A golden light filled the Doctor's vision as once again he was regenerating, alone. This time was different though. This wasn't any old regeneration. This was number 13 to 14. Time lords are only allowed to regenerate 13 times, any more and the regeneration process tends to go a bit... skew. Instead of minor changes in personality and physicality, a time lord can make great big leaps. Whereas before a notable change would have been curly hair to straight, or liking knock knock jokes to dry humour, there was almost no limit this time round, this was when things got dangerous. Time lords with two heads, or worse, one heart.
The pain forced him to his knees and he grasped the railings for support. Slowly the glow faded and the doctor, now out of breath, was lying down, staring at the vaulting ceiling of the T.A.R.D.I.S..
Sitting up the Doctor tested the new muscles. Flexing the fingers and arms, as this happened a strand of long brown hair flipped into vision. The Doctor felt the long strand of hair, twisting it around,
"Very lo-" the doctor was stopped startled by the high timbre, when another more startling discovery about the new body was made: breasts. "I-I'm a girl." She smirked. This was new. The male clothes that had fit the old Doctor perfectly now hung loosely of her smaller frame. Although when she stood up she found her hips wide enough to keep the trousers up, even though they pooled around her ankles. Half heartedly she checked that her legs, and arms, and two hearts worked. "A woman." She stroked her chin and jaw line. "Ah, smooth. I guess I don't have to worry about shaving," She spoke to the T.A.R.D.I.S console, when she abruptly stopped smiling, and reached down to pulled the trouser leg up to inspect her leg hair. She had to sit down awkwardly with her left leg stuck up in the air, both arms supporting the leg while she inspected the cm long fine black hairs that covered her legs. Sitting back up right she shrugged and let her trouser leg fall back down.
"Right, gorgeous," She smiled and stroked the console slipping her feet out of the now way too big shoes "time to take me to where I need to be." She started pulling stops and twirling dials, running from station to station, she kept tripping on the long trousers, and her new hair kept falling into her face. Eventually the T.A.R.D.I.S landed. The Doctor took a mental stock of what she had in the T.A.R.D.I.S' closet. Not too many female clothes, and in any case, wrong time period.
Before she left the T.A.R.D.I.S she rolled the cuffs of her trousers to ankle length, and slipped on the shoes that were now flippers to her.
She slowly made her way down an English high street, going through the automatic doors to the women's clothing shop.
Clumsily she approached the nearest member of staff, a blonde woman who reminded the Doctor a little of Rose. The shop assistant eyed the Doctor.
"Hi, I'm Jo- Jane smith." the Doctor introduced herself recovering from the old habit of saying John, "And, I am a girl and I need clothes." The shop assistant stared for a second at the odd opening, before giving a business smile,
"I'm Rita, I'd be happy to help, if you don't mind me asking what size are you?"
"I, don't know." Rita paused for the second time.
"...OK, well let's start with a ten, and work up."
The Doctor was admiring the short blue trench coat that Rita had brought for her,
"So, why'd you need clothes?" Rita asked through the curtain. The doctor emerged wearing her new ensemble that consisted of a thin loose white knit jumper, a dark purple skinny jeans, and what the Rita had coined 'knock off brogues'
"Because everyone else is wearing them and I'm a sucker for trends."
" ..OK. I mean, why'd you need to buy a whole new set of clothes" The Doctor took a second to think,
".. I was robbed."
"And all you had was those guy's clothes?"
"What? Yes, yes. I borrowed these from a friend." Rita looked puzzled.
"Then what happened to the clothes you were wearing before the robb-"
"These are great I'll take them." the Doctor cut her off.
"Of course"
"Oh, and by the way, do you know any good, uh, hair places, this, is too much." The doctor used both arms to pull at strands of her hair, showing it's length.
"Sure, just down the street. Although, if you want my opinion, you shouldn't cut it, it looks gorgeous. I know girls who would kill for long wavy hair like that." The Doctor pulled a face, and retrieved her sonic from the old jacket, pulled the lapel of her new trench coat and tried to find the pocket to put it in.
"Hang on, hang on," The Doctor said, searching with her hands, then eyes for the inside pocket that was supposed to be there, "this jacket is faulty. It's broken,"
"Excuse me? It has a rip?"
"No, it hasn't got an inside pocket."
"... Girls Jackets generally don't. It's a ploy really. Give you less and smaller pockets, so A, your clothes are free to be tighter, and B you're forced to by a handbag as well."
"That's... I mean, I can't run with a handbag, but I need to be able to run with this." She held up the Sonic. Rita shook her head ever so slightly in disbelief, this was a strange woman.
"I'll go and see what I can find."
Suddenly a loud boom filled the air and the lights in the shop turned off. The Doctor grabbed Rita's arm on instinct, guided her into the cubicle and pulled the curtain across, and indicated that she should be quiet by putting her finger to her lips. Rita's eyes were wide, but she stayed calm enough to remain silent. The Doctor cautiously poked her head around the curtain and looked around. Just the nearly pitch changing rooms.
She flicked the sonic screwdriver and buzzed it around the air.
"Huh. There's no one else here."
"What?" Rita asked barely containing panic. "The Shop's full of people! There was an explosion or something, why is no one panicking?!" she stage whispered.
"Because we're the only one's here." The Doctor said looking Rita in the eyes.
The Doctor opened the curtain fully and pointed the sonic at the lights which flickered back to life.
"How, how did you do that?" Rita asked from the cubicle, the Doctor twirled the sonic in her hand, and smiled lovingly at it,
"Sonic screwdriver, very good a turning on lights. Now come on," the Doctor looked at Rita and smiled, "We have to investigate what happened." Rita cautiously moved out of the cubicle and followed the Doctor into the main shop. All the lights were out, and it was clear of people.
"The lights have all broken..."
"Not broken, they were turned off when the shop shut."
"When the shop shu- What?" Rita's eyebrows knitted together
"Yes when the shop was shut, a good..." the Doctor checked the sonic "...four hours ago now."
"No, no, it's 4 'o'clock, the shop is supposed to shut in an hour."
"Well if you don't believe me," the Doctor buzzed the lights back on with her sonic "go check the doors."
Rita walked and then jogged to the front doors, and when she tried to open them she found them locked, and outside twilight had fallen.
"See."
"This is impossible..."
"Not really, well, only a little bit." Rita looked at her incredulously "We've jumped through time, the loud bang was just an echo of the energy spent jumping us. Probably a time mechanism fault nearby. What's really strange is that rather than whole shop experiencing the jump, it was just a pocket the size of the changing rooms."
The shop assistant squinted at the Doctor "...You're insane." She accused.
The Doctor looked momentarily lost for words.
"Yes, well. Maybe I am, that is a possible conclusion. I mean," She started to move towards the door marked "staff only", randomly aiming the buzzing sonic at the air and reading it "It's a reasonable conclusion to draw, that is. Either I'm insane, or," She paused dramatically with her hand on the door latch, "there's a crashed space ship in the staff lounge." She buzzed the screwdriver at the small lock for a moment, when a click came from the lock she pushed down on the handle and opened the door to reveal heaps of smoking metal, and remnants of the now charred staff lounge furniture. "Right, then, now we have that sorted. I'm not insane."
"Right, yeah, no... but I think I might be." She stared at the wreck
"Don't worry you're very probably not. People always seem to say that around me but 9 times out of ten, well 8 times, well maybe 7 times... anyway mostly, they're perfectly sane."
Rita walked towards the wreck, and stood in the doorway. She looked at the Doctor's face.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor."