You're What? (49/50)

[amberfocus]

banner by alizarin_skies

Title: You're What?
Author: amberfocus
Characters/Pairings: Nine/Rose, Jack Harkness, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith
Genre: Baby!fic, Romance, Angst, Fluff, Smut, Hurt/Comfort
Rating: Adult
Betas: amyo67, thetesh
Summary: An unexpected pregnancy causes huge emotional upset in the lives of the Doctor and Rose. With Jack the only voice of reason, will this child lead them to happily ever after or tear them apart forever?

Previous Chapters: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/262898.html



Chapter Forty-Nine: Rush

Panic swelled from the Doctor’s stomach and into his throat. It took him a moment to gather himself. “Doctor, did you hear me?” Rose’s scared voice came across the line.

He took a deep breath. “Give Mickey the phone.”

“What?” She sounded surprised at his brusqueness.

“It’s all going to be okay, but I need for you to give Mickey the phone right now.” He kept his voice calm and firm and ignored Rose’s huff of annoyance as she passed over the phone.

He heard her mutter, “He’d rather talk to you right now than the mother of his child.”

“What do I do, Doctor?” came the young man’s surprisingly calm voice over the line.

“What color is the fluid?”

He could almost hear Mickey’s perplexed facial expression. “Sort of…I dunno, pale orange?”

“No red or pink?” he demanded.

“Not that I can see.”

“Good, then there’s no blood. I need for you to get Rose back home. Bring her to the TARDIS as fast as you can.”

“I don’t know if they’ll let her in the limo if they know she’s in labor. The mess—.”

“If they complain, you tell them I’ll buy the damn car,” the Doctor said. “Now I’m counting on you. You get her here. It’ll be faster than me trying to get back to you.”

“Can’t you bring the TARDIS?”

“And risk not being there for the birth? Showing up in 12 months instead of 12 hours?” The Doctor’s tone was scathing. “No, you get her here. And avoid the main route. They’re doing construction. Go the longer way, around the back side of Royal Hope Hospital,” he instructed.

“Shouldn’t I just take her to the hospital?”

“NO!” the Doctor shouted. “They can’t handle this kind of birth. There are too many complications in a cross-species pregnancy. It won’t be safe for her if you take her there, and it definitely won’t be safe for Charlie if they see the afterbirth.”

“That’s disgusting.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Just get her home. Now,” he snapped. “And then you’ll need to stay with Jackie. Mrs. Madigan can’t stay for more than an hour. I need Jack to assist me with the birth and Jackie’s not stopped vomiting since we got her home.”

“Oh, joy,” said Mickey. “Now do you want to talk to your wife? Because she’s pretty angry with you.”

“Fine, give her the phone, but get her out to the limo while you do.”

The Doctor only half-listened as Rose gave him a piece of her mind, but he could hear her being shuffled along and then Mickey arguing with the limo driver. Finally he heard the doors shut and the engine start and tuned back in to what she was saying.

“—because if that’s how it’s gonna be, then you can just forget about—aaaahnnn!” Her sentence devolved into a painful moan and he heard a thump.

“Rose? Rose?” She must have dropped her phone because the next thing he heard was Rose crying and Mickey fumbling with the mobile.

“Doctor, that pain block has worn off. You need to get to us.”

“The limo’s gone and I don’t dare take the TARDIS.”

“Damn,” Mickey swore. “Get us there fast as you can. And go around Royal Hope,” he ordered the driver. “Main road is blocked. There was more arguing and then Mickey roared, “Unless you want to help me deliver this baby right now you’ll bloody well do what I told you!”

The Doctor heard the car accelerating and Rose’s whimpers. “I’ve got to go, Doctor. Rose needs me and I can’t split my focus.” The line abruptly went dead. The Doctor called back immediately but the phone just went to Rose’s voicemail.

“Well?” said an impatient Jack behind him.

“Rose is in labor. Mickey’s got her in the car and they’re on the way home.”

“Go on and wait down by the TARDIS. I’ll stay with Jackie and Mrs. Madigan. When Mickey shows up with Rose, I’ll come to help.”

“I’m fine,” Jackie insisted. “Go help my daughter.” But then she groaned and ran for the bathroom again.

“She’s not fine. Go on, Doc. I’ll be there as quick as I can.”



Rose’s cries were getting more and more pained and Mickey could barely stand to see her hurting so much. He was worried they wouldn’t get back to the TARDIS in time and he’d have to deliver the baby himself. He wished he’d found something more out about the birth process, whether it be human or Gallifreyan, but he’d not wanted to be involved. He’d been hurt when Rose had come back pregnant and despite the fact that they’d made things right between them, he hadn’t wanted much to do with the baby. Mostly because he’d once thought that if he were there for the birth of her child it would be because it was his child, too.

He pushed his feelings aside. There was no time for that now. “Is there anything I can do?” he asked as Rose tried to crush his fingers into a bloody pulp.

“Distract me,” she managed between clenched teeth. Mickey wasn’t sure what to distract her with. His mind went completely blank. “Tell me about the last match you watched,” she suggested when the contraction ended.

Finally in his comfort zone about something, he began to rattle off the minutiae of the game. Rose let up on his hand and he eased his fingers from hers, gingerly checking for injury. He didn’t have much time before she grabbed it again.

He continued to speak, his eyes wandering frantically from Rose to the driver to the road ahead. “How much longer?” he asked.

“We’ll get there when we get there,” the driver said with no compassion. He was clearly still miffed at the tactics Mickey had used to get Rose into the car.

Mickey cursed and almost at the same time lightning split the sky and thunder rumbled almost directly overhead. The sky opened up and rain began pouring down, beating out a deafening, syncopated rhythm on the top of the vehicle. The limo slowed to a crawl and Mickey had to bite his tongue. There was nothing he could do about visibility.

At last he saw the back of the hospital approaching. It was only a mile further on and they’d be there. Rose could hold out for a few more minutes. At least he hoped so as she groaned again.

“Charlie, please,” she gasped. “Please, not yet. Wait for us to get to your Daddy.”

“Now that’s just odd,” said the driver suddenly.

Mickey looked away from Rose, not liking the change in the man’s tone. “What’s odd?” he asked abruptly.

“Look at the rain,” he said.

Mickey looked for one long minute. “It’s going up. Why the hell is the rain going up?”

“I dunno. But tell you what. I’m pulling over until this stops.”

“No, you can’t. She has to get home.”

“It’s not safe to drive in this and at least we’re by the hospital.” He swerved into the car park as Mickey protested vehemently. Suddenly the ground began to shake and Mickey was violently afraid the entire building was going to fall down on them. He stared frantically out of the car window as the hospital and the entire area around it was jerked into the air.

A horrific twisting occurred in his stomach and then everything went brilliantly white for a moment. When Mickey came to Rose had somehow made it out of the car and was staring up at the sky. He climbed out behind her and stared in awe at the spectacle above him. The Earth hung there, a beautiful swirl of green and white and blue.

“We’re on the bloody moon!” gasped Rose before she clutched at her stomach.

Mickey stared around him in desperation then grabbed onto the limo driver’s arm. There was no help for it. “Help me get her into the hospital,” he said.



When Martha Jones had woken up that morning, she’d had a small instant where she had just wanted to pull the blanket up over her head and go back to sleep. She knew that had more to do with the party planned for her brother that night and knowing she was going to be the one playing peacekeeper between her parents, than that she just didn’t want to face the day. As she stared out the window at the vast, barren landscape before her, she thought that her first instinct may have been the right one.

They were on the moon. But why were they on the moon? And how? She ran down to the main floor, not trusting the lifts despite the fact that the power was still on and there seemed to be air. She had heard the backup generators going on and with the way the building had been wrenched from the Earth, she didn’t know how long those would last. They could be leaking fuel right now. For that matter, the air could be leaking out of whatever was temporarily keeping it in.

A part of her mind wanted to panic, but she couldn’t let that happen. She had learned how to compartmentalize in medical school and it would never come in handier than right now. She was almost a doctor and she knew that there were patients that would be panicking. They’d need calming and she knew for a fact just what a calming influence she could sometimes be. She wouldn’t be surprised if there were fainting spells and even heart attacks.

As she passed the open doorway to the supply room heading towards the sound of screams a man suddenly stepped out of it and grabbed her arm. She automatically struggled, but he was stronger than she was and he pulled her into the room, slamming the door behind her.

“I’ll scream,” she warned.

“Please don’t. You’re a doctor, right?”

“Med student. I will be in three months.”

“Close enough.” He gestured behind him. A gurney had been shoved into the room and on it reclined a blonde woman who was curled around her stomach and writhing in pain. She was wearing what had once been a beautiful wedding gown that was soaked in some kind of pale orange fluid. “You have to help Rose.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“What do you mean? She’s in labor.”

“She doesn’t look pregnant.”

“What? Oh. Rose, take off the perception filter,” the man ordered.

The woman yanked the necklace from her throat and for a moment she seemed to shimmer. When Martha’s vision resolved again she saw the obviously swollen belly and the contractions shaking through Rose.

“Let’s get her to maternity,” she said, slipping into no-nonsense doctor mode.

“We can’t,” he said.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Martha. “Of course we can. It’s not that far away.”

“No, we can’t. You’re going to have to deliver this baby, right here, right now, on your own.” The man barred the doorway and looked—not menacing, but frightened.

“I’m not a mid-wife,” she protested, wondering at his insistence. “And I’m certainly not trained in obstetrics.”

“Have you delivered a baby before?”

“Well, yes, but only once.”

“It’s going to have to do.”

She looked around the room, taking note of what she might use to help deliver a baby. She looked again from the man to the woman to the door and made up her mind when Rose cried out again. She never could stand to see people in pain and not do whatever she could to help ease it.

“Get that dress off her,” she said going to a cupboard. She pulled out a hospital gown and tossed it onto a nearby chair and then pulled some blankets out of the warmer. They’d have to do to mop up any fluid and provide a modest covering.

She searched for and found a box of latex gloves in the small size that her hands needed and then she went to wash as Mickey helped Rose change into the gown.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Smith,” he said.

Martha rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. John Smith, I suppose?”

“No. Mickey Smith,” he said, sounding offended.

“Okay, Mickey Smith. I’m Martha Jones and I’ll help you deliver your wife’s baby, but if there is something here that I can’t handle, you have got to let me take her to maternity, understand?”

He bit his lip, but she refused to budge until the man nodded. “And she’s not my wife. I mean, the baby isn’t mine. She’s just my friend. Her husband’s stuck on Earth.”

Rose managed to get out a few words then. “Mickey, you have to call him.”

“Rose, we’re on the moon.”

“I know that. But my phone. He did something to it. I can call from anywhere.”

“Don’t be daft,” said Martha. “No one gets that good of reception.”

“I do,” said Rose.

“I left the phone in the car,” said Mickey.

“Well, go and get it,” she insisted. “Maybe he can get here in time.”

Martha stared from Mickey to Rose. “We’re on the moon,” Martha repeated. “Short of a space ship with a time machine, he’d never get here.”

“Yeah, well, there’s something you don’t know about that baby’s father,” Mickey said.

“What’s that?”

The door burst open and a tall, rangy man in jeans and a leather jacket strode in, followed quickly by a too-handsome man with dimples for days. “I’m an alien,” the first man told her.

“Forget maternity. I’m getting a psych consult,” Martha said.

The man ignored her. He turned to Mickey. “Mickey, go get that phone and call me.”

“But you’re here,” Mickey spluttered.

“Time machine,” he reminded the young man. “Go call me. Right now. And tell me what time I get here and exactly where you are. Oh, and warn me about the force field!” The last part was shouted as Mickey dashed from the room. “Jack, help me get her into the TARDIS.”

“Wait a minute,” protested Martha, barring the way. “You’re not taking her anywhere. She’s about to give birth.”

The man flipped up Rose’s gown and gave her a cursory examination. “No, we have at least five minutes.”

“Doctor,” said Rose.

“Yes?” Martha said.

“She means me. What is it, Rose?”

“Pain block. Now.”

“Ah, of course.” The man put his hands to either side of the woman’s head in what looked remarkably like a Vulcan mind-meld and whispered a few soft words. Instantly the woman’s face cleared of pain and color rushed back into it.

“What’d you do?” she demanded, fascinated.

“Venusian Acupressure,” he told her.

“That didn’t look like any acupressure I’ve ever seen,” Martha argued. She wasn’t about to get into the Venusian bit with a man who had pronounced himself an alien who’d arrived in a time machine. Instead she pulled on her gloves, preparing herself for the task at hand.

Rose tried to stand up, but Martha rushed to her side, preventing her. “Seriously, you can’t walk right now. I don’t know what he did, but you’re still having contractions too close together to be on your feet.”

“Walking is good for encouraging the baby to come,” Rose said.

“Not at this stage,” Martha protested.

“Go and get her a wheelchair then,” said the too-dimpled man.

“Go with her, Jack,” the man the woman had referred to as the Doctor said. “I don’t want her not coming back. We might need another pair of medically trained hands, even if they are from the early twenty-first century.”

As they were heading for the door, Mickey burst back in. “Did you call me?” the Doctor asked.

“Yes, you’re on the way,” said a slightly confused Mickey. “But you can’t go out there.”

“What? Why not?”

“Rhinos in space suits have taken over the hospital.”

“Rhinos?” said Jack.

“In space suits,” repeated Mickey as if that were the most important part.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” exclaimed Martha.

“No, I’m not.” Mickey held up his hand and showed them a black X that looked like it had been put on with magic marker. “Worse than that, Doc. They’re checking for non-humans.”

Color washed out of the Doctor’s face. “What is it?” Rose asked, starting to feel panic again.

“Judoon,” the Doctor said the simple, two syllable word, but his tone was stark. Whatever these Judoon were, Martha knew they couldn’t be good. “Looks like you’re having that baby right here.”

“Doctor, no,” said Rose. “If something goes wrong…we need the TARDIS.”

From the look on the man’s face, he was praying that nothing would go wrong.

“These Judoon,” said Martha. “What are they?”

“Bounty hunters. Oh, they call themselves a police force, but they’re no more police than your average mercenary. They must be after someone,” the Doctor explained.

“Aliens?” asked Mickey.

The Doctor looked at him like he thought he was an idiot. “Of course, aliens. They wouldn’t be violating the Shadow Proclamation and about 30 other universal laws to come here and snatch a human.”

The Doctor looked around and spying an oxygen tank said, “Is that thing full?” to Martha.

“Should be,” she said. “Why?”

“Mickey, Jack, see if you can find something to make a temporary incubator. Charlie’s a full month early and if his respiratory bypass system isn’t fully functional, his little lungs may need oxygen.”

Rose cried out again despite the pain block and Martha quickly moved to check her. “The baby is crowning,” she said. “Looks like a full head of hair.”

“Doctor?” The man moved immediately to his wife, gently pushing Martha out of the way.

“I’ll deliver the babe,” he said.

“Then what do you need me for?”

“Back up,” he said.

Martha moved up by Rose’s side and took her hand. She smiled into the tired face. “It’s going to be all right,” she said. She wasn’t sure if she meant the delivery or the whole situation on the moon, but she figured soothing words could only help the situation.

Jack and Mickey pushed another gurney forward with a small wooden box on it. “There are blankets in there,” Martha said pointing to the right cabinet. Mickey took a couple out and lined the box with them.

“I found an oxygen mask and some tubing,” Jack said.

“Here’s paper tape,” said Mickey, holding it up. He placed the tape, the mask and the tank by the makeshift bassinet. There had been nothing to make a true incubator with, but hopefully what they had would suffice.

Jack moved to Rose’s other side and took her free hand. Mickey put his back to the door, locking it and assuming guard duty. He could still see most of what was happening and if someone tried to come in they’d at least have some warning.

“Time to push, Rose,” the Doctor said.

It was one of the fastest deliveries Martha had ever seen. Within ten minutes the baby was out, had let out his first cry, and was settled on Rose’s chest while Jack held him in place and the Doctor tied the umbilical cord and used a thin tube with a bright blue light to sever it.

Rose was laughing and crying as she stared down into the baby’s face. Martha smiled at the maternal tableau that was rudely interrupted by the Doctor shouting about needing a bucket. Martha rummaged under the sink and handed him a plastic container where he delivered the strangest looking placenta she had ever seen. It looked like a bright orange, opaque jelly-fish.

“Is he breathing okay?” asked Jack.

The Doctor scanned the baby with the same tube he’d used to sever the umbilical cord. “He’s going to be just fine,” he said, worry leaving his face. He took Charlie from Rose’s reluctant arms and gently washed him in the sink. Jack stripped off his t-shirt and used it to swaddle the baby and gave him back to his father.

“He’s beautiful,” Martha said. “You said his name is Charlie?”

“Charles Michael Tyler,” Rose said tiredly as the Doctor placed Charlie back in her arms. She met Martha’s eyes. “Thank you for helping us, Martha.” Martha didn’t mention that Mickey hadn’t given her a lot of choice.

“You’re welcome,” she said.

Mickey finally came away from the doorway and stared down at the tiny child in awe. “He looks so human,” was all he could say and Rose just laughed at him.

“You were expecting tentacles? The Doctor looks just like we do. Of course Charlie looks human,” said Rose.

“Yeah, but he’s not. And those Judoon, if they’re searching the hospital for aliens, it’s not going to be long before they find you,” said Martha. As if they’d been waiting for her cue, a loud banging began on the locked door.

Chapter Fifty: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/537098.html