Chapter rating : T. minor coarse language from a dumbstruck Doctor.

A/N : Just to clarify, in cannon, the Doctor is a JKR fan, I did tweek that timeline but as I try to remain as close to the cannon as possible, he still is. He still hasn't made the link between where he was and Azkaban. Bellatrix introduced herself as Mad Belle and that's what they will call her when talking about her, he would have realized who she was otherwise.

The Doctor's Child

05. Where He Belongs

The trek back to the T.A.R.D.I.S. was swift and without any further complication. But as soon as the Doctor had landed feet inside his ship, the doors suddenly slammed shut and the T.A.R.D.I.S. started trembling and making that whooshing noise. No need to know rocket sciences to know that the ship was initiating take off without the pilot's consent.

"No! No! NO! Why are you doing this!" The Time Lord asked desperately as he ran to the commands, stopping just long enough to put the baby in Amy's arms before running around the control boards to try and backtrack the ship, even while he had fled the cell, a little hope had persisted in his mind that he'd be able to come back and get that mad woman and maybe fix her.

But the ship had deleted the coordinates of the jail and was now too far in the Time Vortex for the Doctor to be able to pull it back without re-entering them. The Doctor stayed a moment in front of his consoles, his head down and resting on them as he tried to comprehend what all had happened.

He had fled a cell in an impossible prison with an infant and couldn't go back to get its mother and now what was he supposed to do with a baby? Drop him at the first convenient orphanage and wash his hands of him? The T.A.R.D.I.S. always brought him were he was needed, but if the trip on the House had proved something, it was that his Big, Sexy Thing, also had a will of her own. And he was detached enough to realize that she had wanted the baby, not the mother. But why would the ship go to such lengths to procure a baby? What was so special about him?

He was brought out of his musings by a tap on his shoulder and someone shaking his arm frantically. Raising his head, he frowned at the scared look on Amy's face.

"Doctor! There's something wrong with the baby! Noone cut the umbilical cordon! And he's all gooey and covered in soot and dust and grim!" The young woman said, raising her arms, where she'd uncovered the small baby who was seemingly snoozing a bit.

The Time Lord looked down and realized that she was right. Someone (probably Mad Belle) had crudely cut the cordon and wrapped it in some threads of cloth that was left hanging from the baby's belly. You could see the effort made to clean him but the infant was still covered in dry amniotic fluids and other gunk.

Without even thinking about it, the Gallifreyan took the baby in his arms, humming a small Gallifreyan tune as he puttered around, getting a pair of surgical scissors from somewhere before going to the closest bathroom. Once in there, he put the sleeping infant on the warm towel on the flat surface next to the sink and after a bit of preparation, cut the bothering bit of cord, quickly making a tie with what was left of it. He then put the newborn into a basin of tepid water with some stimulant added to it, to help the scaring process, washing him gently.

Halfway through, the bathing, the small babe's eyes fluttered half-open but still too blind to really see.

The Doctor smiled at the baby and finished bathing him before putting some gauze on his navel and then wrapping him in a clean towel. While the process only took about five minutes, the infant was already back to sleep when he finished which led an amused smile on the Time Lord's lips as they went back out of the room.

"So… you know how to take care of babies eh…" Rory voiced as Amy and he watched the Doctor coming back out of the bathroom after having sort of walked out on them without a word, taking the babe with him.

"Everyone knows how to take care of babies, Rory!" The Gallifreyan replied with a smirk. "Now… I need to do some scans on this little fella, while the T.A.R.D.I.S. gets us where she wants to get us. Why don't you two run along, hm?"

"I'd swear I'm hearing my dad!" Amy scoffed at him, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows at him. "I'm not moving from here, I want to know what's the matter with all this story!"

The Doctor turned to Rory, trying to convey to the man that it'd be excellent if he could go away and drag his better half with him, but apparently the Last Centurion was immune to mental pleas because he just looked back at him blankly, making the Time Lord sigh inside.

"Alright… Rory? Could you hold this little one for a mo?" He asked the man, feeling slightly vindicated and guilty when the other male looked at him with that expression, humans called "of a deer in the headlights"

Rory stuttered for a minute as the older man deposited the babe gently in his arms. But quickly, his instincts resurfaced again and he locked his arms firmly and as gently as possible around the tiny body, trying to balance between not crushing him and not letting him fall, which wasn't as easy as everyone seemed to think! Thankfully, said babe was blissfully unaware of any issue, still sleeping the sleep of the hardy babies. Meanwhile, his lovely wife seemed to be having the time of her life, laughing at him and smirking.

The Doctor chose to ignore his companions' antics and proceeded to do the infant's complete scans. He was changing a few parameters, looked away from the screen for a few seconds when the T.A.R.D.I.S. finally landed in far less mayhem and noise than usual.

"AH! So… We're in… well that's peculiar… we're in Cardiff, mid-2009" He said, more to himself than to his friends.

His attention was on the graphs about the Rift when the 'ping' denoting the translation of the scans results attracted his attention again.

Rory and Amy were squabbling slightly, trying to keep it in hushed tones in case they'd wake the baby up when a loud bang from the consoles made them both look back at the Doctor. The man was sitting on the floor, his eyes fixed on the screen he was sitting under. He looked pale as a ghost and disbelieving. They both startled badly when he jumped up and came straight to Rory, snatching the baby in his arms as swiftly and gently as Gallifreyanly possible. They looked on as he rocked on the balls of his feet, murmuring something against the infant's forehead, as he kissed it softly.

The couple stayed frozen as the man continued walking around the consoles, nearly dancing around, murmuring into the newborn's little ear, what could probably be the secrets of the Universe.

Rory, understanding quickly that this was not something Amy or he should invade on, quickly grabbed his wife and dragged her out, under the pretense of going shopping, not that the Doctor really heard them.

Yeah, he finally got it.

Reviews, oh my reviews! You shine like a two points star of Gallifrey in the hand of a Time Lord!... you really are… AMAZING 8D