Old Things.

He remembered flying on the dark side of the Ariask Galaxy. He remembered watching a supernova collapse, and then taking a trip back to its birth. Histories long forgotten rip through his memories, and his enthusiasm for the simple life, gets tempered when he recalls what it felt like to be a Time Lord.

But that time was in the past.
 Technically, he wasn't even the Doctor anymore. His name was now John Smith, and where there once was two hearts, now there was one heart beating. John now lived with the love of his life, Rose Tyler. She understood just how much John had given up, being here in this dimension, and knew how much that small growing piece of TARDIS coral meant to him. That was his ticket to his former life. His hearts--wait, heart--beated faster at the thought.

Still. It would take 20 years for the TARDIS to fully grow. Possibly more for in order to gain Transtemporal abilities. Rose had done her best to cheer him up,telling him how busy helping UNIT would keep them both. John appreciated this, but quite frankly, he had spent years in a previous body helping UNIT, and he didn't want to spend his last body doing the same thing.

Rose had managed to drag him to check out the old UNIT equipment room. Pete had figured that John might be able to help categorize the stuff inside.

"Well, that sounds completely boring," said John.

"Yes. But it's important. And besides, there might be cool science stuff you can nab," Rose pointed out.

John pretended to not be interested, but Rose wasn't fooled. She knew him too well.

Rose had probably always known him too well. But John wasn't sure he knew her as well. This former shop girl had grown in the intervening years. Working daily against alien threats for UNIT barely fazed her. Obviously, she had been dealing with aliens as a companion, but now she was more serious about it. She had become a leader in her own right.

Rose noticed John eyeing her, and kissed him on the cheek.

"What was that for?" asked John.

"I dunno. Cause you're cute," said Rose. She hooked her arms with John's.

"Oh? So are you," said John. Inside, he felt nervous. His kind were never big on romantic small talk. Did she noticed his inexperience?

If she did, she didn't show. She leaned into his ear, and whispered "Maybe when we're done with clean-up, we can have some private 'work'. After all, we'll be alone."

Even a Gallifreyan could understand what she meant.

Rose opened the door to the UNIT equipment room. It appeared like a completely disorganized mess. Various coils and big bins filled with alien equipment laid all around. There was no way this was gonna be a quick job.

John scratched his head.

"You take the left side, and I'll take the right?" he asked.

Rose shook her head.

"I'm getting some help," said Rose decisively. She marched down the hall.

"I thought you said we would be alone," said John. It wasn't even necessarily the romance he was worried about (although that was nice). He hadn't had real time to talk with his Rose in a while.

Rose walked back slowlu, and grabbed John into a kiss. It was long, and it made John's heart race. She smiled, saying "Be patient. Day's just started."

Then she disappeared down the hall, hips shaking slowly. John Smith was left alone in the UNIT equipment room.

He pushed his hands into the pockets of his blue pinstripe suit. After reasoning whether or not to poke around, he figured it couldn't hurt.

Somehow, John ended up stepping on a weird red device that ended up causing a minor explosion. Nothing was damaged, but now the stuff was even more disarrayed. John decided to step away from the pile of junk.

And then he heard a tone. An unmistakable tone, that even his humane mind could pick out. The tone that came from a time-ship.

Instantly, he jumped through the mess. He dug through the piles of junk, searching for the source of the sound. Was his mind playing tricks on him?

Then he saw the TARDIS. It was damaged, with bits of pink ether floating out of it. The door was ripped open, and a faint Web covered the surface, with sparks of energy lighting the surface. Even without much of his Time Lord senses, he still sensed the pain this time ship was going through. He tried to step in, but his skin felt a small pinprick of pain as he walked in.

"Shh. I'm not gonna hurt you," said John. Slowly the pain subsided.

The TARDIS's console looked like a shark had been in there. There were chunks missing in the central room. Liquid, the color of blood, dripped from the ceiling. The lights blinked on and off at random points.

As John walked further into the ship, it got worse. Sometimes the temperature control would act up. Some rooms made John feel like he needed a coat. At other points, the Doctor would start sweating profusely. The bathroom was snowing indoors!

John decided to return to the console room, when one room left him in an inescapable time loop for ten minutes.

Unfortunately, he couldn't find the console room. While searching, he noticed the costume room.

The question mark umbrella, from his Seventh body. The velvet smoker's jacket, from his body back when he worked with UNIT in the other verse. And of course, the long scarf.

John felt his eyes mist up. Tons of memories flooded in. These were people he had been. But that meant, this was--

"Doctor?" said Rose. A black-haired woman was beside her.

He sighed, and turned to her.

"Who owned this TARDIS? Why is it damaged?" said John.

"I don't know. We used this TARDIS, to create the dimension cannon. I'm so sorry. I know TARDISes mean a lot to you," said Rose.

"Yes," said John. He didn't feel like elaborating.

"Why are your clothes out there on the rack? This universe shouldn't have..." asked Rose. Her eyes widened in realization.

"TARDISes aren't just machines," said John.

"I know. They're alive," said Rose.

"Not just alive. They're more alive than you, or me, or any Time Lord. When you hurt one, you're hurting a piece of History. The effects could lead to disaster down the line. And if you focus, you could hear how close to death she is right now," said John.

"I'm so sorry, Doctor. We needed it to save you, and the universe. I'm so, so, sorry," said Rose. She looked around the time ship, and her face looked so sad.

Reflexively, John embraced Rose. They held each other for some time.

Suddenly, they were back in the storage room.

"I guess the time ship was tired of us being inside it--I mean, her," said Rose, laughing. She was trying to lighten the mood, but it didn't work.

They cleaned up the room in silence.

Later on, as John slept, a dream bubbled into his mind. He saw a woman with half a face and red hair sitting in front of him, in his room. She said nothing, and picked up the TARDIS coral, and melded it to her face. He saw the coral bleed into her, and saw it mix into her. The coral's color seemed to move into her skin color, causing her to look like a hybrid, and then the room morphed into the excavated TARDIS, and she melted into the TARDIS floor. Months seemed to pass, as the TARDIS wounds began to heal slowly. Finally, the TARDIS was whole. He felt Rose's blonde hair tickle his skin.

Then John Smith woke up. He looked at the slowly growing TARDIS coral in his room.

He grinned.