2005 Children In Need

"Special Mini Adventure"

"Faline…" I bit my lip, letting the Doctor say what he had to say. "Before I go, I just wanna tell you, you were fantastic." He smiled at me. "Absolutely fantastic. And d'you know what?" I shook my head. "So was I." I smiled nodding.

The Doctor smiled widely back at me for the last few moments before he suddenly convulsed. Orange energy exploded from his skin, blasting out of the neck of his sweater, the sleeves of his jacket, and the bottoms of his pants. I had to shield my eyes from the bright light, nothing like the Time Vortex. Yet, at the same time I couldn't look away. I watched as the Doctor's hair lengthened and face changed. The energy died away and before me stood a new man, a new Doctor, in the Ninth Doctor's clothes. He looked slightly surprised for a moment before turning to look at me. He smiled, "Hello! Okay—oo." He gulped and ran his tonged over his teeth with his brow furrowed. "New teeth. That's weird." I gave him a weak smile. This was still my Doctor, he had a new face and a few new quirks but he was still the same Time Lord. "So, where was I? Oh, that's right! First!" The Doctor, Ten, leaned forward and kissed me. This kiss was much different then the one I had shared with Nine but I wasn't complaining. This kiss lasted much longer and was a French kiss. My first French kiss, so it was a little weird… but then so was the idea of kissing the newly regenerated Doctor. The Doctor pulled back and said, "And Now! Barcelona."

The new Doctor ran to the console and flicked a few switches, checking the monitor. "6 PM… Tuesday…" I didn't move, watching as the Doctor turned a knob. "October... 5006... on the way to Barcelona!" He straightened up grinning at me. "Now then… what do I look like?" He didn't give me a chance to tell him that he looked hot enough to make a nun turn to a puddle of goo. "No, no no, no no no no no no no. No. Don't tell me. Let's see... two legs, two arms, two hands..." He tested his right wrist, circling it. "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle." His hands flew to his head, "HAIR! I'm not bald!" He ran his hands through his hair with a smile, I kind of felt jealous. I wanted to be doing that so badly right now. "Oh - Oh! Big hair!" He felt down his face, feeling his sideburns. He looked and sounded delighted, "Sideburns - I've got sideburns! Or really bad skin. Little bit thinner..." He slammed his stomach. "That's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it." The Doctor moved and frowned, "I... have got... a mole. I can feel it. Between my shoulder blades, there's a mole." He rotated his shoulders. "That's all right. Love the mole." The Doctor turned and grinned at me, "Go on then, tell me." He stood up straight, almost showing himself off to me. My eyes moved to his hair, all ruffled. "What do you think?" I just stared at him, not saying anything, or moving. I'm not ever sure I'm breathing. The Doctor's smile faded, "Faline?"

"That," I said softly. "Was the weirdest experience I have ever been through." I gave the Doctor a 'come hither' motion with my finger. "Come here." The Doctor took a few cautious steps towards me. I reached my hands up and ran them through his hair. The Doctor smiled at me when I pulled my hands away. "Sorry. I just had to. I've always wanted to touch your hair." I paused. "So you're the Doctor."

"You know that I am Faline," he said.

I glared at him, "I know that. It's just… really weird. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be handling this as well if I knew nothing about you and Time Lords."

"Probably," he said with a smirk.

I shoved his shoulder, "Shut up." I looked him up and down, taking in the sight. It was odd how he looked just like David Tennent, just like Rose looked just like Billie Piper. Its just so strange, but it made sense too. "It's still weird."

"It's me Faline, honest." The Doctor said. "I was dying. To save my own life I changed my body. Every single cell, but... it's still me."

I nodded. "I know, just give me a bit of time to adjust. I mean, you just regenerated. Don't you need time to have everything settle down or something?"

The Doctor shrugged, "I'm fine."

We were both silent for a moment before I asked, "Remember when we first met?"

"Of course, you broke into my TARDIS."

I gaped at him, "I did not break in, she let me in. There's a huge difference." I laughed. "Either way, you have no idea how happy I was to meet you. Even if at the time you weren't the you I'd watched, you were still you. I guess I'm applying that to now." I shrugged, "Your still the Doctor even if your looks and quirks changed."

"Quirks?" he asked.

I smiled, "I'm not going to spoil anything for you Ten."

"Ten?" he asked.

I nodded, "Well ya. You regenerated, so now your Ten." I smirked, "Which is funny because the actor that played you, his name was David Tennent. And as him, you do a lot more running."

The Doctor smiled, "And we never stopped, did we? All across the universe. Running, running, running..." he ran around the console flipping switches. "One time we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives." He began to hop madly up and down in one spot. "Yeah? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your life? Yeah? Hop?"

I laughed, holding my stomach as I did so. However, I quickly pulled my hands back just then remembering what I had done to them. "Shit," I muttered seeing that the cuts had bled through the wrappings. What the hell? I've never been such a heavy bleeder before.

The Doctor's smile vanished and he came over to my side, "What happened?" He took my hand softly.

"It's fine," I told him. "I had just sliced my hands open because the TARDIS wouldn't cooperate. And I know that she was listening to me." I wanted to kick the console, but I was positive it would hurt me more than the TARDIS. As the Doctor examined my hands I looked at him closely, "Why?"

"Why what?" he asked.

"Why was it that the first thing you did after you regenerated, after reacting to your new teeth, was kiss me?"

The Doctor slowly looked up to meet my eyes. I would miss the baby blue eyes of the Ninth Doctor, but I already loved the Tenth's chocolate brown. The Doctor leaned forward and gave me a chaste kiss. He pulled back slightly saying, "Not sure."

I bit my lip, slightly brushing ours together again. "As long as you don't hate me I think I can accept that answer."

The Doctor frowned and pulled back, "Hate you? Why would I hate you?"

"I told you before I'm paranoid," I said. "Worst case scenario is you hate me and make me leave."

The Doctor was quiet for a long moment before he asked, "Do you want to leave?"

My eyes widened. Oh please, don't let him make me leave. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No!" he said quickly. He ran his hand through my hair, petting it slightly. "But… your choice… if you want to go home…"

"My home is here remember?" I asked him with a weak smile.

The Doctor returned my smile with his own, much brighter. "Good." He kissed my forehead.

"However," I said softly. The Doctor pulled back, watching me closely. "I think we should go see the Tyler's and Mickey. I kind of left abruptly. And they need to see you and have us explain before they think you ate the real Doctor and kidnapped me."

The Doctor smiled and said, "They already think I kidnapped you."

I shoved him, "Shut up!"

The Doctor laughed and turned to the console. "Cancel Barcelona. Change to... London... the Powell Estate... ah... let's say the 24th of December." He turned to me with a smile, "Consider it a Christmas present."

I laughed and said, "A Christmas present would be if nothing happened. I have a feeling something is going to happen. So no thanks." The Doctor laughed with me for a moment before suddenly gagging as the TARDIS shuddered. I frowned, "Doctor?" He opened his mouth again only to have the same thing to happen. The Doctor bent over and began to make retching noises, but nothing came out thankfully. "Are you okay?"

The Doctor righted himself and some of the golden time vortex came from his mouth. "Oh... the change is going a bit wrong and all." He gaged again and fell to his knees.

"Maybe we should go back," I said. "Let's go find Jack, he'll know what to do to help."

The Doctor was impatient as he said, "Gah, he's busy! He's got plenty to do rebuilding the Earth!" He looked to a lever in the console. "I haven't used this one in years." He flicked the lever. The TARDIS shuddered violently and we were both almost knocked off our feet.

"What the hell?" I asked.

The Doctor smiled crazily, "Putting on a bit of speed! That's it!" He turned more knobs while I tried to keep a secure grip on the console. "My beautiful ship! Come on, faster! That's a girl!" It scared me how violently crazed the Doctor looked and sounded. "Faster! Wanna to break the time limit?"

"Stop it!" I yelled.

"Ah, don't be so dull," the Doctor spat, "let's have a bit of fun! Let's rip through that vortex!" His eyes caught mine for a moment. His voice calmed as he said, "The regeneration's going wrong. I can't stop myself." He grimaced in pain. "Ah, my head…" He then violently sprung up into a standing position again, his voice returning to being crazed. "Faster! Let's open those engines!"

A bell rang around us. "What's that?"

The Doctor came up beside me sounding delighted, "We're gonna crash land!" He laughed manically.

"Then fucking do something!"

"Too late! Out of control!" the Doctor ran around the console, giggling. "Oh, I love it! Hot dawg!" He hopped in the air excitedly. If I wasn't so terrified at the moment I would have made a joke about him saying 'Hot dawg', or maybe even start humming that damn 'Hot Dog' song from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that my baby cousin always watched.

"Doctor!" I shouted. I grabbed his arm as he passed and pulled him into a kiss. He returned it completely, seaming to become sane in my hands. "Your gonna kill us," I whispered against his lips.

The Doctor smirked and pulled away, "Hold on tight, here we go!" He grinned madly, "Christmas Eve...!"

TO BE CONTINUED