Chapter Text
The Doctor grinned at Rose and Angel before dashing to the console and flicking a few switches, checking the monitor. Angel glanced at Rose a moment before cautiously making her way to the console to help him, "6pm..." he muttered, turning a knob, "Tuesday...October...5006...on the way to Barcelona!" he straightened up and grinned, very pleased, as he looked over, Rose by the Y-beam and Angel at the side of the console, "Now then...what do I look like?" he only gave Rose a second before holding up a hand, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. Don't tell me."
"Two legs," Angel said softly and he looked at her, grinning as she didn't give him any specifics, "Two arms…"
He beamed and reached out, taking her hand, "Two hands..." he laughed, before frowning and twisting his one wrist, feeling it with his other hand, though he still held her hand with the other, "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle…" before letting go as his hands flew to his head, his eyes wide, "HAIR! I'm not bald!" he ran his hands though his hair with glee, "Oh, oh! Big hair! Feel that!" he reached out again and took Angel's hands, putting them in his hair for her to run her fingers through with a little laugh. His hands trailed down to the sides of his head, his thumbs feeling there while his fingertips remained on the back of Angel's hands, "Sideburns, I've got sideburns!" he was delighted, "Or really bad skin…"
"It's sideburns," Angel reassured him with a small smile, pulling her hands away.
"Little bit thinner…" he remarked, slapping his stomach, "That's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it," he gasped, shifting, feeling something, "I...have got...a mole," he breathed, sounding for all the world as though he'd just made a remarkable discovery, he looked at Angel, "I can feel it…"
Angel however, glanced at Rose, who was breathing quite heavily, looking scared of the new Doctor before her, though he didn't notice, his attention on her.
"Between my shoulder blades," he reached out and took Angel's hand again, turning and twisting his arms to place her hand where the mole on his back was, though she couldn't feel it through his leather coat, "There's a mole," he rotated his shoulder, "That's alright. Love the mole!" he turned to Rose finally, "Go on then, tell me," he stood straight as Angel walked back to Rose's side, waiting for an assessment from her, "What do you think?"
"Who are you?" Rose asked him quietly, very shy and scared.
The Doctor frowned, almost confused as to why she didn't recognize him, "I'm the Doctor."
She shook her head, "No...where is he? Where's the Doctor?" her voice rose, "What have you done to him?!"
He blinked, "You saw me, I…I changed..." he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "...right in front of you."
"I saw him sort of explode, and then you replaced him, like a...a teleport or a transmat or a body swap or something."
The Doctor could only stare at her, at a loss, before glancing at Angel, who was looking at him as she always had, a warmth in her eyes and a curiosity as to what sort of man this new Doctor was. He couldn't help the small shiver that raced down his spine when he saw her beautiful green eyes gazing over him, feeling a heat strike up in his neck, threatening to make its way to his cheeks.
Luckily he was distracted from that when Rose stepped forward and pushed his chest, "You're not fooling me," he rocked back on his heels a bit, "I've seen all sorts of things. Nanogenes...Gelth..." her gaze darkened, "Slitheen..."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows and turned to Angel, incredulous.
"Oh my God," Rose gasped, "Are you a Slitheen?"
"He's not Slitheen, Rose," Angel assured her calmly, "From what I've seen they're rather tubby and he's far too thin to fit one in him."
Rose shook her head, starting to shout, "Send him back. I'm warning you, send the Doctor back right now!"
"Rose, it's me," the Doctor said softly, trying not to startle her. He leaned forward but she stepped back, "Honestly, it's me."
Rose could only stare at him, breathing heavily.
"He was dying Rose," Angel whispered, reminding her, as she placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, she always hated when humans got upset.
At first she wasn't sure why Rose was making such a big deal out of the regeneration, it was such a part of Time Lord culture that she had to remind herself Rose was human, she had no idea what was going on and the Doctor hadn't exactly been able to explain it thoroughly before it had happened. She swallowed hard, she hadn't gotten to say something very important to him either in all the chaos of the Daleks and taking in the Vortex and him regenerating. She hadn't gotten a chance to tell him what she'd realized earlier, that she loved him. Yes, it was still the Doctor, just with a new face, new personality, but...she'd wanted to at least tell HIM before he changed into him. She...she didn't want him to think she'd started to love him because he changed but before he had.
"To save our lives," she shook herself from her thoughts, she would tell him soon, she promised herself that, but right now Rose was terrified and quite possibly in shock, "Time Lords change our bodies. Every single cell, but...it's still him. It's still the Doctor."
"He can't be," Rose whispered to her, though her eyes remained on the Doctor.
Angel looked at him, stepping away from Rose, "Show her," she whispered to him as she moved over to the console.
He nodded, taking a few steps closer, to stare Rose in the eye, "The very first word I ever said to you, trapped in that cellar, surrounded by shop window dummies...oh..." he looked away in reminiscence a moment, "...such a long time ago. I took your hand..." he reached out and took her hand, "I said one word...just one word, I said, 'run.'"
Rose looked at him, her eyes filling with tears, as she whispered, "Doctor?"
He grinned widely, "Hello!"
Rose sighed and pulled away, stumbling back as everything hit her at once.
The Doctor, however, just ran back to the console, flicking switches as he moved behind it, "And we never stopped, did we? All across the Universe. Running, running, running...dancing too!" he turned to Angel, grabbing her hand, pulling her close into a little dance with a wide smile before spinning her out in a circle, "Oh! And that one time we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives," he started to hop up and down madly, taking Angel with him as he had yet to let go of her hands, as Rose just watched them. He glanced at her, "Yeah? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your life? Yeah?! Hop? With the..." he slowly stopped, letting go of Angel's hands, seeing Rose still just staring, "Rose...no?"
"Can you change back?" Rose asked him quietly.
He frowned, "Do you want me to?"
"Yeah."
"Oh," he looked down.
"Can you?"
Angel reached out and took his hand this time, "No," she answered for him.
He looked at her with a small smile, squeezing her hand back as he gazed softly at her for her support, before turning to Rose, "Do you want to leave?"
"Do you want me to leave?!" she asked, shocked.
"No!" he said quickly, "But...your choice...if you want to go home..."
Rose just looked at him, upset, whether from his question or what happened he didn't know.
He nodded and stepped away from Angel, back to the console, "Cancel Barcelona."
"Doctor…" Angel began, walking to his side, she was getting a terrible knot in her stomach. Either something was wrong or something bad was going to happen…or both…
He just continued on, "Change to...London, the Powell Estate, ah let's say the 24th of December," he glanced at Rose, "Consider it a Christmas present!"
"Doctor…"
Rose edge closer as he flicked a switch.
"There," he stepped back, his arms tucked under his armpits, almost defensive.
Rose glanced at him, then the console as the TARDIS shuddered, "I'm going home?"
"Up to you. Back to your mum...it's all waiting. Fish and chips, sausage and mash, beans on toast…no, Christmas! Turkey! Although, having met your mother, nut loaf would be more appropriate," Rose looked down, trying to hide a smile, "Was that a smile?"
"No."
"That was a smile..." he said knowingly.
"No it wasn't."
"You smiled..." he teased.
"No I didn't."
"Oh, come on, all I did was change, I didn't…"
"Doctor!" Angel finally cut in, clearly this one was quite the talker as well.
He looked at her quickly, seeing the tense look on her face, "What is it?" he frowned, worried.
"Something's wrong…" she replied, shaking her head, trying to put words to it, "Something's going wrong."
"Wha…" he began, when he suddenly gagged, the TARDIS shuddering.
Angel quickly reached out and grabbed him.
"What is it?" Rose looked between the two, alarmed.
The Doctor could only gag again, more violently, as Angel tried to help him, the poor man retching terribly, "Uh oh," he muttered.
"Is he alright?" Rose asked, edging closer as Angel helped him up. An orange burst of energy breezed out of his mouth, "What's that?"
"What's gone wrong," he moaned, "The change is going a bit wrong and all," he choked again, nearly falling to his knees had Angel not caught him, his face contorting in pain.
"Look...maybe we should go back," Rose tried, "Let's go and find Captain Jack, he'd know what to do."
"Gah, he's busy!" the Doctor waved her off, jolting a bit at the thought of Jack, the handsome Time Agent, being back with them, with Angel, "He's got plenty to do rebuilding the Earth!"
"Doctor please," Angel whispered, trying to lead him to the captain's chair, "Sit…"
He seemed about to move, when a lever caught his eye, "I haven't used this one in years!" he flicked it and the TARDIS shuddered violently, nearly knocking them all off their feet.
"What're you doing?!" Rose shouted.
"Putting on a bit of speed!" the Doctor called, sounding almost crazed, "That's it!" he pushed away from Angel and moved around the console, turning knobs as Rose tried to hold on, the box shaking around them.
"Doctor!" Angel yelled, rushing over, trying to stop him.
"My beautiful ship!" he was too fast, running around flicking every sort of switch and knob and button he could find, just bursting with energy he didn't know what to do with, he needed an outlet, he needed an adventure, "Come on, faster! That's a girl!" Rose looked terrified as his voice turned almost violent, "Faster! Wanna to break the time limit?!"
"Stop it!" Rose snapped, angry, scared, as Angel struggled to alter what he'd done.
"Ah, don't be so dull, let's have a bit of fun! Let's rip through that Vortex!" he reached for a button when Angel's hand landed on his, holding it lightly, stopping him. He looked at her, catching her beautiful green eyes, feeling himself calm as he stared into them, "The regeneration's going wrong," he breathed, actually starting to sound scared of himself, "I can't stop myself…" he grimaced in pain, "Ah, my head..." before violently springing up, crazed once more, "Faster! Let's open those engines!"
An alarm started to ring as Rose looked up, "What's that?"
The Doctor crouched down beside her, grinning madly, "We're gonna crash land!" he laughed manically as Angel ran around the console, pulling levers and typing commands, seeing him having stopped for now.
"Well then, do something!" Rose shouted.
"I'm trying!" Angel called back, not sure if Rose was yelling at her or the Doctor.
"Too late!" the Doctor laughed, "Out of control!" he ran around the console back to Angel's side, giggling, absently putting an arm around her waist for a moment, "Oh, I love it! Hot dawg!" he hopped up excitedly as she dashed around.
"You're gonna kill us!" Rose screamed.
"Hang on!" Angel called, pulling a lever, trying in vain to control the TARDIS, "Here we go!"
"Christmas Eve!" the Doctor cheered as the TARDIS fell out of the Vortex and over the Powell Estate…
To be continued…
