"What?!" The Doctor exclaimed. "No I couldn't have been gone that long!"

"Well you were!" Fern had started to break down. She hasn't broken down since a therapy session a month ago. Greg had finally gotten to her and she just sobbed through the whole thing.

"No, no, there must be a mistake or should only be four months!"

"I'm sixteen now! It's been eleven years! Eleven years of therapy!"

"No, no, it can't be. . ."

"Well it can be!" Fern choked, on her sobs. "You promised me too. Promised that you'd come every Christmas. And ya know what?! You never came! I'd stay by that door, waiting for you to show up! But you never did! I'd search the house, I'd the search the whole orphanage, and you were no where! You lied. To a little girl who needed everyone she could get! Someone to love! Someone who loved her! And you threw it all away!" Fern wiped away her tears, and cleared her throat.

"Fern, I-" the Doctor began.

"Save it for the next little kid you save." Fern interrupted coldly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He said. Fern closed her eyes. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her and a chin resting on her head.

"I'm so, so sorry." He whispered.

Fern unknowingly hugged back, crying into the alien's chest. She could hear an echoing heart beat, as if there were two of them. Fern shivered and looked up at the man. She shivered again, and the Doctor could see the little five year old he found all those years ago in the abandoned house.

"Have you come to take me back?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

"Cos you haven't for eleven yea-"

"You're not going to let that go are you?"

"Doctor what's taking so long?" Fern pulled away from the Doctor and looked down the street.

"My God."

"Is everything alright?" The blonde woman asked slightly jogging towards the two.

"Rose, we have to talk."

"About what?"

"Now." The Doctor had stepped forward and had walked up to Rose turning her around and started whispering to her.

Fern had had years of training with straining her ears when trying to hear Eric's phone calls to his girlfriend through the vents, so she had heard everything.

"That's Fern." The Doctor whispered.

"What?! No it can't be!" Rose whispered back. "You were supposed to go back four months!"

"I may have miscalculated and landed us to where Fern is now sixteen. It's been eleven years."

"No, our Fern is sixteen?! Jack is going to-"

"Jack?! Captain Jack Harkness?" Fern exclaimed but immediately regretted it. She had blown her cover.

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"Just a little, now tell me about Jack."

"Jack, just after, the uh, incident, he was taken back to World War Two, and we haven't heard of him since. Though I've spotted him in history books. He's mostly in urban legends though." The was a silence, and Fern was feeling very awkward. It may be the teenager talking, or the fact that the people she's been made to think that don't exist are right in front of her.

"Would you guys like a cuppa?" She asked.

"Yes, actually. It's really cold." Fern nodded and headed into the house, beckoning Rose and the Doctor to follow.

"You two in the basement, I'll get the tea." Fern pointed to the basement door. They both nodded and went down the stairs into the basement as Fern prepared tea as quietly as she could. She was soon finished and went downstairs with the tray, she set it down on the coffee table and everyone took a cup.

"So uh, why do you have a new face?" Fern asked. "And a really handsome one at that?"

"I regenerated, TimeLords do that instead of dying, well, we do die eventually. We can only regenerate thirteen times. And I believe this is my tenth one. Yes, my tenth one." He answered.

"Well, as long as your alive. That's all the matters to me at least."

~ * ~

Over the remainder of the night they all caught up with each other. They soon fell asleep after their chat, except for the Doctor though, since he doesn't sleep. Fern had taken the liberty of falling asleep cuddling the Doctor. Her head was resting on his chest her arms hugging his waist and her legs sprawled and tangled with Rose's legs. The Doctor liked it this way, he's got his adopted daughter back and no one was going to take her away.

"What the bloody hell is goin' on in here!" Greg, Chris, and Eric's voices screeched. Fern immediately woke up and paled, not knowing what to say or do, so all she said, and very sheepishly I might add, was:

"Whoops."