Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Donna and Ten - The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Nine ( Chapter 9 )

Donna continued to stare at the serene, smiling face of Ghandi on the screen. She sniffed, still tearful at the fact that someone would want to kill this gentle man. `He reminds me a lot of you, you know,' she said, looking up at the Doctor.

 

The Doctor's face was sombre. He reached out and pulled the lever that would propel the TARDIS into the Time Vortex.

 

`Oh, he's far more forgiving than I'll ever be,' he said, looking into her tear filled eyes. He remembered Rose being upset about Charles Dickens dying a year after she had met him. It was time to put things into perspective for Donna.

 

`Hey, don't forget that before you met him yesterday, he'd been dead for 58 years.'

 

Donna struggled to express her thoughts with words. `Yeah, I know, but yesterday . . . and today, he was alive and had so much . . . what's the word I'm looking for?'

 

`Presence?' he offered.

 

`Yeah, that's it. He had presence. He could just stand there, that little unassuming man, and everyone would know he was there. And when he spoke, it was like he was shouting in a whisper. Does that make sense?' she said.

 

The Doctor smiled. `Strong Words Softly Spoken: Engaging the Crowds in the Clouds,' he quoted. Donna raised an enquiring eyebrow. 'Gareth Johnson, he'll be the Document Supply & Repository Manager in David Wilson Library at University of Leicester in 2011. Always liked the sentiment.'

 

'See, I said you were like Ghandi.' She saw him about to protest. 'Oh, I know you're not as gentle as him, don't forget I saw you flush those spiders down the Thames. But I also saw the look on your face when she left you no choice.'

 

He too remembered that day.

 

["Empress of the Racnoss, I give you one last chance. I can find you a planet; I can find you and your children a place in the universe to co-exist. Take that offer and end this now"].

 

["What happens next is your own doing"] he had said, and he couldn't have been more different from Ghandi if he'd have tried.

 

Donna also remembered the pain and anguish on his face when he couldn't save Pompeii; remembered his frustrated anger at his impotence in that situation. He was Ghandi with a passion and an unwillingness to accept defeat.

 

'So, what do you want to do next then?' he asked her, suddenly changing the subject from being compared to Ghandi.

 

'Oh, I don't know . . . this is all SO bonkers,' she said, waving her arms to indicate that she was talking about the TARDIS.

 

`Helios 5,' he said out of the blue. `Not been there for ages. Mainly because it's a matriarchal society; y'know, lots of bossy women. You'll fit right in there.'

 

`Oi!' Donna warned, but he gave her his mischievous, boyish smile and set the coordinates.

 

`And then after you've done girl power, we can nip over to Ylum; I love Ylum, very cosmopolitan. Oh, oh, oh, and then we can have a look at the Moulin Très Rouge . . . very risqué.'

 

`That sounds like a grand day out,' she said, and then laughed as she remembered a couple of animated plasticine characters. She was definitely Grommit she decided.

 

She went to her room to get changed into denim jeans and a sweatshirt while the Doctor flew the TARDIS to Helios 5. He knew she was going to enjoy being the boss during their stay.

 

And enjoy it she did. And to be fair, he was surprised that she managed to contain her enthusiasm for her new found superior status . . . except for her asking him to peel her a grape. She didn't really want him to peel a grape; it was just a Mae West line she'd always wanted to use. (And to see his withering look of course)

 

The Democratic Conglomeration of Ylum on the other hand, was a very laid back world, inhabited by an arboreal race that had fashioned gigantic trees into towns and cities with interconnected branches. It was quite a tourist attraction and had become a popular resort. The final destination of the day had been the one Donna had looked forward to the most. She'd seen Nicole Kidman and Kylie Minogue in the film Moulin Rouge, and couldn't wait to see what the alien version had to offer.

 

She had no idea!

 

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Grommit entered the TARDIS, waving her hand in front of her flushed face. 'Risqué? More like erotic if you ask me,' she said with the look of astonishment lingering on her face.

 

Wallace came in behind her and closed the door. He had a big grin on his face. 'What those four armed girls can do with those feathers.'

 

'I was thinking more of those fit cat blokes with their tales . . . I'll never be able to look at a tomcat again without blushing.'

 

The Doctor laughed as he sent the TARDIS into the Vortex. 'Never really been a cat person myself. A bit too self centred and manipulative for my liking . . . although, you've got to admire the way they control humans; turn up, purr a bit, rub against some legs, get some food for free, and they're off again. Genius!'

 

Donna looked at him with her mouth open. 'Are you tellin' me that cats are aliens and they own humans?'

 

'Don't be daft. Course they don't own humans, they just make you think you own them.'

 

She shook her head in disbelief. Was this another one of his stories, or was he telling the truth? And, hang on a moment, he hadn't said they weren't aliens.

 

'So, what do you want to do today then?' he asked her before she could follow that thought through.

 

'I don't even know what day it is.'

 

'Well, at the moment we're in the Time Vortex, so technically it's any day and every day,' he told her with a smile. Donna gave him an exasperated look that made him instinctively put his hand on his cheek to protect it.

 

'You don't `alf talk some rubbish at times.'

 

'Er, what day would you like it to be?' he asked her, trying to put time travel into terms that she could relate to.

 

Donna looked thoughtfully at the domed ceiling. 'Saturday, I always liked Saturdays. It was a day for kicking back and havin' some fun.' She then thought about what she used to do on Saturdays in her youth.

 

She went over to the monitor and looked at it. 'Does this thing get the internet, only the keys are all weird, with circles on them?'

 

'Oh, hang on; I'll change the keyboard configuration.' He ran around and tapped a few keys, and they changed from Gallifreyan to QWERTY.

 

Donna linked her fingers together and flexed them outwards, cracking her knuckles before wiggling her fingers. She poised them over the keys and typed `www.whufc.com', and the West Ham United Football Club website loaded, where she scanned down the list of fixtures, looking for this Saturday.

 

'Oh brilliant, they're at home to the Toon Army.' She looked up at the Doctor. 'The TARDIS can go anywhere, yeah?'

 

'Anywhere in the universe,' he told her with pride.

 

'What about inside Upton Park this Saturday?'

 

'Ah, a West Ham supporter eh? And they're playing Newcastle, that's going to be a hard one for them, as they haven't beaten the Tynesiders in their last nine games . . . Okay, let's do it,' he said with enthusiasm as he set the coordinates.

 

'Oh, so you're a sports fan are ya?'

 

'Well, I normally prefer the more sedate pace of cricket . . . but yeah, I like sport.'

 

'My Granddad follows the cricket; it's a bit too slow for me.'

 

The TARDIS landed inside the ground, near the hotdog and burger stands, where Donna immediately bought them a hotdog each.

 

'Ooh, hotdogs with ketchup and mustard . . . top banana,' he said as he bit into his.

 

'C'mon,' Donna said, leading him to the Centenary Stand, which would be renamed the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand, next year. 'I hope you're in good voice, because this is the noisiest stand in the ground.'

 

'I love the atmosphere in a stadium, all energy, and adrenalin,' he said, having another bite of his hotdog as they ascended the wide steps.

 

Donna looked at him and saw a dribble of ketchup on his chin. 'Come here yer mucky Herbert,' she said with a smile as she wiped the ketchup with her napkin.

 

'This reminds me of the twenty twelve Olympics, I took . . . Never mind, it was brilliant anyway.'

 

'Was it with Rose?' Donna asked kindly.

 

'Yeah,' He said, lost in his memories. It had been their first outing as a proper couple, after having had a long talk about their future together, and they'd had their first proper kiss. Unfortunately, it had also been their last outing together, because after visiting the Rings of Akhaten, they had gone back to see Jackie, and got caught up in the battle of Canary Wharf.

 

Donna could see he was getting all sad and reflective. 'Well come on my slippery, skinny, spaceman lets find a seat and start singin',' she said, nudging his elbow.

 

He switched on his smile for her and carried on up the steps. She was just the kind of companion he needed, someone who could bring him out of his Maudling moods, and show him that it was worth carrying on.

 

When they had climbed a quarter of the way up the stand, he noticed that it was Donna who was now quiet and reflective.

 

'Everything alright?' he asked her, and she turned her head quickly to look at him, as though he had startled her.

 

'Erm, yeah . . . it's just that I used to sit here with my dad.'

 

'Donna . . . little Donna Noble?' a large man in a West Ham scarf called out.

 

'Oh, hello Big Dave, how ya doin'?'

 

'Haven't seen you 'ere for a while,' he said with a smile, and then looked concerned. 'I was sorry to hear about yer dad Love, he was a lovely chap. In fact, I was `ere with `im on that Wednesday night when we beat the Scousers.'

 

A woman touched her arm. 'Hello Donna, sorry to hear about Geoff, it was such a shock.'

 

A number of people came up to her to say hello and offer condolences, it seemed the whole stand knew and loved Geoff Noble. Big Dave took off his scarf and put it on the back of the chair where Geoff used to sit, in respect for a lost friend and fellow supporter.

 

'Tell you what people,' he said, calling out to the people around him. 'Pass the word around, before we start singin', we're `avin' a minutes silence for Donna's dad.'

 

The word went out, and it spread on the grapevine through the Centenary Stand like a wildfire. The usually noisiest part of the stadium became eerily silent, as friends of Geoff Noble, and fellow supporters showed their respect for a devoted fan and his daughter.

 

Donna wiped a tear from her cheek and grabbed big Dave in a hug. 'Thank you for that Dave, it means a lot to me, and Dad would have loved that. So come on, let's do him proud and sing our hearts out so even he'll be able to hear us up there.'

 

Big Dave held her shoulders and gave her a big grin. 'Oh we'll certainly do that alright. Who's this by the way?' he said looking at the Doctor. 'Your new boyfriend? Yer dad told me things didn't work out with the chap you were gonna marry.'

 

Donna snorted a laugh. 'Nah, he's a bit too skinny for me. Dave, this is the Doctor, I'm his social worker.'

 

'Oi,' the Doctor said in protest.

 

Big Dave laughed, knowing that Donna was joking. 'Nice to meet ya Doctor. Any friend of Donna's is a friend of ours.' he said, crushing the Doctor's fingers in a friendly handshake. He then frowned at him. 'Haven't I seen you 'ere before with Geoff?'

Donna looked at him with a questioning look on her face, as he shrugged his shoulders. 'It's the first time I've been to this Ground,' he said honestly. However, it didn't mean that it would be his last, and it didn't mean that it would be in the right order.