Info: Yet more of the idea in Chapter 15.
"Define 'Lost'." The dark, warning voice cut through the various arguments as the ice blue eyes flashed.
Everyone quieted, even Donna and Jack who had been trying to corral the many, varied Doctors and the one or two confused companions dragged along on the trip, as they all turned to what was sure to be a spectacle.
The Doctor, in the brown pin-stripe suit, positively wilted under his former self's glare, "There was a breach," he spoke quietly, "in the universe, opened to another. Humans jimmied it open more, thinking it was a doorway to…the afterlife. Cybermen and Daleks and the Void was pulling everything in; another Pete Tyler saved her. The breach closed...With her over there."
The blue eyed, leather wrapped Doctor, the Ninth one, closed his eyes and moved to rub his chest as if he was having heart burn, "She's alive then?" he grumbled out.
"As far as I know." His successor, the Tenth, agreed, "Her Mum and Mickey's over there too."
"And this…Rose Tyler," spoke the Fifth Doctor in the quiet, "is she important? To us?"
"Very." Ten replied.
"Have you Bonded with her?" the Fourth Doctor asked.
Nine shook his head, "No, I—she's human." He blurted almost angrily, "Hundred years, hundred thirty if we're lucky, if she dies of old age. Runnin' with us? Sooner than that. An' her mind, I'd burn it out."
"The Wolf is different," spoke the Eighth Doctor almost lyrically, eyes glassy and staring into empty space, "The Flower child shall not wilt, time has no hold on her. The Wolf has decreed and so it is and will be and always forever shall be."
Ten and Jack shared a stricken look, both faces going pale beyond pale. Nine quickly joined them; he didn't know the details, but he knew enough to realize that something had changed Rose, she might outlive her family, and as of that moment she didn't know.
"I suppose it would only be proper to inform this young lady about her circumstances," The oldest looking yet chronologically youngest Doctor decided.
"Without contacting Gallifrey," added the Third Doctor darkly.
One by one, the Doctors agreed, some voicing opinions on how to go about breaking out of their universe and into the next without triggering the destruction of one or both.
With only Donna, Jack, a young woman called Ace, and a boy called Adric, to keep this sane-ish, the planning began.
The small army made its' way into a vaulted room, with blackboards for walls and ladders leaning against them.
Within hours, the blackboards were covered in sprawling equations and scrawling notes made up of circles within circles and dots and lines as Doctors were working in a frenzy, some holding books that looked older than dirt, some working with bits of technology and they were all talking at each other, to each other, some calmly, some almost angrily, some quietly, and some loudly.
"Jack!" The Ninth and Tenth Doctors both shouted out at the same time.
"T' TARDIS's gonna program yer Vortex manipulator," Nine spoke shortly, having long discarded his leather jacket, claimed a fair portion of the blackboard for himself, and almost waving a large book as he spoke and wrote, "We're sendin' ya back ta get Susan an' Romana—"
"Don't tell then anything they don't need to know," Ten continued on, hanging off one of the tallest ladders even as he peered down at the man, "Keep shielded. There's two different Romanas we need, only one Susan. Then, when you get back I need to get into Torchwood's vaults."
Jack gave a salute, snapping back into military mode, and disappeared.
"DONNA!" Ten called out wildly, looking for the sole ginger in the mix, "DONNA!"
"Right here Spaceman," came the replying bark from directly below him and he looked down to see her glaring up at him, holding his perch steady.
"Right, I need you to make some calls for me—us—" he held onto the ladder with one hand as he used the other to dig around in his breast pockets, then he pulled out a pretty pink address book, "Here, catch," he dropped it down; she caught the item with a hand, raising an eyebrow and he blushed, "Rose's idea, emergency contacts 'case I am…indisposed of—Anyway, use the TARDIS's phone and phone Doctor Martha Jones and Miss Sarah Jane Smith—"
"And The Brig," the Fourth Doctor interrupted, "Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, we'll probably need UNIT's help so might as well grab him while we're here, or there," he added as almost afterthought.
"Right," Donna nodded, "run down Jones, Smith, and the Brig. Anything else?"
"If the Brigadier or Sarah have any further suggestions then you will follow them to the best of your abilities," the Second Doctor spoke up, pausing in his perusing of an old book.
"Contact Torchwood," Jack suddenly appeared, dragging along with him two un-amused women, "Got the Romanas." He let them go, before telling Donna, "Call Torchwood, Cardiff, the TARDIS has the number, ask for Tosh; tell whoever picks up the phone it's a code Bad Wolf and you're the Doctor's companion and you need to talk to Tosh. Tell Tosh to get ready to interface with the TARDIS and any other tech that might pop along."
He disappeared again as a Doctor brought the Romanas up to speed.
Another pop came and another man appeared; he straightened his bowtie, dusted off his knees as he had landed hard on them, and said, "Sorry I'm late, I'm the Doctor." he shook himself and leapt right into throwing equations up and babbling a mile a minute.
Donna retreated to the console room, hoping to save her sanity. With what seemed like eleven Time Lords and two, soon to be three, Time Ladies, and Jack Harkness on board the living time and space ship who were all trying to break into another universe, she didn't feel too good about her chances.
Almost as soon as she had left, Jack returned with Susan. Both were carrying boxes of tech bits and pieces.
Right on their heels landed another man and a young blonde woman.
The Tenth Doctor nearly fell from his precarious perch as he yelped, "Jenny!?"
The woman smiled, "Hey, Dad."
Suddenly things slammed to a halt as the Time Lords and Ladies and humans froze, turning to face her.
"Not dead," she continued unnecessarily, "woke up a few hours after you left." She shrugged off a familiar leather jacket, fishing a sonic pen from her pocket and placing it behind her ear for safekeeping. "Once you find Mum…well, she'll help you hunt me down."
"Mum?!" the Ninth Doctor repeated, in a strangled voice.
(Jack looked like his birthday, Christmas, and every other holiday had occurred all at once, plus an orgy).
"Yep," she put up her hair into a quick ponytail before rolling up her sleeves, a mischievous smile gracing her face, blue eyes twinkling. "turns out I'm not a messed up clone."
"How?!" the Tenth Doctor demanded.
"Bad Wolf," was Jenny's reply, "now, c'mon, let's get Mum home so I can come home."
"And who are you?" demanded the Third Doctor to the man she had come with.
"Me?" the man grinned madly, Scottish accent clear and loud, "I am the Doctor." he rolled up his sleeves, "Well, what are we all waiting for?!"
Rose Tyler had been having a dull day when all of a sudden everything changed.
Walking to work, she always walked, and having taken a shortcut through an alleyway, she was interrupted by a familiar sound.
Whipping around, she watched, stunned stupid, as a very familiar blue box faded into view.
Impossible. He had said…no way…there was no way through.
But there stood the TARDIS, proud and welcoming.
She was about to find use of her legs again, race to the ship and throw the doors open and finally return home, when the doors opened and out tumbled the Doctor. Two of him.
She blinked. They were still there, her Doctor-in-leather and her Doctor-in-converse, piled onto the dirty ground and obviously fighting.
She had finally lost it, she decided as she watched them tussle. She had gone mad in her grief. It was the only reasonable explanation because her first Doctor would never cross his own timeline and neither one would sacrifice the multiverse for her.
Still, so far it was a happy madness and she decided to enjoy her newfound insanity.
She was about to go over and break them up, and maybe indulge in a fantasy or two she had entertained once or twice since learning about Regeneration, when another man stepped from the TARDIS.
He was old looking, old enough to need the cane he used, and surveyed the two men.
"Shameful," he shook his head, "absolutely shameful. I see I've lost my dignity in the intervening centuries. Now, I do believe we are here for a reason?"
The two Doctors finally broke apart and got to their feet, though the leathered Doctor shot the pinstriped Doctor a glare that should have frozen him solid where he stood.
Yet another man came from the TARDIS, this one being very tall, compared to the old man at least, and wrapping a scarf around his neck as he went.
"C'mon, lads," the new man spoke with a grin, "no fighting now, we're all the same aren't we? We didn't come all this way for no reason."
"Oh shut up, scarfy," the leather Doctor rolled his eyes, "I never woulda lost 'er!"
"Universal failure!" converse Doctor sputtered angrily.
"Ya know how jeopardy friendly she is!" leather Doctor grounded out, "ya should've tied 'er down. We're lucky another Pete was 'ere ta save 'er, 'cause obviously ya couldn't be trusted, or else she'd be dead in t' Void!"
Rose flinched back, but decided to get involved before the figments of her imagination could break into an all-out brawl. Which, judging the way the leather Doctor was looking at the converse Doctor, seemed likelier by the second.
Walking up to them, she whistled sharply, "Break it up, boys!"
The looks on her two Doctors' faces nearly broke her heart. Dammit, being mad like this was supposed to be fun, not more painful!
"Rose," the converse Doctor spoke softly before she was swept into his arms.
"Hello, Doctor," she mumbled into him almost casually, "how long are ya stayin' fer this time?"
He pulled back with a jerk, staring at her worriedly, "Rose, what do you mean, 'this time'?"
She sighed, "I mean, I always see ya, in my dreams. But yer never real. An' I mean, yeah, this one's completely different yeah but I figure I've just gone mad," she peered up at him almost blandly. It was the only rational explanation as she could feel and even smell him like he was really there with her.
Horror and grief stole over his face and he replied, brokenly, desperately, "Rose, I'm real. I'm real, this time I'm real."
She nodded like she was dealing with someone unstable and was humoring them, "Yeah, yeah, ya always say that, Doctor, an' ya never are. So how long Doctor? 'Cause 'm skippin' the parts with the Cybermen, Daleks, an' the Beast this time." She had been studying lucid dreaming for a while and hoped it worked on madness. Those were not fun memories.
He had paled drastically.
"What does she mean? Daleks, Cybermen, what Beast?!" her first Doctor squawked before he tore her away from her second Doctor and held her at arm's length to look her over with concern.
"Hello, Doctor." she greeted happily, "Nice of ya ta finally show; sorry I couldn't dream ya up before."
He made a noise in his throat before saying softly, "Rose, ya haven't gone mad."
"Yes, I have," she assured him, patting his arm, she felt the leather, damn she had fallen deep hadn't she, comfortingly, "but that's alright Doctor, 'cause I get ta see ya again."
"Why dee ya think yer mad?" he asked quietly.
"'Cause the Doctor, that one over there," she motioned to the still, pale converse Doctor, "said he can't get me back, not enough Time Lords ta manage it safely. An' you, this you," she patted his arm again, marveling how real he felt, "You'd never cross yer own timeline like this. So 'm insane. Must be." She nodded at her own reasoning.
She was back in the TARDIS, most likely a padded room in the real world, a blanket around her shoulders, (A straightjacket?), and a mug, her favorite mug, of her favorite tea (medication?).
She had met the other Doctors and found out she had also dreamed up Susan, two other Time Ladies, Jack, Sarah Jane, a woman named Martha Jones, another named Donna Noble, a man called The Brig, and an imaginary teenage daughter, Jenny.
She should have gone into writing, honestly. Especially when she heard Jenny's backstory.
She had phoned Mickey (had he visited her in the nuthouse?) and told him that she was fine (mad, but fine) and not to panic if she up and disappeared (went catatonic).
The Doctors had guided the TARDIS to that beach in Norway (it was the last crack after all) and were now split between figuring out the way back and getting her to accept this madness as actual reality.
She smiled at each attempt.
Rose was sipping her tea on her favorite couch, in the library, when in came Jenny.
She was really glad she had given the girl her first Doctor's blue eyes; she had always loved his eyes.
Jenny flopped into an armchair, blowing her bangs from her eyes.
"Things not going well then?" Rose asked politely. She wouldn't, shouldn't, couldn't get attached; she might become sane again one day and she couldn't deal with the grief.
Jenny shook her head, "No, theoretically they've got it sorted; the trick'll be able to do it."
"But you've lived this before right?" at least that was what the figments had said.
Again, the girl shook her head, "Until we get you back home, in one piece, anything beyond that is up in the air."
"An' you don't know what was done the first time 'round?"
Jenny hummed, before replying, "Nope, you guys find me after ya get home. This's the first go for me." She toed off her boots and settled into the chair; legs over one side, head on the other.
She yawned widely.
"Yer tired?" Rose voiced in surprise; she had never known either Doctor to become so exhausted as to actually yawn and he had explained it was a perk of Time Lord biology. Concern floated through her mind and she found she couldn't stop it. Grief-in-sanity it would be then.
"Only ninety-five percent Time Lord," Jenny explained, "five percent human. From what we figured, Bad Wolf did some meddling in Dad's timelines. That machine that made me shouldn't've worked; it was set up for fully human people, not Time Lords. We think Bad Wolf pulled some strings an' inserted your DNA to allow me to be created like I was," she waved a hand lazily, "Bad Wolf did a lot of things." Her eyes closed, "but that human bit makes my biology a bit…weird."
"Huh?"
"Oh, yeah. I have to sleep and eat a lot more than Dad, but a lot less than a human; I heal slower compared to him and we're not sure if I'll Regenerate again."
"Again?"
"Ah, ah, ah; sorry Mum, you'll get the full story from your proper me when you find me," she paused, tilting her head, "Tenses get weird with time travel don't they?"
"Yeah," Rose agreed, "So ya heal slower an' are higher maintenance than him, anything else?"
"Well, I'm not terribly allergic to aspirin either and my Time Sense is a bit muted," she paused again before quietly admitting, "An' I…uh…bleed like a human woman."
"Oh." Rose blinked, "I take it Time Ladies didn't?"
"No, not that anyone knows of anyway," Jenny flushed pink, "Dad and me both freaked. Thought I was starting to deteriorate, that can happen to clones you know. You stayed calm and sat us both down for the…er…talk." She shrugged, "But I don't do it every month for some reason, only every six…Mum?"
Rose had gone very quiet and very still, hands shaking.
Jenny sat up quickly, "Mum? Mummy?" there was fear in her eyes and she seemed ready to bolt for help.
Rose dropped her mug, dragging in ragged breaths, "Yer real, yer real, yer really real."
Quickly moving to her mother's side and laying a hand over her shoulder in a steadying gesture, Jenny nodded, "Yeah, Mum, I'm real. Dad's real. It's all real. You're in the TARDIS and we're getting you home as soon as we can."
Rose was on her feet in an instant, lurching to the side in the suddenness of her own movement, and running like her life depended on it.
Thankfully, the TARDIS knew the human's goal and arranged the corridors to bring her to it as quickly as possible.
She burst into the chalkboard room, huffing slightly, and looked around wildly; her second Doctor was up on a ladder but her first was on the floor, looking like he was in the middle of lecturing someone, and so she pulled him into a hug from behind.
He automatically stiffened but she just rested her head between his shoulder blades and breathed in the scent of leather and time.
"Rose?" was the quiet question.
"Yer real." She exhaled roughly, half muffled by his jacket, "Doctor, yer real!"
He twisted quickly to pull her into a proper hug, even as his successor began the climb down from his ladder, and simply held her as she sobbed.
Slowly, every Doctor gathered around the two.
She quickly yanked the converse Doctor into the hug, being sandwiched between the two men, even as her sobbing died down.
"Is this a private party," came a teasing voice, "or can anyone join?"
Rose giggled a bit hysterically, "Jack, ya know I don't share!"
The former conman pouted playfully, even as he broke through the ring of Doctors, whining, "But Rosie! You have enough of him to go around!"
"You haven't bought me that drink yet, Harkness," the converse Doctor pointed out, voice rough as if he wanted to cry too.
Reluctantly, Rose pulled from her two Doctors and wiped her eyes, running mascara and all, on the back of her hand.
Until another Doctor, the one in the cricket jacket, produced a handkerchief and gave it to her with a soft smile.
With a teary smile, she thanked him, wiping her eyes before bringing him into a loose, one-armed hug.
"Good ta meet ya, Doctor," she said, meaning every word.
"Likewise, Rose Tyler," he mumbled into her hair, being a few inches taller.
She pulled back gently.
Carefully, she met with each Doctor; some she hugged, some she shook hands with. But she did meet them all.
Once she had met them all properly, she grabbed the hands of the two Doctors she had travelled with; she was almost physically unable to let them go yet.
She couldn't say what was keeping her going; perhaps it was knowing she probably wouldn't ever be able to meet all of him again. They might, of course, run across one or other, but never again all of them.
She didn't even know how it started; wait, yes she did. She and the Ninth Doctor, the leather bound one with the blue eyes, were finishing their last dance, one interrupted by Daleks and Satellite Five and Bad Wolf.
On the last step, he pecked her lips and then spun her into the arms of his immediate predecessor, a Doctor looking like he had just walked off the page of a Jane Austen novel.
He took a few steps with her, a waltz, before she was twirled to the Doctor in the cricket jacket.
And so it went; she roved between Doctors, taking a few steps, maybe half a dance, with each before being moved onto the next.
It was, of course, rather fun.
Each looked at her as if she had hung the moon and stars just for them.
Even the Doctors who she would never travel with.
She was spun into arms she recognized and she half-heartedly glared at him, "Jack!"
"C'mon, Rosie, just a dance," the former conman said with a lopsided charming grin.
She sighed and nodded, unable to fully hide her smile as she warned, "Watch yer hands then, got twelve Doctors watchin' ya an' 'm not gonna save ya this time."
"Duly noted," he grinned again as the music changed to something more modern, something pop-y.
A single dance, nothing professional, more like they were just goofing around in the TARDIS like they used to, and then the Doctor in leather, who would never quite trust Jack with her, tapped Jack on the shoulder, and gave him a pointed glare.
Jack got the message and bowed out, letting the Doctor take up his place.
The Doctor opened his mouth but she cut him off, unknowingly singing along with the current song as she said, "Shuddup an' dance with me."
He grinned and nodded.
As Rose was dancing with the Doctors, Jenny was watching in interest as she sipped a drink.
"Should you be drinking?" the Doctor in converse came up, eyeing the drink.
Jenny shook her head, saying with a giggle, "'m eight hundred years old Dad, I'm legal."
He sputtered, eyes wide as he looked between Jenny and Rose so quickly he risked whiplash.
"Mum's still kickin'," Jenny assured him, "yer still runnin' together."
"How?!"
"Ya heard Eight right? The Wolf decreed it," Jenny gave a toast, "To Bad Wolf an' her meddling ways." She paused, staring at her drink, "Actually, what did Uncle Jack put in this? I think I'm buzzed."
"Harkness made ya that drink?" the Doctor in leather, having again given Rose over to another him, joined them.
"Yep." She nodded, before shrugging, draining her drink, and flagging Jack down for another.
"Good lord," the Doctor in tweed arrived, "did he use the TARDIS blue bottle?"
"Yeah, an' the gold one," Jenny nodded again as Jack performed a bit of a juggling act behind the bar as he made her drink.
"She's gonna to get blitzed," the leather Doctor surmised tiredly as Jack handed the drink over, a fruity thing with a slice of lime on the rim.
Jenny grinned, raised the drink to her impromptu bartender, and then drank deeply.
"Mum! I'm back! Brought back some friends!" Rose called cheerfully as she walked through the doors of the small manor, the line of Doctors filing after her in order of their existence.
Behind them came Jenny and Susan.
Jackie came running, about to start shouting but then she froze as the Doctor-in-Leather and the Doctor-in-Converse came through the doors.
"Mum, I'd like ya ta meet the Doctor, the Doctor, the Doctor," Rose introduced, pointing out the men, "the Doctor, the Doctor, the Doctor, the Doctor, the Doctor, an' of course you've met the Doctor an' the Doctor, the two blokes behind 'em are the Doctor an' the Doctor; the brunette is Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter an' the blonde behind her is Jenny, my eight hundred year old daughter with the Doctor via Loom an' Bad Wolf."
Jackie Tyler, faced with twelve Doctors, a granddaughter, and a woman who might actually be her great-granddaughter, who were both older than her, did the only thing she could.
She fainted.
When she came to, she was lying on a sofa, had a wet cloth on her forehead, and a Doctor wearing tweed and a bowtie was taking her pulse.
"Hello, Jackie," he grinned madly.
On reflex, she slapped him.
He reeled back, hand going to his cheek, as she sat up and looked around wildly.
The two Doctors she had slapped before were cringing back from her, the Doctor that would appear after Mister Tweed-and-Bowtie was staying a good distance from her; Rose looked furious but Jenny was holding her back, the foppish looking Doctor and the one in the cricket jacket looked slightly terrified, while the rest, plus Susan, looked to be varying levels of offended.
Jenny seemed confused.
"Have not missed that!" Tweed muttered, rubbing his cheek.
Jackie didn't care; she stood up and advanced on the two Doctors she knew too well, "YOU! Yer not takin' her! Not this time! Not again!"
Suddenly the atmosphere changed drastically; most of the Doctors circled around both Rose and Jenny, each looking formidable as they blocked the two women from view.
"You, Madam, have no choice in this matter," the youngest Doctor spoke stiffly, pointing his cane at her, "Your daughter is not only an adult, by your species, and thus able to make her own decision but she is no longer mortal."
"WHAT!?"
"Bad Wolf?" Rose asked quietly.
"Yes, my dear," the foppish Doctor responded gently, turning to face her, "it is her gift to you and your punishment for the actions you took. I am terribly sorry."
"Not yer fault, Doctor," she told him firmly, "ya warned me—will warn me—about the power in the TARDIS. An' I was like ninety-nine percent sure I wouldn't survive that stunt. Surprised the hell outta of me once I got ta remember what happened."
"If you stop her," the oldest Doctor was speaking to Jackie, his Scottish accent clear and his voice carrying, "if you keep her here, with you, you will be damning her to her own Hell."
"She will outlive you, Pete, all of her family, her friends," the Doctor-in-Converse continued.
"Un-aging, unable to escape," the Doctor with the scarf said, no longer smiling, "even as everyone around her dies, even as the planet dies, even as the universe dies. Trust me, that is a torture I wouldn't wish upon even my very worst enemies."
"Do you realize how many companions, friends I've already lost to time?" the Cricket-jacket Doctor said softly, "the difference between Rose and myself is that I have a TARDIS; if I'm very careful, so very, very careful I can visit my lost friends. Rose wouldn't be able to."
Rose shouldered her way past her Time Lord blockade and stared her mother down, "'m leavin' with 'em, Mum. Ya can't, won't stop me. We can either leave on good terms or I can leave an' you'll never be able ta say yer sorry fer how ya acted." She paused, her stare turning into a glare as her eyes bled to gold, "An' you'll be sayin' sorry ta the Doctor, the one ya slapped, 'cause he wasn't doin' anything wrong."
There was a bit of a standoff, the Doctor collective ready to spring into action at a second's notice, before Jackie deflated.
"Sorry, Doctor," she apologized sincerely to the Tweed wearing Doctor