Chapter Eleven: Surprise

The Doctor was pacing in the console room. Every few minutes, he would check his watch and roll his eyes. It had been three hours since Rose promised that they could leave to collect crickets for Daisy. He was getting very irritated.

"Rose! Hurry up!"

After a pause, she emerged from their room with a blank expression. "Doctor, I'm late."

"I'd say so. Three hours, Rose. Three. Can we get going now?"

"No, I mean that I'm late."

There was a pause and the Doctor frowned. "How late is late?"

"Very."

"You're not pregnant."

"How can you tell? X-ray vision?"

He huffed. "A Time Lord and a human can't have a child without certain steps. We're not the same species."

"It's not even the least bit possible?"

"No. I'm almost positive."

"Almost? So there is a chance?"

"Well," he backpedaled. "It's never been studied. Plenty of Time Lords have slept with humans, but none have had children. That have been documented, that is. I'm not sure of the science. There's a very slight chance that it could have happened."

She folded her arms with a tiny scowl. "Didn't you say that you'd sense other Time Lords in your head? Could you sense a child?"

He paused and moved to her slowly. Their hands linked together and he shut his eyes. He could hear something, but he wasn't sure what it was. Upon listening closer, he knew exactly what it was. A heartbeat. It could be Rose's, but he felt two of them. She waited until he opened his eyes, and at that point she knew it.

"Doctor…we're having a baby, aren't we?"

"Follow me."

They went to the medical bay and the Doctor did a few tests. They had to wait a few minutes for the results, so they were practically dying from the tension. That's when the machine went ding when there was stuff, so he ran to it and read the numbers. A grin crossed his face.

"Go tell Daisy that she's getting a brother or sister."

Rose shrieked from the excitement and kissed the Doctor on the lips with all of her might. They had been married for almost a year, which meant that it was fairly soon to have kids. However, neither one could complain about the unusual surprise. Rose was particularly ecstatic, and she was nearly leaping up and down when she arrived at Daisy's tank.

"You're having a sibling!" she exclaimed as if the spider could understand. "Now, don't you worry. We won't love you any less than we already do. There's plenty of room in this box for everyone."

The Doctor arrived at that moment to find Rose on the phone with her mother. After an hour conversation, Rose appeared to be slightly deflated and irate. Concerned but also not really wanting to know the story, he tried to quietly back out of the room.

"Oh no you don't," Rose said with a glare in his direction.

"What did she say now?"

"She wants me to divorce you, if alien divorces exist, and come home to raise the child like a human. Because, apparently, living in the whole of time and space is dangerous and not wholesome. I reminded her that our child is half Time Lord and would stick out like a sore thumb in London. Can you imagine? Our little one in a normal lecture? He or she will probably know everything about quantum physics by the time they're two years old. So I told her to calm down and be happy that she's a grandmother. Oh, and she says hello and hopes you're well."

They shared a laugh. "That sounds like Jackie. And to think that she's my mother-in-law…it gives me chills."

"You know that you love her. I just can't believe that I'm going to be a mother. We'll need a nursery. And to go shopping. When will we know if it's a boy or a girl? We have to think of names! Oh, I have one! If it's a boy, let's name him Peter after my dad. I think that's fitting, yeah? I'd really like that. But what about a girl? That's going to be a hard one."

The Doctor smiled at how quickly Rose was talking. He put an arm around her with a gentle smile. "Rose, you have nine months. Take a breath. We'll figure it out."

"Right. And it's just our first one."

"First one?"

"Well, we need at least two. One is going to be lonely traveling without any mates his or her own age. Don't you want more than one?"

He rubbed his aching forehead with a glance at his wife. "Right now I'm just trying to wrap my mind around a tarantula and a baby. I need time to get used to that. I don't know if I'm ready to be a father again."

"…again?"

"Yeah. I was a dad once. A long time ago. They died. My children. Everyone in my family did. Obviously. I'm the last one."

She listened and softly pressed her mouth to his cheek. "Well, you aren't anymore. You have me and our kids. That's something."

"Yeah. That's something."

They paused to smile and then the Doctor leapt up and ran towards the console room. Rose followed him curiously. "Doctor? Where are you going?"

"To make a nursery, Rose! And the childproofing! That will be a nightmare! I better start now. This isn't a small home!"

"Nine months, Doctor. You have time."

He grinned with light in his eyes. "No time like the present! I have to get Daisy. She'll keep me company while I work. You need to rest up. The second morning sickness kicks in, you will have no sleep. And then you won't sleep for the rest of your life. Parents never sleep. All the crying and worrying and changing and soothing—it goes on forever."

She hadn't thought of the challenges of parenting, so she sat down with a nervous expression. "Kids are a lot more work than spiders, aren't they?"

"You can say that again, but it's well worth it. This is it, Rose. The best years of our lives. Starting over. Starting a family. New life. New world. Together."

Smiling, they embraced and prepared for an entirely new and exciting journey.