A/N: I'm KINDA keeping up this one a week thing ... sorta? :D

Chapter 3: Doctor Gadget

Leah Tyler did what she did best as a six-and-three-quarter-year-old Duty Manager, taking her job as an older sister very seriously indeed as she and Theo explored the expansive complex together.

She didn't quite know the details of what had happened to her little brother in the three months he'd been held by Bac'ou Bar'zelli, but from hearing snippets of conversations and the little her daddy had told her, she knew Theo wasn't the hyperactive troublemaking brown-eyed blond boy he'd been before his abduction. In the same sense, her daddy was definitely not the same as he'd been. Her telepathic link to him through the bond - although not fully matured - was throwing up some very complex emotions. Though she hadn't needed the bond to see that he was miserable.

However, she had a plan. While her daddy was busy getting better, she'd take care of Theo, and hopefully even bring him back to the bundle of curious energy he had been. It would be one less worry for her daddy, at least.

So as they explored, she not only kept an eye on her little brother like a parent but pushed him to explore new sights and sounds. After a bit of time, Theo's innate streak for adventure and the unknown was being reawakened as he stopped being Leah's shadow and started occasionally wandering off. After the fifth time of Theo briefly disappearing, Leah lost her patience and pulled him aside.

'What did I say?' she moaned.

'Um, what?' the little boy asked innocently.

'I said, don't run off!' Leah insisted, keeping her hand on his arm.

'Why?' Theo asked.

'Cos last time you ran off, Theo, you all disappeared for three months, Mummy's now acting all weird, and Daddy died for ten minutes and has a numb arm.'

'Oh, am sorry,' the little boy said, and without any hesitation whatsoever immediately ran off again.

'Theo!' Leah yelled, running after him as he toddled at quite a pace to the doors leading outside where there were lots of people laughing, eating, and playing, basking in the light of the two pleanean suns. Theo stepped out of the door, and then suddenly shrieked and fell back inside, as though he'd been blasted back by an overwhelming gust of wind.

Leah quickly reached him. 'What?' she asked, scanning for danger.

'No go,' Theo squeaked from the floor, panicking. 'Is bad!'

'What's bad?'

'Outside bad!'

'Why?'

'Bac'ou said outside bad and hurt me!'

'He was lying,' Leah told him. 'Just like he lied 'bout your name being Soran.'

Theo frowned. 'Oh. 'Kay?'

'Forget everything he ever told you cos he was wrong all over,' Leah said. 'He was bad, and we don't listen to bad people cos they make annoying plans to do lots of annoying things and our family have gotta clean up the mess.'

"Kay.'

'Okay, so let's go,' the little girl stated, retaking his hand and pulling him up onto his feet, leading him slowly out into the warm and inviting light. They hovered momentarily outside the door.

'Oh,' Theo said, looking up at the sky with a look of wonder etch on his little face. 'What that?'

'What's what?' Leah asked.

'That,' Theo said and pointed in the direction of the twin suns.

'Um, they're suns,' Leah replied, confused. 'Wait, how come you don't know that?'

Theo shrugged.

'Don't you remember being outside?'

'Umm, not 'member,' the boy said, frowning.

'Oh. Were you locked in a room all day? What did you do?'

'Bac'ou bringed friends and we p'ay.'.

'What friends?'

'Umm, they s'aves.'

'They were slaves?' Leah asked, wide-eyed.

'Yeah, an' they sold so didn't p'ay very long time and I sad.'

'Oh,' Leah murmured, and then beamed at her little brother. 'Well, now we can be best friends and play together forever, okay?'

'Yeah,' her little brother said happily, smiling.

The Doctor and Jack arrived at the living quarters, which turned out to be more like a penthouse apartment, with a very large and clean communal living room with luxuriously soft and expensive sofas, a wooden table carved with various animals from across the universe, a holovid, the latest gaming console, and perfectly-placed decor including a strikingly colourful rug on the floor and unique pieces of abstract art on the walls. Some glass doors opened out onto a spacious balcony, giving a fantastic view of the planet with mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and a perfectly clear lilac sky. There were four bedrooms, each ensuite, along with a small gym and sauna and a clean and modern-looking eating area with a programmable food dispenser. There was even a mood room, complete with the latest relaxing art installations from one of the universe's most famed artists.

Jack spent the next ten minutes exploring the massive accommodation as the Doctor sat down at the table to examine the construction of the exotronic, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and immediately setting to work.

You're gonna hurt yourself if you do this, yeah? I wouldn't want you to risk everythin'.

'I'm not risking everything, it's just an operation or two,' the Doctor replied to his subconscious.

Don't give me that. Only you know how dangerous this is. They don't know anythin' about your physiology and the way your brain's wired up - if this goes wrong, it'll kill you.

'I have to take the chance.'

You're gonna risk leavin' our kids without either of us?

'If I don't do anything about my arm, I'll probably get infected and die and have to regenerate. I don't want to regenerate.'

Is that a bad thing?

'To save you, I need to be as familiar as possible to you. If I regenerate, I don't think I'll be able to get through to you. I need to reach what's left of you and help you fight the infection. Being in this body will give me the best chance of doing that.'

C' mon. You know you can't save me. Stop it.

'Tough.'

Please let me go.

'Are all the living quarters like this?' Jack suddenly asked, appearing from one of the adjoining doors. 'This place is incredible.'

'We're probably on the top package,' the Doctor said, not even looking up.

'This is why I like hanging out with you. You always get the best rooms,' Jack joked.

'I dunno, I once spent a night in a fallixian sewer with the city's rat population,' the Doctor mused. 'Three credits a night. It was all they had. I had fallixian rat fever for three weeks.'

Jack smirked, taking a seat next to him at the table. 'How does the exotronic look?'

'Like a very sophisticated mess,' the Doctor replied. 'They've got polarisation circuits everywhere and several very pointless diodes, but the basic construction looks fine so far.'

'What's it powered by?'

'Sonic battery,' the Doctor replied, turning the exotronic over and indicating the power pack.

'Handy,' Jack commented, looking at the sonic screwdriver.

'Yep,' the Doctor said and buzzed the battery with his sonic. The arm suddenly moved, with its fingers waving slightly. 'Look at that - self-adjusting contraction pads in the joints.'

'They must've spent years on this.'

The Doctor looked at him and raised an eyebrow. 'I wonder …' He raised his infowatch to his mouth and spoke. 'Afternoon, Panacea.'

'Good afternoon, Doctor. How may I assist you?' Panacea's voice came from the watch.

'Just curious - how long did it take to conceive, develop, test, and implement the exotronic?'

'Six months,' Panacea replied.

'That's fast.'

'Pleaneas is very proud concerning the speed at which we develop new technologies and treatments,' Panacea replied diplomatically.

'I'll bet you are,' the Doctor agreed, just as the door opened and Leah and Theo appeared in a whirlwind of energy.

Leah's eyes lit up immediately at the sight in front of her. 'Wow!' she enthused. 'Is this all ours?'

'Yeah,' Jack replied, winking. 'Go pick any bedroom you like.'

Leah immediately ran off. Theo toddled straight to his dad and beamed up at him. That took the Doctor by surprise. 'Okay?' he asked his son, slightly wrong-footed.

'Me 'n Leah went out in a sun an' I did an' I not scared,' Theo told him proudly.

For the first time in what felt like a very long time, the Doctor smiled. 'Hey, well done.'

'And Bac'ou was bad and annoying,' Theo added.

'He really was,'Jack agreed.

'An' now we clean up mess, 'kay.'

The Doctor's smile widened. 'Yeah, we're trying ... Soran.'

'Name's Theo,' the little boy said and stuck out his hand. Jack laughed. The Doctor took the boy's tiny palm and shook it gently.

'Nice to meet you, Theo,' he said.

'I go now, bye-bye,' Theo suddenly decided and toddled off to explore the living quarters.

The Doctor found himself nearly laughing. A little glimmer of light in the absolute mess that was his current existence ebbed inside his dark and scattered mind.

Jack looked at the Doctor. 'I think we owe Leah one,' he said, smiling, and the Doctor nodded in agreement.

'Jack,' Panacea suddenly said from his infowatch, the dial lighting up. 'Have you considered the treatment, yet? I have our team standing by ready for you if you would like to go ahead.'

Jack hesitated, glancing at the Doctor. 'I need a bit more time to decide,' he told Panacea.

'Of course. Please contact me if you are happy to proceed,' Panacea said, and the infowatch darkened, and silence overcame them both.

'Are you tempted?' the Doctor wondered.

Jack paused for a long time. 'I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. I don't know what to do.'

'Just remember you can't go back after the treatment,' the Doctor reminded him.

'Yeah, I know,' Jack confirmed, sighing.

'What treatment?' Leah's voice suddenly asked as appeared back into the room. 'Why are you getting treated, Uncle Jack? Are you sick, too?'

'Panacea thinks she can cure Uncle Jack's immortality,' the Doctor told her.

Leah frowned. 'No, thank you,' she said almost immediately, looking at her honorary uncle.

'Why not?' Jack asked.

'Because that's your thing.'

'My thing?' Jack echoed.

'Yeah. You're the one who always dies a lot. If you didn't die a lot, you wouldn't have a thing.'

'She's got a point,' the Doctor mused.

Jack grinned down at her. 'Hey, I could get a new thing.'

'Like what?'

'Err … I used to play the trumpet. Maybe I could be the guy with the trumpet? What d'you think?'

'That's not a thing,' Leah complained, 'that's just a trumpet.'

'It's a fair assessment,' the Doctor commented, grinning at Jack.

'You'd need a really big thing like maybe you have a pet lion or something. Then you'd be the one with the lion, and that'd be your thing,' Leah continued.

'So you think I should get a lion?' Jack asked.

'Yeah. Call him Michael.'

'I'll definitely look into it.'

Leah beamed and skipped over to her dad. 'What's that?' she asked, jumping up onto the seat beside him to peek at the metal arm, her feet swaying back and forth on the chair with her chin resting on her hands, staring intently at the exotronic.

'It's called an exotronic, it's a kind of exoskeleton,' the Doctor informed her.

'Oh. Is it going over your arm to make it work again?'

'Yeah,' he confirmed.

'So are you gonna be like Inspector Gadget?'

The Doctor smirked. 'Well, not exactly. But there's a thought. Maybe I can make some attachments. What d'you think?'

'Add a spoon,' Leah said. 'Cos you always need a spoon just in case you gotta eat a yoghurt.'

'Oh yes, I've definitely been in that situation before,' the Doctor mused. 'I had to eat a strawberry yoghurt to save the universe, once.'

Leah giggled. 'Daddy, stop lying.'

'I'm not!' the Doctor protested.

She giggled. 'Is it gonna be a part of you forever and ever, now?'

'Well hopefully not, but I don't know for sure,' the Doctor answered. 'Depends if I ever get the feeling back in my arm.'

There was suddenly a loud thunderclap sound of something expensive smashing in the other room, immediately interrupting their conversation.

'Theo!?' the Doctor yelled, suddenly tense in the silence that followed.

'Yeah?' the little boy's voice came back.

The Doctor relaxed a little. 'What did you break?'

'Nuffin'!'

Jack rolled his eyes and looked at Leah. 'Wanna handle this?'

'Nah, it's your turn to look after him cos he's exhausting,' Leah commented. 'And anyway I'm six, so it's not my problem.'

Jack laughed and left to check on the boy.

'Hey, thanks,' the Doctor suddenly said to his daughter.

'Um, you're welcome,' the girl said but looked confused. 'Why?'

'I don't know what you did with Theo, but it worked.'

She beamed a beautiful little smile. 'Oh, okay. Any other problems you just call me.'

The Doctor laughed. 'I will.'

She leant forward to peer at the exotronic some more. 'That's got way too many diodes,' she observed.

'That's just what I was telling Uncle Jack.'

'Is it gonna work?'

'I think so.'

'What happens if it doesn't?'

'I'm going to need to think up a plan B, which right now I don't have.'

'That's okay, you're good at that,' Leah said.

He smiled. 'Well, sometimes.'

'So, what happened to Mummy?'

The Doctor felt tense again. Even that word was beginning to agitate him. 'Not now, Leah.'

'But you said you …'

'Go and play. I'm busy.'

'Daddy …'

'I said go and play!' the Doctor suddenly snapped as a wave of frustration and fury washed over his entire body.

Silently and with her bottom lip wobbling in the sure sign of oncoming tears, Leah jumped off the chair and ran into another room.

Go and say sorry, right now.

'No.'

Don't take it out on her.

'Go away.'

'Are you kidding me? How did you break this?' Jack wondered seriously as he looked between the priceless large art sculpture now in six worthless pieces on the floor, and the tiny boy standing next to it looking overly innocent.

'Ah din't,' Theo protested, staring up at him.

'Who did it, then?'

'Leah.'

'Leah was with us.'

'She t' ported.'

'Did you just say she teleported?'

'Yeah.'

Jack sighed and realised with a pang of woeful acceptance that as he'd accepted the job of being a temporary nanny, he now had to deal with not only an extraordinarily depressed and moody Doctor, but also a hyperactive, erratic, and extremely smart pint-sized version of him.

'Okay, right, just get away from the broken pieces,' Jack ordered Theo, who immediately toddled to another room. 'If I hear anything breaking I swear …'

Jack was startled when Leah suddenly ran into the room and threw herself at him for a hug.

'Geez, what …' he started, and then noticed she was crying. 'Whoa, what's happened? Is Dad okay?'

'Daddy y-yelled at me,' she sobbed, her face pressed into his leg.

'Why?'

'I asked … I asked h-him 'bout Mummy an'... an' he got mad.'

Jack sighed, kneeling down to her with his hands on her arms, pulling her to face him. 'Don't let it bother you. He's just really upset at the moment. You know he's been sad since he got back. He can't help it. He's lost your mom, and he's hurting.'

'Yeah.'

'You know your dad - he's clever, but he's an emotional black hole,' Jack told her. 'He can't process the emotions he's going through very well. Way back before you were born and he had his old face …'

'Big e-ears?' Leah choked out through tears.

Jack grinned. 'Yeah. Back then, he was really bad for it. A lot of the time, it was like talking to a brick wall. But your mom made him, well, more human. You're seeing what he was before he met her. Usually, your mom's on hand to help him out, but now she's not here. It's up to us now. He needs our help, and he needs his best friend. That's you.'

'But you're… his ... his b-best friend,' Leah sobbed, puzzled.

Jack smiled. 'Not as much as you.'

'Am I … best of the b-best friends?'

'Oh yeah,' Jack confirmed, smiling. 'He needs his best of best friends to give him a hug and tell him he's gonna be fine.'

Leah sniffed and nodded. 'Okay.'

'Go and ask him again, and this time, don't take no for an answer.'

'But … he'll yell at me again.'

For the second time, their conversation was interrupted by a smash from an adjoining room.

'Jesus Christ,' Jack breathed. 'THEO!'

'Was Leah!' the little boy's voice came back.

Jack groaned and looked at Leah. 'Okay, we're the only reasonable people here, so we've gotta team up. Help me out with your brother, and we'll make a plan of attack for your dad. Deal?'

'Okay,' Leah agreed, giving a smile.

As the twin suns set and bathed the entire residence in a warm and calming glow, Jack walked into the main room where the Doctor was still hard at work on the exotronic as he had been for two hours. As Jack entered, he was still sitting at the table with the exotronic now taken apart, with his glasses on silently studiously sonicking each individual piece.

Jack took a deep breath, and began.

'Theo finally exhausted himself,' he told the Doctor. 'I put him in bed if you wanna say goodnight.'

The Doctor finally looked up from the exotronic. 'Yeah,' he said, standing up.

'He's in the second room on the left.'

'Thanks,' the Doctor replied and moved to the door. He suddenly stopped and turned back. 'Really. I mean it. Thank you.'

'Childcare's what I signed up for on this trip,' Jack assured him, grinning. 'Oh, have you talked to Leah, yet?'

'What?'

'Talked to Leah. About Rose.'

'Oh,' the Doctor said, if somewhat awkwardly.

Jack sighed. 'Look, I know it hurts, and I know you're sad, but you've gotta do some parenting, here. We talked about this. Leah needs to know, and frankly, I think it'll be good for you, cos you sure as hell haven't talked to anyone else about it.'

The Doctor sighed, running his hand through his hair.

'I'm just telling you what you already know, and we've already had this discussion,' Jack continued, 'but you know damn well if you let Rose take the kids for a ride, that's game over.'

The Doctor swallowed. 'Okay. Tomorrow.'

'No, now,' Jack ordered. 'She's ready. Say goodnight to Theo and come right back. I'll make some tea.'