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The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS into a small, neat garden on a bright, sunny day. He scanned the trees, the plants, the buildings, assessing whether he'd arrived in the proper yard, but it was when his eyes fell on the little boy playing with trucks in the sandbox that he knew. He had big brown eyes, freckles, and unruly sandy hair, and was completely unfazed by the blue police box that was now crowding his play area and the old man standing next to it.
"Hi," the boy said, barely looking up from his toys.
"Hello," said the Doctor. "Are your mum and dad home?"
"Yeah, just inside, come on." The boy got up, brushed the sand off his trousers and pushed open the back door. A hoover was going in another room, fighting with the sound of running water from another. The boy raised his voice. "MUM, DAD, THE DOCTOR IS HERE."
The hoover switched off and a man's voice called out, "What's that Jamie?"
"THE DOCTOR IS HERE," the boy repeated. A dish crashed and the water stopped, and from opposite doorways appeared Jamie's mother and father, looking flabbergasted.
"What... How did you... Jamie, how do you know who this is?"
Jamie looked at his dad like he'd grown two heads. "TARDIS in the garden. Big blue box materialized, made the whooshing noises, just like ours." He shrugged and looked at his mum.
"You changed again," she murmured.
"Twice now, actually."
The phone rang. The Doctor's old doppelganger gave him a hard look through his glasses. "I'll be right back."
“I’m going back outside,” Jamie announced, and left Rose and the Doctor alone. They just stared at each other for a moment. Rose’s hair was darker, pulled back into a ponytail, and there were faint lines forming around her eyes. Her hands were wringing a checkered tea towel, and the Doctor noticed a deep blue sapphire on her ring finger.
“Come on in,” she said, turning back into the kitchen. “I’ll put the kettle on.” She got the water boiling and started sweeping up the plate she’d dropped as the Doctor sat uselessly at the kitchen table. It was bright and lived-in, with photographs and artwork covering the fridge.
“How old is he?” the Doctor asked.
“Eight,” she said, putting out milk and sugar and biscuits and cups. “Though you’d never know it half the time, he’s so serious. Drives his sisters mental. Mum always says she wouldn’t believe he was ours if she hadn’t been there when he was born.” She joined him at the table with the teapot. “It’s been almost thirteen years, for us, Doctor. How did you get here? There aren’t cracks forming again, are there? We’d have noticed, at Torchwood...”
“No, not cracks as such,” the Doctor said. “More like-”
“Windows and doors,” Rose’s Doctor interrupted, entering the kitchen with the phone. “That was Pete. They recorded an anomaly out here, thought it was cracks again, but the data showed it had to be deliberate.” He sat across from his progenitor and fixed him with a hard glare. “You came here on purpose. You opened a door. That hasn’t been possible for hundreds of years and there was only one place that had the technology. What the hell did you do?”
The Doctor fidgeted with his tea, stirring in sugar a little longer than necessary, then calmly folded his hands and placed them on the table. “Thousands of years, actually. At least for me. But I found them. I brought them back.”
“You what?”
“Three of me did. We ended the war without destroying Gallifrey. The Daleks destroyed themselves, and planet was lost after, but I found it.”
Rose’s Doctor went pale and looked like he was about to throw up. He started shaking his head, stood up and paced the kitchen. “No, no, you can’t have. That’s not possible and even if it was, why? Did you forget how bad things were? That people would rather die than be rescued by a Time Lord? We destroyed Gallifrey for a very good reason, for a lot of good reasons. Why would you subject the universe - all the universes, even - to that madness?”
The Doctor scoffed. “Long story, but they didn’t exactly give me a choice in the matter. Teleported me into my own confession dial, just to drag me to the end of the Universe. That’s where they’ve ended up, by the way.”
“The end of the bloody - do you know how mental that sounds?” Rose’s Doctor squeaked.
He held up his hands in defense. “You had to be there.”
“Clearly,” the Doctor snapped. “And from the looks of things, you’ve settled in, rather than sending them back where they belong.”
“Once I exiled Rassilon and the High Council, it was a lot easier to get on with post-war reconstruction.” The Doctor tugged at the lapels of his coat, trying to look as satisfied with this as he wanted to feel. "That’s a little difficult when the folks in charge just want to ascend to ‘beings of pure consciousness.’”
"They- what? Beings of consciousness?" Rose's Doctor was still incredulous, pulling his hair into more of a mess, unable to sit still. "That's what they were planning? Bloody hell." The phone rang again and he looked at the screen. "Pete again. We'll discuss this later," he gritted out, pointing the handset at the Doctor before stalking out of the kitchen. They heard his footsteps retreat up the stairs.
Rose propped her chin on her hand, elbow on the table, and regarded the Doctor's silver curls and bright blue eyes. "So do lots of planets also have a Scotland?"
They laughed, and the Doctor tentatively reached for Rose's free hand. She let him take it, turning their fingers back and forth. "Still fits," he said.
She smiled. "Different though."
"Good different or bad different?"
"I can't believe you remember all that after centuries."
"Rose Tyler," he said seriously, "I remember everything we ever said to each other." They watched their hands solemnly. "So I must know, since he was hoovering... This place isn't carpeted, is it?"
She giggled and stood, taking her mug with her. "No. Just some rugs. I'll give you the tour."
From the kitchen Rose led the Doctor into the dining room, where a table was strewn with books and papers, then through a hallway cluttered with small shoes and jackets to the family room. She stepped over the hoover, abandoned in the middle of the floor, towards a fireplace with photographs across the mantle and built-in bookcases on either side. The shelves were crammed to bursting with everything from quantum physics texts to colouring books, toys and trinkets and still more photos. Rose talked the whole way, about how she was full-time at Torchwood and the Doctor did a mix of work with all sorts of organizations but most of the time he was home with the kids, though ‘home’ usually meant the TARDIS and not this house; that Sarah was at a birthday party and Michaela was down for a nap.
“She slept through all that hoovering?”
“Used to be the only thing to get her to sleep at all,” Rose laughed. “And there she is!” Her husband was entering the room, a giggling toddler with dark hair and eyes in his arms and reaching for her mum. “You didn’t wake her up, did you?”
“No, she was up on her own. Can’t do the dad trick anymore,” he said, handing Michaela over to Rose. “I’ve lost just enough telepathic ability for it to not work.”
The little girl regarded the Doctor seriously, her laughter dying down. She frowned and looked between him and her father, eyes narrowing. “Another Daddy?”
“Ah,” the Doctor said. “And she inherited just enough to tell that we aren’t quite different people, eh sweetheart?” He smiled at Michaela and she buried her face in Rose’s shoulder.
“The kids and I are usually aware of each other, yeah. It’s not… we’re not alone up here,” Rose’s Doctor said, gently stroking his daughter’s hair.
“I can tell,” the Doctor said softly. Ever since he’d landed, he’d felt the faint presence in the back of his head, telling him there was someone here - that’s how he’d known he was in the right place. It wasn’t nearly as strong as it was back on Gallifrey, but it was enough, and he’d know his own mind anywhere, no matter how diminished.
“Doctor,” Rose began, carefully. Both men looked at her, though they knew she was addressing her guest. “You’re not alone, are you? Because if that’s why you came, we’re not leaving. We have the kids, and my parents and Tony, and our own TARDIS. I mean, it’s lovely to see you, of course, but we have a life here now.”
“Oh, no, I’d never ask that of you. I’m getting on just fine. Lovely people, all of time and space, you know how it is.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
The Doctor looked at Rose for a long moment before answering. She had no makeup on, her child on her hip, and he was - in his own way - at her side. She had everything he ever wanted to give her, everything he had wanted, and then some. He’d answered truthfully when he’d said he hadn’t come to take them away, but should have known better than to think she’d let him evade her. “I was with someone. But she’s gone now. You know how it is.”
“Oh, Doctor, I’m sorry,” Rose said, reaching out to gently rub his arm. “Tell me about her?” Michaela was squirming, so Rose set her down and went to sit on the couch, patting the cushion next to her. Her Doctor lay down on the floor to play with Michaela.
The Doctor didn’t sit. “It’s strange. I don’t really remember much. But she was kind, and funny, and very brave.”
“I’m sure she was lovely,” she said, the warmth in her eyes and voice so genuine it nearly hurt. The Doctor felt his other self projecting confusion and concern at him, which he quickly shut out. “But what happened to make you forget? Was it… was it another situation like Donna’s?”
“Rose…” her Doctor warned.
She looked between the two Doctors and huffed. “You’re doing that telepathic secrets thing again.”
“Hardly!” her Doctor squeaked. “I just caught a glimpse and he shut me out. But he’s me so I’m making an educated guess.”
“I don’t remember,” the Doctor finally answered.
“Other daddy mad,” Michaela said, not looking up from her toy cars.
“Yes, Mickey, sometimes when you can’t remember something it can be very frustrating,” her father said.
“Mickey? As in Smith?”
“Yeah. Have you seen him lately?” Rose asked.
The Doctor shook his head. “Not for ages. I heard his name at UNIT every so often, though, he and Martha freelance there. Just haven’t crossed paths.”
“UNIT? You’re hanging out there now?” the Doctor said in surprise.
“I was for a while. They kept calling me,” he said, finally sitting down, but in an armchair instead of next to Rose. “Zygon problems, mostly.”
“Ugh, we’ve run into those a few times over here,” Rose said. “They were awful.”
The three of them swapped alien stories for a while, comparing similarities and differences between the two universes (and editing the scarier parts for Michaela’s ears). Soon, Sarah was dropped off and came barrelling into the house, a flurry of red curls, bouncing onto the couch and chattering a mile a minute about the birthday party before she even noticed the Doctor. Then she was pulling a stack of books off the shelf and climbing onto his lap to tell him about them, before he could protest.
The Doctor heard a click and looked up to see Rose standing in front of him with her phone and a big smile. “That one’s going on the mantle,” she said. “Sarah, why don’t you go outside and play with Jamie for a bit.”
“But Muuummm…”
“No buts. And take your sister. The Doctor’s had a long trip, we don’t want to wear him out even more.” Sarah took her sister’s hand and led her out to the backyard. The Doctor carefully extricated himself from the book pile.
“I should go.”
“You don’t have to. Please, you could stay for tea,” Rose said. They grinned at each other jokingly, but Rose’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes this time. “Still no domestics, then.”
“Not really, no.”
“You still haven’t said,” she added. “Why did you come?”
The Doctor took a deep breath. “To see if I could, and then, to make sure nobody else can.”
“What?” she asked, then started when her Doctor took her hand. He had a grim expression on his face that the Doctor could only imagine matched his own.
“He’s right,” the Doctor said. “The Time Lords were - are - dangerous. I may have exiled the worst of them, but I can’t guarantee they won’t come back or some other delusional faction won’t rise up in their place. We thought we destroyed them, hid them away, for a good reason, and we did, but they’re back and there’s nothing I can do about it anymore. The Moment is gone, and if I have my way, that kind of weapon will never be seen again. Trans-dimensional travel, on the other hand, that only went dormant. I couldn’t destroy it, but I could test it, and take precautions, before anyone else gets hold of the technology.”
Rose furrowed her brows, with that little frown she always got when she was thinking. “You’re going to seal this universe off again.”
He nodded. “If the Time Lords want to hop from universe to universe again, they will. They’ll probably cause trouble, and I’ll probably have to stop them. But I won’t let them find this one.”
“Because we’re here.”
The Doctor nodded solemnly.
“But that’s- that’s ridiculous!” Rose exclaimed. “With us here, this universe is probably safer than any other!”
“That’s exactly the opposite. If they know you’re here, they’ll use you as leverage. Threaten you and this universe to get whatever they want from me.”
“We could help you, or at the very least take care of ourselves.”
“Rose…” her Doctor said gently.
“Tell him, Doctor,” she said. “We could help. We have Torchwood, we have connections with the best security contractors in this universe, we have you! We have another TARDIS!” She whirled back to the Doctor. “You could come see us again, meet the new baby when he’s born.”
The Doctor glanced down at where Rose was gently touching her stomach. “I’m sorry, Rose.”
“You know he can’t, love,” her Doctor said quietly. “And you know why.”
“Is this that ‘needing to keep me safe’ thing again? Are we still arguing about this?”
“Rose, we argued about that last week.”
“I meant him,” she snapped, jerking her head at the Doctor. “A universe away, thousands of years later, and you’re still trying to make decisions for me!”
“I’m trying to do what’s best for you and your entire universe!” the Doctor exclaimed. “Did you not just tell me all about the disaster interplanetary relations were before the two of you got here? Imagine, for one minute just imagine, what that would be like if Time Lords showed up. Take everything he and I have ever told you about the Time War and magnify it exponentially. Then do it again. That is what you would be risking. That is what your children could face.”
“You do not get to decide what is best for my children,” Rose hissed. “I don’t care if you still consider yourself the sole defender of universes, that is our call, not yours.”
“Then think about it from my perspective. You’re good at that, Rose,” he said. “I’ve spent most of the past few thousand years alone because I couldn’t protect the people I care about. Amy and Rory were taken from me. I haven’t found Jack anywhere, can’t blame him for that after what I left him with. I caught up with River’s timeline, can’t see her anymore. Donna forgot me, and I’ve forgotten Clara. She died and I can’t remember a thing about her. Only her name. I can’t save any of them. But you...”
“You could protect me,” she murmured. “But you can’t, not really. For all you know an asteroid could hit this Earth right after you leave.”
“I’d never know. I’d remember you just as you are now.”
“Until you get curious and come back. Oh come on, you know you would. You could never leave well enough alone.”
“I wouldn’t,” the Doctor said. “Not if it wasn’t safe.”
“He’s right, Rose,” her Doctor said. “The risks are too much. We’d have to be on high alert all the time, and we don’t have the resources for that. Our TARDIS isn’t calibrated for that. And I’m not prepared to put you or the kids in danger either.”
“We could see everyone again, though,” she said. “You could see Gallifrey again.”
Her Doctor smiled down at her and nodded. “I know I could. But after this long, I’m okay with not going back. I’m definitely okay with not seeing Gallifrey, especially with the kind of danger it presents. Are you okay with it?”
She nodded as well. “It would be nice to see Mickey and the others, sure. But you’re right. After thirteen years… I don’t really miss it.”
Her Doctor kissed Rose’s forehead, and the Doctor shuffled impatiently. “Well. That’s settled. I’m going back, door’s being closed, you’ll be safe and sound here. Best be off.”
“Doctor, wait,” Rose said, grabbing his arm before he could head outside. “I meant it. You don’t have to rush off. Come see our TARDIS, at least. Let me see yours.”
“It’s changed,” he said. “You might not like it.”
“It’s still yours. That means I’ll like it.”
They went out to the backyard, late afternoon sunlight casting an orange glow on the windows. Jamie was trying his best not to be annoyed by his sisters, and abandoned his sandbox as soon as he realised the adults were going to be talking TARDISes. The Doctors criticised each other’s setups, but still swapped parts and suggestions.
They both watched Rose, mesmerized by the old TARDIS as she was, running her hands along the railings and reading the scribbles on the chalkboard. “Still feels like home to me, Doctor,” she called out.
“Your room’s still here,” he said, before he realised he’d done it.
She came down the stairs from the upper level. “I figured it would be.”
“If there’s anything you want from it, now’s your chance.”
Rose smiled and shrugged as she rejoined the Doctors. “I’m good. I figure if I haven’t missed it in the past thirteen years, I probably don’t need it.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
The three of them stood quietly for a moment, the sounds of the kids playing filtering in. “I’m going to get the kids ready for supper,” Rose’s Doctor finally said, extending a hand to his other self. “It was good to see you.”
“Likewise,” the Doctor said, shaking his hand. There was more to it, of course, but the benefit of being around yourself is that you didn’t need to say anything.
Rose’s Doctor kissed her on the cheek and left the TARDIS, the door clicking shut quietly behind him.
“Thanks for letting me see her,” Rose said. “It’s nice that she remembers me.”
“How could she ever forget you, Rose Tyler?” the Doctor said.
Suddenly, Rose threw her arms around the Doctor’s neck. His own arms froze briefly before settling in on her back.
“I get the feeling this body isn’t that into hugging,” she said into his shoulder.
“It’ll make an exception for you.”
The TARDIS hum surrounded them, and Rose gave the Doctor one last squeeze. “You’re doing this properly this time, Doctor.”
“Doing what properly?”
“Saying goodbye. You’re not running off without a word.”
“I’m sorry for that.”
Rose shook her head. “Don’t apologise for the past. Just do better in the present.”
“Very well then,” he said. “Goodbye, Rose Tyler.”
She reached up on her tiptoe and kissed his cheek, gently cupping it after. “Goodbye, Doctor.” She turned and headed down the ramp to the TARDIS doors.
“Rose,” the Doctor called.
“Yeah?” she said, hand on the doorknob.
“I love you.”
She smiled, tongue in her teeth. “Quite right, too.” With that, she was gone.
The Doctor turned to the console, starting the transdimensional dematerialization sequence, programming the dimensional retroclosure matrices to seal off the world behind him without a trace. They were just fine without him. He had work to do.