The fading groan of the Tardis engines echoes across the Norwegian beach for a long while. No one is quite ready to break the silence, especially not the duplicate Doctor. He had known that there would be a feeling of loss, but he hadn't quite been prepared for the aching pull at his mind so very reminiscent of the first time he had been stranded, had been cut off from his people, but deeper. There is only a tiny piece of coral in his pocket, not yet old enough to have a mental presence, and the sheer quiet in the place where Old Girl had been is almost more than he can hide.
He does hide it, for his own sake, and for Rose's as well. He hides it, because he is mostly human now and humans don't feel that way he doesn't think. He needs to be human now, for Rose, he owes her that.
"So, should we get moving already?" Jackie breaks the silence, her voice a bit grating in the silence, but still a welcome distraction.
He turns to face her, only remembering that Rose is attached to his arm as her weight nearly makes him tip over. He steadies her with a warm smile, then turns the same smile to Jackie. He doesn't get a word in.
"I've had Pete keep an eye out for us, so he should be on his way by now, probably in one of those stupid bleedin' airships of his, I swear I am never getting used to those things." Jackie continues, turning and grabbing her daughter off of him and dragging the girl after her towards a group of huts in the distance.
"If he hasn't, I'm sure the TORCHWOOD section here will lend us some transport, mum." Rose says reassuringly while throwing an arm over her mother's shoulder. The blond throws a bright smile at The duplicate Doctor and gestures for him to follow them.
He hesitates for a moment, and looks back to where the Tardis had stood, before turning and jogging after them. He isn't exactly pleased to be going anywhere near TORCHWOOD, but he reminds himself that he doesn't know this version, the version that has the Tyler's. It'll surely de better than the version from his own world, he tries to bolster himself.
"Too bad you didn't duplicate your ship as well, it'd be much quicker." Jackie calls over her shoulder sounding put out to have to walk rather than just slipping through space.
The duplicate Doctor catches up, feeling disturbingly out of breath, and grins cheekily at the older blond. "Well, not yet, but I do have a seed to grow one, so someday." He tells her, stuffing his hands in his suit pockets and raising his face to the sky as he walks with them, trying to conceal exactly how hard he is breathing. This human thing isn't half hard.
Rose stops up abruptly, causing The duplicate Doctor to have to stop up before he walks right into her. She's turned to look at him with an expression of disbelief and glee that he can't help but return.
"We'll have a Tardis, really?" The young blond sounds so excited, she's practically jumping in place. He can't help but remember how charming he's always found her innocent enthusiasm.
"Not right away, it might take years before she's old enough to take a proper form, and she might never have the same functionality that my Old Girl had. I'm not really an engineer, you know." He tries to explain, not wanting to get her hopes up.
Jackie rolls her eyes from slightly further along than Rose and grabs a hold of her daughters purple jacket, giving it a good yank.
"Alright, you two, can you wait with discussing this until we're somewhere warm? This isn't Hawaii, you know." She tells them irritably as she drags her daughter further along. The duplicate Doctor shares another grin with
Rose, who is walking backwards with a delighted smile on her face, before he jogs up to walk beside Jackie.
Jackie pulls out a blank black card key when they reach the first of the small plain looking bungalows, and swipes it across a card reader by the door. It beeps and the door clicks open. Seeing The duplicate Doctor's surprised expression, she starts to explain as they enter the anonymous beach house.
"When you went to say goodbye to Rose, TORCHWOOD bought up a few of these bungalows in case we needed to come back here for any reason. There's been a bit of rift activity here, not like in Cardiff but a bit."
"Oh," he replies, a bit nonplussed by the reminder. He needs to get used to that, isn't he, working with his old nemesis of terrestrial origin.
"So, you were rather cosy with that Donna, weren't you?" Rose asks as she pulls of her jacket and throws it over a chair by the small tea kitchen. He is a bit amused to recognise a hint of jealousy in her voice.
"Well, yeah. She's my best mate, or his really since he's the one who made the memories, but lets not make that distinction, shall we? she did also help create me; she's a bit like my mother, really." He explains, looking around the den. It has a nice view of the bay, he'll give it that, but doesn't have much else going for it. He thinks about it for a moment, idly noting the cessation of noise behind him with nary a thought.
"My mum, yeah, that's Donna, has a heart the size of a sun. She'd be a great mum. I'm half of her, half of dear old Dad." He says without much thought to how Rose might take that bit of news. "Huh, I'm sort of my own dad, how trailer-park." He murmurs with a slight smile and turns back to face the kitchenette.
Rose and Jackie are both looking at him as if he's lost his mind.
"What do you mean, half of her?" Rose asks after a moment of awkward silence. He tilts a bit on the balls of his feet, then shrugs.
"Well, it isn't like Time Lords are like lizards, you know, we can't just grow new Time Lords from bits of lobbed off a body." He says with a bewildered smile.
"She started the process of my creation by adding her own DNA and bio-energy field to the tank the original specimen was kept in. I got my humanity from her, and most of her memories as well, sort of." He pauses as a thought strikes him.
"You know, if I get my GCSEs I could probably do quite well as a temp." He says with a delighted grin, mind off somewhere in the future. He doesn't really intend to be a temp, but the thought strikes him as incredibly funny, running around from place to place, solving their problems, except this time it would be paper-work related problems instead of alien problems.
"You want to be a temp?" Rose asks him with a look of utter bewilderment, half way laughing but also a bit horrified.
Jackie, who had seemed just as bewildered at his words, turned and whapped Rose on the arm. "There's nothing wrong with temping, you lady, and don't you forget it." She exclaimed, sounding exasperated. It took The duplicate Doctor a moment to remember that Jackie had also worked a a temp before becoming the wife of a billionaire.
"Though, I do agree with Rose, you aren't going from a super-smart alien doctor to a temp, don't be stupid." She continued on, turning her attention to The duplicate Doctor with motherly frown that made him feel all warm inside.
"Well, alright, Jackie, mother knows best after all." He replies with a grin and hurries over to sweep her in a hug, swinging her from side to side gently. She giggles gamely, and slaps lightly at his arms until he sets her down.
"Well, aren't you in a good mood then." She says and ruffles his hair, and he finds that yes he is. HE has a whole new lease in life, and perhaps it is the Donna Noble in him, but all he can see are possibilities. For the first time he knows what ambition feels like, and looking at the Tyler's he knows who he want to build this new life with.
In the back of his mind, something twinges and throbs, but he is too human to realise what it means. Part of him is bleeding sluggishly in tune to the single heart, thoughts and memories seeping gently away so slowly he can't notice.
It takes Pete two days to arrange a secure transport from the bungalow back to London. The duplicate Doctor is somewhat disconcerted to realise that when they say 'London', what they mean is the TORCHWOOD ONE Headquarters at Canary Wharf, where he hasn't been since the battle that had originally cost him Rose.
He walks through the doors to the tall sleek building on the heels of Jackie, trying not to let it get to him and shivering slightly against the early morning chill. He still hasn't gotten used to the way this mostly human body responds to stimuli.
Pete Tyler meets them at the reception desk, arms wide and a large smile on his face, a small dark-haired boy clutching at his trouser legs.
"Jacks, Rose!" he calls out and pulls the blonds into his arms, before turning to The duplicate Doctor, "and The Doctor. I certainly wasn't expecting to see you." He says, a clear question in his voice. The duplicate Doctor is surprised that Jackie hasn't filled her husband in on his presence, but grins and shakes Pete's hand enthusiastically.
"Not quite The Doctor, more like his half-human-son-with-all-his-memories." He explains as he slaps Pete's shoulder. He's always liked Pete, and the easy acceptance that he extends to The duplicate Doctor reminds him why.
"Oh, what shall we call you, then?" Pete asks, throwing an arm over Jackie's shoulders and pulling her in to his side.
The duplicate, and Rose it looks like when he glances at her, is taken aback by the question, the thought of taking an actual name hasn't occurred to him at all. Unexpected as the question is, a name pops out of his mouth without pause.
"Noble. I'm thinking Terrence Noble, if that's alright. Terry for short." The name is one of Donna's favourites, he remembers. The thought of her brings up a well of grief, something that has been growing since the Tardis left them on the beach, but he pushes it down. It might not be his mum naming him, but he thinks she would have liked it just the same.
Pete simply nods and gestures for them to precede him into the elevator. "Right, Terry it is. We'll have some paperwork made up for you, should be finished by the end of the day."