Chapter 6

The baby arrived in a spring early morning. Alit, the brave little girl who had helped the Doctor defeat the cybermans, joined Nardole and Missy in building the ship when she could after school. It was no wonder why the Doctor had chosen her, she was clever and resourceful, always attentive to her surroundings.

It was her attention that woke her around 2 o'clock in the morning, or maybe it was Missy's low moans and her heavy hurried breathing on the other side of the wall.

Alit rose quickly and quietly. Shee did not nock at the door, but opened it gently. Missy was sitting on the bed, leaning her weight on her arms, her legs stretched out under the covers. She was completely sweaty and her face contorted with each new breath.

"Would you mind to call Nardole and Hazran, love?" She asked with a ragged breath and a faint smile on her lips.

From then on the house came to life. While Nardole was helping Hazran get water, clean cloths, and the medical equipment they had found at 506 floor, Alit remained with Missy.

In fifteen minutes it was all over, and Nardole breathed a sigh of relief that everything was fine and the time lady's worries were nothing more than mere possibilities.

There were no screams or loud cries and if Nardole and Hazran had not made a rush through the old farm house, no one would know the baby was born. Throughout the process Missy only said a few words in Gallifreyan between her breaths and when she came into the world the little girl opened her eyes with curiosity.

The baby was soon put into her mother's arms and stared at her with big blue eyes like sapphires. Tears streamed down Missy's face, mingling with sweat, but she did not care. Here was her little miracle.

A suffocating sensation grew in her chest, warm and comforting, a sensation for her long forgotten, the unconditional love that only a mother could have for her child.

"She's so beautiful." Alit said looking at the baby over Nardole's shoulders.

"Isn't she?" Missy smiled even more, nestling the baby angst her chest.

"She's certainly the most beautiful baby I've ever seen." Nardole said without taking his eyes off the child. "How you gonna call her?"

"Oh..." Missy looked at the three of them and looked back at her daughter, biting her bottom lip. Shee had chosen a name following the traditions of her people, but first she should tell the father.

"You don't have a name for her, do you?"

"I sure do!" What is the need to give a child a name as soon as it is born? It was not like she was going to use her baptismal name when she grew up. Missy was no longer Koschei, the Doctor certainly was not Theta anymore. Time's Lords become what they want to be, their identity gives them a name, not their parents.

She thought for a minute. The baby would certainly need a name, an easy, common name.

"Beatrice." Beatrice as the name given by Queen Victoria to her youngest daughter, as Dante's guide to Paradise, as one of the protagonists of Shakespeare. Beatrice, a common name in England at some points of history, something that would please the Doctor, since he was so attached to that country and that little blue planet.

"Welcome to the Universe, Little Bea." Nardole said, visibly pleased with the choice.

Xxxx

The Doctor tried to get out of the cold snow. His legs were beginning to become numb and his trousers damp, making it difficult to stand up. After two failed attempts and after getting Tardis's door a mess with snow everywhere, the Doctor managed to balance himself.

The irony of the situation still burned in his brain. He had been taken there after a meeting with Modanians and witnessed the birth of their cybermans to find his oldest self who had just fought the same cybermans of Mondas many centuries before.

He wondered what the real extent of Missy's damage to the universe would be as he stumbled inside Tardis on his way to the control panel.

Mondanian Cybermans were works of Mastre, not Missy. He corrected himself in thought. Her sin in that situation had been leaving him standing helpless. He knew that progress had been made, Missy had helped him to some extent and had protected him from her former self on the roof. She even had spent a few moments with him on the farm while recovering. Perhaps the simultaneous existence in two minds with such diverse thoughts and ideas had confused her.

It had been her departure that had bothered him not her swings of behavior after so much progress. Seeing her leave hurt him more than he could ever admit.

He collapsed again on his knees as he was about to reach the control panel. The pain inside him resurfaced harder, expanding inside him uncontrollably until it reached the edge of the unbearable.

Unable to restrain himself, the Doctor let out a deep cry of pain, it was late, he could no longer avoid regeneration. His body exploded with a intense golden light of the artron energy. All Tardis was lit with a blinding glow for a few seconds, and as the glow died away, his body fell on the floor with a dry thud.

"DOCTOR!"

A.N.: Gally – Nobody really know how long Time Lords carry their babies let's just assume she was at the end of her pregnancy.