A Brem Tale--Interstice
Title - A Brem Tale--Interstice
Author - jlrpuck
Rating - K
Characters - Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler
Disclaimer - Characters from Doctor Who are the property of the BBC, and are used with the greatest of love and respect; no profit is intended from the writing or sharing of this story. Brem, bless his heart, is the property of EGT.
Summary - A missing scene from the end of A Brem Tale. What did the Tenth Doctor say to the Ninth?
Author’s Notes - Written at the behest of earlgreytea68 (who also beta'd this). Many thanks to her for letting me briefly dabble in her universe.
A Brem Tale--Interstice
He could hardly believe that the gangly stranger, purportedly looking at sediofu’s but really looking for him, was who he would become. Was him. He looked…his hair looked as though it had had hours spent on it, artfully tousling and moulding it just so; he was wearing a bloody suit-a suit!-a long coat, and trainers. At least the trainers were practical, even if the coat was ludicrous.
He knew it was him, as surely as he knew Rose would finally be able to put two and two together if she saw the next-he hoped it was the next, and not some other-him; she was already suspicious enough, but not so much that he couldn’t come up with a ridiculous explanation for why a small boy who looked exactly like the next him had called her mum. That explanation would fail spectacularly if she actually spotted the next him.
Stop being so bloody chatty-I don’t remember thinking nearly that much, when I was you. We need to talk.
The Doctor jumped, startled, not at all used to having someone around who could do that anymore-who could go right past his carefully erected barriers and jump straight into his mind. He locked down his rambling thoughts, and shot an angry glance towards the man in the long overcoat.
Rude prat.
The other him chuckled before turning to slowly saunter away from him, tossing back That’s rude and not ginger.
Rude prat who didn’t even make sense, thought the Doctor, as he fumbled in his pockets, finding what passed for the local currency on the planet-a book-shaped object, made of red Perspex. “Rose, I need you to go pick something up for me.”
Rose looked up, surprised, a chain of melitla in her hand. “Your legs broken, then?” Her lips curved into a slow smile, the tart words failing to hide her delight that he’d trust her to help with TARDIS parts.
“Can’t be in two places, can I? And it’s nearly closing time,” he lied, hastily. “Here’s what you’ll need to pay for it--” he passed her the small red object-- “and if there’s change, may as well spend it. I hope to not come back here for a very long time.”
Rose’s eyebrows drew together briefly, suspicion flitting through her expression before she relaxed. “Alright. Be nice to have a souvenir.” She grinned.
He told her how to get to the stand-he really did need something from there, but the place would be open for hours yet. After making sure she knew how to get back to the TARDIS, he sent her on her way.
His other-future-self had made it halfway down the street, and was staring disdainfully at a small wobbler. “This is rubbish!” the gangly man complained as he walked up, turning to him in commiseration. “The scrungler’s all rusted, and the shrip-shrip is less reliable than a krung.”
He stifled a sigh of impatience. “You wanted to talk?”
The other Doctor set the wobbler back onto the table. “Thought it might be wise-I’m quite happy with my life, even if you’re not with yours, and I’d rather you didn’t do something stupid to undo it.”
“I’m not the idiot who crossed the timeline.”
“How do you know that? Maybe I was always meant to be here, but you landed wrong? It could happen, you know; I’m sure it happened before, what with-”
“D’you ever shut up?”
The man-a few inches taller than he-grinned, his hands now nestled in his trouser pockets. “Not often. Rose-”
“Don’t tell me!”
The man sighed. “Knowing Rose tells you to shut up all the time is hardly going to bring about universal collapse. C’mon.” His future self turned, ambling down a side alley without bothering to look back.
The Doctor followed, allowing his frustrated sigh to escape.
They stopped in a small courtyard, the din of the market muted by the buildings.
“That was your son. Your and Rose’s son.”
“Yep.” The man popped his ‘p’, annoying the Doctor even further.
“You and Rose-”
“Yep. Sorry about letting him wander off. Brem’s a good lad, just curious; reminds me of you, actually, with the jumper fetish and all.”
“You’re one to talk, all pinstripes and coiffed hair.”
“Rose likes it.”
“Must take hours to get it like that.”
“As a matter of fact-” The father of Rose’s child caught himself. “Look, I don’t have much time-and nor do you.”
“Told Rose to shop with the leftover money I gave her. She’ll be hours, yet.”
The brown-haired man smiled fondly. “She does like her shopping. Still, shouldn’t tempt reapers more than necessary. I don’t remember this part of today-or didn’t until I got back into the TARDIS with Brem and it clicked into place. So…you need to find a way to conveniently forget this ever happened. And you need to make sure Rose-“
“--doesn’t know who the boy was. Yeah, worked that one out, thanks.”
Future him puffed up in indignation. “I was just making sure…”
“Thanks. Anything else of substance you’d like to say?”
“It’s all worth it. Of course, you can’t remember that either, but I felt I should say it. Because it is.” Another grin. “Oh yes, it’s worth everything.”
“Well. That’s a relief,” he offered sarcastically.
“You mock now-but you’ll realize it later.” The man pulled his left hand from his pocket, glancing down at his watch.
The same watch the Doctor wore on his left wrist-one of the last gifts he’d been given by Romana. He fought down the lump in his throat.
“Gotta run, don’t want to keep the family waiting-you know how kids are on road trips. Been nice seeing you-well, I say nice, when really I mean that I wish we’d never crossed timelines, but-”
“Right. Thanks for the handy reminders about how to prevent the collapse of the timelines, not sure what I’d have done without them.”
Much to his surprise, his future self smiled. “Rose was right. You were a right miserable bastard. She still fell in love with you, though.”
That took the Doctor aback. “She…she what?” He’d simply assumed she’d fallen in love with the man in front of him; he could think of nothing about himself that would lead her to feel anything of the sort.
“Ah, well, gotta go. Give the TARDIS my regards!” With a wave, the man was off, his coat flapping in the wind as he hurried down the alleyway.
The Doctor blinked, worried that perhaps he was losing his mind. Had that all really happened? He returned to the market, purchasing a uios;’ for the TARDIS, before making his way slowly back to his beloved ship. Rose, as he suspected, wasn’t back yet, and he used the time alone to work out what tale he’d tell her to explain the boy’s-Brem’s-confusion that day.
What kind of name was ‘brem’, anyway? The only brem he knew of was rice wine, and he’d not touched the stuff since that odd visit to Bali a few incarnations ago.
He shook the thought off, focusing on what he was going to tell Rose, and how he was going to forget the entire incident.
Rose returned to the ship forty-two minutes later, a small container held in her hand. She’d found the object he needed-“Took no time at all, though you’re sure the place was closing? Looked like they’d be open for hours, yet”-and had also managed to purchase the necklace she’d been looking at earlier. “Haggled ‘em right down, just like at Petticoat Lane,” she said, grinning.
He expected her to ask about the boy immediately, and wasn’t prepared for the subject to not arise for another week. He’d begun to think maybe he wouldn’t even need to tamper with their memories, a task he abhorred and always procrastinated. Thus, when she did finally ask, it took him by surprise.
“Y’remember that market last week? On….oh, that planet with the bazaar?”
“We’ve been to a lot of those, Rose,” he replied, his concentration still centred on the rather pesky nut which had rusted onto a bolt in the machine room.
“The one with the boy who thought I was his mum.”
He almost dropped the wrench.
“Yeah,” he grunted, tightening his grip and throwing his weight against the tool, hoping to force the pieces of metal apart.
“He…why’d he think I was his mum?”
“Billions upon billions of people in the Universe, Rose; nature’s bound to come up with some duplicate patterns every now and again.” He felt the wrench slip, and took a step back, tossing it aside in disgust.
“Why don’t you just sonic that?” Rose asked, moving to stand by him.
“I don’t ‘sonic’ things, Rose. I apply tightly concentrated sonic waves to the object in question in order to make it do what I need it to.”
“Yeah. So you sonic it. Anyways, why don’t you just use the sonic screwdriver on that?”
“Because it’s a very delicate bolt.”
“’s why you were trying to break it with brute force, then,” she smiled, moving to return to her perch on one of the metal cabinets. “So you’re sayin’ he was lookin’ for my twin?”
“Something like that. You’ve heard of doppelgangers, right? The idea that every Earth human has a twin? It’s an idea that pops up across the universe, and once humans expand out into other planets, well…”
“So my twin was on that planet…” Rose mused, thoughtfully.
“Yeah.” He dug into his jeans pocket, looking for the screwdriver, giving a huff as he realized he’d left it in his jacket. His jacket, which was currently draped over the captain’s chair in the console room.
Rose reached for the wrench, handing it back to him. “You put it in your jacket, after we got back from Yiiiiiir.”
She still fell in love with you. Had she already done? Was that why she was able to read his mind so alarmingly well?
He took the wrench without comment, turning back to the challenge in front of him.
“Why’d you demand to know who he was? He was just a little boy, and scared. Y’scared me, too.”
“He…he reminded me of someone.” The Doctor threw his weight down viciously, and felt the rust being to give.
“Of his father.”
“Yes.” The metal gave with a screech, and he gave a humourless grin of triumph.
“You think you knew his father?”
“Another doppelganger issue.”
“Why’d he think you were holding me hostage?”
“You’d have to ask him that.”
“What’d you whisper to him?”
The nut, freed from the bolt, dropped to the floor with a clang, falling under the grate. He cursed, dropping to his knees to retrieve the small metal object before it got too far into the wiring and mechanisms of his ship.
“I told him I wasn’t holding you hostage, and that he’d get us all in trouble if he kept kicking up a fuss.”
“He was a small child, Doctor-I’m sure his mum taught him stranger danger.”
His lips quirked into a smile which, fortunately, Rose couldn’t see. “I have no doubt she did.”
Rose seemed satisfied with his answers, and the conversation shifted to a discussion of other shopping planets they’d visited.
It was later that night, after Rose had gone to bed, that he decided it was time to bury the memories of the trip to the marketplace. He’d have to rely on the TARDIS to do it; and while they couldn’t be properly erased-not without Gallifrey, at least-they could be hidden under so many other ones that they’d not pop up until something triggered them. Something like being his future self, and going looking for his lost son on a market planet.
Much to his chagrin, he’d have to ask the TARDIS to do the same for Rose. He didn’t like the idea of mucking about with her memories-not without her permission-but he simply couldn’t trust that she’d not remember; and her remembering that trip would have potentially disastrous consequences for both of them. He leaned his hand against the wall of his ship, communicating his wishes, before kicking his shoes under the bed, stripping off his jumper, and lying down. He slipped into sleep within minutes, and when he awoke the next day he’d forgotten it happened at all.