A Force of Nature
Mycroft Holmes was in an uncharacteristically upbeat mood as he went through security on his way to his office. It had been a fine morning so far. His breakfast had been delicious. A terrorist sleeper cell had been uncovered. Most importantly, however, the crossword puzzle in the paper had actually had two challenging clues – usually they could not even manage one! Therefore, he greeted the surprised guards cheerfully, hummed a tune, and even swung his umbrella around a few times in his exuberance. He hoped the rest of his day would continue in this vein. However, that pleasant mood abruptly soured as soon as he opened the door.
"You are not Anthea!" he exclaimed as soon as he entered his outer office and looked towards the desk where his assistant usually sat.
"Well spotted!" came the brash reply from the unfamiliar ginger-haired woman who currently occupied said desk while her fingers flew over the laptop keyboard. "Anthea will probably be taking the week off. I will be her replacement. Don't worry! I know what I am doing. I'm a professional!"
"Who are you?" he demanded, keeping one eye on the security camera. Even though the woman did not look dangerous, he knew for a fact that looks could be deceiving! How else would you explain that whole explosive debacle at 10 Downing Street a few years ago? Anyway, this was a highly unusual situation, too. Maybe it was not as intensive as that one, but it was still quite suspicious in nature. However, he knew that all he had to do was say one particular word or give one specific gesture and this room would immediately be swarming with armed men. Therefore, he finished strolling into the office with confidence.
"My name is Donna Noble and I am the best temp in Chiswick!" The woman answered as she continued to work.
"Why does that not reassure me? Why was I not notified?"
"Perhaps it's because you're a pompous arse?" the woman retorted, without even looking up from the computer screen.
Mycroft gasped in surprise. Nobody had the temerity to speak to him like that! "What? Do you know to whom you are speaking, Ms. Noble?"
"Oi! Settle down, Government Boy! Yes, I know who you are."
"Then you know that I will not be trifled with like this! Who authorized your presence here?"
The woman sighed, but kept working. "A mutual friend knew you needed someone trustworthy and efficient while your…assistant…was away. Therefore, we popped by the Prime Minister's office for tea this afternoon to get his approval – and here I am!"
"This afternoon? You will have to concoct a much more convincing story than that, Ms. Noble. It's only 9:00 a.m."
"Exactly! We have already had tea with the PM and will probably do so again this afternoon in the proper timeline. I'm still not completely sure how it all works. Everything's all wibbly-wobbly and timey-wimey, as the man says!"
Finally, Mycroft understood. "Oh, for goodness sake!" he exclaimed tiredly and dropped into a nearby chair, giving up even a pretense of an interrogation at this bit of information. "You must be a companion of the Doctor! What is it now? Living plastic, jelly creatures wearing human skin, psychotic pepper pots, metal men, giant spiders…"
"Oi!" interrupted Donna, finally looking up from the laptop. "Those things tried to eat me on my wedding day!"
"Really?" For the first time, Mycroft saw her eyes and he realized that emerald green could really be both deep and sparkling bright at the same time. Then he looked at her ring finger which was thankfully unadorned. Thankfully? Where did that come from? he thought. "Well, it looks as if they did not succeed. Perhaps they got the groom, instead?" he said sarcastically in order to cover his confusion.
Then, to his surprise, she beamed happily as she exclaimed, "Damn right, they did!"
Mycroft forced his eyes away from the brilliance of the smile and looked up into her eyes with astonishment at her words. He lost himself in their depths again for a moment, until he remembered what they had been discussing. He cleared his throat nervously. What the hell is wrong with me? he thought and then he brought the subject back to the Doctor.
"The Doctor," he repeated. "Why is he here this time?"
"Oh, he's not here! He left me to babysit you while he went off to have adventures with Anthea on her home planet."
"Babysit?"Mycroft spluttered in indignation for just a moment until the rest of her sentence hit him. "Home planet?"
"Yeah, supposedly she is a member of the royal family there on Agoronat, Agorapat, Arrogantprat - or something like that, anyway. Apparently, she was sent to Earth for safekeeping, though. However, there was some kind of assassination attempt on her father recently. Therefore, she and the Doctor went to check it out. Technically, he could be back in ten seconds, but he is a rubbish driver, so I estimate that it will take about a week. Who knows, though? He could be back tomorrow – or next month." She shrugged and went back to work.
Mycroft was still trying to process the truth about his assistant. "Anthea is an …." he started to say, but then he suddenly remembered a thousand little clues that should have sent warning signals – such as her nonexistent communication skills and obvious dependence upon technology. Oh, that is embarrassing! he thought. Sherlock would definitely not be finding out about this one.
"Yep!" Donna said, popping the p sound at the end of the word. "She might be a regal alien, but she must have been a rubbish assistant." He found that he could not really argue with her, there – especially since Anthea was only in his office because she was presumably the Prime Minister's niece. Then he stopped as another thought hit him. Was that just a cover, too, or is the Prime Minister also an….? Here he was interrupted as Donna handed him several stacks of files – apparently her work of the morning. "These are the finished ones from your inbox, these need your signature, these are the ones that you requested by email this morning, and this is your schedule for the day." She pulled a sheet from the printer, wrote something on it, and then put it on top of the stack of files. "Let me know if you have any questions, Government Boy." Then she grinned cheekily and went back to working on her laptop. He just stood there stunned for a moment – both by her revelations and by her obvious efficiency. That distracting grin of hers did not help things, either!
Finally, he regained control of himself and walked into his inner office. He did not close the door, though. For some reason, he did not want to relinquish all contact with Ms. Noble just yet. He did not usually think very highly of the female sex. (He did not think much of anyone, really.) However, there was just something about that woman. Maybe it was her association with the Doctor. Perhaps it was the fact that she was not intimidated by him. Maybe he was just fascinated by her irreverent and cheeky language. Maybe it was that spellbinding combination of flame colored hair, dark green eyes, and (from what he could see from behind the desk) a very curvy figure. Feasibly, it was probably all of those things combined! Whatever it was, though, he knew that he wanted to keep an extremely close eye on Donna Noble!
However, first there was work to do! Therefore, he sat down behind his desk and pulled out the files that she had handed to him. Everything seemed to be in order and the files were more complete now than they had been in years! She had not been kidding when she said she was a professional! He then looked over at his schedule and did a bit of a double take when he saw what she had written before she handed it to him. He decided to go and clarify because he certainly did not want for there to be any misunderstandings about this situation!
He walked back into the outer office. "Ms. Noble…" he started.
"Donna! Please call me Donna."
"Apologies…Donna. I was just looking at my schedule and it says that I am taking you to lunch at one o'clock."
"Yes. Is there a problem?" she asked innocently.
"Just one," he said while handing the schedule back to her.
"What's that?" she asked, a bit confused.
"You forgot to pencil in dinner, too!" he exclaimed boldly and managed to keep a straight face - while a bit amazed at his own audacity.
Donna took the schedule and completed the requested alteration. She then handed it back to him, with a look of seemingly professional detachment. "There you go, Mr. Holmes. Please let me know if you need anything else."
"Oh, I will, Ms. Noble. I certainly will!" Then he turned quickly, supposedly to walk back into his office, but really he was just trying to hide his grin – and his blush! That was not the kind of word play in which he was usually involved! Donna Noble was certainly no goldfish! Instead, she was a force of nature!
As he walked away from her, Donna admired the view. "Definitely not a streak of nothing like Spaceman!" she muttered appreciatively before turning back to her work. She was a professional, after all. Work now… play later! She grinned at the thought! Hopefully, the Doctor would be really late this time!