Hey, guess what, another chapter!
Ok, so this is set between The Doctor's Wife, and The Almost People/The Rebel Flesh.
Sorry it took so long... it's been sitting on my computer for days, waiting for me to be bothered read through it... I might have mentioned earlier that I'm lazy? I really am.
Also, this is un-beta'd. Excuse any spelling mistakes, etc. All my fault...
Disclaimer; Nope, still don't own Doctor Who. Shame. I'd bring Donna and Ianto back, make Rory either dead or immortal, and we'd actually find out how the hell Martha went from engaged to To, to married to Mickey... cause that's a major plot-hole there.
Any way, here it is... enjoy, and don't forget to review...
The morning after Sexy died (he knew that technically she was still alive, but it felt like she was dead) he took the Pond's to the next destination in their multi-galaxy trip as his companions (for the second time, technically, but he wasn't counting?). This time, he'd settled for nice and simple, and the Ponds were swimming in the warm Mediterranean ocean. Preferring to lie on the beach and watch his companions, the Doctor thought of the women he had once loved.
He'd lost Rose so many times, and in the end, it was him that was keeping them from being together. The heartbreak he'd experienced watching Rose kiss his human doppelganger was still raw, even after so long, but, with River turning up every now and then, he found it harder to remember how he felt about Rose, and easier to feel for the new blonde in his life.
But still, it hurt to know that he was the reason that his meta-crisis and Rose were together at all.
She was fading away from his memory. He'd been finding it harder and harder to remember her recently. The trip to see her he'd taken so long ago, back when there was no Rory, had been done in panic, when he first realised he could remember her smile as well as he used to, couldn't recall her voice, didn't hurt as much when he heard her name.
Visiting her just before he regenerated had been closure, of sorts. He'd begun to move on, that night when his tenth self had closed the doors on Rose Tyler for the last time.
He didn't notice when he began the walk back to the TARDIS, only realising he'd moved at all when those sexy blue doors opened in front of him. Sighing sadly, the lonely Time Lord moved to the console, reaching out to press the first button, pull the first lever, that would send him spinning off in some strange time.
He could always return later for the Ponds.
The phone rang. Freezing where he was for a moment, the Doctor considered letting it ring, but thought the better of it. Picking up the receiver, he spoke.
"Hello, this is the Doctor. Who is this?"
"OHMIGOD! We made it! We made it through!" yelled a strangely familiar female voice, and sounds of celebration came through the connection. He frowned as he tried to remember it.
"Doctor?" said the female voice, suddenly cautious. The Doctor froze as he recognised it at last.
"Rose!" he breathed reverently.
"That's me!" she said happily. A sudden realisation hit the Doctor. If Rose was calling, that meant that Handy was there too.
"Oh, hello!" said a voice, right on cue. His old voice. The voice of his clone.
"What! But... but... Rose? Me? How?" he said, stumbling over words.
"We don't have much time... Doctor, we need to come back through and see you. We need to stay in our own universe." Rose begged the Time Lord.
"How long do you have?" he asked.
"Seven minutes." The Doctor nodded, taking the new information in stride.
"OK, where and when are you?" He asked.
"The device we're calling you on searches for places, cracks, where the universe is weak. We go to that spot, and dial the number into the device. It call through the cracks." said Rose.
"Where is the crack, Rose?" he asked, but he already knew.
"Leadworth." There was a moment of stunned silence, as the Doctor realised he was right.
"Half an hour from Gloucester?" he asked after ten seconds of silence..
"Yes."
"Haha!" he cried suddenly. In Pete's World, Rose and John frowned. They didn't get the joke.
"This is just too perfect! Sneak in while they're all at the wedding, pull you two through, maybe even chat with River for a bit. You don't even have to go far!" he did a small happy dance grinning to himself, when suddenly, the doors of the TARDIS flung open and Amy Pond stood in the opening, tiny bikini dripping salt water on the floor, followed by a panting Rory in his trunks, who carried all their towels and the bags they'd taken down.
"Oi, idiot, don't you dare try sneaking off without us! I'm not waiting another 'five minutes' for you." exclaimed the Scot.
"Amy, Rory, kind of busy right now, breaking into your house on your wedding day." he told his companions.
"Why?" demanded the nurse.
"To bring back an old friend!" the Doctor half-yelled with glee. "And I only have about four and a half minutes to do it."
"Oh, another twenty minutes to save the world situation!" said the nurse tiredly, rolling his eyes.
"Mr Pond, don't you listen? I said four and a half." the Doctor pulled a lever and the TARDIS took off.
"So who is it?" asked Amy.
"I'll explain later, Pond." the Time Lord told her. Amy sighed, giving up. She knew he'd tell her later, but she wanted to know now.
The TARDIS materialised in Amy's room. Stepping out, and pulling the phone receiver with him (the cord had somehow become several feet long), the Doctor hurried into the Scot's room.
"Ponds, stay inside the TARDIS!" he yelled, as Amy walked out after him.
"Why?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"Paradoxes, Pond. You should know by now that even if you don't remember seeing yourself on your wedding night, day, what ever it is, doesn't mean you can't just walk up those stairs to grab the pack of tissues you left on your bed, because you've been crying all morning and you don't know why." tapping her nose affectionately, he smiled at her. "Time can be rewritten, Pond. You of all people should know that." The red-head huffed and turned around, stepping back into the TARDIS and closing the doors.
"We'll be waiting in here Doctor!" she yelled, before rushing to the scanner to see what he was doing.
Outside, the Doctor was frantically going through settings on his screwdriver, muttering into the phone.
"Use setting #234!" exclaimed John, recalling the tenth incarnations screwdriver.
"Setting #234 only makes things go ping. I have a new screwdriver!" yelled the Doctor.
"Then use the red setting! It worked in the library!" John retaliated.
"I don't have that screwdriver yet!" came the reply. The Doctor chose a setting at random, and pointed it at the place where, fourteen years ago, there had been a crack in the wall.
Moving slightly closer, he could still see the outline of the crack, but it was far thinner this time, barely even there, almost completely faded away.
He pressed the button, stepping back cautiously; he had no wish to be erased from existence again.
The crack opened slowly, taking about thirty seconds of precious time to fully open.
The Doctor grinned at the ecstatic couple that stood on the other side of the crack.
"Come on through." he told them nonchalantly. Rose grinned at him, before leaping through the crack and hugging him tightly.
John followed more cautiously, eyeing the room around him with suspicion.
His eyes fell on a box that lay half-kicked under the bed, it contents showing.
It was full of child's drawings, dolls, and cut up clothes, all looking suspiciously like the new incarnation of the Time Lord.
"Doctor." he cautioned, looking up at his wife and the Time Lord, who were still hugging. Pulling apart, they looked in the direction he was pointing.
The Doctor grinned.
"I did leave a mark after all!" he exclaimed. "Nothing is ever truly forgotten." his smile met confused looks.
"Looks like someone's obsessed with you." Rose said, picking up a doll.
"Oh, I wouldn't say obsessed." the Doctor said, too quickly.
"She was." called out Rory, stepping out of the TARDIS. "I remember her dressing me up as you all the time. Raggedy Doctor was the only game she'd play." he grinned at Rose and John's confused expressions. "Hi. I'm Rory Williams." he told them. The Doctor tutted. "Fine then, I'm Rory Pond." he corrected himself, glaring at the Time Lord.
"Rose Tyler-Noble and my husband John Noble." Rose said, and the Doctor froze, before whirling around to face Rose and John.
"You got married?" he asked them. John lifted his left hand to show him the ring. Rose did the same.
"Noble?" asked the Doctor after a moment.
"Yeah. To remember the most important woman in the universe." said John.
"Donna was brilliant, wasn't she?" the Doctor said, grinning as he thought of his former companion.
Amy appeared at the door, scowling. "Rory, you're not supposed to say that in front of him." she told her husband.
"Say what? I was only telling the truth. Speaking of which, if you weren't obsessed with the idiot over there, why'd you bite the psychiatrists?"
"Oh, shut up."
"Never. I'd be boring if I shut up. You two'd leave me behind. In fact, you have. Twice."
"We did come back" Amy said defensively, while the Doctor walked to his male companion and poked him in the chest."
"You think interesting is having a ponytail!" the Doctor told him.
"If bow-ties are cool then so are ponytails!"
"Not on men!" said Amy.
"It was a dream anyway, why does it matter so much?"defended Rory. John and Rose watched on, eyebrows raised.
"What?" asked John, confused.
"Don't worry, lets get you two on the TARDIS, we'll do proper introductions there." the Doctor said, pushing his companions and the others into the TARDIS, and hurriedly de-materialising.
"You've redecorated!" declared John straight away. The Doctor smiled. "I like it! It's sort of... sexy..." he continued. Amy froze, staring between John and the Doctor, as the latter winced at the last word.
Amy, noticing this, walked up to the Time Lord and out her hand on his arm, smiling reassuringly at him when he turned to look at her.
He pulled the red-head in for a silent hug, which Rory, after watching for a moment, joined in on.
Rose and John stood together, confused at this display of affection.
"It's ok, Doctor." murmured Amy, pulling away from the embrace.
Rory did the same moments later, looking slightly embarrassed.
The Doctor smiled at his companions sadly, tears in his eyes.
"Too soon." he murmured. Amy smiled at her best friend reassuringly, patting his arm to comfort him. He turned to the TARDIS and stroked a bit of the machinery on the console.
Rose smiled, reassured by the affection in his touch that this strange, manic man in a bow-tie was still the Doctor.
"Why the rush, Doctor?" asked Rose after a moments silence, admiring the interior of the TARDIS. She walked up to the console, touching it affectionately as well.
"Paradoxes... if Amy shows up, then she'll see Se- the TARDIS, and it's too early for that... she isn't supposed to remember till... what time, Pond?" asked the Doctor, grinning at Rose before glancing at the scanner. He scowled slightly. Amy moved to see the screen and giggled.
"Uh, the reception, as I recall. Right in the middle of Augustus' speech." said Amy. "Luckily me and Rory were married by then, yeah?" she gave a half-laugh, patting the TARDIS console.
The Doctor joined in, after a second, looking guilty. Rory just grinned.
John raised an eyebrow.
"You're travelling with a married couple." he said, as though it were a crime.
"Yep. Oh, by the way, Rose, John, meet Amy Pond, my companion. Pond, meet Rose Tyler, and John Noble."
"Tyler-Noble." Rose corrected him.
"Pleased to meet you, Rose and John." said Amy, extending her hand towards the couple. Rory does the same.
"So how did you two meet our idiot over there?" the scot asked, and within moments, the two women were heading towards the kitchen for a cup of tea, Rory tailing them uncertainly, and Amy promising the Doctor to make his favourite before the door closed behind her, leaving the Doctor and the meta-crisis in awkward silence.
Author's Note; So, a really sucky cliff-hanger... review and I'll update quicker.
There was a lot of TARDIS touching this chapter, wasn't there? The way I figure it, the Doctor would be missing talking!TARDIS, and be compensating by keeping his hand on her a lot of the time, Rose just got back from a parallel universe, it's her way of saying hello to the ship... and Amy is Amy. There is no accounting for her, she just is.
Also, this story literally has no plan, except for the one in my head. It's writing itself. Review as to whether Rose and John should stay or go, I can't be bothered making the decision myself.
Ok, so, maybe a few more chapters, maybe only one... I could finish with chapter five and make it into a series... I don't know...
any way, thanks for reading
-loveeleventhdoctor