Triptych 4/10
The Doctor, Donna, Benton and the Brigadier walked back into the room where the TARDIS sat. Beside it, light still flashing as the last echoes of the asthmatic wheeze that were the engines running faded away, was its perfect twin.
"I wonder who it's going to be," the Doctor whispered to Donna.
She whispered back, "If it's the one before you, would blonde-and-perky be with him?"
He couldn't help but chuckle at her description of Rose. "Jealous?" he whispered back.
"Not no more," she told him. "Might be a little uncomfortable, but..."
She fell silent as the door creaked open. "About to find out," he whispered back.
"Well!" a male voice said and a young man with black hair and a kilt walked out. "We're indoors, at least!"
"It's Jamie," the Doctor whispered to Donna. "That means that's my second self."
"At least it's not raining, eh?" a merry voice answered and a small but solidly built older man with jet-black hair walked out behind Jamie.
"That's him?" Donna squeaked in a whisper. "That's you?"
"That's me," the Doctor whispered back.
"Cor!" she gasped. "What do you do, age in reverse? The older you get the younger you look?"
He just smiled at her.
The smaller Doctor suddenly noticed them. "AH!" he laughed, moving over and taking the Brigadier's hand in both of his, shaking it heartily. "Brigadier! Good to see you, old chap! And Benton!"
His hands moved from the Brigadier's to Benton's. But the second they closed over the beringed hand, all trace of glee faded from the smaller man's and brilliant cobalt eyes narrowed as the head tilted. "What happened?" he demanded.
"There was.... an accident," Benton said.
"More than that, if I'm reading myself superimposed over you," the newcomer half-growled as he dropped the hand and turned to face the Doctor and Donna. "And if another me is here with his fetching Time Lady companion. You're ginger!"
"Yes, I'm ginger," the Doctor laughed.
"Haven't been ginger since I was two-hundred-and-fifty and I started going grey," the second Doctor said. "And I don't remember having a ginger Time Lady as a companion before I became me."
"I'm not the first," the Doctor said. "I'm eight regenerations later than you."
"Oh, dear," the second Doctor said, a hand clapping over his mouth. He turned back to Benton. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that you're the reason behind this gathering of Doctors."
"No," Benton frowned. "Not that I know of..."
The Brigadier stepped forward. "I am. I sent out a distress call last night in the hopes that you could help yourself."
Benton bristled. "I don't need help!"
"Not you," the Brigadier roared. "The Doctor! The real Doctor, the one who's lying in a coma in the medbay! Not a sergeant who's gone mad and thinks he's the Doctor!"
"Oh, he does more than think he is," the second Doctor said, and the Doctor nodded in agreement.
"What do you mean?" the Brigadier asked.
"Right now," the Doctor said, nodding toward Benton, "we can sense him. At this moment, that is the Doctor. And I don't have any clue why."
"Or how," the second Doctor said. "I have a clue as to the why. As I said, he's been superimposed over Benton."
"Like a neural imprint," the Doctor breathed. "But there's no sign of direct tampering---"
"No, there isn't," the second Doctor agreed. "Which is why the how matters so much. Until we know the how, we can't fix them."
"Them?" Benton asked, frowning.
"Yes, them," the second Doctor snapped. "We'll fix both you and the dandy! Get everyone all sorted out!"
"There's nothing to sort out," Benton snapped. "This is irreversible! I'm in here, sometimes, and other times I'm in the coma! There's no way to fix this!"
"There has to be," the Doctor said.
"There isn't," Benton insisted.
"There is," the Doctor said, stepping forward, brown eyes blazing. "Because if we don't fix this, I never exist."
On to chapter five