This is a short little scene that I always felt was missing from Defenders of the Earth. Hopefully this gets everyone excited for a new chapter in the next couple of days! WHOO HOO!
The group of medical students moved onto the next patient, and the Doctor turned to Rose, beaming. "Do you remember, Rose, when your mum called in the middle of the storm? Here we are, discovering electricity, and your mobile starts blaring out Ride of the Valkyries! The look on Ben's face!"
"Doctor..." Rose tried to interrupt. She recognized his avoidance-babbling a mile away, and she knew he probably did not want to have this conversation. But he couldn't drop a bomb like that on her and not expect for Rose to need elaboration after. They were in a relationship now and while she had no idea what to call it, she was most definitely in this for the long haul and they would need to talk about things like this.
"It reminded me of the time Julius Caesar had his guards go through your bag. They found your phone, that tube of lippy, and that ridiculous photo of me in a tiny, tiny hat you insist on carrying with you. Try explaining photography, telephones, and Apricot-cha-Gotcha a century before the Common Era..."
Rose huffed. "Doctor..." she repeated.
"Now, the birth of Jesus, that was an inappropriate time for your cell phone to ring. Bless that little drummer boy, drowning out that horrid rapper man..."
"Doctor!" Rose raised her voice, grabbing onto his hand and tugging it into her lap. He immediately snapped his mouth shut and turned to look at her, his eyes and smile holding a touch of sadness. "Can we just...talk about this?"
He sighed and scrubbed his free hand over his face. "Yeah...suppose we'll have to."
"We really can't have kids?"
Instead of answering, he rose from the chair and sat on the edge of the hospital bed, grasping both of her hands in his and studying them intently. After a few moments, he finally began speaking. "Not naturally, no. I might have been able to do some tinkering with our genetics in the TARDIS...if that's what you wanted! I'd never presume..."
"Well I never really thought about it...before..."
"Yeah..."
"And I wasn't even thinking about it when we..."
"Yeah...furthest thing from my mind too..."
He met Rose's eyes and smiled somewhat sheepishly and she couldn't help but smile back. "Why can't we?"
The Doctor immediately launched into his favorite lecture-tone. "Well, the thing is...my DNA is significantly more complex than yours. Triple helix versus double helix. They're impossible to combine. My sperm and your egg might attempt something, but nothing would come of it."
"Nothing except us," Rose quipped with a teasing grin.
The Doctor's eyes and smile both widened. "Rose Tyler! The cheek on you!"
"Your fault, you know."
"I take full responsibility for this kind of cheek," he added before turning his gaze once again to their joined hands. "Is it...alright? That we can't?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah, 'course it is. Never really wanted kids to begin with. And with our life...would be a really bad idea."
"Terrible..."
"Is it alright...with you?"
The Doctor once again glanced up and met her gaze. "Yeah, yeah...absolutely alright. Like you said, bad idea. Hard to run for our lives with a baby strapped to my chest."
Rose began to giggle at the image of the Doctor trying to run with one of those baby carriers on his front, him curled protectively over the tiny bundle, arms wrapped around it and murmuring soothingly as the three of them sprinted to safety. Her laughter trailed off as her heart suddenly swelled and the image shifted of them walking hand in hand, the tiny creature still strapped to his chest but now cooing happily and waving its little arms and legs. In her mind, the little baby had a mess of brown curls atop its head, huge brown eyes, and a massive toothless grin that matched its mother's perfectly.
She'd never given much thought to kids before, even with Mickey. Then she'd vowed to stay with the Doctor forever, and she never thought they would get to this point. Kids just weren't on her agenda. Still...the image in her mind filled her with a longing she never knew she would have. It had nothing to do with just the abstract idea of someday having a child...she knew, if it came down to it, she would be absolutely elated to have his child.
She glanced up at him, the mad, completely impossible alien that she was head-over-heels in love with and couldn't help but smile. She knew she wouldn't trade him for anything in the universe. Not for the TARDIS, not for all of time and space, and certainly not for a child. She knew she would be happy with just the two of them, for as long as they had.
"Rose?" the Doctor asked, tentatively squeezing her hands.
"Yeah," she quickly replied. "Yeah, not the best idea. Still...not saying it wouldn't have been all bad..."
"Really?" he asked with a small, soft smile.
"Really. But, I've got you," she assured him. "Wouldn't trade that for anything."
His smile turned into a full-on grin. "Yeah?"
"Yes," she replied emphatically, tugging on his hands and leaning forward to meet his lips in a slow, sweet kiss.