A/N: Disclaimer: I can say, without a single inflection of doubt, that I own Doctor Who. I really do. It's all mine. ... Err, I mean, I own it inside my head, but that's still owning it, right?

Welcome one, welcome all. This is technically a sequel to my Destiny series, but we're starting on a brand new footing, so if you didn't read that (and who can blame you, there's like, a million words of it or something ridiculous) then it doesn't matter, you'll be just fine starting here. If this piques your interest, then there's a link to Google docs in my profile emblazoned in bold italics, which contains summaries to every story there's been in this series, including links to the stories themselves if it takes your fancy.

This is an unashamed epic TenRose baby fic, that utilises every tiny tidbit of Who canon, both in the show and in its extended lore. It's also going to be exceptionally whumpy and no doubt there'll be some smidgens of smut enroute. So if that isn't your thing, run awaaaay! :o

13/06/2018: Gallifreyan Dictionary v4.

Chapter 1: Memento

'Temperature 12 degrees celsius. Life signs of prisoners normal. 2:37pm.'

The Doctor woke up with a choked gasp to the sound of the automated male voice, his eyes snapping open to meet the sight of a somewhat blurry, grotty, wet stone wall in front of him.

He could hear the steady drip of water quite close, and some distant, tortured screams. His body was hurting badly, and his mind was completely addled as he stared at the wall, wondering why the room was upside-down and swaying slightly. It took a worryingly long time for him to realise that it wasn't the room that was upside-down and swaying, it was him. He was hanging upside-down, with his hands fixed behind him.

He strained his head up to see he was hanging by one foot from the ceiling by a metal chain. This wasn't good, he thought as his brain slowly began to sharpen. He couldn't move much, but he could see three sides of the room were made of stone, and he could just about glimpse behind him that the other side had the light-blue sheen of what he guessed to be a forcefield.

He looked down, finding that the stone floor six feet below his head was a mixture of water and blood. Judging by the way he felt, it was probably his blood, he realised. He immediately stopped mentally referring to the room as a room, and started calling it a cell.

However, strangely, that wasn't the most worrying thing at the moment. The most worrying thing was that he had no idea how he'd got here, or what had happened.

To try and get some information on that rather terrifying discernment, he thought back to his last memory before he'd woken up here. He'd brought the Moment into the barn, to ...

The thought of it made him want to throw up as the sheer guilt and horror of what he'd done seemed to spontaneously burn his insides. He'd killed his entire race. He'd destroyed his home world. He'd burnt everyone alive.

Wait. He was alive. How was he alive? He should have died with them. He was meant to die with them. He didn't want to be alive. He didn't want to survive. That would make him … the last of the Time Lords, and the last gallifreyan.

Hold on. If he was alive, maybe they were?

He searched for any sense of his race, but something was blocking him. He couldn't tell ...

He looked down to the puddles again, and could just about make out his reflection in the low light. He was no longer the old man with a beard. He was much younger, with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a thin face, which was currently a little bruised and bloody, but after a quick waggle of his chin and some expression-pulling, he discerned that everything was seemingly in working order. He'd regenerated, he realised. But something inside him told him that had happened a very long time ago. How was that possible? Why couldn't he remember? He could assume he'd been tortured, so maybe he had some brain damage?

At any rate, he was clearly in a very bad situation. He needed to take action; find out what was going on.

'Hey!' he cried. His new voice startled him a little. 'Someone!'

'Shush!' a voice suddenly urged from somewhere behind him, beyond the blue forcefield. A brief flash of recognition of the voice washed through the Doctor's brain, but he couldn't quite place it.

'Hello?' the Doctor asked, lowering his voice. 'Who's there?'

'Doctor, it's me,' the man said with an American accent.

The Doctor frowned. No one had called him the Doctor for a very long time. Not since before the war ... 'Who?'

'I'm Jack,' the man said.

The name seemed to ring in his head as familiar, but he couldn't quite seem to recall any people in his memories to attach it to. Maybe he'd misheard the name. 'Pardon?'

'Jack,' the man repeated. 'You remember me, right?'

The Doctor suddenly felt something from the man - a deep wrongness, manifesting in a large knot in his guts. This man, the Doctor instinctively knew, was a fixed point in time and space. He abruptly realised he should been scared. He should have wanted to get away from him. But for some reason the opposite was happening. There seemed to be some kind of trust, here. The problem was, he couldn't remember ever speaking to him before. 'Sorry, Jack,' he said. 'I don't remember you.'

'You've got to remember. I'm Jack. The immortal. I run Torchwood, back on Earth. You sure you don't remember? Think, Doctor.'

'Sorry,' the Doctor said again. 'You've probably got the wrong person. I'm a Time Lord, we regenerate, which means …'

'I know,' Jack interrupted. 'Believe me, I know. And I know you. Trust me. This isn't good. What's the last thing you remember?'

The memories of the Moment slammed into his head again. 'End of the war. I used the Moment … I think I killed them,' he said. He didn't quite know why he was being so open about it to this man, but strangely he felt like he could rely on him.

'That's where your memory stops? After the Time War?'

The Doctor was deeply confused at the man's response. Being unable to see him was only making it worse. This man had familiarity with something, that from the Doctor's perspective, he'd only just done. The choice of phrase suggested it had been a very long time ago. 'How long ago are you saying that was?'

'Years and years,' Jack replied. 'You don't remember Rose? Or Martha? Or Donna?'

'Who?'

'Shit,' Jack swore. 'You said this might happen, but this is … it's … Jesus, this is bad.'

'I'd really like this all to start making sense now. I told you this might happen?'

'You said you might get amnesia,' Jack replied. 'And if you did I had to fill you in.'

'If I do have amnesia, the last thing I need is filling in,' the Doctor replied. 'That could hurt more than help.'

'You don't get it,' Jack said quickly. 'We don't have time for you to remember. It'll be too late by then.'

'What?'

'You at least know where you are and why you're here, don't you?'

The Doctor looked vaguely around the upside-down cell, hoping something might come back to him. It didn't. 'No?'

'Doctor, we're …' He trailed off, and started again, 'okay, forget it. I'll start from the top. After the Time War, you –'

'Wait,' the Doctor interrupted. 'Jack, whoever you are. I'm up for a story as much as the next person, but not right now. Where are –'

'Doctor,' Jack cut in, 'believe me when I say we haven't got the time. You're just going to have to trust me. This isn't a story. This is your life, and you need to remember it.'

The Doctor found himself beginning to get a bit annoyed, and deeply suspicious. 'Whatever game you're in the middle of, I'm not playing.'

'We don't have time for this. Listen –'

'I –'

'Shut up!' Jack said harshly. 'For once in your life, just listen. I can save you, but I need you to trust me. If I'm a liar, then answer me two questions. You know I'm wrong; you can feel I'm wrong, but you feel comfortable with me. How that possible unless you've known me for a really long time? Also, your body. It's new to you, but it's not new to me. Despite thinking you've only just used the Moment and regenerated, how come you're already comfortable in that body?'

The Doctor paused. He had a point, he had to admit. 'Okay,' the Doctor said. 'I'll believe you. Where are we?'

'We're prisoners.'

'Of who?'

Jack hesitated. '... You need to remember how we got here first.'

The brief idea that this man was lying to him crossed the Doctor's mind. However, he was usually quite good at telling when someone was lying even just by their voice, and this man wasn't showing any of the signs vocally.

A distant scream of a tortured man prompted the Time Lord into action. Whoever this man was, clearly it was his only way of getting information on why exactly he was hanging upside-down six feet off of the ground in a cell, starving, thirsty, and in pain, and with apparent amnesia. 'Okay. Tell me how I got here.'

'You activated the Moment in the Time War, and everyone died. Your race, the Daleks, everyone. You were very, very depressed. You eventually found a human girl called Rose Tyler on your travels, and she became your companion.'

At the sound of the name, the Doctor felt something in his chest apparently tighten, right between his hearts, as though even his body was physically reacting to that name. He suddenly had the most profound feeling that he needed to get to her – that he needed to find her. That was strange. He hadn't felt anything like that since ...

'She helped you. That's when you met me, too. You even died to save her life. But you lost her in a parallel universe when you were trying to save Earth from the Daleks and the Cybermen. You couldn't get to her, and she couldn't get to you. So you went on. You met Martha Jones, and she became your companion. Eventually the Master –'

'The Master?' the Doctor asked to clarify, his eyes wide.

'Yeah, him,' Jack answered. 'Basically, we ended up being held captive for a year by him. We call it the Year That Never Was. He died at the end - or so we thought. Martha left to look after her family. You then met Donna, and travelled with her. But then the Daleks came back, with Davros in charge.'

All these names and events were stirring something inside the Doctor's brain, as each sentence seemed to unlock some tiny portion of his memories. Blurry faces associated with the names Jack had just said seemed to pop up in his mind.

'Wait,' the Doctor said, squeezing his eyes shut and thinking hard. 'Rose … blonde. Martha … doctor. Donna … Chiswick.'

'You remember them?'

'Not really,' the Doctor said. 'It's hazy.'

Jack continued, 'Rose came back. In the process you gained a metacrisis from your spare hand. You solved the Dalek problem, and you took her and the metacrisis back to the parallel universe.'

'Why?'

'You just wanted to give them a happy ending. But they didn't see it that way. They didn't stay there. They refused. So you ended up taking them with you as companions. Donna had to have her memory wiped to save her. You, Rose, and your metacrisis travelled together for a while, but one day your metacrisis died.'

'How?'

'He was stung by a howcrass, to save Rose. He died from the venom. But I've always thought he must've said something to you, because that was the day you and Rose started your relationship. Apparently you instigated it.'

'Relationship?' the Doctor repeated disbelievingly.

'Yeah, as in "together".'

'I don't think I would,' the Doctor told him firmly. 'I couldn't. Not again. Especially with a human's lifespan.'

'Love's a funny thing, Doctor. Makes you do crazy things. You should still be able to feel her. Do you still feel her? Right between your hearts?'

The Doctor fell silent as the ache in-between his hearts suddenly grew rapidly as soon as it was mentioned. '... How do you know that?'

'Because you told me that's how it feels,' Jack said. 'So you finally let your inhibitions after the Time War go. You had a baby with her.'

The Doctor scoffed. 'Oh, come on. We wouldn't even be reproductively compatible.'

Jack laughed. 'Yeah, you thought that the first time. That's how it came about. She gave birth to a baby girl. Your daughter. You named her Leah.'

The name cued a pang of something ferocious and soft and painful just below the Doctor's ribs, in the very core of his being.

'You had another kid, called Alex. But he turned out to be a Fateless.'

'A person born inside a paradox?' the Doctor realised, wide-eyed. Again, at the sound of the name, the feeling inside of him came again. He knew these names … didn't he?

'Yeah,' Jack confirmed. 'Because of that, he was in danger. Time Agents were out to kill him. So you put him on Anzen - a planet you created to protect those like him. He's there right now, safe and secure, because of you. Then there's Theo. He's the youngest.'

The Doctor felt a little ill. He'd gone from potentially killing his entire race to apparently having three hybrid children. 'This isn't me,' he stated firmly.

'You've changed, Doctor. You've improved. You've got Rose, and you've got all of us at Torchwood - you've got people to talk to, so you don't have to keep everything inside. It's the best thing that's ever happened to you. You've never been so happy. Well, since I've known you, anyway.'

'I couldn't do that,' the Doctor said, shaking his head. 'Not again. I couldn't go through having a family again. I wouldn't do it. This isn't me.'

'But you know their names and you can feel something inside. I bet you feel weirdly happy, even though you've woken up in this situation. This is why. You've got something, now. People to love, and look after. People to care for.'

There was a long pause. Whoever Jack was and however much he knew about the Doctor, he was right.

'They're your kids, Doc. Little bit human, little bit gallifreyan.'

The Doctor swallowed, which felt like the strangest sensation as he was still hanging upside-down. '... Where are they now?'

'We'll get to that,' Jack said. 'For the past few years you've been in and out of my Torchwood - it's a secret organisation I run on Earth. Your brother, Braxiatel, came back too - he'd been in Volag-Noc. We had a load of struggles. Before all this started, we were just getting over the Keys of the Moirai.'

'Don't be ridiculous.'

'Oh, so I've just told you that you've got an entire family you've forgotten, but that's impossible?'

'That's just some mythical artefact. Ten keys scattered across time and space, said to unlock ultimate power. They don't actually exist,' the Doctor insisted.

'Well they do, and you and Rose found them all.'

'Oh.'

Jack laughed. 'So you found them all, but the Master and your brother betrayed you - they were being controlled by Tony.'

'Who's Tony?'

'He was your wife's brother, but he basically corrupted himself and spent his entire life chasing after you, trying to kill you. In the end, Rose killed the adult version of him to save your life. Your brother went insane from the mind control, and you built New Shada to contain him. The Master disappeared, we didn't know where at the time, but we knew he was even more mentally unstable than usual.'

'That last sentence was a bit leading,' the Doctor mused.

Jack ignored him. 'That's when it started. It was about two weeks after Rose killed Tony. She was still pregnant with Theo, but he was nearly a week overdue. Through your connection with Rose, you get a load of pregnancy symptoms so you were pretty uptight. To add to that, Rose was having recurring nightmares. She'd changed. She'd pulled into herself a lot. We barely saw her smile anymore. You were parked up in Torchwood in Cardiff, waiting for your son to be born …'

As Jack began to tell the story, the Doctor found himself recalling the events in his mind's eye ...

'... You weren't getting any sleep.'

The Doctor knelt over Rose in bed, his hands gripping her shoulders, shaking her as much as he dared to. She was in another nightmare, intermittently crying out as she sweated, shivered and sobbed her way through whatever she was seeing in her head.

'Rose!' he yelled for the fifth time. 'Wake up!'

He was about to do some telepathy, when finally her eyes snapped open, filled with pure, unrivalled terror. For a moment they were glazed, until she focused and fixed on him. She screamed again, trying to escape.

'Get off! Get off of me!' she cried out.

'Rose! It's me!' the Doctor said. 'It's okay, it's me!'

After a moment's more struggle, she finally seemed to realise it was him, and stopped panicking. She was still frozen though, with her arms covering her belly and her chest, and tears rolling down the side of her face.

'D-Doctor,' she choked out.

'It's okay,' he repeated, brushing back her hair from her sweaty forehead. 'It's fine. Just a nightmare, deep breaths.' He checked her head with some quick telepathy; his fingers on her temple. She was scared, but otherwise seemed to be okay. 'Nice and steady,' he continued, pulling his hand away. 'Breathe with me.'

He began a breathing pattern, not taking his eyes off of her. For a few minutes they stayed put, just breathing, until he finally nodded, satisfied with how much she'd calmed down, and hugged her tightly.

After a few moments he tried to let go of her, but she clung onto him desperately. 'Don't let go,' she begged.

'Okay,' he said, reaffirming his grip. 'Not letting go.'

They fell into silence again, just sitting in the low light of their bedroom for a good few minutes.

'What's the time?' she eventually asked, her voice weak.

'Almost 4am,' he replied.

Another long pause.

'I'm so sorry,' she sobbed.

'Don't be stupid, sorry is a word for people who've done something wrong,' the Doctor told her firmly. 'You've done nothing wrong.'

'I can't do this,' she whispered.

'Yes, you can,' he told her.

'I can't fight this. It's too hard.'

'Hey,' he said suddenly, pushing her away to look her directly in the eyes. 'What did you promise me?'

'I know, but …'

'Say it.'

She swallowed, forcing back some more tears as she disconnected her gaze.

He gave her a gentle push. 'Look at me.'

She forced her head up.

'Say it,' he repeated.

'... That I wouldn't give up.'

'That's better,' the Doctor said, smiling at her as he gazed unblinkingly into her eyes. 'I've said it before and I'll say it again. You killed someone, and living through this is going to be the hardest thing you've ever done in your life. But you're not alone. You've got Jack, your mum, Leah, in fact, everyone at both Torchwoods, and most importantly, you've got me.'

'But I can't even sleep anymore,' she moaned. 'I'm so tired.'

'Then I'll fix that for you,' he said. 'I'll find something. I told you. You concentrate on thinking positive thoughts, and I'll take care of everything else.'

She nodded. 'I love you.'

'Feeling's mutual,' he assured her. 'Want to get up, or try sleeping again?'

'Get up,' she replied immediately.

'Okay,' he said. 'I'll get us some tea.'

Jack strolled into the TARDIS library at 10:30am, in search of the resident Time Lord. He called out for him, but he didn't reply. After a little bit of navigating the sheer paradox that was the TARDIS library, Jack finally spotted him sitting against one of the shelves in the Time Lord anatomy section, half-dressed with his hair still in a bedhead effect. He was apparently deeply engrossed in a very heavy and ancient-looking book.

'Morning,' he greeted, but the Doctor didn't respond. It wasn't until he got nearer did he realise the Doctor was, in fact, asleep.

'Doctor,' Jack repeated, more firmly. The Time Lord jerked awake, his glasses slipping off of his face and hitting the floor.

'Hey!' the Doctor protested, realising his glasses were gone and immediately searching for them.

'Morning,' Jack repeated. 'Take it you had another long night?'

The Doctor nodded, slipping his glasses back on and readjusting the book on his lap.

'You're both getting worse,' Jack told him. 'This isn't doing Theo, you, or Rose any good. You need to do something.'

'I know,' the Doctor replied rudely. 'Why do you think I'm sitting here reading a really long and boring book?'

Jack was getting used to the Doctor being a little uptight because of the overdue baby these days, so he brushed off the snipe and took a seat next to him, looking at the book. It was all in gallifreyan, so he couldn't read it. 'So what's the answer?'

'I can't use any drugs with the baby, plus we've tried Imagery Rehearsal Therapy and that didn't work,' the Doctor said. 'I can't seem to help her before or after the nightmare's happened, so I wondered if there was anything I could do during it.'

'During it?' Jack repeated.

'I think I might be able to use the bond and telepathy to get inside her dreams somehow,' the Doctor said. 'Sort of protect her from them. Like some kind of Dream Guardian. It's theoretical, but I think I can do it.'

'You mean, you'd get inside her nightmares and fight them?'

'Yeah,' the Doctor replied. 'If I can get inside and convince her subconscious that I'm more powerful than anything in her dream, I can fight off anything for her.'

'You've gotta be awake to do that,' Jack pointed out. 'That doesn't help you.'

'At least she'll get some sleep,' the Doctor replied. 'Anyway, I only need to help her in her REM phases. I can probably get ninety minutes between each one. Plus, once I'm established, I won't need to be there - she can summon me up herself.'

'You're still injured,' Jack pointed out, gesturing at the wounds the Doctor still sported from his final encounter with the Master, Brax, and Tony. 'You need to rest.'

'Jack, all I do now is lie in bed waiting for her to wake up screaming,' the Doctor stated. 'I've got to do something. Anything has got to be better than this.'

'I guess,' Jack supposed.

'Right now, I just need my son to be born. The amount of mental stress Rose is under …'

The Doctor trailed off, looking a little worried.

Jack clamped a supportive hand on his shoulder. 'Okay, do what you need to do,' he said, getting up. 'You've had breakfast, right?'

'No,' the Doctor replied.

'Useless,' Jack said, shaking his head. 'Get dressed, and I'll fix something for you. What do you want?'

The Doctor didn't appear to even have to think about that. 'Fishcakes in caramel sauce.'

Jack really had to resist the urge to throw up.

'Temperature 12 degrees celsius. Life signs normal. 2:47pm,' the automated voice said.

'So … I feel the pregnancy?' the Doctor asked Jack.

'Yeah, you get symptoms,' Jack replied. 'You spend her pregnancies mostly crying and eating ice cream covered in gravy. Rose gets next to nothing.'

'Why?' the Doctor asked seriously.

'It's something to do with the bond you have with Rose. I don't think even you understand it. It's just some weird side effect that no one can explain. Even Brax couldn't.'

'Oh,' the Doctor muttered. Nope, he really couldn't work that one out. 'So what does any of this have to do with our current situation?'

'I'm getting there,' Jack insisted. 'Be patient.'

'So what, I'm on Earth, I'm injured, my human wife's about to birth my son, and she's got PTSD from killing someone. Now, I'm a prisoner with you, hanging upside down in a grotty cell, complete with amnesia. You know what? I'm struggling to make a connection.'

Jack sighed. 'I said I'd get there.'

'Can't you speed up a bit?'

'No,' Jack replied. 'Because that was where this all started – the moment you thought of trying to be a Dream Guardian.'

'I'm assuming that it was a bad idea?'

Jack laughed. 'Bad? We didn't know at the time, but it was the worst idea you've ever had in your life.'