It had been more than 2 years since he had last seen her; 2 long, painful years and with the void closed there was never any chance of ever seeing her again. He had just hoped that she was happy, that she had been able to move on and start again, find someone to love her and live a good life. He had asked her to do that once, when he thought he was going to die, to have a fantastic life but then she had come in at the last possible moment and saved the day, the world and most importantly, him. Then, less than a year later a void had opened and a war was fought; the outcome had been too great, he had lost her; sucked into a parallel universe, similar to the one that she had lived before but slightly different. They had encountered that universe once before in their travels, feared that they would be stuck there forever but they hadn't. Little did they know that later on cracks would appear and it would take drastic measures to make sure that it never happened again? Unfortunately for her it meant that she was stuck in a parallel universe and knew no one. Their plan had almost failed when the device had started to fail on them, but Alex being Alex had risked her life to make sure that it didn't happen, she had thrown herself at the device and got it working again; however her grip was lost and if it weren't for some miracle a teleportation device from the other world had saved her just in time, but therefore trapping her from the Doctor forever. On their previous trip there they had learnt that in that parallel universe her parents had been killed when they were young, therefore she had never been born, she didn't exist, she had taken it in her stride at the time but now, with her being stuck there and no family or friends he had no idea how she was surviving. After the initial trip she had broken down some time later and he had held her tight, promising that he'd never let her go, that there would always be someone to look out for her. Now, it was all lost, she was lost, he was lost. A broken promise and a broken heart. He had been through a few companions since then, Martha and Donna, both had come and gone but then by chance Donna had come back to him and was currently travelling with him, seeing the sights that the universe had to offer.
Donna woke one night from a horrible nightmare, she could swear that in it a girl had been calling for the Doctor, a girl who she didn't know her name or her face, her face was dirty and she was covered in so much dirt. All she knew was that she was calling for someone and it sounded like the Doctor, it had been the third time she'd had the dream in as many nights and she knew that she had to talk to the Doctor about it. He probably couldn't help but she needed it off her chest. She headed to the control room where she knew that she'd find him. Sure enough he was under the console, tinkering with something.
"Doctor." She said and he jumped, she heard a groan from under it and was soon rewarded when he came out from under it.
"Donna, you know it's not nice to sneak up on a person like that. You're lucky I have a hard head." He said as he sat up.
"Well aren't I glad you aren't a person then huh space man?" she said with a smile, he frowned.
"What are you doing up?" he rubbed at his head and she sat down at the seat beside the console.
"I've been having dreams the last few nights. I keep hearing someone calling for the Doctor; I assume that they're calling for you." She said to him and she knew that she had his attention.
"Someone calling for me huh? They are calling for me right, me the Doctor? The handsome Doctor?" he said with a smile and straightened his tie. Donna shook her head at that and allowed herself a little smile.
"What did they look like?" he asked, becoming serious again.
"That's the thing. I can't see their face; it's all hazy, blurry. But they're calling for you. They're scared." She told him.
"What else happens in this dream?" he asked, sitting down next to her, grabbing a cloth and wiping his hands with it.
"All I've been getting is flashes; I feel heat, like a Volcano or fire or something and this person is trapped, calling for you. They're choking, they can't breathe but they keep calling. The last thing I hear is 'I love you' before I wake up." She turned to the doctor to see his reaction.
"Is it just a dream or am I going crazy?" she asked him.
"Well I don't know, possibly you could be suffering from the after affects of Pompeii, that would be the most likely reason but you've been having the same dream for the past few nights?" he asked her and she nodded. He scratched his head thinking, he was never good at interpreting dreams, he didn't sleep enough to have them and when he did sleep it was always disturbed with events that had passed, not things that were yet to happen.
"I don't know what to tell you Donna but to just maybe try and concentrate on finding out whom that person is, perhaps they're nobody. Perhaps they're somebody but it's obvious that until you can see that face clearly then it's going to be haunting you."
"That's very reassuring." She replied.
"Well I'm not a shrink; I may be a Doctor but a shrink, no way." He got to his feet and went back to his work, Donna however was quite happy with staying in the control room for a little longer.
It was another month before Donna had any other nightmares, still they had that person in them and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't see their face. It was the same one as before, the person crying out for the Doctor, choking on suffocating smoke and ash and Donna knew that there was more to it when she woke to still smell the smoke in the air. She hadn't bothered to go looking for the Doctor that time and had just screamed till he came running in, even he was amazed that he could smell the after effects of the dream.
"Wow, this is amazing. I've never had anything like this happen and mind you I've seen a lot of strange things in my time but nothing like this. Your dream has left an imprint, an impression and a strong one at that."
"It's a message, I know it. There's someone out there calling for you and I have to find them. How do I find them?" she asked him. By now he knew that there was something else to this then just a dream and he was also determined to find out what it was. To actually walk into the room and smell smoke was something that had never happened before.
"You tell me everything from that dream you remember and then we'll go from there." He had replied. It took a long time for her to remember everything; wanting every detail she could find in hopes that it would help that person. But then if it was a Volcano and it was erupting on Earth they had a pretty good chance of finding it and saving the person in time, they just had to have the right details.
Night after night Donna would have the same dream, one thing that she had been able to find out early was the fact that indeed it was a Volcano and each night she would remember something new, she had a timeline, a list of everything from start to finish but she still needed that face, that was the only part she needed to complete the puzzle. It came to her one day when she was looking at some photos on the fridge; she'd seen these photos all the time and never really taken a close look at them, at the side of the fridge, its edges worn from being looked at. She thought that it was strange for a photo that was looked at so regularly to be at the side of the fridge; she picked it up and looked at it closely. That was her, the girl in her dream. This was her. In the photo the girl was standing next to the Doctor, both wearing huge grins and party hats. She took it and ran to the control room to where the Doctor was.
"I know who she is." She said and he looked up from what he had been working on.
"Who?"
"The girl in my dream." She said and handed him the photo.
"Where did you get that?" he asked her. She hadn't taken into account how his voice had sounded, how flat or dull it was, she was too busy being excited about finding out the last piece of the puzzle.
"On the side of the fridge. Mind you I don't know why you stick a photo on the side of the fridge but this is her."
"No, not possible." He said, not looking up from the photo that was now in his hands.
"Why not? Who is she? Why can't it be her?" she asked, looking up at him and seeing the expression on his face, how sad he looked. Nothing was impossible when you travelled with the Doctor.
"Because she's stuck in a parallel universe and there's no way to reach her." He said, collapsing against the console. In that moment he could swear that one of his hearts had stopped beating and he was sure that the second was going to stop along with it. Out of all the people that Donna could have been dreaming about why did it have to be her? The only one that he couldn't get to, the one he couldn't save. Donna sat down on the seat in the control room and sighed, she'd seen that look on his face a few times and she knew that it was connected to his previous companion; not Martha but the one before her, she had seen it when she had first met him. He never spoke of that companion because it was too much, too painful for him and it didn't take a genius to figure out that this was not the Doctor from earlier, the Doctor who that girl had travelled with, he was a shadow of his former self.
"Who is she?" she dared to ask.
"Alex." He whispered, barely loud enough for her to hear.
"Alex?"
"She was trapped there 2 years ago. I burned up a sun to say goodbye to her. There's no chance of getting to her, the void between the worlds are closed."
"But this is her. She's the one calling for you. Explain to me why I'm dreaming of her?" He pushed himself off the console and walked off.
"Doctor." Donna called after him.
"Don't, I don't have an answer to that. I'd give anything to save her. I wish I could but I can't, there's no possible way." With that he walked out of the control room, disappearing further into the TARDIS. She sighed and leaned against the console. Only she would be having a dream about someone the Doctor used to know and only would it be fitting that there was no possible way to save her.
It was hours before Donna found him, he was in the library. She sat down in a chair across from him. He had a book on his lap and that photo in his hands.
"Doctor, Who is Alex? I mean I know that she used to travel with you but you never talk about her. I know it may be painful to talk about it but you can't just keep everything locked up, please just talk to me about her." she needed to know about this girl, she needed the Doctor to give her an insight to the girl that had captured his hearts.
"She was one of my companions, saved me from myself, saved the world but at a great cost, herself. She got stuck in a parallel universe and the rift closed, sealing the dimensions off completely. She's stuck there and there's no possible way for me to get to her." His voice was flat, lifeless. He didn't even raise his head from the photograph to look at her; he knew that if he did then she would see the tears that were threatening to fall.
"Did you love her?" he just nodded.
"You lost her just before you met me the first time, didn't you?" he nodded again.
"That look on your face when I picked up her jacket." He just closed his eyes to stop the tears and laid his head against the chair.
"I swore that I'd never let anyone get close to me again. I barely survived after losing her. I told myself that the next time I had to regenerate I wouldn't, I'd die instead."
"Doctor, I'm just a friend, who's worried about you."
"Martha wasn't, she wanted to be more than friends, I was too hard on her I guess, I don't blame her for leaving. God I screwed up so much, I made mistakes that I shouldn't have."
"Doctor, forget about all that and talk to me. Talk to me about Alex."
"I can't, it's too painful."
"I know but I'm having dreams about her dying and she's calling out to you in her final moments."
"I know you are but I don't know how."
"Neither do I but is there some way for you to contact her though me?"
"What are you talking about?" he asked, opening his eyes and looking at her.
"In my dreams, perhaps like a dream walk or something?" she had no idea whether they existed but she had to try. If he couldn't save her then maybe she might be able to give them a better goodbye then previously, that she wasn't alone when the time came.
"They don't exist, only in the movies." She nodded, it was worth a try.
"But thank you for trying."
The TARDIS gave one huge jolt them and they found themselves on the floor.
"What's happening?"
"I don't know." They got to their feet and raced to the control room, the Doctor trying to figure out what was going on.
"The TARDIS isn't responding. I've got no control."
"What do you mean it's not responding? It's a ship, you control it."
"Not right now I don't."
"So we've just got to wait?" He nodded. After a few seconds there was a huge crash and the TARDIS came to a stop.
"Where are we?"
"No idea, let's go and have a look." With that he grabbed his coat and led the way to the door, opening and stepping out.
"We're back in London." Donna stated, looking around and smiling.
"We're back home." She looked to the Doctor and saw that he had a look on his face that she had never seen before. It was a mixture of fear and amazed, to be honest there were that many different expressions on his face she couldn't be totally sure of what he was feeling.
"Doctor?"
"No! Not possible. Strictly speaking we are in a London, but not yours." He said to her.
"What do you mean?"
"It's not possible." He exclaimed and ran to the other side of the TARDIS.
"What's not possible?" she followed him, around the TARDIS twice before he stopped.
"We're back here, no, we can't be, it's impossible." He turned around in a circle a few more times and Donna was pretty sure that if he didn't stop soon then she would be sick.
"Doctor, what are you saying? What's not possible?"
"The parallel universe."
"The one that Alex fell into?" he nodded. He had no idea how this had happened but it had.
"Then we have to find her."
"How? How do we find her in London? There are a few million people out there, how do we find one person? Take out a personal notice in the paper and hope that she reads it?"
"Look for a Volcano that's active and go from there." Donna said and took off down the street, the Doctor couldn't argue with that and took off after her.
Half an hour later there was a huge earthquake that knocked them off their feet. The Doctor pulled Donna to her feet and then brushed himself off. He then looked to Donna to make sure she was alright.
"Doctor, is it just me or is there a Volcano in the middle of London?" she asked him and he turned to look where she was looking and gasped, she was right, a huge Volcano sat there on the other side of town. The Thames was gone and in it's place and beyond that a huge Volcano stood.
"Oh my god."
"You were right Donna, there's a Volcano alright. But the question is what's it doing in the middle of London?"
"I just asked you that question." he turned to a man near him, ignoring her.
"Excuse me, how long has that Volcano been there?" he asked, pointing to it.
"Where the hell have you been?"
"Not here obviously, so tell me, how long?"
"Months, started with quakes and then one morning it just rose out of the ground." The Doctor raised his eyebrows. Volcanoes don't rise up out of the ground overnight; there were certain things that must happen in order for a Volcano to form, and for it to form that quickly.
"Where do I find people who study them? The Volcano people, what are they called…" he clicked his fingers, searching for the right word.
"Volcanologists." Donna put in.
"Right, Volcanologists. Where are they located?" the Doctor asked him. If there was a Volcano in London and Donna saw Alex on it then she must be working where she could gain access to it. He'd taken her to many places around the universe with Volcanoes, they fascinated her so it would make sense that she'd be interested in this. She had more knowledge then most people and had never had the chance to study at University.
"Torchwood." Was all he said before he ran off, fearful of another quake.
"Torchwood? Not a very secret organization here." He said to Donna, turning towards her.
"Well if strange occurrences have been happening all the time it was gonna come out sooner or later." She replied.
"Right, we need to get there, we have to find Alex, that's our best bet." He grabbed her hand and they ran in a direction, not sure of which was the right direction but needed to search.
They had come to a building a short time later.
"Luck seems to be on our side today." Donna said to him.
"Quite right. Come on." They ran into the office.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for a girl who may or may not work here. About 5 4', most likely should length hair brown hair, goes by the name Alex. There anyone here by that description?" he asked. The receptionist bit her lip.
"It's a simple question; do you have anyone working here names Alex that fits that description?" Donna asked her.
"Um…" The receptionist trailed off.
"Is there or isn't there? Tell me."
"She's gone." A voice came from behind him and he turned to see a guy standing a few feet away from them.
"Who are you?" Donna asked him.
"My name is Trent; you're looking for the girl who showed up 2 years ago. The girl that knew more about what was going on out there then all of us put together."
"What happened? Where is she?" the Doctor demanded.
"We lost contact with her a few hours ago. No one was game enough to go up to the top of the Volcano and take readings, it says that it's going to erupt but Alex saw that they were strange readings, not regular Volcano readings and volunteered to go up there herself. We had another quake a few hours ago and lost contact with her." He said. Another quake hit just then and they grabbed onto the walls or anything that would make them hold their feet, it seemed stronger than the last one.
"You're the Doctor, aren't you?" Trent asked when it was over.
"Yes."
"She always said that if there was a way you'd come back. I never believed her, no one did."
"What part of the Volcano did she go up?"
"You can't it's too dangerous." Donna said, turning to him.
"I'm not leaving her up there to die, I won't."
"You'll only succeed in getting yourself killed. This thing is going to blow and it's going to blow soon."
"Then I have until it blows to find her. Now stop avoiding all my questions and tell me what I want to know." The Doctor roared, he didn't like waiting and didn't like not knowing what was going on. Trent glanced at the receptionist and she nodded, getting up from her desk and moving away, he then turned on his heel and headed into an office, the Doctor and Donna following him.
"Tell me what's going on?" Trent turned to him.
"That Volcano there, someone said it just rose out of the ground one day. Tell him about it." Donna pressed, she was in no mood to be pushed around, and they needed answers and needed them fast.
"What's there to tell, we had quakes, and then one morning a huge quake, bigger then the rest of them, before we knew it a huge Volcano had risen out of the ground. Soon every scientist was here studying it, claiming it a miracle but Alex didn't buy any of their explanations they came up with."
"What did she think?" he turned to the filing cabinet.
"The agency didn't like it, she'd been criticized in the past because of the knowledge of alien stuff so it was just known to a select few, I was one of them."
"And?" Donna pressed, wanting him to hurry up.
"Alex took it upon herself to figure out why it happened. She started taking readings of it everyday and then the readings changed."
"Changed how?" the Doctor asked.
"Not the normal seismic activity for a Volcano. 10times as much but no sign of eruption. So she started testing it with other devices, alien devices. The scientists had no clue to what was going on and when it reached a certain point they got scared and left. They left monitoring devices but they were stumped to what to tell people. Eventually the government told the public that there was nothing to worry about and that it was being closely monitored and if there were any changes then the public would be told. It went quiet for a few months but then started up again about a month ago. Alex was the one who picked up on it first."
"What did she find?" Trent placed a file in front of him.
"We couldn't tell the public; apparently it's an alien race, although she didn't recognize it. Said that in her travels she had seen many different Volcanoes but nothing like this, she knew that there was something inside it." The Doctor scanned the information that Alex had and then the dimension. It was a ship inside the Volcano, a cover. He also noted that it hadn't exactly risen out of the ground but more likely landed there, camouflaging itself in with the surroundings.
"What action did you take?" Trent lowered his eyes.
"What action?"
"They told her to destroy the thing; sent her up there by chopper as close as they dared and she's been setting devices to blow this thing to hell. It's on a timer but once Alex was up there, there was no coming back. The chopper wasn't coming back and there wouldn't be enough time for her to get down and that's if the effects didn't kill her before the timer ran out." The Doctor slammed his hand down on the desk.
"When does that thing explode, when is the timer set for?" Trent looked at the clock on the wall in his office.
"One hour."
"Wait a minute, if she went up there to blow this thing up, then what about the rest of London? It would be destroyed in the blast." Donna said.
"Not with these things. It's got a range and everything in it's range is destroyed, it acts like a barrier, everything outside the barrier will be safe. Alex did the calculations herself, she knew that she wouldn't be getting out in time and accepted it."
"She's using the Dalek balls." The Doctor stated and Trent nodded.
"Dalek balls?" Donna said with a smile, she had to find out the story behind that later on.
"When Alex first met the Daleks one had been captured and when she touched it, it took her DNA, it changed. When it realized what that meant it ordered her to kill it. The Daleks are covered in little metal balls because it's a metal body and it used them to destroy itself. How the hell did she think of that?" He turned to Donna who just shrugged, out of everyone n the room he would be the only one who'd know the answer.
"But she'd have to use hundred's of them to pull it off." He stated his hands on his head when he realized just how much she had learnt from him.
"After the war we started finding Dalek bodies all around London and gathered them all up to be destroyed but Alex knew that we could use the 'balls' as you call them for weapons and started studying them and after awhile she was able to configure them for human use. Once this Volcano showed up and all other options had been exhausted she started working on a plan using these things to destroy it. It took her weeks to pull it off and after some initial testing it was the safest plan we could come up with."
"You mean she came up with? That was a brilliant idea; did I ever tell you that she used to come up with some very strange ideas? I'm telling you that sometimes she even shocked me and came up with things that I never would have come up with in a million years." The Doctor said.
"Seems like she's a lot like you." She replied, smiling when she saw the smile on his face.
"She was given the green light to carry out the mission but in order for it to work she had to place them in strategic places around the Volcano, placing some less stable ones near the top." Trent broke in.
"Unstable?" the Doctor frowned.
"She made some more powerful then the others in order for them to destroy whatever was inside that Volcano." The Doctor paled before he turned and ran out of the room.
"There's no chance of stopping it." Trent yelled after him.
"Yes there is and believe me the Doctor is going to find it." Donna said to him and with that she turned and headed after him. By the time she got outside she saw him looking up towards the Volcano.
"She's still alive Donna, I know it. I have to get her out of there." He said.
"The TARDIS?" she asked him.
"It's risky; If Alex is right and I'm pretty sure she is then that alien life form might recognize the alien technology and blow it out of the sky or even worse, capture it."
"Then how? You have less than an hour."
"I have no idea."
The Doctor took off a second later.
"Where are you going?"
"The TARDIS." He shouted back and she shook her head before taking off after him, by the time she walked in the door he was at the console.
"What are you doing?" she asked, careful to stay out of his way.
"Scanning the surface for life signs, if Alex is alive it will pick her up." He said, turning a knob and pushing a button.
"What good will that do?"
"I don't know but at least I'll know she's still alive and where she is so I can come up with some way to get her back. God I so need a transmitter beam." He exclaimed.
"A what?"
"A transmitter beam, something that can lock onto her and transport her back here to the TARDIS. I've used them before, play havoc with your phones."
"Please turn off all communication devices as it interferes with it, kind of thing right?" Donna asked,
"Yeah, but Alex never believed it but then again, neither did I."
"But you did so as it was in your best interests." Donna said and the Doctor nodded.
"So this transmitter, you don't have one?" he shook his head.
"What about Torchwood?" he stopped what he was doing and looked at her.
"I wouldn't have enough power to make it work."
"They have power, use theirs, take the TARDIS there and work from there." she shouted. She was going to do everything in her power to reunite the Doctor, she as not going to get him this close only to let him lose her again.
"Donna Noble, you're a genius. Hold on tight then. Torchwood was built on top of a rift; we can the energy from that to pull this off. This crazy plan might work after all." He pressed a button and the TARDIS came to life, when it stopped a few seconds later he ran to the door and opened it.
Trent had been finishing up when he heard a sound and turned around to see a blue box appear in the lobby of all places. He stood frozen and waited till the door opened and when it did the Doctor stepped out.
"What are you doing back here?"
"Do you have a transmitter beam or board, anything with a transmitter?" he asked.
"Down in archives. Why?"
"We can use it to get Alex out of danger. I need it now." Trent came over to him and gave him a card.
"Sub Level 3." He turned and started walking.
"Where the hell are you going?" Donna yelled after him.
"Getting out of here. I don't want to die." He said and then kept walking.
"You said that London would be safe." Donna yelled after him.
"Leave him; we have more important things to do." The Doctor said before he headed towards the elevator. Together they rode it down and got into the archives.
"So, what are we looking for?"
"Could look like anything, there are so many different types." He said to her. Donna looked up and smiled.
"What happens if we start looking under T for transmitter?" she asked, pointing to a letter above them.
"Good idea." They ran along until they came across the letter and then started searching, knowing that every minute that passed was less time they had to saving Alex.
"Aha." The Doctor yelled a few minutes later.
"Found one?"
"Yep, hello beautiful, now let's just hope you work correctly." They headed back to the TARDIS and upon entering they were greeted with a beeping sound.
"What is that?" Donna asked when he looked at the monitor, he smiled.
"It's found her. I have a place to lock onto. Now all we have to do is link her up, give her some juice and hope that it works."
"What happens if it doesn't?" he froze, a face of fear passing over his features.
"Don't think that far ahead, cause I can't."
Alex had placed the last device in its spot when a tremor hit, sending her tumbling down the mountain. She landed with a thump and pain ripped through her, more rocks came down the mountain after her, she shielded her head to try and protect herself from more injury but one huge rock landed on her legs. When the onslaught had finished she moved her arms and looked down, seeing just how big the rock was, she pushed at it with all her might, hoping to move it a little so she could move out from under it, luck must've been on her side cause it gave just enough and she moved her legs out from under it. She groaned when she saw the injuries to her legs and then looked at the rest of her body, she had cuts and bruises all over her and she wiped her hand over her head, cringing when she felt a sensitive spot and seeing blood on her hand when she pulled it back, no wonder she had a headache. She didn't protect herself as good as she thought. Even though it hurt like hell she slowly got to her feet, making her way back to where she had been before the tremor and gathered her bag that had somehow stayed where she had placed it. She knew that they were timed to go off at a certain time but she had a feeling in her gut that whatever was going to happen was going to happen earlier than expected and she intended to get this over and done with as soon as possible. She pulled a remote from the bag and pushed a button, sending a transmitter to all the devices around the mountain.
A loud beeping sound emitted throughout the TARDIS.
"No, no, no. Alex stop. Don't do that." The Doctor yelled, scaring the hell out of Donna.
"What?"
"She's activated the devices, she's blowing it up earlier then scheduled. No, no, no. Give me more time. I can save you, don't give up yet, please don't give up yet." He begged, pushing more buttons. His actions becoming frantic, his movements a blur.
"How long?"
"Less than 5minutes, I can't be sure though." He started pushing more buttons and his speed increased, he was desperate. He stopped when a crackle came across the monitor. He couldn't see her but he could hear her voice, he stopped cold.
…"This is Torchwood agent 494; I have armed the devices on the volcano/mountain. It will be hopefully destroyed in just under 4 minutes. I have to report that tremors have been frequent and growing more in intensity in the last hour or so and that is why I have activated it earlier that it was scheduled. The oxygen is thin up here and getting thinner up here with each passing minute."…They heard her draw a deep breath, coughing harshly as she was having trouble breathing and it was only going to get worse, he was shocked that she was still conscious even now, but then she was determined to get the job done, she always had been.
…"I hope that this transmission reaches Torchwood because I need to inform them to monitor oxygen levels and chemical readings after the explosion and evacuate London if necessary, the readings have been growing steadily for the past few hours but the fumes emitting from here are slow but potent. I don't know how long it will be before they reach ground level if this fails as they seem to be only high up at the moment. Personally, I don't have anyone to say goodbye to, at least in this universe. To the Doctor, if he in the slight chance ever makes it back here let him know that I did this in order to protect my new world from invasion. I used his knowledge and hopefully put it to good use. Goodbye Doctor."… She started coughing more and then gasped before going silent, the transmission died.
"No, I'm not letting you die, you hang on." He shouted as if she could hear him.
"I'm not going to make it; I'm not going to be able to save her." He said, looking across to Donna with tears in his eyes.
"Yes you can, you're the Doctor."
"I need more time."
"Interrupt the transmitter."
"I can't, it's on a different frequency, I can't search it and do this at the same time, and it'll drain to much power."
"If we were closer, would that help?" he shook his head.
He grabbed a lever and pulled it when a light came on about 30seconds later.
"Come on, come on. Work for me please." He begged, holding the lever in place, it seemed like the TARDIS was struggling but was trying to do what the Doctor had asked.
"Come on old girl, just a little longer." He said, looking at the TARDIS.
"Is it working?" Donna asked him, staying out of the way.
"I hope so, come on old girl, just a little longer. Work for me, do it for Alex." He said and it seemed like the TARDIS responded to that and gave another whirl. After another few seconds a flash erupted through the TARDIS and then as quickly as it happened the control room was plunged into darkness; the TARDIS had given it all it had.
"Please let it have worked, please let it have worked." The Doctor said and then the emergency lighting came on and Donna turned to see a girl lying to one side of the console.
"Doctor." She said and he came around to that side and when he saw the person ran to their side.
"Alex? Alex can you hear me?" he asked, lifting her up into his arms and pushing her hair back off her face. Her lips were blue and he felt for a pulse and smiled when he felt the reassuring thump underneath his fingers, he lowered his head and could just feel the breath on his cheek, she was breathing, however shallow, but breathing. He stood with her in his arms and headed towards the medical lab; Donna hot on his heels.
"What can I do?" she asked him as they entered and he lay her down on the bed.
"Get her some oxygen, she's having trouble breathing." He said to her and she nodded, grabbing the necessary items and starting whilst the Doctor went and grabbed a device off the bench and started scanning her body with it; Donna thought that it may be some kind of x-ray machine or something.
"Is she going to be ok?" she asked, looking from her to him.
"I don't know." He lifted his eyes to her and then to Alex lying on the bed. She was so pale and he wiped the tears from his eyes that were threatening to fall, he had work to do, he was not going to lose her now.
"I'm going to have to ask you to stand back Donna. I need to heal her." He said to her, getting a machine ready. She nodded and stepped back until the Doctor nodded that it was a safe distance.
"Is that going to heal her?" she asked and he nodded.
"Won't even leave a scar; heal all internal and external injuries. Won't even be able to tell that she got hurt." He started the machine and then came over and stood next to Donna.
"How long will it take?"
"Few minutes."
"How bad is she?"
"Lungs are the worst, with everything she's breathed in…" he trailed off.
"She'll be ok Doctor." She said, laying a hand on his arm.
"I know she will. She's too stubborn."
"Like someone else I know; seems to like the impossible."
"Oh you two will get along great and that's a scary thing. I feel sorry for anything that runs into you two." He said with a smile. They stood quietly for a few minutes until the machine stopped and the Doctor stepped over to it, turning it off.
"Now what?"
"We wait and see. She's human; her body will react differently to the technology, although I'm hoping that because she's travelled with me and stayed in contact with alien technology we may see improvement quicker then we intended." He said, stepping up to Alex and running his hand through her hair. Donna grabbed a blanket out of the cupboard and placed it over her.
"Thankyou." He whispered and she smiled.
"What about the Volcano?" she asked after a moment and he looked up.
"If it worked then she would have destroyed it." He took off out of the lab and back to the control room.
"Why not just go outside and see?" Donna asked him.
"Alex said something about chemicals and other pollutants. I don't want to risk you getting ill if they travelled down that thing to ground level, who knows what it will do to people."
"The Dalek balls, weren't they supposed to keep the blast contained?"
"Yes but if they've been changed, manipulated then we have no idea what to expect." He checked reading and then scanned the outer area, bringing up footage of the outside.
"She did it." He said after a moment.
"She did?" he nodded.
"The readings are all in the safe zone and there's no sign of the mountain." Donna looked at the image more closely.
"She destroyed whatever it was?"
"Oh yes. There isn't a trace of whatever it was left."
"Any chance that it just flew away. If it was a ship?" he shrugged.
"Main thing is that this planet is safe for the time being. She stopped something that could have been disastrous."
"But how do you know what she killed wasn't peaceful?"
"They never mentioned anything about contact and it just showed up. They had months and Alex had this thing, a gut feeling that she trusted, hell I trusted cause she was always right. If it told her that something wasn't right then it wasn't."
"Now what?"
"We get out of here."
"How? The void or whatever the hell it is. I mean how did we get here in the first place?"
"I have no idea and I think it's better to not find out. I think the TARDIS will manage to get us out of here just like she got us here safely. What do you say old girl?" he said to the TARDIS which seemed to hum in response.
"Let's go." He pulled a lever and the TARDIS started.
The Doctor had no idea how the TARDIS had done it but it made it back through the void to his own dimension and they headed for London, setting down not far from Donna's.
"Does Alex have anyone I could contact?" Donna asked him, she stood at the door to the med lab where he was sitting with her. He shook his head.
"No, they had all passed on before she was trapped over there. Both worlds and she still didn't have any parents. When I met her she had just turned 18 and living in her mothers flat and working in a take away food shop. She'd given up her dream of studying cause she couldn't afford it and jumped at the chance of travelling. Said that she'd never had so much fun in her whole life when she started travelling with me. I though that she'd get tired of it and then want to go back home to her life but she didn't. She stayed with me, even thought I was a hard ass back then, not really wanting the company but she'd been through similar experiences so she understood. She saved me and I saved her, until that day." He ran a hand over his face.
"What can I do then? I don't feel right leaving you here by yourself."
"I'm not, I have her."
"You know what I mean. Can I bring you anything back?"
"No, go see your mother and grandfather, I'll be fine here. I'll see you in a few hours. The TARDIS needs a break; so don't worry, we won't be leaving without you." She nodded and stepped out of the room. He turned back to Alex.
"It's just you and me now. Like it used to be. Please don't give up one me. I can't lose you again." He said softly. Donna may have stepped out the door but she didn't walk away right away, she listened for a moment to him talking to her. The emotion is his voice was so strong, she could only hope that this girl survived, she may have been healed by that machine but she was human and the trauma she'd been through was great. There was still a possibility that it was too much for her to handle.
Alex slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times to clear her vision, she could hear the hiss of the oxygen flowing through the mask and the fact that she could breath normally made her wake up a lot more quicker then she would have in any other circumstance. The last thing that she could remember clearly was activating the device on the mountain, making sure that it would be destroyed so by all rights then she should have been dead, unless it didn't work. That thought had her sitting upright in a second, a bad idea as the throbbing in her head made itself known and she would have collapsed right back onto the pillows if someone hadn't grabbed her and eased her back down, she closed her eyes against the light.
"Just breathe, it'll pass in a minute." She heard someone say but didn't open her eyes. For the next few minutes she just concentrated on breathing and it was true, the pain passed and her breathing eased considerably, within that few minutes her breathing was back to normal. Her hand went up to the mask and she went to pull it off but a hand stopped her.
"That stays on a little longer." She opened her eyes at the voice and found a face which she hadn't seen in years.
"It's ok, you're in the TARDIS." He said to her.
"No, not possible."
"Shouldn't be but it is." He replied and then picked up a device and scanned her with it, smiling at the readout, he placed it aside.
"Diagnosis Doctor?" she asked and then smiled when he took the mask off her.
"All healed, back to normal." He watched as she raised her hand up to his face and touching it, gasping when she felt flesh and not just empty air. Tears came to her eyes.
"Hello." He said, just like he used to and she sobbed, he quickly pulled her into his arms.
"How?"
"Later, all wait until later." He said, pulling her in tight. He soon felt her tears soaking into his shirt and started petting her hair.
"I'm here Alex. I'm here, it's alright." After a few minutes she pulled back and he sat down on the bed with her, brushing the hair behind her ear.
"Did it work?" she asked and he nodded.
"Yeah, that crazy plan of yours worked alright. Where the hell did you come up with a plan like that?"
"Well I used to travel with a guy who used to do a lot of crazy things. In the end I kinda followed in his footsteps." She said and he smiled. She then looked down at her body to see that there were no marks on her.
"When you said all healed, you meant that right?" he nodded.
"I healed you, all internal and external injuries. Although the mind has a bit of trouble readjusting to normal after that so the pain in the head was normal."
"Normal, felt like I had a brass band in there." She stated.
"Has it passed though or is it still there?" he asked worryingly, looking her in the eyes.
"It's passed." She replied with a smile.
"Good, so now all you'll need is some sleep and then you'll be right as rain."
"I don't need sleep, I feel fine. See." She swung her legs off the side of the bed and jumped down, landing on both feet and still standing. She smiled at him and he cocked his head slightly.
"Yeah but give you a few hours and you'll feel as though a freight train hit you. You need rest to let your body recover." She shook her head and smiled at him.
"What I'm going to do is take a shower and clean up, then I'm going to have something to eat. I think some chips would be the go." She said and walked out of the med lab.
"Were you always this stubborn?" he asked, walking out after her.
"Ask yourself that question and your answer will be my answer." She said and he laughed, he already knew the answer.
2 hours later Alex would have collapsed on the floor if the Doctor hadn't been keeping an eye on her, she was standing one moment and then her legs went jelly and she started falling, the Doctor reaching out and grabbing her before she hit the floor.
"I won't say I told you so." He said to her.
"Then why did you?" she asked, leaning against him for a moment before attempting to stand upright, which failed as her legs still felt like jelly. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her through the TARDIS to her old bedroom, he could never come to change it and had kept the door closed, knowing that the TARDIS kept it from being disturbed by anyone. The TARDIS opened the door and he took her inside, putting her in the bed and covering her with the covers, her eyelids were already drooping.
"You're not leaving are you?" she asked, taking his hand and holding it as tightly as she could, her grip wasn't strong by any means but he didn't pull back.
"No, not leaving. Staying right here with you." With that he moved onto the bed with her, stretching out and pulling her close to him.
"Will you be here when I wake up?" she asked, her voice getting softer with each word as sleep crept closer.
"Yes, I'll be here when you wake up." For the first time in 2 years he felt right, everything was back to how it should be. That would be where Donna found them when she returned from her family a few hours later, Alex and the Doctor asleep on the bed. She smiled and left them alone, heading back to the control room and leaving a note on the console before heading back to her family. When they were ready to go she trusted the Doctor to contact her and not just take off without her, he wasn't that type of a man and with Alex back maybe it would be even more exciting.
The End