Second Chances

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, any related characters and/or concepts belong to the BBC. I am a mere Fanfiction writer with far too much time on her hands.

Prologue:

He made sure Clara was tucked in, in her very own room aboard the TARDIS, secure and safe. It was quite a stunt she pulled, traveling his timelines. The last one, the last companion who had done anything close…No. That time was locked away for a reason.

He walked down the hallway, looking at the doors of his former companions. The rooms were all online, all left the way their occupants left them. Either because he never got around to putting them in storage, like Tegan, Nyssa, or Mickey's, he couldn't deal with the thought of actually cleaning them because that was far too final, Adric, Ace, Susan's, or they still stood ready for returns, Sarah Jane, Jack, Martha's.

However, one stood apart from the rest, one was different. The door was unassuming and the room was the closest to his. He paused, tracing his fingers over the woodwork with a fond and tender smile. Sexy had taken quite a shine to this companion and had made the room accordingly. Little flowers were carved into the door, given life by color and shading.

He walked on, heading to his room. He entered and didn't even undress before falling into the bed and falling asleep.

Now, The Doctor was a bit of a zombie after a sleep cycle so he did not realize that his clothes did not quite fit him. He did not notice that he had seemingly grown a few inches, or that his hair was no longer floppy.

He did not notice the feminine items strewn around his room or his en-suite. Then as he stripped and prepared himself for a shower he finally caught sight of himself in the mirror and stared, shocked to see his previous face. He looked down and started. His previous body.

He ran out and back into his bedroom, looking around. His entire array of senses on high alert.

It hit him like a lorry; she was all over his room, it was fresh and as if she slept in his room, in his bed. She was all over his room, traces of times that never really happened…

A jingling jangling sound started and reflexively he went to a table where a mobile phone sat, picking it up and looking at the caller identification. She was calling.

Only, that was impossible. She was in another universe…

He flipped the phone open and put it to his ear, asking hopefully, "Rose?"

"Yeah, 'm here." Her voice replied, "Something happened hasn't it?"

"Where're you?" he asked, hoping, praying.

"With Mum and Dad, remember?"

His hearts plummeting he asked, "What universe Rose?"

"Ours, the primary one I mean…"

"Not Pete's?"

"No, he…Timelines shifted haven't they, you don't …Where did you come from?"

His brilliant Rose.

"Stay put," he ordered her, rushing out to the console despite being mostly nude, "Don't you dare move, don't wander off…I'm coming for you."

She snorted, "You really don't remember do you? 'm not gonna be wandering off for a while."

He froze, "What?"

"Not movin' so fast these days…"

"What?"

"Unless you roll me I suppose…."

"What? Rose, what're you talking about?"

"'m not tellin ya over the phone," she told him, "Did that once already, you ended up in a different star system and three thousand years off course."

He nodded, "I'm coming, just stay still."

"Alright Doctor."

Part One:

Clara found herself, once again, summoned to a meeting while asleep. This time though she had never met the person she was summoned by. The pretty young blonde woman smiled softly, averting her glowing gold eyes as she made tea.

"Oh Clara," the voice was soft and kind yet Clara knew the power that tone belied. It was comforting and familiar and like she was home. The feeling she didn't quite fit, that she was different and destined for something she could not yet understand had fully dissipated now.

"Oh, my sweet little Clara Oswald." The voice said as the blond sat down. Her lips weren't moving though as she was still smiling.

"Mum?" Clara asked hopefully, time travel could allow miracles after all. She had just met a woman that had been dead for centuries after all,

"In a way," the voice allowed, "I created you after all, sent you on the wind to this world and every world. One of my favored children."

"I don't, I don't understand…?" Clara admitted, accepting a cup of a golden brew and trying it.

"Oh course you don't, silly human you are." The voice laughed softly, "I am the Bad Wolf, the Goddess of Space and Time. I live within the heart of every TARDIS ever born and I live within the Doctor's equal and opposite."

"So, this body you're in here," Clara started.

"Is a mental image of Rose Tyler." The body, Bad Wolf, nodded, "She is currently unable to join us."

"And you claim you created me?" Clara's eyebrow rose, "And you have a body…Why would she let you possess her anyway?"

"Not possess her, merely share a body and mind," Bad Wolf corrected, "We live in symbiosis, we are one and yet two."

"Okay, I'll bite. Why?"

"If I manifest upon this plane in my full glory and power I shall rip reality in twain. Normally I would not need to anyway, I find this plane rather dull but my mate took on physical form himself. He does so every so often, he loves the lower life-forms, however when he does he does not know of his true being. This time he was born as a Time Lord destined for great and terrible things. I kept an eye on him as he grew and changed and made his way as a man. But time was not kind to him and he grew lost and lonely and so I began to form my own avatar. He often takes companions on his travels, he needs a pack to look after and to look after him and his packmates are often young, female, and human. So I orchestrated the conception and birth of Rose Tyler. But I could not be born with her or I would lose my higher knowledge. So I watched over her, guiding her, tugging the strings of Fate and time as need be…and then I left her own for two years, just two bleedin' years her time and she had almost bollocks'd it all up!"

The meeting place rumbled and storm clouds had gathered above them.

"Why did you leave her?" Clara asked carefully, fully prepared to grab the teapot and wake herself up should this Bad Wolf woman get violent. Even though she had yet to rule out the possibility that she was merely having one very odd dream.

"My mate was in trouble," Bad Wolf growled out, "His kind this time 'round had descended into war and madness. It took all my time and energy and attention to get him through and out alive. However, he had lost his family, his planet, a life, and his ship had been torn to her base coral."

The storm above swelled threateningly.

"And the girl, Rose Tyler?"

"Dropped from school, took up with a bastard named Jimmy Stone and once or twice contemplated suicide."

"Wait, what?"

"Rose Tyler was never met to travel the roads she did in those two years and somewhere deep inside she knew it and she knew she needed to leave…she just didn't know how. I thank the Universe and my colleagues for instilling in her empathy, compassion, and even guilt. Eventually she stopped toying with the concept and ultimately rejected it, deciding that everyone must be unhappy with life on some level and it was a part of living. She did however kick Stone to the curb, moved back in with her mother, and got a job at a department store in London…Not the life I planned but it worked…" Bad Wolf shrugged, finally taking a sip of her tea though her lips still hadn't moved to speak, before sighing sadly.

"However, I could no longer deny my mate his companion. He was old, he was hurting and alone. He was darker than I ever seen him. Rose was supposed to meet him at the beginning of his tenth life, a pretty boy body and seeming so very human, human enough to love her and for her to love him; however he needed her urgently and so I tugged their threads together. He was neither young nor was he pretty in the traditional sense and he was alien. Still I wove them together and she got through to him…"

Clara listened in rapt silence. It was a soap opera, it really was a bloody soap opera.

Part Two:

Days later, when he finally allowed himself to think of something else other than Rose and their family, he wondered how he managed to land, dress, and get to her without forcing a regeneration by accident.

As it was he was completely sure that the TARDIS had been driving, he looked like a madman, and it was by sheer luck he didn't regenerate.

He could hardly keep from shaking. Rose, Rose was out there waiting for him. Impatient he dug into his emergency stash of clothes under the console and threw something, anything on. The shirt from Five, the pants from Four, a tie from Two, the leather jacket from Nine, and a pair of his new favored type of shoes.

As soon as the TARDIS landed he was out the doors, rushing to the front doors of the manor house they were at.

The woman who met him at the door was another shock to his system, "Jenny."

Jenny, the Doctor's Daughter, was alive and right in front of him. Without thinking he lurched forward, drawing her into a tight hug.

"Dad?" she questioned, muffled by his chest.

He didn't respond, reaching out to trace her timeline. Hearing her double-heartbeat. She was alive and well and healthy.

Then came another shock, a little redhead running up and asking, "Dad? You alright?"

Letting Jenny go, he fell to his knees, "Amelia?" It couldn't be…no, it couldn't be. He had finally snapped, that had to be it. Yes, he was just hallucinating. But he liked this hallucination so far so he smiled. He had Rose and Jenny and Amelia…This hallucination was fine by him.

"I go by Amy," she told him with a pout. She couldn't have been more than ten years old.

He opened his arms and she flew into them.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he murmured into her hair. Sorry he lied, sorry her Rory had been killed again and again, sorry that she had been kidnapped and he hadn't realized until it was too late, sorry her daughter had been stolen, sorry she had been tormented and tortured, and sorry she had to choose.

She pulled back, looking up at him, and said, in a voice very much like that of adult Amelia, "It's alright Doctor, Clara and Bad Wolf saved us all. Time has been fixed. All is as it should have been." She shook her head, saying, in her childish voice, "Whoa. That's a rush."

Eyes widening, he lifted Amy onto his hip and charged through the doorway yelling, "ROSE!"

Amy held on for dear life.

"Quit yer yellin'!" her voice replied irritably as heavy footfalls began.

He heard the giggling of a young child and then she opened. She was carrying a little boy. However, the fact that the Doctor noticed was that Rose was heavily pregnant, as in, 'unable to run, looking about ready to pop' heavily pregnant.

Instinctively he put Amelia back onto her own feet and took the younger boy. Who was identical to him, literally identical to him, down to the last follicle.

Younger…Oh! The meta-crisis clone! Wait…Why was he so young then? And where was Donna…oh… oh no...

"I'll explain," Rose promised, "After you tell me where you came from."