Chapter 3
Clara finally found her voice.
"Your machine is wrong, Doctor. I have never been pregnant! And even if I had been, how would I have known after a matter of days? None of this makes sense!"
The Doctor frowned as he looked down at the screen once more.
"You're right," he agreed and as he looked back at her, this time she saw sincere apology in his eyes.
"I'm sorry. I never should have jumped to conclusions. If that child was mine you wouldn't have known about it so soon. Obviously you did have sex with someone while I was looking for the gas canister. But even so, I'm here for you regardless - I wouldn't have turned my back because of what happened! I love you Clara, you know that. I would have supported any decision you made. If you wanted keep the baby I would have been willing to bring that child up as my own!"
She stared at him.
"I don't believe this! I just told you, I am not and never have been pregnant!"
"Yes you have," he insisted, "The Tardis isn't wrong. You recently had a termination...Oh no, could this be some guy on Earth I don't know about?"
"No because there is no one else!"
The Doctor felt confused as he looked at her.
"But you were pregnant. And now you're not. How can this be if you know nothing about it?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know," she said, and couldn't help the shiver that ran down her spine at the thought of it, "This makes no sense."
The Doctor stepped closer to her.
"Okay, let's try and figure this out. Tell me what happened at the party after I left you on the sofa."
She tried to think back, taking on the difficult task of putting together the pieces of a jigsaw of memories that had several pieces missing...
"You left me, I fell asleep -"
"Did anyone...do you think they might have done something while you were sleeping?"
Anger flashed in her eyes.
"I wasn't sleeping that deeply! No, of course not!"
"Okay, calm down, just try and think back."
She did, closing her eyes and recalling snatches of that night:
"I bumped into you...grabbed your jacket, pulled you close...you told me you needed to take me upstairs away from the gas...we got upstairs and I grabbed you again, I begged you, I wanted you...it took a lot of persuading..."
She opened her eyes.
"And by the way, don't take this the wrong way, Doctor, but you could have been a bit more gentle...I was aching for a few days afterwards... "
Utter confusion reflected in his eyes.
"Not you too – I know I didn't hurt you, I could never hurt you. Missy maybe, I hope not, but given our past history...But no,not you -"
Clara smiled as warmth shone in her eyes, and she quickly explained what she had meant:
"Not like that, I mean...you know, big boys should be careful. Especially very big ones?"
The Doctor blinked.
"As confident as I am with my equipment I can assure you it's not that big! Also size isn't everything, Clara!"
She giggled.
"But you knew how to excite me, I was sorry when it was over...I remember, I pushed my face against your jacket, I started crying...I said..."
Then it hit her.
She gave a gasp.
"I said.."
"Go on," the Doctor told her.
Clara's face had paled with shock.
"I said to him, I'm sorry, I just wish you were the Doctor! Oh god, who did I have sex with?"
Clara looked horrified.
The Doctor put his arms around her, gave her a brief hug even though he was not a hugger, and then let go again.
"Best if you forget about it," he said, and then he smiled that smile that told her he knew something but was holding it back.
"Don't," she warned him, "If you've worked something out, tell me!"
His smile faded.
"I haven't yet," he admitted, "But I'm glad it wasn't me, not under those circumstances. Not under the influence of drugs. I still keep hoping Missy was lying about what I did to her – many centuries ago I experimented with that gas when I was going through a wild phase and all it did for me was make me unable to perform. I'm hoping it had that effect at the party too – I don't want to think anything happened between me and Missy. But it might have. I can't remember."
Clara's eyes clouded with confusion.
"I was pregnant and now I'm not? I haven't had a miscarriage – my period isn't even due until next week!"
The Doctor fell silent as he looked down at the screen, and then he switched it off, but his gaze was still fixed on it as he ran thought the possibilities in his mind.
"We need to go back to Vastra's," he told her, "It could be worth asking if anyone saw anything suspicious, I know we didn't turn up anything before but that was the morning after the party, so it's worth a shot."
Clara said no more as he set the course for Victorian England, instead she tried again to think back, but could not get past the jacket and the way she had buried her face in it as she had told the man whose face she could not recall, how she had wished he was the Doctor...
On arriving in Victorian England, the Doctor had changed into his Victorian suit, and Clara had changed into a dress fitting of the period, and as she looked at him and thought how dashing he looked, she felt full of regret that she had gone with another man on that night.
"I want to apologise to you," she said to him as they approached the house of Madame Vastra.
The Doctor saw the look in her eyes and answered with deepest love.
"There's no need, Clara, " he assured her, "No need at all, there is nothing to forgive."
And then as he rang the bell, he had briefly paused to grip her hand and he then let go again.
Strax answered the door in his butler suit.
He looked to the Doctor and Clara, then let them in and closed the door behind them.
"The Doctor and Clara Oswald are here," he called out.
"Be with you in a minute!" Jenny called back from upstairs.
"May I take your coat, Doctor?" Strax asked in his usual brusque tone.
"No thanks. I'm not stopping long," the Doctor replied.
Then Strax turned to Clara.
"Do you wish me to take your coat?" he said sharply.
Then he smiled, adding, "Girl."
And the Doctor glanced at him, watching thoughtfully. The Sontaran usually confused human genders, calling Clara boy...
"You got it half right, Strax," Clara replied, "I am a girl. But I'm not wearing a coat, so no you can't take it."
The Doctor saw Jenny at the top of the stairs, and he glanced back at Clara.
"I won't be a minute," he said, and he went up the stairs to ask a few questions, and as he spoke with her, he glanced back down the stairway to where Clara stood with the Sontaran butler...
Strax stepped closer to Clara and smiled.
She reluctantly smiled back.
"Could you not stand so close?" she asked him.
He glared at her.
"Human scum!" he barked, and then his expression softened, "Would you like some tea?" he asked pleasantly.
"No thanks," Clara replied.
Then she looked at him again.
She was looking, for some odd reason, to his jacket. A look of confusion came to her eyes, and then she shook her head.
"We didn't..."
Strax was puzzled.
"Didn't what, Clara?"
She shook her head.
What a silly thought, as if she would have...
No, of course not!
"Never mind," she replied quickly, recalling the cut of his suit was much like any other man wore in this time period...
Then she glanced up the stairway. The Doctor and Jenny were still talking about the night Missy had hijacked the party.
Then she looked back at Strax.
"What happened that night?" she asked him, "Do you remember what happened after the gas was released?"
His beady eyes lit up and his small mouth turned up into a smile as he nodded.
"I escorted you to the safety of your room."
And Clara felt as if her insides just dropped out, as if she had been riding a lift to a top floor and the whole thing had just suddenly and sharply plunged downwards...
"And then what?" she said in a hushed voice.
"And then, puny human, you challenged me to a battle!"
She shook her head.
"Battle?"
"Your private parts and mine!" and Strax smiled, "It was a sound victory on the part of the Sontaran Empire."
And then she remembered.
"Oh no!" she exclaimed, and stepped back from him, her hand to her mouth as she stared at the short potato headed dwarf in the butler suit.
"No we didn't...we didn't...I couldn't, not with you!"
His smile faded as a look of hurt came to his eyes.
"I feel sick!" Clara exclaimed.
The Doctor was already making his way down the stairs, after overhearing the conversation, and Jenny promising she would inform Vastra of the news.
"Clara, calm down -"
"You can shut up!" she exclaimed, turning to the Doctor with her eyes wide with shock as her face paled, "Did you think it was him? Is that why you brought me back here?"
Strax looked from Clara to the Doctor, and clearly seemed uncomfortable now.
"It was enjoyable for both of us," he pointed out.
Clara looked away from him in disgust.
"Doctor, we're leaving. Now!"
"But I really think it would help to clear the air if you and Strax -"
"There is no me and Strax!" she exclaimed, shooting another look of disgust at the Sontaran, "Me and him? You must be kidding!"
Then she glared at Strax.
"Understand this," she said sharply, "What happened was, two people made a huge mistake because of a drug! That's all. It will never happen again, it shouldn't have happened in the first place!"
Then she made for the door.
The Doctor saw deep hurt in the eyes of the Sontaran butler.
"I'll talk to her," he said quietly, and then he hurried off to catch up with Clara, who wanted nothing more than to get back into the Tardis and never return to the house of Madame Vastra.
"You knew!"
As Clara yelled her accusation at the Doctor, her voice echoed around the console room.
"I didn't know," he told her, "But there are very few species who can instantly concieve as fast as a Sontaran. Just because they are made in clone batches, it doesn't mean they can't manually reproduce. Over the years they've been genetically altered to ensure survival and reproduction of the species. So unprotected sex with Strax -"
She looked at him in disgust.
"Never say that again!"
"So what happened with Strax resulted in a conception. I'm also thinking that planet we visited where we ran into Missy is known for its fertility treatments. If Missy was desperate for a child she would have wanted one by me. I'm guessing she didn't get what she wanted, but must have scanned you when she bumped into you after the thing with Strax, realised you were pregnant and arranged your collapse. She followed us to that planet and then took care of the rest. She stole your baby."
Clara stared at him.
"I don't have a baby, I never did!"
"Well, it's probably dead now anyway," he said quietly, "Sontarans and humans are not designed to reproduce together - the chances of the conception happening with a human was one in several million and you would have miscarried later on any way."
Clara thought about it.
And that was when the Doctor noticed the look on her face, and knew at once that even if she didn't know it yet, she did care what had happened to the Human-Sontaran hybrid...
"Missy thinks it's a baby TimeLord?" she asked.
"Think how she's going to react when she finds out its not," he replied darkly, and Clara felt a jolt inside that she couldn't explain.
"We need to go back to the planet, back to the medical centre and find out what's happened," he told her, "I'm guessing she's had the embryo put on a growth acceleration program – left it there to grow in an artificial womb. We need to get there before she does, because if it doesn't die naturally, she's going to kill it when she finds out its not the baby she wanted."
And then he threw a lever, taking the Tardis off through time and space, before Clara had a chance to speak out and change her mind.
Clara slipped into silence as the Tardis journeyed on towards it destination, and when it landed, the Doctor met her gaze and saw all trace of shock was gone from her eyes now. He didn't know what Clara would decide to do, but he was working on the assumption – because he wanted to be optimistic – that the child was still alive. If it was, he knew Clara well enough to know she would not turn her back on her own flesh and blood, not when he explained how special that hybrid was...
The Tardis landed outside the medical facility, and he went to the door first, lingering there as Clara hung back, still standing by the Tardis console.
"You should come with me," he reminded her, "Because one day when you look back on this, you might regret never seeing this child."
She walked over to him, although reluctance was plain in her eyes.
"I just don't know what to expect," she told him honestly.
The Doctor's gaze softened.
"If this child has survived it will be around five months old and ready to be born. The growth environment would have speeded up the process. Five months is the duration of a Sontaran pregnancy – not that Sontarans as a race care much for it as a clone race, but that is the manual option...I wonder.." he paused.
"What?" Clara asked, feeling nervous as she wondered what else was about to hit her that she was yet to realise. But this was not bad news - she saw hope in the Doctor's eyes.
"There's every chance that child has survived," he exclaimed, "I should have thought of this before! The growth chamber, an artificial environment, it would be perfect to sustain and nurture the growth of a human - Sontaran hybrid! Clara, your child will be the only one of its kind in existence!"
She looked at him, feeling unsure how to take that news.
Then worry clouded his eyes as he thought of something else:
"If Missy doesn't get there first. She probably asked to be summoned when the rapid growth process was over."
"She could be with the baby right now?"
He heard tension in her voice, and guessed that meant she cared on some level, which could only be a good thing.
"We should hurry," he said to her.
Missy was already with the baby.
She stood there as rage burned in her eyes and she looked to the unborn child inside the liquid filled container, and as it turned around and sucked its thumb, she glared at the nurse who had led her into the room known as growth chamber 161, the artificial place where what she had believed to be a Time Lord's child was rapidly growing inside a chamber of metal and glass..
"That thing is not my child," she said sharply, "That's a Sontaran!"
The nurse looked at her apologetically.
"Well this is definitely the embryo you requested removed from your donor Miss Clara Oswald," she replied, "A Human-Sontaran hybrid child."
Missy thought about it, then she looked to the nurse in disgust.
"Are you kidding? Is this some kind of joke, because if it is, I'll vaporise you."
And she took out a small device that she brandished in her hand as her ice blue eyes shone cold.
"Where's the real Time Lord kid?"
The nurse shook her head.
"This is the child of Clara Oswald..." she stammered.
Missy looked to the unit containing a tiny Sontaran with human hands.
"No," she said under her breath, "No, this can't be...Clara and a Sontaran? No, I can't accept this...my child is part Time Lord!"
"Your child is Sontaran," the nurse replied.
Missy looked at the young woman thoughtfully.
"Say something nice," she whispered icily.
"I'm sorry?" the Nurse offered, "I'm very sorry, but this is your child."
Missy rolled her eyes.
"Wrong answer!" she snapped, and hit a button on the weapon, blasting the nurse out of existence.
Then she glared at the unborn child inside the artificial womb.
"Ugly little bastard!" she said bitterly, and she kicked at the clear tubing that ran to the unit, and it cracked and as the liquid began to spill on to the floor, the artificial womb slowly drained of fluid as the unborn child within began to struggle, sensing danger.
Missy had teleported out by the time the Doctor and Clara heard the alarm and ran into the room to see the chamber draining, as a member of the nursing staff tried in vain to patch the seal on the broken tube.
"What happened?" the Doctor asked.
"You shouldn't be in here!" the woman said, and the Doctor flashed his psychic paper.
"Oh, sorry, Doctor," she added, assuming he was a member of staff, "I was passing by and heard the warning system going off – someone has shattered the fluid supply to artificial womb, why would someone do that?"
"I've a good idea who," he said, taking out his sonic screwdriver and running it along the wiring that held the lid of the unit sealed. As it popped open, Clara watched as he reached inside and lifted out the baby.
"This child," he said to the nurse, "Is hers. Not the woman who had the embryo speed grown. Missy stole this woman's child. This is his real mother, Clara Oswald. The boy was taken without her consent."
As he explained, he held the child while the nurse cut the umbilical cord.
And Clara just stood there, staring at the sight of the tiny Sontaran who had human hands but looked like a miniature version of Strax.
"The artificial womb was shattered," the Doctor said as he held the child and gently rubbed its broad back, trying to prompt a breath, "But he's five months – full term by Sontaran standard, ready to be born..."
Then he passed the child to the nurse, who wrapped him in a blanket.
"Not breathing," he said quietly as he turned away from Clara.
The nurse took the child quickly from the room.
Then the Doctor turned to Clara, and he saw a shocked look on her face.
"He didn't cry."
"No," the Doctor said as he stepped closer to her.
Clara looked up him.
"He was pale and he wasn't moving."
The Doctor put his hands on her shoulders.
"I know," he said gently, and his hearts felt as if they were breaking as Clara started to tremble.
"He wasn't moving," she whispered as her eyes filled with tears, "He didn't cry..."
And then a sound carried from the next room, cutting sharply through the silence as the baby gave out a loud and healthy yell.
The look in Clara's eyes changed from one of utter loss to one of joy, and the Doctor blinked away tears that blurred his own vision as he shared her joy.
"Clara, that was your baby! He's okay!"
She was laughing and crying at the same time as he drew her into his arms and hugged her, and then as the nurse returned, carrying a now very lively and alert little Sontaran child, he let go of Clara and stepped back.
"I think he wants to meet his mum," the nurse said, and as the Doctor looked on, Clara took the baby who was wrapped in a blanket into her arms, and as she held him, tears of joy ran down her face.
"Hello," she said softly, and the baby boy looked up at her, smiling as his eyes locked with hers and the unmistakable process of bonding began.
The Doctor stood back, saying nothing as he watched Clara holding her son, and silently hoped her joy at his survival would mean perhaps Clara would want this child after all - maybe she had yet to realise how special he was as a hybrid, but she already seemed to be understanding how special he was in the way that mattered most – she was forming a bond with him because she knew he was her son...