A/N:

Summary: Brax is in a very bad mood that not even pie will fix

Notes: This starts off light. Sorry, but I needed to write a little bit of fluff levity for a bit after my last couple of days...

It doesn't exactly end as lightly.

I've been wanting to get to this bit for a week now ... so I'm a little excited. And for those of you who feel that Rose is forgetting that she's got precious bundles at home that she needs to think about before doing crazy stuff .. I totally agree with you. But I really need her here, and I was really struggling to figure out how to get her there. Forgive her that for this chapter, okay? Not her fault - this time it's mine. :)

I hope you enjoy.

~~oooOOOooo~~

The blue TARDIS doors opened with a soft creak and whine, but the occupants of the old time ship didn't immediately exit. A long-fingered hand surrounded by blue cuffs embellished with rusted red thin pinstripes did appear to clutch lightly at the frame, but it disappeared just as quickly. There was a giggle, and then a sigh, and a feminine hand appeared instead. The large blue Gallifreyan diamond that graced the fourth finger glittered in the light of the hallway with the curling movement of her hand around the frame as Rose slowly tried to move through the doorway. While walking through a door of any kind was not ordinarily a problematic task, right now she had the hurdle of an over-affectionate Time Lord hindering her progress.

In a somewhat desperate attempt to erase the horrors of Phennea's mind – what he saw in there – the Doctor was refusing to relinquish the physical contact he'd achieved with his wife when she'd dragged him into the shower nearly an hour prior. They hadn't made love – neither of them were in a good place to do that right now – but they had shared a tender and intensely intimate moment of affection underneath suds and water with their minds wide open to each other. And for him, that was just as emotionally pleasurable and satisfying as any moment spent as one underneath the sheets. Right now, he was unable to surrender any form of skin to skin contact with her. So, as they walked he alternated between pressing his forehead against hers and sucking against her lips.

Yes, it was an awkward trek to take from the bathroom and toward the doors of the TARDIS that spanned a good fifteen minutes, but he was absolutely okay with that. The more time spent together, the better.

"Doctor," she breathed out against his searching mouth as he pressed them both up against the doorframe of his ship. "We really should settle this down now, yeah?"

"Not yet," he breathed with a stroke of his fingertips down along her cheek. "I'm not quite ready. Still need you inside my mind."

She hummed into a sigh and acquiesced to his affection for a moment longer, wondering just as what point he'd say sod it and drag the both of them back inside to fire the both of them up completely.

"If the two of you don't mind," Braxiatel growled hotly as he passed. "There are some rather emotionally repressed Time Lords being made to feel extremely uncomfortable by this display."

"You being one, I guess," the Doctor said with a smirk toward the back of his brother's retreating form.

"Hardly repressed," Braxiatel shot over his shoulder. "But very busy." He didn't look back at the pair, but he thrust a hand to gesture toward the front of the house. "You're needed, Thete. Do the universe a favour and join them."

The Doctor finally released his wife and looked to his brother, who was now in an angry lean over the breakfast counter. "And you?"

Braxiatel looked toward his brother with a furious expression as he used a fork to pull across a plate with a wedge of pie on it. "If I have to spend another second with that group, I'll punch the lot of them."

"Ahh," he breathed with a rub at the back of his neck. "It's going to be another one of those days, then. Brilliant." He looked to the group of people at the table. "Where's Romana? They generally behave with her."

"School run," he answered. "Whatever the two of you were up to in there took much longer than you think it did. Romana chose not to interrupt and insisted she take the children to school." He lifted his head and looked up at the kitchen window. "Apparently she doesn't trust my driving skills enough to allow me to do it."

"I'm in agreement with her," the Doctor muttered with a shrug. "I'm still in recovery from our last outing."

"When Brax has the children with him, he's is a very different driver," Rose defended with a smile. "I trust him completely." She petted the Doctor's chest. "Now, go referee the melee of your people. I'll make some tea."

He kissed her gently on the cheek and vowed a soft recital of his affection toward her, then thrust his hands into his pockets, plastered a smile on his face and walked toward the table to join the others.

Rose exhaled a breath to watch her husband's smile shift toward serious admonishment. She shook her head with a light smile and padded on bare feet into her kitchen. She half expected it to still be a disaster-zone, but was pleasantly surprised to see it almost sparkling clean. If it wasn't for the missing glass panels in the door, the dining set gone, she'd never have guessed it was a blood bath only a couple of hours ago.

"Wow," she breathed out with appreciation as she stepped up beside Braxiatel and leaned backward on the counter, her elbows behind her to help with her lean. "It looks incredible in here."

"Yeah," he muttered as he stabbed his fork aimlessly into the pie wedge.

Rose pursed her lips. A one-syllable drawl of an answer from Braxiatel was perhaps the rarest occurrence in the entire universe. She turned her head to look down her shoulder at him. "You okay?"

His lips curled upward. "Perfectly fine," he snipped out with a rather hard poke at the pie with his fork.

Rose looked down to the pie, and the rather abused state of it, and noticed that he had yet to take an actual bite of it. Usually he'd have the whole thing scarfed down in about three minutes and would be looking for another slice. She looked back at him. "You sure?"

"Certain of it," he replied darkly.

Rose watched the wary approach of Carein, no doubt looking for a word with him, and held her hand up with a slight shake of her head. She nodded when the young woman pointed toward a note pad and held up a pen. Carein set it down on a temporary table fashioned by medical crates and walked away.

Rose inhaled a deep breath and lifted herself out of her lean. "Well, Brax. If you're in such a good mood, you won't mind me doing this, then, will you?"

"Do what?"

Rose slid in between the counter and Braxiatel with practiced ease. She wrapped her arms around his chest and pulled him tight to her, readying for the struggle of him to pull away. He wasn't typically a cuddler, but when she wanted to pull him from a mood, it was usually the best method to do so. "I need a cuddle," she said with a growling sound.

As expected, he writhed for escape. "Then go get one from Thete. I'm quite sure he'll oblige your desire."

"Nope," she said through her teeth as she held on tight. "Need a Brax cuddle."

He groaned out with annoyance. "I don't cuddle."

"Yes, you do."

"I do not," he argued. "Now if you don't mind, release me from your grasp and let me eat my pie in peace."

"If you were actually eatin' it, then I might," she replied, refusing to let him go. "And as you seem more interested in murderin' it than eating it, and are obviously in a foul mood, I'm going to keep cuddling you until you either cheer up or shove me away."

He dropped the fork loudly to the countertop and then huffed out a defeated sound. His arms came around her shoulders and he dropped his chin onto her head. "I am so furious with you right now," he managed after a moment.

"So's the Doctor," she said with a sigh. "Though he won't admit it, or even tell me why. But I reckon I have a fair idea of it."

"You gave up on us," he said with a soft voice that was still quite hard. "You lost faith in our ability to protect you."

"I didn't," she corrected him softly. "But I knew you both needed a bit of a push to get yourselves over that line. The Doctor. You. Neither of you'd let me give myself up like that without a fight. I knew that."

"And if we couldn't, Rose? What then?" he asked her with a tightening of his arms around her shoulders. "It'd destroy Thete, and then he'd run off half cocked to Gallifrey, which then forces me to run after him to make sure he doesn't get himself killed."

"Not that you care about me or anythin'," she said with a forced sigh. "Just Thete."

"That's a lie and you know it," he breathed out. He drew in a deep breath. "I'm trying to figure out how to help you, Rose. I am." He huffed. "But with everything the way it is right now, with danger to all of us, I can't come up with a plan right now that doesn't make everything worse."

She lifted her head to look up into his face. "Plan for what?"

"To give you back your room," he answered softly. "Give you back your life."

She slouched with regret and moaned as she shuffled to pull away from him. This time she found herself trapped by his hold. "Brax. About what I said. I didn't mean it. I was just frustrated and lashing out."

"No, you weren't," he countered. "And I don't blame you for it. We intruded on you in the worst possible way without thinking about what effect it would truly have on you and the children." He breathed out. "I really didn't think it through beyond helping… well…"

"And I would never have said no," Rose assured him. "Even knowing what I do now, I still wouldn't say no." She looked back up at his face, only able to see his chin and up into his nostrils as he wasn't looking down at her. "Look at me, Brax."

He lowered his face to hers.

"I can deal with it, yeah?" she assured him. "Sure, there are moments when I find myself upset and frustrated. But that's life, isn't it?"

"It shouldn't be," he said softly. "Not for you."

She sighed in deeply. "It always seems that when one of the two of you say something specific to me like that, it always goes the opposite way." She looked toward the hallway. "Not to you, he says about dumping me off like the rest of them, then leaves me alone on a spaceship five thousand years into the future." She looked up at him. "Not for you, you say, and I end up inconvenienced…" She wriggled out of his hold. "Moving forward, don't either of you say anything like that, it always ends up bad."

"I'm sorry."

She waved him off. "Nah, don't be. Just my luck, yeah?"

He finally gave up on the pie and pushed it forward on the counter. "Rose. If I may. Can we talk?"

"Thought we already were," she said with her brows seated high on her forehead.

"I mean really talk," he clarified with a light wince in his face. "There's…" he drew in a breath. "There's something that I really need to discuss with you."

She looked at him with a pinch of suspicion in her eye. The discomfort level shown in his features was crystal clear. "You're not going to tell me that you're in love with me and so we need to run away from our mates, or anything like that, are you?"

"Good heavens no," he barked with shock and horror on his face. "Why would you think something so preposterous?"

"Well," she said with enough of a feigned look of hurt that it would be worthy of an Oscar. "Make a girl feel good, why don't ya?"

"With all due respect to the amazing woman that you are," he began with a cough. "My hearts very much belong in Romana's hands. I am her devoted and loyal mate and I will be until the day I die." The look of absolute dismay on his face was almost amusing with its intensity. "Have I, perhaps, been too generous with my affections toward you? Or as you say flirted too much to give you the wrong idea? You humans, you're a remarkably difficult species to properly interpret, and I have been doing my very best to behave with you as I believed was considered acceptable behaviour for your kind." He panted out a hurried breath. "If I have given you any indication that my affections for you are any more than … well … than is acceptable..."

Rose spit out a laugh at his horror. She petted her hand against his chest and stooped forward to continue her laugh. "Oh, Brax. Your absolute horror at this has just made my entire year. I could live off your expression alone for the rest of my life to look back and have a laugh." She stood back up, leaning backward to look at him through tear-filled eyes of mirth. "Of course, I know you don't fancy me like that. Aside from the fact that I have nowhere near the class and gorgeousness of Romana, I'm also human. Very human. Definitely not your type even if Romana wasn't a part of your life."

"You're also mated to my brother," he said slowly. "Which is – I apologise – off putting all on its own."

"But I make good pie," she offered with a smile.

He stretched his lips in a smile to match hers. "Well. That is a positive trait that can just make one ignore the human aspect of your biology." He winced just slightly. "But there is still that part of you that thinks that Thete is a worthy mate for you."

"We can argue your worthiness to Romana, too, you know."

"Best we don't," he said with a sigh. "At least not within earshot of my beloved, lest she agree and decide she doesn't want my hearts anymore."

"Thought she was stuck with you now?"

He nodded and then winked. "I'm not the only one who doesn't think it all through."

"So anyway,' Rose sang out as she leaned around him to retrieve the plate he'd abandoned. She held it to her chest and forked a big mouthful of it. "What'dya want to talk about?"

"That's my pie," he said flatly.

"Nope," she countered with a shake in her head as she took another mouthful. "You rejected it. Mine now." She dropped her head back and let out a long moan. "And it's so good."

"That's the last slice, you know." He gestured to the living room. "That lot got into the rest of it. Phiroi said that you'd told him I wasn't allowed to have any, that I had to watch them eat it…"

"He actually went with it?" she barked out with a laugh. "Oh! That's brilliant." She thumbed a crumb from the side of her mouth. "Is that why you were in a mood, then?"

He rolled his eyes. "No. My mood, as you call it, was definitely not pie-related. More a combination of that bunch of no-brains in there arguing nonsensically." He pulled up his sleeve to display a bandage on his arm. "Getting bitten by a feral beast who didn't want a bath…"

"Oh, shit!" she called out with shock. "I-I'm so sorry. How bad is it?"

"Bad enough," he answered with a shrug as he pulled down his sleeve. "Then there's not being able to reach Narvin to advise him about last evening. On top of that my own worries about your current state of mental health and how I can possibly help you…"

"Lack of sleep, too, yeah?"

"That too," he admitted. He exhaled and rubbed at his brow. "I also had a few things I wanted to do – off planet – that I can't get to right now. And I really don't like it when my plans have to change for other things."

"Why not?"

He frowned at her. "Why not? Because when I make plans, I like to stick to them. Despite the fact that I have a time machine, there are still things that have a rather delicate time sensitivity to them that a time ship cannot help with."

She tilted her head at him. "If you left now, would it be too late?"

"I don't believe so."

"Great," she said with a beaming grin. "Then let's go!"

A look of worry creased his features. "I'm sorry, do you think you're invited?"

"More like I'm inviting myself," she said with a shrug as she put the empty plate onto the breakfast counter. She sucked the sticky tip of her thumb with a loud smacking sound, then wiped her hands on the hips of her yoga pants. "God knows I could do with a quick trip out of here."

"Thete could take you on a trip," he offered. "I'm sure he'd jump at the chance."

"The last time we did that, he ended up bringing home an ex-girlfriend who tried to kill him and take me back to Gallifrey to become Rassilon's experiment." She looked to the side of her at the almost empty dining area of her home. "Dread to think what he'll bring home next."

He pursed his lips. "That's a good point." His nose screwed up as he seemed to actually consider the idea. With a shake of his head he exhaled. "But no, Rose. As much as I would enjoy proving to you that I am a far better capsule pilot that my brother. Where I intend on going isn't exactly safe for you."

"Again," she ventured carefully. "I've done extensive travel with the Doctor – and there are very few places he's taken me that can be considered safe. Downright dangerous, mostly."

He looked up to the living room. "He'd get very angry at me if I agree to take you anywhere."

She rolled her eyes with a sigh and a smile. "Doesn't that just make it that much more enticing?" Her eyes flicked back to his. "There's pie in it if you do. I'll make you a special batch that no one else can eat."

"I will not be bought by pie," he growled.

"I've created a Magenta/Magnolia flavour combination that will blow your mind," she offered slyly. "And just so you know – the TARDIS has both trees in her belly full of fruit." She puckered her lips and slouched with a bounce in her shoulders. "Please just get me out of here for a while?"

He pressed his lips together and looked toward his capsule. He then looked to the living room, where he could hear the raised voices of further arguing. He parted his lips and breathed out as he snatched her hand in his. "Fine. This time only, okay?" he said as he tugged her toward his capsule. "We can dematerialise and materialise again before any of them even know we've gone. Set return for less than thirty seconds."

"So, we're really doing this?" she asked excitedly. "I should let the Doctor know. Gimme a mo, yeah?"

"I've got it," he answered with a press of his hand on the door of his capsule. He took a quick look at the table, meeting eyes with his brother. He smiled and pointed down to Rose's head as she curled around him to clamour onboard. "Five minutes," he mouthed and held up a hand with all fingers outstretched to indicate that number.

The Doctor gave him a curious and perplexed expression and mouthed: what?"

Braxiatel replied with a dramatic roll of his eyes and thumbed into the ship. With his eyes still in an upward roll, he then made a puppet motion with his hand: Talk talk talk

The Doctor's mouth stretched in an expression of understanding and he nodded toward his brother. He held up his hand with only four fingers up, indicating five was too high a number.

Braxiatel returned the gesture with one that was less than savoury on their home planet, and was rewarded with a chuckle from the table for his efforts.

He stepped aboard the capsule and closed the door behind him. He rubbed his hands together with a loud clap and strode quickly along the command deck toward the console. "Right, my dear," he breathed to his ship. "And Rose," he added as an afterthought. He looked up to the monitor. "So. Just what coordinates did my younger self enter into my nav-system?"

Rose leaned around the central column to look at Braxiatel with a rise in her brow. "Your younger self?"

"Yes," he answered as he pulled up the coordinates and narrowed his eyes at the information. "You might remember me back then, Rose. Tall. Handsome. Distinguished. Well-tailored pinstriped 3-piece suits."

"Last you, yeah," she breathed out. "Sexy in that older-guy kind of way."

"I'm flattered, of course," he said with a smile as he flipped up the dematerialisation lever.

"Ehm," she breathed out slowly. "So why are you and your younger self…"

"Really best you don't ask," he advised her. "And please: don't tell Romana."

"Not making that promise," she said with a shake in her head. "Love you, Brax, but I'm not lying for you."

"No. I wouldn't expect you to."

"So where are we going, anyway?"

He looked up to the monitor. "Estrail, he answered with a light tilt in his head. "In the Bhagzar Galaxy… Why would we be going there?"

"Your younger self gave you the coordinates," Rose offered. "So shouldn't you already know?"

"No," he breathed out without looking at her. "We put up memory blocks as standard practice after each time we meet or communicate," he answered distractedly. "Why Estrail? That's a peaceful planet."

"Each time? Standard practice?" She widened her eyes. "Sounds like this isn't the first time, then."

"No, it isn't," he answered with distraction still lacing his tone. His lips pursed curiously off to one side and at a blinking green light on the console, leaned forward to begin materialisation procedures. His eyes were still on the screen ahead of him, and the swirling circular words of his people. "This really makes no sense. What could Rassilon possibly want with this planet?"

Rose's eyes widened at the mention of the word Rassilon. "Brax? Just where are we going, and should I be scared?"

"Want me to take you home?" he asked with a look.

"Will you come back if I go home?"

"Yes."

"By yourself?"

"Yes."

She shook her head. "Then no. Don't take me home." She inhaled, gave him a smile and reached out to take his hand. "Better with two, yeah?"

"It would be much better with a gun, but yes. I suppose two is better than one." He looked up as the rotor column silenced. "Looks like we're here. You can stay put if you like. I'm just stepping out for a quick look."

"I'm coming with," she said firmly. "Just in case."

"Fine." He walked to the door and opened a cabinet at the side. From within he pulled out a black pair of staser guns. He tucked one into the back waistband of his trousers and handed the other one to Rose. "Here. Just in case."

She looked at the weapon a moment, and then held it with both hands, like she always saw them do on the TV. Having never actually fired a gun before, she tucked in beside Braxiatel as they stepped out of the capsule. "Brax. I don't know how to use one of these."

"Good thing for you I'm a good shot," he assured her. "There was only one other person on Gallifrey who was a better shot than me." He swallowed. "And she's gone now."

"Maybe we should call in the Doctor," she offered somewhat fearfully as she followed behind him. "If you think it's so dangerous that we need guns. He'll come; I know he will."

"You can wait in the capsule if you like," he offered. He shook his head with a wince, as though discomforted with a headache or dizziness. "But I'm here now, and I do need to take a look around."

She noted the wince in his face and the shaking of his head as though he was trying to clear his senses. "Are you okay?"

"I feel like I'm walking through a fog," he answered her quietly. "Like each step I take takes me deeper into … I don't know … like molasses." He looked at her. "Are you okay?"

"Perfectly fine," she breathed out. "I'm not feeling what you are."

He breathed out a sound of dawning understanding. "Ahhh. It's affecting my telepathic receptors, then." He huffed out. "Nice."

"Don't think it's nice," she countered. "Things getting inside your head aren't nice."

They walked in silence for a moment, Rose a half step behind Braxiatel and watching the path behind them. She grew more uncomfortable as his capsule grew smaller across the distance between them. She touched her hand to Braxiatel's arm for comfort, and to get his attention.

"What is it you're looking for?"

"I'm really not all that sure," he answered her. "There are rumours that Rassilon set up a station here of a rather nefarious nature. The timelines in this region have become twisted and unstable, and no Time Lord has been able to get close to try and investigate the cause."

"Why not?"

"I don't know," he admitted.

"That's gotto be hard for you to say," she managed out with a light laugh. "Better check for the four horses, an apocalypse is on route."

"You'll be okay," he assured her, understanding her need for a bit of levity. He lowered his head to shake it free of cobwebs, then lifted it again. "I promise you that I'll get you home safe."

"I trust you," she whispered with a look up and around them. "You said that you know the place, estise?"

"Estrail," he corrected her. "The sixth planet of its solar system. Home to the Estralians…"

"Australians?"

"No," he answered with a laugh. "Not quite warm enough for them here. Summer lasts the equivalent of one month on Earth. The rest of the year it's bitterly cold. So, therefore, the chances of being able to produce the crops to brew their beer are fairly low."

"Yeah, don't think for a second they wouldn't work it out, though," she mused. "The Southern Mountaineers worked with what they found back at the house and did okay."

"That's good old fashioned Gallifreyan ingenuity for you," he said with a smirk. "Can't hold a good distiller down." He held his hand up and lowered into a crouch beside a large boulder overlooking the gully below. One side of his face creased hard into a wince of discomfort and he once again shook his head. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Rose lowered into a crouch beside him. "You can't feel that at all, Rose? The buzzing, foggy sensation in your head?"

"Not at all," she answered with a lift of her head to look down below. "Must be my inferior brain – the telepathic brain waves think it's not worth the bother. So. What's down there?"

He leaned his arm on the rock and narrowed his eyes at her. "I really wish you'd stop saying that about yourself, Rose." At her questioning hum he let out a breath. "There is nothing inferior about you."

Her eyes slid toward his. "Compared to you guys, I am, Brax."

"Compared to all of us? Rose, you are superior in so many ways."

"I love you too," she joked. She pointed below. "Now come on, tell me. What's down there?"

He drew in a deep breath and then tasted the air around them with a swipe of the very tip of his tongue across his lip. "Lindos," he breathed out curiously. "Artron."

"You mean there's a Time Lord down there that's hurt?" she asked with a gasp. "Then we have to help them!"

He shook his head and exhaled a huff. "That's a drop of several hundred feet, Rose. I shouldn't be able to smell or taste anything – even if several Time Lords were regenerating at the same time." He looked around him. "But it's everywhere. The air is absolutely saturated with it."

"But we can handle it, yeah?" She blinked hopefully to him. "Just like home, right? During the war. We were always bathed in the stuff."

"Yeah," he drawled.

"And we're okay, right? No harm done." She jutted her chin toward the edge. "We should check it out. If you've got people down there in pain and need of help, then we should help them." She grabbed his hand. "Come on. Let's go."

His hand tightened around hers. "You stay close to me at all times, Rose. No matter what, I want you in my sights."

"Of course."

"I mean it," he said with a growl. "Because you're my responsibility now, and nothing is going to happen to you on my watch."

"Got it," she said with a beaming grin. "Look at you all protective big brother."

"Self preservation, really," he huffed out as he rose to his full height and held out his hand to her. "Thete's got a bit of a streak in him, and if you got hurt while with me…" He shuddered. "I've dealt with one of him trying to kill me in the past, have no desire to face that again."

"A story you need to share," she breezed out as she stepped close to him, her hand inside his.

They walked together along a path that curled around the edge of the cliff. When it turned to move inside the pit, the pair of them stood on the edge in wait.

"Let me test the ground," Braxiatel offered quietly. "Make sure it's stable and we both won't tumble in."

He stepped to the edge and looked down into the darkness below. He tilted his head to listen to a softly howling wind below them. Curiosity shifted to worry, and then to disbelief. Pain etched his features and he shook his head. "Oh, by the light of Omega's power, please no."

"What's wrong?" Rose asked him with a hurried, worried voice.

He fell to his knees at the edge of the pit. "This is just cruel," he answered her with an agonised voice. "Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands…" His horrified eyes shifted to Rose. "Time Lords. I can hear every single one of their voices, Rose. All of them. All at once."

Her voice lowered toward a grave concern. "Brax?"

His hands flew up to the sides of his head. "The whole lot of them, Rose. All at once. They're screaming." He swayed on his knees and then leaned forward over his thighs. His hands were tight over his ears, and tight against his temples. "Screaming inside my mind." He threw himself forward onto his hands and knees, the only thing holding him up from falling over the edge into the pit was the clutch of one hand in the dirt at its edge. The other hand was on his head, his hair held in a tight fist. "I can't get them out of my head," he cried desperately. He lifted his chin and let out a cry of pain that howled across the pit in front of him.

~~oooOOOooo~~