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Nesting, Adjective: The urge to prepare your home for your new baby, often characterized by a burst of energy and a desire to clean and organize.
Martha was just beginning to fall asleep on the couch when her phone began to buzz, shocking her out of her daze.
Bzzzzzt
Bzzzzzt
Bzzzzzt
Shit.
No, no, no, she’d just gotten the twins to sleep, if the infernal buzzing noise woke them up there would be hell to pay. Being a first time mum was rough enough, but timesing the amount of baby by two made it twice as hard to survive the ordeal, and as it was Martha was finding it hard enough to cope.
Her ears pricked up, listening for the sound of her squalling children, but after a moment she sighed in relief. Silence. Perfect. Martha glanced down at the device, and grinned when she saw the contact picture. She pressed the green button on her phone, picking up the facetime call, revealing an equally weary looking Rose Tyler. The other woman's face broke out into a huge smile as she waved through the camera.
“Hello! How are ya Martha?”
A muffled bang came from behind Rose before Martha could reply, stealing the blonde woman's attention. She sighed, and craned her neck. “Doctor, you right down there?”
“I’m good! Excellent even!” Was his echoey reply, presumably from somewhere deep within the TARDIS’ bowels. “Ow!” Martha raised an eyebrow, recalling their last phone call.
“Is he still working on the—”
“Transdimensional flux capacitor, yes,” Rose finished in a half snarl. “I told him not ta touch it while Jack wasn’t there ta help him hold it steady, and since he won’t let me down like this,” she motioned to her pregnancy swollen stomach in frustration. “-an’ Rivers on strike after the incident with the Blathereen, he had no one ta help him.”
“I kept the TARDIS functioning perfectly well on my own for nine hundred years before I met you lot!” Snapped the Doctor from beneath the console. Seconds later, both Rose and Martha heard him swear in Gallifreyan as the TARDIS zapped him. Rose turned back to the phone, her expression tired.
“It’s only been a couple ‘a days for you since we called, but he’s been at it for ‘bout a month TARDIS time.”
That explained Rose's seemingly irrational irritation; Martha could sympathise. She snuggled deeper into the couch. “Nesting behaviour innit, I swear men get it too. Did I ever tell you about what Tom did two weeks before I gave birth?”
“No?”
Martha shook her head. “God I was pissed. He decided to refit the entire plumbing system in our kitchen by hand, without help from an actual plumber.” She tried not to let the memory of the incident make her irritable. “It was hell! No clean dishes, I felt like a whale, needless to say ‘e slept on the couch for a week.”
At that, Rose giggled. “I bet he did! Must be nice ta have someone ta cuddle up to at night though, ‘specially in those last couple a weeks.”
Martha cocked her head, genuinely intrigued. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t you and your lot all one big…” She waved her hand, trying without much success to illustrate the concept, before giving up. “... thing?”
Rose snickered at the description of the polycule. “Yeah, but the thing is, no one sleeps much ‘cept me.”
At Martha's pointed look to her stomach, Rose’s cheeks heated slightly, and she hurriedly edited her statement. “No one sleep sleeps much, ya know?”
“Just winding you up Rosie,” Martha reassured, although a smile still played across her lips. Rose's flustered expression was priceless, and Martha knew Jack would have been laughing right alone with her. Rose pursed her lips in a display of disappointment, but there was a cheeky glimmer in her eye.
“Yeah, yeah, funny, but really, it drives me mad! How hard is it ta get everyone inta bed at once? Just cause I need the most sleep doesn’t mean I should be by myself most nights.” Her hand came up to caress her stomach in passing, before dropping back down.
Martha’s brows furrowed at the strange sentence. “Whatcha mean about the sleep thing?”
Rose flopped back onto the jumpseat, not as carelessly as she may once have given she was carrying precious cargo, and began to weave her sorry tale to Martha.
“It’s so frustratin’, ‘cos I’m the newest immortal right? Accordin’ ta my currently least favourite husband—”
A faint “Oi! You can’t have favourites!” came from beneath the console, drawing Rose's ire. She scowled, an unusual expression on her normally pleasant face, and fired back.
“Can, will, shall and right now I do. Jack didn’t break the transdimensional flux capacitor wi’ his inane fiddlin’ did he?”
The Doctor was silent for a moment, before he muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “You and your pretty boys.” and went back to his tinkering. Rose turned her attention to Martha again.
“Anyways, apparently my body hasn’t quite caught up with the whole Bad Wolf thing, and so needs ‘bout triple the sleep Jack does ta keep connecting neural pathways or somethin’. The Doctor reckons it’ll be done in a decade or so, but right now it’s killin’ me.”
“How much does Jack sleep?” Martha queried. Rose shrugged.
“I think he sleeps once every three days, although not always in a bed. Sometimes ‘e takes a kip in the media room while we’re watchin’ movies, or on the jumpseat while the Doctors workin’, but usually he stays with me once a week.”
Martha’s eyes widened at that. “Wow. Yeah. Okay. I see your problem.”
“Did ya think I was gassing ‘bout nothing?” Rose groaned, flopping an arm across her face dramatically. “Here I am, thirty eight weeks pregnant, an’ I’m left ta sleep by myself most of the week!” She sighed audibly, and ran a hand over her swollen belly. “Baby girl kicks more when ‘s just me, I reckon she’s as lonely as I am.”
“Do the other two sleep? I don’t think I saw the Doctor nap once while I was onboard,” Martha wondered. Rose made a ‘sort of’ motion with her hand.
“Well, kinda.” She shifted in the jumpseat, sitting in the one position becoming rapidly uncomfortable. “The Doctor doesn’t sleep much, you’re right about that, but he does need at least a couple of hours every month or so or he just keels over wherever he’s standin’.” Rose giggled, her first truly carefree expression on her face. “‘S funny, one time I found ‘im in the library, snorin’ like there was no tomorrow, bum in the air, face planted firmly in the carpet.”
At that, Martha snorted. “Great mental image ta. How long ago was that?”
“A good while ago, actually it was a couple of days after we picked up the Ponds.” Rose snickered at the memory. “Rory was concerned he’d had a seizure or somethin’. Amy just cackled an’ took a photo.”
“How are they going? After what happened?” Rose's face grew slightly melancholy at the question, but she tried to remain positive.
“Oh yeah, as good as anyone can be when they’ve been sent back ta 1940’s London. We can’t directly interact with ‘em, but we’ve visited from afar a couple of times, and they seem happy. Got a baby on the way, a nice house, all the things.”
Their conversation lapsed into silence as Martha scrambled for something to say. After a minute, she posed another question cautiously. “Is River coping with it?”
Rose’s smile was still tinged with sadness, but her eyes were full of warmth. “She was miserable for about a week after the Ponds… left, but then we found out about the baby, an’ she was ecstatic.”
A hand came to rest atop her stomach, as Rose's smile reappeared, firmly back where it belonged. “‘S nice when Rivers around. She technically doesn’t need ta sleep more than once a week, but I’ll tell ya what, she gets real tetchy when ya get ta day five or six an’ she’s got a bit of a mean streak—”
Martha heard what she assumed was the sonic clang below deck. “Oi! Watch it! That's my wife you’re talking about!” The Doctor ordered from below, to which Rose blew a raspberry.
“She’s my wife too ya plonker! Dontcha remember Kappa ten?” Rose shot back. “Or is your memory goin’ with age?”
It was like watching a clown act. Martha found it deeply entertaining, although she did feel a tad bit sorry for the Doctor. God knows Tom couldn’t do anything right in the last month of her pregnancy, and he didn’t have access to anything so important as a time travel machine to screw up. “I’d leave it alone Doctor,” Martha called, hoping he could hear her through the phone. “I don’t think this argument is one you're gonna win.”
“Who’s arguing?” A rich voice came from somewhere out of view of the camera, and a proper bright smile broke out on Rose's face.
“River!”
The woman in question entered the frame, and wrapped her arms around Rose's waist, her hands coming to rest atop of Roses on the bump. “Hello sweetie's.”
Rose pressed back into her embrace, grinning at the contact. “Mmm, hello. ‘M on the phone ta Martha, the Doctor’s still workin’ on the Transdimensional flux capacitor.”
Rivers' eyebrows drew together at that. Disentangling her arms from around Rose's waist, she stalked towards the open console and stomped her boot on it, creating quite the racket.
Martha watched on, extremely amused.
After half a minute or so of Rivers' commotion, the Doctor emerged from beneath the console, his hands waving about like a flustered pigeon. “What do you want? Haven't ya ever heard of asking or—”
“Out.”
Before the Doctor could react, River had his wrist in a death grip and she yanked him from the room without another word, leaving a very bemused Rose behind.
“Where’s she taking him?” Martha asked, trying not to laugh. Clown act was certainly the right way to describe them. Rose shrugged.
“Who knows. River never does what you’d expect, but my bet is probably ta shower and sleep.”
At Martha's look, Rose rolled her eyes. “Sleep sleep, christ woman thats the second time you’ve made that joke. Have ya been possessed by Jack or something?”
Martha rolled her eyes at the good natured jibe. “Yeah yeah, yuck it up. Where’s he got to anyway?”
Rose scowled. “We dropped ‘im off at Torchwood just before the Doctor broke the Transdimensional flux capacitor. Apparently it’s a key part of the, wait hang on.” Rose cleared her throat before putting on a scarily accurate Doctor voice. “The Transdimensional flux capacitor is a key part of regulating the void energy throughout the TARDIS engines, without it we’d end up somewhere blah blah.” Rose trailed off, waving her hand lazily in the air.
Behind her, River walked out of a corridor, took off her heels, and disappeared beneath the console. Rose continued ranting, not noticing River.
“I swear if the Doctor doesn’t get it fixed by the time herself gets ‘ere,” Rose motioned to her belly. “And Jack misses her birth, ‘M gonna skin him myself.”
Almost the moment she said the words, the TARDIS rotor whorped, lighting up completely. Rose jumped at the sudden noise, but managed to catch herself as River emerged from beneath the deck, not a hair out of place. “All fixed!” She called, and a huge grin broke out across Rose's face.
A squalling cry came from behind Martha, one of her twins having woken themselves up. She winced, and pulled her phone closer to her face. “Gotta go Rose, y’can hear why. Talk to you later?”
“‘Course. Good luck!” Rose replied before the screen went blank, and the other twin began to wail, creating a racket. Wearily, Martha got to her feet and headed towards the nursery, hoping Tom would be home soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That evening, or as close to evening as it could be TARDIS time, Rose was preparing for bed when the Doctor slunk in through their bedroom door. She pursed her lips, but continued braiding her hair, waiting for him to speak first.
A lengthy silence spanned before the Doctor spoke.
“Hey Rose,” he mumbled, not making eye contact.
“‘Lo.” She replied shortly.
He cleared his throat. “River fixed the flux capacitor.”
“I saw.”
Silence stretched again, the only sound the humming of the TARDIS before Rose sighed, and tied her braid off with an elastic. “I missed you," she admitted. “You were under the console for a week.”
The Doctor moved forwards and sat on the edge of the bed, causing it to dip beneath his weight. He reached for her hand almost hesitantly, but Rose was having none of it. She took his hand and gripped it tight, running a thumb along the back of his palm, before pulling him closer to her. He obliged, sitting behind her, allowing her to rest her weight on his chest. “Hello,” Rose sighed, leaning her head back onto his shoulder, her eyes closing.
He hummed pleasantly, and it reverberated through her chest. “Hello. I missed you too.”
His acknowledgment made any lingering resentment Rose felt fade away, the unspoken apology beneath those words more than enough for her. Perhaps feeling a little left out, or maybe hearing her Daddy's voice up close for the first time in a while, their daughter began to kick up a storm in Rose's stomach. Rose drew the Doctor's hand in hers to rest atop her swollen womb, to feel the movement, and for a time they breathed together, enjoying the closeness.
That TARDIS lurched suddenly, indicating they'd gone into flight, probably to pick up Jack. Rose snuggled into the Doctor, contentment blooming in her chest. “How’d River get the capacitor working so quickly?” She murmured, keeping her eyes shut for fear of ruining the moment.
One of the Doctors hands went up to scratch the back of his neck, a nervous tick of this regenerations. “It err may have been slightly less broken then I let on.”
Rose craned her neck to look at him, raising an eyebrow. He looked away. “Much less broken. It was much less broken than I said.”
Rose cackled, throwing her head back. “Oh my god Martha was right, you’re nesting!”
The Doctor huffed at that insinuation, his sputtering half protests only egging Rose on. She began to speak to their baby, putting on a silly voice as she did. “Daddy’s scared ‘bout you coming hmm? Gotta make the TARDIS all safe for his little girl.”
His hand flew back to her belly, cradling it as he kissed the top of Rose's head. “Always.”
“You two sure look comfy.” A suave American voice chimed in from the doorway. “Mind if I cut in?” Rose looked up to see Jack leaning against the doorway, a lazy grin on his face.
“Jack!” Rose practically squealed, struggling up from the Doctor's lap and leaping at her other husband. She locked her arms around him as tight as they would go with her stomach in its current state and kissed him soundly, trying to convey how much she’d missed him in the gesture. Between them, their little girl kicked wildly as if trying to showcase the same thing, and his hand came down to caress her.
Jack managed to manoeuvre Rose back towards the bed, where she fell atop the Doctor again. Jack climbed in afterwards, and wrapped both of his arms around her in a crushing bear hug. “Missed you Rosie.” He murmured into her hair, and she sighed happily.
“What about me, Harkness?” The Doctor barked from her other side, but there was an underlying playfulness in his tone that belayed his true feelings. He too was glad Jack had returned.
Jack didn’t deign to answer the Doctor's question verbally, instead he leant over Rose to give him a sound kiss on the mouth. When he pulled back, he waggled his eyebrows in his suggestive fashion before winking. “Does that answer your question handsome?”
The Doctor grumbled some more, but Rose felt his hand come to rest on her hip under Jacks, and she snuggled down, deeply content.
River made her way into the bed at some point after that, worming her way between the Doctor and Jack, hair still damp from her shower, and all in all it was exactly what Rose had been hoping for.
Peace and quiet. Everyone present. Her unconventional family together, waiting for their fifth member to arrive. Perfection.
Rose was just beginning to doze off when her nightgown began to feel damp, almost as if— ah shit. She shifted slightly in Jack’s arms, just to confirm her suspicions, and after finding that she was indeed lying in quite the puddle, she hesitantly spoke up.
“Err not to interrupt this frankly fabulous cuddle, but I think my waters just broke?”
Seemed their daughter was going to have her dads sense of timing.
Fantastic.