Chp 1 Cilantro

On a Beach again...

The Doctor: Full Time Lord

The Full Time Lord was tying up every eventuality that could, and or, would be Rose Tyler into a neat bow. He could see her bright time-line start to drift and entangle in a time-line that was his- but not. He swallowed hard.

Well, maybe one day he could cut off those pesky emotions that the council used to scrunch their pompous noses at. There was a venomous taste of bile and regret welling up his throat. It festered and boiled so poignantly that he fought back tears. Ah, such bitter sweet sorrow. Another gulp. There was nothing sweet about any of this.

She had come so far. His little, pink and yellow human. Rose looked at him with hazel eyes that promised him a Universe where he would never see it without her hand in his. It's always better with two, they pleaded. Forever echoed in his mind. He had to stop it there. He couldn't finish that sentence. Not again. She never heard it the first time.

"Does it need saying?" He replied. She did not understand the second time.

She turned away and faced the other 'him' with the same question. When Rose turned away it was like a fatal blow. There was whispering and he really wasn't paying attention. Everything was going black and rearranging. The meta-crisis was kissing her. He was him… as far as he could tell. He needed Rose. That was very him, but not. He could give her more. If he was in the same situation…

He drove that troublesome thoughts deep, deep down as he tried to push his hands in the depths of oblivion that dwelled in the deep pockets.

Her hands were in the Meta-crisis's hair now. He swiped an absent hand through his own windswept hair. The TARDIS was groaning. The walls between Universes were closing. He felt like his bones were being crushed into sharp splinters. The shrapnel dug into him the longer he stayed on that windy beach.

Now the Meta-crisis had his arms all around her, it seem that… No! Rose would be fine.

He needed her and that was very him.

The Full Time Lord looked over to the Doctor- Donna. She was already headeding back to the TARDIS blissfully unaware of what was coming. Again, another adventure he could never have.

Eventually, they all leave.

The Doctor: Part Time Lord (metacrisis Doctor)

He certainly had started his existence with a bang. It was quite kind of himself, or his former self, to use a regeneration on his old hand. Now this hand was his handy hand. Oh, gotta love that hand. No time for that now. His mind had to move faster, just a bit faster. The old him was up to something and it didn't seem fair to any party. His newly formed synapses and neurons weren't firing at optimum efficiency. Too much human… Faster he had to act faster. If only he had some tea. Not a tannin or free radicals in sight. Not even a cup of tepid water.

No bother, he tried to reach out to Rose… shh without his other "self" hearing. :ROSE:

Nope, nada, zip, zilch- shh. Concentrate. His new attention span was short. His single heart, which was still disgusting, was starting to pound in his ears. His limited, very limited time sense was screaming bells and whistles. The window was closing. He really wasn't paying attention to what Rose and his full Time Lord counterpart were saying.

He made sure to keep his face stoic. He would play the Time Lord's game for now.

"And you, Doctor?" He was lost in those whiskey eyes.

Bingo- Time for the plan to begin.

He held her close and whispered, "How long are you going to stay with me?" His eyes darted from her to the Time Lord. The latter looked as if he had seen his own epitaph.

She cocked her head slightly. 'Forever,' echoed through his new neural pathways- clever girl. If there was ever any doubt, she was Rose.

'Has anything changed? Present 'Double- Doctor- Vison' excluded?' She shook her head and smiled. 'Run when I say, run.' He starts stepping… 'I am so, so, sorry for what about to come. Now, we need a distraction. Sorry. Well, not sorry for this.'

Rose beat him to the finish line. Who cares? She was kissing him and he fell into it so easily. Her hands were grasping at his hair while his arms encircled her small frame. He could barely muster the concentration to know when to grab her hand. He took hold of her hand and spun her around. "Run," he whispered, as he led her towards the TARDIS that was slowly disappearing. He snapped his fingers and the fading doors opened. "Go."

The Doctor: The Full Time Lord

The Doctor was watching Donna. Correction, he was watching the Doctor-Donna manically gab about over the console room. She grinned and named all the places and sights her new big brain could think of. Each new idea hopped from neuron- neuron. She was going too fast. She was going to burn.

A gold flash in his mind reminded him of a girl touched by the vortex. She could see everything and all she wanted to do was save him. He ignored the TARDIS scolding or whatever his ship was trying to do. All Donna wanted to do was travel with him.

"Donna you know what I have to do," he said, lowly.

"Oi, wait on that a tic." He heard his own voice.

The Doctor: Part Time Lord (metacrisis)

The Doctor turned around. His hearts started beating faster than Donna who was pacing and racing circles around the console room. "You!"

"Why, yes it is me, I suppose. Right back in the TARDIS. We don't have much time for reintroductions."

"And me," Rose appeared from behind the Meta-crisis Doctor. The Full Time Lord wanted to cry out in frustration or pure joy; maybe a bit of both.

"Rose, I."

"No, no, no. We need to do that later." The man in the blue suit walked towards Donna. "You will be fine. I have an idea. You are brilliant. Well both of us are. Isn't that wizard…You've been in my head and I got a pinch of Donna. That bit of your human creativity is brilliant, but if you got a spare heart… Now, anyway let him just get you to sleep. You need to slow down or you will burn. We need a slow simmer not a boiling over pot catching the galley on fire. Though I still could use some tea. Rose?"

"Doctor." She looked at them both and put her hands on her hips.

"What?" They both asked.

Rose turned to the Doctor in brown and looked at Donna with glassy eyes. "Save her," she whispered.

"Doctor, please do what the one in blue says. S'ays, says, so, stop, slow, simmer, sleep, seep, cilantro." The Doctor in blue quirked a brow at the last word.

"She is a rubbish cook, remember. Now, all you have to do is get her into a healing like coma. I don't have enough power currently. Since, you have me back. Hello. You, me, us can slow it all down. You can't take it all away. It's a part of her."

The Time Lord narrowed his eyes at the part Time Lord in the blue suit.

"Doctor, please. You made me so much better. She was the most important woman in the Universe for a moment. You can do whatever you want with me or him when you are done." She paused. She slouched a bit like the gravity was off in the TARIDIS. "Please."

The Doctor raised his head and pushed his doppelganger, not so gently, to the side. He was stiff and raised his hands to Donna's temples. "I'll let you sleep. I won't let you burn. Get ready to catch her." The Doctor closed his eyes and Donna's babbling stopped and soon her respiration slowed and she was unconscious. "That should hold for a bit. Let's get her to the infirmary."

The walk to the Med-bay was swift and uncomfortable. Rose followed the two Doctor's a few feet behind. She was wondering what it would take to cut the tension. The surprise and awkwardness of it all was made it easy enough to deduce that the Doctor had no plan on taking her back. Now she was trapped.

She felt betrayed. He was leaving her behind again!

What would her future be now? Maybe she could go back to Earth. It was her original home. Mickey was there. She shook her head. Jack was there… He didn't want her on the TARDIS anymore. She was some sort of intergalactic babysitter. She was looking at how interesting her shoes were as the Doctor in brown hooked Donna up to all the equipment.

"Right, you're next," the Full Time Lord said to the man in blue.

"What? Excuse me? What?" He looked alarmed.

"You need to be on the same level to communicate with her. We have to hook you up. I don't think you're telepathy is as strong. I don't want this to go all pear shaped. It'll also let your brain slow down and sort itself out. Your timeline is all over the place. I don't feel like going in there right now."

"Like you could," He said under his breath.

"Is he right?" Rose chimed in from the corner.

The part- Time Lord in blue sighed and laid down on the bed next to Donna. "If I keep talking in cooking metaphors just… I don't know."

"We could use a cook," Rose said with a half-smile. "Can you teach a… well… new tricks."

"New, New, New-ish Doctor." He smiled, brightly and leaned back. "I can do this myself, thank you very much."

Doctor: Full Time Lord

Soon the unconscious part-Time Lord's breathing was in sync with Donna's. After the Doctor put all the necessary tubes and monitors in he noticed that their heartbeats were identical.

"It's kind weird seeing her quiet," the Doctor mused.

"It's weird seeing you, or you but not you, quiet." Rose added. "How long do they have to stay like that?"

"She's not burning anymore. We have to wait for her to calm down a bit so we can put some of it in him. At least, I think that is his plan."

"What was yours?"

"I would have erased every trace of myself. Every memory and put up a block so she wouldn't think of me again. If she saw me again she would burn."

"Donna was going to travel with you and you weren't going be alone."

"She didn't know." He replied, putting his hands back in his pockets.

"Doctor, you were going to be alone."

"I know." The icy tone in his reply chilled the blood in her veins.

"Is that what you want?"

The Doctor didn't answer. He just walked out of the med-bay in a huff. Rose followed carefully at his heels. She hadn't seen this level of brooding since her first days on the TARDIS and the Doctor had preferred leather. They went through several twist and turns in a tense silence that had Rose on edge. Why was he so angry? He did a swift turn and she crashed into him. Cooler hands held her up, but his hands were shaking.

"Doctor?"

"Right… Well, erm. It's been a long day. Do you want a cup of tea or… I don't know." Finally some British diplomacy. Things were looking up and Rose hid a smile.

"Okay then," she nodded. He didn't realize that she was still in his grip. His hands felt more than empty when she finally managed to pull away (Not that was really possible). "Doctor? I feel that there has been a lot of talking of what'haves, and what'nots. Not between us." She pointed between the two of them and gently took his arm. "It might be my turn to get a say in all this. Don't you think I get a go?"

"You're just so accident prone and you wander off incessantly… Rose Tyler, I don't think there has been a more…." She held her fingertips to his mouth to stop his reply.

A bit of her tongue peeked its way through the side of a lopsided grin as she tried to keep her features calm and collected. The Time Lord could feel his hearts melting. How could he give this up? She took up her favorite pink mug and sat on the old cozy couch in the library that mysteriously pushed its sitters together. That had disappeared the day Martha had boarded.

His mind internally mimic Rose's deep exhale as she leaned into him. "After all this. It's you and me! Rose Tyler and Doctor in the TARDIS, as it should be. If only for one night."

"Quite." The Time Lord frowned when there was no cup for him.

"You must've done something naughty," Rose teased. "The TARDIS must be cross at you for something." She handed him her cup which was dark." Anyway, if I am to get this correctly, you thought you were giving me a better life? That I would make him, the other one, better somehow… Like I am some trans-dimensional baby-sitter."

"Not quite that. No, you see…"

"No I do, Doctor. I see a lot. I've seen a lot."

"Please let me finish?" The tip of her head nuzzled quickly into the crook of his shoulder. He leaned back and let her continue.

"You think that I made you better. You were born out of war and such horrors… All leather and gruff and broody. I do get that. Always did understand that, but more- so now."

"Time Lords don't brood." He took off his suit jacket and crossed his arms.

"Yeah... I might a tad now. I wonder if I'm too old for that phase. Anyway, the stars were going out. I was on one of the first teams developing where the cannon would break through. There were cracks, tears, and rips splintering everywhere. At first, it was random. All sorts of places, nice places, no oxygen places, nothing, war zones. We flipped a randomizer switch through all of time and space just to connect to Donna Noble. And of course ultimately, you! The goal was always you." She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her hand. He tried to move closer to her but she started again. "I was the best at location… Which is a bit of a kinder way of saying, I was always a little too late."

"Hmm,"

"Let me tell you about the time I ended up in France."

He went stiff at that...