A/N: This chapter is mostly just exposition to the Maitland family (who will be making more appearances in this fic than in canon), but I tried to make it as interesting as possible with some classic Doctor Who-style banter. Hope you don't mind the small break from adventures and/or fluff!
The Doctor parked the TARDIS on the sidewalk right outside of Clara's house, exactly where he had been the last time that he had come searching for her. Rose stepped out of his ship timidly, staring up at the simple building before them as though it were some sort of dangerous, terrifying thing.
"Oh, that's new," the Doctor muttered ominously from behind her.
"What's that?" Rose asked, looking back over her shoulder to see him leaning against the console with his arms crossed across his chest and an amused expression on his face.
"Oh, nothing," he replied breezily. "Just never seen you hesitate like that before. Honestly didn't even know that you had it in you." The Doctor pushed himself off of the console and uncrossed his arms as he lazily sauntered up to join her in the TARDIS doorway. "What's the matter, Rose Tyler?" he whispered conspiratorially. "Afraid of a little, old house?"
"I'm not afraid of anything," Rose replied stubbornly, leveling a glare on him that he no real ire to it. "Done a whole lifetime of domestics, me, I think I know my way around a simple house. I was just worried about you."
"Ah, considerate as always," the Doctor chuckled as he gently brushed past her and then narrowed his eyes on their current objective.
"I read up on the Maitland family before, when I was looking into Clara Oswald," the Doctor explained simply as he cautiously eyed both sides of the quiet, suburban street and took careful note of every detail. "Seems normal enough. George, Angie, and Artie - a basic, twenty-first century family. No idea how Clara fits into it, though."
"Well, let's go and find out, then, shall we?" Rose prompted, stretching her hand out into the space between them and wiggling her fingers tantalizingly in the Doctor's direction.
He grinned as he easily slipped his hand into hers and then dragged her quickly up the front door. He paused awkwardly on the front stoop, however, as he shot her a nervous look out of the corner of his eye. "Have you got a key?" he asked curiously.
"Don't think so," Rose muttered after a moment of speculation. "Not on me, at least." She had taken very little with her from the house when she had originally left it in order to chase after the Doctor. She was relatively certain that she would have found a key by now if there were any keys to be found in the small bag that she had grabbed hastily on her way out.
"Do we ... knock?" the Doctor asked slowly, eyeing the closed door as though it were some new sort of alien species that he had never encountered before and couldn't quite decide if it was peaceful or hostile.
Rose shook her head at him and leaned forward to rap her knuckles against the mottled glass door as she flashed the Doctor a deeply sarcastic look. "How did you ever get on without me?" she asked teasingly.
"No idea," the Doctor chuckled good-naturedly. "Never quite caught on to the domestic approach, me."
"Oi!" Rose protested, but her argument was interrupted as the door opened and a tall, middle-aged man greeted them.
"Oh! Clara," the stranger muttered, staring out at the two of them with a healthy dose of confused concern written on his features. "You were gone a while this time. What have you been up to?" The man - George, if the Doctor's information was to be believed - flashed the Doctor a guarded glance as he added, "Is this the boyfriend that I've heard so much about?"
"Boyfriend?" Rose repeated questioningly at the same time that the Doctor muttered a startled, "Eh?" and instantly dropped her hand to reach up and nervously straighten his bowtie.
"I didn't believe Angie at first," George went on with a casual shrug. "You know how she likes to talk, sometimes. But I should have known it was the truth when Artie started in on it, too."
"Who told you about me?" the Doctor demanded, his expression getting dangerously close to the Oncoming Storm as he openly glared at the other man. "What have you heard? Tell me everything."
"Alright, now, hush, dear," Rose murmured soothingly, tugging pointedly on the Doctor's sleeve to catch his attention, but not breaking her gaze from George as she offered him a cheery smile. "Sorry about him," she muttered, rolling her eyes in the Doctor's direction. "He just doesn't get out much. Bit awkward in social situations. We were just in the neighborhood and thought we'd pop by for a visit! How've you been? Sorry I didn't get a chance to say goodbye before I left ..."
"No harm done," George assured her, waving dismissively with one hand and gesturing them forward into the house with the other. "I know how you like to disappear, though I have to admit that a note every now and then would make us worry much less."
"Right, sorry," Rose apologized sweetly as she grabbed the Doctor's arm and drug him across the threshold behind her. He was still eyeing George wearily, but now he was assessing the inside of the house as well, carefully checking for any changes since the last time he had visited.
"You came at the perfect time," George went on conversationally as he led them through to the kitchen. "Angie and Artie are both home, we were planning on staying in for the day. You should join us for lunch! And your boyfriend, too, of course. I'm sorry, what was your name ...?"
"The Doctor," he answered coolly.
"'The Doctor'?" George repeated in confusion, flashing Rose a dubious look. "Doctor who?"
Rose watched in amusement as the Doctor's hard glare slowly melted into an expression of pleased smugness. he grinned at Rose and raised his eyebrows as he pointed in George's direction. "Ah, there, you see?" he muttered conspiratorially. "Good, isn't it?"
"Sorry?" George asked, looking between them curiously.
"Say it again," the Doctor prompted, smiling eagerly in the man's direction once more. "Go on, ask the question again."
"Doctor ... who?" George repeated dubiously.
"Okay, just once more," the Doctor prodded, closing his eyes with an odd, blissful expression.
"Doctor who?" George huffed for a third time, growing visibly irritated as his confused smile finally fell into an annoyed frown.
"Alright, dear, I think that's enough," Rose finally cut in, raising her brows at the Doctor in a pointed look. "Sorry," she apologized again, flashing George a small smile. "Like I said, it's been a while since he's been around other people. He's come to fancy his own voice just a bit too much. Tends to go on a bit - never really knows when to stop. Also doesn't know how to take a hint." Rose ended her sentence speaking through clenched teeth as she glared openly at the Doctor, who's attention had been caught by a large fern growing in the window and was currently reaching towards one of the green fronds, mouthing hanging open, ready to lick it.
"Where did you two meet, exactly?" George asked, his gaze turning suspicious as he glanced from the Doctor to Rose and back again.
"Long story," the Doctor replied before Rose could open her mouth and attempt to formulate a lie. "And we're sorry, but we can't stay for lunch. We're here on business."
"'Business'?" George asked, raising a brow in Rose's direction. "What do you mean 'business'? What sort of business could you have out here?"
"The Doctor had some work he was doing in the area," Rose explained hastily. "He does ... landscaping. Yes, landscaping," she insisted as the Doctor turned an irritated scowl in her direction. "Which also explains the blue shed out front. He was working a job nearby so we thought it would be nice to just stop by and say hello, make sure that the kids are alright, that sort of thing."
"They miss you, you know," George muttered ruefully as he turned to a steaming kettle that he had evidently abandoned on the kitchen counter when they had interrupted him. "Angie would never admit it out loud, of course, but they both do. The next time you're in town you should take them out somewhere, spend some time together."
"Sounds brilliant!" the Doctor agreed enthusiastically, a wide smile suddenly stretching over his features. "Where are the children, by the way? I'd love to meet them, maybe get to know them, ask a few questions, perhaps even take a few blood samples ..."
"The Doctor loves kids," Rose interrupted, speaking loudly over the end of his sentence as she saw George's eyes beginning to widen with fearful concern. "That's actually how we met! He ... used to be a nanny, too."
Rose bit her lip and silently prayed that her assessment of the situation was correct. Whoever Clara Oswald was, she obviously wasn't a blood relative of the Maitland family, and she clearly wasn't a mere neighbor, either - so that meant that she had to be either a hired employee or a family friend, perhaps even both.
"The ... landscaper used to be a nanny?" George asked slowly, narrowing his eyes at both of them again. Rose noticed that he hadn't contradicted her assumptive claim to be his own hired nanny, and she couldn't help but feel a bit proud of the fact that she had been able to work out the pieces on her own from what little evidence she had acquired.
"Oh, you know - I do a bit of this, bit of that," the Doctor replied casually, gesturing wildly with his hands once more. "I'm a dabbler, I dabble. Ooh, love that word!" he muttered under his breath as an aside to Rose. "Dabble. Brilliant word, that, I should use it more often."
They were saved from having to make up any more ridiculous lies as a young boy suddenly entered the kitchen, his nose buried deep in a book with a plain, dark red cover.
"Artie, look who's back!" George announced, smiling widely as his son finally glanced up and laid eyes on Rose.
"Clara!" the young boy exclaimed, instantly breaking into a bright smile. "It's been so boring while you've been away! Where did you go this time?"
"You ... wouldn't believe me if I told you," Rose replied awkwardly.
"Are you staying for long this time? Are you going to take us on an adventure?" Artie asked eagerly.
"Yes! Of course!" the Doctor exclaimed before Rose could reply. "I've already got one planned - a fantastic adventure! We'll go as soon as you answer some questions."
"We'll what?" Rose demanded at the same time that Artie leaned forward curiously and asked, "What kind of questions?"
"Well, first question is a pretty simple one," the Doctor replied breezily, completely ignoring Rose's question and focusing instead on the young boy. "My first question is - what is that?"
Rose, George, and Artie all followed the Doctor's pointed finger to a small laptop sitting on the kitchen table with the screen lit up and filled with old, antique photographs.
"It's a ... laptop," Artie replied slowly, flashing the Doctor a look that suggested that he thought he was being quite ridiculous.
"Yes, yes, I know that," the Doctor huffed with a roll of his eyes. He stepped closer to the said device so that he could point again, this time putting his finger right up against the glass screen as he pointedly tapped the old, yellowed pictures. "I mean these. What are these?"
"They're pictures I found at school," Artie explained simply. "I was showing them to Dad - he doesn't think they're real."
"Doctor ..." Rose piped up, staring at the lit up laptop screen with wide-eyed shock. "How ... how is that possible?"
"Were did you find them?" the Doctor demanded, still ignoring Rose's questions as she stepped closer to him to peer at the images that lined the small screen. Laid out in front of her was a small collage of photographs from varying centuries, and yet they all shared one common trait - they were all pictures of her. Well, pictures of her and the Doctor, more specifically - most of them from their recent adventures and very clearly (and impossibly) authentic.
"I found them in all sorts of different places," Artie replied with a shrug. "Some were online, some were in history books. One was an old Polaroid tucked into one of my school notebooks. Don't know how it got there, but it's definitely you."
"I've been trying to convince him that it's just nonsense," George muttered exasperatedly as Rose reached out and traced the outline of her own face in full-on nineteenth-century London attire. "It's Photoshop, isn't it? Or something like that. It's got to be."
"Nah, I reckon their real." Rose blinked and looked up from the impossible pictures to see that the same teenager girl who she had met on her first day in this universe had joined them without anybody noticing. The girl was leaning against the doorframe to the kitchen with a knowing smirk on her features as she watched Rose's wide-eyed reaction.
"Look at her face," Angie insisted. "She's as surprised to see them as we were. She had no idea that the photos were being taken."
"Clever," the Doctor murmured, snapping his fingers and pointed them rudely into Angie's face. "This one's clever. She's definitely coming along."
"Coming along where?" Angie asked snidely, turning up her nose at the Doctor as she slowly looked him up and down.
"On our next adventure!" the Doctor exclaimed simply. "What do you say, eh? Fun-filled outing? You two, me, and the nanny? Tell you what, I've been saving this one for a rainy day, but I think it's finally time that we visit the Spacey Zoomer ride! Eh? Sound like fun?"
"Just be back by dinner," George muttered wearily, already waving his hand at them dismissively and turning back to his cup of tea. Clearly, these "adventure"-outings were just another odd memory that the Bad Wolf had instilled in these people, though Rose couldn't for the life of her figure out why.
"Clara, your boyfriend is weird," Angie sighed with a roll of her eyes.
"Weird is fine," Artie commented cheerfully.
"No, weird is cool," the Doctor amended as he flashed them all a wide smile and then darted back out the front door once more, not even waiting to see if any of them would actually be brave enough to follow him.