Title: Domestic Travels

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise from 'Doctor Who' episodes, books, or general canon, is not mine.Rose's extended family and the storyline are mine, however.

Notes: Sequel to 'Domestic Battleground' and 'Domestic Space'. I highly recommend reading at least the latter, because otherwise a lot of this won't make any sense. This is the third instalment in the larger 'Domestic' universe.

Notes 2: Gallifrey is back, through means unknown to any except Bad Wolf. Old friends have appeared, and more will come, as time and space are woven into knots by Bad Wolf. Something is very wrong with the fabric of the universe, and the Doctor is torn between protecting his wife and unborn child, and saving Gallifrey. Things are going to get a lot more complicated. He never really planned for domestic.

Chapter Seven

"Susan!"

Susan looked up with a wide smile. "Barbara! Ian!" She almost tripped across the control room and hugged her former teachers. "It's so good to see you!" She smiled at the other former companions. "Hello," she said. "I'm Susan."

"We met – on Gallifrey," Tegan offered, and beside her Turlough nodded.

"Oh, yes." Susan turned to her grandfather, and her smile froze on her face. The Doctor was facing away from the door, utterly still. "Grandfather?" she ventured after a moment, cautious. She'd learned the moods of this regeneration well.

The Doctor turned, not a trace of a smile in his expression. "Hello, all," he said with a brief nod.

There was a strange kind of silence for a moment in the TARDIS control room, then Sarah Jane moved forward.

"Doctor," she said, not quite questioningly but unsure.

"Sarah," he said, and now he did smile faintly, at the only companion who had not chosen to leave him. "It's been years." He narrowed the gap between them and hugged her tight. Startled, she responded, then withdrew and gazed at him open-mouthed.

"You've regenerated again," she said softly.

"Few times," he nodded, avoiding the accusation in her eyes.

"Regeneration?" Ian demanded. "What – I don't understand."

"Long story," the Doctor said with a grimace. "All you need to know right now is that I'm the Doctor." He looked over the others. "Liz, Tegan," he nodded. "Vicki." He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "Quite the reunion."

"This – this was a box," Jamie observed. "It's a lot bigger on the inside."

"It's alright, mate, I'll get you back home as soon as I can," the Doctor told him, uncharacteristically gentle with the man whose memories had been wiped because of him. "Don't worry about it." He turned to Susan. "Why don't you take them all in to the kitchen or something, yeah? Make a pot of tea." And keep them out of the way, he added silently. Susan nodded, receiving both messages.

"Alright," she said. "Come on, everyone. Barbara, what have you and Ian been up to?" Chattering away, she led the companions further into the TARDIS – all but Sarah and Tegan, who the Doctor stopped.

"What's going on, Doctor?" Tegan demanded. "The Master wants you, obviously, but –"

"It's a rather long story, Tegan, and I don't really have time," the Doctor interrupted her impatiently. "I need some information, and I need it quick. Are you two gonna help me or what?"

"Of course we'll help you," Sarah said testily. "You know better than that, Doctor." He had the decency to look slightly ashamed. "What do you need to know?"

"The Master – he's got Rose, Jo and Nyssa, right?"

"Yes – Rose had a fever." Tegan frowned thoughtfully. "That was a bit weird – she just suddenly got sick after she did that thing with the paper."

"What thing with the paper?" the Doctor demanded urgently. "Did she manipulate time?" The former companions both nodded. He swore and turned away from them. "No wonder she got sick – to be doing that inside a TARDIS, that heavily pregnant…"

"Doctor, who is she?" Sarah asked softly. "She's not human."

"She used to be," the Doctor said briefly. He leaned on the console and watched text swirl gently on the screen. He ignored the message.

"And now?" Sarah pressed.

"Who knows?" the Doctor muttered. "I don't think even she does."

"Who is she to you?" Tegan asked astutely, coming closer to him and touching his arm lightly.

The Doctor was silent for long moments, so long that Tegan stepped back, almost afraid. Sarah looked from one to the other, and reached out to pull Tegan away.

"She's everything," the Time Lord said at last in a low, unsteady voice. "She's my other half. I love her. She's my wife. She's carrying my child." He straightened and turned back to face them. "And I will tear his ship apart if I have to. There's nothing in this universe that can keep me from her."

"I can't be in labour!" Rose said frantically, trying to sit up. "Nyssa, you've got to be wrong."

"Your waters have broken," Nyssa soothed. "There's nothing we can do now but wait. The contractions have started." She pushed gently on Rose's shoulders, making her lie down again.

"This is unacceptable," the Master snapped from his position near the door.

"Well, you'll just have to accept it!" Jo cried, furious with him. "There's nothing you can do to stop nature happening!" She dipped her towel into the bowl of water next to her, and pressed it against Rose's forehead. "It'll be alright," she promised. "I've done this, there's nothing to it, honest."

"I'm not due for another two months," Rose said wildly. "This is impossible." Her hands pressed against her stomach, as though she could keep her child in.

"Very little is truly impossible," Nyssa reminded her. "You know that – we all learnt it, travelling with the Doctor." The Master snorted; she shot him a quelling look.

"I can't be giving birth here," Rose protested, throwing a dirty glance at the Master. "I just can't – he's got to be there when I have the baby!"

"Jack, you mean?" Jo asked.

"He will remain where he is," the Master said sharply. "You – Nyssa – I have no intention of harming the woman or the child. What does she require?"

"Blankets, hot water, pain relief – and time," Nyssa answered. "There's no rushing childbirth." She appraised him coolly. "Not even a Time Lord can do that."

"Oh god, here's another one," Rose moaned, and gripped Jo's hand tight. "I'm going to kill someone if he's not here for the birth!"

"Threats are worthless from someone in your position," the Master told her, sneering.

"I'm not threatening, I'm promising," Rose snapped, pushing herself up so that she was sitting upright. She glared at the Master. "Listen to me. You seriously don't want to mess with me, Time Lord. You get the Doctor here, and you get him here now or I won't be responsible!"

The Master took a step towards her. "The Doctor?" he demanded. "He's the father?" Rose didn't answer him. "But how – "

"You need a lecture on the birds and the bees?" Rose said incredulously. "And you're how old?" Annoyance flashed across the Master's face and he stepped forward, hand raised as though to strike her.

Nyssa stepped between them.

"If you lay a finger on her," she said, voice shaking, "I'll kill you myself." She stared up at him, defying the man with her father's face, and after a moment he moved away.

"Yes, it's the Doctor's child," Rose said after a moment, breathing deeply. "It's not due for two months. I'm human, or I used to be. The Doctor's going to rip you into shreds for taking me. Get all that, or do you need drawings?"

"Rose, keep calm," Jo instructed. "You'll need all your strength later."

"I've got more strength than most," Rose said simply. She clutched at something hanging from a chain around her neck – the Master recognised it as a TARDIS key. "God, this is all my fault," she groaned.

"So you made him sleep with you, did you?" Jo demanded tartly. "Come on, Rose, don't be like that." She looked up at Nyssa. "The contractions – they shouldn't be this close together already, surely?"

"I don't know," Nyssa murmured. "I didn't study human biology in great detail – I just don't know." She rounded the examination table and took Rose's pulse. "I don't like this."

"Neither do I," Rose grimaced. She glared again at the Master. "What's all this about then?"

The Master raised an eyebrow. "You think I will tell you, the Doctor's lover?" His tone was faintly incredulous. "You are either very naïve, or very stupid."

"I'm very pissed off," Rose said matter-of-factly. "Tell me."

There was something in her words, or it might have been the golden light that seemed to shine from her eyes, but for once the Master chose to relent.

"I felt it – the temporal distortion," he began. "Something happened, something that should never have been allowed to happen. I shouldn't have felt it – I was dead."

"The whole planet was dead," Rose snapped impatiently. "What's so different about you?"

"I was killed before," the Master said calmly. "Killed by the Doctor, and my own stupidity. I was not even in this body then. So you will understand my surprise at finding that not only could I feel the temporal distortion, but that I was being pulled into it." He raised an eyebrow. "To be brought back to life was highly unexpected."

Rose frowned, then moaned as another contraction hit her.

"Are they getting closer?" Jo demanded of Nyssa quietly. The other woman shrugged.

"But you shouldn't have been brought back then," Rose managed at last. "If you weren't around when Gallifrey was destroyed – how could you have come back? Bad Wolf wouldn't have –" She cut herself off abruptly.

"Bad Wolf," the Master repeated oddly. "There are legends in a hundred solar systems about Bad Wolf. How does it relate to Gallifrey and you?"

"It's a long story," the human retorted. "And I'm not going to tell you!" She flung her head back, riding out another contraction. "Nyssa – how soon?" she demanded.

"Soon," Nyssa said worriedly. "Far, far too soon."

"That's my foot, you moron!"

"What the hell's a moron?"

"What are you, retarded or something?"

"It's not a word we use where I come from!"

Grumbling, Ace pushed open a door and blinked as the light hit her eyes. Jack stumbled after her, barely avoiding a collision as Ace stopped with a pleased exclamation.

"Ace! My bag!"

"So there's weapons in there?" Jack tried to clarify, stepping around her to make sure there was no immediate threat in the room. "What kind?"

"Nitro-nine," Ace said with relish, pulling what looked like a can of deodorant out of the rucksack and handing it to him. "Massive explosion – the fuses sometimes go a bit wrong though." She grinned at Jack. "And don't shake them around!"

He returned the can hastily. "Right. Thanks for the warning. Anything else?"

"Nah – we won't need anything else," she told him confidently. "This'll be enough to blow up part of the TARDIS."

"Not anything to do with life support systems, I hope," Jack muttered, looking slightly worried. "We don't want to kill ourselves, and Rose into the bargain."

"If it's anything like the Professor's TARDIS, the life support will be in the main console," Ace shook her head. "So we should be fine."

"The Professor?" Jack queried, moving to the other door in the room and cautiously opening it.

"S'what I call the Doctor. Anything?" She joined Jack at the doorway. "Anything Master-shaped that I can punch?"

"Not here," Jack shook his head. "This is just some kind of holographic representation of the universe, as far as I can tell…see, there's our solar system, and there's the Scarlet Junction …"

"Wow." Ace pushed him into the room so she could see better. "And look – are those ships?" She pointed at small dots that were moving around, within galaxies and across them.

"Looks like it," Jack nodded, moving around the room to peer at a tiny planet in the Milky Way. "Look, it's Earth." He tried to guess the time period from the readout that appeared when his finger got close to the little blob of projected light.

"Jack," Ace said, in a horribly scared voice. "Jack, where are we, do you think?"

"Here," Jack said after a moment, pointing at a small reddish planet in a central solar system. "See, I can zoom in…" He did something that Ace couldn't see, and a moment later the planet had become larger. "There, this is intergalactic standard – this TARDIS is here." He grinned a moment later. "And look – so is the Doctor's!"

"Right," Ace nodded. "Go back to the way it was before?" Jack did so, and Ace moved to stand closer. "Look. There, that fleet of ships. Are they what I think they are?"

Jack zoomed in on the fleet, and his grin completely disappeared. "But they were destroyed. All of them, Rose destroyed them – wiped them out!"

"How could –"

"But Rose brought back Gallifrey," Jack muttered, ignoring the woman. "What if she didn't bring it back so much as reverse time? What if…"

"What if the Dalek fleet still exists," Ace finished quietly. She didn't really have a clue about what Jack was on about, but she'd got the gist. "And they're coming here."

"We've got to find some way to warn the Doctor," Jack said grimly. "He needs to know about this."

"But we can't leave Rose and the others here alone," Ace pointed out. "The Master wouldn't think twice about killing them."

"So we split up," Jack said. "The TARDIS shouldn't be that far away, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours –"

"We've spent the last hour stumbling around this ship!" Ace retorted. "We don't know where the others are, and we don't know what's happening to Rose!"

"Which is why one of us should stay here," Jack said firmly. "Look, if you hurry, you can get to the TARDIS and tell the Doctor what's happening, and I can stay here and keep trying to find Rose and the Master."

"And then what?" Ace asked sensibly. "The Master's a Time Lord – you can't just take him out by yourself." The two glared at each other, each certain that they were right.

"We need to work out how long it'll take that fleet to get here," Jack said at last. "Then we can decide on our options."

"We need to find out what's going on with Rose, as well," Ace pointed out. "If she's in danger -"

"She isn't," Jack interrupted, a fierce note in his voice. Ace stepped back, almost afraid of the expression on his face. "She isn't," he repeated, softer this time. "She can't be. She's Rose." He managed a smile. "The Doctor'll destroy this ship with his bare hands if anything happens to her."

Ace frowned. "But I thought you and she – "

"No." Jack glanced around, automatically checking to see if they were alone. "No. She and the Doctor are married – it's his baby." Ace stared. "We thought it would be better if the Master didn't know," he continued. "And he assumed that I was the father. It was just safer."

"But – Rose is human," Ace murmured. "The Doctor never –"

"So I've been told," Jack nodded. "I spent some time on Gallifrey, I know what the Time Lords are like. But Rose is different. The Doctor is different, and I don't just mean that he's regenerated. He's lived through a lot."

"Well, yeah," Ace said blankly. "He's hundreds of years old."

"This was different."

Ace stared at him for a moment, then nodded. "Right," she said. "Let's find Rose."

"I am not ready to have this baby," Rose screeched, ignoring Jo's attempts to soothe her. "It's too soon – I'm not ready to be a mother!" She had, some time before, started walking around the room with the other woman's support. Now she paused by the bed, sipping from the cup they'd found in a cupboard.

"The baby doesn't think so," Jo said, trying to help. "Babies come when they're ready, Rose." She shot a glare at the Master, who had been complaining a moment before. "And they come as slowly as they like," she added tartly.

"God, I take back everything bad I ever said to my mum," Rose managed through clenched teeth, moving again. "This – bloody – hurts!" She leaned against a wall as another contraction approached.

"You don't know what pain is," the Master said dismissively.

Rose growled and launched herself at him; Nyssa and Jo held her back. "You bastard! You don't know anything! When you've given birth, then we can talk about pain! When you've looked into the Vortex, then –" She cut herself off, more because it was too hard to talk than because she didn't want the Master knowing about that. She braced herself and cried out with the next contraction.

"The Vortex – the Time Vortex?" the Master demanded urgently, moving towards her, ignoring the glares sent to him by both Nyssa and Jo. "What are you talking about, girl?"

Rose let out a wail. Her head dropped, her face curtained by her hair. When she looked up again, golden light shone from her eyes.

"Where is he?" she asked, her voice somehow altered. "My Doctor. Where is he?" She pulled away from the supporting arms of the other women. She seemed almost surprised at the way she was balanced, and her hands went to touch her stomach wonderingly. Golden energy seemed to shimmer under her fingers. "This is not supposed to be yet," she said with eerie certainty. She looked around, looking at the occupants of the room. "Healer," she murmured of Nyssa. "Daughter of Traken." She moved towards the Master, who seemed unable to move. "You…Lord of Time…where is my Doctor?"

"Your Doctor?" he managed.

"He is mine," Rose said serenely. "My Doctor. Where is he?" Another contraction caused her to almost double over, but she didn't cry out this time. "He must be here. This is not right."

"What are you?" the Master demanded, pulling himself together. "I demand you answer me!"

"I am the Bad Wolf." Powerful, awesome, Rose and Bad Wolf combined seemed to draw all energy in the room towards her. "I create life and I take it. I am more than everything and less than nothing. Where is my Doctor?" She was growing angry now; the energy and feeling that was Bad Wolf didn't seem able to cope without the Doctor there to temper it, to help contain it.

"Bad Wolf," Nyssa murmured. "What is Bad Wolf?"

"Rose, sit down," Jo urged. "The contractions are so close – the baby will be coming soon!"

"The children," Bad Wolf said, her voice whispering around the room. "My children. They must have their father as I did not." She waved her hand, and the door slid open. Helpless to do anything but follow, the Master and the two former companions of the Doctor followed this strange being as she walked – no, almost floated – down the corridors of the Master's TARDIS. Doors were flung open before her, light flooded her path. Before long she had reached the control room, and then she was outside the TARDIS.

Here she faltered, and looked around momentarily as if lost.

"Rose, what's happening?" Nyssa demanded. "What's going on?"

"I must find him," Rose whispered, and this time she did moan with another contraction. "They will be here soon. He must be here!" She scanned the horizon. "Doctor. My Doctor. He is there." She pointed across the hot planet at a speck of blue. A moment later the speck disappeared, and all four heard the wheezing sound of a TARDIS materialising.

"My Doctor," Bad Wolf said, and fell to her knees. "My family," she whispered.

The door to the Doctor's TARDIS opened; the Doctor strode out, taking in everything in one glance. Disregarding the Master, he dropped to the ground next to Rose.

"Rose, you control it," he said strongly. "Bad Wolf is you, not the other way around. Come on now, Rose, don't you want to be here for our baby?"

She looked at him, the Bad Wolf and Rose, and she cried.

"You're here," she said.

"Yes, I'm here, love," the Doctor murmured. "Rose, let's get you inside. Don't want to be giving birth in the sand."

"You have to be there," Rose said pleadingly, golden energy fading. "Please, Theta, I can't do this!"

"Yes you can," he assured her. "My strong, brave Rose." He glanced up at the other three, nodding briefly to his former companions before turning darkened eyes on the Master.

"No," Rose said, clenching his hand tightly. "No, he's – argh – " she cut herself off. "I want these things out of me!" she cried.

"Into the TARDIS," the Doctor said, and lifted her easily in his arms. "All of you." He didn't give the Master a chance to object, he forced them all into the TARDIS and kicked the door shut behind him.

To be continued.