Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who. Happy reading!

Zara and Chloe settled at the Doctor's feet as he took a place on the bed to sit.

"Once upon a time, there was a Time Lady called Castrionella," he began. "Now, Time Lords were limited to twelve regenerations- with some notable exceptions, I have no idea how many times the Master somehow managed to slip by-" He saw the looks of confusion on Zara and Chloe's purple-dotted faces. "Never mind that. Anyway, Castrionella, she was experimenting with how to harness the power of the Time Vortex without the High Council knowing so that she could continue to regenerate, but soon the Castellans were onto her. She had to escape."

"Where?," asked Chloe.

"Well, Earth. It was a simple level five planet and she escaped to a time in the medieval period to a village just outside of Wittenberg, Germany, well before Martin Luther's time. Martin Luther, let me tell you, he was quite a twit. Just because I didn't have a nail to loan him! That's not the sort of thing a person goes round with, is it? A nail?"

"Daddy..." prodded Zara.

"You don't want to hear about Martin Luther?"

"No," said Zara.

"Anyway, so she came to Earth and resumed her experiments in this tiny rift in time and space that existed in Wittenberg. Not as potent as the Time Vortex, but that's exile for you. What can you do? So, she started a garden just outside the rift with the hopes of creating a plant she could convert into something digestible that could extend her life force. Then one night, she caught a man in her garden and she was about to add him to her experiments when he mentioned he had been giving her plants to his pregnant wife."

"Why?," asked Zara.

The Doctor sighed. "Because when mummies are pregnant, daddies will do anything for them if they know what's good for them. Now, Castrionella realized that a unborn child, ingesting the power of the Time Vortex, well, that would be quite potent, wouldn't it? Now, Castrionella offered the man a trade: she would let him go if he gave her his unborn child."

"Why did he do that?," asked Zara.

The Doctor shrugged. "Not that clever, I suppose. Anyway, the wife gave birth to a girl called Rapunzel and Rapunzel came to live with Castrionella. To keep her creation a secret, Castrionella built a tower that was high in the sky and also had a time field around it so the High Council couldn't see what was going on."

"Prince!," said Chloe.

"Yes, Chloe, I'm getting to the prince bit," said the Doctor. "Anyway, a side effect of the energy emanating from the time rift was that Rapunzel grew long, beautiful hair that Castrionella would use to get into the tower."

"Why didn't she use her TARDIS?," asked Zara.

The Doctor frowned. "I don't know. Damaged in her escape from Gallifrey? Maybe she didn't want to attract the High Council's attention? Must I know everything?"

"Yes," said Zara.

"Yes," Chloe echoed.

"Right, well, one day a prince came riding along-"

"Was he a Time Lord?," asked Zara.

"No, sorry, just a regular old human prince." The Doctor cleared his throat. "So, anyway, she brings the prince up and the devise a means of escape, he's going to bring her silk for a ladder-"

"Why doesn't she just use her hair?," asked Zara.

"She doesn't-"

Zara interrupted again. "In the movie, they use her hair."

Chloe nodded in agreement.

"Yes, well, Mandy Moore also plays her in the film," said the Doctor. "I'm giving you this version."

"Why isn't Rapunzel ginger?," asked Zara.

"Because her chromosomes didn't mutate for ginger hair. Anyway, back to the story, Rapunzel lets slip that she's been seeing the prince-"

"How?"

"Uh, Castrionella forced her way into Rapunzel's mind. Anyway, Castrionella lures the prince up and then lets him fall into a bed of thorns and he's blinded so he's forced to wander the wastelands-"

"On Gallifrey?," asked Zara.

"No, just regular wastelands-"

"Last time he went to Gallifrey," said Zara.

The Doctor froze. "Did he?"

Zara and Chloe nodded.

"Okay, so Castrionella transported him to Gallifrey through some kind of advanced transmat..." The Doctor waved his hand. "Since we just said she didn't have her TARDIS, but this attracted the attention of the High Council and they took Castrionella and Rapunzel from the tower and back to Gallifrey so they could further investigate. Of course, they trapped Castrionella's consciousness in the Matrix, never to be heard from again and they sent Rapunzel to the Wastelands because she was human, but the rift energy had mutated her so she couldn't be allowed to return to Earth and eventually she found the prince."

"How?," asked Chloe.

The Doctor shrugged. "It's not as if it was hard. She just wandered about and people pointed out the wandering blind prince for her. When she found him, she wept and her tears cured the prince's blindness because she had been somewhat mutated by the rift energy giving her the ability to heal."

"Did they live happily ever after?," asked Zara.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "In the Wastelands they were happy ever after. The Shobogans took them in and they were very happy. The end." The Doctor looked at the girls and grinned broadly at his achievement. "So, what do you think?"

Zara looked at Chloe and back at her father. "We want another story."

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, I thought you might say that."

"Tell us a story with you in it," said Zara.

"Yes!," said Chloe.

"I like the ones with you in it," said Zara.

The Doctor beamed. "Do you now? Well, then let me tell you the story of Captain Jack Harkness and the Beanstalk..."