The only way that the atmosphere in the TARDIS could be described with after she saw the hearts of her babies on the scanner was awkward. Not even her English teacher vocabulary could come up with a word as fitting as that seven letter piece of language.

The Time Lord wasn't being mean at all- hell, he was even being nicer than usual, responding to her every whim for food and drink and activities, and then some. He wasn't uncooperative- he helped her in any way he could, kept her company when she needed it and buggered off when she didn't.

What the Doctor was being was avoidant.

Sure, he was there when she requested it, but the rest of the time, Clara could hardly find him anywhere. He always seemed to be hiding somewhere in the depths of the time machine, and it was only when she yelled his name that he ever came running.

Even in the times that he was there, listening to her desires, the Doctor never seemed to actually paying attention to her. Instead, it was as if he was responding to just some pregnant woman that he had been enslaved to for the duration of the gestation. He never met her eyes, or looked directly at her face, always vaguely gesturing in her general location. There was no person next to Clara to feel her children's kicks and acrobatic moves. No one there to help her through this journey.

After two weeks of such behavior, needless to say, Clara Oswald was a little, teensy, tiny wee bit peeved.

Okay, she was pretty furious.

It was in exasperation to that conduct that the woman now found herself wandering the corridors of the TARDIS.

"Please, just show me where he is," Clara groaned to the time machine, leaning into the hallway and sighing heavily. "We need to talk, we need to sort this out, and you!-"She jabbed her finger at the ceiling in anger- "Are going to lead me to the Doctor, alright?"

She looked around all the walkways for a few moments, resolute in her action, before the TARDIS lights dimmed and the emergency bulbs running the low perimeter of the corridor started to glow brightly in a certain direction. Smiling, Clara patted the railings to her side, mentally thanking the ship for being so compliant.

Rounding a couple of corners and zig-zags, the lights ultimately gave way to a lightly yellow dusted door in the middle of a corridor with strange circular markings on it. She frowned, the unusually tailored threshold immediately striking her as strange, and tried to remember if she had ever seen such an entrance in the TARDIS before, but came up with nothing. Shrugging her shoulders, Clara grasped the door handle, ready to face whatever lied behind.

Walking into the room, the only action she seemed to be capable of was gasping and placing a hand over her mouth in shock. Her brown eyes wide, she scanned the beautiful scenery before her.

What first caught her attention was the ceiling, it was painted solid black, but that wasn't all- stars and galaxies and universes in every color imaginable floated around the skyscape, as if it was a scale model of the whole cosmos. The other walls of the room were beautifully done as well, in a soft orange hue. To her left, there even seemed to be a sort of hologram window that projected a scene of an earth pasture, with green grass waving in the wind and a blue sky above.

Fascinated, Clara began to look more throughout the space. There were bookshelves, where she could make out the name of classic children's books, and mats on the floor, with soft stuffed animals, toy trains, and various other playthings that she couldn't even place a name to, from other planets and times that she might never even see. In the midst of it all, she noticed, tears in her eyes, were two blue painted wooden cribs, mobiles of planets and stars above them dancing with the universes depicted on the ceiling, with a long couch besides.

"You shouldn't be here," A gruff voice shook Clara out of her marveling. Startled, she turned around from the position she had been inspecting the cradles, and saw the Doctor standing there.

"I wanted to talk with you, and the TARDIS led me here," she offered as an explanation. Pointing around the room, she asked the most pressing question on her mind. "Doctor- who is this for? Did you- did you do this?"

The Time Lord stared at the floor then, unwilling for a while to answer her question, examining his feet sullenly before he lifted his head up again. "Who else would this be for, Clara?" He finally asked, the weariness in his eyes shocking the human woman. "Do you know of any other person who is giving birth to my children?"

"I would sure hope not," Clara chuckled, before seeking confirmation to the rest of her question. "So… you did this." A sudden realization hit her. "This, this is what you've been busy with these past few days. You've been creating this- this place- for our children." She smiled softly.

"Yes," the Doctor admitted, a slight blush coming to his cheeks at her kindness that Clara thought was absolutely adorable. "I know it's a long time really before we'll need a nursery, but-"He gestured with his hands around the area. "I just had to… make this feel real," the Gallifreyan explained.

Clara nodded. She understood. Ever since the revelation of her pregnancy, time had seemed to move in a dream-like, languid manner. Space turned on its head. If designing a nursery for their children gave the Doctor a chance to find some sort of anchor in the insanity of recent current events, she couldn't deny him the comfort. The Impossible Girl glanced to the ceiling of the room yet again, with its stars and constellations. Especially such a stunning distraction.

"How did you even find me?" The voice of the Time Lord woke Clara from her starry stupor. The Doctor pointed to the door to the nursery that purported the yellow-dusted circular mess of scribbling on the front. "I wanted the TARDIS to keep this hidden."

"I asked her for help in finding you," Clara admitted, folding her arms. "You haven't exactly been… very present lately, Doctor." She sighed. "I think we both know that we need to talk. Properly."

The Doctor grimaced at first; as this was his natural reaction to such a request, but in the end nodded his head and made his way to sit down on the couch near the cradles and motioned for Clara to take the place next to him. Grinning gratefully and uncrossing her arms (a conciliatory gesture), the woman plopped down on the cushions, briefly holding her stomach as her babies moved as a response to her changing position.

Watching these unfolding events with keen interest, the Time Lord soon decided that something must be done about the awkward silence that had suddenly filled the room after his kind offer. Letting out a breath, he said uncertainly, "So… what's on your mind then?"

"Well, first," Clara started, looking into his eyes, "We need to stop avoiding each other, Doctor." The man moved to protest but the woman butted in anyways. "Yes, I know that much of your avoidance was in building this gorgeous place, and I really do appreciate that," she acknowledged. "However, you were still avoiding me. We still never truly talked about what having these babies-"Clara rested her hands on her belly- "Will mean for the rest of our lives."

The Doctor nodded. "I promise, Clara, that I'll do my best to be more there for you."

The Impossible Girl smiled back. "I know you will, you daft old man. I just needed to lay down the law. Set the bricks."

"So you're ready to begin your interrogation of me?" the Time Lord laughed as Clara spluttered and hit him playfully on the arm.

After calming down, Clara shook her head. "Yeah, I do have some questions, actually."

The Doctor lifted his owlish eyebrows in an effort to persuade her to fire away.

"Okay, for one, how many more months will I be pregnant? How long has it been going on already? Everything's kind of a jumbled mess and all timey-wimey, and you've basically only given me estimates of what's going to happen, and I know you've most likely been doing the mathematics and research about this." the woman began. "Two, how much Gallifreyan and how much human will they be? I know technically, about half and half, genetics and all, but what will really happen? Will they be of higher intelligence than humans? Will they have different organs and body parts? Because frankly, I'm not a Time Lord- and if they do have above average intelligence and two spleens and two hearts, will they be able to fit into a regular school? Should I keep living in my flat or should we live in the TARDIS or-"Clara let out a deep breath and promptly blushed at the Doctor's accusatory look. "Alright, yes, I really might be interrogating you, sorry."

"I thought so," the Time Lord replied, shaking his head but smiling at her. "To be blunt, you're right. I have been trying to work out all the maths and research about this pregnancy. We need to be prepared for anything that might come up, you know." He continued after he heard Clara's noise of confirmation. "In terms of the duration of your pregnancy, you're very close to being in six months of development, and will likely be pregnant for eight more months, leading to a total of fourteen months. However, Clara, you've truly been already pregnant for over a year."

"What? How can that-"the woman gasped, shocked at first, but then her eyes widened. "God, you're right," she mused. "Bowtie and I got it on in early December of my time, 2013. But how- I mean, shouldn't I have given birth by now, then?" Clara questioned.

"Basically, Gallifreyan biology," the Doctor responded. "It is likely that in the few weeks after when the embryo was implanted, it developed normally. However, Gallifreyan embryos have the capacity for low-level telepathy with their parents throughout a pregnancy, even from the earliest days. Therefore, this allows them to be able to sense when a parent has regenerated. And if a parent does regenerate, and the baby recognizes that, they usually stop developing along a normal time frame, instead opting to lie dormant in their current stages of development until they detect that their parents have recovered from the shock of the regeneration." The Time Lord shrugged with a half apologetic and a half extremely embarrassed smile, glancing at Clara's stunned and quizzical expression. "I know it's a bit weird, by human standards."

Shaking herself out of her stupor, the woman grinned back at the Doctor. "Yes, it's all very strange Doctor, but I think you get used to the unusual when traveling with such an alien as yourself. It's nothing I can't handle." However, a frown soon occupied her face again. "Once our babies are born, will they be any different than human children? Again, how much of them will be human, and how much of them Gallifreyan? Are there any other ways that my pregnancy might differ from a human one?"

"Most likely, they'll be just about 50% Gallifreyan, 50% human. Genetically, anyway. Some Gallifreyan traits might be more prevalent, maybe some more human characteristics. Judging by the two hearts of each of our children though, I'd say that the Gallifreyan in them, at least in anatomy, will be predominant. They'll probably be able to regenerate, for example." The Time Lord winced at the thought of his children being in such pain, and stealing a look towards Clara, she seemed to feel the same. "And mature a little slower, and have a higher mental capacity at an earlier age than humans, with telepathic abilities. With regards to your pregnancy, besides the extended gestation, there won't be much difference. Around your seventh or eighth month of pregnancy you and I might be able to sense the twins telepathically for the first time, and communicate with them to an extent. But otherwise, it will just progress as a human pregnancy."

"That's good to hear. You may be a weird old Time Lord, but at least you're not too strange. There's not too much to worry about," Clara joked, nuzzling her head into the Doctor's shoulder lightly.

Although tensing at first at the atypical display of physical affection, the man leaned into her touch for a while, before pulling back slowly once a thought crossed his mind. "There is something that we do need to worry about though, Clara." His attack eyebrows furrowed. "Our children will likely be targeted. Time Lords have many enemies, and added with the amount of enemies that I've made personally, well…" He sighed. "We just need to be careful. At every turn. I don't want to worry you too much, because I promise to always help you keep our babies safe, but you do have to be aware of what's out there. What danger could come for all of us."

Clara nodded, understanding the seriousness of his request. "Of course, Doctor, I understand." Just then, a yawn caught her off guard, and she let out a huge drag of breath.

"Someone's sleepy then," the Doctor mused, before grasping Clara's hand gently. "It's about time that you go to bed." The woman beamed in response and slowly used the Doctor's support to lift herself and her growing pregnant belly off of the couch, softly blushing as she stood up fully and let go of his hand. 'Thank you, Doctor," she replied.

The Time Lord gave a curt nod in reply and gestured toward the nursery door, letting her walk out of it. With one last lingering glance towards the stars that he had painted on the ceiling, glittering to drive back the dark, the Doctor shut the door behind him.

"What do those circles mean?" Clara asked, pointing at the two circles with circular designs in them that graced the outside of the pastel yellow door. "It looks kind of like what's up on the TARDIS rotors, but not quite."

"It's a form of my written language, Gallifreyan," the man answered. "When the twins are born, I've programmed the door- really an elaborate touch interface- to display their names in the language. But for now, it just says 'Our children.'"

"Our children," Clara whispered, as if she silently agreed for all that phrase stood for. With a soft smile towards him (sad, but happy, why did she always have to display so many emotions at once?), she stepped ahead to walk back towards the console room.

Once they had reached the console of the TARDIS, the Impossible Girl looked over her shoulder at the Doctor just as she was about to descend the stairs to her bedroom. "Goodnight, Doctor. I'm really glad we talked," she said.

"Me too," the Time Lord replied. "Take care of yourself, and the little ones."

Her smile was radiant, truly the happiest grin he had seen from her in quite a while. Although he wouldn't have liked to admit it much, the Doctor couldn't help but having a happy grin too as he stepped down to the other side of the control room, down to his bedroom.

The two, still lonely but not alone anymore, went their separate ways, not noticing at all the screen that came to life above the gears of the TARDIS and the grainy image of an eyepatch that appeared for seconds before disappearing back into the unknown from where it had come.


FINALLY.

I'm so sorry that uploading another chapter took almost a whole year. I can blame it all on school, applying to college, mental health, writing other fics, and so many other things, but I still really do apologize for this taking so long. Hopefully, since I now have this fic planned out and have a little bit less stress in my life currently, I can make more headway on this fic in the next few months. I also will be updating Ecstasy of Domestic Crisis soon, having a master plan for that that I feel I can go through with as well.

Anyways, enough of my blabbering. Thank you so much for reading, and please feel free to leave a comment, kudo, or bookmark! All of these things got me going to finally deliver this chapter to you guys.

Have a wonderful day, night, week, month, year, and beyond. Thanks for continuing to support this piece of work!