Title: Carbon Copy
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ten.5
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 6, 50ficlets
Prompt: 17, Body
Author's Note: The human version of the Doctor is being referred to as John Smith in this fic, since it's the Doctor's human alias and his clone needed a name.
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.

***

Jamie stood in front of the full-length mirror in the bedroom that he shared with the Doctor on the Tardis, staring at himself. He was still dripping wet from the shower he'd just taken, with only a towel wrapped around his lean hips covering his nudity.

Slowly, he let the towel fall, pooling into folds of fabric around his feet. Jamie silently studied his body, the body that was a carbon copy of the one that the Doctor now possessed, the body that he loved and didn't ever want to see changed in any way.

But he would change, he told himself, a sob catching in his throat. He would grow old and grey; his skin would wrinkle, and he would age horribly. It would all happen in a short time, too; a human life span was merely the blink of an eye to a Time Lord.

He knew that the Doctor would still love him when he aged; he had no doubt of that. He'd feared that his lover wouldn't feel the same about him once his looks began to fade, but after talking to the Doctor about that issue, his worries had dissipated.

Now, the problem was whether he would still be able to love himself. Would he think that it was only a natural process, this rapid aging that a human body did? Or would he look at the Doctor and feel regret for what he had once been like?

It didn't matter that he would be the same person in that aging body; all he could think was that he would get old and ugly. He hated to think of it; he hated to think of what the Doctor would look at every day, the deterioration that he would be forced to watch.

Really, he loved this body too much to see it grow old and grey and wrinkled. The Doctor was the most beautiful man he'd ever seen; sometimes he had a hard time remembering that they shared exactly the same body, that physically, they looked just alike.

He turned to the side, lifting his arms above his head. Yes, he did indeed have a pert little ass; that was one of the things that he loved most about the Doctor, but he had the same ass. He had to admit, they were both incredibly attractive men.

The Doctor's body would never get old -- but it would change. Jamie dreaded that day as much, or even more, than he dreaded the changes that were inevitable in his own physical appearance. Once the Doctor regenerated, he'd be a different man.

He would be the same man, in a way -- he would still have the same memories, the same experiences. But his personality would be completely different -- as would his body. And Jamie had to wonder if it would be a body that he could love as much as he loved this one.

Jamie didn't want to think about the Doctor's body changing, in a much more radical way than his own would change. It was terrifying to think that the Doctor would be virtually another man -- possibly one who didn't love him in the same way, and who he couldn't love.

A shiver went through him at the thought; Jamie closed his eyes and hugged himself, not wanting to think of that possibility. He shouldn't think about that, he told himself firmly; he should concentrate on what they were like now, not what they could possibly be in the future.

He regarded his body for a few moments longer; it was indeed attractive, and he couldn't help feeling a glow of satisfaction at that fact. But what should he have expected? The Doctor was a beautiful man, and he was a carbon copy of the Time Lord.

Having this body was a lucky quirk of fate for him. He could have been put into one of the Doctor's other bodies, couldn't he? Some of them hadn't been so bad, but some had been horrible -- and there was no way he would want to be in one of those!

But he wasn't in one of those bodies, a voice in his mind soothed as he bent to pick up the damp towel from the floor. He was in this one -- a body he loved, and that the Doctor loved. And it would be quite a while before it started to look old and grey.

He had to live in the present, and enjoy not only the body that he had, but the life that he was living. With that thought in mind, Jamie turned toward the closet to find clothes and get dressed before he went to the control room to find the Doctor and begin their day together.

***