disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, or any of these characters but the ones I make.

Author's Note: Internal Dialogue

Chapter 1 – The Doctor Dies

Dec 24, 1888

A man in a tweed suit-jacket was running. Normally this man enjoyed running, and the chaos that he found at wherever he was running to, but this time something was different about it. The running was wrong. "Ooh, please let me be wrong... Why did we have to land here! Always Christmas!" As the man skipped around a corner the sound of carols floated through the air.

Silent night...

The man dashed down an alley, and stopped suddenly.

...Holy night...

A dark figure stalked past the still man and out of the alley. An odd-looking woman rushed around the corner and upon seeing the man simply said "Doctor?"

...All is calm...

"You just missed him Madame Vastra, he walked right past you, go ahead and catch up to him, I'll see you in a few days." Madame Vastra smiled and walked off after the man like a cat following a mouse.

...All is bright...

After the woman named Madame Vastra left, the Doctor looked down and sighed. "I would run down the one alley that Jack the Ripper didn't historically kill someone here in Whitechapel..." He touched the knife wound that Jack the Ripper had left in his chest and looked at the blood on his fingers. "This was my favourite shirt too." The Doctor fell to the slush on the alley floor. "Ouch." A glowing vapour began to come out of his mouth and crept along his limbs, then exploded out from all the openings in his clothing.

As the glowing fog cleared a woman stumbled out of the alley and fell to lay in the snow asleep in an ill-fitting tweed suit.

Dec 27, 1888

Warmth, it was unusually warm in the TARDIS. The Doctor rolled over and shouted out "Lower the temperature by 5 degrees celsius." The Doctor opened his eyes and looked about to see not his room in the TARDIS but a plush Victorian-era guest bedroom, complete with a fire in the fireplace, breakfast on a side-table on a silver platter Maybe pewter but judging by the rest of the room likely silver, a full- length mirror Further indication of wealth and a dress laid out for day-wear.

"Dress?" The Doctor closed his eyes. What happened? The images from the day before played through the Doctor's mind. Right, got stabbed, regenerated. "Regenerated? Eyes, left and right, good; ears, have both, hmm, a marked improvement over the ninth; nose, kind of small, a bit pointy; ooh, nice cheekbones, that's unexpected; hair, well there's even more than the last one had, more than the eighth as well. This is starting to get ridiculous, next time I'll have hair to the floor." The Doctors hands fell down to his chest on the way to check for legs.

"What?" Jumping out of the plush bed the Doctor rushed over to the mirror to look at his reflection and squealed in delight "I'm GINGER! Hmm... and female, that will take some getting used to..." shorter arms and legs, lower center of gravity "But GINGER!" After calming down a little from this discovery she noticed that someone had braided her hair and taken the bloodied, horrid outfit off of her replacing it with a nightgown.

"I suppose I had better put on that dress before someone wants to talk to me, also I'll need to get that terrible jacket back so I can empty the pockets into something new." Walking over to put on the dress she got a better look at it; it was fairly basic for such a rich house, maybe a spare for the maid or something.

Need to head to the TARDIS wardrobe as soon as I can.. Something fashionable but sensible, likely trousers, possibly 32nd century, they made good use of non-Newtonian fabrics and self sustaining specific gravity fields, especially in woman's clothing, great for running about. Maybe a new sonic, hmm sonic lipstick? Nah, the screwdriver is an identifier, lets people know I'm the Doctor.

The Doctor let out a laugh. "I'll really need to convince people with this latest regeneration. Ginger! Jack would never believe it's me!" Hmm, Jack. That will be an interesting meeting.

After changing into the supplied dress the Doctor walked over to the Mirror again to get a better look at her new self "I suppose this will do for now, but I really hope I don't need to run too fast in this get-up." Dress is too high quality to be a spare for a maid. Silk? No, satin. The dress had an empire waist with short sleeves that came to about mid-tricep with short white lace at the end. Dress ends approximately 5cm above the floor, slightly taller body than the dress was designed for, even without shoes.

"Now let's get a better look at myself." Looking in the mirror the Doctor saw a woman of about 5 ft 5in 1.651 meters. Bright red hair. Finally after 11 lifetimes, I just love it., eyes somewhere between grey and green, kind of elven face. As described in Tolkien rather than the race that originated on Elv 6, they were shaped something like a humanoid cow with noses where the eyes should be. Graceful build but not lanky. No obvious muscle, but the Doctor could tell that she would be able to use Venusian Akido effectively if necessary. All in all she thought she looked rather good.

"Now, to see who my host is." Looking over to the door of the room she was in, she noticed that it was flush against the floor at the bottom. False door? Looking around for other possible exits her eyes fell upon the mirror in front of her. "Of course." The mirror is the actual door. Running her fingers along the edge of the frame she felt the slight indention that indicated a catch and pulled.

"I rather wondered when you would be joining me," a male voice said with a cockney accent.

"Anyone else would have had a hard time of it" Focused eyes, fake scar across the upper lip along the left side of the nose; thick eyebrows, well done, but also fake; a wonderful black wig, dirt across his face to help look the part. Combined with the lively guest room with a fake door behind a room like this... "Mr. Holmes."

Sherlock began removing his disguise, and stated in his own accent "Well played my lady, you seem to know enough about me to be able to see through my disguise. However even as I watched while you recovered, I only found you more and more impossible."

The Doctor moved to sit in the chair beside the rapidly changing man. "Isn't it you who frequently states to Watson 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?' So then, my dear Holmes, what impossibilities did you find of me?"

"Hmm... yet another thing that simply cannot be. The suit you were wearing was made for a large man, and had been worn by such a man not five minutes before I found you in the snow. And yet... you had been wearing that suit for more than a day."

"That does in fact sound unlikely Mr. Holmes." The Doctor smiled at that deduction. True of course.

"Then there's also the fact that the blood on your shirt was still fresh, and looked like the shirt at least had what looked like a knife wound. However, when I checked to see if you had a wound I needed to treat, there wasn't one. But from that location there was enough blood lost to kill a man not much shorter than myself. The way the blood ran it was obvious that you had lost it, yet here you are.

"Here I am indeed." This man is as clever as Watson's stories say.

"And your pockets...well they alone could leave me wondering, but the contents are what's truly interesting."

"Do tell. By the way I will be wanting most of that back." At least all of the advanced technology at any rate.

"Of course. The first thing was a key, a simple key, but unlike any I've seen before."

"A key? That hardly seems worth noting." I wonder what he's leading up to?

"It is merely an oddity amongst many. There was also something that seemed to be a blank piece of paper in a leather case, but that was unhelpful as well."

"A key and paper? Not much to go on is it? The most important, the most useful and they tell him nothing.

"They are simply the least curious items I found. Next we have a stethoscope, suggesting that you are of the medical profession, though I find no other indication of that."

"So I'm not a nurse then?" The man can hardly be blamed for his specialization.

"I also found a keyring with more of the same sort of key, a burnt piece of what appeared to be a part of a sign wrapped in a handkerchief, a slingshot, small binoculars, welding goggles, a large oddly shaped brick of something, bits of clockwork, boards made from some green material I'm unfamiliar with and various fruits and bags of candy."

"Quite a lot for a man to go through overnight." I didn't think he would find all of that, seems he's almost done though.

Sherlock started somewhat at that. "Overnight? My lady you have been asleep for nearly two days."

The Doctor took that news more calmly than one might expect. He's going to get a lot of information from that. "As I'm sure you noticed from my lack of reaction that's quite normal for me in the situation I'm in."

"That I have, I suppose you want to see how close I can guess though don't you. Women are infuriating at the best of times. The first item I found to be significant was an identification card for one Dr. J Smith to a library that doesn't exist with an address that also doesn't exist. The man in the photo that I can only assume to be the good doctor himself appeared to be old and rather sure of himself, though the eyes are what I find interesting in this instance."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"They are nearly identical to yours. I can only assume that this is a false ID for your grandfather. Albeit a poorly made one."

"That is interesting." An incredibly clever man for what he has to work with.

"You also had in your pocket two items of workmanship the likes I've never seen. A pair of glasses that are darkened and appear to be able to detect heat, and a cylinder with a fitted bulb on one end that can light a candle among other things."

"I see you leave the most curious for last Mr. Holmes. So who am I from all of this then?"

"You, are not the man who wore the suit dying in the alleyway. You are someone different entirely. The man who ran into the alley died not long after. He got stabbed by someone who went about it very calmly, then directed a very predatory woman after his killer. He then stood there for a minute, fell to the ground and bled out enough to die."

"Obviously that couldn't have been me Sherlock, I'm alive." This man really has a marvellous mind.

"That is exactly the issue. After the man died an explosion, something like steam, centred on him radiated out, melting the slush in the area. Here is where it becomes improbable."

"I must admit you have piqued my curiosity Mr. Holmes" If he was more aware of the universe at large he would be able to piece together exactly what happened. Maybe I could show him some of the universe...

"Sometime during that steam-like explosion you were swapped for the dead man. You then stood up not long after and stumbled out of the alley as if your legs were shorter than you were used to and fainted in a nearby snowbank."

"So I was swapped for a dead man in the middle of an explosion of steam?" That's actually not too far off of what regeneration feels like.

"Now Madame we come to the crux of the matter. There is no trace of that happening except for the fact that instead of a dead man in an alley I found a lovely woman in the suit of the man who died in that alley, with his blood with flow patterns as if she had bled it."

"So then, Mr. Holmes am I that man?" This is starting to get interesting.

"Perhaps... You are neat, rather excitable albeit able to stay quite calm, curious, likely a genius, and definitely female. The man who died in that alley was quite excitable, and a genius despite running into the sharp end of a knife."

Smiling disarmingly the Doctor said "Only likely a genius? Mr. Holmes you were doing so well."

"Do call me Sherlock as you are either working for Moriarty, which I find unlikely, or someone I want as a friend."

"Nice to finally meet you Sherlock. I'm the Doctor" She put out her hand. Ooh this is going to be such fun.

"The Doctor? If that's what you wish to go by." Sherlock took the Doctor's hand and shook it. "So, Doctor my conclusion is that you were the man in the alleyway until you died, and then something happened as it so often does. I would like to know what it was."

"You get right to the point, don't you? I, am not human."

"I thought it unlikely that the fact that you have two hearts was a genetic mutation."

"You really don't miss a trick do you? I am from another planet, and the future. My race has the ability, when we would die to instead avoid death and transform our body into a brand new one."

"So the steam was a byproduct of the process?"

"Not exactly, that steam as you call it is an overflowing of the energy we use to kick-start the cascade for regeneration."

"The process begins somewhere and runs along your body?"

"Yes, I suppose. I've never given it much thought."

"So it's as common to you as my disguises are to me? You just shed a face and are someone new?"

"Not quite, It's more like the Hindu belief in reincarnation, although that's a bad example. I die and all of my knowledge is passed on to, well almost someone else entirely." I've never thought about how regenerating works quite this much. "Every time I regenerate I have a new personality, habits, tastes, and obviously appearance." I go eleven lifetimes being male and then out of the blue I'm a good-looking woman, I wonder what's different this time?

"I see. Well Doctor, it's been a pleasure getting to know you, but Watson will begin to worry seeing as I've been out for almost a week."

"I would love to meet Dr. Watson if we could arrange that." The man in front of the genius, the live in PR. I do wonder what he's actually like.

Sherlock gave a little smirk. "I had thought you would as you seem to have read all his works."

"First I think I would like to stop by the TARDIS and get some clothes with pockets."

"TARDIS?"

The Doctor grinned. "Ooh, I'm going to enjoy this one." I can't wait to see Sherlock's reaction to this.

Authors Note: There is precedent for this type of thing happening in regeneration. In The Doctor's Wife the Doctor talks about the Corsair and says "See that snake? The mark of the Corsair. Fantastic bloke. He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. Didn't feel like himself without the tattoo. Or herself, a couple of times." so there ya go.