A/N Pretty long chapter to make up for the short one on Monday! And if you like long chapters just wait till the next one, longest yet! My jaw dropped looking at the final word count. Thank you to everyone who's been so supportive! I love reading the reviews and messages! And of course, I'll continue sending sneak peeks to reviews. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Doctor Who.

Episode Spoilers: The Parting of the Ways S1E13

Rejected Bonds - Chapter 5, The Parting of the Ways

[Satellite 5]

While Jack and the Doctor ran towards the TARDIS sitting inside of Archive Six, Hermione remained in her seat at one of the station consoles. Her hands were clenched into fists in her lap and she had her eyes shut tight. She was warring with herself on whether or not she should accompany them to rescue Rose. The pair of men stopped in the doorway and called out to her. Resolved to her decision, Hermione walked sedately over.

"Hermione, come along, we're going to go rescue Rose!" The Doctor was waving frantically for her to come aboard the TARDIS. She stopped several feet from them and shook her head.

"No. I can't. You go and save her if you can. But I won't help. She tried to have me killed and I'd only hinder you both. Go and save her!" She didn't want her cousin to die but she also knew her emotions were not entirely altruistic and she didn't want to impede their rescue efforts.

"What? You must be mistaken, Rose would never do something like that!" the Doctor declared.

Jack frowned and wouldn't meet Hermione's eyes, "She said Rose voted for her to get her killed on purpose, but I agree with you Doctor, I don't think it was intentional."

Hermione glared furiously at the two most important men in her life as an icy band clenched around her heart. She wiped her face of all emotion and said to them with no feeling whatsoever, "Fine. Go save her. I'll be doing what I can to ready these people and make this a more defensible position." She turned away without a backwards glance and fought to keep a tight rein on her emotions. Her bond with the Doctor felt thin and colder than it ever had, except the icy sensation she'd had as a child when he'd temporarily been erased from the universe the first time they'd met. So he doesn't believe me either. That's just fine. Hermione gathered the remaining staff and started to organise an evacuation of Satellite 5 as the TARDIS faded in the background. She wished them the best of luck in her mind but then got back to business.

[Dalek Ship]

The TARDIS materialised around Rose in the middle of a group of Daleks, but Jack was ready and waiting to destroy any Daleks that were inadvertently brought on board as well. A well-placed shot with his modified defabricator and the lone Dalek was dead.

The Doctor scooped Rose into a fierce hug with Jack following up with one of his own.

Rose looked completely relieved to be back with the Doctor, "Feels like I haven't seen you in years."

"I told you I'd come and get you."

"Never doubted it."

After their hugs and greetings, the trio stepped foot outside the TARDIS, but still inside its shields. Some reconnaissance was in order. They soon found out that the Emperor of the Dalek's had survived the Time War, and had been amassing an army of Daleks created from the castoffs of humanity. Stepping back into the TARDIS as they were fired upon by the Daleks, they proceeded to go back to Satellite 5. "Alrighty then, let's get back and see what Hermione's managed to do while we were gone," the Doctor rambled.

"Hermione? She's alive?" Rose asked wide eyed.

Jack paused at the controls and looked consideringly at Rose. "Yes, she apparated away just before the beam hit her."

"Oh. Oh well that's good then, isn't it?" Rose frowned.

The Doctor and Jack glanced at one another quickly while her face was averted, the Doctor shrugging and Jack with a scowl on his face. There wasn't time to worry about the situation between the two women, however.

[Satellite 5]

After the TARDIS materialised at the back of the control room the Doctor ran out the doors. "Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!"

"What does this do?" he was asked by one of the staff.

"Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"

"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programmes."

"And the planet's just sitting there, defenceless. Lynda, what're you still doing on board? I told you to evacuate everyone."

Hermione looked up from the plans she was looking at, "She wouldn't go."

"Didn't want to leave you," the blonde said with a sheepish smile. Rose scowled fiercely at the exchange and Hermione didn't even bother to acknowledge her.

One of the female controllers piped up, "There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here. We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."

The monitors alerted everyone assembled to the movement of the Dalek fleet.

The Doctor started running around and pulling out bits of the conduits behind the control panels. "Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"

Jack gaped, "You've got to be kidding."

"Give the man a medal."

"A Delta Wave?"

"A Delta Wave!"

Rose was confused, "What's a Delta Wave?"

Jack took up the explanation. "A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed." Jack frowned at the viability of this plan.

The Doctor looked excited, though. "And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!"

Lynda was bouncing on the balls of her feet, "Well, get started and do it then."

"Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days? How long till the Fleet arrive?"

"Twenty-two minutes," answered the man at the console.

After some tinkering with the available technology, and using the extrapolator board they'd taken from Margaret the Slitheen, Jack had managed to craft some protections for the group. "We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky, but that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading. They'll have worked the Delta Wave at the same time. So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, five hundred to four nine five. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level four nine four and fight their way up."

The man at the control board paled, "Who are they fighting?"

"Us.

"And what are we fighting with?"

"The guards had guns with bastic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open," Jack lied.

The woman pointed out, "There's six of us, not counting the Doctor."

"Rose, you can help me. I need all these wires stripped bare," the Doctor interrupted. He didn't want Rose near any fighting.

"Right, now there's five of us," the woman moaned.

Jack gathered what he needed and Hermione checked she had her beaded bag and wand secured. "Then let's move it. Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls."

Lynda shyly approached the Doctor, "I just want to say, er, thanks, I suppose, and I'll do my best."

"Me too," he replied with a grin and shook her hand. Rose was relieved to see Lynda and Hermione leave.

Jack turned to Rose and the Doctor, "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye."

Rose looked desperate, "Don't talk like that. The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him."

Jack merely smiled and kissed her briefly, "Rose, you are worth fighting for," he then turned to the Doctor and gave him a quick kiss on the lips as well, "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward." He then turned to join Hermione who was holding the lift doors and refused to make eye contact with any of them.

"He's going to be all right, isn't he?" Rose asked the Doctor. He felt a pang in his chest as his other two companions left, scared for them. He quickly dismissed it and ignored Rose's question, going back to his work.

[Floor Zero]

Jack stood on a pile of crates on Floor Zero and fired his machine gun into the air. That got everyone's attention, Hermione thought. Jack boomed, "One last time! Any more volunteers? There's an army about to invade this station. I need every last citizen to mount a defence."

Rodrick was among the crowd and it was easy to tell he was scared witless. "Don't listen to him. There aren't any Daleks. They disappeared thousands of years ago."

A few more people stepped forward to volunteer to fight, but the majority held back and refused to look Jack or Hermione in the eye. Jack merely nodded to the new volunteers and addressed the crowd once more. "Thanks. As for the rest of you, the Daleks will enter the station at floor four nine four and as far as I can tell, they'll head up, not down. But that's not a promise. So here's a few words of advice. Keep quiet. And if you hear fighting up above, if you hear us dying, then tell me that the Daleks aren't real. Don't make a sound. Let's go."

Hermione threw one last scathing look at Rodrick, who flinched, and she got on the lift with the others.

[Floor 500]

Back on Floor 500, Rose and the Doctor were stripping wires and making connections. Rose fiddled with the wire in her hand but glanced up at the Doctor occasionally. She mumbled, "Suppose."

"What?" he replied.

"Nothing."

"You said suppose."

"No, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but, you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"

The Doctor sighed, "As soon as the TARDIS lands in that second, I become part of events, stuck in the timeline."

"Yeah, thought it'd be something like that," she muttered.

Looking up at her completely, he remarked, "There's another thing the TARDIS could do. It could take us away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989."

"Yeah, but you'd never do that."

"No, but you could ask. Never even occurred to you, did it?"

"Well, I'm just too good."

A noise started building from the station and the Doctor beamed, "The Delta Wave's started building. How long does it need?"

Running over to the console he checked the readouts and his shoulders slumped in defeat. The lift doors open to reveal Hermione alone. She quickly announced, "Jack sent me back up here, thought you both could use another set of hands."

Rose didn't pay her any mind, however. "Is that bad? Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?"

Suddenly the Doctor looked up. He glanced between the two cousin's consideringly, a gleam of hope sparking in his eyes once again. "Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it. If I use the TARDIS to cross my own timeline. Yes!" He grabbed both girls by the hand and ran into the ship. Quickly he arranged them around the console with their hands on different buttons and levers. "Hold that down and keep it in that position."

Rose inquired, "What's it do?"

"Cancels the buffers. If I'm very clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart."

Rose grinned, "I'd go for the first one."

Grinning back at the pair he laughed, "Me too. Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!"

Hermione had a sinking feeling as she held her lever in place. The doors slammed and locked behind the Doctor and next thing they knew the engines began whirring to life. He's sending us away. Oh that stupid, noble fool!

Rose started to panic when the ship started to dematerialize with its familiar noises, "Doctor, what're you doing? Can I take my hand off? It's moving."

Both girls gave up holding the controls and Rose ran to the doors but they wouldn't open. "Doctor, let me out!"

"Rose, it's done. He's sending us away."

"No!" she shouted in despair.

A hologram of the Doctor appeared between them and addressed the cousins. "This is Emergency Programme One. Rose, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape."

"No!"

"And that's okay. Hope it's a good death. But I promised to look after you, and that's what I'm doing. The TARDIS is taking you home."

"I won't let you," she sobbed.

"And I bet you're fussing and moaning now. Typical. But hold on and just listen a bit more. The TARDIS can never return for me. Emergency Programme One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do. Let the TARDIS die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it. No one'll even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world'll move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all, one thing. Have a good life." The hologram turned to face Rose directly, "Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life."

When it flickered out Rose was sobbing and beating at buttons on the console. "You can't do this to me. You can't. Take me back! Take me back! No!"

Hermione tried to pull her away and comfort her, tears running down her own cheeks, but it was useless. "Come on, fly. How do you fly? Come on, help me!" She turned to Hermione and smacked at her shoulders and Hermione just stood there. She knew the anguish Rose was feeling because she was feeling it too.

Rose finally gave up and ran outside. As she leant against the side of the TARDIS Mickey came running down the road. "I knew it! I was all the way down Clifton Parade, and I heard the engines. I thought, there's only one thing that makes a noise like that. What is it?"

Rose hugged him, in tears, but Hermione was the one to elaborate. "The Doctor sent us away. He did it to keep her safe." She knew it was the only chance that she was sent away as well. If she'd stayed with Jack she would still be on the station preparing to die confronting the Daleks. I wonder if this is what Jack was hoping for when he sent me back to them.

[Satellite 5]

The Doctor was still madly at work with the wires and computers, hoping against hope that his plan would work. He tried not to think about betraying Rose and Hermione. He knew Rose would never accept it, but he wanted, needed to keep her safe. To keep them both safe. So he ignored the cold pang in his chest and worked to make sure his sacrifice would not be made in vain. Jack's face popped up on a nearby monitor and he started issuing instructions to Rose. Pausing in his wiring the Doctor looked up at the monitor. "She's not here."

"Of all the times to take a leak. When she gets back, tell her to read me the codes."

"She's not coming back," the Doctor muttered flatly.

"What do you mean? Where'd she go?"

"Just get on with your work."

Realisation came over Jack's face. "You took her home, didn't you? And Hermione too, right?"

"Yeah."

Biting his lip, Jack asked, "The Delta Wave, is it ever going to be ready?"

They were interrupted by the Emperor of the Dalek's cutting in on the viewscreen. "Tell him the truth, Doctor. There is every possibility the Delta Wave could be complete, but no possibility of refining it. The Delta Wave must kill every living thing in its path, with no distinction between human and Dalek. All things will die by your hand."

Jack gulped, "Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth."

The Emperor laughed. "You would destroy Daleks and Humans together. If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor?"

Desperately, the Doctor tried to explain to both the Emperor and Jack, "There are colonies out there. The Human Race would survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole Universe is in danger if I let you live. Do you see, Jack? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing. Die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?"

"You sent them home. They're safe. Keep working."

"But he will exterminate you!" the Dalek shouted.

"Never doubted him. Never will," Jack smirked in response.

"Now, you tell me, God of all Daleks, because there's one thing I never worked out. The words Bad Wolf, spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in. How'd you manage that?"

"I did nothing."

"Oh, come on, there's no secrets now, your worship."

"They are not part of my design. This is the Truth of God."

[London]

Hermione, Rose, Jackie and Mickey sat in a small cafe where only Jackie and Mickey really ate anything. Hermione and Rose both felt sick with worry and only picked at their chips. They effectively ignored the conversation of their companions to wallow in their own thoughts, slightly different yet on the same vein, worry for the Doctor and Jack. "Two hundred thousand years in the future, he's dying, and there's nothing I can do," Rose mumbled, throwing down the chip she held.

Jackie rolled her eyes, "Well, like you said two hundred thousand years. It's way off."

"But it's not. It's now. That fight is happening right now, and he's fighting for us, for the whole planet, and I'm just sitting here eating chips."

"Listen to me. God knows I have hated that man, but right now, I love him and do you know why? Because he did the right thing. He sent you back to me."

"But what do I do every day, mum? What do I do? Get up, catch the bus, go to work, come back home, eat chips and go to bed? Is that it?"

"It's what the rest of us do."

"But I can't!"

"Why, because you're better than us?" Mickey fumed, glaring at Rose. Hermione reached across the table to grab his hand and gave him a sad smile.

"No, I didn't mean that. But it was. It was a better life. And I don't mean all the travelling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. That don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You know he showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away, and I just can't-" she didn't finish as she got up and ran out of the cafe. Hermione mumbled some excuses and ran after her. First she tries to kill me and now I'm trying to comfort her. What a strange day.

[Powell Estate]

Hermione had gone back to the TARDIS to give Mickey and Rose a chance to talk in private in the playground near the Tyler's flat, which he appreciated.

"You can't spend the rest of your life thinking about the Doctor," he tried to explain his thoughts.

"But how do I forget him?" Rose moaned.

"You've got to start living your own life. You know, a proper life, like the kind he's never had. The sort of life that you could have with me."

Rose ignored him, however, noticing large letters painted across the tarmac of the play area. Looking around she noticed the same words, Bad Wolf, graffitied on a wall nearby. "Over here. It's over here as well!"

"That's been there for years. It's just a phrase. It's just words."

"I thought it was a warning. Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it's a message. The same words written down now and two hundred thousand years in the future. It's a link between me and the Doctor. Bad Wolf here, Bad Wolf there."

"But if it's a message, what's it saying?"

Rose exclaimed in excitement, "It's telling me I can get back. The least I can do is help him escape."

On the TARDIS Hermione was stroke the console of the ship and attempting to communicate with it telepathically. She'd done so in the past and was hoping she would respond to her pleas. All she got in response was a sad moaning sound from the ship. It seems the ship's programmed to lock out any other user than the Doctor. Clever. Damn that man.

Rose burst through the doors with Mickey following in her wake. "All the TARDIS needs to do is make a return trip. Just reverse."

"Yeah, but we still can't do it."

"The Doctor always said the TARDIS was telepathic. This thing is alive. It can listen."

"It's not listening now, is it?"

"We need to get inside it. Last time I saw you, with the Slitheen, this middle bit opened, and there was this light, and the Doctor said it was the heart of the TARDIS. If we can open it, I can make contact. I can tell it what to do."

"Rose I've already tried that," Hermione tried explaining.

"No! Just shut up Hermione!"

Hermione stepped back, stunned by her cousin's aggression.

Mickey gulped, "Rose."

"Mmm?" She only half paid attention as she looked for a way to open up the panel.

"If you go back, you're going to die."

"That's a risk I've got to take because there's nothing left for me here," she said stonily.

Mickey's face went blank. "Nothing?"

"No."

Hermione could see he was hiding his hurt as he said, "Okay if that's what you think, let's get this thing open."

Soon Mickey had fastened a heavy chain to the tow hitch on his Mini Cooper. Hermione had transfigured the chain from a rope for them. She didn't really think this was going to work, but it was worth a shot. She was reluctant to try using her magic to open up the console panel, unsure of how it would react with the sentient ship.

As Mickey drove forward Rose was shouting encouragement to him, up until the chain broke. Rose then glared at Hermione like it was her fault the chain had snapped. Hermione bit her cheek to keep from saying something rude to her cousin as the blonde kicked the console. Hermione could feel in her mental connection to the ship that she didn't appreciate being abused in such a way.

Hermione needed some space from her cousin so she went to lean against the side of the TARDIS and get some air. She was considering her options if she was indeed stuck here. She'd been sent back to 1941 from early August 2005. It was now November 2005. According to her own timeline she'd have been either dead or missing for around three months. She made a point not to contact the Magical World or find out any news because once she knew of events for sure she couldn't use magic to go back in time and change them. In third year, she and Harry had only been able to save Buckbeak because they hadn't actually witnessed the execution or been told of it, they'd merely seen the crows fly off.

Once you knew for sure how events happened you couldn't change them without creating a paradox, and magical paradoxes were every bit as bad as the one she'd witnessed as a child when the Doctor and Rose had come to the wedding she first met them at. Whereas the Doctor couldn't go back in his own timestream to change events, Hermione could use magic to do so, but only as long as she was unaware of what exactly occurred.

So, in theory, she could repair the T.A.R.D.I.S-turner and go back to just after she'd been sent away by Karina. The problem being that the device was still undergoing it's magical maintenance repair spell and was currently unavailable. The glass that had cracked in the hourglass wasn't normal glass. It was powerfully compressed and concentrated containment spells, and they could possibly take weeks to be repaired by the maintenance spell she'd cast since she was the only caster. It was locked up tight back in her room on the TARDIS under extensive wards, and she would be alerted when the process had finished. Effectively she was just as stuck as Rose, and also desperate to go back and help the Doctor.

Hermione looked up as Jackie patted her on the shoulder and gave her a small smile before approaching Rose, who was huddled and pouting on the bench seat. She cautiously approached her daughter while Hermione listened from the doorway. "It was never going to work, sweetheart. And the Doctor knew that. He just wanted you to be safe."

"I can't give up."

"Lock the door. Walk away."

"Dad wouldn't give up."

Jackie frowned. "Well, he's not here, is he? And even if he was, he'd say the same."

"No, he wouldn't. He'd tell me to try anything. If I could save the Doctor's life, try anything."

"Well, we're never going to know."

"Well, I know because I met him. I met Dad."

Jackie shook her head. "Don't be ridiculous."

"The Doctor took me back in time, and I met Dad," she said challengingly.

"Don't say that."

"Remember when Dad died? There was someone with him. A girl, a blonde girl. She held his hand. You saw her from a distance, Mum. You saw her! Think about it. That was me. You saw me," Rose cried.

"Stop it," Jackie denied.

"That's how good the Doctor is."

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Jackie couldn't take much more and ran past Hermione and down the street.

Mickey came forward from the shadows where he'd been watching everything quietly. "There's got to be something else we can do."

"Mum was right. Maybe we should just lock the door and walk away."

"I'm not having that. I'm not having you just give up now. No way. We just need something stronger than my car. Something bigger. Something like that," he said as a big yellow recovery truck pulled up in front of the TARDIS with Jackie at the wheel.

She hopped down from the cab and handed Mickey the keys. "Right, you've only got this until six o'clock, so get on with it."

"Mum, where the hell did you get that from?"

"Rodrigo. He owes me a favour. Never mind why, but you were right about your dad, sweetheart. He was full of mad ideas, and it's exactly what he would've done. Now, get on with it before I change my mind."

Hermione quickly used a reparo on the chain and then decided to cast an unbreakable charm on it. This just has to work.

As Mickey drove and the chain pulled tautly, Rose and Jackie shouted encouragements at him once more, this time in a line. Hermione stood at the ready with her wand. She was determined that this would work and if she had to use magic against the ship she would. Letting the Doctor and Jack die was not an option.

As the console cracked open a sliver, Hermione waved her wand and helped to blast it all the way open. Rose looked into the heart of the TARDIS from directly in front of the opening, and Hermione couldn't help but look from off to the side. Streams of golden energy entered Rose's eyes, infusing her with power, and a few wisps entered Hermione as well.

The doors to the TARDIS slammed shut and it began to dematerialize and transport them back to Satellite 5, hopefully in time to save the Doctor and Jack.

[Satellite 5]

The TARDIS doors opened to reveal the Doctor, surrounded by Daleks. The Doctor turned to see Rose silhouetted in a blinding golden light with tendrils of energy wisping about. He didn't even notice Hermione exit the TARDIS after Rose. "What've you done?" he dismayed.

Rose replied but her voice had a certain otherness that was hard to define. "I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me."

The Doctor look pained, "You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that."

The Emperor of the Daleks was watching from the giant viewscreen. "This is the Abomination!"

The surrounded Daleks riled at this and shouted, "Exterminate!"

Rose stopped the deadly beam that was shot at her with merely her hand, though. "I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."

"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn."

"I want you safe. My Doctor. Protected from the false god."

The Emperor sneered, "You cannot hurt me. I am immortal."

She looked at the screen imperiously. "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." She made a gesture with her arms and all of the Daleks in the room slowly disintegrated into atoms. "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends."

Meanwhile, the Emperor screeched, "I will not die. I cannot die!" But his protests were futile as he and his ship disappeared in a golden wave.

The Doctor turned back to Rose, scared for her. "Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go."

"How can I let go of this? I bring life," she cried with another wave of her hands. In another part of the station, Jack was brought back to life with a deep gasp.

"But this is wrong! You can't control life and death," the Doctor protested.

"But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?"

"The power's going to kill you and it's my fault," the Doctor moaned.

"I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be."

The Doctor smiled, "That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"

Tears fell down Rose's face. "My head-"

He smiled and opened his arms to her, "Come here."

"-it's killing me."

"I think you need a Doctor," he murmured, bringing her into him and kissing her gently. Hermione watched from the doorway of the ship and felt her heart break. As he kissed Rose the golden energy of the heart of the TARDIS transferred from her eyes to his and she fainted in his arms. Moving her to the side gently he faced the TARDIS and exhaled the energy back into the TARDIS as Hermione scrambled out of the way.

Gently, the Doctor picked Rose up and carried her bridal fashion into the TARDIS with Hermione following and closing the doors. She just missed Jack racing into control room mere seconds after she closed the door and the ship began to dematerialize, stranding Jack.

Hermione checked on her cousin and seeing she was just unconscious the witch turned to the Doctor, "What happened to Jack?"

"He's dead," the Doctor lied. He'd sensed Jack's unnatural return to the land of the living, and a primal part of him recoiled and wanted to run from the new abomination.

"No," Hermione whimpered, grasping tight to the pendant she wore. She often found herself playing with it for comfort when she was distressed.

"I'm sorry, I know you were close."

Hermione just nodded, wiped her eyes and went back to her cousin.

As the Doctor worked at the controls, Hermione ennervated Rose. The girl woke groggily and asked, "What happened?"

"Don't you remember?" the Doctor asked. He wasn't sure how much she would recall.

"It's like there was this singing."

The Doctor grinned cheekily. "That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."

"I was at home. No, I wasn't, I was in the TARDIS, and there was this light. I can't remember anything else."

The Doctor stepped further away, a sad smile playing about his lips and he gazed at Rose. "Rose Tyler. I was going take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny."

"Then, why can't we go?"

"Maybe you will, and maybe I will. But not like this," he shook his head with a sad smile.

"You're not making sense."

"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement. But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with-" he explained before he doubled over in pain.

Alarmed Rose tried to run over to him, but Hermione held her back. "Doctor!"

"Stay away! Keep her away, Hermione. You know what happens next."

Hermione nodded in understanding but Rose was lost. "Doctor, tell me what's going on."

His smile was more of a grimace. "I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that. Every cell in my body's dying."

"Can't you do something?"

"Yeah, I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face. And before I go-"

"Don't say that," Rose cried.

"Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I."

Golden light burst dramatically from all over the Doctor's body in a shocking blast. It didn't last long but it was certainly intense. His whole body changed and suddenly standing there in the same clothes was a different man. This one had shaggy brown hair, sparkling brown eyes, and a thin nose that slanted just a bit to the right. He quickly inspected his body and looked up at the girls. With a bright and cheerful smile, he spoke for the first time in his new voice. "Hello. Okay. Ooo, new teeth. That's weird," he mumbled, running his tongue over his teeth. Bouncing away from the distraction of a mouthful of new teeth he grinned once more. "So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Barcelona."