**Notes: Thank you for the reviews and follows. I really appreciate it! While this is technically my second story, it's still the same series, so it's just one really long story and the first time I've ever done this. Feedback is greatly appreciated as well as suggestions for future adventures. This chapter's idea, however, is ALL mine and I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. A huge thank you to Elensari for her help as my beta!**

Chapter Twelve – Exploring Vienna

Rose stepped out of the TARDIS into Vienna in 1786. The dress she had found in the wardrobe room was spectacular. The height of fashion for this era, the bodice was cinched tight at her waist and bumped out wide at her hips. The skirts were enormous and the with all the layers of ruffles, the dress weighed a ton. It was mainly Rose's signature red colour, but the centre panel of the skirt was white, as were the lacy cuffs that flowed from her elbow length sleeves and everything was trimmed in gold. Rose had piled her hair up high on her head and let a few curls drop down to frame her face. The whole thing was topped with a red hat that was covered in white feathers. Rose felt like a queen.

"Are you sure you two don't want to change into something more appropriate to the period?" Rose asked her husbands.

"Rose, darling, you know we don't do that," Doctor Evander Tyler told her with a roll of his eyes.

"You look spectacular, my love," Doctor Alex Tyler added with a kiss to her hand. "Are your shoes period as well or did you find something that you can run in?"

Rose laughed and lifted her skirts just enough to show she was wearing trainers underneath.

"Perfect," Evander said as he took her arm. "With you here, I have no doubt that we'll be running sooner or later."

Rose began to stroll down the street with a Doctor on each arm. "I'm sure, Doctor, that you did plenty of running while we were separated that had nothing to do with me," she countered.

"Well, I suppose," he answered. "But, then it was all Amy's fault."

"So, what are you two going to show me today, in 1780's Vienna?" she asked.

"Well, I thought that since you enjoyed our visit to Venice a while back, you might like to dress up more than you had a chance to before and we could go to an opera. Never taken you to an opera before," Alex said with a sniff and straightening of his tie that told Rose he was quite proud of himself for what he thought would be an impressive date.

"It sounds delightful. Which opera are we going to see?" Rose asked. She wasn't very familiar with opera, but was open to learning more about it.

"Le nozze di Figaro," Evander replied. "Mozart of course. What better composer could we choose to introduce you to opera?"

"I can't wait," she said with a broad smile.

It was still early afternoon, so the trio spent some time exploring Vienna. As they were passing St. Stephen's Cathedral, Rose noticed that something seemed off. It wasn't the people, but it felt like there was something missing from the scene. Looking up at the gothic structure, she realized just what it was.

"There's something wrong here, loves," she began. "Where are all the pigeons?"

"What?" Evander asked as he visually scanned the area.

"That is strange, isn't it?" Alex observed as he spun around with his hands buried in the pockets of his long coat. "Generally, an area like this with lots of people and tall structures, they'd be everywhere."

"Not an immediate threat, but definitely curious," Evander commented.

Rose still didn't know all of the settings on her sonic screwdriver, but there was one setting that she insisted on learning right away; scanning for alien tech. Discreetly removing her sonic from the small, drawstring purse she was carrying, Rose began to scan the area for any out of place technology (which, considering the time, was pretty much any tech at all).

"I think there's something that way," Rose said as she tried to interpret what her sonic was telling her.

Alex took hold of her hand and looked over her shoulder at the readings as well. "Ooh! Very unusual," he remarked. "Cloaking technology. Someone is visiting and doesn't care to be seen."

"Do we have time to check it out before the performance?" Rose asked. "I'd hate to miss it."

"No worries, love. The theatre is in that general direction anyway and we still have a few hours," Alex told her reassuringly.

Following the readings from Rose's sonic, they found themselves in a park. Once again, they noticed an almost total lack of any birds.

"There should definitely be birds here. There are trees everywhere," Evander said and suddenly, he took off running. As he approached one of the trees, he jumped to grab one of the lower branches and stepped up the trunk of the tree to end up climbing quite high into its branches.

Rose and Alex looked at each other with raised eyebrows, not quite expecting Evander to do something quite so athletic. They walked together to the base of the tree to see what he was doing. Evander had found a nest and was examining it carefully.

"It's May and this nest is empty. It's brand new, but there's no sign of there having been any eggs in here at all. Where did they go?" Evander said mostly to himself.

"Hey monkey-boy! When you're done playing Tarzan, you can come check out these readings with us. I think I found our cloaked spaceship," Alex called up the tree.

Rose and Alex were looking up towards apparently nothing, but actually quite a large something. The invisible spaceship was parked right over the centre of the park and Alex was scanning it with his sonic to determine who the aliens were.

"Hmm... Andromeda galaxy, whoever this is, they are pretty far from home. This technology level, in this time period, narrows it down some," Alex muttered to himself.

Evander joined them beneath the invisible ship and did his own scan as he listened to Alex working through the information at hand. "Add in that it has something to do with birds and it really only leaves one option, doesn't it?" Evander suggested.

"Ornithians? What would they be doing here this early? And what would they want with Earth birds?" Alex asked with a perplexed look on his face.

"Well, they aren't especially dangerous. I think we can safely go to the performance and check this out afterward," Evander said as he tucked his sonic back into his pocket.

"Ok, what are we keeping an eye out for then? What do Ornithians look like?" Rose asked. If there were aliens wandering around eighteenth century Vienna, she wanted to have some idea what to expect.

"Bird people," Alex told her as he whirled around for one more look at the park. "Same basic height and proportions as humans, but covered in dark green or brown feathers."

"Alright then, we'll keep our eyes peeled for bird people while we go listen to some Mozart," Rose said as she took both of their arms again.

When they arrived at the Burgtheater, Rose was in awe of the beauty of the space. The ceilings were very high and huge chandeliers hung everywhere. People where looking oddly at the Doctors, but since they were on the arms of Rose, who was dressed as rich nobility, they ignored their unusual attire. They were seated in a private box on the second floor to watch the performance and Rose felt more like a queen by the minute.

As the performance went on, Rose wondered why so many people didn't like opera. It occurred to her then that she was hearing it all translated so that she would understand the words, but had she watched this without the translation circuit, it would all be in Italian. While the singing was really nice and the costumes were beautiful, if she couldn't understand the words, she probably wouldn't be able to sit through the whole thing. But she could understand it now and it was lovely. It was also very long.

When the four acts were finished and the call for encores had finally ceased, the Doctors led Rose down towards the orchestra in the hopes of catching Mozart himself.

Evander managed to push his way through the crowd, pulling Rose along with him, who subsequently pulled Alex along behind her. "Herr Mozart!" Evander called. "So glad we caught you before you left. My wife was so anxious to meet you, sir."

Doctor Evander Tyler pulled his wife forward as she extended her hand towards Mozart in greeting.

"It's such a pleasure to meet you, Herr Mozart," Rose said sweetly. She could feel Alex brooding behind her and knew it was because Evander had been first to call her his wife and they couldn't get away with saying she had two husbands in this time period.

"The pleasure is all mine, I assure you," he said as he bowed and took her hand. "What a lucky man you are to have such a young and beautiful wife."

"I am Doctor Evander Tyler and my lovely wife is Rose. This is my brother Doctor Alex Tyler," Evander said smoothly as he felt a wave of jealousy from Alex. "We were visiting Vienna from London and simply couldn't miss a performance by the famous Mozart."

"Quite right, you couldn't! Now, we are on our way to a party in celebration of my latest opera, you should all join us," Mozart said as he collected his score from the piano.

"It would be an honour, sir," Rose said as she smiled at her Doctors. "We love a good party."

~'Brother indeed,'~ Alex snarked towards Evander as they followed Mozart's group out of the theatre and towards the party, each of them holding one of Rose's arms. ~'She's my wife the next time we're in a situation like this. You look old enough to be her father.'~

~'I don't know what you're complaining about,'~ Evander replied. ~'You got to take her to all those society parties in the parallel universe. It's my turn and the apparent age difference is far more acceptable in this time period than it would be in modern day London.'~

~'Fine, but I want a dance with her too,'~ Alex pouted.

Rose could tell her Doctors were arguing telepathically, but they were leaving her out of it, so she just enjoyed the attention she was getting. The performers from the opera were all walking along together and their excitement from the successful performance was tangible.

There was drinking and dancing as well as meeting several other relatively famous people. One of whom was Mozart's friend, Joseph Haydn. He had nothing but praise for Mozart's work and was very pleasant to speak with.

Rose was asked to dance by several gentlemen, but her Doctors always claimed her hand instead. At one point, Wolfgang Mozart himself asked her to dance and she jumped at the chance before either of them could object. Mozart was much better at the dances of the time than Rose was, but she managed to keep up as the lively young man led her around the floor.

As the music ended, Mozart stared in shock towards the window. When Rose turned to see what could have him so surprised, she saw a man with dark green feathers on his face, bright yellow eyes and a long, slender nose looking curiously through the window. Rose immediately ran towards the door nearest that window and called for her husbands telepathically. Mozart followed Rose through the party crowd to see what this could possibly be about.

Four people burst through the door and startled the young Ornithian from his examination of the party.

Before he could run, Evander spoke to him, "Wait! We can help with whatever has brought you here. I promise, we can help."

The alien cocked his head to the side as he considered the fact that he could understand this strange man. "You cannot help, I need a new song. You are not feathered, you cannot sing," he said in a soft, flute-like voice that sounded almost like a young boy, though he was obviously a man.

"Ah!" Alex said as realization hit him. "You need a song for your mate?"

"Yes," the Ornithian replied cautiously. "You cannot help me, you cannot sing. I only stopped here because I heard the music and was looking for the birds."

"Is that why you've been taking all the birds around here?" Evander asked.

"Yes, the other birds will help me find a new song for her," he answered with a dreamy smile on his face.

"I think we might just have an even better solution for you," Rose told him as she recognized that look. "This man, right here," she said as she pulled Mozart in front of her, "is the greatest mind in the universe at finding new songs."

"He has no feathers! Although, his colours are promising," he stated as he looked closely at Mozart and considered his potential.