Title: Time Passages
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ten.5
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG
Table: 1, 5_prompts
Prompt: 2, Time passes
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.

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The Doctor's human clone stood looking out of the Tardis' door, his eyes sweeping over the sight in front of him. This was the planet that others of his kind existed on, the place where he should feel most at home. It was a place that the Doctor had always loved.

Yet he didn't feel comfortable here on Earth. This planet would always remind him of how he'd come to be, and what he'd done in a moment of panic and indecision. The extermination of an entire race, no matter how evil and twisted they'd been.

He'd thought that the Doctor had hated him for that. The relief he'd felt when he had found out that wasn't the case had been indescribable; when the Time Lord had taken him away into the stars with him, he'd felt that nothing could possibly ever separate them.

That horrid child had wanted him with her, but the Doctor hadn't let that happen. He shuddered at the thought; going away with someone he didn't love, being forced to spend the short human life span he had with her, would have been a fate worse than death for him.

It wasn't that he didn't care about her as a friend, he thought, but she wanted more. She had wanted more from the Doctor than he'd ever wanted to give, too.

That was the problem with humans, he thought with a sigh, resting his head against the doorframe of the ship. They always wanted more than anyone was willing to give them -- and the more they had, the more they wanted. They were an intrinsically greedy race.

And yet he himself was one of them. He might have a Time Lord brain, but he had a human body -- and that made him human in the eyes of everyone he'd been around, even the Doctor. Only one heart, and a life span that would be over in the blink of an eye.

Time passed so quickly for humans, even when they thought it was going slowly, he told himself, his eyes moving over the view in front of him. The sun was just beginning to come up, blazing across the expanse of sand and sea, a red ball peeking over the horizon.

What would be years to him would be like no more than days in the Doctor's existence. As his Time Lodr counterpart had said to so many people before, he could spend his entire life with the Doctor -- but the man he loved couldn't spend his entire life with him.

That would always be between them, he thought sadly, blinking rapidly to hold back the tears that were rising behind his eyelids. They'd never be able to overcome that fact, or change it.

He didn't want to be just one of many companions or lovers that the Doctor had. He didn't want to live a short human life span, and to fade out of the Time Lord's life when the fates decided that his time was over. He wanted to be there with the Doctor forever.

It wasn't possible, and he knew that. Time would pass, he would age and grow older, and eventually he would die -- a human death, without any hope of regeneration. He wouldn't come back in a different body. He would simply cease to be.

Maybe that was why Jack had thought it would be the best thing for him to go away to that alternate dimension with her -- they were both human, and their life spans would be similar. They would be able to live their short human lives, without leaving behind regrets.

But the problem was, of course, that he didn't love her. Not in that way. And that she didn't really love him -- she only wanted him because he looked like the Doctor. She knew that she couldn't have the Time Lord, so he was to be a substitute.

Fortunately, that hadn't happened. He hadn't been forced into a world where he would never see the man he loved again. He couldn't have borne the life he would have been forced into.

Time would have passed even more slowly there; he would have gone through every day knowing that he was cut off forever from the one person who meant anything to him. He would have let himself waste away, and not cared if he lived or died.

He straightened his shoulders, raising a hand to wipe away the few tears that had fallen. He didn't need to stand here feeling sorry for himself. He had a life with the man he loved; he hadn't been relegated to an alternate universe where even his memory would fade from the Doctor's life.

No, he was here with the Time Lord; the other man had chosen to whisk him away into the stars, to make him a part of his life. He'd accepted it when his clone had chosen the name of one of his former companions, accepted everything that he was.

He'd even forgiven him for committing genocide, though he'd certainly been angry about it at the time. The Doctor had let the bond between them erase the mistakes they'd both made in those first few hectic days after he'd come into being, bringing them closer together than they'd expected to be.

He was going to make the Doctor's life as happy as he could, he vowed to himself. He'd never give the Time Lord any reason to regret the choice he'd made in keeping them together.

"Jamie?"

He turned as he heard his name, startled to hear the Doctor's voice. The Time Lord was standing only a few feet away from him, an uncertain look on his face. What was he thinking? Unlike the other man, he couldn't read minds -- and he wouldn't presume to delve inside the Gallifreyan's thoughts.

"I was just .... enjoying the sunrise," he murmured as the Doctor moved closer to him and slid an arm around his waist. He leaned his head against the Time Lord's shoulder, looking out at the sun again as it continued to rise higher into the sky.

"I hope you don't mind company," the Doctor whispered, turning his head to brush a kiss against Jamie's cheek. Both men stood there watching as the rising sun cast red rays across the shimmering water, the day becoming brighter with each passing moment.

"I'd rather have your company than anyone else's," Jamie answered, his own arm slipping around the Doctor's waist. He turned his attention to the sunrise, feeling a sense of peace steal over him, a peace that he wouldn't have felt with anyone else.

Yes, time would pass -- more quickly for him than for the Doctor. But as long as the two of them were together, it didn't matter how swiftly or slowly time might pass for either or them. All that mattered was that he spent his time with the man he loved, by his side through whatever might come their way.

***