PARENTHOOD
Chapter Fifty Three Nelak stared at the short man as Awinita stood up and got the children behind her. "I'm sorry, the Doctor doesn't live here," he said to him. Zod scoffed at that. "I am not a fool. We know he is here. We sent the engagement ring to him. There was a tracking device inside the ring and we tracked it here." "Ought-oh," Sokanon said softly. "Now, step aside, I have business with the Doctor." "I'm afraid that's a negative, mate," Nelak said. "The Doctor isn't here and since he's the head of the household, you'll just have to come back another time." Zod let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm not a fool...mate. The ring has been tracked to this location which must mean he's here." "Not if he didn't put it on his sodding finger," Nelak said in a snotty voice. He heard Awinita calling to Sokanon to come back and looked back to see her walking up beside him. She pulled the ring out of her trouser pocket. "The ring's with me, sir. Daddy let me have it," she said, showing it to him. "Daddy? How can the Doctor be your father?" Zod bellowed at her. "First off, don't scream at her!" Nelak said angrily as Sokanon ducked behind him. "Secondly, the Doctor is already married and has children, that's how!" "How is this possible? He was engaged to Princess Thelopian!" Zod said. "I s'pose he didn't take the arrangement as seriously as you did," Nelak said shrugging. While this was going on, Rain hid at the top of the stairs. She had heard the commotion while she was getting dressed and hurriedly threw some clothes on and came out to take a look. As she listened, she groaned and pulled out her mobile. "Thete, I love you but sometimes I wish you'd take care of your problems instead of ignoring them and pretending they'll go away," she muttered as she dialed his number. "Help me! Help me!" The Doctor giggled at Alan who was calling to his son in a high-falsetto voice. Both men and Dex were part of a game to see if their sons could reach them via a rope ladder. The ladder was had a rope frame that was attached from the ground to a platform eight feet off the ground at a forty five angle. The rungs were made of iron and the idea was to climb the ladder up to the platform to "save" the family members who were sitting in a chair waiting for them. The trick was to hang on to the ladder as the person went up since it was loose and wobbly and a wrong move could send the person off the ladder into some inflatable mattresses below them. Alan was on one side of a Perspex partition while Christopher climbed on the top of the ladder while the Doctor was on the other side with Dex as Chaska did the same to try to reach them. Alan was pretending to be a maiden in distress while the Doctor and Dex just tried to cheer on Chaska as he scaled the rope ladder towards them. "Help me!" Alan shrieked as Christopher giggled. "Oh, won't anyone save me from some unnamable unclear danger to my person?" "Daddy, stop that, you sound strange," Christopher said as he slowly moved his right hand up and put his right foot tentatively on the next rung. "Just trying to make it realistic for ya, Chris," Alan said as he sat on the chair. Christopher finished with his right foot and tried his left. Suddenly, the ladder swayed and Christopher gasped as he lost his balance and the ladder swayed hard right. He fell onto the air mattress and let out a frustrated yell as he slapped his hands on the mattress. Alan got up and looked over the edge. "You killed me," he said gravely and Christopher laughed in spite of himself. "I tried, Daddy," he said, sitting up. "I know you did. You did a great job. Now move your bum and let someone else try," he said, pointing to the queue standing nearby. Christopher got up and got off the mattress as Alan turned and walked down a flight of stairs at the back of the platform. Meanwhile Chaska was almost near the top and both the Doctor and Dex were watching intently. They gasped when he took a step and the ladder wobbled nearly sending him off it. "Easy, son, you can do this. Just keep calm and take it one step at a time," the Doctor said when he saw Chaska hesitating. "Come on, Chas, you can do it," Dex said. "Yes, save us!" the Doctor said in a high-pitched voice. Chaska giggled at that and gasped when the ladder swayed again. "Ooops, better not make him laugh," the Doctor said to Dex. Slowly Chaska made his way up the wobbly ladder and then to his surprise, he reached the platform and scrambled onto it as his family cheered. The Doctor laughed when Chaska rolled onto his back and gasped as he sprawled his arms out. "I'm never doing that again," he said as the Doctor sniggered. "Now, now, Chas, you wanna travel with me, you'll have to learn to handle situations like that all the time," he said as he stood up. Chaska got up and the Doctor took his hand and squeezed it while Dex patted his back. They went down the stairs and when they went around the side, the man in charge of the game handed Chaska a large red gift bag and offered his congratulations. Alan and Christopher joined them as Chaska looked into it. He pulled out a certificate congratulating him on his achievement, a water bottle, a stuffed gorilla, a couple of novels that were written in an alien language he couldn't decipher and a coupon. He looked at the coupon before handing it to his father. "Hmm, this says you can have a free steak dinner and your whole family gets one too and the restaurant is nearby. Well, we know where we're gonna eat tonight." "Here you can have the books and the water bottle," Chaska said, handing the items to him. The Doctor looked at the book's titles and made a face. "No thanks, son, I think your mum will like these better," he said to him. "I'm not really interested in reading Passion Beach or Frolic in the Funhouse." "They gave those to Chas?" Dex said, shocked. "Um...I'm thinking they're perhaps joint gifts since this is a father/son thing but all the same the bloke could have said something," the Doctor said. He looked at Alan when he plucked Frolic in the Funhouse from his hand. He opened it to a random page. "Marza stood in front of the wacky mirror as Ganges stood behind her," he read aloud. "In the mirror, their images were distorted but for the first time Marza saw everything clearly and she knew that Ganges was the only man for her." "Ugh, stop, Daddy," Christopher said as everyone laughed. "It sounds like a naff book." "On the contrary, I think this is the best writing since Wuthering Heights. Give this to me, Brother, so I can improve my mind," Alan said to him. "You want it, take it," the Doctor said. "Hmmm, perhaps Rose will enjoy it and..." "To Rose with my compliments," the Doctor said, handing him the other book. "And here," he added, handing him the water bottle, "use this to dump water on unsuspecting people." "Ooo, thank ya! Much obliged. However, I'll give this to Chris so he can have something," he said, passing it to his son. His mobile rang and he held up his finger as he fished it out of his pocket. He checked it and grinned. "Wife?" Alan asked. "Wife," the Doctor replied as he opened his phone. "Tell the overprotective thing to leave you alone, this is men's day out," Alan said as he hit the talk button. "Yes, my overprotective thing?" the Doctor said as Alan giggled. "Um...I don't know what that's referring to and frankly, I have no time to ask," Rain whispered to him. "Rain, what's wrong?" the Doctor said, sobering up. "What's wrong is your princess problem made it to our door or rather one of her aides did. He's downstairs now demanding to see you. That ring had a tracking device in it and since Soki had it in her pocket, they tracked you to our front door and now Nelak is trying to keep him from getting in here. In short, we need you to come back and..." The Doctor's eyes widened when he heard a distant crash in the background and Soki and Namid's screams. "Oh God, Gotta go, he's brought troops. Just hurry, Thete, please!" Rain pleaded. "Rain?" he said as she cut off the connection. "Rain? Rain!" He looked at his family. "Holiday's being cut short. We need to go home right now!"
Back Home Doctor Who Main Page Next