The Wish Machine (a Doctor Who Story)
Chapter One:
The Doctor left the house where Donna's mother lived behind him the house where he just had said goodbye to Donna Noble, and she didn't recognize him, or even remembered all the adventures they'd had. All the countless worlds they had saved together, the Doctor, Donna and Olivia, his other companion, who had grown to become like a little sister to Donna.
The dreaded scene from a few hours ago kept replaying in his mind, despite him trying to push it away.
"I want to stay", Donna said quickly, not wanting to realize the truth
"Look at me." The Doctor tried to keep his voice calm
"I was gonna be with you forever, for the rest of my life, traveling in the TARDIS. The DoctorDonna" Donna said longingly. She doubled over from the pain caused by the Time Lord-powers she couldn't handle. "Don't make me go back, please don't make me go back." she sobbed, both from pain and grief. The Doctor grabbed her shoulders, trying to steady her, and wishing he could keep her in the TARDIS forever just like she wanted to.
"We had the best of times. The best. Goodbye" he whispered. And then he gently placed his fingers on her temples, trying not to mind her painful sobs and the pleas.
Donna relaxed and he caught her, held her one last time before he had to let go.
The Doctor had been so lost in thought that he never noticed the TARDIS until she hummed at him. He apologized to her and opened the door of the blue police box. Inside he was met with an angry looking teenager with dark blond hair framing her face and red rimmed, hazel eyes behind glasses. "She begged you to stay! She begged you!" Olivia Michaels whispered, barely able to keep her tears at bay. "I had to." The Doctor said "Or else she would have died," he whispered, trying to keep his emotions at bay.
"At least she would have died remembering us, what we did, and all the worlds we saved!" Olivia screamed. She turned around and darted out of the control room, the TARDIS sealing the door shut behind her.
The Doctor sighed and leaned against the TARDIS' panels, trying to keep the images of a certain red-haired woman out of his head, and trying not to miss the sassy "Oi, Spaceman!" and trying not to think about all the ways she had changed him. He probably would have let the merchant family in Pompeii die if she hadn't told him to save them, and he most likely would have destroyed London when defeating the Racnoss Empress had she not been there to stop him. There were also other things, like how she made him feel better when thoughts of everyone he had failed to save overcame him, and how she comforted him after the run in with the monster on Midnight. Stop it, he reprimanded himself. Donna is gone. She is not coming back, you cannot have her. He rubbed his temples, attempting to clear his mind and started fiddling with the controls. Tinkering with the TARDIS always took his mind off the hardships that comes with always trying to save everyone.
Somewhere in the TARDIS, Olivia Michaels lay on her bed sobbing. Normally she considered screaming at a nine-hundred-year-old alien a very bad idea, but that was before said alien erased her best friend's memories. She got out of bed, and wiped her red-rimmed eyes and nose on her sleeve. On one of the walls hung a board, crammed with photos of her, Donna and the Doctor, looking happy or high five-ing each other, as they always did after a completed mission. Olivia had taken a habit of taking one picture of the three of them for every location, like Pompeii, The Ood Sphere and even Earth in the 1920s where they helped Agatha Christie solve a mystery involving a giant wasp.
Olivia pulled down the most recent picture, the one with Donna, Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Jack Harkness, taken only a day ago after they had defeated the Daleks and returned the stolen planets to their solar systems. Just one day ago, they had been happy, the three of them, together, saving planets. Now Donna was gone and Olivia missed her best friend terribly, and if she was not mistaken, the Doctor did too, even if he would rather let himself be exterminated by a Dalek than say it out loud.
She sighed and went back to her bed in an attempt to get some sleep before tomorrow's new adventures.