Two.
The Doctor is worried. He's usually worrying about one thing or the other so that's not surprising, but he feels that this time – this time the problem is slightly bigger than the others. Of course, that's usually how he feels dealing with problems that he run into on his journey, each one necessarily bigger than all the others because, well, it's happening right now, so maybe that isn't surprising either. The two cancel each other out, and the Doctor is left worrying that maybe he isn't worried enough.
"Welcome to Camp Chitaqua," Dean says. The Doctor has learned a thing or two about Dean, maybe even come to like him a little bit despite his obvious affinity for guns and violence, and assumes that was a sarcasm in his voice. Or maybe it wasn't.
"Is this where – " Sam starts, doesn't finish. The Doctor gets what Amy means by telepathy. He looks at Amy and winks, for no apparent reason, and Amy smiles back at him.
"Yeah. It's where future – alternate – " Dean acknowledges the Doctor with a nod, "version of me was runnin' things."
"What, the end of the world?" Rory sounds nervous. He does that.
"Yeah. The survivor's camp." Dean sounds worried. "The last time I checked, anyway. I don't know what timeline this is – "
"Why don't we go and check?" The Doctor suggests brightly. Dean frowns.
"I don't know how we're gonna explain ourselves. Hey, maybe you three should go ahead and check before we barge in, huh?" Dean gets that expression again, the one when he's having a moderately acceptable idea. The Doctor recognizes the look from Donna. "Explain a few things first."
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea." Sam says. "We'll be hiding out here. Come and get us later."
"All right," the Doctor agrees. Just because he misses Donna.
"Gotta warn you, though." Dean says. "It ain't gonna be pretty in there."
"Yeah, well, it's not our first end of the world." Rory says sagely, and Sam raises his eyebrow.
"Okay, good luck." With that, the brothers Winchesters disappear through the bush and are completely invisible in a moment. The Doctor turns to the entrance of the camp, looks fondly over at the Ponds. He rubs his palms together.
"Shall we?" He holds out his arms, and Amy takes it with a grin. Rory doesn't, though, which is fine by the Doctor. They march in proudly into the camp, the creaking signs and overgrown weeds, until someone cocks a gun at them.
"Identify yourself." It's a woman, lean and fierce, her hair in a ponytail. The Doctor holds up his hands.
"Hold on, don't shoot."
The woman looks confused. "English?"
"Well, actually –"
"I thought England was sunk." The woman continues. Rory's voice is sharp over Amy's gasp.
"Come again?"
"All the islands are. England and Japan and Indonesia… How are you guys here?" She swings her rifle over her shoulders, though.
"How do you know we're not… Croats?" The Doctor feels smart, applying a new vocabulary like that. The woman frowns at the little triumphant smile on his face.
"They don't talk, but growl. And I don't see any signs of infection," the woman then beckons for them to follow. "I'm Risa. C'mon, I'll take you to our leader."
"Dean?" Amy asks, and Risa pauses.
"How'd you know?"
"It's complicated." Amy shrugs, and after a while, Risa does too. The Doctor can see that she's too tired to care much about problems she can't solve.
On their way, the Doctor takes in the battered surroundings, dirty tents and the gray atmosphere. Rory is right, of course, it isn't their first apocalypse, but it unnerves him every time. Occasionally people stop and stare at their too-clean clothes and hair with weary caution. Risa leads them straight to the least shabby cabin in the middle of the camp. She goes in without knocking.
"Dean, some British civilians," she announces. "Found them at the camp's entrance."
"Some what, now?" Dean frowns up at them. The Doctor finds his face both familiar and completely different. There are new lines in his face, new weariness in his eyes. Risa shrugs and leaves the room. Dean stands up slowly, his fingers twitching near the gun on his thighs. So, that hasn't changed.
"Who're you? How'd you find us?"
"Woah," mutters a dark voice beside Dean, and the Doctor whips his head around to find Castiel. Or at least – a version of him. It surprises him how much more human he is now. The Doctor fights an urge to sonic him.
"What, Cas?" Dean looks wearily at Castiel.
"They're… weird."
That one word, and suddenly they find themselves at gunpoint.
"Easy there!" Amy says, but Dean is only staring at Castiel.
"Explain," Dean demands, and quite inappropriately but inevitably, the Doctor is reminded of the Daleks.
"They're not from this time period," Castiel says, and the Doctor frowns at the silent giggle behind his voice. "And you – " he points his finger at the Doctor.
"Yes, me?" The Doctor says.
"You're not human." Castiel says, gets up and pushes Dean's gun down before he can say anything. "Timelord," he declares the same way he did – but with something more. A plea.
"What the hell is a – Timelord?" Dean says, but his gun stays down.
"An alien?" Rory interjects helpfully, except it doesn't seem to help at all.
"Doctor, we have to explain about … " Amy leaves the sentence hanging, but the Doctor know what she means.
"Right, yes, Dean, Castiel – "
"How do you know our names?" There it is with the gun again. Before the Doctor can answer, though, Castiel says, "Dean, Risa said your name when they came in," very patiently. Dean looks a little taken aback, stares at Castiel. The Doctor stares at the two of them for a moment.
"So, as I was saying… " But he is interrupted again, by Castiel this time.
"Timelord," he says. "You have to stop it."
"What?" The Doctor frowns, looking wildly about himself. "Am I doing something to offend you? Amy, Rory, is anything wrong?"
"Your bow tie, it's rather offensive," Rory says cheekily. The Doctor gives him a glare.
"No," Castiel is shaking his head. "You have to stop. It."
"What…"
"He's not gonna give you anything else." Dean is rolling his eyes, and finally the Doctor spots something of their Dean. It brings a smile to his face.
"What?" Dean frowns.
"Nothing. Castiel, please, tell me what I have to stop." The Doctor says, gently, a voice he reserves specially for frightened friends. Because Castiel is frightened, he can see.
"Please, stop," Castiel says after a short silence. "This. Me. My Fall."
"Cas?" Dean sounds surprised, even a little scared. The Doctor looks around, sees that everyone is scared – even himself, maybe. Where is his TARDIS? But, but.
"I can't stand it, Dean. Humanity. It's… filthy."
"You told me it wasn't getting worse," Dean says testily.
"Well, I lied." Castiel snaps. "What do you think happens when Heaven moves? To an angel still crawling on Earth?"
"Well, I –"
"Gentlemen," the Doctor says loudly, to get everybody's attention. "There is an alternate version of Dean and Sam hiding in the bush outside, from the year 2012." There is a pause. The Doctor considers what he's just said. "Wait, I didn't mean to say that first."
"What?" Dean growls. The Doctor honestly can't find a better word for it.
"Very smooth, Doctor." Amy says. The Doctor waggles his fingers at her.
"What?" Dean repeats, more dangerously this time. The Doctor waves his hands about, for a lack of a better thing to do.
"Okay, so we're in a bit of a… pickle," he says, and attempts to clarify the situation. "The Earth is being farmed by a race of black-goo oozing aliens, Dean and Sam's timelines are messed up and their universe is rejecting them – this universe is full of crazy people-killing… people, and Castiel, the angel, is finding humans rather filthy. Oh, and the Ponds and I can't find my spaceship so we're stuck here as well. Did I leave anything out?" He looks expectantly at the dumbstruck faces of his audience. He likes it when his audience can't follow his thoughts fast enough.
"You left out the part," Castiel interjects. "About Dean's brother – this version – agreeing to be the devil's vessel and tearing the whole world apart." Dean flinches at that, and so does the Doctor. He tries to remain calm and bright.
"Okay, challenge accepted," he says. "Anyone else?"
Dean hates this situation with a passion. He thinks he has enough problems as it is – now he has to deal with a whole bunch of other problems on top of his. He glares at the other Dean – the one who still has a brother.
"Dean," he says, drawing out the name sarcastically. "How 'bout I call you – Dean 2.0?"
"Shut it, Jackass." Dean 2.0 says violently. "You should be 2.0."
"Boys," the Doctor interjects patiently. "No fighting with your alternate selves."
Sam is looking at him. Dean sees this with a pain he can't recognize. Sam is older, seems taller somehow, and Dean wants to make a snide remark at this but doesn't know how to. It's not his brother. It's Dean 2.0's. His brother, his Sam, sold himself to the devil.
Dean's thoughts are cut short when 2.0 grabs a gun from his jeans and puts it on the table.
"Is that – the Colt?" The damn gun he's been looking for this past few years. 2.0 nods.
"Yeah, and no – it doesn't work on the devil. We tried."
The hope dies as quickly as it flared. Dean feels numb. Cas looks worried.
"I assume you've averted your apocalypse. How'd you do it?" Cas says, and it's a good point. Dean looks at them expectantly.
"Sam said yes," 2.0 says in a flat voice. "Because he thought he could take control for a moment and jump in the cage."
"And that worked?" Cas says, at the same time Dean yells and you let him?
2.0 looks like he wants to say you're the one to talk, but to his credit he doesn't. Instead he says, "only barely," and leaves it at that.
"One problem at a time." The Doctor person intones carefully. He looks ridiculous rubbing his palms together, and Dean leans back grumpily. His headache is starting again.
"Which is what?" Amy asks, skeptical. The Doctor falters.
"Well, I don't know. Whichever you want, I suppose." When nobody answers, he tries to lift the mood by saying, "don't worry, we'll solve them all,"
"Whatever," Dean grumbles and pushes off from the table. "I need some air." He says and storms out of the room without waiting for a reply. He figures they won't let him be, though, and someone will follow.
"Hey," Dean hears someone call, before he's taken five steps, but it's not who he's expected. Dean turns around slowly.
"Hey," he greets, feeling like killing himself and weeping to death at the same time. Sam looks back at him with an equally troubled expression.
"Long time no see." Dean quips, feels ridiculous. Sam just sort of smiles slowly. For a while no one says anything, then they are both trying to speak at the same time.
"Sam, I'm sorry – " "Look, Dean,"
They pause. Dean nods at Sam to go first, because that's how it's always been. Familiar. Alien. It's not his Sam.
"Dean, I just wanted to tell you why he – I – did it." Sam says. Dean gulps, waits for the damnation to come. It doesn't, though, not really.
"You heard Dean – um, the other Dean – " Always so considerate, Sam doesn't say my Dean, although Dean can see it's at the tip of his tongue. "I probably thought the same thing. That I could… somehow take control. Enough to kill myself, or something."
"Then – " Dean hates how his voice breaks. He tries again. "Then why haven't you?"
"Because," Sam says softly. "Because I couldn't do it without you, Dean."
"That wasn't me," Dean says, feeling detached. Sam shakes his head.
"You're both Dean." With that he leaves, and Dean is left wondering how his brother leaves him shattered every time. Every time.
Castiel is regretting this. "It was a moment of weakness," he tells the stranger. The Doctor, as he calls himself. He is familiar with how Timelords choose names for themselves. He gets a glimpse of the Doctor's real name, and sympathizes.
"What was?" The Doctor asks.
"Asking you for help. I don't need your help." Castiel says, feels the past Dean's eyes on him.
"Yes, you do." The girl, Amy, says quietly. She is looking straight at Castiel, the way Dean used to look at him. Back when things were simple and Castiel was an angel fighting for heaven.
"Yeah, I do," Castiel admits. "But you can't anyway, so forget it." He feels like laughing, so he does.
"Are you high?" Rory frowns. Castiel finds that funny.
"Generally? Yes." He answers. Dean looks pained, like he's hearing a really bad joke he knows really well. Castiel walks into a bar … and drinks it.
"Hey, I just thought of a great joke," Castiel says, is interrupted when Sam and Dean – his Dean – strolls in. Sam looks sad, Dean looks broken.
"What is it?" The Doctor looks interested, but Dean gives him a death glare, so Castiel keeps quiet. He decides to call the other Dean, Dean 3.0. Just for kicks.
"I'd love to sit and keep talkin'," Dean says to the room. "But I got a camp to run. So unless anyone's got anything to add, we gotta – " Dean considers what he can say. Frowns. "Actually, you and Sam gotta stay here. The others will freak." Sam nods uncomfortably. Dean 3.0 looks like he wants to argue but Dean is already turning his head.
"As for you – can you shoot?"
"Ew, no," the Doctor says, at the same time Amy and Rory answer yes. The Doctor looks at them like he's been betrayed.
"Fine. Help John in the medical tent, then," Dean decides without even blinking. He turns to Castiel. Castiel puts on a goofy grin that Dean hates.
"I'll stay here with them," he offers, gestures at Sam and Dean. "Can't do anything else with a broken foot."
"Wait, you broke your foot?" Dean 3.0 speaks up. Castiel eyes him wearily.
"Yes, I know. It's hilarious."
"What day is it?" he asks. Dean frowns, but gives him the date.
"August 1st, 2013."
"Exactly one year." Dean 3.0 says to Sam. Sam frowns. "You mean – " The brothers look at each other, and Castiel wishes his Dean and his Sam had that, too.
"One year? What're you talking about?" Dean says gruffly. When nobody answers, he throws his hands up in the air and does the fed-up face, exaggeratedly.
"Fine. Whatever." He points at the three strangers. "You three, come with me."
Dean leaves the cabin, with the confused-looking Timelord and his humans. He's just a Timelord, not an angel, and Castiel curses himself for hoping. He settles in his chair and gives Sam and Dean a wide grin. Sam looks uncomfortable, Dean looks sad. Castiel finds that he doesn't care.
"So, Cas," Dean 3.0 attempt to talk to him. Castiel thinks it's kind of sad, thinks back to how he was back then. Back in –
"When did you say you were from, again?"
"What? Uh, 2012." Dean answers a little bemusedly. Castiel tries to remember.
"2012, yes, that was when the Crotoan virus really started to hit big cities. But of course," he nods his head at the Winchester brothers. The finer version of them. "Your version would've happened differently."
"Yeah," Dean gulps. "So you're, you've been,"
"Speaking has never been your strong suit, Dean," Castiel says flatly. "Take it easy."
"What?" Dean scrunches up his face, and Sam snickers unexpectedly. Castiel is a little surprised, too. It's been a while since Dean responded to his jabs. "Shut up, like you're the one to talk." Dean waggles his finger at Castiel. "When I first met you, you couldn't speak straight at all. All mysterious riddles and threats…"
"I was an angel, then," Castiel muses. That shuts Dean up, and Sam's laugh stops abruptly.
"Yeah, about that… how far have you, um, Fallen?" Dean wants to know, which Castiel thinks is typical of him. Castiel doesn't say that it's humiliating to speak of, that it's painful. He simply answers. Dean asks, he answers.
"Not completely, yet. I recognized you were from a different time, didn't I?" Castiel answers cheerfully. "In a few weeks, though, I think that'll be gone, too."
"What?" Dean says, and Castiel doesn't know why he's so surprised. "You sure?"
Castiel thinks about it. "Yes, Dean," he answers, because Dean asked. "I'm sure."
Dean bolts out the door.
"People, this is the Doctor." Dean announces as the three of them step through the biggest tent, the medical tent. "And his… nurses. They're here to help." Amy finds it funny that what he says is kind of true. There are more injured than there are doctors and nurses, and the tent reeks of blood and antibiotics.
"Doctor who?" One of them asks, and the Doctor brightens up to answer. Except Dean cuts him out.
"Doctor from the UK. It doesn't matter." He says, and people go back to their jobs like Dean's words were Bible and they suddenly find that it really doesn't matter. The Doctor observes this with interest.
"You are a medical doctor, right?" Dean asks, a little more quietly. The Doctor nods like he's offended. "Good," Dean says, and leaves it at that.
After he leaves, a shortish man with a nervous look approaches them.
"Hi," he says nervously. "I'm Chuck. I run records 'round here."
"Okay," the Doctor says and extends his hand. Chuck stares at it like he doesn't know what it is. "I'm the Doctor."
"Yeah, I heard that. I'll need your names, though, for, you know, record."
"Just the Doctor." The Doctor insists, and Amy wonders if this is the day that someone will finally give him crap over that. Chuck looks like he might argue, narrows his eyes, but eventually just shrugs and writes the Doctor on his board. Amy and Rory give their names, too. Chuck welcomes them with a nervous smile, when the tent flaps open and they find Dean standing there, looking bright and excited.
"Dean?" Chuck says, a little fearfully. "Have you left something?"
"What?" Dean frowns, and Amy can tell it's their Dean. Not from the lack of the thigh-holster or the clothes, but from the look he gives Chuck. "Uh, yeah. No. I just need to, uh, talk with these three." He gestures at them. Chuck shrugs and moves out of the way. Dean beckons them to come outside, and they follow him.
"What're you doing out?" Rory says, when they've moved out of anyone's earshot. "It's risky."
"Yeah, well. I needed to tell you something. I figured it out. It ain't an alternate timeline." Dean pours out in a breath.
"What do you mean?" Rory asks. Dean breathes deeply to stabilize himself, and the Doctor asks again.
"How do you know?"
"'Cause he knows, Cas knows. Knew." Dean pauses at the blank expression on their faces. "When I got sent in the future, Cas took a look at me and said that I wasn't from that time. Except now – now he tells me he can't do that anymore once he's completely Fallen."
"Oh, oh, so – " The Doctor jumps, suddenly, hunching up his shoulders in a way that he does when he's excited.
"So, yeah – it was my timeline. It is my timeline." Dean confirms.
"What does that mean?" Rory asks, and Amy is glad he does. But Dean only quirks one eyebrow, answers mysteriously.
"It means we got some explaining to do."
Amy hates when people do that.
Dean tries hard to understand. It's a lot to take in, and his headache is getting worse again. But by what they're telling him, his headache won't be a problem for much longer – in about a year, they say.
"A year?"
"A year and a day. Exactly. Another me – you – from the year 2009 will turn up at your doorstep." Dean 2.0 explains patiently. Dean rubs his temples. Cas is strangely quiet, he notices.
"What am I supposed to do with him – you – me?" This pronoun thing is getting ridiculous. Dean 2.0 shifts in his seat a little uncomfortably, shares a look with Sam. Damn if he doesn't know what that look means. It means something fishy is up.
"This isn't gonna be pretty," 2.0 warns. Dean just rolls his eyes.
"Pretty is down in my worry list, chuckles," Dean explains, "where the sun don't shine."
"You're gonna find the Colt." 2.0 carries on, ignoring him. "And you'll know where Lucifer is holed up. You're gonna take me – 2009 me – there, to see my brother."
Dean is speechless for a moment. He sees the alien looking worriedly at him, and shakes off the paralysis.
"Why? Or – how?"
"Here's where it gets, uh, funny." Sam interjects. It hurts Dean to hear his voice, but he doesn't show it.
"You'll have the Colt, because we're giving it to you, now." Sam says and puts the Colt on the table, pushes it towards him. Dean stares at it blankly.
"And you'll know where Lucifer is – 'cause I'm telling you now. Here." 2.0 points at a seemingly random building on a random street.
"As for why," 2.0 continues with a serious face. "Because it's a shock treatment. I see Lucy wearin' Sam wearin' a white suit, and I go back. Zachariah sends me back. And I call Sam."
Dean looks up at that. 2.0 is looking squarely at his eyes, his own eyes large and sincere. Dean can't recall the last time he saw that look. For that alone, he nods.
"And the whole timeline – " he can't seem to find the voice.
"Gets rewritten, yes." The Doctor says, quietly. Dean nods again, feeling numb.
"All this will never have happened." It feels funny to think like that, but hey – it's better than the inevitable demolition he's facing. Anything, really, if it means Sammy doesn't say yes.
"And us," Cas says. Dean's forgotten he was there. "Will this be a suicide mission?"
2.0 gulps. Dean sees the answer before he even speaks, so he waves his hand to shush his past – future? – self.
"Doesn't matter. Does it, Cas?"
Cas looks at him, grins slowly. "No, it doesn't, Dean." His voice is calm, though. Dean meets his eyes for a moment longer, then turns to the rest of them.
"What about you? What will you do?"
"Well, actually, I have a plan." The Doctor says brightly. Amy looks at him suspiciously.
"An actual plan?" She says, and the Doctor feigns hurt.
"Yes, Pond, an actual plan. When we were talking with Chuck, I stole a look at his charts." The Doctor sounds like he's dazzled by his own brilliance. "Guess where the extra toilet papers came from this week?"
"Uh, Mars?" Rory says. The Doctor frowns.
"Why would you say that? That's stupid." He chides. Before Rory can argue, he answers his own question with a dramatic smile. Dean finds himself wanting to punch it off his face. For no reason. "Torchwood!"
"What? What's Torchwood?" Amy says, confused. Dean knows what it is, but not what the excitement is about.
"It's another camp, not too far from here." He explains. "We help each other out when we can."
"Aha!" The Doctor sticks up a finger, and grins like a maniac. "But it is, also, the name of a top secret organization founded in 1879 by Queen Victoria, completely dedicated to protecting the British Empire from extraterritorial threats."
"It is?" 2.0 sounds bemused. Dean agrees.
"So what's your plan, exactly?" Amy narrows her eyes. "Don't tell me it's, like, go there and hope for the best. Or something."
"Don't be stupid, Pond." The Doctor laughs, but this times it's a little nervous. "We'll go there… and hope for the best." Amy just sighs. The Doctor turns to Dean and Cas, and his maniac grin wavers. He tries, though, to make it light, and Dean appreciates that. He hates chick-flick moments, after all. He's Dean Winchester.
"Good luck, Dean," he says.
"And good luck to you, too, Doc." He turns to 2.0 and Sam next. But he can't think of anything to say, so he just nods. They struggle for words too. Finally Dean 2.0 turns to Cas and says, "you were in the middle of an orgy, by the way," and Cas sputters out a laughter. Dean glares at Cas. "What?" Cas shrugs. "I like past you."
They leave the cabin shortly after that. Dean tries to think about the future that was to become his past, the past he would never know, but finds he isn't too broken about it. He's tired. He has a headache, and Sam is, apparently, going to be wearing a white suit. Dean scoffs to himself. His giant brother will look like a yeti.
"What's funny?" Cas asks. Dean shakes his head.
"Nothin'. How's the foot?"
"Oh, you know. Broken." Cas says cheerfully. "But I'll live. For another year, at least."
"Yeah," Dean nods and leans back in his chair like Cas, puts his feet up in a mirroring position.
"Dean?"
"Yeah?"
"You know I'll follow you," Cas says, and his voice is still light. "Right?"
"Yeah." Dean smiles to himself. "Thanks, Cas." He doesn't know what exactly he thanks him for, but Cas doesn't ask, so he leaves it at that.