ALAN AND TARA'S DAY IN THE CITY

Chapter Eighteen

"Ah, nice to get out of that hot air again," Alan said as they went through double doors into the Renaissance Center.

They headed for the center of the building where all the escalators were. They headed up to the next level and over to Tower 200 where the movie theater was located. They went behind a partition and paid for their tickets. Once they were inside, the Doctor, Alan and Jack went up to the snack bar to get drinks while the rest of them headed into the theater. Tara's backpack had been cleaned out and held nothing except cheeseburgers, chicken rings and chicken sandwiches for them to eat.

"Glad I got this," Tara said as they opened the door and walked into the theater. It was semidark and Beat It was playing over the sound system while they walked halfway down the aisle and went into a row on the right side of the theater. They sat down in the red cushioned seats while Tara took her backpack off and handed it to her mother.

"Glad I got that," Tara said.

"Yes but now it'll smell like burgers," Ianto said.

Tara sat down right beside the aisle. Rain made a space in between them for the Doctor and sat down next to it. Juliet sat next to her followed by Madison and then Rose and Ianto.

"Do you want your food now or do you wanna wait for the boys to come back with the drinks?" she asked everyone.

"Wait," they said.

Rain nodded and set the backpack down between her legs while everyone relaxed. While Ianto chatted with Rose and Madison, Juliet chatted with Rain.

"So you're sterile but do you regret changing and not having children of your own with the Doctor now?" Juliet asked her. "I mean, I don't mean to be rude but you know, most women want biological children with their husbands."

"We talked about it and there are a couple of ways we could have children if we wanted to but they're pretty painful and at the moment we're not interested. Although, we haven't ruled out the possibility of having one of our own at some point."

"Really? You wanna have kids of your own, Mommy?"

"Well, not right now, Baby. We're raising you and Daddy's raising Dorothy plus we both love traveling too much at the moment but maybe someday we will."

"Yeah, Alan and I are bringing up two of our own. We have a four year old daughter and a one year old daughter, both adopted. And alot of times we leave them with my mum so we can travel and there's times I feel guilty about that so Alan and I try to stay home as often as we can so they don't grow up not knowing us."

"How many kids ya'll got?"

"I have Dorothy," Madison said."They have their four, they have two, Dex, the Doctor's son, has two girls, Rose's mother has a four year old boy and we have friends that have a four year old boy and another friend that has an eight year old girl. Plus, Tara has a second mother and father from another dimension and they have a nine year old son along with adopting her. So we have quite a number of kids at the moment."

"And they're all adopted?" Juliet asked.

"Not all of em. Dex had his when he was human and capable of it which is another long story we'll have to tell you. We have a friend named Karishma who is from another dimension and her daughter is Tara's double from the dimension. She's eight and named Bala. And there's a family of former slaves from 1863 and one of them is a little four year old named Toby. Other than that, everyone else was adopted except for Jenny and Dex, of course."

Tara felt someone nudge her shoulder and looked up to see the Doctor, Alan and Jack. They were carrying cardboard holders that had large cups of soda in them.

"Meep meep," the Doctor said. "Pull back them leggys so we can get through."

Tara drew her legs back and let Jack and Alan pass.

"I assume this empty seat is for me," the Doctor said, sitting down in between his wife and daughter.

Alan sat down beside Rose and Ianto switched places with him to sit beside Jack. They passed out the drinks and Rain passed out the sandwiches. Tara bit into her chicken sandwich and made a face.

"It's cold, Daddy."

He stared at her with wide eyes.

"Gee, why do you think that is? Maybe because we got them several hours earlier and there's no microwave around?" he said."You know, when I was on Lalantia in my third life, the high chief of the Popogani tribe served me cold Camalari fish and I had to eat the slimy thing on pain of death because not eating it would have been a major insult to the Popogani chief. So be happy you only have to eat a cold White Castle chicken sandwich."

He heard Rain laughing and turned his head to see Juliet giving him an odd look.

"Popo...what?" she said as everyone laughed.

The Doctor giggled.

"Popogani tribe of the planet Lalantia in the Comoros Galazy near the Azure Starbust waaaaaay on the other side of the universe. Nice place."

Juliet looked at Rain.

"Is he bullshitting us?" she said while the others bent over laughing.

Rain looked at her husband. The Doctor waggled his eyebrows at her and winked. She looked back at Juliet and shrugged.

"Honestly, sometimes I really don't know," she said. "I have Time Lady knowledge of the universe but there are some planets out there that are still unknown and sometimes I really don't have a clue if he's visited these places or if he's making up stuff."

"I'm not making it up. I really was there!" the Doctor said indignantly. "If you don't believe me, fine! I'll sit here, eat my chicken ring and sulk all night."

He took a chicken ring from the box on Rain's lap and bit into it. He pulled a face and held it out at arm's length.

"Ewww, it's all cold! Why is it cold?" he said in a snotty voice.

They laughed when Tara swatted his head and he put his arm around her while he chewed the rest of the ring.

By now others were starting to file into the theater. The Doctor looked over when two attractive teenage girls came down the aisle. Both were brunette with long, flowing hair. Both were thin and tall. One had an angular face while the other had a plump face and was wearing round glasses with brown frames. They noticed the Doctor and stopped to admire him for a second before they walked up towards the front.

"People do that alot with you, Daddy. They stop and look."

"Because I'm a pretty boy, Star," he replied, taking another chicken ring out of the box. "Women seem to like that sort of thing."

The women sat down five rows up. They turned around in their seats, caught the Doctor's eye and giggled. The Doctor put his index and middle finger against his forehead and gave them a salute.

"Nice to know I'm not the only one who gets harrassed by horny people," Rain said.

"We're just two gorgeous people, Latara. Someday, Tara will have to deal with the same problem as we."

"Not if I can help it," Tara muttered.

The lights dimmed and the previews started. The first preview was for GI Joe. The Doctor frowned when he saw someone near the beginning of the trailer that looked familiar.

Brother, Rose, did you think that one chap looked alot like my old self? he thought to them.

Rose giggled in his head.

As a matter of fact, yes, I do think he looks like your previous self, she thought. Did you volunteer to be in this movie sometime in your ninth life?

I don't think so...course I did a lot of crazy things and sometimes memories do get lost after regeneration. Maybe I did, he thought.

Tara reached over and plucked a chicken ring out of the box. She leaned against her father while she ate it and he put his arm around her shoulder and kissed her head before getting another chicken ring.

Tara was giggling halfway through the movie because every so often she heard Jack and Ianto ask Alan what was going on.

"So Voldemort's soul split and he's got them in objects?" she heard him whispering to Alan.

"Horcruxes. When he murdered people, it shattered his soul and he could place pieces of his soul into objects so no one could kill him."

Tara glanced down and giggled at the odd look on Jack's face.

"Star, it's not polite to laugh at other people's obvious confusion because they're too stupid to read a brilliant book series like Harry Potter."

"Sorry, Daddy, I won't laugh at the confused person again," Tara said while he chuckled.

"So...there's a big university filled with witches in the middle of England and nobody notices it?" Jack whispered to Alan.

"Because they cast a spell on Hogwarts to hide it from Muggles," Alan whispered back.

"And muggles are us?"

Alan sighed.

"Jack, when we get back home, I'm lending you my Harry Potter books and you sit there every evening when you get back from the Hub and read them!" he whispered.

"I think we should have waited and taken Jack to see GI Joe," the Doctor whispered to Tara. "I think he would have understood that better since I have a feeling that it mainly consists of people blowing things up."

Jack checked his watch and his eyebrows raised.

"This is a long movie," Jack whispered to Alan.

"Jack, they're all long movies, the whole bleedin' series. All of them are three hours long or more."

"Wow!" Jack muttered.

He settled back in his seat, then looked at Ianto. He leaned over and kissed his cheek. Ianto gave him a quizzical look and he waggled his eyebrows and grinned.

"Here?" Ianto mouthed to him.

He shook his head and hooked his thumb back at the door. They both stood up and walked past the others.

"Ought-oh, now where are they going?" Madison whispered to the others while they watched them hurry up the aisle to the door.

"Probably off to shag in the loo or something," Rose whispered back.

They all turned their attention back to the movie. When it ended, they noticed that Jack and Ianto still hadn't returned.

"Five quid says they went back to the car," Rose said.

"If they did, they're gonna have a hard time getting into it because I have the keys," Alan said as the lights went up.

They went out into the lobby and looked around but couldn't find them. They searched the bathrooms but they weren't there either. The Doctor let out an angry sigh.

Harkness, where'd ya go? The film's over now, he thought to him.

Oh, it is? We're out by the lake on that plaza thing, Jack thought back. We got bored and came out here to kiss.

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Not much for fantasy is he?" Madison said as they walked.

"No, because I'm sure he has enough fantasy going through his mind," the Doctor replied.

"Do you know where they went?" Juliet asked.

"Yeah, they're outside," the Doctor said.

"How do you know?" Juliet asked.

The Doctor looked around and when he saw no one was nearby, he explained their shared minds and the telepathy.

"Damn, wish I could do that. That's better than cell phones," she said.

They went down the escalators to the ground floor and headed out the back and across the street to the plaza. By now it was dark and the lights from the Caesar's Palace casino lit up the lake. Besides Jack and Ianto, several couples and a group of teens were in it sitting around and joking or strolling along beside the barrier while they held hands. Jack and Ianto hurried over to them.

"Sorry, everyone, we got bored and came out here for awhile for a little romantic view," he said.

"You two are dating?" Juliet said.

"Married, actually, just recently," he said.

"Oh, congratulations."

"Thanks," Jack said, beaming.

He looked at the Doctor.

"So now what?" he said.

"Now we go back to the TARDIS and head for home," the Doctor said.

Jack smirked.

"Ditch the van again like last time?"

"I s'pose we'll have to since we have no way of getting back besides the bus and I don't wanna ride that. It's cramped enough as it is in the people carrier. They'll figure out it's abandoned eventually and tow it back."

"Wow, that's irresponsible," Juliet said.

"Well, we won't be back here, at least not in the forseeable future so they can't arrest us!"

They laughed when he stuck his tongue out.

"Ya'll are crazy but I like ya," she said.

"Good because I have a feeling you're gonna be stuck with us for a very looooooong time!" the Doctor said as they walked back to the parking garage.

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