A/N: I have decided to completely scrap my other fic "When Fiction Becomes Reality". It's deleted. It's gone. Buh-bye and all that. Why? Because it completely sucked, that's why. I might revisit the idea one day, but for now... I'm going with this one instead.

This will be just as timey-wimey as Just a Human was and is a direct follow-on from that fic. It's not wholly essential to have read that one before heading into this one. This might refer back to it here and there, but it will essentially stand on it's own.

Initially, there will be stolen lines from the episodes in question, but that will only be for one or two chapters. I don't intend on writing the episode as it aired ... I'm knicking the idea, but I'll make it my own.

~~oooOOOooo~~

Previously in the "Family Adventures" Series:

The Doctor was able to pull himself up enough to look at the monitor. He frowned at what he saw. "We're accelerating into the future. Faster than she's ever gone before."

Gallifrey clutched hard at the Doctor's trouser leg and tugged himself up enough to see the readout on the monitor. "The year one billion," he grit out. "Five Billion. Five Trillion. Fifty trillion."

The Doctor shook his head. "What? The year one hundred trillion? That's impossible!"

"Why," Martha huffed out. "What's so impossible about that?"

"It's the end of the universe," the Doctor answered her. "We're going to the end of the universe!"

"That's bad?"

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "Just hold on. I don't know how rough this landing's going to be." He reached out to hang on to Gallifrey. "I got you, Gal. Hang on, okay?"

With a deafening roar and whoosh of releasing energies, the TARDIS found her landing place and thudded heavily to the ground. Silence then filled the room, with the exception of the heaving breaths of the three console room occupants.

Martha spoke up first. "We've landed, yeah?"

The Doctor rapidly nodded his head. "Yeah." He looked down at Gallifrey pressed against his chest inside the protective circle of his arms. "You okay, Flubble?"

Gallifrey nodded slowly and locked his widened eyes on the doors of the TARDIS. "What do you think is out there?"

The Doctor looked toward the door himself. "I don't know."

Martha had to chuckle. "The rarest words ever spoken by the Time Lord Doctor, and you've said it twice in thirty seconds."

"Not even the Time Lords came this far, Martha," he answered carefully. "So we should probably leave. We should really, really … go."

Gallifrey carefully peeled himself from his father's arms and cautiously headed to the door. "You think we should really just reset the cords and get out of here, right, Dad?"

"Oh, abslolutely, Gal. Quite possibly too dangerous for any of us to head out there. I mean…" he slipped his hands into his trouser pockets and strode to the doorway. "I mean, there could be anything beyond those doors, couldn't there?"

"Best to just leave, yeah?"

Martha let out a groan and pulled on the TARDIS doors. "Well the two of you can stand there all day like a couple of scared little mice. I'm heading out." She stepped through the doorway, and then paused with a look of challenge to the two Time Lords. "Well? Coming?"

The Doctor and Gallifrey gave each other a wary look, but it was wariness that was quickly replace with grins of thrill. It was the Doctor's smile that broke the widest as he winked at his son.

"Race you!"

~~oooOOOooo~~

Gallifrey Tyler and his father exploded through the doorway of the TARDIS wearing identical grins and belching out gleeful hollers that differed only in the inflictions that age put upon their tones. They skidded sideways in the dirt as their matching Converse shoes failed to find immediate purchase in the loose soil. The Doctor remained upright in his skid, whereas his young son stumbled into an awkward series of uncoordinated steps that ended with Gallifrey extending both arms outward and leaning forward against his fall.

"I'm good," he called out automatically, even though his father's laugh dispelled any suggestion that he was in any way concerned. "All good. Steady as a rock."

The Doctor shook his head with a laugh as he let his hand come down onto Gallifrey's shoulder. "Steady as a rock, indeed, Flubble. If we're talking about the shuddering rocks that frequently roll down the southern mountains of Raudoon, that is."

Gallifrey narrowed his eyes at the Doctor and stepped away from him. He pointed a finger of accusation at him and shook his head. "Are you trying to be funny? You?"

The Doctor maintained a beaming and toothy grin as he slid his hands into his trouser pockets and rocked back onto the heels of his Converse. "I've been known to tell a joke or two here and there…"

"Or be one," Martha quipped with a wink as she knocked her shoulder against his in passing. "A joke that is."

The Doctor feigned hurt and let out a breathy whimper. "Why Martha Jones. You wound me."

"Then my job here is done." She chuckled and lifted her head to look around at the tall, white stone walls surrounding them. "Where have we landed then? Looks like a quarry."

"Right," he answered with a breathy voice through a wide open mouth as he took in the walls towering around them. "A quarry, indeed. I wonder why the TARDIS landed us here, then? What's significant about here that made it the best materialization point?" His head dropped at a moan from his child. "You okay, Gal?"

Gallifrey wore a tight grimace and held both arms across his belly. He shook his head and looked toward his father through squinted eyes. "I don't feel so good."

The Doctor frowned with concern and moved quickly toward his son. He put his hands on the boy's shoulders and dipped at the knees to lower himself to look into Gallifrey's face. "What's wrong? Feel sick?"

Gallifrey nodded. Then he shook his head. "Yeah, and then No. I mean, I have some nausea, but my head also feels funny. Like a belly ache in my brain." His eyes broke from their squint and widened. "No. Like a swoop in my head. Like a whole flock of Fledershrews were flapping about in there."

"Colony," the Doctor corrected quietly as he lifted in his stoop to press his lips against Gallifrey's head to check his temperature.

"A what?"

"Colony," the Doctor repeated as he cupped Gallifrey's face to analyze his pallor. "The collective noun for Fledershrews is colony."

Gallifrey's face lengthened. His voice fell monotone. "I'm tellin' you I'm feeling sick, and you want to correct my grammar?"

"There is never an excuse for poor grammar," he replied almost distractedly. The Doctor frowned at being able to find anything particularly unusual in his son's condition to find the source of his illness. "What did you eat before we left 1969?"

"Same thing as you," he answered with a moan. He dipped his head and partway stuck out his lower lip. "You feel okay, Dad?"

The Doctor frowned and looked into his own self to determine whether or not he was feeling in any way poorly. With a sniff, he noted that he, too, was feeling slightly out of sorts. "Come to think of it," he muttered. "I'm not feeling so good myself."

Martha let out a sudden shriek and an exclamation of surprise that had the Doctor instinctively reach forward to snatch his son against his side. He readied to step ahead of Gallifrey to put a shield between him and whatever threat Martha had found. "Martha, what is it?"

"Oh my God," she yelped out as she dropped to her knees in the dirt beside a man lying prone in the dirt.

"Ahh," the Doctor breathed with realization as he watched Martha search for a pulse. He'd forgotten about why they'd fled Cardiff so violently. "Yes. That's right."

"Doctor," Martha called frantically. "I can't find a pulse." She inhaled a sharp hitch in her breath and stood up quickly. "You've got that medical kit thing. In the TARDIS."

He kept his eyes on the man on the ground. His voice was quiet, and his hold on Gallifrey protective. "Hello again, Captain."

"Do you know him?" Gallifrey asked as he curled around his father's leg to take a look for himself.

"Yeah," he huffed through an open mouth. "And I think I know why you're not feeling well, Flubble."

Gallifrey pressed a curious finger to his bottom lip as he took a couple of careful strides forward. When he didn't feel his father shift to hold him back, he took more confident strides toward him.

"Here we go," Martha hollered as she rushed past the Doctor. "Get out of the way."

Gallifrey skipped backward a step when Martha fell to her knees beside the unconscious man and began to dig through the medical kit she'd pulled from the TARDIS. He peered over her shoulder and looked the man over. "Clothes are a bit odd, don't ya think?"

Martha nodded as she continued to search the bag's contents. "Not very hundred trillion, is it? Coat's gotto be World War 2."

The Doctor's voice ghosted in from behind them. "I think he came with us."

Gallifrey gasped and looked to his father with horror written across his face. "What? You mean from Earth?" At the Doctor's nod, he shook his head with disbelief. "But that would mean that he was hanging onto the TARDIS. Through the vortex, even!"

"That's very him," he answered flatly.

"You know him, Dad?"

The Doctor nodded. "Friend of mine," he murmured with obvious discomfort in his voice. "Well. He was a friend. Back in the old days. Used to travel with me and your mum."

Gallifrey's eyes shot wide and he kept his eyes on his father as he pointed down at the man with both hands. "Is that Uncle Jack?"

"Yeah," the Doctor answered quietly. "That's him."

"But mum said. I mean she thinks. She told me that Uncle Jack died," he huffed with obvious shock. "But here he is. Alive…"

"No, Gal. I'm sorry," Martha interrupted him gently. She pulled the earpieces of her stethoscope from her ears and shook her head. He gently took his hand in hers. "There's no heartbeat. Nothing. He's dead."

No sooner had the diagnosis left her lips, and Jack Harkness gasped in an urgent and hurried breath of air. His hands flailed upward to grab Martha, who screamed loudly enough to have Gallifrey stumble backward onto his little butt.

"What the..?!"

Martha recovered quickly and stroked at Jack's shoulders. "Well. So much for Doctor Jones." She smiled and lowered her voice into a gentle tone. "It's alright. Just breathe deep. I've got you."

Jack panted a few deep breaths, and then looked up into Martha's face. The panic in his eyes softened and a smile graced his lips. "Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?"

Martha was immediately captured by his wolfish smile, and couldn't help but return it in kind. "Martha Jones."

The wolfish grin turned slightly seductive as Jack Harkness levered his somewhat irresistible bedroom gaze at her. "Nice to meet you, Martha Jones."

The Doctor groaned out behind them. "Oh, don't start."

Jack peered around Martha's shoulder and watched the Doctor assist a young boy in getting up off the ground. His brow flicked in question, but he didn't voice it. "I was only saying hello," he managed instead.

"Of course you were."

"Oh," Martha sang with a blush as she helped him to stand up. "I don't mind."

Jack steadied himself a moment before he drew himself to his full height to stand in front of the Doctor. He noted the way the young boy seemed to hide just slightly behind the Doctor, and the way the Doctor instinctively seemed to stand as protector, but he chose not to comment.

"Doctor," he managed finally by way of greeting.

"Captain," the Doctor answered back with equal coolness.

"Good to see you."

"And you too." He looked him up and down. "Same as ever, I see. Although." He drew a circle around his face with a finger. "Have you had work done?"

Jack spluttered out a short laugh. "You can talk."

The Doctor's eyes widened with question, but quickly settled back to neutral. "Oh yes," he said with a forced smile. "Regeneration. I'm surprised you knew who I was."

Jack gestured toward the TARDIS. "The Blue Police Box kind've gives it away."

The Doctor merely hummed in response.

Martha looked between the two men and shuddered slightly. She looked to Gallifrey with an arched brow. "Are you feeling the chill in the air, Gal?" She wrapped her arms around herself. "Frosty."

Gallifrey bit his lips closed together and nodded his head to her question. His eyes were bright and wide as he sized up the man he'd only ever heard stories about. He could sense his father's discomfort toward Jack and curled himself further behind the Doctor's legs.

Jack let his eyes fall to the child and dropped into a crouch. He held out his hand in greeting. "Jack Harkness," he offered with a gentle smile. "And you are?"

"G-Gallifrey," he stammered. He reached out his little hand to take Jack's, but quickly snatched it back to clutch at his belly. He let out a moan. "Dad. I really don't feel so good."

Jack's eyes shot up high to meet the Doctor's gaze. There was no way to hide the surprise in his voice. "Dad?"

The Doctor dropped his hand onto Gallifrey's shoulder took them a protective step backward. "You'll be okay, Flubble. Maybe you should head back into the TARDIS. I'll come find you in a moment."

He bit at his lips again and hummed out a two-syllable sound to say he wasn't moving anywhere.

Jack was slightly flabbergasted, and looked between man and boy with wide eyes. "You're a father? When did that happen?" He then looked to Martha and shifted his hand in the air between her and the Doctor. "Are you…?"

"Oh," she coughed out in reply. She raised both hands and shook her head. "No. Oh. No, not me. Definitely not me. I'm not that child's mother."

Gallifrey found his voice at that moment. "I'm not quite sure if I should be offended by how vehemently you're protesting that, Martha."

"I love you, Gal," she assured him with a smile. "I do. Don't get me wrong."

"But you'd prefer to play Auntie, yeah?"

"Something like that." She scruffed at his head and smiled as he sighed out a dopey little sound that may or may not have been similar to a purr. "It's way more fun to be able to corrupt you then send you back home to your parents."

The Doctor slapped at her hand gently away from his son's head. "Will you please stop doing that to him, Martha," he said with a groan. "He's not a pet." He rolled his eyes at her light laughter in response. "And there'll be no corrupting of young Time Lords, ta. Not on my TARDIS."

"I see that attitude hasn't changed," Jack cut in with amusement. "How often does he give you the whole My TARDIS, my rules speech, Martha?"

"I don't have to make that speech to Martha," the Doctor clipped back indignantly. "She's a good girl who doesn't run off and need constant reminders. Unlike you. Really. I've never had a companion who…"

"Rose Tyler," Jack shot in quickly. "Miss Jeopardy friendly herself."

Martha threw her head back and laughed, which broadened Jack's smile.

"Oh, he's told you about her then?" He took a step closer to Martha and lowered his head to speak in a conspiratorial manner, but loud enough for the Doctor to actually hear. "That girl and the trouble she could find herself in. I met her because she'd disobeyed rule number one of life in the TARDIS…"

"Oh, yes. Don't wander off," she recited with a smile.

"Oh, Rose wandered," Jack said with a laugh. "Wandered off in the middle of the blitz, and somehow managed to find herself hanging from a barrage balloon in the middle of an air-raid wearing a Union Jack across her delightfully pert chest."

"Jack," the Doctor warned darkly. "There is a child present, do you mind?"

Jack quickly spun to face the Doctor. His expression fell to sadness and sympathy. "Before anything else. I just gotto ask, Doc. Canary Wharf. Rose. I-I saw her name on the list of the dead." He swallowed. "Rose Tyler."

"That's my mum," Gallifrey offered up quickly. He frowned and shook his head. "She's not dead." He thumbed toward the time ship. "She's in the TARDIS."

Jack's eyes widened with thrill as he looked toward the silent Police Box. "Alive," he questioned quietly.

"So very alive," the Doctor said with clear thrill in his voice. "Safe and sound and here – with me – where she should be."

"Oh, yes!" Jack cheered. He threw his arms around the Doctor and laughed a boisterous sound of utter relief. "Oh thank God!"

The Doctor giggled a happy sound of his own. It was a sound that bubbled deep in the back of his throat and emerged as a pleasant little chuckle.

As quickly as he'd drawn in the Doctor for a hug, Jack released him. He slapped his hands on his thighs and then clapped his hands together. "Then why are we waiting around here? Let's go inside. I've got several years of bone-crushing hugs to give that girl."

The Doctor's jubilance fell to unshielded jealousy, and he shook his head slowly. "No. Can't do that right now." He scratched at his sideburn and pulled his lip up into a light curl as he shifted his eyes away from Jack. "She's having a nap. Been a long few months for her. Got stuck for a while in 1969, lost the TARDIS, had to work to get ourselves back to our linear time to retrieve the old girl." He stopped scratching at his sideburn and looked back to Jack. "I'm sure you understand. I'll let her know that we saw you, though. She'll be disappointed to have missed you."

Jack tipped his head to one side. He eyed the Doctor critically. "Still the jealous type, I see."

He snorted an indignant exhale. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Gallifrey grinned from beside his father. "Jealous: Fiercely protective or vigilant of one's rights and possessions." His eyes flashed. "Not that Mum qualifies as a possession, of course. No. You'd get into a row if you called her that to her face, but your behavior toward other men who look her way does come under the umbrella of jealousy." He slouched to one side and rubbed at his jaw as he considered things. "And if you try and deny it, Dad, I'm sure that I can have a talk with Auntie TARDIS and we can replay some of your play of the week oncoming storm glares and leers…"

"Gallifrey," The Doctor warned with his own slouch as he rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. "If you wouldn't mind…"

"Oh no," Jack cut in with a grin. "Don't stifle the lad, Doc. Let him step up and right a wrong – God knows you don't stop yourself in doing it."

"Don't encourage him, Jack."

Jack dropped his arm across Gallifrey's shoulder. "You should always encourage the youngsters, Doc. That's how they become brilliant."

"You say that now," the Doctor challenged with a rise of his hand to point a finger toward Jack's face. "Because he's on your side. He doesn't discriminate, my boy. He'll correct you just as quickly, and then we'll see if you have the same opinion of encouragement." He belatedly noticed the increasing look of ill-discomfort in Gallifrey's face and pulled the young boy out of Jack's hold. "You might want to keep a few steps back from my lad for the next little while."

Jack raised a brow that was as accusatory as it was confused.

"He's got some time sickness," the Doctor explained quickly. "Queasy in the belly, flock of trunkikes in his head."

"Uh-huh," he replied flatly.

"But hey," the Doctor offered with a light nudge at Gallifrey's back to guide him closer. "If you want Time-Tot vomit all over your classic coat, then by all means make friends with my boy."

Gallifrey shook his head and stepped backward into his father's legs. He then turned and wrapped his skinny little arms around the Doctor's waist and nuzzled his nose into his belly. The Doctor rubbed at his hair and leaned forward to embrace his child as best he could.

"Head on in to the TARDIS, Flubble." He peppered out a couple of sounds in the negative to his son shaking his head in refusal to take his advice. "No arguments, Gal. You're not going to feel any better being out here with us. Go inside and look after your mum for me." He smiled. "Make sure that your little sister is safe, yeah? Be a good big brother."

Gallifrey's head shot up and he broke out into a beaming grin of absolute thrill. "I knew it!" he cheered. "I knew that mum was pregnant. You tried to play around the topic and pretend that no, but ha! I'm so much cleverer than you think I am." He looked to Martha and bounced on his toes. "Did you hear that, Martha? I'm finally getting my sister!"

"That's great, Gal," she answered back gently. She lifted her eyes to the Doctor and offered a warm smile. "Congratulations, Doctor. You and Rose. Well. You deserve this, you know." She touched at his arm and stroked it affectionately. "You both deserve to be happy."

He grinned at her. "And we are." He petted Gallifrey's head. "We really are." He clapped his hands and looked down to his son. "Right. So that said. Gallifrey, I put the task of protecting your mother and sister to you."

"Why?" he queried gently. "Where are you going?"

He waved his hand nonchalantly. "Oh, just for a walk. Haven't seen Jack for a while. Plenty to catch up on, and knowing him, the catching up part of things might not be entirely child-friendly."

Gallifrey pouted. "You're going on an adventure, aren't you?"

"Well," he drawled. "Not really. If you consider walking to be an adventure, then perhaps we are, but essentially, no. Just walking and boring adulty-type-talking that you would not be interested in." He slowly lifted his head toward a distant sound of hollering that seemed to be drawing quickly closer. "That," he commented quickly as he pulled himself free of Gallifrey and walked toward a crop of Rocks a slight distance away from them.

He gasped to find a sheer drop on the other side which opened up to reveal a large, high-tech construction site below. He blew out a breath of wonder as his three companions strode up beside him.

"What is that," Martha queried in a voice tinged with awe. "Is it a city?"

The Doctor made a small sound of thought as he rubbed at the back of his neck and let his eyes analyse the structure below them. "A city or a hive, or a nest, or a conglomeration." He tipped his head to one side. "Looks like it was grown."

"Look there," Gallifrey offered with a point of his finger down toward structure. "That looks like a series of pathways, roads, maybe?"

"Must've been life, some sort of life, a long time ago," the Doctor continued.

Martha was practically breathless as she took in the structure. "What killed it you think?"

He exhaled. "Time. Just time," he offered. "Everything's dying now. All the great civilizations have gone." He lifted his eyes. "This isn't just night. All the stars have burned up and faded away into nothing."

Jack set his foot onto a rock crag to lift his knee and press his elbow against it to look down over the edge of the cliff. "Well there has to be an atmospheric shell in place. We should be frozen to death."

The Doctor gave him a slow and critical look. "Well. Martha, Gal, and I, maybe. Not so sure about you, Jack."

Martha seemed heartbroken as she peered over the edge. "What about the people? Does no one survive?"

The Doctor exhaled a sigh. "I suppose we have to hope that life will find a way."

The sound that had drawn them to the edge of the cliff in the first place sounded out once more. Below them, a single figure ran along a narrow pathway, followed by a tribe of aggressors. Jack frowned.

"Well, he seems to be surviving well enough."

"For now," the Doctor muttered worriedly. His worry shifted to anger. "Is it just me, or does that look like a hunt?"

Gallifrey was already climbing over the rocks to make chase. He looked up with annoyance when he felt his father's hand come down on his shoulder.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Gallifrey looked to the Doctor with an expression on incredulity. "Where else? To help?"

"Gal…"

Gallifrey shirked out of his father's hold and slid down the steep embankment toward the hunt. He looked up as he slid. "Well? Come on!"

"Oh, he's just like you," Martha said with a chuckle as she leapt over the rocks to join Gallifrey in the slide diwn toward the city.

The Doctor winced and pressed his hand onto the rocks to vault over them. He looked toward Jack with an expression of long suffering tiredness.

Jack merely chuckled. "Oh don't pretend you don't want to do this, Doc," he said with a laugh. "God. I've missed this."

The Doctor lifted his eyes to the heavens and sighed deeply. He couldn't exactly disagree with Jack. Of course he wanted to help. He'd just be a lot more comfortable with it if his young son hadn't blindly leapt in ahead of him.

Oh, Rose was going to kill him.