x- children and challenges -x- a log -x

[catherine dtardis]

"Killian! I don't care what Charlotte says her mom and dad let her do, I'm your father and I'm telling you that you can't just sneak out of the TARDIS at night and  go and do whatever you want..." the doctor shouted but then a sudden change in his attitude." You know, I'm absolutely certain that Seth and Carrigan don't allow their daughter to do that, and I'm going to call and ask them..."The Doctor was following his  son down the spiral staircase to go downstairs. "Catherine! are you home?" shouted again before talking to his son again. "Though trying to bypass lumie's door access port was absolutely brilliant... i'll have the shore it up."

the door to the ocean room was open, and that is where catherine was sitting on the beach stark naked on a soft blanket in the sand. cassiopeia was on her stomach in front of her.  both mother and daughter were facing the ocean.  catherine was trying to draw cassiopeia's attention to the seven colored teething fish in front of the baby, but the little girl wasn't hearing any of it.  smacking the fish out of her way with erratic gestures of her arms and making a red-faced fuss.  "honestly peia, do you know what your gran would say to you carrying on like a fuss-bucket?"  catherine knew what the baby wanted, but she believed the fourth-month-old was still too young.  cue an angry timelord calling for her.  "saved by your daddy," she murmured to herself, scooping up the baby and resting her against her left shoulder.  of course, since catherine was taking them away from the ocean the baby started fussing louder and kicking her little legs in protest, but catherine was ignoring it as she walked toward the father-son disagreement.  it seemed like that kind of day.  "of course i'm home, who else would be with your daughter?"  a little good natured cheek from catherine who was ignoring said daughter's screeching.

"Lumie." The doctor said without skipping a beat, Killian was all huffy when he  stomped on into the ocean room. and wrapped both arms around her legs. "Daddy said I can't go outside" he pouted into her legs. The doctor stepped forward and leaned forward and gave his wife a kiss, taking the kicking and screaming baby from her and bouncing the small child a few times. "he said that Charlotte said she gets to go out whenever she wants. What's wrong with Peia today? Hm? whats wrong with you?" that last bit said with a smile to his baby girl.

"oh."  that stopped catherine short, that was a very logical and good answer.  after a moment of thought and kiss shared between them, she said off-handedly, "i don't think lumie's here..."  which was neither here nor there at the moment.  it seemed that they were trading children, since the doctor took the baby and catherine's "baby" was now clinging on her.  "charlotte is a very nice little girl, baby, but she's also three years older than you are.  you're a big boy, but you're not big enough yet to go out on your own.  where did you need to go on your own?"  she was being patient with killian, maybe the doctor would be more patient with cassiopeia.  who quieted for a few moments when daddy took her, watching her father with silent fascination as he bounced her.  she always looked at the doctor like he fascinated her.  but then the doctor opened up pandora's box by asking the baby what was wrong, and boy did peia let him know in her four-month-old way.  the shrieking wails started again as the baby balled her fists and caused her own little scene.  the baby was intensely frustrated with the fact that she couldn't articulate like her big brother could, which didn't help things any.  catherine watched the little girl and sighed.  "i think she wants to go in the water...."  as had been the case with killian until he was six months old, catherine hadn't ever submerged the baby and just gave her sponge baths in the sink with an inch or two of water.

Killian was a huffy huff boy and leaned into his mom, whispering so his mean father couldn't hear. "I can go to school with lumie and help!" that help said loudly so that the doctor could hear him and would know killian was displeased the doctor on the other had rested his daughter against a shoulder and bounced her a bit as he pet her back. "I know, I know, but your mommy is right Peia, you're too young to go swimming in the big water but you're going to be able to soon, and when you do, don't you know it, you're going to be glad that you waited."

"ohh, baby...." catherine leaned down (note that she didn't even think it was strange that she was stark nude in front of her son, naked was natural to mermaid catherine which is why the boy complained when she made him put clothes on when he didn't feel like it) so that she could be eye to eye with the little boy.  "when you turn four in a few months we can sign you up for your own classes that you can take with other boys and girls your age, wouldn't you like that more?  right now peia needs a lot of help learning, she's very little and she needs to have you here to be an example so she can watch what you can do to learn from it...isn't that a good way to help?"  catherine had skillz.  and it was true, peia did need her big brother around.  peia, thankfully, was listening to her father.  she'd gone from shrieking and wailing to just letting out a very complicated whining sound, burying her face in her father's shoulder to show she was still very unhappy.  but it was progress?

Killian gave a nice big heaving heavy sigh to show her that he didn't like what she said but he gave a pouty nod. "yes... I can have more friends." which might have been killian's greater issue, because lumie had his friends and killian was maybe starting to feel left out of lumie and his games a bit. "and I can teach Peia..." another pouty addition there. and when the doctor heard killian say that last bit. "Did you hear that baby doll? your big brother is going to teach you! isn't that exciting?"

"i'll call charlotte's dad and see if jacob can go to classes with you, and then you'll even have a friend you already know.  okay?  and i'll ask them if they'd like to have a visit from us so you can play with him and charlotte."  note she said she'd call seth.  carrigan...freaked catherine out.  of course whenever she was talking to carrigan, catherine was so nice and polite no one would know.  catherine pressed her lips to killian's forehead and tousled his hair.  "that is doing mommy a very important favor.  in fact can you teach peia right now?  why don't you find your baby book on constellations and teach her about the one you named her after and the others?"  there was catherine trying to get her and the doctor a break.  as for peia, her protests were trailing off.  without the ocean in front of her, and with neither one of her parents listening to her protests, well...her memory was so only long and she was getting tired.  so she rolled her head to the side, looking up at her father and kicking her little legs with a simple "ahhhh" in reply.

Killian positively beamed at his mom, but made a face when she messed his hair up! "Lumie did that!" and Killian stomped a foot and fixed his hair with a nod. "okie mommy! Peia! I'm going to teach you. come on dad, to my room" Killian said with a smile up at his sister and father before going off to his room to get his book, the doctor moved to follow and stopped to give his wife a kiss. "You're absolutely amazing, you know that right? like, amazing... I'll be right back." and the doctor moved to follow his son, dropping Peia off so that she could sit with her brother.

catherine did a very good job at not laughing at killian's protest.  really she was just thankful that the doctor didn't tease her that the boy had inherited her very high level of concern about hair.  the boy had merfolk in him after all, they were a vain race.  "thank you baby.  for teaching peia you get to pick what's for dessert later!"  there.  she threw in that added bit of incentive to make sure big brother made good on his promise.  returning the kiss, her lips lingered as long as the doctor allowed them to and she rubbed the little girl's back.  "don't be too long," she said with a cheeky smile at him.  now she just had to pray that peia would be happy with killian entertaining her and wouldn't cause a fuss.  while the doctor got the kids settled catherine went back into the ocean room, to collect up peia's fish and put them in the plastic bucket.

The doctor wasn't gone all too long, and when he walked back in, he had left his long brown overcoat and his suit's jacket in the living area and he was also removing his tie as he walked back into the ocean room. "even picking up our baby's toys from the sand you should know that you looked stunning." The doctor didn't really stumble through the sand anymore he'd gotten used to it in his walking around it for so long.

"i bet you'd look just as stunning picking up toys, my foxy husband, you should try it sometime."  she gave him a grin to go with that little dig.  as brilliant as he was, the doctor was very good at causing clutter more than he was at cleaning it up.  with the pail in one hand catherine stood, blanket clenched in her other to pull it up and shake it free of the sand.  she wasn't expecting that they'd stay in here, though for all she knew the doctor could have other plans.  "is everything going alright in there?  where did killian go, did he get far?  how did you know he'd gone?"  a whole string of questions for the doctor.  catherine had dealt with killian very calmly, but the fact of the matter was that she was a bit of a worrywart and the fact that their boy had escaped was just plain unsettling to her.

"I do pick up toys, they're just my own." said with a firm nod, sliding his hands into the pockets of his slacks "Everything, is brilliant, they're reading along, she has his thirst for knowledge. but she needs to turn the page, or at least try to... and uh, he didn't get out, he tried, using lumie's opening device, that I'd installed so lumie could get in and out without being a human. he didn't get it to work, but it was an absolutely brilliant tactic."

catherine couldn't help sighing.  "i swear you'd think that baby thinks everything is a race with how fast she wants to accomplish everything.  it's very frustrating."  not to mention exhausting.  after a moment of thought she added, "she wants to do everything he can do, he wants to do everything lumie can do, lumie wants to do everything you can do, it's all three of them really..." what a horrible realization to have.  it was enough to make her drop the bucket and blanket in the sand when she reached him, so that she could wrap her arms around her husband and rest her head on his shoulder.  "are we doing something wrong?"  she couldn't help asking that, not when all three of the children were following the same pattern.

"yeah, I think its funny that she likes to race to get everything done, likes to compete and all that, I wonder wherever she could have gotten that from. he stepped forward and wrapped both of his arms around her body, giving her bottom a squeeze and then pet his fingers through her hair. "we're not doing anything wrong my love. it's the nature of children... just watch, one day they'll all get along brilliantly and we'll see we did the right thing."

. . .tbc. . .