Part two. Characters still aren't mine, despite several wishes to the contrary. Enjoy!
"Right. First bits first, we've got to find the crack you fell through and shove you back to the other side." He spun and both the Doctors took off and began flipping switches on the console.
"We just input the coordinates of our arrival place and scan for time disruptions in the..."
"Wherever we need to go, timey-wimey spacey-wacey stuff. The TARDIS knows where she's going. Don't you old girl?"
They watched both the Doctors racing around jabbering out words that didn't make any sense, pulling levers and twisting dials. Then they stopped simultaneously and said together.
"Right...
Geronimo!
Alon-sy!" And yanked down separate levers.
The TARDIS engines gave one solitary wheeze and shuddered hard, sending them all tumbling around the room. Sparks flew, and popped and all the lights dimmed.
"Ah! No you don't!" The clone growled, punching buttons and gripping the desktop for balance.
"No, no, no! Don't do that!" the Doctor slapped some sparks, twisting another dial. "Come on." The TARDIS gave one last stuttering shake and stopped. "No, NO!...Gah!"
The clone rushed to the monitor and began looking for a feed while the Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver, fazing it over the engines and looking hard at the results.
"What's that nasty clone done to you eh?" The Doctor asked, sonic-ing a few more bits of machinery.
"What?" the clone demanded of the screen, turning a knob. "What?!" Whatever he was looking at moved into focus and he looked hard at the doors. "What."
The Doctor had followed suite lowering his screwdriver slowly and looking apprehensive.
"What? Doctor? What is it?" Amy asked clinging to Rory's arms.
Both the Doctors rushed to start talking at once, stopping a few words in.
"Ah, right probably meant you there." the clone conceded, taking a respectful step back and clasping his hands behind him.
"Right...yes, well. Imagine this universe is a piece of bread."
"Bread?" Rory and Rose asked together, staring.
"Yes. And all the other universes are more pieces of bread and they're all held together by sticky void-ish jelly." He looked around accepting their nods of understanding. "Well, I think that's where we are. Stuck in the void jelly of the universe. Or nothing like that. But something almost close."
"Right." the clone nodded. "Something like that. Never did like jelly on my sandwiches..."
"I'm not one for butter myself." The Doctor agreed and they may have plunged head long into a very philosophical debate about different spreads, but they were interrupted quickly.
"So what does that mean exactly?" Rory asked anxiously, moving to look the Doctor full in the face.
"Right. Yes. Well...it means...It. Means." he moved around to the door, while everybody else back away quickly. He yanked the door open and a great 'wind' rushed in to fill the room, Pulling at everything and moving nothing, "Whoa!" The Doctor slammed it quickly shut again. "We're stuck." He turned to share their ominous stares, his hands fumbling around his collar. "It's taken my bow tie."
"Doctor!" Rose demanded. "Wot are we gonna do?"
He stared at her and his hands relaxed back to his sides. He took a half step and his hands flickered like maybe he would reach out to her, but they stayed by his side and he forced his eyes away.
"I don't know."
"That's new. Never had that happen before." The clone mumbled frowning.
"I have." The Doctor's hand shot up. "Let me tell you it's not any easier the second time."
"Hm, I imagine." The clone nodded.
"But...Doctor."
They both turned to look at Amy, faces patient.
"We're in the TARDIS can't it just move through the void anyway?"
"No!" his face wrinkled. "Course it can't. Nothing can. Not anymore. No, the TARDIS moves through the vortex, tiny holes in the bread connecting it to all of space and time, sort of, it can't just JUMP sandwiches. No."
"Then what are we gonna do?"
He looked around at all of them, his clone already scanning the control room, time lord brain working to come up with a plan, and stopped at Rose.
"I'm not sure. But there is two of me. Now. And you know the old saying, 'Always get a second opinion'. I'm sure together we can come up with a remedy." He patted the TARDIS console fondly, and it ejected another slimmer, blue ended screwdriver. "There we go." He tossed it to his double. "Better get cracking." The clone caught it turning to rush down one of the boundless corridors. The Doctor fired up his own screwdriver once again and began sonic-ing bits of the walls and lights.
Rose watched HER Doctor disappear and then turned to look at...the Doctor and the Ponds, talking together so easily like she had once been able too. She had known him better then anyone once. Now... He might not even think of her anymore. Hadn't mentioned her...But maybe that was better. Maybe it made it easier... she wandered over to the TARDIS console, smiling softly as she greeted her old friend. It had changed on the outside, but somewhere inside her she could feel it watching, still the same old TARDIS. Reaching out she brushed her fingers over a few of the countless buttons, stopping to rub at a small yellow one that had been fashioned in the shape of a rose, no bigger then a pinhead. It sank in and there was a whine of static.
A holographic screen stuttered up behind her, familiar images moving across its face. It was her. Her and her doctor. Dancing after the London blitz, She watched it all, feeling tears burn at her eyes. It was him. Him how she remembered him, him how he'd been. And her. He remembered her.
The Doctor looked up and cried out suddenly, seeing Rose watching herself on his screen.
"Oi!" He rushed over to the console, poking at buttons and levers. "Yes. There see? Told you I remembered. Never forgot see?" He stammered to quickly, beating at the buttons wildly as he tried to send the video back where it came from. "Never, ever forgot. Couldn't. Wouldn't. No. Not my Rose, not my brilliant... Rose Tyler." The screen disappeared with a click and he turned to beam at her, while deep inside his heart raged, begging to touch her, tell her, stroke her cheek and tell her a thousand time the words he had kept hidden so long. "Never forgot." he turned away, his hand straying back up to his empty collar. "Right..." pocketing the sonic, he wandered quickly out of the room, disappearing into the wardrobe. Rose, Amy and Rory looked after him silently. And then Rose followed suite.
He didn't look up as she entered, digging through the piles of clothing that filled the wardrobe and tossing the rejects over his shoulder.
"Wot ya doing?" Fending off a large pink tutu and shaking a jumper off her head.
"The void took my tie. I need another bow tie." He held a cloth up to his shirt briefly, before chucking it with the rest.
"So, what? You where bow ties now?"
He sprang up grinning instantly.
"Yeah, and a fez. Fezzes are cool."
"Alright then." Holding up her hands to ward him off she joined in the search. For a while nobody spoke, intent on their business. Then Rose caught his arm, holding up a tie and proceeding to attach it to his neck when he grinned his approval. "There. How's that one?"
Turning to a mirror he tweaked his tie, still grinning hugely.
"Cool, bow ties are cool." He turned to find her smiling at him and his own grin widened in response. "Oh I've missed you. My Rose. You always did get everything perfect." He gave the tie another tug. "A FEZ!" He whirled hard, his eyes wide with panic. "We need a fez." He gripped her shoulders, trying to convey this most ultimate need.
"Alright. Keep your tie straight. Come on. Got to be one in here somewhere."
His heart filled to see her again. To have this time like they used to. His Rose. His wonderful, wonderful Rose. There would never be another like her. Oh, he had Amy and Rory and they were brilliant, loved the Ponds, great Ponds. And there was River sometimes. But only Rose would put up with him one hundred percent. She might not like a fez, sure, people got jealous if they couldn't pull it off, but she wasn't going to deny it to him. She'd laugh and poke fun, like with his jumper, but she wouldn't go shooting it off his head! His Rose. His heart bursting he leaped into the fray.
She watched him as he worked, throwing clothes and shoes around the room with careless abandon, rambling away about anything and everything.
"So, how'd you meet Amy and Rory? An' what are they? Siblings?"
"Yeah-No! No, they're married. Had a daughter, have a daughter, but she's..." He trailed off chucking a shoe with particular interest. "They're great, the Ponds, great fun. Had my doubts about Rory, I mean-" He motioned at his noise, laughing. Rose chided him with a slap at his arm and he sobered. "But they all proved to be very ill founded, love Rory. The last centurion, end of the universe, held up well, though the plastic probably helped." He motioned like a robot. "Always easier on the reanimated."
Rose laughed, the Doctor stopping to grin back.
"Well you haven't changed a bit. Apart from..." she gestured at all of him and he held up his hands in evidence, twisting them to show both sides. "Still my Doctor. No doubt. Still not makin' any sense."
"Uh! I- the daleks, and- you sort of...had to be there. Great story though, if we get stuck for eternity I'll tell it sometime. Ooh!" he dived into the laundry, resurfacing with a fez held high. "There!" He plopped it on his head, grinning proudly. Laughing, Rose snatched it off setting it smugly on her own. They grinned at each other, and he helped her to her feet, turning her to the mirror and beaming over her shoulder. "Fez. Fezzes are cool."
Slowly her smile faded, and she removed the scarlet cap.
"Looks better on you I think." Turning she replaced it slowly, staring into his face. His grin had shrunk into a smaller, heart-warming smile. His eyes looking into hers with that same age old affection, she had felt so long ago, so much deeper then before. They weren't blue, or brown, but they were familiar, because it didn't matter what he looked like, this was her Doctor, and he loved her, even if he'd never said it. She knew.
His smile faltered and he moved to turn, she caught his face in her hand turning it back to look at her and reaching up on the tips of her toes to press her lips to his, her other hand creeping up into his hair on the other side. The Doctor froze, for one instant he hesitated, hands raised in shock. But this was his Rose, and he loved her, even now, he'd never told her, he'd never had this and he wasn't going to let it pass him by again. So he brought his hands down to cradle her face, slipping his fingers through her hair and kissed her back. Her arms moved up to loop his neck and he wrapped his arms around her waist. Everything else disappeared, there was only her now, her fingers playing through his hair, her heart beating so close, her lips pressed so sweetly against his, his Rose