PARENTHOOD

Chapter Twenty Six

"And where do you think you're going?' Frankie asked while Duer slid Faith into the baby sling and placed the strap of the of the diaper bag over his shoulder.

"I am taking my daughter out for a walk, if that's alright with you," he said with a smug tone in his voice and Frankie kissed his cheek.

"Just as long as you don't going showing her off to everyone you meet. You did that with Cam, remember?"

"Can I help it if I have beautiful children?" he asked then head out the door and closed the door behind him. Walking down the pavement, he looked down at Faith and she was sleeping peacefully against his chest. She was wearing a light blue infant t-shirt and jeans and wisps of dark brown hair had started growing on the top of her head. "Yep, you are defiantly beautiful."

Walking onward, he walked by the Doctor's house when the Doctor walked toward him and had Hope in a baby sling and a diaper bag hung from his shoulder.

"Well, where are you going?" he asked as Duer smiled and peeked in at Hope, who was sleeping.

"Oh, just taking my beautiful daughter out for a walk."

"Ah, mind if I join you?" he asked and Duer nodded his head. They headed down the pavement when they headed for the park and they walked down the path while the silver leaves sparkled in the sunlight.

"It's still amazing that you had those saplings in your TARDIS so we can have these here on New Gallifrey."

"Didn't you have any?"

"Yep, but I lost them when I lost my original TARDIS," Duer sighed and the Doctor looked at him.

"Will you stop it," he said and Duer looked at him with a confused look on his face.

"Stop what?" he asked.

"Will you stop dwelling on the past. You're worse than Amato."

"Yeah, I guess I have a lot of things that keep cropping up."

"Like I don't?" the Doctor asked and Duer half smiled.

"But how do you let it all go?"

"I don't. I just bury it away in my head."

"But that's not a good idea. Things like that tend to pop up when you least expect it."

"That's when I have a long talk with Rain. That woman of mine is a great listener. One of the reasons I married her," the Doctor said with a smile and Duer laughed.

"Frankie is the same but I still get so mad when I think about things."

"Ah, well, when I get that way, I just go to the gym in my TARDIS and beat the crap out of the punching bag."

"Does that help?"

"Yep," the Doctor said then sat down on a bench and placed the diaper bag on the ground. Sitting next to him and placing the diaper bag on the ground, Duer looked at Faith and smiled. "So, is she getting any hair yet?"

"Yeah, she might need a haircut soon," Duer said when Faith blinked her eyes open and looked up at him. Carefully, he lifted her out of the baby sling and held her up, moving her face closer to his and she smiled. The Doctor watched as Duer moved her back then moved her toward his face and she wiggled her fingers, trying to grab his face. Duer was smiling as he rubbed the tip of his nose against hers and Faith giggled. Duer sat her on his lap as she leaned the back of her head against his chest and he looked at the Doctor. "What?"

"Just noticing the difference between how you were just a few seconds ago and now," the Doctor said and Duer frowned.

"I don't understand."

"You shifted from a gloomy doomie to a happy chappie in a flash."

"Well, that's because I'm with my little girl," Duer said and stroked the top of Faith's head.

"Then you change back when you're not with her, right?"

"Um, yeah, I guess you can say that."

"Was it the same with Cam?"

"Um," Duer said then thought for a few seconds and nodded. "Yeah, it was the same with Cam. Blimey, am I manic depressive or something?"

"No, what you are is what I was a long time ago. See, you had a grown up daughter when we lived on New Hope and didn't have children in your lives until Jenna and Jamie adopted Angus, Ian, Robert, Conner, Victoria and Frazer. Also, it wasn't until we came here that you started having children of your own. Suddenly you had responsibilities you didn't have since you lived on your Gallifrey. That is why you were so over protective of Cam."

"True, I was," Duer said, nodding his head.

"I wasn't sure if I could do the whole Daddy thing again either. It wasn't until I met Dorothy that I let myself feel like one again. Then I adopted Tara and had the triplets."

"And you were surrounded by children all the time while I was..." Duer sighed and the Doctor patted Duer's shoulder.

"I can't begin to think what it was like to catch only tiny snatches of time with Adam and his family."

"It was terrible. There were times I wanted to open the rift so we could see each other all the time and didn't care if the worlds blew up."

"Ah, I think we found another problem," the Doctor said and Duer frowned. "YOU have abandonment issues!"

"Hm, I never thought of that," Duer said while Faith placed his left index finger in her mouth and sucked on it. "Ah, help, my beautiful daughter is trying to eat my finger! Maybe she's hungry!"

"I think so," the Doctor said then looked down and saw that Hope was awake and sucking on his finger. "And it looks like mine's hungry, too." Carefully, he lifted Hope out or the baby sling and sat her on his lap. Reaching into the diaper bags, they took the bottles out then started feeding their daughters and Duer smiled down at Faith.

"Um, I think I have martyr issues as well," Duer said and the Doctor looked at him. "See, when we were in exile, I thought I had messed everything up and was going to be the only one still in exile. The thing was, I didn't care. As long as you and Amato were free, I would gladly be the one that wasn't."

"Bugger, you and Rain need to go into therapy. She's always being a martyr when things go wrong," the Doctor said and Duer softly laughed.

"Yeah, she does."

"I think she needs to prove to me that she's worth being with me but that it a load of rubbish. Then again, she had really low self esteem when we first met. It took a long time for her to realize that she was brilliant and she is!"

"Yep, she is. Frankie was the same way."

"She had low self esteem?"

"Yep, see, her father was always putting her down and telling her she was nothing. He also did that with Cameron, too, and he's a genius. I guess that's one of the reasons they both ran away."

"I never knew that."

"Yeah, then there's Adam and what happened with his Jackie and Pete."

"They really gave him a raw deal," the Doctor said and Duer nodded. Faith and Hope finished the bottles as the Doctor and Duer burped them and the Doctor rocked Hope in his arms. "The one thing you have to remember, Brother, is all that is in the past and this is the future."

"Yep," Duer said as he kissed the top of Faith's head and she giggled. "I still need to talk to my mother about a few things though."

"Yeah, I still need to talk to my mother as well."

"What we need is to have a mother/son day with them and get things cleared up."

"I hear you," the Doctor said then sat Hope against his chest and wrapped his arms around her.

"But not today," Duer sighed and placed his arms around Faith. "Today, I just want to sit here with my best friend and our daughters and enjoy the day."

"I'm your best friend?" the Doctor asked.

"Didn't you know that?" Duer asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

"No, I thought that was Koschei. The two of you seemed to bond while we were on that trip across the US."

"Um, yeah, we did, but I like hanging out with you more," Duer said and the Doctor smiled.

"What about Adam? Isn't he your best friend, too?"

"Yeah, he was until he hooked up with Alan. Though, truth be told, those two deserve each other."

"Oh come on, Adam isn't as bad as Alan."

"No offense, but no one is as bad as Alan!" Duer said and they laughed. "Anyway, like it or not, you're my best friend and I wouldn't have it any other way!"

"Right back at you, Brother," the Doctor said as they smiled at each other and watched the people walking by.

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