Triptych 3/10
"Oh, don't look so surprised," Benton laughed. "Ah, but you don't recognise me in here. That's okay." He took Donna's hand and kissed the back of it. "And you-- a Time Lady that I don't recognise. I'm intrigued."
Donna was frowning deeply. She stared at Benton, but her question was aimed at the Doctor. "You said this was Benton. But he talks like he's you."
The Doctor's fingers closed around Benton's wrist, and he received an indulgent smile in return. But the Doctor's reply was for Donna. "Body temperature human-normal." The fingers shifted and the Doctor frowned. "Only one pulse. He's not me. He's all human."
"How does he recognise you, then?" she squeaked.
He shook his head. "I don't know."
"If I may?" Benton smiled. "Time Lords being Time Lords, personal paradoxes - meeting ourselves - is sometimes inevitable. Because we share so many of the same brainwaves, we can sense our own and know immediately if we're ahead of ourselves."
"He's right," the Doctor said.
"But if this happened to your third body," Donna said, waving at the observation window and the still form below, "why can't you remember--"
"Because it's a sanity-saving measure," the Doctor said. "While it's going on, it happens to both of us as if it's the first time. When it's over, I'll remember it from both points of view - because I'm latest in the chain - but my third self won't remember it at all beyond a 'I met my tenth self sometime in 1972' vagueness. And the memory will be totally lost when he regenerates again."
Their attention was drawn to the observation window, where Harry had raced in with the Brigadier. "What's going on there, then?" Donna asked.
"Brainwaves took another dip, it looks like," Benton said from her side. He and the Doctor flanked her. "They happen randomly, and it freaks them both out until they recover."
"How long does it take to recover?" the Doctor asked.
Benton shrugged. "Sometimes days. Sometimes minutes. But he always does recover." He smiled. "See? There they go, raising again."
"You said 'he'," the Doctor said. "Not 'me'."
"Oh, I'm Benton," he said firmly. "I just.... have his memories sometimes." He worried his lower lip with his teeth. "And a good bit of his knowledge. Sometimes."
"A Time-Lord-human metacrisis?" Donna gasped. "You said I was the first!"
"You were the first," the Doctor said, eyes narrowing as he looked at Benton. "He would be in agony, burning up, if that were the case. No, this isn't a metacrisis."
"What is it, then?" Donna murmured.
"I'm not completely sure," the Doctor breathed. "But I fear this is one of my oldest human friends having gone mad."
"Yes, we fear for that, as well," the Brigadier said. They had been so involved in their conversation, they hadn't noticed his entrance. "Doctor, the technicians have just reported a second TARDIS materialising near yours."
"A second TARDIS?" the Doctor and Benton chorused, turning to face the Brigadier.
"Do they know whose?" Benton asked.
Donna's eyes narrowed as she noticed the monitors showing another brainwave dip. A suspicion started to bloom in her gut.
The Brigadier was nodding. "Yes, actually. It's a blue police box. It's another you."
"Blimey, really?" Benton asked, pushing out of the room at a run.
"Oh, this gets better and better," the Doctor said, moving to follow. "Coming, Donna?"
"Right behind you, Spaceman," she said, smirking as she followed them.
She couldn't wait to meet this one.
On to chapter four