Life after regeneration

Chapter 1

Rose never gets back, the events of 'Journey's end' only briefly happened for her and there is no clone Doctor.

He made his way back to the Tardis, the Ood singing to him as he staggered across the courtyard, the same courtyard he'd walked across numerous times when entering and leaving Rose's flat, the same courtyard in his last regeneration, they'd been in the spotlight and 'escorted' to Downing Street and the same courtyard they had watched the fallout from the Sycorax ship and he'd held her hand and she'd asked if he still wanted her to travel with him.

He'd just seen her, with these eyes for the last time, minutes ago and she'd laughed and said "See ya!" after he'd asked the year and told her it was gonna be great.  It had been, 2005 had been the best year he'd spend on earth, he'd been lucky she'd wanted to stay with him when the year turned and became 2006, then he had lost her.  He was alone, he'd got his reward, seeing the love of his lives for the last time and he would never see her again because he had broken the rules and gone back in her personal time line but he didn't care.

She couldn't know who he was and hopefully, she'd never remember him calling out from the shadows and once he changed, he'd have to move forward and forget just like he always did but not the last time, because she had been with him when he changed but she was gone anyway, there was no more need to go back.  He reached the Tardis door, fumbling for the key, he had to get inside though he supposed he could just regenerate in the snow but he'd no idea what was going to happen. 

The radiation was taking it's toll, he'd no idea in actual time how long it had been, going to visit all the people who had mattered to him in this regeneration.  He threw his coat over one of the struts, it had driven Rose crazy when he did it and he stepped up to the time rotor and put the Tardis into flight, just above the earth.  Looking down at his hands, the regeneration energy was beginning to show, something he'd managed to hold back but no more.

A million thoughts were going through his mind.  What happened to all his past regenerations?  Had they somehow lived on?  He had to believe it was possible and not like he'd told Wilf, that some new man goes sauntering away and he'd be dead, what was the point in that?  Just living a few years in a body and not even getting to live as long as a human without hiding away and keeping out of trouble?  

This was it, he could feel it as he stood in front of the console, his arms outstretched, the process was beginning, a new man would emerge when it was all over, it was legend that a Timelord could choose their appearance but his time was running out.  He could hear whispering, the Tardis was communicating with him.

"What do you want Doctor?" the ship asked him.

He could feel the last of his old self draining away, the longer he resisted, the worse it would be and he'd already held it back longer than he should have done.

"Take me to Rose, please, I don't care how, just take me to Rose."

The ship knew how much he'd loved his little companion, she had done him a lot of good and he'd never given up on seeing her again right up until the end so if anyone deserved to live on, he did.  She was quite pleased with herself, some of the past Doctors had conveyed to her as they regenerated what they wished they could have done and she'd had it in her power to grant it.  In his fourth regeneration, he'd expressed the wish to be an art curator and in his fifth, a famous cricketer back in the 1920's.