Title: Time Brings Change
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ten.5
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 6, 50ficlets
Prompt: 12, Time
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 leaned back in one of the chairs in front of the large viewscreen on the Tardis, feeling more at ease than he had since he'd undergone his miraculous change. He was still adjusting, but he was doing so more quickly than he might have expected.

Time didn't seem to be of the essence now; he had all the time in the world to settle into being a Time Lord. There was no hurry; his life span was suddenly a lot longer, even though he now had the new worry of dealing with the regeneration into a new body.

He couldn't help but wonder if that would actually happen to him; since he had become a Time Lord in a very unusual way, would the facts of a normal Time Lord existence apply to him? Would he regenerate just as others had for centuries, or would he be different?

It seemed that no matter what he did, he was destined to be some kind of special creature, a prototype that had never been seen before, Jamie thought wryly. Even in a Time Lord body, he was still something that was beyond the known laws of nature.

How could he know what the future would bring? He could, of course, ask the Doctor to take the Tardis into their future, to find out if he had regenerated into a new body, or if he still had this body, the one that he loved and didn't want to lose.

What would the Doctor be like in their future? Would he have regenerated into a new body sooner rather than later? Or would his having been in the Chameleon Arch when its force had brought Jamie back to life have altered his body chemistry to where he wouldn't regenerate?

Maybe neither of them would have to worry about regeneration. Maybe being inside the Chameleon Arch when it had done its job had changed them both in ways that they couldn't know about yet, ways that might be put to the test in the future.

There was time to find out about that, Jamie told himself firmly. There was plenty of time now for him to do so many things that he'd thought he would never be able to accomplish within a short human life span. He had not only one, but several lifetimes stretching ahead of him.

How much time would they have? If they were lucky, untold centuries lay ahead of them; he and the Doctor could go on for time immemorial. Jamie only hoped that his musings might be correct, and that they could continue on as they were now.

He hated to think of losing this body, and he hated to think of the Doctor regenerating, as well. He didn't want them to be new men, looking and acting differently than they did now. Yes, they would essentially be the same person, but their personalities and looks would change.

Neither of them wanted that. They wanted to stay as they were, loving each other as they did. It might be impossible for either of them to do that if their bodies changed -- and worse, if they each changed into bodies that were horrendously inferior to this one.

Worse still, he might regenerate into a different body than the Doctor would. If they each had to regenerate at some point, their similarities might come to an end; they would both still be Time Lords, but they would be irrevocably changed from who they had been before.

The thought made Jamie shudder; he didn't know if they would still feel the same about each other if they each became different men, and that question frightening him more than anything else ever could. If he no longer had the Doctor's love, why did he even exist?

Would his own love for the Doctor be lessened if the two of them were forced to change physically? Jamie didn't want to think that was possible; he wanted to believe that their love would continue on, in the face of any adversity that could possibly be thrown at them.

Maybe he would have the answers to all of his questions in time -- and he could only hope that they would be the answers he wanted to hear. Until that happened, all that he could do was take life one day at a time, and hope that the future wouldn't tear his world apart.

He would simply deal with whatever changes time might bring to both himself and the Doctor when they came, Jamie thought with a sigh. If they happened, then he would have to cope with them -- but he hoped that they would take a long, long time to manifest, if they did at all.

***