DISCLAIMER: The characters of DOCTOR WHO do not belong to me. They belong to the BBC & Steven Moffat. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Author's Note: First, so sorry for the delay in this chapter. It has been surprisingly hard to write. Second, it'll probably be the last chapter till December. I'm participating in the 2011 National Novel Writing Month and with having to write nearly 2k a day on an original story I won't have the time for this. But rest assured, come December there will be new chapters. There is no way that I'm going to abandon this story. :D

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Birth of a Time Lord

Once they were spinning in the vortex the Doctor went back to his wife.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I know that was hard."

Amy shook her head and hugged her husband.

"Shh…" he soothed. "I'm here. I'm here."

"Oh Doctor…"

"It's alright now Amy," the Doctor assured. "I saved you."

Amy nodded into his shoulder. "I was so worried."

"I'm here now. I'll always be here for you."

Amy dried her tears and looked at the Doctor. "That could have turned out so wrong."

"I know,"

"It did," she corrected herself. "It did turn out so wrong."

"But it's all okay now," the Doctor insisted.

"But it wasn't," Amy cried. "Why didn't you check to see if there was a plague?"

"That's not the way we travel," the Doctor answered. "You know that."

"Well then maybe I don't want to travel with you anymore…" Amy cried clutching her stomach. "The danger you put us in… put our baby in."

The Doctor stood up, unsure on what to do or say. He wanted to tell Amy that travelling to a new planet was her idea. He wanted to point out that even though things turned out a mess in one version of her timeline, they worked out in the end. But the sight of Amy's determined face deterred him.

"I'm taking you home," the Doctor said as he turned to the console and before Amy could say another word, the TARDIS shuddered to a stop. Amy was about to ask them where they were when a sudden familiar gripping pain tore through her stomach.

"Ow," she said, trying to put on a brave face.

The Doctor looked sharply at Amy as she doubled over in pain again.

"Oh…" she said in a wavering voice. "Doctor. Doctor I think it's the baby."

"What?" he asked, suddenly abandoning his place at the console. "Now?"

Amy nodded and reached out to her husband. "Now. Doctor. It's now…"

The Doctor took Amy by the hands and hoisted her to her feet. "Come on Amy… out the door."

Amy looked incredulously at her husband. "You're really kicking me out then?"

"No of course not," he assured as they walked to the TARDIS doors.

"But you said that you were—"

"Yes because I figured you could use some time with your parents," the Doctor answered. "And now you're going to have your baby… our baby here on Earth. It's going to be great."

Another contraction gripped Amy. "Great…" she muttered. "You have no idea."

They exited the TARDIS, which had landed in Amy's backyard. A cry of pain from Amy brought her mother and father from the house. "What is it?" Augusta asked but Tabitha ran to Amy's other side.

"You're having a baby?" she asked her daughter. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Been busy," Amy said through gritted teeth. "Telling you now."

"Not entirely all Amy's fault that she didn't tell you," the Doctor added. "We only found out that she was pregnant a little while ago."

"What do alien pregnancies work differently?" asked August as they laid Amy down on the couch.

"Well uh…" the Doctor began, wondering whether or not he should tell them that their daughter had been kidnapped, but a cry from Amy silenced any thought of telling the truth, at least for that moment.

"Oh…" Amy moaned as she gripped the armrest of the couch. "Get it out, get it out…"

"Doctor can't you do anything?" asked August.

The Doctor shook his head. "What? Me? No. Not at all."

"But you're a doctor!" her father exclaimed.

"He's not that kind of Doctor Dad," Amy said through gritted teeth.

"No of course not," Tabitha agreed. "And even if he was there is no way that he'd be able to keep his head considering that this is his first child."

Amy cast a glance up at the Doctor. She knew that he had been married before, she knew that he had travelled with his granddaughter once upon a time, and she knew that somewhere out there lay the body of his "daughter" a woman who was created in a way that was not unlike how River was created. She thought that the Doctor would make a reference to that but instead he just nodded.

"That and the fact that there's never been a human – time lord baby before," the Doctor admitted. "I'm not a hundred percent sure how this is going to go."

Tabitha looked sharply at the Doctor. "Will Amelia be alright?"

The Doctor nodded. "Should be fine, will be fine," he assured. "I just wouldn't recommend taking her to a hospital."

"What, will the baby have three heads or a time head or something?" asked Amy, glaring up at her husband.

"Time head?" the Doctor asked. "What's a time head?"

"I dunno," Amy said with a shrug, during a break in her contractions. "But what if she has one."

"She?" asked Tabitha. "We're going to have a granddaughter?"

Amy nodded. "Yeah Mum, and her name's going to be Melody."

The Doctor looked at Amy and smiled. "Melody Pond."

"Melody Pond?" asked August questionly. "Not Melody Doctor?"

Even though Amy was gripped by another contraction she managed to answer her father. "The Doctor isn't really his name," she said. "It's more of his title."

"Not his name?" asked Tabitha. "So what is it? Do you know?"

Amy shook her head.

August looked to the Doctor. "Our daughter doesn't know your name?"

"So it's just Doctor?" asked Tabitha. "Doctor who?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Sorry," he apologized. "Not saying."

"But that seems a little—"

"Oh someone has to do something," Amy said as another contraction coursed through her. "This is getting, far— to— painful."

"Amy, dear Amy," the Doctor cooed as he stroked her hair. "What do you need?"

"Rory," she said through gritted teeth.

"Rory?" asked Tabitha.

"He's a nurse," she replied as the contraction subsided. "He's helped in the maternity ward before. If I can't go to the hospital and I can't let this one deliver our baby 'cause he's not that kind of Doctor," she added, indicating to the Doctor. "Then there's no one I'd rather have delivering this baby."

"I'll go get him," August said before leaving the room.

"You stay with her," Tabitha told the Doctor. "And try to get her upstairs to her room. It's going to make giving birth a lot easier. I'm going to get some clean towels and other things that we'll need."

Tabitha then left the room, leaving Amy and the Doctor alone.

"Doctor," she whimpered as another contraction started. "It hurts."

"I know," he said, earning a look of disbelief from his wife. "Alright I don't know but I can imagine how much it hurts. Regenerating is the worst pain that I've ever been through, and that includes getting radiation poisoning before my last regeneration so I would imagine that giving birth is super close if not exactly to that."

Amy nodded. "I feel like my insides are twisting and churning."

"Yup," said the Doctor. "That's what it feels like to regenerate."

"Doctor," she asked in a whisper as he helped her to her feet. "Will Melody be more human or time lord?"

"I don't know," he admitted as they walked up the stairs. "I mean she has one heart, and seems to be human but then again the first Time Lords had one heart before they were exposed to the vortex so who knows."

"And what about me?" she asked as they entered her room. It looked exactly as it had the night that the Doctor stole her away. The dolls and pictures of him in his raggedy form were still spewed all over the place and the Doctor was once again quite surprised at how ingrained in her psyche he was.

"What about you?" the Doctor asked as he helped her lay on the bed.

"Will I regenerate if I die?"

"Amelia Pond," he chastised. "You are not going to die."

"But women die during childbirth," she pointed out, letting her fears get the better of her. "I don't want to die, but things go wrong and we're not in the hospital or even in the TARDIS… I need to be prepared. We need to be prepared. Has this baby changed me at all?"

Amy was looking to the Doctor with such hope and such fear that he knew that he had to tell her what the scans showed. He had wanted to keep it a surprise, he wanted to let Amy know at a better time that because she was carrying a half time-lord baby, her body had changed just enough to make her partial time-lord as well.

"Doctor?" Amy asked fearfully. "Have I changed?"

"Yes," he said with a nod. "Melody has changed you, for the better you know. You, the girl who grew up beside a crack in space and time were always different, in fact I think it's because you had the universe pouring through your head that you were able to carry this baby in the first place but—"

"—I am different then," Amy interrupted.

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed. "Conceiving a half time-lord baby in the TARDIS and then having the soul of the TARDIS downloaded into your ganger body and transmitted across time and space has changed your DNA ever so subtly that anyone looking would think that you were part time-lord yourself."

Amy breathed a sigh of relief, just before another contraction hit. This one was so intense that she was unable to speak, but as soon as it passed she looked up with loving eyes at her husband. "So does that mean that we're going to be together forever?"

"We were always going to be together forever," he assured.

Amy thought back to what River and Rory had told her so long ago, that they had watched the Doctor die on the edge of Lake Silencio in Utah and wondered if they really did have forever. But any thoughts on being together forever with the Doctor were quickly erased by another contraction.

After what seemed like ages, there was the sound of people racing up the stairs and Amy looked up and past her husband just in time to see Rory enter the room. "Oh my god," he muttered, feeling quite overwhelmed.

"Ah Rory!" the Doctor exclaimed. "So glad that you're here. They're quite close together now and I'm not exactly sure what I'm—"

"Rory?" asked Amy as another contraction finished. "You okay?"

"You're pregnant."

"Yes Rory," she said with a glare. "Nice to see that you're eyes are still working, you're going to need them I think."

"Oh Rory you should know that I'd never lie to you," Tabitha said as she walked past him to Amy's other side. "Now put that brain to good use. Our Amy needs you right now."

"I'm sorry Rory," the Doctor apologized. "I would have taken her to a hospital, I really would have but this baby is part time lord, I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen, and I don't know what to do."

"You're a Doctor," the nurse pointed out.

"Not that kind of Doctor," the Doctor corrected. "Now please," he continued as Amy let out another muted scream as a contraction hit her. "She needs you."

"We needed you," Rory snapped angrily. "Where were you a month ago on Miracle Day?"

"Miracle Day?" asked the Doctor.

"Miracle Day?" echoed Amy.

"Miracle Day," Augusta confirmed. "Terrible thing that was."

"The whole world stopped dying," Tabitha added. "We were immortal."

"For a couple months," Rory continued. "And then it stopped. Though I've been doing research, something to do with Torchwood, which was started by you and a run in you had with Queen Victoria or something?"

The Doctor's eyes widened and he turned back to Amy. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "But I've got to go check something out."

Amy looked to her husband with panic in her eyes. "You can't leave me."

"I'll be back," he promised. "On time."

"No offence sweetie but your timing sucks sometimes," Amy stated.

"I promise that I'll be back in time," he assured. 'The TARDIS won't let me be late…" the Doctor paused and took his wife's hand. "I could stay…"

"Is this important?" Amy asked.

The Doctor nodded.

"Then go," Amy stated through gritted teeth as another contraction hit her.

"You sure?"

Amy nodded, waiting till the contraction was over before continuing. "But know that if you miss the birth of this baby I am going to make you pay for the rest of your regenerations."

The Doctor leaned down and kissed Amy on the forehead. "I love you,"

"Love you too," she said fondly as the Doctor left.

The Doctor raced down the stairs, hearing Rory starting to give instructions to Amy about her breathing, and what she could probably expect. The Doctor wanted nothing more than to stay at his wife's side but he knew that he had to make sure that the events that had led to the immortality of the human race were not about to repeat themselves. If Rory, Tabitha and Augusta had just mentioned the events of Miracle Day, the Doctor wouldn't have known where he was supposed to start but mentioning Torchwood led the Doctor to the only man on the planet who was immortal— or so the Doctor thought.

The Doctor exited the TARDIS in America and stumbled upon an intriguing conversation. "I don't understand," a black man was muttering. "How can I be immortal?"

"You shared my blood," said Jack, who the Doctor did know. "I guess it makes sense."

"But I thought that you were always supposed to be alone Jack," began Gwen, a woman that the Doctor had only ever seen via a screen.

"This is beyond weird," said another male, who the Doctor did not know.

"Excuse me," the Doctor interrupted, causing all eyes to come to him. "But could someone please tell me what the hell has been going on here.

Jack was the first one to step forward. He looked past the Doctor to the TARDIS and then back to the Doctor who was wearing the forest green coat that he had been so fond of wearing since the Gamma forest. "Doctor?" he asked.

"In the flesh."

"Jack who's your friend?"

"Gwen this is the Doctor," Jack introduced. "Doctor, you know Gwen, this is her husband Rhys and a recent acquaintance of ours, Rex."

"You mean new team member," Rex corrected. "We didn't go through all of that for nothing."

"Yes," the Doctor said. "What was all of that anyways? Something about immortality for the human race?"

"It was done via a morphic field," Jack explained. "There's a hole in the earth running from Hong Kong to Buenos Ares."

"And who found that?" the Doctor asked.

"Do you know where it came from?" Gwen asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "No idea. But who found it."

"They called themselves The Family," Jack answered. "But don't worry Doctor, we took care of them."

"I'll take your word on that Jack," the Doctor said with a smile. "But I'm telling you that if I come across this Family in my travels, you'll have to pay… okay Jack?"

"Okay Doctor…" Jack began before pausing. "So what's with the new face?"

"You know that it happens sometimes" the Doctor reminded.

"Was it after the bar?"

The Doctor nodded. "It was."

"You didn't look so good," Jack stated.

"Neither did you," the Doctor replied.

"Were you dying?"

"Wait a minute Word War Two," Rex interjected. "This guys immortal too?"

"No not immortal," the Doctor corrected. "Just extremely long lived… too long sometimes if I do say so myself but don't let my wife hear me say that."

"Wife?" Jack asked, with wide eyes. "Oh Doctor, Doctor… tell me that you didn't."

"Get married?" the Doctor asked, raising his left hand to show the plan gold wedding band. "You bet I did."

"This is incredible," Jack muttered.

"Jack," Gwen began warily. "Thought you said that this Doctor of yours was an eternal bachelor."

"He is," Jack confirmed. "Or he was."

"Every man is entitled to settle down with the right woman," Rhys stated as he put his arm around Gwen. "Right?"

"Oh Rhys I knew that I'd like you," the Doctor said with a smile.

"So who is the lucky lady?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. "Was she someone that you met out in time and space, or is she one of the companions that you've had… cause you know I always thought that if the Battle of Canary Warf hadn't happened—"

"Different incarnations of me have had different feelings," the Doctor interjected rather sharply. "What I felt once, changed when I regenerated over London."

Jack nodded. "Okay. So, where is she?"

"Oh Amy's in Ledworth having our baby."

Jack's eyes widened. "You're having a baby."

The Doctor nodded. "Yup, and now that I've figured out what's been going on here—"

"Go," Rhys interjected. "I know what it's like to be running late to the birth of your own child. I was stuck in traffic when Gwen went into labour and I could have sworn that she was going to kill me and—"

"Shut it Rhys," Gwen said lovingly as she placed a kiss on her husband's cheek. "That's all water under the bridge right? And Doctor Jack's told me all about your wonderful flying machine and I'd love to take a spin."

"Oh," Jack agreed with a smile. "Me too. I've missed the TARDIS."

The Doctor smiled. "Alright, field trip for everyone. You can meet Amy and when the baby is born, you can meet her too."

"Uh if you guys don't mind I'm going to stay here," Rex stated as he stepped back. "I've had enough crazy to last a lifetime, and my lifetime just got infinitely longer."

"Alright Rex," Jack said with a smile as he held out his hand. "It's been fun."

"Yeah right," Rex said with a laugh and after Gwen and Rhys had said their goodbyes, he watched as they all went into the TARDIS which soon disappeared from sight.

"Where is he?" Amy cried out in pain. She had been labour for hours and even though for a while she hadn't minded that the Doctor was gone, now that she was getting closer and closer to actually having the baby, she was beginning to panic. "He needs to be here. He should be here."

"He'll be here," Tabitha soothed as she stroked her daughters forehead. "Haven't you said that he always comes back to you?"

"Yeah," Amy conceded. "But his timing sucks."

"What was that about timing?" the Doctor asked as he appeared in the doorway with roses in his hands.

"Doctor," Amy said with a bright smile as she reached out for her husband. "You made it."

"And just in time too," Rory said. "Cause I think it's time to start pushing."

Laughter sounded from downstairs and Tabitha looked concerned. "You brought home people?"

"Friends of mine," the Doctor assured as he came to sit beside Amy. "Augusta is taking good care of them, but now Amy… you ready?"

Amy nodded. "So ready. So so ready…"

"Alright then, next time you have a contraction Amy I want you to push," Rory instructed and as soon as the next contraction hit, Amy did as she told. Close to ten minutes later the sound of a baby's cry was heard.

"Hello there," Amy cooed as the baby was placed into her arms. "Baby Melody… you're finally here."

The baby made a little noise and the Doctor laughed. "No this is your mother, and I'm your father but you can call me Doctor."

The baby made another little noise and the Doctor shook his head. "No you can't call me that. You can call me Daddy or Doctor, or Doctor Daddy… but not bow-tie guy."

Amy looked at her husband strangely. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Talking to Melody," the Doctor answered, turning back to his daughter. "Yes. Melody is your name not baby, though you are a baby right now."

"You can't talk to babies," Amy stated.

The Doctor nodded. "Course I can. I speak millions and millions of languages, baby just happens to be one of them." The Doctor laughed and kissed his baby girl on top of the head. "Yes we're glad that you're here too."

"Doctor?" Amy asked. "Will I be able to hear her now that she's born?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No. Mothers carrying Time Lord's can only hear them in utero, though come to think about it, my mother always seemed to know what I was thinking."

"You never speak of her," Amy pointed out. "What was she like?"

"Another conversation for another time," the Doctor promised as he reached out his arms. "Can I hold our little Melody?"

Amy nodded as she held her daughter out. "Here you go."

The Doctor cradled his daughter gently while Rory finished up making sure that Amy was okay and as he looked down into the wide bright eyes of his daughter, the Doctor couldn't help but feel like he wasn't so alone anymore. He hadn't felt truly alone since Amy had came into his life, but now, knowing that he had thrown his DNA forward to a new generation, he also felt as though he wasn't the last of the Time Lords anymore, and that was true. A new Time Lord had been born— Melody Pond— his daughter and the hope for all those who wished that the Time Lords were still around.

TBC