Riley couldn't face Aviva with that ring. She still felt too guilty.

Put the Tardis on silent.

Ten nodded and flipped a switch, the roar of the engine was cut off and we landed.

"Wow that's weird." She muttered at the silence before hopping off the Co-pilot seat.

She held in her hands a book, a letter, and the ring. The book had taken a month to find, mainly due to Riley getting sick every time they flew the Tardis. When they did get to move, she had to pee every ten minutes.

Oh the joys.
She would think sacastically every time the symptoms hit.

By now she had a little bump in her shirt and was nearing the end of the first trimester.

She kissed the Doctor's cheek and walked to the door. Pulling it open, she saw a crib and a changing table. She set the items on the table and turned to go back into the TARDIS.

"Bububububmaa." The baby babbled in the dark.
She couldn't help but put a hand on her stomach where her own baby was growing.

Don't mess with the baby, don't mess with the baby.

Thats when Xavier started whining.

You better go see what he wants.

She sighed and walked over to the crib.

"Hey Xavier. What's wrong?"
His babble was translated as. 'I wanna be held.'

She picked up the warm infant and started to rock him, humming an old Galliffreyian hymn.

What have you been doing?'
"Running." She whispered.

'I miss daddy.' He burbed as he fell asleep.

"I know, I'm sorry." She whispered and gently sat him back down in the crib.
She walked shakily into the Tardis and closed the door, then rest her head on the white wood while the Doctor landed the Tardis on another planet.

Long fingers were soon rubbing her shoulders, the Doctor rubbed all the knots out of her neck and kissed her collar.

He wrapped his arms around his wife, placing his hands over where the baby is.
"Aviva's smart. She'll work out what to do. She'll bring him back. Xavier will not grow up without a dad."

Riley turned around, her floppy bangs covered her right eye. The Doctor chuckled and tucked the hair behind her ear.

"I love you." She whispered.
"I love you more."He gave her a mischievous grin.

"What did you do?" She asked, knowing that look.

"Oh, nothing." His voice had gone up an octave.

"Ah! There's something. What is it?"

He backed away, still grinming, and turned to the consol.

"Well, I thought, that you might want to go somewhere. Then I kept thinking... where? The beach gets sand everywhere, a park is too ordinary, then I came across...this!"

He pulled out his psychic paper.

Your invited!
To the
Interplanetary Maternity Foundation's
Annual Christmas Shower.

15.78.40

"What is that?" Riley asked.

"It's a foundation that supports mother's of all species across the Averani and Klod galexies. They must send these out to an expectant of every tribe...so what do you say? Should we go?"

"I say, we go to the strangest parties. Why not?" She smiled and rose on her tip toes kiss him on the nose.

They set the coordinates and started flying. The Doctor was steering and Riley kept the TARDIS upright.

About to land! 3...2...1...

The TARDIS floor thudded and the couple jumped at the same time. They laughed and the Doctor put his arm around her.

"Shall we get dressed up?" She asked.
"I'm allright with what I have on." He said.
"Yeah, but your always in that suit." She rolled her eyes.

He looked down at his brown suit.

"What's wrong with it?" He pouted with big brown eyes.

"Nothing! Either wait here or come on. I need to change into something nicer."
She danced her way to the closet and picked out a long green dress that would hilight her eyes.

The Doctor whistled.
"Hey pretty lady. Goin my way?"
"All through time and space." She slipped her arm through his and they left.

Hairless grey humanoids with bony bumps instead of hair. The men had dark bumps and the women bright blue. The women all were in various stages of pregnancy.

They all started to notice the pale, hairy humanoids.

I think we're a bit out of place here.
Maybe...meet the Averani.

"Hello. We got your invite. I'm the Doctor and this is the Vision." He showed them the psychic paper.

A man with several pins on his coat spoke.
"Your Klods. You don't belong in here."

"I'm sorry? This is the Interplanetary Maternity Foundation isn't it? Doesn't that mean cooperation and mingling of the planets?" Riley sassed. "Besides that, we aren't from Klod."

"Where are you from?" He asked.
"A planet long ago destroyed in war." The Doctor explained.

"Either way you look like a Klod. You can't be in here." He was really starting to get on Riley's nerves.

"Hey! Look I know how this works. You don't like the Klods...why?"

"They don't like us."
"And why do you think that? I mean you are definitely giving them reason to, not including them, forcing us out because we look like them."
"They don't act like us."

"Ok. So what? I'm from the south and he's from the north, sometimes we act nothing alike. That's what makes life interesting..." Riley started chewing him out.
"I used to live in a town, where if you had black skin, you were out of there within a month, the people with darker skin worked hard labor, and the light skinned did almost everything else. That town could be described as one word. Racist. And that is exactly the word to describe you."

He cocked his head.
"What has this 'racist' to do with us?" He asked.

"You don't like someone just because of where they are from, their skin tone, or where their ancestors were from. It is terrible and leads to wars, deaths. So before anything happens I'm going to help you solve this. Listen very carefully. THEY ARE SENTIENT BEINGS WITH FEELINGS TOO! STOP BEING SUCH A DALEK AND LOVE PEOPLE!! "

She finished her rant and stepped behind the Doctor.

"She's right." He shrugged.

The man hissed to a worker."Raise the wall."

Soon there was a soft grinding sound and the wall on their left was lifted.
On the other side the Klods stared at the Averani.

"Well don't just stand there. Mingle!" The Doctor added. One young couple stepped up and started talking with another. Soon the whole room was filled with chatter.

The Doctor smiled at his wife with complete adoration.
"You are just the most amazing woman."

Riley was about to reply when a young Averani nurse came up.

"Excuse me ma'am, could you come with me?" She asked in a nervous.
"Why?"
"We are giving each of the women here an ultrasound and health exam." She looked at the Doctor. "He has to stay out here."

Riley looked to her husband.

Should I?
Go for it and bring me back baby pictures.

The Doctor grinned as Riley made an 'oh, ok then' face.

She turned to the woman.
"Lead the way."

The Doctor was left to mingle with the men while Riley was taken down coridors to a medical bay.

They did all the normal medical checks, those don't really change throughout the universe. The nurses all had to take turns listening to Riley's hearts before doing an ultrasound of the plum-sized baby.

She sent a mental picture to the Doctor.

He's getting big!
Aww. Look at his little face! He's going to look just like you!
Or she. Plus, you can't possibly know that yet.

While they were 'talking' the head nurse argued with the doctor in charge.
"You've seen her charts. She has two hearts, there is no telling what the vitamin will do to her and the baby." The nurse argued
"I have no choice, she is back here and cannot be released until she has taken the vitamin. If she doesn't take it, then the treaty is broken and war will start. All it does is ensure a healthy baby." He stayed unconcerned.

"It also has been said to make Labor come sooner than normal."

"They all know this, your just over reacting...give her the vitamin, or your fired." He said calmly.

She stood for a moment. "It won't. She isn't from either of our planets, she didn't sign up for this." The nurse then pulled off her badge and stormed out of the bay.

The doctor took a small needle and knocked on Riley's door.

"Hello. I am Doctor Rey. I am going to give you a small vitamin shot, it is very beneficial to you and the baby. It's called quopherv."

What's a vitamin called koferv do?
...it's just a good vitamin. Not usually found in this system. If they want to give it to you, it shouldn't do anything bad.

Riley stuck her arm out and looked at a ceiling tile.
"Stick me."

The man didn't touch her arm, instead he wiped a patch on her neck and plunged the needle in without warning. He didn't notice her flinch as he finished the shot and left.

The serum chilled her veins. She shuddered at the sensation. .
"This is why I hate shots." She muttered.

"Come on. It's time." A nurse led her to the group of about twenty women.

"What's happening?" She asked one of the Klods.

"Don't you know?" The woman's grey eyes widened as Riley shook her head.
"Quickening. It cuts the time left until your delivery in half."

"What? No. I'm not doing that!" She took a step back.

"It's too late. The shot was already administered." She looked at me like I was stupid.

Doctor! That shot is supposedly a quickening thing! It speeds up the pregnancy! Why did you let me take it?
What?? Oh no. No.no! It's Quopherv.
That's what I said!
No. You. Said Koferv! That hasn't been proved to-
Get me out of here!
I can't! If they don't stabilize it, the chemicals will poison you.

They led us to a stage that was full of dentist-type chairs and made us sit down. They put a small wire on each of our bellies and administered some pain killers, because, apparently, this would hurt.

Soon the meds kicked in and everything went fuzzy. The room became warm and a quiet roar filled the air. This was quieted with one voice.

"Hello and welcome to the quickening ceremony. Every year we pick out one expecting couple from each tribe on both planets in an act of peace and prosperity. This year we have a special guest couple, the last of a legendary race called the Timelords. This is our gift to you, a big, healthy baby." This voice was replaced by one that made me hopeful.

"Allright listen up. We did not know of this 'quickening' when we came. We were just passing by. Now my wife is up there with deadly chemicals in her veins. Quopherv is outlawed by the Shadow Proclamation because it causes infant death and birth defects. I know that hasn't happened yet, here. But it will...unless I stop you. You are to stop this, stop messing with the beautiful process just because your impatient. I want to see my wife getting bigger every week. I want to feel my child's first kicks and be there for all the morning sickness. Because I know what it's like to be a dad instantly. What I don't know is watching my baby grow within the woman I love.... And since I know that your races can only have one child, I know that none of you will either. Because you chose this! Now it's too late. The only way to get the chemicals out is by using them... this process is painful. Not only for the wives, whose stomachs stretch suddenly and who might even go into labour, but also for the babies. Their tiny bodies being rapidly grown. It burns them, they feel every bit of it. This should just kill you father's on the inside. Because your hurting your family, putting their lives at risk. Trust me, nothing hurts worse than loosing them. You might not listen this year, but in the years to come, defects, and deaths will follow this abomination. You will remember this and mourn, because you could've stopped it."

He stopped speaking and a current burned from the wire. It arced along my limbs, I screamed as my stomach stretched and organs crowded. Soon I could hear a tiny heartbeat and a mind screaming with mine.

This was lost as I entered a vision.

I was being held on a dial, seeing my husband on the ground, bloody and still. Then I was on Gallifrey. I was having my baby in a red field, Harold was helping me. The vision skipped and I was awake, but instead of Harold was a thin woman holding my baby.

I snapped awake with blinded eyes.

"Riley!" The Doctor put his arms around me had kissed my neck.

"What happened? Is it that bad?" I tried to sit up, but the Doctor put his hands on my shoulders and held me back down.

"No no no. Don't sit up your fine. The baby is fine. Let me show you."

I expected him to put a picture in my mind, instead he put my hands on a swollen belly that I could barely believe was mine.

"Your development is in the late stages of the second trimester. I wouldn't let them tell me what sex the baby is." He rubbed the large bump.

"I heard your speech...I'm sorry." I muttered and his hands froze.

"For what? You didn't know. It's not your fault...I had honestly thought you were completely out of it like the others until..."
"Until?"

He took a deep breath in.
"You started screaming in pain, then you started crying...a-and I could feel your pain. I knew you could feel the baby's pain. Then you...your body forced itself into a vision to block the pain. You screamed that I was dead before you got really quiet... do you want me to know what you saw?" I could tell in his voice that he was letting tears fall from huge brown orbs.

"No...I-I can't tell you because I think part of it was drug induced... I just want to go back to the Tardis and fly away."

"Sweetheart, you are in the Tardis. We're back on Earth. You've been out for hours."

"Then why am I still so tired?"
"Growing babies takes a lot of energy. Doing it all at once is like hooking a car battery up to a spacecraft." He put his lips on my forehead. Just get some rest. I'll be right here." I felt him crawl beside me.

Soon I was in a deep and dreamless sleep.