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?"

"Half Asgardian," the TARDIS replied, and the Doctor looked up at the ceiling at the same time as Jessie. "Half Time Lady."

"Was that the TARDIS?" Jessie asked in astonishment.

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah," he said, then cleared his throat. "Yeah, that was the TARDIS."

"Wow," Jessie repeated what he said earlier, taking another deep breath. "This is really different."

"I guess that's what happens when you promise forever," the Doctor said, a little sharper than he intended.

Jessie looked around, folding her arms. "Yeah," she agreed. "I guess it is."

"Do you regret it?"

Jessie chewed the inside of her cheek, rocking on her heels. "No," she admitted. "Although . . . " She pointed to the door. "Can I - ?"

He nodded, and she walked out, her steps longer than before, and she went somewhere he didn't know. When she was completely out of the room, the Doctor took a deep breath of his own and looked up at the TARDIS. "You," he said slowly, "are a complete schemer."

She hummed happily, as if taking it as a compliment. The Doctor sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.

So he had his companion back. That was something to be happy about.

The problem he was sure he would have, however, was accepting that this really was Jessie. She was calmer, not to mention completely different. He knew regeneration had been bad on his companions in the past, but accepting it happen right in front of him?

That would take some getting used to.

***

Jessie opened the door to her room, and she gasped in surprise when she saw it had been transformed.

There was still the Asgardian relics, with the Bifrost bridge and the mural and the Nine Realms on the ceiling, but where the violet had been was now a diamond white, and where the black had been was a dazzling gold. She ran a hand over her dresser and looked to her bed, smiling when she saw the swirls of the same diamond white color on her gold bedspread. The diamond white was forming the same Gallifreyan wording she saw often on the TARDIS monitors.

But now she could read it. "The woman once dead, risen three days later from the grave," she read, then looked up at the TARDIS. "Three days?" she asked with a laugh. "I can think of another story like that."

The TARDIS hummed in her mind. "I could not turn you into a full Time Lady. This was what I could do in the time given."

Jessie shook her head with a smile on her face. "I still don't know how to take this," she admitted, running a hand through her hair, still jumping a little in surprise when her fingers touched blond strands instead of dark brown.

"It will take some time, my Wolf," the TARDIS said. "In time, you will know what you can do."

Jessie sat down on her bed, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. "And how's he taking it?" she asked.

The TARDIS paused. "It will take some time for him, too, I am afraid."

Jessie let her breath out in a whoosh, flopping down with her head on her pillow. "That's not a surprise," she admitted.

"He watched you sleep for three days, and he saw you wake up suddenly with two hearts," the TARDIS told her. "It was hard to take in."

"Why did you do it?" Jessie couldn't help but ask, looking around. "Why do all of this if it just makes him afraid?"

"The Doctor and the Bad Wolf. The Oncoming Storm and the Goddess of Time, in the TARDIS as it should be," the TARDIS sang.

Jessie blushed. "Is that really why?"

"You healed his hearts, my Wolf. The Doctor needs someone, and I have never seen him need anyone more than you."

Jessie huffed, sitting up. "Even if it's a different me?"

"If it is a you that could stay with him forever."

Jessie slowly began to smile. "Forever?"

"As long as he lives. That is a very long time."

Jessie grinned. "TARDIS, if you were a person in front of me, I could hug you right now."

The TARDIS laughed in her head, and she felt a warm feeling encompass her. "Go to him."

"I will," Jessie promised. "But first . . . " She walked over to the wardrobe, opening it and folding her arms. "I need a new look."

***

The Doctor brightened when the TARDIS scanners lit up. "You found it!" he cheered. "Ha!"

"Found what?"

The Doctor jumped a little, still getting used to that new voice. "A supernova with enough energy to at least send a message to the parallel world - " He froze when he turned and saw the blond Jessie there, leaning against one of the coral structures, arms folded. "And you look completely different."

She looked over herself, frowning a little. "What do you think about it?"

The Doctor looked her up and down, noting the changes. She was obviously more comfortable with showing more skin than her last version had been, because she was wearing a grey tank top with only three finger wide straps. She had kept the jeans, even if they were a darker blue than last time, and black combat boots wrapped it all up. He raised an eyebrow at the gloves she wore, fingerless and to her wrists, black. "It's new, definitely."

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "I look completely different, and you think the outfit is weird?"

The Doctor shrugged a little. "I'd complain more about the voice."

Jessie made a face. "Yeah. I'm still getting used to it." I'll have to get used to it longer, the Doctor thought dryly as she walked up to him. "You said we could get through to the parallel world?"

"If I try," the Doctor agreed. "Just give me a minute to try and get through."

Jessie took a deep breath and nodded, sitting down in the captain's chair. "All right."

***

"Saleen."

Saleen grumbled in annoyance and rolled over in her sleep.

"Saleen."

She furrowed her eyebrows. Wait a minute . . .

"Saleen."

She jerked upright in bed, gasping when she recognized the voice. She looked around, then slid out and grabbed her bathrobe. "Skye!" she shouted. "Grant! Jake!"

She ran down the stairs of the Ward mansion, going for the living room. She crouched down and lit the fireplace, then looked up when she heard people coming down the stairs. A bleary-eyed Jake was the one who appeared first. "Saleen?" he asked groggily. "It's two in the morning!"

"I had a dream," she interrupted. "It was the Doctor. I'm sure of it!"

Jake blinked himself awake and made it more quickly down the stairs. There was a squeak, and then Skye was running down, too. "You heard them?" she asked desperately.

Saleen sat on the couch, pulling her legs underneath her. "Well," she said slowly. "I had this dream . . . "

***

Goodbye, Isabelle Fuhrman. :(

But hello, Teresa Palmer! :D One of the first people I thought of when thinking of the next Bad Wolf. What do you guys think? I've already got the one after her thought of as well . . . which I might tell if you guys really want to know . . . ;)

The epilogue will be up shortly with the sad goodbye to Saleen and Skye. :(