PARENTHOOD
Chapter Eighty Eight Namid was having the time of her life. While the others enjoyed the show, she was watching her father's antics. Since the show started, he had milked the elephants, made Daleks jump through a flaming hoop and when the 5 man high wire act made a pyramid, he showed himself walking out on the wire while he drank a cup of tea. He climbed up and over the people on the pyramid and walked on across the wire while he sipped his drink. Now it was the trapeze artists and he showed himself to her as the catcher and every time someone did a flip over to him, he pulled his hands away at the last minute and said, "PSYCH!" as the person fell into the net. Rain tousled her hair, glad that her daughter was having such a good time and laughing even though some of the people around her were giving her odd looks. When the act ended, the Doctor let her know and she applauded and waved her little flag. Then a female bareback rider came into the ring with three white horses, riding one of them and flipping from one to the other. Namid giggled when the Doctor suddenly came up beside them in a horse and buggy. "Evenin'," the dream Doctor said to the bareback rider, "nice night for a ride, eh?" Alan glanced at the Doctor and tapped into Namid's mind to see what was going on. He observed the horse and buggy and projected himself into her mind riding something similar. Namid laughed harder when the two brothers suddenly challenged each other to a race and zoomed around and around the ring, bypassing the bareback rider several times as they hit each other and their horses with large sticks. "Go, Daddy!" Namid said aloud as the Doctor snickered. "Oi!" Alan said to Namid as she laughed harder. "Root for me, not him!" "No, I want Daddy to win!" Alan glanced at Rose. He grinned and showed her what they were doing and then projected her into the fantasy as an Amazon woman on the back of his coach. Rose laughed as she watched herself trying to cut the Doctor's head off with a sword while he ducked and dodged it. "Hey!" the Doctor said as Namid laughed harder. "Okay, then. Oh...Rain..." He brought her into it and gave her dream self a sword and Namid laughed as Rain and Rose had a sword fight on the back of the coaches while Alan and the Doctor hit each other up at the front. The rest of the family looked at Namid as she bent over laughing and the Doctor showed the rest of his family what she was seeing and they laughed with her. When the show was over, everyone got one more soda and walked back to the TARDIS. Namid walked with her brother, sister and cousin, waving her little flag with one hand while she held on to Sokanon's hand with the other. Chaska looked over his shoulder at his father. "Are we gonna go see the penguin now?" he asked. The children stopped and waited for his answer as the Doctor groaned. They frowned when he mumbled his answer. "What did you say, Daddy?" Chaska said. "I said, muh, muh, moo, muh, muh, muh, does that answer your question?" he said as the adults chuckled. The children gathered around him and begged him to take them to see Frobisher. The Doctor looked helplessly at the others. Alan put his hands in his trouser pockets and walked up to the children. "Hey," he said. "What?" the children said in unison. "Why do you continually torment this old codger? Don't you know that he's one step short of being an OAP?" he said. "Come again?" the Doctor said. "What's an OAP?" Chaska asked. "Old Age Pensioner. Someone who is very old and lives off government money...and lives with lots of cats...and knits little booties for non-existent grandchildren...except he has grandchildren but they're all grown so the booties are useless. But anyway, spare the poor man, his tickers can't take much more stress." They all jumped and spun around when they heard a loud boom and to their relief, they saw fireworks above the tent. The Doctor showed Namid what was going on while everyone stood and watched them. Alan nudged Jack and took Rose in his arms. He kissed her just as one of the fireworks burst and let out a gigantic boom that vibrated their bodies. "See," Alan said, coming up for air, "I'm such a great lover, the earth shakes." "Hmm, let me try that," Jack said. He grabbed Ianto and kissed him and waited for another booming firework. Finally after three minutes, he heard the boom and let go. Everyone laughed at Ianto's stunned expression as Jack shrugged. "See, I can make the earth shake too. Takes awhile but it happens," he said. "I'm just glad they finally fired one off," Awinita said. "I think Ianto was about to suffocate." "Yes, but on the other hand, it wouldn't be a bad way to go," Ianto said. The fireworks ended and they walked back to the TARDIS. "Okay, before we go find the penguin, anyone wanna go home?" the Doctor said when everyone was inside. "I'm going, I wanna see this Frobisher for myself," Awinita said. "Yeah, I wanna meet the talking penguin," Rose added. Everyone told the Doctor they wanted to go meet Frobisher and the Doctor walked over to the console. "Okay," the Doctor said to his ship while everyone giggled, "remember Frobisher? This lot wants to meet him so if you could find him and take us to him, I would be much obliged, otherwise I have to listen to everyone whining about why we aren't going to see the talking penguin." The TARDIS grumbled out laughter and then fell silent. Sokanon came up beside her father and rested her arms on the rim of the console. "Is the TARDIS thinkin'?" she asked him. "Yes. That and she's scanning for Frobisher," he said to her. After a few minutes, the rotor came to life and the TARDIS flew into the vortex. "Here we go, off to find Frobisher," the Doctor said. "I just hope he's happy to see us." The TARDIS flew for approximately ten minutes and the powered down. "Here we go, moment of truth," the Doctor said. They stepped outside into a futuristic looking city. The buildings around them were made of a shiny silver material and glass; some looked like normal skyscrapers and others like huge domes. Hovercars flew through the air as they walked along the exceptionally clean pavement in search of Frobisher or Bish's. They passed by a few pubs and looked inside at the interior. The ones they saw were sterile looking, stainless steel walls with no decoration, furniture and bar and the patrons were drinking quietly and speaking softly while soft bland music played. "Ugh, how boring can you get?" Jack said after they passed the third pub. They looked around at the Whifferdills, a few were in their normal form but most of them had shape shifted into a variety of objects including one taking the form of a tree. He was leaning against a light post talking to a dog. Everyone stopped and stared at them for a moment until the dog caught sight of them and growled menacingly. After looking around, the Doctor finally stopped a large fish and asked where Bish's was. The fish pointed his fin down the street and the Doctor thanked him and they went on their way while the children followed them and looked back at the fish who was now lighting up a cigar. They passed by several more businesses until they saw a wooden sign hanging over the door of a wooden building. The building looked completely out of place among the silver and glass buildings but the sign confirmed that it was indeed Bish's. They went up to the open door and noticed that the wood building wasn't the only thing different about the place. Unlike the other sterile pubs, this one resembled a cozy English pub with wood interiors furniture and bar. There were pictures on the walls along with some sports memorabilia and an old dart board hung on the back wall. Another difference between Bish's and the other pubs was that the patrons were noisier and the radio was tuned to a rock station. The place was nearly packed which was a testament to how popular it was. And behind the bar on the right side of the building was Frobisher. He was standing on a stool speaking to a woman who had bright orange skin, yellow hair and four breasts that were concealed under a bright red tank top. Frobisher was making her a purple martini while he talked to her. The Doctor, Rain and Alan kept the children close to them as they walked over to the bar. Frobisher noticed them and smiled. "Evenin'," he said to them. "Welcome to Bish's . I'll be with you lot in a moment." They waited till he finished making the drink and gave it to the woman. The Doctor raised his eyebrow when the woman giggled and pinched Frobisher's cheek, making him blush. He cleared his throat and turned his attention to the Doctor as the woman sipped her drink and talked to a whifferdill beside her who was disguised as a tiger. "What can I get you, mates?" he asked, picking up a cloth and drying the counter. "Actually, we came to see you," the Doctor said. "Oh really? Well, it's nice to know my fame has extended offworld and my humble pub is being visited by tourists," Frobisher said. "This is the Doctor, Frobisher," Sokanon said, pointing to him. "Doctor? I'm not ill, love. I don't need..." He shut up when the words sank in and his eyes widened as he looked at the Doctor who was grinning ear to ear. "Not THE Doctor," he said. "The same. Nice to see you again, Frobisher," the Doctor said. Frobisher let out a stunned Awwwk and fell off his stool. The children gasped and climbed up on the bar stools trying to see over the bar. "Frobisher, you okay?" Chaska said as he tried to look over the counter. "I'm okay," Frobisher said, dusting himself off and climbing back up on his stool. He stared at the children. "Who are they?" he asked the Doctor. "These three," he said, pointing to his children, "are my children. And the one on the end belongs to my brother, Alan." He pointed to Alan and Frobisher's beak dropped open when he saw him and Doc. "Blimey, what is this, some sort of optical illusion?" he asked. "Is there somewhere where we can talk? It's a long story," the Doctor said. "Well, I can get my assistant Janos to mind the pub while we talk. Problem is, there isn't any room in here for all of us. As you can see, it's crowded." "We can go and talk in the TARDIS. I'm sure you wanna see her again," the Doctor said. "Awwwk! Do I! I've missed her and all the adventures I had when I rode in her. I'd be more than happy to walk with you, just let me fetch Janos." He hopped down off the stool and waddled to the back wall where he opened a sliding door. He waddled through and closed it shut while the Doctor and his family waited for him. While they waited, Alan suddenly felt a finger sliding down his back. He looked behind him at Rose but she was talking quietly to Donna and wasn't even paying attention to him. Then he felt a finger going down his cheek and turned to see the orange woman smiling seductively at him as her finger went from his cheek down his arm. "Hello, Handsome," she said. "My name's Tiger Lily, what's yours?" "Happily Married," Alan replied as Rose stopped talking to Donna and both women eyed her. Tiger Lily ignored the look of death coming from Rose and giggled. "Oh love, you think being married's stopped me before?" she said to Alan. "I've had many married men for clients." "Excuse me, Tiger Lily," Rain said, "there are children present. So could you stop propositioning my brother in front of them? He just told you he was married." "Yeah, to me," Rose said, stepping up beside Alan. "And if you know what's good for ya, you'll leave him alone or you're gonna end up with a black eye." To their surprise, Tiger Lily got up off her stool and stood in front of Rose, giving her a haughty look. Alan wrinkled his nose when he smelled the pungent smell of alcohol on her breath and he guessed she was more than a little tipsy. He looked back at the children who were watching with quiet curiosity except for Namid who was asking her father what was happening. The tension was thick and everyone in the pub stopped to watch but thankfully, Frobisher came back out before fists started flying. Alan pulled Rose away while he gave Tiger Lily a look of warning. Tiger Lily shrugged and went back to her drink. "Slag," Rose muttered under her breath as Alan squeezed her shoulder. The Doctor led everyone out of the pub as Janos took Frobisher's place behind the bar.
Back Home Doctor Who Main Page Next