Birth Day
He knew it was stupid, torturing himself like this. But that picture she’d shown him, all big brown eyes and elbows, the image wouldn’t let him go. Just a peek, he bargained with himself.
The party had been in a park, she’d said, her tenth birthday party. There were lots of people in a park. No one would notice an extra, as long as he didn’t stare and have someone call the authorities.
So, no staring. Just a little peek.
The TARDIS set him down a bit hard, well, really hard - the kind of pick-yourself-up-and-dust-yourself-off hard. She hummed an apology and he patted the consol. Then he looked at the monitor. “Nineteen eighty-six! No, no, no - we want nineteen ninety-six.”
The TARDIS sent a chaotic flash of images, so that he shook his head. “No … what? … no, I … oh, alright!” The park, now. He pushed open the doors and stepped out into an empty alley. The day was warm, and the alley smelled like trash and piss. The Doctor kicked his way through it, hands slung in his pockets.
It was early morning and the park was mostly empty. Two young women sat on a bench, heads bent together. One with long black hair and the other … what was it about her? She had a soft cap of hair dyed pink on the right and blue on the left, a girlishly soft face and was hugely pregnant…
As he stood there staring, she gave out a low moan, clutching the other woman’s hand.
“Oh, no, no, don’t do that. No! Here, breathe - little puffs like this, see? Hee … Hee …Hee. Oh, damnit! You there! Yes, you! Please, please, I need help."
“Baby coming, hmm?” The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “This isn’t quite the place for it, is it?”
“No … oh, damnit! That’s her water. Here, we better … can I have your coat? Yeah, right here.”
He spread his coat on the grass next to some roses and helped ease the woman down onto it.
“Oh, my God! I’m gonna have my baby in the bleedin’ park!”
“No, hush, Jackie, it’s ok. The ambulance will come, eh? We’re gonna sit right here… see, it’s so pretty here… Roses, see the roses? Aren’t they beautiful? Just hold on. Don’t push! No, sweetheart… little breaths … Hee … Hee … Hee.”
He was stunned. He just stood there, hovering over them. Jackie. Jackie is having her baby.
The other woman looked up at him, harried. “I’m a nurse, well, I’m in nursing school…”
“What!" Jackie howled. "Yer not even a real bleedin’ nurse!”
“It’s ok! It’s ok, Jackie, ‘cause this fellow..” she narrowed her dark eyes at him, “He’s a doctor, right?” She gave him A Look, “A doctor, right?”
“Right!” the Doctor nodded vigorously.
“I’m Lisa,” the woman smiled. “Nice to meet you, doctor. What shall I call you?”
“Oh, just “the Doctor””
“Alright…. Ah, Doctor, I was walking in the park and met Jackie, here. Her baby has decided it’s time to meet the world… We … there was a boy, he’s supposed to be calling for an ambulance …”
“Right,” the Doctor knelt next to Jackie and took her hand. “I think I understand the situation.”
“Lovely,” Lisa swallowed. “Jackie,” she laid her palm on the panting woman’s forehead, “I want to check … ah, check and see how things are going with the baby, ok? I’ve got to take your pants off.”
“Oh, Christ! Here comes another one…” A low, animal moan forced its way from deep inside Jackie's throat.
The Doctor could see the contraction ripple across Jackie’s abdomen. The nurse moved - grabbing the waistband of Jackie’s stretch pants and whipping them down and over her trainers. Scooting forward, she laid one hand on Jackie’s belly and the other on her pubis. “Baby’s crowning… Doctor, get behind Jackie, yeah, like that, hold her in your arms… let her lean against you.”
Jackie screamed and he almost dropped her.
“Ok! Ok, Jackie! Push! Push!”
A bulge appeared from between Jackie’s spread legs. The nurse used her fingers to gently ease it free … a forehead, an ear, a shoulder …
“That’s it, that’s it sweetheart….”
The baby fell into Lisa’s hands. Jackie yelled in triumph, “Oh, God!" She reached out a hand, "My baby!”
Several things happened at once. The nurse looked up into the Doctor's face with a smile, baby in her hands. She bent to lay the baby on Jackie’s chest when a great flood of blood flowed out from Jackie. The nurse gasped, pushed the baby at the Doctor and moved to staunch the bleeding. Jackie’s eyes rolled up in her head and she passed out.
“Shit! Shit, she’s bleeding out! Shit!” Lisa pressed against Jackie’s now flaccid abdomen. “We’ve got to cut the cord! Do you have a pen knife? Anything? … Wait, we’ve got to tie it off, first…. Oh, God, we’re gonna loose her.”
Holding the infant in the crook of his arm, the Doctor rummaged desperately through his pockets. Banana, tin foil, sonic screwdriver, jelly bellies, ball of string…. String!
“Good!” Lisa crowed, “Tie once near the baby’s belly, and once about an inch further down. Yeah, like that. Do you have something to cut with?”
Without a word, the Doctor picked up the sonic screwdriver, set it and sliced the cord.
“I think … I think the bleeding’s stopped. Goddamnit! Where’s the ambulance!”
The Doctor looked down at the baby. It was very still, and its skin was tinged blue. No, no, no…Without thinking, he flipped the motionless infant upside down and, holding her ankles with one hand, reached a finger into her mouth and flicked out a wad of mucus.
The baby coughed. Frantically, the Doctor sealed his lips over her nose and mouth and breathed a very gentle puff of air. The baby took a breath, coughed, took another breath and began to wail.
“Oh,” Lisa looked over to him, beaming. “I thought… oh, that’s good, that’s very good. I thought the poor little thing wasn’t going to make it. Oh, look at her! She’s pinking up! That’s good!”
“My… my baby… “ Jackie’s eyes cracked open. “What? What did I have?”
The Doctor laid the screaming baby in her mother’s arms. “It’s a girl,” he choked out. “It’s a girl.”
“Oh!” Jackie’s hands pressed the baby to her, gently, “Hush, hush little girl, hush, it’s ok, now. Look, we have the nurse and the doctor here… see, it’s ok…
An ambulance siren sounded in the distance.
Lisa sat back on her heels and beamed at him. “It’s a girl!”
He grinned back at her. “Oh, well done, Lisa, well done!”
“Couldn’t have done it without you, Doctor!”
The Doctor looked down at Jackie. The baby had stopped crying, and was blinking her eyes in the sunshine. “Hello, there,” he whispered, gazing into her eyes, “hello there, little Rose.”
“Rose,” Jackie smiled, “that’s a lovely name... Yeah... Rose."