First Curator.

- A Doctor Who Unbound short story -

By TimeTraveller-1900.

The last thing the outgoing Doctor felt was the first thing the new incoming Doctor experienced.

Regeneration never became easier, even after discovering the truth of Gallifrey's founding - the Doctor wished that they had discovered the truth instead of the Master, who had wiped out the Time Lords for lying to them, although the Doctor had a good idea why the Master had taken those steps in the first place, but the Master must have spent much longer in the Matrix, hacking and playing around whereas whenever the Doctor went into the Matrix, they usually just wanted to get out of it quickly, which explained why they'd never found it before - and the Doctor had long since come to the conclusion that it never would.

A long held secret known to all Doctor's since pinstripes's days in charge was that while the Tenth Doctor's action in pouring that regeneration energy into the hand which was sliced off by the Sycorax sword was mostly down to vanity issues, the Tenth Doctor had actually had enough of life. It was a fleeting thought, but it was one future incarnations came to understand. By that point, the Doctor had become so tired of living, tired of going through bodies, and tired of going through the ghastly painful process of regeneration. That was bad enough, but the Doctor had become broken by the constant fights, the weight of being the last Time Lords (a weight which was long since gone, especially since the discovery of their coming from a different universe which meant the Gallifreyans were not their people), a weight which was further burdened by the near constant returns of the Daleks, and the loss or departure of old friends.

The Doctor's next two lives would share the same burdens, although the white haired scotsman would try to stop regenerating before that meeting with their earlier self reminded them of life, and by the time of the blonde Yorkshire woman, the revelations of the Timeless Child and the encounter with Tecteun during that mess with the Flux had made them see they were more than a Time Lord.

Once they had realised that, the Doctor's next two selves had come to see Gallifrey's chains were no longer holding them back. It was so liberating, but it was such a pity that they had never known the truth much earlier.

If they had known about the Timeless Child twist, how would things have changed? Granted, the Doctor was sure Tecteun would have triggered the Flux, but would they had done it during the time the Time Lords had reigned?

But this regeneration was different. After their last battle, the Doctor had come dangerously close to losing their remaining regenerations and they had received a wakeup call.

The Doctor was tired of their ways, and it was time to change them.

Finally the Doctor took a deep breath as the regeneration ended and now all that was left was to spend the next 24 hours in the TARDIS while they got over the worst of the effects, and quickly ran their hands over their new body; he felt a pain in his leg and he realised that he had a permanent limp - that was new - while turning to face the mirror; honestly, why had their other selves never bothered with having a mirror in the console room in the past, and the Doctor froze.

He was male again, but he recognised the face looking back at him; it might be physically older, the hair was white and there were bags under the eyes, but otherwise he looked like an older version of his fourth incarnation. But why regenerate into an older version of the very incarnation which had immediately cut ties with UNIT and gone back out into the universe as soon as he could?

Okay, sure his fourth self during the original time in charge had often tried to relax as often as possible, but why regenerate into the same old body now and give him a limp?

Or was this his subconscious desire to bring that incarnation back to show that even adrenaline junkie incarnations knew when to relax? And it wasn't as if the Doctor hadn't had moments where they hadn't stayed in one place for a long time.

The Third Doctor was exiled to Earth in the 1970s.

The Eighth Doctor had spent a century on Earth, living through the entire 20th century with amnesia following the fall of that version of Gallifrey during that dark mess with Faction Paradox, and then later spent 600 years in exile on Orbis. And what about those days being stranded in the 21st century with Helen and Liv?

The Eleventh Doctor had spent 900 years on Trenzalore.

The Twelfth Doctor had spent 70 years at that university.

And finally the Thirteenth Doctor had spent a long time in that thrice-damned prison.

And each time they were either exiled, stranded, they returned to their old life of travel, but what was interesting was despite their wanderlust, they often came to relish being in one place for a long period of time, even if the TARDIS was immobilised or rebuilding.

And truthfully the Doctor had lately begun to feel tired once the euphoria of regenerating into his previous life had worn off and he'd encountered other problems out there in the universe, and after seeing so many people die, he felt exactly as Tegan had when she had left him originally. He was tired of it, and he just wanted to take an extended break.

The Doctor sighed and checked his clothes. Ever since the Yorkshire woman had seen the ghost of their eighth incarnation in that place all incarnations went to rest, their knowledge of regeneration had given them the quirk to decide on what to wear instead of rifling through a wardrobe or stealing the clothes as soon as they could. Not only did he look like his fourth self now, the Doctor was now dressed exactly as the Curator.

Was it time for him to go into semi retirement?

It looked like it was.

Maybe it would be good to spend a few decades working in a museum, curating and managing things and spending time looking into new pursuits. After all, hadn't they originally started out looking out for new knowledge and things to do instead of swallowing everything the Time Lords gave?