Rose was getting tired of waking up on floors with no idea of what happened. On top of the disorientation, her head was pounding. She sat up and looked around. The Doctor stood at the console, but there was no sign of the Emissary.
"What happened?" she asked. Her head felt foggy, everything was all... jumbled together.
"Don't you remember?" the Doctor asked, not looking at her.
Rose didn't notice. She shook her head, trying to clear it. "It's like... there was this singing."
"That's right," the Doctor said cheerfully. It sounded fake. "I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."
"I was at home," Rose said slowly, still trying to make sense of her scrambled memory. "No, I wasn't, I was in the TARDIS, and there was this light." Oh, she realized. That's right. That's why the Emissary wasn't here. She had opened the heart of the TARDIS and the Emissary had tried to stop her, and then... Rose had left her behind. She looked up at the Doctor. "I can't remember anything else."
"Rose Tyler," he said, then smiled. "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." He laughed. "Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny."
"Then, why can't we pick up the Emissary and go?" Rose asked.
"Maybe you will, maybe she will, and maybe I will," he said. "But not like this."
Leave it to the Time Lord to clear up nothing at all, Rose thought fondly. She got to her feet. "You're not making sense."
"I might never make sense again," he quipped. "I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement." He looked away briefly before becoming serious. "But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with—"
Rose jumped in surprise as he suddenly doubled over, shouting in pain. There was some sort of light shining from his hands.
"Doctor!" Rose cried. She took a step toward him.
"Stay away!" he ordered. She stopped short.
"Doctor, tell me what's going on," she said worriedly.
"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex," he said, his voice tight with pain. "And no one's meant to do that. Every cell in my body's dying."
Rose didn't like the sound of that. "Can't you do something?"
"Yeah, I'm doing it now," he answered. "Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except..." he looked up at her. "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 interrupted.
"Rose." She stared at him sadly. "Before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what?" He grinned. "So was I."
Rose flinched back and covered her eyes as bright, orange gold energy burst out of the Doctor. He was glowing for a minute, standing with his arms out and head thrown back. When the energy cut out, he looked... completely different.
His hair was longer now, that was the first thing Rose noticed. It was brown and looked very soft and she tamped down the urge to touch it to see if it was.
The new man looked over at her. Rose didn't believe that he even was the Doctor, because what the hell??
Rose had no idea what had happened. The Doctor was gone, in some, some exploding body swap thing. He'd said he was dying and then he got replaced by this other man. She suddenly wished the Emissary was with them. The Time Lady would know what was going on. Hopefully. Rose frowned. Did Time Ladies also do the face change thing?
She was brought out of her thoughts when the man spoke.
"Hello," he said with a London accent. He paused, frowning. "Okay. Ooo, new teeth. That's weird. So, where was I?" She just stared at him, not knowing what to say. "Oh, that's right." He grinned at her. "Barcelona!"