A/N: Okay, here's the deal. Today is my BiRtHdAy and I'm fifteen years old! I got a whole load done for you all to lavish in. Woo!

Chapter 22 – Rory's Mini Adventure

"We don't even know when they arrived. They were taking us down, one by one, and we didn't even know. First it was Retchok, then Lotch. They just disappeared. Vanished, into thin air. We thought nothing of it, probably the shuttle strikes that had been going on," the nearest lifeform to Rory began to explain as the child started to sonic the handcuffs.

"How long was this over?" he asked.

"About…three weeks. But then they started to appear again…but they were somehow…empty. Were on automatic. Weren't social. Disappeared all the time at breaks and never stopped at work."

"Mind control?" Rory asked with a trace of hope in his voice – he remembered Planet Epthos quite clearly. Rose's mind had been taken control of by the Squds with some unknown burning desire to kill her son, only stopped by the Doctor running an acre in less than six seconds to scoop him up pelt it to safety.

"Worse than that," the lifeform sighed, rubbing sore wrists. "They were replaced. When I 'disappeared' I woke up in this room, found all the people that had disappeared too. They're slowly taking over the hospital. They could do anything with our drugs; our technological developments…what're we going to do?!"

Rory was vaguely aware of all the lifeforms' eyes on him as he absently plagued the dilemma over, turning the Sonic Screwdriver over in his right hand for a moment. They were waiting to be impressed, obviously.

"Can you help us?" one of the lifeforms asked, and Rory paused for a moment before he opened his mouth to answer.

"Yes." He had absolutely no idea how, but as far as his father went with plans Rory had obviously inherited the 'blundering in' gene.

"How?"

"Hmm." Rory began to think, stretching his brain to the limits. What would his dad do? Find the leader, of course. Find the leader and try to reason with them. "Don't matter, just need to know where your evil twin people are so I can find who's in charge and talk to 'em."

"Talk to them?!" the lifeform with the most tentacles repeated disbelievingly. "What…"

"I've gotta give 'em a chance."

The lifeform shook its head in bemusement. "It's funny, I'd almost think you're the Do-"

But he'd already flown out of the door.

Rory had inherited his father's trait of a photographic memory, which made finding the replacements of the staff obscenely easy. He navigated the corridors with ease, keeping an eye out for Uncle Jack incase he was still looking for him but there was no sign. No one noticed him because he was so small, too immersed in their own tasks to notice the small boy running around unsupervised. His daddy wouldn't care as long as he used his common sense, and his mummy would want him safe. However, if his granny got one whiff of what he was up to she'd probably slap his daddy for letting it happen and then proceed to squeeze the life out of Rory with a huge hug.

It took him twenty minutes to find the first one.

They were busy with some kind of scan, but Rory quickly turned heads as he suddenly ran right up to the doctor doppelgänger and grabbed onto the trails of his white coat, tugging desperately with tears rushing down his face.

"My daddy!" he yelled, in hysterics. "Please help my daddy! He's real sick, please help him!"

People were gasping at the sight of the distressed boy, shocked. The doppelgänger had no choice but to follow him as Rory led him through twists and turns of the hospital corridors with tears in his eyes, taking him straight to the MRI room.

"In here," Rory wept, pushing open the door and shoving him inside, knowing the real doctors inside would take care of everything else.

One down, nine to go.

"Niome?"

"Molly?"

"Tara."

"April."

"Kathie."

"Roxie."

"Sasha."

"Are you two quite done?" Jack moaned as he knelt infront of the pair sitting down on some randomly placed chairs somewhere down the Neurology Ward where Rose had tired. "You've gone through every damn name in the baby name dictionary, haven't ya?"

"Probably," the Doctor agreed with a hearty grin, before turning to Rose and rubbing her back gently. "How you doing?"

"Your baby hurts Doctor…" she moaned softly, falling slowly to the left onto him and lifting her arms to hang onto his neck. "Another one Jack…"

Jack checked his watch. "That's five minutes between contractions, Doc."

The Doctor nodded. "We'd better get back to the ward. Second stage is coming."

"I am Rory Alexis Sigma-Tyler, am I addressing the leader of the Perfos?"

"Vanish child, the business of the Perfos does not concern you!" the giant four-eyed squelchy green monster boomed in a grated voice, waving what Rory presumed to be one of its arms towards him.

"But I'm concerned 'bout your business, see, I think you been trying to take over this hospital and imma very suspicious person."

"You will get hurt, child. Go!"

"Naw thanks. I'm not going 'til I've seen everything. Leave, or I'll destroy you."

It laughed, heartily. "And how will you destroy the mighty race of Perfos?"

Rory shot a happy grin. "I'll get my daddy on you."

"And who might he be?"

"My daddy is…" Rory paused for dramatic tension, building up the sense of dread before he uttered the name, "…the Doctor."

"The doctor?" it repeated, sounding a little unimpressed. "There are lots of doctors here, boy."

Rory shook his head, grin broadening even further. "He's not just any doctor. He's the Doctor."

It seemed to go rigid, the squelching sound suddenly dulling away to nothing.

"The Doctor?"

"Yup," Rory replied, popping the 'p'.

Suddenly it was as though alarm bells had sounded, and the squelchy monster was shrieking, "ABORT! ABORT!!!" as it whacked a nearby blue button and was instantly consumed by a beam of bright red light, disappearing into the unknown.

Rory turned, and made his way back to the disused MRI room.

"Ow…ow…OW…Doctor! DOCTOR!"

"Rose I'm right here…" the Doctor held tighter onto Rose's hand, slowly feeling something which he did not care to name spreading over his shoes. Rose had found the position of leaning against him much more comfortable than simply lying on a bed, screaming agony for the Time Lady she was being forced to bring into the world.

"You better bloody stay here!!!"

"I am, breathe deep, you're not dilated yet."

"Dilate my ass! Get this damn thing outta me!!!" she gasped in-between screams of utter anguish, her womb on fire with another bout of a contraction. "GET IT OUT!!!"

"She loves you really…" Jack tried to assure the unborn child as he helped to support Rose, giving the Doctor a glance.

"DOCTOR!!!" she screamed again, digging her nails into his arms. He bit his lip, wondering slightly if he was bleeding at all from her actions.

"Rose I'm right here, you're killing my arms but I'm right here, relax…"

"RELAX?! ARE YOU INSANE?!"

"Okay, don't relax then…"

"AND WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR BLOODY ARMS?! I'VE GOT A FRICKIN' ALIEN COMING OUTTA ME!"

His front was beginning to get suspiciously wet, so he took her face in two hands and pushed it back slightly to reveal two big, wet eyes staring up at him as she cried her eyes out.

"Hey, hey, we knew this would be hard but there's no call for this," he said gently, reaching up his right hand and brushing away the tears before drawing her into a hug and kissing her forehead. "Let's get this over with."

"She's dilated," a voice said from beyond, and the Doctor drew back, gripping her hands tightly.

"Push!"

A/N: There's a question. Has the Doctor got a photographic memory? Everyone I asked said it was a good point. It just came to me for some reason, probably to do with Quantum Leap :D