Ok, so this story sort of ignores Gridlock. And probably most subsequent episodes.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Or part of one of the last sentances which I nicked from Hithhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

xxx

The Doctor sat on the floor in the centre of the living room, with Aurora sitting in front of him. He'd sent Jack and Martha to the TARDIS to find something that glowed or just generally looked alive. Rose sat on the sofa, watching them in curiosity, as Pete and Jackie were in another room looking after Jenna.

"Right!" The Doctor said excitedly, "let's see what you can do," he shifted slightly closer to her, as she watched him intently. He held up his hand. "How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked. She put her hand up too, holding up four fingers. "That's right," the Doctor said, "but can you say that?"

"She's only six months old," Rose interrupted, "you can't expect her to speak yet."

"Five!" Aurora answered, giggling. The Doctor gave Rose a smug grin as she stared at her daughter in amazement. He held up his hand again.

"Now how many fingers?" he asked.

"Three!" Aurora answered.

"Very good!" he encouraged, holding up his other hand. "Now how many?"

"Seven," she answered correctly.

"Well done!" he said with a smile, looking up at Rose. "Most Gallifreyan babies can speak as newborns, you know," he said.

"Maybe so, but remember she's only half Gallifreyan," Rose said.

"Quarter," the Doctor corrected quietly. "What's three times six?" he asked.

"Eighteen," Aurora answered.

"What about 259 times 445?"

"Oh come on you can't expect her to answer that!" Rose argued, but she was quickly proved wrong.

"115,225," Aurora answered quietly. The Doctor grinned at her.

"Well done!" he laughed, then looked up at Rose. "By the age of five Gallifreyan children can recite their 2,337 times table," he said proudly.

"But…" Rose said quietly, not entirely sure where to take her argument. "She's just six months old."

"And very smart for a six month old, don't you think?" the Doctor asked proudly. "You just haven't been giving her the right opportunities."

"But… but…" the Doctor sighed.

"Ok, we'll take it down a level or two, shall we?" he said, then turned back to Aurora. "Who's that?" he asked, pointing at Rose.

"Mummy!" Aurora answered with a laugh.

"Very good, and who's the evil witch in the other room?"

"Grandma."

"Ooh, she is smart." Rose decided not to get mad at the Doctor for calling her mother an evil witch. The Doctor paused, watching Aurora curiously. "Who am I?" he asked. Aurora stared at him for a few seconds, then looked over at Rose, then back at him. She started sucking on her fingers as she watched him. "I'm your daddy," he said finally. She continued to stare blankly at him. "We'll have to work on that," he muttered. Then he reached into his jacket and pulled something out. "Let's see what you make of this," he said, handing her the physic paper.

She turned it over and over a few times in her hand, looked up at the Doctor, then back at the paper. Rose shifted off the sofa and onto the floor to get a better look at what her daughter was doing. All she could see on the physic paper were random lines appearing and disappearing, squiggles swirling across the page. A second later, her eyes widened as the seemingly random lines and squiggles began to form a picture.

"Oh wow," she whispered.

"What's she doing?" The Doctor asked, unable to see the physic paper from his position. Aurora finished the picture, and gave the paper to Rose, who looked at it with a smile.

"She drew you," Rose said, turning the paper round to face him. Sure enough, on the paper was a line drawing of the Doctor. He grinned when he saw it, and looked at his daughter.

"Come here," he laughed, picking her up. She giggled as he hugged her affectionately. "Can she walk yet?" he asked unexpectedly.

"I don't know, I've never really given her the chance," Rose answered guiltily. The Doctor looked at Aurora with pity.

"Aw, no wonder you were always crying, probably bored stiff," he said to her, jigging her up and down, "I'll have to find you something fun to do with your time." He then stood up and carried her a few steps across the room.

"Knowing you, something 'fun' probably means an internal combustion engine," Rose muttered.

"Oh there's all sorts of fun you can have with an internal combustion engine," the Doctor replied, then put Aurora on the ground, standing her up. He then walked over and sat next to Rose. "Come on," he said, putting his arms out. She watched him for a second, before taking a hesitant step forward towards him. "That's it!" he encouraged with a grin as she walked towards him. When she reached him, he picked her up and held her in the air for a moment, then put her down in his lap. "See?" he said smugly to Rose.

"That's the weirdest thing I've ever seen," Rose marvelled.

"What? I've taken you to the far reaches of the galaxy and the weirdest thing you've ever seen is a baby walking? I'm insulted," he looked down at Aurora as she played with his finger.

"No I mean, she's only six months old, and she's walking and talking! It's weird."

"There's far more where that came from," the Doctor said, giggling himself as she put his finger in her mouth and sucked on it thoughtfully.

Suddenly a shrill ringing shocked them all as the Doctor's mobile phone went off. He awkwardly handed Aurora to Rose as he searched his suit for his phone. He quickly found it, looked at it, then held it to his ear.

"Jack!" he greeted.

"Doctor, hi," Jack's voice came, clearly audible from the phone. "I don't know exactly what you're expecting me and Martha to find here, but we've got nothing." The Doctor sighed and leant back, rubbing his eyes.

"You sure?" he moaned.

"Yep, positive," the Doctor sighed again.

"Fine, I'll be there soon," he said, then hung up.

"You can't go now!" Rose complained as the Doctor stood up.

"I don't have much choice, the longer I'm here the longer the Daleks are out of the void," he said as he headed across the room.

"WHAT?!" Rose shouted, and the Doctor spun round and looked at her slightly guiltily.

"I didn't tell you about that, did I?" he muttered awkwardly, and Rose shook her head. "I'll explain on the way back to the TARDIS," he said quickly.

xxx

The Doctor and Rose walked down the long driveway of the Tyler mansion, after dropping Aurora off with Jackie and Pete to look after. The Doctor hadn't wanted Aurora's first time in the TARDIS to be when the TARDIS was dead. After finally managing to get away from Jackie who was trying to convince him to meet Jenna, they managed to get away.

"Now tell me exactly what happened," Rose said angrily.

"It's not that bad, I can just go back to the same time that I left and take care of the Daleks, so they won't have been out for long," he said, trying to convince Rose to calm down.

"Did you open the void just to get back here?" Rose asked, unsure whether to be angry or flattered.

"No," he said quickly, "Well, not entirely. See, the Master came back and he had a Dalek with him. The black Dalek, it had escaped from when we sucked the rest of them into the void. Anyway, I think he was planning on kidnapping you to make me help him open the void, 'cause the Dalek had promised him more regenerations if he released the other Daleks. Stupid man, wouldn't believe me when I told him that the Daleks would kill him as soon as they got what they wanted. Anyway, when he realised you weren't there he tried to open the void anyway, and…" he paused, trying to think of an excuse for endangering thousands of lives just to get back to her. He stopped walking as a save of guilt suddenly washed over him. Rose seemed to notice this, and took his hand.

"Can't you just do what you said?" she asked, "Go back to just after you left and stop it all?" For a moment, the Doctor didn't answer.

"It's amazingly hard to navigate through the void," he muttered, "the chances I'd get it right are… slim," he ran a hand through his hair. "But that doesn't really matter yet because until we get the TARDIS working we're not getting back at all," he said and began walking again.

"Do you think we will be able to get it to work?" Rose asked.

"Should be able to, we could before," he answered, though they could both hear the doubt in his voice.

xxx

Soon after, they arrived at the TARDIS. They went through the doors and stood inside for a second as they let their eyes adjust to the lack of light.

"There you are!" Jack said, walking up to them, "hope you can find something 'cause we sure as hell can't." The Doctor nodded, and walked up to the consol.

Rose looked around herself with a smile. Even if it wasn't exactly how she remembered it, it felt amazing to be back in the TARDIS. She watched as the Doctor leant under the consol and looked through the wires below the floor. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and did a scan.

"Anything?" Rose asked, and he shook his head.

"Nothing," he muttered sadly.

"Isn't there anything else you can do?" Martha asked as the Doctor stood up. Rose eyed his latest companion. She knew that the Doctor would always love her and that she really shouldn't get jealous, but she couldn't help herself feel a little jealous. She thought back to when they'd met Sarah-Jane... she really did seem to be the jealous type.

"Well, there is one other possibility," the Doctor said, "but the chances of it happening are… astronomical."

"Well we might as well try," Martha said, "so what is it?" the Doctor looked up at his companions.

"If we can get a part from another TARDIS from this universe, we might be able to connect it up," he explained, "but the Time Lords are dead here, just like in our universe. So that's not going to happen." He sighed, searching his brain for another idea.

"Well," Jack said after a few moments, "it might happen." The three of them looked up at Jack. "I mean, like you said, chances are pretty slim, but today seems to be the day for impossible."

"What you talking about, Jack?" the Doctor asked. Jack gave them a grin, then walked out the TARDIS.

xxx

Once outside the TARDIS, Jack pulled out his phone, as the others joined him.

"Back in Torchwood," he explained, "I had a piece of a TARDIS growing in my office. If we're very very lucky, it might just be there in this reality," he dialled a number and held the phone to his ear.

"So what you're saying, is that we have to hope that you exist, you lived the same life, you met me and Rose despite the fact that neither of us appear to exist in this universe, you went through the same series of events that lead you to Torchwood and happen to have that bit of TARDIS?" the Doctor summarised. Jack looked at him.

"Like I said, if we're very, very lucky," Jack held his phone to his hear as it began to ring.

"Hello?" Jack grinned as he heard a familiar voice down the phone.

"Ianto!" he greeted, and the others listened to the one-sided conversation, "I don't suppose you know someone called Captain Jack Harkness?"

"Yes, he's sitting right behind me," Ianto answered sceptically, "who's this?"

"Bloody hell," Jack said, amazed at the fact that his parallel self did appear to have lead the same life. "Don't suppose I could talk to him?"

"Yes, who is this?" Ianto repeated. Jack grinned.

"I'm Captain Jack Harkness," he said cheekily. There was a pause on the other end.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Long story, just pass me onto Jack, would ya?" he heard a muffled conversation on the other end of the line, until his own voice came through the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello sexy," Jack greeted himself.

"Well hello to you too," the other Jack greeted, "Past or future?"

"Parallel universe, actually," Jack answered, internally laughing at the question he'd always agreed to ask himself should he ever cross his own timeline.

"Ah, I see. How can I help you?"

"I was wondering if you happened to have a part of a TARDIS growing on your desk?" Jack asked, aware that if his parallel self didn't have it, it probably sounded like a really stupid question.

"Yes I do as a matter of fact." Jack could hardly believe he was hearing this. Of all the possibilities, they had just what they wanted.

"Bloody hell that's lucky," he muttered, as the three people around him gasped at the fact that, against all the odds, there actually was a parallel Jack with a part of a TARDIS. "Listen, I'm gonna need to come and get it."

"Can I ask why?"

"Long story, basically I've got a TARDIS here, and I need your part to get it working." There was a pause on the other end of the line.

"You have a real TARDIS?" parallel Jack gasped, and he had to laugh.

"Yeah, I travel with a Time Lord called the Doctor. Don't suppose you know him?"

"Never heard of him. But all the Time Lords in this universe are dead – guess they're not in your universe."

"Oh they are, the Doc's the last one. Anyway, we're kinda trapped hear until we can get his TARDIS working, and to do that we need a part of another TARDIS…"

The Doctor looked up to the sky suddenly, frowning thoughtfully. Jack's voice faded into the background as he stared upwards. He didn't know what, but he was sure he felt something. He stared upwards for a few more moments, until he was sure what he'd felt had just been his imagination, then looked over at Jack who was grinning as he hung up.

"We've got a trip to Cardiff!" he announced.

"How do we get to Cardiff?" the Doctor asked, failing to see anyway to get there quick enough.

"Train would be the fastest method," Martha answered. The Doctor looked as if he'd just been sentenced to death.

"Public transport…" he muttered, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "This is going to be a long journey."

xxx

Miles away, something fell through space, hurtling and plunging through the empty vacuum. It had been flying aimlessly through the universe for years, but finally it had something familiar to go to. Something that was attracting it. So it burned through space towards a small, utterly insignificant blue-green planet.

Straight towards the same thing it had been sent by – a TARDIS.