A/N: To my followers, if you haven't caught up with Chasing the Starlight, then DO NOT PROCEED. Well, you could, things would just be a little confusing. Or not. We'll see.
Brief explanation. I felt the need to separate this from CTS just for…reasons. If I included this in the next chapter of the story there would be too many things happening at once and I didn't think it would fit right. So I kept it out and made it a small one shot relevant to the same universe.
It follows directly after the events of Chapter 41 from CTS in the point of the timeline where Rueben came from. As I already told those following the story, he's married to a mystery man, (we are referring to him as Cubby, a nickname since his real name is disclosed,) Jenny is ginger, and, most importantly, the Tenth Doctor never regenerated and is still married to Rose. All good? 'Kay.
****EDIT: I made some revisions to the Library episodes. To anyone rereading this or CTS, you'll notice the changes.****
Somehwere many years in the future
Rueben felt himself flying through the air like a leaf in the breeze when the bright white light flashed around him. The last thing he saw were the frozen faces of the Doctor and Rose as they watched him trying to figure out exactly who he was to them. He remembered that he desperately wanted to tell them or even give them more clues for them to make guesses. But he didn't. He couldn't. They would have to find that out all by themselves and in their own time.
He kept his eyes shut as he felt like he was falling now, like dead weight or like he had been thrown off of a skyscraper. For a moment he believed that the plan didn't work. What if he was actually dying and his own memory space ended up bleeding through and entered the computer instead? Every experiment needed testing and he had a hunch that his husband had never practiced this process on anyone or anything else to know if it would work one hundred percent. Not that he never wanted to believe him since he trusted him with his life and even pinky swore on it, but there was still a lingering doubt in his still conscious mind.
Death was always inevitable in his life, he's found that out the hard way. There have been multiple occasions where he believed he would be greeting someone in the heavens and imagined exactly what death would feel like. And, in one incident, he actually did find out. It was nothing like this though. What she once felt was cold and bitter, almost like she was trapped in a dark cage in a basement with no one else around to hold him but the enveloping darkness. But now was a different welcoming. It felt surprisingly warm, like he was in a meadow of vast hills with a large golden sun hanging up above. He didn't feel afraid.
But then he felt himself plummeting before coming to a stop when he hit something hard and strong. It wasn't concrete, he noted, but it sure felt like it.
"Ben?"
At the sound of his name he opened his eyes to find that he had not died at all. He wasn't in heaven or place of eternal rest—he was in the TARDIS and safely in his husband's arms. He blinked a few times and breathed out his name, almost in disbelief. He hoped he wasn't dreaming.
"Were you expecting Superman?" he joked.
"Nah, I got my man of steel right here."
Rueben grinned and sagged in relief before he was set down to properly wrap his arms around his husband and pulled him in for a fierce kiss. For a skinny one his arms were strong as steel. From the side he heard both the Doctor and Rose laughing with joy and most likely hugging each other in relief.
"Go on, my son!" he cheered while Rose continued laughing. "I knew it would work!"
"Bravo!" Rose said.
Finally Rueben broke away from his husband and hugged him tightly, giggling along with everyone else in the console room. "You did it!"
"Told you it would work!" his husband replied, the giddy tone barely trying to be contained. "Didn't I say that it would work? See, you know you can always trust me, chuckles."
"Oh, I committed myself to that a long time ago," he said with a wide grin before giving him another quick peck on the lips then moved over to embrace the married couple. "You people are beyond impossible. You guys just couldn't give in, could you?"
"Never," Rose said, kissing his cheek.
"You kidding?" the Doctor spoke up. "We couldn't get rid of you even if we tried."
"Should I take that as a compliment?" Rueben snorted.
Rose pulled back and elbowed her husband in the side. "Take it from me, that's how his charm works."
"Why change something that is in no need of repairs?" he said with a sniff as he adjusted his tie.
"Do you two have any idea how hard you were to deal with when you were younger?" Rueben said with raised brows. "Dear God, it was worse than a bunch of toddlers!"
"Yeah…" the Time Lord drew out with a sheepish expression as he scratched the back of his neck. "I'm starting to remember it all right now."
"Wasn't our faults, you know," Rose cut in. "We had no idea who you were."
"You actually thought I was Jenny?" Rueben asked with a snort.
"You're talking about me?" came the voice of the ginger girl as she came from the corridor with a wide smile. "Rueben!" Jenny ran down and jumped in his arms for a hug. "It worked!"
"Of course it worked," 'Cubby' said proudly. "It was a part of my plan."
Jenny pulled back and turned to him. "Your plans are usually rubbish," she teased.
"Oi, don't knock them."
She giggled and turned back to Rose. "So you talking about how you thought Rueben was me?"
Rose chuckled. "I didn't know what else to think at that time. We didn't run into you yet." She turned to Rueben. "Seriously though, I thought you were a nutter at first."
Rueben grinned and gestured between the Doctor and Rose. "I got that right off the bat judging by the way you two stared at me. I can only surmise the thoughts racin' through your minds at the time."
"We're sorry you had to deal with that, Rueben."
"Running into things in the wrong order always led to…well, total confusion and suspicion," the Doctor said. "That's why we try to be cautious when it comes to sending messages through the vortex. Actually, we never do that. We're always on the receiving end of the messages."
"Now I'll know what to do next time I wanna call you two. I'll just give you guys a buzz on your mobile soon as I get a new one."
"Better off that way," Rose said with a nod. "Having a repeat of that day wouldn't sit right with us again."
It was then Rueben took in the Time Lord's outfit and shook his head. "Why are you still wearing that suit?"
"What's wrong with it?" he asked, looking down at himself. "I happen to be fond of this color. And Rose said I look dashing in it."
"Not when you've got jam or oil stains on it," Rose said with an eye roll then moved over to Rueben's husband. "I mean, I thought this one over here was a mess at times."
"Hey!" he said.
The blonde laughed and raised herself up to kiss his cheek before giving him a hug. Jenny came over and did the same while the Doctor strode over and wrapped his arms around all three of them, a wide grin splitting his face.
"You're brilliant, you are," he praised. "All of you. Brilliant thinking! You learned from the best."
"Here comes the inflated ego," Rose muttered.
"Yours has gotten pretty big over the years too, Rose Tyler."
"So? You've been around way longer than all of us combined."
"Got you there, old man," 'Cubby' chimed in with a teasing smile.
Rueben just stood by the console grinning at them all. This was part of his life, where he belonged. The people he's known for almost all of his life. When you would run with the Doctor and Rose it felt like it would never end. No matter how hard one would try no one could run forever. There could be some exceptions standing in this very room, but that was it. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knew that better than the Time Lord and his wife. But in all of the skies and all of the worlds in the universe, they could turn dark if they ever accepted that for just a moment.
Not every day did people die, though. And today had been one of those days. Some days were special, some so blessed where nobody died at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor and Rose come to call and everybody lives. As long as they ha their own beliefs and the help of those close to them, they would do what they could to make sure so many lived.
"So," Rueben spoke up, wrapping an arm around his husband's back. "All this time you've known that I'd end up this way."
"That's what would have happened," the Doctor said. "But we knew it wasn't supposed to be that way. Years ago the three of us—"
"Hey!" Jenny cut in with a frown. "I was involved too!"
He sighed and placed a hand on the young girl's back, a small smile on his face. "Can't count you out, could I?" He raised his hand to nudge her nose and she giggled again. "As I was saying, the four of us have been constructing a plan on how we could save you without violating the Laws of Time."
"The events played out exactly the same as they would have," Rose added. "Only with you surviving in the end. We knew that you would cross into our timeline and end up too far back, so we had to come up with a key for you to take so that we could be able to track you down."
"Since we wouldn't be able to bring the TARDIS there without the chance of creating a catastrophic paradox we had a few tricks up our sleeves to be able to track your every movement."
"Rose's screwdriver," Rueben said with a nod and a smile.
"Exactly," Jenny said.
The Doctor let out a happy hum. "See, love," he added, winking at his wife. "Aren't you glad I thought to install that teleportation setting all those years ago?"
"Took me a long time to be," Rose said with an arched eyebrow. "'M still waiting for the one for wood, you know."
He tilted his head. "Right. I'll get on that right away."
"You've said that for years and haven't done anything about it yet."
"Other things come up. I can't think of everything."
"You'll need this to do the job right," Rueben said as he clicked the sonic off of his hip and handed it to them. "Honestly, Doc, you know you can't manage without Rose."
"Too right," he snorted while Rose retrieved her sonic. "But, going back to the explanation, we needed something with a low-level tracking system along with a conductor that would be able to act as a replacement outlet to preserve your memory space and substitute it with the TARDIS'. Great work, Old Girl," he added, raising a hand to strike the time rotor. The ship hummed around them and they smiled. "And Captain Jack. We'll phone him and let him know it worked out."
"I didn't find out about you going to the Library until about ten years ago," 'Cubby' admitted. "It came to me in a dream but it was more like a nightmare. I wished that I could be able to warn you ahead of time and try to let you stay rather than head off in that damned place, but the universe would have unraveled if I changed it that way." He stepped up and took his hands in his, smiling warmly at him. "Rueben Ochoa, my man, you've got some brilliant minds around here and wouldn't have to worry about a nightmare again."
Rueben shook his head and chortled. "You're so damn lucky I didn't accept the proper good morning from you earlier," he said cheekily. "The universe would've imploded all because of a shag."
"Shame it wouldn't be worth the universe falling apart so we'd have to find a way to restrain ourselves."
"Now that would be the end of the world."
The Doctor cleared his throat rather loudly as he flitted his eyes between them, breaking their bedroom moment. "Your rooms are still onboard if you two would like to…uh, well…ehm…" He gestured with his hand before gluing his eyes on the console.
"Like you two don't know what it's like being ridiculously in love and shagging during the end of the universe is," Rueben teased.
The older couple exchanged a look, noticeably blushing as much as his husband who held a hand to his forehead. Married life was never dull with those two.
"He's not wrong," Jenny said. "I still can't enter the library without hearing—"
"So," Rose spoke up, desperately hoping to change the subject as she turned to Rueben. "Must have been a blast for you to see us back then."
"Not much changed," Rueben said. "Well, compared to now a whole lot's changed, but the main difference was your husband's suit."
"Still pinstriped though," the Doctor said with a grin as he wrapped an arm around Rose's waist. "Correct me of I'm wrong but I believe that I was wearing a blue suit at the Library, right?"
"You were. You looked like a skinny blueberry."
"Oi!"
They all laughed. "With the red one you had, you were more like a tomato," Rose said jokingly, nudging him in the ribs.
"And in that silver one you were like a grey parrot," Rueben put in.
"And in the green one you were like the Riddler," Jenny said.
"Now he just looks like a vanilla popsicle," 'Cubby' commented.
The Doctor snorted and nudged the other man's shoulder. "Don't knock the suit, you've worn pinstripes before. Should I comment that you're wearing some right now?"
He hummed. "To each is own."
"Not to mention you said you liked the white suit too."
"I say that about a lot of things, you know."
"So…you really don't like the white suit?"
"No no, I do, I was only pulling your chain, old man."
"Lovely," the Doctor said with a snort. "Since we're taking shots at each other's accessories…" He pressed his tongue behind his upper row of teeth and moved his eyes down to the other man's wrist.
'Cubby' groaned. "Oh, come on, don't start—"
"That bloody space hopper, now," he cut in, holding his hand out with his sonic in the opposite. "And remind me to tell Captain Jack that his gifts, whether he believes them to be thoughtful and meaningful, need to be less…insulting to actual methods of time travel."
"Men and their gadgets," Rose muttered from the side. "Don't knock that. If it wasn't for Jack then we wouldn't have been able to pass off the receptacle in order to save Rueben in the first place."
The Doctor tilted his head to the side and hummed. "Yes, that's true and I'm thankful for that, but now that we've saved him and he's back to his right point in time, it's time we deactivate it before any more trouble comes out of it."
'Cubby' rolled his eyes and let out a long suffering sigh. "Fine," he grumbled, lifting his wrist up for the Doctor to run the sonic over. But before the operations could be tampered with something came to his attention and he stepped back. "Rueben's journal!"
"What?" both the Doctor and Rose said in unison.
"It's still at the Library, isn't it?"
"Shit, I left it in the control room," Rueben answered meekly.
"Ohhh…" the Doctor drew out. He looked at Rose. "We moved it."
"Cubby, why are you so worried about it?" Rueben asked his husband.
"Confidentiality could be breached!"
Without another word he slammed his hand down on a button and disappeared in a flash of white light. The Doctor muttered something in Gallifreyan and ran a hand through his hair, ruining the cut by making it stick up more like a bird's.
"Apparently I wasn't as strict as I should've been about crossing into personal timelines," he ground out.
"Calm down, Doctor," Rose said softly, bringing a hand to rest on his arm.
"Doesn't he know the dangers of possibly running into us when we're awake? I mean, while knocked out is one thing and we won't see or hear him or even be aware of it until now, but wandering around when he could run right into us—"
"Relax," his wife cut in gently, rubbing his arm soothingly. "He knows what he's doing. Besides…worst case scenario if he bumps into us he could just make us suppress it all, yeah? No gaping holes in the universe to worry about."
His hand dropped from his hair and he sighed.
"Could be worse," Jenny said. "'S not like he'll crash into a moon."
"Like mother, like daughter…" he muttered, earning another elbow to the ribs from Rose.
"Don't you make me say it," she told him.
"So," Rueben spoke up. "What happened after I 'died'? Since it's all done and over with we can spill on the details without worries."
"Thought you already knew?" Rose asked with a frown.
"Not what happened directly after. Somewhat, at least. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of your stories. What happened right after the Library?"
The Doctor took a deep breath and scratched his sideburns as he recalled the events. "Well…"
Keep in mind this happens many years after CTS. I hope the process of Rueben's survival made sense to you guys. Things sound a lot better in my head than when I put them down. Anyway, done with this arc in CTS and headed straight into another. And it's gonna be loooooong. I'll be as good as dead by the time the next adventure's over.
Also, I posted the link of a collage of Ten's future suits on my profile if you guys wanna check it out. They're all limited edition since he'd don his brown and blue suits the most. Only trying them out for fun.
Next chapter of CTS should be up tomorrow and it'll conclude the Library episodes and head off into the next arc. See you then! ;)