ALAN AND TARA'S DAY IN THE CITY

Chapter Seventeen

After Juliet picked out her clothes and the Doctor paid for them, Alan paid for his stuffed tiger and Tara paid for her t-shirt and backpack, they headed over to the restroom so she could change. Tara went in with her and emerged a moment later wearing the t-shirt with her backpack on her back.

"Ta-da!" she said, spinning around.

"Oooo, lookie, she got a depressed donkey on her chest now," Alan said, bending over to stare at it.

"His name's Eeyore," Tara said.

"Really? I thought his name was Roger for some reason," Alan muttered while she giggled. "Isn't he from that obscure children's book, Gervais the Poop or something like that?"

While they were waiting on Juliet, the Doctor filled them in on what they were going to do.

"Ah! See guys, I told ya, I told ya Tara would wanna bring her back to Nova," Jack said when he was finished telling them."So we're gonna do it then?"

"If she wants to go, yes," the Doctor said, shrugging.

"Can she come with us to the movie tonight then, Daddy?"

The Doctor slapped his forehead with the palm of his head.

"Bugger, I forgot you wanted to do that," he said.

"Movie?" Jack said.

"I asked Daddy if we could go see the Harry Potter movie at the GM building tonight."

"Which one is it?" Jack asked,"Harry Potter gets his pubes?"

"Jack!" the Doctor said as everyone else bent over laughing.

"Well, I don't know the titles of the books, I never read em," Jack said. "I just know it's Harry Potter and the something something. I guessed pubes."

"Why does that not surprise me?" the Doctor said.

The bathroom door opened and Juliet stepped out holding her old clothes in her arms. She was dressed in lavender shorts, a plain white t-shirt and white socks with red and white converse on her feet. Everyone nodded approvingly.

"Feel better?" the Doctor asked.

"Much better. What a relief," Juliet said. "Thanks again!"

"Don't thank me, thank Tara, she saw you first," the Doctor said.

Juliet smiled and gave her a hug.

"Thank ya, baby," she said.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you're better now," she said. "We're going to go see Harry Potter tonight so come with us."

"Um...okay, I've never seen any of the Harry Potter movies though," she said as the Doctor grabbed the other bags of clothes, drinks for everyone and toiletries for Juliet from the trolley and left the trolley behind.

He glanced at the winter clothes in Juliet's arms and made a face.

"Juliet, throw those away when we get outside. Those are old and worn and dirty. You don't need em anymore," he said to her.

She nodded and followed everyone out the door. Once she got outside, she dumped the dirty clothes in the trash recepticle while everyone cheered. Then they followed Tara towards the minivan. As they followed Tara, the Doctor stared at the backpack and grinned. He fished around in his pocket, brought out his yo yo and unzipped her bag.

"Huh?" Tara said when she heard and felt the bag unzipping.

Everyone else laughed when he shoved the yo yo inside and reached in his pockets for more objects. Tara looked at him.

"What are you doing, Daddy?"

"Well, you have a new backpack and you're not using it except to store your other t-shirt so I thought I'd put it to good use," he said, putting his handkerchief inside it.

"Quit that!" Tara said laughing as he dropped a handful of marbles into it.

Alan ran up and put his tiger into the bag.

"Quit!" Tara said between giggles.

"Look, Brother," Alan said pointing to the Eeyore on her backpack. "How appropriate that Eeyore is on here since the woman is now our pack mule!"

Tara laughed and took off running for the minivan. Reaching it, she put her hand on the back of it while she waited for the others.

"Good, you didn't run off with Scratch," Alan said when they reached the car.

"I wouldn't want your stupid stuffed cat anyway," Tara replied, walking to the sliding door.

Alan walked around, got inside and unlocked the doors for everyone else. The Doctor let Juliet go first and then everyone else got in around her.

"So we're heading back to the city then?" Jack said.

"Yeah, I'll head back that way and we can see the film before heading home," Alan replied. "Besides the drive back will give Brother time to explain to Juliet what we're all about."

Juliet was curious about that but kept silent, letting the Doctor tell her when they were ready. They all got situated inside and Jack passed out the drinks. As Alan drove out of the parking lot, the Doctor took a sip of his cold iced tea and began to explain who they were to Juliet. At first Juliet was freaked out when he told her they were aliens and admitted as much when the Doctor paused upon noticing her discomfort.

"So ya'll are like those robots that attacked a few years ago?"

The Doctor shook his head emphatically.

"No, nothing like them. In fact, we fight those robots whenever we come across them. It was me and Rose that were responsible for getting rid of them that day. No, we're not evil in any way."

He continued on and once Juliet's fears were eased, she listened spellbound while she sipped her Coke. For added proof, the Doctor took out his stethoscope and let her listen to his hearts.

"This is incredible," she said when he finished. "I would have been more scared but I can see ya'll are good people."

"We are. We won't hurt you or anyone else," the Doctor assured her. "Well,correction, won't hurt anyone else that's innocent and not trying to take over the universe."

"So you came here from the future to go sightseeing in Detroit?" Juliet said amused.

"Well, actually, Alan and Tara were here at first and their TARDIS chose this place randomly. We went out to eat at this Chinese restaurant in Nova and came down to be with them after it since we were all kinda bored and curious."

"Well, thanks for explaining all of that. Least I know now how you could have seen Detroit in the 1960's and look this young," she said.

"Yeah but even that was a few centuries ago. I'm over twelve hundred years old."

"Dang!" Juliet said. "You look good for your age."

"Tell me about it," Rain replied.

She chuckled when the Doctor raised his eyebrow at that.

"So did you marry the man before or after you became an alien?"

"Before. We fell in love when I was still a human," she said."Out of all the people in here, he's known Rose the longest and then Jack and we all came later."

By now, Alan had reached the inner city and drove up towards the GM building while they continued to talk.

"So, ya'll want me to come with you into the future?" Juliet said.

"Yes, we can take you to Nova and I can get you a house there around the corner from my family. If it hasn't been sold yet, I can get you the house across from Linus which would mean you would be next door to my daughter Jenny and my sister Grace and sister in law, Amber."

"How many kids ya got?"

"Four. I have Dex who is my son from my first marriage. My biological daughter, Jenny, who was cloned from my hand like Alan was and my two adopted daughters, Dorothy and Weirdo."

"Hey!" Tara said as they laughed.

The Doctor tousled her hair. All of them are mine but Dorothy is Maddie's child. Dorothy sorta adopted me on the advice of a dear departed friend that she was able to see. So she is mine and Maddie's and the rest consider Rain as their mother."

"Do you have any children of your own?" Juliet asked Rain. "Biological children, I mean."

"No, we're sterile. Gallifreyans were made from machines called looms because they're all born sterile. So that's why Tara and Dorothy were adopted. Jenny was cloned from his hand and Dex was loomed. He's the only one of our children that was loomed on Gallifrey before it was destroyed."

"And that's what you meant about being homeless?" Juliet asked the Doctor.

"Yes. Although, truth be told, Earth has always been a second home to me and the TARDIS is like a house but in technical terms, I had no true homeworld for awhile. Now I live on New Hope but I don't consider myself to be a native. It's just where my family is and where I go to rest in between our travels. If you come with us, you'll get to meet everybody. We're a very tightknit group of people, friends and family who live there and a few work there and down here on Earth and then when I go out to travel, people travel with me whenever they feel like it. But usually Rain goes with me and Tara and most of the time Alan and Rose. Everybody else travels whenever they have the time and when they feel like it."

"Sounds exciting," Juliet said.

"I think so but then that's what I was born to do," the Doctor said. "And to keep it fresh and exciting, I take along people I can show the wonders of the universe to. That way I get to experience what I've seen through their eyes and enjoy their delight."

"It's dangerous at times too," Rose said. "Sometimes you have to fight monsters or evildoers but even that's exciting. Sure beats a menial job on Earth."

Everyone murmured their agreement. Alan found a parking garage next door to the Renaissance Center and pulled inside it. He went up to the second level and parked near a tunneled walkway that went over the road into the Renaissance Center. They started to get out when Jack stopped them.

"Are we getting popcorn?" he said. "Because we could use Tara's backpack and sneak some of our food inside there."

They looked at each other.

"Star, give Jack your backpack so he can fill it up for us," he said.

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