Disclaimer: Doctor Who © BBC, I own nothing but this story!
Author's Note: Oooo hooo, what shall unfold? Things get more juicy next chapter, but here we finally have the meeting of everyone! ;-) Thanks to everyone who's reviewing so far! If you'd like to add input on what you'd like to see in the story, then feel free to let me know! This will be a fairly large story, so lots of time to add in extra situations you'd like to see the Doctor have to deal with!
By the time John had made it to Torchwood, Rose was already running out the front door.
"Took your time didn't you?" She grabbed his jacket and pulled him along with her as she ran down the street.
"Yeah, sorry, I got held up by the old lady down the street. Again. She likes to tell me how I remind her of her youth." He cringed and shook his head. "So you said this has something to do with the rift?" He asked, matching her speed.
"Yeah, the readings predicted it would be today that it would in its final form, and as soon as we started monitoring it, all the machines crashed. And it wasn't just a normal power outage crash, lots of things were blowing up. I was able to grab some papers that had the coordinates of where it would be happening." She fished the information out of her pocket and shoved them in John's hands.
"Seriously? Why's it always London? Better hurry up then!" He said as he put the papers in the pocket of his jacket.
They quickened their speed, rounding corners, almost running into people, and barely getting out of the way of cars. They had about 5 minutes until it hit full peak. One thing was for sure, the human Doctor still had a love for running.
The sky grew darker with each second, and thunder began to drown out other noises. As Rose looked up she could see lightening forming in the middle of the clouds. "That's strange." She continued to study the clouds. "The clouds, look at the clouds! It's like the lightening is only in the middle of the storm!" She pointed out as she looked back at John.
He was busy reading back through the documents, "I think that's right above where it's supposed to be, the rift I mean!" His eyes became more serious. "We need to hurry up!" He began running faster, taking the lead almost immediately.
"Hey wait up! John!" Rose tried to keep up with him, but only managed to keep a few feet behind him.
The closer they got to the middle of town, the darker the sky got. Lots of people were seen outside taking pictures on their cell phones, or running in the opposite direction. Just like the Earth Rose came from, the people in the parallel London knew when to run away from potential danger. And a giant lightening ball in the middle of dark swirling clouds was definitely a potential threat.
Suddenly there was a loud crack that echoed in the streets. The sky lit up a blue-white colour and when Rose looked up she saw a blur of dark blue fall out of the clouds. She barely had a chance to look at it before it was hidden behind a building. She looked down just in time to see John round another corner.
Using the last ounce of energy to sprint even faster, she was able to catch up with John. At first she didn't notice anything too strange, but when she looked up and saw the serious look on his face, she could tell automatically that something was wrong.
Another sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, and when she looked over to where John was staring, it felt as though time had frozen. Her eyes widened when it finally registered what exactly she was looking at.
The TARDIS.
"Rose? What rose?" Rory asked as he examined the area. He looked back at the Doctor and saw him looking off somewhere else. At someone in particular. "Ah..I'll shut up now."
"Doctor?" Amy looked from him to the woman he was staring at. He had an almost petrified look in his eyes. "Doctor, are you alright?" She shook his arm to jolt him out of his trance.
"This is impossible. It just...it can't happen. Why of all places, does it have to be here?" He began whispering to himself.
"Doctor, what's the matter?" River tried. "Sweetie?" He shook his head and then looked at her. She could see guilt as she looked in his eyes. She knew, because there had been a moment when she too had never felt guiltier in her life than ever before, back when she had first met him. And killed him. Yes, she knew the feeling well.
He smiled before continuing, "Nothing's the matter. Nothing at all." Looking back at Rory and Amy, he clapped his hands together, "Right then, shall we go introduce ourselves? Better not be rude. We did, after all, just crash land in their world!" He gestured to the two people staring at them from across the street.
The blonde woman seemed to be in a heated discussion with the man. She kept motioning to where they'd just walked out of the TARDIS. The man didn't look as though he was saying anything. He just stood there with his hands in his pockets and a very serious look on his face.
"You go on ahead of me, I'll be right back. I'm going to grab some more stuff from the TARDIS." River said.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure." The Doctor was again preoccupied with staring at his surroundings.
"Sweetie?" River asked in an enticingly.
"Yes?" The Doctor scratched his cheek as he looked at her.
"Keys?" She held out her hand, and arched an eyebrow.
"Oh! Right, right! Sorry, here you are." He fished out the keys to the blue box and quickly handed them over.
"Thank you." She finished in a singsong voice.
He grinned as he watched her head back into the TARDIS. He hadn't realized how accustomed he'd grown to answering to the term, 'sweetie' that it still gave him a slight butterfly feeling in his stomach.
"Doctor? How are we going to get back?" Amy asked, grabbing the Doctor's arm again.
"Isn't it obvious? We have to let her sit here and absorb enough of the rift energy to fly her back." He gave her a confused look before turning around to face them all. "Alright, so first are some rules. No wandering off, namely you Amelia." He pointed a finger at her. "I can't have you finding the parallel versions of yourselves for fun. We wait until the TARDIS has enough energy to get us home, and that's that. Since we're here, we can figure out what caused the rift, or crack if you'd rather use the term, and we close it for good. Got it?" He glanced at each of them.
"Yeah, right, uhm, Doctor?" Amy was looking past him, not paying attention to what he'd said.
"What is it, Pond?" He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He knew who she was looking at, but he didn't want to turn around.
"I think they're coming over here." She pointed.
"Of course they are. They want to know why I'm here." He stated flatly, as though the answer was so clear to begin with.
"Why would they want to know why you're here?" Rory asked.
"Well—" He was cut off.
"Because he's never supposed to cross through to this world. Ever again." A voice answered.
The Doctor cringed slightly. Nothing about being in that world felt right. He slowly turned around and was met with the face of his previous regeneration. "Ah. Hello!" He said cheerfully. "Long time. No...see." His smile faltered slightly.
"So, how do you two know each other?" Rory asked as he looked from the random stranger to the Doctor.
"Oh Rory. Haven't you figured it out by now?" The Doctor looked back at him with a serious face that matched that of the man standing in front of him. "He's me."
"Ah, right. Not following again." Rory looked even more confused than when they'd tried to explain the rift to him.
"Come on Rory! Current regeneration," he motioned to his face, "past regeneration." He motioned to the other man's face, "Old me, new me! Keep with the times!"
"But then how can there be two of you? Is he like another ganger version of you?" Rory pointed between the two of them.
"What? No! He grew from an old hand of mine that got chopped off. Moving on." He clapped his hands together, "So, Doctor. What do they call you in this world?"
"We call him John. John Smith." A woman's voice chimed in.
The Doctor closed his eyes momentarily to compose himself and then peeked behind John. Rose was standing just a few feet away with her arms crossed. He wasn't sure if she was angry, or just cold. He hoped for the latter.
"Is it really you? You look so...different. How do we know it's actually him?" She addressed John with the last statement.
"I can tell. We're the same person, so I know." John turned around to look at her, and gave her a slight nod of approval. When he faced them again he still had a contemplative expression. He was mulling everything over in his head, wondering where to begin.
Amy and Rory looked at each other awkwardly. "Oookay. So you're both the same person?" Amy scratched her head, red hair bouncing slightly as she did so. "Yeeaah still not following." She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow even more.
John, noticing how tense the situation was, decided to lighten the mood a bit, "Right then! Since you're all here might as well get to know each other! Rose?" He stepped to the side and motioned for her to join him closer to where everyone stood.
Slowly stepping forward she greeted the two new comers, "Hi there, I'm Rose." She smiled and tucked some hair behind her ear.
The Doctor noticed how much older she was. She had some more wrinkles around her eyes, and a couple starting on her forehead. Much was hidden under her makeup, but he could tell she was in her late 20s, possibly even in her early 30s. In a way she reminded him of her mother, still wearing clothing for the younger crowd. Though, he did have to hand it to her, she could pull it off well. No noticeable weight gain, so nothing looked awkward. He faked a cough when they accidentally made eye contact.
"Right, Ponds! Introduce yourselves as well." He patted Rory on the shoulder.
"Ponds?" Rose looked at them questioningly.
"Yeah he tends to call us that." Rory answered. "It should really be Williams." He gave the Doctor an annoyed look.
"Oy I thought we agreed on Pond!" Amy chided and smacked him on the arm lightly.
"Ouch, thank you." He rubbed his arm, "Right, anyway, I'm Rory and this is my wife, Amy." He motioned to the red head who smiled.
"Married?" Rose arched an eyebrow and looked expectantly at the Doctor. He merely scratched his cheek and shrugged.
"What am I not allowed to chaperone a married couple?"
Rose held up her hands, "No, no. Just thought you wouldn't let more than one person travel with you since Mickey, and all."
"Who's Mickey?" Amy asked.
"Ex boyfriend." The Doctor answered.
"Your's?" She snorted.
"What? No!" He huffed.
Rose tried to conceal a laugh. "Oy." John nudged her with his elbow.
"Sorry, but it was kind of funny. And it's not like you haven't been friendly with other men before. What about Jack?" She smirked. "Besides, you two did bicker like a married couple at times." She giggled.
"Ahh, sounds like someone else we know." Amy crossed her arms and gave the Doctor a triumphant look.
"Shut up. Not like that!" He retorted, mimicking how he'd answered her when she'd joked about the TARDIS being in a woman's body.
"Amy." Rory warned her.
"Right, sorry." She laughed.
"Someone you know?" Rose wasn't sure if she liked where the conversation was headed. "What like Donna or Martha?" Although she was with the human Doctor, when she reflected back on all their adventures she still felt slightly possessive over the real Doctor.
"No, not those two. It's really nothing. Amelia just likes to joke. No stop it." He warned her. He could feel the tension rise slightly and he wanted to run back into the TARDIS and wait for everything to pass. Which reminded him, River had gone into the TARDIS some while ago...
And with perfect timing, as always, the door to the blue box opened and River stepped out partway.
"Sweetie, could you come here a second?"
The Doctor smacked his hand against his forehead.
Rose put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow, "Sweetie?"
"Uhh..." He'd never felt more flustered and put on the spot than he did in that moment.
"Oh, hello I didn't even see you two there!" River stepped out and straightened herself. She closed the door and walked over to where everyone stood. Holding out a hand to Rose, she introduced herself, "Doctor River Song. Pleasure to meet you." She smiled.
Rose stood gawking at her, "Doctor Song?"