The Power of Three (Part 2)

A car pulled up to the Tower, Kate standing there, waiting, as the door opened and the trio stepped out with Amy, "Every cube across the whole world activated at the same moment," Kate told them, leading them into the Tower, which had apparently become UNIT's base for the moment.

"Now we're in business!" the Doctor laughed as LJ clapped in Evy's arms, "You sent me a message to my psychic paper. You know what? I'm almost impressed."

"Secret base beneath the Tower," Amy observed, "Hope we're not here because we know too much."

"Yes, I've got officers trained in beheading," Kate replied, a hint of seriousness in her voice, "Also...ravens of death."

"I like her," Amy smirked.

Can I have a raven of death mummy? LJ looked up at his mother.

She sighed and shook her head, turning to the Doctor, "Maybe we should get him a goldfish or something," she suggested, "Maybe he'll stop asking for all these dangerous animals."

The Doctor just put an arm around her shoulders, "He is MY son dear," he reminded her as LJ started to tug on Evy's hair, "That'll never happen."

She could only pray that it was a phase.

"There are fifty being monitored," Kate called, pulling their attention back as they entered a monitoring and containment room of sorts, different compartments set up with cubes in them, testing them, trying to destroy them, seeing the effect they would have on people, "And more coming in all the time. I don't know how useful it is. Every cube is behaving individually. There's no meaningful pattern. Some respond to proximity. Some create mood swings..." she nodded at a woman sobbing in a booth with a cube.

Amy touched the glass of one and the cube shot out flames.

Awesome! LJ clapped, seeing it, which only made Evy shake her head and hope her son wouldn't also develop a love of explosions...though knowing River...and Jack...and the Doctor, it seemed rather likely he would.

Amy paused when she caught sight of one booth that seemed to be heavily warded, "Er, what's this one?"

"Try the door," Kate nodded at it. Amy frowned but opened it, only for 'the Birdie Song' to start playing loudly, "On a loop!" she shouted over the noise, till Amy shut the door, "This is the latest," she led them over to a large computer network setup with a man in glasses sitting in front of it.

"Oh dear," the Doctor eyed the screens, "Look boyo," he pointed for LJ, "Systems breach at the Pentagon, China, every African nation, the Middle East..."

"I've got governments screaming for explanations and no idea what to tell them. I'm lost, Doctor. We all are."

"Don't despair, Kate. Your dad never did," he glanced at Kate who looked started, but he smiled, "Kate Stewart, heading up UNIT, changing the way they work. How could you not be? Why did you drop Lethbridge?"

"I didn't want any favours. Though he guided me, even to the end. 'Science leads,' he always told me. Said he'd learned that from an old friend."

"We won't let him down," Evy called, putting a hand on the Doctor's arm, "We won't let the planet down either."

Don't worry! LJ tried to help reassure her, if only the woman could understand Baby, We'll save the Earth!

"They've stopped," the man before them said suddenly, "The cubes, across the world, they just shut down."

"Active for 47 minutes, and then they just...die?" Kate shook her head.

Evy stepped forward and pressed a few buttons, accessing UNIT's records of the cube activity, setting it to race across the screen at a pace only three people, well two and a baby, could keep up with, "No," she sighed, "Definitely not dead," she glanced at the Doctor, "I'd say they're dormant. For now."

"Then why shut down?" Amy shook her head.

"I don't know," the Doctor said, moving to smack himself in the forehead when Evy grabbed his hand, "I don't know. I need to think. I need some air," he squeezed her hand and pulled her out of the room with him, complaining, "Who has an underground base? Terrible ventilation."

~8~

The Doctor sighed as he sat between Amy and Evy by the banks of the Thames, LJ in his lap, the boy's attention completely on the stars as Evy rested her head on his shoulder, "The moment they arrived, I should have made sure they were collected and burned. That is what I should have done."

"Coulda, woulda, shoulda," Evy shrugged, moving to take his hand, absently playing with his fingers, "Too late now."

"And how?" Amy added, "Nobody would have listened."

"You're thinking of stopping, aren't you?" the Doctor glanced at Amy, "You and Rory."

"No. I mean, we haven't made a decision..."

"But you're considering it," Evy nodded, her voice growing soft and distant.

Amy sighed, "Maybe. I don't know. We don't know. Well, our lives have changed so much. But there was a time, there were years, when I couldn't live without you. When just the whole everyday thing would drive me crazy. But since you dropped us back here, since you gave us this house, you know, we've built a life. I don't know if I can have both."

"Why?" the Doctor frowned.

"Because they pull at each other. Because they pull at me. And because the travelling is starting to feel like running away."

"That's not what it is."

"Oh, come on. Look at you, four days in a lounge and you go crazy."

"I'm not running away," he told her, moving to look at Evy who had drifted off on his shoulder. He smiled softly at that, motherhood, for all its wonders, had made her tired more often, he'd catch her having little naps in the most random places. He dropped a kiss to her head as she snuggled into him, before he turned to Amy, speaking quietly, "But this is one corner of one country in one continent on one planet that's a corner of a galaxy that's a corner of a Universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond. And there is so much, so much to see, Amy. Because it goes so fast. I'm not running away from things, I am running to them before they flare and fade forever," he sighed, "And it's alright. Our lives won't run the same. They can't. One day, soon maybe, you'll…stop. I've known for a while."

"Then why do you keep coming back for us?"

"LJ loves you," he shrugged, there were so many reasons, "Evy misses you. And...because you were the first. The first face this face saw. And you're seared onto my hearts, Amelia Pond, into Evy's as well. And LJ's. You always will be. I'm running to you, and Rory, before you fade from me."

"Don't be nice to me. I don't want you to be nice to me."

"Yeah, you do, Pond," he grinned, "And you're just like LJ you always get what you want."

Amy chuckled under her breath, "He didn't get that dinosaur."

But the Doctor didn't react to that, not even with a secretive 'not yet' but instead stiffened, "They got what they wanted..."

"What? Who did?"

"The cubes!" the Doctor yelled, startling Evy awake, "That's why they stopped. Come on," he quickly scooped LJ into his arms and helped Evy up, pulling her back to the Tower with Amy.

~8~

"Kate?" the Doctor shouted as they neared her, "Before they shut down, they scanned everything, from your medical limits to your military response patterns. They made a complete assessment of Planet Earth and its inhabitants. That's what the surge of activity was."

The power cut off suddenly and Evy sighed, pulling out her sonic to scan around, having to jerk her arm to keep LJ, who was back in her hold, from grabbing it. The little boy was far too curious for his own good. She glanced at the results and then Kate, "Any way to cut the power here from Earth?"

"Not possible," Kate frowned, "We've got backups."

"Not as good as the ones Evy can rig up," the Doctor grinned.

Evy smiled and flicked her sonic, holding it above her head to turn the lights back on.

"Doctor?" Amy tensed, "Evy? Look..." she pointed at a box, now with a lit up '7' on the side of it.

"What?" the Doctor gestured for Evy to stay back as he soniced the box himself.

"Why do they all say seven?" Kate asked.

The Doctor frowned, "Seven. Seven," he turned to Evy, "What's important about seven?"

Seven days of the week, LJ tried to help.

Evy nodded, "Seven wonders of the world, seven streams of the River Ota, seven sides of a cube…"

"A cube has six sides," Amy cut in.

"True," Evy nodded, "But there's also the inside."

There was a cling and they turned to see the cubes now said '6.'

"Well it's clearly a countdown," Evy remarked, shifting LJ in her arms.

"Not in minutes," Kate shook her head.

"Why would it be minutes?" the Doctor sighed, "Kate, we have to get humanity away from those cubes. God knows what they'll do if they hit zero. Get the information out any way you can. News channels, websites, radio, text messages. People have to know that the cubes are dangerous."

"Ok, but why is this starting now?" Amy asked, "I mean, the cubes arrived months ago. Why wait this long?"

"Because that's the clever way to do things," Evy answered, "If they sit around long enough, not doing anything, people will assume they're just cubes, that they're harmless. After they decide that, people will think they're safe enough to collect, to take into their homes, to leave around their children."

The Doctor nodded, rubbing LJ's back as he squirmed more, wanting to look at the cubes closer, "Humans, the great early adopters. And then, wham! Profile every inch of Earth's existence."

"Discover how best to attack us!" Kate realized.

"Get that information out any way you can. Go!"

"Right," Kate nodded, rushing off.

The Doctor turned back to the computer to see Evy flashing it with her sonic, "If every cube was activated at the same time, there had to have been a signal. And not just one, but a number of them. A signal of that size would send out energy fluctuations on a colossal scale," she glanced at the Doctor, "There's got to be a trace of it somewhere."

He nodded, "There can't not be. We need to think of all the variables, all the possibilities, ok?" he looked at a few scientists around the room, "Go, go, go, go, go!"

The man in the glasses before them brought up a screen to the news stations, keeping an eye out on what the cubes were doing on a world wide scale, "This is a national security alert. The Government advises that members of the public dispose of all cubes. If there are cubes inside your house, remove them immediately."

They glanced back at a cling to see the number drop to '4.'

The Doctor looked at a cube in a booth, intently, before turning to Evy, opening his mouth.

"Oh, no," she shook her head, "Absolutely not."

~8~

Evy was grumbling under her breath, LJ giggling at his mother's sour mood and death-threats against his father, as the man himself prepared to enter the booth with the cube. She was still trying to figure out how he'd managed to convince her to let him do this.

"Doctor, please," Amy said, voicing Evy's thoughts, "You don't have to do this."

"She's right," Kate nodded, sending worried glances at Evy who was glaring daggers at the Doctor, not at all pleased with the situation, "You don't have to be in there. We can do this remotely."

"Listen to the Stewart dear," Evy added.

Don't listen to them daddy! LJ called, Girls are silly.

'Oi!' Evy mock-scolded her son, though there was a humor in her eyes.

"Remotely isn't my style," the Doctor countered, giving Evy a reassuring smile before kissing her quickly, "See you after."

"You'd better," Evy threatened, "Or I'll kill you."

He shot her a wink and stepped into the booth with the cube just as it changed to '2.' He moved to a chair and sat down, the cube quickly moving to '1' much faster than before. He sat back and waited, grinning when it made it to '0' and switched off, the lid popping open.

"Geronimo," he smirked, leaning in to peer inside it, scanning it with the sonic.

"Don't do that!" Evy rolled her eyes, shaking her head at him, of course he'd want to get his face right up close.

"What's happening?" Kate asked.

What's in it? LJ squirmed, trying to get closer despite his mummy holding him back, Daddy, what's in there?!

"Well?" Amy called, echoing LJ's question, "What's in there?"

"There is nothing in here," he sighed, sitting back a moment before getting up.

"Er, well, that's good. It's not...it's not bombs, it's not aliens."

"Why?" he looked at them through the glass, "Why is there nothing inside? Why? It doesn't make any sense," he turned and stepped out of the booth, moving back to the computers, "Glasses…"

Evy whacked him on the back of the head, "His name is Marvin!" she said, noting his name tag.

The Doctor winced and rubbed his head, "Marvin…" he amended, "Is it the same? Is it the same all around the world?"

"They're empty," Kate shook her head, frowning, "We're safe, right?"

That would be anticlimactic, LJ pouted, crossing his little arms, he was hoping for something...more.

Evy rolled her eyes at that, like father like son.

"Ah, no, no, no, we are very far from safe. All along, every action has been deliberate. Why draw attention to the cubes if they don't contain anything?"

"So people will do what you did," Evy answered, "And look inside, get close…"

"Look," Amy cut in, pointing at a monitor.

They watched in horror as people on the screen started clutching their chests and collapsing to the ground.

"They're CCTV feeds from across the world," Marvin's eyes widened, "They're showing the same."

What's wrong with them? LJ looked at his parents, concerned for the humans.

"People are dying!" Kate stared, wide eyed.

"What?" the Doctor shook his head, "They can't be dying. How? How are they dying?"

"I want information on how people are being affected."

"The cubes brought people close together. They opened and then...argh!" the Doctor suddenly fell back on a chair, clutching his chest.

"Doctor, what's the matter?" Amy ran to his side.

"Amy!" Evy called, staggering. Amy ran over, "Take him!" she handed the girl LJ before she fell to her knees, rubbing her chest as well.

LJ started crying, seeing his parents in pain.

"Ah, I don't know," the Doctor wheezed, grabbing at his chest, before falling off the chair and making his way to Evy's side.

"Hospitals are logging a global surge in heart failures," Marvin reported, "Cardiac arrests."

"That's it!" the Doctor pointed at him, "Oh! Oh! Oh! Only one heart. Other one's not working."

Evy grimaced, "And mine feels like it's not."

That, in her opinion, was the only downside of the Link. You would know if your Link was in danger, if they were hurt, yes, which was fantastic to know so you could get them help, however…the pain one person would feel from their Link being harmed could be almost as crippling.

"Ok," Amy frantically bobbed LJ, trying to calm him, but worried herself for her best friends, "I'm going to get you two to the hospital!" she moved forward, about to help them up when the Doctor held up a hand.

"Oh, no, no, no, no. Just a short circuit," he looked at Marvin, his hand clutching Evy's the moment he reached her, "Tell me, show me. Ten seconds after the cubes opened, show me the patterns in their electrical currents."

Marvin quickly brought up the pattern, a heartbeat.

"See?" the Doctor pointed.

Kate's eyes widened in horror, "No!"

Evy nodded, rubbing her chest, "When they cut the power before, they were using it to store against you…" she winced as the Doctor cried out in pain, getting another painful ache in his chest, "The cubes, they're not just cubes, they're signal boxes. When everyone leaned in, it put them in range for the surge out at the hearts nearest to them."

The Doctor panted, "The heart, an organ powered by electrical currents, short-circuited. How to destroy a human? Go for the heart. Ow. Crikey Moses."

"Evy, the scan you set running," Kate called as the computer beeped, "The transmitter locations. It's found them."

The Time Lords pushed themselves to look over, seeing seven points on the Earth where the signals came from, "And look at them all, pulsing bold as brass," the Doctor breathed, "Seven of them, all across the world. Ow!" he grimaced, starting to beat his chest seven times, trying to restart his heart, "Seven stations, seven minutes. Why is that important? Argh!" and another pain hit him, making Evy bite her lip to keep quiet, "Ow, ow," he bit his tongue, trying to keep from crying out again, LJ was getting frantic now, he wanted his mummy and daddy but they couldn't take him. With the pains…they didn't want to drop him or hurt him, so for now his 'Aunt Amy' would have to do, "How do you people manage?" he glanced at LJ, trying to lighten the mood, "One heart, it is pitiful."

"There's a wormhole," Evy managed to flash the computer with her sonic, showing the signals uniting and going off to a spot in space just above the Earth, "It's bridging two dimensions. Seven of them streaming from this planet…we need to find the closest one…"

Marvin quickly got to work, locating the nearest point and zooming in.

"It's the hospital where Rory works," Amy breathed, now starting to get really scared, which did little to comfort LJ.

~8~

In the hospital, Kate and the Doctor were walking ahead of Amy and Evy, the ginger holding the hiccupping baby while his mother ran her hand along the back of his head, trying to calm him and assure him she and his father would be fine. He'd calmed considerably since the Tower, having been able to sit on his parents lap on the ride over, both assuring him that they'd make it. They still had their other heart, they'd be fine.

It was a lie.

It hurt like hell and if they didn't find a way to restart the Doctor's other heart soon, the strain of his one heart sustaining him alone would be too much for it.

But they weren't about to tell their baby boy that.

"How many deaths have been recorded?" the Doctor looked at Kate.

"We don't know," she sighed, "We think it could be a third of the population."

"Kate, we have to find the wormhole, but the attacks could still happen. Tell the world. Tell them how to deal with this. The world needs your leadership right now."

"I'll do my best," she promised.

"Of course you will," Evy nodded as Kate passed, "You're a Stewart. Good luck."

Kate quickly rushed off, just as the Doctor fell against the wall of the hospital, clutching his chest, "Argh! Argh!"

Evy had managed to remain standing, though her face was pained and strained and she was hunched over, holding her chest as well, LJ watching them both in concern, trying not to cry, trying to be as brave as his daddy always was.

"Ok," Amy leaned in, hissing quietly at them as she covered LJ's ears with a hand, "How long are you going to last with only one heart?"

"Not much longer," the Doctor admitted, "But we need to locate the wormhole portal…"

Evy pulled out her sonic, the sooner they stopped whatever was causing the pulses in the cubes the sooner they could reverse it all and get the Doctor's heart started again. She flashed the hallway, trying to pick up the wormhole…when her sonic picked up something else…a little black girl just standing there, expressionless, holding a cube, "That's not right…" she frowned, bringing her sonic closer, till the girl's face flashed blue.

"Oh, my God," Amy's eyes widened at the sight.

"She's an outlier droid," Evy explained, changing the sonic's setting, "She's their eyes, monitoring everything. I can shut her down though…" the girl slowly collapsed, and Evy and the Doctor lowered her to the ground, when the Doctor fell back against the wall, the worst pain yet hitting him.

"I can't," he breathed, looking at Evy, taking her hand, "I can't do it. I need both hearts…"

Amy looked around before quickly putting LJ in Evy's arms, assuming it was safe as she had collapsed to sit next to the Doctor, and grabbed a portable defibrillator off a nearby cart, "Alright. Desperate measures," she turned to the Doctor whose eyes widened.

"What?" he gaped as Amy came closer, setting the machine down and starting it up, "No. No, no, no. That won't work. I'm a Time Lord."

Amy just ripped open his shirt.

Evy couldn't help but laugh at that, "All my life I've dreamed of doing that," she nudged Amy's leg with her foot, "And I missed it by being someone else," she mimicked Amy's earlier words.

Amy gave her a smile, knowing she was only saying that to try and distract LJ, having guessed what Amy was about to do. She nodded, taking up the paddles, "Alright, clear!" and pressed them to the Doctor's chest and side, shocking him.

"Woo!" he jumped, actually jumped to his feet as his heart started again, Evy sighing in relief, rubbing her chest lightly as the pain faded from her as well, "Oh! Ooh! Welcome back, lefty! Whoa-ho! Two hearts! Woo! Back in the game. Ah," he leaned forward to drop a kiss to LJ's forehead as the boy clapped, to Evy's lips as she smiled at him, and Amy's head…before pointing a warning finger at her, "Never do that to me again."

~8~

The trio and Amy paused before the goods lift, where Evy's scan had led them, "Ah, portal to another dimension in a goods lift?" Amy eyed it as the lift pinged and the doors opened.

"This is where the energy signals are converging," Evy shrugged as they stepped in.

"Does seem a bit cramped, though," the Doctor remarked, tickling LJ's stomach as he sat in his arms, wanting to be closer to his daddy as he had been in the most danger before.

Evy frowned, the sonic beeping at the back wall and reached out to touch it, making the wall wibble.

The Doctor grinned, "Through the looking glass, Amelia?" he glanced at Amy who smirked, taking Evy's outstretched hand, all of them stepping through…

And into a dark spaceship, an examination sort of room just ahead with small slabs set up, men and women lying on them.

"Where are we?" Amy asked.

The Doctor glanced out a broad window to see the Earth outside, a light blue aura around it, "We're in orbit."

Evy looked at her sonic's reading before putting it in its holster, "And apparently one dimension to the left."

"Rory!" Amy cried, rushing forwards when she spotted Rory lying on a slab, next to Brian who was on a portable one.

"Ah," the Doctor tossed Amy a small vial, "Soborian smelling salts. Outlawed in seven galaxies."

Amy quickly waved it under Rory's nose, making him jolt up…when someone suddenly shot at them.

"Get down!" Evy shouted, her and the Doctor quickly ducking behind a slab as LJ started cheering at the excitement. Apparently their son didn't think it was a real adventure till someone started threatening their lives.

Wonderful.

"What kind of a welcome do you call that?" the Doctor muttered, glancing over to see an old man, dressed in black, with an worn and dry face standing there.

"Amy," Evy turned to the ginger, "Get Rory and Brian out! Go!"

"What are you going to do?" Amy asked as Rory went to wake up his father with the vial.

"Absolutely no idea," the Doctor admitted.

It's a thing! LJ cheered, he loved when his father made it up as he went.

"Just get him to the portal and get out!" Evy urged her on.

Amy dashed off to the portable slab where Brian had just jolted awake, her and Rory pushing it out of the room as the alien shot at them.

The Doctor and Evy kept low, waiting till the shots died down…the defense system was only geared to target humans, according to the scan Evy had gotten when they'd first entered the ship, they were safe as an alien species.

"So many of them," the man said as they slowly stood, "Crawling the planet, seeping into every corner."

They watched as the man disappeared and reappeared in front of seven hexagonal shaped monitors.

"It's not possible," the Doctor breathed, handing LJ to Evy so he'd be free to defend them if it came to it, "I thought the Shakri were a myth. A myth to keep the young of Gallifrey in their place."

LJ quieted at that, actually just a little bit scared now, not of the danger around them, no, his parents would protect him, but of the man, the Shakri. While his parents hadn't told him that legend themselves, he did know of it from their memories.

"The Shakri exist in all of time, and none," the man rasped, "We travel alone and together. The Seven."

"You connected the Shakri craft to Earth with seven portals in seven minutes," Evy nodded, "Why?"

"Serving the word of the Tally."

"Why the cubes?" the Doctor shook his head, "Why Earth?"

"Not Earth, humanity. The Shakri will halt the human plague before the spread."

"Erase humanity before it colonizes space. We thought the cubes were an invasion. The start of war."

"The human contagion only must be eliminated."

"Who are you calling a contagion?" Amy scoffed as she and Rory came back in.

"Didn't I tell you to get out?" Evy smiled at the ginger, she should have known Amy wouldn't listen.

"You should have learned by now," Rory returned the smile.

"Yeah," Amy nodded, before eyeing the man, "And what is this Tally anyway?"

"Some people call it Judgment Day, or the Reckoning," the Doctor murmured.

"Don't you know?"

"It's not something he's ever wanted to find out," Evy answered, "If you can believe it."

"Before the Closure, there is the Tally," the Shakri continued, "The Shakri serves the Tally."

"The pest controllers of the Universe, that's how the tales went, isn't it?" the Doctor eyed him.

"Wow," Amy reached out and tickled LJ's chin, "That's some seriously weird bedtime story…you tell LJ those things?"

"You can talk," the Doctor countered, "Wolf in your grandmother's nightdress?"

Evy rolled her eyes, "I actually have taken to reading him poetry for stories," Evy told her.

"So," the Doctor shook his head, being, for once, the one to get them back on topic, as he turned to the Shakri…

Evy smiled, 'Get ready Sigma,' she told her son silently, sensing an 'epic speech' on the horizon. LJ started to squirm excitedly.

"Here you are," the Doctor continued, "Depositing slug pellets all over the Earth, made attractive so humans will collect them, hoping to find something beautiful inside. Because that's what they are. Not pests or plague, creatures of hope, forever building and reaching. Making mistakes, of course, every life form does. But...but they learn. And they strive for greater, and they achieve it. You want a tally. Put their achievements against their failings through the whole of time, I will back humanity against the Shakri every time."

LJ started clapping excitedly at that, making the Doctor smile and shoot him a wink, pointing at his son.

"The Tally must be met," the Shakri repeated, "The second wave will be released."

"What does that mean?" Amy asked.

Evy sighed, "Means more cubes to kill more people."

"The human plague breeding and fighting," the Shakri nearly spat, "And when cornered, their rage to destroy. You're too late, Doctor. The Tally shall be met!"

And with that, he vanished.

"He's gone?" Amy looked around, afraid the man might appear behind her.

"He was never really here," the Doctor said, moving over to the panel of monitors, "Just the ship's automated interface, like a talking propaganda poster. I can stop the second wave," he started to sonic the controls, "I can disconnect all the Shakri craft from their portals, leave them drifting in the darkspace. Ah, but all those people who were near the cubes, so many of them will have died…"

"I restarted one of your hearts," Amy reminded him.

Rory shook his head, "You'd need mass defibrillation."

"Of course!" the Doctor grinned, "Ah, beautiful. But, Ponds, Ponds. We are going to go one better than that. The Shakri used the cubes to turn people's hearts off. Bingo! We're going to use them to turn them back on again!"

"Will that work?" Amy asked as Evy pulled out her sonic to help him.

"Well, creatures of hope. Has to."

"We've thirty seconds till the cubes activate again," Evy put her sonic away.

"Don't let us down, cubes," he grinned, "You're working for us now…" and then he spotted a flashing warning, "Oh dear. All those cubes. There's going to be a terrible wave of energy ricocheting around here any second. We…"

"Wun!" LJ squealed.

The group looked down at him, stunned, save for the Doctor who just patted LJ on the head, "Yes boyo, we won."

"No…dear," Evy breathed, staring at LJ, "I think he just…"

The Doctor's eyes widened as he looked awed and proud at LJ, "He said his first word!"

"Wun!" LJ giggled again, "Wun! Wun!"

"Is he saying 'won' or…" Evy frowned.

"Later!" Amy shouted, grabbing her arm and pulling her while Rory grabbed the Doctor.

They dashed out of the room, jumping into the lift as the explosion jolted behind them.

Evy panted and looked at the Doctor from where she was lying on her back, LJ on her chest, and whacked him on the back of the head as hard as she could.

"OW!" he shouted, "What was that for?"

"Only YOUR son would have 'RUN' as his first words!" she grumbled.

He blinked, realizing LJ hadn't been saying that they won, but that they should run, "Aw," he smiled at how his son hadn't grasped the 'r' sound, "Bless."

"Amy," Evy turned to her, sitting up and holding LJ out, "Will you hold him a moment?"

"Of course," Amy beamed, taking him, "But why?"

"I'd like my hands free when I kill his father."

The Doctor's eyes widened and he jumped up, running out of the lift as Evy chased after him, the humans glancing at each other before laughing.

But I wanted to watch! LJ grumbled, not that they could understand him.

~8~

The Doctor, Evy, and LJ stood before Kate that morning, just outside the Tower, "You, er, you really are as remarkable as dad said," Kate told the Doctor, kissing him on his cheek, "Thank you."

He laughed, "My! A kiss from a Lethbridge Stewart," he glanced at Evy.

She laughed as well, "That's new."

Kate smiled and dropped a little kiss onto LJ's head, laughing when the boy tried to wipe it off.

"Oh dear," the Doctor glanced at his watch, "We're late for dinner," he gave Kate a salute before helping Evy and LJ into the UNIT car, ready to get back to the Ponds.

~8~

The small family sat around the kitchen table, Amy and Rory on one side, with Brian and Evy, with LJ in her lap, on the other, the Doctor sitting on a chair a the end, all eating Chinese with chopsticks.

"Poor boy," Evy smiled as LJ yawned, starting to doze as he rested on her chest, "We'd better get going Doctor," she started to stand.

The Doctor nodded, smiling at the sight of his son ready to sleep, "Things to do, worlds to save, swings to…swing on…" he took Evy's hand and they stepped around the Ponds, about to leave when the Doctor held up a finger, signaling for her to wait a moment, before he turned back to the Ponds, putting his arms around them, standing between them, "Look, we know, you both have lives here. Beautiful, messy lives. That is what makes you so fabulously human. You don't want to give them up. We understand."

"Actually, it's you they can't give up," Brian stated, glancing at the trio of Time Lords, before smiling, "And I don't think they should. Go with him," he urged his son and daughter-in-law, "Go save every world you can find. Who else has that chance? Life will still be here."

"You could always come with us Brian," Evy called quietly, LJ completely asleep now, his little hand curled around a lock of his mother's hair.

Brian smiled at the sight but shook his head, "Somebody's got to water the plants. Just bring them back safe."

Amy smiled and headed out with them. She and Rory waited as the Doctor moved to unlock the TARDIS, watching the sight of the small family, unable to think about that year, the year of the slow invasion, when the Earth got cubed, and the Doctor came to stay. And she realized something, watching the Doctor drop a kiss on LJ's head as the boy squirmed in his sleep, the Shakri never understood what cubed actually meant.

"Come on Ponds," the Doctor called, his arm around Evy as she held LJ.

And as she followed the trio of Time Lords into the box, she knew exactly what cubed meant, the power of three.

A/N: Quick question before I comment on LJ's 1st words...I'm debating making the Snowmen just 1 chapter, I sort of feel bad that there are no 2-parters to make into 1 chapter each for this Series and I think one nice long chapter in the middle might make up for that a bit? What do you think? Would you prefer 1 chapter for the Snowmen? :)

Now, about LJ...how adorable right?! I truly could not imagine the son of the Doctor's first words NOT being 'Run!' :) How many of you loved/were hoping for that?

Next chapter...someone was dressed as a clown, Older LJ makes an appearance, and...Rory isn't the only one to be sent back in time }:)

And nope, not many funny stories about my siblings. I think the most amusing thing they did as toddlers/kids was my brother being so uncoordinated that he had to wear a helmet in the house because he kept running into walls and my sister being so spoiled that she didn't learn to talk till she was about 3 since she would just point at something and make a noise and my brother or I would get it for her :) Gotta love siblings :)