The Ones That Ran Away (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Born Again

~10~

Okay so this was super weird. Like super-duper weird.

The skinny, young, brunette man dashed around the console flicking switches and every so often checking the monitor as if he had been driving the TARDIS his entire life.

Well, according to him...he had.

"6 PM... Tuesday..." the man, the Doctor mumbled to himself. "October... 5006... On the way to Barcelona!"

He turned to Rose and me grinning as if he was extremely pleased with himself.

He was so...not like the Doctor. My Doctor.

"Now then... what do I look like?" he asked us. Rose and I exchanged a look but before either of us could answer he spoke again holding his hands up to stop us. "No, no no, no no no no no no no. No. Don't tell me." I rose my eyebrows. Who was this man? "Let's see... two legs, two arms, two hands..." he circled his wrists, inspecting them "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle." The dorsa- what? His hands quickly flew to his head "Hair! I'm not bald!" he ran his hands through his hair gleefully. "Oh, Oh! Big hair!"

A small smile crept onto my face. What? His grin was infectious okay? He started to feel the sides of his face "Sideburns, I've got sideburns! Or really bad skin. Little bit thinner..." he murmured slapping his stomach lightly. "That's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it."

"Ah!" he called out suddenly, causing me to jump back at the outburst. "I... have got... a mole. I can feel it." He moved his shoulders. "Between my shoulder blades, there's a mole." I could hear Rose's heavy breathing from behind me. She was freaking out.

Hell, I was freaking out! This was way beyond the realm of normal. How is it even possible to change your face?!

The man grin at us. "That's all right. Love the mole." He then pulled his whole attention to us, straightening up, his hair in a disarray. "Go on then, tell me. What do you think?"

I opened my mouth but I couldn't speak. "Who are you?" the words hadn't left my mouth but Rose's.

The young man's fell, all happiness swapped for surprise and sorrow. "I'm the Doctor."

I turned to see Rose shaking her head. "No... Where is he? Where's the Doctor?" Her voice started to rise. "What have you done to him?"

The man's eyes seemed to plead with her "You saw me, I, I changed..."he gestured over to where he had transformed moments before. "... right in front of you."

"I saw him sort of explode, and then you replaced him, like a... a teleport or a transmat or a body swap or something!" Rose took a few steps towards him, he seemed to be lost for words. Once she was at arm's length she pushed him in the chest. "You're not fooling me."

The man rocked back on his heels. The look in his eyes as he glanced between Rose and I caused me to step towards them "Rose" I started "I don't think..."

But Rose ignored me. "I've seen all sorts of things. Nano genes... Gelth... (Looks darkly at him). Slitheen..." the man raised his eyebrows., causing Rose to gasp "Oh, my God, are you a Slitheen?"

"I'm not a Slitheen." He spoke calmly. He kept glancing over at me, as if he was trying to gauge my reaction to the situation.

Rose's voice started to rise to a shout. "Send him back. I'm warning you; send the Doctor back right now!"

"Rose" he pleaded "It's me." He turned to me, forlorn "Nina, please, you know it's me, don't you? You know I'm the Doctor."

I just shrugged, unable to say anything.