Rose's large brown eyes grew wider.
She blinked back at the Doctor, utterly, completely, and terrifyingly lost.
"Seriously." She said, pushing back from the table. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking at the Doctor as if he had absolutely gone insane. "What are you on about?"
"Oh," He scoffed, throwing his head back dramatically, "Rose Tyler, don't give me that. You know what I'm talking about. The baby. Our baby. Might not have been this body that helped you conceive, Rose, but I am that child's father. I do think at some point we are going to need to discuss it."
He felt the anger boiling up inside, hearts pounding in his ears, causing them to flush red. How could she even dare to play dumb on something this big?
Rose gripped at the edge of the table, staring him down. She looked a good mix between confused and absolutely cross.
"Having a laugh now, Doctor?" Rose said, licking her teeth. The Doctor watched her, noticing her normal defensive ticks as they spoke. "Because this isn't what I'd call 'funny', you know."
"Do I seem to be joking to you?" He shot back, crossing his own arms and narrowing his eyes.
"You're accusing me of being pregnant?" Rose scoffed. The Doctor said nothing, but his eyes briefly flicked down from her face to her stomach and back up. "I bloody well think I'd know if I was five months gone, wouldn't I?"
Had it been that long?
He paused to think, remembering the last time they'd been together before his regeneration. She was right, of course. But five months into a pregnancy that would be a whooping sixteen months... well, that's fairly early on.
Again, The Doctor looked her up and down. His face paled. In an instant his entire demeanor changed. Expression softened. His eyes fell away as he thought, his mind racing.
She didn't know.
She didn't know she was pregnant and this was how she'd found out. In a fight he'd picked, no less.
He kicked himself mentally for not even considering that she'd not known yet.
"Doctor?"
He looked back up to her, seeing how afraid she looked. Tears welled up in her eyes, lower lip trembling.
"You didn't know." He whispered. Rose blinked and the tears escaped, sending streaks of the day-old mascara running with them.
In a flash, her makeup wasn't the only thing running.
Her bare feet echoed as she ran from the room to her bedroom, leaving him sitting in silence over their abandoned breakfast.
Pain twisted the Doctor's face.
This would be his second half-human child.
He'd suffered the loss of his son over six hundred years ago, but it hadn't even began to hurt less to think of. Here he was, centuries later, a father-to-be once again, and he'd mucked it up first thing. Rose had no idea what she was in for- what was happening to her body.
The Doctor sat at the table, still staring at the spot she'd been sitting in seconds before. Mind racing.
At first, when the TARDIS had signaled new heartbeats on board, the Doctor had been devastated. His first thought wasn't that he was even a possibility, but either Jack or Mickey. But Rose simply liked flirting with Jack- and she and Micky weren't together for some time now. Not since she'd started traveling with him. He hated himself for even thinking of Rose that way. No, he knew exactly how she felt about him. Rose Tyler was nothing if not loyal.
Two heartbeats- he quickly discovered through a routine passenger scan using the TARDIS health system was not twins like he'd first thought, but rather one hybrid fetus- with one possible father.
"Oh God..." The Doctor breathed, head in his hands, "What have I done?"
Alone in her room behind a locked door, Rose lay on her bed. Her thoughts raced with her.
How had everything gone so very wrong?
He was the one who insisted he was the same man. She'd seen him change. Hell, she'd been the reason, he gave up that form to save her. But despite his constant reminders that he was still himself, he treated her differently after changing. No matter how Rose tried to get back what they'd had- he didn't seem to want it back.
He'd flirt around her then skirt away, never getting too close. No longer took her to romantic places, like the planet with the flash frozen ocean, or little restaurants on far away planets with food Earth could never dream of. They still played intergalactic tourist, but nothing had been the same.
He'd even gone so far as to leave her, and Micky for that matter, on a ship with no other way off, and kiss someone else in front of her. After that, Micky went home and she'd hoped he'd come back around to her; No such luck yet, however.
Rose laid still, thinking. It was this change that caused her to miss the other him so very much. She knew how he felt before. He'd showed her every day in a million ways.
Tears still streamed down the sides of her face as she stared up at the vaulted ceiling, the twinkling fairy lights the Doctor had helped her put up her only light source.
He'd told her himself that with the change, he had to figure out who he was. Maybe, she thought, the feelings he'd had for her didn't carry over. But now he was angry with her for supposedly keeping secrets from him. Accusing her of hiding a pregnancy? Seriously?
He had to be daft. There was no other explanation.
Although-
Rose squeezed her eyes tight and let the tears that had gathered fall off before using the sleeve of her pajama shirt to wipe her eyes. She sat up and looked over to her bedside table, where the calendar planner she kept to help her keep track of herself in a liner sense laid. She picked it up and flipped back through the pages, realizing that in their travels, and with the chaos of a regeneration, she'd forgot to keep tabs on her period.
It was quite late.
The spiral bound calendar fell from her shaking hands as she covered her mouth, only a squeak of realization escaping.
"Rose?"
The Doctor's voice called from the other side of her door. She stood and walked over to the sink in her en suite bathroom and looked at her reflection in the mirror, ignoring his knocking.
Slowly, Rose took her hair down from the knot of messy bedhead bun it was in, and she brushed it out. She then soaked a clothe in warm water and began to was her face, wiping away the smears of old makeup and tears that marked her cheeks.
"Rose, please." He pleaded from outside the door.
She stood before the door and tilted her head to one side, not really thinking at all. She felt deep betrayal. Hurt. Abandonment.
Heaven knows she was trying very hard to see the Doctor the same way, but she couldn't help but miss the before Doctor.
"Rose. Please. Talk to me." He begged.
Rather than answer him, she instead moved over to the closet and took out a simple violet blouse and light colored jeans, and changed out of her pajamas. Once she was fully dressed, she moved back into the bathroom and reapplied her eye makeup and pulled her hair into a half-up style to keep her fringe out of her eyes. All the while, the Doctor stood outside her bedroom door, knocking and begging her to speak to him.
This ritual was something her mother had taught her. Readying herself like putting on armor. Make herself feel beautiful and good and confident before anything daunting (though Jackie Tyler meant tests or job interviews, not facing unplanned alien pregnancies, the lesson still applied) so Rose did just that. She made herself look nice. Her own personal armor. She stood on the other side of the door, listening to the Doctor's voice grow more desperate and upset.
"Rose, I am literally beggi-"
"What do you want?" She called back, staring at the closed door, arms crossed over her chest.
"Will you please open the door?" He pleaded.
"No. Tell me what you want." Rose snapped back.
"I want to see you." The Doctor answered, his voice sounding weaker than she'd ever heard. "Rose. Please."
Rose padded on her bare feet over to the door frame and slapped the button to unlock the door, turned on the overhead lights, then she turned and sat on her bed, scooting to the middle of the mattress, sitting with her legs crossed, her arms wrapped around her middle.
"Door is unlocked." She sighed.
Outside Rose's now unlocked bedroom door, the Doctor waited.
She'd just unlocked it, but she'd not welcomed in him in. She simply informed him that she'd unlocked it, but it wasn't the invitation he'd hoped for.
"Rose?"
"I said it's open." She replied with a snap.
Slowly, the Doctor opened the door. He could see she was poised in the center of her bed, her large brown eyes fixed on the door. He opened his mouth to speak, or apologize, or just tell her how stunning she was- but she cut him off.
"How could I not know I'm five months pregnant?" She ask, her words shaky with the nervous tremor she was fighting hard against. She looked more terrified than he'd ever seen her- and she'd been in some seriously life threatening situations thanks to him.
"It, uh," The Doctor began, trying to find the words. His mouth felt dry and his tongue stuck to his teeth as he tried to speak. "Gallifreyan children... they develop slower than humans. Takes longer to incubate, with the two hearts and all." He replied gently. "Compared with a human pregnancy, the fetus is about the size a fully human child would be at eight or nine weeks gestation."
"Oh." Rose nodded. Her eyes fell to the floor between them. "So how long is a Gallifreyan pregnancy?"
"About sixteen months." The Doctor replied, still keeping his voice as gentle and calm as possible. He moved closer in the room, waiting to see if she'd react, or kick him out. Creeping closer like he was approaching a wild mustang, he came over and sat on the bed.
"And hybrid children?" Rose ask quietly, her voice still so broken.
"Well..." The Doctor sighed. "The only other one I knew of personally, the child was more human than Time Lord, and he only had one heart. He was born at ten months gestation. The one you're carrying has two."
Rose looked like she was either deep in thought or a thousand miles away from him. She took a deep, shuttering breath, and looked up.
"Why was he more human? This one you knew of." Rose ask.
"He was conceived on Earth." The Doctor explained. "His mother and I-"
"Your son?" Rose repeated, sadness for him shining in her eyes.
"Yeah." He nodded. "One of them."
The Doctor had continued to explain a bit, but Rose had to hold up a hand to stop him talking, because she'd lost the ability to think. She felt as if her brain were full of angry wasps, their enraged buzzing and swarming blocking her ability to logically think.
He'd mentioned he'd lost everything. He'd even said something about being a father a long time ago in passing while talking with Jack. She was realizing the reality of the Doctor telling her he was 900 years old. He'd loved and lost. Fought wars, given everything. Tears rolled down her cheeks before she knew what was happening.
"Rose?" He called gently, pulling her attention back.
"Hmm?" She hummed, her tone still numb. She blinked several times before looking back to him.
"I was just explaining. Children conceived in the time vortex always Time Lords. Its a mutation that occurs naturally due to exposure. The Gallifreyan use and harnessing ability caused our whole people to be born with the Time Lord abilities." He finished.
Rose heard his words, and tucked them in her mind to revisit later, when everything was less buzzy in her head.
"Doctor," Rose looked up, finally meeting his eye. "Doctor- Why do you treat me different now? Is it something I did wrong? Because I was confused and scared when you changed? I don't understand. Is it because I'm pregnant? Help me understand..." She broke down into thick, body wracking sobs as she spoke, covering her eyes with one hand as she cried.
The Doctor gently moved closer, taking the hand she had clutching at the blankets in his own.
"I wanted to give you time to process." He explained, his own voice strained due to the suppressed emotion. "I never wanted to hurt you in any way. I just-" He paused, took a deep breath and slowly blew out the excess air. "I knew that before I was a bit... Bulkier? More muscular? I didn't know how you'd feel about this body. I also know I do act a bit different now. But believe me, Rose. Nothing has changed about you and I."
"You have a shit ways of showing it, ya know? Could've just ask me at any time, I would be glad to tell you that I'm equally attracted to the new look..." Rose sighed. "You act as if you're jealous of yourself. As if its not you I like you for."
The Doctor simply looked at her, stunned.
"How'd you even find out before me?" She ask, cutting off his thoughts.
"TARDIS heath screening. Picked up the extra heartbeats." He explained.
"Why'd you not talk to me then?" Rose ask. "How long have you been sitting on this?"
"I found out about four months ago and I-"
Slap.
Much like her mother, Rose landed a hand firmly against his left cheek. He'd previously not thought that would be a danger with Rose, but he knew he deserved this one.
"Four months? Four MONTHS?" She screeched. "Get out."
"But Rose, don't you think we should-"
"Get. Out." She growled through gritted teeth. Hot, angry tears were now streaming through her fresh mascara.
The Doctor stood and back away from the bed, until he was standing in her door frame.
"Rose..."
"I can't talk to or look at you right now." She said, eyes squeezed tightly shut. "Please, if you do still care for me... Leave me alone for now."
The Doctor nodded and walked out, shutting the door behind him. He promptly put his back against the opposite wall and slid down until he was sitting, facing her door. He needed to be close, in case she needed him, but he also wanted to give her the space she needed. He knocked the back of his head against the cool metal wall of the TARDIS hallway.
"What have I done?" He lamented aloud to no one in particular.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow for updates, and as always- comments are so welcome!