This was not how Rose Tyler expected to procreate. No, this was the opposite. When she was very young, she'd play house with her friends and shove a throw pillow under her shirt like a baby bump. Of course, at that age she didn't know how babies were made and assumed it was a stork delivering a basket or the result holding hands with a boy. After a crash course from Jackie about birds and bees, she understood things far too well. In her teenage years, she figured that she'd settle down with a man or suddenly get knocked up after a fling gone wrong. Then, she met the Doctor and decided that kids were not in her future.

"You're going to have a child."

Well, apparently she was horribly wrong.

Several minutes ago…

Waking sluggishly and with a pounding headache, she grimaced and wished that it would only be a hangover. Instead, her limbs were strapped down to a cold medical table in a lab and she couldn't move. The last thing she remembered was running for her life with the Doctor—as usual—and tripping over a nasty cable. Some aliens grabbed her and she felt a needle in her arm. That's when the world went black.

They were supposed to be on some leisurely planet, but the TARDIS began to act up in the time vortex. It trembled, things blew up, the Doctor was running all around, and they landed harshly on a spaceship. The aliens were unlike anything they'd ever seen, even the Doctor couldn't place them, and they were seemingly some sort of mad scientist race. That explained her surroundings.

"Doctor?" she called groggily, unable to recall if he had been taken with her or not. "Doctor?"

"Not so loud," he groaned. "My head is throbbing."

She craned her neck and spotted him on a table beside her, also strapped down. "How long have I been out?"

"Don't know," he answered gravely. "They got me right after they got you. Sorry about that. I shouldn't have let go of your hand."

"It's fine," she assured him with a smile. "What do you think they'll do to us?"

"Hard to say. Could turn us into frogs. Could see if they can extract every cell in our bodies until there's nothing left. Or, they could check our temperatures and give us a lollipop for our troubles."

She giggled at that. "I'm hoping for the lollipop."

"I hope I get a mystery flavor. Those are brilliant. Takes me one lick to figure it out."

"You and your oral fixation."

Abruptly, the sound of a door opening caught their attention and two aliens came into view. The tall one looked like a twig, Rose thought, and the shorter one looked like a chimp. They went over to the Doctor and scanned him briskly. "What are you doing to us? It's only fair to tell. And it's polite. Your mum must have taught you manners," the Doctor said to them, although they ignored him totally. They were much more focused on Rose.

"Get off me!" she cried in protest as they lifted her shirt and placed various devices on her stomach. "I said get off!"

"Leave her alone!" the Doctor attempted. "I'm the last of the Time Lords. Last one of my kind. Much more interesting than a human. She's one of billions."

She glared. "Thanks for making me feel special."

"I'm trying to help," he defended.

A warm sensation trickled through her skin, but it didn't hurt. They poked and prodded, but again it was painless. Nothing seemed to change, as she wasn't becoming a toad or having her cells sucked out. After an uncomfortable amount of time, Twiggy—Rose decided to call him—clapped his hand-like apparatuses.

"The experiment was a success!"

The Doctor lifted his head curiously. "You've already done it? How long were we asleep?"
"Over nine hours," Chimpy—the other one—answered gleefully. "Plenty of time to experiment. We were so excited to meet you."

"Wish we could say the same, mate…" Rose grumbled, recalling the chase through their vessel.

"Two species we had never had onboard before," Twiggy explained. "And exactly right for each other."

"What?" Rose and the Doctor asked together, both turning an intense shade of red.

"Genetically," Chimpy further explained. "We're children of the experiments. Hybrids. We keep the legacy of our forefathers."

Rose's head hurt worse at the confusing words. "What does that mean?"

"Congratulations," Twiggy grinned. "You're going to have a child."

She choked and the Doctor grew pale. Her mind was racing. "Can you repeat that?"

"Our experiment went perfectly! We've melded your genetic structures and implanted the fertilized embryo. The growth was accelerated for our documentation, but your natural process of procreation has begun. We've calculated that in eight months, you will give birth to the hybrid…" Chimpy continued.

The Doctor was unbelievably quiet. She was still in shock. "So, you're telling me that in eight months I'm going to have a baby…and he's the father?"

"Precisely," Twiggy smiled.

Everything became silent. Of all the ways to get pregnant, she did not think that aliens in a lab would be the cause. Her emotions were mixed. The motherly instinct was beginning to kick in, and she wanted to smile joyfully at the idea. Not only that, the Doctor was the father. That made her smile even harder. However, the other part of her demanded that they undo it. She was worried about the Doctor, especially since the expression on his face was blank. His eyes grew dark and he frowned.

"Take it back," he demanded. "If she's only a month along, take it back now."

She was surprisingly wounded by the forcefulness in his voice. Twiggy and Chimpy exchanged glances. "You don't want this child?"

"Yeah," Rose agreed angrily. "We should at least talk about this, Doctor. Before you decide things for me. Talk about rude and not ginger!"

He scowled. "Well, do you want this baby?"

"Do you?" she returned quickly.

"I'm concerned," he admitted. "Genetically speaking, we are compatible in a lab scenario. Procreation probably couldn't happen naturally. It's kind of like…a liger. Under natural circumstance, a lion and a tiger would never breed. In captivity, with human error and the right conditions, the liger is possible. But, it isn't a healthy animal. It has fundamental problems like size and weight and short life spans. You and I could have just created a liger."

She was trying to process it all. "So you're a tiger and I'm a lioness—"

"No, I'm a lion and you're a tigress. Otherwise it's a tiglon."

Her glare cut through him. "Is there a difference?"

"Yes, there certainly is. They aren't as common as the liger and they don't get as big."

"Thank you for making that distinction," she hissed. "So you're saying the baby might be unhealthy?"

"I don't know for certain what the ramifications will be, especially in a physical manifestation. I have two hearts and different body systems. What would happen if I gave you another heart? Your body wouldn't function. For all we know, the child could have two heads. Or no head. Or…anything. They could be very ill."

"Or not," she offered. "I'm just saying. These hybrid aliens look healthy. Weird. Very weird. But healthy. No offense or anything," she stated with a nod in their direction.

"Ligers, Rose. Ligers."

She was getting irritated and decided to fight back. "Wolf-dogs, Doctor. Wolf-dogs."

His eyebrows went up. "What?"

"A wolf and a dog. They're sort of related but sort of not. Their offspring are healthier than either parent. So, what if this baby gets the best of you and the best of me?" she asked him softly.

Suddenly, a small smile rested on his mouth, though concern was still in his eyes. "That'd be brilliant."

She grinned in response. "I know."

Twiggy decided to jump into the conversation. "The child will be healthy. Our tests confirmed it. You will carry to term, and you don't have a choice."

"What do you mean she doesn't have a choice?" the Doctor wondered worriedly.

"If the embryo is lost, she will die. We've connected it to her body so that one cannot exist without the other," Chimpy explained simply.

Rose glared at the pair of them. "So, if something happens and I lose the baby, you've killed me?"

"It won't," Twiggy assured her. "The Time Lord will protect you both."

"He what?" Rose repeated.

"I what?" the Doctor agreed.

"We saw you fight for her," Twiggy answered in the Doctor's direction. "When we tried to take her, you were trying everything to get her back."

She gazed at him intently. "You did?"

"Well," he shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah. I did."

They smiled at each other and Chimpy cleared his throat. "If you'd like, you are free to go."

"You don't want to keep us here to study the child? Not that I'm complaining about regaining feeling in my limbs," the Doctor grumbled as he tried to free his wrists.

"Our experiment was to see if conception was possible. We have already succeeded. It's in our files for future reference. As you said, there are billions of humans. If we come across them again, we will know more about their genetics…" Twiggy grinned as he carefully began to undo Rose's restraints.

She looked at him strangely. "Then why did you make it so that I have to have this baby?"

"It's our duty in the universe. We bring life," Chimpy laughed as though it were a dumb question. "Congratulations on your child."

Rose smirked as she got off the table, answering earnestly, "Thank you."

The Doctor was freed from his table as well. He went over to her and took her hand. The aliens waved as they walked toward the TARDIS in silence. Once inside, he set a course and she sat down heavily.

"Strangest day of my life," she commented. "And that's saying something."

The last thing they expected was to wake up…expecting.