PARENTHOOD
Chapter Two Hundred and Eighteen "Are you sure you want to do this?" Nigel asked while Jack held onto his four month old daughter, Lisa, and three year old Rory was standing next to him. "Of course I want to! How often do I get a chance to spoil these two?" Jack asked as he kissed the top of Lisa's head and she softly cooed. "I just don't want to trouble you." "What trouble? Look, with the rest of Torchwood off on a training mission, I can think of no better way to spend the day then with these two." "We could take Rory with us. It wouldn't…." Nigel said as Jack glared at him and Nigel softly coughed. "I will have you know that I took care of kids before. The Doctor and the others used to leave their kids with me when they were busy. Now shoo," Jack said with a wave of his hand and Nigel smiled, nodding his head. Jack and Rory watched as Nigel, Stacey and Maggie entered his TARDIS and the TARDIS slowly vanished then Jack looked down at his grandson and grinned. "What do we do now, Papaw?" Rory asked. "I thought we'd get the pushchair and go to the zoo!" Jack said with wide eyes and Rory nodded his head while smiling. After finding the pushchair, packing some things into the diaper bag and changed Lisa's nappy twice, they left the house as he locked the door and deeply sighed. "Yep, this is going to be a piece of cake." The day was warm, but not too warm as Jack pushed the pushchair and Rory sat next to Lisa. They had bought two balloons at the main gate as the balloons twirled on the handle of the pushchair and Rory sipped on some juice Jack had placed in his sippy cup. Jack steered the pushchair toward the petting zoo when he saw the crowd near the goat and sheep pens and sighed, placing his hands on his hips. "Guess we're not going over there," Jack said and Rory looked up at him. "We're not going to see sheep?" he asked. "There're too many people. We'd never get close enough." "We go see bunnies then?" Rory asked as Jack looked over at the area where the bunnies were and nodded his head, placing his hands on the handles of the pushchair. The bunny area wasn't very crowded as Jack held the cup of rabbit food for Rory and Rory held his hand out so the bunnies could eat the food from his hand. "It's Lisa's turn, Papaw." "Sorry, Buddy, she can't feed them yet," he explained as Rory nodded and took the cup out of Jack's hand. Jack watched as Rory placed the cup on the ground then wiped his hands together and Jack took the hand sanitizer out of the diaper bag. Rory didn't really want him to use it as Jack gave him a stern look and Rory sighed, holding his hands out. Jack squirted the hand sanitizer onto Rory's hands then rubbed his hands together and lifted Rory off the ground, placing him in the pushchair. "Can we go see sheep now?" Rory asked as Jack looked over at the sheep area and the crowd had thinned out. Nodding, Jack finished strapping Rory into the seat then walked around to the back of the pushchair and placed his hands on the handles, pushing the pushchair toward the sheep area. After spending most of the morning at the petting zoo, Jack was ready to have something to eat as he softly hummed a song to himself and pushed the pushchair toward the queue in front of the hotdog cart. Lisa was asleep as Rory walked next to Jack while holding onto the pushchair and Jack smiled down at him. "What do you want for lunch?" he asked and Rory looked up with him. "Can we have pizza?" he asked. "I think I'm in the wrong queue for that. Hotdogs ok?" he asked and Rory nodded his head. "Can I push Lisa, Papaw?" he asked while pointing to the pushchair and Jack nodded, moving back so he could stand behind the pushchair and reached up for the handles. "I can't reach." "Then maybe I should push it then." "No, Nan lets me push. I do this," Rory said as he took hold of the sides of the pushchair and moved the pushchair when the queue moved. Jack softly smiled as he watched Rory when something moved out of the corner of his eye and he turned his head, trying to see what it was. "You ok, Papaw?" "Yeah," Jack said as the queue moved and he watched Rory push the pushchair forward. Suddenly Jack saw Frazer and some security people running by when he called Frazer's name and Frazer ran over, smiling when he saw Jack, Rory and Lisa. "Hullo," Frazer said then looked down and Rory placed his finger to his lips, hushing him. "Lisa's sleeping," he whispered as Frazer nodded his head and Jack gave him a concerned look. "What's going on?" Jack asked and Frazer scratched the back of his head. "Security spotted some poachers," Frazer asked and Rory looked at him with a confused look on his face. "What's a poocher?" Rory asked and Jack smiled, gently ruffling his hair. "A poacher is someone who steals animals," Jack said. "Daddy says that stealing is wrong," Rory said and Frazer nodded his head. "You need any help?" Jack asked. "No, we'll handle it," Frazer said when a loud explosion filled the air and people started screamed. Jack had picked up Rory while Frazer removed Lisa from the pushchair and both of them tried to calm the crying children. "*tsk*Frazer, this is Michael.*tsk*" came over the walkie talkie on his belt as Frazer held Lisa in one arm and took the walkie talkie off his belt." "Where did that explosion come from?" he asked then let go of the button. "*tsk*It came from the Quanti habitat.*tsk*" Michael said as Frazer's eyes widened and he pressed his lips together. Another explosion filled the air as people ran for shelter and Jack placed Rory down so Frazer could hand Lisa to him. "Any sign of the poachers?" "*tsk*Yeah, there are pieces of them all….Shit, I nearly got hit with someone's foot!*tsk*" "Right, what I want you to do is keep clear of the habitat and I'll be there as quick as I can," Frazer said then placed the walkie talkie back on his belt and Jack titled his head to one side, giving him a confused look. "What is a Quanti?" Jack asked. "Come and I'll show you," Frazer said as he helped Jack place Rory and Lisa in the pushchair and they stopped off at the pizza cart to get some lunch. A few minutes later they arrived at the taped off area as Frazer told Jack to keep back and walked to the security guards. He talked with them then walked away and Jack wondered where Frazer was going. Frazer returned a few minutes later with what looked like a rock when he stopped and knelt down in front of the pushchair. "What's that?" Rory asked when Frazer stroked the top of the rock and two blue eyes popped open. A small crack opened to show several pebble like teeth and the rock like creature purred. "This is a Quanti," Frazer said while Jack walked to him then knelt down and looked at the Quanti. "Let me guess. You had to remove them from their native planet because they tend to explode when threatened?" "Aye," Frazer said and stroked the top of the Quanti's head. "The Doctor told me we don't take in dangerous animals, but Quantis are only dangerous if you threaten them. The upside is they sleep during the day and people think their habitat is a rock garden. I'm just glad those poachers only woke up the wee ones." "Wait, just big do these things get?" Jack said as they stood up and Frazer looked over at the habitat. "Well, see that really big rock over there?" he asked while pointing to what looked like a ten feet tall boulder and Jack nodded his head. "Let's just say that one's a heavy sleeper." Jack thought for a few seconds then nodded his head and walked behind the pushchair. Saying their goodbyes, they walked away and Jack puffed air out of his cheeks. "Doc, we really need to talk about what is and what isn't a dangerous animal," he whispered and pushed the pushchair down the path. "We're….." Nigel said as he, Stacey and Maggie walked out of the TARDIS when Ianto hushed them and wiggled his finger for them to follow him. They walked into the main room as they smiled at the sight of Jack sleeping on the couch, Rory was sleeping on the other couch and Lisa was sleeping in the pushchair and Ianto handed Nigel a piece of paper. ATTENTION: NAPTIME TIME IN PROGRESS! ANY VIOLATIONS WILL BE DEALT WITH HARSHLY! THANK YOU! was written on the piece of paper as they smiled and Jack rolled onto his right side then sighed and Ianto, Nigel, Stacey and Maggie quietly left the room.
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