A/N: More back references. Yash I'd be proud of you remembering - he's the Doctor's number one fan who saved our Time Lord in The Debt and then found a home on Earth towards the end of Mother's Nature. The tape Rose and the Doctor refer to was recorded in Time, where the Doctor is forced to take the blame for killing a load of humans. Kiana is the daughter of the Master (who consequently killed and buried the human he made her with, of course :P ), who was adopted by the family at the end of Mother's Nature.

Chapter 4: Time Puberty

An hour later, the Doctor located Rose, still in the spa, sitting in a Jacuzzi reading a magazine. He moved behind her, and tapped on her shoulder. She yelped and turned.

'Don't do that!' she demanded as soon as she realised it was him.

He smiled. 'Pruned, yet?'

'If you're comin' in, get some swimmin' trunks from the lady.'

'Nah, bad experience with a Jacuzzi,' he replied, shrugging slightly.

'What? Did the Daleks do somethin' bad with a Jacuzzi?'

'I was once sucked into another world through the plughole of a Jacuzzi.'

She rolled her eyes. 'The tragic thing is, you're not even jokin'.'

He grinned. 'Nah. Oh, I think Leah's having problems.'

'With what?'

He quickly checked for any unwelcome ears, but the place was empty. 'Being an alien.'

Rose frowned. 'She's never worried about that before.'

'I found her earlier, crying in the corridor. She asked me if being an alien made her a bad person.'

Rose's eyes widened. 'Why would she say that?'

'We're in an alien-hating world,' the Doctor pointed out. 'She's being told by humans that aliens are bad. She's never needed to question herself because it's never been an issue before. But now she's among regular humans, she's an alien, and she's starting to question what that means. She's not even allowed to say she's an alien, here. She's confused about who she is and what being an alien means, and why she can't talk about it.'

'Oh. What do we do?'

He thought for a moment. 'I need to do the regeneration talk with Leah and Alex.'

'Is that like the puberty talk for Time Lords and Ladies?' Rose wondered, grinning. 'What's it called? Time puberty?'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. 'Oh, no. It's just Alex was being a bit … well, he was asking about it earlier.'

Rose frowned. 'Wait, he was talkin'?'

'Yeah. We had a conversation.'

'Oh, wow. How's his vocab?'

'For someone who's never really talked before, he was very, very good,' the Doctor mused. 'Did it all in English, too. Much better than Leah was at his age. But he was worrying about regeneration.'

'What about it?'

'He was asking if it hurt. He and Leah are both asking questions. Leah, yes, but Alex? He's only eighteen months.'

'You gotta explain it to them,' Rose said. 'If they're askin' questions then they're old enough to know. Not normal, remember? Got super Gallifreyan genes. They need to know.'

The Doctor smirked, trying not to look too full of himself and his genes. 'I was going to make that regeneration simulator, but then I got fake killed.'

'Make it when we get back. Just explain it for now. Lecture, then the practical, yeah?'

He nodded. 'Okay. Tomorrow morning.'

'And make sure you tell them more about Gallifrey.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah. Maybe Leah's unhappy because she doesn't actually know her heritage that much, besides the language. I want her to be proud of bein' part-gallifreyan. Hey, can she ever become a Time Lady?'

He pulled a face. 'Not really. Not without the Time Academy.'

'Can't you do somethin'?'

He briefly thought about that. 'Maybe. Let me work on that. Oh, Alex is in the infirmary.'

Rose sat up so fast that the Doctor was very nearly slurped with a small wave of water. 'What!? What happened!? Has he been hurt!?'

'Just a fever, Harry thinks it's a cold,' the Doctor said. 'Relax.'

She relaxed. 'Oh. Okay.'

'Now come on, I'm hungry.'

'C'mon, Leah,' Rose said. 'Pick a place to eat. You too, Alex.'

Leah was frowning, her brow creased, as if it was the hardest decision of her life so far. She ummed, ahhed, and genuinely seemed to be in a significant amount of pain over her decision as Alex just stared at his sister.

'Leah. Alex. I'm hungry,' Rose prompted.

'Why do we always have to decide things?' Leah moaned.

'Because you moan constantly it's not what you want if me or Dad pick somethin',' Rose pointed out.

'No, I don't.'

'Yeah, you do.'

'You just make bad decisions, okay? It's what you both do,' Leah told them.

There was a long pause as she thought. The Doctor sighed loudly.

'Okay, okay,' Leah said, and pointed at an Italian restaurant. 'That one, cos it's a got pretty thing in the window.'

'Sure?' Rose asked.

'Allons-y!' the Doctor prompted before Leah could reconsider, taking her hand and pulling her in, Rose and Alex following.

It had been a while since they had all been able to eat together as a family without anyone else. As such, Rose had completely forgotten what a massively weird bunch of people her family were. To her left was her young son, who was completely silent throughout the meal, bar some sneezing; in front of her was her daughter, who'd already argued with her about being able to have some alcohol and was now in a mood; and to her diagonal left was her husband, who'd ordered three starters, two main courses, and had just asked for the dessert menu.

'I'm just saying having Italian people serving you Italian food makes the Italian food seem more Italian,' the Doctor was saying, stealing from Leah's plate what she hadn't finished.

'Daddy, for the hundredth time, the waiter doesn't have to be Italian!' Rose moaned.

'I don't want this stupid juice!' Leah moaned. 'I'm not a baby!'

'Leah, you're four!' Rose stressed.

'It's an Italian restaurant!' the Doctor insisted. 'There should be more Italians.'

Rose groaned. 'Daddy, in case you haven't noticed, we're in a secret base on a post-apocalyptic world. Gettin' the national people of the national restaurant to serve you their cuisine is just …'

'But I don't get affected by alcohol!' Leah protested.

'There's got to be some Italians here,' the Doctor stated.

'Leah, you can't have any wine all right!?' Rose yelped. 'And Daddy, will you just be quiet?'

'It's not fair!' Leah wailed.

'I'm saying that …'

'Both of you, will you just …' Rose began, exasperated.

'Mummy!' Leah cried.

'Mummy!' the Doctor cried.

'Shut up!' Rose yelled. The entire restaurant silenced. For a moment, all the family could do was smile at the staring people, before conversations resumed. 'I can't have two conversations at once, yeah?' Rose snapped at them both. 'Leah, no alcohol, and I don't wanna hear another word about it! And Daddy, if you say the word "Italian" one more time I'm gonna shove this fork right up your –'

'– Whole dessert menu is here, sir,' the waiter suddenly interrupted, handing the Doctor the dessert menu. Rose noted that he really seemed to be looking at the Doctor, as if thoroughly checking him out.

The Doctor pretended to read it like a human as the waiter left. 'Oh! Ooo. Ahh,' he said intermittently. 'Mmm. Mmmmmm.'

'How the hell are you not full yet?' Rose moaned.

'It's like we haven't been married for twelve years,' the Doctor told her.

'We haven't! Seven months for me, twelve years for you! Time travel! And let's not have this conversation here, yeah?' Rose hissed, leaning forward and glancing pointedly at the people around them. 'I need the loo.'

'I need the loo,' Leah echoed.

'Well, we can go together, then. Girls always go in pairs, yeah?' Rose said, grinning.

'Daddy, tell Mummy I'm not speaking to her,' Leah said indignantly, her arms folded.

'Leah isn't speaking to you, Mummy,' the Doctor repeated in a drawl, still staring at the dessert menu.

'What … Leah, I'm just sayin' that …'

'Oh, I can't hear that!' Leah said loudly. 'I think I heard a mouse squeak but I dunno!'

'Leah, stop bein' such a little shi … madame!' Rose quickly corrected herself.

'Mummy said to stop being such a little shi … madame,' the Doctor repeated.

'Tell Mummy I think she's a poo-poo head.'

'Leah thinks Mummy's a poo-poo head,' the Doctor repeated. 'Ooo, Tiramisu!' he enthused.

'Daddy, will you put that bloody menu down and help me out here?'

The Doctor looked up. 'Me? Me!' he realised, and put the dessert menu down. 'What are we talking about?'

Rose sighed loudly. 'I'm goin' to the loo.'

'No, I'm going to the loo,' Leah stated. 'And I don't need you to take me!'

'But I'm the one that needed it in the first pla–'

'Bye!' Leah yelled pointedly, got up, and ran off.

'Thanks for the help, you were great, seriously, you should win like a parentin' award,' Rose said sarcastically.

'I should,' the Doctor agreed seriously, picking up the dessert menu again, just before there was a huge uproarious cheer from somewhere in the back. The waiter who was serving them emerged from the kitchens, looking delighted.

'Sorry to interrupt the evening, but we're on internal comms and the army found this massive safe-hold full of loads of different types of aliens, and they're all dead!' he announced.

The entire restaurant cheered. Glasses chinked, and stream of insults towards aliens came from the other tables. 'Did they find the Doctor?' one of the crowd asked.

'We dunno yet. Hope so!' the waiter said.

Rose looked at the Doctor, who'd stopped looking at the menu and instead was gazing at her. They both tried to look as happy as they could.

'Hey, they've killed some aliens,' Rose said, trying not to let her voice shake.

'Yeah, great,' the Doctor replied. 'Let's wipe them all off of the face of the planet.'

'Good plan,' Rose muttered as Alex began to cry. She quickly took him in her arms, kissing him and hugging him.

The waiter returned to their table. He still seemed to be gazing at the Doctor, Rose thought. 'Can I get you some dessert or coffee?' he asked.

The Doctor thought about that, and then gave back the menu. 'No thanks,' he said, and handed over his card. 'We'll be on our way.'

'Very well,' the waiter said, and left just as Leah returned, still in a mood. She strolled up the table, sat down, and folded her arms. Only then did she seem to pick up that something had happened as she gazed at her crying brother and her two silent parents.

'Um, what happened?' she asked.

'They found a place of aliens and killed them all,' the Doctor muttered.

Leah froze. 'Oh.'

The waiter came back, handing the Doctor back his card. 'Thank you.'

'Oh, no, thank you,' the Doctor insisted, pulling his broadest grin. 'This was great. Really, really great.'

The waiter just smiled, and left. The Doctor got up almost immediately. 'Allons-y.'

They got back to their room at 8pm. As Leah and Alex played on the bed, the Doctor and Rose went together into the bathroom, where the Doctor got out his communicator and pressed the button for the Brigadier. 'Brigadier?'

'Good evening, Smith,' the Brigadier said. 'How are you settling in?'

'Just dandy,' the Doctor assured him. 'Listen … they found a base of aliens?'

'Indeed,' the Brigadier replied. 'I'm afraid I do not know much else, presently.'

'They're all dead?'

'I'm afraid so. The army shot them all down.'

'I don't suppose among them was a young blue alien called Yash, about five-and-a-half foot, brown hair?'

'I don't have any details. Is that important?'

'Sort of. Just let me know if you hear anything.'

'I shall. Any problems on your end?'

'No.'

'Let's keep it that way,' the Brigadier replied.

'Bye.' He slipped the communicator back into his pocket, and looked at Rose. She seemed as though she were about to burst into tears. He moved forward to instinctively hug her. 'Hey,' he said softly. 'It's okay.'

'That could've been you, or Leah, or Alex,' she moaned.

'Well, it wasn't, so chin up, okay? No one knows,' the Doctor replied.

'You were all over the news. They know you have a daughter called Leah. Someone's gonna recognise you, cos I swear to God that waiter was starin' at you like he knew ...'

'It's in your head,' the Doctor replied. 'He was staring at me because I had three starters and two mains, not because he knew anything.'

'But people know what you look like, that video Toby made you record …'

'The man on that video looked nothing like me,' the Doctor stated. 'He was terminally ill and had just been held captive for weeks with the odd sprinkling of torture. He was unshaven, unkempt, and looked almost dead. I might have the same face, but I look completely different.'

Rose looked up at him, her eyes watering. 'Sorry,' she muttered.

'S'ok.'

'I'm just … I'm sorry.'

'Stop apologising,' the Doctor insisted. 'You've got nothing to be sorry about.'

She sighed. 'I love you.'

'Feeling's mutual,' he assured her. 'Now, come on. I died today, I'm quite tired.'

She smiled a little.

'There it is,' he said with a grin in place, kissing her. 'Let's get changed.'

Things had gone fairly smoothly in the Hub. Although they were yet to locate the gallifreyan family, they'd heard nothing about them since, which in Jack's mind could be a good thing. Maybe.

It was 3am, and he was sat on the Doctor and Rose's bed, playing with Kiana, who had refused to go to sleep. She was distracting him very well from the avalanche of emotion going on in his head, so he didn't mind. He wasn't sleeping much anyway.

'Jag,' Kiana suddenly said after a loud, long giggle.

Jack stopped waving his bear around, staring at her, his jaw agape. 'What did you say?'

'Ja. Ja. Jag.'

'Did you say Jack?' he asked, frozen.

'Ja. Ka.'

'Yes!' Jack realised, ecstatic. 'You did!'

'Ja, ka?' she asked, confused.

'Doctor!' he yelled over his shoulder. 'She said her first word and you'll never guess what it ...'

He tailed off as he realised the Doctor wasn't around to hear. The slight deadness that followed inside of him as he remembered the Doctor's fate was quickly overridden by the little dark-haired girl sitting in front of him, trying to take the bear in his hand. 'Jaka.'

He smiled. 'You're so clever aren't you?'

'Jaka. Bah dah goo bee,' Kiana replied.

'Bah dah goo bee to you as well,' Jack said and waved the bear again. He was finding it very difficult to understand how such an innocent, happy, beautiful little thing like Kiana had come from the Master. For a very brief moment, he wondered where the Master was. If the entire Earth was out for aliens, and if the invading race could detect aliens like Rose said, then he would be detected. Was he still on Earth?

He then dismissed the very thought of even caring about him. He had to find the Doctor, Rose and the kids. The Master was at the very bottom of the to do list.

He looked back at Kiana. 'Are you sleepy yet?'

Kiana showed absolutely no indication of wanting to sleep. 'Jaka. Jaka pay. Pay Jaka.'

He grinned. 'Good, cos I'm not sleeping,' he said, and held up the bear again. 'Where were we?'