SUMMARY: "Give me a hug then...and then go out there and give me another one."


Aching Hearts


His blue eyes had never seemed so sad or so piercing, they looked right into her soul from several feet away and she didn't even realize she had half turned a shoulder to him so he wouldn't see how small and nasty she really was. She ducked her head, turning her face to the side, looking away, but Rose had no idea that the deflection wasn't working anymore. His eyes didn't follow her's to see what had drawn her attention and thus divert his own.

But Nine knew what was going on now and since he did, since he understood what she was doing and why she was doing it, he saw right through it. He felt sharp little stabs of discomfort as tears rose, wanting to fall.

Tenth was absolutely correct, nobody understood Rose like this particular personality. If Rose were going to heal properly, she needed Nine every bit as much as he suspected she would need Eighth's empathy and other, powerful, powerful mental gifts. The strongest, the most sensitive and the most beautiful of the lot, in terms of masculine beauty, the Eighth had not minded using his looks to distract someone he wanted answers from. That wasn't the case this time, this time they already had the answers, they just needed to be able to read her well enough to heal her...this human girl they adored.


Once Rose understood Eight's nature, she wouldn't bother hiding from him the way Ten now realized she'd quite successfully hidden herself from himself and last himself. Humans understood the nature of an Empath better than Time Lords did...they had them frequently in their own populations and their folklore was full of people with that ability. Humans trusted Empaths, it was very simple. Common folks, like Rose, upon the discovery that someone was a strong Empath, relaxed and dropped any hint of defensiveness.

He silently reminded Nine of this little fact, because this was about damage control and repair. Jackie might have done most of the harm, but both Nine and Ten were well aware that Rose had trusted them to know what they were doing and when one of them had told her she was stupid...and the other that she was limited...it had a far greater impact on her than any of their humans before.

Because they also knew that she did trust her Alien Doctor...and this time, that was the problem.

Which was why inside Tenth's TARDIS, a second, slightly younger one had landed. At the moment, Eighth was partly watching, listening and monitoring Rose with his Empathic Gift, partly he was listening to Ten. Because Ten was right. He was also needed. When He screwed up, any of the men that were the Doctor, it was a sad fact of reality that it took at least two more, plus the original culprit, to put it right.

"This is both easier and harder than any enemy we've faced, Tenth. I can feel and see both your feelings for Rose and Ninth's. And she's laid wide open to me, her whole history from about...three, perhaps four years old. She's not shielded against us, any of us."

"Bad?"

"Quite. But she is our's and we will fix this. I can also see and feel what she feels for us, her Doctor...she sees and accepts the whole, Ten. She makes no distinction between us, we're simply her's...the lot of us. She fully expects us to be nice to each other and I believe would be very upset should we argue. This is why I've got a link feeding to Nine, out there. It is his place to get past her walls, your's to help break them down and then we shall, the three of us, work together to give her something better. While I'm reading her, have a chat with Second and Third, will you?"

"Yes, in a moment, but first...she had a temporally transfigurative incident, involving the console...it was open and she looked inside. Nine is aware of this, he took it out of her and became me. What I was unaware of until 1 hour, 19 minutes, 37 seconds ago, was that she hasn't aged since. She had been trapped in a parallel universe for 20 years, ill almost the entire time from what she told me and got back just in time to fall feet first into a Dalek problem. Nine labeled her as Jeopardy Friendly from the first step: He has a point."

"Sounds like it."

"She will do anything to make sure we remain safe and doesn't think it matters whether or not she is safe." The Tenth blew out his breath, loudly. "She uses herself as a decoy. And I had not realized that until just now." His brown eyes met his younger self's vivid blue eyes soberly. Eighth looked completely horrified.

Ten nodded to confirm and emphasize this problem, then told both Eighth and Ninth about her inability to age before he turned his attention to the 'kids'.


Nine didn't say a word in response to the conversation between his other selves, not yet. First there was something he needed to do...and that was to reach out and pull his poor hurting Rose into his arms and hold her tightly.

He now understood that the reason his incredible, precious girl understood his self-loathing so well, was because her own was just as dark and as painful...and that she really didn't believe him when he called her precious. That or she thought it was just a pet name.

He suspected that's what it was, right there.

"I love you so much, every aspect of me, you are precious to me, one and all...Rose, it's not a pet name, it's a qualifier. It's a description, Rose. So precious. Over nine hundred years of life and you...you're the most important person, ever, to me, the person who matters the most. I don't care, anymore, if the other Time Lords are gone, as long as I have you, I'm fine." He bit back a sob. "And I know I should told when you were younger and I will. I won't be able to keep most of this, you know, but I'll hang to that and why. Because Ten figured it out, see. Told the TARDIS to tell mine and my Sexy told me. Just like Eighth's Sexy told him. He's here too, cuz you need him. You need me, all of me. If we have to drag all the babies out of the past and the ones that aren't here yet from the future to make you understand that you are valuable to me, to us, in all our many guises, then that's we'll do." He told her intensely. "I'm so sorry, I should've never teased you with the ape comments. I thought you knew it just teasing. I never meant it, not really, only the best, yeah? Never would have kept you if you'd really been stupid, okay? You're not. Not by a long shot."

By this time she was sobbing into his jumper, her arms wrapped around his waist gripping him hard. Nine just held onto her shivering form, as tightly as he safely could, he didn't want to injure her after all. Tears of grief and sorrow dropped into her hair and the fading bleach on the top.

She hadn't managed to reapply it because Tenth had asked the ship to dispose of all the hair bleach. Once he knew what was really going on with her, the Doctor had realized with a certain amount of horror, that the reason that she bleached it was because of all the dumb blonde jokes around and had decided that Rose probably figured people should have 'fair warning'. No more of that, then, to which Nine agreed.

"You're ours, mine...all me, you're mine...and we're never going to let you go."

"Promise?"


"Yeah. Promise." He lifted Rose into his arms without warning, taking her into his TARDIS and headed for the library, settling her onto the suddenly much wider couch knowing the other two would soon be joining them, to take it in turns to get her stable. The TARDIS tickled his mind to get his attention, alerting him to the arrival of a future self as well as the current one since so many of him in one place could not be missed...and he wanted to know what was going on, so both Third and Eleventh had joined them. He felt the ripples from the youngster and the echoes of the elder as Tenth and Eight caught them up. Eleventh had to know that his Time Line was being changed deliberately...and why.

"Can we say 'Companion Abuse?' What the hell were you lot thinking?" Third wanted to know.

Poor Tyler came the echoing voice from his future, his tone saddened. Yes, rewrite this bit. Poor girl. I could just kill Jackie. Eight, you can't afford to become Nine, hell, Rose can't afford it. Not yet. I don't mind being held off for a while and I doubt Tenth does.

No, whatever she needs, she needs to have. I can wait. Tenth nodded.

He has to regenerate and become the War Doctor. Not good. Wasn't a real Doctor for a good few centuries, messed up the Body count. That's been fixed since, during my Tenure, but...he had a very rough go" Eleven told them.

"All Eight's powers except the Empathy, all of my worst points, Second's Temper, Six's Mouth, very few of the good our best points. But Eight can give her his early years, after Grace but before anything else." Nine said quietly. "Three hundred years and for which the memories are dim, at best. But I remember Rose...I just didn't used to know who she was and I have not thought of that time since I was the War Doctor."

Ten and Eleven looked at Eight, then at each other and nodded as the memory became clearer. Three hundred years in Rose's company was worth it.

From you to me, Ten. Straight up. Get her healed up and I'll come back here to fetch her at the end of your time. Build her a house here with all the things we've avoided, window, carpets... There will be no marriage to River. Rose needs us so much more. Eleven decided.

"No mortgage needed though, if we do it here during First's tenure. No human knows this place is here. We can just put it in Rose's name altogether."

She's gone and lifebonded to Nine, you morons. How could you not have seen this?" Fifth snapped, rushing into the room with Fourth on his heels. If you can't treat a lifebonded mate decently, give her to me or Fourth because we can."

"We haven't had a turn with Our Sweet Rose anyway. She belongs to all of us, you lot do have to share, you know." Four agreed.

"At this rate, the lot of us will be in here pretty soon." Ten said quietly, his eyes on Nine and Rose as the bickering group went silent. Rose wanted them to get along.


**TBC**