Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did own Doctor Who, this particular AU would never have had the chance to happen.

Author's Note: This is an angsty, angry puppy, and is rated M as there is coarse language and violence (against architecture), rather than the usual 'T'. The Duplicate Doctor (Jason, in this fic-verse) is pretty much a mass of seething resentment, for very good reasons.

And yes, I was listening to The Fray's 'How to Save a Life' when I was trying to find a name for this beast - the title fit because of future chapters, and here we are. And in closing, I must add - this is not a story for fans of Rose. So if you are one, please turn around NOW and read something else. You'll be a lot happier that way.

Love to KendraC, who fed my plotbunnies and thereby added detail to this baby.

Chapter 1

Jason, (who Rose, and everyone else on Pete's World still called The Doctor, though he thought of himself as Jason Smith ), was in a foul mood, pacing the confines of his room in Pete and Jackie's mansion. He'd just been in yet another fight with Rose where she was trying to make him act like her ideal of the Doctor, and he just wasn't the sort of person who could bend to conforming to her every whim. Especially the more ridiculous and sex-related ones. And this time, instead of just shouting at her, he'd punched a hole in the wall of the room they'd both been in, as well as making the air ring with the volume of his shouting. He'd left the room, desperately afraid that he would hit -her- next, and fortunately Jackie had kept her from following him.

Dammitall, he wanted to be his own person! And that was supposed to be something joyful and good, not so full of anger and resentment at everything and everyone that he could barely breathe at times. Not like it wasn't justified, oh, he had plenty of reasons to even downright hate a few people. But underneath all the fury, he just wanted to try and figure out who he was other than a blend of the Doctor and Donna. And another hole got added to his bedroom wall as the memory cascaded again of how he was left behind like forgotten luggage, or an unwanted present foisted off on someone else. Something to satisfy a childish, whinging, manipulative, obsessed little bitch, while his progenitors left him helpless, alone and unprepared. Well, the Doctor had, anyway - he was sure that if Donna had had time to think about it, that she would have suggested another way.

Donna - powers above, he missed her -so- much! And she had never existed in this universe - he'd checked, double-checked and triple-checked, even. Martha had existed, though the Cybermen had gotten her, and he'd known for a long time that Mickey had had his own double...but Donna? Not a breath did she take in this world. Her parents had married, yeah, but they'd had several sons. And none of them ginger, so he didn't even have the consolation of someone -like- Donna, but male. He could have dealt with a male friend, so long as his essence was what was so uniquely Donna.

His pacing had taken him back to his door in time to hear someone test the handle. Finding it locked, the person went on, and pressing his ear to the door, Jason heard Rose say '...no Mum, he's locked himself in his room again. He'll come out when he's hungry enough. I'm out with the girls, see you later." So, what would she have done if he hadn't locked his door to keep her out? Invaded, of course. Try to press herself on him? Likely. Gotten hurt? Quite probably - he was having a much harder time keeping himself from lashing out than he used to - the holes in various walls were proof enough of that. And -that- was with the memories of hundreds of years of controlling a volatile temper. Sometimes, he thought, being part human was a bad thing.

Still, since she was leaving to go get drunk, or carouse for a one night stand, perhaps he could find out what she was hiding in -her- bedroom. She always made a point of keeping everyone out of it, even the servants, even as she insisted he keep his bedroom open for inspection, though he didn't. And that was enough suddenly-enabled curiosity to break through his current rage. So...wait for Jackie to come up and check on him, then deny being hungry (he never did have an appetite while he was angry)...and then, when she'd left, he'd take the sonic screwdriver he'd built and break into Rose's room to find out just what she was hiding.

It had played out almost exactly as he'd thought, though Jackie did take up some of his time with trying to coax him to compromise with Rose. He'd been kind to Jackie at some cost to himself, though it was easier talking through a door, but he'd refused to compromise. Compromise meant laying down and letting Rose walk all over him, doing nothing whatsoever with his life but what she wanted, when she wanted it. Which, as far as he could tell, meant being her living dildo whenever she got the itch and being her 'yes darling' when she didn't.

He was worth a lot more than that - it might be the only thing he truly knew about himself, actually. Well, that and he was a bottomless well of rage and curiosity...and he was just about to sate his curiosity with a silent entrance to Rose's room. He'd brought a torch with him, so no one would get curious at seeing light where Rose wasn't, and he was assured of at least four hours search, so it was time to get to it.

An hour later after having neatly gone through her dresser (far too many revealing undergarments for his taste), and her closet, and he was ready to punch a hole in -her- wall because thus far he'd found nothing. There had to be some reason she was keeping everyone out, and he had an itch between his shoulder-blades that said he had to find out what it was. He tossed the bathroom as neatly as he'd tossed her closet, then leaned against the wall and sighed. He'd even looked in the cisterns of the toilet and the bidet - nothing!

As he forced his mind into some kind of quiet, he seemed to hear Donna in his head. 'When looking for a girl's secrets, look between her mattress and box-spring, dumbo.' So he did, and came up with three journals. He read them by date, and the first two were pretty much just a chronicle of her being 'trapped' in Pete's World, and her making the decision to find the Doctor...nothing but whinging and refusing to grow up in favour of keeping an obsession alive, really. Until he flipped a page in the third journal and found something horribly fascinating.

12 April, forget the year, not important for much longer

Had a breakthrough today with the experimental Dimensional Cannon. I got in touch with beings that called themselves the Trickster's Brigade, and they promised me I would have everything I wanted if I just helped them get rid of some dumb ginger. Donna Noble, they said her name was, and that she was traveling around with MY Doctor. Well duh, of course I'm going to help them get rid of her! There is nothing more important than me getting back with the Doctor, and according to my new friends, she's nothing important anyway. Just another useless temp.

15 May

My new friends helped me refine the dimensional cannon, but I have to go to one particular universe first before I can get back together with the Doctor. It's a universe they said they were going to make by latching on to that ginger cow and making her make a decision to keep her away from the Doctor, forever. You'd better believe I'm all over that idea! More when I get back. Hopefully I won't come back, but you never know.

5 June

Dammit! How the hell did everything go wrong? Even the Trickster's Brigade can't answer that, and they have the answer to everything! We'd deliberately arranged the time travel for Donna so that she wouldn't be able to make herself make her original decision without killing herself, and she survived in her universe, with the Doctor! Even with one of the Brigade's spawn attached to her and supposedly controlling her every move, she survived and returned to MY Doctor! Aaargh! I could tear my hair out! How the hell is she still alive? Still, she would have told the Doctor what I told her as she was dying, and he'll know I'm coming back. My friends have sworn oaths to me that my next jaunt with the cannon will lead me to the Doctor. And be able to save the multiverse from the stars going out at the same time.

July 1

I am about ready to murder someone. No, several someones. That bastard - all he had to do was keep me with him, and I'd be happy. But nooo, he had to send me back to this dump of a universe with his half-human twin, and expects me to be 'happy' because I have a 'Doctor' that will age with me. I don't want a poor copy, dammit! I want THE DOCTOR! And when I get him, I'll keep him forever, even if I have to rip the TARDIS open again and steal enough of her heart to make me live forever like Jack.

I'll dominate this bastard duplicate of the Doctor, but I -will- be getting in touch with my friends and reminding them of my bargain. Then, maybe, I'll leave the broken duplicate with that ginger cow, and keep MY DOCTOR all to myself. Or perhaps I'll leave her with nothing and keep them both. Yeah, that's a better idea.

July 13

It took forever to get back in touch with my friends, but they had some lovely suggestions, yes they did. First, I have to break the duplicate I got saddled with. No problem, I had Mickey under my sway for longer than I really wanted him, I just have to work a little harder at taming this half-human Doctor. Next, and this is the part that I'm not fond of, I'll specifically tune the dimensional cannon to switch identical persons. So I'll have the Doctor to be my very own in this universe, and that universe can have the useless duplicate I'll have broken by then. I won't be able to keep both of them, dammit. They also said that because of something the Doctor did, that I won't ever have to worry about Donna Noble again. Because the Doctor was so worked up about losing that ginger cow he didn't pay attention to their influences on him, and she's forgotten the Doctor and will never remember him again lest she burn to death. I have -such- good friends! Even if they won't tell me why they influenced the Doctor to make the ginger cow forget everything. Still, it's one step closer to getting me MY DOCTOR, so I don't really care. Just a bit curious.

July 31

Haven't made progress yet with that wretched duplicate, but I will. He's getting more and more physically violent, and it'll only be a matter of time till he hits me instead of the wall. Then when I'm all weepingly forgiving of him, he'll be under such a guilt complex that he'll be mine to do with as I please. I'll start tomorrow - tonight I'm going out to land me a one night stand, with someone who knows what his dick is for. And when I have this bastardised version of the Doctor broken to my whim, I don't care how many people die, I'll do what my friends ask and use the dimensional cannon to switch them. Then I'll have MY DOCTOR forever. And to hell with anyone who is depending on him. He's mine, and that's all he'll be until the end of time.

Jason just barely managed to put the three journals back the way he'd found them before he damn near collapsed on the floor, trembling in shock and rage. How dare she call Donna a 'ginger cow'? Donna was worth fifty of Rose, with both hands tied behind her back! He started shaking harder, and tried deep-breathing exercises to calm down. He really didn't need to leave proof he'd been in here.

Finally calm - well, calmer - Jason rubbed his face with his hands. He'd known Rose was obsessed, but he'd had no idea she would ever go this far! Not just her plots against Donna, the Doctor and himself, but the bitch was going to damage the TARDIS too, just to try to live forever! And to deliberately work with the Trickster's Brigade! Well, he wasn't going to sit around trying to make things work anymore, to give his father-twin the illusion of a happy ending! He'd con Pete into letting him go through this universe's Torchwood's archives and swipe anything useful, then he'd use the dimensional cannon to get back to his proper universe. After making sure it'd blow up after he used it.

And then, well, it would probably take sweet-talking Jack, or maybe even actual breaking and entering. But he'd get his way into his home universe's Torchwood archives somehow, and get whatever seemed useful from there as well, and then he'd use everything he'd collected and save Donna from the hell she'd been condemned to. If the Trickster's Brigade wasn't lying to Rose about what they'd convinced the Doctor to do, in which case he had a TARDIS-detector to build instead.

Oh, and he was going to have words with his arrogant twin as well, especially if he -had- wiped Donna's mind. How dare he do this to himself and Donna? How could he be so stupid as to not pay attention to every impulse when he knew the Trickster's Brigade was active again? But that was a lot of shouting for later - right now, he had to sneak out of Rose's room and re-lock it.

Then he had to go back to his room, lock it, and pretend to sleep. And in the morning, convince Pete that he was only fighting with Rose because he was bored silly, and could he please go to work with Torchwood? Tomorrow was another day.

Tomorrow, he'd start the plans to save at least one life.