TURNED TO STONE

Chapter One

(London, June 2012…)

"Mum…mum…mum…"

Rose grinned and kept her eyes shut tightly when she heard her daughter's voice in her ear and felt her poking her shoulder. She was lying in bed in the room she shared with her daughter that Sarah Jane had provided for them. Her daughter kept on poking her shoulder and saying "Mum" until Rose finally opened her eyes and raised her eyebrow.

"What…what….what?" she said, poking her giggling daughter's belly.

"Is Other Dad coming today?" Hannah said, coming around the other side of the bed.

"I don't know, love. I don't know what he's doing," Rose said, lifting up the blanket so Hannah could snuggle under it with her.

"You have a mobile that you can use," Hannah said, lying beside her.

"Yes, but I don't know if I should use it. What if I call and he's in the middle of a battle with a slime monster?"

"Then…you can tell him how to kill it?" Hannah offered.

"I don't think he'd appreciate me doing that," Rose said.

"Please, ring him. I want to say hello," Hannah said.

Rose let out a mock sigh of exasperation.

"Oh, alright, bring my purse over here," she said.

Hannah slid out of bed and ran to the other side of the room. She brought her mother her brown leather purse and got back into bed with her while Rose reached in it for her mobile.

"Let me talk to him, mum. I have something silly to say to him," Hannah said while Rose pressed the buttons.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Doctor, you need to stop that immediately before you hurt yourself!" Amy said.

She and Rory were leaning against the railing near the console watching while the Doctor did a goofy dance around it. Duran Duran's The Reflex was playing and the Doctor was doing a hop/skip/slide around the console.

"I'm a fabulous dancer, Pond. Can't you see that?" he said as he came back around the console towards her.

"Apparently not since you look like a complete prat to me," Amy said.

Rory stepped in front of Amy and held out his hand.

"Come on, no reason why the Doctor should have all the fun," he said to her.

Amy laughed, took his hand and began to go around the console, imitating the Doctor's manic hopping and skipping while the Doctor laughed.

"We oughta go see Duran Duran in concert," Amy said to the Doctor when the Doctor turned direction and danced past them.

"An excellent suggestion!" the Doctor said, stopping at his monitor to catch his breath.

He was about to ask the TARDIS to find a suitable date for a Duran Duran concert when the mobile in his pocket rang. Amy and Rory stopped when the Doctor fished it out of his pocket.

"Hello?" he said.

"QUIT KILLING THE SLIME MONSTER!" Hannah screeched.

Amy bent over laughing when the Doctor jerked the mobile away from his ear with a stunned look on his face.

"I'M NOT KILLING A SLIME MONSTER, LITTLE SCREAMY GIRL!" he yelled at it. "I'M DANCING TO DURAN DURAN!"

"Who's that?" Hannah said in a normal tone of voice.

"They, my daughter, are a rock band from the 1980's," the Doctor said, putting the phone back to his ear. "We were dancing around my console to one of their songs. We were thinking about going to see them in concert."

"I wanna go," Hannah said quickly. "Mum and I wanna go!"

"Go where?" the Doctor heard Rose say in the background.

"Other Dad wants to go to a Duran Ran concert," Hannah said to her.

"I think you mean Duran Duran, love," Rose said in the background. "Let me talk to him now that you've made him deaf and stopped his hearts, yeah?"

"Mum wants to say hello now," Hannah said to the Doctor.

There was a moment of silence and then Rose spoke to him.

"Sorry about my daughter, she wanted to be silly for you," she said to the Doctor.

"Nah, no worries, she's just taking after her old man," the Doctor said. "So…how are things?"

"Well, I was resting until Hannah poked my arm and woke me up. She's bored and lonely, I think. Yes, she's nodding at that. She's bored and lonely. What's this about Duran Duran?"

"Well, I was going to take the kiddies to see them since we were just dancing to one of their songs. Interested?"

"If it's no trouble. We're not doing anything today and Hannah wants to see you."

"Maybe we'll fight a slime monster at the concert!" Hannah said in the background.

"Hear that?" Rose said to him.

"Yes and with our luck, it might happen," the Doctor said. "Well, give me the date and time and I'll come and get you and the little nipper kipper for a night of fun and frivolity."

"It's June 29th, 2012 and it's…blimey, it's only half six in the morning, Hannah," Rose said to her daughter. "Um…will you give us a few hours so we can eat breakfast?"

"Yes. We'll be there at noon then," the Doctor said.

"Is he coming, Mum?"

"Yes, love, he'll be here at noon so go and get dressed so we can eat breakfast and be ready for him."

Amy and Rory laughed when they heard Hannah's "Yaaaay!" through the phone.

"She's running out of here now. I better follow before she drags me out of bed and across the floor and down the stairs and into the kitchen…"

The Doctor chuckled.

"I'll see you in a few minutes…at least from my end of things," he said.

"See ya, Doctor," Rose said.

The Doctor ended the call and grinned at the Ponds.

"We're going to have a couple of guests for the concert," he said to them.

XOXOXOXOXOXOX

Sarah Jane chuckled when Hannah turned her head for the hundredth time to look at the clock. The three of them were eating breakfast while Luke slept in.

"She's never gonna make it to noon," Rose said to her friend. "She'll explode with excitement long before then."

"I know how she feels. I used to do that all the time, especially after the Doctor left me the first time and I thought he'd be back any second to come get me," Sarah Jane said.

"I did the same when we were stuck on the other Earth," Rose said. "After time traveling, it's hard to get used to the normal flow of days. Especially when the Doctor said it'd only be a few minutes for him."

Hannah took a bite of cereal and washed it down with some milk.

"I can't wait to travel with him all the time," Hannah said when she finished swallowing her milk. "We need to start traveling with him all the time again, Mum."

"When you're older, love. You're too young to fight monsters," Rose said. "I started when I was nineteen and there were times when I felt overwhelmed by it all."

"Mum, are you gonna marry Other Dad?" Hannah said.

Rose and Sarah Jane exchanged a look.

"I don't think he wants to marry your mum," Sarah Jane said gently.

"Why? He loves mum, I know he does."

"Yes, love, but he's not the marrying kind," Rose said. "I'm just thankful he's in your life at all, I don't want to push it by nagging him about marriage. Just be glad he's your dad, yeah? He can be that without marrying me."

"I know. I was just thinking you could make it official and all," Hannah said.

"Um…I think this is as official as it gets," Rose said while Sarah Jane chuckled. "Now finish your breakfast. You need to have a bath and brush your hair and clean your teeth and look nice for him, okay?"

Hannah nodded and drank her milk while Sarah Jane winked at Rose and took another bite of her cereal.

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