Raising a Timelord

Summary

In which Ferb is the child of River Song and the Doctor, being raised on Earth.

Disclaimer

The original characters and plot line belong to those who wrote and created the amazing fictional universes. I do not own any of it. I only own my own characters and plots. Some of the dialogue within this story is identical to the original/ canon product. I claim no part of that and its entire purpose is to ensure that the characters stay as canon as possible.

Story

Lawrence Fletcher glanced out the window and smiled at the sight of his children in the back yard; a yard which had become significantly larger than earlier this morning. Phineas and Ferb were pouring over their latest project, using climbing harnesses to weld the panels of their giant obstacle course together. The faint hiss of the welding torches was nearly drowned out by the grumbling of his daughter. Candice, who had been pacing back and forth in front of her brothers' three-story high project, flopped down into a lawn chair and staring moodily at her brothers.

"Just wait until Mum gets home," she threatened her brothers. "You are going to be so busted."

Lawrence grinned as the regular ritual played out in the back yard. Unlike his wife, who was ignorant of the daily shenanigans that occurred only meters from her home, Lawrence watched the adventures that his children got up to with fondness. While other parents would have been horrified at the escapades of his children, it filled his heart with joy to see his two sons pushing the binderies of space, time and dimensions with their creativity. And he greatly admired the passion and commitment of his daughter to her cause, even if it was busting her brothers. He chuckled quietly to himself, she got her stubbornness from her mother; once Linda got an idea into her head, it was impossible to dissuade her. Lawrence couldn't have loved his three children more, even if they had been of his flesh and blood.

It was well known that Phineas and Candice were not his by blood; after all, they were his step children. But not even his wife knew that Ferb wasn't his son. It was a secret that his family had gone to extreme measures to keep. Only he, his mother, father and Ferb knew and they all knew the importance of keeping it a secret. Oh, it wasn't out of shame. He loved his son! And he and Ferb were related, but they were not father and son by blood.

Lawrence let his thoughts drift back to the first time that he had met his son:

Lawrence was at his family home, having Sunday dinner with his mother and father when a strange whirring/groaning noise filled the dining room. Looking around for the source of the noise, he saw a blue box that was phasing into the corner of the room. As the object fully materialised, he was able to read the words emblazoned upon the blue box: Police Box. Lawrence's jaw dropped and he turned to his parents in shock.

"I thought that they were only stories!" he exclaimed in wondrous disbelief.

His father simply shrugged and said, "They were stories, doesn't mean that they weren't true."

Before Lawrence could reply, the doors of the police box opened and a couple stepped out. The male was tall and thin, wearing a tweed suit, suspenders and a bow tie. His floppy brown hair kept on falling over his young face, but it was his eyes that held Lawrence's focus. They were incredibly sad and seemed far too old for the young face. The woman was beautiful, with a mane of golden curls that seemed to move of their own accord. She was wearing jeans, a red top and ankle high boots. The only part of her ensemble that wasn't normal was the strange gun that was strapped to her belt. As she shifted her arms, Lawrence noticed that she was cradling a baby.

"Hello Doctor, it is nice to finally meet you" his father said. He turned towards the woman and smiled "It is nice to see you again, sister."

"Anthony," the woman said, returning his smile. "Lovely to see you again, little brother. Would you care to introduce us to the rest of your family?"

"Of course," his father replied. "I would like you to meet my wife, Winfred, and my son, Lawrence. Lawrence, Winnie, I would like to introduce my sister, River Song, and her husband, the Doctor."

"Oh, Anthony has told us all about you and the adventures that you had with his parents," his mother said happily.

"Ahh, that's nice," the Doctor said distractedly as he studied Lawrence. He turned to his wife and said sheepishly, "it would appear that we are about 20 years off our intended arrival point."

River glared at him and said in an exasperated tone, "Well, if you had let me drive, we would have been on time."

"Silly saying, being on time," the Doctor replied. "Like time was something that you could stand on." River Song didn't reply, but the look that she sent her husband spoke volumes.

"Not to interrupt," Anthony interrupted, "but why have you decided to visit us Doctor?"

Both River and the Doctor turned from their conversation to look at his father. Lawrence frowned slightly at the sorrowful look that had replaced the fondness that had been there during the argument.

"We came to ask a favour," the Doctor said.

"A huge favour," River interjected and the Doctor nodded.

"A huge favour," the Doctor corrected. "This is our son, Ferdinand Rory Song, and we were hoping that you would be able to look after him." At their stunned silent and confused looks, the Doctor continued his explanation. "River and my lives, there dangerous. Far too dangerous for a child. We can't just settle down somewhere, we have far too many enemies for that to be a feasible idea. Our only choice is to find someone who would be willing to raise him in our stead, away from the dangers out there."

His father had finally been shaken out of his shock. "Why us?" he asked the Doctor. "Out of everyone in the universe, why would you pick us, people who you barely know?"

It was River who answered. "Because we don't know you. There are organisations and planets out there that would do anything to get their hands on our child. They have records of everyone whom has travelled in the Tardis and would place them under surveillance. But you, they wouldn't know about you." As his father opened his mouth to argue, River continued. "Besides, your family."

At this, his father deflated. "I would love to help you River, Doctor, but we can't take care of a baby. It was hard enough to keep up with our own children, but keeping up with a Timelord baby at our age, it is beyond us."

As he saw the defeated looks on River and the Doctor's face, Lawrence spoke up impulsively, "I could take him!"

Looking out at his sons, who were now traversing the obstacle course, Lawrence was glad that he had managed to convince his parents, aunt and her husband to let his raise the baby Timelord. There were challenges involved in raising a genius alien child, but he felt that they were worth it. He had been terrified when he first learnt that his son had gone into out of space, but when the anticipated alien invasion failed to materialise and kidnap his son, he had relaxed slightly. Of course, he had taken Ferb aside after that particular adventure and reminded his son of the threats to his safety (specifically) that existed in the universe. Ferb, who had known of these threats since he was a young child, had assured his father that they were being careful.

Lawrence's remembrance was interrupted by the indignant and enraged shriek of his daughter. Looking out the window, he saw that the three-story obstacle course had vanished and the back yard was no longer bigger-on-the-inside. He was curious about where his sons' construction went. He had hypothesised that they were stored in the pocket dimension that his sons used to expand the yard, but Ferb insisted that they just vanished. Leaving that mystery aside for another time, Lawrence opened up the computer that his Aunt River and the Doctor had given him and opened his email. Addressing a new email to the address that he had been given (apparently it was the email for the Tardis), Lawrence began to write a letter to Ferb's biological parents:

Dear Aunt River and the Doctor

I know that I have been sending you a lot of emails this summer, more than normal. But if kept it to the normal number of letters, they would probably overload even the Tardis' systems with how big they would be. In the past week alone, Ferb has built…