"I'm not allowed near the X-ray," Sarah said sheepishly after Kate had gotten off the phone, apologized for the oversight, and left while talking again on the phone to try and organize a transport team for the meteor. Mark sighed deeply.
"And there's no one else who can help me here," he said, and I raised my hand slightly.
"I know I'm not qualified, but I could help," I said. Mark raised an eyebrow up at me and I smiled before moving my hand to point at the Doctor. "By that of course I mean volunteer the Doctor."
"Where is everyone else?" The Doctor asked and Mark sighed again before gesturing towards the map.
"Spread around the English countryside trying to figure out how this volcanic activity keeps happening. Sarah and I are the only ones with the meteor since we're the most senior and because Sarah isn't fit for fieldwork."
"Careful Mark," Sarah said teasingly as she rubbed her hand over her stomach again. It sounded like it was a long running joke between them.
"Sounds like an opportunity for Sarah and I to have a little bit of girl time while you boys sort out the X-ray," I said and Mark laughed.
"Still can't let an opportunity for a chat pass you by hey?" He teased and I winked at him.
"You know it," I said. Truthfully, I was making an excuse to stay far away from the X-ray machine because that was a whole lot of science, while also making sure that Sarah didn't feel left out. The Doctor squinted at me like he knew what I was doing but let me off without a comment.
"Weird that no one saw anything," I said after they had left, and I was looking at the pictures again.
"Well UNIT facilities aren't exactly in well populated areas," Sarah said. I quirked an eyebrow up at her.
"We're in one of the biggest tourist attractions in London," I said, and she laughed.
"Exception to prove the rule. I believe the reasoning behind this location was hiding in plain sight. And in UNIT's defence we've managed to be a lot more subtle than those Torchwood people at Canary Wharf," she said.
"I don't know, people have at least heard of UNIT," I said with a teasing smile. Mark moved over to Sarah and gave her a kiss.
"I'd remind you what to keep an eye on, but you know better than I do," Mark said. Sarah laughed and chuffed his chin.
"You know it." I waited until they had left before turning to her with a wide smile.
"Is there a tea kettle floating around here somewhere?" I asked and Sarah nodded while pointing to a corner with a coffee pot.
"Mark and I are having a passive aggressive battle for dominance," she said as I pulled the kettle out from behind the coffee pot. I grinned.
"You mean he won't give up coffee with you and keeps rubbing it in?" I asked because they had both practically lived off the stuff in university.
"I mean exactly that," she said, and I laughed.
"So, how pregnant are you? Do you know what it is?" I asked and Sarah laughed.
"Sorry it's just you were trying to get people to place bets with you at the shower and I suddenly realized it's because you had future knowledge," she said and I smiled as I fixed up our tea.
"I do love using my time travel privileges for harmless evil. It drives the Doctor mad, but there has to be some benefits to doing stuff out of order on accident," I said as I sat down in a chair next to her. "Now answer my questions."
"I'm eight months right now. No, we don't know we want it to be a surprise." Sarah paused and looked at me, like she always did whenever she wanted to tell me something that was a bit of a secret, so I smiled and waved at her to continue with my mug while crossing an x over my heart. "I'm really scared of fucking it up."
"So is every new parent," I said automatically before I realized that she'd probably either already heard that advice or been telling her that. I sighed deeply. "Listen my parents fucked it up."
"I'm sorry Emma," Sarah said, looking like she was about to back pedal out of the conversation, so I set my mug down and held her hand between mine.
"No listen. I know you didn't bring it up to make me feel bad, and if my crap childhood can help you then it's no worries," I said. She swallowed her tea noisily before nodding.
"How did you parents fuck it up?" She asked.
"They fought. All the time, about everything and I got caught in the middle every time. And I didn't realize that that wasn't how it was supposed to work until I met Lillian."
"Jesus Emma," Sarah said and shifted our hands so she could squeeze mine in a death grip. I gave her a sad smile.
"You want to hear where they fucked up the most?" I asked and she nodded reluctantly after several moments.
"They had a fight about me the day my mom died. My Mom had promised to take me to get ice cream because I got a really good mark in science, and my Dad thought that was bribery. They had a fight and my Mom got in the car to drive to cool off. And then two weeks after that my Dad left." I was going to continue but I was distracted by the fact that Sarah was throwing her arms around me and sobbing. "Oh, shit I'm sorry. You got the half truth version before. That's my bad I'm so sorry Sarah."
"Why the fuck are you apologizing to me?" She sobbed out angrily as she released me. She looked furious. "God I could kill your Dad. How the fuck could he do that?"
"See Sarah? I just lowered the bar so low that there's no way for you to mess up," I said, and she glared at me half-heartedly as she mopped her face with tissues.
"How are you so calm about it?" And I blinked in astonishment because I realized that she was right, I wasn't jittering or crying or hyperventilating.
"Therapy," I said dryly in an attempt to cover up my hesitation. "Therapy and time."
"I don't blame you for not telling us the whole story Emma. No matter what it can't be easy to tell," Sarah said after a few moments and I shrugged.
"It's not. I'm doing surprisingly well today. Usually I'm a mess," I said, which made Sarah laugh loudly.
"Sorry for the waterworks, but I'm a hormonal mess these days," she said, and I laughed.
"I think that's allowed when you're eight months pregnant." Sarah giggled again before she groaned loudly as one of the machines started beeping and heaved herself out of the chair. I followed her over so that I would be able to say that I followed Rule Two even if the Doctor wasn't here. "Should I be worried?"
"Yes," Sarah said weakly and I snapped my gaze to look at her. She pointed at the readings. "These readings are the same as before the volcanic activity."
"Sarah I'm going to need you to sit down and not panic," I said firmly because she had gone deathly pale and had started rubbing her stomach at top speed. "Do we have time?"
"A couple of hours," she said distantly. I gave her a grin.
"Great. The Doctor works best under a time crunch," I said and pulled out my phone to punch in the Doctor's number. "Hi Doctor, we have a problem."
"What kind of a problem?" He asked.
"Readings that are the same as before volcanic activity. Don't worry we have a couple of hours," I said, and he laughed roughly.
"Oh marvelous. We're on our way back." I hummed at him and he started talking like he'd been stewing theories in his head. "It doesn't make sense what could a Lherzovillian want this badly. They aren't materialistic like humans."
"Didn't Pyrovile disappear for a while?" I asked.
"Well yes, but it made it back there eventually," he said and made a noise of frustration.
"Okay, but they're sister planets, right? Practically cousins, it would be like if France just suddenly disappeared for a couple hundred years."
"Emma, I'm not following you," he said, and I laughed.
"I'm not really following myself," I said before I looked at Sarah and realized where I was going. "Wait no I do have a point; they aren't materialistic so what else do people care about more than anything else in the world? What's something anyone would do anything for?"
"Family," the Doctor said absently before he gasped loudly.
"It's a baby. The meteor is a Lherzovile baby." At my words Sarah gasped loudly and seemed to clutch at her stomach and I felt a tiny bit of terror rise up in me as I pulled the phone away from my mouth.
"You'd best not be going into labour over there Sarah. Because the Doctor is not that kind of doctor and I will panic," I said threateningly with a pointed finger. She shook her head.
"I'm fine," she said, and I nodded.
"You keep that bun in the oven, got it?" I asked and she laughed. I heard the Doctor yelling my name down the phone, so I yanked it back up to my ear. "Sorry sorry I was talking to Sarah."
"Didn't I tell you to never do that to me again?" He demanded breathlessly as the door across the room flew open and I smiled at him cheekily.
"I believe your exact instructions were to never hang up after I told you someone in the same room as me had a gun so I technically haven't done that to you again," I said while Mark moved next to Sarah and made sure that she was fine. I gave the Doctor a bright smile and he growled something under his breath before swooping me up in his arms and kissing me.
"Keep up the sass and I won't give you brilliance kisses," he grumbled, and I laughed as I raked my fingers through his fringe.
"I don't need brilliance kisses when you kiss me like that," I teased and laughed again at his pout. "Now focus you're the Doctor and we're going to need your expertise because I've used up all my brilliance for the day."
"Just as long as you don't run out of sass," he said with a smile and pressed a soft kiss to my cheek before side stepping me to look at the various machines.
"Talk about mixed messages," I said as I rolled my eyes.
"Emma you're dating the Doctor?" Sarah asked with wide eyes as she looked between the two of us. Mark was looking a little poleaxed himself, so I shrugged casually.
"I guess that's one word for it. There aren't exactly many dates," I said, and the Doctor made an offended noise.
"I take great offense to that Emma Bradley," he said, and I tossed him a smile.
"Well since this is how pretty much ninety five percent of our dates turn out, sometimes I can't tell the difference," I said while fluttering my eyelashes towards him in faux innocence. "Guess you'll have to try harder."
"When did this happen?" Mark asked.
"When did we get together or when did we fall for each other?" I asked. "Because they were two very separate and distant events."
"Oh, Emma you just can't do anything the easy way can you?" Sarah said as she laughed. I grinned at her and winked.
"Well yeah Sarah I would have thought you'd have put that together. You were the complication for a time," I teased, and Mark laughed almost against his will as I noticed the Doctor throwing me a confused look over his shoulder.
"Got a plan over there yet Doctor?" I asked.
"I've been here maybe a minute Emma," he said, and I pursed my lips as I tipped my head to the side to think about it.
"How much of a plan do you have over there, Doctor?" I asked and grinned widely at the disgruntled look he gave me.
"Forty five percent," he admitted begrudgingly.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. Now I can't complain about not being caught up later!"
"You aren't funny."
"Please you think I'm hilarious."