Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters, settings or plots.

9.

The Doctor was lying on his back, staring at his bedroom ceiling. He wasn't tired at all, but River had dragged him to bed like she always did, saying things like everybody needs sleep and I'm not sleeping in that bed alone. Now he was just lying there, wide awake, listening to River's slow breaths.

He let his head roll sideways and looked at her. She was lying on her side, her back towards him, her head resting on his upper arm. He touched the back of her neck with his index finger and absentmindedly started tracing patterns.

It had been a long day. Now that he knew where Immy had come from, the task to take her back home, which had seemed hard at first, seemed downright impossible. He couldn't go to the alternate universe again. The walls had closed.

He rolled onto his side and stared at the circles his fingers traced on River's bare shoulder. Maybe he could send Immy back the way she had come: through the Tardis. Only he hadn't figured out how that had happened yet, and he wouldn't be able to reverse it if he didn't know how it had happened in the first place.

His arm was starting to feel numb from the weight of River's head, and her hair was tickling his face. He tried to wiggle his arm free without waking her. It didn't work. He lifted her head with his other hand and pulled his arm from under her head. Then he let her head fall to the pillow.

River turned around. 'What are you doing?' she hissed. 'Can't you just lay still?'

'My arm was going numb!' he complained. 'And your hair was in my face.'

'And you can't just use words to ask me to move over, instead of throwing me around?'

'I thought you were asleep.'

'Well, I'm certainly not now.' The two of them stared at the ceiling in irritated silence for a while. The Doctor hadn't yet told River who Immy's parents were, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. He didn't often talk about his former companions to River. Not that he was keeping them secret from her; he'd answered every question she'd asked. He just didn't like talking about it.

On the other hand, River knew almost as much about the Tardis as he did. He had no idea how to get Immy back, and he could use all the help he could get.

'River, listen,' he said. River rolled onto her side so she could look at him. He extended his arm to her, and she took back her place on his upper arm. 'Today Immy found an old photograph. It was in that bedroom, the one that never gets used.' He took the photo from under his pillow with his free hand. He had told Immy he needed it, which wasn't strictly speaking true. He'd just wanted to have it. He turned on the light and handed the picture to River.

She looked at it for a while. 'That's you and… Rose?'

The Doctor nodded. He'd never shown River a picture of Rose before, but he'd described her when she'd asked him to.

'Immy looks exactly like her,' River whispered.

'Do you think so?' the Doctor mumbled. He took the picture back in his hands. It bothered him a little that River noticed the resemblance so easily when it had taken him so long. 'Immy told me this was a photograph of her parents.'

'But that's a photo of you and Rose…' River trailed off. Then she suddenly propped herself up on one arm and looked at him. 'Oh, tell me you didn't!'

'Tell you I didn't what?'

'Tell me you didn't knock her up! Tell me you didn't knock Rose up!'

'I didn't!' the Doctor hastily exclaimed. 'Honestly, I didn't. I told you about the clone, didn't I? The one that grew from my hand? Well… I guess he must be her father.'

'But – but doesn't that mean she from the alternate universe? You said you left him and Rose in an alternate universe.'

'Yeah, see, that's the problem. Going to an alternate universe will destroy the Tardis. The walls have closed. It would help if I knew how she got here…'

They stayed silent for a while, trying to think of ways to reunite Immy with her parents, but neither of them could come up with anything.

The Doctor got up, deciding to spend an hour or so trying to figure out what happened when Immy appeared on the Tardis. He got dressed and left their room.

He passed the door to Immy's room. He had given her a bedroom opposite theirs the previous day. She'd asked to sleep in Rose's old room, but he didn't want her to. He'd told her it'd be inconvenient, the room being so far away from the console room, but it had been an excuse. The Tardis would have been able to move the room anywhere he wanted, but he didn't tell her that.

As he passed her room, he heard rummaging inside. He stopped and knocked.

'Immy? Are you up?'

'Yeah, hang on.'

The Doctor heard more rummaging, and then footsteps approached the door. Immy appeared, wearing a dressing gown over her pyjamas.

'Morning,' she said.

'Good morning, Immy!' the Doctor greeted her. 'Would you like some breakfast?'

'Yeah… Let me get dressed, I'll be right there.'

'Omelette?' the Doctor asked.

'Err – yeah, sure. Thanks,' Immy mumbled just before she closed the door.

The Doctor walked on towards the kitchen and started going through the cabinets. He was supposed to have eggs… somewhere. And spatulas… frying pans...

River came in, closely followed by Immy.

'Are you making tea?'

'Yes, River, hang on, I promised Immy to make her an omelette.'

'You don't have to if it's inconvenient,' she offered.

'No, no, it's fine… Could you crack three eggs?' The Doctor tossed Immy the carton of eggs he'd just found. 'There's a mixing bowl over there. Where's the teapot? River?'

'I don't know! Wherever you left it, probably.'

'Well, go and find it!' the Doctor exclaimed, still trying to find a pan. River sighed exasperatedly and left the kitchen.

Immy cracked the eggs and put the bowl on the counter. She looked at the Doctor. He stopped rummaging through the cabinets. He knew what she was going to ask, but he wasn't sure how he was going to answer her question.

'You never told me – you never explained…' she began. She stopped for a moment, and started again. 'Why did you say it was you in the picture with my mum?'

The Doctor looked at the open cabinet in front of him. He hadn't explained anything about the picture to Immy. It wasn't that he didn't want her to know; it was just that he wasn't sure how to tell her. He didn't want her to think of her father as a clone or a copy.

'I think I should tell you a bit more about me first,' he said slowly. He spotted a frying pan partially hidden behind some books and a mismatched set of knitting needles, and started pulling it free. 'There's this thing I do, when my body gets damaged or worn out or old… I'm not human, you see. I look like one, but I'm not from Earth, and I don't die. I can change my body when it can't live on. It's called regeneration. It means I get a whole new face, a whole new body.' He finally managed to pull the frying pan from the cabinet and put it on the stove. He turned to Immy.

'I met Rose – I met your mother in 2005. I looked different back then, even different from the man you saw in that photo. We travelled for a few years, and I regenerated once during that period. And then there was an… an accident. She ended up in another dimension, in a parallel universe. She was trapped there. But she found her way to me, somehow, a few years later, and then a lot of… stuff happened, and this man came into existence. It's difficult to explain. He was exactly like me, except for his more human physiology. I brought both of them back to the other universe, and I think he's your father.'

She looked at him, obviously unsure of what to say. The Doctor decided to give her a minute to think about what he'd just told her. He grabbed the bowl of eggs, whisked them quickly and tipped them into the frying pan.

'Well, I found it,' River's voice came from behind them.

'What?' the Doctor asked distractedly.

'The teapot. And the next time you decide to drink tea in the sauna, please invite me.'

'Oh, right,' he answered lamely. He'd completely forgotten about the teapot. He turned back to the stove and flipped the omelette.

'But… Can't you just bring me back to that other universe? If that's where I'm from?' Immy asked.

'I'm sorry, we can't,' River answered before the Doctor could say anything. She put a hand on her shoulder. 'It's not as simple as that.'

'The walls of the universes have closed,' the Doctor answered. 'Travel between universes used to be possible, but not anymore. It's not safe. It could put everything in danger.'

'So… So… Now what?'

'We're doing our best,' River said. 'Don't be scared. It's going to be fine.'

The Doctor slid the omelette onto a plate and put it aside. He turned to Immy.

'Immy, listen to me. I will do everything in my power to get you home. I promise. I will get you home.'