PARENTHOOD

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Nine

Rain chatted with Julie in her living room while they sipped tea. At their feet, Anne and Elizabeth lay curled up under the coffee table while they napped. Suddenly they heard Rose calling for help. They looked over when she hurried through the garage door followed by the Doctor who was following close behind while he pointed to his puckered lips. Behind him, Hope was carrying the blanket and had her teddy bear in the crook of her arm while she followed her father into the living room.

"I made a terrible mistake," Rose said when she reached the coffee table, "I decided to give this twonk a sarcastic kiss on the head and now he won't leave me alone."

Rain and Julie looked around her at the Doctor who was standing directly behind her, lips still puckered while he pointed to them repeatedly. Anne and Elizabeth walked over to Hope who dropped her blanket and petted them while she stood behind her father and watched the scene played out. Rain and Julie chuckled at the exasperated look on Rose's face while the Doctor continued to make the fish face. Then he neared closer to her, leaned over and breathed heavily through his nose into her hair while he kept his lips puckered.

"If you don't stop that, I'll twist your head off and play football with it," Rose said.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the Doctor step away from her. She looked over her shoulder and watched him walk over to his stereo that was resting in the bookcase near the holo-television. Suddenly, the opening notes of Mamma Mia came out of the speakers. Rose turned around at the same time the Doctor spun around with an intense look in his eyes.

"I've been cheated by you and I think I know when!" he sang to her while he thrust his finger at her. "And so I made up my mind it must come to an end."

"Yeah, that's nice, Doctor," Rose said dryly while Julie and Rain laughed and nudged each other.

Rose's eyes bulged when the Doctor began to dance around while he sang Mamma Mia to her. Hope dropped everything and began to follow him around while the dogs followed behind her. Then on the chorus, the Doctor rushed up to her face.

"Mamma mia, here I go again, my, my, how can I resist ya?"

"Yeah, really funny, Doctor," Rose said while Rain and Julie laughed.

"Well, perhaps I'm having regrets about giving you over to Nutsy that day," the Doctor said with a shrug.

"Nutsy?" Rose said, raising her eyebrow while Rain and Julie laughed harder. "Yeah, I think that's my cue to leave, so...bye..."

"So, I wanna know...what's the name of the game? Does it mean anything to yooou?" the Doctor sang to her as she followed Rose out the garage door.

"We have an interesting family, no doubt about it," Julie said to Rain.

"That we do," Rain said with a nod.

"Should we stop him before he sexually assaults Rose?" Julie asked her.

"Nah, I think Sis can handle him on her own, she'll be fine," Rain said with a shrug.

"Daddy's silly," Hope said as she walked over to the sofa and sat down beside Julie.

"Yup, he's very silly, that's one of the things I love about him," Rain said to her while the dogs jumped up beside Hope and lay down. "He does all these spontaneous things that make the marriage fun."

And do some of these spontaneous things happen in the bedroom? Julie thought to her after setting up a quick privacy block.

Rain gave her a knowing smile and Julie chuckled before she lowered the block. They looked over at the door when Rose ran through it. Behind her, the Doctor and his brothers sped through it singing Dancing Queen at the top of their lungs.

"Heeeeeeelp!" Rose said while the women howled with laughter.

"You're all nuts, I hope you know this," Koschei said, coming into the room after Faith and Aderyn ran in. "No wonder work doesn't get done around here, they're too busy doing things like this."

"Can you blame us, we're bored!" Duer said as him and his brothers tried to surround Rose. "Why fix screwdrivers when you can form a chorus line and annoy Rose Tyler instead?"

"I say we do a rousing round of Waterloo now!" Jack yelled.

"No, no! First we have to tie the spousal unit to a chair so she must listen to Waterloo," Alan said.

"Fine," Rose said to him. "I won't be getting you anymore sandwiches and milk from now on."

"I can get my own," Alan said with a shrug. "I'd rather scream Money, Money, Money into your ear, it's much more fun."

"Well, if you're going to pretend you're in a musical, I'm going to get some tea," Koschei said, walking past them.

"Oh come on, love, play along," Julie said to him.

"Look, I'm sorry, I'm not used to breaking into song and following people around while I scream cheesy songs from musicals in their ear," Koschei said. "I'm surprised you're doing it," he added as he glanced at Amato.

"Nothing wrong with show tunes," Amato said with a shrug.

"Yes, especially if Rose gets irritated by them," Jack said gleefully. "Now, how about we tie her to a chair and sing all the songs from Hairspray now?"

"You know the songs from Hairspray?" Adam said, amused.

"Oh, I might have amused Ianto with my rendition of Run and Tell That a time or two," he said to him.

"Wow, now I have an urge to go visit Torchwood so Jack can show us that," Shilah said.

"Nah, I think we should take Koschei to a musical," John said. "Get the bloke used to being around us and being around show tunes."

"And the whole let's fix our screwdrivers and make them better goes right out the door, eh?" Koschei said.

"He's right, we need to put our noses to the grindstone and get back to the problem at hand," the Doctor said.

"What about Rose? Can we tie her to a chair and take her with us so we can sing as we brainstorm?" Alan said.

"Don't even think about it," Rose said to them.

"Um...nah, I like my nose, it's brilliant, I don't want it bent and ruined because she broke it in four places," the Doctor said. "Let's get back to work. Come along, little dwarves, back to the TARDIS."

Koschei shook his head when the Doctor's brother formed a queue behind him and they marched off into the garage singing Hi-Ho. Hope, Faith, Aderyn and the dogs followed behind them while Rose sat back down on the sofa. Koschei shook his head again as the sound of their singing got softer and softer the further they got into the TARDIS.

"Julie, if I come back from this meeting a babbling, singing idiot, commit me to Crystal Waters as soon as possible," Koschei said before he headed towards the garage.

Back                         Home                              Doctor Who Main Page                          Next