To be honest, the inside of the police box…the TARDIS…was unsettling. Sherlock knew what it was, another dimension, something Rose explained to him, but he didn't tell the Doctor that, kept the source of his findings to himself. But knowing something and experiencing it were two entirely different creatures. He wasn't about to give the Time Lord the satisfaction of knowing he was unnerved, unsettled, especially since the Doctor had come to him for help.
The ship began making that strange wheezing that it had made before it started moving and the engine, at least he assumed the moving parts behind the cylindrical glass casing were part of the engine, began to slow down. They must be landing or materializing or whatever it was the ship did to get from one place to the other.
The Doctor stood up, straightening his suit, giving Sherlock the need to straighten his own suit. He wasn't wearing his coat, forgot it in his haste to find Rose, to save her.
"I'll go out first," the Doctor said, walking toward the door. "That should give you the element of surprise."
"And I wait," Sherlock deduced.
"Yes, I'll try to draw his attention away from the TARDIS. When I do you come out."
Sherlock pulled the gun from his waistband.
"I'll be ready."
The Doctor eyed his gun.
"We need him alive."
What did he take Sherlock for, an idiot? He knew they needed James alive. It was the only way they'd find out where Rose was, unless she was there. If she was, well, they had no need of the clone and she would be much safer if he wasn't around to try this again.
"I realize that. He can't very well tell us where she is if he's dead."
"As long as you know," the Doctor said, giving the gun a disproving glance before he opened the door and stepped out.
-0-
The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS knowing full well that the element of surprise was not his. Not with the noise the TARDIS made. The meta-crisis was there, standing in the doorway of what he assumed was a bedroom, but Rose wasn't there, at least, not in his field of vision.
"Where is she?" the Doctor demanded.
Fear mingling with anger at the sight of the man who'd taken her. The man who might've done…no, no he couldn't think about that. His anger would win out and he wasn't sure what he'd do.
"Safe…for now," the meta-crisis said.
The Doctor took a step away from the TARDIS, but stopped when the meta-crisis pulled out a gun.
"You carry a gun now?"
That was bad. Really not good. Not that he hadn't anticipated it, but with the state of the meta-crisis' mind a gun was a very not good thing to add into the mix.
"I think you'll find I've changed quite a bit since you abandoned me."
Wait. What?
"Abandoned you?" the Doctor asked.
"What else would you call marooning me on a parallel world?" The meta-crisis snapped.
"I gave you a chance at a life."
"Yeah, a life you chose for me."
The meta-crisis blamed him, well, that was fine. Hopefully that kept him from doing anything to Rose.
"I thought you'd be happy."
"Happy?" the meta-crisis laughed, a bit manic, reminding the Doctor of another man who'd been driven mad, one that had stepped into the Time Lock and burned with everyone else on Gallifrey. "You thought I'd be happy marooned on a parallel world with a life you chose for me?"
"You had her," the Doctor snapped.
He'd given the meta-crisis the one person he cared about above all others. His other half. The woman he was in love with. The woman they were both in love with because the meta-crisis shared his feelings.
"I never had her. She was always yours."
"She kissed you!"
"But you didn't stick around to see what happened after, did you? No, I had to watch her run after the TARDIS. I had to see that devastated look in her eyes that told me I wasn't the one. I'd never be the one. Not that it matters now. I couldn't care less about her, about what she wants or doesn't want."
"You can't mean that."
"Oh, I do. She's a means to an end. You're end."
The Doctor had been slowly moving away from the TARDIS as the meta-crisis talked. He was almost far enough for Sherlock to take the other man by surprise.
"Because of what that doctor did to you," the Time Lord said.
"What he did to me? He freed me. That's what he did," the meta-crisis replied.
"Freed you?"
"All that guilt that you feel, I felt that, even though they were your memories they still haunted me. The Time War, everyone you killed, but not anymore. As you can see I no longer have an aversion to guns or killing. It's really quite liberating."
The Doctor took another step and he could see through the doorway behind the meta-crisis. Could see Rose lying on the bed. His chest tightened in fear. Dead? No…no, no, no, no! She couldn't be! If they were too late, if the meta-crisis…
"What did you do to her?" the Doctor demanded, anger won out. If he had a gun in that moment he would've shot the meta-crisis.
The man glanced over his shoulder, smiling. The Doctor's hands balled into fists, shaking with rage.
"What does it matter?"
"What did you do?" the Doctor yelled, stepping toward him, but the meta-crisis raised the gun, cocking it.
"I don't want to kill you…yet, but I will if I have to."
At that moment the TARDIS door opened and Sherlock stepped out.
-0-
Sherlock had been watching James from his vantage point behind the door, cracked just enough for him to see the clone. He'd been listening to the Doctor and James talk, but when the Time Lord asked what the clone did to her fear crept up his spine, but it was the anger that took over. He gripped his gun and stepped out, pointing it at James.
"Drop it," Sherlock demanded.
Of course the clone didn't drop his gun, mad people rarely did. Instead he swung around, but the detective fired off a shot before James had a chance. The bullet struck the clone in the heart. He fell back, firing off a shot as the muscles in his hand contracted, but it was a random shot, missing both the Doctor and the detective.
The Time Lord raced through the open bedroom door. Sherlock followed, but when he stepped inside he nearly collapsed from the sight. Overwhelmed by the panic that took hold. She was lying on the bed. Was she dead? Had James killed her? Were they too late?
The Doctor scanned her with his screwdriver. Sherlock crossed the room toward her. If she was dead…If James killed her…a hollowness settled inside of him, an emptiness.
"She's alive," the Doctor said. "He gave her a sedative, but other than that she's unharmed. No injuries."
No physical injuries, but they wouldn't know what she'd gone through at the hands of that clone until she woke. Sherlock gazed down at her feeling a weight lift from his heart. She was alive that's all that mattered.
"We need to get her into the…" the Doctor trailed off.
Sherlock glanced at him. He was looking at something near the doorway. The detective turned and…what the hell? The clone seemed to have…well…melted was the best way to put it.
"What?" Sherlock questioned, not really a question, but his mind was trying to work out how that was possible.
"That's…" The Doctor raced over to the clone, held his sonic over the body…or what was left of it, and held down the button. Then he looked at the readings. "Really not good, but…no…it…it can't be."
"What is it?" Sherlock demanded.
"It's…he's…but how can he be? That's…"
"Doctor!"
The Doctor looked up, seeming to realize where he was. He caught Sherlock's eye.
"He's Flesh."
What? Flesh? What the hell was that?
"Flesh? What the hell does that mean?"
"Fully programmable matter. It's used to replicate a living organism."
So, James was what? A clone of a clone?
"So, the clone-"
"Wasn't the clone. Someone replicated him."
That didn't make any sense. Why would someone replicate him?
"Who?"
"I don't know, but this," he indicated the melted remains, "shouldn't even be here, not in this universe. It doesn't make any sense," he said as he stood up, "unless…Oh!"
The look on the Doctor's face told the detective that he'd worked something out.
"What?" Sherlock demanded.
"I'm slow…I'm so slow," the Doctor said, slapping his forehead. "Don't you see?"
Sherlock hated to admit it, but he had no idea what the Doctor was talking about.
"See what?"
"Four cracks, four rips in the universe, two in mine, two in hers, all leading to the same place, the same time. Couldn't have been accidents, not that many, it's too much of a coincidence."
"You think someone orchestrated all of them?"
"Someone or something pulling levers behind a curtain. Yes."
It made sense. The Doctor was right it couldn't be a coincidence.
"And that same person replicated James," Sherlock deduced.
"Exactly. We need to find out who," the Doctor said, racing back into the TARDIS.
Sherlock didn't follow. Instead, he walked over to the bed and carefully picked up Rose, cradling her in his arms as he carried her to the Time Lord's ship. Someone brought them there, all of them, and whoever it was, was behind everything and most of that involved torturing and kidnapping the only woman he ever loved. When Sherlock found out who was responsible a bullet to the heart would be the least of their worries.
Standard Disclaimer.
Thank you to all my brilliant readers!
If you have time reviews are always welcome. :)
