Relict

by LizzeXX

12/OC -Time Lady- The Doctor and his Bonded, the Professor, have escaped Tenzalore with their lives, new regeneration cycles, and their unborn child surviving their 'Fall.' But with the Promised Land being sought and another woman vying for the Doctor's attention in the Nethersphere, what will become of the Time Lords? What of their child? Or…children? Ninth in the Academic Series.

6. The Caretaker and The Tutor

The Caretaker and The Tutor

The Professor was standing at the console, looking at the monitor, her mouth opened in a wide yawn as she fought to try and keep her gaze on the screen and not close them completely, she was in the middle of reading and she didn't want to lose her place. She was trying to get sleep, she really was, the last time though hadn't quite worked and she'd shifted around so much that the Doctor had ended up rolling out of the bed, and that had woken HIM up. He'd tried to help her, made her warm milk and other things that were supposed to help, but she just hadn't. He'd then decided that, perhaps, a few adventures would help keep the process going. It worked, at first.

They'd gone with Clara to a desert like planet with twin suns…and ended up chained to a set of pillars and left to die by the natives.

The Doctor had insulted them.

They'd managed to get out of it before the sand piranhas could attack them. She'd just had to do her little trick with handcuffs and get to the Doctor's sonic to release the others. It had been full of excitement…but the heat hadn't helped her at all, had actually made her so light-headed on the way back that she was ashamed to say she'd passed out a bit. The Doctor had had to carry her back, not far, but still…she wasn't as light as she used to be. She'd been fine, bit of heatstroke, but fine in the end, had gotten some rest then.

After that, the next time she tried to sleep and couldn't, the Doctor thought that it would be a relaxing trip they needed, so they were going to go to a rather oceanic planet, visit the Fish People, a sort of reversed mermaid of sorts, fish bodies with human bottom halves and humanoid arms that were very webbed on the end. It was meant to be like an underwater aquarium, they could walk through glass tunnels and see the beauty of the ocean around them…they'd ended up being chased away by the people with spears in their hands.

The Doctor had insulted them.

They'd managed to reach the TARDIS, but the room they'd parked it in had been flooded and they'd had to swim through it to get to the box in time. She'd gotten a little bit of a chill, bit of a cold which was miserable for her and caused the Doctor to spend quite a few hours coming up with a baby-safe medicine she could take to help. On top of that, the smell of the salt water had made her ill whenever she got a whiff of it and no matter how many times she'd washed her hair, it lingered for near a week. But being a bit ill, she'd finally felt less warm and gotten to rest. The third time she couldn't sleep though, the Doctor decided that he should take them somewhere that there was a chance they'd be venerated and NOT attacked and, for some reason she couldn't fathom, he decided the Sontarans were the best option. It had all ended with them being chased, lasers flying past them as the soldiers ran after them.

SHE had insulted them that time.

The running had been hard, she'd had to almost use both hands to hold her stomach as they dashed about corners and ducked under bolts and so on till they could get to the TARDIS. She'd thrown up again from the exertion, but it had made her exhausted enough to fall right asleep…on the armchair. The Doctor had been too taken with how peaceful she looked to bring himself to wake her. Now though…now she was tired again and she could only imagine what the Doctor had in mind this time.

But he'd said that there wasn't a different planet in mind this time, but Earth. He'd found a…blip, on the monitors and was leaving it up to her to see if they should go investigate or not. Given his track record the last few times he tried to help, he thought she should be the one to choose this time.

"So!" she looked over as Clara jogged in from where they'd parked the TARDIS, "Where we off to?"

"Clara," the Doctor smiled at her as he peeked around from beside the Professor, leaning around the side of the rotor to look at her, "You look lovely today. Have you had a wash?"

Clara stopped dead and looked at him with no small amount of suspicion, "Why are you being nice?"

"Because it works on you," the Doctor shrugged.

"He's trying to say sorry," the Professor told her, "Because there's not going to be a trip today."

"There's not?" Clara blinked.

"Er, we've got to do a thing?" the Doctor looked at the Professor, silently asking if that was her way of saying that they WOULD be doing this next little trip. She nodded and he smiled, "It might take a while."

"What thing?"

"Just a thing."

"You're being mysterious, and do you know what means?" Clara crossed her arms.

"I'm a man of mystery!" he defended.

Clara scoffed at that, "It means that you are a very clever man making the mistake, common to very clever people, of assuming that everybody else besides your wife is stupid."

"It's not a mistake if it's true," he huffed.

Clara just shook her head, looking more at the Professor, "Where are you two going then?"

"Undercover," the Professor offered, giving the Doctor a sly smile. She knew why he'd wanted to come to see Clara. If she said no to the next trip, then they'd put the TARDIS on random and take Clara on an adventure. If she said yes, he wanted to make Clara think that she wouldn't be seeing them for a few days as a…sort of surprise when they actually DID make this trip. He didn't want her to suspect anything so the surprise would be better, "Deep cover."

"Can he even do deep cover?"

"Oi!" the Doctor cried.

But Clara just continued, "I mean, I know YOU can," she told the Professor, "You've got that whole 'complete the mission' thing going for you," she wanted to add that the Professor could actually concentrate and focus on something for more than a minute or two, but…she'd noticed the woman's attention and focus had been drifting lately, becoming less fixed than she was used to seeing from the Time Lady, and she knew that upset her so she held off, "The Doctor?" she shook her head.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the Doctor frowned.

"Have you seen you?" Clara laughed.

"It's better than his last self though," the Professor called, "Floppy hair, bow tie, purple suit…"

"True," Clara agreed with a joking smile.

"Of course I can do deep cover," the Doctor rolled his eyes at the two of them, so this was what it felt like to be ganged up on…he had to smile a bit at the thought, he was hoping that the Professor would have a little girl, he wouldn't much mind being ganged up on by those two particular women. They'd been holding off trying to determine the gender for as long as his curiosity could hold off for. So no scans of the baby had been run yet. But he was nearing his end, he knew, all that talk of titles last time had made him curious about something else they should be thinking of…

Names.

"Where, the Magic Circle?" Clara teased.

The Doctor shook his head and snapped his fingers, opening the TARDIS doors and gesturing her out them, "We'll see you when we see you."

Clara narrowed her eyes and snapped her fingers to close the doors, "When's that?"

"When we see you," he repeated, snapping his fingers again.

"Hmm," Clara considered the two of them, but for once the Doctor's expression wasn't giving something away, she was used to that from the Professor but not the Doctor, "Hmm. I'll be sure to have a wash."

"Excellent," the Doctor nodded, "I was meaning to bring it up…"

The Professor shook her head, "We'll see you soon Clara," she promised the girl, giving her a small salute as Clara turned to wave at them before she stepped out.

They'd just turned back to the console when Clara peeked back in quickly, making them look at her as she pointed at her eyes and then at them. They chuckled at that, that she'd be keeping an eye on them, before she finally ducked out for good.

"So…" the Doctor moved back to the Professor's side, "We ARE doing this?"

She smiled and nodded, looking at the monitor, "It's too near Coal Hill," she agreed, "And it's not just Clara there, but children as well," she placed her hand on her stomach, the Doctor putting his over hers, the two of them just taking a moment to feel their child kick their hands.

~8~

The Doctor and Professor walked down the halls of Coal Hill School, heading for the staff room they'd been directed to by the nice women in the main office…women the Professor was hoping never to have to see again if they thought they could touch her stomach one more time without her permission. Just because her stomach stuck out from her jacket didn't mean there was a neon sign flashing across it that said 'place hand here.' It was one thing when the Doctor, her husband, the father of her child, did it…it was quite another when random strangers touched her stomach out of the blue. Still, school was going to be starting soon, there was some sort of assembly and then the rest of the school day and they were supposed to meet the other teachers quickly beforehand so that they'd know, if anything was needed, they were the ones to come to again.

"Hold on," they could hear the headmaster speaking as they reached the door, Armitage, they recalled his name was, "There is just er, two more things. Atif's off sick, so we've got a newbie, and we've found someone to fill in for our selective tutoring program, I did ask them to come along…" the Doctor reached out and knocked on the door of the staff room, "Ah, here they are…"

He pulled open the door and they stepped in, Clara visible to them right in the front of the other teachers, her mouth dropping open when she saw them. The Doctor had a broom in hand, had changed his jacket to a sort of long brown coat. The Professor hadn't changed much save that she'd switched her leggings for actual trousers, her boots for flats, and had her hair up in a messy bun.

"Hello," the Professor greeted, "I'm the new tutor, Katherine Smith," it was a sort of private tutoring position, teachers would send students to a small little room if they were struggling to grasp something and the tutor would go over it with them, making sure to get them caught up, get them the individual attention they might need, without letting them fall behind either. They had to be versed in the basic subjects as it was a non-specific sort of position, needing them to be able to teach maths or history or English…

"And I'm the new caretaker. John Smith," the Doctor smiled, his arm around the Professor so it was clear that they were married-Smiths.

A young, rather built, black man with a subtle stubble nodded at them, "Welcome to Coal Hill, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Smith."

"Thanks," the Professor nodded, her hand coming to her stomach, trying not to laugh as Clara started to shake her head in disbelief at them.

"Yes, John and Katherine Smith," the Doctor grinned, "But, you know, here's a thing. Most people just call us the Doctor and the Professor," he gestured at the Professor for the last name, before winking…more at Clara than the others.

"So, if anybody needs us, just give us a shout," the Professor added.

"I'll be in the storeroom just getting the lie of the land."

"And I'll be in the tutor room or wandering about."

The teachers nodded and the Time Lords stepped back, allowing them to leave the room to head to the assembly, "Yes," the Doctor waved them along, making a bit of a sweeping motion with the broom to urge them on, "No body's taking any notice at all. Absolutely good news because it means we must be coming across just as absolutely boring human beings like you though," he frowned and looked at the Professor, "I can't imagine how YOU managed that, you're too extraordinary to be boring."

The Professor laughed and looked over at Clara who was trying to lag behind and speak to them, so she walked over to the girl just as she reached the door, mouthing to the Time Lady 'What are you doing here?!'

The Professor just winked, "Deep cover," and shut the door, moving back to the Doctor.

"Have you got it?" the Doctor glanced at the Professor from where he was looking at a layout of the school on a paper as she pulled something out of her pockets, a small medicine container, like for vitamins or pills, and another rather large brown paper bag.

"Yup," she nodded, "I just have to find the nurse's room and…"

They looked over when the door opened, the Doctor quickly crumpling the paper and stuffing it in his pocket, only to see Clara enter.

"Deep cover?" Clara gave them a look, crossing her arms, as though she were the adult chastising them.

"So, you recognized us, then," the Doctor just smiled.

"You're wearing a different coat," Clara pointed out, "And you've got your hair up," she gestured at the Professor.

"And you saw straight through that."

"I used my eyes," Clara rolled them, "And noticed everything. If you want to go blaming anyone for that it's your wife."

The Professor just laughed at this, "Sadly, Clara, this IS quite close to the Time Lord version of 'deep cover' before the war," they weren't quite a species known for disguising themselves through outfits and things.

"Deep cover in my school?" Clara frowned, "Why? Where's Atif, what have you done with him?"

"He's fine," the Professor promised as the Doctor tried to 'sweep' Clara out with the broom.

"Hypnotized," the Doctor agreed.

"He thinks he's got the flu."

"Also a flying car and three wives," he chuckled, "It's going to be a rude awakening."

"Is it aliens?" Clara asked them, her eyes widening, "Oh, my God, is that why you're here? Are there aliens?"

"It's assembly," the Doctor tried to usher her out.

"You really should get going, Clara," the Professor nodded, "You're going to be late."

"Yes, go and worship something."

But Clara held firm, "Are there aliens in this school?"

"Listen," the Doctor sighed, "It's lovely talking to you, but we've really got to get on. I'm a caretaker now. Look, I've got a brush," he held it up.

"And I'm sure that, once the assembly's over I'll be getting the rowdy students sent to me," the Professor added, "And I really do need the time before that to…"

"Please," Clara cut in, "Is there an alien in this school?"

"Two," the Doctor nodded, "US," he gestured between himself and the Professor, "Now, go. The walls need sponging and there's a sinister puddle."

"You can't do this," Clara shook her head, "You cannot pass yourself off as a real person among actual people, Doctor."

"Oi, what about her?" he pointed at the Professor.

"She's got all those skilly things!"

"And I don't?" he huffed, almost offended, "I'll have you know, I lived among otters once for a month."

The Professor scoffed at that, "You were sulking."

"It wasn't my fault," he turned to her, "You and River went off on your girl's day with Jenny and you let me to my own devices. What else was I going to do?"

"Human beings are not otters!" Clara cut in once more, trying not to shout but keep it to a loud hiss, knowing that there were probably straggling students just on the other side of the door.

"Exactly," the Doctor pointed at her, "It'll be even easier!"

Clara closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead a moment before looking at them, "Ok. One question. And you will answer this question," she turned her pointed finger from him to the Professor, knowing she'd get a straighter answer out of her, "Are the kids safe?"

"Yes," the Professor nodded, "We're here Clara to keep them safe."

"At the moment though," the Doctor HAD to add, "No one's safe. But, soon, the answer will be yes, everybody is safe, if you let us get on."

"It'll probably be best if you pretend you don't know us," the Professor reached out to lightly lead Clara to the door.

"Yes, stay out of our way," the Doctor agreed, "The less you know, the better."

"We'll explain it all later," the Professor crossed her hearts though.

"Go and sing with the otters."

"Hate you!" Clara called over her shoulder as she turned to leave.

"No you don't," the Doctor shook his head, watching her go, before glancing at his watch, "Best hurry," he told the Professor who nodded and stepped out of the room with her paper bag and bottle.

~8~

The Professor stepped up to a small door that said 'Matron's Office' and knocked lightly, waiting till she heard a 'Come in!' from inside before opening it. She stopped short however at the sight before her.

"You're the school's matron?"

The question slipped out before she could stop it. But she couldn't help it, the woman…no girl, it had to be a girl, sitting at the desk before her was younger than she expected, seemingly only just about 21 or so. She was slim, lean, with very light brown hair that seemed a shade darker on the layers closer to her neck, hanging freely around her shoulders. She could see the woman's gray eyes from there, magnified slightly by the thin, wire-glasses perched on her nose. She was fair, with no freckles that she could make out and…she couldn't help but feel like the woman was familiar.

And really, very young for this position.

"I know," the woman laughed though, standing up and making her way over to her, her voice with an alto note to it, "Matron sounds too matronly for me. You can just call me Nurse Smith."

"Smith?" the Professor blinked, taking the plastic gloved-hand the woman offered to her to shake.

"Yes, Leia Smith at your service," she frowned a moment, not sure why the woman seemed put off by the surname, before she realized, "Oh! You're Mrs. Smith, aren't you? The Headmaster warned you would be coming by with vitamins that needed to be refrigerated."

"Yes," the Professor shook herself out of wherever her thoughts had gone, focusing on the reason to come there, the special vitamins that the Doctor had made just for Time Lord biology, even more of a reason to keep them locked away, "Um, my husband also wanted me to ask if I could keep this here too?" she held up the paper bag, "My lunch," she explained, "He's very protective and paranoid and thinks the other teachers will eat it if I keep it with their lunches in the staff room refrigerator."

"That's fine," she nodded, turning to gesture the Professor to follow her to a small, locked, refrigerator that she had the key hanging from a lanyard around her neck for, "Your husband's here too?" she asked for conversation as she unlocked it.

"Yes, he's filling in for the caretaker."

"And that's Mr. Smith?" she inquired, just to be certain, not every woman took their husband's name after all.

"Yes."

Leia chuckled slightly, "Seems like we Smiths are coming out of the woodwork today," she joked.

"Are there many more Smiths here?"

"No," Leia placed the vitamin bottle and the lunch in the fridge and stood up, locking it again, "Just me," she glanced over at the Professor, "Might I ask...how far along?"

The Professor smiled, "Just about 6 months," she offered, she was nearly through her second trimester according to the Doctor.

"Really?" the woman's eyes widened at that.

The Professor's smile slowly curved downward at the look on the woman's eyes, "Is there something wrong?"

"No," Leia said quickly, smiling a bit too much, "Nothing at all."

"Then why are you looking at me like I'm about to pop?"

"Because you look it," Leia sighed, "I don't mean any offense, I don't, it's just...one of the other teachers had a baby not too long ago and she looked just about that big near the end. And if you're that size already, and it's only 6 months..."

"This...isn't the normal size?" the Professor started to frown at that, her hands coming to rest on her stomach. She hadn't really thought about that. She'd just thought she'd been eating too much, but...if what the woman said was right, and Time Lords WERE very close to the humans in terms of pregnancy, then this wasn't normal. She was too big and...what if...what if that meant something was wrong? What if she was making the baby too fat? What if there was something ELSE going on? What if it was a...a tumor or something?

"It's probably fine," Leia tried to reassure her, "Everyone's different, everyone holds their weight differently. But if you're about 6 months you should also look into getting tested for gestational diabetes if you haven't already. Around this mark is when most women do and..."

"Yes," the Professor cut in, swallowing hard, rubbing her stomach, "Thanks, I...I will..." and she'd scan for some other things as well, not wanting to freak out at the moment, not wanting to worry. There was...a lot about to go on and she needed a moment to prepare herself. She needed to make sure she was mentally ready to handle it if the results were bad. She just...needed a moment to regroup.

Leia looked up as the school bell went off, signaling the end of the assembly, "Just, um, come round whenever you need them, I'm here all day, even on my break."

"Thank you," the Professor nodded, turning to head out, not noticing the young woman starting to smile as she watched her go or shaking her head at her.

"No problem at all, Professor," she murmured with a small chuckle to her words as though the word 'Professor' was funny, before she went back to her desk and prepared for the day's inflow of students.

~8~

Clara was sitting in her English class, knowing all her students were very bored to be reading 'Pride and Prejudice' out loud, but it was part of the curriculum and had to be got through. She sighed, turning the page, when she paused, hearing a sound that was NOT reading and looked up…

"Though unheard by Lydia," one of the boys was reading, "Was caught by Elizabeth, and as it assured her that Darcy was not…"

He was cut off very suddenly when Clara stood up quickly from the desk, staring across the room to the back where the Doctor appeared to be standing on a ladder, his head and body half stuck through the open window.

"You alright, Miss Oswald?" the boy looked up at her.

"Yes, Kelvin, I'm fine," she nodded, "You…carry on."

Kelvin eyed her a moment before getting back to the book, "Every feeling of displeasure against the former was so sharpened…"

Clara tried to, as calmly as possible, walk down the center row of her students and to the back of the room, wincing as the chair she pulled over to climb up and speak to the Doctor dragged on the floor, making that ungodly screeching noise that had the entire class turning back to watch her, "Can I help you, Mr. Smith?" she asked, her jaw tense, her words short.

"Wrong," the Doctor pointed past her absently as he worked on one of the locks.

"I'm sorry?"

"On the board," he nodded past her, "Wrong. Wrong."

Clara looked over her shoulder, first at the writing on the board, 'The famous Jane Austen, 1797, 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,'' before her gaze flickered to the students, staring at her.

She spun around, "Oh, no, no, no, no," she shook her head, trying to speak quietly, trying NOT to let on that she was familiar with this man, "You don't do this. You are the caretaker, this is not what you do."

"Just taking care," he shrugged.

"Not your area!"

"Jane Austen wrote 'Pride and Prejudice' in 1796," he corrected, "I should know," he murmured, "She and the Professor gossiped like you wouldn't believe…"

Clara cleared her throat to cut him off talking about time travel and turned back to her class, introducing them, "This is Mr. Smith, the temporary caretaker, and he's a bit confused."

"Not in 1797!" he huffed, speaking louder as he pointed at the board again, "Because she didn't have the time. She was so busy doing all…"

"Oh, what?" she snapped, rounding back on the Doctor, "I suppose she was your companion, was she? And you and your wife took her on holidays with you and then you got kidnapped by Boggons from space and then you all formed a band and met Buddy Holly!"

The Doctor blinked at her, "No…the Professor and I read the book," he told her, "There's a bio at the back. The Professor loves Jane Austen, second to Dickens of course, I'd read her the books and there was a little bio and…"

Clara closed her eyes as the children giggled, whether from her enormous flub there in shouting at the man or from her being corrected by such a simple thing or because the man had just spoken about he and his wife reading together and the children found it oddly adorable she didn't know.

"Just get down," she whispered to him.

The Doctor moved to climb down, but stopped and looked at her, "Boggons?"

"Go," she waved him off, the school bell ringing just as he started to climb back down, "Right, that's it," she spun to her class, hopping off the chair and hurrying away, "Well done, Kelvin. Get going. See you all in a couple of days. Thanks very much."

"Miss," Kelvin called as she reached the doorway, "What about our homework?"

"Who asks for homework?" she scoffed lightly, "Amateur," before hurrying away, needing to find either the Doctor and scold him for that, or the Professor to have HER scold him for that.

She nodded to herself, the Professor it was.

~8~

The Professor was walking down the halls of Coal Hill, absolutely mortified…because she was lost. Somehow she'd managed to get LOST in the school that was more simple than the halls of the dorms in the Academy. She was utterly, utterly horrified at the realization that she'd gotten turned around somewhere and now had no idea where the nurse's office was from there.

Wonderful.

She sighed, reaching the end of the hall before spotting the courtyard to the side. At least she could see that. She was about to head into it, knowing that the Doctor wanted to meet there for lunch and that he'd be more than willing to walk with her to the nurse's office once he got there…when she heard a lesson going on.

"Come on," a man that sounded like the black teacher that had been standing by Clara before and greeted them to the School spoke, "It's really very simple. What is the circumference of the circle?"

"But how are we supposed to know?" a young girl asked and the Professor found herself walking over to the door and peeking in, seeing it WAS the teacher from before, standing before a small board with a circle drawn on it, a line was extended from the side of the circle to the middle of it with 24 written on it.

"I taught you the formula for circumference yesterday," the teacher pointed out, "Check your notes and then answer the question."

The students flipped through their notes but still seemed confused.

"Look," the teacher sighed, remaining calm despite the slight failings of his class, "If the radius," he pointed at the line, "Is 24, then the circumference is…"

"Is the radius important?" another student called.

"For the formula," the teacher nodded.

"But isn't it important to find the area too?" the first student, the girl asked.

"Yes."

"So is that circumference or area?" the second student shook his head.

"Ok," the teacher sighed, "Look, I'll give you the answer and then we'll work backwards. The circumference of this circle is…"

"150.8," the Professor answered, "If you're rounding up. Otherwise it's 150.79644737…"

"Mrs. Smith!" the teacher greeted, surprised, "Um, class, this is the fill-in tutor, Mrs. Smith," he looked over at her, "You ARE good," he muttered, "Working that out to all those decimals," he turned to the class, "See, if you apply yourselves you can be that clever too."

"But aren't the circumference and area the same formula?" a third student called.

The teacher paused before he turned to the Professor, "Would you care to tell them how you came to your answer, Mrs. Smith?"

She shrugged, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star."

"What?" he frowned as the class just stared at her.

She smiled, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star. Circumference equals 2 pi R."

"Why couldn't you explain it like that!?" the girl turned to the teacher, "That's so easy!"

The teacher seemed startled at that and focused on the class again, "So…right, if that's…if that's the formula, then how did Mrs. Smith get 150.8?"

"Cos it's 48 times pi," the second student called.

"And that's…"the third scratched it on a paper, likely only going up to 3.1415 as most did when it came to pi, they couldn't recite all the way to the end of it like Time Lords could. It DID end, it just took…a very, very long time to get there, "150.792!"

"Which is…"

"150.8," the class recited.

"And if circumference is 2 pi R, then the area is…"

"Pi R squared!"

"Excellent!" the teacher cheered just as the bell went off, "Right, for homework do problems 1-15 on page 103, ok?" he turned to the Professor, offering her his hand, "Danny Pink," he introduced, "Maths, obviously," he laughed a bit, "Thank you for that. I didn't know that rhyme, wish I had. Woulda made this a lot easier."

The Professor nodded, "Recreational Mathematics member," she told him, "Er…my school was very advanced."

He nodded at that, "Um…was there a reason you popped in? Not that it was bad," he added quickly, "Just…"

She smiled, "I got a bit turned around and when I was on my way back to the nurse's I heard your lesson. Just wanted to peek in but I saw the problem. Never could resist a good math problem."

"Well I'm grateful you did," he blinked a minute, "You said turned around?" she nodded, "Do you need any help getting back? I got lost the first few days too and…"

"Yeah, actually, that'd be great," she nodded, "I just need to find the nurse's room?"

"Down the hall," he pointed, "Go right at the intersection and at the second intersection make a left, it should be on the right, about 5 doors down."

"Brilliant, thanks!" the Professor gave him a small salute before heading off.

~8~

The Doctor was working on a junction cupboard in the courtyard of the school, a small garden set up around it, listening to one of the teachers…a man with floppy hair and a bow tie that reminded him very much of his last self…speaking with two others, the black teacher from before and another.

"Oh there's a bit of rivalry," the teacher was laughing, gesturing between the other two, "These two are giving the young boys a run for their money."

"How so?" the Doctor asked.

"We both maintain the 'Coal Hill Cadets,'" the second teacher remarked, "Sort of like a faux platoon for the boys to help exercise and teach them responsibility and maturity."

"And 'we both' are?"

"Danny Pink," the black teacher introduced, reaching out a hand to shake the Doctor's.

"Leto Stewart," the second teacher added.

The Doctor could picture the Stewart bloke as more the military lead than Pink, and it wasn't just a bias towards the name Stewart in relation to people in armies, but he just had that air about him. Pink seemed mild-mannered, quiet, stuttery at times, while the other man held himself with more assurance and strength. The man was tall and muscular, wearing a simple white t-shirt and black slacks. He had a hint of stubble, blonde like his very short hair that stuck up with a tuft of hair in the front, the blonde making his green eyes sharper. He definitely had the sense of an army man to him, more so than Pink.

"And what do you both do when you're not making soldiers out of boys?"

"I teach maths," Danny offered.

"I'm PE," Leto added.

The other teacher laughed, "A right little drill sergeant he is," he patted Leto on the shoulder, "The kids even call him that instead of coach or anything else…" he looked over when he heard the sound of breaking glass, "Mohammed, put that down!" and hurried off.

"And you were both soldiers," the Doctor eyed them as they nodded, "Why?"

"Runs in my family," Leto shrugged, "Always felt like there was an honor in it, in helping people, saving them, defending them when they can't defend themselves."

"Your dad in the military?"

"Both," Leto replied, "Mum and dad," he started to grin a bit at the thought, "Mum ended up outranking dad though, never lets him forget it either."

"Really?" the Doctor smiled, thinking a bit of the Professor in that.

"Oh yeah," Leto laughed, "Mum was more the front-line sort of person, or the one coming up with the battle plans, Dad was more use helping the injured, though he did get a little more into it when mum started moving up in the ranks. Wanted to do better to protect her I suppose."

"Interesting," the Doctor murmured, "What about you?" he looked at Danny, "What's your story?"

Danny just shrugged, "Always dreamed of being a soldier, Dan the Soldier Man."

"Er," Clara's voice called as the Doctor looked back to see her behind him setting down a watering can and hurrying over, "Excuse me. Mr. Pink, I think class 9M4 are waiting."

"Right," Danny nodded, "Thanks," he gave the Doctor a nod of goodbye before hurrying inside.

"And, er, Mr. Stewart," Clara turned to him, "The break time's almost over, didn't you mention something about two-ball football today?"

Leto's eyes narrowed, "I get the feeling you're trying to get rid of me, Miss Oswald."

"No," Clara blinked, "Why would I?"

He just grinned, "Let me guess, one of the kids broke something you need Mr. Smith here to repair without the Headmaster knowing."

"Yes," Clara nodded, "Yes, exactly that, so if you could…" she gestured for him to shoo.

Leto laughed, "Good to meet you Mr. Smith," he reached out and shook the Doctor's hand before heading off, shaking his head at Clara as well as he went.

Clara let out a breath and turned to the Doctor, "So, Pink? The name remind you of anything?"

"Yeah," he mumbled focusing on the cupboard again, "The color."

"Colonel Orson Pink," the Professor corrected as she joined them, her paper bag in hand, "The one from the end of the universe."

"Oh, yeah," the Doctor nodded, "Ok, yeah. Same name, doesn't look anything like him though."

Clara gave him a look for that, glancing at the Professor as if to ask if he was being serious, before turning to him again, "Looks very like him."

"Does he? I don't know, all you humans look alike."

"YOU look human," Clara pointed out.

"You look Time Lord," the Professor set the bag down on the cupboard and pulled out a small lettuce, cheese, and…what looked like potato sandwich, taking a bite of it.

"Ok, well then how are we alike if you can tell each other apart?"

"Clara I'm almost insulted you think I'd ever mistake my wife for anyone else," the Doctor mumbled, ducking into the cupboard to stick a small device inside it, three green lights lit up on it, "She's too lovely to think she's human."

"Way to make me feel lovely Gramps," Clara deadpanned.

"Not my fault she's beautiful," he called from in the cupboard, swinging out a moment later to lock it, ending up with a peck from the Professor as he stood.

"What are you doing?" Clara frowned as he closed the cupboard, seeing the green lights blinking, "What…what's in there?"

"So," the Doctor just turned to Clara, his arm moving around the Professor's shoulder as she ate her lunch, "Is he here then?"

Clara grimaced slightly as he took a bite of the Professor's odd concoction when she offered him one, "Is who here?"

"The one that you keep going on serious dates with," the Professor swallowed.

"If he is," Clara crossed her arms, "Are you going to start talking like normal human beings?"

The Doctor laughed, "We promise we won't. I'm being nice!"

"Doctor…" Clara sighed as he turned to lead the Professor back into the building.

"Clara!" the floppy haired teacher called as she followed, "Got this period free, yes?"

"No," she answered promptly before sighing, "Yes."

The Doctor and Professor looked over, eyeing the man she was talking to, the Doctor shaking his head with a grin.

"Great. Shakespeare!" the man cheered.

"Sorry, what, Adrian?" Clara looked at him.

"Oh, I see…" the Doctor murmured as Clara neared them.

"You see what?"

"Nothing," he held up his arms, "Nothing at all."

"Excuse me," Adrian smiled at them, turning Clara to the side a moment, "We have to talk about 'The Tempest.'"

The Professor shook her head as Adrian led Clara off, "I really think there IS nothing at all there," she remarked.

"What?" the Doctor frowned, "Isn't that the boyfriend?"

"I don't think so," the Professor shook her head.

"Why not?"

She gave him a soft smile, "Would I ever be standing there like that," she gestured at Clara who seemed distracted, irritated, annoyed, and rather short with the man while still trying to be awkwardly polite, "If YOU were beside me?"

The Doctor blinked and paused to consider that, studying Clara a moment before looking back to the Professor to comment…only to see she'd walked off and hurried to her side, taking the paper bag from her hand and shifting it to his other so he could hold her hand as they walked on.

~8~

The Doctor paused outside the door to the caretaker's storeroom, a little plaque on the door reading 'caretaker' on it. The Professor crumpled up the paper bag of her lunch, still having a few more minutes of it left before she'd be needed back in the tutor's office to join him. He reached out and pulled one of the devices he'd stuck into the cupboard from his pocket, lifting it up to place the blinking green light in the hanging plant above the door. They'd stuck them to a few places on the way over, on some of the lights, just below a fire alarm trigger, on some drain grating, making a wide circle around the school to get back to the storeroom.

They'd passed a rather interesting bit of graffiti though, 'Ozzie loves the Squaddie.' The Professor had laughed at that and tried to consider which squaddie it was as she was very sure that Adrian wasn't a squaddie, a soldier could always recognize another soldier, and thought that to mean that she was dating one instead. She knew of only three though, her, Danny Pink, and that Leto bloke she'd seen leaving the courtyard as she'd arrived. She'd mentioned it and the Doctor had been insistent that it was HER. Which had confused her a moment, till he added that of course Clara would love her grandmother.

"And one for luck," the Doctor pulled his hand away from the basket before unlocking the storeroom and stepping inside, smiling when he saw the TARDIS parked in the back, the room more like a small storage shed, with shelving for supplies and a small workbench with a toolbox on it.

"Come on," the Professor tossed her crumpled bag into a rubbish bin next to the door, "Let's see the lie of the land. I need the layout to know what we have to work with," she could have just looked it up on the TARDIS monitor, but they needed to make sure that their sensors and devices were working properly anyway.

"Time to see what's going on," the Doctor agreed, heading into the TARDIS…just when they heard the door open behind them.

"Hello?" a young girl called out, "Oi. What are you doing?" she moved closer to the TARDIS, "Are you in there?"

"Maybe if we're very quiet she'll go away," the Doctor whispered to the Professor, the two of them just within the threshold.

"There's been a spillage in Geography, I need some paper towels!" the girl huffed, not leaving.

The Doctor rolled his eyes but turned around and stepped out of the TARDIS, the Professor coming to join him, standing in the doorway with the door half-shut behind her, "Can't you read?" he pointed to a sign that was hanging on one of the shelves nearby, right by the door.

"Course I can read," the girl crossed her arms, "Read what?"

"The door," he mimicked her stance, "It says, 'Keep Out.'"

"No, it says, 'Go Away Humans,''" the girl corrected, making the Professor laugh.

The Doctor frowned at that and went over, turning the hanging sign around to see it did indeed say that, "Oh, so it does. Never lose your temper in the middle of a door sign."

"What were you doing in there?" the girl tried to look past the Professor who stepped out fully and shut the doors, "What's that box?"

"The caretaker's box," the Professor shrugged, "Every caretaker has their own box."

"It says Police," the girl pointed out.

"Well then that means there's a policeman in there too."

"In case of emergencies and children," the Doctor came back over, pulling a packet of paper towels off a shelf and half-shoving it into the girl's arms, "Towels, there, go."

"What was that green glow?" the girl was persistent, they had to give her that, "There was a green glow coming from in there. What was it?"

"Of course there was," the Doctor rolled his eyes, "What's a policeman without a death ray?"

"Oh look," the Professor cut in, giving the Doctor a look for that, knowing it would make the girl more curious, as the school bell rang, "There's the bell. Off you go, you have class to get to."

"I'm going to tell the Headmaster," the girl threatened.

"Oh, yes, fine," the Doctor waved her on, "Well, cut along, you're running out of time."

"For what?" she frowned.

"Everything."

"Human beings do have incredibly short life spans," the Professor had to agree there.

"Frankly, you should all be in a permanent state of panic. Tick tock, tick tock."

The girl gave them both an odd look, "You're weird."

"Yes, I am, she's not," the Doctor nodded at the Professor, "I'm weird, she's brilliant. What about you?"

"I'm a disruptive influence," the girl smirked at that, proud.

"Good to meet you," the Doctor shook her hand.

"And you."

"Now you'd best get to class," the Professor cut in.

The girl rolled her eyes, "Ok, ok," and turned to go, giggling slightly when Clara entered, "Hello, miss. Love to the Squaddie."

"Sorry, what did you say?" Clara turned to watch the girl hurry off.

"See?" the Doctor nudged the Professor, "I think that girl likes you," he glanced at his wife, "Sends her love and all."

"If she meant me, I'm sure she would have said it TO me," the Professor pointed out.

"What was she doing in here?" Clara called, walking over to them but pointing over her shoulder at the door the girl had disappeared through.

"Paper towels," the Professor shrugged, looking at a small clock on the wall. She knew how to get to her office from there, but she could always feign getting lost if she was late back to it, she could spare a few more minutes.

"Now, I imagine you have many questions," the Doctor looked at Clara, "Fire away. I won't answer any of them."

"I might," the Professor offered Clara, "Depends on the question."

"What were they like?" Clara asked.

"What were who like?" both Time Lords asked, equally confused.

"The others before me," Clara shifted, "You mention them sometimes, but like…did they let you get away with this kind of thing?"

"One helped him break into a school," the Professor nodded at the Doctor, "Disguised herself as a dinner lady to do it."

"Another helped us infiltrate a school in 1913," the Doctor added.

"One…well, actually that was UNIT that got us into that school, but she DID help us infiltrate the Ood Sphere."

"Ooh, and Amy and you snuck into that school for the alien-fish-vampires…"

Clara shook her head, "And what happened to all those schools?"

"He blew the first up."

"Then the strawmen attacked and the boys were sent home."

"The students turned on their headmaster and left into a poisoned fog."

"And the headmistress ended up being an alien that jumped into a canal of carnivorous fish."

"So basically you're telling me if you show up to a school, it means it's in danger," Clara deadpanned.

"Yes," the Professor said at the same time the Doctor said, "No."

"Clara it's fine," the Professor tried to reassure her, "We're here."

"Yes," she pointed at them, "You wouldn't be here if there wasn't an alien threat nearby. And your strategy for dealing with it involves endangering this school, doesn't it?"

"You don't know that," the Doctor defended.

"I don't know anything because you haven't told me anything," Clara huffed, "Which means I wouldn't approve, which means you are endangering this school!" the Doctor just rolled his eyes and flicked the sonic on, creating a holographic green glowing globe in the middle of the room, "What's that?"

"It's a scanner," the Professor told him.

"Yes, I'm scanning," the Doctor added, "Why do we keep you around?"

"Because the alternative would be putting all this on the Professor's conscience and you'd have to find another granddaughter," she deadpanned, before sighing, "Scanning for what?"

"Any alien technology in this vicinity should show up," the Professor frowned, watching as the Doctor continued.

"I used to have a teacher exactly like you once," the Doctor murmured.

"Don't you still do?" Clara pointed at the Professor.

"Look," the Professor nodded at the scanner, watching as what looked like a machine with four robotic legs, almost like a spider's, appeared. It seemed to be a humanoid robot top-half attached to the base, but it wasn't human-like, but more insect like, like a cross between a Silurian and a robot head, and weapons affixed to its arms.

"What the hell is it?" Clara frowned.

"It's a Skovox Blitzer!" the Professor recognized, "Ooh I haven't seen one in ages! They're one of the deadliest killing machines ever created…"

"One of, not the most," the Doctor added to Clara though she knew it wasn't to reassure her but because he was defending that his wife, even heavily pregnant, was still likely the most deadly.

"It probably homed in here because of Artron Energy emissions," the Professor continued as though she hadn't heard that, though she felt an odd cross of pride that she 'still had it' but also that what she had wasn't a good thing to have, "You've had enough of them in this area over the years thanks to us. You see that," she started to point to different parts of the armor of the Blitzer, "There's enough explosive in its armor to take out the whole planet."

"Then leave it alone," Clara suggested.

"No," she shook her head, "That's not how they operate. Sooner or later it will creep from where it's hidden itself and someone that thinks they're military will try to attack it. And if we alert Torchwood or UNIT about it they WILL attack it and it will not be good. No," she looked at the Doctor, "WE have to take it out first. Come on," she turned and headed into the TARDIS.

The Doctor just grinned widely as he watched her go, turning off the image, he loved it when she was in her element, even if it was a more military one. He knew she didn't like that she knew so much about the army and weapons of other species, like the Blitzer, but he knew that her knowledge helped keep people safe and, like now, avoid major disaster. He was determined to get her to see it like that again. Remembering how she knew things like this, remembering the War and all she learned in it, upset her and caused her stress, but he wanted her to see it wasn't all bad. If it hadn't been for the War, neither of them would be like they were now, and who knew, maybe, they wouldn't have been together by now. If she didn't know all that she did, there would have been so many more devastations that hit the earth that they would have had trouble stopping.

Clara sighed but followed the Time Lords in, up to the console, "So, your insanely dangerous plan is…" she blinked as the Doctor just held up a digital wrist watch that the Professor tossed him, "A new watch. Tiny bit disappointed."

"It's a very special watch," the Professor defended.

"And not just because the Professor made it," the Doctor added slipping it on and pushing a button on the side…vanishing before Clara's very eyes.

"Doctor?" Clara blinked, trying to look around for him, seeing that the Professor was keep her gaze focused on HER and not giving away where to look, because she was sure that the woman could hear him breathing or thinking or something, "Oi! Ow!" her hand flew to her nose, "Did you just flick my nose?!"

"Clara, priorities," the Professor called.

Clara frowned, but then it hit her, "You're invisible!" she gasped, realizing that, he hadn't just teleported or something, he was really invisible, "Ha, ha! Oh, my God, that's incredible!"

"Correct," the Doctor spoke, Clara turning to follow his voice around the console, "I am invisible and I am incredible."

"It's simply a matter of reversing light waves," the Professor called to him, tilting her head back as though to talk to him slightly behind her and Clara could guess that he WAS behind her because she could see her jacket shifting and a slight wrinkle forming on the front of her shirt that had to mean he was beside her with his hand on her stomach.

"Hang on, I'm coming back," the wrinkle was gone and, a moment later, the Doctor reappeared, just as Clara thought, right beside the Professor.

"So the plan?" Clara got them back on track, not about to be distracted by this.

"We give the Blitzer a tiny trace of non-threatening alien tech," the Professor began, "And lead it back here. We don't want it to scan the decoy though, hence invisible."

"So you're…you're leading the thing here?" Clara tensed, "To a school? My…MY school?"

"My school?" the Doctor scoffed, "Oh, that is telling."

"Clara, do you really think we're THAT irresponsible?" the Professor frowned, holding up a hand, "Do you really think I'M that irresponsible?" she corrected when Clara opened her mouth, "It would be after hours, after every single person but us has left," she crossed her hearts for that, "This is the only suitably empty place in the area."

"We've set up a circle of time mines around the school," the Doctor added.

"Chronodyne generators."

"Bit unstable…"

"She didn't need to know that bit," the Professor sighed, tossing one of the devices to Clara to look at, the little blinking green lights flickering, "We switch them on and the Blitzer gets sucked into a time vortex, and dropped off billions of years into the future."

"It's dead easy," the Doctor agreed, "Tiny bit boring. I'll need a book and a sandwich."

"Mmm…I could go for another sandwich," the Professor rubbed her stomach. She'd just eaten two sandwiches on the way over, and some crisps, some brownies, a bag of carrots, and drank it down with a large bottle of tomato juice…and she was hungry again.

She frowned at that, her rubbing hand becoming more slow and thoughtful, making the Doctor look over at her with concern for how her thoughts had suddenly jumped to what she wanted to it to the fact that she wanted to eat again.

"Then let me help," Clara offered, making them look over at her, "You're not doing this alone," she tossed the Doctor the device back.

"I've got the Professor," the Doctor shook his head, "That's all I need. Really could do this single-handedly but we're a team so…"

"Yeah, and she can't exactly be running all over the place, she's about to pop!" Clara gestured at her, "How long has it been for you two, couple of months instead of weeks this time? Am I going to have a…a cousin tomorrow?"

The Doctor frowned, looking at the Professor as she looked down, focusing far too much on the monitor than was normal. It was like Clara's words had upset her, but he didn't know why…was it that she thought Clara was calling her fat? He shook his head, no but…he knew the Professor wouldn't say anything with Clara there.

"We don't need you this time," the Doctor reaffirmed, looking at Clara, firm about this, "We'll see you tomorrow. We'll go somewhere nice. Ancient Egypt. Crocodilopolis. They worship a big crocodile there, so the name is a useful coincidence. Go and canoodle with your boyfriend," Clara blinked at that, seemingly surprised that they'd worked out her boyfriend was AT the school with her, "Come on. We weren't born yesterday. Far from it."

"You did recognize him," Clara smiled, for a moment she'd thought that the Doctor had been genuinely uncaring about the connection, but she supposed the Professor had pointed it out. Orson Pink, Danny Pink, her future timeline? It should be obvious, but the Doctor was…rather focused on the Professor and the pregnancy, he didn't really seem to be that integrated and fixated on the humans any longer.

"Possibly reminded me of a certain dashing young time traveler," the Doctor shrugged.

The Professor managed to roll her eyes at that, knowing that he was very certain that it was Adrian that was Clara's boyfriend…she was leaning more towards Danny Pink. The squaddie remark, and then bringing up Orson had made her think of the man, how it had been connected to Clara's timeline. She…couldn't be certain though. Because Clara hadn't specified who her boyfriend ACTUALLY was.

For all she knew, Clara had gone on ONE date with Danny Pink, had been distracted by his phone call and that had taken them to Danny's timeline instead. For all she knew, after that first date, Clara decided to date that Leto bloke instead. For that time, when Clara had been in the process of dating Danny Pink, her timeline WOULD be tied to his. But if she broke things off then the future would change. Using Orson as a basis for predicting Clara's current boyfriend was as reliable as using the Doctor and her grave on Trenzalore to say they died on the planet, clearly they were both still alive.

The future could change, time could be rewritten, there were two men it could be, Danny or Leto, and Clara hadn't exactly said flat out yet.

"Oh, of course you recognized him," Clara laughed, "I…sorry. Stupid. I…I underestimated you."

"Better to be underestimated than over," the Professor remarked, not bothering to correct either of them. If Clara wasn't going to flat out tell them who she was dating and introduce them while they'd been there, she wasn't going to let her know that the Doctor thought it was Adrian.

Clara hadn't said, so it was understandable that the wrong assumptions could be made.

"And you…you like him?" Clara started to smile.

"Yes," the Doctor rolled his eyes, making the Professor look at him and start to frown, he didn't sound like he was being genuine but more like he just wanted Clara to get out, "I like him very, very much. Go home and canoodle. Doctor's orders. Come on."

"Just this once," Clara pointed at them, "I'm doing what I'm told."

"You always do what you're told," the Professor reminded her, it was something they both loved about Clara, it kept her safe when she did exactly as she was told.

Clara just shook her head and left, the Doctor turning to the Professor near instantly after the doors shut, "What's wrong?"

The Professor blinked, "What?"

"You were thinking about sandwiches…and then you were feeling afraid that you wanted to eat a sandwich," he stated, "Why? And when Clara mentioned you looked ready to pop…you got scared…Kata," he reached out and took her hand, "What is it?"

"It' s just…the school's nurse, she mentioned that I looked about 9 months gone…instead of 6."

"Yes…and?" he genuinely didn't seem to realize the significance of it.

"And that's not normal," she squeezed his hand, "What if…what if there's something wrong? What if I gained too much weight too quickly. She also said something about diabetes, but I'm more focused on the baby…what if I did something wrong? What if…what if there's a tumor or something else going wrong. I shouldn't be THIS big THIS soon…"

"Do you want me to run a scan for you? I can. We can go run it right now and…"

"No," she cut in, biting her lip, "I…I just need…I need a bit of time, to…if it's BAD, if it is that something's gone wrong, I…I need to prepare for that incase and…and I'm not ready to know right now. A day won't hurt, right? It won't?"

"No," he promised her, "You've been perfectly healthy and the baby's moving," he put his hand on her stomach, feeling a small shifting, "And if anything was wrong the TARDIS would force us to the med-bay, wouldn't you mum?" the TARDIS hummed loudly at that, "She would lock us in and shift the room to the medbay right now," he pressed a kiss to her hand, "Nothing is wrong with you or the baby Kata, I promise you that. And, when you're ready, we'll run that scan and prove it to you."

She took a breath, "Ok," she nodded, trying to focus on that, the TARDIS really would lock them inside if something was wrong and make her aware of it…but it hadn't, so…it had to be ok for now. And she did need just a bit more time to work up the nerve to do it, "After we stop the Blitzer," she decided, "I'll run the scan."

The Doctor nodded, tugging her closer to hug her a moment, and if she ended up late to her tutor's office, so be it, his wife needed reassurance right now and he would give it to her, whether there was spillages going on or windows being broken, she came first.

She always came first.

~8~

'We have a problem!' the Professor's voice called in the Doctor's head as he ran down the halls of the school that night, invisible, the Blitzer just behind him.

He'd managed to track it to an old building not far from the school and lured it out by turning invisible. The creature started to follow his footprints right to the school and he was trying to get it into small auditorium of the school where he and the Professor had set up the tech that would get the vortex to open and suck the Blitzer in. It was currently trundling after him as he hurried along, the plan actually going well for once, which was likely due to the fact that the Professor had thought of it. He was trying to let her do that, to make all the plans as they went, knowing it gave her a sense of being useful as she was having trouble actually running now and her movements were slower and more restrained. She didn't like not being useful, she didn't like not being able to help so he tried to give her as much control and use as he could. Making plans like this helped.

'What is it?' he responded, half sliding around the corner that led to the hall the auditorium was at the end of.

'Someone's tampered with the time mines.'

'What?!'

'I was in the TARDIS monitoring it and making sure the calculations were right when the alarms went off that the vortex triggers were unstable. I went to check and someone's moved the mines!'

'Where are you now?' he asked, praying she'd say still in the TARDIS.

'In the auditorium.'

'Kata I'm just outside the door! The Blitzer is right behind me!'

'We don't have time for this Theta!' she told him, 'I'm trying to reconfigure the parameters to at least suck it in to a different time, give us a day or two to get it all sorted and fixed for another go. But I need a hand!'

He threw open the doors, and ran in, sliding to her side, turning off the invisibility watch to help her, cursing silently when he saw what she meant. There was a series of chairs set up in the middle of the room, in a circle, with blinking lights on them, all red instead of green.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no," he muttered, moving to her side as he saw why she needed a hand, she needed a sonic!

"Range 1.49 scan complete!" the Blitzer shouted as it crashed through the doors, "Problem. Problem!"

"Sonic them," the Professor hissed to the Doctor before hurrying around her, avoiding his arm as he tried to grab her and pull her back, "We're unarmed!" she shouted, holding up her hands, even though it was a lie and she had her blaster, being an unarmed civilian always gave pause to the other side, making them consider and weigh what their programming would have them do, "We are peaceful," she glanced back, seeing the Doctor racing around the chairs, sonicing each of the triggers, needing to get to all of them individually and lock them to each other, "We know that you shouldn't be on this planet and we can help you return to your people."

"Problem solution," the Blitzer lifted its weapon arm, "Destroy."

Before the Professor could even move to grab her blaster, the doors on the other side of the room opened and Danny Pink walked in, one of the time mines clutched in his hand as he pointed at the Doctor, "I want a word with you…"

"Get back!" the Professor shouted at him as the Blitzer turned to focus on Danny instead.

"Problem solution: destroy!" the Blitzer started to fire at the man, who luckily had enough sense to duck down onto the floor, dropping the time mine and sending it rolling towards the chairs.

"Doctor!" the Professor grabbed it and threw it to him.

He quickly soniced it and tossed it into the middle of the circle of chairs, turning them green, rushing to her side and grabbing her for stability, knowing that the vortex's pull would be powerful.

"No!" Danny shouted, grabbing a chair to try and attack the Blitzer, "Get away from me!"

"Chairs are NOT useful against a Blitzer!" the Professor yelled at him, the Doctor flicking the sonic on, activating the vortex before Danny could literally attack and be destroyed. The chair in the boy's hand was sucked out of it, flying right into the vortex as the Blitzer was lifted into the air, pulled towards it as well as Danny fell to his bum, starting to slide across the room towards it too, the Time Lords against the wall for bracement.

"Temporal disrupt," the Blitzer cried, "Warning! Warning! Temporal failure!"

"Danny!" they looked over to see Clara run into the room, hurrying to Danny's side and dropping to her knees to help keep him from being sucked in, "No, no, no, no! Doctor, stop! Professor!"

"Warning: system failure! Abort. Abort!"

The moment the Blitzer had fallen fully into the vortex, the Doctor called it off, flicking the sonic to cancel it. The Professor took a few deep breaths to settle herself before moving to the chairs, pushing one aside to pick up the time mine from the middle of it, "Brilliant work, Mr. Pink, very well done," she huffed, irritated. ALL of it had gone wrong because Danny had decided to pick something up he shouldn't have.

Hadn't the humans learned anything from the cubes?!

"Ooh what's this?" the Doctor mocked, feeling a similar irritation and taking the time mine from her, turning to Danny and holding it up like a scolding parent, "A chronodyne generator? I'll just deactivate that, shall I? I've got a maths certificate so that qualifies me to meddle with higher technology. Never mind that some people are actually trying to save the planet. Oh, no. There's only room in my head for quadratic formulas and Pythagoras!"

"Danny, what are you doing here?" Clara looked at him. She knew what SHE had been doing there. She'd gone to tell Danny that they might be able to have a date, now that the Time Lords insisted they didn't need her, though she'd' secretly been hoping he'd cancel because she was NOT going to let them face this alone and had fully planned to join them. He had cancelled but when she'd gone to tell them that, the TARDIS had already been gone. So she'd decided to sneak back into the school after hours and do what she could to help…

Seemed she'd been a bit late.

Seemed she hadn't been the only one to sneak into the building either.

"I was checking up on him!" Danny panted, pointing at the Doctor, "He's been up to something, fiddling with the electric, and sticking those things everywhere and I know a bomb when I see one," he glared at the Doctor who just rolled his eyes.

"Mine doesn't always mean a BAD bomb!" the Professor huffed.

Danny just shook his head, "I wanted to find him but…what the…no. What? Did you see that thing?" he gestured at the vortex area, "Tell me you saw that thing!"

"I saw the thing, yeah," Clara nodded, looking up at the Time Lords, "Professor, are we safe? Is the planet safe? It's gone?"

"For the moment," the Professor frowned, "The time mines have to be precisely aligned to generate the vortex."

"But Maths boy here," the Doctor added, even more irritated with Danny than the Professor was…because of HIS actions, the Professor had been out of the safe TARDIS and left to face off with a Blitzer! He was furious! "He went and moved one!"

"But the chronodyne things worked," Clara argued, "It's gone!"

"Not gone far enough," the Professor shook her head as the Doctor started to scan around where the vortex had been with his sonic, the Professor standing before Clara, her arms crossed as Danny slowly stood up, gaping at a hole in a stack of chairs against the wall that the Blitzer had made, "I was only able to reconfigure the triggers for a few hours not a few billion years."

"The vortex will open here again, in about 74 hours," the Doctor muttered, putting the sonic back in his pocket.

"Then we have three days to think of something new," the Professor rubbed her head, shifting slightly, "Because now it knows what to expect. We've lost the element of surprise."

"And now it has scanned us," the Doctor added, "It will kill us on sight, thanks to Maths here!" he gestured at Danny.

Danny…who was staring at Clara with a cross between suspicions and disbelief, in hoping that what he was seeing wasn't what was actually happening, "Clara…why are you talking to them like that? Why are you using words like chronodyne? Was that thing a space thing? Oh…" he stumbled back from her, gaping at her, "Oh, my God, you're from space. You're a spacewoman. You said you were from Blackpool!"

"Um…it's a play!" Clara excused quickly, though it was all a rather abysmal fishing they could see, "For the summer fete!"

"It's a what?" the Doctor gave her a look.

"Yes, it's a play," she nodded, "It is a play. We are rehearsing a play. A um…a surprise play! And, er, you see, the vortex thing is…is a lighting effect. Very clever. And that thing is…is one of the kids. In fancy dress. Really, really good fancy dress."

"Clara…" the Professor frowned at her for that, hearing the laughable excuse she was trying to give, the blatant lie, it was like, even now, even with Danny seeing all that, she didn't want him to know about THEM. Like she was…ashamed or something.

"How stupid do you think I am?" Danny crossed his arms.

"I'm willing to put a number on it," the Doctor mumbled but the Professor nudged him, shaking her head at him not to say it.

"I'm not a moron, Clara," Danny continued, "They're not a caretaker or a tutor, are they? No, they're your parents, aren't they? Your dad and mum. Your space dad and mum."

"Oh, genius," the Doctor rolled his eyes, "That is…that is really, really brilliant reasoning. How can you think that we're her parents when we're her grandparents?"

Clara would have smiled at hearing the Doctor say that, to hear him reaffirm she was their granddaughter. All this time it had mostly been the Professor to say it. She would have smiled at that…had he not also accidently implied that they WERE her SPACE grandparents instead of just Time Lords and her a human.

"I don't think that helped," the Professor told the Doctor, rubbing her temples again, before dropping her hands.

"Right," the Doctor shook his head, "I'm going to hypnotize him. I'm going to erase his memory."

"Doctor, stop!" Clara hurried in between the Doctor and Danny as the Doctor took a step towards him.

"Tiny little brain, only take a moment."

"He's my boyfriend!" she blinked, seeing the Doctor actually looked shocked at that, "I thought you'd figured this out…" she began carefully.

"Well, to be fair, squaddie leaves him or that other one," the Professor countered, "And you never TOLD us Clara…"

The Doctor just frowned and pointed at Danny, "Him?"

"Yes, him," Clara sighed, crossing her arms.

"No, he's not."

"Yes, he is."

"Yes, I am," Danny nodded.

"But he's a Maths teacher," the Doctor shook his head, "You're English. You wouldn't go out with a Maths teacher. It's a mistake. You've made a boyfriend error."

"I haven't," Clara huffed.

"But he's a soldier! Why would you go out with a soldier?"

"Why would you marry one!?" she countered.

"Because I'M one too!" the Doctor defended, starting to get offended that Clara was not questioning HIS relationship with the Professor.

"Soldier or not, Maths or not, that's not what this is about," the Professor cut in, knowing why the Doctor was getting so irritated, why he was insisting that there was a mistake.

Well, there were many reasons, but right now…it was being confronted with the fact that this WAS the boyfriend. Not only had they not been properly introduced, but the fact that Danny had thought they were her parents meant that he had NO idea who they were. And on top of that…she knew a small part of the Doctor had been hoping that Clara didn't really have a boyfriend, she had said it before, Clara was too young, to them, she was too young to be in a relationship like that. Oh the Doctor might have 'humored' her, joked about her having a boyfriend, but a lot of his remarks about her looks or outfits where it seemed like he hadn't noticed she was going on a date were genuine. He really HADN'T thought she was, because he couldn't fathom it, he didn't want to realize that their little Clara was growing up like that. Even though he didn't say it often, he DID still see Clara as a granddaughter in a way and he was hoping that the boyfriend was made up, even when he'd thought Adrian was the boyfriend it was a more joking thought to him, like he could picture that but didn't really WANT to picture it.

And now he was being faced with the reality.

"Yes, it's about our granddaughter having a boyfriend," the Doctor looked at her a moment, before turning to Clara, "Why not get a dog or a big plant?!"

"Because I love him!" Clara snapped.

The Doctor and Professor were silent at that till the Doctor whispered, "Why would you say that? Is this part of the surprise play?"

He was really hoping it was, because he knew what came after love for humans…marriage. Not everyone was like the Ponds, when humans got married they left him. Even the Ponds had left him eventually, because they wanted to start their real and actual married lives together. Martha had refused to come back with them, because she was engaged. Even Jo Grant had left because she was getting married and so many others…marriage, to humans, meant leaving him.

Marriage between him and the Professor meant she'd always stay.

And Danny, given his reaction, he would NOT want to travel with them, he didn't even seem to like them much with how he was looking at them now. If Clara married him and Danny didn't want to come…Clara would stay with him and leave them.

"There is no surprise play," Clara sighed.

"Oh, it's a roller coaster with you tonight, isn't it?" the Doctor huffed, trying not to let on how affected he was by Clara's revelation, "What about the handsome one, the one with the bow tie?"

"Who? Adrian? No, no, no. He's just a friend and not my type."

"Especially not given what her grandfather looked like last," the Professor gave the Doctor an equally sorrowful, but meaningful look. Adrian couldn't be Clara's type, because she looked at him and saw her grandfather's last face. She could NOT date her grandfather.

"Clara, are you going to explain any of this?" Danny cut in, "Who are these people?!"

"They're the Doctor and Professor," Clara offered, "They're…"

"Oh go on," the Doctor crossed his arms, the Professor putting her hands on her stomach and shifting, for once in her life not having a clue what to do.

"Yes, explain," Danny mimicked the Doctor's stance, "Who are they? Why have you never mentioned them?"

"I…would like to know that too," the Professor admitted.

"Because they're aliens," Clara told Danny.

"Are you an alien?" the boy eyed her.

"No, no, no, I'm still from Blackpool. Me, the Professor, and the Doctor, we travel through time and space."

"Exhibit A," the Doctor turned and moved onto a small stage, pulling the curtains back to reveal the TARDIS sitting there.

"It's called a TARDIS," the Professor offered, seeing Clara lead Danny towards it and following them up.

"But it's disguised as an old police phone box," Clara added.

"It's bigger on the inside," the Doctor whispered loudly to Clara, who rolled her eyes.

"And it's bigger on the inside than the outside," she looked at the Doctor who opened the doors to let Danny look inside, "And we travel the universe in it…" she watched as Danny got closer, leaning in but not daring to actually GO inside, before he stepped back, looking at the box's size quickly, and ducking his head in again.

"And what about that thing?" he shook his head, stepping further back, " Did you bring that here?"

The Professor moved to the Doctor's side to lean on him as he put an arm around her, her feet were starting to hurt a bit, "Not technically," the Professor explained, "We're actually trying to protect you from that thing."

"You said it was coming back," he remarked.

"Yes, it is coming back."

"Thanks to you," the Doctor added bitterly.

"This is a school!" Danny shouted.

"An empty school," the Professor reminded him.

"We have to evacuate…"

"Again, EMPTY school."

"Call the Army…"

"If they attack that thing then it attacks back and you humans don't have the tech to defeat it," the Professor reached up to her temples again, rubbing them, her head was starting to hurt at all this repeating and being ignored.

"And that is the most dangerous thing," the Doctor nodded, reaching out to close the doors to the TARDIS, glancing at Clara, "Are you sure hypnotizing's not on the menu?"

"Yes," she gave him an unamused look.

"But we need to get help!" Danny insisted, "This is an emergency."

"And this is not your area of expertise soldier," the Professor gave him a look, "Leave it to us."

"Look, Clara, take him away," the Doctor turned to Clara, able to almost feel the Professor's headache in his head, "Shut him up, shut him down. Up or down, it doesn't matter to me. We've got a lot of work to do. Again."

Clara frowned at that, seeing him reaching up to the Professor's neck and rubbing the base of her head, something she'd glimpsed him doing on their last adventure when she'd gotten a bad migraine, "Will you be ok?"

The Professor managed a smile for her, despite the fact they were both very disappointed in the girl at the moment, "Why wouldn't we be ok?"

"We were fine till you two blundered in," the Doctor muttered.

"Am I just being ignored?" Danny started to shout, but Clara just turned and took his arm, leading him down the stairs and away from the stage.

"Come on, Danny. It's alright, it's. Come on, it's all fine. You'll be ok. Let's er, get those legs moving. That's it, down those stairs. Yep, that's it. This can all be explained and everything will be fine."

"And when this is all over, you can finish the job," the Doctor called to her.

Clara paused and looked back at them, urging Danny to keep going, "How do you mean?"

"You've explained us to him," the Professor told her, "Now," she added, giving Clara a look that told her it should not have come to THIS to tell the man about them.

"But you haven't explained him to us," the Doctor nodded, before turning and leading the Professor into the TARDIS, not even bothering to wait for a reply from Clara.

~8~

Clara hadn't come back to see them the next morning, and whenever they saw Danny around the halls, the man just gave them a dark look before turning and walking in the opposite direction. So the Time Lords took it as whatever conversation had been had between the two hadn't gone well. They weren't sure if Clara was avoiding them because she was angry or she just didn't know how to talk to them about what had happened, how to explain Danny to them.

The Doctor sighed as he moved to nurse's office a bit before the class period was to end, he wanted to collect her lunch for her, surprise her with it. Neither of them had gotten any sleep last night, spent the whole time trying to work out a new plan for the Blitzer instead and he just wanted to relieve some of the stress and not need her to be walking all over the school when he could bring her lunch to her, they could eat in her little office today. They could have kept the lunch in the TARDIS, but given how pregnant she was, the other humans would think it odd that she had no lunch at all, might even think it was unhealthy so they made a show of keeping it with the nurse.

He stuck his head into the office, waiting till the woman, who was taking the temperature of a young girl, looked up…before he knocked on the doorframe.

The woman, Leia, the Professor had mentioned her name was, laughed at that, "Can I help you Mr. Smith?"

He stepped in, "Er, yes…I'm just here to collect my wife's lunch and vitamins?"

"Just a moment," she nodded, turning back to the girl, "You've got a bit of a fever sweetie," she told the girl, brushing her hair away from her ear and showing her the temperature, "It's only one degree higher than it should be for you, but still, why don't you go have a lie in the side room," she led the girl to the side where a small cot was set up, "And I'll contact your mum to come pick you up. If you need me, don't hesitate to shout ok?"

The girl nodded and moved to lie down, Leia closing the door and turning to the Doctor, "YOU'RE the Matron?" the Doctor eyed her.

"You sound like your wife," she remarked, "I know, I'm too young," she rolled her eyes, "But I'm older than I look," she gave him a warning point of her finger, walking across the room to the small refrigerator she'd placed Mrs. Smith's items in that morning when she'd brought them round.

"Do you actually enjoy this?" he had to ask, "Catering to the kiddies?"

"You mean making sure they're ok?" she scoffed, "Helping them feel better when they're ill or hurt? Yes, I do," she nodded, crouching down to unlock it.

"You're really young, aren't you?" he frowned, eyeing her, he knew that Clara was about 27…or so she claimed, he had yet to see if that were true…and this girl looked a bit younger than her, very much younger. He would have thought her a student, no, that was wrong, she wasn't quite THAT young…he wasn't really the best judge of age in this incarnation.

"I suppose," she shrugged, pulling the food and bottle out, "Why? Just cos I'm young doesn't mean I'm not qualified as a proper doctor."

"You're a doctor?!" his eyes widened at that, "What are you doing here then?"

"I like helping people," she explained though she didn't have to justify herself to him, "And Coal Hill's always been a part of the family legacy, thought I might try it out. I might qualify as a doctor, but I like being a nurse, a matron, more. More areas to branch into."

He took the food from her slowly, "You said you're a qualified doctor…"

"Yes…and?"

"And you're young."

"Still not seeing the point," she gave him a small frown of confusion.

"You had to have known you wanted to be a nurse for a very long time to be one so quickly," he remarked, "What, skip a few grades too?"

"In a way," she nodded, "The medical profession's always sort of been around my family too. Centuries of doctoring in it, wanted to follow in the footsteps so to speak."

He nodded slowly at that, "Well…good for you. Keep…doing what you're doing?" he offered, not quite sure what to say.

The woman gave an amused chuckle, "I'll be sure to do it. Keep caretaking," she shot back at him.

"Right, yes," he nodded, "I should…" he pointed at the door before he turned to leave.

Leia shook her head and put her hands on her hips, only to stiffen and sigh when she heard the sound of someone being sick in the side room. She sighed and turned to go see to the little girl, and then she really did have to call her mum…

~8~

"Want some?"

The Professor looked up from where she was leaning against a small ledge of the school, watching the 'Coal Hill Cadets' stretching, seeming to be warming up for some sort of exercise or drill during free period. Those boys, and even a few girls, must have been very dedicated to agree to this in their free period, but they seemed to be enjoying it at the moment.

She turned to see Leto Stewart had joined her, was actually sitting on the small ledge beside her with…a rather large brown bag beside him and was offering her what looked like bits of meat and vegetables stuck on a skewer.

"I've got loads," he added quickly, "And you look a bit peckish."

"I'm pregnant not peckish," she countered.

"Even more reason to share," he smiled, holding the skewer up more till she took it, "Leto Stewart," he offered, "Er, I'd offer to shake your hand but…" he held them up for her to see they had a bit of food on them.

"It's fine," she smiled, "Thank you for this," she bit one end off, "Is that chicken?"

"And lamb, beef, and turkey," he nodded, "I like to eat," he laughed.

"Eating is good."

"Have to keep up my strength to deal with that lot," he nodded at the kids, "They keep me on my toes."

"And you're the PE teacher?" she inquired, recalling the Doctor mentioning something about it.

"Yep," he nodded, "Also the resident Drill Sergeant," he added, "The kids think they're being funny calling me Sarge, I don't mind it though. Sergeant Stewart, has a nice ring to it," he mused, "And besides, I take it as a sign of respect."

"Good on you," she encouraged.

"I hope you don't mind…" he began again after a few minutes of silence and eating, "But you look a bit tired…"

The Professor lifted a clean hand to touch under her eyes, knowing that there were likely subtle bags there, visible being right next to her like Leto was, but still there, "I…have some trouble falling asleep," she put her hand on her stomach, patting it slightly.

"My mum was the same," he nodded absently, "Never let anyone forget it. Oh you should hear her, 'Leto you don't get to go scaring me like that with your shenanigans,'" he did a rather abysmal imitation of his mother, it seemed, making his voice all squeaky and high, "'I lost enough sleep when I was carrying you!'" he rolled his eyes, "Still, it got better for her," he shrugged, "Apparently my dad makes an excellent pillow. Just cuddled right up to him on her side and she was out like a light and wouldn't wake for anything."

"Maybe I should try that," the Professor laughed. She'd tried to actually stay away from the Doctor as she slept, not wanting her tossing and turning and shifting to wake him, but…a pillow did sound nice. And he was a bit cooler than she was, less heat and those little ice cube hands of his might help her feel more comfortable when she slept.

"I hope…your husband?" he gave her a look, not wanting to offend, but she nodded, "Is more patient than my dad was, he could hardly stand still for more than a minute, talk about lying there for hours because he had a pregnant woman half sleeping on him," he smiled.

"Was your dad very irritated?" she frowned, the Doctor could be like that at times.

"Nah, 'cording to him, he LOVED it," he waggled his eyebrows, taking the skewer from her when she finished, "Always said he loved most when he had mum in his arms. He could only be still if it meant she was going to be comfortable or happy if he did it."

The Professor started to nod slowly at that, when Leto brushed his hands off, and hopped off the wall, "Excuse me," he smiled at her, "But I need to start the demonstration soon or the kids'll just spend the entire time talking instead of being productive."

"But it IS their free period, shouldn't they be allowed to talk?"

"Nah," he grabbed a napkin from his bag and wiped his hands and face, "Give 'em a good a good head of steam and they'll wear themselves out, makes them calmer and more focused in lessons later."

The man gave her a small salute, tossing the rest of his empty bag into the rubbish bin and walking over to the 'cadets,' calling them to order.

"There you are," the Doctor's voice said beside her and she looked over to see him heading for her with her own brown bag of lunch, "I thought you'd be in your office?"

"It got stuffy," she shrugged, "And I was too warm, thought some fresh air would be good."

"Well then," he held out an arm to her, "Care to join me for lunch, wife?"

"I'd love to, husband," she smiled, taking his arm and walking with him back into the school.

Leto watched them go a moment before he turned back to the demonstration, self defense today. Just some tricks that they could use if they were ever attacked though he made it VERY clear that if he ever heard of any of them using the tactics against their schoolmates or for bullying he would ensure they were expelled for it. He reached out with one of the boys, demonstrating how to block a punch and incapacitate your opponent too.

"Now," he began, "If you are ever alone and someone is trying to harm you. If they are about to attack you, here is what you can do. And this is ONLY to be used if you are truly in danger and about to be physically harmed," he gave them a firm look, before smiling and continuing, "If they go to punch you, like this," he slowly extended one of the boys arms like they were trying to punch him (well, his stomach as he was a good bit taller than them), "What you do is you take your left arm and block it, grabbing their wrist," he grabbed the boys wrist, "Push the hand away and, with your other hand," he held up his right, "You jab it here…" he made a jabbing motion at the boy's extended arm, still caught in his grip, "And that, students, is how you break a human arm…"

~8~

The two Time Lords were in the TARDIS later that day, only a short while before Parents' Evening was set to begin, the Doctor was sitting on the steps that led up to the armchair, working on something that was attached to a backpack, the Professor behind him on the chair, wires strung out across her lap with a small microphone and keyboard resting on the arms of it, the two of them glancing over at the doors as Clara entered. The Professor frowned as she saw Clara hold the door open for a moment longer than normal, eyeing Clara closely before she heard it…a second set of steps though she couldn't see someone, she could hear it as well, just over the hum of the TARDIS, another person breathing than was in the room.

'Danny's here,' she warned the Doctor quietly in his mind.

The Doctor nodded at it, making it look like he was just greeting Clara, adding, "Afternoon," for effect, "Thanks for keeping out of my way. You haven't brought Dave with you, I hope."

"His name's Danny," Clara sighed, slowly heading up to them, "And no, I haven't. I've er…I explained it all to him. He gets it. He took it really well."

"Pass me that synestic, husband," the Professor held her hand out to the Doctor, who handed it to her from a small box beside him.

"So…" Clara trailed off, "When the Blitzer comes back, are you going to catch him with that?" she nodded at the pack and wires that they were working on.

"It'll be a long job," the Professor remarked, "Even with the two of us working on it it'll take about 24 hours to get it working."

"Even longer if people keep talking to us," the Doctor added, "So do keep going."

It wasn't that it would really take that long, but it would take a very long while. They were both very distracted as they worked. She was distracted by the scan that she knew she had to run, the scan that could ease her mind but…a scan she was afraid to run as well. Because what if it came back that something was wrong with the baby? It was odd because she could usually tell every part of her body, control it, but the baby was like this shielded part of her that she couldn't really sense like that. And that meant she wouldn't know something was wrong with it, she couldn't actually touch it, and she was just terrified to run that scan and see something bad that she was putting it off, even knowing that, if it came back normal, it could help her focus.

The Doctor was distracted for much the same, but also by his thoughts about Danny Pink and Clara. He knew Clara had been seeing someone, but he'd hoped that they could be properly introduced and even he could tell that the way they met, how it went down, wasn't the best first impression to make. He wanted to see what Danny was like when he didn't think there was some strange alien hanging around. He'd fully planned to actually play the role of Clara's grandfather, or at least her older uncle, or something and get to know Danny. Humans always changed how they acted once they found out that he was an alien. He wanted a genuine feel of Danny, of his quality and character, and the way they met would color that. It was irritating.

"If it comes back Thursday night…" Clara continued, "Are you sure about that? Cos you said the chronodyne is unstable."

"If you want bother someone, go and bother the squaddie," the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Oi," the Professor leaned over to tap his shoulder, "I'M a squaddie," she whispered in his ear, reminding him of that.

He turned, looking at her face, her chin rested on his shoulder, "But you're a lovely, brilliant one," he gave her a quick peck for it before she pulled back.

"He's a maths teacher now," Clara cut in, crossing her arms.

"That's a shame, I like maths," the Doctor remarked, smiling a bit in memory, "Recreational Mathmatics…that takes me back."

"He's not a soldier," Clara insisted.

"He is Clara," the Professor shook her head, "Once a soldier, always a soldier. What happens on a battlefield never leaves you and you can never go back to how you were before."

Clara shifted at that, knowing that the Professor was speaking from experience, having seen that herself.

"Interesting," the Doctor murmured, examining a wire.

"What is?" Clara looked at him, hoping for a shift in the conversation.

"I'm bored," the Doctor stood up, "Let's go somewhere fun. What do you say?" he pointed at the Professor though as she turned the chair to face him, "Do you want to see the Thames frozen over?"

"The frost fairs were something," the Professor nodded as she got up with a bit of effort and made her way down the stairs to help him at the console.

"But you can't!" Clara said quickly, following them around the controls and flipping whatever they touched back to the opposite position, "The Skovox thing…"

"It's a time machine," the Doctor reminded her, "We can get back straightaway, like we always do on your dates. Just make sure you don't get yourself a tan or anything, or lose a limb…"

"I don't think we should," Clara shook her head, "Not this time."

The Doctor and Professor frowned at that, "You've never said no before," the Professor pointed out, more than just a remark in her voice but a warning.

They knew what she was doing, of course they did, but it didn't mean they liked it. She was standing there, essentially lying to them, sneaking someone into THEIR home they didn't invite in, trying to get them to talk about things that were private. Worse yet, she wasn't even doing a good job of it. It was a warning that she was acting abnormally, it was a hint to her that they knew what she was up to.

"Not even in the middle of dinner," the Doctor added when Clara didn't seem to grasp it, "Remember when you had to eat two meals in a row?"

"I just think, with the school in danger," Clara tried to stutter out an excuse…only for Danny to shimmer into existence just to the side of the Time Lords, the invisibility watch on his wrist, "Danny!" she shouted, her eyes wide, "Why are you…"

"They already know I'm here," Danny told her, "That's why they're talking like that. He's being clever," he shot the Doctor a look.

"I could hear his footsteps and his breathing the second you held that door open too long, Clara," the Professor sighed.

"Though, now you mention it," the Doctor remarked, "Being Time Lords, we can also feel a light shield aura when it's right next to us."

"Oh ho, ho," Danny let out a bitter, mocking laugh, "Time Lords? Might have known."

"Might have known what?" the Professor shook her head at him.

"Well, the accent's good," Danny commented, moving around to beside Clara, gesturing at the Doctor, "But you can always spot the aristocracy. It's in the…the attitude," he eyed them both, all prior goodwill towards the Professor now seemingly gone.

"Danny…" Clara began warningly.

"Now, Time Lords, do you salute those?" Danny continued.

"Definitely not," the Doctor's expression hardened as he felt the Professor shifting beside him, tensing him, both of them realizing the path this conversation was heading in, and he knew the Professor was NOT going to like it, and that made him not like it either.

All that effort to put the past behind her, to try and not be as much of a soldier as she was, because she was right, it NEVER left you, and here was this…this…pudding-brained ape about to dredge it all back up again. And, given the reaction she had when she thought about the war, about what she'd been like, he knew that this was not going to be easy on her. Being pregnant he didn't want to risk that much upset, so he took a step forward, making himself the focus of Danny's rant.

"Ah. Sir!" Danny hopped to attention and saluted him.

"And you do not call me sir," the Doctor added, moving more in front of the Professor, something Clara was noticing.

"As you wish, sir!"

"Stop it!"

"Oh absolutely, sir!"

"Oi!" the Professor moved beside him, not wanting to deal with this, not here, not in the TARDIS, "You!" she pointed at Danny, "Get out! Get out of our TARDIS right now!"

The TARDIS was the safe place, her safe haven, it was the place she went to get away. It was meant to be an escape for both of them, a way to get away and see wonders. The doorway, the open air to the stars, the comfort it gave her. The hum of the rotor, knowing the box considered them her children…it was all what went into making this a place where the war couldn't touch them. Even when she'd been a soldier in her 10th self, it had been the TARDIS that had helped bring her back from it, she found her way back to herself in this box…

And Danny was tainting it, he was bringing the War back into it.

And she could feel her hearts racing and her body shaking at that thought, at the War being able to find its way in there.

"Immediately, ma'am!" Danny saluted her as well.

"Stop saluting!" the Professor shouted, her hand moving to her stomach, feeling it tensing and twisting, the stress…she had to calm down. She shouldn't be getting this upset, she'd endured worse, she had to calm down and stop letting this get to her. But all she kept seeing with each salute was flashes of the war playing out in her head, other soldiers saluting, HER saluting, people saluting her, her saluting the High Council before she went on her mission to Binai…

"Doctor, Professor," Clara shook her head, "This is stupid, this is unfair…"

"Clara," the Professor cut in, breathing heavily, trying not to shout at her in her upset, "If you are telling us that WE are being stupid and unfair when it is YOUR boyfriend SHOUTING at US like we're soldiers again…then you get out as well."

Clara blinked at that, actually stepping back in shock of it, before swallowing hard, realizing that was probably the WORST thing she could have said. She didn't mean specifically them, that they were the ones being unfair, she meant in general, she'd just…they were kicking Danny out and she'd wanted to try and calm them all down and…and she probably should have dragged Danny out herself when he started to condescend the Time Lords in their own home.

"One thing, Clara," Danny scoffed, "I'm a soldier, guilty as charged. You see them? You see those two?" he glared at the two Time Lords, "They're officers."

"We are NOT officers anymore!" the Professor snapped.

"I'm the one who carries you out of the fire," Danny smirked darkly, as though his words were proving a point, "They're the ones who light it."

He didn't even stop to consider that he had no idea what he was talking about, didn't pause to consider how his words would affect them.

The Doctor reached out and took the Professor's hand, turning her away from Danny, seeing the tears in her eyes, seeing how pale she'd gotten, able to see in her mind, see every single thing she'd ever had to 'light on fire.' He saw her, thinking about every bomb she dropped, every one she built, every weapon she fired, every trap she laid, every fire she created…every devastation that she caused during the war.

"Out," he nearly snarled at Danny, moving the Professor behind him, "Now!"

"Right away, sir!" Danny shouted, like a soldier, "Straight now?"

"Yes," he hissed.

"Am I dismissed?"

"Yes, you are!"

Danny shook his head and looked at Clara, "That's him. Look at him, right now. That's who he is."

"You have NO idea who we are, Danny Pink," the Professor spoke and Danny actually paused in his going to look at her, the briefest flash of shock and regret and sorrow mixing on his face at the tears in her voice, at the cracking in her words as she spoke, before he covered it up with the mask of a soldier, "A soldier may always recognize another soldier…but you CANNOT recognize the level of it, of their suffering."

Danny just turned and left.

"Professor…" Clara turned to her, wanting to apologize, wanting to reach out and comfort her, knowing just how badly Danny's words had to have affected her.

But the Professor just shook her head and turned around, walking away.

"Get out, Clara," the Doctor told her, "And the next time you fail to keep your little boyfriend from attacking MY wife, after all that we have done for you," he added when she reached the doors, "Don't bother to come back."

Clara flinched at that, realizing that she really had, she'd failed so abysmally at defending her grandparents, at stopping Danny from hurting them. She'd known Danny a few months, yeah, she'd known the Time Lords technically her whole life, they were her family, they had become her family and she'd defended Danny the night before more than she had defended them just now. She shook her head, her heart heavy with that realization, before she ran out after Danny, intent to fix that, determined to make him understand.

The Doctor let out a deep breath and moved over to the Professor who was gripping the railings to the side and facing the back of the room, "Do you want to go?" he asked her, brushing her hair away from her neck so he could massage behind it, knowing she had to have a migraine by now from that, "We can. We can leave right now."

The Professor swallowed hard, "We can't," she shook her head, her voice still thick.

"We CAN."

"We can't just leave the humans to the Blitzer."

"I don't care," he reached out to take her hands, turning her to face him, "There are only two things I care about right now," he gave her a pointed look, his gaze flickering to her stomach, letting her know exactly what that was.

The TARDIS was even silent at that, agreeing with him fully that the Professor and his child SHOULD be the main priority now, even if they all knew he cared about the old box too.

"Let the pudding-brains deal with this mess," he rubbed her hands, "Let ME make you some pudding instead."

The Professor tried to smile at that, "I'm not in the mood for pudding right now," she sighed, "Not even very hungry really…"

"Do not let what he said get to you Kata," he touched her cheek gently, "He doesn't know you, he doesn't know anything about you…"

"Or about you," she reminded.

"He has no right to judge us on something he doesn't understand."

The Professor closed her head and leaned in, resting her forehead to his, "YOU know me."

"I do," he nodded against her head, "And I loved you, Bonded to you, married you, and fathered a child with you, even knowing all that."

She did smile at that, "Same," she murmured, "Though I mothered a child."

He chuckled at that, pulling away a bit to look at her, "Are you ok?"

She nodded slightly, "Danny didn't exactly endear himself to me in all that but...I will be ok. Are you?"

"Danny only upset me because he upset YOU."

"No," she shook her head, "I mean…are you ok with what Clara did?"

It was why the Doctor had said all that he had to her, it wasn't to irritate Danny with how much Clara kept from him, bringing up the two meals and the getting her back in time for dates. That hadn't been why he'd said that out loud. It was to try and get Clara to see how much she had hurt HIM in not telling Danny about them. It felt like she was ashamed of them, like she didn't want people to know about them, about her grandparents. It hurt to see Danny stare at them like that was the first time he'd heard of them. They were by no means so arrogant as to think Clara only spoke of her travels with them, but they had hoped even a mention to her boyfriend if she was that serious about him as she claimed she was.

It hurt, it made it feel like she was trying to keep them a dirty little secret. Maybe it was just that Amy had told Rory, or that Rose had told Mickey, or that Donna had told Wilf, or what have you…it was just that it wasn't like it HAD to be a secret. Clara could have told Danny about them…but she didn't. So the Doctor had said all he could to remind her of all the times she'd had opportunity to tell Danny, all those times she ended up with a mysterious change of clothes or a tan she hadn't had before or seaweed in her hair…and she'd lied.

She'd hidden them, like they weren't worth being spoken of.

They were sure she hadn't meant for it to feel like that, but it did. And then to have Danny shouting at them like THEY were the ones that were causing all this to happen, like THEY were the reason Clara had never told him.

"Martha didn't tell her family either," the Doctor reminded her, "I'll be fine."

"The earth won't be if we don't get that pack finished," the Professor sighed.

He took a deep breath and nodded, stepping back, "Let's go save the pudding-brains," he turned to head to the door, knowing there were some more human tools out in the storeroom they could use, "Last thing we need is Captain Jack getting involved because we took off. School might end up exploded."

"I think that was YOU," the Professor laughed, nudging him, "You were the one that blew up a school," she squeezed his hand, "Thank you, for saving me from it too, husband."

"I will always be there to save you, wife," he promised her quietly, giving her a kiss before they stepped out of the box…only to see the little black girl was back in the storeroom and eyeing the TARDIS, Clara and Danny nowhere in sight.

"What's in the box?" the girl asked, "It's not really a policeman, is it?"

"You want to know what's in that box?" the Doctor sighed, feeling irritation rise in him, they really DIDN'T have the time to spare and people kept asking questions, "I'll tell you what's in that box. It's a time machine."

"It also travels in space," the Professor added with a laugh, seeing him just blurting the entire secret of the TARDIS, but knowing it was also a bit of proof…it didn't HAVE to stay a secret, if THEY could tell some little girl about it, then Clara could have told Danny just as easily.

"And it usually contains a man who just wants to get on with his life with his wife, the two of them trying to prevent the end of the world, but they keep being interrupted by boring little humans."

"Cool," the girl smiled, "So, that's really a spaceship?" she leaned forward, reaching for the door to try and peek inside, but the Doctor tugged her back by the collar of her uniform.

"I'm serious!"

The Professor patted his arm, "Calm down," she murmured to him, "We really are trying to save this planet though," she told the girl.

"End of the world for me tonight," the girl sighed, "Whatever you do. Parents' evening."

The Doctor eyed her a moment, remembering well what THAT felt like, to get caught by your parents doing poorly or being a disruption, and speaking of disruptions, "Is your name really Disruptive Influence?"

"Courtney Woods," the Professor informed him, "Was sent to me for help with, er, Maths," she added, knowing that it was likely to be a touchy subject given who taught the subject.

"Can I go in space?" Courtney looked at them, eager.

The Doctor sighed, seeming at the end of his rope of patience, "We'll let you know. We may have a vacancy. But not right now," he turned and hustled Courtney out to the main doors, "Two days," he turned to the Professor, "We can do it."

The Professor shook her head, moving over to a small toolbox on the workbench and picked it up, turning only for the Doctor to take it from her and carry it for her. She rolled her eyes good-naturedly and held the door open to the TARDIS for him instead, "Two days and you'll go madder than two boxes of frogs," she remarked.

They'd just gotten up to the console when one of their scanners beeped, making them look over, their eyes widening as they saw what it was for, the vortex, the one that had taken the Blitzer…it was opening again, and SOON.

"No, no, no," the Doctor shook his head, "No! No, no, no, no, no!"

They ran over to the pack, quickly trying to assemble it as the beep continued to sound, needing to get it together before they could even do anything and hoping they'd have enough time before the Blitzer returned.

~8~

The Time Lords hurried to the gymnasium of the school where Parents' Day was taking place, the teachers sitting down with the parents to go over the progress of their children. The Doctor set the pack on a small bin near the doors, the Professor working on it quickly as he hurriedly knocked on the doors, trying to get Clara's attention. Sadly he only managed to get Danny's, though the man seemed to cough loudly to attract Clara's and gesture her to the door. He quickly motioned for her to come into the hall and turned back to the Professor, hefting the pack on and taking her hand as they moved outside, not wanting to risk their words echoing down the hall or being overheard by the other parents. Given that he'd spotted Danny coming too, he was sure that the man would start shouting again and he didn't want that, not just because it was noisy but because it would undoubtedly upset the Professor.

"What's happening?" Clara gasped as she hurried out the doors to join them, the Professor standing behind the Doctor still working on the pack, every second counting.

"The vortex is opening, Clara," the Professor told her quickly.

"You said Thursday night," Danny rounded on the Doctor before shaking his head, "Right, hall, quick…"

"Oi, shut up," the Doctor pointed at him, pulling the sonic out of his pocket and handing it to Clara, "Clara, it'll scan the area. If it gets to parents' evening, it'll kill them all."

"We've got to evacuate!" Danny cried.

"Shut up!"

"Quickly," Clara shook her head, stepping past the two to the Professor, "What do I do, Gran?" she asked, going to her for instruction, knowing she'd likely have the battle plan or be able to tell it to her shortly and to the point.

"Get to the hall," the Professor glanced over, nodding at the sonic in Clara's hand, "Give it some flicks of helicon energy, setting 41. No more than three seconds each, random pulses. Distract it and lead it away from the hall, give us…um…two minutes," she decided, hoping she'd been able to guess right.

"Right," Clara nodded, "Then what?"

"You run straight into the TARDIS," the Professor gave her a meaningful look, telling her not to argue or dare disobey.

And it was then that Clara realized this was very serious.

"But your gadget isn't ready yet," Danny cut in, "Twenty four hours, you said…"

"Yes, well, we've clearly revised that down to two minutes," the Doctor snapped.

"Clara, go," the Professor managed to let go of one wire and turn Clara, urging her off.

"On my way," Clara nodded.

"You're using her like a decoy?" Danny nearly spat at them, horrified, trying to reach out to Clara but the girl had already run off, doing exactly as she was told.

"No, not like a decoy," the Doctor shook his head, "As a decoy. Don't they teach you anything at stupid school?"

"Well, is there anything I can do?" Danny frowned.

"Yes. Yes, and this is very, very important…leave us alone!"

"Oi!" Danny reached out to grab the Doctor as he turned to try and head back to where the TARDIS was, "You can't just let Clara run out there! You can't just…just user her like a decoy! She called you her grandparents yeah? Don't you care about her at all?!"

The Doctor nearly stumbled as he felt himself shoved to the side, but wisely kept his mouth closed about it as he saw the Professor storm up to Danny, getting right in his face, a very, VERY angry look (one he was quite thankful HE had never had to face down) on her face.

"Don't you DARE presume to know how we feel about Clara," the Professor pointed at him, poking him in the chest hard, "If I could, if I could run as fast as I need to, I would be in Clara's place right now, NOT her," she put a hand on her stomach, "But if I go, I die and Clara would kill me for putting myself in danger like that, and I don't even want to know what that would do to my husband to lose me and our baby like that. I WANT to be in her place, it is MY job to be the decoy, because I can handle myself, the same way YOU can," she added as a hiss, reminding him of her earlier words that she was a soldier like him, "But I can't right now. I can't, and so I have to do whatever I can to keep her, the parents, and every other person in this school safe, and that means staying with the Doctor and getting that bloody pack sorted! So either you go away and let me focus, or insult me and my care for Clara one more time and see what happens when you anger a pregnant, alien soldier!"

Danny just swallowed at that, seeing a genuine rage and hurt in her eyes for his words. And so he just turned and walked away.

The Professor let out a breath, feeling herself panting at the shouting, the Doctor putting a hand on her back to try and calm her down, feeling the anger rolling off her.

"I shouldn't have done that," she murmured.

"I think he needed a good kick in the pants," the Doctor remarked, "And you were very…"

"No," she cut him off, knowing a compliment was coming, "I mean…it wasted time, we have less than 2 minutes now."

He nodded, "Right," he took her hand, "Back to the TARDIS!"

They turned and hurried off, hoping that Clara might be able to be her brilliant old self and give them an extra minute of distraction to work with, but rushing anyway incase she couldn't.

~8~

The Professor glanced up from where she was tweaking the controls of the Doctor's pack when Clara ran in, "It's right behind me!" she warned only moments before the door to the storeroom was blasted off its hinges, the Blitzer scampering in.

"Destroy!" it cried, focusing on them, "Destroy!"

"Now!" Clara shouted, "It's got to be now!"

"Twenty seconds," the Professor moved to the Doctor's side, pulling her blaster from her coat and aiming it, firing at the Blitzer's eye, sending it scuttling back as she struck it, taking out its visual and causing it to glitch for a few more moments, trying to recalibrate its vision.

"Destroy," he twisted its head to them, "Destroy."

"Down!" the Professor shouted, pulling Clara and the Doctor down with her into a small stoop, dodging a laser that went past their head.

"Am I green?" the Doctor called to Clara as the Professor stood again, aiming, "Am I green?!"

"You're green!" Clara nodded.

The Doctor leapt up, pressing a small microphone to her lips and speaking to the Blitzer, his voice echoing in a slightly mechanical way reminiscent of the Blitzer itself, "Stop Skovox Blitzer!" he ordered.

The Blitzer paused a moment, before sagging slightly, its eyes turning blue from red, "Awaiting orders."

The Doctor let out a breath at that, "Superior Skovox Officer," he stated, "Analyze stop. Analyze stop."

A small blue light flashed out of the Blitzer a moment, "Superior recognized," that had the Professor letting out a breath of relief as well, she'd managed to get the resonance of the superior to match with the Blitzer, allowing it to pick up the frequency perfectly, "Pattern 1-1-0. Orders. Orders."

"Why's it listening to you?" Clara whispered.

"Listening to its superior," the Professor told her behind the Doctor's back, her blaster still in hand.

"It's a rough copy," the Doctor murmured.

"Right now it thinks the Doctor is its general."

He nodded, lifting the microphone again, "Initiate input. Commence shutdown protocol. No conflict. Conclusion?"

"Problem…" the Blitzer analyzed, "Solution."

"Conclusion?" the Doctor repeated.

"Final input code missing," the Blitzer stated, its eyes turning red once more, "Emergency terminate. Initiate self-destruct in 9, 8…"

"The input code?" the Doctor turned to the Professor.

"Oh my god," she breathed, feeling her hearts sink, "I forgot the final input code," she turned him, grabbing a small keypad on his pack and started to put it in, muttering curses in Gallifreyan, that the Doctor was sure he was going to have to whisper to the baby not to ever repeat later, under her breath, about how stupid she was, about how pregnancy was slowing everything down, about how her brain was so scattered that if they died she'd never forgive herself and…

"7, 6, 5…" the Blitzer continued to count down.

"Do it now!" Clara cried.

"I need time!" the Professor shouted, typing as fast as she could but it was a long code, "Distract it!"

"How?!"

"3, 2, 1…" the Blitzer finished.

But just as it finished speaking, just before it could actually activate the self destruct, Danny's voice called out from behind it, "Oi, Skovox, over here!"

They looked over, the Doctor and Clara, the Professor focused on the code, to see Danny shimmer into existence, having used the invisibility watch to follow them. He ran at the Blitzer just as it turned to face him, ignoring it as it fired at him, before jumping right over it, somersaulting mid air and landing on the other side of it, ducking into a rolling landing and springing up just beside Clara.

"Under attack!" the Blitzer began to turn to them again.

"Now!" the Professor shouted, activating the code.

"Officer!" the Doctor cried, "Officer. Stop!" he ordered, "Confirm stop, override final input code!"

They held their breath for a moment, watching, waiting…till the Blitzer's eyes turned blue again, "Code accepted," it reported, "Abort self-destruct. Orders accepted. Stop…stop…stop…"its voice slowly slurred as it powered down, its head lulling to the side as its eyes went dark, its body slumping.

Clara turned and hugged Danny tightly, "Oh, my God! Oh, my God, you were amazing! Oh, my God, you were so brilliant!"

"Well, yeah," Danny smiled, hugging her back, a bit bashful, modest, "I was ok, wasn't I?"

Clara pulled away and looked at him, "I've never seen anyone but Gran do that."

Danny blinked at that and looked at the Professor, who was being tightly hugged by the Doctor, the man seeming to be whispering reassurances to her as he stroked her hair, something about it not being her fault, something about forgetting the input code. He shook his head, they weren't his problem, and turned to Clara, "I was behind you every step of the way," he told her, "Had to make sure you were safe."

Clara smiled at that, that was very much like the Doctor and Professor, and looked at them, "You ok?" she asked them.

"Hmm?" the Doctor glanced at them, his arms tightening around the Professor, "Yeah. We're fine."

"You…sure?" Danny asked, able to see the Professor's shoulders shaking slightly as she tried not to let on that she was crying.

"Yes," the Doctor said a bit more harshly, knowing how the Professor felt about people seeing her when she was week.

Clara looked between the two of them, "Well. It's um…it's good that…"

"It's alright," Danny sighed, looking at Clara, "It doesn't matter. I don't need either of them to like me," he added, though he got the feeling that the Professor might like him slightly, "It doesn't matter if they like me or hate me, I just need to do exactly one thing for them," he glanced over, seeing the Professor pulling away, though she was quick to wipe under her eyes and Clara was good enough not to mention if there was still a wetness under it, "Am I right?"

"Yes," the Doctor nodded.

"What?" Clara frowned, "What one thing?"

"What has the Doctor been after since you told us you were dating, Clara?" the Professor asked her.

"To meet him," she replied.

"And WHY did we want to meet Danny?"

"They want to make sure I'm good enough for you," Danny told her, "That's why the Doctor at least was angry, just in case I'm not."

Clara looked over at the Time Lords, starting to smile slightly at that, hearing that they wanted to meet Danny and knowing that they wanted to for that reason was one thing, but to have it confirmed made her feel warm and loved, even if Danny seemed at odds with the Doctor, which was odd given that they both seemed to have issues with the other being a soldier…despite the Professor being one and accepting Danny for it as well, "He, er, he did just save the whole world."

"Good start," the Professor agreed.

"If you'll excuse us," the Doctor took the Professor's hand, "We need to get rid of the Blitzer and we have some things to see to."

And with that, he turned and led the Professor into the TARDIS, leaving Clara and Danny to see themselves out. He knew that, after this, now that the Blitzer was definitely taken care of, there was a very specific scan she wanted to see to.

~8~

The Doctor looked up from the console where he was working on scanning the Blitzer, making sure that it was completely drained and deleted before they sent it out to be destroyed, seeing the Professor slowly making her way down the stairs, only to stop halfway down, her expression lost in thought, her hands on her stomach. He would have gone back to the scanning, would have thought she was just drifting as she tended to do now…had it not been for the tears in her eyes.

"Kata?" he called moving over to her, stepping up the stairs slightly to take her hands, "What's wrong?" he tried to catch her eye, needing to lift her chin to get her to look at him, frowning more when he saw that yes, there WERE tears in her eyes, "Did the scans come back? Are you ok? Is the baby?"

She actually laughed at that part, "I'm fine," she nodded, taking his hand from her chin and lowering it back to her stomach, but placing his hands on either side of it, "I'm fine," she repeated, "I'm ok. And the babies are ok too."

"Good…" he nodded, "But then why are you cry…" he cut off suddenly, his mouth dropping open as his eyes widened, the Professor laughing again as she saw his reaction, "Babies? As in…not-one?"

"Babies," she nodded, "As in plural. As in…" she let out a breath as though she couldn't believe it, "Twins."

The Doctor looked down at her stomach, his hands drifting slightly, stopping only when he felt it…kicks…on either side of her stomach, two sets of kicks too far away to be from one baby…

"Twins?" he repeated.

"Twins," she nodded, they still didn't know the gender, they really wanted it to be a surprise, but…still, two, two babies!

The Doctor suddenly pulled her closer, hugging her as tightly as he could in her condition to spin her around, setting her down on the ground, tears in his eyes as he looked up at the rotor, "You hear that, mum, you're getting TWO grandchildren!"

The Professor patted the console as the TARDIS hummed, the rotor light brightening, "Two babies…" she looked at the Doctor, a hint of fear in her eyes, "Are we ready for that, Theta?"

"As long as I've got you, Kata," he took her hands and kissed them, "I'm ready for anything."

She took a breath, tugging him to her and just hugging him, crying a bit as he held her, tears of joy. They'd been trying for SO long to have a child…

And now they'd ended up with TWO!

~8~

The Time Lords watched from the doorway of the TARDIS, one Courtney Woods standing between them, the Doctor had offered the Professor a celebration. Had offered to take any of the pudding-brains with them to see the Blitzer off and she'd picked Courtney. He'd rolled his eyes at the choice till she reminded him of another rather troublesome student in another school that had gone on to do the most incredible things in his life and not to judge too quickly. And so there they were, watching the Blitzer drift out into space, small little micro-meteorites hitting its armor and bouncing away.

"Farewell, Skovox Blitzer," the Doctor called, "Have a nice war."

"So, Courtney," the Professor looked at her, "Impressed?"

Courtney just stood there, a hand gripping the doorframe tightly as she looked around, feeling very small, the colors of space swirling and…

"Actually, I'm feeling a bit ill," she admitted.

"It can be a bit overwhelming," the Doctor nodded absently.

"That's the Olveron Cluster," the Professor pointed, never one to pass up a lesson, "A million stars, a hundred million inhabited planets…"

They looked down as Courtney gagged and sudden ran back inside, moments before the sound of her being sick reached them.

"Ah, yes," the Doctor sighed, "There has been a spillage," he looked at the Professor, "You stay here, I'LL clean it first," he smiled, "Don't need twice the sick, stay in the fresh air. Once I'm done we can get Courtney back to the school in time for Parents' Night to be over."

The Professor rolled her eyes but nodded, leaning against the doorframe and staring up at the stars around them, her hand resting on her stomach as she absently rubbed it, thinking of the future.

Not one baby.

They weren't having one baby.

But two!

She couldn't help but wonder what that would be like, having two children running around the TARDIS, still…she couldn't wait to find out what they'd be like…

~8~

Just outside the school, standing across the road, Leto Stewart and Leia Smith glanced at each other, arms crossed, and looked back at the building, hearing a funny wheezing noise sounding from within.

"What do you think, sis?" Leto inquired.

Leia smiled, "I think mum's eyes are going if she didn't notice US."

"Well," he shrugged, "To be fair, last time THEY saw us was in that pyramid with Kovarian and they were a bit busy at the moment."

"True," she agreed, "What with dad getting into all that trouble with the Silence, and River trying to kill them..."

They glanced at each other at the mention of the woman, "Speaking of River," they both said at once, grinning as the same idea hit them, before turning and heading off, down the road, slipping into a back alley, fully intent to visit their dearest friend.

And so, only moments after one fuzzy wheezing noise faded away inside the school, another started in the alley across the way from it.

A/N: Boom! Surprise! :) The Keta Twins! ;) I can say that Leia and Leto are NOT their Gallifreyan names, we'll have to wait to see that, but did you like it? Seems the Sergeant and Matron were hanging around Clara for quite some time now }:) I sort of take it that they know who Clara is and that their parents would eventually come to Coal Hill, so they have a way to hide their Time Lord sense from the Doctor and Professor in preparation ;) I can say this will NOT be like in the Lunar Cycle. The Twins will not be popping up like J/the Captain does, I just was thinking about their titles and how they could both fit into a school setting and thought...what if?! For this episode at least ;)

Apologies for this being late, I rewrote all the scenes with Leia and Leto, they just weren't fitting well and not how I wanted it to go and I think I spent this morning rewriting all of them twice. I actually fell asleep debating if I should rewrite them and woke up like 'yes, yes I do.' I'm not sure how I feel about the final products, but I hope you liked them :)

I can say there's quite a few reasons behind them using Leia and Leto as a 'name' on Earth, but we'll have to wait to find out ;) Some of you might be able to guess one reason though ;)

Also another apology, I was informed today that I have to go with my father to drop off a car for repair in a specialty shop quite a ways away (like a few states away) and we're leaving really early tomorrow morning and I won't have internet for about 2 days, till the 21st :( I won't be able to update this story the next 2 days (sorry!) but I'm going to try and at least post the second I get back if it's not too late so maybe 1.5 days if I'm lucky. SO sorry! But at least I can give a warning this time when there's no updates :(

Some notes on reviews...

The Lunar Cycle will be up the day after this story ends, so in a week, the 25th :) I can't say if J will regenerate just yet, I can say though that when he does, Clara will be regenerating with him, so they both get a new start and get to experience it together :)

It definitely felt like a blend of School Reunion and Human Nature to me too, made me think of all the other 'school' episodes they've had :) I think the Master was sort of trapped in the crack that the Time Lords opened up to bring Gallifrey to Earth in the End of Time, and, when Gallifrey just disappeared in the 50th, it sort of released him, back on Earth in Naismith Manor but on the same date/year that he disappeared and he regenerated and made his way to conquer the world :)

I'll be releasing the Series 8 stories in order of TL. Proffy, Evy, Angel, Mac, and the Judge :) Though the future TLs will likely just continue into Series 8 though I don't think any of them overlap with the current TLs :)

Oh now that they know it's twins, we'll see more flirting come back :)

Danny will still have some trouble coming to terms with the Time Lords, even being her family, he now knows that Clara has two soldiers around her instead of just one which sort of puts him back to square one in this story in how he feels about it :( Like in the show it was 1. the Doctor's a soldier, 2. Clara kind of had a crush on him. Here, even without the crush, he still has 2 issues, 1. The Doctor's a soldier/officer, 2. The Professor's a soldier/officer and they both sort of are aware of and embrace it where Danny keeps denying he's a soldier any longer (I took his denials of being the PE teacher in the show as a code PE for Soldier) :( The Professor will have a conversation with him in a later chapter though, about being a soldier and even about a specific sort of life they've both taken that will help him come to better terms with the Time Lords then :)