Title: The Companion's Secret Handbook

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Auntie Beeb owns it all.

Summary: Rose created a handbook to be added to by future companions. In it she and five later companions (including Martha and Donna) impart their wisdom on the Doctor, their adventures, and life on the TARDIS.

Spoilers: Most of all three series and taking some pretty big guesses about the future – probably AU after the finale.

Author's Notes: I said in my last fic that 'I don't write Doctor Who fic and was only doing it to test myself and break through the block'. Well, apparently I do write Doctor Who fic now. It's an idea I had back before I broke my resolution and so it's getting written now. There will be at least another chapter after this. It's the strangest thing I've ever written, but I think it works.


The Companion's Secret Handbook

Chapter 1 - Hello

Hi,

If you're reading this you are currently a companion/assistant/friend of the Doctor and living on the TARDIS.

This feels weird writing to people who don't exist yet, but I think it'll help.

Travelling with the Doctor is kinda crazy and scary…but there's nothing like it in the universe, so cling onto this life for as long as possible.

My name is Rose Tyler – I've been travelling with the Doctor for 2 years now.

I met one of the companions who came before me recently, and a monster told me something about my future I'm not sure that I want to believe. So I've come to realise that this life won't last forever to the Doctor. It will last forever for me though because nothing will take me away from the Doctor except dying. So if you are reading this I guess I'm long gone.

Anyway…when I met this old companion (Sarah-Jane Smith) I was angry at first but I wished I'd known some of her story when I started. It would have prepared me better, you know? It was good to compare notes. And so I thought of you…the people who'll come after me.

So when this falls into your hands you can add your own stories and information, plus you can update the book with the people you've met and the things you've seen. You can change information on old companions if you know what happened to them, or make additions to what they've put.

This way you can learn from us and maybe get some stuff answered that the Doctor won't talk about.

It's a great life with him, so good luck!

Rose Tyler

PS...I think I've persuaded the TARDIS to make sure this book falls into your hands no matter where it was left. So hopefully this isn't going to get forgotten in a drawer somewhere.

PS…Don't tell the Doctor about this book. It'll do him good to have a secret on his own TARDIS.

ooo

To keep organised write your name on the list of known companions so far…when you write anything quote your name and number (So I am 2. Rose)

1. Sarah Jane-Smith (companion before writing)

2. Rose Tyler (No Longer Companion - 5. Martha)

3. Captain Jack Harkness (companion before writing) (Returned and left again – 5. Martha)

4. Mickey Smith (companion before writing)

5. Martha Jones (No Longer Companion - 6. Donna) (Returned – but she's not getting the book back from me – 6. Donna) (No Longer Companion - 7. Poppaea)

6. Donna Noble (No Longer Companion - 7 Poppaea)

7. King & Queen Poppaea of the Planet Prospera (Current) (For reference we are two people sharing one body)

8. (Your name)

Chapter 2 - About Us

1 Sarah-Jane Smith

Travelled with the Doctor many years ago (at least for her). We met her again at a school that she was investigating. She works as a journalist now. (2. Rose)

2. Rose Tyler

I met the Doctor when I was working in a shop in 2005, he blew it up! After we'd defeated the plastic monster he asked me along for the ride – and I said no! But he came back and asked again. Hopefully it's going to be a long time before there is another entry in this below mine – like I said, for me it'll be forever.

- This woman is the companion we're all going to be measured against now. He loved her. She got trapped on an alternate universe.

- I wish she'd put more about herself – maybe we should include pictures from now on (5. Martha)

- Think she'd only been gone a few hours when he met me. Her top was still near the console. (6. Donna)

3. Captain Jack Harkness

Met the last incarnation of the Doctor and me in 40s London in the blitz. I was dangling from a barrage balloon and he saved me. He was a con artist but he was a good man. He loved the Doctor but disappeared when the Doctor regenerated.

What else? Oh - Flirts with anything (2. Rose)

- Returned. It turns out he'd become immortal thanks to something Rose did and the Doctor left him behind. He was in captivity for a year (though for everyone else it was just a few minutes). The Doctor couldn't fix him and he returned to Torchwood which he runs now. Could, possibly, maybe end up being the Face of Boe. And seriously – he flirts with anything. (5. Martha)

4. Mickey Smith

My ex-boyfriend. Waited for me to return for months before deciding that he wanted to come and see the universe with us. He left for a place in another universe. (2. Rose)

5. Martha Jones

Met him while training to be a Doctor myself, he was pretending to be a patient. The whole hospital got transported to the moon. It was amazing! He offered me one trip – we ended up meeting Shakespeare and then we went on to New New York. He took me home then but there was this adventure and he decided to let me stay.

- This is nearly two years since I started travelling with the Doctor. I've seen so much. I spent a year without him, travelling the world to save him. I love him. But I have to leave – I have a family, I want to actually finish my tests. I can't live is someone else's shadow. (5. Martha)

- She's back again now. She isn't getting this book back though. She's the one who gave it up so she can go without. (6. Donna)

6. Donna Noble

I'm probably the only one of the whole lot of you who isn't in love with the Doctor. (Except possibly this Mickey guy). He's alright to look at but he's blooming annoying at times. (Blooming? I wrote blooming – I mean 'blood' with a 'y' on the end. This thing doesn't let you swear! Flip! Darn!)

Really I'm number 5, since I met the Doctor before Martha but the book won't let me change it around. (Where did Rose find a book that was bigger on the inside? At least it corrects your spelling as you go). I'm not sure I like the idea of having to write everything in it. It's a bit like a school trip where you've got to fill in a clip-board as you go around.

Anyway – I'm there at my wedding – literally walking up the aisle and the next thing you know I'm in the TARDIS. Turns out my fiancé had been poisoning me with stuff that sucked me into the TARDIS when I got excited. Before you know it I'm hanging over the core of the earth, my fiancé is dead, the Thames is dry, and I've see the creation Earth. The Doctor asked me to stay, but I said no. I went and travelled the world, when I got back I joined a university – studied archaeology (my brother's an history teacher and my parents talk like he's the second coming of Christ – I thought I'd see the look his face when dumb old Donna got a job discovering the stuff he'd teach).

Anyway I was at a dig in Africa and guess who turns up? He'd dropped his glasses about a thousand years in the past and was hoping we'd found them. Of course we had - and even though I told them I doubted ancient Africans had ever gone to Specsavers, my colleagues had sent them off for analysis. Anyway, long story short he asked me if I felt ready to see an even bigger picture and I decided that I wanted to see the stuff I spend my life digging up when it wasn't covered in mud.

- This is two years after this entry. I have seen so much and made great friends in the Doctor and Martha. But it's time for me to go back now, I never promised the Doctor forever. It's not all bad though. Martha is coming back with me, we're going to travel the world the normal way, maybe have a few adventure of our own. Goodbye, and good luck to everyone who follows.

7. King and Queen Poppaea of the Planet Prospera.

People on Planet Prospera may look human but they are actually shape-shifters, sharing three minds and switching between three forms. There is always a dominant personality who (by inhaling the substance known as Opium) can prevent the other two appearing against his or her will. Into every generation a being is born with only two forms – one female and one male. They share the title of the Undisputed King and Queen Poppaea from their birth until their death. There is no dominant personality, they are equal.

In the Queen's form we suffered terrible illness – shakes and fevers. The physicians diagnosed her as fatally ill. Unless the king became the dominant personality and crushed her mind and body indefinitely under his own, both the King and Queen would die. We ran away, promising to see the wonders of the universe before we both died.

And then we met the Doctor. He was so kind to us. He offered to let us travel with him, he would show us the universe and ease our pain for as long as he could. So we remain with him, having adventures, feeling the fear, and excitement, and love we have never been able to in the restriction and stillness of our palace. We will die with him watching over us and then he will be alone once more.

8. (Insert name here)

Chapter 3 – Information about the Doctor

1. The Doctor is an alien (obviously) – a Time Lord - and travels space and time in the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space). (2. Rose)

2. No one knows his name. If you find it out then write it here (2. Rose)

3. Sometimes goes by the name of John Smith (2. Rose) (Confirmed – 5. Martha.)

4.The Doctor regenerates into a totally new body with, like, a new personality and everything. He does this when his old body dies. His current one wears a pinstripe suit and has big hair and sideburns. I knew him when he was in his old body – looked forty-odd, leather jacket, moody in a good way. (2. Rose) (Confirmed by 5. Martha – he mentioned that it might happen to him)

5. His home planet was destroyed in a Time War. He is the last of his kind. He doesn't talk about it. (2. Rose)

-His home planet was called Gallifrey. They sky was orange and the leaves on the trees were silver. (5. Martha)

- He wasn't the last of his kind. There was one left who survived by becoming human. He called himself the Master. He went on to use the name Mr. Saxon. (5. Martha) (Mr. Saxon was a time lord?? The Mr. Saxon? – 6. Donna)

6. He's a bit telepathic…but I don't think he goes around reading your thoughts or anything. (2. Rose)

- He uses it to help ease our pain – (7. Poppaea)

7. His current self has his tea milky with 1 sugar and he loves edible ball bearings. (2. Rose)

8. He likes to stroke the TARDIS (2. Rose – confirmed by 1. Sarah-Jane Smith, so he must always have done it.)

9. He once had children. (2. Rose) (He did??? 5. Martha)

10. He doesn't talk about old companions. Not even Jack, who travelled with both of us. He said its cause he lives so long it gets painful. He doesn't forget us though. (2. Rose)

- Wrong. He talks about Rose. It's painful. (5. Martha) (Yeah, he does – 6 Donna)

11. Queen Victoria hates him, so don't ask to go meet her. (2. Rose)

- He doesn't get on with any Queens. Queen Elizabeth I is after his blood and he hasn't even met her yet. (5. Martha)

- Queen Poppaea likes him. (7. Poppaea)

12. He has two hearts (5 Martha)

13. Never live with this man in the real world. I was stuck with him for six months in the sixties. No wonder the TARDIS is so big, it's so his companions don't go crazy and kill him. (5. Martha)

14. He never shuts up (6. Donna (who has just listened to a half hour on why we can't make the outside of the TARDIS look like a Cadillac)


A/N: More will follow, including 'Tips For Life On Board the TARDIS', 'Our Adventures', 'Historical People and Celebrities Met and What Happened', and a 'Reference Guide to Aliens and Monsters'. I included new characters and Donna because you know what happens to Martha, Rose, Captain Jack, and Mickey, so it gives a chance to describe new things you haven't already seen.

I'd love to know whether my strange little experiment worked!