Author's Note: Hello and welcome to my bit of post-"Journey's End" therapy that happened to get away from me. I, of course, own nothing Doctor Who other than some T-shirts.

PART I - Voyage of the Rather Unfortunate

Chapter 1

Cardiff in Pete's world looked exactly the same, the Doctor thought as he surveyed Roald Dahl Plass in the dim evening light. He could identify the spot where he'd landed the TARDIS years ago, between the shining silver water tower and the oval of pillars currently lit in a variety of colours. Of course, the TARDIS had never actually been to this universe's Cardiff.

If everything went right, that was about to change.

He had a project that required the Space-Time Rift, and the offices of Torchwood Three were perfectly suited. The Doctor found the entrance to the Hub, the home of Torchwood's Cardiff operations, in a small tourism office. The desk was unoccupied at this time of night, but the Doctor was able to swipe his brand-new Torchwood ID badge and a false wall swung open.

The office hidden underground was minimally staffed, especially at night, but the person he needed was there, just as he had been told she would be. She was focused on a bank of computer screens that lit up the cavernous, currently dim room, and she hadn't heard him enter.

The petite woman with shoulder-length black hair looked familiar, he realised, and not just from the ID photo he'd seen in Torchwood records. He'd met her in London years before, not that she would remember. Even if this were the same Toshiko Sato, the Doctor looked very different now.

"Who are you?" she asked, finally noticing his presence and removing her glasses. "How did you get in?"

"I'm the Doctor," he replied, showing her his Torchwood ID. It wasn't psychic paper, but it worked surprisingly well.

The woman frowned as she examined the ID. "Your name is really John Smith?"

"I get that all the time," the Doctor answered, snapping the wallet shut. "I have a very secret project that I could use your help with." He pulled a small lump of coral from his pocket and held it out in his hand. Tosh was starting to wonder if he was a madman, despite the official ID.

"Look, Doctor Smith—"

"Just the Doctor," he corrected automatically.

Tosh frowned again. "Doctor, I'm not sure what you think I do, but I'm not sure how to help you."

"This is a piece of TARDIS coral. With the right equipment and energy from the Rift, it will grow."

"Into what?" Tosh asked. Why was the word "TARDIS" so familiar? Suddenly she realised where she'd heard it before—from Rose Tyler. Tosh helped develop the dimension cannon Rose used to travel back to her own parallel world and had worked with Rose for over two years on the project. Though they hadn't become best friends—Rose had been too focused on her mission to have much of a social life—they'd had a number of long conversations whilst they worked. Suddenly everything this strange man said clicked into place. "You're that Doctor, Rose's Doctor, the alien who travels through time."

"And space," he added. "Don't forget space." He handed her a folded piece of paper. "Can you get all of this? And is there a safe spot for the coral? Somewhere no one will bother it?" He hated to leave the precious coral behind, but the Rift was in Cardiff and Rose was in London, and although the Doctor had been known to be in two places at once before, it wasn't currently possible in this universe.

Tosh read over the extensive list. "I think so. And I won't tell Torchwood you're growing a spaceship."

Two weeks later, the Doctor returned to Cardiff to check on Tosh's progress. She'd turned an old storage room in the basement with rough stone walls into a laboratory. She assured him no one bothered with the old room, and the thick layer of dust confirmed it.

Tosh thought the Doctor looked a bit discouraged, and she quickly assured him she'd followed all of his instructions, although a few of the items on his list simply didn't exist yet. He smiled weakly and thanked her, saying he'd take it from there. Tosh had been brilliant—everything was exactly right given what was available in the time period. But that wasn't what bothered him.

It was Rose. She was withdrawn, conflicted; he could see it in her face. She'd been that way since his other self left them on a Norwegian beach in this universe, and he didn't know what to do about it. For now, he would leave her alone like she'd asked.

Tearing himself away from his maudlin thoughts (human emotions, he cursed), the Doctor was pleased to see the piece of coral already showed signs of growth from the energy of the Rift. He busied himself with the equipment, implementing Donna's brilliant idea to vastly accelerate the new TARDIS' growth. He allowed himself only a momentary pang of sadness for his wonderfully brash, ginger friend.

With the coral fragment's environment optimised, the Doctor began to explore the basement of Torchwood Three. He wasn't surprised in the least to find another room filled to bursting with alien tech—flotsam and jetsam that came through the rift. Most of it was junk and refuse, but some of it was dangerous. The Doctor made a mental note to dismantle the more perilous items later. As he picked through the room, he pocketed items that could be useful for the fledgling TARDIS, thankful he'd worn his blue suit from the other Doctor's TARDIS with the bigger-on-the-inside pockets. He added building a new sonic screwdriver to his mental list—he could certainly scavenge the parts for one here, but it was the programming that took time.

He returned to the vacant room that now housed the TARDIS coral and unloaded his pockets. Even with the Rift and the dimensional stabiliser modified as best he could given current technology, he calculated it would still be decades before the new TARDIS was ready to travel.

There were plenty of adventures to be had on Earth in the meanwhile.