| Date: 16 January 2008
Characters: The Ninth Doctor, The Ninth Doctor Location: hotel Link to IJ: thread #37199 |
 The Doctor peered out of the hotel room he'd claimed, stepping out a moment later, heading for the end of the corridor with a slightly digruntled expression on his face a moment. He'd almost hoped he'd open the door, and step back into the Hub, but... Oh, well, the universe hadn't done something nice for him since the Time War - at least - and he really didn't expect it to start now. Though, at least he hadn't run into Rose since that conversation yesterday.
If he was honest with himself, which he had no intention of being right now, he was trying to avoid running into Rose again. Or, for that matter, anyone else he even vaguely knew. He really didn't want to deal with any of them right now. Either angry at him, or dead, or just plain insane in his own world, the difference between what he knew, and the people he met here was... unsettling, a little. A lot, in some cases. He paused, peering around the corner, and then stepping quickly to the rail of the stairs, looking down them to see if there was anyone on them. Well, before he looked up. And so didn't spot someone coming down quickly enough to hide. "Oh. Hello." He gave the person a sheepish grin, stepping back from the railing, and shoving his hands into the pockets of his leather coat. |
 "What the hell?" The Doctor stared at him. |
| The Doctor raised an eyebrow, taking in the familiar ears and short hair and outfit. "Didn't expect to run into myself here. Should have, probably." After the conversation with Mickey, and running into Rose, he really ought to have expected that possibility. Still hadn't, though. |
| "Met next regeneration. When are you from then?" |
| "Was visiting Earth while my companion visited her folks, found the Master running Torchwood, and Jack in Cardiff. He's a universal constant now. Rose..." He shook his head, cutting off that train of thought viciously. "When are you from?" |
| "He's a..'" he shook his head, getting centered, "The war just ended." |
| The Doctor winced, hunching his shoulders. "Gallifrey burned," he murmured, flickers of memory crossing his mind. "Everyone's gone, except me. And the Master, but I didn't know that until I went to Earth this time." |
| "I was there," he said a little harshly, trying to shut down that line of thought. |
| "Sorry." The Doctor shook himself slightly, as if trying to get rid of the memories. "Bit morbid, sometimes, me." He gave his other self a self-depricating little smile. "Universe survived, though. Not overrun with Daleks." |
| "There was something there then." |
| "There was something where when?"
He wasn't trying to be dense, he was just still not entirely settled. Running into Rose earlier, and now into himself, and bringing up memories of the Time War... wasn't good for his ability to cope. |
| "No, just. At least the Daleks are gone." |
| The Doctor quirked one corner of his mouth up. "Gone, and never existed to anyone else in the universe as more than boogeymen." Well, and as dangerous alien threats in Torchwood's files if Jack and the Master had told them anything about them.
"You haven't run into Rose yet in your timeline, have you?" |
| "This Rose walks on water, doesn't she?" |
| The Doctor clenched his jaw a moment. "In my universe, she's dead. Looked into the heart of the TARDIS and burned herself out with the Time Vortex to destroy the Daleks I missed when Gallifrey burned." His voice was harsh, and he wasn't sure if it was anger or guilt that fueled that tone more. "'S just wondering, is all. Ran into her here, and she'd just done that in her timeline, only she didn't die. Saved her, her Doctor did." |
| "Never met her," he said after a moment, respectful of the Doctor's morning. |
| "If you do, keep her safe." The Doctor sighed, hunching forward a little more, unconsciously trying to protect himself from his own past. "Don't let her give her life for yours." |
| "Why did you?" |
| "Didn't let her. Couldn't get close enough to take the Time Vortex out of her." The Doctor took a step away from his other self, leaning against the wall. "'Can't keep protecting me, Doctor.' Last thing she said to me, kept pushing me away. Couldn't watch her burn, kept trying to stop her, get to her, try to help her. Couldn't, not until it was too late."
His current companion had told him that he needed to get over it. ...you can't keep moping about after a lost love. Life and death happen... Her words ran though his mind, stinging like a slap in the face, even now. |
| "Life and death happened," he echoed, but not without sympathy. He could understand. "It always hurts." |
| "It didn't hurt as much before I came here," the Doctor said quietly. "Hurt, but not as much. Could ignore it, focus on the current companion, on what needed done. Come here, and she's here, and she's alive, and she didn't push me away, I didn't fail her, didn't break my promise to Jackie. And it hurts again." He leaned against the wall, tilting his head back against it. "Avoiding her, actually." |
| "Coward," he said quietly. |
| The Doctor straightened, glaring. "Didn't need to say that."
He wasn't about to deny that it was true - he was a coward, kept running away from... a lot of things. Oh, he fixed things, saved the world, but it didn't change what he was. |
| "You know it though." |
| "Still doesn't mean you needed to say it." The Doctor slumped again, his voice faintly petulant. "Don't know if I could let her go if I ran into her again. Know I don't want to go back, and never see her again." |
| "So you have choices." |
| "Yeah." The Doctor snorted softly. "Left a mess back there." He wasn't just talking about his reality, and he winced, thinking about the slap he'd earned, running off like that. "Think she'll slap me?" He looked over at his other self with a half-amused, half-pained grin on his face. |
| "Did you deserve it?" |
| "Probably." |
| "But?" |
| The Doctor shrugged. "Dunno." He stared off into the distance a moment, his expression dark. "Scared she won't. 'S not likely she won't; cares too much, her, to not. Dunno that she will, though." |
| "You want a slap, I can provide." |
| The Doctor glared at him. "'S not the slap, it's who does the slapping." |
| "So go let her slap you! I'll slip her the word if you want." |
| "I don't want her to slap me!" The Doctor grimaced, and bounced his head off the wall once. "Well, I don't. And I'm scared that she won't." It really made more sense in his head before he said it. A little more sense, anyway. In a world where logic had screwed itself up in a Gordian knot. |
| The Doctor stared at him. |
| "What?" The Doctor hunched his shoulders, shifting uncomfortably. Had it really made that little sense? |
| "You're a bit daft." |
| The Doctor snorted. "I've destroyed Gallifrey, Rose is dead, Jack can't die, and is following the Master - who isn't as dead as he should be. I've earned a few daft moments." At least, in his opinion. So long as he didn't do something too stupid. |
| "Don't use them all up." |
| "I'm trying not to." The Doctor let out a sigh, coming to a decision. Even if she did slap him - and he had to admit to himself, he more than deserved it after running away from her like that - it was better to be slapped than to avoid her. Though when she ended up leaving, or he did, he was going to have a hard time letting her go.
"Should go find Rose, apologize for running away." Not something he was accustomed to doing. Not something he'd really done all that often, for all the guilt he carried. |
| "If nothing else, that was rude," he agreed. |