"Are you sure you're using the right setting?" The Doctor called as he stood at one side of the console, passing a glance at the woman across from him. He could see the smirk on her face as she tinkered with the controls and shrugged at him.
From beneath them, a light voice boomed in frustration, "You said 57b, daddy! I'm on 57b! Quite certain it's the right setting."
"She's your daughter," Clara offered quietly.
He pointed, "That sass? Oh no, that's all your daughter."
Clara laughed, calling out, "Sweetheart, try 57a – you know your father…"
"What's that supposed to…" he started, but the engines now vibrated back to full power and he stared at the screen a moment before his eyes ticked over to meet Clara's as she stifled a laugh and worked at her controls. Settling them, she shifted away from the console to greet the seven year old now climbing up the steps from the underside of the console, smug grin on her thin lips, with a small hug of appreciation, before disappearing into the Tardis, hand raised to her chest as she sighed.
"You really should par down the redundancy on the Sonic," Lily offered, raising the device to hand back to the man. "When I program my Sonic, it'll be bare necessities."
He glanced down at the girl with the shoulder length bob of chestnut hair that swayed as she peered up at him devilishly and he asked, "And what would you suggest we remove? Each one of those settings has saved my life at one point or another."
"And yet, still no wood setting," she teased.
His head toggled slightly as he pretended to be offended and then he raised a hand to her shoulder to pull her closer, listening to her giggling as she watched him steer the Tardis back up into the time vortex with a wide grin, telling her, "Started on a wood setting, or rather, a calculation once."
"Yeah?" Lily questioned, looking over the levers he swung and the knobs he bopped, predicting his movements with a small smile and reaching out to flip a switch as his hand hung over hers and he smiled down at her as she hid her smirk, amusement lighting up her bright eyes.
"Needed to break a door, figured destabilizing the molecules would work, ran the calculations through quite a few regenerations, but I never got to test it."
"Why not?" Lily asked, curious now, hands gripping the console as she waited.
"Well," he sighed, "Your mum burst in through the door – apparently it hadn't been locked."
The girl let out a squeal of laughter and he bent sideways, lifting her up to tickle her before settling her against his stomach, legs dangling behind him, hands clasped at his neck, and he sighed, looking over her face. The small round face in front of him never ceased to amaze him. So much the woman now making her way back to the console, small specks of him peppered into a grin or a flash of excitement.
"Daddy," she breathed, "You're staring again."
He shook his head and bowed slightly, lifting his eyes to catch hers to admit, "I'm sorry, you're just so wonderful; sometimes I have to remind myself that you're my daughter because the idea seems astonishing – someone so magnificent could be mine."
"Well," she smiled, "Probably has a lot to do with mum."
"Oi!" He shouted on a laugh as she giggled and ducked her head shyly.
The Doctor shifted his gaze to Clara, now slowly drifting through the entrance, body swaying slightly on each step as she hummed at the little boy in her arms. The boy who never should have been possible. The boy who wore her smile and his flop of hair and dark eyes that now stared up at his mother adoringly. The unexpected favor the universe absolutely owed Clara that they never dared to question. One arm wrapped around her shoulder; the other tucked just at her breast, hand splayed out against her skin to feel the soothing beat of her heart.
"How long until we arrive?" She asked quietly, leaning her cheek against the boy's forehead.
Letting Lily slip to the ground, he gestured up at the screen and told her, "Should be there in a flash."
"In a jiff," Lily tested, then raised a finger, "A pop – prefer pop, can we use pop?"
Clara laughed at the duo who were now giving each other identical gaping smiles and pointing at one another as the Doctor nodded, "Pop, most definitely a pop," and they both pivoted away from one another and back to the console. "Clara, you might want to hold tight to something."
With a small nod and a kiss to their son's nose, she shifted to take a seat in one of the plush chairs around the console, watching the boy raise his head slightly to look up at the top of the Tardis as it spun, golden light flashing down over the walls as they swung through the vortex and he turned back to Clara, shouting, "Daddy fixed it?"
"Technically, Gaby," Lily called, "I fixed it."
Pointing, the Doctor corrected, "I fixed it; you helped."
Clara sighed, watching them smirk at one another before she looked to the confused set of wide eyes that looked from his sister and father back to her before she tapped his chin and offered, "Don't worry, Gabe, I made sure everything was ok."
He breathed a small sigh of relief, right corner of his lips tugging into a half-grin before he finally laughed when the Tardis set down. Lily rushed towards the doors, ripping them opening and shouting, "Grandpa!"
Gabe gasped and Clara stood to take him towards the entrance where he made the same exclamation as he threw himself into the arms of the older man who laughed and carried him away, complaining, "Oh, look how big you've gotten, Gabriel!"
The boy nodded, holding up his hand to tell him, "I'll be four soon! FOUR, Gramps. Four tours around the universe and back again." He laughed mischievously and Clara glanced up at the man coming to her side because she knew that laugh and where it came from.
Nudging Clara, the Doctor waited until her hand came up around his back to drop his over her shoulder, watching the two children begin to tell Dave about their time in the Tardis as they walked towards the small house together. "You miss it all, don't you," he proposed.
She shrugged, "As much as you miss Gallifrey."
They moved into the house, the Doctor closing the door behind them and they went into the living room where Lily and Gabe were now feverishly opening presents while making surprised exclamations as Clara dropped onto the couch and shook her head.
"Dad, you can't spoil them like that," she scoffed.
He gestured at her and raised his brow, replying, "I'm their grandfather – it's practically my job to spoil them; isn't that right, Doctor?"
Eyes widening at being put between them, he inched closer to Dave and offered lightly to Clara, "It is practically in the grandfather manual."
"Says the man who gave his granddaughter the universe," Clara teased.
Dave's gaze shifted to the man awkwardly and then he shook his thoughts away, listening to Lily question what planet the Furby he'd gotten her came from before he explained, "Amazon," and listened to Clara chuckle as he flipped the pink and black furry creature on so it could begin to chirp annoyingly.
The Doctor raised his Sonic and Clara lifted a hand, shaking her head with a pout.
Gabe stood and threw on the red cape and horned helmet that came with his present, a set of plush superheroes, and he stomped towards his father, screwing up his face angrily to growl as he lifted a plastic hammer, "I am Thor! God of thunder!"
Shaking his head, the Doctor laughed, "I do love humans and their superheroes."
"Daddy," Gabe tilted his head curiously to ask, "Are you a superhero?"
Clara smiled, looking up at him as he considered the question before kneeling and poking the boy in the stomach with his Sonic like he'd done a million times, "Am I a superhero, Gabe?"
The boy inhaled deeply, bottom lip pushing tightly against his top lip as his thoughts collected and then he nodded slowly, telling him, "You save people – you and mummy. Wherever we go, even if there's trouble, we stop and we help and we make the sadness stop." Considering his own words, he suddenly looked up at Clara and declared, "We're all superheroes, even me and Lily."
The Doctor pulled the boy closer to him, swiping the hair out of his eyes and palming his cheek before admitting, "The universe is full of superheroes, Gabriel, and not all of them have capes, or fly in suits – though that would be cool," he turned to Clara, "It would be cool," he told her as she chuckled, "Superheroes are simply good people who refuse to walk away when there's a wrong to be righted."
Gabriel nodded, small smile on his lips as he replied, "It's good to know there are so many in the universe, daddy, and that we find them everywhere we go."
"Big bad universe, needs all the heroes it can get, and you know what – I think you were made to be a pretty big hero, Gabe. You came into this world on a hope and it's what you leave with everyone you encounter. They're all a little brighter for having met you," he kissed his son's forehead and then stared at the way he studied him with his mother's eyes, absorbing the words before slowly nodding in understanding.
Lifting his hammer again, he shouted, "To the Tardis!" and began running in circles around the room as Dave and Lily laughed. The Doctor stood and fell back onto the couch with Clara, pocketing his Sonic and looking to Lily. A girl who never should have existed; created in a pocket of chaos and capable of calming the most frightened soul with a simple touch. A soothing thought and a focused gaze as readily available as a witty quip or a brilliant answer to an impossible question.
"Sometimes," Clara told him quietly, "When they're asleep, tucked in their beds, I think about how badly those monsters wanted our children to be an army and I laugh." She shook her head and chuckled when Gabe tripped and took his sister down in a chorus of amused shouts as Dave turned to set himself on them. "Our children could never have been an army, Doctor." Clara glanced up at him, at the knowing smile he was giving her and a calm satisfaction that had settled itself into his eyes, "Our children would always have fought for the good in the universe – they would always have seen the possibilities for a better way."
With a nod, he leaned to kiss her, sighing and then laughing when he heard the two children who made noises of disgust, calling out to them. Slipping away with a palm to his chest, Clara shifted off the couch and caught Gabe, bringing him up into her arms to twirl through the air, cape floating up behind him, before settling him against her to listen to him quietly discuss plans for matching costumes. The Doctor watched Lily come to her side, arms wrapping around her, chiming in with a color scheme and specialized Sonics and Clara laughed, passing a glance at him seated on the couch.
Dave picked himself up and sat at the edge of the couch next to the Doctor, watching the trio sharing their secrets and he glanced back with a quick nod, "Sort of funny, ain't it."
"What's that?" The Doctor questioned.
He gestured up at Clara as she made her way to the window to point at the Tardis in the driveway, "Well, you never would have expected to get a family out of all of that darkness out there in the universe, did you, Doctor?"
"Brightest stars in the universe; how could I have missed them."
With a smile and a quick bow of his head, he shifted forward and clapped a hand quickly against Dave's knee, listening to Lily explain that their Tardis couldn't be turned into a car because the chameleon circuit was broken. He watched their son lament before Clara whispered that it was a mobile command unit for saving the world and a phone box was better camouflage than a speedy car.
"Superheroes operate in secret," she told him quietly, with a poke to his nose, passing a glance at the Doctor, who smiled in return, taking in the amused look on her face and knowing she was satisfied.
Clara was, despite everything they'd been through, absolutely happy in her life with him and their children and his hearts thudded with excited anticipation over everything they still had ahead of them. A future filled with continual hope and unexpected adventures. And the knowledge that no matter where their travels took them, they would be running together – the way it should be.