The meta-crisis clone stared at the paper in his hands.
John Ian Smith.
He had never had to use a middle name before. Arguably he didn't need one now. No one thought to ask middle names, places where you need your full name would likely still take you without a middle name. Yet he had stared at the blank space and filled it. Torchwood was going to work out the rest like when his birthday would be. They couldn't possibly calculate his actual birth date. The Doctor was ancient. Even if they counted the moment the he was created from Donna's DNA, the TARDIS existed in all of time.
"John Ian Smith," he said out loud, sounding it out. Rose looked up at him. Rose hadn't exactly been mean to him after she took him in but she hadn't fully adjusted yet. And that was fine. He wasn't settled yet either and he would give her time. All the time she needed. "I like the sound of that. I never had a middle name before, the Gallifreyians didn't bother with that stuff."
He cleared his throat. "Did I ever tell you about Ian?" He knew he hadn't. He hadn't told her about Ian, just like he hadn't told her about Sarah Jane or the others before her.
"No," Rose replied.
"Great man he was. He deserves to have a tribute payed to him."
"I'm sure that he would have been proud to know you took his name." She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. There hadn't been much contact between them after she snogged him on the beach and the simple touch surprised him more than he would have predicted. The Doctor smiled at her.
"Maybe." He handed the paper to a Torchwood employee who obviously thought the Doctor -and maybe Rose- were crazy but didn't say anything. Rose let go of his hand and the two of them walked away.
The Doctor wondered if he was really worthy to take Ian Chesterton's name. No he was not, he decided. But he work to become worthy of it.