A/N: It's been ages, but I somehow survived the Semester From Hell, and I finally have time to write for fun again. I've got plenty more of this planned, but for now I'll be uploading a chapter a day (I've got a few more chapters already post on my Tumblr, if you want to read ahead). Happy holidays!

P.S.- this is the sequel to The Stolen Plot, so you'll need to read that one first.

Chapter 1

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The Doctor blinked his eyes open as he woke, his awareness of the empty bed slowly creeping in. He sat up and yawned, rolling his neck. Rose hadn't come to bed last night, and he never slept as well without her there. Well, he never slept all that well in general, but when she was there, his nightmares somehow faded away. He frowned at the empty space where she was supposed to be as if it had personally insulted him.

The door creaked open and Rose slipped in, a loose dressing gown around her shoulders. He noticed the way it dragged on the floor and grinned. "Oi! You've got one of your own, you know." She jumped and looked up quickly, her brown eyes wide. He frowned. Rose shouldn't look nervous around him. "Rose? What is it, love?" He sent her a tentative mental wave of worry and comfort and reeled back, disoriented, as she slammed her mental walls up. "Rose?"

"I made breakfast. You should go get some before it gets cold." With that, she grabbed a set of clothes and ducked into their bathroom.

The Doctor dressed slowly, but the bathroom door remained stubbornly closed. With a sigh, he headed to the kitchen. A full breakfast was spread out on the table, tea and scones and fried mushrooms and sausages and eggs. He blinked. "Blimey, Rose. How long were you in here?"

There was a knock at the door, and Donna's voice drifted through the wood. "If you two are in there, you'd better get your bits covered before I come in."

He sighed. "No worries, Donna. It's just me."

She peered around the door before she entered, wrapped in a fluffy purple robe. "Where's Rose, then?"

He grabbed a plate and began filling it, a pout tugging at his lower lip. "In the bathroom. She barely spoke to me this morning." He stared down at his eggs, his shoulders slumped. "I don't think she's happy here, Donna."

Donna snorted into her coffee. "Oh, please. Don't be daft." She set her mug down and glanced up at him as she spread jam on her scone, her eyes narrowing. She took a bite and pursed her lips at him. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"She's been so closed off, Donna. Every time I'm near her, she finds somewhere else to be. I can barely hear her anymore, up here." He tapped his forehead. "D'you think… do you think she regrets coming back?"

"I think you're gettin' your knickers in a wad over nothing. I've only ever seen one person as crazy about another as Rose is about you—an' that's you, about her." She shrugged and bit into her mushrooms. "Everybody has off days once in a while, Doctor."

He scowled around his mouthful. "Rose shouldn't, though. She should only have happiness."

Donna raised her eyebrows at him. "Yeah, that attitude's going to help. Let her be, Doctor. Don't worry about it. I'm sure everything'll be back to nauseating normal soon."

The kitchen door swung open and Rose entered, a large jumper hanging loose over her black leggings. The Doctor peered more closely at it before blinking. It was one of the heavy wool jumpers he'd been so fond of wearing in his last incarnation. She smiled weakly at them. "Morning, Donna." She glanced at the Doctor as she sat at the table, getting herself a cup of tea. "Mickey called—he invited us to his and Martha's engagement dinner, but he said we shouldn't consider it so much an invitation as a summons."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Blimey, already? Mickey moves fast, these days. What happened to Tom?"

Donna rolled her eyes. "Oh, that was over ages ago. He'd gotten tired of seeing Martha so little, so he told her he needed some space for them to figure out their relationship." She pursed her lips. "Said space apparently included the pretty nurse that had been travelling with 'im all over the world."

The Doctor nearly choked on his eggs. "Whud?" He swallowed hastily at the amused look Donna and Rose shared.

The redhead shrugged. "I know, right? Bloke obviously doesn't know what's good for 'im. Martha's okay, though. They'd been havin' troubles for a while, and Mickey really helped her."

The Doctor snorted. "Yeah, I bet he did." He paused, his fork waiting in front of his lips. "Are they still working with Jack?"

"Yup. Her mum's not too happy about them livin' all the way off in Cardiff, but she's made her peace with it. She's angrier at Tom than Martha was, really, so she's practically adopted Mickey."

Rose let out a little sigh, smiling crookedly. "Good for him. He's really missed bein' part of a family." She finished her tea and stood, setting it in the sink. "He and Martha deserve each other, an' I can't think of a bigger compliment than that." She glanced down at herself and sighed. "Well, if we're headed to a party I might as well change."

At that, she left, and the Doctor turned to Donna, stricken. "What if that's it?"

She frowned at him. "What if what's what, spaceman?"

"You heard what she said. What if she's missing her family?" He ran a hand through his hair distractedly. "I'd move planets for Rose, but that… that's impossible."

Donna sighed. "Rose is right. You really are too fond of that word." When he scowled at her, she rolled her eyes and set her coffee cup down. "Rose said it best herself, first night back here. That's for her to decide, Doctor. She left her family to find you, yeah, and she'll probably always miss them, but it was her decision. Don't try to take that away from her." She stood and put her dishes away, ruffling his hair affectionately. "I swear, you're the thickest genius I've ever met. Now go get dressed, we've got a dinner to go to."

The Doctor frowned, clearing off the table. "Why don't people ever get that this is a TIME machine? Honestly, we could spend a month on the resort planet of Fiilx and still show up on schedule."

"Yeah, we could try that, but Martha would know somehow." The Doctor grimaced in agreement, and Donna laughed. "Come on, don't look like that. It's a good thing. She keeps you on your toes."

The expression on his face was definitely a pout, even if he'd never admit it. "I've got Rose for that, you know."

Donna snorted. "No, you don't. You've got Rose to keep your head in the clouds. There's a difference."

She left for her room, and the Doctor walked slowly to his room. Well, it was supposed to be their room, but Rose had been so distant lately that she hardly spent any time in there. The TARDIS always reassured him that she was alright when she didn't join him, but it didn't make him miss her any less.

He opened the door and found her sitting on the bed, still wearing his jumper, though now she had his dressing gown over it, as well. She sniffed as he came into the room, and he joined her immediately, the bedspread shifting under him as he sat beside her. "Rose? Love, why are you crying?"

She looked up at him, her large brown eyes bloodshot and worried. "I don't know how to do this."

"Do what? Whatever it is, Rose, we'll get through it together."

She chuckled damply at that, but didn't say anything more. He groaned and leaned back, running a hand through his hair. "Rose, what is it? Is it something I did?"

She looked up again, surprised. "No! Well, in a way… it's something we did." She took a shaky breath and pulled the heavy flannel dressing gown tighter around her. "It's just… it's so scary."

He scooted closer to her, taking her hand in his own with a small grin. "Oh, we can handle that. You and I, we eat scary for breakfast." She glared at him, and he backpedaled quickly. "But not this morning, because this morning I had a lovely, well-balanced breakfast."

She wrinkled her nose. "I think there was a bit too much grease for it to count as well-balanced."

"Rose." She looked down, and he caught her chin and raised it back up. "What is it?"

She stared up at him with wide eyes for a moment before screwing them shut as she threw open their mental connection.

The Doctor gasped and jerked backwards, his brown eyes going wide.

Rose pulled her knees up on the bed, wrapping her arms around them. After a long silence, she cleared her throat and spoke in a strained whisper. "Say something? Please?"

The Doctor pulled his mouth shut with a click, swallowing convulsively. "Oh, Rose. Really?"

"Really." She stared at her hands and played with her wedding ring, rotating it around her finger. She blinked when the Doctor's hands wrapped around hers, stopping her fidgeting.

"How long have you known?"

"At first, I just thought it was just some Time Lord change, or maybe my body re-adjusting to the time travel. After all, travellin' through the Vortex would throw anyone's internal rhythm off, an' it's not like I can ask you about Gallifreyan monthlies. I didn't start to suspect somethin' else until a couple weeks ago. I only found out for sure from the TARDIS last week—she thinks I'm a couple months along." She stared up at him, her eyes damp. "I've been trying to figure out a way to tell you since then, but it just… never seemed like the right time."

He smiled suddenly, and it was like the dawn breaking. "How could there be a wrong time? Rose, we're having a baby." Looking into his smiling face, Rose burst into tears. He wrapped her in his arms, his mind racing. "What? No, why are you crying? What's wrong?"

She babbled into his shoulder, her words barely intelligible through the sobs. "I was just, I was so scared and I didn't know what to do, and you don't do domestic and there's nothing more domestic than this, and I don't know what a Time Lord pregnancy is going to be like and I never even got the chance to have a human one, and how are we going to raise a child when every other week we're running straight into danger, and I was so scared you weren't going to be happy about this, because I feel like I'm about to explode from happiness half the time and the other half I feel like I'll fall apart from the fear—"

"Shh, love." His hearts twisted in his chest as she sobbed, and he held her even closer, petting her hair as he sent joy and comfort thrumming through their connection. "Oh, Rose, don't be scared." He pulled back and stared into her eyes, red and puffy with tears. "It'll all be fine, Rose. We'll figure this out, I promise."

She choked on a cry and tucked her face back into his shoulder. "Figure it out? You're supposed to know what's going to happen!"

He winced. "Well, Time Lord pregnancies weren't actually all that common on Gallifrey. Almost all children were created in the Looms." He paused, considering. "Actually, the only Gallifreyan pregnancy I've heard of, I couldn't really tell you anything about."

She sniffled. "Why not?"

"Because I was the result." At her wide-eyed stare, he chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. "Let's just say I come by my rebellious tendencies naturally. My mother was determined to learn more about the pregnancy experience, and what better way to do that than to go through it yourself? Made me a bit of a freak to the rest of 'em."

Rose reached out and cupped his cheek, her eyes soft. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"I'm not, actually. It made me who I am." He smiled down at her and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. "As for the domestic bit—d'you know why I was so determined to not do domestic, back when we first met?"

"Because it was all so petty and human?"

He blinked. "No. Well, maybe a little. But mostly, it just hurt too much to see everything I couldn't have. But you, you precious girl… you've given me everything I never dreamed I could have."

Rose's breath hitched against his chest, and she raised her head to meet his lips with her own. A few minutes later, she slowly released his lips and tucked her head back against his shoulder. The silence between them was easy, not the strained, awkward thing it had been the past few weeks. When she spoke, her voice was quiet. "I've missed you."

He closed his eyes, holding her tight. "Me too, Rose. I'd never thought I could be so lonely with you just an arm's length away."

She choked out a small, watery gasp at that. "I'm sorry."

He pulled his head back, staring into her eyes. "Don't ever feel you can't talk to me, Rose. You can say anything to me. Rassilon knows I've said pretty much anything to you." He paused and grimaced. "Well, maybe don't tell me if your favorite fruit is secretly pears. Some things I'm better off not knowing."

She giggled damply into his shoulder, relaxing into his arms. After a long moment, she sighed and spoke up. "I should probably go get ready for Mickey and Martha's party. I must look a right mess."

The Doctor tightened his arms around her. "You look beautiful, Rose."

She pushed back from his chest gently, smiling up at him. "You said that when I was covered in muck from the Verkasian sewers, so I'm not sure I trust your judgment."

"Oi! Rose Tyler, I have the very best judgment."

She grinned at him and got up, grabbing a dress from the closet and shaking her head at him as she disappeared into the bathroom again. "That old patchwork jacket from the wardrobe says otherwise. Now go on, we've got a party to go to."

The Doctor headed back to the console room, grumbling to himself. He was finding it very hard to do so convincingly, though, considering the wide grin on his face.

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