To Call Our Own (1/36)
May. 9th, 2008 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocus
A/N: The sequel to A Place in Time. Where we left off...a reunited and newly married Rose and the Doctor had just discovered they were pregnant. Where we pick up? Guess.
Chapter One: Push!
“Push, Rose,” said the Doctor trying to keep the urgency out of his tone. “Push.” She looked down at him then biting her lip, pushing harder, her eyes losing focus. “You have to push, Rose. I can’t do this for you.”
“No, of course not. That would be the easy way, wouldn’t it?” Rose said a little uncharitably, though she tried to keep her tone from getting nasty. She didn’t really mean it, but she was so exhausted right now she couldn’t stop it from coming out of her mouth anyway. Somewhere in the back of her head she knew this wasn’t easy on him either, that he was desperately worried.
“I know you can do this,” the Doctor encouraged. “Push.”
“I am bloody pushing!” She snapped irritably. She knew she was being unreasonable, but she was not the least bit inclined to apologize at the moment. She wasn’t the one who had gotten them into this. Well, okay, she had helped…
“You’re going to have to push harder or this is never going to be over!” The Doctor warned, trying to keep his voice gentle, his hands firmly on her ankles.
“You think this is so easy then you bloody do it!” This time there was actual anger in her voice. “This hurts!”
His warm eyes met hers and were full of his love for her. “You know I can’t, Rose. You don’t know how much I wish I could. You are the strongest woman I know. You can do this. Now push!”
Rose gathered all of her strength and gave a mighty push. This time there was noticeable movement. “You’re doing it,” the Doctor said. “You're making progress now. Come on now, one more time!”
Rose focused all of her energy on the task at hand and screamed and pushed with everything she had in her and the rock fell free leaving a wide opening. Air and light suddenly streamed into the cavern they had been trapped in. She took a greedy gulp of fresh air then scrambled up off the Doctor’s shoulders, pulling herself through the gap she had made.
Once on the other side she poked her head back through the hole. “I’ll be back with Donna and a rope,” she told him. “Don’t go anywhere.”
“Very funny, luv,” said the Doctor. “Told you that you could do it. Never doubted it for a minute.”
As Rose disappeared from sight, the Doctor limped over to the wall and sat down hard against it. He’d tried hard to climb that rock pile and get up to where they could push through, but the pain had been unbelievable. He’d just barely been able to stand with Rose on his shoulders, doing all the hard work herself. He’d hidden his pain as much as he could, trying not to let his wife see how very bad it was.
He took a moment to pull the shredded remains of his trouser leg to the side and look down at the dressing Rose had made with her hoodie. It was soaked through already. He needed to get back to the TARDIS badly and get this gash taken care of. Even his Time Lord constitution could not generate healing fast enough for an injury that sliced deeply from knee to ankle.
‘It is really so cold in this cave,’ he thought. His eyes closed and he gave in to the pain.
He awoke to the familiar sound of Donna arguing with someone. It took him a moment to realize that she was arguing with his wife. He frowned. Donna never argued with Rose. The two women got on amazingly well, which had surprised him because quite frankly, Donna could pick an argument with an inanimate object. And win.
It took him a moment to focus on the cause of the argument. “I’m 10 weeks pregnant, Donna! I’m not helpless. I’ll get him myself.”
“What if you fell down that rock face? You’ve taken enough risks today. Don’t risk the baby over your stubborn pride!”
“Oh, me with stubborn pride!” Rose said. “That’s a laugh.”
“Rose.” And Donna’s tone brought her right out of her snit. “You’re being hormonal. He’s lost too much in his life. Don’t make him lose anything else.”
“That’s blackmail, that is,” Rose said rebelliously, but she must have given in because it was Donna who climbed through the gap and looped the rope under his arms and then made a harness that she slipped up over his legs. Her hands were very delicate as they moved over his injury. She pulled a medical kit out of her pack and removed the bloody dressing.
With soothing fingers she cleaned the wound out, sprayed on a pain reliever that was compatible with Time Lord physiology, and redressed the wound. The Doctor had remained quiet other than to let out a few whimpers. “Out you go now,” she said as she put a pre-loaded syringe to his neck and jabbed the button. He fell into unconsciousness.
It took both of them an hour to haul his body through the gap, Donna insisting on being the anchor, even though they’d wrapped the other end around a tree first. Rose’s arms were almost useless after using all of her strength up pushing that stupid rock. Once he was safely outside, Rose hurried over to him. “You knock him out?” she asked seeing the little mark on his neck.
“Had to. He would have been in too much pain being dragged across the rocks. Did you get what we came for?”
Rose nodded reaching into the long pocket of her hot pink cargo pants and pulling out a twisted stalactite no bigger around than a relay baton that looked very much like what she imagined a unicorn horn would. If unicorns were real and had horns made out of abalone.
“That’ll do nicely,” said Donna. “There’s enough there to cure the entire village with plenty leftover for trade.” She sighed. “All right, let’s get him into the TARDIS.”
They dragged him inside and through the console room. The TARDIS, sensing the need, had moved the infirmary just across the corridor. Between them they hoisted him onto the table. With gentle fingers Donna again took off the blood soaked bandage and began the intricate process of stitching up the Doctor’s leg.
“Where’d you learn to do that?” Rose asked sitting down next to the Doctor and holding his hand.
“Martha. She taught me basic field medicine.”
“That looks like more than basic field medicine,” said Rose.
“Field Medicine 101 for time travelling companions of alien Time Lords,” Donna amended with a light smile that was at odds with the seriousness of her tone. “Maybe now I can convince the Doctor to teach me how to work some of the fancier equipment. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be sewing him up right now if I knew how to run a few more things. Really, he ought to teach us both. Especially with you being pregnant.”
“I’ll talk to him about that. He wants me to have the baby on Earth so we can have a legal Earth identity for him. Plans on going to a little clinic in 2018 in Edinburgh that’s run by a friend of his. You know, that’s not what I thought Martha meant when she told the Doctor our first child would be born in ten years. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.” Rose sighed. “This doctor is supposed to be the best there is. Good medical man, through and through. Advanced knowledge for the time period. Not even sure he’s human, though he looks it.”
“Still, best to have a backup plan. It wouldn’t be the first time one of the Doctor’s plans didn’t go off right,” Donna said and finished the stitching and for the second time in two hours redressed the wound. At least it had stopped bleeding now.
She cleaned up in the sink and then turned to Rose. “I’m going to go hit the recall button so we can get that medicine back to the Dirindis. The shot I gave the Doctor should wear off in another hour. If he needs it, give him this,” Donna said reaching over to the counter and showing her another pre-loaded syringe. “Just put it against his neck and push the button. His own restorative properties should have kicked in by then, but you should have it just in case. I’m going to go try to get some sleep before we land.”
And with that, Donna left Rose alone with the Doctor. Rose leaned forward, resting her head against her husband’s chest. It had been a long day and the baby made her extra tired. Before she realized what was happening she had fallen asleep against the Doctor, soothed by the steady double beat of his hearts.
Ch. 2: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/62436.html
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Date: 2008-05-10 12:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-11 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-10 06:15 pm (UTC)Can you believe I was still thinking this was about Rose having a baby? I thought you had switched to the baby's POV for a paragraph, or the baby was transmitting to Rose his/her thoughts via telepathy. You really had me believing it! ((that'll teach me to speed read and skip important words like 'they' and the last sentence of the paragraph. >.< ))
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Date: 2008-05-11 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-11 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-11 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-12 12:04 am (UTC)