The Doctor was prepared for just about anything to come out of Rose's mouth, including lightening, drunken leprechauns, declarations of undying love for the lost Mickey or even Jack, but nothing in all his 900 and so years had prepared him for what did come out.
He sat there in shock as she buried her head further into her knees, crying louder now and he couldn't think of single thing to say. It wasn't often he was speechless, in any regeneration, but especially not this one. He took a deep breath and tried to block out the sound of Rose falling to pieces in the corner. He had to think. She still hadn't told him what had happened. There were a hundred, no a thousand things that could explain her being pregnant, if she even was. She only said she thought she was... The Doctor shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. He had to know exactly what happened.
He stood up and reached down, pulling Rose up to her feet, mostly gently. He held tight onto her arm, in case she decided to make a run for it, which seemed likely as she kept eyeing the door from under her hair. With his free hand he raised her chin.
"Right. So, we might be gaining a third passenger. TARDIS would like that. Been a while for the old girl since she had a little one to entertain." His voice was bouncy again, if somewhat forced, and he gave her his trademark impish grin. The ship gave a somewhat larger hum. Rose just blinked at him. "The only thing is," His voice turned deadly serious again, "I'd really like to know the rest of it, Rose."
She gaped open mouthed for a moment. "You aren't going to kick me out?"
Now he gaped at her, dropping both his hands and sitting down hard on the bed. He ran his hand through his hair again, standing it up on end before starting to rub the back of his neck. "Why would I do that? I mean, whoever is the father can't be that..." He trailed off as he saw the look on her face. "Oh." He stood back up. "You mean?"
Rose nodded solemnly and did her best to look like she could handle his reaction. The Doctor drew a shaky breath. He wanted to scream or cry or something but he knew Rose really wouldn't take that well at the moment. "Ah, please," He started to pace the room, "please tell me how that happened, 'cause I'd hope I'd remember that."
Rose didn't make a sound, just looked at him and he sighed. "How about we double check first then, alright? See if you're right." He held out his hand and waited a full minute before she took it. "We'll discuss the rest later." She nodded slowly and let him lead her out of her room and towards the med bay.
The TARDIS was annoyingly quiet as they walked. The Doctor could feel the ship, hovering, just beyond his awareness. The TARDIS had of course witnessed whatever had happened. He wished, not for the first time, that there was a way to actually talk to her. Their symbiotic relationship was pleasant, and he wouldn't trade it for the universe, but at times like these it would be nice to have a simple conversation.
Rose sat down on one of the beds, a little stiffly, and he patted her knee and gave her a smile. She tried to return it, but it looked more like a grimace. The test didn't take long. As soon as he turned on the scanner it started spitting information at him. Rose was defiantly pregnant. He stared down and the swirling Gallifreyan script in shock. She'd told him, but he didn't believe. The child was….part Gallifreyan. He tapped the scanner a bit, just to be sure but the reading didn't change. She was a little less than a month gone. He sat the scanner down and hopped up on the bed next to her, shoulder to shoulder, and ran his hand through his hair.
She didn't say anything, just reached for his hand and they both sat there for a long time trying to absorb it. He didn't tell her what it said. Didn't need to. Eventually, Rose let her head fall to his shoulder and he rested his against her's.
"You gonna be okay, Doctor?"
He jumped at little at the break in silence and had to catch himself to keep from falling of the bed. Rose chuckled softly at him, but didn't meet his eyes.
"Course I'm going to be alright!" His eyes were huge. "I'm not the one having the baby. I don't even remember making the baby!" He frowned. "Rather I did, actually. Seems a bit of a bad start this. How are we going to explain this to the little guy?"
Rose shrugged and hopped off the bed. "Got time enough to figure that part out. I was more worried about how to explain this to you." She still didn't make eye contact. "I thought…" She trailed off to rally her courage and finally looked up. "I thought you'd tell me we'd have to get rid of it, or drop me off somewhere with a 'it's for your own good, Rose'."
The Doctor frowned. "Of course I wouldn't do that! That's preposterous." He impulsively pulled her into a hug. "I risked imploding two universes to get you back, Rose Tyler. I'm not dumping you on some space rock because you're going to have my baby!" He let her go far enough she could see the grin spread across his face. "I'm going to be dad again! Been a good long time." He frowned slightly. "I never did like nappies. We'll have to find someone to take care of that for us." His eyes sort of rolled back in his head a bit as he started making calculations and plans. Their lifestyle really didn't leave a lot of room for parenting. Couldn't really change the lifestyle either. They'd have to find someone or something as a sort of a nanny… It took him a moment to realize that Rose wasn't really saying anything.
He looked back down at her and realized she looked a bit like she'd been hit by a concussion blast. Wordlessly, he turned her around and marched her to the kitchen and set her down at the table. A cup of tea shortly found itself planted in her hands and he sat down opposite her with one of his own.
"Right. Now that I think I've started to convince you I'm not mad about this, why don't we start to discuss how you feel about it." He waited for her to say something but she just sipped her tea and played with a spot on the table with her index finger. "Rose, how we handle this has a lot do with what you want." He frowned. "Do you want to have the baby?" He held his breath. He couldn't…he wouldn't be able to…
She looked up at that and he could see she was conflicted. "Doctor…" She sighed and fiddled with the handle of her cup. "I don't know. I don't know what to think." She took a large drink of tea and set the cup down harder than necessary. "I mean, it'd be one thing if this was an accident or something!" She glared at the table. "Oh, no. I can't get knocked up after a night of drinks or something normal. Nope. Rose Tyler gets in a bad way because some creepy alien possess her best friend and makes him rape her."
The Doctor visibly cringed but Rose kept going.
"Do you know the worst part?" She was at least looking at him and yelling, he thought, as her voice took on a distinctively Jackie like quality. "I didn't realize it wasn't you at first."
He cringed again but forced himself to keep looking at her. She was shaking and clearly angry, but he got the impression it was more at herself than at him.
"Stupid ape that I am, I didn't question why you'd walk into my room in the middle of the TARDIS night. Didn't think about why the ship was freaking out, blinking lights and all sorts of things. Nope. I just asked you what was wrong and let you climb into the bed next to me. Figured you'd had another bad dream."
That hadn't happened in this body- yet. Last time around, though, he'd been woken by Rose more than once. He'd tried to sleep as little as possible, but when it got to be too much he'd go to bed only to fall into the fires of Gallifrey's destruction. Rose would hear him cry out and she'd go to him, wake him up, make him talk about it- just enough to get the worst off his chest. Then he'd frown and make rude comments when Rose would make him shove over. She never left him alone after one of the dreams. She always insisted she sleep next to him. More often than not it was a good thing. Saved her the trouble of walking down the hall an hour later when the same thing happened again. Eventually he'd even sought her out if for some reason she'd slept through it.
"Rose, it wasn't your fault." He sounded resigned to his own ears. "There was no reason for you to be…suspicious." He sighed and twirled his own cup. "If I hadn't already killed the bastard, I'd find a more painful way."
Rose smiled slightly and shook her head no. "Nah. Not you, Doctor. You'd still try an' keep it clean." Something told him Rose might not have. "Anyway, what's done is done. I'm just going to have to learn to live with it."
The Doctor's hearts gave a heavy thump. "Is it so bad?" He asked in a small voice. "The idea of having a baby with me?"
Rose's eyes widened. "NO! Of course that's not a bad idea!" She pulled her chair around the table and leaned into him a bit, bumping his shoulder. "That's not a bad thing, Doctor. Sort of feel a bit like Eve or something." He smiled back a tiny bit. He hadn't thought about that. The child would be a continuation of his people, however small. "I'd have…" Rose paused and her cheeks turned a deep pink. "I'd have volunteered to do it if you'd ever wanted it."
"Really?" He didn't mean to squeak when that came out. Rose just nodded again and he hugged her with one arm. "Wouldn't have thought of it, honestly." Rose raised an eyebrow and the Doctor grinned. "My people haven't had offspring in the 'traditional' fashion for a millennia. We grew 'em adult on contraptions called looms. Without the loom, never really considered it a possibility." The Doctor shook his head. "I was one of the last to be born the old fashioned way." He pointed at his chest. "Technically, I'm not really 100 percent alien. Half human. But the Gallifreyan TNA's dominate enough it doesn't really matter. Sort of takes over from all other genetic material. Can't tell a difference between me and the real thing, honestly."
Rose looked a little surprised but didn't ask questions. He was glad. He wasn't quite ready to tell her about the rules the Time Lords had, all because of his parents. Didn't need to frighten her by telling her he came from a long line of trouble makers.
"So what will this all be like then? Must have been a reason your people stopped…" she trailed off and thought about what to call it. "Doing it the traditional way." She shrugged.
The Doctor smirked. "Too messy for them. They wanted to skip all the emotional involvement and go right to the genetic matches, the planned breedings, very clinical." He frowned. "I had a son, you know. And a Granddaughter." He smiled sadly. "Susan was remarkable. Her father, well, he was a bit too much like the others. Looming meant I didn't get to raise him. But I got to take Susan traveling with me. She ended up more of a rebel then me. Married and never went back. Would have lived a normal life, like a human, if it hadn't been for the war."
"You don't talk about her much."
"Don't talk about anyone much." The Doctor pulled on his ear. "Thing is, once someone leaves, I sort of try not to. Temptations too great to get them back. Only they leave for a reason, so I'd have to get them before that happens or they'd just go away again."
"Which would mess up the timeline."
The Doctor gave her the grin that said clearly that she'd gotten it. "Susan…" He paused. "Do wish you could have met her. Exactly opposite to me really. Wanted a quiet life. She didn't care much for the Time Lords. Only came with me so she could find somewhere else, where there wouldn't be paradoxes to fix and anomalies to monitor. The whole genetic pairings thing got her in a right fit too. Of course, they did try to make her give a genetic sample to the looms so they could mate her with this daft little thing that was already well past his prime. She said she'd rather have her children with a goat. Left her in 22nd century Earth. That was over 800 years ago."
Rose looked a little shocked at how long it had been, but she knew how old he was. He just never talked about it without joking. She'd met Sarah-Jane. Heard him hint at Ace and even a few others, but nothing so far back.
He stood up and put his hands in his pockets. "To answer your question, I don't know how this will work. I'd assume like any normal human pregnancy. My mother didn't seem to have a problem. At least not one they ever bothered to tell me about." He smirked. "Strange childhood really. Kept meeting myself when I'd come home from the academy. Never could get the timing right."
Rose just shook her head. "Rather explains things a bit then. Insane since birth."
"Hey now!" The Doctor wagged a finger at her. "I wasn't a Time Lord yet, I'll have you know. Takes two centuries of school to learn to drive a TARDIS properly."
"Drop out early then?" She stuck her tongue out of her teeth and the Doctor laughed.
"Rose Tyler, backseat TARDIS driver."