Short Summary: AU - Rose promised that she would spend forever with the Doctor and the TARDIS. What if she could fulfill half of that promise, but not the half as implied in 'Journey's End'?

Summary:Who is the Bad Wolf? At first, the Doctor thought it was just a message to Rose, along their travels through Time and Space. But the Bad Wolf is much more than that.

Story Origins: Lady Clark-Weasley's story 'A Different World'. Had a good long few PM's between us discussing this story. She deserves a mention here. Anyway, I read her story and thought 'Brilliant, but hang on... the sudden change to her being a time lady and getting to travel between places/etc and the various explanations for why much of what she did was so like the Doctor was a bit, well for me, undeveloped. It's still a good story, and she pulled a rose version of Human Nature and The Family of Blood rather well, which is the main bit I'm thinking of right now, but other ideas I have behind the change, I just thought I could try to develop them a bit more, maybe expand the explanation for the change.

The main point for me was, 'Human or Time-Lady, why didn't her brain get fried?' and the use of the argument that, 'She could manipulate to such a degree that she brought Jack back to life!' doesn't hold water - The Doctor could have done that to remove the whole 'every cell in my body is dying' factor, and that would be the one use Time Lords would have let him get away with, I guess. And there aren't Time Lords around to stop him, so why didn't he do that if Rose did? Rose didn't realise she had turned Jack into the Face of Boe!

So I came up with a new concept to explain it away, don't worry this will be shown eventually. And the change for her into a Time Lady comes slowly, but 'just happens' to finish after 'Doomsday' (Author prerogative,) where she's watched the Doctor fall towards the void only to be caught by her Mum. The explanation for why not Pete is when I get through Season 2.

After that, this would be a fair bit different from 'A Different World' since she most emphatically is not the Doctor. Such as, she doesn't accidentally give famous quotes to Shakespeare. (He really is a bit more of a genius than that episode implied!) Also, when she does the hologram message to the Doctor, he really is surprised at it, and is led to believe someone else is with her to make sure the TARDIS doesn't get trashed by the supernova, and Rose doesn't correct him on that. Jackie and Pete aren't with him too. Although Mickey and Jake are. Best get cracking - a few changes to Satan Pit still to write.

Authors Note: Yes yes I know, another story started. Can't help it. after my muse tried to get me to rewrite my hp/sg-1 crossover, it kinda stopped after i made a continuity error and couldn't get back to writing properly the original version.

And yes, I did add - with a little change - the Children in Need Special onto the end. The first change from canon that is noticable is when the Doctor sends the vortex back into the TARDIS. There's a smaller change earlier on, and the description certainly delves into how different it potentially is from canon, although not directly contradictory to fully established things (the Doctor 'saying so' excluded since he did say that the Daleks were wiped out, but we know that was not so!) So I highly recommend reading through fully.

Authors note 2: finished up to DOOMSDAY. Will be posting it all together today. Chapter 1 - Parting of the Ways, Chapter 2 - The Christmas Invasion. Chapter 3 deals with New Earth through to Rise of the Cybermen, Chapter 4 Age of steel to Satan Pit. Chapter 5 is the Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. yes I know i took the intro narrative there, but chapter 6 would explain why i didn't change that to show the Doctor rather than Rose 'dropping into the other universe'. Doomsday bit ends just after the Doc is 'rescued' by Jackie and taken to Pete's world. Chapter 6 is going to be a seperate story - Yes i know it seems all cliffhanger at the end there. who's the familiar hand belong too? could it be, (gasp) that Doc's sycorax-chopped hand regenerated on it's own? Well that idea's quite 'out there' :P but no.

Parting of the Ways

Game-Station 5

"Now you tell me, god of all Daleks…" The Doctor began, running up to the display of the 'god' Dalek. "Cuz there's one thing I never worked out. The words, 'Bad Wolf'. Spread across time and space, drawing me in. How'd you manage that?"

The Dalek paused for a split second, and the Doctor thought that he heard surprise in the Daleks voice, but the very words he got in reply, drove any wonder at that out of his thoughts. "I Did Nothing."

"Oh come on, there's no secrets now, your worship." He said, thinking that the Dalek was deflecting.

"They are not part of my design." The doctor blanched, hearing the truth in his voice. "This is, the truth of god."

--

London

Rose ignored her mum talk about the chip shop, her thoughts thousands of years in the future. A question, one she immediately forgot was about, brought her out of it enough to say something.

"Two hundred thousand years in the future, he's dying, and there's nothin' I can do about it."

"Well, like you said," Jackie began, and tried to reassure, "Well, Two hundred thousand years, it's way off."

"But it's not. It's now. That fight is happening right now. And he's fighting for us. The whole planet, and… I'm just sitting here and eating chips." She barely took in their replies, and she knew she was replying but in her mind, she was numb from pain, the pain over the strong possibility of loosing him.

"Why, cuz you're better than us?" Mickey asked.

"No… I didn't mean that…"

As she thought, her mouth moved and speech formed without her thinking about it, she just knew it had to be said, "But it was… it was a better life, an… a… I don't mean, all the travelin'. Seeing aliens and spaceships and things – that don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life." She looked at Mickey. "You know, he showed you too. You don't just give up. You don't just let things happen, you make a stand, you say no…" The pain of loosing him too much to bear, like a double-throb she recognised from hearing his two hearts work in tandem before, set her off. She couldn't just sit there and verbally defend him and his way of life. "You have the guts to do what's right, when everyone else just runs away, and I just CAN'T!" She stood and left, ran. She didn't know where she was going nor did she care, unless it somehow led her back to him.

She didn't know why, but she eventually stopped at park of sorts, an asphalt park covered in graffiti, She almost gave in to the drumming compulsion to look at the graffiti and read it, but Mickey approached, his own running footsteps distracting her slightly from the compulsion.

"You can't spend the rest of your life thinking about the Doctor." He told her. She barely listened.

"How do I forget him?" 'How could I?' She asked herself silently.

"You gotta start living your own life." She felt the compulsion take over.

As he continued, She stood up.

'Bad Wolf' She thought, that thought drowning out completely the throbbing.

Suddenly, she knew exactly what she should do. What that compulsion had been trying to tell her. To run, don't look back, and get back to him.

As she babbled, Mickey stopped her to ask, "If it's a message, what's it saying?" She didn't stop to tell him, she just rushed out as she ran, ran like she hadn't before. "It's telling me I can get back! Least I could do is help him escape!"

--

She sighed and leaned against the console of the TARDIS. She knew Mickey was on his own way, probably in his stupid little Mini, she preferred the VW.

She didn't let the tears fall, the tears not just of sorrow but happiness, knowing she had a way back. Just inches away, beneath the panels, She thought she could sense what the Doctor called the Heart of the TARDIS drum and throb in anticipation. Images flickered in and out of her mind, all the times Bad Wolf showed up in her life. She realised that they hadn't been restricted to her travels with the doctor and this one point in time without him… Pieces fell into place and she just knew somehow that the Bad wolf had lead her to the Doctor.

She was jolted out of it when Mickey arrived.

Unnoticed, a locket she had worn when she was a child, one that she brought with her, one she had never been able to open, fell out of her pocket as she turned, and it fell into a gap in the panel. She thought she felt a sudden massive throb in the heart, but merely passed it off as the TARDIS being eager to return to the Doctor.

--

She smiled, she could hear the Heart much clearer with each passing moment, each pull on the panel from the tow truck. Her own throbbed in excitement. A single, idle thought passed through the back of her mind. She thought her heart had doubled in pace, thudding like horses running. Dud-dud. Dud-dud.

And then, it was open, the chain was released and pulled out of the TARDIS completely.

She stepped up to it, and felt the rush of energies.

For months, she felt home was not with her Mum, not with Mickey. But with him, and that is where she immediately told the TARDIS to go.

'Take us home.'

And she felt eyes upon her, eyes that felt older than anything she thought something could be and yet those eyes were kind, free of malice.

It replied to her request. She barely heard the doors shut, and as the tell-tale sounds of the TARDIS time-travelling began, the yellow strands of light she knew to be the Heart leapt out, at her eyes. She welcomed it.

And as the TARDIS relatively speaking, slowly went forward in time – after all it takes time to time travel, she heard singing, a slow melodic song of sadness. A song she thought she had heard before, a sad song she had heard when Gwyneth had somehow began to read her past, and also, from what she said, the future.

For what seemed liked hours but was 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the TARDIS returned, locked onto a point in space and time, taken directly from Rose' mind.

Upon arriving, the TARDIS stabilising back into the time-stream, She felt the Heart of the TARDIS leap into her. She knew exactly what she had to do.

--

Gamestation

She looked at the doors, and moved with the winds of time to the door, and with less than a thought, they opened. She saw quite a few Daleks gathered around the room, with the big bad one still on the screen.

And The Doctor. To see him, alive, made her and the TARDIS' hearts soar. She took a step through the time-stream, to stand right in front of him without a visible step in between.

Just the wisp of what she knew to be the time-vortex swirling around her.

And she saw the shock, awe, joy… and horror in his mind. She could sense them all.

"What have you done?!" He asked.

She could see, what he had said in their memories, and in his mind she knew he thought he was lying. And she knew, her words would be misconstrued, however true they were.

"I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me."

And she was right, as he replied, "You looked into the time-vortex, rose, no-ones meant to see that."

She held back replying, knowing split-seconds before the words came that the 'god of the Daleks' was going to speak.

"This is the ABOMINATION?!" It asked.

The one directly in front of it screamed, "EXTERMINATE!"

She could feel the fear from the Doctor, and only paid the lightest attention to the beam.

With nary a thought and only a glance, she stopped it and sent it back. She looked back at the Doctor, and felt his confusion, hear his thoughts. The TARDIS was connected to the Doctor, and she held it's heart in her head.

'That's not possible!'

"I am the Bad Wolf." She said, knowing it to be true. She could see the truth. "I create myself."

She looked up at the sign of the 'Bad Wolf Corporation', and said, "I take the words. I scatter them…" She continued, her mind splitting focus between telling him this, doing this, and keeping an eye on the time-stream for any unwanted events, "… in time and space. A message to lead myself here."

She knew his pleas before they touched his lips, "Rose, you've got to stop this, you've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head, you're gonna burn."

She ignored his words, she could feel the truth, see the truth, and she had always known it, somehow. Instead, she replied, "I want you safe. My Doctor, Protected from the False God."

As she said this, she felt his mix of emotions, confusion almost winning out over his fear that his words rang true. She knew, what she was going to do would confuse him the most.

"You cannot hurt me. I am the immortal." Spoke the Dalek on the screen.

Rage flooded through her and the heart of the TARDIS. While her face barely showed it, her voice, its odd echo quality even more pronounced was filled with it. "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space." With that statement, she felt the disbelief from the Doctor, overwhelmed by the added confusion and worry. As she spoke she heard his thought, 'It should have killed her,' "Every single atom of your existence and I divide them."

She lost focus from the Doctor, instead she saw, as she said she did, every single atom that made up the Daleks and their ships, where they had been, where they could have been, where they could have gone if what she was about to do didn't happen, as well as where they were presently.

And she did exactly what she said. The heart leapt at her command, the vortex giving shape and form to her command, and she saw as the electrons holding those atoms together cease to function, inert. One by one, so fast that if she wasn't holding the heart in her head, she wouldn't have been able to observe it.

One Dalek after another in the room. "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies."

She spared just enough focus to see what the Doctors response to all this was. She felt a torrent of them, whirling around his head. Shock at what she had taken in, the horror of what he thinks would and should have already happened to her, the awe in that she could have held it for the 2 minutes he had seen her carry it for, and the more minutes she must have to make the TARDIS bring her back. The pride he felt for her sticking to her principles – not leaving him behind. And something else.

He knew what she was going to try with her new found power. The thought was loud and clear.

For him, she said, "The Time War ends."

Throughout the station, Daleks were reduced to dust, as the 'Dalek god' shouted, "I will not die. I CAN NOT DIE!"

And then she did something that completely shocked the Doctor into a stupor. He expected her to burn from the attempt. Daleks in the room were one thing – and he did not know about the other Daleks throughout the station – but an entire vessel and Daleks inside them, so many more atoms.

She turned her focus on the fleet. Her mind processing each bond between atoms at a rate that few ever could even with the heart or vortex in their head.

A fleet spread around the entire orbit of Earth.

Barely 2 seconds after the last of the atoms' bonds broke down, rending the Daleks wiped out, the Doctor didn't so much recover from his shock as push it aside for the moment.

With the tiniest hint of awe, he began, "Rose, you've done it, now stop. Just let go."

She knew, this connection would not last much longer. "How can I let go of this?" She asked, she was not done. She focused on someone she had felt die, someone who died before she even arrived. She knew what must be done, what must not not happen. It would bring him pain, but eventually he would accept her gift, she knew this as well as she knew the Doctor. She seeded him with a lot – a ridiculous amount – of life. In his soul and body. She knew that the Doctor somehow sensed it, so she added, "I bring life."

"But this is wrong… you can't control life and death…" His thought was clear, it was not the ability to give and take that he feared, but what having it would do to her, a power that came from the vortex, a power that time-lords believed no one could ever physically handle.

She looked at him, no longer seeing through the vortex but through her eyes, and spoke, "But I can. The sun, and the moon. The day, and night." She paused barely a second, experiencing lifetimes of pain the TARDIS felt at feeling and seeing death. And she knew, this he would misconstrue also. "But why do they hurt?"

"That power's going to kill you and it's my fault." He claimed.

He was wrong. She created her path after she was on it, not he. "I can see everything." She began, and his shock doubled. "All that is. All that was. All that ever could be."

He finally stood, realising the breadth of what she had taken in, even if he still wouldn't believe the bit about the heart of the TARDIS.

"That's what I see all the time." He told her. She knew, this was because of his connection to the heart, not because of a time-lords natural ability. She could see other Time Lords, in the Time War, who didn't have this ability, having not had their own TARDIS time-ships. Something he was never aware of, his view into the time-stream limited as seeing through someone else's eyes, noticing less than the TARDIS.

"Doesn't it drive you mad?" He asked.

She closed her eyes, and spoke, "So much pain…"

The Doctor took a step to her, and as she saw what he was going to do, she knew he would take only what he believed was there…

"Come here, I think you need the Doctor."

With that, she gave in to the kiss, and as they pulled apart, she felt the vortex being pulled out of her and into him. The raw energy of it, uncontrolled, he wouldn't see what she had seen.

They parted, and she watched the wisps of the vortex gather around his eyes.

Weak from the effort, no longer supported by the vortex, she relaxed and he held her, slowly lowering her to the floor. When he let go, he then stood, and she watched the vortex flow back into the TARDIS, dazed and confused. Her vision swam with more than what she was seeing there and then.

When it was done, he leaned down and looked at her, and she looked back. She sensed his shock at her being awake, although she did not register it consciously.

"Doctor…" She began, and he just shook his head, not wanting her to say anything. She could sense the change in him. That what he did was different to what she had done, and what that meant for him, but her confusion made her unsure if what she was seeing and sensing was real or something else, a memory.

He helped her up and into the TARDIS, where she sat on the couch and closed her eyes. He began to take somewhere, and in the back of her mind she thought, 'Mum.' But he was having trouble.

Slowly, her head cleared of the excess information the vortex had fed her, and looked over at him, to find her vision less flooded with other events. He was looking at her in sadness.

She stood and looked around, trying to process where in her own time-line she was, her experience as the Bad Wolf having overridden her sense of time and perception just enough to do that.

"What Happened?"

The Doctor looked at her, and asked, "Don't you remember?"

She had to think it, 'Oh, thank you. That's helpful.'

"There was this singing," She answered hesitantly, a distant echo suddenly reverberating in her head.

"That's right, I sang a song and the Daleks ran away.

'Daleks, right, plural, and leather-clad Doctor. He looks sad. Right… damnit.'

As she spoke, she pretended not to notice his sad looks at his hands, nor the slight glow from them, "I was back with my Mum and Mickey… and then I was at home, I mean, here in the TARDIS…"

She saw his sad smile turn into a full blown one, knowing he caught her meaning; that she thought of the TARDIS as home.

"And I saw 'Bad Wolf' there… I knew I had to get back… and… the rest is just a blur." She looked at him and gave him a sardonic look, "But you weren't singing, sunshine, so don't start with that."

He looked at her confused by that. While he was glad that she hadn't died from absorbing all that power, he was confused that she even survived it. Her memory shouldn't have remained - all that power should have been too much for her mind to process and recall. Although she did say it was a blur, that was far more than what should have stayed.

A tickling sensation brought his mind back to the matter at hand however.

"Rose Tyler." He began. "I was going to take you to so many places… so many times. Barcelona – the planet, Barcelona, not the city Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses." He laughed causing her to look at him worried. "Imagine, telling that joke many times a day and it's still funny." She didn't need to say anything, as he continued, "And maybe we will go, maybe I will, maybe you will, but not like this."

"You're not making sense." She had to say, it would have been true for her had she not seen it coming, but as she said it, she recalled some of what she saw which put his comments into context.

"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads, or no head, imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement."

He convulsed, in physical pain. She shot forward, least she could do was ease the transition. "What's…" She began.

"I absorbed the time vortex, and no one's meant to do that." He looked at her with a sharp sad look, "Every cell in my body is dying."

She saw in his eyes, or rather, didn't see in his eyes… the question, a question she asked of herself, 'Then why am I still alive?'…

She didn't think he'd die proper though, because as though an echo of something just gone, but rather what was to come, flashed through her mind, leaving a golden glow in the middle of her eyes for a second, and she knew what that flash was about. Other flashes, with other people going into and coming out of the same flash flew through her mind, but she pushed those images away.

"What…" She began, paused, and asked, "Can't you do something?" She didn't know why, she knew the answer as it was, but only because of the extent to which she took in part of the TARDIS.

"Yeah, I'm doing it now…" He answered, direct but somewhat distantly, "Time Lords have this little trick… sort of like a way of cheating death. Except, it means I'm gonna change. I'm not gonna see you again, not like this… not with this daft old face."

She smiled slightly, and half-clarified, half-asked, "Change how you look?"

He looked at her, and she knew he thought she caught on a little too quick. "Yeah. Not just that… it's…" He stopped mid word from another convulsion. "Before I go…"

"Don't…"

"Rose, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely Fantastic…"

She smiled at him unsure, but replied, "Doctor… You were too you know…"

He grinned. "You know me so we-AAH!" He screamed in agony at the last, clutching his arms to his belly and almost dropping to his knees, but his scream and loss of mobility was only for a second, before he shot to his feet, his body exploding in a strange manner. Rose watched fascinated as all evidence of the Doctor – her Doctor – was erased as another took his place.

In the time for the regeneration to take place, Rose wondered why he hadn't thought about how she obviously survived using the vortex, when he could barely hold it for a few seconds without… this.

As she watched the rapid transformation, she felt an odd apprehension and excitement, as well as worry, and she was sure it wasn't her own, as the feelings felt… detached from her.

Once it finished, there in the Doctor's leather jacket, black shirt and black jeans, stood a kind of… lanky skinny guy. He had hair and looked decades younger.

He looked at her with a slight smile. "Hello ther- oh… ummm" He paused, closed his mouth, seemed to run his tongue around his teeth and swallowed or something. After a moment, he stopped and muttered, "New teeth, that's weird… so where was I… oh that's right… Barcelona." He smiled, a large toothy smile.

Okay, she knew this would happen, but the experience of it first-hand, rather than recalling what she had seen through the time vortex, was something else.

Almost ignorant of her reaction, or rather the lack thereof, he began working the controls. "Right… how about, 6pm, Tuesday, October… 5 thousand and 6… On the way to Barcelona."

He stepped away from the controls, and looked at her. "Now then, what do I look like?"

She gave him a full body check with her eyes, and tentatively asked, "Doctor?"

"Wait… no, nono, no nono don't tell me… let's see…" He began a physical self-check, "2 legs, 2 hands… slight weakness-"

"Doctor?" She asked, bemused at his antics. He looked at her slight smile, and she inserted, "You're not…"

"Not what?"

"Bald."

"… Oh…" His hands went up to his head, and he ran his fingers through it. "Hair! Not bald any more… oh hey, big hair- SIDEBURNS! I've got Sideburns! And really bad skin… ah well that can be fixed the old-fashioned way. Little bit thinner, that's… weird…" He slapped his belly and gave it a little shake, as if to should flab about.

She snorted.

"What?"

"A 'little' bit thinner?" She asked, slight emphasis on the 'little'.

"Yeah… wait, what are you implying?"

"Nothing." Rose answered quickly. Too quickly, as he gave her a suspicious stare for a second, before his face contorted, surprised.

"I've… got a mole… between my shoulder blades… I can feel it… Love the mole. Go on then, Tell me. What do you think?"

She looked him over, and still quite shyly and tentatively asked, "Doctor?"

He seemed to understand, although, she mused, that he had probably read her reaction a bit differently from what she had meant by that simple question in his name, but close enough. "Yeah, It's me. Changed appearance, like you guessed… good guess at that too. Rather quick on the mark today aren't you."

"I saw him - you… well him I guess…sort of explode… and… then you were there."

He slowly stepped forward. She reached out with her hand so he extended his, and she grabbed. "It's still you though, right? I mean… your voice is different…" With a grin, she finished, "You don't sound like a northerner no more."

He smiled, and explained, "Yeah, see certain things I could influence - not control outright, I mean, mostly it's miss than hit, but if the influence is right, I could get one or two details. For instance, the accent, I guess I sort of imprinted on yours. Not quite so pronounced but yeah."

She smiled at the implication. "It is you, him… er… right?"

He stepped closer, just outside of her personal space. "Remember the first thing I ever said to you? Trapped in that cellar. I took your hand… like you're holding it now… and I said… 'Run.' Surrounded by Shop Window dummies… oh so long ago."

"It was only a year…" She replied, a bit less tentative. "I mean, a year for me okay… long time, but you? You're what, 901?"

He smiled slightly.

She had to ask, "Hold on, when is your birthday?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, and pondered, "You know, All I know is a general age for me, it could be a week before I realize 'I'm actually 850, 875, 900 years old' and all that."

She sighed sadly at him and asked, "Well, with all your knowledge, couldn't you make a… a wristwatch or something that helps you track your own personal time-line or… or something?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, and as he let go of her hand, his stomach ached a bit. "Hmm, slight… anyway. Sure, yeah… fine."

He stepped over towards the controls, and Rose asked, "So how does this… cheat of yours… work?"

He looked over at her, and replied, "Regeneration. Well, I'm not sure myself. Supposedly, no Time Lord or Lady should have been able to control their appearance, but when they were around…" He looked away sadly, before he perked back up, "I knew this one Time Lady. One time she regenerated she didn't actually change her appearance, and I have a vague idea how that should have worked, but well… anyway, another time, during the 18 hour regeneration cycle, since that's how long it lasts… she actually triggered several changes, it's weird, she had full control of her appearance, went through a dozen or so before she settled on one look."

"But you can't…" Rose prodded him to continue.

"No, well, lets say, under a very specific set of circumstances, I were to regenerate but liked whatever body I was in, I could actually stop it from going beyond 'regenerating' my body cells, before the appearance change. 'Bout the only thing that can influence my overall look is… well… actually, I don't have a clue. Brilliant eh? I'm a genius and I don't know."

"So you can't change back?" She asked, wistful.

He completely stopped his jiggery pokery on the console, and stepped towards her. "Do you want me to?"

"Er… not sure really."

"Oh. Er… no, sorry. Do you want to leave?"

Rose sighed. "I'm… "

"Okay, Earth it is. Sorry Barcelona…" And off the Doctor went, hyperactive but sad all the same. "Right… lets see… I know, 24th December, call it a Christmas present."

Rose sighed at him, "I'm not sure I want to leave. Do you want me to leave?"

"Honestly? Not in a million years." He mumbled as he looked at the monitor and did some more jiggery pokery.

She smiled at that, knowing he hadn't said that to her on purpose, sort of slipping out. "Doctor?"

"It's up to you, back to home, to your mum, it's all waiting for you. Fish and chips sausage and mash beans on toast-No, Christmas… Turkey. Although, having met your mother, nut loaf would be more appropriate…"

Rose couldn't help the laugh.

"Was that a laugh?" The Doctor asked, unsure of what exactly was going on with her in response to his regeneration.

"Yeah… you're right. Nut loaf is very Mum."

"Well… if you're not sure you want to stay but not sure if you want to leave… we can make this a stopover or something… Especially since that, this regeneration feels a bit weird to me, I'll need a fair bit of time to adjust to the body." At that, she noticed how his face was slowly turning pale.

"Doctor, you all right?"

"I'd love to say, perfectly fine… but…" At this he clutched his chest and doubled over in pain. He looked up and a golden wisp of… something… came out of his mouth.

"What's that?"

"The change is going a bit… wrong…" He doubled over again, and as he looked around, he saw something on the console. "Haven't used this one in years…" he muttered.

Rose watched as the Doctor switched between calmly worried over his change and absolutely barmy, sending the TARDIS through the vortex faster and faster, ensuring that the landing on Earth wouldn't be quite so… nice… as the last ones.

"… Well… crash landing. Hold on tight…"

"Doctor…" She began, about to chide him rather loudly, but a shake stopped her, and she had to grip even tighter on the handrail to stay steady.

"Here we go… Christmas Eve…"

-