Doctor:

Just as the patients were within touching distance, I felt Jace hugging me from behind. I had to do this, I had to get at least her out of the room, alive. "Go to your room." Told them all, and they stood very still. "Go to your room. I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!" They all hung their heads in shame, shuffling back to their beds. "I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words."

Jace pulled me to hug her fully and I kissed her hair, grateful to have her to keep me on track. "Hey... I've got you love, I've got you..."

"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" Rose asked after a moment, when we'd made sure it was safe for the moment.

"They're not." Jack, the not so Captain, Captain, told her. "Those masks are flesh and bone."

That reminded me actually. "How was your con supposed to work?"

He just shrugged. "Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."

"Yeah." Jacey grumbled, still holding my hand tight. I wondered what the sound of their voices showed her. "Perfect."

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." We were all glaring at him. "Getting a hint of disapproval."

Jace was the one to tell him what was what. "Take a look around the room. This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did. It reeks of the same radiation you do! It's all I can see, this gold light!" Wait, gold light?

"It was a burnt-out medical transporter. It was empty. You're just a kid, you don't know what you're seeing!" Oh, she may not, but she sure as hell knew just what to tell me she was seeing.

"Jace, Rose." I said, starting to walk out of the ward

They followed right away for once. "Are we getting out of here?"

"We're going upstairs."

Jack was still trying to prove his point. "I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no-one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."

Jace was still having none of it. "I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day." Then a siren sounded, and she buckled, covering her eyes as I darted to cover her ears at the same time. "What is that?!"

"The all clear." Jack said after a moment, when it stopped and she stood up, still close by my side.

We both shook our heads, my little girl and I. "I wish."

"Mister Spock?" He asked, as I followed her lead, knowing she was surrounded by painful light. God, if she was really my daughter, I'd be so, so happy. She was mostly Time Lord, and there were only ever two Time Lords Lucie met. Me and another who tried to kill her.

"Doctor? Jacey?" They both ran past us.

"Have you got a blaster?" I called, wondering where they thought they were going. And then they ran back, and he took it out. "The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken."

Rose seemed a little shocked. "What happened?"

"Let's find out." I shrugged. "Get it open."

Jace pulled me back a little, frowning as she probably saw something similar to the sonic as Jack used his blaster. "What's wrong with your sonic screwdriver?"

"Nothing. Sonic blaster, fifty first century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?"

He seemed surprised and Jace realised. Rose was with her mum for a night and we went off together. "You've been to the factories?"

"Once." We agreed.

"Well, they gone now, destroyed." He said sadly. "The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."

My Jacey grinned. "Like we said. Once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good, one of the few things I can stomach."

And then she walked into the next room, where there were a load of cabinets and mess in general. The observation window was also shattered. "What do you think?"

"Something got out of here."

"Yeah. And?"

Jace was doing her bit at seeing something we couldn't. "Something powerful. Angry."

We saw a load of children's drawings on the wall. "A child? I suppose this explains Mummy."

"How could a child do this?"

I reached over and turned on a tape machine, and saw Jace flinch at the moment of static before Constantine's voice came through. "Do you know where you are?"

"Are you my mummy?" It went near enough the same, and then Rose interrupted.

"Doctor, I've heard this voice before."

Jace and I nodded. "Us too."

"Always are you my mummy?." She agreed. "Like he doesn't know."

My possible daughter hugged her arms around herself, still cold, even in my jacket and her coat. "Why doesn't he know? To be fair, I only thought I knew."

"Mummy?" The voice was still going, but there was something, something I couldn't quite get. "Please, mummy? Mummy?"

Jace moved forward, and saw I was confused. "Doctor?"

"Can you sense it?" She nodded, and I knew why. She was like me, Time Lord, with the same senses, though they were heightened because of the synaesthesia.

But no one else could. "Sense what?"

"Coming out of the walls. Can you feel it? It's coming off in waves, it's red, and black and everything, it's anger and pain, and nothing... I don't know..." She shook her head. "Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things? I know why I'm different now, how do you guys do it?

Rose then had to explain. "We don't know if they're dad and daughter, but she's half what he is, and they can do things we can't. When they're stressed, they likes to insult species."

That wasn't helping. "Rose, I'm thinking."

"He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than."

Jace started pacing, doing exactly what I do. "There are these children living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air-raids looking for food. Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?"

"It was a med-ship."Jack said yet again. "It was harmless."

Said it until your lungs turn blue, it wasn't going to change the fact you were wrong. "Yes, you keep saying harmless. Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"

"Altered how?"

"I'm here!" Jace went still, and I frowned, but she didn't move.

"It's afraid. Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do. It's got the power of a god, and You just sent it to it's room." Rose questioned the small clicking noise that was now occurring. "What's that noise?"

Oh... Oh, that was not going to end well. "End of the tape. It ran out about thirty seconds ago."

The voice was still going. "I'm here, now. Can't you see me?"

"I sent it to it's room." I realised what Jace meant. "This is it's room." I turned with her, to see the child behind me.

"Are you my mummy? Mummy?"

"Doctor? Jace?"

Jack took charge. "Okay, on my signal make for the door."

And then he aimed his blaster at the door, except it was just a banana and Jacey started laughing, aiming it instead. "Go now! Don't drop the banana!"

"Why not?!"

"Good source of potassium!" She laughed, jumping through with me.

He grabbed it back after. "Give me that!" He repaired the hole in the wall. "Digital rewind. Nice switch. Pick pocket by trade or just a skill your people have?"

"It's from the groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate." She shrugged, eating it. Good. "And I spent a good part of my life on the street. We steal to survive."

This was new to Jack. "There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you two did that?"

"Bananas are good." But then the wall started to crack and we started running again. Though the patients were a little rebellious after being sent to their room now, and were coming from the other direction. "It's keeping us here till it can get at us."

Rose stared at me. "It's controlling them?"

Jace shook her head. "It is them. It's every living thing in this hospital. A thin golden line between all of them, all going back to that one child."

"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?"

"I've got a sonic, er." I held up the sonic, making my little girl smile. "Oh, never mind."

"What?"

I was so never going to live this down. "It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."

"Disrupter? Cannon? What?"

"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am soniced up!"

"A sonic what?!"

"Screwdriver!"

The child broke through the wall, as Jace grabbed Jack's blaster and pointed it at the floor. "Going down!" Falling down a storey was not nice and it hurt as we got to our feet, but I had a 14 year old land on me. I'd rather that than her break her wrist again though. "Doctor, are you okay?"

I nodded, helping her to her feet again. "Could've used a warning, though, my Jacey."

"Oh, the gratitude."

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked me, as the other two went on a search for lights. Jace didn't need them, but she'd want us in the light.

"I do."

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic?"

"What, you've never been bored?" I asked him, getting defensive of my little buddy. "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"

And then the patients sat up in bed as the lights were found and we ran for the door. Except the blaster didn't work. "Damn it! It's the special features. They really drain the battery."

"The battery?" Rose questioned, as I got us into the storeroom. "That's so lame!"

"I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory."

We beamed as Rose just shrugged. "Oh, I know. First day I met him, he blew my job up. That's practically how he communicates. With Jace, it was more subdued. He nearly blew us all up." Well, she saved us.

"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit."

"The door? The wall didn't stop it!"

"Well, it's got to find us first!" Jace snapped, sitting next to him as he sat down in a wheelchair. "Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"

Jack rolled his eyes at the little street girl. "Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves. Plus, she can be sentry, she can see when they're coming."m

"She has a name, and it's Jace, or Jacey. Window."

"Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories."

Rose sighed. "And no other exits."

The not so Captain smiled at me. "Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?"

Oh, I did not like this guy. "So, where'd you pick this one up, then?"

"Doctor."

Jack got defensive, and just a little flirty. "She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance."

"Okay." I thought of a list that was everything. "One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?"

Rose came back a little spooked. "Yeah. Jack just disappeared." Didn't surprise me. "With Jace"

"What!?" I turned to see my daughter gone, my jacket in the side again. "Oh, he'd better not hurt her!"

She shook her head. "Jace can look after herself. Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?'

I was trying to not track his teleport back and get him here again, and being insulted was not helping. "I'm making an effort not to be insulted."

"I mean, men." That didn't help.

"Okay, thanks, that really helped."

And then the radio crackled to life. "Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. Jace was close enough to be brought through, and she's safe. I'm working on it. Hang in there."

"Oh, she had better be safe Jack!" I found the lack of cable or electricity in the radio he was speaking through. "How're you speaking to us?"

"Om-Com." He replied. "I can call anything with a speaker grill."

Could he now. "Now there's a coincidence."

Jack got confused. "What is?"

"The child can Om-Com, too." I heard Jace In the background, still sounding a little nauseated.

Rose hadn't learnt this. "He can?"

"Anything with a speaker grill." Jacey and I agreed. "Even the TARDIS phone."

"What, you mean the child can phone us?"

The childs voice came through then. "And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you."

My Jace sounded just a little spooked. "Doctor, can you hear that?"

"Loud and clear."

"I'll try to block out the signal" Jack told us. "Least I can do. Remember this one, Rose?"

Moonlight Serenade started coming through the radio and I heard Jace sigh and well as me. How cliché could you get? "Our song."

A little later, Rose was relaxing in the wheelchair Jack had vacated while I was at the barred window with the ever-versatile sonic screwdriver, trying to actually get us out of here, so I could get Jaclyn back, and then move on to stopping whatever Jack the idiot, a different kind of idiot to Rickey the Idiot, had caused with the children. "What you doing?" She eventually asked.

"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars."

"You don't think he's coming back, do you?"

I didn't even try to turn around. "Wouldn't bet my life. But we're tracking him down to get Jace."

Rose sighed again, something she'd been doing a lot recently. "Why don't you trust him? Moreover, why don't you trust Jace to make her own decisions? She saved a lot of lives, including mine last week."

"Why do you?" I ignored the last part.

"He saved my life." I'd done exactly the same. "Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing. I trust him because he's like you. Except with dating and dancing." I had to stare at her with that, because I loved dancing, or at least I had. "What?"

"You just assume I'm-"

"What?"

Why was it so hard to just say this? "You just assume that I don't dance."

"What, are you telling me you do dance?"

This was getting pretty mean. "Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced." Though at the moment I was better at just teaching Jace music, not that she needed to learn much.

Rose was staring at me now. "You?"

"Problem?"

"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you dance?" Come on, that was just stupid.

"Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast."

Rose turned up the volume on the radio. It was still Moonlight Serenade, nice, but as I'd said. Cliché. "You've got the moves? Show me your moves. Jace can't see, she won't get embarrassed." Oh, if only.

"Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete."

"Jack'll be back." She told me holding out her hand. "He'll get us out, and make sure Jace is safe. So come on. The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances."

I looked at her palms, confused as to why her hands were so soft and unaffected by that apparent swing on a balloon. "Barrage balloon?"

"What?"

"You were hanging from a barrage balloon."

She realised. "Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest."

"I've travelled with a lot of people, but you and Jace are setting new records for jeopardy friendly."

I was just standing with her, while she was trying to move me about. "Is this you dancing? Because I've got notes."

"Hanging from a rope thousands feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise."

She smiled a little. "Yeah, I know. Captain Jack fixed me up."

Now that was news to me. "Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"

"Well, his name's Jack and he's a Captain." Because that was the truth.

"He's not really a Captain, Rose."

"Do you know what I think? I think you're experiencing Captain envy, or at least you want Jace to at least call you dad, or just be more like your daughter." Now, that was a little hard, she had a dad and in general, she's still Harry Monroe's daughter, not mine. "You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."

I didn't rise to the Jace part. "If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked."

"Yeah?" She asked, smirking a little. She was so beautiful. "Shame I missed that."

"Actually, I quit." Jack said, and we looked over to see that we were in a ship. And Jace was sat nursing a cup of tea, looking pale and shaky. She was probably catching that cold. "Nobody takes my frock. Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."

Hmmm, that didn't sound exactly great. "You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is."

He gave her a big smile. "Oh, I do. She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes. Jace is coming down with future grade influenza, I'm giving her some medicine to heal her."

"This is a Chula ship. And that won't work, she's not human, at least not fully."

He nodded. "It's worth trying, even if she isn't fully human. Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous."

I snapped my fingers and a golden glow enveloped my hands, meaning that Jace was seeing what I thought she was. "They're what fixed my hands up Jack called them er"

"Nanobots?" I suggested. "Nanogenes."

Rose nodded as I let them heal me, before moving to wrap my arms back around Jace. "Nanogenes, yeah."

"Sub-atomic robots." She said sleepily. "There's millions of them in here, all singing and chattering. Jack said I shouldn't be able to see them."

Kissing her head, I put on her special sun glasses that were supposed to calm her down, get her synaethesia back to a manageable level. "Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws, but you're too different, they register you as unknown. Sorry, but this cold is not going any time soon." She shrugged and I just held her closer. "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."

"As soon as I get the nav-com back online." Jack told me, getting on with something on his much smaller and more boring console. "Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were doing."

What was going on? "We were talking about dancing."

Jace giggled a little. "It didn't look like talking."

"It didn't feel like dancing." Rose added, but then we headed towards the bomb site, and I kept tight of Jace's hand as she was sniffling, still wearing the sunnies. "So, you used to be a Time Agent now you're trying to con them?"

"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money."

That was strange. "For what?"

2"Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories." Ouch, that was a little bad. Two years was probably not good, depending on why they were taken. "I'd like them back."

Jace stared at him. "They stole your memories?"

"Two years of my life." He nodded. "No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn't trust me, and for all I know he's right not to, and that little girl is rather strange. She's able to see every sound, and every smell is a small sound, and she seems to be OK with that." It came with practice. "Okay, we're good to go. Crash site? There it is. Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."

We all saw the man stood on duty and I sighed. "We've got to get past him."

Rose gave a wry smile, pulling down her top. "Are the words distract the guard heading in my general direction?"

"I don't think that'd be such a good idea." Jack smiled, shaking his head.

"Don't worry I can handle it."

I saw where this was going, and I had a feeling Jace did too. I had a feeling she was a-sexual to be fair, she'd hated any type of affection and after what had happened to her, I couldn't blame her. "I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him. Don't wait up."

"Relax, he's a fifty first century guy." I teased, patting Rose's shoulder as he wandered off over to him. "He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."

Her eyebrows went up. "How flexible?"

That was an interesting topic. "Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."

"Meaning?"

I gave her a sly grin. "So many species, so little time."

"What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life, and, and-"

She couldn't say it so I did. "Dance." But then the guard started to retch, falling to his knees, proving that the infection was spreading. "Stay back!" I shouted to the other men, running over with Rose and Jace. "The effect's become air-borne, accelerating."

The air raid sirens started up again, and Jace flinched. The glasses wouldn't help being this close to the start. "What's keeping us safe?" She asked, and I shrugged.

"Nothing."

All of the people started coming back then, the patients from the hospital. "Ah, here they come again."

Rose sighed, going to the other side of Jace, who was swaying a little. God, this was just as bad as when I had it. "All we need. Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"

When did I... ohhhh... "Never mind about that. If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left."

"For what?"

"Till nothing, forever." I told them, moving Jace up onto my back where I could easily keep hold of her. She was so light and she just hid her face in my shoulder. "For the entire human race. And can anyone else hear singing? Jace, point where its coming from."

Jacey pointed to a large tent and we went in, seeing Nancy singing to one of them, who'd just transformed into a zombie. I got her out, and she was borderline having a panic attack before Jack got us to the ambulance. "You see? Just an ambulance."

"That's an ambulance?"

"It's hard to explain." Rose told her. "It's from another world."

Jack was checking it all over. "They've been trying to get in."

And my poorly girl scoffed at him. "Of course they have, moron. They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon. What're you doing?"

"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it." And then an alarm with off as well as some sparks. "Didn't happen last time."

I shook my head, putting her down where she just slid to the ground, half asleep and looking weaker. "It hadn't crashed last time. There'll be emergency protocols. Captain, secure those gates!" He argued. "Just do it! Nancy, how'd you get in here?"

"I cut the wire."

Simple enough. "Show Rose. Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D." I threw her the sonic and explained. " Reattaches barbed wire. Go!"

The toddled off and I put my coat over Jace as she shivered again, before Jack got it open. "It's empty. Look at it."

This man was beyond thick. "What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do."

Jace sat up a little, coughing. "Nanogenes!"

"It wasn't empty, Captain." I nodded, giving her a bottle of water from the pocket. "There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

"Oh, God." Finally, he realised.

"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gasmask."

Rose didn't understand. "And they brought him back to life? They can do that?"

"What's life? Life's easy." I told her, starting to pace back and forth in the mud. "A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"

And then the patients started getting closer and closer. "I didn't know." Jack told me, but he should have. Jace could see it, there were nanogenes everywhere, they were connecting everything.

"It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?"

I nodded, still working on the ship. "The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."

"But the gas mask people aren't troops." Jace said, shaking her head and blowing her nose again.

"They are now, Jacey." I sighed, trying to get this thing to do what I wanted. "This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."

And then it clicked for Rose. "That's why the child's so strong. Why it could do that phoning thing."

I agreed, looking at all the patients, waiting for us outside the barbed wire. "It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them."

"Why don't they attack?" Jack asked, looking confused.

"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander."

"The child?"

"Jamie."

We all looked at Nancy. "What?"

"Not the child." She said again. "Jamie." Huh, she was very protective over that. Over a name that her mother or father must have chosen.

Rose got us back onto the main subject. "So how long until the bomb falls?"

"Any second."

Jace shook her head. "What's the matter, Captain? A bit close to the volcano for you?" And then a succession of sneezes.

Nancy was close to crying. "He's just a little boy."

"I know."

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."

God, her little brother. "I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can." And at times I wished I could tear my world apart for my Jace.

"It's my fault." What? "It is. It's all my fault."

I looked at her hard. How can it be your" And then I worked it out. Mummy. "Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty one? Older than you look, yes?"

"Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds."

Rose turned to look at him. "You can teleport us out."

He shook his head. "Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols. I could get one out, and that's Jace, the computer would recognise her again."

"So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do." I looked at Jace, and knew she couldn't run, she was sick. "Take her, get her to safety." And then they were gone. "How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway. He's not your brother, is he? A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied. You even lied to him." Jamie was there then, her little boy who she loved with all her heart. Asking for his mummy. "He's going to keep asking, Nancy. He's never going to stop. Tell him. Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him."

They both walked towards each other, and Jamie just looked at her. "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"

"Yes. Yes, I am your mummy." She told him, but he just kept repeating it. "I'm here. I'm here."

"He doesn't understand." I realised. "There's not enough of him left."

"I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry." She then knelt down and hugged Jamie, her little boy and cloud of the nanogenes surrounded them.

Rose came to the wrong conclusion. "What's happening? Doctor, it's changing her, we should-"

"Shush!" I told her, praying that this would work, that everyone would live. "Come on, please. Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out." And then it started working. "See? Recognising the same DNA."

Jamie then let go of his mother, and then she fell back and I ran forward, hoping that it worked. "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." I took of the gas mask, and started laughing, picking the little boy up and cuddling him. "Ha-ha! Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music - you're going to love it."

"What happened?" Nancy asked, looking at her little boy as I put him down, holding him close.

"The nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA." I grinned, patting his head. "They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha-ha! Mother knows best!"

She hugged him close again, stroking his silky blonde hair. "Oh, Jamie."

"Doctor, that bomb."

I grinned at Rose. "Taken care of it."

"How?"

"Psychology." The bomb hurtled towards them, but just as it was about to hit, Jack's ship caught it, and he teleported onto it, Jace behind him, looking a lot better. "Jacey! Good lad! Thanks for healing her, you alright, love?"

Jace nodded, her bright blue eyes awake again, the glasses on her curls. "The bomb's already commenced detonation. Jack's put it in stasis but it won't last long." And then she easily jumped down, stumbled, and hugged me. "Your jacket is very warm."

Smiling, I kissed her hair, and then looked back at Jack. "Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?" He said goodbye, and then I summoned up more nanogenes, getting a questioning look from my Jace. "Software patch. Going to email the upgrade. You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves." Then I threw the nanogenes to the other patients, and they all fell to the ground. "Everybody lives, my Jacey Jay, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!"

Everyone stood back up again, and we ran over. "Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn't want to get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit. These are your patients. All better now."

"Yes, yes, so it seems." The man was a little confused, not that you could blame him. "They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"

Jace giggled a little. "Well, you know, cutbacks. Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably going to find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay?" Then we went back over and Jace hugged Nancy. They'd be good friends. "Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state! Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"

The two girls folded their arms at me. "Usually the first in line."

Then we went back to the TARDIs, and I smiled, until I saw the cat curled up asleep on the jump seat. "Jace!"

She had the decency to look sheepish. "Her name's Rain. Look at her, she was hungry out on the street, Doctor." Jace picked her up and the cat meowed softly, nuzzling her face and starting to purr. I looked at the console and saw a collar with Rain written on it and then on the screen there was an image of Jace's bathroom with a litter tray. And there were cat treats. "Well, the TARDIS says yes."

"Please, please, please, Doctor..." She pleaded, and the cat jumped out of her arms, padding over to me and nuzzling my ankles, so I picked her up.

"Rain, huh?" I sighed, stroking her little black and white head. "Well, welcome to the family, then Rain." Jace grinned and hugged me again, and then I started explaining what was going on next. "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic! And we have a cat."

"Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas." Rose grinned, stroking the cat herself next. Hadn't had a cat since I was little, as a little boy on Gallifrey.

Oh, this was far too tempting. "Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?" She stared. "And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this."

"Doctor."

I looked at my little girl, who was looking a little lost, even though she'd gotten to keep Rain. "Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire."

"What about Jack? Why'd he say goodbye?"

Ah, that reminded me.

I started some music, well, Jace started playing some music, and then I got us to link to Jack's ship, and waited for him to notice. Jace was very good at music. "Well, hurry up then!" She shouted, the cat jumping. I loved a cats reaction to anything, it was like letting a kid loose in a car. They didn't know what they were doing.

He ran in and I was trying to dance with Rose. "Okay. And right and turn. Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson." Oh, this was not going well.

"I'm sure I used to know this stuff." I sighed, turning to look at the other new tenant in my home. "Close the door, will you? Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draught." He did as he was told. "Welcome to the TARDIS. I'll say the same to you as I did Adam, food chain is me, Jace, Rose, Rain the new moggie, and then you. You're a little higher up than him."

Jack gave a wry smile. "Much bigger on the inside."

Oh, I was going to regret this. "You'd better be."

"I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in." Rose smiled, walking down to him.

"Rose! I've just remembered!" She looked back at me as Jace swapped to a different song, a lot more upbeat. "I can dance! I can dance!"

She looked a little sheepish as Rain padded onto the console, falling asleep on the heat vent. Of course. "Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance."

"I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?" I grabbed her and started dancing. Oh, I could do this.

Be a dad, save all of time and space and still feed the cat?

Easy.