A/N: Ahhh … The last two chapters didn't go down so well, did they? :chuckle:
It's all good. I'm still happy to have gotten it out and over and done with.
Thanks for making it this far, BTW, and I hope that you continue on my journey. To all of you who have taken the time to offer their reviews: Thank you! I appreciate it muchly. It truly does keep you at it!
This is nothing but some real truly pointless fluff. The angst in the last couple of chapters kind of drained me, so I had to write something stupid airy and fun to get up outta my funk. This is the result. OOC in places, yep. I admit it.
This is not wholly essential to the rest of the story, really. The only way it moves anything forward is to put my players in the same place so that I can move onward and upward.
But I hope you enjoy anyway. They'll all slide back into proper form next chapter when things get a little more back on track.
Welcome to Kasterborous…
~~oooOOOooo~~
Soft warm winds whistled across an unkempt field of grass and weaved a spiraling path through a stand of old growth trees. The trees, obviously not native to the area, stood tall, with winding rich brown trunks and glimmering leaves of silver. Each carefully planted tree bowed a lean over a dusty and long disused path. The bow of the trees was such, that if one was to rise up onto their toes, they could easily reach up and pluck a spring flower or a touch at a summer leaf. The disused path borders were alive with broad, red, wild flowers, and encircled around a proud and aged house that stood tall overlooking a crystalline blue lake.
A postcard would not do this home justice. The entry way was a wide staircase that rose almost immediately from the front gate and led up to a massive wooden deck surrounded by a three-foot high wrap of railing with intricately designed panels that spoke of tales and stories in time.
The cut in the panels channeled the light winds from the lake into a glorious symphony of whistles that sang a hauntingly beautiful song. Usually that song was sung in uninterrupted melody listened to only by the birds and woodland creatures burrowing in the gardens below. Today, however, the song was interrupted by the shifting whining inhale and exhale of a materializing TARDIS machine.
There was a cry of birds, and the sudden din of a flock bursting from the trees, as the rich blue Police Box materialized in the garden to the left of the entrance staircase to the home. There was a creak of a door in desperate need of oiling, and a pale and slightly gaunt young face popped out to look around. His shoulder emerged slowly, and then his hip and body, and he ran his hand over his floppy bangs as he frowned and shook his head.
"Well. This is unexpected," he breathed as he jumped to one side to allow the bullet that was his red-headed companion to shoot by him.
"Oh wow. This place is gorgeous!" Amy spun in place at the foot of the staircase and inhaled a deep breath. "Where are we this time?" She suddenly set a frown on her face and gave him a playful cut-eyed look. "And what is the catch here? Swamp monsters? Alien blood suckers? Giant wasps that eat humans for lunch?"
He looked mildly put out by that. "I believe that the only catch we may face here, Amy, is the appearance of that brother of mine." He smiled as he let his eyes trace a homestead he had not visited since before he'd left Gallifrey seven hundred years ago. "I don't know why he brought us here, but I'm not particularly affronted by it."
Amy grinned and held up a finger. "Okay. So. Number one. I finally get to meet this brother of yours? And, oh, do you think Rose will be with him, because I could seriously do with some one on one girl time. And two, where are we?"
"You don't get that," he swirled his hand in the air. "Girl thing with River Song? I would think so seeing that she's a girl."
"I see her only once in a while, and there is nothing girlie girl about her." She pulled her hair over her shoulder to try and stop it blowing in her face. "She's all. Well. The female version of you – which is a terrifying thought to be honest."
The doctor let one brow lift and brought his hands together in front of him. "I'm trying my best not to be offended by that."
She nudged him with her shoulder. "You're adorable you big ole raggedy man." She grinned up into his smile. "So. Answer me the questions two."
His eyes raised in recollection and then he looked back down with a nod. "Of course. One. Yes. You will meet my brother, although I am not quite sure how he will have managed to make that happen." He thought for a second. "Although he is the Doctor, well, me, and – if I do say so – we are rather brilliant, so of course he found a way. And two. This is the summer home of my parents."
Her eyes widened in thrill. "So. We're on Gallifrey? You actually brought me to Gallifrey?"
"No," he answered carefully. "We're on the other side of Kasterborous from where Gallifrey is, or, was."
"And I'm also going to guess that, given this place looks a little bit neglected, that your parents aren't here."
He shook his head. "No."
"Oh what a shame, because I'd really love to meet them." She turned her head to look down her shoulder at the TARDIS, and pulled her hair that had stuck to her glossed lips. "You know. I wonder if I should begin to think with suspicion that River and Rory have yet to emerge from the TARDIS."
"I wouldn't be concerned," he muttered with a chuckle and lean toward her ear. "A man doesn't wait for two thousand years for his love to then run off with another woman."
"You never know with men," she huffed. "Rory," she yelled with a deeper Scottish twill than usual. "Get out here and check this place out. If it's on the market, we're buying."
Rory stuck his head out of the TARDIS door and sniffed as he took a look around. "There's a catch, right? Monsters, Aliens?"
The Doctor shook his head. "I'm not answering that question again," he bowed to Amy. "I leave it to you, fair maiden."
"Amy is no longer a maiden, Sweetie," River Song breezed as she stepped around Rory and spread her arms in the warm sunlight. "Kasterborous. The gateway to the heavens." She tilted her head coyly toward the Doctor. "Such a romantic location."
He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Well. Yes. I suppose."
Amy giggled at his discomfort. "You really should just run with it, Doctor."
"I don't just run with anything," he suggested. He shielded his eyes with his forearm and ducked lightly underneath it as the wind kicked up and the telltale whining push and pull sound of a TARDIS engine sounded off to his right. "Saved by TARDIS," he said with a smirk.
River Song braced and snapped her hand to her gun. She held her other arm across the space in front of the Doctor and Amy in a protective measure as a tall, metal cylindrical TARDIS materialized about ten feet ahead of her. "I've got this," she said with a growl. "Stay back."
"Oh, dear. River," The Doctor breathed. "There's no need. I'm expecting this joker."
Her curls bobbed as she spun a questioning look to him. "Excuse me?"
He shrugged. "Family."
"Oh." She relaxed immediately and stood tall as she took a couple of steps back. "You have surviving family. I didn't know that."
The metal door creaked open and the Meta-Crisis version of the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS. He paid no mind to the entourage standing only feet from his machine. He seemed far more occupied in the quandary as to why his TARDIS still resembled a sewer pipe rather than the truly brilliant TARDIS machine design that he had tried to program.
He still wore his clothing from the vault at Torchwood, but had since discarded the jacket and blazer. His brown pin-striped pants were creased and still stained with blood, as was his Oxford, which was untucked and skewed slightly off centre. The only things still pristine and seemingly untouched by the events in the vault were his hair and his shoes.
As he leaned back to speak through the doorway, he raised a straight leg – one would assume for balance – and held on to the handle of the door. "Looks like the chip is still glitching," he advised. "Try to reset the binary code and … Oh, you've done it already?"
He drew himself to a stand and slouched his shoulders lightly as he thrust his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "Blimey. Why am I having so many problems working on that damn Chameleon Circuit. Non functional on two separate TARDIS machines. I'm cursed. Completely cursed." He scratched at his head. "Hmmm. Now what would Rose do," he asked with a threatening chuckle toward the ship. "Do you want me to go with the Tyler tactic, old girl?"
"She'd probably slap it or kick it into submission," the Doctor behind him chirped.
"Quite right, that," he answered as he levered a decent slap at the side of the TARDIS. He waited a moment with open arms of expectation as the exterior of the ship shuddered, flickered, and then morphed into the shape of a faded blue Police Box. He pressed an excited kiss to the door. "Yes. My beautiful ship. Look at you."
"And the Tyler slap works again," the Eleventh Doctor muttered with a chuckle.
"It's about as multi-functional as our sonic screwdriver," he answered with a smile as he turned and slapped his hand against his brother's for a firm shake of greeting. "Thanks for getting here on short notice. Didn't think I'd say this out loud, and with honesty, but it's good to see you again."
Eleven forced a smile and gave a nod. "And you." He eyed him up and down, noting with concern his disheveled and blood stained appearance. "You look like Hell."
"Yeah," he muttered with a look down to his belly and a shrug of his shoulder. "It's been a hell of a day." He beamed a grin to the trio standing behind Eleven. "Well. Hello. I'm the Doctor. And who are all of we then seeing my brother is too rude to introduce us?"
"You might want to clean yourself up before you make any introductions," Eleven warned.
"Yeah," he hummed with a shrug. "I'm gonna need to annex something from your TARDIS wardrobe. I got the two us out of there quick smart and didn't have time to stop and collect anything." He cracked at his neck. "And if you think I look like hell, wait until you see…"
"Rose," Eleven snapped with concern. "Where is she?"
Ten thumbed over his shoulder. His look was one of pure innocence. "She's inside. Having a sleep." His innocence turned to a huge grin. "She's great. Lovely. Brilliant. Just getting a charge up from the mess back at Torchwood. She should be up and about in no time."
He pointed his finger up and down the length of Ten's shirt. "None of that had better belong to her."
Amy fist pumped in front of her. "Yes. Rose's here. Estrogen, baby!" She cradled her hands behind her back and walked with a sneaky slow lean toward the TARDIS. "Can I go in?"
"Give her a bit," he warned. "She's out cold, and it's only been a half hour since we left Torchwood
"Is five minutes enough?"
"Rose Tyler isn't a girl that you wake up if she's sleeping," Eleven warned with a wince.
"Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt." Ten grinned with a light bob in his head. "But don't worry. I think she'd be thrilled to see you, too, Amy. She told me about you and her giving floppy here a hard time a couple of days ago. She's always good for another round of the same." He pointed to Eleven's hair. "You know, I can teach you a couple of tricks to get a bit of a lift in the front there."
"I was you once," he intoned blandly. "I think I know the tricks of the trade."
He set his tongue in the space between his lip and his top teeth for a moment and hen nodded. "Yet you opt for flop." He said slowly. He then shrugged. "Hey. However you want to look in your regeneration, I won't judge."
"Vanity isn't my thing this time around."
Amy had her hand up and whistled patiently for attention.
Ten grabbed her hand with a grin. "What's on your mind?"
"You said that Rose and I saw each other only a couple of days ago?"
"Yep."
She frowned. "It hasn't been a couple of days. It's been months."
"And Time plays about with our timelines again," he chipped. "And I thought our parallel ran faster than this one." He looked to River Song and gently took her hands in his. "River Song," he crooned. "We meet again. Very lovely to see you."
"We've met?" she asked with suspicion.
"Ri-i-i-ght," he said long. "I'm the earlier version of him." He dropped her hands and thumbed to Eleven. "And I'm going to stop the spoiler chat right there." He did shoot a look of curiosity to his brother. "Are you and her, you know, yet?"
Eleven mouthed a rather obvious "No."
"Oh. In time then."
Eleven leaned an elbow against the bannister of the stairs. "Introductions complete…"
"Except mine," Rory hollered. He held his hand out. "Rory. I'm Amy's husband."
"Pleasure's mine," Ten grinned. "I'm the Doctor, I guess you can call me the Tenth, seeing as Biological Meta Crisis can be a bit of a mouthful if you need to call me in a hurry." He thumbed to Eleven. "And it works now that he's not ten anymore." He looked at him. "You're eleven, right? Well, you have to be. I did the math on regenerations a while back when Rose and me were talking about how many times I'd have to kill you to actually kill you.."
"Why would you want to do that?"
"And," he continued. "With he who isn't mentioned, and the brilliant aborted regeneration that resulted in, well, me. You're it, aren't you?"
"Does it make you feel all sorts of special to remind me of my own mortality, brother?"
Ten shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, Rose and me, we're both on regeneration two right now."
"Excuse me, what?"
He pursed his lips. "Oh. Yes. Forget I said that."
Eleven rounded on his Brother. "So that," he winced with a clearing of his throat. "That blood, on you does belong to Rose?"
"Well.."
"What in Rassilon?" He snarled. "Let me guess. Shot, right? Of course I'm right. And where were you at the time?" He didn't allow him to speak before continuing. "You're supposed to protect her, Doctor, not let her get shot at and killed. Whether or not she can regenerate is not an excuse to be lax in protecting her."
"Hey," Ten spat back. "I did what I could to protect her, okay? I'm not from Krypton where the rays of Earth's golden sun makes me impervious to bullets."
"Krypton exists?" Rory asked with high brows.
"No," both Doctors snapped at him in response.
"It blew up," Ten finished darkly. He poked his finger into Eleven's chest. "I was dealing with a whole lotta Time Lord at the time. Borusa in this corner, Bad Wolf over here, Rassilon front and centre. Throw in Mother and a pushy TARDIS, and then an asshole Torchwood agent with a canon for a gun…."
"Hold on. What?" The frown was set. "What?"
"It's a long story and one I really don't want to have to rehash, okay?"
"You've got a decent gob," Eleven countered with an almost snake-like slithering bob of his head in Ten's face. "Retell the tale."
Ten huffed in annoyance. "Come here," he snapped his hands to his brother's face and let him see the incident at Torchwood. His eyes remained open to watch the varying expressions fly past his brother's eyes. Finally Eleven blinked. "Up to speed?"
"You and Rose have bonded in marriage?"
"Of all I just showed you, that's what you took from it?" He then grinned and fell into a happy slouch. "But, oh yes. We are. Slightly ahead of plan, but brilliant nonetheless."
"Well. My heartfelt congratulations to you both." He coughed into his fist. "My apologies for the accusation. It was quite clear that you took all available steps to prevent this."
"You and I know that we will both give our lives for her without a second thought, so don't question what lengths I will go to to make sure she survives, okay?" He looked pained. "You have no idea what it did to me to see her like that."
"I have a pretty fair idea."
He shook himself, clapped his hands, gave a broad grin, and abruptly changed the subject. "So? What's been going on with you lot, then?"
"Oh," Amy answered with a twirl of her hand in front of her. "Aliens. Time Travel. Bad things. Running, lots of running."
"Oh, so situation normal, then. Brilliant." He scratched at his sideburn. "So no plans for the next few days, am I right? Please say I'm right."
"Making plans is pretty pointless," Rory offered with a shrug. "Either something dangerous and alien crops up, or the Doctor over there screws up the flight plan and we end up somewhere other than the promise of where we supposed to go when he suggested that we go somewhere."
Not too surprisingly both Doctors understood that line of thought rather perfectly.
"That isn't entirely accurate," Eleven countered with a circular wave of his hand. "At least nine times out of ten I get us to where we want to go."
Ten shook his head. "It would be more accurate to suggest a six or seven to ten ratio."
"We've had the ratio fall to four on occasion," Eleven admitted to his brother with a shrug. "Not for a while, of course, but it fell into the realm of possibility at around…"
"Four! Oh yes," Ten exclaimed with an open-mouth smile. "Back when we had the whole curly hair and scarf thing happening."
"We were amazing back then, weren't we?"
"Well," Ten sang. "Things were simpler back then, weren't they? The offer of a jelly baby could make allies out of enemies." He slouched just slightly with a grin. "Oh. Jelly babies. I haven't had one of those in forever. Maybe me and Rose could make a quick skip back to London and pick up a few bags."
Rory flicked his finger in between the two Doctors. There was a crease in the middle of his brow and a slight curious purse to his lips. "So. If I get this right. You two are brothers, yeah?"
Both men answered in the affirmative.
"Who's the oldest?"
They each pointed to the other.
"You don't know who's older than the other?"
Ten looked to Eleven and then gave a shrug and stuffed is hands into his pockets. "Well that's a pretty broad stroked question, really. The answer does depend on what timeline you want to base your interpretation of age on. Then, of course, if the way you want to calculate age is on the Regeneration, timing of, and the such, well the answer can be different yet again." He looked to Eleven. "Right? Right. Of course." He rocked backward and forward along his feet. "Take me. I could be 907. I could be just over 12 months old. Regeneratively speaking, 10. Or age beyond regeneration four, five years old? Or even fourty five minutes, actually, seeing as I just went through a pretty spectacular aborted regeneration."
"Again?" Eleven asked flatly. "Vanity thy name is Doctor."
"The overflow energy left from healing birthed my TARDIS, thank you." He said with a frown to Eleven. "And just where are you in the timeline now? On Pete's world, Rose and I have just crossed the 12-month mark. Where are you at?"
"Oh," Eleven muttered with a look to the sky and a rub of his hands. "I think I'm at about two and a half years since Bad Wolf Bay."
Tens brows shot high. "That long? Really?" He frowned in understanding. "Flicking back and forth in time a lot, then?"
"I'm a Time Lord," Eleven countered with a smirk. "It's what we do."
Rory merely shook his head. "Are there ever any short and easy responses to a question asked of a time Lord?"
Eleven chuckled. "No."
"Well that was one," Ten offered smugly.
"Okay, then yes. Sometimes."
Rory thought a moment, and then flicked a look through his brows at the two men. "You're both named Doctor, then?"
"Yes," Ten said with a smirk. "Are we confusing you, yet?"
"Mildly," Rory answered. He then raised his head. "At the risk of me asking another question that will draw out a long winded explanation that doesn't actually get me any further along in understanding what on Earth is the actual answer to my question. Could you give me a cliff's notes version of how you two came to be?"
Ten shifted his eyes to Eleven. "Did you want?"
Eleven shook his head. "Go right ahead." He moved back to take a seat next to a rather amused River Song on the stairs. "I'll correct you if you mess up."
"No doubt," Ten replied. He leaned an elbow on an ornately carved stop on the end of the bannister and crossed his legs at the ankle as he fell into a comfortable lean. "Do you remember, back some time ago, a year for me, two and a half for Floppy over there, when the Daleks dropped to Earth, moved it to just beyond the Medusa Cascade?"
"The Reality Bomb thing," Rory answered with a sharp nod. "Won't forget that any time soon."
"Right," Ten continued. "So. When floppy looked as good as I do right now." He cheekily adjusted his tie. "He got himself shot by a Dalek and had to go through a regeneration on the floor of the TARDIS."
"Do note," Eleven added. "That this fool got himself shot by the Dalek because he was blindly running down a street with hearts in his eyes because Rose had come back and he didn't see the Dalek until it was too late."
"Why are you both speaking like…" Rory raised his hands and shook his head. "You know what, never mind. Forget that I asked. I'll just take you at your word that you're blood."
"We're the same man, Rory," Eleven offered up. "Long story short. In a life and death crisis moment, with the residual power left over from the aborted regeneration that had been channeled into the hand," he pointed at Ten's right hand. "It got cut off Christmas Day 2005 during a thing with a Sycorax ship…"
"A thing," Ten snapped incredulously. "Do you just refer to it as a thing?"
"Yes. Yes. We saved the planet, yay to the Doctor," Eleven muttered with a roll of his eyes. "So the hand. Regeneration power. Crisis in effect. TARDIS about to be destroyed…"
"Instantaneous Biological Meta Crisis," Ten injected with a wide and open mouthed smile as he flicked his fingers in the air in front of his body in presentation. "And that's where I came in. I grew out of you," he waved at Eleven. "With a little help from Donna – how is Donna doing by he way? She okay? Doing good?"
"Oh, fantastic. She's married, won the lottery. Doing wonderfully."
"Oh, that's good." Ten circled his finger around his head. "And this?"
Eleven shook his head sadly. "I had to completely block her memories of us. The Time Lord consciousness was killing her."
"Ahh. That's upsetting. So no visiting her, then?"
"No."
"That's a shame. I'm sure she'd love to know how we're all doing."
Three sets of eyes were widely watching the two Doctors in urging or the story to continue. Amy urged on her Doctor with a nudge at his elbow. "Well. Finish up. How we end up with him and Rose in another parallel?"
"Oh, that's an easy one," Ten answered on his behalf. "This bumbling great hypocrite decided that I was too dangerous to stay in this parallel and dropped me off as far away from somewhere normal as possible. Not just drop me off, mind, dumped me off. No shits given in his mind as to what I was actually going to do all of a sudden as a human. He just assumed Rose would pick up his slack and take care of me."
"I knew that Rose would accept you, and then love you. Rassilon, you were making out on the beach before I left. How long was it before the two of you shared a bed? An hour? A day?" Eleven stood up quickly from the stairs and approached his brother. "And just who are you calling a hypocrite?"
"You, ya daft flop-haired git," he answered back sharply. "You take it upon your high and mighty self to give Rose no choice but to go back to a parallel that she didn't even want to be in, with an apparently dangerous old time Lord/Human hybrid."
"You committed genocide," Eleven snapped. "You wiped out that entire Dalek battle fleet."
"And does the destruction of Gallifrey and all its people ring any bells for you, you hypocritical twat," He snarled. "If you want to talk about who's dangerous, Doctor, then take a damn good look at yourself, because everywhere you go, destruction always follows."
"Ouch," Amy muttered under her breath. She caught Eleven's snap at her to keep out of it, and rolled her eyes in the direction of the TARDIS, where a battle-sore, exhausted Rose Tyler leaned half in and half out of the TARDIS door, wearing the Doctor's blood stained pin striped blazer and an agonized look on her face. "Rose," she breathed as she jogged over. "Are you okay? You look like Hell."
"Make them stop, Amy," she moaned. "My head's killin' me, and the more upset he gets the worse it's getting."
Amy took a look at the wince in her eyes. "This got to do with that bonding thing the Doctor mentioned earlier? You feel what he feels kind of thing?"
"Oh, I bloody hope not," Rose answered with a shudder as she clutched at her head. "Because that I didn't sign up for when I told him I will."
"Yeah, well just in case. Oi!" Amy called across the small space between them. "You two blokes wanna knock off the yelling?" A look of fury flashed across her face as the Eleventh Doctor dismissively waved his hand at her. "Oh. He didn't just wave me off."
"He still does that, yeah?"
"Oh. Yeah." She pushed up her sleeves. "I'll go give him a proper piece of my mind and send your Doctor over here – who, I have to admit to you – is really much more dashing in person than in photos."
"When he's not covered in my blood and is dressed like a time Lord is supposed to dress, it's a better image. You just wait." She pulled out her cellphone from her back pocket and patted the blazer pockets looking to see if the sonic was in there. It was. She grinned and gave a giggle as she pressed it to her phone and activated the sonic. "Hope this works."
"Meanwhile," Amy said smoothly. "Let me go break up the new Time War."
"No need," Rose breathed huskily through a wince as the heat between brothers increased. "Got a better idea." She dialed a number and held the phone to her ear. "Great to see you again, by the way. How long's it been for you?"
"About five months." She looked her over. "Did you want me to run to the TARDIS and grab you something a little less like you're a horror movie scream girl?"
"That would be great, but wait. You won't want to miss this," she answered with a smirk. "Trust me. You'll want to capture this moment." Her smile fell as the phone picked up on the other end. "Dad! Hi. Rose. I'm good, okay, more than okay, great. Is Mother near you by chance? Thanks."
Amy watched with intrigue as Rose spoke to someone on the phone that she referred to as Mother and advised of the situation occurring ahead of them. Although quite obviously in pain with a migraine-strength headache, Rose was smiling as she listened to the woman on the other end.
"Just whose mother are you talking to," she asked with mirth. "Please tell me something I want to hear. Please please please." There was no shield over the glee in her voice.
Rose winked at Amy and politely asked the person on the phone to wait a moment. She took hold of Amy's hand and walked them toward the warring brothers. She held the phone in between them. "Gentlemen. Phone call."
Ten looked to her with annoyed apology. "Sorry. For who?"
Rose lightly shook the phone. "Either, or. Take your pick." She poked it at Ten. "You might want to go first."
"Can I call them back, I'm a bit busy right now."
She shook her head. "I really wouldn't recommend that." She smiled warmly to Eleven as Ten took the phone. "Hello again, Doctor."
He snatched her in for a hug and kissed atop her head. "Always good to see you, Rose."
Rose nestled against his side as she watched her new husband hold the phone to his ear and give a rather chirpy greeting.
"Grand morning to you, you've reached the Doctor." He paused. "Oh. Yes. Hello to you, too." His head dropped and the volume of his voice decreased to quiet mumble. "Okay. Yes. Understood. But…" Another pause. "Oh, but. He was…" Another pause. A mild whimper. "I really didn't consider that, no. I will fix that. Immediately." He slouched with a heavy backward lean. "If I must. Yes. Yes. I am in full agreement with you, of course. I am not in any way arguing with you." He palmed at his forehead and spoke though his teeth. "It is my oath to you. I will respect and… No, I am not being facetious." Another wince. "Yes. And the same to you, of course."
His hand still covered his forehead as he handed the phone across the void between the two men. "It's for you."
Eleven flicked a brow and looked down to Rose as he took the phone from his brother. "It's Jackie, isn't it?"
Rose shook her head as she pulled away from him and slid happily into Ten's waiting arms. "Worse," she sang. She looked to Amy, who was highly amused as she filmed the scene with her cellphone. "You getting this, Amy?"
"All of it," she said with a laugh as she watched her Doctor go through a very similar conversation, in very much the same defeated manner as his brother had. "This is going into the TARDIS databanks for play at random points in time as soon as I get back on board."
Eleven finally ended the call and pressed the top of the phone against his forehead as he bit down his embarrassment. He lifted only his eyes to Rose. "You called our Mother?"
She nodded with a very neutral expression. "Yes. I did."
"The question of just how you have her contact details is curious, but can wait until another date," he muttered around the clearing of his throat. "Let me state, for the record, in front of all present, that that was a low down and dirty tactic."
"But you still love me, right?"
"With that stroke of genius," Eleven said with pride and a grin. "Of course I do. Very well played."
Ten held his new wife with a tender hold against his chest and pressed his lips gently into her forehead. "I heard from a rather insistent Time Lady that you need a Doctor." He rubbed her back used the push of his nose to bring her head from his so that he could look into her tired face. "Let me do something about that headache of yours."
He lifted her chin with the crook of his finger and lightly pressed his mouth to hers. With a single roll of his jaw to part her lips below his, he languidly drank her in. Within a moment, she dissolved into his arms with a sigh and whimper. He had a rather self-satisfied smile on his face when he drew back from her. "How's that; all better?"
"Oh yes," she breathed on a sigh. "You are a gifted man."
"Not so much gifted," River Song offered as she took position next to eleven and nudged him with her hip to break him of his trance of watching the couple become tender with each other. "Don't stare, sweetie." She looked back to Rose. "Telepathic bonding can cause some temporal sensation feedback between the bonded couple in its early stages. He just needed to calm himself down to ease your pain. What better way than with a kiss?" Her smile was genuine. "It will get better for you in time. How long has it been?"
Ten's face creased as he considered the timing. "About an hour, actually."
All four persons gasped. River Song, however, was the most aghast of the group.
"An hour?" She looked back to the group with wide eyes and shook her head. "Which means the union hasn't yet been consummated, am I correct?" She made a shoo motion toward the TARDIS. "Off you go. We'll still be here when you're finished."
"Well that's a bit personal," Rose chipped. "And I don't really know you yet, so…"
"Does consummation prior to the bonding ceremony count," Ten tried with a high browed look. "Because about two hours before hand Rose and I…" He oomphed as Rose slapped him in the stomach.
"Really, Doctor?"
"Are you embarrassed to admit that you make love with me, Rose," he teased lightly. "I would certainly hope not considering it's something we engage in rather frequently."
She covered her face with her hands. "Oh. I'm not having this discussion. Not now. Not here. Not ever." She blindly walked toward the TARDIS with a whimper in her tone. "What is it with Time Lords and their lack of decorum in mixed company?"
He held a wide grin of tease as he followed behind her. "Welcome to the species," he said with a laugh as he passed through the door. He hooked his hand around the door as he peered around it to the group on the other side. "Yeah. We're going to need a couple of hours, maybe three."
"We'll be waiting, Sweetie," River Song called back. "Have fun."
"Will do," he promised. He then passed a look to Eleven. "There is a specific reason I called you out here, Brother. Please don't take off on me."
He pressed his lips together and shook his head. "It's been a while since I've taken a couple of days to relax and do nothing." He looked around. "I think I can manage some downtime here for a while. I miss this place." He tipped his head to his entourage. "And something tells me this lot would appreciate the time, too."
"You got that right," Amy purred as she put her hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "It'll be nice to just put the feet up and relax a while."
Rory whimpered behind her. "Of course, now that you've said that," he warned. "Something's gonna happen."
Ten's laugh at Rory's comment as he closed the TARDIS doors was as ominous as the storm clouds coming in over the lake. Eleven looked up to the sky. "Well. Let's go inside and I'll give you a tour of the Summer home of two very spoiled and entitled Time Lord brats."
"Nooo," Amy sang facetiously as she followed him upstairs. "Spoiled and entitled brat? You? Never."
