Title: Family
By: Tiffany F
Pairing: Eleventh Doctor/Rory Williams
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't claim, no money to be made here.
Series: 1) Rebuilding an Empire
Warning: AU, mpreg
Summary: The Doctor and Rory visit Brian and Amy. Set after "Rebuilding an Empire" and I would strongly urge you to read that one first.

***

The Doctor was working on the console when the sound of crying caught his attention. "Rory?"

"I think she's hungry," Rory said as he came into the control room, Sarah Rose in his arms. "I just changed her so she's dry and she's not sleepy."

"Might just be cranky," the Doctor said. He took the three month old with a fond smile. "What's wrong, Sarah Rose? Really? That's easy enough to fix, now isn't it?" He looked up. "She wants to go for a swim."

"You know, Doctor, I still don't believe that you can speak baby," Rory said. He grinned. "But I'm up for a swim. Where's the pool?"

"Still in the library, as far as I know. I haven't gone looking for it recently, well, as recent as it gets in here. Onward, Rory, let's see if we can find the pool for our daughter."

Rory trailed just behind the Doctor as they went up the stairs and into the corridors of the TARDIS. "Doctor, I was wondering something?"

"Yes, of course it's perfectly safe to let her go in the pool. We'll be holding her and she won't be in any danger."

"That's good, but not what I was wondering."

"Oh, what is it?"

"Could we maybe go and visit my dad?"

The Doctor stopped and turned to look at Rory. "You think that Amy will have gone and spoken to him and are worried about what he might be thinking."

"Yeah. But I also want him to meet Sarah Rose. He'll be thrilled to find out he has a granddaughter."

"Do you want him to know what's happening to you?"

"Not yet." Rory leaned in and kissed the Doctor softly. "I will spend eternity with you, Doctor, but I don't know how to tell my father that's what I'm going to do. He's going to be upset enough as it is, me leaving Amy like I did. You showed him the world, but I don't know how he's going to react to knowing that I'm with you now."

"How are you going to explain Sarah Rose?" the Doctor asked. He turned and continued on towards the pool. "It's one thing to tell your father that you've left your wife for a 1200 year old alien male, Rory. It's another to explain to your father that your older alien lover can give birth."

Rory sighed. "Don't forget, 2000 years of waiting at the Pandorica, Doctor," he said. "Technically I'm older than you."

"Yes, technically, but that's not the point here, Rory." The Doctor pushed open a door and fell into the pool. "Thank you, sexy."

"Doctor, is Sarah Rose okay?"

"She's fine, Rory." The Doctor handed the baby up to his lover and pushed his hair out of his face. "I think the TARDIS thought I needed to cool off. But she would never do anything to hurt the baby."

"Okay then I'll meet you on the other side and you can change into you real swimming suit."

"Oh, very funny, Rory. Very witty." The Doctor started swimming towards the shallow end and the changing area. "You try falling into a pool completely dressed and see how it feels. I'm just glad the sonic screwdriver is water-proof. I would have to have to build another one, but then again if I did build another one, I could give it a setting for wood. That would be cool."

"Doctor, get out and change before you drown yourself," Rory said. He put Sarah Rose down on one of the towels and started to change her into one of the small swimsuits the TARDIS had in the wardrobe. "Do I even want to know why the TARDIS has all these baby clothes in her?"

The Doctor hung up his coat and started to undress. "I had a little over nine months to shop for her, Rory. I knew she was a girl almost from the moment she was created. I have a spaceship that is also a time machine. It wasn't hard to get well-stocked on baby things."

"I still wish I could have been here for her birth."

"You will be for the next one," the Doctor said. He let his pants drop to the ground and turned around to find his swimsuit. "Blimey, Rory, not in front of the baby."

"You can't show me your naked body and expect to come away completely unscathed, Doctor," Rory said with a nip to the Doctor's bare neck. "When she goes down for her nap, you're mine."

A soft moan was his only answer. Rory smiled and turned his lover around, catching the Doctor's mouth in a warm kiss. The Doctor opened for him and they only broke apart when Sarah Rose gurgled. The Doctor smiled. "She says we can kiss later, but she wants to be back in the water."

"I still don't believe you can speak baby," Rory said. "You go on with her, I'll be there in a second."

"I speak five billion languages, Rory. Why shouldn't baby be one of them?" The Doctor adjusted his swimsuit and picked up Sarah Rose. "I can also speak horse, cat, dinosaur and hawk."

"So you were really speaking to Tricy, not just doing what most animal lovers do?"

"Her accent was horrible, but we managed." The Doctor paused when the water was just up to his chest and slowly sank down to float. "I've never actually tried to swim while holding a baby, although I did swim a lot before she was born. I wonder if she's remembering that?"

Rory splashed out into the water and swam out next to his family. "Doctor, she's three months old. I find it harder to believe that she thinks of anything beyond food, sleep and love."

"She's a smart girl, Rory. Well, she'd have to be, given who her fathers are. You also have to remember that she's a time lady, so she'll be more advanced than a human baby of the same age group."

"Let me have her for a second." Rory stood up and took Sarah Rose carefully, resting her on his forearm and moving her through the water, a steadying hand on her back. "She has her own pool, that's pretty cool, Doctor."

"There's a horse too, when she gets older."

"What?"

"Did I never mention the horse?"

"No, you never mentioned the horse."

The Doctor grinned. "I got him back in my tenth regeneration, from a ship that had portals back onto France," he said. "He's in the garden, wherever it is now."

"You lost a horse on a spaceship."

"No, I lost a garden on a spaceship. It'll turn up when we need it to. Things generally do, after all. Now, the real question is, when do you want to go and see your father?"

"As soon as possible. I want to make sure he knows what really happened and why I made the choice I did."

"No, Rory, I mean when do you want to see him? Five minutes after you last saw Amy? Ten? A day? Time machine, we can go whenever you want."

"Oh, right. The next morning? I mean, I'd like to go sooner, but we were still there and I really don't want to risk changing what all we did that night."

The Doctor blushed. "That was a very enlightening evening," he said. "I didn't think it was possible for humans to bend that way." He swam over and kissed Rory softly. "The next morning it is. Do you want to do this alone?"

"No. I want you there with Sarah Rose. We're a family now, Doctor, and I want my dad to see the truth behind that."
**********

Brian was in his kitchen making breakfast when he heard a faint noise that he recognized, but couldn't place. He was tired. He'd been up most of the night trying to comfort his daughter-in-law after his son left her. Amy was devastated and nothing Brian had said seemed to have made any difference. He jumped when he heard the front door open. "Dad?"

"Rory."

"Yeah, sorry, should have rung ahead but we didn't know exactly what time we would be getting here. How early is it?" Rory peeked into the kitchen.

"Eight. I was up all night with Amy. Rory, I'm very disappointed in you."

"Dad, yeah, I know but it's complicated. Really, really complicated. Can we talk?"

As upset as he was, Rory was still his son and he wouldn't ever turn him away. "Of course we can. Rory, I thought I raised you better than this."

Rory came into the kitchen fully and Brian was struck at a change in his son's face. It was subtle, but something was different. "You raised me to do what's right, Dad, and to always follow my heart," he said. "Look, there's something that Amy and I never told you about. We were separated for six months and had all the divorce paperwork filled out. I thought it was really over between us, that I had failed as a husband, somehow, and my life was over."

"Amy told me you left her for the Doctor. Is that true?"

"Yeah. I'm bisexual, Dad. I figured out that much at school. Hell, for years Amy thought I was gay," Rory said. He sat down and took the offered coffee with a smile. "The night Amy chased me out of the house, I went out and drank too much. I just wanted to forget for a while, forget that the woman I loved didn't want me anymore. That I had failed. While I was looking for a hotel, I found the TARDIS and spent the night with the Doctor. It just turns out there was something I didn't know about him."

"What was that?"

"Doctor?"

Brian looked up at the alien as he walked into the kitchen, body language screaming that he was unsure of his welcome. "Is that a baby?" Brian asked.

"This is your granddaughter, Brian, this is Sarah Rose," the Doctor replied.

"How is that possible?"

"I'm an alien," the Doctor said with a small smile. "Would you like to hold her?"

"A granddaughter," Brian smiled. He stood up and took the baby from the Doctor. "How old is she?"

"Three months," Rory said. "Dad, I couldn't just leave her. Or the Doctor. They need me." He held up a hand. "I know, I know Amy needs me too. I couldn't think of a way to make everyone happy without causing a time paradox and risking the universe."

The Doctor looked up. "Brian, I gave Rory a choice. I told him that he was free to go back to Amy. I tried to hide Sarah Rose from him. I know how much they love each other. Amy is my best friend and I still need to go and talk to her, but I'm scared to. I'm scared to go and see my best friend because I'm afraid she'll hate me for taking Rory away."

"Doctor, you have a child and you need to protect her," Brian said. "I don't understand how and don't really want details on it, but you're a parent and that's the most important job in the universe."

"I know." The Doctor sighed. "I've had children in the past, oh, this was centuries ago now. They all died in the war, every one of them. Sarah Rose is a sign of hope, Brian. Rory wanted to let you meet her. He wanted to explain everything to you. That's why we're here."

"Did you tell Amy about the baby, Rory?" Brian asked.

"No. God no. How could I explain that when I wasn't even sure what was happening?"

"I can understand your point, Rory," Brian said. "Doctor, you should go talk to Amy."

"How can I? I did the one thing I promised never to do."

"You'll have to talk to her at some point." Brian shifted Sarah Rose to his other arm and sat back down. "I don't blame you for not wanting to take Sarah Rose with you. Babies shouldn't be exposed to fighting, and we all know what a temper Amy has. But it's something you need to do, Doctor. Rory can stay here and we'll talk. I'm still upset, but I'm not mad, Rory. You made an impossible decision and I'm proud of you for facing up to the consequences of it."

"Doctor, are you going to be okay?" Rory asked.

The Doctor tried to smile. "I'm always okay, Rory. Remember, I'm the king of okay."

"That's still a rubbish title."

"You're right, it is. Let me feed Sarah Rose and then I'll go see Amy. I'll think of something to say that will keep her from punching me long enough to say I'm so sorry."
**********

The Doctor walked to Amy's house to give himself a little bit of time to think. He knew that leaving Sarah Rose behind with her father was the smart thing to do, but he hated being away from her. He was still jumpy enough to worry that something would happen to her, someone would find out who she was and try to take her away to hold ransom against him. But Rory had the TARDIS and knew the trick to open the doors without a key, so they would be safe where they were. Safer than with him at the moment, especially once Amy saw him again.

He touched the picture of himself with Rory and Sarah Rose that he had tucked in his pocket next to his sonic screwdriver and closed his eyes for courage before lifting his hand to knock on the blue door.

He stepped back out of punching range and swallowed hard. The Doctor had faced down a lot of things in his long life, but this was the hardest thing he had ever done. He heard footsteps inside and stood up as straight as he could. The only problem was, he didn't know what he was going to say when Amy opened the door.

***

Next story in series - What's it like?.