FIC: Don't Foist Someone Like You On Me! (1/1)
Title: Don't Foist Someone Like You On Me!
Series: There's The Door!
Rating: T (shouting, some whining)
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: Rose has a very different reaction to the Doctor's plans for Handy.
Disclaimer: This is more along the lines of what I think a girl should've done if faced with that kind of a situation than what was seen in canon.
Dedication: To all the fans who were frustrated by JE and Handy's fate.
Author's Note: Sometimes even the immature have their moments of wisdom. Just don't expect much.
Don't Foist Someone Like You On Me!
Started May 26, 2012
Finished February 6, 2013
The Doctor watched and listened as the man he considered his duplicate explained the situation to Rose. Whatever he had once felt for her, he no longer did. But he figured that this man, cut from him while those feelings were still strong, would be good for her. His last self was a decent match for Rose, so these two ought to be able to make things work.
Rose was unnaturally silent. He could see the wheels in her mind turning. When she did think, she was able to have insightful remarks - even of they tended to be Earth-centric. Or her-centric.
But what she didn't look was happy or even remotely pleased. If anything, her expression was growing graver by the moment. Even angry.
Suddenly she marched to the Doctor and slapped him. It wasn't as hard as Donna could do, but the shock of her doing it made up for a lot. “What was that for?!”
“You! How could you dare do this?! I went through all that trouble to get back to you, and this is my reward?! My payment?!” She shouted and pointed like she considered the Duplicate diseased. “Don't you dare foist someone like you on me! Because he's not you! He's part human! Part Donna Noble! Do you seriously think I can live with someone with her in them?!”
The Doctor's face fell further open. Rose had thrown tantrums, but this...was almost a grown woman's anger. Except for the insults toward Donna.
Donna, whose head had been feeling a bit heavy and clouded, suddenly cleared. The threat to her Spaceman and Earthman pushed the Meta-Crisis danger under control. Her eyes flashed, but she kept silent - wanting to see how deep a hole Rose would dig herself into. Because it sounded a bit like that - and the Duplicate was part of her!
The Duplicate flinched. He hadn't been sure of how well things would work, but he also hadn't thought there was a way out. And he did still have the memories of being extremely fond of Rose due to when he was severed from the Doctor, so he still had a lot of the Ninth Doctor in him. But this reaction? Both sides of him were displeased.
Rose didn't pause for long. “If he's half-Donna, doesn't that make him your son?! You're trying to foist your kid on me! That's sick!”
The Doctor froze. Kid. Half him, half Donna. Oh, Rassilon, Rose was right!
Tears falling, Rose backed away. “You never loved me,” she realized with a broken voice. “If you did, you wouldn't do this to me. You wouldn't dump a clone on me.”
Yep, the Doctor realized. Self-centric. No thought of him or what this was doing to him, feeling that he had to abandon another Time Lord to exile. Or what her words were now doing to him.
She reached the Duplicate and shoved him into the Doctor's arms, which instinctively clasped him protectively - before he was aware he'd done it. Donna rushed to them as Rose shouted, “Take him with you, then! I'm not looking after some pale substitute for you! I'd just let Torchwood have at him! Come on, Mum!”
Her words left everyone silenced, and staring in horror at the monstrosity Rose seemed ready to commit without caring what it did to the Duplicate. It made the Doctor see him as an innocent for the first time. Especially watching the tears falling on a face that now seemed so much younger than he'd been willing to see.
When Rose grabbed Jackie's arm, the woman shook it off. A sharp glare cut off Rose's tirade.
“Rose,” Jackie said evenly, surprising them all. “The only part of your behavior that's remotely justified is the anger over someone pushed on you against your wishes. In that, the Doctor is wrong. But the rest? That's a child's reaction, Rose. Worse than that - you were going to turn a person over to be experimented on!” She nodded goodbyes, with a look of apology, and then she dragged Rose away - hoping that the Doctor had seen the light.
The remaining trio watched the two blondes march away, with Rose starting a new rant. The Doctor looked at the man who was his and Donna's son, and tears hit his eyes. Images of what horrors might have awaited their son slammed their way through his consciousness, and made him physically ill. To think he'd been willing to condemn their child into Rose's alleged care. He guided the quietly crying young man inside, letting Donna close the doors behind them.
Okay, yet another idea of his was a failure. Now he had to find some different punishment. Although that could wait a bit. Maybe his son would have an idea for saving Donna. Maybe, just maybe, it would work out for them all in the end.
THE END