Disclaimer - "Doctor Who" and the characters you know and love (or tremble at) sadly do not belong to lil'ol'me. The characters that you do not recognize, well, they are the product of my near catatonic state during my daily commute to work in the morning...only to be put to e-paper on the commute home in the evening.

Chapter 3

"Awwww, that's not fair! You're ginger! I've always wanted to be ginger! And you get it on your, what, fifth regeneration?"

"Third." The woman replied smugly, patting her smooth coiffure. "Although, I think I might have given up a regeneration to get it."

Rose tried to not gawp. The woman was a Time Lord…Lady. And ginger. And was impeccably dressed. And her Doctor was gone, leaving a Duplicate in his place. Once again, it was beginning to become a bit much for her to handle. The young woman tried to tug her hand from the Duplicate's grasp, but he was having none of that.

"Third. Wow. You're still relatively new then to the whole Time Lord thing." His long fingers tightened on Rose's hand, silently communicating that he was not about to let her go.

"Lady. And I pride myself on being a rather quick study." An auburn eyebrow raised pointedly.

"That comes with the genetics." The Duplicate nodded knowingly. "I take it your TARDIS has a fully active chameleon circuit?"

"Are you trying to gain information from me? If so, you're really not very subtle."

"Who, me?" The Duplicate blinked innocently. "Nah. Just making idle Gallifreyan small talk. We're all about the small talk, after all."

"Small talk, then. How long have you been on this beach?" The Professor asked, looking around at the cliffs and water, and in manner that was a not-so-subtle way to turn the questioning the other way around. "It does appear to be rather desolate and not a place that gives itself to group outings."

"Not long. In fact, we were just leaving." Jackie replied briskly, beginning to feel rather edgy around the woman. The Doctor in their original dimension had tried to help them when it came to the Cybermen. In this dimension, where there was apparently a whole planetful of Time Lords and Ladies, not a one had come to their assistance; or even visited, by the sounds of it, which struck her as strange considering the Doctor's apparent fetish for the blue and green marble. She felt rather snubbed that not a single one had come by in this dimension.

"Oh, come now, Jackie, that's not very hospitable of you." The Duplicate chided. "The Professor was just about to invite us in to her TARDIS for tea and biscuits, and it would be very rude of us to not accept her kind offer."

The Professor blinked, slightly taken aback at the presumptuous nature of the Human-Time Lord hybrid.

"Besides, the Professor here has a lot of questions and we're just the people to answer them." The Duplicate grinned. "Am I right or am I right?"

"You are correct." The Professor admitted.

"Well, then, no point standing out here in the damp air. Allons-y!" And with that, the Duplicate started to march towards the cabana TARDIS, nearly dragging Rose along with him. The Professor stepped lightly to the side to avoid being mowed over by the Duplicate and then looked at Jackie.

"Is he always so…" She started.

"Arrogant? Patronizing? Superior?" Jackie offered and then she nodded. "Yeah. He's all that and then some."

[] DW [] DW [] DW []

The Duplicate reached the fabric panels that were the front door to the Professor's TARDIS. He tried to push the panels aside, with no luck. No door handle either.

"No key." He sounded glum before brightening up to face the young woman still firmly attached to his hand. "Did you hear that Rose? There are more of me here!"

"Not you." Rose pointed out quietly. "The Doctor."

"Yeaa, wellll…" The Duplicate ran a hand through his wild hair. "Minor technicality. But she sensed there was something Time Lordy about me, so maybe they can turn Pinocchio into a real boy…or Gallifreyan in my case."

"Is that what you want?" Rose asked, miserable that she might lose the Duplicate even though she knew he wasn't her Doctor and still wouldn't be even if he was re-made into a Time Lord.

"I want you to be happy." The Doctor said quickly and quietly. He saw the Professor and Jackie approaching and leaned in closer to Rose. His warm breath tickled her ear. "And I don't know if I can do that like this. You don't know if I can either. Let's face it, as a Time Lord, I'm brilliant, but as a Human, I might be rather inept. Not sure I want to be inept. But we'll figure it out. Like we did before. Together."

"You…He just showed up and pushed you into my life. I kissed you and then watched him, the man I love, disappear." Rose's eyes began to water. "I don't know what to think or feel…and now she's shown up! Where was she before all of this?"

"Before all of what?" The Professor asked, approaching nearly soundlessly with Jackie close on her heels.

"Nuthin'." Rose snapped, quickly wiping her eyes.

"Teeny tiny lover's squabble." The Duplicate nodded before jerking his head towards the cabana. "Seems locked."

"Of course. It wouldn't do to leave my TARDIS unlocked on a foreign planet." The Professor extended a delicate wrist and snapped her fingers. A soft click indicated that the TARDIS was now unlocked. "After you."

The Duplicate pushed the panels aside and cautiously stepped through, his hand still firmly clasping Rose's. Until he had a better idea of what was going on, there was no way he letting go of Rose Tyler.

The inside of the Professor's TARDIS was quite sleek. A clear tube led from the ceiling down to the console in the centre of the room. Dark wood, polished to a smooth shine, framed the console with its matte metal panels. The walls were a soft yellow that reminded him of the sun outside.

"Chronological colour patterning on the desktop?" He asked.

"Yes." The woman nodded, still rather puzzled at how this pseudo Time Lord came into being. "I believe it's just a few more hours until your sun sets and the colours will change to reflect that."

The sound of lightly clanking footsteps caught everyone's attention and the group turned to see a woman with a hue of skin that was somewhere between peach and violet, and hair that was an unusual shade of green. She was pushing a trolley upon which sat a full tea service, including tiny sandwiches and biscuits.

"Thank you, Alicia." The Professor said politely.

"Mypleasure, Professor. ShallIpour?" The woman spoke quickly.

The Duplicate bounded over to the woman, again dragging poor Rose with him. She had since given up struggling against his grip.

"That would be wonderful. Thank you." The Professor dipped her head in acknowledgement of the offer.

"Alicia." The Duplicate breathed, peering closing at the woman. Without asking, he extended his index finger and poked her none too lightly on the tip of her nose. "No response. Now, most people would have backed up or gone cross-eyed or…"

"Slapped you?" Rose offered. "Because I would have slapped you."

"Or slapped me." The Duplicate smiled and nodded. "But, you, Alicia. Nothing. Do you get poked in the nose often?"

"Itisnotaregular…occurrence." The words were pushed together, except for the last one, as if Alicia was taking a breath.

The Duplicate frowned at that.

"You're not breathing."

"Breathingisnotnecessary."

"Huh?" Jackie piped up. "How's that?"

"A.L.I.C.I.A." The Professor spelled out the other woman's name. "Automated Live-In Companion and Intelligent Assistant. She's due for service based on her speech pattern."

"Processor glitch?" The Duplicate asked.

"More than likely that coupled with a temporal fluctuation causing a condensing of her vocal communication programming. She's one of the earlier models and our travels must be impacting her inner chronometer." The Professor replied. "Not my forte, mechanics, but I've been tinkering with ALICIA trying to keep her functioning within acceptable parameters."

"If only I had my sonic screwdriver." The Duplicate said sadly. "But I can still have a look, if you'd like."

"Ishouldlikethat." ALICIA said. "TheProfessortriesbutsheisstilllearning."

"Like I said before…new to all this Time Lord stuff." The Duplicate nodded compassionately.

"Lady." The Professor huffed.