Chapter 5

"Tell me the truth."

The Doctor had spoken darkly, he was in no mood for Missy's games, not after leaving Clara back in Victorian England with her baby when so much was still to be decided. But Missy's confession had affected him, and he wanted to help her – if she was telling the truth. They were in the Tardis now, the Earth was in the distance and he had her where he wanted her – alone, with him, just Time Lord and rival, with no where for Missy to run to any more...

"I did tell you the truth!"

As she spoke, the Doctor was walking over to her and Missy stepped away, and her back hit the wall. The jolt of it seemed to jar her to her bones, only serving to emphasise how shattered she was.

And that was all that was saving her from his wrath as he recalled the cracked tube and the leaking fluid in that artificial womb as Clara's baby had helplessly struggled...

He reached out and held her face in his hands, gripping a little too roughly as he forced her to meet his gaze. And she looked scared...

"I could travel the stars with you," he said in a low voice, "Just you and me and yes perhaps, who knows? We could have made little Time Lords together. If it had been anyone but you I would have welcomed the chance to keep my race going, to make more of us...But not with you. Not after all the hurt and the pain you've caused. You even caused my death, you caused regeneration, am I supposed to forget that? I had other lives, and I wanted to live out those lives! I blame you for so much."

"We could let the past go. I could have my friend back -"

Her words sounded halfway between desperate and pathetic.

"Our childhood was over a long time ago. Our friendship died when you chose to become what you did!"

She looked at him pleadingly.

"And this new body, this new start for me is like a rebirth!"

He laughed as he let go of her, but she didn't trust the look of smouldering anger in his eyes, and stayed against the wall.

"And what a great start it was for you, Missy! Think of all the harm you've caused since!"

"And now I want things to be different. I told you, I want peace between us!"

His pale blue eyes fixed on her gaze as he spoke honestly.

"Yes Missy, that can be done. Peace would be good for the whole of the universe but everything else between us is dead, including every possibility of togetherness you have dreamt up in your sick mind!"

"And you can change that for me! We could be so good together -"

"Shut up Missy, you know it's not happening!"

She blinked away tears. Her hand was closing around a device, and he snatched it from her, threw it to the ground and stamped on it over and over until the metal split and the wiring snapped.

"I prefer to think you were planning to teleport out instead of vaporising me - but neither will happen now."

Missy's stunned expression was not faked. She was genuinely shocked at his rage.

"But what about the baby?"

"It's gone," he replied, "You need to accept that, and there won't be another. You planned this whole thing out – you primed your body to guarantee a successful conception, you spiked the air with an alien gas that made me defenceless against you to ensure that conception would take place. You did all of this without my knowledge or consent so forgive me for the fact that I have no sympathy because your pregnancy failed! That's the one thing you didn't allow for: The possibility of something going wrong afterwards. You were too arrogant to even think for a moment that after all that careful planning the child you schemed to get could be lost!"

Missy was genuinely shocked at his harsh words.

"But it was our child!"

"No," the Doctor replied, and now any trace of shock he had felt on hearing the news was gone,"No Missy," he told her firmly, "Any child conceived by you had a lucky escape not to be born. The universe doesn't need another Missy or Master out there hell bent on destruction and chaos! And no flesh and blood of mine would take part in any scheme of yours! Know that now and remember it!"

Missy straightened up, gathering her thoughts as she felt weakened by his harsh words, but she was still strong enough to stop weeping at last.

"Every war must come to an end. What better way than to form an alliance with you?"

She stepped closer and fell to her knees and looked up at him.

"I will give you sons to build a new Gallifrey! Doctor, if it could be, I would accept my enslavement, I would allow you to break my will and I would serve you forever! I gave an army to you, does that not speak of my true feelings?"

He looked down at her.

"Yes it does," he said honestly, "You gave an army to a man of peace who despises war!"

She gently gripped the bottom of his scarlet lined jacket as she looked up at him.

"I am begging you!"

He brushed off her grip and stepped back, went over to the console and pressed some buttons and then turned back to face her.

Missy was still on her knees, and as he glanced back at the console and saw exactly what he expected to see on the monitor, he turned back to her and shook his head.

"I'm returning you to Victorian England. I will take you to your Tardis and you will leave. And if I ever see you again, as much as killing disgusts me, I will destroy you, because I've had enough of this constant battle between us. Do we understand each other?"

Missy's eyes reflected hurt and rage as she got up from the floor.

"You'd kill me? I don't think you have it in you, Doctor!"

He paused for a moment and then he nodded. As he spoke again his voice was much calmer, because he had pulled back now on his rage.

"You're probably right, I wouldn't kill you unless I had to. The reason for that is, because I pity you. I really do think you're pathetic!"

Her jaw dropped.

She stared at him, and then she struggled to find her words.

"I lost your baby!" she said sharply, "It was yours!"

"No, you didn't," he replied as he paused to key in landing co ordinates, "I just ran a scan to check you for pregnancy hormones, there would be some left after such a recent event as a miscarriage. And you know what the read out came back as? You were never pregnant! That's the reason why you stole Clara's baby! You thought it was mine, so it was the next best thing to forcing me to do the job for you!"

Missy glared at him.

"And you couldn't even manage that on the night, could you!" she said spitefully.

"Recreational gas has always had that effect on me. I was hoping I was right, and now I know I am – you left in a temper because you didn't get what you wanted. I can't tell you how pleased I am to know the truth. You almost had me Missy, almost. Until the Tardis scanner set the record straight."

Then as the Tardis landed he snapped his fingers and the doors flew open.

"Get out!" he said bitterly.

Clara had spent the afternoon with Vastra and Jenny, then they had left the room to give her some time alone with Strax. She watched as he held the sleepy, milk-filled child and looked at him thoughtfully.

"We need to make some choices," she said to him, "I travel with the Doctor and yes I can take him with me but you have a right to be with him too. I need to know what you want to happen, because I can't make this choice on my own."

Strax was still looking down at the child in his arms.

"He is a human hybrid. He would never be fully accepted by the Sontaran Empire. He will never be a warrior."

"Good!" Clara exclaimed, and Strax glared at her.

"It would be an honour for him to be a part of the mighty empire."

"No," she replied, "He's half human. And he doesn't have to grow up to be a warrior. He could grow up to be anything he wanted to be – even a butler like you."

And as he scowled, she smiled, and the look in his eyes softened as he smiled back at her.

"I am proud," he said again, "My child, my son..."

Clara thought on all the Doctor had told her, and hated to bring up the subject, but knew she had to do it.

"Is it right that you may not live for many years?"

"I was resurrected by Madame Vastra. Any deterioration in the process can be repaired. I could live another decade,or perhaps another fifty years- it can not accurately be predicted."

"So what ever you decide, I'm going to bear that in mind," Clara told him, "I want you to see him as often as you can. Me and the Doctor can stop by and we can sometimes leave him with you and then come back for him. We can share his upbringing."

Strax looked at her.

"What do you think?" she asked, and her heart ached as she thought of the Doctor and all he had said about how he longed to be a father to her child.

Strax nodded.

"The arrangement is amicable," he replied, and then he smiled, and so did Clara as she discreetly glanced to the clock on the shelf and hoped the Doctor would be returning soon.

The Doctor had not thought of Clara and the baby until he had watched Missy go into her Tardis, then he had waited for her ship to leave, and once it was gone, he went back to his own Tardis, feeling nervous as he wondered what the outcome would be when he went back to see Clara:

Babies changed a lot.

They changed perspective not only for him, but for Clara and Strax, too...

But the Doctor knew what he wanted most of all, deep down in his twin hearts:

He was getting older now, and as much as he loved running and chasing after monsters and flirting with danger, he had known for a while that with this new regeneration his need to be a father had woken sharply, even more so as his feelings for Clara had grown deeper. It didn't matter the child was not his, he had a strong paternal need to be a father to her son, and he knew if Clara had changed her mind he would take it very badly...

He spent another hour in the Tardis, getting a few things ready just in case the chance was still there that she would want to raise the baby with him, and then he left and headed for Vastra's house, feeling far more nervous than he cared to show as he finally reached the house and rang the bell.

When the door opened, it was Vastra who stood there, and she smiled warmly.

"I take it your quick return may indicate your anxiety over a certain situation?" she said in a low voice.

The Doctor knew he couldn't hide it any more, he felt like a nervous wreck...

"Do I need to be? Is Clara staying here to raise the child?"

Vastra was about to reply when Clara came to the door, she thanked Jenny for a bag that contained bottles of milk, and then she handed them to the Doctor.

"We'll need to put these in the fridge when we get back to the Tardis," she told him.

She saw the look of joy in his eyes and smiled, then looked away, not wanting to make the job harder for him as he struggled to hold back tears of relief.

Then Strax stepped forward, and his son was in his arms.

"We have reached an agreement," he said to the Doctor, "We will share the raising of the child. So I look forward to your next visit, Doctor."

"So do I," the Doctor said warmly.

Then Strax looked down at his son.

"I have considered his curse of human genetics mixing with the mighty Sontaran race and identified him accordingly. I have named him Jinx," he paused, smiling as his eyes shone with pride, "Return him soon, Clara Oswald."

Then he handed her the baby.

"We won't be gone for long," she said fondly to Strax, and then she leant closer to him, and Strax leant back, and she leant close again, and the confused Sontaran ducked out of her way a second time.

"I'm saying goodbye!" she exclaimed, and as he looked at her in bewilderment, she finally achieved what she had set out to do, and kissed his cheek.

A short while later, the Doctor and Clara were walking back to the Tardis. Clara glanced at the Doctor, and then she laughed.

"You're doing it again!"

"Doing what?"

"Smiling," she told him, "You look at me, you look at the baby, and then you keep on walking with a smile on your face!"

And his smile got bigger.

"I know!" he said, and then they reached the Tardis and went inside.

The Doctor wasted no time leaving the planet behind, and once the Tardis was in flight, he took the bottles to the kitchen to store the milk in the fridge, then he went back down the corridor and called to Clara.

He waited for her by a doorway, and when she joined him with the baby in her arms, there was a sparkle in his eyes.

"I didn't know what you might have decided while I was gone," he said to her, "Because babies change so much and I didn't know if I ought to assume you would be coming back, but just in case you did I made a few changes to a spare room...just a few...I hope you like it."

And he opened the door and she stepped inside.

Clara looked around the vast room where stars reflected in soft colours and rainbows decorated the walls. One side of the room was full of toys, the other had a magnificent cradle decorated in the language of Gallifrey.

She looked about the room in surprise.

"A few changes? This is a nursery! And it's lovely!"

She turned to him, their eyes met and then he kissed her.

"I'm glad you like it," he said, and as Clara handed the baby to him, he held him in his arms and spoke softly to him as he walked over to the cradle.

"Yes, I know, you're right," he was saying to the child, and Clara stood beside him as he stood over the cradle, watching with interest.

"I can speak baby," the Doctor told her proudly, "Jinx says he likes his room. And he wants to know who I am..."

"You'd better tell him, then," Clara replied as suddenly the three of them so close together seemed to feel like the warm, safe bubble made of love that could only come from family.

The Doctor looked down at the baby Sontaran as he spoke softly to him.

"I know I look nothing like you, but that's because your father is the man you just met, who named you. But I'm your other father. I'm the one you call Daddy."

Then he laid the child in the cradle and watched as Clara tucked him in, then as she rocked the cradle, the tiny baby closed his eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.

"We should leave him to sleep for a while," she said to him, and the Doctor nodded.

"Good idea. And don't worry about him – every room now has a baby monitor."

"You've thought of everything!" Clara said in surprise as they left the nursery and walked back towards the console room.

"Yes, I have," the Doctor agreed, then they returned to the console room, where the Doctor checked the controls, and as he was doing that, Clara joined him.

"You really don't mind that he's not yours, do you?"

"Of course not. It makes no difference to me. Although I'm hoping the next one we have will be mine."

And then he turned his head and looked at her.

She smiled.

"It definitely will be. I love you, Doctor."

"I love you too," he replied, and then he finished checking the controls.

Then as he noticed Clara had her back to him, he couldn't hold it in any more, and as hard as it was for the man who was not a hugger to do it, he reached out, stiffly wrapping his arms around her, surprising her with a hug that soon relaxed as he pulled her closer. She turned around to face him and his arms were still around her waist, and she saw joy shining in his eyes.

"We're a family!" he said excitedly.

"I know!" she said joyfully, and then he pulled her closer, and they kissed, and they were still kissing as the Tardis continued on its journey, as the Doctor and Clara celebrated their love and all that it meant to be a family at last.

End