So this updating weekly thing didn't go right well, did it? I accidentally got Netflix and then the sun came out, and I've generally been a bit distracted. Sorry.

Charlie stroked his finger up Mattuesz's arm to his shoulder, entranced by the warmth and softness and the strength he knew it concealed. In the darkness of morning, when the house was silent and the world outside seemed a million miles away, he luxuriated in his other senses. Smell and touch, so much more sensitive than he was used to, enveloped him. Since Matteusz, bed had become more than a place to sleep and avoid himself. The warmth of another body pressed against his own, the smell of cheap deodorant and expensive shampoo, the soft rumble of snores, and a million nicer things to think about than his empty past. He'd tried to count once and thought he might be exploding with happiness by the time he got to twenty.

His chest ached perfectly when Matteusz murmured and reached out for him, some clumsy gesture that couldn't decide whether it was batting him away or pulling him closer. He snuggled up and rested his head on Matteusz's arm, as carefully as he could, content to watch his chest rise and fall and more than content to come closer and rest his head on it when Matteusz pulled him in. "I love you," he whispered. "I want you."

Mattuesz held him tighter and rubbed at his eyes with his free hand. "I love you too," he slurred. "Time 's it?"

"Early." Charlie lifted his head to check. "Half an hour."

"You are terrible. Insatiable." He trailed his fingers down Charlie's back, though, and was definitely not complaining. "What should we do?"

He propped himself on one hand and looked down at him. "Each other I should think." Matteusz grinned up at him and he reached out to stroke his cheek. "I mean it. I love you. You gave me hope, when I thought I might never hope again. Waking up… I never used to look forwards to it. But waking up next to you… it's like a promise."

"A promise of what?"

"Happiness." He brushed Matteusz's hair back. "A lifetime of it."

There was one of those perfect moments when everything made perfect sense, and then Matteusz surged up and pulled Charlie down to meet him. Charlie melted into his arms, tangling his fingers in Matteusz's hair and sighing against his lips. He entwined their legs, stroked his hand down Matteusz's face and neck, laughed into the kiss. Half an hour was never enough, but a lifetime might just be.

"Charlie…" Matteusz pushed him back a bit and looked up at him. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" He lifted his head and listened carefully. At first there was nothing, but then he heard a footstep downstairs. "Kitchen," he whispered. "That was on tile. And not Quill."

"No." Matteusz sat up and rested his hands on Charlie's hips. "Tanya?"

He smiled at him. "Oh, I wish. We need clothes. And weapons."

They scrambled into the first clothes that came to hand and crept downstairs. Quill was snoring in her bedroom, and the gun was with her, so Charlie picked up a vase and Matteusz found a hammer from when they'd put the new bookcase together. They paused at the bottom of the stairs and Charlie pushed Matteusz back a step. "Let me," he mouthed, hefting his vase.

Matteusz glared at him and handed him the hammer, but then let him go ahead. He snuck forwards, back to the wall, and peered around the doorjamb into the kitchen. There was a man there, rooting through the cupboards and muttering to himself. He opened the tea caddy and sniffed it, and then dropped a bag into a mug. "Oh, help yourself," Charlie called out. "Make yourself at home."

The man turned and spotted him immediately. To Charlie's consternation, he beamed and pointed at him. "You must be Charlie!" He hurried towards the doorway. "Ianto sent me. Said you needed a doctor."

He backed away behind the wall. "Ianto Jones, of Torchwood? He said he was going to call The Doctor, not a doctor."

"And he did. I am the Doctor. But we haven't met, have we?" He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Timelines."

"He said… About faces. That I met a different version of you." Charlie turned and looked up at Matteusz. "If Ianto sent you… what did he send you for?"

The visitor twisted his hands together, but stopped in the middle of the kitchen like he'd picked up on Charlie's fear. "He said that one of your friends is stuck in the wrong body. You were attacked by the Shadowkin, and now she's trapped in the body of a Shadowkin. He wasn't clear on why, but I don't think you are either." He smiled as Charlie stepped out into view. "I think I can help your friend. But I think you should start from the beginning. Tell me what happened."

"I… think I need tea for this."

Mattuesz held his hand in his lap and pressed their knees together under the table whilst Charlie talked. It didn't come out in chronological order so much as easiest to hardest. 'You saved me and brought me to Earth' came at the start. 'You left us to fight the Shadowkin on our own and people died' was somewhere in the middle. And at the end came what he did to stop them. That one took a long time, and his hands were shaking even if his voice was level. He closed his eyes part way through and twined his fingers through Matteusz's, holding on for his life.

"I'm so sorry, Charlie," the Doctor said quietly. "I do that. I know I shouldn't, but I always do. I just leave people. Ianto gave me a right earful about it."

He looked up. "You're not angry?"

The Doctor sighed. "Angry? Charlie, you saved the planet. What choice did you have? What choice did I give you?"

"Can you change it?" Matteusz asked. "You said you have not done this yet. Can you just… could you go, now, and save Rhodia?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "No. I'm part of events, have been since before I knew. Time isn't logical. It doesn't happen in order, especially to me. If I went back now, who would tell me I needed to? If the Shadowkin didn't come here, neither would Ianto, and so neither would I."

Charlie nodded and wiped at his eyes. "I thought so. But you said you could help April. I have a genetic splicer. Can you give her one?"

"No. Well, I could, but I'd have to top it with a perception filter to make her look like her and it probably wouldn't hold. She'd always be pretending to be someone she wasn't." He eyed Charlie and then turned away. "But I know some people owe me some favours. All I need is a DNA sample and a mind imprinter. And, of course, April."

"We will call her." Matteusz squeezed Charlie's hand. "Charlie…"

He nodded again. "Yes. And we need to get ready for school, too." He straightened up and released his tight grip on Matteusz's hand. "Mr Jones might understand, but I don't think Miss Shah will. I'll go and… call April and get dressed."

Matteusz watched him go and the Doctor watched Matteusz. They sat in the kitchen in silence until Matteusz was ready. "I hated you," he admitted. "You saved us, but you saved us from you."

"Yes. I've heard that."

"From Mr Jones?" He looked up. "How do you know him?"

He sighed. "I left his husband to fend for himself on a space station. Alone. And I'm very bad at turning up, really. Came to their wedding twice, in the end, just to be sure. And I leave a mess behind for him to clean up way too often, apparently. I'm a friend of his husband's, actually. I should just have said that, shouldn't I?"

"I'm not sure I like you," Matteusz admitted. "But I like you better than the other you."

"Well. That's something." He smiled. "You should go and get ready for school. It's important, is school. You learn so much there. Maths and English and love and knitting. Maybe not knitting."

Footsteps sounded on the stairs, slow and heavy. Charlie had a phone in each hand, and held Matteusz's out to him. "April is on her way, and Quill will be down soon."

"Thank you." Matteusz pulled him close and kissed him quickly, resting their foreheads together. "I will be quick."

"I'll put the toast on." He released him slowly though. "Marmalade?"

"Thank you." He gave the Doctor one last look and hurried into the bathroom.

Charlie straightened his shoulders and turned around. "What about you, Doctor? Can I get you breakfast?"

"Oh, no thank you. Fussy eater." He dropped his gaze and picked up the book discarded in the middle of the table. "Frankenstein. Good book. Now, there was a firecracker, Mary Shelley. She didn't take any nonsense from her boys…"

"It's Matteusz's. He's doing English Literature, and it was assigned." He turned around quickly. "Not that he wouldn't have read it anyway, I mean. Just…"

The Doctor nodded. "It's a challenging read. Not the sort of thing you want to have on the bedside table. It's interesting to compare it with the King of Hesta… only that hasn't been written yet so don't do that." He chuckled. "Timelines."

Charlie opened his mouth, but he was cut off by footsteps on the stairs. His shoulders tensed and he turned back to fill the kettle and prepare coffee with perfectly steady hands. He stared down into the mug, even when Quill stopped in the doorway and then dragged a chair out loudly. "So. You're the other Doctor. Come to whisk April away on an adventure?"

"Oh, no. Well, only around London. The Rift makes it hard to aim. To be honest, I only got here this morning by accident. I was aiming for Paris in 1892, but ended up here and picked up Ianto's message so I thought, well, might as well." He dropped the book onto the table and leaned back into his chair. "She's a Type 40 TARDIS, you see. Mind of her own, gets me to where I need to be, but sometimes, you know, I aim for Florence and get Cardiff, aim for 1892 and get 2016. So I'm under strict instructions, I'm not to take any of you into the TARDIS for even a minute. And between you and me, I'd rather face the Daleks than annoy Ianto again."

Charlie turned and brought Quill's coffee to the table. "Should I be worried? He's my new form tutor."

The Doctor laughed. "Oh no. Well, probably not. Don't threaten Jack or Earth and you'll be fine. Probably."

"That isn't reassuring." A shadow passed across the room and Charlie's knuckles went white around the mug. "April?"

"I'm here," she said, and she materialised in the darkest corner of the room. "Doctor, is Charlie right? Can you get me back?"

He bounced to his feet and scanned her with his screwdriver. "Oh, now that's interesting. Totally Shadowkin… but also not." He looked back at the screwdriver and raised his eyebrows. "Well. That's…" He peered at April again. "Right."

"I don't like the sound of that." April's voice came from Corakinus's mouth, and Charlie still hadn't decided if she was scarier as herself or as the stuff of his nightmares. "Doctor, what's going on?"

"Oh! Nothing to worry about. Just a complete mind imprint relying on telepathy…" He checked the screwdriver again. "Honestly, you could probably project the appearance you wanted onto anyone around you, but it would take years to learn so we're just going to pop down to see some friends of mine. They'll help us create a cloned body and then we'll reverse the psychic imprint onto it. Home in time for tea. You might find your tastes have changed, though. New tastebuds, essentially."

They looked at each other - or Charlie at least tried to look at April - and she nodded. "Alright. I think I'll need one of those filter things, though. I stand out a bit."

"Right, yes." He clapped his hands and spun on his heel. "You two go to school, do knitting and things, April and I will go and sort her out a body. See you back here for chips."

****************************************************************
"Are you okay?" Matteusz caught Charlie's hand when they turned the last corner to school and squeezed it. "Because you do not have to be okay."

He licked his lips and stared at Matteusz's feet. "I am. I mean… I'm trying to be."

"You do not have to be," Matteusz repeated.

"I should be." His fingers shook in Mattuesz's hand, no matter how hard he tried to stop them. "This is more than I should ever have been allowed."

"Allowed?"

He nodded. "April… that should have been me, not Corakinus." The words hung in the air between them for seconds that seemed to gape like years, but then Matteusz's arms were vice-tight around him and Charlie clung on just as tight, now shaking from head to toe. "I wish it had been."

Matteusz shook his head. "No. No, do not say that." He pulled back and cupped Charlie's face in both hands. "You do not have to be okay now, but you will be okay. We will make this better."

"I know." He buried his face in Matteusz's shoulder. "But right now… No, I'm not… I'm not okay."

He shushed him gently and tangled his fingers in Charlie's hair, holding his head in place tucked safe and sound against him. "No, you are not. But you will be."

"As long as I have you…" Charlie lifted his head and smiled, despite the tears clinging to his lashes. "As long as you're here, I know I can be again. One day. I just don't want you to waste your time waiting for that."

Matteusz shook his head. "My time is not wasted if I spend it with you. In General Studies, though…" He leaned in and kissed Charlie's forehead when he spluttered a laugh. "Do you want to go home?"

"No. I can do this. If I turned back every time I had a rough day, I would never leave the house." He slid his hand down to take Matteusz's again. "I don't know what I would do without you. You were the first thing that made surviving bearable."

His heart broke again, but the ringing of the school bell, audible even from so far away, caught his attention. "Charlie…"

"Later," he agreed. "Don't want to piss Mr Jones off, do we?" He hitched his bag higher onto his shoulder and set off at a jog without letting go of Matteusz's hand.