Wait, wait, wait! Is this 2 chapters in 1 day? I think it is! Wow! Good for me!

A quick author's note before we begin this chapter: Keep in mind that for the purposes of this story, I'm assuming that Time Lords regenerate by taking their own DNA and scrambling it. They have enough genes that when they're in one body, they have several different, alternate sets that are dormant. Therefore, when they have children, their kids can inherit any of their traits fro many of their regenerations, whether they've used those traits themselves or not. If you have questions, please ask!

Disclaimer: I may be using quotes from the show, but I don't own them. This does not make me any kind of profit, sadly enough.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 6

Crashing into a little town called Leadworth after his regeneration was the most wonderful and terrible thing to happen to the Doctor. He climbed up his grappling hook rope thingy out of his TARDIS, whose internal gravity had stopped working, and the first face his new face saw was a child. A child with red hair. A child who looked more like Lily to his old, sad, new eyes than she probably actually did.

And she looked so very frightened, but hopeful at the same time. And as his mind froze up, thinking about red hair and children, all he could manage to say was, "Could I have an apple?" And when he said, "all I can think about is apples—I love apples," what he meant was, 'I can't think of anything at all, but I said apples and now I'm sticking to it so I don't look like an idiot.' Also, he was hungry. Maybe with a bit of nourishment, he could get his brain to start working again.

And that little girl looked at him with a kind of exhasperated patience and curiosity that he'd only really seen from Lily. He climbed out of his ship and determined right then and there that he would never let this little girl down. Whatever she was scared of, he would find out and fix.

oOo

The crack in little Amelia's wall was scary, but it could wait five minutes because if it didn't, everything would explode. He had to stabalize the engines. He wished he could take her with him to protect her from the mysterious prisoner zero, but it just wasn't safe. He couldn't put her in danger like that. So he left, with a promise to return in just five minutes.

He didn't stabalize the engines as well as he'd thought though, and five minutes became twelve years.

It really was just a couple of minutes to him, but as he raced into the house, he knew something was wrong. When he met the policewoman with orange hair, it got worse. Whatever had happened to little Amelia Pond, he had failed her—just like he had failed so many others. Just like he'd failed his son before he'd even been born. And as he sat handcuffed to a radiator under the window, all he could think about was how horrifically he'd failed. How terribly he'd failed everyone. How he'd even failed himself.

And then he found out that the woman was Amelia Pond. And his hearts fell to pieces.

When he left her again at the end of their little adventure to break in his newly repaired ship, he still hadn't fully processed how terribly he'd failed her. Four psychiatrists worth. And he didn't understand how much a part of her life he'd accidently made himself.

And when he reappeared, fully re-charged after his regeneration, it was night again. And once more, he was terribly late.

oOo

The Doctor parked the TARDIS in the garden, right where it had been when he left, and ran around the console, making sure it was properly parked and feeling alright. When he was sure that his ship was okay, he went towards the doors. He had no idea what he was going to tell Amelia. He'd met her just about two hours ago, not including those two days he'd spent sleeping while the TARDIS was parked on the moon, and she'd been a little girl. Now she was all grown up. Would he take her with him? He had no idea about much of anything, with his brain still fizzy from a new body, but he at least owed it to her to make sure she was alright.

He pulled open the door and went outside to check the keyhole and make sure his key still worked. He heard footsteps and turned around to see Amelia in a nightdress. "Sorry for running off earlier. Brand new TARDIS," he explained. "Bit exciting."

She looked at him with anger tinting her eyes and he looked back, confused, still babbling about the TARDIS. Apparently he was a nervous babbler now, although admittedly, he'd been that to some degree for most of his lives.

When he said "So what do you think? Other planets—want to check some out?" he had no idea what had prompted it. He seemed to have very little control of what came out of his mouth now.

She looked at him blankly. "What does that even mean?" and then seemed to rethink what she was saying. "No, hold on, more important things." Then she reached up and grabbed onto his bow-tie, pulling him towards the house. Needless to say, he was shocked. "All that stuff—the hospital, the spaceships, prisoner zero..." she ranted, "All that stuff happened two years ago!"

He tried to stutter out an 'oops,' but being dragged along by his neckware made that difficult.

"Now this, Raggedy Man," she said, shoving him up the stairs, "What am I supposed to make of this?" She shoved him into a bedroom where the Doctor immediately spotted a child lying on the bed. A child with a mop of floppy, dark brown hair. The Doctor stared, not at all confident in his abilities to decipher what Ameli—Amy wanted him to do or say.

"He," Amy whispered, "showed up nearly a year ago. "Rory found him near the hospital, going through a dumpster. He. Looks. Just. Like. You."

The Doctor turned to look at Amy with a seriously shocked expression. "What do you mean?"

"I mean he looks exactly like you. Exactly. His eyes are a brighter green, but he's like a minuature Doctor."

He stared at her in shock for a few moments before rushing to the bed and pushing the hair up out of the face to look at him.

"We couldn't think what to do, Doctor. We had no idea, so we just kept quiet about him being here and took care of him as best as we could, but you-" she whispered on as he stared at the child on the bed. The child on the bed who had a double heartbeat and who Amel—Amy claimed looked just like him. With bright green eyes, though he hadn't seen them.

The Doctor reached out with his mind to the child before him and gasped in shock as he made contact. This boy was a time lord. And even more, his time lord. This boy had his DNA. A tear rolled down his face and, sending out a calming signal to keep the boy asleep, he raised up one of the eyelids. They were a perfect bright green, exactly like Lily's.

He chocked on a sob and stood up quickly, backing away from the child. When he could finally look up, he walked over to Amelia Pond and hugged her tightly, cutting her off mid-sentence. "Thank you," he choked out. "Thank you, Amelia Pond. Thank you." And then he collapsed back down onto the floor and grasped the small hand in his own, sending out telepathic signals of peace, comfort, warmth, and love while he began to sing an ancient gallifreyan lullaby.

Amy didn't know what to think and left the room to call Rory. Bad luck or wedding tradition or anything else be damned.

So, what did you guys think? Any comments would be appreciated, dear readers. Thank you to anyone who had already reviewed! I really love each and every one of them.

-MP