Becoming a wife (A Dr. Who fanfiction)

Chapter 6

The presence was ever so light and fragile, nevertheless it was most decidedly there.

"It cannot be more than a few weeks old, how is that possible?" Rose whispered.

Her hands were placed on either side of the Doctor's. She could almost feel how the tiny consciousness struggled to reach out. With her mind she extended her gentle, welcoming arms and as the infant's mental touch collided with hers, both parents felt what was probably best described as a miniature light bolt.

Rose giggled and the Doctor looked up at her. In his eyes her own wonder was reflected, but there was something other than that, which Rose immediately understood and she quickly knelt down in front of him. She threw her arms around him and pressed him against her, enveloping him with all the love and soothing comfort she could offer.

He was very quiet, just clang to her like a frightened child. His mind raced and words like 'lost' and 'afraid' found their way past his barriers.

He was happy, thrilled was an even better suited word. In awe more than words could describe in whatsoever language, but there was a very distinct fear beneath all that, which Rose knew to be from the loss of his previous family.

She didn't tell him not to be afraid, she didn't say he would never loose them the way he had lost his people. All Rose did was bundle up her feelings of affection, profound and immeasurable, and send them to her husband over and over again. Until at last, she felt his grip loosening and his mind reaching out to her.

His mouth found hers and the kiss they shared was one of relief, joy and hope. They had talked about it, wished for it and it was never an improbability. Yet, for him even more than for her, to grasp the actual meaning, to see with their minds eye the reality of the miracle inside her womb, knowing and experiencing had never been further apart.

Once he found his ability to speak again, he said, his voice but a little trembling: "I love you!"

She smiled. "I love you too. Now please help me up, your knees are all bony, but mine aren't made for kneeling on this grating."

The Doctor quickly helped his wife to her feet and together they walked towards the galley.

Side by side they stood by the counter preparing breakfast. That was, Rose explained what needed to be on the table and the Doctor flipped the pages of a few cookbooks.

Rose watched him in amazement. "I am able to read a book a lot faster now than I always could before, but the way you do it... incredible. And you actually remember what you have read?"

"No point in being able to read so fast if I couldn't, now would it?" The Doctor replied with a smirk. "Eggs poached, hard boiled, soft boiled, baked, scrambled, over easy, sunny side up?"

Rose glared and muttered: "Show off," before she grabbed the cookbook and went in search of the various definitions. Finally she decided on scrambled.

"Is it too soon to be thinking of names?"

"It is never too soon for a good thing." He gently bumped against her side, unable to give a hug while he was holding a large cutting knife and a cucumber.

Rose had her hands in a bowl and was kneading the ingredients for dough, which she had refused to let a machine do, but now regretted immensely.

"I am not so fond of naming after relatives, for a first name that is, but I would like to give our child more than one name. Can you..." She hesitated and looked to her side.

The Doctor smiled reassuring, awaiting her question as if he already knew what she was about to ask.

"Can you tell me the names of your family? I know that names on your home world were given differently and that knowing them might be dangerous. If you can't tell me, you don't have to, I understand. Yet, you once told me your granddaughters name was Susan, that's a rather human name isn't it?"