Chapter 37 – Labour Day Part 1

"Okay, got everything?"

Rose nodded at her partner, who was carrying in the last of Leah's things into the TARDIS with the girl in tow, cuddly Floppy and sucking on her thumb. "It's all in our room, waiting on Mum..."

The Doctor acknowledged this with a nodded, putting Leah's things onto the floor as Leah moved to stand beside her Mum. "Okay. Right. Plan is, we go straight to Torchwood, Jackie can get the kids some food while we talk to Martha, find out what she wants to do and we'll go from there."

She nodded, and they sank into silence. After a moment Rose started fiddling with the hem of her maternity shirt, the Doctor began clicking buttons on the TARDIS redundantly, and Leah continued to stare at her mum.

More time passed.

Rose sat down in the captain's chair, helping Leah to climb up next to her before holding her close as the Doctor stopped pressing buttons and leant against the console.

Yet more time passed.

"Where the hell is your Mum?" the Doctor suddenly said urgently, terror in his voice.

Rose looked at him with wide eyes. "Hey wait, we can't both panic!" she realised. "One of us needs to be calm while the other freaks out."

"Good point," the Doctor said, and thought for a moment. "How about you panic for a bit while I'm calm, then I'll panic for a bit while you're calm, and we just take turns?"

Rose nodded. "Okay, that's fair. Can I panic first?"

"Sure."

"Where the hell is my Mum?" she shrieked, and the Doctor quickly moved over to her, taking her into a hug of reassurance and exchanging a kiss before pulling back to rub her shoulders.

"Don't worry, there's plenty of time to spare. There's really no rush, okay?"

She nodded nervously, realising that she was actually chewing her hair. So she reached back over to Leah and began to distract herself by combing the girl's hair with her fingers and redoing her ponytail. Then pulling it out and doing it again.

The Doctor sighed, running his hands through his hair and down his face before taking a seat next to his two girls to wait for Jackie's hopefully impending arrival. He wondered when it would be his turn to panic.

The second the TARDIS landed, Rose and the Doctor were out the door to a seemingly empty Hub.

"Where's everyone?" Rose squeaked, one hand holding his and the other hand resting on her belly.

"Don't worry, Martha's here," the Doctor assured her.

She nodded quickly, following him out into the open Hub.

"Hello?" the Doctor yelled. "Martha? Jack?"

"Doctor!" Jack yelled back, bounding down the stairs three at a time, eager as a beaver. "Where the hell were you? It was the 456, they came back, Ianto nearly died but Mickey..."

"Yeah, don't care," the Doctor said quickly. "Where's Martha?"

"She's not here at the moment," Jack replied. "What's up?"

"How long till she gets back?"

"Umm... A week?"

The Doctor stared at him for a moment. "... Did you just say a week?"

"It's the holiday," Jack said brightly. "What's up?"

The Doctor continued to stare at him. "Did you tell Martha the 1st December was pre-arranged labour day?" he asked lightly in a tone of voice that indicated a rising panic...

"No, I said it was the 11th..." Jack's smile slowly began to die on his face as he gazed at the Doctor's dinner plate-sized eyes. "... It wasn't the 11th?"

There was a slight pause.

"Rose," the Doctor began in a voice far too calm to be sane. "Is it my turn to panic yet?"

"Yup," Rose muttered, staring at Jack.

"HOLIDAY?" the Time Lord practically screamed. "She's on HOLIDAY?"

"Doctor, calm down," Rose said urgently. "It's okay, we'll..."

"CALM DOWN?" he yelled. "Get her back here RIGHT NOW!"

"She's in London with her mum..." Jack said lamely.

"LONDON?"

"Doctor!" Rose shouted quickly before he could get any angrier. "Let's just jump in the TARDIS and come back on the 11th, yeah?"

"I grounded the TARDIS, we can't go anywhere for 48 hours!"

Rose stared at him, then looked back at Jack, calming herself to think rationally. "Jack, can you get her to come here? And tell her he's premature, I'm only 30 weeks."

He nodded, bringing out his phone. "I'll get her here."

"Okay," Rose breathed, looking at the Doctor again. "Is there anyway we can delay this?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No..."

"Okay, the last one took hours to fully dilate, so hopefully we've got some time. Let's check him, make sure he's okay, then let's just try to relax, we're gonna carry on as normal, have dinner, put Leah to bed, just take things slow. Are you feelin' any contractions, yet?"

"A little bit, not much," he admitted. "Okay, let's check him."

The check had revealed their son's double hearts were beating strongly, his blood pressure was on par with Leah's and everything seemed to be fine, including that he was head down. They were relieved to say the least.

"For a moment there I thought I'd need a caesarean," Rose muttered.

"That's a last resort," the Doctor said quickly and sharply. "Only if you or our son is in danger. Whatever happens to me, I don't care. However incapacitated I get, however much I beg you to do it, don't let anyone do a c-section on you unless it's an absolute necessity, promise me."

She nodded. "I promise."

The Doctor only really began to feel the contractions half way through dessert. He and Rose tried to stay calm and keep up conversation with Jackie and the two children, but Leah seemed to already know what was lying under the surface despite the fact they assured her things were fine.

Rose kept nervously glancing at the Doctor who was wincing every now and again from the contractions. She'd lost track of whose turn it was to panic.

When they finally finished eating Jackie cleaned up the plates as the Doctor and Rose moved to take Leah to her room, and it was at that point Jack entered the kitchen, phone in hand.

"She's gonna pack up her stuff and Mickey's driving her here as quick as he can, but at this time of day it'll probably be about three and a half hours. She says keep calm, do everything normally and to phone her if there's a problem."

"Thanks, Jack," the Doctor said.

"Need anything else?"

"No, thanks."

"Okay, call me if you need me," he said and swept out the door.

The Doctor picked up Leah and together he and Rose took her to her room, sitting her down on her bed. She looked up at them both with big brown eyes, not saying a word.

"You know mum's in labour now," the Doctor began gently. "So if you get into your pyjamas we'll say good night now, but you can go to bed when you like since it's still quite early."

Leah nodded as he reached for her pyjamas, pulling them out of the drawers next to her bed.

"If you have a bad dream or get scared, Granny will be around for you, but don't go into the Infirmary until we say you can, okay?" Rose explained as the Doctor helped her into her pyjamas. "We're not gonna be able to spend any time with you tonight because we've got to help him get out, but when you wake up tomorrow you'll have a little baby brother."

Leah nodded again, but she was still gazing at them with the eyes of someone who knew a little more than they were letting on. But she just climbed under the covers, drawing them up to her chin and staring at her parents.

"Do you need anything before we go?" the Doctor asked, and she shook her head in silence. He offered a small smile, leaning forward to kiss her good night, as did Rose moment later.

"Nighty night," he said.

Leah watched them both move to the door, holding Floppy tightly in both arms.

"Good luck," she said simply.

The Doctor turned back to look at her, and smiled. "Thanks. Sleep well."

He closed the door behind him, following Rose out into the corridor where they walked a few paces before coming to a halt.

"I think she worked it out," the Doctor said.

"Gallifreyan super-brain," Rose reminded him, and he shrugged back his shoulders, trying not to look too full of himself.

Rose rolled her eyes and rested a hand on her belly. "How are you?" she asked him. "How are the contractions?"

"Starting to hurt a little bit," the Doctor admitted. "I'll check how far you're dilated."

She nodded, leading them both back to their room where she eased herself back down onto their bed and drew up her legs to let him check.

"Barely two centimetres," he finally surmised. "It's going to be a while."

"Let's try and relax more," Rose said gently, leaning forward to kiss him. "Let's have a bath, curl up on the sofa, watch some late night bad movie, just relax."

The Doctor had to concede that sounded quite appealing, for some insane reason. "Okay," he said.

"Right, get your kit off and we'll start."

The Doctor frowned slightly, pursing his lips and mulling her sentence over. "This sounds exactly like the night Leah was made."

She laughed, and disappeared into the bathroom as he began to pull off his clothes until he was standing stark naked in the middle of their bedroom. Then the door opened.

"Rose love, I... Oh my bloody god!"

"Jackie!" the Doctor shrieked, hands instantly snapping down to cover himself, though it was a little late. "Knock!"

"She's in labour, Doctor! And all you think about is bloody sex?"

"Mum!" Rose burst out of the bathroom, diving to stand in front of her partner. "We're just gonna try and relax; we're gonna have a bath, okay? What do you want?"

Jackie stared at the Doctor with wide eyes. "... I've completely forgotten."

"Bye, Mum," Rose said pointedly, and Jackie rapidly made an exit. After a few seconds Rose turned to look at the Doctor, gazing at him for a moment before she couldn't hold in it any longer and burst out laughing.

"I'm going to pretend that never happened," the Doctor said simply, and walked into the bathroom.

They laid in the bath together until the water was lukewarm, just talking about everything from trains to Santa. Light conversation. It seemed to be the best kind for now. Rose was acutely aware that with every few minutes that passed the Doctor's pain was increasing, and the contractions were starting to become closer and closer together. She was also aware of the fact that because the baby was premature they were probably going to be in for a rough ride.

When the contractions were four minutes apart Rose decided to get her and the Doctor out of the bath and ready for the inevitable. The Doctor was masking his pain for the time being, but she could feel him starting to become worse through the bond. They both dried off and got dressed into comfortable clothes before the Doctor checked her dilation. She was at six centimetres.

"It's a lot faster than last time," Rose commented as she sat up on the bed, hoping her relief was warranted. "Maybe this'll be kinda quick."

"Mmm," the Doctor replied, and then instantly doubled over on the bed and let out a cry, arms wrapped around his middle. Rose instantly moved forward and held him tightly as he panted and moaned his way through. It lasted for a minute until he relaxed, regaining his breath.

"Okay?" she asked gently.

He just breathed, still hunched over.

"How bad was that?"

He looked at her, and then scrunched up his eyes. "Bad, very bad."

"Infirmary?" Rose suggested.

He nodded. She took his arm and pulled him to his feet, leading him out the door to the Infirmary.

"Oh sweetheart, how are you?" were Jackie's first words as she rushed into the Infirmary twenty minutes later, finding her daughter and the Doctor sat together on a bed, holding hands. "Are you okay? Just talk to me if you're worried or when it gets bad 'cos I'll be here for you."

"I'll be fine, Mum," Rose assured her, squeezing the Doctor's hands.

"Yeah, the second time's better than the first. I reckon it's 'cos your vagina's already been ripped wide open so..."

"Mum!" Rose yelped, eyes wide in horror.

"I just want you to be reassured, sweetheart," Jackie said gently, then rested her gaze on the Doctor, who looked a little pale. "What the bloody hell's wrong with you? Rose is the one who has to deal with the consequences of your alien sperm!"

Rose then realised that Jackie didn't have a clue that the Doctor was the one who went through the contractions. She was about to open her mouth to explain it when the Doctor let go a sudden pained groan and doubled-over, reaching up to Rose for support.

Jackie looked bewildered. "Bloody hell, talk about sympathy pains," she muttered, staring at him.

"Mum," Rose began anxiously, holding her husband. "He feels the contractions, not me."

There was a slight paused as Jackie looked at her daughter, then the Doctor, then at her daughter again... Then her face screwed up and she burst out in uncontrollable laughter. "Oh my god! That's priceless!"

"Mum!" Rose urged, feel the Doctor shaking in her arms. "Go and get Jack, yeah? Find out where Martha is."

Jackie nodded, unable to speak through laughing before she turned and left. Rose continued to hold the Doctor until the contraction stopped and he looked up at her, panting.

"I hate your Mother," he grated.

"Right now, I don't blame you," Rose replied quietly, kissing him and just gazing into his eyes for a moment afterwards. "Doctor... What... What might be wrong with our baby?"

"Anything, really," the Doctor replied, still panting with his eyes closed. "Or completely nothing; it's really down to what damage the Shadow Proclamation caused. Either way he's gonna be premature so he'll be in an incubator for a while, but we can deal with anything... Right?"

"Right," Rose confirmed, and they only had to wait another moment for another contraction to hit, signalled with the Doctor's strangled cry. It finished a minute afterwards and for a moment he just panted.

"Rose," he croaked.

"Yeah?" she asked softly, brushing back his hair.

"We haven't done his room yet..."

Rose suddenly found herself smiling, happy that he hadn't started hating her or the baby yet. But it wouldn't be long until he changed his mood. "We'll do it later," she assured him. "Let's just focus on this."

"You guys all right?" Jack's voice came from the doorway, and Rose looked up to find him and her mum strolling in.

"Yeah, where's Martha?"

Jack dodged the question. "How far along are you?"

"Around six centimetres. Where's Martha?" she repeated patiently.

Jack pulled a face. "Umm... D'you want the bad news or the good news?"

Rose stared at him with wide eyes. "Where's Martha?" she asked, a little panicked.

"Okay," Jack said quickly, taking an affirming breath. "Now, don't panic, but she's not even halfway here yet. I just checked the traffic reports and there has been a massive pile-up and severe congestion on the M4 where she is..."

"What?" the Doctor and Rose yelled in unison.

"I know, I'm sorry, but I don't think she's gonna get here in time..."

"Doctor?" Rose yelped, clinging onto him. "Who the hell is gonna deliver our baby?"

"But!" Jack continued calmly over the parent's combined hysteria, bringing out his phone. "We have a Plan B," he said, indicating Jackie over his shoulder.

"Don't worry sweetheart, I'm here!" Jackie announced, walking back over to them fully scrubbed up and as eager as a beaver.

"You're joking, right?" the Doctor yelped. "This is a joke!"

"Wait, hear us out," Jack said, and tapped on his phone a few times. "See, what we thought, was delivering a baby, how hard can it be? And look!" he held up his phone to reveal he was on Google, searching the phrase 'how to deliver a baby'. "16 million 600 thousand results. We're safe!"

"You're GOOGLING?" the Doctor suddenly shrieked.

"WikiHow!" Jack insisted. "Apparently it only takes eleven easy steps."

"Rose, please tell me I'm not hearing this!" the Doctor wailed.

"You're hearin' it," Rose muttered, looking between Jack and her Mum all scrubbed up and impatient to start delivering a baby. "Is this really all we've got?" she asked Jack.

"Well, you can't go to a human hospital, Martha's not here and you can't do it, Doc, but if you've got a better suggestion..." he trailed off, as a genuine invitation.

Rose glanced at the Doctor. "I suppose not..."

"Right then!" Jackie said, stepping forward.

"I can't believe this is happening..." the Doctor whined, and then cried out with another contraction, but he knew quite positively that things would only get much, much worse.