She heard his last words echoing around the crevices of her mind.

"Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what?" She could feel tears rising up. "So was I."

She watched as he doubled over in pain and she watched as golden light burst from him and she watched until a stranger stood in front of her.

Changed.

He rambled. Well, that was new. He was rambling, to be exact. He hadn't yet stopped. He was reaching for the controls of the TARDIS. "Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona . . ."

Then Rose felt the Doctor's ship shake and gripped the rail as it shuddered. She'd felt turbulence before, but naught like this. She felt herself collide with a dustbin, and screamed for one brief moment as the entire place shifted sideways and then upside down. Jolting with tremendous tremors of power, like a drunkard rocketing down a stairwell, they finally settled. The Doctor stumbled out, before she could stop him: she didn't know they weren't on Mars, or something, but she could hear someone outside—her mum. She breathed a sigh of relief. But the Doctor was still talking. He hadn't stopped since the regeneration.

"Here we are then, London. Earth. The Solar System. We did it. Jackie. Mickey. Blimey! No, no, no, no, hold on. Wait there. I've got something to say. There was something I had to tell you, something important. What was it? No, hold on, hold on. Hold on, shush, shush, shush, shush. Oh, I know! Merry Christmas!" Then he shut up, and Rose knew something was wrong.

"What happened? Is he all right?"

Rose would have gulped if she hadn't been freaked enough to cry. Had something gone wrong with the regeneration? She let Mickey and Jackie's yelps bounce off her.

"All right, someone has to drag him up," she finally said. "Mickey, you get his front."

"C'mon," he groaned, "she just got back and she's making me . . ."

"Shut up," she interrupted. "I've got his feet."

"How 'bout a little appreciation, then?"

"Hurry up," Rose said, biting her lip.

"I mean, I just saved the world, didn't I?"

"Sort of." Rose narrowly avoided tripping.

"Sorry," Mickey said, uncharacteristically softly. Rose could feel Jackie staring down her neck from behind.

"Look, mister . . ." But she couldn't summon up the courage to be rude. She'd already broken his heart more than once. They went into the flat and laid down the Doctor on the bed.

"I'm not changing him," Jackie said brutally. "He's all yours."

Rose groaned, looking at the stripy pyjamas her mum had scrounged. But when Jackie had left, she reached out and touched him, her Doctor, touched him on his cheek, and pulled aside his jacket.

She could feel something new, something in her stomach. Something fantastic and brilliant and a little bit wonderful. Something that she had never thought she'd feel again.

He was her Doctor, still.