"Rehprom, sit up," the Doctor commanded. "That may help stop the bleeding." He turned around. "Jack, try holding him upside down to drain the fluid from him lungs." Rehprom painfully eased herself into a sitting position with Xaler and Acro's help. "Xaler, or Acro, or someone, put some pressure on her stomach," the Doctor said. "Not too much, just enough to encourage clotting."
The Doctor turned back to Jack and the baby. Jack was holding the infant upside down my his ankles and was trying to use his finger to scoop any fluid out of his mouth, but with no results. He placed him gently back on the table. The Doctor felt for a pulse, but felt none. He started to message the baby's tiny chest in an effort to encourage his hearts to start beating. He felt his own two hearts beating frantically as he worked to save the infant's life. Jack bit his lip as he watched the Doctor work.
After a few tense minutes the Doctor had made no progress with the baby, although he refused to give up. Xaler reported that Rehprom's bleeding was slowing, which was a good sign for her. Even though he did not want to think it, Jack was beginning to wonder if it was all in vain. Even if the baby survived, wouldn't it have severe brain damage from being deprived of oxygen for so long? Rose was thinking along similar lines, but neither of them dared to say anything to the Doctor about it.
The tense atmosphere was replaced with a heavy one of sadness as the Doctor's attempts to revive the infant failed. At last the Doctor stopped messaging the baby's chest and sighed, closing his eyes. He didn't want to give up, but he knew that it was too late; the baby was dead. His limbs, wings and tail were like limp rubber and his skin was blue. The Doctor opened his eyes and slowly turned to Rehprom, Xaler and Acro. He shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry."
Rehprom was too exhausted and drained to respond. The family said nothing, still recovering from the shock of it all, though tears came to Rehprom and Xaler's eyes.
The Doctor found a clean towel and placed it over the infant's body. He then approached Rehprom. His eyes were troubled, and he knew he would need some time alone to cope with the events of the day. They all would. "Have you stopped bleeding?" The Doctor asked her. His voice had almost no emotion in it.
Rehprom looked down. She felt quite sore, but she had stopped haemorrhaging. "I think so," she said, her voice hoarse. She cleared her throat and swallowed, trying to suppress the painful ball of tears lodged there.
"Okay. Would you mind if I put you on an intervenous drip to help keep your fluids up?" the Doctor asked.
Rehprom nodded. "I think that's a good idea." She felt woozy, light headed, like it was all a surreal dream. She barely winced when the Doctor poked her with a needle, feeding a steady drip of liquid into her arm. The Doctor, Xaler and Jack all numbly cleaned Rehprom up of the blood she had lost. Then Rose approached with baby Otina.
"Here," she said, handing her to Rehprom. She looked to the Doctor and Jack. "I'd think we'd better leave them on their own for a bit," she suggested.
The Doctor nodded. "Good idea. I think we all need some time out."
The TARDIS team turned to go, but not before Xaler told them "Thanks, for everything."
"You're welcome," the Doctor said. He looked at the small still form under the towel. "It's a shame we couldn't do more," he added sadly. Then they left, closing the door softly behind them.
Rehprom cradled her daughter. They studied each other's faces intently. Then instinct told the baby to attempt to feed. She tried to find Rehprom's breast. The mother helped her, and soon Otina was contently sucking away.
"I don't understand," Rehprom said quietly. "Why she lived and the other one…didn't."
Xaler sighed. "I don't either." He looked forlornly at his son. "Maybe it was the mix of our species. Maybe it just wasn't compatible for him."
"But then why is Otina healthy?" Rehprom wondered. Her chin was starting to tremble as emotion threatened to engulf her.
"Chance," Acro said. "I guess sometimes your genes can cross successfully and other times they can't. Or it may have just been bad luck.Or maybe it was because you were hiding your pregnancy for so long." He sighed heavily, his shoulders sagging. "It might have stressed the baby. But that's not your fault, Rehprom," he added quickly.
"I suppose under the circumstances we should all consider ourselves lucky," Xaler said. "We're alive, we're free, and we have one beautiful baby. Things could have been a lot worse."
Rehprom nodded as silent tears swam down her cheeks. She sniffled and wiped her face before they could land on Otina.
Acro stood up. "Is there another bed or something I could rest on?" he asked.
"Yeah," Xaler said. "Here." He guided the blind Canad over to a spare bed where he lay down, his face staring blankly up at the ceiling. Xaler then moved back to Rehprom's side. She managed to scoot over so that he could sit on the bed beside her. He leaned back on the pillows propping Rehprom up and placed one wing around her. This made it easier for him to hug her close, his right arm around her waist. They said nothing, watching their daughter feed. When she was finished she slept, and so did they.
---
Rose didn't know what to do. She was sitting in the kitchen, nursing a cup of tea. She noticed that Rehprom's cinnamon toast from earlier had disappeared. "The TARDIS must have cleaned it up," she mused. Jack was there as well, his feet propped up on the table, eyes staring into space. The Doctor was in the console room, probably doing some more unnecessary tinkering. It was his way of dealing, suppressing the emotion and turning it into activity.
Rose sighed. "I thought we had done it again," she said. "For a moment I thought we would have another happy ending like the one during the Blitz…where no one who was directly connected to us died."
"Yeah," Jack responded. "I kind got the impression when the Doctor said 'just this once, everyone lives' that this kind of thing happens a lot to you guys."
Rose nodded. "Death seems to follow him around a lot."
"I suppose that's life," Jack sighed. "You can't have life without death. It can't be cherry, sunshine and lollypops all the time."
Rose shook her head, lost in her own distant thoughts about the matters of life and death.
Neither of them noticed the Doctor leaning against the door frame, watching them silently. He waited for a few more seconds before clearing his throat audibly. Rose and Jack looked at him, both humans startled and wondering how long he had been standing there.
"Hey," Rose said to him softly in greeting.
"Hey. Just checked up on them," the Doctor indicated with his head and eyes in the direction of the infirmary. "They're all asleep."
Captain Jack sighed softly. "Where are we going to take them?"
"I know of a planet they can go," the Doctor replied. "It's nice…a bit like Canad, only warmer. They're used to taking in foreigners there."
"What's it called?" Rose asked.
"Adelalia."
AN/ I just want to acknowledge the website pregnancy info dot net. I went here to do some research about risk factors during the birthing process.
The pronunciation of the new planet, Adelalia is ad-el-ale-ee-ah.
References for this chapter:
Originally, I really wanted this fic to be just like that moment at the end of 'The Doctor Dances' when everyone is elated. Then I realised that the whole reason why the Doctor was so excited was because that doesn't happen to him very often. Plus I couldn't come up with a name that I really liked for Rehprom and Xaler's son, so he never receives one. And death is the Doctor's constant companion, after all.
"Sunshine and lollypops" comes from a 'friend' of mine who, when I was depressed, told me to think of "sunshine and lollypops." Instead, I thought of skin cancer and cavities.
Adelalia is Adelaide and Australia combined. This is where I currently live. I have heard Canada being compared to being just as nice as Australia, only Canada is "on ice." Indeed, Australia is in many ways just as good as Canada in my opinion, only a hell of a lot warmer. (As I'm typing, it's 42 Celsius.) Australia is also certainly used to taking in foreigners. Has been like that for centuries.