"-stop!"

The burning sensation stopped as soon as I blinked. My voice echoed around me as I slowly realized that my surroundings had changed again. I looked around and noticed that the TARDIS console was different than the few times I'd seen it before.

"Hello?" I asked a little loudly. "Doctor? Are you in here?"

"Diana! Please!"

I whirled around and saw the Doctor crumpled on the floor. My legs brought me in a flash to the Doctor's side. I fell to my knees and reached out to touch his shoulder. He was young, in his second incarnation, and he was dying.

"Oh, Doctor. I'm so sorry."

He looked up at me with pain shining deep in his eyes. One hand reached up to my face as he tried to smile. "I-I never... I never told you..." He suddenly let out a cry as his body spasmed.

I worriedly brought a hand to his cheek, looking straight into his eyes. "It's alright, it's alright. I'm here now."

Again he tried to smile, but it turned into a grimace. He heavily rested his other hand on top of mine and sighed. "I don't regret it," he breathed. Then he cried out again and, with a strength I didn't know he had, he shoved me away from him.

I landed on my back with a grunt. Sitting up, I saw a slight gold tint hovering around his face and hands; he was regenerating. His name passed my lips countless times as I watched the golden glow overcome his body. The sight of his regeneration literally made me breathless. Watching the transformation from one face to another, young to old, Two to Three, made me freeze in awe and fear.

Immediately after the golden glow died down, I scrambled to the Doctor's side and took his face in my hands. His eyes flew open as he stared up at me with wide eyes. He pushed my hands away and stood up, albeit a little wobbley on his new legs. He stumbled forward until he collapsed on the TARDIS console, breathing heavily. I rushed to his side again and firmly gripped his shoulders.

"Doctor? Doctor, what's wrong?"

His eyes fluttered between open and closed as he looked from me to the console. "T-The TARDIS," he murmured.

"She's safe, Doctor. But I'm worried about you. What happened?"

With nothing more than a grunt in respsonse, the Doctor ripped himself out of my arms and walked slowly towards the TARDIS doors with halting steps. I kept a few paces behind him in case he turned violent for some reason, but still remained close enough to help him if something went wrong. He reached forward and pulled the left door open. He leaned heavily against it as he looked around his surroundings before his head fell back and his body fell forward.

"Doctor!" I gasped, running forward.

I gently turned him onto his back so that he could be a little more comfortable and lightly tapped the palm of my hand against his cheek. But he didn't stir at all; he just lay there with his chest rising and falling in a steady pattern. A sigh escaped my lips as I rested a hand above his left heart.

"I'm so sorry," I muttered to his unconscious form. "But I'm glad that you didn't regenerate alone."

Suddenly shouts were echoing all around me and the thudding of feet on the grassy earth was circling the open area the TARDIS had landed in. I stood protectively in front of the Doctor with my hands raised slightly. A group of men who looked like soldiers stepped through the trees in front of me. They pointed in my direction and approached quickly with guns in their hands.

"Who are you?" one of the men asked me. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm Diana and this is the Doctor." I pointed to the Time Lord at my feet. "He's sick and his TARDIS landed here on accident."

"The Doctor?"

"Yes, the Doctor." I tried to look as though I wasn't intimidated by these tall men with guns, but I was truly shaking in my shoes. They didn't look like they trusted me at all, so I quickly asked them to take me to the Brigadier. "He'll know me." I hope, I thought worriedly.

"Munro here, sir. I'm in the Ashbridge Cottage Hospital."

I waited patiently for the man to finish his call with the Brigadier, hoping and praying to God that the Brigadier would know me somehow. But I tried to appear completely at ease and calm so no one would think I was up to something.

"No, sir. All we've found is an unconscious civvy and a girl." A pause. "He was lying beside a police box, sir, and the girl was standing next to him. The box was abandoned by the look of it. Right in the middle of Oxley Wood." There was another pause, this one a bit longer than before. "He's here at the hospital, sir, undergoing treatment... No, sir. Not a syllable. He's out to the wide... The girl? She says you know her, sir." Then the man turned to me with the phone receiver in his hand. "He wants to talk to you, miss."

A little surprised, I took the phone and answered it. "H-Hello?"

"Diana, is that you?" the Brigadier asked frantically.

A smile broke out across my face. "Yes, it's me."

"Tell me, dear, what happened?"

"He re-... Actually, Brigadier, I think I should tell you in person."

"Ah, yes. Of course. You stay there, then, and wait for me. I'll be over as soon as I can."

"Alright."

"Could you hand me back to Munro, please, Miss Scott?"

"Sure."

I did as the Brigadier had instructed and stepped back. I was beyond relieved that someone here knew me, but was completely confused as to how and why. Perhaps I'd met the Brigadier earlier in his life? If so, was I with the Doctor? I hoped so because a life without the Doctor in it was rapidly becoming an idea I didn't want to think about.

"A guard, sir? Very well, sir. Oh, do you want the police told, sir, about the police box? They may want it back."

The man hung up a few seconds later. Then he turned to be and nodded slightly. "I'm to take to you to the gentleman's room now, miss."

"Oh." I smiled politely and clasped my hands behind my back. "Okay."

"Nurse, this is Miss Scott. She's a friend of your patient. Orders from UNIT that she is to remain with him until the Brigadier arrives."

The nurse looked me up and down and then offered me a semi-smile. "Miss Scott, I'm Nurse Dorward."

"Nurse," I replied formally. "It's nice to, uh, meet you."

"Likewise. Now, if you'll come with me, I'll take you to see your friend. Thank you,sir."

Nurse Dorward turned on her heel and led me down a hallway at a brisk pace. I was anxious to see the Doctor and make sure that he was alright. I knew that he'd had a traumatic regeneration because of the Time Lords and that my appearance had seemed to make him both happy and pained. So when the nurse opened the door to the Doctor's room and pointed inside, I practically flew in.

He was still unconscious, but he didn't look sick or hurt. I hurried to his side and rested a hand on his arm. The nurse came up behind me and asked if I wanted a chair. "Yes, please," I responded as I continued to gaze down at the sleeping Time Lord.

As soon as Nurse Dorward left, the Doctor's eyes flew open and he sat straight up in his bed. I jumped backwards in surprise and let out a squeak. He looked up at me, confused. I smiled at him and reached out to rest my hand on his arm again.

"Doctor?" I asked slowly. "Are you alright?"

"Shoes," he told me. "Shoes." Then he leaned over the edge of his bed in search of his shoes. I gently gripped his wrist and stopped him. "I must find my shoes!"

"Doctor, your shoes are just fine. But you need to rest."

"Must find my shoes," he mumbled as he rolled onto his side and passed out again.

I sighed. Nurse Dorward came in a minute later with a chair for me. She placed it right next to the Doctor's bed and smiled. "Is he doing alright?" she asked me.

"Yes. Just fine. And thank you for the chair."

"You're very welcome, miss." She gave the Doctor a quick glance over before looking back at me. "Alert me or Doctor Henderson if he wakes up. I shall be back in ten minutes."

"Alright. And thanks again."

The nurse left without another glance. I grabbed the chair and scooted it up by the Doctor's head so I could keep a close eye on him. Once I was settled, I let out a long breath and slumped in my chair. The room was deathly quiet and for once since I had met the Doctor, I was able to sit and think in peace.

And think I did. I thought about Nine, so sad and upset and bitter, claiming that he'd lost me, blaming himself for my apparent death. I thought about Eight, so sweet and romantic and gentle, looking at me with soft and caring eyes, giving me a TARDIS journal. I thought about Five and Ten, how they both seemed to care a great deal for me, how Five called me "darling" and Ten smiled so brilliantly when I looked at him. Then I thought about Four, the Doctor who had protected me with his life, who called me "Princess" and held my hand and seemed to like me very much.

I looked at Three and sighed again. I'd met the Doctor, a Time Lord who wasn't even supposed to exist, six different times and I was already violently opposed to the idea of never meeting him again. If I was completely honest with myself, which I rarely was, I would gladly spend the rest of my life with him. And why not? Back home on Earth 2013, I was all but head-over-heels in love the Doctor. Everything in my life related to him and his companions and his precious time traveling police box and I didn't want this new life to be any different.

I leaned forward and ran the back of my hand across the Doctor's cheek. He looked older in this incarnation, but I'd always really loved Three. He was dashing, strong, intelligent (as always), sarcastic and very handsome.

"Thank you," said the Brigadier as he walked through the doorway into the room.

I gasped in surprise and jumped to my feet, drawing my hand away from the Doctor's face as quickly as I possibly could. My cheeks were practically on fire when the Brigadier looked at me, one eyebrow raised in silent questioning. He glanced from the Doctor to me and seemed to understand; he'd seen me pull away from the Doctor.

"H-Hello, Brigadier," I said shyly.

He smiled and shook his head amusedly. "Miss Scott, how many times must I ask you to call me Alistair?"

I blushed even more and grinned. "At least once more, it would seem."

The man who had called the Brigadier earlier and Doctor Henderson had followed Liz and Alistair. "Oh, Doctor Henderson," the telephone man started, "this is Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and, er-"

"Elizabeth Shaw," Liz finished.

"Well, how's your patient, doctor?" the Brigadier asked Doctor Henderson. "Can we see him?"

Henderson sighed a little. "Well, you can see him, certainly. He's not making much sense yet."

"What, still unconscious, eh?"

"Most of the time. He has brief moments of consciousness and then slips back again."

"Well, what's actually wrong with him?" Liz asked.

Henderson gave the Doctor a glance. "I can't say. Never had a patient quite like him before.

His statement confused Liz, who didn't really know who or what the Doctor was. "How do you mean?"

"Well, his whole cardiovascular system is quite unlike anything I've ever seen. And I'm told his blood can't be identified."

Alistair smiled. "Splendid. That sounds like the Doctor."

"Oh, wait a minute, Brigadier," I said, putting a hand out in front of me to stop him. "I need to tell you something. The Doctor... Well, he's changed. He's changed his appearance."

"Changed his appearance? Nonsense."

"It's true! He had to, he had no choice. He's different now, but he's still the same Doctor you and I know."

"Let me see, then," he replied curiously.

Liz and Alistair stepped forward; I turned around and gently rolled the Doctor onto his back. I heard the Brigadier grumble a little as he came to stand directly behind me. I looked over my shoulder at him and smiled.

"I told you," I said.

"But, that's not the Doctor! He looks nothing like him! I-I've never seen him before in my life!"

The Doctor chose that exact moment to wake up. He quickly scanned the faces hovering over him and smiled. "Lethbridge-Stewart? My dear fellow, how nice to see you again."

"He seems to know you, sir," the telephone man said.

"But he can't do." The Brigadier exhaled in frustration. "Look here. Can you hear me? Who are you?"

"Don't you recognise me?" the Doctor asked somewhat worriedly.

"I'm positive we've never met before."

The Doctor pressed his lips together. "Oh, dear. Oh, I can't have changed that much, surely? Oh, I must see what they've done to me. Can I borrow-... Can I borrow a mirror, please?"

Behind me and the Brigadier, Liz dug a compact mirror out of her purse and handed it to him. The Doctor took it, thanked Liz, and looked, for the first time, at his new appearance. I could tell immediately that he was not entirely pleased with it.

"Oh, no! Oh, no. Well, that's not me at all. No wonder you didn't recognise me. Oh, that face. That hair." He turned his head from one side to the other and prodded his face with his fingers. Then he smiled a little bit. "Oh, I don't know, though. I think it's rather distinctive, actually. Don't you think? No, of course you don't."

"I happen to like it very much, Doctor," I added happily.

He looked up at me and grinned. "Do you now? That's splendid." He winked and closed the mirror. I noticed he had become tired very quickly, as I knew he would because of his regeneration. "Oh, anyway, I'm tired. All this exercise and exertion. It's been too much. Have to get some sleep now."

His eyes had slid closed as his voice trailed off until finally, he was asleep again. This frustrated the Brigadier and he immediately protested. "Now, just a minute. Wake up, man! Listen to me!"

Doctor Henderson stepped forward with a hand outstretched. " I think that's quite enough for the moment. His mind's obviously disturbed. Anyway, I'm afraid he's out again."

We all looked at the Doctor to see that he was, in fact, quite unconscious. The Brigadier looked at me in confusion. "Miss Scott, are you absolutely sure this man is the Doctor?"

"Without a single doubt in my mind, Brigadier. I saw him change with my own eyes. I know for a fact that this is the Doctor."

He raised in eyebrows in disbelief, though he actually seemed to trust me. He turned to the other officer and said, "Extraordinary business. Munro, I want this man brought to London HQ." Then he looked at Doctor Henderson. "When will he be fit to travel?"

"Difficult to say."

"I see." Alistair pressed his lips together and nodded stiffly. "Well, as soon as possible, Munro. In the meantime, carry on the search for these meteorites."

"Very good, sir," the man whose name I now knew as Munro replied.

The Brigadier looked to the human doctor and asked, "Is there another way out of here? I want to avoid the press, if possible."

Doctor Henderson nodded and pointed towards the door. "This way."

"Thank you."

Liz, the Brigadier, and Munro all turned and left the room with Henderson, leaving me with the unconscious new Doctor. With a sigh, I sat back down in my chair. I crossed my right leg over my left knee and cupped my head in my hand. Since there was absolutely nothing to do except stare at the back of the Doctor's head, I started singing very softly.

"It started out as a feeling, which then grew into a hope. Which then turned into a quiet thought, which then turned into a quiet word. And then that word grew louder and louder 'til it was a battle cry: I'll come back when you call me, no need to say goodbye. Just because everything's changing doesn't mean it's never been this way before. All you can do is try to know who your friends are as you head off to the war. Pick a star on the dark horizon and follow the light. You'll come back when it's over. No need to say good bye. You'll come back when it's over. No need to say good bye... Now we're back to the beginning. It's just a feeling and no one knows yet. But just because they can't feel it too doesn't mean that you have to forget. Let your memories grow stronger and stronger 'til they're before your eyes. You'll come back when they call you. No need to say good bye. You'll come back when they call you. No need to say good bye."

The Doctor turned around in his bed to face me as soon as the last word had left my lips. He stared at me, looking confused yet pleased. I wasn't sure if he was suffering from amnesia or just pretending to be worse off than he really was to fool the doctors here.

"Doctor?" I asked. "A-Are you alright?"

"You always sing. You never stop singing. Everywhere, there is music. The Bad Wolf's music."

I felt my jaw drop and my eyes grow wide. "The what?"

Then he blinked. "Shoes," he muttered. "I must find my shoes!"

I reached forward and grabbed the Doctor's wrist. "Doctor, please. Why did you say that? 'The Bad Wolf's music'? What does it mean?"

"Shoes, shoes. Where are my shoes?"

Then Nurse Dorward walked in with Doctor Henderson close behind. The nurse walked around the Doctor's bed and gently took one of his arms. "Sir, please stay still for a few minutes. I'm going to take your pulse."

But the Doctor wouldn't sit still. He kept trying to lean over his bed and find his shoes. "I must find my shoes."

"Why? You don't need them," the nurse replied. "You're not going anywhere."

"You don't understand, madam. It's most important."

I crouched down in front of the Time Lord and cupped his cheek. "Doctor, what's so important? Why do you need your shoes? Are you looking for the TARDIS key?"

Doctor Henderson wandered over to stand by the nurse's side. "How is he, nurse?"

"His pulse seems to have settled down, sir. Ten a minute."

"Yes, well, the trouble is, we don't know what's normal for him, do we?" He walked over to where I was sitting and tapped me on the shoulder. "Excuse me, miss? Could you move back so I can speak with him?"

"Sure." I jumped up and took a step back.

Doctor Henderson leaned over to look at his patient. He smiled warmly. "Hello! How are you feeling?"

"Shoes," was all the Doctor said.

Nurse Dorward sighed. "They seem to be worrying him, sir. I think he believes they've been stolen."

"Well, if he wants them, he might as well. Where are they, nurse?"

"In his locker."

Doctor Henderson opened the small locker by the head of the Doctor's bed and pulled out a pair of black boots. He handed them to the Doctor with a half-smile. "Are these what you're looking for?" he asked.

The Doctor snatched them from the human's hands without a word, then promptly turned over onto his side with the boots pressed protectively against his chest. I smiled and walked around the bed so I could see the Doctor's face. I crouched down again and smiled at him.

"Are you alright, Doctor?" I asked softly. "Now that you have your shoes?"

He looked at me with a blank expression. I exhaled through my nose and stood up, figuring that maybe he just as feeling a little foggy after his regeneration. But when I started to walk away, he cleared his throat a little and winked at me. I grinned and patted him on the shoulder as I returned to my chair.

"Fetch the sphyg, would you, nurse?" Doctor Henderson asked from his desk. "I'll take his blood pressure again while I'm here."

Nurse Dorward nodded and left immediately. I sat down and crossed my legs again. After looking around to make sure Henderson wasn't looking, the Doctor sat up a little and started shaking his boots. A key fell out of one of them and we both smiled. Then the Doctor stuffed his shoes under his pillow and lay on his side again.

I tapped his shoulder from behind and asked in the softest voice I could manage, "Would you like me to hold onto it?"

He was about to respond when a hand came up from behind me and cupped my mouth. I gasped and pulled against the hand frantically. When I saw a strange man in white hospital clothes come around the Doctor's bed and place tape over his mouth and knock him unconscious, I suddenly felt like the biggest idiot in the universe; I had known this would happen, but had completely forgotten because I was so focused on watching over the Doctor as best I could. And because of me, we were both about to be kidnapped.

The hand moved from my face and harshly gripped my right arm, twisting it behind my back. I felt a thin, cylindrical object pressed into the small of my back and heard a soft click; a gun. "If you try to run, we will shoot both of you. Do you understand?"

I nodded stiffly. The man who had knocked the Doctor unconscious had brought a wheelchair into the room and dumped the alien into it. He then looked directly behind to who I assumed was my captor and nodded. I was roughly shoved forward to stand next to the Doctor.

"You will follow and you will not try to escape," my captor ordered as I turned to face him.

As we walked out of the room, I noticed that Doctor Henderson had been knocked unconscious as well. But I couldn't help him or the Doctor or myself if I got shot trying to escape, so I followed my orders and walked next to the wheelchair.

We had walked outside of the hospital, one man holding a gun against my back and the other wheeling the Doctor forward. I noticed with no small amount of relief that the Time Lord in question had woken up once we reached the ambulance outside. The man pushing the Doctor's wheelchair had backed up and started to walk up the ramp leading into the back of the ambulance when the Doctor elbowed him in the side and rolled away. I threw my elbow back and hit my captor in the neck, then brought my foot up behind me and kicked him in the knee. He cried out and dropped his gun, his leg giviving out and causing him to fall. I kicked him again in the stomach, grabbed his gun, and ran after the Doctor as fast as I could.

Behind me, I could hear the men shouting angrily at me. Then I heard the ambulance start up and I immediately pushed myself to go faster. The road the Doctor had wheeled himself down was very steep and rough, which meant that I stumbled often and nearly fell at least three times. To my surprise, the ambulance whizzed past me without stopping. I was beyond relieved to know that I wasn't about to die.

I caught a glimpse of an over-turned wheelchair on the side of the road and dug my feet into the gravel to stop myself. I tripped, sliding forward and falling on my side. My hands and knees were scratched a little, but I paid them no mind. All I could think about as I stood up was getting to the Doctor before the Brigadier's men started shooting at him. I heard rustling in the tres ahead of me and rushed forward to see the Doctor pushing at the branches in his face.

"Doctor, wait!" I called as he walked forward. "Stop!"

He turned and looked at me, tape from our would-be captors still across his mouth. I burst forward and grabbed his arms, pulling him backwards and away from the soldiers guarding the TARDIS. I reached slowly for the tape and rubbed my thumb across the corner. "You need to take this off so you can talk," I said gently.

He nodded and slowly started to peel it off. Right as he did, two UNIT men with guns stepped through the bushes in front of us. Their weapons were aimed straight at us and their faces were hard and suspicious.

"Who are you?" the one on the left asked.

"I-I'm Diana and this is the Doctor. That's his police box you're guarding."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" the one on the right countered.

The Doctor and I looked quickly at each other with worried expressions. "Well," the Time Lord started slowly, "how else would we know about it if it wasn't ours- mine? And why else would either one of us be here if we didn't absolutely need it?"

He took a step forward with arms raised slightly, trying to appear harmless, when both men raised their guns. I rushed to stand in front of the Doctor with my arms parallel to the ground, protecting him with my body for the second time that day. The two men looked from my face to the gun in my hand. My eyes were wide and my chest was rising and falling quicker than normal, but in my mind the Doctor was safe.

"Don't you dare," I all but growled. "Shoot him and I'll punch your lights out."

I was having a hard time with the previous story I'd chosen for this story, so I deleted it and decided to work on this story instead. Writing a fic based on an audio drama is more difficult than you would think...

Anywho, I hope you like this chapter as a replacement.