The Doctor-Tyler Family

Homework

Dear Mrs. Tyler,

Recently Jamie turned in an assignment entirely in made up characters I have never seen before. I can't tell if he made up a language or turned in a page of doodles and tried to pass it off as homework. The assignment was to write two paragraphs, one about what one of his parent's jobs is, and one about what he wants to be when he grows up. If he will rewrite and submit the assignment tomorrow, I will not take off points. Please have him finish this tonight and bring it in to me.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Cloister, Third Year teacher.

"Jamie!" Rose called. Her son was in the kitchen, looking for something to eat but not finding much, as his dad still hadn't returned with the groceries. He emerged holding a stalk of celery in one hand and a banana in the other. His mother eyed the celery suspiciously. "Did you wash that?" she asked.

"No," Jamie replied innocently. "Should I?"

"I'll do it." He gave her the celery and followed her back into the kitchen. "So your teacher emailed me about your homework from the weekend. Do you still have it?"

"Somewhere," he said, and started sifting through his messy backpack in search of it. Rose was washing and cutting up the celery at the sink when the door of the flat opened, and the Doctor walked in carrying several bags of groceries. "I'm back," he announced, just as Jamie exclaimed, "Found it!"

"Found what?" the Doctor asked, setting all the bags on the table next to Jamie's backpack.

"My homework. Mummy said there was a problem with it."

"Well, let's have look." He took the slightly-wrinkled page from his son's hands and looked it over, grinning broadly. The entire page, front and back, was covered in neat circular Gallifreyan. The only English were the words "James Tyler, 18 November," at the top of the page. "Nice work, Jamie. Very nice work."

"What does it say?" Rose asked, looking at it while handing Jamie his snack. The Doctor had tried to teach her to read Galllifreyan a few times, but very little of it had stuck with her.

"Why don't you read it out loud for us?" the Doctor suggested to his son, snatching a piece of celery. "In English," he prompted.

Jamie took back the paper and began to read. "My parents work for Torchwood, investigating alien technology and promoting peace between planets. My dad's job used to be saving the universe, but he says that's just a hobby now. Sometimes I get to go to work with them on the week ends, and I work in the lab with Mummy and Daddy or help my Granddad in the office. They usually leave me in the office when they have to investigate in the field, which means a place outside the lab with suspected alien involvement or a space ship crash, but I got to go once and it was really interesting. I even got to use a machine that goes "ding" that Daddy made.

When I grow up, I want to be just like my parents. I will travel in the TARDIS and save all the worlds I land on. I will fight off the villains and save the innocent. I will explore all of time and space, and one day I will be a hero, just like Mummy and Daddy." The little boy finished proudly, looking to his parents for approval. His parents shared a look of mixed astonishment and amusement - most of the astonishment contributed by Rose, and much of the amusement from the Doctor.

"Well, some one's been paying more attention to bedtime stories than I thought," the Doctor said.

"Clearly," Rose said. "I suppose, between the two of us, we've already told most of the good ones."

The Doctor nodded gravely. "We're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Just two nights ago I found myself reduced to telling the story of the absorber- remember, that Linda group?"

"And the guy trying to get to you through me and Mum?" Rose asked.

The little boy looked back and forth between his parents, remembering the story. It hadn't been one of the more exciting stories, but it was funny hearing them talk about remembering it. It proved it was real. He knew all kinds of unusual things happened - he'd traveled in the TARDIS after all, though he was no where near ready (or tall enough) to fly it - but he'd rarely been anywhere DANGEROUS. His parents said they were waiting until he was older. The Doctor frequently commented that the TARDIS was excited for him to get off the jump seat and fly her; she knew he could take her into all sorts of trouble, and a third person would take her halfway to being flown properly.

"Well, you know," the Doctor said thoughtfully, "we could always go somewhere. Write a new bedtime story."

"Yeah!" Jamie cheered, his eyes lighting up. He jumped out if his seat and raced to the TARDIS, in it's customary corner of the living room.

"Ah-ah-ah. Not so fast, mister," Rose said, following and placing a hand on his shoulder. "You need to rewrite your paper, in English this time."

"You should probably take out the bit about flying around saving the universe, too, unless you want to be known as the crazy kid at school," the Doctor added.

Jamie nodded. "I will. But can't we go first? We can come back in a minute. I'll do it then!"

The Doctor looked at Rose beseechingly. "He has a point."

"No," she said firmly. "Even if it's only a minute here, it could be days for us, and by then we'll forget all about it. It'll take you ten minutes. Go do your homework."

Jamie looked up to his dad, but he shook his head no. "Go do your homework. We can leave when you're finished." His son nodded a little sadly and ran out of the room - he seemed to run everywhere, Rose reflected, and she didn't know if it was just his age or a trait he'd inherited from his father.

"Aren't there any stories we haven't told him?" Rose asked.

"You told him about New Earth, right? And Chloe Webber." Rose nodded. "Well..." The Doctor thought for a minute. "Oh! Bad Wolf!"

"You never told him about that?" Rose asked.

"Well, I don't want to give him nightmares. Daleks, regeneration, and almost losing you in one go - that could be terrifying."

"It was," Rose agreed. "But he would love to hear it. And I don't think Jamie gets nightmares anymore - he hasn't since he was two years old."

"Maybe we can tell him tonight." The Doctor took Rose's hand and pulled her in against his chest. She looked up into his dark brown eyes, almost the same as his son's.

"You can't have told him ALL your stories," she said.

"All the ones with you, and a few with Donna."

"You should tell us some others, sometime," she said quietly, resting her head on his chest. "Together."

"I think I will." The Doctor reached under her chin, and tilted her head up. They kissed. The Doctor and Rose kissed, in their flat, in front of their TARDIS, while their son finished his homework.

"Mummy, I've finished!" The two broke apart to check on Jamie in the kitchen. Rose read the paper over his shoulder. "That was fast," she commented as she continued to read. "Good job, Jamie!"

"We can go now?" He asked excitedly.

His parents laughed. "Yeah, we can go now. Go get in the TARDIS!" The little boy seemed to fly off his stool and through the blue doors. The Doctor took Rose's hand, and they ran after their son to their next adventure. It would be the bedtime story of tomorrow, and none of them doubted that it would end anyway other than happily ever after.

It was better with three.