A/N: So, I've been kicking this idea around for a looooong while. I am a huge 10th Doctor fan. 9 follows him and I am still trying to warm up to 11. I adore Amy and Rory (and River!), but for some reason I just still haven't entirely warmed up to 11. Saying that, I think I'd just have a heart attack if they killed him off and replaced him again. I just really want to go back to the 10th Doctor/ Rose era. 9/Rose and 10/Rose are seriously my favorite pairings. Don't even get me started on what they did with Torchwood. I'm refusing to watch it this season I'm so angry.

Anyway, all that to say: I was thinking about how to write a story with Amy, Rory, Rose, and the 10th Doctor in it and this is my answer to that interesting problem. I hope you like it.

WARNING: SPOILERS UP THROUGH THE LATEST EPISODE BEFORE THE SUMMER BREAK!

Chapter One

Time Lords, in general, needed much less sleep than Humans, and The Doctor was no exception. In fact, he preferred to sleep even less than others that had once been apart of his now extinct race. Granted, it had been the mass destruction of said race that often kept him from sleeping when his companions finally crashed for what might have been the night. The screams of Time Lords, dying within the Time War, echoed within his mind as he closed his eyes for sleep.

Within the past few years, though, something else had joined.

Amongst the fire and the destruction stood a woman who had never seen Gallifrey. She was blonde with dark, expressive eyes and she reached for him as she screamed amongst the flames. She screamed a name that he had never taken the chance to tell her.

If Amy and Rory ever heard the Doctor's cries those rare, late nights, then they never said anything about it. Granted, the Doctor's private quarters that he kept hadn't been seen by a human since his blonde companion that haunted his dreams, and he didn't think that the Ponds would have even known where to look for him.

It was one of those nights that the Doctor found himself sitting under the control panel, tinkering idly without any bits of circuitry that he could find. His fingers felt numb as they worked wiring together, speaking in low tones to his TARDIS as if he expected her to answer back as she once had.

"Couldn't sleep?"

The Doctor jumped, startled by the Scottish drawl behind him. He turned to see the pretty ginger woman leaning down, looking beneath flooring.

"Oh, I don't need to sleep as much as you," the Time Lord responded with a shrug.

"Oh," Amy murmured, taking a seat on the stairs. "That why you took all weepy-eyed?"

Sparks flew from the wires put together and he blinked up at her. "Weepy-eyed?"

"Weepy-eyed," she confirmed with a raised eyebrow. She paused, staring at the man that she had known since she was seven. Her magnificent, fantasy-turned-realty had been half way ordered to bed earlier that evening (not that he would ever admit that she could order anything of him) and now looked worse than he had before. The bags under his eyes were only second to the glassy sort of gleam that might have been unshed tears for whatever was keeping him awake. "What do Time Lords dream about, anyway?" she asked after a moment, placing her chin against the heels of her hands and her elbows on her pajama-clad knees.

"Oh, you know, stuff," he answered and turned back to his tinkering. When he felt her green eyes boring into the back of his head he sighed deeply, allowing his arms to fall limply at his sides and he merely hung there in the maintenance brace for a moment before speaking. "We dream of many things, or we would, if there were still a we. Of fire and burning planets and decisions that had to be made. Of people we've lost and…" He took a shaky breath, the image of the blonde woman flashing through his mind's eye. She was standing hand in hand with another man, ready to live a new life out with him. "And of all the sacrifices we've made to do what's right."

Amy was silent for several long moments and the Doctor couldn't bear to turn and meet her eyes. After a long moment he heard the very quiet padding of her feet as she made her way down below the deck and her small, thin hands rested on his shoulders. He sat there, numb, until her arms wrapped around his neck from behind and she whispered in his ear, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" he murmured.

"Just… That you're dreaming about….."

"Oh," he laughed, rolling his eyes dramatically. "I'm all right. Really."

She sniffed, stood straight, and punched him playfully. "You better be, Mister, because you're supposed to be the King of OK."

"I thought we'd decided that was a rubbish title!" he protested, causing her to laugh and easing the tension that had filled the room.

"And bow ties are cool."

"And a fez."

"No. Absolutely no fez."

"Really, you're up at this hour to decide on fezzes?" Rory's exhausted voice sounded behind them, causing alien and human to turn around. He looked disheveled and slightly irritated that he'd had to track his wife down in the middle of the night.

"'Course not!" the Doctor answered with a grin, sliding from the harness. "Just trying to decide on our next destination. What about you, Rory the Roman? Where'd you like to go?"

"I get to decide?"

"Yeah! Why not? We can pop over to some planet or some other time. Just give me the -"

There was a sudden shake and the TARDIS gave a lurch that threw her passengers off their feet. The Doctor pulled himself off of the floor and ran to the controls, pulling levers and pushing buttons the whole way.

"What happened?" Amy demanded

"I don't know. The TARDIS isn't given me a decent readout!" The Doctor rounded the console and pulled the screen down to eye-level just about the time that his ship threw them all to the side once more. He skidded across the smooth floor and into the wall, hitting it hard. He grunted on impact and scurried to pull himself back up and to the screen. "She's settling down now," he murmured as he read the machinery. "Looks like we've landed somewhere."

"Where?" his ginger companion asked.

"I don't know," he acknowledged with a frustrated sigh. "I don't-" He stopped, paling considerably. "It's not possible. Not even… It's impossible!"

"What is, Doctor?" Rory asked, trying to see over the Time Lord's shoulder to the information he was looking at.

"This is wrong. And bad. Very, very bad."

"What the hell is going on?" Amy demanded.

"We have to go now." The Doctor moved to the controls and the TARDIS acted, for one brief moment, as if she were about to fire back up and shift into an other place, but the engines sputtered out and the lights went suddenly dim, leaving all three companions to stand there and stare at the now dark control panel. The only light still flashing was the alarm that alerted them of danger "Well that's not good."

"She won't start?" Rory asked, glancing back at his wife.

Amy Pond gave him a half smirk before shrugging. "Guess we have to find out what's going on the old fashion way: look." She moved over to the entrance before the Doctor could stop her and flung the doors to the TARDIS open to a world that could have been Earth. Earth 2011, even. They had landed in a field of some sort with sheep around and a dust cloud kicking up in the distance. After a moment a jeep appeared out of the cloud – showing to be the cause – and sped towards them. It stopped a ways out and a single form piled out and appeared to be running towards them.

"Amy, come on back in," Rory pleaded as he eyed the approaching man suspiciously. The Doctor rarely wanted to leave without an investigation, and when he did there was usually a very good reason behind his actions.

"Not like we're going anywhere," she popped off and leaned against the doorframe. "Maybe these people can help."

"Doubt that," the Doctor murmured as he moved towards her. Might as well get this over and done with as quickly as possible.

The figure slowed to a jog a few yards away and grinned widely on approach. He appeared to be out of breath, but his dark eyes were bright and, if Amy gave into first impression, full of underlying mischief. "'allo!" he greeted. "Look at this. Thought this was impossible. Should have been impossible. Must be impossible, but look at this! This is why I love it. The impossible always happening! Well, where is he?"

Amy and Rory looked at each other and then at the stranger again. He stood waiting for an answer that they couldn't provide, so they looked back to the Doctor.

"Ooooh," the stranger said as if it had all become clear. Dark eyes met green. "Well now, what happened to you?"

"Long story."

"I'm sure." He stepped forward, suddenly, past Amy and Rory and into the TARDIS. The amused look never left his features as he nearly circled the Doctor and gave a small shrug. "Still not ginger."

"I know!" the Doctor exclaimed, his entire demeanor changing all at once. If he had held any uncertainty about the man before it washed away with that one statement. "Just once! I would like to be ginger just once! Is that really too much to ask?"

The slightly taller man laughed. "Rose offered hair dye once when I was complaining. Nearly took her up on it since I don't get another chance. Look at you though! You could have been ginger!"

"I'm sorry, Doctor, but who exactly is this?" Amy cut in, waving in their visitor's general direction.

The Time Lord blinked, confusion clearly passing over his face before he realized that he'd missed something. "Right. Right, of course! Amy and Rory Pond, this is what happens when a regeneration goes really crazy."

The brunette grinned and gave a short wave. "Hello. I'm the Doctor."

It took nearly an hour to bring Amy and Rory up to speed on just who this very Human Doctor was. Yes, he was, in fact, the Doctor. He was also Human, with all the memories of his Time Lord self. He'd been produced out of a stray hand, a fatally wounded Doctor that was regenerating, and Donna Noble. He was tall, thin, and had wilder hair than Amy's own Doctor. His eyes were darker and he just seemed… different. She couldn't place it. She didn't dislike it, particularly, but she did feel the sudden need to gab onto her Doctor and inform him that he was never allowed to change from the form that he was currently in.

"So what brings you here?" the Human Doctor asked, eyeing the control room. "Love what you've done with the place, by the way."

"You know, alarms blaring and the TARDIS decided that she wanted to take a detour."

"Detour to the impossible, eh, Old Girl?" He paused, his expression turning serious as he leaned forward and steepled his fingers together. "We've had a bit of trouble lately. That's why I've been out this direction."

"Where'd we land, exactly?" the Time Lord asked.

"Just outside of London. Not a great sign, all in all. Bad Wolf Bay is one thing, but we're a far cry from there."

"Means the holes are opening back up."

"They started back up like rifts, like the one back in Cardiff, but looks like they've gone to full-sized, inter-dimensional tears now."

"So we're in a parallel universe?" All eyes turned to Rory and he swallowed hard, suddenly feeling like the student that'd asked a question that had just been covered in class while he was sleeping.

"Yes."

"But I thought that that was impossible," Amy grumbled.

"It is," her Doctor replied.

"But we've done it before," the other chimed in.

"And every time-"

"- we risk ripping a hole in the universe."

"Or both universes."

"And that's how you lot came," the Human Doctor finished, waving a hand around as if they had explained everything perfectly. He turned his attention back to his Time Lord, elder self. "The rifts began to open up about the time that strangers appeared. Rose and I don't think they're from this world, but the upper levels of Torchwood don't seem to care."

"You're both working for Torchwood now?"

The brunette nodded and then seemed to rethink his answer. "Well, technically, Rose works for them. I consult now and again. Never could sign my name to them completely, as it were."

The green-eyed Doctor nodded his agreement. "So these people, are they here to cause trouble or-"

"Don't know yet. They showed up and have been worming their way into Torchwood since." The Human Doctor's gaze turned dark and he lowered his voice, as if he weren't really comfortable with Amy and Rory listening in. "Since they've come, Torchwood seems to be pit against each other. Different parts of the organization fight with other parts, and no one seems to listen to anyone. Pete's talking about retiring from it all, but knows something else is going on, and Rose has about put her neck out too many times on too many issues. I'll admit that my senses are… dulled since the meta-crisis incident - this whole being Human thing has really taken some getting used to - but I know something's going on."

"So what brought you out here?" Amy asked, leaning back against the console and eyeing the Human Doctor suspiciously.

"They disappear for periods of time, in shifts. Rose and I think they're popping back over to their own dimension, which is opening up the holes even larger."

"But why?" the Doctor murmured, beginning to pace the room.

"That's what we're trying to find out, but we're not getting any help from Torchwood."

"Going out on your own then?"

The Human Doctor grinned widely. "'Course. So you'll come along? Two of us on the same issue is bound to turn something up."

"I really shouldn't."

"It's not like you can go anywhere now. The TARDIS seems to have shut herself down."

"Like she wants us to stay."

Both Doctors turned to Amy who had barely spoken the words out loud. She blinked owlishly at them. "What?"

"I can't," the Doctor and threw his hands into the air.

"There are people on this world you care about!" his other self argued, irritation seeming to perk.

"You'll do just fine. You seem to have been handling yourself well enough."

"Better than you'd imagined, you mean," the taller man snorted. He paused, then, eyeing his Time Lord self. "You don't want to see her."

"That's ridiculous."

"No it's not."

"I wouldn't refuse to help an entire planet just because-"

"Because you're afraid of seeing her!" the Human Doctor finished, seeming to have hit the nail on the head. He covered the distance between them in a couple of steps and was looking the other Doctor over very carefully now. "It's not like she'll even know. She's happy. She's not looking for you and you've gone and changed yourself again."

"I didn't want to!" the Doctor snapped.

"When did we ever?" his counterpart asked, seeming to have settled back down. He sighed. "We need you. They need us. Please, she won't know. She won't have to."

The Doctor took a deep breath as if he were about to deliver another argument, but stopped himself, looking between his Human self, Amy and Rory. Very slowly he released the breath and his shoulders slumped. "Fine. Give us a minute for the Ponds to change. Doubt they want to go wandering 'round parallel London in their jimjams."

"Best to leave the TARDIS here."

"Yes."

"Good. It's settled then. I'll meet you lot outside when you're ready. We'll take the jeep into town."

The Doctor nodded and watched the other leave. When the doors shut behind him, he turned to his companions, watching them as if he were waiting for them to follow the unspoken request of clothing.

"You do know that we're not the Ponds, right?" Rory grumbled.

"Really? That's what you took away from that?" the Doctor sighed.

"Go change," Amy ordered. "I'll be along in a minute." She waited a moment for her husband to disappear out of the console room before she put a hand on the Doctor's arm, seeming to startle him out of his thoughts. "Who is 'she,' Doctor?"

"She?"

Amy felt very sure that she was treading on territory that she should not have ever broached. She spoke carefully then, hoping that he would not shut down any further than he had all ready. "Yes. He said that you were afraid of seeing her. Who is she?"

The Doctor closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She, Amelia, is Rose Tyler."

TBC

A/N: So, I feel like the Meta-Crisis Doctor is a real blank pallet to work with (on top of being highly irritating in trying to write about them conversing with one another!), so I hope I'm getting him to the reader's satisfaction. There's not much from cannon to know about how he would have turned out, other than the Doctor expected that he might be difficult to manage (being born from battle and all that, not like he isn't aaaaaaalllll the time lol) and that he has all the same memories/feelings as the original Doctor. I haven't read much/anything with the Meta Crisis Doctor in it, so I don't really have a feel for how the fans see him either. Let me know if you have any suggestions. (On anything, not just him).

Also. I am addicted to reviews. Please, feed the author's addiction.