#multi chap
The Choice
Summary: After GitF, the TARDIS brings the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey back to the Powell Estate to solve a problem involving the TARDIS herself. But when they see a familiar face, the face of someone who should not exist, they realize the problem is deeper than they thought and could endanger the Doctor’s very existence.
Primary characters: Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler.
Genres: Romance, mystery, adventure, drama, character study, HN AU, fobbed!Nine, sick TARDIS.
Pairings: Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose
Rating: AdultWarning: none for this chapter
Catch up: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet
Epilogue
The Doctor strode from the future TARDIS to his own, his long legs making short work of the distance, reckoning that he had mere seconds to enter and take off. If he knew Rose Tyler—and he did—she’d follow him, and he’d told her the truth: if Rose walked him to his TARDIS, he didn’t know what he’d do. Even now he was tempted to go back, get Rose, and tell her to run.
At the door, he patted the pockets of his leather jacket. Then he remembered. No key. He swore under his breath. He had no idea where he’d lost it, but he hadn’t had it on him when he’d come to in the alley on New Year’s. He glanced over his shoulder. No, he couldn’t go back in the other TARDIS and get another.
Hoping it was still there, he reached into the tiny compartment over the P in Police Box. He sighed in relief when his fingers touched the spare key in it.
He heard the other TARDIS’s door open. He’d been right. Rose had followed him. He quickly unlocked the door in front of him, slipped inside, and crossed to the console. Not taking the time to set coordinates, he jerked down a lever and sent the ship into the vortex.
He sank down on the jump seat and, elbows on knees, dropped his head in his hands. Leaving Rose behind hadn’t been the hardest thing he’d ever done, but it was way, way up there.
He hoped future him wasn’t a complete idiot and managed to fix things with Rose, but he wouldn’t place a bet on it. It was obvious from the other Doctor’s reaction that there was far more going on between the two of them than he knew.
But in his opinion, whatever it was was irrelevant. This whole mess needed fixing, and he was determined it would get fixed. And if he didn’t trust his future self to do it—and he didn't—then there was only one answer.
As the old saying went, if you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself.
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