Chapter Four – Just Like Every Other Day


Rose felt herself grow faint as the two Doctors faced each other. Apparently, insanity had decided to present itself as an option once more...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"We're in a parallel universe," the Doctor said shortly.

"Yes."

"And this is Rose."

"Yes, I believe we've established that," the other Doctor said, shoving his hands into his trouser pockets.

"'Come help me,' you said. 'I've lost someone in a parallel universe,' you said. 'Help me get her back,' you begged." The Doctor circled his future self slowly, his voice dripping with disdain. "Here we are, on that parallel world. And here you are—with Rose!"

The Doctor brushed some of the sand off his jacket and then folded his arms. "Is there a problem?"

"Is there a—yes! Yes, there is a very big problem. Either you've decided to pick up a parallel resident and try to pass her off in our own universe, or this is actually our Rose. Without even getting into the moral implications of the first option, I can only come to one conclusion. Just one." He faced himself with a dangerous expression. "You lost Rose!"

The Doctor reached up and tugged on his earlobe. "Yes... But you can't seriously think it was my fault! There was an entire army of Cybermen coming through a multiversal breach, not to mention the—well, never mind them, but Torchwood! Oh, yes. Torchwood! It was all their fault, really. They're the ones who—"

He didn't get to finish his defence, because his previous incarnation drew an arm back and punched him right in the nose. Rose gasped and covered her mouth. "Doctor, stop it! What d'you think you're doing?"

"No offence, Rose, but this is between me and him." He leaned over and shouted, "It was your fault, because I trusted you to take care of her! It isn't bad enough that you had to go and regenerate into a fop? You had to go and lose Rose, too?"

She hadn't ever seen the Doctor this angry, not even when she'd saved her father's life and brought Reapers down on them all. Even at his worst, she'd never seen him hit anyone. And now, here he was, alive and livid, arguing with himself. One in black, the other in brown; one with close cropped hair, the other with an unruly fringe; one with blue eyes, the other with brown; yet, both the Doctor. How was this even possible?

"You hit me! I can't believe you hit me!" The Doctor got to his feet, pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed away the blood on his upper lip. He glanced at the stained cloth, then looked up with a dark expression. "Why do you think you can judge me? You don't know what happened! You weren't there, I was. D'you think I haven't spent every single minute agonizing over what happened? Imagining what I could've done differently? Poisoning myself with regret? Well, I have! And I'll tell you what else—I've also spent every minute trying to find a way to fix it. So hate me all you like, but at least I got her back!"

"With my help." The Doctor sucked on his knuckles to ease the sting, then shook his head. "I can't believe you hid the fact that it was Rose we were rescuing!"

"Would you have helped if you'd known it was her? I couldn't take the chance that you'd refuse. Everything was ready, I'd done all the calculations, I knew it would work. But I needed another Time Lord to help navigate the Void, and if you'd said no..." His face closed off, hiding his expression.

"You really think I would've refused? To rescue Rose?" He snorted. "And another thing—what was that back there on the sand? Were you snogging her?"

The Doctor glanced at Rose. The tiniest hint of a smirk turned up the corner of his mouth. "At least I admitted that I've got feelings for her."

"Took you long enough, too, didn't it?" he countered.

As the argument escalated, Rose quietly stepped away. Feeling rather light-headed, she sat on the bottom step of the long staircase and watched as the two incarnations of the Doctor argued. Every so often one or the other would gesture in her direction. She would've renounced reality once and for all, except that Mickey showed up after a few minutes, carrying little Johnny.

"What's all this, then?" He sat down beside her.

"Don't ask me," she said, taking her baby brother onto her lap. She rubbed noses with the baby, making him giggle. His innocent delight always made her smile and now helped restore a bit of reality to her system. "You can see 'em, though?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Both of 'em. What're they fighting for?"

Rose bit her lip. "Me, I think."

Mickey shook his head as the two Doctors began to grapple, throwing punches and shouting insults. "You better go and break it up. Won't have a ride home if you don't."

She sighed. Mickey was probably right. Good to know that she hadn't lost all grip on reality, though. Of course, she could be imagining Mickey's presence—his matter-of-fact acceptance of seeing two Doctors would serve to reinforce her delusion. But if Mickey wasn't real, she truly had nothing left.

A Gallifreyan phrase reached her ears, untranslated by the TARDIS. Rose winced. She'd never expected to see the Doctor again. Now she had two of them, but they couldn't seem to get along. In her mind, she dubbed them 'Nine' and 'Ten', to keep them straight. Would any more show up? There were eight previous incarnations, after all. The Doctor had told her about all of them not long after he'd regenerated. He hadn't mentioned being able to cross timelines and safely be in the same place as himself, though. Suppose the rest were waiting back at the TARDIS? Imagine the chaos!

Shifting Johnny over to her hip, Rose stood and made her way across the beach. The sand felt cool beneath her feet, but the air had grown hot. Only the occasional breeze kept her from being uncomfortable, and she wore practically nothing. How could the Doctor tolerate wearing a heavy black jacket? Or a pinstriped suit jacket over three layers of shirts?

The two men continued to shout at each other. She couldn't make out their words, but Ten jabbed his finger into Nine's face and looked fierce. Neither noticed her approach.

Rose cleared her throat. They ignored her.

She shouted, "Oi!" They kept arguing.

Johnny began to wail. And, as one, the Doctors noticed.

Ten smiled broadly, while Nine went a bit pale, his eyes going from Rose to the infant in her arms. Rose bounced the baby, trying to shush him, and Nine finally raised a hand to point. "That... that's a baby."

"Brilliant observation. Good to know that entire century spent in University was not in vain!" Ten rolled his eyes. After wiping his hands on a handkerchief, he walked over and took the baby from Rose's arms. It didn't take long for the baby to stop crying when presented with a stream of silly faces. Before long he began giggling at the Doctor. "Oh, look at that! He's got your smile, Rose."

"His name's Johnny," Rose said, grinning. "After you, sort of."

Ten raised his eyebrows in astonishment. "But that's brilliant! Never had a baby named after us, have we?"

If possible, Nine grew even more pale."But... but what's it doing here?"

"Mickey brought him down. They've been swimming—isn't that right? Yes, you have," she cooed, reaching out to tickle Johnny's damp toes.

Nine looked over to where Mickey waited, then back at the baby. "He's not Mickey's."

"No, he's not," Rose drawled with amusement. She glanced at her second Doctor. "You didn't tell him much, did you?"

Ten shrugged. "Didn't have time, really. And then I thought, why spoil the fun?"

Nine stared at his later self and the baby. Rose had never seen him look so flabbergasted. She decided to draw the sport out a little. "He was a bit of a surprise, really. I mean, who would've guessed?"

"Certainly shocked me, and I should've known better," Ten said, with a wink at Rose. "After all, it's what I did that brought him into existence."

Nine's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You... and... and... but... How?"

"It's quite simple, really." Ten grinned smugly. "You bring a man and a woman together, two that are destined to fall in love, and, well, nature tends to work the rest out on its own."

Nine's jaw dropped. He made noises, but no words came out of his mouth. He grew more alarmed when Ten unceremoniously handed the baby over to him.

"You! Don't you dare drop that baby!" Jackie's shrill voice carried across the beach.

His arms contracted automatically to make sure the baby didn't fall, but he shook his head. "I can't do this. I'm going back to the TARDIS."

"Not with the small fry, you're not," Ten said gaily. "Jackie forgave us for stealing Rose, all those years ago, but I'm not so sure she'll let you get away with taking this little one, too. Got to leave her someone to raise, after all."

"I don't understand. Surely you're not leaving him...?" He looked to Rose in bewilderment, then stared as his later incarnation swept Jackie up into a hug. "Well, I had my doubts, but that settles it—I've gone mad!"

Rose had forgotten how much this Doctor had hated spending time at the flat with her mother. After his regeneration he'd taken her home on a regular basis and had often stayed for tea and a friendly visit with her mum. She'd never figured out if a basic shift in personality caused the change, or whether he'd developed an appreciation for Jackie because of how she'd tended him during his regeneration sickness.

"Don't worry, Mum won't kick up a fuss. She's always known I'd be leaving if you came back for me. Good thing she'll have Johnny, yeah? He's my little brother," she added with a grin. "Didn't take long for her and Pete to get together here; this little fellow clinched the deal."

"Pete? Your father's alive, here?" He gave her a sharp look, then glanced around the beach, finally resting his gaze on Jackie. "And you've got your real mum?"

"Yeah, of course. Mickey, too. See, this world's Jackie and Mickey were killed awhile back." She deliberately skipped over the details, all she'd ever learned about timelines and paradoxes coming back to her. "First, Mickey decided to stay, and then a while later you did a brilliant spot of matchmaking and convinced Mum to hop over to be with Pete."

The Doctor stared at her, his blue eyes intense. "Then why d'you want to leave with us? You've got a family here, Rose. People who love you."

She reached up and touched his cheek. "You're my family, too. And I love you, even if you don't know it yet."

Jackie nudged Rose out of the way. "I want a word with you, Doctor."

He clenched his jaw and kept his eyes on Rose. "Fine, but use this cheek if you must. My successor's got a mean right hook, so that cheek's a bit sore already."

But, instead of the slap he expected, he received a kiss on his lesser-abused cheek. He jerked his gaze from Rose and gaped at Jackie. "What's that for?"

Jackie smiled. "For sending her home. For keeping her safe, just like you promised."

Rose inhaled in alarm and gave a sharp tug on her mother's arm. "Shut it, Mum! That hasn't happened yet—you're going to cause a paradox!"

"No, actually, it's all right. I won't be remembering any of this, once we're back home. Too dangerous—might end up causing a paradox, like you said, Rose. Glad to know I do the right thing, when the time comes," he added.

"You've always done the right thing," Rose said. But her eyes held a trace of sad memory, and she glanced away for a moment, lest the Doctor see that she resented some of the decisions he'd made for her, or rather, that he would eventually have to make for her.

Sensing the sombre mood, Jackie took the baby and gave Rose a quick kiss. "Don't leave without saying goodbye, d'you hear me? Pete's on his way from the links; he'll be here in ten or twenty minutes. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go have a word with himself." She nodded toward the other Doctor.

Once they were alone in the shade beside the TARDIS, the ninth Doctor took Rose by the hand. "I will always do whatever it takes to keep you safe. Apparently, that'll include something that kills me. And later, something that breaks my hearts." He looked seriously at her. "I've no regrets."

Rose swallowed and placed her palm over his chest, feeling once again the double beat of his hearts. The cold leather of his jacket grazed the sides of her hand, and with a wave of dizzy, wistful regret, she remembered this Doctor: his manic grin, his smouldering blue eyes, the way he smelled of mechanical grease and worn leather and exotic spices.

He reached up and covered her hand with his own, pressing it against his chest. With his other hand, he nudged a strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering to brush down her jaw. "You've changed," he said quietly.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Have I?" Rose asked.

"You look..." And he paused, his cheeks tingling ever so slightly with a blush as he looked her up and down and realized she wore nothing but the two-piece bathing suit and thin sarong. The words "grown up" came to mind, but he closed his mouth on them. That would seem to imply she hadn't been while travelling with him, and that made him feel a bit pervy. She had matured, though, and lost the last vestiges of baby fat. She hadn't lost her curves, but he noticed her muscles looked more toned. She also held herself differently. Less innocent, like she'd lost the carefree parts of her personality, and more shielded, as though she'd had to defend her innermost self from the world, locking away her heart.

That he recognized all too well, and for a moment he hated his later self for letting this happen to Rose, for letting her become like him. But, he'd seen the stark melancholy in his other self's eyes when he'd crossed his own timeline in order to ask a favour—"please, just one thing!"—and he'd felt the loneliness that would permeate every cell in his body. At the time he hadn't understood what had happened, but he certainly knew the utter loss he would feel without her. He'd do anything to keep Rose safe and that wouldn't change with his regeneration. Whatever had happened, or would happen, had been, and would be, beyond his control. And he'd chance crossing his own timeline to get her back, a dangerous risk, but under the circumstances, one he wholeheartedly agreed with.

"You cut your hair," he said finally, running his fingers through it with more daring than he usually possessed. "Looks nice."

"Better for all the running and getting into trouble I do." Rose gave a cheeky smile.

"Same old, eh?"

"Better with you."

He looked at her, seeing clearly how much she'd missed him. He felt a pang of regret as his hands moved over her hair, stroking and petting gently. "I'm sorry," he said. "So sorry."

"For what?"

"For whatever happened that made me regenerate. For stranding you here. And... for never saying how I felt. He—I—was right. I was a coward for not telling you."

Rose looked up at him, smiling, even though she had tears in her eyes. "Don't say that. You gave your life for mine—that's impressive. And it's not your fault that I've been stuck over here. It's just stupid luck that I couldn't hold on long enough and got pulled toward the breach. At least I was nabbed and brought here. It would've been a lot harder for you to save me out of the Void, yeah? And as for the other... I always knew you cared. Him," she jerked her head toward the tenth Doctor, "I wasn't always so sure. But, you? Never doubted it."

"Still, I should've told you. You fixed me when I was broken... made me want to live again, if I could live with you. But I never told you that, did I? I never showed you how much I needed you, and I should have! I should've kissed you, instead of just holding your hand."

But Rose shook her head. "Every time you held my hand, it was better than a kiss. It made me feel loved and needed and safe all at once. I know you had your reasons."

"Stupid, all of 'em! There's no excuse. I'm sorry." His fingers grazed her lips, feeling them curve into a smile.

"What's stopping you now?"

He dropped his hand, startled. "What?"

Rose reached up to caress the planes of his face. It felt so heavenly that he shut his eyes and let the shivers course down his spine without caring. She touched everywhere, as if memorizing his features. He felt her fingers move up his jaw, circle the mole on his right cheek, trace the edges of his ears, the lines of his forehead, the slight dip of his temples, then skim down his cheekbones, coming to rest finally on his mouth. He parted his lips as she outlined them with the tip of her finger.

She stepped closer, and his arms automatically wrapped around her, drawing her against him. He could feel the heat of her body even through his clothes. For a brief moment he wondered what that blessed warmth would feel like against his bare skin, fire touching ice. Would they burn together?

No, such thoughts were lunacy. She couldn't possibly find him attractive. His later self, sure—he'd turned into a pretty boy with lots of hair, freckles, and even dimples. Dimples! But now? Just an old man with big ears and a nose that could politely be called "Roman".

"What's stopping you?" Rose repeated softly.

He opened his eyes to see her looking up at him with eyes that nearly glowed with love for him. She didn't mind this body, then? His gaze dropped to her mouth and without meaning to, he felt himself leaning forward, tilting his head. The moment his lips brushed against hers, a jolt ran through his body, igniting something deep within him. He wanted to burn, so desperately, with her.

With a moan, he crushed her against him, kissing her with a ferociousness that surprised and dismayed him. But he couldn't slow down or soften the kiss. He needed this more than he needed to breathe.

Rose didn't have a respiratory bypass, though. Eventually she broke away, panting, but she kept her arms around him, not rejecting him or wanting to stop, just needing a moment to breathe. Amazing how exactly their bodies fit, each curve and plane conforming as if made for that purpose alone. He didn't know how he'd ever lived without Rose in his arms. He felt her hands slide beneath his jumper, creating trails of fire across his back. Her lips found their way to his neck... and was that him making those sounds?

His hands dropped to her waist, holding her against him as he kissed her again. She tasted indescribably of Time, and the Void, and the Universe itself, with just a touch of mango daiquiri. Pure, utter, need overwhelmed him. He turned and pressed her against the TARDIS. If he could form cohesive thoughts, he'd probably be worried about someone seeing them, specifically his later self. More specifically, Jackie Tyler. But he couldn't think, and after all, hadn't he caught himself snogging Rose down on the sand? He had loved her first... didn't he deserve this chance? Besides that, he'd have to erase his memory once they got back to their rightful universe—so unfair! Forget the way Rose's lips felt against his? The way her body curved just so, and the way her hips moulded to his? He'd rather die!

But, apparently, he would die, sooner rather than later, and without ever doing these sorts of things to Rose. Shame that, but it just underscored that he deserved this moment with her, preferably alone. A bed wouldn't be such a bad thing, either, although there would be rather a lot to explain to Rose about that. Right now, he didn't care. He'd explain afterwards, if necessary, or let his later self deal with the consequences.

At that moment, the TARDIS chose to open her doors, and as it happened, the two of them had been leaning against those very doors in the midst of their quite passionate embrace.

They tumbled inward, falling with a decided lack of grace. The Doctor landed hard on the metal ramp. His lean body cushioned Rose from the worst of the fall, but he had the breath knocked from his lungs as a result. Still, once he'd recovered, the Doctor found their position to be rather close to what he'd been imagining just a few moments earlier. It could work, he decided. He wrapped his fingers around the back of Rose's head, intending to pull her down for another kiss, but he noticed a tiny spark of gold flashing in her eyes. It gave him pause, and during that long second, he noticed something important.

The TARDIS was singing to Rose.

(To Be Continued...)

Author's Notes: I forgot to mention it before, but for those interested in such things, this story uses British spelling and grammar. I couldn't have done any of this without my beta reader, Little Zink, and my new Brit-Pickers, aligoestonz and jvgymnast.