Ten

The Doctor Pays A House Visit

He didn't think his company was very much appreciated by Adam Mitchell, which was odd because they'd gotten along well enough the last few days, and the boy had to be assured multiple times that (despite the crass remarks of the Eleventh Doctor) he was not trying to 'steal his girlfriend'. He was an honourable man, a Time Lord, he was above such petty Earthling disputes between Adam and Oswin, which didn't even technically exist. Besides, if Oswin didn't want to be with Adam Mitchell (even though she clearly did), that was entirely her business. If the human boy picked a fight with him, that could only succeed in changing her opinions for the worse and making her think he was jealous scum. Ten, however, decided after this that Mitchell was probably just vying for alone-time after days apart. Ten could always slip off and talk to Luke, or Clyde, or Rani. Or the new one, whatever her name was - he'd not even been so much as introduced to her.

The TARDIS thrummed musically as it apparated into the twilight of Bannerman Road on March 16th, 2014, the sky clear and the air a little crisp when Ten stepped out first and took a deep breath. Yet he was so glad for cool, fresh air (even if the air was technically rife with the pollution of congested, Twenty-First Century London) after the stagnant, sticky heat of Preyonov's vast deserts.

That day, they didn't even have to knock on the door. Luke Smith was standing with a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth in open doorway, casting a shadow onto the empty driveway they'd appeared on.

"Luke Smith!" Ten declared his name happily, strolling broadly over and dragging Luke into a hug. Luke only hugged back after the stun had worn off. It must be odd for them, Ten thought, hardly any contact with the Doctor for years and then suddenly they spring up asking for access to their alien files, and to use Number 13 as a homebase for various illicit operations. He supposed he needed somebody to visit, now that everyone he might desire to was living with him.

"Doctor..?" Luke asked unsurely. Why was he unsure?

"Yes, that's the real one," Oswin called when she left the TARDIS, "Not the clone. I, however, am the clone. As always. You lot should be happy - the smartest girl in the universe making house visits."

"Sometimes wish you'd call ahead," Luke said, eyeing the TARDIS. Probably wondering somethig about how a bunch of people living in a phone box were incapable of making phone calls.

"Nah!" Ten said, "We like to be spontaneous! Who's in? Everyone here? Clyde? Rani? Other one?"

"Sanjay?" Luke asked.

"Who? No, the girl," Ten said, not knowing who that was.

"Oh, Sky. Yeah, everyone's in," Luke said, "...What's going on though?"

"I just need to have some words with your super-computer-Xylok in the attic," Oswin said to him, "Mainly about parallel dimensions." Luke stepped aside and let the three of them in, probably glad that it really was only three and not a whole flock of a dozen like it could so easily have been.

"What's going-? Doctor?" Rani came around the corner at that moment, and looked completely shocked at the emergence of the trio out of the blue.

"Rani Chandra!" Ten said happily, hugging her as well, and then as soon as he spotted Clyde: "And Clyde Langer! The whole gang!" he hugged him too.

"Yeah, this is a bit of a surprise," Clyde said, "Hello again. Which one are you..?" Ten always hated that question. It was a new one. Months ago, when he'd actually been the Doctor, he'd never had to be asked who he was. He kept his face in a smile though.

"The Doctor," he said with a taut grin, "The proper one. Just popped in for a visit!"

"Really?" Rani asked, "No more blood-stealing or food poisoning?" That question was mainly directed at Oswin. Ten knew about the food poisoning incident, of course he did, but he didn't know why on Gallifrey they were asking about blood-stealing. What had Oswin been up to before?

"No," said Oswin defensively, standing on the second step, about to resume her ascent to the loft, "Not today. Can I go up? I have to talk to Mr Smith."

"About what?" Rani asked suspiciously. They were very suspicious of Adam and Oswin. What had they both been doing before?

"About inter-dimensional travel, mainly," Oswin said, "Nothing dangerous. Unless it's abused. And I never abuse technology." Adam Mitchell seemed to open his mouth to make a start then, but he frowned, and shut his mouth. Ten thought he'd been about to disprove her and bring up a time where she had been abusive of her position as a hyper-intelligent time traveller, but as far as he was aware, she hadn't. Most of her inventions were relatively harmless, in fact, which was of great contrast to her occasional, unbridled savagery when she did things like flog people to death. Multiple times. Maybe that was a side-effect of her past creating bombs - she was all too aware of the dangers and she was very careful about studying things and not leaping through the Dimension Doors spontaneously, like Ten would've done.

"Never? Not when you killed that sheep?" Rani challenged. Sheep?, Ten thought, confused. So she'd moved on from goats? Oswin's grip on the banister tightened.

"I killed that sheep with a stick, which is not a piece of advanced technology. And it was an accident," she said.

"You smashed its skull open!"

"Yeah," said Oswin, "Accidentally. At least I didn't blow up a mermaid's head with a microwave."

"What!?" Ten exclaimed, Adam flinching next to him at the mention of the microwave. Nobody else seemed to know what she was talking about, aside from him.

"It doesn't matter! Because I didn't do it. Can I go upstairs now? I have to ask about AIs, too. I don't suppose you lot know anything about Qetesh technology, do-?"

"Qetesh?" Rani, Luke and Clyde all asked at once. Ten listened interestedly now, wondering if they knew anything useful about Helix's origins.

"Yeah," said Oswin, "Why? What do you know?"

"There was this woman," Rani said, "Called Ruby White. Only, she wasn't a woman, she was one of them."

"But she went against them and they locked her up in this prison cell above the planet," Luke said, "She managed to escape and came to Earth to try and take it over by draining mum's life..." he finished sombrely.

"Oh, really? You stopped her though, right?" Oswin asked, letting go of the railing and leaning on it instead with her arms folded.

"Yeah, obviously," said Clyde, "After she tried to kill me and Sarah-Jane. She exploded. It didn't smell too nice."

"Mmm, no, wouldn't..." Oswin said, more to herself than to the others, "Do you know anything about their AI developments?"

"Yeah, there's the games console upstairs in the safe," Rani said.

"Mr White," Clyde added, "He was her Mr Smith, sort of. I was never allowed to play with him though... Shame, he's way cooler than a PSP."

"Mr White could project and create holograms, he was an AI. He's locked away now though," Luke said.

"Can I have it?" Oswin asked, "It's just, we have this huge AI on the TARDIS now called Helix - Clara found it and brought it home, nothing to do with me, she was hungover so I don't trust her judgement-" Adam Mitchell laughed there "-But it would be good if we could upload him to a hand-held. He's so much more polite than the TARDIS."

"Maybe if you were nicer to her," Ten said.

"I am! Clara's the one who isn't. I'm the one who fixed the stealth systems and the stabilisers AND the navicomm," Oswin said, "Not the one who calls her a 'snogbox' and shags the Time Lord who lives there."

"Do you and Clara actually get along?" Rani asked. Ten didn't blame her - the way Oswin was talking, you'd think she spent her time plotting the demise of her other self.

"Famously," Adam Mitchell answered her with a sigh.

"Whatever," Oswin turned to Ten and said, "Don't judge me for the sins of my little sister. Otherwise I'd be getting judged for having a terrible, annoying, unattractive, possessive boyfriend with a stupid surname. Who is also dead."

"I'm not - You - What!?" Mitchell exclaimed.

"Not you, Danny Pink," Oswin clarified.

"He's dead!?" Ten was shocked.

"Yeah, he got hit by a car," Adam told him.

"Who's Danny Pink..?" Clyde asked.

"Clara's boyfriend," Oswin and Adam both reiterated.

"Hit by a car!?" Ten questioned.

"Yeah, while she was on the phone to him saying how in love with him she was," Adam explained, to Ten's great horror. What a dreadful way to die.

"Her boyfriend?" Rani frowned.

"Yes - don't tell Clara though," Oswin ordered her.

"Don't tell Clara that Clara's boyfriend who died on the phone to her is dead..?" Clyde asked slowly.

"Different Clara!" Oswin, "There are two! I mean, not two, technically, um... See, this is the problem with alternate dimensions, it's hard to keep track... Which is why I really have to go upstairs and talk to your supercomputer."