I had just regenerated. Boy, is that painful as always. I flicked a few switches on the console.

"6pm…..Tuesday…..October….5006…On the way to Barcelona! Now then….what do I look like?" Rose looked about ready to reply so I held up a hand to stop her. "No, no no, no no no no no no no. No. Don't tell me." That got a little smile out of her. "Let's see…" I look down. "Two legs, two arms, two hands…." I tested my wrist. "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle." I brought my hands to my head. "Hair! I'm not bald!" This is fun. "Oh, Oh! Big hair! Sideburns, I've got sideburns! Or really bad skin." I hope it's not bad skin. "Little bit thinner…..That's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it." I straightened my back slightly and "I….have got….a mole. I can feel it. Between my shoulder blades, there's a mole." I rotate them around getting used to the idea. "That's alright. Love the mole." I look at Rose and grin. "Go on then, tell me. What do you think?"

"Who are you?" Rose asked.

My smile dropped. "I'm the Doctor."

She shook her head in denial. "No…. Where is he? Where's the Doctor? What have you done to him?"

I tried to explain myself. "You saw me, I, I, changed…" I pointed over to where I had regenerated."…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." She took a few steps towards me and pushed me. "You're not fooling me. I've seen all sorts of things. Nano genes… Gelth… Slitheen…." Really? Slitheen? "Oh, my God, are you a Slitheen?"

"I'm not a Slitheen." Of all the things…..

She started shouting. "Send him back. I'm warning you; send the Doctor back right now!"

I pleaded with her. "Rose, it's me. Honestly, it's me." She stared at me. "I was dying. To save my own life I changed my body. Every single cell, but…. It's still me."

She whispered, "You can't be." Closer to believing, just need a few more nudges.

I stepped closer and stared her down. "Then how could I remember this? Very first word I ever said to you. Trapped in that cellar. Surrounded by shop window dummies…..oh…such a long time ago. I took your hand…" I repeated my actions of my first encounter with Rose in my 9th body. "I said one word… just one word, I said… 'Run.'"

I could see in her eyes she believed me now. "Doctor?" She whispered.

I gently said "Hello" and grinned.

She stumbled back a bit

"And we never stopped, did we? All across the universe. Running, running, running…" I flicked a few switches. "One time we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives." I jumped up and down. "Yeah? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your life? Yeah?! Hop? With the…" She did not look amused. "No?"

"Can you change back?"

"Do you want me to?" I managed to get out.

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"Can you?"

"No." Is this the straw that breaks the camel's back? "Do you want to leave?"

"Do you want me to leave?" At least she was shocked at the the thought of leaving. I quickly fixed the notion of me wanting her to leave.

"No! But…your choice….if you want to go home….." I changed the coordinates. "Cancel Barcelona. Change to…. London… the Powell Estate… ah… let's say the 24th of December." I looked at her. "Consider it a Christmas present." She slowly came towards the console. "There." I crossed my arms.

"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." That got a smile out of her, though she tried to hide it. "Was that a smile?"

"No."

I smirked. "That was a smile…"

"No, it wasn't."

"You smiled…" I teased.

"No, I didn't."

"Oh, come on, all I did was change, I didn't…." I felt the energy try to expel itself.

"What?"

"I said I didn't…." Again, I could feel the pains of a bad regeneration. This is not good. "Uh oh."

"Er….is you alright?" A bit of leftover regeneration energy escaped from my mouth. "What's that?"

"Oh… the change is going a bit wrong and all." I gagged as I fell to my knees.

"Look… maybe we should go back. Let's go and find Captain Jack, he'd know what to do."

I will not go near that abomination. "Gah, he's busy! He's got plenty to do rebuilding the Earth!" I spotted the accelerometer. "I haven't used this one in years." I pulled it and Sexy jolted as she sped up. I couldn't help myself. I had to land before Rose gets stuck trying to land.

"What're you doing?!"

"Putting on a bit of speed! That's it!" I turned more knobs, trying to drive as fast as I could. "My beautiful ship! Come on, faster! That's a girl! Faster! Wanna try to break the time limit?!"

"Stop it!"

"Ah, don't be so dull… let's have a bit of fun! Let's rip through that vortex!" I caught her eye and saw I was really scaring her. I tried to tone it down a bit. "The regeneration's going wrong. I can't stop myself." My head felt like it exploded as the pain reached all parts of my body. I grimaced. "Ah, my head…" I need to land NOW! "Faster! Let's open those engines!" The warning bell went off.

"What's that?"

"We're gonna crash land!" I laughed. I hadn't had this much fun driving in years.

"Well then, do something!"

"Too late! Out of control!" I couldn't help but run around the console giggling. "Oh, I love it! Hot dawg!" Never saying that again.

"You're gonna kill us!"

"Hold on tight, here we go!" Our eyes met across the console. "Christmas Eve…!" We crash landed and I walked out. "Here we are then, London. Earth. The Solar System. We did it." I saw Mickey and Jackie. I wrapped my arms around them. "Jackie. Mickey. Blimey! No, no, no, no, hold on. Wait there. I've got something to say. There's something I had to tell you, something important. What was it? No, hold on, hold on. Hold on, shush, shush, shush." There's some human social thing….. "Oh, I know! Merry Christmas!"

As I finally collapsed, I noticed someone on the way down. She had a darker, dirty blonde sort of hair that could easily be mistaken for brown, pale skin, and blue eyes. She looked a bit roughed up like she had been living in poorer conditions. As our eyes connected, I felt her try to mentally connect, but I shut it off before she could reach. I couldn't deal with that on top of a regeneration going bad. My eyes fell shut and I felt my body fall to the ground as I slipped into a healing coma. Before my brain shut down completely, I made a mental note to find that girl later.