Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.
Hope's First Regeneration Part Three
Danny turned to Rich with his eyes filled with tears. "Please, you gotta help her!" he pleaded, tears streaking down his cheeks, trying to shake his sister awake. "Hey, hey, don't cry. Okay, um….there is a room we keep the more err, lively patients. It's the most secure and quiet place in the facility. Only trouble is, it's on the other side of the complex. Come on, we've gotta hurry" Rich explained as he lifted Hope back into his arms and carried her out of the room.
Her brother had to run to keep up with the taller man's long strides. Rich ignored everyone who tried to stop him, simply stating it was an emergency whenever they were waylaid and shoving his way past. He knew it was only a matter of time before Hope stopped breathing. At long last they reached the secure room at the other end of the facility. Rich gingerly placed Hope in the middle of the padded white room, taking off his coat and using it to support her head.
"We can't stay with her" Danny said miserably. He wanted to make sure his sister would be okay, but he knew the regeneration energy was dangerous. He and Rich left the room and shut the door. "Now we wait for…Rich? How long does the poison normally take to…to kill someone…?" Danny asked nervously. Rich ran a hand through his hair. "An hour at least. It took us about twenty five minutes to get the compound from where I found you, another twenty minutes to reach the room here…if she was bitten five minutes or so before I found you, she has about…ten minutes left".
Ten minutes. The longest ten minutes of his life, Danny felt. He wished his mum and dad were here.
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The once calm flight ended as the TARDIS began to rumble and shake. "It's no good, we'll never fly spatially without thermo-couplings!" snapped Anna. She wasn't normally this high strung; but her two children weren't there and her eldest could be on the verge of regenerating or even dying, so she had an excuse. "We'll have to jump into the future; about an hour should do it" said the Doctor, and Anna glared at him. "If we don't get there in time I am never speaking to you again!" she threatened.
The TARDIS leapt forwards an hour into the future, landing in the corridor in which Danny and Rich waited anxiously. Rich was startled by the sudden appearance and strange noise of the police box. Danny on the other hand, jumped to his feet with a cry of delight and rushed towards it. A middle aged blonde woman exited the incongruous structure and scooped the boy into her arms. She was followed by a slightly older man who shared Danny's light brown curls.
"I'm sorry mum, I'm sorry dad" Danny apologised. "You should be" the Doctor said sternly, and then added in a gentler voice "but your mother and I are very glad you're safe. Is your sister in that room?" he asked, pointing. Danny nodded. "Rich helped me" he announced. "We can't thank you enough for looking after our children" Anna thanked him gratefully. "Oh, it was nothing, ma'am…but I'm afraid the hour is up" he said apologetically.
They all looked at the door, crossing their fingers and holding their breaths. For ten terrible, dragging seconds, nothing happened. Then orange gold light illuminated the outline of the door, bright as a star. Danny jumped up and down, whooping. The Doctor punched the air. Anna burst into tears of joy, and Rich simply stared in bewilderment. When the light died away, Danny ran up to the door and called through it. "Hope, are you okay? Can you hear me?"
A few moments later, an unfamiliar voice replied "Yeah…my head is killing me. Why is everything scorched…oh. Huh, hair's different…..whoa! Okay, steering's off. Just…stand back". Danny retreated to stand beside his anxious parents. "Um, it's push to open" Rich called helpfully. There was a pause. "Thanks". At last the door swung open and Hope stepped out, steadying herself against the doorjambs.
However, it wasn't the Hope they knew. Gone was the tanned skin, replaced with a paler pink shade. Her clothes were slightly tattered and a bit too small, since she'd grown an inch or so. Her hair definitely was different; rather than curly and chocolate brown, it was blonde and straight, falling past her shoulders. Her nose was more snubbed, her lips were fuller, and her eyes were a light brown colour. "I look ridiculous, don't I?" she asked.
Anna smiled in relief and came forward. "Not at all, you look beautiful" she assured her daughter, who grinned and wobbled. "Come on. Let's get you into a proper Zero room" said the Doctor. Hope paused and looked at her brother. "So what do you think, champ? Good different or bad different?" she inquired. Danny regarded her with his head cocked to one side. "We don't look alike anymore" he said wistfully, "but that's okay. I'll just make sure I'm blonde and brown eyed when I regenerate".
"Which will not be for an extremely long time, now will it?" Anna said sternly. Hope turned to Rich and held out her hand to shake. He took it, still a little stunned. "Thanks for all the help. And err, sorry I burnt your room" she said sheepishly, before following her father into the TARDIS. Rich watched the time machine dematerialise, shaking his head in disbelief. Then he looked inside the room….and saw what Hope meant. There was a scorch mark in the shape of a body on the floor. He sighed and went to go find a mop.
/
Anthony was coming out of the shower when his phone trilled. He checked the message, and when he saw who it was from, he dried off and dressed more quickly than he'd ever done in his life. "Just going to see Hope, see you later!" he called to his parents somewhere in the house as he left it and ran to the school gates that had become their default meeting spot. When he reached the gates, however, Hope was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, a tall blonde girl waved to him. Anthony remembered suddenly, what Hope's species could do when they were dying…he ran up to her and took her hands. "Hope?" he asked uncertainly. "Hey. I thought you'd like to see the new me" she explained. Anthony stepped back just a little and looked her up and down. Her eyes were light brown and more oval, not the deep blue pools he remembered, but they still looked as bright and adventurous as before.
Her clothes were different as well. Instead of trainers she wore black ankle boots with silver buckles. With these she wore TARDIS blue jeans with a thin black belt, a light brown and grey pinstriped shirt and a brown fringed jacket that looked like it belonged to a pilot. "You look…you look awesome. I mean, different, but yeah, awesome" he said awkwardly. Hope smirked. "Awesome…I like the sound of that. You don't look too bad yourself, even if your shirt is inside out", she giggled, and linked her arm with his.
"Let's go for a pizza" she suggested as they walked down the street. "We can get a ham and pineapple, I'll have the ham and you have the pineapple. I hate pineapple now. Used to love it, now I hate it. But I used to hate the taste of smoky bacon crisps and now I can't get enough of them" she revealed. Anthony listened patiently as Hope described which foods she now liked and which ones she now couldn't stand. It would take a while to get used to this new Hope; he wondered if her talkativeness was a side effect of regeneration. "What happened?" he asked when she stopped for breath.
Hope shrugged. "It's daft, really. I got bitten by a tiny alien poisonous spider. I don't exactly remember it that clearly; my dad says that's normal though. He once regenerated because of a giant radioactive spider" she explained. Then she bit her lip and looked at Anthony. "Do you mind that I changed? Cos I still feel the same. I still love you" she admitted. Anthony stopped and faced her properly.
"Everyone changes…okay, granted not everyone changes bodies, but you're still the same Hope inside. So yeah, I still love you too" he replied. Hope beamed, and then pulled him in for a kiss. Well, one thing was for sure. This new Hope was just as good of a kisser as her first incarnation had been.
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A/N: Well that's it folks! The final part of 'Hope's First'. Twelve chapters and twenty five 'firsts'. Thank you to everyone who favourited, followed and reviewed. I hope you all enjoyed reading about Hope growing up, as much as I enjoyed writing about it.