Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who. Thanks for the reads and if you are still reading this, it would make my day to hear from you. So, if you haven't read Regarding Mrs Smith, you're fine. If you have, I am again revisiting old territory in what is hopefully an interesting way. Anyway, thank you so much and happy reading!

The Doctor liked to boast that he wasn't afraid of anything. There had been something.

The night after they dropped off Agatha Christie, the Doctor and Donna had gone through their normal routine of dinner and books. He had been surprised how quickly he and Donna had developed one. He never quite had before and with Donna it had just cropped up. Then what had struck him most was how little they could talk. They spent so much time talking all day and in the right conversation struck them, they could go all night. There was something so right when they were quiet, though.

The Doctor staring at Donna finally realized what it was.

"I'm off to bed," said Donna. "Good night, Doctor."

She left.

"I didn't mean the detox," the Doctor said to an empty room.

The Doctor paced the console room at s breakneck pace for the better part of the night.

He had two choices. He could go on with Donna as they were, best mates, forget about the kiss and then go on as they were. The main peril to that plan was that eventually some man would figure out how wonderful she was and the Doctor would have to watch.

Or he could tell her.

He must have turned towards the corridor and back again a hundred times. Then for some reason, he went.

The door opened. Donna was in bed, but he saw her twitching at the light.

"Donna, are you awake?"

She mumbled something, he was fairly certain it was in the affirmative.

"I just wanted to say, I didn't meant the detox."

From there, it was as if the course of his life had changed. They fell in love, they got married, they made plans...

Now none of those plans were going to happen and for Donna, even their past would not have happened.

The Doctor was left staring at Donna. Everyone was all smiles, piloting the TARDIS back to Earth. He was looking at her.

She had been brilliant, so brilliant, thinking of things he never would have thought of. She had saved the day and saved the entire universe and if he didn't take that away from her she was going to die.

So he would have to take that away.

Which meant he was going to die. He wasn't even sure that he cared anymore. When she had gone with the TARDIS, he had pretty much settled on dying then. She had come back and he was so relieved to see her, little did he know it was just a day's reprieve. He had begged her to stay with him and he wished he hadn't. Anything would be better than this. If she hated him, it would be better than her never remembering him.

He had been right after Midnight. Davros had been right.

He did destroy people.

"Doctor," said Rose.

He walked away from her. He soon felt the Duplicate beside him, dragging him into the art gallery.

"You're thinking about Donna and what you have to do," said the Duplicate.

"I'll take care of it," said the Doctor.

"Yeah," said the Duplicate. "I figured I wouldn't be around for it. I'm going to lose my wife today, but you're not going to lose yours."

"How is that?"

The Duplicate looked at him in disgust. "She's pregnant, you moron! She's known since Barcelona!"

"She didn't say..." the Doctor said quietly.

"Yeah, maybe if you got your head out from your arse time to time she might fill you in. Then you ran to Rose-"

"There was a Dalek-"

"Is there a reason you can't just tell her you don't love her anymore? Maybe you never did."

"And what do you expect me to do now?"

"I expect you to give her the best chance, I expect you to protect our daughter."

"And how do I do that?"

"You have to take away her memory, but you can tell her a story, tell her she lost her memory in an accident. Earth's a shambles, shouldn't be so hard to sell."

"And who will I be?"

"John Smith."

"John Smith?!"

"If you don't want to stay, I will," said the Duplicate. "I've already only got one heart. I won't need a perception filter. Then there's the baby. You can get Martha to help you with the medical stuff. She's going to be in for a bit of a shock. You had better go and get her."

The Doctor walked sheepishly out to the console room under his clone's orders. Jack was standing between Rose and Donna. The women were shooting daggers at each other.

"Martha, could I see you for a moment?"

"Yeah," said Martha. She hurried out and that's when the Doctor noticed the way Donna's hand was over her stomach. That's why she had been afraid and in shock on the Crucible: for their child.

They went back to the art gallery. The Doctor could barely speak. Martha stood staring at the twin Doctors.

"Doctor, did something happen between you and Donna?," asked Martha.

"Yes," the Doctor admitted.

"Yes, I need your help. Donna's pregnant."

"What? Humans and Time Lords? That's possible?"

"Well, yes, obviously," said the Doctor.

"I wouldn't say it was obvious," said Martha. "I just found out you two were going out-"

"We are married!," said the Doctor.

"Okay, well, that's a surprise as well." Martha paused. "What's the plan?"

"Donna's mind is going to burn from the metacrisis," said the Doctor. "She'll die if I don't take away her memories. We'll have to hide from her that the baby is Time Lord until she can handle it."

"You're gonna pretend to be human?"

"Yes, I'll need you to sort the medical details and handle the birth."

Martha nodded. "We need Jack."

"What?," asked the Doctor.

"Torchwood. He's got a whole team. They can provide you with a cover, help you pass as human, keep an eye out."

The Doctor grimaced. "I'll be right back."

The Doctor left. Martha turned to the Duplicate.

"Okay, what do you know?"

"Oh, I know it all." He sighed. "The usual. He stared at her cleavage. She stole glances at his bum. Said they weren't a couple, yeah, right."

Martha smiled. "What about Rose?"

"What about her?"

"Well, is he going to bother telling her?"

"Probably not," said the Duplicate. "Probably just dump her back in the alternate universe."

Martha shook her head. "Blimey, I should have known, the way she had him on his toes."

Jack entered whooping.

"I knew it! I could smell it!"

"Smell what?," asked Martha.

"Time Baby! I can't believe he couldn't!," Jack said motioning at the Doctor. "You dog!"

The Doctor glared.

"I mean, I'm not judging. Seriously, why would I? And Donna, I bet she is..."

The Doctor's glare deepened and Jack decided he may have gone too far. It wasn't good to discuss a Time Lord's mate. The old legends told that much.

"I bet she is just very intelligent. Yeah." He looked at the Duplicate. "So, you're going with Rose?"

Sarah Jane entered the art gallery.

"I can't take it anymore," she said. "I know something's going on. You're all in here and Donna and Rose are out there ready to claw each other's eyes out."

"Donna's pregnant!," Jack said ecstatically. "We're having a Time Baby!"

If anyone expected Sarah Jane to flinch, they would have been wrong. "Well, that explains everything except why you're all hiding in here."

The Doctor turned to Jack. "What is this 'we?' We are not having a Time Baby. Donna and I are."

"Come on," said Jack. "Can't I be a godfather or something?"

"No!," was the immediate response of both Doctors.

"Why not?," Jack whined.

"You're really asking that?," asked Martha. Jack gave her a look. "Hey, I'm asking that as someone who likes you."

"So, what's this meeting all about?," asked Sarah Jane.

"Donna's mind could burn from the metacrisis. The Doctor's going to pose as human until she can remember him."

We're trying to work out a way for the Doctor to pose as human until we can fix her mind," said Jack.

Sarah Jane looked at the Duplicate. "What about you?"

"It seems as if I have to go with Rose." He looked at the original. "I'm giving it a month. Honestly. That's it."

"I've been out there. You might not want to commit that long," said Jack. "A little obsessive, I think."

"Donna's not obsessive!", said the Doctor.

"I meant Rose."

"That's who I thought he meant.", said Sarah Jane.

"Rose is not obsessive! When did we start dividing into Team Rose and Team Donna?," said the Doctor.

"We could make t-shirts.", mused the Duplicate.

"I'm not saying I'm Team Donna, but it seems like he might want to think before he commits to anything long term," said Jack.

"She stalked you from another universe," said Martha. "That's obsessive."

Jack, Sarah Jane and the Duplicate all muttered acknowledgments of agreement.

"Martha!", exclaimed the Doctor. "Could we all discuss something useful?"

"My team can make you an identity, give you a work history, get you a house," said Jack.

"What? A house?" The Doctor looked as if he was in shock. The others couldn't help but enjoy it a little.

"You know, the up and down thing with doors and windows?", said Sarah Jane.

"I know what a house is!"

"It's like the TARDIS, but it's the same size on the inside.", smirked Jack.

"You know, I am glad you lot are having fun with this," snapped the Doctor.

Jack smiled. "It's what I do instead of charging you money. This is going to be fun."

The Doctor hid his internal groan. Just then, Mickey entered.

"I thought this was the kitchen," said Mickey. "What are you all doing in here?"

Everyone exchanged glances.

"Uh, yeah," said Mickey, "does anybody know what's going on between Rose and Donna?"

They again exchanged glances.

"Why? What's happening?," the Doctor asked.

"Well, Rose started telling one of her stories about you- lot of fun by the way- and Donna said maybe this would be a good time for her to pack all of her eye makeup and peroxide."

"Oh, blimey," said the Doctor, hurrying out.

Mickey turned back to the group. "What's that all about?"

Jack looked around at the others. "Okay, Mickey Mouse, no easy way to say this. The guy who Rose dumped for you-"

"I didn't get dumped!"

"Okay, sure, anyway, he's married to Donna and they're having a baby."

Mickey was stunned. "I'll kill him, see what face he comes back with next time!"

"Mickey..." said Jack.

"No, seriously, I had to drive in a Jeep to Norway so he could Skype Rose! And back again! Then I had to listen to her go on and on and on! And then the Dimension Cannon came along and we had to get that working so she could go back to the Doctor again!"

"Did you want him to send a wedding announcement?," asked Sarah Jane.

"Yes!," said Mickey.

"From another dimension?," she continued.

"Mickey, I know how you feel," said Martha. "I had to listen to him go on about Rose for a year and now- no, wait. I'm sorry, I prefer him with Donna. She'll keep him in line."

"Just don't cause a scene," said Jack. "It's already bad enough with Rose and having to take away Donna's memory."

"Why?"

"The metacrisis," answered Sarah Jane. "The Doctor will have to pose as human."

Mickey scoffed. "Yeah, I'll believe that."

"You could see it," said Jack. "We're going to need a lot of help pulling this off. Assuming you don't want to go back to the parallel world."

Mickey shook his head. "I don't think so, mate. You think I want to go back to that after he's dumped her?"

"Lucky me," said the Duplicate.

Suddenly, Donna's shouting became audible.

"We should go help," said Martha. "We can at least help the Doctor buffer them."

"Quite right," said Sarah Jane.

The ladies hurried out. Then Mickey. The Duplicate turned to follow but found Jack's hand on his shoulder.

"Are you propositioning me?," asked the Duplicate.

"Would it work?"

"No."

"Okay then, the Doctor and Donna. I want details."

"Alright, Donna, let's go," said the Doctor, helping her out of the console room.

Their bedroom appeared as the next door and the Doctor steered her in.

"Is there a reason you haven't told that girl you're not interested!," Donna snapped.

"Uh, towing the Earth?," asked the Doctor.

"Maybe you'd like to stay with her. Maybe I should just go off on my own! I know everything you know, now, see? I could fly this thing myself. Probably better! Let's just pack your things as well-"

"No, no, no," said the Doctor, steering her away from the cupboard. He would have argued more, but he knew part of this was the effects of the metacrisis. "Donna, this isn't you."

"No?"

"No, it's me. Me in your head." He drew a breath. More to the point, he didn't have much time. He sat her on the bed. "Donna, I'm not having this argument. I'm not having any arguments with you. I have a limited amount of time to deliver her and Jackie back to their universe."

"Dimensional retroclosure," said Donna. "I get that stuff now."

"So just stay in here and try not to excite yourself. She'll be gone soon."

There was a knock at the door. Martha peered in. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," said Donna.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," said the Doctor. He nodded at Martha.

Martha came and sat next to Donna. "You know, this is the first time I've been in the Doctor's bedroom."

Donna felt herself starting to slow down. "Yeah."

"How's your head?," asked Martha.

Donna was about to answer, but found words failing her at that particular moment. Her lip trembled and she started sobbing, falling into a heap that Martha was quick to embrace.

"Hey, you're alright," said Martha. "I've got you. It's gonna be alright."

They made the first stop at Earth and then it was off to the parallel world. The Duplicate, Jackie and Rose disembarked.

"Okay," said the Doctor, "here we are, Bad Wolf Bay."

Rose looked up in shock. "This is the parallel world."

"Yeah, it's the parallel world. You live there."

The Duplicate shook his head. The Doctor really wasn't pulling this off at all.

"What do you mean? I went all that way to find you, I want to be with you-"

The Doctor pretty much had his hand on the TARDIS doorknob. "I really have to go."

Jackie watched the proceedings in bewilderment.

"Anyway, Rose Tyler, have a good life," the Doctor said hoping that would be enough.

Of course it was not. "Wait!," said Rose. "You can't just leave me like this!"

"Rose, he needs you," the Doctor said, looking at the Duplicate. "He was born in battle, full of anger and rage. Remind you of anyone?"

"He's not you, though. You're the Doctor," said Rose. "You need me."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, Rose, I'm sorry. I don't need you anymore."

She looked stunned, as if she wanted to disprove it. "When I last stood on this beach on the worst day of my life... what was the last thing you said to me? Go on, say it."

"I said 'Rose Tyler.'"

"Yeah, and how was that sentence going to end?"

There was a long silence as the wind blew onto the shore.

"No," said the Doctor.

"Tell me!," Rose insisted.

The Doctor shook his head. He didn't mean it anymore, he didn't want to waste any more time here. "No."

The Duplicate didn't look happy, but he knew he was going to have to put an end to this. He leaned over and whispered in Rose's ear. She turned to him, grabbed him by the lapel and kissed him.

The Doctor thought that was a great opportunity to leave. He hurried back in the TARDIS to where Donna and Martha were waiting and took them back to their universe.