He kept seeing ghosts.
He was used to it by now, used to seeing Rose everywhere he went on his beloved ship- even places she had never been. He'd imagine her smile, the way her tongue curled out to peal through her teeth. He remembered the peroxide blonde hair, the brown roots just showing at the top. Mostly, he remembered her smell.
Oh, she knew he had different senses than hers. He could see farther, feel the elements less harshly, experience touch differently, taste more flavors of food, had a more expansive hearing range than her, but he really had one hell of a snout.
He could smell the way she lingered in hallways, even minutes after she had gone. He smelled her scent on sheets, in the shower, in the pool, everywhere. The whole TARDIS wreaked of Rose and he loved it. He loved being drowned in her scent when she was rooms away, when she was across the room, he loved it. Even after she had gone it was comforting to know she was here; that she wasn't just made up story tale that he had created in his insanity after the Time War. But now, her scent was mixed in with everyone along with the ghosts.
For days after Martha Jones left he had called to her, brought her breakfast from the galley in some delusion that she was mad at him and maybe this would patch things up. (The Doctor had to admit he wasn't the best at human emotion). From the corner of his eye he'd see her leaving the console room, or blink and see the drips of water on the floor from her coming out of the pool. Sometimes he swears her jacket still hung on the look if he tried hard enough, right next to Rose's (except her's was actually there, carelessly left about and found days after her departure and calmly placed where he knew she would've, but never would, found it).
Sometimes he even saw Mickey, especially in the library. There was a corner in the back, tucked away behind the history section (that he rarely looked at because he was usually the one making history). There was a black game chair, a large flat screen TV setup, every gaming console they had on earth, and a pair of headphones left on the ground next to a controller.
It was abandoned. His exit was unexpected and his belongings left astray, just like everyone else's.
Now he saw Donna. He saw her screaming about having his feet up on the coffee table (it leaves marks, she'd yell, swatting his feet of the polished wood. His rebuttal was always the
same (Donna Noble, I don't know if you noticed but you happen to be on my ship). The Doctor almost got a slap when he was any more rude than that. She didn't really do talking back and even that he missed.
Every once in awhile he even saw Jackie. Usually she was in one of the galleys. The kitchen taking almost an identical look as the one Rose had at her mother's flat, she said it made it feel like home. (She eventually started to use the other one, and when prompted why she simply answered everyone leaves home in the end).
Jack Harkness even lingered the hallways sometimes. Usually it was after he had a run in on one of the many species he had hit on while the Doctor was in his presence. He could even pictures Jack's smug smile when hinting he wouldn't mind if either him or Rose joined him later, or better, both.
It had all been separate for the most part. Rarely did he see them interacting except in dreams and relived memories of his. Rose never met Martha. Martha never met Donna. Donna had never met Jack.
Then the stars went out; and all he could see was all of them standing around a console, finally enough people to properly fly a TARDIS, laughing.
Sometimes he'd even think they were there, his voice reaching out and cracking once he realized no one would answer his calls. Sometimes he even swore Rose was standing there, tongue in cheek next to a very human Doctor, a very Time Lord Donna, and a very not amused mother.
He pulled up an old console room and had used that for weeks after they had all left, himself being the only passenger once again on his bigger-on-the-inside ship. Eventually he got bored, tiring of old white walls with disks on the walls that no one knew the purpose for, and a very rigid time rotator and console. He went back to the organic, even if all he saw was ghosts.
The Doctor really did think that the ghosts would haunt him for the rest of this body, and in some ways he was correct. He really did want this body to last more than the meager few years he had spent in it. He wasn't going to lie when saying it was definitely one of his best looking bodies, not to mention the most charming. There weren't big ears or an impractically long scarf (that really was only useful for getting caught on things) or a old looking young man, too set in his ways to change.
I bet you're going to have a really great year.
A nod and a smile from a young blonde woman, who didn't know any him yet. See ya.
Now he stood in the console room of his beloved ship which held every soul he loved in it at the same point, with radiation flowing through his veins.
It was an experience he knew too well, regeneration. There were always flashes of that life before he'd go, the brightest moments that stood out the most, the cheekiest of smiles and the warmest of laughs. He'd see Rose Tyler, helping an isolos find it's way home. Mickey Smith, leaving for a better life without him in a gingerbread universe. Martha Jones, standing up for herself, even when she was leaving. Jack Harkness, standing in a radiation filled room, every death and every breath in between laying ahead of him. And Donna Noble, just telling him to stop.
This time he saw their ghosts as well, all turned towards him as in some farewell.
Rose stood in front, of course it would be her, her big brown eyes sad and her lips turned slightly downwards. He glanced down and her memory looped their fingers together. "I don't want to go."
I know.
He became a new man. His hair went floppy and his eyes green. His body stayed lanky and young, but other than that there were few similarities.
The new, new, new Doctor looked around, saw his ship burning from the outburst of the regeneration being put off so long. He started with controls, the same organic field laying around his body, but one thing changed.
The ghosts were gone. And his tenth body went with them.