A/N: (Sings the fluffland theme tune) Fluff everywhere I turn! At least,f or the first few chapters. I suppose I'm giving you compensation really, for what I'm gonna do. And thankies to first reviews, I LOVE YOU GUYS! Sorry I didn't reply to them, but as I reasoned, would you rather have the chapter or me babbling at you?

Chapter 2 - A Minty Flavoured Discomfort

The Doctor felt the refreshing rush of westerly wind hit him gently in the face and ruffle his hair as he stepped carefully out of the TARDIS doors and onto the surprisingly smooth concrete of the Powell Estate, the late February midday Sun shining bright in the sky. It was just over a month until they had planned to book in their wedding.

They hadn't yet decided on a Honeymoon – infact they hadn't even decided whether the entire event would take place in London in 2007 or the Planet Londonis in 2700 yet, but the Doctor had the slightest of slight feelings that if Jackie Tyler got in a word edgeways it was absolutely guaranteed to be the former.

He looked around the estate, taking in the surroundings to make sure he hadn't accidentally materialised on a balcony. It wouldn't be the first time. As his eyes scanned the horizon he suddenly caught a streak of purple in the otherwise bland crowd of buildings and half broken cars. He blinked slightly, wondering if something had just seemingly caught the light. He looked again intently – it was gone.

Shrugging it off, he turned back around to the TARDIS doors, offering a helping hand to his four-month pregnant fiancée edging out the door behind him. Police box doors were not, he decided, designed for the mobility of pregnant women.

"Alright?" he asked cheerily as his son ducked under Rose's legs and bolted out into the street, screaming kamikaze as he tore over to the play park on the edge of the estate on natural child's instinct.

Rose nodded to him with a smile, taking his hand as she stepped down from the slightly raised platform of the TARDIS and onto solid Earth ground. The Doctor locked the TARDIS door behind her, slipping the key back in his pocket as he glanced back over to the direction to which the boy had disappeared.

"Rory! Heel!" he called to his constantly hyperactive son, who had already managed to hang upside-down on the monkey bars and make…well…monkey noises. Rose was laughing as the Doctor temporarily let her go, jogging swiftly over to the boy.

Rory giggled as the Doctor neared, stopping just infront of him and slowly turning his head around to try and get Rory up straight in his vision. Rose watched from a distance as he feigned falling over with the impossible task, Rory's child laughter prominent through the ever constant loud background noise of running cars on every single road, people chattering in the high street in distinctive London accents and the booming music of a nearby disco, already in full swing.

The Doctor got up from the sanded floor below the monkey bars, brushing himself off. He launched out both hands and grabbed Rory under the arms; pulling him off of the monkey bars and easing him gently back onto the floor on both feet.

Rory sulked.

"I wanted to play," he moaned in a loud voice, tugging on the Doctor's coat as the both of them started to walk back to the still laughing Rose.

"Tell you what," the Doctor started, swiftly sweeping him up off of the floor as he reached Rose. "I promise you we'll play in that park before we leave. Fair?"

Rory brightened immediately. "When?" he asked impatiently as the three of them started to walk to Jackie's flat.

"Soon."

"Wheeeeeeeeen?"

"Soon..."

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen?"

"Soon!"

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen?"

The Doctor sighed. "Tomorrow!"

"When tomorrow?"

The Doctor stifled another sigh, glancing in Rose direction. She was still laughing.

"You know the problem with your son?" she asked vaguely as they reached Jackie Tyler's door, the Doctor ringing the doorbell.

"What?"

"He's exactly like you."

The door swung open.

"You aliens don't 'ave birth certificates?"

"Yeah…but it wouldn't exactly be valid here, would it?" the Doctor countered his soon to be mother-in-law as she dropped down in the one-person sofa across from him and Rose.

"And you've never thought to get one?"

He shook his head, lips pursed. "Why would I need one?" he dug into his trenchcoat pocket from where it was draped over the back of the sofa, flashing her the psychic paper which was now displaying some kind of ID. "Got everything I need with this little thing."

"Well, if you want Rory to be humanly educated he's gonna need to exist," Jackie said, taking a sip of hot refreshing tea.

He shrugged, nonchalant on the subject. "Bleh," was all he had to say on the matter. Jackie was increasingly finding him an inappropriate parent. He picked up the newspaper Jackie still had open on the coffee table, slipping on his glasses and flicking through it absently without actually appearing as though he had seen a single word of it.

"Stupid humans," he muttered, "Today's top story: Cat Stuck In Tree."

He flicked instantly to the crossword, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he scanned over the clues, his free right hand taking a pen from the side.

It was 11:00pm in the Tyler household and with the big day just over a month away in real time, Jackie Tyler was becoming no less than frantic about everything to do with it and Rory. Tomorrow Rose was going for a dress fitting and the Doctor would be left in charge of the flat and Rory – never a good combination.

"Hmm, five letters: A minty flavoured discomfort." He tapped his pen absently on his chin, thinking hard. Rose could only shrug, her mother with her. "Minty, minty, mint…mint…"

"Daddy…Mummy…" came a small voice suddenly from the doorway and the three adults turned to see the small form of Rory Alexis Sigma-Tyler dressed in pyjamas with his hair all over the place hovering nervously. Jackie glanced pointedly at the clock, before walking over to him and kneeling down to his height in confrontation.

"Rory sweetheart, you're supposed to be in bed," she said gently, rubbing his arm. He seemed dishevelled, pulling away from her and rubbing his eyes, fighting the tears.

"I tried," he said instantly, looking back over at his father, the want to go to him prominent in his pleading eyes. "I don't like it."

The Doctor pushed himself up a little in his seat, tossing the paper back onto the table along with his pen and glasses, beckoning his child to him. Rory al-but ran to him, jumping onto the sofa and crawling instantly to the Doctor, hugging his middle tightly in desperation. The Doctor hugged him back, letting him silently whimper into him for a few moments before finally pulling him away, staring down at those two big sad eyes.

"Another nightmare?"

He nodded, lower lip trembling.

"Same as last night?"

He nodded again – then promptly burst into tears. He heard Rose move behind him as she bounded forward to her tearful son, making to pick him up. The Doctor shook his head rapidly. Heavy weights and pregnant woman – when would she learn? Instead, he gestured for her to sit infront of him on the sofa, and then gave him to her. Rory turned, clinging onto his mother as Jackie took her seat opposite the two parents, keeping silent.

"Tell me about it."

Rory swallowed, fists tightening on his mother's maternity dress as he looked up to his dad.

"S-she's there…" he whispered as Rose held him supportively. "She st-stands there…sh-she keeps…s-saying she wants m-me to t-tell…you s-something daddy…then…then she st-starts screaming…a-at me…and I c-can't move…."

"Do you know what she wants to tell me?"

He shook his head. The Doctor glanced at Rose, who just shrugged unhelpfully.

"Can you tell me what she looks like?" he asked. Rory nodded, sniffing back more tears.

"Sh-she's got p-pretty…blonde h-hair…and…and she w-wears this white…d-dress."

"How old would you say she was?"

"Like m-me."

Rose lifted her eyes to the Doctor's own shining brown ones, unable to read what he was thinking through them as he stared down at Rory, scratching behind his ear in contemplation. After a few seconds of only Rory's stifled sobs, the Doctor finally spoke out loud:

"Give me a smile," he said, brushing away his son's tears delicately. "The only thing that makes a Time Lord cry is an onion. Girls are there to capture you with their smiles and then run away with your hearts. Got that?"

Rory nodded, reaching out a small hand and pressing it to the Doctor's chest where he could feel the strong steady beat of one heart prominent, the other beating dully in the background. Rory moved his hand to the other side, the dull beating becoming stronger as the other became softer.

"You got two boom-booms," Rory said factually, his tears now entirely at an end. "Boom-boom, boom-boom. I got one boom-boom," he stated, resting his hand on his own chest. "Why?"

The Doctor smiled gently back at him. "You'll get another heart like me soon Rory, when you're older."

"But I want it nooooow," Rory whined loudly, looking a little more than dejected.

The Doctor pouted his lips, miming the syllable of his next word as Jackie and Rose both smiled at the child's words.

"When your older."

"But I want it NOW!" Rory repeated firmly, folding his arms determinedly. "NOW!"

"Well…how about if you go to sleep now, maybe you'll wake up with another one in the morning?"

"I don't wanna go bed," Rory instantly said, squirming against his dad's grip as the Doctor made to pick him up to carry him back into the spare room. "She'll be there."

The Doctor paused in mid-movement, letting his hands fall to his sides as he considered.

"Okay then," he started, dropping back down on the sofa. "How about you stay up with me, mummy and granny for a bit?"

Rory nodded quickly.
"Can I watch gory horror movies?" Rory asked in his cute child's voice, the words so innocent on his tongue.

"No," Jackie said instantly, the extremely protective grandparent side coming out of her.

"Daddy lets me watch gory horror movies."

"No he doesn't," the Doctor said instantly.

Jackie glared at him, lips pursed. Oh, he was going down, fast.

"You're too young," was Jackie's final word on the matter.

"Grown-ups get all the good stuff," Rory grumbled. "Like two hearts and gory horror movies."

"Only your daddy has two hearts."

"My daddy's the best!" Rory declared loudly, "when I grow up I'm gonna be just like him."

"Oh, you don't want my neuroses," the Doctor said, taking the blanket hung loosely over the back of the sofa and draping it carefully over the boy. "Gotta swim through them in my mind."

"Noo-what?" Rory asked tiredly, slumping against his mum and closing his eyes – already. "I love you daddy. I love you mummy. I love you gran…" – he yawned loudly – "…ny…"

They only had to wait a few seconds before Rory was back asleep again in Rose's arms. She readjusted him slightly so she was a little more comfortable, before finally looking up at the Doctor.

He knew her question before it had even passed her lips.

"What d'you make of the nightmare?"

The Doctor scratched behind his ear again, clicking his tongue as he struggled to think. "We need to keep an eye on it. A metaphorical eye, of course…" he added hastily, dragging a hand across his hair and making it all stand on end. "Probably just wild imagination, but if this apparition is really demanding I speak to her then it could be something a tad more real. I suppose we shouldn't really worry though. It's affecting him a lot more emotionally than anything normally would. Could be some kind of emotional telepathy along the brainwaves – or, like I said, he's creating the dream himself."

"…You like using technical words, don't you?"

He nodded, grinning. "Yup," he answered, popping the 'p'. He spent a few more seconds in his own confined Doctor world…before he looked at Rose, surveying her face.

"You're tired," he determined, and he wasn't wrong. "Bed for you. Long day tomorrow. I'll do another scan, see how she's coming, sound good?"

She nodded, carefully manoeuvring her way off of the sofa trying not to disturb Rory in his slumber. Jackie was getting up too.

"I'll loiter here for tonight," he said, and then nodded to Rory. "Keep an eye on him."

Rose nodded, giving the Doctor a goodnight hug and kiss before also giving Rory a kiss on the forehead – then she disappeared into her room, Jackie disappearing into her own.

The Doctor turned back to the sleeping child, sighing gently as he knelt down next to him and lifted him ever so slightly to put a cushion under his head as a replacement for Rose's lap. Without the TARDIS – Jackie had gonna as far as to take the keys and hide them – and a sleeping boy on the sofa he could do nothing to entertain himself except the crossword on the table.

He dropped down onto the sofa, taking the newspaper in hand as the clock ticked quietly away.

A/N: Y'know I said about the chapter or me babbling at you? I think I'm just abbling at you either way. I'm surprised you guys clung on for so long :D It's plotless crap, really.