Hocapontas suggested the following "Plunny": "At the end of the 10th Doctor's life he gets sent back in time to just when he regenerated to the 10th. He has somehow been given the opportunity to do it all over again with his memories intact of what was to come..."

So, alright :)

This picks up and the end of my older story "The End of Ten", appropriately following on from the episode "The End of Time: Part Two".

As yet un-beta'd.

Chapter 1 - TenAgain

The Doctor was glad, he was so, so glad he had let the TARDIS twist his metaphorical arm to see Rose. He didn't care anymore what happened to him after he died - regenerated, whatever, it still felt like death. If the next him loved her any less, it would serve him right if remembering hurt. What he felt right now, it was so worth it. He wanted to freeze this stolen moment, even here in a dark alcove, in the snow, so that it would always be fresh. So that the way this him felt for her would never be diminished.

He staggered back against the wall as pain flared again. He gasped, and she was still close enough to hear. She turned, and spotted him.

"You alrigh', mate?" she asked.

He almost laughed for joy, despite the continuing pain. Of course she wasn't scared of the strange man lurking in the shadows. Or if she was, her concern instantly overrode her fear.

A few, all too brief words were exchanged, and he discovered why she was half-expecting to come across (apparently) inebriated neighbors. It was New Year's Day, 2005.

She would miss most of the year, once she decided to follow another strange man who would appear in a storeroom and take her hand.

It would be fantastic, he mused. And he told her.

And she smiled.

She eventually disappeared behind the stairwell door, and he turned back towards the TARDIS. His body felt as if it were already tearing itself apart, and he still wasn't ready to go, but at least he wouldn't die alone. She would stay with him, he knew, now.

Fantastic, echoed in his mind.

Once again in the TARDIS, orbiting their favorite planet at what he hoped was a safe distance, he allowed the radiation sickness to take its final toll as an unfamiliarly magnified rush of regeneration energy overtook him. Vision obscured, he could still sense the devastation around himself and could picture his precious TARDIS suffering with him. But soon, the pain overwhelmed him, and a pull, even stronger than with his previous regenerations, tore him completely away from what he would come to remember as his Tenth self.

Except - as his consciousness returned to what should have been a newly-knit form, it felt all too familiar. As senses returned with the dulling of regeneration, it was with the strangest feeling of deja vu.

He flexed his fingers and knew before his newly-opened eyes could even tell him: that was his old hand - his original hand.

What kind of regeneration was this?

He couldn't tell how long he had been staring at his wiggling fingers, wondering what had gone wrong with the regeneration lottery, before his mind sluggishly began taking in the other oddities. The TARDIS seemed healed, without any sign of the damage he had been sure his regeneration had inflicted. Despite what seemed to be the same old body, he had new clothes on. No, old clothes. An old jacket. His own, old, leather jacket.

And there was something more than regeneration, more than radiation. It was - was it? - the Time Vortex.

A gasp from a few steps away made him finally lift his head. He wasn't the only one in the console room. There, half-hidden behind a coral support strut was - ROSE!

His mind reeled, but at last pieced together the puzzle in true Time Lord fashion. Before she could even form a word, he dropped down on his knees right there at the console. "Fantastic," he whispered, reverently.

To be continued...