Domestic Weekend

River and the Doctor emerged from their room at her grandparents' house. He looked much better and she looked more annoyed than anything else. Doing her best to keep a civil tongue, she said to her grandfather,

"The Doctor and I are going downstairs to have grandma check up on our baby."

Tom nodded and resumed cleaning the kitchen, his expression serenely blank. River thought rude things about him as they descended into the basement laboratory and the Doctor shot her a concerned look, able to feel her discontent as her grip on his hand tightened.

"Grandma?" River called as they descended the stairs. Sophie smiled and waved at them from across the lab. "You wouldn't believe what Grandpa's done."

"What has he done?" Sophie returned mildly, typing away on her computer, analyzing the data from their data drive. The Doctor turned to look at the screen, interested, and she flipped the moniker off, wagging a finger at him.

"You yourself told us not to let you see anything from your future. Now behave yourself."

Properly chastised, the Doctor turned towards River, whom had since released his hand and gone to stand by the scanner, her shirt already off in preparation for the full-body scan. After ensuring that Sophie wasn't looking, he allowed his gaze to wander every lovely inch of his wife. Her belly was full with his child and he privately wondered what the little tyke looked like. If it was a girl, as River insisted, he wondered if she would look like him or River. And if she did look like him, which him would she look like? Which regeneration's features would look back at him from her little face? And what if it was a boy? The questions remained the same.

As he tried to picture the little face, River continued undressing, recapturing his attention. It didn't seem fair that the universe had seen to grace him with such a beautiful creature (fair to everyone else that is.) Even now, carrying a child, she was beautiful, but in a different way. Her sexy, buxom figure had given way to a maternal roundness and a soft beauty that pleased his primal brain, assuring him that this woman was a good mate, a good mother for his offspring. Consciously, he realized that he liked her extra curves, though he would also be pleased when he could hold her without having to bend himself around her belly.

"He gave the Doctor raspberry fizz undiluted!"

"He always drinks it that way," Sophie said absently, adjusting a few dials.

The Doctor resisted the urge to say 'I told you so' and instead kept his expression blank. River, now naked and waiting, crossed her arms over her sore breasts, shivering in the chilly lab. The Doctor stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her, keeping her warm for a minute or so until Sophie said,

"All right, into the scanner with you."

"That's not all he did," River continued, putting her hands on her head, just like the time before.

"What else has he done?"

"He put us in my and Lori's old room!"

Sophie nodded, and hit a few buttons.

"Hold that thought, dear. Stay very still while we get a good look at that baby of yours. Do you want to know the sex?"

"No," the Doctor said quickly. "We want a surprise."

"If that's what you want," Sophie shrugged and after a few minutes, she switched off the scanner. "All right get dressed. Now what has your grandfather done?"

"He put us in the room Lori and I used to sleep in!" River's face was a little pink with frustration and she began dressing herself, one hand on her husband's shoulder for balance.

"Well to be fair, River, the Doctor was very rude to him yesterday." Sophie didn't appear to be paying very much attention at all. She was typing and processing the data from the scanner, incorporating it into the model she already had of River's pregnancy.

"We were with you yesterday?"

"Yes dear." Still typing, Sophie's answers sounded faint, absentminded.

"With the baby?"

"No, dear. As you are today. You came back for…oh damn it."

"What? Is the baby all right?" River asked anxiously.

"No; I'm not meant to tell you when I see you next. Drat I've done it again. Tom keeps telling me not to try and concentrate on doing two things at once but bless him, I never do listen."

River softened somewhat; she loved her grandparents dearly and the clear affection they had for each other made it difficult to stay angry.

"Can't you do something to get us into a room with one bed? The Doctor already threw up on the carpet and the cleaner-bot took care of it. I really can't see us doing much else that could get us out of there."

Sophie smiled,

"River, your grandfather will get over it. Unfortunately, he'll get over it faster if he feels that the Doctor has been properly punished. You know how protective he is that way."

Scowling, River nodded as she pulled her socks back on. Leaning down, she sighed grouchily.

"Honey, would you mind tying my shoes?"

"All thumbs now, are we Song?" he teased in Gallifreyan.

"Keep teasing me," she replied, still in Gallifreyan, "See how long you can manage not sharing a bed once we get back to the Tardis."

"Someone's testy today," he muttered, bending down to tie his wife's shoes for her. As he turned slightly to tie her other shoe, she patted his head.

"Thanks you, sweetie," she said, reverting back to a language her grandmother understood.

"Anything for you, honey," he grumbled, not really particularly grouchy, but feeling as though he ought to be a bit indignant. As he stood, she squeezed his bum, looking entirely innocent when he jumped and turned to look at her. Smiling a little now, he turned back to Sophie and her diagrams. The projector-screen was off, but her personal screen was on and after a few more moments, she looked up.

"All right, looks like the little one is doing well. The brain is looking normal for development and everything seems to be growing at the proper rate. I'm going to need a few samples to check hormone levels and all that, but otherwise, you're looking well. Would you like to see h—it?" Sophie asked, catching herself before she revealed the baby's gender.

Both parents crowded the screen as a two-minute-long loop of the scan showed their baby sucking its thumb, then stretching, and then making swimming motions. They watched it several times, enthralled by the little life that they had created. After the fourth loop, Sophie asked warmly if they wanted a copy of the loop. Both of them said yes at exactly the same time. Sophie, rolling her eyes in amusement, made a copy on a little disk, placed it in a case, and handed it to River, who handed it to the Doctor, who stuck it in his pocket.

River had blood drawn and urine samples taken. After her prick was bandaged and Sophie took the samples for testing, she shooed the couple upstairs.

"Go for a walk or play a game with your grandfather."

"Grandma, I'm not exactly pleased with my grandfather right now."

"All the more reason to play a game with him; it'll get him back in your good graces. Why don't you get out the Chinese Checker set? You can all play. Or the antique Monopoly board that you both are so fond of. No cards though, I promised him we could wait to play poker until after dinner."

"Poker?" the Doctor asked, delighted.

River laughed, "You're excited about it now. Wait until you owe them your life savings. Then we'll see who's pleased about playing poker."

Sophie laughed and shook her head, "We'll play with chips, love. Or pennies. Or biscuits."

The Doctor brightened, "Sounds like fun!"

Shaking her head, River climbed the stairs to the main floor of the house. Little did he know…poor man didn't stand a chance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They pulled out the Chinese checkers board and River begrudgingly asked Tom if he wanted to play with them. Smiling serenely, he agreed, partially to River's displeasure. They chose their respective colors; River chose red, the Doctor selected blue, and Tom filled his palm with green pieces.

"Why do you have this game?" the Doctor asked, curious. "I like Chinese checkers, but it's ancient. Most people have holographic games and digital things. But you have old Earth games. Why is that?"

"Grandma likes authenticity," River replied. "She always used to say when I was a little girl that the world had enough artificiality already. So I ate vegetables from her garden and when I came over, we played cards and board games and watched old two-dimensional films. We read books. I played pretend. I had a very old-fashioned childhood."

"And you turned out well, so clearly we did something right," Tom remarked, as everyone set their pieces on the board.

"Yeah yeah," River muttered and Tom produced a coin. "Call it."

As the coin flipped into the air, she called,

"Heads!" while the Doctor grumbled, "Tails."

The coin landed face-up.

"I was calculating the number of rotations that it was making," the Doctor began, complaining.

"I know," River replied calmly, "You were cheating. So I called it first."

"Not cheating, River. I'm just using my brain instead of relying on luck."

"If the two of you are done arguing," Tom interjected, "River moves first."

River moved her marble and the Doctor appeared to be calculating before he moved his.

"You're going to be ridiculously competitive, aren't you?" the Doctor asked in Gallifreyan.

"I'm playing Chinese checkers with my husband and my grandfather," she replied indignantly.

"So…yes."

"Yes."

"I thought as much."

"That's not polite, River," Tom remarked as he moved his marble into place.

"What?"

"Speaking gobbledygook that others can't understand."

"You and Grandma did it all the time when I was little."

"That was Russian. And we had our reasons. Besides you learned it, so we had to switch again."

Biting her tongue, River moved another piece. They went around the board, moving pieces.

"Have you thought about what you're naming my grandchild?"

River exchanged glances with the Doctor before replying,

"It's not something we've really discussed too much; we don't know if we want to name the baby after someone or give it an entirely new name. And then there's choosing whether to give her a human name or a Gallifreyan name. We want to be able to honor both of our cultures."

Tom nodded as he moved a marble into place.

"That child will have to live h—its entire life with that name, so be careful what you decide to name it." Tom caught himself before he revealed his grandchild's gender.

"We haven't talked about it too seriously yet; we're still focusing on River," the Doctor said smoothly. Tom nodded his approval as River moved her piece.

Around and around the board they went until Tom, smiling triumphantly, dropped the final marble into its indent on the opposite side of the board.

"I win," he said calmly, and stood. "Now I suppose I had better start dinner."

Scowling, River put the game away as her grandfather disappeared into the kitchen.

"We're going for a walk!" She called towards the kitchen, and a hand slid into view and shooed them.

"Be back by seven," Tom called and the pair of them slipped out the front door and began to walk down the street.

"Wait," the Doctor said, and he scanned River with the sonic screwdriver, and then fiddled with it a bit. "All right, now if a younger version of you gets close by, the sonic'll beep and we'll know to avoid her. Don't want to cross timelines."

"What do you think she'll look like?"

"Like a younger version of you…" the Doctor replied, confused.

"No, honey. The baby."

"Oh! We don't know that it's a girl."

"I know."

"There's no way that you can know."

"I suppose we'll find out in a few months, won't we?"

"Yes, we will." After a moment, he looked at her, "I've been wondering as well. Will it look like you or me? And which regeneration of me will it look like?"

"I like this version of you," she replied, kissing his nose, "But if she looks like your last regeneration, then we'll have to watch out when she gets older."

"If it's a boy, we'll have to watch out as well. I was a looker."

"Confident, are we?"

"I was!" he protested.

"Still are," she replied, circling an arm around his waist. He puffed up a little and she chuckled. The sonic beeped and they turned to see a little girl with a mass of blonde, fluffy curls, speeding down the street on a hoverboard. Pulling her out of the street, the Doctor smiled down at his wife.

"You were quite the little wild child, weren't you?"

A group of girls on hoverboards sped after her, shouting angrily.

"What have you gotten yourself into, love?" He muttered.

"I remember today!" she exclaimed. "I ran off with Remy Michelle's hoverboard because she broke mine!" After a moment, she started.

"I have to go after her…me…"

"What? No! I just said that we didn't want to cross timelines!"

"Well I don't remember you rescuing me, and there's no one else around! There was another woman who came to pull Remy Michelle off of me."

"Did she look like you?"

"No, she was older, like someone's mother. Brunette, but straight hair, but I don't see anyone around, do you?"

The Doctor pointed to a woman running down the street towards the children.

"Like her?"

"Yeah…"

The woman picked up the lead girl by her arm and lifted her bodily off of little River, who was red-faced and trying hard not to cry. Her arm was bent at a funny angle."

"That little girl broke your arm?"

"Nasty little thing, isn't she? Her family moved off-planet a couple years after this."

"Good riddance," the Doctor muttered, hugging his wife.

"Yeah."

The woman picked up the young River and rushed back to a house.

"What's she doing?" the Doctor asked.

"She took me to her house and called my parents. They couldn't be reached so she took me to the hospital and got me patched up. The doctors there were pretty familiar with me by then; I was always falling or cutting myself or something."

"So just as fearless as you are now?"

She smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek, "Come on; let me take you to the park I used to play at."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After a long walk, they returned to the house. River retrieved her baby journal out of the Tardis and they sat together on the couch as River recorded the developments of the day, and the tests that she was undergoing. She appeared to be roughly on schedule with both human and Time Lord development.

River took a short nap before supper while the Doctor opened a book from one of the shelves in the living room and read it, sitting on his bed, all the while listening to the soothing breathing of his sleeping wife. He himself had just began to doze when Tom's voice called,

"Dinner!"

After carefully setting down his book, the Doctor woke up River and the pair of them exited the bedroom and strolled into the dining room. Food was already set out and after everyone was seated and given drinks (no one had raspberry fizz), the meal began. Conversation was kept light and neutral and Sophie reported that all River's tests had come back and that she was perfectly healthy, as was their baby.

Conversation turned towards the baby and then away from it as Sophie told them that she didn't want to spoil anything for them that was yet to come. Instead, they swapped stories about childhood experiences. The Doctor's were interesting, but actually not as alien as expected. He spoke of climbing trees and sneaking out of the house to meet his friends, and occasionally of pulling jokes on the professors at his school.

"I was a little terror," he chuckled.

"And with my luck, the baby will be as well," River said with a long-suffering sort of smile. He grinned somewhat cheekily at her,

"Well you wouldn't want a boring child, would you?"

Tom and Sophie laughed at this; "That child is anything but boring," Sophie remarked, then mimed zipping her lips.

"And that's all I'll say on that subject."

Dinner seemed to loosen up Tom's mild hostility for the Doctor and after the dishes were cleared and the dessert eaten, the table was wiped clean and a fresh deck of cards was set on the table, as well as a large box of chocolate digestive biscuits and an equally large box of jammie dodgers and a little bowl of crisps.

"River, love, split the biscuits up evenly between us all. Crisps are for munching on."

The Doctor looked excited and pleased and River couldn't help but smile. As she counted out the biscuits and the jammie dodgers, she muttered to him in Gallifreyan

"You have no idea what you're getting into, sweetie."

He chuckled, "I've beaten geniuses at cards, love. Beethoven, for instance. I should be all right."

"You might have beaten Beethoven, but you've never played my grandfather."

Settling herself in for a long run, River put the biscuit boxes on the floor and watched the cards fly through Sophie's fingers as she dealt them. This was going to be interesting…