PARENTHOOD

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Eight

The Doctor yawned and stretched as he walked into his TARDIS. He was about to attend a meeting with his brothers in the lab. They were going to discuss how to improve their sonic screwdrivers so they could work on things such as wood or dead-lock seals. He walked towards the back door of the console room and was shocked to see the TARDIS had moved the stairs to his wardrobe room to the back door. Curious, he walked up the stairs and smiled when he heard his six year old daughter giggling and she, Faith and Aderyn talking and laughing. He reached the second level where the women's clothes were kept and saw the three little girls amid the clothing. They were trying on the clothes, playing dress-up while they laughed. The Doctor smiled, put his hands in his pockets and walked over to them. His daughter had on a pink dress that was slightly big for her and was wearing a straw sun hat. Her daughter walked over to him when he approached.

"We're playing with the clothes," she said to him.

"I see that," the Doctor replied, tousling her hair affectionately. "Just be careful and don't rip the clothes while you play with them."

"Wait," Faith said when he started to leave them, "where are you going?"

"I'm going to go have a chat with you father and uncles in the lab. We're going to be working on our sonic screwdrivers so be good," he said, patting Faith on the shoulder.

He walked back down the stairs and requested that the TARDIS move the lab door to the door in front of him. The rooms shifted and he saw his brothers sitting around a metal table. Alan was making notes while Shilah was drawing schematics. All the brothers were throwing ideas back and forth while they talked. They looked up when the Doctor entered the room.

"Aha, the leader has finally graced us with his appearance," Alan said.

"Yes, I made a slight diversion, courtesy of the TARDIS," the Doctor said, sitting down in the empty seat that was near the head of the table. "The youngest ones are playing up in the wardrobe room and I s'pose the TARDIS wanted me to see where they were."

"And what are they doing?" Jack asked him.

"Being kids. Playing dress up with the clothes. Wearing pretty frocks and pretending to be princesses, that sort of thing," the Doctor said to him.

"Sooo, having more fun than we are," Adam said.

"Pretty much," the Doctor said. "But let's return to the problem at hand. What have you lot come up with that will help us improve our screwdrivers?"

"Weeeell," Amato said, "we could go fetch River and ask her what you did to her screwdriver. As I recall, the one she had in the Library was far superior."

"Yes, but it still didn't work on wood or dead-lock seals," the Doctor pointed out, "that's my main concern, especially the dead-lock seals. So...what have you lot come up with, any ideas?"

While they chatted amongst themselves, Hope wandered into the room. She was wearing a blue dress with a matching blue bonnet and she was pushing a toy shopping trolley. Alan glanced at her and smiled when she came into the room and walked over to some metal cabinets near the door. Alan watched while she pretended to grab imaginary cans from the air and put them in her trolley. By now, everyone was watching her and John nudged Shilah before he got up and walked over to her.

"Hullo," John said to her.

"Hullo, do you have beef? I need some minced meat," Hope said to him.

"Oh? How much meat do you need, Madam?" John said while the others chuckled.

"Um...400 pounds," Hope said.

"Really?" John said while everyone laughed. "Well...let's see..."

He walked over to Jack while Hope followed with her trolley.

"Hmm, Jack...you're a bit beefy. I think if we take you and Amato and perhaps Shilah, we might be able to get 400 pounds of meat for Madam," John said.

"Wait, why me? Why not you?" Shilah asked him.

"Because I'm the butcher and you're the cows," John said while Hope giggled.

"Cows, eh?" the Doctor said, glancing at Alan beside him.

"Moo," Alan said.

"There you go, slaughter Alan, he's willing to be a cow," John said, pointing to Alan.

"Slaughter Jack, you kill him and he comes back to life with more meat on his bones," Alan said.

Hope walked over to her father and peered at the schematics on the table.

"Whatcha doin'?" she asked.

"Working on our screwdrivers, trying to make them better," the Doctor said, putting his arm around her.

"Yeah, got any ideas about how to make them better since you're here?" Amato asked her.

"Um...you go find a fairy and you say to her, you use your magic and make my screwdriver better," Hope said.

She giggled when everyone looked at each other.

"So...I say we put Jack in charge of fairy finding," Alan said. "Then Amato can beat her up and make her improve our screwdrivers."

"Then you can ask her to make us cake and we can have a tea party," Hope said.

"Great, Jack and Amato can kidnap the fairy so we can fix our screwdrivers and have a tea party," Alan said.

The Doctor looked over when Faith and Aderyn entered the room. Both girls were wearing their own clothes.

"Hey, where'd you go? I thought we were playing House," Faith said, walking up to Hope.

"I'm talking to Daddy,"Hope replied.

"Yeah!" Alan said, getting up and getting down into Faith's face.

Alan stared at her with wide eyes until Faith giggled. When he turned around, he saw that the TARDIS had encased Hope in a force field bubble. Hope laughed when the TARDIS moved the bubble until it was sitting on top of the Doctor's head.

"And now my ship has decided to be cheeky," the Doctor said to the others while Hope lay down on her stomach and watched him. "Anyway, back to business."

"I have an idea," Amato said. "Aderyn, can you go back into the house and go get your father? Maybe Kosh will be able to help us. Can you do that?"

"Yes, I'll go," Aderyn said.

She and Faith hurried out of the room while the Doctor glanced up at his daughter still perched above his head in the bubble.

"Hi," she said to him.

"You don't wanna go with them?" he asked his daughter.

"No, I wanna stay with you, Daddy."

"Hey, maybe we can pop this thing like a bubble," Alan said, getting up.

He walked over to the bubble and Hope giggled when he jabbed his pen at it repeatedly, pretending to pop the force field bubble.

"No, no, no,"Adam said, "smack it like a piñata."

He stood up, walked over and batted at it. Hope squealed with delight when the TARDIS moved the bubble around the room, bouncing it off the walls.

"There ya go, problem solved," Adam said, sitting back down with Alan. "Now...about the screwdriver..."

Alan laughed when the bubble came back and settled on his head. Hope got on her hands and knees and looked at him.

"Hi," she said to Adam.

"Hello, annoying bubble woman," Adam said. "Would you mind floating away so I can concentrate on the task at hand without a bubble on my head?"

"I think that's the TARDIS, she's feeling wacky today," the Doctor said to him.

"Well, she can be wacky while keeping the bubble off my head," Adam said.

He gasped when the TARDIS enlarged the bubble and surrounded him and and his chair. Hope who had gently came down behind him giggled when the TARDIS lifted the bubble away from the table and floated around them the room.

"Hmmm, this is relaxing, I have to admit," Adam said while Hope stood up and came to his side.

Koschei came into the room with Aderyn and Faith. He stopped short and stared at Adam and Hope while the others giggled.

"Um, is there some reason for this?" Koschei said, gesturing to the bubble.

"The TARDIS is being silly," the Doctor said with a shrug.

"Uh-huh, well, just as long as she doesn't make the bubble disappear over my head," he said, walking up to the others. "So...you need my assistance?"

The Doctor explained what they were doing and Koschei chuckled.

"Sonic screwdrivers are rubbish. Laser screwdrivers are better," he said.

Jack chuckled when the Doctors and clones stared at him in silence.

"Actually, a laser blaster is better than both but they won't listen to that," Jack said to Koschei as he pulled up a chair beside him. "Old habits die hard, I guess."

"Um, is he going to hover like that for the rest of the night or is he going to be a part of this meeting?" Koschei said, pointing to Adam.

The TARDIS lowered Adam and shrunk the bubble till only Hope was in it. She floated up while Adam pulled his chair up to the table. There was a flash and a pink blanket appeared under Hope's body and a black teddy bear appeared beside her. Hope picked up the teddy bear while the TARDIS maneuvered the bubble over behind the Doctor. He smiled fondly at her when he gazed over his shoulder and turned his attention back to the meeting. While they talked, Rose came into the room with a ham sandwich on a plate and a glass of milk. Alan blinked when she set it down in front of him, patted his head and walked away.

"Um...thank you, my loving, fill my needs spousal unit," Alan said to her.

"Hey, where's my sandwich and milk then?" the Doctor yelled to her.

Rose turned around, walked back to him and everyone watched in silence as she kissed the top of his head, a thirty second kiss the ended with a loud "Mmmwah!" before she walked away again.

"Be right back," the Doctor said, getting up from the table.

Everyone laughed when he hurried out the door, the bubble at his back as he followed Rose.

"Never a dull day, eh lads?" Shilah said to the others before they resumed their meeting.

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