The Doctor and he both called himself the Meta-Crisis. For now at least. What else could he be called? Doctor? How could they properly function with two Doctors in the same room; how would they know who was speaking to who?
It wasn't a conscious action – the few moments after his creation the Meta-Crisis understood himself and where he stood in the world. He could be anything he wanted now…just not the Doctor.
Not for this universe at least.
So as he stood on the beach of Bad Wolf Bay, he decided to take the one thing he'd wanted for over ten years; Rose Tyler's love.
What the Doctor couldn't say, the Time Lord too broken; his human self could.
"I love you."
You keep her safe. The Doctor ordered, speaking through the bond glowing golden at the back of their minds. The doors to the TARDIS shut.
On my life. He promised back, letting Rose break away when the yawning of the TARDIS sang through the air.
Silently he stood as he watched the TARDIS fly away, and together they stood on Bad Wolf Bay.
The beginning of their lives together.
"I almost can't believe this is happening." Rose confessed softly.
"You have all the time in the world to come to terms with this, with us." He promised.
Jackie was in the background phoning Pete to come and get them when he felt it. A slight burning along his spine. But Rose was talking again, and he thought nothing of it…
Until he felt the TARDIS leave their new world.
It hit him then; a burst of crippling pain that started at the base of his spine until his head was pounding in tempo with his single heart; the agony enough to drop him to his knees. He's unconscious by the time Pete picks them up, lost to the world for days. A coma, they'd told him.
But while his body was down for the count…his mind had traveled elsewhere.
Suddenly he can see her.
Donna. In pain, brain malfunctioning right before his eyes.
Not his own eyes though.
His.
The Doctor's.
They were sharing each other's thoughts, feeling each other's pain as Donna stood there, not even able to speak.
Neural Implosion. They knew how that felt.
"Brilliant, Fantastic, Molto Bene, Great big universe, packed into my brain. You know you can fix that chameleon circuit if you just try hotwiring the fragment links and superseding the binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary - " Finally she cut off the words with a gasp, gazing down at the TARDIS for a second before her mouth started running again. "... I'm fine!"
We only watched her as she slowly got worse.
I'm sorry. The Meta-Crisis whispered.
"Nah! Never mind Feldspoon. You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that, shall we go see Charlie Chaplin?"
This isn't your fault. The Doctor replied sadly. Not yours, not hers. Your birth saved the Universe…
-but there's always a price, huh? He cut in bitterly, watching Donna as she got stuck yet again.
"Shall we, Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester, Charlie Brown, no he's fiction," They watched as she slowly lowered the phone in her hand, still talking…not breathing. "-friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton."
The words cut off and she sucked in another breath of air, stumbling into the console. They stood silently as she slowly pressed a hand to her head, breathing out softly. "Oh, my God!"
The Doctor took a slow measured step towards the shaking woman, hands in his pockets. "D'you know what's happening?" he asked gently.
Donna glanced up at him, frowning. "Yeah."
"There's never been a human/Time Lord Meta-Crisis before now." He said slowly. "And you know why."
He knew what he had to do to save her.
He just had to lose his best friend.
He stood silently beside her, resolute.
The Meta-Crisis was crying inside enough for both of them.
Her voice was soft, sad, but still unwilling to admit to the truth even as she answered him. "Because there can't be."
Looking into his eyes, Donna started to shake her head before turning away. "I want to stay."
The Doctor thought he'd gotten used to heartbreak by now, but every single time it still hurt.
Instead of letting his knees grow weak against the onslaught of emotion, the Meta-Crisis instead pulled all their pain in close, letting the Doctor remain steady when he slowly followed her as she walked around the console. "Look at me." She flicked another switch, and the Doctor couldn't help the emotion that crept into his voice then, leaning down onto the console. "Donna. Look at me."
Slowly, tears falling already, she did as asked. His voice caught in his throat staring up at her.
"I was gonna be with you." She stated softly. "Forever."
"I know."
"Rest of my life." She continued. "Travelling. In the TARDIS. The DoctorDonna."
The Meta-Crisis pulled back then, pulling with him all the emotions that had clogged his throat, all the pain and anger and rage and hate and sealed it tight; leaving the Doctor's face a soft frown as he listened to Donna as her Human/Time Lord mind finally caught onto what was going to happen next.
"No! Oh my god... I can't go back. Don't make me go back." She backed a step, but the Doctor followed her, standing tall to press his hands against her shoulders. "Doctor, please, please don't make me go back!" her hands latched onto his forearms, eyes searching for that spark the Doctor always had when he broke the rules and got away with it.
Nothing but sadness.
"Donna." He breathed softly. "Oh, Donna Noble. I am so sorry. But we had the best of times. The best."
Still shaking her head, Donna pressed her hands over his as he put his fingertips to her temple.
"Give it to him." The Doctor blinked. Tears pouring from her eyes, Donna elaborated. "If I am having complications, then so might he. If I can't have it, give it to him."
"Of course." He pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. "Goodbye, Donna Noble."
Donna closed her eyes.
Donna forgot.
Donna slept.
And with tears falling from his own eyes the Doctor lifted a hand, releasing his Meta-Crisis from his mind and gave him the last gifts Donna had to give, as well as a few of his own.
When he wakes up he's suddenly got a Scottish accent, and his hair is longer. It'd been three days he was asleep and his hair is suddenly three inches longer. He liked it though, let it grow.
He's at his new home with the Tyler's by the time he wakes. They were already in the process of making a life for him. A human life.
Gave him a name, an identity, an age. He can't be over nine hundred anymore, holding the memory of all his years or not.
He picks the name Jean-Paul, in the memory of the Madame De Pompadour; the one companion he was too late for.
For a long while they assume he'll take the Surname Smith; but after careful though he doesn't.
He becomes a Noble instead. After explaining his creation, no one questions the choice.
There was one other thing that was noticeable to those who paid attention. His eyes had changed.
It's the only physical change they can see; dark chocolate brown eyes gaining an odd ring of gold and green close to the iris. He jokingly complains that he would have preferred to keep plain old brown if it meant not having to go through that again – but he knows why it happened. He knows why he had to hurt; why he suddenly gained a little more of Donna, lost just that little bit of the Doctor. No one else could really see the red in his hair.
He had known – just like the Doctor knew – that Donna couldn't keep that knowledge. Centuries upon centuries of information; millions and billions of the truth – the creation and destruction of planets the location and exact make of entire galaxies; all that was, had been, and would be. Then all of that on top of his own memories…Couldn't keep it and live. He felt her pain when she realized her time with the Doctor was up; felt his pain when the Doctor took away the one thing Donna cherished most – her memories of their travels together.
Scott never told anyone about what's changed inside. He had been created – born – with a single heart, born with a human's body, but a Time Lord's mind. He'd gotten the better deal between he and Donna when it came to his creation – at least he was allowed to remember. But it looked like Donna – like his mother – had left him with one last gift…because he could feel it. Deep in his chest; so small and insignificant at first, a small lump resting behind his right lung.
A second heart.
One last gift from Donna.
All that was alien inside her – the remaining Huon particles in her blood, and the Regeneration Energy still in her mind – was his now, a gift from Donna powered by the Doctor's link to his mind. Scott knew then - with that last gift the Doctor had given him - that they both had given him a choice.
Thinking back on his life, birth, creation…abandonment…he couldn't help but smile at their memory. Even though they hadn't really meant to do it, they were both good parents. All in all, they'd given him everything he could have ever asked for.
Stay with Rose, stunt the growth of the second heart, be human.
Or let the heart grow, nurture the small TARDIS Coral the Doctor had given him, embrace the Time Lord part of his DNA, and explore the new universe.
He could accept life either way. It'd hurt to let either part of himself go…but he could.
It honestly all depended on Rose.
It had at least.
She had tried; he gave her that.
Ten years they'd lived together, laughed, loved. Gotten married after two years of dating. Rose and Jean-Paul Tyler-Noble. Jackie took to teasing him about his new found accent; teasing him with the name Scotty for weeks…until it stuck.
Rose took up working for Torchwood while he became a freelance agent for both Torchwood and UNIT, gaining his Doctorate in Medicine as well as Archeology and Engineering on the side.
In River's Memory.
They had a son; James Noble, a normal human boy, chocolate brown eyes and strawberry blond hair. No one realized that Scott had also inherited Donna's red hair until their son came out with it. No one cared that the Doctor's mother was a red head. It had taken a few months for anyone to believe them – several people thought Rose had cheated, until Scott set their minds straight – and pulled out a few hairs. A daughter came two years after that, little Reinette Jacqueline Noble, brown eyes with dark red hair. She looked so much like Donna it hurt, in a bittersweet way.
It was the seventh year into their marriage, their son only six; their daughter three; nine years they'd been together; when after an accident left Scott bedridden, a single X-Ray began to unravel their bliss.
"We don't exactly understand it Mrs. Noble, but he seems to have an odd growth in his chest; behind his right lung. It doesn't seem to be effect him in anyway, but it would be best if we at the very least got a tissue sample to make sure it's not cancer."
Scott felt himself awaken with a sharp gasp, pain pulling a low moan from his throat. It was eerily reminiscent of Jack's awakening whenever he went and got himself killed.
Ah, so this is what it felt like to be hit by a bus. He chuckled softly, turning his head when Rose and the doctor standing by the door turned around to look at him. "Scott!"
He smiled a bit, slightly loopy from the pain medication and the pain still itching down his nerves. "Hello sweet."
Rose shakily ran a hand through his hair – nearly reaching his shoulders now – and turned back to the doctor hovering by the door. "Can you tell him what you told me?"
The doctor frowned at her, but nodded with a sigh. "Doctor Noble, I'm Doctor Tomas Jameson. You're injuries from the accident are simple, your left arm has a slight fracture in the radius; because of your age we surgically inserted a metallic rod to make sure the bone healed properly, and your left leg was broken as well, the fibula. Both will take several months in a cast to heal, and then we can remove the rod. But while doing a routine X-Ray to make sure nothing else was missed, we noticed an odd lump behind your right lung. Have you experienced any symptoms as of late? Chest pain, slightness of breath, maybe even dizziness or headaches?"
Scott eyed the doctor with his tricolored eyes for several moments before slowly shaking his head. "Nothing major doctor, just some headaches at times."
And there was his habit of lying in play; ever since his birth he'd had debilitating headaches – he knew it was the human side of his body trying to reject his knowledge. It never would happen unless he gave into his human DNA completely. Then his memories would start to fade…nine hundred years of life would vanish from his mind.
He would never let that happen.
Though he wondered if the good doctor noticed that his lungs were a bit smaller than a normal human as well? That was the advanced respiratory system of his Time Lord genetics in play, trying to make his human lungs more like the series of pulmonary tubes the Gallifreyan race were born with. It left him with a larger lung capacity than a human, but nowhere near what he was used too.
"And maybe I get a few aches here and there, but who doesn't?"
His link with the Doctor was still alive and strong, even on the other side of the Void. Every time the Doctor as injured, he felt it. He was lucky enough that Time Lords were a resilient breed, and that when the man had been injured he healed quickly enough.
The man looked at him for a few moments before nodding to himself. "Well, you've woken up now so there should be no problems from this point forward. We'll take another look at your X-rays to see if we can gleam anything from them. If everything goes according to plan, you should be out of that bed by this time next week, Doctor Noble."
Scott smiled at him with a nod. "Thank you."
It wasn't even seconds after Jameson had left the room before Rose turned back to him, eyes dark with worry. "What happened?" she demanded. "Darrel said you and he were just chatting while walking across the street when suddenly you seized up, stood there like a bloody statue!" Scott sighed, lifting his right arm to scratch at the back of his head. "You're lucky you got away with only two broke bones you know, you got hit by a bus!"
"Not lucky, my bones are just a bit more sturdy than everyone else. That bit of human in me is what gave certain bones points of weakness; if I had been hit on my right I'd have a broken hip and my upper arm would have broke in about three places." He realized a few moments after the words had already left his mouth that he really shouldn't have said that.
Rose shot him a look and Scott shut up. "Scott…Doctor. What. Happened."
Scott sighed, letting his head fall back on the pillows. He really hated it when she called him Doctor. "Exactly that Rose. The Doctor. He was hurt, badly; physical and emotional pain hit me like a freight train."
"But he should be fine. He's been fine for the past ten years, why would you feel something now?"
Scott sat himself up, leaning on his side to gently run his hand down the side of Rose's face. "Remember where we are love. We're in another Universe across the Void; and he's a time traveler. I could be feeling an injury he gained before I was even born…or even before he knew you. This situation between he and I is completely unique; it's never happened before – ever. The fact that I can even feel him across the Void is remarkable." Scott grinned, and Rose couldn't help but smile back, idly pushing a lock of his wild hair behind one ear.
"So. Really, we don't have a clue what will happen next, eh?" she mused.
"Not a one. And isn't that just wizard?" Scott laughed. "It's been so long since something's happened that I don't even the smallest inclination about what would happen next." Scott pressed his forehead against hers, closing his eyes. "One of the last big shocks I had – nearly stopped one heart! – was when you came back for me on Satellite 5; when you flew the TARDIS and walked towards me, glowing with the light of the Time Vortex." He opened his eyes wide; letting her look right into those gold, green, and brown orbs. "Did I ever tell you how beautiful you looked then?"
Rose giggled, kissing him softly, but it was an uncoordinated mess and she broke it off with a full belly laugh, watching as Scott fell back into his bed. "Yea, still high of those meds." Scott complained, turning to squint at the bags of liquid slowly dripping into his veins. "And what did he mean because of my age? I'm only 37 years old; does that suddenly mean I'm old now?"
They'd decided while making the paperwork for his name and birth date that he was born in 1981. Even if the Doctor was un-aging he did look to be in his late twenties; Jackie picked 28 for his age then slapped the number onto Scott, making him five years older than Rose.
Rose laughed at him, and Scott frowned a bit. "Good thing I know this body can accept human medicine now...well I think I'm sure, something probably would have happened by now if I couldn't handle it; well…who knows with me really, it's really all up in the air when it comes to these medicines…" He mused, blinking once. "Though I wish they'd give me more of whatever they've got that's keeping the pain low, it's not really doing a good job, though now that I think about it I'm starting to feel kinda woozy…" he paused, blinking. "This is Fentanyl; they've got Fentanyl in me? Well isn't that just fantastic." He rolled his eyes, turning away from the bag of fluid slowly dripping into his veins and frowned. "Though I'm still staying away from Aspirin…is something wrong?"
Rose stared down at him for several long moments before pressing a hand to his chest. Right over the still heart.
"You had to have known." She murmured, clenching her fist. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Nothing's wrong." He murmured soothingly, placing his hand over hers on his chest. "It's just a maybe, nothing more."
"A maybe?" She repeated.
"A maybe, yes." He let his accident thicken a bit, rolling the words on his tongue. "A would have been; but will never be."
Rose merely stared at him for several moments before gasping. "A heart. You grew another heart!"
"And it will never beat." Scott told her calmly. "It's merely one last gift from Donna. I've chosen my life here…with you, Rose. With you, and Jamie and RJ. I'm not going anywhere."
She stared down at him for a long while, but then smiled.
Scott had thought everything was fine.
But then his life began to fall apart.
First they wanted to remove the second heart. He refused. It wasn't beating, but it also wasn't doing anything else. It wasn't like he didn't have the space to let it sit there! And while his vascular system would run better with both hearts beating, he was doing just fine with the one, thank you very much.
That and he was pretty sure it'd simply start to grow back again if it was removed. He was stubborn like that.
After bullying all the X-Rays they'd done of him into his possession he checked himself out of the hospital and hid the X-Rays away with everything else the Doctor had left him.
His next order of business was to delete any data regarding his second heart, and destroy any evidence that still remained in any computer.
He didn't need people kidnapping him in the night to dissect him.
In the three months it took for him to heal enough to have the casts removed, Rose had started taking longer missions with Torchwood, leaving him and Jackie to watch after Tony, Harmony, - Pete and Jackie's second daughter – Jamie, and RJ. Scott fell into an advisory type position with Torchwood and Unit, happily settling into the house father lifestyle.
When he got bored enough, he started writing an autobiography, suddenly wanting a written account of his life and his decisions.
Even if technically was actually only a few years older than his own children.
Scott was 38 years old when he has his first heart attack.
Well, he calls it a heart attack. He's pretty sure that a heart attack would be a blessing compared to how his entire body felt as if it had suddenly been forced into a compression suit, then sent out into a sun.
It was pain coming from his link to the Doctor.
Their link, their connection, so strong even though the Void.
Killing water, patient water – a fight he couldn't win. Let people live, leave them to die; but I can save some of them, let me save even one of them, I don't want to let anyone else die why can't I save them! I just can't walk away I have to try!
Time Lord Victorious.
He'd nearly broken a Fixed Point.
There was a time when an entire Race would have cringed in pain as the Fixed Point writhed to change its lines, but only Scott was left to feel anything.
Including the backlash of the Doctor's own anguish at what he'd nearly done, what he'd caused.
From that point on it was as if their bond had somehow grown stronger.
He felt a shock of pain from the Doctor a few months after that – he can't be back he died why does this always seem to happen! – then painpainpain lightning and thunder and agony!
"I had estates. Do you remember my father's land, back home? Pastures of red grass stretching far across the slopes of Mount Perdition. We used to run across those fields all day, calling up at the sky. Look at us now."
"All that eloquence. But how many people have you killed?"
"I am so hungry."
"Your resurrection went wrong. That energy... Your body's ripped open. Now you're killing yourself."
Scott! Scott oh no what's wrong? Wake up dear, wake up!
Scott felt the burn of the radiation, felt the Doctor scream and scream and scream in their collective mind as he absorbed every last bit of the energy flooding the small space.
There wouldn't be a point in saving Wilf's life for him to get radiation poisoning afterwards…
Saving Martha and Mickey from assassination by the Sontaran Skorr.
Saving Luke Smith from a car, one last look at Sarah Jane.
One last favor for Jack; a piece of closure for the memory of a woman he couldn't give part of his life too.
Donna's wedding. One last little miracle for the family.
Then Rose. So innocent and young.
"You all right, mate?"
"Yeah."
"Too much to drink?"
"Something like that."
"Maybe it's time you went home."
"Yeah."
"Anyway, Happy New Year!"
"And you! …What year is this?"
"Blimey, how much have you had? 2005. January the first."
"2005. Tell you what. I bet you're gonna have a really great year!"
"Yeah? See ya!"
Felt him cry.
Felt him die.
In their collective memory, they'd never had a Regeneration that was so painful.
Then again, they'd never absorbed – willingly absorbed - over 500,000 RADs of Radiation either.
The coma had lasted a month this time, and he awoke with tears in his eyes.
Scott was forty when Rose stopped coming home. Some creative computer hacking showed him all he needed to about Rose's new life and ambitions.
She'd given up on them; Scott and James and RJ.
She was trying to find a way back through the Void once more.
He didn't know what hurt more; that she'd left him, or that she didn't even feel the need to say a word about it.
"-to have and to hold,
from this day forward,
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
until death do us part."
You keep her safe.
Would it be safer to let Rose do as she pleased? He knew Humankind wouldn't develop the technology necessary for sustained flight in space until 2059 with Susie Fontana Brooke; but even then they wouldn't be able to break through the Void for centuries…Millennia, if ever. No chance in it being in time for either of their lifetimes.
He decided then to live out his life, watch Rose's advances from a distance, and raise their children.
He'd forgotten just how…hardheaded Rose Tyler could be.
And the power of the Time Vortex behind her.
He was forty seven years old when a swift sharp pain awoke in his neck; alighting his body in flames even as he was forced still.
Tricolored eyes snapped open as Scott blinked rapidly, mind dangerously slow as he took in the light to his left, the extra weight on his bed, the play of cool air over his somehow bare chest. After RJ was born he'd properly gotten into the habit of putting something on before going to bed; the kids would burst in at any time of the day and he really didn't feel the need to flash his kids.
Rose sat at his side for the first time in nearly a decade, looking just like as when he'd first met her in 2005; smiling gently down at him with a hand slowly stroking his chest.
"I'm so close." She murmured, not even talking to him; dark eyes locked on his chest…right over his heart. The left one. The human one. "I just need that one last piece, a true bond to cut through the Void." She pressed her nail into his skin right above his sternum, stabbing his flesh hard enough to cut the skin. "And you have what I need, honey."
Scott felt his eyes widen when she pulled away, one hand actually beginning to tap out a beat of four on his chest while she pulled from her jacket a long roll of black cloth.
He recognized it for what it was.
And couldn't even move when she made that first slice into the point she'd pierced, then cut down his abdomen.
Rose had to cut through six layers of skin, cut through a layer of muscle, break his rib cage, and then tear through the Pericardium before even getting to his heart.
He was in danger of bleeding out before she even got to the Pericardium.
But then, she didn't need him alive anymore.
Drowning in agony, it was the Doctor this time who caught him before he could fall into true unconsciousness; swift thoughts quickly reading his memories to find out just exactly was happening.
Do you want to die? The Doctor asked him calmly.
Wait. What?
It's a simple question. Cradled as he was in the Doctor's presence, Scott could feel a lofty detachment from the man. You can let her do this to you, and let it kill you. Or you can fight back.
Fight back how? Scott demanded. She's literally ripping my heart right out of my chest!
So stop holding the second back. Let it begin. Scott felt himself start. If you do that before she manages to cut off the blood supply to the first, you will be able to Regenerate.
But…
Do you want to die?
No…I can't die…not now.
Then do it.
For his entire existence Scott had known one thing to be true; that he had a human lifespan. It was why he was even in that alternate world in the first place why he was allowed to live with her, grow old with her; to share the ups and downs of human life.
But then the harsh slap of reality came with the crack of his snapping ribs.
She came into their home, into their bedroom, not only with a surgeon's tools, but a tranquilizer strong enough to keep him down, and rib cutters.
He let his eyes slip closed. Oh god I hope none of the kids walk in on me any time soon.
The Doctor laughed softly, and then Scott felt hands – for better lack of a term – wrap around his shoulders, lips at his ears.
Go on now. It's all instinct, do it.
That knife was cutting into his Pericardium when his second heart beat for the first time, and if he wasn't paralyzed Scott knew his body would have writhed at the pure energy that ran through his body with that single first beat.
Don't try to fight her. The Doctor warned sternly when Scott suddenly felt his fingers twitching. You're at her mercy at the moment, let her think you're still unconscious, then let the Regeneration occur.
The Doctor's grasp around his mind kept him completely still, the pain a distant memory. What am I going to do now?
Well, for starters, don't let Jamie and RJ see you all bloody. The Doctor stated obviously. In fact I don't think it'd be a good idea for them to see you Regenerate at all. That would be frankly traumatizing for two teenagers.
Seemed like a good idea. Now if only he had any choice about that. Will I change?
I have no idea. The Doctor stated cheerfully. Hopefully if you do actually change bodies, you won't look like me. That would be a tad bit awkward.
Scott couldn't help his snort.
Then agony flared through their bond when Rose finally reached her hand into his opened chest cavity, to wrap her hands around his exposed and still beating heart. Her free hand held a wicked pair of scissors he could somehow feel slowly cutting off each of his major arteries.
Superior vena cava.
Inferior vena cava.
Pulmonary artery.
Aorta.
The moment Scott felt Rose pulling his heart out of his chest immediately the Doctor seemed to clamp down on something while Scott fought to breathe, fingers weakly grabbing onto the soaked sheets under his body.
"Looks like your heart is the best gift you've ever given me, love." Rose murmured then, and a fully body shiver echoed through Scott's body as she placed the organ into a box along with the rest of her blood stained tools and walked out of the room.
Scott sat there motionless until he heard the distant sound of her footsteps doing down the stairs, before the Doctor eased on the grip he had. Now then. Just breathe.
The Doctor let go, pressed against something in Scott's head and the brunet's world was engulfed in gold.
Jackie watched her kids and grandkids run around each other with a fond air; nineteen year old Tony herding the younger's around him with the grace of long years of practice. At eighteen Rose and Scott's eldest son James was already at the breakfast table, nose buried into a book. Harmony – sixteen – and RJ – fifteen – were both at the stove, working around each other to cook breakfast for the others while Jackie herself set the table and Tony made sure everyone's things for the day were ready.
But one odd thing was Scott's missing presence.
Ever since he'd decided to stay home with Jackie to watch over their kids while Pete and Rose worked abroad with Torchwood, he was always up with the sun, holding toast out for everyone and already at the table with tea while the girls began to prepare a proper breakfast.
Glancing around them for a few seconds, Jackie turned to the table. "James, have you seen your father?"
The strawberry blond shook his head, glancing up from his book. "Actually, no I haven't." he frowned, glancing around him before book marking his spot as he stood. "I'll go check on him, shall I?"
The last time Scott didn't show up for their morning ritual was the beginning of his month long coma.
James swiftly made it towards the wing where his mother and father once lived together; their wing of the house holding their studies, Scott's laboratory and library, and their bedroom, the room farthest from the stairs.
He was just pressing a hand to the door when he smelt it.
Blood.
"Dad?" He called out, clenching a shaking fist. For the longest moment he heard nothing, then movement on his father's old bed. "Dad, are you alright?"
There was the harsh thump of flesh on wood, and James started, opening the door.
"Oh my god."
His father's bed was a pool of blood. Soaked through the mattress and leaking onto the hardwood floor; the air was thick with the smell of dried blood, making James want to heave as he slowly inched into the bedroom. "D-dad?"
"O-over here." James let out a sob when he heard Scott answer, finding the man trying to get back onto his hands and knees on the far side of the bed.
Scott looked right miserable, long brown hair matted with the dried blood and half in his pale face, not even able to get onto his knees as he glanced up, eyes gold.
"Ah, James." He breathed. "Great, I was hoping to get up before anyone came looking." James fell to one knee, getting Scott onto his feet. "Just, get me to the bathroom." James did as ordered, helping Scott into the bathtub afterwards.
As he slowly let Scott lean back onto the porcelain, he gasped as Scott bit his lip, spotting the new addition to Scott's chest.
Long, jagged and disgusting; a physical reminder of Rose's betrayal, stretched across his chest like the signature of a skilled pathologist. The well known Y incision from shoulder to shoulder and down to his sternum, with another line inching down to his groin; the scars thick and raised on his skin.
"What happened?" Jackie asked.
They'd left him alone to clean off as best he could for a good hour before Jackie came barging into his room, a quick scream rousing him from his sleep in the lukewarm water.
Soon after she showed where Rose got her courage from, stripping the bed clean of sheets and mattress while getting everyone to help. Soon Tony and James were helping Scott in the bathroom to clean up properly while Jackie, Harmony, and RJ cleaned out the room.
Three hours after James found his father crawling away from his bed; the five of them had Scott settled into another bed closer to everyone else.
"Rose happened." Scott replied bitterly. Not expecting him to live the surgery, Rose hadn't done anything to sterilize the area, his body, or even her hands. Scott wasn't really surprised that he was running a fever now. "Tranqed me, cut me open."
Jackie shuddered, but it was a testament to far gone Rose was that Jackie didn't even question it. "But why?"
"She…pulled out my heart." Scott admitted softly. "I'm quite honestly shocked I didn't die of blood loss."
"But how in the hell are you alive now?" Jackie demanded, and Scott glanced up at her.
"Did Rose ever tell you of the odd lump the doctor's found in my chest after that car accident about ten years back?" Jackie's eyes faded as she thought back, nodding a few moments later. "That was actually a second heart growing in. I kept it from starting however…until last night. Starting my second heart is what saved me."
"So…are you a...proper Time Lord now?" Jackie asked softly, and Scott shrugged, wincing as the movement pulled on fragile and tender skin.
"Most likely. At least enough to survive. I didn't let it start because I'd made my choice but…whatever can she have planned with a human heart? I have to watch after her, make sure she doesn't break any of the sacred rules of the universe." Jackie nodded. "But I did Regenerate last night. But just barely. It was just enough to heal my wounds and start the growth of a new heart, but nothing more." Scott winced again, closing his eyes as pain radiated through his body. "How are the kids taking this?"
"Remarkably well, considering you probably had more blood on that bed than in your body." Scott chucked softly.
Scott would spend the next week dancing between delirium and fever, weak as a newborn in bed while the children and Jackie took care of him.
Pete came home a few days after Scott's fever finally broke, and when he learned of what his daughter had done was baffled.
"I don't think it's Rose in there anymore." Scott confessed to the other man over a glass of brandy that night. "I could see the gold of the Time Vortex in her eyes before she started…I don't know what she could do with that kind of power."
I don't know if you can trust Peter Tyler.
The Doctor's voice roused Scott from his almost sleep later that night.
Why do you say that?
He has been working for Torchwood just like Rose.
I work for Torchwood too.
When was the last time you actually did anything for them? No I think whatever Rose has been playing has been fully backed by Torchwood…and that means you're in danger if they find you're still alive.
However much he wanted to deny it, Scott couldn't doubt the Doctor's facts.
Over the next few days Scott slowly put back together all he had that would be considered valuable at all. Everything the Doctor gave to him put back in the trunks that were bigger on the inside; gifts from the TARDIS. All the clothing from the other universe, all the tech he'd been working on, his computer and laptops, his vast collection of books…and a nice chunk of the money he'd been saving away.
Each trunk was equipped a compression field that didn't interfere with the Isomorphic locks on them (something the rest of the world hadn't really figured out, but the Gallifreyan race had for millennia. The Doctor had given him the mech to do it, as long as they both kept it quiet) and when compressed they were small enough to press inside the several fake gems he wore around his neck and on his fingers.
It took him a month to recover from his impromptu surgery, but he had let to speak to anyone outside of his home save Pete; spending most of his time with the still growing TARDIS.
They came for him a month after that.
He didn't fight them - much. Scott can't deny that some yelling may have occurred. He was the biological child of Donna Noble after all - didn't bother trying to outmatch guns and out run jeeps.
He had a much better plan than something as stupid as that.
The first month UNIT treated him like a hospital patient, checking on the scars left from Rose's attack, making sure he was healed properly and that there was nothing wrong with him after the surgery.
After making sure he was well, they showed their true colors.
Do you know what this is? Can you fix this? Can you remake this? Can you build this? What do you think about Torchwood's capacity as the foremost experts in the paranormal?
On and on and on.
When he refused to build things for them, they asked that he return to his consultant work. When he refused to do that, and disabled every piece of technology they left with him, they locked him away in the suite they'd given him, and left him there.
That was exactly what he wanted.
With his second heart beating it's rhythm in his chest he could sense Time now. Every second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year…he had them back now. And the talents of the Time Lords humanity had yet to touch.
Like Telepathy. And while he never really practiced his Telepathy or Telekinesis; one thing he was good without even trying at was Technopathy – a branch of Telekinesis that focused on technology.
Technopathy was a rare gift in any corner of the Universe, and something not welcome in the culture of the Time Lords. Telepathy was also frowned upon in their society, so he had hid his mental talents away while still living on Gallifrey.
But he needed it now.
Slowly pulling down the barrier's he'd carried for centuries, Scott let his mental presence drift, extending his awareness throughout the room.
A month of practice had his 'eye' across the entirety of the building, all 2.3 square miles of it.
Then they brought his baby TARDIS into the building.
And she was screaming.
Too soon too soon it hurts I'm not complete they broke the connection it's too soon it hurts I can't sustain myself oh Doctor I'm sorry I'm so so sorry I can't help it hurts I can't be with you just yet I have to go I'm sorry I must sleep now they hurt me so all I can do is help the best I can please don't leave me alone it hurts
For a brief shining moment they were connected like TARDIS and Time Lord should…then she faded away.
For twenty years he'd cared for and nurtured the Coral the Doctor had given him, fed it energy it needed and the connection it craved. Now, now when she would finally wake up, gain a mind and soul…she was dead; reduced to a coral again.
They didn't know it yet, but they'd brought upon them the wrath of a Time Lord.
He wasn't going to kill them. He didn't even plan on hurting them.
But they would all regret ever working for UNIT.
He started his revenge slowly, carefully maintaining his anonymity.
A flickering light bulb here, and another there; the only signs that he was slowly diverting power from one point of the building to another, starving the machinery of the energy it needed. Not enough to make it die, but enough that it had to strain wearing at its wiring. Stained wiring would be easier to ultimately make snap.
What he needed was a system that was a hair's width from failing. All it would need then was a single push to distract the whole of the base.
While sabotaging their machines he also wreaked havoc with their minds, playing harmless pranks on the ordinary workers and scientists. He started off small; making the random key pop off of keyboards, unscrewing the connection between tower and mouse/keyboard – for people who had microphones he would randomly muted their computer while they were talking. He take power from the computers until they barely had enough, and redirect it to their microwaves, making every meal burn.
The random give and take of electricity throughout the building supercharged certain metallic structures; once he noticed them Scott started directing the static all throughout the building, shocking hundreds of people. He especially was happy with the reactions from the scientists; dropped vials and screamed curses.
After months of torment some of the smarter people started to keep hard copies of their more important files –a week before Scott had started randomly cutting the power to a computer here and there making them lose what they had been working on – and Scott stole them, leaving them on the desk of another person on the opposite side of the building.
The deeper he got into the matrix of the building the easier it was to mess with the electronics, and after two months he started fucking with the computers themselves, deleting the OS from every other computer while leaving the ever hated Blue Screen of Death on a third of those left.
Another third he made their screensaver the Blue Screen of Death to see them freak out.
Within a few months time he had the workers miserable, so he branched out, turning his mischievous eye on the soldiers.
The very first thing he did was cheerfully set off a crate of grenades.
A full shipment of guns vanished the next day, packed away in a truck that was sent to the nearest body of water.
That however, was when the people in charge actually started thinking, and for the first time in nearly half a year paid the poor bored man a visit.
Knowing before they'd even made it to his floor that they were coming, Scott detangled himself from the web of telepathy he'd cast over the base, turning to the autobiography he was still playing with.
Typing it on the laptop he shouldn't have had.
It was a fun fact that he could actually use himself as a flash drive and save documents onto a 'finger'; keeping the files on hand so with a single touch he could transfer them to any device.
The gob smacked expressions on his visitor's faces had Scott grinning.
"Well hello." He greeted cheerfully, if a bit hoarsely. He actually hadn't talked to anyone in six months.
Before anyone else could reply, the one man in the room he didn't know stepped forwards, the name BARTHRIGHT on his breast. Barthright was a man with skin an odd shade of orange, close cropped hair a very unique shade of brown that was red in the light. His eyes were a shade of brown so dark they were almost black, not helped at all by the snarl on his face.
"We demand that you stop terrorizing our workers." The Colonel ordered.
"Stop doing what?" Scott replied, baffled. Terrorizing was a very strong to use! He was only messing with them! He hadn't even gotten to the terrorizing part!
"You heard me, alien." Barthright snarled. He held his hands rigorously behind his back as if to hold himself back. "You have been terrorizing my men and the workers of his base for far too long and I demand it stop."
Did he not know any other word than terrorize?
Scott tilted his head, closing his laptop while sending a raised eyebrow towards the only other person in the room that seemed to be baffled by the Colonel's audacity. Everyone else seemed resigned. Apparently the good General was the only one of the group who didn't know Barthright very well just yet; or thought the lower ranking man would actually follow orders.
Knowing General Roman like he did, Scott was leaning towards the latter.
General Roman had worked with Scott closely at one point, back when Scott as still a freelance agent and consultant for UNIT. Of all the men in the room, he was the one who knew best what Scott could do, given the right motivation.
"So." Scott started slowly, crossing his legs while lacing his hands together over his laptop. "You think you can order me around." He stated. "Let's not even get to the point of how I could have done anything when you've had me locked away in this room for half a year."
Barthright's left eye twitched, and he took a few giant steps forward, slamming his fist down onto Scott's desk. "You are the property of UNIT now." He hissed softly, pressing both hands onto the hardwood. Scott let out a huff of breath at that, rolling his eyes while he shook his head. "You have no rights past what I decide-"
"You mean what General Roman over here decides." Scott butted in coldly, jerking a hand towards the dark skinned man. "You actually have no authority over me as a prisoner of UNIT. So stop with the bravado and get the fuck out of my face before I make you regret ever raising your voice at me."
Barthright's face darkened and Scott smirked, placing both feet on the ground. "I'm sure you were warned not to anger me, right? But of course you couldn't keep your mouth shut when you saw skinny little old me, because you think you know everything about me from reading my file, right? Tall and thin without any meat on his bones, a pacifist closer to fifty than forty who refuses to hold a gun let alone kill; intelligent but quiet, someone easy to bully, am I right Colonel?"
Scott smirked slowly, hands still laced together in front of him while stared up into dark eyes. "But I'm guessing there aren't any actual eyewitness accounts on my file, is there?" He already knew there wasn't, having read the old and faulty file himself. And played with it a bit. "Nothing about my personality from say; Commander Briggs… who happens to be standing behind you?"
Nearly ten years ago Commander Briggs was simply a captain in name only, thrust into a position he had no clue how to command. Scott had taken him under his wing, teaching him how to lead, how to command and control. The fact that the man was now the Second in Command of the UNIT main base after a General while only being a single Star General said much for Scott's teachings.
"I'm sure General Roman didn't tell you much either."
Nine years ago Five Star General Roman was a Lieutenant Colonel who thought nothing of quiet agent Noble. Until Scott singlehandedly took over his army for three days while they fought a siege of hostile aliens who refused to cooperate despite anything Scott said or asked.
General Roman was also the only man in the room who'd seen Scott truly physically fight to save lives.
"In fact I have to say you're the only member of the Commander Seats of UNIT in this room I don't know. Isn't that just wizard?" Scott commented suddenly, taking his eyes away from Barthright to glance up.
Without even having to look down, Scott knew Barthright had launched a fist towards his face and shifted to the side, one hand gently moving his laptop to the side while his other shoved down on the other man's fist, stopping it dead on the wood of his desk. Keeping his fist pinned where it was against the desk, Scott lifted his free hand to jerk Barthright closer.
"Since I know about three ways to ruin your life and end your career, I suggest you listen to me now." He breathed into the other man's ear. "One, step down from your position as a Member of the Commander Seats." Scott began, flicking one of Barthright's insignia from his uniform jacket. "Two, give up Command of the Soldiers on base; you're horrible at it, stop trying." Barthright's face darkened as Scott ripped the ribbons free from his breast pocket, dropping them onto the desk. "Three, don't ever try talking down to me again. Understood?"
Scott pushed Barthright away, settling back into his seat while holding the stolen insignia in his hand as Barthright stumbled away. Scott watched him back away with a neutral expression his face before he smirked widely, tossing the pins into the air.
"Did anyone have anything important to tell me?"
Roman snorted, walking up to lean a hip on the desk. "We apologize for not being able to come visit sooner. Despite how we're the Commanders of the General Army, we aren't in fact in charge of UNIT as a whole."
"I know." Scott replied calmly, settling back into his seat. "So am I actually stuck here as an alien?"
"Well. You did survive getting your heart cut out, last I heard."
Scott lifted his hands in a shrug. "Doesn't mean I deserve to be locked away like I'm going to suddenly start eating people."
Briggs flinched while Blare snorted, the single woman in the room merely rolling her eyes.
"UNIT feels that we can no longer trust you with human affairs." Mrs Clair stated. "They fear you have loyalties outside of Humankind."
Scott rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever." He lent forward, eyeing Barthright. "What they think I can't honestly care about. Instead." He turned back to General Blare, who had yet to say a word. "What has she been up to these past few weeks?"
Briggs finally spoke. "She hasn't been on Earth."
Scott narrowed his eyes, lifting an eyebrow in the man's direction. "you're completely sure."
"Positively."
A five Star General since the day they met nearly twenty years ago, Joshua Briggs was a man well past his prime, black hair edged with grey and silver. But black eyes were still sharp as Briggs laid down a folder in front of Scott, a quick flick of his finger opening it.
"In the past year she hasn't been seen anywhere on Earth save one single time a few weeks before you were brought here. She was seen with this."
Mrs Clair came forward then, pulling from her own paperwork a single picture.
Scott took a single glance at the image and jerked upright, eyes wide as they became completely gold.
It was Rose, there was no denying it. She was wearing a tight and obviously durable leather outfit, long hair let loose around her shoulders. But Scott noticed two things first; the bright gold of her eyes even remarkable in a picture, and the three jewels she carried in a cloth lined box, beautifully cut gems of red, pink, and yellow each easily the size of a grown man's thumb.
"What? What is it?" Roman demanded. "We had assumed they were simply gems, but apparently not."
"What are they?" Briggs asked quietly. "They obviously aren't normal gems."
Scott shook his head slowly, before letting out a single incredulous laugh as he looked up.
"Well isn't this ironic." He mused harshly. "Rose found the Rose Stars."
There was a beat of silence.
"Rose Stars?"
"Each planet in the universe have the main elements; oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen…carbon." Scott lifted the picture towards the light, staring at it. "But while the element may be virtuously the same, the soil from world to world changes how gems are created. Such as diamonds." Scott finally looked away from the picture to the others in the room. "On certain planets the diamonds found are special, completely unique in all the Universe. There are several series of unique gems. She's got the Rose Star series here."
He put the picture down, rubbing at his eyes.
"So?" Barthright finally spoke again, and Scott shot him a look.
"Normally you'd have the right idea. The Rose Star Series of diamonds are unique and very very rare – there might be up to three of each stone this size in the universe right this moment? – but normally no one can do anything with them. But Rose would know what to do with them."
"What can she do with them?" Blare asked, and Scott sighed.
"Coupled with the right technology and little bit of power, you can use the Rose Stars to punch a hole through the fabric of reality itself."