"Be careful okay," I said before I pulled him into a kiss for good luck. While I had him distracted, I slid my phone in his pocket, feeling something smooth and square bump up against the back of my hand as I did so. I tried not to use my powers of distraction for evil and this scenario definitely wasn't an evil one.
"I'm always careful Emma," he said after we split apart and I smiled at him and smoothed my palms down his chest. "I love you."
"Love you too." I watched him go before I turned back to Sarah who had sat down and was rubbing her hand over her stomach. I flashed her a thumbs up as I settled into the seat next to her and she smiled at me.
"Thank you," she said. I patted her hand as I reached over and flicked speakerphone on.
"No need to thank me. I would have probably done it anyways. Or made him take me with him," I said with a wink.
"Everyone else thinks I'm overprotective. Sometimes I worry that they're right, but also most of the time Mark doesn't mind," she said, and I shook my head.
"When you love a self sacrificial idiot it's not overprotective," I said comfortingly because I could definitely relate to the fact that both of the people, we loved had the same tendency. And I also knew that was why the Doctor was so protective of me, because I could have the tendency to do the same thing. Sarah laughed.
"I guess the best way to explain it is that being a private at unit is like being a red shirt on Star Trek and being a scientist at unit is about a half step up." I laughed at that as well.
"Seems a pretty apt description," I said. Then Sarah grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
"Wait they're talking." We both fell silent as Mark's voice came through the phone.
"Doctor, do you mind if I say something odd?"
"I've heard a lot of odd things in my life so go ahead," the Doctor said. His voice was just a bit louder than Mark's due to the fact that the phone was in his pocket.
"I wanted to thank you. For Emma." Sarah and I shared a confused look at Mark's words.
"What?" The Doctor said.
"Emma, she seems good, better than I've ever seen her. And I'm just glad to see it," Mark said disjointedly. I could practically see the Doctor's frown. I was pretty sure that he had convinced himself that he was bad for me because of the panic attacks that I had had since travelling with him.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"When we were dating in university she always held people at arms length. It didn't really matter who you were it felt like there was always a huge wall that I couldn't get over." Mark paused for a moment. "She seems a lot more open than she used to. I'm happy to see it."
"You dated in university?" The Doctor asked and I could pretty much hear his mental math through the phone. Sarah squeezed my hand tightly and I flashed her a smile and waved my other hand at her dismissively. I really wasn't bothered by it anymore though I did wish that I could be there right now for when the Doctor put this together in his head. I had a feeling he'd take what was coming better from me.
"If you're trying to ask if I was the one who called her stupid, yes that was me." I could also perfectly picture Mark's self-deprecating grin. "Biggest mistake I've ever made. I'm sure Emma tried to sweep it under the rug, make it seem like it was nothing but it really wasn't."
"How-"
"Could I? Well a little bit more than a year of frustration." Mark chuckled slightly, still in that self-deprecating tone. "Not that that excuses anything because it doesn't but, dealing with Emma was frustrating back then. I didn't even know that her parents were dead until Lillian's parents got in that car crash."
"That wasn't-"
"My business? You're right. But I found out when she got the call about the crash and had a panic attack. I didn't know she got those either and I had no idea what to do about it and then she started muttering about how she couldn't lose them like that, like her parents." Mark sucked in a huge breath and I winced. There had been a reason beyond the fact that he had spoken without thinking that we had broken up. I hadn't been good at relationships back then, too afraid of losing people to really let them in and it wasn't fair to the other party. "And it was that moment that I realized that even though we had been dating for more than a year I didn't know anything of substance about Emma."
"That still doesn't explain how you could say that to her," the Doctor said with a hint of anger in his voice.
"I bottled it up. I bottled up my frustration in the hopes that she would start trusting me, telling me things. But she never did, and I wanted her to feel as bad as I did. I was angry and I took it out on her in the worst way possible. It was stupid and childish, and I will never ever regret anything that I ever do as much as that moment."
"Emma always says that she got used to telling half truths, because they didn't hurt as much as the whole truth and because she didn't want to outright lie to people," the Doctor said after a few moments of silence and his words sounded like an olive branch. "She intrigued me when we first started travelling together, because I could always see something lurking beneath the surface. Something that she wasn't telling me, but I couldn't figure out what."
"And I bet she could read you like an open book," Mark said with a chuckle. The Doctor huffed a laugh in response.
"She still can. I wanted to ask so many times because she would give little bits of information that would just drive me insane, but every time I got close to asking, she would look like she was bracing for impact." The Doctor must have demonstrated somehow because Mark made a noise of agreement. "And I was so desperate for her to stay that I didn't want to risk her running."
"I was ready to give her up after I apologized, I would have deserved to never have her in my life ever again, but she was the one who practically begged for us to stay friends. I agreed of course, because Emma is still one of the best friends I've ever had, but it broke my heart that she looked so desperately relieved when I said yes." Sarah squeezed my hand again and I looked up at her and she gave me a soft, sad smile.
"I'm good," I whispered, and she just nodded.
"I'm not," she whispered back, and I giggled slightly.
"She introduced you to Sarah, didn't she?" The Doctor asked.
"She did." Mark was probably still talking but Sarah had leaned in and rested her hand over the speaker.
"We want to name the baby after you if it's a girl," she said, and I felt tears prick at my eyes.
"Really?" I asked and she nodded.
"You got us together Emma. Plus, you have a beautiful name," she said, and I squeezed her hand tightly as I tried not to cry.
"I'd be honoured." I was going to say more but one of the doohickeys that the Doctor had set up started making noise. I wandered over to see which one it was and swore lightly under my breath when I realized which one it was. "Ah Crap he's going to kill me."
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked and I sucked in a deep breath.
"I'm about to do something monumentally stupid," I said and pulled Sarah's hand off the phone speaker before switching it off speaker mode. "Doctor!"
"Emma what exactly is your phone doing in my pocket?"
"Sarah and I were listening in on your conversation. But listen that's not important. Doohickey number three went off." He swore in Gallifreyan under his breath. "Yeah my thoughts exactly."
"How much time?" He asked, no doubt ready to come sacrifice himself and I sucked in a deep breath. Maybe someday the idea of dying on him wouldn't hurt so much.
"Not enough." He made a noise like he'd clued into my plan. "I love you."
"Emma Bradley, don't you DARE!" I slammed the phone down, scooped the baby up in my arms and took off for the stairs over the sound of Sarah shouting after me. I spilled out onto the lawn and sprinted as fast as I could to the containment thing that had been set up. Just as I got to the edge of it so did the Lherzovillian, twisting up out of the Earth to tower several stories above me and roaring in what sounded like agony.
"I know I know I'm sorry, but us humans are dumb sometimes," I said as I tightened my grip on the baby before I stepped into the containment area which was like getting slapped in the face with a flaming stick. "Ouch. Okay I'm pretty sure this baby is yours."
A hand appeared in front of me and I set the baby down in the approximate palm of the hand as gently as I could manage.
"Okay now just give me like, three seconds to get you out of here," I said and clenched my jaw together so that I wouldn't scream when I wrapped my hand around the metal rod holding the containment area together. I was dizzy with effort and pain by the time I managed to yank it out of the ground but I still stumbled my way to the second one.
"Emma!" I swayed on my feet but managed to wave in the general direction of the Doctor's scream as I collapsed to my knees in front of the third one and used the last of my strength to pull. There was a blast of intense heat as my energy gave out and I fell to the ground. "EMMA!"
"Emma Bradley this may peak the list of all the stupid idiotic things that you have ever pulled!" The Doctor hissed when the fog had mostly cleared from my brain as he dragged me away from the containment area.
"Have I just received forgiveness for the taser?" I mumbled around my sore jaw. I must have been clenching harder than I thought. His eyes were on fire with fury.
"I do not need your sass right now," he hissed as he ever so gently unfurled my hands and some of the anger burned out of him at the sight of my palms. "I swear Emma you are intent on seeing me to an early grave."
"Some people would argue that it was well past time. Hell, the Dalek's would throw me a party if they were the type of people who threw parties," I said as I heaved myself further up off the ground. His fingers gently swept over my palms and I twitched my nose at the tickling.
"Emma Bradley! What on God's Green Earth were you thinking!?" Mark shouted as he appeared at the same door the Doctor had only a few minutes previously.
"I was thinking that the Doctor was going to kill me," I said as Mark stormed towards me with his hands flapping around wildly.
"He'll have to get in line! Sarah gets first dibs!" Mark shouted and then waved a hand towards the Doctor. "Can you fix the telephones?"
"Telephones?" The Doctor repeated with confusion.
"Well yes, as you see I would like to call for a car because Emma so startled my wife that she's gone into premature labour," Mark said with a pointed look my direction and I winced.
"Well shit," I said. "Doctor I have a better idea."
"Of course, you do," he said bitterly, and I knew I was going to have to apologize for this one for a long time. "Might as well share."
"We all jump in the TARDIS because I know that you want to take me to the hospital anyways," I said and lifted my free hand in demonstration. He pulled a face and I laughed. "I love that facial expression so much."
"Which expression?" Mark asked.
"That's his 'Emma just had a great idea, but I don't want to admit it' face. Usually he only uses it when I suggest a dangerous plan of his calibre so I'm guessing that this time he's just trying to hold onto the fact that he's mad at me," I said. The Doctor muttered something under his breath before he swung me up in his arms.
"Sometimes you drive me absolutely insane Emma," he said before he turned to Mark. "The TARDIS is the fastest. And Emma is right that I want to take her to the hospital."
"Yes of course, let me just go get Sarah." I watched him hurry back to the stairs and tipped my head back to look at the Doctor.
"I am sorry," I said sincerely, and I felt him shudder as he pressed a lingering kiss to my head.
"I know," he said softly as he started walking to meet Mark and Sarah on the way to the TARDIS. "But I would be most grateful if you would quit."
"Why so that you could be the one doing the stupid stunts?" I asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Well," he drawled, and I smiled at him.
"Sorry I don't accept those terms," I said, and he laughed.
"I didn't believe for a moment that you would."
When we got to the hospital, I got an anti burn ointment of some kind smeared on my hands and a pretty good painkiller, before the nurse carefully placed gauze pads over top of it and told the Doctor exactly how to change my bandages. As soon as we had finished I fluttered my eyelashes to convince the Doctor to sit and wait for the baby to get here, which meant that despite my padded palms I was the third person on the planet to hold tiny little Emma Caroline Bingsleigh.