It's Not Like A Shoe

They lay in their bed, just waking up. The Doctor had been awake for hours now, but had contented himself to close his eyes and lay there, just thinking. As busy as he was, he liked these times to just lay and think; silence was a lovely invention that allowed his mind to explore possibilities that it couldn't when he was focused on other things. She sighed contentedly and rolled over, pressing as much of her bare skin against his as was possible, soaking up his warmth, inhaling his unique smell. If she had to break down the way he smelled, she would estimate it was a little bit of dust, some Tardis oil, metal, that smell that space had, and…something else. She couldn't pinpoint the smell, but it was something only the Doctor had—she hadn't smelt it on anyone else she dated. All of this together was the smell of the Doctor—mysterious and wonderful and devastatingly irresistible, not that she mentioned that to him. It wouldn't do for him to know exactly how much power he could have over her if he wanted to. Taking a deep breath, River snuggled against him and looked up, her eyes sleepy and heavy-lidded.

"Good morning lovely," he murmured as she smiled up at him. "I think…I'm ready."

She blinked, trying to wake up a little; her brain was slow and still full of sleep.

"Ready for what?"

"I think I'm ready to talk about naming our baby," he said softly, chuckling. Yawning, she nodded.

"Okay, but we've got to find something we both agree on. And we have veto power."

He nodded, "That sounds reasonable."

"And…I want it to have Gallifreyan names. I know that it may never use those names, so we'll have to use ones that Mum and Dad can pronounce, but I want our baby to know about its heritage."

The Doctor pressed a kiss to her forehead,

"You're amazing, you know that?"

She smirked lightly,

"Of course I know that; you must have mentioned it a half-dozen times last night."

The Doctor blushed a little and her smirk widened.

"You'd think after being married to me for nearly a year, you'd have lost the blush," she chuckled.

"Some people find it charming."

"Oh I do find it charming, sweetie. And adorable; I also find it very adorable. But the fact that you've managed to keep it this long is a testament to your…Doctor-ness."

He sighed and ran a warm hand down her side, resting it on her hip.

"You're impossible," he told her with a lazy smile.

Her smile widened and she looked up into his eyes, returning his traditional response to being called impossible.

"Not impossible love, just very improbable."

He laughed let her cuddle closer to him before he spoke, his voice soft and speculative.

"The baby will have two names then, won't it? Like you…and like me."

River nodded,

"Yes. And she won't have to choose between the two like I did, or be forced to hide one, like you."

"You can't possibly know it's a she," the Doctor muttered, but River merely smiled and rolled her eyes.

"And you can't possibly be this handsome. But things happen."

He chuckled,

"You little flirt."

"You love it."

"I really do."

"Do you want to name it after someone?" River asked, being gender-neutral to avoid making him argue.

"I would, but there are so many people I wish our baby could grow up to be like. I've been around so long, River. I've met so many people, so many wonderfully beautiful people. I wish I could name our baby after every single one of them. But I want our child to be able to choose what it is, what it grows up to be. The first new Time Lord in centuries, excluding Jenny, will have a long road to work out what it wants from life. Poor child will have to embrace Gallifrey and simultaneously grow up to live in a universe where its people no longer exist."

There was a long pause.

"I always liked Katie as a name."

"Nah, too plain for our little one. Our baby is going to be the most amazing baby ever, River. We can't give her a boring name."

"All right, you give me a suggestion."

"Alonzo."

"Absolutely not. Even if our baby was a boy, no. You'd go around saying 'Allons-y Alonzo' all the time and scar the poor boy. Think of the psychological traumas you could inflict upon him!"

"It's a brilliant name! What about Bob?"

"No."

"But Bob was sacred, remember? Sacred Bob?"

River stared at him, puzzled, and he winced,

"Right, sorry. Spoilers."

"What about naming her after Amy? Little Amelia? Or if it's a boy, we could name him after Jack."

"You want our son to be like Jack when he grows up?"

"We could do worse."

"Yeah, and we could also do a lot better. Imagine a littler version of me with Jack's charm and sex drive! He could actually cause that paradox with someone being their own grandfather!"

"Fine, not after Jack; what about after Rory or Tom? Or if it's a girl, we could name her Donna or Rose…Donna Rose Song has a nice ring to it."

"It has to be something that will last our child its whole life, through a dozen regenerations and faces. We need something prefect."

"I like Sarafina," River offered.

"It's not like a shoe, River," the Doctor told her, sounding a little frustrated. "A shoe doesn't define you for hundreds of years, a shoe only goes with a couple of outfits; this is a name we're talking about. It has to fit better than anything and when the baby is born it might not fit and then we have to start the process over again!"

"I know that this is really important to you Doctor," River told him softly, "But we don't have to decide right now, or even this week. I'm thirty-one weeks along and according to Grandma, I won't be due for at least forty-three or forty four. That's ten weeks more—two and a half months. We've got a lot of time to think about this."

The Doctor nodded,

"Sorry…I just want it to be perfect. I can't use my name, not ever. And I'm 'the Doctor,' I love being 'the Doctor,' but our baby will have a name and I just…I want it to be something amazing."

"It's your baby, love. Whatever we name it will be amazing."

He sighed and settled back against the pillows,

"You're a lovely woman, you know that?"

She smiled.

"I like the name Lucia—it means light. And I've always liked the name Arthur—it's a good name. It means…stone, I think."

He smiled,

"I had a horse named Arthur once."

"All right, we're not calling him Arthur. But Lucia's nice. Lucia Song, the Doctor's daughter. What do you think?"

"Donna Rose Song does have a nice ring to it," he said quietly. "The noblest of them all and the one who made me better. We could do worse than that."

"And if it's a boy?"

"Ian," he said softly. "Ian Rory Song, perhaps."

"Well whatever we name this baby, I need to go feed it, and we've got a new jar of marmalade."

The Doctor yawned and sat up as River pulled on one of his shirts and a pair of panties before padding off to the kitchen. With a sigh, he pulled on fresh boxers, socks, and a dressing gown before following his wife to the kitchen, a hundred thousand names running through his head.

Ah the naming of babies. Nothing concrete written yet, but I did a LOT of research and some imagination and I've actually got the baby's name. Notice, I never once said it was a boy or a girl in here…I left it open for either. SO—review as usual and if you'd like, feel free to contribute name suggestions or mention any you particularly liked!