Ch 82

The next morning, the two parents were woken to the sound of their son's cries. WEll, one of them was as River slept through it, leaving the Doctor on baby duty.

He tried not to disturb the bed as he rose and walked over to the cot. He scooped the boy up, hushing him. "What's the matter, hm?"

Felix whined hungrily, waving his arms in the air. The Doctor let Felix wrap his tiny fist around his finger with a small sigh, knowing he'd have to wake River up. "I know." He soothed, moving to wake River.

River looked quite content in her sleep and the Doctor hesitated at how peaceful she looked. "How would you feel about a bottle for now?" He asked Felix.

Felix whined again in response, not understanding why he wasn't eating yet.

"Well let's give it a shot, hm?" He kept a gentle tone, taking the crying baby to fetch some formula. He prepared the bottle as quickly as possible, offering it to Felix when it was ready.

Felix tentatively took the bottle, though he soon started whining again and refusing to drink it. The Doctor sighed, resolving that he would actually have to wake his wife.

He headed back to the bedroom and gently sat on the edge of the bed before tapping River's shoulder.

"What is it?" River murmured sleepily, sitting up when the Doctor woke her.

"Felix is hungry." He gestured to the crying infant in his arms. "He wouldn't take a bottle."

"Okay," she nodded groggily, sitting up a bit more and holding out her arms. He shifted Felix over. Felix settled against her quickly.

The Doctor smiled weakly, "How's your head?"

"Feeling better."

"That's good," he said tiredly.

"How was your sleep?"

"Light," he answered.

"You can go back to bed if you want." She offered, "I can take care of Felix."

"You're still healing. I'd rather you rest as much as you can."

"I'm fine." She insisted.

"Alight..." he sounded hesitant but took her offer and slipped back under the covers.

River watched the baby as he fed, smoothing back his little hairs. Felix looked up at her, much calmer than when the Doctor had tried to feed him formula. He projected the recent memory to her with the complaint. Bad food.

"I'm sorry, sweetie." She whispered, "It's alright. You don't have to have that again."

He echoed back his current state of content with hints of soft purple. Once he was done nursing, River sat with the baby resting on her chest. Felix fell asleep again quite easily, full and warm against River. River began to fall asleep as well, closing her eyes.

In the morning, Vastra made breakfast for the Songs. Felix woke early and didn't hesitate to wake his parents as well. River was the first of the two to jolt awake this time since Felix was right on her chest.

He was whining again. Cold.

"Okay, sweetie, okay." She soothed, starting to stand up, still cradling him close to her.

The Doctor stirred, waking to the sight of the two of them together. River was standing by now, a bit shaky on her legs still.

"Morning," he murmured, making himself known.

"Morning." She called back, "I wanted to get him dressed in something warmer."

He smiled. "Did he wake you?"

"Yeah, he's cold." She explained. There was a small stack of folded baby clothes on the dresser that they'd taken from the nursery yesterday. River rocked Felix back and forth as she went through the clothes, trying to find something warmer for him.

The Doctor slipped out of bed coming up behind her She looked slightly frustrated, "I don't know what to do."

"You said he's cold, yeah?" he said softly.

She nodded, feeling the familiar beginnings of anxiety bubbling up. "Yes, he's cold. There's... so many clothes here." She surveyed the pile of clothes.

"Let me help," he offered, plucking the first warm looking thing from the pile. It a was fuzzy blue, sleeved onesie.

River let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you."

"It's what I'm here for."

"Can you help me change him?" She asked, turning back towards the bed to lay the baby down.

The Doctor nodded, Felix still fussing.

She set the baby down on the bed, attempting to change him into the a. Felix squirmed in resistance, not liking having his original clothes taken off. "It's alright." River soothed, trying to verbally comfort him, "It's okay."

He whined through the whole changing and didn't calm down until he was being held again. "He's so fussy." She murmured, holding him tightly.

"Terra was fussy whenever we changed her, remember?"

"A bit." She nodded, "I feel like I'm doing something wrong when he fusses so much."

"I promise you're doing fine." The Doctor kissed her cheek.

She smiled weakly. "Thank you."

"Something smells wonderful. Shall we see what Vastra made?" She nodded and they walked to the kitchen with the baby.

Vastra was there already making sausages and eggs among other things. "Good morning."

River smiled, "You didn't have to make all of this."

"Oh, it's no trouble." Vastra hummed.

"Still, you've outdone yourself."

"You flatter; you haven't even tasted it." She distributed the food onto three plates.

River sat down in one of the chairs, "I'm afraid that'll be a bit difficult." She was still holding Felix.

"May I?" Vastra asked.

"You should eat first." River suggested.

"If you insist." She sat down with them.

About ten minutes into the meal, Felix began to grow fussy again, whimpering and squirming.

"He must be hungry again." The Doctor observed.

"I'll go feed him." River stood, heading for the door. The other didn't follow, giving her her privacy.

"I was thinking, perhaps we could do something to cheer her up," Vastra commented.

The Doctor knew that this wasn't exactly something a simple cheer-up could completely solve, but the thought was nice. "Like what?"

"Flowers, possibly?" She suggested, "Something small to at least brighten her day a bit."

He nodded, "Good idea."

"When did you two want to pick up your children?"

"I'd have to ask River, but probably before lunch."

The two continued to speak throughout the remainder of breakfast, River never returning. The Doctor began to grow worried, glancing at the doorway often as if expecting River to come through.

"You should go check on her," Vastra suggested, noticing his worried glances.

He stood. "Thank you for breakfast."

She nodded, "Of course."

He left to find River. The woman was back in their room, sitting on the bed. Felix was nowhere to be seen.

"River?" He frowned slightly, evaluating the scene.

"Yeah?" She looked up at him.

"Are you alright...?"

"I'm fine." She nodded.

"I thought you'd join us for breakfast." He explained.

"I wasn't hungry." She excused, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." He glanced around. "Where's Felix?"

"In the nursery."

He nodded, assuming Felix was napping. He thought about Vastra's suggestion, considering how and when to execute it. "Do you need anything?"

"I'm okay." She shook her head.

"Vastra was wondering when we'd get the kids."

River tensed a bit, "I don't know...after lunch perhaps?"

He nodded, wanting her to be comfortable. "We can do that."

They chatted for a short while until they heard Felix crying from the other room. River tensed when the baby began to cry.

"I can take care of it," the Doctor offered.

"Okay," River agreed, letting her breath out. The Doctor rose, heading to the nursery.

The Doctor scooped the baby up from his cot when he got there, hushing him. "What's the matter, hm?" He waggled a finger at the boy, holding him close to his chest.

Felix didn't settle down but the smell gave away that he needed changing. The Doctor brought Felix over to the changing table that was in the room, getting him cleaned up. After he was changed Felix stopped crying, quite content to fall back asleep in the Doctor's arms.

The Doctor rocked his son until he fell back asleep, noticing a figure in the door. The figure wasn't Vastra or River, the two occupied elsewhere in the TARDIS. The Doctor's eyebrows shot up with surprise, then back down with reprimand. "You're supposed to be with your uncle!"

Freya stood in the doorway. "We were worried so I came to find you. What happened?"

"How did you-" He started before noticing the Time Hopper on her wrist. Still not answering her question yet he asked, "Does Jack know you're here?"

"No. Mia promised to cover for me. You're not answering my question though. What happened? He's so early. Where's Mum?"

"You're just like your mum," he said under his breath, then came over to her with Felix still in his arms. "It's a bit complicated. The TARDIS malfunctioned and we landed in a bad situation."

"So what happened?" She pressed, her tone only growing harder. "You can't just pretend everything is fine."

"Freya," he warned. "You know you're not supposed to be here. Your mother and I were planning on telling you what happened, together."

"Why won't you just tell me? Why are you always keeping secrets?" She was getting angry now, "What's going on?"

Felix stirred at his sister's loud voice, starting to whine.

"My love, please calm down," the Doctor said gently. "I can't explain anything if you're shouting."

She shut her mouth and she crossed her arms, glaring at him. He lowered the bundle of blankets so she could see. "Let's start with introductions then."

"No." Freya shook her head, not coming any closer, "Tell me what happened first." She insisted.

He sighed. "That bad situation I mentioned... your mum got hurt and went into preterm labour. We had a thing—a device that we fixed up so Felix's growth was sped up, so when your mum gave birth to him he wasn't underdeveloped… mostly."

"Why did she get hurt? Where is she?"

"She got hurt because I made the wrong decisions when I was trying to get us home. She's in our bedroom resting."

"Why didn't you just come home when the TARDIS malfunctioned? Why did you get out of the ship?"

"We told you we were going to Yago before we left, remember. When we got out and realized that wasn't where we were, the HADS activated and the TARDIS disappeared before we could get back inside," he explained. "Your mum is okay now. I had to operate on her head, so she's got a bandage there now. I don't want you to panic when you see it."

"What?" Freya only became more alarmed, "How hurt was she? What happened?"

"She got hit very hard in the head and got a brain bleed," he started down the hall, gesturing for her to follow.

"How?" She frowned.

They arrived outside the bedroom. "...I'm going to let your mother explain that part." The story was getting dangerously close to Missy and he'd so far managed to exclude her from the tale. "Will you wait here for a moment? I'm going to tell her you're here."

Freya nodded and stayed put.

River was in their bedroom, head in hands.

"River?" He called softly.

"Yes?" She murmured, pulling herself together.

He sat on the edge of the bed, "Is there anything I can do?"

"I don't want to kids to see me like this." She whispered.

"You could start the medication early if you feel ready for it." He offered.

"I don't know." She murmured, "If I start the medication early then I can't feed Felix and he's refused to take a bottle."

"We could bottle some of your milk for him." It wasn't a permanent solution, but it gave them time to think of something else.

She nodded slowly, "Okay, we can do that."

He offered a smile stealing himself for what was coming next. "Riv, there's something I have to tell you. Your daughter got a little impatient with Jack..."

River frowned. "How do you mean?"

He took a breath. "She used her Time Hopper to sneak away and now she's here."

"What? She shouldn't be here."

"I know. She insists on seeing you."

"I don't want her to see me like this."

"I can tell her you were sleeping," he offered.

"Okay..." she sighed.

He kissed her cheek, then went back out to Freya in the hall. "I'm afraid you can't go in right now," he murmured.

"Why not?" She frowned

"She's- her pain medication makes her very drowsy, so she's not wake."

"Oh...can I see her soon?"

He nodded, though he wasn't sure how River would feel. "I want you to call Jack and apologize."

She crossed her arms, defensive again. "Why? I think what I did was fair. We deserve to know what's going on, you can't hide things from us, especially important things like this."

"We weren't keeping secrets, we were preparing ourselves to tell you all. Look, Freya, you still ran away and Jack's probably worried and looking for you. Call him."

"No! I'm not apologizing for something I'm not sorry for."

"Would you rather I take away your Time Hopper for a month?" He cocked an eyebrow at her, his tone severe.

She scowled at him, "I'm not a baby, I'm an adult and can make my own choices."

"Then I expect you're grown up enough to accept the consequences of those choices."

"Ugh! I hate you!" She shouted, punching coordinates into her Hopper and teleporting away.

The Doctor stood there stunned as Felix started crying again. Pulling it together, he went to call Jack to check if Freya had gone back there.

"Hey, Doc! What's up?" Jack asked, sounding slightly panicked as he answered the phone.

"I've just had a visit from my oldest. She stormed out on me... I don't suppose she's gone back to the Hub?"

"Erm... no, she's not back yet."

His stomach sank. "Did Amelia say anything? She might know..."

"She keeps saying that Freya's working on a project for school at a friends house." Jack huffed, "I haven't gotten anything out of her."

The Doctor sighed, trying to hush Felix. "Would you put her on the line please?"

There was a 'yes' and a moment of shuffling. "Hello?" Amelia's voice came over the phone.

The Doctor smiled weakly, "Hey, it's Dad."

"Who's that crying?"

"It's your little brother. Er... I promise I'll explain everything, I just need you to tell me where Freya might be."

"She's working a project at someone's house." Amelia stated, "Is everything okay? Isn't Felix super early? Where's mum?"

"Yes, he's early, but he and mum are fine, I promise." He sighed, really wanting to deal with one thing at a time. "Now, Amelia, I know Freya's not at a friend's house because she was just here with me. I need you to help me find her."

Amelia frowned at this, "I don't know where she is. She said only told me she was going to see you."

"She got angry with me, so she left." He admitted slowly. "And since she's not with you guys... do you have any ideas?"

"Maybe Brett's house?" Amelia suggested.

"I'll check there. Thank you."

"Yeah. No problem."

The phone got shifted back to Jack. "Can you keep the kids a bit longer?" the Doctor asked.

"Sure thing, Doc."

"Let them know that I promise we'll come back today."

"I will." He assured, hanging up.

Still trying to comfort Felix, the Doctor sent a text to Freya's phone, then phoned Brett's parents. After a dead end with the phone call and no response from Freya, the Doctor moved his attention to the day old baby who was now wailing.

"Let's get you some food, hmm?" He looked at the little face that was red from crying. "Shh, shh. It's alright." He rocked Felix as he headed back to the bedroom.