A/N: It's Cheri again.
Chapter Thirty Seven
Lara sat on the jump seat, watching quietly while the Doctor, Alan, Sarah Jane and the teens talked quietly among themselves. The Doctor had asked the TARDIS to try to fix the arch so that Rain's essence could be streamed back inside her while it bypassed changing her back into a Time Lord. Lara stared at Alan and the others. For the life of her, she couldn't remember any of them, only the Doctor and she was frustrated that they knew who she was but she couldn't recall them. She hoped they would be able to work out a solution so she could get her memories back without endangering her babies. While they were talking, Alan glanced at her and smiled warmly as he walked to her side. Lara stared at him sadly.
"I wish I could remember you," she said.
"Don't worry, Te'lesu, if anyone can sort this out, it's the TARDIS," he said.
"Aha!"
Their eyes turned towards the Doctor who was beside himself with joy.
"She's done it. She's found a solution," he said. "We just have to stick the watch back in the slot in the arch and she'll do the rest."
"But what'll happen when she needs to become a Time Lady again?" Luke asked.
"Well, if we can't use the arch, I have the crystals and she can transform that way," the Doctor replied.
"I'm sure she'll prefer that anyway, much less painful," Alan replied.
The Doctor nodded. He hit a few buttons on his keyboard and the arch lowered down. Lara watched it with trepidation, remembering the Doctor's screams when he was under it. The Doctor, seeing her distress, went to her and laid a hand on her shoulder.
"It shouldn't hurt this time, Latara. You're not changing your body, you're only regaining your mind."
The Doctor put it on her head and held it down while he asked the TARDIS to do whatever she was going to do. There was a pause and for a moment no one heard anything and then the rotor started to oscillate faster and Lara let out a gasp and closed her eyes. Alan bent over and both of them stared at her intently, checking to make sure she was truly alright. The process took about ten minutes and then the TARDIS mentally signaled to the Doctor that she was finished.
"Rain?" the Doctor said, frowning, as his wife's eyelids fluttered and then she opened her eyes.
"Doctor?" she said, turning her head towards him.
Her eyes filled with tears and she embraced him.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, can you ever forgive me?" she said.
The Doctor smiled at that.
"There's nothing to forgive. I know why you did this to yourself," he said gently. "The point is you're safe now and you're going to have our children in a few months time."
"Do you...want them?" she asked.
"Well, yes, if I didn't want them, I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of having the TARDIS reprogram the arch, I would have just opened the watch."
"Quit feeling guilty, Douchebag, we aren't gonna bite your head off," Alan said, playfully punching her arm.
The Doctor snickered when she let out a sigh.
"And I remember him now," she said, hooking her thumb back at him.
She smiled at Sarah Jane and the teens and gave them warm hugs while they kissed her cheeks and welcomed her back. The Doctor watched her closely and then decided to have a private talk with her.
"Love, come with me. I trust my TARDIS but I want to make sure that the babies are alright. So let's go to the med bay, yeah?" he said to her. "Alan, take us home whenever you're ready."
"Oui!" he said, saluting.
The Doctor helped her to stand and led her out of the console room. They walked down a couple of corridors and to Rain's surprise, when she tried to go inside the med bay, he grabbed her arm.
"No, that was just to get you alone. We need to talk," he said to her.
"I'm...I'm sorry, really I am. I didn't mean to cause you so much pain and..."
The Doctor put his fingers over her lips.
"Shhh, I'm not angry with you. I told you I know why you forced yourself to change and you did it out of love for me and Tara. I didn't bring you down here to yell at you. I just need to speak with you privately, alright? The last thing I want is for you to be afraid of me especially since there's nothing for you to be afraid of. Now come with me, my love."
He kissed her gently on the forehead and took her hand. They turned right at the end of the corridor and he led her to a door three down from the beginning of it. He opened the door and she saw a beautiful meadow with purple and yellow flowers swaying in the gentle breeze. Fifty feet away was a small pond that was shooting up water like a fountain in its center. Beside the lake were several wooden benches that were spaced about three feet apart from each other. Rain stepped inside and the Doctor followed her, shutting the door behind them.
"Over two centuries of knowing you and this ship still continues to amaze me," she said. "But...I've never seen this room before."
"Normally, it's sealed up. I asked the TARDIS to unseal it so we could come in here."
"Sealed? Is there something bad about this room?" Rain said.
"No, no. It's just a room I reserve for myself when I need to be alone and reflect," he said. "Just like you have your places to go to when you need to be by yourself. I had the TARDIS hide the door so you wouldn't be offended."
"Offended? Why would I be offended about your need for privacy?" Rain asked as they walked to one of the benches. "I enjoy being with you but we're not joined at the hip, Thete. I don't mind you having someplace secret you can go to."
The Doctor smiled at that. As they walked up to the bench, Rain noticed a large leather bound book on the bench beside it.
She glanced at the title of it and noticed it said 500 year diary on it. Her eyebrows raised and an impish grin spread over her face as she walked towards it.
"Ah, ah, ah! No, you don't! That's none of your business, missy," he said, grabbing her from behind as she laughed.
"I wanna see what you wrote about me," she said.
"Nope, you're gonna sit here and talk to me," he said as they sat down on the bench.
The Doctor gazed at Rain for a moment and then leaned in for a tender kiss.
"My hearts. Oh, my hearts, you've come back to me," he said softly.
"I know you don't wanna hear it but I am so sorry that I did that. I never meant to hurt you."
"Shhh, I know. Like I said, you were doing that to protect us and our family."
He pressed his lips to her forehead.
"Blast, I can't send love into your mind when you're like this. You had to go and get yourself pregnant," he said.
Rain giggled.
"Well, you helped," she said.
"Yes, I helped but not by choice," he said, his face darkening.
He quickly held up his hand when he saw the fear in her eyes.
"But I want the babies. I didn't mean I didn't want our children. I just don't like the way Callum forced us together is all," he said. "And being forced to do things is the whole theme of my little talk with you. Because I take issue with you going off and getting divorced without me."
He held up his hand when she opened her mouth.
"I realize you had no choice...or felt you didn't, at any rate. But I personally don't accept what you did. I never agreed to the divorce, so in my mind it never happened. That being said, I don't want you to think we're divorced and living in sin for the rest of your lives so you and I will be going somewhere to renew our vows, have a rest and reconnect with one another and the sooner the better. This family nearly got torn apart because everyone went off the deep end and...no, that's not your fault."
"But it is!" Rain insisted.
"No, my love, it's not. It's Callum's fault."
"But it was my idea to offer myself to him. I'm the one that started the whole chain reaction!"
"No, it was Callum kidnapping us that started the chain reaction, Rain. Not you. You saw me and Tara being tortured and did the only thing you could think of to stop it which was give yourself to him. You're not to blame for this."
"You're being too kind to me, Thete."
"And you're being too hard on yourself, Latara. I've known you now for donkey's years. You don't think I know you inside and out and can guess how your mind works? Now I'm sure you wouldn't have done any of this if you thought it was gonna tear the family apart but hindsight is 20/20 as they say and you had no way of knowing then what would happen to us. But all this is a moot point now because the family's fine, we're together and we're gonna have triplets on top of the 80 bazillion other babies our family is deciding to have now."
He chuckled when he saw the odd look on her face.
"Oh yes, my love, you've started a trend with this whole being human and having a baby. Now Marion, Jenna, Frankie, Rosie and soon Rose will be doing the same thing. They've all turned human along with their menfolk and all of them are hoping to get pregnant right along with ya. So congrats, honey bunny, you're gonna have company now with any luck."
Rain shook her head, completely in shock.
"I never meant to get pregnant though," she said.
"I know that but now that you are, the others want the same."
"But...the looms...wouldn't that be easier and less painful?" Rain said.
"Possibly but it's not the same as having a baby through the act of love and having it grow inside ya, is it?" he said, touching her stomach. "I mean, come on, Rain. Don't tell me you don't enjoy the feel of our children in there."
"Well, I do when they're not making me throw up every five minutes."
"That's the spirit! See, everything turns out all right in the end!"
He giggled when Rain swatted his head.
"You're a big butthole and a half sometimes, you know that?" Rain said.
"Indeed I do and you love every minute of my Buttholeyness," he replied, taking her around the middle.
"Buttholeyness?" she said with a raised eyebrow while he sniggered. "I swear, Thete, I need to write down the words every time you and your counterparts say something bizarre and make a dictionary out of it."
He snuggled close to her.
"The Doctor's Dictionary of Doctorisms?" he said to her.
"Yeah, something like that."
The Doctor gave her a gentle kiss on the lips and then kissed her forehead.
"I love you, my hearts. Don't ever doubt that and don't ever question your role in all this. You're innocent, ya hear me?"
She nodded and he kissed her forehead again before he embraced her tightly.
"Mmm, feels good to have my wife back again," he said softly as he lay his chin on her shoulder. "And I swear that what happened over the past month will never happen again for as long as I live."
Rain sighed softly and closed her eyes, happy to be back with the man she loved. The Doctor smiled, leaned back up and cupped her face with his hands.
"Come, my beloved, let's go home and show everyone you're safe before you and I find somewhere where we can get married again," he said to her.