A/N: Another short one to get over the hump of a year that was ... figured I'd better get us over that hump, and with my limited time today, couldn't get much else done...

I hope you enjoy a second offering today.

Until tomorrow!

~~oooOOOOooo~~

Rose was in the kitchen with her children, helping Mark with his spelling homework when there was a knock at the front door. The door promptly burst open, smacking hard against the wall. She could hear the excited rambling of a woman scuffling there, likely removing her shoes.

"Donna?" she called out cautiously. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, Blondie, it's me," she called back. "You in the kitchen?"

Rose didn't need to answer, instead she looked at her son with wide eyes of amusement and a smile. "And in three, two…."

Donna burst into the kitchen with all of the energy of a wrecking ball. She held a newspaper paper in her hands and was waving it around excitedly. 'Did you hear about the US President?"

Rose turned in her seat to lever herself up. With autonomy that came with a day-time visit from her best friend, she wandered quickly to the stove to prepare a pot of tea. "No," she answered with a smile. "What's happened? Did he get caught with one of his interns, again?"

Donna flopped down next to Mark, giving the youngster a side hug of greeting. She looked down at his homework with a sneer in her lip. "Is your mother really making you sit here on a Saturday to do your homework?" She leaned in to him. "Child abuse, that is…"

Mark chuckled in agreement as he ran his thumb over a small orange piece of smooth coral in his hand. He focused a little and spoke slowly. "I know, right?"

"Don't you go giving him ideas," Rose warned. "He's too much like his father, he'll find some way to use that against me so he doesn't have to do his work."

"You and me," Donna said to Mark in a conspiratorial manner. "If we work together on this…"

"Watch me spit in your tea,' Rose warned. She pointed at her son and shifted toward Gallifreyan. "You still have twenty words to get right, Mark. Best you work on that."

Donna looked between the two of them. "You know, Rose. It might be good if you try speaking to him in English more. Might help him, you know?" She frowned. "Though he seemed to understand me a little bit better than normal."

Rose's eyes widened. Braxiatel had given the child a small chunk of a coral from a retired travel capsule. While not perfect, as long as the child held it, he was able to make basic translations from Gallifreyan to English.

"His uncle's been working with him on it," she lied with a smile. "Brax and Thete, their mother was English, so he's a natural translator between the two languages. I can understand, speak and read it, but translating? Nah, not there yet."

"I'm still waiting for you to teach me a swear or two," Donna said with a smirk.

"Not in front of the kids," Rose said with a chuckle. "Next time we chat over wine I'll teach you some of the filthiest words an Arcadian can say if you like."

"I'm holding you to that."

Rose pushed a mug of freshly brewed tea across the breakfast counter. That was her unspoken request that Donna leave the table and her son to do his homework and join her at the counter. "So? What about the President, then?"

Donna's eyes widened and she quickly shot up from her chair. "Oh my God," she huffed as she slipped onto a tall seat at the counter and cupped her mug with both hands. She leaned in. "He was assassinated this morning!"

Rose's eyes shot wide and she half choked on her mouthful. She wiped at her chin. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Yeah," Donna huffed. Her excitement was most definitely fueled by shock and her hands tightened on her mug. "There's a hell of a lot of different versions flitting around about what actually happened, but yeah, assassinated!"

"That's horrible," Rose breathed out. "What are they saying happened?"

Donna shook her head. "No one really knows, Rose. That's the thing. I mean the whole thing was telecast live on telly, but still no one can agree on what really happened."

Rose lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "Sounds about right. Conspiracy theory nutjobs already doing their thing on the internet already?"

Donna nodded. "Yeah. Some are saying that it is all faked and that the Democrats or the Republicans or whoever are supporting a fake death thing to get rid of Winters and let the VP in."

"How'd they come up with that?"

"Not to forget that they're sayin' that bloody Saxon was the one who ordered it!"

Rose's jaw fell open. "The Prime Minister? Are you kidding me?" She looked slightly panicked at the thought of what retaliation would come from the US. "A-and has the US said anything?"

Donna's brows creased at a loud sound coming from near the living room, a loud whine and wheeze sound. She looked to the hallway. "What the hell is that?"

Rose gasped and shook her head. "Oh. Nothing. Just the streetsweeper outside," she ventured. "I think it's time for a new machine."

"You're telling me," she gruffed with a wince. "Hate to be trying to take a nap in with that thing going by."

"Surprised you haven't hear it before," she said with a bite at her lip. She looked to her child. "Mark, I think your uncle might be here. Did you want to let him know that …."

Her words cut as Braxiatel burst into the kitchen. His suit was missing his tie and the waistcoat. It was wrinkled and seated awkwardly on his body. His hair, usually gelled back and styled to perfection, was now a greasy-looking mess. His face, always perfectly manicured and shaved so closely that one could believe he didn't have any facial hair aside from a moustache, now bore the shadow of not days, but weeks without shaving. The wild look in his eyes gave her little doubt at all that he was panicked beyond any worry he'd ever had before in his lives.

Rose stepped around the counter, her own face a picture of concern. "Brax?"

His eyes found hers and relief slumped his shoulders. Any worry evaporated almost immediately as he rushed forward and pulled her into an embrace that would have rivalled any that the Doctor had given her in their days together – even after a harrowing adventure where he was glad to see her safe. He changed the tight hold he had on her three times before he finally pulled back and cupped her face.

"Rassilon," he breathed out with relief. "You're okay."

"Of course we're okay, Brax," Rose said to him with a smile that hid her own worry. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"A year," he panted out, worry turning to relief with such speed his respiratory bypass was kicking in to help him breathe. "We've been trying to enter your timeline for a whole year." His head shook and he raked his hands through his hair. "But we haven't been able to. Romana and I, oh Rose," he looked at her with worry returning. "We couldn't get to you. We couldn't find you."

"We're right here," she offered him, pressing her hand to his chest. "Haven't been anywhere."

He gripped her arms. "There've been tremors on Gallifrey. Warnings of a paradox in play. Thete, he…"

"That's wrong with the Doctor?"

"Nothing," he managed out with a crease in his brow. "But there were warnings." His breath actually shook, and he ran a hand down over his face. "Thete was in trouble, the Earth was in trouble. Reality was unstable."

Now it was Rose's turn to panic. "Is he alright, Brax? You tell me he's alright!"

He nodded with a wince. "Yeah. Yes." His head shook, the wince on his face telling her that he was battling to remove images from his mind. "Thete's good. Now. He's fine. Getting into trouble in Earth's outer atmosphere right now, if my telepathic connection to him is accurate." He lifted his eyes. "Now. But for a while there, Rose. I couldn't see him. I couldn't see you or the kids. We couldn't find you."

"We've been right here…"

"A whole year," he clarified sharply.

"Brax," Rose half growled trying to get him to listen. "Brax. Take a breath." She rubbed his arms. "You and Romana were here yesterday. Just yesterday, don't you remember?" She tilted her head at him. "I made you grilled yaddlefish for dinner."

He blinked with surprise at that. "Rose, that was not yesterday."

She nodded. "Yes, Brax. It was." She looked toward Mark, whose eyes were wide on his uncle. "It was his birthday, remember? You gave him a Cathocode Troisieme Timepiece artifact from an old capsule. You told him that the two of you would start to rebuild it together next week."

"To install in the capsule that has been seeded for him back at the Hyperloom," he said to himself. "Yes, that's right." His brow pinched with confusion. "But I don't understand, according to the Tme-Curve Indicator, we are 12 months and two days from that date – relative time of course."

"Doesn't need saying," Rose offered with a shrug. "Probably a good ten years Gallifreyan time, right?"

"Close to it," he breathed with a nod.

"If that's the case, Uncle Brax," Mark called over with a cheeky voice. "Did you bring me another birthday present?"

Braxiatel looked to the table, and toward two children that looked upon him with varying expressions. Mark looked at him with surprise and even amusement, Alirra looked at him with no expression at all; she just pulled slow sucks on her pacifier.

"For once," he breathed out as he walked toward the children. "Your cheeky little mouth is a joy rather than annoyance, young Mark."

"Well then I'm not trying hard enough," he purred with a chuckle as his uncle leaned down to give him a hug. "Am I?"

Brax lifted Alirra from her high chair and cuddled her close into his chest. "You all gave me quite the scare."

Donna, who had remained very quiet throughout an exchange that she couldn't understand, finally piped up. "Okay. Now that I assume that has been resolved. Hello Irving, how are you?"

"Donna," he said with a switch to English as he walked around the table toward her. Alirra was perched at his hip, her head tucked into his neck, sucking her pacifier. "My apology, I didn't notice you there."

"I'll try not to take offence to that," she said with a shrug of one shoulder and a smirk on her face. "But you did seem upset when you arrived, so I'll give you a pass." She looked him up and down. "You look terrible, by the way. Had a bit of a night, did you?"

He shifted Alirra on his hip and stroked the child's hair tenderly. "Yes, indeed. I got – how you say – very inebriated last evening. Can't quite remember what I got up to." He looked toward Rose, switching to Gallifreyan. "Did I get that right? Am I believable?"

Rose shook her head, but smiled. She moved to English. "Then if that's the case, Brax…" She pulled a tumbler from the cupboard and pressed it into a depression in the fridge that plopped a few chunks of ice into the glass. "You'd better have a hair od the dog that bit you – don't you think so, Donna?"

Donna nodded and leaned back behind her to retrieve a bottle of that Rose had told her was a potent form of whiskey from Arcadia. She passed it to Rose, who quickly pulled out the cork and sloshed a good three fingers worth into the glass. "I'm with Blondie, drink up."

"I'm driving," he said with a sigh. "I'd better not."

Rose shook her head at him. "No. You're not," she insisted flatly. "You'll stay with us tonight. Drink up, then head upstairs for a shower and a shave. There's a spare suit in the spare room from when you and Romana stayed over a few months ago. You'll sleep there." She held up a finger. "No arguments. You look like you need to have a couple to settle your nerves…" She looked toward her daughter, content in his arms. "And the kids'll love to have you spend the night."

"But…"

"I'm not sending you home to Romana looking like that." She leaned down onto the table, supported by her hands. "I'm making Broakir steaks and vegetables for dinner, with Magnolia pie and icecream to finish," she sang enticingly.

His brow flicked to suggest he was willing to bite. "Magnolia pie, you say?"

She nodded. "From the fruit you brought me yesterday."

Braxatel gave a grin. He handed Alirra to her mother and slammed back the entire contents of the glass in one gulp. With barely a wince at the stinging burn from the alcohol in the back of his throat, he turned and marched toward the hallway. "Please let me freshen up. I'll contact my wife and let her know I'll be home late."

Donna shook her head at his retreating form. She looked to Rose with a laugh in the back of her throat. "His wife doesn't mind him staying over?"

She shrugged as she popped out Alirra's pacifier and replaced it with a bottle of juice. "Not at all. Romana and I get along very well. I would have been as comfortable with her spending the night alone with Thete as she is with Brax being here with us."

"Secure women," Donna remarked with high brows. "Don't know that I could ever be so trusting."

Rose laughed. "I love him, Brax. I really, really do. But to shag him?" She shuddered and sat down on a stool, pulling Alirra onto her lap. "No ta." She looked over at the paper that sat on Donna's thigh. "So back to your newspaper and reports about the assassination of the President…"

Donna unfoled the paper onto the table. "Actually, that was just my opening line. I've got something a little more interesting to ask you about."

Rose's brows lifted. "Oh?"

"Remember when I told you about that fella," she began. "The one we saw on the telly a little while back. The one who helped me out with Lance?"

Rose nodded. "The Doctor, yes. What about him?"

"I've been trying to find him again."

Rose's eyes widened. Discomfort crossed her features. "W-Why would you want to do that?"

"To travel," she sang out with longing. "I've done the travel thing on my own. It's lonely." Her mouth stretched into a grin. "So I figure, me and him. We could travel together, you know. Not be alone anymore."

Rose blinked. "As in," she cleared her throat with a shaking breath. "You know. Lovers?"

Donna actually belched out her laugh. "Oh. Please." She waved her hand. "Not my type at all. Far too skinny. Break him in two if I gave him a decent hug … would hate to see what would happen if I tried anything else with him."

Rose swallowed thickly. "You don't even know him, Donna. It could he dangerous. What if he's a creeper or something." She shifted her child on her lap. " It's really probably best you don't…"

Donna leaned forward and smoothed out the creases in the paper. "So anyway. I've been looking at the strange and mysterious, because that seems to be his M.O." She looked up with an eager glint in her eye. "And so anyway." She pointed at an advertisement with testimonials on the second page. "Adipose Industries," she purred with a laugh. "Almost instant weight loss? I don't think so…"

Rose breathed out unsurely. "Oh. I don't know."

"I'm going to check it out." She smirked. "I'd ask if you want to come along, but…"

"But I've got two youngsters that need watching."

Her face fell. "Shame, that, because I reckon you'd be so good at this kind've thing." She peered at Mark and gave the lad a wink. "You gave birth to Mr. Sneaky himself."

Rose merely chuckled an uncomfortable sound.

Donna leaned down over the paper. "So what'dya think?"