A/N: As you can imagine, and please do look at the warnings, a lot of pretty heavy stuff happens and is discussed in this chapter. But, despite everything that I may be warning you about, I do hope that you enjoy it!

Unfortunately, this is the final chapter I actually have written in full, but I plan on writing a synopsis for what I was going to do with the rest of the fic, hopefully to be posted in the next few weeks, when I get a spare moment.

Warnings: Sexual Content, Discussion of Sexual Acts Involving BDSM. Discussion of Instances of Non-Consensual Sex. Language. Angst. Fluff.

The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday

Chapter 88

The Christmas Invasion: Better Watch Out

The next morning, in the TARDIS, Rhea woke up beside the Doctor, felled underneath piles of goose down comforters. She was sweaty enough that she pushed them off with a noise of frustration. Her unruly movements were enough to wake the Doctor up, who was lying peaceful beside her, as unclothed as she was.

"What-what is it?" the Doctor asked, his voice rough with sleep.

"These comforters," Rhea grumbled. "They're too fucking thick."

The Doctor sighed and turned around, flat on his back, and began to help her dislodge herself from the blankets, throwing them to the floor once they became too inescapable. Once they were sufficiently out of the reach, and their damp bodies were now exposed to the cool air of the room (the TARDIS automatically reduced the temperature once she knew Rhea was in such a state), the Doctor reached for Rhea, pulling her close and twining his hands in her long black hair.

"Better, beautiful?" he muttered, kissing her gently on the table.

Rhea hummed in agreement and squirmed in close to him. She splayed her hands across his lean back, while he slotted his thumb across the groove in her pelvic bone. Rhea tipped her head up and pouted at him.

"Now, I'm cold," she whined.

The Doctor began to laugh, still groggy enough that it wasn't the clearest sound.

"Do you want the comforters back, Dimples?" the Doctor asked, curiously.

Rhea shook her head without saying a word.

"Well, then, what do you want?" he asked, hiking one of her legs over his hip.

Rhea smiled, mischievously. "I think you know what I want."

The Doctor gave her an equally wicked grin and kissed her on the mouth.

"Wait," Rhea gasped, pulling away abruptly. "I need to brush my teeth first."

"What?" the Doctor demanded, unable to bring her back to the bed before she was slipping out of his arms and out of the bed and making her way to the bathroom. "Rhea, you know I don't care about that!" he groaned.

Rhea stuck her head out of the bathroom. "Well, tough luck, bow-tie boy. You know I care about it. No fucking without brushing."

The Doctor resisted the urge to throw a tantrum, right there in the bed, and made a long-suffering sound of exasperation that he knew she had made regarding him on more than one occasion. He followed her out of the bed and into the bathroom, wrapping an arm around her waist as she vigorously brushed her teeth. Rhea didn't quite like him seeing her in such a state (this early in their relationship, she preferred to keep the mystery between them – and considering that she had entirely more unseemly bodily functions than he had, and he had no sense of shame, especially where she was concerned, it was up to her to maintain a certain amount of privacy), with white foam dripping from her mouth, make-up absent and hair askew and frizzy and knotted from sleep, but he never seemed to care.

Rhea unceremoniously spat out the toothpaste and rinsed her mouth quickly. Thankfully, she was already naked, so it didn't take much for her to slip out of the Doctor's hold and make for their shower. She turned the water on, to the pressure that she liked, and dropped her body underneath the spray. A brief draught of cool air informed her that the Doctor had entered the shower after her, and soon, his arms were wrapping around her waist once again, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"So, shower sex?" Rhea teased.

"Well, you were the one who said that you were cold," the Doctor said, pointedly.

"I think that's a little moot, considering we're in the shower now," Rhea retorted, playfully.

His hands slipped downwards, from her hips, to cup her thighs and then move back up so that he could grope at her arse, making her whine.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked, nipping gently at her neck.

Rhea let her head fall back against his chest, feeling the thump-thump of at least one of his hearts.

"Okay, maybe, the shower's not completely enough," Rhea relented.

And, unfortunately for her, she was enough revved-up that she wanted something more anyway.

"Did you want anything in particular?" the Doctor asked, curiously.

Rhea turned around in the embrace. "You have a checklist or something, babe?"

The Doctor couldn't help but chuckle. "Not quite a checklist, but you did make me a top-ten list once."

Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Really?" she asked, delighted. "What was on this top-ten list?"

"Hm, I believe it went something like blowjobs, roleplay, mutual masturbation, spanking, dirty talk, sex toys, doggy style, cunnilingus, orgasm denial and BDSM," the Doctor quoted, dutifully. "Although, I'm not quite sure that it was in that specific order."

Rhea was undoubtedly impressed. "Do you have any preferences?"

"For right now?" the Doctor asked, and Rhea nodded. "If you wouldn't mind so much, I'd like to dabble in some spanking."

Rhea's curiosity was immediately piqued. "Oh?"

The Doctor flushed, his inner embarrassment acting out finally (while he was no prude when it came to sex with Rhea – sex with others was a completely different thing – sometimes, he wondered exactly how he'd gotten to a position where he calmly discussed spanking with his lover without so much as a blush).

"Well, you mentioned to me before, well, not you-you, but you, that you recently bought that riding crop that you wanted to try out." The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck, sliding through his growing wet hair.

Rhea laughed. "Well, I'll believe that. It sounds like me." She reached a hand behind her back and shut the water off. "Shall we go and try it out?" she waggled her eyebrows.

The Doctor didn't need any more words to lead her out of the shower and dry her off with a nice, fluffy towel. Rhea watched with awe as he delicately smoothed the towel over every inch of her skin, meticulously, taking care to blot up all the excess water. There was nothing overtly sexual in his ministrations; even when he wiped between her legs, he used no more contact that he had for her arms or her neck. Once she had repeated the same gesture for him, finishing by patting the towel across his shoulders and smoothing back his damp hair that wouldn't dry for a little while, he pulled her back into the bedroom and sat her down on the bed. He made his way to the closet that they shared and knelt in front of the last drawer that Rhea had explored in some detail but not to such a great extent that she had spotted a riding crop that she had bought for the two of them.

"So, do you want to be the flogger or the flogged?" Rhea teased.

The Doctor's hands fidgeted in front of him. "Do you have any preferences?"

"You sound nervous," Rhea commented. "If you're not comfortable with any of this, we don't have to do it, you know?" She searched his eyes for any sort of doubt.

"It's not that I'm not comfortable," the Doctor protested. "I'm just a little concerned about you."

"About me?" Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Why would you be concerned about me?"

"Rhea, I know your experiences in the past haven't been the most…" the Doctor trailed off, unsure of how to word what he wanted to say.

"Consensual?" Rhea guessed, something akin to bitterness colouring her voice.

"Well, yes," the Doctor conceded. He sat down beside her on the bed, taking her hands in his. "We don't have to do this if you're not completely comfortable with it."

"It's not like I've never done this before, Doctor," Rhea said, pointedly, almost defensively.

"It would be your first time with me, wouldn't it?"

"Well, yeah," Rhea admitted, grudgingly.

"We don't have to rush into this," the Doctor suggested, smoothing back strands of her slightly-damp hair, which had already started to curl at the ends.

With a noise of frustration, she jumped to her feet and rounded on him, just sitting there on their bed, all boyish and artless.

"I am not scared of you," Rhea insisted, sharply.

She hadn't felt scared in bed for a very long time – not even Damian had been worth her fear, not after she had seen that very first commemorative video of all the disgusting things he had done to her and had allowed to be done to her. Fear meant power, and why should he get any more power over her than he was already given? No, she had only reserved contempt towards Damian and all of his sick little friends and clients.

If she hadn't been scared of Damian, she couldn't be scared of the Doctor. He was built like a bean pole, all lanky and unsure of his own strength. If he tried to hurt her, she could snap him in half. While she was sure his Time Lord physiology afforded him strength that perhaps a human male with his build didn't have, she was sure, if it came down to it, that he'd go down like a bag of rocks.

The Doctor stared up at him. "I know you're not."

"Are you sure?" Rhea demanded, wondering why she felt so angry all of a sudden. "Because you don't seem like you believe that."

"Rhea," the Doctor sighed, reaching out for her.

Rhea avoided him. "No. Why are you suddenly pulling the plug on this? And using me as an excuse!"

"Rhea, you were the one who said that if I wasn't comfortable with any of this, we could stop, right here and right now."

"Yeah, keyword being 'you'," Rhea said, pointedly.

"So, it's one rule for you, and one rule for me?" the Doctor narrowed his eyes.

"Of course not!"

"You were the one who made the rules for this kind of play," the Doctor reminded her.

Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"You were the one who said: safe, sane and consensual."

"Yeah, and I stand by that," Rhea said, determinedly.

"Are you sure about that?" the Doctor demanded.

Rhea found herself tensing. "Are you insinuating that I'm forcing you into something? Because if you're feeling pressured, you should really-"

"Of course not!" the Doctor snapped. "I'm worried that I'm forcing you into something."

"What the hell gave you that kind of idea?"

"You've never done this before, with me, at least," the Doctor retorted. "Is it really so dumb that maybe I wanted you to think about it first, before we start using riding crops?"

"You were the one who brought up the riding crops!" Rhea protested.

"Yeah, and then I realised maybe I was pressurising you into something that you hadn't really considered before."

Rhea raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "You think this is my first time using a riding crop?"

The Doctor scoffed. "Of course not, but did you have any clue that we engaged in that kind of play before I brought it up?"

"Well, no," Rhea conceded, scrunching up her nose.

"And can you appreciate that maybe I felt like I had just thrown something like that onto you without giving you the chance to adjust to it?"

"Okay, maybe you have a point."

The Doctor reached for her once more and this time, she let him hold her.

"Rhea, I'm not saying I never want to try out these things with you ever again." He kissed her on the forehead. "All I'm saying is that we're not running short on time and I just want to make sure that you're not getting involved in something that you may be coerced into, because you're thinking about the dynamics of our relationship. Whatever may or may not have happened between us in bed, whether it be my past or your past, has no influence on what happens between us now. I don't want our peculiar situation to… damage what we have here."

Rhea looked up at him. While she didn't appreciate how it almost felt like he was making decisions for her without even listening to what she was saying, she also did understand that maybe their future (or past – the words still confused her) sexual relationship may have had an unintended influence on what she wanted to do with him.

They had time, after all. And it wasn't like the riding crop would be going anywhere.

"Fine," Rhea said, slowly. "I accept what you're saying. And yeah, maybe I let what you know of our sexual relationship influence my enthusiasm to bring out the BDSM wear. But, I know what my limits are, Doctor," she said, firmly. "I know what I consent to, and I know what I like in my sex life. Please don't think you can answer for me, just because you may have been sleeping with me longer than I've been sleeping with you."

"Okay, fair," the Doctor grimaced. "I shouldn't have spoken for you."

"You got that right," Rhea grumbled. "I don't like it when people do that."

The Doctor rubbed his hands up and down her flank. "I'm sorry," he offered.

"Yeah, I know," Rhea sighed. She rested her chin on his breastbone and looked up at him. "So, out of curiosity, what's your list?" she asked.

"My list?"

"You must have a list of your own," Rhea said, pointedly. "What you would like for us to do in bed together."

The Doctor shrugged. "I like a lot of the same things."

"But…" Rhea pushed, sensing something else he wanted to say.

"Well." The Doctor flushed.

"Doctor, you don't have to be shy with me. I mean, you know I like to be tied up and smacked at with a riding crop," Rhea teased. "I doubt there's anything you'd want in bed that I haven't tried yet, or that I would baulk at. Tell me."

"Pegging," the Doctor said, abruptly, eyeing her with interest.

Rhea gave him a bright smile.

"Not bad," Rhea mused. "Anything else?"

"Uh," The Doctor looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there, with her. "Prostate massaging and edging."

"Edging?" Rhea raised an eyebrow.

"It, uh, gets me out of my head," the Doctor replied, sheepishly.

"I can see how that works," Rhea muttered, pulling out of his embrace to find her clothes for the day: a pretty, dove-grey dress to her knees. "Zip me up, would you?"

The Doctor nodded, pulling up the zip from the small of her back to the nape of her neck. He smoothed his hands down the thin grey wool, landing on her hips.

"You look very nice," he commented.

"Thanks, bow-tie boy." Rhea leaned up and kissed him gently on the mouth. "So, where are we going today?"

"I don't know." The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Shall we go and check with Amy?"

He held out a hand for her to take and led her out of their bedroom, pulling her towards the console room, where Amy was waiting, albeit impatiently.

"There you two are!" Amy exclaimed, jumping off the captain's seat. "I mean, I totally get the whole morning sex routine, but did you really have to keep me waiting?"

Rhea rolled her eyes. "Don't get so pissed off, Legs. Just because you're not getting any…" she trailed off, suggestively.

"Excuse me," The Doctor raised his hand up in the air like he was in primary school. "Can we please not discuss our sex life in public?"

Rhea stared at him. "Why are you putting your hand up? We're not in middle school. And public, seriously? It's Amy," she drawled.

"Hey!" Amy protested. "I resent that!"

"Resent what?" Rhea demanded, rounding on her.

"That I'm not important enough to be considered public," Amy retorted.

Rhea had the sudden urge to smack her own forehead. "Oh, my God, you totally missed the point."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure-"

Whatever Amy was about to say was abruptly cut off when Rhea careened forwards, almost clipping her skull on the side of the console, had the Doctor not grabbed her by the waist before she impacted.

"Rhea!"

"Rhea, oh, my God, are you okay?"

Rhea knew that the Doctor and Amy were speaking to her, but their voices were thick and muddy, as if they were in a vacuum and she couldn't hear much beyond the sounds of her pounding skull and her broken breathing. She knew it was the Doctor who had his hands on her, now, smoothing her hair back the way she liked when she was ill and bent over a sink, throwing up her insides. But, when she looked up, she found herself seeing more than one version of the Doctor. It flickered between the lanky, floppy-haired man who had showered with her that morning and the brawnier, leather-jacket-outfitted Doctor she had seen since Rose had made the monumentally stupid (and yes, despite her defence of the girl, she was just a little bit sore about the hangover-from-hell and being eaten by a phantom time spirit) to save her father.

"Hi," Rhea said, dully. "Looks like I jumped again."

"Looks like," the Doctor replied, helping her to her feet.

"What's with you?" Rhea asked, narrowing her eyes.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, almost defensively.

"You look… weird."

"Well," the Doctor huffed. "That makes me feel very good about myself."

Rhea ignored him and turned around, only to find Rose lying on the grilling beside the console. She rushed over to the younger girl and knelt beside her, touching two fingers to the girl's wrist, checking her pulse for a steady rhythm. She sighed, pulling back, and turned to the Doctor.

"What happened to her?"

"Don't worry about it." The Doctor's voice was clipped.

"Okay, seriously, you're in a mood and it's not sitting well with me. What the hell is going on with you?" Rhea demanded.

The Doctor gave her such a maudlin look. "Spoilers, darling."

"Don't give me that," Rhea snapped, storming over to him. "If something's wrong, you need to tell me. Right now."

The Doctor opened his mouth to respond, or more likely, deflect, but just then, Rose began to stir. She opened her eyes, blearily, and looked up.

"What happened?" she slurred.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Don't you remember?" he asked, mildly surprised.

Rose managed to get into a sitting position. "It's like... there was this singing..." she trailed off.

"That's right! I sang a song and the Daleks ran away," the Doctor said, cheerfully.

"Okay, what the hell are Daleks?" Rhea demanded. "I keep hearing about them, but I've never actually met them."

The Doctor placed his hands on her shoulders, firmly. "Yes, and if I have my way, you never will."

But there was something solemn in his gaze, as if he knew he couldn't keep his promise.

Rose ran a hand through her hair. "I was at home... no, I wasn't, I was in the TARDIS, and..."

Rhea knew it was mean, but she ignored Rose in favour of observing the Doctor. Something was wrong; something was wrong and the Doctor wasn't telling her and it was frustrating her, because how could she help if she didn't know what the hell was going on here? She looked down at his hands, seeing a faint, gold shimmer ripple through his veins, before fading as quickly as it appeared.

Rhea tensed and grasped the Doctor's wrist, pointedly.

"Are you regenerating?" she asked him, quietly.

The Doctor looked up immediately, looking very much like a deer caught in headlights.

"How did you know?"

"I've seen you do it before," Rhea said, solemnly. "Is this…" she hesitated. "Are you going to be okay?"

The Doctor pursed his lips, wondering if he should reply, before sighing in resignation.

"Come here, love," he soothed, drawing her into his embrace.

Rhea's hands landed on his wide biceps, pressing her forehead against his collarbone.

"You're regenerating," she said, dully.

"I am," the Doctor said, quietly.

"Are there… like… degrees?" she asked, cautiously. "Can it be worse sometimes, or is it pretty consistent?"

The Doctor pressed his mouth to her eyebrow. "I have a feeling this one's going to be a bad one," he confessed.

He didn't like to lie to her – plus, even if he escaped her admonishment by regenerating, his next body would just cop the blame anyway.

Rhea bit her lip before she said something completely emotional and miserable and instead, leaned up, kissing him hard on the mouth – she knew he was the same person, no matter what body he had, but she needed this Doctor to know what he meant to her, that he held all those important parts of her, irrevocably.

The Doctor returned the kiss, enthusiastically, pressing her back against the console. Rhea could feel the heat of him against the entire length of her body, and desperately wanted to open her legs so that he could surge against her.

"Fuck," he growled against her mouth. "If I had more time and we had more privacy, I'd take you right here."

"The night is still young," Rhea replied, lightly, and they both knew what she meant by that – she would still have more nights with him, even if this was his last with her.

"Promise me you'll make that dream come true," the Doctor nudged her.

Rhea grinned, although her insides were raw. "If you'd like."

The Doctor kissed her on the curve of her eyebrow once more, before looking over her shoulder to where Rose was slumped across one of the struts, completely oblivious to what was going on around her, as she tried to remember what had happened.

"Rose Tyler," the Doctor said, fondly, and gave a small laugh. "I was gonna take you to so many places. Barcelona, not the city Barcelona, the planet. You'd love it. Fantastic place, they've got dogs with no noses."

He laughed at his own joke, and Rose giggled, half rolling her own eyes.

"Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny!"

Rose raised an eyebrow and casually strode over to them. "Then, why can't we go?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Maybe you will. And maybe I will. But not like this."

Rhea gripped at his hand and the Doctor squeezed it right back, looking at the monitor with a vague smile on his face.

Rose's brow knitted together. "You're not making sense!"

"I might never make sense again! I might have two heads. Or no head!" the Doctor laughed again, and Rose nodded, a bemused smile on her face. "Imagine me with no head! And don't say that's an improvement..." he warned, playfully.

Rose grinned, her eyes twinkling. With Rhea's back to her, the younger girl couldn't see just how bothered she was by the Doctor's current temperament.

"But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're gonna end up with-"

And completely out of the blue, the Doctor was propelled backwards with a blast of gold energy, and he was left clutching at his stomach as if he had just been punched. Rose rushed forwards, full of concern, but Rhea held her back.

"Doctor!" Rose called out, worriedly.

The Doctor shook his head. "Stay away!" he warned, urgently.

Rose wanted to claw at Rhea's hands and demand why Rhea (of all the people in the world, Rhea) wasn't doing anything to help the Doctor, while he winced in pain.

Rose looked at Rhea with damp eyes. "Rhea, what's going on?"

"Something's… happening," Rhea hedged. "He's going to change, and it's not going to be unpleasant."

"Change?" Rose's voice was high-pitched. "What do you mean he's going to change?"

"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that!" the Doctor explained, lightly, his eyes screwing shut in pain. When he opened them, he stared at the young, blonde girl with solemnity. "Every cell in my body's dying."

"Can't you do something?" Rose asked, horrified.

"Yeah, I'm doing it now!" the Doctor told her. "Time Lords have this little trick, it's... sort of a way of cheating death. Except..." He looked into her eyes, wanting to comfort the girl. "It means I'm gonna change."

Rose shook her head, slightly, wanting to deny what he was saying, not even completely understanding what he was saying.

The Doctor looked at Rhea, then, and she stared right back at him.

"And I'm not gonna see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face."

"It's not daft," Rhea snapped, releasing Rose.

The Doctor laughed. "I know you'd say that." He shook his head. "And before I go..."

"Don't," Rhea warned. "You're not going anywhere. It's still going to be you."

The Doctor snorted. "Yeah, let's see."

"Are you doubting me?"

The Doctor wanted to reach out for Rhea and hold her hand. "Never."

Rose looked down, feeling as thought she was witnessing a moment she shouldn't have been privy to.

"Rose…"

Rose looked up.

"Before I go, I just wanna tell you, you were fantastic," the Doctor insisted, smiling at her as if he were so proud at her. "Absolutely fantastic."

Rose stared back at him, unable to muster a smile.

"And d'you know what?"

Rose shook her head, confused.

The Doctor grinned. "So was I."

Rose finally managed a trembling smile, something that Rhea was very thankful for.

The Doctor smiled at the two girls, fondly, before he curled in on himself and exploded with orange-gold energy. It covered his entire body, burning from underneath his clothes until it covered every part of him. Both Rose and Rhea staggered backwards, shielding their eyes from the force of the heat and the light. Sooner or later, Rhea allowed herself to look, watching as the Doctor's hair lengthened and his face smoothened out and his brawn thinned.

Hello, there, Matchstick Man.

"Hello!" he called out, excitedly. "Okay-ooh."

He broke off, midway, gulping, and ran a tongue over his teeth, his brow furrowed.

"New teeth. That's weird," he commented. "So, where was I? Oh, that's right! Barcelona."

Rose stared at him with undisguised shock, but the Doctor didn't seem to pick up on her discomfort. He dashed to the console and flicked a few switches on the monitor, checking the screen.

"It's 6:00 PM… Tuesday…" the Doctor trailed off.

Rose hid herself half behind a pillar, as the Doctor turned a knob.

"October... 5006... on the way to Barcelona!"

Rhea took a deep breath and decided to go along with it.

"So, when you say that there's a planet called Barcelona, do they still speak Spanish? Or, wait, no, it's Catalan, right?"

"Catalan," the Doctor replied, quickly. "Oh, well, it's actually a dialect on the Catalan they speak in Barcelona from your time. But yeah, it's Catalan." He straightened and faced Rhea, grinning as if extremely pleased with himself. "Now, then, what do I look like?"

Rhea opened her mouth to reply, but the Doctor quickly held up a hand to silence her.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. Don't tell me."

Rhea raised an eyebrow.

"Let's see... two legs, two arms, two hands..." the Doctor tested his wrist, twirling it in a circle. "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle." His hands flew up to his head, twisting in his long, brown hair. "HAIR! I'm not bald!" he crowed.

Rhea rolled her eyes.

The Doctor ran his hands through his hair gleefully. "Oh, oh! Big hair!" He felt his sideburns. "Sideburns, I've got sideburns! Or really bad skin. Little bit thinner..." He slapped his stomach, testing the muscle that was there. "That's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it."

Suddenly, the Doctor scrunched up his nose and Rhea was almost afraid that there was something wrong.

Of course, until the Doctor opened his mouth.

"I... have got... a mole. I can feel it."

"Oh, for the love of-" Rhea muttered to herself.

"Between my shoulder blades, there's a mole."

"Congratulations," Rhea drawled.

The Doctor grinned at her and rotated his shoulders. "That's all right. Love the mole."

"I'm glad," Rhea retorted.

"Go on, then, tell me."

Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Tell you what?"

The Doctor preened. "What do you think?"

Rhea narrowed her eyes. "You are so full of yourself."

She made to round the console, but he stopped her with a hand to her waist.

"Oh, no, you don't," he drawled. "You don't get to escape that easily." He struck a pose. "What do you think?"

Rhea sighed, long-sufferingly. "You're hot. Sexy. Handsome. I want to fuck you, right here and right now. Can you please bend me over-"

The Doctor promptly covered Rhea's mouth with his hand. "Okay, maybe a little too much information."

Rose looked at Rhea and the Doctor, with an almost betrayed look on her face.

"Who are you?" Rose asked, quietly.

The Doctor's face completely fell, and Rhea hid her wince.

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor replied, lamely.

Rose shook her head, violently, disbelieving him immediately. "No… where is he? Where's the Doctor?" Her voice rose as she took a brave step forward. "What have you done to him? What did you do to Rhea?"

"Excuse me?" Rhea raised an eyebrow.

"He's done something to you, Rhea," Rose insisted. "Why else would you be acting like this… this fake is the Doctor?"

Rhea barely stopped herself from smacking her forehead once more. "He's not a fake, Rose."

"Of course, he is!"

"But you saw me. I-I changed…" the Doctor said, hesitantly, pointing a finger over his shoulder to where he had regenerated against the console. "… right in front of you."

Rose shook her head. "I saw him sort of explode, and then you replaced him, like a... a teleport or a transmat or a body swap or something."

The Doctor was left baffled, unsure of what to say. Rose took a few more steps towards him and shoved a finger against his chest, leaning in.

"You're not fooling me," Rose hissed.

The Doctor rocked back on his heels and looked at Rhea, helplessly (he always looked at her like that, as if she could solve all of his problems with a simple word – what a moron, she couldn't help but think).

"Okay," Rhea soothed, slipping in between the Doctor and Rose. "That's enough. Let's see if we can explain this, properly." She glowered at the Doctor. "Because it's clear that someone hasn't."

The Doctor leaned over her shoulder, resting his chin on her shoulder, before spanning her flank with his hands.

"In my defence, I wasn't exactly expecting this to happen," he offered.

Rhea swatted at his hands. "Doesn't make it okay, genius."

"Fine," the Doctor grumbled, but stubbornly held onto whatever part of Rhea he could get his hands on, grinning when she squirmed (little did people know that Rhea was extremely ticklish and oh, how he had enjoyed learning every spot).

Rose wasn't deterred, however, by Rhea's testimonial and continued on with her dismissal.

"I've seen all sorts of things. Nano genes... Gelth..." Rose glowered at the man she was convinced was impersonating the Doctor. "Slitheen…"

"Wait, what are Gelth?" Rhea looked up at the Doctor, confused.

"Spoilers, lovely." The Doctor tugged her hair. He looked at Rose and raised an eyebrow, almost challenging her to continue.

Rose's eyes widened. "Oh, my God, are you a Slitheen?" she whispered, horrified.

"Oh, for the love of-" Rhea threw her hands up in the air. "He's not a fucking Slitheen."

"How would you know?" Rose retorted.

"Have you seen him?" Rhea demanded. She skirted around him until she was standing behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "The man is a matchstick."

The Doctor squirmed in her hold and twisted to look at her. "Is that why you call me Matchstick Man?"

"Yes," Rhea rolled her eyes. "That is why I call you Matchstick Man."

The Doctor huffed and turned back to Rose. "I'm not a Slitheen," he managed to reply, calmly.

Rose wasn't convinced by anything either of them were saying. "Send him back." Her voice rose in warning. "I'm warning you, send the Doctor back right now!"

The Doctor's shoulders slumped, and he looked at Rhea, begging her silently to please help me.

"Rose, it's me," the Doctor pleaded, leaning forwards in his determination. "Honestly, it's me."

Rose continued to stare at him. Honestly, Rhea feared she was about to have a panic attack.

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

Rose shook her head and she felt the tears come to her eyes. "You can't be," she whispered.

The Doctor sighed and took a few steps closer to her, placing his hands on her shoulders so she would see just how sincere she was being.

"Then how could I remember this? Very first word I ever said to you. Trapped in that cellar. Surrounded by shop window dummies... oh..." The Doctor looked away for a moment, reminiscing. "Rhea, lovely, shut your ears." Rhea rolled her eyes. "... such a long time ago. I took your hand..." He took Rose's hand. "I said one word... just one word, I said... 'run'."

Rose flinched back, just from that one word, her eyes full of tears that she didn't want to let fall.

"Doctor," she whispered, slowly.

The Doctor grinned. "Hello."

Rose sighed, frustrated, and stumbled backwards as she realised that everything the Doctor and Rhea had been saying was true. The Doctor took off around the other side of the console, while Rose recovered, and Rhea tended to her.

"And we never stopped, did we? All across the universe. Running, running, running..." The Doctor flicked a few switches on the console. "One time we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives."

He randomly started hopping up and down on the spot, while Rhea and Rose watched him, bewildered.

"Yeah? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your life? Yeah?! Hop? With the..." The wild enthusiasm in the Doctor's voice faded slowly as Rose couldn't bring herself to react. Finally, he landed on both of his feet. "... no?"

Rose bit her lip. "Can you change back?" she asked, hesitantly.

Rhea closed her eyes. Oh, no.

"Do you want me to?" the Doctor asked her, sincerely.

"Yeah!" Rose exclaimed.

"Oh," the Doctor said, lamely.

Rhea wondered if Rose would take it the wrong way if she punched her in the face.

"Doctor." Rhea placed a hand on the Doctor's arm, and she felt him slacken under her touch.

"So, can you?"

Rhea grimaced. "Rose, that's enough."

"How are you okay with this?" Rose demanded, rounding on her. "He just changed his face, and you're acting like this happens every day for you."

"You don't think maybe I knew this could happen?" Rhea asked, sarcastically.

"And that's okay with you?"

"Yes, I'm fucking okay with it! Why else would I be here?"

"It's not normal!"

"It is for him," Rhea snapped. "And that means you either accept it or you get the fuck out, Rose. You don't get to make him feel like he's wrong or disgusting or abnormal."

"That's not what I'm saying at all!" Rose protested.

"Isn't it?" Rhea scoffed. "You just asked him to change back to his old face because it makes you uncomfortable. What part of that seems accepting to you?"

The Doctor looked down at the floor, looking like a misery-ridden puppy. "Do you want to leave?" he asked, quietly.

Rose reared back in shock, as if the thought hadn't even occurred to her. "Do you want me to leave?" she asked, hurt.

Rhea raised an eyebrow. Why is that so surprising?

"No!" the Doctor amended, quickly. "But... your choice... if you want to go home..." he suggested, awkwardly.

Rose's eyes fell to the ground, as the Doctor went back to the console, adjusting the navigation.

"Cancel Barcelona. Change to... London... the Powell Estate... ah... let's say the 24th of December." The Doctor looked at Rose, solemnly. "Consider it a Christmas present."

Rhea pressed herself against his side, a gesture which he took gratefully. "You don't have to do this, you know?" she murmured, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"I know." The Doctor smiled at her, sadly. "But I can't very well keep her here against her will."

Rhea took a deep breath. It was taking everything in her not to grab Rose by the shoulders and shake some sense and tolerance into her thick skull, but she also knew she couldn't force acceptance – it had to come from Rose herself.

"There," the Doctor said, finally, stepping back.

His entire posture was a show of defence, with his hands tucked underneath his arms, as if he were waiting for Rose to strike him.

"I'm going home?" Rose said, quietly.

The Doctor shrugged, and it was clear that he was trying to protect himself from further condemnation by Rose. "Up to you. Back to your mum... it's all waiting. Fish and chips, sausage and mash, beans on toast." His eyes widened. "No, Christmas! Turkey! Although... having met your mother... nut loaf would be more appropriate," he muttered.

Rose looked down, quickly, before the Doctor could see her smile.

But, unfortunately for her, the Doctor caught her.

"Was that a smile?" he teased.

"No," Rose said, firmly.

"That was a smile…" the Doctor pushed, knowingly.

"No, it wasn't." Rose bit her lip.

"You smiled..."

"No, I didn't."

"Oh, come on, all I did was change, I didn't-"

The Doctor suddenly broke off, gagging, just as the TARDIS shuddered. Rhea and Rose both looked at him, worriedly.

"What's going on?" Rhea demanded.

"I said I didn't-"

He violently retched before he could finish what he was saying.

"Uh, oh," he moaned.

Rhea lunged for him, grabbing him before he could topple face-first.

"It's going wrong, isn't it?" Rhea asked, grimacing.

The Doctor looked up at her with a weak smile. "How did you know?"

Rhea sighed. "It's not my first rodeo."

Rose edged cautiously around the console, not quite close enough to the Doctor as Rhea was but looking on with concern.

"Er… is he alright?"

"What do you think?" Rhea snapped.

Rose flinched.

The Doctor coughed out a golden wisp of energy.

Rhea frowned. "What's that?"

The Doctor managed to slump against Rhea's side, leaning in where Rhea stroked her fingers through his hair.

"Oh, the change is going a bit wrong and all," he said, roughly.

He gagged once more, falling to his knees, his face contorting with discomfort and pain.

"Look," Rose paused. "Maybe we should go back. Let's go and find Captain Jack, he'd know what to do," she suggested.

"Rose," the Doctor answered, grimly.

Jack frowned. "I thought you sent her back home," he said, confused.

"She came back. Opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex."

"What does that mean, exactly?" Jack asked, slowly.

The Doctor shook his head. "No one's ever mean to have that power. If a Time Lord did that, he'd become a god, a vengeful god. But she was human," he murmured, pausing briefly, as the events of what happened that day came to mind. "Everything she did was so human. She brought you back to life but she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever. That's something, I suppose. The final act of the Time War was life." He murmured, more to himself than anything.

"Oh, my God, this is what you meant," Rhea hissed, hoisting the Doctor up bodily so that she could splay him out on the jump seat.

"I'm kind of confused here," the Doctor gritted out.

"Oh, please, you know exactly what I'm talking about, and believe me when I say that I am incredibly pissed off."

"I can't help it!" the Doctor protested.

"Oh, I think you can. You just don't want to." Rhea rolled her eyes. "I swear, all the children I have to deal with."

"What are you two talking about?" Rose looked between the two of them, helplessly. "What's wrong with Jack?"

"Gah, he's busy!" the Doctor exclaimed, impatiently. "He's got plenty to do rebuilding the Earth!" A lever on the side of the console suddenly caught his eye, and there was a wicked, desperate glint in his eyes. "I haven't used this one in years."

Before Rhea could stop him, the Doctor lunged forwards with a surge of strength she didn't even think was possible for him (perhaps she should be reconsidering the whole 'he'd go down like a bag of rocks' thing) and yanked down the lever.

"Shit!" Rhea shouted, as the TARDIS shuddered violently and the three were all knocked to the ground.

"What're you doing?!"

The Doctor's face was sweaty and crazed. "Putting on a bit of speed! That's it!" He turned more knobs while Rose tried to maintain a more secure grip on the console. "My beautiful ship! Come on, faster! That's a girl!"

"Are you fucking insane?" Rhea demanded. "You'll kill us all."

"Oh, come on, Rhea, don't be such a stick-in-the-mud," the Doctor waved her off. "Faster! Wanna to break the time limit?!"

"Stop it!" Rose shouted, angry and scared.

"Doctor, I mean it, stop!" Rhea growled, yanking the Doctor away from the console as much as she could, with the TARDIS heaving around her.

"Oh, don't be so dull." The Doctor's look was almost cruel, and she wondered if it were below the belt to punch a sick man. "Let's have a bit of fun! Let's rip through that vortex!" He caught Rhea's eye and clutched at her hand, his voice lowering. "The regeneration's going wrong. I can't stop myself," he groaned, clutching at his head. "Ah, my head…"

He violently jumped up into standing position again.

"Faster! Let's open those engines!"

A bell started clanging throughout the TARDIS.

"What's that?" Rose looked around, frightened.

"It's the cloister bell," Rhea told her, grimly. "It only starts ringing when the TARDIS or any of us are in danger."

"Oh, well, then," Rose grumbled.

"Hang tight, Blondie, we'll get through this," Rhea said, reassuringly.

Rhea patted Rose on the shoulder and rounded the console. Before she could do anything to stall the TARDIS' course, the Doctor appeared in her vision, out of nowhere, pulling her away from the console.

"We're gonna crash land!" the Doctor exclaimed, delighted.

"That's not a good thing!" Rhea shrieked, over the sound of the bell. She growled in frustration. "I am going to kill you!"

"Do something!" Rhea shouted, hanging onto one of the struts for dear life.

The Doctor's voice rose hysterically. "Too late! Out of control!" He ran around the console, giggling to himself. "Oh, I love it! Hot dawg!" He hopped in the air excitedly.

"You're gonna kill us!" Rose protested.

"Hold on tight, here we go!"

The Doctor and Rhea's eyes met across the console. However, their expressions were radically different. The Doctor was grinning in his madness, while Rhea looked on with disapproval and concern.

"Christmas Eve!"

Finally, the TARDIS landed with a resounding crash. The Doctor managed to get to his feet, stretching out the ache in his muscles. Rhea and Rose exchanged a bewildered look, as the Doctor threw open the doors and peered out with his eyes wide open, as if he'd never seen Earth before.

"Here we are, then! London! Earth! The Solar System! We did it!" the Doctor crowed, stumbling out of the TARDIS, gazing up at the flats with his mouth still hanging open.

It was only then that he noticed that Jackie and Mickey were standing there as well, staring at him with confusion.

"Jackie! Mickey! Blimey! No, no, no, no, hold on." The Doctor stumbled backwards a few steps, almost flailing. "Wait there, I've got something to say. There was something I had to tell you. Something important, what was it? No, hold on, hold on..." He strode over to them and put his hands on Jackie and Mickey's shoulders, thinking very hard. "Hold on, shush, shush, shush, shush... OH!"

Jackie and Mickey jumped in alarm when he shouted suddenly.

"I know!" The Doctor looked from one to the other, panting from exertion and beaming. "Merry Christmas!"

And then, without much ceremony, the Doctor collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. Just then, Rhea and Rose appeared in the doorway of the TARDIS.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Rhea muttered.

"What happened?" Rose looked at Rhea, worriedly. "Is he all right?"

"He'll be fine," Rhea grumbled. "He just needs to rest."

"Who is he?" Mickey demanded. "Where's the Doctor?"

"That's him," Rose replied, dully. "Right in front of you. That's the Doctor."

Jackie's brow knitted together. "What d'you mean that's the Doctor? Doctor who?"

The Doctor was tucked up in one of the bedrooms in Jackie's flat, wearing a pair of stripy pyjamas that were most certainly not his. Rhea was sitting on the side of the bed, when Jackie and Rose re-entered the room, the former holding out a stethoscope.

"Here we go. Tina the Cleaner's got this lodger, medical student. And she was fast asleep, so I just took it," Jackie babbled.

Rhea thumbed the stethoscope before putting the eartips in her ears.

"Though, I still say we should take him to hospital," Jackie suggested.

"No," Rhea said, firmly. "If we took him to a hospital, they'd just dissect him. He's the last Time Lord in existence. There are species all over this universe, who'd kill to get just one cell from him."

Jackie opened her mouth to say something, but Rhea hushed her. She put the bell of the stethoscope on one side of her chest, checking for a steady heartbeat from one heart and the other.

"Both are working," Rhea hummed.

Jackie frowned. "What d'you mean both?"

Rhea felt a little awkward divulging this secret to Jackie, but she also knew that Rose was very much aware of the Doctor having two hearts and it was bound to get to Jackie sooner or later.

"Time Lords have two hearts."

"Oh, don't be stupid," Jackie scoffed, contemptuously.

Rhea looked up, giving Jackie a flat, belligerent look. "They do."

Jackie eyed the Doctor with a certain amount of interest that was beginning to make Rhea uncomfortable. "Anything else he's got two of?"

"Don't," Rhea warned, slipping off the bed and walking out the door. "Just leave him alone. He needs to rest."

Rhea followed Rose into the kitchen, where the girl had just opened the fridge and picked up a pork pie.

"So, how does he go about changing his face?" Jackie asked, curiously.

Rhea shrugged. "It happens when he's dying. He regenerates every cell in his body, which translates to 'new face'."

"So, is he a different person?"

"How should I know?" Rose grumbled. "It's not like they tell me anything."

Rhea stared at her. "You got something to say, Blondie?"

Rose dropped the pie on the nearest countertop. "Yeah, actually, I do," she said, belligerently.

"Go ahead," Rhea waved her on.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me this could happen?" Rose demanded.

"Well, for one, this is the fifth time we've seen each other, and I didn't think we'd reached that territory in our friendship yet," Rhea said, lightly. "Second, the Doctor doesn't owe you any explanation about his biological processes unless he feels it's necessary. Third, it's not my place to tell you about the Doctor's biological processes unless he gives me the okay."

"We're supposed to be friends!" Rose shouted. "And he goes and does this. And it's like I never even knew him, Rhea."

"Look," Rhea sighed. "I get that it's confronting to know that a close friend of yours has this pretty insane ability to change their face, but I think you're missing the big picture here."

"Oh, really?" Rose asked, dryly. "Tell me, what's this big picture, then?"

"The fact that he was dying, and he needed to do this to save himself," Rhea said, bluntly. "As far as I'm concerned, anything that keeps him alive is okay with me."

"I just…" Rose scuffed her foot against the linoleum on the floor. "I don't understand why he didn't tell me."

"Maybe because of your stellar first reaction," Rhea said, pointedly. "The first thing you said was that you thought someone was impersonating him. Then, you asked him to change back. Frankly, you kind of kicked him when he was already down. Maybe he was right to keep it from you."

Rose flinched back, as if Rhea had actually struck her. "But if I had known," Rose insisted, hurt. Her eyes filled with tears and she wiped them away. "I just… I keep forgetting he's not human."

And now it's like one of my best friends died, and it feels like it's my fault, and why didn't either of them tell me this could happen to him?

Rhea sighed and sidled closer to the younger girl. "Look, I'm sorry if I came off a bit harsh."

Rose laughed, her throat thick with tears. "A bit, huh?"

"Well, you were kind of asking for it," Rhea pointed out. "But look, I'm sorry. You're right. It wasn't fair for the Doctor to throw you up in the air like that. He should've told you. But you need to understand that maybe he just wasn't comfortable telling you."

"But we're friends," Rose protested.

"Yeah, and do you tell us everything?" Rhea urged.

"Well, no, of course not."

"So, then, don't get pissed because the Doctor decided to keep this one thing about himself from you."

Rose snorted. "You say that like it's something small."

"If you knew the Doctor as well as you say you do, then you'd know that his face has nothing to do with who he is as a person," Rhea said, solemnly. She nudged Rose in the side, lightly. "Look, this came as a shock. The Doctor will wake up and you'll get used to it and everything will be fine."

Rose nodded, wiping at her tears. She looked at her mother, who had just been watching in uncertain silence.

"The big question is... where'd you get a pair of men's pyjamas from?" Rose asked her mother, curiously.

Jackie turned away. "Howard's been staying over," she said, casually.

Rose started. "What, Howard from the market? How long's that been going on?" she demanded.

"A month or so. First of all, he starts delivering to the door and I thought, 'that's a bit odd'. Next thing you know, it's a bag of oranges-"

While Jackie was talking, Rose found herself distracted by the broadcast on the TV in the other room.

"Is that Harriet Jones?!" Rose exclaimed, leaving the kitchen and entering the living room.

Jackie scowled at her daughter's inattention. "Oh, never mind me…" she muttered, trailing off.

Rhea laughed. "Don't feel so bad, Jackie. She'll get over herself one day."

She followed Rose into the living room.

"Why's she on the telly?" Rose looked at her mother.

"She's Prime Minister now. I'm eighteen quid a week better off," Jackie said, lightly. "They're calling it 'Britain's Golden Age'. Keep on saying "my Rose has met her"."

Rose snorted. "Did more than that. Stopped World War Three with her. Harriet Jones..."

"Harriet Jones, what about those calling the Guinevere One Space Probe a waste of money?"

"Now, that's where you're wrong. I completely disagree if you don't mind."

Rose laughed.

"The Guinevere One Space Probe represents this country's limitless ambition. British workmanship sailing up there among the stars."

"This is the spirit of Christmas, birth and rejoicing, and the dawn of a new age, and that is what we're achieving fifteen million miles away. Our very own miracle."

Rose and Rhea could see a computerised image of the probe zooming from the Earth.

"The unmanned probe Guinevere One is about to make its final descent. Photographs of the Martian Landscape should be received by midnight tonight."

It wasn't long before Rose had left with Mickey for Christmas shopping that the two came running back in, Rose shouting her name. Rhea frowned and jumped up from the Doctor's bedside and went out into the open part of the apartment, where Rose and Mickey were jumping on her feet in their urgency. When they saw her, Rose and Mickey rushed over to her.

"The Santas," Rose tugged at Rhea's wrist. "They're trying to kill us."

Rhea stared at her for a moment. "Are you feeling okay? Have you been drinking?"

Rose shook her head. "What, no? Of course not. The Santas, they're trying to kill us. They want the Doctor. We have to leave. Now."

"Okay, slow down for a moment," Rhea urged. "The Santas. What did they do?"

"They were these robots, out in the street. They just started shooting at people," Rose explained, hurriedly. "They came after us, but why would they want us? Except, you know, for the guy who's currently laid up in my flat."

Rhea frowned. She was suddenly drifting to that first time she had met Donna, when she, Donna and the Doctor had been attacked by Santa robots at her wedding reception.

"They're pilot fish," Rhea recalled what the Doctor had told her then. "They're scavengers who take anything on a planet that's of value before the big threat arrives."

"So, there's a big threat coming then?" Mickey pushed.

Rhea gritted her teeth. "I'm going to say yes."

"What do we do, Rhea?" Rose asked, worriedly.

"We leave," Rhea said, grimly. "We're leaving now. We take the Doctor and head for the TARDIS."

"And do what?" Mickey asked. "If something else is coming, we can't just wait around-"

"If whatever's coming gets their hands on the Doctor, it won't matter because we'll all be dead anyway," Rhea said, pointedly.

Jackie finally entered the living room, chatting animatedly on the phone.

Rose scowled at her. "Get off the phone!" she snapped.

Jackie gave her a chiding look. "It's only Bev! She says hello."

Rose rolled her eyes and pulled the phone away from her mother. "Bev? Yeah, look, it'll have to wait." She hung up the phone, unceremoniously. "So, we take the Doctor, then?"

"Let's do this," Rhea said, firmly.

"It's Christmas Eve!" Jackie exclaimed. "We're not going anywhere! What're you babbling about?"

"Mum-"

"Uh, excuse me?" Rhea interjected, her attention caught by the tree in the corner of the room.

"What?" Rose looked at her, questioningly. "What's going on?"

"Has that tree always been there?"

Jackie crossed her arms over her chest. "What are you on about? It's always been there."

Rhea shook her head. "It was white before. Not green."

Rose nodded in agreement. "That's a new tree. Where'd you get it?"

Jackie blinked. "Well, I thought it was you!" she protested.

Rose rounded on her. "How can it be me?"

Jackie threw her hands up in the air. "Well, you went shopping, there was a ring at the door, and there it was!"

Rose shook her head, slowly. "No, that wasn't me."

"Okay, enough," Rhea snapped. "If we've established that neither of you bought that tree, can we assume that it's not a good thing and get the fuck out of here?"

"What do you mean?" Jackie asked, baffled, looking at Rhea as if she were mental. "It's just a Christmas tree, isn't it?"

Rhea shook her head. "Christmas trees kill."

As if waiting for Rhea to say that, the tree lit up. Rose pulled her mother behind her.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Rose moaned.

The tree started to spin, slowly at first and then it began to gain speed. Jackie screamed as the Christmas tree hurtled towards them in a pirouette, reducing the coffee table into firewood within seconds.

"Shit," Mickey hissed. "Go, go, go! Get out!" he shouted.

Rhea, Rose and Jackie ran from the room, while Mickey picked up a chair and held it front of him as a shield. Jackie unlocked the front door, while Rhea and Rose stormed into the bedroom where the Doctor was lying, still dead to the world.

"What are you two doing?" Jackie shrieked. "We have to get out of here?"

"We've got to save the Doctor!" Rose protested.

"Are you insane?!"

"We can't just leave him!"

"Mickey!" Jackie screamed.

The chair that Mickey was holding didn't do much to help him as the Christmas tree chopped up the legs of the chair as if it were made of paper.

"Leave it! Get out! Get out!"

Mickey bravely stood his ground.

"Mickey! Get out of there!"

Finally, Mickey admitted defeat and joined Rhea and Rose in the Doctor's room, helping the two women pull the Time Lord from the bed.

"Just leave him!" Jackie urged.

Rhea gritted her teeth, hearing the sound of the Christmas tree coming for them. Like hell.

"Get in here!" Mickey shouted, urgently.

Frustrated and unable to leave on her own, Jackie ran into the bedroom and slammed the door shut. The Christmas tree managed to smash through a pane of glass, but Mickey and Jackie slid a wardrobe in front of the door, while Rhea crouched over the Doctor's motionless form.

"Doctor, please, we need you to wake up!" she shook his shoulders.

The tree spun towards the room, and Mickey and Jackie leaned against the wardrobe. Rhea cursed something under her breath and took the sonic screwdriver from the Doctor's leather jacket that they had taken off him while changing him into the pyjamas Jackie had lent them. She thumbed the sonic screwdriver, gazing at it intently, as if it held all the secrets to the universe within it. She had seen the Doctor use the device a thousand times in a thousand different ways but looking at it now made her want to hit herself for not bothering to learn how to use it herself.

Especially seeing as today she may actually need it to save all of their lives, and she was powerless.

The Christmas tree finally smashed through the wardrobe, and Mickey and Jackie were thrown backwards. Jackie cowered against the wall.

"I'm gonna get killed by a Christmas tree!" Jackie's voice squeaked, comically.

Rhea kneeled by the Doctor's head, her lips almost pressed close to the Doctor's ear.

"Help me," she murmured.

When Rhea drew back slightly, the Doctor lunged up to his waist, snatching the sonic screwdriver from Rhea effortlessly and pointing it at the tree, which exploded. The Doctor finally lowered the sonic screwdriver.

"Remote control," the Doctor commented. "But who's controlling it?"

He got out of the bed, completely missing the puzzled looks of the humans gathered in the bedroom. He proceeded to go out onto the balcony, securing a dressing gown around him, and Rhea, Rose, Jackie and Mickey followed him, hoping that he'd be able to explain at least some of what was going on. Outside, on the ground outside the Tyler's flat, were three of the robotic Santas that had attacked Rose and Mickey in the streets.

"That's them. What are they?" Mickey asked, curiously.

Rose quickly hushed them, looking at the Doctor, who raised his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the Santas threateningly. They all backed away, huddling together, before teleporting themselves away.

"They've just gone! What kind of rubbish were they? I mean, no offence, but they're not much cop if a sonic screwdriver's gonna scare them off," Mickey commented, dryly.

"Pilot fish," Rhea answered for the Doctor, and he looked at her with surprise. "I've seen them before." She waved him off.

"So, what are they?" Rose looked at the Doctor and Rhea.

The Doctor coughed and threw himself backwards against the wall, clutching at himself in pain. Rhea leapt and knelt beside the Doctor, who was curled in a ball on the floor.

"What's wrong?!" Rose called out, panicking and kneeling beside them.

The Doctor looked up at Rhea, panting as if there were something in his lungs that was making it hard for him to breathe.

"You woke me up too soon," the Doctor wheezed. "I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." He coughed out a wisp of golden energy. "You see? The Pilot Fish could smell it. A million miles away. So, they eliminate the defence – that's you lot – and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on me for a couple of year-"

He lurched forwards, groaning.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Jackie exclaimed.

"My head!" The Doctor gritted out, his head sagging against Rhea's shoulder. "Rhea, my head."

"I know, baby," Rhea soothed, cupping the nape of his neck with a warm palm.

"I'm having a neuron implosion. I need-"

Jackie was immediately alarmed, kneeling in front of the Doctor with a cloying concern that only Rose's mother could show.

"What do you need?" Jackie asked, frantically.

"I need-"

"Say it, tell me, tell me-" Jackie urged.

"I need-"

"Painkillers?"

"I need-"

"Do you need aspirin?"

"I-"

"Codeine? Paracetamol? Oh, I dunno- Pepto-Bismol?"

"I need-"

"Liquid paraffin. Vitamin C? Vitamin D? Vitamin E?"

"I need-"

Jackie's voice rose, hysterically, as her panic caught up to her. "Is it food? Something simple? Uh, a bowl of soup? A nice bowl of soup? Soup and a sandwich? Soup and a little ham sandwich?"

"I need you to shut up," the Doctor hissed.

Rhea cuffed him on the head and the Doctor growled at her, as if he wanted to snap at her fingers with his teeth.

"Oh, don't start with me. You're being mean," Rhea snapped.

"I'm sick!" the Doctor protested.

"Yeah, and you're being a jerk. They're not mutually exclusive." Rhea narrowed her eyes. "She's being nice to you. Show some appreciation."

The Doctor glowered at her but leaned into her touch when Rhea resumed plying at the muscles at the back of her neck.

Jackie muttered something unsavoury under her breath. "Oh, he hasn't changed that much, has he?"

The Doctor lurched forwards again and leaned against the opposite wall, while Jackie made sounds of sympathy.

"We haven't got much time. If there's Pilot Fish, then-" the Doctor panted and then frowned, taking an apple out of his dressing gown pocket. "Why's there an apple in my dressing gown?"

Jackie flushed, and the red showed on her cheeks. "Oh, that's Howard, sorry."

"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?" the Doctor wondered out loud.

Jackie shrugged. "He gets hungry."

The Doctor looked at the apple, confusedly. "What, he gets hungry in his sleep?"

"Sometimes," Jackie offered.

"Excuse me, can we please discuss Jackie's boyfriend's nutritional idiosyncrasies another time?" Rhea snapped, impatiently.

"Hey!" Jackie objected, loudly. "Howard's not my boyfriend."

The Doctor suddenly shouted with pain again and sank to the floor, grimacing.

"Brain… collapsing…" the Doctor grabbed at Rhea's upper arms, holding them tightly. The words came out all broken and tight, as if he couldn't actually bring up the effort to speak. "P-the Pilot Fish. The Pilot Fish mean... that something-something-" He took a deep breath, mustering whatever remnants of energy he could spare to say what he needed to say. "Something's coming."

He then collapsed directly into Rhea's lap.

Rhea and Rose, along with Mickey's help, hoisted the Doctor between them and dragged him back to the bedroom, where they put him back inside the bed, tucking the covers around him. Rose, for one, was almost amused to see Rhea, fierce, gunslinger Rhea, gently brushing the Doctor's forehead with a damp towel with a sort of affection and concern that seemed odd for someone like Rhea.

While Rose was observing the Doctor and Rhea together, Mickey passed her by, holding a laptop, and he caught her eye, nodding when he saw the assent in her eyes. He set up the laptop in the living room, looking over the back of the couch towards the kitchen, where Jackie was busying herself with cups of tea.

"Jackie, I'm using the phone line. Is that all right?" he asked.

"Yeah. Keep a count of it." Jackie dropped a cup of tea beside Mickey. "It's midnight. Christmas day," she mused.

Rhea came out of the bedroom, followed by Rose, and they sat down on the sofa. Jackie handed both girls a cup of tea.

"Any change?"

Rhea shook her head, looking much older than her twenty-eight years of age. "He's worse. Just one heart beating."

Jackie sighed and slumped in her own chair.

"Scientists in charge of Britain's mission to Mars have re-established contact with the Guinevere One space probe. They're expecting the first transmission from the planet's surface in the next few minutes."

"Yes, we are. We're-we're back on schedule. We've received the signal from Guinevere One. The Mars landing would seem to be an unqualified success."

"But is it true that you completely lost contact earlier tonight?"

"Yes, we had a bit of a scare. Guinevere seemed to fall off the scope, but it-it was just a blip. Only disappeared for a few seconds. She's fine now, absolutely fine. We-we're getting the first pictures transmitted live any minute now. I'd better get back to it, thanks."

The man at the podium left the conference.

Mickey stared at what he had managed to find on the Internet. "Here we go, Pilot Fish." Rose got up to look, going around the back of the couch. "Scavengers, like the Doctor said. Harmless, they're tiny, but the point is, the little fish swim alongside the big fish."

Rose frowned. "Do you mean like sharks?"

"Great big sharks. So, what the Doctor means is, we had them... now we get that." Mickey gestured to an animation of a shark on the screen, which snapped viciously at them.

"I told you, something's coming," Rhea sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"How close do you think?" Rose looked at Rhea and Mickey worriedly

Rhea grimaced. "If they're already attacking us, they can't be that far away."

"So, it's close?"

Jackie frowned at the image on the TV. "Funny sort of rocks."

Rhea looked at the television screen and slid to her feet, slowly. "Those aren't rocks."

The image on the television slowly became clearer and both Rhea and Rose edged towards it, squinting at what could be seen.

"... coming live from the depths of space on Christmas morning."

The image was suddenly thrown into clarity, revealing a skeletal-looking alien, which roared viciously at them. Taken off guard, Jackie, Mickey and Rose gasped and jumped backwards.

"The face of an alien life form was transmitted live tonight on BBC1."

"On the 25th of December, the human race has been shown absolute proof that alien life exists."

"These remarkable images have been relayed right across the world."

Rhea and Rose were sitting on the sofa, watching the TV intently for any sign of new information that could help them, when Mickey's voice reached their ears and they turned around.

"Rhea. Rose," Mickey called out.

The two women rushed over to him, where he sat in front of his laptop. Rose perched herself on the edge of his chair, while Rhea crouched beside him.

"Take a look, I've got access to the military," Mickey told them. "They're tracking a spaceship. It's big, it's fast, and it's coming this way."

"Coming for what, though? The Doctor?" Rose wondered.

"I imagine that it's coming for all of us," Rhea mused.

An image of four of those aliens came onto the screen and they began to speak in a language that neither Rhea or Rose understood.

Mickey looked at them. "Have you seen them before?"

Rose shook her head, dully. "No. Rhea, you?"

"Never," Rhea conceded.

"But why can't we understand them? The TARDIS should translate their language for us," Rose said, pointedly.

"Well, the TARDIS is connected to the Doctor, telepathically, I mean. If the Doctor's not well, it makes sense that the TARDIS isn't working either," Rhea explained, wearily.

The aliens continued to speak.

"Despite claims of an alien hoax, it's been reported that NATO forces are on red alert."

In the bedroom, Jackie sat beside the restless Doctor.

"Oh, come on, sweetheart," she said, gently. "What do you need? What is it you need, tell me..."

"Speaking strictly off the record, government sources are calling this our longest night."

In the bedroom, Jackie had fallen asleep beside the Doctor, her head on a pillow right beside him. Rhea stood in the doorway, watching the pair of them, resting her head back against the doorframe, as she willed her headache away. Rose joined her, watching the Doctor just lie there for a moment, before turning away in a huff.

"The Doctor wouldn't do this. The old Doctor. The proper Doctor. He'd wake up. He'd save us," Rose insisted, her voice shaking slightly.

Rhea rounded on her. "Don't. I mean it. I'm not in the fucking mood for your tantrums, Rose." Her voice was sharp with warning. "He needs rest, not judgment. If you can't deal with that right now, go away, or tell us to leave and I'll take him somewhere where he'll be safe. Alright?"

Rose opened her mouth to say something, either to retort or apologise, but Rhea had already turned away and her attention was already stolen by the Doctor all over again.

Rhea was sitting on the floor, beside the Doctor's bed, with her arms curled around her knees, when she heard the sound of panicked voices coming from outside. Rhea frowned and jumped to her feet, going out into the apartment, where on the balcony of all of the flats, a woman was pursuing a man who is under some influence.

"What is wrong with you? Jason? Jason?"

Rose, Mickey and Rhea popped their heads out of Jackie's flat.

"Sandra?" Rose called out.

The woman, Sandra, turned around, looking at them with frightened eyes. "He won't listen! He's just walking, he won't stop walking!" She stared after her partner. "There's this sort of... light, thing. Jason? Stop it!"

Rhea took a step outside, followed by Rose and Mickey.

"Right now!"

When Rhea looked out over the balcony, she could see dozens of people hypnotised by a blue light on the ground below. All of the people under the trance walked up the stairs going up the side of the flats, not stopping until they made their way to the terrace of the building, continuing until they reached the edge of the building. People were screaming and pleading with them, trying to hold them back before one step pushed them over the edge, but either they couldn't hear them, or they didn't want to hear them.

"Jason, I'm talking to you! Just stop!"

But Rhea frowned, seeing that while all of the hypnotised people had reached the edge, they were just standing there, as if they were waiting for some sort of signal.

"That's strange," she muttered.

"Yeah, I mean, it's not every day that a bunch of people walk up to the edge of a building and just stand there, ready to jump," Mickey scoffed.

"No," Rhea shook her head. "Why aren't they jumping?"

Mickey looked at her, scandalised. "You're worried they're not jumping?" he demanded.

"What are they waiting for?" Rhea said, frustrated. "If these aliens are trying to make a point, they're doing it by holding these peoples' lives at ransom."

"So, what do we do?" Mickey looked at them, helplessly.

Rhea opened her mouth to say something but found herself lost for words.

She didn't have a plan.

She didn't have anything to offer here.

This was beyond her wheelhouse.

"Nothing," Rose replied for her. "There's no-one to save us. Not anymore."

On the television, Harriet Jones sat at the desk, broadcasting a speech on national television. Her hands were clasped in front of her and she looked as if she had aged ten years in the span of a night.

"Ladies and gentlemen... if I may take a moment during this terrible time. It's hardly the Queen's speech, I'm afraid that's been cancelled." Harriet turned her head to the side, addressing someone who was off-camera. "Did we ask about the royal family?" She waited for a reply and nodded. "Oh. They're on the roof. But, ladies and gentlemen, this crisis is unique, and I'm afraid to say, it might get much worse. I would ask you all to remain calm. But I have one request: Doctor. If you're out there... we need you."

Rhea took a deep breath and it felt like something had failed inside her.

"I don't know what to do. But if you can hear me, Doctor... If anyone knows the Doctor, if anyone can find him... the situation has never been more desperate."

Rhea jumped to her feet and stormed over to the Doctor's room.

"Help us. Please, Doctor. Help us."

Behind her, she could hear Rose start sobbing into Jackie's arms like a child as the hopelessness finally consumed her.

"He's gone. The Doctor's gone. He's left us, mum. He's left us, mum..."

"It's all right... I'm sorry..." Jackie soothed, brushing back Rose's hair.

For not the first time since she had started travelling with the Doctor, Rhea wished her own mother was here.

At that moment, the windows caved in, showering the floor with glass, as the ground shook violently.

A/N: Okay, I don't really have much to say about this chapter. I know a lot happened in the beginning, but I also felt like that was a conversation that needed to happen between the two of them before they settled into any of the kinky stuff.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter and don't forget to review!

Reviews:

mrs Tall Blonde and Dead: Thank you!

Purplestan: Thank you so much!

NicoleR85: I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

lautaro94: I don't know how you perceived an insult to Susan, but okay. And if we were going for canon, well, this fic wouldn't be here. They're in the books and that's enough for me.

Kore353: Thank you!

deathb4beauty: Thank you!

chrisxgirlx: Thank you so much! Honestly, it hasn't been explained yet, but when I write up the chapter where I say everything that was going to happen, that will all be explained!