Disclaimer: Characters contained within do not belong to me.
Author's Notes: Thank you so much for the incredibly kind feedback! I hope you enjoy this chapter, too!!
All These Things That I've Done
by Kristen Elizabeth
"So...it's here, too." Having climbed back onto the desk, the tall stranger had one eye shut as he examined the crack in the wall. "Isn't that wizard?"
Down below, perched on a display case, Amy watched the man called John. He was good-looking, damn good-looking--no sense in denying that, especially when she was still hot under the collar--but there was something odd about him that she just couldn't put her finger on.
Like how he'd gotten into the TARDIS and his reaction once inside. And how he referred to the Doctor. There was very little reverence there, unlike River Song or Liz 10 who had both treated the Doctor like a cross between Jesus and one of the Beatles.
Still, she couldn't deny that the initial shock of the Doctor's disappearance and the fear-driven anger that had followed had almost completely faded. She wasn't the kind of girl who trusted anything or anyone blindly. So why did she feel safe with this man? It probably wasn't his fantastic hair, but it certainly made Amy very curious.
"Are you ever going to tell me how you know the Doctor?" she asked, swinging her legs. "I mean, you travelled with him, obviously, but how long ago? Where did he take you? Why did you leave?"
"That's an awful lot of questions." John frowned at the wall. "I don't suppose he left his screwdriver in his coat, did he?"
"Oh, he lost his coat," Amy said. "The Angels got it."
That got John's attention. "The Angels? The Weeping Angels?"
"Yeah. You must have been with him the last time, then." Eager for information, she leaned forward. "He said he met them a long time ago on Earth."
"The Angels have the coat?" His shoulders sagged a bit. "Janis Joplin's coat?"
Amy frowned. "Must be a different coat. He nicked this one from a hospital locker room."
Somehow, this seemed to cheer John. "Well." He jerked his shoulder. "Old habits die hard."
"Look, if you're not going to tell me anything else, can you at least tell me where he's gone?"
"I did tell you."
She folded her arms over her red sweatshirt. "You said he was 'there.' Where's 'there'?"
"It's complicated." John scratched the back of his head. "Parallel universe."
"That doesn't sound good."
"It's not," he assured her. "If the walls of the universe are cracked, there will be plenty of very bad things trying to take advantage of it. Every world will be in danger. Again." His tone grew dark. "And I have even more to protect this time. I've got to get back to her."
"All right, who is she? Your wife?"
John stepped down from the desk. "Not yet."
She followed him back into the TARDIS. "Can I ask you one more thing?"
"I have a feeling you will." Sliding his glasses back on, he grabbed the monitor screen and swung it into place. "Leather-covered? Really?" he grumbled. "Never needed leather before..."
"What makes you think that anything we can do will get him back here and you back there?" She spread her arms. "I've only just figured out where the toilet is in this place. Oh, and the blue stabilizers. I can stabilize things."
John frowned. "What do you mean, blue stabilizers?" Amy pointed at the blue buttons that River Song had used to make a silent landing. "Those don't do anything," John argued. "They're just blue."
"Okay, you have got to stop doing that. Sounding just like him--it's creepy. How much time did you spend with him?"
He ignored this. "Amy, did the Doctor have any idea what was causing the cracks?"
"No. But..." She stopped.
"But what?"
Amy hesitated. "Maybe...he thought that maybe...it might be me."
"You?" Coming around to her side, John whipped off his glasses. "Why you?"
"The cracks are sort of...following me."
He stared at her. "And you're only just mentioning that now?!"
"It only just came up," she snapped.
John slowly shook his head. "You are so much like Donna. Has he ever told you that?"
"He's never mentioned her. Just someone called Rose."
"Rose." He swallowed heavily. "Yeah." Turning his attention back to the monitor, he glowered. "That sounds like him."
Amy pounced on this. "Did you know her? I found her passport in my room. I asked him about her, but he wouldn't say much. Just that he'd lost her."
John let out a bitter chuckle. "Lost? Is that how he's remembering it?"
"What happened to her?"
For a second, it seemed like John wanted to say something more, but he stopped himself. "The cracks can't be following you exclusively. You've never been to my world. It's got to be something bigger than you." Just then, a moving shape caught his eye on the monitor.
"Maybe if we sit here long enough, the Doctor will figure it out on his side. He is sort of brilliant like that."
"You think so? Well, Amy Pond...you haven't seen anything yet!" With that, John pulled a lever pumped a handle. The whoosing sound of the TARDIS was followed by a sudden jerk as they took off.
"What are you doing?" Amy cried. "We can't just leave!"
"It was either leave or become part of the Archive." John pointed at the screen where a few seconds earlier he'd seen armed guards heading straight for them. "We were spotted by security." With his trainer, he kicked another lever into place.
"You can fly the TARDIS, too?"
He grinned, like a child who'd been reunited with his favorite toy. "Just like riding a bicycle!"
"Where are we going?" she demanded to know.
"Wherever you first saw one of the cracks."
Amy hesitated before answering, "My bedroom."
"Then that's where we're going. Your bedroom."
She snorted softly. "Now you don't sound so much like him."
The universe is wider than our views of it. -- Henry David Thoreau
"All right, Rose. You're actually a little over a centimeter dilated, which is completely normal at thirty-five weeks." The OB assistant smiled warmly as she peeled off her gloves. "Everything looks just fine otherwise, but I am going to order a sonogram, just to be certain."
"I really only passed out for a second," Rose reminded her. "And I just had one two weeks ago."
But the woman was already writing the order. "Yes, but it can't hurt to have another look. As I understand from your primary physican, you haven't been able to tell what the baby's sex is yet."
"No. She's been shy every time."
Maybe it is a girl after all, Rose. She keeps her legs properly closed.
"You want a girl, then?"
Rose stared at the ceiling. "I want a healthy, normal baby."
"Well, as far as I can tell, there should be no worries there." She patted Rose's arm. "Stay here and rest. I'll be back soon." At the door, the woman looked back. "Would you like me to send someone back here to be with you? The baby's father?"
Her throat closed up suddenly. John had been with her every step of the way thus far; from the moment the test stick turned pink, he'd never missed a single doctor's visit. He'd asked a million questions, done a ton of research and driven her to the point of insanity by baby-proofing the entire house by the time she was three months gone and throwing away everything they owned that was alcoholic, caffeinated or flammable.
Now he was gone and Rose had only felt this lonely one other time in her life.
"He's not..." She steeled herself. "He's not here."
When the physician's assistant was gone, Rose let out a shaky breath. It was the first time she'd been left with her thoughts since the Doctor's sudden appearance in her world...and what a jumbled mess they were!
The "how" had already been answered. Maybe there would always be a crack or a Dalek invasion or a rip in time that would bring the Doctor back to her. But as for why it kept happening--the only answer she could come up with was that life was just cruel.
Or maybe it was just him. Because how could be so certain that they'd never meet again--so certain, in fact, that he'd left her with a cloned consolation prize--when he knew the infinite possibilities of the universe better than anyone else?
John as a consolation prize. Why did that make her stomach ache with guilt? Hadn't he said as much himself on their first night together?
I know I'm not him, Rose, no matter what I look like. I'll never be him. But if you want, I will spend the rest of my life with you, and every day, I'll tell you what he never could. Never would. And if you're never able to say it back without thinking about him, it's all right. I know you didn't ask for any of this. But I think, deep down, maybe he and I did.
A knock on the door startled her out of the memory of his piercing brown eyes. Without thinking, Rose called out, "Come in."
She wasn't sure how to describe the man who appeared in the doorway. He looked young, so much younger than her Doctor, and while he wasn't unattractive, his face seemed...alien. Rose was all-too familiar with the properties of regeneration, but she was having a hard time imagining under what circumstances the Doctor had gone from tall and gorgeous to tall and gangly.
"Sorry!" the Doctor apologized as she scrambled to make certain she was entirely covered by her hospital gown and blanket. "You said it was all right to come in."
"I thought you were the doctor!" she scowled.
"Well..."
"Oh, just shut the door, would you? What are you doing here?"
"I was looking for a shop," he confessed. "I still like a little shop." The Doctor looked around the room. "Not here, I see."
Rose rubbed her suddenly aching temple. "Are you sure everything went all right with this regeneration?"
"Why?" He pulled at his hair, then touches his nose, chin and ears. "Everything's in the proper spots, yes?"
"You're just...different."
With his hands clasped behind his back, the Doctor rocked forward, as if nodding with his entire body. "And you, Dame Rose...you're remarkably calm about all of this."
"What did you expect, Doctor?" Rose looked down at her trembling hands. "Suppose I've seen too much to be surprised or get upset about things anymore."
"Yeah," he agreed. A long moment of awkward silence passed before he spoke again. "I never thought I'd see you again."
"I see you every day," she whispered. Fighting back tears, she drew in a calming breath. "Are you still traveling with Donna? Bet she's ready to kill you by now for disappearing on her."
"Donna's gone." The short, impersonal way he delivered the news made Rose blink. "She's fine--married and happy. Martha, too, and Mickey. Everyone's fine."
It was a good answer, yet somehow she felt a twinge of pain in her chest. "You're on your own, then?"
The Doctor didn't get to answer; just then, the door opened and the sonogram technician wheeled in her machine.
"Will you be staying?" the tech asked the Doctor.
He looked to Rose. "Will I be staying?"
She didn't want to be alone and so she found herself nodding.
It took a few minutes of preparation and some very cold gel applied to her rounded stomach, but soon an image appeared on the screen. The perfect curve of her baby's forehead and tiny nose.
"Rose..." The Doctor sank onto the chair beside the exam table. She tore her eyes away from her baby to see him staring at the image without blinking. "That's...brilliant."
A tear slipped down her cheek. "That's what he said."
"Would you like to know the baby's sex?" the tech asked.
"You can tell?" Rose asked, sniffing. "She's not playing shy?"
"No." The woman smiled. "He's not. It's a little boy." Looking at Rose, the woman was surprised to see her tears falling freely. "Are you all right, love?"
"John said so, all along." She refused to look at the Doctor, afraid of what she might or might not see in his eyes. "He should be here...to see his son."
Rose wasn't at all surprised when the Doctor quietly slipped out of the room a few minutes later.
To Be Continued