Rose was delighted Alec had at least managed to find Mickey but she was still apprehensive about calling him. What would Martha think? The Doctor had said Mickey had made provisions for her return, just in case but had he just been saying that?

"Are you going to call your friends?" Alec asked after finishing the call with Tess.

"Yeah. I don't know about meeting with them though. What did Tess want? Have they found Claire?"

"She is being picked up in Southampton, they let her go but Tess is making another call. If she has that evidence, Tess will hold her and add the charges against you to the list."

"Well you need to catch her husband, find out if they killed those girls."

"They will but we may have to go up there, feel like a trip maybe?"

"Yeah, 'course, as long as I don't keep throwing up all the way there. I think I'll call Mickey when I get home, I have to go back to work now. I forgot to tell you, Maureen offered me two days a week, her day off and Saturday and I'll get special treatment."

"If that's what you want love but I hoped we'd get weekends together?"

"We will when I give up altogether, you work Saturday mornings for now so let's wait until this case is over, then I can maybe do another day instead?"

"Aye, well do that then. Come on, if you have finished I'll take you back to work eh?"

"You shouldn't be driving yet Alec."

"Who said I was driving love?"

After work, Rose decided to call in at her apartment and clear out the kitchen, putting tinned food and fresh food that was still in date into carrier bags. She got the phone number Alec had handed her and sat down at the kitchen table. Maybe she should do this in front of Alec, she wanted no secrets from him now, she'd held back enough over not telling him how she felt about him.

She dialled the number and waited.

In the Smith household in a London suburb not far from where Martha had been a medical student, Mickey was trying to feed his young son, named after Jack and who wanted to throw his baby rice onto the high chair.

"Come on Jack, your mum will be home soon, let's show her I can feed you, yeah?"

The nine month old wasn't going to play ball. Mickey's phone rang, an unrecognised number and he was hoping it wasn't UNIT telling him there were more Sontarans on the planet. If there were, they would have to deal with them. Martha had just gone back to a posting at UNIT HQ and nothing was going to spoil their new family life.

"This is Mickey Smith, please leave a message after the tone. Beep."

"Mickey, stop mucking about, I know you're there."

He picked his phone back off the table and pressed the answer button. He'd know that voice anywhere.

"Rose! Is that really you?"

"Last time I checked. Long time no see. How's married life?"

"You know?"

"I saw the Doctor a while back, he's changed, told me you'd gone off with Martha. Was it you that set me up in Broadchurch?"

"Broadchurch? Why would I set you up there? Is that where that boy's been killed? What the hell are you doing there?"

"Well the Doctor told me it was entirely your idea but he was obviously covering something up."

"What happened Rose, why are you back?"

"It didn't work out, with me and the Doctor's clone, whatever you want to call him."

"Did he tell you where to find me?"

"No, I have friends in the police here, well one is more than a friend. Anyway, I have a lot to tell you and apart from him, I have no-one. Can we meet?"

"I'll talk to Martha when she gets home then, can you come up here?"

"Not yet, Alec's in the middle of that murder investigation."

"Did you say Alec? Not that Alec Hardy down there? Seriously? He's the Doctor's twin. Are you sure you didn't bring him with you? What happened anyway, you two were literally made for each other."

"Yeah, so we thought until he let me down and tried to come back, on his own without even telling me."

"So now you're here, is that any different?"

"'spose not, I left him, we promised each other we wouldn't try to find him. When he got back, I left him but he made the cannon stable, well apart from it being a year out but now, the other world's out of alignment and I can't get back."

"You want to go back?"

"I want the option to go back or at least for someone to come here, to let my mum know I'm ok. I can't go back, I'm pregnant."

"The Doctor?"

"No, Alec Hardy, I want you to meet him."

"Well we've got young Jack now, he's nine months but I suppose we could come down for the weekend. Can I call you back?"

"Sure, yeah. There are things I can't tell you on the phone anyway. Talk to Martha, see what she thinks but you at least know who Alec looks like. I met him through someone I used to work with, until she went all psycho on me and put me in the hospital."

"Geez Rose, are you ok? I'll tell Martha then but has the woman been locked up?"

"Alec's ex is after her, she's wanted in connection with an old case. She may have stolen the evidence needed to put her husband away."

"Sounds like fun then. I'll call you back, Jack's got rice all over the place."

"Ha, sounds like he takes after his namesake."

"He does, trust me. I'll call you soon."

Rose had just hung up when Alec rang.

"Where are you Rose?"

"Oh, down at my apartment, I had to clear the fridge. You coming down?"

"I will take a walk then, I was just leaving the station."

Rose greeted him with a kiss when he arrived and told him of her phone conversation with Mickey.

"So, I get to meet him then?"

"Yeah, he's heard of you but he said he never set me up here. Alec, I'm beginning to think that James lied to me, that he set it all up, while he was here."

"How could he Rose?"

"Well the Doctor was a bit vague, he said it was Mickey but what if James found him and they set it up between them? James knew I'd be mad when he got back but I have no idea why he even had to come here in the first place, we were ok."

Alec stepped up to her and put his arms around her shoulders, going for her neck.

"Were you? You might have but what about him?"

"You think he was doing it for me? Why?"

"You said the Doctor felt bad, for you being stranded there and from what you told me, his clone was created accidentally but what if he wasn't? You tried to explain to me and really love, I can't get my head around it but maybe all this was planned, you said time does not run in a straight line."

"Yeah, now I think about it, maybe he thought I wasn't happy but I was Alec and I don't want to sound like I'm tryin' to put you off."

"You are not putting me off Rose, you are with me now, we are having a baby, remember?"

"Yeah and maybe that's why that other Doctor came to save you?"

"Then I will be forever grateful to him. He said he had seen a timeline where I died, he must have figured he at least owed you that."

"Yeah, I'll talk to Mickey and Martha about it, then you won't think I'm certifiable."

"I think so such thing love. Now, shall we go home?"

"Home, yeah, I feel like I'm home now. I told Mickey I couldn't get back, maybe he'll be able to figure my device out?"

He let go of her, his arms falling to his side. Why did she always have to ruin the moment? Rose noticed.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get back, I meant so maybe someone can come here, maybe Jake."

"Or maybe James, then what? Why would he come, to get you back?"

"You've not been paying attention Alec, if he was the one who set all this up. Mind you, he could have left Claire out of it."

"How could have known about her? She was my problem and you are giving me a headache thinking about all this. So you mean if your device begins to work and you don't return, we can expect a visitor?"

Rose nodded and took his hands.

"I'm going nowhere Alec, I told you, I can't."

He took one of her hands and kissed the back of it.

"Then I am glad to hear it love and I was paying attention, I do think he set all this up."

"Maybe we weren't meant to work it out?"

"Well the more we dwell on it, the more of a mystery it will become and the day we know everything? We might as well give up love."

"He used to say that – James's twin. You should have seen Tess, tryin' to work out how the older Doctor was the twin brother of James. Mind you, I can see her point, he's completely different and he had a Scottish accent though my first Doctor had a northern accent."

"Now you are confusing me. We were going home, remember?"

"Yeah, let's go get some chips on the way back – you're paying."

The rest of the week went by reasonably normally, Rose's pregnancy was showing all the signs that it was for real despite the fairly inaccurate testing and she decided to get a proper diagnosis in a few weeks time from the health centre and just put up with it in the meantime. The arrangements were made for Mickey and Martha to travel down from London that weekend, they were all meeting at the harbour after Alec collected Rose on her last day at work, she had decided to turn down the job offer and thanked everyone for the leaving present as she went to meet Alec outside the newspaper office.

"Leaving present love?" he asked as he took the silver gift bag from her.

He looked inside to see a grey fluffy teddy bear.

"Cute, I expected they thought it was a neutral colour?"

"Yeah, there's a card as well. Maureen was a bit disappointed I didn't take her up on her offer but once the baby starts showing, all the young boys will stop asking for me anyway."

"I should think so as well. Where did your friends say they would be?"

"Just on the jetty, they'll be looking at the boats with baby Jack, I'm dying to see him. Mickey always used to look out for me when we were younger, did I tell you?"

"Yes love, you did tell me. No wonder the two of you never worked out, if you grew up together."

"Well, I had my head turned plus the offer to go travel in a time machine."

Alec smiled. Maybe if she had never stepped in that time machine, she would never had ended up here. There again, maybe he would never have come here either, the strands had all come together to complete a very complex pattern and it made him dizzy thinking about it.

Martha and Mickey had been talking on the way down, wondering how Rose had managed to hook up with yet another version of the Doctor.

"I wonder why he never tried to contact us again Mickey, after he changed?"

"Rose said he did that sometimes. She said she was lucky the last time, that he wanted her to stay with him but he had no reason, did he? Not this time. We were happy, Rose was in the other world with his identical twin though I'm surprised that never worked out for them."

"Maybe it was him – not Rose. I mean, if he came back without telling her, things can't have been settled between them, can they?"

"Leave it Martha, maybe she doesn't want to talk about it, not in front of the new man in her life."

"Yeah, it's going to take some restraint not calling him Doctor."

They were waiting for Rose and Alec just at the start of the harbour walkway, baby Jack fastened in his stroller and gurgling away at the boats.

Rose let go of Alec's hand and rushed towards them, nearly knocking poor Martha over as she grabbed the two of them.

"Martha, Mickey, am I glad to see you two!" She let them go and looked to the side of Martha, crouching down slightly. "Then this must be Jack. Hi there little man, it's nice to see you too, how old is he?" she asked Martha, taking his tiny hand.

"Nine months, almost ten. So how have you been Rose? Mickey's told me everything now, I'm sorry it never worked out." She looked across at Alec, who was keeping his distance.

Hi, you must be Alec then? I'm Martha."

"Nice to meet you Martha, I was half expecting you to call me something else. So, did you know James then?"

They all sat in a semi-circle on the stone seating, Rose still making a fuss of the baby.

"Hardly, only for a short time when we landed, we were all too busy celebrating we'd got the earth back and saying goodbye. Mickey, tell them, about why you came after me."

"I don't think they want to hear."

"Yeah, I do Mickey 'cos you just told my mum goodbye and never explained it to me."

"Leave him Rose, if he does not want to explain it," Alec told her.

"It's ok Alec, I just didn't think you'd want to hear," Mickey replied.

"I know all about Rose's past life. You expected her to go off with his twin, everyone did but maybe it was never meant to be eh?"

"Leave it Alec, that's not why they are here. Come over to our cottage and we can talk, I have something to show you Mickey."

Leaving their car in the pub car park where they were staying the night, Mickey and Martha followed them to the cottage, leaving the stroller outside the door.

Rose went to retrieve her device from its new hiding place, handing it to Mickey.

"The new improved version?" Mickey laughed, turning it around in his fingers. "This has the Doctor written all over it. You mentioned you were a year out?"

"I got here a year early, James was tryin' to keep me three years behind where I'd come from. I found the other Doctor and he brought me here."

"His driving must have improved then," Martha smiled as Jack decided he wanted to take a look at Alec, who let the infant crawl onto his lap from his place on the floor.

Alec thought if he and Rose would soon be having one of their own, he needed the practice.

"Well that's it then Rose, don't you see? You've come forward a year, it's never gonna work, is it? Well maybe next year but it depends how he calculated it. You said it was just out of sync?"

"Well yeah, he said the worlds would keep doing that. So it won't ever line them up again?"

"Who knows?"

"Fat lot of good you are," Martha told him as Alec squirmed at the boy grabbing his jacket button and trying to stuff it into his mouth. She offered to take her son back but Alec shook his head.

"I know you thought I could figure it out but this is completely different to the ones we developed. Martha, did you bring it with you?"

Martha went into the bag containing Jack's things and brought out Mickey's original device. Rose recognised it instantly.

"Does it work?"

"No, not since I last used it to get here. We landed in front of Sarah-Jane, your mother used hers to avoid the testing aboard the Dalek ship. I've never tried though, maybe it does work?"

Alec didn't want to know. Rose had told him some of it but she'd feared it would make him worse when he was ill. Maybe now, he would ask her.

"Yeah, well he's not risking it, not now," Martha insisted.

"Martha, I would never even ask him to. Now I know it may not be the device isn't working, maybe someone will come looking for me but they will be a year out, they'll never find me."

"That's not completely true, if they arrived a year in the past, maybe someone's already here?"

"You mean someone has been waiting for me to arrive? Then why haven't they found me?"

Alec looked up from watching the youngster, who was now rubbing his eyes. He didn't decline Mickey's offer to take Jack, since he now had several wet buttons. That was what he'd been afraid of, that someone was already here, looking for her.

Mickey just laughed though, handing Jack to Martha.

"In Broadchurch? Seriously right in the middle of a murder investigation? Mind you, Alec should have attracted their attention."

"Yeah, he would but maybe it was someone who didn't actually know they were looking for James's twin?"

"Such as? Didn't everyone know him?"

Rose looked over at Alec. "Not if was James himself but he promised he wouldn't come after me."

"You believed him? He broke his promise once Rose, would he not do it again?" Alec asked her, getting up to take off his jacket, wishing he'd done it earlier but he would just have wet shirt buttons instead.

"Alec, if he was here and he's seen me with you, he may have just gone back?"

He went to fill the kettle with water, he did not want to think about this. Rose saw the look on his face but he'd known why her friends were coming here today, to talk about this.

"So, the Doctor arranged all this then?" Mickey asked. "I mean bringing you to Broadchurch, getting you somewhere to live and a job and brought Alec here?"

"Someone did, or something, who knows? It could have all been Dalek Caan, he was insane," Rose stated as she went to join Alec in the kitchen area, giving him a hug.

She knew this was upsetting him, which was why she'd left it alone before today.

"Well one thing is certain," Alec joined in. "Whoever or whatever brought Rose here, I will be forever grateful but if they try to take her back, they will answer to me."

"Aw, I love it when you get all protective Alec. I'm not going anywhere, even if someone shows up with a new, working device. Why would I want to leave you?"

"To see your mother again, for one."

"I was prepared for that once before, this is no different Alec. I got extra time with her, that's all, she knows."

"Does she? Are any of them certain you got back here, safely?"

"He's got a point Rose," Mickey agreed.

"Stop it, both of you. James thought of that, they would have been alerted if I'd landed somewhere else and pulled me back, they know where I am. James wouldn't come himself, trust me, he knew how mad I was at him."

"Maybe something changed Rose?" Alec asked her, making the drinks.

"It would have to have been a hell of a change, bad news. I don't want to think about this and besides, he would have found me by now."

"Would he Rose? Not if he saw me. He would not have known his new self had set you up with me, would he?"

"That's true but forget it, he's not here, trust me."

They all agreed they would meet for lunch the next day and Mickey and Martha took their sleeping son back to the hotel but Rose knew Alec was unsettled about this.

He tried to change the subject though. "I never got the chance to tell you, Claire was picked up last night, Tess has her in custody, with the pendant."

Rose threw her arms around him.

"Why didn't you say so? That's great news. So, we have to go there?"

"Tess will call, if you are needed but she's also been charged with your assault, Tess will send for the hospital records. So, you won't have to deal with her again."

"That's a relief, now you can finally close the case that's been haunting you Alec, are you pleased?"

"Yes, I am, I thought it would never be solved before I gave in to the inevitable. Now, we can get on with our lives, can't we?"

"Yeah. I love you Alec, now you can put that behind you and now I know my device won't ever work, you don't have to worry about that either."

"Don't I? What if someone did come here, never found you and went back to make the adjustments?"

"Forget it Alec, we'll face that together. We are having a baby, remember? You have all those appointments to look forward to with me."

"Yes, I do love. Do you want to go out to eat or do you want chips again? That baby will be addicted to them."

Six months later

They had decided the cottage was going to be big enough for a small baby but they were looking for something bigger if they both found something they liked. Rose would go out every lunch time to meet Alec across from the station but she was still upset Ellie had decided to move away after they had discovered Alec had been right about her husband, not that he'd wanted to be right, Rose had lost her best friend. Ellie had shut herself off completely, they hadn't even seen her at Christmas but the trial was approaching and Rose was looking forward to seeing her again.

She had tried to contact the Doctor, any of them but despite her attempts he never appeared but one afternoon after her lunch with her now fiancé, Alec having proposed to her on New Year's Eve when they had gone to see Mickey and Martha, who were now expecting their second child, there was a knock on the door.

She got up and opened in cautiously, she still hadn't got over Claire forcing her way in but she was now locked up, along with the other two responsible for killing the two girls. It had not been easy for Rose, facing Claire and having to recall how she had been attacked in her apartment but they'd managed to keep the fact back that Claire had lost it when she'd seen the pregnancy testing kit.

Rose gasped as she opened the door – there stood the older Doctor who had saved Alec's life.

"Hello Rose, nice to see you again. How far on are you now?"

She let him in and he closed the door behind him.

"Six months. I tried to find you."

"I would imagine you did but I've come back again, to see how your husband is."

"We're not married yet, just engaged a few weeks ago. I never got to thank you properly, for saving him."

"Ah, think nothing of it, how could I stand by and see you being miserable? I had to wait for the right time."

"Then why didn't the other one just appear?"

"Really Rose, did I teach you nothing about time travel?"

"So, what did you say to that surgeon then? Not that I'm ungrateful for Alec being here or anything."

"I know you're not. I thought you would maybe want him to meet me?"

"Well yeah, you're not gonna disappear on me if I do?"

"No, be my guest, we can have tea while we wait. Oh, I forgot, Clara will be here in a minute, she insisted on getting you something for the baby."

Rose got her phone out and called Alec.

"What is it sweetheart? Are you feeling unwell?"

"Nah, we have visitors."

"You never said Mickey and Martha were visiting."

"It's not them Alec, it's the man who saved your life."

"I will be right there, don't let him leave."

Alec's new DS, Sarah Thompson looked as he got up.

"Do you want me to come with you Sir?"

"I'm only calling home for a while, Rose wants something."

Sarah didn't like his fiancée very much, not that she was jealous of her or anything, they just didn't hit it off. Rose thought she reminded her of Claire, not that the DS had been told that.

Meanwhile, Clara had arrived and carefully given Rose a big hug.

"Well it's really nice to finally meet you Rose, though he doesn't talk about you much, only about the time he stepped in and saved Alec. So, have you told her yet Doctor?"

"Told me what?" Rose asked.

The Doctor just sipped on his tea, stalling for time, which was quite a feat for him.

"You tell her your news Clara."

"I met your Doctor Rose, we foiled a plot by the Zygons. You met them?"

"Didn't I just? Yuck. How was he?"

The Doctor frowned at both of them. "She can't tell you, she had to twist my arm for me to let her tell you that. You know better than to ask about my past self Rose. I made this exception because you deserved to know and you deserved a chance for your baby to grow up with a father. Ah, sounds like the man himself is home."

Alec let himself in, seeing Clara first, who got up. She thought she was seeing a ghost, since Alec's beard was now neatly trimmed and hardly there, mainly because Rose was fond of trimming it, which frequently made him almost late for work as they made out.

"Hello Alec, nice to meet you. I'm Clara and that is the Doctor."

The Doctor got up to shake Alec's hand, unable to resist the urge to compare his latest body with his old one, well sort of.

"Nice to see you up and around Alec. No doubt being a detective you have a lot of questions?"

"Well yes but there is one burning question – why did you come back and save me?"

"That's a good one and one you deserve an answer to but first, I have one for you. What do you remember?"

"What kind of a question is that? Rose, tell me he is not being serious?"

"Let me explain Alec. You took a job here, to get away from a now solved case and hide a possible witness? Yes? Oh and Rose, I apologise you got caught up in all that, that you got hurt, Clara is still mad at me over it. It was not my intention when the other me you met set all this up, with some help."

"Yeah, it wasn't Mickey though, was it?"

"No, it was who you named James."

"He did lie to me then, he said he never found you."

"Not lied, exactly, he did not find his twin, technically, he found the version of me you met and I think he deliberately sent you a year out, so your device would never work."

"Mickey explained it would never catch the other universe, not to take me back where I'd left from, it would have been out."

"Yes, it would and someone did come looking for you but never found you, then Alec died and you were left with no way back and a baby and Clara made me see I owed you and said I should make it up to you. So I did, by telling the surgeon where they went wrong."

"Are you going to tell me what that was?" Alec asked, sitting beside Rose.

"Nothing mysterious, you don't have two hearts Alec, if that's what you think?"

Clara looked at him and Rose knew there was something funny going on, then it dawned on her – the Doctor didn't want Alec to know, whatever it was.

"I simply told him a few things which fortunately for you, he was able to correct."

"How did you know?" Alec asked him.

"I'm a time-traveller Alec, I learned afterwards and before you ask no – I can't tell you how I found out. There were laws Alec, laws of my people and I've broken enough of them. You are worried my twin will come back?"

"Yes, it has always worried me but not as much since Rose agreed to marry me."

"Oh, I've not seen your ring Rose, can I see it?" Clara asked, getting up.

Rose enjoyed showing it off, something she'd never got out of James but that was partly her fault, she'd never dropped any hints and more surprisingly, neither had her mother.

"There is no fear he will come back again, we had an agreement that if Rose got mad at him and came back, he wouldn't follow because he gave me a challenge – to find his double."

"Then James had you find Alec for me? Why?"

"He knew when he got back things would never be the same, he just wanted you to be happy but he gave me a challenge – to find you someone who needed your help Rose, he knew how you helped so many people and Alec qualified. You really don't remember me Alec?"

"Well you are not from the University of Edinburgh, since I never went there and I never followed up when I found out what was wrong with me."

"Why did you never do anything Alec?" Clara asked.

"I had no reason until I met Rose."

"I have just proved my point, that is what Rose does."

"I learned from the best, Doctor."

"No, you had it in you before you ever met me, it has always been there, since you were born."

"I thought Dalek Caan had something to do with it."

"He was responsible for a lot of things Rose but not this. He may have known about it but that's as far as it goes. Alec, if you don't remember me, then good, it's as it should be."

"So you went further into the past then?" Rose mused, knowing she was getting nothing more out of him.

"Once, very briefly, it was my last regeneration that set this whole thing up and I let everyone down, I had to make the whole thing kick off."

"You allowed me to get ill and risk dying?" Alec asked.

"I told you, I did things that went wrong, I'm sorry but sometimes, I cannot interfere, Rose has seen the consequences. I had to be certain that with you, there were no such consequences. That was why Rose had to find you and it was a big risk because she might never had decided to come back."

"What if I had never met her? Would you have saved me then?"

"Stop it Alec, don't even go there. I did find you, James knew I'd be mad with him and leave, so get that idea out of your head. You paid me back Doctor, thanks for saving Alec but we can't know any more."

"Ah, you still have some sense? Come on Clara, time to leave. I'll be around, somewhere, if you need me."

"I told you I tried to find you."

"I'll only be there if you really do need me, why do you think I came at the last minutes to save Alec?"

They all said goodbye and Alec was about to go back to work.

"Just one thing Rose, if no-one comes looking for you again, what about your family?"

"Who knows Alec? He's been wrong before and like you said, the day we know everything, we may as well give up."

Alec kissed her goodbye, saying he'd see her later but Rose's mind wouldn't rest, there were still a lot of unanswered questions but remembering her own advice, picked up a magazine and tried to rest, one hand on her growing baby bump but she was silently thanking whichever Doctor had arranged for her and Alec to meet here that they had done just that and whatever the Doctor was holding back, it was best they never knew. She couldn't help but wonder though and would never tell Alec that maybe, just maybe, he was actually James. It would certainly explain a few things.

The End!