Chapter One

The Doctor looked up from eating his bowl of cereal when the three women came into the kitchen.

"There you are! How did the practice session go?" he asked them.

"Donna died again." Rose said hooking her thumb back at her.

The Doctor's eyes widened.

"Again? What happened this time?" he asked.

"Same thing that happens every time. That Dalek Caan got me." Donna replied.

The Doctor sighed.

"Donna, the whole purpose of these training sessions is not to get killed." He said wagging his finger at her. "Rose and Martha are counting on you to help them out and it's extremely inconvenient for them when you die. It forces them to pick up the slack and do your job and that's not being a good teammate."

Donna rolled his eyes as Rose and Martha giggled.

"Well, excuse me for not being able to defeat that Dalek thing." She said. "I'm still new at this. Two years ago I was temping in an office, you know."

"And your point is?" the Doctor said.

"The point is it's hard going from getting coffees for office workers to killing something that has battle armor that can stop a bleedin' Mack truck!"

"Rose and Martha had no problem dealing with them." The Doctor said shrugging.

"Whoa, first off, let's leave Rose out of this since she has that goddess thing inside her head."

"Bad Wolf." Rose said as she spread mustard on her bologna sandwich.

"Yeah, the Bad Wolf thing that helped her defeat 18 trillion Daleks at once." She said as Rose giggled. "I don't have some god-like power inside my brain like she does."

"Martha doesn't either." The Doctor said pointing to her. "And she fought the Daleks and survived. So, what's your excuse for her?"

Donna looked over at Martha who was giving her a pointed look.

"Well, um, you helped her out." Donna said.

"Not all the time. There were a couple of times when I was on my own." Martha pointed out.

Donna stared at her.

"I don't know. You've been at this longer. You're more skilled. You're incredibly lucky. All I know is I have trouble defeating that stupid pepper pot thing."

"Well, then count yourself lucky that I have a simulation room then. When I met them in my first life, I didn't have a training program I could practice with beforehand. "

He smiled at her.

"You are getting better though. Don't sell yourself short, Donna. You are just as capable of fighting as Rose and Martha are. I wouldn't have asked you to come with me if I didn't think you could handle yourself. You've made it this far without dying. I'm sure you'll do fine if we ever come across Dalek Caan again."

Donna nodded. She walked over to the fridge and rummaged through it while the Doctor looked over at Rose. He smiled at her.

How are you today, my love? He said to her in Gallifreyan.

Rose smiled.

Fine, just a little tired out. She replied in Gallifreyan.

The Doctor frowned.

Didn't get much sleep last night?

No, I'm just exhausted from the simulation. Donna's right, the Daleks are tough to beat.

Donna looked up at her.

"What did you just say? I heard my name in the middle of all that." she asked.

"I was just saying that I'm worn out from the simulation and that I agreed with you that beating the Daleks was hard." She told her in English.

"Glad someone else thinks so." Donna said looking back in the fridge.

The Doctor frowned.

"You aren't learning Gallifreyan with Rose and Martha?" he asked Donna.

"I am learning, but like I said before, I'm rubbish when it comes to foreign languages. It takes me longer to get the words memorized." She said bringing out some turkey and mayonnaise.

"Then let me hear something you can say." The Doctor said.

Donna thought as she laid the food on the counter and reached inside for the milk. She brought it out and closed the door.

"Um…" she muttered.

She paused a moment and cleared her throat.

I…am going…to the…meepbot. She said in Gallifreyan.

The Doctor frowned.

"I'm sorry, what was the last thing you said?" he asked.

Donna looked at him.

Meepbot? She said hesitantly.

The Doctor stared at her.

"Um…Donna, Meepbot isn't a word." He said amused.

"Well, it's something like that. I saw it in that little booklet you gave us."

"I never put meepbot in the booklet." The Doctor said.

"Are you thinking of the word for outside?" Rose asked her. "That's merlebo."

"Yes! That! That's what I was trying to say!" Donna said as Rose and Martha giggled.

"Oh okay, for a moment there I thought you were speaking some ancient Gallifreyan dialect or something."

"Ha ha." Donna said rolling her eyes when he chuckled.

He grinned at Rose. Grabbing a napkin from the holder beside him, he took a pen from his jacket pocket and wrote a Gallifreyan phrase on it. He held it up.

"What does this say?" he asked Rose.

Rose munched on her sandwich as she stared at it.

"Um…Time Lords…"

She frowned.

"I don't know that word." She said pointing to some circles near the bottom of the napkin.

She looked at Martha.

"You know what that is?" she asked her.

Martha took a sip of juice and stared at the napkin.

"No, I'm getting the same thing you are though. It says Time Lords…something." She said.

"What does it say?" Rose asked the Doctor.

"It says Time Lords rule." The Doctor said proudly.

Rose and Martha glanced at each other.

"Figured it'd say something like that." Rose said to her.

The Doctor turned the napkin over and wrote another phrase. He held it up to her.

"What about this?" he asked pointing to the napkin.

Rose frowned.

"Something…is a…something, something." She said.

She glanced at Martha. Martha shrugged. She looked at Donna.

"Don't ask me, I have enough trouble speaking it let alone figuring out all the bleedin' circles." Donna said to her.

Rose shrugged.

"No idea." She said to him.

The Doctor grinned.

"It says, Rose is a sexy beast." He said waggling his eyebrows.

Rose rolled his eyes while he leered at her. She looked at Martha.

"This is why we don't learn anything. He keeps giving us stuff only he knows." She said to her.

"Fine, I'll make it easy for you then." The Doctor said grabbing another napkin.

He wrote on it and held it up. Rose read it and smiled.

"I love you too." She said to him.

The Doctor beamed.

"Excellent." He said. "I'm so proud of both of you. Gallifreyan is not an easy language to learn, but you both have learned it in no time flat. I am impressed."

He looked at Donna.

"I'm also proud of you, Donna. Now once you get past thinking that meepbot is a word in my language, I think you'll do really well."

He snickered when Donna flipped him off.

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"Now, what comes next?"

The Doctor stood behind Rose watching as she stared at the buttons and switches on the console. He had been giving her lessons on how to fly the TARDIS. He had landed on a planet so he could test her on taking off. He stood by patiently while Rose stared at the console. Hesitantly, she reached out and hit a black button. She smiled when the rotor began to start up.

"Excellent. Now what?" the Doctor said.

Rose walked around the console as the Doctor followed behind her. She paused by the bicycle pump. She knew it was the vortex loop and she was pretty sure it was the next thing in the sequence. She held her hand out and paused as it hovered over the pump. Suddenly, she wasn't so sure.

"I…thought this was next, but I keep thinking there's something else before it." She muttered to herself.

She looked at the Doctor. His expression was unreadable as he watched her intently. She looked back at the vortex loop and looked at him again.

"I suppose I won't get any hints from you."

"Not one clue. You are on your own. Neither me nor the TARDIS will help you…"

He paused and his eyes widened when he saw a purple button nearby flashing on and off. He cursed silently hoping that Rose hadn't noticed it, but no such luck. She glanced over at the flashing button and a smile spread over her face.

"OH! Yes, that comes next." She said pressing it. "Thanks TARDIS!"

The Doctor let out an angry sigh as the TARDIS rumbled in reply. Rose went around to the vortex loop and began to pump it as he glanced up at the ceiling.

"Um…I thought we agreed not to give her any hints!" he said to his ship.

Rose pulled the final lever and she grinned when the TARDIS took off.

"Yes! I did it!"

"Except for the part where the TARDIS helped you." The Doctor replied.

"Aw, come on, I got the rest of it. The TARDIS just wants to help." Rose said.

"I understand that, but there may come a time when neither of us will be able to help you. You need to know this stuff if you are going to fly it. I don't feel like getting blown up or having a hole blown in the fabric of time and space because you pushed the wrong button."

He smiled.

"Having said that, I am still very proud of you. You have done very well." He said. "Now, if you don't mind, I want to take over so I can figure out where to go next."

Rose moved away from the monitor so the Doctor could enter coordinates. He leaned against the rim of the console while he thought.

"Hmm, perhaps we could go see the Diamond Mountains of Quabo Quazerak?" He muttered to himself. "Or take in the Set festival on Nooba? Or perhaps a trip back in time to---"

"Can I ask you something, Doctor?" Rose said.

The Doctor looked back at her.

"Yes?"

"Are there any planets you haven't visited before?" she asked.

"Um, a couple, why?"

"Can we go to one of those?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrow.

"You want to go to a planet I know absolutely nothing about?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I think it'll be fun. And, you'll get to explore it along with the rest of us." She said.

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"What's the matter, scared?"

"No, not in the least, I'm just wondering if it's wise to go traipsing across an unknown planet. I mean, ever since you got back, I've noticed you've been a lot more reckless than you used to be."

"Doctor, I wasted two years of my life sitting behind a desk in a bloody office doing paperwork. I'm back where I belong and I want to make the most of it. I'm not scared of the unknown anymore, not since I almost fell into the void. I just think it would be fun for us to discover a planet together and not have to listen to you telling us everything about it. I mean, it must get boring for you going to the same planets over and over."

"Sometimes, yeah." The Doctor conceded.

"Well, let's go somewhere you haven't been."

The Doctor grinned at her.

"Very well, if you want to live life dangerously, I will certainly oblige you, my little helpmate." He said.

He paused and thought for a moment and then entered some coordinates into the computer

"There." He said leaning back up when he finished.

"And you have no idea what waits at the end of these coordinates."

"None whatsoever. I know it's a planet and that's the full extent of my knowledge." He said to her.

"Cool! I can't wait to see it."

"Me too. Should be fun." He said taking her into his arms.

He gave her a kiss on the cheek and held her close as the TARDIS turned around and headed off to their next adventure.