A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR

Chapter Two

The Alternate Doctor slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the blue sky above him. The last thing he remembered was being inside his personal prison when there was a sudden lurch and he was rolling head over heels before he slammed hard into the wall. Now he was here, free and on some planet. He got to his feet and looked around and saw a city in the distance. He calculated about a half day's walk to it. Other than that, he couldn't see anything, not even the TARDIS.

"I don't know how I got out, Doctor, but I will have my revenge on you for taking both my freedom and my life. And this time I'm gonna raise an army to stop you!"

He sighed angrily as he started walking towards the city.

Rose walked with Melody back to her nursery. The TARDIS had made her a cheerful nursery with pale pink walls with little fairies flitting between the roundels. The crib was painted white with more little fairies on the headboards. It had a lot of toys and everything a mother needed to care for her child. She laid her down on the changing table so she could change her diaper. She was undressing her when suddenly she gasped and stared at her child with horror.

"DOCTOR!" she screamed.

The TARDIS transferred her cry to him to the console room. The Doctor stopped what he was doing when he heard her and ran to the back door. The TARDIS moved the nursery to the back door and he rushed inside to see Rose shaken. He stopped short and his mouth dropped open when he saw his daughter glowing while she lay on the changing table.

"Doctor, what's happening to her?" Rose said, pointing to her daughter who was surrounded by a golden glow.

The Doctor came up beside her and studied Melody. He put his hand on her head but she felt cool to the touch. He noticed she was cooing softly.

"She's not in any distress," the Doctor said while Melody moved her arms and legs around and burbled to herself.

"But why is she glowing like that? Did he do something to me when he had sex with me?" Rose said, giving him a worried look.

"No, actually, this looks like…"

"What?" Rose said when he trailed off.

"It looks like you when you became the Bad Wolf," he said.

Rose's eyes bulged and she looked at her baby.

"She…she has that Bad Wolf inside her?" Rose said to him.

"Apparently so, it seems she inherited it from you," the Doctor said. "However, it doesn't seem to be hurting her. She's not in any pain."

"So what does it mean?" Rose said. "Is she immortal?"

"Dunno, I…"

He raised his eyebrow when the aura faded and Melody returned to normal. The Doctor picked her up and Rose followed him out of the room. They walked to the med bay and the Doctor laid her on the examination table. He pulled down a large scanner from the ceiling and Rose held Melody's hand while he ran a scan of her body. When the scan was finished, he read the results on a monitor on the side.

"Everything appears normal. No damage. Whatever that was, it wasn't harming her," he said to Rose. "It appears that it's a part of her."

"But can you tell if she's immortal?" Rose said.

"No, the scanner wouldn't be able to detect that. I suppose we'll have to wait and see. If she lives past a normal human lifespan, then we'll know."

"But what about me? If the Bad Wolf is in me and got passed on, am I immortal as well?" Rose said.

The Doctor looked at her face.

"You haven't aged much, I must admit, but you're still young and we'll also have to wait and see. But this is another reason why we can't let my double find out about this. If he finds out that you or Melody have the Bad Wolf within you, he'll stop at nothing to get you. Having said that, I think we should keep this to ourselves. Just me and you and Donna but not Mara. I don't want to panic our daughter and I don't know if she'll keep it to herself. I do trust her but better safe than sorry, especially since we don't know how extensive my double's network of contacts is. For all we know, he could have associates everywhere the report to him. If he finds out that you or Melody has the Bad Wolf inside you, he'll become even more determined to take you away from me."

Rose picked up Melody and held her protectively to her chest while the Doctor embraced them both. They went back to the nursery and the Doctor helped Rose change Melody while he kept watch for any signs of the Bad Wolf but there was nothing. Melody cooed and gurgled while Rose put her diaper on her and the Doctor wondered if there was any way to hide the glow in case it came back. The last thing he needed was his double becoming aware that his child had inherited something that might make her powerful and immortal. They finished changing her and wrapping in her blanket. Rose held her close while the Doctor put his hand on the small of her back and they walked back to the console room.

When they got there, Donna was sitting with Mara in the jump seat.

"Mara told me that you want to take a holiday at some mother, baby resort," she said as they approached.

"Yes, I think both mother and baby need to recover from their ordeal last week and we all need a rest and some recreation."

"What about the other you?" Mara said.

"Well, unless he has a desire to go to a mother/baby resort, I don't think we have to worry about him. We'll find him or he'll find us but we'll sort him out in the end, you can be sure of that. But for now, don't worry about him. I'm sure he's gone somewhere to lick his wounds and plot his elaborate revenge and that'll take time. We can't stop living our lives just because he's out there somewhere. I refuse to be intimidated by that git."

"Um…he's you, so you're calling yourself a git," Donna said.

"No, he's not me. I'm not a slave owning, child shagging psychopath. Excuse my rude language, Mara, but that's what he is in addition to being a pirate, con man, torturer and all around arsehole. I, on the other hand, am a nifty dude who is softy sweet."

"You're a nifty dude who's softy sweet," Donna said slowly while Mara giggled.

"Sure am, I win the All Universe Most Cuddly award every year."

"Uh-huh…" Donna said while Mara laughed harder.

"Why doesn't anyone believe me? Is it my face that's throwing them off?" he asked Rose.

"Probably just can't believe that someone as charming as you exists," Rose said.

"Yeah, you're right, she's just awed by my presence," the Doctor said.

"No, I'm wondering how an ego like yours manages to fit inside the TARDIS," Donna said.

"My TARDIS goes on forever," the Doctor said smugly.

"So does your ego," Donna said.

The Doctor gave her a withering look while Mara laughed. She tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, watch what I can do," she said to him.

The Doctor jerked his head back when Mara's head shape shifted into a large replica of Melody's head.

"What do you think?" Mara asked, pointing to the baby face.

"I think it reminds me of the gargantuan sun baby on Teletubbies and that child was disturbing to me and so is this," the Doctor said while Rose laughed. "Especially since you only changed your head and not your whole body so there's now a large baby head on top of a blue body. Like something Salvador Dali would have thought up."

Mara's head went back to normal and she hugged her father. The Doctor smiled and hugged her back.

"So, everyone ready for our holiday?"

They nodded and the Doctor finished with the controls and the TARDIS landed and powered down.

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