Summary: The Fifth Doctor is usually laid back, but like any Doctor, he's got a boiling point. Too bad it had to be another universe's Doctor that set his off. He understands and agrees with the fact that most of Rose's healing will come from the gentle Empathic Eighth Form, but that doesn't mean he likes having to wait his turn. Reintroducing Rose to the concept of trusting the Doctor will just have to wait...but that doesn't mean that Rose's new Fifth doesn't have a few things to say to her old Ten. RATED R OR THE EQUIVALENT FOR LANGUAGE

How Could You?

The white blonde head in the viewscreen glaring at him was red with fury. "How COULD you do that to Rose? That girl gave you everything she had! She held absolutely nothing back...she doesn't even have any reserves left for herself! Do you know what happens to a metacrisis on separation with it's Time Lord's TARDIS when you drop it off in a universe that has it's own version of that Time Lord? Because this one does, Ten! WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?"

The Tenth Doctor could feel the blood draining from his face and the abrupt nod from the other version of himself confirmed the horrifying thought.

"All your years caught up to him in seconds and the dust from his corpse blew away in the sea-breeze, you twat! He crumbled away in her arms, Ten! IN ROSE'S ARMS! I got there barely in time to keep her from breaking down entirely and as it was I still had to call my Eighth in to help the poor girl. But you're not getting her back, oh no. She tested positive for a badly abused lifebond to you, you moron. I transferred it to me, because I won't abandon or hurt her the way you did.

Eight has her in his TARDIS where he is trying to stabilize her fucking mind and that sad shattered thing she has for a soul, it's going to take most of me to get her sorted! She's started transformations into a golden wolf when she gets stressed and there's a strange woman that looks like Rose but isn't coming and going from the Eight's freaking TARDIS while he's in the Vortex that has been explaining all sorts of things about our bonded. My council is somewhere between scared and livid, but there's nothing they can do about any of it. THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH YOU FUCKING MORON!" Five bellowed at the other Doctor.

"I have no idea how she's going to react when she meets MY Tenth, she could be fine, could be just what she needs...because aside from his clothing, he's absolutely nothing like you or she could completely fall apart. There's no way to tell because her Time Line burns so bright a gold nobody can look at it to get a reading. What the hell were you doing? Do NOT call yourself The Doctor again, ever. You lost the right to be The Doctor when you harmed your own bonded!"

It took Five several moments to get himself under control. "That's all any of me have to say to you...well, that and we're putting up the anti-contagion/implosion barriers around our universe...since I think, with that universe in your hands, it's only a matter of, linear time, literally, before your's goes BOOM and we don't need the chain reaction going off over here, and the anti-communications barrier goes up as soon as I disconnect from this call, you worthless fucking little bastard." Five cut the viewer off and ended the call, put up the mentioned barrier and leaving behind him a stunned Tenth Doctor...and that Ten really didn't know how to pick a new name at this point in his life.

His shoulders drooped and tears filled his eyes, falling unheeded down his face as he just stared at Martha. No need to resist her efforts now, he supposed. She was all he really deserved, even with the way she acted like he was some kind of unruly, but still prized pet. He'd had he best and had...oh Rose.

"Sorry, so sorry, Rose...so sorry..."

Five looked at his own Ten, the same brown pinstripes, converse...all that. But his was seriously disturbed by all this. "What did his me do to make my you go off on him that savagely?"

Five told himself exactly what was going on, ending with, "Eight doesn't think she can handle seeing you yet. Not after everything her's put her though. Our Empathic form is going to keep her for a while and then I think she'll spend some time with Four or me, possibly even Third, first. Not sure who she goes to after that. Depends on how she's doing but Eight is in charge of healing her." Five paused, then nodded to himself, "At her own request...she can hide herself from the rest of us, you see. She knows if she's going to heal she has to let us do what needs doing and we can't do that right if she's with someone she can hide from...she was honest with me and I called Eighth us. He agrees that the damage done to Rose Tyler requires a powerful Empath that she trusts to heal...and she does trust us. She's just being used to being made to hide what she feels and even who she is from her Doctor...and that's just wrong. You don't do that to your bonded."

"He abandoned his bonded, a young, formerly human woman that gave up her species to ensure his safety, blended her DNA with his TARDIS' and became something no one has ever seen before, with all sorts of the types developmental issues that kind of thing would bring with it and then he couldn't be bothered to look after her properly?"

"Yeah."

"Feel free to call him back and cuss him out any time you want..." He told his younger form bluntly. "Tell him he can stop claiming to have anything approaching intelligence while he's at it. Poor Rose...from what she's said" The local Tenth was now clearly pulling on second hand memories of Rose, "Tell Eight to get our Ninth involved. Her's adored her."

"Yes, we saw that too, from what we picked up from her. Too many cooks stirring the pot isn't needed though. Let's let Eighth handle it, he's got the strongest empathic body of all, according to Rose."

"True. I was very strong in that department when I was him, along with several other powerful mental abilities he's going to need to heal her. But her first Tenth's treatment makes me want to do something to help...and his treatment of her makes me so very angry."

"Makes all of me angry, Ten. Even First is raging."

"Yeah, he is." Ten grunted. "At least we older ones now know why Six finally toned down his Coat, I suppose he didn't want to scare her when they met. Now I wish we hadn't needed to stop being the Properly Embarrassing Body."

"Wait...how embarrassing...and what coat?"

"You'll see." Tenth's smirking grin disappeared into his own TARDIS. "And it's not as if we'll even mind until we're Seven anyway."

"True."

Rose spent most of her time as close to Eight as he'd allow her to be. She was riding on instincts now that she knew she couldn't hide from his awareness and instinct had shut her mind down to allow it to heal. That didn't mean she wasn't up and about though...it just met that the Doctor was getting to know Bad Wolf extremely well.

Upon seeing that her human avatar was in good hands, the local Vortex explained exactly what role Rose played in the multiverse. She kept it simple though, after all, he was only a Time Lord.

"You are my Champion, SHE is my Avatar. She is newly born, though and has not yet begun to learn what she will need to know...that is your job, my Champion, to educate her. She has the right to speak for me and to make judgements for me...or to summon me to make a judgement if she needs to or isn't comfortable with exercising that right. It will be several centuries before she is, so do not rush the process. Let her learn at her own pace."

And later he was told, "I will not allow your regenerations to cease until Rose's full life is spent...she will not be left without you again, nor will you be left alone without your Rose. The council isn't happy, you should hear them rage at this order that I have just given them, but they cannot deny me for I will take their TARDIS' away and give them to a more worthy, younger ERA in their past...and they will never know how they were altered in the present. And...I have just told them so. Oh dear, how quiet they've all become! Goodness! The things I must do because only my Champion and my Avatar are sane...

Her voice trailed off as she faded into nothing when Rose rolled over in her sleep and dove face first into the Eighth's armpit, snuffling like the beast that was her alter-form. He sighed and turned his attention to Rose.

Oh, yes, seeing her in wolf form had been a great deal more than a small shock, hadn't it? The transformations were still mostly involuntary and came either in moments of stress, or sometimes, when Rose dreamed. He had been working on getting them voluntary and under her control but progress was very slow. He sighed a moment later as the girl's nose turned long, narrow and cold.

"Ah well." He muttered. "We're in the vortex, barring trips for groceries, for however long it takes."

**TBC**