The Child (p)

Raider just seemed unfazed by what the Detective said. "You coming back only means that I will the pleasure of killing you again. As for my father, you know you can't destroy him as long as he and Constella are connected, thanks to you." She walked while she talked, slowly getting closer and closer to the robed man. "As for his title, if anyone deserves it, its you, true but that shouldn't be something you want or strive for. Sure, I will admit, I have been proud of my title in the past. Proud about how I didn't just take it on, I earned it. It was given to me. And I'm sure I will be proud once again in the future but right now I'm not." Raider frowns, shaking her head as she pulled a knife from her belt, running the sharpened edge along the pad on her left index finger. "I'm not proud about the fact that I need to kill. About how it has been drilled into me that killing is good, a way forget my problems as I shove my blade into the stomach, or heart it depends on how i want them to suffer, and watch their blood roll in thick waves over my hand. And I'm especially not proud in the fact that my child is going to be born to parents with legions of blood on both of their hands."

Raider 's mind scrambled to keep up with what the Detective was saying and she barely had any time to register the fact that the evil Timelord had pulled out a gun and was now firing it at her belly. Her hands flew to her stomach as if her hands were a shield that could protect the life growing inside of it, her eyes close as she cringed away. But the pain ever came, it had also become impossibly quiet in the once loud room. Suddenly, a clearly female voice sounds out around her. It was a voice that she would always recognize no matter how it changes with regeneration. "Constella?" Raider watched as her younger, adoptive sister crossed the room, making her way towards her. She watched with disbelief as she knocked the frozen bullet to the ground. "You are playing a dangerous game with Fate." She says, her voice stern but shaky with relief. Her child is still alive and her sister was herself again. Raider throws her arms around Nova, pulling the younger Timelady close to her. "What happened to our father?"

Raider is silent after Nova speaks, looking at the Doctor when she did. His expression was frozen in one of panic, his pale blue eyes wide. She could see part of the Gallifreyian burn mark that would forever scar his back for the rest of this regeneration. "I can't keep this baby, Constella. What had just almost happened is just more proof of it. This child will get killed before its first birthday if I keep it with me." She lays a hand over her swollen belly, the baby kicking her hand as if in response to her touch. Suddenly, her muscles start pulling, causing her enough pain for her to gasp. Raider's hand shoots out, grappling onto a nearby chair to keep herself from falling down. She didn't know why but she knew what was happening. "She's coming. The baby is coming!"

Once Raider realized what Nova's freak out would mean, what she'd do, she moved to stop her. The last thing she wanted was for both her husband and her lover to see her like this, venerable. Raider has always been menacing, a certain hard look to her that told you not to mess with her and if you do, well, be ready for the consequences. She had even been able to keep that look as her belly grew with an oncoming life. But she wasn't quick enough, the next thing she was aware of was the two men in front of her. The Doctor takes takes her hand and kisses the back of it while he spoke to her. She tries to smile at him but her muscles contract once again and the pain was too great for her to keep standing. She falls to her knees, keeping her head down and her eyes to the ground, she didn't want to see the others looking down at her.

Raider kept her eyes on the ground as the others spoke to each other, wincing whenever her muscles contracted or the baby kicked. Her attention to them weaved in and out as the pain flowed through her body and the next thing she aware was of cold fingers pressing against her left temples, the coolness spread out through her, seeming to draw out of some of the pain. Raider looks up yo find that only Nova and the Doctor where in front of her, Jack was gone...probably doing what her husband told him to do. Her eyes go to Nova's face, seeing her pained expression, that's when she realized it was her sister who was touching her, drawing out as much pain as she could. Jerking out of her reach, the movement caused Raider to fall back onto her bum. The whole of the pain returns, causing her breath to turned labored. Even through everything she is going through, Raider still had the ability to glower at the people in front of her. "Then you really don't want to know what the future has in store for you."

Raider turns her glares onto the Doctor. "Women have been doing this for thousands of years, with and without medicine to help with the pain. I'm not delicate as you keep on seeing me as. I've been shot, stabbed, tortured and regenerated. I think I can go through labor without my little sister--" She breaks off with a yelp as the Doctor's as slid around her, picking her easily off of the ground and onto an armchair.

Raider lays curled up in the chair, her breathing harsh, her brown eyes closed and her skin glistening with sweat. Once the baby had left her body and into the hands of whoever sat before her, she had folded her knees to her chest against the faint protests of her husband. Her red hair stuck uncomfortably to her neck but she felt too weak do anything about. After a minute or two, she realized that she never once heard her baby cry out. Raider's eyelids fly open in search of her child, only to find her in the arms of the Doctor. She was covered in blood but that only made her already bright blue eyes stand out...and they were focused on her. She knew that was wrong, newborns can't focus on anything but her baby is different. Raider holds out shaky arms. "I...I want to hold her." She knew it now for sure, she had only suspected while she was carrying but but now she knew.

Raider immediately thought of two names as the girl settled comfortably in her arms, almost as if she were made to be there...that only made her decision so much harder. She thought child's Gallifreyian name and her Earth name. Both came to her as she stared into the baby's intelligent blue eyes but it was only the latter that she said out loud. The first she whispered into her daughter's ear. "Diana. Her name is Diana." Raider says in a strangely clear voice before looking up at the Doctor, her eyes sparkling. The baby makes a happy, gurgling noise while wiggling her tiny body in her mother's arms. Her tiny hands grasping at the air above her before grabbing onto a strand of Raider's hair. "She has your eyes."

Raider felt her heart swell at the sight of her daughter holding onto her husband's finger. The child was clearly enjoying the attention, by the sounds she was making. The new mother looks over to her younger sister and secret lover, reaching a hand out to them, she beckons them. "Constella, come meet your niece, Diana..." She pauses for a second before adding. "You too, Jack. You're the newly decided God-father."

Raider chuckles to herself at Jack's shocked expression. Did he really not expect that? When Jack reaches them, she holds the baby towards him so he could hold her. A bright smile on her face as Diana laughs as she sees her god-father. Though it dims once the child starts crying at the sight of Nova's bright gold eyes. "Its alright, Constella. Diana will love you, I'm sure of it."