Chapter Ten
The TARDIS landed just down the street from Doctor Prevensie's office. Everyone stepped out and the Doctor led them as he kept his eyes on the numbers on the front of the houses and businesses along the street. The planet they landed on was called Azure, named for the deep blue sky above them. Twin suns shone down onto the Earth-like planet and the green grass in front of the buildings swayed gently in the warm breeze. Before landing the Doctor had called the office number and made an appointment to see Doctor Prevensie. They landed a half hour before Namid was scheduled to see him.
The Doctor stopped in front of a one story rectangular office building. It was made of glass and inside they could see a large lobby with several chairs and tables. Beside the chairs and tables there was a hole in the wall. Behind it, the receptionist sat while she spoke on the telephone. The Doctor checked the address on the sheet of paper, glanced at the numbers beside the glass doors and nodded to everyone before they went inside.
The moment they walked inside, Jack winced when he heard the muzac softly playing from a speaker mounted in the wall beside the hole in the wall.
"Ugh, I hate this kind of music," he said to Ianto as they went to sit down in the seats.
The Doctor walked up to the receptionist and signed in while Doc led Namid to the seats and everyone else followed them. The men and Namid sat on the left side of the room while the women sat on the right. Namid sat on her father's left side. An empty space on the other side was reserved for the Doctor who was now paying the receptionist. Namid had her Little Mermaid bag with her and she reached in for her CD player and her Harry Potter audio book while Doc casually picked through the magazines on the table beside him. Beside the empty seat were John, Alan and Adam. John and Adam were watching Alan while he played Civilization on his Nintendo DS and making comments about what he should do. Beside Adam, Theta was casually thumbing through a science magazine he found on the table beside him. On the other side of the table, Jack and Ianto talked quietly to one another. Across the way, Rose, Frankie, Rosie, Marion, Rain and Tara chatted quietly. When Doc first came to their family, he had been confused as to which Rose was which so to help him out until he got used to them, the three women decided to follow the brothers lead and change their appearances slightly. Rose kept her usual look with the long blonde hair that cascaded down her back. Rosie cut hers until it was back to shoulder length and Marion did the same to hers and died the ends of her hair black since it was the fad on Gallifrey. After five years, they had decided they liked the varying looks and kept them even though by now Doc could usually tell who was who.
The Doctor finished with the receptionist and sat down beside Namid. He looked at Doc.
"That's taken care of, it shouldn't be too long until we go in to see him," he said to his brother.
"Good, I just hope that he can cure Namid," he said, gesturing to Namid who was slumped in the seat, eyes closed while she listened to the Half Blood Prince through her earphones. "And if you want a magazine, I'm afraid there are slim pickings, Brother. I've looked through them and most of them are automotive or home decorating."
"Ugh!" the Doctor said, making a face. "Okey-doke then."
Namid giggled when the Doctor took her headphones off her head and slipped them on.
"I will listen to Harry Potter then," he announced loudly.
"Hey, give that back," Namid said, taking the headphones off his head.
"But I'm bored, what am I s'posed to do?" the Doctor whined.
"Suffer!" Namid said.
She giggled and hunkered down when she sensed the Doctor staring at her. With an impish grin, he began to poke her repeatedly in the side while Doc chuckled. Rain walked over and patted him on the head.
"Now, now, Dear, quit harassing your daughter," she said.
"Yes, Dear," the Doctor said, folding his arms over his chest.
Rain gave him a kiss and put her hand on her daughter's head as she leaned over into her face.
"Baby, we were just talking and we decided that if the operation is a success, then we need to take you somewhere to celebrate. So where would you like to go?"
Namid turned her CD off and thought it over.
"I think we should take her to the opera," the Doctor said.
"A splendid idea. How 'bout the Marriage of Figaro?" Doc added.
Namid tapped Rain's arm.
"Yes, Baby?" she said.
"Mum, if I have to go to the opera, can I stay blind?"
Everyone laughed at that while Rain nuzzled her nose.
"Seriously though, Sweetie, where do you wanna go?" Rain asked.
Rain swung her legs back and forth while she thought that over.
"Alan!" Namid called out.
Alan looked up from his game.
"Hang on, mates, someone's hailing the SS Enterprise here," he said, handing his DS to Adam.
He got up and walked over to her as Rain stepped aside. He got down beside her face and mimed pressing a button.
"This is James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. What do you want, ya Romulan?"
"Huh?" Namid said as they laughed.
"Never mind, Sweetie, what'd ya want?"
"White Castles."
Alan's eyes nearly bulged out of his head at the mention of that. Namid grinned.
"Daddy, does he have frog eyes now since I said that?"
"Uh…yeah, he does, Rainbow," the Doctor said as they laughed.
"Good, I thought he might do that. I thought we could go somewhere and get White Castles for my trip," Namid said.
"That's all? You gain your eyesight and you wanna look at frying burgers?" Alan said in disbelief.
"No, I wanna do other things but I like to have some White Castles," Namid said.
"Well, we could go back to Sky-vue for another dusk to dawn film session since there's a White Castles nearby," Alan said.
"And since that's in Indiana, you'd get to have your sugar cream pie again," Rose said.
Alan turned to look at her.
"Now wait a moment. She's the one that suggested White Castles, I just suggested films since you need eyes to see films and since the Sky-vue is just down the road from the White Castles I thought It'd be a good choice for her special night," Alan said.
"But it's also a way for you to get what you want," Rose said.
The women giggled when Alan's mouth dropped open and he shot her an indignant look.
"Fine, fine, I'm going back to my game. She's the one that called to me, you know," he muttered as he stomped back over.
"Ought-oh, Alan's feelings are hurt," Rain said.
"I don't mind going to get his sugar cream pie, Mummy. I like sugar cream pie. Uncle Alan, don't be sad. We'll get your pie," she called down to him.
"Thank you, Namid, I appreciate you saying that. At least you don't jump down my throat at the mere mention of pie," he said to her.
"I do not jump down your bleedin' throat, Alan Timelord, Jesus," Rose said as Tara giggled. "He is such a man-baby sometimes."
"And you're a bit hard on me sometimes," Alan shot back. "But…for the sake of keeping the day harmonious, I won't say another word. I'm going back to my game now," he said, taking it from Adam.
The Doctor chuckled when he noticed his daughter was bent over and looking his way with a sad look on her face.
"Don't worry, Rainbow, he'll cheer up in about two minutes or less," he said to her.
"I don't mind if he goes to get pie," Namid said to him.
"We know that, Love," the Doctor said, barely containing his laughter. "Honestly, we're just taking the mick out of him. He'll be alright. If you want us to stop so he can get his sugar cream pie, we will. Just calm down and listen to Harry Potter, yeah?"
The Doctor and Doc exchanged a glance as Doc put a comforting arm around his daughter's shoulder while she slipped her headphones back on her head. She turned her CD on and Doc smiled when she leaned back against his arm. The Doctor smiled when Doc gave her a small butterfly kiss on the head before he settled back in his chair and rested his eyes.
"Surely you can't be serious. I am serious…and don't call me, Shirley. Surely you can't be serious. I am serious…and don't call me Shirley. Surely you can't be serious…"
"Alan, will you answer your mobile so we won't have to hear the stupid ringtone anymore?" Rose said, looking at him.
Alan sighed, passed the game to Adam and pulled his mobile out.
"Hello? Hey, Lan, how ya doin'?" he said into the mobile.
"Lan?" Doc said, looking at the Doctor.
"Mate of his. They met several years ago when Alan was taking a class in painting at the Arts Academy," the Doctor said to him. "They were sitting beside each other and became close. He calls him on occasion and they go out and do things together."
"I see. What about the ringtone?" Doc said.
"You've never seen Airplane?"
"I don't think so."
"I think you were gone that night. Alan decided to have the wee ones over for a comedy film night and he showed them the first Austin Powers movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ghostbusters and Airplane. He'd never seen Airplane before that night and now he likes it. Several years before you joined us, Awinita showed us how to download ringtones off the internet and he found a couple that pertained to Airplane. What you just heard was one of the jokes from the film."
Doc nodded. The Doctor grinned and slid the headphones down off of Namid's head.
"Huh?" she said, looking at him.
"We were just talking about the Airplane film Uncle Alan showed you."
A huge smile spread over her face and she giggled.
"That was funny," she said.
"Dada's never seen it before," the Doctor said.
"You've never seen Airplane, Dada?" Namid said in shock.
"Nope, never have."
Namid's eyes widened.
"Ooo, we could do that, Daddy. Go to the Sky-vue on the night it's playing so Dada could see it."
"I think that's doable," the Doctor replied.
"Yay!" Namid said. "You'll like it, Dada, it's funny."
Tara got up and walked over to her. She bent down in her ear.
"I gotta get out of here! I gotta get out of here!" she said in a panicked voice.
Namid giggled and lightly slapped her cheek.
"Stop that. Get ahold of yourself!" she said as the Doctor chuckled.
"What's this?" Doc said, gesturing to them.
"Another little bit from the movie. There's this panicky woman passenger and people start slapping her and trying to calm her down and eventually this line forms down the aisle of people who wanna beat her up," Tara said to him.
"It's funnier when you watch it," the Doctor said after seeing the odd look on his brother's face.
"Well, gee, Ya'nala, I figured you'd wanna watch the Harry Potter movie since you're listening to it," Doc said.
"Not yet, I wanna finish the book first," Namid replied.
She paused a moment in thought while Tara went and sat back down beside her mother.
"Daddy?" she said.
"Yes?" the Doctor said.
"I don't understand something 'bout the book," she said, tapping the CD player.
"Yeah?"
"I'm at the part where they're in the cave and Dumbledore's drinking the potion in the bowl," Namid said.
"Yeah?" the Doctor said.
"I don't get the horcrux thing. I mean, Dumbledore said Voldemort split his soul into all these pieces, how can you do that?"
"Uh…well, I don't really know if you can do that, Sweetie. I always kinda viewed it as a metaphor for losing a part of yourself if you murder someone," he said. "Killing someone does change you. That's why I don't want anyone I know doing it."
"But that's why he keeps coming back, cause he's got his soul in all these places?"
"Right, because as long as one of these horcruxes are left, he can still come back to life."
"Is that why Uncle Jack can come back to life?"
Adam, Alan and John sniggered as Jack leaned forward to look at her and then got up. Everyone laughed as he cleared his throat loudly and walked over to her.
"What was that? Are you saying that I have split myself up and I'm now in several objects?" he said as she giggled.
Namid shrugged.
"Just saying that's what Voldemort did," she said, patting his cheek.
"Well, I'm not Voldemort, Tootsie," he said, poking her in the belly as she laughed. "My soul is in one piece, thank you very much, so don't you be telling lies and calling me Voldemort, you hear?"
She laughed when he kept on poking her belly.
"Okay, you're not Voldemort."
"You're darn tootin' I'm not. Voldemort, bah, I could eat Voldemort for breakfast!"
Namid laughed as he walked away from her ranting about how wussy Voldemort was before sitting back down beside Ianto. The Doctor snickered at that and then noticed Doc's melancholy look. He put up a privacy block around his mind.
Brother, what's wrong? He thought to him.
Voldemort. If anyone's Voldemort here, it's me. I could have passed for him five years ago, he thought back.
Brother, don't, the Doctor thought back.
Well, it's true. I was that evil once, he thought to him. I did bad things.
So did I. I've killed too so don't think you're the only one, the Doctor thought. That's why I don't ever want any of our family members killing anyone because I know what It's like to damage your soul like that. You're not that way anymore, Brother. That's in the past. Imiko cured you, so please don't feel guilty any longer.
Doc nodded as the Doctor patted him on the shoulder and sent love into his mind before dropping the privacy block.
"Namid Smith?"
The Doctor glanced at the receptionist when she called out Namid's name. The Doctor used the last name of Smith when making appointments or filling out forms for her or any of his other children. He glanced at his family.
"Who's going in with me?"
"I will," Doc said.
"And me," Rain said, getting up.
Everyone else declined and waited while the Doctor and Doc took their daughter's hand and led her towards a security door that slid open beside the window when the receptionist pressed a button.
