To Call Our Own (23-26 of 36)

[amberfocus]

Chapter Twenty-three:  Where There's Life

“It’s going to have to be Dare,” said Kaylee as Andromeda walked in the door.

“It’s too dangerous right now,” insisted Cassiopeia.

“It’s the only way.” Kaylee dug her heels in stubbornly. “There isn’t anything else we can do. Mum’ll agree with me,” she said.

“Hardly a surprise there if I’m disagreeing with you.”

Andromeda frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Great Grandmum is in a coma,” Kaylee explained. “And I think the baby’s done something to keep her there. He’s also stopped his own growth and hers. There’s been no cellular changes in either of them since we brought her here.”

“That’s death, isn’t it?” Jack asked.

“Not in this case,” Cassiopeia said sharply.

“And how will bringing Dare here help change any of this?” Andromeda asked gently.

“You know what he can do, Mum. We’ve never known why before, but I think it’s this. Because of what happened here. Maybe he can undo it.”

“Cassi, please,” said the Doctor. “If there’s any chance at all, do it.”

“All right, Dad. He can try. But it means one of us will have to go so that Dare can come through. Martha’s not strong enough to hold the tear open alone.”

“I’m staying,” said Andromeda, reaching back and holding onto Jack’s hand. “I have more to deal with here. And Kaylee has the medical knowledge we need.”

Cassiopeia nodded. “Very well. But I expect you to keep your mind on the task at hand and not become distracted.” She glared at Jack.

Andromeda bit her tongue to keep herself from saying something disparaging to her mother, as the other woman swept from the room. It was only minutes before Dare came into the room. He went straight to his mother and put his hands on her temples, searching through her mind for some kind of answer to the problem of her condition. Then he lifted Rose’s blouse free of her belly and put his hands on the baby, spreading them to cover as much of Rose’s abdomen as possible.

Time moved slowly, the Doctor watching his son’s face intently while he tried to make contact with his unborn self. The moment he did there was an intense look of concentration that washed over Dare’s face. He spoke.

“I see what I’ve done,” he said, his eyes far away. “I’ve stopped our own personal time. I’m very afraid. I’ve grown too quickly. And Mum’s body was too taxed by it. I’ll see if I can convince myself to let go.” He went very quiet while he communed with his fetal self. Minutes ticked by and the tension built. When he let go the baby gave a very visible kick and Rose’s stomach jumped.

“I’ve convinced me to start our time flowing again.”

The Doctor moved to put his hand on her stomach and smiled. “I can hear him,” he said, relief coloring his words. He moved his hands up to Rose’s temples then frowned.

Dare shook his head. “I’m sorry, Dad. There’s nothing more I can do. Mum’s still comatose. But I’m still here. I haven’t faded to nothing so we know I live. And I’ve still got memories of being raised by both of you. Nothing is being overwritten. The only thing we can do now is wait for her to heal.”

The Doctor’s face fell but he nodded in acceptance. “I’d like to be alone with her,” he said. Dare nodded.

“I need to be getting back,” said Dare. “It’ll be all right, Dad. Just give it time.” He reached across Rose and hugged his father, then got up and exited the room.

“We’ll be in the next room if you need us,” Kaylee said. Kaylee, Andromeda, Jack and Donna left reluctantly.

“I’m going to go down to the kitchen and see if there is anything remotely resembling tea,” said Donna.

The remainder of the group moved into the next room. Andromeda sat down on the settee. Kaylee turned to Jack. “Hello, Dad,” she said, a warmth in her smile that reminded Jack very much of his mother. She came up to him and kissed him gently on the cheek, her arms going around him. He responded reflexively, returning her hug. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Again?” Andromeda’s jaw dropped. “When did you see him before?”

“I’ve not met you before,” Jack insisted.

“Ah, but you have. Just not yet. Time travel.” She smiled calmly. “Do you remember, Mum? My imaginary friend Big J? That was Dad. He’d visit a couple times a year, check up on me, make sure I was doing okay, that you were, too?” She laughed at her mother’s expression. “He hasn’t done it yet. I imagine it starts for him sometime soon, though.”

“But…but…” sputtered Andromeda.

“He didn’t tell me who he was until I was fifteen. Told me I couldn’t tell you because it would corrupt the time stream. But he wanted me to know that he hadn’t abandoned us and that he’d come back for us as soon as he could,” Kaylee explained.

“So that’s why you never hated him,” said Andromeda. “Even with what my mum used to say about him.”

“You never hated him, either, Mum.”

“Not for lack of trying.” Jack went and sat down by Andromeda, placing his arm about her shoulders.

“If I had known, I never would have left you alone, not either of you.”

“I know that,” Kaylee said. “You explained to me what had happened. And you did your best to make up for it with your visits. I don’t hold any resentment for you.” Kaylee sighed and said, “I better go see if Donna found what she needed.”

“You saw her,” said Andromeda.

“I haven’t yet.”

“But you will. I’m so sorry, Jack, for ever doubting you.” She burrowed into his chest.

“None of this is your fault; don’t blame yourself for feeling the way you have. I don’t. I just wish I knew why it happened? Why the time agency did this to me. Why they split up our family. What could I have seen or done that merited this?” he asked.

“I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out. And when we do…” He heard vengeance in her tone. “They will have consequences for their actions.”



The Doctor had lain curled up next to Rose, one hand on her exposed belly, for over two hours, communing with the baby, reassuring him, feeling him kick under his hand. He tried hard not to worry about his wife but the thought was never far from the front of his mind. He rested his head against her chest, listening to the reassuring double thump of her heartbeats.

Kaylee had returned with tea at one point and it was lying untouched on a side table. The Doctor hadn’t wanted it, but hadn’t wanted to upset his great granddaughter by refusing it either. He knew it was her way of helping. It was cold now. Suddenly he jolted upright, and ran over for the tea cup. He brought it back with him to the bed, scooped one arm under Rose’s shoulders and propped her up. As carefully as he could he held the cup to her lips and let it trickle into her mouth. He massaged her throat until she swallowed reflexively. Sip by sip he dribbled it into her.

He repeated the effort with the rest of the pot. It had helped him when he needed to stabilize his brain after his last regeneration. Rose had changed enough that her physiology was now similar to his. He hoped she’d changed enough. That the tea would work some miracle on her mind.

He watched her like a hawk, waiting for any minute sign. He had almost given up hope when she began to stir.


Chapter Twenty-four:  Out of the Darkness

Rose’s eyelids fluttered. He could see her eyes moving rapidly under the lids and hear the sudden gasp, followed by rapid breathing. His hand went to her wrist feeling for the double pulse that, when he found it, was racing twice as fast as it should have been. “Rose.”

She didn’t open her eyes though she whimpered at the sound of his voice. “Rose!” he said more forcefully but she still didn’t wake. A thin sheen of perspiration broke out on her body and she began to thrash about, whether in seizure or for some other reason he didn’t know.

He placed his fingers on her temples and was pulled into her mind so fast he didn’t know what had happened. He hadn’t had time to initiate anything. He was reassured by the fact that he’d sort of made contact with her mind, but not by what he found in it. So many corridors ran from the junction in which he stood, so many more than the last time he’d been in this room to discover what had happened to her when his alternate self and her alternate self had appeared on the TARDIS a few months ago.

“Rose!” He screamed her name in desperation and the choices narrowed as doorways darkened and only one remained lit. He ran for it, his feet flying out from under him as he fell, sliding downwards on a slippery spiral. “Rose!” He crashed after what felt like a lifetime but could only have been seconds, into something soft and warm, something protective. “Rose!” He was in complete darkness. “Rose!”

“Doctor?” Her mind touch was weak, so faint he almost didn’t recognize it.

“Rose?”

“Doctor?” And her touch strengthened just a little.

“I’m here, Rose. Where are you?” he called out.

“I don’t know.” He could feel the fear in her voice, but it was a shade louder. “I’m so alone.”

“I’ve come to get you,” he said, putting as much determination and conviction into his voice as he could muster. “I won’t leave you here. I promise. We’re forever, remember?”

“Forever?” A small light flickered in the darkness.

“Forever. Always. You and me. Like marmalade and toast.” The light brightened. “Shiver and Shake.” Again it brightened. “Rose and the Doctor.” The light flared and then he saw her, crouched and trembling in a corner, eyes shut tightly, arms wrapped around her knees that she’d pulled in tight to her body. He ran to her and dropped to the ground, pulling her into his arms. Her eyes opened.

“Doctor. You found me.” Her voice sounded so small and childlike.

“Always. I will always find you.”

“I was so lost.”

“You’re safe now.” He kissed her and then stood up, pulling her to her feet. “Come on, we have to get you out of here. You have to wake up now.”

She looked around them. “How?” she asked. “How do we get out of here? There are no windows and no doors.”

“It’s your mind, Rose. You have to find the way out.” She looked around her, biting her lip, then looked up.

“There,” she said, pointing. A ladder had appeared on the wall.

“You go first, I’ll follow.” She nodded and made her way over to the ladder with grim determination. She climbed upwards for what felt like forever and her arms and legs ached, but finally she emerged through a round hole into the center of the empty white room. When the Doctor emerged behind her and took her hand, she turned into him and kissed him again.

“What do I do now, Doctor?” she asked, a little confusion still in her voice.

“You know what to do. Think about it. What do you want to do now?”

“Now…I want to wake up.” She gasped in air and her eyes opened, the Doctor’s fingers falling away from his temples. She burst into tears as he pulled her close. He covered her face with kisses and rocked her gently.

“You’re safe now. You’re okay. You’re safe.”

A light knock on the door was followed by the appearance of Kaylee. Rose turned to look at the stranger who had entered the room. “Grandmum!” Kaylee said excitedly. “You’re awake.”

Rose studied the woman in front of her then glanced at the Doctor. “She’s our great granddaughter,” he agreed. “Rose, meet Kayleeinara.”

“Just Kaylee is fine,” said the red-head. She approached the bed and leaned down and gave Rose a hug which Rose hesitantly returned. “I’m so glad you’re awake. We weren’t sure…” She trailed off. “I’ll go get Mum and Dad and Donna. They’ll be so happy.”

Rose just nodded, a bit overwhelmed as the young woman hurried from the room. “Great granddaughter?”

“They’ll have to explain it to you. I stayed with you. I don’t know all of it yet.”

It was only moments before a small group crowded into the room. Cassiopeia had returned. She sat down on the edge of the bed. “Hello, Mum,” she said and there were tears in her eyes. “I’m Cassiopeia. This is my daughter Andromeda, and you’ve met her daughter Kaylee.”

Rose nodded, her eyes drawn to Andromeda. “You look so much like me,” she said. “But wait,” she said looking around the room. “Kaylee, you said your father was here, too. Where is he?”

“That would be me,” Jack said. When Rose was done picking her jaw up off the floor he stepped forward and explained what he and Andromeda had managed to piece together, Kaylee adding in what she knew. The hard expression on Cassiopeia’s face softened as they told their stories. Then Rose and the Doctor asked for an explanation for the Time Storm.

“We had to,” said Cassi. “If he’d have killed Mum, there wouldn’t be any of us. There wouldn’t be the…well the stuff in the future that has to be that we can’t talk about because it hasn’t happened to you yet.”

Cassi sighed. “We’ve really stayed too long as it is. Now that Mum is better, we need to be on our way.”

“Yes, and then Kaylee and I need to come back properly, with a TARDIS and put to rights what’s been done to the people on this planet,” Andromeda said.

“Can you?” Asked Donna. “Can you fix it?”

“I think so,” said Kaylee. “But it’s going to take some doing.”

“I’d like to stay and help with that,” said Jack.

“We’ll stay,” said the Doctor. “Rose isn’t up for travel right now anyway. Not even by TARDIS. She needs to rest and recover from what’s happened.”

“I can monitor her through the rest of her pregnancy if need be. I’m a medical doctor for twelve different species,” Kaylee told him.

“Oh, Dr. Visily’s going to be so angry,” said Rose, looking down at her swollen belly. “He’ll definitely think we waited too long between visits.”

“I’ll have a word with him before I come back,” said Kaylee.

“You know Dr. Visily?” Asked the Doctor surprised.

“Sure. He’s my doctor, too. I have an OB appointment scheduled anyway. Plus he taught me everything he knows. I’m sure he’ll understand the situation once I explain it to him,” Kaylee said.

Once everything was settled and everyone had left the room but her husband, Rose said, “I know it’s best that I rest,” she said, “But I’m really wide awake.” She flung the blankets to one side and sat up.

“Rose, you need to stay down.”

“Oh, I will, but first I need to find the washroom. For some reason I feel like I’ve drunk a whole gallon of water,” she said.

“That was the tea,” he explained. “I thought it would help.” She took a step and swayed, the Doctor hurrying to her side. He helped her to the washroom, waited for her, and then guided her back to bed. Once she was safely tucked in again, he said, “Are you hungry at all? I could go ask Donna to whip something up.”

“No,” she said. “Maybe in a while. Just talk to me. I want to hear your voice. It makes me feel safe.”

“Talk about what?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure you can think of something to babble about,” Rose laughed.

The Doctor thought for a moment then reached into his pocket, pulling out the paperback book that Rose had bought several weeks earlier. “I was wondering where that had got to,” she said.

“I hid it,” he admitted.

“You did what?”

“Hush,” he said. He opened it up to the first page and began to read. “When Amber Bennington first laid eyes on Tra’avor she had no idea he was first in line to the throne of the planet Mirokos, or that she would one day be his queen and the mother of his heirs. She only knew he was the hottest specimen of manhood she’d ever seen.” He paused. “Really, Rose? You like this stuff?”

She bopped him lightly with a pillow. “So it’s not Dickens,” she laughed. “But it’ll do. And if there are any interesting love scenes, perhaps we can act them out later?” She raised her eyebrows suggestively. He grinned at her, deciding the book just might have a good purpose for existing after all and continued reading.


Chapter Twenty-five:  A Visit From Doctor Visily

When Kaylee appeared the next morning she was trailed by a somewhat exasperated looking Dr. Visily. “Had to come see it for myself,” he commented mildly, his tone at odds with his expression. He unpacked a few items from his bag and pulled the blanket back from Rose’s stomach while he listened for the baby’s heartbeat, which was reassuringly strong as it echoed through the room.

“I’m going to do a holographic reading now,” he said, spreading gel on her stomach. Rose jumped at the cold and the baby kicked him in reaction. “He’s feisty today.”

“Just like his mother,” said the Doctor while at the same time Rose said, “Just like his father.” The Doctor chuckled. When the holographic reading was completed he copied it for them and handed it to the Doctor. “The baby’s growth shows that he should be due in another ten weeks. I’m sorry you had to miss out on so much of your first pregnancy.”

He took a small sample of Rose’s blood. When he had completed running it through his analyzer he said, “Well, there has obviously been a lot of stress to both you and your child. There is an excessive amount of shed fetal cells circulating in your blood stream.”

“Well, I did get shot by a blaster,” Rose said.

“I’m aware of that. I just don’t know how the two of you managed to survive it.”

“We think the baby stopped her time stream and his,” said Kaylee by way of explanation. “There was no cellular degradation for several hours. I think the amount of fetal cells shed into her blood is because of that.”

Dr. Visily nodded. He took her pulses, frowning, and then used his stethoscope to listen to her hearts. Then he took her blood pressure. “Both your heart rates and your pulses are much too high and your blood pressure is elevated beyond the norm for a human or for your husband’s people. Since you’re a genetic hybrid more or less, I think that means it is far too high. So I’m going to have to agree with Kaylee’s opinion and keep you on bedrest until that blood pressure comes down.”

“I can’t spend the next ten weeks in bed!” Rose protested.

“If you have to, you can and you will,” the Doctor said giving her his implacable don’t argue with me or I’ll blow up your spacecraft and leave you stranded on a subsitence level moon look, just one step down from his Oncoming Storm look.

“Well, hopefully you won’t have to Rose. If you’re lucky it’ll only take you a couple of weeks for your blood pressure to return to normal. Then you can get up and start moving again, though you will need to monitor your pressure consistently and then after a week at normal levels, three or four times a day.” Dr. Visily gave her a reassuring smile.

“Tell you what,” the obstetrician said. “If your husband can guarantee he can get me back to my practice on the right date I’ll stay here so I can monitor your condition.”

“We can’t ask you to do that,” the Doctor said. “That’s too much.”

“No, it’s not. Remember what you did for me all those decades ago? Because I do. Besides, Kaylee brought me through the city on the way here. There’s a lot I can do to restore these people. The man who did this, to you, to them, was he punished?”

“Oh, yes,” said Kaylee.

“How?”

“We sent him to hell.” Dr. Visily did not question her further.




It was three weeks later when Rose was finally allowed out of bed again, with yet another monitoring device added to her tracking jewelry. This one wasn’t pretty and it didn’t blend in but it was hidden under her clothing so she didn’t mind too much. Except when the stupid thing squeezed her arm every fifteen minutes. “Is all of this really necessary?” she asked as she took her first steps outside.

“Yes!” came the resounding chorus of the Doctor, Jack, Andromeda, Donna and Kaylee.

“Okay, okay,” said Rose. “I know when I’m overruled.”

They materialized in the city center. They had used Andromeda’s TARDIS, because it was more accurate over short distances. Or as she said, “It goes where I ask it to one hundred percent of the time and I’d really rather not end up on Centrificus facing a Retzn beast because Granddad’s TARDIS forgot where she was going halfway through the flight, when I’m supposed to be helping out in the city here.” It was a short walk to the hospital from there and they set off briskly.

“Are you saying my TARDIS is senile?” the Doctor asked taking umbrage against his granddaughter.

“Nope,” she said with a grin. “I would never come right out and say it.”

“Oi, the cheek!”

Andromeda just skipped ahead, catching up with Jack and grabbing his hand. The Andromeda who was here now was no longer pregnant and was forty-two years old, though she didn’t look older than thirty. She and Jack had been acting like teenagers since she’d returned and it did Rose a lot of good to see them both so happy.

The Doctor’s hand snaked over and grabbed hers. “If any of this gets to be too much you let me know and I’ll take you back to her TARDIS so you can rest."

Rose nodded, her attention returning to her friend. She’d worried so much about Jack after finding out she’d made him immortal. It was nice to know that for the next 2000 years he’d have companionship with a woman he was already clearly so crazy about.

“Do you think there’s anything that we can do to help him recover his memories?” Rose asked.

“Who? Jack?” the Doctor asked his mind on other things.

“Yeah. You’ve helped me with mine before.”

“I don’t know. It never occurred to me and Jack’s never asked. I suppose I could give it a try if he wants me to. But I don’t know that much about the Time Agency’s methods. It may be they erased whatever it was for good. What I do know of them, they tend to blunder in and muck things up. They probably erased a far bigger portion of his memory than was strictly necessary. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover they erased two years trying to erase two days.”

Rose looked at her husband in horror. “They’re that bad?” she asked.

“From what Jack’s mentioned, yes, they are.”

“I wonder what could be so bad that they’d do that to him, just to keep him quiet?”

“I don’t know,” said the Doctor. “But I have a feeling it’ll all come out some day.”

They arrived at the hospital and went inside. Another day’s worth of caring for the ill women and babies was begun. Most of it involved working in shifts rocking and feeding babies a specially supplemented formulation. None of the mother’s had been left with the physical resources to nurse their offspring and even after three weeks of nutrient drips that ability had not recovered.

It was unclear if the mothers would ever recover or ever be able to bear children again. So it was more important than ever that the babies all survive because it was doubtful there would be more born to supplement this generation. The only thing the Doctor and Dr. Visily had agreed on with surety was that the children themselves would be able to reproduce one day. But since the Kranamari didn’t have the ability to do so until their twentieth year, eventually there would be a long gap with very little reproduction from the majority of the populace.

It couldn’t be helped and the focus now was simply on survival and restoration. There were many male volunteers from the surrounding area, working hard to save their mates and children, recognizing the danger they were in of losing more than just a generation of children if they lost the women who would partner them in raising that generation.

‘Still,’ Rose thought as they made their way back to the TARDIS that night and then back to the house they had taken possession of from the deceased Harrington Conrad, ‘It is so much better here than on the plague planet.’ Here the babies were starting to look healthy and only a dozen worldwide out of over ten thousand had died. The hospital they were working in had over 500 patients in it from the crisis. She knew there were various medical teams from other planets working in other hospitals all over the planet. Cassi and Dare had spent the first week bringing them in.

The planet was going to survive. After one day in that hospital, Rose was sure of it. And that made her feel better when she knew that none of it would have ever happened if Conrad hadn’t been after her. Not that she blamed herself, but it did help to know that the Kranamari would make it despite his evil plans. She snuggled into the Doctor that night, and he held her in his arms, content to do so, his touch light in her mind as she slept.


Chapter Twenty-six:  Romantic Interlude

Rose sighed, wiping the sweat off her brow. Her back was aching from being on her feet so much and she was ready to go back to the TARDIS. She waited quietly as the Doctor and everyone else finished up the last minute tasks. She had parked herself in front of the main floor nursery, watching over the babies. The health of the children had increased very much over the past five weeks and most of them were out of the woods.

Dr. Visily had gone from hospital to hospital with the help of Jack, Andromeda and her TARDIS, and taught the locals everything that needed to be done in order to restore health to the damaged. They had really done so much good here and they had been so sorely needed.

The baby gave a particularly sharp kick and she put her hand over the spot. “Settle down in there,” she said. “That was my kidney and it hurt.” She felt a little shaft of apology from the infant mind and added quickly, “And while I have your attention young man, no more treating my bladder like it’s your own personal bouncy castle, either.” She didn’t know if unborn Gallifreyan/Human hybrids could laugh or not, but she felt something very much like humor coming from his mind.

“Is he listening?” the Doctor asked coming up from behind and wrapping his arms around her. They could just barely meet now across her very swollen belly. She leaned back into him.

“I think so,” she said.

“Five more weeks and we’ll have one of those,” the Doctor said, his eyes following hers to the babies in the nursery.

“If he comes on time,” she said with a smile.

“He’s a Time Lord. Of course, he’ll be on time.”

“And how often have you shown up where you were supposed to on time, oh great Time Lord,” she teased. She sobered. “He’ll already be born ten weeks earlier than he should have been.”

Something in her voice made him ask, “Do you feel cheated having missed that time?”

Rose sighed. “Sometimes I do. It’s my first pregnancy and I didn’t get to have every moment of it. You weren’t with me the first time I felt him move or kick. I didn’t get to share that moment and it hurts me. But, the closer I get to the end of the line with all the aches and pains, well; I’m also a bit grateful.”

“Is your back hurting again?” he said stepping back and immediately beginning to work on the muscles of her lower back.

“Yes. Thank you,” she said. “That helps some. But I really need to get off my feet.”

“Of course,” he said taking her hand and walking her out of the hospital and into the TARDIS.

“Where’s Donna tonight?” Rose asked as he unlocked the door to the ship.

“She went to Denya Province with Dr. Visily. She’ll be back in a couple of days.” He ushered her inside and pulled the door shut behind them. She turned into him.

“And Jack?”

“Spending the night with his…wife. That just sounds weird.”

“I know,” laughed Rose. “So we have the place to ourselves?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Come on. Let’s go get you comfortable so I can do something about those muscles of yours.

Rose let him herd her through the corridor to their bedroom. She took off her dress and lay down on her side on the bed and the Doctor sat behind her, working on the tightened muscles, flipping onto her other side halfway through. “I miss being able to lie on my stomach,” she said. “Or on my back for that matter. Baby presses against a nerve there when I do and that isn’t helping.” When he was done with her lower back, she sat up and he began to knead the knots out of her neck and shoulders. When he moved on to her feet, she decided she really had married the perfect man.

“Mmm,” she said. “You have magic hands.”

“Careful, Mrs. Tyler, or I’ll think your propositioning me.” His voice was low in his throat and his hand moved from the foot he was holding up to her calf muscle.

“Who says I’m not?” she asked back.

“I thought you were tired?”

“I am. But you’ve been touching me for over an hour, love, and it’s been a few weeks. I’m other things than just tired.” She smiled at him as he began to get a hopeful look on his face.

“But is it safe?” he asked, still hesitant.

“You’re a doctor,” she said, shaking her head. “Didn’t you read any of those books I gave you?” He shook his head. “Too busy saving me and the universe?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s perfectly safe. Just as long as you don’t get carried away, we should be fine.”

He smiled at her. “You are so beautiful,” he said on a whisper.

Rose laughed. “I must look a mess, not to mention I’m big as a garden shed.”

“You’re beautiful. Rose, you are so beautiful like this. You take my breath away.”

Tears came to her eyes as his hands moved up her body. He lavished kisses on her stomach. “Every inch of you is amazing. You are lovely pregnant. I’ll miss it when it goes away,” he said. He finally moved on from her stomach, trailing kisses upwards until he took possession of her mouth, and not long after, possession of her body.

Later as she lay content in his arms, his hand occasionally stroking the baby, she told him, “I love you so very much.”

“Oh, Rose, I love you, too. You’re my life. You and this baby.” He sat up for a moment and retrieved the beautiful bottle of gel that Rose had bought on Sandoval, opened it up and put a dollop on her stomach. It had become a nightly ritual that he loved. And it truly did help fade the marks that had developed overnight when she’d gone from twenty weeks pregnant to thirty weeks pregnant in the space of twenty-four hours.

When he was done, he retrieved the body lotion, worked it into her skin, then the hand lotion into her hands. When he was done, he wrapped his arms around her again and she gave a happy sigh. “You make me so happy,” she said.

“Do you know I’d forgotten what happy was until you came into my life Rose? And then again when I lost you? To me happy is equivalent to Rose.”

“You’ve turned into quite the romantic,” she said.

“This me has always been a romantic when you were around.” He kissed her hair. “Now, missy, get to sleep. We’ve a long day ahead of us tomorrow and you need to be rested.”

“Well,” she said, “I guess I could go to sleep…” She let her words trail off suggestively as she turned in his arms and pressed her body closer to his, and ran her tongue along his ear.

He growled at her. “Oh, what’s another hour?”

The sound of their laughter echoed softly through the TARDIS. It really was quite nice having it to themselves again.

Ch. 27-30:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/76859.html