- c h a p t e r   n i n e t e e n -

"What do you mean, she's pregnant?" the Doctor exclaimed. He stepped towards the nurse again, as if getting closer to her would allow him to understand everything just a bit more. For a moment his mind just didn't seem to be working out correctly. He glanced over towards Melody who was still staring up at the sky.

"I mean she's pregnant." The woman shook her head, allowing herself to fall into an enormous sigh. She turned her head over towards Melody and then back to him. "Please, Doctor, if you're not going to take this situation seriously you should probably stay away from here for a little while. Just until Melody is able to take all of this better."

"No, no, I am taking this seriously," the Doctor said, holding up his hands. "I'm sorry, I'm just kind of...shocked, you know."

"Oh, do you think you're the father?"

The Doctor's jaw dropped. Now this he certainly did not know how to respond to. He tried to begin speaking, but every time his words got tangled up. "Uh...um...erm...of course not!" He was just so shocked by the question that there was hardly anything he could say. The woman gave him a strange look. He had gotten used to those from her by that point.

Finally, the Doctor just let out a sigh. "Any chance I can go over to Melody? Talk to her?"

"As long as she's willing to. If you promise to behave." The Doctor nodded, starting to get a bit irritated with this woman. The Doctor wished that Clara was with him to help him through this, but he was on his own.

Thrusting his hands into his pockets, he waddled over to Melody. He was hoping that his odd movement would be enough to get her to notice him, but she continued staring up at the ceiling. He crouched down beside her bed. This got uncomfortable in just a few moments, so the Doctor quickly rushed over and pulled up a seat.

"Hello there, Melody," he said, keeping his voice light and excited. "Sorry I couldn't have been here sooner."

Just as before, she gave no acknowledgement that he was beside her. Her eyes remained focused on the ceiling, her thoughts somewhere far away from him.

"Melody?" the Doctor asked, attempting to get her attention.

Melody remained completely still. If it wasn't for the constant up and down movement of her chest, he might have had difficulty believing she was still living.

"Melody, I'm here. I being the Doctor, that is. I assume you already knew that, but I just wanted to make sure. Melody?" The Doctor attempted to get her to speak up, but she remained silent and staring up at the ceiling.

"Melody? Can you hear me?" he asked, inching closer. "I don't remember hearing anything about pregnancy making someone deaf. Then again, I'm always interested to learn new things...you aren't deaf, are you?"

Melody continued not reacting to the Doctor. He decided upon standing there awkwardly, hoping that she would eventually give some sort of action acknowledging his presence and her life. It seemed to take forever, but she finally spoke.

"I should have known sooner," Melody murmured, blinking several times.

"Oh, Melody! You're talking!" said the Doctor, clapping his hands together. "Good, good. I had a feeling you were going to respond. Ah, very good!"

"No, it's not good. It's not good at all," Melody replied, her gaze focused up on the ceiling. "There were so many warning signs, and yet I stayed completely oblivious to it."

The Doctor thrust his hand out to cover hers that was lying on the side of the bed. When she felt his touch she moved her gaze in order to face him. Her eyes flicked across his face like she hadn't seen it for a long while and it had changed.

"You look...older," she said. "Like someone you've aged."

"It's only been several hours since I last saw you and you last saw me," the Doctor replied.

"I know, I know..." Melody sighed. "But you look older. I feel older. I feel different."

"That's not surprising," he said. "I mean, quite a lot has happened. You've been forced to grow up, haven't you?"

"Yes, yes. Exactly. How did you know?"

"Because that's how I feel," the Doctor replied. "That's how I feel every single day. It's like I'm being forced to grow up. But I don't really want to."

"So you don't!" Melody finished. Her lips curled into a smile, the first sign of happiness she had shown since the Doctor had seen her. "I suppose that's the best way to be."

"I think it is. But sometimes you just sort of have to grow up."

"And sometimes you're forced to," Melody added. "Like right now. I have to grow up, physically and mentally. I have to be ready to take care of a baby."

"I personally think you'll be a good mother."

"I'm twenty one years old!"

"You know just as well as I do that women used to be mothers in their teens in Earth's past. Wait. Yes, past. Got confused for a second." He hadn't really been twisted up in time, but he was pretending to in order to brigthen Melody's mood. Unfortunately, it didn't have much of an overall effect on her.

"But I'm not from the past!" Melody protested. "I'm from the twenty first century, and I'm in college, and I'm not engaged or married or anything."

"That's not the point I'm trying to make here," the Doctor replied. "The point is, you will be a good mother. Clara and I will be there for you and the baby. I promise."

"But..." Melody began, swallowing back a round of tears. "Connor." It felt like she had not let her lips form his name in an era. She had been avoiding it just to keep herself together, but now she just had to let go of that.

"I'm sorry about him," the Doctor said. "But...you know that there was nothing any of us could do. He made his own decisions, even if they were sort of rash, and we couldn't stop that from happening."

"He doesn't even know, he doesn't have a clue! If I didn't know, then he wouldn't know, unless he did know, in which case he wouldn't have left, but if he did know and he did leave then...then..." Melody started to babble, but caught herself.

"You know what I mean, right?" Melody asked, now staring unblinkingly at the Doctor. "There's just so many things about him that keep coming back to me, and I don't think they're ever going to stop now."

"Well, to be honest, I know exactly what you mean," the Doctor replied, shifting closer to her. "I've gone through it. Sometimes she's still on my mind."

"She?" Melody raised her eyebrows.

"It's complicated," the Doctor said. "In a nutshell, everything turned out okay in the end."

"Just okay?"

"Okay for me."

"Why do I have a feeling this isn't the other Melody that you know?"

"Because you're a very clever girl, Melody. Nothing will ever change that," the Doctor replied, shaking his head slightly. Then he glanced around the room, looking over each shoulder twice in order to get a full view of what was going on.

"Ah, that nurse is gone," he exclaimed.

"Doctor, you sound relieved," Melody said, allowing herself to laugh slightly.

"Well, I am, sort of," the Doctor replied, pleased he had made her laugh. "I'm not sure she liked me very much."

"Are you kidding, Doctor? Just about everyone loves you. I think she's included in that."

"Still relieved that she's gone, though," the Doctor shrugged.

Melody gave a true eye-crinkling smile and nodded her head. "Thank you for coming here, Doctor. Thank you for taking me here, and everything..."

"No need to thank me. I'm just beng a good friend."

"Still," Melody urged. "Well, thanks again. I suppose there's not much more to say here, at least not right now. Maybe it's time for us to stop talking for now...what do you think, Doctor?"

"I'm sure you could come up with plenty of words if you tried to," the Doctor joked, "but I agree. Feel better, Melody. We'll have you back in the TARDIS as soon as we possibly can." He nearly raised his hand up to his head in a salute, but then caught himself. He hadn't a clue why he would do such a thing.

"Goodbye for now, Doctor," she said as he began to turn around. "Oh, one last thing!"

The Doctor whipped around, nearly sending himself off balance. After letting out a clipped giggle, Melody said, "Send in Clara, please? I'd really appreciate it. I want to explain this to her myself. I mean, I kind of have to..."

"Of course."

"Thank you."

"You're always so very welcome, Melody."

With that, the Doctor turned on his heel and walked out the door. Clara was waiting patiently outside, her arms folded in front of her.

"Doctor," Clara began. "How is she?"

"Better than you'd think in some ways. Worse in others," the Doctor replied, being cryptic as usual. "She wants to see you, actually."

"Oh, really?" Clara asked, tilting her head.

"Yes, really," the Doctor replied. "I'd be a bit careful if I were you. She's certainly not in a bad condition, but I wouldn't say it would be good either. It took me a few minutes before she even cracked a smile!"

"Hm," said Clara. She glanced at the Doctor, wondering if this was going to be more difficult for her than it had been for him. Somehow she had a feeling that would be precisely the case. While the Time Lord had adventured with her for a good amount of time and seen her change over that period, she had only met Melody after Connor had been taken away from her.

Nevertheless, she still felt for the girl. She had worried for her when she was locked up in the library, and now Clara worried about Melody ending up in the hospital. If the girl wanted to see her, she just couldn't refuse.

Clara pushed open the door to see Melody lying on the bed. Unlike when the Doctor had entered, she was looking straight at her visitor. The blonde haired girl shuffled around in her bed for a moment, allowing herself to get comfortable. If she had predicted correctly, this conversation might end up taking a while.

"Hey, Melody," Clara said, speaking softly. The Doctor had gotten her a bit worked up over whatever was going on with the blonde girl and she had been unsure of how to handle the situation. She decided to just be as soothing as possible. After all, she was in a place of healing.

"Hello, Clara," Melody replied. "Glad to see you here." Her voice started off strong and loud, but it steadily decreased in volume until her final words were little more than breath.

"So..." Clara began, unsure of where to go with this.

"I'm guessing the Doctor did not tell you my ailment, then," Melody sighed. "I guess I might as well just go out and tell you, then. I am pregnant with Connor's child."

Clara opened her mouth in order to respond, but found no words coming to her tongue. She was the third person to be utterly shocked by that same news that day. She then closed her mouth, aware of how strange she might be looking. Again, she opened up her mouth and her mind went blank.

"Don't worry," said Melody, turning her gaze down towards her stomach, "that was my exact reaction to finding out myself."

"Pregnant? Did I hear you correctly?" Clara asked, attempting to stop her mouth from gaping.

"Yes, you did," Melody answered, biting her lip. "I think you can figure most of it out yourself, but...I had no idea. I should have seen it coming, but I didn't."

"How could you have possibly seen this coming?" Clara said, crossing her arms in front of her. "Not even the Doctor seemed to have a clue."

"I was living inside of a library for the last few weeks," Melody admitted. "There's not much you could have seen, either of you."

"But I still don't see how you could have known, either," Clara said.

"No, you see, there's some signs of pregnancy that show up easy on. One of the biggest of those was what happened this morning at breakfast. I felt sick. Nauseous. Everything I looked at that was food just made me feel icky."

"We all have days where we feel icky," Clara said. "I still don't see why you could have been so sure."

Melody shook her head, feeling her lips turning up into a smile. "No, I suppose you wouldn't. I won't get into the gory details. But I've been feeling exhausted, that's a major sign. There's lots of other things that just completely slipped my mind."

"Ah..." Clara replied, nodding her head. "I think I understand. I'm not sure, but..."

"But what?" Melody asked, nearly giggling at the rhyme. Laying down in a hospital bed and talking allowed herself to relax and energize herself up again.

"I don't know. It seems sort of strange, but I guess if the hospital has tested you then it must be the case."

"Well, let's not worry too much about all of this," Melody said. "I mean, aren't you and the Doctor heading out again after this?"

"Yeah," Clara admitted, shrugging slightly. "But I can't wait to travel with you in the TARDIS again," Clara said, giving a smile towards Melody.

"You and the Doctor have fun while I'm healing," Melody replied. "I mean, I assume, you're going to go on without me. I don't want you to stay here while I'm getting used to everything. You know what I mean, right?"

"Of course I know what you mean," Clara said, laughing slightly. "We're going to have plenty of fun, I promise you that. Then we'll come back to you, and you can come and have plenty of fun with us."

"I can hardly wait for that," Melody said. "I hope you two won't be too long. You won't be too long, will you?"

"Not if we can help it," Clara answered. "But you know the Doctor. He has a bit of a problem with finding the right time and place. Don't worry, though. I will make sure he gets back here."

"Well...then I guess that's what'll just have to happen, then," Melody said.

"Bye, Melody!" Clara said, raising up her hand to wave.

"Goodbye, Clara," Melody replied. She watched Clara's feet as they walked across the floor, making their ways towards the door. She couldn't be sure quite when she would see her or the Doctor again, but she hoped that it would be soon.

The last thing she could handle at the moment was to have more people abandoning her in a time of need. Melody wouldn't admit it, but she felt like it could kill her. Now that feeling was more urgent than ever.

A/N Oh look, I did another thing! I hope this chapter wasn't too filler-y. I don't personally think it's filler, but I suppose it sort of feels that way. Nevertheless, I was able to write it farily quickly. As you can tell because I am updating a day early. I love that. I love that so much. And now I'm just freaking out.