Disclaimer: I do not own anything Doctor Who related. This story is just me having a little fun with the Doctor :)

Author's Note: Ok, it took me a bit longer than I thought, but here's the next installment :) I just needed to get it right for you guys :) Enjoy.

~Ash~

CHAPTER 3

As the Doctor stared at his cardboard-self, so many things ran through his head. I've finally gone insane... After all these years of loneliness and heartbreak, my mind has revolted... No... Wait, am I dreaming? Or... is it… a parallel universe? Imposssible... I closed off all parallel universes… Didn't I?

After a long while, The Doctor finally tore his eyes away from the cardboard anomaly and strode into the shop, to the counter where he was met with another display; this one sported posters, DVD cases, t-shirts and little 'Doctor Who' badges, a lot of which had his face printed on them, others showed the TARDIS. He glanced at the young man behind the counter. He looked about 20 years old and had a look on his face that resembled the kind of face a person might make after being slapped across the face... hard.

What could he say? What was there to say? Oh God, where to start!

"Uhhh..." He started, letting his eyes roam around the displayed items. But he froze when his eyes wandered upwards to fall on the large flat screen TV situated above the counter. There she was; Rose. His Rose. On this television, in this store with posters and displays of him. "Turn it up!" He spat at the guy behind the counter, who immediately reached under the counter for the remote, hitting the volume up button. Then the ad began.

A voice over started in an Australian accent:

"He's been to hell"

On the screen came video footage of him in the underground caves on the planet with the beast which was the body of the so called 'devil'.

"He's loved a woman"

Now came a compilation of video clips of him and Rose together. This made him gasp and slowly bring both his hands up to hold over his mouth and nose. As he watched clip after clip of them together, he could feel tears stinging his eyes; him being kissed by Cassandra who was in Rose's body; him and Rose holding hands in the snow on Christmas night 2005, after the Sycerax were destroyed; them falling onto their backs in the TARDIS and laughing their heads off, which made him laugh, just once, then he sighed heavily as tears spilled down over his cheeks and he couldn't watch anymore. He turned and started walking away when he heard the next line of the ad.

"...and lost her..."

He stopped abruptly and span around, glaring up at the TV again, watching the holographic image of himself attempt to tell her he loves her, but fading away just before he could. Coward, he thought bitterly to himself. Then Rose was crying, and he was as well, alone in his TARDIS. Then came the voice over again.

"...twice..."

Rose was on a beach; she was at bad wolf bay. His double was whispering in her ear, and then she was kissing him. The stabbing pain in the Doctor's chest worsened at the experience of having to watch them kiss again. Then he watched himself walk away, and then his double took Rose's hand and they looked into each other's eyes like such strangers.

This filled him with both pain and glee. Pain because he wanted Rose to be able to have a life with this abomination, and glee because, although he felt terrible to admit it, his hearts filled to the brim at the thought of Rose not loving anyone but him. He was greedy, and he wished that he wasn't.

"David?" He heard someone say behind him, but he was hardly listening.

"And now, the Doctor faces his biggest challenge..." The ad continued.

His breathing hitched a little... 'Spoilers' was the first word that came to his mind. Don't be stupid! He scolded himself. This can't be right! Something very wrong is going on here. Whatever this is, it isn't right... It can't be right.

"...loneliness..."

The Doctor furrowed his brow. He was feeling very uncomfortable at the moment; uncomfortable and vulnerable. He didn't like that this world, or universe, or dream, or WHATEVER it was, knew about his feeling of loneliness.

"David?" The voice behind him sounded again and he turned to see a little boy around the age of 8 holding a dvd, looking between him and the guy behind the counter.

"Oh, right, sorry…" He muttered, stepping to the side to give him room to step up to the counter and be served by the man he assumed was named "David".

He ran his hand through his hair and started going through what he knew.

Okay… One: I am... somehow... on a parallel Earth... I think… Two: I have no idea how I got here…

"Mr. Tennant?" The voice was getting more urgent, but the Doctor had more pressing things to think about.

Four… No… wait, Three: A lot of people are taking notice of me which... which means... He looked around to see that a couple more people had joined the spectators in the store.

I'm somehow… well-known... As he came to this realisation, the voice behind him sounded again, sounding annoyed.

"Excuse me?" The boy snapped.

The Doctor turned to look at the small boy who had been standing at his side for the past few minutes. He was looking up at him with an annoyed look on his face.

The Doctor turned to the guy behind the counter to find out why he hadn't served the boy yet, and found him still staring at him like a stunned mullet. "Oi…" The Doctor snapped at the young man, snapping him out of his reverie. "Uh… Are you gonna serve this kid? He's been very patient."

The man blinked and furrowed his brow in confusion, looking at the boy as if he had not noticed him calling his name all this time.

The Doctor swept his eyes back over the store, noticing that some of the spectators had their mobile phones out and were filming him. He frowned, feeling uncomfortable about all the attention, when the guy behind the counter spoke for the first time.

"Uh… sir?" He muttered, his heavy Australian accent dripped in confusion.

"Yup?" The Doctor flicked his eyes back to him, glad to be looking away from the crowd who had been edging closer to him as time wore on.

The young man nodded his head toward the young boy. "He means you."

The Doctor blinked. He looked at the young boy and back to the young man. "Buuuut… My name's… not David." His gaze fell down to the man's shirt and found his name badge. It said James. "annnnnd neither is yours apparantly." He looked back toward the boy who was looking more confused than angry now.

"Are you talking to me?" The Doctor asked in a gentle voice, crouching down to get down at the boy's eye level.

The boy nodded slowly. "Are you David Tennant?" He asked in a shy, unsure voice, drenched with its own younger sounding Australian accent.

"Uh... No... I'm… I'm The Doctor..." He replied warily, eyeing the boy's confused expression.


He realised then that people were laughing. He looked around to find a few people watching them and chuckling as if he had just told a joke. He furrowed his brow and looked back at the boy, who was looking at him with a face full of confusion.

"But... But my mum told me that The Doctor isn't real" The boy stated, a confused, yet defiant look in his eyes.

The Doctor blinked. "Uh… Not that I'm contradicting your mum, but… what makes her say that?" The Doctor asked, still baffled as to how so many people knew who he was on this Earth.

"Well… mum says that The Doctor is just a character… and that he is really just played by an actor..." The boy replied, glancing nervously around at the people watching their little exchange.

"Really?" The Doctor blinked and dragged his eyes around the shop once more, his eyes locking on a poster of himself that was behind the counter. There, along the bottom of the poster was the name "David Tennant". The Doctor flicked his eyes back to the boy, taking a quick breath.

"Smart woman your mother. Yup, that's me... David Tennant..." He stood up quickly and muttered to himself "Name needs a bit of work..."

He then strode forward and faced the small crowd of people who had gathered around them in the shop.

"Hello there! Tell me, does anyone else know who I am? Do you all know my name?" He asked loudly, looking around at the small gathering.

People exchanged looks. Others chuckled. Some people just stood and stared. One girl leaped forward and launched herself onto the Doctor, hugging him around the neck and vigorously running her fingers through his hair.

"ARGH!" He groaned, awkwardly patting the girl on the back. "Okay. Okay, okay you can... okay you can stop now! I get it! Okay?" He pulled her off him as gently as he could, stepping back from her and running his own hand through his hair.

"HI! Uh, sorry... Sorry! I'm sorry! But I..." The girl started to cry. The Doctor stood and stared as this girl burst into tears, a huge grin on her face. "I just... I love you! I'm... SUCH a big fan!" She sobbed, reaching to hold his hand. He pulled his hand free gently and patted her on the shoulder. The girl had straight brunette-coloured hair which went past her shoulders and down her back. Her hazel eyes were all red from crying.

"Well... It's... a pleasure to meet you... What's your name?" He asked.

"Claire" She sobbed, smiling.

"Claire. Nice to meet you Claire... Now... Uh... What..." The Doctor thought carefully about how to pose his question. "When did you become a fan of mine?" He asked gently, trying desperately to piece together information.

"Ummm... Well... The first thing I saw you in was Doctor Who... Actually no... It was Harry Potter... But I didn't know who you were back then... I first started being... Uh... to be honest, kind of obsessed with you, when you became The Doctor." She explained, her sobs slowing and fading.

"Ah-ha... and... When was that?" He asked, trying not to draw attention to the fact that he was not this David Tennant fellow.

She looked confused. "Uh... Well... I guess at the end of season 1... In 2005... But you were only in that season for like half a minute. The 2005 Christmas special was your real Doctor Who debut."

The Doctor sighed. So he was the star of a television show called Doctor Who. He still didn't know how in the hell he had gotten on this Earth, but he had had enough of all this limelight.

"Can I please have your autograph?!" Claire burst out, grabbing the Doctor's right arm in both of her hands and clinging on for dear life.

"Uh…" The Doctor looked around at the dozen or so people who were watching them. He did figure that he should play along with being this David Tennant, but at the same time, he needed to find out more information about who that man actually was. "I'm really sorry but… I'm just… I'm kind of busy… You see… I need… Uh…"

How could he explain what he wanted without raising suspicion? Ok, I need information… The TARDIS is out because she's still recovering from our landing… He sighed, hating being incapacitated like this. What I really need right now is…

"Google" he stated out loud.

Clarie had a hurt expression on her face which was now mingled with confusion. "Google?"

"Yup… I need Google… Internet. Do you know somewhere uh… close by… where I can access the internet?" He asked Claire.

The confusion was wiped from her face immediately, replaced with a huge grin as her eyes started to water again.

"What… what's wrong?" The Doctor asked, thinking about his last question and wondering how it had made her react like he had just given her a million pounds… or… dollars… since they were in Australia.

It was then that he noticed that Claire was not alone. From beside Claire, another girl stepped forward to address the Doctor. She had straight black hair which went to her shoulders and dark brown eyes.

"Oh, uh, she's just… She's really… excited… that you're talking to her… and that you've asked for her help." The girl said, locking eyes with the Doctor; she obviously sensed that Claire was no longer capable of speech and decided to explain her weird behaviour to him.

The Doctor flicked his eyes to Claire, and then back to the new girl. "Oh… ok… uh, do you know where--?" He started, but was interrupted.

"Well, I live just around the corner. You can… use my internet… if you want…" She said slowly, her eyes flicking between Claire and the Doctor.

"Great, ok… alright, well I'm kind of in a bit of a hurry…" he trailed off, looking around once more at the slightly larger group of spectators, cringing as he saw people posing in front of him so their friends could take their picture with him in the shot.

The girl smiled. "Ok, cool". With that she grabbed Claire's arm and steered her out of the store, the Doctor following them close behind, dodging the spectators who were still staring at the three of them.

The Doctor fell in stride beside the two girls, directly next to Claire's friend. "Thank you." He told her, happy to be moving again, rather than standing around doing nothing. "What's your name?" He asked as they strode through the automatic doors into the bright daylight.

She looked up into the Doctor's eyes with an expression on her face like she was searching for something. The Doctor couldn't help but stare right back at her. Then she smiled.

"Jesse… My name's Jesse".

Author's Note: I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up but I'll try my hardest to get it up soon :)