THIS IS A REMINDER THAT I DO NOT WRITE CANON AT ALL. THIS, AS ARE ALL OF
MY STORIES, IS STRICTLY AR/AU. COMMENTS COMPLAINING THAT I'M NOT IN CANON
WITH MY DETAILS WILL SIMPLY BE MADE FUN OF AND BLOCKED TO PREVENT REPEATS.
00
Frankly Speaking
Mind to Mind
He had been forced asleep by someone else, she realized when she saw her Doctor curled up in a ball on the floor of his dreamworld, his face tight and unhappy as another, identical 'Doctor' stood over him, taunting him with his failures. First things first, then, she thought. Let's put a stop to this business before she did anything else.
"Oi! The only person that has any business invading my Doctor's dreams during his rest periods is me, torturing yourself while you're asleep is not on." She snapped, as she strode up. "You completely fouled up your sleep cycle you know and now I'm going to have to poke about every night until you get on a new routine. Beating yourself up doesn't do anyone any good and it might just harm me and whoever is riding with you now." She gave the taunting version a sharp shove in the shoulder to turn him away from the curled up ball on the floor. "I hate to do this, I'm not really my mother after all, but I think it's the best way to shock both inner selves into recombining."
The Dream Lord stared, "Rose? This is too clear of a sending to be also crossing the void."
"True. And I've been dreamwalking with you for months, ever since the reset that brought me back."
"Reset..." He breathed.
"But, I didn't want to be dumped on someone as soon as I found you this time so I decided to find out if you still wanted me first. Only I got into our dreamscape tonight and found this crap. Don't you ever let me find out you've been doing this to yourself again. Now, recombine yourself and come to find me when wake up, Doctor!"
His dark self dove into the tortured bit as he saw her hand lift and realized what was coming.
The Doctor discovered that a Tyler Slap received in the dreamscape hurt every bit as much as one in real life. And in real life, the watching Ponds discovered that a dainty-sized hand print, just as though someone had slapped him, hard, was forming on his left cheek. Reddening, then darkening into a bruise as his eyes shot open.
"Doctor?"
"I've been rescued from my own dreams by the best friend I've ever had, the deepest love I have ever known and the most dangerous slapper I have ever experienced...she's more dangerous than her mother simply because Rose Tyler has learned to dreamwalk and as far as I know, and pray...Jackie has not." He told them as he regained his feet. "Let's get out of here, Pond. I need to locate my wife. She's the one you asked about, Rose. My Rose, yes. My metacrisis will have told her our name and that means she's my wife, because all Doctors are still me, even the part human ones. And when a Time Lord tells a person their birthname, an intensely private thing to tell someone, it's our form of marriage. Only your parents, yourself and your spouse ever knows that name. Rose Tyler knows my name and she is certainly not my mother. So, yes, she is my wife."
"Deepest love? Well of course you've got to find her then." Rory nodded sharply, moving to get the Doctor going.
"Definitely, we need the help keeping you on a leash anyway, Raggedy Man."
"Oi!"
He kept to himself the shift in his...and their...timelines. He knew full well that Rose's intervention had re-written something. Something dangerous had been edited out, something he might not have survived otherwise was gone. A major event of one kind had been replaced by a major event of another, one fixed point replaced with another in the same timespace. Rose's return had replaced whatever that was, but that branch of his timeline was already dropping away and in a few moments it was gone.
"Mistress, the Avatar of the Bad Wolf has returned to this universe and claimed her Mate. She is mated to the Doctor and he has acknowledge it by claiming her as Wife. He is no longer alone...she destroys Daleks by the fleet, what hope do we have against her? If we threaten her husband she will destroy us. We do not have the ability to contend with her and she will defend her husband's shipmates as well. If she discovers we stole an unborn child from the Pond woman and destroyed the woman's ability to have further children..."
"True. This is why we didn't act while she was around before. This is also why we can do nothing now. The infant is now useless to us, return her to her mother. Useless cruelty is against God. As she has no use, she should be with her dam, healthy and unaltered past the increased intelligence that has already been added. That is to be counted as a blood-gift, for an apology. Replace the woman's damaged womb with a new one grown from her own DNA. Heal her without scarring, such as you do for me and send them back to Earth, not the TARDIS. The Doctor's attention will be redirected by the need to retrieve them. The town the woman and her husband live is in England, someplace called Leadsworth, find it and send them home when they have healed. I intensely dislike the need to do these things, but we must continue our other work and we cannot do that if we are dead."
"At once."
"Place the Doctor, Rose Tyler and all of their personal friends, companions, associates and anyone native to Sol 3 on the Untouchable list, along with Sol 3, Sol and the rest of that system."
"Yes, ma'am."
"You're a busy little thing, Rose Tyler." He told her the next time he napped, rather looking forward to her visits.
"Oh, you mean the dreamwalking? I needed a hobby after Duncan died. He was a bit upset with me when he realized I'd pushed myself that hard, I found his you in the afterlife. The dreamscape can be very solid. When you reset things, I put his spirit in my pocket and I was wondering if you'd accept that part of yourself, back into yourself with the rest of the past lives?"
"Oh Rose...yes. Yes I will, he's still me but he developed separately so his personality isn't going to be identical, exactly, with last me."
"He said that when you reset the universe, you also reset yourself. This current body of your's is a First, not a Twelfth, he said."
The Doctor's expression was a study in shocked realization. "He's right. He's absolutely right. Why didn't I see that result? Of course I did, the whole universe and everything in it was restarted, made just like new. And whatever else I am, I am still a part of this universe."
"Which is good, since he also said I don't age. Doctor, time moved so much faster there than it does here. We didn't mostly notice but, believe me, his you certainly felt it. Made you dizzy for a few weeks until you got used to it. So, when you grew the coral, you arranged the early programming to allow her to have wiring and a second console, so she works fine in both universes. Guess where I live...guess who is boosting the dreamwalking and safeguarding my mind? Usually while having a good gossip with her mother at the same time."
"Ohhh..." His dreaming mind could barely take it in.
"Where are you two?"
"In your library. Why don't you go ahead and wake up, Beauty says since her mother is double-bonded, yeah? Bonded to me as well as you, she wants you to be bonded to her as well as me. She misses Duncan so she wants you to take his place in her mind."
"Okay, yeah, I can do that." He was clearly eager to get to his Rose. "Spouses were frequently bonded to each other's TARDIS, nothing new there. Waking up, me."
"Rose?" He called, entering the open door of the near infant TARDIS sitting in her mother's library behind a section he'd not seen since last him had lost her. He noted the return of The Couch as he passed through near it and grinned. He also noted the rather odd looking, two pilot console. It had two seats, all the controls were in easy reach, each station had all the controls needed, no need to get up. He could fly her with Rose or alone, either way was fine. He looked it over then stuck his head out the door and looked up at the library ceiling. "I want a console like your daughter's...that's ingenious. No hopping about needed."
He did hear startled, panicked cries, then running feet with Amy's cries for his immediate presence, coming closer from the console room's direction and grinned. The Ponds must have been in there.
"Scared'em, did you?" Rose had come up from behind him and grabbed his arse as she spoke, to goose him. He jumped and made a startled noise.
"Rose!" He protested as he turned, then yanked her into his arms and brought his mouth down over her's for an extended snog.
Rose didn't mind, she twined her arms around his neck, winked over his shoulder at the married couple behind him and then just got into it. She thought he'd forgotten they were about to have an audience, but didn't see any need to remind him. This felt too good, his kisses, his arms, the closeness, the feel of him. No need to rush things, after all.
Since Rose was busy and he had permission anyway, Duncan's spirit crept out of her pocket on his own and hopped into his fully Time Lord's and brought his link to the younger ship with him, from the internal material of the pocket which was no barrier to the Doctor's own soul bits like himself, asked for and got help from both his original TARDIS and Beauty to slip back into his original skin, grinning at Eleven who only grinned back as he helped a bit by pulling him in.
A whisper of the younger ship, confirmed by the elder TARDIS informed them there could not be two First Doctors, then they both worked until they melded Duncan with the current Doctor's soul, whispering to her thief of what had been done and why. He was a blend of the Last Body and this First Body, now. His body changed, just a touch, growing taller, leaner though not as skinny as he had been before. His current form compensated by losing some of the soft look and replacing it with well defined muscles. He had easily seen eyebrows, now, too. His tastes changed just a touch and that was when he felt the changes in himself.
Startled, he looked up and let the impact of what the young ship was telling him. Rose listened, grinning. "Well, that works I suppose."
"Yes, it's a good balance. I need longer trousers though, these look like they shrunk. And the suspenders have to go. I do still like the bow-tie, though I think a string tie might be a better compromise."
"Either or."
"Oh no, with Duncan blended to become part of this personality, the tastes have changed slightly. The outfit must reflect his needs too. It must be just right."
"Well, in that case, use Beauty's Wardrobe since she's got his things in there. Find out what he wants to add from those."
"Good idea."
"Plus, I get to watch."
"That could be fun." Amy interrupted.
"Sorry, you don't get to watch when my husband changes clothes." Rose cut her off, a militant gleam in her eyes. "Not happening. You have your own husband, go watch him strip instead."
"Oh...I didn't realize...ick, no you're right, no desire to...ugh. Not with Raggedy Man...yuck." Amy shuddered. "He's like a brother, I went to kiss his cheek once and he turned his head at the last second. Caught him on the mouth, "She paused, a revolted expression on her face. "It was gross."
"Can't say as I agree with you. But then, I've loved four of him now, three full Time Lords and a part human version. He's all my Doctor and sooner or later I'm going to insist on a 'Baby Doctor Tour'. Probably sooner. You two will enjoy that, I think. Earlier ones will have to adjust their memories, of you, but they need to know about me and keep the knowledge. Plus I'm really looking forward to seeing the expression on the Northern body's face when he finds out."
His current form started laughing. "Domesticated me fairly early on really. Didn't understand how you had managed it, though. This will clear that puzzle right up."
"Better do it when I'm on a day visit with mum."
"Yeah, there were a few times you were with Jackie for a couple of days, we'll pick one of those." He grinned down at her beautiful face and couldn't stop...didn't try to stop. He snogged her again.
**TBC**