PARENTHOOD
Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen The Doctor landed the TARDIS near Times Square for a bit of sightseeing before their flight. The TARDIS powered down and he turned to look at his family. "Now, we will behave ourselves out here. No running around and screaming and acting like monkeys...and no razing Times Square," he said, pointing to Alan. "But..." Alan said as everyone giggled, "I wanna pretend to be Godzilla and go smash things." "No. I forbid your pretending to be Godzilla," the Doctor said. "But...No, you can't make me. I wanna be Godzilla!" Alan said as he hurried to the front door. "Godzilla smash!" Everyone laughed when the Doctor ran up behind him and grabbed him from behind. "Hey, let go. Godzilla wanna smash!" Alan said. His eyes widened when the Doctor began to rock him gently back and forth. "Shhhh, close your eyes and sleep," he said to Alan as everyone else sniggered. "Sleep? I don't wanna sleep, I wanna smash! Godzilla smash!" "Lullaby and good night..." the Doctor sang as he rocked him. "No, don't put me to sleep, Godzilla smash! I..." Everyone laughed when Alan dropped his head onto his chin and began to snore loudly. The Doctor let go and gathered him up into his arms. "There, there, sleep now," the Doctor said, carrying him over to the jump seat while everyone laughed hysterically. Alan lay there for a few seconds and then leapt up. He picked Hope up and twirled her around as she squealed out in delight. Then he and everyone else went to the front door and went outside. They were in an alley near Times Square. They stood for a moment while the Doctor shut the door and Alan let out a low whistle when he saw the densely packed crowd walking by them. "Ooo, lots of people to run in terror when Godzilla smash," he said. "Oh, for heaven's sake, will you get off that?" Rain said to him. "No, Godzilla wanna smash," Alan said with a shrug. "How about Godzilla helps out his brother, King Kong," the Doctor said. "Yeees?" Alan said to him. "Will you carry Hope on your shoulders so she won't get crushed in the crowd?" "I would be honored, King Kong," Alan said. He squatted down and the Doctor grabbed Hope under the arms and lifted her onto his shoulders. Hope held on to Alan while he stood up and grabbed her legs. "Now...I have Godzilla Junior and we can both go smash!" he said, stomping his feet while Hope cheered. "Something is definitely not right with that boy," Peri said as everyone else followed him out of the alley. The moment they stepped onto the pavement they quickly had to dodge the packed crowds. "Ugh! Too many people," Sokanon said, backing up towards her father. "Yes, it's quite crowded here," the Doctor said as they tried to stick together while they made their way through the crowd. Amato grunted when he was jostled by a businesswoman who was busy talking on her cell phone. "WATCH IT, BUDDY!" she yelled at him as she went past. Peri grabbed his arm when he raised it and balled his fist. "Don't. She's not worth it," she said to her husband. "Yeah, well, maybe she'll pay more attention to her surroundings if someone snaps that mobile of hers in two," he said as he lowered his fist and took her hand. They walked along the pavement taking in the sights. While they were walking, the Doctor noticed a man standing behind a large wooden table. He was playing Find the Queen and collecting money from gullible people who thought they would be able to pick out which card on the table was the queen of hearts. The Doctor smirked. He stopped his family and stepped to the front of the table. The young man behind the table beamed. "Hello, sir, care to try to find the lady?" he said, holding up the queen of hearts and showing it to him. "All you have to do is follow the lady's movement and guess where she ends up. Because you're such a nice looking fellow, I'll let you do it for only five dollars. Five dollars and you have a chance to win this money right here," he said, holding up a black Stetson that was filled with different denominations of greenbacks. "Care to try, sir?" "Yes, I think I will," the Doctor said. He used his magic wallet and made a five dollar bill. The man grinned when he handed it to him and he added it to the pile of cash in the hat. The man then proceeded to move three cards around on the table while he chanted, "Find the lady, find the lady, where's she hiding? Find the lady!" He did this for thirty seconds and then stepped back slightly and pointed to the three cards facedown on the table. "Okay, sir, where's the lady hiding?" he said. "In the inner pocket of your jacket. You put her there when you did some sleight-of-hand and exchanged her for another card," the Doctor said smugly. The man hesitated, not sure what to do while the crowd watched him. Before he could react, the Doctor seized the lapel of his black leather jacket, went inside his inner pocket and pulled out the queen of hearts. "I win," he said, showing the card to the shocked man. "Give me the money." Before anyone could do anything, the man grabbed the hat and fled through the crowd with the money while everyone booed. The Doctor put the card down on the table and shrugged. "Ah well, easy come, easy go," he said. "Perhaps he learned his lesson about conning people. Anyway, let's go." He and his family followed the crowd around the table as it dispersed and headed off to look at some of the shops. After about an hour, they went back to the TARDIS. They didn't buy anything, preferring to wait till they got to London to do the shopping. Before the Doctor took the TARDIS to JFK, they decided to each pack a small suitcase so it would look less suspicious. All of them grabbed a small suitcase and threw in some random clothes. Once the suitcases were labeled and ready, Rain took a small carry-on bag and filled it with some things for Hope and the children so they could have something to do on the plane. Then they gathered in the console room and the Doctor took the TARDIS to JFK airport. They landed in a corner of the parking garage out of the way of traffic. The Doctor increased the strength of the perception filter just to be sure the ship would be left alone during their flight and after looking out the door and making sure no one was around, they all stepped outside and headed towards the door that would take them inside. As they headed for the door they listened to the announcements on the tannoy systems while Hope held on to her mother's hand. "Attention," Alan said as they walked, "if you spot a suspicious package, give it to the man with the ruffly hairdo. It may be a bomb but on the other hand it may be biscuits and the man with the ruffly hairdo is daft enough to press his luck for the sake of some baked goods." Attention," Rain said, "if you spot the man with the ruffly hairdo, call security. The man is nuttier than a squirrel and he wants to smash your city, put him in the loony bin before your city becomes a pile of rubble." "Attention," Alan said, eyeing Rain while Hope giggled, "if you see a woman near the man with the ruffly hairdo, grab her instead. She's a pest with major cooties and she needs to be decontaminated and put away for a long, long time." "Gee, that could mean me, Mingxia, Peri, your wife, Sokanon, Namid, Hope, there are more women here than just me." "Attention, If you spy the woman name Rain, grab her," Alan said. "Better?" "Not really, since the moment someone grabbed me, my husband here would throttle them so it would be bad for anyone who answered the announcement," Rain said. "And we'd join in too," Peri said. "Nah, I'd keep you out of the fray, wouldn't want you damaging your pretty face," Amato said. "Aw, how sweet," Peri said, looking back at him. Alan watched as they kissed each other. He looked at Rose and made a fish face as he puckered up. "I'll kiss ya, but not like that," Rose said. Alan stopped making the fish face and kissed Rose. They went up to the British Airlines counter and checked in their bags. After that, they got in the queue for the security check. They slipped off their shoes and the Doctor bent down to Hope. "Sweetie, gotta let me have your shoes," he said to her. Hope frowned. "Why?" she asked. "Cause we need to put them in a little container so they can check them." "Why?" "Cause some thickhead was stupid enough to try to hide explosives in his shoes and because of that we all have to suffer," he said. "So will you let me have your shoes?" Hope held up her foot and the Doctor slipped her shoe off. Then she held up her other shoe and he took it before giving her a kiss. They went through security one by one and then headed for their terminal.
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