Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Donna and Ten - The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Fourteen ( Chapter 14 )

Well, it was fair to say that this had been one of Donna's weirdest experiences so far. She had started the day in THE library, and met a woman who knew the Doctor really well, you could almost say intimately, and it wasn't Rose Tyler. Weird thing number one, he had never met River Song before, and had no idea who she was.

 

Then, because she didn't have a space suit, the Doctor had tried to teleport her into the TARDIS. Weird thing number two, she ended up in a psychiatric hospital because she had dreams about the Doctor and the TARDIS, which led to weird thing number four . . . no, three, she met a gorgeous bloke with a stutter and married him. I mean, how weird was that? Oh, yeah, it was number three weird.

 

Weird thing number four, she had two beautiful kids, and not just weird, but deeply troubling and traumatic number five; they disappeared from their beds, from existence, right in front of her. And now, here she was, looking for a family that she remembered and loved, and never had. That had to be weird thing number six, didn't it?

 

She had suddenly appeared in the dusty old hall where the TARDIS had originally landed, surrounded by thousands of people, four thousand and twenty two to be exact, and immediately started to look for her husband, Lee. She then spotted a familiar face come through the double doors, accompanied by Strackman Lux, who had found him handcuffed to a conduit near the core.

 

They ran towards each other and hugged. 'Your back!' he laughed, swinging her around.

 

'Yeah, it was the weirdest thing, when you teleported me to the TARDIS, I ended up in a hospital, then I met this bloke and married him. We had children and everythin', and then they disappeared, it was horrible.' They released the hug, and she could see a haunted look in his eyes. 'Where's that woman, Professor Song and her mates?'

 

The look he gave her told her everything without him having to utter a word. 'Oh Doctor, I'm sorry. We don't have much luck, me, an' you, I lose a husband and kids I never had, an' you lose a girlfriend that you've yet to meet. What are we like, eh?'

 

'Yeah,' he said sadly, and then his expression changed. 'That man who was your husband when you were in the core, he might be one of the people here, why don't you go and ask at the desk over there.'

 

She made her way towards the circular desk, through the throng of four thousand and twenty two people, only to head back towards the Doctor, who was waiting by the door to the grand staircase, a few minutes later.'

 

A computer generated voice had started giving instructions to the assembled masses.

 

'Please be patient. Only three can teleport at a time. Do not state your intended destination until you arrive in your designated slot.'

 

'Any luck?' the Doctor asked her as she reached him.

 

She leaned against the door, side by side. 'There wasn't even anyone called Lee in the library that day,' she said sadly. 'I suppose he could have had a different name out here, but . . . let's be honest . . . he wasn't real, was he?'

 

'Maybe not.'

 

'I made up the perfect man. Gorgeous, adores me, and hardly able to speak a word . . . What's that say about me?'

 

'Everything,' he said without thinking, and then realised what he said when she looked at him. 'Sorry, did I say everything? I meant to say nothing. I was aiming for nothing. I accidentally said everything.'

 

'What about you? Are you alright?'

 

'I'm always alright,' he said, giving his stock answer.

 

'Is alright, special Time Lord code for . . . really not alright at all?'

 

'Why?'

 

'Because I'm alright, too.' They looked at each other, and their faces told them more than their words. They weren't alright, but they would be, because they'd got each other.

 

'Come on,' he said, looking down and doing something he hadn't done since his time with Rose, he held her hand. He didn't have that tingle up his spine, or the feeling that all was well with the universe, but it felt good to hold the hand of a friend.

 

They walked down the steps to the balcony, and the Doctor placed River's diary on the balcony rail, tracing the shape of TARDIS panels on its cover.

 

'Your friend . . . Professor Song . . . She knew you in the future, but she didn't know me,' she told him. 'What happens to me? Because when she heard my name, the way she looked at me . . .'

 

'Donna,' he interrupted. 'This is her diary . . . My future . . . I could look you up . . . What do you think . . .? Shall we peek at the end?' he said. He thought he knew what her answer would be, but he had to give her the option, he owed her that.

 

Donna looked up to the ceiling and then into his expectant eyes. 'Spoilers . . . right?'

 

He smiled at her. 'Right.' He was right, she'd made the right choice, and he was so proud of her. He took River's sonic screwdriver out of his inside pocket, and put it on the diary, a final resting place to the memory of Professor River Song.

 

'Come on,' he said, moving away and up the steps. 'The next chapter's this way.'

 

As they climbed the steps, and headed into the now busy hall, that final gesture got him thinking, and the thought disturbed him. His future self had given River that sonic screwdriver, and that posed a question. He stopped suddenly, turned around, and ran back down the steps, with Donna close on his heels.

 

'Why? Why would I give her my screwdriver? Why would I do that?' he asked himself. 'Thing is, future me had years to think about it, all those years to think of a way to save her, and what he did was give her a screwdriver,' he said. 'WHY WOULD I DO THAT?' he shouted.

 

He examined the sonic, and found a small panel that he managed to unclip. Underneath, were two of five green LED lights, and one of those started to flash.

 

'Oh! Oh! Oh, look at that.' His future self hadn't just given her a sonic screwdriver, he'd given her a way to live forever in the library computer; he'd given her a neural relay. 'I'm very good!' he said excitedly.

 

'What have you done?' Donna asked him.

 

'Saved her,' he said with a manic grin, showing her the green LED's.

 

He started to run, and run, and run. He ran through hallways and reading rooms, leapt over book trolleys, past rows and rows of book shelves. 'Stay with me! You can do it, stay with me! Come on, you and me, one last run!'

 

He ran until he got to the gravity platform that led down to the computer core. The platform would take too much time, and as usual, for a Time Lord, that was the one thing he didn't have enough of.

 

'Sorry, River, shortcut!' he said, pointing the sonic at the interface and disabling it.

 

'Platform disabled,' the computer said, and he dived head first into the gravity well, using the sonic to control his landing.

He ran to the computer core interface and shoved the end of the sonic into the receptacle. He noticed that all the lights were out now, and he didn't know if he had been in time. Once again, it all came down to time. Blue, spider webs of energy, crackled around the interface and up the cabling. When he looked over to the Charlotte Node, she was smiling at him. He'd done it, he'd made it in time, River Song had left the library, River Song had been saved.

 

Donna stood by the doors of the TARDIS, still watching people standing on the teleporter pads, just in case she saw her dream husband. It had been SO real, and it was difficult to forget him, or to come to terms with the fact that it had all been an illusion. Eventually, everyone was gone, and one of the library staff came up to her.

 

'Are you alright Miss? We are the last to go now; do you need a teleport out?'

 

'Er, no, it's alright, I've got a ride thanks . . . you go and get off now.' She took the key out of her pocket, and opened the TARDIS door, stepping inside, and closing it behind her. She walked wearily up the ramp to the console, turned around, and perched her bum on the edge, watching the doors, and waiting for the Doctor to return.

 

A while later, the Doctor burst through the double doors and walked into the deserted hall, noticing that it was exactly as it was when they had arrived. He stood in front of the TARDIS, and remembered a conversation with the enigmatic River Song.

 

[`You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them. and it's like they're not quite finished. They're not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does. But not my Doctor. Now my Doctor, I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his TARDIS and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the TARDIS. Next stop, everywhere,'] he remembered River telling Anita.

 

[`Spoilers. Nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that,'] he'd told her.

 

[`It does for the Doctor,'] she had said proudly.

 

[`I am the Doctor,'] he had declared.

 

[`Yeah . . . Some day . . .

          &nbs p;            & nbsp;           &nbs p;    Some day . . .

          &nbs p;            & nbsp;           &nbs p;            & nbsp;           &nbs p;   Some day . . .']

 

Her words echoed in his memories. He raised his arm, and clicked his fingers, willing the TARDIS to fulfil her prophecy.

 

The doors flipped inwards, spilling light onto the wooden floor in front of him. He could hear the throb of the TARDIS inside, and a smile spread across his face. He saw Donna push herself off the console and watch as he walked inside, her face full of concern. He walked up to her and looked into her eyes, before turning and looking at the doors. Donna followed his gaze, as he raised his arm and clicked his fingers, closing the doors.

 

'When did you learn to do that then?' she asked quietly.

 

'Just now, when I was outside . . . River said that the Doctor she knew could do it.'

 

'Oh, right,' she said, not really understanding how someone he had never met could know him so well. 'How'd it go with River, were you in time?'

 

He gave her a triumphant smile. 'Oh yes! Her body might be gone, but her soul lives on in the core, with her friends, Proper Dave, Other Dave, Miss Evangelista, and Anita.'

 

'Is it alright for us to leave now?' she asked quietly, she'd had enough of the biggest library in the galaxy for one day . . . no, for a lifetime.

 

'Yeah, time to move on,' he said as he started up the Time Rotor and put them into the Vortex.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

'What's that noise?' Donna asked as the Time Rotor made a strange whirring belching noise.

 

'Indigestion,' replied the Doctor, looking up from the console and seeing the look of exasperation on her face. 'Not mine, the TARDIS. We're passing through an ion storm.'

 

'Is that dangerous?'

 

'Nah, not to us, but it can be to other vessels caught unawares. I'll just drop out of the Vortex and see what's happening.' He made adjustments to the console with his usual flourish, and they heard the gentle "clomp" as the TARDIS landed.

 

'C'mon.' he said with his excited grin. 'Let's go see.'

 

This was the bit Donna loved the most about travelling with the Doctor. The "let's go see" moment, where anything could be outside those ordinary looking doors.

 

'Oi! Where do you think your goin'?' Donna said, catching him by the elbow and pulling him away from the door. 'This is my bit,' she said with a big grin.

 

The Doctor grinned back, her excitement was infectious and it was the "let's go see" moments that kept him travelling, especially when he had a friend to experience it with. He heard her gasp and "oh-my-God" from outside, and followed her out.

 

'Where is this?' she asked, her eyes wide in amazement. 'I'm on a space ship. I've never been on a space ship before.'

 

'You're on a space station to be completely accurate, and what do you mean “you've never been on a space ship”? Remember the Sontarans when you were beamed aboard their ship in the TARDIS? And technically, the TARDIS itself is a space ship, so you've been in a space ship in a space ship.'

 

'Well, yeah, I know all that. But this one's got windows,' she said wide eyed as she walked over to a huge, curved window looking out over the futuristic exterior of a space station, hanging in space.

 

The Doctor put his hands in his pockets and strolled over to join her. `Oh, it's Garazone Central out near the Orion star system, one of humanity's first major space stations for interstellar commerce. Ion storms are fairly common in the surrounding space. It looks to be in its heyday, so it must be the 25th century.'

 

She leaned on the handrail and looked down on a transparent dome. `My God, there's grass and trees down there, and a lake! There's a lake in space.'

 

`I know. Come on, let's go down and hire a rowing boat.'

 

He grabbed her hand and hurried over to one of the transparent cylindrical elevators. Donna squealed with delight as she looked down through the transparent floor as the cubical descended. From this viewpoint, she could see a number of domes held out from the central core of the station on huge arms.

 

The cubicle stopped silently and the door slid around. The wide passageway leading to the dome was a hive of activity, with all sorts of creatures going to and fro, and golf buggy vehicles rolling by.

 

`Let's hitch a ride,' the Doctor said as a buggy with side facing seats went by. They hopped on and grinned at each other as they headed into the dome.

 

With the landscaped interior of the dome, it was like being in an urban park similar to Hyde's Park in London, or Central Park in New York. The buggy slowed down as it turned in a wide circle, ready to head back out again into the centre of the station.

 

`What the hell are those?!' Donna exclaimed as she looked out over the grass lawns. `Have those horses really got six legs?'

 

`Oh brilliant. Hexequinus steeds, I've always wanted a go on one of those. Apparently, with the six legs they're supposed to be a smoother ride than the four legged variety.' All thoughts of rowing on the lake were forgotten, with the chance of an opportunity to ride a six legged horse.

 

`Can we have a go? Can we? Please?' Donna said, sounding like a little girl wanting to ride the donkeys at the seaside.

 

`Last one in the saddle is a Raxacoricofallapatorian.'

 

The Doctor was right of course, the ride was smooth. Donna thought it was like riding a biological motorbike. And so did the Doctor by all accounts, as he galloped by out of control shouting “where's the off switch?”

 

Donna's steed was less temperamental however and she was able to chase after him through the Garazone Bazaar, eventually easing her mount in front and slowing him to a stop.

 

`Where did you learn to ride a horse in Chiswick?' he asked, slightly miffed that she was better at it than he was.

 

`Went on an outwards bound adventure holiday with the school. I only went to get out of lessons. Didn't take to the rock climbin' or canoein', but horses, I just tell `em what's what and they're as good as gold,' she said with a smile.

 

`Why doesn't that surprise me?'

 

They eventually made it back to the paddock, and the Doctor made good on his original suggestion to go rowing on the lake. The rest of the Garazone Central day was spent like a day in any park. They strolled through the Bazaar that they had previously galloped through, had a picnic and bought ice creams, while the Doctor reminisced about Rose and the ice creams they'd had, and the picnics they'd shared.

 

When he had travelled with Martha, she had never wanted to hear about Rose, always seeming to see her as an absent rival. Donna on the other hand could see how good it was for him to talk about her, and loved to hear about their escapades together.

 

`This place is amazing. There's just SO many aliens,' Donna observed as they strolled back towards the TARDIS.

 

`Don't you just love meeting all these different people? Rose was a bit overwhelmed on her first trip out. It was Platform One, she was 19, and had never been abroad to foreign parts, let alone alien ones.'

 

`It sounds like she soon got used to it and came to love it though, just like I do.'

 

He put the key in the door and pushed it open for her. As she stepped inside, he took one last look around Garazone Central. 'Yeah, she'd have loved it here,' he said to himself quietly before stepping inside and closing the door.