SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW
A/N: Okay, I’m speeding this up a bit because its chapter twenty two and Alan and Rose are still stuck in the town and if I keep going like this, they aren’t gonna leave it until chapter fifty, so in the interest of moving things along and getting on with their journey, I’m going to put on my Time Lord hat, do a quick summary of events and move forward into the future. Chapter Twenty Two After a night of lying out under the stars snuggled in their blanket, Alan and Rose got up, took another dip in the ocean and did more training until mid-day. Then, they packed their things, shook the sand out of the blanket and headed back to town. Over the next few days, Alan and Rose came back to the beach to train and build up their endurance in the icy water. By the end of three days, they were able to sit there for twenty minutes without getting out, which filled Rose with pride. Then on the fourth day, much to everyone’s relief, Pete and Tony finally showed up. There was some tension between Alan and Pete when they finally met each other, the bulk of the tension coming from the fact that Rose was about to go off into the unknown with what was to them a strange man. “Are you sure you wanna do this, Rose?” Pete asked. “Yes.” He looked at Alan. “And you’ll protect her.” “With my life.” “And that includes protecting her if some maniac tries to abduct you while you’re walking along the side of some road somewhere?” “I can handle myself, dad. Alan’s been teaching me Venusian aikido.” Pete frowned. “What’s that?” he asked Alan. “Some kind of Italian martial arts?” Alan sighed. “Not Venetian, Venusian as in the planet Venus. The Venusians there developed this fighting technique and I’m teaching it to her.” “There is no life on Venus.” “Yes, there is,” Alan said, feeling like he was talking to a small child. “The Venusians live under the surface of the planet in giant subterranean cities. That’s why the probes haven’t picked up any…” “Never mind, I don’t care…” Pete said, holding up his hand. “Just promise me at the end of all this, she is brought back alive and unharmed.” “I swear she will be brought back alive and unharmed and if she isn’t, you can chop me up and make me into cottage pie.” After that, Pete hugged Rose and she hugged Tony tightly and told her brother that he couldn’t come with them while he cried and clung tightly to her leg. Then, to her surprise, Pete handed her purse to her. “I thought you might need this,” he said. “Your cash machine card, your credit cards and your passport are all inside.” He looked at Alan. “What about you, you have a passport?” “Uh, no, I didn’t even consider getting one.” Pete sighed. “You know, you might find it useful if you’re crossing from country to country especially if someone finds you and wonders what you’re doing wandering around with no apparent purpose. It may come as a shock to you to learn that some countries frown upon people just walking around inside their borders without any identification. 9/11 did happen here too and there are countries that are on the lookout for suspicious people who may or may not be terrorists. Now unless you want to end up in matching cells at Guantanamo Bay, I suggest you let me take you somewhere where you can get a passport or at the very least an ID card that will identify you to people.” He sighed. “Course, now we have to lie to the government since you aren’t a British citizen and if you were born full-grown, then we have to make up a birthday for you and that also means getting you a national insurance number, so you’ll have it when you come back to London and try to find some work while you wait for this TARDIS of yours to grow and then we need to come up with a way to forge a birth certificate for you and…” “Dad, just…calm down. Just don’t worry about his passport right now.” “But, what are you gonna do if you get caught?” “We won’t. We’ll both be very careful and if we do get caught, I’ll use my passport.” “What about him? They aren’t gonna let him go if you flash them your passport. You sure you don’t wanna come back to London with us? At least, stay there long enough for him to get a passport and then you can leave. I don’t like the idea of you possibly getting picked up and detained in some God-forsaken prison somewhere because he’s not carrying identification. If you go back to London with me, then I promise I will pay for an airline ticket to wherever you guys want to start your journey. It won’t kill him to ride back with us and spend a few days in London. I promise I won’t bite his head off and neither will Jackie. Besides, I think you owe it to your little brother to spend some time with him, seeing as how you won’t be seeing him for a year or more. Not to mention you could go shopping in London and get some more things you’ll need. Just be reasonable, both of you, and think this whole thing through properly.” Rose looked at Alan. She could tell he didn’t want to do it, but he nodded his head. “Alright,” he said. “You’re right. I can’t and I won’t risk Rose’s safety. I’ll come back with you guys to London and get what I need, so we can travel safely.” “Thank you…um…Alan, right?” He nodded. Pete put a hand on his shoulder. “Look, I know it’s not what you want to do. According to Jacks, you have all the Doctor’s memories and you’re his…twin and I know how much of a wanderlust the Doctor had and Jackie told me how much he despises the domestic life, but we’re Rose’s family and we have just as much right to see her as you do, alright? Especially her little brother. Now you may find this difficult to believe, but we want you to be a part of our family. I respect the Doctor, I always have, and I would love nothing more than for you to join our clan and have you as a friend. But, you have to do your part too, which is not be so hostile towards my wife and me because you think we’re standing in the way of you going off with Rose on this worldwide trek and being alone with her. So, right now, can we just agree to be mates and get along?” Alan smiled and nodded. He shook hands with Pete. “Great,” Pete said. “Welcome to the family then.” “Thank you.” Pete glanced back at Rose who was playing with Tony. “And,” he said, leaning in to Alan. “I don’t know what your plans are about marrying her, but if you are considering doing that, then I will pay for the wedding and walk Rose down the aisle, alright?” Alan nodded. “And if babies are also in your future, that’s okay too, but I agree with Jacks, use protection for the moment.” He held up his hand when Alan sighed. “I’m just saying, as a friend, to use your head. Don’t get all defensive, alright? I’m technically not her father but in the two years she’s been here, I’ve grown to love her like my own and I don’t want my grandchild coming into this world accidentally, alright?” “Yes.” “Good, now let’s get going. I’d really like to get back to London. I had to reschedule several meetings and take some personal days off to come up here and get you guys and I’m anxious to leave Norway and get back home.” He patted Alan on the back. “But, once again, welcome to the family.” “Thank you.” “Oh, and Alan, just one more bit of advice. On this trip home, you can choose to sit in the back and sulk or you can choose to have fun and make the trip an exciting one, but it’s your choice. Same with spending time in London. You can choose to have fun with Rose while you’re there or you can sit around and gripe about how you’re stuck somewhere you don’t wanna be and bring everyone down with your sour mood, alright?” He nodded. Pete smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “Right, let’s get this show on the road then,” he said. 7 July This is the first entry I’m making in my diary. Alan is lying beside me in the back of the lorry and while he’s sleeping, I thought I would jot down a few thoughts. It’s kinda bumpy, so excuse my penmanship. It’s been a couple of days since we left Norway and thankfully it’s been extremely peaceful and harmonious between Alan and my family. I don’t know what dad told him, but he’s behaving beautifully and he’s even bonded with Tony. He’s so childlike that he can just play with Tony for hours on end and not get bored and now Tony loves him to death. In fact, I think he wants to spend more time with him than with me. I hate to think how upset he’ll be when Alan and I finally do leave. The past couple of nights we’ve spent in hotel rooms, we’ve been continuing to work on the aikido, although we don’t get as rough as we did on the beach, just a few basic kicks and punches. I actually think I’m getting better at it. Alan wasn’t kidding when he said it was difficult to learn and yes, the little wanker teases me constantly about how he’s so superior to me and how he’ll whoop my ass using just his pinkie, but I look into his eyes and see pride there, the same pride that the Doctor always had in his eyes and it fills me with joy knowing that I’m living up to his expectations. Oh Alan, I look at him now and see him sleeping beside me and my heart just fills to the brim with love. He looks so beautiful when he’s asleep and it’s hard to believe that he’s mine. I never thought when the Doctor left me on the beach that he could ever take his place, but now he has. He has become my whole reason for living and I wouldn’t trade him for anything, not even if the Doctor did find a way back to us. Even in his sleep, he still has his hand on my leg, whether that’s symbolic of his need to protect me or his fear of losing me, I can’t say. Perhaps I’m just reading too much into it, but whatever the reason he has it there, it feels good and it comforts me The other thing I love is that Alan is becoming calmer and more peaceful now and I think a large part of it is our training sessions. I think sparring with me allows Alan to work out a lot of the anger and frustration he has left from being dumped here. This makes me even more thrilled that I came up with the idea. While he’s helping me, I’m helping him in return and which each passing day we are bonding more and more and hopefully, that means that these doubts about my love for him are finally going away. Oh, crap, we just hit something in the road and now Alan is waking up. I have to go now before he sees this, so until next time, this is me signing off.
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