MEGA WARNING: MAJOR SPOLIERS FOR THE END OF TIME PART TWO :WARNING

A/N: Again, I was just sitting here thinking (again) about the End of Time, and the fact that it skipped from the Doctor and Wilf at the Naismith Estate, to the Doctor dropping Wilf home. What happened in between? And then I thought about what would have happened if the Doctor had regenerated sooner than he'd anticipated? Well, this chapter was born... I pretty paraphrased a lot of Matt Smith's lines. So sue me.

Premature Regeneration

The Doctor fished the TARDIS key out of his pocket, and gestured Wilf inside the time ship.

"But Doctor, how long before you do that … regeneration thing?" Donna's grandad asked as the Doctor shut the TARDIS door behind them. "Your cuts have healed right?"

The Doctor shrugged his coat off and slung it in its usual space as he walked up to the console, Wilf trailing behind him. "I dunno," the Time Lord said, starting up the TARDIS engines. "We should have enough time to take you home though."

Wilf nodded, and sat down on the only seat in the room, hands shaking. Here was the Doctor going calmly about his business, despite the fact that the radiation that he had absorbed was slowly killing him from the inside.

Wilf looked up sharply as something clanged on the floor. The Doctor had toppled over backwards, hands clutching at his chest. "Doctor?" Wilfred said, rising to his feet. "Are you alright?"

The Doctor writhed around on the floor, eyes scrunched tightly shut. "It's happened," he moaned, obviously in a lot of pain. "I'm regenerating!" Wilf could only watch helplessly as intense golden light exploded out from the Doctor's features, and the Time lord began to change. Gouts of flames exploded all over the room and one of the immense pillars holding up the ceiling collapsed into a pile of rubble. The windows in the TARDIS door exploded out, letting the scintillating lights of the time vortex into the room. Roundels began popping all along the walls, and sparks burst from the console. Wilf covered his head and watched as the light bathing the Doctor faded away, leaving a completely different man in his place.

The new Doctor sat up, rubbing his head. "Okay, let's see – arms, legs, neck, head and nose," he said, checking that all parts of his body were still attached. "Good, that's good." He rubbed a hand along his jaw line. "Chin's a bit bigger than I'm used to, but I'm sure I'll warm to it. Let's see… hair…" His face fell. "NO WAY!" he screeched, fingering his hair. "I'm a girl! I don't wanna be a girl, I can't be a girl!" His fingers found their way down to his throat, checking to make sure that his Adam's apple was still present. "I'm not a girl," he breathed in relief as he got to his feet, pulling a tuft of hair down in front of his eyes to he could check the colour. "And still not ginger? Naw, I've wanted to be ginger for such a long time…" He appeared to finally noticed Wilf standing there, the old man's mouth hanging open in shock.

"Oh, hello," the Time Lord said. "And who are you?"

Wilf just stared. "Doctor…"

"Well, hello Doctor … no, hang on. I'm the Doctor!" The Time Lord crossed his arms across his chest, affronted. "Oh, Wilf, sorry, it's you. These new eyes, hey?" he joked, flicking his hair behind his shoulder. "So, where were we?" He turned back to the TARDIS console and drummed his fingers on the edge of the scanner. "Ah, that's right. Crashing!" He immediately began to bash buttons with the same haphazard abandon as his previous regeneration did, but paused halfway through setting a destination to raise a hand to his head.

"You know, I feel kind of dizzy," he observed just before his eyes rolled up into his head and he crumpled to the floor.

Wilf finally came to his senses. "Doctor, are you okay?" he asked as he rushed to the apparently younger Time Lord's side. "What do I do? I don't know how to fly this thing!" The Doctor, however, remained out cold.

The room jolted, and instead of the miasma of the time vortex outside the window, it was a bird's eye view of London. Actually, the city appeared to be approaching rather quickly…

Wilf leapt up to the console, staring at the buttons, completely at a loss for what to do. "Oh, God save me," he said as he closed his eyes and pressed every button within reach.