The Doctor knew he had to get out of there. Not for Donna's sake, for his own. He had regenerated so Donna most likely would not remember, so he did not have to worry about her remembering his face. But he could not handle seeing his best friend and never being able to talk to her. His only consolation was that she had moved on.
"Who's Donna? You look like you've seen a ghost," said Amy.
The Doctor acted like he didn't here that statement. Amy had no clue how true that statement was. This was not the Donna he knew; it was just a shadow of her former self. Oh, how he wished he could make her remember.
"Well, I don't think anything interesting is going to happen in a boring old museum," the Doctor said. Rory looked like he didn't want to leave, but he decided to go with the Doctor to appease him. Rory could tell that something was bothering the Doctor. He may not have known the man, well, alien, very long, but he knew what that look meant. Ne was feeling guilty. Rory was worried that one day the Doctor would feel that guilt when he thought of him and Amy, but quickly brushed the thought aside.
When the trio got outside, they noticed police tape around an alley way. "Bingo," smirked the Doctor. They walked up to the crime scene and the Doctor flashed his psychic paper at the woman making sure only those meant to be there got in. "John Smith, UNIT. These are my associates Amy Pond and Rory Williams. We were sent here to investigate."
"We weren't told you would be coming. Let me ask my boss," the woman said. She walked off and came back with a middle aged man. He reminded the Doctor of someone, but he couldn't put his finger on what. For some reason, he made the Doctor think of a game hunter.
"DI Lestrade. Who are you and why were you sent here?" the man asked.
"John Smith, Amelia Pond, and Rory Williams. UNIT heard that this crime was not normal and sent us here to investigate," the Doctor said while flashing the psychic paper.
"Well, we already have our best on it, but if you think that you can solve the case then be my guest," Lestrade said. The Doctor nodded and led in Amy and Rory. It was a small alley and was getting a bit crowded until Lestrade sent out a few of his men. The only person left besides Lestrade and the new arrivals was a man with a long coat on. The man was leaning over the body and examining it closely.
"Caucasian male, mid-thirties or so. Visiting London from Cardiff for a business meeting. Works in a top-secret government agency. Lured down here by someone he knew but did not trust. Staked through his heart and chain tied around his neck. Killed by asphyxiation. There's more blood than there should be for one man. This is no ordinary crime, Lestrade. I'll need a few sample of the blood to determine whether or not the blood is this man's," the mystery man said this all in one breath before looking at the Doctor. The man had high cheekbones, blueish greenish grayish eyes, pale skin, and curly brown hair. He was about six feet tall.
"Right, Sherlock, these are some people from UNIT sent to investigate the crime. This is Sherlock Holmes, our consulting detective," Lestrade said.
The name rung a bell in the Doctor's head. Then he remembered. The first time he met this man, he was only eight years old. It wasn't in this face, of course. No, it was in the one before the bow tie. It was back when he still wore sand shoes...
Before the Doctor could say anything, the dead man took a deep breath. The Doctor realized that he had not seen the face of the man who was murdered. He looked down, and sure enough, it was Captain Jack Harkness.
***
When Donna saw the man stare at her, it had shaken her up for a while. Why did the man look so familiar. She had a feeling it had to do with what she forgot. By the time they left the museum, Donna had chalked it down to her imagination making it seem important. She noticed that her grandfather had been acting jumpy all day and was treating her like a porcelain doll. She had a feeling that he knew more than he was letting on.
As they were walking back to the house, Donna felt like she was being followed. She turned around, but no one was there.
"What's wrong, Donna?" Wilf asked.
"Nothing, Gramps. Go on, I have something to do. I'll meet you back at the house."
Wilf hesitantly agreed, and Donna walked back the way she came. She was looking around for who was following her. That was when she noticed a man with bleached blonde hair and evil eyes. He looked like the old prime minister, Harold Saxon, but before she could process that the world went dark.
***
Sherlock walked to the crime scene and noticed how... Wrong it seemed. First of all, there seemed to be too much blood for one man. Second of all, there was a whole in the man's shirt near the abdomen but the skin was unblemished. He noticed that there was a bloody stake next to the body. And lastly, it seemed as if someone was trying to keep the man dead.
As he was observing the body, the majority of the idiots from Scotland yard started leaving. He ignored that and started telling Lestrade all of his deductions. When he looked up, he saw three new comers. Two of them seemed ordinary enough(engaged, travelers, not from London...), but he could not get much on the third man. He looked very young, but his eyes were old. He dressed like a professor but held himself like a warrior. Lestrade said something about them being from UNIT (militaristic organization most likely, but that is most likely false. Don't hold themselves like people who follow orders). All of a sudden, the dead man took a deep breath in. Sherlock stood there frozen in shock, but bow tie ran up and took the stake out of his heart. He then took the chain off of the neck, but the man had stopped breathing again.
"Wait a minute and he'll be fine," bow tie said. "I'm Doctor John Smith by the way, but you can call me the Doctor. This is Amy and this is Rory. That man down there is Jack."
The dead man took another breath. Sherlock had never seen anything like this ever happened before. He sat up and winked at everyone with a seductive grin. "Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you?" He said.
Everyone was speechless except for the Doctor. "Stop flirting," he rolled his eyes.
"I was just saying hello," he replied defensively.
"Same thing for you," the Doctor said.
"That's funny, I used to have a friend who would say tha... No," Harkness' eyes were wide with shock. The Doctor just smirked. Harkness stood up and gave the Doctor a large hug.
Amy was the first to snap to her senses. "Doctor, what's going on?" she demanded.
The Doctor took a deep breath, "Well, it all started in the year 200,100..."
***
Donna has had plenty of weird dreams. She had seen Pompeii explode, giant spiders, and giant wasps. The one constant was a tall skinny man with great hair. She was currently having a dream that took place at some manor. There was a beast of some kind. A monster that took over peoples' minds.
Donna and the Doctor were running towards the manor. That was the place that the Doctor's "Timey-wimey Detector" said the beast was. When they got there, a boy around the age of eight answered the door. He brushed his curly hair out of his eyes and said, "I'm not allowed to talk to strangers, especially not when my parents are out." Then another boy around fifteen came out.
"Sherlock Holmes, close the door this instant," he snapped. That was when the Doctor's machine went ding. The monster had taken over a teenage boy. Why, Donna had no clue, but she knew that they had to get rid of it. The Doctor and Donna made eye contact, and then the Doctor touched the teen's forehead. He seemed to be battling with some unseen force. Both the Doctor and the teen were sweating bullets.
"Stop! Get off of Mycroft! You're going to hurt him!" The young boy yelled. All of a sudden, the Doctor and Mycroft were forced apart. A whisp of smoke flew out Mycroft's mouth. The Doctor took some Time Lord jar thing and trapped the smoke. Sherlock watched in awe.
"...What?" he said. The Doctor jumped, as if remembering they were in the room.
"Right, Sherlock. Well, I am going to need to take your brother to my ship to make sure he is okay. Do you want to come, too?" The Doctor asked.
"... I do not see how a ship would be on land, but okay. Plus, I want an explanation," the kid replied. Even though Donna had barely interacted with the kid, she could tell he was very intelligent.
The Doctor and Donna carried Mycroft to the TARDIS, and Sherlock looked at it skeptically. They walked in, and Sherlock was in awe. He didn't say what the Doctor expected though. He instead asked, "Is this a... Spaceship?" He then looked at Donna and said, "No... Space and time. Brilliant!"
The Doctor recovered from his shock and realized who he was. He checked up on Mycroft and discovered that he was perfectly fine, but that he would not remember the experience at all.
The Doctor had been letting the TARDIS float through space. He told Sherlock to look outside, and Sherlock gasped. He saw the sun, the Earth, and all the stars in the sky. He turned to the Doctor and wondered, "If this is a time machine, could you maybe... Pick me up when I'm older? I want to travel the stars..." He had a far-off look in his eyes. The Doctor nodded his head, but he knew it was a lie. Sherlock Holmes was a fixed point in time, and nothing could change that.
"I'll pick you up when you're twenty-five," the Doctor said.
Sherlock and Mycroft were dropped off safely at their house, Sherlock hoping that the Doctor would one day come back.
Sherlock grew up in anticipation of the Doctor coming back. When he turned twenty-six, he realized that the Doctor lies. He turned to drugs and deleted his mind of anything that might have reminded him of that extraordinary man, including the Solar System.
Sherlock Holmes and Donna Noble may be very different people, but they have one thing in common: even though they forgot the Doctor, they were bound to remember him soon.