What the future holds Chapter 4: Interlude Two: The son in the fireplace, a doctor who fanfic

a/n.: 1, i forgot to put this note up when i posted the chapter first, sorry. to clear things up: this chapter takes place after Doomsday, but before the first chapter of this story.

2, also, i start my exams in two weeks, i have to study, so i don't really have the time to write a proper 'Valiant' chapter, and until then, if I have the time, i'll keep you (hopefully) entertained with shorties, because the plot bunnies don't leave me alone.

3, oh, and a little warning. i'll probably separate the interludes (2nd and 5th chapter so far) from the original stories and post it under another title, because the jumps in the timeline make the story confusing. this way i'll have two separate lines and noone will have to wonder about the random order of the stories. thanks for reading.

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Interlude One - The son in the fireplace

A man and a woman were standing in the middle of a corridor, engaged in a quiet argument. Well, the woman was arguing, and the young man was doing his best to keep himself from snapping at his mother.

"Mom, for the sixteenth time. I have no idea what happened. Really, so please stop bugging me. I'm trying to find a way home."

"I know, Sweetie, I'm sorry. But believe me, it's not a good time and place to be."

"And how come you know that?" asked Alex.

"I've been here before. It happened 'bout fifty one years ago," answered Rose while looking around nervously, but didn't elaborate.

"Aaaand? Where are we?" asked her son, and Rose couldn't smother the chuckle that escaped her, after noticing the excited glint in his eyes. He's always enjoyed the dangerous situations, just like his father.

"On a spaceship in the 51th century. The Madame de Pompadour. And believe me, we want to leave this place as soon as possible. The crew's been killed, and the whole thing is ruled by these evil clockwork-men whose main goal is to steal the ship's namesake's brain," finished the explanation Rose.

"To steal a french tart's brain?" repeated Alex with disbelief, "Did the little thing called 18th vs 51th century escape their attention?"

"No, do you see the window behind you? They are these time window thingies, and they're watching Reinette through them," said Rose, then seeing her son's now brightening eyes, she asked, "Alex?"

"I think I've found a way home!" he exclaimed, "If I can get my hands on one of the devices controlling the windows, I can recalibrate it to take us home," he said, then turned to his mother with a grin that promised her a lot of trouble. "So, do you feel like visiting the 18th century France?"

"No," she said, and for a moment Alex looked crestfallen. "I mean, why should we go? Can't you just take one apart? On this side?" she asked, and something in her tone caught Alex's attention. His mother found it actually painful to even think of going back. He didn't ask about it yet, instead he just replied,

"Because every window is kept up with two modified vortex manipulators. And because we left Dad and Tardis in the 62th century, we'll need the manipulator that keeps up the way from the past to the future. So we have to go back in time to find one and steal it. Come on!" he said, pulling her in the direction of a window.

"I can't," said Rose jumping away from her son, and before Alex could interrupt, she continued, "As I said, I've been there before. I can't risk getting caught."

Alex didn't believe it for a second that it was her reason for staying behind, but decided not to argue, so he just said,

"Okay, then stay here, don't wander off and wait for me," he instructed. He really didn't want to leave her alone, but with her refusing to come with him, he had no other choice. There was another Rose running around on the ship and in the 18th century, so they had to get away, soon, without making a paradox out of the situation.

"You're just like your father," she commented, but it wasn't as light-hearted as it used to be. "Are you sure you don't want to find some less...futuristic...clothes?" she asked while eyeing his jeans and T-shirt.

"No time for that. And I really don't plan on socializing with them. In fact, I think I'll just avoid all of them, steal a manipulator, search for another window and come back for you," he explained patiently, but Rose noted that the excitement was back in his voice.

After a short eyeroll, Rose told Alex about the places she saw time windows at, and silently prayed that her son wouldn't run into his father.

After a quick goodbye, Alex stepped through the window, into a large bedroom. It looked rather expensive, and the furniture suggested that it was a young woman's room.

He worked fast and was careful to be quiet, and it paid off. For the first time in his fifty years his anti-plan gene didn't affect his plan. Or so he thought. Three minutes after he started, he heard voices and footsteps. He quickly stood and hid behind one of the enormous courtains.

While standing there, he understood why his mother didn't want to come with him. She probably didn't want to see his future husband and all-time love snogging the hell out of the uncrowned queen of France. And to be honest, he would've given his right hand to be able to erase the scene from his memory. It was just wrong. He's always believed that his parents belonged together, but now, seeing the Doctor and Reinette he wondered if his father deserved his mother at all. After all, he was eager to replace her with a professional whore.

Three minuter and one departing father later Alex went back to work on the manipulator. But with being rather angry, he didn't notice that he was cuting the wrong wire, with that killing the 'battery' and severing the device's connection to the spaceship.

Nobody's ever realised that this mistake made it possible for Reinette to take the fireplace to Versaille with her without damaging the remaining manipulator, allowing the Doctor to return to the 51th century years later.

But because he didn't know this, Alex just groaned and fought down the urge to kick something, before walking off to search for clothes that didn't scream 'I'm from the future'.

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Seven very long months later –fortunately he was able to make little jumps in time, so it wasn't seven years,- Alex was incredibly relieved to see his father in the king's garden. He even managed to ignore the looks the older man was giving Reinette, and focused on the fact that there must be a working time window in the area.

He was very eager to leave the country and the time-frame behind, seven months were more than enough. He spent it as one of the king's doctors –the irony wasn't lost on him-, and for not the first time in his life he was glad that he decided to attend universities on Earth. 56th century astrophisics and medicine were suprisingly usefule while stranded in the 18th century France.

He was so deep in thoughts of going home –well, to a spaceship, then home- that he failed to notice the Doctor walking towards him. In fact, he actually bumped into the older alien, and was about to apologize for his clumsiness –and pray that his father will forget his face soon- when he noticed the cold glare directed at him. He did a double take at that. Why was he on the receiving end of Ten's glare? He was meant to be the one glaring at the older Time Lord.

His musings were cut short by the Doctor whispering, "Take care of her."

What shocked Alex the most wasn't the fact that he was talked to, but rather his father's tone. It wasn't hard like his eyes, but pained. Like it hurt him to say that; like he was about to lose the most precious thing in his life.

Alex didn't even have the time to ask who he was talking about, because the Doctor hurried away, unknowingly showing Alex the way home. He didn't waste time after that, he went to collect his possessions and the vortex manipulator. Half an hour later he was gone.

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Back on the ship it didn't take long to find Rose. Suprisingly she followed his instructions and didn't wander off.

"Oi. You sound like I go off to find trouble every time you leave me alone," she protested, and Alex decided not to point out that her jeopardy friendliness was legendary in the universe.

"Whatever. Let's go home. I don't feel like running into Dad again," he said and his mother frowned.

"What do you mean 'again'?" she asked, "Did you meet him? What did you see, Alex?"

Alex gave in and said, "Enough to understand why you didn't want to come back with me." He decided not to tell her about the Doctor's mysterious parting words.

Rose nodded sadly and hugged his son while saying, "I forgave him a long time ago. Don't hold a grudge, please. He is your father and he loves us more than anything. Understand?"

Alex looked away; his mother's always could read him well. And her words caused his self-control to slip a little.

"I was so bloody angry. You were...are here, waiting for him, but he ran off with that woman without a second thought. How could he do that? I've always thought that he'd never do that, but...but now I'm not so sure. What if he does it again and leaves you somewhere? What if I'm not there with you then and you get hurt? Hm? What'd happen?... And why didn't you kill him for it? I wanted to wring his neck when I saw him."

Rose remained silent for a while, collecting her thoughts, then spoke,

"I forgave him because I could understood why he fell in love with her. She was smart, beautiful, witty and charming. Everything I wasn't...don't interrupt, son. Compared to Reinette I was a nobody, and I couldn't blame him for realising this. No man would choose the dumb shopgirl from the estates instead of the uncrowned queen of France. I'm over that. And you should forget it too. It's the past."

Alex nodded reluctantly, but inwardly planned to have a long, and maybe painful talk with his father. He's always been protective of his mother, they've had a very close relationship, and the fact that the Doctor was his father wouldn't stop him from giving a piece of his mind to the older man. He also wondered if his father knew about the damage he did to Rose's self-esteem with his little fling.

A moment later he pulled the vortex manipulator out of his pocket. It was working now, the spaceship's energy's charged it up in seconds. He quickly entered the coordinates, but right before opening the vortex he turned back to Rose.

"Look at me for a moment."

"Yeah?"

"I don't care what you or the others say, you, Rose Tyler, are the greatest thing that happened to this universe and there is noone who is worth more than you to me. Not a queen, not a princess and surely not that woman," he said, putting his general dislike of emotional chats aside.

Rose looked up at him with tears in his eyes, hugged him again, then said, "I love you too."

Alex smiled and without another word activated the vortex-manipulator. A moment later they were gone.

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Neither of them noticed that they had an audience. So when they stepped into the vortex, they didn't know that a certain Time Lord heard every word of the last minute of their conversation.

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The Doctor didn't meant to eavesdrop. Really. But when he heard Rose's voice from the room, he became worried. He was sure that he left Rose with Mickey in another part of the ship. So when he heard somebody who sounded like her, he couldn't resist the urge to see if everything was alright.

He wished he had a stronger self control, because of what he saw, he felt his hearts break.

There stood his Rose, an older Rose judging by her longer hair, in the arms of another man.

Another man, who just told her that she was everything to him. A man she loved. A man who wasn't him.

After they were gone, he quickly wiped the escaped tears his eyes, and vowed to forget his love for Rose and let her be happy with the man she truly loved.

With his vow on his mind, he walked off to meet the adult Reinette Poisson for the first time.