James Lee McAvoy was a bookworm. Unfortunately, he was a bookworm in the 51st century, which meant he was usually found in the Library. The planet sized Library was built in the 50th century and contained every single book ever written. The size of its collection was unprecedented and growing even larger by the day. A catalogue that size, it was no wonder that bookworms all over the galaxy dreamed of going there and James Lee McAvoy was one of the few lucky, or should I say unlucky, ones that had the means and opportunity to go.
Because it so happened that on the very day he went to the Library, the Vashta Nerada attacked.
He and 4021 other visitors had been automatically 'saved' into the hard drive of the core computer that ran the library where they lived out their days in virtual reality. The Library itself was sealed off for a hundred years before an archaeological expedition was arranged. Along with two other visitors.
Meanwhile, James, or rather Lee McAvoy (he'd started to become rather sick of his first name by now) lived in the virtual reality with a psychiatrist, Doctor Moon and some other people he never really approached. His stutter meant that interacting with others was seldom an engaging activity, rather he spent his time fishing by the lakeside. Thanks to Doctor Moon, he never remembered what happened in the Library, in fact, he didn't remember that there was even a library. All traces of his past were tucked neatly into his subconscious and Lee genuinely believed that he was living in the real world.
One day, everything changed. Doctor Moon introduced him to the brilliant and beautiful Donna Noble. When she found out about his stutter she only teased him good naturedly, and Lee could tell that she was just trying to make him more comfortable. In fact, on their first date(which was fishing, by the way), she'd said, "Gorgeous, and can't speak a word. What am I going to do with you?"
They got married after that.
They had the perfect nuclear family. Lee, Donna and their two children Josh and Ella. The children were constantly creating sculptures and drawings of him and Donna, life was perfect. But once again everything changed. The day after Donna received the mysterious letter from some nutter, he came home to find that their children had disappeared and the sky was red.
Donna was panicked, saying everything wasn't real. Lee was frantic, he certainly felt real enough! "Am I real?" He asked his wife. Surely Donna had to be real too right? It was then that their world started to be washed out with a bright light and they started to disappear in front of their very eyes.
He still remembered the last words she said to him.
"I'll find you. I promise you, I'll find you."
The next moment, he found himself back in the Library, memories back to normal, memories of the real world and his life in the virtual reality and, Donna. He searched the sea of faces in the reception area and the shop, but to no avail. Lee was resigned to his fate, he would never see Donna again. His name was called for the teleport, he reluctantly shuffled towards the teleport pad, making sure to stand in the middle, when he finally spotted her. She was talking to a tall skinny man in a blue suit with admittedly great hair, they seemed depressed, if not, devastated. They turned and headed back towards the reception area.
He opened his mouth to call out to Donna but his stutter was back with a vengeance. He couldn't utter a single sound. But before he could step off the teleport pad, he found himself back home. Or at least where home was a hundred years ago. He was in a stranger's house now.
He headed over to the local information center, where they had already been briefed on the procedure regarding the victims of the Vashta Nerada. His belongings were stored in an old underground storeroom, most of them obsolete by now. He had been allocated a new house two districts from the center, and it took him three months to have everything settled. It didn't help that everyone he knew was dead.
James Lee McAvoy found another job, this time as an archivist, which was perfect since he had lived in the time period that most frequently required his attention. He was settling in nicely and even made a few friends fishing. But Lee never forgot Donna, he wondered where she was most of the time. It was another few months before he came across any news of Donna.
He was investigating several articles from an old special operations team from the 21st century, a group of people called Torchwood that seemed to investigate alien activity. They were quite advanced for their time and scavenged alien technology. Lee was skimming through their records when a familiar name captured his attention.
Donna Noble.
He couldn't believe his eyes, Lee frantically searched through the rest of the documents for any mentions of Donna. With the help of a few of his colleagues, he had finally pieced together the complete picture.
Donna Noble, born in the late 20th century, worked as a temp for most of her life, married Shaun Temple, deceased late 21st century. Special notes: Travelled with the Doctor, played an important role in defeating the Daleks and bringing the Earth back to its original orbit around the Sun. Due to unexplained circumstances, lost all memories of her time with the Doctor.
The love of his life lived in the 21st century and Lee could never see her again but Lee resolved to do at least one thing, tell her their story, the story of what happened in the Library. He tracked down her resting place to Chiswick, and visited her grave.
He sat down in front of the gravestone. "Hello D-D-Donna, you d-don't rememb-ber m-me but I nn-know you and I-I've got a wu-wonderful s-story to te-tell you."