The road less travelled...

Title: Finding A Way Home – Surprise! 1/2
Author: katherine_b
Rating: G
Summary: It’s time for the secrets to come out.
Characters: Both Doctors, Donna, Sylvia and Wilf.
A/N: This is for sonicgirl2005. Happy Birthday Kayla!

Part I

The Doctor lathers the shampoo, thankfully massaging it through his hair, which has suffered terribly from the pressure of the healing pod around his head. He also wants to get rid of the lingering smell of plastic, which continues to nauseate him.

As hot water beats down on his back, he places his hand over his newly formed heart, which is beating strongly. It’s still a slightly strange sensation, because, over time, he had become accustomed to the fact that he only had one heart. That he was human.

He frowns a little in thought as he lathers the soap between his hands and begins washing his body. For some reason, he finds the idea that he’s moved so completely beyond ‘human’ makes him somewhat uneasy.

Perhaps it’s because he had finally found a place for himself in between human and Time Lord where he felt comfortable, and which he’s now loath to relinquish. And when he really thinks about it, he’s not much more of a Time Lord than he was before. He can’t really regenerate because regeneration is all about change. About becoming someone new. And while he’s more than happy about staying the same man that he was before, it does set him apart from those people – Donna and the other Doctor – who do change.

He has one advantage over them though – all Time Lords have a limited number of regenerations, but, as the other Doctor had pointed out, he could keep being revived in that fashion forever. He clearly has no conscious control over it, so it must be something his body does automatically. Like Jack, then, he’s a genuine immortal.

That’s a rather sobering thought actually.

He shifts position to let the water strip the shampoo out of his hair, but turns back at the wrong moment and gets a faceful of lather for his foolishness. Unfortunately he also has his mouth open and the shock causes him to inhale sharply.

Oh, yes, he realises as he coughs the soap out of his lungs and gargles to clear the taste out of his mouth, he doesn’t have a respiratory bypass either.

So he really isn’t a Time Lord, and then he still has so many human traits that also set him apart from the other Doctor. His emotions and desires and drives may be similar to certain facets of this incarnation of the Doctor, but he’s well aware that they owe a lot more to Donna.

The conclusion he draws, as he turns off the water and steps out of the shower, is that he’s still half-human and half-Time Lord. It’s a relief, actually, because he doesn’t really want to have to spend even more time figuring out where he belongs when he’s so comfortable with his earlier decision.

Drying himself, he quickly dons his undergarments and shirt, but he hesitates a little before putting on the blue suit. He can’t help comparing this moment with the time when he came into being, how, after the initial urgency of saving the TARDIS had subsided, he had to choose what he would wear. What would identify him. What look would be his.

For a while, he had considered trying one of the many outfits in the closet, just as the other Doctor had done after his regeneration. But he kept coming back to the blue version of the suit. After all, he was still the Doctor. The same Doctor. And that’s what this Doctor wears.

That was the reason it had felt so comfortable and right to put the blue suit back on after he had returned to this Universe, after what almost felt like play-acting a ‘normal’ or ‘ideal’ life in the parallel world with Rose.

Now, as he pulls on the blue pants and does them up, it’s almost as if he’s donning a badge of honour. He not only belongs here, he’s earned his place and his name, over and over again. Shrugging on the jacket, he checks his tie before doing up the buttons and then looking at himself in the mirror.

His hair is a disaster!

Snatching up the towel, he scrubs it dry and then dips his fingers into the large pot of gel on the sink, fingering it through until it stands up the way it should. Heaving a sigh of relief, he hangs up the towel and then leaves the bathroom.

Something in his room is different from what it was when he went into the bathroom, he sees at once.

The door leading to the room he’s been decorating is standing open when he knows it was closed before.

“Donna?” he calls anxiously as he sidles towards the open door, although he can’t hear anyone. “Is that you?”

His hearts sink at the thought that she might already have seen his surprise and maybe she’s so stunned that she can’t speak.

Then he remembers it’s Donna he’s thinking about and that it would take a bit more than a furnished nursery to shock her into silence, particularly considering she’s clearly over the initial surprise of the news of her pregnancy.

And frankly, if it was the Doctor in there, the only way to keep him quiet would be with industrial strength tape over his mouth, so that’s definitely out.

He darts across the room and peers around the doorframe, heaving a sigh of relief as he sees that the room is empty. Clearly the TARDIS is playing games again. And when he notices another doorframe, almost exactly opposite the one he’s standing in, he suspects he knows what she’s trying to tell him.

Although he has a good idea of where it leads, he crosses the few feet of carpet and eases it open, just in case the bedroom’s occupants are there. He’s happy to see the room empty, and even more pleased when his guess is correct and he finds himself staring into the Doctor and Donna’s room.

“Clever girl,” he croons to the TARDIS as he closes the door. “Oh, very clever!”

And as he closes the second door and turns around, he takes in the smaller details of the room that he hadn’t noticed before. All of the little things he hadn’t quite got around to doing are now done. The beds are made up, corners sharply creased, with toys in the cribs. A perfectly-folded blanket hangs over the back of the rocking-chair. All of the remnants of packaging have been cleaned away. The room is perfect in every detail.

It’s time to show them, the TARDIS is clearly telling him.

“Doctor?”

A voice from his bedroom startles him and he sticks his head around the door, grinning at the sight of Donna about to knock on the closed door of his bathroom.

“Hello!” he says cheerfully, and watches as she spins around, hand flying to her chest as a result of her surprise at his unexpected appearance.

“What are you doing there?” she demands as she recovers her breath. “I thought you were still in the bathroom – and taking ages, as usual!”

“Oi!” He rolls his eyes. “No need to be personal about it! I don’t take any longer than your husband does. Where is he anyway?”

“Right here, actually.” The Time Lord strolls into the bedroom. “Insulting me ag – ooh!”

“What is it?” Donna demands, her concern at his tone obvious. “What’s wrong?”

“That door,” the Doctor replies, walking towards the other man.

Donna frowns. “I can’t see a – oh!” Her eyes widen as she clearly notices the same thing as the other Doctor has, and the third person in the room chuckles as he steps over the threshold to join them.

“Low level perception filter,” he announces with a grin. “Created by the TARDIS so the two of you wouldn’t see what we were doing.”

“I swear,” the man in brown grumbles, “my TARDIS likes you better than me now!”

“Our TARDIS,” Donna corrects, giving him a reproving nudge, before turning to the half-human Doctor and trying to peer over his shoulder. “So what was the secrecy for anyway? What’s hiding back there?”

“It’s for the biggest secret of all,” the man in blue promises, and then moves aside so that they can see into the room he’s created for them.

He just stands in the doorway and watches them. His arms are folded loosely over his chest, his hearts beating rapidly against his ribs and a grin making his cheeks ache as he leans against the doorjamb and watches the most important people in his Universe discover all of the little personal touches he added, knowing how much they would love it. He can feel the joy exuding from them, and he’s perfectly happy that they seem to have forgotten about him altogether.

Moments like these, when he can give them something that makes them so happy, are the best times he could ever have.

“It’s so little,” Donna exclaims, holding up a sleeping suit and turning it this way and that as she admires it.

“Well, they’re quite a bit littler than that now,” the Doctor points out, his hands resting on her stomach as he stands behind her. “They’ve got a lot of growing to do over the coming months.”

“Yeah.” Donna carefully drapes the little sleeper onto the changing table and then covers her hands with his, resting her head against his shoulder. “Two years,” she says, and he nods.

“Two years since the Universe brought us together at Adipose Industries,” he agrees.

“Three years,” she adds, “since I watched the TARDIS disappear.”

“And you regretted it every moment since,” he teases, pressing a kiss to her ear.

“Something like that,” she laughs. “Actually, if you’d told me on that day that, in just three years, I’d be here now, like this…”

“I think we would both have been extremely sceptical,” her husband finishes for her.

She turns in his arms and cradles his face in her hands. “I’m so glad we would have been wrong,” she whispers, before kissing him.

Unable to help grinning, the Doctor in the doorway beats a silent retreat, heading for the console room to let them have the moment to themselves. He pats the wall of the TARDIS as he goes, well satisfied with the result of the secret they’ve been keeping. Then he thinks of the third person who has known about Donna’s condition and sets the co-ordinates for Chiswick into the scanner.

He’s about to release the handbrake when he feels arms flung around him and looks up to find Donna hugging him. Laughing, he wriggles until he can turn around and hug her back, looking up to see the other Doctor standing nearby, shaking his head but with a big grin on his face.

“Enough secrets,” the man in brown says sternly.

The Doctor chuckles, giving Donna one last squeeze before letting go. “Then I suppose,” he replies with a grin as he releases the handbrake and the TARDIS shudders into motion, “I’d better tell you where we’re going.”

“Chiswick!” Donna exclaims gleefully as she glances over his shoulder, and she hugs the man at the controls again. “How did you know? I was going to suggest it, but…”

“So what excuse are you going to use to get out of coming with us this time?” the other man interrupts as he drops onto the jumpseat with a groan. “Suddenly still need time to recover from being shot?”

“Actually, I thought I might come with you,” he says airily. “If that’s all right,” he adds to Donna.

“Of course it is, you daft git,” she replies, rolling her eyes. “What, you think I’m going to say no? And I will say no to you,” she says, turning to her husband, one hand held up to stop him speaking, “if you’re about to suggests that he comes instead of you! Got that?”

The Doctor abruptly closes the mouth he had already opened to say something and looks distinctly sheepish. The other two people in the console room exchange grins and then the TARDIS arrives the next moment.

Next Part