This story also features Jack but you can only select on character at a time.
The TARDIS had done the unthinkable and now the Doctor and Jack are faced with a heartbreaking decision...all this set against his search for his sons and when something threatens to overshadow it all will the Doctor help and can a certain someone accept that her Doctor maybe gone forever and heal a broken Time Lord.
'Take me down to the river bend
Take me down to the fighting end
Wash the poison from my skin
Show me how to be whole again.'
Castle of Glass- Linkin Park
Donna raised the saucepan again. "Who the hell are you and what have you done to the Doctor!?"
The man, albeit a handsome man, in a uniform held up a hand.
"Whoa, don't hit me again!" he cried.
She hesitated but still kept the pan raised. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't?"
"Because I'm a friend of the Doctor's."
She looked at him, but the Doctor was injured and she needed to treat him. "We'll see about that, pick him up."
The man said nothing and got up and then scooped up the Doctor.
"That way," she said and pointed towards a door that had just appeared. She followed the man into the med-bay. "Put him there."
She waited until he moved away from the bed. "Now, get in the cupboard," she said, nodding towards the laundry cupboard.
The man looked at her in disbelief.
"Go on," she said and the man backed into the cupboard and she slammed the door in his face and quickly dragged a chair and wedge it under the door handle.
When she felt safe, she turned back towards the Doctor.
"You always get into trouble when I'm not with you," she said as she cleaned and used glue to close the Doctor's wound.
She decided she'd better check for any other injuries and she undid his jacket and shirt...she stopped, those scars weren't there the last time she'd seen the Doctor's midriff.
Her suspicion meter went to the top...it looked like the Doctor but was it the Doctor?
She did his shirt back up... trying not to panic. Had some shape changing alien killed the Doctor and replaced him? If it had it was good but not good enough, she thought as she looked closer at the Doctor... he looked older, fine lines around his eyes and he'd lost that youthful look he had when he was relaxed either in sleep or unconsciousness.
Well whatever it and the man in the cupboard were, they had a lot of questions to answer and since one of them was out of it, she'd start with the man in the cupboard.
Jack had barely recovered from the shock of seeing Donna when he found himself carrying the Doctor to medical and then found himself in a closet.
He could hear Donna moving around and worry gnawed at him. What if the Doctor came to...how would he react?
He was still thinking when the closet door opened and he was faced with Donna again and she was holding one of the mallets from the consol room.
"Right, whoever you are, start talking."
"Can I at least come out of the closet?""
He gave her his best smile, but she seemed unimpressed. "Don't try hitting on me, sunshine," she snapped.
His smile faded. "My name is Captain Jack Harkness and I really am a friend of the Doctor's."
Her face told him she didn't believe him as did her words.
"Anyone can say that, he makes friends like I make cups of tea."
"Let me prove it to you."
She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, her stance saying 'Go on then.'
He was saved by the Doctor who shot up with a cry of, "No!"
The Doctor came to, the shouted no still on his lips and he shot up and stared over at the impossible sight standing by the cupboard and he whispered. "Donna."
The TARDIS had broken the rules...gone against her fundamental programming...why and why her?
He sent that anger filled question to his ship but she didn't answer.
Donnas' voice cut through his thoughts.
"If one of you doesn't start talking soon, there'll be some tenderising done and it won't be steak. Who the hell are you and where is the real Doctor?"
The Doctor blinked. "Donna...it's me, the Doctor."
Donna snorted. "You don't fool me, whatever you are. I've only been gone three days not ten years, so unless you've had the worst facelift in the universe, you better tell me who you really are?"
The Doctor looked at Jack, who shrugged his shoulder.
"Let me get this straight and I'm not saying I believe it, but knowing you Martian Boy...you're from the future and the TARDIS brought you here. So where's my Doctor?"
Jack was surprised at how well Donna was taking it...but from what he'd gleaned from what little Martha had told him, she was a smart one.
"He's still here, just part of me now."
She nodded. "So why did the TARDIS do it?"
The Doctor didn't answer at first and when he did he changed subject in the way that he did when he didn't want to talk about it.
"Donna, this is Captain Jack Harkness and he is my friend and he used to travel with me...the ninth me."
Donna looked at him, her eyes narrowed, looking for a lie; then her faced softened and she turned to Jack.
"About time you introduced me to one of your good looking friends. He is human...no hidden tentacles?"
Jack grinned. "51st Century model, at you your service ma'am," and again he received a withering look.
"Never mind you, future boy," she said and ignored him and turned to the Doctor. "What happened to you Doctor?"
Jack suddenly yawned and stretched. "I'm beat, think I'll find my old room," and despite the Doctor's look of panic he got up and left.
There was an awkward silence and then Donna pushed a plate with a sandwich on towards him.
"You're skinnier in the future than you are...were."
"This shouldn't be Donna...the TARDIS."
"She did it for a reason, so why did she?"
The Doctor wanted to tell her, tell her everything, but he couldn't, she wouldn't understand.
"Doctor, you know you can tell me."
He shook his head. "I can't, I just can't."
He stood suddenly, scattering his cup and plate. "I can't."
He virtually ran from the kitchen, leaving a bemused Donna.
She looked up at the ceiling. "What have you done?" she asked.