Sorry for being gone so long. Life is demanding…

A little change of pace now: a Rose chapter!

Song for this chapter: Hologram (Series 1 and 2 soundtrack)

A New Face

She grasped at her collar. Her fingers met nothing but cloth. It was gone! She clawed desperately at the spot. No… no it couldn't be gone! It was all she had..! The light was filling her vision, the song refused to end, the pounding, the wheezing…

Her eyes snapped open. "What happened?" The golden glow rushed away from her and into the surrounding walls of the TARDIS control room.

"Don't you remember?" Her head turned to the voice. A rush of calm overcame her as she took him in, leaning casually against the console, watching the TARDIS move the way he always did. But how had he gotten here?

She sat up slowly, trying to think back through the thick fog that clung to her mind. "There was the singing…" A calm, gentle tuneless song…

"That's right, I sang a song and the Daleks ran away." His usual egotistic tone of voice was comforting, almost reassuring. But how had…?

She began to retrace her steps. "I was at home… no I wasn't I was in the TARDIS…" She had been screaming at Mickey to step on it. No, the chain had broken off… the hatch had opened… "…then there was this light…" And after the light? "I can't remember anything else…" She bit her lip, trying to think back. There was nothing. Only the light and the fading singing and a pleasant tingling sensation in her lips, eyes and fingers…

She looked up and met his eyes. For a moment, no one said anything.

"Rose Tyler." The Doctor finally said with a chuckle and a sad smile. She shifted under his gaze. The way he said her name had sounded… at that moment… so… different. Like he was trying to sum her up in those two words. His eyes stared deep into her own for another quiet moment.

"I was gonna take you to so many places. Barcelona!" He burst out suddenly. "Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it, fantastic place!" She could feel her lips trying to curve up in a smile at his enthusiasm. He was like a five-year-old planning a vacation. But something felt wrong. Like his smile wasn't genuine. "They've got dogs with no noses!" He exclaimed and laughed. She turned her face away, chuckling. He could be so ridiculous sometimes. She loved it. "Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke and it's still funny!" He chuckled as she turned back to smile cheekily along with him.

"Then... why can't we go?" She inquired.

"Maybe you will, and maybe I will." He smiled that forced smile of his. "But not like this." He turned back to the console, the smile still plastered on his face. Something was definitely off.

She started to clamber to her feet, with the faint sense that she hadn't stood up in the longest time. "You're not making sense!" Not that he ever really made sense but usually she could at least pretend to follow along. This was starting to concern her. The Doctor had always been eccentric and she'd always gone with it because it was never boring. But this forced humor was a little over the top.

"I might never make sense again!" He cried. "I might have two heads, or no head." She played with her hair, smiling around her confusion. What was he talking about? "Imagine me with no head!" She had to laugh at that. It would certainly be an improvement over his current mood. "And don't say that's an improvement." He lectured her. His head dropped briefly than shot back up. "But it's a bit dodgy, this process." His tone of voice had changed from falsely cheerful to strangely calm. Suddenly she realized something. He wasn't just leaning on the console. He was supporting himself with it. Her smile began to fade.

He gave her a humorless smile. "You never know what you're gonna end up with."

He shot backwards suddenly, folding into himself in excruciating pain as his skin flashed gold.

She was running towards him. "Doctor!"

He threw up a hand. "Stay away!" He warned her. To scared and confused to do anything else, she backed up slowly.

The Doctor grimaced in pain, gritting his teeth and clutching at his middle. Her heart was racing.

"Doctor, tell me what's going on."

"I absorbed all the energy of the time vortex, and no one's meant to do that!" He replied, trying to joke but his smile contorting in pain. He took a few deep breaths before he spoke again. "Every cell in my body's dying." He said with painful certainty.

The words twisted her heart. He couldn't die, not now. Not when she'd just gotten him back. "Can't you do something?"

"Yeah, I'm doing it now." He replied in that teasing, impatient tone he so often used around her.

She tried to smile but her face rejected the motion.

"Time Lords have this little trick," He explained as she watched. "it's sort of a way of cheating death." He paused. She could feel herself starting to tremble. "Except..." He looked at her, and for the first time, she saw something there she couldn't quite name. It was like fear, sadness and hope all rolled into one. "It means I'm gonna change." He told her.

Change? Change how? She still didn't understand, was he going to die or not?

"And I'm not gonna see you again." He said matter-of-factly. Her heart stopped. He was sending her away again? Why, didn't he want her here anymore? Before she could articulate a response however, he spoke again.

"Not like this." He gestured at himself. "Not with this daft old face." He chuckled but winced in pain again. She waited quietly, breathing very shallow.

He looked up, that same, undecipherable expression on his face. "And before I go —"

"Don't say that!" She urged him. This wasn't goodbye. It couldn't be.

He interrupted her gently. "Rose." Just like that, just the way he said her name, reassured her. Everything would be alright. He wouldn't leave her. He'd always be there for her.

His ice blue eyes softened. "Before I go, I just wanna tell you: you were fantastic." She just stood there. Nothing seemed to want to work. Her heart was racing away, her eyes glued to him, her mouth unable to open.

"Absolutely fantastic." He repeated and she thought she heard a small catch in his voice. There was the smile again.

"And you know what?" He asked her.

Very slowly, she shook her head.

That goofy, cocky grin spread across his face. "So was I!"

She smiled back, tears choking her throat. That was her Doctor. She nodded.

The Doctor gave one last smile. And burst into light. She stumbled backwards into the TARDIS column as the blinding gold light poured against her vision, not unlike the golden light from her dream. He stood there, in the center of it all, quite possibly the source of it all?

She peered at it, her eyes watering, it was like he was… being replaced… or changing.

His neck was filling out, hair sprouting from his head, his entire face was changing structure.

In a flash, it was over as quickly as it had begun.

She stared in awe at the young man in front of her. He was thin and handsome, both somewhat shorter and younger than the Doctor with hair that seemed to stand up all on its own.

He looked up at her with deep, brown eyes. Her heart caught in her throat.

"Hello. Okay…" He suddenly froze, swallowing oddly. Rose watched in confusion as the man slowly ran his tongue over his teeth, screwing up his face.

"New teeth… that's weird…" He muttered, more to himself than to her. "Now where was I?"

He thought for a moment. "Oh that's right!" He looked over at her again. "Barcelona!"

Rose stared, still not believing. All thoughts of her dream and her loss of memory had fled her as she took in the familiar stranger before her. She had seen him before… she knew this face from somewhere…

The new Doctor smiled.

Sorry it's so short after being away so long! I promise next chapter (a Tool chapter!) will be nice and long!

So it's goodbye 9 and hello 10! The next chapter again probably won't be up for awhile. There's this little thing called life that is making me increasingly stressed so I really don't want that reflected in my writing.