Chapter 2: I'm a girl?!

When Randy woke up, he was in his own bed, and his parents were standing over him. His mother seemed to be brushing off fresh tears. When she saw him wake up she looked relieved and said "Thank goodness you're alright!". Randy's father seemed to be trying for an angry look, but flashes of amusement kept creeping through.

"Is something funny?" Randy asked dully. He gasped slightly. His voice sounded different. It sounded higher.

"My voice..." his tongue met his front teeth as he spoke. "My teeth..."

Randy's eyes slid downward.

Randy put a hand to his chest. "Wha... Shit!"

Randy's father was nodding slowly.

"I'm a girl?! How can I be a girl?!" She suddenly felt a bit dizzy, as if her brain were working a million miles a minute. "But I can't regenerate! I mean, you can't regenerate so I shouldn't be able to, and-"

"That's what I thought..." Randy's father said. "I suppose I could have been wrong."

"So you can regenerate? Or is there some other reason? Or?" Randy put a hand to her head "Ow..."

Can I? Randy's father communicated telepathically.

Randy nodded. Randy's father checked her heartbeat. Randy tried to check her own pulse on her throat but it sounded odd somehow"

"Two hearts..." Randy's father murmured. Rose gasped. "Rose, could you give us a minute?" Randy's father said to her.

"Right, yeah..." Rose agreed quietly and left the room.

"Two hearts... as in... full time lord?" Randy muttered disbelievingly.

"Time lady it would seem..."

"Oh. Well, that's just great. I'm a girl, and I'm an alien."

"Well you're not an alien to me."

"Right, 'cause you got the Doctor's memories... You remember being the same species... But you're not really..."

"Don't whine. You're hardly alone. The Doctor's also a time lord, all your friends are at least half time-lord..."

"One other person... And no other girls... I suppose I'll want to spend time with girls now..." Something suddenly occurred to Randy. Would she like girls or boys now? Regeneration hadn't just meant turning into a time lady, even if she hadn't turned into a girl it would still be a complete DNA overhaul. Who could say what or who she would like?

"How are you feeling anyway?" Randy's father asked sympathetically.

"Hungry..." Randy muttered.

"I've got just the thing!" Randy's father announced. "Come to the kitchen."

Randy looked at her clothes for the first time since she woke up. They were torn. Randy put on a robe and followed her father to the kitchen. On the table were a variety of dishes.

"I'm not that hungry... Well, actually, I'm starving, but still..."

"I don't expect you to eat it all at once. You can't expect to be sure of what you like to eat anymore. I figured I'd let you sample a variety of things so you don't end up spitting out food later."

"You're being awfully nice about this. Why am I not in trouble?"

"You've been through a lot, and what's done is done. Your gave your mother a big scare. She was terrified. But for me? Regeneration happens. If it didn't happen now, it would have happened some other time."

"Yeah... in eighty years."

"Well now that you're full time-lord you'll live a very long time." His face grew dark.

"The curse of immortality? Am I immortal?"

"Not exactly. Loomed time lords have a built-in regeneration limit. Twelve regenerations, and then that's it. The Doctor thinks he's got around that but he hasn't told me how. You weren't loomed, so you probably have far more regenerations than that. Perhaps an infinite number. But you can always refuse to regenerate if you want to."

"Choose when you want to die... that's ideal isn't it?"

"If you can bring yourself to choose death... And for me, regeneration is like a death. Like an end of consciousness as well as personality."

Randy thought for a moment. She didn't exactly feel as if she had died, but she did feel as if a part of her that used to exist was now gone, and she had felt like she was dying right before she regenerated, but she could remember her entire previous life. She wondered if she should be scared of regenerating again. She didn't want to think about it. She remembered her hunger and sat down to eat. Her tastes had changed, but she still felt neutral about most foods. Her favorite food had changed from mutton to pasta, and she choked a little when she tried to eat jerky. It tasted horrible, even though she had always liked it when she was a boy. When she had eaten as much as she wanted to, she pushed her plate aside, walked back to her room, and looked in the mirror.

She was beautiful but not strikingly so. Her hair, which had been a sandy intermediate shade between brown and blonde when she was a boy, was now a dark shade of auburn, and her eyes, which used to be brown, were now blue. Her height had changed. She was a bit shorter, but her age didn't seem to have changed, at least not by much, so she could at least hope to be taller in adulthood. Just then, the phone rang. This surprised Randy so much she almost jumped. She had been concentrating very hard on her appearance. She wouldn't say she had been vain as a boy, and she wouldn't say she was vain now, but when your appearance has recently changed...

Randy picked up the phone nervously. "Hello?"

"Er... Hi. Is this Randy?" It was Harmony's voice. Randy's heart sank.

"It used to be..." Randy replied dismally. "Is this Harmony?

"Yeah... Er... I'm really sorry, Randy."

"Could have been worse." Randy replied dryly.

"Are you okay?"

"I've been better, but, as I said, could have been worse. I suppose if I don't like it like this I can always die again and see if I come back as a bloke."

"Don't say that."

"On the plus side, I'm full time lord now, so... brain power..."

Harmony paused before saying "Seriously? That's amazing! What's 51696 divided by 17232?"

"Three," Randy responded "Is that the best you can do?"

"At that moment, yeah. I had to use a calculator."

"Harmony?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened back there?"

"Well, when you finished regenerating you were unconscious, but you seemed otherwise okay. We didn't have any trouble getting back home. Your Mum was worried sick when she saw you, your Dad just carried you inside."

Randy said nothing.

"I am sorry, really. You were right the whole time. It was stupid of me to even think about-"

Randy giggled.

"Huh?"

"It wasn't a stupid idea... Well it was a stupid idea but it still had its merits. Next time though, if there is a next time, please remember the psychic paper."