As Rose got in the back, Jackie thought if she wasn't going to share with this new Doctor, he could take the other room. This was all new to them, she'd seen one change in him but this was something new – two of them looking the same was a lot to take in.
The Doctor sat quietly next to Rose, who took his hand.
"So, how does this work then?" she wanted to know. "We don't have to get to know each other all over again, do we?"
"Well, no, I suppose not?" he had to agree. "I expect it'll all be a bit strange at first?"
"You're tellin' me," Jackie laughed in agreement. "You two can stop messin' about for starters."
"Mum's right," Rose told him. "Seems ya don't have as much time as ya did before?"
"Don't remind me," he laughed nervously. "Rose, I meant what I said, back on that beach but how do you feel about it?"
"Ya know how I feel, why did ya think I went to find ya?" Rose smiled. "Nothing's changed. I spent all that time, I wasn't gonna let ya get away."
They were soon at the hotel and Jackie was booking them in, telling them to charge it to Pete as Rose had expected. Then she turned around to ask about the arrangements.
"Well you two have a lot of talking to do so ya may as well share," Jackie suggested. "Rose, you'll only be creeping in and out all the time. Remember last time we were here?" she asked them as they were given their room keys.
"Mum, we should go out and get a few things," Rose replied to save embarrassment of her mother telling the new Doctor all about her thinking she was going into labour after the long journey.
"Well you two go then?" Jackie suggested. "I'm off for a lie down before we eat, with all that messing around, I never realised what time it was."
Rose thought she did have a point, she herself had got beyond tired. They went off to find a general store, taking Jackie's credit card. The new Doctor was taking suggestions from Rose as to what he'd need for the night as he was new to all this looking after himself lark.
"So, it was Donna who touched that hand of yours?" Rose was trying to get her head around it.
"Well, yeah, it's hard to explain but I'm worried about her," he admitted. "I'm worried it was all too much for her."
"He'll look after her, won't he?" Rose replied. "I mean he won't leave her to fend for herself, will he?"
"No, of course not," he assured her. "It was a two way swap though, I might have got some of her traits."
Rose had already noticed, such as he didn't seem quite as sure of himself as he used to be and his hair had gone back to being all spiked up, which she had loved it like that but she was wondering what else he meant. They went back to the hotel and noticed Jackie was opposite them so Rose tapped on the door and handed what she bought over to her, Jackie making use of the luxurious bathrobe that had been provided.
The Doctor was pacing up and down when Rose joined him in the other room.
"Rose, before you say anything. Well I have all his memories, where we went and travelling with you but I travelled with Martha for a while and it got complicated," he admitted.
"Oh," Rose stopped as she put things on the dresser. "You mean you got involved with her? How could you?" she asked angrily, thinking she'd join her mother after all. "Well, I suppose ya had to move on after ya lost me?"
"What?" he asked in surprise. "No, I never got involved with her. I told her and she took it the wrong way. I said I wasn't looking to replace you but we went through a lot together and she kept getting the wrong idea."
"Oh. Then okay? So then ya met Donna?" Rose asked.
"Well actually, I met her then she had the sense to refuse to travel with me but we met again, after Martha left," he explained. "There's a lot to tell you."
"I bet there is," Rose tried to forgive him. "Sorry, I jumped to the wrong conclusion, it's been a long few days. I met Donna's mother and granddad. I saw ya on the laptop but they had no camera."
"I had a feeling you'd be watching," he grinned as he patted the space next to him on the bed. "I told you I got some of Donna's human traits? Rose, you know what that means? I can love you back and spend my life with you, if you want?"
Rose sat beside him and he put his arm around her.
"If I want? Yeah, of course I do Doctor. Oh, are ya keeping that name?" she wanted to know.
"Well, I got used to being called John a few times. What do you think?" he asked her. "As for a last name, maybe I should take Donna's?"
"Yeah, that'll work," Rose agreed. "So, it's John Noble then? Pete will help ya to get established when we get back. Ya could come and work with me at Torchwood, it's all good now."
"Jack took the other one and turned it around," John told her as she put her head on his shoulder. "I think he offered Martha a job."
"Looked more to me like he was flirting with her," Rose managed to smile.
"Rose, I swear there was nothing between me and Martha. I turned her down and she still saved me several times," he recalled.
Rose looked up at him and put her free hand on his cheek.
"I missed you so much. I never even thought you'd make friends with anyone else."
"It just happened, that's all. I was still upset from losing you, Martha knew that but she still ignored it. I believe she thought she could snap me out of it," John explained.
Suddenly, Rose pulled him around and went to kiss him. John responded and they kissed again, making Rose smile.
"So, we're good then?" she asked him.
John smiled back.
"Yeah, we're good. I have to get used to this being Human thing, that's all and your relationships. I'm sure you can teach me?"
"Yeah, we'll take it easy for a while, so ya can get used to it," Rose suggested.
"Ah, then tell me why my heart is beating twice as fast as it should then?" he grinned.
"Maybe you were used to having two?" Rose wondered.
"That's probably it. Well that and you kissing me," he teased her. "Blimey, I thought about that for quite a while after I lost you, that I should have at least kissed you."
"Until you called me that time and we came up here, I thought you were never gonna contact me," Rose replied.
"Sorry it took so long then," he apologised. "Think I'll have a nap for a while, what about you?"
Rose snuggled up to him after he got up to get a blanket from the wardrobe, Rose saying they could rely on her mother waking them for the evening meal. They closed their eyes and Rose put her hand on his single heart, feeling he was right about it beating fast but she supposed it was to be expected.
John had closed his eyes, a million things running through his mind. He could now have a proper relationship with the woman he'd loved since he first met her and could promise her a lifetime without outlasting her by hundreds of years and having to live without her for so long.
How had the other him not even bothered to make something of it while they'd been together? Well the guilt was gone and maybe being here wouldn't be so bad? He was worried about something else but he put it to the back of his mind. It was just his body getting used to being normal, he convinced himself as he held on to Rose.
"John, try to slow your heartbeat down," she suggested. "Maybe when we get back you should get a check-up?"
"Maybe I will? I mean if I go to work with you?" he told her as he buried his face in her hair, which was now longer and had been styled differently but was beginning to fall all over the pillow.
All too soon, Jackie knocked on the door and told them it was time to eat.
"So how are you two getting on?" Jackie wanted to know.
"Fine Mum. Can I use your phone to call dad?" Rose asked. "I need to ask him a few things."
Once back in their room, Rose called Pete but still couldn't say much about John being The Doctor's twin.
"He's changed a bit," Rose admitted. "I think he could do with seeing Doctor Harper."
Owen Harper was the chief medical officer for Torchwood and all the female staff's nightmare and they all wished he'd settle down with his girlfriend Lucy. Luckily for Rose, he'd never dared try it on with her, he liked his job too much to have Pete down on him like a ton of bricks.
"Well, get him back here and I'll arrange it," Pete agreed. "I am glad you didn't go all that way and came back disappointed. You'll have to tell me how much he's changed."
"It's been a long time Dad," Rose replied. "Anyway, we're all a bit tired, some more than others," she laughed at John stifling a yawn.
John offered a weak smile at her comment but he was feeling tired, something that had been rare for him before. He wished he'd had more time to find out how things were going to be for him now he really was half Human. He never thought about his past before 'borrowing' a time machine that had got stuck in the shape of a blue police phone box.
Rose finished the call to Pete and said she was going to take a nice relaxing bath after being tossed around looking for him. Then she thought about John.
"Why don't you go first or at least get a shower?" Rose suggested.
"I'm fine, really," John insisted. "You go ahead, I'll just watch some TV."
A few hours later, they got into bed and Rose was wrapped in his arms. John knew she was expecting him to make a start so he began kissing her shoulder and neck and got her to lie on him. He moved suddenly, making Rose jump.
"What's wrong?" she wondered.
"Sorry. Come back here," he replied, not wanting to let on that he was feeling the effects of growing out of his twin's hand.
"John, ya can't keep things to yourself all the time like ya used to do," she reminded him. "If something's wrong, ya have to say."
"Rose, you will be the first to know, after me," he replied, trying to get her to change the subject.
"Well just make sure ya do. Do ya really need that t-shirt on?" she teased him.
"Well now you mention it?" he teased back. "You may have to keep me warm though."
"I can do that," Rose told him as she helped him.
The next morning, they just managed to get up before Jackie knocked on the door to remind them they had to get going.
"Come on you two," she told them as John answered the door as Rose finished in the bathroom. "If we miss that zeppelin, Pete won't be happy. He had to get us first class tickets to get us on it."
"I'm surprised you didn't get him to send a helicopter," John quipped as he let her in.
"Oi, don't be cheeky," Jackie warned him, seeing the unmade bed. "Thought you didn't sleep apart from that Christmas?"
"Well things are different now Jackie," he began to tell her until he was rescued by Rose, who had heard her mother's voice.
"Mum, give him chance to get used to things again," Rose replied to her.
"Well I've just been talking to your father, he left us tickets at the terminal, the flight's at eleven fifteen and we have an hour's journey to the port, the cab will be outside at quarter to ten so get a move on," Jackie told them.
John wondered if he was going to have to get used to a more organised Jackie, which would take some doing. After a quick breakfast, they went to get what they'd purchased the day before, Rose handing Jackie's phone back after being reminded the call to Pete had been made on the hotel's phone.
They got into the waiting cab, John closing his eyes since he wasn't used to travelling by car. Back in London, Pete had got young Tony off to nursery school, the boy asking when his mother and Rose would be back.
"They'll be here when you get home from nursery, or just after," Pete promised. "Rose is bringing a friend back with her."
"What about uncle Mickey?" Tony wanted to know as Pete strapped him in his car seat.
How was he going to explain to a small child that Mickey wasn't coming back? From what Jackie had said, Mickey had finally realised Rose was never going back to him and was moving on.
"Well Tony, uncle Mickey might be staying away for a while longer. Uncle Jake will still see you though," Pete tried to explain.
Tony seemed satisfied so Pete drove off, hoping the zeppelin flight wouldn't be delayed or they'd miss it somehow. When Jackie had called back, he'd been lucky to get them all on the same flight or he would have had to make other arrangements. Now he wished they'd hurry getting more planes into service to get away from the slow alternative but he supposed there was something about flying by zeppelin.
He'd taken Jackie on a romantic flight for their honeymoon, reserving a state room for champagne and fancy food on the way as opposed to a large commercial plane on a long-haul flight.
Rose and John were talking quietly in the back of the cab on the way to the zeppelin port.
"What about passport control?" John asked worriedly.
"Well me and mum didn't exactly have chance to grab ours before we came looking for you," Rose told him. "Pete will have made arrangements."
"Yeah, Jake will be there to meet us," Jackie half turned to tell him. "Don't worry about it."
After Pete's call the day before, Jake had been busy issuing an emergency passport for John when Jackie had told Pete what name he'd chosen. Then he'd sent digital copies of Rose and Jackie's passports that were held on file and added John's. He was now looking forward to meeting The Doctor's twin or whatever he was classed as, Pete didn't have all the details.
Pete got to work and stopped by Jake's office.
"So, any more details?" Jake was dying to know.
"Not much, you know Jackie," Pete laughed. "Did you get everything done?"
"Yeah, no worries," Jake replied. "I'll go and pick them up, I want to see how different The Doctor is."
"I don't think he wants to be called that," Pete reminded him.
"Don't blame him then," Jake agreed. "Well that was unexpected anyway."
"Jackie said no-one was more surprised than The Doctor himself," Pete told him. "I'm still waiting to get all the details but Rose mentioned he was feeling a bit off, must be all the changes he went through? Get on to Owen and tell him to expect John but keep a hush on it. Just tell him enough."
"Yeah, okay, I'll do it before I leave," Jake promised. "How was Tony?"
"Wanting to know about Mickey," Pete replied. "What am I going to tell him Jake?"
"He might be too busy wondering who Rose brought back with her," Jake laughed.
"Well it might hold him off for a bit but they spent a lot of time together when Mickey and Rose used to babysit," Pete recalled.
Pete went off to his office and Jake thought it would be best to visit Owen in person.
"Not often you come down here," Owen noted.
"Well this is something different, it's top secret for now," Jake told him. "Remember who Rose was going to find?"
"Of course I do, that's what the project was about, wasn't it?" Owen replied. "Pete might have put it out that wasn't the only reason why obsolete Cyberman technology was being put back together."
"Well if it had worked for them, Rose and the others wouldn't be here. Good thing they were too impatient to wait," Jake told him. "Enough of that. Rose has brought someone back with her."
"So she found him then?" Owen guessed.
"Not exactly, that's why it's top secret. Something happened and The Doctor had found a hand of his that had been cut off years ago. Pete didn't say much but another person grew out of it."
Owen looked up in interest.
"Well that's more like it, you know I love a challenge," he laughed. "An exact copy?"
"No, not exactly from what Rose told Pete. There's a few changes and it seems Rose is concerned," Jake revealed.
"Well have him come in when he's got settled then," Owen insisted. "I might bring my new assistant medical officer in on this, see what she makes of it. Don't worry, I'll have her sign a non-disclosure form before she gets to know anything."
"Well just her then, unless it's necessary," Jake agreed. "Pete said Rose was very concerned about him."
