Want
At 5 months pregnant, the Doctor was finding out that he couldn't do things he normally could. Like climb up a long flight of stairs. He had no problems getting down, but the baby complained when it came to getting back up again, so, after a rather more tiring day than normal (the baby was making itself known now and had spent the past few hours kicking up a storm) he had decided quite politely to her, that he was going to just have to stay in the TARDIS from now until birth.
He had tried earlier that day, ended up cramping badly half way up, and one of the people from the flat they were in front of let him borrow a couch for him to curl up on while he tried to ride through the pain.
Oddly enough the people in the Bucknall House part of the estate had quickly caught on to the fact that he was pregnant and, it was a real testament to how nuts life had really gotten in their little neck of the woods, no one seemed to care. In fact, so many people had seen him wandering in and out of the TARDIS, that they knew that he wasn't necessarily human.
A few calls had gone out to places like Torchwood (Cardiff, since the London branch was gone now and that was the closest to them) and UNIT, but both secret government agencies, with public telephone lines by the looks of it, said that they knew him personally and not to worry.
UNIT would be dealing with the birth. The Doctor had already made the arrangements for that part of pregnancy.
Sharon, the woman who had let him in, had rubbed at her own extended belly, 8 months pregnant herself, and Terry, her husband clutched one hand on his wife, and the other seemed to be holding his bits, as if afraid that the Doctor would try to birth the baby through....
She didn't even want to consider that thought. It was too painful.
The cramp had been the baby's way of saying no to climbing stairs it seemed, because the first thing he had done after he was calm, and the baby was back to its normal kicking routine, was to rush as fast as he could back into the TARDIS and do scans to see if everything was truly alright.
There wasn't anything wrong. He had almost fallen to the ground when his knees gave out in pure relief.
"Is it odd for me to feel sad that I won't be able to get back up there? And how come your part of the estate doesn't have lifts, while Mickey's old place does? That's a bit unfair."
Jackie grinned at him. "Feeling at home lounging on my couch were we, Doctor? Nah, it's normal. You've gotten used to it. Now all you need to do is not drive that bloody machine of yours anywhere while living in it until you're ready, and that's still quite a few months away yet. Think you can handle that?"
He laughed and nodded. "A few more months? Yeah I can handle that. You'll keep me company during the days? I would ask that of Rose, but she's busy selling people meat and earning a bit of money."
She nodded. "Sure. You can show me around this ship of yours. Cause while it looks tiny from out here, it is massive in there. I still don't understand that..."
"The different dimensions inside to out confuse everyone, so don't worry about feeling weird around her. She's used to it, just about as much as I am. Really, one day I want to mime the words 'It's bigger on the inside' as someone says it, because everyone does."
"As long as it's not me, fine."
He grinned at her and laughed again.
It was odd. He went through the crying jags some people went through during a pregnancy, but he was happier now than she had ever seen him. She really hoped he didn't lose the baby, because it was helping him a lot to come to grips with what being happy felt like.
No wonder he started freaking out earlier today. He probably thought he was having a miscarriage. And with how long it had gone on for, she had been getting a bit worried herself, if she admitted it.
"So!" she said, following him inside the TARDIS, and closing the doors behind her. "What exactly is there to do in here?"
He lit up like a Christmas tree at the thought of giving her a tour. He was filled with energy since he had passed out of the first trimester's fatigue. He wasn't too happy with her all the time though, and she had a guess as to why. She had told him the constant need to pee would pass with the fatigue, and it hadn't.
"Well, let's see shall we? What would you like? Books? Got a library in here somewhere. Huge. Any book you'd like to read and a billion you've never heard of because they're from other races, and planets, and things like that. Some are even written by me! Multitalented, that's what I am."
She rolled her eyes. "You're a lot of things, mister. But I would say one of the most common ones would be annoying. So, where is this gigantic library of yours then?"
She hadn't been in many rooms on the TARDIS. She had visited Rose's room once, and the Doctor had shown her the medical bay he had, which he was always running into nowadays to check things were going normally. A lounge room type place too, with a huge television, and a lounge big enough to sit her, the Doctor and Rose all at once, while he was lying down on it.
And the kitchen. She knew where that was. The TARDIS usually kept it locked when the Doctor was craving his pie and ice cream.
The console room was the one you entered the ship on, and to start off with, she hadn't seen the door leading to the corridors of the rest of the ship and thought that was it. She was glad she had been proven wrong on that account. Thinking of the two of them sleeping on such a hard surface in such a room made her back hurt even thinking about it.
He took her around a few bends, frowning slightly at the door he was in front of when he stopped. "Well! It's usually here, but the TARDIS seems to have moved it...this though, is my room."
Oh, he had his own room then. Good. She really didn't want him to have to sleep on the couch, since he had started sleeping on her bed not too long ago, just in case something happened and he fell off to couch again.
He opened the door and peeked in, as if he rarely saw inside and grimaced. "Yep, definitely my room. It's a bit of a mess, sorry. I have a habit of doing more tinkering around than actual sleeping in there."
She pushed open the door, and barged in, before he could close it off and she didn't get to see. His sheets, a plain light blue colour, were rumpled and looked like they had just been tossed on the bed. A bench on one side of the room was covered in pieces of paper with the circular markings that he had explained was the writing of his people. The odd abandoned or half finished gadget poked out among the papers and told her that he spent a lot more time he was supposed to be asleep doing other things. Distracting things.
She knew he suffered from nightmares. He had paced her flat when he had one while living up there and couldn't go back to sleep.
A wardrobe was against another wall, and by the bed was a nightstand with a lamp, a book, an empty glass and an extra pair of his glasses. The other wall was dominated by bookshelves, stacked with books mainly about science, mathematics and mechanics.
Or at least that's what she got from the titles, which made no sense to her.
The word TARDIS popped up a few times.
The hum in the room turned pitch for a few seconds and the Doctor cocked his head to one side and grimaced again. "No, I don't need to sleep," he said out loud, before he turned to her and frowned. "Silly old girl brought me here because she thinks I could use a rest because of the stress of the day. I don't feel tired though."
Jackie wonder how often he talked out loud to his ship when no one else could understand what it was saying. Shaking her head she smiled at him. "Your ships probably right you know. You might not be tired, but stress can cause things to go wrong during pregnancy. Lie down a bit. I'm sure I can get lost perfectly well on my own."
He blinked at her for a bit, before shrugging and flopping himself down on his back on the mattress. He put on a sneaky little grin and aimed it her way. "Fine. If you aren't in the console room after I've had a nap, then I'll send out a search party."
Rolling her eyes, Jackie nodded and left him in there to try and get some sleep.
She had been wandering around the TARDIS corridors for about an hour, peeking into the odd room here and there, before she found the library he had been talking about. Jackie wasn't an avid reader by any stretch of the word, but she had wanted to see the place since the Doctor had seemed so excited in showing it to her himself. He must spend a bit of time in here. He did seem the type to read a lot.
He hadn't been lying either. This place was absolutely massive, and even she could get lost in here easily enough with the intent to pick out books to read. She picked up a book that was lying on a table in front of a comfortable looking couch. She laughed when she saw it was a copy of 'The Time Machine'. Having never actually read the book before, perhaps now that she was in one herself she might as well read it and see what it was like.
She wondered if the Doctor had ever met H. G. Wells.
Yet again, he seemed to have met every single important human in the history of Earth. Or so it seemed to her.
Who knows? It might even be true.
Rose certainly had seemed eager to tell of her knighthood by Queen Victoria, and meeting Charles Dickens.
She had started reading the book, but was interrupted about a few sentences in by the Doctor who came thumping through the room looking like someone had smashed up his favourite toy and he wanted it back before he threw a temper tantrum.
He flopped himself down in an armchair across from the couch she was on and glared at the table between them.
"Nightmare?" she asked.
"No," he replied, scowl deepening as he said it.
"What's got you in such a huff then?"
"I'm..." He shifted slightly, sighed loudly and looked up at her. There was something there in his eyes, as if he was trying to tell her something without actually knowing what it was. She wasn't a mind reader, she hoped he knew that.
"You're...?"
He shifted again, and buried his head in his hands with a low moan. "Is this natural? I feel...what's the word to use...aroused all the time. All the time! It's driving me mad..."
She couldn't help but giggle at that. So, that was his problem then. He couldn't keep it down.
"Not much of a problem then, is it. I mean, if you're anything like human males, you'd spend most of your day thinking of sex anyway."
He glared at her. "I'm not human. I come from a race that was...long lived to say the least, surely you understand that much now. We didn't breed very often, for that matter we weren't the most fertile race. Most of my people didn't even bother with sex at all. Not once in their life. Thinking or doing it. No, Jackie, it isn't natural for me."
Ah. Ouch. He must be going nuts with hormones then.
"Well, you'll just have to put up with it then, because it is normal to feel like that. Something to do with added blood and the flow of it or something. That's what I was told anyway. Raging sex hormones too. Why not just do what any other male would do?" She didn't say the word, but she used a gesture she was pretty sure was universal and he scowled at her again.
"Yeah, do you honestly think I haven't tried that?"
Jackie blinked. Well, if he had to go and do it that often...then no wonder he was getting bloody antsy. "Bloody hell! How often do you do it?"
He growled, or at least that's what the noise coming from his mouth sounded like. "I said try. Emphasis on the try. I can't Jackie..."
Oh.
How could he try, and not? Especially if he was that desperate for it?
"I don't get what you're saying..." she said, and he scowled again.
"I can tell that. In modern human terms? I'm horny. I have no trouble whatsoever getting it up, but...you know when it begins to feel really good, and your breathing changes and your heart rate rises? That right there is the problem. The baby has one heart, I have two. It can't handle the extra heart when it's beating too fast. Blood supply is too high for it in that moment and I cramp. I cramp like nothing else. It's worse than this afternoon, but not for as long thankfully and then of course this one is awake and kicking the hell out of my intestines. Or so it feels like anyway."
He shifted his gaze to his belly and he rubbed at it gently. Well, it was good to see he wasn't necessarily angry, just frustrated. He sighed softly. "Do you think I should see what it is? I've avoided reading about what sex it is. I wonder sometimes if it's a boy or girl. I don't even know what I'd prefer. Just as long as it's born healthy."
Jackie patted his knee in what she hoped he took as a calming gesture. "That's the way to go. I remember wondering the same thing, and I ended up waiting for my baby to be born. Rose was such a nice surprise."
The Doctor looked up at her and smiled. "Yeah? So, a surprise? I think I'd like that. Not a lot surprises me these days. It'll be good to have this one thing."
Smiling at him, Jackie got up on her feet and stretched, the book falling back to the table. The Doctor perked up. "Oh! I love this book, just so you know. It's good. Good man! Didn't want to stay and go for more adventures after the shocker I put him through, and he decided to finish his book instead. He'd written quite a bit of it already."
"Really? I thought he might have met you and then gotten the idea."
"Nope! I just strengthened it for him."
Grinning, Jackie shook her head. "Rose'll be coming home now. I'm going to go back up to the flat and go tell her you're here, alright?"
He grinned and nodded, before getting to his own feet. "Sorry for being a right pain. I'm not used to this yet I suppose. I mean the thought of being a dad again. It's exciting yet rather... I don't know if I can do it."
Jackie's smile dropped at the reminder. Walking over to him, she hugged him for a few friendly seconds, before letting go again. "You'll do as well as you can. That's all you can do, yeah?"
He nodded, and looked at a point over her shoulder. "Yeah. Go tell Rose. Can't believe I'm not able to climb stairs. I'm not that big certainly. Am I that big? I'm only 5 months..."
And if there was one thing the Doctor could do it was lighten everyone's mood around him. She hoped that it worked for him too sometimes. She shook her head. "You're fine, Doctor, stop worrying. And you're pregnant not fat."
He pouted at her. "Not my fault, remember?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah I remember. I'll go get Rose."
Leaving him to his own books and mind, she exited the TARDIS, thankfully finding the console room practically right opposite the door to the Library, and went back up to her flat.
Rose, regardless of what she had thought, wasn't home yet. It was either a busy day, or she was taking her time coming home. Maybe she had met up with a man and went on a date? Maybe she was having something to eat before coming home alone. Maybe she should scratch that first off the list. Rose hadn't been with anyone as far as she knew, since she had started travelling with the Doctor.
Yet again, there was always that lovely Jack fellow. She had rather liked the Captain.
And there had been that time during Christmas while the Doctor had been going through his regeneration sickness. But that had been Mickey. And those two hadn't officially broken up then anyway.
Either way, when her daughter got home, she would tell her of the Doctor's change of address, what had happened earlier and omit the things he had told her in the TARDIS.
The last thing she needed was to live with a Rose just as frustrated as the Doctor was.