A/N: I hope everyone is still enjoying things. We're really getting into the plot now. Please keep reviewing.

An Unexpected Surprise

'Every time I look at you, baby I see something new that takes me higher than before, that makes me want you more…'- All About Lovin' You, Bon Jovi

The sterile private room in one of London's most prolific hospitals seemed all too clinical for the occupant of the hard, crisp white bed. The telly flickered in the corner but the pictures didn't register, instead playing happily to itself in the hope of someone deciding to listen. Out in the corridor could be heard the shuffle of hospital slippered feet and the odd murmur of hushed conversation. Rose shifted in bed once more, wincing at the discomfort brought on by her bruised ribs but too restless to lie still. She'd been alone for nearly half an hour, the Doctor having been called from her side to talk to the police that had taken up her case.

The security tapes provided by Torchwood and the discovery of Rose's bag being missing from the scene had pointed directly to a mugger, chancing upon the wealth of those working in Canary Wharf. She had colourfully cursed her luck before settling to tell the police all that she remembered from the attack before the Doctor had been called from the room to answer several more questions. Pete had been sent back to Greenwich by both the Doctor and Rose despite his worry for his daughter and told not to bring the family in until they had ascertained as to whether Rose would have to remain over night or not. The wait was beginning to get to Rose, her worry for her own health only over shadowed by a strong desire to get back to her children. The incidents over the passed month or so beginning to join together in a disturbing pattern despite the Doctor's assurance that he was sure nothing but a string of coincidences had occurred. Jean's dreams had settled and she had taken to sleeping alone once more and aside from the still unexplained discovery of Belle, the Rift had yet to yield any further troubles to them.

Rose swung her legs from beneath the blanket but further progression was halted when the door to the room opened and the Doctor raised an eyebrow in question at her actions. He waved her back into bed with the look of a stern father.

"Time Lord spider sense?" said Rose, grudgingly getting back into bed, "You finished with the police?"

"Yeah," said the Doctor, "They're going to do what they can but the footage is fuzzy and he was wearing a mask so they don't have a lot to go on. I'm just glad you're alright though."

Rose offered him a weak smile as he perched next to her on the bed, slipping his amulet around her neck before folding his hand in hers in a way she knew meant that he had worried.

"I always thought us staying on Earth would prove safer," he said brushing a lock of blonde back behind her ear, "Even staying in one place I can't protect you."

"Don't start," said Rose softly, "That bloke could have attacked anyone and you weren't to know. You can't protect me every minute of the day Doctor, the same way I can't always protect you. If we wanted to always be safe we'd simply pad ourselves in a room on the TARDIS and float in the vortex for all eternity."

"Doesn't sound like such a bad idea," said the Doctor, before shaking off his darkened manner and smiling down at her, "That consultant should be back in a bit to let us know when you can go home, I passed her in the corridor on the way back. Hopefully we'll get you home tonight, Jackie is frantic. I thought I'd better call her with an update and if it wasn't for Jack distracting her with some science experiment he and Addy were working on I never would have got her off the phone."

Rose looked half-way between alarmed and amused, "Jack and Adric working on a science project together, are we sure this is wise?"

"Jack's trying to distract the kids from worrying," said the Doctor, "Jean wasn't having any of it which is why I want to get you home but Addy fell into the ruse. Jack's taking this uncle business very seriously."

They were interrupted as a knock came on the door before the handle turned and the young consultant walked in. Melissa Ryan may have appeared young with her red streaked hair and high heels but she had proved her competency to both Rose and the Doctor with her handling of Rose's case. She offered the couple a warm smile and flipped open the file she had in her hands.

"Right Mrs Tyler…"

"Miss Tyler," said Rose, "We're not married, well not yet anyway."

"Sorry, Miss Tyler. You ribs will be sore for a few days but everything else checks out as normal and you'll be pleased to know that baby was unharmed during the attack although I would like to do an ultrasound just to double check."

Rose sat upright in the bed, ignoring the wrench of pain in her ribs, "Baby?"

Melissa looked slightly bemused by Rose's outburst and returned her attention to her notes, "Miss Tyler you're nearly two months pregnant," she said, "I take it you weren't aware."

"No I…Oh God!" said Rose, glancing up and seeing a similarly shocked expression on the Doctor's face, "With all the excitement since Addy's birthday I didn't even realise I'd skipped, I…"

"Could you give us a minute?" said the Doctor finally regaining the power of speech.

"Certainly," said Melissa with a small smile, "I'll be just outside."

Rose bit her lip until the door closed before breaking into desperate sobs, "I swear I didn't know," she choked, "Oh God Doctor what are we going to do?"

Two strong arms circled her and pulled her close, muffling her sobs against the soft cotton of his shirt, "Don't you cry," said the Doctor softly, "Rose…even I didn't realise and I knew long before you did with both Adric and Jeannie. I don't even know what to say, this is so unexpected, we're always so careful."

"We can't have this child," said Rose, pulling back slightly, "I've tied you to Earth for so long, we can't…I can't expect you to live another sixteen years this way."

"What's sixteen years in a lifetime of nearly a thousand?" said the Doctor tilting her face up to his, "Do you want this baby?"

"I…I want you to be happy, I want to be back out in the stars, I want Addy and Jean to know who you are, I want…I want what we planned."

"You should know by now Miss Tyler that nothing with us ever goes to plan," said the Doctor, "We can still have all those things, we can tell Addy and Jean, we can visit the stars but then we can come home, bring this little thing inside you up knowing that he's something more special than any other child on Earth because he's ours."

"He?" asked Rose, smiling through her tears.

"Gotta be a he, determined little thing."

"Just like his Daddy," said Rose before her expression turned serious once more, "Are you really sure though Doctor? Its not too late to terminate if…"

The Doctor silenced her with a finger against her lips, "Rose you can't even swat a fly without doing half an hour on the life you've just taken and I've…well I'm me, do you think either of us could willingly terminate something we created just because its an inconvenience?" said the Doctor laying a hand across her still flat stomach, "Let's give it a go hey, we've done pretty well the passed two times and they say the third is the charm."

Rose lay her hand over his, looking down at her body and trying to picture the time she remembered of not being able to tie her own shoes. A tear broke loose and coursed down her cheek but a slim, pale finger caught it before it could fall from her face. She tilted her face up to the man next to her and met his kiss willingly, knowing in that one gentle movement that he wanted the child as much as she did. Two fingers moved to rest against her temple and she felt the slight push against her consciousness before his voice echoed in her mind.

"Besides, Jack has some serious nappy duty to make up for."

Rose pulled back from the kiss, immediately missing the connection as his mind left hers, "You'd better go and get Doctor Ryan back, I think we scared her."

The Doctor pressed another kiss to her lips, "I'll be right back."

Rose lay back as she watched him leave the room, smiling to herself as she thought of the looks on her children's faces when she told them of their impending brother or sister. She suppressed a giggle as she thought of her Mum's outburst at Adric's party, perhaps mother's intuition surpassed a Time Lord's in matters of maternity. She frowned as she thought of all the paperwork she would need to complete for both her and the Doctor when she returned to the office, for one of the most simple of human processes maternity leave left a lot to be desired when it came to its organisation. She hadn't got as far as names when the door opened once more to reveal a rather relieved looking Melissa Ryan trailing an ultra sound scanner behind her.

"I managed to steal one from Maternity so we didn't have to move you," she said, holding the door open for the Doctor behind her as he helped her manoeuvre the unwieldy trolley. It didn't take long to set up the equipment and before she had time to properly prepare herself Rose was wincing at the chill of the ultrasound jelly, marvelling that in all the improvements of medical science over the years they had still been unable to invent something that didn't freeze you when applied. The improvements of the ultrasound itself though soon had Rose forgetting the chill on her abdomen. When she had gone for her scan with Adric she had seen nothing but a grainy black and white image but now there was glorious colour before her and the gentle double heartbeat as her own mingled with that of her child, once again negating the need for a hurried explanation of genetic defaults on the child's father's side.

"There we are," said Melissa, "There's baby, nice and big and healthy, everything looks to be going very according to plan."

Rose didn't need to tear her eyes from the screen to know the expression on the Doctor's face, she had seen the same Bambi eyed affection for both of their children at this early stage but also on the days of their birth. For a man who had seen the birth of galaxies she knew he had never worn more of an expression of wonder than when he looked upon the image of the tiny little creature that he had created with her. She wondered if his other two wives before her, the mothers of his other, now long lost children had felt the same rush of love that she felt when she saw his face, no Time Lord, no millennia old traveller, just a man, a father.

"He's beautiful," said the Doctor, his grip altering slightly on Rose's hand.

"She's better than beautiful," said Rose, hearing him laugh at her defiance behind her.

Melissa rotated the scanner slightly away from them and manoeuvred the handset across Rose's stomach, "Would you like to know?" she asked.

Rose looked up at the Doctor and he nodded his consent, both of them knowing he would only cheat later and use one of the sonic screwdriver's newer settings to establish the sex before the birth.

"Go on then," said Rose, "Tenner says it's a girl."

"Call it twenty and you're on," said the Doctor.

"You'll regret that statement, " said Melissa, "You have a very beautiful baby girl on the way Doctor Smith."

Rose turned to look at her partner when he didn't respond and smiled as she saw his expression as he focused on the screen.

"Oh I don't think I could ever regret that," said the Doctor, "Not in a million years."

The scan only lasted a few more minutes while Melissa checked that all was perfectly well with the baby before the machine was shut off with promises of a recording of the ultrasound and the obligatory picture to be shown to everyone who wished to see the still slightly inhuman looking blob Rose was carrying. With assertions that all was well Rose was allowed to go home, only having to wait a few more minutes while prenatal care was arranged and discharge papers were signed. With her motorbike left at Torchwood and its use now firmly out of bounds they were left with little option for a taxi back through the now dark streets of London but neither Rose or the Doctor noticed, too engrossed in the little six by four picture of their little life changing event.

XXXX

"Noooooo way!!!!!!!!! You're joking right?" cried Adric, throwing his arms around his mother before stepping back as she winced, "Sorry. But seriously, you're pregnant, like having a baby pregnant."

"Is there any other kind?" said Rose, settling back on the front room sofa and accepting a hug from her daughter who was still enthralled by the photo of her new sister.

"Mum this is such good news," she said, "Have you thought of what to call her?"

"Not yet," said the Doctor, "We haven't known long ourselves and we didn't name either of you until you were born so we'll probably wait."

"I can't believe you're having another one," said Jackie, "I knew it though, I was saying so to your Dad the other day, there was something different about you since you came back from Norway."

Rose just smiled as her mother continued to rattle on about how well she knew her own daughter and could always tell whenever something was wrong. Rose turned her attention to her two children, both of them draped gently over her, admiring the picture.

"Was I ever that small?" said Adric.

"Yep," said Rose, "But then you kept on growing and growing and getting cheekier and cheekier until look, you became your Daddy."

"Will she look like you Mum," said Jean, "Or will she be like me?"

"Who knows. You looked very much like I did in your babyhood but then you got your grandmother's looks. We'll see though."

Jack gave the Doctor a firm punch on the arm, "You dirty old dog though, who knew you had it in you old man?"

"Hey! Less of the old!" said the Doctor with a look that dared his friend to challenge it, "I look younger than you."

"I'm like a fine wine," said Jack, "I get better with age, you just turned to vinegar and got all preserved."

Adric shot a cheeky smile at his sister who took up the cue immediately, "You really gonna take that from him Dad?"

"Yeah Dad, he comes in here after years of neglect and starts insulting you in front of us, I wouldn't stand for it," said Adric, already arming himself with one of the sofa cushions.

Rose got up from the sofa, holding her hands in mock surrender, "Let me get clear before the missiles start flying," she said retreating behind her mother as Dominic entered the fray. Jack quickly picked up on the potential battle before him and picked up one of the large floor cushions.

"Bring it on kiddos," he said to the three Tyler children.

"Mind the Christmas tree," said Jackie, barely containing her laughter at the Time Agent as he almost cowered under the first onslaught of scatter cushions, Sphinx rushing like lightning from beneath the sofa and up into Rose's arms.

"Young versus old!" called Rose, shooting her partner a wicked grin as his own children and brother-in-law turned their attention to him.

"I could go off you Tyler!" he called before diving behind the sofa and out of harms way.

The battle increased in ferocity, cushions flying to and from the now make shift barricades. Even Pete had joined in the fray much to Jackie and Rose's amusement. The three grown men soon falling to the speed and accuracy of the three youngsters. The Doctor soon had them all laughing, barking orders like a general and suggesting an all out kamikaze attack across the No Mans Land of the living room floor between the two opposing sofas. Jackie had seen the hazard that lay in the path a second too late as all three vaulted over the sofa. It was Jack's foot that hit the discarded magazine and it was both Jack and the Doctor who went tumbling backwards onto the hardwood floor as the Time Agent grabbed onto him for support.

The laughter stopped immediately as the thump of two bodies hitting the ground echoed around the room and for a second the room took neither breath nor movement. The atmosphere dispersed though when both the Doctor and Jack began laughing like fools as they lay staring at the ceiling.

"You always did want me flat on my back Harkness," said the Doctor, pushing himself up to standing and offering his hand to his fallen comrade.

"You said I had to buy you a drink first," said Jack, gingerly rubbing the back of his head where it had impacted with the floor, "You sure that floor's wood and not granite?"

"You've got a thick enough skull," said Rose, relieved that neither party had been hurt, "But I think its time all our dear soldiers settled down, Sphinx is scared half to death by the noise you lot were making."

As if to emphasise the point the wild haired cat gave a pained meow before leaping down from Rose's grip and wrapping herself around the Doctor's ankles. The Doctor scooped her up, fussing the sticky-up hairs on her head.

"I thought you weren't a cat person these days," said Jack.

"Sphinx isn't a cat," said the Doctor, "She's a highly trained Mouse Muncher and Arachnid Assassin, stops Jean screaming every time she sees a spider."

"I do not scream!" said Jean, folding her arms across her chest, as she huffed down on the now cushionless sofa before letting out a high pitched squeal as Adric secretly traced a finger across her neck in a spider's touch.

"Wicked Brat!" she snapped at him before snatching up a discarded cushion and smacking him round the head with it.

"I'm going to lie down," said Rose before retreating upstairs from the carnage that was ensuing below.

XXXX

"Not tinkering tonight?" said Rose as she came out of her ensuite bathroom in a billow of steam and fragrance. The Doctor lay on his stomach the wrong way round on the bed, clad only in a pair of dark sweat pants as he studied the ultrasound printout in his hand. He clearly hadn't heard a word she'd uttered as he continued to gaze at the tiny form before him. Rose perched next to him on the bed, laying a hand on the bare skin of his back.

"I think she has your eyes," she said, tracing a nail up and down his spine and causing him to fidget.

"She's got your nose," said the Doctor, "And your smile."

"She's not smiling," said Rose, studying the fuzzy image.

"Yes she is," said the Doctor, rolling onto his back and looking up at her, "You alright?"

Rose nodded, "I feel ok, ribs are a little sore and I don't want to take anything with little'un inside me. Just glad I seem to have bypassed the morning sickness I had with the other two."

"Just pray you bypass the cravings as well," said the Doctor, "I'm not doing three AM stints across town to the only twenty-four hour Italian for Chicken Florentine this time."

"Hmmm yes you will," said Rose leaning down and kissing him, "Time Tots in bed?"

"Addy is but Jeannie was still up sketching when I looked in on her," said the Doctor.

"She should be asleep, she's got school in the morning," said Rose getting up from the bed, "I'll be back in a minute."

The Doctor turned his attention back to the picture in his hand as Rose left the room, padding as silently as she could down the corridors of the sleeping house. Jean's door was ajar and soft lighting spilled out onto the landing. Rose tapped lightly on the door before pushing it open. Jean looked up and smiled at her mother.

"Don't worry, I'm still here," she said with a cheeky grin.

"I know," said Rose, "I just thought I'd come to say good night, you should get some sleep."

"I'm not that tired," said Jean, "And I wanted to finish this."

Rose wandered over to the desk her daughter sat at and looked down at the drawing she was working on. She looked down at the city-scape before her and frowned, a small semblance of recognition tugging at her mind.

"Where is this place Jeannie?" she said, reaching down to pick up the drawing.

"I don't know," said Jean, "I think I saw it in a movie once, its so pretty I had to draw it. I was going to put it in the art fair at school."

Rose smiled, "You should," she said, "You have your father's talent much as he insists he can only draw stick men. You shouldn't waste it."

"Bout the only thing of Dad I've got," said Jean mournfully.

Rose looked down into her daughter's icy blue eyes, trying to push aside the urge to tell her all of her heritage, instead she settled on a well used phrased, "You have a lot more of your Dad in you than you'll ever know Jeanne Antoinette, trust me," she said shuffling through several more sketches on the desk, "These are all wonderful. You should let me frame some to put around the house, you…"

"Mum?" said Jean as her mother trailed off, the rest of the sketches dropping from her hand as she picked up a black and white pencil drawing from the desk.

"This man," said Rose, studying the picture before her, the sharp, angled features, the deep haunted eyes, the almost military short hair, "How…who? Jean why did you draw this person?"

Jean looked at the drawing, "Oh that's someone I call Enigma, I dream about him sometimes. He…after what happened with the pond that night I kept dreaming about him. He keeps the nightmares away he…Mum what's wrong, you look really pale."

"I…I…" stuttered Rose, "Can I show your Dad this? Its…its really rather good, I…"

"Mummy? Mummy what's wrong? Is it the baby? Do you feel ill?"

"Jean I…"

Any further words were cut short by the gut wrenching scream from down the hall. Still clutching the drawing in her hand Rose fled her daughter's room, searching for the origin of the sound. It didn't take her long to catch the distinct American tone in the cries and she turned herself to Jack's room, barely missing a collision with the Doctor as he stepped from their room, also following the sound. Rose didn't stand on ceremony when she reached Jack's door, barging through it with all her strength and finding the American knotted in his sheets on the floor, muttering in the throes of a devastating nightmare.

"Jack?" she called, scared to get too close to his thrashing arms and clenched fists in her currently condition. The Doctor however was soon on the floor beside his friend, holding him firmly as he brought him from his dreams with comforting words and a familiar embrace.

"Its alright Jack, its alright," said the Doctor as the other man quieted, "Jesus Christ what was that?"

Jack seemed to regain some of his senses, releasing the choke hold he had on the Doctor's hastily donned robe, "I remember," he said, staring up at the Doctor with haunted eyes, "I remember everything. Gallifrey, Doctor, Gallifrey's alive and…"

"Rose," said the Doctor silencing the man before him, "Rose, tell everyone its alright. Get the kids to bed. Meet us downstairs when everyone's settled. I think our Jack needs a brandy."

The Doctor helped Jack to his feet, the Captain keeping his silence as he was manoeuvred passed several confused faces and down the stairs. Rose turned to her waiting family, all of them bemused by Jack's out cry.

"Just a nightmare," said Rose, "Nothing to worry about. Back to bed."

"Mum you're shaking," said Adric, seeing the paper clutched in his mother's hand trembling.

"Just a shock," said Rose, "Noise like that gave me a fright."

"Come on, bed," said Jackie seeing the pleading for assistance in her daughter's eyes, "Like Rose said, just a nightmare, happens to the best of us."

Rose let out a breath as finally all her family turned back to their rooms. She waited until all the doors had been firmly shut before descending the stairs and hurrying to the kitchen. The back door was open and she knew the Doctor had taken Jack to the sanctity of the TARDIS rather than risk the potential of eavesdroppers in the house. She shuffled her feet into a pair of her mother's gardening shoes and hurried across the lawn to the TARDIS' resting spot. The door was ajar but she closed it firmly as she stepped inside. A post it note had hurriedly been stuck to the screen bearing one word in the familiar curly handwriting.

Library.

The distance to the library had never seemed so long even with the TARDIS morphing the corridors to make the journey as short as possible. Rose stepped over the threshold to see the Doctor handing Jack a glass of a familiar chocolate liquor that both the Doctor and Rose had found by experience to be a good treatment for shock. Jack took the glass in a shaky hand, sipping tentatively as the Doctor laid a blanket around his shoulders.

"We waited for you," said the Doctor as Rose sat next to her friend, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as the Doctor pulled up a small ottoman to sit opposite them both.

"Jack, tell me what you remember," said the Doctor closing his hand over Jack's free one, "From the beginning."

"I…I stayed at Rose's for days and days but then I checked the list of the dead and both she and Jackie were on it. I was so angry, I wanted answers and I couldn't find you so I went to Torchwood got involved with some people from there who wanted to make it a properly useful organisation. I joined them and then I found out they had a base in Cardiff and so I went, Cardiff had so many memories and I remembered the Rift, I thought maybe you'd come back one day. I worked with Torchwood, I waited for you but you never came but then one day I was on my own and I heard it, the engines, the TARDIS engines and I thought that you'd finally found me, that I was going home. I looked up but in place of the blue box stood a cabinet exactly the same as we had in the Hub. A door appeared and out stepped this woman, she was so beautiful. She called herself Dana, said she was a friend of yours and that she needed to find you. She'd travelled through time, finding anyone with connections to the Doctor, anyone who registered as having been inside the TARDIS. Companion after companion, never once finding you. She realised after she met with someone named Martha that you had skipped out of Earth time, barely returning save for a few weeks after Rose's disappearance. Then she found me…"

"You're sure her name was Dana?" said the Doctor.

"I'll never forget her name now as long as I live," said Jack, "Did you know her Doctor?"

"She's my mother," said the Doctor softly, "But what happened? Why did she find you? Why didn't she come with you?"

"Its all so fuzzy," said Jack, closing his eyes against the bombardment of suppressed memories.

"Jack we need to know," said Rose, "Dana was protecting something very important. Did she speak to you about the Idralas?"

Jack paled further, looking up at Rose with haunted eyes, "She told me. She said that she had been guarding it but then the place she was keeping it was over run with people and she was overpowered, the container taken and she was left in almost nothingness. She said Rassilon, or someone like that was smiling on her though because her old TARDIS found her, saved her. She tracked the Idralas and found, she found Gallifrey, your planet Doctor it was alive but something was wrong. She got to the surface in secret and the people weren't right, there was something wrong with them, she said they didn't feel real. She left before she was discovered and tried to find you. She sent me after you when she realised where you had gone and we couldn't access the tunnel you'd created between the worlds. She stayed to monitor what was happening. I don't know any more, I'm sorry."

The Doctor got to his feet and began pacing the large Persian rug beside the fire, muttering to himself in his own tongue, odd words only occasionally meeting the recognition of his two friends. He turned to Rose with a fire in his eyes she hadn't seen in years, determination etched into his features.

"We have to go, we have to tell the children and then we have to go. We have to hide. The Idralas must be connected to this new Gallifrey somehow and the body today, Belle's body. Mum told Jack that the Gallifreyans weren't right, I told you Belle wasn't. Mum must have been tracked and then they followed Jack and if they can do that they can find us. We need to get the kids, everyone into the TARDIS before its too late and we have to hide them. I'll search for my mother when you're all safe and find out what's going on."

Rose felt a rustle of breeze pass her fingers, a common message from the TARDIS to remind her of something important. She looked down at the rumpled sketch still in her hand, "Doctor," she said, her voice close to breaking, "I think it might be too late to hide."

"What?"

"Jeannie," said Rose opening up the drawing for him to see, "Has seen this man in her sleep."

Jack looked at the picture in her hand, "But that's…"

"Me," said the Doctor, "But Jeannie has never seen a picture of me as I was. We need to get back to the house."

A/N: And because I can, there's a cliffie for you.