A/N: I started this a while back for tkelparis 's birthday and have been endlessly distracted away. I'm posting it because my update isn't ready and if I post this now I'll be forced to continue it.
Prompt: the Duplicate Doctor is a child trapped in a man's body, set by tkelparis
Warning: probably not the best thing for Rose fans to read.

Part 1

.

The ID badge pinned on his jacket proclaimed him to be Dr Jonathan Noble. He begged to differ. It had merely been a title he had chosen in a rebellious moment. None of that seemed to matter now. Hardly anything did; but it was a name of his choosing. It couldn't take away this homesickness within him that threatened to crawl up and burst out through his skin. Reason told him it was a symptom of the never-ending yearning to break away from this place that had offered him shelter from the storm. Reasoned be damned!

Everything felt so empty here. His head was filled with only his own thoughts; and it hurt to remember how it had been at the very beginning of his existence. Well, the very very beginning had been filled with physical pain that had been replaced with loneliness, so maybe not that; but the time he had become a full-bodied person, with a mother and father of sorts.

'Don't think of them,' he willed himself. But it was too late; the gnawing pain had started to seep out to travel along his veins, almost to the point that he wanted to wail with grief and scratch away the surface of his skin to fervently dig it out.

Pete's World, they had called it. This alternate world was flawed. It all felt wrong, so very wrong to his tender limited time senses. It wouldn't do to dwell on that for now either. A distraction was needed as he contemplated his next move.

He stood looking out over the concourse, taking in the architectural magnificence that was the Torchwood building. It really was a remarkable thing to see with its open plan style and obvious 60s idealism. Prince Charles would have had a pink fit if he had seen it. A thunderous grey sky hovered overhead as the raw wind whipped through the high concrete archways. He turned his face away from the worse it could do, wanting the wildness to ruffle him even further.

On the outer edges of his peripheral vision he could easily see Rose as she attempted to sneak up on him, tip-toeing along as she did so; but he remained seemingly oblivious as he gazed at the scene whilst holding an empty coffee cup. His hand clung onto it as though it were an anchor. Once upon a time he would have considered Rose to be his anchor in life. It was far too obvious of her to behave in this way, and in some respects he rather liked that she still bothered trying to lay a claim on him; but they both knew it was only habit.

"I thought I'd find you out here," she lightly accused him as she took the last steps that brought her to his side.

Dressed in an expensively tailored suit, she looked the very essence of an efficient business woman, but her job was as an agent for Torchwood. Defender of the Earth, was her title. Apparently. Jonathan still had problems accepting that. Thinking of her as someone who liaised with aliens was much easier on his aggravated sensitive nerves. Far too much seemed to irritate him here.

Turning her head, Rose tried to see what caught his observation. "What are you doing? Anyone would think you are looking for him."

In a micro-movement, Jonathan flinched. Ah, there it was; the ever present phantom essence of his progenitor. Or 'good old Dad', as his inner voice sarcastically labelled the Doctor. Narrowing his eyes, he finally focused his attention onto her, and gained a small grateful smile. "No, Rose. I'm never looking for him. He won't come back here because crossing the dimensions would be too dangerous now without any of the cracks there were before. How wizard! It'd be completely bleeding stupid to try!"

Rose shuffled uncomfortably on the spot, riled now by his neglectful lack of affection and attention. "Why do you always have to sound like her when you mention him?"

"Why?" he pondered, now openly glaring at her. "Because I'm half of my mother, Rose, so it is inevitable that I sound like her at times."

"Yes, but do you have to do so most of the time?" she griped.

A gust of wind that could bite right down to the bone pulled at his body. "I am not his clone. I keep telling you that. There are similarities, and I conveniently look like him but I am not him. I've finally had to acknowledge that."

"But you and me…," she began to say.

A sigh of exasperation passed his lips as he heard the anticipated complaint in her tone. "What about you and me? I thought I had provided everything you wanted."

Why couldn't he understand and be the man she wanted him to be? She sniffed and wiped a hand across her nose. "It isn't enough," she admitted forlornly.

"I offered to share your life, to hold your hand, and hug you when you need comfort. It was what I was told to do in order to love you," he stated. "What else am I supposed to do?"

Why didn't he know or comprehend? "I wanted…!" she almost shouted at him in frustration, fighting against the roar of the wind around them. Realising it wouldn't work if she continued to yell at him, she then quietened her voice. "I wanted us to be lovers."

"Aren't we?" he asked in confusion, frowning heavily. They had kissed several times, they usually held hands and he had pledged himself to her. Surely that made them lovers?

"No. I know you've tried, but I meant lovers in the bedroom sense." Rose then looked expectantly at him, willing him to understand enough to take the next step. She even added in a coquettish flick of her tongue out the side of her mouth.

"I…," he floundered having partially expected this response but having denied to himself it would actually happen. "I can't do that, Rose. I'm so sorry, but I can't and don't want to."

"Why not?!" she cried, deeply affronted as tears threatened.

Anger flashed in him. No wonder a former self had mentioned stupid apes, because he really understood the sentiment in that instance. Calming the impulse to strike out verbally, he decided he would have to explain it all to her again, in a simpler way. "The outer and the inner packaging don't match; I thought you knew that. My mental puberty hasn't happened yet, so I have no mating response. The bedroom sense will have to wait."

"Then when…?" Rose started to ask, ending on another tearful sniff. She had waited so long for him to physically be what she wanted him to be; and it hurt her deeply to think she'd have to wait even longer. Her patience was wearing thin. Holding hands was not enough without the adventure to distract her from her yearnings.

"I honestly don't know. The bond with my mother has broken so I can't complete my development," he answered. "If only I could get her here."

"There are parts of a TARDIS around here somewhere," she interrupted him; eager to pass on this information to gain the man she wanted in the way she wanted. "Couldn't you use them?"

"A TARDIS?" he queried in concerned joy, recognising the memory it released. That meant that the one Donna had been rigged up to in her alternate universe might still exist, and he could free use it to jump the dimensions. "Tell me where it is," he begged.

It seemed really ironic to Rose that this was the first time he had seemed genuinely enthusiastic about anything with her since they had arrived back in England from Norway. That wonderful kiss they had shared on the beach at Dårlig Ulv Stranden had not unfortunately been repeated since. All she had had from him were cute little pecks of kisses that left her feeling very frustrated, with him and everything else. What had happened to the man she had been promised?

"Jonathan, you'd need special clearance to even get within ten feet of it," she warned him.

A beaming, heart-melting smile was aimed back at her. "I'm sure you could get me in there if you wanted to. Just think, Rose; if I can get this to work and bring Mum here, what else could come through!"

Did he really mean the Doctor? Would he bring her the Doctor back if she allowed him to get his crummy mother there? It wasn't that she didn't know the importance of what Donna had achieved in Sutton Court and on the Crucible, but it only truly mattered to her personally because it had got her back with the Doctor, by his side, where she belonged.

Or even better, perhaps Jonathan would be able to swap positions for her and Donna, so that they'd both be happy.

"I'll see what I can do," she readily promised. This could be her ticket to happiness if she played her cards right.

She was rewarded with the adoring expression she had longed for and then a massive hug.

~0~0~

People expected Dr Jonathan Noble to be seen with the Vitex heiress Rose Tyler; they were often pictured together at social events in the various celebrity and society pages of London's newspapers. Going to new places all dressed up thrilled him as much as being her beau. Probably more if he allowed himself to be totally honest. He'd become used to random people recognising him in unusual places. It practically worked in his favour as he navigated through the long featureless corridors of the subterranean world of Torchwood. He'd been down there several times now; usually accompanied, but he thought he would finally chance a solo encounter. In next to no time he swooshed through the wide plastic blind panels that made up the laboratory warehouse door.

"Good morning, Barry!" he called out to the first technician he saw. It always paid to remember people's names; it formed better working relationships. It also made them accept your behaviour a great deal more.

"Morning Jon," Barry cheerily called back. "You come to have another look at your project?"

"Just a sneak," he admitted. "It can't do any harm to look, can it?"

"None whatsoever," Barry amiably agreed. "But make sure you sign out this time, please."

"Will do!" he replied with a wave, and made his way over to the far distant corner of the warehouse.

Back there, tucked behind a large consignment of disco glitter balls, was a TARDIS. To be more specific, it was that universe's version of the TARDIS, the one that Rose had utilised to cobble together a dimension jump; although he was aware that some might have described her actions as vandalism. It was in as bad a state as the one Donna had seen in her alternate universe.

As usual, Jonathan stroked a hand in consolation down the door frame of the TARDIS, hoping to reassure her that he would not be ripping out pieces of her to use without permission. It had been tricky to manoeuvre the situation each time he had been there with Rose, conning her into thinking his interest lay elsewhere as he reached out mentally to the tiny being that still existed within the shell. "My poor baby," he crooned to her. "We'll soon have you out of here."

She trusted him; had done since he had awakened her with the tiny piece of TARDIS coral the Doctor had given him on that god forsaken Norwegian beach. Each day she waited for him to appear, forming a stronger bond with each passing moment until she finally would be able to provide him with his dream. The act would possibly kill her, since she was still relatively weak compared to the TARDIS he was used to, and much smaller in size, but she was willing to sacrifice herself for him, her very own pilot. It was her destiny, so she would give herself gladly.

"Tomorrow I will come back and liberate you," he whispered as he continued with his tender caresses; and felt her coo in return. "You are too beautiful to leave you caged up in here."

A flutter of approval twirled through his mind as she giggled with delight. Nobody else had ever made her feel this good. Yes, she would willingly do this for him.

Placing his lips against her casing one last time before walking away, he promised, "Soon."

~0~0~