Interlude

Clara, Sarah Jane and Jenny all looked up from where they were fawning over the tiny twins when they heard the main doors of the TARDIS open. They were in the twelfth Doctor's TARDIS and in the nursery they'd found just past the main console room.

"Sarah?" the fourth Doctor called from the console room.

"Through here, Doctor," she called out. "We're in the nursery."

"Arkytior!" they heard the Scottish Doctor call out and then a woman none of them recognized came through the door of the nursery. Twelve followed close behind her and was just in time to catch Rose as she collapsed with regeneration sickness. He rolled his eyes slightly and moved back into the corridor where he spotted the door to the room he shared with his wife. The TARDIS was kind enough to open the door for him so he could take Rose straight in. Kicking the door shut behind him, he made his way to their bed and laid her on the covers. He found one of his wife's more modest sleepwear and proceeded to clean up and change her before tucking her in. Placing a kiss on her forehead, the Doctor left Rose to sleep.

Making his way back to the nursery, Twelve stopped at the doorway to see his closest friends and daughter bonding over the latest addition to his family. Sarah Jane was right – when he left her after the 27 planets thing, she'd told him that though he acted like the loneliest man in the universe, he had the biggest family on Earth.

Clara spotted him first and came over to him. "Who was that?"

"That was Melody." The Doctor looked down at his current companion and he saw on her face what had occurred to him when Rose first started regenerating.

"Oh."

"You're not going to run out on us again?" the Doctor asked. "Because I know what happened the last time I changed." He looked around the room and tried to hide his fear. Looking back down at his friend, he admitted, "I'm terrified."

"I'll help you, Dad," Jenny said with a smile. "We can learn together."

"How could that be Melody?" Sarah Jane asked. "And where does Jenny fit into everything?"

"I forgot how much you like to ask questions, Sarah Jane. Just accept this: I am over 2000 years old, I have a wife that I love and I can share my very long life with. We have been together for over half my life. Therefore, seeing as I am married to a Time Lady, it stands to reason we would have a family together." The Doctor gave his old friend a smile and looked down at the bundle in her arms. Sarah offered to let him take the little girl from her, but he gave a slight shake of his head. He wasn't ready to 'bond' with his daughter just yet.

Jenny laughed. "He's got 'dad shock' again!"

"I do not!" the Doctor refuted. Sarah Jane, Clara and Jenny all looked at each other and the expression on the Doctor's face.

"Yeah, you do," Clara responded. "And I don't think you get a vote."

"What is it and you all ganging up on me? You've all developed a fault."

The three women started giggling at the expression on the Doctor's face as he looked around at them. All four of them looked toward the crib where his son was placed. The little boy had started whimpering. Jenny started moving toward the baby but Clara shook her head slightly. Nudging the Doctor, Clara pushed him toward the crib. All three women could see that the Doctor was terrified at what it would mean as soon as he embraced every aspect of fatherhood.

"Your son needs you, Doctor," Clara said.

The Doctor swallowed around the lump forming in his throat and hoped that one of the others would take the responsibility from him. He looked at each woman again. Sarah Jane shrugged; she already had the Doctor's daughter in her arms. Jenny raised her hands as if she was telling him that she didn't know what to do (and she really didn't). Clara was looking down at her fingernails as if she couldn't hear his son crying.

"What do I do?" the Doctor asked Clara.

"You're his father. Pick him up."

The Doctor lifted the tiny boy into his arms and nestled the child against his chest. The baby seemed to settle a little, but was still complaining a little. Instinct took over the Doctor's actions and he began to murmur questions at his son. "What's your problem, hmmm?" Though the little guy's eyes couldn't focus, his tiny little mouth started to open and close. "Oh, is that right? We should do something about that." He spotted two baby bottles already prepared and he sent a mental 'thank you' to the TARDIS. Picking up one of them, the Doctor held the teat to his son's mouth. The baby took a few tries to start feeding, but once he started, he was happily sucking down his meal.

Sarah Jane moved to the Doctor's side. "You're a natural."

Twelve gave her a slight smile and looked down at his daughter. "Don't tell me you're going to start fussing now too." He paused for a moment, as if he was listening for a response. "Forgive me, little one, I can only feed one of you at a time and your brother did ask first… Give me a moment… Yeah, I'm getting him." Twelve looked up to see the three women looking at him with confused expressions on their faces. He rolled his eyes. "Sarah, come with me. Clara, get the bottle. We're going to go find the clown." Looking down at the boy in his arms, Twelve raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I did have an odd dress sense back then, son." The four of them walked out into the main console room and when they saw that it was empty, they made their way out to the lab.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Harry and the younger Doctor were standing around discussing the recent events and they each turned to where Twelve was exiting his TARDIS with his son in his arms.

"Clown," Twelve said, addressing Four. Four pointed to himself as he frowned at being addressed as a clown. "Yeah, you. Do me a favor. Feed the little one for me? She's asking for her daddy."

Clara hid her smile behind her hand as Four took the little girl out of Sarah Jane's arms and then took the bottle from her. She pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of the two Doctors feeding the newborn twins. Rose would really want a picture of that.

Twelve registered what he said and without dropping his son, he stumbled back so he could lean against the lab table. Four looked down at the daughter in his arms and then up at his future self.

"We never imagined that we'd be a daddy again, did we?" Four asked. Twelve shook his head. "What did we do to deserve that amazing woman in there?"

"I keep asking myself the same thing, and I have so much more to regret than you."

Four returned his attention to the child in his arms. "I find myself quite jealous of my future, if this is what I have to look forward to."

Twelve smiled and laid the empty bottle his son had finished down. "Yeah, I would too," he said as he lifted the boy upright to his shoulder, all the while supporting the boy's head and neck.