A/N : This is a continuation of Journey's Beginning and takes place the morning after. I'm rating this teen, but I've been corrupted by the internet so if you feel like it should be rated M let me know and I'll change it.
Disclaimer : Even though everyone already knows it, I do not own Doctor Who.
He's stroking Donna's hair, laying in their bed and life couldn't be better. He has a new name, one his bondsmate is partial to and picked out for him. It's not a Gallifreyan name, but still, it's decent. At least now they wont have any confusion about what to call who. James Noble, timelord. That's an odd thing, he's a timelord with only one heart, like he's in his first regeneration again. He can feel it beating in his chest and it feels weak somehow. Like he's only half powered.
"We could probably fix that you know?" comes the muffled voice in the vicinity of his bare chest. Donna caresses the silent side of his chest where the other heart should sit.
"Do you want me to? Do you wanna feel the syncopated rhythm of my hearts beating just for you?"
"Trying to be a poet are you?"
"I'd try to be anything for you Donna." He whispers quietly to her hair.
He feels her love crash over him in a wave that threatens to sweep him away and allows it to pass through him. He kisses her on the top of the head.
"You didn't answer my question though. Do you want me to change?"
She continues to stroke his chest for a few moments, then says quietly "I can feel how much you miss it."
And it's true he does, but he loves Donna more and if it's going to bother her to hear two hearts in his chest then he'll live with only one. He hears her sigh as she sits up and turns to face him.
"Look I know you need to figure out who you are as opposed to who the Doctor is, but I don't wanna decide who you should be." She cups his face with her hand to take the sting out of her words. He presses his hand over hers.
"I wanna give you what he was able to give her. He regenerated into this face to please her-"
"I don't want you to regenerate."
"And it would hurt you so I wont if I can help it. But I still want to be the man you want me to be... I don't want you to leave me" He finishes in a barely audible whispers.
"Leave you!" She all but shouts incredulously. "Why on earth would I leave you? We're bonded, you've felt my feelings. You KNOW how I feel, why would you think I'd wanna leave you?"
"I know you feel that way now. But I'm barely not him now. As time goes on I'm gonna make different decisions I'm gonna be less and less like him. You love me now, but I'm the most like him now, when I'm not like him anymore are you still going to love me?"
"Of course I will you big alien git." She pokes him in the chest "You are my bondsmate, Not him. He is my best friend, I love him but I'm not in love with him."
"I don't understand what that even means." he whines
She huffed. He felt their bond open wide.
"What do you feel when you think of Rose."
Even though she asked in a neutral voice he felt concerned about answering. But she could sense his feelings, so he thought of Rose and felt the strong urge to protect her, to make her laugh, to keep her happy. He didn't feel any passion or desire for her. "I feel like she's my little sister."
"Do you love her?"
He hesitates slightly "Yes, but not like I love you. I love her like I would family but I love you like... You're my wife Donna."
"Exactly. That's how I feel about you and the Doctor. You are not him but like him. I married by best friends brother."
"Yes but how do you know you'll still love me later when I'm even less like him?"
"Because you are enough like him that no matter how much you change, you'll still be a good man."
He thinks about that for a moment, lets it stew, as her faith in him settles into his psyche. Finally he sums up his life so far with "James Noble: bondsmate to Donna Noble; timelord with one heart; good man."
"You aren't half crazy." Donna giggled out.
"Crazy in love with you." He answered in an over the top sweet voice.
As Donna continued to giggle he pounced. Pressing her down into the mattress he caresses her body and takes possession of her mouth with his. Her giggled turn to moans as she moves her hands over his back. Then her stomach growls. He pulls back to look at her.
"You're hungry." he declares. "Come to think of it I could use something to eat as well." Donna's back to giggling at him. "How 'bout you stay just like this and I go get us some food, then we can have breakfast in bed." He says with a grin.
"How 'bout," She whispers seductively "we make ourselves presentable and see if the other two have come out of hiding, and all have breakfast together."
He groans petulantly into the crook of her neck where he had been nuzzling. "But, Donna... I like having you naked in our bed." He pulls back to meet her eyes, wiggling his eyebrows "Can't we have naked breakfast in bed?"
She's outright laughing at him now, shoving on his shoulder. He flops over to lay beside her on the mattress. "I'd like a chance to talk to Rose, with the whole multi-verse ending we didn't get to have a proper chat. Besides I'm curious what they did last night." She says with a conspiratorial smirk.
"If he has any sense at all... the same things we did." He's leering at her as she rolls out of bed and stretches, then realizes she's no longer in bed. "Wait, you're serious!" His rather unmanly pitch send her into another fit of giggles. "Wait, Donna... But.." He stutters as she saunters toward the en'suite, he's transfixed for a moment by her exaggerated hip swaying. "But... Donna... This is the honeymoon faze. We aren't supposed to leave the bedroom for a week." This declaration has Donna's giggles turning into peels of laughter. He jumps out of bed right before she closes the door. Falling back onto the bed he lets out a noise somewhere between a sigh and a groan. Donna's attempts to soothe his wounded pride are undermined by the riotous laughter coming from their bathroom.
As they work together to make a full English breakfast a petulant voice can be heard coming toward the galley.
"But, Ro-ose. It's not like they're going to be out of their room yet. Can't we just..." the frustrated groan the Doctor made when he entered the kitchen sends the rest of them into a fit of giggles. As James turns to set food on the table he see the murderous glower that his brother levels at him, and smirks.
"Told you." was Roses quietly smug reply and James and Donna upgraded from giggles to full on laughter.
They're all silent around the table as they tuck into their food. After most of breakfast is gone Rose speaks up.
"So, what do we call you. Do you want to be called the Doctor or..."
"No, that's his title. I've taken a new name." James says proudly grinning at Donna.
"What's that then?" the Doctor asks.
"James Noble." he declares with a smile that almost hurts his face.
Rose is smiling her tongue in teeth grin "Nice to meet you James."
"Likewise Rose."
"Really... James?" the Doctor asks incredulously.
Donna's ire seems to radiate in the air around her "What's wrong with James?" she asks.
"It's a lot better than 'John Smith'" James says at the same time.
Rose bumps the Doctors shoulder "You're bein' rude again."
"What's wrong with 'John Smith'?" the Doctor seems to ignore her. "It's worked for me for centuries."
"It's not very imaginative." James goads. He likes his name, no matter what his smarmy brother thinks.
"Oh and James is."
James feels Donna's insecurity. He stands from the table his chair squeaking in protest at the quick movement. "Theta!" he barks, glaring at the man who caused Donna pain. This has the desired effect as the Doctor stands his eyes wide with shock, then narrow in anger.
"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Rose says as she tries to calm the Doctor down.
"Stop it" says Donna quietly as she grips his arm. She know how much that name hurts the Doctor, isn't happy that he would summon it.
"Oh no." James says as he watches the Oncoming Storm across from him "We're having it out right now. You are going to get you're head out of your arse and listen to me you arrogant prick." The others flinch at the unexpected harsh language and he hears his brothers thoughts clearly.
Dalek Caan said one of them would die still. It WONT be Rose, or Donna. I REFUSE to let it be either of them.
"You pompous arrogant areshole. You were going to leave us all behind. The three of us, just left like so much unwanted trash. And all three of us deprived of who we needed. How many would be dead to you then? Last time there was a prophecy about death, Rose was trapped in Pete's world. This time if you had left us there, there would be three of us dead. No make that four, cause Jackie would of been left behind too." It seemed to seep in that he'd just answered that prophecy. "And there you go. Jackie is who Caan was talking about. Trapped on the other side of the void, might as well be dead from our prospective."
The glare of the Oncoming Storm transformed into a look of wonder. "Everybody lives?"
"Everybody lives you ponce!"
The glare was back, not nearly as much heat to it though. "No name calling."
"Yes mum." James grinned back cheekily, then more sternly "No makin' fun of my name." They grin at each other. Turning back to Donna, James recoils at her scowl. She was holding one of Roses hands with both of hers. Rose was close to tears, but holding them back admirably. Oh no. Rose was here, the rest of her family tapped on the other side of the void, and like the moron he is, he reminded her of it, practically rubbed her nose in it. "Rose... Oh Rassilon. Rose I'm sorry. I didn't think. I'm so, so sorry. Rose, please don't cry."
The Doctor sat back down and hauled her into his lap, holding her tightly. She began to sniffle as she borrowed into her husbands neck. "I miss 'em. I wanna be here, bu' I still miss 'em."
"I'm sorry." James whispered. He could feel Roses pain, the Doctors frustration, and Donna's anger. He felt tiny. He had hurt his family. He started to walk away, but was caught by Donna.
"Where do you think you're going handy?" Donna tugged on his hand "Sit"
Obediently James took his seat, staring at the half eaten sausage on his plate so he could avoid everyone's eyes.
"James." It was the first time the Doctor had used his name. Looking up he realized Rose was staring at him from the other mans lap. She had tear tracks on her cheeks but she still gave him a wavering smile.
"I'm sorry." He whispered again brokenly.
Rose nodded "It's okay." She answered just as quietly. "It just hit me that I'll never get to see them again. It's not your fault."
"We... might be able to find a way back across..." James began.
"Not if it's gonna rip apart two universes." Rose insisted.
"Well, we have more timelords now..." the Doctor offered
"We'd have to rebuild the Eye of Harmony, and the dimensional doors." Donna added.
"We need Omega's Hand, and another timelord or two." James finished.
"That reminds me." Rose began. "You said that mine and Donna's DNA wasn't fully timelord, but that we would still live as long as you two, how does that work?"
"Well..." the Doctor began in full on lecture mode. " Once the Untempered Schism appeared it began to slowly change the DNA of the ancient Gallifreyans into something closer to timelord TNA. Then Rassilon came along and saw where evolution was heading and he pushed it along, creating timelords in the process. Your genetics are closer to pre-Rassilon timelords. I'd like to go over the data again, but I think you still might be able to regenerate, I'd rather not test that the hard way though."
"Wait... wasn't that before the fall of Pythia? Does that mean we aren't sterile? Oh My God, I'm pregnant." Donna cried.
James chocked on the bit of sausage that he had been chewing on. The Doctors expression had turned ashen, and Rose was moving her mouth as everyone tried to work up to speech. Rose got there first.
"I'm... I'm... Oh my god."
James focused on his love for Donna and sent that feeling to her. "Donna, you're not pregnant." Her disbelief shot through their link. "You're not ovulating." He murmured.
"How do you know?" She hissed back
I can taste it.
"Oh" Donna's face was doing it's best to match her hair color.
The Doctor cleared his throat "Still we should see if...the curse of Pythia has been lifted."
The four of them stood in front of the scanner screen again. James was pulling the relevant information up from the scans they had done just yesterday. The Doctor blinks at the screen as the information comes up. Blimey, it hadn't even been twenty four hours yet. He was still reeling. He had thought that he was going to be alone again barely fourteen hours ago. Now he had a wife, brother, sister-in-law, and may have the possibility of children in the future. It was hard to identify the emotion that was racing through him right now, he didn't think he'd ever felt this way. Rose's emotions seemed to match. Elation, that's what it was, along with some fear.
How do you feel about all this? He thinks at his bondsmate.
I... Don't know. You? She was blocking him somehow, holding back her thoughts until she knew his.
Rose... I want this. Maybe not this soon, but I want children with you.
Oh... He felt her relief flood their link, along with her fear that he would still leave her.
WHAT?! Rose I love you why would I leave you? She pulled back from the link slightly, reluctant to answer. Please don't hide anything from me Rose. He pleads
The link seemed to snap back into place and he feels her fear take shape. With her pregnant she can't keep up with him. He also wouldn't risk her or their child so makes her stay in the TARDIS more and more until he decides that still isn't safe enough so leaves her with James and Donna on Earth while he goes off to save the universe alone.
Rose no. I am NEVER going to leave you again. But, you're right if you get pregnant I won't risk that, maybe we could stay on earth for a while. Try out domestic life?
No, I don't do domestic anymore. I want to live on the TARDIS and travel with you. It's just pregnancy not a disease. Mum went through two invasions while she was pregnant and Tony was fine. When I get pregnant I will NOT be treated like an invalid.
When? You mean you'd actually want children with me?
Of course I do, I love you.
Elation is no longer a good enough description for this emotion. This new feeling is overpowering, blasting through both his heart making his chest ache. He feels tears of joy welling in his eyes. He scoops Rose up in a tight hug, spinning her around and sharing this new feeling with her.
"Take that, you old cow!" James crows.
The Doctor releases Rose to see what his brother has found, only to see him snogging Donna. Rose starts giggling, he joins her. "Oi, does that mean good news?"
James pulls back from Donna to grin at him. His eyes are sparkling as he replies "Betcha we'll have our first before you do."
"Oi, that's not something you can decide on your own Slim Jim." Donna says as she pokes James in the chest. His stunned face sends Rose over the edge into hysteria. "Slim Jim?" He asks in mock horror.
The Doctor wraps his arms around Rose, pulling her back to his front, murmuring in her ear "So where do you want to go, Rose Tyler? Anywhere in time and space."
"How 'bout a proper honeymoon?" Suggests Donna.
"Ooo, I like that idea. What about Barcelona the planet not the city? We never did get there."
"Barcelona it is, Rose Tyler."