A/N: Hi y'all! This is my very first fanfic ever, so reviews are much appreciated! This is completely unbeta'd, so there will probably be some spelling or grammar errors. Feel free to point those out in reviews and I'll be more than happy to fix those! Thanks so much! Also, you can follow me on Tumblr if you want, my url is the same as my penname. I may post updates or information about updates there before I do here! Anyway, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the related characters.
Eight months had passed since the Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose Tyler stood on Bad Wolf Bay and watched the Doctor dematerialize out of their lives forever. Eight months had gone by since Rose broke down crying on the same damn beach she had cried on all those years ago when her Doctor vanished from her life the first time, the same damn beach that she thought she would never have to return to once she found him. Still, life went on, and the world continued to turn, however slowly, with Rose Tyler coming to terms with her new reality.
The Meta-Crisis Doctor, now called "Dr. John Noble" legally, was now working along alongside Rose as the Director of Science for Torchwood. He and Rose had slowly begun to rekindle their relationship over the past three months, as the first five months consisted of Rose freezing out the Doctor, as well as Pete and the Torchwood team working to help assimilate the Doctor into the new world. Eventually Rose had begun talking to him again, which proved to be quite helpful, considering the status as co-worker. Now he and Rose were beginning to talk and laugh as they did before their separation at Canary Warf, something that left the Doctor quite pleased. He couldn't help but notice that the improvement in their relationship helped to encourage the small piece of TARDIS coral to grow faster, which also pleased him.
Over the last eight months, when not trying to improve his relationship with Rose or grow the TARDIS in Earth soil ("It's amazing you humans can grow anything in this stuff," he would say, "Remind me to bring you Tylers some soil from Frellian XII's Jungle Biome once this thing is grown. Best soil you'll ever garden with."), the Doctor spent a fair amount his time using Torchwood's remarkably advanced medical center to learn about his new half-Human biology. Particularly, today he was trying to figure out the cause of some agonizing headaches he had been experiencing several times a week.
"Doctor, I know you're not used to Human illnesses because of your old 'Superior Time Lord Biology,'" Rose said, sitting on the counter in one of the rooms in the medical center as the Doctor was waiting for the results of some sort of computer scan to print, "However, we humans get migraines sometimes, and I don't think they're worth getting in a panic over."
"I know that Rose, but there's something that could happen, related to being part human, but with a Time-Lord mind. But don't you worry Rose it's highly unlikely. Well, I say highly unlikely..." He trailed off and continued to peer at the computer screens through his "Brainy Specs", as he called them.
"You said that, yeah, but it would be really helpful if you told me what exactly you were worried about, yeah? I think I have the right to know if you're in any sort of danger."
"Rose, there's nothing you need to know until we're one hundred percent certain I'm in any kind of danger. I'll probably be fine, I still have plenty of Time Lord in me, that should help combat any sort of trouble."
"Yeah? Doctor, I know you, and I know we wouldn't be here if you didn't think there would be trouble. Look, I spent three years searching for the oth-" Rose paused for a second, " searching for you all over the multiverse, yeah? So I'm not about to let you go and get hurt because you're to damn stubborn to tell me what you think could be happening."
Just as the words left Rose's mouth, the results of the tests began to print. She went to pick them up before the Doctor, but he was too fast and grabbed them right from under her hand. He gave her a stern look, one she had grown very familiar with. "Don't," he warned, "You wouldn't even understand it if you did read it." Then his expression softened into a grin. "Besides, whatever these papers say, everything will be fine. We'll be fine." He looked down and began to read the confusing symbols and markings on the paper. "Everything normal so far, no fluctuations in heart rate, all the synapses firing properly, that's brilliant!" He continued to read and his face fell, just for a second, but he quickly put on a smile again. "Everything is great! No trouble, I was wrong. Everything is perfect. Molto Bene! Anyway, are you hungry? I'm famished. You want Chinese? I could do with a bit of-"
"Doctor, you're covering something up, I see it in your face, now what is it?"
"Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing. Just has to do with what I told you about Donna. Well, a bit like what I told you about Donna, but not exactly. But it's nothing to worry about. Now common, Chinese." He went to grab his keys but realized Rose already had them.
"No, Doctor, you're not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on." Rose looked determined, and he faltered for a moment. He hadn't meant for this to happen. He hadn't even known this could happen, and he was sure the other him hadn't thought it could either, or he wouldn't have left Rose here. "Now, what d'ya mean, it's a bit like what you told me about Donna? You mean you're going to have to forget everything or die? That's not exactly nothing you know Doctor."
Rose felt tears sting behind her eyes. How could she say goodbye to the Doctor again? How was any of this fair to her? How was it fair to the Doctor? She cared for him more than anyone else in Pete's World. It wasn't fair to her family, but she couldn't deny it. He was the one last bit of her old life left, and although she was still very much in love with her old Doctor, she new that she would grow to love her half-human Doctor every bit as much, even more in the future. She couldn't bear the thought of living her life without him again, particularly not now that she had spent so much time doing ordinary, domestic things with him.
"It's not as bad as with Donna, Rose," He walked over to where she was sitting on the counter and pulled her into an embrace, "I promise you, it's not nearly as bad as with Donna." He pulled up a chair and sat by her, his feet up on the console. The position they were in was very reminiscent of those times on the TARDIS, with her propped up on the console, and him in the jump seat. Times were so much simpler then, before they were caught up in affairs in Pete's World, getting covered in void stuff, being pulled through dimensions, having hands growing into bodies. It was better before all of the goodbyes, and the being-left-behind-without-goodbyes. He pulled himself out of his reverie when he noticed the stinging in his own eyes, catching himself before he started to tear up in front of Rose. This half-human body was much worse at holding back tears.
The Doctor continued, determined not to upset Rose, "You see, with Donna, she was all human. She had my frankly magnificent Time Lord mind, packed inside the less-than-magnificent human body. No offense, " he added when he realize he was being rude, "However, I'm half Time-Lord, so my body is much more equipped to handle this sort of thing. I can handle the headaches with a bit of ibuprofen. The issue is, I have a sort of link with the other me, right? The Time Lord in me is directly connected to him. My life, the Time Lord bit at least, is bonded to his. Which is fine, it wouldn't affect us at all in our daily life. However, there is the matter of regeneration. If the other Doctor regenerates, the Time Lord bit of me will die too."
"But that's ok yeah? Because you've got enough human in you to continue living a life with me. Because you promised you would, so you're not gonna just die on me now." Rose's eyes were now swimming with tears. She looked up at the Doctor for any sort of consolation, some conformation that she wasn't going to be alone.
"I do have enough human in me to live Rose," he said, and her eyes lit up, "but once I'm all human physically, the Time Lord mind will do to me what it did to Donna."
Rose was now sobbing. He got out of his chair and pulled her into his arms. He couldn't stand to see her cry. She was all he had in the world. She was all he had in this universe, and to see her so broken hearted was a nightmare to him. He had seen her crying too much in the last eight months, he never wanted to see her in tears again. He wanted to be able to take all of her pain away, but he new he couldn't. Not this him, not the half-human him. He cursed his Time Lord self for leaving her in so much pain, and now he was telling Rose that he may do the same.
"Rose, love, please, don't worry. Time Lords can go for hundreds of years without regenerating. Chances are we'll have grown old on our own before he regenerates. I'm not leaving you. Traveling together forever, remember?" he says, and then kisses her forehead. He feels her tense up, and he wonders if kissing her was pushing her too hard. So far the two of them had only just begun to regularly hold hands, and his worst fear was pushing her away. However, she relaxed and squeezed onto him for a moment and then let go, looking up at him with a teary smile.
"You swear you're not going anywhere?" she asked, and he nodded, reassuring her with his soft gaze. She gave him her famous tongue-in-tooth grin, "Good, someone's gotta be there to chauffeur me around the universe when the TARDIS is done." He smiled at her, "Now what about that Chinese, hm?" she continued, "You better be paying, I've covered for you plenty."
"Oh, alright. I suppose I still owe you for those chips after the end of the world. What do you say we get take out, though? We could eat at my place and watch an old Disney film?" He and Rose had loved to watch old Disney films on the TARDIS on the nights when both Rose and the TARDIS needed some rest. It was something she had always done with her mum when she was little, and something that she had forced his old, northern self to do with her (ok, forced is a little bit of an exaggeration. He would never admit it, but his old self loved those silly singing cartoons. And he also loved spending some quiet time with a certain Blonde earth girl, too, but he would deny that as well). His new body was more open in his love for cartoon musicals, however, and really enjoyed the habit that they fell into. They hadn't continued this little routine of theirs since they were separated, however, and the Doctor was nervous she'd reject him.
"Yeah, all right" she said, after a brief pause, smiling up at him again, relieving any nervousness he had about the matter. "How about Beauty and the Beast, yeah? That's always a good one."
"Anything you want, Rose Tyler. Allons-y!" he proclaimed, taking her hand and bounding out of the medical center.