An: sorry about the missed week. I was a little occupied. You guys are a really good audience though, not a word of complaint! Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't heard a word from any of you guys. You're a pretty silent group. In not begging or anything, but a little encouragement and/or polite criticism can go a long way. In my Stone-Age fic, a reader commented that I was rushing things a bit, and when I went to fix it, I got an inspiration! New ideas, new chapters...the book went on considerably longer. So don't be scared of me! I like feedback. It's part of being an author.

The next morning, Rose and Jackie decided to go shopping for some cute twin outfits and spend some nice, relaxing time on their own. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Pete would paint the nursery. Rose gave her final instructions to them as she was leaving.

"Remember," Rose said. "Just a simple baby blue, maybe some clouds and animals or something."

"Righto! Have fun and don't worry about a thing!" the Doctor called. He turned to Pete as the girls drove off. "Shall we get started?"

"Better sooner than later," Pete muttered. "I'm horrible at painting."

"Me too!" the Doctor said cheerfully. "We'll be a great team!"

"Can we help, Daddy?" Tony asked.

"Well…"

"Oh sure," the Doctor interrupted. "They can do the background and then we can do the complicated stuff when they're taking a nap."

"Complicated?" Pete looked nervous.

"I mean…for them. Come on, Tony, Donna."

They walked up the stairs and into the nursery. The two toddlers jumped up and down on the floor and shouted "Echo!" over and over. The Doctor stood in the center of the room for a moment, slowly turning around and thinking.

"Blue, clouds, and animals," he said. "She basically just told me to paint the whole universe on these walls. Not a bad thing, just hard to fit onto non-Gallifreyan walls."

"We could just put star stickers on the ceiling," Pete suggested. "That would be easy."

"Easy?" The Doctor scoffed. "Easy, yes. Magnificent, mind-blowing, inspiring? No. We're going to paint the universe on that ceiling. And I mean the outer space universe!" He was really excited now. "The Milky Way over here, over the crib, and the Horse Head Nebula in this corner here! Black hole can go farthest away from the window, like the light can't penetrate."

"You know what all those things look like?" Pete asked.

"Course I do! Now let's get started. We need some very, very deep blue."

"Not black?"

"Well yeah, for the black hole. But Rose said she wanted blue. Besides, it'll be easier to paint the stars with a blue background instead of a black background. Believe me, I've met Michelangelo."

"…Ok. But how do we have those paints?"

"Well, I bought quite a few colors yesterday. Follow me. Hang on, where's Donna and Tony?"

The two had disappeared, but a loud crash from the other room told them where they were. The Doctor closed his eyes and winced.

"That's where I was keeping the paint," he said slowly.

They ran in to discover the startled children standing beside an actual mountain of paint cans. Only a few cans had fallen over, and luckily they hadn't opened.

"Sorry," Donna mumbled.

"We were trying to climb it," Tony explained.

"You can't climb that thing," Pete said, still in absolute amazement. "It's not stable. Doctor, how many are there?"

"Uh…Maybe thirty?"

"THIRTY?"

"I forgot it wasn't going to be a Gallifreyan painting," he said sheepishly. "We can take back the ones we don't use, right?"

"If these two don't break them."

"Yes, speaking of…" He squatted down to their level. "I think while we paint the ceiling it would be best if you went to find something else to play."

"Aww!"

"But I wanna paint!" Donna said.

"No buts, Donna! Go play. We'll call you when we need your help."

Donna and Tony reluctantly wandered off to play, and the two men went to get some ladders.

"I know how to set one of those up. Did I mention talking with Michelangelo?"

"Yes."

"I wanna paint," Donna said again as they sat in the hallway, wondering what to do.

"We can sneak in there and paint on our own," Tony suggested.

Donna thought about this for a moment. "Daddy will see us."

"Not if we go right now," Tony pointed out.

"Ok!"

The two jumped to their feet and raced back to the bedroom, nearly running into their parents. While Pete was easily managing one ladder, the Doctor was precariously carrying two, and nearly dropped one on Tony. He struggled but caught it just in time.

"Oi! Keep out of the way!" he snapped. "Go play with Sophie."

"She's sick, 'member?" Donna said.

"Donna, you know how to pronounce your words," the Doctor said. This was true. Being part time-lord, Donna had an exceptionally good grasp on grammar for her age. "Please do so correctly."

Donna sighed. "Remember?"

"Better. And yes, now that you mention it, I do remember that. Well you'll have to find something on your own, then. Work a puzzle."

"But I've worked all of them!"

"Please just let me set these ladders down. They're really heavy."

Donna sulked and moved out of the way. "C'mon, Tony."

"Oh, toddlers," the Doctor groaned as he set the ladders up. "Any tips?"

"I'm as clueless as you are, mate," Pete reminded him. "Rose didn't grow up here."

"Right, I keep forgetting. You're so natural."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You act like you've always been her dad."

Pete smiled.


"I'm gonna try to climb it again," Tony announced.

Donna looked up from her 24 piece jungle puzzle. It was quite a feat for a three year old to complete, but for her, a hyperactive quarter Time Lord, it was relatively easy.

"Dad said no."

"But I think I know how to do it now," he insisted. "I can be careful."

"No."

"Fine, I'll go without you."

"Tony!" Donna hissed. "Wait!"

She followed him on tiptoe, sneaking past the door way where she caught a glimpse of her father lying on a board stretched between two ladders, slathering paint onto the ceiling. It was dripping down on him, but he didn't mind. He was instructing Pete, who was on the other side of the room lying in the same position, how exactly Michelangelo would have done it. Then she noticed Tony had already gone into the other room and hurried after him, hoping no one saw her.

The 29 paint cans were in a perfect pyramid. Donna suspected that after finding the right color, the Doctor had reorganized the entire thing to keep up the symmetry. Tony sat on the floor, taking off his shoes and looking determinedly at the mountain.

"Tony, you can't," Donna whispered. "It's dangerous!"

"Nah," Tony assured her. "It'll be fine!"

Very, very carefully he put one foot on the bottom layer. When it held, he took his other foot to the second layer. Then, very, very slowly, he turned and sat on the top. Donna exhaled, very relieved. And then, of course, the whole thing collapsed, sending Tony and about 20 paint cans rolling to the floor.

"TONY!" Pete yelled from the other room.

"I'm alright!" Tony yelled before Donna could stop him.

Terrified, Donna tried to run out of the room before anyone saw her in there. But just as she reached the door, her foot slipped in some fresh yellow paint on the floor. She fell flat on her back just in time to see the Doctor step in and look down on her.

"It wasn't me!" she protested it. "It was Tony! I tried to stop him!"

The Doctor sighed. "Tell you what. Let's go change clothes and you can help us paint."

"But they can't go up there," Pete said, pointing to the precarious and very unprofessional equipment.

"They can start on the walls," the Doctor said. "I had an idea. The main background will be a simple light blue, like Rose asked, with some clouds at the top. I want it to be educational, so then I thought, why not put the animal alphabet around the walls? Brilliant, i'n't it?"

"You're doing Donna Noble!" little Donna said happily.

"Was I? Sorry."

"What's the animal alphabet?" Pete asked, confused.

"You know, A is for…auton. Z is for zygon. That sort of thing."

"Oh." Pete still didn't have a clue what the Doctor meant, but he didn't want to look stupid. Again. "Right. Come on you two, let's go get changed while the expert finishes the ceiling."

"Oh, I'm not an expert," the Doctor said humbly.

"You've met Michelangelo."

"Well…ok yeah. I am the painting expert around here."


Donna and Tony probably should have just stayed in their paint soaked clothes. They didn't seem to mind it half an hour later when Donna accidentally bumped the ladder and sent a painting tray (and her father) to the floor and got dark blue patterns all over her t-shirt. Or when Tony accidentally flicked her with a bit of light blue.

"Tony!"

"What? You're already blue."

Donna frowned and nearly threw her brush at him with the force she packed into the "flick." Tony blinked.

"Missed me!" he said cheerfully.

"No, I didn't." Donna pointed to his spiky red hair, which was now dyed blue.

Although he couldn't see it, Tony guessed what had happened, and a full on paint war began. The Doctor tried to scold them, but once he accidentally brushed against Donna's still blue back, he jumped right in.

"Doctor, you're not helping," Pete said, putting the last brush strokes on the never-ending, icy cold, soul sucking darkness of space. But it was no use. Nobody was listening. Finally, realizing there was nothing to be done, Pete joined them.

It was only afterwards, of course, that they realized there was no plastic on the floor, and hoped Rose wouldn't mind a messy, wrong colored rainbow.

"We could just paint over it," the Doctor said later. "Or put down some carpet! That would be nice."

"I like it," Donna said, looking around. "Can we paint my room now?"

"No, we need to get you cleaned up before your mother gets back," the Doctor said. "Ah, Michelle! You're just in time to clean them up before nap time."

"Miss Rose ain't gonna like this," Michelle muttered as she towed the two down the hallway.

"I'd better go help out," Pete said. "I won't be good at this next bit. I don't even know what Silurians look like anyway."

"Yeah, you'd best pop off for a bit," the Doctor agreed. "Not that I don't appreciate your help," he added quickly.

Rose and Jackie returned to the mansion two hours later to find clean children and a very proud, blue soaked Doctor. For a moment, Rose could do nothing but stare, dumbfounded.

"I'm not even going to ask," she finally said. "Show me what you've done with the place."

Grinning, the Doctor bounded up the steps two at a time. Rose followed more slowly.

"Ta-da!" he exclaimed proudly when she walked into the room.

Rose nearly screamed when she turned and saw a remarkably 3D effect Dalek.

"I SAID clouds and sky, and maybe a few animals!"

"Clouds," the Doctor said, pointing to the border they had done. "Sky. Animals. I decided to organize them by letter, you know, to make it educational. That's...not what you want?"

"How do you expect them to sleep with Daleks and Cybermen pointing their guns at them. And what the…" she realized Donna was standing at the doorway and bit her lip. "What is that monster?"

"Oh, that's a Zygon," the Doctor explained. "Don't think you've ever met one before."

"It's hideous!"

"Well I did try to make it realistic."

"You have to paint over it," she said in her no nonsense, no arguments voice. "And the floor! What did you do, have a paint war?"

"Paint War II, to be exact. Mike and me started the first..."

"Mike?"

"-elangelo," Pete clarified for her.

"Just paint over it."

"But I spent all day…"

"You've got a few months to fix it. But I will not have my children terrified by these extremely realistic paintings. Even Donna's scared!"

The Doctor sighed. "Ok. But can we at least keep the ceiling?"

"Yes. That part's amazing. But paint over the walls, and when it's dry just do a dog, or a giraffe or something. No, forget that. Just come and talk to me…if I'm not sick. Ugh, I hate pate fumes."

Quickly she hurried from the room, and the Doctor picked up the paintbrush once again.