oOo
He wasn't dreaming, not exactly, because he wasn't exactly asleep. Nor was he fully awake. Lying next to Tegan, with her head resting comfortably on his shoulder, her arm draped across his waist, listening to her breathe, he'd fallen into something approximating a trance state. There had to be more he could learn from his visit by his future self; all he had to do was go over everything that had happened, both the things he had shared with Tegan and the others, and those he had not…
"Who are you, and what are you doing on my TARDIS?" The Doctor eyed the stranger uneasily. Was this someone else sent by the Guardians, another enigma for him to factor into the seemingly endless calculations he was facing?
The stranger looked at him calmly. There was dark hair peeking from beneath the hat he wore, and he had an umbrella resting jauntily over one shoulder. "Who do you think I am?"
"I think," the Doctor began, then stopped, hesitating as he gazed at the newcomer through narrowed eyes. There was something about him… "I think you might be me," he finally said.
The other Time Lord smiled. "Got it in one!"
"Hey, Professor, where are you?" A young girl pushed open the door to the Console Room. She was pretty, with brown eyes and dark brown hair pulled into a lopsided bun, wearing high-topped black sneakers, black bicycle shorts and a gray t-shirt under an oversized black jacket covered in patches and pins. She had a rucksack thrown casually over one shoulder that clanked as she dropped it on the floor next to the console. "Who's this?"
"He's me," both men automatically answered.
She looked from one to the other with a suspicious frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"
The Doctor's later self sighed. "Ace, allow me to introduce myself. My fifth self, to be exact."
"And which self are you, by the way?" the younger man asked, nodding his head in greeting to the young woman. Very young, now that he looked closely; not even out of her teens, if he was any judge.
"One of the better ones," was the evasive response. "Trust me on that one," he muttered. "We're here for a specific purpose."
"Of course we are." It was Ace's turn to mutter. "So are we on his TARDIS or is he on ours?" She nodded at the rotor. "This thing hasn't stopped moving so neither have we. Or have we?"
"His TARDIS and 'ours' are one and the same," was the unhelpful reply offered by 'her' Doctor. "It just so happens that we are currently occupying the same space and time, a fact I deliberately caused to happen." He sounded smug.
She gave him a blank stare. "Right. So if I swan off to look for my room, I'll find it?" Both men nodded. "Great. Nice meeting ya," she said to the Doctor's fifth self. "One day you'll fill me in on the whole regeneration thing, right? That's what you promised, Professor!" She scooped up the rucksack and headed back out the way she came.
"All right, the audience is taken care of, we're alone. So what are you doing here?"
"Trying to save you a lot of trouble. Trying to save the universe a lot of trouble as well. You've already spoken to the Guardians, have you? Heard the whole 'savior of time' spiel?"
"Universal Champion spiel," his earlier self corrected. "But yes. They've only just left."
"Good. Then I've timed this correctly. There's something you're going to have to do to get things back the way the Guardians want it to, and a couple of days after you get back to Earth I'll be by to pick you up so you can do it." He suddenly looked uncomfortable. "It was a miscalculation on my part; I expected...well, never mind," he interrupted himself. "I've still got a few things to set into motion on my end--"
"What things? What do you mean, a miscalculation?" It was the fifth Doctor's turn to interrupt "himself" as he pounced on that particular word. Obviously his future self was the one who was meddling in his own timeline, but he still didn't know to what purpose. "It's bad enough having the Guardians ordering me about, I'll be damned if I'll let one of my future selves do the same!"
"You'll be damned if you don't!" His later self traded him glare for glare. "I don't have time for this nonsense. Just be ready when I return, and trust me when I say you'll be the better for it. The Guardians will no longer have any reason to interfere, time will be set back the way it's 'supposed' to be, and the deviations will correct themselves." He indicated the TARDIS console. "You'll be able to check it out for yourself when we're finished."
"And I'm just supposed to take your word on all this?" Why were his other selves always so disagreeable to deal with?
"I've already lived through it once," his other self replied. "That should tell you something."
"Since I've also apparently lived through the destruction of Atlantis twice it doesn't tell me anything," he snapped back, frustrated. Was this how others felt when he wasn't able to give them as detailed an answer as they wanted? He felt a sudden empathy with everyone from Susan and the Brigadier to Turlough and Tegan, everyone who had ever complained about him keeping them in the dark. "So you made sure I intercepted Lavinia Smith's message," he continued, deliberately keeping his voice under control. "Why?"
"I did it partly because I felt you deserved to know that Lanie existed, and partly because I was hoping for exactly the outcome that occurred."
"You wanted me to find out about my status as a universal Champion?" He hadn't expected that answer. "Why?"
"Because it always behooves us to recognize our place in the grand scheme of things. Even if it's a place we'd rather avoid."
"The Guardians would disagree with you," the Doctor pointed out, watching his future self closely.
"The Guardians are wrong," the other Time Lord denied flatly. "No matter what they believe, this little side trip of yours, of ours, is essential. It was vital that you find out about Lanie, and not just because she's our daughter." He shut his mouth with an audible snap, as if he'd said more than he intended.
"Why? What exactly do you expect me to do?" It would be nice if at least one of his questions was answered.
"I expect you to go home. I expect you to come with me when I return for you. I expect you to be patient and trust me," was the reply, spoken in weary tones. He looked at himself, eye to eye, unblinking. "Do you think you can manage that much?"
His earlier self nodded, suddenly uncertain. There was something about the way his other self looked at him, a hint of sorrow behind the hard cast of his face, that kept him from pushing further. "Very well. In a few days. I presume you know where to find me?"
"Almost always," came the response, this time with a hint of a smile. He touched the tip of his umbrella to his hat and walked through the interior door to the TARDIS.
When the Doctor looked for them after setting the coordinates for South Croydon, he saw no sign of them.