Breaking Point

Goddess Bearing Gifts

The part human Doctor stepped into the TARDIS and closed the door. He turned around from the door to look at his counterpart, who was already starting to climb under the console to partake of some meditative maintenance. He liked that- 'meditative maintenance.'

"I know what you're doing, you know," he said to his moodier half, having resolved to try once more today to break the full Gallifreyan out of his funk enough to listen to the hints he was dropping.

"I'm sure you do," he replied angrily, getting back up. "Can't say the same about you, though. Just what the hell do you think you are getting at? Until we got to Trilaxia, you were going along with the program, but while we were there, everything seemed to change. What happened?"

"We've been through this. I saw just how much she was worried about you and me both," he informed him, telling only part of the truth, but they knew each other better than that.

"And?" his other self asked, irritated. "There's something else."

He closed his eyes and tried to figure out how much he could tell his last self, without breaking his promise to Rose. He finally settled on the truth. Part of it, anyway. "There's...things I know, that I've realized since I became...this." He gestured to himself. "And, you...need to figure them out for yourself. I'm trying to help you, here. Well, it'll help me out too," he added at the end with a cheeky grin.

The other Doctor was standing there in front of him, arms crossed and a mix of confusion and anger written all over his face. "What sort of things?" he questioned in a low voice.

He gave his other self a sad, knowing look and told him, "I can't. I made promises."

"Promises?" his counterpart croaked. "What sort of promises? What are the two of you-? Why?" He looked ready to crack.

He stopped the man in the brown pinstriped suit with a hand up. "If I could tell you, I would. Just trust me with this."

"Trust-" the two hearted man started, voice squeaking a little bit, then changed his mind with a shake of his head. "Okay, then, just tell me one thing, is there something wrong?"

"Oh geeze. Not that I know of. No matter how many promises I made, I wouldn't keep something like that from you." Like he'd let Rose be hurt. "Listen, at least stop being weird and cold to her. For right now, that'll be enough." He chose his next words with great care. "I know what you're thinking. Two days ago I was you, so I should know. But if you let go, and just let things be what they could be...you won't regret it, not like we did before," he reminded his other self. "We thought we'd be better off in the long run if we didn't get any deeper, but the truth is, there is no deeper." He paused for a moment, letting those words sink in for the other man.

The other Doctor gave him a calculating look and put his hands in his pockets. "So. You're saying that I'll benefit from sharing her and watching the two of you be able to grow old together. I don't want to share, and I don't know if I can stand by and watch the two of you have that together," he admitted, voice lowered so that he was almost whispering at the end, trying to disguise his voice breaking.

The twin Time Lords were both silent for a moment, watching one another. The part human one was trying to figure out something to say without giving up any of Rose's secrets when the two hearted Doctor spoke up. "Of course, that's assuming she'd even go for it in the first place."

"She will," the Doctor wearing blue assured him.

"How could you know?"

"There's this new thing, all the kids are doing it, it's called 'talking.' You should give it a try sometime," he lectured his other self sarcastically. He then explained, "Last night, relatively speaking, we had a discussion that included the subject."