PARENTHOOD

Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen

The next morning Hope was sleeping peacefully when the Doctor and Rain stuck their heads around the corner and looked at her. As the triplets grew, they added more rooms on to the house so they could have their own space so she was sleeping in their old room.

"Apparently, Brother solved the monster problem last night," the Doctor said softly.

"Yup, looks like it."

The Doctor looked at her when she chuckled.

"What?" he said.

"Just thinking how ironic it is that your daughter imagines monsters in her room when you fight enough real monsters out there."

"Well, she's just practicing for the day she'll help me fight the real ones," the Doctor said.

They came into the room and stood by her bed. They stared down at her angelic face for a moment.

"Aw, why must we wake her?" the Doctor said. "Why don't we go get her bronzed so she'll stay this way forever?"

"You wanna dip our child in bronze and kill her so you can have her be forever four?" Rain said, amused.

"The way you say it, it sounds positively evil," the Doctor teased. "Okay, we'll just cover her in wax and be very careful so she'll be alive when the process is done."

"Gee, I think I'd rather have her die," Rain said as the Doctor put his arm around her and nuzzled her hair.

The Doctor bent over with Rain. He kissed her cheek while Rain gently shook her.

"Hoooope," the Doctor whispered in her ear. "Time to get up and have fuuuun!"

Hope giggled and pulled the cover up over her head.

"Oi!" the Doctor said, pulling it back down while Hope giggled and kept her eyes closed. "You stop that and wake up. We have to go to New York so we can see stuff before we hop a plane and go to London to see even more stuff."

"Is Daddy Alan going?" Hope asked him.

"Yes. Why? You afraid your monster is gonna follow ya?" the Doctor said.

"He's funny. I like him."

"I can be funny too," the Doctor said with mock anger. "Why is he your favorite? I'm more lovable than he is. I'm a big ole teddy bear."

"Most of the time," Rain said.

She laughed when the Doctor eyed her.

"Ignore your mum," he said to Hope. "Right. Up and at em, sleepy head. You're not asleep and you're not dead!"

Hope sat up and gave her mother and father a kiss. Rain went to get her some clothes for the day while the Doctor rubbed her head.

"Hope you're wide awake because we're gonna have a busy day," he said.

Rain brought her some blue jean shorts and a Toy Story t-shirt with pink butterfly underwear and white socks. The Doctor ruffled his daughter's hair and walked out of the room so the women could have some privacy. On the way, he passed by the bathroom and saw Alan brushing his teeth.

"Good morning, Brother," the Doctor said.

Alan had the toothbrush in his mouth so he gave him a cheery wave and spat out what was in his mouth after taking it out.

"Good morning, ready to split the Big Apple open and take a bite?" Alan said.

"Depends. How much are we going to split it open?" the Doctor said.

"I say, we raze Times Square to the ground. That oughta get the Yanks attention!" Alan said.

"Um...no, let's leave Times Square alone today," the Doctor said.

"You disappoint me, Brother," Alan said. "Time was you couldn't wait to knock down a building and now it's let's don't and say we did. You're getting soft in your old age."

The Doctor was about to protest when suddenly Rose ran up behind him and wrapped her arms around his middle.

"Yes, he's a softie!" she said, poking his stomach before running away.

"You're gonna think softie, Tarty, when I turn your brain to mush!" the Doctor said, running after his giggling sister.

Alan shrugged and put his toothbrush back in his mouth. He started to brush his teeth when Hope walked into the bathroom and stared at him. Alan raised his eyebrow and stared at her out of the corner of his eye while he brushed his teeth.

Whatcha doin'?" Hope asked him.

Alan took the toothbrush out of his mouth and spit.

"Makin' biscuits, want some?" he said.

"No, you're not!"

"It's a fair cop. You're right. I'm not makin' biscuits, I'm makin' spit, want some?"

"No."

"No? Okay, suit yourself," Alan said with a shrug.

Hope heard a squeal followed by hysterical laughter coming from downstairs. She went out into the hallway and looked behind her when her mother came up behind her.

"Apparently, your daddy is tormenting your other mother," Rain said to Hope as she put her hand on her daughter's head.

They went downstairs and paused halfway down when they saw the Doctor holding Rose from behind while he tried to lick her cheek.

"Quit!" Rose squealed as he let a bit of drool start to come out of his mouth onto her cheek. "That gets on me, you are dying and regenerating!"

The Doctor sucked up the spit.

"Don't bother me. We have the means to control our regenerations now. You make me regenerate, I'll just turn myself back into this gorgeous body," he said before he let the drool come out of his mouth again.

"Hey!" Hope said, going down the stairs.

"Hope! Help! Get your daddy away from me!" Rose said, holding out her hand to her.

"Hey! Daddy, don't!" Hope said as she ran over to him.

While he was doing that, Shilah, Amato, their wives and Christopher and the triplets were watching from the kitchen. All of them were eating cereal while they viewed the chaos.

"Think they'll do this on the plane?" Peri said between bites of corn flakes.

"Ten quid says they will," Shilah said.

"Should we board another plane then so we won't die when they cause it to crash?" Mingxia asked her husband.

Shilah thought for a moment.

"Nah, I'm not afraid of regenerating," he said.

Meanwhile, Alan came downstairs and stopped as he observed the scene in front of him.

"Pardon! Are you drooling on my wife?" he asked the Doctor.

The Doctor sucked up the spit.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I should be the one to do it. I'm married to her. Allow me!"

Rose squealed and finally broke free of the Doctor when Alan rushed over. She ran over to Amato and hid behind him as the Doctor and Alan laughed.

"What makes you think I'll protect you?" Amato asked as he looked behind at Rose.

"Because you're different. You're not in that body anymore," Rose said, pointing to the Doctor and Alan.

"And? What makes you think I'm more mature in this body?" Amato asked. "I can be an immature brat too. Watch."

Peri squealed when he grabbed her and gave her a big wet sloppy kiss on the cheek. She grinned at him and he kissed her properly on the lips.

"Eww, there's an image that'll be burned into my brain forever more," Alan said as Amato flipped him off.

After they finished their breakfast, the Doctor and his family gathered inside the TARDIS. He set the coordinates and within a few minutes the TARDIS was heading for New York.

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