Runaway Doctor (Doctor Who)

CHAPTER ONE - PARTNERS IN TIME

After dropping Amy and Rory off on a honeymoon planet for their honeymoon, the Doctor decided that he also deserved a little relaxation. So, he landed the TARDIS in 2019, right outside a little shop in Cardiff and bought himself a newly released copy of the eighth Harry Potter novel. He'd been anxious to catch up with good 'ol JK for awhile now.

He set the TARDIS to drift calmly throughout space, and then settled in for a read, lying down on the console room floor. He was a few chapters in and starting to seriously ponder if the Master might have something similar to horcruxes, when he caught a moving glimmer out of the corner of his eye. He glanced fully up, and saw a man... standing in his TARDIS... in what looked like a sharp tuxedo. "What?" He took a moment to place a bookmark on the page, and then stood up, sonic screwdriver in hand.

The stranger turned around and flashed him a cheeky grin. "What?" he exclaimed, mockingly. "What."

The Doctor stumbled back, nearly choking.

But the man just winked. "Ahh, the shock of a wedding participant materializing inside the TARDIS - good times! Brilliant, in fact."

The Doctor ran a hand through his long hair. With the stranger's sticky-uppity hair, dimples and expressive eyebrows, he wasn't a stranger at all. He even wore a bow tie. But the more fact that he was here - presently present inside the TARDIS - couldn't be, well - stranger. Throwing the sonic screwdriver down, the Doctor leapt over the man and pried open his left eyelid - the hell with personal space. "You must be sick. Or I - I must be sick. We must be sick. I feel fine though. Are you sick?"

"Well, I did just eat a banana, and now I feel a teensy bit constipated. But I think it'll pass soon enough." He pat his stomach. "Thanks for asking!"

The Doctor pried upon the man's mouth. Yes, there was a whiff of banana. "But I don't remember this happening before. When I, I mean - when we - collided the TARDISes on her own timeline before, I remembered. This event is brand new. And I closed the cracks in the universe, so that doesn't explain this either."

The strange not-so-strange stranger raised an eyebrow and put his hands in his pockets. "Who do you think I am?" He asked smoothly.

"What exactly do you mean? I don't just think about whom you are, I know who you are. You're me. I know you're me. Of course you're me. But how can you be me... when the me that is currently me doesn't remember this happening to me when I was you?"

The man stood on his tiptoes. "Ohh well, that's easy. I'm not you. Well... not really anyway."

The Doctor leaned in even closer. "Cassandra?"

"What?" The man sounded genuinely insulted. "No. Don't be so thick. Guess again."

The Doctor grabbed a hold of the man's face with both hands. "Why don't you seem the least bit surprised to be here - almost like you expected it? Why aren't you intrigued - or at all interested really - by my new appearance? And why, dear goodness why, would you bother to wear a bow tie that is just plain old boring black? Bow ties are very cool, but red, green or blue bow ties are even cooler. Why don't you know that yet?" He let go of the man's face, but continued to stare.

"Ahh, brilliant questions. I knew they would be." The man placed his own hands tightly on the Doctor's shoulder. "One - I planned to be here. Two - I knew exactly what you looked like, hipster gramps. And four - no wait, three - I'm going to a wedding and the attire is called 'black tie' not; 'any color of the rainbow tie'. Oh and in case those answers didn't help, here's another hint," he pauses for a moment and guides the Doctor's fingers to his own chest, "this is my heart. My only one."

The Doctor jerked his hand back and stared at the man before him, suddenly seeing him in a whole new light.

The man had on a huge grin. "Yup, yup, I see that big old brain of yours working. Well, I can't see your brain actually. It's only a matter of speech - very human. In fact -"

The Doctor put a hand up, silencing him. "Human-Time Lord Metacrisis?"

"Hello!" said the man, waving his right hand. "But you, old man, may call me 'the Doctor'." He winked.