A/N: Sorry to everyone who didn't fully understand the last chapter but I wrote it before I wrote the Doomsday chapter, I got a little bored at school and you know what that can do to our brains!
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Quick outline of the last chapter for those who didn't understand it:
Basically the Doctor has had a letter in his pocket telling him to prevent Rose's 'death' in Doomsday, however he managed to save her but instead she got stuck in an alternate universe. This causes a wound in time and the Reapers appear because Rose is supposed to be with him always.
Tala sent them back in time (for reasons I haven't decided yet) to the event just before Rose and the Doctor got together. The pair realise what they have to do and why they were sent back.
Theta and Jack have to produce another letter telling himself what to do to prevent his past self loosing Rose forever and deliver it without being seen.
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Chapter 25: Though You Feel Lost Without Her, Soon The Night Time Will Be Over, And You'll Be Walking Hand In Hand, At A Christmas Time In Winter Wonderland With Your Best Friend
"What exactly do you want to write?" Theta shrugged at Jack, Jack looked at the progress they'd made in the last half an hour, so far it resulted in a comma after 'Theta'. "We need to try harder." The Doctor nodded, sheepishly.
"How about 'Dear Theta'?"
"Doctor…" Jack drawled warningly. Jack leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Look at the old letter and adapt it." The Doctor reached across and picked up the letter that Jack had discarded earlier.
"This is hard."
"Something the Doctor can't do?" Jack teased.
"I never said that. It just has to be done correctly so we get Rose back." Theta went on the defensive.
"Well hurry up and do it. I'm getting bored and so is Tala." Jack laughed as the Doctor stuck his tongue out. Behind them Tala did a loud raspberry making them turn round. Jack reached for his niece. "There's my girl."
"Everyone's ganging up on me!" Theta mumbled, the TARDIS let out a variety of sounds that sounded like she was laughing at him and agreeing with him at the same time. Jack balanced his niece on his lap.
"You want your mummy don't you?" Tala nodded slightly. She understood him perfectly well.
"We'll have her back soon I promise," Theta reached out a hand and brushed his daughter's face gently. "We'll get your mummy back."
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An hour later the letter was done.
"Now we just have to deliver it."
"How easy!" Jack muttered sarcastically. Theta glared at him reaching for his jacket and a warmly wrapped up Tala. Just as they were about to step out of the door the TARDIS engines started up and then stopped again.
"Don't look at me, she's your ship." Jack told him as the Doctor did an impressive impression of a Goldfish at him.
"I swear I'll kill Rose if she's been telling you everything about me."
"Sure you will." Jack laughed and opened the door for him. They rounded a corner and watched Rose and Mickey carry 'the Doctor' up the stairs.
"That should've happened hours ago!" Theta told Jack as they slowly crept closer. "The TARDIS must've sent us back, have no idea why." Jack shook his head.
"She might know how useless you can be with trying to do things at the right time."
"I can do things at the right time." Jack looked at him.
"Okay, waking up? Realising Rose wasn't Rose? Werewolf? Abandoning Rose? Realising what the Cybus industries was too late? May I say how obvious was it? Cybus, cybermen."
"You don't need to rub it in. I knew Rose had told you everything." Jack tried not to laugh as the Doctor had, for once, lost an argument.
The pair reached the flat and peered through the window.
"Aw don't you look peaceful?" The look the Doctor gave Jack could make a Cyberman blow itself up. The Doctor turned his attention back to Rose and saw what she was doing.
"I'll kill her! I will!"
"Again is that twice now?" Obviously Theta decided to ignore what Jack had said.
"She told me that Mickey had undressed and dressed me! The little liar!"
"And that matters how?" Jack asked confused.
"I should've been awake for that!" Suddenly Tala let out a cry of glee at seeing her 'mother'. The Doctor and Jack chanced a quick looked at each other before ducking down as Rose approached the window curious at the noise. Theta held a hand over his daughter's mouth as she began to cry. "Hush little one, The day is done. I'll hold you tight And I'll make it right. Go to your dreams Full of bright sunbeams, Complete with butterfly wings Where a bright angel sings. Sleep little one sleep, And slip into a dream's keep." He began to sing the song that Rose often sang for their daughter, Tala soon slipped off to sleep. Suddenly Jack pulled at him and they found themselves hiding round the corner as Jackie walked into the flat. Cautiously they approached the window and listened in.
"Here we go. Tina the Cleaner's got this lodger, medical student. And she was fast asleep, so I just took it." Jackie told Rose handing her a stethoscope to put on. "Though, I still say we should take him to hospital."
"We can't. They'd lock him up. They'd dissect him. One bottle of his blood could change the future of the human race."
"No! Shush!"
"She'll shut up for Rose but not me." Theta told Jack disappointedly. They pair watched as Rose placed the stethoscope over his hearts.
"Both working."
"What d'you mean 'both'?"
"Well, he's got two hearts."
"Oh, don't be stupid."
"I should've known she'd argue back." Jack whispered from their hiding place.
"He has!"
"Anything else he's got two of?" Jack put his hand to his mouth at Jackie's comment as well as the repulsed look on his friends face.
"Leave him alone." They watched as Jackie and Rose left the room.
"We need to drop it off later when Rose and Mickey leave." Theta rolled his eyes as Jack opened his mouth to question him. "I woke up now and again."
"If we sneak in we can slip it into your coat." Jack told him as they crept towards the stairs.
"It won't work." Theta told him, Jack growled. "I don't wear that leather jacket again." He gestured to himself. "It'll either need to go into Rose's jacket or the dressing gown." Jack considered the options.
"It'll have to be the dressing gown. Rose's jacket's too risky." Theta nodded and followed Jack down the stairs.
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Jack snuck into the flat and towards the sleeping Doctor as Jackie positioned the Christmas tree that had been delivered, he moving the tree from the door had given him the chance to slip inside. He walked into Rose's room and was pleasantly surprised to see that he wasn't disappointed with it, it was truly Rose. No age old Winnie the Pooh wallpaper or teddies on the floor, it was just…well…Rose.
He quickly stopped his train of thought and began looking round for the dressing gown discovering it was the first of his problems.
Jack had spent 15 minutes searching Rose's room for the dressing gown and coming up empty handed. He pulled out his phone.
"Where's the dressing gown?" He asked as he dialled the Doctor. "Ah? What do you mean 'ah'?…You forgot to mention that it was given to you after you woke up?…Couldn't you have mentioned that before…No you couldn't have if you forgot…WHAT!" He practically yelled, suddenly realising that Jackie was in the flat still, he managed to dive into the wardrobe as Jackie opened the door. "That was close." He muttered down the phone. "Mickey and Rose are coming up?" He asked as the conversation continued, "I'm in the wardrobe…oh…" He leaped out of it in a flash as if it was contaminated and hid under the bed, "Thanks for that…I'll be down as soon as I can." He soon heard Rose and Mickey enter, as well as Jingle Bells begin to play. "Jingle Bells, monkey smells, Melman laid an egg, Marty thinks that Alex stinks and the Camels say Oy Vey!" He began to sing quietly as the tree grew closer to the room.
The door suddenly flew open as Rose ran into the room.
"We've got to save the Doctor!"
"What're you doing!"
"We can't just leave him!"
"Mickey!" Jack heard something being chopped up and with a small amount of regret found it was a chair not Mickey the Idiot. "Leave it! Get out! Get out! Mickey! Get out of there!" Jack watched as Jackie's legs ran into the room, well it was all he could see of her. "Just leave him!"
"Get in here!" Jack growled at Mickey slightly. He watched as the wardrobe slid across the door.
"Doctor, wake up! " Jack found himself agreeing with Rose's statement even tough he knew it would have a happy end, or so he hoped. He was eternally thankful that the Doctor had remembered the wardrobe getting chopped up as he imagined still being in there.
"I'm gonna get killed by a Christmas tree!"
'Pity it failed.' Jack thought. 'Better yet pity it didn't get Mickey.'
"Help me." The whisper was so soft that he barely heard it; he then heard the whirring of the sonic screwdriver. Then an explosion, pretty soon Jack found himself covered in what was the remains of the Christmas tree.
"Remote control. But who's controlling it?" Jack watched as Rose quickly ran out of the room and brought a dressing gown in, as the Doctor stood as Rose tried to slip it on him he reached for a pocket; trying to slip the letter in, just as he positioned the letter over the pocket the Doctor moved.
"Damn." Jack cursed quietly. He crawled out from under the bed, which proved to be agony for his large build. He ran out of the flat praying that the group were busy as he reached the other set of stairs where Tala's father was.
"Did you manage?"
"Would we be here if I did?" Jack snapped at Theta, Theta shook his head and the continued to watch the scene before them, just as the other Doctor threw himself back in pain.
"What's wrong!" The pair heard Rose ask.
"You woke me up too soon. I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." Gold vortex escaped 'the Doctor's' mouth.
"Pretty." Jack commented.
"Shush!" Came a harsh whisper from next to him.
"You see? The Pilot Fish could smell it. A million miles away. So they eliminate the defence - that's you lot - and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on me for a couple of year…"
"Oh! Oh! Oh!"
"My head!" Jackie knelt in front of 'the Doctor'. "I'm having a neuron implosion. I need…"
"What do you need?"
"I need…"
"Say it, tell me, tell me…"
"I need…"
"Painkillers?"
"I need…"
"Do you need aspirin? Codeine? Paracetamol? Oh, I dunno…Pepto-Bismol? Liquid paraffin. Vitamin C? Vitamin D? Vitamin E? Is it food? Something simple? Uh…a bowl of soup? A nice bowl of soup? Soup and a sandwich? Soup and a little ham sandwich?"
"I need you to shut up."
"Oh, he hasn't changed that much, has he?" Jack watched as 'the Doctor' threw himself against the wall.
"We haven't got much time. If there's Pilot Fish, then…" Jack watched with amusement as 'the Doctor' produced an apple from his dressing gown. "Why's there an apple in my dressing gown?"
"Oh, that's Howard, sorry."
"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?" He didn't sound in pain any longer.
"He gets hungry."
"What, he gets hungry in his sleep?" 'The Doctor' looked so cute when he was confused. It was clear in Rose's eyes that she was thinking the same.
"Sometimes." He suddenly shouted with pain and collapsed hitting his head off the wall and grimacing.
"Brain…collapsing…" He grabbed Rose's arms and held them tightly. "P…the Pilot Fish. The Pilot Fish mean... that something…something…Something's coming." Jack gave the Doctor a questioning look.
"My regeneration went a little off this time, what do you expect it was my tenth time?" They crept past the window once they'd carried the other Doctor inside. Jack chanced a look at the window and saw Rose mopping 'the Doctor's' brow. She was concerned, Mickey suddenly walked past carrying his laptop, obviously he'd brought it with them earlier, looking angry and jealous.
"Talk about falling in love with your nurse."
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"How do you suppose we deliver the letter now?" Jack asked. Theta stroked Tala's hair as she slept.
"I'll try." He looked at the clock in Tala's room, Rose had insisted on putting up an Earth clock, even though time didn't apply so much in the TARDIS. "They should be asleep now." He walked out of the TARDIS and towards the flat. Much to his dismay he found them all still awake. He quietly took out the nails from the cat flat and peeped through as he had done when he met Rose. He could see Mickey and Rose in the hallway talking quietly.
"The Doctor wouldn't do this. The old Doctor. The proper Doctor. He'd wake up. He'd save us." Theta felt his hearts tighten, he knew his regeneration had been hard on her but he truly had no idea it had been this heard. A few tears ran down his cheeks at the sight and thought of Rose not wanting the new him but the old him. He muffled a sob quickly as it escaped.
"You really love him, don't you?" He smiled slightly before remembering that she hadn't gotten used to the new him yet. Mickey hugged her and Theta was, for once, grateful that Mickey was there. He stood and turned on his heel making his way back to the TARDIS.
Jack heard the door bang open and watched a furious Doctor enter the ship.
"What's wrong?"
"She loves the old me, not me as I am now." Theta sat down on the seat, and Jack could see his eyes were puffy.
"You know that's not true!"
"Do I?" A few more tears ran down his cheeks.
"Yes you do, she had a hard time adjusting but she loves you, you know that, you've seen into her mind." Theta paused for a minute before realising how stupid he'd been.
"I'm an idiot aren't I?"
"Yep." Jack smirked slightly, "Close enough to rival Mickey." Before he even finished his sentence Jack had to move swiftly to dodge the trench coat thrown his way.
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Jack and the Doctor heard the sudden smashing of glass,
"The spaceship's arrived." The Doctor told him, they walked out and watched the spaceship hover over London. They walked towards the Powell Estate.
"Did you pick up the letter?" Jack asked him quickly.
"Yup and I told the TARDIS to look after Tala." Jack looked at him for a moment. "This had better work."
As they neared the Powell Estate they saw the door to Jackie's flat swing open.
"Quick into the TARDIS!" They ran as fast as they could into the TARDIS. As they entered the TARDIS gave a questioning buzz. "Calm down old girl, its us." Theta patted the consol.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jack asked him suddenly taking in their surroundings.
"Positive." Jack looked at the screen,
"Look out someone's coming." The pair climbed quickly to the next level, they didn't have time to bolt for the corridor as the door had already begun to open.
"No chance you could fly this thing?"
"Not anymore, no." Rose told Mickey clearly annoyed, Jack and Theta lay flat on the upper grating watching as quiet as possible.
"Well, you did it before..." Jack put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder at the growl that emerged from his friend's lips. He didn't like the accusatory tone that came from Mickey's lips, clearly Mickey thought Rose was lying.
"I know, but it's sort of been... wiped out of my head, like it's forbidden." They placed the other Doctor on the floor. "Try that again and I think the Universe rips in half."
"It's not the only way the universe could rip in half." Jack muttered.
"I always wondered how I'd gotten into the TARDIS." Theta told him gently. "And how I got the bruises around my angles." Jack had too noticed that Mickey had gripped the Doctor's angles unforgivingly the complete opposite to the Doctor's 'wife' who'd gently carried him.
"Ah, better not, then."
"Maybe not." Jack shivered at the tone Rose had now used with Mickey, she was angry with Mickey. Jack had only ever heard that tone once before – when she was in labour. It was reserved obviously, for certain occasions; in this case when Mickey harassed her.
"So, what do we do? Just sit here?" Theta felt like saying 'No? Really?' to Mickey, except the thought of ripping the Time Space Continuum apart stopped him, they already had one paradox they didn't need another one.
"That's as good as it gets."
"Right, here we go. Nice cup of tea." Jackie offered Rose and Mickey a tea, but the Doctor was confused about how he could've returned to normal if he hadn't been given any tea.
"Hmm, the solution to everything..."
"Now, stop your moaning. I'll get the rest of the food." Rose looked down at the man who would become her husband, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
"Tea. Like we're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British." Rose seemed to absorbed with tracing the Doctor's features with her eyes, it became clear to all but Theta, who was busy looking at the tea on the consol, that Rose was falling for the new, more attractive Doctor. "How does this thing work? It picks up TV; maybe we could see what's going on out there. Maybe we've surrendered. What do you do to it?" The Doctor took a chance and looked into Rose's mind briefly, the most prominent thought that came to the surface was 'Can't he do anything on his own?'
"I dunno; it sort of tunes itself."
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"Maybe it's a distress signal." The pair on the upper grating couldn't believe how dumb Mickey was, if it was a distress signal the whole TARDIS would be screeching, and clearly from Rose's expression she was getting fed up of the idiot.
"Fat lot of good that's gonna do." Rose was now resorting to sarcasm with Mickey.
"Are you gonna be a misery all the time?"
"Yes."
"You should look at it from my point of view - stuck in here with your mum's cooking." Both Jack and the Doctor shuddered at the thought of Jackie's cooking, while Rose had been recovering from giving birth they'd all been subjected to Jackie's cooking, something that had made both of them slightly ill.
"Where is she? I'd better go and give her a hand. It might start raining missiles out there."
"Tell her anything from a tin, that's fine."
"Why don't you tell her yourself?"
"I'm not that brave." Rose paused on the handle, a carefully masked smirk appearing on her face.
"Oh, I don't know..." She wanted him to tell her mother simply so he would get a slap. Obviously he bought the act. Rose stepped out and screamed.
"Rose?" Mickey dropped the flask on the floor and the tea started to leak out of it.
"Get off! Get off me!" Mickey ran out as fast as he could.
"The door! Close the door!" Mickey slammed the door shut. Theta breathed a sigh of relief and jumped off the grating, he actually jumped off. He walked over to himself and tapped himself with the toe of his converse trainers.
"Is it a good idea to do that?" Jack asked.
"Yep, I'm out for the count," He looked at the tea pouring out, "Well at least for the next five minutes." He looked at himself once more. "Wait I have to thank the idiot and Jackie for this." He pulled a face. Theta took the letter out of his jacket, "Come on!"
Jack and Theta ran towards the wardrobe quickly. They began to search the racks looking for the Doctor's clothes he would eventually wear. The suits had been the first problem they couldn't find them at all, Theta hadn't realised that the wardrobe was completely designed for his ninth self's needs. The trench coats were found quickly after that; take note of the plural. There on the rail were six trench coats all the same colour.
"Which one did you pick?" Jack asked him angrily.
"The one on the end…no it was the one on the middle…or was it that one."
"You don't remember do you?" Theta shook his head slightly. Jack sank down to the floor. "This is the best plan ever you realise that? First of all we mess up and get Rose stranded in another universe causing a paradox, then we come up with a harebrained scheme to save her, but it goes wrong constantly. This is the typical 'perfect' plan." Suddenly the entire conversation outside was being pumped through the TARDIS.
"If I can hear English... then it's being translated. Which means it's working. Which means..."
"And here I appear." Theta told Jack suddenly, they stopped searching and headed towards the control room.
"Did you miss me?"
"Told you." Jack bolted for the doors to watch the scene outside unfold around them. They arrived just in time for the Doctor's rant at Rose.
"Now...first thing's first...be honest. How do I look?" Jack turned to look at the Doctor.
"I was still loopy! Anyway I wanted to check I didn't have those ears." Jack shook his head before peering out of the window once more.
"Um...different."
"Good different or bad different?"
"Just...different."
"Am I...ginger?"
"No, you're just sort of brown."
"Ah, I wanted to be ginger. I've never been ginger." He turned back to Rose. "And you, Rose Tyler, fat lot of good you were - you gave up on me - oh, that's rude. That's the sort of man I am now, am I? Rude. Rude and not ginger."
"I'm glad Rose has managed to cope with you since day one." Jack told him as the Doctor began to pout next to him.
"I'll take that as a compliment." The Doctor told him.
"It wasn't meant to be."
"I demand to know who you are!"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
"See, there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I - I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested." They watched the other Doctor begin to walk round. "Am I funny? Am I sarcastic?" Jack seemed to begin nodding at sarcastic. "Sexy?" Jack shrugged as he watched the Doctor's future wife blush as he winked at her. "Right old misery? Life and soul?" A nod came again. "Right-handed?" Another nod. "Left-handed?" "A gambler? A fighter?" Two nods. "A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob." Jack nodded fervently at the last remark only to get an elbow in the ribs from the Doctor who looked quite annoyed with him.
"You asked!" He protested.
"It was rhetorical."
"You should've said. I thought it was obvious." Jack shook his head.
"I 'really' can't wait until Tala becomes like this." Jack moaned quietly, but the Doctor heard him, earning himself another jab in the ribs. "You know when we get Rose back, I'll kill her too. You're too much like her now."
"And how am I gonna react when I see this? A great big threatening button." They watched the newer Doctor run out of sight as he climbed a small set of stairs but they still heard him. "A Great Big Threatening Button. Which Must Not Be Pressed Under Any Circumstances. Am I right? Let me guess, it's some sort of control matrix? Hmm? Hold on, what's feeding it? And what've we got here? Blood? Yeah, definitely. Blood. Human blood. A Positive. With just a dash of iron. Ahh. But that means...blood control-- blood control! Oh! I haven't seen blood control for years! You're controlling all the A Positives!" There was a slight pause. "Which leaves us with a great big stinking problem. 'Cause...I really don't know who I am. I don't know when to stop. So if I see a Great Big Threatening Button Which Should Never Ever Be Pressed...then I just wanna do this."
"No!" Came a few screams.
"What did you do?" Jack asked him.
"Just hit the button. Human's worry too much." Jack nodded agreeing with him.
"What happens next?" He asked as the voices grew quieter.
"Oh the usual, I challenge them, nearly lose, get my hand cut off, it grows back, save the Earth."
"You lost your hand?" Jack looked at him slightly disturbed.
"It grew back, see." He waved it in front of Jack's face. "No harm done." Jack looked confused but didn't press the matter further.
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Jack moved back as Rose, Mickey, Harriet Jones and the other Doctor moved towards the TARDIS.
"What are you doing?" Theta asked him.
"They're about to come in."
"I never came in I stayed outside." Theta sighed and mumbled in Gallifreyan.
"I'm going to get Rose to tell me exactly what all of you mutterings mean," Jack was pleased to note that the Doctor paled significantly.
"By the ancient rites of combat, I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time. And when go you back to the stars and tell others of this planet... when you tell them of it's riches - it's people - it's potential. When you talk of the Earth, then make sure that you tell them this: It - is - defended."
"Whoa!" Jack inputted as he fell to the floor.
"Are you okay?" The Doctor asked him concerned.
"I just feel a little dizzy,"
"The beam will tend to do that." Theta helped him back up and Jack leaned his whole weight against the door.
"My Doctor."
"Another one fell for you?" Jack asked as Harriet Jones hugged the newer Doctor. Theta rolled his eyes.
"I really do give up with you three."
"Three?"
"You, Rose and the TARDIS." Jack nodded.
"Are there many more out there?" Harriet Jones asked.
"Oh, not just Sycorax. Hundreds of species. Thousands of them. And the human race is drawing attention to itself. Every day you're sending out probes and messages and signals - this planet's so noisy. You're getting noticed...more and more." The other Doctor looked at Harriet Jones. "You'd better get used to it."
"Rose!"
"Mum!"
"Oh! Talking of trouble...!" Rose ran and hugged Jackie
"May I say I absolutely love the pyjamas." Jack told him stifling a laugh.
"I know they're so me, aren't they?" Theta mock agreed. Putting on an accent. The pair's ears pricked up at a familiar word spoken by Harriet Jones' right hand man.
"It's a message from Torchwood. They say they're ready."
"Tell them to fire."
"Fire at will." A loud noise erupted around them and five green lasers met in the middle before shooting upwards towards the sky.
"TORCHWOOD!" The Doctor's eyes flashed for an instant. "I should've realised back then."
"You'll figure it out, this time you will I know it."
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"Jack get out of the TARDIS."
"Huh?" Jack didn't understand the sudden need for him to be out of the way. "Why?"
"So we can deliver this letter."
"I'll freeze!" Theta rolled his eyes, then paused mid roll. "Then again it'd make no difference if you were in or out."
"You're confusing me."
"I'm confusing myself." Theta grinned, "This is our last chance."
"Its beautiful out there." Jack told him, still watching out of the windows.
"It's ash, from the ship breaking up." Theta informed him.
"You had to go and spoil it."
"Yep."
"They're coming!" Jack squeaked, the Doctor stood up from the seat he had on the grating and moved towards the door. "Please let this work." Jack prayed.
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They watched as Jackie, Mickey Rose and the other Doctor emerged form the flats.
"Oh, that's beautiful. What are they, meteors?"
"It's the spaceship breaking up in the atmosphere. This isn't snow, it's ash."
"Okay, not so beautiful."
"This is a brand new planet Earth. No denying the existence of aliens now - everyone saw it. Everything's new." As the pair came to a halt besides the TARDIS, Theta gently opened the door wincing at the sudden creak it gave, shutting it again before anyone looked their way.
"And what about you? What are you gonna do next?" Theta ran his screwdriver over the hinge on the TARDIS door, he carefully opened the door once more breathing a sigh of relief as no squeak came.
"Well...back to the…" Theta knew what was coming and closed the door again quickly as 'he' looked at the TARDIS. "TARDIS...same old life.
"Are having that door open or closed?" Jack asked.
"Well I quite like it closed obviously!" Theta spat, shaking his head in anger.
"On…on your own?"
"Why, don't you wanna come?"
"Well, yeah." Jack opened the door this time.
"Do you, though?"
"Yeah!"
"I just thought... 'cause I changed..."
"Yeah, I... I thought, 'cause you changed... you might not want me anymore."
"Oh, I'd love you to come!" The other Doctor told her happily.
"Okay!" The pair laughed and grinned at each other. Theta hurt inside to hear Rose laugh once more especially when it was directed at him specifically.
"She's falling for you again." Jack whispered into his ear.
"You're never gonna stay, are you?" Mickey sounded as if he was giving Rose another ultimatum, from what Jack had seen and heard of Mickey he had a pretty low opinion of him. To him Mickey was the stereotypical male who dictated what his wife did, as well as who and what she saw.
"There's just so much out there. So much to see...I've got to." Theta's hands clenched, Rose shouldn't've had to explain herself to anyone.
"Yeah."
"Well, I reckon you're mad. The pair of you. It's like you go looking for trouble." Just as Theta managed to find the other Doctor's pocket he ran off towards Jackie.
"Trouble's just the bits in-between!" The newer Doctor wrapped an arm around Jackie's shoulders looking up at the sky. It's all waiting out there, Jackie. It's brand new to me. All those planets...creatures and horizons...I haven't seem them yet! Not with these eyes..." They watched the other Doctor walk back to Rose. "And it is gonna be...fantastic." Theta managed to slip the letter in his other self's trench coat pocket; he grinned at Jack. They shut the door quickly and watched his other self hold his hand out to Rose.
"That hand of yours still gives me the creeps." Rose grabbed his hand and shuffled closer to him. "So, where're we gonna go first?"
"Um... that way." He pointed up at the sky. "No, hold on... that way." Rose followed his hand.
"That way?"
"Hmm?" Rose nodded.
"Yeah. That way." The pair smiled at each other for a small while, before looking up at the sky. Rose seemed to notice something and look back at the TARDIS, Theta gasped as she looked at him straight in the eyes through the window panes. Nothing happened, no reapers, no rip in time, just silence.
"She can't see you." Jack told him. "The glass is stopping her." They watched as Rose smiled at both of them, holding their gaze before turning away to look at the sky.
With that Jack and Theta faded away.
TBC
Next Chappie: Barcelona, the letter is found.
After this chapter there are I think three more, two of them are to correct Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. There might be a fourth for an epilogue but I'm making no promises.
Don't worry I'm not gonna go through all the eps again!
More to do with the BAD WOLF theory later on in the fic.