FINDING GALLIFREY

Chapter Eleven.

The Doctor sat down in his seat with Rain on one side and Hope on the other. His children were sitting behind him and Rose was sitting next to Rain with Alan on her other side and their children next to him. Twelve and Clara were sitting next to Hope while they waited for the auditions to start.

The Doctor had been running scans on his TARDIS for any signs of another Gallifrey. Slowly, he widened out the parameters when he didn't find anything locally and soon his TARDIS was scanning deep space. In the meantime, Twelve managed to move his TARDIS to the Doctor's garage and he and Clara used it at nights and met more of the family during the day and evening hours.

Clara loved that her Doctor seemed more relaxed and at ease, especially since he'd been a bit caustic since his regeneration and a tad bit antisocial, calling humans Pudding Brains and swearing off hugging. Here, with his people, he was in his element and he was smiling a lot more than before. Clara thought perhaps this was why the TARDIS brought them here. She knew the Doctor needed this.

She also thought Hope was so cute. And Faith as well. Faith was sitting behind them with her family and she kept running up and poking Hope's shoulder over the seat and
Hope would turn around in the seat, get up on her knees and take a playful swat at her while the girls giggled.

Then they heard someone calling the Doctor's name and Clara and Twelve turned to see a young couple standing by their row. With them was a two year old girl with short brown hair and a chubby angelic face. The Doctor greeted the couple while the toddler hurried over to Hope.

"Hey, Anya," Hope said as everyone pulled their legs back to let the happy toddler come through.

The Doctor and Rain got up and walked over to the couple while Twelve watched Hope talk to Anya.

"Is this more of your huge family then?" Twelve teased Hope.

"Nah, this is a friend of Daddy and Mummy. Anya likes me," Hope said.

Twelve smiled when Anya turned towards him and looked at him with wide blue eyes. Clara smiled when Anya reached out and touched his nose.

"What are you doing, wee one?" Twelve said as Anya came close to him and examined his face. "You like me face then, do ya, lassie?"

"By the way, speaking of faces," Alan piped up. "You look like the dude from Pompeii."

"Yes, I know I do," Twelve said, glancing at him while Anya touched his cheeks.

John, who was sitting behind Alan leaned up.

"Why is that, do you think?" he asked Alan.

"Dunno, maybe he sells marble for a living now?"

"Belt up," Twelve said goodnaturedly while Clara chuckled. "I'm spending some time with the wee one here, not listening to you."

"Ooo, that was a bit tetchy," John said to Alan.

"Yes. Caecillius, are you a bit tetchy because Pompeii went up in flames?" Alan said.

Twelve looked at Clara with a wry look on his face while Alan and John chortled. Twelve chose to ignore them and sat Anya on his lap while the Doctor and Rain walked with their friends to the lobby to have a quick chat. Anya looked up at him and then stared at Clara.

"Hi," Clara said, waving to her.

"Pretty," Anya said, pointing to her.

"Don't be daft, she's short and bossy and her nose is funny," Twelve said to Anya.

Alan and John laughed when Clara swatted Twelve's arm.

"Trouble in paradise over there, eh?" John said to Alan.

"Yes, Caecillius is being attacked, should we intervene then?" Alan said to John while Twelve eyed them.

"Nah, he can hit over the head with some marble," John said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Is there someone here who can control these two," Twelve said to the Doctor's family.

Amato, who was sitting in the row in front of Alan stood up and pointed to John. John feigned a submissive mien and sat back down.

"Sorted," Amato said before he sat down beside his wife, Peri, and relaxed.

"Killjoy," Alan said to Twelve before he turned to speak to his children.

"This is some family they have here," Clara said to Twelve.

"Yes, I thought growing up with my cousins was bad. That was paradise compared to this lot," he said softly to Clara.

They looked over when the Doctor and Rain returned with the young couple.

"Anya," the woman said, beckoning to her daughter.

Twelve watched Anya while she looked at her mother and then looked at him.

"Off you pop, wee lass. Go be with your mother now," Twelve said, giving a gentle nudge to her backside.

Anya slid off his lap and toddled back to her parents while the Doctor and Rain sat back down.

"Sorry, a former pupil of mine and her husband," the Doctor said to Twelve as he got settled in his seat. "I taught at the Academy for awhile."

"You?" Twelve said, amused. "You barely passed when you went through the Academy."

The Doctor turned beet red while Rain and Alan sniggered.

"Oh snap, wish I'd had a videorecorder taping that," Alan said. "That was classic."

"Oh yeah?" the Doctor said before he turned to Twelve. "See Nutsy over there, he has a Stitch tattoo, that alien from Lilo and Stitch and that's his nickname. Rose called him that because Stitch was a bad alien that became good."

Alan now turned red while Rain chortled at the shocked expression on Twelve's face. Clara leaned forward.

"Can we see the tattoo then?" she said to Alan.

"No, you may not," Alan said.

His mouth dropped when Rain seized his shirt sleeve and jerked it up to show them the tattoo.

"Ooo, that wasn't very nice," John said behind him as Alan turned an even deeper shade of red.

By now, everyone nearby was turning around or leaning up to watch Clara as she got up and walked over to examine the tattoo.

"This is cute, Doctor, you need to get one," Clara said to Twelve as she walked back to her seat.

"I'd rather go back in the dinosaur's mouth, thank you," Twelve said as everyone around them giggled.

He looked at Hope when she tugged at his sleeve.

"Mummy calls Daddy Sprinkles sometimes," she said to Twelve.

"Hope!" the Doctor said, appalled, while everyone within earshot laughed.

"Oh?" Twelve said, amused, "why is that then?"

"Because when I first met him, he tried to impress me by telling me he was the Oncoming Storm and I told him he was more like Sprinkles because he was a big old teddy bear," Rain said.

The Doctor blushed again and hid his face in his hands while Clara giggled.

"I need to start calling you that then, Sprinkles," Clara said to Twelve.

"Oh bloody hell, no," Twelve said while everyone laughed.

"I think we need to shut up and watch the auditions now before we're all red in the face," the Doctor said to Twelve.

"A good idea," Twelve said, playfully poking Clara while she giggled.

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