A/N: Updating this and Reborn at the same time. I multi-task like that.

Chapter 35 – It's Purple!

"The sand is purple."

"Yep."

"Purple!"

"Yes, Jackie."

"How can it be purple?"

The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes, looking at Rose and Leah stood next to him, gazing at the purple-sanded beach in awe.

"This is all ours?" Rose wondered.

"All private and all ours for as long as we want," the Doctor confirmed.

"That's amazin'," Rose breathed, reaching up to hug him tightly. "It's perfect."

He grinned, holding her in return, even if her massively pregnant belly made that slightly difficult.

"Tony, say thank you to your Uncle," Jackie told the boy, nudging him.

"Thank you, Uncle," Tony said meekly.

"Don't thank me, thank the Teraca for invading Kizia two hundred years ago," the Doctor insisted. "Right, bungalow is over there, it's self-catering, just pick in your dish in the kitchen terminal by planet of origin and it'll cook it up for you in twenty minutes. The materials in the bungalow that everything's made from is also auto-cleaning so you don't have to bother about that either. When we arrived I transmatted our stuff into the rooms, you just need to unpack. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to lie on the beach for two weeks."

And with that, he sauntered off across the beach, towel slung over his shoulder.

"Okay, swimming is very, very easy," the Doctor began, standing in the water up to his ankles, holding Leah's hand. She was standing beside him nervously, looking up at him with wide, terrified eyes. He grinned at her. "Oh come on, it's a beach, you're not gonna get far if I don't teach you to swim."

"But I don't wanna swim, Daddy," Leah squeaked.

"You haven't even tried it yet!" the Doctor protested. "Just try it, and if you decide you really don't like it then we'll stop."

"But Daddy, please, I'm scared..."

"I was scared at first too, but it's so easy once you get the hang of it, it's just like riding a bike." He paused, and thought about what he'd just said for a moment as Leah stared up at him blankly. "Remind me to teach you how to ride a bike sometime... Anyway." He cleared his throat, and dropped to kneel down in front of her. "If you don't like it I promise we'll come straight back out again no questions asked. But... Did I ever tell you about the Veranian invasion on Jiscal Minor?"

"Please Daddy, no boring stories," she said, struggling not to laugh.

He stared at her with mock affront. "Boring? I'll have you know it's really, really exciting. The Veranian Empire had declared war on the people of Jiscal Minor, and I'd accidentally managed to become the Warrior of the Peace for the people of Jiscal after a little too much, umm... happy water, which of course made the invasion my job to sort out. But the trouble was loads of the Veranian ships were parked on an island right in the middle of the aptly named Tiny Angry Fish Ocean. So I had to swim across this giant expanse of water ten miles wide, and it didn't help that the Warrior of the Peace on Jiscal traditionally has to cake himself in fish food and go completely naked while swimming. So I swam all that way through the Tiny Angry Fish Ocean completely naked and covered in fish food and finally got to the island with the ship on, only to discover the Veranian ships weren't actually there. Turned out the man on Jiscal who had detected them had sneezed on the radar screen a few days before and it had congealed and made it look like there was a fleet of ships in that area. So, the moral of the story is... Learn to swim. The end."

She stared at him, then burst out laughing.

He grinned at her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "So you'll give it a go?"

She stopped laughing, and instantly started worrying again. "Umm..."

"I'm not gonna force you into anything you don't want to do," her assured her. "I know how scary it is. But remember I'll be here for you every step of the way and I'm not going to let anything bad happen. Okay?"

She paused for a moment, and then finally nodded. He nodded back then straightened, taking her hand to lead her into the water just a little way.

They started with a little splashing and play, and then starting slowly moving deeper and deeper. She quickly became more and more comfortable, and eventually started swimming on her own without holding onto his arm.

In fact she became so confident she tried to swim away from him on a few occasions. Within an extremely short space of time she had learnt a competent doggy paddle and was laughing when he suggested even the idea of it being scary.

"This is really good! Well done," he praised. "Right, next stage, let's go underwater."

"Daddy!" Leah wailed, scared.

He laughed. "Come on, if you don't try you'll never learn. It'll be fine, I promise. Swimming didn't turn out so bad, did it?"

"No," she said, still a little apprehensive.

"Do you want to try?"

She nodded.

"Okay, take my hands."

Leah did so, a little nervous, looking up at him with a true sense of complete trust. "Don't let go."

He offered a smile. "I won't. I'm gonna count to three, and on three, you take a big deep breath and we'll go under the water, okay?"

She nodded, still gazing at him.

"If you want to come up just squeeze my hands. Okay, one, two... Take a breath..."

She did, and the Doctor pulled her down under the water. She had her eyes shut tightly, absolutely terrified. The Doctor grinned and rubbed his thumbs over her palms, coaxing her to open her eyes. She eventually opened one eye, then opened both, looking around at their underwater world with wonder. She began to smile and the Doctor grinned back.

Though it wasn't long until her body naturally started floating back up to the surface, held down only by the Doctor's hands holding her's. She started kicking with her legs to try and get back down to him, and after a few moments she pushed through and started coming back down again to his height. But then she squeezed his hands and he nodded, kicking to get back up.

They broke the surface, and instantly Leah was giggling through regaining her breath.

"Can we go again?" she asked after she'd recovered, eager.

He laughed, pushing back her soaking hair from her eyes. "Yeah we can. Ready?"

She nodded.

"One, two..."

They spent longer under the water this time, Leah's body still naturally floating to the surface. She was obviously trying to fight it, but her Dad was the only thing holding her under until she squeezed his hands and they broke the surface again.

"Why do I keep going floaty?" she wondered.

"We Gallifreyans are wired up to support two hearts," the Doctor began in explanation. "Instead of big lungs, we've got loads of little tubes full of air running all through us, and that's what makes us really floaty. Once you get the hang of it like me you can change the pressure inside your body to make you less floaty. But that might not be for a while, so until then I'll help you go down," he finished, then regarded her for a moment. "Are you getting less scared?"

"I'm not scared now," she replied positively.

"Are you ready to go down to the water bed? It's not far, and there's something I want to show you."

She nodded eagerly, already preparing to take a breath.

He grinned. "I'll pull you down, remember just squeeze my hand if you think you're going to run out of air. One, two..."

Leah took a breath, and went under with her Daddy. He took a firm hold of her hand, glancing back at her for a moment before spinning over and kicking, starting downwards.

The underwater world was completely new to Leah. There were weird, brightly coloured plants, shoals of tiny two-headed alien fish, and as they reached the bed she could see it was covered in dark purple sand like the beach. Her Daddy continued to pull her forwards, keeping her down even though all her body wanted to do was go up.

Suddenly they emerged into an area filled with brown rocks. He took her down to them, and gestured for her to look. He nudged one with his foot and suddenly a bulbous black eye opened on the top of the rock, swivelling in all directions for a few moments before closing again. Leah watched as her Daddy reached down and ran a finger along the back of the rock, and instantly it opened to reveal a perfectly spherical round white gem inside it about the size of a squash ball. Leah gazed at it in awe as the Doctor picked it up and put it in one of his pockets.

She didn't want to leave, but she could feel herself starting to run out of air so she squeezed his hand. He nodded, looking up and instantly kicking, pushing them to relatively short distance to the surface.

They broke it, taking a moment to regain their breaths back.

"All right?" the Doctor asked Leah. She nodded, and he drew out the squash ball gem from his pocket and held it under the water. Then he lifted it up and suddenly the previously white gem was suddenly awash with colours coursing through it. "A Lixan Cluckle gem. Every one is different; the pigments inside the clear coating are unique every time, bringing out different colours and patterns depending on how happy the Cluckle's been in its life. I think this one's been really happy."

Leah gazed at it with wonder and he smiled, holding it out for her to take. She looked up at him as though unable to believe what he was giving to her. He widened his smile and pushed it into her hands.

"This is my special part of your birthday present," he explained.

"Thank you," she said, holding the multi-coloured gem tightly in both her hands. It was surprisingly light.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "No thank you needed," he assured her. "You deserve it. I've been a naff Daddy recently, you deserve so much more for everything you've endured, you're hurting because of me and I just..." He paused, looking at her. "... Forgive me?"

She nodded instantly, wrapping her arms around his middle. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too," he said gently, holding her tightly for a moment before drawing back. "Let's go find Mummy."

An hour later, the suns were beginning to set. They all had dinner on the outside table, and it was Jackie's dinner choice that night, so it was somewhat predictably fish and chips. After dinner Leah wanted to play in the sand a bit more, and Rose went with her, but not before Leah had tried to get her Daddy to follow.

"Daddy, come with us?"

He smiled down at her. "You go and make a start and I'll be over in a bit, okay?"

She nodded, giving him a hug and quickly turning on her heel, taking Rose's hand and pulling her Mum across the beach.

"You're not new to this, are you," Jackie suddenly said.

The Doctor looked at her, confused. "What?"

"Parenthood. You've had kids before, 'aven't ya?"

His face dropped instantly. "Umm... Yeah," he croaked.

"What happened to them?"

The Doctor looked away to stare at the sky. "I'd rather not, Jackie."

"You loved them?"

"Of course I did," the Doctor replied, a little curtly. "I'm not a monster."

"I never said you were," Jackie replied simply. "It's just you never say anythin'."

He didn't say a word in reply, so Jackie persisted.

"You're part of the family now, Doctor. I need to know who you are, if you're responsible enough to look after my grandchildren. I don't even care anymore if you're an alien, I'm judgin' you as a father. Can I even trust you?"

The Doctor paused, then pushed himself to sit up, looking across the beach to where Rose and Leah were making sandcastles in the middle of the otherwise deserted beach. "See that forest behind them?" he asked, pointing at the dense forestry behind the girls. "Right now there's a carnivorous alien wolf looking for food around the perimeter. If it sees Rose and Leah, it will pounce. But ten minutes ago I made a ghost scent leading back into the forest and in about five minutes it will pick it up and be gone, no harm done. I'm not going to tell Rose or Leah there was ever a wolf there, because that would make them worried. They don't need to be worried about anything for as long as I live. I will take care of everything, because they are all I live for now. Rose, Leah, my son, the TARDIS. It's all I have, and it's all I need."

He looked back at her. She was waiting for more.

"Look, I know I've made a lot of mistakes with Leah and Rose, but I've been forgiven, I learnt, I moved on. I am a genius of course, but I haven't got the foggiest about how to be a good husband or a good Dad. It's just not something you can ever be taught. Yeah, I have had children before, in fact I've been a father and a grandfather, but not in the sense of having a baby; that's not the way my people did it. We loomed children, already of a certain physical age when they came out. I was loomed as well. So this kind of parenting is all new to me."

Jackie nodded, but was still gazing at him. "But why are you so secretive all the time? Why don't you talk about your family?"

He swallowed, bowing his head and closing his eyes. "... Because it hurts."

She nodded slowly, sympathetic. "Does Rose know?"

"Yeah, she knows. And I know about her, too."

"Jimmy Stone?"

He nodded. "She told me everything, and Jackie, I would never do what he did. I hope he rots in jail for what he put her through."

Jackie thought for a moment. "What year is it now on Earth?"

"2011."

"He's out next year."

"I know, and if he does try and find her, I'm ready."

"Daddy!" Leah yelled from across the beach, "come on!"

The Doctor grinned. "Two seconds!" he yelled back and got up, looking back at Jackie. "You coming?"

She shook her head. "No, you go and have fun. Tony's been tryin' to get my attention all day anyway."

He nodded. "See you later," he said, and jogged off across the purple sand to where Leah and Rose were. Jackie watched as he met them and Leah ran to hug him instantly, almost sending him crashing to the floor. She heard the laughs from where she was sitting.

Contented, she got up from her seat, giving one last look at her beautiful motley family currently trying to wrestle each other in the sand before moving to find Tony.