Disclaimer: I don't own anything that I've written. Yep, that's right, I own not even one iota of the below work.
Summary: Able is an actual doctor, and so, so much more. We all know 'The Doctor' does have a pendent for running into impossible things - and if Able was anything, he was an impossible thing. (A twist on the usual OC and The Doctor formula has original ideas and later on, canon divergence. M/M)
Warnings: This is a Doctor Who fic, so I doubt any of the readers will turn down reading this just because it's slash. After all, we have the canon Jack Harkness. (Who deserves a warning all on his own.) Canon typical violence, language, and later on there will probably be more explicit sexual content.
Chapter Warnings: This has alluded to (some written out although no detail) sexual content, as well as drug use. (Cannabis/Weed only.)
Authour Note: You can definitely tell the difference between something I'm writing without any sort of consulting episode as the writing style pretty much completely changes. There is a lot of character arc in this chapter – The first half of it in fact. It also includes a few other OCs that aren't generally going to be important. In fact, I don't think they'll come up again unless I'm suddenly struck by some inspiration.
As of right now, I'm really digging the interactions that Able and The Doctor are having in their minds, especially in this chapter. A good deal of this is because I feel like Ninth is really guarded and isn't the type to open up, even to someone as open-minded and accepting as Able. In their minds however, there isn't anything between them that could really allow for too much hiding. The Doctor doesn't want to turn away that feeling either - Both because at the moment Able needs it, and because he himself misses it.
Edit Stuffs as of 4/10/2017: I've combined the first and second chapters to match the rest of the story – Which I'm doing an episode a chapter for.
Chapter Four: Aliens of London
...
The Rift was no longer just around though – The Rift was now not only fully sentient, but also tangible, and oh, oh so human.
He closed it, snapped Gwyneth's mind in the process, and forced the Gelth back through. They didn't deserve new life, they didn't deserve anything but their dying world which should have been utterly annihilated during The Time War.
Then, the blackness came.
...
Able's fuzzy senses started to wake up one-by-one as he stared up at the ceiling of his room on the TARDIS. That's all he did though, laid there and stared at the ceiling – Had been for a good hour now as his thoughts drifted. A stray thought left him wondering if he had somehow broken himself. It was normal to just sit in place for a few hours and just stare at something.
Then, he remembered.
The Original Rift, it was gone, and in its place was a Human Rift – an impossibility.
Able could remember the entire experience, the feeling of so much at his fingers. Knowledge, power, in some ways, even time itself had been at Able's whim in those few moments. He'd used that power to close himself off, to separate himself from the Gelth's world, and as a Rift, that had exhausted him. The ginger had just torn apart several million possibilities in time after all.
After which, Rosie and The Doctor must have carried him back to the TARDIS.
That was what happened, and at the moment, the ginger felt numb to it all. Oh, he knew that wouldn't last, this blissful numb was going to fade away and reveal the hurt. He'd lost his parent, guardian, his GOD all at once, and now he had – Universe he didn't even want to think about this – A sort of immortality. How it worked, Able had no idea, he was too concerned with dealing with the Gelth problem to look into it, and now he was too exhausted to look into his own future. Did he even want to do that if he could? The simple answer was no, he didn't.
If he did, than he would know when the hurt was coming.
The Original Rift had known the whole time they were dealing with Able what was going to happen, and it was agonizing for them. Able was smart enough to not want to put himself through the same thing.
Except, of course, for the inevitable want to experiment and figure out the extent of which his abilities and existence went.
"Finally awake, The Able?" The Doctor's voice spoke, somewhere around the doorway, but Able didn't turn, just stared at the ceiling.
"How are you feeling?" The Doctor asked, but he still got no answer, "I can't imagine how overwhelming something like this must be, I mean look at you, a whole bundle of endless possibilities... So fascinating. Do you have any pain?"
"Numb." Able answered simply, still staring at the ceiling.
"Physically or just emotionally?"
Able couldn't find the words though. Everything was so overwhelming, so much had happened... His whole life up to this point had been on a sure path that couldn't have been changed, and that path lead to the death of -
Instead of saying anything, Able held out a hand toward The Doctor, finally looking at the leather coated man out of the corner of his eye. The Doctor seemed to understand what Able wanted, and grasped the gingers hand – Immediately Able's mind sought the Time Lord's.
Need NEED, confusion, pain, everything, everything all at once and nothing he'd done ever meant anything. Disillusioned, grief-stricken, insecure, alienated. Yet all of those emotions were just sitting on the surface, they weren't being felt deeply – Or where they? Able couldn't really tell anymore.
The Doctor nearly flinched backwards, but forced himself to stay still and allow his mind to stay connected, 'What do you need, The Able, what would make you feel better? Show me.'
Able had always dealt with his emotions in one of two ways. The first possibility was going to The Rift for comfort, a possibility which no longer existed. The second was to work off the emotions, drown himself in them in a way that was so purely and utterly human, sex. One of the most unhealthy way of dealing with your problems. One day, just one day back on his schedule from his linear timeline – Something familiar and comfortable.
'Home, please.' Able projected, sending across his need, need for familiarity, comfort, his work, a partner, just a general need for a calm day that didn't involve time travel after everything they'd been through in the past few days.
Hurt, dejection, guilt, The Doctor projected before he could stop himself, 'You want to leave me?'
Able felt the first sharp emotion sense he woke up, actually felt the emotion deep within himself, shock at the fact his leaving could hurt The Doctor, and he want to fix it, 'Nonono, just a day or two, just to rest... I wouldn't give this up.'
Able sent the the positives he'd felt well traveling in the TARDIS, Awe, inspiration, amusement, joy, fondness, elation, hopeful, pleased, intrigued, and so, so much more.
The Doctor sent back his relief, and his awkwardness at the emotionally charged environment had him pulling away from the gingers mind a moment later, "Rose expressed a way to go see her mother for a little bit as well. We're going to Earth in just a little while. We should land about twelve hours after you guys left."
The Doctor paused for a second, looking over the still blankly staring Able for a moment, "Are you sure that you aren't experiencing anything abnormal? No lose of time, headaches, general body pains, there's absolutely nothing that I should be worried about?" The Doctor asked, slightly suspicious.
A human had never become a Time Rift before, so who knew what was meant to happen, it shouldn't have ever been possible...
Able shook his head minutely, and The Doctor left to set course to Earth.
...
...
...
Able felt the shaking of the TARDIS as it felt the vortex and entered Earth. His numb feeling of need propelled him upward and out into the console room. Judging by the weirdly sympathetic looks he was graced with, Able guessed he wasn't looking his best. He didn't mind getting that sympathy from The Doctor, but right now Able was still on the fence about his dear Rosie Tyler.
Those emotions were numbed as well.
Able couldn't look at her, didn't look at her as they all left the TARDIS.
"How long have we been gone?" Rose asked as they exited the TARDIS.
The Doctor gave her a grin, "About twelve hours."
Rose gave a little laugh, and Able forced himself not to smile at it, because it was just a natural reaction at this point to do so, no matter what his emotional state was. What did that say about him, that even when he was shattered to pieces, he still cared about Rose more than himself. A Rose that would have sacrificed himself for Gwyneth.
"So, what are you going to tell her?" The Doctor asked, in regards to Rose's mother.
"Oh, I'm not sure. 'We've been to the year five billion and we were only gone for something like twelve hours', something creative like that I suppose." Rose joked, gaining a snort from The Doctor.
"Probably more like I spent the night at Able's place, I'll be back soon, Doctor!" Rose exclaimed as she ran off for her mother, although she paused for a second and turned toward Able, and sternly spoke, "We will talk later!"
Then she ran off, leaving both Able and The Doctor to themselves, staring after the blonde for a few moments.
Able moved to go to his own place, but was stopped by a firm hand wrapping around his arm. Slowly, Able turned his dead eyes toward the Time Lord, only to have something silver moving around his vision like a pendulum. It looked like a key or some sort, placed onto some sort of necklace chain.
It was placed around his neck by The Doctor, "To the TARDIS, she'll be waiting for you here when you're ready to come back."
Able forced himself to nod, then started to make his way back to his apartment building.
The ginger didn't really have friends other than Rose Tyler. She was the only person other than The Rift that Able had ever really opened up to in his life. However, he did have other acquaintances. The neighboring couple were two such people. They had always expressed to him that they would be there for him if he ever needed them for something other than what they already partook together. The blue-eyed male wouldn't be giving them that, but he did know he could trust them in his time of... need.
He drifted there, not really taking too much stake in the current on-goings of his surroundings, and he knocked on their door. Immediately a rather attractive dark haired woman answered the door, a smile on her face especially when she saw who it was, "Able! We have been so worried about you! A year, a whole year and you didn't tell us anything... We're just so glad your okay."
A year... The Doctor really was bad at driving his TARDIS
"Please, come in, Harvelle is just in the other room finishing up some of his work." The woman stepped aside and let Able into the homey living area.
The couple just gave off a feeling of acceptance, their house was filled with pictures of them doing fun, interesting things with so many different types of people. Sky diving, road trips, so many things. The couple were actually YouTubers, so they made money making videos of them doing these things. Harvelle was probably editing a video in the other room.
"Thanks Jaylee." Able said simply, his expression rather blank still.
Jaylee looked extremely worried, "Able... Did something happen?"
The ginger took a deep breath, gave a simple nod, but nothing more.
"I'll go get Harvelle, we can go relax in the living room for awhile, or whatever you need." Jaylee said simply, not asking for more information, just accepting Able for what he currently was and wanting to provide for his needs.
About an hour later, all three of them were cuddled onto the couples king sized bed. Just innocent cuddling, giving Able something stable, and a few hits in, the ginger was spilling everything that had happened to him that week, what had happened to him his entire life, and the couple just listened. They didn't ask for more, they just sat there and comforted him, told him that everything was going to be alright – Provided him with rather expensive quality weed and plied him with the warmth that he had been needing since he knew that The Original Rift was now gone forever. When somewhere along the lines, Able kissed Harvelle and the comfort became so much less innocent as tongues intertwined, the couple just accepted him once again.
They gave and gave and gave Able what he needed.
The world needed more people like Harvelle and Jaylee Parkens.
...
...
...
All three blissed out humans laid in that same king sized bed and caressed each other and exchanging effortless kisses. Normally Able wouldn't have done something like that – Too emotionally involved for him. However, not only was he high on a mixture of sex and cannabis, but he had already poured out so many of his feelings to the couple, and for once he needed it.
He needed it like he needed food, or water, or sleep even.
He wasn't sure that the Parkens believed his story, but the way that they were here for him regardless was so warm, so heavy in his chest, and it was like the entire world lit for just a moment.
His best friend might hate him, his god might be dead, his parent might be gone, and he might live a never ending life of loneliness – But right here, right now, he had these two wonderful people. Even though he had blabbered on about all the things that had happened to him, he hadn't felt it until right then.
He cried, and the two held him together in their arms.
Able's broken being was being placed back together, and he could feel himself again. He had needed this more than he'd known, this connection with another being that he'd missed so much over the last week and he'd not even noticed. Of course, the ginger wasn't fine, he was nowhere close, but he could feel himself starting to heal after just a little bit of simple acceptance from these two.
Why couldn't Rose have given him the same thing.
"Thanks by the way, for emailing in my research." Able suddenly said as he got up from the bed, stretching his naked body unashamedly, feeling the mild aches and pains that were actually almost pleasant considering the manner in which they were received.
Harvelle just gave him a soft smile, "Anytime, Able."
"Mmm... Look at how much we've talked about me, how have the two of you been?"
"Not too busy, doing some vlogs around London, went to some of the conventions in America as well. I'll leave you boys to talk though, my mother just sent me a text to check out the news. Don't have too much fun without me." Jaylee said, getting up herself and leaving, but not before gracing another kiss to both her husband, and a pliant, relaxed Able.
"You know that we're here for you, right?" Harvelle suddenly asked, looking at Able intently.
Able gave him a soft smile in return, feeling rather vulnerable, "I do now... I might never take you up on it, I won't lie... But I do know, and I appreciate it."
"Good." With that, he was pulled in for another lingering kiss, which was interrupted a few seconds later.
"Boys! You'd better come see this!" Jaylee called from the other room. Both males exchanged a look, and walked in to see her staring at the television in shock. Displayed on it was a rather particular headline.
Alien Ship Crashes into Big Ben
Of course, Able shouldn't have expected anything less considering The Doctor was in London. Trouble seemed to follow the Time Lord. Both Harvelle and Jaylee were looking at the TV in shock when the door was burst open and several men in suits walked in, looking rather frantic.
"Excuse me, we are looking for Doctor Able, he's requested to be in an important meeting. We have information that tells us his work has been being sent from this apartment."
Suddenly the men who had walked in looked rather abashed – Probably at the nakedness of the people they had just walked in on, both Harvelle and Jaylee quickly covered up, whereas Able didn't bother. They were the ones that just burst in rather unceremoniously after all.
"I'm Doctor Able, a meeting you say?" Able said, falling into pattern and allowing his curiosity to take hold.
One of the men cleared their throat, "Yes, we are here to escort you to the meeting. If you would put on some clothing, sir..."
"Sorry, I don't go with strangers that randomly come into someone's house without knocking and without introducing themselves. You might be some kind of pervert – You were probably just looking for a quick peak." Able teased, but went to get dressed anyway. He knew that this was actually important, despite the jokes he was making.
Whatever this meeting was, Able was without a doubt far too high for it. It was probably a good thing, it would keep him relaxed and much happier... as opposed to the depressed mess of PTSD he'd been when he first came over to his lovely neighbors house.
"Sorry, Sir, we were throw off by your... appearance when we entered." The man said, turning the other way as Able got dressed in his converse, knee length sweat-pants, tang-top, watch, and glasses. Nothing for the sex hair without a shower, and he wasn't going to be getting that considering the rush the men were using when it came to finding him, "We were dispatched by U.N.I.T to gather top men and woman in their fields for an important meeting in regards to the current situation."
"Next time, maybe knock, unless you want to end up entering during the actual deed." Able gave the guy a little wink before turning toward the rather stunned couple, who were quickly adapting as per usual, "Thank you guys, again... You helped me a lot."
"Anytime." Jaylee and Harvelle said in tandem.
Able left with the U.N.I.T people, knowing damn well that he wouldn't be taking them up on that offer, just as he'd before expressed to Harvelle.
...
...
...
Somehow, Able wasn't all that surprised to see both Rose and The Doctor already there when he arrived. It did give Able a feeling of individuality though, because he was here on his own importance – not because of The Doctor, like Rose was.
"Doctor Able! Here is your I.D, it is to be worn at all times." He was then handed a laminated identification card with his picture on it, his new clearance level, and his field of importance. Doctor of Theoretical Physics with focus on Dynamics, "Here is everything we have on the trajectories of the ship and the variables at the time the crash happened."
Able put his I.D around his neck and grabbed the vanilla folders being handed to him, immediately opening them up and starting to study them.
It took about three seconds for him to notice what was wrong with the situation.
"Able! What are you doing here?" He heard Rose exclaim, as she and The Doctor came closer.
Despite his anger at her, he couldn't help but smile at just how excited Rose was to be here. The Doctor looked manically excited as well, quite in character for him.
"Rosie, The Doctor." Able greeted with a tight smile to them, before pressing his shoulder against The Doctor, pressing against the man's mind like a cat seeking affection.
Or like someone high on cannabis acts for cuddles.
The Doctor gave a little chuckle, and the amusement ran from the man's mind and into Able's chest, warming him up. The blue-eyed male practically absorbed as much of the feeling as he could before detaching their minds once more.
"Seriously though, what are you doing here?" The blondes voice was full of inquisitiveness
"I'm a top person in my field across the entire planet, and this relates to my area of expertise. Dynamics of movement and the effects outside forces have on it, how things move, things like that. Such as, I have this folder here with the specifics of the ships trajectory and I already took a look at it and guess what I found." Able spoke, motioning toward the folder in his hand, bouncing on his toes like a child, and his eyes flashing with a familiar sort of excitement, it faded quickly, but it had been there.
Able would heal.
"When the spaceship was making its way to Earth it did a slingshot around before it landed." The Doctor stated.
"Usually people ruining my moment of brilliance and recognition would hurt my feelings, but since it's you, The Doctor, I'll forgive you." Able teased, unsurprised that he'd figured it out first.
Rose seemed a bit shaken, "I had no idea you were that important. I knew you were smart but..."
"You never showed that much interest in my job so that was expected." Able rolled his eyes, but before anything else could be said, Rose hugged him close around his neck, just held him.
A full thirty seconds passed before she spoke again, "I'm sorry."
"You're forgiven."
Able didn't even realize the words had left his mouth until after they had. It didn't make them any less correct though. Universe, he'd forgive Rose for anything, there was nothing she could do that he wouldn't forgive the second she asked for it. Was their relationship codependent? No, because it wasn't that equal. It was simply Able recognizing one of his few connections to this world – Now, perhaps, his only deep connection.
With The Original Rift gone, he couldn't afford to not forgive her.
The Doctor looked rather enthused, looking between the two of them with joy written across his face. It would likely be awkward for him if the two best friends had remained fighting, "I love a happy medium."
"I love your dad jokes." Able bantered, and wrapped an arm around Rose's shoulder.
"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene?" A rather handsome man spoke as he walked through the room, grabbing the attention of those around him, "Quickly as we can please, through here and on the right. I should remind you that the I.D. cards are to be worn at all times."
The man reached their little trio and handed The Doctor a lanyard, "Here's your I.D. card, I'm sorry though, you're companion, Rose was it? She does not have the clearance to be here."
"I'm not going in there without her." The Doctor defended, trying to wiggle her in.
Able wondered why he didn't just give her the psychic paper, but there was nothing to be done about it now. The ginger squinted toward the I.D. card the handsome male was wearing – Indra, a nice name to match the face.
"You're the one with Code Nine clearance, not her. Sorry The Doctor, she'll have to wait outside."
"The Doctor, perhaps we should just listen to Indra. You have to admit – Sorry about this, Lover – That even if she were to wiggle her way into the meeting, she wouldn't have any uses there." As the words left his mouth, he was promptly hit with the nostalgic feeling of Rose's elbow in his side.
The Doctor looked about ready to protest, but ended up shrugging his agreement. That got him issued the patented Rose Tyler elbow.
Able removed his arm from around his favourite blondes shoulders and instead wrapped it around The Doctor's. He looked inherently uncomfortable with it, but didn't shrug the human off either. Probably because of the fragile emotion state the ginger had been in – and Able wasn't the type to ignore such an advantage, especially in his heightened want for cuddles and comfort.
They walked together into a rather stuffy meeting room, ignoring those around them. There were a lot of military types there, a few scientists like Able, easily recognized for how famous they were in their fields.
"You're feeling better than?" The Doctor asked quietly, but with a seriousness he'd been lacking before.
Able tilted his head a bit and felt out his own emotions , "I'm feeling a lot better... I got what I needed, in multiple ways."
"I can smell as much."
Able could feel his own eyebrow rise at the retort, and teased, "Oh, you can? Are you curious? I can let you in on all the juicy little details. In fact, I could show you, if you wanted."
Before The Doctor could respond, the little banter was interrupted by a man in a military uniform at the front of the room who was holding a now familiar vanilla folder, "Ladies and gentleman if I could have your attention please. As you can see from the summaries in front of you, the ship had one porcine pilot."
The Doctor picked up his folder and quickly scanned through the entire thing in a matter of minutes.
Able had only looked at the section pertaining to his field of study, but The Doctor was a quick read apparently, because he was already opening that bit mouth of his, "Of course the really interesting bit happened three days ago, see? Filed away under any other business. The North Sea Satellite detected a signal, a little blip of radiation at 100 fathoms, like there's something down there. You were just about to investigate, next think you know, this happens."
The Time Lord had got up and was passing through the room as he summarized, "Spaceships, pigs, massive diversion. From what? If aliens fake an alien crash and an alien pilot, what do they get?"
Able fought his urge to wince at the word 'alien' – He really needed to talk to The Doctor about his use of it. Then, the words sunk in, and Able quickly caught up with The Doctor's next line of thought.
"Us... They get us... It's not a diversion, it's a trap. This is all about us, alien experts, the only people with the knowledge on how to find them. Gathered together in one room." The Doctor continued, his face screwed in thought as the surrounding people started to get in on the realization. What The Doctor was saying happened to be logical and concise, and people such as the ones in this room wouldn't ignore something like that.
"Honestly, I'm pretty honoured, I'm important enough to be one of their targets. How amazing..." Able whispered to himself, ignoring the looks he got from a few of those around him.
Except The Doctor, who looked rather tickled the observation.
Farting sounds erupted soon after.
"Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?" The Doctor said, looking put out.
The chubby man at the front of the room looked rather smug, "Would you rather it be silent but deadly?"
As he finished those words, the two dropped pretense and one of them started to unzip themselves. The lights in the room went off, and as the zipper released, a blue glowing emanated from inside the hole. Everyone in the room was looking rather shocked toward the leaders of this meeting – A meeting meant to be held to deal with the different species – were actually what they were in the meeting to discuss.
The 'aliens' in question were laughing as one of them peeled off their human skin, revealing the green skin underneath, they had pudgy stomachs and long arms with large talon like fingernails, three of them on each hand. They bad large black eyes on their chubby looking faces, standing about seven foot tall.
"We are the Slitheen." After they spoke, it's eyes blinked from the left and right sides, as opposed to a human up and down blink.
Several of the experts seemed about ready to make a run for it.
Able was watching the transformation with amazed eyes – and what an interesting species. What was their world like, for them to evolve in such a way.
"Thank you all for wearing your I.D. cards." The one remaining in human skin said, pulling out some sort of switch from inside his jacket and activating it, "They'll help to identify the bodies."
Electricity coursed through Able's body, and he could feel it within every cell, the pain was horrible, excruciating, and he couldn't help but ask himself if this was the sort of pain the hazmat suit guy that Able had killed went through. Then, the ginger noticed something strange. Every time one of his cells died, that cell just flipped itself around, back in time to just a few moments before it had died, and every cell in his body was doing so. When his heart stopped beating because of the electrical currents disturbing it, the heart went back to the state it had been just a few moments before, when it was beating strong. The process continued on and on, never stopping, as the 'aliens' that had designed to kill him laughed at their misfortune.
R&R
Alright, I hope you guys don't hate me for the whole bunch of just OC interaction stuff. I tried to keep that as concise as possible. I'm sure it's not as interesting as Able interacting with The Doctor or Rose, but it was needed. This is how his character would naturally deal with something like this - At least, when he doesn't have The Rift to fall back on.