PARENTHOOD

Chapter Two Hundred and Seven

The Doctor excused himself and walked towards Swampdancer's hut. On the way there, he glanced over his shoulder occasionally and noticed Chloe was following him. He looked back again and then turned his head around and gasped when he nearly ran into Rose.

"Rain told me what was going on," Rose said softly. "About Chloe and all. I see she's following you."

"Yes. Can you do me a favor and keep her occupied so I can go have a chat with her father?"

"Aye, aye, Captain as my husband would say," Rose said, saluting with two fingers.

"Thanks, Te'lesu," the Doctor said before giving her an affectionate kiss on the forehead.

Rose hurried past him to intercept Chloe while he hurried on to Swampdancer's hut. On the way there, he noticed a few frogs bowing reverently to him and he nodded his head politely but didn't stop to chit chat. He reached the hut and put two of his fingers around the mat and pulled it aside a bit.

"Swampdancer, are you in there?" he said loudly.

"Yes, Doctor, come inside," he heard him answer.

The Doctor pulled aside the mat and ducked inside. The air was still very smoky and the Doctor wondered how Swampdancer could stand it as he temporarily activated his respiratory bypass system. Swampdancer indicated that he should sit on the cushion on his left and the Doctor sat down while Swampdancer smiled.

"Are you enjoying my village, Doctor?" Swampdancer asked him.

"Yes, it's lovely. But...I wanted to ask you something because my wife has become ill at ease about something."

"Oh, what is she ill at ease about?" Swampdancer asked.

"Well...she seems to think that your daughter is going to marry me," the Doctor said, coming straight to the point.

"And this displeases her?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrow.

"So it's true?" he said.

"Yes. Does that displease you and her?" Swampdancer asked.

"Actually, it does. I'm happily married to Rain and she's all I need. If I do need another wife in future, then I'll consider it but I came here just to view your village and be honored by you and your people, not to get married."

"But powerful people often make alliances and I would like to join with you," Swampdancer said.

"Yes, but...I don't make alliances like that. I'm not representative of all my people. We have representatives that are in charge of alliances and there are many of them. We don't have a king, Swampdancer, and if we did have a king, I wouldn't want to be him. If you want to make an alliance with New Gallifrey, I'll be more than happy to speak to the Time Lord council and tell them to send a representative..."

"No! That is unacceptable!" Swampdancer said, smacking his leg angrily. "You are the greatest Time Lord who ever lived and I don't care about any council, you will marry my daughter!"

"Nope, sorry, not interested," the Doctor said with a shrug.

"Then you will be put to death."

The Doctor stared at him in disbelief.

"I'm sorry?" he said.

"The marriage has already been decided."

"Yeah? By who?"

"Me. I am the chief of this village and what I say goes."

"Yeah? Well, I'm the Oncoming Storm and it's not wise to force me to do anything," the Doctor said, trying to keep his anger from boiling over. "I came here with my family in good faith as a token of respect because your subjects asked me to do so. I didn't come for marriage and the fact that this marriage has been planned behind my back shows me how unscrupulous you are, Swampdancer. You have shown me disrespect and I'm not going to tolerate it any longer. I bid you good day!"

He got up and stomped outside. He thought to his family and told them they were leaving; ignoring the yells from Swampdancer that he would regret his decision. Rose came towards him, a sympathetic look on her face when she noticed how angry he was. Chloe followed right behind her, staring at him in silent confusion.

"Is something wrong?" Chloe asked the Doctor.

"Chloe, I can't marry you. I don't want to marry anyone else, I'm happy being with my wife. I'm sorry. We're going, Rose, gather up everyone else, I'm assuming they're still in the hatchery?"

Rose nodded. They were about to head towards the hatchery when suddenly they heard Rain screaming inside the hatchery at someone to let go of her daughter. The Doctor and Rose shot past Chloe, running hell for leather towards the building. Chloe turned and hopped after them. They entered the building and saw Rain standing between Hope and two frogs pointing spears in her face. Alan and Jack were on either side of Hope protecting her flanks while Hope stared at everyone with fear. There was no one else inside the building besides the babies swimming calmly in the pond. The Doctor glared at the frog guards.

"Get away from them this instant or I'll make you sorry you threatened them with spears!" the Doctor growled as he and Rose advanced towards the frogs. "I will not be forced into marriage and my family will not be held hostage. I don't care who rules around here! I am a far greater threat than you lot ever imagined so let them go NOW!"

He tried to go to his family but one of the frog soldiers turned and thrust his spear in his face. He gasped when the Doctor grabbed hold of the shaft, jerked it from his hands and used his knee to break it in half. He then lunged at the frog with the half with the stone tip on it, aiming for his throat.

"Let...them...go...now!" the Doctor growled at him.

"Wait!" Chloe said, coming inside the hatchery.

Rose walked over to her and got between her and the Doctor.

"Go to your dad and tell him to order his guards to stand down," Rose snarled at her. "We want to leave in peace and we're going to do it, with or without bloodshed. We'd prefer without bloodshed but we'll take on the whole bloody village if necessary!"

"But...this must be done," Chloe said.

"No, it mustn't be done and it won't be done," Rose said to her. "Now go tell you father to call off his guards. I swear if you harm my family members and especially my niece, I'll follow my sister's suggestion and turn you into frog's legs!"

The frog still holding his spear on the Doctor's family glanced at his companion who was standing completely motionless while the Doctor held the spear tip to his throat. Suddenly, he tried to lunge at Rain and gasped when Alan intercepted, grabbed his neck and got him in a headlock.

"Drop the spear, mate, or the neck goes snap!" he growled at the frog as he looked into the frog's fear-filled eyes.

The spear slid out of the frog's hand as he stared up at Alan in fear.

"Jolly good, now obey Rose over there and go and tell your leader we want to leave!" Alan said to him.

"I'm afraid that's not possible."

They looked over at the door when they heard Swampdancer and saw him standing in the doorway with ten other guards.

"I'm warning you, let us go," the Doctor snarled at him.

"This can be settled amicably, Doctor, without bloodshed," Swampdancer said.

"Oh? And how do we do that?" the Doctor said.

"A friendly wrestling contest. You against my greatest warrior. If you win, you can leave with your family, if you lose, you must marry my daughter," Swampdancer said. "Would that be satisfactory?"

The Doctor considered it for a moment while everyone watched him. Then he let out a sigh.

"Alright, I'll do it. But they're to remain unharmed," he said, pointing back to his family.

"Of course," Swampdancer said. "And the same applies to my men."

"Brother, let him go," the Doctor said to Alan.

Alan released the frog and he gasped as he got away from him. Swampdancer told the frog that had been threatening the Doctor's family to go and fetch Toadstool. The warrior nodded and hopped off. Swampdancer smiled at the Doctor.

"Now, come, you must prepare," he said to him.

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