The sound of her husband’s frantic yelling sent Rose running down the stairs. What had happened? Why would he be yelling? Was something wrong?
She’d left the Doctor downstairs with their baby boy while she did some tidying up in their little boy’s room, but the very fact he was frantically calling her back down had her mind racing.
But as she reached their kitchen-diner, she instead found the Doctor grinning at their wild-haired baby boy, his phone out as he crouched a little distance away from the boy and encouraged him with gentle words.
“Come on, Gideon! Come on!” The Doctor seemed to spot Rose in the doorway then, as she stared wide-eyed at the scene in front of her. “Rose! Gideon’s about to walk! I swear he is!”
The little boy was clinging to a dining chair, blinking at his dad with wide brown eyes. That in itself wasn’t odd- their not-quite year old baby had been puling himself up to stand a lot in the last few weeks, but still Rose couldn’t help but wonder if her husband was right and that Gideon really was about to start walking.
Quickly, she crossed to her son’s side, mindful of the phone the Doctor was presumably using to film the situation. Crouching just to the left of him, Rose watched as Gideon gave her a big grin, before peeling one hand away from the chair to take a shaky step towards her.
“Oh, clever boy!” the Doctor crowed happily, as Rose found herself voicing a similar sentiment.
“Come on, sweetheart,” Rose encouraged, holding her arms out to the toddler.
Moments later, Gideon has pulled his other hand away from the chair, completely standing on his own, before taking another shaky step towards his mum.
He tumbled and fell, only to be caught by Rose and quickly swept onto her lap.
“Who’s our clever boy, eh?” she cooed at the baby on her lap as the Doctor finally finished recording and crossed to her side. “Did you get it all on camera?”
The Doctor nodded. “Yep!” he beamed. “Every second of it!
V was a new staff member in the child care services going by Miss Orange and was dealing with the older children since the last one quit a couple of weeks back. She didn’t understand why the previous had quit since they all were seemingly well behaved until her fourth week there. There was always that one kid that just didn’t get the hint after being caught bullying others. V didn’t know what the last carer did but, if the other was allowing this, she wasn’t going to make the same mistake when she saw one of the older kids bullying this blonde girl.
“Oi, leave her alone. Now.” Her voice was more of a demand than simply warning the boy.
Ooh, if you get a chance at the con ... you should ask David + Billie what they think about the Hardy/Hannah ship! ^-^
Heeey thanks for stopping by and for the suggestion. ^^
That is a super cute question. Alas that’s one of those fandom things that generally escape them, I’ve noticed. They’d probably think it’s weird or cute or be entirely confused that it’s a thing.
I’d like to come up with a question related to Billie’s work in some capacity. I’m open to suggestion. No promises I’ll wind up getting in the question queue but it’s crossed my mind.
Pete hadn’t been too pleased at the call telling him that his daughter had been in a fight at school. Rose was getting more and more difficult to manage the more he tried to figure out was wrong, and this had just been the latest installment. He was tired of trying to be the perfect parent and do everything by the book. He wasn’t the sort of person who was good at rules and discipline. Maybe what he needed was to just talk to her – the same sort of friendly, down-to-earth chat he had with clients and investors when they were struggling to see each others’ points of view.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said as he saw her leave the school. “Listen, I’ve got a few quid to spare this week. I thought maybe we could go to Rudi’s round the corner, get a milkshake or ice creams or something.” It had been his go-to cheer-up treat when she’d been a kid; he hoped it would work now. “Sounds like you’ve had a bit of a day.”
“You’re not,” came Rose’s calm voice. “If you’d just let me explain-”
“I am doing it right! I am!”
The Doctor frowned at the voice of his brother-in-law as he entered his and Rose’s home. He and Rose were having Tony over the weekend, as Pete and Jackie had taken a weekend break in a rare few days where Pete was able to get away from both Vitex and Torchwood. Rose had even had to leave work early that afternoon to collect her brother from school. They’d planned lots of activities for Tony to do during his two nights with them, but it seemed already they were approaching a tantrum and it wasn’t even Friday night yet.
Whatever Tony was upset about, it was clear he didn’t want to listen to Rose’s explanation about whatever was going wrong with it. So the Doctor hung up his coat and scarf and made his way into the double-height kitchen-diner-living room space.
It had been one of the reasons he and Rose had fallen in love with the converted warehouse, the double-height space of the main downstairs area. They were still near enough Torchwood, where they both worked training up new agents (they did occasionally do field work, but they both preferred training up new agents and working a somewhat 9-5 schedule), and their home for the past five years was a warm and comforting sanctuary for the pair of them out of work hours.
Except for today.
At the dining table, six and a half year old Tony sat slouching in his chair and pouting at his older sister, pieces of paper and pencils scattered across the table.
“What’s going on here, then?” the Doctor asked then, forcing a smile as he crossed to the table.
“Maths homework,” Rose responded, giving him a small smile.
The Doctor made a sympathetic noise at that, pressing a brief kiss to his wife’s lips before turning his attention to Tony’s homework.
“I was doing it right,” Tony piped up suddenly, wide-eyed as he stared up at the Doctor. “But Rose says I’m doing it wrong.”
One glance at Rose told him that this argument had been going on for a while. Instead of answering Tony, the Doctor gently prompted Rose to stand.
“Why don’t you go get yourself a cuppa, love,” he murmured to her, before dropping into her vacated seat and raising his voice. “Now, why don’t us two take a look at this homework?”
Rose watched in silence from the kitchen area as the Doctor slowly began to talk Tony through his homework. Finally, the kettle boiled and Tony was slowly beginning to make a start on his homework without arguing about it first.
The Doctor tousled the boy’s hair before getting up and heading over to Rose in the kitchen, grabbing the milk for their tea as he passed the fridge.
“Thanks for that,” Rose murmured, glancing briefly at her brother. “No matter how many times I explained it to him, he couldn’t get it. He’s usually quite good at dividing, from what Mum was saying, but I think they’ve thrown him by giving him word problems.”
“How long was he insisting he was doing it right for?” the Doctor asked as Rose fished the tea bags out of their mugs.
With a sigh, she glanced at the clock. “Nearly twenty minutes.”
The Doctor grimaced. “How about we get takeaway tonight? Saves either of us having to cook. Maybe we can do a movie night with your brother, or something.”
Before Rose could answer, Tony was calling across the room to her, insisting he needed help with his homework again.
She let out another sigh, but smiled at her husband. “Sounds perfect.”
She pressed a kiss to his lips, grabbed her tea, and headed off to help her brother.
“So I hear,” Sally answered with a scowl. The few words spoke were said coldly and with a malice so thick that the person who had made her angry probably felt their skin crawling by the inch.
@damerosemariontyler i've tried that bit and it doesn't seem to be there?
I'm starting to wonder if it's not there, because they don't include the scene of her and John babysitting Freddie either because there's no dialogue. but i've gone through all the garden scenes and it's not there???
