New World, Second Chances
by mermaid2bseeker

A Rose/Duplicate Ten fanfiction of 50 drabble prompts.

002 Couple

He has always been part of a couple; the Doctor and the Tardis. Now the Tardis is gone; the last voice has faded from his mind. He walks forward and grabs Rose’s hand, as much for his comfort as for hers. Feeling the beat of her pulse as it echoes his own solitary heart, he marvels at how tiny he feels.

He made his choice (a long time ago), just as she made hers, and his other self was right. He needs her; to love him, to make him better, to hold his hand across this new universe, to survive.

072 Minutes

It takes only minutes to reach London. The devices have enough power for one last jump, and with Rose’s help, he uses the one meant for Mickey. They arrive at Torchwood Tower, and for a heart-thudding moment, he feels scared. The Tardis is gone, there’s no escape if things get bad. The minutes pass, and none of Rose’s co-workers have called security to escort their Number One enemy away. This Torchwood is different. He stays uncharacteristically quiet throughout the debriefing, realizing that a normal life (in a house, a proper house, with doors and carpets) means keeping a low profile.

024 Star

(The stars were going out.) Rose leads him to the rooftop and they watch as the stars wink back into existence. He names as many as he can, knowing he’ll never again see them.

“I crossed 42 universes to find you.”

“42?”

“Yeah….Answer to everything….Sometimes they were so similar I couldn’t tell the diff’rence. But none of ‘em had you.”

“One-of-a-kind, me. Well, two-of-a-kind, I guess.”

“God, I missed you.”

“How long has it been for you?”

“Years. You know how it is; travelin’ through time, hopping across dimensions. You lose all track of time.”

“I know what you mean.”

053 Earth

On this Earth, UNIT and Torchwood work together, thanks to Harriet Jones. An accountable Torchwood is a better Torchwood, more welcoming to persons of non-terrestrial origin (PONTOs).

He doesn’t know whether to be pleased that Torchwood is no longer recklessly punching holes through the void, or offended that he has been placed in the Transient category alongside tourists, explorers, and crash survivors. Although apparently, after five Earth-years they can apply for Resident status complete with fake background documentation.

A few pulled strings and a loophole get him immediate Resident status. This is it for him, Earth is now his home.

064 Fall

“Can you still feel it?”

“Hmm?”

“The turn of th’Earth? The ground beneath our feet is spinning at 1000 miles an hour…”

“The entire planet is hurtling around the sun at 67 thousand miles an hour, but I can’t feel it. We’re falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world…. And I can never let go.”

“Better wiv two.”

“Better with you….You spin my world right round baby.”

“…”

“…”

“I cannot believe you just said that.”

“What?...What?”

“You’re impossible.”

“Not impossible, just unlikely.”

“…”

“…”

“Come on. Time to buy you clothes.”

078 Rebirth

He needs clothes, that’s a strange thought. He probably has a lot of strange thoughts to come in this short life. On his second day here, Rose takes him shopping. They buy suits and shirts, shoes, socks, pants…It all feels forced, the colors too loud, the outfits too noticeable. He gravitates towards the darker, heavier materials. Dark jeans, boots. He’s tempted to go for a leather jacket, but something in Rose’s eyes stop him. Right. This is a new world, this is his second chance and he’s a different man. He is going to be a different man, for her.

040 Teammates

His vow to keep a low profile lasts three days. The loophole that gave him his birth certificate, A-Levels, and credit cards, also makes him a Torchwood/UNIT employee for the next seven years. He is a scientific advisor, just like last time he was stranded on Earth, all those lifetimes ago. Little much has changed since then; he still needs someone to pass him his test tubes.

His ease in handling unknown artifacts is quickly noticed, and everyone starts asking him for assistance. Less than a month after arriving, he has an office, though he spends more time in Rose’s.

089 She and 090 He

Part of Rose feels selfish for being as happy now as she was back then. She’s with the man she loves, exactly the way she wanted it, living together for the rest of their lives. She has the family she always wanted, a mom and a dad, in a real house. The best of both her universes. Yes, she misses the running, but she can’t spend her life running like she believed when she was 19. (Everything has its time, and everything ends.) She has to grow old (wither and die), but he no longer has to live on alone.

Yet he is living on alone, still traveling among the stars, watching friends die. He doesn’t even have Donna, and she was so good for him. Is it wrong of her to be so happy when the man she loves is alone and miserable? She cries for him, where her Doctor can’t see.

In many ways, her Doctor is the same as ever, though he’s picked up a few unfamiliar phrases and mannerisms. For one, if he doesn’t know a co-worker’s name he’ll call them Earth-boy/girl, apparently inherited from Donna. He’s also domestic, and she loves him more for it.

083 Weakness

In some ways, he is like Tony, learning how his body works. Many things are the same, but discovering what is different always takes him by surprise. On the sixth day in this universe, he collapses in Rose’s office mid-conversation. When he wakes up, Rose chides him for not sleeping or eating enough. Once again, he finds his time being shortened, by eight hours a day.

There are so many things about being a human that he doesn’t know how to handle. He has to rely on Rose, Jackie and Pete, trust that they know about what they are talking.

042 Kids

Honestly, he’s as bad as Tony, sticking his fingers into all the food. But, unlike Tony, Jackie is not going to fall for the Doctor’s “innocent” smile. He knows better. And if he didn’t before, he does now, she’s certainly told him enough times. God, how did Rose live with him alone for three years?

No, he’s worse than Tony. Tony wouldn’t rebuild the microwave into something that causes a blackout for half the city. They’ve given him the shed for his alien things. She won’t have her baby stumbling on something that might send him a million-million miles away.

026 Parents

Living with the Tylers, day after day, he discovers the parent-child dynamic in a way he had only known abstractly. His upbringing was certainly nothing like it.

He had always kind of dismissed Jackie as just ‘Rose’s mum’. As hard as it is raising Tony with Pete’s help and money, Jackie hadn’t had that raising Rose. Being better with his feelings, he stops to hug Jackie for being exactly who she is.

Watching Tony play with his toys, he is reminded of his family that died in the Time War and he realizes he wants a family again, with Rose.

071 Time

There is no time anymore. There’s so much he wants to do on this Earth, with Rose, but there’s not enough time. He’s dying, his cells shriveling up and breaking down. He has 60 years, 70 maybe. How do humans live like this? It’s crushing him; Time; a minute here, an hour there. Slipping through his fingers so fast and he can’t stop it.

Every second he spends with Rose is one less he’ll have, and it’s maddening. This is why he leaves them behind, because even the Lord of Time can’t stop it. And he’s not even that anymore.

032 Feelings

Emotionally, he’s much more like the first him Rose knew, and she’s forgotten how to handle him. He’s manic depressive with even more to be depressed about than before. She’s worried that she can’t be what he needs again. She knows part of it is the fact he can’t escape and there’s nothing she can do about that.

She can usually tell when he’s in one of his moods. The insults get personal, and the percussive maintenance gets meaner. Though, the more time he spends here, the rarer the moods are. Maybe just being herself is enough to heal him.

049 Taste

In the absence of more sophisticated machines, he’s gotten in the habit of licking things again. It may be an odd sight, but his tongue is still better at identifying unknown elements then the so-called ‘advanced technology’ Torchwood uses.

It would be easy to whip up a scanner with the bits in the archive, but ever since that toaster incident, they’ve told him to write instructions for everything he builds. He’s not about to hand them millennia advanced technology, so his tongue it is.

Sometimes he does it to things that don’t need it, just to annoy them. Stupid apes.

085 Fame

He’s famous. Barely four months here, and he’s already famous. Well, being the “secret beau” of the Vitex millionaire’s eldest heir will do that to a person. He finds himself disgusted with the stories written claiming his origin; sordid, outrageous, some just plain weird. None ever comes close to the truth. If he called and told them his life story, they’d think him some nutter looking to make easy money.

It all feels cheap somehow. Donna, wonderful Donna who saved the universe, saved all the universes, will never be remembered on this Earth, and he’s famous for being someone’s boyfriend.

009 Hospital

A human hospital for a human Doctor. This body of his, half-Time Lord, is still fragile enough that he needs check-ups. He has to have some human tell him things about his own body that he used to know instinctively. He thinks he would be insulted if Rose weren’t so insistent. She worries so much about him, he’s not going to make things harder.

But do they really need to do these types of tests? He’s an advanced life form, it’s embarrassing. And no, he is not sulking. Time Lords don’t sulk—well, Timelord-human-metacrisis, but still—he is not sulking.

061 Snow

His first Christmas here, the snow is real, not ash or atmospheric excitation. Rose laughs at his snowman, which has a sonic screwdriver, giant scarf and a celery nose. They share crackers and he gets an orange crown, which he wrangles onto its head. There’s a snowball fight, and they end up rolling together on the ground, so really they both win.

Later, filled with turkey and sleepy, watching a tipsy Jackie dance with Pete, Rose dozing in his arms, he feels happier than he’s felt in a long time. He realizes he’s gotten the best present he could want.

011 Blue

One of the first things he buys, with his own money, is a blue classic beetle. He calls it Bessie the Second. Rose calls it his rebound. It’s old, rickety, and not very predictable. His driving’s not all that good, so really nothing has changed.

She never drives it if she can help it, worried it’ll fall apart at the slightest bump. Whenever she can’t find him, he’s under the bonnet, tweaking things that don’t need tweaking, and adding extras that no car should have, let alone his. As long as he doesn’t make it travel in time and space…

010 Sickness

The first time he gets sick, he ignores it because he doesn’t know what’s happening. When he passes out in his lab, and wakes up in hospital, he knows he did something wrong. Another first on this world; his first ever flu. Rose makes him promise to tell her whenever he’s feeling odd or out of sorts from now on.

It hits him, after Rose drives them home. He has the flu, humans have died from that before, and he’s human—well, ish. His first brush with his mortality and it’s not by alien menace, it’s by a microscopic organism.

059 Lovers

He’s decided that his only purpose in this life is to love Rose, and give her babies, if she wants them. Even if it’s not with him; but that thought makes his heart hurt too much, so he tries not to think it. It’s odd, broaching the subject. Don’t humans require dinner and dating before dancing. Well, he gave her the entire universe once; doesn’t that count? Or does he have to start over again? This time, he has nothing to give her, just whatever time he has remaining on this world, and his hope that it will be enough.

075 Days

He really shouldn’t, but he keeps a count of all the days he’s been here. The days he won’t have again, leading to the days he has left. Maybe this living with a small finite amount is the better way. He can plan his life. Well, more like outline. Rough sketch? Whatever it’s called, he knows what he wants when he’s old and grey.

He’s nervous, even though previous experience shows Rose being encouraging and loving. It turns out, humans plan their lives too. When he tells her his plan, she smiles and bumps it up by hundreds of days.

007 Trouble

Now planet-bound, trouble finds them. There’s nothing unusual; run, defeat the bad guys. It’s just sometimes inconvenient, which it’s never been before.

A romantic evening out turns into another run-for-your-life affair when he discovers they’re serving alien meat. Being chased by a knife-wielding chef isn’t easy wearing formal wear, but they manage.

UNIT traces the operation back to a Cardiff warehouse, they find an alien being sliced up for its meat while still alive. The poor creature heals so fast it’s a never-ending supply.

Only Rose is able to stop him from going too far. (What are you turning into?)

091 Birthday

It’s his 904th birthday. Not really, he passed 1000 a few centuries ago. And it’s not even his birthday, how can it be when the planet whose cycle he uses no longer exists? When his body looks 35 and is really only one year old? It’s the celebration of an arbitrary number set to mark the passing of another year. But Jackie insisted and he’s learned not to say ‘no’ to her. Though he refuses to wear a tuxedo, bad things happen when he wears tuxedos.

It’s a boring event. At least there are edible ball bearings on his cake.

050 Touch

He’s never needed n excuse to touch Rose, and he doesn’t need one now. Sure, Torchwood frowns upon fraternization, but, what are they going to do, fire him? He’s the foremost expert on aliens and they know it. It’s difficult to do his work when Rose walks into his lab, because she’s there, not trapped across a void. She’s there, and he can reach out and hug her, which he does. It’s not like she minds, she hugs him right back. Though they refrain from kissing, because once they start they don’t stop, and they both have jobs to do.

047 Meetings

The meetings are the most difficult thing to put up with working at Torchwood. He has to explain his actions when faced with alien menaces. He has to defend his budget requirements. He’s never even needed a budget before. He always left before the bill came due.

He thinks he would prefer Daleks to these bureaucrats. Where do they get off making him feel guilty for saving the Earth at “too high a financial cost”? You can’t put a price on life, though they keep on trying. He should put them in his place, see how well they do instead.

022 Diamond

He buys it because the color reminds him of the first time he really loved her, when she glowed as his equal. Right before he died for her.

If he holds it just right, the yellow stone seems to swirl in the light. He doesn’t know what to do with it—well, he knows what it’s for, obviously. He just doesn’t know how to give it, or even if he should. He has a half-baked plan in mind when he pays, and he gets a jolt of courage, or possibly terror, when he sees the saleswoman’s name is B. Wolfe.

062 Rain

The rain tastes different in this world, cleaner. He doesn’t know if that’s because it is, or if his taste buds are different, and he doesn’t care. Instead of running into the house, as he should after a long day of work, he stays outside, acting like a complete five year old. He dances in the rain, even managing to coax Rose into joining him.

They must look like complete fools running hand in hand through the downpour. Laughing, they jump into the puddles splashing each other’s legs.

Even miserable with the cold he has afterwards, it was worth it.

014 White

He finds the idea daunting, which is fine because Rose doesn’t really want one. But Jackie insists her baby deserves the biggest one money can buy, and no one argues with Jackie. Don’t they know he’s rubbish at weddings (especially his own). He would whisk Rose away in Bessie II if he weren’t afraid of her mum. Death threats are so much more compelling when one can’t regenerate.

He’s no help choosing a dress, he’s more interested in what they’re covering than what they look like. Mostly he sits back and lets Jackie order them around, it’s easier that way.

077 Life

(I bring life.) The stick was blue, and the tests were positive. There was a tiny life growing inside Rose, and they did that. A happy accident, though they weren’t really trying to prevent it. Oh he wanted it, so bad, but he couldn’t do this to her, not yet. She was still so young, too young to be a mother. His heart was breaking, but it was the truth, and he knew it.

Something must have shown on his face, because the first thing she does is tell him, in no uncertain terms, that they are keeping the baby.

041 Pets

If he thinks Rose didn’t notice all the strange tinkering, and the items missing from the archives, he has got another thing coming. She knows he’s creating something beyond current human technology; she didn’t get this position with her good looks. So long as he doesn’t blow up anything irreplaceable, she’ll leave him to his secret project.

It’s a quiet month later, when he says, “He followed me home. Can I keep him?” She knows he knows she’s going to say yes, he’s just being cute.

With a roll of her eyes, she welcomes K-9 mark V into their home.

069 Months

9 months is such a long time, anything could happen to Rose and the baby. He can’t help but think the entire process sounds a bit dodgy. Although, considering humans have always procreated like this, and, oooh look at how many humans there are, it is possible he’s being a bit thick. Pete says he’s just being a dad, but he’s been a dad before. It certainly never felt like this stomach-churning terror.

It’s just so chancy. Any number of things could cause Rose to miscarry. Even doing nothing wrong could cause it. The looms were so much more precise.

031 Music

It takes him a long time, but he finally discovers the right combination of noises. He closes his eyes and it sounds like home used to.

Gallifrey is gone and there is so much about it his child will never know. But he can give them this, this music of the forest, the wind through the trees. This will be the melody they fall asleep to, just as he used to, whenever he could.

Rose, sweet understanding Rose, hadn’t questioned him during his obsessive search for the perfect sounds. The man he is now is happy he can share this.

044 Trips

His job as Torchwood/UNIT scientific advisor sometimes takes him on trips to other countries. Now, more than ever, he hates the separation from Rose. He wants to be there for her every second of her pregnancy, but he can’t because he’s in Utah clearing a museum of anything dangerous before the geeks can come and play. It doesn’t matter that he already knows what’s in the museum, they pay him to do his job and this is part of it.

He and Rose talk over the phones, but all the same, he rushes back home as soon as he can.

073 Hours

Eight hours of labor later, Rose gives birth to their daughter. Gwynivere Winifred Noble is so small and fragile; he’s too terrified to hold her. Watching sweaty, tired, beautiful Rose hold Gwen, he stretches his mind to try to see her timeline. He can’t see anything, and that is absolutely terrifying; though it’s probably more to do with his human-ish brain than any kind of imminent demise on her part.

He hopes.

“She’s not gonna bite.” Rose gently pushes Gwen into his hands.

She’s so tiny, but before he knows it, she’ll be all grown up and leaving the nest.

058 Enemies

He has no enemies here, which is a nice change, he thinks. No one knows who he is, so no one wants to kill him. It’s good to know that his family won’t be threatened because of his past.

The problem with this is when he’s trying to bluff his way to the alien menace. There’s no fear or apprehension attached to his name. It also makes his job repetitive. Some days he’s facing off aliens he’s already defeated, like the Zygons. This universe may be ahead by several years but it’s also behind when it comes to alien threats.

056 Friends

They named their daughter perfectly. Sometimes he would swear he’s dealing with a miniature version of her namesakes. Gwynivere a form of Jennifer for Jenny, Winifred for Fred a.k.a. Romana, and Noble for Donna.

He’s tried everything, but she won’t stop crying. Worried he’s doing something wrong, he chances a peek into her head. For a moment, he sees himself as Gwen does, a big brown blur that feels different than the yellow blur. With a hiccup, she stops crying. All she wanted was to be heard, much like Donna, who shouted at the world because no one was listening.

096 Influence

He knows what is going to happen. Yes, the planet may be parallel, but it’s similar enough. He knows all the technological advancements Earth will make in this century, (the 21st century is when it all changes) and he can’t help. He has to wait for it just like everyone else, the difference being, he knows what he’s waiting for.

With just three equations he could revolutionize Earth science, but he can’t interfere. He is the one person who can never contribute to society. He will walk in the dust, but he can never leave a footprint, and that’s depressing.

015 Colors

Their daughter draws cities under domes, and a sky with two suns. When Gwen starts writing in Gallifreyan, they decide it’s time to tell her the truth about her drawings. They don’t have to. She already knows why the sky isn’t orange and the grass isn’t red. Possibly an inherited genetic memory or she’s picking up stray thoughts from his brain. Either way, she knows what happened to Gallifrey, and he wishes she didn’t.

Yet she doesn’t look at him in horror or disgust. She doesn’t blame him for being homeless. Maybe that’s best, because she’s not homeless, not really.

070 Years

The years go by quickly. Before long, Gwen is in school, and the house seems too quiet. He feels somewhat cheated; humans grow so fast, he didn’t have enough time with her as a baby. Add to that a super intelligence—she is his—and he missed out on a lot of parenting firsts.

He never had to teach her to tie her shoes, or ride a bicycle. She’ll never get to stare into the vortex, or feel a Tardis humming under her hands, and she already knew how to quiet her thoughts so she wasn’t thinking into people’s brains.

012 Red

When Gwen wakes up covered in red spots, he nearly gives himself a stroke worrying. He only stops ‘twittering’ after Jackie threatens to slap him. If it were anyone else, he’d know immediately what it was, but with Gwen, he’s convinced it’s the bubonic plague. Apparently, this is normal Dad behavior, so he doesn’t feel like such a dunce when it turns out to be chicken pox.

They buy her lotion and ice cream and keep her away from Tony, since it’s contagious to anyone who’s never had it. Which explains why he wakes up with it four days later.

017 Sizes

When Gwen is seven, Rose buys a small pair of converse. Gwen is too big for them, so when Rose presents him with the pair and looks at him just so, he knows. They’re having another baby.

Even though he’s been though it before, this pregnancy is no less scary then last time. Nine months later, Gwen’s brother is born on time and healthy.

After they take him home, they let Gwen hold him and she spends a long time staring at him before saying, “He’s so tiny, I like him.” When he starts crying, she tells Rose he’s hungry.

029 Brother

“We’re not naming him after a horse.”

“I was thinking more like King Arthur, to keep with the theme. Arthur, Gwen. Oooh, did I ever tell you about the time I was Merlin?”

“Well, tha’ explains why there’s no King Arthur legend in this universe.”

“Really? Hmmm.”

“Not again.”

“What?”

“It didn’t work wiv Harry Potter, it’s not gonna work wiv King Arthur.”

“Pfft, humans. Wouldn’t know a good book if it fell in your lap and recited poetry.”

“Hey!”

“Sorry. Present company excepted.”

“Thank you.”

“What about Harry?”

“Harry Noble?”

“Never mind, that sounds horrible.”

“Andrew.”

“Andrew Noble?...Nice.”

003 Cry

Andrew hardly ever cries. He doesn’t have to, Gwen always tells them when he needs something. She’s just being a good big sister, taking care of the baby, but Rose and him feel that it might be stunting Andrew’s development, so they tell Gwen to let her brother communicate his needs on his own.

The first day, Andrew still doesn’t cry, choosing instead to broadcast his thoughts so loud even Rose sometimes hears them. Once he realizes they’re ignoring his thoughts, he starts crying. It seems a cruel thing to do, but it’s something he needs to learn to do.

097 School

It’s like Susan all over again, Gwen is years ahead of the other children, so she keeps getting noticed. After getting letters from various genius schools, including Rattigan Academy, they enroll her in a Torchwood-sponsored university designed for children of Earth-Aliens. Most of the children there aren’t humanoid, which is why they didn’t fit in anywhere else. It’s quite a large group, he didn’t think there were that many aliens living in England.

Gwen is still ahead of the others, only now it’s not by much; and they’re all the same, because they’re different, so there’s not that much teasing.

068 Weeks

After the Rattigan Academy letter, Torchwood/UNIT confiscate all ATMOS data. A few weeks later, the ship shows up on satellites. This is one of those times he wishes he had enemies. The Sontarans show no recognition at his name, and that makes the communication harder.

Since their first plan has failed, they decide to destroy the planet; still a glorious victory for Sontar. He has a wife and two children now, he’s not about to let that happen. He orders, then begs them to leave, but they refuse to act cowardly. So, he destroys them, and later feels no remorse.

043 Books

Gwen is a voracious reader. She’s not as fast as he is, but she still goes through books at an insane rate. They never bother buying her children’s books, they get her books with complex words to slow her down. Elsewise, she’ll have read all the books in England before she graduates school.

He teaches her to slow down. There’s no point in reading so fast, the books aren’t going anywhere. Then she disturbs him by claiming she wants to read all the books in the whole world before she dies. She should be too young to understand about death.

087 Paper

“Vitex Heiress’s Husband Seen in Sordid Love Affair” The tabloids got a picture of him undercover during one of his assignments. He had to get close to an alien ambassador who was a suspected terrorist. Unfortunately, there was dinner and dating, but thankfully no dancing. The paparazzi must have taken the photograph right as he was kissing the ambassador good night.

Rose knew about the assignment, but he doesn’t think she knew about the kissing. After five minutes of trying to explain himself, she assures him she never believed he was a cheater, and she already knew about the kiss.

088 Matches

When Andrew is five, Rose catches him playing with matches. He lights it, stares at it until the flame reaches his fingers, drops it into a cup of water, and repeats the process. She scolds him (you’re gonna burn), and asks why.

In true Andrew-fashion, he answers with a question of his own. “You burn (like the sun) mum, why don’t you go out?”

“Because I’m special,” seems to placate him until she can ask her husband. And the novelty of those words hasn’t worn off yet.

It’s just another one of those things she’ll never understand about her children.

030 Sister

Andrew greets them one morning with, “Gwen has a boyfriend.”

“I do not, you little brat!”

“She was thinking about him all last night.”

“Andrew, don’t read your sister’s mind.”

“Yes, dad.”

“What’s this boyfriend’s name?”

“Muuum. He’s not my boyfriend.”

“His name’s Jack.”

“Andrew!”

“Aaaaahhhh!!”

“Gwen, stop hitting your brother.”

“Yes, mum.”

“You haven’t heard the best part.”

“Andrew!! Don’t you dare!”

“His dad bought him a mini-zeppelin.”

“Is it above Big Ben?” Rose asks.

“How did you know?”

He and Rose share a look over the table. “We forbid you to date this boy.”

“You’re being so unfair.”

080 Curse

He’s getting too old to fight aliens, at least that’s what Torchwood says. He doesn’t listen. When he breaks his leg jumping from a fireball, he realizes maybe they’re right. He is too old.

His body’s not as resilient as it used to be. It takes him forever to heal and then, he walks with a limp. Torchwood takes him off field duty, so now he sits behind a desk all day long.

They don’t know it yet, but they’ve cursed him. He was never one for desk duty. He needs to be out in the thick of it, running.

A/N: I may or may not be writing a second half to this. I originally wanted to write 100 drabbles, but I’m realizing that the story is pretty much complete. It doesn’t need any more.