Well let's see...I don't own dr who, or the characters, just the plot.

What could have been, should have been

WRONG

the feeling pulsed around her, invaded her, infected her, a fixed point was going to change. She knew it, she could see it... It made her sick, but with a horrible sense of déjà-vu she watched, feet rooted to the floor...

A gunshot echoed in the large cavernous space.

The exclamations of happiness ceased immediately. In the background there were sounds of a scuffle as the shooter was wrestled to the ground. The women didn't need to look to see who it was. They knew who the culprit was already, and they were more concerned about the large red stain that was rapidly forming on the Doctor's pinstripe suit. With a gasp he fell back. Martha caught him before he hit the deck.

Jenny ran forward, vision slightly blurred and knelt beside him, praying to the Goddess that the wound wasn't fatal.

The Doctor, her father, grunted in pain.

"Come on Dad, a whole new world remember..." the Doctor's eyes closed momentarily, Jenny's pleas became hysterical and accusatory."You promised that I would see the universe, you can't die now! I want to learn about us, to be more than an echo, I want to see everything...You promised!"

The Doctor's eyes locked onto hers.

"never...an echo. Jenny need to ...wake, Martha, help me ...stand"

A faint golden glow was radiating from his face,

He raised a hand, the same ethereal light was shining from his skin. Martha caught it and helped him to his feet.

He stood there, swaying in an almost drunken fashion.

"Might want to step back..."

Jenny shook her head stubbornly. Martha 's eyes widened in realization and yanked both Jenny and Donna as far from the Doctor as the tight crowd of onlookers would allow.

"I don't wanna go..." A faint voice whispered

Jenny wrenched herself away from Martha's grip and lunged towards her father.

Moments stretched into minutes, seconds into hours. It was as if the universe itself was holding it's breath as the Lord of Time burst into flame.

After an age the fire died, the sudden darkness causing everyone to blink, the Doctor's screams were still ringing loudly in Jenny's ears.

"Legs! I've still got legs! Fingers. Lots of fingers." Where the Doctor had previously been standing was a stranger with floppy dark hair and gangly limbs. "Hair... I'm a girl! No! No! I'm not a girl! And still not ginger!"

"Hold on a minute!" Donna yelled at the newcomer, who, Jenny noted, was wearing her dad's clothes, blood stain and all. "Who are you?" The man turned to them.

"He's the Doctor" Martha whispered, "he's regenerated, I read about it in his file, back at UNIT. I never thought that it was so..." She cut off, she looked like she was in shock.

"What do you mean that's the Doctor?" said Donna loudly, pointing. "The Doctor is rude, and skinny, he is... a nutter! "

"There's something missing...I'm...I'm..."

The man-who-may-or-may-not-be-her-dad looked at them. He looked like a lost puppy

"Maybe he has selective amnesia brought on by shock." Martha offered,

"Maybe." the stranger deadpanned."I can't remember. That's the problem with trying to kill one of my kind, do it wrong and you create an adversary energ-erlly far more powerful, and mentally far less stable."

Martha winced at that, thinking of the Master.

"but you wouldn't do anything..." she stated cautiously,

"I'm doing it nooooow!" the end of the sentence ended with a groan of pain and some golden light shot out of his mouth.

"That looks just like to source!" The soldier Cline exclaimed, staring at the light as it faded. The soldiers had all been very quiet, wary of what had happened, but not standing aggressively, they wouldn't shoot this man, not if he could be the Doctor.

"You say you're far more powerful..."

General Cobb sneered, the Doctor's head snapped up, and five lights exploded behind the disgraced soldier.

"Don't challenge me, I'm a completely new man." the threat came out as a warning hiss.

The general had the sense not to answer.

"But still the Doctor." stated Jenny with more confidence than she felt.

The man stared at her, eyes flickering to something just over her shoulder. Turning quickly on his heel he made towards the corridor they had come in by, before crashing into a post and falling to the floor.

"Are you sure he's the Doctor?" Donna asked

"Yes." Jenny replied. And she was sure... sort of. He was the Doctor. And a stranger. But still him

The man smiled again, accepting the hand up.

"New body, still cooking, steering is at bit off."

He set off again, striding through the tunnels, navigating his way easily, as if he knew the place by heart.

Arriving at the large blue phone box, Jenny hesitated. It was far too small for two people to fit comfortably, let alone four. Though Donna and Martha acted like nothing was odd, and seemed almost impatient for the Doctor to open the doors.

"Okay, what have you got for me this time?"

The man was talking to the box excitedly. Opening the doors, he slipped inside. He had completely forgotten about the three women, who had to quickly jump aboard before the Doctor left without them.

Donna, Martha and Jenny stared at the interior of the Tardis. Jenny, because she had never imagined anything so wonderful as a box with a bigger inside than out, immediately trying to conceive the physics behind it all. The elder women because this was definitely not the Tardis they had left a few hours previously.

"New Doctor, New Tardis. Desktop theme is...Glam, I think, much better than a few I've had...Default's boring, Retro, Gothic, Coral..."

Jenny was only half listening. Her soldier programming was screaming at her to be on her guard, she ignored it. She still had to work out if this new Doctor was her dad. He hadn't known who he was... why should he still know her? Did he even want her? He had said before that she couldn't stay on Messaline...Before he had died he'd told her that she wasn't an echo...but he was dying, what if he hadn't meant it?

Her head hurt.

"Jenny, hello... Jenny...JENNY!"

She started. He was looking at her. He smiled, hesitantly, She looked back, still wary.

"I killed you." It was only when she tried to speak that she realized just how much the events of the past hour had affected her.

Emotional responses are dangerously distracting for a soldier her mind whispered. She told the voice to stuff it and leave her alone.

She had been imprisoned by her own general, escaped, accused of being an echo, accepted as a daughter, and orphaned?

She had refused to shoot Cobb, despite it being of great tactical advantage, leaving him free to kill her father... who had then exploded without so much as a by-your-leave...

And now she was traveling with a man who might or might not know who she was, and whom her hearts told her was her dad, but her head told her was an impostor.

"No." He sat down heavily. He looked awkward. "Life is too long, to dwell on what could have been. He swallowed, and continued "I'd let myself be shot a thousand times before letting you kill someone or having to watch you die." He glared at her "Don't ever get yourself killed for me Jenny. EVER. That's my job."

Jenny nodded mutely.

"Make the decision you know is right. It doesn't do to dwell on the past...And forget to live in the present."

He hugged her, the awkwardness still very present. He had stumbled though most of what he'd said, but Jenny did feel slightly better.

"Oh...Jenny..." She looked back at him "You...You don't have to accept me as your father...I know this is a bit of a shock..." He didn't look at her, scuffing his foot on the floor. "I'd like you to stay either way...I let you think about it."

And with that he turned abruptly and started fiddling with the console.

It was only then that Jenny noticed that Martha and Donna were nowhere to be seen. Subtly giving them some privacy she guessed.

The ship rocked a bit and Jenny had to cling to the overhead monitor to stay upright. The Doctor shouted with glee. With a the sound of objects falling everywhere, Jenny lost track of which way was up and...SPLASH.

Coughing and spluttering, Jenny looked around. She was in a library? And standing in a swimming pool. Both places were considered myth so weren't found on Messaline. It had been part of the Utopia ingrained into each soldier's brain, along with the legend of the Source, the reason why they should fight tooth and nail for every cubit of tunnel... Her head was throbbing, it hurt...

"Jenny? Come on, wake up! Jenny!"

I wonder...have i left it too obvious? I hope that the plot isn't ruined for those who've figured it out already...

review?

Swiss