IT WAS 20,000 YEARS AGO TODAY
Chapter Twenty Two By the time the show was finished, the Doctor and his group were waiting for Paul and the others to show up. Once they figured out that their companions were in no danger, they had laughed themselves silly to the annoyance of the others who looked like they were ready to murder them by the show's end. By the time they were done and reunited with them, the captives were tired, dirty and humiliated and none too pleased that they had been laughed at instead of being helped. Maxionius had allowed them to shower and put their clothes back on so by the time they got back to them they looked normal again. The Doctor held up his hands when he saw the angry looks on their faces. "I'm sorry, my friends, but once we realized no harm would come to you, we just couldn't help but laugh," he said to them. "Yeah, it's the one time I'm glad someone fancied Paul instead of me," John added. "But the Doctor's right. Don't be angry. Besides, we're leaving here and these people will never have to see you again." "Thank God for that," Paul said as he picked Tia up and kissed her. "I think I would have preferred it if he'd tortured us the old fashioned way instead of making us walk the catwalk in outrageous clothes. At least I would have kept my dignity if he'd stretched me out on the rack. Let's just get out of here and never come back." They started to walk away and froze when Dougan came up to them. Paul was confused when he shook his hand warmly. "Thank you! I recognized you as one of the models! It's because of you that I have a brand new Zenith-400!" "Um…okay," Paul said, not sure what he meant. Then he saw the little R2D2 robot coming up behind the man. Dougan gestured to it proudly. "A fine machine and it was due to your presentation that I decided to buy it and I am not disappointed. Thank you, thank you!" "Yeah, you're welcome," Paul said as the others fought to keep from laughing. "I'm glad I was able to help you buy a robot." Dougan smiled. He said goodbye to everyone and left with the robot gliding along behind him. "See," George said to Paul, "you did some good after all." "Be quiet, George!" Paul said as everyone laughed. Later on, when they were back inside the sub, Pepa got it airborne and away from the planet before the Doctors went back to work on the circuitry. Amy and Rory rested in the seats up front so they could keep their eyes on where they were flying to. The rest of them went below to rest in the beds. The Doctor sighed as he and his counterpart tried to fix the circuitry. "It's a wonder this thing flies at all," the Doctor said to John Smith as they examined the wiring. "Whoever built this ship must have been taking just as much LSD as the people who made the film. It's a wonder Pepa didn't blow us up when he did the first dimensional jump. Might take hours to sort it out." He frowned when John Smith didn't say anything back and he looked over at his counterpart and saw how sullen he was. "Sorry if I'm boring you," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "No, it's not that. It's something that happened when I was in the storage compartment," John Smith replied. "What happened?" John Smith told him about the conversation about Rose and the Doctor flinched when he mentioned her name. When he finished, the Doctor sighed and lowered his screwdriver. "John, you know we can't," he said. "Why can't we? If we're dimension hopping, we might as well go see her," John Smith said. "Besides, don't you wanna drop me off there so you can get rid of me as well? Gotta put me somewhere, right?" "John, I never said anything of the sort," the Doctor said. "No, but it's a foregone conclusion. You banished the other one so you wouldn't have to look at him, right? So I'm going to suffer the same fate and if I do, I want to be with her." "Two Doctors? You really think she'd go for that?" "Then let's go find her and have Pepa make a copy of her for me. If I can't have the original, I'll take a clone." "We don't even know where we are right now, that's why we're trying to fix the bloody ship!" the Doctor said angrily. "And afterwards…" John Smith grabbed the Doctor's arm when he tried to ignore him. "Don't pretend you don't want to see her," he growled. "You've been mourning her ever since you left her. You tried to pretend Amy was her and love her but you stopped that when you realized not even Amy could replace her. I can see it in your eyes; you want to find Rose just as much as I do." "Perhaps but that'll just have to wait, won't it?" the Doctor shot back. "Why should it wait? Why don't we try to find her now?" "Why? So I can watch you snog her?" the Doctor said angrily. "No, so she can help us and perhaps him as well. It's gonna take more than just us to get rid of the invasion force and Rose can fight, you know that." "And then what? When we're done, do we send her back then?" "You know, Rose is a grown woman," John Smith said. "Instead of just chucking her out the door like last time, why not let her decide and give her a chance to decide her destiny." "And if she stays? If he stays with her?" "Then you have two more companions," John Smith said with a shrug. "At least let her have a proper goodbye if you don't decide to take her back with you. You cheated her out of a goodbye because you were too cowardly to stand there and watch your clone kiss her." "And don't you think she might be angry at me for doing that to her?" the Doctor countered. "Don't you think if I went back, she might tell me to piss off?" "Or…she might be glad to see you." "I'm not the same man I once was," he muttered while John Smith let out an angry sigh. "Well, I'm not! She wanted the body you have. She panicked when she thought I was gonna die after the Dalek shot me and that's partly the reason why I found a way to stay in that body, because I was terrified she'd hate me if I changed. If I went back, she might not want me, she'd want you or the other you and I'd be left out in the cold." "And yet…you changed once before when you were with her and she loved you even more after that," John Smith countered. "I just think you're scared to face her." The Doctor considered that while he fixed a wire with his screwdriver. "If we do this, I want to ask for everyone's imput," he said to John Smith while he worked. "I want Amy to be aware that I'm bringing her onboard so there's no jealously since she knows the truth now." "Why would she be jealous? She's with Rory now." "Yes, but I still think there's lingering feelings there and I want everything to be harmonious." "I understand that but why would you need to get input from the others. No one else would have any trouble with her, certainly not the Beatles. In fact, Rose would probably be thrilled to meet them and Bill and Jane. And…if you do take her back, perhaps you can check to see if there are Beatles in her universe and maybe these lost Beatles will find a new place to go." "And William as well?" the Doctor said. "If he can be fixed," John Smith replied. "But yes, if we're able to save him, he could go with him. Especially if he's anything like our Bill. John said he wouldn't mind working with him if he was like Bill." They heard a soft voice and both turned their heads to see Tia and Jane walking up to them. Tia smiled broadly as she opened her arms and the Doctor embraced her and gave her cheek a kiss. "Hello, my pet," he said as he cuddled her. "Did you have a nice kip?" "That reminds me; I told them we could scan her back at the TARDIS, to get an exact age. They wanted to know," John Smith said as Jane knelt down beside him. "We can do that," the Doctor said to her. "That's no trouble at all." "I'm glad. We really would like to know so we can celebrate her birthday properly. But I came to tell you that William has woken up and he's very grumpy to put it mildly." The Doctor groaned. "I'll sort it out if you wanna keep working," the Doctor said to John Smith as he handed him the screwdriver. John Smith nodded and took it from him. He worked on the wiring while the Doctor headed back to the sleeping quarters with Jane and Tia.
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