Title: Days Go By
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ten.5
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 2
Prompt: 11, Days
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.

***

The Doctor leaned back against the pillows, sighing contentedly. He couldn't remember a time in any of his lives when he'd felt happier -- and it was because of the man lying clasped in his arms. They were a perfect couple, he thought to himself, absently smoothing his human counterpart's hair back from his face. Perfect because they were so suited to each other.

Well .... of course they were. The human Doctor was, after all, himself -- who could be better suited to a person than a carbon copy of themselves? Someone who would know everything they liked, just how to touch, how to kiss, how to .... He wrenched his thoughts away from the path they were taking, focusing his concentration on the man in his arms.

It had been several days now since he'd taken the other Doctor away; he'd received messages on the psychic paper, but he'd ignored them all. Jack had seemed to get progressively angrier with each message he sent, and though the Doctor wasn't afraid of going back and facing him -- as well as all the other people who'd been there -- he was reluctant to do so.

They would all insist that he give up his lover, that he condemn the human Doctor to a life he didn't want, with a person he didn't love. He wasn't going to do that. The clone Doctor had made it clear where he wanted to be -- and who he wanted to be with. He would honor those wishes.

Besides, he couldn't make himself give this man up. There was already too much between them; they loved each other too much to make the ultimate sacrifice of parting. The Doctor was sure that being apart would do neither of them any good; in fact, he was nearly positive that it would cause the other Doctor to do something irreversibly stupid.

He hadn't said in so many words that he would do away with himself if he was forced into a life he didn't want, but the Doctor was fairly sure that was the case. The words had hung in the air between them in several of their conversations about what they should do, and he wasn't going to test his suspicions. They could prove to be horribly true.

As though he could sense the Doctor's thoughts, the clone Doctor leaned back against the Time Lord's thin chest, raising his eyes to his lover's face. "You shouldn't dwell on things that we've already talked about and decided against," he said softly, raising a hand to trace a soft fingertip over the Doctor's lips.

"It never fails to amaze me how you always seem to know what I'm thinking," the Doctor murmured, smiling and ruffling the other man's hair. "But I suppose I shouldn't be. You may be human, but you seem to have abilities far past that of any human I've ever known. I suppose it's because you're so much a part of me."

"Of course I know what you're thinking." The human Doctor turned over onto his stomach, placing his hand on the Doctor's chest and smiling when he felt the dual heartbeats under his palm. "I am you -- only slightly altered. You seem to be forgetting that. It's easy to know what you're thinking if I open my mind to you."

The Doctor sighed, covering the other man's hand with his own, holding them clasped together against his chest. "Then you know what I've been thinking about. I wish it wasn't something that I feel I have to keep going back to -- but sooner or later, we'll have to go back to Earth, and it won't be pleasant to face all the people who think I shouldn't have taken you away with me."

The clone Doctor scowled, rolling over and sitting up. "I don't care what they think. This is my life, and yours. Not theirs. They don't have a right to impose their opinions on us. I won't do what they want me to, and that's final. I'd rather be dead than be forced to spend my life with a whining child who isn't worth two seconds of our time."

"Don't worry, love." The Doctor sat up, trying to soothe the other man with his words. "You know I won't send you off with that. I couldn't, not after everything we've shared." He reached for the other Doctor, encircling his waist with one arm. "I love you too much to let anyone else have you. No matter what anyone says, I won't give you up."

"They can't push you into doing it, can they?" The human Doctor looked over at him, worry written clearly in his expression. The Doctor shook his head, leaning towards the other man and pulling him into an embrace.

"No, they can't," he whispered, feeling the tension in his lover's body and wishing that he could do something to make it melt away. Until all of this was resolved and there were no more questions nagging at the back of their minds, that tension would be there -- for both of them, not just for his human counterpart.

"I'm afraid they'll talk you into it," the other man whispered, curling into the Doctor's arms and wrapping his arms around the Time Lord's waist. The Doctor was surprised by the intensity of his embrace; it was as though the other Doctor was afraid to let him go. "They'll convince you that you should do what they think is right .... and you'll make me go away with her."

"No, love, they can't do that," the Doctor murmured, tightening his grip on the other Doctor and stroking a hand through his hair. "If you can sense what I'm thinking, then you have to know what I'm feeling as well. And what I feel for you is far too strong for anyone to be able to talk me into giving that up. You have nothing to worry about, I promise."

"My heart tells me that," the clone Doctor said, his voice barely above a whisper. "My mind says something different. I know that you wouldn't make me do anything I don't want to do -- but I can't help being afraid that circumstances could change your mind." He was trembling now, clinging to the Doctor as if he was terrified of being swept away from the Time Lord if he let go.

"Listen to your heart, not your head," the Doctor said softly, closing his eyes and resting his cheek against the other man's hair. "I'm not going to do anything of the sort, so get that idea out of your mind right now. I may not want to face the arguments and recriminations that I know people will aim at us, but that won't make me give you up. Far from it."

"I don't want to be the cause of you being unhappy," the human Doctor murmured, sniffling a little. The Doctor gathered the other man closer against his own body, running a hand down his back. He could sense that the tension in his human counterpart's body was ebbing away; hopefully, his words were having some effect.

"You could never make me unhappy," he said firmly, raising the other man's face to his and meeting that dark, anxious gaze. "Don't ever think that. In the time that you've been with me, I've been happier than I ever thought I could be."

"It's only been days," his clone said softly, placing soft fingertips against his cheek. "We have years to make each other happy. We have all our lives." He fell silent, looking down and biting his lip, and the Doctor couldn't help wondering what had caused that lightning-swift shift in his mood. He didn't want to ask -- but he had to. He would be at a complete loss otherwise.

"What's the matter, love?" he questioned, hoping that he hadn't said anything to trigger this mood swing. He'd known that there would be something along those lines to deal with; after all, his clone was essentially a Time Lord trapped in a very human body. It would take a while for him to get used to that, and he would be bound to have problems along the way.

"I don't have much of a life to give you," the human Doctor told him, not raising his head. "I'll age and die -- and that will be one more person who's taken away from you. I'm not the person you should be with -- you should have someone like Jack. Someone who can give you forever and not leave. Someone who has more time than I do."

The Doctor swallowed hard, fighting back the protests that rose to his lips. He had to marshal his arguments against this kind of thinking; it wouldn't do any good to tell his clone that a relationship with Jack would never work. They'd tried that, and it had failed. And besides .... he didn't want to be with anyone else, regardless of how much time they could give him.

This man was all he wanted, all he needed. But how could he make the human Doctor understand that, without sounding as though he was simply reiterating empty promises? He'd said all this before. Well, it looked as though he would have to say it again -- and keep saying it, as often as he had to, until this man believed the words.

No one else could fill the space in his life that this man did. It wasn't something that he could easily explain; he'd never been good with articulating his emotions. Maybe that was something his clone had problems with, too -- after all, they were the same in so many ways. All he could do was repeat himself, and hope that what the words would sink in.

"Listen to me." His voice was soft, but firm and decisive. "You're the only person I want to share my life with. No one else -- not Jack, not some mythical someone who could give me 'forever.' I want you. Only you. With all your failings and problems and whatever limited time you can give me. I wouldn't be happy with anyone else."

"I wouldn't be happy away from you." The other Doctor rested his head on the Time Lord's shoulder, sighing softly and relaxing in his lover's arms. "You may need to keep telling me that, you know. I believe you, that's not the issue. But sometimes I .... I worry that this won't last. That something will happen to rip us apart."

"Nothing is going to happen," the Doctor said softly, hoping that those words were as true as everything else he'd said. He had no way of knowing what was going to happen to them -- but he did know that he wouldn't let anything take this man away from him.

"That's hard to believe, Doctor." His human self met his gaze again, smiling a bit ruefully. "I may not have been with you for long, but from your memories, I know that trouble seems to follow you wherever you go. Even when you don't mean to stumble into it, it somehow finds you. I have a feeling that's going to hold true for both of us."

"Oh? So you think that you're as much of a magnet for trouble as I am?" the Doctor asked him, trying to lighten the mood with a bit of banter. It certainly couldn't hurt, and maybe it would defuse the emotions that had held both in a strangling grip.

"I'm sure of it. After all, I'm human -- and you know what a penchant humans have for trouble." The other Doctor laughed, pulling away slightly from the Doctor's embrace. "I promise that I won't worry so much about our future, Doctor. I'll just have to keep telling myself that there's no need to do that -- and to go to you for reassurance whenever I have those doubts."

"We just have to take it all one day at a time," the Doctor told him, reluctantly releasing his clone and watching as the other man stood up and stretched. Did other people get this much pleasure out of looking at him? he thought, admiring the view of his lover's backside that was presented to him. He could definitely get used to that sight.

"For however many days we have," his human self said softly as he turned back towards the Time Lord and held out a hand. The Gallifreyan rose from the bed, wrapping his arms around his human self from behind and burying his face against the other man's hair.

"We'll have a lot of days ahead of us," he said softly, hoping fervently that his words would prove to be true. "I'll see to that."

The human Doctor didn't answer him; he only turned around and slipped thin arms around the Doctor's waist, catching the Time Lord's lips in a long, lingering kiss that dispelled any doubts that either of them might have had about how they would spend the rest of this day.

***