Fic: Hypothetically Speaking (9/9)
Title: Hypothetically Speaking (9/9)
Author: shining_moment
Characters/Pairing: Doctor/Donna
Rating: G
Spoilers: None
Summary: The Doctor doesn’t spot her as she creeps quietly into the room so she takes the opportunity to just stand and watch them for a while, him with his glasses on and his ridiculously bright orange socks poking out from under his trousers...
Word Count: 2180
Author's Notes: Apologies for the extreme level of fluff and I will try much harder in the next fic to spare people the cost of dental work!
Disclaimer: In the words of the lovely Kylie, "I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky..."
Playing catch-up? Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight
Sinking down lower into the bubbles, she sighs contentedly, trying to remember the last time she did this, just lay in the bath, eyes closed, completely relaxed. He’d insisted tonight though, told her to take as long as she wanted, to just be Donna for a while rather than Mummy. He’s so good with them she knows she could stay in here all night and he wouldn’t mind, unlike some dads she knows of who pretty much fall apart if they have to spend more than ten minutes looking after the kids without help. She doesn’t want to stay in here all night though, she’s had enough of a soak, enjoyed a little bit of quiet but she’s restless now and wants to get out- she wonders if maybe once you have children you can never truly relax again.
She puts her pyjamas on and wonders what the three of them are up to. She can’t hear anything but then the TARDIS isn’t exactly a terraced house, they could be anywhere. Looking at the clock though, she has a feeling she knows where she might find them. Pulling her hair back into a slightly sloppy ponytail, she heads off down the corridor in the direction of the library.
The Doctor doesn’t spot her as she creeps quietly into the room so she takes the opportunity to just stand and watch them for a while, him with his glasses on and his ridiculously bright orange socks poking out from under his trousers and the girls in their matching pink pyjamas and slippers.
Amber is next to him on the sofa as he reads ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ to her, the only time other than when she’s sleeping that she isn’t talking. Not that Donna can really say too much since she has a fair idea where she gets that particular trait from- same place as the red hair, the occasionally sulky pout and the constant need to ask questions about everything. She thinks an awful lot for a three year old and, while Donna is happy to take credit for her interrogation style, she knows that the time she puts into thinking about what questions she actually wants to ask is all down to her father.
Sitting on his lap is Emily, eleven months old and a complete and utter daddy’s girl. She barely takes her eyes off him for a second and now is no exception. While Amber listens intently to the story albeit probably already thinking of her next question, Emily just leans wearily against his chest, one hand curled against him, gazing up at his face as he reads. Whereas Amber has the Doctor’s brown eyes and Donna’s smile, the opposite is true of Emily, who has her mother’s blue eyes but the unmistakeable grin of her father. As Donna muses on the wonders of biology, Emily sneezes and all three of them jump a little, making her smile at how one so small can emit such a noise. The Doctor squeezes her a little tighter to him,
“Oh! Bless you.”
“Bless me too, Daddy!”
“But you didn’t sneeze, did you, poppet?”
The look on Amber’s face is one of such absolute indignation that Donna has to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud.
“I did a sneeze when I was in bed and nobody said bless me.”
“You did? Oh well then I am sorry. Bless you too, sneezy girl.”
She giggles,
“You’re funny, Daddy. Where’s Mummy?”
“She’s in the bath, getting some peace and quiet.”
“Why?”
“Well, Mummy’s always busy running around after you two so I thought it would be nice for her to have a bath with lots of bubbles so she could have a bit of a rest.”
“But when is she coming back?”
“She’s only in the bathroom, Amber. She’ll be finished soon and she’ll be back to see you before you go to bed.”
Amber picks up the book that the Doctor had put down and starts flicking through it, tracing her finger over the pages and just as Donna starts to think this might be the longest she’s been quiet all day, she looks back at her father,
“Daddy?”
“Hmm?”
“I love Mummy.”
The way she says it, in that indescribable way that kids have of stating the hugest of sentiments so simply, makes Donna’s heart flutter and an unexpected lump appear in her throat. The Doctor prods Amber gently on the shoulder,
“Guess what?”
“What?”
“I love Mummy too.”
Donna sniffs and promptly realises she’s just given herself away as they both look over and see her standing there. Even Emily drags her eyes away from the Doctor’s for long enough to gaze at her, sleepily. Donna smiles at all three of them and walks over to the sofa,
“Got room for me to squeeze in there with you?”
The Doctor grins as he answers,
“I think we can manage it for now but if you ask the same in a couple of months we might struggle.”
She scoops Amber onto her lap as she settles next to the Doctor,
“You do know that I meant it when I said this is the last one, whether we get a boy this time or not, right?”
He replies with a cheery “yep!“ but she has a feeling he genuinely thinks they’ll just keep going until they have a boy. Once she’d got over her initial shock at this unexpected little surprise, he’d announced it must be fate telling them they needed to even out the male to female ratio in their household. She’d made it quite clear that even if this just added to their growing collection of cute little female mini-Time Lords, this was it, three was her absolute limit. She’s almost sure she means it too.
Amber picks up the book again and pats her mother’s bump gently,
“The baby’s in there?”
“Yep.”
“And Emily was in there?”
“That’s right, she was and so were you once.”
“But I’m big!”
“You are now but you were only tiny when you were in there.”
“Tiny like a kitten?”
“Even tinier than a kitten at first, sweetie.”
“Tiny like a kitten when I came out?”
“Definitely bigger than a kitten by then but still tiny. You were all pink and squishy,” Donna presses her index finger against her daughter’s nose, playfully, “And beautiful.”
Wrinkling her nose and squirming out from under her mother’s finger, Amber hands Donna the book and as she starts to read, she glances up to see two brown pairs of eyes and one pair of blue all watching so earnestly it’s as though she’s giving them the most important information they’ll ever have. She supposes that when you’re three, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ probably is fairly important and when you’re still yet to celebrate a birthday it’s likely you don’t care what the story is as long as you love the voice reading it. She’s not quite sure what the Doctor’s excuse is but, as long as all four (and a half) of them are on this sofa together, she couldn’t be happier.
#
Their bedroom door is open slightly and he can see her, sorting the pinks from the neutrals and folding them carefully into piles on top of the dresser, holding each one up briefly and smiling faintly, like she can’t quite believe their girls were that small not so long ago. He loves having the chance to just observe her when she doesn’t know he’s there, loves to see the little things like those tiny smiles, that thing she does with her tongue inside her cheek when she’s thinking and, at the moment, the way she instinctively rubs her stomach as though reassuring its little occupants that they’re ok.
Yes, occupants, plural. That was their shock for today and he had to work really hard to suppress a giggle when Donna, after a few seconds of ashen-faced silence, started grilling the nurse about how the heck no-one spotted there were two in there during the first scan, how she can’t believe they wouldn’t realise that people might need a bit of warning if they’re going to have to get two babies out one after another!
Apparently, it really doesn’t happen often but it does happen- one hides behind the other, one heartbeat drowns out the second but there was no doubt today, two very clear beats and two very obvious little people swimming around in there. Not only that, two definite boys, hence the sorting of the little pink clothes from the rest. Donna went into organised mode and said they may as well make a start now, give the pinks to someone who’ll use them and see how much non-pink stuff they need to buy. He tried suggesting that maybe pink doesn’t have to be exclusively for girls these days and regretted it the instant it came out of his mouth when she told him in no uncertain terms that if she was going to have to give birth to two babies she was bloody well going to get at least a couple of shopping trips out of it. He has a feeling she might use that one for as long as she possibly can and he wouldn’t really blame her if she did.
He’s amazed at how calm she is now though, now that it seems to be sinking in and he wonders if she’s at the point yet where he can get excited without her throwing anything at him. Walking up behind her, he rests his hands on her shoulders and leans down to kiss her cheek,
“Both asleep. Like little angels.”
She laughs,
“Yeah, they always look like little angels when they’re asleep.”
“You alright?”
“Apart from starting to feel a bit like that bloody woman who lived in a shoe, yeah, I’m fine.”
He reaches around and picks up the little pink sleep suit she’s about to fold, putting it down and taking her hand,
“I’ll finish these later. Come on.”
They get into bed and he faces her, stroking her hair as he always does; he’s never been able to resist her hair and he remembers how, back in the beginning, he used to spend so much time trying to be discreet about his fixation. When he eventually told her that, she thought it was hilarious and said it was a good thing he was never a human boy because if he was, he’d have been too busy calling her names because of her hair to have time to gaze at it. He couldn’t understand it then and he still doesn’t now because, to him, it’s beautiful- like a hot, crackling fire or crunchy autumn leaves- and he couldn’t be happier to have a TARDIS full of fiery redheads.
She moves a hand to his face and rests it there comfortably, just watching him as he keeps twirling the piece of hair he has between his fingers,
“If I can’t sleep again tonight, I’ll get up and go sleep next door. It must be driving you mad, me being so restless, sorry. It‘ll pass though, this happened with both of the girls, remember?”
“I do remember and you won’t be sleeping anywhere other than here. Anyway, I have a plan.”
He leans in and kisses her, his fingers never leaving her hair, her hand not moving from his cheek. She thinks about how warm his tongue is against hers and how she loves that he tastes a little of toothpaste and when he pulls away, she sighs. Opening her eyes, she sees him grinning at her and she feels like she’s back in the bubble bath again, warm and content.
“Is that part of your plan?”
“Oh no, that was just because I wanted to kiss you. The plan is very simple.”
“Hmm, I’m intrigued.”
“Well, what’s the one thing that shuts Amber up and gets her to sleep?”
“So you’re more concerned with shutting me up than making sure I get some sleep? You do know I’m going to be popping out two more of your babies, right? At the same time, one right after the other, just in case I hadn’t mentioned that?”
“Oh, so cynical. My intentions are purely to make sure you get some sleep.”
“Go on then, what’s the one thing that shuts up our little chatty one?”
“Storytime, of course.”
“Oh God, anything except ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ please!”
“I promise no caterpillars, hungry or otherwise. Now, are you sitting comfortably?”
She leans in and kisses him softly before whispering,
“Couldn’t be comfier.”
“Ok then. Once upon a time, there was a Time Lord, good bloke, brilliant really, but painfully lonely, not that he would ever admit it. He didn’t realise it but what he needed was someone to keep him company, to argue with him, make him think, to stop him sometimes, someone equally brilliant, magnificent even. In a galaxy far away, there was a woman who was all of that and more and her name was Donna Noble…”
END
Author: shining_moment
Characters/Pairing: Doctor/Donna
Rating: G
Spoilers: None
Summary: The Doctor doesn’t spot her as she creeps quietly into the room so she takes the opportunity to just stand and watch them for a while, him with his glasses on and his ridiculously bright orange socks poking out from under his trousers...
Word Count: 2180
Author's Notes: Apologies for the extreme level of fluff and I will try much harder in the next fic to spare people the cost of dental work!
Disclaimer: In the words of the lovely Kylie, "I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky..."
Playing catch-up? Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight
Sinking down lower into the bubbles, she sighs contentedly, trying to remember the last time she did this, just lay in the bath, eyes closed, completely relaxed. He’d insisted tonight though, told her to take as long as she wanted, to just be Donna for a while rather than Mummy. He’s so good with them she knows she could stay in here all night and he wouldn’t mind, unlike some dads she knows of who pretty much fall apart if they have to spend more than ten minutes looking after the kids without help. She doesn’t want to stay in here all night though, she’s had enough of a soak, enjoyed a little bit of quiet but she’s restless now and wants to get out- she wonders if maybe once you have children you can never truly relax again.
She puts her pyjamas on and wonders what the three of them are up to. She can’t hear anything but then the TARDIS isn’t exactly a terraced house, they could be anywhere. Looking at the clock though, she has a feeling she knows where she might find them. Pulling her hair back into a slightly sloppy ponytail, she heads off down the corridor in the direction of the library.
The Doctor doesn’t spot her as she creeps quietly into the room so she takes the opportunity to just stand and watch them for a while, him with his glasses on and his ridiculously bright orange socks poking out from under his trousers and the girls in their matching pink pyjamas and slippers.
Amber is next to him on the sofa as he reads ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ to her, the only time other than when she’s sleeping that she isn’t talking. Not that Donna can really say too much since she has a fair idea where she gets that particular trait from- same place as the red hair, the occasionally sulky pout and the constant need to ask questions about everything. She thinks an awful lot for a three year old and, while Donna is happy to take credit for her interrogation style, she knows that the time she puts into thinking about what questions she actually wants to ask is all down to her father.
Sitting on his lap is Emily, eleven months old and a complete and utter daddy’s girl. She barely takes her eyes off him for a second and now is no exception. While Amber listens intently to the story albeit probably already thinking of her next question, Emily just leans wearily against his chest, one hand curled against him, gazing up at his face as he reads. Whereas Amber has the Doctor’s brown eyes and Donna’s smile, the opposite is true of Emily, who has her mother’s blue eyes but the unmistakeable grin of her father. As Donna muses on the wonders of biology, Emily sneezes and all three of them jump a little, making her smile at how one so small can emit such a noise. The Doctor squeezes her a little tighter to him,
“Oh! Bless you.”
“Bless me too, Daddy!”
“But you didn’t sneeze, did you, poppet?”
The look on Amber’s face is one of such absolute indignation that Donna has to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud.
“I did a sneeze when I was in bed and nobody said bless me.”
“You did? Oh well then I am sorry. Bless you too, sneezy girl.”
She giggles,
“You’re funny, Daddy. Where’s Mummy?”
“She’s in the bath, getting some peace and quiet.”
“Why?”
“Well, Mummy’s always busy running around after you two so I thought it would be nice for her to have a bath with lots of bubbles so she could have a bit of a rest.”
“But when is she coming back?”
“She’s only in the bathroom, Amber. She’ll be finished soon and she’ll be back to see you before you go to bed.”
Amber picks up the book that the Doctor had put down and starts flicking through it, tracing her finger over the pages and just as Donna starts to think this might be the longest she’s been quiet all day, she looks back at her father,
“Daddy?”
“Hmm?”
“I love Mummy.”
The way she says it, in that indescribable way that kids have of stating the hugest of sentiments so simply, makes Donna’s heart flutter and an unexpected lump appear in her throat. The Doctor prods Amber gently on the shoulder,
“Guess what?”
“What?”
“I love Mummy too.”
Donna sniffs and promptly realises she’s just given herself away as they both look over and see her standing there. Even Emily drags her eyes away from the Doctor’s for long enough to gaze at her, sleepily. Donna smiles at all three of them and walks over to the sofa,
“Got room for me to squeeze in there with you?”
The Doctor grins as he answers,
“I think we can manage it for now but if you ask the same in a couple of months we might struggle.”
She scoops Amber onto her lap as she settles next to the Doctor,
“You do know that I meant it when I said this is the last one, whether we get a boy this time or not, right?”
He replies with a cheery “yep!“ but she has a feeling he genuinely thinks they’ll just keep going until they have a boy. Once she’d got over her initial shock at this unexpected little surprise, he’d announced it must be fate telling them they needed to even out the male to female ratio in their household. She’d made it quite clear that even if this just added to their growing collection of cute little female mini-Time Lords, this was it, three was her absolute limit. She’s almost sure she means it too.
Amber picks up the book again and pats her mother’s bump gently,
“The baby’s in there?”
“Yep.”
“And Emily was in there?”
“That’s right, she was and so were you once.”
“But I’m big!”
“You are now but you were only tiny when you were in there.”
“Tiny like a kitten?”
“Even tinier than a kitten at first, sweetie.”
“Tiny like a kitten when I came out?”
“Definitely bigger than a kitten by then but still tiny. You were all pink and squishy,” Donna presses her index finger against her daughter’s nose, playfully, “And beautiful.”
Wrinkling her nose and squirming out from under her mother’s finger, Amber hands Donna the book and as she starts to read, she glances up to see two brown pairs of eyes and one pair of blue all watching so earnestly it’s as though she’s giving them the most important information they’ll ever have. She supposes that when you’re three, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ probably is fairly important and when you’re still yet to celebrate a birthday it’s likely you don’t care what the story is as long as you love the voice reading it. She’s not quite sure what the Doctor’s excuse is but, as long as all four (and a half) of them are on this sofa together, she couldn’t be happier.
#
Their bedroom door is open slightly and he can see her, sorting the pinks from the neutrals and folding them carefully into piles on top of the dresser, holding each one up briefly and smiling faintly, like she can’t quite believe their girls were that small not so long ago. He loves having the chance to just observe her when she doesn’t know he’s there, loves to see the little things like those tiny smiles, that thing she does with her tongue inside her cheek when she’s thinking and, at the moment, the way she instinctively rubs her stomach as though reassuring its little occupants that they’re ok.
Yes, occupants, plural. That was their shock for today and he had to work really hard to suppress a giggle when Donna, after a few seconds of ashen-faced silence, started grilling the nurse about how the heck no-one spotted there were two in there during the first scan, how she can’t believe they wouldn’t realise that people might need a bit of warning if they’re going to have to get two babies out one after another!
Apparently, it really doesn’t happen often but it does happen- one hides behind the other, one heartbeat drowns out the second but there was no doubt today, two very clear beats and two very obvious little people swimming around in there. Not only that, two definite boys, hence the sorting of the little pink clothes from the rest. Donna went into organised mode and said they may as well make a start now, give the pinks to someone who’ll use them and see how much non-pink stuff they need to buy. He tried suggesting that maybe pink doesn’t have to be exclusively for girls these days and regretted it the instant it came out of his mouth when she told him in no uncertain terms that if she was going to have to give birth to two babies she was bloody well going to get at least a couple of shopping trips out of it. He has a feeling she might use that one for as long as she possibly can and he wouldn’t really blame her if she did.
He’s amazed at how calm she is now though, now that it seems to be sinking in and he wonders if she’s at the point yet where he can get excited without her throwing anything at him. Walking up behind her, he rests his hands on her shoulders and leans down to kiss her cheek,
“Both asleep. Like little angels.”
She laughs,
“Yeah, they always look like little angels when they’re asleep.”
“You alright?”
“Apart from starting to feel a bit like that bloody woman who lived in a shoe, yeah, I’m fine.”
He reaches around and picks up the little pink sleep suit she’s about to fold, putting it down and taking her hand,
“I’ll finish these later. Come on.”
They get into bed and he faces her, stroking her hair as he always does; he’s never been able to resist her hair and he remembers how, back in the beginning, he used to spend so much time trying to be discreet about his fixation. When he eventually told her that, she thought it was hilarious and said it was a good thing he was never a human boy because if he was, he’d have been too busy calling her names because of her hair to have time to gaze at it. He couldn’t understand it then and he still doesn’t now because, to him, it’s beautiful- like a hot, crackling fire or crunchy autumn leaves- and he couldn’t be happier to have a TARDIS full of fiery redheads.
She moves a hand to his face and rests it there comfortably, just watching him as he keeps twirling the piece of hair he has between his fingers,
“If I can’t sleep again tonight, I’ll get up and go sleep next door. It must be driving you mad, me being so restless, sorry. It‘ll pass though, this happened with both of the girls, remember?”
“I do remember and you won’t be sleeping anywhere other than here. Anyway, I have a plan.”
He leans in and kisses her, his fingers never leaving her hair, her hand not moving from his cheek. She thinks about how warm his tongue is against hers and how she loves that he tastes a little of toothpaste and when he pulls away, she sighs. Opening her eyes, she sees him grinning at her and she feels like she’s back in the bubble bath again, warm and content.
“Is that part of your plan?”
“Oh no, that was just because I wanted to kiss you. The plan is very simple.”
“Hmm, I’m intrigued.”
“Well, what’s the one thing that shuts Amber up and gets her to sleep?”
“So you’re more concerned with shutting me up than making sure I get some sleep? You do know I’m going to be popping out two more of your babies, right? At the same time, one right after the other, just in case I hadn’t mentioned that?”
“Oh, so cynical. My intentions are purely to make sure you get some sleep.”
“Go on then, what’s the one thing that shuts up our little chatty one?”
“Storytime, of course.”
“Oh God, anything except ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ please!”
“I promise no caterpillars, hungry or otherwise. Now, are you sitting comfortably?”
She leans in and kisses him softly before whispering,
“Couldn’t be comfier.”
“Ok then. Once upon a time, there was a Time Lord, good bloke, brilliant really, but painfully lonely, not that he would ever admit it. He didn’t realise it but what he needed was someone to keep him company, to argue with him, make him think, to stop him sometimes, someone equally brilliant, magnificent even. In a galaxy far away, there was a woman who was all of that and more and her name was Donna Noble…”
END