Chapter Fifteen

The Doctor threw open his arms as the triplets scrambled up into the bed of the truck.

"Come to me, my children," he said melodramatically. "Come to me, I command…Oi!"

Rose laughed as the children turned and went towards her at the last minute. Imiko chuckled at the indignant look on the Doctor's face. Alan got up into the bed of the truck and walked over to him while the other children followed him.

"Bad luck, old man, I s'pose you'll just have to punish them," he said, sitting down near Rose. "Now my boy is slavishly devoted to me, aren't you, Son?"

"No."

Alan looked at the Doctor.

"Funny, yes sounded exactly like no just then, must be a hearing problem I'm havin', "he said as Chris giggled and crawled over to sit between him and his mother.

Alan pulled out the sacks of White Castles from a special insulated cooler that was designed to keep them warm. While he was doing that, the others got out of the back of their trucks and went over to the side to get their meals. Alan glanced at them when they all came up to the side.

"What are you lot doing here?" he said, feigning confusion.

"Getting our food, Smart Ass, and you better give it to us," Jack replied.

"Oh! You mean this isn't all mine? I'm sorry, I s'pose I was mistaken," Alan replied.

John leaned over the side and looked at Jackie.

"You're not eating with me and mummy?" he said to her.

"I can if you want me to."

"I want you to," John said quickly.

"Okay, I will then," Jackie said, getting up and heading towards the end.

Adam leaned over the side and looked at David and Cameron.

"You wanna come eat with Daddy and me?" he asked them.

David and Cameron looked at each other and nodded as they got up.

"What about our food, Daddy?" Cameron asked.

"I'll bring it to ya, just go ahead and go find a place to sit before the film starts," Theta said to him.

Alan passed out the sacks with burgers, fish, chicken sandwiches and chicken rings to everyone. He smiled as he held out a couple of burgers to Imiko.

"Would you like to try some?"

Imiko grinned.

"Hai, I would, thank you," she said, taking it from him.

"No problem. We usually go inside the building over here for more snacks so no worries about taking a few for yourself and…"

He trailed off when he heard Namid's breathing in his ear while she was looking over his shoulder. He smirked and shut his eyes.

"Oh Rose, yes," he said as the Doctor chortled. "Oh, yes Rose, breathe into my ear and…AH!"

Alan let out a yell when he opened his eyes and looked at Namid. He feigned shock as he put a hand over his right heart.

"Oh my God, it's you. I thought my wife was being a bit naughty tonight," he said as the adults laughed.

"I want my chicken rings, Uncle Alan. I don't know what they look like," Namid said, staring into his eyes.

"What was I doing just now?" Alan said.

"Passing out the food."

"Mm-hmm, do you think that means that perhaps you'll get your chicken rings eventually if you're patient enough?"

"No! Give them to me now!" Namid said.

Sokanon came up beside her.

"Yeah, give us our food."

The adults laughed when Alan was suddenly surrounded by the triplets.

"Um, is this a mugging?" Alan said to them.

"We just want our food," Sokanon said.

"Sokanon, Namid, Chaska, over here and let him pass it out to the others," the Doctor said sternly. "You can wait a few minutes until he gets done."

"Oooo, you just got in troooooooooouble!" Alan said as the three of them went to sit down around the Doctor's legs.

The Doctor relaxed and checked his watch while Alan finished passing out the food. He handed the triplet's and Rain's food to the Doctor who passed it out to them and then he opened a cold cooler for their soft drinks. The Doctor pulled a burger out of its container and bit into it, savoring the greasy taste, mixed with the chopped onions and pickles that lay on top of it. He looked over at his daughter who was munching on her chicken ring.

"Is it good?" he asked her as he accepted her Coke from Alan and placed it in front of her.

"Yeah, but…they're weird looking. I didn' t know they looked like this," Namid said, pointing to the donut-like chicken.

"Well, that's why they're called chicken rings," the Doctor said, handing Chaska and Sokanon their Cokes before taking his own from Alan.

Alan shot Imiko an apologetic look when he noticed she'd finished her burgers and was sitting quietly, observing them all with a small smile on her face. Alan picked up one of his burger boxes and offered it to her. Imiko giggled.

"No, Alan-san, I'm fine. I enjoyed the burgers you gave me but I don't need much sustenance. You go ahead and eat."

Alan nodded and put the box back down. Rose snuggled against him while she ate some of her chips. Alan suddenly had a thought.

"Do we know what movie's up first? Doctor…"

He shut up when he saw the Doctor was staring over at the next truck with an angry look on his face.

"Brother? What's wrong?" he said, looking around.

He noticed John was smirking at him and patting Tara on the head while she giggled.

"Is there a problem, old man?" John called to him.

"Yeah, you have my daughter, you homewrecker!" the Doctor replied. "What are you doing over there instead of sitting with me and your other mother?"

"There's no room, Daddy," Tara said.

The Doctor gestured to the wide open space between him and Rain as they laughed.

"What's this then?" he said, pointing to it. "I think that will be more than enough for you and…"

He trailed off when Namid suddenly grabbed her Coke and bag of food and ran out of the truck. The Doctor watched with feigned anger as she ran next door, climbed up into the truck bed and ran over to Doc.

"Homewreckers!" the Doctor said, shaking his fist at them. "I'll see you both in court as soon as we get back home."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," John said, opening and closing his hand rapidly. "All talk and no action."

The Doctor looked at Donna who was in the third truck. She was seated in between Mingxia and Awinita, eating a chicken sandwich while she chatted quietly with them.

"Donna, attack!" the Doctor said to her.

Mingxia and Awinita bent over laughing when Donna gave him a shocked look.

"I'm not even paying attention to your stupid little rant," she said to him. "I'm over here, eating and chatting with my sisters."

"You're also my sister and you're s'posed to defend me and my honor. Now sic em!"

"I'm not your flippin' doggie, thanks," Donna replied before she ignored him and went back to talking to Awinita.

"Isn't anyone gonna fight for me?" the Doctor said mournfully.

He grinned when Chaska got up.

"That's it, Son, go get em!" the Doctor said as Chaska ran and jumped down off the bed of the truck.

They all watched as Chaska climbed up into the bed of the second truck. John quickly stood up and assumed a karate stance.

"Go on, ya tiddler, I'm not afraid of your scrawny, shrimpy self!" he said.

"Fight!" Adam said excitedly, getting up and running off the bed of the third truck.

John crowed with delight when Adam climbed up into the second truck and stood behind Chaska. With a grin, Doc stood up and stood beside his brother and a second later, Jack and Ianto stood up and surrounded him.

"Okay, now try it, tiddler boy!" John said with a sneer.

He glanced over Adam's head and sighed when the movie previews suddenly started.

"Blast, the movie's about to begin. But we'll finish this later, tiddler."

"What does that even mean?" Chaska said.

"Tiddler's a minnow. It can also be used when a child is a shrimpy runt like you are."

He laughed when Chaska let out a tiny yell and barreled into him before laughing and giving him a hug. John patted him on the head and sent love into his mind before they sat down and Adam hurried back to his place in the other truck.

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The first movie was Empire Strikes Back. Namid had listened to it before but seeing it was a whole different ballgame. She was amazed at just what she had been missing and eventually she stopped eating and just sat and took the whole movie in while she rested against Doc's body. Doc had a slight smile on his face and had his arm draped lazily over her left shoulder while he watched the movie. Namid felt a tap on her shoulder and glanced over at Jackie who had her cup of Coke in her hand.

"Hey, you got anymore of those burgers?" her cousin asked.

Namid shrugged.

"Dada," she whispered to him, "we got more burgers?"

Doc grabbed the bag that was on the other side of his right leg. He glanced into it, pulled out a cheeseburger and handed it to Jackie. Jackie thanked him and crawled on her knees back to John and Rosie who were snuggled against each other.

"I just assume kiss a Wookie. I can arrange that," Jack said, parroting the dialogue in the movie.

Adam chuckled.

"You scruffy-lookin' nerfherder!" he said to him.

"Who're you callin' scruffy-lookin'?" Jack replied.

Namid looked up at Doc.

"Dada, is the scary movie on next?" she whispered.

"I have no idea, Ya'nala, I think your other father has the piece of paper that lists the order of the movies on it."

He took his arm off her shoulder when she crawled to the end, slid down and ran over to the truck beside him.

"My long, lost daughter, at last you've returned to me!" they heard him saying.

John rolled his eyes while Rosie snickered. He glanced at Doc.

"He'll run that whole we kidnapped his children thing into the ground until the day he takes his last breath," he said to him.

The Doctor put his arm over Namid's shoulder.

"Come to enjoy Star Wars with your old man?" he asked her.

"Yes but…when is the scary movie on?" Namid whispered.

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Third. Airplane is next and Flash Gordon is last," he whispered back.

"Can I watch the scary one, Daddy?" she whispered.

"Yeah, me too," Chaska said, looking back at them while he lay on his stomach in front of his feet.

"You wanna watch a horror movie?" The Doctor said to them.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair before he looked at Rain.

"Latara, have you ever seen Friday the 13th before?" he whispered.

"Once, when I was little," she whispered back.

"Would it be too horrifying for ten year olds?"

Rain considered that while the Doctor waited for her answer.

"Well…it's not as bad as Saw or Hostel. It's not all that disgusting torture porn. I mean it is a bit graphic but…Love, they went through the ordeal with the Master five years ago and I think that would have been more traumatizing to them than a horror movie. At least the horror movie is fake."

"I'm brave, Daddy. I won't be afraid," Chaska said, looking back at him.

"I'll be brave too, Daddy," Sokanon said as she sat beside Imiko.

"Me too," Namid echoed.

"I'm brave, Daddy," Christopher said to Alan. "Can I see it?"

"It's your call, Dear," Rain whispered to him.

"I'd rather you didn't but your mum's right, if you can survive the Master, you can survive a slasher film. But…I wanna know if it gets too scary for you, yeah?"

The triplets nodded. Christopher looked up at Alan and Rose expectantly. Alan sighed and made eye contact with Rose for a moment before nodded.

"But, you hear your uncle? That goes for you as well. First time you get too scared, you tell me, alright?" Alan said to him.

Christopher nodded his head before he lay on his stomach beside Chaska and turned his attention back to the movie.

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Once the movie was over, lights came up on the sides of the building beside them and they all slid out to stretch their legs.

"Can we get popcorn, Daddy?" Jackie asked John.

"I s'pose so," John said to her.

The other children clamored for popcorn and let out a yell when their fathers agreed to it. Jack smirked.

"So…you gonna go in…together?" he asked the Doctor.

"You just love it when we do this, don't you?" he asked Jack.

"I get an enormous kick out of people's reactions? Yes."

"What does he mean?" Imiko said to the Doctor.

He chuckled.

"Follow us and watch the other people," he said to her.

Curious, she followed the six brothers as they fell in together behind the three Roses. The rest of the family and the giggling kids brought up the rear. Imiko was walking beside Mingxia.

"What's going on?" Imiko asked her.

Mingxia giggled.

"Almost everywhere we go now, the six of them turn heads because they see Sextuplets and triplets whenever the Doctors and the Roses go in together. We just laugh at people's reactions," she said to her.

"And believe me, they get a lot of pretty women looking their way," Awinita said. "And the men all ogle the Roses. It's great."

They all entered the building and Imiko kept close watch on everyone. Almost immediately, she noticed some people doing a double take and stopping to stare at them as the Doctors and Roses pretended to ignore them and grouped together to find out what everyone wanted. Imiko giggled at the stunned reactions and her sensitive ears picked up the whispered comments from both men and women about how sexy the brothers and the sisters looked.

"See, never gets old," Awinita said to Imiko.

After they got the food orders straight, the Doctor, Alan and John got in the queue while the others went to the restroom and milled about, waiting for them and trying to pretend they weren't being gawked at. The Doctor stood in the queue and talked to his brothers while the line slowly moved forward. When they reached the popcorn section, they took five enormous buckets and gave them to the lady behind the counter so she could put butter on them. While they were waiting for her to finish that, the Doctor glanced at a young lady who was standing in front of him. She was short and thin with long black hair that hung down her back. She had on a white tank top, jean shorts and sandals. Her green eyes stared at him intently and she batted her long eyelashes at him as she smiled warmly.

"Six of ya, eh?" she said with a slightly southern accent.

"Yes, we're sextuplets," the Doctor said as Alan nudged John and they fought to keep from laughing. "Those three women over there are triplets. My two brothers behind me and one over there married them."

"Really?" the woman said. "How 'bout you then, Pretty Eyes?"

"I'm married as well," he said.

The Doctor had to keep from laughing when he saw the crestfallen look on her face. He and his brothers took their buckets of popcorn and thanked the lady behind the counter before moving on towards the cash register. The woman smiled back at them.

"I'm Stacy, by the way," she said.

"I'm Roger. This is Alan and John and that's Adam," he nodded towards Theta, " that's Basil and my other brother is Cyril."

"British?"

"Yup," the Doctor said, grabbing a large pickle for his wife from the counter and handing it back to Alan who had a free hand. "We're British subjects. The triplets are as well. We met them in Leicester at a multiple British births convention."

"I see," Stacy said as they moved along. "So…are any of you single?"

Doc sighed when he saw all three brothers jab their fingers at him and Stacy looking towards him with interest. Doc looked at Jack.

"I hate when they do that. I'm not interested in dating right now," he said to Jack. "They think it's funny when women come up and practically throw themselves at me."

"Well, all the other Doctors have someone, they just want the same for you," Jack said.

Doc sighed.

"Yes, I know that, but…"

"But…what? Rose? You don't wanna date anyone after Rose?" Jack said.

"Partly, but there's another one besides Rose that…well, we had a falling out once and my hearts got broken then as well."

"Grace? Your Grace, I mean," Jack said.

"No. I had feelings for her and I admit I toyed with the idea of a relationship but I had another lover long before that."

"Who?" Jack asked, interested.

"I'd rather not say her name if you don't mind. It was a pretty painful split," Doc said.

"But she didn't die, right?"

"No, she didn't die but I felt like I died inside. I regenerated when we were lovers. It was during my fifth life that we fell in love and my sixth incarnation was bonkers and that was too much for her. I didn't really love again until Rose and after I left her with John, I didn't feel like being with anyone else. And now, that she and him are married, I really don't want anyone, at least not at the moment. Namid is my daughter and for the moment, I'm satisfied with that."

Jack nodded and didn't say anything further but curiosity burned inside him. Doc was from a parallel universe which meant that it might not do any good to ask the Doctor since the relationship might not have happened to him. He had talked to his brother at length over the past two centuries and he knew the Doctor didn't date anyone after Sharina left him and Grace had been the first woman he kissed in centuries. Unless he was lying, Jack didn't know of any lover between his ex-wife and Rose. He considered asking John privately since John would have knowledge of it but thought twice about it. He figured Doc's clone wouldn't divulge anything that personal unless Doc gave him his permission. Still, he couldn't help but ask one more question.

"This mystery woman, have you ever considered going back and searching for her?" Jack asked him. "I mean, you're not in your sixth life anymore and Imiko cured you of being the Valeyard. If she was your first great love, wouldn't you like to try to find her?"

"Perhaps, but I think she's dead now," Doc said, trying not to show any emotion. "At least I think she is."

"But you're not sure..." Jack said. "I mean, I'm sorry if I'm bothering ya, Doc, but…I'd love to see you have just as much happiness as the rest of us."

Doc smiled at that.

"Thanks, Jack. I might try to find her someday but for the moment, I'm content with things as they are," he replied.

Jack nodded and fell silent. When his brothers finally paid for the popcorn and pickle and came up to them, he fell in behind all of them and followed them out to the trucks, his mind still reeling from what Doc had just said to him.