The TARDIS screeched to a halt and landed with a thud. Donna lost her grip on the railing and fell to the floor, even The Doctor who'd yelled Hold tight! Only moments before they landed had a hard time keeping his balance. She picked herself up.
"Don't you know how to fly this thing?"
"It doesn't do this… often." The Doctor said looking at one of the doo-dads on the control panel, or at least that's what Donna assumed it was.
It was all still so strange to her. She couldn't believe that she had just been to Pompeii, she'd seen hundreds of people die. They were a happy, bustling city one second, and covered in ash the next. It weighed heavy on her heart, the only thing that made her feel any better was the knowledge that they'd been able to save one family. It wasn't much, she knew that, but it was something.
"Well… where – I mean, when are we?" There was so much that she wasn't used to, and she didn't know that she ever would be.
"London, 1836." He shook his head at a small screen.
"You sound unsure."
"No, no it's not that. It's just, this isn't where I'd meant to be. We must have been re-routed."
"Re-routed?"
"Yes, It used happen pretty frequently, but I thought I'd gotten it under control." He flicked a few switches and some lights blinked.
Donna wondered how it was possible that he couldn't control his own machine, but she also wondered how you could control something that seemed so complicated.
"She's got a mind of her own, the old box." He said, patting the controls lovingly. "Well, let's get going, shall we?"
He threw open the doors and snowflakes blew in on the cold wind. They were in an alleyway off a main street. Light from the streetlamps poured into the alley illuminating the cobblestones and the white, new-fallen snow. Donna looked down at her thin, purple dress. It had made sense in Pompeii, but here it wouldn't work.
"I'm not going out there in this."
"Wardrobe's through there," He said pointing up the stairs and through a corridor. "First left, second right, go straight on past the pool and it should be right there on the left." He spouted off. The directions went on one of Donna's ears and out the other.
"Do you have a map?"
Donna stepped out into the cold night and pulled her long, velvet overcoat closer to her body. The street outside had a sweet, early morning calm. She heard a horse whiney nearby and could hear it's clopping get farther away and quieter.
She could see The Doctor out on the main road, looking up into the sky. She looked up and saw more stars than she'd ever seen in her life. It was breathtakingly beautiful. There had to be millions of them, twinkling up there like diamonds.
"It's amazing how many stars you can see without all of that bloody air pollution!" She called out to him.
"Huh" He looked at her slightly puzzled, as if he hadn't known she was standing only a few meter's from him. "Yeah, brilliant isn't it?" He smiled.
Suddenly, his eyes grew wide. She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong, but instead screamed when she felt someone behind her grab her arm. She spun around as quickly as she could, intent on giving her assaulter what-for, but he'd already ran. She could see him, draped in a long, black cloak, disappearing into the dark alley behind her. She felt The Doctor run past her, giving chase to the mysterious person and she followed suit.
They didn't have to run for long, because the alley soon ended in a brick wall, but the mystery man was nowhere to be seen. It would seem he had disappeared into the night. The Doctor felt up the wall, searching for something. He looked for something that would give way and open an unseen doorway, but found nothing. He pointed his sonic screwdriver, but it yielded the same results. The man was simply gone.
"Where did he go?" Donna tried to focus her eyes so to better see in the dark for somewhere the person might be hiding.
"I don't know." The Doctor furrowed his brow at the wall. "Are you alright?" He turned his attention towards her.
"Oh, yeah. Fine." The person hadn't grabbed her roughly, or even grabbed her at all. They'd more placed their hand on her arm gently, still it had frightened her. Maybe they hadn't meant anything malicious, only to get her attention. Though, if that were the case, why would they have run? She scratched her arm though the jacket where the stranger had touched it.
"Maybe it was nothing?"
"In my experience, it's usually never nothing." He put his screwdriver back in his pocket.
A door opened nearer the mouth of the alley, a woman in a nightgown stepped out into the snow. She held a candle out into the darkness, lighting her way.
"What's all this then?" She pointed her light toward Donna, The Doctor and the dead end of the alley. "I heard shouting."
"Sorry, there. Someone startled my friend, she was the one who yelled." The Doctor approached her doorway. "I'm The Doctor, this is Donna." The Doctor motioned for Donna to come forward.
"Come inside. Come in out of the cold and snow." The woman said. They happily obliged.
They entered through the doorway into a small but well-kept kitchen. The woman used the candle in her hand to light a lantern on the wall in the room. She was an elderly woman, she looked like she could have been Donna's grandmother.
"What on earth were the two of you doing out there in the middle of the night, in this weather even?" The old woman asked as she lit another lamp, this one hanging from the ceiling.
"We've been traveling." The Doctor explained. "We only just got into London tonight and we didn't mean to disturb you."
"I was awake anyway, I can't sleep when the wind howls like this. Never could." She blew out the candle in her hands. "And you two will be staying with me tonight. I won't have you going back out in that weather."