Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. This is a fanfiction with no profit being made from it.
Author's Note: There have always been a few things I've want to change with the endings to some Doctor Who stories. In this case it was the ending of the The Star Beast and the fate of the Metacrisis-Doctor. So this is my attempt.

The Star Beast – Alternative Ending

The Doctor appeared unimpressed, already moving on to other matters. Curiosity did get the better of him, briefly.

"Which is?"

"A creature with two hearts is such a rare thing. Just wait till I tell... the Boss."

At that point the Wrarth Warriors completed their preparations and teleported themselves and their prisoner away.

The Doctor stood motionless for a moment, staring at the space where the Meep had vanished. The warning lingered in his mind. Not because he feared the Meep. The little psychopath would be spending a very long time in Wrarth custody.

No, it was the other part that bothered him.

The Boss.

He had heard that title before. He didn't know where. It had been a passing remark during one of his little side trips. Sometime before the whole body switching thing with the Master. But it was recent, too recent. The feeling nagged at him, like a word stuck on the tip of his tongue. Then it slipped away. There were more immediate concerns.

"Cryptic," he muttered. "I hate cryptic."

He turned towards Donna and Rose. Both were watching him with identical expressions. That alone was unsettling.

"But we've still got to fix you two," he continued. "Because the metacrisis might have slowed down, but that thing is still wrapped around your cortex."

"Yes, we know," Donna replied.

Of course she knew.

At the moment she possessed almost everything he knew. Centuries of accumulated knowledge sat inside her head alongside her own thoughts. The only things she lacked were experiences he had gained since he last travelled with her. It was an impossible situation.

Rose grinned at him. Not a hint of awe or fear. She knew him, despite only meeting him a few hours ago. She looked at him as if she had known him all her life.

"We know everything, thanks."

"And you know nothing," Donna added.

The Doctor sighed. There it was. He had missed that. Just a little.

Donna folded her arms. "It's a shame you're not a woman anymore. She'd have understood."

"I understand perfectly without being a woman."

"No you don't."

"I do."

Donna looked at Rose. "See? Doesn't understand."

Rose nodded solemnly. "Definitely doesn't understand."

The Doctor groaned. "Could somebody explain the thing I apparently don't understand?"

The two women exchanged a glance. Then Rose spoke.

"We've got all that power. All that knowledge. Of course we know how to get rid of it."

"Even you know how to get rid of it," Donna continued. "But it's something a Time Lord would never understand because it is something a Time Lord could never do."

The Doctor frowned. "Oh, that's encouraging."

Donna stepped closer. "Because deep down it's something you're too scared to do. And because of that you have no idea what it could be."

The Doctor opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

Donna smirked. "Exactly."

Rose picked up where her mother left off. "It's letting go."

The Doctor blinked. "What?"

"Letting go."

Donna nodded. "Giving something up. Walking away. Accepting that something has to end."

The Doctor looked between them. "I've done that."

"Really?" Donna asked.

"Yes."

"When?"

The Doctor considered the question. His expression became less certain.

Donna raised an eyebrow. "Still waiting."

"I let Sarah Jane go."

"Because you had to."

"I left Rose."

"You trapped her in another universe."

"Technicality."

Donna shook her head. "You cling to things."

The Doctor's expression softened. "I care about people."

"You do."

"You make that sound like a flaw."

"It isn't." Donna stepped closer. "It's one of your best qualities."

The humour vanished from her voice.

"But sometimes you hold on because you're afraid to let go."

Silence settled between them and The Doctor knew she was right. He hated that she was right. Because he could think of dozens of examples.

Companions.

Friends.

Entire civilisations.

The Time Lords.

Gallifrey.

Even now he still found himself looking backwards despite telling himself that he could only continue on. No matter how he pretended that he would be left alone and would need to walk forward, he still found himself trying to fix things that had already happened. He still carried the ghosts, regrets from his past.

Rose smiled gently. "And that's why you'll never think of the obvious solution."

The Doctor frowned. "What obvious solution?"

Donna reached for her daughter's hand. "We let it go."

The Doctor froze. For a moment he simply stared. Then understanding hit him.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Doctor--"

"No!"

His voice echoed around the building. Everyone jumped.

Donna stared. The Doctor rarely shouted at her. The rare occasions when he did usually meant something serious.

"You can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because that knowledge--"

"Will disappear."

"No, it won't!"

Donna looked baffled.

The Doctor began pacing. "That metacrisis is not just knowledge. It's power. Raw psychic energy bound within words and numbers. That's the power of a Time Lord's mind. It's so much more than simple knowledge." He ran a hand through his hair. "It won't just disappear. It wants to be known. And if you let it go it will find someone who will use it. And that sort of power in the wrong hand is bad news."

He paused, calming down as he seemed to see where such a declaration would take him. "But, we can't let you keep it. It'll kill you... both. And no matter what threat it might pose, it's never worth a life. That price would be too high."

But what to do? The metacrisis couldn't stay within Donna and Rose, but they could just let it go. There was a solution here. There had to be. His mind raced through possibilities.

Memory extraction? He lacked the technology, although with a few centuries he imaged he could modify the Chameleon Arch.

Neural partitioning? Too much chance of accidentally lobotomising them.

Matrix storage? He wasn't certain he could even survive on Gallifrey long enough to access the Matrix now.

Biodata transfer? It would never work given how integrated the metacrisis had become.

Psychic crystallisation? He almost laughed at that one. No, nothing worked.

Everything ended with the same problem. Too much information. Too much power. Too much... Time Lord.

Then suddenly-- He stopped. Absolutely stopped. The idea arrived fully formed. An impossible, ridiculous, incredibly dangerous, and somehow brilliant idea. His eyes widened, a grin threatening to break out.

Donna immediately recognised that expression. "Oh no."

The Doctor pointed at her as his mind raced with thousands of calculations a second. Could he do it? Not alone. But with Donna and Rose working with him, he bet he could manage it. Assuming they could keep the metacrisis contained for the short time they needed to calculate the answer. It would be like working with his other selves at the end of the Time War. The calculations would take centuries normally, but Donna and her daughter in their current state could process data much faster than the average Time Lord... while risking burning out their minds in the process.

"Oh yes!" he said finally, confidently.

"What have you thought of?"

The Doctor was already grinning. A manic grin. The sort of grin that usually preceded explosions. Or temporal disasters. Or both.

"Doctor?"

His grin widened.

"Doctor..."

"Oh, that's good."

"Doctor!"

"That is very good."

Donna looked alarmed.

Rose looked curious.

The Doctor snapped his fingers. "I know what to do."

Silence.

Donna stared. "Put what?"

"The metacrisis."

The room seemed to become quieter. The Doctor's excitement grew with every passing second. Years. Years he'd been watching. Checking. Observing. Making sure. Waiting. And now-- Now it finally made sense why he had felt the need to do so. The answer had been standing in another universe all along.

He laughed. Not because it was funny. Because sometimes the universe lined up in ways so absurd that all you could do was laugh.

Donna pointed accusingly. "I know that laugh."

"Good laugh though."

"Bad laugh."

"Brilliant laugh."

"Doctor." He looked at her. The excitement was impossible to hide. "We're going to Norway."

Donna groaned. "Oh, that's never a good sign."

The Doctor was already heading towards the TARDIS.

"Trust me."

"Absolutely not." Then she said: "Tell me where we're going."

The Doctor paused in the TARDIS doorway. A smile spread across his face. "To see an old friend."

And somehow that answer worried Donna Noble more than any other.

---

Bad Wolf Bay, Another Universe

Rose Tyler still found it strange that she no longer thought of him as the other Doctor.

It had taken years.

At first every smile, every joke and every familiar gesture had reminded her of the man she had lost on this very beach. That had hardly been fair. He shared the same memories up to a point, but he wasn't the same man. He had never pretended otherwise. Over time the comparisons had faded.

Life had helped.

There had been rebuilding to do after Torchwood's mistakes. Cybermen to deal with. Alien technology to secure before somebody in government decided to weaponise it... again. Through it all he had been there, helping where he could and occasionally causing just enough trouble to keep things interesting.

The Doctor never stopped being the Doctor. Even when he was technically human. Especially when he was technically human.

The message had arrived three days earlier. A burst transmission buried inside a string of impossible energy readings. Torchwood had flagged it immediately. The Doctor had taken one look at the data and gone unusually quiet.

That was what had worried Rose. Normally he talked his way through every problem. Half his ideas seemed to form while he was speaking them aloud.This time he had simply stared at the screen. Then he had looked up.

"We need to go to Norway."

That had been the entire explanation. And so they stood on the shore of Bad Wolf Bay once again. The sea rolled gently against the rocks. Grey clouds drifted overhead. Nothing seemed very different from the last time she had been here.

At least until the TARDIS arrived. The familiar wheezing groan echoed across the bay.

Rose felt herself smile despite everything.

The blue box materialised on the sand. Its doors swung open. The Doctor stepped out first.

He looked older. Not by much. A few more lines around his eyes. Slightly different hair. Different clothes.

Still it was unmistakably him.

Donna Noble emerged behind him. Some things never changed it seemed. Even from a distance she looked ready to tell somebody exactly what she thought of them. Then a teenage girl followed. Rose had no idea who this was or why The Doctor had started travelling with children.

Her Doctor stared at the arrivals for a moment before folding his arms.

"Unable to find a barber shop in your universe?" he called.

The other Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, very funny."

"Long way to come for a shave."

Rose wasn't entirely surprised when both Doctors grinned at exactly the same time. For a moment it was like looking at a reflection. Not identical. Just familiar.

Then her Doctor's expression became more thoughtful, then suspicious. "How many?"

The Doctor sighed. "Three."

That answer seemed to make perfect sense to both of them.

"You're joking," her Doctor said. "Three? You've only been gone a few years?"

"I wish I was," The Doctor replied. "The last few centuries have been rough."

"Three more of us?" her Doctor mused.

"And that's not counting all the complicated bits."

The human Doctor stared out towards the sea. "Reality's having one of those years, isn't it?"

"Oh, catastrophically."

Donna groaned. "Can somebody explain what you're talking about?" Although she could guess. Even though he looked the same she knew The Doctor was not the same man she had travelled with previously. A part of her could sense that he was worn down, going through the motions of being the one she had travelled with.

"Not really," both Doctors answered together.

That earned matching scowls from Donna and the girl who The Doctor had at some point introduced as Rose Noble.

The Doctors looked faintly embarrassed.

"Right," said The Doctor. "Sorry."

"You should be," Donna informed him.

The human Doctor laughed. The sound faded quickly as he looked more closely at the visitors.

The Doctor seemed excited. That was nothing unusual. What worried him was the concern lurking underneath. He studied Donna. Then Rose Noble. Then the Doctor again. Something clicked and his eyes widened slightly.

"I missed it," he admitted. "With everything that happened that day, I totally missed the impossibility of a human holding the mind of a Time Lord. It's killing them, isn't it?"

The Doctor said nothing. That was answer enough.

Her Doctor looked back towards Donna and Rose Noble. Then at the Doctor. Then back again as if trying to solve a puzzle.

"There's not much time left, is there?"

The Doctor shook his head. "They were going to let it go."

The human Doctor blinked. For a second Rose could almost see him working through the implications. Then he looked horrified before blinking and looking even more horrified at himself. "And you stopped them?"

The Doctor remained silent, his stern face revealing everything the other needed to know.

"Oh, no. You wouldn't do that. You would let the universe burn before you'd let them sacrifice themselves like that."

Again silence, forcing him to work through the many possibilites just at The Doctor had done. Eventually it seemed he reached the same conclusion.

"You can't be serious. This is dangerous. Insane!"

"It was their idea."

Donna pointed at both of them. "Excuse me? We're standing right here."

Neither Doctor appeared to hear her.

The human Doctor had started pacing.Rose recognised that walk. It meant his brain was moving faster than his mouth. Usually a dangerous sign.

"You think it'll work?" he asked finally.

"I do."

"That's insane."

"Probably."

"Completely insane."

"Definitely."

A pause.

Then: "It might actually work."

The Doctor smiled. That was the answer he had hoped for.

Rose watched the two of them. For all their differences, moments like this made it obvious they were still the same person. One thought. One conclusion. No explanation required.

Finally her Doctor looked directly at him, accusingly. "You've been checking up on us."

The Doctor looked vaguely guilty. "Only occasionally. Every few centuries."

"That's not occasionally for you."

The Doctor shrugged. "I wanted to make sure. I need to be certain."

The simple honesty of the answer seemed to catch them both off guard. For a moment nobody spoke. Then the Doctor nodded towards Donna and Rose Noble and the humour vanished from his face.

"They're dying. And I don't want to lose them."

The words hung in the air. Suddenly the reason for the visit didn't seem quite so mysterious anymore.

"The metacrisis nearly killed Donna while we were heading back to Earth," The Doctor explained. "I delayed it when I took away Donna's memory. She slowed it when she had a child. But it's still there, wrapped around the cortex. And before long it will start to kill her again. Rose too if we don't act."

The human Doctor's expression hardened immediately. Whatever joke had been forming died before it reached his lips. He looked at Donna first. Then Rose Noble.

The girl tried to smile. It wasn't particularly convincing.

"How bad?" he asked

"I delayed it," he continued. "But not enough."

For a few moments nobody spoke.

The human Doctor looked at Donna.

"You've known?"

"Not at first."

"And now?"

Donna shrugged. "Now I know my head feels like somebody's trying to fit the Encyclopaedia Britannica into a thimble."

Rose Noble laughed. "That is exactly what it feels like."

The human Doctor looked back at the Doctor.

"What are the options?"

That was when Donna groaned. "Oh no."

The Doctor frowned. "What?"

"I know that look."

"What look?"

"The one where you've got a plan and you're pretending you haven't got a plan."

Rose Tyler smiled. Apparently that habit existed in every universe.

The Doctor ignored them.

"There is one possibility."

The human Doctor immediately pointed at him. "There it is."

"What?"

"That tone."

"What tone?"

"'I've had a terrible idea but I'm hoping nobody notices until it's too late' tone."

The Doctor looked mildly offended. "I do not have a tone."

"You absolutely do."

Donna nodded. "He's got the tone."

The Doctor opened his mouth to argue, then gave up. "Fine."

Rose Tyler folded her arms, sensing a need to move beyond whatever passed for Time Lord banter. "What's the plan?"

The Doctor hesitated. Not for dramatic effect. Because he genuinely wasn't sure how the idea would be received. Eventually he looked at the human Doctor.

"How have you been feeling recently?"

The question seemed to catch everyone off guard.

"Fine?"

"Anything unusual?"

"No."

"Aches? Pains? Strange dreams?"

The human Doctor narrowed his eyes. "You're doing diagnostics."

"Maybe."

"On me."

"Possibly."

"Why?"

The Doctor didn't answer immediately. That was answer enough. The human Doctor stared at him. Then laughed. A short, disbelieving laugh.

"No."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"No."

"You don't even know what I'm suggesting."

"I know exactly what you're suggesting."

"You do?"

The human Doctor pointed at Donna and Rose Noble. "You want to move it. Take it out of them and put it inside me."

The Doctor remained silent.

Rose Tyler looked between them. "What?"

The human Doctor turned towards her.

"He wants to transfer the metacrisis to me."

Now it was Donna's turn to stare. "You can do that?"

"No idea," said the Doctor.

Donna threw her hands into the air. "Brilliant."

"But theoretically--"

"Oh, we're doomed."

"--it should be possible."

The human Doctor laughed again. This time there was less humour in it.

"And you think I like this anymore than you do?" The Doctor looked at him.

The silence lasted just long enough. The human Doctor turned away, staring out across the bay. The waves rolled steadily against the shore. Rose recognised the look on his face. He was thinking. Not rejecting the idea. Thinking about it. Which was far more dangerous. After nearly a minute he looked back. "So you sacrifice me to save them?"

"You can survive it," The Doctor answered immediately.

The human Doctor frowned. "Can I? Or is this just some twisted sense of self-sacrifice?"

"You're not fully human."

"I'm mostly human."

"But you are partly Time Lord. Nowhere near completely, but just enough."

"What you're asking for is biologically impossible."

The Doctor shrugged. "Yet here you are."

That earned a reluctant smile. Then the smile faded. "There's another reason, isn't there. You've had time to think about this. You know there has to be a good chance this would work or you wouldn't try it."

Even though it meant shoving the power of a Time Lord into a body that could barely contain the power it already held.

The Doctor nodded. "Yes."

"Which is?"

For a moment the Doctor seemed oddly uncomfortable. Rose Tyler couldn't remember the last time she had seen him struggle to find words. Finally he sighed.

"Because I trust you." The human Doctor blinked as The Doctor looked away towards the sea. "When I left you here, I wasn't sure."

Nobody interrupted.

"I knew you deserved a life. I knew Rose deserved a life. But I wasn't sure about you."

The admission hung between them. Harsh. Honest.

The human Doctor said nothing.

"You were angry," the Doctor continued. "You'd just been born. You had all my worst instincts and none of my experience. Half the reason I left you here was because I was afraid of what might happen if I didn't."

Rose Tyler looked at her husband. He wasn't offended. If anything, he seemed amused.

"Fair."

The Doctor smiled slightly.

"Thought so."

The human Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets. "And now?"

"Now you've spent years proving me wrong."

The breeze swept across the beach. For the first time since they'd arrived, neither Doctor had a joke ready.

The human Doctor looked down at the sand. Then at Rose. Then back at Donna and her daughter. Eventually he sighed.

"That's annoyingly persuasive."

The Doctor grinned. "I know."

"Still a terrible idea."

"Absolutely."

"Possibly the worst idea you've had this month."

"Not even close."

"That's not reassuring."

The human Doctor rubbed a hand across his face. Then he looked at Donna.

"Do you want to do this?"

Donna looked at Rose Noble. The girl nodded. Without hesitation. Donna squeezed her daughter's shoulder. Then looked back at him. "If it means we get to stick around?" She smiled. "Yeah. I think I do."

The human Doctor closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, the decision had already been made.

Rose recognised it immediately. The Doctor could spend hours arguing with himself, examining every possible consequence, every potential disaster. But once he reached a conclusion, that was it. The matter was settled.

The human Doctor pointed at his counterpart. "If this goes wrong, I'm blaming you."

"Get in line."

"I mean it."

"So do I." The Doctor's expression softened slightly. "Thank you."

The human Doctor looked almost embarrassed by the gratitude.

"Don't get sentimental."

"Too late."

Donna groaned. "Oh, for God's sake, just get on with it before one of you starts hugging the other."

The Doctors glanced at one another. Neither moved.

"Good," Donna said. "That would've been weird."

"Very weird," agreed Rose Noble.

The Doctor stepped forward. "Right. Everybody hold hands."

Donna blinked. "Seriously?"

"There's a lot of advanced biodata manipulation involved."

"Which means?"

"It means... hold hands."

The human Doctor laughed. "Still making it up as you go along."

"Worked so far."

"It really shouldn't have."

Donna and Rose Noble exchanged a look before stepping towards him. The human Doctor offered them his hands. For a moment nobody moved. The sea washed against the shore. The wind tugged at coats and hair. Then Donna took one hand. Rose Noble took the other.

Nothing happened.

Donna frowned. "That's it?"

"No," said the Doctor. "Now comes the clever bit."

"Oh, good."

The Doctor placed his hands over theirs and for a second Rose thought she saw something move beneath his skin. A glow? A shimmer... golden light flickered between their fingers. The same golden light she remembered from the Crucible. The same impossible energy that had once turned Donna Noble into the most important woman in creation.

Rose Noble gasped.

Donna stiffened.

The light intensified. Streams of gold began flowing from mother and daughter alike, twisting together as they crossed the small gap between them and the human Doctor. The effect was strangely beautiful. Like liquid sunlight. Like thoughts made visible.

The human Doctor gritted his teeth. The grin vanished from his face. His body tensed as the energy poured into him.

Rose took a step forward.

"Doctor?"

"I'm fine."

He was clearly not fine. The glow spread across his arms and chest. His breathing quickened. The air itself seemed charged.

The Doctor watched carefully. For all his confidence, Rose could see the concern in his eyes. Calculating. Monitoring. Ready to intervene if anything went wrong.

Then the transfer accelerated. The golden energy surged.

Rose Noble cried out.

Donna swayed.

The human Doctor almost dropped to one knee.

And then-- Silence. The light vanished. The wind returned. The waves continued rolling onto the shore as though nothing extraordinary had happened.

Donna blinked.

Rose Noble looked around.

The human Doctor released their hands.

For several seconds nobody spoke.

Then Donna frowned. "What was I saying?"

Rose Noble laughed. "Oh thank God."

Donna stared at her. "What?"

"You don't remember."

"Remember what?"

The Doctor let out a long breath.

Relief flooded across his face. "It worked."

Donna looked at him suspiciously. "Did what work?"

The Doctor smiled. "Exactly."

Meanwhile Rose Tyler watched as understanding slowly spread across her husband's face. Not confusion. Not pain. Understanding. His eyes widened.

"Oh." Then wider. "Oh."

The Doctor pointed at him.

"Don't."

"Oh."

"Seriously."

The human Doctor looked slightly pale. "I can hear binary stars. I couldn't do that before... I think."

"Ignore them."

"How?"

"No idea."

The human Doctor pressed both hands against his temples.

"Why do I suddenly know seventeen ways to restart a black hole? You didn't know that before."

"Only seventeen?"

"Oh that's not encouraging."

The Doctor laughed. A genuine laugh. The kind Rose suspected he hadn't allowed himself since arriving.

Donna and Rose Noble were already heading towards the TARDIS. Whatever had happened, neither seemed particularly concerned about it. They were talking about food. Specifically chips.

The Doctor smiled as he watched them. Donna was back to normal. Rose? Well that was a little more complicated. Then he turned back towards Rose and her Doctor.

"Well then."

Rose recognised that tone. The leaving tone. He was already preparing to run. Some things never changed.

"It was good seeing you again," she said.

The Doctor smiled.

For a moment she saw traces of the man she had first met on Powell Estate all those years ago. Not because he looked the same. Because he smiled the same way.

"Same to you."

Then he glanced towards the TARDIS.

"Got a universe to save."

"Again?" asked the human Doctor.

"They keep breaking."

"Have you considered letting somebody else do it? Slowing down and watching a few worlds go by. It helps."

"Absolutely not."

"Thought not."

The Doctor began walking towards the TARDIS. Then stopped.

"Oh."

He disappeared inside.

Rose frowned.

A moment later he re-emerged carrying a small wooden box. At least it looked like a small wooden box once from a distance. Up close it looked more like a chunk of polished coral.

The human Doctor stared. "No."

The Doctor held it out. "Oh yes."

"You can't."

"I can."

"You really can't."

"I really can."

Rose looked between them. "What is it?"

Neither answered immediately.

The human Doctor took the box from him with surprising care. Almost reverence.

The Doctor smiled. "I was going to leave it on a distant planet."

"Why?"

"Thought it deserved a chance to see the universe before it retired."

The human Doctor looked down at it, studying it. Rose saw the moment he realised what he was being offered. His eyes widened.

"Thank you."

The Doctor shook his head.

"It'll take time to return to normal. I had to drain it to transport it safely. It'll need to grow."

"A long time."

"Probably."

The human Doctor ran a hand across the surface. The coral seemed to pulse beneath his fingers. It was alive. Waiting.

"A TARDIS," Rose whispered.

The Doctor nodded. "The last one to leave Gallifrey."

For once the human Doctor had no clever response. No joke. Nothing. He simply stared.

The Doctor took a step backwards. "Take care of her."

The human Doctor looked up. "I will."

"I know."

That seemed to settle something between them.

The Doctor nodded once. Then turned and headed for the TARDIS.

"Doctor!" Rose called.

He paused in the doorway. "Yeah?"

She smiled. "Thank you."

The Doctor smiled back. Then he disappeared inside. Moments later the familiar wheezing filled the air and the TARDIS faded from existence. Leaving them standing on the beach.

Silence settled.

The human Doctor continued staring at the coral.

Rose stepped beside him. "So is that it?"

He laughed softly. "Oh, it was never just that."

"What do you mean?"

He opened his mouth to answer. Then stopped. His expression changed.

Rose frowned.

"Doctor?"

He looked down at his hands. A faint golden glow spread beneath the skin. The smile vanished. "Oh."

The glow brightened. Rose took an involuntary step backwards. "Doctor?"

His other hand began glowing too. "Oh dear."

The glow spread up both arms. His eyes widened. For the first time all day he looked genuinely surprised. Then he laughed. A slightly hysterical laugh.

"Oh, he knew."

"What?"

"He absolutely knew."

"Doctor!"

The glow erupted into blazing light. The human Doctor looked at Rose. Despite everything, he was grinning.

"Alons-y."

Fire exploded around him. Golden regeneration energy burst into the air.

Rose cried out as the light engulfed him completely. The roar echoed across the bay. The sea reflected gold. The sky burned. For one impossible moment she thought she had lost him.

Then the light faded.

The Doctor stood exactly where he had been. Same face. Same hair. Same ridiculous grin.

Rose stared.

The Doctor looked down at himself. Wiggled his fingers. Checked his nose.

Then shrugged.

"Well."

"What?"

"I'm a Time Lord trapped in a human body."

Rose blinked. "What?"

"Hardly going to change faces, am I?" He paused. Then frowned thoughtfully. "Although I suddenly have a powerful urge to wear robes and a high collar."

Rose laughed. Partly from relief. Partly because she had no idea what else to do.

Then her gaze shifted. The coral box had changed. It now stood almost a metre tall. Its surface had turned a familiar shade of blue.

The Doctor followed her gaze. A slow smile spread across his face.

"Oh."

The coral pulsed again. Growing. Living. Beginning.

"He gave you an actual TARDIS."

The Doctor stared at it. Wonder replacing shock. "Looks like he did."

The young - well young if you consider it was over a thousand years old and had the dimensional space of something fresh out of the birthing bays. The TARDIS hummed softly in response.

Rose slipped her hand into his. The future stretched out before them. Not fixed. Not certain. But theirs.

The Doctor squeezed her hand. "Rose Tyler," he said warmly. "I love you with all my hearts."

Then he stopped. The smile vanished. Slowly, very slowly, he reached up and pressed a hand against his chest.

"What?"

Rose frowned.

"What what?" The Doctor's eyes widened. "No." His hand moved across his chest. Then back again. "No, no, no."

"Doctor?"

"I've got two."

Rose stared. "You've got two what?"

"Hearts," the Doctor announced looking genuinely horrified. "I've got two hearts."

And all the threats, and horrors and things that lurk in the darkness, were suddenly very afraid.

End