A/N: This is the chapter. If you're particulary sensitive and can't watch Titanic on the third time without crying still, feeling kind of vulnerable or you've just watched Doomsday, please stop at the prompt and scroll down to bottom a/n, 'cause even I was thinking of rewriting it because it seriously hurts.

Having second thoughts now...okay, no. Gotta post it. Sorry.

Chapter 27 – Eva Jela Sigma-Tyler

"Just stay with me Doctor," Jackie held the half conscious Doctor in her arms like he was her own son. It can't have been more than five minutes since he'd started giving Rose blood, but now here he was, weakened and almost lifeless. "Ya can't go sleeping through your daughter's birth can ya?"

"No…" he muttered, and Jackie saw him slip down in the chair a little more as he lost a further strength. She had to do something. Anything.

"C'mon, up ya get," she said, lifting the Doctor's limp body up to standing position next to her, pulling him forward, trying to make him pace the room. The blood tube that connected him and Rose was thankfully relatively long, so he was free to move around the room a little way.

His head dropped weakly onto her shoulder as it lost support, and Jackie knew he couldn't give much more blood. Rose had to wake up soon, or both her and the baby would die, and maybe even the Doctor.

"Doctor, tell me a little about your travels with Rose," she attempted to start a conversation with him – anything to keep him going. "I never get to 'ear much before aliens invade!"

"Wha' d'you wan' ta know?" he slurred, leaning a bit more on Jackie as they walked.

Jackie thought quickly. "Tell me…about the most beautiful place you've been with 'er."

He went even more limp against her. Okay, not working.

"A carn' rememba," he groaned, his words getting more and more merged.

"Sure ya can, Doctor. Everyone can remember the most beautiful place they've been. Even I can remember."

"Tell me."

Jackie stopped for a moment, looking down at the weak Time Lord resting his head on her shoulder.

"It's gonna sound stupid…" she tried to evade it, but he persevered.

"Tell me," he repeated.

She sighed. "Twenty years ago, while I was pregnant with Rose, Pete took me down to Cornwall – to this place called St. Ives. I didn't listen at first, but I finally agreed to go with 'im just to shut 'im up. He took me to a spot on a cliff that overlooked the beach. It was night, and you could see all the lights on in the town behind it, reflectin' off the sand left on the beach where a few people were sittin' on the rocks above the water. It looked amazin'. Probably nothin' compared to your space stuff, but still, it was nice."

She looked down at the Doctor, who now appeared to have completely passed out.

"Oh no, no, no, no…" she muttered, hauling him up a little more. "Come back to me Doctor, you can't leave now…"

"Mum…Doctor…" a voice suddenly said, and Jackie instantly turned them back around to face the waking Rose.

"Welcome back Rose," Jackie said, dragging the limp Doctor and herself back over to foot of the bed. "We've still got one more to come, and you passin' out weren't exactly smart."

"What's happened to the Doctor? Why's he so pale?" she asked, looking at her half-dead Doctor.

"He gave you his blood Rose, and now we've gotta get this baby out as quick and as mess free as we can so he can stop. Ready?" she asked, and the Doctor suddenly opened his eyes and looked at them both, using the bed to get himself upright.

"I'm here Rose…" he took a few deep breaths, his speech suddenly a whole lot clearer. "I promised I wouldn't leave you."

Jackie and Rose both smiled to themselves, before Jackie issued the command.

"Push!"

This time, the Doctor watched as the baby emerged. Maybe the blood had been clogging up his brain or something, this was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He was a father. And here right infront of him, he could see his little girl feel the first brush of air to her cheeks, the first gasp of oxygen to her lungs.

The first gasp of oxygen to her lungs…

Wait.

The Doctor suddenly realised with mild horror, that she wasn't breathing.

(---STOP IF YOU WANT TO AND SCROLL DOWN TO BOTTOM A/N!---)

On fatherly impulse, he dived forward and took hold of the child's tiny head in his hands, screaming at Rose to push whilst he gently pulled. Soon it became apparent what had happened – the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck.

"Rose! Stop pushing!" the Doctor yelled, trying to decide what to do.

"Doctor, hurry it up!" Jackie shouted looking at Rose, who was now unconscious from her blood levels again. Within an instant she'd started bleeding profusely again, and the Doctor could only hear screaming inside his mind.

"Just…gimme a minute!" he shouted back, lifting a hand to try and get the umbilical cord off of the baby's neck, but he would need more slack line to get it off, and to do that he had to get the baby out gently. The baby's face was starting to go blue – he couldn't stall for much longer. "I've gotta pull her out quickly!" he explained, clutching the baby at it's ribs again as he made ready to pull.

Then he realised.

"If you pull on the baby to force it out quickly now it's neck'll break!" Jackie echoed this devastating thought, staring at the Doctor with wide, horrified eyes.

"Rose is bleeding to death!" the Doctor yelled back at her, shaking with fear, rage and pain, the ribs of the baby he was holding suddenly feeling weak and fragile in his hands.

He didn't know what to do. If he pulled, the baby's neck would break, killing it instantly. It was still too young - it wouldn't be able to regenerate. However, if he took a moment to try and ease out the baby gently and slowly and get the umbilical cord out of harm's way, Rose would bleed to death, no doubt.

For once in his life, the Doctor was clueless. With every second that slipped away while he thought about it, Rose was slowly dying. He had to act; quickly.

His eyes looked up to Jackie, who was just staring on in fear. She was going to be no help. He was on his own.

He took a small gasp of air, closed his eyes – and pulled.

The snapping of the baby's delicate neck bone was so quiet, it was almost like the breaking of a thin twig. The Doctor couldn't breathe. Both his hearts were hurting with every beat, aching as he stared at the tiny dead baby girl now lying in his hands – unable to believe what he'd just done.

Despite how pointless it truly was now, he grabbed the second blanket and wrapped it around the lifeless child, desperately trying to keep it's little head up and aligned with the rest of it's body, lying to himself that it's neck wasn't broken. He could fix it – right?

Wrong.

Tears were now pouring down his cheeks from the ultimate sorrow as he sank to his knees, cradling the bundle of blankets containing his motionless daughter tightly.

He'd saved one life, but lost another.

He was, and always had been, nothing but a murderer.

Eyes were on him as he cried shamelessly upon the Infirmary floor, before opening his wet eyes to meet the gaze of the now conscious Rose. He opened his mouth, choking sounds just emitting as he struggled to find the words, still cradling the baby.

"Rose," he managed to whisper, not taking his eyes off of hers. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

A/N: If you've scrolled down, you can be assured that the baby died. I'm sorry. This entire story was influenced by one sentence my friend said to me one day after she told me her three month old sister died. It goes a little something like this:

"They say people die because they've done something wrong in their life - but what can a three-month-old baby possibly do to deserve to die?"

Yeah. I still remember that.

Take a moment to look at the genres. Tragedy/Humour. A lot of you have asked me why it's that, because it's not common. I know. Hopefully you can see why now. It always had to go this way.

Anyway. I'm depressed now. I think you can see that...

Note: St. Ives is a real place in Cornwall in the south-west of England, for those that didn't know. I love that view, I think it's amazing. If you walked up through the carvan park and then err...through the (cough)outofbounds(cough) plain, you can climb around the rocks onto a small platform on the cliff. Just er...don't fall. It's a loooong way.