Disclaimer: Obviously nothing in the Doctor Who universe belongs to me.
A/N: This is my first foray into Doctor Who fanfic. I adore this episode and would just love to have seen Donna there to give those bastards the what-for. I also wanted to expand a little on Donna's relationship with the Doctor because I think they make an amazing team. I'm not really a Doctor/Donna shipper and this fic is geared toward friendship but I don't think there's anything in it that would discourage all you shippers out there from drawing your own conclusions if you so desire. Hope you enjoy it!
Also, you'll notice that this story picks up right when things are heating up. I didn't feel that it was necessary to go through the whole episode piece by piece since Donna being there probably wouldn't have changed very much of the rest of it and I'm assuming you all already know what happened.
Time slowed to a crawl for Donna as the people around her argued and shouted. She could feel her own panic rising but she fought the urge to join the fray because on some level she understood that it was what the creature wanted.
"That's how he does it. He makes you fight," the creature inside of Sky said and the Doctor parroted her.
They were his words. It was something he would have said but the creature had stolen it from him. Tears stung her eyes as she looked down at him and for a moment she felt helpless. How could she hope to fix this situation? It was so far beyond her experience. All around her, the people's voices rose in pitch and she focused again on their words.
"Get him out of my head!"
"We should throw him out!"
"Get rid of him!" Sky shouted and the Doctor copied it, crying out for his own murder. His eyes were wet and he was trembling in fear and concentration, trying to regain control without success. That was when the situation crystallized for Donna and suddenly her insecurities didn't mean anything anymore.
"Oi!" she shouted and they stared at her. "Anybody planning to throw the Doctor out of this car is gonna have to go through me and I promise you that won't be as easy as it sounds."
He couldn't look up at her, couldn't speak to her but, if anything, she felt his anxiety rise. He wouldn't want her in harm's way and she knew it but the idiot Martian would just have to deal with it. Whether he liked it or not, sometimes he needed saving too. Donna tried to think fast. They were acting as though it was contagious because that was what they thought they had seen but it wasn't. The creature hadn't moved since it had entered the car. All the same, she felt a deep irrational fear as she approached where he remained crouched and motionless, but her concern for him trumped her fear of the unknown. The Doctor's eyes were huge and shining as she knelt in front of him.
"What are you doing? He isn't safe," Sky said calculatingly with the Doctor as her echo.
"Are you mad? Don't touch him!" Val shouted.
Suddenly everyone was yelling at once again and Donna did her best to block them out and focus only on her friend as she scooted closer to him. She reached out and laid her hand upon his arm.
"I'm here sweetheart. I've got you."
His eyes jittered as he tried to focus on her. She watched his lips tremble as he put up a Herculean effort to speak but nothing came out. Donna moved even closer and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close and leaning her head against him.
"I'm not going to let them hurt you," she whispered.
Unlike Sky, who had been completely consumed in a matter of minutes, it was clear that the Doctor was remaining forcibly in possession of his own consciousness and it seemed like a painful process. Coexisting with the entity was obviously hurting him and Donna felt sick as she held on tighter. Absently, her hand reached up to stroke his unruly hair.
"You're going to be alright. We're all going to be alright," she reassured him. She was trying to convince herself as much as anyone else. Again she became aware that the room was still shouting at her and her anger finally bubbled over.
"Oi! Have you lot lost your minds?" They all stopped abruptly and stared at her. "Look at him! He hasn't made one move to hurt any of you! He was trying to help you! He hasn't done anything to me, hasn't stolen my voice! Just what sort of threat do you think he is?"
The other passengers began to look confused and uncertain and a few had the decency to look ashamed, but before anyone had time to become too sensible, Sky interjected slyly, "He isn't like us. He isn't human. Remember what he said before."
"Thinks we're stupid," the Doctor continued to echo. "Thinks he's better than us. Can't be trusted. What is it? Not human. What is it?" A single tear slid down the Doctor's face as the last few words came out as little more than a pained whisper.
Inside his head, the Doctor was all but screaming. He couldn't fight this thing, couldn't shake it off. Whatever it was, it was unlike anything he'd ever encountered and it hurt. It hurt so much. He felt like he was being compressed, crushed under the weight of the strange consciousness that had invaded his mind. It wrapped him up in panic and dread, chilling him like cold fingers on his spine. It was hard to remain objective about the new life form with it constricting him this way.
He shivered internally as the last words were wrenched from him and felt a tear finally fall. He hated when they called him "it", like he was some kind of monster. It should have made him angry after everything he'd done for them, everything he sacrificed, but so often it only made him sad: reminded him that he would never again feel a sense of belonging with his own kind the way that they did. It reminded him just how very separate he was from his only friends and that they would never really understand. But Donna's fingers were still in his hair and her arms were still locked tightly around his thin body. Her warmth held back the crushing cold a bit and let him breathe. He was afraid for her. Not because of the creature. He knew better than any of them that it couldn't take her over while it still held him in its grasp and so it could not capture her without revealing itself. But it was just as likely that it wouldn't need to. As the fighting grew around them again, the passengers threatened to throw her out with him and she challenged them to try. Her brazen, righteous indignation was both her best and worst quality at times. Today he wondered if it would get her killed.
Donna had never heard anyone call the Doctor "it" before and she was almost shocked by the force of her own anger. Her protective streak for the skinny little alien flared up and she felt ready to go to war.
"And what does that make you?" she shouted, rounding on the thing that had invaded their cabin. It was smiling at her smugly through the eyes of the woman who used to be Sky.
"She's got a point," Val said. "He was talking about humans like he wasn't one."
"He isn't! What's that got to do with anything?"
"Well how do we know they aren't working together? How can we be sure he isn't one of those things?"
The redhead could barely contain her fury. "Because less than an hour ago he was your friend! He was talking to you, listening to you, wanting to know you! The scrawny little chit hasn't got a mean bone in his body. And he should have, if you ask me. He's got every right to hate you and he probably still doesn't."
Val looked down uncertainly but her fool of a husband Biff rallied. "Maybe it was all an act, meant to put us off our guard." A few voices chimed in to agree.
It was unbelievable, she thought. Humanity really never changed at all. Here these people were, on the other side of the galaxy and they were less open-minded about aliens than a temp who had never left Chiswick until a few months ago. Until this Val woman and her idiot husband, Donna had never thought it possible to meet someone more frustrating and unreasonable than her mother.
"Have you all gone completely round the bend? You're taking your vacation on an alien planet for fuck's sake! Surely you have met aliens before, yes?" For a moment, no one spoke. "Yes?" Donna pressed. A few people nodded. "And did they all try to kill you?" Suddenly no one was making eye contact and Donna glared at them triumphantly over the Doctor's chaotic tuft of hair.
"He's gotten to her. Can't you see? He's manipulating her." Donna felt her triumph wither to something hollow and cold as she once again heard the insidious voice of the creature followed by the Doctor's lifeless monotone. Once again, the others agreed almost as if in relief.
"Yes exactly! That's what it is!" the professor piped up.
"And anyway, she turned up with him. How do we know they haven't been working together from the start?" Biff asked. The group began to nod and offer their assent.
"Oh come on," Donna moaned in frustration. She had been so close.
"Get rid of him," Sky intoned again.
"Right! Before he gets to any of us!" Val added.
"Now hold on just a minute! He either got to me or I was working with him all along. It can't be both so which is it?"
"It doesn't matter!" the professor cried.
"It does if they're working together," Jethro said quietly. It was the first time he had spoken in quite a while.
"Oh stop it, Jethro! You don't know what you're talking about." His mother cut him off.
"Well, if they're working together, then it's not contagious. And Sky is safe so…that would mean he hasn't actually done anything wrong, wouldn't it? Just made himself look a bit stupid and given us a fright." Donna's eyes grew wide with hope as everyone listened to the teenager.
"He killed the driver and the mechanic!" Biff volunteered.
"But he didn't, though. He was back here with us the whole time."
"He did something to them!"
Jethro ignored his father and continued. "And if he's manipulating her then why make her tell us to calm down?"
"Because he doesn't want to get thrown outside, that's why," Val said matter-of-factly.
"But she hasn't attacked us. If she's supposed to defend him then why hasn't she attacked us?"
Donna could have hugged the nervous-looking young man. At least someone on this trip brought their brain with them today. But her excitement was short-lived. Biff, it seemed, had scented blood and just wouldn't leave it alone.
"Look, we still need to get the creature off this transport!"
"But if he is the creature…" the hostess said uncertainly.
"I never said that."
"But you just did. You said…" Dee-Dee began but he didn't let her finish.
"The creature moved from Ms. Silvestry into him and it could jump to any one of us. We have a right to defend ourselves. Anyone would do the same thing in our place."
Looking around in horror, Donna realized that all of that had brought them back where they started. Right back to dumping him out into the deadly sun. And there would be no regenerating from that kind of death. He would be vaporized. She couldn't even look at her friend now. She just held on to him tightly and glared up at the others, prepared to fight them if they made her and trying to figure out how she could be strong enough to best them all. Beneath her arms, she felt both of his hearts hammering violently in his chest. The creature's control may have made him seem docile and stoic but he was still very much alive beneath the surface. And very much afraid.
Now the young research assistant Dee-Dee was trying in vain to explain that the creature hadn't jumped into him but was still inside of Sky and merely draining him and stealing his words. Her sensible argument fell on deaf ears. The other passengers were too determined to take action and had worked themselves up into frenzy enough to commit murder. They were now afraid to drop back from the edge and lose their nerve. The tension had reached fever pitch and the group was bearing down on Donna and the Doctor, ignoring Dee-Dee and the hostess completely. Biff made a grab for the Doctor and Donna moved to block him but he tossed her aside without a second look. She landed hard against one of the seats. Pain exploded across her ribs and the wind rushed out of her. Sky was calling out encouragement in the same airy, empty voice and the Doctor could do nothing but repeat her cruel words as he was dragged toward certain death. Donna looked into his eyes and saw horror, fear, and hopelessness but when she came into his view they shifted to regret. Adrenaline flooded through her system and she was on her feet again in seconds, ready to make her final stand.
The Doctor's hearts accelerated as Biff came striding toward them. He felt Donna's arms leave his torso as she made an attempt to protect him. Anger and panic chased each other through his mind as he saw her tossed aside, but he was powerless to protect her. The man lifted him up from beneath his arms and started to drag him to the sealed door.
"That's the way! Cast him out into the sun!" he cried out together with the creature inside of Sky, each word breaking something inside of him. He didn't want to die. There had been times throughout his long, long life when he had seen death as an escape, a luxury. But he had outlived that notion many times and come to realize that death held only darkness. There was so much that he still could do, so much left undone. He had been a solider, an explorer, a protector, an adventurer. It shouldn't end like this. Not with him helpless, unable to fight, unable to even say goodbye or thank you. As he was jerked and twisted sideways, Donna came into his view and his sadness became even more acute. He had so much left to show her, so much left to say. In all his years of traveling, she had become one of his closest and dearest friends and now he could see tears on her cheeks, crying for him as she lay crumpled on her side where she had fallen.
He had promised to protect her. He was supposed to keep her safe and now she was trapped here. Even if these people didn't kill her too she still had no way home. She would never see her family again. She knew nothing about this world he had thrown her into. She didn't even know where in the universe she was and she would have to learn it all alone, homeless, and afraid. Although his face could betray little else, he felt a few hot tears escape and run slowly down his cheeks. Like so many others before her, she would have been better off if she had stayed away. He'd had no right to bring her here; to risk so much. As he stared back into her eyes, he felt the last of his hope slide away. For once, there was nothing he could do. But behind the sadness and horror on her face, something stirred and then rallied and he saw her expression harden into one of steely resolve. Suddenly she was up and moving toward them and he had never seen her look more alive.
As Donna pushed herself up off the ground, her hand landed on some unknown heavy object. Looking down, she saw it was a piece of debris from the creature's first attack on the vehicle, knocked loose from one of the chairs. A grim smile settled on her features as her fingers closed around it and she brought it with her when she stood. She moved with determination toward Biff where he had paused in dragging the Doctor to get the help of the other men. Their eyes landed on the fiery redhead and they paused at the look on her face. Aware that all eyes in the cabin were on her, Donna took another more confident step forward and squared up her aim, still concealing the projectile in her hand.
"I warned you once to keep your hands off him," she said with a calm that she was only just beginning to feel. "Once was all you get."
With that, she let the object fly and it struck Biff squarely in the forehead.
"Now take your bloody hands off him you maniac!" she all but screamed as he fell to the floor clutching his head.
There was a struggle to restrain her and she fought them tooth and claw. She bit and kicked and elbowed and shouted obscenities and altogether refused to be taken down. Fighting her way back across the small space, she found where the Doctor lay discarded on the floor. He remained helpless and obviously frightened, repeating anything Sky said, but there was something less tragic in his eyes now. Donna ran the last few steps and crouched down beside him, shielding him from the others. Val and the professor turned toward them but she refused to move an inch from where she was between them.
"You will not have him," Donna said, eying them steadily.
"Because he's controlling you," the professor tried to argue.
"Because he's my friend," she countered him calmly and with stony resolve.
In the background there was a separate commotion taking place. It seemed that Dee-Dee and the hostess were still desperately trying to convince everyone that something needed to be done about Sky. With the Doctor temporarily off limits, the group rounded on them and prepared to strike. There was a struggle and a couple of shouts at least one of which was echoed by the Doctor from the floor behind her. The next thing Donna knew, the hostess had grabbed hold of Sky and pulled her to the door, holding her there until the seal broke and carried them both out into the blinding light. As the door slid closed again, she felt the Doctor convulse and draw a ragged breath.
"It's gone. It's gone. It's gone it's gone it's gone," he whispered desperately like a mantra or a prayer.
She turned to find that he had rolled over onto his back and was staring wide-eyed at the ceiling. Rushing to his side, she put a gentle hand on his chest. His hearts were pounding and his lungs were heaving and his whole body was trembling but he was alive. Free and unharmed and gloriously alive. A wild, desperate laugh tore from her throat and she leaned forward over him, laying her head against his shoulder and trying to remember to breath. Sitting up again, she cupped his cheek with her hand and smiled.
"I've got you Space Man. You're going to be alright."
His eyes were still distant and haunted but he managed a weak smile and reached up for her hand clasping it in both of his own.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Anyway, I've only got one ride home."
At the mention of that fact, his face became troubled and he seemed inclined to brood over it. Donna couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Relax, you. Don't think so much. One thing at a time, alright?"
He dragged himself up to a sitting position and leaned back against one of the seats, still breathing heavily. Donna had been about to find herself an intact chair when it became apparent that he wasn't getting off the floor. She gave him a questioning look and he glanced around at the other passengers in response, then tilted his head back and closed his eyes. She figured she could understand well enough. All eyes were still on them and he didn't want to provoke any more contact than necessary. If he brought himself up to their level he would have to face them, deal with them, and he couldn't bear more of their accusations or, more likely, their apologies. He wanted nothing to do with this lot anymore and although her instinct was to get in their faces and force them to deal with her, she was willing to respect that it was currently the last thing he wanted to have happen. On top of that, he looked more tired, more his age, than she had ever seen him. Maybe he wasn't physically ready to stand yet either. So she made her way over and settled down next to him. She didn't put her arm around him or reach out to him but she made sure their sides were touching in as many places as possible, reminding him that she was there. She smiled a little when she felt him lean in to the contact.
Nervously, Val glanced at them and rallied herself to speak. "I said it was her," she almost pleaded.
Donna's head shot up and she pierced the wretched woman with her eyes. "Would you like to run that by my again?" The woman's gaze faltered.
"Donna, leave it," the Doctor implored softly, his voice still rusty and far away.
No one else in the universe could have called Donna Noble to stand down in that moment but she looked at him, saw the exhaustion on his face, and couldn't bear to drag him down that road. So she settled for a withering glare that didn't end until Val broke eye contact in shame and spoke no more.
As the rescue transport dropped them off at the leisure palace and they began to go their separate ways, Donna noticed that the others kept stealing glances toward them. Every person in the truck looked miserable and shaken and rightly so. She was disgusted with them, disgusted with her species, absolutely sick with the idea of being human. She wanted nothing more than to beat them all about the head with something heavy and blunt but, as it was, she'd have to settle for never seeing them again. A few of them seemed to stir when they noticed her looking back. One or two seemed to consider coming over; to say what, she had no idea, but she knew they'd never get the chance. These people didn't deserve to talk to the Doctor and he didn't deserve to have to deal with them. He didn't hate them nearly as much as he should and she refused to allow them to clear their guilty conscience at his expense. If he wouldn't tell them off then she would. God help any of them that tried to justify their behavior. With her staring them down with all the grace of a venomous snake, they filed past without a word. To her satisfaction, when questioned by the staff about what had happened to his head, Biff mumbled something about having fallen when the truck stopped. She hoped it hurt like hell.
They gathered their things from the hotel room in silence. Neither of them needed to explain why it was suddenly time to move on. So much for a vacation, she thought ruefully. Back on the TARDIS, he dropped his bag on the floor, collapsed into the jump seat, and stared at the console blankly for a long time. She knew he would need time alone to process what had happened and decided she would busy herself in the meantime with unpacking. She walked over wordlessly and reached for his discarded bag but as she reached for it, his voiced stopped her.
"Am I good…or bad?" he asked simply.
Donna forgot about the bag and stood up straight again, turning around to face him. He had posed the question so casually but she didn't doubt that it was loaded with hidden meaning. She studied his face for a long time but he refused to look at her. Finally, her silence seemed to get to him and he continued.
"Because I try to help, I mean, I try to do the right thing. I save people, right? But what if…what if." He broke off the statement with finality and stared wide-eyed at a lever in front of him, clearly thinking a lot of different things at once. "I always end up being bad for the people who follow me. They die or they get lost or I leave them behind somewhere and they wonder where I went and I wonder if maybe they wish, you know…that they hadn't…"
He trailed off again, cocking his head to one side and rubbing at his neck. Donna sensed that more was still to come and so she waited until he had talked himself out.
"I mean, they like it, yeah? They seem to. I try to…to…make it fun. Make it something that they, that you…" He changed tracks. "But I think about it sometimes, the risks I put you in, the way that people get hurt and I wonder if that's my fault. Like when I was in 1913 with Martha and this woman, the matron, she was upset because she fell in love with my human self and he had to go away and there was so much destruction before I stopped it. So many people. And she asked me, "If the Doctor had never come here…if it hadn't chosen this place at random,"
"You are NOT an 'IT'," Donna interjected indignantly but he waved her off almost as if he hadn't heard. As if it weren't important.
"…She asked, would anyone have died. And I couldn't answer her because, well, because the answer was no. It was me. It was all just…me. Those people today, they didn't trust me. They didn't want me there. Didn't want my help. Is that how…is that how people feel about it? About me, I mean? What if I cause more trouble than I fix? …I don't know what I would do."
The Doctor ran his fingers roughly through his hair, standing it even further on end and blew out a heavy breath. Donna's eyes softened kindly and she forcibly shoved aside the part of her that wanted, more strongly than ever, to seek out and assault every person who had been on that truck today. He seemed to have gotten out most, if not all, of what was bothering him and so she sat beside him and leaned her head against his shoulder, thinking hard about what to say.
"Those people today," she began thoughtfully, "were complete and utter morons. I'm embarrassed to say I share a species with them and I don't give a damn if that thing, whatever it was, was talking to them or affecting them because it was doing the same to me too and that's no excuse."
"But I could have gotten you killed."
"If I had died today it would have been their fault, not yours." He tried to say something but she forged on before he had a chance. "And if you hadn't been there, they still would have been attacked and would have been just as helpless. And without your suggestion about it not moving on but becoming the person, they probably would have actually tossed some innocent person out that door and still had to face the creature. If you hadn't drawn it out in the first place it might have made it all the way back to the leisure palace and no one would have known. You helped. You really did."
"But I brought you there. If they had killed me, you would have been trapped forever even if they let you live. Don't you ever think that sometimes it would be better if…?"
"If what? If I had stayed in Chiswick as a temp, miserable and alone?" There was a sarcastic air of melodrama in the statement.
"You weren't alone."
"I was," she countered him with a significant look that brooked no argument.
"Those first two trips we took, you thought it was horrible. You told me you wanted to go home."
"And I changed my mind. It's true that it's not what I expected but it's so much more than that."
The Doctor turned to face her, drawing his knee up and bracing it on the seat between them. Donna followed his example and looked deep into those ancient eyes. Nine hundred years old and still wondering where he fit in the universe, she thought. He must be so lonely. She sighed.
"Look, I'm gonna tell you something that I'm not exactly proud of." She paused and tried to collect her thoughts. Noticing that he was watching her attentively, she awkwardly found a spot somewhere to his left to stare at while she spoke. "I come off all bluster and bravado, trying to yell the world into submission but the truth is that I've never been half so certain of anything as I've made myself out to be. My whole life, I've been a disappointment and not my mother or my boss or any of my so-called friends have ever half tried to deny it. I'm told on a regular basis back on Earth that I'm not good enough. That I'm not special. That there isn't a thing about me that anyone in their right mind would want. And I know…I've always known…that they're right."
"They are not!" he protested gamely.
"Shut up Martian, I'm talking." She leveled him with an intimidating stare and saw his lips quirk up in a small smile. She fought the urge to smile back.
"And then I met you and your Rickety Wooden Callbox of Destiny and I got to be more than just a temp from Chiswick. I got to see things that I couldn't have imagined and become something impossible. And the thing is, I know I don't drive you half mad sometimes, but you put up with me and you include me. You've got absolutely no reason to keep me around but you do and that means something to me. It means the world to me actually. I wouldn't trade this life for anything."
"You saved me today," the Doctor said simply.
"You would have found a way to weasel out if I hadn't been there."
"No I wouldn't. I was finished today. And anyway, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if there was another way out because I couldn't think of one and you did. You saved me." He squinted at the ceiling, putting his thoughts together for a moment before turning back to her. "Tell me something. Could those people back in Chiswick go the places you've gone and do the things that you've done? Could they feel two hearts beating in my chest and still scream bloody murder to everyone in the room that I'm just as much a person as they are? Could they face death and destruction and uncertainty on a sometimes daily basis and still figure out a way to make it through? Unextraordinary people go their whole lives never knowing I exist and they don't travel round the world to find me again. Every person I've ever taken with me was special, Donna. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
"I've never seen you sappy before, Space Man. I don't know if I should be flattered or worried."
"Maybe a little of both." He smirked at her but his face grew quickly serious again. "Today was a bad day."
"In a long history of bad days, yeah?"
"Oh, you have no idea," he laughed.
For a few minutes they were silent, just looking around the TARDIS control room lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Donna broke the silence with a question she'd been asking herself out of frustration all day.
"Why do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Help us. Why do you bother with us at all when all we do is continued to dig our holes deeper? I don't think anyone could honestly blame you if you just decided to stop, especially when we occasionally turn around and do something as unbelievably daft as trying to kill you."
"I won't pretend that I don't get angry or frustrated a lot of the time. Humans disappoint me often enough. But my own people disappointed me too. There is no perfect race. Believe me, I've looked. Humans fascinate me: the way they reach for things just because they can, the way they believe in impossible things and make them real. You are the great survivors. Throughout all of space and time it's only you I've found that never dies away. And I'll keep helping with that if I can because for every Val or Biff Cane, there's a Donna Noble out there waiting to be discovered. And the universe is better when you're not on your own."
"Really laying it on thick aren't you Martian Boy?" she asked with a wry smile.
"Now, I've told you I'm from Gallifrey," he scolded mildly. "And I'm not, actually. In nine hundred years of searching, you're one of the best mates I've ever found. And that is saying something."
Donna grinned in spite of herself, ignoring the misty tears that threatened behind her eyes.
"I can't boast nine hundred years but you are my best mate, that's for certain. So no more of this, "Am I good or bad?" nonsense, alright? Nobody is all good or all bad. We do our best. Sometimes our best isn't good enough and sometimes it is. You help people for no other reason than you like to. If sometimes things go wrong and people get hurt, well then it only balances out the good you've done. You can be an arrogant, infuriating little shite sometimes but you are good. In spite of anything else that's happened, you are good. You hear me?"
"Yes ma'am." He saluted her with a lopsided grin.
"Now can we please get out of here? If we stay too much longer I might change my mind about how best to handle those assholes and get myself arrested."
"And we wouldn't want that, would we?" he asked mischievously.
She was happy to see that his 1000-kilowatt smile was firmly back in place as he bounced up off the seat and went careening around the console like usual. He had transitioned from nine hundred year old back to nine year old in a matter of minutes and it made the TARDIS feel much more like home. He glanced up long enough to ask where she wanted to go and watch her answering shrug.
"Surprise me," she laughed.
"Ask and you shall receive!"
Buttons were pressed and levers were pulled and the good ship TARDIS rattled off across the cosmos. Inside, Donna and the Doctor grinned at one another infectiously and wondered where they would land. Theirs was a simple, uncomplicated friendship: the first either of them had had in a very long time. The ship gave a final shudder as it reached its destination and they raced each other to the doors. For the moment it didn't matter that the days' events still weighed heavy on the darkest corners of their hearts or that there was no telling what wonder or tragedy the future might hold. For now they were just happy to be off on another adventure and to have the luxury of dealing with those worries on a different day. They shook off their doubts and their fatigue as the Doctor laid his hand against the door and set about coping in the very best way they knew how.
"Allons-y!"
Tomorrow could wait a little longer.