OH MY GOD IT'S BEEN SO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG :(
You have no idea how sorry I am that this took so long, and I thank everyone who waited patienty for this. From now on, I will be reffering to Smoke and Mirrors as 'SaM' and Into the Abyss as 'ItA' as they are so much shorter and easier.
I know... Short chapter is short, but I will make up for it later. Promise :D
Anyway, Doctor Who belongs to the BBC.
ENJOY!
"How is she?" He smiled wistfully. "She missed me,"
"Everyone did," he winced, and she realised she'd said the wrong thing. "I mean-"
"Donna, it's fine," she nodded, trying to tell herself that. "We need to get you another suit," she said, trying to lighten up the conversation, her eyes scanning what was visible of his body. Unlike the normal pinstripe suit, he was wearing a black ACDC t-shirt and faded jeans that she believed used to belong to an uncle of hers or something. The TARDIS key hung from his neck, swaying as he ate his breakfast. He glanced up from his cereal as she examined him critically, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. Considering what had happened to the last one, she hoped the next suit's demise wasn't quite so… Bloody. Images flooded her mind of the Doctor covered in gashes oozing blood onto the grate beneath him and Delilah's wicked laughter filled the air. That hadn't happened, she scolded herself. But the Incident had… "Are you staring at me for a reason?" She blinked, realising she'd drifted off again. "Not really," he rolled his eyes and kept eating.
She never really wanted him to know how much both The Incident and their capture affected her. James, Delilah and the Twins filled her nightmares, and in almost every one she was too late. The Doctor had died because she hadn't got to him fast enough. She turned away from him to stare out the window, pushing the haunting dreams away. Unfortunately for her, the Doctor had agreed to seeing a psychiatrist, and because of her new-found protectiveness of him and distrust to practically everyone, she was forced to go back to Theodora Bozella and not walk out this time. Why did he have to choose her? Theodora had gotten on her nerves so easily last time, how was this going to be any different? She wasn't going to apologize for what she did. It wasn't her fault she asked stupid questions.
Her train of thought stopped at 'PTSD'. Did she really have it? Harry and Grace both claimed it was highly possible, and they were her doctors. She sighed and got to her feet, ignoring her already untouched breakfast and heading into the living room to think. The Doctor thankfully didn't follow her as she headed past the TARDIS, who he ended up parking in the middle of the house. Sylvia hadn't quite agreed with the idea, so the Doctor had said he'd move it into the guest bedroom later that day.
Instead of heading onto the couch as she had intended, she opened the TARDIS doors and headed inside. It was cooler inside the TARDIS than in the house, but it warmed up slightly when she entered. Donna ran her hand along the railing and then leaned on the console. "It's been a while since we travelled somewhere hasn't it?" Why was she talking to the machine? "Are you alright?" She turned slightly, to see the Doctor leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed. He was trying to appear casual, but was clearly worried. It had been a long time since she'd walked into the TARDIS.
"Yeah, I'm fine…" He didn't look convinced, and she had to look away from his intense stare. "Do you want to go somewhere?" Yes. "I don't know, it's been a while since we went somewhere,"
"Then why don't we go somewhen?"
"I…" He smiled slightly. "Come on, I need to take her for a spin anyway!" His enthusiasm was a bit forced, but Donna didn't voice her thoughts as he closed the doors and dashed over to the console. She was shocked when, right before starting to pilot the Time Machine, he froze, hands hovering over the controls. "Doctor?" No response. She approached him cautiously, wondering what had caused him to stop moving. "Doctor?"
"You said someone wrote you a note,"
"Yes, is that important?" He didn't answer. Instead he ran off down a corridor and returned a few minutes later with a pen, paper and an envelope. She recognised the deep, rich blue. "You wrote it!" She exclaimed in sudden realisation, he glanced at her and removed the pen lid with his teeth. "What did it say?" He mumbled around it. "Umm, 'wait for UNIT'." He nodded and started writing, but then changed his mind and threw the paper away, drawing a new piece from his pocket. "I'll write it in code in case someone intercepts it," he explained as he wrote. He then put the cap back on the pen, put the letter in the envelope and sealed it. He grinned. "To the Noble Residence!"
Now that Donna knew where who she'd gotten the letter from –even though she had suspected the Doctor from the start – she felt more at ease. She'd been wondering ever since she received it who had sent it, even though the blue kind of gave it away. She didn't need to take him shopping now. He just went into the TARDIS wardrobe, which was bigger than her whole house, and found another suit. He looked much more like himself with it on. He twirled in front of the mirror and then winked at his reflection. "Please don't do that." He laughed and then took her hand, dragging her back into the control room. "Let's go somewhere!"
"Why?"
"Do we need a reason? I feel trapped in this place, I need to go to somewhere, somewhen with lots of nature, or I'll develop Claustrophobia," Donna rolled her eyes and leaned on the console as he flicked switches and pulled leavers.
The TARDIS rocked as he dashed around. He suddenly stopped in front of her, and she knew what he wanted, but she didn't move. "Can you please move?"
"Nope, you'll have to go around Martian boy." He frowned, sighed dramatically, and made taking a step to the left a big effort. The TARDIS steadied itself once he got to the lever behind her. "What about… Raxacoricofallapatorius?"
"Raxi-who-now?"
"Raxacoricofallapatorius!" He fiddled with some levers and the TARDIS swayed as he put in new coordinates. "Didn't you want to go someplace relaxing? Raxicafeporas doesn't sound very relaxing." Donna muttered. The Doctor pouted. "Fine, where do you want to go?"
"Because I have extensive knowledge on relaxing planets and everything. You choose,"
"But… I know, I'll set the coordinates to random and see where she takes us? How's that sound old girl." He was clearly talking to the TARDIS.
Why he talked to it in the first place confused Donna. It was just a machine wasn't it? "Are you coming?" She blinked and turned to face the Doctor. He was standing by the doors, his hands on the handles, waiting impatiently for her to follow. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming, I'm coming," she replied as she headed along the walkway and followed him out the doors. What lay beyond was a forest. Everything was green, even the tree bark was covered in moss. A layer of frost turned everything a lighter shade and snow crunched under her feet. The TARDIS stood out, a bright blue in a sea of green. It looked magical, and she almost wished she'd taken her phone so she could have gotten a photograph. It looked like Christmas. A strange, small, colourful bird landed on the TARDIS light and started pecking at it. She watched as it gazed at her with too intelligent eyes.
It was eerie, like it understood what she was. It opened its little beak and she expected to hear a sweet bird song, but instead it sounded like someone screaming. She shuddered and turned away. The Doctor was pointing things out and talking, but she wasn't listening. It suddenly felt like the forest was watching her. Like it was tracking her every move. "Ok, the Martian Forest is creepy,"
"We're not on Mars,"
"I know." The Doctor glanced quizzically at her and then kept walking. "Why do you think it's creepy?" He asked, walking closer to her. They were almost touching arms. Was he trying to console her? He seemed perfectly at ease, hands in pockets, stride confident. "I feel like it's watching me,"
"That's because it is." Donna stopped, stepping on a twig as she did. The snap reverberated off the trees, growing louder as it did. Everything seemed to go silent. "What?"
"Everything on this world is not as it seems. The snow never melts, the trees have eyes, the birds are nowhere near harmless,"
"I thought you said we're going somewhere relaxing,"
"We are, we're just not there yet." Donna opened her mouth to argue, but he continued anyway. "Don't worry, I know where I'm going,"
"I thought you couldn't remember everything." The Doctor winced. "I can't… But I don't remember nothing." His voice had grown a steely edge.
He turned away from her again. "Watch your step." He muttered before continuing, stepping over roots and plants and ducking under stray branches. Donna felt like sighing, but it probably would do no one any good, so she just followed him warily. She stumbled often and fell over at one point, but the Doctor caught her before she could impale herself on something, so he wasn't angry at her or anything. He reminded her to watch herself, and then told her that the forest moved. "It what?"
"It is constantly moving, changing. It's why you're stumbling around so much. You really have to watch where you're going; otherwise you're going to hurt yourself,"
"How can a forest move?"
"The trees are living creatures; they have lungs and hearts and eyes and watch and know everything. They probably know you've never been here before and are having some fun,"
"You call that fun?" He just smiled and kept walking.
She resisted the urge to slap him and followed again. She now did as she was told, and watch where she was placing her feet. It felt like it she'd been walking for hours. Neither had spoken in the time, concentrating on where they were walking. "Why couldn't we have parked the TARDIS somewhere closer?" Donna asked irritably. "Because the forest is getting more dense, we'd have no room to park." She gazed around and realised he was right. The branches were scratching at her clothes and catching her hair. She wondered whether it was just the branches or whether the trees were moving them around so they'd get in her path.
Donna was about to ask whether they could take a break when the Doctor spun around. He waited for her to catch up and then smiled again. She could hear the gush of running water, and a crimson butterfly the size of a dinner plate fluttered past. It had menacing eye patterns on its wings. "Close your eyes," the Doctor instructed. She did so and felt the pressure of his hands covering her eyes. "Oi!"
"It's so I make sure you're not peeking." She frowned as he pushed her forward and started guiding her through the forest. After a few minutes she felt dirt beneath her feet. A path? It felt like it. There were very few roots and it was a flat, winding surface. It sloped downwards sharply and she almost fell over again. The dirt disappeared and she felt grass under her feet. The Doctor stopped her and remained with his hands over her eyes for a few seconds. "You ready?"
"Yeah." He took his hands away.
