Chapter 21 – The Old Nappy Change Routine

"I'm sorry?" the Doctor repeated, unable to believe his own two ears for the sheer relief now cascading through him at the nurse's words. The alien nurse nodded with a broad smile on her face – glad she could deliver such good news to the man. "But that's brilliant! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he yelled, bounding forward and giving the alien nurse an extremely huge hug of gratitude. "Can I see her?" he asked quickly as he pulled back with an immense grin plastered all over his face.

"Sure," the nurse almost squeaked, evidently unfamiliar with the Doctor's displays of gratitude. "Follow me."

The Doctor bounced along happily behind her as she led him through several corridors, passing sick aliens, worried visitors and doctors doing their best to save their patients.

This hospital was the best in the Universe – it ran around the entire planet's surface, continents split in wards with a staff body of over ten thousand.

They took a lift, then some stairs, and another lift until finally they were walking down the maternal ward.

"Bet you guys keep very fit in here," the Doctor commented as they turned right down the final aisle of expecting alien mothers. She laughed – and then he saw Rose.

"Rosiiiiiiiiiiiie!" he yelled, bounding forward towards her and wrapping his arms around her chest, squeezing tightly.

She seemed surprised…and in pain. "Doctor…let go…what…"

He didn't let go as he kissed her cheek delightedly. "It's okay! It's fantastically okay!"

"What?"

"It's Cleo, she's gonna be fine!"

"What's that 'bout Emily?"

"She's nine months developed – looks like She sped it up! She didn't force you into labour!"

"That's great Doctor…please let go of me…"

"Oh, sorry!" he said cheerfully, letting go and pressing another kiss to her cheek. "How d'you feel?"

"Achin' and hurtin' all over."

He shot her a smile, flexing his fingers and cracking them into place. Rose winced at the sound as he moved around into position behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders before he began to massage them gently.

"Ooo…" she moaned with the pleasure, trying not to let herself sound too dirty for the sake of the other patients currently staring her way. "Who taught you to massage…?" she asked, expecting the name of a Universally famous massager to come back.

"You did," he replied shortly, and her eyes widened in surprise.

"What?"

"When I was hurt, you gave me massages," he replied, but didn't continue. Obviously he thought it answered her question.

"They weren't as good as this…"

"They were better than this." She felt his hot breath on the back of her neck, caressing her senses as something soft pressed to it. She turned and replaced her neck with her lips, kissing him gently.

"Tomorrow we'll be walking out of here with a baby girl," he said as they parted, still working his magic hands over her back and spine as she folded her arms around his neck.

"I know," she replied with a smile, resting her head on his shoulder. "My beautiful baby Izzy."

"My beautiful baby Lara."

"My even more beautiful baby Freya."

"Rebecca."

"Amy."

"Alison."

"Vanessa."

"Jane."

"Chloe."

"Jess."

"The most beautiful of beautiful babies ever, Liz." The Doctor drew her into another hug, this time gentle and caring. "Is there anything you want?"

"A walk," she moaned tiredly, a hand passing over her eyes. "My legs need a stretch."

He nodded, slipping a supporting arm around her waist and lifting her carefully onto her feet; supporting her almost limp body he walked her down the aisle, following he path back to the waiting room.

"Let's go find Jack and Rory, give them the good news whilst you're still in stage one," he suggested, and Rose nodded in reply.

Jack shoved his hands in his pockets, feeling like an idiot whilst carrying around a cluster of nappies. He'd been completely duped by an infant child. Someone was going to pay for this, and he had no doubt it would be him.

He'd searched the entire floor, determining it was probably not wise to go on a full-scale hunt of the hospital for the sheer size of it. Rory hadn't been anywhere he'd looked. He truly was his father's son.

He decided he'd better go back to the waiting room just in case the Doctor popped back to let them know what was happening. Jack didn't have the faintest clue of what he was going to say when the dreaded question came, but he decided he should probably worry about that when the time came.

Which apparently, was now.

"Jack! Brilliant news, fantastic news even!" a loud, happy voice came from the doorway as several lifeforms nearly shot through the roof in surprise. "She's gonna be fine, she's…"

The Doctor was standing in front of him now, trailing off in mid sentence as he looked around the room, supporting a very dizzy looking Rose currently taking none of her body weight for herself. He was obviously confused.

"Is there something missing here?"

"I lost him, Doc," Jack said after a few more moments, obviously carefully selected words.

"You…lost him?" the Doctor repeated, a grin slipping onto his already ecstatic facial features. "Oh good boy Rory! He gave you the old 'nappy change' routine, didn't he?" Jack nodded with embarrassment. "Oh Captain, how could you fall for that?"

"I'm sorry Doc, he just slipped off…"

"Ah don't be. He's clever; he'll be fine. Besides, with me on downtime we need another person to make sure the Universe is safe," he pointed out flippantly, guiding Rose to a chair and helping her down into it. "No doubt saving the hospital from an invasion right now."

They all laughed like it was a joke – but the Doctor personally wasn't kidding.

Rory Sigma-Tyler fought his fear, knowing if his dad was here he wouldn't at all be afraid. Propelled on by the thought of the Doctor, Rory took a bold step forward – an action that seemed to surprise the figure as he reeled back into the darkness.

"I'm here to help you," Rory echoed his dad's words, grip tightening on the Sonic Screwdriver clutched in his palm for inner strength.

"What can a little kid do to help us?" the sound of a young male asked, all hope in his voice gone. "We've lost, we've all lost…"

Rory turned towards the door, reaching up to beside the frame where he could just about make out the outline of a light switch, flicking it on. He immediately swivelled around again, coming face to face with a surprising sight.

At least ten different lifeforms in all shapes, colours and sizes stared back at him, all wearing doctor clothing, but all chained to the wall they were leaning on. The room was empty apart from a disused MRI machine, looking like someone had got slightly angry and took out their rage on it.

Rory kept as calm as he could.

"I'm here to help you," Rory repeated, a yearning for trust apparent in his eyes – the lifeforms were almost mesmerised by the pleading. Knowing he had them taken in, he gave a warm smile – one of his dad's. "Tell me what happened."

They began to spill everything.