just about ready to cry with laughter. "John, you can't say things like that. It's not nice. Apologise to those people right now."
The child looked insanely guilty, staring at the floor and kicking his heels against the seat. "Sorry old man, sorry fat woman," he said, before jumping up onto his feet and staring out of the window. "Wooow…" he said, his eyes glowing in delight. "Earth is weird. What's that?" he asked, pointing.
"What's what?" Rose asked, looking out the window.
"Never mind, it's gone," he said as Rose picked him up and put him back on the seat again. He jumped up and pointed out the window again. "What's that?"
"Those are traffic lights," Jackie answered, picking him up and sitting him down again.
"What they do?" he asked.
"They tell people when to…"
"What's that?" he asked, getting up and pointing again.
"That's…"
"That?"
"Well…"
"That?"
"A…"
"That?"
"G…"
"That?"
"John, sit down!" Rose said sternly, picking him up and putting him on the seat. "Else we won't get you anything."
He pouted his lips, looking up at her with puppy dog eyes. "I'm sorry."
Rose sighed at his face. "Nine hundred years earlier and he's still got it," she muttered before raising her voice. "Now sit still and behave."
"Okay," he said, folding his arms and kicking his legs against his seat again, staring down the bus aisle. "What's that?" he asked, pointing.
Rose sighed.
"Right," Rose started once they got into the shopping centre, addressing the boy Doctor. "Don't wander off, yeah? There are bad things…"
"Monsters?" he asked eagerly.
"Very, very bad monsters that will hurt you and steal you away," Rose said, nodding. "So don't leave mine or Jackie's side, okay?"
"Okay," he said, nodding.
Rose smiled, taking his hand and turning. "Now let's go buy you stuff!"
"Yay!" he yelled, letting go of her hand and running into the crowd. Rose sighed again as Jackie ran after him, screaming, "John! John! Get back here, now!"
"I want this, and this, and this, and this…" the boy Doctor pointed at practically everything he saw in the store. "And this and this and… What's this?" he picked up a football from the basket and held it in the air.
"A football," Jackie answered.
"Can I have one?"
"Of course you can, love," Jackie said, taking the ball from his hands and adding it to the stack of toys she was already struggling to carry the weight of.
"Yay!" he said, grinning as Jackie turned and made her way to the counter to join her daughter, who was also struggling under a ton of boxes. The boy Doctor turned back to the basket of footballs, taking one out and bouncing it experimentally. He threw the ball in the air and swung his foot forward to connect with the ball. It sailed across the store easily, the boy Doctor cheering it on as it flew and flew and flew and…
Connected with and old lady's head, who fell soundlessly to the floor.
"Uh oh," the boy Doctor muttered, staring transfixed. In seconds he turned and ran over to Jackie and Rose, tugging on Rose's sleeve desperately. "Can we go? Can we go, Rose? Go now! C'mon!" He pulled on her, digging his heels into the ground but couldn't shift her at all.
"John! Stay still!" Rose said, shaking his grip. "Stand here!"
"Go now…" the child Doctor said, regripping Rose's arm and pulling as he glanced nervously over to where he knew the old lady was. "We go now!"
"Take him out, Rose," Jackie said, "I'll be out in a minute."
Rose nodded, taking his hand and leading him out of the store into the shopping centre. The boy Doctor stared at the old woman sitting up on the floor surrounded by her family, rubbing her head as he and Rose passed through the sliding doors.
"What was all that about then?" Rose asked, taking his hand.
The boy Doctor looked around shiftily. "Did a bad thing."
Rose's eyes widened. "You didn't break anythin' did you?"
He shook his head, and pointed up to the old woman through the glass window, looking around her environment in a daze with one hand on her head and the other holding a football.
"Oh John…" she said, laughing and pulling him into a hug. "Don't kick footballs at old ladies heads."
"Accident!" he protested. "I'm sorry."
Rose couldn't help but marvel at the fact that between him now and him being nine hundred years old there was hardly any difference.
"We're home!" Rose announced as they burst into the flat where Jack was lounging on the sofa watching television. He grinned at them all.
"Fun day out?" he asked.
Rose pulled a face.
"YES!" the boy yelled, punching the air and ran over to Jack, grabbing his hand and pulling him onto his feet. "Come play with me, Jack!"
"How 'bout you go and unpack all your new stuff, John? I need to have a talk with Rose and Jackie."
"Ok!" he yelled, running out of the room. Jack turned to Rose and Jackie, holding out a slip of paper, which Rose took.
"Is it bad?" Rose asked in slight trepidation. Her heart sank when Jack nodded.
"He's allergic to whatever made that puncture mark," Jack explained. "He had an extreme reaction to it back before he de-aged, and he's now feeling all the little after-effects. He's okay for now but if he gets another of those puncture marks, whatever it is, especially now he's a kid and much weaker, he might die."
Rose and Jackie stared down at the contents of the piece of paper – a list of medicines to use in case he had another bad reaction. Rose just hoped she didn't have to use them.
"Jack!" a voice came from the other room, and seconds later the child Doctor appeared, hopping from foot to foot before running over to Jack and tugging on his trouser leg repeatedly. "Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack… Come play!"
"Sure," Jack said, giving one last look at Jackie and Rose before disappearing after the little Doctor.
The little Doctor led him to the spare bedroom, and to Jack's complete surprise he ducked under the bed and pulled out two things from underneath – it was the sonic screwdriver, and a small metal contraption made of pieces of electronic devices all wired together in a bodge job. Jack stared in surprise.
"Where did you get this?" he asked.
"Made it," the boy replied, sniffing as he flicked what Jack presumed to be the 'on' switch. Instantly the circular screen in the centre lit up and Jack was looking at something he could only assume to be some kind of radar, a green dot in the centre.
"With what?"
The boy Doctor looked a bit guilty. "Stuff."
Jack laughed as the realisation dawned on him. "Oooh! This is why none of Jackie's electric stuff works properly anymore!"
The boy Doctor looked even more guilty at that. Jack laughed again, hugging him with one arm.
"So what does it do?"
The child suddenly stopped, his expression going vacant as he somehow seemed to stare right through Jack.
"Tracking," he said in a whisper.
Jack blinked. "What?"
The boy suddenly jerked, as if being awoken from a dream. "Dunno!" he pushed it to Jack, who picked it up, confused. "Yours now. Come play cars with me!"
Jack nodded, but he was only half concentrating. It was possible, quite possible, that a bit of the Doctor's older self was still in there… and trying desperately to help them.
A/N: Chapter 5 – Forever and Ever
"Okay," Jack said as Rose took a seat on the other side of the boy Doctor. "What's the longest word you know?"
The boy Doctor frowned for a moment, thinking hard before he began to move the bricks again. Jack watched as he began to form the word…
PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS
Jack blinked as Rose laughed. "Well that showed me, didn't it."