Hello ! Some time ago, I started to watch Doctor Who because a friend almost compelled me to do so. The truth is absolutely loved it from the first episode. I'm about to start season 6 (of the New Who) - I couldn't binge-watching all day all night because of college... - but I'm still not over the "death" of the ninth Doctor who will always be my Doctor (We never forget our first Doctor right ?). While watching the series, I had some ideas for one-shots and drabbles and rather than just publish it one by one as if it was separated stories I chose to put them all in a collection of short stories I called "Brèves de TARDIS".

As I'm a french whovian, my english isn't perfect but, by the past, it appeared that it wasn't that bad since people could read and understand me. I write all my stories in french before translating it. I do everything all by myself. Here, I chose not to translate the title of the collection. I like it better in french. Hope you don't mind.

Well, here the extract of that collection. Hope you'll like reading it as much as I loved writing it.

Title : Brèves de TARDIS - "Gone Too Soon".

Chapters : 1.

Pairings : Nine and Rose Tyler.

Synopsis : Right after his regeneration, Nine wonders what will happen to his incarnation. The answer might surprise him.

A/N : The characters and the universe don't belong to me. All rights goes to Russell T. Davies, Phil Collinson, Susie Ligat, Steven Moffat and to the BBC. Everything else belongs to my imagination.

The Doctor looked around at her uneasy. He was particularly ill-at-ease, which never happened in her presence. She was shaking her head, completely oblivious, trying to remember. She noticed him watching her. He smiled. It was so much easier to pretend that everything was fine even though death was eating him away. He had been impossible for him to let her die because of the Time Vortex right after she saved his life. At that moment, his reason went away and he soaked up the ache that was hurting her, an ache that was soaking up every cell of his Timelord's body. It was painful but he didn't show anything. He was pretty sad to be compelled to leave her so soon but, once again, he wasn't showing anything. He wanted her to remember him as he had always been: an impulsive man, sarcastic, loving dangerous adventures and the word "FANTASTIC!". Maybe she would remember how much he loved bananas. Soon, he would be a different man, with a different character. What would his next incarnation do with her? Would he make the ultimate sacrifice for her just like he did?

"Rose Tyler." He said with a small laugh. "I was gonna take you to so many places. Barcelona, not the city. Barcelona, the planet. You'd love it. Fantastic place, they've got dogs with no noses."

He laughed at his own joke. Rose giggled, half rolling her eyes. It was a bad habit she took from him. Her smile was something precious. He would keep it as an eternal memory. Seeing her smile while he was slowly dying warmed his hearts. Maybe would he success in making her accept his death more easily.

"Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke and it's still funny!"

"Then, why can't we go?"

"Maybe you will. And maybe I will. But not like this."

He didn't elaborate but went back looking at the monitor with a vague smile on his face. She didn't understand anything and he wasn't able to explain the situation to her.

"You're making no sense!" Said Rose while standing.

"I might never make sense again! I might have to heads. Or no head!"

It wasn't funny at all but he was laughing from his own flights of fancy. Rose shook her head with a bemused smile on her face. She didn't understand that he was distracting her attention from what was really happening. For her, he was still this wild man whose was gonna take her all over the borders of time and universe, that Doctor who took her hand one morning and told her to run for her life. He took her into a life of adventures, dangers and discoveries. He gave a meaning to her existence and he was going to disappear even though she asked him not to do so. That choice weighed upon him, the idea of leaving her scared him to death but he was happy that he had been able to save her, to be a coward so humanity could keep on living. He never thought someone could change him so fast and so deeply. He was definitively going to miss Rose Tyler.

"Imagine me with no head! And don't say that's an improvement.

Rose grinned, eyes twinkling. She was probably thinking that he was mad and he most likely was. He always had been but never this crazy.

"But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're gonna end up with…"

Suddenly, he was propelled backwards with a blast of golden light. He clutched his stomach as though he had been punched. Pain was barely bearable and he was struggling hard to hide it. Rose rushed forward, full of concern. He could read her worry on her face and was saddened for being the reason of it.

"Doctor!"

"Stay away!" he urgently answered.

Rose stopped, staring at him, eyes wide. The Doctor winced in pain. His end was very near. He needed to do what he had to do, say goodbye, before the regeneration he was fighting with sorrow and pain took over him.

"Doctor, tell me what's going on."

"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex and no one's meant to do that!"

He was trying to keep his tone light despite the pain. It was never a good idea to fight the regeneration but Rose Tyler was such an important person for him so he had to say goodbye in a proper way. He screwed up his eyes in pain, Rose staring at him with concern. He didn't like to see her that way. He wanted to see her smile before leaving.

"Every cell in my body is dying." He explained, serious now.

"Can't you do something?" Asked Rose, horrified.

"Yeah, I'm doing it now! Time Lords have this little trick, it's… sort of a way of cheating death. Except… He hesitated before looking into her eyes. It means I'm gonna change.

Rose shook her head slightly, not understanding. He wasn't able to explain the situation to her. He was going to change physically but, on the inside, he would still be her Doctor.

"And I'm never gonna see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face."

Once again, he laughed of what he was saying. He didn't want to scare her but his end nearer and nearer. He had to be quick.

"And before I go…"

"Don't say that." She interrupted him, upset.

"Rose…"

His tone was now pleading. She had to listen to him. He surely looked devastated and it forced her to stay silent and to listen to him while she just wanted to protest. Elle was always protesting.

"Before I go, I just wanna tell you, you were fantastic." He finally said, smiling at her, so proud of her. "Absolutely fantastic."

Rose looked back at him, unsmiling, still upset and not knowing what to make of this. He regretted the fact he had to leave before she finally understood that everything's gonna be alright for him and that he was happy he could have travelled with the fantastic person she was.

"And do you know what?"

Rose shook her head, not knowing what to expect from him anymore. He smiled at her, forgetting all the sorrow and all the pain he was feeling et spoke again with the great self-confidence he always had.

"So was I."

To these words, Rose finally smiled, nodding. He managed to make her smile and told her how much fantastic she was to him. He gave her a big smile and let go. The regenerative energy took over his body with a blast of golden light blasting out of the neck of his jumper, the sleeves of his jacket and the bottoms of his trousers. He was taking with him the reflection of a smiling Rose Tyler and that was all he needed to be appeased when he totally disappeared in favour of a new man…

The process of the regeneration had been violent. He didn't think this would be that painful. Now, he didn't know what to expect. In the TARDIS' library, he had found a book on the regeneration. The author, an old Time lord, wondered what happened to the incarnation which was disappearing. The book was a row of theories without clues and he laughed hard at it. Now, he wasn't laughing that much because he really didn't know what was going to happen where he was going to end up. His life had been really "short" in a way and a part of him didn't want it to end there. He still wanted to go running after the adventures. How was it going to be now? Was he going to simply disappear? Or, was there some Time lords' heaven? He would have laughed at himself if he had been able too. If the incarnations could survive to the regeneration, Time lords would know it for centuries. So he was expecting to totally disappear, to feel his consciousness go off… but truly not to brutally land, head first, on a vast area of sand.

He needed a few seconds to put him back together and rolled on the back. He rubbed his eyes to remove the sand stuck in it and looked at the blue and cloudless sky that was spreading for as far as the eye can see. When the shock if the landing had passed, he heard the backwash of the sea. His senses were coming back little by little. The physical pain too. So he wasn't dead. In one way or another, he survived and broke away from the Doctor. He became a new man but had kept a part of the old one. Well, that was what he supposed from his memories, his senses, his feelings. For now, it was still muddled. He needed to stick the pieces back together and find out who he had become. He had been the Doctor, the last of the Time lords. He was sure of that. But now? Was he in another time? In another space? In another dimension? Something was worrying him and making him doubt: silence. Except for the sea's movement, there wasn't any noise. That looked unreal. He had to inspect the surroundings, to find a shelter.

He got up slowly and walked while looking around. He was on a desert and craggy beach. There was no clue of human life, not even a footprint. It felt like he was the only one to have trodden upon this beach. It felt weird. He had seen a lot of places and never saw a place as empty as this beach was. He kept on walking towards the exit. The sea wind beat against his back and brought a salty smell to his nose. He put his hands his pants' pockets and kept on walking. He was missing his loyal blue phone box in which he had had spent so much time. He pictured it and imagined pushing the door. He got into the walkway and went straight to the monitor. Every single detail of his spaceship came back to his mind. He had the impression that he just needed to stretch his hand to brush the buttons and the throttles. That was a sweet dream he was stroking until he realized that a blue hub had materialized a few feet in from of him.

"What the…" He started, surprised.

Pushed by a sudden curiosity, he rushed to the hub. It was real. He put his hand on the door and stroke the wood with his fingers. The door opened with no resistance. He got in. Right in front of him his TARDIS was materializing. Everything was just like he left it, except for one detail. Rose wasn't there. His whole spaceship was here but she had disappeared. Was it only a production from his mind? That seemed too real. He felt the TARDIS thrilling under his feet, as if it were ready for a new trip. He would have liked to turn the engine on and fly away to the stars again but he felt like he wasn't ready. He was missing something and that was holding him back. He knew very well what it was. He turned his back on the monitor of which he went closer and leaned on it, crossing his arms. His eyes were looking around the platform and he remembered a particular moment that happened in the walls of this hub. Those images made him nostalgic. What was she doing right now? Where was she? How was she?

He knew almost at the exact moment he had seen her that this little strong-tempered blonde would change his life in one way or another. He would have never been able to predict the consequence of the effect she would have. He absolutely didn't see it coming. He had seen the past, the present, the future and every single planet of every single universe and never even thought that such a person could exist just like she never thought she would meet a Time lord. He went out of the TARDIS, aggrieved. He had hoped to see her in there. The mission that made them closer had a particular place in his hearts. That day, they had met Captain Jack Harkness and the Doctor's jealousy pushed him to get closer to Rose, creating – or strengthening – a bound between them. He remembered every single detail of this magical and extraordinary adventure. He didn't want to stay in that empty world, he wanted to go back on adventure, to take her hand and tell her to run, run right into his world because he was cruelly missing company. His existence had been as empty as this beach he was walking on. He didn't want to live this again.

"I came to save you, my Doctor."

"Rose?" He asked in the emptiness that was surrounding him. "Rose!"

She just appeared to him. She was there. She went to pick him up in his deep loneliness. Without thinking, he ran to her. He wouldn't disappear once again. He wouldn't leave her face to face with a stranger. She was looking at him with a smile and he saw that she was crying. He had to erase all these tears. She shouldn't cry, not because of him. The more he was getting closer, the more he felt that she was going to be dragged away from him a second time. To fight this feeling, he threw himself on her to catch her, to hold her in his arms. He only met the void and fell in the cold water of the sea in which he walked into without realizing it. He got up a few seconds later suffocating and looking around for Rose. She disappeared. He yelled her name and looked for her like a mad man but he didn't find any clue of her presence. When he realized this had only been a hallucination, he was devastated. He fell on his knees, not able to bear this truth. Behind him, the sea kept on coming and going but he wasn't paying attention to anything but his injured hearts… until a banana hit his hand.

The fruit came out of nowhere. Grabbing it, he noticed that it had a concrete existence, a real one. He looked up at the beach he was now hating on. The TARDIS was still there but it wasn't alone. The beach was littered with numerous objects he had thought about at one point since he landed here. Everything was a production of his mind but everything seemed real when he took it. He just had to think about something to make it appear. A new hope seized him. He closed his eyes really tight and thought about the face of a little blonde, of his little blonde. He smiled while picturing her. Even if it was only an illusion, she would be there, with him, and he wouldn't be afraid anymore. For the first time in a very long time, he wouldn't be afraid of the loneliness because she would be there, near him. She would reassure him, talk to him, love him, fill the emptiness that was filling his hearts since the Time war ended, taking away his entire species. She was human but she didn't care. She had said the perfect words when he needed it. He would do anything to get her back, to see her smile again, even praying a God he wasn't believing in.

"There's me."

He opened his eyes, ready to welcome her, but was deeply hurt to see he was still alone. Rose didn't appear. Only a white rose lay at his feet. He knelt down to pick it up and brought it to his nose. Silent tears escaped from his eyes and watered the weak petals. While he was giving his sadness free rein, he saw an object practically buried in the sand only a few inch away from where he picked up the rose. He started to extract that mysterious object without dropping the rose. As he was uncovering it, anxiety choked his entire body. His memory was trying to tell him something he refused to admit and that refusal was undermined in front of that thing. New memories came to his mind and got the upper hand on his Time lord's adventures. He had done another stop before landing on that beach and the item he was extracting was the reason of his presence here. A nervous laugh slipped out of his lips when he understood he had another life right after the regeneration, a life that was shortened by a shell, by the exact shell he had just found.

"Corporal!"

He had been a part of the British army during the World War II. He had no memories of his old life until he was sent here, until he rebuilt, piece by piece, the large parts of his existence. He had been a soldier, he had fought for his country and that beach was just a no man's land, a land of passing before he really left in the afterlife. That day, he had saved a lot of human lives but he had also lost his. He had protected the men that were under his command and gave his life for them. The shell that should have killed them all only killed him and he was relieved of that. He fully accepted it and finally let himself fall into the darkness of the Grim Reaper, taking with only one rose. After all, he'd rather die than face a life in which Rose Tyler wasn't.

FANTASTIC !