Hi all! I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it quite difficult to understand how Tentoo and Rose's relationship would have gone... So I'm going to try and write it out, the way I see it, bit by bit. It's not going to be all roses and champagne... Let's see how this unfolds. Welcome to "The Sort-of-Doctor", Chapter One. Please read and review, but only constructive criticism please... :)

The zeppelin ride back to London was a silent one: above all, Jackie was confused. Rose felt abandoned, whole, empty, full, thrilled, dejected; all of the above and nothing at all, all at once. The sort-of-Doctor, much to everyone's surprise, was asleep, the TARDIS coral held tightly to his chest like a comfort blanket. Jackie made numerous attempts to talk to her daughter, only to be shushed like a naughty child while the young woman stared avidly either at the slumbering sort-of-Doctor or out of the window at the darkening sky.

She inspected him as he slept, this basic function immediately sending her reeling. Her Doctor hardly ever slept. Aside from once in his regenerative coma, she had never known him to need more than a quick half hour kip after an especially strenuous adventure, the likes of which he always took when she was at home or asleep herself. Almost three hours he had been asleep, which admittedly gave Rose plenty of time to study him at length.

Rose admitted this much – he certainly looked like her Doctor. His dark eyes held the same defeated sadness she had observed every day for so long. His suit was the same; so were his shoes, his hairstyle, his voice, every line on his face. His tall, lanky frame, thin hands. Everything.

And yet – yet she couldn't see it. They were different. Her Doctor had left her again, abandoned on some God-forsaken beach in the parallel world she had worked so damn hard to escape, with a poor man's copy of himself. On top of every other emotion that currently jumbled around inside her, the most prominent feeling she had was one of sheer fury. Rose's hands clenched in her lap, fisting in the material of her trousers. How dare that arrogant, ancient man make a decision for her again – stranding her with someone she didn't even want! The very sight of his (what, clone?) double made her blood boil 'til she could stand to look at him no longer.

Jackie watched as Rose stood, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder and stalking out of the main sitting area of the zeppelin towards the bathroom. The older woman sighed deeply and fixed her eyes on the man spread out on the reclining chair, legs crossed at the ankles with his head slightly back. He certainly seemed like the same man. He'd even held back from touching Rose after he'd said whatever it was to her, allowing her to make the decision on her own to grab him by the lapels and kiss him. She couldn't fathom it. What was their problem?! The other Doctor had given them his blessing. He had that ginger Doctor Donna to keep him company now, and had left behind a human version of himself behind, practically gift wrapped for her daughter to enjoy.

Was Rose's problem that he was part-human? Did the thought of actually being able to live some semblance of a normal life with him horrify her so much? Was it that he had (apparently, although Jackie didn't understand how) grown from the hand the Doctor had lost? Was it the simple fact that he hadn't bothered to put a tie on?

The sort-of-Doctor snuffled slightly in his sleep and turned on his side, drawing his knees a little closer to his chest and clutching the TARDIS coral as though his life depended on it. She sighed again, wondering if maybe it did. As Jackie reached across and brushed an unruly strand of hair out of his face, her fingertip just brushed his cool skin and the sort-of-Doctor jerked awake, jumping upright in a way that would have been comical under normal circumstances.

"What?" he gasped, eyes darting around the room as he anticipated attack, holding out his empty right hand where his sonic screwdriver was normally grasped. After a few deep breaths, the sort-of-Doctor focused and turned slowly to Jackie. "What?"

"Sorry sweetheart, I didn't mean to wake you," Jackie smiled gently, settling back in her own chair. "You just looked so sweet lying there. Couldn't ever imagine that other nutter ever-"

"Actually I did sleep sometimes, you know," the sort-of-Doctor cut her off, his eyes hard. "I wasn't always… Well, actually, that's a lie. I was always… I mean, I…"

"Just go back to sleep, Doctor. You're exhausted," she said, too tired, confused and irritated to deal with his usual self-pity. To silence him, she yanked an age old magazine out from her handbag and opened it to a random page, ignoring the fact that it was so obviously upside down. Rebuffed, the sort-of-Doctor stood quickly and exited towards the rear of the zeppelin.

Rose sagged against the couch as the footsteps approached, massaging her temples with the heel of her hand. A long figure crossed her line of vision and stood in front of the window, hands in his pockets, feet apart – the stance she knew so well. The sort-of-Doctor didn't try to speak to her, but she felt she had to say something.

"I'm sorry I kissed you." She mentally slapped herself – of all the things she could have said! She heard him breathe slowly through his nose.

"That's okay. Understandable, even. Human urges and everything," he replied, his offhand tone misleading. It riled her.

"You're not him, you know. Whatever he says. You're like him, yeah, but you're not. You're like…"

"I'm a metacrisis. An anomaly. I'm half Time Lord, half human. I'm the poor copy of the man you wanted. Don't worry, I know."

"You're not-"

"Rose, I know. I committed genocide, I'm bad. I'm just as bad as I was when you first met me. Him. Me. Him. M-"

"Him."

"You don't want to be associated with me. Just drop me off in London and I'll go assume an identity and wait for this TARDIS to grow. I'm not the one you want so you'll be better off without me, and I'm better off alone."

The sort-of-Doctor leaned forward during the silence that followed, resting his palms on the window ledge and almost pressing his nose to the glass. Rose almost felt a pang of pity – he hadn't had a say in this either.

"Why did you say- y'know. That," Rose muttered, thinking of the words that had elicited the explosion of excitement in her heart and caused her to kiss him.

"That I love you?"

"Yeah, that."

"Oh Rose, for someone so clever… Because that was how my – his sentence was going to end that day. I said it because he – I – we, even… Well… We do love you. But he got it wrong. He thought you'd be happy with little old human me. It's not often we get things wrong but we really messed it up this time," he said, turning and giving her that sad little half-smile she'd grown to love.

"I-"

"Don't, Rose. We both know he was wrong. Let's just call it a day. I'll never stop loving you, and you'll never stop loving him."