THE CHRISTMAS PARTY
Chapter Five "Okay," Alan said as he bent over near the tree and looked over the presents. His eyes widened when Hope came up beside him. "I wanna help," she said. Alan reached down, plucked a piece of lint off the carpet and gave it to her. "Be a lamb and dispose of this in the rubbish, there's a good girl." "No!" Hope said, throwing it down while everyone laughed. "Blast, I thought you could tidy up while I did this. Okay then…" He looked through the presents and handed one for the Doctor to Hope. It was small and rectangular and wrapped in red wrapping paper with a gold bow on top. Alan told her to take that to her daddy and began looking through the other presents while she walked back over to the sofa. The Doctor held his hand out but Hope sat the gift down on the sofa beside him. "I'll help you open it, Daddy," she said as she reached for the bow. She laughed when the Doctor tickled her. "I bet you will, Miss Nosy, but this is mine," he said, snatching it away from her while everyone laughed. Alan continued to pass out presents to everyone until they were all gone. Everyone waited to open theirs except for Hope and Faith who tore into their presents. Then both girls were dismayed when they opened everything and everyone else started opening theirs. "That's why we wait, love," Rain said to Hope when she saw the crestfallen look on her face. "But go ahead and open a few of mine and help me." The Doctor gave her a few and Duer and Frankie gave Faith a few of theirs to open. Hope opened one for the Doctor and picked up a large, flat square box and stared at it. On the front of it was a large padded seat with a small white remote control positioned in front of it. Above the cushion were the words, HOVER CUSHION. On the side in smaller letters it said, hours of fun and amusement, glide along in comfort. She laid that aside and opened another present. She frowned when she saw a leather bound book with alien writing on the front. She tugged on her father's jacket sleeve as he was admiring a purple orb. The Doctor gave her quizzical expression. "What's this say?" she said, pointing to the gold lettering on the front. The Doctor read it and his eyes bulged. Rain frowned, leaned over and got the same expression. "What's wrong?" Hope asked, confused at their shocked expressions. "What's it say? I wanna know!" "Did you open the book?" the Doctor asked, taking it from her. "No, I wanna know what the stuff on the front says," Hope said. The Doctor took the wrapping and found the tag. He read it and groaned. He looked across the room and met eyes with Jack who was staring at him nervously. He put up a privacy block around his mind. You got us the Xoraxian Kama Sutra? He thought to Jack. How was I to know that Hope would open it? It's for you and Rain to use, not her. Just tell her it's a grown up book, Jack thought back. Yeah and she'll be even more curious, the Doctor thought. "Daddy?" "Love, it's a grown up book that you shouldn't be looking at," the Doctor said to her. "It's for me and mommy." The moment he said that, eyebrows rose up and half the people looked at Cameron and the other half at Jack. "Don't look at me; I didn't buy it for him. I got him cologne," Cameron said. The half that had been looking at him looked at Jack who blushed and shrugged. "It's been helpful for me and Yan, he said while Ianto squirmed in his seat and began trying to find a place to hide. The Doctor laid the book on the side furthest from his daughter so she couldn't get to it, but he noticed she was still looking at it. Alan noticed her curiosity and reached down beside him for one of his gifts, a monkey puppet. He put it on his hand and walked over to her. "Howdy, I'm Monkey Moo, how are you?" he said in a high-pitched voice as he made the monkey talk. Hope's attention was instantly riveted on the puppet and she laughed when Alan made the monkey kiss her cheek. "Who got you that?" the Doctor asked him. Alan pointed to Adam. "Figures," the Doctor said while everyone laughed and Adam gave him a cheesy grin. Alan let Hope borrow the sock puppet so she could play with it. Faith walked over and they walked over to the Christmas tree with some of their toys and played while the adults finished unwrapping their things. Faith was given a couple of tubs of legos and they went to work building a small town with them. They were so busy building that they didn't realize that everyone else was done with their gifts and were busy having tea and coffee with some cake and pie. Hope finally looked up after finishing one side of her house and she looked around at the adults. "Hi," Rain said while everyone laughed. "You were so busy having fun; we didn't want to disturb you and Faith. Do you want some milk and cake or pie?" She and Faith nodded and got up from the floor. They followed their mother into the kitchen. The moment they were out of sight, Alan nudged Rose and he walked over to their lego town. "Alan, don't destroy it," Rose hissed at him. "I'm not," Alan said indignantly as he lay down on his stomach in front of it. He examined the half finished buildings and then tipped one of the tubs towards him so he could see inside. He reached in and pulled out a handful of legos and began to construct something. By the time, Hope and Faith returned with milk and raspberry pies, Alan was half finished making a little car. Hope and Faith walked over and sat down on either side of him, eating their food while they watched him. He continued building his car while they ate. Then Hope put her plate and glass down, got up and walked over to her toys. She grabbed a large plastic pouch filled with plastic animals and took it back to the legos. She opened it and dumped it out while Alan paused and watched. "Aha, we need a zoo," Alan said while he tipped over the tub and let some of the parts spill out. Rose chuckled as she walked over, grabbed a plastic giraffe and shoved it in his face. "Your worst nightmare!" "Eeeek!" Alan said as everyone laughed. "Give me that!" He took it from Rose, laid it on the floor and mimed pounding it while Hope and Faith laughed. "Ha! I will pound you into goo! I swear I will!" Alan said as he pounded his fist on the toy giraffe. "Vengeance is mine and…" He trailed off when he felt hands on his shoulders giving him a massage. "There, there, calm down," Adam said, kneading his muscles while everyone laughed. "Calm, that's it. Remember your high blood pressure, love. That's it, calm now." "Go away, I'm having fun," Alan said, looking over his shoulder at him. "Okay, I'll have fun as well," Adam said, laying down beside him. "You do realize those legos were meant for the children, right?" Rain said while everyone laughed. "I do believe we got Alan and Adam the wrong thing," Frankie said to her. "We shoulda got them several tubs of legos and that would have kept them busy for the entire night." "Yes, I keep forgetting how childish they both are." "I may grow old but I will never grow up!" Alan said to her before sticking his tongue out and turning his attention back to his lego car. Later on that night, after everyone departed, the Doctor went outside onto his porch and looked up at the night sky. The moons shone down and the stars twinkled above him. He looked over his shoulder when he heard the door open and smiled when Hope came outside with Rain. "Good evening, my loves," he said. "Beautiful night, eh?" They came up beside him and stood with him, staring at the night sky while the Christmas lights on their house and the houses around them lit up the street and made it look magical. "You need to get to sleep soon so Father Christmas can come," the Doctor said to Hope. "I thought he came," Hope said. "Oh no, that was gifts from your family. Father Christmas is loading up gifts for you in his star cruiser so he can fly from the North Pole on Earth and give you some nice surprises in the morning before we watch the Christmas parade. So have a bath and get into your jim jams and I'll be up to give you Christmas kisses, yeah?" "Now?" "Yes, you can get a bath and stay up a bit before you have to go to bed," Rain said. "But I want you to go turn on the water and I'll be up there in a moment, okay?" Hope nodded and the Doctor gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek before she ran back inside. Once she was out of sight, Rain cocked her eyebrow. "Kama sutra?" she said with a wry grin. "Hey, might come in handy. Jack is the expert on that sort of thing, you know." "Well, maybe we can try one or two things before we have to get up and help Santa set up Hope's toys for Christmas morning." "Ooo, sounds good to me," the Doctor said. He nuzzled Rain's cheek and kissed her lips. "Merry Christmas, my love," Rain whispered to him. "Merry Christmas, my lives mate," he whispered back. "Get Hope squeaky clean and I'll try to find a Christmas DVD she can watch before her bedtime." Rain nodded. She gave him one more kiss and the Doctor gazed at her lovingly as she walked back into the house. He stood for a moment more, staring up at the stars, admiring them and thinking how lucky he was before he turned, headed back into the house and closed the door behind him. THE END.
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