New Hopes

The other companions worked to shove the Daleks, sending them spinning down other corridors, laughing.

"Ready?" Donna asked, glancing at the two men. "And reverse." They pulled on the controls, sending the planets back to where they belonged.

"Of you go, Clom!"

"Back home, Adipose Three."

"Shallacatop, Pyrovillia, and the Lost Moon of Poosh. Sorted. Ha!"

"Ha!" the second Doctor joined in.

"We need more power!"

Rose stepped forward at the front of the group of companions, though Caroline wasn't far behind. "Is anyone going to tell us what's going on?"

"He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand," Donna explained, each man giving a little wave when she mentioned them. "I touched the hand, and he grew out of that but that fed back into me. But…it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life. Thank you, Davros! Part human, part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor. I got his mind."

Sarah Jane looked between the three of them. "So there's three of you?"

"Three Doctors?"

Jack shook his head. "I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now."

"You're so unique the timelines were converging on you," the Doctor said. "Human being with a Time Lord brain."

"But you promised me, Dalek Caan," Davros said, and they'd almost forgotten he was still in the room. "Why did you not foresee this?"

Dalek Caan giggled and the Doctor glanced at him. "Oh, I think he did. Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time."

"This would always have happened. I only helped, Doctor."

Davros was horrified. "You betrayed the Daleks."

"I saw the Daleks. What we have done, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed, 'no more'!"

"Heads up!" Jack called, everyone looking up as the red Dalek from before descended into the room.

"Davros, you have betrayed us."

Davros shook his head frantically. "It was Dalek Caan."

"The Vault will be purged. You will be exterminated." The Dalek fired at the control panel, making it spark.

"Like I was saying, feel this!" This time, when Jack fired at the Dalek, it actually exploded.

"Oh, we've lost the magnetron," the Doctor said, fanning it. "And there's only one planet left." He sighed. "Oh, guess which one. But we can use the TARDIS." He turned and ran into it.

The second Doctor nodded. "Holding Earth stability. Maintaining atmospheric shell."

"The prophecy must complete," Dalek Caan said.

"Don't listen to him."

"I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor."

The second Doctor looked up from his work. "He's right. Because with or without a Reality bomb, this Dalek Empire's big enough to slaughter the cosmos. They've got to be stopped."

Donna shook her head. "Just…just wait for the Doctor."

But the man turned to her, a gleam in his eyes. "I am the Doctor." He turned back to the controls. "Maximizing Dalekanium power feeds. Blasting them back!"

The Doctor ran back out of the TARDIS at the sound of explosions. "What have you done?"

"Fulfilling the prophecy."

"Do you know what you've done? Now get in the TARDIS!" the second Doctor ran in. "Everyone! All of you, inside! Run! In! In! In! In!"

The second Doctor was waiting just inside the door. "Sarah Jane! Rose! Jackie! Jack! Mickey! Caroline!"

But Caroline paused by the door, looking back at the Doctor as he stared at Davros, stared at the man who created his worst enemies, the worst creatures in the universe. And she watched as he reached a hand out for him. "Davros? Come with me. I promise I can save you."

Davros only shook his head. "Never forget, Doctor, you did this. I name you! Forever, you are the Destroyer of the Worlds!" the flames around Davros, already large, grew to encompass him, killing him with a scream.

"One will still die," Dalek Caan shouted at the Doctor's back as he ran back into the TARDIS, Caroline following him back up to the console.

All of the companions took their places around the console, Caroline standing next to the Doctor and Rose. "And off we go," the Doctor said, the three versions of himself, for lack of a better term, setting them all into motion.

"But what about the Earth?" Sarah Jane asked. "It's stuck in the wrong part of space."

"I'm on it." The Doctor typed in a few things. "Torchwood Hub, this is the Doctor. Are you receiving me?"

The image faded into sight, revealing the two people Jack had been with earlier. "Loud and clear. Is Jack there?"

"Can't get rid of him." The Doctor frowned slightly. "Jack, what's her name?"

"Gwen Cooper."

"Tell me, Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?"

Gwen frowned. "Yes, all the way back to the 1800s."

The Doctor nodded. "Ah, thought so." He looked up at Rose, presuming that the woman had seen Gwen's face. "Spatial genetic multiplicity."

Rose nodded. "Oh, yeah."

"Yeah, it's a funny old world." He looked back at Gwen. "Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up that Rift Manipulator. Send all the power to me."

The man nodded, turning to the computer. "Doing it now, sir."

"What's that for?" Donna asked.

"It's a tow rope," the Doctor said, turning to Sarah Jane. "Sarah, what was your son's name?"

"Luke, he's called Luke. And the computer's called Mr. Smith."

"Calling Luke and Mr. Smith." The Doctor turned back to the screen, the image of Torchwood shifting to that of the boy from before. "This is the Doctor. Come on Luke, shake a leg!"

"Is Mum there?"

The Doctor grinned. "Oh, she's fine and dandy."

"Yes! Yes!" Sarah Jane called, relieved.

"Now, Mr. Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the TARDIS. You got that?"

"I regret I will need remote access to TARDIS base code numerals."

The Doctor frowned, running a hand through his hair. "Oh, blimey, that's going to take a while."

"No, no, no," Sarah Jane ran around so that she was on the monitor. "Let me. K9, out you come!"

A small robotic dog appeared beside the boy. "Affirmative, Mistress."

The Doctor laughed. "Oh! Oh ho! Oh, good dog! K9, give Mr. Smith the base code."

"Master," K9 said, nodding slightly. "TARDIS base code now being transferred. The process is simple."

The Doctor looked up at all of them. "Now then, you lot." He guided Sarah Jane to where she'd previously been standing. "Sarah, hold that down. Mickey, you hold that. Because you know why this TARDIS is always rattling about the place? Rose? That, there. It's designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single handed. Martha, keep that level. But not anymore. Jack, there you go. Caroline, steady that." The Doctor stepped back, his half Donna clone doing the same. "Now we can fly this thing…" he turned to see Jackie still standing there. "No, Jackie. No, no. Not you. Don't touch anything. Just stand back." He guided her a bit away before turning back to the companions. "…like it's meant to be flown! We've got the Torchwood "Rift looped around the TARDIS by Mr. Smith, and we're going to fly Planet Earth back home. Right then." He moved to his place at the console. "Off we go!"

He pulled the final lever and they were off, dragging the Earth along with them. For once, the first time in Caroline's time in the TARDIS, in any of their times in the TARDIS, it was actually flying smoothly.

Donna and the second Doctor supervised, the Doctor just leaping around the console, pulling various things and telling others what to do.

And, finally, the scanner dinged and the Earth was back where it was meant to be.

All of the companions, and Time Lord-human hybrids, cheered and ran forwards for a series of hugs.

That is, all of the companions except for Caroline. She hugged Donna, of course, the woman going almost immediately to her, but then there were just so many people and sound and she just stepped back, leaning against the railing, watching them with a relieved smile.

However, she didn't get that long of a time apart from everyone else, as the Doctor came over and gave her a large hug himself, holding her for longer then he'd even held Rose, thankful that they were all safe and alive.

Neither of them saw Rose's expression.

|C-S|

They brought the TARDIS near to Sarah Jane's house, dropping her off first since she had a son to look after. All of the other companions stepped out for a moment just to see Earth back where it was meant to be.

There was more hugging, a bit more cheering, as the Doctor said goodbye to Sarah Jane.

Donna went back into the TARDIS to take a call, a few of the other companions walking back inside as well, but Caroline stayed outside in the bright light, finally taking a moment to touch the point on her leg where the heat had been coming from.

She winced from the pain, thankfully when the Doctor was talking to Jack and Martha so he didn't see it. But she didn't have time now to look at the wound since Mickey was stepping out of the TARDIS and she knew they'd be leaving soon. So she just walked back inside, hiding the pain.

Rose looked towards her the moment she entered. "Hello," Rose said, and the hatred was obvious in her voice.

Caroline swallowed hard. "Hello, Rose."

"You're the new me, then."

Caroline glanced at Donna, who was watching them from a distance with a frown. "No, I wouldn't say-"

"You love him, don't you?" She froze, and Rose nodded, satisfied. "You do, I know it." Caroline didn't know what to say. Her mouth opened but no words came out, like she was back in the Library and just couldn't speak. "You can't have him, you know that, right? I'm back now." Rose frowned. "You're so…quiet. How does he tolerate you?"

Thankfully, Rose didn't get to say anymore, because by that point the Doctor had stepped back inside the TARDIS and the blonde didn't want to risk him overhearing. But Donna already had, Donna had already seen Caroline's face fall, the human looking between Rose and Donna and the second Doctor and the Doctor himself and making the connections she was famous for.

"Just time of one last trip," the Doctor said, walking up to the console. "Dårlig Ulv Stranden. Better known as Bad Wolf Bay."

The journey was a bit more violent, especially because there was no longer the right amount of pilots, but having the three part Doctors helped.

Jackie and the second Doctor were the first ones out the door when they landed, followed by Rose. The other trio stayed closer to the TARDIS, Caroline not even stepping outside.

Jackie frowned when she saw where they were. "Oh, fat lot of good this is. Back of beyond. Bloody Norway? I'm going to have to phone your father. He's on the nursery run. I was pregnant, do you remember?" she turned to the Doctor's. "Had a baby boy."

"Oh, brilliant." The second Doctor grinned. "What did you call him?"

"Doctor."

His eyes widened. "Really?"

"No, you plum. He's called Tony."

Rose turned in a small circle, staring at the beach they'd landed on. "Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?"

The Doctor nodded. "You're back home."

"And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened." Donna sounded tenser then she had earlier, though only Rose and Caroline seemed to notice. "It's dimensional retroclosure. See, I really get that stuff now."

Rose shook her head. "No, but I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now."

The Doctor sighed. "But you've got to. Because we saved the universe, but at a cost. And the cost is him." He nodded towards the second Doctor. "He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."

The second Doctor frowned. "You made me."

"Exactly," he nodded. "You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge." He glanced at Rose. "Remind you of someone? That's me, when we first met. And you made me better. Now you can do the same for him."

There were tears in Rose's eyes. "But he's not you."

"He needs you. That was very me."

"But it's better than that, though," Donna said, stepping forward, almost sounding like she was scolding Rose. "Don't you see what he's trying to give you. Tell her. Go on."

The second Doctor turned to Rose. "I look like him, I think like him, same memories, same thoughts, same everything. Except…I've only got one heart."

"Which means?"

"I'm part human. Specifically, the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate. I've only got one life…Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you. If you want."

Rose's eyes widened. "You'll grow…grow old…at the same time as me?"

The man nodded. "Together." Rose stepped forward and touched his chest, feeling his single heart.

The TARDIS made a sound behind them and Caroline glanced back into it.

"We've got to go," the Doctor said. "This reality is sealing itself off forever."

Rose shook her head, walking forward. "But, it's still not right, because the Doctor's still you."

"And I'm him."

Rose looked between the two men. "All right. Both of you, answer me this. When I last stood on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me?"

The Doctor gave a sad smile. "I said, 'Rose Tyler.'"

The woman nodded. "Yeah, and how was that sentence going to end?"

"Does it need saying?"

Rose swallowed and turned to the second Doctor. "And you, Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?"

The man wasted no time in leaning down to whisper the phrase into Rose's ear. Almost instantly, Rose grabbed him by his suit and began kissing him, passionately.

The Doctor and Donna took that moment to walk back towards the TARDIS, the Doctor taking Caroline's hand as he passed her, needing her now, especially after what he was about to do, though Caroline didn't quite know that, not yet.

The two part Time Lords piloted the TARDIS together, sending them into the time vortex, leaving Caroline sitting on the chair, watching them. She could see the Doctor's expression better now, see him watching Donna with a frown.

Donna was part Time Lord now. She had a Time Lord's brain shoved inside her human one.

If there was anything Caroline knew, it was that having a brain too large for your head shoved inside was not a nice experience. It was a dangerous thing, a painful thing. An impossible thing.

"I thought we could try the planet Felspoon," Donna said, shrugging. "Just because. What a good name, Felspoon." She glanced at Caroline. "Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move. Can you imagine?"

"And how do you know that?" the Doctor asked, pausing.

"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine."

"And how does that feel?"

Donna grinned. "Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain." She pressed a few things on the console. "You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hotbinding the fragment links and superseding the binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary," as Donna spoke she got faster and faster until she couldn't breathe anymore, and she paused. "I'm fine." After a second, she turned back to the console. "Never mind Felspoon. You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that, Caroline? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin? Shall we? Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester. Charlie Brown. No, he's fiction. Friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton." That time, Donna had to hold onto the console when she was done, clutching her head and breathing hard. "Oh, my God."

The Doctor stepped forward slowly, looking at Donna like his hearts were breaking, and Caroline was almost certain they were. "Do you know what's happening?"

Donna nodded. "Yeah."

"There's never been a human Time Lord metacrisis before now. And you know why."

Donna's voice was shaking, and Caroline couldn't look. She couldn't watch this because she knew the Doctor had to do something, something horrible, something that was tearing him apart. "Because there can't be. I want to stay."

The Doctor grabbed Donna's arms, holding her up. "Look at me. Donna, look at me."

Donna was crying now. "I was going to be with you forever."

"I know."

"The rest of my life, traveling in the TARDIS. The Doctor-Donna, Caroline," she managed to give the woman a look. "No. Oh my God, I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back."

He shook his head. "Donna. Oh, Donna Noble. I am so sorry. But we had the best of times."

"No."

"The best." He sighed, near tears himself. "Goodbye."

Donna shook her head frantically, shaking. "No, no, no. Please. Please. No. No." The Doctor placed his hands on either side of her head, closing his eyes. "No!"

Caroline looked up when Donna collapsed. The Doctor knelt with her, guiding her to the ground once he was finished. He was crying, and so was she. Slowly, she stood and made her way to kneel next to him, touching his shoulder.

"She needs to go home," she said quietly, waiting a few seconds for the Doctor to calm. He nodded, standing to pilot the TARDIS, leaving Caroline to take his place beside Donna.

And then, together, they carried her out of the TARDIS, knocking on the door to her home. The Doctor looked up when Wilf opened the door. "Help me."

|C-S|

They left Donna on her bed upstairs before everyone returned to the sitting room for the Doctor to explain what had happened. Once he'd finally let go of Donna he'd taken Caroline's hand, and now he hadn't let go of that. She didn't mind, she needed it too, because Donna was one of her closest friends and now she was gone.

"She took my mind into her own head," the Doctor explained. "But that's a Time Lord consciousness. All that knowledge, it was killing her."

"But she'll be better now?"

The Doctor gripped her hand. "I had to wipe her mind completely. Every trace of me, or the TARDIS, or Caroline, anything we did together, anywhere we went, had to go."

Wilf shook his head. "All those wonderful things she did."

"I know. But that version of Donna is dead. Because if she remembers, just for a second, she'll burn up. You can never tell her. You can't mention me or any of it for the rest of her life."

Sylvia frowned. "But the whole world's talking about it. We traveled across space."

The Doctor smiled. "It'll just be a story. One of those Donna Noble stories, where she missed it all again."

"But she was better with you."

His smile fell. "Don't say that."

"No, she was."

The Doctor swallowed hard. "I just want you to know there are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. That there are people living in the light, and singing songs of Donna Noble, a thousand million light years away. They will never forget her, while she can never remember. And for one moment, one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe."

Sylvia shook her head. "She still is. She's my daughter."

Caroline frowned. "Then maybe you should tell her yourself."

"I was asleep on my bed in my clothes, like a flipping kid!" everyone in the room tensed at the sound of Donna's voice from the corridor. "What did you let me do that for?" she stood in the doorway, glancing at the Doctor and Caroline, but very clearly not really seeing them. "Don't mind me. Donna." She pulled out her phone.

"John Smith," the Doctor said, his voice tense.

"Caroline Attwater."

Sylvia looked at them in worry. "Mr. Smith and Miss Attwater were just leaving." The pair stood.

Donna shook her head. "My phone's gone mad. Thirty-two texts. Veena's gone barmy. She's saying planets in the sky. What have I missed now?" she glanced at the pair again, but just in passing, just a basic formality. "Nice to meet you." She left the room.

"As I said," Sylvia said, "I think you should go."

They nodded and left the home, Wilf following them out onto the street. It was still raining, and the Doctor looked up. "Ah. You'll have quite a bit of this. Atmospheric disturbance. Still, it'll pass. Everything does." He turned them back around to look at Wilf. "Bye then, Wilfred."

"I'll watch out for you, sir."

"You can't ever tell her."

Wilf shook his head. "No, no, no. But every night, Doctor, when it gets dark, and the stars come out, I'll look up on her behalf. I'll look up at the sky, and think of you."

The Doctor nodded. "Thank you."

They were both soaked when they stepped back inside the TARDIS, walking up to the console so that the Doctor could dry them both. He didn't look at Caroline for a time, though he did take her hand again, instead staring at the console of the TARDIS.

And she knew what he was thinking. She just didn't know what to say.

She'd heard what Davros had said to him, about how his companions, his Children of Time, had become murderers because of him. And about all of those people who had died in his name. The destructive force he was on the Universe, taking down innocent souls with him.

The only problem was Caroline didn't know how she felt about it. The Doctor was a good man, a kind man, she knew that, she'd seen that. He cared and he tried and he always wanted to help. He always tried to do the right thing, even if it was difficult. But that meant that someone always had to take the other route.

Today it was his past companions and metacrisis self, willing to do terrible things because they knew the Doctor never would.

And who knew, maybe in the future, the very near future, Caroline would have to do it as well. She would have to join the ranks of companions the Doctor had corrupted without meaning to, the people he had shown the Universe.

Caroline liked to pretend that day would never come. But she understood the Universe enough to know that it would.

And the Doctor didn't want that to happen.

|N-S|

The Doctor was an idiot. A selfish, destructive idiot.

He supposed it was good that he was able to admit that to himself, but it was less good that he was unable to do anything about it.

He should have left Caroline at her home right after returning Donna. He should have saved her from him as quickly as he possibly could.

But he hadn't.

It had been a day since they'd lost Donna and the pair hadn't gone adventuring. It hadn't seemed the moment, not immediately after, not when he was still fighting keeping Caroline.

Instead, they'd sat in the doors of the TARDIS and looked out at stars. Though, the Doctor hadn't really been looking out the doors. Most of his attention had been focused on Caroline.

And it shouldn't have been. It was dangerous that it was. It meant he cared about her too much, it meant it would hurt so much more when she died.

It meant that when she left him he felt like his hearts would collapse.

He was a selfish man, he knew that. He knew that it was better for him, and for Caroline, if he just left her behind. Really, it would have been better for him to never take her along in the first place, but he couldn't do anything about that now. Now, what he really needed to do was leave her, let her live a life away from him, a safe life, where she wouldn't die on some random alien planet no one else in the universe even knew existed.

He was a dangerous man, and keeping Caroline around was going to hurt her.

But leaving her was going to hurt him.

It was a problem he had with all of his companions, something he always realized in the end. He always realized that he was dangerous, that he was deadly, that he was a destructive force in the universe as much as he tried to help. Yet he always took on more companions. He couldn't help it, he really couldn't, because there were so many brilliant humans in the world wanting to see the stars.

But he'd always end up like this.

Suffering, because he knew he should leave them but couldn't.

Now, he and Caroline stood on opposite sides of the TARDIS console, staring at each other, and he tried to work up the energy he needed to tell her that he was sorry, but he had to leave her, he was too dangerous, she would get hurt, it was safer, better, this way.

"Caroline…"

She smiled at him, a sad smile, a smile he knew well now. "I know, Doctor." Of course she knew. Of all the possible things in the universe, she knew that. "I know what you have to do."

He shook his head. "I don't want to."

"You have to."

He looked down at the console, breathing deeply. "How many times…" he'd thought of this once, barely any time in the past, but he hadn't really focused on it. "We were being drawn together, and it wasn't because of the Doctor-Donna." They knew that was why Donna kept reappearing in his life, but it wasn't why Caroline did. "There's another reason."

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"I just kept finding you." He grinned. "Maybe it's a sign."

Slowly, Caroline's expression shifted to a grin. "Of what?"

"That I shouldn't let you go."

With a laugh, the Doctor set the TARDIS into motion, sending the two off into the universe.

A/N: So the Doctor hasn't left Caroline behind...I wonder what that will mean as we shift into his specials.

Thank you to everyone who's read this story so far! It means so much to me that anyone likes this story and Caroline. I hope you'll follow her over to the sequel, 'Awake My Soul'. It's posted now; find it via my profile.