The Boundaries of Temptation (4/6

[amberfocus]

Title:  The Boundaries of Temptation
Series:  Crossing Boundaries (#3)
Author:  amberfocus
Characters/Pairings:  Nine/Rose, Ten, Donna, Jackie
Genre:  Romance, Angst, Smut (of the needy, possessive, dominant!Nine variety in a later chapter)
Rating:  Adult
Betas: amyo67, jeprdyfrndly
Summary:  Rose has a wedding to attend and the Doctor doesn't want to go, nor is he ready to come out to Rose's mother about their relationship as lovers.  The Tenth Doctor, still reeling from the loss of Rose and desperately wanting to see her again after one brief hour meddling in his own past, decides that the wedding will be a perfect place to steal time with her again, but Donna isn't so sure.
A/N:  Ten completely loses it.  Will Nine be able to keep him away from Rose?  I'm still on vacation so I probably won't be answering reviews until Sunday.  Not sure if I'll have good internet access again before I get home.  One more chapter after this.

Ch. 1:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/293332.html
Ch. 2:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/296147.html
Ch. 3:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/296463.html

Chapter Four: Irrational Rationale

 

“Ouch,” Rose said. “Ouch! Warn a girl, next time.”

“Can you get up?” the Doctor asked.

“He used the sonic on me. All my muscles are weak like gelatin,” she replied. He altered his screwdriver and aimed it at her. She felt the strength returning to her body and she managed to scramble away from the man who was holding her. “What did he do anyway?  Resonate my…me?” She rubbed her head, directing a glare in his direction. The Doctor helped her to her feet and then pulled her into a tight embrace.

“Yeah. You all right?” he asked softly into her ear.

“I’m fine. Just a little frightened, but I’m fine.” He pushed back from her and studied her face for a long time. Then before she knew what had hit her, his lips had come down on hers and he was kissing her passionately. Rose was stunned and just sort of stood there. The Doctor pulled back looking at her in confusion. She always responded to his kisses.

“Doctor, my mum!” Rose said.

“I told her.”

“What?”

“About us. I told her.”

“Told me you were sleeping together, the right bastard. You know how old that man is, Rose Marion Tyler? Old enough to be your ancestor!”

“Didn’t stop you from hitting on me first time you saw me,” the Doctor snapped.

“Oi, I thought you were my age,” she said flushing in embarrassment.

“You hit on the Doctor?” Rose asked her mother in consternation.

“Well, didn’t know he was an alien then, did I? And I didn’t know what he was like. All I had to go by was the fact that he was a bit of all right. Know better now, of course,” said Jackie philosophically. “So what’s with the skinny little wanker passed out on the floor?” She turned to Donna. “I thought you said the Doctor from the future was putting Rose in danger.”

“He was. That’s him,” Donna said.

“Oh, go on,” said Jackie.

“It’s true,” said the Doctor. “That man is me. He’s not supposed to be here. We’re not supposed to cross each other’s time lines. There are firmly established boundaries and he’s broken them.”

“How can he be you?” Rose asked. “He’s nothing like you.”

The Doctor clasped her hand in his tightly and led her over to sit down on the bed. “I never wanted to tell you like this. Honestly, I hoped I’d never have to tell you at all. This regeneration is so new I thought I’d have decades if not centuries and…well, you’re human, Rose. You’d have been…gone before I ever had to say. But according to Donna there, I don’t get decades. I don’t even get years. I regenerate not too long from now. Into him.”

“What’s regenerate?” Rose asked.

“It’s a Time Lord’s way of extending the natural life cycle. When we die, we channel all of the energy of the Time Vortex through ourselves for a brief moment. It renews every single cell in the body, but it changes it, finds different DNA deep within to create with and forms a new body. The mind is essentially the same, same memories, same thoughts, but the personality can be very different. I never had much control over the process once it started.”

“You mean this has happened before?”

“Yes. Eight times. This is my ninth body. That would be my tenth,” he nudged the Converse clad foot with his boot.

“So you’re immortal then?” Jackie asked.

“No, there’s a limit to how many times it can be done. But I will live a very long time yet. I’ll outlive everyone in this room by centuries,” he said.

“You’ll have to watch me die,” Rose said softly.

“Not this me. Not with this daft old face,” he said.

“It’s not daft,” Rose said raising a hand to his face and stroking softly. He leaned into her for a moment.

“Anyway, according to what Donna said, I don’t. I’ll lose you before then. He’s made that pretty clear.”

“Well, how do we stop that from happening?” Rose asked.

“You can’t,” said Donna. “The world will end if you try. You two getting separated is a fixed point in time. He was trying to alter it, never let it happen, I think, by taking you out of the time line now.”

“But the Reapers would come, wouldn’t they, Doctor?”

“Probably. Unless he was very, very careful. Figured out a way to safely do everything that needed doing that day. It’s more likely that he’d destroy the world just for a few more decades with you. But I’m not letting him take you. This is my time with you and I’m not letting you go.” He turned to the girl he was holding, took a deep breath and said, “Rose Tyler, I love you.”

Rose went completely still in his arms before her body softened. First he’d kissed her in front of her mum and the strangers and now he’d just declared his love for her before everyone. The Doctor was affectionate in public with handholding and hugging, but he was never openly demonstrative when it came to anything else. Confronting his future must have really scared him.

“That’s really you?” she asked nodding down to the collapsed version of the Time Lord.

“That’s really me,” he said. “I can feel it, feel him in my head…another Time Lord, but not a different one.”

“But he’s so…” She wrinkled her nose up. “Pretty,” she said after a moment.

“Thought you liked pretty boys,” he said.

“Not since you,” she said.

“Oi!” he said. “I’m pretty.”

Rose snorted. “You’re dead sexy, but pretty you are not.”

“I’m offended.”

“You are not,” she said with a grin, tongue between her teeth. She bumped his shoulder with hers and he couldn’t help but smile back. She glanced back down at the other Doctor. “I mean he’s attractive enough, and I suppose I’ll get used to it when the time comes, but…I’m attached to this body,” she said running her hand down his back and up again in a gentle caress. “And this face.”

He leaned down and kissed her again and it went on for so long that Jackie said impatiently, “Hey, you two. Get a room.”

“We’re in my room, Mum,” said Rose with a sigh as she and the Doctor broke apart. “And I can’t believe you’re advocating sex.”

“I’m advocating me not watching you have it,” Jackie said tartly. “Besides, it was one thing when I thought he was just a dirty old man out to prey on you, Rose. If he really loves you…if you love him…I’m not standing in the way of that.” Rose’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “What?” her mother asked.

“I just never thought you’d support this.”

“Didn’t say I supported it. Just that I didn’t want to watch you two go at it. Promise me this though, if you two decide to do something stupid, like get married, that I get to be there.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Rose said calmly. “The Doctor doesn’t do domestic.”

“Yes, he does,” said Donna.

“Well, maybe your version.”

“Nope, yours,” Donna said. “I’ve heard stories. He doesn’t do it well, mind.” She smirked.

“I’m in the room here,” the Doctor protested grouchily.

“Twice,” said Donna.

“Yes,” said Rose. “What are we going to do about that?”

“Let’s get him back into his TARDIS and I’ll reverse what I did.” The Doctor took his counterpart’s shoulders and Donna and Rose each took a leg. He wasn’t too heavy, but he was complete dead weight so maneuvering him wasn’t easy. They laid him down on the jump seat and then the Doctor sent Rose off of the ship with the admonishment to take her mum and go wait in Jackie’s room. He pulled out his sonic, aimed it at the crumpled man, and reversed the signal.

 

Brown eyes slowly blinked open then looked desperately around the room. “Where is she?” he demanded. “Where’s Rose?”

“She’s safe,” Donna said.

“She’s where you can’t get at her,” his younger self said. “You need to leave. Now.”

“Not without Rose.”

“I’m not letting you have her. She’s mine.” His fingers clenched into fists.

“What happened to Rose belonging to herself?” he snapped.

“Donna said that, not me. She’s mine. I’ve memorized every inch of her skin, every curve of her body, every beat of her heart,” the younger man said.

“And you think I haven’t?” asked the older Doctor. “She stayed with me. Through regeneration. I died for her. To save her because she came back to save me. And she stayed. She stayed through…a serious lapse in judgment with a French courtier. She stayed through losing her best friend to another universe. She chose to stay with me even if it meant never seeing her mum again. She loved me.”

“Maybe so, but right now she loves me.” He poked the older man in the sternum with his forefinger. “Right now, you’re scaring her. And you’re messing with the time lines. I can’t allow that.” He crossed his arms tightly over his chest, the leather jacket squeaking softly as he did so.

“We lose her. Forever. Not to death. To fate. To a parallel world on the other side of the Void and there’s no way back. Do you want that? Do you want to lose her like that?” he demanded.

“Is she alone?”

“No. She’s with her mum and Mickey and the alternate version of her father.”

“Then she can be happy.”

“No,” he said. “I got a message through to her, was able to speak to her as the last crack was healing. Had to burn up a sun to generate the power, but I did. She wasn’t happy. She was devastated by the separation. She would have given anything to get back to me. I would have destroyed two universes if she’d asked me to.”

“Rose would never ask that,” the Doctor said.

“No, because she’s that good. She’d never even think it. She’s stood by me through so much. And it’s been…it’s been so long. I just need her back. Why can’t you understand that?” he asked.

The Doctor frowned at his older self. “I do understand. I understand that you’ve suffered some kind of a psychotic break. You’ve lost so much and then you had this shining beacon of hope and love to hang onto and then it was gone again and you couldn’t cope anymore. You need help.”

“I need Rose.”

The Doctor scrubbed his hand through his close-cropped hair and turned to Donna. “How long has he been like this?”

“A few days. A week at most.”

“What were you doing right before he decided he needed to see Rose again? The first time?” he asked. “Anything where there was a heavy psychic undercurrent? A planet where telepathy was the norm for communication? Anything violently emotional happen?”

“We were on the Oodsphere,” Donna said. “The Odd had been enslaved and there was a rather violent uprising. They were very telepathic. The Doctor tuned me into them for a bit. The emotion of it devastated me.”

“And he’s far more sensitive to it than a mere human would be,” he mused.

“I’m not a mere anything,” she said sharply, smacking him in the arm.

“Just my way of thinking out loud.” He rubbed his arm and glared at her.

“And how’s that an apology, then?” she demanded.

“It’s not.” He turned back to his other self. “I need to heal you. Let me into your mind to fix the damages. The Ood played a number on your senses. Made you irrational and too emotional.”

“You’re not touching me,” he said backing away and heading for the doors to the TARDIS. “I’m not having you erase Rose from my mind altogether.”

“Paranoid and delusional. After him,” snapped the Doctor and he and Donna sprinted down the ramp to chase after his older self. When they got to the door it was obvious it had been sonicked shut.

“Please tell me he didn’t use a dead lock seal!” Donna demanded.

With a whir and a click the door opened. “Nope, just reinforced the lock.” The Doctor frowned. He darted into the hallway and looked both ways.

“Don’t suppose you know what room Jackie’s staying in?” Donna asked.

“No,” he said with a sigh. Just then the sound of the TARDIS dematerializing filled the room. “No, no, no, no, no!” shouted the Doctor. “He didn’t mean to keep us in the TARDIS. He meant to delay us just long enough to hide, then he slipped back in.”

“You mean that idiot’s left me?” Donna asked incredulously.

“Looks like. At least he doesn’t know where Rose is either.”

“Yeah, but the state of his mind, he’s going to do something else that's even more stupid. Find her somewhere else and try to get her to come with him,” Donna said.

“Not my problem anymore,” the Doctor said. “I’m taking Rose and getting her out of here.”

“What about me? What year is this?” she demanded.

“2005.”

“That’s not when I’m supposed to be.” She turned to him expectantly.

“I don’t like being a taxi service,” he began but at the raised hand and the dark look she directed at him added, “but seeing as how this will be my fault, I think I can make an exception and drop you home in the right year.”

 

The Doctor knew something wasn’t right. He knew he wasn’t being rational, but he couldn’t make himself stop. He’d do something about it later, once Rose was traveling with him again. Check himself in someplace, make sure his brain hadn’t completely shorted out its impulse control center. But not yet. He needed Rose to go on. He needed to convince her to stay with him and then he’d go find out what was going on in his massive Time Lord brain.

He knew his younger self wasn’t going to let him anywhere near Rose and he was pretty sure the girl would run as fast as she could if she ever saw a dark-haired, dark-eyed stranger in a tuxedo approach her again. He’d cocked things up with her far more than he cared to admit. He scrubbed a hand over his face and then pulled at the back of his neck. Why had he thought Rose would believe him? She’d had difficulty believing he was who he was when she’d seen him change right in front of her eyes. How could he ever have expected to have her accept him on his word alone? The girl that could do that didn’t exist yet.

Of course she’d still only seen the images of John 1 and John 2 that had shifted back to John 1. She’d not seen his true appearance. He could try again with that. But still…he’d not be able to find time to get her away from his ninth self…not really. And the man would be on guard. He wasn’t fool enough to believe he’d just erase Rose’s memories and be done with it. No, the man would make sure he didn’t infringe on his past time line again.

He just had to face it. Going after Rose before she’d known this body had been a major mistake. One he wouldn’t have made if he’d been thinking clearly. He wouldn’t have another chance of it and anyway, he couldn’t think of another time when he could get her alone again. She’d be with the other Doctor almost non-stop from this point on and when she wasn’t…well, Jack would be there soon enough and he’d play the protective older brother role to the hilt.

The game station would be too dangerous a time to interfere with and if he went any earlier into Rose’s time line, before they’d ever slept together at all, he might prevent it from ever happening. No, he couldn’t take her from that man. He’d have to find a way to take her from his current self. And there was really only the one time it might work; the one time when if he came to her and told her the truth of what was happening that she might be mad enough to leave his other self and come along. When he’d run off to save Madame de Pompadour and she’d waited five long, lonely hours.

If he did it then…if he went to her and told her the truth, with a face she would recognize as his…then he might just have a chance. He set the coordinates for a derelict space ship in the 51st century. He could do this. He could take her out of time and keep her for himself. He could finally spend the rest of her life with her. And it would be worth it all…upsetting the time lines and the balance of the universe, because he would be back with the woman he loved. The universe owed him this much. And if the universe didn’t want to cooperate, well…too bad for it.

Ch, 5:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/298847.html