A/N: Yes, I am working on Reborn again! hoping to finish that by Christmas. :D

Chapter 31 – Post-Regeneration Bedwetting

Ten minutes later the Doctor and Rose were in the quarantine area, on one side of the glass wall with Jackie on the other. The Doctor was leant against the side propped up by a pillow with Rose next to him, the both of them gazing at Jackie on the other side, just listening. Now the children were in bed, there was really only the truth to be said.

"It was Pete, he changed," Jackie began quietly in explanation of her desire to cross worlds. "I should've noticed. He was fine to begin with, really sweet and 'elpful like he always was... But then it started. The minute he started getting free control over Torchwood, it was like it flicked a switch in his head or somethin'. It took a couple of years but soon he started only carin' 'bout bloody Torchwood, started sayin' it was his duty to protect the world from alien threats, that the public relied on 'im. Like he'd got it into his 'ead all aliens were bad. But then it got worse. He'd made himself into Earth's hero. He started tryin' to control me and Tony, where we went, what we did, he just kept sayin' we were aliens too..."

"That's stupid," Rose said disbelievingly. "He really did that?"

Jackie nodded, and for a moment she looked as though she might cry. But she quickly swallowed it down and continued with her story. "So I eventually decided to go to Torchwood to try and talk to him, give him some perspective and a bloody great big smack, when..."

She trailed off for a moment to glance at the Doctor, who was gazing at her with concerned eyes, encouraging her on.

"... It was horrible. There were dead aliens everywhere. Big, small... I think some were kids too. It was like he'd hunted down every single one on the planet or somethin'. I just kept thinkin' of you, Doctor, that could've been you. Or Leah. By that point I reckon he woulda killed her on the spot too."

The Doctor continued to gaze at her, but didn't say a word, just letting her continue.

"Then I realised that he thought of me and Tony as aliens too... I don't know why he didn't try to kill us. But he cut off all my communication to you, sayin' I was fraternisin' with the enemy. It was gettin' horrible, the day you arrived, Doctor, was the day I was gonna take Tony and leave. I thought we'd be next."

"Oh, Mum," Rose whispered, wanting to hug her but the glass wall prevented her, so the Doctor reached out to hug her instead.

"I'm sorry, Jackie," the Doctor began, holding his wife tightly. "I should've realised he was one of those people before I left you in his care."

"It's not your fault."

"No, but... I had all the signs..." the Doctor slowly realised, looking at Rose. "Do you remember our first time on the parallel world? Even at the end of it all he wouldn't let you call him Dad. Then in the battle, he took me back to the parallel world and told me how bad it was... He didn't care about our world or what would happen to it if all the Cybermen were trapped there. He treated me like I was his servant. He said you weren't his wife, Jackie, or you weren't his daughter, Rose. He put his world over you, his family. I thought that changed... And maybe it did for a while... But you can't change a leopard's spots. I'm sorry, Jackie."

"It's not your fault," Jackie repeated. "You came and got me and Tony, Doctor. You've brought me back to my family. That's all that matters. Thank you."

The Doctor gave a half-smile. "You can come out of quarantine in a day or two, I just need to run checks to make sure you're not carrying a disease this world hasn't met."

Jackie nodded, for once completely accepting his explanation. She wiped away an unfallen tear and offered a small smile. "So how 'ave you two been gettin' on? How long till the little one? And who smacked you around?" The last was to the Doctor as she noticed the bruises on his face, the bloodshot eye, the casts on his broken limbs and the cuts and scrapes all over him... But she quickly noticed he wasn't laughing.

Rose glanced at her husband, and decided to take the reigns. "Yeah, I'm pregnant, it's a boy," she said, smiling, but then her thoughts turned to the darkness of the past two months and she completely forgot how to smile. She looked at her Mother, not really quite sure how to start. "We've... had a long couple of months, Mum."

"What happened?" Jackie asked gently, more caring than the Doctor had ever seen her. Rose seemed to shift uncomfortably beside him, taking the hand of his recently reset arm.

She was about to open her mouth to explain, when the Doctor quickly shook his head, sitting up slightly. "I'll explain."

"Are you sure?" Rose asked, concerned.

He nodded. "I think I need to talk about it, get it out of my system." She looked at him for a moment before she leant forward, and kissed him for strength. He finally looked at Jackie, and then he began to recount the past three months. By the time he got to the imprisonment, Jackie was crying again. He finally reached the present and Rose was already hugging him tightly.

"And you still don't know who set you up?" Jackie asked quietly.

The Doctor shook his head. "It wasn't the Proclamation, it wasn't the Master... But it's someone who knows me. And he's still out there, somewhere. I have no idea who it could be. No one can command the Proclamation like that. From what he said to me and what the Proclamation targeted, all I can think is that this person has a piece of information that scared the Proclamation about my children... Something so big and important that they felt they could break all their own laws just to get my family imprisoned. But I don't know what that could be either."

"Are you safe?" Jackie asked quickly, anxious. "Is my family safe, Doctor?"

"I'm not going to let anything happen to them," the Doctor said sincerely.

"We just need to lay low for a while, Mum," Rose said gently. "Right, Doctor?"

The Doctor nodded. "Though... Something this big... I don't think they're just gonna give up. If I knew what it was..." He breathed a sigh through gritted teeth, frustrated. "I feel helpless."

"We need to take a break," Rose reiterated. "Just me, you, Leah, Mum and Tony. Go somewhere and have some fun."

"I was thinking," the Doctor began, looking between Rose and Jackie. "There's a planet called Lix, a prime holiday destination of the Universe, twin suns, beautiful beaches, warm water, great food. A Kizian I know owns a private beach with a four-bedroom bungalow right next to it that he uses as a holiday home and for tourists... He said I was welcome to use it. After saving him from a Teraca invasion, of course."

"Sounds perfect," Rose said, squeezing his hand. "Bit of a rest before this one," she said, nodding to her swollen belly. The Doctor smiled and rested his hand on the bulge. Jackie may have perceived the Doctor in many different ways over years, but right now all she could see was a loving, proud father and caring husband.

"When are you due?" Jackie wondered.

"Two months," Rose replied.

"Just in time for Christmas," the Doctor pointed out.

Jackie smiled at that. "You got a name for him, yet?"

"Yeah, he's my little Adam," Rose said, smiling.

"Aidan," the Doctor corrected.

"You pronounce that 'Mark'."

The Doctor pulled a face and looked at Jackie. "We, err... can't decide."

"It'll come, love," Jackie assured him.

"As soon as he hits puberty," Rose muttered under her breath.

The Doctor was lost, and completely alone.

Everywhere was darkness, pain, and rage. He was running down a metal corridor consumed in darkness, a million doors spread either side of him. There was someone screaming a bloodcurdling scream, begging for help, calling out his name... But he couldn't find them. Which room were they in?

He kept running. He had to find them, had to help them. But he couldn't, and it was getting worse and worse. The horrific screaming was becoming louder, and louder, and louder, and...

"Doctor!"

The Doctor snapped awake, finding Rose leaning over him in the darkness. He blinked a few times, eyes flickering around to see he was in his and Rose's bedroom as he tried to calm his breathing. How did he get so out of breath?

"You were tossin' and turnin'," Rose told him gently. "You okay? Bad dream? Like before?"

He nodded, swallowing slightly. "The same one."

"Tell me."

"I'm alone, running down this corridor of darkness with loads of doors everywhere, there's this person screaming for me but I don't know where they are... it just gets louder and louder, and then I wake up."

Rose looked sadly down at him, stroking his cheek. "Just a dream, right? You're okay."

"But it just feels so real."

She kissed him. "Just a dream," she repeated. He nodded, if but a little distracted as Rose put her leg between his and wrapped her arm around his neck. For a moment they laid like that, until Rose's hand slowly crept around and pressed between his shoulder blades. He shivered – but it wasn't a good shiver.

"Please don't," he muttered.

She nodded, understanding as she moved back and just held him in the silence. And for what was probably the first time in the three years of them sleeping together, the Doctor drifted off before her.

For around twenty minutes she just watched him sleep, making sure he wasn't going to plunge into the nightmare again as his chest rose and fell rhythmically and he twitched every so often. Just before she decided to go to sleep, she reached up and kissed him softly, hoping it would give him a good dream.

But just as she settled, there was the sound of quiet crying from outside the door, and the shuffling of toddler feet. Rose sat up, just as the door pushed open to reveal Leah standing there hugging Floppy, sobbing with her thumb stuck in her mouth.

"What's wrong?" Rose whispered quickly.

"Mummy," she sobbed.

"Come here and be really quiet cos Daddy's sleeping," Rose whispered gently.

Leah stood still for a moment, before padding quietly over to her Mum's side of the bed and looking up at her with wide eyes.

Rose lifted her to sit on the bed. "Couldn't sleep well?" she whispered.

Leah shook her head, still sucking her thumb with tear lines down her face. "Mummy, I wet the bed."

Rose nodded. "All right, I'll go clean it up, you stay here with Daddy and try to get some sleep, okay?"

"I'm sorry," Leah sniffed.

"Don't be sorry, it's fine, really normal," Rose said gently. "Go to sleep."

She nodded as Rose climbed out from under the duvet and pulled it over Leah instead, kissing her forehead and tucking her in. Rose moved around to her husband, rousing him gently.

"Leah's wet the bed so she's gonna sleep here while I clean it," she told him. He nodded tiredly and turned over onto his back, smiling tiredly at Leah who quickly shuffled over to him and buried herself under his arm as Rose left.

"Wet the bed, huh?" the Doctor said quietly, closing his eyes again. "Don't worry. Don't tell your Mum this, but when I regenerate it takes a couple of months to get used to my new body... Including peeing at night."

Leah giggled quietly.

"Seriously, don't tell her. Otherwise a lot of things will make a lot of sense."

Leah giggled again. "Daddy, can we talk tomorrow?"

"Yeah, of course we can. We've missed out on a lot of your schooling, too. Need to have a catch up."

Leah nodded, and snuggled closer into him, closing her eyes as they both went back to sleep. She wasn't scared when she was with him.