Whoops, this one is a short one. I'll try to do at least two more this weekend.

"Yes, well, there we go. But we still haven't finished. Oi, you! Who the heck are you!"

The suspicious bowtie wearer turned as Donna called him out. He looked behind him, turned back around and looked at the red head with a quizzical expression. Oh, how had he missed annoying Donna Noble.

"You, Bowtie boy!" – at that he looked down at his bowtie, up to Donna again, held her eyes for a few seconds… and then his gaze fell once again back to the bowtie as if to check whether it would fit the description or if indeed it hadn't gone somewhere in the few moments he lost it from sight.

By now everyone else was also staring at him. Young Rose and the 10th Doctor were looking quite amused at these antics, older Rose had a thoughtful expression on, as if she was weighing the stranger up, Donna was gaping with exasperation and the 9th Doctor was stuck in a permanent facepalm.

Finally, really slowly, he raised his left hand up, towards the bowtie with the index finger extended and pointed to himself. He did that so carefully that it looked like his hand was creeping up on him. Mouthing to Donna 'Me?', he mentally praised his acting skills this regeneration- he had bought more than enough time to think about what to say to Rose…well both of her, and to his younger selves. And brilliant Donna. So he was all ready to swagger to their group when she called him again.

"Yes you! Suspenders, bowtie, yellow bike fetish! Here, now!"

As the 11th Doctor started approaching, his 9th incarnation finally removed his hand from his face in favour of articulating his annoyance better to his 10th self. He turned to him, waving his hand in accusation against the approaching fashion victim and exclaimed:

"And then there's this buffoon!"

"Who's that then?" – 10 responded with no small amount of curiosity looking over at his younger self while everybody else was staring at the newcomer, only to see him facepalm once more and mutter:

"Oh, take a wild guess."

"Sorry, couldn't hear you from back there! Don't have the ears (he gestured to 9 vaguely) for the job anymore. Hello, hello, hello! Wow, the entire…gang! Is here! Having fun! Should've come earlier, made a proper party, with party hats and name badges and lots of fizzy drinks! Oh, I wore a name badge once, and let me tell you. Those things are proper cool, not to mention useful in situations you may not know who you are talking to." – the newcomer said rubbing his hands together and taking in the puzzled faces of everyone around him (from a disturbingly close distance, Donna thought.)

Meanwhile, the tenth Doctor seemed to have finally made the said wild guess and joined his younger self in the facepalm, saying in a barely audible voice- "Oh- that chin and fashion sense, it can't be. " The stranger just beamed at him. "Oh, you've got to be kidding."

9 just nodded.

The bowtied apparition did not seem to take any notice and he started greeting all the humans he had not seen in ages by the traditional human way nowadays. Or at least the way he thought was traditional and human (kissing on the cheeks, or more precisely, the air next to the cheeks. He never really understood that weird human tradition and judging by the horrified look on young Rose's face, who he had just greeted, neither did most humans. Bizarre, but, you know, humans often are). He next moved on to his 10th self who almost jumped back in surprise and visibly flinched as if he expected an enormous explosion to occur right there and then when he felt the hands of his older self on his shoulders. His eyebrows shot up while his future regeneration was giving him air kisses. The same entity physically touching at two points of the timeline and no paradox, no tears in the fabric of reality- nothing! That was completely and utterly impossible! Well… there was a way… But if he was right, than Rose had been correct as well- they were in very, very deep trouble.

Speaking of trouble the 11th doctor was now approaching Donna to perform his strange ritual and Donna was getting ready to slap his weird-ass fringe right into orbit, were he to try that. Luckily, even after the long years without her (however, trained to a semi-professional level by travelling with Amy), the Doctor was still an expert in reading Noble intentions. So while his younger form paled next to him, anticipating the cracking noise, he expertly dodged Donna by giving a small awkward wave ten centimetres from her face and shuffled over to older Rose, who still seemed very concentrated and was staring right into his eyes.

Because they were the same pair of ancient eyes she had stared into when her Doctor was trying to hide something, or sneak in a baby crocodile to live in the bathtub, or when he was deeply hurt (which luckily did not happen too often nowadays, except for that one time when he discovered that pears won the most popular fruit of the decade award, instead of bananas, which took an undeserved seventh place), or when he held her close and smiled tenderly.

Well…(her mind drawled out just like he always does)…technically they were a different colour. But the spark behind them? There was no way she would ever mistake that.

By the time he had finished smacking the air next to her ears she had him figured all out and stopped him from swanning off by practically crashing against him in a tight hug. He seemed a bit surprised at first, mouth open and non-existing eyebrows raised (how had she figured him out so quickly!), but he soon responded and snuggled against her neck, closing his eyes.

And that is when the younger Rose Tyler realised who the newcomer was. Because she knew, however much she had changed in the future, she knew that one thing would never change. And because of that, such a hug was reserved for only one person in existence.

And right now there were three of him.