An Aside
By TwinEnigma
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, nor do I make profit from writing this.
Warnings: Spoilers for Journey's End.
There's a moment in between the celebrations and farewells. He's pulled aside by the other him, the original (or are they both original, he is so confused), a telepathic hint of grave necessity in the action. They both can feel that time is limited and the press of could-have-been's and will-be's is growing stronger.
It will only be a moment, both know it, because the clock is ticking and there's only so much time, only so many moments they can use before it's too late and too far gone to manage.
"You know what's going to happen next," the other him says flatly, a fact.
"I know," he replies, because he does know. "It's what I would do."
The other him nods.
Everyone must go back to their places and wriggling little timelines and he will go with them, because he can see how short his timeline is and how the other him has one that stretches on seemingly forever. He knows that he could never watch himself wither, as he could never bring himself to watch his companions do the same.
Donna's is burning fastest, like a candle lit at both ends.
The clock is ticking and he knows the eleventh hour is near.
"It had to be done," he says and doesn't explain, because he knows the other him knows why there was no other option, recognizes what that fleet had done before (they both remember how it all burned) and what they'd do to the humans because of their affection for them.
"I know," the other him says and pauses, sighing as he adds, "But it should have been me."
It's silly, of course, a weird parental affectation in the vein of sparing a child horrors, and he thinks shouldn't apply to him because he's not Susan or Jenny, and he's certainly no stranger to genocide. The other him forgets their hands were stained long before the Time War and he is mostly him, as if the regeneration from that one Christmas was just allowed to finish and got a little mixed up with extra bits, like their eighth self did.
The other him presses something into his hands quickly, an urgency and secrecy lacing the gesture. "Take it."
He knows what's in his hands in an instant. It's a TARDIS coral and a sonic screwdriver – River's one, which he remembers never knowing quite what to do with afterward, so he just pocketed it, and now he knows why there's no paradox with it because he's being given it to take on new adventures a universe away.
"The universe needs a Doctor," the other him says, smiling a little.
"It'd take thousands of years," he reminds the other him.
"Ask Donna when you say goodbye," the other him says, and he doesn't miss the urgency and finality in the words. It'll be his last chance to, because they won't have time when they get to the beach. They'll miss her so much, they both will.
He thinks he should scold him for meddling, but there's no time and this will be the last time he'll be around anything close to his kind, so he shakes his hand instead and tugs him into a one-armed hug. "Thank you," he whispers.
Then the moment ends and the goodbyes begin in earnest.
AN: So yeah. 10 and 10.5 have a talk.
I really do think metacrisis Tenth knew exactly what was going through his other self's head, not to mention the telepathy angle...