Chapter Text
“Once upon a time... Once upon a Time Lord, I had a best friend, and her name was Donna Noble. A Time Lord and a human, and we travelled the stars together.” The Doctor said to TARDIS, he just felt the need to talk in the hopes it would help him focus his mind. He should have gotten over all typical regeneration sickness by now but he still felt out of sorts. He wasn’t sure if it was because the face of his tenth incarnation returning to him or something else.
In the back of his mind though he wondered if the answer was simply Donna, she was more than just his best friend, he loved her more than anyone or anything else. Besides if that is the case it wouldn’t be the first regeneration of mine that she’d influenced. Not that surprising since I’ve been completely and utterly in love with her for over four billion years and almost constantly thinking about what I did to her and my guilt over that. He tried to hide and deny his feelings for her at first because she’d made it clear that she only wanted friendship and no nonsense from him and he was happy to just have her travelling with him as his friend. Later he’d hid his true feelings for Donna because it hurt too much to think about what he’d lost.
“Sometimes I have dreams about impossible things. I dream of creatures and adventures and faraway skies. But none of it's true.” Donna said to no one in particular. that wasn’t all I’ve been dreaming of since losing her memories. There was her mystery man, every night in her dreams he came to see her, telling her how much he loved her and missed her and how sorry he was by he never allowed her to see his face, in fact he always blindfolded her and wouldn’t tell her his name or anything she could use to identify him. In the dreams she loved him as much as he loved her but that was just dream nonsense, just her subconscious trying to come to terms with all the missing memories. Images of him blindfolding her and kissing her so tenderly and so much passion flitted through her mind but Donna ignored them. Nothing good would come of those kinds of thoughts.
“Donna saved the entire universe by taking the power of the Time Lords into her mind, at a terrible cost.” I’ve never been the same since I had to erase her memories. It broke me; how could anyone live with themselves after essentially killing the woman they loved? When he closed his eyes he could still see her begging him not to. Knowing that all she’d wanted was to stay with him. I would have given anything to save her without having to steal her memories. I would have happily given all My regenerations if it would have saved her. Sadly, the only way I was able to keep her from burning up was to bury the metacrisis to stop her from burning.
There had only been one way he could do that and that was to make her forget. Not just what had happened that day, that would have been much easier to cope with, he could have come up with any lie why she couldn’t remember what had happen and he’d have made sure that she realised how brilliant she was even she wasn’t able to know that she’d been able to save the universe, that would have been easy in comparison and he knew she’d feel the same.
In reality the only option he’d had was to wipe her mind of all their travels, of every memory of him, every memory of everything alien, her memories of spending a year searching for him. Everything from her wedding day to the moment she woke up after he dropped her back off at Wilf’s. Two years of memories, she no longer remembered how Lance had betrayed her, meaning her heart would have been broken all over again. She’d have no memory of her father’s last months. Wilf and Sylvia would need to lie to her, not let her know what had happened during those years as the risk of her dying.
Not only had he lost her but he couldn’t get over the feeling that he had betrayed her.
“Binary, binary, binary, binary...” in his mind’s eye he could still see her as the metacrisis overwhelmed her and she began to almost get stuck on repeat. It always felt like his hearts were been ripped out of his chest to remember those last few moments, the hardest thing he’d ever had to do was to go against her wishes and save her.
“She had to forget everything she ever knew.” There had been nothing else he could think of, he couldn’t bare to watch her burn up, losing her memories was a type of death, it had killed the Donna she’d become but at least she’d still been alive and had got the chance to get what she’d always wanted, a loving husband, she might even be a mother and he’d given her that lottery ticket to ensure that she’d have enough money to have a happy life full of as much adventure as someone could do on Earth. He knew that it wouldn’t make up for the lost memories but it was the best he could do for her. He’d tried to think of another way but there was nothing else he knew of that could have saved her.
“ Goodbye.”
“ No. No, no...”
“She had to forget me.”
“Please, no. No! No!”
The memory of her begging to stay with him would haunt him for the rest of his lives, he wouldn’t be surprised if the universe was trying to make him live until the end of everything just to make him relive it over and over again. it was nothing less than he deserved.
“Because if Donna ever remembers me, she will die” I’d never be able to forgive myself if that happened. I can’t be the one who kills her.
“And now I've got a nice life, with a nice fella and a nice house, and the most beautiful daughter in the world. But I just think something's missing.” Two years of missing memories would do that to anyone. I’ve forgotten so much, my first wedding, my dad’s death. Apparently She’d had a breakdown after Lance had been caught cheating on her on her wedding day. That didn’t explain why it was the two years after finding out he was a cheating bastard that she couldn’t remember. Worse was than no one would mention what she’d been doing during those two years.
“I can never see Donna again.” He knew that was a fitting punishment for him, but that still didn’t stop him needed to see her and needing to be by her side. Time had done nothing at all to dull the pain of been separated from her, if anything it was worse now than it had been the last time he’d seen her.
“Now the days are drawing in, I keep having more and more dreams. Like something's getting closer.” The mystery man was always there but he’d changed recently, not for the first time mind you. He’d changed before but he was always still himself somehow. Recently the dreams had taken a dark turn they would be lying in his bed together or just enjoying each other’s company and then everything would shift, destruction, death and chaos would descend.
“But now this face has come back. Why?” Did this mean he was meant to check on her? that she was in danger? He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.
“It's like a storm in the air, about to break.” The Oncoming Storm… why did that thought remind her of someone? Who the hell would go by that name? They must be seriously overcompensating.
“I think the story hasn't ended yet.”
The TARDIS had been listening to her thief for hours on end as he worried over what course of action to take. He was so caught up in all his worries and fears that it only took the smallest of nudges from her to get him to decide to go and check on Donna.
As he walked out of his ship he did his best to put on his façade of been alright and reassured himself that he could check to see if anyone or anything was targeting Donna. Reassuring himself that as brilliant as Donna Nobel was with or without the Metacrisis, that he was a Time Lord so he would be able to sneak around without her ever knowing he was there. Confident in his plan he began to relax.
“Oi! Watch it, love!” A man said to the woman who had nearly bumped into him.
The Doctor looked over and saw a woman in the distance struggling, she was carrying a stack of cardboard boxes, higher than her head, that tottered and almost toppled over as she tried to walk. So, he ran over to give her a hand. “Oh, hold on. Hold on. Let me help.” He removed a few of the boxes and heard a voice he never thought he’d hear again.
“Thank you very much.” Donna Nobel said, she had the feeling that she should know him, but she couldn’t remember who he was. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him before, but since she had two years missing that didn’t mean much.
Of course it was her, less than a minute after he’d landed and he’d ran straight into her. He knew the universe’s favourite game was kick the Doctor, so he should always expect it but somehow it always came as a surprise. Frightened that she’d remember him and die, he quickly replaced the boxes in the pile and turned on his heel to walk away.
“Oi! Do you mind?” Donna complained. He might be a bit of alright but obviously a complete div. He quickly came back and removed a few of the boxes again thankful that she hadn’t remembered him, but still terrified that she might. “If you've finished playing games, mister, this stuff's not mine. It's hers. Oh, where's she gone? Rose!”
“What?” his hearts were in his mouth, terrified that Rose had come back with the Duplicate or Daleks he wasn’t quite sure which would be worse.
“Rose!” She shouted again.
“What?” He was praying to the Menti Celesti and every other god, goddess and deity he could think of who might be listening, that it wasn’t Rose Tyler who Donna was shouting for, the risk of her or that Duplicate triggering her memories was to high. If they had come back he’d turn them both over to the Shadow Proclamation to protect Donna.
“Rose!”
“Coming! Sorry, Mum. I had to pop back. I wanted to buy a bagful of eyes.”
“Mum? And a bag... full of eyes.” He was dumbstruck. This was the first time any of his prayers had been answered even coincidently, so his mind was lagging a bit behind. Surely he hadn’t talked about Rose Tyler so much that the name had stuck around in Donna’s subconscious, had he? He could almost hear an incredulous snort from Martha at his denial, which made him inwardly cringe at the fool he’d been when he’d originally had this face. His younger self’s stupidity aside he couldn’t imagine Donna allowing her daughter buying bags full of eyes. Also wasn’t 2023 a bit early for Callufraxian zquloix eyes to have become a delicacy in London?
He then noticed that Rose was holding up a bag full of googly eyes. That made a lot more sense.
“She's got this business online. You should spend your evenings doing homework, not fiddling about posting things to Dubai.” Donna managed to sound both proud of her daughter having a business and disappointed that Rose wasn’t applying herself fully at school.
“Hold on. Who are you?” Rose asked, for some reason the man looked vaguely familiar to her.
“Oh, yeah, sorry.” He hadn’t introduced himself to either of them and he was trying to think of a name that wouldn’t trigger Donna’s memories.
“He's not stacked this right.” Donna said turning around putting the boxes down so she could restack them.
“My name's...” Before he could think of an alias, he heard a spaceship soaring through the atmosphere, panic raced through him at the thought of Donna seeing it and he turned to see what was happening. The ship hurtled through the sky in a fireball.
“I took one look at him. I said, ‘Never trust a man with a goatee.’ He looked like he'd been sucking a drainpipe. I said to him...” Donna said, completely unaware of any spaceship as stacked Rose’s boxes in easier to carry way.
“Look at this!” A passing woman exclaimed surprised at the sight of the ball of fire in the sky.
“...but he was like, ‘I know better.’ I said...” Donna continued.
“Mum! There's a plane crashing.” Rose tried to get her mum’s attention unable to believe what she was seeing.
“But watch me stack correctly.” Donna wanted to distract her daughter from the plain crash, Rose could be very sensitive and knowing her she’d end up with nightmares. She still remembered what had happened when her mum hadn’t skipped the shooting scene in Bambi when Rose was younger, she’s had nightmares for two weeks.
“I don't think that's a plane. It's a spaceship in trouble.” The Doctor said absentmindedly then inwardly cringed as he remembered that Donna was right beside him.
“Mum, look! It's a spaceship.” Rose said excitedly.
“Yes. There's a spaceship crashing over London right now. You are worse than your great grandad.” A plane crashing was one thing, but a spaceship? That was nonsense it was probably some sort of publicity stunt or hoax.
“Oh, Grandad.” He hoped Wilf was still alive, humans had such tragically short lifespans.
“It's going to crash!” Rose shouted shocked. Seconds later she was proved right when the spaceship crashed over the horizon.
“There you go. Perfectly stacked. That's better.” Donna said popping back up, holding the stacked boxes having missed the crash completely.
“Mum, how do you always manage to miss everything?”
“Because I've got better things to do. Nice to meet you, skinny man. Oh, word of advice. You can wear a suit that tight up to the age of 35, and no further.” Donna was only teasing him a bit because he’d been such a daft git but suddenly an image of him completely naked flashed into her mind saying, “Oh Yes!” she wasn’t normally the type to picture random strangers naked but for some reason it seemed more like a long-forgotten memory than her just imagining it.
Who knew my daft Martian was hiding such a nice body under those suits? That thought confused her more than the memory that had flashed before her eyes. Why had she referred to him as a Martian? Besides that, if they had known each other well enough for her to see him naked then why wouldn’t he mention that he knew her? The more she tried to focus trying to remember more the more it faded, within moments it was like she hadn’t remembered anything. Nevertheless, she decided she needed to get home as quickly as possible. “Come on, Rosie.” Donna said having no idea why she suddenly felt a red-hot blush creeping up on her face.
“Rose!” Shaun shouted trying to get his daughter’s attention.
“What?” The Doctor vaguely remembered that voice from somewhere but he couldn't quite place him.
“Rose!” He tried again to get her attention.
“What?”
“Rose!”
“Oh, I give up!” The Doctor than ran over to the taxi driver as he really needed to check out that spaceship. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that he’d bumped into Donna a few moments before a spaceship crashed.
“Oh, sorry, mate. That's my daughter over there, and my missus.” He didn’t have time to take another fair he was supposed to take Donna and Rose home.
“Good, but I need to get north. That explosion just now, something crashed. Can you get me there?” The Doctor realised that cabbie must be Donna’s husband.
“Oh, sat nav says they're closing all the roads.” I don’t have time for this, I should go and catch up to Donna and Rose.
“Oh, I know some roads even the taxi drivers don't. Trust me.” The Doctor flashed the psychic paper confidently, “Grand Master of the Knowledge.”
“That says Grand Mistress.” Everything else was legit looking so he wasn’t sure if the man’s I.D hadn’t been updated, Shuan knew how long it had taken to get Rose’s I.D fixed.
“Oh, catch up. “The Doctor shook the psychic paper and Shuan was surprised to see it change before his eyes to say Grand Master, he assumed he must have made a mistake, it had been a long day after all. “And let's Allons-y!” The Doctor said getting into the taxi.
“Oui, monsieur.”
“So, you're Shaun Temple, which means that woman... Your wife, that's Donna, is that right?” The Doctor asked, pretending to be a bit unsure of who they were.
“Yeah! How did you know that?”
“Oh,” He hadn’t thought that through, he quickly racked his brains for a plausible cover, “I know that friend of yours. Nerys.”
“Oh, Nerys! How is she?”
“She's fine.” I don’t care, I need to know how Donna is.
“After the accident?”
“She's not fine.” Just tell me about Donna.
“It was her fault.”
“She's been fined.” Biting back the urge to scream in frustration, the Doctor finally steered the conversation back to what was really import. “But she was saying about you and Donna. So, she's Donna Temple now?”
“Huh. No! Still Donna Noble. She refused to be Noble-Temple cos she says...”
“...it sounds like an old ruin.” They said together. The Doctor had to bite back a laugh at that, it was good to hear that some things hadn’t changed.
“That's her! And Rose Noble, too. I was never going to win that battle. What do I care? I've got the best two girls in the world, mate.” The Doctor agreed whole heartedly about Donna and while he didn’t know much about Rose, he was guessing that if she was anything like her mother she’d brilliant.
“But Nerys said... I thought... I mean, didn't you win the lottery?” He asked, he was surprised that Donna wasn’t swanning about been driven everywhere by a chuffer and living somewhere sunny and hot where she could go diving more often.
“Nerys and her big mouth. That's supposed to be a secret. You know what happened? Donna gave it all away to charity. Every single penny. Well, we bought the house. That's the one thing we did do. Now we can't afford to run it. Do I complain? No, I do not. That's the great love story, mate. Me putting up with that.”
“She gave all her money away?” he wasn’t sure that he’d heard correctly.
“Triple rollover, 166 million quid, pop! Gone.”
“Why did she do that? Oh, next left!” The Doctor told Shaun, when he spotted the turn they’d need to take to get to where the spaceship had crashed. He’d try and find out why Donna had given up all her money later on, first he needed to find out why the spaceship had crashed so close to her. It had been pure dumb luck that she’d managed to miss it and he didn’t want to risk anything else triggering her memories.
“I'm here at the front of the Millson Wagner steelworks, where residents have described an object falling from the sky, some calling it a UFO.” The reporter said into the camera. Seconds later the video went blank and UNIT soldiers bundled him into the back of one of their vehicle’s “Whoa! What are you doing? Get off me! I'm a member of the press.” The reporter complained.
“Take him away! I want a Red Perimeter, access to the south-east only. Now move.” Colonel Chan said.
“Confirm Red Perimeter. Engage Protocols 5 and 50!” a UNIT soldier said.
The Doctor snuck along careful to remain unseen by anyone from UNIT, there was to much he didn’t know for him to feel comfortable working with them. Besides the less people involved, the less likely it would be for someone to let something slip to Donna if this was connected to her. He thought as he used the sonic screwdriver on a section of wire fence and slipped through the gap.
The Doctor walked across the yard casually, the humans were too preoccupied with the many fires that had broken out in and around the building. There were paramedics milling about tending to the wounded and a few soldiers in hazmat suits been hosed down.
His thoughts drifted to the countless ways something could go wrong and cause Donna to remember. The Doctor ducked to avoid the search light of an overhead military helicopter as it swept past him. The more he thought about it the more he realised just how many potential triggers there was for Donna to remember. He’d been incredibly lucky that his desperate plan to save her life had worked but was his luck about to run out?
The Doctor ignored all the UNIT soldiers and trucks as well as the steelworkers been escorted out of the perimeter they had created. When he reached a rusty metal door he soniced it and snuck into the building.
UNIT soldiers were racing around the steelworks in a panic trying to maintain the furnace. The Doctor made sure they didn’t see him as he tried to get a better look at the crashed spaceship. It had crashed through the roof that was still on fire. Wanting to get a better a vantage point the Doctor climbed up the stairs of a platform.
The huge silver rocket was standing perfectly upright which the Doctor couldn’t help but find it a bit suspicious, the odds of crashing like that where slim to none. The ship was the hight of the chamber with the glowing red nose poking out of the hole it had made in the roof. The wide engines at the base were spilling smoke into the chamber. One was damaged, burnt and ripped open, with sparks raining down heavily on to the floor. There was a team of soldiers and some steal workers spraying it with CO2.
His attention was drawn down to two members of UNIT who were standing below him not to far from the ship.
“Now, I think we're making a fundamental mistake, cos maybe that spaceship was on a collision course to start with but look.” As she spoke she brought up some schematics on a tablet. The Doctor could see the wire-frame animation of the spaceship plunging down top right to bottom left at 45° angle. However, the spaceship’s nose tilted up and ship’s body tilts onto a 45° angle on the opposite axis. It had descended down perfectly straight. “At the last minute it pulls up, then settles. What I'm saying is, that ship didn't crash. It parked.” Shirley explained.
“No signs of life?” Chan asked.
“Not yet. But we don't know what kind of life we're looking for.”
The Doctor raced off going deeper into the steelworks to investigate what had happened to the spaceship.
A pair of teenagers about Rose’s age rode past Donna and Rose. “Oi, Jason, you all right?” The first bully shouted.
“Looking good, Jason!” his friend added on.
“Give us a kiss, Jay Boy!” The first bully laughed.
“I'll get them.” Donna placed the box she’d been carrying on top of the one Rose was holding, full of fury at the bullies who thought her daughter was an easy target. “Is that Josie Wingate's boy?” she thought that the young lad had a strong look of Josie and it would figure that her son would be a little terror just like his mother.
“Just leave it.” Rose knew she was incredibly lucky to have such loving and supportive parents but she honestly didn’t want to draw any more attention to herself worried that it would only make things worse. That and her mum did have the habit of going absolutely nuclear.
“Well, I'm going to tell her, cos I remember she had lots of names at school.” Donna opened the door, letting Rose walk in first.” And I should know. I invented 'em.” She’d done it because Josie had thought making fun of Donna’s hair colour and freckles made her a comedian. Unsurprisingly she’d hated getting a taste of her own medicine and had soon shied away from saying a word about Donna’s appearance. It hadn’t worked with all the idiots at school who had saw her as a target but it did work often enough for it to become Donna’s go to response with bullies. “Oh, more trouble?” She said when she spotted her mum.
“I've made you a nice curry.” Sylvia told her.
“We've still got that giant sausage roll from Thursday. I don't need my own personal food bank. It is not my fault I lost my job. All right, it is my fault, but still...”
“If you'd kept some of that money...”
“Don't start.” Donna told her mum, she knew Sylvia meant well but it would only end up in another argument, what was done was done and she still felt that she’d made the right decision donating nearly all of her money.
“Gran, did you see that spaceship? Was it on the news?” Rose asked excitedly, also hoping that it might distract her mum and gran from bickering.
“No, I didn't, and I won't, and I couldn't. I mean, how many more times? There's no such thing as spaceships. You didn't see anything, did you?” The last part was directed at her daughter, Sylvia was always terrified for Donna’s safety when anything alien happened. Why can’t they all just sod off and leave Earth alone for a few more decades?
“Oh, you know me. Dumbo. I miss everything.”
“Well, good.” She turned to Rose gave her a kiss and said, “You look absolutely gorgeous.”
“I'm just going to put these in the shed.”
“Listen, you. I would burn down the world for you, darling. Anyone has a go; I will be there and I will descend.” Rose had the feeling that her mum wasn’t just using hyperbole, especially given how she’d gone to the school guns blazing when some kids had been bullying her for liking girly stuff when she was younger and her teacher had said it was just boys being boys. She went out of the back door to the shed which she’d made into her workshop.
“Is she all right?” Sylvia asked concerned.
“Boys from school.” Donna answered taking off her jacket and sitting down starting up her laptop to continue her job search. It was a pain in the arse to scroll through all the listings but it needed doing, they couldn’t survive on just Shaun’s salary.
“I never know. When I say she looks gorgeous, is that right? I mean, is it sexist? Never said it to him when he was... Oh. Oh, sorry.” At least I didn’t slip up in front of Rose, the last thing I want to do is upset her or make her feel that I don’t love and accept her.
“Does she look gorgeous? Yes. Well, stop worrying.”
“I just get so clumsy.”
“I know. So, do I. That's what happens. You have a kid, you think, ‘Good. I've got it. That's mine.’ And then she grows up into this extraordinary, beautiful thing, and you think, ‘Where the hell did she come from? How lucky am I?’ Don't you, Mum?”
“Oh, yes. Definitely.”
“Yeah, I wish.” Donna’s mind drifted back to the spaceship thing and not just because she couldn’t stop thinking about that handsome stranger. “Funny about that spaceship thing. Remember Gramps used to talk about flying saucers?”
“Did I tell you? I saw Susie Mair. She's looking a lot better. Shorter, obviously.” Sylvia rambled desperate to change the subject in case that triggered the missing memories.
“And then he stopped. He used to talk about aliens and UFOs and little green men, then he never mentioned them again, round about the time... I forgot everything.” It wasn’t just that he’d stopped been interested in aliens, before her memory loss he was constantly up on the hill star gazing and his telescope was his most prized possession.
However, all that had stopped long before he’d started regularly using his wheelchair. It was so strange. If you’d have asked her before she’d lost her memories if he’d ever stop talking about aliens and going up on the hill she’d have confidently stated that he’d keep star gazing and talking about UFOs until he wasn’t able to anymore. Why would her losing his memories stop him from doing what he loved? It just didn’t make any sense to her.
“It's a long time ago, darling. Fifteen years.” Every time Donna mentioned the missing time Sylvia was terrified that it would cause her to remember. The first few months had been unbearable Donna had been so confused and upset over the memories and it had been like waking over a minefield trying to avoid all the potential triggers and her persistent attempts to find out what she’d been doing during the missing to years. Luckily Shaun had come along and their relationship had distracted her from her search, especially as soon as she’d found out she was pregnant.
“There's just this... gap.” Two whole years of memories gone, the last thing she remembered was the day before the wedding with Lance and then nothing, absolutely nothing until she’d woken up after presumably passing out drunk in her bed still wearing her clothes. She vaguely remembered there’d been some sort of mass hysteria at the time but it was too hazy for her to remember it properly.
What she did remember was her frustration that not one of her friends or family would say anything about those missing years. Nothing not one jot. No matter how much asking around she did, she didn’t get any answers it was like everyone had taken a bleeding vow of silence over those two years of her life.
“It's no great mystery. You had a bit of a breakdown, sweetheart, and then you got better.” Why did spaceship have to crash when Donna was out? Now she’s asking all sorts of dangerous questions. Sylvia was desperate to get the conversation away from such a risky topic.
“Sometimes I think there's something missing.” Donna hated that even now, the thought of it made her want to cry. “Like I had something lovely, and it's gone. And I... I kind of... I kind of look to the side, like... like something should be there, but it's not. And I know I've got Rose and Shaun and you, and the biggest sausage roll I've ever seen, frankly. I should be happy. I should be really happy. But some nights... I lie in bed thinking ‘What have I lost?’”
Without any conscious effort Donna’s mind drifted to her mystery man, the guy that she’d been dreaming about since losing her memories. She’d often wondered if she was dreaming of someone she’d known during her missing two years but if she was being honest with herself she knew it was far more likely that it was nothing but pure fantasy. There wasn’t a man out there who adored her who she’d spent those two years with having amazing, mind-blowing sex with. It was just her subconscious trying to come to terms with forgetting so much. At least that’s what she told herself.
Rose had just put the cardboard boxes in the recycling bin when Fudge raced out into the ally exited, “Rose! Have you seen? On the flatwood! A spaceship landed!”
“Fudge, that was miles away.”
“No, but a bit fell off, like an escape pod, with aliens inside!” Fudge explained and Rose was soon following him to where he’d seen the escape pod land.
Rose had thought that Fudge might be wrong, that it might have been a drone or something similar but he’d been right a real-life alien escape pod had landed right near their houses. It was incredible.
“Oh my God, it’s empty, Rose! That means it got out, there’s an alien on the loose! This is amazing!” Fudge was all but jumping up and down in excitement. In the distance they could hear the sirens of a police car approaching.
“I’m gonna get my phone!” Rose said. She could take some pictures could show her great granddad she remembered both her mum and her gran saying he used to love that kind of stuff. She’d definitely inherited his love of all things to do with outer space all her creations were based on what she thought aliens might look like.
As she left she could hear the police officers telling people “to stay calm.” She hoped she’d still have the chance to get some good photos for her great granddad when she returned.
As Rose ran back down the ally she saw a couple of bins rattle as if something was behind them. maybe it was a cat or a dog? Rose thought, she couldn’t see as there was a few bin bags in the way. It’s probably Mr Merchandani’s husky, Luna. She remembered Fudge telling her that she’d been trying to get into the bins for snacks since the vet had said she needed to go on a diet.
Then Rose heard a whimpering sound and crying. “Who's that?” she asked hesitantly. She saw long thin fingers curling around the bag and she carefully picked up the bag to reveal an adorable alien that sort of looked like a fat ferret.
“Meep, meep!”
“Oh, my God. Hello. I mean, wow. What are you?” Rose babbled excitedly. Logically she knew it was entirely possible that this alien wouldn’t understand English or if they could, they wouldn’t be able to speak anything she’d recognise as a language, but hopefully they would be able to find a way to communicate.
“I am The Meep.” The alien said in a timid voice, looking completely vulnerable and helpless.
“You can talk? Oh, my God.” Rose was astounded that it not only spoke English but had and English accent. She also noticed that the alien sounded quite child like.
“Meep, meep.”
“My name is Rose. I'm a human. What happened? Did you crash?”
“I fell from the stars. I hurt my paw.” The Meep held up an injured paw that had a small cut on it but it was oozing green blood.
“Let me see.” Rose had taken a first aid course in school so if it wasn’t too bad she might be able to help the alien.
“No!” The Meep withdrew from her looking even more terrified, “But I'm not safe. There are others from the sky. They're hunting me down to kill me.”
“Who are they?” Rose’s voice was full of concern.
“Monsters,” The Meep’s huge eyes widened even more and Rose knew that she couldn’t leave the little alien on it’s own. She’d do everything she could to protect it.
Fudge hurried down the alleyway, excitedly talking on his mobile, “there are aliens on the loose right on our doorstep!” As he turned the corner he stopped suddenly and looked up trying to make sense of the strange sight in front of him. A pair of aliens looming above him, they were easily 7ft tall with a segmented beetle like body. Their heads had knobbly antennae; their eyes were large glowing bright red circles with no pupil whatsoever. Each had one lobster claw type hand and the other hand had squid like fingers that held a ray gun. Fudge had never been so scared in all of his short life.
One of the aliens hissed at him and Fudge screamed and ran away as fast as he could. The alien who had hissed at him raised his gun but the other alien stopped him.
“Leave him. It is the Meep we seek. Continue the hunt.”
The Doctor had found a quite spot in the wreckage, hidden underneath metal gantries the soldiers and steelworkers in the distance oblivious to his presence. He knew he needed to find out why the spaceship had chosen to land rather than crash here and who the pursuers were but his mind kept drifting to Donna and he was worried sick. He couldn’t stop thinking about how close he’d come to losing her today and it terrified him.
He knew that best way to protect Donna was to find out what was happening as quickly as possible and to stop who ever had attacked the ship from whatever nefarious plans that they where sure to have. With that in mind The Doctor used his sonic to create a floating touch screen, more translucent than glass but still some what see through. He pressed the side of the screen bringing up a graphic of the ship with plenty of technical details but even as he scanned through it. Not that it fully distracted him from his guilt and anxiety but he’d take what he could get so he could make sure that she remained safe.
“Too good for us now?” Shirley asked half joking as she approached him.
“Evening.” He turned to see the UNIT officer he’d spotted earlier talking about the spaceship. He was impressed that she’d noticed his presence and managed to track him down.
“Doctor.”
“That's a Double-Bladed Dagger Drive, damaged by laser fire, which means we've got two sets of visitors at war with each other. Nice to meet you. Did you get the heat readings and deceleration?”
“Oh, I got everything. Shirley Anne Bingham, UNIT Scientific Adviser No.56.”
“Oh! I was Scientific Adviser No.1.” That had been lifetimes ago when the Brig had worked there when he’d been stranded on earth in the 70s.
“Oh, I know. I've read the files. I'm going to get a bonus just for meeting you.”
“Oh...”
“But why are you hiding away? We're on the same side.” That didn’t make any sense according to anything that she’d read in the files. He looked like tenth incarnation of the Doctor and his records didn’t state he was one for hiding away. Then again it depended when it was in his timeline for all she knew he could have just been at the battle of Canary Warf or been imprisoned by the Master for a year. That would explain wanting to keep to himself but she needed to find out what information he had for them.
“Er... It's all a bit mad, Shirley. I don't know who I am any more.” He was beginning to think that a half hour nap followed by twelve and a half hours of pacing round the TARDIS worrying that his current face returning was somehow connected to Donna, hadn’t been enough to get him over the worst of his regeneration sickness. His mind was still hazy and foggy stopping him from thinking clearly.
“Well, you look like the Doctor to me.” She knew from his file that he’d had his mind wiped and suffered from amnesia a few times and wondered if that was what was happening to him now.
“Well, exactly. The one in the skinny suit. After that, I wear a bow tie. After that, I'm a Scotsman. After that, I'm a woman.”
“But...that's your future. You can't know that. It's forbidden.” There wasn’t much in the archives on what to do if the Doctor crossed his own timestream, but she knew it could be dangerous. This was a lot worse than it had first appeared, she’d need to get Kate Stewart here immediately.
“I regenerated, and she became me.” He clarified, it was obvious she’d been thinking that this was some sort of paradox situation.
“You got your old face back?” Well, that wasn’t as bad as him having dangerous foreknowledge, at least she didn’t think it was. As far as she knew it was completely unheard of.
“Yep.”
“But why?” What could cause such a thing? Shirley wondered.
“Well, that's what I'm worried about. Because I've got this friend called Donna Noble, and she was my best friend in the whole wide universe. I absolutely love her. Oh. Mmm. Do I say things like that now?” While he had called her his best friend which was true, even to his ears it had sounded far more like a declaration of romantic love. Maybe this incarnation had some significant differences to his tenth one, then again maybe he’d blurted it out because he’d been holding it in for so long.
“It sounds like a good thing to say.” Shirley smiled. She did wonder why he sounded surprised that he’d admitted he loved Donna but she assumed it was Gallifreyan cultural hangups left over from the curse.
“But Donna took the mind of a Time Lord into her head. I had to wipe her memory to save her life.” He knew that had been the only option not that knowing that had done anything to stop him from being consumed by guilt over one of his biggest failures. “If she ever remembers me, she will die.” He emphasised worried that too much of a UNIT presence near her might be a trigger. “So, what happens next? I get this face back and the TARDIS lands right next to her. I turn around, there's her husband, then a spaceship crashes right in front of her. It's like she's drawing us in.” He changed the subject not wanting to discuss his feelings for Donna.
Oh, she’s married! No wonder he was surprised he let slip that he’s in love with Donna. Probably why he’s doing his best sad puppy dog eyes, the woman he loves is married to someone else and it doesn’t seem like there’s any way for him to be able to even see her again without risking causing her death. The poor sod.
Everything on Donna Nobel’s file from the planets in the sky incident onwards was redacted heavily as it was restricted to one of the highest levels of confidentiality, so Shirely hadn’t known that Donna had took the Doctor’s mind into her head and wasn’t sure if any lingering Time Lord Consciousness could be causing the current situation and even if it was there might not be anything about it on the unredacted file. It’d be much quicker to just ask the Doctor; “What, she's making it happen?”
“No, she's got no idea. She's so ordinary, she's brilliant. She's got this beautiful daughter. She's happy. Is she?” He hoped she was happy, if she’d been happy the past fifteen years then it would made things slightly easier to deal with. That was the best he could hope for, no matter how much he wanted her by his side. He only wanted her to be happy. “And now the universe is turning around her again. I don't believe in destiny, but if destiny exists, then it is heading for Donna Noble right now.”
“What for?”
“I don't know,” and that scared him more than he was willing to admit. He needed to find out so he could make sure she was safe. Keeping Donna safe was his number one priority. He’d failed her once and he couldn’t let that happen again.
“Oh.”
“But she can't remember. I won't be the one who kills her. Right, there's no sign of a pilot, but that's not an automatic drive, so look for some sort of...”
“Ma'am? We've found the escape pod. No sign of life, but we're moving out to secure the site.” One of the soldiers told her.
“Good work, soldier. Go get it.” Then Shirley noticed the Doctor had stood up to go after the soldier so she said to him , “yeah, yeah, not you, mate. I've got this. Off you pop. Bye-bye.”
“Waited your whole life?” He joked.
“You wish.”
The Doctor had to smile, he much preferred it when he wasn’t fawned over by UNIT personnel, Shirley seemed to have a good head on her shoulders and he was sure she’d do a good job finding out who the second set of visitors were and where the ship was, while he went and had a look at the escape pod.
“Alpha Team, move out. Bravo team, commence...” Another soldier instructed.
The Doctor went into the opposite direction sneaking up to one of the many trucks full of munitions and used his sonic to open the tailgate and jumped up to sit on the back of the truck he gave Shirley a smile and a wave as the vehicle drove off. She smiled back but her attention was soon taken away by Colonel Chan.
“I think we've got something. A signal from inside the ship. It's some kind of repeated pulse, but when we answer it with basic modulation, it modulates it back. Ah.” They were approaching the spaceship and six soldiers were waiting for them. UNIT had installed a large free-standing gantry against the side of the ship. There was a staircase and platform, but there was no wheelchair access. “That's, er... Sorry about the stairs, but Geneva says to go in immediately.” Colonel Chan explained somewhat sheepishly.
“Don't make me the problem. Just get in there.” Shirley told him. It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. Standard protocell mandated that things be done as quickly as possible so while they could take the time to install stairs to access the ship, it would take too long to install a ramp or anything else for her to access it.
She watched anxiously as they went up the gantry to try and open the door to the ship, whatever was causing that pulse could be anything from some sort of guidance system to a warning that the ship was going to implode or even a type of alien inside that hadn’t registered as any life form they knew.
“Okay, let's see if this key-pulse works. At arms.” Colonel Chan said as he placed a white device on the side of the ship and activated it.
“Sir!” the soldier’s agreed in unison.
Segments of the device lit up to form a red circle before turning green. “Do not fire without my command.” Chan told the soldiers.
As the hatch opened there was a loud hissing screeching noise and purple and blue tendrils of energy flooded out of the ship. The energy penetrated the soldiers’ eyes, possessing them. Shirley watched horrified from the ground as the squad descend the stairs robotically and lowered their visors to obscure the unearthly bright blue glow that their eyes all had. She moved out of their line of sight and was glad they didn’t seem to remember that she’d been there. She knew she’d need to find away to alert the rest of the soldiers without alerting the ones who were currently possessed.
Rose came down the stairs hopping that the Meep had been okay left alone in her shed. She’d only left them there for a few minutes so she could gather some first aid supplies in her backpack but she wanted to get some antiseptic on that cut as quickly as possible who knew what could happen to the poor alien if it got an infection it wasn’t like she could take it down to the Royal Hope.
“It’s bin night, your turn!” Donna said without looking up from her laptop. Rose was glad her mum was distracted as she’d never kept such a big secret from her parents and had been a bit worried she’d blurt it out instantly if she asked what she was doing.
She went out into the garden and entered her workshop where she’d hidden the Meep.
“Meep, meep!” The Meep said fearfully.
“It's okay.” Rose assured the alien as she approached the small alien and began unpacking the first aid supplies she’d packed in her backpack.
“Hello.”
“It's only me. I've got some first-aid stuff.”
“I made some little friends.”
“Oh, no. They're just toys.” Did aliens give their children toys? Or where their concept of toys too different to what humans would consider toys?
“Please be my friend. Why won't you speak to the little Meep? Be my friend. Be my friend!” The blue toy squeaked in the Meep’s paw. “No... Please be my friend!” Each time there was no answer the Meep threw the toy aside and picked up another.
“They can't talk.” Rose explained.
“Please? Poor little things with no voice.” The Meep hugged the toy tightly.
“Look, it's just my little home-made business. I'm trying to make a bit of money for Mum and Dad, that's all. These are toys. Humans have toys. They've got stuffing inside.” Rose said showing the stuffing that filled the toy.
“Ah! You pulled its tummy out!”
“No, no, no, keep it down. Don't be so loud.” Rose tried to explain.
“I want to go home. The Meep is all alone.”
“Yeah. I know that feeling. Sometimes I think I'm from a different planet. That's what other people say.” She’d dreamt of alien planets for as long as she could remember, the one that she dreamt of the most had two suns, the sky was the most beautiful burnt orange colour at night and trees were bright silver with red grass. In the dreams she knew that the planet had been destroyed in a terrible war.
“You sound lonely.”
“No, just... different.” It wasn’t as if she had no one, she had a loving family and a couple really good friends at school, but sometimes she was unable to shake off the feeling that she didn’t belong. That she was too different, that she could never fully be herself.
“Now you have The Meep.” Rose smiled she’d do everything she could to protect this sweet little baby alien.
“I told you, on the rota, but did you listen, Rose?” Donna said from outside the shed.
“Hide.” Rose whispered urgently to the Meep as she hurriedly shoved her stuff back in her bag and zipped it up. Seconds later Donna came into the shed.
“Every week it is the same old thing, and who ends up doing the bins?” Donna asked.
“Mum, it says ‘keep out’.” Rose hoped that if she focused on that she wouldn’t immediately blurt out the alien’s existence, she was pretty sure he mum would realise something was up any second.
“You know my rules. No secrets in this house. Now, have you got anything for recycling?” Donna around the shed, she’d never know how Rose came up with all her ideas for her creations.
“I've done it. Come on, Mum, I'm starving. Let's go and have some tea.” Rose desperately tried to get her mum to leave the shed with her but Donna had spotted something she hadn’t seen before.
“Ooo, that's a new one, isn't it?” Donna asked looking at the Meep who was standing completely still pretending to be one of Rose’s toys.
“Mum, please.” Rose knew that she needed to get her mum out of the shed as quickly as possible because it was only a matter of time before she realised that the Meep wasn’t a toy.
“Oh, that is your best yet.” Donna didn’t understand why Rose was being so shy about her latest creation.
“No, I know, but let's go.”
“That woman from Abu Dhabi who buys your stuff, she'd love that one. Ah! She's obsessed with gonks. Grown woman, obsessed with gonks. You could charge her double.”
“It's really cold. Shall we go in?” Rose continued to try and get her mum’s attention off of the Meep.
“I have to say that is very good handiwork. You could go on the Sewing Bee.”
“Mum, please, let's go inside.”
“And those eyes are amazing! They look so real! They look...” Donna trailed off when she saw it blink. The rat thingy had blinked! “What?”
“What?” Rose asked trying her best to seem innocent.
“Did it just...” Donna was certain that the thing had just blinked but some concrete proof wouldn’t hurt so she did the sensible thing and poked it in the eye, which of course caused the creature to blink. “What the HELL?!?”
The Doctor couldn’t help but worry when the truck he was in passed Donna’s house, the escape pod had landed far to close to Donna. The trucks pulled up a few houses down from Donna and he could feel his nerves fray even more.
“Move out! Move, move, move! Single file, left flank!” A UNIT soldier ordered the others as the convoy of trucks pulled up close to where the escape pod had been found.
“What the hell is it doing in my shed?” Donna shouted loudly. Her daughter was hiding a giant mutant rat in the shed! Was that why she had the keep out sign? Oh, my God! How long has Rose been hiding it in the shed? No this wouldn’t do at all. Donna knew that she would need to take back control of the situation. She’d be making sure that Rose knew not to hide strange rodent creatures in the shed and that both she and Shaun would be doing regular checks to insure that nothing else was hidden in there. She was still unsure as to weather grounding was the appropriate consequence for hiding a rat monster in the shed or not.
The Doctor heard Donna’s voice and raced towards the sound, ignoring the soldiers going the other way to the escape pod. Cursing inwardly that whatever it was that had crashed had found it’s way to Donna. Didn’t the ungrateful bastard realise that without Donna saving the entire multiverse that nothing would even exist?
“Find the target. Surround the perimeter!” The soldier continued to bark out orders.
Sylvia opened the back door with a sense of dread she’d had a bad feeling all day that something was wrong, she’d hoped it was just her normal worry and anxiety over something triggering Donna’s memories. It seems like every other day there’s something alien threatening to trigger Donna’s memories and make burn her up. They’d been non of that nonsense when I was younger, no it was all that bloody pig thingy’s fault crashing into Big Ben eighteen years ago. It had been as if that creature had suddenly declared Earth the newest tourist hotspot for every alien in the universe.
“Please pretty lady,” The Meep pleaded following Donna and Rose.
“It talks!” What has that rat monster been telling Rose? How long had it been making Rose lie for it? Donna wondered.
“Mum!” She was desperate to calm her mum down, so she wouldn’t frighten the little Meep, she knew her mum was just shocked but Rose was sure that as soon as her mum realised the young alien wasn’t dangerous she’d help keep the Meep safe from whatever was trying to hurt the cute alien.
“How the hell is it talking?!” It’s not human so how is it speaking English? It didn’t make any sense, but a memory flickered in to Donna’s mind of that skinny man “That’s the TARDIS translation circuits. Just makes it look like English. Speech as well.” What the hell was a TARDIS? That wasn’t even a real word. The memory was soon forgotten when her attention was drawn to her mother panicking over the alien.
“Don't look at it. Look away. Right now. It isn't real.” Sylvia tried her best to obscure the alien from Donna’s view but she heard banging on the door and of course it was that bloody man! Just when today couldn’t get any worse, he had to show up!
“Please.” The Meep begged.
“Let me in! Let me in!” The Doctor begged; he’d been sick with worry since he’d realised that the UNIT convoy had been heading in the direction of Donna’s house.
“You!” Sylvia hissed, ice cold fury settling over her as she approached the Doctor. He’s got the cheek of the devil! Coming round here bringing more of his aliens with him endangering Donna and demanding to be let into the house.
The Doctor had to give credit where it was due and that was honestly some of the most seething hatred ever directed at him and considering some of the people who where his enemies that was saying something.
“I fell from the stars.” The Meep explained.
“Don't touch it!” Donna shouted, who knew what sort of space germs the thing has? What if it has space rabies? Can giant Martian rat thingies get space rabies? Is there a vaccine for space rabies?
The Doctor just needed Sylvia to understand that he’d never willingly do anything to hurt Donna, that he was trying to help her, that he was trying to protect her from the alien threat. He tried to be polite despite every nerve ending in his body was screaming for her to stop pissing about and just let him in. “Sylvia, it’s so nice to see you again,” quite possibly a contender for the biggest lie he’d ever told but he just wanted to get into the house to save Donna. “Could you let me in?”
She couldn’t believe the flaming cheek of that damned alien! Had he completely forgotten what he’d told her? “You said, if she sees you again she will die.” She spat out. if she dies because of your alien nonsense I will kill you.
“Well, no, if she remembers me, that’s slightly different.” He was splitting hairs and they both knew it.
Before either of them could say another word their attention was drawn to the commotion in the kitchen.
“No such thing as spaceships? We’ve got a bloody Martian in the shed!” Donna didn’t understand her Mum’s denial of the alien, it was one thing not to believe every bit of hysteria in the news, sometimes it seemed like every other week there was some new mass hysteria claiming that aliens were invading, but this alien was in their house! Not only that but when Donna looked down she saw that it was currently clinging onto her leg like it was a life preserver so why was her mum so keen to deny it? it didn’t make any sense.
“Stop panicking and grow up!” if Donna wasn’t so freaked out by the Martian rat she’d be telling Rose that she was in enough trouble as it was she didn’t need to start getting smart with her.
“Just get out of here now!” Sylvia was in no mood to deal with him on top of whatever the hell that creature was. She was trying to think of a lie to tell Donna about the alien to convince her it wasn’t real but she couldn’t think of anything. She turned around and to her dismay she saw the second most annoying alien she knew of clinging on to Donna’s legs.
“Get off me, you Space Rat!” Donna yelled.
“Help! Help!” the Meep wailed.
What was it with aliens becoming so attached to Donna? Sylvia wondered. Was it because of the interest in all that space nonsense dad had encouraged in her? Or was it because of her saving the universe?
“Wow. He’s so cute.” The Doctor said looking through the letter box. Not that he would ever admit to been jealous of the alien. I never thought I’d miss when she used to call me a Martian. He thought forlornly.
Sylvia raced towards Donna. “Don’t look at it, Donna, don’t look, don’t look, it doesn’t exist,” she was absolutely terrified that she was going to see her only child burn up right in front of her.
“What do you mean it doesn't exist? It's hanging off my left leg!” I think the stress has finally made mum snap.
“Meep, meep”
The Doctor then remembered that he had a sonic screwdriver and used it to open the front door. Sylvia had only gotten halfway down the hall when she heard the door open. She turned around, running back to the Doctor and belted him across the face as hard as she could.
“Here we go again.” What is it about it about this face attracting so many smacks? The Doctor thought, I’ve always thought it was a very handsome face.
“It’s that man.” The one who had looked like he’d known her mum and seemed really surprised that her name was Rose. She could only think of one other person who had been so surprised at her choice of name but Sam had explained why she’d been taken aback at hearing her chosen name for the first time.
“It’s Skinny Man.” He vaguely reminded Donna of someone but she couldn’t think of who it was. “He is too skinny for words. You give him a hug; you get a paper cut.” Donna said in her memory about the man. But that never happened, Did it? She couldn’t help but wonder if these were memories from her missing two years, but when she tried to focus on the memories they floated off like smoke.
“No, it isn’t! He’s not there! You can’t see him! And there’s no monster! None of this is happening! None of it! For the love of God, none of this is real!” Sylvia was frantic with worry trying to block both the fluffy alien and the annoying one from Donna’s sight.
Donna and Rose both thought that Sylvia was overreacting. Yes the alien was strange but been this committed to denying it was an extreme over reaction in their view and what did she have against the strange skinny bloke? It made Donna suspicious that she had known him during those two years and her mother didn’t approve of him.
She never approved of anyone I was with before Shuan. That thought caught Donna by surprise but she quickly dismissed it, surely if he’d known her then this skinny fella would have mentioned it.
“Hey, hey, dad’s home!” Shaun said as he walked into the absolute chaos of seeing some weird fluffy monster clinging on to his wife, his mother-in-law having some sort of meltdown trying to deny the existence of the monster and for some reason that weird bloke from the taxi, Nerys’ friend. The only normal thing was that Rose was trying to calm everyone down.
Everyone froze and stared at him like he was the one been strange! He decided that the best thing would be to ignore it. “Something smells nice.”
“Tuna madras.” Sylvia answered.
“Meep, meep.” The weird creature added.
Shuan pinched himself just to check that this wasn’t some strange fever dream.
Colonel Chan exited his UNIT truck along with Jackson both of them were wearing battle helmets with the visors down obscuring the alien light glowing in their eyes. Several more visored soldiers piled out of the truck. Chan soon spotted the escape pod, which was surrounded by arc lights, soldiers, UNIT trucks as well as barriers to keep the public at bay. Major Singh approached them ready for orders.
“Major Singh, you and your squadron will return to the steelworks immediately.”
“But sir, we detected an atypical...”
“You will return immediately for reassessment. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir. Mason, Jilvani, we're moving out.” Something’s not quite right with them, Singh thought.
“On me! Move!” Mason ordered.
“We are close. The Meep is near.” Chan stated.
The Doctor was sitting on the floor, facing the alien with Donna and her family watching the strange sight in front of them. Sylvia was trying to think of a way of getting Donna as far away from all of madness as possible. Seeing the Doctor tend to that alien’s paw with some first aid supplies gave her an idea.
“We should think about infection. I mean, I think this man should deal with this beast,” Slyvia pulled Donna behind her trying to keep as much distance between her daughter and the aliens, it was bad enough that Rose was sitting on the sofa so close to him. “And... and... and we can leave him alone and go back to mine.” She suggested hoping, almost praying that Donna would agree.
“Never mind. Never mind about the ferret from Mars. Who the hell are you?” Donna demanded. Why does he seem so familiar, I feel like I know him so well even though I’ve never seen him before today. When she closed her eyes she could see him in a pinstripe suit and he looked like a heartbroken drowned rat.
“I...” he didn’t want to use his old pseudonym of John Smith with her because he’d used it so often on their travels. He glanced at Sylvia who just glared at him, “er,” should have known better than to expect any help from her. He looked over at Shuan and asked; “What was it?” he’d been too preoccupied with getting information about Donna to care about his cover story.
“A friend of Nerys.” Shaun answered, but he seriously doubted this bloke was one of Nerys’ mates.
“That’s it,” Why did I say that? I should have said I knew Wilf, that would have made much more sense.
“Nerys! Now it all makes sense. That viper in the nest.” Donna spat. If the Doctor hadn’t already regretted saying he was a friend of Nerys, he certainly did now. He dreaded to think what she thought of him now, probably worse than how Sylvia saw him. “I’m not going anywhere; we could sell Mad Paddington for a million quid.”
“Mum!” Rose shouted appalled.
“No,” the Doctor objected. He knew Donna just reacting a bit poorly to the stress caused by the Meep’s sudden appearance.
“You fill the fridge,” Donna huffed. Besides she didn’t like the fact that talking rat thing had been hiding in the shed. If she hadn’t walked in there, how long would it have had Rose lying to her? Nope she didn’t trust that alien rodent any more than she’d trust Nerys not to be a backstabbing bitch.
Yet another memory flashed in Donna’s mind this time it was Nerys dancing with Lance at the wedding reception. “They had the reception without me.” Donna herd herself saying and could feel both the hurt and the anger as well as more than a bit of betrayal that her friends and family had been more than happy to celebrate without her.
“Yes, I gathered.” Skinny man answered.
“Well, it was all paid for. Why not?” Nerys said completely unfazed.
“Thank you, Nerys.” The memory made no sense to Donna why had she missed her own reception? Also why was skinny man there? The more Donna tried to focus the hazier the memory became.
“What did happen to all your money?” He’d asked Shaun but he wanted to hear it from Donna, something was niggling in the back of his mind about something to do with the metacrisis but he wasn’t sure.
“Why are you so interested in us? Everywhere we go. There you are.” He wasn’t acting like any of the blokes Nerys had for friends. No even though he hadn’t said he’d knew her she was starting to think that she knew him from somewhere. That didn’t explain why her mum was acting so weird about him or why he hadn’t said anything about knowing her but she couldn’t shake the feeling. It also hadn’t escaped her notice that he’d shown up just before this strangeness, what was he some sort of disaster magnet?
“Yeah, I just... I was wondering. There is one person missing. I used to know your grandad, Wilf.” The Doctor was unable to actually ask directly almost afraid that would mean the answer was no.
“He’s not with us anymore.” That still saddened Donna, she hated that her grandad had needed to move out of his own home.
“Right. Of course. He wasn’t young, he was... I loved that man.” Blimey, this version of him wore his heart on his sleave. He’d need to be very careful not to blurt out anything that could get him smacked or worse something that could trigger Donna’s memories. “I’m so sorry for your loss,” The Doctor told them sadly.
“He’s not dead, you idiot.” Sylvia sniped; she was not going to pass up an opportunity to insult the Doctor.
“He’s in sheltered housing, he’s 94, he couldn’t manage the stairs.” Donna explained.
“We were lucky, we couldn’t afford it, then this offer came along.” Shaun thought it had all been a bit too good to be true.
“It’s amazing, he’s got this room, like a cottage, with a garden, and it’s almost free.” Rose added in.
“Run by that lot in the middle of town, UNIT. This woman in charge, Kate, she said he’s an old soldier, she’ll take care of him.” Shaun said
“Right, I know her! She’s looking after Wilf? Brilliant. Brilliant.” That reassured the Doctor that at least one thing was going right. Donna narrowed her eyes at the stranger, how come he claimed to know so many people in her life? Why hadn’t she met him or even heard of him before today? Most importantly why was she so sure she could trust him with her and Rose’s lives? It made no sense whatsoever.
“Meep, meep?” everyone looked to the alien having almost forgotten that the Meep was there.
“Yes! The Meep! I promise, I can help him to get home, and then you will never see me again.” The Doctor announced, he shouldn’t have allowed himself to get so distracted, he couldn’t afford to waste time, every moment he was in her presence he risked Donna’s life. At the same time there was a part of him that wanted to stay with her as long as possible, as he knew this would be the last time he spent with her, but he couldn’t give in to that selfish desire, it was far too risky.
“You’re assuming ‘he’ as a pronoun.” Rose said with a glare. Why on earth would anyone assume aliens even had human pronouns, it was a small wonder that the Meep spoke English as well as they did.
“True, yes, sorry, good point.” The Doctor turned to face the Meep, Donna leaned forward interested in what an alien’s pronouns might be. Since Rose had come out she’d been trying to learn as much as she could about the LGBTQ+ community so she could better support her. Sylvia remained wary just wanting it all to be over so that things could go back to normal.
“Are you he, or she, or they or...?” The Doctor trailed off, if he listed all the universe’s most common pronouns they’d be there until the sun exploded and there would still be an infinite number of options that he wouldn’t have offered.
“My chosen pronoun is the definite article. I am always... the Meep.”
“Oh. I do that.” The Doctor said, it was a bit unusual to meet someone else who wasn’t a Time Lord who did that. “But you were shot down, so who wants you dead?”
“The Wrarth Warriors. They cultivate Meepkind for our beautiful fur. But then the galaxy said, ‘No more fur. It's wrong.’ So, the Wrarth Warriors slaughtered their livestock..” it was hard for the humans not to be moved by the alien’s tale of woe.
“You’re a fashion victim.” The Doctor said without thinking. He looked up and saw Donna and her family glaring at him, but he was sure that he saw the tiniest glimmer of amusement in Donna’s eyes. Nonetheless he’d apologize to the Meep, “sorry.”
“Now, they will hunt me down until there are no Meeps left. It breaks both my hearts.”
“You’ve got two hearts! So have I!” Yet another thing he had in common with the Meep. That didn’t mean it was alright for the Meep to usurp his nicknames from Donna. Not that I’m jealous of the Meep, I’m not jealous of that adorable little ball of fluff. It just isn’t right for the Meep to steal my nicknames.
“You’ve got what?” Donna asked. Why does that remind me of someone? I must be going completely crazy. “Two hearts. Two hearts. She's like me. If we wait. If we just wait.” The strange man said in her memory he was cradling a young blond woman in his arms, she’d been shot. In her memory Donna’s heart was breaking for the man but she knew there was nothing that could help him or the girl, when Donna tried to focus on the memory to try and find out who the girl was and what had happened to her, again the memory vanished like it had never been there.
“No, he... he means it like a metaphor. Like two minds, don't you?” Sylvia was going to end up either killing the Doctor or dying of rage before the night was over, she was sure of it.
The Doctor had been about to answer but he was interrupted by someone banging loudly on the door.
“What the hell is it now?” Donna wondered what new strangeness that skinny bloke had brought to their door.
The Doctor went into the hall to see who was knocking. He was relieved to see the UNIT soldiers through the door window, finally something was going right.
“Good, the soldiers, we need a lift, then me and the Meep can get out of your way. This lot are on my side” He opened the door and realised with a sinking sense of dread that something was very wrong. The three UNIT personal all had their visors covering their eyes and their was just something off about them that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“We demand to search the house, this has been declared a military zone.” Colonel Chan commanded.
“Sorry, could you say that again?” While he spoke he soniced the visor and saw that the man’s eyes where glowing with an unearthly bright blue light and he then lowered the man’s visor.
Chan was seemingly unaware of what the Doctor was doing while he repeated; “We demand to search the house, this has been declared a military zone.”
“Not today, thanks.” Was it really too much to ask to be able to get the Meep and leave in peace before Donna’s memories were triggered? Even if the universe does hate me, it owes her! There wouldn’t even be a universe without her, so the least it could do was allow me to protect her. He shut the door and told Donna, her family and the Meep; “I think we need to run. Oh!”
Just as he’d spoken there was a loud explosion as two Wrarth Warriors exploded the back door and most the wall around it. One of the evil looking aliens demanded “Wrarth attack formation! Surrender The Meep.”
“Positions!” Colonel Chan ordered and he and the UNIT soldiers opened fire on the Wrarth warriors who instantly returned fire.
“Secure the house! Eliminate the Wrarth,” A UNIT soldier instructed the others piling out of a Land Rover.
Just as the Doctor managed to duck back into the living room the UNIT soldiers booted the front door in and started firing their guns at the Wrath Warriors. UNIT’s bullets bounced off the Wrath’s exoskeletons only causing the aliens to stagger slightly. They soon recovered enough to aim their ray guns at the UNIT soldiers. Pulses of blue light hit two of the UNIT Soldiers causing them to stager and then drop down, Chan continued to open fire on the aliens seemingly unaware of inefficient his weapon was.
“What the hell is going on?!” Donna demanded furiously, who the hell did these tossers think they were shooting up her house like this?
“Donna!” Sylvia exclaimed panicked..
“Where's your car?” The Doctor asked Shuan.
“Er... five... Five doors down.”
“Excellent.” he held up the sonic screwdriver, traced a rectangle that was as tall as he was but wider forming a floating screen.
“There’s children in here! We’ve got children!” Shuan shouted out hoping that would get the soldiers to stop.
“Never mind me, we've got to save the Meep.” Rose told her dad.
The Doctor frowned looking at the screen, it wouldn’t be strong enough. Concentrating more he increased the setting on the sonic and the screen became stronger taking on a translucent grey colour. Without thinking he handed off the sonic to Donna who took it with out question. A new (well old) memory surfaced, Donna was standing in a phone booth wearing her wedding dress, trying to remember how to get the operator when the skinny man said, “I've got it, just call direct.” He pointed a slim sliver tube with a blue glowing light at the phone.
“What did you do?” She asked him curiously.
“Something Martian. Now phone! I'll get money.” Despite the devices only having the same basic shape Donna was certain that they were just two different versions of the same device. She couldn’t remember the name but she was absolutely sure that they were the same tool.
The Doctor took hold of the screen sliding it into the hall as if it was a sheet of bullet proof glass. He positioned it to his left to create a barrier across the hall separating him and the others from the UNIT soldiers as two more had taken their positions at the front door. The screen was shuddering and tiny chips of it were flying everywhere but that was as strong as he could make it, so hopefully it would last long enough.
The Doctor returned and realised he’d given Donna his sonic screwdriver but he didn’t have time to beat himself up over his stupidity. He hastily took it from her hands ignoring the death glare from Sylvia and started creating a second screen that was a bit narrower than the first one. He slid the second screen out into the hall this time to his right and pushed it down closer to the kitchen so it lined up with the bottom of the stairs forming a barrier on the Wrarth’s side even as it was been continuously hit with their ray guns. The Wrarth’s lasers didn’t cause it to chip like the UNIT bullets instead causing it to shudder like it was about to disintegrate any moment.
The Doctor only needed it to last for a minute or two, just long enough for him to get Donna and the others through the safe corridor the two screens temporarily made to the foot of the Stairs.
“Upstairs! Up, up, up, up, up, up, up.” The Doctor ordered. He would not allow anything to happen to Donna, he could not let anything happen to her. Shaun was the first one out of the living room but didn’t run up right away, instead using his body to shield Donna and Rose who ran up together followed by Sylvia then he ran up the stairs wanting to get his family out of the line of fire.
“Come on, The Meep! Come on.” The Doctor encouraged the small alien hoping that the Meep would hurry up so he could get Donna out of harm’s way, pent up restless energy causing him to jog on the spot as he waited for the Meep to move. Bullets and laser blasts were ricocheting all around them as they tried to escape from the UNIT soldiers and Wrarth warriors.
“Meep!” The Meep yelped scampering across the hall and up the stairs.
Moments later the two screens that the Doctor had made with the sonic shattered into nothingness. The UNIT Soldiers and the Wrarth Warriors resumed direct fire at one another.
“Meep sighted.” A Wrarth Warrior stated.
“Help me!” The Meep shouted.
They had managed to get on the landing on the first floor when the entire back wall was exploded, the Doctor quickly assessed that they’d managed to avoid any real injury. When they looked up they could see the night sky clearly through the massive hole in the wall.
“My house!” Donna shouted furiously, She’d sue the backsides off them soldiers and have them court-martialled for this. another memory flickered past her mind; she was wearing the wedding dress she’d picked out to wear for her wedding to Lance and was in some strange coral themed room that featured a large control panel in the centre and she was saying to skinny man “I'm having the police on you! Me and my husband, as soon as he is my husband, we're going to sue the living backside off you!” The memory confused Donna as she was completely certain that she could trust skinny with her and Rose’s lives but in the memory she seemed afraid of him. Trying to remember more of the context of them memory only caused it to vanish and Donna could hardly remember that she had remembered anything.
“Upstairs, upstairs, upstairs!” Doctor tried to herd the humans and alien up the stairs, they didn’t have time for Donna to give the aliens a piece of her mind. They all run up.
“Body armour at maximum!” Colonel Chan shouted.
A Wrarth Warrior hovered on insect like wings outside the hole it had made. “Find The Meep!” it ordered.
the Doctor was the last one up the stairs, he turned to see that the UNIT soldiers had won the battle downstairs and were now halfway up the stairs. Seeing him they opened fire.
The battle waged on as the Doctor got to the third floor. The Doctor yanked down the pully on the ladder that lead to the attic and told Donna, her family and the Meep; “Up we go, fast as you can!”
Shaun was the last one up the ladder, he saw the Doctor standing next to the brick wall on the other side of the attic with Donna, Rose, Sylvia and the Meep watching him.
“This is a sonic screwdriver, and if it's good at one thing... it's resonating concrete.” The Doctor said holding up the sonic to the brick wall, unable to resist the opportunity to show off a bit.
As he spoke an image of him standing next to a sound system flashed in Donna’s mind and he shouted; “Oi! Santa! Word of advice. If you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver, don't let him near the sound system.” He’d then jammed the sonic into the deck of the sound system causing a horrible whirring feedback sound which made the robotic Santas shake and shudder into pieces.
Donna had no idea why there had been robot attack Santas at her first wedding. Shaking off the worry that she was having some strange sort of hallucination, she instead decided to watch what the strange bloke was doing with his sonic. It wasn’t he fault if her eyes happened to drift down to look at his bum that was so nicely displayed in that tight suit.
“That's not concrete, that's mortar,” Shaun told the man.
“Thank you, Bob the Builder.” Feeling slightly annoyed that Shuan had interrupted her admiration of… the wall been disintegrated. It certainly wasn’t a bit of guilt and embracement that she’d been so obviously perving at the skinny fella. Okay so it might have been but she refused to admit it.
The Doctor was oblivious to Donna’s admiration as he pushed the bricks out of the way.
“Skinny Minnie. You're not bad.” He might look like a mild gust of wind could blow him over but he must have a nice bit of muscle to be able to push those bricks out the way. Again, the memory of him completely naked flashed into her mind saying, “Oh Yes!” flashed before her eyes and her suspicions seemed to be confirmed, he had a lean build with a nice bit of muscle, like a runner. Donna also noticed that they were in that strange coral themed room again and that it seemed to be on fire. Oh my God! What had we been doing to set a room on fire? She wondered but within moments the memory was gone again.
“You think?” The Doctor asked as he turned to look at her to see her smiling at him and he smiled back. I’ve missed this so much, it's just like the good old days.
“No, she doesn't. Now move!” Sylvia butted in ruining the moment. She would not put up with any flirting with aliens, not while she still had breath in her body. She was not going to let that man ruin Donna’s marriage. He was worst than a bitch in heat, it was a shame she couldn’t take him down the vet’s to get him neutered.
“Come on. Five houses down.” The Doctor lead them through the attics of a few of their neighbours’ houses so they could make their way to the car without been caught in the crossfire.
Oh god I hope no one finds out about this, Sylvia thought, I’d never be able to face the Wednesday girls again! She knew they had to escape the soldiers and aliens but it was so unseemly to have to break into the attics of Donna’s neighbours.
Outside more UNIT vehicles pulled up. The ones that who had gone up to the crashed ship and became possessed turned to shoot at the new arrivals.
“Rogue UNIT troops under hostile control. This is Code Red. Open fire!” Major Singh ordered. Some of the UNIT cars had been ignited by the bullets and Wrarth warrior were advancing on them.
“All soldiers protect house 23!” A soldier shouted. Wrarth warriors opened fire as the Doctor lead Donna, her family and the Meep to safety.
Once they’d got to the house where Shuan had parked, the Doctor lead them down the stairs and out the house. Donna was a bit curious as to how someone other than her had missed everything that seemed to be happening and peeked in through the living room door to see the occupant snoozing with his headphones on.
When they got outside they saw that the Wrarth warriors were ignoring them to head over to Donna’s they’d managed to sneak past them
“Meep, meep.”
“Can I have the keys?” The Doctor asked.
“I drive that car.” Shaun stated.
“Through a battlefield?” he couldn’t believe how possessive the human was being over a car, little did he know that he’d sounded the same way to most of his companions about the TARDIS and also about Bessie, the car he’d drove when the Time Lords had exiled him to Earth.
Donna still didn’t know why, exactly and she certainly wouldn’t have been able to explain it but she trusted this strange man. She turned to her husband and said, “Shaun. Let him do it.”
“He’s insane.” Why doesn’t Donna understand that? That man had shown up just as all the trouble started and while he typically wasn’t the type to jump to conclusions, Shaun was of the opinion that it wasn’t even taking baby steps to conclusions they where just right there. Not to mention that Sylvia clearly knew more than she was letting on.
“That’s what we need.” she really didn’t want to have to try and explain why trusted this man, as she couldn’t even explain it to herself, she just knew it. Thankfully Shaun saw the look on her face and realised that arguing would get them nowhere and very reluctantly handed over the keys, while the Doctor did his best not to grin smugly that still Donna trusted him. He did not do a very good job of it.
The Doctor ran to the driver’s seat as Rose was shoving the Meep into the back, the small alien choose not to get up on the seats instead remaining on the floor to have less of a chance of been seen. Donna, Sylvia and Shuan got into the back with Rose and the Meep, keeping their heads low and trying not to make a noise.
The Doctor noticed a solder in the middle of the road at first glance the soldier looked dead, but he wasn’t sure, so he bent down and checked for a pulse and was puzzled to find one. “What?” no this wasn’t good; this wasn’t good at all. The Wrarth warrior heard him and turned to face The Doctor and let out a strange alien roar.
“Meep, Meep!”
The Doctor dived into the driver’s seat; he needed to get them away from here as quickly as possible but he also needed to find out what was really going on.
“Meep located! Stop The Meep!” A Wrarth warrior shouted.
“Get us out of here!” Donna shouted at the same time as a formation of Wrarth warriors took aim at them, but the Doctor quickly reversed the taxi as fast as he could and turned it round to get out the road the opposite way and a hail of Wrarth lasers hit the cab causing everyone to duck
“Help the Meep!”
The Doctor drove as fast as the taxi could go, quite possibly breaking every speed law that there was as he tried to get Donna and her family to safety, but he was beginning to think that danger was lurking inside the taxi with them. He’d never encountered the Meepkind before so he’d trusted what the Meep had said but now he wasn’t so sure that the alien had been honest with him.
As the sound of gunfire fell away the humans in the cab slowly sat up, all in complete disbelief that they had escaped without injury.
“Oh my God.” Donna was astounded at everything that had happened in the past few hours but it appeared that she’d been right to trust the handsome stranger. Not that I fancy him mind. I’m a happily married woman, but if you can’t have a bit of a look when you think you’re facing certain death then when can you? It didn’t mean that I’d do anything about unlike some people, people called Nerys for example.
“You did it.” Shuan said astounded. He should have known to trust Donna’s instincts.
“We’re alive. Thank you.” Sylvia said sincerely. Which only further convinced the Doctor that something was seriously wrong, her been sincere to him had to be an omen, not that he believed in omens, but if there where such a thing as omens, then that would certainly be a bad one. The only worse one I can think of would be the four horsemen showing up.
“Meep, meep.”
“Either we escaped... or we've got things very, very wrong.” The Doctor said just before pulling into an underground parking lot. They could hear the sirens from outside the parking lot but they were safe for the moment.
The Doctor got out the taxi radiating all the authority that came with being the last of the Time Lords. Donna wondered why that grave dark look on his face was so familiar to her and why she felt the urge to get out of the cab and give him a hug, telling him it’d all be okay.
The Meep and the other humans watched with a hint of trepidation. The Doctor walked over and opened the back door and the Meep hopped out of the Taxi trying to look as innocent and as cute possible.
“Meep, meep!”
The Doctor walked away from the cab with the Meep following behind him. He took out the Shadow Proclamation standard issue lawyer wig, still unbelieving that they’d passed that law that anyone representing the Shadow Proclamation or invoking it’s laws had to wear one of the wigs.
“This court is now in session.” Thank the Menti Celesti that Donna is still a bit too shocked by everything that’s been happening or she’d tease me into my next regeneration. “Intercept teleport.”
“Help me!” The meep begged.
The Doctor raised the sonic screwdriver and it emitted a single beep. There was the shimmering flare of a blue teleport light and then two Wrarth warriors appeared, they instantly raised their guns.
Donna got out of the taxi ready to give that daft git a piece of her mind; “What the hell are you doing?!” why the hell had they just broken into five of her neighbours houses to escape those evil aliens only to summon here. If she had to she’d smack the sense into him.
A memory surfaced of the Skinny Man rambling on excitedly; “The wedding! Yes, you're getting married, that's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle. Oh, your body's a battleground! There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine. Wham! go the endorphins. Oh, you're cooking! Yeah, you're like a walking oven. A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away. The particles reach boiling point. Shazam!” Of course, Donna had then slapped him, causing him to ask in a very whiny voice; “What did I do this time?”
“Are you enjoying this? Right, just tell me. These particles, are they dangerous? Am I safe?” The memory was cut off when she heard the strange man speaking.
“Silence in court. I am invoking Shadow Proclamation Protocols 15, P and 6. Under my jurisdiction there will be no violence until such time as I deem it fit and proper, is that understood?” The Doctor had little hope that the protocols of the Shadow Proclamation would stop Donna from smacking him, even after billions of years from his perspective he remembered the glint in her eye when she was about to smack someone. Both the Wrarth warriors nodded and lowered their guns, at least they respected his authority.
“Now. Exhibit A. The taxi. No scorch marks. Donna, can you confirm?” The Doctor continued. He’d asked her specifically because even with her memories removed, due to her time and space travel she was the only person besides him who’s statements would be admissible to the Shadow Proclamation. He also hoped it might distract her from wanting to smack him.
“Er... Yes. Er... No, nothing.” Donna answered him. That was confusing, why had the aliens not harmed the taxi? They’d been more than happy to blow a hole in her house and had been firing those laser guns around willy nilly but they hadn’t left so much as a scratch on the Taxi? Maybe this strange bloke was onto something, things obviously weren’t as they seemed at first glance.
“We were hit by plasma bolts, but there isn’t a mark. And that soldier in the street, he was unconscious, not dead. Exhibit B. Those guns,” the Doctor gestured towards the Wrarth warriors and they held up their guns, “are stun guns. Is that correct?”
“The guns apply a mild and harmless neural anaesthetic. For the record, my name is Sergeant Zogroth.” The humans were surprised that not only did the seemingly scary evil aliens sound so polite but apparently all aliens spoke English.
“And I am Constable Zreeg.”
“But the evil Wrarth Warriors want to kill the Meep.”
“The only ones out to kill were the soldiers with the swirling eyes. Were they coming to hurt you, the Meep? Or save you?” if that furry rat was responsible for endangering Donna he wouldn’t be responsible for his actions.
“if I may speak?” Zogroth asked.
“Address the court.” He was hopeful that the Wrarths could sort out the Meep, because he had the feeling that whatever they had planned for The Meep would be a lot kinder than anything he’d do, especially if the Meep had specifically targeted Donna.
“The story of The Meep is a tragic tale. Their planet basked in the light of a living sun, until one terrible day, the sun went mad.”
“A psychedelic sun.” Zreeg added on for context as he saw that the humans looked confused. When they continued to look confused he remembered that Sol three was still very early in it’s planetary development and wouldn’t know about such things, they were all very lucky to have a Shadow Proclamation representative on the planet.
“Its radiation mutated all of Meepkind into cruel beasts who live for conquest.” Zogroth added for the humans and for the court records.
“The eyes! That's solar psychedelia!” The Doctor resisted the urge to literally face palm, it should have been obvious to him the moment he’d seen the strange glowing eyes of the UNIT soldiers.
“It renders them as maniacs.” Zogroth added.
“The Meep Army captured the Galactic Council, beheaded them and ate them. The Wrarth Warriors were summoned, and we fought across the stars a long and awful battle.” Zreeg explained hopeful that freelance Shadow Proclamation representative would finally put an end to the rampage of the last of the Meep.
“Meepkind died rather than surrender, and now only this one survives. Their leader, the most cruel and despicable of all.” Zogroth told them all.
“Meep, meep.”
“Now, let's be fair. It's your turn, The Meep.” The Doctor went to stand beside Donna leaning on the front of the taxi. “Witness for the defence. So, what do you say?”
“Oh, to hell with this. Exhibit C.” The Meep abruptly dropped the cute and innocent act and reaching into a pouch in the Meep’s fur, similar to the ones that otter’s have and retrieved a small gun pointing it directly at the two Wrarth Warriors shooting both of them rapidly. “No stun guns for me! Just die!” The Meep announced gleefully.
“Oh my God!” Donna raced over to the dying Wrarths, acting on instinct.
“Donna, don’t!” Shaun begged, but she didn’t listen to him.
Why does being beside this skinny man who won’t tell us his name feel so right? Even as they knelt in front of the fallen Wrarths it felt more normal and natural to Donna to be by his side than anything had since before she lost her memories. Why is that? Why does being beside him feel so natural, so right? Even with everything going mental, being next to him makes me feel safe, why is that? She couldn’t remember many details of the memories that kept flashing before her eyes but she was almost convinced she’d known him. That or he’s got an identical twin.
“What can we do?” She asked the man beside her, somehow knowing that if anyone would have an answer it would be him.
The Doctor could tell that Zreeg was dead and that Zogroth was breathing his last but that was about it. “I’m not, I don’t know this species, I can’t… can you hear me?”
“And here they come! My Soldiers of the Psychedelic Sun,” The Meep crowed proudly. UNIT vehicles pulled up en masse, all packed with visored soldiers under the influence of the Meep.
“Obey The Meep!” A UNIT soldier intoned mindlessly.
“Shaun, get out, get Rose out!” Donna ordered. Shaun rushed out of the back of his cab so he could drive his daughter and mother-in-law out of harms way but a Land rover pulled right behind him. Visored Soldiers leapt out of the car aiming their guns at him, Sylvia and Rose, who all put their hands up, there was nothing they could do they were trapped.
With his dying breath Zogroth held up a claw feebly and said. “Sergeant Zogroth... regrets... retirement... ..from... active duty. Ah.” The glowing red of his eyes dimed as he succumbed to his injuries and died.
“I was right. You are a monster.” Donna told the Meep, full of fury, Rose had only tried to help the psychotic alien and the furry bastard had still set the possessed soldiers on them.
“And you believed every word I said. You stupid woman. With your weird child.” The Meep sneered.
“Don’t you dare!” The absolute cheek of that rabid space rat! She already wanted to wring the bastard’s neck, but if The Meep thought it was going to get away with insulting her daughter then the fucker had another thing bloody coming. She’d skin the Meep with her bare hands if the little shit continued insulting her daughter.
“Oh, I dare!” The Meep spat at the jumped-up woman aiming the tiny but deadly gun at her.
The Doctor who was still kneeling by the falling Wrarth warriors put his hands up in surrender, shuffled over to Donna still on his knees and frantically said; “No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Last-minute evidence. Meep! Why is there another two-hearted species on this planet unless I'm part of a strategy by the Wrarth Warriors to outfox you? And if you kill me and fail to take this family hostage, you'll never find out, will you?” The Doctor gave his best innocent look, which in his humble opinion was far better than any look the Meep could give.
The Meep eyed him suspiciously. “Hmm. Bring them!”
“Good!” The Doctor leapt up “Now, look, I can suggest a much better way off this planet than a Double-Bladed Dagger Drive, because that thing is gonna...” The Doctor was hoping to get the Meep far away from Donna then he’d deal with the Meep, but his thoughts were promptly stopped when a visored UNIT soldier cold cocked him with a gun.
The Doctor’s unconscious body was thrown in to the same truck as Donna, Rose, Shaun and Sylvia. After a few minutes the Doctor woke up on the floor with a groan and rubbed his sore head. He could feel Donna’s eyes boring into him, so he turned to face her.
“Who are you? What’s your name?” She demanded.
“I’m just... passing by.” He wasn’t going to risk telling her no matter how much she glared at him.
“Do you know him?” Donna asked her mum.
“No.”
“You act like you know him. Ever since he arrived, it's like...” Donna glared at her mum only to trail off as she saw the fear in Rose’s eyes and couldn’t help but blame herself. “I'm so stupid!”
“No! No, you're not.”
“We could be living somewhere far away from here. Monte Carlo. Switzerland. And you'd be safe, Rose. It's all my fault. I gave away that lottery money.”
“Why?”
“Because... there are places out there where people are in danger and in pain and fear. And I could help. It just felt like the sort of thing he would do.”
Before the Doctor was able to ask who, even though he already knew the answer. The car stopped suddenly causing the Doctor to hit his head. “Ow!”
The soldiers herded them out of the truck into the blast furnace chamber.
“It didn't land in a steelworks by mistake. It came to be mended.” The Doctor said in realization. They all looked on to see the Meep been carried at shoulder hight on a metal throne by sun possessed soldiers.
“Hail to the Meep!” The Meep instructed the various minions that were milling about.
“Hail to the Most High! Hail to the Meep! Hail to the Most High!” The Meep’s army of psychedelic sun soldiers chorused as one whilst placing one of their fists to their chests.
“Human scum, behold my vessel to the stars! Far beyond your tiny, grasping minds.”
“I name this ship the Delusions of Grandeur.” The Doctor ignored the glare the Meep gave him as well as the threatening growl. “You can't fire those engines, not from here. A Dagger Drive gets its energy by stabbing, down. It would extract... ooo, five square miles? The whole of London Town burnt as fuel.” The Doctor sneered; dagger drives were so terrible designed they made vortex manipulators look like Ferraris.
“But that's nine million people.” Rose said appalled.
“A great day for Meepkind, and the start of a new reign of terror, as the Meep returns to the stars for revenge... and feasting! Now, activate the initialisers.”
“Initialisers activated.” One of the many soldiers informed the Meep.
“Brandish the gravity stanchions.”
“Gravity stanchions... brandished.”
“Calibrate the flight deck!”
“Flight deck calibrated.”
“Take the prisoners on board, then I'll decide which one to eat first. Hail to the Meep!”
“Hail to the Most High! Hail to the Meep!” The Possessed soldiers chorused as one.
Two visored soldiers manhandled the Doctor, Donna and her family into a metal lift. When they got to the third floor and the doors were opened the Doctor was somewhat surprised to see Shirley. He was relived that she didn’t have the swirling light of the psychedelic sun in her eyes.
“Evening, boys.” She fired a two darts from the arms of her wheelchair hitting both soldiers in the neck. The two soldiers fell to the floor unconscious.
“You've got weapons in your wheelchair?” The Doctor asked incredulously.
“We all have. Come on. Come on.” They followed Shirley through a long corridor until they arrived at a juncture, one way leading to a massive metal door, the other way lead to a dead end.
“Right. You lot, the family, you can get out through that door. And you need to get to engine control, but the port side's guarded. There's no way round it.”
“So, what do we do?” The Doctor was too scared that he was going to be unable to keep Donna safe to think of a plan.
“I don't just fire darts, mate.” she turned around to face the dead end and her wheelchair arms opened up once more this time firing miniature missiles. She fired and the wall was blown to smithereens. “You lot run. I'll fight 'em off at the lift.”
Donna was looking at where Shirley had just blown a whole in the wall, another memory popped up it was the blond girl who the skinny man had held as she lay dying, she was holding some sort of detonator device and she hit the button, A klaxon sounds and people scattered in all directions moments later there was a huge explosion that brought down the roof. “You've sealed off the tunnel. Why did you do that?” The skinny man demanded angrily.
“They were trying to kill us.” She seemed completely unfazed by his anger like a teenager who though her parents were being particularly dense, not someone who’d just set off an explosion that could have killed people.
“But they've got my friend.”
“Collateral damage. At least you've still got her. He lost both his men. I'd say you came out ahead.” The memory ended and Donna was confused to why the girl had been acting like that. The way she was behaving you’d think she was programmed to be a soldier.
“Donna, come on! Come on,” Shaun begged, distracting Donna from her thoughts. They reached a big grilled mesh metal door with a rusty cross bar that he heaved up.
The door swung open and as after her family went passed the door she spoke; “I’m sorry, darling. I love you.” Donna hugged Rose tightly and kissed the top of her head. Then she shoved Rose through the door towards Shaun.
“No. Donna! Donna, you can't!” Shaun protested as Donna shut the door and lifted the cross bar to lock it. She looked at Shaun and he could see that she was scared but absolutely sure of what she was doing, but that didn’t mean he understood it.
She was convinced that she’d known this crazy skinny man during her missing two years but she couldn’t remember what his name was. Then another memory flashed forward in her mind but this one didn’t fade; “Who are you?” She was looking out into the indescribable majesty of space and she was absolutely terrified having no idea how she’d ended up there instead of being at her wedding.
“I'm the Doctor. You?” Donna was just as confused now that she knew his name as she was before hand.. who the bloody hell goes around calling themselves the Doctor? But Donna had far more important things than that to deal with.
“Take her. Take her ten miles away. I love you, Shaun, but if the Doctor can't save the city, we're all going to die. I've got to help.” She turned and ran towards the Doctor as soon as she’d said it.
“Donna!” Shuan shouted after his wife, confused. Why was she calling the strange man the Doctor? Why was she acting like he could save them? What wasn’t she telling them.
“She called him Doctor. Come on.” Sylvia said. She knew what this meant and the only thing she could do is make sure that Rose is safe. If the worst should happen then she’d see to the Doctor afterwards but first they needed to get Rose to safety. She grabbed her granddaughter’s hand and pulled her into a run towards the exit.
Shaun lingered for a few moments torn, a part of him wanted to follow Donna and try and find out what the hell was happening but he eventually followed Sylvia. He could ask her to explain if they managed to survive.
The Doctor had just got into the engine room of the spaceship when he heard the computerized voice announce; “Dagger Drive systems initialising.” He began pushing buttons trying to override the main controls.
“That's enough... running. Blimey.” Donna gasped out. The Doctor spun round to see her and felt his two hearts break. Before he could say anything he heard the computerized voice announce;
“Chamber deadlocked.”
“No, no, no, no! I told you to go! Don't...!” The Doctor raced over trying to stop the door from been deadlocked but it was sealed seconds before he got there and he smacked his palms against the door. “Argh! No time. I've got this. I've got it, I've got it. You stay there. Don't move, Donna.” He was completely and utterly terrified that she was going to die. His life wouldn’t matter if he could save her.
He went back to frantically sonicing the controls, he needed to stop the Meep or they’d both die anyway. Donna was torn between looking around in awe at the control room, she couldn’t believe she was on a real proper spaceship and the urge to gather the skinny man into her arms, hug him and tell him that she knew he’d be able to save them.
They could hear the soldier outside shouting, “Hail to The Meep! Hail to the Most High!”
“Maximise petrolinks and combustible hyperlines. Hail to The Meep!” The Meep declared from the capsule at the top of the rocket.
“Hail to the Most High!”
“Star-launch in five minutes.” The Computerized countdown announced.
Donna watched as he ran around the room spinning controls around and even climbing up the walls to hit some of the switches.
“Primary ignition signature installed. Deadlock seal.”
“Deadlock sealed.” The sonic sparked in the Doctor’s hand, completely useless.
“Ooo! Oh, it's been deadlocked.” The Doctor said, frustrated, it was looking more and more likely that she wasn’t going to make it out of this alive one way or another, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying everything he could.
“What's that mean?” Donna asked.
“It means I can do it by hand.” He raced from one side of the controls to the other stabbing buttons like a maniac.
“Bisect the maxifold.” The Meep commanded.
A clear glass screen began to descend separating the room into two halves.
“No, no, no, no, no!” The Doctor cried running back and forth while he still could slide beneath the screen before it closed fully.
“Maxifold bisecting. Double Dagger Drive installed and initiated.” The computerized voice said.
“Oh! Okay, okay. I can do it. Half the room. That's fine.” Donna was watching him move about frantically on the other side of the glass as he pulled various levers.
“Let me help.”
“No! You can't get involved. You can't!” The Doctor tried to ignore the glare of death she was giving him. He was so scared of her memories been triggered but he reluctantly realised that having help may be the only way to stop the Meep from killing them and nine million people. “Argh! The switches, the top ones, the blue ones. Flick them all down.”
Donna followed his instructions as quickly as she could but it was too little too late.
“Activate the Dagger Drive.” Moments after the Meep had spoken a massive dagger pierced the ground causing the ground to split and fire to erupt from the ground, spreading throughout all of London.
“We can't get out. We're trapped!” Shaun had never been so scared in his entire life.
“What do we do?” Rose asked.
“We've run out of time.” The Doctor had thought he was familiar with heart break but looking at the woman he loved more than anything else in the universe and knowing she was going to die either way? That gave it a whole new definition.
“Ignition in 230.” The Computerized countdown said.
“If there was anything else I could do, but there's only one thing left.” Please don’t make me do it. Please don’t make me kill you. Please! He silently begged but he had to give her a choice, he owed her that much.
“Well then, do it. Hurry up and do it! What are you waiting for?” What was his problem? He had a solution and wasn’t doing it, was he utterly daft? Had the stress made him forget that 9 million people could die if they didn’t do something?
“I think... all that coincidence was heading here, to save London from burning. Because you and I can stop this ship. Together.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t expecting that, how the hell was she supposed to do that? He’s against killing people, he even gave Davros a chance to escape the Crucible. Maybe he needs me to go and kill the Meep? She thought not that she’d mind wringing the neck of that Martian rat.
“But it will kill you.”
“Okay.” Not what she was expecting in the least but it didn’t matter, she’d do it to save Rose.
“You'll die.” Please don’t make me do this.
“My daughter is down there.” He’s a father, surely he must understand that I’d die for my little girl.
“Ignition in 180.”
“And it's not just Rose. It's nine million people. Who cares about me?”
“I do.” I care about you more than anything, I love you. I love you more than anyone else. Please don’t make me do this, I won’t be able to live with myself if I have to be the one to kill you.
“Why? I'm just no one.”
“No, you are not! Why does it have to be this?!” The doctor screamed barely chocking back a sob. He was beyond furious with all the worthless humans who’d made her think that she was anything other than the most brilliant woman in all of creation. You always were and always will be the most important woman in all the multiverse. I wish there was another way, but I’m not nearly as good as you are when you’re the DoctorDonna. I can’t stop this but you can. I’m so sorry I’ve failed you again, my love.
“Entering final sequence.”
She’d made her choice and he was powerless to deny her. “Westerly. Pelican. Dreams.” Forgive me. Please forgive me for failing you again, I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you.
“I don't... I don't care what it is, all right? Just... just go and do it, will you?” Had he finally lost the plot? Not that the great big outer space dunce ever had it to begin with.
“Tornado.”
“One fifty.”
“Clifftops. Andante.” The Doctor continued.
“Get on with it!” if Donna wasn’t about to die he’d laugh, always so impatient and full of fire. He loved that about her. He loved everything about her.
“Grief. Fingerprint.” When the Doctor said those words Donna’s eyes widened as she realised that he was getting on with it whatever this string of words meant they would enable her to help him. “Susurration.” He continued. He loved the spark in her eyes as he returned what he’d stolen but he hated knowing this would be what killed her.
“Oh!” Enough of Donna’s memories were back for her to say the next word in the sequence to fully unlock her memories.
“One thirty.”
“Sparrow.” She spoke without hesitation.
“Sparrow.” The Doctor said a moment after her, with every word it felt like his hearts were been torn apart but there was nothing he could do, she’d made her choice and he new he had to help her for Rose’s sake.
“Dance. Mexico.” They said as one. then she held up her hands to stop him she would say the final words herself, she wouldn’t let him have the burden of killing her, it was a vain hope to try and stop his guilt but she had to try, he was her best friend, he meant the world to her how could she not try to ease his burden?
“Ah. Binary. Binary. Binary.” The golden fires of regeneration energy burst out of her head and hands almost overwhelming Donna completely. Even though he couldn’t physically get to her he got as close as he could with the glass wall separating them.
“Ignition in 100.”
“And burn, you city of fools!” The Meep crowed gleefully.
The Doctor watched helpless as Donna was bent over double panting heavily.
“Ignition in 90.”
“Are you all right?” He was worried that he’d been wrong and he’d done that for nothing, what if she was too overwhelmed to help him save everyone? He’d have killed her for nothing.
Donna stood up flicking her hair out of her eyes glaring at the Time Lord in front of her. “I gave away my money.” And got nagged to death by my mum for being so stupid.
“Ignition in 75.”
“Right, but...”
“I gave away all my money. And do you know why, Doctor? I gave it away to be like you. So, I could be kind. So, I could be nice. So, I could be helpful.” Had he really thought that any amount of money could ever make up for my memories? Did he really think so little of me? How did he not know that all I wanted was to do was stay with him?
“Ignition in one minute.”
“I had a subconscious infracutaneous retrofold memory loop, making me act as soft as you and give away £166 million!” She needed to blame him, but the truth was without her memories few things could have brought her happiness and money wasn’t one of them, she’d looked into the best memory specialists but they’d all refused to even see her. Also, it rather nicely distracted her from her embarrassment over checking him out and ogling his arse and the memories of him naked that had kept floating into her mind. Well technically it hadn’t been him, it was the Duplicate but they were identical so it was virtually the same as seeing the Doctor naked.
“Yes, Donna, but... destruction of London?”
“Oh, I'll show you destruction, mate. I will triple drive the particle manifesto, overstep the umbilical feed, vindicate the cyberline and roast the hyperfeeds. Like this!” Her Timeboy truly was a great big outer space dunce, if he’d have done this in the first place it would have worked a lot quicker than whatever mad button mashing he was doing.
He watched in complete awe for a few moments basking in her brilliance. “Maximise the stressfold links!” Once he’d seen what she was doing he’d understood what he needed to do.
“Channel up the booster drive!”
“Inculcate the plexidrones!”
“And shatterfry the positrons. Oh, yes!” Nothing could beat this; she had her memories back and was ensuring that damned overgrown space rat wouldn’t be able to hurt her daughter.
“Twenty, nineteen...”
“How long have I got to live?”
“Seventeen, sixteen...” the countdown went on.
“Fifty-five seconds.” They said together, her time senses had answered her almost as soon as she’d asked.
“Thirteen, twelve, eleven...”
“Best 55 seconds of my life, because I get to do this.”
“Three, two...”
Donna flipped a row of switches and there was a loud bang.
“Ignition halted.”
“Donna Noble is descending.” That furry rat bastard would regret the day The Meep ever thought to insult her daughter! The Doctor looked at her completely and utterly awestruck, he always thought she was beautiful, but when she was full of righteous fury, that was something else entirely! She’s your best friend who is married and currently dying this is not the time! The more reserved part of his mind chastised him as the other half of his mind would have put Jack to shame.
“Ignition reverse. Ignition reverse.”
“No!” The Meep cried out furiously.
“It's working!” But the piper would need to be paid no matter how much they both wanted to enjoy their victory.
Donna fell forward onto her knees but the Doctor caught her, holding her so she was kneeling.
“No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no! No, no.” He was on the floor with her now cradling her
“That two-hearted monster! Kill him! Eradicate him!” The Meep ordered from the capsule.
“We did it. She's fine. She's safe. You saved her. You saved them all.” The Doctor told Donna. I knew you’d do it. You’re brilliant. I’m just sorry I failed you.
“Why did this face come back?” As far as she knew that was…well not impossible but highly unlikely.
“I don't know.”
“To say goodbye?” her guess was as good as any so he nodded. “Good fun, though.” Donna’s eyes fluttered shut and the Doctor held her tightly to his chest.
Fury raced through The Doctor, he’d never felt anything like it, not even during the Time War. I will make The Meep pay for this. Pain will have a new definition by the time I’m finished with the Meep. Ideas for vengeance flittered through his mind and there was one that he liked the thought of, one that would truly make the Meep suffer as he was suffering. During Cyber Wars of the 250th Millennium humanity had won by using a weapon that had forced the Cybermen to feel the emotions of their victims.
The Doctor didn’t care that the weapon had been outlawed by the Shadow Proclamation, he’d use it on the Meep to force the Meep to feel how he felt about Donna’s loss. I’ll keep the Meep alive until the end of the universe forcing the Meep to feel my heartbreak and despair at loosing Donna.
The Doctor heard the soldiers coming for him but he didn’t care, saying his goodbyes to Donna was far more important than they’d ever hope to be.
“We have orders to kill you.” Colonel Chan stated.
“Do what you want. This ship isn't going anywhere. You were beaten... by the DoctorDonna.” He highly doubted that the Meep wouldn’t want to be present for his execution so he would wait and strike then. They would all live to regret taking Donna from him. He didn’t care that the UNIT soldiers had been acting under the influence of a psychedelic sun, they had played a part in taking Donna from him so they needed to pay for their crimes.
They had their guns aimed at the Doctor but in an instant the psychedelic light of the sun vanished from their eyes.
“What?” The Doctor hadn’t been expecting that. The Soldiers were dazed and confused.
“What?” The lead soldier echoed.
“What?” Donna asked lifting up her head and it took all the Doctor’s self control not to snog her senseless. She was alive! He’d never felt joy and happiness like this, Donna been alive was all he’d ever wanted.
“You're not dead!” He was aware that he was stating the obvious but any small distraction to stop him from kissing her and ruining their friendship was needed.
“But...how?” Donna asked. The Doctor was of the opinion that she was been very unreasonable expecting him to think of anything other his happiness that she was alive.
“Closing down all psychedelic lightwave emanators and transferring excess power to the brokendrone pre-fixilators.” Rose announced and then spoke into the microphone on the control desk. “Mum! Can you hear me? Mum! Doctor! I think it's safe for you to come down now.”
“Rose?” Donna asked confused, how did Rose know what any of that had meant never mind how to do it all. She’d always known her daughter was brilliant but this was something else.
“Too much power for one person, but you had a child, and the metacrisis passed down. A shared inheritance.” The Doctor said in realisation.
When the Doctor had said the words to trigger the metacrisis in Donna he’d unknowingly did the same with Rose and it had become stronger and stronger with every word spoken. Even outside the steel works Rose had heard her mother saying “Binary.” As clear as day in her mind and she’d answered back with;
“Nonbinary.”
“Binary” when Donna had said the last word of the trigger phrases and golden regeneration fires had engulfed her, the same had happened to Rose with smaller flames giving her the knowledge to stop the soldiers.
“It was always there, shining out of her.” Donna stated proudly as the realization hit her.
“And she chose her own name.”
“Oh, the shed! The shed was her memory of the TARDIS. The toys! The toys! Every creature we met, she remembered as a toy.” Donna had always been proud of Rose, but in that moment she was even more proud of her beautiful, wonderful, clever daughter. She now recognised the inspiration of each of the toys Rose had made based on Daleks, Judoon, Cybermen, Adipose, Karvanista, Ood and so many more.
“We're binary,” The Doctor said with a grin, happy that Donna was still alive.
“She's not, because the Doctor's...”
“...male...”
“...and female.”
“And neither. And more.” Rose said over the microphone. She couldn’t believe that she’d been the one to free the soldiers from the Meep’s control but she’d also managed to stop her mum dying before something could be done about the Metacrisis energy.
Donna Ran to Rose engulfing her a hug, so unbelievably proud of her daughter, Shaun was soon included into the hug happy that his wife and daughter were okay.
“Happy now?” The Doctor asked Sylvia.
“My father would be impressed. I have no higher compliment.”
“Ha-ha!” The idea of Wilf been impressed with his actions delighted the Doctor and he vowed to let the man know how Donna had saved everyone as soon as possible, preferably with Donna by his side. He walked over to the control desk microphone that Rose had been using a few minutes ago.
“There's a word for you, Doctor. And that word is ‘jammy’,” Shirley told him.
“Jam on toast,” He agreed, unable contain his glee that not only did Donna had her memories back but she was alive. He spoke into the microphone “Calling the Meep!”
“You forget I still have my ship. And if I have to explode the engines and rupture this world and damn us all to hell, then I will!” The Meep refused to be bested by such an inferior two hearted creature and his band of rag tag humans.
“There you go,” the Doctor said as he pressed one last button, since Donna hadn’t died he was feeling generous and would leave the Meep to the Wrarth warriors. The Meep was ejected from the spaceship, letting out a scream even as the parachute deployed, the Meep shouted sounding a lot like Yosemite Sam.
Donna, her family, Shirley and few assorted UNIT soldiers where standing by watching as the Doctor talked with one of the two Wrarth Warriors who where restraining the Meep.
“Sergeant Zogroth and Constable Zreeg gave their lives, along with many soldiers of Earth.” The Doctor said solemnly.
“Their names will be included in the litany of crimes, as the Meep atones in prison for 10,000 years,” The Wrarth warrior assured him.
“Oh, I will escape and have my revenge. So, you beware, Doctor, because there's one more thing.” The Meep threatened.
“Which is?”
“A creature with two hearts is such a rare thing. Just wait till I tell... the Boss.”
The Wrarth warriors and the Meep where teleported away before the Doctor could enquire who ‘the boss’ was.
“Cryptic. I hate that.” The Doctor turned to face her and Rose and she could see the worry in his eyes. “But... we've still got to fix you two, because the metacrisis might have slowed down, but that thing is wrapped around your cortex.” I just hope that I’ll have enough time to think of something because I have no Idea how to fix this and a memory wipe won’t work a second time and even if it would I have the feeling Donna would kill me if I tried that on Rose.
“Yes, we know.” Donna smirked at him, smug that it had been Rose who figured it all out.
“ We know everything, thanks.” Rose was made up that she wouldn’t be grounded for hiding the Meep because her mum was too happy that her solution to fix the Metacrisis would work.
“And you know nothing It's a shame you're not a woman anymore, cos she'd have understood.” That and my amnesiac arse wouldn’t have spent so much time perving on you. Donna added silently, still embarrassed that she’d spent so much time eyeing her best mate. It wasn’t as if she’d been oblivious to his good looks when she’d travelled with him years ago but as they were friends first and foremost and she’d did her best to ignore it as she hadn’t wanted to ruin their friendship.
“We've got all that power, but there is a way to get rid of it. Something a male-presenting Time Lord will never understand.” Rose explained.
“Just let it go.”
“And we choose to let it go” Rose took her mother’s hand and the golden regeneration fires flowed out of them harmlessly. The Doctor watched Donna awestruck, he always thought that she looked absolutely beautiful but at that moment she looked like a goddess. One he’d gladly get down onto his knees in front of to worship.
Shaun was truly amazed at the sight and was so proud of both his wife and daughter. “Like I said, mate. How lucky am I?” he asked as he watched the golden whisps of energy that had a hint of purple float away into the atmosphere.
More than you could ever realise, The Doctor thought sadly. Shaun was a good man and obviously loved his wife and daughter, but the Doctor couldn’t help the stab of jealousy he felt that the human had everything that he could ever want. He felt awful about it and pushed those feelings down as best as he could instead letting the joy of Donna been safe wash over him.
“After all these years, I'm... finally me.” Rose said happy that for the first time in her life no weird unexplained memories swirling round her mind. Donna pulled her into hug knowing exactly what she meant, it felt amazing to have her memories back and not have the threat of burning up hanging over her head like the sword of Damocles.
Shaun drove Donna, Rose Sylvia and the Doctor to where he’d parked the TARDIS.
“And UNIT have a great insurance policy. Damage to property in the course of an alien war,” The Doctor reassured her. then he couldn’t resist asking, “ While that's being sorted out... One last trip?”
“Don't you dare.” Sylvia couldn’t believe the audacity of that man. Did he not think they could see the way he looked at Donna?
“Do you know... I would love to. But I have got adventures of my own bringing up this one.” Donna had one hand on the TARDIS she could practically feel the ship buzzing with happiness that she hadn’t died.
“Can I see inside?” Rose asked eagerly, not waiting for an answer she tried to get inside before anyone could object. Even while the Metacrisis had been inside her, her memories of the TARDIS had been beyond foggy and she was dying to see inside the ship.
“No. No, no, no. No. Because something will go wrong and you'll end up on Mars with Chaucer and a robot shark. And that's actually happened, hasn't it?” It wouldn’t surprise her not after that computer kidnapped Charlemagne, Francis Drake, Cleopatra, Winston Churchill, Noel Coward, Michelangelo, Galileo, Cher and many other famous faces to try and kick start a new age of enlightenment then surely Chaucer on Mars with a robotic shark wasn’t too far fetched. No, she wouldn’t risk anything happening to Rose.
“Oh, yeah.” That had been one of his crazier adventures especially as Chaucer had become convinced he was a robot himself. It would have been better if Donna had been by his side but the Doctor thought that about every adventure he’d been on with out her. “But I was thinking,” he added slyly, “we could go and see Wilf?” The Doctor wasn’t above fighting dirty if it meant a bit more time spent with Donna.
“Now, that is cheeky.” Donna said to him, her resolve weakening fast.
“Just a suggestion,” If he looked any more innocent a halo would have appeared above his head. Would it be so bad to accidently land on a few other planets and times where nothing to dangerous is happening just to remind Donna how good traveling through time and space could be? He thought to himself.
“I mean it. Don't you dare!” Sylvia warned them both.
“Oh, but imagine his face, Mum. Oh, he would be so happy. All those secrets Grandad kept for years. He thought I'd never remember. And to see the Doctor one last time?” Donna knew she was trying to justify the trip as something for her grandad instead of just for her, like it was selfish to want to go on trips just for her. She knew that neither Rose nor Shuan would resent her travelling with the Doctor, but a part of her was calling her selfish for wanting something just for her.
“Oh, all right. But one trip, that's all. Just one.” Sylvia relented, knowing how much it would mean to her father, surely the Doctor couldn’t fuck up such a short trip? Her dad’s place was only a twenty-minute drive away.
Donna was overjoyed she’d never thought that her mum would agree to her going on a trip in the TARDIS, not that she needed permission but she didn’t want her mom worrying and being resentful over it. Her mum had done a lot to help when she’d lost her memories and not just coming up with a cover story on the spot, she’d been there for her and helped her come to terms with the loss as best as she could.
“One tiny little trip. That is a promise. It's like the old days. Just me and the Doctor, together. Is that all right?”
“Yeah, course it is.” Shaun answered
“Well... a lot of husbands would worry. You know, me, in a box, with another man.” Donna could kick herself for saying that, especially given how obviously she’d been eyeing up the Doctor just a short while ago.
“Yeah. But not him.” Shaun said.
Sylvia had to bite back a laugh at the crestfallen look on the Doctor’s face. Take that you homewrecking alien! She thought smugly. Honestly agreeing that the trip would be good for both her dad and Donna had been worth it just for the look on the Doctor’s face just now. Sylvia would cherish that memory for many days to come.
“Come on, Spaceman” Despite her earlier show of reluctance Donna couldn’t wait to get back in the TARDIS after fifteen years. The Doctor turned to open the TARDIS door and she followed closely behind him. He took in the new design of the console room. It was a Huge hemisphere all the walls were studded with roundels. There were ramps and gantries that lead up to the central six-sided console that reminded him of his tenth incarnation’s TARDIS, the time rotor going straight up to the roof. There where more gantries leading to the internal doors which were also white tinted with greys, blues and greens. Overall, the effect was elegant and timeless.
He was delighted, apparently the Old Girl was out to impress Donna as well. “Ha-ha-ha! Oh, this is amazing! It changed!” Donna watched as he raced round the new control room with an indulgent smile. Did she change the layout so he could do this? Cause I remember him racing back in here so quickly that he nearly collided with the control panel more than once.
“Oh, you clever thing! Look at that! It's got this!” he threw over a lever and the colour of the roundels changed. “And that!” it switched to disco lights, then settled on mostly blue. “What's that?” he asked looking at some of the new gizmos on the control panel.
Donna was torn between her joy at having it all back and the deep-set nagging doubt that she was doing the wrong thing that this was going to lead to everything changing and not in a good way. She decided a bit of complaining would be safer. “Still a bit nippy.”
“Oh, come on!” He really hoped she didn’t catch where his eyes had drifted when she said that, but really who could blame him.
“All right. It's gorgeous!” Donna was unable to hold her happiness in any longer and she and the Doctor let out shrieks of joy laughing as they jumped up and down with excitement like they were a pair of kids. “It's cleaner. And it's...grown.” The last thing she wanted was to offend the TARDIS she was that the sentient ship was just as happy that she’d returned, even if it was temporary. Instead, she switched to a much safter topic “But I still don't get it. The TARDIS can change, all right, but... what about your face? Why did it come back?” Granted she no longer had all the Doctor’s knowledge of regeneration swirling through her head but she was pretty sure that that wasn’t something that normally happened with regeneration.
“Does there have to be a reason?” He was convinced it was because he was in love with her but he wasn’t going to tell her that, much less that this wasn’t the first time she’d influenced one of his regenerations so much.
“With your life? Yes!”
“Well, I'm stuck with it now.” He needed to distract her, he didn’t want to accidentally confess his love for her and ruin everything, his eyes fell onto the new console layout. “Oh, this thing is brilliant. It's even got a coffee machine! You want one?”
“You're kidding.” She knew he was trying to distract her but decided to let him for now as sooner or later he’d slip up and tell her.
“With cold milk, yeah?”
“Well remembered.” After fifteen years for her and god only knows how many for him and he still remembered how she liked her coffee. A cup and saucer popped up out of the integrated coffee machine, and the Doctor carefully handed it to her.
“Thank you very much. Careful. This is how I lost my job. Dropped a coffee in the computer.”
“Mmm. I really do remember, though. Every second with you.” The Doctor needed her to know how important she was, how much she meant to him. He hated that she so easily she convinced herself that she was unimportant. “I'm so glad you're back, cos it killed me, Donna. It killed me, it killed me, it killed me.” it was true every moment since he’d had to wipe her memories had felt like being stabbed in the hearts. While he didn’t blame her for any of his deaths, he doubted they would have happened with her by his side, simply because losing her had made him even more reckless than he normally was. Without her everything was a lot worse.
“We can have more days, can't we? I mean, why is it such a big goodbye with you? Why is it one last trip? Cos you could visit with my family. We could do outrageous things, like have tea, or dinner, and a laugh. And Rose's school play. Well, maybe not that. She can't act. She's terrible. I don't know how to tell her. But the point is, you've been given a second chance. You can do things different this time. So why don't you do something completely new, and have some friends?” She couldn’t bare the thought of not seeing him ever again, but she needed to be there for Rose.
“Yeah. Maybe. Yeah.” He knew he would, how could he not? anytime with Donna was a joy, he needed her, without her, life had been such harder, so much grimmer without her. How could he resist the urge to go to see her often as possible. He just didn’t want her to ever find out that he was in love with her. Risking their friendship was the last thing he’d ever want to do.
“Like now. Here we are, having a coffee. What's going to go wrong?” It was at that exact moment Donna realised why she’d been ogling the Doctor so much, (way more than when she’d originally travelled with him) he was her mystery dream lover! While in those dreams she’d always been blindfolded, she had managed to catch a few glimpses over the years well enough for her to recognise him now she had all her memories. For the past fifteen years she’d been dreaming of making love to her best friend and being as utterly in love with him as the dream version of him was with her.
Donna spilt the coffee over the TARDIS as she’d been about to lift her hands to her face to cover her embarrassment, realising to late that she’d still been holding the cup and saucer. She desperately tried to rationalize that the dreams were unimportant and that they didn’t mean she was in love with him. They were probably just influenced by the metacrisis.
“Oh, my God, I did it again!” She shouted half out of shock, half out of embarrassment. She was not going to tell him about those dreams. She had no intentions of ever telling anyone about the dreams. The Doctor raced over to her and got her away from the console. There was series of bangs from the console, the time rotor started up amidst flames and fireworks. The roundels turned an ominous red.
A horrifying thought crossed Donna’s mind, if the dreams were caused by the metacrisis, then did that mean Rose had shared them? She let out a horrified scream that the Doctor mistook for fear, she would not be enlightening him any time soon. Or ever.
The TARDIS started to look like it was shivering and shaking, going wibbly and pulses of blue light shot off the from the ship as it began to dematerialise.
“Mum! Mum!” Rose was terrified for her mum.
“Donna!” Shuan cried out scared for his wife.
“I said so!” Sylvia chose to ignore the fact that she’d agreed that the trip would be a good idea.
“What's happening?” Donna managed to ask once she was sure she wasn’t going to die from embarrassment.
“I've got no idea. It's completely out of control! We could end up anywhere in Time and Space!”
TBC