Crossroads: Choices and Chances (5/11)
Title: Choices and Chances
Warnings: R. Oh, and it’s baby!fic.
Spoilers: For the sake of this story, S4 never happens.
Beta: runriggers
Part of the Crossroads series
Part One: Reflections
Part Two: One Day
Part Three: Choices and Chances, Chapters One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four
Chapter Five: Trust Martha Jones..... Of all the doctors in all the world.....
Chapter Five: Trust Martha Jones
Rose woke slowly, warm and comfortable, pressed up against the Doctor. Her mind was calmer than it had been in days, she wasn’t racked with worry or fear, and she felt a deep sense of contentment and security, something she hadn’t felt since Canary Wharf.
“We should go see Martha,” said the Doctor as her eyes opened, and Rose looked at him blankly as she processed. “It’s a bit early, but she’ll need time to read up on the situation, before we really need her medical experience-"
“Doctor.”
“Yes, Rose?”
“I’m going to close my eyes and pretend to wake up, and we’re going to try that again.”
“We shouldn’t see Martha?”
“Rule Three: Don’t mention old companions whilst in bed with your current companion.”
“Ah.”
Rose closed her eyes, and started to count to three. Before she’d even reached two, however:
“Oh, wait, we can’t see Martha - Sarah Jane wanted a word before we left.”
Rose sighed.
“What? Your eyes are still closed and I’m thinking aloud.”
“You are impossible,” said Rose, and opened her eyes anyway. He gave her a quick kiss on her lips.
“Good morning, Rose-of-my-hearts,” he said cheekily.
“Better.” He grinned and kissed her again, and she sighed, nuzzling into him. “Do we really have to see Martha?”
He frowned. “You need a doctor - a real doctor, Rose, one who isn’t me. Martha’s trained, and I trust her.”
“She doesn’t like me.”
“Don’t be silly, she likes you well enough. She’s professional, Martha is, she’ll be able to handle anything that - well, anything that comes her way.”
Rose lifted herself up on her elbow to get a better look at his face. It was perfectly calm, but she didn’t need any link to know there was just a bit of doubt in the back of his brown eyes.
“Doctor, you’re not saying things again. I wish you wouldn’t not say things.”
“Rose, there hasn’t been a pregnant Gallifreyan in hundreds of years, not one I’ve ever known, anyway,” said the Doctor quietly. “I have no idea what will happen. Please, Rose. I trust Martha Jones with my life. I trust her with yours, and with the baby’s.”
Rose rested her cheek on his chest, closed her eyes and listened to the double beat. His arms wrapped instinctively around her, and she could feel him kissing the top of her head, lips barely grazing her hair.
“All right,” said Rose, softly, and pushed herself back up again. “What did Sarah Jane want to know?”
“I don’t know, she wouldn’t ask me. Very rude of her. Perhaps I won’t have breakfast with her at all, I’m not hungry.”
“Come in for tea at least, or she’ll never forgive you.”
“She hasn’t forgiven me for Aberdeen. I think she’s keeping a list.”
“Then don’t add to it.” Rose sat up and began to swing her legs out of bed, but stopped midway through and immediately curled into a ball. “Ah - Doctor? Are there crackers?”
*
Breakfast was a mix of scones, cream, tea, and the rushed pace of Luke setting off to school. Rose wasn’t certain she saw the boy eat anything, although he’d certainly sat down to a full bowl of cereal and stood up to an empty one. Perhaps she’d blinked too long. Luke’s morning routine seemed to consist of running up and down the stairs half a dozen times for a lost shoe, missing book, or forgotten homework, and as the door finally slammed behind him, Sarah Jane collapsed at the table with a sigh.
“Now, that’s done. Doctor, drink your tea and go away.”
“Oi!”
“If you stay one minute longer there will be a crisis, and I don’t want a crisis today. I have something to say to Rose and then you may have her back again.”
“She’ll only tell me anyway,” said the Doctor, sulking, and stormed out of the kitchen in a huff. They watched him stalk across the garden toward the TARDIS, but he stopped midway through to examine one of the dying rose bushes.
“I know what you’re going to ask,” said Rose.
Sarah Jane did not bat an eye. “Oh? Let’s hear it, then.”
“We - talked last night.”
“Is that what they call it these days?” Rose blushed, and Sarah Jane calmly sipped her tea. “Then things are better in the daylight?”
Rose rested her chin in her hand, watching the Doctor. “Forever isn’t so bad, if he’s there for it, I suppose. We did talk a little. I don’t know how it will be, having a baby on the TARDIS, running for our lives all the time, but I’m not so afraid now.”
“Good,” said Sarah Jane thickly, and reached for Rose’s other hand. “I meant it, what I said a few years ago. If there’s ever a day you need me, all you have to do is stand on my doorstep. I know I can’t replace your mum, Rose, and honestly, I don’t want to try. But the Doctor isn’t always very quick in some matters, and I don’t want you to think there’s nowhere for you to go.”
Rose had to blink very hard to keep her eyes from spilling over. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she sniffed. “I keep crying all the time.”
“Pregnant,” offered Sarah Jane, handing her a napkin, and Rose buried her face in it.
The door flew open again. “What did you do to her?” asked the Doctor angrily, coming straight to Rose and resting his hands on her shoulders.
“She’s pregnant, you bloody Time Lord, you’re the one who did it,” said Sarah Jane huffily. “Sit her down anywhere long enough and she’ll start crying. Honestly, I don’t know how Rose manages without someone to beat some sense into you on a regular basis.”
“He’d never stand a companion like that,” said Rose, drying her eyes. “Lord and master, him, couldn’t have someone who might thump him.”
“Did once,” muttered the Doctor. “She didn’t want to stay.”
“Clever girl, she would have wore her arms out,” said Sarah Jane dryly, and Rose giggled while the Doctor crossed his arms and glared. “Where are you off to now?”
Rose folded the napkin. “Martha Jones - we’re going to ask her to be my doctor-"
“She’ll do it,” said the Doctor firmly.
“We’ll still be polite and ask,” Rose said patiently. “And then - I don’t know.”
“Will Shakespeare,” said the Doctor, and Rose spun in her seat.
“Really?”
“You’ve been wanting, and it’s at least a month before you can’t go in the Vortex until the baby’s born, not without running the risk of damaging telepathic temporal imprinting. So it ought to be now, if we’re to make a proper holiday of it.”
Rose jumped up from her chair and threw her arms around him, unable to speak. Sarah Jane sat back in her chair and grinned at the pair of them. “Just don’t get stuck there, now,” she said cheerfully. “Bloody Mary was pregnant going on two years, and look what happened to her.”
*
Martha Jones, M.D., rarely began her day without checking her schedule, calling her mother, or glancing at the TARDIS key kept safely in her bed-stand drawer. The first because she liked knowing there was a plan; the second because her mother worried; the third because she was hopeful that the plan would go to pot and her mum would finally have good reason to worry.
Tuesday morning, the TARDIS key was quiet, but Martha couldn’t be sure it was cold. She popped it in her pocket just in case. Her mother was in a rush out the door, so this cut their conversation short. Last, there was an appointment at 3pm with a new patient named Rose Smith.
It wasn’t that Martha didn’t like working for U.N.I.T. It was more that she liked being in the real world, too, where people walked about not discussing aliens and technology and five impossible things before breakfast. Three days a week, Martha lived in the impossible world of outer space, aliens, and what might have been otherwise classified as science fiction if it weren’t so very real. But Tuesdays and Thursdays, she stayed very well settled in the real world, with a normal doctor’s practice and a normal doctor’s routine, and pretended that she was living a normal, structured life.
All the same, a little bit of uncertainty was a good thing. When it came time to meet the new patient, Martha couldn’t help the grin on her face or the way her heart pounded. She wasn’t disappointed.
“Doctor Jones!” said the Doctor, wide grin and blue suit, enveloping her in a hug before the door shut behind her. “You need new magazines in your waiting room - there were some older than me.”
“Mr. Smith,” laughed Martha. “Now I know you’re teasing me. And making an appointment for Rose Smith?”
“Hello,” said Rose from where she sat on the exam table, and Martha gave her an welcome smile.
“Figured it out, though, my clever Martha,” said the Doctor, pleased and proud, and Martha tried to ignore the way her heart jumped. “You have to be good to me, I wore your blue suit.”
Martha turned to Rose. “You couldn’t have burned the red shoes?”
“I did,” said Rose. “Twice. He keeps finding another pair.”
“Oi, what’s wrong with my shoes? What if we’re attacked by Slitheen and need to run?”
“Not in my office, not today,” said Martha. “Is this a visit or an actual appointment?”
“Both,” said the Doctor. “I have homework for you.” He nodded to Rose, who presented a thick medical volume, leather-bound and looking much worse for wear.
“I’m out of school now, Doctor.”
“For this, you’re not. We need a real medical doctor for this, Martha Jones, one with experience and qualifications. And you are it.” Rose kicked him. “Oh, all right. Doctor Jones, we’d like you to consider being our doctor. Please.”
Martha looked between Rose and the Doctor. There was a heavy feeling snaking from her stomach to her heart. An appointment for Rose - the Doctor trying to appease her - and homework?
“Why?” she managed to choke out, but somehow knew what the answer would be.
The Doctor looked at Rose, who shook her head as if to tell him it was all right if he shared the news. He grinned, clearly pleased. “Rose and I are having a baby.”
Martha somehow found herself switched to autopilot. She kept her attention squarely on her patient - she wasn’t sure what she’d do if she looked at the Doctor just then. “You’re pregnant?”
Rose nodded as the Doctor squeaked in protest. “Well, it’s hardly going to be me!”
“I don’t know how Time Lords procreate!” snapped Martha, barely glancing at him. “How far along?”
“Not sure,” said Rose. “Maybe a month, maybe a little more. But it’s a fourteen-month pregnancy, apparently, so it’s not as much as it sounds first off. It’s all in the book here - well, some of all of it, I’ve been reading it ever since I found out, and I finished about an hour ago. It’s a lot more complicated than a regular pregnancy, looks like.”
“And I’ve only got one book?” In her shock, Martha finally turned to the Doctor. “You want me to learn the entire gestation of a Time Lord baby and you only brought me one book?”
“Time Tot, actually,” said the Doctor.
“Awful, isn’t it?” interjected Rose.
“One book?”
“To be fair, it’s only one chapter in the book,” continued Rose. “Took hours to read, but I’m all done now.”
“Really, Rose, not helping,” sighed the Doctor.
“One chapter!?!”
“Told you she wouldn’t be pleased,” said Rose.
Rational thought was completely out of the question now, and Martha advanced on the Doctor, poking him in the chest. “Do you expect me to see Rose through the next fourteen months on the basis of one chapter in one book, Doctor?”
“Yes?”
“I need more books. And time to read them. And maybe some research. And don’t tell me that’s the only book in your library because I won’t believe you.”
“You can check yourself,” said the Doctor. “The TARDIS is in the park across from your flat. The only question is when or where you’d fancy dinner.”
“Chips!” piped up Rose.
“Pregnancy hasn’t changed her cravings one bit,” said the Doctor. “Martha?”
“Oh, chips. But in 1957 in Brighton. And your treat.”
“He made me pay for chips on our first date,” said Rose. “And here I sit, all knocked up. Bet he skips out on your bill, too.”
“I’ve come to expect it,” said Martha, and she picked up the medical text, surprisingly heavier than it looked. She glared at the Doctor. “Thicker on the inside than the out, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” said the Doctor with a grin.
*
The TARDIS was not quite the same as when Martha left it. Of course, it wouldn’t be - she hadn’t been inside since Rose’s return two years previously, and there were bound to be changes made. Though seeing them together, happy and playful, had become less painful over time, Martha wasn’t sure how walking into what was essentially their home (once hers) would feel.
She’d waited five hours before showing up for dinner, partly to allow herself time for a good cry. It wasn’t that she’d harbored any notion that the Doctor might realize he loved her and not Rose - oh, goodness, no, she knew better than that. She saw what he was like with Rose - he was calmer, he was happier, and Martha didn’t want to take that away from him, no matter much it hurt to see that it was Rose giving him that contentment and not her.
After the cry, she washed her face, changed her clothes, and read the chapter on pregnancy. Rose might have taken a few hours to read it, but Martha was a product of medical school, and thus able to finish it in 45 minutes flat. The moment she was done, she made a quick list of the types of books she wanted, and packed a small medical kit in preparation before setting out to find the TARDIS and her new patient.
They’d gone to Brighton, eaten chips while looking out on the water, laughing and talking about nothing at all, and Martha managed not to feel entirely like the third wheel. Afterwards, the TARDIS took them back home, and the Doctor, muttering delightedly to himself, went back under the grating to tinker with the TARDIS, happy in his general discontent in regards to how everything ran, leaving Martha and Rose to themselves.
The medical kit sat behind her on the floor of the TARDIS library, its contents spilled across the floor. Rose was curled in her favorite blue chair, still dressed in the wide, long skirt suited for 1957, her hair pulled back in a ponytail that made her look 18 and not 27. She was reading the book Martha had packed for her, studying it with all due interest and concentration, as Martha poured over the bookshelves surrounding them. She had a fairly good idea what sort of books she wanted, and she’d spent a year studying the contents of the shelves, so she knew more or less where to find things. Happily, the TARDIS was helping her, moving shelves up and down so she could access them. Martha wasn’t sure if it meant the ship was glad to have her on board, or merely wanted to make sure Martha was truly prepared. She found books that she’d never seen before, books she was certain would be enormously helpful, and the growing piles behind her (three now, with at least ten books apiece) were evidence of her success.
Martha had just found a book on telepathic psychology in infants when Rose spoke. “I’m sorry about him, really, Martha. I - I don’t think he realizes other people’s feelings run so deep.”
Martha pulled the book from the shelf. “Same as most men, then,” she said, trying to keep her tone light, and she turned back to the woman in the chair. Rose had closed the book and was watching her with wary, open eyes. “Him, he’s a bit more daft than most.”
“Yes. I - I wasn’t sure you’d want to come anywhere with us tonight.”
“I needed the books, and you needed dinner. Did you take the vitamins I brought for you?”
“Yes, of course. I’ve set my watch to remind me to take one every 24 hours so I won’t forget.”
“That’ll do then.” Martha set the book down on a pile and turned back to the bookshelves. “I’ll help you as best I can, Rose, but…there’s too much I don’t know. I need you to take those vitamins, every day. And chart your blood pressure for me, twice a day, three times if it starts rising, and if it does you come straight back to me. I want to see you once a month regardless, maybe more later, we’ll see.”
Rose’s face brightened. “Then - you’ll help me?”
“Of course.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d want to.”
Martha scoffed. “Challenge like this? I was beginning to think my life was boring.”
Rose shook her head. “You’re a good person, Martha Jones. I’m glad he had you when he didn’t have me.”
Martha choked up suddenly, and was very glad she still faced the bookshelves. “I’m not a good person. Tried to take him away from you once.”
“I wasn’t here. There was no one to take him from.”
“Tell him that,” sighed Martha. She turned to look at Rose, holding a book in front of her like a shield. “Oh, how I wished he’d forget you. Only he never did. You know where he took me? New Earth, because you’d been there. He saved me from falling into a sun because he couldn’t save you from falling into the Void. Everything he did for me, it was a way of reminding himself of you. I never stood a chance, and it took me two years to realize it. Best years of my life, really, I don’t regret it, but don’t say you weren’t here. You’d never really left.”
Rose’s gaze was steady, but there was something in her eyes that wasn’t quite right, or so Martha thought - confusion, almost, but not really.
“He loves you too, in a way,” said Rose, and Martha could see that she was working her way through something that had little to do with what the Doctor might feel for either of them.
“Not the way I wanted.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” said Martha, which surprised herself as much as it surprised Rose. She set the last book down on a pile. “Think the Doctor will stop playing mechanic long enough to carry books?”
“Best not to give him the choice. Hand over a pile.”
“And have the Doctor toss me out on my ear?”
Rose held out her arms. “He’ll take mine and half of yours to prove the point. I’m not infirm, I’m just pregnant.”
“Same thing to his eyes,” said Martha, piling books into her arms. “Pregnant with an alien baby, disposition as sweet as cream, and knows how to manipulate him. Never a chance, not one.”
Jump to Chapter Six
Warnings: R. Oh, and it’s baby!fic.
Spoilers: For the sake of this story, S4 never happens.
Beta: runriggers
Part of the Crossroads series
Part One: Reflections
Part Two: One Day
Part Three: Choices and Chances, Chapters One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four
Chapter Five: Trust Martha Jones..... Of all the doctors in all the world.....
Chapter Five: Trust Martha Jones
Rose woke slowly, warm and comfortable, pressed up against the Doctor. Her mind was calmer than it had been in days, she wasn’t racked with worry or fear, and she felt a deep sense of contentment and security, something she hadn’t felt since Canary Wharf.
“We should go see Martha,” said the Doctor as her eyes opened, and Rose looked at him blankly as she processed. “It’s a bit early, but she’ll need time to read up on the situation, before we really need her medical experience-"
“Doctor.”
“Yes, Rose?”
“I’m going to close my eyes and pretend to wake up, and we’re going to try that again.”
“We shouldn’t see Martha?”
“Rule Three: Don’t mention old companions whilst in bed with your current companion.”
“Ah.”
Rose closed her eyes, and started to count to three. Before she’d even reached two, however:
“Oh, wait, we can’t see Martha - Sarah Jane wanted a word before we left.”
Rose sighed.
“What? Your eyes are still closed and I’m thinking aloud.”
“You are impossible,” said Rose, and opened her eyes anyway. He gave her a quick kiss on her lips.
“Good morning, Rose-of-my-hearts,” he said cheekily.
“Better.” He grinned and kissed her again, and she sighed, nuzzling into him. “Do we really have to see Martha?”
He frowned. “You need a doctor - a real doctor, Rose, one who isn’t me. Martha’s trained, and I trust her.”
“She doesn’t like me.”
“Don’t be silly, she likes you well enough. She’s professional, Martha is, she’ll be able to handle anything that - well, anything that comes her way.”
Rose lifted herself up on her elbow to get a better look at his face. It was perfectly calm, but she didn’t need any link to know there was just a bit of doubt in the back of his brown eyes.
“Doctor, you’re not saying things again. I wish you wouldn’t not say things.”
“Rose, there hasn’t been a pregnant Gallifreyan in hundreds of years, not one I’ve ever known, anyway,” said the Doctor quietly. “I have no idea what will happen. Please, Rose. I trust Martha Jones with my life. I trust her with yours, and with the baby’s.”
Rose rested her cheek on his chest, closed her eyes and listened to the double beat. His arms wrapped instinctively around her, and she could feel him kissing the top of her head, lips barely grazing her hair.
“All right,” said Rose, softly, and pushed herself back up again. “What did Sarah Jane want to know?”
“I don’t know, she wouldn’t ask me. Very rude of her. Perhaps I won’t have breakfast with her at all, I’m not hungry.”
“Come in for tea at least, or she’ll never forgive you.”
“She hasn’t forgiven me for Aberdeen. I think she’s keeping a list.”
“Then don’t add to it.” Rose sat up and began to swing her legs out of bed, but stopped midway through and immediately curled into a ball. “Ah - Doctor? Are there crackers?”
*
Breakfast was a mix of scones, cream, tea, and the rushed pace of Luke setting off to school. Rose wasn’t certain she saw the boy eat anything, although he’d certainly sat down to a full bowl of cereal and stood up to an empty one. Perhaps she’d blinked too long. Luke’s morning routine seemed to consist of running up and down the stairs half a dozen times for a lost shoe, missing book, or forgotten homework, and as the door finally slammed behind him, Sarah Jane collapsed at the table with a sigh.
“Now, that’s done. Doctor, drink your tea and go away.”
“Oi!”
“If you stay one minute longer there will be a crisis, and I don’t want a crisis today. I have something to say to Rose and then you may have her back again.”
“She’ll only tell me anyway,” said the Doctor, sulking, and stormed out of the kitchen in a huff. They watched him stalk across the garden toward the TARDIS, but he stopped midway through to examine one of the dying rose bushes.
“I know what you’re going to ask,” said Rose.
Sarah Jane did not bat an eye. “Oh? Let’s hear it, then.”
“We - talked last night.”
“Is that what they call it these days?” Rose blushed, and Sarah Jane calmly sipped her tea. “Then things are better in the daylight?”
Rose rested her chin in her hand, watching the Doctor. “Forever isn’t so bad, if he’s there for it, I suppose. We did talk a little. I don’t know how it will be, having a baby on the TARDIS, running for our lives all the time, but I’m not so afraid now.”
“Good,” said Sarah Jane thickly, and reached for Rose’s other hand. “I meant it, what I said a few years ago. If there’s ever a day you need me, all you have to do is stand on my doorstep. I know I can’t replace your mum, Rose, and honestly, I don’t want to try. But the Doctor isn’t always very quick in some matters, and I don’t want you to think there’s nowhere for you to go.”
Rose had to blink very hard to keep her eyes from spilling over. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she sniffed. “I keep crying all the time.”
“Pregnant,” offered Sarah Jane, handing her a napkin, and Rose buried her face in it.
The door flew open again. “What did you do to her?” asked the Doctor angrily, coming straight to Rose and resting his hands on her shoulders.
“She’s pregnant, you bloody Time Lord, you’re the one who did it,” said Sarah Jane huffily. “Sit her down anywhere long enough and she’ll start crying. Honestly, I don’t know how Rose manages without someone to beat some sense into you on a regular basis.”
“He’d never stand a companion like that,” said Rose, drying her eyes. “Lord and master, him, couldn’t have someone who might thump him.”
“Did once,” muttered the Doctor. “She didn’t want to stay.”
“Clever girl, she would have wore her arms out,” said Sarah Jane dryly, and Rose giggled while the Doctor crossed his arms and glared. “Where are you off to now?”
Rose folded the napkin. “Martha Jones - we’re going to ask her to be my doctor-"
“She’ll do it,” said the Doctor firmly.
“We’ll still be polite and ask,” Rose said patiently. “And then - I don’t know.”
“Will Shakespeare,” said the Doctor, and Rose spun in her seat.
“Really?”
“You’ve been wanting, and it’s at least a month before you can’t go in the Vortex until the baby’s born, not without running the risk of damaging telepathic temporal imprinting. So it ought to be now, if we’re to make a proper holiday of it.”
Rose jumped up from her chair and threw her arms around him, unable to speak. Sarah Jane sat back in her chair and grinned at the pair of them. “Just don’t get stuck there, now,” she said cheerfully. “Bloody Mary was pregnant going on two years, and look what happened to her.”
*
Martha Jones, M.D., rarely began her day without checking her schedule, calling her mother, or glancing at the TARDIS key kept safely in her bed-stand drawer. The first because she liked knowing there was a plan; the second because her mother worried; the third because she was hopeful that the plan would go to pot and her mum would finally have good reason to worry.
Tuesday morning, the TARDIS key was quiet, but Martha couldn’t be sure it was cold. She popped it in her pocket just in case. Her mother was in a rush out the door, so this cut their conversation short. Last, there was an appointment at 3pm with a new patient named Rose Smith.
It wasn’t that Martha didn’t like working for U.N.I.T. It was more that she liked being in the real world, too, where people walked about not discussing aliens and technology and five impossible things before breakfast. Three days a week, Martha lived in the impossible world of outer space, aliens, and what might have been otherwise classified as science fiction if it weren’t so very real. But Tuesdays and Thursdays, she stayed very well settled in the real world, with a normal doctor’s practice and a normal doctor’s routine, and pretended that she was living a normal, structured life.
All the same, a little bit of uncertainty was a good thing. When it came time to meet the new patient, Martha couldn’t help the grin on her face or the way her heart pounded. She wasn’t disappointed.
“Doctor Jones!” said the Doctor, wide grin and blue suit, enveloping her in a hug before the door shut behind her. “You need new magazines in your waiting room - there were some older than me.”
“Mr. Smith,” laughed Martha. “Now I know you’re teasing me. And making an appointment for Rose Smith?”
“Hello,” said Rose from where she sat on the exam table, and Martha gave her an welcome smile.
“Figured it out, though, my clever Martha,” said the Doctor, pleased and proud, and Martha tried to ignore the way her heart jumped. “You have to be good to me, I wore your blue suit.”
Martha turned to Rose. “You couldn’t have burned the red shoes?”
“I did,” said Rose. “Twice. He keeps finding another pair.”
“Oi, what’s wrong with my shoes? What if we’re attacked by Slitheen and need to run?”
“Not in my office, not today,” said Martha. “Is this a visit or an actual appointment?”
“Both,” said the Doctor. “I have homework for you.” He nodded to Rose, who presented a thick medical volume, leather-bound and looking much worse for wear.
“I’m out of school now, Doctor.”
“For this, you’re not. We need a real medical doctor for this, Martha Jones, one with experience and qualifications. And you are it.” Rose kicked him. “Oh, all right. Doctor Jones, we’d like you to consider being our doctor. Please.”
Martha looked between Rose and the Doctor. There was a heavy feeling snaking from her stomach to her heart. An appointment for Rose - the Doctor trying to appease her - and homework?
“Why?” she managed to choke out, but somehow knew what the answer would be.
The Doctor looked at Rose, who shook her head as if to tell him it was all right if he shared the news. He grinned, clearly pleased. “Rose and I are having a baby.”
Martha somehow found herself switched to autopilot. She kept her attention squarely on her patient - she wasn’t sure what she’d do if she looked at the Doctor just then. “You’re pregnant?”
Rose nodded as the Doctor squeaked in protest. “Well, it’s hardly going to be me!”
“I don’t know how Time Lords procreate!” snapped Martha, barely glancing at him. “How far along?”
“Not sure,” said Rose. “Maybe a month, maybe a little more. But it’s a fourteen-month pregnancy, apparently, so it’s not as much as it sounds first off. It’s all in the book here - well, some of all of it, I’ve been reading it ever since I found out, and I finished about an hour ago. It’s a lot more complicated than a regular pregnancy, looks like.”
“And I’ve only got one book?” In her shock, Martha finally turned to the Doctor. “You want me to learn the entire gestation of a Time Lord baby and you only brought me one book?”
“Time Tot, actually,” said the Doctor.
“Awful, isn’t it?” interjected Rose.
“One book?”
“To be fair, it’s only one chapter in the book,” continued Rose. “Took hours to read, but I’m all done now.”
“Really, Rose, not helping,” sighed the Doctor.
“One chapter!?!”
“Told you she wouldn’t be pleased,” said Rose.
Rational thought was completely out of the question now, and Martha advanced on the Doctor, poking him in the chest. “Do you expect me to see Rose through the next fourteen months on the basis of one chapter in one book, Doctor?”
“Yes?”
“I need more books. And time to read them. And maybe some research. And don’t tell me that’s the only book in your library because I won’t believe you.”
“You can check yourself,” said the Doctor. “The TARDIS is in the park across from your flat. The only question is when or where you’d fancy dinner.”
“Chips!” piped up Rose.
“Pregnancy hasn’t changed her cravings one bit,” said the Doctor. “Martha?”
“Oh, chips. But in 1957 in Brighton. And your treat.”
“He made me pay for chips on our first date,” said Rose. “And here I sit, all knocked up. Bet he skips out on your bill, too.”
“I’ve come to expect it,” said Martha, and she picked up the medical text, surprisingly heavier than it looked. She glared at the Doctor. “Thicker on the inside than the out, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” said the Doctor with a grin.
*
The TARDIS was not quite the same as when Martha left it. Of course, it wouldn’t be - she hadn’t been inside since Rose’s return two years previously, and there were bound to be changes made. Though seeing them together, happy and playful, had become less painful over time, Martha wasn’t sure how walking into what was essentially their home (once hers) would feel.
She’d waited five hours before showing up for dinner, partly to allow herself time for a good cry. It wasn’t that she’d harbored any notion that the Doctor might realize he loved her and not Rose - oh, goodness, no, she knew better than that. She saw what he was like with Rose - he was calmer, he was happier, and Martha didn’t want to take that away from him, no matter much it hurt to see that it was Rose giving him that contentment and not her.
After the cry, she washed her face, changed her clothes, and read the chapter on pregnancy. Rose might have taken a few hours to read it, but Martha was a product of medical school, and thus able to finish it in 45 minutes flat. The moment she was done, she made a quick list of the types of books she wanted, and packed a small medical kit in preparation before setting out to find the TARDIS and her new patient.
They’d gone to Brighton, eaten chips while looking out on the water, laughing and talking about nothing at all, and Martha managed not to feel entirely like the third wheel. Afterwards, the TARDIS took them back home, and the Doctor, muttering delightedly to himself, went back under the grating to tinker with the TARDIS, happy in his general discontent in regards to how everything ran, leaving Martha and Rose to themselves.
The medical kit sat behind her on the floor of the TARDIS library, its contents spilled across the floor. Rose was curled in her favorite blue chair, still dressed in the wide, long skirt suited for 1957, her hair pulled back in a ponytail that made her look 18 and not 27. She was reading the book Martha had packed for her, studying it with all due interest and concentration, as Martha poured over the bookshelves surrounding them. She had a fairly good idea what sort of books she wanted, and she’d spent a year studying the contents of the shelves, so she knew more or less where to find things. Happily, the TARDIS was helping her, moving shelves up and down so she could access them. Martha wasn’t sure if it meant the ship was glad to have her on board, or merely wanted to make sure Martha was truly prepared. She found books that she’d never seen before, books she was certain would be enormously helpful, and the growing piles behind her (three now, with at least ten books apiece) were evidence of her success.
Martha had just found a book on telepathic psychology in infants when Rose spoke. “I’m sorry about him, really, Martha. I - I don’t think he realizes other people’s feelings run so deep.”
Martha pulled the book from the shelf. “Same as most men, then,” she said, trying to keep her tone light, and she turned back to the woman in the chair. Rose had closed the book and was watching her with wary, open eyes. “Him, he’s a bit more daft than most.”
“Yes. I - I wasn’t sure you’d want to come anywhere with us tonight.”
“I needed the books, and you needed dinner. Did you take the vitamins I brought for you?”
“Yes, of course. I’ve set my watch to remind me to take one every 24 hours so I won’t forget.”
“That’ll do then.” Martha set the book down on a pile and turned back to the bookshelves. “I’ll help you as best I can, Rose, but…there’s too much I don’t know. I need you to take those vitamins, every day. And chart your blood pressure for me, twice a day, three times if it starts rising, and if it does you come straight back to me. I want to see you once a month regardless, maybe more later, we’ll see.”
Rose’s face brightened. “Then - you’ll help me?”
“Of course.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d want to.”
Martha scoffed. “Challenge like this? I was beginning to think my life was boring.”
Rose shook her head. “You’re a good person, Martha Jones. I’m glad he had you when he didn’t have me.”
Martha choked up suddenly, and was very glad she still faced the bookshelves. “I’m not a good person. Tried to take him away from you once.”
“I wasn’t here. There was no one to take him from.”
“Tell him that,” sighed Martha. She turned to look at Rose, holding a book in front of her like a shield. “Oh, how I wished he’d forget you. Only he never did. You know where he took me? New Earth, because you’d been there. He saved me from falling into a sun because he couldn’t save you from falling into the Void. Everything he did for me, it was a way of reminding himself of you. I never stood a chance, and it took me two years to realize it. Best years of my life, really, I don’t regret it, but don’t say you weren’t here. You’d never really left.”
Rose’s gaze was steady, but there was something in her eyes that wasn’t quite right, or so Martha thought - confusion, almost, but not really.
“He loves you too, in a way,” said Rose, and Martha could see that she was working her way through something that had little to do with what the Doctor might feel for either of them.
“Not the way I wanted.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” said Martha, which surprised herself as much as it surprised Rose. She set the last book down on a pile. “Think the Doctor will stop playing mechanic long enough to carry books?”
“Best not to give him the choice. Hand over a pile.”
“And have the Doctor toss me out on my ear?”
Rose held out her arms. “He’ll take mine and half of yours to prove the point. I’m not infirm, I’m just pregnant.”
“Same thing to his eyes,” said Martha, piling books into her arms. “Pregnant with an alien baby, disposition as sweet as cream, and knows how to manipulate him. Never a chance, not one.”
Jump to Chapter Six