Title: The One Adventure He'll Never Have, part 15/15
Author:![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
aibhinn
Rating: Teens
Characters: Ten/Rose, Martha, Jack, Mickey, Jackie, Pete, OMC
Summary: In "Doomsday," the Doctor references "the one adventure I'll never have." What if he does have it? Reunion fic.
Spoilers: S1 and S2, all the way through "Doomsday".
Disclaimer: Still don't own Doctor Who or Torchwood. Though, in the words of a dear friend of mine: I'll take one Ten, one Jack, and one TARDIS. To go, please.
Author's notes: Here we are, at the end. I want to thank every single person who's read, reviewed, and/or favorited this story. This was the first story I ever wrote in the Who-niverse (though no longer the only story), and what a ride it's been! Your support has meant the world to me. Thank you so much!
As always, my beta readers deserve so much more than thanks. Unfortunately, thanks is all I can offer.sensiblecat, larielromeniel, zoanthropic, and rabid1st, you rock. You SERIOUSLY rock. All of you. I could never, ever have done something of this magnitude without you. Thanks also go to malaleen and sc_angel72 for guiding me through the early parts of this fic and giving me the encouragement and kick in the butt I needed to turn the plot of this fic into what it ultimately became. It couldn't have been done without you!
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI | Part XII | Part XIII |
Part XIV
Sector 4.4/Gamma/Mu
The central column of the console slid to a stop as the TARDIS finished her rematerialisation sequence, and there was silence for a moment. The Doctor took a deep breath, scrubbing a hand through the back of his hair before shoving it into his pocket. "Well," he said awkwardly.
"Yeah." Alex had stuffed his hands into his pockets as well, and father and son stood facing each other, neither of them quite sure how to say goodbye.
Rose laid a hand on Martha's shoulder. "You sure you want to go with him?" she asked quietly. "You know you can stay if you want, right? Stay on the TARDIS with us, or we can take you anywhere you like. Nobody's forcing you off."
Martha smiled and touched Rose's arm. "I know, and thank you. But I'm sure I want to go with him. I'm really, really sure."
Rose smiled back. "Okay," she said. "We'll miss you, though." She looked at Alex. "Both of ya. The TARDIS won't seem the same without everyone here."
"Oh, you'll be busy enough after a while," Alex said with a grin, and pulled his hands out of his pockets to hold them out to her. Rose hugged him, and he wrapped his arms close around her, rocking back and forth gently. "You two are going to have an amazing life together," he whispered, just loud enough for the Doctor to hear. "Never doubt it."
"I never have." She pulled away and smiled at him, then hugged Martha as well. "I'm so glad I met you, Martha. Thank you for—" She hesitated as they separated, then gave a half-grin and shrugged. "Well, thank you."
"You're welcome," Martha said. The Doctor had the strangest feeling that she knew exactly what Rose meant, even if he didn't. A companion thing, he decided. Or maybe a human thing. Rassilon knew, he still didn't have humans entirely figured out.
Martha let go of Rose and turned to him, and he wrapped her into a tight embrace. "Thank you for taking me with you," she murmured into his ear. "Thank you so much."
"I'm so glad I did," he murmured back. There was a prickling behind his eyes, which was ridiculous. He'd see Martha again. Of course, it'd be two hundred years for him, but only a few minutes for her. Still, this wasn't really goodbye. He wished he could tell Rose that, but he didn't quite dare. Not until they knew that the babies would be born safe and sound. Once they were here, then he could tell her everything, but if against all odds something still went wrong and their daughter was…if she didn't…
He couldn't articulate it even in thought. Swallowing hard, he pulled back, letting Martha go before turning back to Alex. The two of them stood awkwardly for a moment, looking at each other.
"Oh, for God's sake," Rose said, rolling her eyes, which were bright with unshed tears. "Just hug him, you berk."
They laughed, and then Alex stepped forward and the Doctor found himself hugging his son for the first time. He closed his eyes against the tears that threatened, since he couldn't begin to explain them to Rose. I don't know much about being your father yet, he said silently, but I do know this: I'm proud of you, Alex.
Thanks, Dad, Alex responded, and the Doctor could feel the love and relief and joy behind those two simple words.
They pulled apart and stood there a moment, looking into each other's eyes, the Doctor's hands on Alex's shoulders. Alex blinked away a tear and forced a smile. "I think it's time we went," he said.
"Yeah," the Doctor said, his voice rough. He released his son and stepped back. Rose slid an arm around his waist, and he wrapped his around her shoulders and squeezed gently.
Alex picked up one of Martha's bags, and she shouldered the other. "Goodbye," Martha said softly, and with a parting smile, the two of them left the TARDIS. The Doctor and Rose stood in the doorway and watched as they walked out across the rough black rock of the planetoid, disappearing behind an enormous outcropping. A moment later, they heard a familiar pulsing, grating sound—the sound of a Time Rotor—and then, finally, silence.
Without a word, the Doctor closed the doors and led her back up the ramp toward the console. Rose took a deep, shaky breath and reached up to wipe away a tear. "Gonna miss them," she said.
"Me too."
"But it's not really goodbye," she added. "We'll see them both again. I mean, it'll be a long time till we see Martha, I expect, but only a few months till we get to see Alex. Though he won't remember us, of course, and he'll be a lot smaller."
He stopped dead, gaping at her. "What?" he blurted.
She put a hand on her belly with a smile. "Six months, I think you said? We'd better prepare ourselves; he's going to be a handful. Both of them will. God, imagine two of them at the same time! I think I'm going to need to sleep for the next six months, just to stockpile up enough rest to get me through their babyhoods. Good job you need a lot less sleep than me."
He continued to stare at her, taken utterly aback.
"What?" she asked, mischievously. "You think you're the only one with a brilliant mind around here, do you?"
"I—" the Doctor stuttered, trying to wrap his brain around the knowledge that she knew who Alex was. "That is, I thought—I mean, I didn't—Rose Tyler, how on Earth did you work that out?"
Rose laughed, a bright, cheerful, ringing laugh that he hadn't heard in too long, and stepped closer to him, putting her hands on his shoulders. His hands went automatically to her waist. "If you're planning to keep secrets," she said, grinning, "you should do a better job of tidying up your library. Unshelved books are just begging to be read, especially ones called The Forbidden Art of Reproduction."
He rolled his eyes. "How was I to know you'd taken up reading? But—hang on—that's written in Gallifreyan. The TARDIS didn't translate Gallifreyan for you; I told her not to, back when you first came on board."
"Oh, you did, did you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Only because I didn't know you yet," he said defensively. "And then I just forgot to tell her it was all right. But how did you read it?"
"Remember that time you were arrested on Praxis II and I had to go to court to defend you? I had to look up Praxisan customs and all on the TARDIS computer, and so she had to translate for me. She just never took the ability away."
Admiration welled up in him, both for Rose and for his lovely ship. "You're a pair, you are," he said, shaking his head. "All right, so that's how you knew we're having twins, once you read the bit about Gallifreyans being born with only one heart. But how did you know Alex was one of them?"
She shrugged. "Jus' made sense. No reason for any of your people to help us, so he must have some interest in this all turning out well. That had to mean one of two things: either he's you, or he's our child. Didn't seem like you to me."
"Once again, I am out-witted by the beautiful and brilliant Rose Tyler." He kissed her forehead and broke their embrace to go to the console.
"Think I'd better write that down," Rose teased. "Not that I out-witted you, but that you admitted it. Red-letter day, this."
He pulled a face at her, making her laugh. "So where to now? Back to Earth? Jack should have arranged for flats and jobs for the others by now—or by the time we get back, at any rate. Mickey and Jake should do as well in this universe's Torchwood as they did in the other, which is saying something." There was an odd noise, a sort of cross between a whoop and a ping, and his brow furrowed as he shifted over to look at the screen. "Hallo," he said in mild surprise. "It's a note from Alex."
"Really?" Rose came to see. "What's he say?"
The Doctor grinned at her. "Well, you can read Gallifreyan. You tell me." He stepped away, folding his arms across his chest, his eyes twinkling.
Rose rolled her eyes, but read aloud:
Dear Mum and Dad—
"Oi, that sounds strange," the Doctor murmured. "'Mum and Dad.'"
We're gone now, of course, Martha and me. Hope that wasn't too much of a shocker, us going off together. I can't say yet whether we'll do as well as you two, but I think we've a good chance. And at least you know you'll get on with your daughter-in-law!
I had to take the photo with me, Dad; it's not something you can have lying about, since it's from the future. I need to make a confession, though: I let you believe it was a photo of you and Mum from later in this pregnancy. It's not; it's a photo I took just a few months before I left. I won't tell you how many of us there are, in total; I'll just call you a randy pair and leave it at that.
"Ooh," the Doctor teased. "Maybe we should cut back."
She shot him a Look. "You just try," she warned playfully.
It's been wonderful, watching the two of you get together without the horrific consequences I grew up with. They're no longer a possibility in our timeline; I checked this morning, and my scar's gone. I've a feeling I've only got one heart again, and that's perfectly fine with me. We've stopped a war that was never meant to happen, and saved billions of lives. You and me, Dad. Just us two.
I love you both. See you in two hundred years' time!
Alex
By the time she finished reading, Rose's eyebrows were well up toward her hairline, and she was looking at the Doctor with an expression that promised havoc if he didn't explain. He raised one of his eyebrows as well. "Where do you want me to begin?" he asked.
"Two hundred years' time?" she said promptly. "How'm I supposed to see him in two hundred years?"
The Doctor took a deep breath, then flipped a few switches on the console and the Time Rotor pulsed into life. It seemed he wouldn't be waiting until the babies were born to tell her the whole story. "Let's go sit down," he said. "I've got a lot to tell you that I couldn't tell you before, when Alex was here. I really couldn't," he protested when Rose put her hands on her hips. "It might have really mucked up the time-line, and trust me, you didn't want things to go back to the way they would have been."
She suffered herself to be led to the library. He settled her onto the sofa and sat beside her, taking her hands. "All right," he said. "Rose, what do you remember about the Bad Wolf?"
***
It was a couple of hours later before he'd told her everything. The effect of the Time Vortex on her, and on Jack as well. His first meeting with Alex, and the photo their son had shown him and then, later, nicked from his father's pocket. Why Alex had come back in time to start with. Why he'd started to worry, and do some research, when Rose seemed so convinced she was carrying a girl.
Rose turned pale when he mentioned Alex's scar, and her hand automatically went to her belly. "But that's all over now," he reassured her. "Torchwood didn't get—torched. No war, everybody lives! Brilliant! That lad takes after me, all right. Oi, no need to thump me," he added in a wounded tone, rubbing the shoulder she'd smacked. "I was only stating the obvious."
Rose frowned as a new thought occurred to her. "Will he be able to regenerate?"
"Hmm," the Doctor murmured, thoughtfully. "Interesting question, that."
"It's more than bloody interesting!" Rose retorted. "If he's half as good as getting into trouble as his father is—"
"All right, all right," he interrupted, putting up a hand to silence her. "Time to go back to the library, I think. Maybe you could help me out?" His eyes twinkled. "My Gallifreyan's getting rusty these days."
"And what's going to happen with him and Martha?" Rose persisted. "I mean, she's just got an ordinary human life span, right?"
He took a deep, slow breath. "Yeah, she does," he said quietly. "But I imagine they'll stay together for as long as they can. She can give him the same 'forever' I thought you could give me. The choice he makes will be up to him. But I think I can guess what it's going to be, can't you?"
She slid her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. "So sad," she mused. "Human lifespans. They seem so long when we're living them, but they're really just the blink of an eye, aren't they?"
"Well, that's one way to look at it." He leaned his cheek against the top of her head. "But you humans flame so brightly while you're alive. It's part of what I love about your people."
They stayed like that for a few moments, resting quietly in each other's arms. At last the Doctor said, in a voice very like his usual cheerful tone, "So! Where should we go next? You never answered my question. We could go off somewhere for a month or so—just you and me."
Rose chuckled, raising her head to look at him. "Mum would kill us if she doesn't get to fuss over me for the last six months of my pregnancy."
"Nah," the Doctor said, standing and tugging Rose with him. "She'll be too busy cooing over little Alex and Polyhymnia. Come on—there's a great restaurant on Solaris Minor; they do the best calamari you've ever had."
Rose laughed, following him out of the library and back toward the console room. "We're not calling her Polyhymnia!"
Six months later
There was a party going on elsewhere in the TARDIS, the Doctor knew. The whole Torchwood team, including Mickey and Jake, were there, along with Pete and Jackie and even little Charlie, though he was probably drowsing by this point. The birth of his niece and nephew didn't mean much to him, but it certainly did to everyone else.
It was quiet in here, though—much quieter than it'd been a few hours ago. Two hungry babies, the Doctor had discovered, could make a surprising amount of noise. But now, fed, changed, and sound asleep together in their cot with their heads inclined toward each other, they looked utterly angelic. Suddenly the Victorian depiction of angels as fat little children didn't seem so odd after all.
Rose made a soft sound in her sleep, and he swivelled to look at her. She was still a bit pale, dark circles under her eyes, her hair stringy and dishevelled from the effort of giving birth. But she'd never looked so beautiful. Remembering the hours of labour she'd fought through, he almost regretted what Alex had said, that they'd have many more children in the future—but no, she could always tell him she didn't want any more and he could take care of things. If she had more children, it would always be because she wanted to.
Smiling, he turned, pulling up a chair next to the cot. "Hello, Alex," he said quietly. "Hello, Thalia. I'm told one of the traditions of human fathers is to read a bedtime story to their children. I rather like that idea, and since there isn't much more I can do just now in a father-ish sort of way, I thought we could start our tradition tonight. What do you say?"
They slept on, oblivious, and he nodded. "I'll take silence for assent," he said. Sliding his spectacles on, he picked up the book he'd brought with him and opened it to the first page. "A Brief History of Time," he read, "by Stephen Hawking. Chapter one: Our Picture of the Universe." He glanced up over the top of the book. "It's a fairy tale of sorts."
Thalia moved just slightly; Alex gave a half-smile before subsiding back to full sleep. The Doctor grinned. Oh, this Dad thing was going to be a brilliant adventure.
Author:
aibhinn Rating: Teens
Characters: Ten/Rose, Martha, Jack, Mickey, Jackie, Pete, OMC
Summary: In "Doomsday," the Doctor references "the one adventure I'll never have." What if he does have it? Reunion fic.
Spoilers: S1 and S2, all the way through "Doomsday".
Disclaimer: Still don't own Doctor Who or Torchwood. Though, in the words of a dear friend of mine: I'll take one Ten, one Jack, and one TARDIS. To go, please.
Author's notes: Here we are, at the end. I want to thank every single person who's read, reviewed, and/or favorited this story. This was the first story I ever wrote in the Who-niverse (though no longer the only story), and what a ride it's been! Your support has meant the world to me. Thank you so much!
As always, my beta readers deserve so much more than thanks. Unfortunately, thanks is all I can offer.
sensiblecat, larielromeniel, zoanthropic, and rabid1st, you rock. You SERIOUSLY rock. All of you. I could never, ever have done something of this magnitude without you. Thanks also go to malaleen and sc_angel72 for guiding me through the early parts of this fic and giving me the encouragement and kick in the butt I needed to turn the plot of this fic into what it ultimately became. It couldn't have been done without you!Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI | Part XII | Part XIII |
Part XIV
Sector 4.4/Gamma/Mu
The central column of the console slid to a stop as the TARDIS finished her rematerialisation sequence, and there was silence for a moment. The Doctor took a deep breath, scrubbing a hand through the back of his hair before shoving it into his pocket. "Well," he said awkwardly.
"Yeah." Alex had stuffed his hands into his pockets as well, and father and son stood facing each other, neither of them quite sure how to say goodbye.
Rose laid a hand on Martha's shoulder. "You sure you want to go with him?" she asked quietly. "You know you can stay if you want, right? Stay on the TARDIS with us, or we can take you anywhere you like. Nobody's forcing you off."
Martha smiled and touched Rose's arm. "I know, and thank you. But I'm sure I want to go with him. I'm really, really sure."
Rose smiled back. "Okay," she said. "We'll miss you, though." She looked at Alex. "Both of ya. The TARDIS won't seem the same without everyone here."
"Oh, you'll be busy enough after a while," Alex said with a grin, and pulled his hands out of his pockets to hold them out to her. Rose hugged him, and he wrapped his arms close around her, rocking back and forth gently. "You two are going to have an amazing life together," he whispered, just loud enough for the Doctor to hear. "Never doubt it."
"I never have." She pulled away and smiled at him, then hugged Martha as well. "I'm so glad I met you, Martha. Thank you for—" She hesitated as they separated, then gave a half-grin and shrugged. "Well, thank you."
"You're welcome," Martha said. The Doctor had the strangest feeling that she knew exactly what Rose meant, even if he didn't. A companion thing, he decided. Or maybe a human thing. Rassilon knew, he still didn't have humans entirely figured out.
Martha let go of Rose and turned to him, and he wrapped her into a tight embrace. "Thank you for taking me with you," she murmured into his ear. "Thank you so much."
"I'm so glad I did," he murmured back. There was a prickling behind his eyes, which was ridiculous. He'd see Martha again. Of course, it'd be two hundred years for him, but only a few minutes for her. Still, this wasn't really goodbye. He wished he could tell Rose that, but he didn't quite dare. Not until they knew that the babies would be born safe and sound. Once they were here, then he could tell her everything, but if against all odds something still went wrong and their daughter was…if she didn't…
He couldn't articulate it even in thought. Swallowing hard, he pulled back, letting Martha go before turning back to Alex. The two of them stood awkwardly for a moment, looking at each other.
"Oh, for God's sake," Rose said, rolling her eyes, which were bright with unshed tears. "Just hug him, you berk."
They laughed, and then Alex stepped forward and the Doctor found himself hugging his son for the first time. He closed his eyes against the tears that threatened, since he couldn't begin to explain them to Rose. I don't know much about being your father yet, he said silently, but I do know this: I'm proud of you, Alex.
Thanks, Dad, Alex responded, and the Doctor could feel the love and relief and joy behind those two simple words.
They pulled apart and stood there a moment, looking into each other's eyes, the Doctor's hands on Alex's shoulders. Alex blinked away a tear and forced a smile. "I think it's time we went," he said.
"Yeah," the Doctor said, his voice rough. He released his son and stepped back. Rose slid an arm around his waist, and he wrapped his around her shoulders and squeezed gently.
Alex picked up one of Martha's bags, and she shouldered the other. "Goodbye," Martha said softly, and with a parting smile, the two of them left the TARDIS. The Doctor and Rose stood in the doorway and watched as they walked out across the rough black rock of the planetoid, disappearing behind an enormous outcropping. A moment later, they heard a familiar pulsing, grating sound—the sound of a Time Rotor—and then, finally, silence.
Without a word, the Doctor closed the doors and led her back up the ramp toward the console. Rose took a deep, shaky breath and reached up to wipe away a tear. "Gonna miss them," she said.
"Me too."
"But it's not really goodbye," she added. "We'll see them both again. I mean, it'll be a long time till we see Martha, I expect, but only a few months till we get to see Alex. Though he won't remember us, of course, and he'll be a lot smaller."
He stopped dead, gaping at her. "What?" he blurted.
She put a hand on her belly with a smile. "Six months, I think you said? We'd better prepare ourselves; he's going to be a handful. Both of them will. God, imagine two of them at the same time! I think I'm going to need to sleep for the next six months, just to stockpile up enough rest to get me through their babyhoods. Good job you need a lot less sleep than me."
He continued to stare at her, taken utterly aback.
"What?" she asked, mischievously. "You think you're the only one with a brilliant mind around here, do you?"
"I—" the Doctor stuttered, trying to wrap his brain around the knowledge that she knew who Alex was. "That is, I thought—I mean, I didn't—Rose Tyler, how on Earth did you work that out?"
Rose laughed, a bright, cheerful, ringing laugh that he hadn't heard in too long, and stepped closer to him, putting her hands on his shoulders. His hands went automatically to her waist. "If you're planning to keep secrets," she said, grinning, "you should do a better job of tidying up your library. Unshelved books are just begging to be read, especially ones called The Forbidden Art of Reproduction."
He rolled his eyes. "How was I to know you'd taken up reading? But—hang on—that's written in Gallifreyan. The TARDIS didn't translate Gallifreyan for you; I told her not to, back when you first came on board."
"Oh, you did, did you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Only because I didn't know you yet," he said defensively. "And then I just forgot to tell her it was all right. But how did you read it?"
"Remember that time you were arrested on Praxis II and I had to go to court to defend you? I had to look up Praxisan customs and all on the TARDIS computer, and so she had to translate for me. She just never took the ability away."
Admiration welled up in him, both for Rose and for his lovely ship. "You're a pair, you are," he said, shaking his head. "All right, so that's how you knew we're having twins, once you read the bit about Gallifreyans being born with only one heart. But how did you know Alex was one of them?"
She shrugged. "Jus' made sense. No reason for any of your people to help us, so he must have some interest in this all turning out well. That had to mean one of two things: either he's you, or he's our child. Didn't seem like you to me."
"Once again, I am out-witted by the beautiful and brilliant Rose Tyler." He kissed her forehead and broke their embrace to go to the console.
"Think I'd better write that down," Rose teased. "Not that I out-witted you, but that you admitted it. Red-letter day, this."
He pulled a face at her, making her laugh. "So where to now? Back to Earth? Jack should have arranged for flats and jobs for the others by now—or by the time we get back, at any rate. Mickey and Jake should do as well in this universe's Torchwood as they did in the other, which is saying something." There was an odd noise, a sort of cross between a whoop and a ping, and his brow furrowed as he shifted over to look at the screen. "Hallo," he said in mild surprise. "It's a note from Alex."
"Really?" Rose came to see. "What's he say?"
The Doctor grinned at her. "Well, you can read Gallifreyan. You tell me." He stepped away, folding his arms across his chest, his eyes twinkling.
Rose rolled her eyes, but read aloud:
Dear Mum and Dad—
"Oi, that sounds strange," the Doctor murmured. "'Mum and Dad.'"
We're gone now, of course, Martha and me. Hope that wasn't too much of a shocker, us going off together. I can't say yet whether we'll do as well as you two, but I think we've a good chance. And at least you know you'll get on with your daughter-in-law!
I had to take the photo with me, Dad; it's not something you can have lying about, since it's from the future. I need to make a confession, though: I let you believe it was a photo of you and Mum from later in this pregnancy. It's not; it's a photo I took just a few months before I left. I won't tell you how many of us there are, in total; I'll just call you a randy pair and leave it at that.
"Ooh," the Doctor teased. "Maybe we should cut back."
She shot him a Look. "You just try," she warned playfully.
It's been wonderful, watching the two of you get together without the horrific consequences I grew up with. They're no longer a possibility in our timeline; I checked this morning, and my scar's gone. I've a feeling I've only got one heart again, and that's perfectly fine with me. We've stopped a war that was never meant to happen, and saved billions of lives. You and me, Dad. Just us two.
I love you both. See you in two hundred years' time!
Alex
By the time she finished reading, Rose's eyebrows were well up toward her hairline, and she was looking at the Doctor with an expression that promised havoc if he didn't explain. He raised one of his eyebrows as well. "Where do you want me to begin?" he asked.
"Two hundred years' time?" she said promptly. "How'm I supposed to see him in two hundred years?"
The Doctor took a deep breath, then flipped a few switches on the console and the Time Rotor pulsed into life. It seemed he wouldn't be waiting until the babies were born to tell her the whole story. "Let's go sit down," he said. "I've got a lot to tell you that I couldn't tell you before, when Alex was here. I really couldn't," he protested when Rose put her hands on her hips. "It might have really mucked up the time-line, and trust me, you didn't want things to go back to the way they would have been."
She suffered herself to be led to the library. He settled her onto the sofa and sat beside her, taking her hands. "All right," he said. "Rose, what do you remember about the Bad Wolf?"
***
It was a couple of hours later before he'd told her everything. The effect of the Time Vortex on her, and on Jack as well. His first meeting with Alex, and the photo their son had shown him and then, later, nicked from his father's pocket. Why Alex had come back in time to start with. Why he'd started to worry, and do some research, when Rose seemed so convinced she was carrying a girl.
Rose turned pale when he mentioned Alex's scar, and her hand automatically went to her belly. "But that's all over now," he reassured her. "Torchwood didn't get—torched. No war, everybody lives! Brilliant! That lad takes after me, all right. Oi, no need to thump me," he added in a wounded tone, rubbing the shoulder she'd smacked. "I was only stating the obvious."
Rose frowned as a new thought occurred to her. "Will he be able to regenerate?"
"Hmm," the Doctor murmured, thoughtfully. "Interesting question, that."
"It's more than bloody interesting!" Rose retorted. "If he's half as good as getting into trouble as his father is—"
"All right, all right," he interrupted, putting up a hand to silence her. "Time to go back to the library, I think. Maybe you could help me out?" His eyes twinkled. "My Gallifreyan's getting rusty these days."
"And what's going to happen with him and Martha?" Rose persisted. "I mean, she's just got an ordinary human life span, right?"
He took a deep, slow breath. "Yeah, she does," he said quietly. "But I imagine they'll stay together for as long as they can. She can give him the same 'forever' I thought you could give me. The choice he makes will be up to him. But I think I can guess what it's going to be, can't you?"
She slid her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. "So sad," she mused. "Human lifespans. They seem so long when we're living them, but they're really just the blink of an eye, aren't they?"
"Well, that's one way to look at it." He leaned his cheek against the top of her head. "But you humans flame so brightly while you're alive. It's part of what I love about your people."
They stayed like that for a few moments, resting quietly in each other's arms. At last the Doctor said, in a voice very like his usual cheerful tone, "So! Where should we go next? You never answered my question. We could go off somewhere for a month or so—just you and me."
Rose chuckled, raising her head to look at him. "Mum would kill us if she doesn't get to fuss over me for the last six months of my pregnancy."
"Nah," the Doctor said, standing and tugging Rose with him. "She'll be too busy cooing over little Alex and Polyhymnia. Come on—there's a great restaurant on Solaris Minor; they do the best calamari you've ever had."
Rose laughed, following him out of the library and back toward the console room. "We're not calling her Polyhymnia!"
Six months later
There was a party going on elsewhere in the TARDIS, the Doctor knew. The whole Torchwood team, including Mickey and Jake, were there, along with Pete and Jackie and even little Charlie, though he was probably drowsing by this point. The birth of his niece and nephew didn't mean much to him, but it certainly did to everyone else.
It was quiet in here, though—much quieter than it'd been a few hours ago. Two hungry babies, the Doctor had discovered, could make a surprising amount of noise. But now, fed, changed, and sound asleep together in their cot with their heads inclined toward each other, they looked utterly angelic. Suddenly the Victorian depiction of angels as fat little children didn't seem so odd after all.
Rose made a soft sound in her sleep, and he swivelled to look at her. She was still a bit pale, dark circles under her eyes, her hair stringy and dishevelled from the effort of giving birth. But she'd never looked so beautiful. Remembering the hours of labour she'd fought through, he almost regretted what Alex had said, that they'd have many more children in the future—but no, she could always tell him she didn't want any more and he could take care of things. If she had more children, it would always be because she wanted to.
Smiling, he turned, pulling up a chair next to the cot. "Hello, Alex," he said quietly. "Hello, Thalia. I'm told one of the traditions of human fathers is to read a bedtime story to their children. I rather like that idea, and since there isn't much more I can do just now in a father-ish sort of way, I thought we could start our tradition tonight. What do you say?"
They slept on, oblivious, and he nodded. "I'll take silence for assent," he said. Sliding his spectacles on, he picked up the book he'd brought with him and opened it to the first page. "A Brief History of Time," he read, "by Stephen Hawking. Chapter one: Our Picture of the Universe." He glanced up over the top of the book. "It's a fairy tale of sorts."
Thalia moved just slightly; Alex gave a half-smile before subsiding back to full sleep. The Doctor grinned. Oh, this Dad thing was going to be a brilliant adventure.
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