Chapter 1:

Bad Wolf Bay (Dårlig Ulv-Stranden)

Rose watched the TARDIS slowly fade away into nothing, stunned by the events that had just transpired. The Doctor, her Doctor, had just left her again and had gone back to her old universe, never to return with his latest companion Donna Noble. This time, he had left with her a mere ghost of himself, complete with TARDIS fragment, ready to be grown for this universe. This Doctor, being half human, would age like Rose yet still have all the memories that she and her Time Lord had shared. She supposed it was his way of trying to lessen the burden of abandoning her, thinking it would somehow make up for the fact he could never see her again. Right now, it didn't even come close.

No matter what her Doctor had said about the man who he claimed to be his clone, she still felt that familiar tear in her heart grow, leaving her raw with emotion, as he left her on that bloody beach for the last time. Not even the kiss she had impulsively shared with the partial Time Lord could possibly mend the gaping hole that her Doctor had now left. How could she ever get over this enough to let the human Doctor in and love him as much as the one with two hearts? Could she possibly find it in her heart to travel the stars with this version of her Doctor? Currently, she felt that he was just a poor replacement for the one she truly loved.

Just then, a hand slowly encompassed Rose's, bringing her back from her reverie. She turned her face to meet his and stared into his dark eyes.

"Rose?" Said the partial Time Lord gave a questioning look, his face full of concern. His free hand went to wipe off the residual tears from her glistening cheek all the while looking too much like the alien she longed for.

Rose, slightly taken aback, quickly recovered with a sad smile. "I'm alright. I just need some time, yeah?" Letting go of his hand, she turned toward her Mum and started walking up the beach.

XOXOXOX

As the hybrid Doctor watched Rose walk away, he shoved his hands into his pockets and turned inward as his mind filled with tumultuous thoughts about his new life.

Why had Rose insisted that he wasn't the Doctor? He looked like him, he thought like him and even had his memories. Blimey, did she really think he was so different from his full Time Lord double, just because he had the heart of a human and could age like one too? His memories told him he was not used to coming in second, nor was he happy about it. He was

the one who told Rose he loved her, not his full blood twin! He said the one thing her Doctor could not. Didn't that count for something?! Despite this, he really was only going on what his memories showed him. He had no real world experience with this pink and yellow human.

He also wondered if he even wanted to pursue these seemingly borrowed feelings. His full Time Lord counterpart had always held her advances at bay. This was simply because he couldn't bear not being able to spend his forever with her. 'Humans wither and die' as he once put it, while he lived on. Now that he was human though, he could do so freely and without guilt.

Was that what Rose really wanted? It certainly seemed so, as he recalled the passionate kiss they shared just moments before. Did that mean she still wanted to be beside him while they spent the rest of their lives traveling time and space, even after he committed genocide of the Daleks? Was he really as dangerous as the other Doctor said and was Rose the only person that could make him better? Coming out of his thoughts, he realized they had left the beach and were headed to the nearest town.

XOXOXOX

"Hi love, it's me...guess. Bloody Bad Wolf Bay, that's where!..." said Jackie Tyler, talking on her mobile to her husband Pete, as Rose and the Meta-Crisis Doctor stood waiting in awkward silence."...I don't know, maybe he did it out of tradition? You remember the last time, don't you?...oh, how is Tony? ...that cheeky monkey! Oh well, as long as he's not hurt. Give him my love - oh, before I go, here's something else I need to tell you. You won't believe it! There's two versions of the Doctor now! Left one here for Rose and he's half human!..."

Avoiding eye contact with the partial Time Lord as she really couldn't bear to look at him just now, Rose continued her inner discussion while looking down at her shoes. She was going to have a lot of explaining to do to her father when they got back home, and she was not looking forward to it. Hopefully, the half Doctor would take over and she could escape to the confines of her bedroom to process the day in peace. Oh God, did she want to be home right now with a good cuppa, snuggled in the comfort of her own bed so she could have a good cry and get it out of her system. It couldn't come fast enough!

While waiting for Jackie to finish, the half Doctor rocked back on his heels, kept his hands in his pockets and also turned his attention inwards.

No matter what the issue was between Rose and himself, he had to start formulating a plan. He needed to figure out how to 'play house' until he could speed up the regeneration process of the TARDIS fragment so he, and hopefully Rose, could once again travel through time and space. He usually didn't do domestic, but in this case he had no choice.

He looked in on some of the memories he possessed and remembered there was an alternate

Torchwood, headed by Pete Tyler, in the world he now belonged to. Maybe with their help, he could start shatterfrying the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabilizers to decrease the time the TARDIS would need to grow. If his calculations were right - of course they were - it shouldn't take longer than a year! Brilliant! He would definitely have to discuss this with Pete when he saw him next.

"...Anyway, we'll make our way to Helten if you could send someone to get us? ...They'll be here tomorrow morning at 10? Ta! love you both, see you soon!" Ending the phone call, Jackie looked at Rose and the Doctor with her hands on her hips and said "Right, come on you two, we need to get to Helten before it gets dark, forward march!" And they continued walking in silence.