A/N: Marathoning a Fourth Doctor Arc this morning (Tom Baker was my first Doctor – loved him!) I was rather disappointed to find myself watching the Doctor being far less than brilliant and basically acting like a stroppy child throughout it all. Worse was Sarah Jane and how she and the Doctor weren't getting along at all … He seemed very annoyed by her throughout the whole arc … Need me some Doctor/Companion love to get over it!

And now my child has decided to marathon season 7 … How am I supposed to concentrate, now?

~~oooOOOooo~~

Time outs. Really? What kind of punishment is a time out for a thousand year-old Time Lord?

Well. Okay. It is quite possibly the most appropriate, really. Who is better to time out than a Time Lord.

Bloody mothers. Obviously this was another one of those rubbish things that the mothers of Gallifrey managed to pass along to the mothers of other worlds. Time Out. Really.

The Doctor who favoured tweed and bow ties stalked a pacing wander back and forth across the doorway which he supposed led into his brother's laboratory. He wrung his hands together and kept his head low as he considered his mother's advice, her warning, her instruction, and then her demand.

"Play nice with your brother, my son. Stop with this silly argument of yours and work together to achieve your mutual goal – which is to bring your father to me."

Silly argument, indeed.

There was nothing silly about wanting to ensure the continued safety of the single most important woman who had even been a part of his 11 regeneration cycles – or twelve if you counted … him … but no one was counting that regeneration.

He carded his hand through his hair and stopped his pacing to move to the doorway. He dropped his hand to push it open, and then let it fly back into his hair as he resumed pacing.

He could take Rose from this parallel. Absolutely he could. He could complete the mission assigned by his mother, bring his father to this parallel, and then leave the spike haired, pinstriped, egoistic meta crisis version of himself here in Pete's World, and take Rose back to the universe that she belonged in. She could stay in the TARDIS and travel with him. Forever. Like she promised him so long ago.

Oh yes.

The Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS. As it should be. Stuff of legends. Shiver and Shake. Husband and wife…

…Oh. Wait.

That could be tricky.

A sharp laugh from inside the lab – Rose's laugh – tore him from his pacing thoughts. A slight smile spread across his face as he let his hands pull apart and thrust one forward to push open the door. He made a show of presenting himself to the other persons in the room, his face alight with amusement.

"Hello. Did you all miss me, then?" He strode confidently into the room, although his shoulders were still slightly hunched. "Sorry I'm late. Had some things to finish up, but I'm here now."

The five occupants of the vault all looked up at him from their make-shift strategic table session over top of a bench table, and then just quickly dropped their eyes to of back to their discussion.

"Well," he muttered as he dropped his head and went right back to wringing his hands together. "One can tell when their presence isn't actually wanted." He heard one of the ladies correct that statement, but he couldn't tell which – especially when his brother's voice chirped up.

"And one will likely ignore that sense of unwelcome and stick around anyway," Ten groused. "Am I right?"

"You are," Eleven answered with a hidden smirk as he approached the table to stand beside his brother. "I've been told to get lost so many times now that I'm rather immune to the sting of it.'

"Yep," Ten chirped with a harder pop to his p than usual. "So it wouldn't hurt too much for me to say to you to sod…" He oomphed as Rose's elbow met with his midsection. "Sorry," he said with a small voice and a large wince. "Feel free to take part, my brother."

Eleven leaned slightly toward Ten. "Just to clarify. We're not anywhere close to done with this, you and me."

Ten kept his voice quiet and his eyes ahead of him. "Oh. Nowhere near close to it."

"I'll get my way. I promise you," Eleven said with a wide smile as he looked to the grouping. "So what did I miss? What are we planning here?"

River chewed on the end of a pen and grinned around it. "We're just making plans for breaking into Eldirol to grab your dad. You're in, right?"

"I'm most definitely in," he answered smoothly. "Is he confirmed to be at Eldiron? That doesn't exactly sound like the appropriate holding facility for a man who was found guilty of messing about with off worlders."

Rose drummed her fingertips on the table and nodded. "It's confirmed, Doctor." She tapped at her temple. "I've got it all up here courtesy of Rassilon."

"Oh," he huffed in a manner that very much sounded like he spoke over a mouthful of marbles. "I see, then."

Ten leaned down over the table. He leaned on his elbows and threaded his fingers through each other as he looked to his brother. "Short version is. We're going to pilot both TARDISes to opposite sides of the compound. We go in two teams: Me 'n Rose with River. You, Rory and Amy." He frowned. "And speaking of. Where did Rory get to?"

Eleven shrugged. "Probably asleep in the entertainment room of the TARDIS. He mentioned an X-Files marathon. Can't imagine exactly why. X-Files is rubbish. Complete rubbish."

"Oh I dunno," Spencer offered with a smirk. "It's decently entertaining. Scully's pretty hot."

"It's obvious that you work for Torchwood," Eleven muttered. "If you find cheap theatrical Alien threats to be entertaining."

"I find you to be cheap and theatrical, and not very entertaining at all."

"Then it is a very good thing that my current aspiration is not to keep you engaged and enthralled." He looked to Rose with a smile, which faltered at her annoyed expression. "Sorry. Where were we, then?"

Rose let her eyes shift back to address the group. "While I know exactly where Ulysses is being housed, and what level of security we can expect on that side of the complex, I have absolutely no idea what else we might come up against in other areas of the facility."

"I've had the TARDIS upload what she knows about Eldirol to my workstation here," Ten continued. "And while she's a smart girl, even she doesn't have intimate enough knowledge to have us completely apprised of what we're walking into in terms of security detail and who is housed where."

"But do we know where the eyes are," River queried as she leaned down on the table in a mirror of Ten's lean. "So we can at least keep them blind to our movements?"

Rose nodded. "The TARDIS has snuck her way through as many systems as she can to pull up the most current information about the facility. She's pulled some fairly recent schematics from the new security firm that was tasked with refitting the entire facility, so we are in pretty good standing to be able to bypass the nasties that could put us in some trouble."

"And we don't need nasties," Ten breathed on a long breath. "Honestly, I don't know exactly what'll come about with him 'n me," he thumbed to his brother. "Getting caught breaking into a Time Lord containment facility with two Earth-Born Time Lords and two Humans to break out a man who is in the place because he was swanning about with humans…"

Rose smiled as she stroked his arm in reassurance. "We'll be fine, Doctor. We do best when the odds are the worst."

She smiled with that tongue-in-teeth smile that drove him mad. He rushed up to snatch that pesky tongue in between his lips, but only managed to graze his lips against her cheek as she turned to speak to the others. He growled lightly against her skin, and then grunted as his brother snatched at the collar of his blazer and yanked him to a stand.

"You wanna focus?"

"Oh," he chuffed. "I'm very focused, thank you."

"Anyway," Rose growled out in a tone full of warning to both men. "The TARDIS has shared the schematics with her sister, as well as made sure to share any other information she feels will assist. We have identical intelligence on both machines, and we need to make sure that we take the time to look through everything fairly thoroughly if we expect to make it through this easy enough."

Amy was gnawing on her thumbnail. "So do we even know what he looks like?" She let her eyes fall on the two Doctors. "I want to think that you'd know him immediately, you know, being your dad and all. But with all of the regeneration things that you lot do, I'm going to guess that picking him out of a line up might be a little more difficult than any of us think it is."

Ten nodded. "He was in his third regeneration the last time I saw him. Good looking bloke," he straightened his tie with a grin. "Obviously where I got my devilishly good looks from." His brother snorted and Ten rolled his eyes upward. "Anyway. Rose just told us that he's in his seventh regeneration right now, so chances are we won't pick him out of the crowd with much ease."

Eleven had to agree. "We can't even recognize our own regenerations. We can't be expected to be able to identify him with any real ease." He looked past Ten to settle his eyes on Rose. "Do you have any idea what he looks like right now?"

She nodded slowly. "Big. I know he's a big boy. Solid. Like a soldier. Ruggedly handsome with sandy blonde hair in need of a cut, blue eyes, sharp jaw."

"That's been a constant in his regenerations," Ten gruffed. "I end up Geek, he ends up burly soldier."

"Oh, you're gorgeous," Rose assured with a kiss against his cheek. "All of your regenerations. Well. Maybe with exception to your second, with the bowl-cut hair and the recorder…"

Amy and River's attentions were caught at that. Amy was amused. "Please tell me you have photographic evidence. Please."

Rose grinned. "Just ask the TARDIS. She'll happily show you photos of all of his regens."

Eleven winced. "Please don't." He cleared his throat. "Can we get back to it, please? I'm very eager to get this whole thing done so we can all return to the lives that we should be living." He cast a glance toward his brother. "Get back to the paths that we are supposed to be taking."

Ten glared at him. "Anyway."

"Yeah," River agreed. "Back to it. So it's Pinstripes, Rose and me in the baby TARDIS. Rory, Amy and Bowtie in the other TARDIS." She giggled into her hand. "I'm going to miss making the distinctions between you two."

"Thanks, River," Eleven muttered on a sigh.

"So we're landing North and South," Rose added. "We land, North. You guys on the Southern side. The Doctor has provided us with some weapons that…"

"Oh hang on," Eleven growled. "Weapons? I don't agree with that. What are you thinking? If any one of you get overpowered by one of those criminals, then you'll give them what they need to get out of there and create absolute mayhem."

"Gimme some credit," Ten breathed with a roll of his eyes. "None of the weapons are deadly. In fact they'll do little more than drop a man to his knees for enough time for the girls to get distance." He scratched at a sideburn. "Our girls are good enough that they probably won't even use them. These are last resort weapons that I've chosen for the girls. Nothing to worry about."

"Are you very sure about that?"

"I'm not a complete idiot."

"Aren't you?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Before we have to separate the boys and time them out again, do we think we're good for this?" She passed her eyes across all present. "Are we ready?"

"I'd prefer we took the time to have a sleep first," Rose answered with a high stretch. "But. Yeah. I'm good to get going now if you want."

Ten frowned. "Rest period might be a good idea, you know." He looked to Eleven. "River and Rose did just spend an entire day at Cadon, and it wasn't exactly an easy day for either of them."

"They also did it hungover," Amy added with a yawn. "You know, if that'll support a little bit of down time prior to mischief and mayhem by team Doctor."

"And you're looking a little beat up yourself, Amy," Ten said with a sympathetic smile. He looked back to Eleven. "Look. I know you're eager to get up and out of here to get me out of your hair, but the girls need some rest. We can materialize the TARDISes at our house, have a decent home cooked meal, a shower and some sleep. We can take off in the morning."

"I don't think…"

"I think it's a great idea," Amy interrupted. "Spend some time with your mum, Doctor," she suggested. "It's been a while."

He dropped his head and nodded. He couldn't deny that he wanted to spend some time with her. In over a century of believing that he was the last of his kind, and therefore feeling he was the loneliest man in the universe, to know that his mother was alive … yeah … he wanted to spend some time with her.

"I think I'd like that," he admitted. He let his eyes lift to his brother. "Does she live with you, then?"

"She does." He smiled toward his wife. "Rose was very insistent on it. And we have plenty of room, considering we purchased with kids in mind." He let out an apologetic breath as he stroked her hair and then cupped her cheek. "And I promise you we'll find a way, Rose. We will."

She leaned in to his touch and smiled as she covered his hand in hers. "It's okay. As long as I have you, Doctor," she said along a sigh. "All I need is you."

"I promise you we'll look at options."

She looked to him with lightly watering eyes. "You said we can loom, right? We can look at that."

He pulled her against his side and nodded against her hair. "Just tell me when, and I'll tell the TARDIS to take us there."

"I love you, Doctor."

"I love you more," he answered with a smile. He then inhaled a deep breath and pushed himself to a stand. "Right-oh. Come on then. Let's get ourselves out of Torchwood and head back to Rose and my place. Maybe I'll fire up the barbecue and throw a couple of steaks on."

Eleven raised a brow. "You barbecue, now?"

Ten grinned. "Yep. Great things, barbecues. Terrific social event that works so much more efficiently than a dinner party." He held his hand out to help Rose to her feet. "Did you know that it's the men that gather around the barbecue and cook the meat? It's a social convention all of its very own. Brilliant."

"It's awfully domestic."

"And I love it," Ten grinned. "Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."

~~oooOOOooo~~

The five time travelers reentered Rose and Spencer's laboratory with smiles and laughter as the girls teased about seeing any one of the Doctors wearing shorts and thongs and flipping steaks on the barbecue. Marissa and Jackie were thrilled to see that the lads were getting along, and that it seemed as though they would not be leaving straight away.

"Tell me good news, Sweetheart," Jackie said by way of greeting as they entered the lab. "Tell me that you and himself are going to stay around for a day or two."

Ten winked as Rose separated from him to kiss her mother on the cheek. "The Doctor wants to have a barbecue and let us all relax for the night before we head back to Gallifrey to get Father." She smiled. "Do you and Dad want to come along?"

"Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course I do." Jackie's face was alight. "I'll get hold of your father now. We'll meet at your house in an hour?" She levelled Eleven with a hard glare. "And don't you think about not showing up, Doctor. If I get there and you've gone and swanned off and are hiding in your TARDIS, I will find my way through the walls of the Universe to give you a good slap."

"I'm not going anywhere," he assured with a smile and a drop of his head. "I imagine I'll be seeing much more of you in the future, so I'd better make nice with you now."

Jackie gave him a suspicious look, but quickly shrugged it off and gave him a hug. "It's good to see you again, Sweetheart. You're always welcome here, you know that."

"Thanks, Jackie." He looked back to the group and scratched at his hair. "So. We're taking the TARDISes to your place, Rose. As I don't quite know where you live, did you want to take a ride in the old girl and show me where to go?" He patted the wood with solid slaps. "I know she misses you."

"Oh and I miss the moody old girl, too," she answered affectionately. "But it's okay, you can just follow us. We'll get you there okay." She giggled as Ten's arms circled her waist from behind and he made a rather pointed show of nuzzling his nose against her ear. "I need to get there first anyway and make sure the place isn't a mess."

Ten locked eyes with Eleven. "Mother knows where we live, Bow Tie. She's also a damn decent TARDIS pilot. Let her take you there." He tightened his hold on Rose's waist. "It'll give me 'n Rose a bit of alone time."

Rose moaned a long suffering groan and wriggled free of her Doctor. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "As we've seen," she teased as she walked backward toward the blue box. "There is no such thing as being alone in our TARDIS. Eyes. Everywhere. Tutting at our behavior.'

"Then we have to desensitize her. Simple."

He frowned as he glared toward Ten, but slid a look to his mother. "Did you want to fly with us, then, Mother?"

Marissa looked thrilled by the prospect. "I would very much like that, my son. I cannot wait to see just what changes you've made to your ship after all these years."

"Always for the better," he boasted. "And she's never looked so good."

Ten snorted. "Bit too sterile and inorganic for my liking." He scooped Rose's hand in his as she moved to walk past him, and tugged her back toward him. "But whatever you fancy."

"Yes. Indeed." He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "So. Let's get out of here, then." He looked around with distaste. "I never did like this organization. Especially after Canary Wharf."

Rose blinked at that. Ten growled low inside his throat. "So. Anyway."

"Yes. Anyway."

Rose raked her eyes between the two men. "Okay. What's going on with you two?"

"Pissing contest," Ten answered swiftly.

"So couth, brother. An in the presence of ladies."

"You included?"

"Wow, how so very mature of you," Rose muttered with a tired look toward River Song. "You've still got time to back out, River. I'm stuck with this one now." She slumped and moaned loudly. "Forever. I have to spend my eternity with a 900 year old child."

Ten laughed and pulled her up against him. "Oh you love me, brat kid and all." He pressed his lips against hers for a lengthy, but gentle kiss. He smiled as they separated, and then licked at his lips.

His smile fell slightly and his brows knitted together. "Hang on a minute." He snapped her back to him and pressed his mouth against hers once more, this time swiping the tip of his tongue across the seam between her lips in an exploratory manner. HE pulled back again, and licked at his lips.

Rose gave him a look to suggest he was going slightly mad. "You okay, Doctor?"

He frowned and shook his head as he drew her close to him yet again. This time when his lips crashed over here, his tongue demanded entrance to her mouth. She gasped, which gave him access, and he tasted her fully. It lasted a mere couple of seconds before he pulled off her mouth with a sucking pop.

"Okay, Doctor," Rose said with a clearing of her throat. "In case you're not totally clear on this, we're at Torchwood, and displays of affection such as what …" She squeaked when he took her hand in his raised it to his mouth, and dragged the length of his tongue along her wrist.

She snatched her hand away and wiped it against her tunic. "What's gotten into you?"

"You taste different," he answered slowly. There was confusion, and possibly some level of frustrated annoyance in his voice. "And I don't know what it is that's making you taste that way."

"Well," she answered back. "I hope it's a good different, then."

"Yes. Yes. Of course." He forced a smile. "Everything is good with you."

She pointed to the TARDIS. "Shall we?"

He watched her as she walked into the TARDIS and slouched as he thrust his hands deeply into his trouser pockets. He licked at his lips again and tapped his foot on the ground as he analyzed what could be so different.

Rose poked her head out of the TARDIS doors, and then slid her body around the door. "Well?" She asked with a huff. "Are you coming, or what?"

He nodded quickly as he let his eyes shift from the crown of her beautiful head and pass slowly lower until his gaze paused at her belly. There was the very slightest of tics in the shift of his head as a possibility entered his mind. He quickly shook it off.

"Nah. Impossible," he huffed to himself.

"Doctor? Any time now?"

"Coming," he called as he leapt himself into a jog toward the entrance of the TARDIS. He tipped his fingers to his temple in a very loose and lazy salute to the pilot of the second TARDIS. "See you at my place in a few minutes. Tell mother to land her in the back yard. Mrs. Braithwaite next door is a bit of a nosey one, and I think we'd probably give her a heart attack if she watched us Materialize in the front yard."