Earth, Late 20th Century

"I rather expected I'd see you again. Come in, come in." The Doctor stepped back, allowing his future self entrance yet again to the quiet house he currently occupied. He peered over his shoulder. "Where's the young lady with the fiery temper?"

"She's waiting on the TARDIS." He followed his first self into the parlor. It looked exactly as he remembered it, with a few telling additions. A pile of nursery furniture, still in boxes, crowded against the overloaded bookshelves, and a cradle had replaced one of the chairs flanking the fireplace. A cradle he recognized. He took a moment to confirm that it was occupied, smiling briefly at the sight of Susan, safe and sound and exactly where she was meant to be.

"Couldn't risk her coming back, eh? I quite understand. She seems very attached to Susan, very devoted." He glanced down at the baby as well, and an identical smile crossed his own features. "As you can see, I haven't quite completed all the arrangements, but I can assure you, Susan and I will be leaving this time period very soon. I wouldn't want to make it easy for whoever's after her to find her, hmm?"

"She needs to grow up on the TARDIS, but you already know that," the Doctor said wearily. "In my timeline, everything's been put to rights. There's just one thing left to do..."

"Yes, those pesky memories, quite right, quite right." The Doctor blinked in surprise. That wasn't something he'd shared with his first self during their mental communion, the need to remove his memories of how he came to have Susan living with him. The other man looked pleased with himself. "Surprised that I worked it out, are you?"

"Yes, although I shouldn't be. You seem to be agreeable to the idea," his seventh self replied cautiously.

"Not agreeable, young man, not at all agreeable." The self-congratulatory smile turned instantly to a glare. "But I understand the necessity. Do I have future problems with regenerative trauma, memory loss, things of that nature?" When his future self hesitated, he tutted. "Come, come, dear boy, you're about to erase my memories of this meeting, so what's the harm? Answer me."

"Yes, on occasion," his future self replied defensively. "Which we both know is not uncommon..."

"Nor is it common," was the snappish response. "Not so common as you would like to believe, and certainly not common in our genetic Thread. So there a very good possibility that this very deed you're about to perform could be what brings about our future problems. Not that I expect that to stop us," he added, raising a hand at the protest he anticipated from his future self. "You've obviously thought it through and decided that keeping Susan safe is your first priority."

"As it should be," his seventh self pointed out.

"As it should be," his first self agreed. "Which is why I am willing to submit to the procedure." He settled down comfortably in the chair next to the sleeping baby. "Fire away, my boy. Leave me enough information so that I remember to raise Susan in the TARDIS and tell me something about her parents so I don't spend fruitless decades looking for them." His gaze sharpened. "They would be fruitless, eh?"

The Doctor nodded. "The Master has seen to that."

His first self frowned. "Yet they're not dead, are they."

"No. But they may as well be, to Susan. He's altered their molecular structure at the quantum level, tampered with their DNA, and done who knows what else to them." He suddenly looked decades older. "Kyris was a Healer, did I share that with you? Perhaps the greatest Healer Gallifrey has ever produced. The Master's tampering destroyed that ability as well as putting Ace and Kyris permanently out of temporal phase with Susan. I've promised to do what I can, but I'm afraid it's irreversible."

They both fell silent, contemplating the evil of the man they'd once hailed as school-mate, even friend. "How he could ever have gone so wrong, I'll never know," the Doctor's first self said sadly. "So where are they now, Ace and Kyris?"

"Looking for the Master, although I doubt they'll ever find him. But Ace has never been one to sit around waiting for someone else to rescue her, and she's very angry right now, rightfully so. So is Kyris," he added. "It would appear our son's inherited a bit of a temper somehow."

"Must be from his mother's side," the Doctor's first self said with apparent seriousness. "Spending your life in a quest for revenge probably isn't the best way to live; I sincerely hope they realize that and find something better to do. Because I also doubt they'll ever find the Master, just as I doubt you'll ever find a cure. Or else my raising Susan would be over before it ever began." He straightened in his chair, staring directly at his seventh self. The time for talk was over. "I'm ready."

"I'll leave you with the knowledge that her parents loved her, that they never wanted to leave her. And the knowledge that someday you'll have access to the memories again. I think that will be enough, that and the knowledge that she's in danger from an old enemy." He closed his eyes, and began the process of making himself forget one of the most important events of his many lives.

oOo

The Doctor's eyes snapped open. Had he fallen into a doze, resting comfortably in the remaining chair by the fireplace? Careless of him, with so many preparations to make before leaving...His gaze fell on Susan, sleeping peacefully in her cradle. That was what must have done it, he decided. Nothing like watching a sleeping baby to lull one into sleep as well.

He pulled himself out of his chair and frowned over the pile of furniture he'd accumulated. He had to get Susan onto the TARDIS quickly; there was some old enemy after her, and the TARDIS was the safest place for her to be right now. He picked up an armful of smaller items. The TARDIS was out back, in the kitchen garden; he'd been here on Earth long enough that ivy was starting to grow up its sides. He rather hated to disturb the old girl after her long slumber, but he'd stayed here long enough. What had he been thinking, anyway? He was nowhere near ready to retire prior to regeneration, and found he looked forward to showing Susan the universe.

Smiling, he carried his armful of baby things toward the back door, and into his future.