The Impossible Children

Briallen and Mervin Baines felt like they had stepped into some sort of science fiction film as they entered the strange headquarters of Torchwood. Mervin continued to do his best to hide his desperation and fear behind a wall of hardened defensiveness and bristling skepticism, but Briallen just looked all around her in utter awe. A pterosaur flew overhead, and she nearly leapt out of her skin.

“What the hell kind of a place is this?” Mervin questioned.

His question remained unanswered. “This way, please,” Ianto said, leading them to the medical bay where Jack had indicated that they would need to go for tests. As he walked away, he shot Jack another skeptical glance over his shoulder.

“Jack, what the hell are they doing here?” Mickey asked once Ianto and the Baineses were away.

“We need them, and they need us,” Jack replied.

“Yeah, but aren't we gonna have to, I dunno, retcon them or something? People aren't supposed to know this much about us,” Mickey said.

“We'll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Jack said, “They are the only lead we have right now, and we need them here.”

“So, are we studying them or helping them?” Martha asked.

“Just get in there and start studying,” Jack said flippantly.

Martha did not budge; she simply gave him a look that suggested that she would not do anything at all until she was spoken to properly.

Jack sighed. “Or helping, however, you prefer to think of it.”

That was as much as she'd be able to get out of Jack at the moment, Martha assumed. She went to the medical bay to join the others as she had been told.

They were still doing blood work and had run some scans. A woman called Martha asked her questions as she checked her over. Briallen could scarcely believe this was really happening.

“So, have you been terribly ill at any point of this pregnancy?” Martha asked.

“Oh yes, mum,” Briallen responded, “It's been terrible at times. And now, they say I need more iron.” She paused and struggled with the next part. “There have been times when we thought I was gonna lose the baby or die.” She paused again. “We can't lose this baby. It's our miracle.” Mervin held her hand just a little more tightly as tears crept into her voice. He sniffed and cleared his throat gruffly.

Martha gave her a sympathetic look. “Well, I've never seen anyone in your situation make it this far, for what its worth.”

“So, is our baby really an alien, then, mum?” Briallen asked.

“Yes, Mrs. Baines,” Martha replied, “I'm afraid that it is.”

“That- That doesn't mean it's bad though, right? I mean that's not necessarily a bad thing,” Briallen said, trying to reassure herself and her husband, “We could still raise it and love it as our own, couldn't we? Couldn't we, Merv?”

At first, Mervin was silent and completely still His brow was furrowed, his mouth a tight line. Briallen stared at him as though her life depended on his response, and Martha eyed him, knowing that he could give the response that most people would probably give and shatter this poor girl's heart...then again, people were always full of surprises. Finally, Mervin nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I s'pose we could.” His face softened a bit after he said it.

“Have either of you seen it?” Gwen asked.

“Seen what?” Mervin asked.

“The baby,” Gwen said, “Have you done any ultrasounds or anything?”

“Course we have,” Mervin said, “but there's always something weird about them; there's always 'abnormalities' that nobody can seem to explain to us.”

“I can do my best to explain things,” Martha told them, “That is, if you're okay with it.”

“Oh yes, mum! Of course!” Briallen replied. Mervin just nodded.

Once everything was set up and Briallen was ready, they began. As Martha moved the device over Briallen's stomach, they began to see images on the screen. “There we are,” Martha said, and she couldn't help but smile despite the circumstances. That was the Baines's “miracle”, such an unbelievable creature.

Then, her eyes widened. This creature looked even less human than the one inside Tish! “Oh my God,” she whispered. To the Baineses, she said, “It's unbelievable. I can't believe what I'm seeing.”

“She's amazing, isn't she?” Briallen responded. Then, she added, “The other doctors said they reckoned she might be a girl. I don't want to call her an it.”

“Well, to be honest, it's a bit hard to tell. This alien race may not even have external genitalia as humans do, and your baby is very alien,” Martha replied, “It's, er, she's the most alien of these hybrid babies I've ever seen, granted I've only seen three at this point.”

“So, you've seen this before then?” Mervin asked.

“Yes,” Martha said, “It's happened to my own sister twice. She lost the first one fairly early on, but she's still carrying the second one.”

“We're trying to figure out why this is happening to young women such as yourself and Martha's sister,” Gwen added, “We really appreciate the information you've given us.”

From there, Martha answered all of Mervin and Briallen's questions that she could, to the best of her ability, and she also took notes about their experiences and the creature within Briallen.

“Jack, no!” Gwen argued once again.

“We can't just tell people we're going to help them and then turn around and retcon them,” Martha said, “Besides, Briallen's pregnant. Do we even know the effects retcon could have on her or the child?”

“Look, honestly, she's got bigger concerns than a little retcon,” Jack began.

Martha cut him off. “Jack, as a doctor I am telling you, no.”

“And besides, Martha's right. We can help them; we even told them we would,” Gwen added.

“We had to get them here somehow,” Jack replied, “Besides, they won't know the difference afterward.”

“Yeah? Well, we will,” Martha said, “I'll know that we could have helped them, but we didn't. I'll know that I gave them some answers that they were desperate for, just to take them away. I'll know that I broke my oath as a doctor. No, I'm not doing that.”

“You're not, but Torchwood—“

“Oh, for God sake, Jack! They aren't going to go around talking about their alien baby or Torchwood's secret underground hub! People would just think they're nutters!” Gwen shouted.

“True. Although, it is protocol to administer retcon in a case like this,” Ianto interjected mildly.

“That's right. Whether we like it or not, they can't remember any of this. People can't know about Torchwood,” Jack said.

“I don't think it's right,” Mickey finally said after a pause, “I mean, think about it. Them aliens always make Tish forget, right? How does this make us any better than them?”

Everyone fell silent. Finally, Jack huffed in resignation. “Fine. Do whatever you want. Let them go. Let them keep their memories.” In his mind, he could not help but note that letting the Baineses remember would have been The Doctor's choice.