The second Rose snapped and her jaw dropped when an open door appeared in the trunk of a large tree.

"In!" older Rose commanded.

The second Rose ran through the door and older Rose followed. The door closed and older Rose sighed in relief. "I'm so glad that worked. It would have been really, really bad if I was wrong."

Younger Rose was stopped halfway up the ramp and was looking around in awe. "This is a TARDIS. This is a TARDIS disguised as a tree. But, the other Doctor's TARDIS is up by Sainsbury's. This…"

"This TARDIS is mine, well, ours," older Rose explained. "Sorry, but do you mind getting off the ramp? We can't touch, remember?"

Younger Rose nodded and moved. "Yeah, I'll never forget that mistake. No paradoxes. What if it was really me that you hit with your bag?"

"I was pretty confident with my guess and even more confident with my test, but it really was a big risk. I'm sure I'll be chewed out for it later."

"How'd that work though? How'd the TARDIS open for me?"

"Because you're me. The TARDIS is far more clever than us. She knows who should be allowed in and keeps everyone else out."

"But this is your own TARDIS. It's not the Doctor's. How do we get our own TARDIS?"

"It was sort of a gift. I got a piece of TARDIS coral that could be grown into a TARDIS so that's what we did."

"And you can fly it on your own?" young Rose asked in surprise. She watched as her older self typed quickly on the key pad and paged through things on the touch screen. Older Rose seemed to know exactly what she was doing, but young Rose hadn't a clue.

"It's rather complicated, but still easier than you think. I helped build it so I sort of know how things work. Okay, I'm sorry, but I want to run a test really quickly." Older Rose took a small black slab device from under the console and asked young Rose to put her hand on it. "Sorry. I know you're me, but I still want to take extra precautions." Older Rose spun the monitor so younger Rose could see the readings. "Definitely Rose Tyler."

"Now we have to find a way to prove that outside of the TARDIS. We have to catch that metamorph and I don't want anyone second guessing me again. We know it can duplicate anything visual, but what about other senses?"

"Oh, that is brilliant!" older Rose cheered. "I've heard that most metamorphs can't mimic smells. I don't know if that counts for all of them though… Oh, but this is the Doctor we're talking about. Especially your Doctor."

"Taste," they answered together.

"That man will lick anything he's curious about," younger Rose said as she grimaced and shook her head. "So what do we use?"

"I don't know. Let's head to the kitchen." Older Rose led the way, but she really didn't need to. It was set up like the TARDIS young Rose was used to.

"It looks so much the same, but it's so different," younger Rose commented.

"Oh no, this isn't 'different'. Wait until you see the Doctor's TARDIS as it is now. The TARDIS makes huge changes. Stairs everywhere. Bright lights. Glass floors. I just really liked the TARDIS you travel in now, so this is what I got."

"If you've both got your own TARDISs, does that mean you always travel separately?" younger Rose worried.

"No, we very rarely travel separately. I have a garden in his TARDIS where I park mine. Then we switch and he'll park in mine. We have to use both of them regularly or they get restless," older Rose explained.

They entered the kitchen and both started looking around. They weren't sure what they were looking for and stopped to look at each other.

"I guess it really doesn't matter. I know it's sticky, but…" older Rose held up a jar of jam and set it on the table.

Younger Rose shrugged and undid the top. "Where do I put it?"

"Well, I think it should be a secret between us, so why not lift your shirt a bit and draw a line just above your waist."

Younger Rose did as suggested then looked up at her older self in thought. "Maybe you should, too. If it can mimic anyone from my memories, it might pretend to be you instead."

"Good point." Older Rose did the same and put the jar back in the refrigerator. "Are we all set then?"

"Ready as we'll ever be."

The two Roses exited the TARDIS together and started looking around for the metamorph. It wasn't anywhere they could see so they started walking together toward the bowtie Doctor's TARDIS, careful to keep a safe distance between them. They were halfway up the street when they heard an angry shout behind them.

"Rose Tyler!"

They turned and saw the bowtie Doctor storming up to them.

"Where have you been?! One simple instruction! 'Wait here.' Is that really so hard to understand? 'Wait here', does not, in any language, translate to 'ignore the Doctor and take a field trip'!"

Both girls giggled and he looked at them suspiciously.

"Where's the other Rose?" he asked with concern.

"We don't know where the metamorph got off to, but we're both Rose," the younger Rose answered.

"And how am I supposed to believe that from you?"

"You don't have to hear it from her, you can hear it from me," said older Rose. "This one is the real one."

"How do you know?" he asked as he scrutinized the younger of the two.

"I came up with a test. One failed. This one passed," she explained.

"What kind of test?"

"I can't say. You're just going to have to trust me."

"Why can't you say?"

"Because how are we sure you're not the metamorph?" younger Rose answered. "It got away and can mimic anything from my mind. How do we know you're not it?"

"Yeah, well how do I know you're both not metamorphs? I don't know how many there are," he questioned.

"Just one," they both answered.

"My Doctor was tracing it. That's why we were here," younger Rose explained.

"And while we were in my TARDIS, I did a quick scan for different life forms and it came back with one," older Rose informed him.

"You took this Rose into your TARDIS?!" the Doctor shouted. "What if-?"

"I told you. I figured it out," older Rose reminded him. "I have no doubts that this is the right Rose. No doubts whatsoever. You however… Ugh… I don't know what to think."

"But I'm me," he said pathetically.

"You found them!" the pin-striped Doctor shouted in relief as he jogged over to them. "Seriously! How hard is it to understand 'don't wander off'? You are so impossible sometimes. Wait… where's the other one? We're missing one. How do we know which one this is?"

"She's the real Rose and I'm the real Rose, but we have no idea about you two." Older Rose shook her head in frustration. "Oi, Pin-stripes. How many metamorphs are there?"

"Pin-stripes? Did you just call me 'Pin-stripes'? That's kind of rude, don't you think?"

"That's rich coming from you," younger Rose laughed. "Just answer her question."

"One. Just one metamorph."

"There you go, Bowtie," younger Rose said playfully. "Is that confirmation enough? Three people agree that there's only one metamorph."

"Okay, I'll take that as confirmation then. So, both Roses claim that they're absolutely sure that the other is really her. I'll trust that. So this metamorph-"

"Could be either of you for all we know," younger Rose reminded them.

"Me?" the pin-striped Doctor asked in surprise.

"You found them!" a voice called out to them. "We've been looking everywhere for-" the sentence trailed off as the man caught sight of his double. Two pin-striped Doctors glared darkly at one another.

"Okay…" older Rose said slowly. "My Doctor, I apologize for doubting you."

"Same to both Roses," he said in return as he looked between his identical younger selves. "So, Rose, either Rose, now might be a good time to let me know about your fail proof identity test."

"I don't think the metamorph will fall for it twice," younger Rose said doubtfully. "Rose taught it a pretty good lesson the first time."

"I don't know what I could say or do to prove myself," one of the pin-striped Doctors said as he continued to glare at the other.

An idea suddenly came to older Rose and she rushed up the bowtie Doctor and pulled him down so she could whisper in his ear. "The sonic. If it's still younger me it's draining, the metamorph and younger me won't scan, but the real Doctor should still scan as Time Lord, right?"

A smile spread across the bowtie Doctor's face and Rose stepped to his side, preparing to run. The bowtie Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and very quickly scanned the identical Doctors. As soon as he finished, he nodded to the real Doctor. Older Rose seized the wrist of the correct pin-striped Doctor and shouted, "Run!"

They took off quickly, every one of them racing toward the bowtie Doctor's TARDIS. The bowtie Doctor had a head start and got there first. He clicked his fingers even before they arrived and raced in, followed by his Rose. Rose dropped the pin-striped Doctor's wrist so he could quickly follow in after her. The pin-striped Doctor stopped in the doorway and older Rose and the bowtie Doctor saw why. There were two younger Roses again, both desperate to be let in. The pin-striped Doctor looked devastated and helpless as he blocked the door.

"It's alright," older Rose told them. "We planned for this. Rose, lift your shirt."

Both young Roses lifted their shirts to reveal a smear of jam. The pin-striped Doctor shook his head. "It can read her mind. It-"

"No, that's not it," older Rose explained. "I don't know if this thing can mimic smell, but we thought that it probably couldn't mimic taste, especially with you."

Both Doctors' eyes widened as they looked at each other and all the Roses.

"Alright. Time for a test then." The pin-striped Doctor swept a finger of jam off the belly of the closest Rose and brought it up to his nose. He stared at both girls. "I don't need to taste it. It doesn't smell right," he declared. He shoved the closest Rose back, seized the wrist of the other and pulled her in.

Older Rose sighed in relief, but still felt a little worried by the way the Rose outside was banging on the door.

"Clever. Very, very clever Rose," the bowtie Doctor praised as he walked around the console toward the door.

"Yeah, a lot more clever than you, weren't they?" the pin-striped Doctor muttered. He held a palm sized rectangular device above younger Rose's head and a large bubble encompassed her. Young Rose disappeared and in her place was a squat alien with a very large head. Its limbs were short and muscular. It had no torso, so its arms were on the sides of its monstrous head. It glared at them all and gnashed its tiny, razor-sharp teeth.

"Let Rose in," the pin-striped Doctor requested.

The bowtie Doctor was already at the door and when he opened it, he immediately pulled Rose into a comforting embrace. She was shaking and hyperventilating. She'd been terrified that she was really being left behind.

"It's okay," the bowtie Doctor said softly as he rubbed her back. "We would never leave without you."

"But… but…" she was having a hard time pulling herself together.

The pin-striped Doctor finished securing the bubble-like barrier and turned to face young Rose. "Oh, Rose, I'm so sorry for scaring you like that," he said sincerely. "I lied about the jam. I thought you'd understand. I wanted to trick the metamorph into coming in here so I could capture it. I'd never leave you. I'd never give up unless I knew for certain."

The pin-striped Doctor opened his arms to her, and she accepted the invitation, wrapping her arms around his middle while he held her tightly to him.

"You're such a prat," she spoke quietly against his chest.

He chuckled. "I can be, can't I? I'm sorry."

"So do you have jam, too?" the bowtie Doctor asked older Rose. He lifted her shirt, swiped a little jam, and licked his finger. "Raspberry! My favorite."

Older Rose giggled and shook her head.

The pin-striped Doctor finally licked his finger, too. "Yeah, raspberry's my favorite, too. Like he said, you girls are very clever. So very clever. But where'd you get the jam from?"

"From my TARDIS," young Rose said with a grin.

"You mean ours?"

"No, I mean the TARDIS of Rose Tyler."

The pin-striped Doctor turned around to look at older Rose and she waggled her fingers.

"The reason I didn't tell you about where and when I was supposed to meet my Doctor is because I was supposed to meet him on a different planet about a thousand years in the future," older Rose explained. "I helped grow and build my own TARDIS."

"Grow?" the pin-striped Doctor asked. "But that takes thousands of years."

"Not if you shatterfry the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabilizer to a foldback harmonic of 36.3." older Rose informed him.

"Are you serious?" the pin-striped Doctor said in awe. "This is Rose? This is really Rose? She helped build a TARDIS? She can fly a TARDIS?"

"You've always known she's clever," the bowtie Doctor reminded him. "She learns fast and has a lot of time to learn it all."

"So you don't need to worry about me going to the supermarket on my own. I'm a big girl," older Rose teased.

"No, I worry," the bowtie Doctor disagreed, "but I always worry about you. I just can't keep you chained at my side at all times. You'd get sick of me."

"I can't believe that I get all this time with you. You and me traveling for hundreds of years together," the pin-striped Doctor said as he stared at his Rose. They still held each other in a loose embrace.

"Is that alright?" young Rose asked uncertainly.

The pin-striped Doctor gazed at her pensively for a few moments and slowly moved forward to kiss her. Their lips met softly, but then he pulled her closer. It was a long firm kiss and Rose blushed when they pulled apart.

Older Rose had been hitting her Doctor in the chest in excitement. The bowtie Doctor pulled her to his side where she wrapped her arms around his waist. "Do you have any idea how long she's waited for that?" she whispered.

"Do you have any idea how long he's wished it, too?"

"It's such a shame they have to forget it all. If only they were allowed to remember it, it might help them through everything that comes."

Young Rose and the pin-striped Doctor turned to their older selves. "This is it then. I guess this is where we really part ways. Thanks for the help with the gwanzulum," the pin-striped Doctor said as he pointed at the creature in the bubble.

"It was fun," said older Rose.

"I wish we could remember it," said younger Rose.

"Oh, you will eventually," the bowtie Doctor assured her. "You'll have to live it all again when you get to our point in time. At that point, you'll be us."

"Time travel is so weird," young Rose said as she shook her head.

"Many happy travels to you," the pin-striped Doctor wished them in farewell.

"Oh no you don't," said older Rose. She walked over to him and gave him a tight hug. She took just a moment to breath him in. "I love you always, no matter your face, but I'll always miss this you. Always."

"Is it the sexy hair?" he teased.

Rose reached up and tugged on his hair. "You do have great hair."

"I have hair, too!" the bowtie Doctor reminded them irritably.

"Don't worry, Doctor, you're just as good-looking," young Rose assured him. "I don't want my Doctor to regenerate any time soon, but I still look forward to being with you, too."

Older Rose walked back over to her Doctor but he stopped her. "You have to leave, too," he told her. "I've got to go to Adeki to put this guy back. I'm not going through anymore metamorph mix ups. It's easier if I go alone. Meet up with you at our last planned rendezvous?"

"Alright," she conceded. "See you in a bit, but then it's off to Omia 4. You promised."

The pin-striped Doctor and both Roses walked out of the TARDIS and headed down the street for their own ships. They were all so consumed by their own thoughts that none of them spoke. Both girls stopped when they came to Rose's TARDIS, but the Doctor hadn't paid attention for a second and had to go back to them.

"So, any last words of wisdom?" younger Rose asked.

"None that you'll remember," older Rose replied sadly. "I really wish there was something I could say that would help you through. Just never give up hope."

"It's going to be bad, isn't it?" asked the Doctor. "This feeling I have, the feeling that something's coming, it's going to be terrible."

Rose nodded, wishing she could change it for them. She didn't want them to suffer, but they would. It was inevitable. "As you can see though, it gets better. Take care."

Rose snapped her fingers and the hidden door in the large tree opened. The Doctor gaped openly. Older Rose waved to them both and disappeared into her TARDIS.

Once inside, she collapsed onto the jumpseat. In just a few short minutes, all the memories of this day would vanish from the minds of the younger Doctor and his young Rose. She thought of what they were going to suffer and it brought back the pain of her past. It still stung when she looked back. It was like she told them though, it got better. At this time in her life, she was the happier than she'd ever been. It was time once again to put the past behind her and live for the future. And the immediate future? A trip to Omia 4.

There it is. The end. Please leave a review to tell me what you think of it.

In a day or two, I'll start posting another story in this 'verse. It's called "Artron Displacement". It happens to have another two Doctor plot and a few other characters.