Disclaimer: Doctor Who isn't mine. If it was things would be quite different. The BBC owns all and I bow before them.
Written for timepetalsprompts on tumblr and their weekly ficlet prompt: Rose talking to the TARDIS (though, lol, I took liberties, with 'TARDIS,' but this did directly spring from the prompt - my mind is weird). Also works for the drabble prompt, being a mum.
A very happy birthday to lizann_5869 and many thanks to caedmonfaith for helping with the what the TARDIS acronym stood for. :)
Follows Serendipity and Something to Come Home to.
Rose Tyler stared at the two lines displayed on the stick in her shaking hands. She'd had her suspicions for the past few days and finally got up the nerve to take the test she'd picked up at the chemists the previous day on a rare trip home without the Doctor. She would've taken it right away, but he'd beaten her to their flat and it was something she had wanted to do by herself.
She was pregnant. This was not supposed to have happened. She was on the pill and they used condoms. Usually but now always, her brain helpfully reminded her. Like after Donna's recent wedding.
Rose wasn't sure what to feel. If this had happened while she'd been with either Jimmy Stone or Mickey Smith, she didn't know what she would've done. She would've been a pregnant teenager and far from ready for motherhood. Nor would they have have been ideal fathers (she hated to think badly of Mickey, but he hadn't been any more ready for parenthood while they were together than she'd been). She was relieved it had never happened and she never had to make a decision about what to do.
However, now she was with the Doctor. While she was still only twenty-two, something about this news felt right. She was deeply in love and wanted to spend her life with him, so carrying his child filled her with a few nerves but not terror as it might have otherwise. He was wonderful with her little brother Tony and she was sure he'd be an amazing father.
But it wasn't something they'd discussed, only preventing pregnancy before they progressed to a sexual relationship. While they'd been together for a year, the majority of that time she'd been away at school. After graduating in the spring she'd returned home to her mum, but then moved in with the Doctor three months ago. So while they were still in the early days of truly being a couple, they were together and happy. Having never talked about it though, she didn't know how he'd react. Was it too soon for him? Would he want this? Now or ever? What if she did and he didn't? Could she be a mum on her own? Did she want that?
"What's going to happen?" she murmured to their cat Tardis (Terror Always Running Down Innocent Socks, the Doctor snarked a couple of days after she had fallen for the stay outside the flat and invited her in and the name had stuck in acronym form) as she entered the en suite and jumped into Rose's lap. The kitty studied her carefully, as if considering the question, then rubbed her forehead against Rose's hands and the pregnancy test it still held, purring loudly.
Rose took comfort in the cat and stopped that line of thinking (and worrying) with a shake of her head. She'd cross that bridge if and when she came to it. She didn't think the Doctor would pull away from her, but there was only one way to know for sure and she wanted official confirmation before she said anything to him.
Rose grabbed her mobile and after a quick call to her medical doctor's office, as well as one to her supervisor Sarah Jane to let her know she wouldn't be in today, she hurried off to her appointment.
Three hours later, having the at home test results, confirmed, Rose walked through the streets of London trying to come up with a way to tell the Doctor her news. A baby shop caught her as she passed and she stepped inside.
She declined the shop lady's help, and wandered aimlessly through the store glancing at baby apparel and supplies. Out of the corner of her eye she sunlight hitting leather and she hurried over.
Amongst a rack of baby jackets was one in black leather. She picked it up, running her hands over the smooth material. It looked nothing like the Doctor's battered old coat, but it made her think of him nonetheless. Plus it was unisex so would work regardless of the gender of the baby she was carrying.
Rose took the jacket to the counter and handed it over to the cashier with a huge smile. Now that she had starting to formulate a plan to share the news, she felt better, more confident. She had created a new life with the Doctor and she hoped the news would be as welcome to him as it was to her, the more she thought about it.
The Doctor rushed into the flat he shared with Rose. He'd shown up at the British Museum at 4:30pm, as he did most afternoons, to pick her on the way home. Sarah Jane had told him Rose called out that morning (the woman refused to elaborate when he pressed for details) and she hadn't spoken to her since. Why hadn't Rose called and told him? Why hadn't she answered when he'd try to call her?
Inside the flat it was dark and other than a 'meow' from Tardis as he closed the door behind himself, completely quiet.
"Rose?" he called out, but he got no answer. He found her in their bedroom, her head resting on her pillow, sleeping soundly.
"Love," he said quietly, as he shook her shoulder gently. "Are you okay? Sarah Jane said called out today."
Rose's awoke slowly and then gasped as she took him in.
"Doctor!"
He went to turn on the light on the nightstand next her to her pillow and in doing so knocked a package that had been sitting on it to the ground. The box fell apart and from it a small item fell onto the carpet. He scooped down to pick it up and found it was a tiny leather jacket. His gaze shifted from it to Rose and back again several times, blinking as a million thoughts raced through his brain.
The Doctor normally had plenty to say, about anything under the sun, but in this moment, words escaped him, and a question and plea all in one fell from his lips. "Rose?" he breathed out, unable to articulate further.
Could it be? Had this magnificent woman, the one who had healed him when he'd resigned his life to that of a spectator after the horrors of a war he hadn't wanted to survive, not only given him her love, but also a child? Their child? In his heart of hearts he had wanted this almost since she moved in (domestics with her had proven brilliant and he wanted her forever) but had planned on them being at least engaged, if not married first. The ring was already waiting in his shop, tucked away until he decided how he wanted to propose. Apparently life had other plans. He too would have to step it up. He wanted there to be no doubt, to Rose or anybody, that he had already made the decision that he wanted to spend his life with her before this happened.
"Yeah," she confirmed, taking his hands and placing them on her belly. "This wasn't how I wanted to tell you. I was going to do it over dinner but then I got so tired." She glanced down at her watch. "Looks like it stopped. I didn't realize it was this late."
Rose reached up and ran a hand through his short hair, then brought his lips down to hers, kissing him softly. "'M sorry. Didn't mean to make you worry," she said as she pulled away.
"I'm alright, me," the Doctor assured her. The shock of a few moments ago was already being replaced with gleeful elation. "Better than now."
"Are you? Are you really?" Rose hesitated and he could see the worry in her eyes.
"Really, Rose." He pulled her into his embrace. "Didn't think this would happen so soon, but it's fantastic. Absolutely fantastic."
Rose beamed at him, hugging him tightly.
"If you're up to it, lets go out to dinner tonight to celebrate."
Rose nodded, as she headed to the en suite. "Sounds great," she said, giving him a tongue touched grin before she closed the door. "Let me wash up, and then I'll get changed."
While she was in the loo, the Doctor made a quick call to Jack, who was still working in his auto shop advising him they were going to be making a quick stop there shortly and to keep Rose distracted for him when they arrived. He didn't share the baby news with his friend, just that tonight was the night he was going to finally propose. He could hear Jack's grin through his mobile and started working out what he was going to say as he asked Rose to spend the rest of her life with him. A life that would be amazing, with her and their child.