Ten frowned at Nine, trying to ignore the ever increasing sense of anxiety in his gut.

"What happened to her?" he asked his past self, the urgency in his voice obvious.

Nine clenched and unclenched his hands, his anxiety becoming apparent for the first time.

"She should be safe with you," the older man added in a low voice, hating that he couldn't remember this.

"You think I don't know that!" Nine replied, seeming to take offence. "You think I don't know that anything could be happening to her! She could be - she's only nineteen years old... It's all my fault… And you think that I don't know!"

Ten put his hands up. "I know, believe me I know, that's not what I meant," he said, trying to calm his younger self down.

Despite his sympathetic tone, the older Doctor was finding it hard to remain collected. He was angry with himself – both current and past – for letting something happen to Rose again. Deep down he was sure she would be okay, he believed in her more than anything, but that didn't stop the constant flash of images in his head…. Rose hurt, Rose dying, Rose somewhere beyond his reach... And it was entirely his fault.

"Tell me what happened," he said.

Nine nodded, collecting himself. He repeated the story he'd told the other version of him.

Ten stayed silent for a moment.

"They wanted to study her," he repeated quietly, the anger beneath the surface not quite so well hidden now.

He looked up at Nine.

"What is it?" the younger man said. "What aren't you telling me?"

"What happens to her," the Doctor replied, talking quickly, "what happens to her in the future, it's our fault. We didn't… We didn't know that she could – that she would – and I thought it was over, I just assumed since I'd taken it out of her-"

"Taken what out of her? Tell me. I have to protect her. I can stop this happening."

"I can't tell you, you know that," Ten replied, now genuinely sympathetic. It was bad enough not knowing what was happening to his Rose, but knowing that someone was holding back information would be even worse… And he knew how his past self had felt. Hell, he knew how he felt now.

The leather clad man crossed his arms.

"Fine. But don't think I'm happy about it."

Ten nodded, feeling a little sick. He thought Bad Wolf was gone forever, but now someone was trying to study it. Study Rose – before she'd even become that woman.

"What about your Rose?" Nine pressed him.

An awful realisation hit the older Doctor. Of course, he had known it all along, ever since the explanation of the original Rose's kidnapping, but he hadn't allowed it to come to the surface until now.

"Aurelia must have taken her. She must have been trying to find the right version of her."

The other Doctor caught on. "But if you know what happens – that means she's got the right Rose."

The Northern man walked forward, grabbing his future self by his tie.

"What's she gonna do to her?" he yelled at himself. "What's gonna happen to her?"

"I don't know!" replied the other man, shoving him off forcefully.

"You're the one that knows why she wants her! It's your fault this happened!"

"My fault! Your Rose gets kidnapped – what do you do? Do you go and rescue her? Go and give her a hand? Nah, you bring another Rose here and get her caught too!"

Nine stepped back, however his body was still tense.

"I promised Jackie I'd keep her safe," he said.

"So did I."

Both men stood in silence for a moment, staring at each other. They broke eye contact at the same time. Nine straightened his jacket, and Ten fixed his tie.

The younger Doctor walked over to the Tardis consoles and started setting coordinates.

"Oi! This is my ship now, hands off!"

Nine rolled his eyes. "I'm taking us to the other Doctor," he said, "we're not gonna find Rose standing around arguing."

Ten made a noise of resignation, but took over from the other's work.

"Alright," he said, "but I'm piloting."

Nine leant back and crossed his arms.

"Fine," he replied, "maybe I've picked up a few tricks in my old age."

In spite of his anger, Ten couldn't help smirking at Nine.

"Keep the engines steady for me," he said, nodding at a lever next to the other man.

The younger Doctor moved expertly, knowing that despite the short instruction his older self would let him take on half the work.

"I don't think I've ever flown the TARDIS with myself before," Ten said, voice now more pleasant, "we're a team - Shiver and Shake!"

Nine raised an eyebrow at him. "I hope you haven't said that to Rose," he replied, sounding unimpressed.

"Why? Don't you think she'd like it?"

Nine looked him up and down.

"You're a bit… pretty," he said, sounding very slightly repulsed.

"Oh, well, maybe a little," Ten said with a cocky smile, not quite catching the tone.

After spending a brief moment being pleased with himself, he looked over at the other man.

"Where are you now?" he asked him.

Nine glanced back briefly before spinning what looked like a glass paperweight.

"Been travelling with Jack for a while," he told his future self, "just dropped him off on Riser-3."

"Oh be careful when he comes back," said Ten in a tone of warning, "he gets a little flirty."

Nine snorted. "I think I've got that."

Ten shook his head, remembering finding three bottles of hyper vodka in Jack's bag when they picked him up from Riser.

"Is he still with us?" asked Nine.

"No," said Ten, moving away slightly.

"Ah."

Ten glanced over quickly at his previous form. Anyone else would have missed the expertly disguised sadness in his expression.

The TARDIS made her smoothest landing to date, and the two men grinned at each other.

"Rose isn't going to believe that landing," said Ten, still grinning.

"Better go find her then," Nine replied.

Both men raced out the door.

A/N: Sorry about the late (and shorter) update, I'll be publishing another one (with all three Doctors!) later today x