Sorry it took so long to upload this. I have writer's block. It sucks. Anyway. Here it is finally. Reviews and critiques are appreciated as usual. :)

There really wasn't a reason for him to be so nervous. Amy and Rory didn't know who James was and even if they did, what would the issue be? There wasn't anything to be nervous about.

Somehow it didn't change the fact that he was.

He approached their front door and found himself hesitating. Though The Doctor didn't quite understand his reluctance, James appeared to. He stood quietly beside the Doctor, patient and making no move to rush him.

Finally, he raised a fist and knocked on the door.

James watched, looking suddenly tense himself.

The door opened and they both sucked in an anxious breath.

Amy Pond looked out at them, her eyes immediately landing on the Doctor and frowned.

The Doctor smiled brightly. "Hello, Amy! Happy New Year!"

"It isn't New Years. It's March, you idiot," she said, slapping his arm.

He flinched. "Ow!"

She glared at him, but the playfulness behind it was visible. She then turned her attention to James.

James smiled at her, hoping to avoid any hitting.

"Are you the Doctor's new companion, then?"

"Oh, no," James said, shaking his head. "No, I'm... I'm..."

"He's complicated. Can we come inside?" the Doctor asked as he walked past her into the house. "And how about a spot of tea? I could use a cup of tea. He could, too. We both just got back from being shot at. We're fine, obviously, except his hand hurts. I think he punched a Silence. Can't quite remember."

Amy shut the door after they had come in and walked them into the living room.

"Doctor, you're rambling," Amy said. "I only caught bits of that, but I heard that whoever this is," -she gestured at James- "punched a Silence?"

"I said I think he punched a Silence," the Doctor said as he plopped himself down on the sofa in the living room.

Amy looked at James with a new found respect. She held out her hand. "Amy Pond, sort of retired companion. And you are?"

"James Smith," he said, taking her hand and shaking it with a big grin. "Not a companion. And you're ginger! The Doctor didn't say you were ginger. I like ginger. I wish I had been ginger. Wish he was ginger. He hasn't gotten to be ginger yet. I mean, really, eleven regenerations and you'd think at least one of them would have been ginger."

Amy pulled her hand away- as he had not released her during his ramble- and looked over at the Doctor with a startled expression.

The Doctor didn't notice. "Where's Rory?"

"Upstairs," Amy said.

As though the words had summoned him, Rory came down the stairs, walked into the living room, and stopped dead in his tracks. He looked around the room with a dumbfounded expression, taking in each person one by one as though trying to determine whether or not they were truly there. After several long, quiet seconds, his eyes focused on the Doctor.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor stood up, beaming happily, and threw his arms open. "Rory! Rory Pond! Good to see you!"

Rory smiled awkwardly as the Doctor hugged him.

"We got worried. You said you'd be back at New Years," Rory said as he disengaged from the hug.

"Oh, I'm sure its a new year somewhere in the universe," the Doctor said dismissively.

Rory smiled and then glanced over at James, growing uncomfortable when he discovered he was staring at him.

"What?"

James shook his head and grinned at him. "Oh, sorry. The Doctor told me a bit about you two on the way here. Hard to believe you've died as many times as you have. Heard you were plastic for a long while, too. Two thousand years is a hell of a long time to be alone."

Rory blinked at him in surprise, looking over at the Doctor for an explanation.

"Don't mind him. He means well, I think," the Doctor said.

Amy gave James a suspicious look and then turned to the Doctor. "Who is he?"

He hesitated, frowning.

James was silent. He could have explained it to them, but he didn't. He held no illusions that the Doctor didn't particularly like him, but that wasn't what really bothered him. It was that he was ashamed of him. And afraid. He was afraid of him and James knew why.

He had changed though, since the Doctor had dumped him off at Bad Wolf Bay. He didn't want to be like his ninth regeneration. He didn't want to be angry and vengeful, and he'd spent a good deal of time evaluating himself; deciding who he wanted to be, because there was one thing was he knew for certain... he wasn't the Doctor.

But who was he then?

"Doctor, who is he?" Amy repeated after the Doctor still had not answered her.

The Doctor sighed in resignation. "It's a bit complicated."

Rory scoffed. "Complicated is kind of a requirement when it comes to you, Doctor. I think we can follow."

He smiled. "Well, a while back, before I looked like this, I looked like him. I got shot by a Dalek and was going to regenerate, but I transferred my regenerative... oh wait... I missed a part. Hold on. Let me go back. Alright, when I first regenerated into him I got my hand cut off, but I was in the first fifteen hours of my regenerative cycle, so I grew it back. As you can see," he said, showing them his hand. "Anyway, I got shot by a Dalek and transferred my regenerative energies into my hand so that I wouldn't have to regenerate. Then Donna... have I mentioned Donna before?"

"Once," Amy said.

"Oh, good. Yes, well, Donna touched my hand and the regenerative energies in it combined with her DNA caused an instantaneous biological meta-crisis-"

"A what?" Rory blubbered.

"Well, you know how some reptiles can lose a limb and grow it back? Well, it's like that in a way... sort of..." the Doctor said, wincing. The analogy wasn't quite accurate, but he couldn't think of a better way to describe it, so he let it go. "Anyway, James here, grew out of my hand. He's my hand."

James waved at them with a smile. "Hello."

Amy squinted her eyes at James. "So... you looked like him before?"

"Right," the Doctor said.

"You looked good," Amy said appreciatively.

James' brow rose and he looked nervously over at Rory, but he didn't seem too concerned with the statement. James guessed Amy probably said things like that a lot without it holding any meaning to her and Rory had grown accustomed to it.

The Doctor frowned. "Do I not now?"

"Don't be stupid. You're adorable. Like a baby," she said, pinching his cheek.

The Doctor frowned. "A baby?"

James stifled his laughter by putting his hand over his mouth as though in thought, although he was unable to suppress all of it.

The Doctor flashed him a scowl and James cleared his throat, laughter dying away.

"So... he's the Doctor, too?" Rory asked in confusion.

"No. I'm not," James said, more forcefully than he'd meant to. "I'm part human, part Time Lord."

"But you're part him?" Rory asked, then seemed to regret it. The tension that suddenly grew between the Doctor and James was obvious enough to make both Amy and Rory subconsciously lean away, looking between the two nervously, though neither of them understood why it was happening.

"Technically, yes," James conceded. "But we're not the same person like his past regenerations are. I'm me. He's him. We're different."

"Why haven't you mentioned him before?" Amy asked the Doctor.

"Well, for one, he's very complicated. And second, he was in another universe. There really wasn't a reason to mention him."

"The universe you left Rose in?" Amy asked.

The Doctor nodded. He'd mentioned Rose briefly, as he had all of his other past companions, but had thought she wasn't listening.

"What's he doing here?" Rory asked.

James scowled at suddenly being talked about as though he wasn't there, but then again, he was the odd man out in this situation. They didn't know him and he didn't know them.

It didn't change the ever-growing feeling of not being welcome from growing in the pit of his stomach, making him feel queasy.

"That's also quite complicated. I'm not entirely sure," the Doctor said. "All I know is that there's a hit-man after me. A dangerous one. He was willing to wait who knows how long to open up a portal to another dimension and take James to draw me out."

"How'd you get away?" Rory asked.

It was a simple enough question, but both the Doctor and James looked at him, stricken with looks of pensive thought.

"What did you say?" the Doctor asked him.

"I asked how you got away..." Rory said, looking between the two, startled.

The Doctor and James looked at each other.

"He took a shot at you, Doctor..."

"... and missed," he finished.

"He shouldn't have missed."

"So why would he let us go? This man isn't just a killer; he's an expert. And he'd been planning this out for years. He would've had a contingency plan for anything I might throw at him. Yes, getting Madame Kovarian was clever, but not so clever that he couldn't react. He's a soldier. He would've adapted to it; used it to his advantage."

"So why? Why let us go?"

The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut and scratched at his head in thought.

"Doctor, if he let you go, he might have followed you here," Amy said.

The Doctor looked up at that. "Oh. Oh, dear..."

"You mean he might show up here?" Rory asked in alarm.

James turned and glanced out the window. "He could already be here for all we know."

"But he couldn't follow you. You've got the TARDIS. You could show up anywhere in time," Amy said. "It's not possible to follow you."

"It is if you're an ex-time agent with a vortex manipulator," the Doctor said, rising to his feet. "He's smart enough to guess where I'd go. And if he's really clever, he could track the TARDIS' flight path. Oh, bad, bad, bad, very, very bad."

He began to pace the room, quickly walking back and forth between the couch and the coffee table, staring down at the floor as he tried to decide what he would do. "Jack said everyone is being protected... but how well?"

"What are you talking about?" Amy asked. "What do you mean protected?"

"Doctor, we shouldn't stay here," James said, taking another nervous glance out of the window, half expecting to see Morgan materialize in the middle of the street.

"Right. It's not safe here. Come along, Ponds! John-"

"James!" he snapped angrily.

"I know," the Doctor said curtly as he crossed the room and headed for the door.

Amy and Rory watched him with incredulous expressions.

"Doctor, we can't just-" Rory started.

"If you'd rather wait here for the hit man to show up, then be my guest," James said, then hurried out to the TARDIS. He didn't need the key. He just snapped his fingers and the doors opened for him.

Amy followed behind him, grabbing Rory's hand and pulling him along behind her. As she passed the Doctor at the door, she stopped and looked at him. "What about River?"

"Is she here?" the Doctor asked in agitation, not sure whether or not he would be happy if she was. He loved her, but every encounter with River came with a price... and only brought him closer to the moment when he would have to say goodbye.

"She was coming by to visit. I thought it was her when you came to the door," Amy said.

"I'll leave her a note," the Doctor said.

Amy nodded, satisfied, and ran to the TARDIS, where James had been waiting with the doors open, looking down the street warily. When the four of them had all piled inside, the Doctor ran to the console and released the brake. He would let the TARDIS decide where to go; she usually knew best.

The TARDIS jolted and the time rotor began to pump up and down, wheezing.

This done, the Doctor turned around and smiled at the Ponds. "This is lovely. Like old times, except with a stowaway."

"Where are we going?" Amy asked as she walked up the ramp to lean against the TARDIS console, watching as the Doctor pressed a few buttons and appeared to play pinball.

"I don't know. I thought it would be better if we just showed up somewhere. Can't follow someone who doesn't know where they're going, can you?" he said with a confident smile.

"Can the TARDIS still be tracked?" Rory asked.

"No, no, don't worry. I've camouflaged our trail. We're perfectly safe here," the Doctor assured him.

Rory didn't look comforted, but let it go. He glanced over at James, who was staring at him again. "Can I help you?"

"Sorry. Last centurion. Plastic. Two thousand years old. I can't resist things like that. Not any of that plastic left, is there?" he asked, then poked him. "Oph. Nope. Just skin. Brillaint." He grinned like a child in a toy store.

Rory frowned at him as he continued to poke him in different places. Finally, he swatted his hand away.

"Oh, sorry, am I being rude?"

"A little bit," Rory said.

"I do that sometimes."

"Yeah," Rory said, glancing up at the Doctor. "I know."

"What did he do?" James asked, following his gaze.

"Kissed my fiance and popped out of a cake at my bachelor party," Rory replied.

James winced. "Ouch."

"Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time!" the Doctor protested. "Not the kissing thing. That was Amy's idea... I shouldn't have said that. Forget I said anything. Are you ever going to let that go?"

"You won, Rory, remember?" Amy said with a flirtatious smile.

Rory slowly smiled. "Yeah, I did."

"Alright, that's enough chatter for now. We need to get you lot settled in again. Do you two remember where your room is?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes. Does it still have the bunk beds?" Amy asked as she started up the stairs.

"No, don't be silly... I put in a water bed," the Doctor said with a pleased grin.

"A water bed?" Rory asked, looking exasperated.

"Have you tried one before? It's fun! But don't jump on it. They pop when you do that and water gets everywhere."

Rory and Amy exchanged looks of amusement and then headed upstairs together.

When they had left, the Doctor turned to James and beckoned him with an inclination of his head. "Come on. We've got to get a room set up for you."

James quietly followed the Doctor up the stairs and down several long halls. The TARDIS gave them directions on where to go until she had directed them to the end of a hall where there stood one door. On the frame were several Gallifreyan symbols.

James' name.

The Doctor stopped at it, looking it over for a moment, as did James.

They stepped inside.

There was a lot of blue. Which was fine by James. He liked blue. The bed was a dark blue, while the headboard, dresser and other furnishings resembled the coral pillars of his previous TARDIS. In the corner of the room stood a work table with various electrical gadgets, papers and -he could hardly believe his eyes- his own sonic screwdriver. The only real similarity was the blue tip. The handle was a darker metal and had several more buttons and settings than his last one.

James crossed the room and picked it up, examining it with child-like wonder and joy. The TARDIS hummed and James smiled, touching one of the walls affectionately. She was accepting him back. Welcoming him home.

The Doctor stood at the door, looking around the room. The TARDIS had really outdone herself to fit the room to James' tastes. It had his previous incarnations taste, but it looked different. Like pears. He could swear the room smelled like pears and James didn't look in the least bit troubled by it. James apparently liked pears.

James looked over his shoulder at the Doctor, swallowed, then back at the sonic screwdriver. "I won't stay longer than I have to."

"What?"

"This room. It looks like it was made for a permanent resident."

"It does, doesn't it..." the Doctor mused. "I don't know why she would do that."

James shrugged.

The Doctor looked around awkwardly. "It's a lovely room."

James nodded, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "Doctor..."

"Hm?"

"I'm not the same person you left behind, you know."

"Yes, you are," the Doctor said.

"You don't know me," James said coldly.

"I don't?" the Doctor asked, locking gazes with the meta-crisis. "If you had a chance to do it over... would you destroy the crucible now?"

James' jaw tightened. "You wouldn't?"

"I would've found another way," the Doctor stated.

"There wasn't another way and you know it," James said. "I did what I had to."

The Doctor stared at him intensely before saying, "You haven't changed, James."

"Yes, I have. There's a difference between me then and now."

"What's that?"

"I wasn't ashamed of what I did... I am now. I wish I didn't have to do that. I wish there had been another way, but there wasn't. I would do it again, but only because I had to: not because part of me wanted to."

The Doctor was quiet.

James looked up at him and then down at the floor. "I'm tired. I'm going to call it a night."

The Doctor nodded uncomfortably. "You know where to find me if you... um... need anything."

The Doctor shut the door and left him.