Out There ✿ The Doctor [1]

Epilogue

Fantastic

"What happened?" Avery asks, her head pounding as she wakes up to Rose kneeling beside her worriedly and the Doctor leaning against the console.

"Don't you remember?" The Doctor asks.

"There was this singing." Avery breathes as Rose helps her sit up.

"That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away." The Doctor joked.

"I was at home..." Rose shook her head at Avery's response and Avery blinked a few times as she tried to gather her scattered thoughts, "No, I wasn't, I was in the Tardis, and there was this light. I can't remember anything else"

The Doctor turns his attention to his hand as his veins glow with regeneration energy for a moment before he looks at the Tyler sisters, Avery still on the floor as Rose supports her gently. "Rose and Avery Tyler." He's says, chuckling lightly, "I was going take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses." Avery and Rose smile as he laughed, "Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny."

"Then, why can't we go?" Rose questions.

"Maybe you will, and maybe I will. But not like this."

Avery's smile falls as she realizes what he was talking about. She knew that one day she would have to deal with the Doctor regenerating but she had never imagined it would be so soon.

"You're not making sense." Rose tells him as she helps Avery to her feet.

"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads, or no head." He laughs at the thought while Avery smiles sadly and Rose nods, giving him a look as if he'd gone mad, "Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement." He looks down for a moment before continuing. "But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with" The Doctor doubles over in pain, his whole body lighting up for a moment.

"Doctor!" Rose exclaims, moving towards him only for Avery to pull her back.

"Stay away!" The Doctor commands.

"Doctor, tell me what's going on." Rose demands.

"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that." He grunts in pain before looking back at them, "Every cell in my body's dying."

"Can't you do something?"

"Yeah, I'm doing it now." The Doctor tells her, "Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death." He takes a moment as his body is racked with pain before continuing, "Except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face." He looks down before looking back up to them, "And before I go—"

"Don't say that." Rose protests.

"Avery, Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic." He smiled at them sadly, "Absolutely fantastic." He took a moment to really look at Avery's face one more time as she gives him a soft smile and a supportive nod before he finishes, "And do you know what? So was I."

He offers them one last grin before golden light bursts out of the Doctor's body. Rose and Avery stumble back, covering their eyes from the light until it suddenly stops just as it began. His hair was longer and he was younger and just altogether looked different. Rose holds onto Avery, completely stunned. "Hello. Okay." The Doctor says, now speaking in a south London accent rather than the northern one they were used to, before stopping to run his tongue along his teeth and muttering, "New teeth. That's weird." He looks away for a moment in thought, "So, where was I?" He then looks up at this with a grin, "Oh, that's right. Barcelona." Avery can't help but smile back at him.