Fic - Which Doctor? - 2/10 - Nine/Rose - Ten/Rose - T

[avoria]

Date Published: 6th May, 2006
Title: Which Doctor?
Rating: T
Characters: Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Rose
Genre: Angst, Romance, AU
Word Count: Total, 46,916; This part, 3,524.
Summary: The Doctor has just regenerated. He's different, exciting, new. Rose isn't sure if she likes him, or if all she wants is her old Doctor back. So when he turns up at the door of the TARDIS what is she supposed to think?
Disclaimer: The names, images and logos identifying the BBC and their products and services are subject to copyright, design rights and trade marks of the BBC. Used without permission for non-profit, non-commercial personal use.
Fic Type: Multi-Chaptered. Complete.
Archived: fanfiction.net.
Author's Note: Heh. In the good ol' days of my naivity where I didn't know about the multi-Doctor Old!Who episodes and was rather fond of the the 'italics' button in microsoft Word. I also wasn't smart enough to call them "Nine" and "Ten", so it gets very confusing. Fun, though (:
Excerpt: Rose blinked suddenly as a memory slammed its way back in to her mind. She was going to have to get used to the blur from the Time Vortex.

Chapter II - A Doctor Invasion
He stood in the doorway of the TARDIS, his mind a raging battlefield of confusion and anger. For once, he didn’t know what was going on. Or how to fix it. All he knew was that he wanted that... whoever he was... out of the TARDIS and away from Rose.

The Doctor could see by her expression that she was just as confused as he was. She hadn’t moved; her eyes were fixed on him, widening. But the man beside her had stood to his full height and, rather like an annoyed mother, put his hands on his hips.

“I’ll have you know, I am the Doctor, thank you very much,” he said. His voice was weary when he said it, as if he’d said it quite a few times before. “Why, who are you? Shapeshifter? Metamorphosiser?” He grinned suddenly. “Obsessed clone? You know, I’ve always wanted to meet one of those.”

“Get out of the TARDIS,” The Doctor ordered, advancing forward. The anger he felt beating through his body churned in his eyes. His voice was malevolent. Rose had never seen him like this.

“I think you mean my TARDIS,” his opposer replied cheerfully. “Though I can see why you’d want her. Pretty, isn’t she?”

Rose still hadn’t moved. She couldn’t take her eyes off the fast-advancing man. Was he the Doctor? Was it even possible? He had the same passion and fury. And he was familiar. It was nice, safe.

The new Doctor suddenly nudged her in the ribs. He whispered quietly, with an air of amusement, “Look at this guy! What d’you think? Fanatic gone too far?” He was grinning. Again. Perhaps he was so cheerful because he had everything under control. Perhaps he knew exactly what was going on and exactly what to do next. Or perhaps he didn’t.

“Rose,” the Doctor said softly, now only a few feet from the pair. He was looking right at her, his amazing blue eyes shining out with all the wonder of the universe. There were no more words he could say so instead he extended his arm with his palm out. She glanced at it, and then at him. His eyes were pleading. And then, she slipped her own hand into his. He smiled, subtly, and then pulled her comfortably to his side. She was safe.

His impostor suddenly sprang in to action. His face became hard and lacked emotion. The colour drained from his face. Only his eyes, his soft, deep brown eyes, betrayed how he was really feeling. His body tensed. Every muscle was attuned to two things: defending the TARDIS and saving Rose. He looked directly at the intruder.

“What do you want?” His voice was cold, yet passionate at the same time. “I’ll give you what you want if you’ll just let Rose go.”

Rose was surprised by this, and her grip on the Doctor’s hand loosened. He felt it, and his stomach lurched, as if he was just going over the top of a roller coaster. He released her hand himself, and stepped forward until he was only a few inches from the man. He was taller than the Doctor, but the Doctor didn’t care. Not one teeny, tiny bit.

“I’ll tell you what I want,” he spat, his eyes blazing with fury. “I want you to pack up your things and go. I want you to go back to whatever poor excuse for planet you came from and stay there. I want you to leave Rose alone, and the TARDIS, and this planet and I never ever want to see you again!”

His voice had been rising throughout this, until by the end, he was shouting. His opposer, he saw with a certain satisfaction, looked slightly taken aback. But then he looked over - yes, over the top of - the Doctor’s head straight at Rose. She was still watching them, her mouth and throat too dry to talk. So much had happened in such a short space of time - though, she was beginning to realise time had no meaning when you were with the Doctor - that her head was swimming. She was still suffering from the effects of the Time Vortex.

“Well Rose,” The new Doctor said, his chipper voice returned. “What do you think about that?”

At this, the first Doctor turned to look at her. Under other circumstances, it might have been funny, the two of them, so different by contrast, each relying on her for an answer. But all it did now was give her a headache.

“What... the hell... is going on?” she asked, putting a hand to her head to try and stop the pain. She blinked slowly. Then she looked at each of them. “Who are you?”

“The Doctor.”

But it was two voices that rose into the air in a simultaneous answer, which led each of them to turn and glare at each other.

“You can’t both be the Doctor,” Rose said reasonably.

“No,” agreed the First, not taking his eyes from the Second.

“Which means one of us is lying,” replied the Second simply. “But the question is,” he looked at Rose. “Which one?”

“This is... too weird for words,” Rose sighed, shaking her head. Then she wish she hadn’t, because her head throbbed more violently and she began to feel a little dizzy because of it. “Isn’t there a way to test it, or something? Like for the TARDIS to recognise the real Doctor?”

“I never thought of installing something into the TARDIS,” the first Doctor said, finally turning around to look at her. “I didn’t think I’d need it.”

“But if you didn’t think you’d need it,” the Second piped up, “Then obviously you did think about it, but decided against it. Which means that you were lying just then, which means you’re lying right now, which proves that I am, in fact, the Doctor and you can get out of here and go back to whatever it is you were doing before. Gosh,” he looked at Rose again, “awful chatterbox, aren’t I? That’s new.”

The first Doctor looked at Rose incredulously and folded his arms. “Where on earth did you find this bloke? He’s crazier than you.”

“Coming from someone who is making a rather appalling attempt at being me, that’s hardly very compelling.” The second Doctor countered. He then looked the First up and down. “Or rather, the old me. You haven’t actually explained who you really are yet, by the way. I’d rather like to know - ”

“Look, pretty boy, shut it, okay?” The first Doctor was looking at Rose intently and didn’t bother with a glance behind him. Her expression was concentrated but clouding over. Her eyes were blinking slowly. She was swaying slightly on the spot. And then, with no warning, she fell gracefully to the floor.

“Rose!”

The call was echoed as the both of them cried out at the same time, a different sort of worry in each of their voices. It was uncanny. They both rushed to her side - well, one to each side - and gazed down at the collapsed figure. The first Doctor knelt over her whilst the second removed his jacket, folded it, and slipped it under Rose’s head. He slid his hand behind her head and looked at her, worry etched in his face.

“She must be suffering from the Time Vortex,” he said quietly. Rose’s body began to stir. “I told you no-one was supposed to absorb it, you daft thing,” he said tenderly, smiling as her eyes flickered open.

“Actually, I said that,” corrected the First, matter-of-factly. “Only without the - ” he mimicked the second’s accent, “ ‘daft thing’. If you’re going to try and be me, the least you can do is get your facts right.”

“God,” choked Rose as she sat up on her elbows. She felt woozy and sick, and could barely keep her eyes open. “Would you two just shut up?”

The Doctors - as they seemed to be - exchanged a glance, then both looked down to her.

“Are you all right?” the First asked, putting a hand on her arm.

This was quickly followed by the Second’s, “’Course she’s not all right. She’s just fainted, hasn’t she?”

“I meant now,” The First replied, shooting a glare to the Second. Then he looked back down to Rose again, holding her eye contact. “He’s an idiot. Come on, let’s get you up.”

With the help of one, or perhaps both of them - Rose wasn’t quite sure, it was difficult to tell - she stood to her feet. Her insides felt as if they were all trying to move around and get to different parts of her body. Her head ached with a severity that she felt would kill her, and even standing up alone took an immense amount of concentration.

“Do you want to sit down?” the first Doctor asked her, looking at her intently.

“Or a drink of water?” the second Doctor added, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You’re probably dehydrated.”

“I wanna go home,” she cried, her head swimming with dizziness again. She was barely even conscious that she’d said anything. All she knew was that feeling like she did, all she wanted was her Mum by her side. She didn’t really want to go home. Later, when she thought about it, all she wanted to do was fall asleep. But it was her first reaction.

Both of the men rushed up to the controls of the TARDIS at once.

“Home it is, then,” the Second said brightly, reaching for the controls. “London... 2005, wasn’t it?”

“Only I can drive the TARDIS,” the First said at once, on the other side of the controls. “The Doctor.”

“Oh yeah?” said the Second as he pulled a lever down. The TARDIS began to whirr and click as it kicked into action. He was proud as he spoke. “Then how come it’s working?”

Rose had managed to stumble to the edge of the TARDIS, and sat down on a couch. She put her head in her hands, running her fingers back into her hair. As well as the pain in her head, there were also questions. Hundreds and hundreds of them, all that she couldn’t answer. Were there really two of them? What if there weren’t? Who was the real one? Who - or what - was the other? What would happen to them now? How could this all have happened?

Her eyes were closed, but she was suddenly aware of someone else sitting next to her on the couch. She opened her eyes, as much as she didn’t want to, and looked over to find the first Doctor sitting next to her.

“What?” she asked grumpily. Now wasn’t the time for his questioning looks.

“I just want to help, Rose,” he said quietly. He reached into the depths of his jacket and revealed the sonic screwdriver.

“Hey, I have one of those! You’ve really taken this ‘clone’ thing far, haven’t you?” The Second said brightly from the controls. The First ignored him.

“What you gonna do with that?” Rose half-laughed. “Melt my headache away?”

“The screwdriver doesn’t ‘melt’,” he said as he switched it on and held it up to her head. He sat back and looked at her. “But yeah, I guess I am.”

She looked at him for a moment, confused. But then suddenly, the pain, the dizziness and the questions all seemed to fall away from her. It was like she was rising above it all, and suddenly she could think more clearly than she had ever done in her life. It was amazing.

“Wow,” she said, more to herself. She looked away at the floor.

“Yeah,” the Doctor said, grinning, returning the screwdriver to his pocket. “Handy little device, this. Good for all sorts of knocks and bumps. You feeling better?”

She didn’t have a chance to reply. The TARDIS suddenly gave a small bump and the second Doctor approached them, smiling.

“We’re here,” he said.

“Where?” Rose asked groggily. He frowned a little.

“London.”

“Oh...” she faltered. Now that she could think clearly, she wasn’t sure if she could deal with her Mum and Mickey and her old life. Not right now. She sat back into the cough, and rested her head against the wall of the TARDIS. This was all too much.

“I thought you wanted to... go home.”

There was something about the way the second Doctor said it that made Rose lift her head. Had he really thought she’d wanted to go home for good?

“No,” she said definitely. She then glanced from the Doctor beside her to the Doctor standing over her. This was confusing. “I want to get to the bottom of this.”

“You and us all,” the First agreed.

“Yes. I think - ”

But just what the second Doctor thought, they never found out. He suddenly closed his eyes and collapsed forward onto the sofa, in one swift moment, his eyes closed. His chest rose and fell with his breathing, but other than that there were no signs of life. Rose looked at him as if he were blue and covered with purple spots. The Doctor, however, sighed irritably.

“Not you as well,” he muttered. “Whoever this guy is, he’s not very good at it.”

Rose looked at him. Her clear mind was letting her think, letting her put more than just two and two together.

“He said before... when you arrived... that he needed to rest. For the regenerate thing. For it to complete. I think.”

The Doctor laughed, a cold, short laugh.

“This lad’s really done his homework. He’s clever. After Time Lords regenerate, we go through certain... experiences... to deal with it. It’s not usually controllable. Convenient that apparently he gets to sleep for fifteen hours.”

He cast him a dark look. “He has no idea,” he almost sang.

“No idea about what, Doctor?”

His eyes shifted quickly to Rose.

“Oh, so you believe I’m the Doctor now, do you?”

She frowned, hurt, and shifted in her seat. She was sandwiched between them both, even though one was unconscious.

“I’m sorry,” The Doctor said before she could say anything. He shook his head, and looked away. “That wasn’t fair.”

Silence began to grow between them. Rose wanted to get up and walk about, but everything in her body told her sit and rest herself. It was strange; the Doctor usually had the answer to all of her questions. But this was too deep, even for him it would seem. She looked apprehensively at the sleeping figure beside her.

“Do you really think he is... y’know?” she wondered aloud, letting her eyes glide over him. He was peaceful when he was asleep. She knew that it was the Doctor, the one she was used to, sitting next to her on the couch. But there was something else about this second man. She’d stood and seen him change. It had to be him. So why were there supposedly two of them?

“I don’t know,” the first Doctor admitted quietly. He, too, was looking at the result of the regeneration. “Normally I’d say no. But he knows things. I can see it in his eyes. Maybe something happened when the Time Vortex was in me. Who knows? Time is a fickle thing.”

“What do you mean ‘something’?”

The Doctor shrugged and stood up. He wandered around the TARDIS, but Rose could tell he was just trying to buy time while he thought.

“I feel like I know him,” he said at last, turning to her.

“I thought you didn’t like him.”

“I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know him from... somewhere. Maybe we’ve met before.”

The second Doctor gave a little snore, as if to disagree, and Rose giggled.

“He’s funny,” she said distantly, watching him. His mouth was closed and his face was serene. She heard footsteps behind her as the first Doctor paced.

“Funny ‘ha ha’ or funny weirdo?”

Rose shrugged. “Bit of both, I think. I like it.”

The Doctor stopped.

“I’m funny!” he said, almost incredulously. “You can’t go favouring him over me just because he’s ‘funny’.”

Rose laughed, and looked at him.

“What’s the matter Doctor?” she asked innocently, her eyes shining. “Jealous?”

He shook his head and turned his attention towards the controls of the TARDIS; but that was simply because he didn’t have anywhere else to look. He couldn’t let her know that he was actually jealous. Mostly because he could hardly believe it himself. Rose was special, he knew that; and he didn’t want anyone else coming in to see it.

Rose blinked suddenly as a memory slammed its way back in to her mind. She was going to have to get used to the blur from the Time Vortex.

“I remember something,” she said, her eyes focused on the floor.

“What about?” Came the Doctor’s reply. He wasn’t looking at her. But she looked up, very suddenly at him, and she couldn’t hide the smile that was forcing its way into the corners of her mouth. It was part amusement, part happiness.

“You kissed me.”

“What?” The Doctor said, but she could see that his cheeks had gained a tint of red. She stood up and wandered over to him.

“When I had that Time thingy.”

He smiled.

“It was the only way to save you,” he offered simply, though his smile didn’t recede. “You said you wanted me safe. But I knew you couldn’t handle it. I had to take the Vortex from you, otherwise it would have killed you.”

She had walked over to him, and was close enough to put her hand on his. He stopped, and looked to her.

“Thank you, Doctor,” she said softly. Everything about her face was pure, sincere. He laughed.

“A lot of good it did me,” he nodded towards the figure on the couch. “If he really is who he says he is... then that’s my regeneration. He’s me.”

Rose looked at him, confused, but not entirely surprised.

“How’d you figure that?”

The Doctor sighed, and moved his hand away from Rose’s as he walked away from her.

“Time’s a funny thing, you know,” he replied, staring down at the couch. His back was towards her, so Rose couldn’t see the expression on his face. “I remember that I absorbed the Time Vortex after you saved the world. You collapsed in my arms. But after that...”

He trailed off. And then he turned back to Rose. She was surprised to see that his eyes were - not exactly ‘wet’ with tears, but there was emotion brewing in them like she’d never seen before. She was touched. But she let him continue uninterrupted.

“I don’t remember. The next thing I know, I’m waking up on the floor outside of the TARDIS on Satellite Five. As if it had all been a strange dream. But then I heard voices, your voice, coming from inside the TARDIS and that meant that something had happened. Something bad. You called him ‘Doctor’.”

She could see the shock in his eyes at saying this, and for some reason, Rose’s heart was hit with guilt. She felt ashamed, as if she had betrayed him and let him down.

“What are you getting at?” she pushed on, pretending that she felt nothing.

“I’m getting at that it’s entirely possible time had a blip. A hiccup.”

“Meaning?”

He looked straight at her and his answer was clear.

“We are the same person. The Doctor. Only, I haven’t regenerated. So now there’s two of us. The trouble is, there can’t be a duplicate of the same Time Lord. Can you imagine what that would do to the fabric of time? Two manipulators, two controllers, two helpers. Two Doctors, Rose. But one TARDIS.”

Rose walked towards him. She had no idea what this all meant, but as if he read her mind, he answered her question.

“It means, Rose, one of two things: either the fabric of Time and Space will fall apart around us and the universe will end. Or one of us has to die to save it.”

End this Part
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