Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay! Life is just too full of ups-and-downs, accidents at work, and the Crufts dog show, and what have you, so this part comes to you un-beta-read for quickness. If there are any major errors, point them out to me and I'll fix them up ASAP. Speaking as someone who's never had a baby, too, I'm doing my best to write this convincingly. I've done a bit of reading and all, but I don't want to get too wound up in writing a realistic pregnancy and birth - it's just a story, after all, and I don't want it to takeover the story.

My apologies again - I love this story too much to abandon it, so don't think I ever will! You're all welcome to email me with well-meaning-kicks-up-the-ass, you know. ;) Heh.


Part 8 - Two Hearts

Rose opened her eyes and squinted in the bright light, but it proved to be so intense that she could do nothing but turn away. This momentarily distracted her from the pain in her groin, a pain that seemed to have penetrated the whole of her body, leaving her limbs shaking and her breathing erratic. Her mind was drawing a blank, however, as if she had just lost a substantial amount of her memory, for she had no idea where she was, or what was happening.

And then her thoughts hit home - the baby!

She braved the bright light and opened her eyes again, trying to focus on her surroundings so that she could ascertain where she was. She discovered at length that she was laid down in some kind of operating theatre, and, as her desperate hands searched her body, she also realised, to her horror, that her child was no longer a part of her. Her tummy was still a little rounded, but the life that had been contained therein was now gone.

Her breaths quickened once more and she looked about for any sign of someone so that she could find an explanation for this. At last her eyes set upon a pair of white-frocked surgeons, who were stood over the far side of the room. Their bodies were huddled together and they were talking excitedly about something, and pointing at a hidden article held between them. Rose could not even catch a glimpse of this mystery thing, though, for the doctors were stood far too close together.

She thus opened her mouth to call to them… but nothing came out. Her throat felt tight and dry, and she could force no words out. Her imposed silence meant that she could hear the ensuing exchange between the two surgeons quite clearly, however.

"It's quite a miracle," one of them said.

"Yes, quite," the other replied. "Two hearts."

Rose felt her brow furrow: two hearts? But before she could hear any more, her mum and Jack were suddenly at her bedside, one to the left and the other to the right. This might have brought some kind of comfort to Rose had the pair not been wearing the most ridiculously false smiles.

"Well done, Rose," Jack said, in a way that an adult might talk to a five year old. "You've done very well."

Rose's frown deepened and she turned next to her mum, who nodded in turn and said, "Yes, sweetheart. That child will make us all so rich."

"An anomaly," Jack added.

"An alien," Jackie went on.

"They've never seen anything like it!"

"Debbie knows a bloke on The Mirror, give you a grand for an interview!"

"Exclusive photos."

"A biography deal."

Rose's eyes bounced between the two as they each bantered in turn, and it began to drive her mad. "Where's my baby?" she finally managed to ask, her voice breaking free from its bonds of silence.

"Don't worry," Jack said, still in that unnatural and condescending way.

"It's in good hands," Jackie concurred.

"The doctors are keeping It."

"They want to examine It further."

This was just too much for Rose to handle, and before they could say any more, she shot up into a sitting position and then watched as the two doctors turned to face her, one of them cradling her child in their arms. But it was no ordinary baby. It looked more like a -

"Wolf," Rose whispered.

And then she woke up.

Breathing deeply, she found herself sat up in her own bed, in her own bedroom, with her growing child still nestled safely inside her body. She ran her hands over her stomach before she convinced herself that she was back in that place called reality and that it had all been a bizarre and terrible dream.

The bedside clock read 4:32am. It was still dark outside and, for once, very quiet. It was also the day that Rose was due to go and have her first scan at the doctors' surgery and she was more nervous than ever about it. The dream hadn't helped calm her nerves in the slightest.

After she had pondered for a while on the nightmare, as well as on the prospects of the day ahead, Rose decided to try and get some more sleep. She slowly slid back beneath the covers of her bed, burying her head in her pillow, and muttered to herself, "Bad Wolf. That stupid bad wolf…"

---

"Look, Rose, look at this!"

It was now eleven o' clock in the morning and Rose and Jack were sat side-by-side in the waiting room of the local surgery.

Rose cast her eyes down the page of a catalogue that Jack had shoved in her face, cringing at the image before her whilst Jack continued, "Isn't it adorable?"

His voice was bubbling with enthusiasm, and as much as she appreciated his support, Rose knew that she and Jack were never quite on the same wavelength when it came to dressing children. She just smiled and pushed the magazine back toward him. "I am not dressing my kid in a Winnie the Pooh dress suit, Jack."

"But it's so cute! Look at the ears on the hood!"

"I'm having a baby, not a bear cub!" she chuckled. ('Or a wolf cub', her mind added, but she quickly pushed that thought aside.)

Jack, oblivious to her recent dream and her thoughts, just shrugged and gave her a gentle 'have it your way' look. "Fine. You can't say no if I buy Junior one, though."

"I certainly can!" she assured him.

The two laughed a little and fell back into a contented silence.

Rose could feel her heart pounding harder and harder as the minutes went by, each passing one bringing her encounter with the dreaded scan even closer. She couldn't help but see the events of her dream from last night playing over and over before her eyes, like some kind of bad omen for the future. It made the wait feel even more unbearable.

It wasn't just that, either, it was the fact that, in contrast, time generally seemed to be flying by very quickly. Each passing day brought the birth of her unplanned-for child ever the closer, and still there was no sign of the Doctor. This scared Rose perhaps more than anything else. She had to hope that he would turn up, and that he was safe. The alternatives just didn't bear thinking about.

Jack flicked through more pages of the catalogue he'd picked up off the magazine rack, having quite some fun browsing the baby sections and looking at possible purchases for what he saw as being his future niece or nephew. "Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?" he mused.

Rose shook her head. "How should I know?"

"You're the one carrying the little bundle. Maternal instincts and all."

Rose scoffed. "My mum honestly thought I was going to be a boy when she was having me, I kicked so much. Who can tell?"

"Don't you want to know?"

"No. Wouldn't that take away all the fun?"

"Fun? You won't be saying that when you're in labour."

"Damn right. But I want there to be the surprise at the end, the 'is it a boy or a girl?' moment."

"Not a bad point," Jack conceded.

The Captain continued flicking and Rose emitted a shaky sigh. "Jack, I'm scared," she finally confessed.

"A lot of women are for their first, aren't they?"

Rose looked at him, knowing he'd missed the point. "No, I mean I'm scared about what they might find."

"They'll find a baby, Rose. Don't fret."

"But the Doctor -"

"Wasn't human," Jack conceded in a low tone, so as not to attract unwanted attention, "I know. But, c'mon, you would have thought he was, wouldn't you? Bet you didn't think he was alien when you met him?"

"Well, no… Not to look at, anyway."

"Then what's to worry about?"

Rose sighed and shrugged. "I dunno."

"Exactly." Jack shut his magazine and chucked it casually onto the nearest table, much to the disapproval of a couple of elderly women sat on its opposite side. "So, chill out and think positive. You don't want your negative aura rubbing off on Junior."

Rose felt her stony face slip into a silly smile. "Stop calling him or her 'Junior'! It's sounds so American."

"Does it?"

"Yeah."

Jack smirked and shrugged and then caught the ever-more disapproving eyes of the elderly women. He threw them a wink. "Morning, ladies. You're looking very fine today."

Thankfully, Rose heard her name called, so she pulled Jack away from the now savage glares of the two old dears and took him along by the elbow to accompany her.

---

The jelly made Rose giggle as the midwife spread it on her stomach, and her whole body seemed to go on red alert, skin tingling everywhere from the slightest touch.

The midwife was an amiable young woman who talked Rose through procedure as she went along, telling her how the ultrasound worked, and before Rose even knew it, there was an ultrasound image of the inside of her womb on the screen. Jack sat beside her quietly, equally spellbound.

She watched in awe as the midwife pointed out the features of the tiny foetus, its head and its tiny arms and legs.

"And this," she said, "Is the… Oh."

Rose's stomach felt like it flipped and she gave Jack a frightened glance. "What?" she asked.

The midwife pointed, "Well, here's your baby's heart, and there," and she moved her finger a little, "is another."

Rose paled but the midwife didn't seem to be at all dismayed. "I believe you're having twins."

Rose frowned. "Twins?"

The midwife nodded and gave her a congratulatory smile, "Yes. We occasionally see cases like this, where one foetus masks the other. It's nothing to be worried about."

Rose looked again at the scan but felt that it was certainly something to worry about.

TBC…