A different species is doing the same job nature selected Time Lords for back home and they've got a problem. The problem is a time heavy Rose Tyler in a semi-permanent state of catatonia. She could come out of it if she wanted to, but she doesn't. When the TARDIS left Pete's Universe, the metacrisis had desolved into dust, all the years of the Doctor catching up with the part human version in under thirty seconds...and the only way she can still have him is to stay locked within her own mind...where his spririt is. The Btravl do the only thing they can do to help her...they send her along with another time and space lost human to the fully Time Lord version.
And there are no guarantees.
01
Splint
Return, Retrieve, Repair, Re-engage
Darci Turner:
We landed in the TARDIS, in the console room, actually, but this 'Doctor' fella wasn't there. One moment the shaman was carrying Rose, the next there was a hovering stretcher next to him and he laid her down on it. Rose's stretcher began to move after a moment, though, without anyone touching it. We followed it for a time, the Btravl with us explained what was going on, said they could hear and speak with the Timeship, while allowing the Timeship to do what was needed, this living, thinking, highly intelligent creature called a TARDIS that we'd been told so much about during the shamanic sessions when the metacrisis had spoken through the shaman to explain what was needed. The letter he had written to himself we stuck to the console, along with other notes and commentaries he'd written. None of it was in any language any of us could understand, it was in something he had told the shaman was called 'High Gallifreyan' and that this alone would be a guarantee that whichever self we had landed in the TARDIS of would believe us.
The hover-stretcher disappeared into a room well in front of us, a door closed and as it sealed itself, there was a bright flash around the edges and a sharp cold wind that blew us back a few paces. We stood looking at each other uncertainly, now, unsure what it meant or what we were supposed to do now. I was very nervous and I must have jumped a mile when it was made clear that the timeship's owner had arrived.
"Found the notes, diagrams and letter. Thank you for bringing her to me. That's the Zero Room. It's the safest place for her, just now. Which one of you is the displaced human? Or need I ask?" He only nodded when the youngest female there, barely into her teens, he guessed, if that, raised a hand nervously. "Thought so, the way you jumped. Be calm child, I harm no-one. I'll show you the housing wing and you can select a room. I've raised human children before now, I suppose I can do so again."
He turned his attention to the Btravl travelers and again expressed his thanks, feeling the temporal pressure increase as he bowed his head, then felt the snap of release as they went home...back across the void. He had no clue how they did that. He had gotten images from them, but they hadn't bothered to try to communicate.
The Doctor ushered the human child to what he privately called 'Bed-rest Row' and got the young one settled.
"Name?"
"Darcine Charlene Turner. Usually called 'Darci'."
"How old are you?"
"Eleven."
"Younger than I thought. You'll be well looked after here, Darci. I don't believe I can get you home, but you're by no means the first human youngster I've had or reared on the TARDIS." He told her. "I am the Doctor and I will be your guardian. The TARDIS is likely the only safe residence for you, under the circumstances, after all."
"Yes sir."
"No 'sirring' me is needed, just addressing me as 'Doctor' will do."
"Yes, Doctor."
"Much better."
He showed her where the wardrobe room was, then led her back to the rooms. "Pick one for yourself and then go play dress up or something so my ship learns your tastes. The TARDIS is a living being, a lot smarter than I am or have ever been, so you need to be polite to her and always address her with respect, understood? I mean to start as I intend to go on and there's no better time to start than immediately." The Thirteenth Doctor told the little one. "I need get back to Rose, to see if I can draw her back into reality."
"Yes Doctor. How?"
"I suppose I best start by joining in her head."
"The Btravl shaman did that. He said that the you that you left with her turned to dust when you left, he said she won't come out because the only place she still has you in her head. He said Miss Rose joined her soul to your's at some satellite over here somewhere and to tell you that and that it was important. He said that not having you with her was killing her. So she won't come out cuz your otherself, I guess, his spirit anyway, is in there with her, the shaman said that he's keeping her alive the only way he can. He said if she woke up and you weren't there, he wasn't sure if she could get back into her head where the other one is and if she couldn't, she'd die."
The Doctor swallowed hard as the youngster gave him far more information than she knew, "I better get in there, then. The TARDIS will look after you while I attend to Rose. She's a resilient girl, I'm sure she'll on her feet soon." Which given how scared he was for his Rose, that 'I'm sure' part might just be the biggest lie he'd spoken in his lives.
He turned and almost ran to the Zero Room, though he was well aware that the TARDIS had already reconnected to his poor Rose and she knew she was home.
As he took hold of her temples, he felt that missing bit of soul of his slip from her head into his own, so he could guide the elder form in bringing her out of this sad state. He could tell that the soul of the metacrisis had done a great deal of sorrowing at any time Rose's mind rested. She was afraid, he realized. Afraid to come out now, after so long. But she had to, because he'd returned to himself and the only thing left for her to do, was what she had always done: Follow him.
The fully Time Lord version coaxed and led, found the 'exit' and showed her where it was.
Come on Rose, come out of there. Come to me.
It took a long time, longer than he realized before she finally started to move a bit. Fingers that twitched, a foot that moved...and finally, hands that raised to grasp him by his upper arms and clutched at him.
"Doctor?"
"Yeah." He eased out of her mind, mental hand in her's, making sure she got all the way out and eased the door closed behind her. "Yeah, it's me, two bodies further on. I'm an old man again. Mike's a bit disgruntled...but he showed me you how to get you out as soon as he rejoined me. What kind of a name is 'Mike' anyway?"
"Better than John, he thought. Less like a john doe, anyway. And you always were. What difference does that make? Not aging, y'know. Not since..."
"Oh my precious girl, poor girl. Stuck with a cranky old thing like me. I've reset, you know? Second set of twelves lives and this is the first of the lot."
"If I don't mind, why should you? Couldn't dodge getting yourself domesticated at some point, no matter what you thought." She paused. "I am sorta ticked I didn't get to know the one I mostly missed."
"Well, a few controlled visits won't kill us."
"You hope."
"Well, there's a point, after I lost the Ponds to weeping angels, but before I found Clara...she's like a little sister. Or she was. These days she's on a hair's width edge of calling me 'gramps', most of the time, I think. I tried to retire then, though. Just parked the old girl on a cloud, dropped the wardrobe room's ladder to the ground and just stayed there. For a very long time, completely alone. I think it'd be best if you stayed with that me. He's pretty messed up."
"I'm pretty messed up...but yeah, you're rubbish with the alone thing."
"Yes. We could heal together. Might even change this form a bit, not really happy with this me."
"It's not that bad, distinguished, I think so anyway."
"Old fartish, you mean." His lips twitched when she laughed. "Let's get you up and into the med-bay, shall we? His. She'll move it to the past as soon as I get you started on a bag of saline and another of nutrients. No need for you to even get up." He told her as he lifted her into his arms.
She waved at herself over his shoulder as soon as he stepped back away from the gurney, after setting the IVs in place, causing him to look, grin at them both as memories began to open up and nod sharply. "Good, it worked then."
"Yeah, well." He leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead, marveling at her easy acceptance of this him. "I'm going to teach you a word, a Gallifreyan word. Tell past me that I said you were to say it me, then that me will tell you what is and what it means." Then he said a word, a single, Gallifreyan word, just one. And worked on her until she could repeat it flawlessly.
"Here, take these...it's not all of what I was given but it'll explain most of it and you can tell me the rest yourself." He paused, considering the I.V.s. "Mind you tell last me that I told you that you need at least one more of each bag before you try to eat anything and a double on the saline would be better."
He closed the med-bay door, and reopened it to an empty med-bay, his own version of Rose at his shoulder. "We've got a new guest on the TARDIS, dear. A little girl just eleven years old, remember her?"
"Yes. She told me what was going on so I could fix it. Darci is adorable." He told Rose.
"So was the look on your face when the TARDIS told you I was there...for real."
"I was rather shocked."
"True, you were, she showed me your expression when the buzzer went off...don't worry about it. Gibbering is a fun look on you in any body."
"OI!"
She just laughed at him. "I enjoyed it."
"You would." He grumbled. "Come on then, let's introduce Clara to Darci. She's a born teacher and bored without a student anyway."
A buzzer went off on the console next to the Doctor, startling him rather badly since it wasn't one that should have gone off at all. That buzzer was for a button in the medbay that had to be pressed for it to buzz. He stared at the alarm a bit wild-eyed, since the only way for that to happen, supposedly, was for someone to actually be in the medbay, usually with an IV bag about to finish and needing to let him know so he didn't have a fit coming back to an empty medbay...since some of his past friends had developed a habit of nipping out the needles themselves and going off for a shower. Not that they hadn't still done so, but they'd at least pressed the button first. Generally on their way out the door, but still...
But all that didn't explain why it had gone off now. Frowning, he set his book aside and headed off to the medbay to find out what was going on because the TARDIS only laughed at him when he had asked her. Go find out was the feeling he got back. Not having another choice, he did so. And all that was why he now stood in the doorway, staring at Rose with a sagging jaw.
"Next you said I needed at least one more of each bag before I try to eat anything and that a double on the saline would be better. And you need to read these. I don't really want to talk about it just yet. I know I need to, but not yet. Too fresh, too raw." He closed his eyes and let her voice wash over him, let it quiet him, soothe him and then he opened them and took the small bits of paper, face tightening after a moment before he nodded his understanding of what had happened, how she'd gotten back, which him she'd landed with and why she was with this him now. And he was grateful, so grateful, that just this once he'd decided to be kind to himself. Rose was with this him because that him had sent her to this him.
"I saw myself over next you's shoulder while he was leaving the medbay, then he looked behind him and said, 'Good, worked then. You had that expression on his face you get when you've got memories opening up." The Doctor's lips quirked even as he twitched at the grand mess she'd just made of the tenses in that sentence, swapping them around backward with a merry disregard for which regeneration was in what part of the statement.
The 12th Doctor didn't say a word, he just nudged her over, sat down, took her under her arms to lift her slightly and hauled her onto his lap. As her arms encircled his waist, his own enfolded her tightly and both of them trembled together for a time. A missing mate on the other end of a soul-bond who was also stuck in a different universe, explained a very great deal, actually.
"Mike slid back into you, then, you know. Next you has him."
"Mike?"
"Yeah, he wanted to be a 'Mikal'. Something more original than John Smith, but I compromised with 'Mike'." She shrugged. "It was my head, after all."
"Good point."
"Next you taught me something, wanted me show you. He said it was a special word and when I'd said to you, you'd tell me what is and what it means."
"Alright, what's that then?" And his jaw dropped when she repeated the word she'd been taught.
"That's my name. He married you in then and made sure I know it. I'll show all rest of the past mes, and...and the very best part is that all the rules change, when I'm married, see. All of me can be in the now as long as you're where we are physically, or going to you or traveling from you...as long as you're the epicenter, it's fine. No paradox dangers, no reapers. None of that, even if I'm just shopping for something you'll use or need, or want." Tears fell down his face. "And nobody has to forget it, either. Because we're all me, and you're my wife. So, we're going tell Big Ears first, that week when you were with your mum...we can live a long time in a week, a very, very long time. So that the me in that body gets a lot more than just under a year with you, yes... Yes. And last me, he needs to know what happened and he needs to help us heal...and he needs to heal. That must be why this me started out pretty sane, considering... Together. And bet that's why 'Mikal' slipped into future me. That me would have remembered you coming and staying."
"What difference would that make?"
"Because Mikal's timeline, from being in your mind for so long, is longer than last me's was, not by much, really, but enough. He's on a different point than last me is. This me is too close to last me, I could rewrite myself accidentally if he rejoined this me. So, instead, he rejoined that me." The Doctor explained calmly. "By rejoining me after skipping a me, he also reemerged, safely, with last me. But it has been centuries since that me had you and I have missed you so much."
He cradled her for a time, rocking slightly, before he leaned back a bit so he could card his fingers through her hair. "I never understood why it hurt so much to not have you. Now I get it, never supposed to be separated from your bonded like that. And I didn't realize we were, bonded I mean. I'm so sorry, I had no idea he'd die on you like that. And that means we didn't drop in until after I dropped you off." He held her and rocked her slowly as he grieved for what she'd gone through, for what he'd unintentionally done to her last body and was apparently going to have to allow to still happen in this one. "I'm so sorry. "I love you, so much and the thought that I've found out about it and I, me...this me, still put you through that...hurts."
After a little while, she spoke. "I think that's because Darci needed older you. Mikal found out her details from the shaman, that's why he told the shaman to bring her along and let next you raise her. Next you and that me. Darci is as strong a telepath as you and maybe stronger, Mikal said. She needs a you with your head on straight. Don't worry about it too much, Doctor." She soothed. "You never left me, you know. Not for one moment did you wander off, you stayed right there in my head, babbled at me, held me tight, kept me from giving up or letting go and kept me alive. Mikal just made me wait to see if we'd be sent back or if a baby you could be drawn in. Didn't matter to me, which, you know? And I still dunno how I got back here and I don't care. I'm here, I'm with her and with you and that's what matters. I don't even mind, because you loved me, so much, for so long. And these arms feel just as good as those arms did. No matter what though, I love you with every ounce of my being and I always will, I forgive you, no matter what. Because you're mine. My Doctor, in all your many bits and pieces. Mine."
"Rose..." His voice was tight and stressed as he cradled her close. He sat there with her for a long time before he realized she'd dozed off in his arms, depositing her gently back on the gurney after a moment and then turned his attention to changing the bags. When he looked down at her again, the gurney was much wider and of a type intended for him...he, due to the muscle density that gave him the strength of five human males his size, was a lot heavier than he looked. He didn't hesitate to climb up on it and curl up, spooned in behind her, drawing Rose close. "Mine."
~TBC~