Here's a shorter chapter for you, but I liked it. It was a fitting chapter - I think you'll all like it too.
Chapter 19: Interlude
"You could travel with us a bit, if you'd like?" Freya offered Jack.
They were standing outside of the TARDIS, the year 5159 on a distant planet she couldn't pronounce the name of.
"Thanks for the offer, sweetheart, but I've got plenty to do. I've been spotting discrepancies in what the Time Agency has done the last two years, and I'm going to go confront them about it. See you around. Thanks for the lift," he said with a wave as he walked off.
"Two years?" the Doctor asked from behind her. Freya frowned and nodded.
"Two years. Maybe he was onto some sort of conspiracy," Freya suggested.
"I can tell you right now, he's going to have his memory wiped when he goes to confront him. It fits the timeline as to when we met him before," the Doctor said.
Freya began to laugh.
"What? What's so funny?" the Doctor demanded.
"Remember that time in Cardiff where you, me, Jack and Mickey were all hanging out? Before the incident with Margaret?" Freya asked. The Doctor gave her a fond smile.
"Yes. One of my favorite days," he said.
"Remember that story he was telling us? The one Mickey swore he was making up?" Freya asked. The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed together.
"Yes?" he said.
"With a few changes, he was telling what happened to us, there in Pompeii," Freya said with a laugh.
The Doctor's eyes went wide.
"What are you talking about? What did he change? The naked part?" the Doctor asked.
"Unfortunately, no. We ended up getting roofied at some bar and nearly sold as sex slaves before Jack managed to cut us out of our clothes and ropes and get us out of there. Then we hid in a whorehouse and they gave us clothes," Freya said.
The Doctor's jaw dropped and he stared at her in disbelief. Freya's laughter quieted into giggles.
"Looks like his memory was peeking through a bit," she said, winking at him. She grabbed him by his tie and pulled him back into the TARDIS.
"But naked?" the Doctor sputtered.
Donna and Ianto were in the console room as well, both staring at Freya and the Doctor.
"Naked," Freya agreed. Freya then winked at him.
It took the Doctor eight point two seconds to throw himself at her, knocking her back into a wall as he snogged the life out of her. One hand crushed her body to his while the other mussed up her hair.
The sudden intense snogging took Freya by surprise. It took her a moment to recover and start responding to his kissing, but respond she did.
"OI!" Donna shouted. The Doctor continued snogging Freya, but Freya managed to pull back slightly.
"Doctor, we still have company," Freya protested as the Doctor began kissing and nibbling on her neck.
"Sod them," the Doctor murmured.
"Not in the console room!" Donna shrieked at him.
"My TARDIS!" the Doctor protested, finally tearing his lips from Freya.
"I don't care, Space Man! Take that to your room," Donna ordered. The Doctor pulled back entirely and gave Donna a challenging grin.
Before hauling Freya up and slinging her over his shoulder.
"I didn't mean right now!" Donna protested.
"My wife just informed me that herself, Jack and Ianto were running naked through the streets of Pompeii. I think I'm within my rights to bed my wife after hearing such a statement," the Doctor said, his voice heated.
Freya was grateful her face was hidden, because had it not been Donna and Ianto would have been laughing at her beet-red face.
"Might I recommend protection? After all, the last few times of spontaneous sex seem to have resulted in three year pregnancies," Ianto suggested when it became apparent that Donna was not able to formulate an answer.
"Protection?" the Doctor asked, pausing in his attempt to escape the room with Freya. The Doctor moved one of his arms suddenly.
"Try that. On second thought, here," Ianto said. The Doctor's hand moved again.
"You're giving him a whole box? Why do you have a whole box?" Donna protested.
"I worked for Captain Jack Harkness," Ianto said drily. Freya managed to get a glance, only for her eyes to widen.
Ianto had just given the Doctor a box of condoms. And the Doctor appeared to be eyeing them quite curiously.
"What, are you meaning to tell me you've never used a condom? How old are you, anyway?" Donna asked.
"Over nine hundred. And no. I can't say that I have," the Doctor said. He was reading the box, Freya assumed.
And then he wasn't.
"Right. It appears I have protection to experiment with. You won't be seeing us for awhile. Enjoy yourself. Kitchen is fully stocked," the Doctor said as he took off running out of the console room.
Freya couldn't help but laugh at the shocked expression on Donna's face and the smug expression on Ianto's.
Freya wasn't sure what time it was, how late it was. Her and the Doctor were laying in the bed, the Doctor snoring lightly next to him. Freya grabbed the Doctor's button down shirt from beside the bed and slipped it on.
She had only managed to slip it on when the door opened slowly and a head peaked around the corner.
Then a second head.
And a third.
And a fourth.
And a fifth.
And they all started giggling.
"Doctor!" Freya hissed. She only recognized two of them. Bad Wolf, at about 12, and Little Red, eight.
The others were all younger.
The Doctor snored and flipped over.
Freya reached out from under the covers and grabbed the Doctor's boxers, sliding them on before climbing out of the bed. The heads disappeared as she approached the door. Freya quickly pulled the door open and closed it firmly behind her, leaving her in the hallway with five children.
"Mommy!" Lil' Red said as she threw herself at Freya. Freya managed to catch the girl, but she couldn't lift her up as she did when Lil' Red was younger.
"Daddy's trying to sleep. What are you doing here?" Freya asked.
"We were wandering around the marketplace and found the TARDIS. We thought it was ours so we climbed in. But it looked funny," one of the other children said, wrinkling up her nose.
There was a sixth child in the hallway. One with her thumb in her mouth and a blanket in her hand.
"Someone's going to be looking for you," Freya pointed out. The youngest child held her hands up to Freya and Freya tucked her on her hip.
"Come along," Freya said, herding the children to the kitchen.
"Your mom is the coolest," one of the kids said to Lil' Red.
So that narrowed it down. At least she knew they weren't all her children. She didn't think she could handle that aspect.
She was pretty sure she didn't have enough time left to do that.
In the kitchen, Ianto and Donna were having tea. Upon seeing the six children pile into the kitchen, Donna stood.
"What is this? Daycare?" Donna asked, staring at them.
"Hey darling," Ianto said upon seeing Lil' Red.
"Uncle Ianto!" Lil' Red said, throwing herself at Ianto.
Ianto wasted no time in picking the girl up.
"Who's all this?" Ianto asked with a smile.
"These are my cousins!" Lil' Red said with a wide smile.
"Nieces and nephews," Bad Wolf corrected.
"Ish," Lil' Red added.
"Ish?" Donna repeated.
"Uncle Jack's kids," Bad Wolf said with a shrug.
"All four of them?" Donna asked, staring at them.
"All four of them," Lil' Red repeated solemnly.
"Do the four of them have names?" Ianto asked her.
"Duh," Lil' Red said, rolling her eyes.
"That's Ellie. And Alice. And Eva. And Evan," Bad Wolf said, pointing at each of the children. Alice was the oldest, then Ellie, then Evan, then Eva.
"Nice clothes," Donna said with a snigger.
"We were still in bed," Freya said drily. Ianto's eyebrows rose at her words.
"And the Doctor?" he asked.
"Quite unconscious," Freya stated.
"Freya," the Doctor's voice called. He stumbled into the kitchen, wearing nothing but his pants and his suit jacket.
"I can't seem to find my…oh," he stopped, staring at the kitchen full of people. He slowly pulled his suit jacket closed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Oh. Er, hello. These aren't all my children," the Doctor said, turning to Freya.
"No. They aren't. I don't have that much…" Freya drifted off, and the Doctor's face adopted a frown.
"No. You're right. So….daycare?" the Doctor asked.
"That's what I thought!" Donna exclaimed.
"Stumbled into the wrong TARDIS. Now, how long do we have before your parents come looking for you?" Freya asked them. Bad Wolf shrugged.
"It was Uncle Jack's day to watch us. It may take him a day to realize we're missing," Bad Wolf said with a shrug.
"A day?" Donna asked in disbelief.
"Jack's scatterbrained," Lil' Red piped up with a grin.
"Is this the same Jack that was just in here? The handsome bloke?" Donna asked.
"That's Dad," Ellie said with a grin.
And a mobile started ringing. Alice pulled a mobile from her pocket and stared at it.
"Also dad. He needs us to find Mum and get him out of jail," Alice said.
"Where is your Mum?" the Doctor asked curiously.
All six children shrugged.
"Who knows? It's hard to keep track of them," Ellie said with a shrug.
"So we need to go get Jack out of jail," Freya said with a sigh.
"Looks like it," the Doctor said, trying to run another hand through his hair.
It was a lost cause.
"I hope you're gonna go get ready before going out," Donna said.
"No time. It's Jack. The longer he's left alone, the more trouble he's in. We need to go now," Ianto said.
"Now? Like, this moment now?" Freya asked, staring down at her outfit.
"Yes, now. Come on," Ianto said. The Doctor and Freya exchanged looks at each other's outfits. The Doctor rebuttoned the top few buttons of his suitjacket.
It was still obvious he was wearing nothing underneath it.
"Fine. Let's go. And hope we don't run into the younger Jack," Freya said.
"Younger Jack?" Bad Wolf asked curiously.
"We just dropped Jack off here. From a few years before we met him the first time previously," Ianto explained.
"Oh God. There's two of Dad here?" Alice asked, staring wide-eyed at the Doctor.
"Great. He'll find himself, certainly," the Doctor mumbled.
"That's probably why he's in jail," Ellie piped up with a grin.
"Come on," Freya said, reaching for Ellie and Lil' Red's hands.
"Are we taking the children along?" Donna asked, wide-eyed.
"Might as well. Who knows what sort of trouble they'll get into if we leave them here alone," the Doctor pointed out.
"The answer's quite a lot. You'd be surprised what all we can take apart. We once took apart half the console before someone found us," Alice said with a wide smile.
"See? They're coming with us. The TARDIS gets frustrated when people tinker with her console," the Doctor explained.
"Which is why she's generally frustrated with you," Freya pointed out.
"It is a valid point," the Doctor agreed, taking Evan's hand.
"Alright, fine. I just hope you don't plan on running with this many children," Donna pointed out.
"Oh, but we can run too!" Evan said with a giggle.
Ianto met Donna's eyes and shook his head.
"Let's just go and find them."
It was surprisingly easy to find the prison. The Doctor only had to ask one person and they were immediately led to the prison. They received a good deal of stares, both for the number of children they were leading along and the dress of the Doctor and Freya.
By the time they'd made it to the prison, Freya had decided she was never leaving their room before properly dressing again.
"We're here to bail out a Jack Harkness," the Doctor said, holding up his psychic paper. The secretary at the front desk eyed it suspiciously.
"Which one?" she asked.
"Both," Freya said quickly. The secretary's eyebrows went up.
"Classified. One's the real, the other's the impersonator. We need both to figure out the truth," Freya said.
"Good luck. Both of them register as Jack Harkness," she told them.
"We'll be the judge of that," the Doctor said. The woman gave them directions, which the herd of them followed through the halls.
Sure enough, sitting in a cell near the end of one of the wings, was both Jack Harknesses.
"I leave you alone for a short time and this is what happens," the Doctor complains.
Both Jacks raised their eyebrows as they stared at Freya and the Doctor.
"Your children," Freya began, staring intently at the older Jack, "saw fit to pull us straight from our beds."
"They are my children," Jack said with a chuckle.
"Is that all you've done since I left?" the younger Jack asked.
"My wife told me of your naked adventures through the streets of Pompeii," the Doctor said drily.
"Jealousy, then?" Jack said cheekily.
"I can leave you here," the Doctor shot back at him. Jack threw up his hands in defense.
"How did you get back here anyway?" he asked.
"You'll find out, some years later. Come on, before that secretary looks up the credentials," the Doctor said.
"You've jinxed us," Freya pointed out as the Doctor sonicked the door. The two Jacks wasted no time in hurrying out of the cell.
The lot of them had made it to the secretary desk when they saw the security guards heading their way. They hadn't spotted them yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Freya handed the child in her arms off to the Doctor.
"I'll distract them and meet you at the TARDIS. Get everyone out of here," Freya ordered. The Doctor opened his mouth, but the older Jack took the opportunity to grab him and pull them along.
Freya stumbled over to the security guard, grabbing his shirt.
"Please, sir, you have to help me! I'm…I think I was attacked! I can't remember what happened," Freya begged. The security guard looked down at her and Freya could tell her pitiful appearance was helping her case.
"Come this way," he said, leading her to a doctor office-like room.
"Wait here. I'll get a doctor to make sure you're okay," the man said. Freya nodded, forcing tears to form in her eyes.
The man hurried out of the room.
But it had given the Doctor just enough time to escape. Of that Freya was certain.
She was about to slip out of the room when a doctor really did appear in the room. Freya had no problem faking hysteria. The doctor poked and prodded her before stopping, frowning at some test results.
"What's wrong? Oh my god, am I dying?" Freya asked, staring at him. The doctor looked up at her curiously.
"No. In fact, I'd say it's just the opposite. You're not dying. At all."
When it became apparent Freya couldn't remember anything about her "attacker", she was released. She made sure to pickpocket the doctor and her records, keeping whatever files they had on her with her as she was escorted out. The secretary was shaking her head at her as she left.
Freya was a bit distracted.
What did they mean by not dying at all?
She hurried away from the prison and turned a corner, unfolding the paper. It took the TARDIS language circuit a moment to translate the written words for her, but as soon as they did she was frowning as much as the doctor who'd looked at her was.
Her cells weren't dying. That's what it said. They weren't aging, and they weren't dying.
Which meant she wasn't aging.
But why? What had happened? She was….her body registered as 26. She had turned 27 a month or so ago. So something had happened in the last year to stop her from aging.
Was it permanent?
If it wasn't, when would it wear off?
Should she tell the Doctor?
She folded the papers up once more and shoved them into her pocket, making her way quickly back towards the TARDIS.
Freya stumbled back to the TARDIS, not even bothering to keep an eye on her path. When she reached the TARDIS, she had only touched the door and it opened for her.
The TARDIS rarely did that.
Freya walked inside.
Wrong TARDIS.
It was the older Doctor's TARDIS, the one she wasn't allowed to tell her Doctor about.
"Freya!" a voice shouted. Freya glanced over to his armchair, where he had thrown himself up, the book he was reading depositing itself on the ground. Freya closed the doors behind her and turned around, only to get an armful of Doctor.
He was beaming like a loon.
"How long's it been since this me saw you?" he asked.
"A little while," Freya admitted, "I saw someone that looked just like you. It was unnerving."
"Pompeii, right?" the Doctor asked. His face was stretched into a smile, one that didn't look natural on his face.
As if he wasn't used to smiling that much.
"Pompeii," Freya agreed, "Are you here with Jack? The children stumbled into our TARDIS by accident."
"I am. I misplaced him. He might be in the pool. The TARDIS won't let me find it," the Doctor said with a pout.
"He's not. We just bailed him from prison. Him and his younger self," Freya said.
"Oh. He would find himself. Only man that'll truly make him happy," the Doctor said.
"I don't know. I think he'd be pretty happy with you," Freya said with a wink. The Doctor looked positively scandalized at the thought.
"Don't even put that image in my head!" he protested.
"Sorry. Can't help it," Freya said cheekily.
"Speaking of things you can't help, those clothes," the Doctor trailed off, staring at her.
"We were pulled straight from bed. Straight from Pompeii," Freya hinted. The Doctor shook his head fondly.
"Jack did always leave for the best excuses to have sex," the Doctor said. Freya opened her mouth, but was interrupted by a knocking on the door.
"Looks like they've found us," the Doctor said. Freya nodded, but pulled the papers from her pocket.
"I…I had a medical scan. At the prison. Look," Freya said, handing them to the Doctor. He unfolded the sheets and scanned them before his face lit up even more. He swept her into a hug before kissing her.
"It worked!" he crowed.
"Worked? What worked? What did you do?" Freya demanded. But the Doctor could only shake his head, still laughing.
There were tears in his eyes.
"Don't tell him. Your Doctor. Or the next. You can't tell them what happened. I'll come for you, when you should die. I'll keep you with me then, so that they don't realize what's happened," the Doctor told her.
"What has happened? Doctor, you have to explain this to me," Freya protested.
"I used a bit of Mire Technology on you. They're a warrior race. You're alive. Always. You can always be with me now," the Doctor said.
"But Doctor…" Freya started. The Doctor shook his head, just as another knock sounded on the door.
"Oi! Open up! I want my wife back, and you can take back these vagabonds!" her Doctor called out, sounding frustrated.
"I don't understand," Freya said, but the Doctor shook his head.
"I'll explain it all later. You can't tell him, though. He can't know. If he knows, it'll mess with everything. He has to think you'll still be dying. Otherwise….otherwise it'll be bad," the Doctor said.
"Just bad?" Freya asked, "Because I can deal with bad if it means you don't have to suffer like you were before.
"If I don't suffer, I'll never come up with the idea to save you. Paradox. Now hurry up. I'm an impatient bugger," the Doctor said with a smile. Freya gave him a quick kiss before hurrying over to the door as her Doctor began knocking once more.
"I'll hide in the other room," the Doctor said, leaving quickly.
He'd taken the papers with him.
Freya hurried and opened the door, just in time for the Doctor to crash into her.
"What took so long?" he complained.
"You're just impatient," Freya pointed out. He'd parked his TARDIS right next to theirs, so she could step from this Doctor's TARDIS to the other.
"Come on," Freya ordered.
"Children! Here's your stop!" the Doctor shouted. A moment later the six children were running aboard, followed closely by older Jack.
"Where's the younger Jack?" Freya asked.
"He already took off. Come on. I promised Donna an exciting future planet. She isn't too impressed with it here," the Doctor said with a sigh.
"It'll take a lot to impress her. Especially with Ianto aboard. He's not easily impressed," Freya pointed out. The Doctor pouted a bit more.
"I've noticed," he grumbled.
"We need to get off of here. Come on," Freya said.
"What if I want to talk to my future self?" the Doctor asked.
"Good luck. You become a grouch," Jack said with a laugh.
"He wouldn't want to talk to you. Come on," Freya ordered, tugging him along. He allowed her tug him out of the TARDIS and into their own. Freya waved at the lot of them before closing their door.
"Any trouble?" the Doctor asked her.
"Nope. None. I'm pretty good at acting hysterical. It helped that I looked thoroughly ravaged," Freya said.
"I can make you look even more ravaged," the Doctor said, his hands going to her waist.
"NOT AGAIN, SPACE MAN! Take me to a planet. A real one! That one was rubbish," Donna ordered.
"Can we just drop them off somewhere?" the Doctor murmured into her ear.
"No. You like companions," Freya reminded him.
"But I also like my wife," the Doctor whined.
"You'll be fine," Ianto interjected drily. The Doctor reluctantly pulled apart and gave Ianto the evil eye.
"I can see you being related to James. You sure have his dry sense of humor," the Doctor pointed out.
"That just so happens to be the same sense of humor you had before you regenerated. The same sense of humor I fell in love with," Freya reminded him.
"James, as in James McCrimmon?" Donna asked
The Doctor just groaned.
"They have a love-hate relationship," Freya explained.
"We should go see him sometime," Freya suggested.
"Nope! Out of the question! Donna wants a planet! Let's go see a planet!" the Doctor said, immediately springing to action as he flounced around the console, pushing down levers and pulling switches.
"And that's one way to get him to hurry up," Freya told Donna with a wink.
"You have him trained," Donna said in approval.
"No. I've just been married about seven years now. Trust me. You get pretty good at figuring out his moods," Freya pointed out.
"But you haven't been together those whole seven years. And he's changed personalities," Ianto reminded her.
"He has, but underneath it all he's still the same man," Freya told them.
The Doctor had paused slightly in his jumping. Freya glanced up at him, meeting his grateful eyes.
"Always the same man," Freya murmured, "Together or apart."
I'm sorry but I can't resist putting in 12th Doctor. I love the 12th so much and feel like he needs a bit of a break every now and then.
Okay. I was glancing through my hits and reviews and I'm not sure how many people are still actually reading this story. I'm not discontinuing it - don't worry, I won't do that to the few readers I've still got - but I'd like to know who all is still reading this. Just so I have an idea as to how many people are waiting on me. The more people I know who are waiting, the faster I tend to work on updating. That's why this story has had priority over my Broadchurch fanfiction.
So if you have the time, if you could just drop me a review to let me know you're still reading, I'd really appreciate it.
Next chapter, Planet of the Ood!