A/N: You all are wonderful! Thank you so much for your support, it means the world. Since we have both Doctors in it starting now, I've taken to calling them Ten and Eleven for narration purposes. I know that's not their technical regeneration, but that is what they are most easily recognized as. I still own nothing, which is probably best for our beloved show. Enjoy!

"But, Doctor," Rose said, "How can the message be from you?" It didn't make any sense. Well, it didn't if she thought of their lives linearly. Having the TARDIS now, however, their lives did not necessarily run in the correct order any longer. "Is it from a future version of you?"

He stood in the doorway, not quite holding the cube; it floated just above his hands. They were somewhere in space; Rose did not have a clue where. He was still staring at it so Rose put a hand on his shoulder. "Doctor?"

"Sorry… right. Future self? I'm not so sure. Do you want to follow it?" he looked into her eyes.

Was that really a question? A mystery and an adventure. Even when only working for Torchwood they would not have turned that down. His response worried her. "We might as well see what you want," she told him.

The Doctor nodded vaguely. He moved to the console and began setting time and space coordinates. If it wasn't from a future self, then who was the little message from? It had floated outside the TARDIS now and Rose shut the door and sat on the floor.

It was watching it float away that it hit her. Could it be the other Doctor? The one that left? She shivered, hugging her knees. Why would he come back now? She had thought about him over the past few years. It was less frequent now than it was in those early days, but she still always hoped he was happy, had worried about how he was doing. She would look up some nights at the star filled sky and imagine him among them on some self-made mission.

"Rose?" she jumped slightly at the sound of her name. "We've landed." Her Doctor reached a hand down to pull her up.

He took a deep breath and opened the door to the TARDIS. Rose recognized that rocky beach immediately. "No!" She backed into the Doctor and he caught her. "No, anywhere but here. Please, I've had enough. I don't want to be here."

Why would the message from him lead them to this godforsaken beach in Norway? If it was from her Doctor, she did not want to know what that meant. If it was from the Doctor who left why would he call them here again? Did she even want to see him again?

Her head was buried in the Doctor's chest as he tried to soothe her. "Shh, Rose, I'm here." She had started shaking. "Rose…" he continued to whisper her name and run his fingers down her back. She soaked in his familiar scent, his strong arms around her, the calm of his voice. This man had gotten her through the worst nights of her life. He was her husband and would always be there.

He had promised.

Rose looked up into his face. His eyes held concern, compassion, and such deep love and it helped snap her out of the shock that had overtaken her. She took a shaky breath, embarrassed at her reaction. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"You don't need to apologize, Rose. I'm not thrilled to be here either." He laid a kiss on her forehead. "We can just go-"

They both turned at the sound of "Doctor!" from a male voice outside the ship. They looked at each other. It was not a voice either of them recognized. "Doctor!"

He held her closer for a moment. She took a deep breath and threaded her fingers through his. "Come on," she said more steadily than she felt.

They stepped out onto the sand, pulling the door closed behind them. They made their way around the TARDIS and Rose's Doctor stepped in front of her. She gasped as she saw the other TARDIS resting on the beach. Last time she saw that ship on this rocky beach…

Then her eyes noticed the man standing a few feet from it. He was dressed in a nice suit but it looked from centuries passed. The bowtie and tophat were a bit much. He looked so very young.

Her Doctor stepped forward. "Little bit of Donna must still be hanging around; I want to hit you."

The bowtie man looked indignant. "I left you here with what was most important!"

"Not for leaving! For coming back!" her Doctor yelled.

She came around her husband then. And the younger-looking man stopped. "Rose?" he said hesitantly.

Could this be…? Her husband looked at her. "The Doctor…" he told her quietly. She looked at him and then at this new man. This was really him?

She approached him. "Doctor?" Rose said quietly.

The eleventh Doctor smiled. "Hello again."

Rose reached forward to place a hand on his cheek but he flinched back. Her husband grabbed her and pulled her away. She turned hurt eyes to him. What did he think she was planning to do?

"You can't," he explained. "There are two different worlds colliding here, two parts of the universe that were never meant to touch. We cannot break that."

"Two parts of the universe that were never meant to touch…" the Eleventh Doctor repeated. "Like a crack in the wall…"

"Exactly," the Tenth Doctor said.

"How'd you know it was him?" Rose asked.

He tapped his right temple beneath his spiky fringe. "I can still sense Time Lords. I always know."

The man with the white bowtie was really the Doctor? He looked young, probably the same age as her. His eyes, though, they looked as old as ever. They look he gave her was one of a person utterly lost and vaguely hopeful if disbelieving. He must have regenerated but inside he was the same man, wasn't he? Rose's Doctor was the tenth or so she thought. That must make this other man the eleventh.

A woman stepped around the eleventh Doctor, then. She had very curly, wild, blonde hair. She looked directly at Rose's husband. "Hello, Sweetie."

The Tenth Doctor nodded slightly. "Professor River Song."

"You know her?" Rose asked.

"Oh, yes," River said.

Rose turned sharply to him. The Tenth Doctor held up his hands. "Rose, I met her once."

"Have we now? Spoilers." River turned to the other Doctor. "I don't recall you mentioning them."

"Uh…" the Eleventh Doctor waffled. "I'm sure I must've at some point."

"No, I'd remember you mentioning a Rose," River said.

Rose snapped out of her stupor watching them. "You never once mentioned me?!" Was she of so little importance to the Doctor? She had convinced herself that he'd loved her. That the reason he had walked away that day was out of love not neglect.

"It's… I didn't…. We need your help!" the Eleventh Doctor finally tried.

"Yes, why did you call us here?" Ten asked.

"Oh, we're not done with this," Rose informed him.

"No, we're certainly not," River agreed. Rose wasn't sure she was very happy with this woman agreeing with her on anything. Who was she and why was she travelling with her husband? Well, her husband's alternate self, but all the same.

"Nice outfit," Ten noted to Eleven. Rose didn't miss the sarcasm in his voice.

"Hey! Bowties are cool," he said, straightening the offending article.

"I was referring to the tails."

"Says the man wearing sandshoes!"

"We're standing in the sand," Rose said, indicating the beach. Eleven gave her a strange look. He almost looked pained that she'd defended his alternate self.

Ten shook his head. "Come on, Rose, let's get you something a bit warmer. We might be here awhile." The Doctor put a hand on the small of her back and led her back into the TARDIS. Rose suspected he was stalling any further comment but she would allow it for now. She needed to talk to him.

She went to the new wardrobe and slipped on a wine colored jumper and black leather jacket over some faded blue jeans. Coming back out, she found the Doctor looking down, hands on the console.

Rose laid a hand on the back of the Doctor's shoulder. He turned, looked into her brown eyes, and then pulled her to him. He brought his mouth to hers in a crushing, desperate kiss. The Doctor had one arm around her waist, anchoring her to him, and the other behind her neck.

It was unnecessary, she had no interest in pulling away. She wound her fingers in his hair, as she deepened the kiss and he growled low in his throat. Mine, his actions said, and Rose was happy to oblige.

When he finally pulled away they were both gasping for breath, cheeks flushed. "I love you," she assured him as he rested his forehead on hers. "I love you," she repeated.

River rounded on the Doctor as soon as they entered the dying TARDIS. "You want to explain to me what is going on?"

"No," he said shortly as he headed to his wardrobe. River followed him.

"No? No! Who are they? Are we in your past?" she demanded.

Her husband sighed as he pulled off his jacket and searched around for his tweed. "This is not my past."

"Then who is that? He has your face. I've seen all of them; the TARDIS showed me. That was your last regeneration, wasn't it? Ten?"

He threw on a button down shirt and found more suitable trousers, River following him still. "Technically that out there is my twelfth regeneration. But, nevermind that, call him Ten. He isn't me… Well, he was, but isn't any longer."

River stared until he continued. The Doctor sighed. "We've crossed to a parallel world, an alternate universe, where decisions have created different realities than the ones we know."

"So, this is you from the parallel world, the man we met out there."

"Uh, no, not exactly. I came here accidentally once with Rose." River raised an eyebrow at him. "Rose Tyler," he explained. "I met her not too long after I ended the Time War, back in London 2005. She travelled with me for a couple years. I regenerated into a man that looked like the one you saw out there to save her life. Anyway, she was trapped in a parallel world after the Battle of Canary Wharf. This parallel world, actually."

He fell silent then. River vaguely remembered the Battle of Canary Wharf. The world had been flooded with Daleks and Cybermen… but something about her memory of it was off or blocked somehow. She had not realized the Doctor had been there but of course he was. He had never talked about it, maybe this was why.

"That still doesn't explain how you got here," she reminded him.

He looked at her a long moment while slipping on his tweed jacket. Finally, "She came back. I don't know how exactly. The walls of the universe started… breaking down, and she found a way through. During that time I was shot by a Dalek, well grazed really."

River was concerned before remembering he was safe and sound in front of her now. He dropped down and switched out of his dress shoes. "I regenerated, but aborted it partway through, siphoning off the excess energy into a my old right hand."

He held up a hand as he stood up and slipped on a red bowtie. "Don't even ask, that's a story for another day. But, I was fine and we went on to save the universe. But, another companion, Donna Noble, had touched that hand, causing a Human-Time Lord Biological Meta-Crisis. That is the man you see out there. He is another regeneration of mine, but walked away separate from me. He is part human, part Time Lord."

The Doctor's eyes became far away. "Before the universe closed again I left him and Rose here, to live their life however they wished. I could not give her what she sought. I had hoped he could," he ended quietly.

River tried to wrap her mind around it. She had heard of Donna Noble; he'd spoken fondly of her. She had been his best friend. Rose Tyler, though, he had not mentioned. Pain, she realized. It hurt him too much. He would blame himself. Obviously he had loved this young blonde. Jealously coursed through her.

"River?" he said, placing a hand on each of her shoulders.

"Is he you?" she finally asked. She searched the Doctor's eyes. She was surprised to see the raw honesty there. He did not often let others in.

"He used to be," he admitted. "That was two hundred years ago for me. We have lived our life since then," he said taking her hand. "I wouldn't change it, not one moment. Do you trust me, Dr. Song?"

There was still so much to be settled, but the man knew how to comfort her, she had to give him that. "With my life." She straightened his bowtie.

He smiled and took her hand, leading her from the wardrobe and through the frighteningly dark and lifeless TARDIS. They would be able to get her back. They had to. "Doctor, what could pull a soul out of a TARDIS like this?"

"I have a theory," he said grimly. "Let's hope I'm wrong." The Doctor led them out of the ship and onto the beach once again. It was a dreadful beach. Normally desolate places such as this could hold some beauty for River. She'd spent most of her life living in a prison; she could find beauty in almost anything. But, there was something empty and hopeless about this beach.

She saw the other Doctor, the Tenth, she decided to think of him, even though he technically wasn't, holding the hand of Rose Tyler. River saw the ring on Rose's left hand. They were married, she guessed. Though how protective of her he was told her far more.

The Doctor had clearly loved this Rose. It was the past, his past, over two centuries ago for him. River could not begrudge him his past, after all he had chosen to marry her and leave Rose with this part human version of himself. But, what were his feelings now?

"River," her husband called.

"Coming, Sweetie," she caught up to them.

The Doctors were discussing diagnostics of the TARDIS and tossing out theories, but it was Rose's quiet voice that gave them pause.

"Doctor… Was there always a statue on the beach?"

They all turned turned at once to see the stone angel standing innocuously near the dunes. The eleventh Doctor pulled out his screwdriver. "Don't even blink."