Fic: The Doctors in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler (2/?)
Title: The Doctors in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler
Chapter Two: That Which We Call a Rose
AN: The views in this chapter don't necessarily reflect the views of the author. In point of fact, the author finds all names for the character played by David Tennant and created in "Journey's End" to be equally valid and ridiculous.
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“So, what am I supposed to call the two of you then?” Rose asked, entering the console room with three mugs of tea held somewhat precariously between her two hands. The Doctors were supposedly checking over the TARDIS for any damage that might have been caused by their recent travels - all of time and space, and even towing Earth across the universe was one thing, but dimension hopping and traveling through the Medusa Cascade was a bit more than the TARDIS was used to. Of course, that lie had been a lot more believable when they first told it fourteen hours ago; now Rose suspected that ‘fixing the TARDIS’ was just their way of distracting themselves from what had happened with Donna. Hence the (hopefully) comforting tea and the further distraction.
The Normal Doctor looked up at her in confusion from his spot by the main console. “What do you mean, what are you supposed to call us?”
“You’re supposed to call us the Doctor, same as always. We’re still the same man as before, both of us,” added the Other Doctor, emerging from underneath the TARDIS floor. He took the mug of tea that the Normal Doctor and Rose hadn’t already claimed, which was all the proof Rose needed that the TARDIS didn’t really need any fixing; the Doctor never let himself get distracted from repairing the TARDIS for anything as simple as tea - tea and biscuits and a couple of pieces of banana bread, maybe, but not just tea.
“I know,” Rose said. And, besides her habit of calling them ‘the Normal Doctor’ and ‘the Other Doctor’ in her head, she did get that now. “But what if I need to talk to just one of you? You both need a middle name or something. You’re the same, but that doesn’t mean you’re interchangeable.” Rose frowned a little to herself. That had made sense in her head, but she wasn’t so sure it did out loud. But then the Doctors looked at her with that familiar and much missed mix of surprise and adoration (plus a little bit of hope on the Other Doctor’s part, which meant sensible or not, she was right at least), some maybe they had understood her after all.
“An excellent point,” said the Normal Doctor. “But what should we call ourselves? The Time Lord Doctor and the Human Doctor seem like the obvious choice.”
“Seem like it, but they’re grossly inaccurate,” said the Human Doctor. “Better would be the fully Time Lord Doctor and the Time Lord-Human Meta-Crisis Doctor.”
“Except that’s far too much of a mouthful. And the Doctor Duplicate is out for you…”
“…because it has the exact same problem as the Human Doctor. Or is that the opposite problem? The same problem coming from the opposite direction?” the Doctor Duplicate pondered, staring into space for a second before snapping back to the present. “Besides, if I’m the Doctor Duplicate, that would make you the Regular Doctor.”
“And that’s completely boring,” the Regular Doctor concluded. “I suppose we could always call you Handy…”
“Oi! I’m not being called ‘Handy.’” Handy objected, unconsciously falling into Donna’s cadences. “And the Doctor and Handy in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler sounds ridiculous.”
“I could always just call you Tweedledum and Tweedledee,” Rose remarked, giving them an amused glance over her tea mug.
“Now you’re being ridiculous, Rose,” Tweedledum said.
“Thing 1 and Thing 2 is much better reference,” said Thing 2.
“Thing 1 and Thing 2,” Rose mused. “Or would it be Thing 2 and Thing 3, with the old you as Thing 1?”
“Well in that case I’d be Ten and he’d be…” Ten paused, looking at his other self with a puzzling sort of expression.
“Eleven?” Rose offered, somehow managing not to squeak in surprise at the revelation that there had been eight other Doctors before she had met him. She’d known there had been some, at the very least the two Sarah Jane had accompanied, but she hadn’t realized there were so many.
“No, that’s not right. I’m not a new regeneration, so much as the same one over again. TenTwo, maybe? TenToo? TenII?” the currently numberless Doctor said.
“But those all sound like an indirect way of saying Twelve, or a backwards way of saying Twenty.” Ten said. “Ten…”
“And-a-Half?” Rose put in. The Doctors were quiet for a moment, before breaking out into simultaneous, identical grins.
“It’s not perfect,” Ten began.
“But I quite like it anyway,” Ten-and-a-Half finished.
So, Doctor Ten and Doctor Ten-and-a-Half. It wasn’t exactly what Rose had had in mind when she started this conversation, but somehow it fit. It was ridiculous and strange and so completely Doctor that Rose couldn’t help but grin back.
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Next chapter is here.