A/N: Hello again. I'm trying to update this once a day, but I don't know how long I'll be able to do that.

Chapter Two

Amy sat silently in the back seat of the jeep – an unnerving shade of TARDIS blue that should never have been associated with anyone other than her Doctor – and clutched Rory's hand. She hadn't been able to relay any details of what was to come to her husband, much less what was really going on. She had seen the Doctor dive into dangerous situations without much that resembled a second thought, and if he did give it a moment's ponder, he tended to ignore any warning signs. Even though he chatted happily in the front with the man that supposedly looked identical to the form he had been in just before meeting her, Amy was sure there was still a slight tension to every move he made. She couldn't be sure if he didn't trust this Human duplicate, Rose Tyler, or himself in the entire situation.

"So who is Rose?" Rory whispered into her ear.

The ginger shook her head with a slight shrug. "He won't tell me any more than her name. Just told me to get changed and get ready."

"And from this moment on you should really not call me by my name," the Doctor said, suddenly including Amy and Rory in the conversation as if he had been speaking to them since they left the TARDIS. "What do you say John Smith? It's served me well enough."

"Why do you have to be John Smith?" Amy demanded with a huff. "He's the duplicate. Why can't he be John Smith?"

"Oh, Amy, now let's not start all that again."

The Human Doctor grinned. "Sounds like fun."

"Gangers," the Doctor answered as if it were an explanation, but the other seemed to take it well enough. He turned around to his pretty companion. "And to answer your question, he gets to go by 'the Doctor' because we're not even supposed to be here. It's just best if those that I know here don't know that I'm me, understand?"

"I'm still a bit lost on how you change your face," Rory admitted quietly.

"Just take it as spacey-wacey and move on."

"Rose and the Doctor have a complicated relationship," the Time Lord's duplicate said slowly, as if he were being very careful how he worded his sentence. "He's right, it's just best."

"For all parties involved," the Doctor agreed.

"So you work with this Rose?" Amy asked.

The Human Doctor glanced back as he turned into the city. "Yes."

"And is that all?" she pressed, glancing between the two Doctors.

"And we're engaged."

"Really? When did that happen?" the Doctor asked, eyes wide and giving the other a congratulatory slap on the shoulder.

"'Bout a year ago. We've been too wrapped up in all of this to set finalized plans." He gave a somewhat sad smile. "Life just happens, I guess."

"Yes it does," the Doctor murmured. "She's… happy, then?"

"I hope so."

"Good."

"Look at all that, Doctor!" Amy breathed as she pressed her nose against the window, fogging it as she breathed. Her eyes followed the zeppelins that moved above London in awe.

"I've seen 'em a few times," the Human Doctor grinned.

"Sorry," Amy growled, her voice filled with sarcasm. "John, look."

The Doctor chuckled as he looked out. "Yeah, those are brilliant, aren't they? Where we going?"

"Torchwood facilities. Rose'll be in her office. I wasn't due back until tomorrow, so she'll be nose-deep in paperwork that she's been putting off."

The jeep pulled up to a large gate that was marked Downing Street, looked like Downing Street, but Amy was sure that it wasn't Downing Street. There was security and the Human Doctor flashed an ID badge and talked a moment with the guard, laughing the whole way, until the gate rose and let him drive the jeep through. He gave a wave over his shoulder as they continued down.

Security was easily breezed through with credentials that appeared to be legitimate and not the work of psychic paper. The jeep pulled into a parking and they were barely out of it when the front doors burst open and a blonde woman stood grinning. "You weren't s'posed to be back till tomorrow!" she announced as she flung herself into the Human Doctor's waiting arms.

He grinned and spun her around. "Found something," he whispered, not loud enough to be heard by the guards at the door.

Her face turned serious as he put her down and brown eyes turned towards the others that had stepped out of the TARDIS blue jeep. "You brought friends."

"I did. What do you say that you take the rest of the afternoon off and we go home to talk about this."

She nodded firmly. "I'm good to go then." She moved without warning to the Doctor and his companions. "I'm Rose Tyler, Director of the Exploratory Division of Torchwood. Welcome to London."

The Doctor stared at her outstretched hand very oddly, as if frozen in place. His eyes were locked on hers, even as she began to laugh and reached forward to shake his hand, gripping it tightly and moving it form him. "What? They don't shake hands where you're from?"

"Right. Yes," the Doctor stammered, gripping her hand. It seemed to fit perfectly as if nothing had changed in the years between their last meeting. But it had, he knew, and he was staring at her with eyes that she did not recognize and holding her with a hand that had never gripped hers. "I'm John Smith and these are the Ponds: Amy and Rory,"

"We're the Williams," Rory grumbled. "He hasn't quite gotten the hang of name changes yet."

Rose laughed at this, finally pulling her hand from the Doctor's and reaching back to take the Human Doctor's hand. "What? Are you some sort of absent minded professor or something?" She elbowed the duplicate in the ribs. "Looks like someone you'd bring home."

"Shall we get started then?"

The house was the same that the Doctor remembered from his first trip to that world with Rose and Mickey. It seemed like ages since they'd battled the Cybermen with Pete Tyler to save his world. He felt a sudden wave of emotion rush over him as he and his companions followed his Human self and Rose into the large house, the blonde chattering the whole way.

She had explained their situation on the drive from Downing Street to her father's home. Between she, her father, mother, and the Human Doctor – that she simply called The Doctor – they had managed to watch the ten intruders closely enough to see them go out of the town, two at a time, to and disappear and reappear in flashes of yellow-white light. The air around them shifted each time that it happened and left the area highly unstable.

"What can you do to help?" Rose asked as she leaned against the railing on the stairs. "What do you do, Mr. Smith?"

"Bit of everything," the Doctor answered, not fully looking her in the eye. "Though I might know a bit about inter-dimensional travel."

"And how would you know about that?"

The Doctor flashed a quick smile, but said nothing.

"Right," Rose murmured, eyeing them all with a certain amount of suspicion. "If the Doctor trusts you, then I will. He's never led me wrong before. I don't think he'll start now."

"Got yourself a good one, Miss Tyler?"

"I do, Mr. Smith."

A childish delight shown in his green eyes and he jumped up, as if an idea had taken hold, and clapped his hands together. "Well then, let's get to it, shall we? Doctor, this doesn't sound like something that can wait even a moment. If they're constantly hopping dimensions, they're ripping holes back and forth between this one and whatever other one that they're going to."

"Do we even know what world they're going to?" Amy asked.

"That's what we have to find out," the Doctor answered.

The two Doctors poured over the information at hand, leaving Amy and Rory very confused and Rose marginally so. Jackie made her presence known after a few hours as she bounced around the house, keeping up with a toddler that the Doctor had nearly forgotten about. Pete ducked in as the sun was setting, giving the newcomers a second look that his wife hadn't even thought to.

"Rose? Who's this?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe and watching its occupants.

His daughter looked between the two men that were leaned over maps with her – one having just popped a jelly dodger into his mouth, leaving a bit of strawberry jelly on his face – and the redhead curled up in a chair a few feet away with her husband sitting on the arm. "The Doctor thinks that they can help. John Smith and Amy and Rory Pond."

"Oi! Williams!" Rory grumbled and was swatted for his efforts. "I give up."

"Might as well," the Doctor said around his jelly dodger. His eyes brightened when he saw Pete and he crossed the distance, grabbed his hand and shook it. "Pete Tyler! Good to see you!"

Pete stared at the stranger with a nervous sort of look. "Hello?"

"Right," the Doctor murmured, remembering his own difference in appearance. "Hello. I'm John Smith. I'm here to help you with your world hopping issue."

"You make it sound like we called someone in for pest control," Pete chuckled. "Where do you find these people, Doctor?"

"Oh, you know… Floating about."

"I need some air," Amy announced suddenly, standing and moving towards the door. "Just out this way, right?"

"I'll walk you out," Rose offered.

"No, really not necessary."

"Might be," the blonde answered with a shrug. "Place gets to be a bit of a maze sometimes." She moved to the door, giving a short wave over her shoulder. "You boys behave."

The Doctors looked at each other and then out the window to where the two young women were walking down the pathway. "This isn't good, is it?"

"I get the feeling not."

"I really do just need a few minutes alone," Amy murmured as they stepped out into the evening air.

"Listen, I think we can help each other," Rose said slowly, gauging the other woman's reaction. "I'm not saying that he hasn't turned up with people before. He has a habit of making friends wherever he goes, and he goes a lot of places, you see, but… But you lot. You're different."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. So who are you? Where did you meet the Doctor?"

Amy turned to look at the pretty blonde, green eyes meeting brown. The words left her mouth before she could think to stop them. "I'll tell you who we are if you explain something to me."

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"How do you know the Doctor?"

"You want to know the same thing?" Rose asked, sounding somewhat confused.

"No. I don't mean the man that you're engaged to. I mean the Doctor. The last Time Lord. Who are you to him?"

Rose paled and she felt her body begin to shake. Before she could answer, though, an explosion lit the sky, turning the night as bright as day.

A/N: So there's always a chapter in every story that I write that I highly dislike. This is the one. Granted, it's going to be a very short multi chapter story, so I suppose to get it out of the way is a good thing, but I really just hate it. =( On a happier note, reviews would be much appreciated!

TBC