"No-no-no," the Doctor breathed, his eyes wide with horror. The doctor-the medical one, not the one of everything-appeared confused, and looked at Donna in concern.
"You haven't been hiding this, have you?" he asked, frowning sympathetically. The Doctor looked up at her in disbelief.
"You knew?" he asked. She grimaced, looking away. "You-"
"I didn't know what happened," she cried, finally meeting his gaze. "Yeah, I missed my period, I've thrown up a few mornings, but I didn't think anything like this was gonna happen! I thought it was alien food!"
The Doctor set his jaw-as though she still held his mind in hers, she knew what he was thinking: he was furious, furious at her, even though he knew he couldn't blame her, which just made him madder. He was silent as they returned to the TARDIS, and while she milled about within the control room, he fled into his bedroom.
She didn't know why she preferred this room to her own; it was loud and enormous. However, it held something unbelievably familiar out there in the cold, strange space, something that not even her affects from home could replace: it was her home. She had given her heart to the TARDIS, and she couldn't imagine anything tearing her from it.
Twins, twins, twins…she allowed the word to fill her mind, how big it really was amazing her. She was going to bring two people into the universe. Two people-human or not-were suddenly, impossibly about to be brought into existence.
Her hand instinctively found her belly, and she brought her fingers across the cloth of her shirt-it had grown tight around her, she realized, though she hadn't noticed. She closed her eyes, listening to the song of the TARDIS around her. That pulse of life, she was certain it was ringing through her and through her children.
"No," he had said. He didn't want it, not at all. She allowed herself to concede that it could've been out of shock, not disgust, which he spoke. Detached though he was, he was never heartless.
She slowly crouched to the floor, hanging on to the control panel of the TARDIS.
In his bedroom, the Doctor was trying-and failing-to sleep soundly. Nightmares swept through his head, faces screaming into unkind blackness. Some were Time Lords, children of whom he still dreamt of fondly, in remembrance. Now there was only terror gripping his hearts, terror and the sound of death.
Others were not Time Lords. They were the faces of companions, lost to the stars because he could not protect them. Innocent people dead for his hubris, his incredible hubris, when he believed he could protect them.
He woke hours later in a cold sweat, grasping the sheets of his bed for dear life and clenching his jaw. Children-children aboard the TARDIS. He sat upright, rubbing his eyes with his palms. He felt nauseated, more so than when he had first been getting used to the TARDIS's back-and-forth flight.
He got to his feet dazedly, crossing the room and stopping by his mirror. He could see the face of the daughter of the Family of Blood; some things could never change. It was his own face, however, that drew his gaze. He saw an old man-with the mask of a younger man notwithstanding-tired and ragged. He needed to shave, but he didn't. He didn't care that he looked a mess. What he wanted was to go somewhere ancient and magnificent, or some faraway future planet filled with tacky tourist traps and out-of-the-way, understated scenic views. Someplace fun. But more than anything, he wanted to be able to look at Donna without remembering all he had lost-and how close he came to losing her.
As he left his own room and entered the control room, he found Donna lying against the control panel, her soft snores bringing an inadvertent smile to his lips. At the sound of his footsteps she stirred, rolling over and blinking up at him dazedly.
"Whattimizzit?" she asked before remembering the reason she was on the floor in the first place. "Oh-oh."
The Doctor exhaled slowly, leaning onto the controls before kneeling down and crossing his legs in front of himself.
"Where do you want to go next?" he asked. She opened her mouth, then cocked her head to the side in confusion.
"What?"
"Where do you want to go?" he asked, his voice a little more firm.
She furrowed her brow. "You-you still want me to come?" she asked in surprise. "I mean-even though-"
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Donna. Even if I did want to throw you out of the TARDIS before-not that I did-" he added quickly as she shot him a sharp glare, "-anyways, I've got to look out for you now. The universe is a dangerous place, every little bit of it. Don't want you to wander into a matter-dissolving vapor, do we? So just answer the question: Where do you want to go?"
Donna was silent for a moment, though it seemed like an eternity to them both. "What about…Felspoon?"
The Doctor forced a grin, and Donna wore one to match.
And so passed seven months.