Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, or his history which I am now creating with outrageous poetic liscence so apologies if it does not live up to expectations!

AN - Again, apologies if this doesn't live up to expectations. This chapter and the next are mostly descriptive, not a lot actually happens because this is setting up for emotional trials and ultimate cuteness at the end. I see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is good coz this is the hardest fanfic i've ever written and it's caused me incredible writers block. But I hope you're all liking it so far (which i think you are - 67 reviews - thank you all soooo much!) and that it's not too boring, lol. This is en extra long chapter to make up for the fact that i haven't updated in yonks! Enjoy :)


Chapter 12 - The Orphanage:

In front of Rose, the swirling rainbow mass started to take shape. Before long it had arranged itself into a long street with perfectly circular marble stones paving the footpath. The street was bordered by rather dilapidated, though still impressively grand, buildings on either side. Having finished his brief explanation of his history to Rose, and receiving gestures of sympathy from her, the Doctor led the way down the street, two paces in front of his companion, without uttering another word. They passed apparently sandstone buildings, joined together like terrace houses until, at the very end of the street, there was a rather large, flat house. The only weatherboard house in the street, it's blue painted walls were peeling slightly, and it sported a crooked chimney in the very centre of its roof. If Rose hadn't known it to be the Doctor's orphanage - the place where he had grown up and been taught, instead of learning at the academy - she would not have found it particularly impressive. She knew that it was in this building that dedicated teachers and academics taught the lonely time lords of tomorrow, but all in all it was rather unimpressive what with its institutional-looking windows all in rows, and its small patch of silver grass wilting on the front lawn.

Silently, the Doctor stood at the gate, staring at the building with a muddle of emotions on his face. He was at once happy to be home, and completely devastated at the knowledge that it was now all gone. Rose placed a hand on his shoulder, but he remained still.

"I was about nine or ten when I came here. A year or so after I ran away from the Academy. I was accepted straight away, not just coz I was alone, or coz I was smart. It was because I was different, and so I fitted in. It's a strange logic, really, when you think about it. But that was how it was.

"All the boys were in a dormitory together on that side of the house," he gestured to his left, "And the girls were over there" he pointed to his right.

"Where were your lessons?" Rose's asked, genuinely interested. One of her friends at Henrik's had been an orphan, but Rose had never asked where she'd gone to school. In response, the Doctor opened the front door, blue like the rest of the house, and ushered Rose inside. They walked together down a pristine corridor that vaguely reminded Rose of a retirement home - sterile, but with homely touches. The second door on the left revealed a large chemistry laboratory, complete with the usual Bunsen burners, tables, computers and varied gadgets, not to mention huge sciencey-looking vats and machinery that was strictly based on Time-Lord science.

"I learnt how to split the atom in that room" the Doctor said wistfully, "among other things". They moved on to open the door on the other side of the corridor, revealing a lecture theatre as large as that at any university. It never ceased to amaze Rose that things could actually be bigger on the inside, as from the exterior the house did not appear at all large. They proceeded to inspect four more lecture theatres (for multiple languages, maths, history, geography), two more laboratories (for physics and biology), a mini stage with audience seating (to practise public speaking, according to the Doctor), and a 'tech' room which was just an overly large storage cupboard full of bits of junk that reminded Rose of the Tardis console. No doubt young children took just as much pleasure in tinkering around with bits and bobs of machinery as the grown-up Doctor did.

"So where are all the people, then?" Rose asked softly, not wanting to upset the Doctor.

"Well, this is a memory, and I chose to show you my favourite part of the day. No-one's in the classrooms, coz they're all at lunch" he replied, opening the heavy double doors at the very end of the corridor. Rose walked through them to see a grand room stretched out in front of her. The floor was a varnished parquet, reflecting the golden ceiling above. The room was lined with six wooden tables in two rows of three, with an extra one out the front of the room on a small raised platform for the staff. The hall was full of children of all ages (Rose would've guessed probably between six and seventeen) packed onto long benches at the tables, eating what she presumed to be lunch. It was very noisy, with the clattering of plates and cutlery, the munching of hungry mouths and the laughter of the children. For such a pompous-sounding race, they didn't stand on ceremony, so to speak. In fact, they were rather rowdy and unmannered - although utterly charming to Rose. She looked around the tables for the memory version of her doctor. Then she mentally slapped herself across the back of her head - he had regenerated several times since childhood so he clearly wouldn't look the same! With the uncanny intuition and good timing of a psychic, the Doctor pointed himself out to her. She smiled. He was small and weedy - probably would've come up to her hip - with sandy brown hair and a ferocious appetite. His second hand clothes looked careworn from Rose's vantage point and she wondered again who had been so kind as to look after him and all the other orphans of Gallifrey. In fact, there were quite a lot of orphans for such a traditional and noble race. Particularly for a race who, generally speaking, lived hundreds and hundreds of years. Rose concluded awkwardly that it was likely that most of these children - like the Doctor - would have parents still alive who were unable to care for them, or simply didn't want to anymore. She was struck with a sudden sadness. Pulling her out of this melancholy, the Doctor pointed over to the staff table.

"That woman on the end, we called her Matron, she was the one that found me. Or I found her, whichever way it goes. Anyway, she brought me here and cleaned me up, enrolling me for all the appropriate subjects for someone my age. She made sure that I always had enough to eat, and wasn't falling behind in class, and wasn't being picked on. She took a special interest in me, I think, I don't know why." He indicated to a blond woman with blue-grey eyes. She looked young but tired, as though the weight of the world was on her shoulders, but her smile lit up the room as she spoke with the professor next to her.

"Maybe your parents had something to do with it?" Rose suggested tentatively. "Maybe they wanted to make sure you were safe even though they couldn't do it themselves coz it's against tradition or courtesy or whatever. Maybe they made sure that she checked up on you"

"Hmm, maybe" said the Doctor, disbelievingly. There was a short pause.

"So what's the significance of the six tables? Is it some sort of Gallifrey tradition?" Rose asked.

"Nah, it's the house tables"

"Oh, so like in Harry Potter?" Rose grinned cheekily.

"How did I know you were gonna say that?" he replied smiling. "The houses weren't named after famous Time Lords or anything, though, coz there are too many. We'd have hosues coming out of our ears if we did that. Our houses are named after letters of the Greek alphabet."

"Greek alphabet, hey? That's sufficiently random. Why that alphabet?"
"Sounded good. There was alpha, epsilon, omicron, omega, sigma and theta"

"Posh!" Rose commented.

"My friends called me Theta Sigma, occasionally, before I became the Doctor"

"You weren't always the Doctor? I'm shocked" Rose joked.

"Ha ha," he said sarcastically, "I was captain of Theta house and Sigma was our main rival. I don't quite get how the name came about, or I can't remember anyway" he trailed off, looking distant again. The scene around them became vaguely foggy.

"So, anyway, school can't be your absolute favourite place in all of Gallifrey, can it? I mean, I hated school. It was institutional torture if you ask me" Rose tried to change the topic and focus him on happier thoughts.

"How would you know? From what I can gather you didn't go all that much" he replied smiling.

"Hey!" she hit him playfully on the arm "I went enough to appreciate that it was not worth my time, okay? Anyway, answer my question. Where else did you like to go?" she probed.

"Well, it's still here at the school" said the Doctor, "But you probably won't think much of it. We don't have to go see it."

"Yes we do" Rose persisted, "It's your memory and you can take me anywhere if you want to. Come on, I want to see" she gave him her best puppy-dog eyes. They worked.

"Okay," he conceded, taking her hand, "It's just over here" and he led her out the side door.


Okay, one more descriptive chapter and then, hopefully, ultimate cuteness

please review if you have time :) hope you liked it!