The Daughter of Gallifrey

5: The Ginger Girl

"Oi! Doctor!" An unfamiliar voice jolted the Doctor awake. He propped himself up and rubbed the side of his face that had hit the floor in the bookshop, moving his jaw around to assess the damage. But he felt fine. Very fine. But not quite...right.  

His hands went to his chest, checking the beats of both his hearts. He found a thumping only under his right hand. His face contorted in confusion and he turned toward the voice.   

It was a girl about Caroline's age. She had longish red hair a bit lighter than Amy's and freckles on her nose. Her nose was small and slightly upturned, while her eyes were a sort of mossy green fleckled with honey tones.   

"My hearts-"  

"The left one'll start up eventually. It took so very much to transfer all that energy. You were dying, burning. We started your right heart up while you were unconscious. Since you're sort of glowing a bit still, we figured the leftover energy is sort of fixing you. And we seemed to be right. Good to have you back, Doctor." She smiled widely, flashing him a toothy grin.   

"Sorry, but who-" He stopped himself.   

Her eyes. They knew so much. The Doctor realized this was Caroline, in her first regeneration. His eyes widened crazily as he sprung up off the cot, his mouth open in a silent yell of joy.  

"Oh, it's you! Of course it's you!" The Doctor threw his arms around her, picking her up about a foot or so off the ground. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Oh wonderful, splendid, brilliant, clever Caroline Thomas!" He stopped abruptly, letting her hang in the air at arms length. His eyebrows furrowed. "You-you're-" The Doctor set her down gently, eyeing her fiery hair. He jabbed his finger at Caroline's head.   

"You. Are. Ginger! You're a ginger!" He swung his arms around wildly, turning haphazardly on the spot, stomping the ground. "Why do you get to be ginger? WHY? That is so UNFAIR! WHAT AN ABSOLUTELY STUPID UNIVERSE!" He pointed accusingly at Caroline. She just stared at him like he had gone completely mad. But that had happened long ago and wasn't exactly a relevant point any longer.   

"What-what do mean I get to be a ginger? Have you lost your Time Lord mind?" He spun around to face her and took three massive steps in her direction.  

"No, it's up here somewhere," he said, tapping his forehead, "But I've always, ALWAYS, wanted to be a ginger and here you are, after your very first regeneration, and you already are. I bet you didn't even specifically want to be." He plopped  on to the cot and sighed. Caroline chuckled, sitting down beside him.   

"Not particularly, no. But, oi, don't worry, you've got another regeneration still. You'll be ginger soon enough, yeah?"  

"I suppose, quite possibly," the Doctor said.  

"All's well in the end, Doctor." Caroline smirked. Her happiness was so genuine. It made the Doctor's chest swell. He was glad she had survived.   

"Well good. And when you were saying 'we' earlier, would you happen to be referring to a particular woman? Blonde, curly haired? Has a, you know-" He made a gun with his thumb and index finger. "Pew, pew?"  Caroline laughed, nodding.   

"Yes, Doctor. River was here."  

"Was?"  

"Yeah, she said she had been on her way to a running demon and then something about her mum and dad and just-"  

"Do you mean Demon's Run?" He seemed sort of lost in thought. A shadow of sadness crept into his green eyes as his gaze shifted to look past Caroline and into empty space. "When a good man goes to war."  

"What?" Caroline looked at the Doctor quizzically.  

"Must've been a younger River," he muttered, ignoring her interjection.   

"Well then. Demon's Run." She fell silent. "Why do you say it like that, with that look on your face?"   

"Oh, Thomas, that's a super big, complex-icated, crazy, giant mess of a story," he said, the forlorn look passing from his face. "I'll get to all that later. First we've got to figure out how that bookshop got to London in the 21st century. Onward, Thomas!" He made his way to the door of the infirmary and quickened his pace down the hall. "I quite like the sound of that. I think I'll say that more. Onward, Thomas!" He pointed his arm forward like he was charging into war.

After a few sharp turns, speed-walking past the swimming pool and several bedrooms, the duo came to a fork in the hallway. Caroline confidently continued to the left. The Doctor started to the right, but swiftly spun around on his heels, stumbling into the middle.   

"I see the infirmary's moved. Again," he muttered, shaking his head and jogging off after Caroline. "She's always doing that to me."   

"Doctor?" Caroline asked tentatively as they entered the main room of the TARDIS, "How long will it take to get used to this body? This new one I've got?"   

"Ah, regeneration," the Doctor said, wagging his finger at her, "It's a funny thing. I've done it ten times now and I'm still not used to the brilliant sensation of new fingers and legs and ears and arms. The nose is always interesting as well." He gestured to the wide, slightly flat one on his face and grinned. "But the tongue. The tongue! That nasty devil'll have an entirely new range of tastes it likes. Watch out for food, Thomas. Careful of what you stick on that new slimy, pinkish thing. I learned the hard way that beans are evil. Beans are bad, very bad." Caroline laughed at the seriousness of his tone against beans.  

"I'll watch out for them. Promise," she chuckled.   

"But bananas, on the other hand, are wonderful. Always bring a banana to a party, Thomas. As a matter of fact, I've liked bananas in every regeneration. Just goes to show you, bananas are quite simply the most magnificent fruit in the universe." The Doctor suddenly jerked forward, gripping the control dash for support. Caroline took a cautious step toward him, a concerned look on her face.  

"Doctor?"  

"Oh, that'll be my other heart," he said, rubbing his hand on his chest, "Oo, that feels much better. All systems go now, Thomas." He gave her two thumbs up, grinning. The very dim light that he had been emitting now faded away completely. "Good as new."