Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 86th cycle. Now cycle 87!

IT'S THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE OF GLEEKATHON! - Five years! Five years! *insert flailing* Okay, not quite, but by the end of this cycle, it will have been five years of daily stories (sometimes twice a day! ... and for seven very frightening days a couple years back, three times a day!). It will also be the end of this crazy ride. I started thinking about ending gleekathon months ago, and I wanted to finish my ongoing series before that happened. It made it so I could finish out this fifth year, and it couldn't be any better that this cycle is actually ending on October 22nd 2014, which was the day it began, in 2009... Now here we go!

This story is a 'Character Swap' for Number Eleven in the TARDIS, a Doctor Who/Glee crossover series story originally posted on October 31 2013.

"Doctor, Doctor"
11th Doctor + (Character swap: Gemma replaced by) 12th Doctor (AU) + (New Directions)

He had to get out of this office. He put the picture back in the frame, put the frame back where he'd found it. He looked at the desk and confirmed that everything was where it was supposed to be, and then he slipped back out of the office, into the class and out into the hall again. He could still hear the ceremony off in the auditorium, he could have taken more time, but whatever it was he was looking for, he knew he wasn't going to find it there. It was in his head, and if he could just pull it out…

When he felt something, it wasn't in his head but in his pocket. It was the psychic paper. He pulled it out, and when he pulled the flap back, four words appeared.

Come out, come out…

He stood straight back up so fast that he almost toppled into the swivel chair next to him. Then, one more word: TARDIS.

The Doctor didn't walk casually this time. He ran, as fast as his legs could take him, down the hall, out the school doors and to the corner where he'd stashed his ship. There was no one around, no one at all, and maybe that was what his psychic paper messenger wanted.

"I'm here now!" he called. "Hello?" He paused, looking at the TARDIS. "Hello…" He hurried up to it. Now he knew his ship more than anyone could ever dream of knowing her, and for how unremarkable she was claimed to be, he could pick her out of a lineup any day. So when he looked at the familiar blue doors and felt what he felt, he knew to be cautious. This was his ship, absolutely. The Doctor's TARDIS… But was he the Doctor, the one this ship belonged to? He wasn't so sure.

He touched the door, then pulled his hand away. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, tentatively pointed it at the keyhole… until the doors opened. He paused, hunched over.

"Got my message, did you?" a woman asked. He turned his eyes up, locking eyes with the one who'd opened the TARDIS doors – from the inside. He straightened back up in a flash.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, looking her up and down. "This is my ship," he pointed over her shoulders.

"Is it?" she tilted her head, hands planted on her hips as she pivoted about to look at the interior of the ship. "I don't think so."

"I'm the Doctor, a Time Lord, the last of the Time Lords, the last with a TARDIS, and you…" he had advanced, so that she had been backing further into the ship, and he had taken his first good look around. It stopped his words.

"And I?" the woman asked. He looked back at her… and he laughed. He laughed, because the thought he'd just had just couldn't be right, no. But the way the woman looked at him, it would have seemed she knew what he was thinking… and had she just winked? "Well go on, now, we don't have all day."

"No, it… can't be," he took one step back and then another.

"Would you believe, I told myself the same thing in the beginning. Most you had to accommodate to were longer limbs… and that chin," she pointed, and he reached to his face, frowning. "You can't even begin to imagine what this was like," she tugged at the ends of her jacket, straightening it up. The Doctor kept on staring at her. There were plenty things he could have said to her, things he could have asked, but he knew it would go one of two ways. Either he wouldn't want to know, or she wouldn't be able to tell him. But then there were some things he knew he could ask, not about how he could ever have become her.

"Shimmer Girl, she's one of yours, isn't she?" he asked, and she tipped her head with a smile.

"Gemma. Her name is Gemma, and yes, she will be your… my…" Even she found it hard to categorize certain things, and the Lucas girl maybe most of all.

"Our?" the Doctor offered.

"Companion," she finished, nodding. "You would do well to listen to what she has to say. She won't run from you anymore."

"Fine. Suppose I did, suppose I listened to her… Will she be explaining what I just saw in there?" he pointed out the TARDIS doors. "Dayton, Cardiff, the Grand Canyon… and it all leads back here, all of them in one place."

"Convenient, no?" the other Doctor nodded to him.

"The Great Jade Moon?" he followed, and now she smiled.

"So you saw her then?" she stepped toward him.

"I left her in Phoenix."

"People move," she shrugged. "They came here, continued their lives, and you wouldn't believe how fortunate that was. But you will. You had better go and ready yourself, Doctor. Time's nearly up, and they'll arrive soon, looking for you, not me." It finally occurred to him now.

"Where is it? My TARDIS, where did you…"

"Right here," she assured him. "As soon as I leave, you'll have it again. This is only a peek. There is much to be done in the meantime," she moved to the console. "It's been a pleasure, Doctor."

"You, too… Doctor," he gave her a look, and with a tip of the head, she'd flipped a switch… and from all around him the strange new TARDIS was fading away, leaving behind his own ship around him. She was gone, they both were, her and her ship, only leaving him and his. He had all of a moment to breathe before there was a knock at the door.

He knew what was at stake, and once he opened those doors, there was no turning back. The Shimmer Girl… no, she had a name… Gemma… She was on the other side, and whatever she had to say, he would have to hear her out, as she, The Doctor, had told… himself. So he opened the doors. But it wasn't just Gemma waiting for him out there. They were all there, all those boys and girls from the picture in the office. They'd come looking for him, too.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!