“James, have you seen your mother?” the Doctor shouted over the din in the living room. His and Rose’s teenaged son glanced up at him sullenly, still upset over being grounded for mouthing off one too many times. Their two youngest daughters, Jacqueline and Susan, twins, were trying to build a sizeable tower out of blocks.
“She and River were having a row out in the shop,” James grunted. “I decided that watching the kids was more fun than watching the two of them try to get out of handcuffs while shouting at each other.”
“The two of them fight like cats and dogs,” the Doctor grimaced. “I’ve never seen a mother and daughter go at it like the two of them can.”
“It’s Uncle Jack’s fault. He’s the one who handcuffed Mum that time and now River thinks it’s the best way to keep Mum out of her hair.”
“I intend to speak with your Uncle Jack about that at some length and considerable volume,” the Doctor snorted. Still, he made no move to go free Rose and River. Knowing the pair of them, it would be hours before either calmed down enough to be rational. “What are you doing, then?”
“Oh, studying Vortex Manipulators,” James replied. “I think I could fix Uncle Jack’s to be more reliable.”
“Oh no you won’t,” the Doctor said firmly. “The last thing your Uncle Jack needs is a space hopper at his beck and call. He could go anywhere. Twice. The second time to apologize.”
“Uncle Jack’s not that bad,” James said loyally. “He was telling me about the Time Agency. When I get older, I think I’d like to go work there for a while.”
“I thought you wanted to finish your studies and become a Time Warden.”
“That, too. Hanging around Uncle Tony, though, makes me curious about what it’d be like to live among humans. You seemed to enjoy spending a lot of time with them yourself.”
“They can be fascinating,” the Doctor conceded. “What do you like about them?” he asked. James shrugged and rolled his eyes, his signal that he wanted to be left alone to focus on something. The Doctor gave up trying to coax anything out of his son and slid off the couch and sat down next to his twin girls, helping them construct their tower. The Doctor didn’t bother to sonic it together knowing that the girls liked to build something massive just to have the pleasure of knocking it over and building it again. Pouring some more blocks out of another bag, the Doctor set about building his own structures, keeping half an ear open for sounds of his wife and daughter. He wished that Jenny were here – she could always smooth things over between her mother and sister – but she was busy with her own studies on the mainland and with that fellow she’d started seeing.
Sometime later, River flounced into the house, her cheeks aflame and her curly dark-blonde hair bristling like a cat’s tail. The Doctor glanced up at her but said nothing. Anything he said would be the wrong thing and he knew it. River glared at him and he met her gaze with a look that warned her that he could go Oncoming Father at her if she pressed her luck much more and she ducked her head, muttering something that could have passed for an apology.
“What are you and your mother fighting about now?” he asked calmly.
“She says I’m too young to go with the researchers on that dig over to Alcasia IV! I’m seventeen years old, Dad! And I want to be an archeologist! She keeps trying to talk me into doing something else because she thinks I’m too irresponsible to decide what I want to do with my life!”
“I think there’s more to it than that, River Tyler-Smith,” the Doctor said evenly. Rose had been acting very odd lately whenever River started talking about her desire to become an archeologist. It was more than just the typical time-traveler contempt for the profession. If anything, the Doctor would have said his wife was absolutely terrified about River’s chosen career path. “I’ll talk to your mother but on one condition.”
“Yes sir?”
“Stop with the bloody handcuffs already. That last pair you used on her took me three hours to get off her.”
“Well, maybe if you didn’t get so distracted,” River snorted.
“River, cool it,” James warned in a sing-song voice. “Unless you want to get grounded again.”
“It’s true, though!” River protested, her voice going up an octave with the tone of an aggrieved teenager. “They can’t keep their hands off each other! It’s disgusting!”
“River, one day, you’ll understand just why we can’t keep our hands off each other,” the Doctor replied. “Until then, go to your room and stay there for a while.”
“I hope that Jack comes to visit soon,” River muttered. “He’s a gentleman.”
“The less said about Jack Harkness, the better,” the Doctor growled. “Now, go to your room and stay there until I tell you otherwise. I’d better go free your mother before she breaks her wrist trying to get out of the cuffs again.”
“See you in a week, then,” River huffed as she stormed off to her room.
“James, try to keep the girls from burning the house down, will you?”
“Yes, sir.”
The Doctor stood up and walked out to the shop. Rose generally only went in there when she was making adjustments to her sonic. It was really his private space – not that he minded Rose going in there at all. After all, he had a feeling that their son had been conceived in that shop. It would make sense considering how interested in gadgets James was. He opened the door to the shop and stepped in, closing it behind him. He grinned at the sight before him.
After the birth of their daughter River, Rose and the Doctor had both decided to forgo their normal “armor” when they were at home. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt – much like what he had normally worn in his ninth incarnation. Instead of boots, though, he was wearing his trainers. He gave his wife an appreciative gaze as he watched her hunched over the railing for the stairwell that led down to his infirmary. She was wearing tight-fitting jeans with creeper vines sewn up the legs, a pair of sandals (one of which she had kicked off and was sitting across the shop), and a red tank-top with thin straps over the shoulders. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and hung down to the middle of her back. When she bent further over the railing, trying to find some way to balance herself so she could get at the handcuffs, the Doctor could see the lacy, black edge of her knickers.
“I am going to kill that child,” Rose was muttering angrily.
“Sounds like a plan,” the Doctor said pleasantly. “We could make another that looks just like her,” he teased, his blood heating as she spun around, her shirt askew. On the front it said “Disco Still Sucks.” His grin broadened and his eyes darkened with desire as he remembered the trip where she’d gotten that shirt. It had been their second trip after their marriage – the trip where River was conceived.
“Please tell me you have your sonic with you,” Rose grimaced, tugging at the handcuffs again. “Your daughter took mine.”
“Of course,” he smiled, walking over to her and pulling his sonic out of his pocket to undo the cuffs. Rose groaned with relief at being able to stand upright again. “Oh, these are some good ones. Tralixarian in make. They tighten the more you struggle.”
“I know,” Rose huffed as she pulled the cuff off her wrist and tossed it on his work table. The Doctor took her wrist in his hand with a gentle touch and swept the sonic over the skin, healing the scratches and the bruises. “She is grounded for the rest of her life.”
“Actually, we could send her to stay with Jenny. A few days of having to eat her own cooking will have her swimming back here ready to apologize,” the Doctor suggested.
“Can we ground Jack while we’re at it? He’s the one who gave her those blasted things!”
“Oh, we can ground Jack. I’ve got no problem with keeping Jack bloody Harkness away from our kids. Especially since he started noticing that River has filled out and she’s noticed him noticing.”
“I’ll kill him,” Rose swore. “Jack Harkness is not going to shag our daughter.”
“Speaking of our daughter, why are you so set against her going on that research dig? I know for a fact that she won’t be able to get into any trouble on it. And you know that Jack is back on Earth with his current partner.”
“She is not going to become an archeologist,” Rose said firmly but there was a quaver in her voice that told the Doctor there was more to it. Much more. “She can become anything else. A piano-player in a whore-house. Just not an archeologist!”
The Doctor wrapped his arms around his wife. He swayed slightly at that. Even if they had been married for nearly twenty years, the thought of Rose as his wife still amazed him. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, his cheek resting against the top of her head as she shivered and began crying against his chest. “Ssh, now,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head. “Why are you so afraid of her becoming an archeologist?”
“Because we’ll lose her!” Rose sobbed.
“What do you mean?” he asked quietly, pulling his hands up so that he cupped her face and could wipe her tears away with his thumbs. “Rose?”
“I…I can’t…” she wept, nearly choking trying to get the words out. She raised her hand and placed it on his face, her fingers on his temple. “Show you?” she managed to get out.
“Show me,” he nodded, giving her permission. He grit his teeth, preparing to hold himself back while she showed him whatever it was she was afraid of. It would not do for him to start ravishing her in the middle of it – not that he could entirely control his reaction to having his wife’s mind delving into his own. He closed his eyes and let her call up the particular memories that were bothering her so much. Once she was done, he lifted a hand and held her fingers against his temple, not wanting her to leave his mind just yet. He remembered seeing these memories when they bonded. He’d caught flickers of them here and there after River was born. But, as they were Rose’s memories, he’d never bothered to try to bring them to the fore and study them. Now he was and they frightened him just as much as they frightened his wife. “Stay with me,” he pleaded.
“If she becomes an archeologist, she’ll go to the Library,” Rose said.
“And if she doesn’t…you’ll die there in the Library before any of them are born,” the Doctor whispered. “And that will kill me.”
“I can’t do it,” Rose sobbed. “I can’t let her go off like that and die! I’m her mother. It’s my job to protect her!”
“She won’t die, Rose,” the Doctor said softly. “We’ll save her. I’ll help you adapt one of the sonic screwdrivers so that it can do what you saw it do. She’ll be stored in the computer core and we can go back after and retrieve her.”
“I don’t want her to suffer through that,” Rose whimpered. “It hurt so much. So much. Watching her…die like that…”
“Rose,” he groaned, feeling her guilt and grief wash over him. “If I could take these memories from you, I would, love. But what happened has to happen. She was right about that. If you die at the Library, the universe will die too. If you die before you get back to me…Rose, that would kill me. You have no idea what I went through when you died in that parallel world.” He placed his own fingers against her temple and showed her the memories of the world where he’d found Donna and where Rose had died at Christmas beneath the Thames. She could feel his grief, his longing, his sorrow. “I need you. I’ve always needed you. And I will do whatever it takes to ensure that our daughter, our precious River, does not die at the Library.”
Rose shuddered against him, going limp with relief. He groaned, this time in pleasure, as he felt her love for him flooding through their bond. His legs turned to jelly under the onslaught and it took all of his strength to lower them both gently to the ground. Pulling her on top of him, he pressed his lips to hers.
“Almost twenty years and it’s like we just got married,” Rose murmured as she laid light kisses across his jaw and down his neck.
“A thousand years won’t be long enough,” he growled.
“We really should go check on the kids,” Rose whispered, pressing herself closer to her husband.
“The kids can take care of themselves,” he groaned, pointing his sonic at the shop door to lock it. “Right now all I care about is taking care of their mother.”
Before she could say another word, he pulled her mouth back to his and kissed her breathless. It would be some time before either of them was ready to deal with anything beyond the shop.
~*~*~*~
Rose and the Doctor both froze when River mentioned a job that would take her to the Library. It had taken some time but eventually Rose had quit arguing with River over her decision to become an archeologist. Instead, the day that River went off to start training, Rose handed her sonic screwdriver to her husband and told him to make certain it would be ready when the time came.
Now, husband and wife sat on the couch in their living room, their other children around them, while they waited on word from River and the Library. James was fiddling with one of his gadgets, taking it apart and putting it back together. Jacqueline and Susan were silent while Harry was curled up in Jenny’s lap, his blonde curls mixing with his eldest sister’s blond hair. After hearing that River had reached the Library, Rose had broken the news to the rest of the children. Now they were just waiting for their Uncle Koschei and Jack to get back from their own expedition. Rose had very little hope that they would be able to bring River back with them. After all, she herself had watch River burn. Rose swallowed hard, feeling a lump in her throat. The Doctor pulled her into his lap and buried his face in her shoulder. His hands stroked her bulging stomach – a few months ago they had found out that they were having another child.
“When is River coming home?” Harry asked in a small voice.
“She might not ever come home again,” Rose said hoarsely. The Doctor held her closer and buried his face deeper in her shoulder. She could feel him shaking. He’d lost his family in the Time War but he’d built a new one with her. Now he was trying to come to terms with losing one of them far too soon.
“But why not, Mummy? River always comes home and she brings me something.”
“Hush now,” Jenny whispered, hugging her youngest brother more tightly. “River’s been hurt.”
“Hurt how? Where is she, Mummy? Where is my big sissy?”
“Oh, I’m right here,” River said brightly as she walked in the door.
“River!” Rose shouted as she spun in her husband’s lap. “How…how are you here?”
“A bit of jiggery-pokery,” Koschei replied, walking in behind her, “and Jack’s Vortex Manipulator.”
“But, River…I saw you…I saw you burn,” Rose said hoarsely. The Doctor still held her in place but he was no longer shaking in fear. Rose could feel tears of relief falling from his eyes as he pressed his face into her back. “All these years…”
“I know, Mum,” River said. “God, it killed me to see you there, so unsure, so afraid. And you not knowing who I was – that hurt. How could you not know your own daughter?”
“River, be fair,” Jenny growled. As the first-born, she was protective of their mother, “Mum had no idea that she’d ever find Dad again or that the two of them would get married and proceed to have enough kids to pilot an old-style TARDIS.”
“How she could ever doubt how Dad feels about her is beyond me,” River snorted. “Look at them,” she laughed. “Nearly thirty years together and they still can’t keep their hands off each other.”
“Sweetie, that’s enough,” Jack said lightly. The Doctor lifted his head and gave his son-in-law a glare. Jack and River might have run off and gotten married six years ago but he still had a hard time accepting his daughter being bound for life to Jack bloody Harkness.
“River,” Rose said as she stood up from her husband’s lap. The Doctor and Koschei had to help her get on her feet. “I was terrified I’d never see you again,” she sobbed as she walked over and embraced her daughter. River hugged her back and the two of them wept in joy at the unexpected reunion. Eventually, Rose pulled back and, with a slight smile, slapped River across the face. “And if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will ground you for the rest of your life! Your brother James is making a set of handcuffs that you won’t ever be able to get out of.”
“Leave me out of this,” James said, trying to keep his voice gruff but unable to stop smiling. “I make it a practice not to get between the two of you when you’re rowing. Oh, and speaking of rows,” he added, pulling himself to his feet and walking over to Jack. He grabbed Jack’s wrist and twisted it, pulling out his own sonic and disabling the Vortex Manipulator.
“Hey!” Jack protested, “That’s my ride out of here!”
“No, it’s not,” James laughed. “It’s a wristwatch, now. Tell you what, let me make you a custom Manipulator so that you can’t just jaunt around where ever and whenever you want and I won’t disable that.” Jack continued to grumble and James shot a look at his father. The Doctor had been laughing as well but when he saw his son, he blinked. “Dad?” James asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I have,” the Doctor groaned. “Do me a favor, James. When you run across younger me, go easy on him, would you?”
“What are you talking about?” James asked.
The Doctor grinned and shook his head. “That’s a story for another time, son.”
“Timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly?” Rose asked. Her husband wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek.
“Yeah. But it’s one of the steps that led me back to you so it’s not all bad,” the Doctor whispered in her ear. “Might have taken a lot longer than either of us wanted but, seeing how it ended, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
“Me neither,” Rose sighed, rubbing her belly fondly. “And there’s always more to the story to come.”
“And it is gonna be…fantastic,” he laughed softly as the occasion began to turn festive.