And so there they were, stuck together. It wasn't so bad. Rose was feeling conflicted. But how could she not, given the circumstances? The Doctor had said that the Meta-Crisis Doctor was a price that they paid, that he was born in blood and battle. But watching him kick rocks around with his red trainers, hands pushed deep into his pockets, she just didn't see that side of him.

What now? She wondered. Is this it? Is this their happily ever after? No, she was getting ahead of herself. They beat the Daleks and shared one kiss. It wasn't as if he had proposed. Oh, God…could she even imagine the Doctor proposing? It was too surreal.

"Did you have to strand us in bloody Norway? We're regular people. We 'aven't got a time machine that we can just hop in anytime we want and be on the moon. Now I've got to call Pete and he 'as to send Torchwood to come pick us up," Jackie Tyler groaned, going over to smack the Doctor on the arm.

"Oi," he protested, backing away from her. "It wasn't me. Well, it was. Sort of. But still, that's enough with the hitting."

"I'm gonna kill you if I ever see that…you again," Jackie said, gesturing to the spot where the TARDIS had been, only moments before.

"Doubt you'll ever have the chance," the Doctor said with a tired look in his brown eyes.

"How am I even going to explain to Pete that the Doctor grew another Doctor out of his 'and and dropped you off here with us? He's going to think I've gone bonkers."

"Oh, I think he'll understand just fine," the Doctor said, smiling. "He's taken everything else in stride. How did he feel about you jumping dimensions, by the way?"

Jackie's back straightened, "He didn't know. But it wasn't because I kept it from him. I just didn't want him to worry. I can take care of myself, thank you very much."

"I can see that, Jackie Tyler. I'd hate to be the one to try to tell you 'no.' That one over there gets that from you, you know," he inclined his head in Rose's direction.

"Don't be talkin' about me," Rose said, finally weighing in.

"Only good things," the Doctor said, the corners of his mouth turning up ever so slightly.

"So what are we going to do with you now?" Jackie asked, pushing buttons on her mobile.

"Isn't that the question of the day?" the Doctor responded.

"Ah, we'll figure out," Jackie said, walking away to talk to Rose's dad.

Rose sat in the wet sand, staring out at the water. The Doctor came over to sit beside her, resting his hands on his knees and glancing back and forth from her to the sea that she was staring so intently at.

"We never did make it to Barcelona, did we?" he asked. "Meant to, just got side tracked so often. I wonder if this dimension has that planet…Barcelona. S'pose we could find out, once I get this TARDIS grown. Still want to go?"

"Allons-y?" She asked, giving him a small smile.

"Oh, did I tell you that I finally met someone named Allonso? I did. Aboard the Titanic; the spaceship, not the actual one."

"He did," she said softly.

"Sorry?" he asked.

"He met someone named Allonso. You weren't created yet, remember?"

"Rose…" he started to say, his eyes narrowing.

"You're not him," she said, looking back out to the water.

"Well, I'm not a Slitheen, if that's what you're thinking," he said sighing.

"He's still out there. I spent all that time trying to find him and then he drops me off here and runs off again."

"Then it's a good thing that I'm not him. I didn't strand you in Norway."

"How can you act like this is perfectly normal? It's so strange. It's so…" she broke off.

"Alien?" he asked. "I suppose it is. And it isn't fair to you. Wasn't fair the first time I regenerated on you, but you were able to overlook that. That's all this is, Rose; another regeneration. Only this time, I'm part human. But I'm still me. I'll always be me."

"But he's still out there," she repeated. "There's another you."

"There's always another me," he said, matter-of-factly.

"What?"

"When you met me, I was nine hundred years old and in my ninth body. Think about that. So, yeah, for me this is perfectly normal. Weeell, maybe not peeerfectly normal. But normal enough," the Doctor shrugged. "And I'm a time traveler. For me, everything can be the present. I'm always running around at different points in time depending on what angle you look at it. I could be battling witches with Shakespeare and know that a different me is also on a planet light years away at the same date in time. I've even teamed up with more than one other me before. It's all wibbly wobbly. I guess I've gotten used to it."

"Well, I haven't," she said, shaking her blonde hair and sighing.

"Think about it this way," he said. "You're sitting here, with me now, yes?"

"Yeah," she answered, hesitantly.

"And you were also with me, hundreds and thousands of years in the future and hundreds of years in the past. We watched the Earth burn up. We saved people on the New Earth. We sat underneath a black hole on a spaceship. We also met Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens. There are other versions of you running around in the other dimension."

"That all already happened," she said, turning to face him. "It's the past."

"In your timeline, yes. But not in the timeline of the universe."

"I'm here, on a beach in Norway in another dimension. But in the future, I'm also back in the other dimension, possessed by Cassandra and running from cat nurses. Is that what you're saying?"

"See, always knew you were brilliant," he said, perking up and smiling ear to ear.

"But, in my timeline, the Doctor also just left me on a beach in Norway," Rose said as she brushed sand off of her pants.

"The Doctor is sitting right here next to you," he said. "That version of me, the full-blooded Time Lord version of me, left. There's also a version of me wearing a long scarf and a big brimmed hat flying in the TARDIS with Sarah Jane Smith out there somewhere. I'm also stranded on Earth, working for Unit and driving a car named 'Bessie.' I'm also out there, somewhere, giving my granddaughter advice. And I'm also out there, somewhere, holding your hand for the first time and saying, 'run.' Honestly, you call yourself a time traveler? I once changed my entire body, every cell…and my personality…right in front of you. And this is strange?"

"I see your point," she said. "But what about you? I get that you're used to regenerating, but you've always been a Time Lord before. Doesn't it feel different than shrinking, growing, new hair, new teeth? You're part human now."

"A very new Doctor," he said, nodding. "The body is different. The same, but different. This ticker is going to take some getting used to," he said, patting his chest. "All in all, though, I've had worse." The Doctor tapped his head with his index finger. "This is still all Time Lord. Good thing, too. I've changed my complete biological makeup before and became a full human. Your minds are so limited."

"Oi," Rose exclaimed.

"Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Old habits. See, I'm still as rude as ever."

"So what now?" she asked, noticing that her mum was coming back their way.

"Dunno," he admitted, standing up and reaching for her hand to pull her up out of the sand. "But isn't that the beauty of it? Don't ya see, Rose? Brand new adventure. One that only we can have."