A/N: This was supposed to be a short chapter ... it was ... something short to let me get some other stuff done.

Didn't quite turn out that way, did it?

Anyhoo ... this ends the Gallifreyan Romp. I'm dying dying dying to get back to John, and the next chapter takes us there ... yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

Oh. Not incredibly up on Eight ... can only find youtube clips of him and XBMC let me down. So I'm pretty much basing his character on small snippets and based on his promo pics. If I screwed up his characterization .. I'm sorry. So sorry... so very sorry.

Oh ... smut. Let me quickly touch on that. I've been receiving requests for some smut in this. Now, I can't say I don't have my smutty ideas, and definitely have a few with this story in mind, but I'm not going to insert them in this particular tale. I want to keep this one on the more family friendly scale. I really want to stay in the current flow and just write each chapter without interrupting it for some bed time fun and games. Perhaps when this fic is done I will do a sidebar post or two with some scenes in it, but not right now.

I hope that means you'll stick with me ... :)

~~oooOOOooo~~

One thing long missing from the life of young Gallifrey Tyler – besides his father, of course – was the sound of excited children playing around him. The high pitched squeal and melodic giggling of youngsters at play and the rustle of grasses at their feet synchronised by the happy cheers and playful challenges issued between friends were sounds he can't ever recall actually being a part of.

Oh, but how he had longed for it.

Running from place to place and simply not being able to connect appropriately with children his own age didn't allow him the gift of laughter and friendship of a young friend. At the tender age of eight, he should've at least had one or two emergency rooms trips or scraped knees as a result of innocent childhood misadventures.

But he hadn't…

Not that he wanted to get hurt, mind, but it was a human rite of passage, and while he may have been a dual-hearted child of a Gallifreyan man, he was born on Earth to a Human mother. He wanted that rite of passage, dammit.

…And the more he heard it. The more he so desperately wanted it.

It was hard, therefore, to listen to the excited squeals and hollers of the children racing through the grasses that edged the majestic Cadonwood forest behind him. He fought against every instinct to spin on his heel, race in and join them. The battle was harder fought as an elated peel of childish laughter rolled along the red grasses and seemed to wind its way up his legs to hit him in the belly.

He sniffed a wet sniff and wiped clumsily at his eye as he felt a tear finally leak out of his lashes.

"Is everything okay, Gallifrey," Romana asked gently as she handed across a delicate white piece of embroidered cloth that he assumed was a handkerchief.

"Yeah," he huffed lightly. "Just…" Another light huff. "Mum and dad, you know. Finally together and happy."

"And this upsets you?"

He frowned and looked up into her curious face. "No. Why would it? This is what I've wanted since I was capable of coherent thought."

"I see," she whispered quietly. "Then why are you crying?"

He shrugged. "Because I'm happy?"

"One doesn't cry when they're happy, young Gallifrey." She took the handkerchief from him fingers and lightly dabbed at the corner of his eye. "Are you perhaps upset because you cannot be included in this part of the ceremony?"

The centre of his brow knit together tightly for a moment as he analysed her words. A crease in his eyes appeared quickly, as did a rather disgusted look. "What? No! I'm already naturally bonded to the two of them, thankyouverymuch. I certainly don't need to be a part of.." He flicked his hand toward his parents. "That bond. That's just eww." He motioned a retch.

"I don't see what it so eww – as you so eloguently put it – about it, Gallifrey. It's a beautiful and spiritual thing for them to share."

"That typically involves activities and behaviours that I don't wanna know about, but that could result in me ending up with a sister." He shrugged. "Or a brother, but I reckon a sister's the first one up, if mum's timelines are accurate."

"Timelines – if read correctly - typically are quite accurate," Romana stated with a smile. "If your mother takes the past destined for the procurement of another child, of course."

"They're all pretty much leading there," he countered with a smirk. "The timing of it, however, well, that's the part that's in flux right now. Could be nine months from now – could be five years." He gave another shrug. "Depends on how frisky dad gets, I suppose, or if he thinks mum should wait for my older dad to come back to his Time Lord senses. I dunno."

Romana chuckled. "Having some difficulty in deciphering your father's timelines?"

"You have no idea…" He lifted his hands to flick his fingers around his head. "So much to look at up there. It's all wild and jumbly just like his hair."

To his left, Leela chuckled.

Romana maintained her neutral façade. "Is that why you're upset, then, young Gallifrey? Because you may have to share your mother with another child as a result of her union with your father?"

"Hardly," Gallifrey shot back with a snort. "That possibility couldn't come fast enough if you ask me."

"Then why the tears, young Lord. I am perplexed as to why you are so upset."

"Because he yearns to play with other children," Leela cut in with a roll in her eyes. "He wants to make himself some friends."

Romana's eyes widened and immediately shifted toward the edge of the forest, where a small group of youngsters were engaged in a child's game. "Is this true, Gallifrey?"

He didn't look at the other kids, but he heard the peels of laughter a victorious cheer as one child tagged another. "No point, is there? We're only here until mum and dad have finished then we're heading back to Earth, aren't we?"

Leela smirked a rather dangerous smile. Her voice lowered appropriately for that expression. "Not if I have anything to say about it, you won't." She fingered a little at the holster at her hip that contained her beloved knife and offered the young boy a wink. "I'm not opposed to offering a threat to his masculinity in the name of letting a child be a child and having some fun."

Gallifrey grinned widely and pointed playfully at her. "Oh, I think I like you." He then slouched and sighed dramatically. "But my dad, my other dad, well. We have to go back and keep an eye on him. You know. Just in case he does something stupid like channel my mum and get all jeopardy friendly."

"Which, knowing your father," Leela began.

"Is more than a likely scenario," Romana finished.

"And therein lies my problem, doesn't it," Gallifrey muttered with a dramatic shrug of his shoulders. "I got a mum and dad who seem to have trouble as their stalker…."

"Oh you say that like you've never encountered any problems yourself, young Lord," Romana shot back with a growl and a flick of her long blonde hair. "You can't tell me that you're not as jeopardy friendly as the two of them put together. Why, the fact that both of them contributed to your genetic matrix, and that trouble seems to be the dominant force in your father's TNA means that you a genetically predisposed to being a magnet to trouble."

"Nah. I missed that bullet, thankyouverymuch." He sniffed and straightened himself in his stand. "I'm not any trouble at all. Never have been."

Romana gave a slight retort that Gallifrey managed to quite effectively ignore as he caught sight of a stranger confidently striding across the grasses toward them. He angled his head to one side and frowned a light grimace of focus on the man's eyes and smile.

Leela had taken note of the stranger as well, and let out a small sound of appreciation at his classic style and handsome features. "Romana. By the Gods, who is that? He is very handsome."

"Someone that you shouldn't be admiring," Romana shot back quickly. "You are married to a Time Lord, and while you might not be so willing to dress like one, perhaps you will act as one."

"I'm married," Leela repeated as the handsome stranger approached. "Not dead." She looked then to Romana. "And what is wrong with my manner of dressing? It is highly functional and easy to move in, unlike the constricting binds of your expensive Gallifreyan fabrics."

Gallifrey smirked as he looked Leela up and down. "I like your style, Leela. It's all dangerous Amazon Princess."

"Warrior princess of the Sevateem Tribe," Leela corrected with a smile.

All smiles faltered slightly as the stranger strode by them and tenderly placed his hand atop Gallifrey's head. He said nothing as he lifted his hand again and continued on toward the bonding circle.

Gallifrey gasped a small breath. "Dad?"

Leela's expression darkened as the stranger moved in behind Rose and pulled her knife. "Fear not, Gallifrey, I'll protect your parents from this… From this strange man who interrupts their wedding…"

Gallifrey put his hand over her wrist. "No. It's okay, Leela," he peeped. "That's… I think that's dad. Well. Another version of him anyway."

Romana watched warily as the man moved In behind Rose and tenderly slid his arms around Rose's waist. His eyes closed as he slowly drew her into his chest to hold her tightly against his chest. He exhaled a long breath as his posture dropped so that he could lay his cheek against her shoulder.

Romana's concern shifted slightly. "Yes. I believe he's the Doctor alright."

"How so," Leela asked with her suspicious glare locked on the strange man.

"Because only one man would have arrogance enough to do that." She let out a long breath and shook her head. "What have you done, Doctor, to end up here out of your time?"

Gallifrey leaned a little toward Romana. "I thought you couldn't do that?"

"You can't," she answered back simply. "It's impossible."

Gallifrey shrugged. "Guess not, then, yeah?" He grinned and tipped from side to side in a proud little shoulder dance. "My Dad. He eats impossible for lunch, you know that. He's just that awesome." He looked to Romana with a cheeky glint in his eye. "And seeing that you have already touched on the whole genetic matrix and the transference of dominant genetic markers, Romana. Let me point out that my Dad's dominant feature is his absolute brilliance. This means that I, too, am genetically predisposed to being brilliant." His toothy little grin widened. "Like father like son. You get that, yeah? They say that here on Gallifrey…" He yipped as Romana flicked her fingernail against the very tip of the shell of his ear. "What? What was that for?"

"Fifty-one percent," she answered simply with a smile and a fold of her arms across her chest.

Gallifrey held at his ear and looked up at her through a wince. "What's that mean? What's Fifty-one percent got to go with anything? You looking at being a rapper or something and that's your name?"

"Your brilliant father only just graduated the academy with a fifty one percent test score – fifty-one! - and that was after his third attempt." She slid a sly-fox look down at him over her shoulder. "I, on the other hand, finished with honours. Now, that makes me smarter than your dad, and if we work on your theory that your intelligence was passed to you by your father, then that makes me smarter than you, now, doesn't it?"

Gallifrey's face fell into an expression of a child on the border of a brooding tantrum. "He did not pass by a only a single percent."

"I can get you the test scores if you like," she teased.

"Romana, really" the newest Doctor sang with a chuckle in his voice as he released his hold on Rose and strode toward the small grouping. "Are you truly seeking dominance over a youngster in such a manner?"

"Sometimes," she breezed back on a sigh. "This precocious youngster needs to be brought down a level or two in such a manner."

"You're never going to let me forget that your time at the Academy was so much more fruitful than mine, are you?"

She smiled widely. "Not for an instant."

"You seem to have forgotten our many conversations where I made it quite clear to you that my low scores at the academy were a choice rather than an honest representation of my ability," he defended lightly.

"Excuses," she sighed.

His lazy grin widened and a sparkle seemed to ignite in his eye. "Oh, Romana. I have missed you."

She offered him the slightest of bows – more a tip o her head than anything. "I haven't yet had the circumstance to miss you, Doctor." She smiled. "But I imagine I must at least a little in your current time. You are number…?"

"Eight," he answered with a dramatic dip at his waist. He then straightened and waggled his brows slightly. "So, what do you think?"

"What do I think of what?" She answered suspiciously.

"The new me," he answered. He opened his arms and then turned in place a full rotation. "I think I like it."

"Yes," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "You do have a rather lovely body this time around." Her smile faltered. "What I mean to say is. That. Now, that isn't to say that I've taken any more than a simple cursory glance of your current form, which I undertook only for identification and the safety of my young companion here."

The Doctor couldn't help but beam a wide smile as he looked to his son. "It took me centuries to do it, my boy, but I think I may have finally been able to bluster our unflappable Romanadvoratreludar." He looked back to Romana. "Imagine that. My wedding and a victory. How could a Time Lord want for more?"

Leela's voice was quiet as she spoke his name in an attempt to insert herself into the conversation. "Hello Doctor. It's been a while."

The Doctor quickly lifted a hand and cupped her cheek gently with it. "Leela. My lovely Leela. It's always a pleasure to see you again." He let out a breath and tipped his head in a tilt of pure adoration. "If I've never said it before, then forgive me and let me say it now. I am so proud of you. So very proud of who you become."

She clutched his wrist in her hands and nestled into his palm for a short moment. "I have missed you, Doctor. But I am happy. Happy here on Gallifrey."

"I know you are," he breathed gently. His gentle look then became more thrilled. "And speaking of … Gallifrey!" He turned on his hell and skipped a step to stand before the young boy. He cupped his hands around his head and dropped a loud kiss atop his head. "Oh, my boy."

Gallifrey squirmed a little. "Dad. Please."

"Oh how you've shrunk," the Doctor continued with a clap of his hands. "And you've unaged so much. Why the last time I saw you…" He folded his arms across his chest and rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. "Well. The last time I saw you, you were about this big." He held his hand high in the air. "With floppy hair, a penchant for bowties, your own TARDIS and a woman travelling about all of time and space claiming that you were her husband."

Gallifrey's eyes widened at that. "I get married? To a girl?"

"That is the usual partnership," he responded. "Time Lord meets Lady, they fall in love, they marry." His brows rose in unison. "Or Lord meets Lord and the same could happen. Never anything wrong with that – not these days anyway." He shrugged. "Not that it matters, really. And as for the actual legitimacy of the marriage, that's still in question. You admit it when it suits you, deny it when it doesn't. River certainly doesn't deny it at any rate."

"And perhaps that where you should stop telling your son about his future," Romana warned with a frown. "Let him discover his wife on his own."

"Again," the Doctor stated with a point of his finger upward. "I am still verifying that information at the request of my beloved wife. It could be all strictly an unrequited infatuation that Gallifrey admits to here and there when she's being particularly psychotic and he wants to make her happy so the universe isn't destroyed." He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back onto his heels. "Not really out of the realm of possibility. It has happened before."

"Nice to see that your arrogance is still nicely in place in this incarnation," Romana pointed out with a smile. "A constant across them all I'd suggest."

"Absolutely-positively," he chuckled in response.

"So why are you here," Romana cut without further preamble. "And how are you here?"

"Both are very good questions," he answered immediately.

Romana waited for him to continue and maybe answer the questions. When he said nothing further, she prodded him by clearing her throat against her fist.

"Coming down with a cold, perhaps, Romana," he queried with concern. "Perhaps you should see a Doctor? And I'm not talking about me when I suggest that. Although I am rather well versed on the biology of the Gallifreyan people and their virology, I'd honestly prefer that you sought the opinion of an actual qualified Gallifreyan Medical specialist when it comes to your health and preventative measures."

"And the gob does runneth over," Braxiatel muttered dryly with as he wiped his hands together and then on his robe. "In this incarnation and the next. Hello Thete, what temporal disaster did you manage to create in order to break the Kasterborean Time Lock?"

The Doctor spun on his heel and faced his brother with a wide grin. "I think the temporal disaster may be that I got married at all," he answered with amused flippancy. "Don't you think?"

"It will be if your wife hears you say that," he countered. He then looked up to Romana. "Now, if you will be a gentleman Time Lord and answer Romana's question, we can send you on your way and I can send your fourth self along on his."

The Doctor's expression fell to a light frown. "Not that I'm claiming to be any form of gentleman, Brax, but I did answer her question."

"No you didn't," Romana cut in quickly.

"Indeed I did," he defended. "I let you know that I found both to be quite good questions."

"That isn't answering my question."

The Doctor nodded. "It is when I don't know the answers myself."

Romana looked concerned. "Is your TARDIS navigation malfunctioning, Doctor?"

He chuckled. "not that it isn't a constant problem with my beautiful ship, but no. I very deliberately set these specific coordinates so that I would land on this date at this time."

"But why," Braxiatel queried impatiently.

"I don't know," The Doctor responded.

"How can you not know?"

"I'm not sure," he answered with a disgusted look. "And you have no idea just how unusual that is for me to say. It's not often that I don't know something. So rare, even, that I'm surprised I know how to pronounce the sentence properly." His jaw opened and rolled as though he was silently running the words through his mouth to try them on for size.

"How can you tell me that you don't know why you deliberately attempted to break the Kasterborean Time Lock – a felony on Gallifrey, mind – to travel back along your own time line – also a felony - and walk in on your own wedding," Braxiatel snapped angrily. "You are a lot of things, Thete, batshit crazy is definitely one of them, and you have embarked upon some reckless and ridiculous endeavours. But you have never been so deliberately reckless as to make yourself a criminal and then flaunt it by showing your face where it absolutely should not be seen."

The Doctor took a moment to glare at his brother with a steeled gave of fury. As quickly as that fury has flared, however, it disappeared into confusion. The Doctor grunted as he fisted and pulled as his hair and began to walk in a tight circle in front of Braxiatel. "I don't know. Don't know. Don't know," he growled. "It's this regeneration. Something went wrong. Nothing's right. I can't remember…" He punched both hands against his head once, twice, three times. "It's there, the memories are in there, but I can't get at them."

"You okay, Dad," Gallifrey asked cautiously. "Can I help, maybe?"

"Wish you could, Son," he answered on a light huff. "I know that the answer's there. It's like when you have the answer, you know it, you absolutely know it. It's on the tip of your tongue…" He paused and poked out his tongue, crossing his eyes in an attempt to look at its very tip. He slumped lightly, but kept his tongue poking out into the Gallifrey evening as he dug into the waist pocket of his vest and pulled out the fob watch from within. He popped it open and twisted and turned it to look for the shiniest surface and found it on the back of the watch. A quick rub against his sleeve, and one narrowed eye, and the Doctor checked out his tongue in the reflection from the watch.

Finally, he snapped back in his tongue, sighed hard, and shook his head. "Nope. That didn't help."

"Unless you're intending on making a case for insanity," Braxiatel said with a grunt. He folded his arms across his chest and analysed his brother's worried expression. After a moment he relaxed a little. "You've only recently regenerated?"

"A couple of days," he answered softly. He rolled his neck. "Still getting out the kinks."

"What happened?"

"Shot," he answered indignantly. "And then operated on by a surgeon who was not in any way equipped to offer medical intervention to a Gallifreyan."

"On Earth, I take it."

The Doctor looked away and nodded slowly. "I had to get off Gallifrey. Bad visit. I had to go somewhere that felt more like home." He sighed. "I was looking for my Tenth self to see if he would let me spend some time with Rose and Gal, and the nav-com when down." He winced and fisted the air beside his hip. "I just wanted to see her. I needed her and my son. I wanted my family."

"What happened, Thete? What happened to put you in that place."

The Doctor snorted. "Lungbarrow, Arkhew, Quences, Satthralope, the whole bloody lot of them." He flicked a hand at him. "Done with the lot of them."

"Why would you return there, Thete," Braxiatel asked with a confused frown. "Visits to that place never end well."

"Don't I know it?" He scratched at his head with one hand in annoyance. "Bloody TARDIS flew me in there, didn't she?" He sighed hard. "And anyway. So nav com failure, ended up in some alley way on Earth, got hit by gun fire, operated on by a non-Gallifreyan surgeon, die…" He put his hand on his son's shoulder when he heard Gallirey's horrified gasp. "Regenerated," he enunciated slowly for his child's benefit. "Woke up on a slab in the city morgue." His eyes shifted back to Braxiatel. "Somewhere along that wonderful list of issues that added up to a very bad day for the Doctor, the regeneration switch was activated, and there was a glitch."

"A glitch?"

"For lack of a better term."

"Or you're simply too lazy to think of one."

"I've just outlined to you the last few days of the ending and beginning of regenerations, Brax. Cut me some slack."

A tiny voice shuddered into the conversation so quietly that it was barely heard. "You. You were alone, Dad? You had no one there when you regenerated?"

The Doctor looked to his child and shook his head slowly. "No, Gal. I did this one on my own."

Gallifrey's bottom lip suddenly protruded its entire possible length at that news. With a quiver in his chin he launched forward and threw his arms around his father's waist. "That's not right. Not right at all." He looked up with huge brown eyes filled with tears. "Give me the coords, dad. I'll get a TARDIS and I'll make her take me there so you aren't alone. I will. You just watch me." He sniffed. "And mum'll come too. We'll both take you through it."

The Doctor dropped his hand to stroke at Gallifrey's little head. "It's over now. I'm okay."

"Except you're having memory issues," Braxiatel muttered. "Which means you are very far away from okay."

"I'll be fine in a day or two," he huffed in response. He then paused and a sly smile crept along his mouth. He clicked open his fob and had a look at the time. "Or maybe in a few seconds…"

"What do you…?" Braxiatel caught the sound of twin gasps from the bonding couple. It was a sound indicting that they'd released their connection and were now back to reality. "Oh. Yes. Indeed."

The Doctor held out his arms expectantly as Rose turned inside of his Fourth self's arms and noticed him standing beside Gallifrey. His face wore the defeated expression of a young boy hurt and miserable in the hope that Rose would come to him.

With urging from her new husband, Rose did just that. Initially she looked somewhat confused to be guided toward another man, but it quickly dissipated when she saw the state of him. She pulled him to her with a tender call of his name.

"Rose," he panted lightly as his look softened to a gesture of analysis as he let his eyes scan every inch of her face as though committing it to memory. "I've missed you."

Rose dragged her thumb down along his lips and then moved in to press her mouth tenderly to his in what she had intended to be a small, chaste, and loving kiss.

The Doctor, however, had other designs on that kiss. Immediately his arms snapped around her waist and his head angled deeply to increase the depth of the kiss with penetration as deep as he could possibly muster. He kissed her with a slow and languid roll of his jaw and a rise and fall in his head. He wanted depth in that connection, and she let him have every single additional millimetre that he wanted.

When they finally separated, the Doctor held her a fraction tighter and pressed his forehead against hers. His deepened breath panted lightly against her lips.

"This is torturing him, you know that, yeah?" His eyes flicked over her shoulder at the Doctor standing behind him. "It's his wedding day, and I'm the one kissing his bride…"

Rose smacked at his shoulder and pushed her chest off him. "It doesn't matter which incarnation you're in, you have to be a right little shit, don't you?"

"A right little shit who loves you very, very much, Rose."

She tilted her head at him and watched a moment as she held at her hair to stop it whipping against her face in the slowly rising evening winds. "Are you okay, Doctor?"

"I am now," he answered with a smile.

"What's wrong," she pressed with her very best concerned mum voice. "You don't look like yourself."

"That's because I regenerated." He smiled and twirled in place a little. "Like the new me?"

"I like the all of you," Rose commented quickly. "You're all handsome."

He snorted. "Oh, wait until you meet two and six and seven – although seven wasn't too bad, just a touch incarnation in general."

She touched at his face and coaxed him to look at her. "Doctor. Tell me. You okay?"

"Yeah," he breathed longingly. He smiled at her and once again traced her face with his eyes. He lingered a moment on her delicious mouth, then on the tip of her nose, the apples of her cheeks, and then her perfectly shaped eyes that constantly stroked his dreams and fantasy. With a sigh he let his eyes shift up to the golden band stretched across her forehead and the careful etchings made by each of his incarnations with a single word message from them to her. He was only able to decipher those words carved into the precious metal by himself and his former incarnations, and so he read each word in order and let their meanings remind him of every one of his encounters with her as he moved from incarnation to incarnation.

His eyes reached the last of the circular texts and he locked on tight.

"Remember"

Remember. Well. Yes. Very appropriate in this incarnation with his inability to remember anything except Rose and Gallifrey, and how very much they meant to him. He would never forget, and neither would she … his brilliant girl who would soon return to Earth to be reunited with his Tenth…

He gasped.

REMEMBER.

Yes. Oh. Yes. That's right! That's why he had to come here! It wasn't just so that he could help Rose get through their ceremony in one piece, or that he could kiss her with all the desperation he'd ever felt – oh no, those were just the absolute silver lining of this travel cloud.

He was here for a reason, and he was going to follow it through.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor looked to his new wife with manic eyes and an equally manic grin. "My Rose Tyler," he sang proudly. "You always know just what to say, don't you?"

"But I didn't say anything."

He held her head in his hands and have her a rough kiss on the mouth. He released her with a loud mwaaah sound and pointed to his fourth self. "Here," he said as he circled a spot under his ear. "Complete weak spot for her. Go for the jugular, Doctor, and she's going to be all yours. All the time and every time."

Rose gasped and reddened immediately. "Doctor!"

He winked and scruffed at Gallifrey's head. "Love you, Gal. Be good. Be careful around women named River." He snatched Leela's hand tightly in his. "My apologies to you all. But I must run. Things to do, plans to make, parties to plan and hearts to break – or something like that, anyway." He looked at Andred and held up Leela's hand. "I need to borrow your wife a moment. Do be a good sport, old chum, and don't follow." He blew a kiss to Rose and threw a wink and a thumbs up to Gallifrey, and then jogged away in a manner that was almost a skip and a hop."

Rose looked utterly confused as her new husband stepped up beside her and slid his arm around her waist. "Doctor, was that any one of the incarnations you recognise of yourself?"

"No," he answered quietly. "Must be a later incarnation."

"Then you can't tell me what that was all about then?"

"Rose," he said with a sigh and a chuckle. "I have no idea."