The TARDIS made the usual Vwoorp sound as it flew through time and space, her telepathic connection to the Doctor, and most recently to Yasmin, made her uncannily aware of the upcoming need for silence.
When the blonde alien had first come onboard, three humans in toe and barely out of the regeneration fog, her engines were new and loud and so ready for adventure. She and the Doctor grew to know each other again, the TARDIS giving the ever eager Time Lord the opportunity to tinker with the new and ever changing commands and wires and prompts in her mechanics.
But now, the adventures were different. Sure the Doctor still got up to an insane amount of shenanigans, and her companions were still ever so eager to comply with the Time Lord. But now the Doctor had a bigger adventure ahead, and the TARDIS had been hard at work preparing for it.
"DOCTOR!" the blonde ran into the room, hair mussed, shirt half untucked, her eyes heavily lidded with sleep. In the kitchen was Ryan, banging his head against the wall, a big jug of what could only be judged as coffee in his hand "Yasmin is driving me insane"
Ryan and Graham had been troopers since the beginning of this new crazy adventure.
Yasmin had been the one to tell them, the Doctor shuffling her feet behind her nervously. She was insanely new at this-well, not really, she had done this before. But what she hadn't done was say this, as a woman, with another woman, and definitely not for a few good hundred years.
"We're pregnant"
It was a good thing the Doctor and Yaz hadn't bet on it, because their reactions were not at all what they expected. Ryan had gasped, over the moon excited, crushing Yasmin into a hug that, had the Doctor not been so nervous, she would've worried it might hurt their baby. Graham on the other hand was stood still, mouth opening and closing, but no noise coming out of his mouth.
"-Okay, I don't get it"
"I, Actually I don't either?" Ryan looked down at the small Pakistani woman tucked into his chest, her smile bright and eyes shinning with tears, though she looked about as confused as the other two did "I mean, you two didn't... I know she's alien, but I didn't know she could..."
"I am gonna stop you right there" Yasmin stepped away from her childhood friend, slightly traumatized about what he might be thinking "Don't even think it, don't you dare say it, no"
"But how does that even work!?"
All three turned towards the Doctor, who was scratching the back of her neck with her hand. She knew the question might come up, and frankly she hadn't come up with a good way to explain it to them.
"Gallifreyan's work differently than humans. Frankly, we may look the same but we're actually not, at all" Yasmin reached her hand out to hold the Doctor's, knowing how complicated this may be for her, and frankly how hard it might be to answer the woman carrying her child "we do something called Looming. It doesn't matter whom we're in a relationship with, just... that my family has space for one more Gallifreyan"
"So, Time Lords just... make?"
"Well, Time Lords don't do anything. Time Lords are a cast, Gallifreyan's are my people" the Doctor sighed deeply, not wanting this to turn into a discussion of the history of her planet and its people "Long story short, a bit of my life, and the TARDIS' memories of my people's consciousness, and my family's, as well as Yasmin's all mix together, and well-Taadaah!"
The Doctor's hands went up, sort of Jazzing, as enthusiastically as possible. She was excited, frankly, she never thought this would happen again. She didn't want to fall in love, she didn't want to loom, but sometimes things happened. Yasmin had drawn her in, like trouble lured her, like the cosmos and the stardust all drifted together to create wonderful things. Like her consciousness and Yaz' hand melded together to create the small life living inside Yasmin.
"She's driving me mad too" the Doctor patted Ryan in the back, walking towards the counter looking for her own fix of something "I'm not usually one to sleep, but she's been so..."
"Crazy? Hormonal? Batshit?"
"I was going to say pregnant" Graham cracked in through the door of the kitchen, looking both ways hoping that a certain pregnant woman wasn't in the room "she's not in here?"
"I have an idea"
-oOoOo-
Yasmin wandered into the console room. The tossing and turning of the TARDIS waking her form a very restless sleep. She didn't mean to snap at everyone as much as she did nowadays. A lot of her body felt completely out of whack, Graham said it was pregnancy, the Doctor hated to inform her that as a human baring a Gallifreyan, her body was incredibly unprepared for this. The consciousness of a Gallifreyan would overheat her body, throw her hormones out of the wazoo. She had insane cravings at insane times, one minute she would want the Doctor to cuddle her, the next she would throw her out the room and tell her "it's all your child doing this to me!", only to cry a bit and talk to her growing baby bump.
Ryan and Graham were making their way out of the TARDIS, the doctor quietly having a conversation with the console. Recently, Yasmin had begun to understand what she was saying back, but it took a lot of conscious energy to do it, and she didn't have it in her to crack this personal moment.
"Hey love" the blonde alien inched her way to her cautiously. One would be cautious after having been sent to sleep in the sofa because of 'her child' "How are you feeling"
"I don't think apologetic cuts it?"
Yasmin thudded her hair against the Doctor's chest, ever so thankful for the slight height difference that let her tuck in comfortably. Only her growing bump kept her from hugging the Doctor completely, though she needed it.
"Where did Ryan and Graham go"
"I sent them on a vacation of sorts"
"From me?"
"Maybe" the Doctor's right hand reached around to cradle Yasmin's head, her left reaching down to feel her unborn child, their unborn child "This is our kid, Ryan and Graham have been amazing, but we need some us time too-Time Mommies learning their trade"
Yasmin let out a chuckle, always impressed by how much dorkier her Time Lord could get. She had been wonderful to the human, though she couldn't share in carrying their child she could explain why it seemed so hard. Normal "What to expect when you're expecting" books didn't cover carrying an alien child from an ancient race of people who could meddle with time. It definitely didn't cover the part where this child would be half human, half Time Lord, and therefore pretty unique in its own self.
"I found something you might enjoy"
The Doctor reached down to the console, flicking a light that brought up a screen full of information. First screen was a DNA helix cut out, the words next to it explaining that it was a human infected with the Time Vortex. It's genetic code being rewritten, creating a whole new being that the universe hadn't seen before. The TARDIS itself had compiled a file on how one could care for their human/Time Lord hybrid.
"How did you...?
"Our child is not the first" the Doctor cleared her throat slightly, making sure to keep an arm around Yasmin, her hand on the baby bump.
"What do you mean..."
"I didn't mean mine!" the blonde tightened her hold on the small human whose face had scrunched up in an odd expression between surprise and hurt "She wasn't my child. But she's not the first child conceived in the TARDIS, or touched by the Time Vortex" Yasmin relaxed her face slightly, relishing in having the double heart beats at her back, almost as much as she did with the movements of her child "Her parents were both human, and she could regenerate. But she wasn't half Gallifreyan in the same way our kid is going to be"
"That's a bit pretentious"
The two women turned sharply, the Doctor standing directly in front of Yasmin to protect her from the intruder.
"Hello sweetie"
"River!? What the hell are you doing here?"
In front of the doors was a woman with blonde unruly hair, a mischievous smile on her face. The white dress she wore created a sharp contrast with the orange hues of the crystals in the TARDIS, the atmosphere giving her an almost ethereal glow.
"Well, the TARDIS called. And when she comes a-knocking..."
The time machine hummed happily, almost laughing at the Doctor's baffled expression. River smirked at the shocked face of the Time Lord, watching her so closely she almost forgot to look behind. Yasmin has grasping the Doctor's coat tightly, though her face had a shine of curiosity. River was ready to be miffed at her wife, but she could see how good Yasmin was to her, how much she could share in on the eternal pain of he Time Lord. In reality, River wasn't here for the Doctor, she was here for Yasmin.
"But you... how did"
"Frankly sweetie, you're rambling" River bounced around the console room, admiring the new look of the time machine, the machine happily humming along as she touched the crystals and the console "I'm also not here for you. The TARDIS called me about her"
"huh!?"
Yasmin stepped from behind the shocked Time Lord. Yasmin was never one to stand behind in the face of danger, though clearly with cargo on board she tended to be eternally more careful. The Doctor had even tried to keep her from many of their adventures before, not that it had worked. Heavily pregnant as she was, this could be no different.
"Yasmin Khan, not 'her'. And you are?"
"Professor River Song" the lack of response from Yasmin's face told her what she probably knew already, the Doctor hadn't told her. This was the Clara situation all over again. At least Clara knew of her! Even if she didn't know professor Song was a woman "You and I have much to talk about. Could we have the room Doctor?"
"Could you. What you. No... What"
River smiled at her discombobulated wife, tilting her head towards the deeper corridors of the TARDIS. Yasmin squeezed the Doctor's hand, taking off behind the blonde woman, safe in the knowledge that the TARDIS would protect her, and that if the time machine had called her, then she couldn't be of much danger.
"So, the TARDIS called you about me, I don't know who you are?"
"I'm the Doctor's wife"
"You are the... The What!?"
Clearly, hanging around the Doctor had rubbed off on Yasmin. As if the offspring of the Gallifreyan wasn't enough of a rub off.
"Don't worry, I'm not a jealous one" the blonde woman walked off towards the purple couch in the lounge the corridors had led them to. River had the distinct feeling that, should the Doctor come looking for them, the TARDIS wouldn't let her find them. She patted the space next to her, inviting the young pregnant woman to take a seat, imagining how tough it must be, to be pregnant with a child of the Doctor herself "I met her a long time ago, in her timeline anyways. Back when she was in her 10th regeneration"
"Long time, why would she not tell me about you?" Yasmin dragged her hand upwards, resting softly on her abdomen, feeling the swish-swoosh of her child moving around "I thought..."
"I'm dead, technically anyways" River smiled, reaching out to grab Yasmin's hand. The ethereal glow about her continued to carry over, the hand touching Yasmin's was clammy, but it emanated a warm feeling that the former police officer only associated with the TARDIS "the doctor saved me in the biggest library in the world, so now she meets me out of order, the younger me, that's who she married"
Yasmin sighed, painfully wondering if that's how easy it could be for the Doctor to leave anyone behind. How would her and her child fare? "It wasn't like that. The Doctor, she's fire and ice and rage, but she is hope and love, and she doesn't love lightly, and she does not grief lightly"
"This is tough, I'm guessing then that the TARDIS called you because of this. You've been through it?"
"No" River smiled, a tinge of sadness growing in her eyes "the TARDIS called me, because I was the child who you will be reading up on... more or less" the two women turned to look at each other, a bond almost settling. The women who loved the doctor "I can't begin to imagine what it must be, to carry this child" the tone of sadness grew in her voice, a deep sad regret "it would have never been fair, for me and her, him, for us to have a child. Much as the love was there, we knew where my story ended, where our story started"
Yasmin understood the sadness. She hoped this story would not end, but she knew, much as River clearly knew, that these stories, the ones with the Doctor don't end in a happy ending. But the promise of pain was clearly one worth living through, even if the Doctor was gone, or she ended like River, a new life would be brought to the world, and that couldn't be overstated.
"But I'm not here to talk about the Doctor and me" Yasmin smiled as River cleared her throat, heavy conversations, with the wife of the mother of your future child, where was Yaz' life going that this was a possibility "I'm here for you. How are you feeling?"
"Honestly? Uncomfortable as all get up" Yaz sighed at the feeling of her ribs being kicked by the little tyke in her uterus "I'm always some kind of hot, or cold, or angry, or cuddly... or horny" the bright red traveled up her cheeks, never talking so openly about something like this, with anyone. Ryan was full of annoying suggestive comments, and Graham was too much their space grandad to deal with this "I knew pregnancy was hard, but this is something else"
"Well, the Time Vortex is rewriting the genetics of your child as we speak" River tilted her head, almost asking for permission, Yasmin reached out with a smile, putting the Doctor's wife hand on her bump, letting her feel the movement of the small human/Gallifreyan hybrid "the genetics of a whole different species interacting with that of a Time Lord, it's something you're not meant to deal with, mostly because the original designer of the Gallifreyan genetics didn't want it to be so"
"Sounds like a charming person" Yaz winced at the feeling of her child kicking her kidneys, almost the feeling of playing football with her organs "could you give me a second?"
"Of course" River sighed, watching the small woman walk off. She was clad in a nightshirt, deep blue covered in stars, one of those eternally nerdy Pajamas the Doctor would crack out of her wardrobe once in a blue moon "Yasmin?"
"Yes?"
"She loves you. I could see it" Yasmin smiled softly at the blonde woman, at the wife of the mother of her child, the wife of the love of her life "I know what I am. I represent what the Doctor loved and lost. I am the grief and her pain. But I am not your future Yasmin"
Out of the corner of her eye, Yasmin spotted the Doctor bumbling her way out of a corridor, her sonic screwdriver brightly lighting her way. She was clearly muttering angrily to the TARDIS, it was humming angrily back at her.
"YAZ!" the Time Lord flew at her fast as her feet would carry her, before the time machine could send her to yet another dead end corridor "the TARDIS kind of just"
"I know. S'okay" Yaz reached up, her arms wrapping around the neck of the Time Lord. she pecked her lips lightly, and giggled when the Doctor's lips grew into an impossibly large and bright smile. "I'll be right back. I leave you with your wife"
River laughed at the cheeky human. Yeah it sucked that the Doctor could get attached to someone else, because their love had transcended time and space and loss, but she was happy that the lonely Time Lord could still muster enough to love.
"I can see why you like her"
The Doctor smiled softly after the retreating Yasmin, sighing deeply "I love her". The two turned to look at eachother, an understanding growing. It didn't mean the Doctor loved River any less, or that River felt anything less for her Doctor. It did mean however that they understood, the blonde was allowed, and actually River was happy that she could love again "what are you actually doing here?"
"the TARDIS called, I told you" River picked at the invisible lint on her dress, a flash of something in her eyes, something the bumbling Doctor couldn't put her finger on "how long has that been going on?"
"the baby? Well I think Yaz is on…"
"you know that's not what I mean"
Humming and groaning filled in the silence while the Doctor came up with an answer, mostly because she didn't have it all straight in her head (pun intended?). The time machine wasn't going to give an answer either, but she was enjoying the conversation of her favorite child and her thief.
"about a year and some months in change? For earth time anyways" the Doctor scratched the back of her head, regretful that perhaps she wasn't the most caring partner if she couldn't keep up with the length of their relationship "Yaz keeps better count than I do"
"isn't that always how it works with you?" River patted the seat next to her, making sure to leave enough room that the Doctor wouldn't fly out at the smallest hint of air rushing by "the Women who love the Doctor, all of us have much in common"
"River I…"
"you know I don't mean it like that. She's good to you. I can see it" bright blue eyes met the Doctor's green, nothing but soft understanding there "you look… lighter"
"even though I'm slightly terrified?"
"the oncoming storm, the warrior of a thousand battles, terrified of a child" River chuckled at the near offended expression of her blonde seatmate "luckily for you Yasmin seems to have a good head on her shoulders. Or I'd fear what that child may turn out to be"
"I ran away 2000 years ago and haven't stopped running, I'm terrified of what I will do to that child!"
"your baby is going to grow up loved and cared for" the woman reached her hand to grab that of the fidgety Time Lord, making sure she was paying attention "you, my love, are hope and good and happiness, this is a whole new opportunity for something good"
"River…"
"we knew what our life was like. I don't love you any less for this, and you don't love her any less because of me" the blonde looked out, making sure Yasmin wasn't within ear shot before whispering "she is the mother of your child Doctor, you might want to—"
"—it's in the works"
"I am sorry about that" Yaz waddled back in, a tired smile on her face, her hands tucked around two cups of tea "closer I get to my due date, the worst she gets"
River watched as the Doctor bounced up on her feet, carefully guiding Yasmin to her seat like she was the world's most delicate thing. It warmed her heart, seeing the domestic side of the usually fierce Time Lord. She knew the Doctor would be putty in the hands of her future child, and that in of itself was an entertaining notion
"do we know she's a she?"
The Doctor huffed annoyed, the hair of her unruly bangs flying off her forehead for a second "Yaz won't let me check"
"I want it to be a surprise" Yaz squeezed the hand of the blonde sitting by her, the smile on her face nearly splitting it in half with how beaming it was "you're just annoyed I wouldn't let you skip ahead the 9 months to see me when the time comes"
"well, linear time is not the boss of me!"
"no. Yasmin seems to be the boss of you" the Doctor huffed at the implication, but neither denied nor confirmed what all women in the room knew "now shoo. I'm here to talk to Yasmin, not you"
The Doctor got up from her knees, rambling about the lack of respect in her own TARDIS as she walked out of the room. In retrospect she might have remembered that the missus and the… —Wife? Ex-wife? Widow sort of, whatever the term for the dead spouse may be?— Were in the same room, and that was never something good.
-oOoOo-
A good few hours after River's arrival, the two women slowly walked back to the console room. They found the Doctor hanging from one of the crystals, welding helmet on, harnessed to the orange crystal by a bunch of cable thick wires.
"let's keep hoping your child doesn't inherit all her craziness, ey?"
Yasmin smiled brightly, her hand always seeming to find its way to her protruding abdomen. Finding out your girlfriend and lover has a wife was never on the list, liking the woman so much and enjoying her conversation with her was definitely not in the list at all! Yet here she was, growing eternally sad that this was a one time visit.
"here's to hoping" Yaz reached out to hold River's hand before she could walk towards the doors, back to the library "thank you. For everything. For letting me love her"
"you never needed my permission. If anything, you've got my eternal gratitude" River squeezed Yasmin's hand lightly, tears stinging her eyes "thank you, for being her home, for taking care of her… you're a remarkable young woman Yasmin, and you deserve all the love the Doctor can give you"
"Oi, what are you two going on about still?" the blonde twisted in her perch, squinting through the dark glass in her goggles.
"about how big a dork you are my love" River couldn't help chuckling. This was good. It was healthy. It was love at its purest, and she could go happily knowing this is what left her wake "now get off from there. I'd love for our child to see this face before you fall and crack your neck and come up with a whole different dorky self"
"spoil sport"
"take care Yasmin, and good luck" the two women turned towards the Time Lord, who ever the klutz fell the last foot of the way, bouncing up like a spring "I have a feeling you're going to need it"
"glad it's a shared premonition" Yasmin turned to hug the blonde one last time, the Doctor coming around to put an arm around her shoulder.
River and her couldn't do goodbye, not anymore, and that was okay. The two felt a final understanding pass between them. River didn't love the Doctor any less for creating a family in the wake of her loss. And the Doctor didn't love her wife any less at all, but both knew some loves were best reserved for the pages of history. The Doctor stood watching her past, her love and her grief walk off back to the library. Next to her, ever the emotional hormone wracked human, was her future.
"oh I forgot to mention" River popped her head back into the TARDIS, a mischievous smirk in her face "I'm not the only one your girl called"
"what? What are you…"
A voice she thought she'd stop hearing for a while came through the intercom, ever mocking and enjoying of the Doctor's discomfort.
"oh no"
"hello Doctor"
Yasmin tilted her head curiously at the dress clad woman standing by the corridor, smirk on her face while the Doctor grumbled angrily at the time machine, who was once again openly mocking her.
-oOoOo-
OKAY SO. I'm going to admit this kind of got away from me? It started as a comedy piece, that climbed into angst, and into romance, and acceptance and grief and then comedy again. Make of it what you will. I also know Yaz is a little more off and the start was rushed, but well… I did say it got away from me!
TO THE AWESOME PERSON WHO SUGGESTED THE IDEA! I hope it lived up to expectations, and that you liked it!
As always, suggestions and comments are super welcome. Catch you guys in the next one! DON'T FORGET I TAKE PROMPTS ON THESE TWO DORKS!