Metempsychosis (5/5)
Title: Metempsychosis
Author: janna_hawkins
Pairing: Nine & Rose
Rating: PG
Spoilers (if applicable to Series 4): Journey's End. Spoilers for most of episode
Beta: danaems
Author Notes: Written on Prompt 12 - The duplicate human Doctor/Handy is the Ninth instead of the Tenth - for the hearts_in_time Summer Adventure Ficathon. It became as I wrote it somewhat of a fix-it for Journey's End. Some parts are the same, but others are completely different from the original episode. Huge thanks to my beta!!! Love you, girl!
I hope you enjoy this! :)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4
The Doctor closed the TARDIS door and walked up the ramp. "Well now, that's Sarah Jane, Jack, Martha and Mickey back home. That leaves us with only one more destination. Darlig Ulv Stranden," he said quietly, flipping a switch and sending them through the rift in space.
As soon as they had materialized, Jackie raced to open the door and stepped scowling out onto the sand of the beach. "Oh fat lot of good this is. Back of beyond bloody Norway! I'm going to have to phone your father, he's on the nursery run. I was pregnant, do you remember? Had a baby boy!" she told the slightly uncomfortable Doctor who had stepped out behind her.
"Oh...that's...er...brilliant? Yes, yes brilliant! What'd you, uh, call him?"
"Doctor."
His eyebrows shot into his hair. "Really?"
"No, you plum, he's called Tony," Jackie replied with a grin.
Rose stepped carefully out onto the beach, followed by the cloned Doctor and Donna. "Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?"
"Yep. You're back home," the Time Lord said quietly. "Listen, Rose, I am so glad you were able to make it back bu-"
"No, you listen to me, Doctor, you are not leaving me here! Not again. I want to stay with you."
"But, Rose, you have a life here."
"It's not much of a life after traveling through the universe, now is it? Even working for bloody Torchwood is nothing compared to the TARDIS. Nothing you can say will make me change my mind."
The Doctor cast a pleading glance towards his clone who shook his head fiercely. "Oh no. I'm not going to help you with this."
"Doctor, you've been so sad ever since you lost her. It's time for you to have her
back," Donna said gently.
"Of course," the leather clad Doctor said with a smirk, "it depends on which of us she chooses."
"Wait, what?"
Rose grinned. "Outnumbered again." She turned towards her mother. "Mum, is this all right with you?"
"Of course, sweetheart. Whatever makes you happy," Jackie said softly, enfolding Rose in a tight hug.
"All right then, Doctors, Rose...lets go home!" Donna exclaimed with a cheerful grin.
"B-but, we can't do this! Two Doctors make a paradox!" the brown-suited Doctor spluttered.
"Not if one of them is half human," Donna said cheerfully, herding him into the TARDIS. "It was lovely to meet you, Jackie Tyler! Take care!"
Rose and the other Doctor smiled at each other and stepped into the blue box, Rose blowing her mother a kiss before the doors closed.
The little blue box shimmered in the air before disappearing completely, leaving Jackie Tyler standing alone on the sand.
She sighed and settled down to wait. "Bloody alien. Could have at least left me someplace near habitation."
~..~
"So, Doctor Two..."
"Oi!"
"Well I can't exactly call you both Doctor, now can I? Too confusing. One and Two will do. Now, Two, any chance of you suppressing or removing these Time Lord bits in my brain? I'm starting to get a nasty headache."
The leather-clad man rolled his eyes and stepped around his still stunned counterpart to place his hands gently against Donna's face. After a few moments he pulled back and helped the now unconscious Donna lie down on the console bench. "That was easy. Time Lord parts removed with no memory tampering." He glanced over his shoulder and smirked at the staring Doctor. "Bet that's better than you could have done!"
"Oi! I would have thought of something. And why didn't you help me back there? All of us Doctors are supposed to help out each other when needed, remember?"
"It wasn't needed. You would have been condemning Rose to a life of misery. Yet again," he said quietly.
"You could have stayed with her!"
"And done what? Been domestic? Clearly you don't remember what it was like to be like this. Anti-domestic, that's us."
"I seem to remember that we would have gladly 'done domestic' with Rose!"
"In the TARDIS, you idiot! Not stuck on some planet! Especially Earth"
"Oi!" Rose shouted, catching the attention of the two men. "It's over now. I'm here and you're both here. Lets just try and see what we can make of this. Now, Doctor One, why did you try and make me stay in the parallel world?"
"I...I thought you were happy there. I didn't want to make you upset again."
The other man snorted. "Oh brilliant plan, that. She would have been in tears again as soon as you left."
Rose turned her attention to the leather-clad Doctor. "Quite right, Doctor Two. Now I'd like an answer to that question of mine from earlier. Why do you look like my first Doctor?"
"Well, I had some choice over this body. It wasn't a random sort of regeneration. I could have easily ended up a skinny copy of him and we all know how much of a tragedy that would have been!"
"Oi!" the other Doctor protested. He sat back against the console, accidentally nudging a few switches and causing a loud alarm to blare. He reached for the controls and turned them back to their proper places. That done, he turned to the other two who were trying not to laugh. "All right, listen, uh, other me. I've been thinking about how this can work. You get three choices. One: I'll take you back to Earth or any planet of your choice and you can live out your life there. Two: we can all travel in the TARDIS and fight over everything possible on how she can be run. Or Three: I can grow you your own TARDIS and you can travel the universe."
Rose frowned. "You can do that?"
"Oh yes, Rose. Piece of cake! So what'll it be?"
The other man frowned and leaned back against one of the support struts. "It depends."
"On what?" Rose asked.
He looked directly at her with a sparkle in his blue eyes. "If you'll come with me, Rose."
"What?! No no no..." the Doctor spluttered, glaring at his clone.
"Don't you think that should be up to me?" Rose asked quietly. "Look, Doctor, 'One' I mean. You already have Donna traveling with you. I've seen how good she is for you and I don't want to come between your friendship. Besides, I really doubt that she and Doctor Two would get along very well."
The Doctor frowned. "You're right. They'd probably get on just as well as he and you mum would if they were stuck together." He sighed softly. "All right, Rose, if that's your final answer."
Rose looked up into the hopeful blue eyes of the other Doctor and smiled. "Yeah, I think so. Besides, you have my mobile number if you ever want to check up on us."
The Doctor smiled slightly and glanced up at his leather-clad counterpart. "So what's your answer? Earth or new TARDIS?"
"What do you think?"
"Right. Should only take a few weeks seeing as how brilliant I...er...we are."
"Thank you. Now I think what what we need to do is-"
"No no no no no no, that'll blow a hole in the universe. We need to switch these settings backwards..."
"No! Don't you remember what happened last time we did that?"
Rose rolled her eyes and headed towards her old room, leaving them to their bickering. It was so nice to be back home if only for a little while.
~..~
"Are you sure you have everything under control? All the systems working properly?"
"Yes. Stop harping, you sound like Jackie."
"Oi! No need to be rude, I'm just making sure everything is fine before you leave!"
"Doctor, we're fine. Donna?"
"Yeah?"
"Take care of him, will you? Be sure to give him a good slap whenever he needs it."
The other woman laughed over the indignant exclamations of the Doctor. " 'Course I will. You'd better too!"
"Oh don't worry. I know exactly how to handle this one," Rose replied, smirking across the console room at her Doctor.
He made a face at her and mimed cutting off the transmission.
"Well looks like we're off. Take care, both of you!"
"Rose, be careful."
She smiled at the note of concern in the Doctor's voice. "Don't worry, I will. See you both again sometime!"
"You'd better!" came Donna's cheerful reply.
Rose carefully reached down and flicked the switch to the off position.
"So, Rose Tyler, where do you wanna go? Backwards or forwards in time?"
Rose met the grin of the Doctor standing next to her in their very own TARDIS.
"Forwards, of course."