The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS, a grin immediately spreading on his face. The TARDIS hadn't wanted to cooperate with his plans, and instead they had landed on New Earth three times before she'd finally taken them to their correct destination. He had no idea who would want to see him, and more importantly who would want to see Danielle, but he wanted to push it out of his mind and do exactly what he'd promised; take them all to some real snow.

He'd parked them under a bridge just far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the city streets that they could walk out into it without being noticed, and for a grand reveal that he wanted Danielle to see. It was going to be perfect, and would make up for the rather dangerous Christmas that they'd just gone through.

He held the door open with his arm. "Alright, you two," he called in. "Fourth time's the charm!"

His grin spread even more as Danielle came barrelling towards him, skirt hitched up so she wouldn't trip over. "Now this is beautiful," she breathed, holding her hand out to catch some of the flakes.

When she had woken up in the morning she had spent a while being a little flustered. The Doctor had kissed her, and he'd still wanted whatever they were exploring. He hadn't made for of her, or pushed her away. Instead, he'd just been happy with her and she was so happy that he felt that way. Everything was still so new to her that she was just glad she was going down on the adventure with someone she trusted.

Then she'd remembered the adventures, and she remembered that he'd promised her something with real snow. She knew that he wouldn't disappoint, and as she stumbled out of the TARDIS and into the street outside, she knew she had been right. She looked around at all of the posters that littered the stone walls, then up and the sky where the snow was falling in a rather picturesque fashion.

"Jack would have loved this."

It wasn't the first time she'd brought up the other man that morning, but like he did last time, the Doctor brushed over it. He didn't know how to explain why he was running away from the impossible man, but he also didn't want to lie and tell her that he was dead, either. He'd felt it when Rose had brought him back to life; Jack wasn't going to be dying anytime soon.

"Maybe we can go somewhere warmer next time," Rose stated as she stepped out after the pair. "Aren't you sick of winter? Somewhere with a bit of sun, like Spain, or Italy."

"Oh, I would love to see ancient Rome," Danielle replied excitedly. "Did you know that the government distributed bread to poor citizens, and it had a stamp on it so that they could help protect from bread fraud, and…"

"Where are we now, then?" Rose interrupted before she could get too far into explaining about 'bread fraud'.

"London, your neck of the woods," the Doctor explained. He held out his hand to Danielle, giving his fingers a little wiggle and she happily took it. For some reason he just felt more comfortable holding her hand now so openly. Rose didn't seem to mind either as they all walked side by side out from underneath the bridge. "Victorian era, I should think."

"You should think?" Danielle asked. "You mean you don't know?"

"Well, it's the Victorian era, that's close enough, isn't it?" he replied, feeling a little wounded.

"That could mean anything," she replied. "Victoria reigned for almost 65 yea…"

She trailed off as they rounded the corner from the calm place where they'd landed into a bustling market place. Vendors were shouting their wares, people were walking in groups and chatting amongst themselves. The smell of food cooking was just enough that it smelt delicious rather than overwhelming.

"Oh wow," she whispered as Rose grinned happily. "This is amazing."

"Isn't it?" the Doctor boasted. "Shall we have a look around?"

She was happy to follow him as they headed into the market. Rose immediately made a beeline to a stall selling trinkets, wondering if there was something she could buy her mum so she knew that she wasn't being forgotten whilst she was travelling time and space.

"It's like a Christmas Card," Danielle gushed. "The snow, the people, the-the horses!" she motioned to the horse that was parked by the cart it has obviously pulled to the square. "There's a horse, in the market! The most my market has is Dodgy Dave and his Adidat shoes."

He chuckled at her happiness as she tugged on his hand. Her line of questioning about when they were had obviously faded from her mind. Although they weren't too far away from her home she was still taking it in with an infectious joy that had him beaming as well. He loved seeing the universe through the eyes of his friends; he was so glad he'd started travelling with people again.

"Oh, oh, oh!" she cried like a child, tugging on his hand again. "Can we try some roasted chestnuts? I've never tried them before, but they sound delicious."

"I don't see why not, Danni-Girl," he replied, once again not noticing how he'd easily slipped into the nickname he had never made up for her. "I'm sure I've got a few coins in one of these pockets."

"Doctor!"

No one else in the market seemed to notice the screams, but three heads quickly looked in one direction. Rose quickly made her way back to the pair. "Did you two hear…"

"Doctor!"

"That can't be good," Danielle said warily. Then all three of them grinned and they ran towards the voice, down an alleyway, where a woman was backing away from a pair of metal doors inset into an old, red brick building.

"Don't worry, don't worry," the Doctor said, trying to back her away from the doors as they shook. Something was growling angrily behind them, trying to get out. "Stand back. What have we got here?"

"What's behind there?" Rose asked, but the woman looked too alarmed to reply.

"Okay, I've got it. Whatever's behind that door, I think you should get out of here," he told the woman, who just called out for him again. "No, no. I'm standing right here. Hello."

She almost looked cross with him. "Don't be stupid. Who are you?" she demanded.

He was even more confused that she seemed to be. "I'm the Doctor."

She just looked at him like he had two heads. "Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

"Well, there can't be two of you," she snapped as another man joined them. He was dressed more in keeping with the era they had landed in, wearing a tan jacket over a deep red vest. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Right then. Don't worry. Stand back. What have we got here then?" he asked.

"Hang on, who are you?" Rose asked him.

"I'm the Doctor. Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best," he replied grandly, with all of the confidence of the actual Doctor, who was staring at him as if he had two heads. "Rosita, give me the sonic screwdriver."

"The what?" the Doctor asked as Rosita pulled out something from her dress and handed it to the other man.

"Now quickly, get back to the TARDIS," the other man said to them as he pushed the Doctor away.

"Back to the what?"

"If you could stand back, sir," the other Doctor told him. "This is a job for a Time Lord."

"Job for a what lord?"

The door burst open and Danielle grabbed onto his arm in surprise. A large animal burst out, with a rusted metal head and roaring angrily. "What the hell is that?" she asked him.

"Oh, that's new," was all he offered as he pulled out his own sonic screwdriver from his pocket. He stepped forward, leaving Danielle and Rose to watch as the two men pointed their screwdrivers at the created and, at the same time, cried out.

"Allons-y."

Danielle looked at Rose, who was obviously struggling to take in what was happening as well. "Is-Is there two of him?" she asked.

"How the hell should I know?" Rose retorted, quite fairly as well because Danielle had no idea what she was seeing. The other man was called the Doctor, was acting like the Doctor, but didn't seem to recognise any of them at all. She still wasn't completely sure on how regeneration worked, but she was sure that the Doctor should have recognised whether the New Doctor was him or not.

The New Doctor stepped in front of their Doctor, as if he was protecting him from the creature. "I've been hunting this beast for a good fortnight," he explained. "Now step back, sir."

The beast had other plans and leapt over them all onto the building across from them. It hung from a window and roared down at them. "Some sort of primitive conversion," the Doctor guessed, taking a look at it. "Like they took the brain of a cat or a dog."

"Conversion? Conversion of what?" Danielle asked in reply, while the New Doctor rolled his eyes at the chatter.

"Well, talking's all very well. Rosita?"

Rosita strode over to him, large coil of rope in her hands. He took it off her and smirked. "Now, watch and learn."

It was pretty remarkable to watch him throw the lasso around the beast in one try, tightening it before changing his grip on it. "Excellent. Now then, let's pull this timorous beastie down to earth."

The creature roared again before climbing higher up the redbrick building. For the briefest of moments, it looked like the New Doctor was going to pull it back down. Instead, the creature pulled him up and he was dragged up the building.

"Nothing changes," the Doctor muttered before grabbing onto the rope himself. "I've got you."

But he didn't have him. Instead he was also pulled up the building, feet leaving the ground almost immediately.

"You idiots!" Rosita called after them, angrily.

"Doctor!" Danielle cried, terrified about how he was suddenly dangling so far off the ground. She wasn't ready for him to regenerate just yet; she was just settling down from the last one.

Rose looked around, falling straight into problem-solving mode. They needed to chase after them and they needed to be able to beat the creature. So, that meant that they needed something that would help them.

She grinned as she spotted a barrel of axes next to some chopped wood. "That'll do," she declared, moving over the same time Rosita did. They both reached out to grab the same axe and paused at the same time to look at each other.

"Do you have to chase him often?" Rose asked the new woman, who nodded.

"I've not known him long, but he's never not in trouble," she replied. "You?"

"Would be lost without us two," Rose retorted. She picked up a couple of axes and gave one to Danielle, who took it happily. She was ready to fight now that he was in danger. "Rose, by the way," she introduced.

"Rosita."

Danielle waved her the axe. "Danielle." Rosita stared, a little surprised and Danielle frowned. "What?"

"Nothing," the woman replied, a little two quickly for either of their liking. "Come on! Don't just stand around nattering!"

She started running towards some stairs that led up into the building and, with no way of knowing their own path, the two companions chased after her.

"Do- Do you think it's really him, though?" Rose panted as they ran upwards. "Is he really the Doctor?"

"I mean, he's already changed faces once," Danielle offered. "There's nothing stopping him doing it again."

"But he didn't even know himself. Or us. Is he going to forget us?"

Danielle didn't have an answer to that, or at least an answer either of them were going to like. Rosita seemed to know her way and they burst into one room just to see the creature bounding heavily towards a window, dragging the two men behind it.

With one swing, Rosita cut the rope and they both came to a sudden stop on the dusty floor. Danielle dropped her axe with a heavy thud that echoed in the empty room, rather large room and rushed over to the Doctor's side. "Are you alright?" she asked and he nodded.

Just in front of him the New Doctor started laughing, as if being dragged about by a half-metal monster was an absolute delight. It caused the Doctor to start laughing as well, and while both Rose and Rosita looked at the pair like they had two heads, Danielle just rolled her eyes and let the Doctor get up on his own. The two men embraced, and it really wasn't obvious at all whether the new man was really the Doctor or not, but they really did seem alike.

"Well, I'm glad you think it's so funny," Rosita ranted as they headed back out of the building into the snow. "You're mad. Both of you."

"Is that unusual for him?" Rose asked her, trying to do her own little bit of investigating.

"For him to be a moron, you mean? No, not unusual at all." She turned back to her Doctor. "You could have been killed!" she continued.

"But evidently we did not," he replied before realising himself. "Oh, I should introduce Rosita. My faithful companion. Always telling me off."

"Well, they do, don't they?" the Doctor replied, shooting Rose a look, a cheeky grin on his face. The one she replied with made her look too much like Jackie for his liking – or, rather, his cheek's liking.

"Huh. Now I'll have to go and dismantle the traps," Rosita ranted, exasperated with the nonsense going around them. "All that for nothing!" She turned to leave them before pausing, pointing at her Doctor in warning. "And we've only got twenty minutes till the funeral, don't forget. Then back to the TARDIS, right?"

"Funeral?" Rose asked, intrigued.

"Oh, long story. Not my own, not yet," the other Doctor replied before groaning. He bent over, obviously in pain from their little trip up the building.

"Are you alright?" Danielle asked him, a little concerned. He caught her gaze.

"Oh, I'm not as young as I was..."

It took her a moment to realise that he was waiting for her name. "Oh, Danielle. Just-Just Danielle."

She didn't like the look that appeared on his face, nor did the Doctor, who saw it for one he'd worn too many times; one of pain, of loss, of grief.

"Well, not as young as you were when you were me," he cut in before she could question it further.

"When I was who?" the other Doctor asked him.

"You really don't recognise me?"

He was still smiling, panting lightly, as he shook his head. "Not at all."

"But you're the Doctor. The next Doctor. Or the next but one. A future Doctor anyway," the Doctor pointed out before he thought on it a little more. "No, no, don't tell me how it happened. Although, I hope I don't just trip over a brick. That'd be embarrassing. Then again, painless. Worse ways to go. Depends on the brick."

"You're gabbling, sir," the other Doctor stated, becoming more confused than he was amused. "Now might I ask, who are you, exactly?"

"No, I'm, er, I'm just. Smith. John Smith," the Doctor offered quickly to stop him probing further. "But I've heard all about you, Doctor. Bit of a legend, if I say so myself."

"Modesty forbids me to agree with you, sir," he replied, falling right out of his suspicion into his ego. "But yes. Yes, I am."

"A legend with certain memories missing," the Doctor tried. "Am I right?"

"How do you know that?"

"You've forgotten me."

"Great swathes of my life have been stolen away," the other Doctor explained. "When I turn my mind to the past, there's nothing."

"That's horrible," Danielle spoke up. The other Doctor just shot her a reassuring grin, back to hiding behind a smile. She remembered the Doctor's other body doing that, she had hoped that it was something that might have lessened over time.

"Do not worry about me, sweet Danielle," he told her. "I'm quite alright."

Again, the Doctor didn't like the look in his eye. He had to be a future Doctor, way into the future, to look at her like that. If he was more recent, then…

"Going how far back?" he asked with more of a bite than he was aiming for.

"Since the Cybermen," he said, a word that they all recognised in varying degrees. "Masters of that hellish wall-scuttler and old enemies of mine, now at work in London town. You won't believe this, Mister Smith, but they are creatures from another world. It's said they fell onto London, out of the sky in a blaze of light." He paused slightly, a faraway look in his eye. "And they found me. Something was taken. And something was lost." He quickly looked back at the Doctor. "What was I like, in the past?"

"As careless as you are now," Rose interjected and he laughed heartily.

"I should hope so," he replied before jolting slightly, as if his mind had finally caught up with him. "Oh, the funeral! The funeral's at two o'clock. It's been a pleasure, Mister Smith. Don't breathe a word of it." He turned and ran off, not leaving them much chance to protest.

"We're not just going to let him go, are we?" Danielle asked the Doctor.

He looked down at her as she watched the man leave. "Aww, you're concerned, aren't you?" he teased.

"For you?" she retorted. "Always. I don't trust any you to not get yourself killed."

He put his hands in his pockets, pouting slightly. "I can look after myself."

"The southern accent suggests otherwise," she replied with a cheeky grin. He decided whether or not he wanted to keep pouting, but instead took his hand out of his pocket to take hers once again. She flushed happily and he felt a lot better.

"We need to get to the bottom of this," he told the two women. "Let's find out what he's up to."

"He said the Cybermen, though," Rose pointed out as they followed closely behind him. "Like that head in Van Statten's museum."

"What are they? Just robots?" Danielle asked.

"They're more than that," he replied. "But that conversion, it was primitive, just an animal. Cybermen normally use human parts."

"Human?!" Danielle stopped in her tracks, something he immediately noticed. "What do you mean 'human parts'?" she asked. "Doctor, what are those things? You know, don't you?"

He looked down at her, not really wanting to tell her the truth. It didn't look like a full-scale invasion if the Cybermen were using just scraps to create monsters, but all it took was one conversion and London would topple in seconds. "Cybermen are – were- human," he explained to the pair. "Converted into those machines, but to survive it, they have strip everything that makes a person themselves away."

"Like the Daleks?" Rose asked.

He nodded. "To deal with their new appearance, all emotions were removed. It makes them cold, logical, and unable to see that no one else should be like them. Uniformity at its finest."

"And they're here, now?" Danielle asked, horrified. "Can we stop them?"

"It looks like I'm already on the case," he replied, nodding in the general direction of his other self. Immediately she relaxed slightly and he grinned. "Oh, that calmed you down, didn't it?"

"If anyone can stop them, it's you," she replied simply. He took her other hand, amazed once again by her complete faith him in.

"Only with your help," he replied. She blushed happily and he leant down just to brush his lips against hers.

"And me, of course," Rose chimed in from the sides. Danielle started, blushing even deeper, pulling away from him. "Can we not do this whilst London is under attack?"

"Right, yes, sorry," the Doctor stated, also a little flustered at over just how distracted he'd become. For some reason, in a way that he couldn't quite explain, it felt like he had to pay as much attention to Danielle as he could before it was too late. He put it down to the look his future self sent her way, but even as he led them after him, he knew that it wasn't that. He just wasn't sure what it was.

~0~0~0~

Don't mind me, sneaking back in...

Sorry I've been gone on her so long. And I'm sorry it's so long.

I can't tell you how many times I changed the episode I wanted to do, and I've actually written this one once already.

I hope you like this direction as well. Let me know what you think :)