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Tell me a story, Doctor!" Tony demanded, feverish and tired. He had rejected all his books.
The plan had been for the Doctor and Rose to keep Tony over the weekend while Pete and Jackie went to Monaco. Then Tony had awakened, feverish with the flu and now Pete and Jackie were on a very slow zeppelin coming home.
Not that Rose and the Doctor minded, really. The Doctor had pronounced it good practice for whenever they ended up parents. (Well, at least until the Doctor had read enough books to make himself hoarse and an uncomfortable Tony was still not sleeping.)
"Tell you a story? Shouldn't you be trying to sleep?"
"Can't sleep. Please?" Tony's resemblance to his sister worked to his advantage, as the Doctor found himself unable to say no.
"Okay....let me think." Well....he could tell the Slitheen story. Tony would probably giggle himself silly over the more crude aspects of the tale. "No, that would just get you keyed up and we don't need that..."the Doctor mused aloud.
The cat nuns? Probably not a good choice, given that It might put Tony even more off of pediatrician visits than he already was.
Not the Wire, he'd never sleep with that visual in his mind. The Doctor still woke up from nightmares of Rose's blank face.
Exhausted from caring for Tony late into the night, the Doctor began to tell the only tale he could think of, one drawn from popular culture.
With a few of his own tweaks, of course.
"There was once a pink and yellow princess...."
"Princess Peach from Mario?" Tony interrupted.
"No, not Princess Peach. Princess Rosebud. She was the most beautiful, kindest princess in all the land. Her hair was bright yellow and she wore the most beautiful dress of pink...."
"Like Princess Peach," Tony asserted.
"Nothing like Princess Peach. Now, listen....."
"Is this gonna be a girly story?"
The Doctor sighed. "It will be an amazing tale of adventure and love."
"So there's kissing?"
"Do you want to hear the story or not, Tony?" the Doctor asked in the sternest voice he could muster. It wasn't particularly stern at all since he was about to start laughing.
"Yeah," Tony said. "But is there kissin'?"
"Maybe, you'll just have to wait and see! Now.... she had caught the attention of a traveling man from the distant village of...Gallifrey. He loved the princess but was much too scared to tell her. One day, bad men tried to kidnap her! So the traveling man grabbed her hand and told her to "run," and she did. They ran everywhere together, finding people who needed help and saving them.
"Sometimes Rosebud got into trouble, because she was so jeopardy-friendly, and the traveler had to rescue her. But more often than not, she did the rescuing. She saved him from a life of sadness, that's for sure. Whenever he'd ask her, 'how long are you going to stay with me?' Princess Rosebud would answer....."
Rose supplied the response from her spot in the doorway. "Forever."
The Doctor turned and smiled. "Didn't know I had an audience other than Mr. Tony here."
Rose walked in and sat on the bed by his side. She briefly touched her hand to her feverish brother's forehead. "Go on, I want to hear more."
"Yeah, are they gonna kiss now? Or are there some monsters? Can there be some monsters?"
Rose and the Doctor laughed. "Kissing or monsters?" Rose inquired.
"First monsters, then kissing," the Doctor decided. Tony rolled his eyes but accepted it. "On their adventures they met many different creatures...they met monsters that looked like big giant cats and also one big werewolf!"
"Werewolf! Wow!"
He eyed his little brother in law, and announced, "They even met monsters that tooted."
Tony, predictably, fell apart laughing, which morphed into a coughing fit. The Doctor rubbed his back until he stopped. He wished he'd kept to his original plan of skipping that story, but in the end he couldn't resist. He'd become as much of a five-year-old as Tony was. "Y'okay, little mate?"
"Yeah! Tell me more!"
The Doctor smiled at Rose. "Well....there was one monster that was a pencil scribble. That was a crazy one. Just turned out to be a lonely alien wanting to go home."
"Like ET," Tony yawned.
Sensing that sleep was imminent, the Doctor softened his voice. "And they had wonderful, fun scary adventures. But the traveler was still too scared to tell the Princess how he felt. One day some evil pepper pots from outer space came and made her disappear before he could say anything....."
"Oh, no!" Tony breathed, wide awake again.
The Doctor locked eyes with Rose. "He figured a way to say goodbye to her but he couldn't get an ' I love you' out in time. She was brave and told him, but he...." As his voice trailed off, Rose took his hand and gave him a gentle squeeze.
"Is this gonna have a happy ending?" Tony asked.
"Are you worried?" the Doctor asked. Tony nodded. "We're getting to the best part, though. Wanna hear it?"
Tony nodded emphatically, settling back against his pillows.
"So do I," Rose murmured. "Can't leave it like that."
"Well.... The traveling man was sad and mopey and thought he'd never see his Rosebud again. But she was brave and clever and never gave up. When all the universes were in trouble she figured out a way to save them and find her traveling man. But there was a big battle."
"The pepper pots again?" Tony murmured sleepily.
"Yes, actually it was, how did you know?"
"Just did."
The Doctor nodded with a brief smile. "There was a battle with the pepper pots and it was very bad. The traveling man had to change to stay with his Rosebud. But he knew what to do. This time he was brave and told her how much he loved her. And they kissed. A properly big kiss. One that beat that one in that movie all to heck."
Rose started snickering at that, expecting her brother to comment. They both looked down to see him dozing off.
"So how's it end?" Rose whispered after a few moments of silence.
"Hasn't ended yet," the Doctor replied. "I'm sure it's happily ever after, though."
They stood up quietly, trying not to jostle the bed. "You have me for all our ever after, Doctor."
"Then that's a happy ending." He stifled a sudden cough. "I hope that's in sickness and in health, too."
Rose sighed and felt his forehead. "To bed with you, Time Lord."
He moaned as they left Tony's room. "Time Lords don't get the flu...."
"This one does."
"Wizard. Tell me a story then?"
Rose snickered and promised, "If you're a good boy and don't complain too much about the kissing parts."