Title: A Promise Worth Keeping
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ten.5
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: R
Table: 2
Prompt: 82, Promise
Author's Note: Spoilers for Journey's End, somewhat. This is an completely alternate take on the ending of Season Four.
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor, or his human clone. Please do not sue.

***

"You have to go."

"Please, no. Don't do this. You promised!"

"I have to break that promise. There's no choice, not for either of us."

He was pleading, his voice drying up in his throat. There was nothing he could say to change the Doctor's mind. The decision was made.

It didn't matter how much he pleaded, screamed, cried. The Doctor was turning away from him, rejecting him, condemning him to a life that he didn't want, with someone he didn't love or even want to be around -- cutting him off from the one person he did love.

No. No. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening.

The human Doctor screamed, sitting bolt upright in bed, his eyes wide and unseeing in the dimness of the Doctor's bedroom on the Tardis. Both hands were clutching at his heart, sure that it was breaking, shattering into a million pieces inside his chest -- pieces that he'd never be able to place back together.

Strong arms slipped around his waist; the Doctor was sitting up next to him, drawing him close, those lips against his hair, soft words murmured in his ear. He sagged back against the thin body behind his, relief flowing through him. The Doctor was here, beside him, holding him. He wasn't alone. The Doctor hadn't turned his back and walked away.

"Shhhh, love." The Time Lord's voice was soft, reassuring. "It's all right, don't be afraid. What is it? Another bad dream?"

He nodded, unable to speak for several long moments. He didn't want to tell the Doctor exactly what the dream had been -- and besides, he was almost certain that if the Time Lord wanted to, he could easily draw the components of the dream out of his mind. They were so attuned to each other that they almost seemed to share the same thoughts at times.

Which wasn't surprising, he added to himself. They were the same person; their thoughts would obviously run along the same lines. But it was strange that the Doctor didn't seem to have these unsettling dreams, or the doubts about their future.

Maybe that was because he was human. He had doubts, failings, weaknesses that the Time Lord didn't seem to possess. Was his humanity something that would only end up tearing them apart and separating them in the long run, no matter how much they might want to avoid it?

"I won't leave you, you know." The Doctor's voice was husky, thick with emotion. "And I won't turn you away. I've promised you that, and I keep my promises. I've had to break too many of them in the past to let this one fall by the wayside." He turned the human Doctor's face to his, brushing soft lips against his cheek. "Nothing is going to take you away from me."

"How can you promise me that?" he burst out, the words torn from his throat despite his attempts to keep them back. "You don't know what's going to happen when we go back to Earth. Something might force you to make me go away with her. Anything could happen."

"No." The Doctor shook his head, his thin arms tightening around the man in his embrace. "It doesn't matter what anyone else might say or do. Nothing is going to make me give you up. No one could say anything that would make me let you go."

"How can you be so sure?" He hated that his voice was so tremulous, hated the inference that he didn't trust the Doctor to keep his word. He did trust the Time Lord; it wasn't that he doubted the other man's love for him. What he doubted was the Doctor's ability to keep them together if the rest of the world seemed to be against them.

"I'm sure because I know what I want," the Doctor said, his voice still soft, but the words strong and firm. "I've made my choice -- and I've chosen you. No one can change that, and no one can talk me into doing anything that I don't want to do. If they try to, then I'll simply refuse. I do have the power to do that, you know."

"I know, but ...." The human Doctor's voice trailed off, and he looked down at his clasped hands, unable to put his troubled thoughts into words. He knew what he wanted to say, but he couldn't verbalize those feelings. The words wouldn't come, no matter how much he searched for a way to put them together and have them make sense.

"But what, sweetheart?" The Doctor sounded worried now, his tone more somber. "Please don't think that I'm going to change my mind about us being together. I may seem a bit .... scattered at times, but I'm not that fickle."

"I know you aren't." He was quick to reassure the Doctor; he didn't want the Time Lord to think that he had such a low opinion of the other man. "I'm just .... worried that you might somehow be forced into sending me away. That they could come up with reasons for you not to be with me."

"Oh, I'm sure that several people will try their best to come up with those reasons," the Doctor said, shaking his head and frowning. "She deserves to have a part of me, she's waited for me for so long, you're human and can age with her and be with her and make her happy, et cetera. I don't believe a word of it. Your happiness is what concerns me. And you wouldn't be happy with her."

"I wouldn't be happy with anyone but you," the human Doctor whispered, closing his eyes and letting himself go limp against the Doctor's body. He wasn't going to be sent away. He had to believe that, had to believe that the Doctor meant every word that he was saying. He couldn't have misgivings. There couldn't be a chink in their armor for any doubts to get through.

"And I'd not be happy letting you go," the Doctor told him, brushing those soft lips against his cheek again. "Don't worry, love. I have no intention of listening to anything that anyone might try to tell me, no matter what they say. You're staying with me, and that's final."

He couldn't keep back the wave of relief that flowed over him at the Doctor's words. The firm tone, the surety of the other man's voice -- that was something he couldn't mistake. The Doctor meant what he was saying. There was no way he'd let the two of them be parted. "I won't worry about it any more, love. That's a promise I can make to you."

"It's a promise worth keeping." The Doctor smiled down at the man in his arms, running gentle fingers through his hair. "We may not have chosen the easiest path, but it's one that I'm sure I want to take. Besides ...." His voice became thoughtful, as though he was musing on their future. "A life without risks wouldn't be a life worth living."

"Doesn't it bother you that I'll age?" he asked, twisting his head around to look up at the Doctor, a worried look in his eyes. "I'm human, no matter how much I'm also a part of you. You'll be .... watching yourself age before your eyes, and I don't want to put you through that."

"We'll worry about that when it happens." The Doctor raised a hand to cup his clone's cheek, turning the other man's face to his and bowing his head to brush their lips together. "Better that than to spend my life without you and mourn what I could have had. I'd rather have a little time with you than none at all."

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you," the human Doctor murmured against those lips, his arms moving up to twine around the Doctor's shoulders as he half-turned in the other man's arms. He let himself lay back, sinking into the pillows, pulling the Doctor down with him and kissing him with a passion that startled them both.

"Then I promise that you will," the Doctor whispered, his hands moving down the other man's sides, over his hips, fingertips trailing fire down his inner thighs. "That's a promise I'll keep, no matter what it takes to make sure that I do."

"I'll hold you to that, you know," the clone Doctor said softly, his breath catching in his throat as the Doctor's fingers moved lower. It seemed that his lover had other things on his mind at the moment besides the promise he'd made -- and that suited him just fine.

"I expect you to," the Doctor told him, raising his head slightly, his lips quirking in a devilish little smile. "And right now, I promise that I'm going to make love to you until we're both exhausted. No matter how long it might take."

The human Doctor closed his eyes, surrendering himself to the pleasure of his lover's hands moving over his body. Of all the promises that the Doctor had made to him, this was one that he was sure the Time Lord was going to do a very thorough job of keeping.

***