Warning: spoilers for Journey's End for anyone in this part of the fandom who – unbelievably – still hasn't watched it.
Disclaimer: I own the insomnia that forced this idea on to me and nothing else here.
A/N: I wanted to write something else entirely so of course my muse absolutely insisted I write this instead last night (with many apologies to another SciFi fandom).
Back To Life
.
The events of Journey's End trundled on despite its participants trying to alter the course of the narrative.
"Oh my god! You found her," Martha gasped in shock at seeing Rose and not Donna standing next to the Doctor on the Crucible.
The Doctor stood impassive, but Rose was chuffed to little mint balls. It confirmed everything she had hoped had happened in her absence.
Moments later, Martha was forcibly teleported mere feet away from the reunited couple and imprisoned within a forcefield cell. She looked towards the Doctor, hoping against hope that he had a plan to deal with the Daleks; but his head only lifted to regard the assembled companions with regret. All of them would die together.
As their last hope seemed to slip away a miracle happened. The TARDIS began to materialise before them; fading in like an avenging angel. "It can't be," the Doctor murmured in disbelief.
And yet it was true. The TARDIS had evaded total destruction, thanks to her new pilots. Notably, a brand-new version of him swept out, holding a weapon to reverse the Dalek evolution. It was soon blasted out of his hands by a spiteful Davros, and it was left to Donna to pick up the pieces. Quite literally.
She tried not to look at the ensembled people as she raced to pick up the neutraliser, but their expressions were generally amusing. Her amusement was soon usurped by her confusion about what to actually do with the device in her hands; and Davros took his opportunity to disarm her permanently.
Yet, the Doctor's agony in losing her a second time was soon replaced with joy that she had gained something new. Something powerful. A Time Lord mind. It made her invincible as they jointly battled to return all the stolen planets; and the Doctor allowed himself to embrace this fleeting moment of fulfilment with Donna with his metacrisis version.
More than one person was particularly delighted with the prospect of two or three Doctors. But all that was for later, when the job was done.
So when they were all back in the TARDIS, flying towards Earth's old position in the universe, Donna took a moment to step back and observe the Children of Time, as they had been dubbed by Caan. She saw Martha thrilled to be allowed to touch his precious console for once; a far cry from what she was usually allowed to do. And amid the two Doctors stood Rose, flirting with them both for all she was worth. Two Doctors to possibly choose from, and twice the fun when she was left as the only companion by the first Doctor's side, just as she had planned all those months of fighting through various dimensions to get to him despite his warning it should not be done. Well, she'd gone and shown him it could be done, hadn't she?
To Donna it was as plain as day what Rose's intentions were; and it didn't leave much room for anybody else, not even her mother or boyfriend. Or should she say ex-boyfriend, because Mickey wasn't exactly playing the adoring boyfriend anymore and had given up the ghost with her. Poor bloke. Perhaps he ought to turn to someone more understanding and reliable? Someone like Martha…
She'd make a suggestion later on if she ever got the chance to. But her life was on the line here and she was fighting to appear normal until the very last second in order to stay in the TARDIS. For the truth was, she didn't want to be anywhere else, even if it meant coping with love's young dream on the other side of the room to her.
At least both of them weren't glued to the spot, she thought as she made a tour of the console and the Metacrisis Doctor followed to stand with her, sharing a joke or two between them. Ah, this was the life! It didn't get better than this, and sadly it never would again. The shared look between them told her that he knew this too.
She wanted to clasp him tight and never let him go, but she wasn't selfish enough to do that, despite suspecting he was her last opportunity to live her dream. After this, her life would become the nightmare, and the remnants of this would be her longed for dream.
The words of an ABBA song: "The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall" flittered through her mind and she knew it was time to be brave as old companions began to leave the TARDIS for the final time.
Her mind was numb after that, through the dramatics of dropping off Rose along with her faithful mother, Jackie, and the Metacrisis Doctor. All her efforts were focused on keeping her blinding headache at bay or at least visible to anyone else. Apart from a few brief seconds when she acknowledged the gift Rose was being given; and was slightly annoyed she seemed to be turning her nose up at it.
Why couldn't she just appreciate gaining what she had always wanted? What she had fought to win? There was just no pleasing some people. Nor did they seem to realise the damage they were causing by faffing about asking questions that would never be answered. Not in a million years. The Doctor had lived for centuries defending the various aspects of time, so why would he give all that up to satisfy some young human girl? It wouldn't make sense to do so. Donna had known that from the very start, so she'd never entertained any silly thoughts he could be interested romantically in her. They were best friends and that was enough for her since she'd already stepped up from being yet another companion. No, this was as good as it gets for a human. Or rather, a human-Time Lord metacrisis hybrid. It was all downhill after this.
As it turned out, it was. Before she knew it, his hands were on her head, and she found herself being sucked out of the TARDIS and her situation. Everything had gone; and she was back to being plain old her.
She blinked a few times, trying to clear her mind of the fog within it and grasp onto the experiences she had just lived through. But this was worse than coming out of the computer in The Library. This was life changing.
A disembodied artificial female voice suddenly spoke from behind her left ear. "Welcome back to real life. You may feel slightly disorientated for a while. This is normal. You may join your friends in the social area. Just follow the blue lines."
What! Real life? She'd been in a reproduced world all this time. Again! This was getting ridiculous.
Sitting back, she realised how stiff her body was and stretched to ease out her muscles. Then Donna shifted her gaze from the body contraption in front of her to take in the whole room. A bit bare, it had to be said but nothing out of the ordinary. The same couldn't be said about the virtual experience she had just had.
"I could murder a cup of tea," she said to nobody in particular but hoped the disembodied voice was organising one right that second. Spotting her reflection in the screen before her and able to focus on it more clearly, she grimaced in recognition at the elderly face surrounded by hair fading into almost constant grey with the odd fleck of ginger here and there. "Still considered too old for most stuff but at least it was different for a nice change," she disparaged. "Oh well. Let's get this old bum in gear and meet the girls."
After a shaky start, she hobbled off her seat and head for the door, taking care to follow the blue lines in the laminated floor tiles. It didn't take long to enter the social area of the facility and spot her three lifelong friends.
"There you are!" she greeted them. "What did you think of that? Are we going to try the Whoniverse again?"
Her youngest friend of the three frowned in annoyance. "I'm game but why did I have to die first? I always end up dying when we try out these alternative realities."
"Aw, it's nothing personal, Jenny," she consoled her with a brief touch on the shoulder as she sat down at the same table as them. A robot immediately handed her a fresh cup of tea, for which she was very grateful. "Just a shame I didn't get to stay with you this time. Be grateful you were lots younger for a while."
Jenny chuckled. "I certainly miss being able to do all those acrobatics. Makes a change to be able to jump about like that again."
"It makes you forget you are a pensioner, that's for sure," another old woman agreed.
"I don't see why you should have been the main companion this time, Donna," a third old woman sourly remarked. "At least Martha here managed to stop you taking completely over."
"As if you haven't had more than your fair share in the past, Rose," Donna sarcastically commented. "I wouldn't mind but you got the main men this time; both of them the Doctor too. Greedy cow."
Martha laughed as Rose scowled heavily.
"That's true. I couldn't even get him the once," Martha noted.
"That's because he loves me and only me," Rose crowed. "It's my sweet innocence that they like."
"Is that what they're calling it these days?" Donna wondered and winked at Jenny; making her laugh even more.
Rose pouted; causing the lipstick to crack around her wrinkled lips. "At least I'm not the size of a bus like you are," she spitefully pointed out. "No wonder he only wanted you as his best friend."
"Thanks, Rose," Donna answered, placing a hand over her injured heart. "Love you too. I'm just glad that you still didn't get to shag him."
"Donna!" Martha exclaimed in delighted shock. "You can't say that."
"Why not?" Donna challenged. "It's not as though he put out for any of us."
"Well, he couldn't for me," Jenny retorted. "Shame, because he was very tasty."
They all nodded in agreement.
Martha smiled in remembrance as she uttered, "Nice bum."
"Nice hair," Rose added. "Really nice hair."
"Those eyes," Donna commented. "All warm and expressive." The silence that met this statement made her ask, "What?"
"You fell in love with him as well," Martha accused. "After all that you said; hook, line and sinker."
"I did not!" Donna hotly denied.
"Oh yeah?" Rose huffed, enjoying this turn of events. "I saw how you kept touching him."
"Like you did?" Donna accused in return. "Jumping all over him like an 80s kid on artificial flavourings. The yellow ones."
"You can say what you like, I know you, Donna." Rose pointed a finger at her. "All that 'not a couple' lark covered up how you really felt about him."
"So what? I loved him. There! I've said it out loud," Donna brazenly admitted. "He was my best friend and I loved him for it."
"Hello Donna," greeted an old man shuffling past their table. He even added in a merry wave.
She hadn't noticed him getting closer, but she returned the greeting and waved back as he went by.
"Who's that?" Jenny asked in a low voice.
Donna continued to smile at him. "That's Basil; the retired caretaker from number four. You know him. You must know him! He has that little dog. The one that talks back to you."
"Oh, I know him." Martha considered him carefully. "I was his home nurse for a little while."
"I bet you miss doing all that now that you've retired," Donna suggested.
"Yeah, I do," Martha agreed. "Probably more than you miss work."
"Too right I do!" Donna playfully exclaimed. "All that new technology to keep ahead of. Kept me on my toes though. Whereas Rose here stayed on her ars-"
"That's enough of that sort of talk," Rose interrupted her joke, and smirked. "Running a beauty business was tiring, so I'm glad to get the chance to rest these days."
"No doubt sitting about being sprayed with fake tan and moisturiser," Donna joked; and they all howled with laughter at the thought. "Did you get to play anybody else this time, Jenny?"
"I got Luke Rattigan and I was Sylvia Noble for a while," she replied.
"Ouch!" Rose reacted. "Shame you couldn't have been Jackie instead."
"I asked to be but someone else had already bagged it," Jenny supplied. "For some reason, no one was desperate to be Sylvia."
"I wonder why?" Donna deadpanned. "What about you, Martha?"
"I got Wilf," she smugly replied.
"Bitch!" Rose mock insulted her. "I wanted that one. I ended up as Colonel Mace and General Cobb, would you believe?"
"Makes sense," Donna muttered, and got instantly shoved in the side by Martha. "Never mind," she amended it to. Looking towards the tea urn sitting in the corner, she noted Basil was sitting all by himself. "Oi, Basil! Why don't you bring your tea over here and sit with us? I promise to keep Rose well away from you."
"Oi!" Rose protested as Basil stood to make his way over to join them.
"I'm sure I'll find you very charming," he assured her as he found himself a seat at their table. "So. Have you all been doing the Doctor?"
"You could say that," Donna confirmed, biting back on the saucy retort she wanted to give. It was best that she did. "Have you?"
"Oh yes," he replied. "I've done it a couple of times. I love it."
"Would I have met you in there?" Jenny pleasantly asked. "I hope I did."
"That is very sweet of you." He smiled genially at her. "As long as I get to tinker with some machinery, I'm happy with whatever they give me."
"Who were you this time?" Martha wondered, and was surprised by his reaction.
"Ah, I can't tell you my name," he cautiously admitted. "It's against the rules."
Rose leaned closer to convince him otherwise with her coquettishness. "Surely you can tell us? We won't breathe a word of what you say. Promise."
His enigmatic smile stayed on his face. "Oh, I don't doubt that you couldn't keep such a secret. Nevertheless, I must not tell anyone."
When the others protested, Donna chided them, "Leave him alone. He's probably one of those silent monks or something; sworn to never say a word."
"Something like that," he gratefully muttered. "Does anyone fancy another cup?" He pointed to his tea as part of the offer.
"Sorry, I have to visit my nephew," Martha excused herself. "The whole family is going."
"Time for my cortisone injection," Jenny stated as her reason to leave, "before I have my tutorial at the university."
"Well, I've been invited out on a date," Rose announced.
"Really?" Jenny queried in surprise. "Who with?"
"I think his name is John," Rose answered. "Or it could be Adam. I forget. Anyway, it's a handsome man."
"Lucky you," Donna whispered. "Go on then; I'll have a cup with you," she aimed at Basil. "There's no reason for me to rush home or anywhere. Not unless my robot budgie needs oiling or something."
Everyone said their goodbyes, and then Donna found herself alone with her old acquaintance.
"It's a bit weird meeting you here like this," Basil confessed as he gestured for the tea-bot to refresh their cups. "Normally I only see you near the stairs or out on the green. Our block of flats is quiet like that."
She nodded in agreement. "You don't get to see many of the young people there. They're all too busy leading their lives behind closed doors. Coming here is a change from watching the telly."
"On the television they're having the adventure, whereas here, it's us," he noted. "So erm… in there, in the Whoniverse game, were you anyone special?"
"No, not really. Not like Rose was. But I did some good in the end," she allowed herself to brag.
He visibly mulled over the names. "Then you kept your first names?"
"Oh yes," she confirmed. "Didn't you?"
"No." He shook his head.
"Right. Yes. I forgot; you were the man with no name," she teased. "Did we get the chance to meet in there at all?"
She was surprised by how fond his smile was as he stared back at her; causing the crinkles around his warm brown eyes to underline his tender joy.
"We did. And at one point you even knew my name when nobody else did."
"What?!" she gasped. No, he couldn't be! "But that means…"
"Yes, Donna Noble," he whispered, placing his hand carefully over hers. "I'm the Doctor. How do you feel about continuing our little adventure together?"
"Just you try stopping me," she gleefully replied. "Go on then. Say it. I know you're dying to."
He gave her hand a squeeze. "Allons y," he murmured, and they burst into delighted laughter.