Chapter One:

"The leaves on the trees are silver." He traced an invisible pattern on my bare hip with one finger absently. "And when the light from the suns in the burnt orange sky hits them just right, it looks like forests of fire."

"Sounds lovely."

"It was. Quite breathtaking."

In the everyday, the Doctor never wanted to talk about the planet of his birth, now reduced to nothing but rubble. Finding out what the looping scripts and patterns that scrolled across the screens of the TARDIS meant was like pulling teeth. But in the afterglow, bare limbs entwined with mine, he became more forthcoming with the information, more willing to reminisce. Hell, I could probably get him to spill Gallifreyan government secrets. Not, that is, that I wanted them.

"I wish I could've seen it." My thoughts went to a planet and its people, completely erased from existence trying to take the Daleks with them.

Completely erased, except for my husband. The last of the Time Lords.

His face clouded. "Me too." His eyes took on a faraway look, and I knew this was why he didn't like to take a lot of trips down memory lane. He gave me a faint smile as if sensing my worry. "Even if the Time War hadn't happened, I don't know that I would have been welcomed back with open arms. It's not as if I was Gallifrey's most popular citizen, denouncing the society and flying off to be a Traveler."

"Oh? Bit of a rebel, you are." I leaned up to kiss him.

"I've always spoke my mind."

"Imagine, your mouth getting you in trouble." I smiled and sat up. "Seriously, you might give some thought to cleaning up this room. I know you're barely in here, since you apparently never sleep, but sometimes I'm afraid I won't be able to escape your black hole of junk." I motioned to the piles of assorted bits of technology and artifacts around his room.

"That's why I rarely take you back here. What did I come in here for anyway?" He looked around. "There was something I was going to show you..."

"Before I so rudely interrupted by pointing out that we've never shagged in your actual bed?"

"Exactly. You rudely pointed it out, and so I took it upon myself to remedy that." He grinned. "Oh, now I remember." He reached into the bedside table and pulled out a small photograph album.

"There you are." He handed it to me and lay back down, hands behind his head, his usual grin on his face.

"What is it?" I flipped it open and was immediately greeted by a snapshot of a man with an afro of crazy brown hair with what looked like a fedora perched on top of it. He was wearing a long brown overcoat and the longest scarf I had ever seen, it was looped several times around his neck and still reached past his knees. He had a smug expression on his face and a hook of a nose.

"Who's this? Someone you've traveled with before?" I had figured there must have been other travelers than me in the past, considering the WOMEN'S clothes in the wardrobe and the sheer range of sizes. "Look at that crazy hair! How very disco."

"I'll have you know that was in style during several time periods."

"And that scarf!" I laughed. "That's..." I trailed off. "That's in the wardrobe. I've seen it before. He must've left it behind. Not that I blame him, I would too. Nice fedora. Where'd you pick this guy up, in a Sam Spade discotheque?"

He frowned at me. "Laugh it up, you're married to that bloke."

I stared at him, confused. "What?"

He tapped the picture. "That's me."

I looked at the picture and back at him. "No. It looks nothing like you."

"Well, not now, obviously, but that was me, oh, five lifetimes ago." He kissed my forehead. "Rose, love, I have to tell you one of my Time Lord tricks, just in case it ever happens again while you're here. We're able to cheat death by regenerating, changing our bodies from a cellular level on up. That's how come I'm 900 years old."

"Does your personality change with each regeneration?"

"I suppose a bit of me does, but wouldn't you change a bit after 900 years?"

"True," I looked down at the picture and then at him. "You're so lucky I met you now instead of back then."

"Oi!"

"Had I went to Paxil with this guy, I would have begged them to let the other guy win," I joked.

"I thought I was handsome back then!" he looked down at the picture.

"Yeah, I can tell! Look at that smug expression. It's as if you don't know you have a hook nose and mad hair."

"Hey!"

"You have a much nicer nose now."

"Yes, and I have elephantine ears, a receding hairline and a daft face, that's so much better."

"I think it is," I said softly.

He kissed me proper. "I love you too, Rose Tyler. Now, want to see another?"
He took the book out of my hands and flipped through.

"Of course!" I snuggled up to him.

"Right, this is me in my first life," he said, pointing to a very dapper-looking older gentleman with longish white hair and a stern expression leaning on a cane, standing with a lovely girl about my age with short black hair and a warm smile.

"Who's she?"

"My granddaughter, Susan. She traveled with me for a while." His voice sounded rough, and I remembered that she was likely dead, along with the rest of the Time Lords. He flipped a page. "My third regeneration."

"You had a thing for mad hair!" I said, this time seeing an older man with what seemed to be a cloud of white hair attached to his head.

He flipped another page. "There. Better?"

This time he was a young man with blondish brown hair, and a long grey coat over striped pants and what looked like a tennis sweater and shirt. A matching white fedora hat was perched rakishly on his hat.

I took the book from him. "Blimey, you were cute!"

"Don't sound too surprised."

"Well you either had mad hair or were older, this is the first picture where you're roughly my age and attractive."

"Because I'm so close to your age now," he kissed my shoulder.

"Still attractive," I reminded him and turned to kiss him full on the mouth.

The TARDIS alarms sounded madly.

We froze.

"What the bloody hell is that?"

"I don't know," he said, jumping up and dressing faster than I'd ever seen him do before. "Something's wrong." He took off out the door before I had even located half of my clothes.

Finally dressed, I found him banging on the TARDIS' controls. "Something's trying to get in. This is impossible, nothing can..."

It was as if a spotlight went off in my face. A bright white light surrounded us, obliterating my vision and then it felt as if I was being turned inside out.

I woke up on the floor to what sounded like a game show theme.

"Welcome to the Weakest Link..."