DOCTOR WHO: Arising -- A Nova Sue Prequel (Part 1.5)

Chapter 2: A Second Chance

The Doctor's reaction to River's revelation about her being pregnant with his first child in centuries was just as she expected, which sprouts some concerns for the new parents-to-be.

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The Doctor was speechless. Completely and utterly speechless.

He just stared at her, mouth firmly shaped into a wide 'O' as he slowly rose to his feet. River could see tears brimming in his old eyes, but she couldn't tell if they were tears of anger or tears of joy. It wasn't until he'd started running his fingers restlessly through his hair that she guessed the former.

"Sweetie?" she asked worriedly as she watched him struggle to process the information he was just given.

He began pacing the Console Room, now looking like he wanted to straight-up pull his hair out from his scalp. "I... This is... This can't be... I didn't... We never..." He just couldn't believe it. River Song, Melody Pond, his beloved wife, was pregnant! It just couldn't be possible!

"Sweetie, you're panicking," she said worriedly as she rose from the chair and cautiously approached him with her arms up in an attempt to calm him. "You know I don't like it when you panic. You need to calm down."

"How can I calm down after hearing something like that?!" he exclaimed, and he could now see that she, indeed, had a slight baby bump that she no longer tried to hide.

"Doctor, sweetie, my love," River said, reaching out to take his hands to prevent him from hurting himself, "please calm down. You're overreacting."

"Of course I'm overreacting!" he snapped back, his body physically shaking from the stress the revelation seemed to put on him. "You're pregnant with... I don't know who's baby..."

"Ours, of course!" River exclaimed, incredulous that he wouldn't know. How could he not? She thought. It wasn't like she would've done 'it' with anyone else—no one besides him.

Then again, it was with a future version of her husband, so that alone would make her understand the confusion that he was currently experiencing. Spoilers had a major habit of making things so much more complicated than they really needed to be.

"How can you be sure?" the Doctor frowned, evidently doubtful that she was pregnant with his—their—child.

She decided to tell him. "Because when I accidentally cut myself the other day, the cut healed; but it didn't just heal the way it normally would. Regeneration Energy appeared and healed the cut, which, you and I both know, should be impossible, because—"

"You should no longer be able to regenerate," he interrupted, his frown deepening.

"Exactly," his wife nodded. "Therefore, the only way it would be possible for me to regenerate is—"

"Is if you had a part of me—a full-fledged Time Lord—inside you," he interrupted again, his voice sounding, this time, like it was calming, the realization finally becoming evident to him.

"Yes, sweetie," she nodded again. "Therefore..." She then paused, this time allowing him to finish without interrupting.

"The baby is also mine," the Doctor sighed in relief with tears in his eyes.

River smiled with tears in her own eyes as she began caressing her husband's cheek. "You're going to be a father again."

The Doctor chuckled joyously, choking on her words. "River, that's... That is wonderful. I haven't been a father in so long. I never thought I'd ever be one again." Not since he last left Gallifrey, he thought, thinking of his late granddaughter, Susan, and all the other people he left behind.