Title: Boy in the Box
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ten.5
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: Amnesty in January, 5_prompts
Prompt: 1, from Table 11 -- Pandora's box
Author's Note: The human version of the Doctor is being referred to as John Smith in this fic, since it's the Doctor's human alias and his clone needed a name.
Author's Note: Spoilers for Journey's End, somewhat. This is an completely alternate take on the ending of Season Four.
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor, or his human clone. Please do not sue.

***

Jamie frowned as he leaned against the console, thinking of the first glimpse he'd had of this room when he had first come into being. He had felt so disoriented, so strange, even though all of his surroundings had been completely familiar at the same time.

It had taken him a moment to realize where he was; there had seemed to be a gauzy haze over everything, as if he wasn't quite a part of the world he'd suddenly popped into. And that had been a very hard concept to wrap his head around -- the fact that he'd just come into being.

How long had it taken him to realize just who and what he was? He'd had it driven into his head from the very beginning that he looked exactly like the Doctor, even before he'd caught sight of himself in a mirror. That hadn't been hard to get used to.

Of course he didn't mind looking like the Doctor. The Time Lord was a beautiful man; looking exactly like him could only be a good thing. And he had to admit that he liked looking into a mirror and knowing that his face reflected that of the man he loved.

He'd almost gotten used to the fact that he a clone of the Doctor; with some major anatomical differences. When they were naked, they looked exactly alike, just as they did when they were clothed. No one would know that they weren't twins.

But there some very significant differences on the inside, even if no one would ever know of them if they weren't told. His human life span; his very human body; and the fact that only one single heart beat in his chest. All of those things made him radically different.

He still hadn't gotten used to the fact that he had only one heart, he thought with a sigh, pressing his palm against his chest. He probably never would. That was one thing that would always feel strange to him -- the knowledge that he was inescapably human.

There was no difference in his thoughts -- and perhaps that was what caused most of his problems, he told himself wryly. He had a Time Lord brain in a human body -- a body that, by all the known laws of physics, shouldn't have been able to house such a mind.

The Doctor had certainly opened a veritable Pandora's box of problems when he'd made that desperate attempt to stop himself from regenerating, hadn't he? Jamie almost wanted to be angry at the other man for bringing him into the world as he was.

Shaking his head, he pushed that anger to the back of his mind, locking it down and refusing to so much as acknowledge it. If the Doctor hadn't brought him into being, then the Time Lord would never have known the love that they shared -- and his life would much emptier.

It was strange to be so new to this world, and yet to already know so much about it. To have all of these memories in his head -- but to know that those memories weren't his, that they belonged to another man, and that he hadn't actually experienced them.

Not only that, but it was decidedly odd to feel that he had his whole life ahead of him, so to speak -- and to know that his life span was ridiculously short, and to not have any idea of how long he might live. That had posed a problem from the beginning.

He was approximately thirty years old, in human years -- that was what the Doctor had ascertained that his body would have aged to if he was actually human. But that only told Jamie what age he was in looks -- his actual age was very different.

Would the fact that he had literally just been born take thirty years away from the time he'd have to live his life -- or add thirty years to it? Was his body already deteriorated to the point that a normal human thirty-year-old's would be, or was he starting with a clean slate?

The Doctor was fairly sure that Jamie's body was brand-new, and that he would be starting his life with the assurance that he could live thirty years longer than a normal human male would expect to. But Jamie wasn't so sure; he knew how capricious fate could be.

After all, it was fate that had opened the Pandora's box and brought him to life. Fate had created so many problems for him, and for the Doctor. And it had given him more than enough worries to last him far more than one short human lifetime.

Jamie wanted to curse fate, to rail at it. That fate had apparently found it so easy to bring him into being was obvious -- but if that was so, then why couldn't it have made him exactly like the Doctor? Why hadn't it chosen to give him the luxury of being a Time Lord?

Clenching his fists, he almost banged them down on the console, before he remembered that the Tardis heartily disliked being treated in that way. He didn't blame her; she had a right to some respect, after all. He wouldn't have liked to be beaten for no reason, either.

He tried to calm himself, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths. He wasn't a Time Lord; he couldn't change that. He had to accept the life he'd been given, the body he'd been given, and be glad that he existed in this world at all.

After all, if he didn't exist .... then that would mean that the Doctor had regenerated, and that the man he loved didn't exist any more, either. Jamie's eyes filled with tears at the thought; he had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from uttering a sob.

He didn't want to think of a world without the Doctor. It was .... unthinkable. Unfathomable. A world where the Doctor as he was now? It wouldn't be a world that Jamie wanted to live in -- and fortunately, with his short human life span, he wouldn't have to.

Unless, of course, something happened to the Doctor that caused him to regenerate while Jamie was still alive. He could feel his heart skip a beat at the idea; that wasn't something he wanted to think about. It was too horrifying to contemplate, the thought of losing his love.

That would open up a whole new Pandora's box of problems, he thought, fear clutching at his single heart. What if that did happen? What if the Doctor died, his Doctor -- and the man that he knew became someone who he couldn't love, someone who didn't love him?

He would be stranded on Earth, more than likely -- taken somewhere that the Doctor thought he might fit in, or given to Torchwood to take care of. At any rate, he would lose the Doctor -- and for him, that was a fate worse than the one he'd almost been subjected to already.

Jamie shuddered at that thought, quickly pushing it away. No, nothing would have been worse than that fate. Having to spend the rest of his short human life with a spoilt brat who only thought of her own desires, and who only wanted him because of who he looked like?

No, that would have been the worst thing that could have happened to him. Or would it? He frowned, his mind sifting through his emotions. At least if he'd been trapped with that bitch, he would have still known that the Doctor existed, that the man he loved was out there somewhere.

He sighed softly, gripping the console with both hands. If he had been condemned to a life of hell with her, at least the Doctor would have still been out there in the universe, unlike his other worst-case scenario. And he could have hoped that the Doctor would come back to him.

Even with all the attendant problems that opening the Pandora's box of his life had brought into the world, he still had a lot to be grateful for. What did it matter if he was in a human body? He was here -- and he was with the man he loved.

In the end, all that mattered was the fact that he was with the Doctor. He was on the Tardis, spending his life with the man who was closest to his heart; nothing else was really important. As long as he had the Doctor in his life, he could deal with all of his other problems.

He might be the boy in the box, leaping out fully formed into the life of the man who had given him this chance to exist in a world that still felt frightening and alien at times. But he was determined to make the most of the life he'd been given -- no matter what that life might bring.

***