Something New (2/4)
Title: Something New
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Ten/Donna
Summary: Follows on from When I Was Six, set after some length of time has elapsed.
Part 1
Donna didn't tell the Doctor when she started throwing up again the next day.
Or again the morning after that.
He managed to catch her at it on the fourth day, though, when she was retching into the loo. She registered his presence dimly between heaves; the bathroom door creaking open behind her; the light step of his sneakers on the tiled floor; the crack of his knees as he knelt and smoothed back her hair, rubbing his hand in comforting circles over her back.
She finally collapsed into his embrace, drained and exhausted.
“What’s wrong with me?” she whispered.
“Lie down,” said the Doctor, reaching for his striped dressing gown and spreading it on the tiles.
“Why?”
“I want to try something.”
She lay back on the gown, knees bent. He pushed up her top.
“What are you doing?” she asked, squirming.
“Shh,” he said, closing his eyes and placing his hands on her belly. She watched as he breathed deeply, concentrating. “Every lifeform,” he began to explain, almost dreamily, “has its own unique timeline.” His hands moved gently, probing. “Like a clock ticking. The bigger the lifeform, the larger the clock and the louder the tick. When I touch someone, I can feel time ebbing like waves. I can feel your timeline beating through you, even now. Like a pulse, but not a pulse.”
Donna listened, almost hypnotised by his words.
“A life starts out so small,” he continued, in wonderment. “With just a tiny tick. Like a watch in a noisy room.”
His brow suddenly creased, his breath a sharp intake as his hands moved quicker.
“But if you listen carefully enough …”
Out of nowhere, Donna felt a completely unexpected sensation: a fluttering deep within her. She gasped and sat bolt upright, clutching the Doctor’s arm.
“Doctor!”
His eyes flew open.
“You felt something? What did you feel?”
“Something … moved.” She gasped as she felt the sensation anew, and her grip on the Doctor's arm tightened. “It just did it again!” She glanced at the Doctor, hoping. He motioned for her to lie back down, then replaced his hands and shut his eyes.
Donna waited, every nerve tensed.
Finally his eyes opened and he gazed intensely at her, seemingly unable to speak.
Then he nodded.
Tears of happiness instantly washed over her eyes, threatening to spill.
“But you said a human and a Time Lord can’t have a baby,” she managed to get out, shakily.
“That's just it,” he choked, his own eyes shiny with sheer joy. “The procreating part is the same, but for us to make an actual baby from it? We're not compatible like that. It’s biologically impossible!”
“Apparently not, smarty pants.”
“It is,” he insisted, his hands running frustratedly through his hair. “And why didn't the scanner pick it up?”
“Should have used an ordinary pregnancy test from down the chemist,” retorted Donna, unable to stop smiling out of shock. “You and all your techno gizmos, they're useless.”
“No,” he said, waving away her words impatiently. “That scanner is the most technologically advanced you can get - it picks up every lifeform there is. I can’t believe it’s broken. Do you know how much it's going to cost to fix?”
“I think the real question is, why exactly do you even have a pregnancy scanner? Haven't been doing the rounds impregnating random aliens, have you?”
“I’m a doctor, I'll have you remember,” he shot back.
“Yeah, well, I haven’t seen a medical degree hanging anywhere. When my cousin Horace got his degree he put it in a big frame right in the front hallway, couldn't manage to get in or out without seeing it.”
The Doctor wasn't listening.
“That scanner ...” he mused. “Unless …”
He jumped to his feet, pulling Donna up and catching her against him.
“Watch it!” she squealed. “Pregnant lady here! Oh - just being able to say that feels amazing.”
“And I love hearing it.” He kissed her deeply, then drew back. “It’s just that now we know there's a baby in there, I can use the imaging setting on my sonic screwdriver to find out exactly what’s going on.”
“What the hell are you standing around kissing me for then, Spaceman? Allons-y!”
* * *
Donna wriggled, making herself comfortable on the med bay bed as the Doctor hurried around a large screen, plugging in wires. She watched him. Her grin faded a little.
“You look serious,” she observed.
There was no answer.
“Are you afraid there’s something wrong with the baby? Or ... with me?”
The Doctor gave her a quick neutral look.
“The scanner,” he said briefly. “I've just checked it. It's not broken. It should have picked it up.”
Donna felt uneasy, watching as he plugged in a final wire before switching on the screen and stepping back to stand next to the bed. A ghost of his usual grin appeared on his face.
“Ready to meet your baby, Donna Noble?”
He held the sonic screwdriver over her stomach and began methodically scanning up and down. Donna watched in amazement as a shifting image slowly grew on the screen, line by line, until a complete picture was formed.
“Well,” said the Doctor, letting out a whooshing sigh of relief. He twirled the screwdriver easily and tucked it away in his pocket. “There it is. Our little baby.”
He laced Donna's fingers between his and squeezed hard. She squeezed back.
“It's so ...” She trailed off. “Well, being its mother, obviously I want to say it's beautiful, but it's still a bit of a blob, isn't it? Hello, blobby baby.”
The Doctor's eyes suddenly narrowed. He released Donna's hand and bounded up to the image, practically sticking his nose against it.
“What are you doing?”
“Shh. I’m counting.”
“What? Fingers and toes? Are they even there yet? There better be ten of each!”
“No, wait. Shh.” His eyes scanned the screen. “One … or is it two?” he muttered to himself, while Donna strained to hear. “No, but there’s a third … triplets, then?”
“I’m having TRIPLETS?” exploded Donna.
“Hang on, wait a moment. That’s odd. And that - that’s different too …”
His face froze. Donna stared in anguish as he shook his head slowly, his mouth falling open.
“No, it can’t be,” he said blankly. “It can’t be. That's impossible.”
“What?”
He seemed to have forgotten her, caught in a reverie. Hands in his pockets, he backed slowly away from the screen, looking as though all the wind had been knocked out of him.
“Doctor?” said Donna desperately. “Tell me what’s happening. Is there something wrong with my babies?”
He seemed to revive a little, and wet his lips nervously with his tongue. “Three,” he said hoarsely. “There are three.”
“Three what? Not babies? Heads, then? Oh my god, I’m having a baby with three heads.”
"There's just one baby, and one head,” he reassured her. He stepped towards the screen, his finger raising to trace over the image. “But look, Donna,” he said gently, sounding awed. “Here’s one.” His finger moved over a little flickering spot. “Here’s another.” The finger moved to another spot just near it, flickering a little weaker. “And another.”
“They look like, well, just blots. What are they?” asked Donna, gazing curiously at the Doctor.
A grin was positively swamping his face.
“Don’t you see? Can't you? They’re hearts, Donna. Hearts. Two of mine ... and then one more. Yours.”
Some deep, unknown feeling swelled in her breast. Tears pricked at her eyes.
“Our baby has three hearts? Is - is it a boy or a girl?”
The Doctor squinted, then came back to sit on the bed, his eyes sweeping intently over Donna's face.
“Looks like we’re getting our mini Donna after all.”
“A girl,” she repeated, leaning back and sighing contentedly as she felt another flutter in her abdomen. “Ooh, she's feisty.”
The Doctor shook his head in amazement. “No wonder the scanner couldn’t recognise her. I can see it now. Lots of other differences. Nothing huge, just ... tiny things.”
“Not human,” whispered Donna, hand moving protectively to her belly, “not even a Time Lord. Then what is she?”
The Doctor's hand moved to cover hers, massaging it gently.
“I think,” he said, choking up; sounding, for once in all his nine hundred years, utterly flabbergasted as they gazed at the three tiny pulsing hearts on the screen, “I think … you and I, we’ve made something new.”
Donna could hardly breathe for sheer emotion.
“And she's growing inside me,” was all she could think to say.
“Donna Noble,” said the Doctor, his voice full of warmth and joy, “you are an amazing, fantastic, brilliant woman. Don't ever let me let you forget it.”
“Next time we’re fighting over the last piece of banana cake, I’m going to quote that at you word for word.”
“Oh, you want banana cake?” he said suddenly, looking stricken. “What else do you feel like? I can run out and get you some cake. Or - tell me, what do you need?”
“Nothing,” she said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “Got everything I need right here.”
He grinned fondly at her.
“Wouldn’t say no to some chocolate bikkies, though,” she said as an afterthought.
He chuckled.
“I’m not joking,” she said.
“Oh, right!” he said, and jumped from the bed. “One packet of chocolate biscuits coming right up.”
She looked at him, head tilted to the side.
“Two?” he guessed. “Two packs coming right up? No, three. Okay, four.”
“I love you.”
“Can you come with me while I get them?” he asked plaintively.
“Oi, I'm pregnant! You do know you’re my official slave now, right?”
He bit his lip. She felt a pang.
“Okay, I was just kidding about the slave thing.”
He scratched the back of his neck. “No, it’s just … this might sound daft but I don’t really want to leave you. Or her. Just not right now, anyway.”
Her eyes moistened and she slipped off the bed too, taking his hand.
“Then we won’t.”
Part 3