Fic: What Is In a Name?
Fic: What Is In a Name?
Series: These Words Between Us
Characters: Pete Tyler, Rose Tyler, The Duplicate Tenth Doctor (Ten II/Rose)
Spoilers: Journey's End
Rating: G
A/N: This follows on from The Lessons She Learnt from Me. Unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own.
Summary: The Doctor decides on a name for himself with a little help from Rose.
What is in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Rose Tyler frowned at the Doctor’s first and generic response when her father, Pete Tyler, had asked him what name he wanted on his ID. Both she and the Doctor had discussed why he needed a name, but neither one of them were particularly keen on establishing an identity for him beyond ‘the Doctor.’
Pete frowned at the man opposite him. ‘Nobody goes by the name of John Smith unless they are having an affair,’ he pointed out. ‘You can be anyone you want.’
‘But he’s the Doctor,’ said Rose, looking at the man beside with a fond smile. ‘Just the Doctor.’
The Doctor smiled back at Rose and threaded his fingers with herS. ‘See, Rose get’s it,’ he said with a smile.
Pete took a patient intake of breath. ‘Yes, but Rose knows you,’ Pete said, trying to keep the exasperation from his voice. ‘Other people, well they get suspicious if someone doesn’t have a name they can identify with.’
This time it was the Doctor that frowned as a rather recent and unpleasant experience came to the forefront of his mind. He could feel crushing blackness while hearing stolen words. ‘Perhaps John Smith isn’t the best of choices,’ he said, trying to force the memory down before looking over at Rose. ‘Pete’s right I’ve got to have a name, ideal in a crisis.’ Rose frowned at him, but he gave her a look which told her that he would explain later. ‘As long as you know I’m the Doctor.’
The puzzled expression didn’t leave Rose’s face entirely, but she did manage a smile for him. ‘The one and only,’ she agreed.
‘Well, one of two, but who’s counting,’ the Doctor replied with a smile before looking back at Pete. ‘So a name, a name, name, name,’ he muttered to himself, tapping the fingers of his other hand against the arm of the chair. ‘Something distinguished, don’t you think Rose?’ he asked, sliding his eyes back to the blonde who was still looking at him, the puzzlement now been replaced by amusement. ‘Got any ideas?’
Rose contemplated his question for a while, her mind mulling over all the different alias’s he had used in her time. ‘What about the name you used when we met Queen Victoria?’ It was the only one she could think of that hadn’t been ‘John Smith’.
He looked over at Rose and saw that she was smiling. ‘What? James McCrimmon?’ he asked her and she nodded her head enthusiastically. ‘N’ah,’ he told her, ‘it was the name of a friend of mine a couple of hundred years back. It was the only Scottish sounding name I could think of. I was rather put on the spot there.’
Rose nodded her head in agreement. ‘I noticed,’ she said, ‘the fact you were from Balamory was a bit of a giveaway.’ She smiled at him again. ‘I like the name James though,’ she leant back from the Doctor and studied him. ‘You could be a James, it suits you.’ She turned her head to her father. ‘What do you think?’
Pete shrugged. ‘I don’t have to live with the name,’ he told his daughter before looking at the Doctor. ‘At least you get to choose your name, unlike some poor buggers out there.’
‘Say’s the man who allowed his son to be called Tony,’ the Doctor muttered, earning himself a snort of laughter from Rose and a raised eyebrow from Pete. The Doctor glanced over at Rose. ‘Donna?’ he said hopefully, smiling disarmingly at Rose.
However, she was already far too wise to him. ‘N’ah,’ she told him, but couldn’t help it when her lips hitched up into a giveaway smile which told him that she was amused. Very suddenly a thought struck her and once again she was studied the Doctor while assessing the name she had in her mind. ‘That’s it,’ she exclaimed, happy that her suggestion would be accepted, ‘you could be Doctor James Noble.’ She smiled gently at him. ‘As a memory to Donna.’
The Doctor looked thoughtfully at Rose who was beaming back at him with a hundred watt smile. ‘Doctor James Noble,’ he repeated, tasting the words in his mouth. ‘James Noble,’ he said more slowly and then he smiled back at Rose. ‘I think I like it, Doctor James Noble,’ he said the name again before nodding his head. ‘Yep, definitely like it.’
Pete looked at the Doctor, clearly a bit worried about his state of mind but Rose just shook her head and smiled fondly at him.
Two hours later, in the bright sunshine of late summer, the Doctor and Rose walked hand in hand away from the Torchwood HQ. ‘I gave dad my resignation,’ she told the Doctor, ‘while they were doing your photo’s.’ She looked down at their entwined hands and sighed. ‘He wasn’t happy, about losing one of his best agents, but I thought about what you said the other day, and if you can try something different, then so can I,’ she declared with a wide grin on her lips.
The Doctor grinned back at her. ‘That’s the spirit, Rose Tyler,’ he said as he spun her into his arms before pressing his lips to her strawberry flavoured lips. He gently coaxed her lips apart savouring her taste before breaking the kiss before it became indecent for public viewing.
As they continued walking, Rose looked up at him. ‘So what was that all about earlier, you know, deciding John Smith wasn’t that great a name and such.’
His face darkened, and with it, Rose’s expression turned into one of concern. ‘It’s not something I like thinking about,’ he told her tightly. He really didn’t like thinking about what happened on Midnight. ‘It wasn’t that long ago really.’
Realising now tight his composure had become, Rose squeezed his hand. ‘You don’t have to tell me,’ she said, ‘not right now.’
‘Another time?’ he asked her, relived that he didn’t have to recount that particular story. It had been bad enough thinking about it before the metacrisis and sometimes he could still feel the darkness crushing him, stealing away his thoughts and mind. He shivered and Rose’s concerned increased tenfold. ‘I’m fine,’ he told her, seeing her look, ‘it’s just it wasn’t that long ago, the experience is still pretty fresh in my memory.’
‘S’okay,’ she assured him, ‘another time,’ she agreed as she continued to lead him away from Torchwood. ‘So, Doctor Noble, where to first?’
A/NII: I do have a couple more of these, but I am also working on my first multi-chapter fic for the first time in a few years, and I've got some work to do on that, so be patient, there will be more from this 'Verse very soon.