The road less travelled...

Title: Finding A Way Home Epilogue
Author: katherine_b
Rating: PG
Characters: The Doctor, the alternate Doctor and Donna Noble
Disclaimer: If RTD and the Moff don’t want the spare Doctor, maybe I could have him?
Spoilers: Up to Journey’s End.
Summary: The Doctor is feeling lost and in pain…
A/N: Written for my current Timestamp meme for fansquee, who suggested: “Be interesting to see what the Letter contained that MC left for Rose and her realising that someone other than "HER" was more important, and how she should feel like a total cow for giving up something so great. Or a bit in the end just after MC passes away (*sob*) of Donna discussing where he'd like to be buried, or what to do with him. Something like that... or you could just bring him back.” I hope this satisfies...
A/N 2: I should probably also dedicate this to the person on the who_daily list who described part four of this story as a work in progress. Clearly they knew something I didn't...
A/N 3: My beautiful new icon comes from the super-talented mihane_echo! Thank you so much hun!

There is a familiarity to the sensations creeping through him. MC considers it for a moment – thinking is more difficult now – before remembering what the Master did to the Doctor. That change and the sudden aging of that body had echoes in the sensations he’s experienced now. In particular the warmth, more pronounced on the right side of his body, that seems to be gradually working its way all over him.

And as the warm feelings increase, they seem to prompt his nerves into actions. A draught passes over him, causing him to shudder.

Somehow he doesn’t think he’s dying anymore.

Yet the expectation of death lingers.

In some ways it’s like the Doctor’s unexpected reprieve on the Sontaran ship.

Even to the stinging pain on his right arm.

But, he realises the next moment, with thought coming more quickly now, this pain seems rather more immediate than the remembrance of that other occasion.

It’s almost as if he’s experiencing the pain for himself.

“Ow?” he ventures experimentally, his voice hesitant and almost soundless in his own ears.

“Doctor?”

Donna, his mind registers, still somewhat sluggish. But is she talking to me?

“MC?”

That’s the Doctor, MC understands.

“Who’s MC?” Donna asks.

I am, MC thinks, trying to persuade his lips to shape the words.

“He is,” the Doctor says, as if in response to his thoughts.

“But – he’s the Doctor,” Donna argues. “He’s you.”

“Yeah, not the time to argue semantics,” comes a sharp retort. And then, presumably in response to a look he’s received, “Can we discuss this after we bring him back from the brink of death?”

“Oh.” Donna’s surprise is evident, and then MC becomes aware of a hand lightly smoothing the hair on the left side of his head, which is leaning slightly to one side, lying against a warm surface that is rapidly rising and falling. “Oh, yeah,” Donna adds. “Of course.”

“Just keep talking to him,” comes the order.

The Doctor is banging around, apparently doing something to the TARDIS.

MC decides he can’t die until he knows exactly what’s going on.

“Spaceman,” Donna’s voice says warningly, her breath warm against his ear, “we aren’t about to put up with you deserting us like this. And I won’t forgive you in a hurry for what you just did, even if it did let me remember everything. Got that?”

It’s at that moment that MC realises he’s not slumped against the console, but lying against Donna’s shoulder, her arms around him. He wonders if that’s where the warmth he can feel is coming from.

Whatever its source, it’s helping to clear his mind so that it’s easier to think than it has been ever since he closed his eyes. He can hear more, too, and feel more.

Feel as energy, almost as if a switch has been flicked, trickles back into him.

There’s something all too familiar about it.

Doctor, he thinks suddenly, what are you doing?

And then suddenly he’s not alone inside his own head. A delighted and very familiar laugh echoes in his ears, blocking out the sound of Donna’s voice.

Saving you, the Doctor replies in the same noiseless mental language. Saving you like you saved Donna.

You’ve already given up some of your life, MC argues as his energy levels increase, finally understanding what the Doctor is doing. Why are you doing it again?

Saving you is as important to me as saving the TARDIS, comes the unexpected reply. Now will you open your eyes and stop worrying Donna? She doesn’t know you’re back with us again!

“Open your eyes, Doctor,” Donna says, a threatening tone in her voice. “Or I'm going to have to slap you again.”

He can't help feeling the urge to laugh rising inside him and he's smiling as he forces his eyelids apart. He finds himself looking into her concerned blue eyes – and an answering smile appears on her face as he meets her gaze.

“Hey there,” she says softly. “Welcome back.”

“You, too,” he tells her, his voice cracking slightly, but still audible.

She gives his shoulders a final squeeze before letting him go, but it's the Doctor who offers his hand to help MC to his feet and places a hand on his shoulder to steady him as a slight wave of dizziness strikes, but quickly passes.

“What did you do?” Donna asks, turning from MC to the Doctor. “I mean, one minute it seemed like he was dying, and now he's like this.”

“Well, it was mostly the TARDIS,” the Doctor admits. “Retrograde energofluxus.”

“He means the energy was flowing backwards,” MC tells her, recognising the slightly confused expression in her eyes. “The TARDIS took more than you needed, so she poured what you didn't need back into me. But because I had so little left by that time, there was a dip before I could recover.”

“So what were you doing?” Donna asks, gesturing at the Doctor. “Something with the console. I couldn't see what it was.”

“Enhancing the power of the TARDIS with some of my own.” The Doctor leans against the jumpseat, his arms folded across his chest. “Just making sure it wasn't all too late.”

“Good.” She nods, turning back to MC. “Now what's all this rubbish about you being called something else?” Donna demands, propping her hands on her hips, her eyes flashing. “What was that name he used?” she demands, pointing at the Time Lord in the brown suit, but with her eyes fixed on the other man.

“MC.” He shrugs. “Because of the meta-crisis. Rose thought it was appropriate.”

Donna frowns reprovingly. “You're more than just a meta-crisis.”

“How else would you tell us apart?” MC says in would-be careless tones, but only now does he fully understand how much Rose's name for him hurt and why.

Donna looks from one to the other and the frown slowly dissolves away from her face. She reaches out her hands, placing one on each man's chest. “Because of the only difference between you,” she tells them quietly.

Beneath the blue suit, he can feel his single heart beating slightly faster in response to the warmth of her touch, and he knows that the two hearts beneath the brown jacket are doing the same.

“I suppose that's it then.” Reaching up, he takes the hand Donna has pressed against the blue fabric, seeing as his actions are duplicated by the other man, before smiling at Donna. “The Doctor, Donna and MC in the TARDIS.”

An identical smile appears on the Doctor's face as he intertwines his fingers with Donna's. “The Doctors and Donna in the TARDIS,” he corrects.

Donna squeezes both of the hands in hers and grins. “The Universe has no idea what it's in for!”

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