Rapture Lost

Title: Rapture Lost
Series: Rapture
Characters/Pairing: 10/Rose
Rating: Adult
Disclaimer: Not mine. Well, apart from the bits that don't belong to the BBC.
Spoilers: None.
Author's Notes: Sequel to Rapture Under Siege. Is this the real parting of the ways? All chapter titles from Paradise Lost, by John Milton.

One: Live While Ye May

Rose giggled at the Doctor’s expression, which was, she felt, disproportionately disgusted given the stuff he’d eaten in his time.

‘It’s only a banana, Doctor!’

‘Exactly. You’ve taken a banana and ruined it. It’s like… it’s like… well, I don’t know what it’s like, I, Rose Tyler, am unable to think of a single thing as bad as what you have done to that banana. Do you realise how monumental that is? I’ve destroyed worlds, I’ve seen things that would make a Sontaran tremble and call for his mummy and I, the man who made Caligula wet his knickers in fear, the Time Lord that made Genghis Khan’s beard turn grey, I am struck dumb by the turpitude of your action!’

Rose sucked the end of her banana and raised an eyebrow. ‘Struck dumb, are you?’

He shuffled his feet slightly, one hand drifting to the back of his neck, before flinching away and hanging loosely at his side. ‘Yes. Well. Um, well, okay… ah… No, clearly not, not dumb, as such, but figuratively, Rose, metaphorically, I am rendered speechless. I’ve seen moothlot’s eating the still screaming toothsome worms of Alberta Four and even that horror does not adequately compare to a banana covered in…’ he gagged, his eyes wide and appalled, ‘ketchup!’

‘It’s Heinz,’ Rose pointed out helpfully. The Doctor blanched. Grinning, she wafted it towards him, chortling as he backed up hurriedly, his heels connecting violently with the plinth beneath the kitchen cupboards, hands stretched before him in an effort to ward of the evil, sauce smeared, fruit.

‘I may never,’ he trembled, aggrieved and doe eyed, ‘be able to enjoy a banana again!’

‘Oh, don’t be such a drama queen! It’s your fault, anyway!’

‘How… how is that monstrosity my fault?’ His pointing finger wavered indignantly.

‘I only wanted tomatoes; it’s your baby that craved banana.’

The Doctor huffed, caught between disgust at the consequence of her cravings and pride that his still miniscule offspring was already smart enough to recognise the shear brilliance of bananas. Pride won out and he inched back towards Rose, his eyes trained cautiously on the offensively augmented fruit.

‘Time Lord genes,’ he observed smugly as he scooted onto the bench beside her, all the while watching the repugnant foodstuff. Rose wolfed down the last of her snack and sighed with contentment as the Doctor sagged in relief and gathered her against him.

‘You know, avocados are a very good source of potassium.’

‘Hmm?’

‘Avocados. Excellent for potassium. They go nicely with a bit of tomatoes, too.’

‘What?’

‘I’m just saying, for, you know, next time, if you… well, should you have a craving for potassium and tomato, nothing better than an avocado salad. Smashing.’

‘I wanted banana!’

‘Then, yes, but next time, now you know, well, you can have avocado, can’t you? No need to bother a lovely banana with your cravings when you can have a bit of green instead. You know, your average banana has about three hundred and fifty milligrams of potassium, but an avocado, nearly five hundred, so really, absolutely no need, none whatsoever, not at all, narda, zilch, zero need to, you know, do that to a banana again.’

‘Doctor?’

‘Yes, Rose?’

‘Shut up.’

‘Yes, Rose.’

She lifted her face for a kiss and he lowered his lips to hers…

‘Ah!’ The Doctor released her and leapt away, gagging, tripping over his feet in his hurried scramble for the sink and water.

‘Doctor?’

‘Ketchupy banana!’ was his strangled response, as he chucked water down his throat, swilling his mouth and spitting desperately only to swill again. Rose touched a finger to her lips, realisation blooming.

‘I’m going to scour my mouth!’ the Doctor whimpered, as he all but ran from the kitchen. Rose sighed; it hadn’t crossed her mind she’d still taste of her snack after she’d finished it. Still, on the up side, he was out of her hair and the damage was done, so she might as well have another. Wriggling off the bench she reached for a banana and the squeezy ketchup bottle and settled down to enjoy her treat.

The Doctor peeked cautiously into the kitchen, relieved to discover that Rose had vacated the room. Stealthily, he moved around the room, seeking and collecting all the bananas he could find and hugging them to his chest; if Rose couldn’t find his precious fruit then she wouldn’t be able to pollute them. He tucked them into his secret, Time Lords only, cupboard before, contented, he sauntered out of the kitchen and went in search of his eccentric mate.

Rose was tucked up in the library reading a book on baby development. He leant against the door frame and watched her, enjoying seeing her at rest, unaware of him and entirely wrapped up in her book; a human book, which meant it was totally useless, of course. He frowned as her hand curled around her bump and she bit her lip in concentration; the problem was there weren’t any Gallifreyan books on babies. Gallifreyan’s had loomed their offspring, making books on biological birth unnecessary, natural reproduction an historical quirk that they were encouraged firmly to ignore. If there had been books, they would have most likely have been hidden among the banned texts of the presidential library; he’d had access to that library, for a while, and had even purloined a few of the forbidden tomes. He’d not noticed them having a section on reproduction, though. The only thing he’d found had been the vague reference in a book of fairy tales that had mentioned the eighteen-month gestation and the bonding with the womb thing. A few tests in the infirmary had confirmed the validity of the reference, but he was rather loath to admit to Rose that his knowledge of her condition came from the Gallifreyan equivalent of Hans Christian Anderson. He must have shifted, made a nose, because at that thought Rose looked up, blushing as her eyes caught his.

‘I was… looking stuff up,’ she murmured awkwardly. He grinned and pushed himself away from the doorframe and towards her.

‘What did you find?’ He asked gently. Her face lit up at his question and she wriggled sideways, making room for him beside her on the sofa. He settled down beside her, looping an arm around her back as she snuggled into him, shifting the open book onto his lap. He glanced down; she’d been reading a section called ‘Your Pregnancy, week by week’.

‘According to this, our baby is about fifteen centimetres long and completely formed.’ At the Doctor’s puzzled expression, she pointed at the relevant section of the page, under sixteen weeks. ‘I figured, I’m pregnant twice as long as normal, so if I halve the number of weeks pregnant I was then the development chart might still work, sort of. It’s about right on the maternal symptoms – I’m not feeling sick anymore. My bumps a bit little, but it says they vary in size anyway…’ she stumbled to a halt in the face of his silence. ‘Doctor?’

‘Fifteen centimetres?’ He asked quietly.

‘Yeah.’

He stretched out his hand. ‘Our baby’s nearly the size of my hand.’ His voice was awed. Rose blinked back sudden tears as she placed her palm against his.

‘I guess,’ she agreed.

‘What else does it say?’ He asked eagerly.

Rose grinned, ‘The baby is proper looking, more like it will look when it’s born, eyes and ears in the right place. And it has nails and it’ll be moving around, and I should be able to feel that soon. Also, if we had an ultra sound, we might be able to tell the sex.’

The Doctor’s mouth dropped open. ‘Oh, Rose! That’s brilliant! An ultra sound! I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.’

‘You mean we could do one?’

‘Oh, Rose! Better than that. I’ve got stuff that makes an ultrasound look like an etch-a-sketch scribble!’ He bounded from the sofa, turning to grab her hand and propelling her to her feet, heedless of the flying baby book. Rose giggled, puffing slightly at the exertion, as he dragged her after him, pulling her enthusiastically towards the infirmary.

As they entered the medical room, the Doctor released Rose’s hand and bounded towards the cabinets that lined the back wall.

‘Just gotta find it,’ he announced, ‘not something I’ve had much call for, but it’ll be here somewhere. Probably under ‘U’, for ultrasound.’ He headed towards the last cupboard, flinging the door open and rummaging. ‘Urinalysis, utilak aspirator,’ the object flew over his shoulder as he rejected it, ‘Unidirectional Occluder, universal temperature analyser…’

‘Shouldn’t that be under ‘T’?’ Rose asked.

‘Don’t be silly, Rose, why would I put a temperature analyser under ‘T’?’

‘Um, ‘cause it starts with ‘T’!’

‘Rose, really, what are they teaching on Earth these days? Universal most definitely does not start with a ‘T’. Well, unless you're on Plom, but then, I don’t file according to the Plom alphabet, so… oh, look at this, I wondered where I’d put that!’

‘What is it?’

‘It’s an ultrasonic sigmoidoscope.’

‘And where should that be, then?’

‘Under ‘s’, obviously, really Rose, I know pregnancy is meant to shrink your brain but honestly!’

Rose shook her head and settled down, cross-legged, on the infirmary bed, judging that, with a filing system as apparently arbitrary as the Doctor’s, she could be waiting for some time. She was almost dropping off when, with a shout of triumph, the Doctor sprang to his feet, waving a small square unit with what looked like a plunger attached to it.

‘It was under ‘p’, I remember now. Filed it under pictures. Much more sensible than ultrasound, because of course it’s not an ultra sound, not really, more a multi-dimensional, full spectrum dynamically deforming photogrammetry imager. Anyway, come on, lay down.’

Rolling her eyes, Rose shifted onto her back, moving to lift her top.

‘No need for that, advanced Time Lord technology this.’ With a flourish, he lowered the plunger contraption over Rose’s stomach. The small box beeped and then, with a little whir, emitted a beam of light, tracking back and forward like a printer and leaving, in the wake of its light, a glowing dot. Slowly, the dots built to form lines and the lines merged to form an image until there, shimmering above them, was a perfect representation of their baby, all curled limbs and thumb sucking perfection. Rose gasped, her hand groping for the Doctor’s. He folded himself to his knees beside her, holding her hand tightly.

‘That’s our baby,’ he whispered. Rose sniffled, her hand lifting to ghost the edge of the hovering image. ‘And she’s a beautiful as her mother!’

Rose gasped, ‘A girl?’

The Doctor grinned, ‘Yep!’

‘We’re having a little girl?’

‘We are.’

Rose sighed, letting her gaze drift back to the floating representation of their child. Their little girl.

Chapter Two

Current Mood: energetic

Tags:

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Date: 2008-07-21 05:12 pm (UTC)

From:

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags