The road less travelled...

Title: Finding A Way Home – Life, Love and Forever 5/5
Author: katherine_b
Rating: G
Summary: The half-human Doctor is faced with a dilemma. What do you get a Time Lord for a wedding present?
A/N: Happy Easter everyone!

Part V

“It's all right, Donna.” The Time Lord's voice is calm and quiet. “I'm fine.”

He meets the other Doctor's gaze, a look of surprise on his face.

“I'd forgotten about this,” he admits, his eyes glowing gold. “And, even when I did think about it, I wasn't sure...”

“If I could do it,” the other man agrees, trying to suppress the thrill coursing through him at the knowledge that he really is a true Time Lord. “Neither was I.”

“Will someone tell me what's going on?” Donna demands, her voice reverberating with anger and thinly disguised anxiety.

There is a warm look in the Doctor's eyes as he looks at the woman in white. “Do you remember,” he asks softly, “what you always promised me?”

The fear in Donna's eyes fades a little, replaced by love and just a hint of sadness.

“Forever,” she repeats, and sudden tears glisten in her eyes as her fingers tighten around his. “For as long as I have. Even if it's not as long as you do.”

“If there was a way,” the Time Lord's voice is low and full of passion, “would you give me that forever you promised?”

Her response comes without hesitation. “Yes.” But then a flicker of uncertainty appears in her eyes. “But it can't happen, can it? I mean, even in spite of the metacrisis, I'm still human.”

“It couldn't happen if he wasn't here. I can't both carry out the binding ceremony and be the focus of it. But because there's another Time Lord in the world,” the man in brown, his skin still glowing with golden energy, nods at his blue-clad twin, “because he exists, because he's as much a part of me as he is of you, it can happen - if you want it. But if you don't," he hurries on before she can speak, "then this will just be a normal human...”

The index finger of Donna's left hand comes up to rest lightly against his lips, the engagement ring on her fourth finger blazing in the reflected light radiating from the Time Lord. “I want it,” she says softly. “I want you,” she goes on, “forever.”

As she says the words, the golden light around the Doctor strengthens. Ropes of energy form, wrapping around Donna's hand and that of the half-human Doctor, binding them together. He can feel the pulsation of power as it begins to seep into Donna's skin, and watches as her eyes widen in shock at the feeling of power passing through her.

The echo reverberates through him and he is forcibly reminded of the instant of his creation, the sensation of power, similar to the explosion of regeneration, that flowed from his hand, which is now bound to Donna's and that of the other Doctor by the same gold force that brought him into being.

He can feel the echo of Donna's heartbeat and detects the instant that it doubles, the same moment as Donna lifts her free hand from its place resting against the Doctor's mouth. She presses her hand to the right side of her chest with a faint gasp, although she now no longer needs to take in air as urgently as she did before the development of her respiratory bypass.

He senses, too, the moment when the warmth of her skin begins to fade, until it matches the temperature of the Time Lord's hand, wrapped around hers.

And then, as rapidly as it began, the glow of power fades. Finally able to release his hand, the one-hearted man steps back and turns to the priest, who is several feet away, a look of fear on his face.

“All yours,” he says cheerfully and returns to the place he had been standing for the earlier part of the ceremony as if nothing unusual had happened.

* * *
“You may kiss the bride!”

Enthusiastic applause rings through the church, but the half-human Doctor can't help noticing somewhat uneasily that Sylvia has risen from her seat and is advancing on them – most particularly on him.

“What did you do?” she demands, and the question distracts him just long enough for him to miss the sight of her hand until it makes stinging contact with his cheek.

“Ow!”

“Mum!” Donna turns in the Doctor’s arms and then pulls free to drag Sylvia’s arm away. “Don’t!”

The man is blue is still rubbing his cheek, watching as Sylvia takes Donna to one side, when the Time Lord crosses the few feet to stop in front of him.

“Hell of a wedding present,” he offers, but there’s a glow in his eyes that makes the other Doctor grin.

“Well, I’ve got a lot of pressure, don’t I?” he jokes, although he watches the other man closely as he speaks. “What with being the only half-human-half-Time-Lord in existence.”

“Yes, I suppose you are,” comes the thoughtful response. For a moment, the Doctor stares at his wife before turning back to the man beside him. Then he suddenly pulls the other Doctor into his arms for a fierce embrace. “Thank you.”

The words might be muffled, but the emotion – the delight, the joy and the gratitude – pouring from the Time Lord is unmistakable.

“You’re welcome,” he replies softly, returning the hug.

“Now, you’ll have to remind me,” Jack says suddenly from behind them, “whether it’s the groom or the bride I get to kiss.”

“Don’t,” the half-human Doctor is beginning, when he hears an almost identical voice saying the same words. “Just don’t,” the two Doctors say in unison, and Martha and Sarah Jane exchange glances and giggle.

Jack, not noticeably depressed by the dual scolding, merely grins. Sarah Jane, meanwhile, recovers from her laughter and then grabs the hand of the groom.

“You have a wedding certificate to sign,” she says, taking charge as she pulls him over to the table where Donna, Sylvia and Wilf are already waiting. “You aren’t legally married until you do that.”

“I don’t think the Doctor believes that,” Martha, Donna’s matron of honour, says softly as she slips her arm around that of the half-human Doctor.

“On Gallifrey, it was all about the binding ceremony,” he tells her as they move over to join the others. “So no, I’m sure he doesn’t.”

“It was spectacular,” she tells him. “But I couldn’t understand everything you said. What does it mean?”

“It means she’s like him.” He nods at the man in brown. “Time Lord. Pure Time Lord. Nothing human about her. Not biologically anyway.”

He sees her face fall and squeezes her arm.

“It doesn’t mean she’s any different,” he assures her softly. “She’s got an extra heart and her skin’s a bit colder. There’s a respiratory bypass in there, too, but I can promise she’s still the same Donna.”

For a moment Martha looks at her friend before turning her gaze back to the man beside her.

“Thanks.” She reaches up to hug him, and then, as she lets go, nods at the Time Lord. “He would never have understood that. What I meant.”

“Ah, see,” he grins, “it’s the bit of Donna in me that lets me understand. Or at least it lets me explain it to you in words of one syllable. He can be bit pompous like that sometimes.”

“Oi, you two!” Sylvia’s voice makes him look up sharply and he sees her pointing a pen at them. “We haven’t got all day,” she warns.

“Yes, we need to move on to the party,” Jack announces gleefully. “And then our newlyweds can go off in the TARDIS while our spare Doctor comes to spend time at Torchwood, lending a hand here and there.” He winks suggestively. “Wherever needed, you know.”

“Actually Jack,” the Time Lord responds as the other Doctor fills out the necessary part of the wedding certificate, “he’s dropping Donna and me off for our honeymoon and borrowing the TARDIS. So I’m afraid he won’t be able to take you up on your invitation.”

“You get to be the Doctor,” Martha says with a smile as he gets up from the table.

“For a while,” he agrees. “I wouldn’t want it forever, but it’s nice sometimes.”

“Just as long as you don’t do anything reckless,” the man in brown adds as he takes his wife’s hand. “Nothing that puts either yourself or the TARDIS at risk. Otherwise it will be a long time before it happens again.”

“What does he mean by that?” Martha asks softly as they follow the newlyweds out of the church.

“I don’t know exactly,” he muses in a low voice. “But I think he might have an idea of where I got the words to the binding ceremony – and it wasn’t somewhere he’d have wanted me to go back to.”

And as the half-human Doctor leads Martha out into the sunlight, he catches the appreciative and understanding gleam in the Time Lord’s eye.

Oh yes, that link between them goes more than one way.

He knows.