Disclaimer:I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: Welcome to the first chapter of 'Growing Pains' – I've decided to just keep this title, since I can't think of another one. This story will run through series 8, including the Christmas Special, and possibly series 9 as well, I haven't decided yet. So without further ado, please enjoy…

Deep Breath – Part One

A crowd gathered on the south bank of the Thames, staring up at a large tyrannosaur roaring as Big Ben clanged three times. "Come on, out of the way. Move yourself, please. Coming through. That's it. Excuse me, sir" a policeman ushered Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax through the crowd to the Inspector, Mr Gregson. He turned to the Silurian with a look of near relief. "Madam Vastra, thank God. I'll wager you've not seen anything like this before" he suggested.

"Well, not since I was a little girl" Vastra remarked, looking up at the dinosaur with a bit of nostalgia. Jenny commented, "Big fella, isn't he?" and Vastra's lips twitched in amusement. "Dinosaurs were mostly this size. I do believe it's a she" the Silurian corrected her human wife. Jenny frowned in puzzlement and protested, "No, they weren't, I've seen fossils".

"I was there" Vastra retorted. Gregson, who hadn't really been paying attention to them, said "Well, that's all well and good, but what's this dinosaur fellow doing in the Thames?" he questioned. The tyrannosaur sloshed through the water and roared, making the crowd scream in fear and also a bit of excitement. Vastra surmised that a lot of them believed this was all some sort of hoax; she'd noticed, over the years, that humans liked to ignore what was right in front of them in favour of believing it had been faked.

"It must have time travelled. Jenny?" Vastra turned to her, and she held up a scanner embedded in her glove. Gregson frowned in bewilderment. "Time travelled?" he repeated incredulously, as the dinosaur seemed to hack and cough. "Is it choking?" asked Jenny. She really hoped they weren't going to get vomited or spat on by a dinosaur. "There seems to be something lodged in its throat" Vastra suggested. Jenny then inquired, "How could it time travel?"

"I don't know. Perhaps it was something it ate" Vastra guessed, and her guess turned out to be surprisingly accurate as the dinosaur spat out the TARDIS, which spun through the air and miraculously landed right way up on the riverbank. "Stand back, stand back, stand back" Gregson urged the crowd, pushing his way forward to a better vantage point. The Paternoster Gang followed. "Well, it's just laid an egg" he declared, causing Vastra to look at him as if fearing for his sanity. "It's dropped a blue box marked Police out of its mouth. Your grasp of biology, it troubles me" she admitted, disturbed.

"It's the TARDIS".

"It would seem so".

Jenny turned to Gregson with a polite smile and informed him, "We'll take care of this, Inspector". Gregson tried to object, asking "But what if that thing goes on the rampage?" It was a valid concern, so Vastra took several spheres with three legs out of a sack, and placed them in the Inspector's arms. "Place these lanterns on the shoreline and bridges, encircling the creature at twenty foot intervals" she instructed.

"What will they do?"

"They will emit a signal that will incline it to remain within their circumference. Jenny, Strax. With me" Vastra beckoned, and the three of them made their way down some stone steps to the riverbank. The dinosaur ignored them. "So it's them, then, the Time Lords?" Jenny remarked. It would be nice to see them again. "A giant dinosaur from the distant past has just vomited a blue box from outer space" commented Vastra, "This is not a day for jumping to conclusions. Strax, if you wouldn't mind?" she asked, gesturing to the TARDIS.

The Sontaron marched up to the blue box and rapped on the spit smeared door. "Hello? Exit the box, and surrender to the glory of the Sontaran Empire" he demanded. The door was opened by a tall, grey haired stranger, who poked his head out as smoke billowed forth and said, "Shush". Then he promptly shut the door again. "Doctor?" Strax asked uncertainly – he knew the Time Lords could alter their appearances, but for all he knew, this man could be the other one, the one with the nice blaster.

The door opened again, this time by Romana. "Oh, hello Strax; sorry about that, the Doctor is"- she was cut off by her newly regenerated husband, who pushed past her out of the TARDIS and advanced on the Sontaron. "Sleepy?" he asked, peering at a very confused Strax. "Sir?"

"Bashful? Sneezy? Dopey? Grumpy" the Doctor continued. Romana sighed and told him, "He's not a dwarf, dear". She couldn't be too exasperated with him, he had just gone through a rather violent, abrupt regeneration, and he was bound to be a little loopy. "I knew that" he insisted, before spotting Jenny and Madam Vastra, and walking towards them. "Oh, you two; the green one and the not-green one. Or it could be the other way round, I mustn't prejudge".

Whilst he was talking, the others emerged from the TARDIS. Clara in particular looked rather dishevelled. The Doctor turned and gestured at his family, vaguely saying "Oh, you remember Romana, Emily…have you got bigger?" he asked his daughter suddenly, only to cut off her reply with "Never mind, just don't get any bigger…the blast-y one, the eye roll-y one, and um, the asking questions one. Names, not my area, unless they're important, like yours" he rambled, pointing at Romana.

"I'm Clara, and that's the Corsair and Flavia" his companion reminded him, pointing to herself and then the other two. "Those could be your names" the Doctor admitted, "They might not be. It's a lottery".

"Those are our names".

"Well, I'm not ruling it out" said the Doctor. The dinosaur let out a bellow that had Romana wincing and rubbing her ears. The Doctor noticed and yelled up at the tyrannosaur, "Oi, big man, shut it! You're hurting my wife's ears! Oh, big woman, sorry" he corrected himself. The Corsair whistled. "Blimey, look at the size of that beauty! I can't believe we dragged that along with us" he said, impressed. Flavia was just glad it wasn't trying to eat them.

"Doctor, listen to me. You, you need to calm down" Clara tried to say, only for the Doctor to ignore him. She turned to Romana and asked, "Has something gone wrong?" Of course, the Doctor heard that, and stared at her as if she was the alien. "Wrong? What's gone wrong? Have you regenerated?" he asked, advancing on her, "I remember you. You're Handles. You used to be a little, a little robot head, and now you…You've really let yourself go" he pronounced. Clara just stared back at him in shock, unable to believe that he didn't even recognise her.

The dinosaur roared again. "Reduce the frequency" the Doctor instructed Vastra. "I'm sorry?"

"Your sonic lanterns, turn them down. You're giving her a headache".

"Giving who a headache?" asked Jenny. Romana looked at her as though it should be obvious. "The dinosaur, of course, who else?" she inquired with a raised eyebrow and folded arms. "How do you know?" inquired Strax. The Doctor turned to him and replied, "Come on, Clara. You know that we speak dinosaur". The real Clara indignantly pointed at Strax and declared, "He's not Clara, I'm Clara!"

The Doctor looked between the two of them with apparently genuine confusion. "Well, you're very similar heights. Maybe you should wear labels?" he suggested, before frowning. "Why, why are you all doing that? Why are you? You're all going dark and wobbly. Stop that" he insisted, staggering backwards a few steps. He's going to drop unconscious, be ready to catch him, please Romana told the Corsair, who walked towards the Doctor with her. "Doctor, are we still going dark and wobbly?" she asked him.

"Yes…stop that" he muttered, before closing his eyes and swaying on the spot. He collapsed right into Romana and the Corsair's arms. Clara stepped forward and worriedly asked, "What do we do now?"

"Get the Doctor somewhere he can recover from his regeneration properly. Tea would help, the tannins will do wonders for healing his synapses" Romana explained as the Corsair heaved the other Time Lord into his arms. "Oof! Honestly, he stays skinny but he doesn't get any lighter" he remarked. Vastra sighed. "Well then, here we go again" she muttered to Jenny.

/

Nine hours. The Doctor only stayed unconscious for nine hours, rather than the fifteen that Romana had been hoping for, and when he woke up it was on the wrong side of the bed. He paced around the room in his nightshirt, ranting about how he didn't understand what the bedroom was for. "It's simply misunderstandable to me. I don't know what it is. Who invented this room?" he demanded, opening the door. Clara, Jenny and Emily, who had been eavesdropping outside, stumbled into the room.

"Doctor, listen to me, you need to rest" Romana insisted for what felt like the fiftieth time. It's not his fault she reminded herself, He's just confused. "It doesn't make sense. Look, it's only got a bed in it. Why is there only a bed in it?" he asked, pointing at the offending piece of furniture. Clara tried to help by explaining, "Because it's a bed room. It's for sleeping in".

"Okay, what do you do when you're awake?"

"You can read a book, or dance to pop music, or have a sleepover, or jump on the bed" Emily rattled off a few of the many things one could do in a bedroom – at least, all the things that she would do in her bedroom. "Well, if you can do all that, why sleep in here at all?" the Doctor wondered, "You're just missing the room. And don't look in that mirror. It's absolutely furious" he warned them, looking at his reflection.

"Doctor, you really do need to lie down. Or at the very least have a cup of tea" Romana tried to tell him. He peered at her as if he had only just realised she was there – then again, with how out of it he seemed, that was entirely possible. "Why do you keep talking like that? What's gone wrong with your accent?" he asked her, much to her bewilderment.

"Nothing's wrong with her accent" Jenny protested, and the Doctor stared at her in alarm as well. "You sound the same. It's spreading. You all sound all… English. Now you've all developed a fault!" he proclaimed. This gave Romana an idea; she cleared her throat and said in a Scottish accent, "Dear, could you help me with something?"

The Doctor looked relieved and hurried over to her. "Of course, thank goodness you haven't been affected" he said, apparently forgetting that he'd just commented on her 'faulty accent' just a few moments prior. "No, but I might be, any moment. There's only one thing that can prevent it" she lied. The Doctor's eyes widened. "What will prevent it? Tell me" he urged her.

"I need to fall into a deep, deep sleep" Romana explained, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling him down to sit with her, on her left, his back to the pillows. "Will you sleep with me?"

"Well, I suppose I could, but you know I don't usually bother with sleep. I just do standy-up catnaps, usually when other people start talking".

"It's the only way to make our voices sound normal again, Doctor".

"Really? That seems a bit far-fetch"- he didn't get to finish his sentence as Romana pressed her fingers to his temples and rendered him unconscious. He fell back against the pillows, and she leaned over to stroke his cheek. "Sweet dreams, you ridiculous man" she murmured, before standing up and heaving his legs up onto the bed as well. Jenny helped tug the cover out from under his prone form and tuck it back over him again. "Will he be alright now?" she asked Romana.

She smoothed down the covers and replied, "So long as nothing wakes him up for the next six hours, and he has a cup of tea as soon as he wakes up, he should be fine".

"I'll just go and make a cuppa, then. Shall I bring up a tray for the rest of you?" Jenny offered. Romana smiled gratefully and shook her head. Emily and Clara also declined the offer of tea, so Jenny made her way downstairs. "So, what now?" inquired Clara, watching as Romana walked around to the other side of the bed and knelt on it beside the Doctor. The Time Lady answered, "Now, we wait for him to recover".

"No, I mean, how do we fix him?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do we change him back?"

Mother and daughter exchanged a glance. "Why do you want him to change back?" Emily asked in confusion. She thought this new version of her father…was a bit grumpy, maybe, and a bit intimidating, but he was also kind of…funny. "I don't, I just…" Clara trailed off, unable to put her churning emotions and thoughts into words. Romana eyed her curiously, shifting on the bed to make herself more comfortable. "When I regenerated, did you want me to change back?" she inquired.

"That was different. I…I didn't think about it then, we were being attacked by Cybermen" Clara tried to object; outside, the sound of the dinosaur's roars drifted in through the window (Eleven lines). "She sounds sad, and lonely" said Emily, peering out of the window at the reptilian monolith. "What's wrong with it?" Clara asked Romana, who listened to the roaring intently. "My dinosaur is a little rusty, but I think she' saying…I miss my mate".

"Don't you miss yours?" Clara asked out of the blue. Romana raised an eyebrow at her, and she fumbled over her words. "No, I mean, not mate – husband, don't you miss him?"

"Why would I miss my husband? He's right here".

"Yeah, but he's not…I mean…"

"Clara, I love the Doctor" Romana said firmly, "And the Doctor is not merely one face. Do you really think I would cease to love him simply because he no longer appears to be young?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that…"

"Then what did you mean it like, exactly?"

"I mean…he's the Doctor, but, he isn't, because…he forgot me" Clara explained, and the light dawned in Romana's eyes. Before she could reassure Clara, her husband shifted and muttered in his sleep; "I am alone. The world which shook at my feet, and the trees and the sky, have gone. And I am alone now. Alone".

"Is he translating?"

"The wind bites now, and the world is grey, and I am alone here" he muttered. Romana stroked his hair and looked up at Clara. "Either that, or he's having a peculiar dream. Clara, listen to me. I know it might not seem like it, but the Doctor hasn't forgotten you".

"Yes, he has. He confused me with Strax, for goodness sake".

"Confused being the operative word; he'd just regenerated when we ended up being swallowed by that dinosaur, his synapses haven't had time to settle".

"He remembered yours and Emily's names alright".

"We were the first people this incarnation saw. It's natural for him to form an attachment to us".

"But...but where did he get that face? Why's it got lines on it? It's brand new. How can his hair be all grey? He only just got it".

"That's not how regeneration works, Clara. It's complicated…besides, I regenerated into someone with lines and grey hairs. You weren't so bothered by it then".

"You didn't act so different".

"I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not. We all change over our lives, and we don't even need to regenerate to do it, but we're still us. This is still the Doctor, and he will recognise you, once he's had a chance to get his head on straight".

"Yeah, and don't worry Aunt Clara – if he gets you mixed up with Strax again, we'll just keep reminding him until he remembers properly" Emily assured her, and Clara managed to smile. Romana pressed a quick kiss to the Doctor's forehead, smiling fondly as he turned towards her, and got up off the bed. "Thanks Emily, Romana…I suppose I'll just have to wait for him to recover then" Clara decided. Romana linked arms with her. "That's what I said we needed to do. Now come on, let's go downstairs".

/

Meanwhile, the lamps were being lit, as a middle aged couple walked through the twilit streets. "It's not real, of course" Alf announced, pointing at the dinosaur, which was visible even from this distance. "What is it, then?" his wife Elsie asked.

"The government".

"The government?"

"Yeah, up to their usual tricks".

"It's a dinosaur, Alf. A real dinosaur".

"I wouldn't put it past them".

"You don't half talk a lot of rubbish, Alfie. See you don't stay out too late now".

"You know me".

"Yes, I do" Elsie agreed, giving him a kiss on the cheek before walking away. Alf turned to regard the dinosaur, just noticing a figure standing in the shadows cast by a nearby lamp. "It's the neck. That's what's wrong with it. Just don't look realistic" he commented. The stranger complimented, "You have good eyes".

"Oh, I do, as it happens. Very good eyes. They're my greatest gift".

"I accept" the figure replied, taking a sharp two pronged fork out of a case. Alf looked at it in bewilderment. "What's that for?"

"Your gift. I have bad eyes" the stranger explained, turning to reveal half of his face was mechanical. Alf took one look at the man who seemed like he'd stepped straight from a nightmare, and screamed.

/

I wanted to put this out yesterday, but the server for the transcript site I'm using was down. C'est la vie, I suppose.

I started 'The Doctor's Wife AU', and this whole series, on January 25 2014. That means I've written a total of 123 chapters, plus an extra seven for the HTRATT side story, in the span of less than a year. Feeling pretty chuffed about that. Anyway, I want to do something for the anniversary of this series, but I'm not sure what to do. I have a few ideas, but I'd like to hear your thoughts. How do you guys think I can commemorate the start of this series you all enjoy so much?