Against the Universe (book 2 of The Doctor and Sloan series)

Born Again

It's the first chapter of book 2! I am honestly really excited. Okay on with the story!

HAHA! I DID IT! I EDITED THIS CHAPTER! Some things are different, and others not so much. Enjoy!

It was surreal to Sloan to see a much younger face than she was used to seeing. She didn't mind of course, he was still the same man. She'd just gotten used to the man with the short cropped hair, leather jacket and the northern accent, and she was sad to know that he had died. The two were staring at each other before the Doctor turned back to the TARDIS console. He flipped some switches and checked the monitor, it was the smoothest flight they'd had so far.

"6 PM... Tuesday... October... 5006... On the way to Barcelona!" He says before facing Sloan looking pleased with himself. "Now then... what do I look like?"

Her mouth opened up to reply but he cut her off before uttering a single word.

"No, no no, no no no no no no no. No. Don't tell me," he said, making Sloan grin a little bit. This new Doctor was already something else. "Let's see... two legs, two arms, two hands..." He said and tested his wrist circling it, "slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle."

His hands now fly to his head "Hair! I'm not bald!" He shouts excitedly as he runs his hands to his hair with glee "Oh, Oh! Big hair!" He cheered making Sloan let out a little giggle to which the Doctor turned his head to her and smile widely, he then moved his hands from his hair to his sideburns. "Sideburns, I've got sideburns! Or really bad skin. Little bit thinner..." He does a few pats on his stomach,"that's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it," The Doctor paused as if he just realized something very important that he had forgotten, "I... have got... a mole. I can feel it."

By now Sloan was full on laughing this new Doctor was absolutely adorable. It was like he was an excited puppy.

"Between my shoulder blades, there's a mole," He rotates his shoulders, "That's all right. Love the mole," he turns and grins at Sloan who was trying to stifle her laughter and failing miserably.

"Go on then, tell me." He straightens up with his hair all ruffled "What do you think?"

"I think that this new regeneration suits you," Sloan says after a few moments to pause and think. The fact was that this new Doctor was quite handsome, and if she was going to be honest with herself, he was adorable finding new things about himself.

"Is that so?"

Sloan grinned "Of course," still wearing the grin the Doctor stepped closer to her before pulling the short woman into him for a hug. As he was a whole foot taller her head only reached his chest.

"I'm so glad that you believe in me."

"Why wouldn't I? I've been with you for nearly every regeneration. You are always the same man. Always," she tells him before gasping in pain, pulling away from him her hands went to her chest.

"Sloan?" She didn't do anything for a few moments waiting for the pain to subside. Unfortunately it didn't seem to be, "It's like I am regenerating, but I'm not. Two hearts. I have two hearts again," she looked up at him and took a breath of relief when the pain in her chest did cease. 

Looking slightly worried he asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I think so," She straightened up,"You know from all the years we've been together there is one thing we have always continued to do."

The Doctor got where she was going with it and continued "And we never stopped, did we? All across the universe. Running, running, running..." He turned back to the console and flipped some more switches. "One time we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives."

He hops madly up and down on the spot. Making Sloan grin again but she could feel the pain from cells in her body changing to complete her Time Lord physiology. "Yeah? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your life? Yeah?! Hop? Well with Rose obviously."

"Of course I do!" She laughed then paused remembering the blonde, "you know Rose is going to kill us," The wild enthusiasm he had on his face leaves as the truth of her words sunk in. It's like he forgot she wasn't with them. Sloan couldn't blame him for that detail though he'd just gone through a regeneration and he's always been a little funny after it.

The Doctor goes back to the console "Cancel Barcelona. Change to... London... the Powell Estate... ah... let's say the 24th of December," He looked up at Sloan. "Consider it a Christmas present. To you and her."

"Awe you're too sweet," She told him, and he blushed a little bit. "I'm mad at you though. I was unconscious and you sent Rose and I away. Rose nearly killed herself trying to open the heart of the TARDIS."

"Well I'm glad she didn't, I thought I was going to lose you for good."

"It was... Well I had a choice, both choices ended with me dying. Though thanks to you I didn't actually die. Nice kiss by the way."

The Doctor flushed red, "Well I... I... I couldn't just let my best friend die! You kissed back!"

Sloan grinned, she knew he was right, she kissed him back. However, this was not the time to start a relationship. After all Sloan was just beginning to come back to her Time Lord self, and the Doctor had just regenerated. Sloan knew that if they kept it up they may regret it, so she she just hugged him. As soon as her arms were around him she felt his pain. Time Lords were highly telepathic and she was always slightly more empathic.

"We need to talk about this later when we both aren't feeling any pain," Sloan stated pulling away from the embrace.

"Well that's..." He gags and the TARDIS starts shaking.

"Doctor?"

"I was saying..." He gags again before he starts making retching noises and the TARDIS shakes even more. "Uh oh."

"Oh Theta." Sloan says instantly knowing what was wrong. The man exhales releasing some golden regeneration energy. He gags again falling to his knee, his face contorting in pain. "You need to rest. Now!" But the Doctor caught sight of a switch at his eye level.

"I haven't used this one in years," he said as he flicks it. The TARDIS starts to shake worse, making it known as to what the switch was. Sloan grabbed the console trying to stay on her feet. At the moment the TARDIS wasn't right, both she and the Doctor weren't in the best shape either.

"What're you doing?!" Sloan shrieked, though she knew what he was pretty much planning. He was practically shouting his thoughts to her.

"Putting on a bit of speed! That's it!" He turns more knobs. "My beautiful ship! Come on, faster! That's a girl!" Sloan noticed as he got even more crazy and wild but she wasn't going to comment on it. She's gone just as crazy as he had during the war, before she was taken by Rassilion. "Faster! Wanna to break the time limit?!"

"Let's do it!" Sloan shouted out in slight glee and slight fright.

"That's the spirit! Let's have a bit of fun! Let's rip through that vortex!" Sloan cackles as the speed increases, as well as catching onto the Doctor's euphoria or rather regeneration induced euphoria.

He catches her eye for a moment and calms down just slightly. "The regeneration's going wrong. I can't stop myself," he grimaced in pain. "Ah, my head..." He violently springs up into standing position again. "Faster! Let's open those engines!"

A warning bell sounds out making Sloan grimace herself "Are we going to do what I think we're going to do?"

The Doctor's face appears next to her and he sounds absolutely delighted as he says "We're gonna crash land!" Finishing those words he laughs like a crazy person.

"If this ends up killing us Doctor I'm going to kill you. Also try to keep your pain to yourself. I'm in enough pain as it is. I'm being ripped apart through the inside out."

"Too late to do anything now!" He cheers as they get closer and closer to their destination. Sloan held on tightly, feeling very frightened at the moment "Christmas Eve!"