Why hello!

I promised, didn't I? Here you go, chapter 11! It was very hard to write, so please review! I will work on more; another chapter on Friday?

After a rather stressful visit to the hospital, the Eleventh Doctor left Rose Tyler at her house by the sea so she could rest up for their mission and the big day ahead...

At precisely 8:00am the next morning, there was a knock at Rose Tyler's front door. Already dressed and ready to go, she opened the door to see a grinning Doctor wearing… a fez? She said nothing, but raised an eyebrow at the unusual accessory. He sighed in annoyance.

"I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool," he tried to explain. After another moment of her disapproving expression, he unhappily removed his incredibly cool bright red fez and stuck it in his transdimensional pocket. Rose nodded with mock severity and moved to step out the door. "Actually," he stopped her, "I'd like to talk a bit first." She nodded and gestured inside.

"Come on in and sit," she invited him. After they were comfortably seated in the sitting room (where else would one sit?) the Doctor began.

"I... I just wanted to catch up a bit, exchange stories really," he clarified, obviously uncomfortable, fidgeting like mad. "I'm not really good at… normal conversations apparently… So, if there's anything you want to know, I wanted to just give you a chance to ask." He held out his hands as if to say 'hit me with your best shot.' Rose thought for a moment.

"Okay, um… what's the companion situation? Where's Donna?" she asked, confused when he flinched in pain.

"Such a long time ago… Well, it's not that complicated. She had a human body and a Time Lord consciousness. After I left you and John, her brain started failing. I suppose it's a bit like what happened with you and Bad Wolf. I had to wipe her memory and leave her with her mum and granddad."

"Doctor, I'm sorry-"

"Don't be. It's not your fault. Anyway, after Donna, a bit of a problem with the Master, and a regeneration-"

"Wait, who's the Master? Did he kill you?!"

"No! Well, it wasn't… well, it sort of was his fault, but he didn't directly kill me. Er… I don't think he meant to… He was another Time Lord, and not a terribly good one. I'll get to him. Anyway, I regenerated, and then crashed in a little girl's backyard. That little girl was… Amelia Pond." He sighed miserably. "I went to take the TARDIS for a test run and messed up the coordinates. I accidentally left for fifteen years."

"Oh."

"Yeah. I came back in what was only a few minutes for me, then we saved the world again, and I went into the TARDIS and accidentally left for another two years. Then I came back again and she started travelling with me. After a while, we ended up back in her time because it turned out that her wedding was the next morning… So then… bad things happened, and I almost tore them apart, but I took the two of them, Amy and her fiancé Rory Williams, travelling for a while. They made up and all that… So, it's a long story. I knew her for pretty much her entire life. I left them with their own life in their own time for a while, but then I got lonely and took them back, so… yeah… and then I was dead-"

"WHAT?!"

"Long story. I was dead, and then I wasn't, it's really very complicated…"

"Sounds like it. So… are they…?" she was afraid to ask.

"Not dead. Well… Do you know about Weeping Angels?"

"Oh no, that's awful! John told me about them! Wait, but… can't you just go get them?"

"No. There was a huge mass of Angels hopping all over. They messed Time up so badly that the TARDIS won't land at those coordinates ever again. See, Rory was touched by an Angel, and Amy knew we couldn't go back for him. She didn't want to live her life apart from him, so she let the Angel touch her and she went back to him. They'll live the rest of their lives together, but I can never see them again. That was six months ago. I've done close to nothing since then." He sighed, tears welling in his eyes. Rose wrapped him in a hug.

"Doctor, I'm so, so sorry." she mumbled into his jacket.

"It's okay," he contradicted her. "I've got River."

"Who's River?" Rose asked, releasing the Doctor, who was now blushing.

"Professor River Song. Given name, Melody Pond. She's Amy and Rory's daughter. She's also sort of… not exactly… my, um… wife." he admitted, wincing and expecting the worst. He was quite surprised to receive quite the opposite. Rose squeaked in delight and hugged him again, tighter.

"Oh, congratulations Doctor! Finally doing the domestics, are we?" She asked fondly.

"Well, not really. Also, she doesn't actually know my name, so she's not technically… not yet, anyway…" he clarified. Rose's eyes widened.

"So you're going to actually-?" she squeaked excitedly.

"Well, sometime… yes. Planning on actually, officially marrying her at some point… But… long story. Any more questions before we go find yours?"

"Good luck with that! Actually… I do have one question."

"Okay?"

"What made you regenerate?"

"Oh. That. Well… the thing itself that got me was a massive amount of radiation. See, there was this safe-thing, a glass… well it was nitroplex polycarbonate archi-"

"Doctor, you know I don't understand that."

"Sorry. Anyway, glass box, two compartments, a door in each. If one person goes in one side, he can't get out until another person goes in the other side. Door's deadlocked: no way out."

"Or they get blasted with radiation?"

"No… that was a bit of a malfunction… Quite a malfunction it was. The Master actually yanked the Time Lords and Gallifrey out of time and space and into his present time, 2010, on Earth. Long story short, I detonated a warp star and it blew up the transmitter so everything went back to its proper place… but Donna's granddad, Wilfred, he got trapped in one side of the box. The explosion set off the molecular energy matrix. There was a lot of pent-up radiation leaking into the circuits; even the sonic screwdriver would set it off. I could let him out, but then I'd be locked in and the chamber would be flooded with radiation. One of us was going to have to die. The worst part… the worst part is, I almost let that be him," the Doctor admitted miserably.

"Doctor, that's not like you!" Rose gasped.

"I know," he replied ashamedly. "I was desperate. I didn't want to die. It was said that 'he would knock four times' and my time would come. I didn't know who 'he' was, until I was lying there after the explosion celebrating survival, and… Wilfred knocked on the glass… four times," he sighed, unable to meet her eyes.

"Oh no… that's awful…" The blonde woman's eyes widened.

"I couldn't help but think that he was just an old man, a worthless old man who'd lived a decently long life and wasn't of any use to the universe. I was angry that the situation had to be so unfair, but then I realized how I sounded… and I knew it had to be me."

"Wise until the end, you are."

"Yup. That's me."

"Was it… over quickly?" Rose asked concernedly, receiving a groan in reply.

"Not at all. Easily the most painful regeneration I've ever had."

"No surprise. That much radiation…"

"It wasn't the radiation."

"What?"

"The radiation wasn't the part that really hurt. Well, not that it didn't, it was one of the most painful things I've ever felt, but it wasn't what made it my most painful regeneration, I mean. I survived the radiation… sort of."

"What do you mean, sort of?"

"The radiation didn't kill me all the way, but I was dying. The part that hurt, that really hurt, was when I decided to do a little Farewell Tour thing. I just wanted to see everyone one last time, and I did. I saw Martha and Mickey, who are married now, by the way. I saw Sarah Jane and Luke, I saw Jack, I saw Donna, Wilfred, Sylvia… Those all hurt, but the last one hurt the most."

"Who?" Rose asked, wondering who could hurt him so much, considering that she'd been locked away in a parallel dimension.

"January 1st, 2005. Earth. She was walking with her mother, sending her off to see some new man. Hardly a surprise. She was heading back home alone when she heard a noise from a shadow, like someone in pain. She asked the man in the shadows if he'd had a bit too much to drink. He said he'd done something like that. She told him to go home, and he said he would. As she was starting to run back home, he called after her. He asked what year it was. She asked how much he'd had, but she told him, 2005. He told her it would be a good year for her. She smiled and ran back home. The unknown man shed a few tears before stumbling back into his TARDIS and regenerating." The Doctor smiled sadly.

"That was you?" she gasped, grinning her unique grin. "I always wondered who it could have been, 'cause that was the year I met you the first time, and I always thought 'hey, that guy was right.'"

"I said it would be a good year, didn't I? But listen, Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"There's a reason I'm telling you about all this. It's not like I love talking about it. I wanted to tell you about how you were the last face that face saw because I wanted you to know that, him being nearly the same person, John loves you dearly, no matter how it seems."

"Oh… Thanks, Doctor. I think… I think I really needed to hear that."

"I know the feeling. So, let's go get him?"

"Yeah… Just… one minute." Rose hopped up from her chair and ran up the stairs. A minute or so later, she was back. Her Time Lord friend raised an eyebrow, and she showed him her right hand, which now carried a beautiful ring. It was the ring from the little wooden TARDIS box. She sighed, gazing into the sparkling crystal.

"If we find him… when we find him, I want him to see I'm wearing it," she explained determinedly.

"Brilliant idea. He'll love that, Rose," The Doctor commented, eliciting a genuine Rose Tyler smile. She led the way out of the house and locked the door behind them, and they set off toward the hospital once again.

Hello fez! I said there'd be a cameo from an old friend! Please review! ;)