A/N Thanks for the reviews and the follows. I hope you enjoy the return of some old friends (I know Moffat doesn't like trips down memory lane, but sometimes I wish we could just check in on some of the old companions).

Chapter 3 - The Plan

The halls of the Library were so silent Clara was concerned that they had arrived at the wrong time and were sure to be food for the vashta nerada. But then, in the distance she could make out the sounds of transports, and knew they were on time, that the TARDIS had landed just as the evacuation was complete. It felt strange to be in the Library's cavernous halls. Clara felt like she'd wandered back into the Doctor's time stream, and had to close her eyes for a second while the feeling passed. She had not set the Doctor down since his regeneration, and carrying him in her arms she walked up to a curtesy node. "I require access to River Song. She is saved in your database."

Clara let out a gasp when the statue turned around, revealing River's face, "Please state the nature of your request."

"I need her help. The Doctor needs protecting."

"Clara?" River's voice ran out through the silent library. Clara quickly turned to her right to find River standing there, looking exactly as she has on Trenzalore. "What's happened?" Not quite sure how to put it into words, Clara merely held up the baby. River glanced down at him and then back up to Clara. "Take me to the TARDIS."

Clara did her best to tell River everything that had happened to them. She explained about the pirates, the Doctor's regeneration, and their halting conversation with help from the TARDIS. "And you're sure he meant Martha Jones?"

"Pretty sure," Clara replied, suddenly feeling less than certain. "So are we still mentally linked? Is that how I can see you?"

"Mhm," River muttered, her attention fixed on the console.

"Guess that makes sense. I can see wanting a way to check in on the Doctor from time to time." River made no reply, simply moved around the room, checking screens and preparing. Clara sat on the ground playing with the Doctor. He looked almost pleased and occasionally let out a sound quite like a giggle. She smiled back at him and bouncing him around on her knee. His eyes weren't on her's though, he was glancing around the room. It was almost as if... "It's like he's watching you. His eyes follow you around the room. But that's impossible, isn't it?"

"The Doctor can always see me," River said in an offhanded way, still focusing her attention on the panel in front of her.

Clara looked shocked, "Really? Wow. Would you like me to bring him over then? I mean I know you can't hold him, but I could hold him up close and-"

"We should be ready now," River said, cutting her off, clearly intending to end that particular conversation.

Although it had been nearly five years since Martha or Mickey had seen the Doctor, the moment they heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS landing in their backyard, they were up out of their seats and racing for the door without so much as a look passing between them. They were halfway through their garden when Clara emerged from the TARDIS. "Whoa, Doctor. Liking the new look. You're quite fit," Mickey said, sounding impressed.

Martha simply rolled her eyes, "She's not the Doctor."

"Why? Because the Doctor always has to be some white, British bloke?"

"No," Martha said, pointing down at the baby, "because that's the Doctor."

Clara just smiled, "He always said you were brilliant."

Five minutes later they were in the TARDIS and Clara had brought everyone up to speed. "And he thought I could help?" Martha asked in disbelief, "Why?"

"All he said was "experience". Had anything like this ever happened when you travelled together?"

"Nothing. I would definitely have remembered diapers."

"She's not really a kid person," Mickey added.

"Especially after he had me working in a boys school."

"This is useless. We're not getting anywhere." River let out a frustrated sigh.

"We've only just started. We'll figure it out." Clara turned back to Martha and Mickey to question them further, but stopped when she saw the confused, and a little concerned, look on their faces. "I was just talking to River... who you can't see. Right..." Martha and Mickey exchange another worried look. "I'm mentally linked to the Doctor's dead wife. It's a long story."

Their confusion morphed into utter astonishment.

"He got married?"

"He married a dead woman?" They said almost in union.

"Yes. Well no, she was alive when they were married. I think anyway. It happened outside of time. I told you this was a long story. The point is, her name is River Song and she's here to help, and-"

"And I want to protect him just as much as any of you." All three of them turned to face River in disbelief.

Taking in the look on their faces Clara asked, "So I gather you can see her now, too?"

Mickey nodded, his month still hanging open with shock.

"I patched myself into the TARDIS' voice visual interface. Thought it would be a little easier this way. Now, if I'm not mistaken, we were trying to figure out why the Doctor sent us here."

"Right," Martha eyed River a little suspiciously, but whether this was because she had just materialized out of thin air or because she was the Doctor's wife, Clara wasn't sure. "Repeat what he said to you. His exact words."

"He said he was 'vulnerable' that it wasn't safe."

"Well that's clear enough, isn't it?" River said, clearly frustrated with her husband. "I mean the last Time Lord in the universe is a pretty tempting commodity. The only reason more people don't go after him is that not many are that stupid. But like this, a child, unable to even care for himself, much less protect himself. How can he have that great a mind and still be a complete idiot some times. It's just lunacy."

The others stared at her, uncertain of how to respond. Finally, as is usually the case, Mickey broke the silence, "Okay, so 'vulnerable' and 'not safe'. What else did he say?"

"He says 'Martha knows', like you'd know what to do because you had 'experience'. Does any of that ring a bell?"

"Well there were plenty of times that they weren't safe," Mickey chimed in, "but that's just traveling with the Doctor, ain't it?" Both Clara and River nodded unconsciously in agreement.

"What about 'vulnerable'?" River asked, "The Doctor's a lot of things, but "vulnerable" is rarely one of them. Was there a time that he was targeted? That someone or something was after him?"

"Well there was..." Martha began, and then suddenly went silent. Her eyes went wide as she pieced it all together, "He can't mean..."

"What?" River asked, impatiently.

"There was a time he was vulnerable. The Family of Blood. They had stolen a Vortex Manipulator and were tracking him through time and space. We had to hide. But they could track Time Lords, they could like smell them, so he... he..."

"He became human," River finished, recalling the story.

"He can do that?" Clara asked in amazement. She thought she knew him so well, and yet there was always so much more to him.

"He used this device. The chameleon arch. I think it could have made him into anything, but this time, it made him human."

"But I mean, he already looks human." Mickey said, not fully gasping the relevance.

"This was more than looks. It changed every cell in his body. He was completely human, a human mind, human heart..."

"As in, one?" Clara asked.

"One." A big, fragile one, she nearly added, but what difference would that make now?

"Did he know he was the Doctor?" Clara's question pulled Martha out of the past.

"No. His mind, all of his memories, they were stored in a fob watch. He thought he was John Smith, professor at a boys school. The TARDIS had created him some kind of past. He did dream about it, though. About being the Doctor. He thought it was this fantastical story he had invented."

"Well this is it then." River said, rejoining the conversation at last. "This must be the Doctor's plan. He can grow up as a human, relatively safely, and become a Time Lord again when he's of age."

"Right, except..."

"Except what?" Clara asked, looking straight into Martha's eyes.

"Except the chameleon arch... it's painful." Images of the Doctor writhing in agony filled Martha's head. She closed her eyes to shut them out, "It's horrible really. I can't imagine putting a child through that."

"I don't see as how we have any other choice," River said, matter-of-factly.

The tension in the room was suffocating, broken once again by Mickey, "Well, he's just a baby. He can't have that many cells in his body. Probably won't take as long."

Clara couldn't help it, she smiled. Yes, the implications of their plan were horrible, but it felt good to have a plan. "Okay, so we make him human and he grows up. Eighteen makes sense, yeah? By then he should be big enough to travel the stars and look after himself. I can be his caregiver in the mean time. I'm already a nanny and probably the best suited to the job."

"No you can't," River said in her commanding way. "Someone else can look after the Doctor, you have to look after something much more important."

"More important?"

"You have to care for his soul. His mind, all of his memories. That's what others will really be after. You're the only one that can truly keep that safe."

Clara knew she was right, but... "But who will care for him?"

Both Clara and River turned to Martha and Mickey. They glance at each other and back at the women, fear clearly etched in their faces. "We're not really great with kids," Mickey said, as if their previous discussion hadn't made that clear.

"Besides, freelance alien hunters? Not exactly the best environment to keep him away from danger."

"She's right," River said, her mind already racing to the next possibility.

"What about Rose?" Mickey asked. Happy enough to continue the discussion now that the burden wouldn't fall to him. "I mean she's always been good with kids. A bit strict, but I bet he'd need that. Where is she anyway? Couldn't imagine she'd ever leave his side again," a dark look passed over his eyes. As if for the first time, he really understood the immensity of time. How long had it been for the Doctor since he last saw him? For all he knew Rose had died of old age centuries before.

As if reading his mind River said, "She's fine. She's with the metacrisis in the alternate universe. But the walls between dimensions are too thick, we could never reach her."

"What about Donna Noble?" Martha asked, her face lit up, as if she'd found the solution to all of their problems.

"Donna would be one hard-ass mum," Mickey said with an approving smile.

The look on River's face broke their heart. "Donna's not an option."

"Then Vastra and Jenny." Martha and Mickey gave Clara a confused look, but she was directing her suggestion at River. "They love the Doctor. They'd be wonderful parents, and Strax would even make a lovable, crazy uncle."

River considered the idea for a minute. The four of them really would make quite the family, but it was no use. "It's the same as Martha, I'm afraid. His world would still be filled with aliens and there would be no way to keep him hidden."

"They could protect him," Clara protested, "I mean Strax is a Sontaran, he could keep him safe."

"You want to leave him in the care of a Sontaran?"

"It's a long story." Clara answers, not taking her eyes off River.

"We're not talking about a single battle. They must protect him for eighteen years. Eighteen years of constant alien exposure. He would be discovered."

"But isn't that an issue we'll run into with anyone we know. It's hard for those of us who have travelled with the Doctor to ever really leave this life behind."

All four of them went quiet. Lost to their thoughts. Trying desperately to find that one in a million. One in a million billion. The one person who could care for someone so dear to them.

"There must be others," Mickey said at last, "I mean the Doctor never travels alone. He's always got some pretty girl with him. What about all the ones before Rose? Or after... did you travel with him right after Donna?" he asked Clara. "Or were their people in between?"

"Amy and Rory?" River said, as if pulled out of a dream. She smiled to herself for a moment and then shock her head. She was stone-faced when she answered. "Not possible. The Ponds... they're not an option either."

"Ponds?" Clara echoed. Her mind racing through the days events. "Ponds!" She was smiling now, excitement and relief bubbling up in her. "That's it. That's where he wants to go."

"I told you it's impossible."

"Well I'm the Impossible Girl," she said, unfazed by River's objections. "The first thing he said; I didn't understand it at the time, but he said 'Pond'. I think that's his vote. I think that's what he intended all along." River was shaking her head, ready to explain to Clara just how wrong she was. "He must have been thinking about this right from the start. I mean, just look at him."

And River did. For the first time she gave this small Doctor a good, long look. She noticed his vibrantly red hair, his bluey green eyes, and something in his face, an open, friendly look that cut right to her heart. "He really does look just like them." She reached out for the Doctor, but lowered her hands just as quickly. "Even if that's what he wants, there's still no way to do it. We created a paradox. He can't even get to New York, much less New York in the 1930s."

"What would happen if he tried?"

"He'd be stopped. Or the planet would implode. He wasn't racing to find out which it was."

"But I've traveled with him to Earth within their lifetime. The paradox doesn't extend around the whole world."

"But New York-"

"What if we didn't land in the city? What if we materialized somewhere else and traveled to New York from there? Took the slow path."

Clara could tell River was thinking this through carefully. Trying to figure out if it was even possible. "I'm sorry. It would still be him. He was at the centre of the paradox. He is the thing that cannot enter-"

"But it won't be him," Martha interrupted. "He'd be human by that point. John Smith."

"John Pond," Clara said, the smile still glue to her face.

"Williams..." River said it before she could catch herself. "I believe his name would be John Williams."

"So we've got a plan?" Mickey asked, glancing around the console room at the current and former companions.

"I think so." Martha said with a small smile.

Clara looked into River's eyes. The small nod was all the encouragement she needed. "Okay then. Geronimo."