PARENTHOOD

Chapter Sixty Five

After eating, they thanked the Queen and King before they were escorted back to the skimmer so they could retrieve the TARDIS. On the way there, Rain talked to her father and told him what happened before letting him talk to Namid.

"Lord, what a day, I'm glad you're taking us to the circus, Bro," Awinita said. "I could do with some relaxation."

"But first, we have to go get my wife and child because it wouldn't be a party without them," Alan said.

"Yeah, I want Chris here so I don't have to talk to my sisters all night," Chaska said as Sokanon stuck her tongue out at him.

They walked into the room and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the ship. The Doctor pulled out his key and opened the door. As everyone was filing in, he heard his name being called and looked over his shoulder. Thelopian was coming into the room.

"Just wanted to say a last goodbye," she said, walking up to him. "I hope you'll come back to see us. You and your family are welcome here."

"Thanks. We'll come back sometime. We have a busy schedule going around the cosmos," the Doctor replied. "But we'll definitely come back. And thank you for your hospitality."

"Thank you for giving us a chance and not assuming I was the one behind Zod's decision."

"Nah, I learned early in life that you should never assume anything," he said.

She gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Too bad you didn't look like this back then, I might have been more adamant about keeping my betrothal," she said with a wink. "However, as my father said, I have another that I love far, far more than you so Rain can have you."

The Doctor grinned at that. She waved and stepped back as he went inside. She stood and watched as the TARDIS dematerialized in front of her.

By the time he set the coordinates and got back to his bedroom on the TARDIS, Rain and Namid were done speaking with John.

"How is he?" the Doctor said, sitting down beside them.

"He's fine. He's just relieved that she's okay," she said, stroking Namid's back.

The Doctor kissed Namid's cheek.

"Rainbow, if you want me to take your memories out, I can do it now," he said to her.

"Will it hurt?"

"Not at all. I'm going to put you to sleep. A deep sleep where you won't dream and while you're doing that, I'll be in your mind getting rid of everything that's happened to you today."

Namid gave him a dubious look.

"You gonna see me naked?"

Rain laughed as the Doctor stared at her with shock.

"I don't know, how often have you been nude?" he said with amusement. "Do you parade around your bedroom nude?"

"No."

"Well, then I s'pose I won't be seeing very many memories of you being nude, if any. I'm not gonna poke around, I just wanna find the memories from today, eliminate them and go back out."

"Will I remember you?"

"Mi-mi, I'm not erasing that much," he said as Rain laughed harder. "I'm not erasing your entire mind. You knew who I was before today, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Well, then."

"Just checking before I do this in case I have to sue ya afterward."

Rain was now shaking with silent laughter as the Doctor stared at her quietly. He looked at his wife.

"Keep an eye on this one. She's litigation happy," he said as Namid giggled.

He kissed Namid and had her lie down in their bed after pulling down the covers. He tucked her in and kissed her forehead.

"I'm gonna put you to sleep first so you'll just feel very sleepy and you'll drift off," he explained. "And I promise if I see you nude I'll zoom past it."

Namid giggled and kissed him again. Rain put her hand on top of her head as the Doctor put his fingers to her temples and closed his eyes. Rain watched as her daughter's eyelids grew heavy and she drifted off to sleep.

Once she was deep in sleep, the Doctor began to dive into her memories. He quickly found the memories he needed since they were fairly recent. But instead of drawing them out and deleting them from her consciousness, he dwelt a moment and observed from her point of view, shivering inwardly as he saw only blackness and heard his daughter screaming for help in the darkness. He had been blinded before in his lives but only temporarily. He had never been through something as terrifying as what his daughter experienced while having no eyesight and living it through her chilled him. He marveled that his daughter came away from it as calm as she did and he knew that she had a deep well of inner strength that her blindness had given her. He listened a moment more before he could no longer bear it and he began to isolate and delete the memories from today, going back to earlier in the day before the kidnapping. After he had erased all the memories he could find that would traumatize her, he began building up a false memory that she had been home all day playing with her brother and sisters without anything significant occurring before going to bed. That way when she woke, she would just assume it was another ordinary day. It was the same technique he would use on his other children and his brother.

Finishing with his task, he was about to back out of her mind when out of curiosity he ventured into her dreams and chose one to look at that pertained to him. He smiled when he saw him and her floating along in the sky like balloons while birds flew past and the sun shone down on them. For a few minutes, the floating continued, then his dream daughter looked around when clouds darkened and a thunderstorm started.

"Oh no," she said to his dream image, "Our lovely day is gonna be ruined."

The Doctor giggled when his dream self screamed out, "LEAVE! I COMMAND YOU!" and the storm stopped. The clouds zoomed away and they floated along through the bright, sunny day. Then out of the blue, he saw Alan come up behind them in the basket of a rainbow colored balloon. He caught up to them and looked at them.

"Ha ha, I'm going faster than you are," he said as he floated past them and headed out of view.

The real Doctor snickered out loud at that.

"Yeah, that would be something Alan would do," he said aloud.

He laughed harder when the Doctor put Namid on his back and sped up. As they went past a stunned dream Alan, he stuck his tongue out and screamed, "Eat my dust, Brother!' The Doctor chuckled again before backing out completely from her mind. He took his hands away and opened his eyes to see his bemused wife.

"What would be something Alan would do?" she said the moment his eyes would open.

The Doctor told her about the dream and Rain rolled her eyes.

"Even in Namid's dreams, Alan has to barge in without notice," she said as he chuckled. "But it was a very beautiful dream. I like that you have the power to command storms to leave just by screaming at them. That must come in handy."

"Oh yeah, why do you think we always have sunny days for picnics?" he said. "But now we need to put our little girl to bed and call in the next subject."

He pulled back the covers and gathered Namid in his arms. Rain followed him down the hall to Namid and Sokanon's room. Sokanon was on her bed examining her figurine when they came inside.

"Do you want to go next, my treasure?" the Doctor said to her.

"Does it hurt?"

"No, why does everyone think it hurts? It's completely painless and afterwards, you'll have a nice long kip before we go to the circus in the morning."

Sokanon nodded. She watched while they undressed Namid and put her Little Mermaid nightdress on her. They took off her jellies; put her in her bed and both of them kissed her. Then the Doctor walked over to Sokanon.

"Get your nightdress and get ready for bed, yeah?" he said.

Sokanon nodded. She opened her drawer in her chest of drawers, pulled out a Toy Story nightdress with Jessie the Cowgirl on it and took it to the bathroom. When she came back with it on, she got under her covers. The Doctor and Rain kissed her and Rain sat with her while the Doctor went into her mind and took out the memories. Then after he was done with her, he went into Chaska's room and had him get in his pajamas before he did the same thing to him. Then he went and found Doc. He was sitting with Namor in the kitchen.

"Brother, I've finished taking the memories out of the children's minds. Do you still want me to do it to you?"

Doc nodded and Namor wished him good night before he got up and followed him. He paused long enough to enter Namid's room and give her a good night kiss before he went on to his room. He also put on his pajamas and got in his bed. Rain sat at the end of the bed while the Doctor entered his mind, put him to sleep and found the memories he was looking for. After he erased them, he paused a moment and then went further into his memories in search of some of the ones he had when he was the Valeyard. He found a few of the more disturbing ones and winced when he watched his beloved brother killing and torturing innocents. He hesitated a moment and then brought his brother up just enough out of deep sleep so he could speak with his subconscious.

Brother, I finished taking out the memories I promised to take out but I can also take out a few of your memories as the Valeyard to help with your healing. Would you like that?

Yes, please, you have my permission, he heard Doc say.

The Doctor smiled at that and sent his brother back into a deep sleep before going back in and deleting the most disturbing memories he could find. He left some of the memories intact since it was as the Valeyard that he met Namid and he didn't want him to forget why he had adopted her as his own. He lingered a moment more and then with his task done, he brought himself out of his mind and opened his eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief as Rain squeezed his shoulder. He drew the covers up to his brother's shoulders and took his wife's hand as they went out of the room and headed back towards the console room.

Back                         Home                              Doctor Who Main Page                          Next