Not happy he had just seen his girlfriend vanish in front of his eyes and no-one but him making a fuss about it, Alec went across to where Pete was at a desk being briefed on the latest readouts. Rose had been gone only a few minutes but already, control had shifted her position twice as she called them, Alec not being able to hear.
Rose had landed but found herself in Donna's reality after realising she had just missed the Doctor and he had not got out from under the Thames in time to regenerate and was communicating with her controller, who was following the new timeline very carefully and guiding her to where she needed. Rose knew back in her adopted world, hardly any time had passed since she was skipping ahead, so to speak. Finally, she found the Tardis had been rescued from under the river Thames and that U.N.I.T needed some help in scraping the surface technology and Rose's knowledge and she needed to get Donna to go back and change her destiny and put things right.
Rose arrived from the final jump just as Donna lay on the roadside, telling her to give the Doctor a message, 'Bad Wolf'. Rose was gone only a few more minutes when Alec noticed she was back. He stepped right up to her.
"Is it done Rose, have you fixed it?"
Her face told him otherwise. "No Alec, it's just the beginning, there's something else going on because what I just did, should have been impossible, the barriers are still breaking down."
"It's still coming from your original universe Rose, things are back on track but Donna is still a part of this, somehow." Pete's face told her everything. "I'm sorry Rose, this isn't over. If you need help, I can send Mickey with you."
"Let me find out what's going on first, I'll call if I need help. I'll take the portable device as well, just in case."
Alec was just about holding back his anger. He had found someone he wanted to spend the rest of his days with, smartened himself up and getting his operation, finally and she was leaving him to go off and save the universe, every universe and he should be proud of her, he knew he should but thinking that practically every life on earth, many earths were depending on her and a small group of people. If she didn't make it back, well he didn't even want to think about that.
Then he saw her being handed a weapon. Someone called out. "Rose's world, it's been moved, she has to go now Director."
"Mickey, Jake, stand by to go after her but only if she needs you. Rose, you know what to do. Be safe."
Alec stared at his surroundings, wishing now he had never met Rose, or her family and definitely never heard of Torchwood.
"Rose, come back to me, do you hear me? I love you, you promised to come back and marry me."
Rose stepped up to him. "I love you too Alec and I am coming back."
She leaned over and kissed him and stepped back up to the dimension cannon and Alec watched her vanish again. This time, it was more than he could stand.
"Send me after her," he demanded.
The controller looked at him, then at Pete. "Sir, I need you over here."
Pete was still watching some readouts from the second Rose disappeared. Alec was standing with one arm crossed and the other on his chin, regarding the controller who he thought he had made it clear to her what he wanted.
"What's wrong? Alec? What is it?"
"Send me after Rose, now. I mean it, she is not going over there on her own."
"Alec, are you crazy? In your condition?"
"I have my injections and my medication, I'll be fine. Now will you send me before it's too late? I know time is different here than where Rose has gone. Send Mickey with me if you have to but we're wasting time."
"Alec, I can't justify sending you there, we don't know what's going on."
"Excuse me Director, Agent Tyler just requested another shift."
"Now will you send me?"
"Alec, you're not fit to go and you know it, you could die over there and you may not make it back."
"Pete, I would rather die trying to help her than let her die on her own."
"Mickey, get over here."
"You want me to go over after Rose?"
"Yes and take Alec with you and if he does anything stupid like die on you, I'll hold you responsible. Get your weapon, Alec doesn't get one so you stay together at all times, we don't know what's over there."
"Yes we do Sir, Agent Tyler just said it's a race called the Daleks."
"What? They were all supposed to have been trapped in the void, when we came over here." Mickey thought they had all been wiped out.
"Some must have escaped Mickey, at least we know what you're up against."
"What are Daleks?" Alec asked, keen to get going before he lost Rose altogether.
"Your worst nightmare Alec and the Cybermen were nothing compared with them and believe me, I've seen them fighting each other. Some of them must have got away or there's a whole new batch of them out there and Rose is facing them alone, well not quite alone if she's found the Doctor.
"Agent Smith, Agent Tyler reports contact with the Doctor and wants us to lock onto the Tardis. I've just located it."
Alec looked at Pete, a stern look on his face.
"Ok, lock her on and send Agent Smith and DI Hardy to the same location."
"Sir, it may be slightly out, sending them from here."
"Fine, just do it. Mickey, you have your portable device." Pete picked one up and handed it to Alec. "Press the top and it will bring you back or get you out of harm's way by changing your location."
Alec nodded and put it in his pocket and followed Mickey.
ooooooooo{silversurfer60}ooooooooo
Meanwhile, Rose found herself on a deserted street having got clearance for another shift. The Tardis had landed only a short distance away as it happened but as she got her bearings, there in front of her was the familiar blue box and two people standing outside. One of them had turned around and nudged the other.
The Doctor had been questioning Donna about who she had seen in her alternate reality. Donna looked around and saw a figure a few hundred yards a way.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?"
The Doctor stared wide-eyed at her and realised the direction his companion was looking in. He turned and there was the best sight he had seen in a long time Rose Tyler, just a short distance away. He ran towards her and she to him but as he almost reached her, a Dalek had been hiding and turned, shooting its deathly ray. Rose looked in horror, shouting his name. He turned sideways but was caught, sending him to the ground.
Suddenly, Jack Harkness appeared from nowhere and fired at the Dalek. Donna had seen what had happened and was rushing towards them.
Rose held the Doctor's head up.
"Rose! Long time no see."
"Yeah, been busy, you know. Don't die, please don't die."
Jack picked up Rose's discarded gun and turned to Rose, who had been joined by Donna. "Get him into the Tardis, quickly!"
Rose and Donna helped the Doctor up and they half carried, half dragged him back along the abandoned street.
Mickey and Alec had disappeared in front of the dimension cannon, the co-ordinates set a short distance from where the Tardis had landed. They found themselves behind a small car, Alec looking around but Mickey had already spotted a familiar sight of two Daleks and fired his weapon before Alec had chance to say anything. He looked at the woman stood by the car door, moving her hands from the back of her head.
"Mickey! We have to find the Tardis." Then she registered a familiar face, with a sort of beard. "Doctor! I was coming to find you!"
Alec looked at her. "Sorry, whoever you are but I'm not him."
Sarah-Jane looked at Mickey. "But he looks ." She stopped, seeing Mickey's face that clearly told her this man was not the Doctor nor knew he actually looked like him. "Come on, the Tardis can't be far away. We'd best go on foot before any Daleks come back. How did you find me?"
They walked off, Alec walking behind Sarah-Jane and Mickey behind Alec, constantly searching for more Daleks and turned a corner, just seeing a group of people at the Tardis door. Mickey shouted over.
"Rose!" Then he saw she and Donna were supporting someone.
Catching up to them, Mickey managed to see it was the Doctor. "What happened?"
"Never mind that Mickey Mouse, just everyone get inside and what's with the Doc's twin brother?" Jack asked.
Alec stared at everyone then at the man Rose had been helping as they lay him on the grating by the console and realising he had stepped into a blue wooden box and everything he had been told was true, with one exception. The man lying on the floor could be him.
"Does anyone care to tell me what's going on?"
"Not now Alec, please. Jack, help him?" She was supporting the Doctor's head but she could see what was happening, the familiar yellow glow emanating from the Doctor's face and hands.
"Alec?" Jack questions. "Who the hell is Alec?"
"Excuse me but isn't anyone bothered about the Doctor?" Donna chirped up. "Someone help him, isn't there something you can do?"
"He's doing it now, Donna but you can't change Doctor, I've come all this way to find you, to warn you."
Alec tried to pull her away. "Come on Rose, you told me what happens to him, when he's injured or dying, let him be."
"Whoever he is, he's right Rose, you know what happens," Jack repeated.
"Well I don't know so explain it and you, are you his twin or something? He said there was no-one left," a totally confused Donna said.
Alec had already noticed. No wonder Rose had fallen in love with him so easily, he was the Doctor's substitute and he had just asked her to marry him. Still, that had to be put aside until this was sorted and she still needed him, he had promised but he didn't know how he felt about her now nor she him and although she had said she was coming back to him, he wasn't so sure. Then he remembered the Doctor could change his appearance.
Jack helped the Doctor to his feet as Rose explained to Donna what would happen, which left her even more confused. The Doctor leaned against the console, holding out his arms.
"It's starting, I'm regenerating."
He prepared for the onslaught, the bombardment of his atoms being scattered and re-arranged into a different format and making him into a new person but Rose had just come back, he wasn't ready to give up so easily. As he felt the regeneration energy flowing through him, he had healed himself, he knew he was safe so before he submitted himself for a complete change of character, he remembered his hand, in the jar and quickly, directed the rest of the energy in its direction.
What he didn't know was that Alec was holding Rose back, sensing she wanted to go to his twin and his foot and leg against the jar containing the Doctor's spare hand, which would have freaked him out completely had he seen it. As the Doctor glowed, Rose buried her head in Alec's chest but as the glowing began to fade, Rose suddenly flinched as she was aware something was happening to Alec, who was staring open-mouthed at what was going on and suddenly aware something was touching his leg.
Jack was holding Donna, still trying to process the man with Rose was identical to his old friend. Donna was torn between burying her head in Jack's shoulder and staring with her mouth wide open. Mickey had retreated to the other side of the console with Sarah-Jane, the Doctor, now recovering was shaking his head and fastening his tie, unaware what was going on with his spare hand and another man he had barely registered, until he looked over at the jar.
Then it all registered at once. The man next to Rose could be his identical twin, well except for the beard and the flat hair. He looked at Alec, then the broken jar and the glowing coming from the man, who was now shaking and clutching his chest.
Rose was staring in horror at the man she loved. Jack rushed over to her, looking at Alec.
"Help him Doctor, he's got a bad heart, he's dying," Rose pleaded, trying to catch Alec.
"No Rose, he absorbed the rest of my regeneration energy that I poured into my spare hand, my handy spare hand I lost in a sword fight that Christmas. I used the regeneration energy to heal myself, I didn't want to change, why should I? Look at me! Stand back."
Alec had stopped shaking and the Doctor had caught him, laying him on the floor but still glowing. The Doctor leaned over him.
"Who is he Rose, did he come with you?"
"His name's Alec Hardy, he's a police detective but I left him back on Pete's world and he must have come here with Mickey." She turned toward the culprit. "I hate you Mickey, why did you allow him to come with you? You know how ill he is, did you do it on purpose? To finish him off thinking I'd go back to you? And why did Pete allow this? Well answer me."
"It's ok Rose, I'm fine."
Rose looked back, away from Mickey, who wished a black hole would open and swallow him up. Alec was standing up, the Doctor beside him and except for the suits and Alec's beard, you could hardly tell the two apart.
"He's ok Rose, the regeneration energy, well it cured him. Alec, you're the same as me now, well partly. You're part Timelord."
"What? Are you as crazy as everyone else around here? Rose? Tell me that did not just happen?"
"I wish I could Alec. This is the Doctor, Doctor, this is my fianc Alec Hardy."
Alec wasn't sure about that now. He saw the way Rose had been looking at the Doctor. Rose stepped up to the pair of them.
"Is it true Doctor? If he's a part Timelord, does he have two hearts now?"
"No, only the one but there's nothing wrong with him now, he's completely healed. You must have been touching my hand."
"I felt something against my leg, yes. Rose, you have some explaining to do, like why you never told me I looked like him. Everything we had together, was it all a lie? Were you just with me because I looked like him?"
Rose looked at him. The Doctor spoke up. "We don't have time for this now, either of you. There will be more Daleks coming."
He ran to the console.
Rose grabbed Alec's arm. "The answer is no Alec, that's not the reason I fell in love with you and you know it. Let's get this over with then we can talk but I still love you, no matter what."
She reached up to kiss him but he only half kissed her back.
"The discussion is not over Rose. Now I have to go help him."
Things were flooding through Alec's mind. Thoughts and ideas, flashes of all the Doctor's encounters and memories, he thought he was going to burn but at the back of his mind, he could feel the Doctor's presence and the calming hum of the Tardis herself, telling him everything was alright.
Just as the Doctor felt Alec in his own mind, suddenly, all power was cut.
"They've found us!" The Doctor ran around the console after Alec and checked all the switches. "They must have us in a chrono loop. Rose, what's been going on in your world?"
She was about to tell him to ask Alec but thought better of it. "The stars were going out and Donna created a whole new world around her. We thought that was it but after she put things right, it was still happening."
Alec was already relaying the rest of the information silently to his twin.
"How did you all even get here?" the Doctor asked.
"We developed this machine, the dimension cannon, it measures timelines and it didn't work, for years then suddenly it did and all the timelines started converging on Donna."
"But what have I ever done?" Donna asked, wishing she had now stayed at home, again. "I'm just a temp, from Chiswick."
"Why did you even invent such a thing?" the Doctor asked, checking he and Alec hadn't missed anything.
"So I could come back," Rose grinned, as did the Doctor and if Alec had thought he was jealous already, it was nothing the way those two were looking at each other. "Shut up!"
"Doctor," Jack addressed him, not sure if he had the right one or not, Alec's appearance looked marginally different since he followed everyone into the Tardis. "The Daleks have this ship, they call it the Crucible, they must be taking us on board."
Somehow or other, the monitor was still working, probably by courtesy of the Daleks themselves, trying to put fear into the occupants.
Everyone was silent, Donna, still trying to take things in, Mickey and Sarah-Jane who hadn't said a word since coming on board and Rose, torn between Alec and the Doctor, Jack trying to make some sense of it since he was the only one who half understood what had happened and last but not least Alec, who didn't know himself how he felt. He felt better, he had new energy and all these ideas were running through his mind that his anger with Rose had subsided somewhat. He knew how the Doctor had felt about Rose, he had loved her and lost her but never given up on ever finding her again yet somehow had managed still not to find a way back to her even when Rose had made it through to him.
Alec knew Rose was not going back with him, despite him asking her to marry him and even if she did, things would never be the same for either of them. Rose would always love the Doctor or love him because he looked and now acted like him. He would make it easy for her and just ask the Doctor to take him back and leave him somewhere, he couldn't go back to Broadchurch now, there would be too many questions he couldn't answer.
The Tardis was taken on board the Dalek ship and landed with a thud. Everyone went quiet. Sarah-Jane had asked Mickey about Alec and he had quickly told her. Alec and Rose were stood to one side, Donna was leaning on one of the coral struts, still trying to decide which one of them was actually the Doctor and where this Alec had come from. She thought he was with Rose but the way the other woman was giving him the cold shoulder, she wondered.
A terrifying voice came from outside. "Doctor, step forth or die."
Everyone looked at him. He went towards the door. "I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do. The last time we met the Daleks they were scavengers and hybrids and mad but now, they're a fully-fledged Dalek empire, experts at getting into Tardises. It's been good though, hasn't it? All of this, all of us? Jack, thought I'd got rid of you, Mickey the idiot, Donna, you've been brilliant and Sarah-Jane. Rose, you shouldn't have come back for me and for what it's worth, Alec loves you and I know you love him and Alec, Rose loves you for who you are, not because you look like me. Blimey!"
He opened the door and stepped out, what seemed like millions of Daleks surrounding the ship. Jack followed him, Mickey, with his hand on Sarah-Jane's shoulder, looking back at Rose. Rose was watching Alec, wondering what would happen when this was over. Suddenly, she ran back, looped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
"I love you Alec, please say you love me too."
He kissed her back. "I still love you Rose, now go, I'll get Donna."
Donna was staring into space, hearing some far-off heartbeat and in a daze. Alec approached her. "Come on Donna, we have to get out of here, I'm sorry, there's nothing else we can do."
Donna shook her head. "Yeah, I know."
They headed for the Tardis door but it suddenly shut to on them.
"Oi, let us out," Donna yelled, banging on the door, Alec trying to open it, thinking he wished he had his own sonic screwdriver and wondering how he even knew about it.
He joined in. "Let us out."
The Doctor had run back to the door, followed by Rose, who turned to the supreme Dalek. "Let them out, that's my boyfriend and my friend in there."
The supreme Dalek spoke. "This is not of Dalek origin, this is Timelord treachery."
The Doctor turned back. "It's not my doing now open the door and let them out."
The supreme Dalek spoke again. "The Tardis is a weapon non-the-less and therefore it must be destroyed."
Suddenly, the floor gave way, plummeting the Tardis into the core of the Dalek ship. Rose screamed, the Doctor holding her back as the gap remained open.
"Alec!"