CH 52
Jack was on his way to River and the Doctor's room. It was about one in the morning, or at least that's what his watch told him. He was accustomed to going to bed this late but the TARDIS had hidden his room so he wandered about trying to find River or the Doctor or both to try and get one of them to talk some sense into the old girl. He passed Vastra and Jenny's room, but didn't dare try and wake them. After wandering around more, he found himself in front of his nieces room. He liked to call them his nieces like they liked to call him uncle. He poked his head through the door.
Amelia and Freya were sitting on Freya's bed under a blanket with a flashlight, coloring pictures. They immediately switched off the light when they heard the door move, giggling and hushing each other, knowing they shouldn't be awake. Jack pretended not to hear the giggles as he approached the bed and reached his hand down. He felt the tops of each of their heads but played along and said, "Wow, Freya's grown a bump and a lump since that last time I saw her."
Freya giggled, and Amelia shushed her, trying not to giggle herself. "Hmm. I wonder if Amelia's gotten any weird lumps, too. They might be contagious." He went over to Amelia's bed, trying to act shocked when he found it empty.
"Surprise!" Amelia laughed, poking her head out from underneath the blankets.
"Hey! I wanted to surprise him." Freya pouted, scrambling out from beneath them as well.
"You both surprised me." He said going back over to them. "I thought you had just grown into a funny shape." He ruffled Freya's hair. "Now what are you two doing?"
Freya brightened when he said that, "We're drawing pictures. Look!" She pulled a bunch of drawings out from under the blankets. "This one is of Auntie Vastra and Auntie Jenny. This one is me and Mummy and Daddy and Amelia. This one is the new baby that's going to grow in Mummy's belly. And this one is Me and Samantha. And this one is me and you!" She smiled, giving him the last one. "I made that one for you!"
"Thank you!" He happily accepted the sloppily drawn picture, glancing over the other drawings. "New baby, huh? Is mommy pregnant again?" He tried to hide his confusion, knowing River couldn't be pregnant so soon after having the other one.
She shrugged, "Mummy promised me that she would try to have another baby for me so I could be a big sister. Do you think there's a baby in her belly yet?" She asked, rather impatient about getting to be a big sister and not understanding that she would have to wait a while.
He chuckled. "It takes a little while for a baby to start growing in her belly." He worded if so River would try to kill him for explaining sex to her kids. "It's like... when you plant a row of beans, not all of them sprout on the first try."
"Daddy said that mummy's belly might be broken and she might not be able to have another baby." Amelia butted in, hopping off the bed and sitting on Jack's lap.
"Well..." He wasn't aware that the stillbirth was caused by anything besides Kovarian. He still remembered every second of those ten days helping the Doctor search for River. "Maybe your daddy can help to fix it. He knows how to fix a lot of things. "
She nodded, "If he fixes it then she can have lots and lots of babies and I could be a big sister to all of them!"
Jack couldn't hold back a laugh at the image of a dozen little timetots running about the TARDIS. "I think one is enough, Freya. Babies are quite a handful."
"Mia and I could help! And Auntie Vastra and Jenny!"
"Even then, sweet heart, I doubt all of you could handle so many. And when you have a baby it takes a lot of energy to grow and then... have it come out. Your mommy would be awfully tired and she wouldn't be able to play with you as much."
She frowned, not liking the sound of that. "I don't want her to be tired."
"She won't be if she doesn't have so many babies. I think you could convince her to have two." He told her.
Freya thought about it for a minute, "I think I only want one baby brother. Then mummy only has to get tired once." She decided, smiling brightly.
He returned the smile, returning back to the matter hand hand. "Now, somehow I don't believe you woke up in the middle of the night just to draw."
Amelia squirmed, cuddling her stuffed adipose, "I had a nightmare." She whimpered.
"Oh..." His imidiate instinct was to pull Amelia close to him and hug her tightly. "It looks like your sister did a good job of making you feel better. Are you still scared?" She hesitated, then nodded slowly. He kissed the top of her head. "Do you want to tell me what it was about?"
"The mean lady and the scary monsters got me." She whimpered, the memory of it upsetting her all over again.
"Did mommy and daddy tell you that the mean lady was gone?" He comforted. She nodded, sniffling a bit now. "They got rid of her for good. And she's never going to come back." He assured her.
"But what if the monsters come back?" She whispered.
Jack thought a moment. "What did the monsters look like?"
"I don't know." She whispered, "But they're mean and scary and they hurt."
"Hurt? They hurt you in your dream?"
She nodded, "And in real life. They hurt my leg and they shocked me."
Jack was speechless. The Doctor had told him that Amelia had been taken before, but he was never told any details besides that her leg had been injured. "Oh, Amelia." He held her a little tighter. "Those monsters aren't going to hurt you. You're safe in the TARDIS and you can always come to Torchwood if you need to. Your mommy and daddy will always be there to protect you. Vastra, Jenny, and I will always be there."
She looked up at him when he mentioned her mother, looking a bit worried, "Do you think my mummy's still going to love me after her new baby comes?"
"Of course she will!" He responded instantly. "Nothing will ever stop your mommy from loving you. Even if you stole all the cookies from the jar when you weren't supposed to, she would still love you." He pause a moment. "Not that you should steal the cookies..."
"But she's been yelling at me a lot and getting upset a lot and she's really sad all the time..." She pouted, picking up the drawing she had done of her, River and Mr. Thomas and handing it to Jack.
"Well, when you're growing a baby it can be uncomfortable and make you grumpy. Sometimes she doesn't know that she's being grumpy to you. But it's also very sad when you grow a baby for a while and when it comes out it doesn't…" He paused. "Your mom is sad about the loss of your brother, but that doesn't make her love you any less than she does."
"Will you stay with us forever, Uncle Jack?" She asked, hugging him.
He laughed causing her to bounce a little. "I would if your parents could handle that much of me. They wouldn't like me hogging you so much!" He smiled down at her. "There are people back at Torchwood waiting for me. Uncle Ianto is there. And Gwen."
"But we don't want you to leave!" Freya cried, moving to hug his legs, "We'll play all the games you want! We'll even play poker with you, we just won't tell mummy! It'll be our secret!"
"Oh, sweetie. I wish it were that simple. There's more to Torchwood than the people. We save Earth everyday from bad things and monsters. If I didn't go back, then Ianto and Gwen wouldn't be able to manage with out me." He scooped Freya up and put her in his lap next to Amelia. "I'm not leaving now. Or tomorrow. And I promise not to leave without saying bye. It won't the the last you see of me, I'll come back if I'm needed. I'll even come back just for fun."
"I want to name mummy's baby Uncle Jack so he can be just like you." Freya beamed.
He laughed again. "You'll have to have quite an argument to convince your mother to name the baby Jack. You might be able to persuade her to name it Jaquelin if it's a girl, though."
"Mummy promised she'd have a boy baby so we could have a brother." Freya told him, "And then we can name him Uncle Jack!"
"Your mom can't really decide if the baby is a girl or a boy. Just like she didn't decide to make you both girls. It just happens. Besides, what if you get a brother and then when he's older he wants he wants to be a girl instead?"
They thought about that for a minute, "Well...then he can be a girl. He...or she can be whatever they want to be! That's what mummy and daddy always say!" Amelia smiled.
He beamed at them. "Your mom and dad are very wise people." He ruffled their hair softly. "Now Amelia, are you feeling better?"
She nodded, smiling a lot more than she was before. "Thank you for making me feel better."
"That's what uncles are for." He said, proud of his title. "You two aren't going to stay up the whole night are you?"
She shook her head, "I think I can go to sleep now."
"Would you like me to tuck you in?" They both nodded, sliding off his lap and crawling into bed. He moved all of the drawings and crayons off her bed for her. He pulled Amelia's blankets up to her chin and tucked it around her sides before placing a kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight Amelia."
"Goodnight Uncle Jack." She whispered, yawning.
He smiled, moving to Freya's bed and repeating his actions. "Sweet dreams Miss Freya."
She smiled, "Goodnight, Uncle Jack." He turned the light out on his way out.
He pondered if waking up his friends was worth the risk of getting shot at by River. He shrugged and headed to their room anyways. River was quite content sleeping, curled up against her husband's chest, not waking right away when he came in.
Jack couldn't help the twinge of jealously at the memory of his old relationship with her. It left him as quickly as it came, thinking instead of his lover who was waiting for his at Torchwood. He would've just gone there and slept in his own bed if he'd known how to convince the TARDIS to take him there. He inched closer to the bed and poked at the blankets. "Hey. One of you break up this love fest and wake up!"
River groaned, cuddling further into the Doctor, "Shhh...trying...trying to sleep." She murmured.
He poked at her again. "Yeah, and I'm trying to wake you up. Your ship has some sort of grudge against me, it hid my room."
She groaned again, "Just...sleep in here." She murmured, her mind clearly hazy with sleep.
"In here? I'm not going to sleep on the hard floor and listen you to do... what ever it is the you were doing."
"Weren't doing anything." She mumbled, shaking the Doctor's shoulders lightly, "Move over, love."
The Doctor made some sort of noise and rolled over on his stomach, barely conscious and unaware of the other man in the room. He was a very heavy sleeper, when he actually slept that is. She curled up against him so there was enough room for Jack, "Get in and let me sleep."
Jack's only complaint was the excessive amount of clothing that were on the two people who was was crawling in bed with. He wisely chose not to say that out loud as he shifted to make himself comfortable next to River.
River was completely asleep again by the time he was in bed. She was practically laying on top of her husband, wanting to be as close to him as possible even when they were sleeping. The Doctor automatically wrapped his arms around her and burrowed his face into her curls. It would be quite an odd story when they woke up. They would have a lot of explaining to do, but right now he had his whole family right where he wanted them. They were safer than they had been in a very long time and he was happy exactly the way he was with River in his arms and, as far as he knew, just him and her in their bed.
