"Nothing, nothing, nothing!" The Doctor threw the book he had been reading against the wall.
"Careful!", Nardole nagged while ducking from the next one.
"These are all useless!" He threw another book and it hit Bill on the head, who had just entered the office.
"Ow!", she shouted, rubbing the mark on her forehead. "What was that for?"
"No book, not one shows a way to give birth outside of Gallifrey!"
"Could have told you that." Missy stepped out of the TARDIS. She looked different than usual. Tired with dark circles around the eyes, only wearing a Mickey Mouse nightshirt, her hair opened and partly covering her unadorned face.
"You look horrible.", Bill said in shock.
"Thank you." Missy sat down on the nearest chair and tugged up her feet.
"Nardole, bring Missy a cup of tea.", the Doctor said.
"I'm not your butler!"
"Just do it!" The Doctor yelled angrily and Nardole decided that now wasn't the time to disagree.
"Can't you sleep?", Bill asked carefully.
Missy sighed. "I could live with the nightmares about my evil deeds... but I can't live with the nightmares of my child dying."
Bill and the Doctor decided to hug Missy at the same time, so she ended up stuck between them.
"Oh my god." She rolled her eyes. "Give me some personal space, will you?"
Bill let her go and picked up the book that hit her in the face. She couldn't read the title, because it was written in circular Gallifreyan, but she opened it nevertheless and scrolled through the pages.
"Is this how birth works with you?", she asked, pointing at a picture.
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"Yes." Missy nodded and stood up, leaving the Doctor alone on the chair. "The first timelord was born out of the vortex itself. One day he rose out of the depths of time. Then he travelled the universe to find his true love and they had a child. He built our birthplace for her because the vortex is dangerous. Like I said, giving birth takes about six months and floating in the vortex for that amount of time without protection..." She shook her head. "It would drive everyone insane. And the vortex and I haven't got the best history... Anyways, that's our origin story. Kinda."
"How? I mean... how?"
"Do you know how the first human was born?"
"Well... either from apes or a pig's ridge if you believe church."
"Doesn't sound better than the vortex, does it?" Missy tilted her head.
"Probably not..." Bill looked back at the pictures. "So, you can't give birth in another vortex because this is the only safe place?"
