Part Sixteen
When the Doctor awoke the following morning, Emily was busy making car noises and was driving something on his forehead. "Emily!" River's voice hissed. "Get your toy off of your father's face!"
He opened one eye to see Emily's intense blue eyes staring back at him. She jumped back a little before breaking into a grin. "He's awake, Mimmy. I can play with my hovercraft on his face after all."
"Emily…" River warned. "Let him sleep."
"But… but he's awake!"
"Emily Artemis…" River growled.
The Doctor felt the bed move slightly as Emily scurried away. He could tell that River sat down based on the next motion that the bed made. "Sorry about that," she murmured. "I might have let it slip that we're going on a trip today."
He grinned sleepily. "Are you up for it?" he asked her.
She inhaled deeply and shrugged. "I think so, I just don't want to stay here alone either."
"We don't have to make it an all-day affair. Just meet with Wilf and then head over to Torchwood's new headquarters."
"Wait… when did Torchwood come into this?"
"I've gotten a hold of Jack Harkness. He's apparently going to marry Emmy in the future… he still hasn't met her."
"I thought he was there the day she was born."
"And the day we brought Donna home, but that's beside the point. Emmy's changed quite a lot, and I think it's time that she met Jack."
"Well, if I need to, I'll just use the Vortex—"
"No, you won't."
"Doctor," River replied exasperatedly. "I can't just pop off in the TARDIS by myself if I want to go home."
"You know how dangerous using the Vortex Manipulator is at this stage of the pregnancy. What if something really bad happened?"
"It's got emergency protocols," she pointed out.
"Emergency protocols still don't make it any safer for you. In fact… where is the Vortex Manipulator?"
"I'm not telling you. I don't want to be stranded somewhere and you're not around to collect me."
"We won't be gone all day, I promise."
"I'm not talking about today. I'm talking in general."
"I'll give it back as soon as you have the baby. Until then… where is it?"
River sighed as she pulled it from her pocket. "As soon as the afterbirth is delivered, I fully expect this to be back in my possession."
The Doctor sat up and took the piece of technology from River. "I gather you're ready to go?" he asked her.
"Well… I've got to pack up a few things that the TARDIS doesn't have, and then yes, I'll be ready to go. Give me ten minutes?" River asked.
The Doctor nodded. "I'll meet you at the TARDIS."
River started to get up, but laughed when she couldn't. She'd even made sure that she was sitting so she could stand up. With a look of bemusement, she turned to the Doctor. "Help?"
He chuckled as he braced the small of her back and pushed her to her feet. "Thank you," she replied before leaving the room.
Ten minutes later, on the dot, the three time-travelers were on the TARDIS. Emily was in her car seat, River seated next to Emily, bracing herself against the chair so she didn't go flying across the console room when the Doctor started piloting the TARDIS like the madman with the bowtie that he was. The Doctor noted that River looked miserable. "Comfortable?" he asked with a sympathetic smile.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah… mock the fat lady… very funny," she snapped.
"Do you want to sit somewhere else?"
"Where, pray tell, do you suppose I do that?"
He looked around the room. "You do have a point. Why are there flippers over there?"
Emily clapped her hands cheerfully. "Those are mine! I want to try them out with Mr. Snuffle-Waffles. We're going swimming when we get home."
River turned to Emily. "We'll see," she remarked in a tone that indicated that Emily would not be swimming with Mr. Snuffle-Waffles with the flippers.
River braced herself once more and shrugged to the Doctor, indicating that she wasn't going to move to sit somewhere else and he could go. So, he did.
When they arrived to 21st century-Earth, Emily was nearly bouncing out of her skin. "Where are we going? Can we go? Daddy… let's go! Let's go!" she cried out.
As soon as she was lifted out of her car seat, she stood in place, even though River was trying to get Emily to move. "I have to go potty," Emily admitted sheepishly before running off to the nearest bathroom provided by the TARDIS.
When Emily returned, River rolled her eyes. "Now, I have to go," she muttered to the Doctor. "Don't wait up for me; I'll just use the communicator to find out where you two are."
The Doctor and Emily left River behind. The father-daughter duo walked out of the TARDIS, hand in hand, to the café that was located across the street. Emily, who was used to the meadow that surrounded their home, was intimidated by all the people who were passing by her. This intimidation was not doing much to help with Emily's tendencies to revert to shyness. "Daddy, why are there so many people on this planet?" she asked him.
"Humans like cities. It's not all like this," he promised her as they reached the door of the café.
Emily tried to help with opening the door, but she was just a hair too short to do so effectively. Instead, after the Doctor held open the door for a few other people coming out of the café, Emily ducked under his arm and into the café. The Doctor gently grabbed hold of the back of Emily's sweater to keep her from running into people and caught sight of Wilf. "Over here," he said as he guided her to Wilf's table.
Wilf grinned as he saw the Doctor and Emily walk over. "Doctor, I didn't know if I'd see you again," he admitted.
The Doctor hugged Wilf and herded Emily into the chair next to his intended spot. He sat down, promptly receiving a message on his communicator from River. "Oh… that's River. Hang on," the Doctor said as he stood up to walk out of the café.
"Daddy?" Emily asked, full of terror.
"It's okay, I'll be right back. Why don't you tell Mr. Mott about Mr. Snuffle-Waffles?" he suggested as he glanced out the window, trying to find River.
Wilf smiled at the little girl who looked petrified of him. He couldn't help but notice that she looked exactly like Donna when Donna was Emily's age, but he knew better than to think that Donna was Emily's mother. They would have known if Donna had gone off and had a baby. The traces would have all been there. Plus, Wilf had seen Charlotte, or whatever her actual name was; he hadn't believed that the woman who had accompanied the Doctor before was named Charlotte Collins or Charlotte Barron.
"So, who is Mr. Snuffle-Waffles?" Wilf asked, sensing the little girl's fright and hoping that asking her questions about whatever this thing was would ease some of her tenseness.
"Mr. Snuffle-Waffles is a Rexahexatalion. He's my best friend, but when the baby gets here, the baby will be my best friend. Mr. Snuffle-Waffles and I are going swimming when we get home. I found flippers on the TARDIS and Mr. Snuffle-Waffles likes swimming. And he likes attacking Daleks with laser shooters in his nose."
Wilf didn't even know what question to ask first. Knowing the Doctor, it was unlikely that Emily's best friend was a stuffed animal, and it was likely that this thing Emily talked about could actually shoot lasers with its nose. He vaguely remembered Daleks, but why a three or four or five year old would know about those malicious creatures was beyond what Wilf could understand. And then a baby… who was having these children with the Doctor? How did the Doctor become so domesticated?
But, Emily was not done. "One time, Mr. Snuffle-Waffles and I were running away from the Adipose babies, because they're weird and squishy and Mr. Snuffle-Waffles doesn't like them, and we ran to the edge of the flowers, and we're not supposed to go there because Mimmy and Daddy say that there are lions out there, but I say that Mr. Snuffle-Waffles scares them so we can go play out there and we did, and it was fun and I found a little froggy that I named Hank Todd Bob, and Hank Todd Bob, Mr. Snuffle-Waffles and me went playing in the flowers and then we found another frog and we decided to name it Louis Marcus Felipe, so it was Hank Todd Bob, Mr. Snuffle-Waffles, Louis Marcus Felipe and me and we started playing tag, and then a Dalek came out of the edge of the forest and then Louis Marcus Felipe died."
Emily drew in a long breath. "When Louis Marcus Felipe died, Mr. Snuffle-Waffles and Hank Todd Bob were sad, so they decided to go find another friend, and when they did, we named it Boris Roberto Paolo, and we all started to go play in the big tree by the beach; I'm not allowed on the beach, Daddy says it is too dangerous, but Mr. Snuffle-Waffles and Hank Todd Bob and Boris Roberto Paolo are allowed to, so they went to the beach while I stayed in the tree, and I was sad because I was lonely, so I found another new friend, Shirley, who became my best friend while Mr. Snuffle-Waffles was best friends with Hank Todd Bob and Boris Roberto Paolo and they were at the beach; Shirley and I decided we were going to be Racnosses so we took sticks and made legs so we were like spiders and we ran around the front yard, but then Shirley fell and hurt herself and died, because froggies cannot be Racnosses and I was sad because Shirley was my new best friend and it is sad when things die."
Emily fell silent, apparently done with her story, which left her without words and her breath. She turned around in her chair and looked around, trying to find her parents, bored with Wilf.
Wilf was torn between laughter and shock. The little girl could talk and she made thorough use of her vocal capabilities. "Um… Emily, do you have any friends that aren't froggies or Rexahexta…"
"Rexahexatalions."
"Right, that. Do you have any friends like you?"
"Nope. Daddy and I are the only Time Lords left. Not even the baby is a Time Lord."
"No human friends?"
"Mimmy's human. Daddy says the baby is human too."
"Anyone your own age?"
"Nope. We don't go see many children. We go to boring planets and planets that are weird."
The Doctor and River walked into the café and made their way over to the table. River took the closest seat to the window, so she was out of the way but also could have an easy out if she needed to make a dash for the bathrooms. Wilf looked surprised. "Wow… Doctor, I didn't know that you had another bundle of joy on the way," he said in response to the bump.
River laughed as she leaned back in her chair some. "Our circumstances are rather unique," she remarked.
The Doctor nodded. "River and I are not married," he explained.
"Your name is River," Wilf half asked, half stated.
She nodded. "I had to change it because the Doctor said that Donna would remember my name… wait… why would she remember me?" she asked the Doctor.
"Um… spoilers?"
"Sweetie, you really are quite rubbish at this, you know that, right?"
"Sure," the Doctor replied stiffly. "Anyway… how is Donna doing?"
Wilf smiled and took a sip of his tea before a waitress came up to their table. "Hi, what can I get you?" she asked of the three new people at the table.
River spoke up first. "I will have some water and… this turkey sandwich that you have on special today. And can you cut it so that it's in two pieces? I'll be sharing the sandwich with the little girl, who will also have water."
"Mimmy… I want broccoli," Emily whispered.
The waitress smiled in confusion. "A small child wanting broccoli? I've never heard that before. I can have the people in the kitchen add broccoli for her," she explained.
River nodded in appreciation. "Okay, thank you. Doctor?"
"Um, some strong tea will be enough for me. Thanks," he added.
The waitress walked back to the kitchen and the focus turned back to Wilf. "Donna's doing well. Mari, Marissa, is about five months old now, and looks exactly like her dad. Doesn't look much like Donna, but that's because they used an egg donor."
River rubbed a corner that had appeared under her shirt absently. "An egg donor?"
"Yeah, they tried to have kids on their own after Donna had the surgery to have her tubes tied reversed. Fortunately, the tubes were still viable, but Donna just couldn't get pregnant. Finally, they went to a fertility specialist, and the specialist told them that Donna didn't have… oh, how did that specialist put it? Oh, right! He said that her eggs were all unviable and her uterus was inhospitable. Rather dismal if you ask me, but that's just how they put it. Donna was devastated, of course. She's always wanted to be pregnant, have kids, and the whole bit. So, they decided they were going to try an egg donor and implant in Donna. That didn't work. They did that a few times, and fortunately, they have the money to do all of that; it's expensive to do all those fertility treatments. As a last resort, they hired a surrogate and implanted in the surrogate, and now, fourteen months later, they have a beautiful little girl."
The Doctor and River listened with interest, both knowing that the underlying cause for Donna's fertility problems was sitting in between them, coloring on some kids' menu the waitress had brought by for her. They sat in silence until the waitress brought by their order. After giving their thanks, they all started into what they'd ordered. Emily immediately took to the broccoli and only ate the broccoli. "Do you want the other half of the sandwich?" River asked the Doctor, indicating that Emily wasn't going to eat it.
He shrugged. "Maybe have it wrapped up for later? You know you'll be hungry later."
River snorted in laughter. "That's true. I will be hungry later."
Wilf smiled absently as he watched the Doctor's little family. He wondered if the Doctor was happy. He appeared happy; he obviously was well-cared for by River, and River was obviously well-cared for by the Doctor. Emily was a sweet, well-mannered little girl who clearly had more imagination than she had time or focus for, and seemed to give her parents an easy time.
"You said that you two aren't married…" Wilf said out of nowhere.
The Doctor nodded. "Right. Not married."
"Why not? You two seem properly fit for each other."
"You see, I'm already married. Well… I've been married quite a few times, but I'm currently married."
River nodded. "And I can't see myself settling down and getting married. Even though I've got the baby on the way, I refuse to be completely domesticated."
"Who are you married to?" Wilf asked, finally opening the gates of communication that the Doctor had been waiting to pass through for the longest time.
"Well, Wilf, that's what I wanted to talk to you about…" the Doctor began, taking in a breath to prepare himself for what was to come.