Chapter Four

Hwhat?

She fell to her knees and put the baby on the metal floor of the TARDIS. As soon as he touched the floor he began to change. An explosion of light came from all over his skin. He started to grow, his head grew thicker hair, his arms and legs became longer but not too long.

Then, the light radiating from his skin dimmed.

Rose had fallen back, feet flat on the ground along with her bum. She watched, open mouthed and breathing heavily. It was dark. She couldn't exactly see. He stood up. He wasn't a baby anymore. He could stand!

"Rose?" A weak young voice said.

He can talk! Rose started to get up. He was standing next to the TARDIS controls, holding onto the edge that matched the height of his shoulders. His eyes could barely see over the buttons and switches.

"…Rose? Please..." A young voice started to sniffle.

"…I'm here, I'm right here." She said cautiously. Rose started crawling closer to him, just slightly apprehensive.

Thud!

He passed out. He was, now, lying on the metal grates of the TARDIS floor. Rose crawled up to his side. It was a young boy, somewhere around Tony's age. He had thick, messy brown hair.

"Doctor?" She whispered. Was it really him? How did he change like that? Was it regeneration? Was this the baby? She decided to check his heart. Two hearts=one Doctor. Her Doctor.

3 + 3 = 1dr.

No luck, only one heart beat, and it was racing.

Rose quickly took off the dressing gown over her jim-jams and covered the naked boy. She picked him up resting his head in the crook of her elbow and his feet dangling over her other arm. She carefully got up, he was just barely small enough to carry in this way. She came out of the TARDIS and called "Mum! Dad! Something happened. Mickey!"

Rose told the family exactly what she saw, Jackie asked annoying questions, Mickey looked worried and Pete held a comforting arm over his daughter's shoulders. The child was lying under the covers in Rose's bed while they discussed all the possibilities of what could have happened. He was short of breath but still asleep.

Finally, Jackie calmed down enough to say. "Well, that's one point towards you."

"What do you mean?" Rose knew what might be coming.

"If he glows like that, there's one thing saying he's not your kid." She said quickly.

"Jackie!" Pete and Mickey said together. They both knew how hard this was on Rose. She didn't need Jackie bothering her too.

Pete took Jackie by the arm, forcefully but not aggressive and led her out of the room.

That left Rose, Mickey and the…

"Do you still think that's the Doctor?" Mickey asked glancing between Rose's face and the tucked-in little one.

"…Yeah. It has to be…" She was sure of what she said but still spoke under her breath.

"Well, at least he's not crying anymore!" Mickey was trying to make her smile.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, I got to go to work." Mickey worked with the TORCHWOOD INSTITUTE. Mickey had an important job…something to do with computers…Rose didn't remember the title. He left leaving the door partly open.

Rose began to cautiously walk towards the bed. She sat on the edge and brushed the boy's hair to the left. She still hadn't seen his eyes.

"WOOOOoooSE!" a young boy's voice yelled. Tony was running down the hall, pretending to fly apparently. Soon, the boy ran into the room and hopped up onto the bed. He grabbed onto the covers to help pull him up. He grinned to see his sister, then, looked at the other boy in her bed.

"It's alright, Tony, he's just taking a nap."

"Oh." Tony stared. "I wanna nap! Wit little brother!"

"Tony, I don't think… I mean he's not-"

"Eee! PLEEEASE!" Tony already heard the negative answer to his question and he was going to fight for what he wanted, like every three-year-old would. He knew his sister couldn't resist a good whine.

"Tony, I…" The unrelenting whining continued. "ALRIGHT! fine." She was too tired to fight. "You lay down and I'm going to go take a shower. You keep an eye on him, okay?"

"KAY!" Tony was pleased and started curling up underneath the covers, but still keeping his distance.

Tony didn't know much about babies. He didn't know how long it took him to grow up. At his age, Tony didn't even understand that he himself was once a baby. All he knew about the matter was that a baby duckling grows into a duck. He didn't even think about the in between stuff.

Tony lay on his side, staring at the dark haired boy's face on the pillow next to him.

"Pst! Little bruvah!" Tony tried his best to whisper.

"What?" A tired voice answered.

"OI! You're awake! Wanna play?" Tony sat up with the covers still over his kicking legs.

"Rose?" Still tired, his eyes were squinted shut.

"That's sissy! She's taking a shower."

"Who…" The dark haired boy coughed. "Who are you?"

"Tony! You aw my little bruvah!" Tony proudly exclaimed.

"Oh, that's nice. I always wanted a big brother." He opened his eyes after a yawn to see: blond hair, cute face and big eyes. Definitely a child of Jackie and Pete… a sibling of Rose. He jolted up. "Rose!"

"Not heaw." Tony reported.

"But…. But I need… I need her!" The dark haired boy sniffled and he started to cry.

"It's okay, little bruvah! No crying! Let's pway!"

The brunette boy looked at the blonde boy. Something about him was comforting. So, he wiped his nose, elbow to wrist, with the sleeve of Tony's borrowed jim-jams, and said, "…Okay… well, um. How do we do that?"

Tony was confused. How could he not know how to play? Tony got an idea. "Like THIS!" He grabbed the pillow behind him and hit his opponent in the face, maybe a little too hard.

"Oh. I'm sowwy…. You okay?" Tony felt guilty.

"YEAH!" The dark haired boy skillfully grabbed his own pillow and smacked Tony on the back with it.

Down the hall, Rose turned off the water and grabbed the hanging towel. It was nice to get a shower in. No more bottles or diaper changes to rush back to. Her long hair stuck to the back of her wet neck and bare back. She started to run the towel down her legs and then wrapped it around herself. She went to grab her brush. Wait. What's that noise? Rose looked up into the mirror. Oh. It was just Tony playing or something.

But wait.

Who was he playing with!

Rose left the brush and ran down the hall keeping one arm across her chest to keep her towel up and to… well, you know.

"Tony!" She called as she ran into her bedroom. She stopped just a few steps in and saw two boys jumping on her bed in a heap of feathers. They were both smiling. In fact, they were laughing so loud that they didn't notice the big sister enter the room.

"I… I just…" She whispered to herself. The dark haired boy noticed her first.

"ROSE!" He gleamed and leapt off the bed, actually landing on his feet and began to run towards her.

"Um. Hello." She didn't know what to say but by now the boy had his head buried into her stomach, which was covered by the soft, warm towel. He squeezed her as much as his small arms would allow.

She placed her hands on the back of her admirer and bent over, just a bit. Tony looked on in a curious sort of manner, some of the feathers had landed on his head and mixed into his blonde hair.

Rose looked down and loosened her grip. Then. The dark hair started to lean back and brown eyes looked up at her.

"Hello Rose Tyler!" He was beaming. And she was fainting.

Rose woke up on her bed with her mum standing there. There was a cloth on her forehead.

"Just sit still, love, the doctor will be here any minute now." Her mother adjusted the cloth.

"WHAT?" She thought she misheard and picked her head up to face her mother.

"Nooo. A normal doctor. A doctor. Not the Doctor." Jackie was a little fed up with her daughter's obsession. However, she wasn't surprised that Rose didn't start dating or flirting again. After all, when Pete died back on their home world and time she had never found anyone to take his place. Rose was definitely her daughter.

Rose settled back into her pillow, then she noticed. There was something lying next to her. Sharing her pillow. Her little brother, maybe? No. This boy had dark brown hair.

"Um… Hello. Rose. Tyler?" The boy tried to say it again, this time a bit more carefully as to not scare her into a faint.

Rose glared and tried not to blink.

A "Hello" was breathed out.

"Hi!" He beamed again.

"Um… are you.." She didn't know how to word this very important question.

"Oh my God." Jackie said, annoyed at her daughter's reluctance. Then, she yelled, "Are you the Doctah?"

There was silence in the room. The boy stared at both women who were glaring back at him. Was he in trouble?

"…. Doctor who?" He asked honestly.

Rose's heart sank. It wasn't him. He would know. Right? She didn't have a chance to drop the tears that started to well up in her eyes before Jackie shrieked. "Well, that settles it then! He's your kid! Yours and that damn Doctor of yours! He looks like his dad, that's for sure!"

Rose broke her gaze from the boy and turned back to her mum. Her nearly wet hair spun around like a whip.

"MUM! I never had a baby! We never snogged or had…" She paused for a moment. She was right in front of a young boy, she probably shouldn't say the word sex in front of a four-year-old. "We never had….you know." Her mother crossed her arms, as far as Jackie was concerned there was no way her daughter could dig herself out of this deep of a hole. "Never EVER!" Rose emphasized, but it didn't help.

"Hwhat?" the young voice squeaked.

Rose spun back around to see his face again. That definitely sounded like her Doctor.

"How… er…" She looked down at the boy's body. He wasn't a baby anymore. "How did…." He interjected and spoke fast as lighting.

"You mean, how did I break the laws of time and space, arrive here, and then ten thousand eighty minutes later multiply all the cells in my body by three point seven two, increase my mass, learn to walk, talk and reason in a millisecond?"

Wow. That was fast. Wait! A boy his age can't talk like that?

Both female jaws dropped.

He waited for them to say something. Then, composed his next words carefully…

"…How should I know?"

Hello! Sorry about the "Doctor who?" I just couldn't resist. I certainly hope you are enjoying reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. Thanks for reading! Any suggestions? Suggest away!

The next chapters are already in the works.