Jack stared down at his babies as he waited for any news about how the Doctor was doing. He knew that the surgery would take awhile as he had assisted Martha with it the last time. Then they had only concentrated on stopping the bleeding while removing the damage. Now, though, they were removing his entire uterus as well as sealing off the tubes and blood vessels that attached to it. Jack continued to hope silently that it worked as he agreed with the Doctor that he couldn't go through this again. He couldn't watch his children suffer while his husband had to have life-saving surgery.

"He's in good hands," Hannah tried to reassure him as he stared silently at the incubator.

"I know and he is strong. If anybody can get through this, he can," Jack reminded himself out loud. Hannah made a small noise with her mouth. It was silent enough that Jack almost missed it. He didn't look at Hannah as he spoke again. "What was that supposed to mean?"

"I'm sorry," Hannah apologized not realizing that Jack would have been able to hear her.

"I don't want an apology, I want to know what you meant by that noise," Jack snapped even if there was no anger in his tone. He was too worried to be angry.

"I've seen the scars on his arm," Hannah began to explain. Jack didn't need to hear any more. He too could still see the thin white scars on the Doctor's skin from where he had tried to kill himself years prior. The skin was also slightly raised where he had dug the key into his arm to try again after they moved him to the medi-bay.

"I was there when he put them there," Jack replied softly. He kept his head towards the babies as he turned his eyes to look at her. "But you don't get to judge him for that. You don't know how many times he walked on alone when others would have fallen. He had a moment of weakness because our daughter was struggling to live and he blamed himself for not being able to carry her to term, just like he is doing now with the twins. You also weren't there with us as we sat by Imogen's bedside watching her fever rise as we desperately struggled to keep her alive. If you want to judge him because he fell when he felt he was going to lose his child, after he had already lost more than you can ever imagine, then you can leave right now."

"I had a good friend who committed suicide a few years back for reasons we never have really understood and I'm sorry that I judged him based on the scars," Hannah apologized. Jack nodded turning his eyes back to his children. He wasn't trying to be rude but he really didn't want to discuss her friend when he had his own family to worry about and discussing her friend wouldn't take his mind off his husband. He should have never left him alone yesterday because he was angry when the Doctor needed him. He kept thinking what would have happened if he had been away when the Doctor woke up afraid and in pain. He needed Jack to be strong for him and Jack planned on doing exactly that.

Hours passed while Jack tended the children. Finally, he heard the side doors open and Jack eagerly looked towards them. He was relieved to see Martha enter along with Kyle, wheeling the Doctor between them. The Doctor was still sleeping soundly from the anesthetic, blissfully unaware just how worried everyone was about him. He had the oxygen line back beneath his nose and a bag of blood now joined the other IVs. Even with the extra blood, Jack thought he looked extremely pale as he moved across the medi-bay in order to speak with Martha.

"How did it go?" He questioned as Martha rehooked him up to the machines in the medi-bay.

"It went very well considering the circumstances. We were able to go in and stop the bleeding using the same incision I made for his c-section. He lost a lot of blood but he remained stable throughout the surgery," Martha informed Jack. During the surgery there was a moment when the Doctor's hearts seemed to slow to the point that Martha was afraid they would have to intervene, but as they gave him additional blood his hearts picked back up to a safe level. "We completely removed the uterus as well as the connecting tubes. I then cauterized the end of the main tube that was connected to hopefully stop his body from trying to regenerate the lost tissue."

"Do you think he still will?" Jack questioned Martha in concern.

"It is hard to say with the way his body heals. Here in a few days, I will perform an MRI to see how he is healing and do a follow up one in a few months. In the meantime, I suggest that you two do use contraceptives just in case," Martha advised Jack.

"I will look into buying condoms here soon," Jack agreed. While it would be better to go to a pharmacy and purchase long-term contraceptives, he could use condoms temporarily. Reaching out, he gently brushed the hair back from the Doctor's forehead. The Doctor's skin felt cool and clammy. He needed a shower but that could wait until after he was awake.

"I've already given him the antidote to the anesthetic. So he should start waking up here soon," Martha explained to him noticing Jack comforting the Doctor. Going to the sink, she got a pitcher of water along with a small glass. Finding a straw, she poured a small amount into the glass before bringing it back over to the Doctor's bed.

"Water," the Doctor whimpered a short time later without bothering to open up his eyes. Jack picked up the glass of water offering the Doctor a drink. The Doctor latched onto the straw draining the small amount.

"Is that better?" Jack questioned him.

"Yeah, Martha," The Doctor moaned as he reached for the oxygen line beneath his nose. She had promised him that he would be feeling better once he woke up but his stomach still felt extremely sour and he wanted to be sick only the anti-emetic in his system kept that from happening.

"I'm right here," Martha told him, stopping his hand from grabbing the line.

"You promised," He whined.

"I did, didn't I," Martha agreed. Going over to the cupboard, she pulled out a small vial of medicine alone with a clean syringe. She filled the syringe, pocketing the vial. Returning to the Doctor's side, she injected the syringe into his IV line. "Just give that a moment to work and then you'll begin to feel a lot better."

"K," The Doctor agreed keeping his eyes closed. Jack sat on the edge of the bed providing the Doctor comfort until finally, he forced them open with a small smile.

"Better?" Jack wondered.

"Yeah," The Doctor told him. He looked up at Jack, his eyes dilated from the drugs that Martha gave him. "Did the surgery work?"

"It did," Martha answered not wanting to go into more detail while the Doctor was waking up from the anesthetic and drugged against the pain.

"Good. Now I don't have to castrate him," The Doctor slurred happily.

"Why do I have the strange feeling that this isn't the first time you threatened to castrate me?" Jack questioned as the vague memory surfaced once more. He briefly remembered waking up on the floor of his room but wasn't sure if that was just a dream or an actual memory.

"Couldn't you just give him a vasectomy?" Martha wondered on Jack's behalf.

"Nope, nope, nope," The Doctor exclaimed shaking his head. "He's tricksy. He could die and have it reverse and I wouldn't be able to tell." Jack couldn't help himself as he chuckled dropping a kiss on the top of the Doctor's head. The Doctor made a face at him. "What was that for?"

"Cause I love you," Jack told him. The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Love you too, even if you are an ape," The Doctor informed him. He reached out to pat Jack on the side of the face, slapping him instead in his drug filled haze. Jack caught his hand, lowering it back to the bed.

"Go back to sleep, sweetheart," Jack told him. The Doctor snuggled closer to Jack, gripping his leg as he listened. Smacking his lips several times, his eyes drifted closed and soon he was sleeping soundly once more.