Donna's mind is filled with images. Algorithms, mathematical equations, scientific theories. The knowledge of how to build a TARDIS of her own is right there. She could start tomorrow if she wanted to. Maybe she will.
In her memory there is now a planet filled with a red sky. A citadel sits in the mountains, and though she has never been there, she knows the way there. She's been on that mountain before. Songs she has never heard sing in her mind. People she has never met, people dead for centuries, cycle through her mind.
The TARDIS floats in the Time Vortex, and she can feel time as it passes by. She can sense the TARDIS in a way she never could before. She can sense the presence of other people. It's amazing and frightening and exciting.
There is so much she needs to do now, so much to see. Her fingers itch for a pen and paper so she can start writing things down. She heads for the control room so she can start.
She is distracted from that task only by the Doctor in blue. He's talking to Rose, and they're standing so close together that they could touch at any time. Donna holds her breath, waiting, hoping for something that she can't define.
And then Rose turns around and leaves, a look of distress upon her face. Donna looks back to the Doctor in blue. Left alone, he looks grim and almost angry. Donna walks over to him, treading warily, the way you might around a wild animal.
"What were you saying to her?" Donna asks.
He turns to look at her. "What should have been said a long time ago." He walks beyond Donna and towards the depths of the TARDIS.
"Where are you going?" Donna asks. "We haven't even had a chance to talk!"
"We just killed the entire race of Daleks and their creator," is his response. "Nothing more to be said after that, is there?" He leaves as well, brushing against the Doctor in brown as he goes.
Donna shakes her head, glancing at the Doctor. "You're both moody, aren't you?"
The Doctor is moving the TARDIS controls. "Don't look at me. He's part you."
"And part you!" Donna freezes. "Good lord, it's like he's our...our offspring or something!"
"No! Don't say that!" the Doctor exclaims, appalled.
"Well, it beats Looming, at any rate."
Jackie is sitting in the kitchen, right where Rose left her. She has no desire to explore other parts of this ship. She had no interest in stepping outside when they were on the world she used to call home. All she wants is to get home to her husband and her child.
She takes a sip of tea and sighs. Pete will be worried sick, and she can only hope that six-year-old Tony will be too busy with school and friends to notice that she has been gone for some time. She was willing to leave them to go after Rose, but now that everything is safe and done she needs to get back where she belongs.
It's hard to accept that Mickey is gone. She's watched him grow up, watched his heart get broken several times. Rose broke it, most of those times. It hurt to say goodbye but she's happy knowing that he's doing what he wants. Mickey will be his own man now.
It's the Doctor she has her eye on now. He's broken her little girl's heart more than once, and now there are two of them to do the job. She doesn't trust either one. No matter what happens next, Jackie suspects Rose will be hurt.
Even as she thinks the words, Rose is coming into the kitchen.
"What's happened?" Jackie demands, ready to go and do battle on her little girl's behalf.
"Nothing's happened," Rose lies. "We're still in the Time Vortex, waiting to get through."
Jackie shakes her head. "I know you, Rose. What's going on?"
"He doesn't want me after all," Rose says quietly, looking down at the tabletop. "Doesn't matter what I've done to get back here, he wants me gone."
Jackie would be less than honest if she didn't admit to herself that a wave of relief washes over her at those words. All she wants is to go back home, and to bring Rose with her. But she loves her daughter, and so she tries.
"Did he tell you that, sweetheart? Is there somebody else? Is it...is it Donna?" Jackie whispers the last part, and makes Rose smile.
"No. There's no one else. But he's got it in his head that I deserve better."
"Well, you do," Jackie says before she can stop herself.
"Mum! You knew what I was planning to do! The...the other Doctor - the one in the blue suit - is human. He thinks I should stay with him."
"The new Doctor thinks you should stay with the old one?" Jackie tries to catch up.
"No. The Doctor thinks I should stay with the new one."
"But...why?"
"Mum!" Rose says in gentle exasperation. "'Cos he's human. We could have a life together."
Hope flares in Jackie's eyes. "Is that possible?"
"He's giving me a choice. Stay here on the TARDIS or go home with the new Doctor. He'll bring us back home if we want."
"Home? To Pete?"
"Yeah."
"Me and you and the Doctor? The other Doctor?"
"He's human," Rose explains. "Human lifespan. We could have a life together."
"Oh, Rose!" Jackie's excitement in short-lived.
"Mum! He isn't the Doctor! He's someone else. He's not who I came for."
"Seems to me they're one and the same," Jackie says shrewdly. "Only one has a time machine and one hasn't got anything. But he still cares for you - he watches you every moment you're nearby."
"I didn't come back for this," Rose whispers.
Jackie sees the temptation that Rose won't acknowledge. A human Doctor would possibly be more to her than a Time Lord, and that possibility frightens Rose more than she can admit to herself. Jackie takes a deep breath.
"Did he tell you that he loved you?" The answer will settle everything.
Rose shrugs. "He did. But it was the wrong one. Wrong Doctor. So what do I do about that, Mum?"
Rose finds her Doctor - the one in the brown suit - in the control room. He smiles, clearly happy to see her.
"Hello."
"Hi." Rose walks over and settles in the worn seat, just as she always did. For a moment they're back where they used to be.
"Do you still think I deserve a choice?" she asks him.
"I know you do," he says easily. He's had time to think and come to terms with his decision. "If you want to stay here, with me, we'll bring your mum home. He'll have to stay with her, on that world. He and I can't exist together. Not two of us with one TARDIS."
"And if we do that? What happens to him?"
"He'll manage just fine. Wouldn't be the first time. I imagine Jackie might look after him."
Rose looks amused at that. "Maybe. And what happens to us?"
He looks at her. "Then we'll stay on the TARDIS and have adventures, just like old times."
"Just like I want?"
"Just as you want," the Doctor answers, and watches her closely.
Rose nods. Her world has been turned upside down and back again in the past hour, and now what she wants is no longer as clear. She stands up and, on impulse, hugs him. He hugs her back, tightly.
"I'll see you in a bit," she promises, and leaves him to wonder what she's going to do.
He's not left to wonder alone, because just minutes later the Doctor in blue comes in. The Doctor has the strangest sensation of watching himself approach.
"That suit needs a shirt and tie," he says without thinking.
The Doctor in blue rolls his eyes. "Whatever. Tell me what you're up to."
The Doctor raises an eyebrow. "Sorry?"
"You can't play coy with me. I'm you! What did you say to Rose that made her so upset?"
"Who says she's upset?" the Doctor in brown demands. "She's fine."
"She's upset." The other Doctor says this emphatically. "She was upset before and she's upset now."
"I didn't mean to make her upset."
"Well, you did. What are you planning?"
"I'm planning for our futures. As soon as we locate the breach and land in the other universe we need to be ready."
"Be ready." The Doctor in blue touches one of the controls. "Ready for what?"
"You know for what."
"Nope, I don't. Tell me."
His feigned casualness is the last straw.
"You shouldn't exist!" the Doctor says angrily. "You should not be here! But you are, and you're a genocidal maniac!"
"I did what had to be done. What you were afraid to do!"
"You killed the Daleks! Destroyed an entire race of beings!"
"Beings who would have destroyed all of humanity," the Doctor in blue says wearily. "You didn't have the guts to do it. I did."
"This was never about guts!"
"It's always about that! On the Gamestation you chose death and cowardice over killing the Daleks. You left that bit to Rose. To Lynda with a y. To Jack. To Astrid. To all the others who lost their lives. How many companions have you lost because you made them into weapons for you to aim?"
"Don't you dare quote Davros' ravings to me," the Doctor in brown says quietly. "You're out of control."
"Am I? Or am I just human? That's it!" he exclaims, seeing the look on the other Doctor's face. "I'm human. You hate that. You hate that because...because I'll die and you'll have to watch? That can't be it. You hate it because I'm human and so is Rose! You think she might choose me over you! That's it, isn't it? And you've decided to take the offensive and push her away - again - before she can hurt you." The Doctor in blue looks very satisfied, as if he's just solved a complicated mathematical equation. "Which of us is the coward?"
"I've given her a choice. Me or a life with you back on the world she came from."
The Doctor in blue blinks in surprise. "Seriously?"
"Yes. Seriously."
"What did she say?"
"Nothing yet." The Doctor in brown checks the computer. No closer to finding the breach than before.
The Doctor in blue frowns, sitting down and staring at the grated floor. This irritates the other Doctor for no reason at all.
"What's the matter with you, hmm? You get Rose."
"Well, thank you very much! What makes you think she'll have me?"
"She'll have you," he says shortly.
"She came back for you. You. Not some inferior copy."
"You are not a copy."
"No, I'm not. But I'm not what she came back for and you know it." The Doctor in blue frowns. "Why are you doing this? You can't just tell her you want to be with her? End this now."
"It has to be her. She has to choose. If we push her hand she'll feel obligated to choose one over the other."
"You're asking her to do that anyway."
"But it needs to be her choice."
The Doctor in blue shakes his head and stands up. "You're pompous and overbearing. And a complete idiot."