The gold light finally subsided. The Ninth Doctor was truly gone. I swallowed, biting my lip. I couldn't feel sad now- he was still there. Different, but there. And it would be unfair to the Tenth Doctor.

Speaking of the Tenth Doctor, straightened and turned to me. He grinned. "Hello!"

I smiled at him, "Hey, Doc." I waved weakly, but he'd already turned to Rose and Melody. "Hello! Okay," He then put his tongue on his teeth. "New teeth. That's weird. So where was I?"

"You were saying hello?" Melody crossed her arms.

"Yeah, I know that, I was talking about before." He turned to me. "Where was I?"

"You wanted to go to Barcelona."

"Oh, that's right!" He turned to Rose and Melody. "Barcelona!" He grinned, making me smile as well. He literally just regenerated and he was already being adorable. Great. He turned to me, grinning. "What do you think?"

I shrugged. "I've never been, but it's up to you."

"You'll love it." He turned to the console, but looked up at us again, "And no, nobody gets to keep a dog."

"Why would we want to do that? That'll just make Sexy cross." Melody said, and the Doctor grinned at her. "See? She gets me." She grinned back and shrugged. "I mean, judging by literally everything, why wouldn't I?"

"What?" Ah. His first 'what'. I would've probably made a big deal out of it, but judging by the fact that he had literally just regenerated and Rose looked like she'd seen the Doctor making out with Jack on top of the console while petting a cat (this did not happen, by the way, the Doctor would kill himself before letting anyone touch the console unless he trusted them fully and completely, let alone start making out on it- and he'd never let a cat enter the TARDIS), I decided not to.

"Spoilers." She shrugged. "Sorry."

"I should really ban that word in the TARDIS- although, knowing Liza, she'll come up with something else to use instead."

"I don't doubt it." I shrugged. He grinned at me and turned back to the console. "Anyway, Barcelona!" He started turning a bunch of knobs on the console. "Midnight. Saturday, February Twenty Second," I did a double take at that, but shook it off. Probably just a coincidence. And we were busy, what with the whole regeneration, so it was okay to ignore it. "Six Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Five-" He stood up straight. "We're on our way to Barcelona!"

He turned to me. "So tell me, what do I look like?"

I shrugged. "Like Barty Crouch Junior, Casanova, Alec Hardy, Kilgrave- at this point I'm just listing out every single character David Tennant's ever played." He frowned and nodded, and then turned to Rose and Melody. "You guys tell me." And then he shook his head. "No, no, no, no no no, no, no, no, no. No. Don't tell me." He held up a hand.

He looked down. "Two legs, two arms, two hands," He twisted one of his wrists in the other, "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle."

He put his hands on his head and exclaimed in delight. "Hair! I'm not bald!' He ran his hands through it. "Oh, it's big hair." He slid his hands down. "Sideburns! I've got sideburns. Or really bad skin..."

"It's sideburns." Melody nodded, and he grinned at her. He then looked down at himself. "Little bit thinner," He slapped his stomach, "Give me time, I'll get used to it." He turned to me. He looked me over and grinned. "I'm taller than you!"

I frowned. "You've always been taller than me."

"Yeah, but I'm even more taller than you now! About one inch!" And then he gasped. "Oh. I have got a mole! I can feel it! Between my shoulder blades, there's a mole! Yeah, love the mole!" He rotated his shoulders and looked at all of us. "Go on, then. Tell me. What do you think?"

"You're funny." Melody smiled. "You went ultrasonic twice, and I'm still wondering how you can shift from ultrasonic to infrasonic tones in a matter of moments."

He shrugged. "I dunno, maybe she will," He turned to me and I raised my hands. "Don't look at me, I've been wondering how he can do that ever since I was eleven years old." I turned to look at Rose, who was staring at all of us while partially hiding behind a pillar. "Rose, you okay?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor." Yup. Infrasonic to ultrasonic in seconds. Although, he sounded extremely solemn, compared to his mole tangent.

She shook her head. "No, where is he?"

"He's right there." Melody gestured towards him. She shook her head. "What have you done to him?"

The Doctor pointed behind him. "You saw me, I changed. Right in front of you."

"I saw him, sort of explode, and then you replaced him, like a transmat or a body swap or something."

"Rose," She turned to me, "He regenerated. He, um, he absorbed the Vortex, remember?" She nodded. "He said that it was killing him, but he's a Time Lord. They don't die, they change."

"But I'm still me. I'll always still be me- I just changed, that's all." He assured her.

"But- you can't be."

"Then how do I remember this?" He said softly, walking towards her. "The first word I said to you. Trapped in that cellar, such a long time ago, I took your hand," He slowly took her hand for emphasis, "And I said one word. 'Run'."

Rose backed away and gasped. "Doctor?"

"Hello!" He smiled at her and walked back to the console. "And we never stopped, did we? All across the universe. Running, running, running," He rambled as he pressed a few buttons on the console. He turned back to Rose. "One time we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives." He started hopping around, saying the word 'hop' over and over again, and then he trailed off. "No?"

"Can you change back?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." He looked down.

"Can you?"

"No." He looked down sadly. He looked like he really needed a hug, but it wasn't the time. He looked back up at her again. "Do you want to leave?"

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No! But it's your choice. If you want to go home-"

I cleared my throat softly. The two of them looked at me. "Maybe we could take you home for a couple of days? You know, since, well, Jackie and Mickey think you're dead. We could maybe stay there for a few days, you could get used to the new Doctor without having any aliens to worry about... and then we could go back to travelling. Or not, it's completely your choice." Also, there's an episode that's due in Powell Estate, but I can't say that out loud because, well, spoilers.

"Yeah." Rose nodded. "That's a good idea."

The Doctor smiled slightly and turned back to the console. "Cancel Barcelona. Change to London, Powell Estate, uh," He turned to Rose, "Let's say twenty fourth December, consider it a Christmas present."

He walked away from the console and came to stand next to me. He folded his hands as Rose said, "So we're going home then?"

"Up to you. Back to your mum... it's all waiting. Fish and chips, sausage and mash, beans on toast-no, Christmas! Turkey! Although, having met your mother, nut loaf would be more appropriate."

Rose looked down and smiled at that, and the Doctor grinned. "Was that a smile?"

"No."

"That was a smile," He teased. Rose denied it again, and he ran a hand through his hair. "Oh come on! All I did was change, it's not like I-" He doubled over and knelt down.

"Doctor!" I knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?" He looked at me, and I shook my head. "Sorry, wrong question, you're obviously in incredible pain-"

"Regeneration didn't go well." He folded his arms and bent over as he breathed out a load of regeneration energy. I grabbed his shoulders and prevented him from falling. However, the TARDIS started shaking and it became hard for me to maintain balance while also trying to help the Doctor.

Melody ran towards the console and started pressing a few buttons. "Rose, I'm gonna need your help here!"

Rose, who was standing next to me, looking at the Doctor with concern, nodded and stumbled toward the console as Melody started giving her instructions on what to do. The TARDIS stabilised a bit and was a little less violent, but we still increased speed and were probably hurtling through the Time Vortex.

The Doctor wasn't doing much better either. He groaned in pain and bent over again. I turned back to him and rubbed his back. "What's happening to you?"

"I'm still regenerating!"

"Yeah, I know that, but like, elaborate. And don't tell me your cells are dying or whatever- where does it hurt?" I stretched my leg out and tried to anchor it in one of the pillar loops to avoid getting thrown across the TARDIS in case something terrible happened.

"Everywhere!" He grimaced. The TARDIS lurched, and it took me all the strength I had to stay anchored to the TARDIS instead of falling in the other direction. The Doctor grabbed onto my hands as I pulled him against me. He buried his head in my neck and I held him close. "It'll be okay soon." I murmured, and Melody yelled, "We're nearing Powell Estate!"

"Thank Go- aah!" The TARDIS lurched again. I let go of the Doctor and grabbed his hand. "This is probably gonna hurt for you, so I'm sorry in advance." I used my other hand to hold the pillar, and tried pulling the Doctor towards me. He grabbed my forearm with his other hand as we hurtled through.

And then, the TARDIS went upside down. I screamed, and looped my arm around the pillar, pulling the Doctor towards me, when he fell on top of my leg as the TARDIS turned. "Sorry," He murmured, and grabbed hold of the pillar with one hand.

"I'm about to land right now, this is not going to be a smooth landing!"

"Is it gonna be worse than this?!" Rose yelled.

"I don't know, maybe, maybe not!"

"I'm so glad I've got you!"

"Thanks for your sarcasm, it really helps a lot!" Melody yelled back. I shook my head at the two of them.

We increased speed and flew in that pace for a few moments, before the TARDIS stopped with one massive shudder.