Lily Suzette McCrimmon was a stunningly beautiful baby. She had the best of both of her parents features-her mother's deep, honey-colored eyes and porcelain complexion, her father's tousled brown hair and cheeky grin. Currently, she was nestled between her parents on their bed in the TARDIS, peacefully sleeping. Her passage into this world had evidently tired her out, and she slept soundly under her parents' exhausted but vigilant gaze. Her birth had come as a surprise-she had been born two weeks early.

Alba and the Doctor had been taking one last holiday before the baby was born, on a luxury planet that looked just like old Earth's Bora Bora, complete with tranquil blue waters and huts on stilts over the sea. Maybe it was the gentle rhythm of the ocean that spurred things along, but after walking along the beach for a while, Alba began complaining of a deep pain that started in her back and radiated through to her abdomen. The Doctor had known immediately that she was having contractions, and he had quickly hustled her off the beach and straight into the TARDIS infirmary, where he'd installed her in a bed where he could monitor her vital signs. He gave her a little pink pill to speed along the labor process and ease the pain of contractions. Three gruelling hours later, she was propped up on her elbows, tears streaming down her face as the Doctor, positioned between her legs, encouraged her to 'push!'. She mentally shoved her pain to the side, and pushed with everything she had in her. A lusty cry pierced the air, and there was Jamie at the end of the bed, holding their daughter in his arms, a soppy expression on his face. After she expelled the after birth, he had cleaned both her and the baby up, and sequestered them to their bedroom on the TARDIS, which had conveniently moved itself to right outside of the infirmary, along with the nursery.

"I was born with a full head of hair too, you know," he commented lightly, brushing his hand through the baby's hair.

.

"Hmmm?" Alba muttered sleepily beside him. "Were you now?"

"I was," he replied, his hand still resting against Lily's forehead. "There are probably pictures, somewhere. My mother was fastidious about that when I was a child. I have her old photo albums in storage somewhere."

"I'd pay to see those," Alba said with a faint smile.

"Okay, say about 100 credits per photo?" he replied innocently.

She smacked him. "Don't you even start with me, mister. I've had a bloody long day."

"Indeed you have," he conceded, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. "But you did beautifully. You brought our daughter into this world, and she's perfect, just like her mother."

"Flatterer."

"Oi! I meant what I said, and I said what I meant...oh wait a minute, that's Dr. Seuss."

Alba rolled her eyes good naturedly at him. "If you could only hear yourself sometimes, Jamie."

"I honestly don't know how you put up with me," he said, leaning across the baby to plant a kiss on Alba's lips. She returned the kiss, flicking her tongue against his lower lip before thrusting it into his open mouth.

"Oh, I manage," she finally said with a chuckle. "I'm mostly used to your quirks by now, anyway."

"My quirks?" he said as he raised his eyebrows. "Such as…?"

"How you always run your hands through your hair or pull at your ear and rub your chin when you are nervous. The methodical way you eat your food, taking a bite of each item in turn until you finish. How you always check the front door at least three times to make sure it's locked before you come to bed. How you take your tea with exactly one squeeze of lemon and a spoon and a half of sugar. The way your toes curl when you come. I could go on, but I think you get the point," she said wryly.

"The way you say all that, you make it sound like I have some sort of neuroses," he pouted.

Alba shrugged dismissively. "I don't think it's neurotic, not really. I find your little idiosyncrasies charming. They are part of what makes you you. Besides, I'm sure I have quirks of my own too."

"Oh, yes," he agreed, nodding his head in agreement.

Now it was her turn to raise her eyebrows at him. "Quirks such as…?"

"Such as the way your tongue always pokes its way through your teeth when you smile at me. The soft little sighs you let out when you're drifting to sleep-which are completely adorable, by the way. The way you eat a chocolate bar, breaking off one little piece at a time and slowly savoring it. How you always put on your knickers before your bra when you get dressed. The way your eyelashes flutter when you have an orgasm. I could go on, but I think you get the point," he said, echoing her own words back at her. "And yes, I do find those things charming, before you ask."

"I wasn't going to ask," she lied.

He smirked knowingly at her. "Sure you weren't."

"I wasn't!" she insisted.

"Uh huh," he replied, clearly not convinced.

She stuck her tongue out at him and blew a raspberry his way. He laughed, and bent his head to capture her lips. "We're going to wake the baby if we don't quiet down," he warned, brushing his thumb across her cheek.

"I highly doubt it. She slept through you accidentally rolling off the bed reaching for your water glass. How's your tailbone, by the way?"

"It's fine, no thanks to you," he replied, absently rubbing at the spot in question. "Bruised my ego more than anything, with the way you laughed at me."

Alba snickered unapologetically. "I'm sorry, I really couldn't help it. Blame the drugs. You looked so funny, your arms pinwheeling all over the place and that look of total shock on your face. And then you squawked, like a chicken. I may not have traveled through the entirety of time and space, but I don't know of a single planet where that wouldn't be considered funny."

He huffed at her in annoyance. "I'm so glad my pain is amusing to you."

She shot him a withering look. "Listen buddy, don't even start with me on the pain you've suffered today. Try squeezing something the size of a melon out of your body, through your manly bits, and then we can talk about pain."

"Fair enough," he conceded with a squeak. Between them, the baby stirred and yawned, but did not wake. Her mother's hand resting lightly on her belly stilled her.

Alba's expression softened. "She really looks so much like you, you know. Her facial expressions, the hair...that's all you."

"Ah, but she's got your eyes."

"Does she remind you of Susanna?" Alba asked, sotto voce.

"Nah," he replied, his tone equally soft. "Susanna was born blonde, and she stayed blonde. She had blue eyes too, just like her mother. Honestly, she didn't look much like me at all. Jack always teased me that she was the mailman's baby. I suppose she could've been, and I'd never have known. I wondered about that sometimes. The one time I asked Romana about it, she was so offended she didn't speak to me for over a week. I never had the courage to bring it up to her again. Whoever she looked like, Susanna was always my daughter, even if I took her for granted. But I will never do that again. Take a beautiful being that I helped create for granted. I feel like finding you was my second chance at a life I thought I could never have again-a family, mum and dad and baby, and they're all happy. Are you happy, Rose?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I am," she replied with a smile. "My life before...I don't want to say it was meaningless, because that's not fair or true. But I was definitely drifting, without purpose. I was desperately searching for meaning in my life, for something that was bigger than myself, and I wasn't ever going to find it working in a shop. Finding you, falling in love with you, having a baby with you, finding a job I actually love, those things have given me purpose. There is finally something bigger than myself, and that's my family. You and Lily, Jack, Dr. Bradford, Artemis and Apollo. The family I chose to create, to become a part of. That means more to me than you could possibly know. Because that's honestly all I've ever wanted, too-a mum and dad and baby, all of them happy. And now I have that. First, I had you. Then we had Lily. Now I have everything."

He smiled back at her. "Oh Rose...Alba…iyou/i have given me everything. Everything I could have ever hoped for in my wildest dreams, and more."

"Not quite everything. I haven't given you a son, not yet. I grew up an only child. It was kind of lonely. I always figured when I had children, that I would end up having more than one. A girl and a boy, that was how I always envisioned my perfect little fantasy family," she confessed.

"Well, we have all the time in the world to make that happen," he replied, the barest trace of a rakish grin playing across his lips.

"Yeah, except for the next two and a half years where we won't be sleeping ever," she replied, aware even as she was doing it that her tongue was poking through her teeth.

"Hey, I am optimistic of our prospects. Even babies have to eventually go to sleep sometime," he declared. "Even if it is only for an hour or two at a time, that's long enough to...you know," he said, making a slightly rude gesture with his hand.

"Would you really want to do that, though? Raise two young children at the same time?" she asked, reaching out to tangle her fingers through his own.

"If you had asked me that question ten years ago, I would have said no way. But that was before I met you, and before we had Lily," he admitted. "Now...I'll give you as many damn babies as you want."

"As many damn babies as I want, eh? We could have fifty children, like that couple with the reality tv show. And we could give them all flower or tree names. Just think-Aspen for a boy, Daisy for a girl. That's two down, only forty-eight more to go," Alba said, her expression completely serious.

The Doctor blanched. "Fifty?"

Alba laughed. "Oh god, Jamie, relax. I was only kidding with you. I'm not nuts. I don't want to be pregnant for the next twenty-five years, and that's assuming I had twins or triplets at some point. I'd be fine with two, maybe three children, tops. Any more, and it gets out of hand. I don't want my children to have to make an appointment when they want to spend time with me, or you either, for that matter."

He sighed in relief. "Just as well. I may be a stud, but I'm certainly not a rabbit."

"No, definitely not a rabbit. Maybe more like a fox," Alba suggested. "Or a tapir."

"Tapir?!"

"It's really entirely too easy to wind you up, you know."

"On that note, when can we get cracking on the son front? I'm going to need someone to take my side once in a while."

"You're the doctor, you tell me."

"They say you're supposed to wait four to six weeks after birth before you have intercourse, to reduce the risk of tearing. But that's a long time. A whole month, month and a half."

"I believe you'll survive, dear," Alba said dryly.

"Suppose I will," he sniffed dramatically. "Besides, we'll probably be too busy not sleeping to have sex anyway."

"Yeah, but it's worth it though, isn't it? We get her out of the bargain," Alba said, brushing her hand across the baby's head.

The Doctor smiled back at her. "Yeah, it's worth it."

"I love you, Jamie," she said, stretching out over the baby to kiss him.

"Oh Alba, I love you, too."

He looked fondly down on his little family, and thought to himself that they were going to be alright. No, better than alright.

They were going to be brilliant.