Faceclaim: Barbara Palvin

The newly regenerated Doctor started dashing around the console, flicking switches left and right "6 PM… Tuesday…" Tyra shook her head at him when he grinned at her "October 5006… On the way to Barcelona." He straightened up, facing both girls "Now then… How do I look?" Tyra was about to open her mouth when he slapped a hand over it "No, no, no, no no no no no no. No. Don't tell me."

"Then don't ask," Tyra grumbled, shoving his hand away. So this was the Doctor that her brother had described. He did look as good as she had imagined. A far stretch from the former Doctor. Prettier, she guessed.

The Doctor huffed at her before starting to pat his new body down "Let's see… Two legs, two arms, two hands…" He laughed before a frown appeared on his face as he twisted one of his wrists around "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle…" A second later, the Doctor moved on, his hand flying to his hair "HAIR… I'm not bald. Oh, oh. Big hair."

"Very big hair," Tyra snorted, glancing at Rose out of the corner of her eye. She was staring at the Doctor with wide eyes and growing anger. Tyra grimaced. This wasn't going to end well. Especially since Rose had been more or less angry since she found out about Tyra being a vampire.

"Sideburns," the Doctor cheered, fingers trailing down the sides of his head "I've got sideburns… Or really bad skin."

Tyra sighed when he tilted his head at her "Why not look into a mirror? Would make things so much easier." He continued to look at her until she continued "It's sideburns." This Doctor really seemed to be the complete opposite of the former Doctor. Actually, he was more like one of those pretty boys that Rose liked to drag along. And he was quite a bit younger looking than his previous regeneration. He was still taller than Tyra, though… Which was annoyingly unfair but she doubted he would ever get close to her height, no matter how often he regenerated.

The Doctor continued inspecting himself "Little bit thinner," he remarked, slapping his stomach "That's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it." He froze, shifting his shoulder "I… have got… a mole," he breathed, sounding as though he just cured cancer "I can feel it."

"Rose?" Tyra spoke up when her breathing turned harsher. She looked scared of the new Doctor and more than ready to attack.

The Doctor hadn't noticed, still rambling about his new mole. At least, he was still as oblivious as the last one. Tyra shook her head, turning her attention to him while keeping Rose in her sight "Between my shoulder blades. There's a mole. That's alright. Love the mole." He turned to Rose "Go on then, tell me. What do you think?"

"Who are you?" Rose asked him, frozen to her place by one of the corals.

The Doctor frowned, confused as to why she didn't recognize him "I'm the Doctor." He glanced at Tyra who mouthed 'regeneration' at him. Realisation dawned on him. While he had talked to Tyra about his past and what Time Lords could do, Rose had no idea. He never once mentioned it to her in a way she would understand.

"No… Where is he?" Rose shook her head "Where's the Doctor? What have you done to him?"

The Doctor blinked "You saw me. I – I changed." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder "Right in front of you. Tyra believes me, don't you, Ty?"

"It's him, Rose. He really did change," she told Rose quietly.

"How would you know?" Rose snapped, glaring at Tyra. She couldn't believe that Tyra lied to her. How could she not tell her that she was a vampire? A blood-sucking monster? "I saw him sort of explode and then you replaced him, like a… teleport or transmat or a body swap or something." The Doctor could only gape at Rose silently, at a loss for words. Rose took several steps towards him. As soon as she was within arm's reach, she shoved him back "You're not fooling me. I've seen all sorts of things. Nanogenes… Gelth… Slitheen…" The Doctor raised his eyebrow, unsure of where Rose was going with this "Oh, my God, are you a Slitheen?"

"I'm not a Slitheen," the Doctor gave back calmly.

Rose's voice rose to a shout "Send him back. I'm warning you… Send the Doctor back right now."

When she made to move forward to shove the Doctor again, Tyra stopped her with a hand on her shoulder "Rose. The Doctor is the only one who can pilot the Tardis, right? If you don't believe it's him then let him show you. How about that?" She glanced over her shoulder at the Time Lord "Or you tell her something… Like… Erm – I don't know. How did you two meet?"

"Yes," the Doctor nodded excitedly "That's it. Very first word I ever said to you. Trapped in that cellar. Surrounded by shop window dummies… oh…" He looked away for a moment, reminiscing "Such a long time ago. I took your hand… I said one word. Just one word. I said run." Then he looked at Tyra "And you just randomly butted in and never left. And then we ran."

"Story of my life," Tyra grumbled.

The Doctor smirked at her for a moment before turning back to Rose who had tears in her eyes by now "Doctor?" she whispered.

"Hello," he grinned. Rose sighed exasperatedly and stumbled backwards, coming to rest against one of the beams behind her. The Doctor took off around the other side of the console "And we never stopped, did we? All across the universe. Running, running, running…" He flicked a few switches on the console "One time we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives." the Doctor started hopping up and down energetically "Yeah? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your lives? Hop? With the…" he trailed off, catching Rose's lack of reaction to his word vomit "No?"

Rose swallowed heavily "Can you change back?"

"Do you want me to?" the Doctor questioned quietly.

"Yeah," Rose nodded.

The Doctor bit his lip, looking close to tears "Oh."

Tyra put her hand on his arm, nudging him with her shoulder "I don't. I'm sure that I would even enjoy travelling with you if you were still wearing a stick of celery." At those words, she sent him a wink, causing a beaming grin to appear on his face.

It fell quickly though as he turned to Rose again "Do you want to leave?"

"Do you want me to leave?" Rose questioned in shock.

The Doctor shook his head "No. But… your choice… if you want to go home." When Rose didn't reply, he nodded sadly "Cancel Barcelona. Change to… London… the Powell Estate – ah – let's say the 24th of December. Consider it a Christmas present." Rose slowly edged towards the console, staying as far away from both Tyra and the new Doctor as possible "There," he stepped back, his arms tucked under his armpits defensively. The Tardis shuddered.

"I'm going home?"

"Up to you," the Doctor shrugged "Back to your mum. It's all waiting. Fish and chips, sausages and mash, beans of toast… No, Christmas. Turkey!" He paused and grimaced "Although having met your mother… nut loaf would be more appropriate." Rose looked down quickly, trying to hide a smile "Was that a smile?"

"No," Rose scowled, trying to drop the grin that was forming on her lips again.

"That was a smile," the Doctor pointed out knowingly.

Rose shook her head "No, it wasn't."

"Oh, come on," the Doctor rolled his eyes, not understanding why she was having as many problems with this as she did. Sure, it was weird but Rose had seen her fair share of other weird things over the last year "All I did was change, I didn't…" Suddenly, he started gagging, bending over the console.

The Tardis shuddered more violently as Tyra carefully made her way over to the doubled-over Doctor "Are you alright?"

"What?" Rose blinked.

"I said I didn't…" The same thing happened again, more violently. The Doctor continued retching, stumbling into Tyra's arms "Uh oh."

Rose edged around the console again "Er… Are you alright?" A piece of time vortex escaped the Doctor's mouth, causing Rose to jump back "What's that?"

"Oh… The changed is going a bit wrong and all," he choked out, almost falling down when he turned.

"Doctor," Tyra murmured into his ear, trying to get him to focus on her for a moment "Could you try and land the Tardis before anything else happens? I think that would be the smartest thing to do now."

The Doctor looked at the console, a lever catching his eye as he surged forward "I haven't used this one in years." He pulled it, causing them to nearly fall from the violent jerk the Tardis gave.

"What are you doing?" Rose demanded, clinging to the console.

"Putting on a bit of speed," the Doctor laughed crazily "That's it." He started turning more knobs while Tyra and Rose were holding onto the console for dear life. Tyra was still a bit weakened from dying earlier and felt like she could do with one of those nifty blood bags in her room now. Too bad that the Doctor needed her at the moment. There was no way she was going to leave him while he was in this condition with Rose acting the way she was "My beautiful ship. Come on, faster. That's a girl. Faster. Wanna break the time limit?"

"Stop it," Rose demanded angrily, glaring at the man who was calling himself the Doctor. He was so different… It couldn't be true, could it?

The Doctor rolled his eyes "Ah, don't be so dull… Let's have a bit of fun. Let's rip through the vortex."

"Is that really your plan of action?" Tyra frowned worriedly "It seems a bit… What's the word?"

His voice calmed for a moment "The regeneration is going wrong. I can't stop myself…" he grimaced in pain "Ah, my head." The Doctor sprung up again, voice going back to the previous crazed tone "Faster. Let's open those engines."

A bell rang and Rose shivered in uneasiness "What's that?"

"We're going to crash land," the Doctor proclaimed in delight.

"And that's a good thing?" Tyra breathed out, stumbling into the railing when she lost her grip "You know that it won't help anyone if you were to kill us all?"

The Doctor laughed "Too late. Out of control." He ran past Tyra, giggling and hopping around like a little kid "Oh, I love it. Hot dawg."

"You're gonna kill us," Rose breathed.

"Hold on tight. Here we go," the Doctor grinned madly "Christmas Eve…"