Chapter 1

On the floor of the console room, which had reverted to how it looked during the Doctor's fifth, sixth, and seventh lives, save for a few minor, insignificant changes, lay a girl. She was pretty, with silky brown hair, fair skin that would be a dermatologist's wet dream, and a petite build. She snored lightly, and appeared to be unconscious.

The TARDIS gave a lurch, waking the girl, who scrambled up onto her feet and grabbed the controls and began flipping switches and turning knobs.

"What's wrong, old girl? Got a bit of indigestion?" she said before noticing the pitch her voice had taken.

"My voice…" She tentatively touched her head with both hands, feeling the hair on her head. She lowered her hands to her neck, and her eyes widened when she felt that the hair didn't end there.

"I'm a girl!" she shouted, then touched her neck to feel for an Adam's apple, which she didn't find.

"Yep. Definitely a girl…" she said. The TARDIS gave another lurch, and she began flipping switches and turning knobs again. The column stopped moving, signaling landing. She pulled a lever that opened the interior doors, staggered to the external door and opened it, falling face-first into the grass that lay in front of it.

A man dressed in a black UNIT uniform was going through the forest when he stopped in his tracks. Sitting in the grass, plain as day was a blue police telephone box. He pulled out his radio and spoke into it.

"Foxtrot to Headquarters, Foxtrot to Headquarters, I think I've found the Doctor. Requesting assistance, I think he may be hurt," he said into it.

"Headquarters to Foxtrot, we hear you. Sending in the copter to bring the TARDIS to headquarters. Is the Doctor with the box?" said a voice from the radio.

"No, he's not. There is a woman lying in front of the box, I think she's hurt. She's breathing, but she's unconscious."

"We'll send in an ambulance to bring her to the hospital."

Minutes later, the copter and the ambulance arrived. The helicopter lowered a large claw, which grabbed hold of the TARDIS by the top and lifted it into the air to be carried back to UNIT. The man, along with a paramedic from UNIT, helped the woman onto a gurney, and into the ambulance. She was wearing men's clothes that were visibly too large for her. The ambulance departed for the hospital.

Back at UNIT, a blonde middle-aged woman oversaw the TARDIS being set down in front of UNIT headquarters. The ambulance carrying the woman arrived there, too, and she was extracted from the vehicle.

"Who's this?" the blonde woman asked one of the men emerging from the ambulance.

"No idea. We found no ID on her, but she was found by the Doctor's TARDIS."

"Sounds like a story my father told me about his days in UNIT. Are you sure this woman is not the Doctor? This has happened before."

"We aren't 100% sure, but we think she isn't."

"I want you to do an x-ray on her chest. Look for a binary vascular system. Report back to me with the results," the blonde woman said.

"Of course." The paramedics wheeled the mysterious woman into the building and towards the infirmary.

Hours later, the mysterious woman awoke.

"Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart!" she shouted. "Where's Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart?"

"I'm afraid you're too late, Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart died back in 2011. Will you talk to his daughter?" said the physician who was making sure the mysterious woman was cared for.

"I suppose," she said. The physician picked up his radio.

"Kate Stewart, you are requested in the infirmary."

"On my way."

Minutes later, the blonde woman entered the room.

"Ma'am, I'm Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. You wanted to speak to me?"

"Kate Stewart. I seem to be missing my shoes…"

"Oh, are these what you're looking for?" Kate said, picking up a pair of men's shoes.

"Yes. Shoes," said the mysterious woman, who then grabbed the shoes and began shaking them upside down, looking for something. A small metallic object fell out of the shoe and the woman placed it into a pocket in her shirt.

"Doctor Hayes, did you do the x-ray?" Kate asked the physician behind her.

"Yes. She has a binary vascular system."

"Well, I'd sure hope so, seeing as I'd be lost without my second heart," said the mysterious woman.

"Who are you?" Kate asked.

"I'm the Doctor, of course."

"No, The Doctor is an older man with a Scottish accent. You're a younger woman with an American accent."

"Don't you remember, Kate, the stories your father told you about his time in UNIT? In the beginning of my third life, I encountered a very similar situation to what's going on right now. That was me, the man you saw about the broken paintings is me, and the man with the Scottish accent is me. I have fourteen different lives, fifteen different incarnations. I am the Fourteenth Doctor. Well, Thirteenth if you don't count the one I don't talk about. But those men are me, and I am those men. I just happen to be a woman in this incarnation, and an unintimidatingly small one, but my effectiveness has not been decreased any at all."

"Can I see some proof?" Kate said.

"Lead me to my TARDIS. I'll give you proof inside."

"Very well. Right this way," Kate said, leading the woman in the hospital gown outside to the blue box. The Doctor pulled the key from her shirt and unlocked the TARDIS door.

"After you, Kate Stewart," the Doctor said. Kate walked into the box, and the Doctor followed her.

"Here's my proof. TARDIS, show previous appearances of The Doctor," the Doctor said. The big screen on the wall lit up with photos of the Doctor, beginning with an older man with grey hair. It switched to a black-haired man holding a recorder, then to a white-haired man wearing ruffles, then to a curly-haired man with a ridiculously long scarf. It showed a nice-looking man in a cricket outfit with celery on his lapel, then to a curly-haired man with a blindingly colorful coat. It switched to a black-haired man wearing a question-marked sweater, then to a Victorian-era dressed man with chin-length hair. It showed an older man with a whiskery beard, then a man who appeared to be in his forties wearing a leather jacket. It showed a man with spikey hair wearing an ill-fitted pinstriped suit, then that man again wearing the same suit in blue, then a man with a bowtie and tweed jacket. It showed a grey-haired man with a navy blue coat lined with red, then stopped there.

"Why doesn't it show you with this face?" Kate asked.

"I've only just regenerated. I died when a Dalek shot me. Not fun. Just managed to get to the TARDIS in time to get it flying before I regenerated. She likes to wait until I've decided my style before she stores a photo of this incarnation in her databanks." The Doctor felt a pain shoot through her body.

"And it's not going properly!"

"We need to get you back to the UNIT infirmary," Kate said.

"Yes, that would do nicely," the Doctor said as she leaned on Kate, who pulled the lever to open the doors, and then led the Doctor out of the box.

"I need a stretcher or a gurney over here!" Kate shouted. "The Doctor's regenerated and she needs the infirmary!"