Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Donna and Ten - The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Twenty Three ( Chapter 23 )

Donna Noble, still felt like Donna Noble, the hundred words a minute temp from Chiswick, but she also felt so much more. She was Super-Donna, Doctor-Donna, she had the intellect and memories of a Time Lord in her head, and it felt brilliant, she was brilliant. She knew everything, she understood everything, she couldn't wait to get down the pub on quiz night; they wouldn't know what had hit them.

 

But most of all, she knew the Doctor, and understood the Doctor, and for a human, it was heartbreaking. He was all fire and ice and rage, but he was also running water in a stream, dappled sunlight through the trees, and the reflection on a still lake at midnight.

 

He was like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun, ancient and forever, but also sunrise over the ocean, the calm in the eye of the storm, young and vibrant. He burned at the centre of time, seeing the turn of the universe, and yet his gentle flame is a beacon of hope, and he doesn't just see the turn of the universe, the universe turns around him.

 

He was a man of contrasts, awesome and terrifying, joyous and sad, he had so many friends, and he was lonely.

 

'Now then, you lot,' the Doctor said in `manic mode'.

 

'Sarah, hold that down.' He indicated a lever for her to hold, and moved to Mickey, who was standing to her left. 'Mickey, you hold that.'

 

'Because you know why this TARDIS is always rattling about the place?' he said as he continued his way around the console. 'Rose? That, there,' he said, leaning in close and enjoying the scent of Rose. Rose smiled, and looked at his twin standing next to her, trying to get her head around the fact that there was now two of him.

 

'It's designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single handed.'

 

He moved to the next segment. 'Martha, keep that level. But not any more.'

 

The next segment was occupied by Jack. 'Jack, there you go, steady that. Now we can fly this thing.'

 

He came back to where he'd started, and saw Jackie. 'No, Jackie, no . . . no. Not you. Don't touch anything. Just stand back,' he said quietly.

 

'Like it's meant to be flown. We've got the Torchwood Rift looped around the TARDIS by Mister Smith, and we're going to fly Planet Earth back home. Right then, off we go.'

 

They felt the TARDIS shudder slightly as it took the strain of the mass of the Earth, the pitch of the time rotor changed as it initially laboured to start the planet moving. The `old girl' was enjoying having all this company; all her old friends back again, just as much as they were. She started singing the Ood song of freedom, which permeated through everyone's consciousness, and gave them a feeling of euphoria.

 

'How's this working then Doc?' Jack asked the man in the brown pin striped suit across the console. Three people tried to answer at once, and looked at each other in surprise. There were nine people on the TARDIS, and three of them had the same memories and the same intellect.

 

The original Doctor raised his eyebrows in a challenge to the Metacrisis Doctor, and Doctor-Donna, just let them try and answer for him. 'The Cardiff rift down there on the planet is feeding energy to the TARDIS, so that it can generate a powerful gravity well which the Earth can fall into . . .'

 

'With the extra energy,' Doctor-Donna cut in. 'The TARDIS can drag the Earth into the Time Vortex.'

 

'Moving it thousands of light years in less than an hour,' the Metacrisis Doctor finished.

 

Rose was standing between the two Doctors, and looked at the cheeky smile of the Metacrisis Doctor, and then the miffed face of the original Doctor, before bursting out laughing. She was in her element, after waiting nearly four years to see her foxy man again, she now had two to look at.

 

The Metacrisis Doctor moved around the console and leaned against a coral with his arms crossed, watching Rose flirt with himself. Well, with the Doctor, who was him, it was a bit wibbly-wobbly.

 

Donna moved around the console, and smiled at Jack. 'That's really good, Jack. I think you're the best.'

 

Jack grinned at her as Jackie laughed. Someone flirting with Jack; that made a refreshing change. Donna went and stood next to the Metacrisis Doctor, and they grinned at each other, like the brother and sister they were.

 

The TARDIS shuddered as the rift energy was released, and the Earth returned to its proper orbit around the sun. Everyone on board started to cheer, applaud, and then hug, it had been a remarkable journey, and they were all members of a special family now, the TARDIS family.

 

'Right then, who's up for a cuppa then,' Jackie said to the jubilant team. 'I might not be able to fly the TARDIS, but I can use a kettle.'

 

There was a chorus of yes pleases from everyone and after taking orders for tea and coffee, Jackie took Rose's elbow as she walked past. 'You gonna show me where the kitchen is Love?'

 

Rose was keen to stay and talk to the Doctor, but there again; there would be plenty of time for that later. 'Er, okay . . . it's through here.'

 

As Jackie led Rose away from the Doctor, he walked over to the coral strut which Doctor-Donna and the Metacrisis Doctor were leaning against.

 

'So, what do we do with you then?' the Doctor said, looking at his Metacrisis twin.

 

'Don't look at me like that, like I'm something you just trod in,' he said angrily. 'I know I'm the unexpected by-product of Doctor-Donna here.'

 

'I don't think that,' Donna said, putting a comforting hand on his arm. 'You're the same as me, just in reverse . . . you're like my brother.'

 

'And we both know mister lord high and mighty there; he thinks I'm the afterbirth. But tell me this brother, where would you and your happy band be if it wasn't for me?'

 

They both knew the answer to that one, because at the time, Donna couldn't have flown the TARDIS out of the Z-neutrino furnace, she wouldn't have been there to free them from the holding cells, and she wouldn't have disabled the Daleks.

 

'But you destroyed them all, there was no need for that, we of all people know that,' the Doctor said.

 

'Do we though? What were you going to do, broker a peace deal, give them another chance? The only chance they would have taken was the chance to try and destroy us again.'

 

The Doctor was remembering the end of days on Gallifrey, the Metacrisis reminded him of who he used to be before he met the woman who made him better, and then he felt the time lines wriggle and twist into a new alignment, one that he knew he wouldn't like, but one that was the best for everyone else.

 

His two companions didn't have his ability to see the infinite possibilities ahead of them, but they could feel the subtle change of a point in flux becoming fixed.

 

'What was that?' Donna asked, still unfamiliar with all these new Time Lord abilities that she had.

 

'That, sister, was a time line in flux becoming fixed,' the Metacrisis Doctor told her. 'Whose was it?' he asked the Doctor. It had to be someone close to them for Donna and him to be able to feel it.

 

The Doctor took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders, as though steeling himself for what he was about to say. 'Rose,' he said quietly, his voice breaking. 'It's Rose . . . and I need your help.'

 

 

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

 

 

Rose led Jackie down the corridor and into the kitchen / dining room, where they filled the kettle, and grabbed the mugs out of the cupboard, putting them on to two trays. Rose found the Doctor's favourite San Kaloon Pyramid mug that she had bought for him years ago. She smiled at her 2012 Olympic Games mug that he had bought for her just before the CanaryWharf incident.

 

While they put tea bags in mugs, spooned coffee and sugar, and waited for the kettle to boil, Jackie was giving Rose her `look', the one that gave her the chance to confess to a wrongdoing, before she would read her the riot act.

 

Rose was also giving her mum her `look', the one she used when she was innocent of any wrongdoing, but knew her mother had an axe to grind, and was waiting for said axe to fall. Non verbal communication wasn't working, so Rose knew she had to revert to normal, vocal forms of communication.

 

'What?' she asked, avoiding her mother's eyes, and finding the tea bags in the cups suddenly fascinating.

 

Jackie rolled her eyes. 'Don't `what' me, Madam. You know `what', you know why I got Mickey to smuggle me across without yer dad knowin'.'

 

Rose did know; they'd had many heated discussions about it. 'And what do you want me to say Mum? Hi Doctor, how have ya been for the last four years, I missed you, I love you, bye forever?'

 

That left Jackie speechless, because that was it in a nutshell. 'But like you said Sweetheart, it's been four years . . . is he still goin' to want to commit to a relationship with ya, and what about yer dad and yer brother . . . how are they gonna feel when ya don't come back?'

 

The kettle clicked, and Jackie started pouring water into the mugs.

 

'You didn't see his face Mum, on that street, when we saw each other for the first time,' Rose said. 'You ask Donna, she'll tell ya . . . Mum, he loves me, and I love him.'

 

Jackie silently filled the mugs with hot water, stirring each one as she did. 'Come on, they'll be gaspin' for these.'

 

They went back to the console room, and started handing out the drinks.

 

'There ya go, just how ya like it,' Rose said, handing the Doctor his tea in his favourite mug. 'I still can't believe I'm here, back in the TARDIS,' she said, leaning next to him against the handrail.

 

'I can't believe you jumped across universes, just to make me a cup of tea,' he said with a cheeky smile. 'So, what was it like for you over there?'

 

'Bad, at first. I couldn't come to terms with not seeing you again, with not bein' in the TARDIS.'

 

'She missed you as well, you know. I could feel her weeping.'

 

'Ah, you poor old thing,' Rose said, reaching out and stroking the coral. She felt a warm glow of love in her head from her old friend.

 

'Dad arranged for me to have some counselling, and Alice, the counsellor became my best friend . . . next to Mickey that is. Eventually, Mickey and Jake talked me into becoming a field agent, and then, a few months later I got your message to go to Norway.'

 

She took a sip of her tea and looked up at him. 'What about you . . . did you . . . did you think about me?'

 

'Oh, you know, you might have come to mind now and again,' he said, trying to keep his face serious, but he couldn't manage it for long. 'All the time. I was trying to keep busy to distract myself, when I bumped into Martha. That was a bit awkward, because she had a crush on me, and I didn't notice, all I could do was think and talk about you.'

 

'She had a crush on you?' Rose said, open mouthed.

 

'Don't sound so surprised, I mean, look at me, what's not to have a crush on?'

 

Rose laughed and leaned over, kissing him on the cheek. 'Oh I've missed this, all the chat and the banter.' She gave him her tongue between the teeth smile, as she reached down and intertwined her fingers with his. And she felt it, after four, long years, that tingle down her spine was still there, as it had been on that first day in Henrick's.

 

And the Doctor felt it too, as he always had, but he was a Time Lord, and he could feel so much more, he could feel that her time line had changed, and she would be happier than she could have imagined . . . eventually.

 

'Hello, you're Rose's mum aren't you?' Donna asked, as she walked over to Jackie, sipping her tea. She knew exactly who she was, because she had the Doctor's memories of her.

 

'Yeah, that's right, an' you're THE Donna Noble, the one Rose an' Pete have been talkin' about for weeks now, you've been causin' quite a stir.'

 

'Wha? Lil' old me?' she laughed. 'And who's Pete?'

 

'My husband, Rose's dad, he's Director of Torchwood over there.'

 

'Oh right, keepin' it in the family eh,' she said with a grin. 'But I wasn't anythin' special, not back then, I was just a temp from Chiswick, but now, it's like I was an event waiting to happen.'

 

'The main event by all accounts,' Jackie said with a smirk. She liked this woman; she seemed to be just like herself, down to earth, no airs or graces.

 

'I have all his memories y'know,' she said, sensing that Jackie needed to talk. 'I know how he feels about Rose, and you'd be surprised how he feels about you.'

 

'Hmm, ya can keep that one to yerself,' Jackie said.

 

Donna laughed. 'No, he has a great deal of respect for you, you're Rose's mother, and he is full of admiration for the way you brought her up on your own.'

 

'An' now he's gonna take her away from me.'

 

Jackie noticed that Donna hesitated, as though she wanted to tell her something, but couldn't. 'You'll have to ask him about that, my memories only go up to when I was on the Crucible, and up to then, he loved Rose. I can't see that changing anytime soon, but as to what he's going to do about it . . .' She left the sentence hanging in the air.

 

Martha had been looking at the rugged hunk that had been standing on the other side of the console, next to Sarah Jane, who she knew from the Subwave Network. This guy though, and the woman who was talking to him, she didn't know, and it was time to make the introductions.

 

'Hi, Martha Jones,' she said, holding out her hand.

 

'Er, Mickey Smith,' he said, smiling and shaking her hand, he'd been wanting to make the acquaintance of the hot chick that had been eyeing him up across the console. 'And this is Jackie, Rose's mum.'

 

'So, how did you get roped into all this then?' Martha asked, as she shook Jackie's hand.

 

'It's all my daughters fault,' Jackie said. 'Ever since she got stranded in the other universe, she's been tryin' to get back to `im.'

 

'Jackie,' Mickey chided her. 'Torchwood needed to find the Doctor to warn him about the darkness, and hope he could do somethin' about it.'

 

'You work for Torchwood?' Martha asked with interest.

 

'Yeah, in the parallel universe, I'm a Special Operations Field Agent, like Rose, she was my field partner.'

 

'Torchwood over here got closed down, there's only Jack's team in Cardiff now,' Martha told him.

 

'Yeah, we had somethin' to do with that,' Mickey said with a grin. 'And what about you, what's your part in all this?'

 

'I'm a doctor, working for UNIT, I used to travel with the Doctor, and just like you, I got the job of finding him.'

 

'You've travelled with him, when was that?' Mickey asked.

 

'Er, I think it was soon after he lost Rose, he was all moody, sad, and lonely,' she said, smiling coyly at him.

 

'Just like Rose was then,' Mickey said with a laugh.

 

'So,' Martha started hesitantly. 'Is it back to Torchwood when we get back?'

 

'If I've still got a job,' He said, and saw Martha frown. 'I went behind Pete's back and smuggled Jackie over here without him knowin'.'

 

'But that wasn't your fault Love,' Jackie said. 'I nagged and bullied ya to do it. God, he's gonna be furious when we get back.'

 

Jackie could tell that Mickey and Martha wanted to carry on chatting and exchange stories of travelling with the Doctor, so she strolled away, and saw the Doctor on his own, as Sarah Jane took Rose to one side for a chat.

 

'I see you're still up to your old tricks,' she said in greeting. 'Hang on, brown suit; you're the original, right?'

 

He gave a single laugh. 'Yeah, it's me Jackie, how have you been?' he said, taking a sip of his tea.

 

'I'm fine thanks . . . got my Pete back . . . well, you know what I mean, and I've got my son, and I've got . . . Rose.'

 

'Life's been good to you over there then,' he said. 'And what about Mickey, did he ever find anyone?'

 

'Nah, he had a few dates, y'know, one night stands, but he's not goin' steady with anyone.'

 

'Well, I think that might be changing soon,' he said nodding his head sideways at Mickey and Martha, who were laughing and exchanging stories about Torchwood, UNIT, and travelling with him.

 

'And what about you Doctor, what are your plans for the future?' Jackie asked, wanting to know his intentions towards her daughter.

 

'Oh, you know, this life that I lead, it's difficult to make plans when you never know what's coming next.'

 

'Oh I know what's comin' next, it's danger, it follows you about like a stray puppy,' she said light-heartedly, before getting serious. 'You know she wants to stay over here with ya, leavin' her family behind.'

 

He had a sad look on his face. 'Yeah, I know, she loves me, and I love her, Jackie. It took me a while to admit it, because after nine hundred years, its not easy loving someone who, in cosmic terms, will be gone in the blink of an eye.'

 

'How much do you really love her, do you love her enough to let her go?'

He'd been asking himself that question, and he knew he would have to answer it very soon.