Author's Note
Warning: This Chapter contains River giving birth, nothing graphic but hopefully somewhat lifelike.
These events take place between The Angels Take Manhattan and The Snowmen. (The TARDIS here is still the series 5 desktop.)
Chapter 2: The Day Everything Changed
The Doctor was sat in his swing underneath the console tinkering with the TARDIS' systems. He and River were getting ready to watch a double supernova, two binary stars exploding with a force that would have overpowered a lesser vessel at such close range. It was the closest to something dangerous they had done in a while, yet still completely safe. The Doctor risked a glance up at his heavily pregnant and easily angered wife. River was sat in a padded, reclining pool chair in front of the open doors of the TARDIS. She was lazily gazing out at the view of two old stars that would soon burst into a colourful, luminous explosion that would briefly outshine everything else in the entire galaxy. The massive shock waves from that explosion would then trigger the formation of thousands of new stars and solar systems. The Doctor turned back to his tinkering, she had sent him away, claiming that he "kept looking at her as if she were a bomb about to go off any second". River was due any day, and despite her stubborn independence he wanted to be within earshot if she needed something. Hence the pretence of 'fixing' one of the TARDIS's systems.
"Doctor!"
The Doctor jumped up so fast he hit his head and dropped the coupling he had been about to replace onto the Thrust diffuser below, which immediately burst in a shower of sparks and in turn shorted out one of the transducer cells causing a few other systems to go offline, including the extrapolator shielding. Effectively stranding them with severely reduced shields in the midst of what was about to be a giant explosion.
Eyes darting from the wreckage around him to the woman above him he realised that River did not usually shout like that, which the Doctor quickly surmised could only mean one thing.
The TARDIS rattled and lurched alarmingly as he skidded into the carefully constructed room, half bedroom, half medical bay. Dropping a few of the towels he held piled in one hand he attempted not to spill the hot water in the 1920s kettle swinging wildly in his other hand. The first suitable receptacle he had laid hands on. He couldn't remember what the hot water was for, at present, but vaguely remembered that it was a required element.
River Song lay propped up on a bed, her eyes scrunched up in pain, with what looked like an aeroplane mask over her nose and mouth providing gas and air; the only pain relief River would accept.
"River, I'm here, don't panic!" The doctor tried to sound confident, as he put down the towels and water and swung a monitor towards him on which both River's and the baby's hearts rates were displayed.
The latest contraction now over, River gasped "I'm not panicking, I'm giving birth!
"Not quite yet" He said scanning her "probably another hour or so, I hope."
"Then get back out there and get the shields back up properly!" She shouted, making the Doctor flinch and half duck, as if he expected her to shoot at a non-existent hat. Then she suddenly burst into tears.
"River! What's wrong?" Shouting he could deal with but River crying was completely new and even more terrifying.
"I- I'm not ready... for all of this. I don't know how to be a mother! What were we thinking?"
He hesitantly stepped towards the bed, moving slowly as if approaching a wild animal.
"River," he said softly, taking her hand, "how many times do I need to tell you? You are fantastic and brilliant; you are going to be an amazing mother. No one knows how to be a parent, before they are one; it's one of those times you just have to shout Geronimo and jump."
River's ear splitting yell echoed throughout the room as the Doctor held her hand. She was squeezing it so tightly that his hand was going numb.
"River, I know it hurts-" he squeaked, winching from the pain in his hand.
"You have no idea what it's like!"
"-but just breathe. River, please, just breathe! The whole process will go far more smoothly if you just breathe!" He pleaded, shaking and rubbing his hand when it was finally released.
"I hate you!" River groaned
"No you don't." The Doctor ran another scan. He had long since thrown aside his tweed jacket, and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. He'd finally managed to get the shields back up a few minutes ago and returned to find River further on then he had anticipated.
"Why did I agree to let you deliver this baby?" she questioned
"Not much choice at the moment, we still can't dematerialise and things are progressing rather quickly." He said as he frowned at the scanner.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing sweetie?"
"Of course I do" he huffed, double checking the scanner. "River, is it ok if I… I mean I need to check… things" He stumbled awkwardly.
"Well do it then! There's nothing you haven't seen before." She grumbled as he pulled on a latex glove and moved to examine her.
"You're fully dilated." The Doctor announced with a smile.
"Are you sure you've done this before?" Her words ended in a howl.
"Yes lots of times," he boasted then amended "a few, twice, although one was a giant beetle but that's beside the point, the point is, you should begin to push now."
River screamed, pressing her knees against her chest, then slumping back against the cushions, breathing hard.
"Hang in there; it's going to be fine. I promise." The doctor moved to hold her hand again and push a wet strain of blonde of hair from her sweaty face. "You're doing brilliantly." he told her, gently kissing her forehead.
Worry and panic melted away into awe the moment he finally lifted his daughter with slightly shaking arms. He had been scared – was still completely terrified, if he was honest. Although he tried not to let it show.
"We have a daughter, a daughter, our little girl, River"
River laid back in exhaustion, listening to the cries of her new born daughter.
He could not wipe his goofy smile off his face as he looked down at the miniature little being in his arms, with her scrunched up face, scrawny limbs, ten fingers, ten toes and two hearts.
"Hello... I'm your Dad"
He felt a stirring in his mind and involuntarily took a sharp intake of breath as her mind touched his. He had felt her presence before, of course, since the telepathic centre of her brain had first formed inside River's womb, but now that he actually held her, the contact had ignited her untrained touch telepathy so strongly, that it filled the emptiness in his mind. It was the first time in centuries that he had been able to feel another Time Lord presence. Yet this was just the first hint at the bond they would share, something more than just another telepathic presence, more even than another Gallifreyan mind, she was his daughter.
"Sweetie, is she ok?" River had obviously noticed the gasp and the tear falling down his cheek. She thought there was something wrong with the baby, he realised, and quickly reassured her, his voice still full of the awe he felt.
"Better than ok, perfect, I can feel her, her presence in my mind, it's beautiful; she's beautiful." Pulling himself together he set about cutting the cord and wrapping a towel about her.
"I wish I could" River whispered.
For all her Time Lord traits, River's telepathic abilities remained under-developed; more advanced then the average human but less then the average Time Lord. The Doctor knew that if her mind had blazed like the infant in his arms, no amount of mental shielding and lack of physical contact would have prevented him from eventually recognising what she was.
Sensing his telepathic presence, without him first initiating a connection had always been beyond River, and The Doctor realised with a jolt, that the infant in his arms wouldn't be able to find a connection to River by herself either, not yet at any rate. Tenderly he carried his tiny daughter to River's side and expertly placed her into River's arms.
"Hello sweetheart" River murmured.
"Say hello to mummy." The Doctor said with a smile, placing a hand on the infants head and gently touching his forehead to River's. He formed a telepathic bridge letting River feel her daughter's mind the way he did, while also letting the infant fully feel her mother's presence for the first time.
After what could have been an eternity or a few seconds River looked up at the Doctor with tears in her eyes. He leaned down and gently captured her lips with own. For the first time in centuries, his hearts were completely full.
"It's like music and colours, all shiny and brand new" River sighed contently.
"Music? To you, that's like music?" Chuckled The Doctor.
River nodded, too overcome to care about his hinted jibe at her underdeveloped telepathy. Suddenly the Doctor started to giggle, he had somehow managed to resemble a responsible adult for the past fourteen hours but finally his relief at his daughter's safe arrival was rapidly dissolving the act.
"She's a Song, River. A new Song", he chuckled delighted at the pun. "Get it? A new Song!" River raised her eyebrows at him. "Hey, perhaps that's what we should call her; New Song!"
"You are not calling my daughter 'New Song'" River stipulated firmly "we already agreed, we are going to give her a proper name, something she can actually use, understand?"
He nodded obediently, although in his mind he was already calling her 'my New Song' and working out what it would look and sound like in various languages including both circular and old high Gallifreyan.