PARENTHOOD

Chapter Ninety One

"DAD!" River shouted as she stormed into the den and Adam removed the headphones, looking at his semi-ticked off daughter.

"Yes, Oh Angry One?" he asked as he turned the swivel chair around and half closed his eyelids.

"I never thought I had to do this again but will you tell my little brother to leave them alone!"

"Now, are we talking James or David?" he asked as he stood up and walked to her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm talking about David."

"And what has my eight year old son done this time?" he asked with a grin.

"I found THESE in the family room!" she said as she held up two small figures around twelve inches in height and they smiled, waving at them. One of the figures looked like Theta and the other looked like his fifth life and that one arched the floppy cricket hat at him.

"How did they get here?" he asked when he took the chibi that looked like Theta and the chibi folded its tiny arms on his finger, placing its chin on its arms. The chibis were intelligent human dolls that were created by a family friend, named Chabi, who had found a way to create life in the dolls. As for payment for setting him free from his evil master, who wanted the dolls as assassins, Chabi made the chibis for River in the forms of her family, Theta's lives and their friends. Marion had also asked him to make River chibis of the Doctor and his family and the chibi population had grown over the years.

"I brought them with me when we went to see her last week," David said, standing in the doorway and Adam looked at him, nodding his head.

"I told you not to do that!" River shouted and Adam looked at her.

"Don't yell at your brother like that," Adam said and the chibi of Theta wiggled a finger at her.

"But, Dad, he took them without asking."

"I got that. Look, River, these little guys are tough and..." he said while the chibi of Theta flexed its biceps and Adam softly laughed. "Uh, yeah, well, they have been played with before and are still in one piece."

"Yeah, James used to play with them when he was my age. Why can't I?" David asked and River glared at him.

"Do you want me to remind you what happened to your Transformers?" River growled and the chibis looked up at her.

"What is she talking about?" the chibi of Theta's fifth life asked and the chibi of Theta shrugged.

"Hey, Chris was the one that put them in the microwave!" David said and the chibis gasped.

"He put them in the microwave?" the chibi of Theta's fifth life asked with wide eyes.

"When did this happen?" Adam asked with a concerned look on his face.

"It was last week. They fell in the pool and he said we could dry them out in the microwave," David sighed. "His mommy said it was a good thing they weren't made of metal anymore or it would have blown up."

"That would explain why you were grounded when I came home from helping your uncle with that peace treaty signing," Adam said then looked at the chibi of Theta and sighed.

"But this is different. I would never put them in there," David said, pouting.

"Thank Rassilon for that!" the chibi of Theta said.

"Just the same, I don't want you playing with them because we can't replace them if something would happen to them," Adam said and David sighed.

"But nothing ever happens to them. River never lets anyone near them," David said.

"That's not true, or did you forget the time they got kidnapped?" River asked and David shook his head.

"Let me see if I remember," Adam said when he sat down and placed the chibi of Theta on the desk. Sitting back in the chair, Adam closed his eyes then set up a privacy block and an image of a planet appeared inside River and David's mind.

Chabi was a small planet located in the Eden system of the Orion constellation and had a small moon and a single yellow sun. The sky was a crystal blue color and lush forests, mountains and glades dotted the landscape. Two large oceans separated the two large landmasses and there were two ice caps on the northern and southern poles.

On the eastern landmass were a large race of beings called the chabis, which stood over ten feet tall. Covered in thick fur of brown, black, tan, white or gray fur, they were a gentle race but were also very strong and lived in villages in the tall trees. They had bear like features with large black or brown eyes and talked in low growls and grunts.

The chibis lived on the western landmass and it was during an expedition of the planet that River found a crashed spaceship and a skeleton and the skeleton was that of the Doctor's universe's version of her old friend, Chabi. According to the black box they were able to retrieve from the ship, he had crashed on the planet and made the chibis to keep him company. He taught them how to make shelters and feed themselves and supervised their population, aiding them when they needed to reproduce. When he died, the chibis population continued to grow, thanks to him teaching them how to use the machines he used to make them, and they considered him a god. But, along with a god, there was an evil that kept to the shadows. None of the chibis knew where this evil came from but they did have a name for it. The Shadow Hands!

"Wait a second. I think I remember this story. Mommy, Aunt Rain, Aunt Rose, Aunt Rosie, Aunt Frankie and Jenna went on holiday and you, Uncle Doctor, Uncle Theta, Uncle John, Uncle Alan and Uncle Jamie were looking after us. Cousin Campbell was playing with some of them when these guys came, stunned him and stole the chibis," David said and the chibis looked at each other.

"I remember that," the chibi of Theta's fifth life said.

"I still have nightmares about those black hands and being in the dark," the chibi of Theta said and softly shivered.

The Doctor had promised to take David and his three year old cousins to the toy store when Adam received word from River that something had happened to the chibis and he sent love and comfort into her mind.

"Alright, Sunshine, tell me again what happened," Adam thought after River calmed down and sighed.

"I'm not exactly sure. I was in the office when I heard Campbell screaming and went to see what happened. He had been playing with the chibis that looked like Uncle Theta. When I went into the living room, he was unconscious on the floor and the chibis were gone," River thought.

"Is he alright?" the Doctor thought.

"Yes, whoever it was used a stunner."

"Did he get a look at who did this?" Theta thought.

"Yes, he said they were covered in leather clothing and wore black helmets."

"Did you contact Gavin?" Adam thought. Gavin was River's husband and he was off planet at the time of the attack.

"Yes."

"Did you check the house security tapes yet to see how they got into the house?" John thought.

"Not yet."

"Do you think this might be the ones that have been grabbing the other chibis?" Alan thought.

"If they are, why would they want my chibis?" River thought and they could feel her fear in their minds.

"Because they're one of a kind, Sunshine," Adam thought.

"I knew I should have never brought them here. They were safer on New Gallifrey."

"Safe, maybe, but they weren't happy," the Doctor thought.

"It was hard for them, having to hide all the time to prevent them from getting hurt or taken," River sighed and the chibi of Theta's fifth life patted her hand. "When they came to Chabi, they didn't have to hide anymore and were very happy."

"Daddy, please, you have to find them!" River thought.

"Don't worry, Kiddo, we'll find them," Adam thought then looked at the others when David walked to him and frowned.

"Daddy, does this mean we're not going to the toy store?" David asked.

"So, we went to Kasterbourous City and headed toward Galaxy," Adam said and River smiled.

"I used to love going to Galaxy," she said.

'They were nothing more than a bunch of crooks," David said and Adam nodded.

Galaxy was the largest toy store in Kasterbourous City with six floors and a wide variety of toys, games, puzzles and video games and players. The bikes, scooters, hover board, skate boards, hover skates, roller skates, riding toys and electronic vehicles were on the top floor and there was an area where the children could test out whatever they wanted before buying it.

The video game section was on the next floor and all the games and systems were shown on video screen until someone purchased something then the game or system was brought up from the back by security hover robots. Gaming cards and card decks and children cds and dvds were also located in the video game section and were also kept in the back until purchased.

The boys section was on the next floor with a large selection of sports items and equipment. The girls section was on the next floor and had a care center for all sorts of dolls and a "day care center" where a little "mommy" could leave their "baby" or "babies" while they shopped and were given beepers which were returned after they were done shopping. There had been a few "babies' that had been forgotten but the beepers had the home phone number of the "mommy", who was called within minutes so they could come get the "baby". The toddlers and infant toys were on the next floor and the first floor was where the stuffed animals, games and puzzles and educational toys were.

"We went inside when they made this big announcement that they had just received a new shipment of action figures and we headed off to see what all the fuss was about," Adam said then stopped the chibi of Theta from deleting the story he was writing and placed the chibi on his lap.

A large crowd was standing around the small stage as a young man with a round face and brown hair and eyes stood near a table and the Doctor led the others to the front of the crowd. On the table was a covered box and the young man smiled, placing his hand on the cover.

"Hear ye, hear ye, I am proud to present the latest thing in action figures!" the young man said as he removed the cover and the chibis blinked, looking around.

"Daddy, that's...!" David said as Adam nodded and David, Cameron, Donald, Chaska and Christopher ran to the table while the young man looked at them.

"Hold on, Little Mates, I don't think...Hey! Get off of there!" David, Cameron, Donald, Chaska and Christopher climbed onto the table as they looked at the box when Cameron found the latch and the boys opened the box, reaching inside the box. "Put those down!"

"Catch!" Donald shouted as he tossed the chibis of Theta's second and seventh life at Jamie and they went flying through the air.

"Whee!" shouted the chibis of Theta's second and seventh life and Jamie caught them.

"Daddy!" Christopher shouted as he picked up then tossed the chibis of Theta's ninth and eighth life at Alan and the chibis laughed. Alan caught them as he smiled down at them and the chibi of Theta's ninth life gave him a big grin.

"Here, Daddy, catch!" Chaska shouted as he tossed the chibis of Theta's sixth and fourth life and the chibi of Theta's sixth life waved its arms and legs in the air.

"Shada!" the chibi of Theta's fourth life shouted as the Doctor caught them and looked at the chibi of Theta's fourth life.

"You know, not everyone is going to know what that means," the Doctor teased as the chibi of Theta's fourth life gave him a toothy smile and arched the hat back on its had gotten off the table as he ran to Theta and handed him the chibis of his first and third life and blinked.

"Why didn't you throw them?" Theta asked.

"Because they're too old," Cam said and the chibis looked at him.

"Too old?" the chibi of Theta's third life grumbled and crossed its arms over its chest.

"Calm down, dear fellow, I do believe the boy is teasing, hm," the chibi of Theta's first life said and smiled at Cam.

"Daddy!" David said as he tossed the chibis of Theta and Theta's fifth life at Adam and the chibi of Theta's fifth life held onto its hat.

"Woo-hoo!" the chibi of Theta said as Theta caught them and they laughed.

"That was fun!" the chibi of Theta's fifth life said and the boys got off the table. The other shoppers looked at them as the Doctor smiled and placed the chibis in his pocket, the others did the same.

"Run!" the Doctor shouted as he picked up Namid and they headed for the stairs. The security alarms rang out as the Doctor opened the fire exit door and they ran down the stairs. The door burst open as they ran by the other shoppers and headed for the door only to stop after seeing the security robots and guards standing by the front door. Sighing, they placed their hands up and the chibis ducked down, hiding inside their pockets.

"We were taken to the owner's office and Cam broke into the owner's files then sent them to the Architect," Adam said with a smile and David nodded.

"Then you and River took them back to Chabi. I still don't see what that has to do with me playing with them. I'm not going to sell them," David said, scratching the back of his neck.

"He does have a point," Adam said and River glared at him. Adam jumped when the chibi of Theta poked him in the chest and looked up at him. It pointed to itself then at the chibi at the chibi of Theta's fifth life then at David and nodded. "And I think they want to play with him."

"You do?" River asked and the chibis nodded. River paced back and forth while thinking then handed the chibis to David and he smiled.

"Thanks," David said when he ran out of the room and Rain walked to Adam, sitting on his lap.

"Why do I have a feeling this is a bad idea?" she asked as he wrapped his arms around her and she placed her head on his shoulder.

"Now now, Sunshine, what did I tell you about sharing your toys with your little brother?" he asked and she laughed.

"That I had to," she said and he nodded. Suddenly they heard a loud crash as she got off his lap and he stood up.

"They're ok!" David's voice said as Adam saved the story, turned the computer off then took River's hand and they both ran out of the room, heading down the hallway.

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