Dancing Across Time (Book Two of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Interlude: The End of the Three Days

The Doctor's eyes widened, and he leaned back against the sink in shock. "What?" he shouted in disbelief.

The TARDIS hummed in his mind, sounding happy. "It worked."

"What worked?!"

He ran over to the monitors, double checking them before shaking his head and looking up at the ceiling. "What have you done?" he demanded.

"Forever was promised. And now she has it."

"You brought her back," he whispered. "And the two heartbeats. But that means . . . " He slowly turned to take another look at Jessie. Her skin was definitely coloring again. But worse, he saw the white gold energy rushing up under her skin. "She's regenerating."

Jessie's eyes snapped open at that moment, and she let out a sharp cry. The Doctor winced when he heard it, and he ran over to her. "Jessie!"

"Doctor!" she cried out, sitting up, clutching at her head. "Oh my God, my head!"

"What have you done?" he demanded again, looking around at the TARDIS.

The TARDIS hummed. "It is done."

Jessie looked at the Doctor, her eyes wide in shock. "Doctor, why do I have two heartbeats?" she demanded. "Doctor, how am I still alive?"

"You were dead," he managed to say, looking at her with as much surprise as she was looking at him. "You were dead for three days."

Her eyes widened. "Oh my God."

"The TARDIS brought you back somehow," the Doctor continued, swallowing and taking one of her hands and holding it up for her to see. "Those beats you feel? Two hearts."

Jessie took in the white gold swirling under her skin, and she looked at the Doctor slowly. "But that means - "

The Doctor nodded, still trying to adjust to the thought himself. "Yeah. You're regenerating."

A burst of energy went from her hand, and the Doctor stumbled away when it hit him. Jessie cried out in pain, her hands going to her temples. "It hurts!"

"Your body's denying it!" he guessed, staying away. "Let it go, Jess, just let it go!"

Jessie swallowed, looking at him, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw the gold swirling in her eyes. "My Doctor," she whispered in a reverberating voice.

"No," he whispered. "That's not possible! I took it out of you!"

"Yes, you did," the TARDIS agreed. "And I put it back in."

Jessie let out one final scream before her body exploded with the white and gold energy. The Doctor ducked down when the energy rushed towards him, throwing an arm up over his eyes against the burning bright light.

When it faded, an entirely different woman had stumbled back into the bed. His eyes widened in shock when he took in the blond-haired woman, her hair straggly and at least halfway down her back. Her eyes flickered around the room, and instead of the warm, almost whiskey color they had been before, they were now a sapphire coloring. She took a deep breath and looked at the Doctor. "What the hell was that?" she asked -

In a completely different voice.

His jaw dropped in astonishment, and her own eyes widened. "Australian," she said blankly, looking down at herself in surprise. "I sound Australian."

"Wow," was all the Doctor could say.

Jessie took a deep breath and looked back up. "OK," she said slowly. "I'm completely different. And I feel two heartbeats. So . . . what does that make me?"