Standard disclaimer. I wish it was mine, but alas...


Chapter 6

Rose felt rather proud of the Doctor. Despite their personal difficulties, and they still had quite a few to resolve, she had agreed to set them aside when they arrived at the house two days earlier. After he explained the situation, she helped him to make quite a few improvements to the place that promised to provide the children a much needed respite from the war and the difficult times ahead. The Arwell family needed this now while he and Rose had all the time in the world to resolve their issues.

They made their way through the house, showing the family many of the new enhancements that were now available for their enjoyment. These ranged from chairs in the sitting room moving about like the teacup ride at Disneyland to the lemonade tap on the kitchen sink.

"Lemonade?" Cyril asked.

"I know!" the Doctor beamed.

"You won't forget about that one twice when washing dishes," Rose muttered to Madge, while the Doctor's mouth twitched with a hidden smile.

The Doctor led the group back to the main staircase where he promptly stumbled when the stairs didn't move as he had expected.

"Staircase. Seems to have broken down. We'll have to walk up."

The children laughed, following the Doctor has he continued the tour, pointing at different doors.

"Rose and I have rooms up there, stay away. Beware of panthers."

"Panthers?" Madge repeated, shocked.

"They're terrifying! Have you never seen panthers?" He replied, moving on with the tour.

It took a moment, but Rose noticed that they were short a member of their party. She doubled back to find that Cyril had stayed behind, looking up at the stairway the Doctor had indicated toward the attic.

"Cyril," Rose smiled. "Come on then, you're going to miss the best part!"

The two made it back to the rest hand-in-hand as the Doctor opened a door to reveal a room done in varying shades of blue with gold and brown. It had a half-canopy over the bed and a small fireplace.

"Mum's bedroom," he informs the group at large. "Grown-up, your basic boring."

He then opened the door to the next room. This one was more like it, closer to a playroom than a bedroom. It contained a myriad of toys and games for both children. Knowing that the Doctor was simply an overgrown child himself, Rose grinned as he raced around the room showing off his handiwork.

"Lily and Cyril's room! I'm going to be honest... masterpiece. The ultimate bedroom. A sciencey-wiencey workbench. A jungle! A maze! A window disguised as a mirror. A mirror disguised as a window! Torches for midnight feasts and secret reading. Zen garden, mysterious cupboard, zone of tranquility, rubber wall, dream tank, exact model of the rest of the house... not QUITE to scale, apologies... dolls with comical expressions, the Magna Carta, a foot spa, Cluedo, a yellow fort."

"Where are the beds?" Cyril wondered.

"I couldn't fit everything in," he began, slightly affronted. "There had to be sacrifices. Anyway, who needs beds when you've got... hammocks?!" The Doctor nodded to Rose who pulled a lever releasing the hammocks from the ceiling. "I know!" he stage whispered.

"But how do you get on?" Cyril wondered, after failing to do so.

The Doctor grinned. "Watch and learn, kid." He then made a running leap, overestimating the distance and falling between the hammocks to the floor. Rose snickered behind her hand, trying to cover it up as a cough.

"For God's sake!" Madge yelled.

"This hammock has developed a fault!" He started muttering to himself about the work he would now need to put in to make it work properly.

"Can you please stop talking?" Madge cried in earnest. "Can you please just stop?"

Rose shot him a warning glance, making it clear that he had overstepped. "Sorry," he said, sounding truly contrite.

"Children, go downstairs."

"Why?" Lily asked. "Are we leaving?"

"Yes! No! I don't know. Just, please, go downstairs!"

"I know," Rose interrupted, before an argument could escalate. "How about you and your brother try out that lemonade tap?"

The children both grinned, ran down the stairs to the kitchen. as the Doctor gave Rose a grateful look.

"Why are you doing all this?"

"I'm just... trying to take care of things. I'm the caretaker."

"That's not what caretakers do."

"Then why are they called caretakers?"

"Their father's dead."

Rose walked over to the Doctor, sliding her hand into his for support. "We are so sorry," she said.

"Lily and Cyril's father... my husband... Is dead, and they don't know yet. Because if I tell them now, then Christmas will always be what took their father away from them, and no-one should have to live like that. Of course, when the Christmas period is over, I shall... I don't know why I keep shouting at them."

The Doctor and Rose exchanged a look that spoke volumes , this time in complete agreement with each other. It was Rose who responded. "Because every time you see them happy, you remember how sad they're going to be, and it breaks your heart."

"Because what's the point in them being happy now if they're going to be sad later?" the Doctor added. "The answer is, of course... because they are going to be sad later. Now, we'd better get downstairs. I think they may have found the main sitting room."

"Mother!" Cyril and Lily called from downstairs.

"He may have also done a little work 'repairing' in there as well…" Rose informed Madge as the three headed back downstairs to join the children.

Sure enough, they had. The room looked like something from a Christmas display in a store. There was a large tree in the center with model trains and planes circling it. Ribbons were draped from the ceiling. On the floor was a large present, almost as tall as Cyril. The children turned in amazement as the adults entered the room.

"I know!" the Doctor repeated.

"Look at that present!" Cyril called, turning over the tag. "It's for me!"

His sister came to see. "It says it's for all of us."

"I'm the youngest, I get to open it first!"

"Doesn't say who it's from. Mother, who left this here?"

Madge turned around to look at the Doctor, only to see him disappearing down the hall with Rose in tow..

"That man is quite ridiculous. You must stay away from him."

"I like him," Lily said.

Cyril had to agree. "I like him, too."

"And it's a nice tree, isn't it?"

"It's the best tree in the world."

"Yes. Yes, I suppose it is," Madge agreed, resigned.

"Say it, mother. Go on, please," Cyril implored. "Say the thing you always say."

Madge took a deep breath and forced a smile on her face. "This Christmas is going to be the best Christmas ever."


"Any chance you might have gone just a touch overboard?" Rose asked the Doctor, once they were safely back in the TARDIS.

"Why do you say that? Did you see their faces?"

"And did you see their mum's?"

"She'll come 'round," he said, leaning on the center console. "She has to."

Rose crossed over to him, entwining her arm with his and coming to rest her head on his shoulder. "I know that you're just trying to help make it easier on them… like you did for me."

He smiled slightly at the memory. "Rose Tyler. We've come so far since then, haven't we?"

"Still have a ways to go though, yeah?"

"I know," he sighed. "Not tonight though. I need to see if I can get the rest of Christmas ready in time for the big reveal tomorrow!" He quickly kissed the top of her head (surprising both of them, although both hid it) and stepped out of the TARDIS to finish wiring the next surprise.


As children tend to do on Christmas Eve, both Lily and Cyril were pretending to be asleep. It finally proved to be too much for Lily, who sneaked out of the room intending to look at the presents downstairs but became distracted at a strange humming noise coming from above. As she made her way upstairs to investigate, Cyril crept downstairs to the sitting room.

Lily found her way to the attic room that the Doctor had told them to avoid earlier, finding him sitting at the desk working on something while the TARDIS was in the center of the room.

"You were lying about the panthers."

"Famous last words."

"Why have you got a phone box in your room?"

"It's not a phone box, it's my... wardrobe. I've just painted it to look like a phone box," he said, hoping that Rose would hear the conversation and not come out with the tea that she was making for them.

"What are you doing?"

"Rewiring."

"Why would you rewire a wardrobe?"

"Have you seen the way I dress?" He held back the offended yell that almost made its way out as could practically feel Rose's smirk from inside the ship. Fortunately though, Lily didn't notice. She simply grinned.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Really, who are you?"

Before he could answer, the Doctor noticed a light blinking. "Your brother, where is he?"

"Still in bed, asleep."

"OK. Faulty, then," he said, using the sonic again on the wires.

Rose was starting to get annoyed as Lily had taken up residence in the attic with the Doctor. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy being back in the TARDIS, but she felt that she could be of more use to him outside, especially when the device blinked again. That and she was starting to feel trapped.

"You're sure he's still in bed?"


Somehow Rose managed to make her way to the children's room before the Doctor and Lily did.

"Looking for someone?" she smirked, lifting the blanket from Cyril's hammock.

"Oh, he's good!" the Doctor declared. "The old bear and duvet? Classic."

He quickly grabbed Rose's hand, who in turn grabbed Lily's, and rushed downstairs toward the sitting room, arriving just in time to see Cyril's hand reach back through the box to grab his flashlight.

"Cyril!" The Doctor yelled as he crawled into the box, with Rose immediately behind him.

Lily was incredibly confused. "What's happening? I don't... What is that?"

Rose reached back out of the box with her hand, reaching for Lily's. "Come on, quickly!"

Curiosity getting the better of her, Lily took the offered hand and followed them into the box.


Standing in the middle of a dark forest, the Doctor reached up and took hold of Lily from Rose, helping her down. He then turned to help Rose down, surprised when she jumped on her own, landing with a muffled thump in the snow beside him.

"Bit cold, yeah?" Rose said, rubbing her hands together. She gave him that same tongue-in-tooth smile, causing him to grin as he took her hand in his, not sure whether it was to help warm hers or because he felt it necessary to maintain physical contact with her.

"Let's try and find your brother, shall we?" The Doctor looked down at a cracked shell.

Lily looked around them in wonder at the surrounding forest. "Where are we?"

"In a forest in a box in a sitting room. Pay attention! He's about 20 minutes ahead of us."

"Doctor!" Rose hissed.

"But we just saw him."

"What? Time moves differently across the dimensional planes. What do they teach you in schools these days?" he mused, making his way through the trees.

"But I don't understand where we are!"

"We've gone through a dimensional portal... thingy."

"Well said," Rose smirked.

The Doctor winked at her.

"Well, what's that supposed to be? Where did it come from?"

"It was a present. And it wasn't supposed to be opened till Christmas Day. Honestly, who opens their Christmas presents early?" Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "OK. Shut up. Everyone."

"How about we just follow the footprints, yeah? It looks like that's what your brother did, after all," Rose suggested, leading the Doctor and Lily through the trees.

"I don't understand. Is this place real? Is it fairyland?"

"Fairyland?! Grow up, Lily! Fairyland looks completely different. Now, look here. These are Cyril's footprints, and these are the ones he was following. Notice anything?"

"The other footprints are getting bigger."

"Yes. Whatever your brother's following... it's growing."

"How is that possible?" Rose asked.

"I don't know," came the quiet response. Rose hoped that Lily didn't hear.

"Well, come on then we have to get after him!" Lily called, running ahead as she brushed against a tree. Icicles dropped and spheres formed. She stopped and stared, petrified.

"It's OK, you're fine. Don't worry," he assured the girl.

"Is that tree... alive?"

"Of course it's alive, it's a tree!"

"But is it dangerous?"

"Well, every rose has its thorns."

"Watch it!" Rose yelled, slapping his shoulder.

He flashed her a wicked grin. "You know what I mean," he said as they all bent to examine the spheres.

"They're like Christmas tree decorations."

"Yeah. Naturally occurring Christmas trees. How cool is that?"

"I don't understand."

"It's a big universe. Everything happens somewhere. Call it a coincidence, call it an idea echoing among the stars. Personally, I call it a brilliant idea for a Christmas trip. Or it should've... been. Do you know the difference between wind and trees talking to each other?"

"What?"

The Doctor licked the index finger of his right hand and held it up to test the wind while at the same time he placed the index finger of his left hand to his lips. Rose simply shook her head and walked up to a nearby tree, resting her hand on its trunk.

"No wind. I've been here many times, but I've never heard the trees so active. Something's wrong. What are you doing? What are you up to?" He asked the ornament, seeing a tree with a face appear. "I'm sorry, Lily. I really am, but there is something very wrong in this forest, and your brother's right in the middle of it."

"Why would you bring us to this place?"

"It was supposed to be a treat. This is one of the safest planets I know. There's never anything dangerous here."

As soon as the words left his mouth, there was a loud thud and the ground shook beneath them. He sighed.

"Ever think that there are sentences you should just keep away from?" Rose asked, eliciting a nod from the Doctor.

Rose heard another loud thud in the distance and felt a mild rumbling. "What was that?"

"Not sure. Shall we check?"

"What about Cyril?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, you two go on. I'll see what is happening back there," Rose suggested.

"What? No! You're not going off on your own..."

"I'm a big girl, I can handle myself. Promise."

"Rose..."

"Go and find Cyril. I'll catch up."

The Doctor didn't like it, but he knew she was right. He also knew that arguing would be pointless. So, instead, he pulled her into a hug and whispered "You come back to me."

"Always."


A/N: As always, thanks for the follows, favorites, and reviews! Please do keep them coming... They really do mean a lot!